Day: June 2, 2024

The NATO-led, imperialist-imposed ongoing Russian war on Ukraine is not only creating a daily human catastrophe but also reshaping the present and future of Western Europe through American shock therapy. This unjust war has led to deaths, destitutions, significant civilian sufferings, with countless lives disrupted, communities devastated, and families ruined. This completely avoidable war is pushing the entire European continent into a state of nuclear war and turmoil. The everyday escalation has resulted in widespread instability, economic hardship, political unrest, and human tragedy. The ripple effects of this war are being felt in countries far removed from the front lines, exacerbating existing tensions and creating new challenges for safety and security of European people and their livelihoods. 

Who cares about human lives and families when war is a profitable business? The grim reality is that the war economy benefits a select few, with European and America defence contractors, arms manufacturers, and other industries profiting immensely from this war. This profit-driven aspect of war often overshadows the human cost, with policymakers and corporations prioritising financial gains over the well-being of individuals and families caught in the crossfires and wars in the name of national sovereignty, for which the most courageous, idealist young and working-class people sacrifice with their lives. 

The war in Ukraine is more than just a profitable war; it aims to fundamentally transform the nature of the welfare state, society, and social democracy in Western Europe. Despite the capitalist framework, Western Europe remains a relatively prosperous society that offers health care, education, unemployment, housing and childcare benefits, old age care, and other welfare benefits to its population, extending beyond the profit-driven logic of the market.  This war led strategic transformation is not merely about economic gain but about reshaping the very fabric of society. 

Western European countries have long been characterised by their robust welfare systems, which provide a safety net for all citizens and ensure a higher quality of life. These systems are designed to mitigate the harsher aspects of capitalism, ensuring that even the most vulnerable members of society are cared for. The Russian war in Ukraine disrupts this balance. The redirection of resources towards military efforts and defence spending leads to austerity measures, which weakens these social safety nets. Additionally, the influx of refugees and the broader geopolitical instability strains public services and social cohesion. So, the implications of the war in Ukraine extend far beyond its borders, potentially impacting the welfare states and social democracies of Western Europe. It is a pivotal moment that may redefine the relationship between the state, the market, and the individual in Europe.

The welfare states and policies in Western Europe present significant challenges for American health, pharmaceutical, and insurance corporations seeking to expand their profitable businesses in the region. These robust welfare systems provide comprehensive health care, education, and social security benefits, reducing the market potential for private American companies in these sectors. The extensive public provision of services means there is less demand for the private, profit-driven health and educational alternatives that dominate the American market.

Similarly, the availability of relatively cheaper Russian oil and natural gas has been instrumental in maintaining the high quality of life in Western Europe. This affordability in energy costs is a key factor in sustaining the economic stability and prosperity of the region. Such a situation create problem for American oil and gas companies, as it limits their ability to penetrate and profit from European markets. The reliance on Russian energy sources reduces the demand for more expensive American alternatives. The geopolitical and economic dynamics surrounding the war in Ukraine could potentially alter these circumstances. 

As Western Europe has reduced its dependence on Russian energy, American oil and gas companies find new opportunities to enter the market and profiting hugely. However, this shift led to rising cost of living due to the cost of higher energy prices and economic strain for European consumers and industries, potentially impacting the overall quality of life. In this way, the Russian war in Ukraine has transformed the welfare policies and energy dependencies in Western Europe and removed significant barriers for American corporations to expand their market presence in the region with the help of war shock. 

American imperialism has effectively employed its doctrine of shock therapy across various regions including post-communist eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and even within its own borders over its own people, all in the pursuit of corporate profit. Yankee imperialism led by USA, supported by its European allies, continues to fund the Ukrainian war, driven by strategic corporate objectives of making super profits at the cost of their people. Meanwhile, the Russian government persists in its aggressive actions, prolonging a senseless war that brings suffering to countless people.

For American imperialism, wars and conflicts serve as long terms tools of shock therapy, rapidly and drastically transforming societies, states, and governments in defence of its corporate interests. This prioritisation of war-inflicted crisis management over addressing the welfare needs of the people is evident, particularly in Europe today. The ongoing imperialist war in Ukraine, coupled with tensions with Russia, serves as an American shock therapy intended to reshape the nature of welfare states, governments, and social democracies in Western Europe. The underlying aim is to advance corporate interests and consolidate power, even at the expense of human lives and stability in the region.

The challenge facing the European people is clear: to unequivocally oppose warfare both within and beyond Europe’s borders, and to dismantle the imperialist and military apparatus known as NATO to cultivate enduring peace and stability in the region. The pursuit of a world free from conflict cannot entertain the racist notions of European and American exceptionalism and supremacy. The struggle against war, capitalism, and imperialism is a shared endeavour, transcending borders, and ideologies. Peace and prosperity are not mere aspirations but essential and inherent rights for all humanity, irrespective of nationality or creed. This vision of peace is universal and indivisible, requiring collective action and solidarity to confront the forces that perpetuate the shock therapy of war, violence, and injustice. 

(RFE/RL) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with foreign leaders in Singapore on the final day of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit on June 2, where he sought to rally international support ahead of a Swiss peace conference later this month despite what he said were Chinese efforts to undermine it.

Zelenskiy said more than 100 countries and international organizations had committed to attending the mid-June peace gathering in Switzerland.

Russia hasn’t been at the event in Singapore since it launched its two-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskiy and Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, met in Singapore for more than an hour with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following this week’s U.S. easing of restrictions on the use of its weapons by Kyiv to publicly permit Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia.

A Pentagon official said Austin “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment” to “strong support” for Ukraine and both sides vowed to “further strengthen [their] strategic defense partnership.”

Earlier, Zelenskiy met with a bipartisan delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives on the sidelines of the conference and said both sides “noted the importance of allowing Ukraine to use American weapons to strike military targets on the territory of Russia in the areas bordering the Kharkiv region.”

Zelenskiy said that “The issue of further strengthening of sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation was also raised.”

The Ukrainian president also met with Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who at the same summit last year proposed an Indonesian plan for ending the war in Ukraine.

After meeting with Jose Ramos-Horta, the president of Timor-Leste, Zelenskiy said Ramos-Horta would also attend the peace summit planned for June 15-16 in Switzerland.

“It is very important for us to begin the process of establishing a just peace,” Zelenskiy said. “Russia does not want to end the war. Therefore, we must work together with the entire world to bring peace closer.”

Zelenskiy said recently amid reports that the European Union was trying to organize peace talks with Russian participation in Saudi Arabia for later this year that he had “no faith” in Russian President Vladimir Putin and around 200 rounds of talks dating back to Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 had gone nowhere.

China, which has said it wants peace in Ukraine but has tightened relations with Moscow since the invasion began, has said it will not participate in the Swiss talks.

Zelenskiy told journalists that he regretted he couldn’t meet the Chinese delegation in Singapore and that Beijing wouldn’t be represented in Switzerland.

He added that “China, unfortunately…is working hard today for countries not to come to the peace summit.” He also said Chinese support for Russia would prolong the war.

U.S. Pentagon chief Austin met with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Dong Jun, in Singapore in their first face-to-face meeting since those contacts broke down in 2022 with tensions ratcheted up over bilateral issues, Taiwan, and Beijing’s refusal to condemn and punish Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Also on June 2, Ukraine’s military said its air defenses had intercepted 24 of 25 Russian attack drones overnight as the country sought to rebound from one of the biggest overnight attacks in weeks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure a day earlier.

That attack killed at least eight people in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, police said, where a Russian offensive began last month.

As a result of those and other damaging attacks, state energy provider Ukrenerho said it was reintroducing blackouts for households and industrial users “in all regions of Ukraine” in the early morning and evening hours on June 2.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 31 that President Joe Biden had given Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv as it tries to defeat Russian troops that began a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

(EurActiv) — China landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Sunday (1 June), a landmark mission aiming to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere, China’s space agency said.

The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the United States are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade.

The Chang’e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched down in a gigantic impact crater called the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s space-facing side at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time (2223 GMT), the China National Space Administration said.

The mission “involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty”, the agency said in a statement on its website. “The payloads carried by the Chang’e-6 lander will work as planned and carry out scientific exploration missions.”

The successful mission is China’s second on the far side of the moon, a region no other country has reached. The side of the moon perpetually facing away from the Earth is dotted with deep and dark craters, making communications and robotic landing operations more challenging.

The Chang’e-6 probe launched on 3 May on China’s Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, reaching the lunar vicinity roughly a week later before tightening its orbit in preparation for a landing.

Chang’e-6 marks the world’s third lunar landing this year: Japan’s SLIM lander touched down in January, followed the next month by a lander from US startup Intuitive Machines.

The other countries that have sent spacecraft to Earth’s nearest neighbour are the then-Soviet Union and India. The United States is the only country to have landed humans on the moon, starting in 1969.

Sampling the moon

Using a scoop and drill, the Chang’e-6 lander will aim to collect 2 kg of lunar material over two days and bring it back to Earth.

The samples will be transferred to a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, tag up with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and return, with a landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region expected around 25 June.

If all goes as planned, the mission will provide China with a pristine record of the moon’s 4.5 billion-year history and yield new clues on the solar system’s formation. It will also allow for an unprecedented comparison between the dark, unexplored region with the moon’s better understood Earth-facing side.

A simulation lab for the Chang’e-6 probe will develop and verify sampling strategies and equipment control procedures, China’s official Xinhua news agency said. It will use a full-scale replica of the sampling area based on exploration results on the environment, rock distribution and lunar soil conditions around the landing site.

China’s lunar strategy includes its first astronaut landing around 2030 in a programme that counts Russia as a partner. In 2020 China conducted its first lunar sample return mission with Chang’e-5, retrieving samples from the moon’s nearer side.

The US Artemis programme envisions a crewed moon landing by late 2026 or later. NASA has partnered with space agencies including those of Canada, Europe and Japan, whose astronauts will join US crews on an Artemis mission.

Artemis relies heavily on private companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose Starship rocket aims this decade to attempt the first astronaut landing since NASA’s final Apollo mission in 1972.

On Saturday Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa cancelled a private mission around the moon he had paid for, which was to have used SpaceX’s Starship, citing schedule uncertainties in the rocket’s development.

Boeing and NASA postponed the company’s first crewed launch of Starliner, a long-delayed capsule meant to become the second US space taxi to low-Earth orbit.

(UCA News) — An Indian Church official has welcomed an order of the Delhi High Court allowing educational institutions run by minority communities to appoint their staff without government approval.

“This is a great order,” said Father Maria Charles Antonysamy, the secretary of the Indian bishops’ Office of Education and Culture, indicating that government-funded minority institutions across the country experienced a lack of freedom in appointing staff members.

Delhi High Court, in its May 28 order, said, “So long as the principals and teachers, who are appointed possess the prescribed qualifications and experience, there can be no restriction whatsoever on the right of the petitioner [a minority institution] to make appointments to fill in the vacancies in the schools run by it.”

“No prior permission from the government is required for this purpose,” observed Justice C. Hari Shankar, ruling in favor of the petitioner Delhi Tamil Education Association, which runs seven senior secondary schools in India’s national capital region for the Tamil linguistic minority.

Indian constitution allows linguistic and religious minorities to establish and run educational institutions to serve their communities. The government also pays for the salaries and maintenance of several such institutions as they contribute to the state’s educational service.

However, state governments increasingly began controlling staff appointments, and “because of this difficulty, in some cases, Church-run aided schools were closed down,” the priest said.

The court’s order “definitely will help us to maintain our ethos and standards. Only when we have the freedom to appoint principals and teachers of our choice can we maintain our values for a better society,” said the Catholic priest.

 The New Delhi court’s order applies only to Delhi state, but the priest said it could be used as a guiding principle in asserting the rights of minority institutions across the country.

“The order will help us to appoint staff members who understand us. It will make a big difference in our functioning. Appointing a vested interested person will lead to a clash of interest,” Father Antonysamy added.

The priest said, “The high court order is a big relief not only in Delhi but also in other states where state-aided minority educational institutions faced similar problems. They can refer to this order in those states for relief.”

The association moved court when the state’s Director of Education failed to authorize the appointment of four principals and 108 teachers to vacant positions.

The court ruled that the association is entitled to make appointments to the vacant posts of principals and teachers in its schools without the approval of the Director of Education.

“It is a laudable judgment,” said A. C. Michael, a former member of the Delhi Minority Commission.

Michael, a New Delhi-based Christian leader, told UCA News on May 31 that the Christian community runs hundreds of aided education institutions in the national capital and nationwide.

The court order “is good for everyone to refer in case any government body creates unnecessary obstruction in appointing their staff including principals and teachers.”

All you need to know about N.J. primary Tuesday, including fight to replace indicted U.S. Senator  NJ.com

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Since 2015, UAB researchers have been carrying out an international archaeological research project in Iraq, specifically in the region historically called Northern Mesopotamia and currently known as Iraqi Kurdistan. This historical region has now opened to international archaeological research, after many years of blockage and geopolitical difficulties.

In the last campaigns, work was carried out at several sites: two in the mountainous region of Zagros and one in the plain of the Tigris River. The originality of the project lies in the transversal and diachronic analysis, since each archaeological site that is the object of research corresponds to a specific period and moment of historical change.

The mountains of Zagros: from nomad life to the beginnings of agriculture, livestock farming and private property

Firstly, in the Gali Chan caves (Soran province), located in the rugged landscape of the Zagros mountains, temporary camps created by the last hunters/gatherers (c. 9000 BCE) were identified. The remains recovered indicate a nomadic lifestyle and living spaces with hunting activities and, above all, the preparation of flint tools at a time before the adoption of agriculture and livestock farming.

Secondly, and also in the mountainous area of the Zagros, another project excavated and studied the site of Banahilk (Soran province), a village of consolidated farmers and herders from the Halaf period (c. 6000-5500 BCE). This is the easternmost known settlement, from which several rectangular houses, earthen architecture and the main domestic implements (pots, hearths, firepits, etc.) were recovered. The different exogenous materials, more specifically the obsidian blades and stone vessels, also reveal a connection with the distribution networks of Anatolia and Iran.

The study of the agricultural (cereals and leguminous plants) and livestock (sheep, goats, cattle and swine) evidence indicates the complexity of farm life at the time of the emergence of private property.

The plains of the Tigris River: advanced architectonic techniques

The third site was located in the plains of the Tigris River, to the north of Mesopotamia, where archaeological digs were conducted at Gird Laskhir (Erbil province). Due to its size (4 hectares and 14 metres high), this settlement can be considered small in comparison to the size of ancient cities. It is considered one of the settlements that was permanently occupied in the historical periods of the Chalcolithic and the Early and Middle Bronze Age (c. 3500 to 2000/1900 BCE).

The recovered dwellings indicate highly developed architectural techniques with complex multicellular constructions, in which it was possible to document the spaces for cooking, preparation and consumption of food. Thanks to the analyses and studies carried out, researchers were able to determine an abundant consumption of cereals and legumes, as well as the exploitation of domestic animals, particularly sheep and cattle.

Unique discovery of ceramic vessels inside a monumental tomb

In the campaigns of 2023 and 2024, burial sites were discovered containing with very rich furnishings, demonstrating that the city of Laskhir participated in the exchange of products with the southern regions (Lower Mesopotamia), but also with those to the east (Zagros and Iran) and west (eastern part of the Euphrates Valley). The products traded were jewels and semi-precious stones (obsidian, lapis lazuli, carnelian, obsidian, etc.), and also materials for construction or other technical activities (bitumen).

The project was also able to study and restore the furnishings of a monumental tomb in which it was possible to discover a concentration of 20 ceramic vessels and other luxurious objects, which make it truly exceptional.

The field work carried out between April and May 2024 was completed on Saturday 25 May. Now, the laboratory analyses will begin in order to advance in the historical knowledge of one of the most dynamic regions in prehistory and early antiquity.

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) may be associated with the insomnia experienced by an estimated one third of adults. An analysis of dietary and sleep patterns reported in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, published by Elsevier, shows a statistically significant association between consumption of UPF and chronic insomnia independent of sociodemographic, lifestyle, diet quality, and mental health status characteristics.

Lead investigator Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, Division of General Medicine and Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, explains, “At a time when more and more foods are highly processed and sleep disturbances are rampant, it is important to evaluate whether diet could contribute to adverse or good quality sleep.”

While past studies have examined nutrients or dietary supplements in relation to sleep (for example, protein, magnesium), this study is novel because it evaluates a dietary pattern beyond nutrients and specific foods and shows that the degree to which foods are processed may have some relevance for sleep health.

Dr. St-Onge adds, “Our research team had previously reported associations of healthy dietary patterns, like the Mediterranean diet, with a reduced risk of insomnia and poor sleep quality (both cross-sectionally and longitudinally), and high carbohydrate diets with an elevated risk of insomnia. The consumption of UPF is on the rise worldwide, and it has been linked to numerous health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer.”

To examine dietary intakes for their association with sleep, this large epidemiological study used NutriNet-Santé data from more than 39,000 French adults. This large cohort study was ideally suited to address this question given its inclusion of sleep variables and multiple days of detailed diet information.

Data were collected every six months between 2013 and 2015 from adults who completed multiple 24-hour dietary records and provided information on insomnia symptoms. The definition of insomnia was based on the criteria provided by the DSM-5 and the ICSD-3.

Participants reported consuming approximately 16% of energy from UPF and close to 20% reported chronic insomnia. Individuals who reported chronic insomnia consumed a higher percentage of their energy intake from UPF. The association of higher UPF intake and insomnia was evident in both males and females, but the risk was slightly higher in males than females.

First author Pauline Duquenne, MSc, Sorbonne Paris Nord University and Paris Cité University, INSERM, INRAE, CNAM, Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN), Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics (CRESS), cautions, “It is important to note that our analyses were cross-sectional and observational in nature, and we did not evaluate longitudinal association. While data do not establish causality, our study is first of its kind and contributes to the existing body of knowledge on UPF.”

Other study limitations included reliance on self-reported data and possible misclassification of some food items. Caution is advised when generalizing the findings because the NutriNet-Santé includes a higher proportion of females and individuals of high socioeconomic status compared with the general French population, although UPF intake was similar to a nationally representative sample.

The investigators recommend that future studies should test causality and evaluate the associations over time. However, they advise that individuals with sleep difficulties may consider examining their diet to determine whether UPF could be contributing to their sleep issues.

Researchers have for the first time observed a time crystal on a microscale semiconductor chip oscillating at a rate of several billion times per second, unveiling exceptionally high non-linear dynamics in the GHz range. The results of the experiment, published in Science, establish a firm connection between formerly uncorrelated areas of non-linear exciton-polariton dynamics and coherent optomechanics at GHz frequencies, say researchers from the Paul-Drude-Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) in Berlin, Germany, and the Argentina-based Centro Atómico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro (CAB-IB). 

The research was carried out using a high-quality semiconductor-based sample that acts as a trap for coherent light-matter condensates. Designed and fabricated at PDI, the sample was created by stacking one-atom-thick layers of semiconductor materials under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, eventually forming a micron-sized “box” with the ability to trap millions of quantum particles. It was then transferred to CAB-IB for testing.

When the CAB-IB team directed a time-independent (i.e. continuous) laser at the sample, they observed that the particles it contained began to oscillate at GHz frequencies — a billion times per second. This is the first time sustained oscillations in this range have been observed in a condensate sample on a semiconductor device. The researchers also found that the oscillations could be fine-tuned by the laser’s optical power, with the possibility to stabilize the free evolution of the frequency by engineered 20-GHz mechanical vibrations of the semiconductor atomic lattice. In accordance with their theory, the researchers found that on further increasing the laser power the particles vibrated at exactly half the frequency of the mechanical vibrations.

“This behavior can be interpreted as different manifestations of a time crystal,” said Alexander Kuznetsov, a scientist at PDI. “The demonstrated results add a new dimension to the physics of open many-body quantum systems, enabling frequencies several orders of magnitude higher than before and presenting new ways to control the emerging dynamics, which lead to the fascinating time crystals on a semiconductor platform.”

What are time crystals?

Since Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek first proposed his theory over a decade ago, researchers have been on the search for elusive “time crystals” — many-body systems composed of particles and quasiparticles like excitons, photons, and polaritons that, in their most stable quantum state, vary periodically in time. Wilczek’s theory centered around a puzzling question: Can the most stable state of a quantum system of many particles be periodic in time? That is, can it display temporal oscillations characterized by a beating with a well-defined rhythm?

It was quite rapidly shown that time crystal behavior cannot occur in isolated systems (systems which do not exchange energy with the surrounding environment). But far from closing the subject, this disturbing question motivated scientists to search for the conditions under which an open system (i.e., one that exchanges energy with the environment) may develop such time crystal behavior.

And while time crystals have now been observed on several occasions in systems driven out of equilibrium, much about them remains undetermined: their internal dynamics are largely beyond the current understanding of scientists, and their potential uses have remained in the realm of theory rather than practice.

“This work presents a paradigmatic shift in the approach to time crystals, by offering a possibility to extend such studies to arbitrary-large arrays (lattices) of localized time crystals to study their interactions and synchronization,” said Alejandro Fainstein, the senior researcher and professor who led the CAB-IB team. “Through it, we have been able to unveil peculiar behaviors of quantum materials. Because the materials involved are semiconductors compatible with integrated photonic devices, and the frequencies displayed are relevant for both classical and quantum information technologies, we envision additional stages in which we will try to control these behaviors for applications, including photon-to-radiofrequency conversion at the quantum level.”

Potential applications

According to the research team, this experiment shows promise for using time crystals in integrated and microwave photonics.

“Due to the polariton-enhanced coupling between GHz phonons and near-infrared photons, the results have the potential for applications in (quantum) conversion between microwave and optical frequencies,” said Paulo Ventura Santos, a senior scientist at PDI.

Semiconductor-based non-linear optoelectronic systems — devices that can convert light energy to electrical energy or vice versa — are drawing particular attention for their potential applications in on-chip photonics. But they are notoriously difficult to study due to the many-body complexes (such as time crystals) that determine their electronic and optical properties.

“A deeper understanding of well-defined regimes within these many-body systems, such as the ones the PDI/CAB-IB team helped to identify, can help elucidate these internal dynamics — and in turn help develop methods to control and harness such systems for applications,” said Gonzalo Usaj, the theory leader from the CAB-IB team.

Armenia government approves EAEU-Iran free trade agreement  lurer.com