Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
Starship exploded. I'd link to some Twitter video but the X posts run from "This is actually a win!" to "Embarrassing disaster, must be investigated now!"
Musk seems to be on X silence, at least as of this writing.Musk posted about it last night:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1880060983734858130
But he's clearly identified a downstream problem there, not yet a root cause.
The booster landing again, in visibly better shape than test 5, was a win. The Starship explosion was grossly embarrassing (worst performance since test 2, and yeah it was a major version update but they obviously weren't expecting this level of new teething problems).
It was also a near-disaster: no reports of injuries, but (unconfirmed) reports of property damage from shrapnel, and aircraft having to do emergency diversions away from the hazard area, are not things that should ever be consequences of a launch failure.
And of course it must be investigated now. Starship is currently launching solely through a narrow keyhole between Cuba and Florida where any disasters can avoid the heaviest population densities, but there are still islands in the danger zone if, as just happened, a launch fails in an unrecoverable way at just the wrong time. More importantly in the medium term, SpaceX wants to start catching ships in addition to boosters, and for that to happen they first need to reenter, from the west, over land. If they can't credibly and correctly assure the safety of that plan, they'll be stuck at the same "partially reusable" design level as Falcon 9 (and hopefully New Glenn sooner or later), and the cost of that would that they're not recouping their multi-billion-dollar investment any time soon, and the harm it would do to flight cadence would make their Artemis plans much harder.
Yes, I think legally it has to be investigated anyway. Thank you for the link, apparently I am much further delayed in my news stream than I suspected.
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Here are some items I'm looking at this week; discussion & pushback welcome.
Microsoft reveals some details of how an unknown group bypassed their Azure AI API guardrails and created a hacking as a service scheme.
Navy Lookout looks at Russia v. NATO confrontation in the Baltic over the last few months
Mozambique opposition asks help from EU and UN in response to repression by the ruling president
One person dies from Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Finnland seems to have a bit more specific evidence on the internet and power cable cuts, reducing the degree of plausible deniability that Russia and China can claim they have.
Japan panel of experts says probability of "megaquake" in the next 30 years has risen to 80%
"Bomb Iran? Await a Trump Nuclear Deal? Topple the Regime? Israel Weighs Its Options", considers the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Iran reinforces their Natanz nuclear facility.
Dubai sends 68 tonnes of urgent medical supplies to Gaza
Iran is also looking to Russia to bolster its defense, and are now set to sign a 'comprehensive strategic partnership' treaty.
Iran also sent a surveillance ship out to sea, but is also holding nuclear talks with Europeans
Israel tried to embed explosivies within centrifuge components bought by Iran, but got caught.
Saudi Arabia announces plans to enrich and sell uranium
Swedish dockworkers vote to block military shipments to and from Israel
Tehran says 5,000 people working to expand Bushehr nuclear plant
China is developing methods to target Starlink satellites
Chinese Wuhan bat virus researcher continues with gain of function research
US adds Chinese company which develops open source LLMs to the entities list, "because these entities advance the People's Republic of China's military modernization through the development and integration of advanced artificial intelligence research". via @bdsqlsz
From the past: China could attack the US with EMPs.
Ukraine and Russia both had large attack waves.
Trump to meet Putin 'very quickly' after taking office
"You can't put a ship over every nautical mile of pipeline or cable -- it's an impossible task," says NATO commander. "There are approximately 50,000 big ships out there worldwide and they can drop anchors and drag them over infrastructure."
Sudan might fracture
In 2024, 444 terrorist attacks against security forces killed 685 personnel in Pakistan.
H5 Bird Flu confirmed in three additional domestic cats in Los Angeles
CDC telling laboratories to test for H5N1 specifically faster
Sierra Leone declares public health emergency over mpox after two new cases
WHO starts $1.5 billion funding appeal
Bird Flu mutations found in Texas
Study finds certain H5N1 strains in cattle linked to milder human illness
TTP abducts 18 Pakistani nuclear engineers, possibly to mask shipments of uranium to Iran.
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