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Gathered mainly from international media sources December 2020 - March 2021 |
For recent entries click "Invalid Item"  These are news/opinion items which caught my eye. Click on the link below: 31 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" 24 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 22 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" 21 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 17 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 26 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 25 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 24 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 22 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 21 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 18 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 16 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 15 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 14 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 9 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 8 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 4 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 30 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 29 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 28 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 27 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 26 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 24 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 23 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 21 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 20 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 18 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 14 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 12 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 11 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 10 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 4 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 2 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 29 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 27 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 24 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 23 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 22 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 20 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 19 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 18 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 17 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 16 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 15/12/20 "Invalid Entry" 13 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 12 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 11 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" For earlier entries drill down the list 10 Dec 2020 - Covid: Genes hold clues to why some people get severely ill 10 Dec 2020 - Referendum for the state of Texas to secede from the U.S. ? 10 Dec 2020 - Covid-19: More single day dead than in 9/11 terror attack or on D-Day landing 10 Dec 2020 - Covid-19: France moves to night-time curfew from 15 December 10 Dec 2020 - Elon Musk has launched the latest prototype of his Starship vehicle from Texas. 9 Dec 2020 - Covid-19 - $600 direct payment to most Americans? 9 Dec 2020 - Hunter Biden under federal investigation 9 Dec 2020 - Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine data gets positive FDA review 9 Dec 2020 - Is BIG TECH censoring different ideas about COVID-19? 9 Dec 2020 - Clashes in Portland 9 Dec 2020 - UK is investigating two possible allergic reactions to Pfizer coronavirus shot 9 Dec 2020 - Open letter by the Prime Minister of Hungary to the European Union 9 Dec 2020 - VACCINE OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM 9 Dec 2020 - UK EXIT FROM THE EU (Last supper?) 8 Dec 2020 - ROALD DAHL AND A WOKE APOLOGY |
The search for life on Mars has taken a giant leap with Nasa's most sophisticated rover yet. Perseverance successfully landed on the red planet on Thursday after a six-month journey through space. It's chock-full of pioneering technology, including a super-light helicopter, to help it look for ancient signs of life. It will also investigate the possibility for people to live and work on Mars. Here’s what you need to know about humanity’s latest efforts to expand its extra-terrestrial footprint. Why Mars? Mars is seen as an ideal candidate for exploration because it is close by in our solar system and is the most similar to Earth. One of the biggest questions is whether life has existed beyond Earth and Mars is a good place to start investigating, given that evidence points to it once being full of water, warmer and with a thicker atmosphere, making it a potentially habitable environment. What will this rover do? It is Nasa’s most ambitious Mars mission yet, totalling around £2.16 billion ($3 billion). The US is dispatching a six-wheeled rover the size of a car, named Perseverance, to collect rock samples that will be brought back to Earth for analysis in about a decade. It touched down in an ancient river delta and lake known as Jezero Crater, which has a diameter of around 30 miles. Besides seeking signs of past microscopic Martian life, Perseverance will also release a spindly, 4lb (1.8kg) helicopter that will be the first rotorcraft ever to fly on another planet. Its cameras will shoot colour video of the rover’s descent, providing humanity’s first look at a parachute billowing open above Mars, while microphones capture the sounds. The rover will also attempt to produce oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the thin Martian atmosphere. This is important because extracted oxygen could someday be used by astronauts on Mars to breathe as well as for making rocket propellant. While prowling the surface, Perseverance will peek below, using radar to locate any underground pools of water that might exist. Nasa wants to return astronauts to the moon by 2024 and send them from there to Mars in the 2030s. To that end, the space agency is sending samples of spacesuit material with Perseverance to see how they stand up against the harsh Martian environment. How did it land safely? It was difficult – only the US has ever managed to land a rover onto Mars. Spacecraft have blown up, burned up or crash-landed, with the casualty rate over the decades exceeding 50%. China’s last attempt, in collaboration with Russia in 2011, ended in failure. Perseverance made it thanks to brand-new guidance and parachute-triggering technology, which helped to steer the craft away from hazards. Ground controllers were helpless, given the 10 minutes it takes radio transmissions to travel one-way between Earth and Mars. Jezero Crater is worth the risks, according to scientists who chose it over 60 other potential sites. Where there was water, and Jezero was apparently flush with it 3.5 billion years ago, there may have been life, though it was probably only simple microbial life, existing perhaps in a slimy film at the bottom of the crater. But those microbes may have left tell-tale marks in the sediment layers and Perseverance will hunt for rocks containing such biological signatures, if they exist. Why now? Along with Perseverance, China and the UAE have also launched missions. The three nearly simultaneous launches are no coincidence: the timing is dictated by the opening of a one-month window in which Mars and Earth are in ideal alignment on the same side of the Sun, which minimises travel time and fuel use. Such a window opens only once every 26 months. |
The revelation on Panorama this week that Dubai's Princess Latifa accused her father of holding her hostage in the city since she tried to flee in 2018 has the potential to create diplomatic tensions between the UK and the United Arab Emirates, a key strategic ally. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said he was acting in his daughter's best interests, and the royal family insist she was brought back to Dubai in a "rescue mission". The UAE have previously said Princess Latifa was safe in the care of family. But this controversy has left British horse-racing facing some deeply uncomfortable questions. Over the past 40 years, Sheikh Mohammed has become synonymous with the sport, its most prominent and influential owner. Indeed, it has become very hard for many in British racing to imagine the sport here without him. The royal blue silks of Godolphin - the illustrious and hugely successful racing and bloodstock operation he founded and owns - are a constant presence on racecourses during the flat season. Many jobs are thought to depend on Sheikh Mohammed's investment, especially in Newmarket - where Godolphin and his Dalham Hall breeding operation are based. More than 130 of his horses are trained here in Britain, with many of his millions spent on yearlings at the Tattersalls auction. This week's allegations have renewed scrutiny on the sport's links with him. But at a time when racing's finances are already under huge strain due to the pandemic, and fears that possible new affordability checks on gamblers could cost the industry more than £60m, many are loathe to do or say anything that could push the 71 year-old away. It is perhaps unsurprising therefore, that neither Godolphin, nor the sport's governing body - the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), nor the Jockey Club - of which the sheikh is an honorary member, have made any comment since Panorama was aired. But this is not the first time that British racing has faced tough questions over its association with the sheikh. Last March, after hearing extensive witness statements over a period of time, the family division of the High Court found Sheikh Mohammed to have been responsible for a campaign of intimidation against his former wife Princess Haya and for the abduction and forced return of two of his daughters from a different marriage - including Princess Latifa. The sheikh insisted at the time that, as a head of government, he was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process, resulting in a judgement that "inevitably only tells one side of the story". He denied the allegations. But the damage had been done. Previously, the Queen had invited the sheikh to join her in the royal box, and even share her carriage at Royal Ascot. Following the scandal, she reportedly decided she would not be photographed with him again, despite their shared love of racing. With the sport only continuing behind closed doors since March, any attempt at distancing has yet not been tested, with any awkward potential meetings so far avoided. The problems for racing do not stop there. The BHA's rules for assessing the suitability of owners includes the following: "The criteria to which the authority will have regard in assessing honesty and integrity, include… whether the applicant has been the subject of any adverse finding by a judge in any civil proceedings." The authority, which is meant to regulate the sport, refuses to say whether an investigation has been launched into the sheikh in the wake of last year's judgement, but insiders say the governing body's "honesty and integrity" criteria are only part of what it considers when assessing the suitability of owners. The distinct sense from within racing is that with these latest allegations relating to overseas matters involving a head of state of one of the UK's strategic partners and purchaser of arms exports in the Middle East, and with the government referring the matter to the UN, it is unfair to expect the sport to make a stand and speak out against one of its most important benefactors. Others however, disagree. "No matter how much money he pays to race his horses, no respectable race should touch Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum until he releases his daughter" tweeted Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, this week. Beyond racing Despite such views, racing is unlikely to cut ties with the sheikh any time soon. Indeed, on Saturday alone, in a sign of just how extensive his investment in the sport has become, as many as 27 Godolphin horses are scheduled to race at seven meetings across four countries. The ruler of Duabi's sporting connections in Britain extend beyond racing. The airline Emirates, which he launched, has a shirt sponsorship deal with Arsenal, worth £200m over four years. It has naming rights to the club's stadium, along with Glasgow's Commonwealth Arena, and Lancashire cricket club's Old Trafford. Emirates also became the first ever title sponsor of the FA Cup in 2015. But pressure is now mounting on racing in particular to reconsider a relationship that has been hugely lucrative, but which is becoming increasingly controversial. |
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