Bad news! What to do about that?
"... Iranian-backed Iraqi militias conducted up to half of the roughly 1,000 drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia during the war, according to unnamed sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal on April 21. CTP-ISW previously assessed that it very unlikely that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias would conduct drone attacks against regional states if the Iranian regime opposed such attacks, which suggests that Iran has not ordered its militia partners to cease attacking regional state. ..."
Good news! Bravo!
This is old news, but I was not able to blog about it earlier thanks to the Great Firewall of China.
Australia gets new military leaders, including first female army chief "Lieutenant General Susan Coyle will take up her new appointment in July"
Lieutenant General Susan Coyle
Good news! Bravo! More signs that Japan is giving up it's strict pacifism since 1945 under the new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi!
Margaret Thatcher is smiling!
"... “In an increasingly severe security environment, no single country can now protect its own peace and security alone, and partner countries that support each other in terms of defense equipment are necessary,” Takaichi wrote on her X account today. “Meeting such needs and carrying out transfers of defense equipment will contribute to enhancing the defense capabilities of these countries and, ultimately, to preventing the outbreak of conflicts, thereby contributing to Japan’s security.”
Today’s announcement by the Cabinet Secretariat means Japan will now be able to export lethal equipment to 17 countries that it has signed defense equipment and technology transfer agreements with, including the US, United Kingdom, Australia, and India. ..."
Japan loosens arms exports rules in major shift "Tokyo's shift clears the way for arms exports to partners and allies."
Since end of February, I am blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.
My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.
Bade news! Serious stuff! Will the Iran war expand to other countries?
US forces intercepted ‘gift from China’ to Iran, Donald Trump says (behind paywall) "US president says Beijing had sent something ‘that wasn’t very nice’ and he thought he had an ‘understanding’ with Xi Jinping"
Headline of the day!
Nice indirect order/intervention aimed at Iran to stop messing with the Strait of Hormuz! Bravo!
Xi Jinping says Strait of Hormuz should be open in call to Saudi Crown Prince
My whole life I wondered what was World War II, the Spanish Civil War and Caudillo Francisco Franco, fascist Italy and Benito Mussolini, the supremacist and warmongering Japanese Empire all about?
The leftist poet Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) coined the phrase "An die Nachgeborenen" (To Those Born After) in 1939, which became "Die Last der Nachgeborenen" (The burden of those born after WWII) and the motto "Nie wieder" (never again). I sure can relate to this. It was probably my late father, a poet himself, who introduced me to Bertolt Brecht.
One of my late father's favorite poems, which he introduced me to and which I still remember, was written by the Romanian poet Paul Celan (1920-70, a Holocaust survivor) titled Todesfuge (published in 1948). The language of this poem is strange and amazing "„Schwarze Milch der Frühe wir trinken sie abends/wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts/wir trinken und trinken/wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Lüften da liegt man nicht eng“ (the opening verses of this poem).
Why the Holocaust? Why the antisemitism? Therefore, I support Israel and Jews whenever I can! I strongly oppose Antisemitism all the time and in all its forms. All my life I made it my habit to learn more about the modern Israel and Ancient Judea and the intervening time period, the relationship between Arabs and Jews, the Levant and so on. Modern Israel (since 1948) is probably one of the most diverse and exciting countries in the world except perhaps for India. The history of Jews and Judaism is so fascinating (David & Goliath, Masada, Maccabee, King Solomon, Samson and Delilah and so much more). One of my late parents e.g. would teach me at a young age the meaning of the Judgement of King Solomon.
I was born in Frankfurt am Main and I grew up in the Westend district of the city.
From my late mother and my late father I was told a number of horrible stories about their and other children's war time experiences. My mother was about 6 years old when WWII ended, my father was about 12 years old. One of the stories, I remember was that my late father as a young boy once found a soldier's boot with a torn off leg still showing. What do e.g. the Ukrainian children go through since the Russo-Ukrainian War started in 2022?
When I was a child some of my German neighbors may have been Nazis and were possibly involved in atrocities against Jews. My late father pointed out several times that he suspected some of our German neighbors and other Germans were possibly perpetrators.
It was an open secret that some of the German perpetrators got away and were living among us. My paternal uncle had a typical German soldier tattoo (Waffen SS? I forgot where on the body (arm?) and what kind of tattoo it exactly was), which he was always hiding. Also, I do not remember whether and how he served in the German military etc. However, neither my late father nor I suspected he was involved in atrocities given e.g. what he told my father about his service in World War II and given his generally friendly and kind personality.
The Westend Synagogue (see photo below) was located very near where I grew up. It was kind of sad to see that this large synagogue appeared to be in constant lockdown and it was always fortified. This synagogue was not easily accessible to the public for security reasons.
While in high school, I had a Jewish high school buddy. We spent a lot of time together. He was not very athletic and looked perhaps a little bookish with his glasses, but he was a great guy. I also visited him several times at home and got to know his Jewish mother and father. They both were very nice! This family was not orthodox Jewish, but typical Jewish symbols were displayed in their home. If I remember correctly, his father was in the philately business, which is perhaps not so unusual for a Jew. In my youth, I was also a collector of stamps and coins from all over the world.
Then there was the Jewish leader Ignatz Bubis. He was often decried as a real estate speculator in Frankfurt (antisemitism?). However, he was also an active member of the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) in Frankfurt. My late father and I were active members as well of the FDP that is how I got to know Mr. Bubis.
As an older teenager I had the great opportunity to travel to Vienna in Austria for a summer vacation with a Jewish youth organisation from Frankfurt. It was a great experience and I had a great time. Here I was together with a group very nice people, mostly young Jews. I think, I had a crush on one of the very young Jewish women. It was there in the Viennese area that I discovered my lifelong love for real hazelnut spread. Unfortunately, I do not remember anymore how I was able to join this group and what the name of this group was. I believe, I have to thank my late father for this great experience.
The city of Frankfurt was heavily bombed during World War II due to the location of e.g. important companies of the chemical industry. Much of the city was in rubble. E.g. the opera house (die Alte Oper) in the center of Frankfurt was hallowed out, basically only the outer walls and some lower level structures in the interior were still standing. Many times I passed by these ruins, one day I even climbed into the ruins out of curiosity. The ruins of the opera house were left as a war memorial and reminder until it was rebuilt beginning in 1976 and reopened in 1981. The reconstruction was quite controversial at the time.
During my youth, there were numerous reports of unexploded ordnance, mostly WWII bombs discovered in the inner city of Frankfurt. Even at my neighborhood high school, which I had attended, there was a large bomb discovered in the corner of the school yard during some construction work. Me and a buddy of mine climbed on a close by, one story high car garage roof to watch the disposal team to take care of this bomb. Dangerous adventures.
The headquarters of the US Army V Corps was located until 1995 in the former IG Farben Hochhaus in the largest inner city park (Grüneburgpark) not far from where I grew up. Thus, I encountered many US soldiers during my childhood and beyond. It never crossed my mind that the American soldiers were an occupation force (as suggested by some Germans). Actually by frequently visiting two US military gyms (one was the V Corps main gym, the other was the 97th General Hospital gym) for several years, I learnt how to play basketball from black American soldiers. It was a very friendly, older black American gym attendant, who allowed/tolerated me to play basketball at the V corps gym. In the beginning, he jokingly reminded me not to wear those typical German skimpy shorts, but instead more American like trunks so his white American supervisor (an Irish guy who peeped on topless, sunbathing young German women while jogging in the Grüneburgpark during lunch break) would not complain. I have spent many weekends and evenings there to play ball. I enjoyed the contemporary soul, rap & funk music blasted across the gym or inside the barracks. Plus, I learnt some cool dance moves and I became a big fan of Soul Train hosted by Don Cornelius. I had a lot of fun with the mostly black American soldiers some of whom I came to know quite well. Sometimes we would also go out to discos together on Saturday evenings, I sometimes visited them in their barracks, or I joined barbecue parties with them etc. One of the older black American soldiers and basketball player also invited me over to his home for dinner with his wife and two children. I had a very good time. A few black American soldiers pointed out to me that I was naturally high, which I understood to be a compliment (no one had ever before told me that or ever since). I am not a churchgoer (other than as a tourist), but during this time I was somehow invited to attend a black American church service at a US military church near the small town of Hanau (not far from my home town Frankfurt). For me, the journey started from Frankfurt on a bus filled with black American churchgoers heading for this church. The church service with all the Gospel singing, expressions of joy and faith and so on was an incredible, mind blowing experience. Last, but not least, I have also witnessed a few cases of open, reverse racism of some black Americans against white Americans. Sometimes black Americans would call each other nigger, but a white American better not dare to say it.
Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main (Source)
Good news! Dutch cyclists are not afraid of autonomous vehicles! 😊
"The Netherlands Vehicle Authority has become the first European regulator to approve Tesla’s supervised self-driving software, commenting that “Proper use of this driver assistance system makes a positive contribution to road safety.” Seems especially notable coming from the world’s foremost cycling nation."
"... RDW [Dutch vehicle authority] said in a statement on Friday, adding that it would also submit an application for the technology to be used throughout the EU.”"
Tesla Supervised Self-Driving Software Gets Dutch Okay
Good news!
"In Argentina, where such a [government Internet] ban was recently lifted, two million people have connected to Starlink, many of whom live in remote areas of the country."
"“When Javier Milei became president of Argentina in December 2023, one his first measures as part of a package of wide-ranging deregulations was to open up the economy to satellite internet. ..."
Starlink Connects Millions of People in Argentina
Argentina Graph of the Day: Starlink Connects Millions of People
Good news!
"Organ donations have surged in the United States, partly thanks to improved harvesting methods.
Until recently, most organs came from donors who were brain dead but kept on life support, with their circulatory systems still functioning.
Over the past decade, however, advances in organ preservation and recovery have made it increasingly feasible to recover organs after circulatory death [DCD], when the heart has stopped and preservation becomes far more difficult.
A recent study finds that in 2000, just 2 percent of donors fell into this category;
by 2025, that had risen to 49 percent, with the number of such donors rising from 118 to 8,129."
"... Recent innovations have facilitated recovery from medically complex DCD donors.
Normothermic regional perfusion, in which perfusion is restored in situ to limited organs after circulatory death, contributed to the rise in recovery of DCD organs since its use began increasing in 2019.
The regulatory approval of normothermic machine perfusion for livers (2021) contributed to the subsequent acceleration of DCD liver recovery, and normothermic machine perfusion enabled the advent of DCD heart transplantation in 2019.” "
"... By contrast, donation after circulatory death involves donors who do not meet criteria for brain death and who cannot be kept alive without life support machines. In these cases, if the family chooses to stop life support, it is then given the option to do so in an operating room instead of the intensive care unit.
If the patient dies within a set time after support is removed, organs can be recovered and used for transplantation, preserving the opportunity to donate according to the wishes of the family and the patient. ..."
From the abstract:
"Organ transplant improves survival and quality of life, but transplant access is limited by organ shortages.
Transplants in the US predominantly use deceased donor organs, including 75% and 94% of kidney and liver transplants, respectively, and all lung, heart, and pancreas transplants from 2018 to 2025. Improving transplant access therefore relies on expanding the deceased donor pool, including by increasing donation after circulatory death (DCD), in which organs are recovered from donors with irreversible loss of circulatory function.
Factors limiting DCD use include a higher risk of organ dysfunction compared with donation after brain death organs and the increased complexity of DCD organ recovery, which is not possible if the time between life support withdrawal and circulatory death is prolonged. Despite these limitations, the severe organ shortage combined with technological innovations that enhance DCD organ function have increased interest in DCD organ transplant by transplant programs and organ procurement organizations (OPOs), the federal contractors responsible for coordinating US organ recovery and allocation. This study aimed to describe secular trends in DCD donation."
DCD Organ Donations Surge in the US
More Organ Donations Now Come from People Who Die After Their Heart Stops Beating (original news release) "As the Donor Pool Grows & More Lifesaving Transplants Become Possible, Public Education Is More Important Than Ever"
Changes in Organ Donation After Circulatory Death in the United States (open access)
DCD = donation after circulatory death, DBD = donation after brain death
I think this is plausible! These storefronts surely are valuable targets for espionnage.
Unlike the article below, I don't think these apps are limited to typical, popular Chinese apps like Temu, TikTok, Tencent etc. Any popular App could be affected.
"Centralized smartphone app storefronts, like Apple’s App Store for iPhone and the Google Play Store for Android, make apps feel like they all come from the same safe place online, but the developers behind these apps are spread out all over the world. This month, the FBI brought attention to international developers, warning that installing apps built by foreign nations could pose a major threat to user privacy and security. ..."
FBI says these apps let China suck up your personal data (behind paywall)
