If Trump Fired Bannon, Would He Seek Revenge?

Friends and foes imagine his options for brutal payback.

By BEN SCHRECKINGER-April 14, 2017

When Steve Bannon vacated a home in Florida in 2015, his landlord complained that an entire Jacuzzi had apparently been coated in acid. After conservative media star Dana Loesch left Bannon’s employ at Breitbart News in 2012, she filed a suit against the website, alleging a plot to “sabotage” her career. When Bannon failed to take over the Biosphere 2 ecology experiment in 1993, he “vowed profanely to take revenge” on a scientist who crossed him, according to the woman’s lawyer. And when Bannon was breaking up with his second wife, she accused him of grabbing her by the throat and threatening to take away their children, while his lawyer reportedly threatened that she would end up with “no money” if the resultant domestic abuse case went to trial.

Parting ways with Donald Trump’s chief strategist, it seems, is rarely a simple proposition. But with Trump undercutting Bannon in recent interviews and speculation running rampant that he could soon lose his job amid vicious West Wing infighting, the White House may soon be doing just that.

I asked friends and foes alike to imagine how, should Bannon get the boot, the pugnacious populist might exact his revenge.

Taken together, their suggestions amount to an epic, Kill Bill-style revenge saga that starts with Bannon leaking personal dirt on his enemies to the tabloids, using the megaphone of Breitbart News to exacerbate divisions inside the administration, and siccing an army of internet trolls on his adversaries to harass and defame them. It ends with Bannon using Cambridge Analytica data to identify and primary their vulnerable allies in Congress, then releasing a “Where Trump Went Wrong” documentary on the eve of the November midterms and finally—in this revenge fantasy’s epic climax—running against Trump himself in 2020.

Neither Bannon, who has shown no signs of disloyalty to the president, nor the White House responded to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Bannon and the Mercer family, his patrons, declined to comment on the record, but there is little expectation among those who have tangled with him that the White House’s chief strategist — a guy who has been known to say things like “burn the boats” and “I love a gunfight” — intends to go gentle into that good night.

Indeed, the situation has become so “volatile” that the normally loquacious Iowa Congressman Steve King, a steadfast Bannon ally in the House, declined to weigh in, citing fears that the mere discussion of Bannon’s potential revenge could be enough to set off Trump while also acknowledging that it could have the opposite effect of making the White House think twice about firing him. “Even comments by me could cause a lot of problems,” King said. “It’s better for the country if my voice isn’t in it.”

Others were less hesitant. “It’s not like it’s definitely going to be ‘Apocalypse Now,’ but it could be, and that’s the point,” said a close Bannon ally. “Do you really want to gamble with this in your first 100 days?”

“He’ll have his minions eviscerate you on Twitter and write articles with fake information. You will be attacked and lied about,” said Republican operative Cheri Jacobus, who was the subject of critical coverage in Breitbart in 2015 after saying Trump was popular with “low-information voters” and who blames Breitbart for a campaign of online harassment she has endured since then.

“Bannon can launch something, and there’s an army of people who are part of the alt-right that will then pick up on it and they know what to do,” Jacobus said. “It’s like a chain reaction.”

Jacobus is just one of a number of Republican operatives and conservative pundits who blame Breitbart coverage for stirring up a tsunami of threats and intimidation from its readers after drawing the outlet’s ire during Bannon’s tenure there. Republican operative Rick Wilson, for example, reportedly endured anonymous threats to rape his daughter and nearly shot a man he found snooping on his back porch after becoming the subject of numerous Breitbart stories.

Should Bannon return to the outlet, which he led from 2012 until he joined the Trump campaign in August, some former colleagues expect him to once again prosecute his grudges through its coverage.

“The hit pieces on Breitbart will increase, for sure,” said Loesch, who clashed with Bannon after leaving Breitbart to work for his nemesis Glenn Beck at The Blaze.

“I don’t believe that he ever really stopped being at the helm of Breitbart,” said Kurt Bardella, who quit his job as a spokesman for the news organization last spring in protest of Bannon’s handling of an assault allegation lodged by then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields against then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (Breitbart recently released a letter showing that Bannon formally resigned from the news outlet shortly after Election Day.)

While Breitbart Washington bureau chief and Bannon protégé Matt Boyle has reportedly ordered the site’s reporters to stop targeting Kushner (Boyle denies it), Bardella cited one recent 24-hour period in which the site published four anti-Kushner pieces. “It’ll look like that,” he said.

Jacobus said she expects Bannon would use his knowledge of the White House’s internal dynamics to drum up stories that exacerbate existing rivalries.

Meanwhile, Bannon could launder more salacious hits through the tabloids. “You go National Enquirer on them,” said blogger Mike Cernovich, a self-described student of Bannon’s work who said he has discussed the eventuality of Bannon’s firing with people close to him.

“There’s sex scandals people are sitting on,” Cernovich said. “All the gossip and drama and stuff that might be a little more personal is going to get leaked.”

Trump mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, Bannon’s chief patron, spent much of Friday at the offices of Cambridge Analytica — a data firm in which her family is invested and on whose board Bannon sat before joining the White House — exploring potential gigs for Bannon should he be fired, according to The New York Times.

Cernovich speculated that Bannon could, with the help of Cambridge Analytica’s data, move from the personal to the political by identifying his enemies’ most vulnerable allies in Congress and encouraging challengers to run for their seats. “There will be big primary campaigns against them,” Cernovich said. “It will be Eric Cantor-style warfare.”

Several people familiar with Bannon’s modus operandi said he would be unlikely to take on Trump directly, preferring instead to shift blame toward others while leaving the door open to a rapprochement with the president — at least at first.

“In Steve’s dream scenario, he would depart, things would fall apart even more so, and Trump would beg him to come back to fix it,” Bardella said.

Otherwise, Trump could eventually find himself directly in Bannon’s cross hairs, some said.

“We would see House and Senate races in 2018 to, you know, go after Trump’s agenda,” said internet troll Charles Johnson, an ally of Bannon who worked for him at Breitbart. “Everything would slow down. His presidency would essentially be over. Bannon is more than just a man. He is honestly something of an idea because he represents something that both the establishment and the left-wing media hate.”

In years past, Bannon produced several political documentaries, an experience that one Breitbart insider suggested he could call on in a scorched-earth campaign against Trump.

“He does have skills, like high-end skills,” said the insider. “One of his high-end skills is he could actually put together a documentary. What if he came out with something before the 2018 midterms, ‘Where Trump Went Wrong’?”

If it does come to open conflict with the president himself, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart tech editor hired by Bannon who often calls Trump a “God Emperor” and “Daddy,” made no bones about where his loyalties lie.

“It will be my very great honor to manage the Bannon 2020 campaign,” he said, before sending over three mock logos for the hypothetical presidential run.

U.S. to Send Troops to Somalia Amid Blowback

BY BETHANY ALLEN-EBRAHIMIAN-APRIL 14, 2017

The global security picture is growing ever more complicated for the new U.S. president.

The United States will send several dozen troops to help train Somali forces in their fight against the al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabab, Pentagon officials said Friday, the latest move in the tit-for-tat escalation in the troubled East African nation.

On March 30, President Donald Trump agreed to declare Somalia an “Area of Active Hostility,” which grants the military greater authority to launch strikes. The move suspends 2013 rules that require extensive interagency vetting to prevent air strikes from hitting civilians.

But escalation can easily lead to blowback in hot spots like Somalia, and that appears to be what is happening there now. A spate of suicide attacks followed reports of the U.S. declaration. Al-Shabab stated the suicide attacks were a “doubled response” to the Trump administration’s announcement. On April 9, 13 died in a failed assassination attempt against Somalia’s military head. On April 10, several soldiers perished in a suicide attack in the capital Mogadishu.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Foreign Policy that “fewer than 50” troops from the 101st Airborne Division had arrived to perform a “train and equip” mission with the Somali armed forces. They stressed this is separate from the new authorities to attack al Shabab recently granted by the White House.

The stepped-up military involvement in Somalia didn’t begin with Trump. U.S. Special Operations have had a presence on the ground for years, though regular troops have not been posted there since 1994. In March 2016, U.S. drones and manned aircraft launched an airstrike that killed up to 150 militants at an al-Shabab training camp north of Mogadishu, which the Pentagon believed was planning to carry out an attack on U.S. and African Union forces in the region. It was the deadliest U.S. mission in Somalia in years.

The situation in Somalia has grown more urgent in recent months. On April 6, new Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo declared war on al Shabab, also offering amnesty for fighters who voluntarily surrender to Somali government forces. “We want to pardon the Somali youth who were misled by al-Shabab,” said Farmajo at a press conference in the capital. The declaration of war, and the amnesty, come amid a severe drought and famine that threatens food security for millions in the already war-torn country.

Al-Shabab controls territory in rural portions of southern Somalia, where 22,000 African Union troops are currently fighting the militant group. It once controlled larger swaths of land and settlements, and for several years even ruled Mogadishu, but campaigns by African Union forces over the past several years has reduced its holdings. It aims to establish an Islamic state, and it enforces a strict interpretation of sharia law over the inhabitants of the lands it controls.

Al-Shabab has also carried out attacks in neighboring Kenya. In 2013, the group’s fighters stormed the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 68. In March 2015, they killed 148 at Garissa University, which is close to the border with Somalia. Though the group operates primarily in the horn of Africa, over the past decades it has recruited several dozen Somalis living in the United States to join the fight in Somalia.

Paul McCleary contributed reporting.

This piece has been updated to include comments from a Pentagon spokesperson.

MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/Getty Images

Malala Yousafzai Address to the Canadian Parliament

APRIL 12, 2017

Malala Yousafzai Address to the Canadian Parliament Human rights advocate Malala Yousafzai addressed a joint session of the Canadian Parliament. She talked about her work as an advocate for the education of girls. She praised Canada’s refugee policies and the nations’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his support for incoming immigrants. Before her address to lawmakers, Ms. Yousafzai was bestowed with honorary Canadian citizenship, only the sixth such person to ever receive that recognition.

Malala Yousafzai addresses Canadian Parliament -- FULL SPEECH -- (C-SPAN)

Democracy Needs Aristocracy

If Western democracy is to survive, it must incorporate that which it has long regarded as its diametrical opposite—the aristocratic.

by Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna-Apr 13, 2017

( April 13, 2017, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Seneca, the Roman philosopher, relates the story of the murder of Callisthenes by Alexander the Great, the “everlasting crime” of the Macedonian leader. Seneca wrote:

“For when someone says, ‘Alexander killed many thousands of Persians’ the countering reply to him will be: ‘And Callisthenes too’. Whenever it is said: ‘Alexander killed Darius, who had the greatest kingdom at that time’, the reply will be: ‘And he killed Callisthenes, too.’ Whenever it is said, ‘He conquered everything all the way to the ocean…and extended his empire from a corner of Thrace all the way to the farthest boundaries of the East” it will be said, ‘But he killed Callisthenes’. Although he went beyond the achievements in antiquity of generals and kings, of the things which he did, nothing will be as great as this crime.”

This anecdote dramatically sums up what was once considered the ideal creation of Western Civilization: the noble individual, celebrated from Roman philosophers to 18th century Englishmen like Gibbon to 19th century Americans like Emerson. From the heights of the Promethean view of man’s potential that made one Callisthenes of more importance than an entire army; to the degenerate view of the human as helplessly weak, whose self-interest is usually malevolent and whose dignity inevitably disgraced, there have been few Western ideas made more subject to unrelenting corrosion in modern times than the notion of “man”. In fact, it has been one of the more peculiar pairings of strange political bedfellows that many Catholics and almost all Communists have agreed upon: that of the Self as inherently sinful, whether against God or State; a repository of living shame, guilt, greed, and anti-social attitudes.

Today, it is this corrupted notion of “the Individual” that has fundamentally rendered the massive problems of the United States no longer merely political but philosophical. This, in turn, has been the result of two vastly different understandings of democracy of which the country has lost sight: aristocratic democracy, which is what the Founders had intended, and egalitarian democracy, which is what we’ve created, much to our peril.

For the Founding Fathers on this point, one is referred to Federalist 9, 10, 47, 49 and 57; to Jefferson’s self-admitted search for the “natural aristoi” he wanted to cultivate for public service and to his argument that education in a Republic must be “democratic and aristocratic”. One is also reminded of Madison’s and Hamilton’s almost obsessive fear of “mobocracy” and their revulsion towards the idea of direct democracy. (“When I mention the public, I mean the rational part of it; the ignorant and vulgar unfit to manage its reins”, wrote Madison).

To be clear: “Egalitarian” does not mean equality; it means the lowest common denominator having the highest possible cultural and political influence, whether elite or mass-driven. “Aristocratic” is used here not in the sense of baronies, barbicans, or bloodlines. The term is meant in its original, philosophical sense, best summarized by no less than Lord Tennyson himself, as “self-reverence, self-sufficiency and self-perpetuation“.

It is this last quality of the long-view—the concept of Time—inherent in the aristocratic outlook that is its most important aspect. It is what integrates the sustainability of the freedom of the individual in a democratic society with that which makes him able to sustain himself in the first place: his means of production, or capitalism. That is to say, a proper democracy in which the “self-reverence and self-perpetuation” required of the citizen is paramount will at the same time be a “properly” capitalistic society in which his long term “self-perpetuation” is made possible. The future of democracy is a contest between these short and long-term views and in coming decades this will determine whether the United States will manage to produce its way out of a state of decline, or not.

In a word, if modern Western capitalistic democracy is to survive, it must incorporate that which it has long regarded as its diametrical opposite—the aristocratic (the long-view). If this democracy is to perish, it will continue to promote that which has been falsely regarded as its best element—the egalitarian (the here and now, the mass appetite). If things stay as they currently are, democracy in general will increasingly take on characteristics of the totalitarian, or what Jefferson warned of as an “elective despotism”, in which in the will of a leader will become totally responsible for the helpless whole.

One remarkable intellectual-social trend that highlights all these factors at once—the corruption of the concept of the individual; the mass preference for the appetites and impulses of the present; modern societal contempt for the future and future planning—may be seen in the relatively recent intellectual trend to “turn” capitalism into something it is not and should not become. The subversion is taking place where subversions tend to at first: in language; subtly distinct changes of terminology that have been gaining currency since the onset of the economic crises and intensifying since then. One sees economic commentary calls for “communitarian capitalism”, “the social market”, “social entrepreneurship”, appeals for the end of something called “Gucci capitalism”, and so on. On the surface, all of this seems harmless, even positive. In fact, to many, including business leaders, these new categories represent an intelligently progressive step in the right direction, ostensibly respecting the productive ends of capitalism while mixing some social oversight into those ends. As a side benefit, say supporters, the word is purged of its recently tainted connotations.

But therein lies the danger. For, the philosophy at the root of such nuanced language is that the traditional center and spirit of capitalist enterprise, the individual—his individual gain, his search for profit, his self-interest, his personal distinction or even “glory”—represents something distasteful at best; inherently, irretrievably criminal and corrupt at worst. Meanwhile, according to such thinking, only the social-communal-group mindset is the legitimate economic goal and, by extension, the morally superior one. This trend uses guilt, the crimes of oligarchic financial-political gangsterism, and a sinking economy to undermine and overtake the concept of capitalism. The premise of capitalism is thus reversed, putting the group ends of distribution as the ethical objective above and beyond the protection of the fundamental means of production—the individual and his individual mind. The egalitarian becomes the goal, while the aristocratic—the main driver of  standards, long-term planning and generational perpetuation—becomes the object of resentment.

Eric Hoffer, in his slender classic, The True Believer, wrote: “The reason inferior elements of a nation can exert a marked influence on its course is that they are wholly without reverence towards the present or the future. They see their lives and the present spoiled beyond remedy and they are ready to waste and wreck both, hence their willingness to chaos and anarchy.”

This is the egalitarian on his path of destruction. He creates for the short-term, because the present is an ordeal to get through, the past is invariably a source of evil and the future is beyond his control or care. The short-term is the convenient, the instantaneous, the whetting of an appetite. Soon, the short-term becomes not only the economic, but the political, cultural and social mentality of choice. This becomes: the short-term in financial practices; the short term in political expediency, the short term in art—all recycled, disposable and forgotten—the short term in education standards, the short-term in durability of a product or a service; the short-term in human relationships, in concentration and commitments…all of it leading to the current crop of human capital we have today. Then, the vox populi and its elite-mass representatives bemoan the “Individual” as a rapacious, quick-scheming wretch.  Well, they should know. They created him.

Dramatic as it sounds, there is a direct end to all of this. If a democratic society does not demand far higher, individual character standards of itself it will become, eventually and by default, fascistic. That is, if more is not asked of the individual, then nothing at all will be asked of the mass—because nothing can be asked of a herd—and one person, one “Will”, will be invested with responsibility for the many, making of him the dictator he will inevitably have to become—Jefferson’s “elected despot”. At present in the West is a population of human capital that is not really fit for democracy as it must be maintained—certainly not economically. But “capitalism” is blamed for the decline and fall, while that that same capitalism is being taken hostage by politically correct terminology that it may still be coaxed into showing up and saving the day.

The aristocratic element of democracy is its long-term quality. It has reverence for the past and it plans for the future. This is the necessary instinct democracy needs anew and that capitalism—the practical support of that democracy—should be free of guilty-conscience modifiers or apologetic labels tacked onto it. Once upon a time in Europe this view meant great forestry or mining fortunes made with the goal of sustaining generations of family name; in the US it became the outlook of Madison, Adams and Jefferson, who refer time and again to the need of a “gallant citizenry” to uphold their vast and incredible experiment. Such is the outlook of the kind of individual whom no great force—emperor, soldier, government—can replace.

The article adopted from the Intellectual Takeout

Burma ranked third as global risk of genocide reaches 10-year high

A rohingya refugee boy looks on at Balukhali Makeshift Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh April 12, 2017. Source: Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Rohingya children gather at the Dar Paing camp for Muslim refugees, north of Sittwe, western Rakhine state, Myanmar, June 24 2014. Source: AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe

14th April 2017

BURMA has been identified as the third most at risk country in the world to experience a new episode of genocide, as annual rankings show civilian mass killings at the hands of government forces are on the rise worldwide.

A report from NGO ‘The Early Warning Project’ estimates the risk of deliberate killing of more than 1,000 civilians within a country by that country’s government or its agents, or state-led mass killing.

Countries Most Likely to Experience State-Led Mass Killing: Statistical Risk Assessment 2016

Alarmingly, the annual rankings also show a reversal in a decade-long trend of decline.

The analysis forecasts risks using public data and advanced methodologies built on 50 years of historical indicators in the hope of highlighting cases where there are early warning signs of potential mass atrocities.

For the third year running, Burma has made it into the top three, along with Sudan and Yemen. According to the data, Burma is already experiencing state-led mass killings, however, models indicate significant risk of a new distinct episode occurring despite the country’s progress towards democracy.

SEE ALSO: Burma seeks to ‘expel’ Rohingya Muslim minority – UN expert

Increased violence against the Muslim minority Rohingya is behind the high ranking.

A UN report detailed how Burma’s security forces had committed mass killings and gang rapes against Rohingya during their campaign against the insurgents, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

The military has denied the accusations, saying it was engaged in a legitimate counter-insurgency operation, but this has been largely discredited by independent bodies.

While the UN report stopped short of explicitly labelling the crackdown as ethnic cleansing, they expressed “serious concerns” that the attacks were a result of a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas”.

Bangladesh also appeared in the list, with the NGO ranking it 16th at risk in the world.

Starker political polarisation and a growing extremist threat, as well as an increasingly authoritarian government were given as reasons for the elevated risk of mass violence in the country.

SEE ALSO: UN calls for special court to investigate Sri Lanka wartime atrocities

Sri Lanka ranked 18 in the list, seeing a significant and steep increase in risk from the previous year that saw them in the 35th spot.

The report noted that this rise was surprising given the country’s political gains after an unexpected but ultimately peaceful transfer of political power via legislative and presidential elections in 2015.

Despite these positive developments, Sri Lanka was still deemed a risk due to its “history of mass killing and the continued salience of the ruling elite’s ethnicity”.

Pakistan and India also appeared in the list, ranked 9th and 30th respectively.

Cameron Hudson, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, warned of a dangerous influx of state-led mass killings across the globe and reiterated the importance of analysis such as this to fight against it.

“After a decade of decline, civilian mass killings by governments against their own people are once again on the rise,” she said.

“By combining the power of analytics with the growing body of social science around mass killing onsets, we hope to galvanise preventive actions to avoid these outcomes.”

Additional reporting by Reuters

Oil market rebalancing, demand expected to rise: Aramco CEO

By Jessica Resnick-Ault | NEW YORK-Sat Apr 15, 2017 

The oil market is rebalancing in the short term, and demand will continue to grow in the long term, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said at the Columbia University Energy Summit on Friday.

In the short term, the oil market has a surplus, but Nasser said that supplies are falling behind what will be required in coming years.

"The future market situation will be increasingly on firmer grounds, though volatility could continue until the rebalancing takes firmer hold and inventory withdrawals assume a more consistent trend," he said.

In both 2018 and 2019, Aramco expects demand to continue to grow, and Nasser said he expects the growth will continue into the years ahead.

"I believe that peak demand is not in sight," he said, when asked whether the market was approaching peak demand.

Nasser expects demand for hydrocarbons to increase with many more traditional fuel vehicles than electric cars to be added in coming years even as more efficient engines emerge and renewables are used for some light transportation.

Oil prices have begun to emerge from a two-year rout as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has cut production this year, following an agreement in November aimed at reducing an overhang of stockpiles. Still, concerns about U.S. production overhang the market. [O/R]

Nasser said the count of rigs operating in U.S. shale formations and bounces in inventory figures have depressed the market.

Aramco approves investment projects based on a long-term view, spanning decades, and sees demand growth continuing to support expanded refining and marketing in the United States, Asia and other markets. Asia already accounts for 60 to 70 percent of Aramco's exports and is seen as continuing to be a growth market, he said.

The company is also increasing its gas production and expects to double it to about 23 billion standard cubic feet daily over the coming decade.

Aramco is gearing up for a share listing next year, aiming to get a valuation of up to $2 trillion in what could be the world's biggest initial public offering.

Nasser said that offering is "on track."

(Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault and Julia Simon; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman)

There could be alien life on one of Saturn's moons-NASA

2017-04-14

Alien life could exist within our solar system as NASA reveals Saturn's moon Enceladus has all of the ingredients for life after discovery of hydrogen gas, the Daily Mail reported a short while ago.

During a news briefing held today, NASA has announced the spacecraft Cassini had found hydrogen as a gas – the form needed to support single-celled organisms in the moon’s ocean.

This hydrogen is now said to be ‘a potential source of chemical energy that could support microbes on the seafloor of Enceladus,’ the researchers revealed during the news briefing.

'We have made the first calorie count in an alien ocean. This is a major step in assessing the moon's habitability,' said Chris Glein, Cassini INMS team associate at the Southwest Research Institute.

The hydrogen, which shoots out of the moon in high-powered ice jets, is the final puzzle piece following the discovery of its liquid ocean and carbon dioxide.

It means Enceladus may have the same single-celled organisms which began life on Earth, or more complex life still.

‘This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment,’ said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington.

‘These results demonstrate the interconnected nature of NASA's science missions that are getting us closer to answering whether we are indeed alone or not.’ 

Professor David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University, said: ‘We have now got all the ingredients we need to support life on Enceladus.
'If we can prove this place where life could exist really does have it, that would be a huge discovery.

Alien life was once only thought possible on habitable planets within the ‘Goldilocks zone’ – far away enough from our sun not to be a fireball, but not so far as to be freezing.

Enceladus, a frozen moon almost 10 times as far from the sun as Earth, at 900 million miles, was one of the least likely candidates.

But in 2005 the unmanned Cassini spacecraft was orbiting Saturn when it picked up plumes of vapour coming from the ‘tiger stripes’, or deep fissures, in the moon’s surface. 

This established that, while Enceladus is freezing on its surface, underneath is a liquid ocean.

The gravity from its parent planet pulls the moon out of shape, wherever it is closest, creating friction which heats the rock to 90C - enough to melt the ice into water.

Cassini, on its final mission before it runs out of fuel and is allowed to burn up its space, was sent diving deep into the jets.

After orbiting Saturn for 13 years, its ‘grand finale’ mission will end in September when it is diverted to crash into Saturn. 

Meanwhile, Dr. David Clements, astrophysicist at Imperial College London, said: ‘This discovery does not mean that life exists on Enceladus, but it is a step on the way to that result.’

He added: ‘We need to know much more about the molecular species coming out of Enceladus and, ideally, that are inside it before we can make such claims.

(TIME)

Should I take vitamin D every day?

Although advice suggested people should take supplements during winter, unless you are seriously deficient, the chance of it stopping you catching a cold is minimal

Nearly a quarter of adults and 22% of children have low levels of the vitamin in their blood. Photograph: Alamy

Luisa Dillner-Monday 20 February 2017

It’s not too late to top up on vitamin D if you ignored advice issued last year by Public Health England (PHE) to take supplements. But while the PHE recommended we all “consider” taking 10µg of vitamin D daily during autumn and winter, researchers are now suggesting that food be fortified with the vitamin so that we can take it continuously. The main source of vitamin D is sunlight in contact with the skin – and that is pretty much never between November and April, hence the PHE’s recommendation.

Vitamin D is also available in oily fish (wild salmon or herring), liver, egg yolks and some fortified bread, but nearly a quarter of adults and 22% of children have low levels of the vitamin in their blood. Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.

The solution

Professor Adrian Martineau – lead author of research in last week’s BMJ showing that vitamin D supplements reduce the risk of acute respiratory tract infections – says that fortifying foods would reduce deaths. Acute respiratory infections cause symptoms such as sore throat, fever, cough and sneezing, but can also include more serious conditions such as pneumonia. Martineau’s study, which included data from 11,000 people, found most benefit in people with seriously low levels of the vitamin.

In another paper, in Plos One, Dr Zaki Hassan-Smith, a consultant endocrinologist at the University of Birmingham, found that vitamin D may improve muscle strength. Vitamin D deficiency is known to prevent calcium being deposited in bone, causing rickets (bowing of the bones) and osteomalacia – conditions that make bones soft – and it was these conditions that most concerned PHE.

But you only need supplements if you are deficient in vitamin D. A BMJ editorial accompanying Martineau’s study said that supplements only reduced the proportion of people catching acute respiratory infections from 42% to 40%, so it may not be worth taking vitamin D every day to prevent an occasional cold. Hassan-Smith says that, for many of the proposed benefits, the jury is still out. “It is still contentious,” he says. “We are waiting for large randomised trials to report their findings.”

If you are in an at-risk group (you have darker skin, don’t go outside often, cover up when you are outside, are pregnant or are four years old or under), then you should do what the PHE says. For everyone else, 10 micrograms of vitamin D isn’t much but, folic acid aside (a supplement that pregnant women take to reduce the risk of their baby having neural tube defects such as spina bifida), the story of supplements is generally that those who benefit most are the companies that make them.

SRI LANKAN UN PEACEKEEPERS ACCUSED OF INVOLVEMENT IN HAITI CHILD-SEX RING

Image:A UN peacekeeper from Sri Lanka patrols the neighborhood of Grand Ravine in Port-au-Prince in September 2006.Reuters.

By Brendan Cole.-13/04/2017

United Nations peacekeepers allegedly sexually exploited vulnerable people in Haiti they were sent to protect in a litany of horrific abuse.

The Associated Press reviewed UN data during a 12-year period from 2004, during which time there were nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse globally.

These included 300 cases involving children by personnel from 23 countries.

Among the most egregious cases involved 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti allegedly sexually abusing nine children as young as 12 in a sex ring between 2004 and 2007.

The personnel were among around 900 Sri Lankan peacekeepers who had been part of a mission to bring stability to the impoverished Caribbean nation, which had been left reeling from the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrande Aristide.

The UN received complaints in 2007 of “suspicious interactions” between Sri Lankan soldiers and Haitian children with investigators interviewing nine victims as well as witnesses.

One 16-year-old said she had sex with a Sri Lankan commander, another who was 14 said she had sex with soldiers every day in exchange for money or food, while one boy said he had sex with more than 20 peacekeepers. The country continues to send peacekeepers to Haiti where the age of consent is 18. Some 114 of the personnel were sent home although none was imprisoned.

The UN report said: “The evidence shows that from late 2004 to mid-October 2007, at least 134 military members of the current and previous Sri Lankan contingents sexually exploited and abused at least nine Haitian children.”

The AP reported how the Sri Lankan government had investigated 18 soldiers it said were implicated, and that “the UN Secretariat has acknowledged in writing, action taken by the Government, and informed that the Secretariat, as of 29 September 2014, considers the matter closed”.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, said: “People are quite happy and comfortable with the peacekeepers.”

The AP reported UN data stating that there were 150 allegations of abuse and exploitation by UN personnel in Haiti between 2004 and 2016, out of the worldwide total of nearly 2,000, with victimizers also coming from Bangladesh, Brazil, Jordan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The UN has no jurisdiction over peacekeepers requiring punishment to come from the countries that contributed the troops. In March 2017, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced a crackdown on sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers and other personnel.

“Let us declare in one voice: We will not tolerate anyone committing or condoning sexual exploitation and abuse. We will not let anyone cover up these crimes with the UN flag,” Guterres said.

Earlier in April, the head of an advocacy group told IBTimes UK that the UN was not doing enough to address claims of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.
ibtimes

War heroes, patriots sold KKS Cement factory for scrap iron!

- Apr 13, 2017

The sale of state properties came to the fore again with the Hambantota port agreement. Former president, Kurunegala district MP Mahinda Rajapaksa commented, “In our time, we did not sell state properties in this manner. We developed state properties.” Leave alone our opinion with regard to the sale of state properties. It is one thing to sell something in a manner that benefits someone.

But, it is a completely different thing to destroy and then sell state and Sri Lankan nation owned properties. This exposure is about the national crime of the sale by the so-called owners of patriotism of the Kankesanthurai cement factory for scrap iron.

The KKS cement factory was established in 1950. It was made a state corporation in 1956 and in 1990, it was declared a loss-incurring entity and renamed Lanka Cement company. The facility that gave employment to thousands was closed around 1991 due to the war.

LTTE seized the factory

The KKS cement factory had more than 700 acres under it. The buildings were in a 187 acre area. In the early 1990s, the LTTE seized the factory. Within years, it was taken back by the military and thereafter, it continued under its control.

Machinery with 100 year warranty

After the war, in 2011, a discussion took place on reopening the KKS cement factory. A team from the company visited the factory. According to reports, the German manufacturer had given a 100 year warranty for the machinery installed there in 1990 that enabled them to have been used until 2090, and, assured that there was no need at least to replace its nails. The importance of the facility as a national asset should not be told over and over again.

Not even Prabhakaran didn’t do it

The team that went to inspect the factory in 2011 saw the machinery in prime condition even after two decades of non-use. To tell it more clearly, the LTTE that had fought for an Eelam did not destroy it for monetary gains, but protected it for the future of its people. Had they needed it, they could easily have sold it for scrap iron. Thereafter, the military too, kept it in good condition for the country’s future.

How ‘war heroes’ did it

However, the corrupt Rajapaksa family that claimed the sole right to have saved the country from Prabhakaran and wanted everything the country had in return and unleashed terror, never spoke about reviving the KKS cement factory. In 2014, the then northern commander Maj. Gen. Mahinda Haturusinghe issued a tender notice, calling for tenders to sell 4,500 metric tons of scrap iron of the Army. When the expectant buyers went to inspect, what they saw was how the Army was taking down the factory’s machinery into pieces and loading them into containers. At least 20,000 mt of iron should have been there. That is how the ‘war heroes’ and the ‘family with the father who saved the nation’ took the country to ruin. But, Mahinda says ‘Apey Hamuduruwane, we did not sell state properties.”
After the corrupt Rajapaksas sold the factory’s machinery as scrap iron, Rs. 75 million of the money was credited to the Army’s welfare fund in order to cover up the fraud. An asset belonging to the entire nation and that could have given thousands of jobs and brought in billions of income to the country was swindled by Gotabhya and others in the Rajapaksa family. When Rs. 75 m was given to the Army welfare fund, the Rajapaksas could have credited at least Rs. 750 m to their personal accounts.

Beware of pimps

Think about a person who boasts about the country and patriotism after selling a national asset as scrap iron merely for the benefit of his conceited family. Think about a war hero who sold an asset worth billions and not even Prabhakaran thought of selling, as scrap iron. Think about an ex-president, now an MP, who has done all that and now is trying to regain power by selling the war heroes and patriotism. Can such a person, who had sold a cement factory described as the biggest in Asia and with a lime deposit nearby that is enough for 100 years, be compared to a pimp who had sold his own wife to find money for his heroin packet? Beware of the pimps who cover their nudity with the veil of patriotism. Do not allow your child’s future be sold again as scrap iron.