More € for Defence

Mar 31 2025 The BBC

Germany decides to leave history in the past and prepare for war

The top General in Germany is talking about bringing back national service, and the parliament has lifted the debt cap on military spending.

Germany’s military is not in a good shape, and there will be a lot to do, but the important thing is, the need is recognised and the work has started.

This is a step in the right direction in Europe today.

Changing Time

Mar 29 2025 The Guardian

Changing your clock? Scientists are only just beginning to understand what this does to us

We humans evolved on this planet, and for the vast majority of our existence we have followed the natural cycle of sunlight and darkness. A bit more than 100 years most western societies have shifted time twice a year, after the introduction of “daylight savings time”.

We have known for a long time that the sudden change in time twice a year causes stress and disruption. As the piece says: “Research suggests that the spring clock change is associated with an increase in car accidents and heart attacks.”, and “Both men and women also reported a worsening of work-life balance following the changing of the clocks in October.“

So, why are we still doing this? The European Parliament voted to abolish this twice a year time change, already in 2019. Why are we dragging our heels on this issue? With daylight savings time we have to change time twice a year, every year, abolishing it only happens once, and we never have to think about it again.

This may have had some positive effect on the use of coal and energy during the First World War, when it was introduced, but now we know this is not good for human health. Any savings in energy we get today, will be minimal compared to the costs related to healthcare and work efficiency losses due to the time changes. And that calculation does not even mention the quality of life.

I’ll end this with a quote from the piece:

Our bodies have evolved to be carefully attuned to our environments. We thrive on having predictable rhythms around when we sleep, eat, work and socialise. These rhythms keep us in sync with our bodies and communities, helping to give us a sense of belonging and stability.

Getting Vaccinated

Mar 24 2025 The New York Times
Updated Mar 28 2025 The Guardian, and Mar 29 2025 The BBC

*****

Mar 24
Why I Got the Measles Vaccine at Age 63

I know I am preaching to the choir, anti-vaxxers most likely will not read this blog.

But if you happen to know someone who is unsure about vaccinations, show them this article, it just might tip them over to the vaccination side of the debate.

*****

Update Mar 28 The Guardian

Nearly 500 confirmed cases of measles across 19 US states, says CDC

The federal government reported on Friday that there have been 483 confirmed cases of measles across 20 US jurisdictions so far this year, with the largest outbreak in Texas, and 70 people across the nation needing to be hospitalized.

*****

Update Mar 29 The BBC

Top US vaccine official forced to resign, reports say

A top vaccine official at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was forced out of his job, US media reports.

Peter Marks offered his letter of resignation to Health and Human Services (HHS) officials on Friday, after being given a choice between resigning or being fired.

"It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies," Mr Marks wrote in a resignation letter, obtained by multiple US media outlets, referring to the agency's new leader Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Protests in Istanbul

Mar 28 2025 The Guardian

I’ve never seen such clampdowns in Istanbul. Turkey’s democracy is fighting for its life

Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel prize in literature

The jailing of President Erdoğan’s main political rival is the low point of a decade-long march towards autocracy – but the protesters aren’t done yet either.

In jailing İmamoğlu, Erdoğan doesn’t just sideline a more popular political rival – he also seeks to get his hands back on a wealth of resources he hasn’t been able to touch for seven years. Should he succeed, the next presidential election will feature only Erdoğan and his candidates’ faces plastered over the city’s walls and illuminated municipal billboards.

This is not a surprise for anybody who’s following Turkish politics closely. For the past decade, Turkey hasn’t been a real democracy – merely an electoral democracy, one where you can vote for your preferred candidate but have no freedom of speech or thought.

“How Much Dumber Will This Get?”

Mar 28 2025 The New York Times

Hillary Clinton: How Much Dumber Will This Get?

Really not need for me to say anything, here a quote from her piece:

It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it’s the stupidity. We’re all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb.

Signalgate

Mar 26 2025 The New York Times
Updated Mar 29 2025 The Guardian

Foreign Spies to Team Trump: 👊🇺🇸🔥

Top US officials included a journalist to group chat on Signal and chatted about Yemen strike plans.

That is not a line from Saturday Night Live or some other comedy show or even a stand up routine, that is what really happened.

And if you have forgotten, there is a war in Yemen, another in Sudan, and another in Gaza, not to mention Ukraine. So, you would think that this is a time to take security about war plans seriously.

I should stop now, before I write something totally unprintable about this. So, below is the first paragraph from the piece.

If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.

*****

Update Mar 29 The Guardian

The Signal chat exposes the administration’s incompetence – and its pecking order

The discussion revealed unserious people who don’t know when to keep quiet, with Stephen Miller as the real boss

No Medication Pain Relief

Mar 24 2025 The Guardian

Pioneering project by Welsh National Opera suggests music can alleviate chronic pain

A project led by Welsh National Opera has suggested music can help people suffering with persistent pain.

Participants in a pain management programme run by WNO with NHS Wales reported that singing and taking part in breathing exercises in sessions run by vocal experts eased their symptoms.

Those who had taken part had no illusions that they had been cured of chronic illnesses but said the programme had helped them manage their pain by giving them techniques to deal with it.

I have known for a long time, and from personal experience, that breathing deep and concentrating on your breathing calms you down and lowers your stress level, so this makes total sense.

Very good news in this day and age of over-medication and opiate epidemics.

Disease Watch List

Mar 24 2025 The BBC

UK draws up new disease-threat watch list

While the US is cutting science and research funding, the UK is publishing a list of potential pandemic candidates.

If this list does not make you want to get vaccinated or to fund research, I guess nothing will.

Anyway, here they are, two dozen nasty ways to die or get really sick:

Adenovirus

Lassa fever

Norovirus

Mers

Ebola (and similar viruses, such as Marburg)

Flaviviridae (which includes dengue, Zika and hepatitis C)

Hantavirus

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever

Flu (non-seasonal, including avian)

Nipah virus

Oropouche

Rift Valley fever

Acute flaccid myelitis

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV)

Mpox

Chikungunya

Anthrax

Q fever

Enterobacteriaceae (such as E. coli and Yersinia pestis, which causes plague)

Tularaemia

Moraxellaceae (which cause lung, urine and bloodstream infections)

Gonorrhoea

Staphlylococcus

Group A and B Strep

Gutting VOA

Mar 18 2025 The BBC & The Guardian

A few days ago Trump signed an executive order “to strip back federally funded news organisation Voice of America, accusing it of being "anti-Trump" and "radical".

Trump moves to close down Voice of America

A White House statement said the order would "ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda"

The order targets the Agency for Global Media, which funds VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. Overall the organisation broadcasts in 49 languages, and has a weekly estimated audience of more than 361 million people.

VOA was founded during WWII to counter Nazi propaganda, and Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia were originally founded to counter communism.

Mike Abramowitz, VOA's director, said he and virtually his entire staff of 1,300 people had been put on paid leave.

Some US politicians and right-wing media were happy about the cuts in funding, but nowhere near as happy as the Chinese state media.

Chinese state media celebrates Trump’s cuts to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia

Beijing's Global Times said that the VOA has "now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag".

“From smearing human rights in China’s Xinjiang … to hyping up disputes in the South China Sea … from fabricating the so-called China virus narrative to promoting the claim of China’s ‘overcapacity’, almost every malicious falsehood about China has VOA’s fingerprints all over it”

But not everyone agrees that it is a good idea to dismantle VOA.

Radio Free Asia’s union said in a statement that the move would “hand a victory to the Chinese Communist party, which harbors a particular disdain for free media and truth” and would “embolden Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime in Pyongyang, where information control reaches unprecedented levels”.

After a War

Mar 17 2025 The Guardian

Two pieces in The Guardian today, one on Syria and landmines, and the other on Gaza’s heritage sites.

Landmines in Syria kill hundreds of civilians returning home after fall of Assad

‘I will spend my life rebuilding’: Gaza’s heritage sites destroyed by war

The sad truth is, absolutely nothing in society escapes the destruction of war, neither people nor culture.

The war in Gaza has cost at least 48.000 lives already, and there will be more, healthcare is not functioning, about 90% of homes have been destroyed, and unexploded ordnance litters the ruins.

Apart from the human cost, there is the destruction of culture and history of Gaza. The 800-year old Pasha Palace, with its museum, and the 700-year-old bath house Hamam al-Samara, are both in ruins. And the Al-Omari mosque, which by the way was originally a byzantine church, is damaged as well. It will take a lot of effort, time and money to rebuild them.

“A recent report by Palestinian conservation experts in the occupied West Bank and UK-based archaeologists estimated that just protecting historical sites from further damage in Gaza – if the current ceasefire holds – will cost about $33m and take up to 18 months. Full reconstruction could cost almost 10 times more and take up to eight years.”

If there is any good news here it is that the will to rebuild is there:

“It [Al-Omari] will definitely be restored. In fact, we are already working on that. There is a team collecting the broken stones of the mosque to restore it as soon as possible. True, the old mosque held irreplaceable history within its walls, but we will rebuild it.”

“If no one else takes on the task, I will spend the rest of my life rebuilding [the Hamam al-Samara] myself,” - says its guardian Salim al-Wazir, 74.

In Syria, since the war ended about three months ago, more than 200 people have been killed by explosive remnants of war, mines, unexploded shells, cluster munitions and other ordnance left from the war.

The Syrian war lasted 14 years, and there are thousands of landmines and unexploded munitions scattered across the country. The problem is acute, as 1.2 million refugees and IDPs return to their homes and farms to rebuild their lives. A quote from the piece says it all: “We cannot say that any area in Syria is safe from war remnants”

Removing the mines and other explosives, and making the country safe will take decades, and cost millions. And there will be more casualties, and not just civilians, volunteers clearing the mines are dying as well. After the death of one volunteer, his brother said:

“He sacrificed himself so that others could live” “The country has been liberated, and we, the engineering specialists, must stand by these people and remove the mines to help them return to their homes.”

Gutting U.S.A.I.D.

Feb 7 2025 The New York Times
Updated Feb 8 - The Washington Post
Updated again Mar 15 2025 - NY Times, Nicholas Kristof

*****

I’ll keep this short. The three pieces below have it all, really no need for me to add anything; except this from Winston Churchill

“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years.
To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”

I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere.

The World’s Richest Men Take On the World’s Poorest Children

This Isn’t Reform. It’s Sabotage.

*****

Update Feb 8 2025 The Washington Post

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately

“A sane government would never do this.”

*****

Update Mar 15 2025 - This piece is about the real world consequences of the USAID cuts. Musk has said that “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding, … No one.”

Well read this piece and decide for yourself.

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Spineless politicians

Mar 10 2025

Just the other day, I was thinking about what the Russian government, the current US administration, and a few others are doing, and I realised that I have made a profound mistake.

I do have to apologise to anyone who has spent their valuable time reading this blog. My most sincere apologies to you all, sorry, totally my bad.

The thing is, I knew that to be a certain type of politician you could not really have a strong moral spine, you had to have a high level of what is called, ethical flexibility.

But what I had not realised was, that, actually, the requirement for this kind of politician is to have no moral spine at all, that is to say, you need to have a 360 degree moral compass, with a freely adjustable needle.

In fact, though this breed of politicians are carbon based lifeforms like the rest of us, and though they deceptively look like the rest of us, they are fundamentally very different, they belong to the Invertebrate group of beings on this planet.

Now that I have finally understood this basic fact, I have come to the conclusion that I have been both totally inadequately cynical and inadequately sarcastic in my posts in the past. But, I promise you, I will do my best to remedy the situation, and will try to be more accurate and unbiased in my posts in the future.

*****

Then again, with a few posts, I think I have had some success in the past as well. For example, I don’t think the Russians, the present government that is, have a very positive opinion of my blog, and with the new administration in the US, I don’t think they do either.

But like George Orwell said:

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Afghan students - USAID cuts

Mar 8 2025 The BBC

Afghan women who fled Taliban to study abroad face imminent return after USAID cuts

More than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban to pursue higher education in Oman now face imminent return back to Afghanistan, following the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to foreign aid programmes.

Funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), their scholarships were abruptly terminated after a funding freeze ordered by President Donald Trump when he returned to office in January.

Knowing what you know about the Taliban government, what do you think will happen to these women once they are back in Afghanistan?

On Leadership

Mar 8 2025

The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.

There has been some debate on if Zelenskyy actually said that to the US in Feb 2022 when the Russians invaded.

I don’t know one way or the other, and anyway, it is totally irrelevant if those words were actually said or not, Zelenskyy has conveyed the message with his actions, and actions speak louder than words.

Today, three years later, Zelenskyy is still there, and Ukraine is still independent and fighting, and though Russia is making small gains on the battlefield, the Special Military Operation is definitely not going according to plan.

*****

The other day Zelenskyy said: I am exchangeable for NATO

A standard twelve-in-a-dozen politician thinks about the next election, and how to win and stay in power, and that affects every decisions they make.

A Statesman thinks about what is good for the country, regardless of the consequences of the decisions they make.

Zelenskyy literally just said: give Ukraine what it needs, and I will resign if you want me to.

That is not a politician speaking, that is a Leader.

Civil Defence Corps

Mar 9 2025

This article is from The Tyee, an independent, online news magazine from B.C., that is British Columbia, Canada. A lot of my posts refer to the BBC, Guardian, NY Times or other big news organisations, so for a change, something from a smaller independent news outlet.

Canada Needs a New Civil Defence Corps

The lede in this piece is “Trump’s aggression means it’s time to train thousands more civilians for disaster preparedness. Would you join?”

This is a good wake-up-call for Canada, now that the US is looking inwards and becoming isolationist, not to mention the tariffs. But if you really think about it, a reliable and well functioning Civil Defence is what every country should have, all the time. Basic common sense.

I have posted about this before, and so has, with way more experience and authority, the retired US General Stanley McChrystal. He has promoted this idea with the Service Year Alliance. (In case the link does not work, my post is in the Security section, and the piece has links to McChrystal’s piece and another by the The Brookings Institution.)

My post was written in 2021, before the world changed in February 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and before the US started to turn inwards.

If now, in 2025, is not the time to establish Civil Defence Corps in every country, then when is it? This is a moment of If not now, when? If not me, who?

And this is especially true in Europe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many European countries took the peace dividend, a naive decision in hindsight, and now they are ramping up their defence spending.

But, defence is not just about the military, it is about the resilience of the whole society. Military will be fighting in a war, Civil Defence will keep the rest of the society running, the society the military is defending and is counting on to support it.

Talking about Civil Defence Corps, The Tyee article gives some answers to the question What would Canadians actually do?

Some of the issues it deals with:
Universal civil defence training
Optional defence skills track
Reserve forces expansion
Cyber-resilience training
National youth service program
Arctic protection and Indigenous leadership
Readiness strengthens pride

And it ends with “The world has changed. Canada, it’s time to get ready.”

*****

My suggestion is that when you have read the article, read it again and this time substitute your country for Canada.

New Way to Make Antibiotics

Mar 6 2025 The BBC

Scientists discover new part of the immune system

Some good news, for a change.

A new part of the immune system has been discovered and it is a goldmine of potential antibiotics, scientists have said.

The discovery centres on the proteasome – a tiny structure that is found in every cell of the body.

More details of this research can be found in the journal Nature, for those who actually understand something about the topic - Cell-autonomous innate immunity by proteasome-derived defence peptides

Call for Multilateralism

Mar 6 2025 Al Jazeera

Multilateralism can and must deliver

Opinion piece by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Cyril Ramaphosa and Pedro Sánchez

A few quotes from the piece:

The year 2025 will be pivotal for multilateralism. The challenges before us — rising inequalities, climate change, and the financing gap for sustainable development — are urgent and interconnected. Addressing them requires bold, coordinated action — not a retreat into isolation, unilateral actions, or disruption.

Three major global gatherings offer a unique opportunity to chart a path towards a more just, inclusive and sustainable world: the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville (Spain), the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belém (Brazil) and the G20 Summit in Johannesburg (South Africa). These meetings must not be business as usual: they must deliver real progress.

The world is increasingly fragmented, and this is precisely why we must redouble our efforts to find common ground. Seville, Belém and Johannesburg must serve as beacons of multilateral cooperation, showing that nations can unite around common interests.

…we call on all nations, international institutions, the private sector and civil society to rise to this moment. Multilateralism can and must deliver — because the stakes are too high for failure.

Lech Wałęsa

Mar 3 2025

Lech Wałęsa’s Facebook post, a comment on Trump - Zelenskyy Oval Office “meeting”.

I included the whole text here as is, in case the link to Lech Wałęsa’s page does not work.

Also included is the pretty impressive list of people who also signed this letter.

And here is The Guardian’s take on this:

Lech Wałęsa expresses ‘horror and distaste’ at Trump’s treatment of Zelenskyy

*****

After the US decision to suspend supplies to Ukraine, if the answer was in my gesture it would be "Let's do our part" not a step back. AMEN.

This is the text we signed:

Your Excellency Mr President,

We watched the report of your conversation with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski with fear and distaste. We consider your expectations to show respect and gratitude for the material help provided by the United States fighting Russia to Ukraine insulting. Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed their blood in defense of the values of the free world. They have been dying on the frontline for more than 11 years in the name of these values and independence of their Homeland, which was attacked by Putin's Russia.

We do not understand how the leader of a country that is the symbol of the free world cannot see it.

Our panic was also caused by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of one we remember well from Security Service interrogations and from the debate rooms in Communist courts. Prosecutors and judges at the behest of the all-powerful communist political police also explained to us that they hold all the cards and we hold none. They demanded us to stop our business, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffer because of us. They deprived us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to cooperate with the government and our gratitude. We are shocked that Mr. President Volodymyr Zelenski treated in the same way.

The history of the 20th century shows that every time the United States wanted to keep its distance from democratic values and its European allies, it ended up being a threat to themselves. This was understood by President Woodrow Wilson, who decided to join the United States in World War I in 1917. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this, deciding after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the war for the defense of America would be fought not only in the Pacific, but also in Europe, in alliance with the countries attacked by the Third Reich.

We remember that without President Ronald Reagan and American financial commitment it would not have been possible to bring the collapse of the Soviet Union empire. President Reagan was aware that millions of enslaved people were suffering in Soviet Russia and the countries it conquered, including thousands of political prisoners who paid for their sacrifice in defense of democratic values with freedom. His greatness was m. in. on the fact that he without hesitation called the USSR the "Empire of Evil" and gave it a decisive fight. We won, and the statue of President Ronald Reagan stands today in Warsaw vis a vis of the US embassy.

Mr. President, material aid - military and financial - cannot be equivalent to the blood shed in the name of independence and freedom of Ukraine, Europe, as well as the whole free world. Human life is priceless, its value cannot be measured with money. Gratitude is due to those who make the sacrifice of blood and freedom. It is obvious for us, the people of "Solidarity", former political prisoners of the communist regime serving Soviet Russia.

We are calling for the United States to withdraw from the guarantees it made with the Great Britain in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which recorded a direct obligation to defend the intact borders of Ukraine in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons resources. These guarantees are unconditional: there is no word about treating such aid as an economic exchange.

Lech Wales, b. political prisoner, Solidarity leader, president of the Republic of Poland III

Mark Bailin, b. political prisoner, editor of independent publishing houses

Severn Blumstein, b. political prisoner, member of the Workers' Defense Committee

Teresa Bogucka, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition and Solidarity

Gregory Bogut, b. political prisoner, activist of democratic opposition, independent publisher

Mark Borowik, b. political prisoner, independent publisher

Bogdan Borusewicz, b. political prisoner, leader of the underground Solidarity in Gdansk

Zbigniew Bujak, b. political prisoner, leader of the underground Solidarity in Warsaw

Władysław Frasyniuk, b. political prisoner, leader of the underground Solidarity in Wrocław

Andrew Gintzburg, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Richard Grabarczyk, b. a political prisoner, Solidarity activist

Alexander Janiszewski, b. a political prisoner, Solidarity activist

Peter Kapczy otrski, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition

Mark Kossakowski, b. political prisoner, independent publicist

Christopher the King, b. a political prisoner , independence activist

Jaroslav Kurski, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition

Barbara Swan, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Bogdan Lis, b. political prisoner, leader of the underground Solidarity in Gdansk

Henryk Majewski, b. a political prisoner, Solidarity activist

Adam Michnik, b. political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition, editor of independent publishing houses

Slavomir Najniger, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Peter the German , b. political prisoner, journalist, and printer of underground publishing houses,

Stefan Konstanty Niesiołowski, b. a political prisoner , independence activist

Edward Nowak, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Wojciech Onyszkiewicz, b. political prisoner, member of the Workers' Defence Committee, Solidarity activist

Anthony Pawlak, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition and underground Solidarity

Sylwia Poleska-Peryt, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition

Christopher Push, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Richard Push, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity,

Jacek Rakowiecki, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Andrew Severn, b. political prisoner, actor, director of the Polish Theater in Warsaw

Witold Sielewicz, b. political prisoner, printer of independent publishing houses

Henryk Sikora, b. a political prisoner, Solidarity activist

Christopher Siemien Krski, b. political prisoner, journalist, and printer of underground publishing houses

Gra ,yna Staniszewska, b. a political prisoner, leaders of Solidarity of the Beskids region

George Degrees, b. a political prisoner, activist of the democratic opposition

Joanna Happy, b. political prisoner, editor of Solidarity underground press

Ludwik Turko, b. a political prisoner, activist of the underground Solidarity

Matthew Wierzbicki, b. political prisoner, printer and publicist of independent publishing houses