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            1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <rss version="2.0" xml:base="https://nationalinterest.org/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> <channel> <title>The National Interest</title>
            2  <description>The National Interest online seeks to provide a space for vigorous debate and exchange not only among Americans but between U.S. and overseas interlocutors. This is the new home for informed analysis and frank but reasoned exchanges on foreign policy and international affairs.</description>
            3  <link>https://nationalinterest.org/</link>
            4  <atom:link rel="self" href="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed" />
            5  <language>en</language>
            6  <category>Foreign Affairs</category>
            7  <category>International Relations</category>
            8  <category>Foreign Policy</category>
            9  <image> <url>https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/The-National-Interest-Logo-144.png</url>
           10  <title>The National Interest</title>
           11  <link>https://nationalinterest.org/</link>
           12  <width>144</width>
           13  <height>69</height>
           14 </image>
           15  <copyright>Copyright 1991-2021 The National interest</copyright>
           16  <managingEditor>editor@nationalinterest.org</managingEditor>
           17  <ttl>3</ttl>
           18  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 04:11:01 -0400</pubDate>
           19  <lastBuildDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 04:20:01 -0400</lastBuildDate>
           20  <item> <title>Information Operations are Critical to Defending Western Civilization</title>
           21  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190714</link>
           22  <description>The truth is that dictators are beating the West when it comes to sophisticated information operations.</description>
           23  <author>Joel Zamel</author>
           24  <category>Information Warfare</category>
           25  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190714</guid>
           26  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 04:11 EDT</pubDate>
           27  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
           28  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Joel Zamel&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           29 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Information Warfare, World&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           30 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206770&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/information-operations-are-critical-defending-western-civilization-190714&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/newspaper.jpg?itok=rh4HzqYg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
           31 &lt;h3&gt;The truth is that dictators are beating the West when it comes to sophisticated information operations.&lt;/h3&gt;
           32 &lt;title&gt;Information Operations are Critical to Defending Western Civilization&lt;/title&gt;
           33 &lt;p&gt;What are tyrants most afraid of? To answer that question, one must look at where they allocate their resources. Dictators like Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un spend billions to keep their citizens in the dark. They spare no expense to ban social media and suppress the Internet. They jail journalists and bloggers. They fund massive security agencies to silence their people.&lt;/p&gt;
           34 &lt;p&gt;What dictators fear most isn’t foreign militaries. What they fear most are their own citizens. Why? Because an informed citizenry is capable of vanquishing every myth tyrants desperately seek to preserve.&lt;/p&gt;
           35 &lt;p&gt;Yet many Western nations fail to understand this elementary truth. That is why we spend billions on military hardware yet a fraction of that on the tactics that can actually defeat extremist ideologies and tyrannical regimes: political warfare and information operations.&lt;/p&gt;
           36 &lt;p&gt;Though these tactics don’t line the pockets of the military-industrial complex, they are devastatingly effective.&lt;/p&gt;
           37 &lt;p&gt;The truth is that dictators are beating the West when it comes to sophisticated information operations. Authoritarian regimes are buying up media publications in order to distort global media coverage, divert attention from their crimes, and pressure their adversaries. They are hacking and leaking, producing deep fakes, and spying on journalists.&lt;/p&gt;
           38 &lt;p&gt;Put simply, terrorists and extremist regimes are running rings around liberal democracies. If we don’t reverse the tide, this imbalance could ultimately be our downfall. Perhaps this sounds alarmist, but from my deep knowledge of information operations, few people can imagine the scope and power of today’s disinformation campaigns by hostile actors.&lt;/p&gt;
           39 &lt;p&gt;In a Congressional testimony of tech CEOs, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2007/29/cnr.12.html&quot;&gt;asked&lt;/a&gt; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg the following: &lt;/p&gt;
           40 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;...can you just address the proliferation of fake accounts? I understand annually you get &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;6.5 billion fake accounts produced there, but in some sense you have a profit motive that’s linked to that because that’s what is reported to your investors, the number of &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;accounts. Are you working zealously to try to ferret out these fake accounts that are &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;used to spread hate and disinformation? &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           41 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
           42 &lt;p&gt;Zuckerberg answered as unflappably as ever: &lt;/p&gt;
           43 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Congressman, absolutely. We work hard on this. We take down billions of fake accounts &lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;a year—a lot of that is just people trying to set up accounts to spam people for commercial reasons. A very small percentage of that are nation-states trying to interfere in elections but we’re very focused on trying to find those. Having fake and harmful content on our platform does not help our business, it hurts our business. People do not want to see that stuff—and they use our services less when they do. So we are aligned with people in order to take that down and we invest billions of dollars a year in doing so.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           44 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
           45 &lt;p&gt;Consider for a moment what percentage of these fake accounts are bad actors trying to undermine democracies and what percentage are democracies trying to undermine bad actors. In my informed estimation, 99 percent of the actual propaganda and fake news flows from dictators and extremist organizations towards free societies.&lt;/p&gt;
           46 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to these bad actors, it is hard to believe anything anymore. When the distinction between fact and fiction is blurred, the foundation of democracy is eroded. They are trying to take advantage of our core values to undermine the foundations of our societies.&lt;/p&gt;
           47 &lt;p&gt;What is the solution to this civilizational challenge? It is to fight back. We must use every tool at our disposal to mirror the methods that our enemies use against us. Publicly, we must double down on a political discourse that reaffirms the classical liberal foundations of our civilization—namely an abiding faith in freedom and individual rights. We cannot let political correctness slowly gnaw away at our freedoms and identity.&lt;/p&gt;
           48 &lt;p&gt;Behind the scenes, an army of decentralized cyber defenders must wage relentless offensive campaigns to fight back against the enemies of liberty and peace. Having worked with many such individuals, I can say with confidence that one should never underestimate the creativity and influence of a group of motivated dissidents, former intelligence operators, and human rights activists.&lt;/p&gt;
           49 &lt;p&gt;These cyber activists often remain in the shadows, conducting anonymous online campaigns to counter the propaganda of authoritarian regimes and expose the truth. You don’t know their names, but they are heroes.&lt;/p&gt;
           50 &lt;p&gt;Sadly, in this post-truth era, too many people throw around the term “fake news” and blur the distinction between the sides in this narrative war. In World War II, both the Allies and Axis alliances spread fake news to deceive their enemy. Yet it would have been senseless to condemn “deception” equally regardless of the aim of each side. It was vital that the Allies deceive the Axis and a mortal danger that the Axis deceived the Allies. &lt;/p&gt;
           51 &lt;p&gt;So too it is today in the war between tyrants and terrorists and the cyber-activists who fight them. The former spared no cost to win. They fight dirty and are committed to victory. It’s high time we fought back. &lt;/p&gt;
           52 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Joel Zamel is the founder of Wikistrat, the world’s first crowdsourced intelligence platform for conducting geopolitical studies and foresight monitoring for governments and multinational corporations around the world.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           53 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: A supporter holds a copy of Apple Daily newspaper during a court hearing outside West Magistrates’ Courts, after police charge two executives of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper over the national security law, in Hong Kong, China, June 19, 2021. Reuters/Lam Yik​.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           54 
           55 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/information-operations-are-critical-defending-western-civilization-190714&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
           56 </item>
           57  <item> <title>85 Years Ago, General George Patton Declared War on a Volcano</title>
           58  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190757</link>
           59  <description>Disaster seemed imminent: day by day, a glowing river of molten lava was creeping steadily towards Hilo, Hawaii.</description>
           60  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
           61  <category>History</category>
           62  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190757</guid>
           63  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 03:33 EDT</pubDate>
           64  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
           65  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           66 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;History, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           67 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206805&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/85-years-ago-general-george-patton-declared-war-volcano-190757&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/volcano_0.jpg?itok=Y2XPBWUC&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
           68 &lt;h3&gt;Disaster seemed imminent: day by day, a glowing river of molten lava was creeping steadily towards Hilo, Hawaii.&lt;/h3&gt;
           69 &lt;title&gt;85 Years Ago, General George Patton Declared War on a Volcano&lt;/title&gt;
           70 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Despite having possibly incurred the wrath of a goddess, the 23&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; Bomber Squadron continues to sport a&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.afhra.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1514809/23-bomb-squadron-afgsc/&quot;&gt; unit patch&lt;/a&gt; depicting bombs falling upon a volcano. In 2015 on the eightieth anniversary of the raid, the squadron dispatched two B-52 for a flyby of Mauna Loa to commemorate their shared history in a unique confrontation between man and nature.&lt;/p&gt;
           71 &lt;p&gt;Disaster seemed imminent: day by day, a glowing river of molten lava was creeping steadily towards Hilo, Hawaii. The town of 15,000 lay slightly over 30 miles northeast of Mauna Loa, known as the&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.livescience.com/39681-worlds-biggest-volcanoes.html&quot;&gt; second-largest&lt;/a&gt; volcano on the planet.&lt;/p&gt;
           72 &lt;p&gt;The over 13,000-foot tall behemoth had erupted on Hawaii island on November 21. By December, Dr. Thomas Jaggar, a local volcanologist and founder of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, estimated that one of the five streams of lava issuing from Mauna Loa was advancing at a mile per minute towards Hilo, threatening to first flood the Wailuku River feeding into it.&lt;/p&gt;
           73 &lt;p&gt;At first, Jaggar considered dispatching mule teams laden with explosive to Mauna Loa to collapse the lava tubes feeding the lava streams—but such a project seemed likely to take far too long to avert catastrophe.&lt;/p&gt;
           74 &lt;p&gt;Then his colleague Guido Giacometti proposed a faster solution: why not ask the Army Air Corps if it could blast the streams from the air with a little precision bombing?&lt;/p&gt;
           75 &lt;p&gt;On December 23, Jaggar contacted the G-2 intelligence staff officer of the Army Hawaiian Division, a young lieutenant colonel by the name of George S. Patton. He signed off on the idea and tapped the 23&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; and 72&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; Bomber Squadron for the job, both based at Luke Field on Ford/Oahu island.&lt;/p&gt;
           76 &lt;p&gt;At the time these units flew large, fabric-covered Keystone B-3A and LB-6 twin-engine biplane bombers. The obsolete aircraft had five-man crews armed with defensive machineguns, and Wright Cyclone engines nestled in the spars between their two sets of wings. Though highly similar, the older LB-6 was distinguished by its twin vertical tail fins compared to the single fin on the B-3A.&lt;/p&gt;
           77 &lt;p&gt;Jaggar briefed the pilots on the geological theory behind the raid, and on December 26 the Army Air Force bombers flew the 220-mile long journey from Luke Field in Pearl Harbor to a field in Hilo.&lt;/p&gt;
           78 &lt;p&gt;The following morning the aviators were visited by a native Hawaiian named Harry Keliihoomalu who warned them not to attack, lest they displease the Madam Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, and thus by implication the creator of the volcanic Hawaiian archipelago itself.&lt;/p&gt;
           79 &lt;p&gt;“Why don’t they leave Pele alone?” Keliihoomlu later told Hilo’s local newspaper. “They shouldn&#039;t interfere with the flow. If Pele decides to flow to Hilo, there&#039;s nothing that they can do to stop her.”&lt;/p&gt;
           80 &lt;p&gt;Pele, also known as She Who Devours the Earth, remains a&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/us/pele-hawaii-volcano.html&quot;&gt; popular local deity&lt;/a&gt;, and many Hawaiian natives believed it wrong to obstruct volcanos, seen as manifestations of her power.&lt;/p&gt;
           81 &lt;p&gt;Another citizen quoted in the paper said: “Pele should not be disturbed. This bombing is a folly. It will do more harm than good. If Pele makes up her mind to come to Hilo it is not for man to dissuade her by artificial methods. She cannot be stopped that way.”&lt;/p&gt;
           82 &lt;p&gt;Nonetheless, the Army pilots carried out their mission in two waves of five, the rickety open-cockpit aircraft approaching the volcano at an only 4,000 feet high due to their bombloads, and likely below their pokey maximum speed of 115 miles per hour. Jaggar observed the attack through his telescope from a perch neighboring on Mauna Kea, while a geologist named Harold Stearns accompanied the bomber crew for a first-hand view of the operation.&lt;/p&gt;
           83 &lt;p&gt;The first wave—two LB-6s and three B-3As—each carried two 300-pound practice bomb with black powder charges to test different approaches. In the following five-ship wave at noon, each aircraft carried two 600-pound Mark 1 bombs with fuses set to detonate a tenth of a second after impact.&lt;/p&gt;
           84 &lt;p&gt;You can see the eruption and the unusual bombing raid in archival footage&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675069574_bomb-Mauna-Loa_divert-lava_Keystone-B-3A_Keystone-LB-6A_United-States-fliers&quot;&gt; here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://youtu.be/SKnyrCCLixo?t=102&quot;&gt; and here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
           85 &lt;p&gt;Most of the bombs exploded ineffectually to either side of the stream—but five landed on target, their explosions creating craters that rapidly flooded with molten rock and causing lava to fountain hundreds of feet into the air. According to one&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wired.com/story/the-implacable-power-of-volcanic-lava/&quot;&gt; article&lt;/a&gt;, flying volcanic sediment even burned holes in one of the bomber’s fabric-covered wings.&lt;/p&gt;
           86 &lt;p&gt;Six days after the raid on December 2, the lava stream abruptly ceased its advance. Jaggar was not shy about according to his bombing scheme credit for this fortuitous outcome.&lt;/p&gt;
           87 &lt;p&gt;“The experiment could not have been more successful; the results were exactly as anticipated,” he told the &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt;. He expounded:&lt;/p&gt;
           88 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This channel was broken up by the bombing and fresh streams poured over the side of the heap…. I have no question that this robbing of the source tunnel slowed down the movement of the front…. The average actual motion of the extreme front … for the five days after the bombing was approximately 1000 feet per day. For the seven days preceding the bombing the rate was one mile per day. How long would the flow have lasted without bombing it?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           89 &lt;p&gt;But Stearns, who witnessed the bombing up close concluded the opposite:&lt;/p&gt;
           90 &lt;p&gt;“The tube walls look 25 to 50 feet high and deep in the flow so that I think there would be no chance of breaking the walls. The lava liquid is low. The damming possibility looks effective but the target is too small.” Regarding the flow’s halt on December 2, he later wrote: “I’m sure it’s a coincidence.”&lt;/p&gt;
           91 &lt;p&gt;Most&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/volcano-watch-did-aerial-bombing-stop-1935-mauna-loa-lava-flow&quot;&gt; geological analysis of the bombing&lt;/a&gt; shared Stearn’s conclusion that the bombs simply weren’t powerful to meaningfully affect the lava flow.&lt;/p&gt;
           92 &lt;p&gt;Nonetheless, seven years later on May 1 or 2, 1942, the wartime Army Air Force again dispatched bombers to strike an active Mauna Loa, this time targeting her vents. The aircraft (most likely B-18 Bolo light bombers) again missed with most of their bombs and left behind several duds. A later study again judged the raid had been ineffectual. But three days later vents collapsed, likely due to natural causes.&lt;/p&gt;
           93 &lt;p&gt;Then from 1975–1976, the Air Force engaged in multiple tests using far more powerful 2,000-pound bombs on volcanic rock, producing 100-foot diameter craters. A&lt;a href=&quot;https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/BF02600367?shared_access_token=gbpO9Q1RsTtwqAmEyx6Xmfe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY57idKTRH6oKY6QVfnC1SjIF6t8_G-od5cQpEUtgmh_Fu-Jj8IgVM0SzkpYtRMwhLIHAbXj8De23PrCQ3YNZOtKayjYH3-B9h107hPTVMI9bsTbFiAWhFexiaRHsFvcez8&quot;&gt; detailed 1980 study&lt;/a&gt; by J.P. Lockwood and F.A. Torgerson judged that the attacks in 1935 and 1942 were unlikely to have had any affect, but estimated that larger weapons employed with greater precision could be effective. The idea continues to be proposed from time to time as possible solution for dealing with modern eruptions.&lt;/p&gt;
           94 &lt;p&gt;However, the idea of using bombers or other technologies to divert lava flows in Hawaii remains&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.npr.org/2014/11/01/360719232/diverting-lava-flow-may-be-possible-but-some-hawaiians-object&quot;&gt; objectionable to many Hawaiians&lt;/a&gt;, who believe that respecting Pele means accepting her unpredictable bouts of fiery destruction—or risk suffering worse consequences. &lt;/p&gt;
           95 &lt;p&gt;Indeed,&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=n2ii6J0C0hYC&amp;pg=PA117&amp;lpg=PA117&amp;dq=bombing+pele&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=w54PHlDxcK&amp;sig=ql3N0uy2KrhsxTPfiXffSzzFw9I&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjkqLvx9IvbAhXImVkKHTsHDWoQ6AEIazAM#v=onepage&amp;q=bombing%20pele&amp;f=false&quot;&gt; some hold Pele responsible&lt;/a&gt; for a fatal crash at Luke Field two months after the 1935 bombing which killed six aircrew who had participated in the raid.&lt;/p&gt;
           96 &lt;p&gt;Despite having possibly incurred the wrath of a goddess, the 23&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; Bomber Squadron continues to sport a&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.afhra.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1514809/23-bomb-squadron-afgsc/&quot;&gt; unit patch&lt;/a&gt; depicting bombs falling upon a volcano. In 2015 on the eightieth anniversary of the raid, the squadron dispatched two B-52 for a flyby of Mauna Loa to commemorate their shared history in a unique confrontation between man and nature.&lt;/p&gt;
           97 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This first appeared in 2019.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           98 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
           99 
          100 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/85-years-ago-general-george-patton-declared-war-volcano-190757&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          101 </item>
          102  <item> <title>Shipwrecked: Three Countries Chased This Nazi Uboat to the Death</title>
          103  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190753</link>
          104  <description>U-966 was a Type VIIC U-boat, the most prolific type to serve in Nazi Germany’s undersea campaign to cripple maritime supply lines between the United Kingdom and the United States.</description>
          105  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
          106  <category>Submarines</category>
          107  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190753</guid>
          108  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 03:00 EDT</pubDate>
          109  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          110  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          111 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Submarines, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          112 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206801&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/shipwrecked-three-countries-chased-nazi-uboat-death-190753&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Maxwell_B-24%20%281%29_1.jpg?itok=A0i_zl3f&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          113 &lt;h3&gt;U-966 was a Type VIIC U-boat, the most prolific type to serve in Nazi Germany’s undersea campaign to cripple maritime supply lines between the United Kingdom and the United States.&lt;/h3&gt;
          114 &lt;title&gt;Shipwrecked: Three Countries Chased This Nazi Uboat to the Death&lt;/title&gt;
          115 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Shipwrecking in Spain was probably the best thing that could have happened to &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s crew. Afforded both their regular pay and a 240 peseta monthly stipend form the German consulate, the internees were allowed unsupervised free time in the city of Ferrol, where wine was only two pesetas a bottle and fine cognac was six.&lt;/p&gt;
          116 &lt;p&gt;In June 2018, Spanish media reported that divers Anxi González Roca and Eduardo Losada and naval historian Yago Abilleira had re-discovered the wreck Nazi submarine &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;off Estaca de Bares in the Galician region on the northwestern tip of Spain. The divers found debris scattered across a wide area at depths ranging from 18 to 26 meters.&lt;/p&gt;
          117 &lt;p&gt;Roca &lt;a href=&quot;https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/07/09/inenglish/1531126146_043564.html&quot;&gt;told&lt;/a&gt; the periodical &lt;i&gt;El Pais&lt;/i&gt; that they had searched for years in the famously rough waters of Estaca de Bares, before being tipped off about a local fisherman who had “a large aluminum sheet covering the chicken coop at his house … part of the airframe of a World War II fighter plane, we think one belonging to the Allied forces.”&lt;/p&gt;
          118 &lt;p&gt;However, the dramatic story of how five Allied bombers from three countries chased &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;for nine hours until it crashed into craggy Galician rocks is often only retold with errors — particularly relating to the tragic loss of a British seaplane &lt;i&gt;after U-966&lt;/i&gt; met its fate.&lt;/p&gt;
          119 &lt;p&gt;Using a combination of U.S. Navy, Royal Air Force and Czech after-action reports, accounts from the crew of &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;collected by Lt. Col. Buck Cummings, and the work of Spanish historians José Antonio Tojo Ramallo and Juan Carlos Salgado, it’s possible reconstruct the turbulent events that occurred off the Galician coast in Oct. 10, 1943 — and their peculiar aftermath.&lt;/p&gt;
          120 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Rookie crew, doomed mission&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          121 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; was a Type VIIC U-boat, the most prolific type to serve in Nazi Germany’s undersea campaign to cripple maritime supply lines between the United Kingdom and the United States. The 67-meter long vessel was built in Hamburg by Blohm &amp; Voss and entered service on March 4, 1943 under command of Lt. Eckehard Wolf.&lt;/p&gt;
          122 &lt;p&gt;Dubbed “Old Man,” Wolf was in fact only 25 years old, but his 50 crew were mostly inexperienced 19-to-21-year-olds. His subordinates remembered Wolf as a fatherly but hard-driving commander during their six months of training. “At this rate you will never be the sailors you can be,” Wolf chided the crew in a speech, “maybe [good] lumber for bowling pins, but not good sailors!”&lt;/p&gt;
          123 &lt;p&gt;Thereafter, the crew named their submarine &lt;i&gt;Gut Holz&lt;/i&gt;—”Good Wood,” and created a coat of arms featuring bowling pins.&lt;/p&gt;
          124 &lt;p&gt;Wolf knew the odds of survival were long, having already served 16 months on two U-boats. Over the course of the war, more than 28,000 U-boat crewmen perished and 5,000 were captured—an 80-percent loss rate.&lt;/p&gt;
          125 &lt;p&gt;By 1943 the Allies were deploying adequate escort ships with effective sonars, and long-range anti-submarine patrol planes equipped with surface-search radars. Worse, British intelligence had broken &lt;i&gt;Enigma &lt;/i&gt;code used by the German navy used to unwisely micro-manage its submarine operations.&lt;/p&gt;
          126 &lt;p&gt;After months of training in the Baltic, the 960-ton submarine transited to Trondheim, Norway on Sept. 17, pausing along the way to surface among Norweigina fishing boats. Though the startled fishermen offered them fresh catch, Wolf decided to submerge, worried that they might betray their presence to the Allies.&lt;/p&gt;
          127 &lt;p&gt;On Oct. 5, &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; departed Trondheim headed for the East Coast of the Untied States on its first — and only — combat patrol.&lt;/p&gt;
          128 &lt;p&gt;Under the cover of a sea storm, &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;managed to slip through the heavily-patrolled gap between Iceland the Faroe Island. However, on Oct. 25 it ran afoul of two British destroyers.&lt;/p&gt;
          129 &lt;p&gt;Wolf crash dived &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; 150 meters below the surface while the destroyers circled overhead, dropping 87 depth charges by the terrified crew’s count. The crew survived the bombardment, but &lt;i&gt;U-966’s &lt;/i&gt;radio did not. The boat was unable to transmit messages.&lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          130 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-2d4cde6a-7fff-afb1-4a2b-cbd0197fd410&quot;&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/imagine-us-air-force-never-built-b-52-bomber-26471&quot;&gt;Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          131 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-2d4cde6a-7fff-afb1-4a2b-cbd0197fd410&quot;&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russias-next-big-military-sale-mexico-26371&quot;&gt;Russia&#039;s Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          132 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-2d4cde6a-7fff-afb1-4a2b-cbd0197fd410&quot;&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/would-china-really-invade-taiwan-26196&quot;&gt;Would China Really Invade Taiwan?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          133 &lt;p&gt;After going three days without communication from &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;, the navy assumed it had been destroyed and stopped sending directions. Deprived of intel, Wolf nonetheless pressed on to the U.S. east coast, dodged a torpedo possibly launched by a fellow U-boat and made an unsuccessful attack on an Allied convoy.&lt;/p&gt;
          134 &lt;p&gt;However, the Type VIIC was relatively short-range submarine — 9,800 miles — and without the radio it twice failed to rendezvous for refueling with Type Xb tanker submarines, one of which had in fact been sunk.&lt;/p&gt;
          135 &lt;p&gt;Realizingly he was flailing around blindly, Wolf decided to return to base in southern France via the Bay of Biscay, waters heavily patrolled by Allied planes.&lt;/p&gt;
          136 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Wellington in the moonlight&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          137 &lt;p&gt;The Type VIIC used two diesel engines to generate electricity. While surfaced, the air-consuming generators could run continuously, propelling the submarine to a top speed of 20 miles per hour.&lt;/p&gt;
          138 &lt;p&gt;Submerged, it couldn’t exceed eight miles per hour, and even that pace would drain the batteries and air supply in a matter of hours. These limitations common to all early World War II submarines meant they had to surface frequently for extended periods of time. Naturally, submarine commanders preferred to recharge batteries at night.&lt;/p&gt;
          139 &lt;p&gt;On Oct. 10, 1943 &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; was doing precisely that when it was detected by a Wellington GR Mark XI bomber of the RAF Coastal Command’s 612 Squadron. The twin-engine medium had a useful maximum range approaching 2,000 miles and mounted a Mark 2 ASV 2 radar that could distinguish a submarine from background clutter produced by waves at ranges of around six to 10 miles in fair weather.&lt;/p&gt;
          140 &lt;p&gt;The pilot, Warrant Officer Ian Gunn, soon spotted the submarine in the moonlight. He could have turned on the 22-million candle power Leigh Light slung under one wing to better illuminate his target, but chose take the sub by surprise.&lt;/p&gt;
          141 &lt;p&gt;The eyes of the watchman were still adjusting to the dark and he could not hear the airplane over sub’s rumbling diesel engines. The Wellington swept down to 100 feet and released six Mark IX 250-pound depth charges full of Torpex explosives, all of which fell short. But depth charges are designed to rupture a submarine’s hull without a direct hit.&lt;/p&gt;
          142 &lt;p&gt;“It was as if an invisible hand grabbed and shook the boat,” crewman Herebert Komer recalled. “Complete darkness came over us and in a moment the emergency lights came on. There was total chaos! Everything not tied down went flying and broken glass was everywhere.”&lt;/p&gt;
          143 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;had a twin-barrel 20-millimeter automatic cannon and a heavier 37-millimeter gun for self-defense. These chattered into life, arcing tracers into the night sky. The tail and front gunners on the Wellington raked &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s deck in reply with 500 rounds, wounding two crew.&lt;/p&gt;
          144 &lt;p&gt;Three minutes later, the bomber banked around for another strafing run—but the submarine had disappeared. “We flew over the area for nearly two-and-a-half hours afterwards and searched a radius of five or six miles but we saw nothing more,” Gunn later wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
          145 &lt;p&gt;In fact, Wolf had ordered a crash dive to 150 meters. But &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;was badly damaged, and the submarine continued plummeting beyond its safe test depth, the pressure causing the tortured metal of its damaged hull to creak and moan eerily.&lt;/p&gt;
          146 &lt;p&gt;A Type VIIC submarine’s crushing depth at which its hull begins collapsing from the pressure of the surrounding water lay between 250 to 295 meters. &lt;i&gt;U-966 finally &lt;/i&gt;stabilized at 240 meters.&lt;/p&gt;
          147 &lt;p&gt;Gunn’s attack had inflicted grievous damage, however. One of the main bearings was damaged and water was leaking, likely from cracks in the ballast tanks. Worse, the port side diesel engine had been knocked out, leaving &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; with just one functioning generator.&lt;/p&gt;
          148 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Attack of the Liberators&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          149 &lt;p&gt;Gunn’s sighting caused hulking four-engine Liberator bombers of the U.S. Navy to begin circling the area. The chunky B-24 was the most-produced military aircraft ever by the United States with around 18,500 built. It boasted long range of nearly 3,000 miles and decent speed, though it was little loved for its difficult handling characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;
          150 &lt;p&gt;The U.S. Navy and RAF Coastal Command operated a B-24D variant called the PBY4-1 and Liberator GR III, respectively equipped with a retractable radar dome and modified .50-caliber machine-gun turrets.&lt;/p&gt;
          151 &lt;p&gt;These far-flying Liberators were able to hunt in the “mid-Atlantic gap” previously beyond the reach of patrol planes, closing a window vulnerability U-boats had ruthlessly exploited.&lt;/p&gt;
          152 &lt;p&gt;Wolf kept &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; submerged for as long as possible to avoid detection. But after four hours, his remaining generator was running low on air, so he re-surfaced at 8:30 A.M. Taking up the watch, Wolf ominously ordered his crew to put on life jackets.&lt;/p&gt;
          153 &lt;p&gt;Barely a half hour later at 8:59 A.M., the PB4Y-1 flown by Lt. Leonard Harmon from Navy patrol bomber squadron VB-105 detected U-966 at 44°15 North, 10° West — around 85 miles northwest of Spain.&lt;/p&gt;
          154 &lt;p&gt;This time, helmsman Hein Maslock spotted the attacker approaching from 260 degrees. The U-boat’s flak cannons riddled the B-24’s port tail and stabilizer, jammed its open bomb bay doors and disabled the hydraulic release mechanism for the depth charges.&lt;/p&gt;
          155 &lt;p&gt;Unable to drop the charges, Harmon’s B-24 instead made two strafing runs, shooting 2,000 rounds of .50-caliber into the submarine before limping home trailing smoke.&lt;/p&gt;
          156 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;was next picked up at 11:40 A.M. just 18 miles northwest of Spain by a Liberator from VB-103 piloted by Lt. Kenneth Wright. The Navy Reserve pilot had earlier dodged interception by two Junker 88Rs, radar-equipped fighter bombers used by the Luftwaffe to hunt the lumbering Allied patrol planes over the Atlantic.&lt;/p&gt;
          157 &lt;p&gt;Ten minutes later, Wright unleashed a pattern of five Mark 24 depth charges that injured three German sailors. Then he swiveled around and launched an acoustic homing torpedo. This missed, as it wasn’t designed to attack surfaced submarines. The U-boat was now trailing an oil slick behind it.&lt;/p&gt;
          158 &lt;p&gt;Wright harried U-966 for an entire hour until 1:05 P.M., when he was joined by the VB-110 Liberator flown by Lt. W. Parish, who unleashed all six charges 100 feet parallel to the submarine’s starboard side, nearly pitching it over on the port side.&lt;/p&gt;
          159 &lt;p&gt;At some point, one of the depth charges actually struck &lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;and got stuck in its hull vents without exploding.&lt;/p&gt;
          160 &lt;p&gt;Wolf aggressively maneuvered the submarine to frustrate the bomber’s aim. The flak gunners stitched the skies with more than 12,000 20- and 37-millimeter shells, until one of the twin 20-millimeter cannons overheated and exploded, mortally injuring a gunner.&lt;/p&gt;
          161 &lt;p&gt;Wright finally began flying home at 1:30 P.M. The badly-damaged submarine was now just 10 miles away from neutral Spain’s Galician coast. The German crew recalled seeing “the white houses and church tower of Cariño.”&lt;/p&gt;
          162 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;U-966 &lt;/i&gt;had closed the distance to just a few hundred meters at 1:45 P.M. when a final Liberator fell upon it as it limped at 10 knots among Spanish fishing boats off the Ria Ortigueira estuary. First Sgt. Ottokar Žanta from 311 Squadron, the only Czech bomber unit in the RAF, decided not to use his six depth charges for fear of hitting the Spanish boats.&lt;/p&gt;
          163 &lt;p&gt;Luckily, he had a back-up armament — braces of four RP-3 armor-piercing 60-pound rockets under each wing.&lt;/p&gt;
          164 &lt;p&gt;While Parrish’s B-24 provided covering fire, Zanta’s Liberator made two rocket runs. Though three of his rockets misfired, four of the 3-inch diameter rockets struck the water and curved upward into the U-boat’s hull, rupturing several compartments and the ballast tanks. &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s speed fell to just two knots.&lt;/p&gt;
          165 &lt;p&gt;Zanta made several more strafing runs then headed for home at 3:10 P.M., completing a nearly 12-hour-patrol.&lt;/p&gt;
          166 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tragedy at Estaca de Bares&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          167 &lt;p&gt;Wolf’s crippled U-boat was on its last legs after nine hours of constant air attack. Suddenly, its crew spotted what they believed was a British corvette in the distance. Wolf had had enough — he ordered that the top secret documents be burned, told the crew to assemble on the deck to abandon ship and instructed his engineer to set a scuttling charge on a five-minute timer.&lt;/p&gt;
          168 &lt;p&gt;In fact, Wolf had spotted the Spanish coast guard vessel &lt;i&gt;Ardia&lt;/i&gt;, which had been monitoring the engagement from afar. The case of mistaken identity almost immediately proved irrelevant as the submarine was suddenly “thrown upwards as if by an invisible fist.” It had run aground on the craggy rocks of the Estaca de Bares peninsula near Punta Maeda.&lt;/p&gt;
          169 &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the turbulent waters swept away the inflatable life rafts before they could be secured. The submariners were forced to swim for their lives to the shore up to 300 meters away. Meanwhile, the engineer opened &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s flood valves and Wolf and three companions jumped overboard.&lt;/p&gt;
          170 &lt;p&gt;Only a handful made it to shore. Most of the rest, battling against the violent surf and struggling to support wounded comrades, clung on to the razor sharp rocks poking through the surf. Behind them they heard their submarine explode — though whether this was due to the scuttling charge or the pressure-sensitive depth charge lodged in the stern is uncertain.&lt;/p&gt;
          171 &lt;p&gt;There was a tragic final act to the day’s violent events. The struggling submariners spotted a portly white seaplane approaching them from above. This was a four-engine RAF Short Sunderland III piloted by Flight Officer Arthur Franklin of 228 Squadron. The Sunderland was also a capable sub-hunter. But when Franklin spotted the Wolf’s floundering crew, he tossed a life raft to them.&lt;/p&gt;
          172 &lt;p&gt;At that moment, a flight of three Ju-88R-2s from II/ZG.1 based in Bordeaux pounced upon the ungainly seaplane. Led by Lt. Albrecht Bellstedt, the twin-engine fighter-bombers raked the Sunderland with their three nose-mounted 20-millimeter cannons and&lt;i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;machine guns.&lt;/p&gt;
          173 &lt;p&gt;Franklin sent out one final radio message before his flying boat’s port wing caught fire. The Sunderland split in two and smashed into the water, the wreck belching fire and smoke.&lt;/p&gt;
          174 &lt;p&gt;Finally, five local Spanish fishing boats — &lt;i&gt;Virgen de Covadonga&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;San Francisco, La Concha&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;Espasante &lt;/i&gt;and &lt;i&gt;San Pedro &lt;/i&gt;— braved the perilous reef to rescue the shipwrecked submariners and brought them safely to shore.&lt;/p&gt;
          175 &lt;p&gt;All were housed in local hotels, save for three heavily wounded sailors. Out of &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s 50 crew, three had perished on board the submarine and five drowned while swimming for shore. All 12 men aboard Franklin’s Sunderland were killed.&lt;/p&gt;
          176 &lt;p&gt;Many sources claim in error that a smaller American-built Catalina float plane was shot down on Oct. 10. In fact, prior to the Sunderland’s arrival, a Catalina IB from the Coastal Command’s 202 squadron was active in the area, photographing the recovery of the German sailors. However, it returned to base. Records do not attest to any Catalinas being shot down in the area.&lt;/p&gt;
          177 &lt;p&gt;The fishermen recovered the bodies of six of the Sunderland’s crew and all five of the drowned submariners. They were first interred locally, then re-buried in German and British military cemeteries in Cáceres and Bilbao, respectively.&lt;/p&gt;
          178 &lt;p&gt;The Spanish authorities were in an awkward position. Though General Franco leaned towards the Fascists who helped him seize power during the Spanish Civil War, it was clear the Allies were winning the war and it was important to maintain the appearance of neutrality.&lt;/p&gt;
          179 &lt;p&gt;Spanish judges determined that the crew counted as combatants, not castaways, leading to their internment at La Graña naval base with the crew of &lt;i&gt;U-760&lt;/i&gt;, which had been interned at Vigo after fleeing Allied patrol planes.&lt;/p&gt;
          180 &lt;p&gt;That December, after a BBC radio broadcast mentioned just 30 of the 42 survivors, 10 of the unnamed men were secretly smuggled to France. Then in November 1944, Eckehard was hospitalized in Madrid, reportedly suffering from a lung condition that proved fatal.&lt;/p&gt;
          181 &lt;p&gt;In reality, he was smuggled back to Germany with false papers bearing the name “Erich Weber.” Eckehard was promoted to captain and assumed command of a company of marine infantry defending Hamburg.&lt;/p&gt;
          182 &lt;p&gt;Shipwrecking in Spain was probably the best thing that could have happened to &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;’s crew. Afforded both their regular pay and a 240 peseta monthly stipend form the German consulate, the internees were allowed unsupervised free time in the city of Ferrol, where wine was only two pesetas a bottle and fine cognac was six.&lt;/p&gt;
          183 &lt;p&gt;By contrast, at least four of the repatriated German submariners again saw action. Only one survived.&lt;/p&gt;
          184 &lt;p&gt;U-966’s conning tower could be seen protruding from the water at low tide for many years, though the wreck was scrapped in 1960s and eventually lost. Meanwhile, the crew of &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt; felt such a connection to the site of their ordeal that they began holding regular reunions there in the 1970s, and Eckehard’s son even married a local girl.&lt;/p&gt;
          185 &lt;p&gt;When the submarine commander passed away in 1978, his ashes were cast into the water of Punta Maeda near the grave of his only command.&lt;/p&gt;
          186 &lt;p&gt;Historian Juan Carlos Salgado &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/historia/articulos/u966/u966.htm&quot;&gt;documented&lt;/a&gt; an equally important aspect of this tale. The fate of the Allied pilots who hunted down &lt;i&gt;U-966&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
          187 &lt;p&gt;Fewer than two months after the battle on Dec. 28, 1943, Parish’s B-24 crashed into a hill while returning to base. The entire crew died.&lt;/p&gt;
          188 &lt;p&gt;Six weeks later on Feb. 14, 1944, Wright shot down a Ju-88 in a dogfight over the Bay of Biscay, but was then forced to ditch his Liberator due to battle damage. His gunner and radio operator didn’t make it out in time, and another crewman died from his wounds before the survivors were rescued by a RAF seaplane the next day.&lt;/p&gt;
          189 &lt;p&gt;A month later on the evening of March 12, Zanta departed on a mission in his Liberator with seven crew. They were never heard from again.&lt;/p&gt;
          190 &lt;p&gt;Harmon survived the war. His airplane passed to another crew, which disappeared over the Bay of Biscay late in February 1944. Wellington pilot Gunn also survived.&lt;/p&gt;
          191 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This first appeared in WarIsBoring &lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/the-forgotten-tale-of-how-allied-bombers-chased-a-german-sub-to-its-doom/&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
          192 &lt;p&gt;This first appeared in 2018 and is being reposted due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          193 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This history drew from the following sources: &lt;a href=&quot;https://d.docs.live.net/bcb311680801db59/Documents/(http:/www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/historia/articulos/u966inter/u966int.h&quot;&gt;Lobos Acosados&lt;/a&gt; by José Antonio Tojo Ramallo; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/historia/articulos/u966/u966.htm&quot;&gt;U-966 “Gut Holz”&lt;/a&gt; by Juan Carlos Salgado; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.uboatarchive.net/U-966A/U-966.htm&quot;&gt;after-action reports&lt;/a&gt; on Uboatarchive.net; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/riders_in_the_sky_1944_english.pdf&quot;&gt;Riders in the Sky 1944: The Liberator GR Mk.III and GR Mk.V in RAF Coastal Command Service&lt;/a&gt; by Pavel Turk and Pavel Vancata; &lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/the-forgotten-tale-of-how-allied-bombers-chased-a-german-sub-to-its-doom/#msg-77022&quot;&gt;“The U-966 Story: Agains All Odds”&lt;/a&gt; by Buck Cummings and Search, Find and Kill by Norman Franks.&lt;/p&gt;
          194 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator#/media/File:Maxwell_B-24.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          195 
          196 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/shipwrecked-three-countries-chased-nazi-uboat-death-190753&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          197 </item>
          198  <item> <title>Bad News: British Military Plans are Bigger Than London’s Wallet</title>
          199  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190848</link>
          200  <description>In recent years, the words “Britain” and “defense budget” have been a depressing combination.</description>
          201  <author>Michael Peck</author>
          202  <category>United Kingdom</category>
          203  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190848</guid>
          204  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:44 EDT</pubDate>
          205  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          206  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          207 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;United Kingdom, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          208 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206899&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/bad-news-british-military-plans-are-bigger-london%E2%80%99s-wallet-190848&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/british.jpg?itok=qn3o2OF2&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          209 &lt;h3&gt;In recent years, the words “Britain” and “defense budget” have been a depressing combination.&lt;/h3&gt;
          210 &lt;title&gt;Bad News: British Military Plans are Bigger Than London’s Wallet&lt;/title&gt;
          211 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;In the end, Britain is caught in a bind. The British armed forces are structured like an American-style champagne military, complete with expensive aircraft carriers, stealth fighters and nuclear submarines armed with Trident ICBMs. But despite the world’s fifth- or sixth-largest economy (India may recently have overtaken it for fifth place), Britain is only giving its military a beer budget.&lt;/p&gt;
          212 &lt;p&gt;In recent years, the words “Britain” and “defense budget” have been a depressing combination. Even as Britain’s armed forces continue to shrink, the current plan to buy new equipment is so unrealistic that it could damage British military capabilities, according to government auditors.&lt;/p&gt;
          213 &lt;p&gt;The current 2019 to 2029 equipment plan, despite a £181 billion (US$234.5 billion) budget allocation, is still far too small to meet defense needs over the next decade, warns &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nao.org.uk/report/the-equipment-plan-2019-to-2029/&quot;&gt;a new report&lt;/a&gt; by the British government’s National Audit Office (NAO).&lt;/p&gt;
          214 &lt;p&gt;The NAO’s most likely estimate is that the equipment plan will have a £2.9 billion (US$3.8 billion) shortfall. But at worst, the plan would come up a full £13 billion (US$17.1 billion) short.&lt;/p&gt;
          215 &lt;p&gt;NAO cited several cases where funding gaps would jeopardize military capabilities. “For example, the ship &lt;em&gt;RFA Argus &lt;/em&gt;provides medical and helicopter training facilities but is due to go out of service in 2024,” auditors found. “The Navy is also due to lose its mine-hunting capability in the early 2030s. Although the Navy believed that this capability needed to be addressed in the 2019-2029 Plan, it does not include funding to extend or replace this equipment.”&lt;/p&gt;
          216 &lt;p&gt;While some research money is available to find new minesweeping methods, other problems remain, such as maintaining a sufficient fleet of airborne early warning aircraft. “For example, the Royal Air Force brought forward the date when its E-3 Sentry aircraft will go out of service to December 2022, which is nine months before the replacement aircraft are expected to enter service. It will also reduce the size of the Sentry fleet from six to three aircraft, with effect from January 2020. Air Command’s forecast spending also assumes it will reduce costs by £1.9 billion [US$2.5 billion]. It has not yet determined how it will do this but accepts that the decisions will have capability consequences.”&lt;/p&gt;
          217 &lt;p&gt;The Ministry of Defense doesn’t even have a firm grasp of what capabilities are needed, which means it can’t really estimate costs such as acquiring F-35 stealth fighters for the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. or the cost of operating the carriers themselves. “For example, in the 2015 SDSR [Strategic Defense and Security Review] it announced its intention to buy 138 F-35 aircraft, but the 2019-2029 Plan only includes the forecast cost of the first 48, which are currently being built,” NAO pointed out. “It expects to make decisions on the number of F-35 jets it needs when &lt;em&gt;HMS Queen Elizabeth&lt;/em&gt; starts operational deployments in 2021.”&lt;/p&gt;
          218 &lt;p&gt;“The Department will make these decisions as part of its Combat Air Acquisition Program. It will also need to make decisions about how it will operate the Carrier Strike Group to make best use of its capabilities. To do this, the Department will have to develop its understanding of support costs as &lt;em&gt;HMS Queen Elizabeth &lt;/em&gt;completes sea trials in 2020.”&lt;/p&gt;
          219 &lt;p&gt;Budget pressures have created other problems, such as 20 decommissioned Royal Navy nuclear submarines sitting in storage – and no money to pay for &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/royal-navy-having-real-trouble-disposing-its-old-nuclear-submarines-98017&quot;&gt;disposal for their nuclear reactors&lt;/a&gt;. Meanwhile, Brexit has caused the British pound to slump, making purchases of foreign equipment – such as the American-made F-35 -- more expensive.&lt;/p&gt;
          220 &lt;p&gt;In the end, Britain is caught in a bind. The British armed forces are structured like an American-style champagne military, complete with expensive aircraft carriers, stealth fighters and nuclear submarines armed with Trident ICBMs. But despite the world’s fifth- or sixth-largest economy (India may recently have overtaken it for fifth place), Britain is only giving its military a beer budget.&lt;/p&gt;
          221 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. or on his &lt;a href=&quot;https://mipeck.com/&quot;&gt;Web site.&lt;/a&gt; This article first appeared in March 2020 and is being republished due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          222 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          223 
          224 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/bad-news-british-military-plans-are-bigger-london%E2%80%99s-wallet-190848&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          225 </item>
          226  <item> <title>Civil Wars Destroy Countries, But They Can Also Build Them</title>
          227  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190962</link>
          228  <description>There are many types of civil wars.</description>
          229  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
          230  <category>Civil War</category>
          231  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190962</guid>
          232  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:33 EDT</pubDate>
          233  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          234  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          235 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Civil War, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          236 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/207001&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/civil-wars-destroy-countries-they-can-also-build-them-190962&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Viet_Cong002%20%281%29_0.jpg?itok=HZzuW8ZB&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          237 &lt;h3&gt;There are many types of civil wars.&lt;/h3&gt;
          238 &lt;title&gt;Civil Wars Destroy Countries, But They Can Also Build Them&lt;/title&gt;
          239 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;One of the most lethal wars of the last one hundred years, the Congo Civil War claimed the lives of 5.4 million people over a period of five years. This translates to nearly 3,000 fatalities a day, a shocking number given the general lack of conventional, decisive combat.&lt;/p&gt;
          240 &lt;p&gt;There are many types of civil wars. Sometimes, such as the American Civil War, one segment of the population simply wants to leave and set up a separate country. Other times an upstart political faction wishes to gain control of the country.&lt;/p&gt;
          241 &lt;p&gt;In other circumstances, outside interests may attempt to partition the state to weaken it or gain access to its resources. Somewhat common during Cold War were civil wars in which a single people were partitioned into separate states, and then one group attempted to force a single state solution.&lt;/p&gt;
          242 &lt;p&gt;When a country is threatened with dissolution or partition it strikes at the heart of nationalist sentiment. For that reason, civil wars can be uncommonly brutal—especially to civilians trying to escape the battlefield. Here are five of the most lethal civil wars of all time.&lt;/p&gt;
          243 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chinese Civil War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          244 &lt;p&gt;The Chinese Civil War, fought between Chinese nationalists and a revolutionary communist movement, lasted from 1927 to 1950. In the end, the nationalists under&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/chiang_kaishek.shtml&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;Chiang Kai-shek&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; evacuated to the island of Taiwan to carry on as the Republic of China, while the communists under&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mao_zedong.shtml&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;Mao Tse-tung&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; established the People’s Republic of China on the mainland.&lt;/p&gt;
          245 &lt;p&gt;More than eight million people were killed during the war, mostly civilians killed by disease, starvation and reprisals conducted by one side in areas thought to be friendly to the other.&lt;/p&gt;
          246 &lt;p&gt;The initial phase of the civil war was mostly an insurgency by Chinese communist forces against the Chinese nationalist government. The communists did poorly however, and only escaped complete destruction after the so-called “Long March” to the relative sanctuary of Shaanxi province.&lt;/p&gt;
          247 &lt;p&gt;The communist forces’ big break came in the aftermath of World War II, when Soviet forces in Manchuria and Korea turned over captured Japanese weapons—and surplus Soviet weapons—to Mao’s armies, greatly increasing their firepower and overall effectiveness. The tide turned and Chinese nationalists were eventually forced off the mainland.&lt;/p&gt;
          248 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Korean War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          249 &lt;p&gt;The Korean War is generally known in the United States as a military intervention on behalf of the South Korean government, but in broad terms can be considered a civil war that still has not technically ended.&lt;/p&gt;
          250 &lt;p&gt;At the end of World War II, Korea had been partitioned into two separate states: the South backed by the United States and the United Nations, and the North backed by China and the Soviet Union. The North Korean People’s Army under dictator Kim Il-Sung crossed the international border on June 25th, 1950 with the intention of unifying the country. The war triggered interventions by American, Chinese and Soviet forces.&lt;/p&gt;
          251 &lt;p&gt;It was also exceptionally deadly by modern standards, with several million killed on the Korean Peninsula, an area the size of Utah.&lt;/p&gt;
          252 &lt;p&gt;Military losses in the war are thought to be 70,000 by the Republic of Korea, 46,000 by the United States, and a combined one million North Korean and Chinese forces killed—600,000 in action, 400,000 through disease and illness.&lt;/p&gt;
          253 &lt;p&gt;Nearly one million South Koreans died during the war, or just under five percent of the population. North Korea, which experienced heavy aerial bombing by allied forces, suffered an estimated 1.5 million killed—ten to fifteen percent of the overall population. Such losses&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.japanfocus.org/-charles_k_-armstrong/3460/article.html&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;exceed losses&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (in percentage terms) suffered by the Soviet Union in World War II.&lt;/p&gt;
          254 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vietnam Civil War (Vietnam War, 2nd Indochina War)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          255 &lt;p&gt;The 1954 partition of Vietnam into two nations made an attempt at reunification inevitable, especially when one side was run by the successful leader of a guerrilla army. The combination of a North Vietnam lead by Ho Chi Minh, the man who had forced France out of his country, and a restive South Vietnamese population led by a corrupt government made conditions ripe for a civil war.&lt;/p&gt;
          256 &lt;p&gt;Until 1968 the war was fought by South Vietnam, the United States and other allies versus the Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese regular forces. The Tet Offensive in January 1968 spent the Viet Cong as a military force, and North Vietnam continued to fight the war until victory in 1975. The fighting also carried into and destabilized Laos and Cambodia.&lt;/p&gt;
          257 &lt;p&gt;Military dead amounted to 1.5 million on all sides: 300,000 South Vietnamese personnel, and up to 1.1 million North Vietnamese personnel. In addition, 58,307 Americans, 5,099 South Vietnamese, and 1,000 Chinese military personnel were killed.&lt;/p&gt;
          258 &lt;p&gt;Up to 2.5 million civilians died in the Vietnam Civil War, if one counts associated fighting in adjacent Cambodia and Laos.&lt;/p&gt;
          259 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Congo Civil War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          260 &lt;p&gt;The Congo Civil War&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo.htm&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;has been called&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; “the widest interstate war in African history.” Ironically, the war actually began as Rwanda attempted to reign in anti-government forces operating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire.) The fighting &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.npr.org/2012/09/09/160739941/yet-again-congo-faces-the-specter-of-civil-war&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;expanded to ultimately involve&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; nine countries and 20 armed groups, fighting not only for territorial integrity but also control of the country’s estimated $24 trillion in natural resources.&lt;/p&gt;
          261 &lt;p&gt;One of the most lethal wars of the last one hundred years, the Congo Civil War claimed the lives of 5.4 million people over a period of five years. This translates to nearly 3,000 fatalities a day, a shocking number given the general lack of conventional, decisive combat. Like most civil wars—and African wars—most of those killed in the Congo Civil War were civilians, killed by starvation, disease and atrocities committed by armed groups including children.&lt;/p&gt;
          262 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nigerian Civil War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          263 &lt;p&gt;The four year long Nigerian Civil war broke out on July 6, 1967 and lasted until 1970. The Igbo people, with Nigerian military government rule and second-rate status in Nigerian society, seceded and formed the independent state of Biafra.&lt;/p&gt;
          264 &lt;p&gt;The bulk of the international community supported Nigeria, and with their help the military government was able to capture Port Harcourt — Biafra’s outlet to the outside world — and take back oil-producing areas that might have made Biafra a viable country.&lt;/p&gt;
          265 &lt;p&gt;Only about 30,000 Biafrans&lt;a href=&quot;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;were killed&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in actual fighting. Isolated and impoverished by a lack of oil revenue, around 2 million others died of starvation and disease. On January 11, 1970 Biafra was forced to surrender and was re-absorbed into Nigeria.&lt;/p&gt;
          266 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in &lt;/em&gt;The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; The Daily Beast&lt;em&gt;. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. This article is being republished due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          267 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#/media/File:Viet_Cong002.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          268 
          269 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/civil-wars-destroy-countries-they-can-also-build-them-190962&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          270 </item>
          271  <item> <title>Glock 17 are Kel-Tec’s KMR-30 Very Different But Which Takes The Prize? </title>
          272  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190957</link>
          273  <description>Both the Kel-Tec and the Glock have generously sized magazines, but the two are meant for very different tasks and the designers have made very different design choices.</description>
          274  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
          275  <category>Guns</category>
          276  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190957</guid>
          277  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:33 EDT</pubDate>
          278  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          279  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          280 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Guns, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          281 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206996&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/glock-17-are-kel-tec%E2%80%99s-kmr-30-very-different-which-takes-prize-190957&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Glock%20%281%29.jpg?itok=Ev1d0e5W&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          282 &lt;h3&gt;Both the Kel-Tec and the Glock have generously sized magazines, but the two are meant for very different tasks and the designers have made very different design choices.&lt;/h3&gt;
          283 &lt;title&gt;Glock 17 are Kel-Tec’s KMR-30 Very Different But Which Takes The Prize? &lt;/title&gt;
          284 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;The Glock 17 was engineered to kill or incapacitate human beings, and uses the larger nine millimeter luger. The Kel-Tec, although also a self-defense weapon, was also designed as a backcountry plinker or target pistol and uses less lethal (and smaller diameter) .22 Magnum ammunition.&lt;/p&gt;
          285 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The modern pistol, a handgun fed by a grip-inserted magazine, was a creation of the early twentieth century. Despite the innovation the pistol rarely held significantly more ammunition than a revolver, making revolvers and their superior reliability a viable choice for decades. The advent of the two-column staggered magazine doubled, tripled, and even quintupled the pistol’s magazine capacity. Two modern examples are the Glock 17 and Kel-Tec KMR-30.&lt;/p&gt;
          286 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The invention of the pistol box magazine promised to vastly increase handgun ammunition capacity. For much of the nineteenth century handgun designs were dominated by the revolver, which stored ammunition in a five or six round revolving cylinder. This was easy to manufacture and used a well known operating system but had its own limitations. Increasing ammunition capacity beyond six rounds increased the diameter of the cylinder and made the pistol wider overall. Making the cylinder larger also made the revolver heavier and more unwieldy.&lt;/p&gt;
          287 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The box magazine promised to change things. The box magazine could be inserted into the pistol grip, with the cartridges sitting in a narrow vertical column. The Colt M1911 handgun could carry seven .45 ACP rounds in a magazine. That wasn’t appreciably better than a revolver, however. The solution? Stack ammunition in two vertical columns that merged at the top, allowing the same amount of ammunition to fit in the same space.&lt;/p&gt;
          288 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-856a0a76-4e95-6459-49ab-73689aaaf2fb&quot;&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/air-war-stealth-f-22-raptor-vs-f-14-tomcat-iran-still-flies-25825&quot;&gt;Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          289 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-856a0a76-4e95-6459-49ab-73689aaaf2fb&quot;&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/new-report-reveals-why-there-wont-be-any-new-f-22-raptors-25736&quot;&gt;A New Report Reveals Why There Won&#039;t Be Any &#039;New&#039; F-22 Raptors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          290 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-old-f-15-just-might-kill-russias-new-stealth-su-57-25893&quot;&gt;How an ‘Old’ F-15 Might Kill Russia’s New Stealth Fighter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          291 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The use of polymers in handguns started in the late 1970s and was popularized with the&lt;a href=&quot;https://us.glock.com/products/model/g17&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; Glock 17&lt;/a&gt; handgun. The Glock’s frame and grip are made of plastic, while the barrel and slide are made from steel. This reduces weight appreciably. The weight reduction, coupled with a double-stack magazine, allowed the Glock to boost its ammunition capacity to 17 rounds of nine-millimeter parabellum ammunition.&lt;/p&gt;
          292 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Glock built a high-capacity handgun, but one designed to be a service handgun for the Austrian Army. The Glock 17 balances weight versus ammunition capacity versus ammunition lethality in ways other handguns had not, gaming the system by using lightweight materials other handguns had not. The resulting handgun was a reliable, accurate handgun just 8.03 inches long. It packed seventeen rounds of nine-millimeter Luger ammunition in a magazine well less than five inches long. The Glock weighs just 25.02 ounces unloaded and 32.12 ounces fully loaded.&lt;/p&gt;
          293 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Another handgun, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.keltecweapons.com/pistols/pmr-30&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Kel-Tec KMR-30&lt;/a&gt;, took a slightly different path. Like the Glock 17 the KMR-30 is made of steel and polymer to save weight. Kel-Tec’s use of polymer in pursuit of weight savings was more radical: although roughly similar to the Glock and other polymer pistols the KMR-30 goes a step further and uses polymer in a large portion of the slide.&lt;/p&gt;
          294 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Although durable the Kel-Tec was not designed as a military or law enforcement service weapon, allowing the company to make some unconventional choices. Kel-Tec’s minimalist approach to pistol design also strips away material where it isn’t needed, and the use of the low-recoil .22 Magnum round means fewer places where steel is needed for strength. As a result, the Kel-Tec weighs a remarkable 13.6 ounces unloaded. Fully loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition, the KMR-30 still weighs just 19 ounces.&lt;/p&gt;
          295 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;How did Kel-Tec achieve M16-size ammunition storage in the KMR-30? By using smaller diameter bullets. The Glock 17 was engineered to kill or incapacitate human beings, and uses the larger nine millimeter luger. The Kel-Tec, although also a self-defense weapon, was also designed as a backcountry plinker or target pistol and uses less lethal (and smaller diameter) .22 Magnum ammunition.&lt;/p&gt;
          296 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Both the Kel-Tec and the Glock have generously-sized magazines, but the two are meant for very different tasks and the designers have made very different design choices. What works for the Glock does not work for the Kel-Tec, and vice-versa; the Austrian Army would have never accepted the use of .22 Magnum ammunition, even if it came with a larger magazine, while backcountry travelers counting every ounce might scorn the Glock’s weight. Each lightweight, high capacity handgun occupies fills its own niche, small or large.&lt;/p&gt;
          297 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog &lt;a href=&quot;http://jsw.newpacificinstitute.org/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Japan Security Watch&lt;/a&gt;. You can follow him on Twitter: &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/KyleMizokami&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;@KyleMizokami&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          298 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article first appeared in 2018.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          299 
          300 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/glock-17-are-kel-tec%E2%80%99s-kmr-30-very-different-which-takes-prize-190957&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          301 </item>
          302  <item> <title>AIP Submarine for the US Navy? </title>
          303  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190930</link>
          304  <description>Perhaps the U.S. Navy should not invest in conventional submarines.</description>
          305  <author>Robert Farley</author>
          306  <category>military</category>
          307  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190930</guid>
          308  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:11 EDT</pubDate>
          309  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          310  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Robert Farley&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          311 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;military, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          312 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/49287&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/aip-submarine-us-navy-190930&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/aip.jpg?itok=bEc-l4n7&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          313 &lt;h3&gt;Perhaps the U.S. Navy should not invest in conventional submarines.&lt;/h3&gt;
          314 &lt;title&gt;AIP Submarine for the US Navy? &lt;/title&gt;
          315 &lt;p&gt;Here’s What You Need to Remember:  Over the past decade, air-independent propulsion (AIP) for submarines has spread rapidly around the world. The technology, which allows conventionally powered submarines to operate without access to outside air, has the potential to shift the balance away from the big nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) that have dominated undersea warfare since the 1950s, and back towards small conventional boats. In global terms, this might again make submarines the great strategic equalizer; small, cheap weapons that can destroy the expensive warships of the world’s most powerful navies. Does this mean that the United States should invest in these kinds of boats? Probably not.&lt;/p&gt;
          316 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Invention&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          317 &lt;p&gt;Several navies &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_13/propulsion.htm&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;experimented&lt;/a&gt; with AIP during the twentieth century. The earliest work began in World War II in the German and Soviet navies, although none of the experiments produced operationally suitable boats. After the war Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union took advantage of German research to produce their own experimental boats, but nuclear propulsion seemed to offer a more fruitful direction for submarine development.&lt;/p&gt;
          318 &lt;p&gt;In the mid-2000s, converging technological developments enabled several major submarine producers around the world to begin to develop practical AIP systems. France, Germany, Japan, Sweden and China all laid down AIP-capable boats, in some cases exporting those submarines to customers around the world.&lt;/p&gt;
          319 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Engineering&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          320 &lt;p&gt;AIP systems allow conventional submarines to recharge their batteries without surfacing for air, which enables them to remain underwater for extend periods of time and not expose themselves to detection.&lt;a href=&quot;https://defencyclopedia.com/2016/07/06/explained-how-air-independent-propulsion-aip-works/&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; Three main types of AIP&lt;/a&gt; are found in extant diesel-electric submarines:&lt;/p&gt;
          321 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Closed Cycle Steam Turbines&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          322 &lt;p&gt;Used on French-built submarines, closed cycle steam turbines mimic the energy production process found on nuclear subs (where a nuclear reactor provides heat that turns water into steam) by mixing oxygen and ethanol. This system (dubbed MESMA by the French) is complex, generates a lot of power, but is somewhat less efficient than the alternatives.&lt;/p&gt;
          323 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Stirling Cycle&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          324 &lt;p&gt;A Stirling cycle engine uses diesel to heat a fluid permanently contained in the engine, which in turn drives a piston and generates electricity. The exhaust is then released into the seawater. This is slightly more efficient, and somewhat less complicated, than the French variant, and is used on Japanese, Swedish and Chinese boats.&lt;/p&gt;
          325 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fuel Cell&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          326 &lt;p&gt;Fuel-cell technology is probably the state of the art in AIP. A fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity, and has almost no moving parts. They can generate a lot of energy with minimal waste product, and are very quiet. German-built submarines have successfully taken advantage of fuel cell technology, and the French, Russians and Indians are also moving in this direction.&lt;/p&gt;
          327 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Procurement Trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          328 &lt;p&gt;The great thing about AIP is that the technologies involved can be retrofitted into older submarines through the insertion of a hull section. Germany has done this with some boats, including a Type 209, and reports suggest Russia has managed to retrofit a Kilo. Sweden has retrofitted four older boats, and Japan at least one. For navies that want to maximize the lethality of their existing sub flotillas, retrofits can be cost effective.&lt;/p&gt;
          329 &lt;p&gt;However, most navies are more interested in new construction. Germany has four types of SSPs under construction for various navies. Newly constructed Type 209s may also have AIP. Sweden has three classes of boats with AIP; the large Japanese Soryus will have AIP, as will the French Scorpenes, French-built Agosta 90Bs (for Pakistan) and Scorpene-inspired Kalvaris (for India). The new Spanish S-80s have AIP, as do the two small Portuguese Tridente boats. Russia’s troubled Lada class has AIP propulsion, and it is expected that the next diesel-electric class (Amur) will also have it. China’s fifteen Type 041 (Yuan) boats have AIP, with another five on the way.&lt;/p&gt;
          330 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Combat Implications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          331 &lt;p&gt;SSPs can exceed the performance of SSNs under certain conditions. They can take advantage of good endurance and extreme quiet to lay in ambush for approaching enemy vessels, although this requires good intelligence about enemy fleet deployments. They can also conduct short and medium range surveillance of enemy naval forces. In situations that favor small, maneuverable boats (shallow littorals, for example) they can pose a serious combat threat to their larger nuclear cousins.&lt;/p&gt;
          332 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What This Means for the United States&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          333 &lt;p&gt;Should the United States build SSPs? The United States has not built a diesel-electric submarine since 1959. Much of the know-how associated with the construction of nuclear subs is transferable to their conventional cousins, but it would nevertheless involve a significant learning curve. The United States is a global leader in the development of&lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.com/books?id=vtPzBwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA106&amp;lpg=PA106&amp;dq=fuel+cell+technology+rank+countries&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=IpsMaoIMKx&amp;sig=NLHEytnMrq2X9g2nAnfeSimvrco&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiniv7InPTYAhVNrFMKHU_jDBkQ6AEINDAC#v=onepage&amp;q=fuel%20cell%20technology%20rank%20countries&amp;f=false&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; fuel-cell technology&lt;/a&gt;, so it is likely that American sub builders would go that route.&lt;/p&gt;
          334 &lt;p&gt;However, the U.S. Navy is nearly unique for its global focus; it intends to fight in areas distant from U.S. shores. Diesel electrics, even with AIP, have shorter ranges than nuclear boats and therefore require nearby bases. Moreover, cost-consciousness in the U.S. Navy has manifested largely in terms of personnel reductions, meaning that the organization tends to prefer smaller numbers of high-end, expensive platforms to large numbers of inexpensive vessels.&lt;/p&gt;
          335 &lt;p&gt;Before investing in AIP boats, the U.S. Navy should also take care to rigorously game out future submarine warfare scenarios that involve Undersea Unmanned Vehicles. Autonomous and semi-autonomous drone submarines potentially have many of the advantages of AIP boats, without requiring investment in new submarine designs.&lt;/p&gt;
          336 &lt;p&gt;All in all, there is no question that AIP-equipped boats pose a threat, under some conditions, to the large nuclear attack submarines that many great navies have come to rely on. However, this does not necessarily mean that the best response for the U.S. Navy is to invest in these conventional subs. They cannot do many of the tasks that the navy requires of its submarine force, and in coming years technology may eclipse many of the advantages that they bring.&lt;/p&gt;
          337 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/drfarls?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Robert Farley&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, a frequent contributor to TNI, is author of &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/The-Battleship-Book-Robert-Farley/dp/1479405566&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Battleship Book&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article was originally published in October 2018.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          338 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/47219149581/in/photolist-24gfswA-2hQLmVf-2hG7EqR-GYMAP1-2gx7y2p-L1XYpm-22EC5rd-2eWAu5D-2hpxjGJ-2hRc2iB-MPKGeT-26VLKv1-22tQBM3-24tVKb6-2gakjko-2hcWfNK-KFbMi3-2gx7yHu-2281CgJ-281iPH5-2hCFPEE-gXP9ag-fKMKV8-KdvEVT-NQqsfD&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Reuters&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          339 
          340 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/aip-submarine-us-navy-190930&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          341 </item>
          342  <item> <title>If You Have to Chose a Revolver or a Semi-auto for Home Defense, Whats the Right Choice?</title>
          343  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190965</link>
          344  <description>Both types have bring their own advantages and disadvantages to the debate, and knowing them will help prospective gun owners make an informed choice.</description>
          345  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
          346  <category>Firearmes</category>
          347  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190965</guid>
          348  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:50 EDT</pubDate>
          349  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          350  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          351 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Firearmes, United States&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          352 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/181399&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/if-you-have-chose-revolver-or-semi-auto-home-defense-whats-right-choice-190965&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Taurus_revolver_869_.357_magnum.JPG?itok=inC-tzsn&quot; alt=&quot;Reuters&quot; title=&quot;Reuters&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          353 &lt;h3&gt;Both types have bring their own advantages and disadvantages to the debate, and knowing them will help prospective gun owners make an informed choice.&lt;/h3&gt;
          354 &lt;title&gt;If You Have to Chose a Revolver or a Semi-auto for Home Defense, Whats the Right Choice?&lt;/title&gt;
          355 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Guns are merely a tool, and there are some situations in which it is the only tool that can effectively respond to a dangerous situation. One of the most valuable skills a handgun owner can possess is the ability to think clearly in a stressful situation and refrain from using force.&lt;/p&gt;
          356 &lt;p&gt;One of the most important roles a handgun can play is in home defense. Compact and easy to secure, handguns are ideal weapons for defending one’s own home. Caliber aside, one of the major questions when picking a home-defense gun is whether or not to choose a revolver or semiautomatic handgun. Both types have bring their own advantages and disadvantages to the debate, and knowing them will help prospective gun owners make an informed choice.&lt;/p&gt;
          357 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.atf.gov/firearms/firearms-guides-importation-verification-firearms-gun-control-act-definition-revolver&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Revolvers&lt;/a&gt;, or “wheelguns,” have been around for nearly two hundred years. A revolver typically holds five, six, or even seven rounds of ammunition in a rotating cylinder. Modern revolvers are typically double-action guns: a single trigger pull both cocks the hammer and releases it, firing the pistol. Alternately, many handguns can be fired in single-action mode, in which the hammer is first cocked, resulting in a lighter trigger pull. Modern revolvers have steel or aluminum frames and are generally heavier, round for round, than other handguns. This both gives a revolver heft and helps to absorb recoil. A modern home-defense handgun will either come in .38 Special or .357 Magnum calibers, and guns chambered in the latter can fire both calibers of bullets.&lt;/p&gt;
          358 &lt;p&gt;One advantage of the revolver in home defense is that it is easier to operate and learn to shoot. There isn’t much to shooting a revolver: simply open the cylinder, insert bullets, close the cylinder and pull the trigger. This simplicity is reassuring in a high-stress situation, where the user does not have to worry about whether or not the first round was chambered by racking the slide, like in semiautomatic pistols. The heft of a metal-framed revolver is also reassuring in the user’s hands.&lt;/p&gt;
          359 &lt;p&gt;There are disadvantages to a revolver in a home-defense situation, too. Revolvers are limited to a handful of bullets, typically six. This is less than half the number available to owners of semiautomatic pistols. In many modern gun engagements, the handgun owner often expends the entire magazine of fifteen or so rounds in the first two seconds. Having six rounds or fewer can often feel inadequate, although this is more of a training issue than anything else. Revolvers also take more time to reload, which can feel like an eternity in a stressful situation, and involve taking the user’s eyes off the threat to load a fresh set of bullets.&lt;/p&gt;
          360 &lt;p&gt;Semiautomatic handguns, or &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.atf.gov/firearms/firearms-guides-importation-verification-firearms-gun-control-act-definition-pistol&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;pistols&lt;/a&gt;, have been around for just over a hundred years. A pistol typically holds up to seventeen rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition in a magazine inserted into the pistol grip. Like revolvers, most pistols are double-action weapons, though some are capable of firing in single-action mode. Pistols such as the 1911A1 are all steel handguns, but many newer models such as the Glock 19 and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.smith-wesson.com/mp&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Smith &amp; Wesson M&amp;P&lt;/a&gt; make use of polymer frames as a weight-saving measure. Most modern pistols are chambered in nine-millimeter, .40 Smith &amp; Wesson and .45 ACP.&lt;/p&gt;
          361 &lt;p&gt;Pistols have several advantages in a home-defense situation. Pistols, with the exception of the 1911A1 generally carry twice as many bullets, though this also depends on firearms laws in the user’s state. (California, for example, only allows ten-round magazines in handguns and pistols.) Pistols can also be reloaded with taking the user’s eyes off the threat, with the handgun still pointed downrange. Finally, modern pistols often include &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shootingtimes.com/optics/optics_st_railcrazy_200907/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;M1913 rail interface systems&lt;/a&gt;. Developed by Picatinny Arsenal, these rails allow the attachment of accessory lights and laser pointers, making it easier to shine a light and hold a handgun at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;
          362 &lt;p&gt;Pistols also have their own disadvantages. Unless stored “cocked and locked”—that is, loaded, and cocked with the safety on, a pistol needs its slide racked to chamber a round before firing. “Cocked and locked” may not be an option with children in the home, and many modern pistols lack a manual safety. A pistol owner, experiencing fear and stress in a defensive situation, could forget to rack the slide and chamber around unless the step is second nature.&lt;/p&gt;
          363 &lt;p&gt;If a homeowner has little training but still needs a handgun to secure his or her home, a revolver such as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://ruger.com/products/gp100/models.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Ruger GP100&lt;/a&gt; is ideal. The weapon is simple to operate and, with its beefy, all-steel frame, has a reassuring heft. The weapon can accept lighter, gentler recoil .38 Special bullets or heavier, more powerful .357 Magnum bullets that generate greater recoil.&lt;/p&gt;
          364 &lt;p&gt;A more experienced handgun owner would do well with a &lt;a href=&quot;https://us.glock.com/products/model/g19&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Glock 19&lt;/a&gt; pistol fitted with a rail-mounted weapon light. Smaller than the original Glock 17, a Glock 19 still carries twice as many bullets as a revolver while being lighter and bearing a slimmer profile. Although some firearms experts characterize the nine-millimeter round as anemic, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/handgun/9mm-luger-115-gr-ftx-critical-defense&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;special ammunition&lt;/a&gt; can boost the Glock’s ability to immediately incapacitate the target.&lt;/p&gt;
          365 &lt;p&gt;A handgun is a dangerous weapon designed to kill people. That said, it is also merely a tool, and there are some situations in which it is the only tool that can effectively respond to a dangerous situation. One of the most valuable skills a handgun owner can possess is the ability to think clearly in a stressful situation and refrain from using force. The times when force is absolutely, positively necessary will be exceedingly rare, but readily apparent.&lt;/p&gt;
          366 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the&lt;/em&gt; Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring &lt;em&gt;and the&lt;/em&gt; Daily Beast. &lt;em&gt;In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/kylemizokami&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;@KyleMizokami&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          367 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article first appeared in 2017.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          368 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          369 
          370 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/if-you-have-chose-revolver-or-semi-auto-home-defense-whats-right-choice-190965&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          371 </item>
          372  <item> <title>Terrible and Ineffective: Ivan IV&#039;s Failed Strategy Still Haunts Russia</title>
          373  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190716</link>
          374  <description>His territorial ambitions would remain a fundamental element of the Russian character.</description>
          375  <author>Warfare History Network</author>
          376  <category>History</category>
          377  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190716</guid>
          378  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:43 EDT</pubDate>
          379  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          380  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Warfare History Network&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          381 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;History, Eurasia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          382 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206772&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/terrible-and-ineffective-ivan-ivs-failed-strategy-still-haunts-russia-190716&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Clipboard%20-%202021-07-28T165702.452.jpg?itok=7YrfKH8h&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          383 &lt;h3&gt;His territorial ambitions would remain a fundamental element of the Russian character.&lt;/h3&gt;
          384 &lt;title&gt;Terrible and Ineffective: Ivan IV&#039;s Failed Strategy Still Haunts Russia&lt;/title&gt;
          385 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;Ivan IV Vasilyevich, first czar of all the Russians, has gone down as one of history’s most notorious despots, infamous for the terrors he carried out among his subjects.&lt;/p&gt;
          386 &lt;p&gt;Less well known are the numerous and bloody wars he fought to expand his realm. Isolation on the bleak steppes of Eurasia was a fact of life for the state of Muscovy. Wanting to lead his people to prosperity, Ivan’s determined eyes gazed westward toward the Baltic, where he could open his realm to European trade and forge an empire worthy of his crown. In the end, the war he waged there would last a quarter century, consuming his reign and becoming nothing short of an obsession. By the time it was over, Ivan had earned a new title to go along with that of czar: “Ivan the Terrible.”&lt;/p&gt;
          387 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Expanding Russia to the Sea&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          388 &lt;p&gt;Generations of Muscovite rulers had dreamed of expanding their principality to the sea, but by the mid-16th century Muscovy was yet to possess a port on northern waters. Ivan’s grandfather, Ivan III, upon his conquest of the Republic of Novgorod in the 1470s had inherited a narrow slice of territory where the Neva River flowed into the Gulf of Bothnia. There he constructed the fortress of Ivangorod, opposite the wealthy Livonian city of Narva. Lying too far inland, Ivangorod never became a commercial success. By the time of Ivan IV’s coronation in 1547, Muscovy was still geographically and economically isolated.&lt;/p&gt;
          389 &lt;p&gt;Muscovites could be forgiven for feeling paranoid about their landlocked entrapment; their Baltic neighbors gave them every reason to be. The regional powers of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland-Lithuania feared the growth of Moscow. To them, Muscovy was a mysterious and superstitious land whose alien form of Orthodox Christianity was contemptible. While Muscovy sought direct contact with the West by way of the sea, its neighbors worked to prevent it through a virtual blockade whereby Western goods and technology, especially weapons, could not reach Ivan’s lands. Occasionally, the blockade led to war. Poland-Lithuania fought to maintain Muscovy’s isolation until a truce in 1532, while Sweden briefly warred with the Muscovites until 1557. The ensuing peace treaty brought a Swedish pledge to refrain from participating in any future coalitions against Muscovy. This provided Ivan with the flexibility to turn elsewhere for conquest: the fledgling state of Livonia.&lt;/p&gt;
          390 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Crumbling Livonia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          391 &lt;p&gt;A patchwork of commercial cities spread out through modern-day Latvia and Estonia, Livonia was the most prominent economic menace to Muscovy. The Livonians were middlemen in the trade to Ivan’s lands, and their high tariffs crippled Muscovite growth and limited trade. Ivan understood that the prosperity of his new empire relied on the demise of the independent Livonian states. As it turned out, time was working in his favor. The Hanseatic League, an organization of northern trading cities to which Riga, Reval, and Narva belonged, had long passed its heyday. The growth of cohesive states, most significantly Denmark, doomed the Hanse, whose resources simply could not compete with more modern states. Furthermore, Livonia’s other prominent power, the Livonian Order of Knights, was also suffering rapid decline. Created centuries before for the purpose of converting the heathen peoples of the eastern Baltic, by the mid-16th century the order’s largely Protestant German knights had settled into luxurious complacency as estate holders. The demise of their energy heralded the accompanying decline of their significance and military strength as well.&lt;/p&gt;
          392 &lt;p&gt;In 1558, the order held some 60 castles, while independent cities, notably Riga and Dorpat, controlled roughly 50 more. Although often well armed with the latest in gunpowder technology, the fortresses were also obsolete and severely undermanned due to an overemphasis on mounted soldiers. Livonia was falling apart, and powers like Sweden and Lithuania were plotting to collect the spoils of its inevitable disintegration. Ivan, whose personal stake in Livonia’s fall was higher than anyone’s, was determined to grab his just desserts.&lt;/p&gt;
          393 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Here is a Little Thing That Will Grow Great”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          394 &lt;p&gt;An invasion required an air of legitimacy. For that Ivan turned to the Livonian city of Dorpat, which he claimed owed Muscovy 50 years’ worth of tribute dating back to a treaty signed in 1503. When pressured, Dorpat demurred and attempted to negotiate a reduction in payments. Soon afterward, the Bishop of Dorpat delivered a letter of protest to the Muscovite ambassador, who replied prophetically, “Here is a little thing that will grow great.” Within a short time, the Livonians caved in and promised to pay the tribute in full, but when their embassy arrived in Moscow empty handed, they effectively gave Ivan all the justification he needed to invade. On January 22, 1558, the Muscovite army crossed into Livonia.&lt;/p&gt;
          395 &lt;p&gt;Despite the best efforts of the Baltic powers, the Muscovite army was equal to its closest rivals technologically and militarily. Like the Livonians, the Muscovites relied heavily on cavalry, which in their case was a feudal levy provided by landholders as a condition for keeping their estates. Much of the infantry was formed in a similar fashion with the exception of the streltsy, a hereditary division of musketeers. Initially the streltsy was a mere 3,000 strong, but within only a few years would swell to over 15,000 men. Reinforcing the Muscovites was a large contingent of Cheremis, Circassians, Bashkirs, and Kazan Tatars who fought as vassals. The savage Tatars were particularly adept at instilling terror in the hearts of their enemies.&lt;/p&gt;
          396 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ivan the Terrible’s Invasion of Livonia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          397 &lt;p&gt;The 40,000-strong Muscovite army entered Livonian territory near the town of Neuhausen. Its three columns were jointly commanded by Ivan’s uncle, Mikhail Glinsky, and the Khan of Kazimov, Shah Ali, who led the 7,000-man Tatar contingent. Ivan’s close friend, Andrey Kurbsky, led the rear guard. Initially, the Livonians believed that the czar had come only to collect his tribute, but when Ivan refused an envoy who belatedly brought the tribute they quickly realized that it had all been a pretext. Ivan’s primary objective was not Dorpat but Narva, his window to the sea. In the meantime, the Muscovites bypassed or isolated the fortresses in their path and concentrated on looting the countryside to fuel their advance. Livonian towns were temporarily spared, but their fields were laid to waste.&lt;/p&gt;
          398 &lt;p&gt;The Muscovite army immediately commenced bombarding Narva upon reaching the city in early May. Defenders hunkered down and prepared for a long siege while sending out pleas for help in every direction. Reinforcements from Reval and Fellin soon arrived, but such gestures of defiance only enraged Ivan. On May 11, a large fire broke out in the center of the city that the Muscovites would later claim was caused by the attempted burning of two religious icons that, despite being the center of the conflagration, miraculously survived. The besiegers used the ensuing chaos as cover to successfully storm the walls and capture the city.&lt;/p&gt;
          399 &lt;p&gt;With Narva safely in his hands, Ivan next turned to gobbling up the rest of Livonia. Syrensk and Neuhausen capitulated without much trouble, and on July 19 Dorpat surrendered to Ivan’s Tatars in exchange for guarantees of its traditional liberties and trading privileges. The deal was greatly facilitated by the restraint shown by the Tatars, whom Ivan forbade to pillage the city. All across Livonia peasants were rising against their German masters, something the czar was keen to encourage through demonstrations of his benevolence. The lack of popular resistance enabled the Muscovites to raid as far inland as Riga. Before the close of the year, some 20 fortresses lay under their control.&lt;/p&gt;
          400 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Six-Month Truce&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          401 &lt;p&gt;The Livonian Order and remaining independent cities frantically begged for assistance from anyone who would listen, but their pleas produced very little. The Hanse was in no position to aid its fellow cities, and the Holy Roman Emperor offered nothing beyond his sympathies. Gotthard Kettler, elected as the new Grand Master of the Order, petitioned Poland-Lithuania for help, but King Sigismund was reluctant to intercede for fear of inciting a conflict with Sweden or Denmark. Sweden, meanwhile, showed interest in replacing the Livonians as the middlemen in the Muscovite trade, which was now flourishing out of Narva. King Gustav Vasa played a delicate game of placating Ivan while attempting to curb Muscovy’s improved trading conditions. It was not until early 1559 that the Livonians at last received a glimmer of hope when King Frederick II of Denmark volunteered to mediate a truce.&lt;/p&gt;
          402 &lt;p&gt;It was not a moment too soon. The Muscovites, having crossed the Dvina River, were rampaging through Courland and closing in on Riga. Ivan was in no mood for a truce, but the czar’s chief adviser, Alexei Adashev, implored him to accept the Danish offer, fearing Tatar activity along Muscovy’s southern border. Having failed the previous summer to coax Sigismund into an alliance, Ivan worried that a Baltic coalition was forming against him, although Sigismund’s rejection was a direct result of Ivan’s exorbitant stipulations rather than any plans of his own to attack. Grudgingly, Ivan agreed to a six-month truce in May 1559, even though the order’s refusal to come under his suzerainty and Denmark’s empty yet annoying claim to Livonia as a Danish dependency left a bitter taste in his mouth.&lt;/p&gt;
          403 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Breaking the Truce&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          404 &lt;p&gt;The Livonian Order had been reeling, but the truce unexpectedly bought it precious time that Kettler put to good use. On August 31, he and the Archbishop of Riga signed the Treaty of Vilna establishing Livonia as a Lithuanian protectorate. Lithuanian troops promptly marched north to occupy southern Livonia from Riga to Dünaburg. Poland remained uninvolved, although Sigismund mocked Ivan’s supposed conquest by inquiring, “What ruler concludes a treaty with his own subjects?” The sentiment was to prove premature.&lt;/p&gt;
          405 &lt;p&gt;Emboldened, Kettler treacherously violated the truce one month before its expiration with an offensive into Muscovite-occupied territory. The surprise caught Ivan at a particularly bad time—his beloved wife, Anastasia, was showing the first symptoms of the illness that would soon kill her. News of the defeat of one of his armies by the order only incensed him further. Kettler had overplayed his hand. Without direct Lithuanian support, he had little chance of success. Following a poorly orchestrated siege of Dorpat, the Livonian knights withdrew.&lt;/p&gt;
          406 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Battles at Ermes and Fellin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          407 &lt;p&gt;Although many of Muscovy’s best soldiers had since been transferred south to face the Tatar threat, as 1560 dawned the weakness of the Livonian Order all but guaranteed the success of a counteroffensive. Marienburg fell in February; Weissenstein followed in March. The offensive continued with ruthless efficiency until, on August 2, it reached its glorious climax. In an attempt to break the ongoing siege of Fellin, a band of a few hundred knights under Philip von Bell rode forth at Ermes to challenge the entire Muscovite army of Prince I.F. Mstislavsky, which numbered in the thousands. Predictably, Mstislavsky crushed the suicidal force and captured Bell.&lt;/p&gt;
          408 &lt;p&gt;Three weeks later Fellin surrendered. Its impressive collection of 450 cannons, although formidable, could not halt the inevitable. The Livonian Order’s military power abruptly ceased to exist. Ivan forced the defeated knights to take part in a humiliating parade through the streets of Moscow. In an audience with the czar, Bell complained, “You are attempting to conquer our fatherland in a bloody, unjust way.” When he went on to question the czar’s Christian morals, it proved a step too far. Ivan ordered him tortured and executed. The recent death of his wife left him with little patience to spare his enemies—or, as it would soon become clear, his friends.&lt;/p&gt;
          409 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Opportunism in the Northern Seven Years’ War&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          410 &lt;p&gt;The victories at Ermes and Fellin, although spectacular, proved insufficient to give Ivan complete control of Livonia. Time had run out. Muscovy’s Baltic rivals began moving in to grab up whatever Livonian territory the czar had yet to occupy. The Treaty of Vilna aside, Denmark was the first to step in. In 1559, Frederick purchased the Livonian bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, which he granted to his brother Magnus the following year in exchange for Holstein. Magnus intended the deal to be the first step in establishing his own Livonian kingdom. The new king of Sweden, Erik XIV, made the next move in May 1561, when he agreed to protect Reval in return for its suzerainty to the Swedish crown. Erik planned to use Reval to control the flow of trade into Muscovite Narva. A few months later, Swedish forces moved south and occupied Pernau, Padis, and Leal, claiming all of Estonia as their own.&lt;/p&gt;
          411 &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Sigismund arrived to absorb what was left of Livonia into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Kettler solidified his allegiance by secularizing the order and creating his own duchies in Courland and Semigallia under Lithuanian protection. Then, in March 1562, Riga agreed to Lithuanian protection as well. With that, any semblance of Livonian independence was gone forever.&lt;/p&gt;
          412 &lt;p&gt;Tensions still stirred beneath the surface between Denmark, Sweden, and Poland-Lithuania regarding trade with Muscovy. In 1563, the feuding became dynastic when Erik imprisoned his brother Johan shortly after the latter married Sigismund’s sister, Catherine. A harsh opponent of Muscovy, Johan had threatened Erik’s work in Livonia by exchanging funds for castles with Poland. As a result, the king ordered his arrest. Within a matter of months events boiled over into what became known as the Northern Seven Years’ War, pitting Poland and Denmark against Sweden. Ivan was left free to take advantage of his rivals’ distraction.&lt;/p&gt;
          413 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cruelty at Polotsk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          414 &lt;p&gt;The czar chose Lithuania as his next target, accusing it of conspiring against him with Crimean Tatars. His pretext established, Ivan crossed the border with an army of 50,000 men in November 1562. Ivan’s primary goal was the capture of Polotsk, the key to dominating both the Western Dvina and the road to Riga. Although Ivan was present during the initial stages of the campaign, the Muscovite army was officially commanded by I.V. Sheremetev and I.M. Voronstov. Despite virtually no Lithuanian resistance along the march, the army moved slowly, often becoming confused in the thick forests. At one point, an exasperated Ivan took out his frustrations on a prince by beating the poor man to death with a mace. Nevertheless, on January 31, 1563, the Muscovites safely reached their destination and made preparations for a siege.&lt;/p&gt;
          415 &lt;p&gt;The siege of Polotsk was a brilliant demonstration of the growing sophistication of the Muscovite army. Surrounded by an overwhelming force, the defenders and their mercenary allies had little chance of successful resistance even though their fortress was more formidable than most. The Muscovites and their Tatar auxiliaries came supremely prepared, bringing with them preconstructed siege towers, ample provisions, and three artillery units that, along with musketeers, they strategically positioned on a small island on the Dvina to provide cover fire for the assault.&lt;/p&gt;
          416 &lt;p&gt;On February 15, a fire erupted in the center of Polotsk, although this time the culprit was artillery fire rather than allegedly divine intervention. The Muscovites seized the opportunity to storm the city. Their hopes dwindling, the defenders held out for another week before surrendering the citadel. Ivan had previously sworn to uphold the traditional liberties of the citizens, but upon its capture he went back on his word and drowned 300 local Jews in the Dvina after they refused to convert to Christianity. The czar was steadily building a reputation for unprecedented cruelty.&lt;/p&gt;
          417 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ivan’s Madness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          418 &lt;p&gt;The capture of Polotsk proved to be the pinnacle of the Lithuanian campaign. On January 26, 1564, the Muscovite army suffered a major reverse at the River Ula, convincing Ivan more than ever that traitors were among the Muscovites. One presumed traitor was his intimate friend Kurbsky, whom the czar accused of plotting the death of Czarina Anastasia. Kurbsky, already banished to Dorpat, fled to Lithuania. Writing to Ivan from exile, Kurbsky criticized the czar’s homicidal behavior and attested to his own past loyalty. Naturally, Ivan denied the charges. He and Kurbsky continued to swap insults and accusations.&lt;/p&gt;
          419 &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, events in Lithuania were going from bad to worse. In 1565, the Muscovites were again defeated at the Battle of Chashniki. Ivan became thoroughly distracted by activities at home, particularly those of his new secret police, the Oprichnina. His descent into madness was complete. The opportunity to exploit the ongoing northern war vanished in a sea of chaos.&lt;/p&gt;
          420 &lt;p&gt;Several years of relative quiet followed on the Livonian front while Ivan obsessed over domestic enemies and the Baltic powers fought among themselves. Then, in September 1568, the balance shifted suddenly when Swedish noblemen overthrew King Erik, who had become a somewhat milder version of Ivan, and replaced him with his brother Johan. Johan immediately concluded a peace with his brother-in-law Sigismund and changed policies to one hostile toward Muscovy. He also gradually wound down the war with Denmark, and the two kingdoms agreed to an armistice in November 1570.&lt;/p&gt;
          421 &lt;p&gt;Even more drastic changes were occurring on the southern coast of the Baltic, where it had become apparent that Sigismund was approaching the end of his life. Increased urgency arose to establish a firm bond between his Polish and Lithuanian realms. On July 1, 1569, the two states merged in what became known as the Union of Lublin, creating a force far stronger than that with which Ivan had previously had to contend.&lt;/p&gt;
          422 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Threats Along Ivan’s Borders&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          423 &lt;p&gt;Ivan was quick to recognize the new Baltic dynamics. He condemned Johan, refusing to even acknowledge Sweden’s growing influence, and ordered physical abuse upon the Swedish embassy in Moscow in retaliation for a similar incident involving Muscovite envoys in Stockholm. In stark contrast, he signed a new truce with Poland-Lithuania in June 1570. Despite its strengthening union with Lithuania, Poland needed peace to prepare for royal elections, which would occur upon Sigismund’s inevitable death. Ivan, for his part, entertained the idea of presenting himself as a candidate for the Polish throne and was thus willing to relinquish his claim on Riga in order to participate in the upcoming election.&lt;/p&gt;
          424 &lt;p&gt;In the meantime, unabated political turmoil and an increasing Tatar threat at home prevented Ivan from directly engaging Sweden. He therefore pursued a strategy whereby a proxy would continue his work in Livonia, eyeing Frederick’s brother Magnus for the role. With Frederick’s blessing, the ambitious Magnus eagerly traveled to Moscow in June 1570, where the czar crowned him king of Livonia, sealing the alliance by granting his daughter’s hand in marriage.&lt;/p&gt;
          425 &lt;p&gt;In what proved to be a critical miscalculation, Ivan also provided Magnus 25,000 troops with which to take Reval. Reaching the city was easy enough, but Magnus could not prevent the Swedes from reinforcing the garrison by sea. Nor could he expect further help from his brother, who was moving to conclude hostilities with Sweden rather than escalate them. Furthermore, the arrival of winter worked against Magnus; a favorite tactic of Reval defenders was to ice over walls to make them impossible to climb. In March 1571, with no Muscovite reinforcements forthcoming, Magnus abandoned his pitiful siege and returned home.&lt;/p&gt;
          426 &lt;p&gt;The czar could offer Magnus nothing more than his best wishes. The Oprichnina experiment had so weakened his state that a Tatar raid was able to do the unthinkable—penetrating as far north as Moscow and setting the city ablaze. Although Ivan soon regained control of the situation, the experience of seeing his own capital violated was so shocking that it awakened him to the folly of his recently disastrous policies. He abruptly disbanded the Oprichnina and plotted the restoration of his martial glory by completing the conquest of Livonia.&lt;/p&gt;
          427 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Invading Livonia Anew&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          428 &lt;p&gt;The czar’s triumphant return to Livonia began on Christmas Day 1572 with an invasion of Estonia. With Johan’s forces suffering from chronic lack of pay and diminished spirits, the Muscovites carried all before them. The first major town to fall was Weissenstein, on New Year’s Day 1573, after which Ivan ordered the fortress commander roasted alive as punishment for having to recapture the same cities over and over. It soon became apparent that the effects of years of misrule could not simply be roasted away. As the czar’s treasury dwindled, the offensive slowed to a crawl.&lt;/p&gt;
          429 &lt;p&gt;It was not until 1575 that the Muscovites took Pernau, and a renewed siege of Reval was thoroughly unrealistic. As it was, both Ivan and Johan desperately needed a respite, and they agreed to a two-year truce. In the meantime, Ivan worked to revitalize his war machine by moving against the Danes in relatively undefended Wiek. The province fell easily, and the Danish envoy in Moscow officially signed away future claims on the territory, thus effectively ending any Danish say in the fate of Livonia.&lt;/p&gt;
          430 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Pinnacle of Ivan’s Power&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          431 &lt;p&gt;In July 1577, Ivan led a reinvigorated Muscovite army of 30,000 men into Lithuanian Livonia. Marching with him was Magnus, whom the czar had decided to reinstate as king of Livonia. Within a short time, the Muscovites reached Wenden, where a cannonball nearly struck Ivan. Rather than meet the horrific fate in store for them, 300 men, women, and children blew themselves up within the fortress before its capture. Meanwhile, Magnus captured the cities of Wolmar and Kokenhausen with barely a shot fired. Given Ivan’s bloody reputation, townsfolk were quick to surrender to Magnus in the hopes he would protect them.&lt;/p&gt;
          432 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps made delusional by the ease with which he conquered, Magnus became too independent minded for his own good. Boldly, he dared to act as a true king instead of Ivan’s puppet, informing the czar that his conquests were in fact his own. Infuriated by such insolence, Ivan advanced on Kokenhausen, sacked the town, and executed the entire garrison. Even this example fell short of making the desired point to Magnus. Rather than accept his intended role, Magnus now wrote to Ivan demanding a halt to the brutal Muscovite offensive. In response, the czar marched on Wolmar and executed much of its garrison as well. This time Magnus took the hint and fled to Ösel.&lt;/p&gt;
          433 &lt;p&gt;Ivan’s 1577 campaign was magnificently successful, the only setback being the Lithuanian recapture of Dünaburg, which was liberated after the besiegers managed to tempt the defenders with barrels of wine and then scaled the walls once Ivan’s troops had become intoxicated. The czar was unaware for the time being that he had reached the pinnacle of his power. Poland-Lithuania had a new king, one who would prove to be a much more formidable adversary then any Ivan had faced thus far.&lt;/p&gt;
          434 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stefan Bathory’s Offensive Against Muscovy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          435 &lt;p&gt;Following a period of confusion, the newly united nation settled on Transylvanian prince Stefan Bathory as its monarch. Bathory, whose martial experience was already extensive, was no friend of Muscovy. He refused to even consider Ivan a real czar, referring to him only as a grand prince. He intended to forcefully contest Muscovy’s hold on Livonia. Well supplied with finances and an army of Germans, Hungarians, Cossacks, Tatars, Livonians, Poles, and Lithuanians, Bathory demanded all of Muscovite-controlled Livonia as the price for peace. Naturally, Ivan refused, laying down massive terms of his own, including possession of the important city of Kiev.&lt;/p&gt;
          436 &lt;p&gt;Before Bathory’s new army even took the offensive, the tide was turning in his favor. A Polish force recaptured Wenden in early 1578. Ivan called for reinforcements in the late summer and placed Wenden under siege. Both Poles and Swedes were present, and for the first and only time in the war the two unofficial allies fought side by side. In September, they struck back against Ivan’s 18,000 beseigers, driving the Muscovite cavalry from the field and leaving the infantry helplessly exposed in their trenches. The resulting massacre was tremendous. A third of the Muscovites perished. Artillerymen blew themselves up with their own cannons to escape capture and torture. Soon, Barthory was entertaining fantasies of conquering Muscovy itself.&lt;/p&gt;
          437 &lt;p&gt;Bathory formally declared war on June 26, 1579, adding a personal challenge for Ivan to face him in mortal combat. The czar declined, deciding to meet his adversary under less romantic circumstances on the battlefield. His army of 40,000 men was significantly smaller than Bathory’s 60,000-man force, but fortified positions within ravaged Livonia held some advantages. The Polish king devised a strategy to avoid further deprivation in Livonia by driving north to cut off the Muscovites. The threat to his homeland would force Ivan to withdraw and subsequently allow the Poles to liberate Livonia with minimal resistance.&lt;/p&gt;
          438 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Polish March on Pskov&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          439 &lt;p&gt;The Muscovites were completely unprepared. Reflecting Ivan’s assessment that Bathory’s troops were nothing more than “a small army of volunteers,” his forces were spread out all over Livonia. When the Polish campaign commenced in July, the czar, confused and indecisive, chose to divide his forces to cover Polotsk, Nevel, and Smolensk rather than await events with one strong army. As it turned out, one of his guesses was correct. Although the Poles were indeed marching on Polotsk, the Muscovite detachment was inadequate to stop them. The enemy simply pushed it aside, approached the walls of Polotsk, and commenced its bombardment on August 11. Three weeks later, the city capitulated. A Polish officer said later that he had “never seen so many corpses together.”&lt;/p&gt;
          440 &lt;p&gt;The relentless Polish advance rapidly erased more than 20 years of Muscovite rule. The Poles forced the surrender of fortresses throughout Livonia while raiding deep inside Muscovy itself. Ivan became so desperate for a truce that he requested papal mediation, but the pope’s intercession was not enough to bring Bathory to the negotiating table. In the summer of 1581, the king crossed the Muscovite border. His sights were set on Pskov, a city of 20,000 surrounded by thick walls and moats and guarded by a 16,000-man garrison.&lt;/p&gt;
          441 &lt;p&gt;While separate detachments raided Starodub, Tver, and Novgorod, which burned its own suburbs to deprive the enemy of them, Barthory’s main army advanced on the primary objective. The siege that was to climax the entire Livonian War began on August 25. Once again, Ivan could do little but await events. The entire population of Pskov mobilized in the defense of their city. The garrison’s commander, Ivan Shuisky, swore to defend it to the death. The atmosphere was thick with religious fervor. It was even purported that the cannons had been placed through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. If Bathory wanted Pskov, he would have to pay dearly for it.&lt;/p&gt;
          442 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;“Sire, We Shall Dine With You Tonight in Pskov!”&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          443 &lt;p&gt;The Poles commenced their bombardment on September 7. “Sire, we shall dine with you tonight in Pskov!” one officer boasted. But the Muscovites were too determined to collapse so easily. They drove back the first Polish assault, which only managed to capture two bastions, and subsequent attacks against the walls met with even less success. The Muscovites gave as good as they got, cunningly destroying every sapping tunnel and raining down return fire on the attackers’ heads. As September turned into October, Bathory grew nervous. His ammunition was running low—some of it was destroyed in an accidental fire—and an early winter threatened to make remaining in the field intolerable.&lt;/p&gt;
          444 &lt;p&gt;Ivan too was feeling an increased sense of urgency. News from the north was grim. The Swedes, now led by the French mercenary Pontus de la Gardie, were running rampant through Ingria and Karelia; the entire Gulf of Finland was in their hands. At the height of the bloodletting at Pskov, word filtered in that Narva had fallen. Nothing could have been more disastrous. With the Swedes unchallenged and threatening Novgorod, the Poles had to be stopped at all cost.&lt;/p&gt;
          445 &lt;p&gt;On October 28, Bathory launched an all-out assault on Pskov. A detachment of soldiers advancing in the old Roman tortoise formation crept forward in the direction of one of the corner towers to dig a ditch and undermine its foundation. The town’s defenders poured down boiling tar on the attackers, who broke and fled in utter agony. Bathory ordered a second attack, but it too met with disastrous results. A few days later, on November 2, he tried one final time. When this too failed, he sent word to the Muscovites that he was willing to negotiate.&lt;/p&gt;
          446 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ivan Left Empty Handed&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          447 &lt;p&gt;The two sides met to discuss terms with the papal meditators at Yam Zapolsky. Even after their failure to take Pskov, the Poles unmistakably maintained the upper hand. Bathory, not convinced the war was over, returned to Poland to beg the Diet for more funds, leaving behind a subordinate to conduct negotiations and contend with an army that was nearing mutiny.&lt;/p&gt;
          448 &lt;p&gt;For his part, Ivan was desperate for peace. After decades of war and domestic upheaval, Ivan’s kingdom risked total collapse if it did not find some relief. The terms for such relief were harsh. In exchange for a 10-year truce, Poland demanded Muscovite recognition of Polish suzerainty over central and southern Livonia. On January 15, 1582, Ivan caved in to all the Polish demands. Bathory, who could hardly turn down such an advantageous peace, abandoned his efforts to continue the war.&lt;/p&gt;
          449 &lt;p&gt;Peace with Sweden came the following summer, and Ivan made no attempt to recapture Narva. Ivangorod too was lost, with no chance of being regained through negotiation. Sweden, barely a factor in the eastern Baltic prior to 1558, was now a full-blown empire that would prove to be a thorn in Russia’s side for the next 120 years.&lt;/p&gt;
          450 &lt;p&gt;Twenty-five years and countless lives later, Ivan’s invasion of Livonia had achieved nothing. The war that was meant to open up the new Russian empire instead reinforced the isolation of old Muscovy. A year later, in 1584, Ivan died, leaving behind an exhausted state and ushering in a period of political turmoil that Russians would remember as “the Time of Troubles.” But Ivan the Terrible’s failure in Livonia did not permanently discourage his fellow Russians. Rather, his territorial ambitions would remain a fundamental element of the Russian character until, a century later, another czar, Alexis, fulfilled Ivan’s dream of a permanent window on the Baltic Sea.&lt;/p&gt;
          451 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article &lt;a href=&quot;https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/12/16/when-ivan-became-terrible/&quot;&gt;first appeared&lt;/a&gt; on the Warfare History Network.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          452 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivan_the_Terrible_and_Horsey.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          453 
          454 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/terrible-and-ineffective-ivan-ivs-failed-strategy-still-haunts-russia-190716&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          455 </item>
          456  <item> <title>In 1987, North Korea Celebrated the Olympics With a Bang</title>
          457  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190736</link>
          458  <description>As the aircraft is soaring above the Andaman Sea, the bomb detonates with such violence that the pilot does not even have time to report the blast on the radio.</description>
          459  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
          460  <category>North Korea</category>
          461  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190736</guid>
          462  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:23 EDT</pubDate>
          463  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          464  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          465 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;North Korea, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          466 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206784&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/1987-north-korea-celebrated-olympics-bang-190736&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/northkorea_14.jpg?itok=O16zw87L&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          467 &lt;h3&gt;As the aircraft is soaring above the Andaman Sea, the bomb detonates with such violence that the pilot does not even have time to report the blast on the radio.&lt;/h3&gt;
          468 &lt;title&gt;In 1987, North Korea Celebrated the Olympics With a Bang&lt;/title&gt;
          469 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;North Korea is not the only state to destroy an airliner full of civilians the 1980s. In 1988, a U.S. cruiser shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290, while Soviet fighters earlier&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/the-su-15-was-the-doom-of-airliners-and-a-cosmonaut/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; shot down two South Korean airliners&lt;/a&gt;, on&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/a-soviet-fighter-planes-tragic-error-brought-us-google-maps/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; the second occasion killing 269&lt;/a&gt;. These incidents killed more people and reflect poorly on both countries, but were not intentional acts of terrorism.&lt;/p&gt;
          470 &lt;p&gt;Near midnight on November 28, 1987, a young woman and an older man board a 707 airliner on the tarmac of Baghdad International Airport. South Korea Flight 858 is bound for Seoul with layovers on Abu Dhabi and Bangkok. The couple seats itself on seats 7B and 7C, pausing to stuff a bag in the overhead compartment.&lt;/p&gt;
          471 &lt;p&gt;Most of the 104 passengers are South Korean construction and oil workers returning home after years working on projects in Iraq. But the young lady’s passport indicates that she is a Japanese woman named Mayumi Hachiya, while her companion is Shinichi Hachiya, her father. Since November 12, the two have spent the last few weeks on a whirlwind tour of Moscow, Budapest, Vienna and Belgrade.&lt;/p&gt;
          472 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/who-would-win-war-between-china-japan-21041&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between China and Japan Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          473 &lt;p&gt;Flight 858 is heading back to a country on the brink of a dramatic transformation. In just two and a half weeks, the Republic of Korea will hold its first free and fair election after decades of authoritarian rule in which hundreds of political activists have been arrested or killed. And in three months, Seoul will host the 1988 Olympic games, a momentous event for a nation which just twenty-five years earlier numbered amongst the poorest in Asia. After a decades of Cold War boycotts, this Olympics finally promises to reunite most of the Eastern and Western teams.&lt;/p&gt;
          474 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-vs-nato-who-would-win-war-22167&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between NATO and Russia Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          475 &lt;p&gt;1987 is also the year film &lt;em&gt;The Living Daylights &lt;/em&gt;came out in which James Bond teams up with a deadly female Communist agent. The passengers on Flight 858 would have only had to look at seat 7B to see the genuine article, for Mayumi’s real name was Kim Hyon-hui, a spy for North Korean intelligence. The daughter of a diplomat and a budding actress, she had been whisked away at age 19 by North Korean intelligence due to her Japanese language skills and striking appearance.&lt;/p&gt;
          476 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/terrifying-tale-why-war-between-china-america-would-be-all-21740&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between America and China Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          477 &lt;p&gt;For six years she had lived under a new name and been instructed in hand-to-hand combat and small arms. She could speak Japanese, English and Chinese fluently and had been personally tutored by Yaeko Taguchi, a woman kidnapped at age 22 from Japan for this very purpose—yes,&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/north-koreas-abduction-project&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; this was an actual practice of North Korean intelligence&lt;/a&gt;. Kim also received training in aspects of Western life foreign to most North Koreans, such as supermarkets, credit cards and international travel, and previously spent a year traveling in Europe to acclimatize.&lt;/p&gt;
          478 &lt;p&gt;Kim Hyon Hui and her co-agent Kim Seung-il—a veteran spy with years of experience—obtained their forged passports in Budapest, and then while visiting Vienna received a large Panasonic transistor radio and a bottle of liquor from two contacts from North Korea intelligence. Concealed inside the radio were 350 grams of C4 explosives, while 700 milliliters of PLX filled the liquid bottle. A timer was set to detonate the C4 in nine hours, which would then ignite the PLX for even greater destructive effect.&lt;/p&gt;
          479 &lt;p&gt;But the two agents do not plan to commit suicide, disembarking during the layover at Abu Dhabi. Flight 858 takes off for the next leg of the journey, bound this time for Bangkok. But as the aircraft is soaring above the Andaman Sea, the bomb detonates with such violence that the pilot does not even have time to report the blast on the radio. All 115 passengers and crew on board are killed. Though wreckage washes up on beaches in Thailand, a massive search fails to find the doomed airliner’s flight recorder.&lt;/p&gt;
          480 &lt;p&gt;The North Korean agents make their way to Bahrain. Weeks earlier they had booked a flight from there to Rome, but it’s not scheduled to depart for two days. South Korean intelligence has already singled out their presence on the passenger list as suspicious, and the two are detained when security agents notice that their passports are forged.&lt;/p&gt;
          481 &lt;p&gt;While the security guards confer outside the interrogation room, Kim Seung Il tells his partner that there is only one way their mission will end, and apologizes that she must die so young. He sticks a cigarette in his mouth and hands another to her.&lt;/p&gt;
          482 &lt;p&gt;As security agents return, Seung-il chomps down the cigarette, puncturing the cyanide capsule concealed within it. His body’s ability to process oxygen fatally compromised, he dies swiftly.&lt;/p&gt;
          483 &lt;p&gt;Hyon-hui also bites down on her cigarette and passes out. But a Bahraini policewoman manages to pluck the poisoned cigarette from her mouth before she can ingest a full dose. Kim survives.&lt;/p&gt;
          484 &lt;p&gt;While Kim recovers over several days, a Bahraini and Japanese agent repeatedly question Kim. She sticks to a cover story that she is an orphan from northern China raised in Japan by her father. But the two interrogators repeatedly insinuate that she was in a sexual relationship with Seung-il until Hyon Hui loses her temper. In an unexpected display of her martial arts training, she breaks her Japanese interrogator’s nose, then disables the Bahraini investigator with a punch to the groin and snatches his pistol, intending to kill herself. But then she is caught in a headlock by a guard and finally zapped with a stun gun.&lt;/p&gt;
          485 &lt;p&gt;This incident, and the fact that poisoned cigarettes had been found in the past on North Korean agents captured by South Korea, lead to her being flown to South Korea for interrogation. There is a media frenzy as footage is released of her being hustled off a plane in Seoul International Airport with her bobbed hair and checkered black and white coat, her mouth taped to prevent self-harm.&lt;/p&gt;
          486 &lt;p&gt;The South Korean interrogators begin to repeatedly press her in Chinese, Japanese and Korean to confess. By Kim’s own account, it is a tour of the bustling streets of Seoul on the seventh day of interrogation that finally shatters her resolve as she realizes it is not the impoverished, repressive wasteland depicted by North Korean propaganda.&lt;/p&gt;
          487 &lt;p&gt;The following day she confesses the truth. She and her colleague had been dispatched to blow up Flight 858 in a bid to sow chaos ahead of the first democratic election in South Korea—and to discourage attendance of the Seoul Olympics. She claims she was told these were direct orders from Kim Jong Il, then the son of the current ruler of North Korea.&lt;/p&gt;
          488 &lt;p&gt;Pyongyang is outraged, &lt;em&gt;outraged &lt;/em&gt;to be accused of perpetrating the airline bombing. North Korea maintains even today that Kim Hyon Hui and her accomplice were agents of South Korea, that the South Koreans have bombed themselves. (Pro tip: the “they bombed themselves” defense is almost never true.)&lt;/p&gt;
          489 &lt;p&gt;The Soviet Union echoes the denial, though Beijing, perhaps more intimately familiar with Pyongyang’s tendencies, declines to offer comment. But even columnists in American newspapers are initially skeptical, wondering whether Seoul had extracted the confession through torture. Nonetheless, the incident leads the United States to add North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a status it will hold for two decades.&lt;/p&gt;
          490 &lt;p&gt;Kim is tried and sentenced to death in March, though she is then pardoned by President Roe Tae-woo, who describes her as a “victim” of brainwashing. The Seoul Olympics proceed successfully. In addition to highlighting to South Korea’s modernization and transition to democracy, they are the last in which the Soviet Union participate.&lt;/p&gt;
          491 &lt;p&gt;In 1990, the film&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-FClJgDJoI&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;Mayumi&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; depicts Kim’s story on the big screen. A year later, Hyon-hui herself publishes her own account, &lt;em&gt;Tears of My Soul&lt;/em&gt;, which narrates her thoughts and emotions as she plants the bomb on Flight 858 and later is interrogated in Bahrain and South Korea. She donates all the royalties to the victims of the bombing. The former agent maintains she deserved execution, and is consumed by guilt for her role in the murder of the 115 men and women onboard Flight 858.&lt;/p&gt;
          492 &lt;p&gt;Kim also expresses concern for the fate of Taguchi, her Japanese language instructor, and later visits Japan to meet with her family and others who have had loved ones snatched away by Pyongyang. (North Korea admitted to kidnapping Yaeko Taguchi but claims she died in 1986, though Japanese sources maintain she may still be alive.) Kim eventually marries one of the bodyguards assigned to protect her, and remains a fierce critic of the government that trained her to become a killer.&lt;/p&gt;
          493 &lt;p&gt;Kim Hyon-Hui’s story parallels that of many other North Korean agents captured by South Korea after bloody incidents, such as Lee Kwang-Soo, survivor of a&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/1996-dead-north-korean-spy-submarine-armed-commandos-nearly-19750&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; grounded North Korean spy submarine&lt;/a&gt;, and Kim Shin-Jo, one of two commandos to survive a&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/how-north-koreas-crazy-commandos-tried-kill-south-koreas-22431&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;n assault on the presidential Blue House in 1968&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
          494 &lt;p&gt;Of course, North Korea is not the only state to destroy an airliner full of civilians the 1980s. In 1988, a U.S. cruiser shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 290, while Soviet fighters earlier&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/the-su-15-was-the-doom-of-airliners-and-a-cosmonaut/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; shot down two South Korean airliners&lt;/a&gt;, on&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/a-soviet-fighter-planes-tragic-error-brought-us-google-maps/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; the second occasion killing 269&lt;/a&gt;. These incidents killed more people and reflect poorly on both countries, but were not intentional acts of terrorism.&lt;/p&gt;
          495 &lt;p&gt;However, the bombing of Flight 858 more closely resembles the Lockerbie bombing perpetrated by Libyan agents in 1988. Both were deliberate and spiteful state-led projects to massacre civilians in pursuance of political objectives. It still sounds absurd to state the fact plainly: North Korea blew up an airliner to drive down attendance at an athletic event.&lt;/p&gt;
          496 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Is Boring&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article is being republished due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          497 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          498 
          499 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/1987-north-korea-celebrated-olympics-bang-190736&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          500 </item>
          501  <item> <title>With This Technology, Airplanes Could Launch Satellites... or ICBMs</title>
          502  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190672</link>
          503  <description>ICBMs—intercontinental ballistic missiles as they are known—typically launch from hardened silos deep underground so they are protected from nuclear blasts.</description>
          504  <author>Caleb Larson</author>
          505  <category>ICBMs</category>
          506  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190672</guid>
          507  <pubDate>Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:22 EDT</pubDate>
          508  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          509  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Caleb Larson&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          510 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;ICBMs, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          511 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206737&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/technology-airplanes-could-launch-satellites-or-icbms-190672&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/14723776137_91aea523ca_o%20%281%29.jpg?itok=qbrTTQ9E&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          512 &lt;h3&gt;ICBMs—intercontinental ballistic missiles as they are known—typically launch from hardened silos deep underground so they are protected from nuclear blasts.&lt;/h3&gt;
          513 &lt;title&gt;With This Technology, Airplanes Could Launch Satellites... or ICBMs&lt;/title&gt;
          514 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Know&lt;/strong&gt;: In addition to launching ICBMs, the patent also explains that the air-based vertical launch system could be used in a ground-attack role or for laying mines. Moreover, the patent explains that during peacetime, the system could be used to launch satellites into space.&lt;/p&gt;
          515 &lt;p&gt;ICBMs are typically launched from underground silos, submarines, or mobile launchers. This proposal would shoot ICBMs through a plane’s fuselage.&lt;/p&gt;
          516 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Planes, Trains, and Automobiles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          517 &lt;p&gt;ICBMs—intercontinental ballistic missiles as they are known—typically launch from hardened silos deep underground so they are protected from nuclear blasts. ICBMs were initially propelled using liquid fuel that required extensive support infrastructure and long preparation times. Missile therefore had to be constantly kept on high alert in order to rapidly respond to a launch order.&lt;/p&gt;
          518 &lt;p&gt;In the 1960s, ICBM fuel shifted from liquid to solid fuel. Solid fuel required considerably less preparation than liquid fuel, and thus benefited from shorter launch countdowns and thus quicker response times. Some countries, &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-france-once-had-its-nuclear-weapons-aimed-germany-155326&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;including France&lt;/a&gt;, have moved away from ground-based silos in favor of other delivery systems, primarily air and submarine-based.&lt;/p&gt;
          519 &lt;p&gt;Mobile ICBM launchers are another option that has enjoyed much more success outside the United States. Mobile launchers are by definition, mobile. This addresses the primary weakness of silo-based ICBMs, the fact that they are immobile and could be targeted during a conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
          520 &lt;p&gt;Countries like China and &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russia%E2%80%99s-mobile-missiles-putins-ultimate-weapon-america-cant-match-142412&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Russia especially&lt;/a&gt; display their road-mobile ICBMs during military parades. These multi-wheel movers typically have one very large diameter missile mated to the roof that can be launched at a moment’s notice. They benefit from having good on- and off-road capabilities.&lt;/p&gt;
          521 &lt;p&gt;During the 1980s, the U.S. Air Force developed a rail-mobile ICBM system. The Peacekeeper Rail Garrison would have put 50 ICBMs into rail launchers that could be ferried around the country in case of a conflict. The system was intended to keep America’s ICBMs dispersed and safe from a nuclear attack.&lt;/p&gt;
          522 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps the &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/meet-russia%E2%80%99s-underwater-hypersonic-cruise-missiles-145322&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;best-protected ICBM delivery system&lt;/a&gt; is the submarine. Submarines deep underwater can sail nearly silently—purpose-built ICBM submarines are nuclear-powered to allow subs to stay submerged for their entire patrol if necessary. Their mission is simple, leave port undetected, and wait out at sea, ready to launch nuclear missiles at a moment’s notice.&lt;/p&gt;
          523 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Air-based Vertical Launch System&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          524 &lt;p&gt;One of the stranger delivery system ideas was a so-called air-based vertical launch system that would have launched ICBMs upwards &lt;em&gt;through&lt;/em&gt; a plane’s fuselage. According to a number of &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; href=&quot;https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/55/0a/4f/377f911a3c6ad1/US7849778.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;interesting patents&lt;/a&gt;, an air-based launch system had a few interesting benefits. Since this system would be airborne, it would not be as exposed to an enemy attack during wartime like land-based missile silos would be. &lt;/p&gt;
          525 &lt;p&gt;Explanatory diagrams in the patent show missiles in the center of the fuselage in much the same way that missiles are stored in submarines. 12 missiles are stored in the center, just aft of the wings and are as tall as the plane’s body, in this case a Boeing 747. Missiles are shown launching from the plane and onto land-based targets.&lt;/p&gt;
          526 &lt;p&gt;In addition to launching ICBMs, the patent also explains that the air-based vertical launch system could be used in a ground-attack role or for laying mines. Moreover, the patent explains that during peacetime, the system could be used to launch satellites into space.&lt;/p&gt;
          527 &lt;p&gt;Will we see an air-based vertical launch system anytime soon? We’ll see, stay tuned.&lt;/p&gt;
          528 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Caleb Larson holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. He lives in Berlin and writes on U.S. and Russian foreign and defense policy, German politics, and culture. This article first appeared in May 2020.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          529 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/14723776137/in/photolist-9rTdTV-yUoybq-LQ9cUB-jAJQNc-qK4j7F-oAXrMJ-qE2aA4-or6cFg-p81zeB-ASSpR9-r5cEp1-rGZmqg-yMmLFq-cibd4j-7dy72n-kdxg7a-9uGmXs-9EkrvQ-xikFcq-frjtDW-9uog2y-nvDRzU-xinKFa-AosLdm-Qx9Mpm-9c3wbs-osyZHR-9swfK1-9sJtfE-9AufWN-7w8ZxD-jAJT5r-cibdkj-nHXFMZ-hyUdsB-9st2Cj-7xdjJU-8BE2EH-cib5UE-8JPyQh-8XSdDK-f1dQb8-iEsZ2H-8XSdHZ-9Viik6-mhqEa8-cib5uQ-9c3RbN-cibaas-aVT7vB&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Flickr.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          530 
          531 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/technology-airplanes-could-launch-satellites-or-icbms-190672&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          532 </item>
          533  <item> <title>Why Japan Skipped Over Glock In Favor of the Heckler and Koch SFP9</title>
          534  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190982</link>
          535  <description>Japan&#039;s choice marks the first time the SFP9 has been adopted by a national military.</description>
          536  <author>Richard Douglas</author>
          537  <category>Guns</category>
          538  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190982</guid>
          539  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 23:33 EDT</pubDate>
          540  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          541  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Richard Douglas&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          542 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Guns, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          543 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/207018&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/why-japan-skipped-over-glock-favor-heckler-and-koch-sfp9-190982&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/HK%20Gun.jpg?itok=PJE3BNX9&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          544 &lt;h3&gt;Japan&#039;s choice marks the first time the SFP9 has been adopted by a national military.&lt;/h3&gt;
          545 &lt;title&gt;Why Japan Skipped Over Glock In Favor of the Heckler and Koch SFP9&lt;/title&gt;
          546 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember:&lt;/strong&gt; Accuracy is the most important characteristic in Japanese pistol training, with speed being of secondary importance. With the Minebea P9, emphasis is placed on landing accurate shots in single action mode, as opposed to learning to fire a rapid double-action first shot followed by single-action shots.&lt;/p&gt;
          547 &lt;p&gt;On the 6th of December 2019, the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) &lt;a href=&quot;https://euro-sd.com/2019/12/news/15485/new-rifle-and-handgun-for-the-japanese-self-defence-forces/&quot;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; that they would adopt a new pistol, the Heckler and Koch SFP9 for the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF). This marks the first time the SFP9 has been adopted by a national military; prior it was only bought by police organizations. The SFP9 is slated to replace the Minebea P9, a license-produced variant of the SIG P220.&lt;/p&gt;
          548 &lt;p&gt;From the Japanese MoD’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget, we know that the H&amp;K SFP9 competed against the Glock 17 and Beretta APX. Given the recent dominance of Glock at winning contracts worldwide, H&amp;K’s win comes at a small surprise. But a look into Japanese small arms training provides a possible reason why.&lt;/p&gt;
          549 &lt;p&gt;Accuracy is the most important characteristic in Japanese pistol training, with speed being of secondary importance. With the Minebea P9, emphasis is placed on landing accurate shots in single action mode, as opposed to learning to fire a rapid double-action first shot followed by single-action shots.&lt;/p&gt;
          550 &lt;p&gt;If such emphasis is placed on accuracy, the SFP9 has the edge over the Glock. In factory configuration, the SFP9 is considered to have a better trigger than a stock Glock, with less creep and a crisper break.&lt;/p&gt;
          551 &lt;p&gt;The SFP9 also has a more customizable grip, with exchangeable side panels and rear grip sections being provided with each pistol as issued. The Glock only comes with additional rear backstraps, so the user can only adjust the length of the grip, not the width. The SFP9’s grip is also more rounded than the Glock’s grip, which some users find boxy.&lt;/p&gt;
          552 &lt;p&gt;Anecdotally, the Glock 17 is harder to shoot accurately than the SIG P220. Swiss soldiers that have transitioned from the P220 to the Glock 17 have found it harder to shoot at longer range targets in service pistol competitions due to the more difficult trigger on the Glock compared to the single action trigger on the P220. In testing, it’s likely that Japanese evaluators had similar experiences, so they were probably hesitant to adopt a new pistol that’s harder to shoot accurately than their current pistol.&lt;/p&gt;
          553 &lt;p&gt;The SFP9 also doesn’t require pulling the trigger to disassemble. While the Glock has served in many conscript militaries without this being an issue, it still does pose some level of risk. As the Japanese MoD did not evaluate the Glock model that can be disassembled without pulling the trigger (the Glock 46), the SFP9 holds an advantage in this regard from a risk management perspective.&lt;/p&gt;
          554 &lt;p&gt;Finally, the SFP9’s adoption could have benefited from the existing relationship between H&amp;K and the JSDF. Special purpose Japanese units are known to use H&amp;K USP pistols, so the JSDF is already familiar with how H&amp;K handles maintenance, training, and support for their products. Glocks on the other hand, are not known to be used in large numbers by any JSDF unit.&lt;/p&gt;
          555 &lt;p&gt;Regardless, the adoption of the SFP9 by the JSDF is a major milestone for the pistol. Despite some commentary and speculation that the SFP9 (or VP9 on the American civilian market) was not “military” ready, the JSDF’s adoption may open the gates for other militaries adopting the pistol in the near future.&lt;/p&gt;
          556 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Charlie Gao studied Political and Computer Science at Grinnell College and is a frequent commentator on defense and national security issues.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          557 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Image: Wikimedia Commons&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          558 
          559 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-japan-skipped-over-glock-favor-heckler-and-koch-sfp9-190982&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          560 </item>
          561  <item> <title>Ruger&#039;s SR22 Pistol: What Can&#039;t This Gun Do?</title>
          562  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190995</link>
          563  <description>The Ruger SR22 can do a little bit of everything.</description>
          564  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
          565  <category>Guns</category>
          566  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190995</guid>
          567  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 23:11 EDT</pubDate>
          568  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          569  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          570 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Guns, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          571 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/207032&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/rugers-sr22-pistol-what-cant-gun-do-190995&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Ruger%20%281%29.jpg?itok=-lDvoRjO&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          572 &lt;h3&gt;The Ruger SR22 can do a little bit of everything.&lt;/h3&gt;
          573 &lt;title&gt;Ruger&#039;s SR22 Pistol: What Can&#039;t This Gun Do?&lt;/title&gt;
          574 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember:&lt;/strong&gt; The SR22 is a well-balanced rimfire pistol that can do a little bit of everything, from target shooting at the range to light hunting and even home defense.&lt;/p&gt;
          575 &lt;p&gt;The field of rimfire pistols is a crowded one, with a large variety of pistols to choose from. The Ruger SR22 pistol manages to stand out by combining a modern look with versatility to match the user, from the ability to customize the pistol’s ergonomics to the installation of threaded barrels. The result is a pistol at home with target shooters or home defense enthusiasts alike, and an excellent training pistol, especially for younger shooters.&lt;/p&gt;
          576 &lt;p&gt;Ruger is no stranger to the rimfire market, having produced the Ruger Mark IV target pistol and the 10/22 semiautomatic rifle for decades. The absence of a do-everything .22 LR pistol was a conspicuous hole in the company’s product lineup until 2012, when Ruger introduced the SR22 at the annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://ruger.com/products/sr22Pistol/models.html&quot;&gt;SR22&lt;/a&gt; is based on the Ruger LCP double action pocket pistol, using the same hammer-fired fire control system.&lt;/p&gt;
          577 &lt;p&gt;The SR22 is both a single and double-action pistol, with a rounded hammer for single action cocking. This dramatically reduces trigger pull and makes it more accurate for aimed shots. The hammer is both skeletonized and has a rounded spur for reduced weight and ease of operation. The relatively low recoil and force of the .22 round makes the use of an aluminum slide possible, matched with a polymer frame. The barrel itself is stainless steel. This reduces overall weight to just 17.5 ounces, or just over a pound.&lt;/p&gt;
          578 &lt;p&gt;One of the major advantages of the SR22 is a focus on ergonomics. The SR22’s aluminum slide is machined with serrations to ensure a positive grip when chambering the first round. The weapon has a fully ambidextrous safety/manual decocking lever and ambidextrous magazine release, making it comfortable for both left and right handed shooters. Ruger’s rimfire pistol also has two interchangeable rubberized grips for adjusting palm swell size, allowing it to adapt to shooters with smaller or larger hands.&lt;/p&gt;
          579 &lt;p&gt;The SR22’s stainless steel barrel is available in both threaded and non-threaded versions, and is easily replaceable by the user. This allows the use of a muzzle brake or compensator for competition use, but also the use of a suppressor for an overall reduction in firing noise. The SR22 is available in two barrel lengths, 3.5 inches and 4.5 inches.&lt;/p&gt;
          580 &lt;p&gt;The SR22 also has a number of safety features to enhance overall operating safety. The pistol has a manual safety and decocking lever, giving the user the ability to restrict the pistol from firing and bringing down the internal firing system without discharging the weapon. The weapon also has a loaded chamber indicator allowing the user to tell at a glance whether or not a live round is in the chamber.&lt;/p&gt;
          581 &lt;p&gt;Users aim the SR22 using the built-in three dot sighting system, allowing quick pick up even in low light situations. The front blade sight has a single white dot while the rear sights have two white dots and are user-reversible to utilize a single black blade. The rear sights are adjustable for elevation and windage. The handgun also has a Picatinny rail located in front of the trigger well running beneath the barrel to the muzzle. This U.S. military-standard rail allows for the installation of laser aiming devices or flashlight attachments for night or indoor use.&lt;/p&gt;
          582 &lt;p&gt;The SR22 comes with two ten-round magazines and accepts all manner of .22 Long Rifle ammunition. A typical &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mcarbo.com/22LR-Ballistics-Chart&quot;&gt;Remington 40 grain Golden Bullet round&lt;/a&gt; has a muzzle velocity of 1, 255 feet per second at the muzzle, with a muzzle energy of 131 foot-pounds. At 100 yards, the bullet drops 5.5 inches in elevation while muzzle energy drops to 92 foot-pounds. Recoil is negligible, especially compared to larger caliber handguns. The result is an excellent introductory pistol for shooters that can also demonstrate the effects of wind and reduced muzzle energy, two important factors key to understanding longer range shooting.&lt;/p&gt;
          583 &lt;p&gt;The SR22 is a well-balanced rimfire pistol that can do a little bit of everything, from target shooting at the range to light hunting and even home defense. Lightweight and inexpensive to shoot, it is an excellent training handgun for first time shooters. The SR22’s versatility and ease of use makes it a candidate for room in any gun enthusiast’s safe.&lt;/p&gt;
          584 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in The Diplomat, &lt;/em&gt;Foreign Policy&lt;em&gt;, War is Boring and The Daily Beast. In 2009 he co-founded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. This piece was originally featured in January 2019 and is being republished due to reader&#039;s interest. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          585 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Image: YouTube&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          586 
          587 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/rugers-sr22-pistol-what-cant-gun-do-190995&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          588 </item>
          589  <item> <title>Supply Chains Must Adjust to Great Power Competition</title>
          590  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190651</link>
          591  <description>Supply chains constructed during a brief period of supposed international calm, when business leaders were told that the day of classical economic theory had finally arrived, will now have to change to match the reality of renewed great power competition.</description>
          592  <author>William R. Hawkins</author>
          593  <category>Supply Chains</category>
          594  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190651</guid>
          595  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 22:00 EDT</pubDate>
          596  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          597  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;William R. Hawkins&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          598 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Supply Chains, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          599 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206718&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/supply-chains-must-adjust-great-power-competition-190651&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/supplychain.jpg?itok=rZioxM54&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          600 &lt;h3&gt;Supply chains constructed during a brief period of supposed international calm, when business leaders were told that the day of classical economic theory had finally arrived, will now have to change to match the reality of renewed great power competition.&lt;/h3&gt;
          601 &lt;title&gt;Supply Chains Must Adjust to Great Power Competition&lt;/title&gt;
          602 &lt;p&gt;The Biden administration has &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/08/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-supply-chain-disruptions-task-force-to-address-short-term-supply-chain-discontinuities/&quot;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; the first findings from its review of international supply chains. The review stemmed from an Executive Order issued on February 24, 2021, out of concern that the U.S. economy had become too dependent on problematic, even adversarial, foreign sources for imports of goods in strategic sectors. Four critical product lines have been initially targeted: semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging; large capacity batteries, like those for electric vehicles; critical minerals and materials, such as rare earths (which Chinese strategists have sought to monopolize); and pharmaceuticals, the sector that first alerted both leaders and the public to supply risks during the Covid-19 pandemic. And like the pandemic itself, the focus has been on the need to “de-couple” from China for national security reasons. The outsourcing of manufacturing to China has made the American economy vulnerable to disruptions (or their threat as leverage). More importantly, the transfer of industry across the Pacific included the transfer of capital, technology and know-how which has helped the Communist regime in its pursuit of peer status in renewed great power competition.&lt;/p&gt;
          603 &lt;p&gt;Business interests that have invested in these international supply chains are unhappy with this government inquiry that originated during the Trump administration. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.uschamber.com/press-release/us-chamber-of-commerce-statement-supply-chain-executive-order&quot;&gt;responded&lt;/a&gt; to the February executive order in a typical fashion. It feigned agreement with the objective, stating that “The American public should never suffer from shortages of essential goods due to supply chain issues.” However, it quickly rejected the notion that trade should be impacted. “We can mitigate risks to our supply chains by working with key international partners to diversify our supply chains and stockpiling select products – and we trust that the administration will engage closely with the private sector to ensure that any policy recommendations reject punitive approaches, new trade barriers, and one-size-fits-all solutions.”  The word “resiliency” was substituted for “security” in the statement, just as in recent decades the word “global” was substituted for “international” to avoid any concern over how the movement of assets around the world might affect national communities. Lobbyists hope that words can change the perception of reality, but they cannot change reality itself, which is what policymakers must deal with in a contentious world.&lt;/p&gt;
          604 &lt;p&gt;Of course, the question of whether the world is contentious has always been at the heart of the debate over trade policy. The classical “free trade” argument was perfected during the relatively peaceful period that followed the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte, a period of strife that ran for over a quarter-century and constituted a world war. It would not be out of line to extend this contentious period back to the Seven Years War (1756-1763) as the conflicts centered on a Second Hundred Years War between coalitions headed by Great Britain and France. It is not surprising that it was within these contending powers that the main intellectual movement aroused to propose an alternative to state-centered international politics based on private enterprise and supposedly “peaceful” commercial competition. A new system that would benefit consumers by promoting efficiency and specialization “free” from constraints stemming from security concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
          605 &lt;p&gt;Writing in 1821, John Stuart Mill claimed, “There is, in the present advanced state of the civilized world, in any country having a good government and a con­siderable population, so little chance of civil war or foreign invasion, that, in contriving the means of national felicity, but little allowance can be rationally required of it.” Any problems remaining, Mill would refer to an international court of arbitration (like today’s World Trade Organization). Across the channel, French economist Frederic Bastiat argued that “Free trade means harmony of interests and peace between nations” and went on to state that “we place this indirect and social effect a thousand times above the direct or purely economic effect.” Richard Cobden who led the fight against the Corn Laws that protected British agriculture, advised in 1842 that “It would be well to engraft our free trade agitation upon the peace movement. They are one and the same cause.” The theory did not just rest on the need for a world in which national security did not matter, but that such a world could be created by “free trade.” As Cobden famously proclaimed, commerce was “the grand panacea” and that under its influence “the motive for large and mighty empires, for gigantic armies and great fleets would die away.”&lt;/p&gt;
          606 &lt;p&gt;The post-Cold War period seemed like the post-Napoleonic period to many, and explains the vigorous return of classical arguments which, like all arguments in politics, advanced because they were useful to powerful interest groups. That period has now clearly passed if it ever actually existed. Certainly, the once-popular notion that trade would tame Beijing so that it would join the liberal global order, rather than try to change or dominate it, has collapsed. But that such notions were persuasive for a time is why the Biden administration can accurately blame “public policy choices” for “fragile supply chains across a range of sectors and products. Unfair trade practices by competitor nations and private sector and public policy prioritization of low-cost labor, just-in-time production, consolidation, and private sector focus on short-term returns over long-term investment have hollowed out the U.S. industrial base, siphoned innovation from the United States, and stifled wage and productivity growth.”&lt;/p&gt;
          607 &lt;p&gt;Though simplistic, classical theory is still pushed by some libertarian ideologues, the more substantial debate has shifted again as it did in the late nineteenth century when it was clear that international rivalry was still how the world worked. The new argument was that trade allowed nations to diversify their supply chains among numerous sources to lessen the chance of disruption from any single event, whether a natural disaster or a political conflict. &lt;em&gt;The Economist&lt;/em&gt; (the British journal founded in 1843 to “fight for free trade”) featured an &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/03/31/global-supply-chains-are-still-a-source-of-strength-not-weakness&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; in March making this exact argument to claim that “global supply chains are a source of strength.” Having become dependent on imported food thanks to the success of Cobden’s campaign, British leaders embraced the idea of diversified imports rather than a return to protected domestic supplies. Yet, they still had to reject Cobden’s notion of abandoning a “great fleet” as no matter how spread out their foreign sources might be, they still had to bring their cargo of food over the water, a vulnerability that German U-boats preyed upon in both world wars. And today, that argument still depends on the naval superiority of the U.S. Navy and its allied fleets.&lt;/p&gt;
          608 &lt;p&gt;After World War I, even the free-trading British embraced the Imperial Preference idea that it had resisted before the “war to end all wars.” It redirected a substantial share of trade back within the empire. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have expressed the hope that supply chains would re-shore to the United States (or North America) to maximize security as well as provide lucrative jobs. However, a shift of business from China to other foreign lands where gains from trade will not be used to build menacing weapons is considered an improvement. Japan, India, and Australia are considering a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/02/25/editorials/china-u-s-supply-chains-joe-biden-trade-global-economy/&quot;&gt;“supply chain pact”&lt;/a&gt; to reduce exposure to China, while at home the Japanese government is offering financial help to firms to put their supply chains on a more secure basis. This is managed trade, not free trade.&lt;/p&gt;
          609 &lt;p&gt;A country with the sheer size of the United States, with a highly developed technological infrastructure and deep research capabilities, can choose to specialize in the strategic sectors it needs and even attract foreign investment in domestic production of goods that originate elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
          610 &lt;p&gt;This leaves those special interests who have unwisely offshored into vulnerable supply relationships one final argument. It is too hard to undo what has been done. The Chamber of Commerce &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/210319_comments_ictssupplychain_commercedept.pdf&quot;&gt;even finds&lt;/a&gt; “listing China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the Maduro regime as foreign adversaries provides false comfort to businesses” because “it does not take into account the realities and complexities of modern manufacturing processes and supply chains.” Beijing agrees. Citing American business opposition to President Joe Biden’s trade policies, state media outlet &lt;em&gt;Global Times&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1228785.shtml&quot;&gt;argued&lt;/a&gt; in July,&lt;/p&gt;
          611 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;margin-left:.5in;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fundamentally speaking, the US obsession with protectionism measures underscores the hollowing out of US manufacturing. The services sector dominates the US economy, which no longer has the base to develop large-scale manufacturing. Protectionism is not going to change that. The US needs to recognize the necessity to reverse its aggressive tariff policy on the Asian supply chains.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          612 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
          613 &lt;p&gt;Another &lt;em&gt;Global Times &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1226471.shtml&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; written at about the same time tries to appeal to classical theory, claiming “Encouraging high-end manufacturing to return to the US or move out China is obviously contrary to market laws.” Yet, the same article admits “The structure of the current global industrial chain - mainly based on traditional manufacturing - took through 5 to 10 years to put in place.” With tensions rising, it could be restructured even faster.&lt;/p&gt;
          614 &lt;p&gt;Too many major corporations have become mere assemblers of parts sourced far and wide, with many tiers of sub-contractors that are unknown to the parent firm. This maze already has spawned specialists in supply chain risk management based on commercial concerns. The need now is to expand those inquiries and policies to cover national security concerns as well. The Chamber ends up pleading “that supply chain security requires the U.S. government to inform the private sector of emerging threats and vulnerabilities.” This is what the Biden administration is trying to do.&lt;/p&gt;
          615 &lt;p&gt;Supply chains constructed during a brief period of supposed international calm, when business leaders were told that the day of classical economic theory had finally arrived, will now have to change to match the reality of renewed great power competition. As Joseph Schumpeter observed at the start of the first Cold War, “We have seen that the industrialist and merchant, as far as they are entrepreneurs, also fill a function of leadership. But economic leadership of this type does not readily expand, like the medieval lord’s military leadership, into the leadership of nations. On the contrary, the ledger and the cost calculation absorb and confine.” But this does not mean stagnation. Capitalism is the best system to handle the dynamism of the real world to provide what is needed, including security. Indeed, Schumpeter believed that capitalists would have to strengthen rather than undermine the “steel frame” of their national community to retain their legitimacy. And he was right. No fanciful academic theories or wishful thinking about a different world gives them a pass during great power competition.  &lt;/p&gt;
          616 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;William R. Hawkins is a former economics professor who served on the professional staff of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has written widely on international economics and national security issues for both professional and popular publications.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          617 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          618 
          619 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/supply-chains-must-adjust-great-power-competition-190651&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          620 </item>
          621  <item> <title>Conquering Cuba: Would America Pay Any Cost to Expel Communism?</title>
          622  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190767</link>
          623  <description>Beneath the velvet we-come-in-peace language was the iron words of a no-nonsense military occupation.</description>
          624  <author>Michael Peck</author>
          625  <category>Cuban Missile Crisis</category>
          626  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190767</guid>
          627  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 21:33 EDT</pubDate>
          628  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          629  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          630 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Cuban Missile Crisis, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          631 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206814&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/conquering-cuba-would-america-pay-any-cost-expel-communism-190767&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/P-2H_Neptune_over_Soviet_ship_Oct_1962%20%281%29.jpg?itok=zrFvQbqN&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          632 &lt;h3&gt;Beneath the velvet we-come-in-peace language was the iron words of a no-nonsense military occupation.&lt;/h3&gt;
          633 &lt;title&gt;Conquering Cuba: Would America Pay Any Cost to Expel Communism?&lt;/title&gt;
          634 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;There is no doubt that the United States could have conquered Cuba in 1962. Whether there would have been anything left of Cuba—or America, or Russia—other than radioactive rubble is another matter.&lt;/p&gt;
          635 &lt;p&gt;Attention, people of Cuba: Obey the orders of the U.S. Army, or suffer the consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
          636 &lt;p&gt;This is what the Cubans would have been told, had the United States invaded the island during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.&lt;/p&gt;
          637 &lt;p&gt;“Resistance to the United States armed forces will be forcefully stamped out. Serious offenders will be dealt with severely,” read a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2017-10-16/cuban-missile-crisis-us-planned-military-occupation-1962&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;draft proclamation&lt;/a&gt; that would have been broadcast to the Cuban people, according to declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive group.&lt;/p&gt;
          638 &lt;p&gt;Proclamation No. 1 of the U.S. military occupation would have read:&lt;/p&gt;
          639 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“To the people of Cuba,&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          640 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“Whereas the aggressive and illegal acts of the Castro regime against humanity have violated international law and the fundamental principles of freedom and independence of nations: and whereas the United States of America, in order to honor its obligations and to secure itself and the other free nations of the world against the threats generated by these aggressive actions of the Castro regime, has been required to enter into armed conflict with the forces of the Castro regime; and whereas the people of the United States have never during the Castro dictatorship lost their feeling of warm friendship for the people of Cuba and whereas the armed forces of the United States will protect the people of Cuba in the peaceful exercise of their legitimate pursuits insofar as exigencies of war will permit. . . .”&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          641 &lt;p&gt;Beneath the velvet we-come-in-peace language was the iron words of a no-nonsense military occupation. Cubans would have been told to obey all orders of U.S. troops, or be hauled before a military court. “Resistance to the United States armed forces will be forcefully stamped out,” the proclamation warned. “Serious offenders will be dealt with severely.”&lt;/p&gt;
          642 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-nuclear-war-north-korea-could-start-try-kill-kim-jong-un-22678&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Why Doesn&#039;t America Just Kill Kim Jong-un?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
          643 &lt;p&gt;Cuban schools and courts would be closed until further notice. However, Cuban government officials would remain at their posts.&lt;/p&gt;
          644 &lt;p&gt;“When the aggressive Castro regime has been completely destroyed, and arrangements made to provide a democratic government responsive to the desires and needs of the people of Cuba, United States armed forces will depart and the traditional friendship of the United States and the government of Cuba will be assured,” the proclamation concluded with a flourish.&lt;/p&gt;
          645 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-f-23-fighter-the-super-plane-america-never-built-14328&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;This Was the Plane That Almost Replaced the F-22 Raptor&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
          646 &lt;p&gt;Words like “friendship” and “democratic” might have sounded hollow to Cubans emerging from the rubble of their homes, especially since Cuba had technically not committed an act of war against the United States in 1962 (if anything, the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 could be construed as an act of war by the United States against Cuba).&lt;/p&gt;
          647 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/5-reasons-no-nation-wants-go-war-israel-22849&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;5 Reasons No Nation Wants to Go to War with Israel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          648 &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the U.S. proclamation was refreshingly direct, if harsh. No pretentious talk of nation-building. The message was clear: the U.S. military controls Cuba. Obey or face the consequences. One wonders whether such an approach in Iraq in 2003 might have avoided some of the chaos and bloodshed.&lt;/p&gt;
          649 &lt;p&gt;Of course, before an invading army can issue an occupation proclamation, it actually needs to conquer the territory in question. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.historynet.com/the-invasion-of-cuba.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Operation Ortsac&lt;/a&gt;, the planned invasion of Cuba, called for amphibious and airborne landings by the First and Second Marine and the Eighty-Second and 101st Airborne divisions.&lt;/p&gt;
          650 &lt;p&gt;As it turns out, the U.S. badly underestimated the difficulty of invading Cuba. The Americans estimated there were ten thousand Soviet troops in Cuba. The&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/15/world/us-underestimated-soviet-force-in-cuba-during-62-missile-crisis.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; actual number&lt;/a&gt; was forty-three thousand, in addition to 270,000 Cuban regular troops and militia.&lt;/p&gt;
          651 &lt;p&gt;More ominously, it wasn’t until 1992 that the United States learned what else awaited an invasion force. “Soviet officials also disclosed that they had sent Havana short-range nuclear weapons and that Soviet commanders there were authorized to use them in the event of an American invasion,” according to the&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/15/world/us-underestimated-soviet-force-in-cuba-during-62-missile-crisis.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. There were nine short-range tactical missiles with small six- to twelve-ton nuclear warheads. The missiles didn’t have the range to reach the U.S. mainland, but they could have devastated an assault force.&lt;/p&gt;
          652 &lt;p&gt;Just as ominously, Soviet officials later admitted that they had not considered just how the United States, which felt provoked by nuclear-tipped missiles deployed ninety miles from Florida, might have responded to atomic weapons being dropped on its invasion force.&lt;/p&gt;
          653 &lt;p&gt;There is no doubt that the United States could have conquered Cuba in 1962. Whether there would have been anything left of Cuba—or America, or Russia—other than radioactive rubble is another matter.&lt;/p&gt;
          654 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the &lt;/em&gt;National Interest&lt;em&gt;. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article is being republished due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          655 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#/media/File:P-2H_Neptune_over_Soviet_ship_Oct_1962.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          656 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;
          657 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/north-koreas-air-force-total-junk-it-can-still-kill-22647&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Why North Korea&#039;s Air Force is Total Junk&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
          658 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-if-america-assasinated-kim-jong-un-20108&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Why Doesn&#039;t America Kill Kim Jong Un?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
          659 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-air-force-giving-the-f-22-new-job-sniper-22604&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The F-22 Is Getting a New Job: Sniper&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          660 
          661 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/conquering-cuba-would-america-pay-any-cost-expel-communism-190767&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          662 </item>
          663  <item> <title>Why India and Australia Like Japan’s Deadly Soryu-Class Submarines</title>
          664  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190664</link>
          665  <description>The Sōryū-class was the first Japanese submarine class built by Japan to use lithium-ion batteries.</description>
          666  <author>Caleb Larson</author>
          667  <category>Submarines</category>
          668  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190664</guid>
          669  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 21:00 EDT</pubDate>
          670  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          671  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Caleb Larson&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          672 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Submarines, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          673 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206729&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/why-india-and-australia-japan%E2%80%99s-deadly-soryu-class-submarines-190664&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Hakuryu-130412-N-LS794-166%20%281%29_3.jpg?itok=7c4LiNnJ&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          674 &lt;h3&gt;The Sōryū-class was the first Japanese submarine class built by Japan to use lithium-ion batteries.&lt;/h3&gt;
          675 &lt;title&gt;Why India and Australia Like Japan’s Deadly Soryu-Class Submarines&lt;/title&gt;
          676 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Know&lt;/strong&gt;: Both India and Australia have expressed interest in acquiring Japanese submarine technology, if not fully built submarines. Though it would be a break from the recent past, it would not be entirely shocking if Japanese submarines are seen in other countries’ navies in the future.The Japanese Navy, or as they’re officially known, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/these-5-weapons-are-backbone-japans-mighty-navy-83356&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force &lt;/a&gt;(JMSDF), is slated to operate a total of twelve Sōryū-class submarines. These diesel-electric attack submarines were originally introduced into service with the JMSDF in the mid- to late-2000s and have several interesting features.&lt;/p&gt;
          677 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/japans-soryu-class-submarines-can-sink-your-battleship-78656&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Sōryū-class&lt;/a&gt; was the first Japanese submarine class built by Japan to use lithium-ion batteries. Historically, batteries onboard submarines have been built similarly to the battery that powers your car—lead-acid batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have a size a power storage advantage in that they can have a greater power output despite being much smaller and more light-weight than their lead-acid predecessors.&lt;/p&gt;
          678 &lt;p&gt;Lithium-ion batteries also usually recharge faster than lead-acid batteries, which reduces time on the surface—a particularly vulnerable place for submarines—and underwater endurance is therefore greatly increased. Some sources claim that underwater endurance may have been doubled by switching to lithium-ion batteries and could be as long as two weeks. If true, the class’ endurance is quite good.&lt;/p&gt;
          679 &lt;p&gt;The Sōryū-class is also the first class of Japanese submarines that uses air-independent propulsion technology. Though the class is diesel-electric, some of the subs can switch from louder diesel engines to quieter Sterling engines.&lt;/p&gt;
          680 &lt;p&gt;The Stirling engines used by the Sōryū-class were adapted from &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/swedens-stealth-submarines-are-about-get-even-better-155406&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;engines used in Sweden&lt;/a&gt;. The unique engine uses bottled liquid oxygen so that the engine’s diesel fuel can combust. The advantage of this propulsion system is that it runs much quieter than a traditional diesel engine. Furthermore, its range is estimated to be around 6,100 miles or about 9,800 kilometers.&lt;/p&gt;
          681 &lt;p&gt;Though the class does not have vertical missile launch tubes, they can launch U.S.-supplied &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-navy-refuses-abandon-harpoon-anti-ship-missile-164515&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Harpoon anti-ship missiles&lt;/a&gt; via the six torpedo tubes in the class’ hull. The missile skims the sea surface to evade enemy radar and has a prodigious 170+ mile (or about 280+ kilometer) range. In addition, the submarines are armed with torpedoes and can lay anti-submarine and anti-ship mines.&lt;/p&gt;
          682 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Future Export&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          683 &lt;p&gt;Until very recently, Japan adhered to a self-imposed weapons export restriction that prevented the sale of weapons or weapon systems abroad. But, as the island nation has recently demonstrated by its muscle-flexing in response to an increasingly assertive China, exports might again be on the menu for Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
          684 &lt;p&gt;Both India and Australia have expressed interest in acquiring Japanese submarine technology, if not fully built submarines. Though it would be a break from the recent past, it would not be entirely shocking if Japanese submarines are seen in other countries’ navies in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
          685 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Caleb Larson is a Defense Writer with The National Interest. He holds a Master of Public Policy and covers U.S. and Russian security, European defense issues, and German politics and culture.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          686 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article first appeared in July 2020.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          687 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SS-501_%E3%81%9D%E3%81%86%E3%82%8A%E3%82%85%E3%81%86_(2).jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          688 
          689 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-india-and-australia-japan%E2%80%99s-deadly-soryu-class-submarines-190664&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          690 </item>
          691  <item> <title>In 1983, North Korea Tried to Destroy South Korea from the Inside</title>
          692  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190734</link>
          693  <description>It is 10 AM October 9, 1983. South Korea’s President Chun Doo-hwan is in the capital of Burma on a state visit.</description>
          694  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
          695  <category>North Korea</category>
          696  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190734</guid>
          697  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 20:33 EDT</pubDate>
          698  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          699  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          700 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;North Korea, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          701 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206781&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/1983-north-korea-tried-destroy-south-korea-inside-190734&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/northkorea_13.jpg?itok=SanmBwIB&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          702 &lt;h3&gt;It is 10 AM October 9, 1983. South Korea’s President Chun Doo-hwan is in the capital of Burma on a state visit.&lt;/h3&gt;
          703 &lt;title&gt;In 1983, North Korea Tried to Destroy South Korea from the Inside&lt;/title&gt;
          704 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Seoul raises the alert status of its forces…and does nothing. What can be done to change the regime’s behavior? In fact, relations with Pyongyang resume their thaw in 1985 as the first visits between North and South Korean family members are arranged.&lt;/p&gt;
          705 &lt;p&gt;Seoul raises the alert status of its forces…and does nothing. What can be done to change the regime’s behavior? In fact, relations with Pyongyang resume their thaw in 1985 as the first visits between North and South Korean family members are arranged.&lt;/p&gt;
          706 &lt;p&gt;It is 10 AM October 9, 1983. South Korea’s President Chun Doo-hwan is in the capital of Burma on a state visit.&lt;/p&gt;
          707 &lt;p&gt;It is no secret his military government is struggling. The Republic of Korea may be growing more prosperous year after year, but its citizens grow ever more impatient with the repression used to hold it together. Chun is known as the Butcher of Gwangju for dispatching the army in 1980 to kill hundreds of democracy activists immediately prior to his assuming office.&lt;/p&gt;
          708 &lt;p&gt;There is a tragedy to contend with as well; the month prior, a Soviet fighter&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/a-soviet-fighter-planes-tragic-error-brought-us-google-maps/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; shot down a Korean airliner with hundreds of passengers on board&lt;/a&gt;. At least relations with South Korea’s traditional enemy to the north seem relatively manageable.&lt;/p&gt;
          709 &lt;p&gt;Now President Chun is traveling abroad on the advice of the foreign minister, Lee Beom-Seok, that he should improve relations with nonaligned governments like India and Burma. In Rangoon (Yangon today) he will lay a wreath on the tomb of Aung San, the father of Burmese independence from English colonial rule. The politician’s life was cut tragically short in 1947 when paramilitaries murdered him and six of his cabinet ministers. They are commemorated in the Martyr’s mausoleum, located next to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda.&lt;/p&gt;
          710 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-vs-nato-who-would-win-war-22167&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between NATO and Russia Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          711 &lt;p&gt;The senior members of Chun Doo Hwan’s cabinet are all assembled on a platform inside the mausoleum. But the president himself is not there. The Burmese foreign minister has asked to enter the Mausoleum together with the president. As he is behind schedule, so is Chun.&lt;/p&gt;
          712 &lt;p&gt;Suddenly, at 10:25 a car with South Korean flags pulls up. A bugler trumpets his arrival.&lt;/p&gt;
          713 &lt;p&gt;Suddenly all hell breaks loose.&lt;/p&gt;
          714 &lt;p&gt;A thunderous blast rips through from the roof of the mausoleum, causing it to collapse, and a cloud of chalky white smoke erupts outwards, obscuring all vision. When it clears, the assembled political elite are barely visible buried under the fallen roof pilings and girders blown out of the ceiling. The horrifying event &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Nf8dTtHog&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;is captured&lt;/a&gt; by a Japanese cameraman.&lt;/p&gt;
          715 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/terrifying-tale-why-war-between-china-america-would-be-all-21740&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between America and China Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          716 &lt;p&gt;Foreign Minister Lee Beom-Seok is dead. So is Deputy Prime Minister Suh Sang-chul. So are the ministers of commerce and energy. So are the vice ministers of finance, of agriculture, of science and technology. So are ten more South Korean politicians, journalists and guards. Four Burmans have also died who had only wished to take photos of a state visit. Forty-six more people are injured by the blast.&lt;/p&gt;
          717 &lt;p&gt;But President Chun is not to be found in the wreckage. His car was only a minute away from arriving when the blast massacred his cabinet. The bugler had mistakenly sounded for the car of the South Korean ambassador, who perished in the attack.&lt;/p&gt;
          718 &lt;p&gt;The president’s limousine peels around upon receiving the news. One wonders if, during the drive to the airport, Chen harbored any doubts as to the perpetrators of the deed.&lt;/p&gt;
          719 &lt;p&gt;Three days later, three North Korean special forces officers are running for their lives.&lt;/p&gt;
          720 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/who-would-win-war-between-china-japan-21041&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Between China and Japan Would Look Like&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          721 &lt;p&gt;Prior to the attack, they had slipped into Rangoon via a freighter on September 23, disguised as seamen and made their way to the North Korean diplomatic mission. There they received three claymore mines—an anti-personnel weapon, which when triggered by remote control, blasts hundreds of steel balls in a focused direction. At 2 AM on October 7, they had rigged them to the roof of the mausoleum, oriented to blast downwards. Then Major Zin Bo triggered the blast remotely by radio—though fortunately, only one of the devices actually went off.&lt;/p&gt;
          722 &lt;p&gt;Now, if they can make it to a waiting speedboat on the Rangoon River, it will whisk them onto a freighter that will return them to their homeland, where high honor awaits.&lt;/p&gt;
          723 &lt;p&gt;But their spymasters have betrayed them. There is no escape boat. The freighter was denied entry into the port, and their handlers deemed it better not tell them there would be no escape.&lt;/p&gt;
          724 &lt;p&gt;Zin is cornered by a mob at Lake Pazundaung. The local Burmese,&lt;a href=&quot;https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/north-koreas-carnage-at-the-mausoleum&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; egged on by a fifty-two-year-old woman selling liquor on the jetty&lt;/a&gt;, are suspicious of foreigners in this heavily isolated country.&lt;/p&gt;
          725 &lt;p&gt;There is a tradition amongst North Korean agents: if&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-north-korean-spy-submarines-mechanical-meltdown-ended-19815&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; capture is inevitable&lt;/a&gt;, they would&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/1996-dead-north-korean-spy-submarine-armed-commandos-nearly-19750&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; sooner die taking as many pursuers with them as possible&lt;/a&gt;. He pulls out a hand grenade—which promptly explodes. The blast blows of both his hands and injured dozens of civilians. The major is hospitalized and survives minus an eye and several limbs.&lt;/p&gt;
          726 &lt;p&gt;A suspicious local tips of the police after Cpts. Kim Jin-su and Kang Min-cheol attempt to pay him for a boat ride in American dollars. Confronted by law enforcement, Kim commits suicide by a grenade, killing a policeman. Kang manages to shoot his way out with a Beligan .25 caliber pistol. Hunted down by Burmese soldiers in a flooded rice paddy, he kills three of them with a grenade before being captured alive.&lt;/p&gt;
          727 &lt;p&gt;After hospitalization, Kim and Kang are brought before a Burmese tribunal. Kim’s lips remain sealed. Kang decides to tell everything in return for a life sentence. Pyongyang denies that any of the agents are even citizens of North Korea.&lt;/p&gt;
          728 &lt;p&gt;Kang exposes the full machinery of the plot. They had been dispatched by Gen. Kim Chan Su to conduct the hit. Pyongyang believed Chun’s unpopular regime was ripe for revolution, and thought his assassination would suffice to trigger it. But rather than decreasing Chen’s domestic support, the attempts reinforces his position abroad.&lt;/p&gt;
          729 &lt;p&gt;The aftermath of the assassination attempt should sound familiar.&lt;/p&gt;
          730 &lt;p&gt;Socialist Burma, which earlier had been close to Kim Il-sung, suspends diplomatic relations with North Korea and does not reopen them until 2007.&lt;/p&gt;
          731 &lt;p&gt;Beijing is outraged, as always, by this latest bit of mischief, and refuses to take Pyongyang’s calls for several months. Relations between China and South Korea begin to improve.&lt;/p&gt;
          732 &lt;p&gt;Seoul raises the alert status of its forces…and does nothing. What can be done to change the regime’s behavior? In fact, relations with Pyongyang resume their thaw in 1985 as the first visits between North and South Korean family members are arranged.&lt;/p&gt;
          733 &lt;p&gt;Kang languishes in Insein prison for a quarter-century, becoming its longest-serving inmate. Near the end of his life, South Korean parliamentarians try to repatriate him and offer him a chance at a new life, but he passes away from liver cancer in 2008 before anything can be done.&lt;/p&gt;
          734 &lt;p&gt;The Aung San Mausoleum is rebuilt but then closed to the public by the regime in 1988, as Aung San’s daughter Suu Kyi becomes a symbol of the democratic resistance movement that year. As the country, now called Myanmar, begins a troubled democratization process, it is reopened in 2011.&lt;/p&gt;
          735 &lt;p&gt;Democracy activists would also continue to bedevil President Chun’s administration—he simply cannot arrest them fast enough, and needs to present a good image for the upcoming Seoul Olympics. His handpicked successor, Roh Tae-woo, announces there will be free and fair elections, leading finally to the full democratization of South Korea in 1988, ending decades of repressive military rule.&lt;/p&gt;
          736 &lt;p&gt;As for North Korea…it remains the same regime unconcerned with international norms it has always been.&lt;/p&gt;
          737 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Is Boring&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          738 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          739 
          740 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/1983-north-korea-tried-destroy-south-korea-inside-190734&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          741 </item>
          742  <item> <title>Fact: Many Americans Do Not Understand How Social Security Works </title>
          743  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190809</link>
          744  <description>“It’s indisputable that Americans across all generations need more Social Security education,” noted Tina Ambrozy, senior vice president of Strategic Customer Solutions at Nationwide, per 401(k) Specialist.  </description>
          745  <author>Ethen Kim Lieser</author>
          746  <category>Social Security</category>
          747  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190809</guid>
          748  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 20:11 EDT</pubDate>
          749  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          750  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          751 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Social Security, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          752 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206859&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/fact-many-americans-do-not-understand-how-social-security-works-190809&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-22T211058Z_137000598_RC2WPO9ZZKSC_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN.JPG.jpg?itok=l6uK3Rus&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          753 &lt;h3&gt;“It’s indisputable that Americans across all generations need more Social Security education,” noted Tina Ambrozy, senior vice president of Strategic Customer Solutions at Nationwide, per 401(k) Specialist.  &lt;/h3&gt;
          754 &lt;title&gt;Fact: Many Americans Do Not Understand How Social Security Works &lt;/title&gt;
          755 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{f43203c8-49a7-41a1-8b2d-4ae1e5e4c077}{178}&quot; paraid=&quot;452682780&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;A recent poll has revealed that the average American struggles to grasp the basic facts of &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/social-security-dying-slow-death-190572&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Social Security&lt;/a&gt; benefits.  &lt;/p&gt;
          756 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{f43203c8-49a7-41a1-8b2d-4ae1e5e4c077}{215}&quot; paraid=&quot;1397599840&quot;&gt;According to Nationwide’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nationwide.com/lc/resources/investing-and-retirement/articles/social-security-survey-results&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;8th Annual Social Security Consumer Survey&lt;/a&gt;, which was conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of the Nationwide Retirement Institute, the majority of those surveyed showed confidence that they understand how to optimize their Social Security benefits.  &lt;/p&gt;
          757 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{f43203c8-49a7-41a1-8b2d-4ae1e5e4c077}{244}&quot; paraid=&quot;820026155&quot;&gt;However, what the data proved was that only 6 percent actually understand all the factors that determine the maximum Social Security benefit an eligible individual can receive.  &lt;/p&gt;
          758 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{9}&quot; paraid=&quot;1397211357&quot;&gt;“It’s indisputable that Americans across all generations need more Social Security education,” noted Tina Ambrozy, senior vice president of Strategic Customer Solutions at Nationwide, per &lt;a href=&quot;https://401kspecialistmag.com/americans-struggle-to-understand-social-security/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;401(k) Specialist&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;
          759 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{32}&quot; paraid=&quot;760714708&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What Americans Don’t Understand &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          760 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{38}&quot; paraid=&quot;860480624&quot;&gt;The poll’s results featured plenty of knowledge gaps regarding Social Security, some of which include: nearly 40 percent don’t know the eligible age to receive full Social Security benefits; 51 percent of those who are not receiving Social Security do not have a clear understanding of how much they will eventually receive when they become eligible; 30 percent are unaware that Social Security may offer benefits for their spouses and children; and 37 percent incorrectly assume that Social Security benefits are not protected against inflation. &lt;/p&gt;
          761 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{66}&quot; paraid=&quot;739412073&quot;&gt;Perhaps the biggest misconception is related to a situation in which an individual claims their benefits early. Nearly 50 percent of respondents mistakenly believe that the benefits will go up automatically when they reach full retirement age, which is currently sixty-six and two months. Over the next few years, though, the full retirement age will gradually rise to sixty-seven. &lt;/p&gt;
          762 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{100}&quot; paraid=&quot;1991560198&quot;&gt;According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), those who collect Social Security benefits at sixty-two—the earliest age to do so—will have their total amount of monthly benefits permanently reduced. &lt;/p&gt;
          763 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{116}&quot; paraid=&quot;1621403043&quot;&gt;“There are advantages and disadvantages to taking your benefit before your full retirement age,” the agency &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;states on its website&lt;/a&gt;. “The advantage is that you collect benefits for a longer period of time. The disadvantage is your benefit will be reduced. Each person’s situation is different.”  &lt;/p&gt;
          764 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{147}&quot; paraid=&quot;816302349&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Social Security Sustainable?  &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          765 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{153}&quot; paraid=&quot;487232579&quot;&gt;Nationwide’s report also touched on the respondents’ doubts that Social Security will even be around when it’s their turn to retire. More than 70 percent of those twenty-five and older are concerned about the Social Security program running out of money during their lifetime. Nearly half of millennials believe that they “will not get a dime of the Social Security benefits they have earned.” &lt;/p&gt;
          766 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{177}&quot; paraid=&quot;213813916&quot;&gt;“For decades, the pool of money was greater than the amount of money paid out in the form of benefits,” the report &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationwidefinancial.com/media/pdf/NFM-17426AO.pdf?_ga=2.74009554.1925454382.1627402700-168059561.1627402700&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt;. “As a result, there is also a surplus fund. But as of 2021, due to increased longevity and a decrease in the number of workers per beneficiary, Social Security will have to tap the surplus fund to meet its obligations.” &lt;/p&gt;
          767 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{200}&quot; paraid=&quot;81276508&quot;&gt;“If changes are not made to the existing system, the surplus fund will be depleted by 2034,” according to the report. “The original pool of money will still be funded by payroll taxes, benefit taxes and interest, but beneficiaries would begin receiving reduced benefits.” &lt;/p&gt;
          768 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{210}&quot; paraid=&quot;1919103235&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, &lt;/em&gt;The Korea Herald&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;Lincoln Journal Star&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;AsianWeek&lt;em&gt;, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethenlieser/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          769 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{0c195d7d-21bd-4797-ae0c-6e61c43f2a62}{241}&quot; paraid=&quot;1136428934&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2021%3Anewsml_RC2WPO9ZZKSC&amp;share=true&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          770 
          771 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/fact-many-americans-do-not-understand-how-social-security-works-190809&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          772 </item>
          773  <item> <title>By Conquering Singapore, Japan Sent Britain’s Asia Empire Underwater</title>
          774  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190775</link>
          775  <description>In the darkest days of World War II, when disaster after disaster almost overwhelmed the Allies, it took a lot to shake a leader like Winston Churchill.</description>
          776  <author>Michael Peck</author>
          777  <category>World War II History</category>
          778  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190775</guid>
          779  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 20:00 EDT</pubDate>
          780  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          781  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          782 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;World War II History, Asia Pacific&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          783 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206822&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/conquering-singapore-japan-sent-britain%E2%80%99s-asia-empire-underwater-190775&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Bosbritsurrendergroup%20%281%29.jpg?itok=oD3dhvN-&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          784 &lt;h3&gt;In the darkest days of World War II, when disaster after disaster almost overwhelmed the Allies, it took a lot to shake a leader like Winston Churchill.&lt;/h3&gt;
          785 &lt;title&gt;By Conquering Singapore, Japan Sent Britain’s Asia Empire Underwater&lt;/title&gt;
          786 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt; Depleted by the First World War and then squeezed dry by the Second, Britain would have lost its empire eventually. But the photos of British generals and soldiers marching into captivity under Asian guns left their mark on colonial subjects.&lt;/p&gt;
          787 &lt;p&gt;In the darkest days of World War II, when disaster after disaster almost overwhelmed the Allies, it took a lot to shake a leader like Winston Churchill.&lt;/p&gt;
          788 &lt;p&gt;But when the news arrived that the fortress of Singapore had surrendered to the Japanese on February 15, 1942, along with eighty thousand British troops, even Churchill was stunned.&lt;/p&gt;
          789 &lt;p&gt;“He felt it was a disgrace,” &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-169/churchill-and-the-fall-of-singapore&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;recalled Lord Moran&lt;/a&gt;, the prime minister’s physician. “It left a scar on his mind. One evening, months later, when he was sitting in his bathroom enveloped in a towel, he stopped drying himself and gloomily surveyed the floor: ‘I cannot get over Singapore,’ he said sadly.”&lt;/p&gt;
          790 &lt;p&gt;Seventy-five years later, it is difficult to conceive of just how devastating the fall of Singapore was. It was the largest surrender in British history, a humiliation to British arms that would linger for years in the minds of friends and foes alike. It was not just the capitulation of the hub of Britain’s Asian empire, the “Gibraltar of the East” as the British public had been assured. Even worse, it had been conquered by a Japanese army inferior in numbers—and, by the standards of Europeans and Americans at the time, inferior in race as well.&lt;/p&gt;
          791 &lt;p&gt;Singapore had long been a strategic prize, perched as it was on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, astride the Straits of Malacca and the key shipping shipping lanes between Asia and Europe. But in the 1920s, Britain saw it as the key to its Far East possessions. Realizing that it was no longer strong enough to take on both Germany and Japan simultaneously in the next war, Britain’s solution was to turn Singapore into a naval fortress that could hold out against a Japanese siege until the Royal Navy could sail to the rescue from Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
          792 &lt;p&gt;Terrain was an ally, or so the British thought. With the Malay Peninsula sheathed in jungle, swamp and river, they were were confident that a Japanese attack launched from the north, out of Thailand, would bog down as it advanced down the long, narrow strip of land between Thailand and Singapore. Therefore there was no need to fortify Singapore’s defenses on the landward side, facing north to the Malayan mainland. Any attack on the island had to come by sea through amphibious invasion, which would be blasted out of the water by big coast-defense guns.&lt;/p&gt;
          793 &lt;p&gt;“Curiously enough, throughout all these years of bickering and indecision, it had occurred to barely anyone that Malay had over 1,000 miles of coastline, half of it exposed to Japanese attack,” writes author Arthur Swinson in &lt;a href=&quot;http://amzn.to/2lqXmWv&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Defeat in Malaya: Fall of Singapore&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. “It had occurred to no one either that the defence of the naval base on Singapore island was bound up with the defence of the whole Malayan Peninsula.”&lt;/p&gt;
          794 &lt;p&gt;Or, as Churchill recalled, the possibility that the fortress would have no landward defenses “no more entered into my mind than that of a battleship being launched without a bottom.”&lt;/p&gt;
          795 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps given enough money, troops and aircraft, the strategy might have worked. Unfortunately, Britain’s strategic reach exceeded its financial grasp. With money tight during the 1930s, defense preparations languished while the army, navy and air force argued over who was responsible for defending the island. Meanwhile, a lethargic colonial attitude reigned to the point where troops couldn’t train because rubber planters complained it would ruin their crops.&lt;/p&gt;
          796 &lt;p&gt;However, the fatal flaw in the British plan turned out to be a crazy German ex-corporal named Adolf Hitler. Not in their darkest dreams had it occurred to British planners that western Europe would be conquered in 1940 and Britain left to confront the Nazi colossus alone. With England under assault by bombers and U-boats, and the Suez Canal and Middle East oil threatened by Rommel, there were no forces to spare for the Far East.&lt;/p&gt;
          797 &lt;p&gt;However, as frequently happens with military disasters, frantic measures were taken at the last minute, which only made defeat more painful. As war loomed in the Pacific, reinforcements were hastily dispatched, including crack Australian and Indian battalions: it turned out that many of the troops, including the Australians and Indians, were only half-trained. The Royal Air Force had perhaps a hundred fighters—obsolete American-made Buffalo and aging Hurricane fighters—that were blasted out of the air by Japanese Zero fighters flown by elite pilots.&lt;/p&gt;
          798 &lt;p&gt;The battleships &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt; were dispatched to the area, though a pair of capital ships with little air or naval support stood little chance against the Japanese offensive. “Are you sure it’s true?” Churchill asked when told both ships had been sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. It was.&lt;/p&gt;
          799 &lt;p&gt;The Japanese landed in southern Thailand and northern Malaya on December 8, in a meticulously planned operation. Still, against Japan’s thirty thousand men, the British could pit eighty thousand. Despite Japanese control of the skies, this should have been more than enough to drive the invaders into the sea.&lt;/p&gt;
          800 &lt;p&gt;What ensued was as much farce as tragedy. Convinced that tanks were useless in the jungle, the British had no armor. No one thought to inform the Japanese, who brought ashore tanks that successfully maneuvered through the trees as they stampeded British troops. Time and again, the British attempted to make a stand, only to be outflanked and routed by Japanese forces who compensated for lack of numbers by relying on mobility, aggressiveness and deception. For example, small Japanese units infiltrated British lines to attack artillery positions and command posts, a tactic that also worked against the Americans—for a while.&lt;/p&gt;
          801 &lt;p&gt;Finally, on January 31, the Japanese reached the Straits of Johore, between Singapore’s island and the mainland. The straits were one to three miles wide, not insurmountable but still quite formidable if defended. The Japanese were running low on supplies, and running on a tight timetable if they were to complete their Pacific conquests.&lt;/p&gt;
          802 &lt;p&gt;That didn’t daunt &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/ww2/malaya_and_singapore/html/yamashitas_bluff.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita&lt;/a&gt;, the Japanese commander later dubbed the “Tiger of Malaya.” As Yamashita said later, “My attack on Singapore was a bluff, a bluff that worked. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more then three to one. I knew if I had to fight long for Singapore I would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to be at once. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting.”&lt;/p&gt;
          803 &lt;p&gt;The British were too disorganized and dispirited to perceive their opponent’s weakness. While bombers pounded Singapore and feint landings deceived the defenders, the Japanese crossed the straits in small boats on February 8. Their initial foothold could have been crushed by prompt counterattacks. The counterattacks never came.&lt;/p&gt;
          804 &lt;p&gt;On February 15, Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, the British commander, met Yamashita to sign an unconditional surrender. More than eighty thousand British troops found themselves penned barbed wire. Many died in the hellish conditions of Japanese prison camps, or while working on the infamous &lt;a href=&quot;http://hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au/building-hellfire-pass&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Burma-Thailand Railway&lt;/a&gt; (immortalized in the movie &lt;em&gt;The Bridge on the River Kwai&lt;/em&gt;). Some of the Indian prisoners defected to form the Japanese-controlled Indian National Army that fought against the British.&lt;/p&gt;
          805 &lt;p&gt;Yamashita went on to defend the Philippines against a U.S. invasion in 1944. He was later charged with war crimes in Singapore and the Philippines, on the basis that even if he didn’t order atrocities, he was still responsible for those committed by troops under his command (some wondered whether he was also being punished for humiliating the Allies on the battlefield). He was hanged on February 23, 1946.&lt;/p&gt;
          806 &lt;p&gt;What were the lessons of Singapore? Like a Biblical prophet, the battle delivered the message that the few could defeat the many—if the many were ineptly led. The British didn’t just suffer from poorly trained troops, deficient commanders, negligent preparation and government penny-pinching. They were victims of lack of imagination, as in failing to conceive that an army of Asians could drive tanks through the jungle.&lt;/p&gt;
          807 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps the biggest consequence of the fall of Singapore was the destruction of Britain’s Asian empire. Depleted by the First World War and then squeezed dry by the Second, Britain would have lost its empire eventually. But the photos of British generals and soldiers marching into captivity under Asian guns left their mark on colonial subjects. The collapse of Britain’s Asian empire, along with those of the Dutch, French and eventually the Japanese, left a power vacuum that would be filled by the United States and China.&lt;/p&gt;
          808 &lt;p&gt;Three-quarters of a century later, the legacy of the fall of Singapore still haunts us.&lt;/p&gt;
          809 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          810 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Singapore#/media/File:Bosbritsurrendergroup.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          811 
          812 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/conquering-singapore-japan-sent-britain%E2%80%99s-asia-empire-underwater-190775&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          813 </item>
          814  <item> <title>Showdown at Bataan: How U.S. Forces Lost the Philippines</title>
          815  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190765</link>
          816  <description>The fall of Corregidor forces us to ask a tough question: what went wrong?</description>
          817  <author>Michael Peck</author>
          818  <category>World War II History</category>
          819  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190765</guid>
          820  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:44 EDT</pubDate>
          821  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          822  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          823 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;World War II History, Asia Pacific&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          824 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206812&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/showdown-bataan-how-us-forces-lost-philippines-190765&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Ww2_131%20%281%29_1.jpg?itok=7EZ615e-&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          825 &lt;h3&gt;The fall of Corregidor forces us to ask a tough question: what went wrong?&lt;/h3&gt;
          826 &lt;title&gt;Showdown at Bataan: How U.S. Forces Lost the Philippines&lt;/title&gt;
          827 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Outflanked and outmaneuvered, MacArthur ordered Plan Orange, a delaying action by rearguards while the bulk of his forces moved into the defenses of the Bataan Peninsula near Manila. Covered by detachments of U.S. and Filipino troops, including some M3 Stuart light tanks, eighty thousand troops and twenty thousand civilians made it into Bataan.&lt;/p&gt;
          828 &lt;p&gt;“Tell Joe, wherever he is, to give ’em hell for us,” said the radio signal. “My love to you all. God bless you and keep you. Sign my name, and tell mother how you heard from me. Stand by.”&lt;/p&gt;
          829 &lt;p&gt;And then there was silence.&lt;/p&gt;
          830 &lt;p&gt;On the morning of May 6, 1942, U.S. Army Sgt. Irving Strobing sent the last message—to America, his family and his brother Joe—from the fortress of Corregidor, an island at the mouth of Manila Bay. A few hours later, under the cameras of Japanese photographers and the contemptuous glare of Japanese officers, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright surrendered the last of the U.S. garrison in the Philippines.&lt;/p&gt;
          831 &lt;p&gt;From Corregidor’s tunnels emerged eleven thousand starving, wounded and exhausted American and Filipino prisoners, including several American nurses. They swelled the ranks of the defenders of the Bataan peninsula, who had surrendered on April 9. By early May 1942, the Japanese had captured seventy-six thousand American and Filipino soldiers in the largest surrender in U.S. history.&lt;/p&gt;
          832 &lt;p&gt;The fall of Corregidor forces us to ask a tough question: what went wrong?&lt;/p&gt;
          833 &lt;p&gt;The answer is pretty much everything. The problems began with an impossible strategic situation. Manila is only two thousand miles from Japan, but five thousand miles from Pearl Harbor. By the 1930s, it was obvious that in the case of war, the Philippines would be isolated by the Japanese Navy, bereft of reinforcements and resupply. War Plan Orange called for the U.S. Navy to conduct a naval cavalry charge across the Pacific to relieve the garrison. At best, this would be chancy; at worst, Japanese aircraft and subs would whittle down the U.S. fleet; and in reality, the Pearl Harbor disaster left no fleet to come to the rescue.&lt;/p&gt;
          834 &lt;p&gt;None of which was Philippines commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s fault, but much else was. Under his watch, essential defense preparations were left undone (exacerbated by tight prewar budgets). By December 7, 1941, U.S. Army and mobilized Filipino troop strength had soared from thirty-one thousand to 130,000 troops. But the Filipinos in particular were poorly trained and armed, and the defenders were scattered across the islands of the Philippines. The Far East Air Force had perhaps three hundred aircraft, but that included only thirty-five B-17s and another hundred modern P-40 fighters, with the rest obsolete models. The Asiatic Fleet based in Manila had only a handful of ships, some submarines, plus the Fourth Marine Regiment.&lt;/p&gt;
          835 &lt;p&gt;News of Pearl Harbor awakened MacArthur at 3 a.m. December 8. The aircraft at Clark Field should have been dispersed and then launched to bomb Japanese airfields on Taiwan. With bad weather delaying the Japanese strike for nine hours, the Americans might have caught Japanese planes on the ground—if MacArthur had authorized it. Instead the Japanese caught the American air fleet on the ground and decimated it, thus depriving the defenders of their only chance to disrupt the impending amphibious landing.&lt;/p&gt;
          836 &lt;p&gt;Later on December, Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon, unmolested for a handful of U.S. aircraft (which still managed to sink or damage several ships). But this was only a sucker punch before the main landing: on December 22, the Japanese Fourteenth Army landed in Lingayen Gulf, in the center of Luzon and close to Manila and Clark Field. This was followed by a smaller landing in southern Luzon.&lt;/p&gt;
          837 &lt;p&gt;Outflanked and outmaneuvered, MacArthur ordered Plan Orange, a delaying action by rearguards while the bulk of his forces moved into the defenses of the Bataan Peninsula near Manila. Covered by detachments of U.S. and Filipino troops, including some M3 Stuart light tanks, eighty thousand troops and twenty thousand civilians made it into Bataan. Unfortunately, Plan Orange called for sufficient supplies for only forty-three thousand troops to dig in at Bataan.&lt;/p&gt;
          838 &lt;p&gt;Nonetheless, the Bataan troops fought bravely and inflicted heavy losses. But unless the U.S. Navy could instantly resurrect the sunken battleships at Pearl Harbor, the Philippines were doomed. Backed by heavy air support, the Japanese eventually broke through the lines of starving and ill defenders. Most eventually surrendered, but a few made it to Corregidor, defended by a motley assortment of Army, Marine and Filipino troops. Lacking food and medicine, they too were bombed and shelled until they surrendered May 6.&lt;/p&gt;
          839 &lt;p&gt;And MacArthur? The Bataan troops composed a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rpadden.com/bonus/dugoutdoug.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;song&lt;/a&gt; about him to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”:&lt;/p&gt;
          840 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dugout Doug MacArthur lies ashaking on the Rock&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          841 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Safe from all the bombers and from any sudden shock&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          842 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dugout Doug is eating of the best food on Bataan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          843 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And his troops go starving on.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          844 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dugout Doug’s not timid, he’s just cautious, not afraid&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          845 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;He’s protecting carefully the stars that Franklin made&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          846 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Four-star generals are rare as good food on Bataan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          847 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And his troops go starving on.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          848 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dugout Doug is ready in his Kris Craft for the flee&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          849 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Over bounding billows and the wildly raging sea&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          850 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;For the Japs are pounding on the gates of Old Bataan&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          851 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;And his troops go starving on . . .&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          852 &lt;p&gt;But MacArthur was busy with other things. He was awarded $500,000 by Philippine president Manuel Quezon for his prewar service, and his staff also got money (Eisenhower was offered money, but turned it down). To be fair, he was ordered by President Roosevelt to fly himself and his family aboard a B-17 to Australia. Following orders, to be sure, but his troops weren’t so lucky. Between the cruelty of the Bataan Death March, and for the survivors the brutality of Japanese prison camps, 40 percent of the Americans never made it home.&lt;/p&gt;
          853 &lt;p&gt;“I will return,” MacArthur vowed. And he did—on October 20, 1944, and in the presence of photographers.&lt;/p&gt;
          854 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the &lt;/em&gt;National Interest&lt;em&gt;. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          855 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March#/media/File:Ww2_131.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          856 
          857 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/showdown-bataan-how-us-forces-lost-philippines-190765&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          858 </item>
          859  <item> <title>Project Iceworm: America&#039;s Secret Tunnels Beneath Greenland&#039;s Ice</title>
          860  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190929</link>
          861  <description>One of the strangest military projects to come out of the Cold War. </description>
          862  <author>Alex Hollings</author>
          863  <category>History</category>
          864  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190929</guid>
          865  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:33 EDT</pubDate>
          866  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          867  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Alex Hollings&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          868 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;History, Greenland&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          869 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206971&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/project-iceworm-americas-secret-tunnels-beneath-greenlands-ice-190929&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/greenland.jpg?itok=Yhx3H2zV&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;Greenland experienced &#039;massive&#039; ice melt this week, scientists say&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          870 &lt;h3&gt;One of the strangest military projects to come out of the Cold War. &lt;/h3&gt;
          871 &lt;title&gt;Project Iceworm: America&#039;s Secret Tunnels Beneath Greenland&#039;s Ice&lt;/title&gt;
          872 &lt;p&gt;In pursuit of nuclear deterrence, the United States has occasionally crossed over the line into schemes seemingly more appropriate for a James Bond movie than the defense budget, but few were as crazy as Project Iceworm.&lt;/p&gt;
          873 &lt;p&gt;Throughout the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union were locked in steady competition not only for the most capable and powerful nuclear weapons, but for &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/americas-air-to-air-nuke-would-have-taken-out-entire-bomber-fleets/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;novel approaches&lt;/a&gt; to deliver them. Both world powers were aware that any nuclear attack would likely begin with strikes against the opposing nation’s nuclear arsenals aimed at limiting their capacity to respond in kind. As such, massive efforts were undertaken to make huge nuclear weapons mobile, hidden, or otherwise insulated from attack.&lt;/p&gt;
          874 &lt;p&gt;While the Soviet Union invested in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/battle-trains-the-armored-behemoths-lost-to-time/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;armored trains&lt;/a&gt; that could transport their massive ICBMs around Siberia and Frankenstein-like helicopter contraptions capable of delivering huge nuclear payloads to distant launch sites, they were not alone in their nuclear exploits that verged on Bond-villainy. The United States, similarly motivated by fear of nuclear annihilation, also sought increasingly novel approaches to nuclear war, sometimes even on foreign soil.&lt;/p&gt;
          875 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nuclear ulterior motives&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          876 &lt;p&gt;While the Russian military has been working exhaustively in recent years to secure and fortify large swaths of the Arctic Circle, the concept of the frigid north as a theater of battle is certainly nothing new. In many cases, the shortest distance between American and Russian weapons systems and targets is North — over the Arctic Circle. As such, jockeying for position in the Arctic seemed like a strategic inevitability.&lt;/p&gt;
          877 &lt;p&gt;It was with that concept in mind that the United States established an agreement with the Danish government in 1960 to begin construction of what would be a large military facility built &lt;em&gt;under the ice&lt;/em&gt; of Northern Greenland. According to the Pentagon, this &lt;a href=&quot;https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0477706.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;program&lt;/a&gt; that would lead to the construction of “Camp Century” had a number of important goals: To test various construction methods in Arctic environments, assess the use of a semi-mobile nuclear reactor for power, and to support ongoing scientific experiments in the region. Of course, in true Cold War fashion, these logical seeming goals were more about cover than they were about progress.&lt;/p&gt;
          878 &lt;p&gt;The real intent behind this new initiative was to establish a massive series of under-ice tunnels capable of supporting the storage, transportation, and &lt;em&gt;launch&lt;/em&gt; of specially designed nuclear ballistic missiles, dubber Project Iceworm. By leveraging tunnels in the ice for this purpose, the United States could launch a bevy of nuclear weapons at their Soviet opponents from beneath the ice, while moving missiles frequently to make it nearly impossible for the Soviets to defend against, or even attack, the missile placements.&lt;/p&gt;
          879 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Camp Century – An installation and a cover story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          880 &lt;p&gt;Located less than a thousand miles from the North Pole, the ambient temperature in the area that would become Camp Century &lt;em&gt;averaged&lt;/em&gt; at 10 degrees (F) below 0, with common occurrences &lt;a href=&quot;https://time.com/5585149/arctic-nuclear-history/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;reaching&lt;/a&gt; as cold as -70. Average snowfall accumulation in the area at the time was four feet per year, with wind gusts raging at 70 miles per hour. Building a military installation on the surface of the Northern Greenland ice sheet, then, was next to impossible.&lt;/p&gt;
          881 &lt;p&gt;Starting in 1959, the U.S. Army Engineer Corps began excavating two miles worth of tunnels beneath the north Greenland ice sheet using a method referred to as “cut and cover.” This approach leveraged massive, Swiss-built, rotary tilling machines that would dig large trenches in the snow and ice. Once the trenches were dug, an arched steel roof was put in place over the new trench, which was then reburied.&lt;/p&gt;
          882 &lt;p&gt;Beneath the arched steel roof and layer of ice and snow, the U.S. Army had created what were effectively &lt;em&gt;tunnels&lt;/em&gt;, which could then be used to construct work spaces, housing, and even areas for recreational activities — aside from the intended &lt;em&gt;six hundred nuclear missiles&lt;/em&gt; and all accompanying equipment called for by the clandestine Project Iceworm.&lt;/p&gt;
          883 &lt;p&gt;The facility was powered by the globe’s first ever semi-mobile nuclear generator, the PM-2A, though as the program went on and issues compounded, the nuclear generator was swapped out in favor of more traditional diesel equipment.&lt;/p&gt;
          884 &lt;p&gt;Working space beneath the ice quickly grew, and by the end of 1960, Camp Century included an area known as “Main Street” that was more than 1,100 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 30 feet tall, as well as multiple barracks facilities, a chapel, a base library, a complete gym, and even a movie theater. Each barracks facility included one large common area and five individual rooms, which were separated from the ice surrounding them by an air gap to minimize the melting caused by the room’s internal heating. Deep holes were drilled into the ice cap to provide a fresh source of cold air, also to help manage melting.&lt;/p&gt;
          885 &lt;p&gt;At its peak, Camp Century housed over 200 Soldiers, hidden from the frigid cold of the outside world beneath a blanket of snow and ice.&lt;/p&gt;
          886 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Project Iceworm&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          887 &lt;p&gt;All of that manpower and tech wasn’t just about testing the feasibility of military operations in the frigid cold, of course, and America’s Project Iceworm was the real impetus behind the effort. Everything from the deployment of the PM-2A nuclear reactor to the logistical effort put behind establishing steady and often covert supply lines to the facility were truly about assessing the feasibility of the ice shelf as a launch pad for nuclear weapons.&lt;/p&gt;
          888 &lt;p&gt;The long term plan called for 2,500 miles of subsurface tunnels to be constructed and maintained to host a stockpile of 600 specially modified medium range nuclear missiles dubbed “Iceman” missiles. These missiles were developed by modifying the U.S. Air Force’s existing stockpile of Minuteman missiles for use in extreme cold.&lt;/p&gt;
          889 &lt;p&gt;Many of these tunnels would house railroad tracks which could be used to transport the large missiles quickly and easily from one place to another, while teams would be tasked with digging and fortifying new tunnels each year. Each new tunnel would offer a new location to store or launch missiles, making tracking or engaging the subterranean arsenal next to impossible.&lt;/p&gt;
          890 &lt;p&gt;If fully realized, Project Iceworm’s tunnel complex would eventually encompass some 53,000 square miles and employ a whopping 11,000 military personnel. For context, the entire nation of South Korea covers only about 39,000 square miles.&lt;/p&gt;
          891 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having the ice pulled out from beneath your feet&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          892 &lt;p&gt;While the strategic value of a massive, subterranean missile complex was easy to ascertain, the challenges of building and maintaining military facilities beneath the surface of an ice sheet soon proved more than expected. While the Defense Department had believed the ice to be fairly stationary and stable, the reality of the matter was that even the massive Texas-sized ice sheet they’d set up shop on was a pretty dynamic environment.&lt;/p&gt;
          893 &lt;p&gt;By 1962, the ceiling in the room housing Camp Century’s nuclear reactor had already lowered by five feet, forcing expensive repairs in order to maintain operations. Soon, core samples were taken that confirmed the pressing concerns of scientists involved: The ice sheet was moving so rapidly that the entire installation would prove unusable in just a matter of a few years.&lt;/p&gt;
          894 &lt;p&gt;In 1963, the nuclear reactor was replaced by diesel generators and America’s dreams of a vast underground missile complex in Greenland were all but dead. By 1965, the facility was abandoned, only to be revisited by a team of specialists in 1969 to assess its condition.&lt;/p&gt;
          895 &lt;p&gt;Project Iceworm had been cloaked in secrecy since its onset, and based on the conclusions delivered by the team, that secrecy would remain intact thanks to heavy ice and snow development in the area. Importantly, a significant amount of equipment, diesel fuel, and even nuclear waste was left in the abandoned tunnels to be swallowed up by the Arctic ice for good, as far as the Defense Department was concerned.&lt;/p&gt;
          896 &lt;p&gt;Of course, “for good” is a long time, and as we’ve come to find in the decades since, ice sheets aren’t nearly as permanent is today’s world as they may have once seemed. Thanks to climate change, the ice covering the remnants of Camp Century continues to shrink, and experts assess that all of America’s Iceworm secrets will be laid bare by 2090 — prompting ongoing debate about who will ultimately be responsible for the cleanup.&lt;/p&gt;
          897 &lt;p&gt;“It’s just a matter of time,” says &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.colorado.edu/geography/michael-mike-macferrin&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mike MacFerrin&lt;/a&gt;, one of the authors of the 2016 study that first exposed the problem. “When the water reaches these wastes and gets to the coast, then we’ve got a big problem.”&lt;/p&gt;
          898 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Alex Hollings is a writer, dad, and Marine veteran who specializes in foreign policy and defense technology analysis. He holds a master’s degree in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Framingham State University.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          899 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sandboxx.us/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sandoboxx&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/project-iceworm-americas-secret-nuke-tunnels-beneath-greenlands-ice/&quot;&gt;original article&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          900 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          901 
          902 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/project-iceworm-americas-secret-tunnels-beneath-greenlands-ice-190929&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          903 </item>
          904  <item> <title>Border Crisis Is No Accident. It’s Biden Making Good on Campaign Promises.</title>
          905  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190921</link>
          906  <description>At a time when Biden’s administration has returned to recommending mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, this permissive immigration policy seems especially dangerous to public health.</description>
          907  <author>Tim Murtaugh</author>
          908  <category>Politics</category>
          909  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190921</guid>
          910  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:11 EDT</pubDate>
          911  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          912  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tim Murtaugh&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          913 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Politics, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          914 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206964&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/border-crisis-no-accident-it%E2%80%99s-biden-making-good-campaign-promises-190921&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/johnson.jpg?itok=-lO9ORKe&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          915 &lt;h3&gt;At a time when Biden’s administration has returned to recommending mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, this permissive immigration policy seems especially dangerous to public health.&lt;/h3&gt;
          916 &lt;title&gt;Border Crisis Is No Accident. It’s Biden Making Good on Campaign Promises.&lt;/title&gt;
          917 &lt;p&gt;If you wanted to make up something to depict President Joe Biden as the cause of the border crisis, you might invent a scenario in which he was just turning illegal immigrants loose into the interior of the country.&lt;/p&gt;
          918 &lt;p&gt;Such a situation might easily be dismissed by skeptics as too much of a caricature of a president criticized by conservatives for lax immigration enforcement.&lt;/p&gt;
          919 &lt;p&gt;“It’s not believable,” some might say.&lt;/p&gt;
          920 &lt;p&gt;But it’s actually true, according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.axios.com/migrant-release-no-court-date-ice-dhs-immigration-33d258ea-2419-418d-abe8-2a8b60e3c070.html&quot;&gt;new reporting&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
          921 &lt;p&gt;Axios this week revealed that “about 50,000 migrants who crossed the southern border illegally have now been released in the United States without a court date.”&lt;/p&gt;
          922 &lt;p&gt;The report indicates that it is “unprecedented” for border agents to set illegal immigrants free without giving them official notice to appear in court.&lt;/p&gt;
          923 &lt;p&gt;Instead, they have been provided with lists of Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices and advised to report to one of them.&lt;/p&gt;
          924 &lt;p&gt;Axios reports that it is the Biden administration’s “hope” that the illegal immigrants will show up.&lt;/p&gt;
          925 &lt;p&gt;That wishful strategy has been an abject failure so far, as just 13% have presented themselves at an ICE location. There’s no reason to have confidence that the administration has the foggiest notion of where the rest of them are.&lt;/p&gt;
          926 &lt;p&gt;Biden’s reckless policy has turned “catch and release” into “catch and misplace.”&lt;/p&gt;
          927 &lt;p&gt;The revelation comes amid repeated record-setting in the numbers of people attempting to illegally cross the southern border.&lt;/p&gt;
          928 &lt;p&gt;More than &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.axios.com/border-arrests-1-million-20-year-record-june-c96abef1-a372-4258-bffd-9c69200d4dd6.html&quot;&gt;1 million arrests&lt;/a&gt; have been made involving people trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since last October. The last time we saw that many stops in one year was 15 years ago, and there are still two months left in the current fiscal year.&lt;/p&gt;
          929 &lt;p&gt;Further, the 178,000 arrests made in June alone marked a 20-year high for the month. That follows other, similar monthly records being broken.&lt;/p&gt;
          930 &lt;p&gt;All of this puts the lie to Biden’s claims that the surge at the border is something that happens “&lt;a href=&quot;https://news.yahoo.com/biden-says-border-situation-normal-182026354.html&quot;&gt;every single, solitary year&lt;/a&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
          931 &lt;p&gt;Just as ludicrous was White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s attempt to &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.yahoo.com/psaki-says-migrant-influx-began-193608655.html&quot;&gt;blame former President Donald Trump&lt;/a&gt; for the massive increase in illegal border crossings.&lt;/p&gt;
          932 &lt;p&gt;The fact is that Biden campaigned for president promising an array of enticements for people to break our laws to enter this country. He promised amnesty for those already here, taxpayer-provided health care, work permits, support for sanctuary cities, and a cessation of deportations.&lt;/p&gt;
          933 &lt;p&gt;Since becoming president, he also &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/07/29/house-republicans-seek-to-finish-wall-hire-more-border-patrol-agents/&quot;&gt;paused construction&lt;/a&gt; of the border wall and reversed the “&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/11/supreme-court-allows-trumps-remain-in-mexico-program-to-stay-in-place/&quot;&gt;Remain in Mexico&lt;/a&gt;” policy, which delayed entry for those seeking asylum.&lt;/p&gt;
          934 &lt;p&gt;If a surge of this nature occurs every year, or is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/05/03/fact-checking-bidens-6-border-crisis-claims/&quot;&gt;Trump’s fault&lt;/a&gt;, as the Biden administration wants us to believe, then why have so many people amassed at the border wearing &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.newsweek.com/texas-guard-deployed-migrants-some-biden-t-shirts-flood-border-states-1574978&quot;&gt;Biden-themed T-shirts&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
          935 &lt;p&gt;The answer was probably most clearly expressed by one migrant, &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/BillFOXLA/status/1419300755358601219?s=20&quot;&gt;who told a journalist&lt;/a&gt; this month, “Gracias al Presidente Biden por la oportunidad de venir aqui ahora.”&lt;/p&gt;
          936 &lt;p&gt;Translated: “Thanks to President Biden for the opportunity to come here now.”&lt;/p&gt;
          937 &lt;p&gt;The news about unaccompanied minors arriving at the border is no better.&lt;/p&gt;
          938 &lt;p&gt;True, the number of children stopped at the border in June represented a decrease from April and May, but the June figure “remains higher than any other month recorded of any other year,” according to Axios.&lt;/p&gt;
          939 &lt;p&gt;Additionally, at a time when Biden’s administration has returned to recommending mask-wearing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, this permissive immigration policy seems especially dangerous to public health.&lt;/p&gt;
          940 &lt;p&gt;Fox News reported earlier this month that 30% of illegal immigrants in ICE custody &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.foxnews.com/politics/immigrants-ice-custody-refused-covid-19-vaccines&quot;&gt;have refused&lt;/a&gt; to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. That, of course, does not even begin to address the vaccination status of those released without court dates or those who have disappeared inside the country.&lt;/p&gt;
          941 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/07/29/biden-border-blueprint-unfair-disorderly-and-inhumane/&quot;&gt;All of this&lt;/a&gt; is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/04/05/leaked-numbers-on-illegal-immigration-called-undeniable-proof-that-biden-policies-sparked-border-crisis/&quot;&gt;laid at the feet&lt;/a&gt; of Biden, whose administration infamously refused to call the scene at the border a “&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/04/15/how-biden-administration-redefines-words-reshapes-facts-to-serve-its-purpose/&quot;&gt;crisis&lt;/a&gt;,” even though it most certainly and obviously is one.&lt;/p&gt;
          942 &lt;p&gt;And though they are sometimes forced to cover the raw numbers, some in the media cannot resist offering Biden some protection from this reality. For example, The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.foxnews.com/media/associated-press-staffers-influx-southern-border-crisis&quot;&gt;Associated Press&lt;/a&gt; has instructed its staff to avoid using the word “crisis” to describe the situation at the border.&lt;/p&gt;
          943 &lt;p&gt;So, the observation holds true: If you were going to envision immigration policy that was exactly wrong, what Biden is doing would be it.&lt;/p&gt;
          944 &lt;p&gt;But you don’t have to imagine it, because it’s reality, and it’s no accident. It’s what he promised he would do.&lt;/p&gt;
          945 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tim Murtaugh is a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and contributor to The Daily Signal. He is the former communications director of President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          946 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/&quot;&gt;The Daily Signal&lt;/a&gt;. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/07/29/border-crisis-is-no-accident-its-biden-making-good-on-campaign-promises/&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          947 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          948 
          949 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/border-crisis-no-accident-it%E2%80%99s-biden-making-good-campaign-promises-190921&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          950 </item>
          951  <item> <title>South Africa’s Insurrection Is Greater Than Jacob Zuma</title>
          952  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190786</link>
          953  <description>The economic conundrum for South Africa is that those who are shut out of prosperity and security will be happy to burn down what they see as “the system.”</description>
          954  <author>Ian Jennings</author>
          955  <category>South Africa</category>
          956  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190786</guid>
          957  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:04 EDT</pubDate>
          958  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          959  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ian Jennings&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          960 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;South Africa, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          961 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206833&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/feature/south-africa%E2%80%99s-insurrection-greater-jacob-zuma-190786&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/South%20Africa.jpg?itok=IC38pZ5w&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
          962 &lt;h3&gt;The economic conundrum for South Africa is that those who are shut out of prosperity and security will be happy to burn down what they see as “the system.”&lt;/h3&gt;
          963 &lt;title&gt;South Africa’s Insurrection Is Greater Than Jacob Zuma&lt;/title&gt;
          964 &lt;p&gt;The past three weeks in South Africa have been lawless, even by South African standards. And yet it started so promisingly, with former President Jacob Zuma finally &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/8/jacob-zuma-turns-himself-in-to-south-african-police&quot;&gt;handing himself over&lt;/a&gt; to the police on the night of Friday, July 9 on a charge of contempt of court, apparently ending years of lawyerly chicanery which followed years of staggeringly corrupt rule. Scores of followers had followed him to his rural Zululand redoubt, threatening to prevent his arrest by any means necessary. In the end, these threats turned out to be hollow. But his followers had more than hollow threats to offer.&lt;/p&gt;
          965 &lt;p&gt;A number of turbulent streams flowed into the river of &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-south-africa-overcame-its-very-own-january-6-insurrection-190143&quot;&gt;lawlessness&lt;/a&gt; which burst its banks over the past few weeks.&lt;/p&gt;
          966 &lt;p&gt;The catalyst is an internal conflict within the African National Congress (ANC), the party which led the anti-apartheid struggle from abroad and has ruled the country since Nelson Mandela won the first democratic election in 1994. Dealt an extremely difficult hand by the country’s unhappy colonial history, the party has struggled to right the massive social wrongs bequeathed it, but could certainly be said, at least until the end of the Thabo Mbeki presidency in December 2007, to be mostly fighting the good fight.&lt;/p&gt;
          967 &lt;p&gt;But the cracks in the edifice became apparent when Mbeki was &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/heres-why-south-africas-anc-might-not-rule-forever-27417&quot;&gt;replaced by Jacob Zuma&lt;/a&gt;, once Chief of the ANC’s Intelligence Department, by then influential enough to make a successful play for the presidency. Zuma brought with him a new network, made up of the kind of apparatchik who knew more about post-liberation opportunities for enrichment than they did about the dark days of the anti-apartheid struggle. And, significantly, as it turned out, Jacob Zuma was a Zulu.&lt;/p&gt;
          968 &lt;p&gt;Contrary to outside perception, South Africa is not seriously divided by so-called tribal politics. But, despite the ANC’s long public and genuine commitment to a one-nation politics, leadership roles have in fact been unevenly divided between the various ethnicities. For most of the ANC’s history Xhosas, such as presidents Mandela and Mbeki, were at the forefront of the organisation. This reflects, more than anything else, the fact that large-scale modern education arrived in the Xhosa territories before it did amongst the Zulu and the other indigenous peoples.&lt;/p&gt;
          969 &lt;p&gt;This is not to say that there were no prominent Zulu leaders in the ANC—the obvious examples are John Dube and Albert Luthuli—but, and this is a crucial point, they did not emphasise their Zuluness. Doing so would have contradicted the “national” ethos reflected in the name of the organisation, an ethos defined also as “non-racialism”, which encompassed all South Africans who wished to fight the injustices of apartheid, including white people.&lt;/p&gt;
          970 &lt;p&gt;The apartheid government, unsurprisingly, offered temptations to black politicians who were willing to embrace racial and ethnic categories. Hereditary Zulu leadership was long able to play a wily version of this game, whereby traditionally Zulu territory was able to retain a certain degree of autonomy in exchange for distancing itself from the national, cosmopolitan, modernising ANC. Post-apartheid, however, as one might have expected, the most prominent vehicle for Zulu identity, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/inkatha-freedom-party-ifp&quot;&gt;Inkatha movement&lt;/a&gt;, a rural-based expression of traditional culture, struggled to retain its momentum. Ethnic chauvinism looked, for a while, like a spent force. Until, that is, the Zuma presidency.&lt;/p&gt;
          971 &lt;p&gt;Jacob Zuma, had, both before and while president, taken the trouble to convince Zulus that traditional Zulu culture, including recognition of the king, could be combined with ANC ideology, and this, ironically, played a part in both making peace with, and then superseding, Inkatha. He also assiduously constructed networks of patronage rooted largely, but not exclusively, in the Zulu community.           &lt;/p&gt;
          972 &lt;p&gt;The remaining strength of the ANC’s inclusive legacy has, however, meant that despite Zuma’s skilful instrumentalization of Zulu identity, the current turmoil cannot be understood as ethnic conflict. It is true that the vast majority of the supporters of his faction are Zulus, but it is not true that the vast majority of Zulus are supporters of his faction. And at the higher levels, his network knows no ethnicity.&lt;/p&gt;
          973 &lt;p&gt;The line between patronage and corruption is a fine one, and a national judicial commission, appointed, ironically, by Zuma himself during his time in office, is currently investigating just where he and his entourage stood in relation to that line. No one has any doubt of the truth, least of all the man himself, given his extraordinary demonstration of how to exploit legal technicalities so as to avoid testifying.&lt;/p&gt;
          974 &lt;p&gt;The evidence is plain to see—parastatal organizations such as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40813582&quot;&gt;South African Airways&lt;/a&gt; and the national electricity provider &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-01/eskom-s-debt-below-28-billion-amid-funding-talks-gordhan-says&quot;&gt;Eskom&lt;/a&gt; have been looted to the extent that they can barely function, and numerous politicians close to Zuma amassed staggering wealth during their period in office, legitimate reasons for which are hard to find.&lt;/p&gt;
          975 &lt;p&gt;The patience of the legal system ran out in late June when the seemingly untouchable ex-president was given a fifteen-month sentence on the basis of his refusal to testify when summoned to do so before the corruption commission. The police were given three days to arrest him by the court, should he fail to turn himself in. Zuma retreated to his remote Zululand fastness—a palatial compound for him, his four wives, and an enormous catalogue of relatives, paid for by the unwitting taxpayer—where he was soon surrounded by fire-breathing supporters threatening dire consequences were he to be taken into custody.&lt;/p&gt;
          976 &lt;p&gt;And then, surprisingly, Zuma blinked first. On the night of July 7, he handed himself over to the police and was held in the nearby town of Estcourt. One-nil to the state, one-nil for the rule of law, and a telling blow against ethnic chauvinism, said (almost) everyone. Little did they know how much damage public order was about to suffer.&lt;/p&gt;
          977 &lt;p&gt;In response to the arrest, a combination of massive &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57996373&quot;&gt;opportunistic looting&lt;/a&gt; and less visible organised sabotage saw the province of KwaZulu-Natal lying in ruins within a few days, as did parts of the economic centre of the country, Gauteng province, also home to substantial numbers of Zulu speakers. Thousands of people stormed malls—more than 150 of which were destroyed—and warehouses, emptying them of goods and burning them to the ground. More interestingly, the strategic highway between Durban, the country’s major port, and Johannesburg, was blocked in an apparently professional operation, and numerous electrical sub-stations and water purification plants were also attacked. During all of this, there was barely any reaction from either the police or the armed forces.&lt;/p&gt;
          978 &lt;p&gt;Three weeks later almost four hundred people had died, economic damage was estimated at almost U.S. $2 billion, food and medical supplies in many parts of the two affected provinces were seriously disrupted, racial tensions (particularly between Zulus and the Indians of Durban, a community heavily invested in small- to medium-sized business, as well as between Zulus and immigrants from elsewhere in Africa) had been stoked to a boiling point, massive job losses were predicted, and incalculable damage had been done to the sense that South Africa was a country where justice could prevail and law and order might be relied upon. If things have quietened down now, it’s probably because there’s nothing left to take.&lt;/p&gt;
          979 &lt;p&gt;So, what are we to make of all of this?&lt;/p&gt;
          980 &lt;p&gt;First, South Africa is an extraordinarily unequal country. A tiny minority live in great wealth, a smaller minority (initially mostly white, now more diverse) live reasonably comfortably, at least to the extent that they are not dependent on state services, and the vast majority of citizens (almost all black) live in &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/south-africa-has-big-unemployment-problem-pain-unimaginable-123431&quot;&gt;poverty unimaginable&lt;/a&gt; in the United States. This is the proverbial explosion waiting to happen.&lt;/p&gt;
          981 &lt;p&gt;But this particular explosion hasn’t happened yet. It is significant that seven of the country’s nine provinces experienced no looting, despite some of them being a good deal poorer than KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. So the roots of this unrest must be sought in that corrupt and extortionate faction of the ANC which is in hock to Jacob Zuma, and fears going down with him. In attempting to set the country alight, this network hoped to capitalize on a “spontaneous” uprising and use the ensuing chaos to re-establish control over the party and therefore the government. But this attempt, being too narrowly and too ethnically based, burnt itself out before South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s authority came under serious threat. The president, unchallenged in all but the two affected provinces, simply had to keep calm and ride the crisis out, preferably without causing large-scale loss of life.&lt;/p&gt;
          982 &lt;p&gt;The economic conundrum for South Africa is, as is true anywhere, those who are shut out of prosperity and security will be happy to burn what they perceive as “the system” down. This marginalised sector of the population forms a much larger percentage of the total than its equivalent in the United States does. But of course, looting the system exacerbates the inequalities, and it’s hard to see how reconstruction can take place without the kind of centripetal economic forces that are responsible for large-scale marginalisation in the first place. And so the pendulum swings.&lt;/p&gt;
          983 &lt;p&gt;It’s not all bleak. Social media is replete with clips of interracial clean-up gatherings, and heartwarming anecdotes about cooperative anti-looter tactics. But spontaneously formed civilian militias are a few steps away from that slope which leads to vigilantism and ends up in new forms of crime. It is imperative that the state establishes authority and order in an open and fair way, but it remains to be seen whether it has either the capacity or the will to do so. If not, the cycle begins again, and further explosions of civil unrest can be expected.&lt;/p&gt;
          984 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ian Jennings grew up in South Africa, studied in Germany, and teaches Politics and Philosophy at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          985 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          986 
          987 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/south-africa%E2%80%99s-insurrection-greater-jacob-zuma-190786&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
          988 </item>
          989  <item> <title>Sideswiped: Why China Set Out to Shame the State Department</title>
          990  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190830</link>
          991  <description>The Chinese rhetorically and predictably overplayed their hand during Wendy Sherman’s visit to Tianjin.</description>
          992  <author>Paul Heer</author>
          993  <category>China</category>
          994  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190830</guid>
          995  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:04 EDT</pubDate>
          996  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
          997  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Paul Heer&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          998 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;China, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          999 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206879&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/feature/sideswiped-why-china-set-out-shame-state-department-190830&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/WENDY_0.JPG?itok=kxDs-hDD&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1000 &lt;h3&gt;The Chinese rhetorically and predictably overplayed their hand during Wendy Sherman’s visit to Tianjin.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1001 &lt;title&gt;Sideswiped: Why China Set Out to Shame the State Department&lt;/title&gt;
         1002 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{108}&quot; paraid=&quot;472030347&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/china-cannot-solve-north-korea-conundrum-190515&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;visit to China&lt;/a&gt; on July 26 appears to have been a reprise of the Biden administration’s previous high-level interaction with &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-china-will-not-cooperate-west-pandemic-made-things-worse-190251&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;the Chinese&lt;/a&gt;—the March meeting in Anchorage between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts.  Anchorage yielded little more than a &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-us-china-strategic-rivalry-has-intensified-180843&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;mutual airing of grievances&lt;/a&gt;, Additionally, Sherman’s meetings in Tianjin with her direct counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng and State Councilor Wang Yi amounted to much the same. There was talk of “setting the terms of the relationship” and establishing “guardrails” for managing it but there were no visible signs of progress in either respect.  &lt;/p&gt;
         1003 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{120}&quot; paraid=&quot;962441377&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;As with Anchorage, low expectations flowed from the way the meetings were teed up on both sides. At a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-senior-administration-officials-previewing-deputy-secretary-shermans-upcoming-travel-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;State Department pre-briefing&lt;/a&gt;, senior administration officials said the purpose of Sherman’s visit was to “have frank and honest exchanges about the relationship” and ‘keep the channels of communication open”—not to “negotiate over specifics.” Moreover, they emphasized that the backdrop of the visit was “stiff and sustained competition” between the United States and China in which the U.S. side is “strengthening our own competitive hand” and thus will be “entering this engagement from a position of strength and solidarity” with U.S. allies and partners.  &lt;/p&gt;
         1004 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{127}&quot; paraid=&quot;1004529433&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;This yielded an interim public response from Wang that echoed the tenor of Beijing’s presentation in Anchorage. “If the United States has not learned how to get along with other countries on an equal footing by now, then it is our responsibility, along with the international community, to give the U.S. a good tutorial in this regard,” Wang said. Indeed, Wang and Xie subsequently used the opportunity to lecture Sherman on what they characterized as Washington’s arrogance, hypocrisy, and responsibility for the downturn in U.S.-China relations. Xie played the role of the bad cop, accusing the United States of “portray[ing] China as an imagined enemy” and trying to redirect “U.S. domestic public discontent” by “blam[ing] China for its own &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/wshd_665389/t1894983.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;structural problems&lt;/a&gt;.” He proclaimed that “one must not do to others what one does not like to be done to himself.”  But Wang asserted flatly that Biden has continued the Trump administration’s “extreme and wrong policy toward China” of trying to contain it and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/wshd_665389/t1895278.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;thwart its development&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
         1005 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{134}&quot; paraid=&quot;1932167529&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;The most pronounced aspect of Xie’s and Wang’s presentations to Sherman was their obvious attempt to mirror what Beijing perceives as Washington’s high-handed approach: to claim the moral high ground and the upper hand in the relationship. This included quoting American statements back to Sherman. The State Department pre-briefers had said the U.S. side was “going into these meetings with our eyes wide open,” so Xie affirmed that “the Chinese people look at things with eyes wide open.” Similarly invoking Blinken’s statement at Anchorage that “it’s never a good bet to bet against America,” Xie said, and “the U.S. should not bet on China losing.” Also, Wang said Beijing “has never been interested in betting on America’s win or loss.”  But the clearest effort to replicate U.S. practice came when Xie reportedly delivered to Sherman two lists. One list included sixteen U.S. actions that Washington needs to correct or reverse, including visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party members, “suppression” of Chinese companies like Huawei, and designation of Chinese media outlets as foreign agents. The second list included ten areas of Chinese concern about U.S. behavior, including anti-Chinese sentiment in America, blaming China for the coronavirus, and challenging Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.  &lt;/p&gt;
         1006 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{141}&quot; paraid=&quot;1508341621&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;This suggests that Beijing is crossing—or has crossed—a threshold and calculates that it now has the international leverage and influence to push back against U.S. pressure, and to expect or demand reciprocity on the basis of “equality and mutual respect.”  This posture reflects Chinese leaders’ evolving assessment of the shifting balance of power in the wake of China’s “rise” and the United States’ &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/new-book-hints-biden%E2%80%99s-strategic-approach-china-189264&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;relative decline&lt;/a&gt;. At the same time, the Chinese rhetorically and predictably overplayed their hand in this regard during Sherman’s visit.  Wang affirmed that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process that no force, no country can stop”—overlooking the possibility that China might inflict setbacks on itself.  For his part, Xie told Sherman a “desire to seek hegemony or territorial expansion is simply not in the Chinese DNA.”  China, he said, “has never coerced any country” or “gone to others’ doorsteps to provoke trouble,” and only “responds to foreign interference with legitimate and lawful countermeasures.” Xie noted that the United States is the true “inventor, and patent and intellectual property owner of coercive diplomacy.” Beijing is unlikely to win U.S. hearts and minds with such rhetoric. Additionally, the verdict issued by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian—the leading practitioner of Beijing’s “wolf warrior diplomacy”—after Sherman’s visit stated that “the U.S. side must change course and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1895361.shtml&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;correct its mistakes&lt;/a&gt;” because “whoever tied the knot is responsible for untying it.”  &lt;/p&gt;
         1007 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{148}&quot; paraid=&quot;1311275203&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;The core question regarding Sherman’s visit is whether it will advance the goal of arresting the downward spiral in U.S.-China relations and create an opening for some stabilization or even a constructive turn in the relationship. Indicators of either are not yet apparent.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.state.gov/deputy-secretary-shermans-visit-to-the-peoples-republic-of-china/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The State Department readout&lt;/a&gt; after the visit stated that Sherman, Wang, and Xie “discussed ways to set terms for responsible management of the US-China relationship,” but provided no details on those ways or those terms. Thus, there was no suggestion that any agreement was reached. And although the State Department readout reiterated the goal of “establishing guardrails” for the relationship, the Chinese side quoted Xie as saying that such guardrails “must be agreed upon by both sides” and “should not be unilaterally set by the United States as a behavior boundary for China.” &lt;/p&gt;
         1008 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{155}&quot; paraid=&quot;1497580207&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Wang offered what presumably constitutes three such terms for the relationship, all of them were boundaries for U.S. behavior. These terms state that the United States “must not challenge, denigrate, or attempt to subvert the socialist road and system with Chinese characteristics . . . try to obstruct or interrupt China’s development process . . . [or] infringe on China’s national sovereignty [and] territorial integrity.” All of these requirements would pose inherent challenges for the relationship, given prevailing US attitudes toward China’s political and economic system; &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-us-shouldnt-rely-fancy-equipment-beat-china-war-183832&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;U.S. policies&lt;/a&gt; that Beijing interprets as aimed at regime change, containment, and/or economic decoupling; and valid US concerns about &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/nowhere-earth-will-be-safe-us-china-war-172523&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Chinese policies&lt;/a&gt; toward Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.  On the other hand, any corresponding proposals from Washington are certain to pose symmetrical and fundamental challenges to Beijing.    &lt;/p&gt;
         1009 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{162}&quot; paraid=&quot;1858227938&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Whether the two sides are ready to productively engage on “setting the terms of the relationship” remains to be seen.  Frankly, Sherman’s visit—like the exchange in Anchorage—provided scant evidence of it.  On the contrary, both sides hinted at skepticism about—if not resistance to—any form of mutual accommodation or even substantive engagement. The Chinese side gave lip service to “mutual respect, fair competition, and peaceful coexistence” but blamed the United States for their absence. China insisted that the ball is in Washington’s court to “change course” and “make the right choice.” For its part, the United States side said—oddly—that it “welcomes” stiff competition, apparently preferring it to any consideration of a mutually accommodative relationship.  And although Sherman and other Biden administration officials acknowledged the potential for U.S.-China cooperation on “important global challenges,” such as climate change, counter-proliferation, and regional security issues, they did not address the potential for U.S.-China cooperation on bilateral issues.  In addition, it was revealing that during the State Department readout after Sherman’s visit, one of the administration officials said “it would be wrong to characterize the US as somehow seeking or soliciting China’s cooperation” because “we believe that Beijing should have its own interest in working on many of these areas.” It is difficult to foresee significant U.S.-China cooperation in any area if one side is unwilling to be viewed as seeking it and is instead primarily focused on girding for competition. The other side is likely to mirror that mindset in both respects. &lt;/p&gt;
         1010 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{169}&quot; paraid=&quot;1953682149&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;On balance, it appears for the time being that there will be no major constructive breakthrough in U.S.-China relations as long as strategic distrust outweighs mutual understanding. This stalemate will continue as long as Beijing and Washington calculate that they each have the balance of leverage with which to deflect the other’s proposed guardrails and terms for the relationship. In the meantime, their diplomatic interactions will be characterized more by exchanges of demands and complaints than by cooperation or its pursuit.  It is hard to disagree with Beijing’s admission that the relationship is “facing serious difficulties.”  &lt;/p&gt;
         1011 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{182}&quot; paraid=&quot;883686849&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paul Heer is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the National Interest and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia from 2007 to 2015. He is the author of &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Pacific-George-Kennan-American/dp/1501711148&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mr. X and the Pacific: George F. Kennan and American Policy in East Asia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.  &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1012 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{5d06767f-9fad-435e-8b97-83e59ce98868}{190}&quot; paraid=&quot;1998364845&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1013 
         1014 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/sideswiped-why-china-set-out-shame-state-department-190830&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1015 </item>
         1016  <item> <title>Can the Private Sector Save Belarus?</title>
         1017  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190843</link>
         1018  <description>In recent years many politicians on the left have repeatedly accused large corporations of creating ‘totalitarian’ business models, including surveillance and aggregation of data about individuals’ tastes and personalities. Could they use their power to topple a dictatorship instead?</description>
         1019  <author>Vladislav Inozemtsev, Yaroslav Romanchuk, Vitali Shkliarov</author>
         1020  <category>Belarus</category>
         1021  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190843</guid>
         1022  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:04 EDT</pubDate>
         1023  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1024  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Vladislav Inozemtsev, Yaroslav Romanchuk, Vitali Shkliarov&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1025 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Belarus, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1026 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206894&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/feature/can-private-sector-save-belarus-190843&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Lukashenka.jpg?itok=qqJjtIGf&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1027 &lt;h3&gt;In recent years many politicians on the left have repeatedly accused large corporations of creating ‘totalitarian’ business models, including surveillance and aggregation of data about individuals’ tastes and personalities. Could they use their power to topple a dictatorship instead?&lt;/h3&gt;
         1028 &lt;title&gt;Can the Private Sector Save Belarus?&lt;/title&gt;
         1029 &lt;p&gt;Soon after Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka forced the landing of a diverted Ryanair to Minsk––allowing for the capture and imprisonment of Belarusian activist Roman Protasevich––the European Union announced &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;0&quot; href=&quot;https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/05/24/european-council-conclusions-on-belarus-24-may-2021/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;sanctions&lt;/a&gt; against his regime. In an unprecedented step since the onset of unrest in August of last year, the organization also proposed financial support to the tune of &lt;a href=&quot;http://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2685&quot;&gt;€3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;1&quot; href=&quot;https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2685&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; billion&lt;/a&gt; to a prospective ‘democratic Belarus,’ i.e. in the event that Lukashenka is overthrown. &lt;/p&gt;
         1030 &lt;p&gt;This move was welcomed by many in the international community as a clarion call for regime change in the eastern European country. Yet doubts remain as to whether it will meaningfully affect the course of the nation’s revolution. First, the amount is insufficient to tackle the republic’s dire financial situation, which has reached a fever pitch in recent years. External debt, for instance, remains at around &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;2&quot; href=&quot;http://www.minfin.gov.by/ru/public_debt/pressreleases/11663779ee6a4513.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$18 billion&lt;/a&gt;, $9 billion of which is &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;3&quot; href=&quot;https://www.rbc.ru/economics/31/03/2021/606349f99a7947a9b6d1f95c&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;owed&lt;/a&gt; to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Also at risk are Russian indirect oil subsidies (amounting to an additional $4 billion) which may be cut in case of democratization. Currently, the national bank’s &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;4&quot; href=&quot;https://www.nbrb.by/statistics/reserveassets/assets.asp&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;foreign exchange reserves&lt;/a&gt; can service only &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;5&quot; href=&quot;https://www.belrynok.by/2020/11/18/belorusskie-banki-uvelichili-stavki-po-depozitam-v-2-3-raza/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;two-thirds&lt;/a&gt; of the total currency deposits held in private and corporate accounts in Belarusian banks. &lt;/p&gt;
         1031 &lt;p&gt;Moreover, if the situation in Minsk appears to favor democratization, Russia will probably marshal its own financial resources in a bid to keep Belarus dependent on Russian political and economic clout. This would certainly accord with the state’s previous behavior––in 2013, then-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich abruptly left talks regarding an association agreement with the European Union after its imposing neighbor threatened &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;6&quot; href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-under-pressure-from-russia-puts-brakes-on-eu-deal/2013/11/21/46c50796-52c9-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;stark financial consequences&lt;/a&gt;. Placing comparable economic pressure on Belarus would likely be even more effective, considering that Russia represents &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;7&quot; href=&quot;https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/belarus/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;nearly half&lt;/a&gt; of the nation’s external trade.&lt;/p&gt;
         1032 &lt;p&gt;Finally and most importantly, the EU’s proposed assistance program is short-lived: such aid might be considered sufficient if the EU promised Belarus candidacy status and membership in the Union, with all its attendant benefits – but this does not appear to be in the cards, at least in the near future. As it stands currently, the €3 billion initiative offers only a minority of Belarusians the incentive to revolt, and certainly does not appear to be the “game-changing” proposal which would tip the scales for a democratic Belarus.&lt;/p&gt;
         1033 &lt;p&gt;But the European Union may be overlooking a different option, one which promises much greater chances at success. In recent decades the phenomenon of ‘state capture’––when a corporation or an authoritarian leader actually privatizes the state and uses all the sovereign governance power for their own sake and benefit––has proven common across the geopolitical ecosystem. Though this sort of capture is largely seen as an existential threat to democracy, in authoritarian regimes like Lukashenka’s, it could be engineered to counter authoritarian regimes rather than buttress them.&lt;/p&gt;
         1034 &lt;p&gt;To illustrate this argument, imagine a scenario in which a large multinational corporation (MNC) which can transfer its jurisdiction relatively easy––social media and internet companies first come to mind––decides to sign an agreement with president-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. In exchange for moving its headquarters to Minsk, this agreement may read, this MNC would receive an exclusive tax benefits regime, special status for its employees, tax relief for local subsidiaries, protections against state antitrust litigation, and so on. Such an agreement might be particularly attractive to a company like Google. As the company’s spokesman &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-taxes-netherlands-idUSKCN1OX1G9&quot;&gt;claims&lt;/a&gt;, the effective tax rate was around twenty-six percent during the last ten years. Should the government of Belarus lower the profit tax for such a company to, for example, six or even eight percent, it might result in up to $4 billion in savings per year for Google alone. Add to this the fact that the combined salary of &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;10&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/05/07/mountain-view-large-employer-tax-google.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;23,000 &lt;/a&gt;&lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;11&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/05/07/mountain-view-large-employer-tax-google.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Google&lt;/a&gt; employees in its Mountain View, California headquarters amounts to &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;13&quot; href=&quot;https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Mountain-View-Salaries-EI_IE9079.0,6_IL.7,20_IC1147431.htm?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=32668169497ee199982029949eba8cafb985e5c7-1622989659-0-ASKiFmQ06gzz2SP0mHM9cY4_lNUPKRgmpfpz9NeqkKWdM0iMm8VeWcoUqDMXP65OMKmk-tU-cFxYKH5wcRgwmWd88jNtL2qH4o4loN18WmR0R3GEV_NZYQ8vUuJDr8MzaLhKlaNMKzjzXvL_IHZe1rCux98si5rizpPCttwbusifW_zV1DJ4u3uwcdkGsV6vYgGYRqUebfD9gu2Ik9XzkF6Lj9Q_9nPykuT9BbQ7T-GehQQWk0B8-XXa05ZrgiknQjs2eD8E6l43GXA780p_erQ-Y5bWYQWAw0KAN0R-wziDrOYxeTZCJZf_v5z4YicoPlyFIPgdeW9C77umjPMaGICHNfNYMDBRoZOx-nQ0Nw9EOI1eOKCUxxYIaercxmunfoP4lfDJU1rb5Nxkwd3G-fjHwK2lwQBREU4gkovQBMGBMKCmF7quI0ICmroUfQdkNfxkN481TebmMvP1LozK7T3yzqM8TtYvbSArPu9fNhhll54sXnstVgOLgKxBdg9nf_yFA9JWwIINORoWmtaFQEb0l9mUSlnAFgq-hsYZZpHO&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$6 billion&lt;/a&gt; a year with an effective U.S.&lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;14&quot; href=&quot;https://www.talent.com/tax-calculator/California-150000&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; income tax&lt;/a&gt; on $150k salary staying at thirty-four percent. If a mere &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;15&quot; href=&quot;https://neg.by/novosti/otkrytj/stavki-nalogov-v-sravnenii-s-2020-g&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;thirteen percent&lt;/a&gt; Belarusian tax is instead applied, about $1 billion in additional income would stay in these employees’ pockets––not to mention the difference in the living costs between California and Central Europe. Finally, Google’s excess of $120 billion in &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;16&quot; href=&quot;https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/alphabet-google-parent-now-has-more-cash-than-apple-2019-7-1028404234&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;cash reserves&lt;/a&gt; can easily cover Belarus’s debt securities, which yield up to 7.8 percent annual return. That’s around six times more than any deposit in a U.S. banking institution can return. &lt;/p&gt;
         1035 &lt;p&gt;If one “owns” a state, there is naturally no risk on part of the owner associated with its own securities. The presence of a company of Google’s size, with even some of its cash deposited in local banks, will effectively exclude any chance of speculative runs on such financial institutions. For the sake of clarity, we for now, exclude some of the more thorny issues of financial and monetary policy such as the right to issue cryptocurrency––which may pose a problem in the United States and elsewhere, but not in a state under the essential control of a multinational corporation. This proposal, in brief, is less comparable to building a ‘special economic zone’ in some state than turning a whole nation into a business paradise for IT multinationals. Not only would this create unique opportunities for both the corporation itself and the local economy, it would also prove a mortal financial blow to the Lukashenka regime and likely lead to the downfall of the authoritarian leader.&lt;/p&gt;
         1036 &lt;p&gt;Of course, it might be not a single company, or not the leader of global IT business, which can change the course of Belarusian history. However the G7’s recent mumblings about corporate tax avoidance suggests a less benevolent business atmosphere is taking shape across the industrialized liberal world. Under this incipient system, the question of tax optimization is likely to resurface for many multinationals looking to maximize gross profits. Of course, many companies already seek aggressively to avoid their tax liabilities. Apple infamously repatriated &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;18&quot; href=&quot;https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/it-looks-like-apple-is-bringing-back-home-nearly-all-of-its-250-billion-foreign-cash.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$243 billion&lt;/a&gt; from offshore accounts after President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in late 2017. Google, meanwhile, recently moved &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;19&quot; href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-taxes-netherlands-idUSKCN1OX1G9&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$23 billion&lt;/a&gt; of its financial reserves to Bermuda in an attempt to reduce its own tax bill. Such cases are indicative of a business climate eager to place its assets well away from this new tax regime. So why not simply transform a mid-sized European failing economy into just such a “tax haven” for multinationals, while at the same time creating the most favorable conditions for doing business with leading IT companies by allowing them to serve as major ‘stakeholders’ for an entire nation-state?&lt;/p&gt;
         1037 &lt;p&gt;In recent years many politicians on the left have repeatedly accused large corporations of creating &lt;a data-auth=&quot;NotApplicable&quot; data-linkindex=&quot;20&quot; href=&quot;https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2019/03/06/the-rise-of-totalitarian-technology/?sh=277fc99fa5c1&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;‘totalitarian’ business models&lt;/a&gt;, including surveillance and aggregation of data about individuals’ tastes and personalities. To our mind, nothing else can change this attitude more than an initiative such as we propose––through which these so-called ‘totalitarian’ corporations can upend a national government in the heart of Europe. Such a course of action could serve as an enduring example of how corporate power can be used for the sake of long-term social, political and economic progress the world over.&lt;/p&gt;
         1038 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Vladislav Inozemtsev writes on global economy and modernization from Moscow and Washington. He is the author of &lt;a href=&quot;https://amzn.to/2IYNI7o&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Catching-Up? The Limits of Rapid Economic Development&lt;/a&gt; (Transaction Publishers) and Unmodern Nation: Russia in The 21st Century World (Alpina Publishing, in Russian). Dr. Inozemtsev advised both Commission on Modernization of the Russian Economy under President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009–2011 and several Russian liberal politicians in more recent years.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1039 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yaroslav Romanchuk is a Belarusian economist and politician. He currently works as President of the Scientific Research Mises Center.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1040 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dr. Vitali Shkliarov is an expert in U.S.-Russian relations, columnist, an award-winning political strategist and grassroots activist. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1041 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1042 
         1043 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/can-private-sector-save-belarus-190843&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1044 </item>
         1045  <item> <title>Russia Wins a Substantial Victory on Nord Stream 2</title>
         1046  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190849</link>
         1047  <description>For Russia, the benefits of a completed Nord Stream 2 are plentiful.</description>
         1048  <author>John Ruehl</author>
         1049  <category>Nord Stream 2</category>
         1050  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190849</guid>
         1051  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:03 EDT</pubDate>
         1052  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1053  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;John Ruehl&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1054 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Nord Stream 2, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1055 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206900&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/feature/russia-wins-substantial-victory-nord-stream-2-190849&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/putin_32.jpg?itok=iOV8anMM&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1056 &lt;h3&gt;For Russia, the benefits of a completed Nord Stream 2 are plentiful.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1057 &lt;title&gt;Russia Wins a Substantial Victory on Nord Stream 2&lt;/title&gt;
         1058 &lt;p&gt;Russian president Vladimir Putin will no doubt feel extremely satisfied with the results of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/will-merkel%E2%80%99s-final-washington-visit-improve-german-american-relationship-189507&quot;&gt;meeting&lt;/a&gt; between a departing German chancellor and a U.S. president in his first year.&lt;/p&gt;
         1059 &lt;p&gt;With barely sixty miles of the 764-mile &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/will-angela-merkels-legacy-be-defined-nord-stream-2-190825&quot;&gt;Nord Stream 2&lt;/a&gt; project left, Germany and the United States have just &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/21/us-germany-strike-deal-to-allow-completion-of-russian-nord-stream-2-pipeline.html&quot;&gt;reached a deal&lt;/a&gt; that for the first time reflects tacit U.S. acceptance of the pipeline transporting Russian gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea.&lt;/p&gt;
         1060 &lt;p&gt;The project ensures Europe remains heavily dependent on &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/eu-needs-think-long-term-its-relationship-russia-190253&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;’s natural gas as its top supplier while also jeopardizing the economic, energy, and national security of Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Poland and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.politico.eu/article/in-gas-fight-ukraine-gives-eu-taste-of-its-own-bureaucracy/&quot;&gt;Ukraine&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1061 &lt;p&gt;But the Biden administration calculated that continuing to express its disagreement with a nearly finished &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/pipeline-politics-what-will-energy-diplomacy-look-after-german-elections-189675&quot;&gt;pipeline&lt;/a&gt; only continued to strain its relationship with Germany for little benefit. The face-saving alternative is an agreement that pledges to establish a billion-dollar fund to provide energy security for Ukraine and sustainable energy initiatives across Europe. The down payment is roughly $250 million to promote Ukraine’s transition to clean energy and improve energy infrastructure security.&lt;/p&gt;
         1062 &lt;p&gt;It also states that should Russia use energy as a weapon or military aggression in Ukraine, Germany will “press for effective measures at the European level,” including sanctions. But the Ukrainian government is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-poland-condemn-nord-stream-2-deal-vow-action/&quot;&gt;hardly reassured&lt;/a&gt; or grateful. Instead, the vagueness of the agreement is diplomatically deliberate to suit the Biden Administration’s reluctance to concede its acquiescence to a deal that so advantages Russia as well as Germany.&lt;/p&gt;
         1063 &lt;p&gt;Germany is Russia’s most lucrative gas market, and the new pipeline will double the gas trade between them. Germany will secure larger gas imports at cheaper prices, as well as making itself a hub of natural gas for Central and Western Europe. Germany’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/germany-will-continue-hedge-its-bets-russia-190225&quot;&gt;commitment&lt;/a&gt; to the project is a continuation of its &lt;em&gt;Ostpolitik&lt;/em&gt; approach to Moscow that began in the late 1960s. Aiming to reduce tensions, Germany sought to increase trade between it and the Soviet Union, particularly through energy deals.&lt;/p&gt;
         1064 &lt;p&gt;The Bush administration voiced its opposition to the initial Nord Stream pipeline after it was announced in 2005. Following the beginning of service in 2011, an expansion project, creatively titled Nord Stream 2, was announced in 2015, attracting further criticism from the Obama administration. It intensified Washington’s concerns that the pipeline would help fund Russian militarism and jeopardize the energy security of Eastern European states. Russia has previously &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-cuts-gas-to-ukraine/&quot;&gt;cut off&lt;/a&gt; gas imports to Ukraine over political disagreements disguised as pricing disputes, causing severe panic in Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
         1065 &lt;p&gt;An increase in Russian gas would also make U.S. liquid natural gas (LNG) exports less competitive in Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
         1066 &lt;p&gt;But although the European Union (EU) and NATO imposed sanctions on Russia for its actions against Ukraine seven years ago and the EU pledged to reduce its dependency on Russian gas, the bloc has only increased its reliance since. Nord Stream 2 will push this along further, with little assurance from either Berlin or Washington to counteract the Kremlin’s long-term strategy of increasing influence across Europe. &lt;/p&gt;
         1067 &lt;p&gt;President Donald Trump did &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50875935&quot;&gt;introduce sanctions&lt;/a&gt; against companies involved with Nord Stream in 2018 but this did not prevent the project from inching closer to completion.&lt;/p&gt;
         1068 &lt;p&gt;President Joe Biden recently &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us/politics/nord-stream-2.html&quot;&gt;stated&lt;/a&gt; that “Nord Steam is 99% finished. The idea that anything was going to be said or done was going to stop it was not possible.” State Department officials continue to &lt;a href=&quot;https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-government-and-politics-europe-ukraine-ae62e97ff71280a2fdd5c2e2c164196b&quot;&gt;describe&lt;/a&gt; it as a “bad deal for Germany…a bad deal for Ukraine and for Europe more broadly.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1069 &lt;p&gt;Last week’s agreement still reflects the growing realization in Washington that attempts to thwart Nord Stream 2 served only to undermine relations with Berlin. The White House is hopeful this will put an end to Russia highlighting the tension between Berlin and Washington—particularly when the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/preparing-bow-out-merkel-too-busy-think-about-life-after-office-2021-07-22/&quot;&gt;departure&lt;/a&gt; of Angela Merkel as chancellor in September will inevitably mean a reset of what has been a difficult relationship.&lt;/p&gt;
         1070 &lt;p&gt;Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 have also increased tensions between Germany and its Eastern European neighbors. Both pipeline networks bypass existing routes running through Ukraine and other Eastern European states. Some 40 percent of Russian gas to Europe flows through Ukraine first, and the EU has led efforts to negotiate previous disputes. But because Russia will soon be able to punish Ukraine (and by extension Eastern Europe) by withholding gas without threatening its lucrative Western European clients, the willingness of the institution to act as a mediator will erode.&lt;/p&gt;
         1071 &lt;p&gt;For future cutoffs, Ukraine risks not only a loss of transit fees, but also being suspended from a vital source of energy, without arousing the same international outcry. Eastern European countries connected to Ukrainian pipelines face the same dilemmas.&lt;/p&gt;
         1072 &lt;p&gt;Former German chancellor Gerard Schroeder, who signed off on the original Nord Stream project days before leaving office in 2005, is chairman of the Board of Nord Stream, another indication of Berlin’s continued tight embrace of working with Russia. &lt;/p&gt;
         1073 &lt;p&gt;For Russia, the benefits of a completed Nord Stream 2 are plentiful. It will help it counter Norway as Western Europe’s largest gas supplier, while the Kremlin will now be able to punish Ukraine without fearing as much backlash from Western European states. Additionally, it will receive higher revenues as it transports gas directly to Germany without filtering it through Eastern Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
         1074 &lt;p&gt;And as an added bonus, the project has also expanded Russia’s military footprint. Russia has taken the initiative to increase its military presence in the Baltic Sea to protect its commercial interests, while blocking others. The dangers of allowing Russia unchallenged access to the sea on economic grounds were &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thelocal.se/20061115/5515/&quot;&gt;notably highlighted&lt;/a&gt; by Swedish defense minister Mikael Odenberg in 2006. Since 2014, Russian naval vessels have &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/russia-accused-of-disrupting-new-energy-link-between-sweden-and-lithuania/&quot;&gt;repeatedly disrupted&lt;/a&gt; the construction of the Nordbalt power cable, running from Sweden to Lithuania. And because neither Sweden nor neighboring Finland are in NATO, Russia has gained significant military leverage in the Baltic Sea.&lt;/p&gt;
         1075 &lt;p&gt;The United States and Russia are holding more high-level talks in Geneva this week as part of the Strategic Stability Dialogue set up to encourage greater stability in the relationship and progress on arms control. The agreement with Germany over the reality of Nord Stream 2 formed part of the groundwork for this. But it won’t stop bitter complaints in Eastern Europe and from Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration has been willing to accede to Russian interests at the West’s expense.&lt;/p&gt;
         1076 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;John Ruehl is a contributing editor at Strategic Policy, a foreign affairs magazine based in DC.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1077 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1078 
         1079 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/russia-wins-substantial-victory-nord-stream-2-190849&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1080 </item>
         1081  <item> <title>A Huge 50-Round Magazine Makes the Kel-Tec CP33 Unlike Any Pistol</title>
         1082  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190870</link>
         1083  <description>The star of the show is undoubtedly Kel-Tec’s recently-patented, transparent, jumbo-sized “quad stack” magazine that houses a whopping 33 rounds.</description>
         1084  <author>Mark Episkopos</author>
         1085  <category>Guns</category>
         1086  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190870</guid>
         1087  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1088  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1089  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mark Episkopos&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1090 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Guns, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1091 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206920&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/huge-50-round-magazine-makes-kel-tec-cp33-unlike-any-pistol-190870&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/m0902cwy5gn21.jpg?itok=4u2I28qL&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1092 &lt;h3&gt;The star of the show is undoubtedly Kel-Tec’s recently-patented, transparent, jumbo-sized “quad stack” magazine that houses a whopping 33 rounds.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1093 &lt;title&gt;A Huge 50-Round Magazine Makes the Kel-Tec CP33 Unlike Any Pistol&lt;/title&gt;
         1094 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;The CP33 handles with the ease normally expected of .22 LR pistols geared for target shooting, with a few twists that help it punch above its modest $475 MSRP. The trigger pull weight is surprisingly light at around 3.3 pounds and designed with attention to minimal creep/overtravel, while the forward grip placement contributes to a balanced handling experience.&lt;/p&gt;
         1095 &lt;p&gt;From “&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-good-it-kel-tecs-ksg-shotgun-claims-offer-worlds-fastest-reload-87801&quot;&gt;the world’s fastest reloading shotgun&lt;/a&gt;” to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/kel-tec-rfb-best-bullpup-semi-automatic-rifle-86851&quot;&gt;Bullpup rifle&lt;/a&gt; that purports to eliminate the weaknesses of the Bullpup form factor, Florida-based firearms manufacturer Kel-Tec has distinguished itself for fresh takes on long-established formulas. It’s no secret that the rimfire pistol market hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of firearms innovation over the past several decades, but Kel-Tec seeks to change all that with one of the more unique handguns in recent memory: the CP33.&lt;/p&gt;
         1096 &lt;p&gt;It’s immediately apparent from the pistol’s unorthodox design that the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.keltecweapons.com/firearms/pistols/cp33/&quot;&gt;CP33&lt;/a&gt; is anything but your typical .22 target pistol. The pistol grip is located closer to the center of the slide than most handguns. The slide is itself remarkable in that it houses a full-length picatinny rail to accommodate a wide range of optics choices, though the pistol ships with an adjustable, removable green-orange fiber optic sight system boasting a 9-inch radius. The MAGPUL M-LOK slot in the dust cover promises even more customizability, while the safety levers on both sides of the pistol make it perfectly ambidextrous.&lt;/p&gt;
         1097 &lt;p&gt;But the star of the show is undoubtedly Kel-Tec’s recently-patented, transparent, jumbo-sized “quad stack” magazine that houses a whopping 33 rounds. If that’s not enough, Kel-Tec is offering an optional magazine extension that takes the CP33’s capacity up to 50-- for context, that’s an entire &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bulkammo.com/bulk-22-lr-ammo-22lr36grhparmscor-50&quot;&gt;small pack&lt;/a&gt; of of .22 LR rounds in one magazine. An impressive feat of magazine engineering, Kel-Tec’s “quadruple stack” system employs a stainless steel rod to split cartridges into two double-stacked columns running along either side of the magazine. Kel-Tec &lt;a href=&quot;https://s3.amazonaws.com/build-keltec/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CP33-MANUAL-COMPLETE_OPT.pdf&quot;&gt;recommends&lt;/a&gt; only high-velocity ammunition with 40 grains or higher, as the use of lightweight and low-velocity bullets incurs the risk of feeding problems given the magazine’s unique design.&lt;/p&gt;
         1098 &lt;p&gt;The CP33 handles with the ease normally expected of .22 LR pistols geared for target shooting, with a few twists that help it punch above its modest $475 MSRP. The trigger pull weight is surprisingly light at around 3.3 pounds and designed with attention to minimal creep/overtravel, while the forward grip placement contributes to a balanced handling experience. As with most &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gunbacker.com/9mm-vs-22/&quot;&gt;guns in its caliber class&lt;/a&gt;, the 30 to 50 round magazine can be emptied with little to no recoil. The overall result is a seamless, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78js3IZSX8o&quot;&gt;accurate&lt;/a&gt; shooting experience designed to provide consistent results in a competition setting. There is no reason why the CP33 can’t be used to hunt small game at close ranges, though the pistol’s colossal capacity would be a bit of a waste in that setting.&lt;/p&gt;
         1099 &lt;p&gt;At an overall length of 10.6 inches and loaded weight of just under 1.9 pounds, the CP33 is hardly a compact pistol. That may be just as well, given that the 22 LR caliber has long been &lt;a href=&quot;https://gundigest.com/article/defensive-22-lr-good-bad-or-stupid&quot;&gt;controversial&lt;/a&gt; as a reliable self-defense round-- as Kel-Tec delicately clarified in their branding, the CP33 is designed to make “short work” specifically out of “paper bad guys.” However, Kel-Tec has succeeded in designing a compelling option for target shooters in the market for a competition pistol, or simply a reliable &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/which-plinker-is-your-favorite/&quot;&gt;plinker&lt;/a&gt; to bring along for prolonged practice sessions.&lt;/p&gt;
         1100 &lt;p&gt;&lt;article&gt;
         1101 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mark Episkopos is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and serves as a research assistant at the Center for the National Interest. Mark is also a Ph.D. student in History at American University. This article first appeared earlier this year.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1102 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.redd.it/m0902cwy5gn21.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Creative Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1103 &lt;p&gt;&lt;/article&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1104 
         1105 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/huge-50-round-magazine-makes-kel-tec-cp33-unlike-any-pistol-190870&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1106 </item>
         1107  <item> <title>Have DirecTV? Don&#039;t Fall for this Social Security Number Scam. </title>
         1108  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190860</link>
         1109  <description>Social engineers try to trick you into taking a certain action or providing your confidential info.</description>
         1110  <author>Stephen Silver</author>
         1111  <category>Social Security, Scam</category>
         1112  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190860</guid>
         1113  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:39 EDT</pubDate>
         1114  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1115  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stephen Silver&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1116 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Social Security, Scam, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1117 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206910&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/techland/have-directv-dont-fall-social-security-number-scam-190860&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/directv_0.jpg?itok=_AsVD7YY&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1118 &lt;h3&gt;Social engineers try to trick you into taking a certain action or providing your confidential info.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1119 &lt;title&gt;Have DirecTV? Don&#039;t Fall for this Social Security Number Scam. &lt;/title&gt;
         1120 &lt;p&gt;A prosecutor in Maryland is warning of a Social Security scam, targeting customers of AT&amp;T and DirecTV.&lt;/p&gt;
         1121 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://southernmarylandchronicle.com/2021/07/29/calvert-states-attorney-warns-of-att-directv-scam/&quot;&gt;According to the Southern Maryland Chronicle&lt;/a&gt;, Robert Harvey, Calvert County State’s Attorney, recently issued a “&lt;a href=&quot;https://calvertstatesattorney.com/scam-alert-a-message-from-calvert-county-states-attorney-robert-harvey/&quot;&gt;scam alert&lt;/a&gt;” in which customers are asked for their Social Security numbers.&lt;/p&gt;
         1122 &lt;p&gt;“Some customers have received official-looking materials in the mail telling them that their bill is going to be increased by $12 per month unless they call a specified telephone number. When the number is called, the user is asked to provide a social security number,” the alert says. “This is a scam! AT&amp;T/DirecTV never asks for a social security number and is not sending these documents in the mail. If you receive such a letter, do not fall for this trick.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1123 &lt;p&gt;Those who receive such calls are advised to “report postal fraud to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.uspis.gov/&quot;&gt;uspis.gov/report&lt;/a&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1124 &lt;p&gt;AT&amp;T’s&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.att.com/support/article/directv/KM1159567/&quot;&gt; own support website&lt;/a&gt; warned of a similar scam earlier this year.&lt;/p&gt;
         1125 &lt;p&gt;“Social engineers try to trick you into taking a certain action or providing your confidential info. They may contact you by phone, email, text, or direct message on social media,” AT&amp;T said. “Here’s how it’s done: Someone contacts you pretending to represent a legitimate company you might normally do business with. They may ask for info like your Social Security number, password, or credit card number ‘to verify your account.’”&lt;/p&gt;
         1126 &lt;p&gt;AT&amp;T currently owns DirecTV and has since 2016. However, that’s about to change, after AT&amp;T agreed earlier this year to&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/att-has-finally-sold-stake-directv%E2%80%94what-it-means-179029&quot;&gt; spin off the satellite broadcaster&lt;/a&gt; into a separate entity, although AT&amp;T will still have majority ownership of that entity. This followed a months-long process in which the division was essentially auctioned by AT&amp;T. Private equity firm TPG agreed to purchase about 30 percent of the new company.&lt;/p&gt;
         1127 &lt;p&gt;There are now indications that&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/07/atts-spin-off-of-directv-is-now-certain/&quot;&gt; the DirecTV spinoff&lt;/a&gt; is ahead of schedule.&lt;/p&gt;
         1128 &lt;p&gt;“The company expects the DIRECTV/TPG transaction to close in the next few weeks, which will impact certain aspects of guidance,” AT&amp;T &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.streetinsider.com/SEC+Filings/Form+8-K+AT&amp;amp;T+INC.+For:+Jul+22/18706580.html&quot;&gt;said in its 2021&lt;/a&gt; outlook earlier this week, &lt;a href=&quot;https://tvanswerman.com/2021/07/22/att-directv-tpg-sale-to-close-in-next-few-weeks/&quot;&gt;as cited by TV Answer Man.&lt;/a&gt; Once the deal closes, AT&amp;T expects “revenues to be lower by $9 billion, EBITDA to be lower by $1 billion and free cash flow to be lower by about $1 billion, equating to $26 billion for the year.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1129 &lt;p&gt;Another recent report found that after the deal closes, the streaming service known as AT&amp;T TV will likely be rebranded, as “DirecTV Stream.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1130 &lt;p&gt;“After starting off as DirecTV Now and then transitioning to AT&amp;T TV Now before eventually being absorbed by AT&amp;T TV, references to the DirecTV Stream name were recently visible on the AT&amp;T website,” the &lt;a href=&quot;https://streamingclarity.com/att-tv-directv-stream-rebrand-possible-logo-slogan/&quot;&gt;report from website Streaming Clarity&lt;/a&gt; said. &lt;/p&gt;
         1131 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt; Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1132 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1133 
         1134 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/have-directv-dont-fall-social-security-number-scam-190860&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1135 </item>
         1136  <item> <title>Crazy Fact: The U.S. Conducted 1,032 Nuclear Weapons Tests</title>
         1137  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190937</link>
         1138  <description>Between 1945 and 1992, the United States conducted 1,032 nuclear tests seeking to get the measure of these enigmatic weapons.</description>
         1139  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
         1140  <category>Nuclear Weapons</category>
         1141  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190937</guid>
         1142  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:34 EDT</pubDate>
         1143  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1144  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1145 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Nuclear Weapons, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1146 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206978&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/crazy-fact-us%C2%A0conducted-1032-nuclear-weapons-tests-190937&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Plumbbob_Boltzmann_001%20%281%29.jpg?itok=9OUXQ2-J&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1147 &lt;h3&gt;Between 1945 and 1992, the United States conducted 1,032 nuclear tests seeking to get the measure of these enigmatic weapons.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1148 &lt;title&gt;Crazy Fact: The U.S. Conducted 1,032 Nuclear Weapons Tests&lt;/title&gt;
         1149 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Know&lt;/strong&gt;: U.S. nuclear testing ceased in 1992. In 2002, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/01/us/almost-all-in-us-have-been-exposed-to-fallout-study-finds.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;the Centers for Disease Control estimated&lt;/a&gt; that virtually every American that has lived since 1951 has been exposed to nuclear fallout, and that the cumulative effects of all nuclear testing by all nations could ultimately be responsible for up to eleven thousand deaths in the United States alone&lt;/p&gt;
         1150 &lt;p&gt;Nuclear weapons have a mysterious quality. Their power is measured in plainly visible blast pressure and thermal energy common to many weapons, but also invisible yet equally destructive radiation and electromagnetic pulse. Between 1945 and 1992, the United States &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/the-united-states-nuclear-testing-programme/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;conducted 1,032 nuclear tests&lt;/a&gt; seeking to get the measure of these enigmatic weapons. Many of these tests would be today be considered unnecessary, overly dangerous and just plain bizarre. These tests, undertaken on the atomic frontier, gathered much information about these weapons—enough to cease actual use testing—yet scarred the land and left many Americans with long-term health problems.&lt;/p&gt;
         1151 &lt;p&gt;The majority of U.S. nuclear tests occurred in the middle of the Western desert, at the Nevada Test Site. The NTS hosted 699 nuclear tests, utilizing both above-ground and later underground nuclear devices. The average yield for these tests was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/the-united-states-nuclear-testing-programme/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;8.6 kilotons&lt;/a&gt;. Atmospheric tests could be seen from nearby Las Vegas, sixty-five miles southeast of the Nevada Test site, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.citylab.com/politics/2014/08/atomic-tests-were-a-tourist-draw-in-1950s-las-vegas/375802/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;even became a tourist draw&lt;/a&gt; until the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.state.gov/t/isn/4797.htm&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Limited Test Ban Treaty&lt;/a&gt; banned them in 1963. Today the craters and pockmarks from underground tests are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nevada+National+Security+Site,+Nevada/@37.1351423,-116.0589882,11691m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80b8703f93688045:0x42e50cf40ba4ba7b!8m2!3d37.1164492!4d-116.1888707&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;still visible in satellite map imagery&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1152 &lt;p&gt;The bulk of the remaining nuclear tests took place in Pacific, at the islands of Bikini, Enewetak, Johnson Island and Christmas Island. The second nuclear test, after 1945’s Trinity Test, took place at Bikini Atoll. The Pacific tests were notable not only for their stunning visuals, the most compelling imagery of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima, but also the forced relocation of native islanders. Others that were near tests were exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive fallout and forced to fleet. In 1954, the crew of the Japanese fishing boat &lt;em&gt;Daigo Fukuryu Maru&lt;/em&gt; accidentally sailed through fallout from the nearby fifteen-megaton Castle Bravo test. Contaminated with nuclear fallout, one crew member died, and the rest were sickened by radiation.&lt;/p&gt;
         1153 &lt;p&gt;The first test of a thermonuclear, or fusion, bomb took place on November 1952 at Enewetak Island. Nicknamed Ivy Mike, the huge eighty-two-ton device was more of a building than a usable nuclear device. The device registered a yield of 10.4 megatons, or the equivalent of 10,400,000 tons of TNT. (Hiroshima, by contrast, was roughly eighteen thousand tons of TNT.) Ivy Mike was the biggest test by far, creating a fireball 1.8 miles wide and a mushroom cloud that rose to an altitude of 135,000 feet.&lt;/p&gt;
         1154 &lt;p&gt;One of the strangest atmospheric tests occurred in 1962 at the NTS, with the testing of the Davy Crockett battlefield nuclear weapon. Davy Crockett was a cartoonish-looking recoilless rifle that lobbed a nuclear warhead with an explosive yield of just ten to twenty tons of TNT. The test, code-named Little Feller I, took place on July 17, 1962, with attorney general and presidential adviser Robert. F. Kennedy in attendance. Although hard to believe, Davy Crockett was issued at the battalion level in both Germany and North Korea.&lt;/p&gt;
         1155 &lt;p&gt;Also in 1962, as part of a series of high-altitude nuclear experiments, a Thor rocket carried a W49 thermonuclear warhead approximately 250 miles into the exoatmosphere. The test, known as Starfish Prime, had an explosive yield of 1.4 megatons, or 1,400,000 tons of TNT, and resulted in a large amount of electromagnetic pulse being released over the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The test, conducted off Johnston Island, sent a man-made electrical surge as far Hawaii, more than eight hundred miles away. The surge knocked out three hundred streetlights and a telephone exchange, and caused burglar alarms to go off and garage doors to open by themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
         1156 &lt;p&gt;Nuclear tests weren’t just restricted to the Pacific Ocean and Nevada. In October 1964, as part of Operation Whetstone, the U.S. government &lt;a href=&quot;http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/293/nuclear-blasts-in-mississippi&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;detonated a 5.3-kiloton device&lt;/a&gt; just twenty-eight miles southwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The test, nicknamed Salmon, was an experiment designed to determine if nuclear tests could be detected by seismometer. This was followed up in 1966 with the Sterling test, which had a yield of 380 tons.&lt;/p&gt;
         1157 &lt;p&gt;In 1967, as part of a misguided attempt to use nuclear weapons for peaceful purposes, the United States detonated a nuclear device near Farmington, New Mexico. Project Gasbuggy was an early attempt at nuclear “fracking,” detonating a twenty-nine-kiloton nuke 4,227 feet underground just to see if the explosion would fracture surrounding rock and expose natural-gas reserves. The experiment was unsuccessful. Two similar tests, Rulison and Rio Blanco, took place in nearby Colorado. Although Rulison was a success in that it uncovered usable gas reserves, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.postindependent.com/news/preserving-the-history-of-project-rulison/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;gas was contaminated with radiation&lt;/a&gt;, leaving it unsuitable for practical commercial use.&lt;/p&gt;
         1158 &lt;p&gt;A handful of nuclear tests were conducted in Alaska, or more specifically the Aleutian island of Amchitka. The first test, in October 1965, was designed to test nuclear detection techniques and had a yield of eighty kilotons. A second test occurred four years later, and had a yield of one megaton, or one thousand kilotons. The third and largest test, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/the-united-states-nuclear-testing-programme/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cannikin&lt;/a&gt;, was a test of the Spartan antiballistic-missile warhead and had a yield of less than five megatons.&lt;/p&gt;
         1159 &lt;p&gt;During the early years of nuclear testing it was anticipated that nuclear weapons would be used on the battlefield, and that the Army and Marine Corps had better get used to operating on a “nuclear battlefield.” During the 1952 Big Shot test, 1,700 ground troops took shelter in trenches just seven thousand yards from the thirty-three-kiloton explosion. After the test, the troops conducted a simulated assault that took them to within 160 meters of ground zero. This test and others like them &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/26/health/testing-in-nevada-desert-is-tied-to-cancers.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;led to increases in leukemia, prostate and nasal cancers&lt;/a&gt; among those that participated.&lt;/p&gt;
         1160 &lt;p&gt;U.S. nuclear testing ceased in 1992. In 2002, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/01/us/almost-all-in-us-have-been-exposed-to-fallout-study-finds.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;the Centers for Disease Control estimated&lt;/a&gt; that virtually every American that has lived since 1951 has been exposed to nuclear fallout, and that the cumulative effects of all nuclear testing by all nations could ultimately be responsible for up to eleven thousand deaths in the United States alone. The United States did indeed learn much about how to construct safe and reliable nuclear weapons, and their effects on human life and the environment. In doing so, however, it paid a terrible and tragic price.&lt;/p&gt;
         1161 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the &lt;/em&gt;Diplomat&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;Foreign Policy&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;War is Boring&lt;em&gt; and the &lt;/em&gt;Daily Beast&lt;em&gt;. In 2009, he cofounded the defense and security blog &lt;/em&gt;Japan Security Watch&lt;em&gt;. You can follow him on Twitter: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/KyleMizokami?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;@KyleMizokami&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1162 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1163 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Nuclear_explosions#/media/File:Plumbbob_Boltzmann_001.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1164 
         1165 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/crazy-fact-us%C2%A0conducted-1032-nuclear-weapons-tests-190937&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1166 </item>
         1167  <item> <title>In 1981, a Soviet Spy Ship Sent Sweden on a Submarine Hunt</title>
         1168  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190735</link>
         1169  <description>Sweden was theoretically neutral during the Cold War, but Stockholm’s perceived closeness to the West apparently motivated Soviet intelligence-gathering activities.</description>
         1170  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
         1171  <category>Russia</category>
         1172  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190735</guid>
         1173  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:33 EDT</pubDate>
         1174  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1175  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1176 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Russia, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1177 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206782&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/1981-soviet-spy-ship-sent-sweden-submarine-hunt-190735&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/MM10249%20%281%29.jpg?itok=lNnzOisU&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1178 &lt;h3&gt;Sweden was theoretically neutral during the Cold War, but Stockholm’s perceived closeness to the West apparently motivated Soviet intelligence-gathering activities.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1179 &lt;title&gt;In 1981, a Soviet Spy Ship Sent Sweden on a Submarine Hunt&lt;/title&gt;
         1180 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember:&lt;/strong&gt; The submarine infiltrations appeared to cease with the end of the Cold War—but not for good. As relations between Russia and the West sharply deteriorated in 2014 over Moscow’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, the Swedish Navy spent a week attempting to track a mini-submarine which reportedly sighted multiple times in Swedish waters.&lt;/p&gt;
         1181 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;On the morning of October 28, 1981, two Swedish fishermen were hauling their catch back to Karlskrona when they noticed a mysterious oil slick. One Bertil Sturkmen later returned to the area to investigate, and at 10 a.m. came across a startling sight: a seventy-six-meter long submarine wedged on its starboard side against the sharp rocks of Torumskär island. An officer was standing on the submarine’s conning tower, staring at him through binoculars—and holding a machine gun.&lt;/p&gt;
         1182 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Sturkmen sailed back to Karlskrona and notified the nearby Swedish naval base, which harbored two of Sweden’s three coastal defense flotillas. Karlskrona was well protected from attack due to its position in a shallow bay shielded by a belt of rocky islands which demanded careful circumnavigation. Somehow, the submarine had wended it way through this daunting aquatic obstacle course to a point only six miles away from the base.&lt;/p&gt;
         1183 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The patrol boat Smyge reached the grounded vessel by 11 a.m., and Comm. Karl Andersson managed to converse with a crew members in German—who informed him that the submarine had strayed off course due to a faulty navigation system.&lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1184 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinas-h-6k-the-old-bomber-could-sink-the-us-navy-25913&quot;&gt;China&#039;s H-6K: The &#039;Old&#039; Bomber That Could &#039;Sink&#039; the U.S. Navy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1185 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-f-22-raptor-would-crush-f-35-dogfight-25868&quot;&gt;Why an F-22 Raptor Would Crush an F-35 in a &#039;Dogfight&#039;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1186 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/air-war-stealth-f-22-raptor-vs-f-14-tomcat-iran-still-flies-25825&quot;&gt;Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1187 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The boat in question was S-363, a Soviet Whiskey-class coastal patrol submarine—thus giving the incident its moniker “the Whiskey on the Rocks.” (At the time, the submarine was widely mis-identified as U-137.) The short-range diesel-electric submarine had a crew of 56 and had been designed in the 1940s with snorkel and battery technology derived from the Nazi Type XXI “electric boat.” The Soviet Union built more than two hundred of the submarines.&lt;/p&gt;
         1188 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Sweden’s long Baltic coastline faced Leningrad and Soviet bases in the Baltic states and Poland. Though international law states that a country’s territorial waters extend twelve nautical miles (fourteen miles) away from its mainland and island possessions, Soviet submarines had been detected intruding into Swedish waters on numerous occasions during the 1960s and 1970s. Swedish vessels had opened fire on them several times without apparent effect.&lt;/p&gt;
         1189 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Sweden was theoretically neutral during the Cold War, but Stockholm’s perceived closeness to the West apparently motivated Soviet intelligence-gathering activities. The Swedes returned the favor by shadowing Soviet ships and aircraft with their own jets and submarines, occasionally leading to tense situations: for example, in 1985 a &lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/a-soviet-fighter-planes-tragic-error-brought-us-google-maps/&quot;&gt;standoff between Swedish Viggen and Soviet Su-15 interceptors&lt;/a&gt; resulted in a deadly crash.&lt;/p&gt;
         1190 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;In fact, the evening before, on October 27, the Swedish submarine Neptune and two helicopters had been testing a new type of torpedo which may have been of considerable interest to the Soviets. It was around that time that S-363 ran aground. Her crew gunned her diesel engines trying to escape—producing a din which was heard ashore.&lt;/p&gt;
         1191 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;As news of S-363’s grounding spread, journalists and boats surrounded the submarine. Stockholm demanded the right to interrogate her captain, Anatolij Gustjtjin. Moscow claimed S-363 had entered Swedish waters seeking aid, though of course, S-363 had not issued a distress signal.&lt;/p&gt;
         1192 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Swedish radars then detected a task force of a dozen Soviet ships approaching S-363. Led by Admiral A. Kalinin, the fleet included the missile destroyer Obraztsovy, and older gun-armed destroyer, two anti-ship missile boats, a frigate and a tug.&lt;/p&gt;
         1193 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;While the submarine Neptune did its best to slow down the approaching fleet, the icebreaker Thule was moved into position to block access to S-363. As the Soviet task force continued to approach, radar-guided coastal guns activated their targeting radars, which were designed to hop multiple frequencies to evade counter-battery fire. This finally prompted the Soviet warships to halt. A lone tug continued approaching, however, until Swedish torpedo boats barred it progress.&lt;/p&gt;
         1194 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Meanwhile, Swedish ships conducted gamma-ray spectroscopic analyses of S-363 and detected trace amounts of what appeared to be Uranium 238—suggesting that a nuclear weapon was on. Back in the 1950s, the Soviet Union had develop several &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/exposed-hidden-russian-submarine-almost-killed-millions-18449&quot;&gt;nuclear torpedoes&lt;/a&gt;, including smaller types designed to knock out multiple enemy vessels, as well as a larger type for nuking naval bases and coastal cities—a concept which has recently &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/we-now-know-why-russia-wants-100-megaton-nuclear-torpedo-24736&quot;&gt;seen a renaissance&lt;/a&gt;. Indeed, the Whiskey-class S-144 had tested a T-5 anti-ship nuclear torpedo with a five-kiloton warhead in 1957.&lt;/p&gt;
         1195 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;After days of protracted negotiations, Captain Gustjtjin, accompanied by political officer Vassily Besedin, submitted himself to a six-hour interrogation aboard the torpedo boat Vastervik on November 2. He insisted that S-363 had experienced a breakdown of its four different navigational systems and drifted a hundred miles off course from the coast of Poland. However, given that entering that far into Karlskrona Bay required numerous precise maneuvers, his Swedish interlocutor noted such a mistake was “worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1196 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Meanwhile a storm broke out, obscuring Swedish radars. When it cleared, two vessels were detected approaching Swedish waters. Assuming a renewed Soviet incursion, Prime Minister Falldin had naval strike planes scrambled and coastal guns put on standby to open fire in defense of territorial waters. But after twenty minutes, it was discovered that the contacts were German merchant ships.&lt;/p&gt;
         1197 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Finally, after a ten-day standoff, Moscow permitted the Swedes to extricate the grounded submarine. Swedish tugs put the Soviet sub back to water and handed her off to Admiral Kalinin’s task force. S-363 returned to port November 7.&lt;/p&gt;
         1198 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Political officer Besedin later &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/20061201233353/http:/www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,916366,00.html&quot;&gt;told a Swedish journalist&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
         1199 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&quot;Our officers were ordered to blow up the submarine together with its crew if the Swedish military forces tried to take possession of the boat. These orders would have been completed.&lt;/p&gt;
         1200 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&quot;Onboard, in the torpedo tubes, there were torpedoes with nuclear warheads. The effect of detonating such nuclear warhead is about the same as the impact of the bomb released over Hiroshima [15 kilotons]. It is terrible to think of all the destruction and the long-term consequences it would have had for Sweden as a whole.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
         1201 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Karl Andersson has questioned Besedin’s account, however, arguing that the submarine would have been scuttled by destroying the propeller shaft and valves, not detonating onboard nuclear warheads.&lt;/p&gt;
         1202 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Besedin also insisted that a navigational error had occurred due to damage from an earlier collision, forcing S-363’s crew to rely on less accurate methods. Another theory is that the submarine was testing a new, unreliable inertial navigation system.&lt;/p&gt;
         1203 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The episode precipitated a decade of intensified submarine hunts by the Swedish Navy. However, despite deploying numerous torpedoes, depth charges and mines at numerous dozens of contacts, no Soviet submarines were apparently destroyed. Stockholm also began working on upgrading the stealth and endurance of its coastal defense submarines &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-one-cheap-submarine-sweden-sank-the-us-navy-battle-25639&quot;&gt;by developing advanced Air-Independent Propulsion technology&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1204 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The submarine hunt aroused domestic controversy. Swedish right-wingers saw the U-137 incident as evidence of the Soviet Union’s ill-intentions and the need to build up military deterrence. Some left-wing Swedes implied the Swedish Navy was jumping at shadows, and suggested the submarine sightings were actually NATO submarines provoking the Swedes against the Soviets.&lt;/p&gt;
         1205 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The submarine infiltrations appeared to cease with the end of the Cold War—but not for good. As relations between Russia and the West sharply deteriorated in 2014 over Moscow’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, the Swedish Navy spent a week attempting to track a mini-submarine which reportedly sighted multiple times in Swedish waters.&lt;/p&gt;
         1206 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1207 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_S-363#/media/File:MM10249.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1208 
         1209 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/1981-soviet-spy-ship-sent-sweden-submarine-hunt-190735&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1210 </item>
         1211  <item> <title>Samsung’s QD-OLED TV Seen Arriving in Early 2022</title>
         1212  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190681</link>
         1213  <description>Samsung has been looking at making TVs that feature a new version of OLED technology, known as QD-OLED and aiming to get the first products with that technology out in 2022. Now, a new report says that Samsung is on track to do just that.</description>
         1214  <author>Stephen Silver</author>
         1215  <category>Consumer Electronics</category>
         1216  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190681</guid>
         1217  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:11 EDT</pubDate>
         1218  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1219  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stephen Silver&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1220 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Consumer Electronics, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1221 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206748&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/techland/samsung%E2%80%99s-qd-oled-tv-seen-arriving-early-2022-190681&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Samsung%20%282%29.jpg?itok=g0fU3KWf&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1222 &lt;h3&gt;Samsung has been looking at making TVs that feature a new version of OLED technology, known as QD-OLED and aiming to get the first products with that technology out in 2022. Now, a new report says that Samsung is on track to do just that.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1223 &lt;title&gt;Samsung’s QD-OLED TV Seen Arriving in Early 2022&lt;/title&gt;
         1224 &lt;p&gt;It’s been known for quite some time that Samsung is looking at making TVs that feature a new version of OLED technology, known as QD-OLED and that the company was aiming to get the first products with that technology out in 2022.&lt;/p&gt;
         1225 &lt;p&gt;Now, a new report says that Samsung is on track to do just that.&lt;/p&gt;
         1226 &lt;p&gt;According to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.kedglobal.com/newsView/ked202107250002&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt; in the Korean Economic Daily, Samsung “will launch the much-anticipated QD-OLED TV in the first half of next year, while expanding its MicroLED TV lines to enhance its presence in the premium market.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1227 &lt;p&gt;The QD-OLED TVs, according to the report, will offer fifty-five- and sixty-five-inch versions, with larger models to follow, and the TVs “could” be showcased at International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Samsung Display Co. will provide the panels.&lt;/p&gt;
         1228 &lt;p&gt;“Samsung is strengthening its premium strategy. Next year, it plans to unveil new QLED and QD-OLED TVs in the quantum dot category as well as MicroLED TVs in various sizes,” an industry official told Korean Economic Daily.&lt;/p&gt;
         1229 &lt;p&gt;The report also said that the QD-OLED TVs will “place between” Samsung’s regular QLED models, and its MicroLED TVs.&lt;/p&gt;
         1230 &lt;p&gt;Korean Economic Daily also described the tech as “a hybrid design that combines the brightness and colors of quantum dot technology, found in Samsung’s existing flagship QLED TVs, with backlighting from self-emissive OLED panels.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1231 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/big-tech-news-samsung%E2%80%99s-qd-oled-rollout-%E2%80%98-track%E2%80%99-year-187556&quot;&gt;most recent report,&lt;/a&gt; in June, had stated that Samsung was “on track” to bring out the QD-OLED models.&lt;/p&gt;
         1232 &lt;p&gt;“It is important to maintain the top spot of the global display market with game-changing technologies,”  Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, said at the time. “Following LG Display’s 3 trillion-won investment in large OLED panel production in July, Samsung Display’s latest investment plan brightens prospects further.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1233 &lt;p&gt;There was another report, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/samsung-says-hell-no-buying-oled-panels-lg-188530&quot;&gt;also in June&lt;/a&gt;, that indicated Samsung would be purchasing QD-OLED panels from LG Display. However, Samsung soon pushed back hard on that assertion.&lt;/p&gt;
         1234 &lt;p&gt;“There is no change in the idea that our QLED TVs have better picture quality than OLED TVs. I’m trying to make it clear that the rumors are groundless,” a Samsung executive told Korean tech publication IT Chosun last month. “It is true that LCD prices are rising, and we are facing a difficult situation, but we have enough capacity to overcome as a No. 1 company.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1235 &lt;p&gt;There is an assumption that the technology, if it’s ready, will debut at CES in January. While the massive electronics show was entirely virtual in 2021, the organizers are planning a hybrid format in 2022, which will involve both an in-person element in Las Vegas and a virtual show.&lt;/p&gt;
         1236 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1237 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1238 
         1239 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/samsung%E2%80%99s-qd-oled-tv-seen-arriving-early-2022-190681&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1240 </item>
         1241  <item> <title>Size of the Fight: The HMS Electra Was Britain&#039;s Boldest Ship</title>
         1242  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190717</link>
         1243  <description>Charging out of the smoke and into broad daylight, Electra found herself facing the entire Japanese force alone.</description>
         1244  <author>Warfare History Network</author>
         1245  <category>History</category>
         1246  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190717</guid>
         1247  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 18:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1248  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1249  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Warfare History Network&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1250 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;History, World&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1251 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206773&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/size-fight-hms-electra-was-britains-boldest-ship-190717&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Clipboard%20-%202021-07-28T170547.892.jpg?itok=uORupWaH&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1252 &lt;h3&gt;Charging out of the smoke and into broad daylight, Electra found herself facing the entire Japanese force alone.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1253 &lt;title&gt;Size of the Fight: The HMS Electra Was Britain&#039;s Boldest Ship&lt;/title&gt;
         1254 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;War clouds gathered rapidly once Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Allied demands that Hitler withdraw his armies went unheeded. On September 3, Great Britain reluctantly declared war. Berlin then issued orders to all U-boats to begin hostile action against English shipping. Passenger liners were not to be touched.&lt;/p&gt;
         1255 &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, in Liverpool passengers boarded the liner SS &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt; for passage to North America. The unescorted liner tried her best not to be a target by zigzagging and running with her lights out.&lt;/p&gt;
         1256 &lt;p&gt;However, through the periscope of &lt;em&gt;U-30&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt; looked every bit like an armed merchantman and therefore fair game. On the first day of the war, the &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt; was torpedoed and sunk. Her 1,103 passengers, including 300 Americans, clung to life rafts and debris until help arrived. One hundred and twelve would die that day.&lt;/p&gt;
         1257 &lt;p&gt;Among the five ships that responded to &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt;’s distress signal was the destroyer HMS &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; (H27). While keeping a wary eye out for submarines, the rescuers combed the water for survivors. Back ashore, Joseph P. Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, dispatched his 22-year-old son John F. Kennedy to meet with the American survivors.&lt;/p&gt;
         1258 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Obsolete Before She Launched&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1259 &lt;p&gt;For &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;, it was the first but not the last time she would pluck survivors from the sea. She was one of nine E class destroyers laid down in the mid-1930s. Fast at 35 knots, she weighed in at 1,369 tons and was designed to carry four 4.7-inch guns and eight torpedo tubes (four to a side). Depth charge launchers completed her offensive capability. Her standard complement was about 170 men.&lt;/p&gt;
         1260 &lt;p&gt;Like so many modern weapons, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was obsolete before she was launched. New destroyer designs in Germany, Italy, France, and Japan were placing emphasis on larger, more heavily armed destroyers. Like most other surface ships of her day, she was woefully inadequate in anti-aircraft capability.&lt;/p&gt;
         1261 &lt;p&gt;When World War II started, Great Britain would have 113 modern and some 60 outdated destroyers with 24 more under construction. She would need all of them and every ship she could build or borrow from the United States. During the war she would lose 139 destroyers, including &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1262 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was designed for fleet protection and convoy escort duty. After the rescue of &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt;’s passengers, she was very busy with convoy protection duties for the remainder of the “sitzkrieg” or “phony war” in Europe. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; could boast that no merchant ship she was assigned to protect was ever sunk by the enemy. She soon earned the nickname “Lucky &lt;em&gt;‘lectra&lt;/em&gt;.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1263 &lt;p&gt;The German invasion of Norway in the spring of 1940 took &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; to Arctic waters. She was one of the first warships in the area escorting troopships trying to hold back the Nazi tide. It was here that she registered her first kill. Her gun crews heard the roar of a German bomber and sighted it coming through the gray mist before she herself was seen. Her first shot sheared off part of the German’s wing, and the plane was seen falling fast behind the fog-shrouded mountains.&lt;/p&gt;
         1264 &lt;p&gt;When the battlecruiser HMS &lt;em&gt;Warspite&lt;/em&gt; made her famous run into Narvik to deal with nine stranded German destroyers, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was to have preceded her as a minesweeper. But the admiral in charge did not want to waste time fishing for mines. He stormed ahead into the fjord, leaving &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; behind to hold the door and keep watch at sea. Her crew was deeply disappointed as her sister destroyers bagged the lot of the Germans.&lt;/p&gt;
         1265 &lt;p&gt;While still in Norwegian waters, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; and other destroyers provided a screen for the aircraft carrier HMS &lt;em&gt;Ark Royal&lt;/em&gt; as she launched planes against German positions. While recovering her planes, the carrier steamed into a dense fog bank. Not all the destroyers got the message to alter course, and &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; slammed into the side of her sister ship &lt;em&gt;Antelope&lt;/em&gt;. Her bow nearly torn away, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; limped homeward for repairs.&lt;/p&gt;
         1266 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Hunt for the Bismark&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1267 &lt;p&gt;In May 1941, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; and three other destroyers were patrolling with the battlecruiser HMS &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; and the brand new battleship HMS &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt;. The Admiralty had intelligence that the German battleship &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt; had put to sea. The little British battle group, steaming south of Iceland, received word that the &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt; was sighted to the west along the calm waters at the edge of the Greenland icepack. The &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; and her escorts immediately set a course to intercept the German raider.&lt;/p&gt;
         1268 &lt;p&gt;All concerned thought the venerable &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; was a good choice to go up against &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt;. She was the largest warship in the world at the time, weighing 42,000 tons and boasting eight 15-inch guns. &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt; was officially 35,000 tons, but unknown to the British, she was secretly built to be the equal of &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; in tonnage. She, too, had eight 15-inch guns.&lt;/p&gt;
         1269 &lt;p&gt;The battlecruiser, battleship, and four destroyers steamed westward into the night. At 3:30 am on May 24, 1941, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s captain, Commander Cecil Wakeford May, ordered the crew to action stations. He told his men to expect contact with the enemy at 6:00 am It was a cold, wet watch.&lt;/p&gt;
         1270 &lt;p&gt;Seas were heavy and the weather foul as the British searched the gloom for the elusive enemy. Lookouts high above the deck scanned the horizon for any sign of danger. Primitive ship radar could not yet see over the horizon.&lt;/p&gt;
         1271 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; were easily capable of the 28-knot cruising speed they were making through heavy seas. However, the escorting destroyers were taking brutal punishment at this speed. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s boats were smashed, and funnels were ripped and dangling from their base. Admiral Lancelot Holland, commanding the flotilla aboard &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt;, allowed the destroyers to slacken their pace as the two capital ships drove on. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; found a more comfortable speed riding over the waves rather than through them. She watched as &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; steamed out of sight into the frigid dawn.&lt;/p&gt;
         1272 &lt;p&gt;Soon &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; received a radio message from &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt;, “Enemy in sight, am engaging.” On deck, lookouts thought they heard the distant muffled guns of battle. In no more than 10 minutes, &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; sent another message. “&lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; sunk!”&lt;/p&gt;
         1273 &lt;p&gt;When he heard it, Gunnery Officer T.J. Cain rounded on the signalman and cursed him for his sick joke. “My God, sir, but it’s true, sir.” The man was in tears.&lt;/p&gt;
         1274 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Fruitless Search for Survivors from HMS Hood&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1275 &lt;p&gt;Gossip travels fast aboard ship. Even before the official announcement from the bridge, all hands knew of the disaster. The crew knew what to do. They had picked up some of the 900 survivors of &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt; and now prepared to do it again. &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt; had a complement of 1,400 men. Hundreds of wet, exhausted, and shivering sailors were expected to clamor aboard. Hot beverages and warm food were prepared. Blankets and life preservers were brought up, medical supplies and hammocks made ready. Officers prepared to abandon their cabins to make way for the injured. Since the ship’s boats were smashed from the high-speed chase, scrambling nets were put over the side.&lt;/p&gt;
         1276 &lt;p&gt;Intermittent sleet and rain on the cold and mournful morning reduced visibility, but &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; soon broke out of the mist and into the clear to find herself amidst the wreckage of &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt;. All hands were horrified by what they saw. There was an enormous amount of flotsam and jetsam on the surface of the sea, but no survivors could be seen.&lt;/p&gt;
         1277 &lt;p&gt;“Good Lord,” exclaimed one sailor, “she’s gone with all hands.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1278 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; pushed slowly through the mass of floating debris, desperately searching for anyone. A shout went up as a man was sighted clinging to wreckage. Then two more were spotted. Crewmen scrambled down the rope ladders, wet to their knees, to fetch the only three survivors. They were wrapped in blankets and sent below to the ship’s doctor.&lt;/p&gt;
         1279 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; continued her search for hours but only those three men of &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt;’s 1,400 were ever found. A solemn silence settled in on &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s crew as she rushed her precious human cargo to a hospital in Iceland. Soon &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; came into sight. Low on fuel, she had given up the chase after &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt;. She had taken five hits on her superstructure and looked badly beaten up. Yet, &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt;’s reputation as a super ship would last only three days more.&lt;/p&gt;
         1280 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; accompanied &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; back to England; they would sail together again. While the new battleship underwent repairs, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; went into port to receive a new Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun. Half of her torpedo tubes were removed to make room for the new armament.&lt;/p&gt;
         1281 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;First Escort to Russia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1282 &lt;p&gt;In July 1941, the destroyer was ordered to escort the first convoy to Russia. England’s new ally needed every type of help as the Germans slashed through the Ukrainian countryside. No love was lost between the Soviets and the British, but as Prime Minister Winston Churchill quipped, “Even if Hitler marched into hell, I would put in a good word for the “Devil in the House of Commons.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1283 &lt;p&gt;The North Atlantic had been cold but was nothing compared to the Arctic. With one other destroyer, the &lt;em&gt;Anthony&lt;/em&gt;, a veteran of Dunkirk, and a handful of minesweepers and trawlers, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; set out with her charge of 13 merchant ships. Fortunately, the Germans were not yet aware of the Murmansk convoys, and the little flotilla made it safely to Archangel. Future convoys would endure the full fury of Nazi displeasure, but the first trip was uneventful.&lt;/p&gt;
         1284 &lt;p&gt;So was &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s stay in the Russian port of Archangel. She was there until September, but only once was her crew granted shore leave by their communist hosts. When the crew was finally allowed ashore, they met sullen people, careworn and distrustful in the paranoid people’s paradise. When back aboard, the crew did not feel they needed further shore leave. When Russian liaison officers came aboard, however, the vodka flowed freely.&lt;/p&gt;
         1285 &lt;p&gt;At long last, the Russians were able to scratch together a convoy of merchantmen for &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; to escort back to England. She was eager to leave as the ice was beginning to block the northern passage. “Lucky &lt;em&gt;‘lectra&lt;/em&gt;” arrived home safely once more.&lt;/p&gt;
         1286 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;After an Overhaul, Off to the Pacific&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1287 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was due for an overhaul, and for six weeks her crew enjoyed liberty and a surcease of ship’s duties. Civilian union rules prohibited sailors from lifting a finger to work on their own boat. The crew was not at all put out and soon found themselves made welcome in the homes of the workmen.&lt;/p&gt;
         1288 &lt;p&gt;When at last the destroyer was ready to sail in late October, she was once again teamed with &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt;. Admiral Tom Phillips aboard &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; was ordered to Singapore to “show the flag” in the Pacific Ocean. The long cruise took the ships around the tip of South Africa, and for the 173 men aboard &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; the voyage in warm weather and calm seas was like a vacation after their North Atlantic and Arctic duties.&lt;/p&gt;
         1289 &lt;p&gt;As the little flotilla neared Ceylon in the Indian Ocean the crew became uneasy. The Japanese were making hostile threats in the Far East, and it finally dawned on everyone that they had been sent to meet that threat.&lt;/p&gt;
         1290 &lt;p&gt;In Ceylon, they met up with the battlecruiser &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt;. Meanwhile, Phillips had flown ahead the Philippines to meet with his American counterparts, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Thomas Hart. He hoped that the British and the American Asiatic Fleet could combine in the event of Japanese aggression. Isolationist sentiment in the United States was still strong, and no promises could be made.&lt;/p&gt;
         1291 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Force Z Gets Surprised by the Japanese&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1292 &lt;p&gt;Steaming in concert with &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was one of four destroyers in escort as the island of Ceylon faded in the distance. Officially known as Force Z, their destination was Singapore.&lt;/p&gt;
         1293 &lt;p&gt;Some sailors aboard were soon to notice that the combination of the battleship, a battlecruiser, and four destroyers was the same as that which had hunted the &lt;em&gt;Bismarck&lt;/em&gt; with disastrous results. Sailors are superstitious, and the similarity of their present force was a matter of discussion below decks.&lt;/p&gt;
         1294 &lt;p&gt;The little flotilla arrived in Singapore on December 2, 1941. They were too little and too late. It had been planned that an aircraft carrier accompany them to provide air cover, but the designated ship, HMS &lt;em&gt;Indomitable&lt;/em&gt;, had run aground during training in Jamaica and had to be docked. The light carrier &lt;em&gt;Hermes&lt;/em&gt; was already in the Indian Ocean (and would later be sunk by the Japanese), but was never ordered to join up with Force Z.&lt;/p&gt;
         1295 &lt;p&gt;Within a week, there was no time for any such considerations. Simultaneously with their attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese struck southward from bases they had occupied in French Indochina (Vietnam). When Japanese troop transports were reported heading toward the Malay Peninsula, Phillips knew that he had to act. He pleaded for air support from the antiquated planes stationed in Malaya, but like elsewhere in the Pacific, the Japanese had struck hard at Allied airbases and the air arm could not promise anything. Nonetheless Force Z put to sea.&lt;/p&gt;
         1296 &lt;p&gt;It was a common mistake at this time for Westerners to hold Japanese military capability in contempt. It was believed that the Asians could not conduct complicated fleet actions, that their air power was inferior, and that the whole Japanese race was somehow myopic. Force Z would soon find out that this was an enemy not to be underestimated.&lt;/p&gt;
         1297 &lt;p&gt;Admiral Phillips’ plan was to sail well out to sea and wait for the cover of darkness to rush toward the beaches where the enemy transports were reportedly sighted. When dawn broke, there were no Japanese vessels in sight, but Force Z was spotted by Japanese patrol planes.&lt;/p&gt;
         1298 &lt;p&gt;After checking on another false rumor of Japanese landings, the flotilla headed back out to sea beyond the range that enemy torpedo bombers were thought to reach.&lt;/p&gt;
         1299 &lt;p&gt;Now the Royal Navy would learn the cruel truth about its new adversary. Unknown to British intelligence, Japanese torpedo planes had a much longer range, and worse, the Japanese long lance torpedo, the best in the world, had a longer range than its British, American, or even German counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;
         1300 &lt;p&gt;When the first planes were spotted, Commander May instinctively rushed &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; between them and &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt;. A cacophony of shot and shell from her Oerlikon brought down a torpedo plane and unnerved his wingman into launching his torpedo into empty ocean. Cheers went up all over the destroyer’s deck, but they were premature. Enemy planes swarmed in to bomb, strafe and torpedo the ships below them.&lt;/p&gt;
         1301 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once Again, Electra is Called on to Pick Up Survivors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1302 &lt;p&gt;Despite frantic maneuvering by all of the British ships, the Japanese deployed their torpedo bombers from so many directions that they could not fail to hit their targets. Soon, &lt;em&gt;Prince of Wales&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt; were sinking. At last, British land-based planes appeared overhead. Too late to save their ships, they managed to chase off the Japanese, allowing &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; and her sisters to pick up survivors.&lt;/p&gt;
         1303 &lt;p&gt;Once more, as with &lt;em&gt;Athenia&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Hood&lt;/em&gt;, “Lucky &lt;em&gt;‘lectra&lt;/em&gt;” prepared to receive the shocked and injured survivors. Drifting into the oil slick where &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt; had so recently been, the crew began pulling aboard as many men as possible. Oil and blood soon covered the rescued and rescuer alike. The decks were slippery with fuel oil fetched up from the sea with each oil-soaked man dragged aboard. Below on the mess deck, now a hospital, there was the stench of blood, chloroform, and fuel oil in the stifling air.&lt;/p&gt;
         1304 &lt;p&gt;As many as 1,000 &lt;em&gt;Repulse&lt;/em&gt; crewmen were crammed aboard the little destroyer. They stood tightly packed and barefoot on the blistering deck in an agony of loss, pain, shock and heat. Once again, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; returned solemnly to port with a cargo of human misery.&lt;/p&gt;
         1305 &lt;p&gt;The next few weeks saw non-stop activity. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; escorted convoys of reinforcements into Singapore and convoys of wounded and civilians out. Meanwhile, the Japanese steadily advanced toward the “impregnable” city that everyone seemed to know was doomed.&lt;/p&gt;
         1306 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Electra’s Final Engagement: The Battle of the Java Sea&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1307 &lt;p&gt;The destroyer was in Java when news came that Singapore had fallen. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; was placed under a new command. The so-called ABDA force was the first Allied naval fleet of the war, American, British, Dutch and Australian ships combined under Dutch command. To protect the 500-mile Java coastline, the tiny armada was divided to cover the western and eastern shores.&lt;/p&gt;
         1308 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; found herself on the eastern end of the island at Surabaya with her British sisters &lt;em&gt;Jupiter&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Encounter&lt;/em&gt;. They joined with five American and three Dutch destroyers, the heavy cruisers USS &lt;em&gt;Houston&lt;/em&gt; and HMS &lt;em&gt;Exeter&lt;/em&gt;, which was already famous for slugging it out with the German pocket battleship &lt;em&gt;Graf Spee&lt;/em&gt; off Montevideo, and two Dutch light cruisers.&lt;/p&gt;
         1309 &lt;p&gt;The little fleet put to sea on February 27, 1942, when their commander, Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman, learned of advancing Japanese transports. Instead of finding the transports, the Allied fleet ran into a Japanese squadron of cruisers and destroyers. The Battle of the Java Sea was on. Smoke was made, and firing commenced. Soon &lt;em&gt;Exeter&lt;/em&gt; was hit in her boilers, lurched out of line, and stalled dead in the water. The Japanese advanced for the kill.&lt;/p&gt;
         1310 &lt;p&gt;May knew his duty. He must protect the cruiser with his own life and that of &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;. Charging out of the smoke and into broad daylight, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; found herself facing the entire Japanese force alone. Her gunners scored first, but Japanese shells came back thick and fast. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s guns were put out of action one by one, and she began to list to port.&lt;/p&gt;
         1311 &lt;p&gt;May gave orders to abandon ship as the shells kept slamming home. The Japanese destroyer &lt;em&gt;Asagumo&lt;/em&gt; is credited with the death of &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;, but she herself was heavily damaged in the fight. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; had done her duty. The &lt;em&gt;Exeter&lt;/em&gt; was given a few precious moments to build up steam. She limped away to fight, and be sunk, another day.&lt;/p&gt;
         1312 &lt;p&gt;As &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt; turned over and went down by the bow, Japanese fire transferred to the survivors in lifeboats, adding to the long list of casualties. Advancing darkness spared the rest. That night, the American submarine &lt;em&gt;S-38&lt;/em&gt; surfaced and rescued 42 survivors. Five more were picked up the next day by the Japanese.&lt;/p&gt;
         1313 &lt;p&gt;Dropped off in Surabaya, &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s surviving crewmen made their way by train to Java’s one remaining open port and from there by boat to Australia and safety. &lt;em&gt;Electra&lt;/em&gt;’s war was at an end.&lt;/p&gt;
         1314 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Author Glenn Barnett is a frequent contributor to&lt;/em&gt; WWII History&lt;em&gt;. He lives in the Los Angeles area and enjoys writing about lesser-known historical events.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1315 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article &lt;a href=&quot;https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/12/28/famous-navy-ships-the-hms-electra/&quot;&gt;first appeared&lt;/a&gt; on the Warfare History Network.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1316 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Electra.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1317 
         1318 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/size-fight-hms-electra-was-britains-boldest-ship-190717&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1319 </item>
         1320  <item> <title>Hole in the Water: Why the Zumwalt Stealth Ship was a Waste</title>
         1321  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190745</link>
         1322  <description>The cost of the current upgrades is reportedly $90 million—a sum which may prove worthwhile if it helps recoup some value after the $22 billion sunk into the ambitious but failed ship concept.</description>
         1323  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
         1324  <category>Zumwalt</category>
         1325  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190745</guid>
         1326  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 17:45 EDT</pubDate>
         1327  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1328  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1329 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Zumwalt, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1330 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206793&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/hole-water-why-zumwalt-stealth-ship-was-waste-190745&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Uss_Zumwalt%20%281%29_1.jpg?itok=rzV-3GQg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1331 &lt;h3&gt;The cost of the current upgrades is reportedly $90 million—a sum which may prove worthwhile if it helps recoup some value after the $22 billion sunk into the ambitious but failed ship concept.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1332 &lt;title&gt;Hole in the Water: Why the Zumwalt Stealth Ship was a Waste&lt;/title&gt;
         1333 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;This surface warfare role may best leverage the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt’s&lt;/em&gt; stealth capabilities, allowing it to range ahead of the fleet and penetrate “&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/china-has-impressive-a2ad-capabilities-smart-positioning-can-let-navy-avoid-them-35702&quot;&gt;anti-access&lt;/a&gt;” zones threatened by long-range anti-ship missiles. It could creep closer to enemy warships before launching its own missiles, giving adversaries little time to react.&lt;/p&gt;
         1334 &lt;p&gt;In January 2019, the Navy will commission its second &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-russia-china-should-fear-americas-zumwalt-stealth-25588&quot;&gt;hi-tech &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt-&lt;/em&gt;class stealth destroyer&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;em&gt;USS Michael Monsoor&lt;/em&gt;. The third and last, &lt;em&gt;USS Lyndon B. Johnson&lt;/em&gt; was launched this December 2018 and will be commissioned in 2022.&lt;/p&gt;
         1335 &lt;p&gt;Traditionally, warships are tailored to perform specific missions. But &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/tag/zumwalt&quot;&gt;the cutting-edge &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; has been a ship in search of a mission&lt;/a&gt;, especially since procurement of hyper-expensive ammunition for its primary weapon system was canceled. Years and billions of dollars later, the Navy may finally have found one.&lt;/p&gt;
         1336 &lt;p&gt;In the post-Cold War 1990s, the U.S Navy lacked peer competitors on the high seas, so it conceived its next-generation surface combatants for engaging coastal targets. As the Navy phased out its last battleship, it decided its next destroyer should mount long-range guns that could to provide more cost-efficient naval gunfire support than launching million-dollar Tomahawk cruise missiles.&lt;/p&gt;
         1337 &lt;p&gt;In the 2000s, development proceeded for a DDG-1000 destroyer integrating every next-generation technology then conceivable. The Navy promised Congress a larger destroyer requiring only 95 crew instead of 300 thanks to automation, with adequate space and power-generation capacity to deploy railguns and laser weapons. The new warships would be stealthier to avoid enemy attacks and pack rapid-firing 6-inch guns with a range of 115 miles for the sustained bombardment of land targets. Thirty-two DDG-1000s were to succeed the &lt;em&gt;Arleigh Burke&lt;/em&gt;-class destroyer.&lt;/p&gt;
         1338 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/navys-stealthy-zumwalt-class-destroyer-pocket-battleship-35172&quot;&gt;The lead ship &lt;em&gt;USS Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; took shape sporting a futuristic-looking tumblehome hull—wider below the waterline than above—helping reduce the 190-meter long vessel’s radar cross-section to that of a small fishing boat. The ship’s induction motors generated a whopping 58 megawatts of electricity while cruising, enough to power the entire 17,630-ton ship thanks to an Integrated Power System. The electrically-driven motors and chilled exhaust also reduce the destroyer’s infrared and acoustic signature. The vessel’s new Total Ship Computing Environment networked all the destroyer’s systems, making them accessible from any console throughout the vessel.&lt;/p&gt;
         1339 &lt;p&gt;In addition to rapid-firing 6” guns, the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; had eighty Mark 57 missile vertical-launch cells dispersed across her bow and stern to minimize secondary explosions. These could target and launch Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, ASROC anti-submarine rockets, or quad-packs of Evolved Sea Sparrow medium-range air-defense missiles. The Zumwalt’s spacious landing pad and hangar could accommodate up to three MQ-8B helicopter drones or two MH-60R helicopters, which can carry Hellfire anti-tank missiles or torpedoes. The destroyers also boast a capable dual-bandwidth sonar for hunting submarines, but lack the torpedo armament found in &lt;em&gt;Arleigh Burke&lt;/em&gt;s.&lt;/p&gt;
         1340 &lt;p&gt;The destroyer’s crew of one-hundred-and-fifty—plus a twenty-eight-person air detachment—exceeded by over 50 percent the originally promised number, but remained half that of an Arleigh-Burke destroyer. However, some analysts fear the super-trim crew complement leaves too little redundancy should the vessels sustain battle damage.&lt;/p&gt;
         1341 &lt;p&gt;Indeed, by 2008, the Navy was no longer highly concerned with bombarding militarily weaker countries. Rather, it contemplated the challenge posed by China’s rapidly expanding surface and&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/chinas-underwater-nukes-country-killers-or-paper-tigers-27026&quot;&gt; submarine&lt;/a&gt; fleets, and the proliferation of deadly anti-ship&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-navys-aircraft-carriers-13-billion-floating-targets-21096&quot;&gt; ballistic&lt;/a&gt; and&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-russias-enemies-fear-the-kalibr-cruise-missile-19129&quot;&gt; cruise missiles&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1342 &lt;p&gt;Worse, the Zumwalt’s Advanced Gun System didn’t even work that well, with two-thirds the forecast range (around 70 miles). Furthermore, its rocket-boosted LRLAP GPS-guided shells cost $800,000 dollars &lt;em&gt;each&lt;/em&gt;—nearly as expensive as more precise, longer-range and harder-hitting cruise missiles. The Navy finally canceled the insanely expensive munitions, leaving the Zumwalt with two huge guns it can’t fire.&lt;/p&gt;
         1343 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Downsizing and Downgrades: &lt;/strong&gt;       &lt;/p&gt;
         1344 &lt;p&gt;Despite the well-known difficulties of developing next-generation military systems, the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; had been sold to Congress based on unrealistic minimum-cost estimates. Eventually, program costs exceeded the budget by 50 percent, triggering an automatic cancelation according to the Nunn—McCurdy Act.&lt;/p&gt;
         1345 &lt;p&gt;Already by 2008, the Navy sought to ditch building more than two &lt;em&gt;Zumwalts&lt;/em&gt; in favor of procuring &lt;em&gt;Arleigh Burke &lt;/em&gt;Flight III destroyers with ballistic-missile defense capabilities. Maine Senator Susan Collins nonetheless wrangled a third destroyer to keep her state’s Bath Iron Works shipyard in business.&lt;/p&gt;
         1346 &lt;p&gt;Each Zumwalt now costs $4.5 billion—in &lt;em&gt;addition &lt;/em&gt;to the $10 billion spent on development. Like the troubled F-35 and Littoral Combat Ship, the Zumwalt’s spiraling costs were due to the Navy’s ambition to integrate completely new technologies still being concurrently developed. The final design was not even stabilized by the time construction began in 2009. The hybrid electrical system has proven especially challenging to integrate, leading the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt &lt;/em&gt;to break down while crossing the Panama Canal in November 2016.&lt;/p&gt;
         1347 &lt;p&gt;Nearly decade after she was laid down, a 2018 Government Accountability Office &lt;a href=&quot;https://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL32109.pdf&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt; stated only five of the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt;’s twelve key technologies was “mature.” Farcically, the ships were even officially “delivered” without combat systems. The lead ship&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;commissioned in 2012, won’t be ready for operational deployment until 2021.&lt;/p&gt;
         1348 &lt;p&gt;The need to curb runaway costs led to&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/5343/the-navys-new-stealth-destroyer-has-watered-down-capabilities-questionable-future&quot;&gt; crippling downgrades&lt;/a&gt;. Instead of fitting combining a powerful SPY-4 volume search radar with a SPY-3 hi-resolution targeting radar, the Navy ditched the former and rejigged the SPY-3 to handle volume-search as well. This saved $80 million per ship but significantly degraded air-search capabilities.&lt;/p&gt;
         1349 &lt;p&gt;However, the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; currently only has Evolved Sea Sparrow air defense missiles with a range of thirty miles—adequate only for local coverage at best. Though the Zumwalt’s missile cells are compatible with longer-range Standard Missiles, those depend on the Aegis Combat System for guidance, which the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; lacks. And the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt;’s last-ditch Close-In Weapon Systems were downgraded from 57-millimeter to much less capable 30-millimeter cannons.&lt;/p&gt;
         1350 &lt;p&gt;Even the destroyer’s radar cross-section has been degraded to cut costs, with the adoption of cheaper steel for the deckhouse and the incorporation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25018/pics-of-uss-zumwalt-while-replenishing-at-sea-show-yet-another-non-stealthy-antenna&quot;&gt;non-flush sensor&lt;/a&gt; and communication masts.&lt;/p&gt;
         1351 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ship-Hunting Stealth Destroyers?: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1352 &lt;p&gt;What were merely three DDG-1000s good for, despite their nifty stealth features and propulsion? The advanced destroyers lacked ammunition for their guns, anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine torpedoes, and long-range area-air defense missiles. Furthermore, the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; had fewer cells to pack land-attack missiles than Arleigh-Burke destroyers (96), Ticonderoga-class cruisers (122), or Ohio-class &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-navy-has-one-submarine-could-drop-154-tomahawks-missiles-23529&quot;&gt;cruise-missile submarines&lt;/a&gt; (144)—all of which were cheaper, and the last of which is stealthier.&lt;/p&gt;
         1353 &lt;p&gt;Even the destroyer’s stealthy hull did not offer a clear advantage if it had to escort—or required an escort &lt;em&gt;from&lt;/em&gt;—un-stealthy warships. And keeping a class of just three vessels operational meant very high overheads expenses in training and sustainment per individual ship. Thus, many analysts speculate the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt;’s operational career could prove short-lived.&lt;/p&gt;
         1354 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt&lt;/em&gt; needed a new mission—even if that meant tweaking its capabilities at an additional cost. Finally, in December 2017 the Navy announced the class would specialize in “surface strike”, i.e.&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/navys-stealthy-zumwalt-class-destroyer-pocket-battleship-35172&quot;&gt; hunting down other ships&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1355 &lt;p&gt;The destroyers will be modified to fire new Maritime Tomahawk Block IV subsonic anti-ship missiles and SM-6 active-radar-homing missile. The latter can provide longer-range air defense missile (up to 150 miles) and has a secondary ground or naval attack capability. Compared to the Tomahawk, the SM-6 has a much smaller 140-pound warhead, but its maximum speed of Mach 3.5 makes it much harder to intercept. Eventually, cheaper ammunition may be developed for the presently-useless guns, or they may be swapped out for additional missile launch cells or even future railguns or directed-energy weapons.&lt;/p&gt;
         1356 &lt;p&gt;This surface warfare role may best leverage the &lt;em&gt;Zumwalt’s&lt;/em&gt; stealth capabilities, allowing it to range ahead of the fleet and penetrate “&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/china-has-impressive-a2ad-capabilities-smart-positioning-can-let-navy-avoid-them-35702&quot;&gt;anti-access&lt;/a&gt;” zones threatened by long-range anti-ship missiles. It could creep closer to enemy warships before launching its own missiles, giving adversaries little time to react.&lt;/p&gt;
         1357 &lt;p&gt;The Navy is also working on networking sensors between its submarines, surface warships, helicopters, patrol planes and attack jets through “Cooperative Engagement” technology. Thus one strategy could see distant “spotter” generating targeting data using active radar, then transmitting it to a sensor-ghosting Zumwalt to perform the strike.&lt;/p&gt;
         1358 &lt;p&gt;The cost of the current upgrades is reportedly $90 million—a sum which may prove worthwhile if it helps recoup some value after the $22 billion sunk into the ambitious but failed ship concept.&lt;/p&gt;
         1359 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt; War Is Boring&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared in 2019.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1360 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Zumwalt_class_destroyer#/media/File:Uss_Zumwalt.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1361 
         1362 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/hole-water-why-zumwalt-stealth-ship-was-waste-190745&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1363 </item>
         1364  <item> <title>Yikes: How North Korean Weapons Have Spread around the World</title>
         1365  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190878</link>
         1366  <description>According to a 2019 UN report, North Korea has developed a sophisticated criminal network to continue selling arms through a diverse cast of proxies, front companies, and foreign middlemen.</description>
         1367  <author>Mark Episkopos</author>
         1368  <category>North Korea</category>
         1369  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190878</guid>
         1370  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 17:11 EDT</pubDate>
         1371  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1372  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mark Episkopos&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1373 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;North Korea, Global&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1374 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/198461&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/yikes-how-north-korean-weapons-have-spread-around-world-190878&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2020-10-10T142726Z_857481064_RC2QFJ9Y8U63_RTRMADP_3_NORTHKOREA-MISSILES%20copy_0.jpg?itok=dIqWLVhH&quot; alt=&quot;North Korea Missiles &quot; title=&quot;North Korea Missiles &quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1375 &lt;h3&gt;According to a 2019 UN report, North Korea has developed a sophisticated criminal network to continue selling arms through a diverse cast of proxies, front companies, and foreign middlemen.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1376 &lt;title&gt;Yikes: How North Korean Weapons Have Spread around the World&lt;/title&gt;
         1377 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember:&lt;/strong&gt; North Korea’s continued success in growing and expanding its illicit arms trade is perhaps the starkest illustration of a trend that has long drawn the alarm of Korea experts: the international sanctions regime has proven largely toothless, if not counterproductive, as a means of starving DPRK’s military-industrial complex.&lt;/p&gt;
         1378 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/tag/north-korea&quot;&gt;North Korea&lt;/a&gt; (DPRK) is sometimes &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/parallel-thoughts/korea-lankov-10282015140619.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;described&lt;/a&gt; as an ‘autarky,’ or economically self-reliant state, but this label belies some of the core workings of the North Korean economy: among them, a vast, illicit arms trade that continues to thrive in spite of the international sanctions regime arrayed against Pyongyang.&lt;/p&gt;
         1379 &lt;p&gt;In the early 1980s, Premier Kim Il-Sung’s DPRK found a lucrative niche as a small arms exporter to dozens of warring and unstable third world nations; these included &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/tag/libya&quot;&gt;Libya&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/tag/yemen&quot;&gt;Yemen&lt;/a&gt;, Uganda, Madagascar, Iraq, Syria, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/tag/iran&quot;&gt;Iran&lt;/a&gt;. The crown jewel of North Korea’s arms export ambitions became Zimbabwe, newly independent from British colonial rule; a warm personal &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14682745.2017.1328406?journalCode=fcwh20&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;relationship &lt;/a&gt;between Il-Sung and Prime Minister Robert Mugabe made Zimbabwe one of DPRK’s most loyal customers over the 1980’s, importing a wide array of heavy military hardware including T-14 tanks, armored vehicles, missile defense systems, and artillery installations. According to a 1991 Defense Intelligence Agency &lt;a href=&quot;https://fas.org/irp/dia/product/knfms/knfms_chp3a.html&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt;, arms sales grossed for a considerable $4 billion from 1981 to 1989 and comprised over one-third of DPRK’s total export volume in 1982.&lt;/p&gt;
         1380 &lt;p&gt;In the following decade, DPRK branched out into the missile and nuclear technology business. It is difficult to ascertain the full scale of North Korea’s 1990’s export activities, but defectors and declassified intelligence reports &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/08/03/Report-North-Korea-supplying-missiles-to-Yemen-rebels/3021438619655/#:~:text=An%20unidentified%20defector%20and%20former,their%20Scud%20missiles%20from%20Iran.&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;name&lt;/a&gt; Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, and Vietnam as among the dozens of prospective clients expressing interest in North Korean missiles or missile technology well into the early 2000’s.&lt;/p&gt;
         1381 &lt;p&gt;The growing cascade of UN and EU-imposed sanctions in the wake of Pyongyang’s 2003 withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has certainly cut into North Korea’s arms export bottom line, but Pyongyang has proven remarkably adept at discovering new ways to skirt the sanctions regime. Though legally binding, none of the nine U.N Security Council Resolutions that make up the bulk of North Korea’s sanctions burden are self-enforcing. It falls on every individual member state to take adequate action against financial dealings with Pyongyang—a mandate that is being met with mixed success across the third and developing world.&lt;/p&gt;
         1382 &lt;p&gt;According to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.undocs.org/S/2019/171&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;2019 UN report&lt;/a&gt;, North Korea has developed a sophisticated criminal network to continue selling arms through a diverse cast of proxies, front companies, and foreign middlemen. In recent years, North Korea became a leading arms supplier to the Houthi movement in Yemen, as well as militant groups in Uganda and Sudan, mainly by funneling its merchandise through a Syrian company registered to arms trafficker Hussein al-Ali. Pyongyang has likewise succeeded in cultivating valuable ties at the highest echelons of the Libyan Defense Ministry, resulting in an arms contract that O Chol Su, the Deputy Minister of DPRK’s Ministry of Military Equipment, described as necessary “for the required defence systems and ammunition needed to maintain stability of Libya.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1383 &lt;p&gt;North Korea also heads a robust maritime smuggling ring. In what the UN described as the &quot;largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions against the Democratic People&#039;s Republic of Korea,” customs officials found a cache with 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades aboard a North Korean vessel en route to Egypt. As it later turned out, the client was none other than the Egyptian Armed Forces themselves; Egypt’s military ordered the North Korean munitions through a complex web of Egyptian business proxies.&lt;/p&gt;
         1384 &lt;p&gt;North Korea’s continued success in growing and expanding its illicit arms trade is perhaps the starkest illustration of a trend that has &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/north-korea-has-likely-been-able-miniaturize-nuclear-weapons-years-166249&quot;&gt;long drawn&lt;/a&gt; the alarm of Korea experts: the international sanctions regime has proven largely toothless, if not &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/america-must-lead-sanctions-relief-coronavirus-stricken-north-korea-142022&quot;&gt;counterproductive&lt;/a&gt;, as a means of starving DPRK’s military-industrial complex.&lt;/p&gt;
         1385 &lt;p&gt;&lt;article&gt;
         1386 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mark Episkopos is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and served as a research assistant at the Center for the National Interest. Mark is also a PhD student in History at American University.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1387 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This piece first appeared last year and is being reprinted due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1388 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1389 &lt;p&gt;&lt;/article&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1390 
         1391 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/yikes-how-north-korean-weapons-have-spread-around-world-190878&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1392 </item>
         1393  <item> <title>After $30 Billion Spent, These 5 Military Weapons Were Scrapped </title>
         1394  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190754</link>
         1395  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
         1396  <category>U.S. Military</category>
         1397  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190754</guid>
         1398  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 17:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1399  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1400  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1401 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;U.S. Military, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1402 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206802&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/after-30-billion-spent-these-5-military-weapons-were-scrapped-190754&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/51182009147_2657b21869_k%20%281%29.jpg?itok=BgkHBrAk&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1403 &lt;h3&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
         1404 &lt;title&gt;After $30 Billion Spent, These 5 Military Weapons Were Scrapped &lt;/title&gt;
         1405 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;To be fair, reusable technologies did emerge from the canceled projects that have seen later application—but $30 billion remains a staggering sum to invest in projects that never amounted to more than a handful of prototypes.&lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1406 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-c8018d49-7fff-c6cf-bf55-d1e853a4e700&quot;&gt;More From The National Interest: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1407 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-c8018d49-7fff-c6cf-bf55-d1e853a4e700&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/5-places-world-war-iii-could-start-2020-109011&quot;&gt;Where World War III Could Start This Year&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1408 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-c8018d49-7fff-c6cf-bf55-d1e853a4e700&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/forget-f-35-and-f-22-these-two-fighter-jets-almost-replaced-them-112246&quot;&gt;How the F-35 Stealth Fighter Almost Never Happened &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1409 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-c8018d49-7fff-c6cf-bf55-d1e853a4e700&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/sunken-russian-submarine-has-buried-nuclear-treasure-think-nuclear-weapons-85296&quot;&gt;Russia Has Missing Nuclear Weapons Sitting on the Ocean Floor &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1410 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-c8018d49-7fff-c6cf-bf55-d1e853a4e700&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/chinas-aircraft-carrier-killer-missiles-splashdown-south-china-sea-66927&quot;&gt;How China Could Sink a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1411 &lt;p&gt;The United States spent $610 billion in 2018 on defense, roughly&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2018/global-military-spending-remains-high-17-trillion&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; one-third of all military spending on the planet&lt;/a&gt;—but that doesn’t mean that money is always being used efficiently. Over thirty years, the U.S. Army has engaged in two long-term wars and several briefer ones without replacing the major weapon systems which entered service in the 1970s and 80s.&lt;/p&gt;
         1412 &lt;p&gt;In part, this is because the Army scaled back hi-tech equipment procurement in order to sustain expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But at the same time, the Army did spend $30 billion dollars on five new hi-tech weapons—all of which were canceled.&lt;/p&gt;
         1413 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brilliant Anti-Tank Munition&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1414 &lt;p&gt;Even in the waning years of the Cold War, the Pentagon remained preoccupied by the threat posed by the Soviet Union’s vastly larger tank force. The “Brilliant Anti-Tank Munition” (BAT) was devised as part of the “Assault Breaker” initiative to qualitatively offset Soviet armored forces. The BATs were miniature guided rockets packed into a larger long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) fired by the M270 multiple-rocket artillery system.&lt;/p&gt;
         1415 &lt;p&gt;The ATACMS would release thirteen BATs that would float down by parachute using directional fins to home in on armored vehicles using sophisticated infrared-seekers. Theoretically, a single ATACM could wipe out an entire company of tanks.&lt;/p&gt;
         1416 &lt;p&gt;Of course, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the thrashing of Saddam Hussein’s huge mechanized army in the 1991 Gulf War made the threat of tank hordes seem quaint—but the cost of the BAT submunition was anything but quaint at a cool $2.2 billion before it was finally canceled in 2003.&lt;/p&gt;
         1417 &lt;p&gt;At least the BATS was later adapted into miniature GBU-44/B Viper Strike glide bombs employed by drones and&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/marines-are-transforming-their-kc-130j-tankers-missile-gunships-24697&quot;&gt; Marine KC-130J gunship/tankers&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1418 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The RAH-66 Comanche Stealth-Chopper&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1419 &lt;p&gt;Another Cold War concept was procurement of an agile and stealthy scout helicopter to replace the Bell Jetranger-derived OH-58D Kiowa Warrior that was employed for reconnaissance and light attack duty.&lt;/p&gt;
         1420 &lt;p&gt;Boeing and Sikorsky produced two lithe, Cobra-like prototypes with faceted surfaces and radar-absorbent material coating that significantly reduced radar cross-section, as well as infrared-signature dampening paint, and a composite-material rotor blade that muffled its acoustic signature. The Comanche could even carry six anti-tank missiles or twelve Stinger anti-aircraft missiles in an internal bay for stealth, and had a remarkable ferry range of 1,200 miles.&lt;/p&gt;
         1421 &lt;p&gt;But a comparatively slow, ground-skimming “stealth” helicopter remains far more vulnerable than a stealth fighter flying at supersonic speeds at high-altitude. Despite the Comanche’s stealth features, the Pentagon doubted its survivability versus&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-just-might-have-the-perfect-weapon-crush-swarm-24144&quot;&gt; modern short-range air defense systems&lt;/a&gt;—or even&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-deadly-russian-world-war-ii-50-caliber-machine-gun-blasted-its-mark-history-35762&quot;&gt; old-fashioned unguided anti-aircraft guns&lt;/a&gt;. The Pentagon was already adopting drones to undertake such missions instead.&lt;/p&gt;
         1422 &lt;p&gt;Moreover, the Comanche was far too expensive, with development gulping up 40 percent of the Army Aviation budget. This couldn’t be justified for a system intended to play a fundamentally supporting rather than leading role.&lt;/p&gt;
         1423 &lt;p&gt;As unit costs skyrocketed, the Comanche was finally axed in 2004 after consumed $7.9 billion in development. Ironically, the Army then decided to retire its Kiowa scout choppers early in the mid-2010s—only to discover that the heavier AH-64 gunships were a&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/9784/us-army-says-it-badly-needs-a-scout-helicopter-after-junking-the-ones-it-had&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; poor replacement&lt;/a&gt;. Thus, the Army ended up with the worst of both worlds: no new scout helicopter and no old one either.&lt;/p&gt;
         1424 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Crusader Self-Propelled Howitzer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1425 &lt;p&gt;The Army’s primary field artillery system, the turreted M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzer, entered service fifty-six years ago. Though tank-like in appearance, self-propelled artillery systems have only limited armor protection and their huge 155-millimeter cannons are designed to hit targets many miles away beyond line-of-sight.&lt;/p&gt;
         1426 &lt;p&gt;While M109s and their ammunition have had their range and precision upgraded, the Army was already seeking a replacement in the 1990s. The hi-tech XM2001 Crusader boasted an automatically loading gun and cooled barrel allowing for extremely high rates of sustained fire (ten shells per minute) on targets up to twenty-five miles away, and incorporated composite armor for greater survivability.&lt;/p&gt;
         1427 &lt;p&gt;But the forty-three-ton armored howitzer, which also depended on a separate thirty-six-ton ammunition carrier, was ill-timed during a period in which the Army was seeking lighter and more precise forces that could be rapidly deployed across the globe. After years of unfavorable press, the $2.2 billion-dollar Crusader project was finally killed by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002.&lt;/p&gt;
         1428 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Future Combat System (FCS)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1429 &lt;p&gt;The Crusader’s demise was hastened because a different program was promising a new, lighter self-propelled howitzers. Spoiler-warning: it didn’t deliver.&lt;/p&gt;
         1430 &lt;p&gt;Many legendary military systems like the M113 armored personnel carrier or Sherman tank were successfully modified over the years to perform secondary roles they weren’t originally designed for. In the late 1990s, the Army tried to bottle that kind of adaptability into a “universal” vehicle chassis that would form the basis for a diverse family of combat and combat support vehicles equipped with then state-of-the-art inter-operable networked computers. The variants included a flagship infantry fighting vehicle to replace the venerable&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/armys-m2-bradley-fighting-vehicle-old-what-replaces-it-could-be-revolutionary-34507?page=0%2C1&quot;&gt; M2 Bradley&lt;/a&gt;, self-propelled artillery and mortars, armored scout vehicles and ambulances, and many even more specialized variants.&lt;/p&gt;
         1431 &lt;p&gt;However, trying to develop a common chassis designed from the outset to perform so many diverse roles proved more expensive than refining one system to perform a specific task well and then modifying it from there. Arguably, a similar problem bedevils the three different models of the F-35, which have ended up having&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-f-35-stealth-fighters-dirty-little-secret-now-out-the-16211&quot;&gt; low levels of commonality&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1432 &lt;p&gt;Eight years and a staggering $18.1-billion later, the FCS remained far from being realized when the Defense Secretary Robert Gates finally pulled the plug in 2009.&lt;/p&gt;
         1433 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Ground Combat Vehicle&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1434 &lt;p&gt;The Army tried to pick up the pieces from the FCS in a more focused infantry fighting vehicle program unimaginatively called the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV). Recent combat experience in Iraq had demonstrated the aging&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/armys-m2-bradley-fighting-vehicle-old-what-replaces-it-could-be-revolutionary-34507?page=0%2C1&quot;&gt; Bradley fighting vehicle’s vulnerability&lt;/a&gt; to low-tech IEDs and rocket-propelled grenades, so stringent survivability requirements were placed on the GCV. However, this caused the GCV to balloon in weight to sixty tons—heavier than a Russian T-90 main battle tank!&lt;/p&gt;
         1435 &lt;p&gt;The GCV’s beastly weight finally led Congress to cancel the GCV program in 2014—with over a billion more dollars down the drain.&lt;/p&gt;
         1436 &lt;p&gt;Many of the Army’s canceled programs were legacies of a different era in national defense strategy. Between the 1989 and 2019, the Army went from planning high-intensity ground-warfare with the Soviet Union, to global counter-insurgency and stability operations. Then starting in 2014, the Army switched its emphasis back to preparing for high-intensity conflict. Defense technologies conceived for one security strategy were ill-suited for the other.&lt;/p&gt;
         1437 &lt;p&gt;Another thread uniting these failed programs is an attempt to innovate too many new technologies at the same time without regard for risk, cost and difficulty of integration.&lt;/p&gt;
         1438 &lt;p&gt;The Army is now on its third attempt at a Bradley and M113 replacement, the optionally-manned&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/army-wants-new-generation-robotic-fighting-vehicles-33401&quot;&gt; Next-Generation Combat Vehicle&lt;/a&gt;. This time the Pentagon is more willing to pursue a faster 80 percent solution rather than a brand-new design with all new (and thus, untested) technology, and is pursuing different chasses for support versus combat vehicles.&lt;/p&gt;
         1439 &lt;p&gt;To be fair, reusable technologies did emerge from the canceled projects that have seen later application—but $30 billion remains a staggering sum to invest in projects that never amounted to more than a handful of prototypes.&lt;/p&gt;
         1440 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This article first appeared in 2019 and is being reprinted here due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1441 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/51182009147/in/photolist-2kYMbaz-2m7ygQB-5woY3J-gLhgP3-iqwVST-8DDqew-9oTfWN-64R74M-7Keppd-B3mf4-2k8VHbW-E2CsW-Coj5i-2m6fgNp-8tkNqR-24hT7Tz-79gakp-2BZ1hw-22mWAaP-8xM8Nf-c4kPgQ-2m6AMU6-7vqfuV-6QsV4Y-2kCgpPU-2k8vjsD-dgbknY-2NBtns-B3oR1-bw7jgQ-5woY2G-2kBiQ2y-bnW71p-61M5pE-ciNdJ9-2u1R6k-39S14u-2dL755m-2e5k54o-Q4s8J-dMz2LZ-2kYLWtJ-buXhkM-5NkN86-2fCfkzx-5SqwEz-2Umav4-71TVxE-2k8zHDK-2kbPoWT&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Flickr.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1442 
         1443 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/after-30-billion-spent-these-5-military-weapons-were-scrapped-190754&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1444 </item>
         1445  <item> <title>Is the FN 509 Compact MRD the Best Home Defense Handgun?</title>
         1446  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190863</link>
         1447  <description>The FN 509 Compact MRD checks every box for a defensive pistol. It’s incredibly reliable, offers decent accuracy, and is small enough to conceal yet big enough to shoot comfortably.</description>
         1448  <author>Richard Douglas</author>
         1449  <category>Handguns</category>
         1450  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190863</guid>
         1451  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 16:45 EDT</pubDate>
         1452  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1453  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Richard Douglas&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1454 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Handguns, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1455 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206912&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/fn-509-compact-mrd-best-home-defense-handgun-190863&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/dkxxq9wm7dd61.jpg?itok=_XbFShVz&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1456 &lt;h3&gt;The FN 509 Compact MRD checks every box for a defensive pistol. It’s incredibly reliable, offers decent accuracy, and is small enough to conceal yet big enough to shoot comfortably.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1457 &lt;title&gt;Is the FN 509 Compact MRD the Best Home Defense Handgun?&lt;/title&gt;
         1458 &lt;p&gt;The FN 509 Compact MRD is a tiny, accurate, and very reliable handgun meant mainly for&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/best-home-defense-guns-here-our-list-190294&quot;&gt; home defense&lt;/a&gt; and concealed carry. Throughout thousands of rounds, I’ve never experienced a single malfunction, a very important selling point for a defensive pistol. It’s incredibly reliable, and definitely something I would trust my life to.&lt;/p&gt;
         1459 &lt;p&gt;The Compact MRD comes with FN’s signature Low-Profile Optics Mounting system, meaning the standard black front and rear sights are mounted at suppressor-ready height. It also features a three-slot Picatinny rail, which is big enough to accommodate a slide-mounted optic or standard weapon light. The MRD, or “mini red-dot,” in the pistol’s name means that it’s red dot ready, and the low-profile system allows you to mount one directly on the slide for a more reliable shot. From twenty-five yards, my average five-shot group was just over three inches, which is more than accurate enough for a defensive pistol.&lt;/p&gt;
         1460 &lt;p&gt;The MRD is made with a polymer frame and is available in your choice of black or FDE coloring. It also features a rounded, aggressively serrated grip for control in all situations. It’s very comfortable to hold, and helps the handgun to handle and shoot well. In the box, you’ll find two interchangeable backstraps&lt;strong&gt;—&lt;/strong&gt;one flat, and one arched. There’s a very small size difference between the two, so it’s up to you to decide which you prefer.&lt;/p&gt;
         1461 &lt;p&gt;There are also two magazines included with the pistol, a twelve-round version with a finger-hook extension and an extended fifteen-round version that features a grip sleeve. If you live in a restrictive state, FN also has ten-round magazines available. And, if fifteen-rounds simply won’t cut it for you, you’ll be happy to hear that it’ll accept any 509 magazine out there, including twenty-four-round versions.&lt;/p&gt;
         1462 &lt;p&gt;One upgrade that FN made to this pistol is the trigger. It’s been reshaped to have a flatter face, which gives the user more control and alters the direction of the press, offering more consistent accuracy and a cleaner break. It is a heavier-than-average pull, around 6.5 lbs, but offers a clean, crisp break and a positive reset. As far as safety is concerned, FN has really excelled. They’ve included four safeties, with only the trigger safety lever visible from the outside. Internally, there’s a striker block, drop safety, and trigger disconnect safety.&lt;/p&gt;
         1463 &lt;p&gt;With a 3.7-inch barrel, the MRD is 6.8 inches long overall. It’s not as small as something like the&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/ruger-lcp-theres-no-more-concealable-self-defense-gun-out-there-190292&quot;&gt; Ruger LCP&lt;/a&gt;, but still a good size for concealment. It weighs 25.5 oz, but this extra weight really helps to soak up recoil for quick follow-up shots. It sells for around $800, and this price includes the two backstraps, two magazines, a locking device, and a&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.colsontaskforce.org/best-gun-safes/&quot;&gt; carrying case for more protection in storage&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1464 &lt;p&gt;Overall, the FN 509 Compact MRD checks every box for&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unclesamsmisguidedchildren.com/the-1911-a-powerful-history/&quot;&gt; a defensive pistol&lt;/a&gt;. It’s incredibly reliable, offers decent accuracy, and is small enough to conceal yet big enough to shoot comfortably.&lt;/p&gt;
         1465 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Richard Douglas writes on firearms, defense, and security issues. He is the founder and editor of&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://scopesfield.com/&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;Scopes Field&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, and a columnist at The National Interest, 1945, Daily Caller, and other publications.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1466 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.redd.it/dkxxq9wm7dd61.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Creative Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1467 
         1468 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/fn-509-compact-mrd-best-home-defense-handgun-190863&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1469 </item>
         1470  <item> <title>U.S. Should Get Tougher on China’s Attacks of the Falun Gong</title>
         1471  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190854</link>
         1472  <description>Let’s hope that increasing numbers of Americans will support the Falun Gong in their search for freedom from a degree of persecution that should sadly be called genocide.</description>
         1473  <author>Anders Corr</author>
         1474  <category>China</category>
         1475  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190854</guid>
         1476  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 16:33 EDT</pubDate>
         1477  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1478  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Anders Corr&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1479 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;China, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1480 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/203321&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/us-should-get-tougher-china%E2%80%99s-attacks-falun-gong-190854&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/xijinping.jpg?itok=BxKtUd6t&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1481 &lt;h3&gt;Let’s hope that increasing numbers of Americans will support the Falun Gong in their search for freedom from a degree of persecution that should sadly be called genocide.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1482 &lt;title&gt;U.S. Should Get Tougher on China’s Attacks of the Falun Gong&lt;/title&gt;
         1483 &lt;p&gt;Between July 16 and July 20, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLNZ1CG3x-c&quot;&gt;thousands&lt;/a&gt; of yellow-clad Falun Gong supporters took to the streets in Washington, New York, San Francisco, London, and elsewhere in their distinctively choreographed annual protest rallies against China’s relentless, decades-long human rights abuses. At the Washington, DC, event, a Hudson Institute expert on religious freedom rightly &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theepochtimes.com/its-time-to-recognize-the-ccps-persecution-of-falun-gong-as-a-genocide-rights-advocates-mark-22-years-of-suppression-in-washington_3905150.html&quot;&gt;alleged&lt;/a&gt; that China was perpetrating a genocide against the Falun Gong. &lt;/p&gt;
         1484 &lt;p&gt;Numerous U.S. government sources have acknowledged global reporting and scholarship on the persecution of the Falun Gong and significant, uncontroverted &lt;a href=&quot;https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChinaTribunal_JUDGMENT_1stMarch_2020.pdf&quot;&gt;evidence&lt;/a&gt; of mass imprisonment, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/world/asia/torture-is-widespread-in-china-un-investigator-says.html&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, and forced organ harvesting of perhaps millions. China’s acts meet the &lt;a href=&quot;https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%2078/volume-78-i-1021-english.pdf&quot;&gt;legal definition&lt;/a&gt; and scholarly &lt;a href=&quot;https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1513&amp;context=gsp&quot;&gt;description&lt;/a&gt; of genocide pursuant to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.&lt;/p&gt;
         1485 &lt;p&gt;Falun Gong is a movement spirituality rooted in Buddhist and Daoist principles that was popularized in China beginning in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.britannica.com/topic/Falun-Gong&quot;&gt;1992&lt;/a&gt;. Seven years later, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) saw this peaceful practice as its &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/09/05/what-is-falun-gong&quot;&gt;biggest&lt;/a&gt; threat. &lt;/p&gt;
         1486 &lt;p&gt;Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, promotes the three principles of compassion, truth, and forbearance, which are apparently inimical to the CCP’s own philosophies of, for example, political power growing from the barrel of a gun (according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_12.htm&quot;&gt;Mao Tse Tung&lt;/a&gt; in 1938). &lt;/p&gt;
         1487 &lt;p&gt;The Falun Gong movement is a particular threat to the growing power of the CCP because it is often internal to Chinese businesses, universities, and the state. Falun Gong practitioners within China, forced into secrecy by state persecution, operate at least &lt;a href=&quot;https://faluninfo.net/key-statistics-related-to-falun-gong/&quot;&gt;200,000&lt;/a&gt; “underground printing houses” within the totalitarian country, “in what likely constitutes the largest non-violent, grassroots resistance in the world,” according to a Falun Gong website.&lt;/p&gt;
         1488 &lt;p&gt;Falun Gong practitioners have at times leaked critical information to publications established outside of China (full disclosure: the author frequently contributes to Epoch Times, which is one such publication established by Falun Gong). This makes Falun Gong a natural and powerful ally of all democracies seeking to reveal the truth about the atrocities committed by the CCP.&lt;/p&gt;
         1489 &lt;p&gt;There were as many as &lt;a href=&quot;https://faluninfo.net/key-statistics-related-to-falun-gong/&quot;&gt;70 to 100 million&lt;/a&gt; Falun Gong practitioners globally in the late 1990s, according to various sources, including Chinese government media. This was greater than the number of CCP members at the time. &lt;/p&gt;
         1490 &lt;p&gt;Increasingly adverse attention from the CCP forced the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi (李洪志), to resettle in the United States in 1995. As negative attention increased, especially in state media, Falun Gong practitioners in China started to protest. This peaked on April 25, 1999, when at least 10,000 Falun Gong appealed to the CCP with a peaceful meditation at Zhongnanhai, China’s central government building in Beijing.&lt;/p&gt;
         1491 &lt;p&gt;The Party felt threatened. It declared the movement a “heretical religion” and the biggest threat to state security since the democracy movement of 1989. CCP head Jiang Zemin banned Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, and established the Gestapo-like “610 office” to override the courts and police in China, where religious freedom is supposedly, but not really, protected by the Chinese constitution. &lt;/p&gt;
         1492 &lt;p&gt;The persecution of Falun Gong that followed was implemented by CCP officials, such as Chen Quanguo (陈全国), and used “reeducation” techniques, that would later be part of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://jamestown.org/program/the-learning-curve-how-communist-party-officials-are-applying-lessons-from-prior-transformation-campaigns-to-repression-in-xinjiang/&quot;&gt;genocide&lt;/a&gt; against the Uyghurs. The persecution of Falun Gong in China is likewise an attempt “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” including by killing, and other bodily and mental harm, and is, therefore, a genocide pursuant to the UN definition.&lt;/p&gt;
         1493 &lt;p&gt;Academic research has estimated the total number of liver and kidney transplants in China from 2000 to 2014, likely principally from the Falun Gong, to be as high as &lt;a href=&quot;https://endtransplantabuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bloody_Harvest-The_Slaughter-2016-Update-V3-and-Addendum-20170430.pdf&quot;&gt;1.5 million&lt;/a&gt;. The 2020 &lt;a href=&quot;https://chinatribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChinaTribunal_JUDGMENT_1stMarch_2020.pdf&quot;&gt;China Tribunal&lt;/a&gt;, held in London, cited statistics that indicate as many as 60,000 to 90,000 organ transplants annually (minus approximately 5,000 documented voluntary donors, revealing a gap of approximately 55,000 to 85,000 unexplained annual transplants). &lt;/p&gt;
         1494 &lt;p&gt;The China Tribunal further found that, “Forced organ harvesting has happened in multiple places in the PRC and on multiple occasions for a period of at least 20 years and continues to this day…. In the long-term practice in the PRC of forced organ harvesting it was indeed Falun Gong practitioners who were used as a source – probably the principal source – of organs for forced organ harvesting.” &lt;/p&gt;
         1495 &lt;p&gt;According to a 2015 Freedom House &lt;a href=&quot;https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/12222014_FH_ChinaReport2014_FINAL.pdf&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt;, “Hundreds of thousands of [Falun Gong] adherents were sentenced to labor camps and prison terms, making them the largest contingent of prisoners of conscience in the country,” and I might add, the world. Falun Gong sources say that over the last twenty years in China, &lt;a href=&quot;https://faluninfo.net/key-statistics-related-to-falun-gong/&quot;&gt;several million&lt;/a&gt; Falun Gong have been detained. &lt;/p&gt;
         1496 &lt;p&gt;Freedom House in 2017 independently verified &lt;a href=&quot;https://freedomhouse.org/report/2017/battle-china-spirit-falun-gong-religious-freedom&quot;&gt;933 cases&lt;/a&gt; of up to twelve-year sentences of Falun Gong between 2013 and 2016, often imposed solely for their religious beliefs. According to the nonprofit organization, “Available evidence suggests that forced extraction of organs from Falun Gong detainees for sale in transplant operations has occurred on a large scale and may be continuing.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1497 &lt;p&gt;A critical part of the anti-Falun Gong campaign is the use of state media to portray practitioners as subhuman in order to justify their torture and eradication. According to the China Tribunal, &lt;/p&gt;
         1498 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;margin-left:.5in;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Acts of torture, generally, reveal an overall consistent attitude and approach of the Chinese state towards practitioners of Falun Gong, which is systematic in nature and designed to punish, ostracise, humiliate, dehumanise, demean and demonise practitioners of Falun Gong into renouncing and abandoning their practice of it. The PRC and its leaders actively incited such persecution for the sole purpose of eliminating the practice of, and belief in, Falun Gong.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1499 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
         1500 &lt;p&gt;The widespread and devastating effects of state media dehumanization of the Falun Gong should not be underestimated in a society without freedom of speech. Yet according to Freedom House, millions of Falun Gong in China have persisted over years of persecution. This month’s demonstrations commemorated the twenty-second anniversary of the CCP’s suppression of Falun Gong. &lt;/p&gt;
         1501 &lt;p&gt;Increasingly, Americans are waking up to the genocide being perpetrated against the Falun Gong. Politicians are taking action in a bipartisan manner. Of seventeen U.S. Senators and Representatives who supported a Falun Gong request to show support on the twenty-second anniversary of its persecution, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2021/7/23/194233.html&quot;&gt;eight&lt;/a&gt; were Democratic, and nine Republican. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) both showed support in separate July 20 statements for the Falun Gong and for religious freedom more generally.&lt;/p&gt;
         1502 &lt;p&gt;This year, the Democratic Representatives who showed support, and therefore deserve public credit, have been Zoe Lofgren (California), Mike Doyle (Pennsylvania), Bill Foster (Illinois), Sean Maloney (New York), Dean Phillips (Minnesota), David Trone (Maryland), Juan Vargas (California), and Gerald Connolly (Virginia). The Republicans were Elise Stefanik (New York), Gus Bilirakis (Florida), Vicky Hartzler (Missouri), Tim Walberg (Michigan), Steve Chabot (Ohio), Glenn Grothman (Wisconsin), and Jack Burgman (Michigan).&lt;/p&gt;
         1503 &lt;p&gt;Senator Menendez, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, provided a best-in-class July 20 statement on the Falun Gong. “Twenty-two years ago today, the People’s Republic of China undertook a ruthless and brutal crackdown against the followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement that continues to this day,” he wrote in a letter. “In the more than two decades since, tens of thousands of Chinese citizens have been persecuted for their religious beliefs, imprisoned, tortured, subjected to forced labor, and credible allegations of organ harvesting.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1504 &lt;p&gt;Senator Rubio made a similarly pitch-perfect &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/7/rubio-pays-tribute-to-falun-gong-movement&quot;&gt;statement&lt;/a&gt; on July 20. “The CCP has detained Falun Gong practitioners, and in some cases, multiple times, in ‘transformation-through-reeducation’ centers – a preview of the ongoing mass internment and acts of genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. CCP officials have subjected Falun Gong practitioners to physical and sexual assault, forced labor, and torture to make them renounce their beliefs. Even more disturbing are the credible allegations of forced organ harvesting.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1505 &lt;p&gt;A May 12 U.S. State Department &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt; on religious freedom noted reports of up to tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in the country, arrests of over 6,600 in 2019, and over 600 sentenced to up to fourteen years in prison. The report noted torture and deprivation of food and medical care to practitioners in prison, and referred to evidence of forced organ harvesting, including as found in reports by the China Tribunal and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). &lt;/p&gt;
         1506 &lt;p&gt;The State Department cited media reports that “authorities broke into the home of a Falun Gong practitioner, pinned her down, and forcibly took a sample of her blood, telling her it was ‘required by the state.’ One officer shouted, ‘The law does not apply to you. We’re going to wipe you all out.’”&lt;/p&gt;
         1507 &lt;p&gt;At the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-on-release-of-the-2020-international-religious-freedom-report/&quot;&gt;release&lt;/a&gt; of the report, Secretary of State Antony Blinken rightly imposed a visa ban on China’s Yu Hui and his family for this official’s complicity with the arbitrary detentions of Falun Gong believers.&lt;/p&gt;
         1508 &lt;p&gt;The 2021 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/2021%20Annual%20Report_0.pdf&quot;&gt;report&lt;/a&gt; also noted the persecution of Falun Gong in China and evidence of forced organ harvesting. “According to reports, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were harassed and arrested during 2020 for practicing their faith, and some likely died due to abuse and torture while in custody,” it stated. “Credible international reports also suggested that organ harvesting, including from Falun Gong practitioners, likely continued.” &lt;/p&gt;
         1509 &lt;p&gt;We might not expect many academics or major corporations to champion the cause of the Falun Gong anytime soon, as many are seeking some business advantage from China, including more Chinese students who pay full tuition in American universities. However, let’s hope that increasing numbers of Americans, of the principled type mentioned above, will support the Falun Gong in their search for freedom from a degree of persecution that should sadly be called genocide. This genocide is doubly abhorrent as the basic tenets of what the Falun Gong practice, namely truth, forbearance, and compassion, are so laudable and ruefully missing in the governance of China today.&lt;/p&gt;
         1510 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Anders Corr has a bachelor&#039;s/master&#039;s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the &lt;/em&gt;Journal of Political Ris&lt;em&gt;k, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored &lt;/em&gt;The Concentration of Power&lt;em&gt; (forthcoming in 2021) and &lt;/em&gt;No Trespassing,” and edited “Great Powers, Grand Strategies&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1511 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1512 
         1513 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-should-get-tougher-china%E2%80%99s-attacks-falun-gong-190854&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1514 </item>
         1515  <item> <title>When Spain Erupted into Civil War, Europe’s Powers Dove Right in</title>
         1516  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190804</link>
         1517  <description>A Mediterranean nation beset by military coup and civil war. A savage struggle marked by atrocities and fanaticism. Proxy war waged by outside nations pumping in men, weapons and money.</description>
         1518  <author>Michael Peck</author>
         1519  <category>Spanish Civil War</category>
         1520  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190804</guid>
         1521  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 16:22 EDT</pubDate>
         1522  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1523  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1524 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Spanish Civil War, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1525 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206853&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/when-spain-erupted-civil-war-europe%E2%80%99s-powers-dove-right-190804&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-E20569-21%2C_Spanien%2C_Ausbildung_durch__Legion_Condor_%20%281%29.jpg?itok=oUQOQDxS&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1526 &lt;h3&gt;A Mediterranean nation beset by military coup and civil war. A savage struggle marked by atrocities and fanaticism. Proxy war waged by outside nations pumping in men, weapons and money.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1527 &lt;title&gt;When Spain Erupted into Civil War, Europe’s Powers Dove Right in&lt;/title&gt;
         1528 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Spanish Civil War is its iconic images. We have Pablo Picasso’s haunting &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;painting of the terror bombing of Guernica&lt;/a&gt;, Robert Capa’s classic (and now thought to have been staged) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falling_Soldier&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;photo of the death of a Republican soldier&lt;/a&gt;, George Orwell’s &lt;em&gt;Homage to Catalonia&lt;/em&gt; and Ernest Hemingway’s &lt;em&gt;For Whom the Bell Tolls&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1529 &lt;p&gt;A Mediterranean nation beset by military coup and civil war. A savage struggle marked by atrocities and fanaticism. Proxy war waged by outside nations pumping in men, weapons and money.&lt;/p&gt;
         1530 &lt;p&gt;Today’s Syria or Turkey? No, it’s sunny Spain, now a peaceful member of the European Union, but eighty years ago the arena for one of the most vicious conflicts in history. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Spanish Civil War&lt;/a&gt; of 1936–39 is remembered today as a sort of Second World War-in-training, a playoff game before the championship match between Team Axis and Team Allies a few years later.&lt;/p&gt;
         1531 &lt;p&gt;The Spanish Civil War began in July 1936 when Francisco Franco led a dissident group of staunchly conservative and Catholic generals, as well as half the Spanish Army, against the liberal, elected Spanish government. What should have been an internal military revolt like the recent attempted coup in Turkey swelled into an international struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, liberalism and conservatism, and communism versus fascism. In the end, fascism won.&lt;/p&gt;
         1532 &lt;p&gt;In some ways, the Spanish Civil War belongs to a different era. We are accustomed today to slaughter inflicted in the name of God. Back then, the cause was ideology, the disputes over whether the world should be democratic or fascist or communist. Yet in other ways, the conflict seems all too familiar. Like today’s Iraq and Syria, the combatants fought amongst themselves as well as the enemy. The Nationalists were a collection of conservatives, monarchists and fascist Falangists. The Republicans were supported by a bizarre potpourri of socialists, communists, Trotskyites and anarchists, as well as international leftists such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from America. The “&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Terror_(Spain)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;White Terror&lt;/a&gt;” of the Nationalists murdered two hundred thousand opponents, grimly dwarfing the fifty thousand or so victims of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror_(Spain)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Red Terror&lt;/a&gt;, conducted by Republican death squads that were led by Soviet NKVD secret police.&lt;/p&gt;
         1533 &lt;p&gt;The Nationalist rebels were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy—not just with arms, but with troops and aircraft. German transport aircraft flew Nationalist soldiers from Spanish North Africa to the mainland. More important, Germany dispatched the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condor_Legion&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Condor Legion&lt;/a&gt;, a twelve-thousand-strong force equipped with bombers, fighters and tanks. Not to be outdone, Mussolini sent fifty thousand Italians. By comparison, perhaps &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rferl.org/content/russian-defense-ministry-orders-medals-for-syria-operation-participants/27642055.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;ten thousand Russian troops&lt;/a&gt; might have been committed to today’s Syrian Civil War.&lt;/p&gt;
         1534 &lt;p&gt;Though the Spanish Civil War is viewed as a proving ground for World War II, that’s not strictly true. The mountainous Spanish terrain precluded the massed tank attacks and deep-penetration mechanized offensives of World War II. But it did provide invaluable experience to Hitler’s military, especially the Luftwaffe. Germany had the chance to test weapons it later used in World War II, such as the He-111 and Do-17 bombers. Legendary Luftwaffe fighter aces such as Adolph Galland and Werner Molders learned their craft in Spanish skies, devising deadly air combat tactics such as the “&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-four&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;finger-four&lt;/a&gt;” formation. Not surprisingly, Italy didn’t fare quite so well, such as when the Republicans defeated an Italian force at the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guadalajara&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Battle of Guadalajara&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1535 &lt;p&gt;With typical fascist unity, Franco did not reciprocate Hitler’s generosity. In 1940, with France conquered and Britain fighting alone, the führer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_at_Hendaye&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;attempted to persuade&lt;/a&gt; Franco to declare war on Britain. The Spanish dictator successfully fobbed him off, leading Hitler to declare that he would rather endure a visit to the dentist than negotiate with Franco.&lt;/p&gt;
         1536 &lt;p&gt;For the Republicans, the world turned its back. Some British officials preferred a fascist-leaning Nationalist regime to a leftist one. Britain and France imposed an arms embargo on both sides, but with the Nationalists receiving German and Italian weapons, the freeze only hurt the Republicans (just as the post-1967 British and French arms embargo in the Middle East only hurt Israel, rather than the Soviet-supplied Arabs). Only the Soviet Union would provide weapons and advisers.&lt;/p&gt;
         1537 &lt;p&gt;Soviet officers also had the opportunity to learn modern combat, though naturally Stalin had his Spanish Civil War veterans executed for fear of ideological contamination. Yet not all the lessons were correct. Top Soviet military leaders concluded that massed armor was ineffective, and that tanks should be &lt;a href=&quot;http://bobrowen.com/nymas/soviet_tank_operations_in_the_sp.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;dispersed in small packets&lt;/a&gt; to support the infantry, a doctrine later smashed by German blitzkrieg tactics.&lt;/p&gt;
         1538 &lt;p&gt;At times the war veered into the farcical, as when Italian submarines sank neutral ships transporting supplies to the Republicans. Instead of condemning Italy, Britain and France blamed “pirates” (as if Blackbeard was a U-boat commander), and &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyon_Conference&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;began convoying&lt;/a&gt; ships in the Mediterranean.&lt;/p&gt;
         1539 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Spanish Civil War is its iconic images. We have Pablo Picasso’s haunting &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;painting of the terror bombing of Guernica&lt;/a&gt;, Robert Capa’s classic (and now thought to have been staged) &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falling_Soldier&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;photo of the death of a Republican soldier&lt;/a&gt;, George Orwell’s &lt;em&gt;Homage to Catalonia&lt;/em&gt; and Ernest Hemingway’s &lt;em&gt;For Whom the Bell Tolls&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1540 &lt;p&gt;But who the bell really tolled for was the Western democracies. Hitler and Mussolini had committed jackboots on the ground to overthrow a democratically elected government. Though it would probably not have deterred Hitler’s quest for war, world support for the Republicans would have signaled determination against the rising fascist menace. Yet if Britain and France wouldn’t lift a finger to help Spain in 1936, then why should they fight to save Czechoslovakia in 1938? No wonder Hitler expected the Western powers to stay quiet when he invaded Poland in 1939. The fuse for World War II might have been lit in the hills of Spain.&lt;/p&gt;
         1541 &lt;p&gt;The Spanish Civil War still leaves us with a question: What price stability? Some believe that we need strongmen like Saddam Hussein and Bashar al-Assad to bring order to the Middle East. There was indeed order in Spain after the civil war. Under Franco’s rule, Spain was mostly peaceful (except for the Basques), and a U.S. ally that hosted American nuclear missile submarines. It was also an authoritarian regime with censorship and political prisoners.&lt;/p&gt;
         1542 &lt;p&gt;Is Franco the sort of ruler we want for the Middle East today?&lt;/p&gt;
         1543 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1544 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-E20569-21,_Spanien,_Ausbildung_durch_%22Legion_Condor%22.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1545 
         1546 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/when-spain-erupted-civil-war-europe%E2%80%99s-powers-dove-right-190804&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1547 </item>
         1548  <item> <title>Why the Glock 20 Is a Reliable Hunting and Survival Sidearm</title>
         1549  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190871</link>
         1550  <description>Built with Glock’s Gen4 guidelines, the Glock 20 is easily distinguished from its 9mm counterparts by its prodigious size.</description>
         1551  <author>Mark Episkopos</author>
         1552  <category>Gun</category>
         1553  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190871</guid>
         1554  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 16:11 EDT</pubDate>
         1555  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1556  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mark Episkopos&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1557 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Gun, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1558 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206921&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/why-glock-20-reliable-hunting-and-survival-sidearm-190871&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/glock20.jpg?itok=Xk7nrr2B&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1559 &lt;h3&gt;Built with Glock’s Gen4 guidelines, the Glock 20 is easily distinguished from its 9mm counterparts by its prodigious size.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1560 &lt;title&gt;Why the Glock 20 Is a Reliable Hunting and Survival Sidearm&lt;/title&gt;
         1561 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;While not an ideal solution in tactical and urban scenarios, the Glock 20 has earned a sizable following as a reliable hunting and survival handgun; notably, Denmark’s Sirius Sled Patrol continues to use the Glock 20 as a defensive weapon against polar bears. For everyone else, the Glock 20 is a well-rounded 10mm handgun that offers serious firepower at little compromise.&lt;/p&gt;
         1562 &lt;p&gt;In a catalog saturated with popular 9mm offerings, the 10mm Glock 20 Gen4 stands apart as the Austrian gun manufacturer’s most powerful semi-automatic pistol. The Glock 20 is also the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2018/7/18/nine-lives-of-the-10-mm-auto/&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;oldest &lt;/a&gt;10mm in continuous production, successfully blending Glock’s legendary reliability with a newfound focus on stopping power.&lt;/p&gt;
         1563 &lt;p&gt;Glock made its initial splash in the U.S. handgun market with the Glock 17, which fast became a bestseller in the early 1980’s for its lightweight, modular, and ergonomically friendly design. Market trends sharply changed, however, with the infamous Miami shootout 1986. It took eight FBI agents armed with 9mm guns a total of 18 gunshot wounds to incapacitate only two suspects, armed with a 12-gauge pump shotgun and semi-automatic rifle respectively; two agents were killed, and five more wounded in the protracted firefight. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies concluded that .38 special and 9mm guns lack the penetration necessary to reliably incapacitate targets. 10mm cartridge-based weapons quickly emerged as a leading alternative; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ballistics101.com/10mm.php&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;traveling &lt;/a&gt;at supersonic speeds and hitting with a muzzle energy of up to 750 pounds, the 10mm round destroys soft tissue and disrupts the nervous system far more efficiently than its 9mm counterpart.&lt;/p&gt;
         1564 &lt;p&gt;Seeking to maintain their foothold in the U.S. market, Glock rushed to release the Glock 20 in 1991 shortly after the FBI’s official &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.historyandheadlines.com/april-11-1986-fbi-miami-shootout-forces-changes-police-firepower/&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;adoption &lt;/a&gt;of the 10mm caliber. The FBI quickly went on to reverse their decision over recoil concerns, opting instead for a halfway compromise between power and handling in the form of the new .40 Smith and Wesson caliber; still, the Glock 20 has not only endured but thrived as a leading consumer 10mm pistol.&lt;/p&gt;
         1565 &lt;p&gt;Built with Glock’s Gen4 guidelines, the Glock 20 is easily distinguished from its 9mm counterparts by its prodigious size. At an overall length of 8.07 inches, there is no way around the fact that the Glock 20 is a large handgun that cannot be comfortably concealed. Those looking for a high-powered everyday carry (EDC) solution would be more tempted by the Glock 20’s more compact Glock 29 cousin.&lt;/p&gt;
         1566 &lt;p&gt;But what the Glock 20 sacrifices in size, it makes up for with raw performance. The Glock 20 combines the impressive stopping power of the 10mm caliber with a 15-round capacity magazine that’s capable of accommodating a wide range of ammunition, all within the reliable and ergonomically friendly frame that is a trademark of the Glock brand.&lt;/p&gt;
         1567 &lt;p&gt;Excessive recoil has always been the Achilles&#039; heel of 10mm handguns, and the Glock 20 is not entirely an exception. There is, however, some good news: a customizable backstrap system and new Rough Textured Frame (RTF) can help to mitigate the intense recoil generated from firing high-caliber ammunition. More importantly, subsequent Glock 20 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM6zWurL4n8&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;testing &lt;/a&gt;has &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwVjLRH0zsQ&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;demonstrated&lt;/a&gt; that the gun’s recoil heavily depends on the specific type of 10mm round that is being used. With some practice and the correct choice of ammunition, the Glock 20 shouldn’t generate an unbearable degree of recoil as compared with similarly-situated .40 caliber weapons.&lt;/p&gt;
         1568 &lt;p&gt;Where does all this leave the Glock 20 today, just under 30 years after its introduction? While not an ideal solution in tactical and urban scenarios, the Glock 20 has earned a sizable following as a reliable hunting and survival handgun; notably, Denmark’s Sirius Sled Patrol continues to use the Glock 20 as a defensive weapon against polar bears. For everyone else, the Glock 20 is a well-rounded 10mm handgun that offers serious firepower at little compromise.&lt;/p&gt;
         1569 &lt;p&gt;&lt;article&gt;
         1570 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mark Episkopos is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and serves as research assistant at the Center for the National Interest. Mark is also a PhD student in History at American University. This article first appeared in 2019 and is reprinted here due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1571 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1572 &lt;p&gt;&lt;/article&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1573 
         1574 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-glock-20-reliable-hunting-and-survival-sidearm-190871&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1575 </item>
         1576  <item> <title>Nord Stream and Beyond: Rescuing Ukraine While Repairing Russia Ties?</title>
         1577  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190838</link>
         1578  <description>The deal recently struck between President Biden and Chancellor Merkel permitting completion of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline might seem a win for allied cooperation.  But a dialogue between the American and German perspectives on the Nord Stream issues reveals deeper, persistent divisions. </description>
         1579  <author>Robert David English</author>
         1580  <category>EU-Russia Relations</category>
         1581  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190838</guid>
         1582  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 16:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1583  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1584  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Robert David English&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1585 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;EU-Russia Relations, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1586 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206890&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/nord-stream-and-beyond-rescuing-ukraine-while-repairing-russia-ties-190838&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-15T213736Z_534840571_RC29LO9NXT3J_RTRMADP_3_USA-GERMANY.JPG?itok=Qxz2JDsV&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1587 &lt;h3&gt;The deal recently struck between President Biden and Chancellor Merkel permitting completion of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline might seem a win for allied cooperation.  But a dialogue between the American and German perspectives on the Nord Stream issues reveals deeper, persistent divisions. &lt;/h3&gt;
         1588 &lt;title&gt;Nord Stream and Beyond: Rescuing Ukraine While Repairing Russia Ties?&lt;/title&gt;
         1589 &lt;p&gt;With the end of a belligerent “America First” Trump presidency and the return of a traditional multilateralist in Joe Biden, many believe that the U.S.-European relationship is back to normal and alliance unity will again prevail—a development sorely needed to face challenges from China, Russia and Iran as well as the climate crisis. Others see more lasting damage from the Trump years, and a growing cleavage between U.S.-European interests and perspectives on global affairs.  The Nord Stream 2 pipeline controversy offers a revealing test of these two outlooks. The deal recently struck between President Biden and Germany chancellor Angela Merkel permitting completion of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline might seem a win for allied cooperation.  But a dialogue between the American and German perspectives on the Nord Stream issues reveals deeper, persistent divisions. &lt;/p&gt;
         1590 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States: &lt;/b&gt;With economic aid and security guarantees for Ukraine, we’re trying to put our dispute over Nord Stream behind us. But Biden is pretty isolated here. Our foreign-policy elite is united in loathing his &lt;a href=&quot;https://thehill.com/opinion/international/564069-acquiescing-to-berlin-emboldening-moscow-and-squeezing-kyiv-biden-and&quot;&gt;decision to halt sanctions&lt;/a&gt; against your pipeline from Russia.  Most believe that you’re already too dependent on Moscow, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin can threaten a cutoff if you don’t bend to his will.  Russia will rake in the profits while bypassing Ukrainian pipelines, denying them transit fees.  It’s a bad deal for Ukrainians, a bad deal for Germans, and only helps prop up Putin’s failing regime. &lt;/p&gt;
         1591 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany:&lt;/strong&gt; That’s a lot of leftover Trump &lt;em&gt;kuddelmuddel&lt;/em&gt;—weak and contradictory arguments. You say Russia will pressure us by threatening a gas cutoff, but also that Russia is desperate for income from gas sales?  Sounds like they depend more on us that we on them!  In fact these &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ceps.eu/nord-stream-2-a-red-herring-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea/&quot;&gt;arguments&lt;/a&gt; are bogus.  Nord Stream 2 only marginally increases our reliance on Russian gas; we import from other countries too; and overall use of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts&quot;&gt;fossil fuels&lt;/a&gt; is shrinking as we transition to renewables.  Wind and solar now produce &lt;em&gt;three times as much&lt;/em&gt; of our electricity as natural gas.  In any case, we’ve been importing Russian gas for over forty years and they have a fine record of meeting their obligations.&lt;/p&gt;
         1592 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States: &lt;/b&gt;Have you forgotten about the Russian gas cut-offs in the winters of 2005 and 2009, when they tried to squeeze Ukraine and left many European customers out in the cold?  For Putin, gas sales are all about political leverage.&lt;/p&gt;
         1593 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany: &lt;/strong&gt;No doubt Russia uses trade for political advantage, just like you Americans.  But those disputes were more Kiev’s than Moscow’s fault.  First, even though Russia subsidized them with half-priced gas for over a decade, Ukraine was always in arrears—sometimes over a billion dollars.  When Russia began raising prices to market levels—which even the International Monetary Fund urged them to do—the Ukrainians rejected those prices and exploited their pipeline leverage. When Russia stopped contracting new shipments for Ukraine, the Ukrainians simply siphoned off gas destined for European buyers—they stole it. Sure Moscow played hardball, but Ukraine was &lt;a href=&quot;https://css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/pdfs/RAD-53.pdf&quot;&gt;no innocent&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1594 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; That’s not how we remember it. &lt;/p&gt;
         1595 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany:&lt;/strong&gt; Your memory is selective, in line with your prevailing Russophobia.  Why would you expect Moscow to sell its gas at cut-rate prices to a deadbeat country—one even trying to join an anti-Russian military alliance?  Why wouldn’t they seek a new route bypassing Ukrainian instability?  After those disputes we Germans weren’t keen to rely on Ukraine as a transit country either—that’s one reason Nord Stream 2 was conceived in the first place.  It’s also modern and efficient, while Ukraine’s is an aging, Soviet-era network with &lt;a href=&quot;https://112.international/society/gas-pipeline-explosion-occurs-near-kyiv-54704.html&quot;&gt;poor maintenance&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://intellinews.com/explosion-tears-through-ukrainian-gas-pipeline-199974/?source=cee-energy-newswatch&quot;&gt;frequent leaks and fires&lt;/a&gt;.    &lt;/p&gt;
         1596 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; Nord Stream 2 won’t benefit German households. You’d do better buying American liquified natural gas—trade with your ally, not Russia!     &lt;/p&gt;
         1597 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany: &lt;/strong&gt;Of course it’s going to benefit us—who do you think is paying those transit fees?  German consumers, of course, who despite all the &lt;em&gt;Sturm und Drang&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/majority-germans-oppose-halt-nord-stream-2&quot;&gt;strongly favor&lt;/a&gt; completing Nord Stream 2 and so cutting out the middleman.  We appreciate your concern for our energy bills, but remember that your&lt;a href=&quot;https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Why-US-LNG-Cant-Win-In-Europe.html&quot;&gt; LNG&lt;/a&gt; is considerably more expensive than Russian gas due to the costs of liquification, shipping, and regasification.  And it doesn’t help Ukraine with transit fees either.  In short, pushing your “&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/freedom-gas-us-opens-lng-floodgates-to-europe/&quot;&gt;freedom gas&lt;/a&gt;” makes you look &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/05/30/trump-administration-rebrands-carbon-dioxide-as-molecules-of-u-s-freedom/?sh=7c3575bb3a24&quot;&gt;as self-interested as Gazprom&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1598 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; But isn’t it worth paying more for the security of knowing the supply is reliable?&lt;/p&gt;
         1599 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany:&lt;/strong&gt; Reliable until when? Until you decide to punish us for something else? You negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and encouraged trade as a way to draw Teheran toward the West.  Then you pulled out of the deal—and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/world/europe/eu-trump-iran-sanctions.html&quot;&gt;sanctioned&lt;/a&gt; our companies for that same trade!  You also backed out of the painstakingly negotiated U.S.-EU trade and investment pact.  As for petroleum, it was back under Nixon that you told us to diversify, to reduce reliance on the Middle East, and you greenlighted imports from the USSR.  But when the Siberian pipeline neared completion, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.vocaleurope.eu/how-russian-pipelines-heat-up-tensions-from-reagans-battle-over-yamal-to-the-european-row-on-nord-stream-2/&quot;&gt;Reagan tried to block it&lt;/a&gt;—just like with Nord Stream.  You Americans are not only unreliable, you also impose sanctions flagrantly, in clear &lt;a href=&quot;https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/30/nordstream-ted-cruz-threatening-angela-merkel/&quot;&gt;violation of WTO&lt;/a&gt; rules.  You have no business telling us who we can or cannot trade with.&lt;/p&gt;
         1600 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;But think of Ukraine—they really need that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/ukraine-sets-new-tariffs-for-russian-gas-transit-to-europe/&quot;&gt;$3 billion&lt;/a&gt; in annual transit fees. &lt;/p&gt;
         1601 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany: &lt;/strong&gt;Not only do you Americans have short memories, you also have an exaggerated sense of your generosity—as if you were the world’s sole benefactor.  You’ve given Ukraine some $2 billion in aid since 2014, much of it military, but EU members have given &lt;a href=&quot;file:///Users/renglish/Desktop/EU%20members%20have%20given%20over%20$%2010%20billion.&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;over $10 billion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.   So if you see yourself as Ukraine’s champion, why don’t you make up that lag with an $8 billion gift?  We all know the answer—&lt;a href=&quot;https://112.international/politics/eu-loans-how-ukraine-squandered-everything-and-was-left-without-finances-55741.html&quot;&gt;Ukraine squanders aid&lt;/a&gt;, is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bloombergquint.com/view/ukraine-military-procurement-scandal-shakes-presidential-race&quot;&gt;mired in corruption&lt;/a&gt;, and has yet to implement &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/ukraine-must-do-more-to-regain-the-wests-trust/&quot;&gt;vital reforms&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
         1602 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; What’s your point here?&lt;/p&gt;
         1603 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany:&lt;/strong&gt; Just as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/iraqis-rise-against-16-years-made-usa-corruption/&quot;&gt;corruption doomed&lt;/a&gt; your &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/10/response-afghanistan-papers-former-president-karzai-blames-us-funding-fueling-corruption/&quot;&gt;nation-building fantasies&lt;/a&gt; in the Middle East—and, most recently, &lt;a href=&quot;https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-lifestyle-b34e8480c8a0d80072fb2b4414914156&quot;&gt;Afghanistan&lt;/a&gt;—Biden has seen the swamp of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-biden-corruption-oligarchs/2021/03/28/e6e05bb0-8d7f-11eb-a33e-da28941cb9ac_story.html&quot;&gt;corruption&lt;/a&gt; in Ukraine’s oligarchic economy close up.  Petroleum rents—“unearned” income just for sitting between a seller and a buyer—are like an addiction for the Ukrainian elite, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nabu.gov.ua/en/tags/naftogaz-ukraine&quot;&gt;fueling that corruption&lt;/a&gt;.  Of course Ukraine isn’t Iraq and we won’t just cut Kiev off. We agree to help Ukraine kick its addiction, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dw.com/en/germany-us-strike-nord-stream-2-compromise-deal/a-58575935&quot;&gt;transition to clean energy, and bolster its security&lt;/a&gt;.  But it’s time for realism on Ukraine, not more misguided idealism that has led to repeated regime change in the Middle East and endless NATO expansion toward Russia—policies that &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cato.org/commentary/poking-russian-bear-nato-umbrella&quot;&gt;aggravate relations with Russia&lt;/a&gt;, fuel &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/04/obamas-worst-mistake-libya/478461/&quot;&gt;Middle East instability,&lt;/a&gt; and drive huge &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/overwhelmed-by-migrants-italy-threatens-to-bar-the-door-to-rescue-ships/2017/06/30/348794b0-5c23-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html&quot;&gt;refugee flows&lt;/a&gt;, all &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/qa-sasha-polakow-suransky-immigration-europe/543537/&quot;&gt;major political crises&lt;/a&gt; for us.&lt;/p&gt;
         1604 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; It was George Bush who invaded Iraq in 2003, and tried to rush Ukraine into NATO in 2008.    &lt;/p&gt;
         1605 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany: &lt;/strong&gt;But Biden supported these policies, not to mention the Libya and Syria debacles that he co-authored with President Obama!  You’ve put those behind you, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/31992/over-10-000-migrant-arrivals-in-italy-in-2021&quot;&gt;but we continue&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/world/europe/germany-nazi-far-right.html&quot;&gt;pay the price of your recklessness&lt;/a&gt; daily.  Still, we welcome a new realism from Biden on the Middle East as well as his skepticism on the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-says-it-remains-be-seen-if-ukraine-will-be-n1270807&quot;&gt;latest push&lt;/a&gt; to bring Ukraine into NATO.  That much of your policy elite thinks this is a good idea is scary, though we see some rethinking of your reflexive demonization of Russia and understanding that however much you detest Putin—we don’t like him either—Russia has &lt;a href=&quot;https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/30/grand-illusions-impact-of-misperceptions-about-russia-on-u.s.-policy-pub-84845&quot;&gt;legitimate national interests&lt;/a&gt; and Putin’s aggressive defense of those interests is popular in Russia.     &lt;/p&gt;
         1606 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States: &lt;/b&gt;Whatever our mistakes in dismissing Russia’s security concerns in the 1990s and early 2000s, here we are today with Russia constantly threatening Ukraine.       &lt;/p&gt;
         1607 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany: &lt;/strong&gt;Hard as it is for you to see, Ukraine’s deadliest enemy is not Russia but the cancer of corruption—which for thirty years has kept the country poor, divided, and fragile.  The best way to help Ukraine is not to further fan frictions with Russia while subsidizing that corruption, but to insist on meaningful change.  Ukraine must be weaned off the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/05/how-western-aid-enables-graft-addiction-in-ukraine/&quot;&gt;endless loans and petroleum rents&lt;/a&gt; that disincentivize reform, while Ukraine’s allies should not fall for the constant diversion of blame for overwhelmingly home-grown problems onto Russia.  &lt;a href=&quot;https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/73272&quot;&gt;Anti-minority language&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/11/ukraine-taking-three-pro-russia-channels-air-raises-complex-issues&quot;&gt;media laws&lt;/a&gt;,  tolerance of &lt;a href=&quot;https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/FarRightEurasia_FINAL_.pdf&quot;&gt;extremist nationalism&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-row-over-holocaust-history-israel-and-poland-issue-joint-critique-of-ukraine/&quot;&gt;whitewashing of history&lt;/a&gt;, do the country much harm while doing nothing to improve the economy—essentially tied with Moldova as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/poorest-countries-in-europe&quot;&gt;poorest country&lt;/a&gt; in Europe.   &lt;/p&gt;
         1608 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;United States:&lt;/b&gt; President Biden has now put NATO on the back burner while fighting corruption and economic development are new priorities for Ukraine.       &lt;/p&gt;
         1609 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Germany:&lt;/strong&gt; And not just we Germans, but &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.iri.org/sites/default/files/2020_july_survey_of_residents_of_ukraine_0.pdf&quot;&gt;a majority of Ukrainians too&lt;/a&gt;, strongly agree with that.     &lt;/p&gt;
         1610 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Robert David English is an Associate Professor of International Relations, Slavic Languages and Literature and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1611 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1612 
         1613 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/nord-stream-and-beyond-rescuing-ukraine-while-repairing-russia-ties-190838&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1614 </item>
         1615  <item> <title>Social Security&#039;s Online Portal: How To Max Out Your Benefits </title>
         1616  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190856</link>
         1617  <description>By having an active account with SSA, an individual can also gain important insight into how much they stand to receive in benefits.</description>
         1618  <author>Ethen Kim Lieser</author>
         1619  <category>Social Security</category>
         1620  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190856</guid>
         1621  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 15:33 EDT</pubDate>
         1622  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1623  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1624 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Social Security, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1625 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206836&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/politics/social-securitys-online-portal-how-max-out-your-benefits-190856&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Social%20Security%20%288%29.jpg?itok=_Bz9oFTS&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1626 &lt;h3&gt;By having an active account with SSA, an individual can also gain important insight into how much they stand to receive in benefits.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1627 &lt;title&gt;Social Security&#039;s Online Portal: How To Max Out Your Benefits &lt;/title&gt;
         1628 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps many retirees aren’t aware, but the Social Security Administration (SSA) indeed has an&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/&quot;&gt; online portal&lt;/a&gt; that can help keep track and manage all Social Security-related benefits.&lt;/p&gt;
         1629 &lt;p&gt;For those who haven’t set up an account yet, it would be wise to do so—since the information from one’s work history will be calculated to give a rough estimate on the amount of&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/social-security-doesnt-even-cover-half-retirement%E2%80%94are-you-ready-pay-rest-190792&quot;&gt; Social Security benefits&lt;/a&gt;. Moreover, the portal can offer convenient access to Medicare resources and the ability to apply for such benefits.&lt;/p&gt;
         1630 &lt;p&gt;By having an active account with SSA, an individual can also gain important insight into how much less one would receive if he or she begins collecting the benefits at sixty-two, the earliest age to do so. Do take note that filing for Social Security at age seventy will reap the largest monthly check, which is currently near &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/examplemax.html&quot;&gt;$4,000&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1631 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Retirement Estimator Tool&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1632 &lt;p&gt;Be aware that there is another way to check on how much Social Security benefits one will be in line to receive. The SSA’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/estimator.html&quot;&gt;Retirement Estimator&lt;/a&gt; tool “gives you a benefit amount based on your actual Social Security earnings record,” the SSA says. But be warned that “these are just estimates.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1633 &lt;p&gt;The agency adds: “We can’t give you your actual benefit amount until you apply for benefits. The estimated and actual amounts may differ due to: Future increases or decreases in your earnings; Social Security annual cost-of-living adjustments; Changes to U.S. laws and policies; Your military service, railroad employment, or pensions earned through work for which you did not pay Social Security tax.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1634 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Confirm Earnings Record&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1635 &lt;p&gt;Furthermore, an individual can use the SSA account to double-check their past earnings record. Financial experts do say that this is very important because if there are indeed any mistakes in the figures, they could have a sizeable impact on how much money one will eventually receive via the benefits.  &lt;/p&gt;
         1636 &lt;p&gt;“The amount of the Social Security benefit you or your family receive depends on the amount of earnings shown on your record. If all of your earnings are not shown on your record, this could mean lower Social Security benefits for you or your family,” the SSA&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10081.pdf&quot;&gt; notes&lt;/a&gt;. “If the earnings missing from your Social Security record are for the current year or last year, you don’t need to worry. Because these earnings are recent, we may not have recorded them yet.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1637 &lt;p&gt;The agency added that “if earnings (are) missing from your record, the first thing you should do is find some proof of those earnings. After you’ve gathered your documents or made a list of all of the information you can remember, contact Social Security.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1638 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethenlieser/&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1639 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1640 
         1641 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/social-securitys-online-portal-how-max-out-your-benefits-190856&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1642 </item>
         1643  <item> <title>Heat Stroke Is a Danger, But Cardiovascular Stress Causes More Heat Wave Deaths</title>
         1644  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190776</link>
         1645  <description>Excess mortality during a heat wave is only marginally explained by incidences of outright heat stroke. Most often it is secondary from the increased cardiovascular burden associated with thermoregulatory responses to the heat.</description>
         1646  <author>Anthony Bain</author>
         1647  <category>Health</category>
         1648  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190776</guid>
         1649  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 15:29 EDT</pubDate>
         1650  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1651  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Anthony Bain&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1652 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Health, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1653 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206823&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/heat-stroke-danger-cardiovascular-stress-causes-more-heat-wave-deaths-190776&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/ambulence.jpg?itok=wT9HNahH&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;A medical specialist walks next to ambulances parked outside a temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients in Saint Petersburg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1654 &lt;h3&gt;Excess mortality during a heat wave is only marginally explained by incidences of outright heat stroke. Most often it is secondary from the increased cardiovascular burden associated with thermoregulatory responses to the heat.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1655 &lt;title&gt;Heat Stroke Is a Danger, But Cardiovascular Stress Causes More Heat Wave Deaths&lt;/title&gt;
         1656 &lt;p&gt;Every summer we invariably deal with at least one heat wave. With global warming, they are becoming &lt;a href=&quot;https://climateatlas.ca/map/canada/hwnum_2030_45#z=4&amp;lat=48.84&amp;lng=-90.26&quot;&gt;longer, more intense and more frequent&lt;/a&gt;. Heat waves are now among the most dangerous global natural hazards we face, accounting for more fatalities on average than any other extreme weather event, according to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.weather.gov/hazstat/&quot;&gt;United States National Weather Service&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1657 &lt;p&gt;Canada is not immune, as evidenced by the recent heat wave across the Pacific Northwest that included a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-alberta-heat-wave-heat-dome-temperature-records-1.6084203&quot;&gt;Canadian record-breaking temperature of nearly 50 C&lt;/a&gt; in Lytton, B.C. near the end of June. During the week of the heat wave, the province had &lt;a href=&quot;https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/news/bccs-chief-coroner-updated-statement2.pdf&quot;&gt;tripled the number of reported deaths&lt;/a&gt; that normally occur during that period.&lt;/p&gt;
         1658 &lt;p&gt;While the sharp rise in mortality rate during a heat wave is apparent, the cause of those deaths may not always be. Heat stroke is not the only issue. The biggest factor is the stress that extreme heat places on the cardiovascular system (the heart and blood vessels).&lt;/p&gt;
         1659 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Heat stroke&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1660 &lt;p&gt;Heat stroke, perhaps the most obvious consequence of a heat wave, is the progression of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heat-exhaustion/symptoms-causes/syc-20373250&quot;&gt;heat exhaustion&lt;/a&gt;, a milder condition that causes symptoms such as heavy sweating, clammy skin, fatigue, feeling faint or dizzy, nausea and headache.&lt;/p&gt;
         1661 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1810762&quot;&gt;Heat stroke&lt;/a&gt; is serious and can be life-threatening. It is subclassified as either classic (occurring when someone is at rest) or exertional (occurring through strenuous physical activity). Both forms result in a series of reactions that cause excessive inflammation, leading to central nervous system dysfunction (confusion, seizures or loss of consciousness) and multiple organ failure.&lt;/p&gt;
         1662 &lt;p&gt;In classic heat stroke, it is poor heat-dissipating mechanisms or simply excessive heat exposure that is the culprit. With exertional heat stroke, it is the excessive metabolic heat during exercise that exceeds the body’s ability to maintain its temperature through heat-loss mechanisms like sweating. The common characteristic of both forms is a core temperature exceeding 40.5C (normal is 37C).&lt;/p&gt;
         1663 &lt;p&gt;While heat stroke during a heat wave is certainly a risk, it alone provides a narrow scope of the true health impact. Most often, excess mortality during a heat wave is actually a result of increased cardiovascular burden and amplification of existing health conditions.&lt;/p&gt;
         1664 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cardiovascular burden of heat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1665 &lt;p&gt;When core and skin temperature rise, thermosensors across the body respond by shunting a large proportion of blood to the periphery (skin). This has two primary effects:&lt;/p&gt;
         1666 &lt;ol&gt;
         1667 &lt;li&gt;It increases the skin blood flow allowing an increased sweat rate, and in turn, heat loss via evaporation.&lt;/li&gt;
         1668 &lt;li&gt;It increases the skin temperature to enable more heat transfer from the body to the environment (heat loss primarily via convection).&lt;/li&gt;
         1669 &lt;/ol&gt;
         1670 &lt;p&gt;This process of increasing blood flow to the skin to regulate body temperature (thermoregulation) is taxing on the cardiovascular system. The blood vessels near the skin need to dilate, and the heart needs to pump harder and faster.&lt;/p&gt;
         1671 &lt;p&gt;That is where the major problem lies: A large fraction of the population has some form of cardiovascular disease. Nearly 10 per cent of Canadian adults suffer from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/report-heart-disease-Canada-2018.html&quot;&gt;heart disease&lt;/a&gt;, and nearly two-thirds of Canadians are prone to impaired heart and metabolic function &lt;a href=&quot;https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2019001/article/00005-eng.htm&quot;&gt;by being overweight&lt;/a&gt;. Not surprisingly, &lt;a href=&quot;https://dx.doi.org/10.1249%2FMSS.0000000000000325&quot;&gt;rates of cardiovascular events are notably increased&lt;/a&gt; during a heat wave.&lt;/p&gt;
         1672 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Populations at risk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1673 &lt;p&gt;Invariably those who cannot escape the heat, namely outdoor workers and those with poor access to air-conditioning, are most at risk. Young children are also at risk because of their small body size and underdeveloped thermoregulatory system. However, advanced aging and cadiovascular disease is proving to be the biggest factor.&lt;/p&gt;
         1674 &lt;ul&gt;
         1675 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The elderly&lt;/strong&gt;: Advanced aging is associated with a reduced capacity to thermoregulate, primarily attributable to a progressively compromised cardiovascular system. Interestingly, &lt;a href=&quot;https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F23328940.2017.1379585&quot;&gt;behavioral thermoregulation&lt;/a&gt; — which includes actions like seeking shade or air conditioning — is also compromised in the elderly, such that cooling strategies are sought out less frequently compared to young adults.&lt;/li&gt;
         1676 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disease&lt;/strong&gt;: Pre-existing conditions — particularly those involving the cardiovascular system, such as heart disease and diabetes — dramatically increase the risk of heat-related illness. Often, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12294&quot;&gt;many medications&lt;/a&gt; used to treat these diseases can further interfere with the thermoregulatory responses to heat (for example, beta-blockers used to treat high blood pressure can inhibit the heart rate response, and diuretics can exacerbate dehydration).&lt;/li&gt;
         1677 &lt;/ul&gt;
         1678 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reducing the risk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1679 &lt;p&gt;The primary prevention of heat illness is through immediate behaviour. Seeking air-conditioned environments, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.07.013&quot;&gt;increasing air flow through electric fans&lt;/a&gt;, wearing light, breathable and loose-fitting clothing, keeping hydrated and avoiding strenuous activities (especially in the sun) should be the first line of defence, particularly in vulnerable populations.&lt;/p&gt;
         1680 &lt;p&gt;However, assuring that the cardiovascular system is ready to take on the heat will be an integral step in curtailing the rates of heat illness. If daily exercise is not an option (or too difficult), an alternative may be to safely fight fire with fire — that is, through &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00141.2020&quot;&gt;heat therapy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1681 &lt;p&gt;Supervised heat therapy is emerging as a therapeutic tool for cardiovascular disease by improving heart and blood vessel function. It may also lead to moderate &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12408&quot;&gt;heat acclimation&lt;/a&gt;, which can make it easier to deal with the heat by improving the body’s thermoregulatory response system.&lt;/p&gt;
         1682 &lt;p&gt;In the end, exercise, a healthy diet, and perhaps also heat therapy (if done safely) will not only reduce the incidence for the leading cause of death worldwide (heart disease), it will also reduce the excess deaths during a heat wave.&lt;/p&gt;
         1683 &lt;p&gt;Indeed, excess mortality during a heat wave is only marginally explained by incidences of outright heat stroke. Most often it is secondary from the increased cardiovascular burden associated with thermoregulatory responses to the heat.&lt;/p&gt;
         1684 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/anthony-bain-1250965&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anthony Bain&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, University of Windsor&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1685 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/heat-stroke-is-a-danger-but-cardiovascular-stress-causes-more-heat-wave-deaths-164688&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1686 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1687 
         1688 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/heat-stroke-danger-cardiovascular-stress-causes-more-heat-wave-deaths-190776&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1689 </item>
         1690  <item> <title>Long COVID: Symptoms Experienced During Infection May Predict Lasting Illness</title>
         1691  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190779</link>
         1692  <description>What the huge variability of long COVID suggests is that it actually comprises a number of different syndromes, potentially with different underlying causes.</description>
         1693  <author>Olalekan Lee Aiyegbusi, Shamil Haroon</author>
         1694  <category>Coronavirus</category>
         1695  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190779</guid>
         1696  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 15:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1697  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1698  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Olalekan Lee Aiyegbusi, Shamil Haroon&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1699 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Coronavirus, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1700 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/202349&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/long-covid-symptoms-experienced-during-infection-may-predict-lasting-illness-190779&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/bidennomask_0.jpg?itok=P25a91Oj&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1701 &lt;h3&gt;What the huge variability of long COVID suggests is that it actually comprises a number of different syndromes, potentially with different underlying causes.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1702 &lt;title&gt;Long COVID: Symptoms Experienced During Infection May Predict Lasting Illness&lt;/title&gt;
         1703 &lt;p&gt;Earlier in the pandemic, it appeared that the majority of people infected with the coronavirus experienced mild-to-moderate symptoms and generally recovered within two to three weeks, depending on the severity of their illness. However, as time has passed, it’s become clear that some people, regardless of the severity of their disease, continue to experience symptoms beyond the acute phase of infection. This has become known as &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306456?via%3Dihub&quot;&gt;“long COVID”&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1704 &lt;p&gt;Emerging evidence suggests that these patients experience a range of persistent symptoms and health complications. These may have a significant impact on their quality of life, physical and mental health, and ability to return to work.&lt;/p&gt;
         1705 &lt;p&gt;But understanding long COVID is difficult. Its reported symptoms are highly varied, making it difficult to define. Many sufferers also weren’t hospitalised during the acute phase of their infection, and so weren’t tested for the coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic. This makes it more difficult to understand what the potential causes of their long-lasting symptoms are, and also how these relate to symptoms that patients had during the early stages of infection.&lt;/p&gt;
         1706 &lt;p&gt;We and other researchers from the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/applied-health/research/long-covid/index.aspx&quot;&gt;Therapies for Long COVID (TLC) Study Group&lt;/a&gt; at the University of Birmingham therefore decided to try to build a clearer picture of what long COVID is and what influences it by pooling data from lots of separate studies. This gave us a view of the prevalence of reported symptoms, and better allowed us to see what the impacts and complications of long COVID are. Here’s what we discovered.&lt;/p&gt;
         1707 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Symptoms of long COVID&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1708 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01410768211032850&quot;&gt;Our review&lt;/a&gt; showed just how varied long COVID is. Patients may experience symptoms related to any system in the body – including respiratory, neurological and gastroenterological symptoms. Our pooled data showed that the ten most commonly reported symptoms in long COVID are fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain, cough, headache, joint pain, chest pain, an altered sense of smell, diarrhoea and altered taste.&lt;/p&gt;
         1709 &lt;p&gt;Other common symptoms include &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-covid-19-brain-fog-and-how-can-you-clear-it-2021030822076&quot;&gt;“brain fog”&lt;/a&gt; – when thinking is fuzzy and sluggish – memory loss, disordered sleep, heart palpitations and a sore throat. Rare but important outcomes include thoughts of self-harm and suicide and even seizures.&lt;/p&gt;
         1710 &lt;p&gt;Most long COVID patients complain of symptoms experienced during their acute infection persisting beyond it, with the number of symptoms experienced tending to decline as patients move from acute to long COVID. Some, though, report developing new symptoms during their long COVID illness, while some also report symptoms reoccuring that had previously resolved themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
         1711 &lt;p&gt;One of the studies we included in our review described two main &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01292-y&quot;&gt;symptom clusters of long COVID&lt;/a&gt;: those comprising exclusively of fatigue, headache and upper respiratory complaints; and those that are multi-system complaints, including ongoing fever and gastroenterological symptoms. This division encapsulates the difficulty of trying to pin long COVID down – it is a wide-ranging condition containing many types of complaints.&lt;/p&gt;
         1712 &lt;p&gt;The mid-term and long-term effects and impacts of long COVID are yet to be fully understood. However, the evidence we reviewed suggests that people with long COVID may experience significant reductions in their quality of life, difficulties carrying out their daily activities or returning to full-time employment, as well as mental health issues.&lt;/p&gt;
         1713 &lt;p&gt;One &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32656-8/fulltext&quot;&gt;study&lt;/a&gt; reported that nearly a quarter of previously hospitalised COVID-19 patients suffered from anxiety or depression six months after the onset of their symptoms. People with long COVID often report being dismissed by healthcare professionals and receiving little or no support for the management of their condition – underlining the need for better treatments.&lt;/p&gt;
         1714 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;What increases the likelihood of long COVID?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1715 &lt;p&gt;We found that a range of factors are associated with developing long COVID. For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01292-y&quot;&gt;one study&lt;/a&gt; reported that the presence of more than five symptoms of COVID-19 in the first week of infection was significantly associated with developing long COVID, irrespective of age or gender.&lt;/p&gt;
         1716 &lt;p&gt;In addition, being older, female and hospitalised at symptom onset were found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of developing long COVID. However, several studies showed that for a significant number of patients, developing long COVID didn’t seem to be tied to the severity of their initial illness.&lt;/p&gt;
         1717 &lt;p&gt;Experiencing certain symptoms during the acute phase of infection – such as initial breathlessness, chest pain or abnormal heart sounds – was also strongly associated with developing long-lasting symptoms. Having co-morbidities, particularly asthma, also raised the risk.&lt;/p&gt;
         1718 &lt;p&gt;What the huge variability of long COVID suggests is that it actually comprises a number of different syndromes, potentially with different underlying causes. A better understanding of the underlying biological and immunological mechanisms of long COVID is therefore urgently needed if we’re to develop effective treatments for it.&lt;/p&gt;
         1719 &lt;p&gt;The impacts that patients report – on their lives, work and mental health – make it clear that better ways of caring for people with long COVID patients are urgently needed. As well as evaluating symptoms and investigating the underlying mechanisms of long COVID, our &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/applied-health/research/long-covid/index.aspx&quot;&gt;TLC Study Group&lt;/a&gt; was set up to identify potential interventions for treating long COVID that could be evaluated in clinical trials. Armed with the knowledge from this research, this is what we’re aiming to work towards next.&lt;/p&gt;
         1720 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/olalekan-lee-aiyegbusi-1251139&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Olalekan Lee Aiyegbusi&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is a Research Fellow, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham&lt;/p&gt;
         1721 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/shamil-haroon-1252842&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Shamil Haroon&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an Academic Clinical Lecturer, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham&lt;/p&gt;
         1722 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/long-covid-symptoms-experienced-during-infection-may-predict-lasting-illness-164649&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1723 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1724 
         1725 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/long-covid-symptoms-experienced-during-infection-may-predict-lasting-illness-190779&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1726 </item>
         1727  <item> <title>Would Germany Be Communist If North Korea Won the Korean War?</title>
         1728  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190844</link>
         1729  <description>Korea was “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy,” General Omar Bradley famously declared in May 1951.</description>
         1730  <author>Michael Peck</author>
         1731  <category>North Korea</category>
         1732  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190844</guid>
         1733  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 14:22 EDT</pubDate>
         1734  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1735  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1736 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;North Korea, World&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1737 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206895&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/would-germany-be-communist-if-north-korea-won-korean-war-190844&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Sherman-korea%20%281%29.jpg?itok=V8YAynoQ&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1738 &lt;h3&gt;Korea was “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy,” General Omar Bradley famously declared in May 1951.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1739 &lt;title&gt;Would Germany Be Communist If North Korea Won the Korean War?&lt;/title&gt;
         1740 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Certainly, a North Korean victory would have stoked American fears over what it saw as a global Communist conspiracy to enslave the world. In fact, Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea with Stalin’s approval rather than at his command. Whether success in Korea would have emboldened Stalin or Khrushchev, we’ll never know.&lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1741 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-305676c1-7fff-b6e4-91f0-b038f45659f5&quot;&gt;More From The National Interest: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1742 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-305676c1-7fff-b6e4-91f0-b038f45659f5&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/5-places-world-war-iii-could-start-2020-109011&quot;&gt;Where World War III Could Start This Year&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1743 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-305676c1-7fff-b6e4-91f0-b038f45659f5&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/forget-f-35-and-f-22-these-two-fighter-jets-almost-replaced-them-112246&quot;&gt;How the F-35 Stealth Fighter Almost Never Happened &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1744 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-305676c1-7fff-b6e4-91f0-b038f45659f5&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/sunken-russian-submarine-has-buried-nuclear-treasure-think-nuclear-weapons-85296&quot;&gt;Russia Has Missing Nuclear Weapons Sitting on the Ocean Floor &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1745 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b id=&quot;docs-internal-guid-305676c1-7fff-b6e4-91f0-b038f45659f5&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/chinas-aircraft-carrier-killer-missiles-splashdown-south-china-sea-66927&quot;&gt;How China Could Sink a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1746 &lt;p&gt;Would the &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-cold-war-world-wasnt-simple-8049&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cold War&lt;/a&gt; have been hotter? Would fifty thousand American soldiers have lost their lives? Would today’s Americans worry that North Korean nukes will land on their heads?&lt;/p&gt;
         1747 &lt;p&gt;The problem with counterfactual history is that it’s often pointless to speculate or the speculation is crazy. But a &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/these-are-all-the-scary-ways-north-korea-would-hit-back-if-21368&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;North Korean victory&lt;/a&gt; was more than within the realm of possibility. Kim Il-sung’s army came tantalizingly close to victory in August 1950, when its &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/revealed-why-the-soviet-unions-entry-the-pacific-war-matters-13628&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Soviet-supplied tanks&lt;/a&gt; flattened the outgunned and demoralized South Korean troops. Much of the South was captured, before hastily deployed U.S. troops and South Korean remnants barely held onto a bridgehead around the port of Pusan.&lt;/p&gt;
         1748 &lt;p&gt;Then in September came the U.S. Marine landing at Inchon, and the UN counteroffensive that sent the North Koreans reeling back north across the thirty-eighth parallel. But what if the Marines had never been sent to Korea? The Marines were only there because the Soviet UN ambassador boycotted the Security Council over the issue of Taiwan having a UN seat instead of Communist China. If he had been present, he could have vetoed the first-ever UN resolution authorizing force.&lt;/p&gt;
         1749 &lt;p&gt;Without a UN mandate, the Truman administration might have balked at sending troops unilaterally. In 1941, U.S. troops had embarked on a crusade against fascism. In 1950, they were fighting a “police action” against aggression (as Alan Alda asked in M*A*S*H: if Korea was a police action, where were the cops?).&lt;/p&gt;
         1750 &lt;p&gt;In fact, the United States didn’t care that much about South Korea until the Communists invaded it. In January 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson had omitted South Korea from a speech defining which territory was included in America’s Asian defense perimeter. Truman and his advisers also worried that the North Korean invasion was just a Soviet decoy to divert U.S. troops from defending Western Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
         1751 &lt;p&gt;Thus, there were numerous reasons why the United States could have chosen not to &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-ultimate-missile-shield-the-us-south-korea-alliance-19723&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;intervene&lt;/a&gt; in Korea, and concrete reasons why South Korea would have been conquered without that intervention.&lt;/p&gt;
         1752 &lt;p&gt;Then there is the question of China. There were really two Korean Wars: the initial North Korean invasion in August 1950, and the Communist Chinese offensive that began in November 1950. The three-hundred-thousand-strong Chinese force routed U.S. and UN forces out of North Korea, surged back across the thirty-eighth parallel and captured Seoul before the offensive petered out. The Chinese armies lacked the logistics to overrun all of South Korea. But in that panicky “Bug-Out” winter of 1950–51, it’s not totally impossible that the United States and UN could have chosen to evacuate their forces from the peninsula.&lt;/p&gt;
         1753 &lt;p&gt;In that case, we again end up with the two Koreas unified under one Communist government based in Pyongyang. What would have this meant for the Korean people? Good and bad, according to scholar&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/II08Dg04.html&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; Andrei Lankov&lt;/a&gt;. There would have mass repression in the South, but military victory and the absence of a hostile South Korea on its border might have made the regime a bit less murderous.&lt;/p&gt;
         1754 &lt;p&gt;A less paranoid North Korea might also have been more open to Chinese-style economic reforms, Lankov believes. And perhaps North Korea would have felt less of a need to develop nuclear weapons or ICBMs. Still, Korea would have been united under rulers who could sleep soundly at night while their people ate grass to survive.&lt;/p&gt;
         1755 &lt;p&gt;The question of Communist victory in Korea inevitably leads to the question of Communist victory in the Cold War. Cruel as it sounds to those who died in the mountains and snow and mud, the Korean War was never about Korea. What counted wasn’t Korean security, but the security of Western Europe, Japan and Communist China.&lt;/p&gt;
         1756 &lt;p&gt;Defeat in Korea would have focused American eyes on Japan. With Truman already under attack by U.S. conservatives for allegedly losing China to the Communists, a North Korean victory would have spurred fears of Soviet invasion or subversion of Japan, which in turn might have led to a deeper U.S. security commitment in Asia.&lt;/p&gt;
         1757 &lt;p&gt;Certainly, a North Korean victory would have stoked American fears over what it saw as a global Communist conspiracy to enslave the world. In fact, Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea with Stalin’s approval rather than at his command. Whether success in Korea would have emboldened Stalin or Khrushchev, we’ll never know.&lt;/p&gt;
         1758 &lt;p&gt;Nor can we know whether the United States would have felt compelled to act more forcefully during crises such as Berlin or Suez. Would a superpower wounded in prestige and self-respect by the loss of Korea have been more likely to pull the trigger next time?&lt;/p&gt;
         1759 &lt;p&gt;Indeed, North Korea triumphant might have led the U.S. to adopt an early version of the Domino Theory. Just as the Korean War erupted, so did the Communist insurgency in French Indochina. As the French struggled against the Viet Minh, the United States might have heeded calls to provide air support (including nuclear weapons) to support the French defenders of Dien Bien Phu. Or, the United States might have committed troops earlier than 1965 to prop up the Saigon government.&lt;/p&gt;
         1760 &lt;p&gt;Korea was “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy,” General Omar Bradley famously declared in May 1951. Or was it the right war? Preventing a Communist victory in Korea might have been the circuit-breaker that stopped World War III.&lt;/p&gt;
         1761 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; rel=&quot; noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1762 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1763 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#/media/File:Sherman-korea.jpg&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1764 
         1765 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/would-germany-be-communist-if-north-korea-won-korean-war-190844&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1766 </item>
         1767  <item> <title>Can You Survive Off of Social Security Alone? </title>
         1768  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190803</link>
         1769  <description>Social Security payments are not intended today as a substitute for saving money during one’s career.</description>
         1770  <author>Trevor Filseth</author>
         1771  <category>Social Security</category>
         1772  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190803</guid>
         1773  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 14:00 EDT</pubDate>
         1774  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1775  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Trevor Filseth&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1776 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Social Security, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1777 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206852&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/can-you-survive-social-security-alone-190803&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-24T025140Z_322147809_RC2PQO977CCZ_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN.JPG.jpg?itok=6yhzOJyK&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1778 &lt;h3&gt;Social Security payments are not intended today as a substitute for saving money during one’s career.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1779 &lt;title&gt;Can You Survive Off of Social Security Alone? &lt;/title&gt;
         1780 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;Social Security benefits are intended to help provide for retirement-age Americans after they stop working—and, consequently, lose their main source of income.&lt;/p&gt;
         1781 &lt;p&gt;This operative word in this sentence is “help”; Social Security payments are not intended today as a substitute for saving money during one’s career. There are many other ways to accrue a nest egg for retirement, including contributions to a Roth IRA or a 401(k) plan. Many Americans, however, have expenses earlier in life, preventing them from putting enough money away during their working years to enjoy a comfortable retirement. Without a nest egg, would &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/can-you-retire-just-social-security-benefits-190505&quot;&gt;Social Security&lt;/a&gt; be enough for them?&lt;/p&gt;
         1782 &lt;p&gt;The answer seems to be yes—although, as with life in general, having more money is better. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/how-check-your-estimated-social-security-benefit-190449&quot;&gt;average&lt;/a&gt; Social Security payment is roughly &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/questions-answers/how-much-social-security-will-i-get.html#:~:text=The%20amount%20you%20are%20entitled,2021%20is%20%241%2C543%20a%20month.&quot;&gt;$1,500 per month&lt;/a&gt;, while the poverty line in the United States is roughly &lt;a href=&quot;https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines/prior-hhs-poverty-guidelines-federal-register-references/2021-poverty-guidelines&quot;&gt;$1,000 per month&lt;/a&gt; for individuals, with some variation by state. Therefore, it should be possible to live on Social Security without slipping into poverty—and it is even possible to survive below this level, but not very comfortably.&lt;/p&gt;
         1783 &lt;p&gt;One of the most important ways to survive on Social Security is to try to ensure that your payments are as &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/how-much-social-security-should-you-expect-collect-190491&quot;&gt;large as possible&lt;/a&gt;. This means that, if possible, a person may wish to &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/when-should-you-start-collecting-social-security-190587&quot;&gt;wait&lt;/a&gt; until age seventy to claim his or her payments, instead of at sixty-six or sixty-seven, the year that full benefits are allowed, or sixty-two, the year that reduced benefits first become available. Waiting until seventy can lead to a thirty percent bonus in how much money is received. In other words, if a person’s payment at age sixty-six would be $1,500 per month, it could be more than $1,900 per month if they were able to wait.&lt;/p&gt;
         1784 &lt;p&gt;Conversely, to make the Social Security payments go further, it is advisable to try to make expenses as small as possible. Relocating to cheaper areas, decreasing housing costs by sharing with others, and making economical housing and transportation choices all play into cost-cutting. So does budgeting, planning a month’s expenses in advance and refraining from making impulse purchases.&lt;/p&gt;
         1785 &lt;p&gt;Lastly, it is crucial to pay off various debts—credit card debt, student loans, and other large sources of debt—earlier in life. And it is generally better to stay healthy; older Americans suffer disproportionately more health issues because of their age. While senior citizens are covered by Medicare, having a health emergency can still be quite expensive – so try to remain as healthy as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
         1786 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for &lt;/em&gt;The National Interest.&lt;/p&gt;
         1787 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1788 
         1789 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/can-you-survive-social-security-alone-190803&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1790 </item>
         1791  <item> <title>What Is a Breakthrough COVID Infection? 6 Questions Answered </title>
         1792  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190780</link>
         1793  <description>Vaccines don’t ward off every single infection but they do massively lower the risk.</description>
         1794  <author>Sanjay Mishra</author>
         1795  <category>Coronavirus</category>
         1796  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190780</guid>
         1797  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 13:44 EDT</pubDate>
         1798  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1799  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sanjay Mishra&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1800 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Coronavirus, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1801 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206827&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/what-breakthrough-covid-infection-6-questions-answered-190780&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/covid%20test.jpg?itok=8SlrHneW&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;COVID-19 pandemic in San Rafael Cedros&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1802 &lt;h3&gt;Vaccines don’t ward off every single infection but they do massively lower the risk.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1803 &lt;title&gt;What Is a Breakthrough COVID Infection? 6 Questions Answered &lt;/title&gt;
         1804 &lt;p&gt;If you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, maybe you figured you no longer need to worry about contracting the coronavirus. But along with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://covid19.who.int/&quot;&gt;rising number of new COVID-19 cases globally&lt;/a&gt; and growing concern about &lt;a href=&quot;https://covariants.org/variants/21A.Delta&quot;&gt;highly transmissible strains like the delta variant&lt;/a&gt; come reports of fully vaccinated people testing positive for COVID-19.&lt;/p&gt;
         1805 &lt;p&gt;Members of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/what-really-happened-with-that-weird-yankees-covid-outbreak.html&quot;&gt;New York Yankees&lt;/a&gt;, U.S. Olympic gymnast &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nbcnews.com/news/olympics/member-u-s-women-s-gymnastics-team-tests-positive-covid-n1274334&quot;&gt;Kara Eaker&lt;/a&gt; and U.K. health secretary &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57874744&quot;&gt;Sajid Javid&lt;/a&gt; are some of those diagnosed with what is called a “breakthrough infection.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1806 &lt;p&gt;As scary as the term may sound, the bottom line is that the existing COVID-19 vaccines are still &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2108891&quot;&gt;very good at preventing symptomatic infections&lt;/a&gt;, and breakthrough infections happen very rarely. But just how common and how dangerous are they? Here’s a guide to what you need to know.&lt;/p&gt;
         1807 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is ‘breakthrough infection?’&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1808 &lt;p&gt;No vaccine is 100% effective. Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1622939/pdf/amjphnation00353-0017.pdf&quot;&gt;80%-90% effective&lt;/a&gt; in preventing paralytic disease. Even for the gold standard measles vaccine, the efficacy was &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268800058441&quot;&gt;94% among a highly vaccinated population&lt;/a&gt; during large outbreaks.&lt;/p&gt;
         1809 &lt;p&gt;Comparably, clinical trials found the mRNA vaccines from &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577&quot;&gt;Pfizer&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389&quot;&gt;Moderna&lt;/a&gt; were 94%–95% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 – &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.fda.gov/media/139638/download&quot;&gt;much more protective than initially hoped&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1810 &lt;p&gt;A quick reminder: A vaccine efficacy of 95% does not mean that the shot protects 95% of people while the other 5% will contract the virus. Vaccine efficacy is a measure of relative risk – you need to compare a group of vaccinated people to a group of unvaccinated people under the same exposure conditions. So consider a three-month study period during which 100 out of 10,000 unvaccinated people got COVID-19. &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00075-X&quot;&gt;You’d expect five vaccinated people&lt;/a&gt; to get sick during that same time. That’s 5% of the 100 unvaccinated people who fell ill, not 5% of the whole group of 10,000.&lt;/p&gt;
         1811 &lt;p&gt;When people get infected after vaccination, scientists call these cases “breakthrough” infections because the virus &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI151186&quot;&gt;broke through the protective barrier the vaccine provides&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1812 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How common is COVID-19 infection in the fully vaccinated?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1813 &lt;p&gt;Breakthrough infections are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/what-difference-between-efficacy-and-effectiveness&quot;&gt;a little more frequent than previously expected&lt;/a&gt; and are probably increasing because of &lt;a href=&quot;https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions&quot;&gt;growing dominance of the delta variant&lt;/a&gt;. But infections in vaccinated people are still very rare and usually cause &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2105000&quot;&gt;mild or no symptoms&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1814 &lt;p&gt;For instance, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/the-u-s-can-lead-the-way-in-vaccine-breakthrough-reporting-will-it-squander-this-opportunity/&quot;&gt;46 U.S. states and territories&lt;/a&gt; voluntarily reported &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm&quot;&gt;10,262 breakthrough infections&lt;/a&gt; to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2021. By comparison, there &lt;a href=&quot;https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendscases&quot;&gt;were 11.8 million&lt;/a&gt; COVID-19 diagnoses in total during the same period.&lt;/p&gt;
         1815 &lt;p&gt;Beginning May 1, 2021, the CDC stopped monitoring vaccine breakthrough cases unless they resulted in hospitalization or death. Through July 19, 2021, there were &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html&quot;&gt;5,914 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections&lt;/a&gt; who were hospitalized or died in the U.S., out of more than 159 million people fully vaccinated nationwide.&lt;/p&gt;
         1816 &lt;p&gt;One study between Dec. 15, 2020, and March 31, 2021, that included 258,716 veterans who received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, counted &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.05.021&quot;&gt;410 who got breakthrough infections&lt;/a&gt; – that’s 0.16% of the total. Similarly, a study in New York noted &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.21259547&quot;&gt;86 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough infections&lt;/a&gt; between Feb. 1 and April 30, 2021, among 126,367 people who were fully vaccinated, mostly with mRNA vaccines. This accounts for 1.2% of total COVID-19 cases and 0.07% of the fully vaccinated population.&lt;/p&gt;
         1817 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How serious is a COVID-19 breakthrough infection?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1818 &lt;p&gt;The CDC &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html&quot;&gt;defines a vaccine breakthrough infection&lt;/a&gt; as one in which a nasal swab can detect the SARS-CoV-2 RNA or protein more than 14 days after a person has completed the full recommended doses of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.&lt;/p&gt;
         1819 &lt;p&gt;Note that a breakthrough infection doesn’t necessarily mean the person feels sick – and in fact, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm&quot;&gt;27% of breakthrough cases reported to the CDC were asymptomatic&lt;/a&gt;. Only 10% of the breakthrough-infected people were known to be hospitalized (some for reasons other than COVID-19), and 2% died. For comparison, during the spring of 2020 when vaccines were not yet available, over &lt;a href=&quot;https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;time=2020-03-14..latest&amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;hideControls=true&amp;Metric=Case+fatality+rate&amp;Interval=Cumulative&amp;Relative+to+Population=false&amp;Align+outbreaks=true&amp;country=%7EUSA&quot;&gt;6% of confirmed infections were fatal&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1820 &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab543&quot;&gt;a study at U.S. military treatment facilities&lt;/a&gt;, none of the breakthrough infections led to hospitalization. In another study, after just &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01316-7&quot;&gt;one dose of Pfizer vaccine&lt;/a&gt; the vaccinated people who tested positive for COVID-19 had a quarter less virus in their bodies than those who were unvaccinated and tested positive.&lt;/p&gt;
         1821 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What makes a breakthrough infection more likely?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1822 &lt;p&gt;Nationwide, on average more than 5% of COVID-19 tests are coming back positive; in &lt;a href=&quot;https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/tracker/map/percent-positive&quot;&gt;Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma, the positivity rate is above 30%&lt;/a&gt;. Lots of coronavirus circulating in a community pushes the chance of breakthrough infections higher.&lt;/p&gt;
         1823 &lt;p&gt;The likelihood is greater in situations of close contact, such as in a &lt;a href=&quot;https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/10/21-1427_article#suggestedcitation&quot;&gt;cramped working space&lt;/a&gt;, party, restaurant or stadium. Breakthrough infections are also &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab543&quot;&gt;more likely among health care workers&lt;/a&gt; who are &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.07.21258447&quot;&gt;in frequent contact with infected patients&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1824 &lt;p&gt;For reasons that are unclear, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm&quot;&gt;nationwide CDC data&lt;/a&gt; found that women account for 63% of breakthrough infections. Some smaller studies &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.21.21258990&quot;&gt;identified women as the majority&lt;/a&gt; of breakthrough cases as well.&lt;/p&gt;
         1825 &lt;p&gt;Vaccines trigger a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03739-1&quot;&gt;less robust immune response among older people&lt;/a&gt;, and the chances of a breakthrough infection get &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.05.021&quot;&gt;higher with increasing age&lt;/a&gt;. Among the breakthrough cases tracked by the CDC, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html&quot;&gt;75% occurred in patients age 65 and older&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1826 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.06.036&quot;&gt;Being immunocompromised&lt;/a&gt; or having underlying conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, chronic kidney and lung diseases &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2021.07.012&quot;&gt;and cancer&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.06.036&quot;&gt;increase the chances of breakthrough infections&lt;/a&gt; and can lead to severe COVID-19. For example, fully vaccinated organ transplant recipients were &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000003907&quot;&gt;82 times more likely to get a breakthrough infection&lt;/a&gt; and had a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000003907&quot;&gt;485-fold higher risk of hospitalization and death&lt;/a&gt; after a breakthrough infection compared with the vaccinated general population in one study.&lt;/p&gt;
         1827 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How do variants like delta change things?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1828 &lt;p&gt;Researchers developed today’s vaccines to ward off earlier strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Since then &lt;a href=&quot;https://covariants.org/variants/21A.Delta&quot;&gt;new variants have emerged&lt;/a&gt;, many of which are &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03777-9&quot;&gt;better at dodging the antibodies&lt;/a&gt; produced by the currently authorized vaccines. While existing vaccines are still very effective against these variants for preventing hospitalization, they are less effective than against previous variants.&lt;/p&gt;
         1829 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1005085/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_29.pdf&quot;&gt;Two doses of the mRNA vaccines were only 79% effective&lt;/a&gt; at preventing symptomatic disease with delta, compared with 89% effective in the case of the earlier alpha variant, according to Public Health England. A single dose was &lt;a href=&quot;https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1005085/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_29.pdf&quot;&gt;only 35%&lt;/a&gt; protective against delta.&lt;/p&gt;
         1830 &lt;p&gt;About &lt;a href=&quot;https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1005517/Technical_Briefing_19.pdf&quot;&gt;12.5% of the 229,218 delta variant cases&lt;/a&gt; across England through July 19 were among fully vaccinated people.&lt;/p&gt;
         1831 &lt;p&gt;Israel, with high vaccination rates, has reported that full vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine might be only &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/vaccine-efficacy-safety-follow-up-committee/he/files_publications_corona_two-dose-vaccination-data.pdf&quot;&gt;39%-40.5% effective at preventing delta variant infections&lt;/a&gt; of any severity, down from &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-says-covid-vaccine-highly-effective-against-delta-variant-2021-06-24/&quot;&gt;early estimates of 90%&lt;/a&gt;. Israel’s findings suggest that within six months, COVID-19 vaccines’ efficacy at preventing infection and symptomatic disease declines. The good news, though, is that the vaccine is still highly effective at protecting against &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/vaccine-efficacy-safety-follow-up-committee/he/files_publications_corona_two-dose-vaccination-data.pdf&quot;&gt;hospitalization (88%)&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/vaccine-efficacy-safety-follow-up-committee/he/files_publications_corona_two-dose-vaccination-data.pdf&quot;&gt;severe illness (91.4%)&lt;/a&gt; caused by the now-dominant delta variant.&lt;/p&gt;
         1832 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So how well are vaccines holding up?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1833 &lt;p&gt;As of the end of July 2021, &lt;a href=&quot;https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations&quot;&gt;49.1% of the U.S. population&lt;/a&gt;, or just over 163 million people, are fully vaccinated. Nearly 90% of Americans over the age of 65 have received at least one dose of a vaccine.&lt;/p&gt;
         1834 &lt;p&gt;Scientists’ models suggest that vaccination may have &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.26099/wm2j-mz32&quot;&gt;saved approximately 279,000 lives&lt;/a&gt; in the U.S. and prevented up to 1.25 million hospitalizations by the end of June 2021. Similarly, in England about &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-vaccine-surveillance-report-published&quot;&gt;30,300 deaths, 46,300 hospitalizations and 8.15 million infections&lt;/a&gt; may have been prevented by COVID-19 vaccines. In Israel, the high vaccination rate is thought to have caused a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01337-2&quot;&gt;77% drop in cases and a 68% drop in hospitalizations&lt;/a&gt; from that nation’s pandemic peak.&lt;/p&gt;
         1835 &lt;p&gt;Across the U.S., only 150 out of more than 18,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in May were of people who had been fully vaccinated. That means nearly all COVID-19 deaths in U.S. are &lt;a href=&quot;https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187&quot;&gt;among those who remain unvaccinated&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1836 &lt;p&gt;The U.S. is becoming “&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/06/30/anthony-fauci-covid-vaccination-rate-delta-variant-sot-vpx-dlt.cnn&quot;&gt;almost like two Americas&lt;/a&gt;,” as Anthony Fauci put it, divided between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Those who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 remain at risk from the coronavirus that has so far killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S.&lt;/p&gt;
         1837 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/sanjay-mishra-phd-986951&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sanjay Mishra, PhD&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is a Project Coordinator &amp; Staff Scientist, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1838 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-breakthrough-infection-6-questions-answered-about-catching-covid-19-after-vaccination-164909&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1839 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1840 
         1841 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/what-breakthrough-covid-infection-6-questions-answered-190780&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1842 </item>
         1843  <item> <title>Collecting a Dead Relative&#039;s Social Security Can Land You Right in Jail</title>
         1844  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190798</link>
         1845  <description>A Nevada man, while he did report to SSA that his father had died, had continued to collect the payments, in a joint bank account held by the two of them, for a nearly five-year period.</description>
         1846  <author>Stephen Silver</author>
         1847  <category>Social Security Fraud</category>
         1848  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190798</guid>
         1849  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 13:22 EDT</pubDate>
         1850  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1851  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stephen Silver&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1852 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Social Security Fraud, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1853 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206846&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/collecting-dead-relatives-social-security-can-land-you-right-jail-190798&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-26T164530Z_1533036319_RC2GSO9O10IL_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN.JPG.jpg?itok=R6KMYGR5&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1854 &lt;h3&gt;A Nevada man, while he did report to SSA that his father had died, had continued to collect the payments, in a joint bank account held by the two of them, for a nearly five-year period.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1855 &lt;title&gt;Collecting a Dead Relative&#039;s Social Security Can Land You Right in Jail&lt;/title&gt;
         1856 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;Another day, another federal guilty plea of a man convicted of stealing Social Security benefits.&lt;/p&gt;
         1857 &lt;p&gt;According to a Department of Justice &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/reno-man-pleads-guilty-stealing-social-security-benefits&quot;&gt;press release&lt;/a&gt;, a fifty-two-year-old Nevada man pled guilty to the charge of theft of government property. The Social Security Administration (SSA) had paid Social Security benefits to the man’s father until the father died in 2015.&lt;/p&gt;
         1858 &lt;p&gt;The man, while he did report to SSA that his father had died, had continued to collect the payments, in a joint bank account held by the two of them, for a nearly five-year period.&lt;/p&gt;
         1859 &lt;p&gt;The defendant, the announcement said, “maintained control of the joint account and regularly withdrew and stole the post-death Social Security payments—totaling approximately $90,000—for his own use.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1860 &lt;p&gt;The man faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for November.&lt;/p&gt;
         1861 &lt;p&gt;The Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General handled the investigation.&lt;/p&gt;
         1862 &lt;p&gt;This is one of several recent reports of individuals being arrested, prosecuted, or pleading guilty in cases related to Social Security fraud.&lt;/p&gt;
         1863 &lt;p&gt;In Boston, a forty-six-year-old Massachusetts man was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-dorchester-man-charged-social-security-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft&quot;&gt;arrested and charged&lt;/a&gt; last week with Social Security Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft. The man, who is accused of using another person’s information to apply for a driver’s license and passport, was charged with one count each of false representation of a Social Security number, making a false statement in an application for a passport and aggravated identity theft. &lt;/p&gt;
         1864 &lt;p&gt;And in another case, also in the Boston area, a thirty-five-year-old Dominican national &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/dominican-national-pleads-guilty-social-security-misuse-and-making-false-statement&quot;&gt;pled guilty&lt;/a&gt; to charges of false representation of a Social Security number and making a false statement relating to health care matters. &lt;/p&gt;
         1865 &lt;p&gt;The man, according to a Justice Department press release, has admitted that he used the identity of someone else, a Puerto Rican citizen, to obtain a Massachusetts driver&#039;s license and ID card, and also collected $12,600 in federally funded MassHealth benefits over a five-year period, using the false identity. He faces up to five years in prison on the first charge and up to five years as well on the second.&lt;/p&gt;
         1866 &lt;p&gt;These all follow reports in May of &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/social-security-fraud-what-it-looks-and-how-not-get-scammed-190462&quot;&gt;several others&lt;/a&gt; caught on Social Security fraud charges. A Maine woman pled guilty to such charges after prosecutors determined that she had “concealed the presence of her husband in her household to maintain her eligibility to receive benefit payments,” over the course of nine years, when government officials were given the impression that she was living alone at the time.&lt;/p&gt;
         1867 &lt;p&gt;Also in the spring, a Chicago man pled guilty to the charge that he had taken part in a telemarketing scheme that involved falsely claiming to work for the Social Security Administration.&lt;/p&gt;
         1868 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1869 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2021%3Anewsml_RC2GSO9O10IL&amp;share=true&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Reuters.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1870 
         1871 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/collecting-dead-relatives-social-security-can-land-you-right-jail-190798&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1872 </item>
         1873  <item> <title>The Air Force Held the Line in South Vietnam, But Could Not Save It</title>
         1874  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190777</link>
         1875  <description>The South Vietnamese were simply outmatched.</description>
         1876  <author>Michael Peck</author>
         1877  <category>Vietnam War</category>
         1878  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190777</guid>
         1879  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 13:11 EDT</pubDate>
         1880  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1881  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1882 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Vietnam War, Asia&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1883 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206824&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/air-force-held-line-south-vietnam-could-not-save-it-190777&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Destroyed_US_RF-4C_Phantom_II%20%281%29.jpg?itok=0w2kWwm2&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1884 &lt;h3&gt;The South Vietnamese were simply outmatched.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1885 &lt;title&gt;The Air Force Held the Line in South Vietnam, But Could Not Save It&lt;/title&gt;
         1886 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;At the cost of an estimated hundred thousand casualties, Hanoi gained some territory along South Vietnam’s northern border before ending its offensive. But it had failed to conquer the South. The ARVN had also suffered tremendously, and had only held on because of American airpower. But hold it did, which perhaps was as much as could be expected.&lt;/p&gt;
         1887 &lt;p&gt;Had it not been for the U.S. Air Force and Navy, the Vietnam War might have ended in the spring of 1972 with North Vietnamese tanks in the streets of Saigon.&lt;/p&gt;
         1888 &lt;p&gt;It was forty-five years ago, on March 30, 1972, that fourteen North Vietnamese divisions backed by more than three hundred tanks crossed the Demilitarized Zone into South Vietnam. It was an assault every bit as ferocious as the Tet Offensive in 1969, and perhaps even more so: where Tet had been an uprising by Viet Cong guerrillas backed by regular North Vietnamese troops, the Easter Offensive of 1972 was a blitzkrieg, a conventional mechanized assault by troops well-equipped with armor, artillery and antiaircraft weapons (in the words of &lt;a href=&quot;http://amzn.to/2BhvAoo&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;author Michael Herr&lt;/a&gt;, “People’s Army, my ass”). Several North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, divisions crossed the DMZ into the northern tip of South Vietnam. Other forces struck from their bases in ostensibly neutral Cambodia into the southwest part of South Vietnam, perilously close to Saigon.&lt;/p&gt;
         1889 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/12-million-casualties-if-north-korea-attacked-los-angeles-23347&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;1.2 Million Casualties: If North Korea Attacked Los Angeles with a Nuclear Weapon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1890 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/uzi-the-israeli-machine-gun-conquered-the-world-23504&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Uzi: The Israeli Machine Gun That Conquered the World&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1891 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommended: &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-m4-the-gun-us-army-loves-go-war-23503&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The M4: The Gun U.S. Army Loves to Go to War With&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1892 &lt;p&gt;Unlike Tet, the South Vietnamese army, or ARVN, would not have U.S. ground troops fighting beside them or instead of them. American advisers could assist the South Vietnamese, but with America in the midst of withdrawing its ground troops and the American public tired of casualties, ground combat units would not be committed to the battlefield. The ARVN would have to fight its own battle.&lt;/p&gt;
         1893 &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the ARVN was not up to the task. Facing their better-armed, better-trained, better-led and better-motivated cousins from the North, some ARVN troops surrendered or fled. Yet belying the image of cowardly South Vietnamese, some units fought bravely and well. The defenders of An Loc, near the Cambodian border and just eighty miles from Saigon, fought on for weeks as they stalked NVA tanks through the streets with LAW handheld antitank rockets.&lt;/p&gt;
         1894 &lt;p&gt;Nonetheless, the South Vietnamese were simply outmatched. The key northern border town of Quang Tri fell, and the NVA advanced to the gates to the vital city of Hue. Hampered as always by timid, incompetent or corrupt commanders, the ARVN and South Vietnam were in trouble.&lt;/p&gt;
         1895 &lt;p&gt;Then salvation came from the skies. Airpower had always been a key factor—actually &lt;em&gt;the&lt;/em&gt; key factor—factor in America’s favor during the war in Indochina. But this time, it was the only politically feasible means by which the United States could aid South Vietnam in 1972. By that time, the American air fleet in Southeast Asia had dwindled to about eight hundred combat aircraft in Vietnam and Thailand, including two U.S. Navy carrier air wings. Illustrating the flexibility of airpower, by the end of May, an additional four hundred Air Force fighters had arrived, plus four more carriers. Most significantly, the aerial armada included more than two hundred B-52s.&lt;/p&gt;
         1896 &lt;p&gt;Bad early spring weather initially limited air support. But the American pilots soon made their presence felt. The U.S. Army made its contribution: AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships, equipped with new TOW wire-guided antitank missiles and 2.75-inch rockets, blasted NVA tanks and troops at An Loc and at Kontum. But the biggest pounding came from U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine aircraft, along with South Vietnamese aircraft.&lt;/p&gt;
         1897 &lt;p&gt;“Massive amounts of airpower were sent to support An Loc’s defenders,” &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA471201&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;writes U.S. Air Force officer&lt;/a&gt; Matthew Brand. “B-52s continued to strike NVA assembly and other rear areas. US A-6s, A-7s, F-4s, A-37s and VNAF [South Vietnamese Air Force] A-1s struck the massed NVA on the outskirts of the city, while fixed-wing gunships and Cobra helicopters worked the close-in targets. Tactical airpower was used primarily during the day and gunships were the primary night platform.”&lt;/p&gt;
         1898 &lt;p&gt;Through April and May, An Loc remained under siege sustained by constant air support and aerial resupply, which enabled the defenders to repulse assault after NVA assault. By the end of May, after suffering an estimated twenty-five thousand casualties, the North Vietnamese called off their attempt to take the city.&lt;/p&gt;
         1899 &lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, North Vietnam was feeling the wrath of American airpower. Under Operation Linebacker I, U.S. warplanes struck railroad bridges, rail yards, oil tanks and munitions dumps across North Vietnam. Particularly significant was the mining of Haiphong Harbor by Navy aircraft, which sharply reduced Soviet arms shipments.&lt;/p&gt;
         1900 &lt;p&gt;Operation Linebacker also provided a glimpse of the high-tech warfare yet to come. Laser-guided smart bombs were used to destroy heavily defended bridges that had withstood conventional bombs. When North Vietnamese MiG fighters rose to meet the attackers, they found a surprise: U.S. Navy pilots trained under a Top Gun program that finally remedied deficient American training in air combat tactics, who proved more than a match for their Communist counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;
         1901 &lt;p&gt;However, the losses ran both ways. Some 134 American aircraft were lost over North Vietnam alone during Operation Linebacker. Over South Vietnam, U.S. pilots contended with thick antiaircraft fire and new shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles that rendered low-level attacks hazardous.&lt;/p&gt;
         1902 &lt;p&gt;Ironically, the Communists had forsaken their best defense against American airpower. When they had previously operated as guerrillas, moving on foot through the jungle, they could move fast and light to avoid air strikes. But Hanoi had gambled that the time was ripe to switch from guerrilla warfare to a conventional offensive that would deliver the death blow to the Saigon government. But the North Vietnamese discovered what had the Germans had learned in Normandy in 1944: mechanized warfare without control of the skies meant tanks and trucks in the open vulnerable to bombing. Vehicles also needed vast amounts of fuel and ammunition over supply lines that could be interdicted from the air.&lt;/p&gt;
         1903 &lt;p&gt;At the cost of an estimated hundred thousand casualties, Hanoi gained some territory along South Vietnam’s northern border before ending its offensive. But it had failed to conquer the South. The ARVN had also suffered tremendously, and had only held on because of American airpower. But hold it did, which perhaps was as much as could be expected.&lt;/p&gt;
         1904 &lt;p&gt;Yet as with the whole Indochina conflict, there would be no happy ending. South Vietnam would survive, but only for another three years. In 1973, the last U.S. troops and POWs would return home. Tired of war and enmeshed in Watergate, inflation and the oil crisis, Congress cut off aid to South Vietnam.&lt;/p&gt;
         1905 &lt;p&gt;In 1975, North Vietnam launched another mechanized offensive. Short of ammunition and low on morale, this time the ARVN found no help from the skies. Saigon fell in April 30, 1975.&lt;/p&gt;
         1906 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the &lt;/em&gt;National Interest&lt;em&gt;. He can be found on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Twitter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1907 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of_the_Vietnam_War#/media/File:Destroyed_US_RF-4C_Phantom_II.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;: Wikipedia.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1908 
         1909 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/air-force-held-line-south-vietnam-could-not-save-it-190777&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1910 </item>
         1911  <item> <title>Death at Dunkirk: One Battle Almost Cost Britain 200,000 Men</title>
         1912  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190774</link>
         1913  <description>It was a doomed and military foolhardy move, but it signaled the world—and potential allies like the United States—that Britain was still in the war.</description>
         1914  <author>Michael Peck</author>
         1915  <category>World War II History</category>
         1916  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190774</guid>
         1917  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 12:44 EDT</pubDate>
         1918  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1919  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1920 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;World War II History, Europe&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1921 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206821&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/death-dunkirk-one-battle-almost-cost-britain-200000-men-190774&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Bundesarchiv%2C_Bild_101I-126-0339-19A%2C_Veules-les-Roses%2C_Kolonne_alliierter_Kriegsgefangener%20%281%29.jpg?itok=1fdfH_Vc&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1922 &lt;h3&gt;It was a doomed and military foolhardy move, but it signaled the world—and potential allies like the United States—that Britain was still in the war.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1923 &lt;title&gt;Death at Dunkirk: One Battle Almost Cost Britain 200,000 Men&lt;/title&gt;
         1924 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;Despite the pounding the BEF took in France, a handful of divisions conquered Italian East Africa and routed Italy&#039;s North African armies. Churchill even dispatched an expeditionary force in March 1941 to support Greece against a German invasion.&lt;/p&gt;
         1925 &lt;p&gt;Thankfully, this didn&#039;t happen. During nine fateful days, from May 26 to June 4, 1940, the British managed to evacuate more than 200,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches of&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.britannica.com/event/Dunkirk-evacuation&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; &lt;u&gt;Dunkirk&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. From what seemed like certain destruction, the cream of the British army had been rescued to fight another day.&lt;/p&gt;
         1926 &lt;p&gt;But what if Britain had been defeated at Dunkirk? As history goes, it&#039;s counterfactual, but far from far-fetched. Indeed, during that grim spring of 1940, what could have seemed more unlikely than a ragtag fleet of civilian ships plucking 200,000 British—and 140,000 French and Belgian troops—to safety?&lt;/p&gt;
         1927 &lt;p&gt;The alternate scenario almost writes itself. Instead of halting their panzer divisions, Hitler and his senior commanders order them to crush the bridgehead around the port of Dunkirk with the same drive and relentlessness that smashed France in six weeks. Tired as the Wehrmacht was from its breathless advance, it is scarcely conceivable that a determined German thrust could have failed to destroy the battered, disorganized and exhausted defenders of the beachhead.&lt;/p&gt;
         1928 &lt;p&gt;Dunkirk would not have succeeded without the bravery of the French rearguards: whatever the flaws of the French military in 1940, for a few crucial days, they held the Germans at bay while the evacuation continued. What if those French troops had retreated or surrendered? Or what if a storm—the same kind of gale that devastated Allied shipping at Normandy in 1944—had unleashed its fury in 1940?&lt;/p&gt;
         1929 &lt;p&gt;For whatever reason, let us assume the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been killed or captured. What difference would it have made? For the most crucial question, whether Britain would have surrendered, the answer is unclear. With top leaders like Lord Halifax favoring negotiations with Germany after the fall of France, Churchill would have faced even more political pressure to make peace, though he would have had no illusions as to the durability of any peace treaty with Hitler.&lt;/p&gt;
         1930 &lt;p&gt;Regardless of whether the BEF was evacuated or not, it wasn&#039;t the British army that stopped German tanks from clanking through London. The BEF had left most of their equipment behind, and as would be seen in North Africa, British ground troops were outmatched in leadership, tactics and equipment by the German army. What really kept Germany&#039;s Operation Sealion from invading and conquering Britain was the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (in that order).&lt;/p&gt;
         1931 &lt;p&gt;Nor would the loss of 200,000 soldiers have been fatal. Catastrophic, yes, but not fatal. The British army managed to muster some 3.5 million soldiers during World War II. Those soldiers were not unaccustomed to defeat: 80,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers surrendered at Singapore, and 32,000 at Tobruk, in 1942. True, by 1944, the British army was so short of manpower that existing divisions were broken up to keep other divisions up to strength. Even so, after a Dunkirk disaster, the army would certainly have been reconstituted, perhaps filled out with manpower drawn from the other services.&lt;/p&gt;
         1932 &lt;p&gt;Yet this is more than a question of manpower. In real life, losing 200,000 men in a few weeks is devastating, especially for democracies (the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian states seemed to shrug off defeats like that as the cost of fighting a war). It would have taken years for the British army to be trained and rebuilt, and perhaps longer to regain self-confidence. The British fought the United States tooth-and-nail to try to stop the Normandy invasion in favor of an &quot;indirect&quot; strategy of attacking the Third Reich in peripheral areas like the Mediterranean and Balkans. After a Dunkirk defeat, would Britain have acquiesced to landing in France whatever the American pressure?&lt;/p&gt;
         1933 &lt;p&gt;Ultimately, the most crucial consequence of surrender at Dunkirk would have been not manpower and morale, but timing. Between June 1940 and the second half of 1941, the only army fighting Hitler belonged to the British empire. The Soviet Union and the United States fielded enormous armed forces, but they wouldn&#039;t join the war until later (In 1940, Russia even had a non-aggression pact with Germany, and supplied the Third Reich with raw materials).&lt;/p&gt;
         1934 &lt;p&gt;Despite being alone, Britain took the offensive. Despite the pounding the BEF took in France, a handful of divisions conquered Italian East Africa and routed Italy&#039;s North African armies. Churchill even dispatched an expeditionary force in March 1941 to support Greece against a German invasion. It was a doomed and military foolhardy move, but it signaled the world—and potential allies like the United States—that Britain was still in the war.&lt;/p&gt;
         1935 &lt;p&gt;None of this might have happened but for the miracle of Dunkirk.&lt;/p&gt;
         1936 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the&lt;/em&gt; National Interest&lt;em&gt;. He can be found on&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;Twitter&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;Facebook&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared several years ago.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1937 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Operation_Dynamo#/media/File:Bundesarchiv,_Bild_101I-126-0339-19A,_Veules-les-Roses,_Kolonne_alliierter_Kriegsgefangener.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Wikimedia Commons.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1938 
         1939 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/death-dunkirk-one-battle-almost-cost-britain-200000-men-190774&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1940 </item>
         1941  <item> <title>Worst of the Worst: These 5 Guns Are Clearly the Losers of the Bunch</title>
         1942  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190997</link>
         1943  <description>Not all guns are built the same or have anywhere near the same capabilities. </description>
         1944  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
         1945  <category>Guns</category>
         1946  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190997</guid>
         1947  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 12:33 EDT</pubDate>
         1948  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1949  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1950 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Guns, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1951 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/207034&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/worst-worst-these-5-guns-are-clearly-losers-bunch-190997&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Beretta.jpg?itok=_cZXTszb&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1952 &lt;h3&gt;Not all guns are built the same or have anywhere near the same capabilities. &lt;/h3&gt;
         1953 &lt;title&gt;Worst of the Worst: These 5 Guns Are Clearly the Losers of the Bunch&lt;/title&gt;
         1954 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/strong&gt;A faulty gun can be disasterous.&lt;/p&gt;
         1955 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Handheld firearms have existed in one form or another since the 13th century. Despite their long history, there have been relatively few real, genuine clunkers in the world of handguns. The close engagement range of handguns—typically zero to twenty-five feet—means that a handgun operator will often have little or no chance to clear a jammed weapon, and therefore complete, absolute, unqualified reliability is a must. Nevertheless, some handgun clunkers became famous, popular, or both.&lt;/p&gt;
         1956 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nambu:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1957 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The Nambu is one of the worst pistols ever designed. At first glance, Japan’s first semi-automatic pistol design resembles the iconic German Luger P-08—though the comparison stops there. Designed by Kijiro Nambu at manufactured at Tokyo’s Koishikawa Arsenal, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/11/13-1/a-look-back-at-the-japanese-nambu-pistol/&quot;&gt;Nambu&lt;/a&gt; was meant to provide Japan’s armed forces with an indigenously designed and produced handgun. Quality was generally good, but the design was horrendous. The double recoil springs and magazine spring made extracting the magazine extremely difficult. A weak striker spring gradually lost power, resulting in light primer strikes and misfires. The gun’s ergonomics were very poor and veered more towards traditional Japanese martial weapons than a comfortable, pointable, handgun. Although popular in the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, only the latter officially adopted it, with Army officers often purchasing theirs out of pocket.&lt;/p&gt;
         1958 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Beretta Model 1923:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1959 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;Beretta built many successful handguns for the Italian armed forces in World War I, particularly the Beretta Model 1915. An attempt to modernize the 1915, however, introduced a key design flaw. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/italy-semi-automatic-pistols/beretta-1915-eng/&quot;&gt;Model 1923&lt;/a&gt; featured an external ring hammer and crucially, was chambered in 9x19 Glisenti. Meanwhile, the 9x19 Parabellum round was fast becoming the dominant pistol round among European armies. 9x19 Glisenti was considerably less powerful than its more widely accepted twin, and the latter could be inserted into a Model 1923...with possibly disastrous consequences. It was likely for this reason the Model 1923 was discontinued after two years, with subsequent Beretta pistols chambered in 7.65 Browning, and eventually 9x19 Parabellum.&lt;/p&gt;
         1960 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Type 68 Handgun:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1961 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The Type 68 was a North Korean handgun based on the Soviet World War II era Tokarev TT-33 handgun design. The Tokarev is very roughly the USSR’s answer to John Moses Browning’s 1911 handgun, utilizing a similar design and designed for mass production. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/north-korea-semi-automatic-pistols/tip-68-eng/&quot;&gt;Type 68&lt;/a&gt; is not a strict copy of the TT-33, being unaccountably shorter and bulkier than any other Tokarev variant—of which there are many. This has the unfortunate downside of driving up recoil and thus driving down accuracy. Perhaps indicative of the regime’s paranoia, the Type 68 cannot share magazines with real TT-33s.&lt;/p&gt;
         1962 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Colt 2000:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1963 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;In the early 1980s, the nine-millimeter Glock 17 handgun ushered in the age of “Wonder Nines.” These were reliable, often foreign-made nine-millimeter handguns with large high capacity magazines. This change in buying habits caught legendary American arms maker Colt by surprise, and the company was slow to offer its own Wonder Nine. In 1991 the company finally unveiled the &lt;a href=&quot;http://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/u-s-a-semi-automatic-pistols/colt-all-american-2000-eng/&quot;&gt;Colt 2000&lt;/a&gt;. Despite an excellent pedigree—the Colt 2000 was designed by firearm legends Reed Knight Jr. and Eugene Stoner (inventor of the AR-15)—the handgun was a complete failure. Owners experienced failure to extract issues involving spent shell casings, poor accuracy, and a safety recall. It was also very unattractive. Sales lagged and the Colt 2000, introduced in 1991 was just canceled three years later in 1994.&lt;/p&gt;
         1964 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deer Gun:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1965 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;The CIA originally conceived a single shot, disposable pistol—the Deer Gun—as a way to cheaply arm South Vietnamese intelligence agents operating in hostile territory. It was essentially a single shot weapon designed to allow an agent to kill a sentry and take his weapon. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.guns.com/news/2014/04/23/cias-deer-gun-dirty-deeds-done-dirt-cheap&quot;&gt;Deer Gun&lt;/a&gt; was an aluminum pistol grip fitted with a barrel and a removable plastic safety that once removed doubled as a front sight. The gun was meant to be distributed unmarked in a plastic box with three rounds of unmarked 9x19 Parabellum ammunition. The extremely slow rate of fire made it for all intents and purposes a single shot weapon, and the 9x19 round could not guarantee to incapacitate the target. As the war grew more violent and involved more heavily armed personnel on both sides, the Deer Gun grew less practical, and only 1,000 were built.&lt;/p&gt;
         1966 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and The Daily Beast. In 2009 he co-founded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1967 &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: YouTube&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1968 
         1969 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/worst-worst-these-5-guns-are-clearly-losers-bunch-190997&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         1970 </item>
         1971  <item> <title>Why COVID Cases Are Now Falling in the UK – And What Could Happen Next</title>
         1972  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190778</link>
         1973  <description>We may not see another sustained surge in infections.</description>
         1974  <author>Paul Hunter</author>
         1975  <category>Coronavirus</category>
         1976  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190778</guid>
         1977  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 12:11 EDT</pubDate>
         1978  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         1979  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Paul Hunter&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1980 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Coronavirus, United Kingdom&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1981 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206825&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/why-covid-cases-are-now-falling-uk-%E2%80%93-and-what-could-happen-next-190778&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/uk_2.jpg?itok=ItHtnALe&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in London&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         1982 &lt;h3&gt;We may not see another sustained surge in infections.&lt;/h3&gt;
         1983 &lt;title&gt;Why COVID Cases Are Now Falling in the UK – And What Could Happen Next&lt;/title&gt;
         1984 &lt;p&gt;After two months of soaring COVID-19 cases in the UK, numbers have again &lt;a href=&quot;https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases&quot;&gt;started to fall&lt;/a&gt; – and to the surprise of many, fall quite dramatically. New cases peaked at 54,674 on July 17 before falling to 23,511 on July 27. They rose slightly to 27,734 on July 28, but the seven-day average continued to fall.&lt;/p&gt;
         1985 &lt;p&gt;We should note that whether this decline will continue is as yet uncertain, as the effect of lifting most of England’s remaining restrictions on July 19 is yet to work its way into the statistics. We probably won’t know the impact of this until at least the last day of July.&lt;/p&gt;
         1986 &lt;p&gt;But why might cases appear to be falling again so soon after restrictions have been lifted? To answer that question, we need to know something about how diseases spread and become endemic.&lt;/p&gt;
         1987 &lt;p&gt;SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html&quot;&gt;isn’t the only coronavirus&lt;/a&gt; that affects humans. Other common, seasonal coronaviruses also infect us, causing the common cold.&lt;/p&gt;
         1988 &lt;p&gt;With these coronaviruses, immunity following an infection is measured &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1&quot;&gt;more in months than in years&lt;/a&gt;. Most of us can expect repeat infections with these other coronaviruses throughout our lives, typically every three to six years. Our experience with COVID-19 may end up being the same. Reinfections following an initial natural SARS-CoV-2 infection are now &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-national-surveillance-of-possible-covid-19-reinfection-published-by-phe&quot;&gt;also being reported&lt;/a&gt; in the UK.&lt;/p&gt;
         1989 &lt;p&gt;Even immunisation will probably not give lifelong protection against COVID-19, and vaccine effectiveness is &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01377-8&quot;&gt;expected to decline&lt;/a&gt; over a number of months. Recent news reports from Israel suggest that the protection offered by the Pfizer vaccine may &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-weighing-covid-booster-shots-over-60s-before-fda-approval-2021-07-26/&quot;&gt;already be waning&lt;/a&gt; in older age groups. But protection against severe disease &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/covid-19-vaccines-are-probably-less-effective-at-preventing-transmission-than-symptoms-heres-why-156611&quot;&gt;will probably last longer&lt;/a&gt; than protection against infection.&lt;/p&gt;
         1990 &lt;p&gt;This lack of long-term protection against infection means that herd immunity is probably impossible and that the virus will become endemic and continue to circulate in human populations. If this happens and the disease then stabilises, such that case numbers are constant across the population, neither increasing nor decreasing, it will have reached what’s called an &lt;a href=&quot;https://jvanderw.une.edu.au/L5_ModellingEpidemics1.pdf&quot;&gt;“endemic equilibrium”&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         1991 &lt;p&gt;So is this what we’re now witnessing? Possibly. One of the basic models of how infectious disease cases change over time is called an &lt;a href=&quot;https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2766672&quot;&gt;SIR model&lt;/a&gt;, which looks at how many people are susceptible to a disease, infectious with it or have recovered from it (and so are immune) at any one time.&lt;/p&gt;
         1992 &lt;p&gt;With this model, cases increase rapidly at the start of an epidemic as lots of people are susceptible, become infected, and go on to infect other susceptible people. But as infections mount, over time fewer people are susceptible and more have recovered. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-020-0822-z&quot;&gt;rate of growth therefore decelerates&lt;/a&gt;, the epidemic reaches its peak, and then case numbers decline to an endemic equilibrium point, where they remain roughly stable.&lt;/p&gt;
         1993 &lt;p&gt;The real world, though, is rather more complex than a SIR model. It behaves more like a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-020-0856-2&quot;&gt;SEIRS model&lt;/a&gt;, a variation of the basic SIR model that incorporates other factors into calculating how the disease spreads.&lt;/p&gt;
         1994 &lt;p&gt;In a SEIRS model, the rise and fall of case numbers and the point of endemic equilibrium depend on a range of influences. These include measures such as “beta” (which is the average number of contacts a person has over a set amount of time, multiplied by the probability of the disease being transmitted when there’s contact between a susceptible and an infectious person) and “latency” (which is the lag between someone being infected and becoming infectious). Critically, the model also factors in the changing immunity of the population, either through births and deaths or, as we have already discussed, waning immunity.&lt;/p&gt;
         1995 &lt;p&gt;As in the SIR model, the rate of epidemic growth slows to a peak before cases fall back to an endemic level. But in this SEIRS model, the infection approaches its stable endemic equilibrium in a series of epidemic waves, as the model’s extra data inputs make it much more sensitive and complicated (and as a result more realistic).&lt;/p&gt;
         1996 &lt;p&gt;For example, if beta increases because contact between people increases, then this will change the endemic equilibrium at which cases level off. More contact will see a surge in infections until they start to settle around a higher equilibrium. Similarly, if beta decreases we’ll see a drop in infections until the new equilibrium is approached.&lt;/p&gt;
         1997 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Beta’s coming home&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         1998 &lt;p&gt;The changes we’ve seen over the past couple of months are likely due to changes in contact between people across the UK. We were in fact seeing the delta variant wave slowing quite quickly by mid-June, suggesting that we were approaching the endemic equilibrium. But then something happened that shifted beta significantly: the European Football Championship (which ran from June 11 to July 11).&lt;/p&gt;
         1999 &lt;p&gt;Cases started surging dramatically towards the end of June soon after England’s first game. That surge was quite short-lived and was already slowing again until another surge followed the quarterfinals before again slowing relatively quickly. In Scotland the pattern was different. We still &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57667163&quot;&gt;saw a surge&lt;/a&gt; associated with the start of the Euros, but cases started falling about 10 days after their last game, which was on June 22.&lt;/p&gt;
         2000 &lt;p&gt;The difference in these graphs is therefore potentially explained by England reaching the final, sustaining higher levels of mixing for longer. And the patterns they show from early June onwards are consistent with the UK approaching the endemic equilibrium for COVID-19. This means we may not see another sustained surge in infections. July 19 will have influenced the beta measure somewhat, but even if we see some increase in cases as a result of things reopening, it’s unlikely to be great or sustained.&lt;/p&gt;
         2001 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Paul Hunter is a Professor of Medicine, University of East Anglia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2002 &lt;p&gt;&lt;section&gt;
         2003 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/why-covid-cases-are-now-falling-in-the-uk-and-what-could-happen-next-165123&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2004 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2005 &lt;p&gt;&lt;/section&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2006 
         2007 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-covid-cases-are-now-falling-uk-%E2%80%93-and-what-could-happen-next-190778&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2008 </item>
         2009  <item> <title>Killing Tehran: How Israel Tried Everything to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program</title>
         2010  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190740</link>
         2011  <description>The Mossad assassination campaign did not continue after 2012, though both U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources allege it was effective in slowing the progress of the Iranian nuclear program.</description>
         2012  <author>Sebastien Roblin</author>
         2013  <category>Iran</category>
         2014  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190740</guid>
         2015  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:38 EDT</pubDate>
         2016  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2017  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sebastien Roblin&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2018 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Iran, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2019 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206788&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/killing-tehran-how-israel-tried-everything-stop-iran%E2%80%99s-nuclear-program-190740&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/f-35_14.jpg?itok=Av86G0-o&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2020 &lt;h3&gt;The Mossad assassination campaign did not continue after 2012, though both U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources allege it was effective in slowing the progress of the Iranian nuclear program.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2021 &lt;title&gt;Killing Tehran: How Israel Tried Everything to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program&lt;/title&gt;
         2022 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need To Remember: &lt;/strong&gt; It seems assassinations are condemned or praised not according to the methods used but depending on who is performing them. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, which can already be linked to an&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-the-proxy-war-between-iran-israel-started-25879&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; escalating proxy war in Syria&lt;/a&gt;, may also see a resumption of the shadowy covert war between Israel and Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
         2023 &lt;p&gt;Approaching eight o’clock on the morning of January 12, 2010 Professor Massoud Alimohammadi walked to his car parked next to his house in North Tehran, passing a small motorbike on the side of the road. The fifty-one-year-old elementary particle physicist was a leading Iranian theorist on quantum-field states, and known to his friends as a political moderate.&lt;/p&gt;
         2024 &lt;p&gt;As the professor’s open his car door, the person who had been observing him pressed a button on a remote control. The bike suddenly exploded with such force that all the windows on Masoud’s four-story apartment building were shattered. Massoud was killed instantly, and two nearby bystanders injured. The triggerman, ostensibly a man named Arash Kerhadkish, strolled over to a car waiting nearby and was driven away.&lt;/p&gt;
         2025 &lt;p&gt;Initially, some speculated that Iranian hardliners sanctioned the killing of a reformist professor. However, anonymous Iranian and Western intelligence sources eventually told a different story: the professor was an important figure in a nuclear-research program run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.&lt;/p&gt;
         2026 &lt;p&gt;Nine months later, on the morning of November 29, a quantum physicist named Majid Shahriari was driving through Tehran with his wife, Dr. Bejhat Ghasemi, in the passenger seat when several motorbikes road up beside him near Artesh Boulevard. While one rider hemmed in Shahriari’s car, another rider (believed to be Arash Kerhadkish), attached a package of C4 explosive to the door beside Shahriari, then drove back and triggered a detonator. The explosion killed Shahriari, injured his wife and colleague, and even knocked over one of the motorbike-mounted hitmen, wounding the hitman.&lt;/p&gt;
         2027 &lt;p&gt;At nearly the same time, another motorbike assassin rammed the car of Sharhiari’s colleague, Professor Fereydoon Abassi, a prominent leader of Iran’s nuclear-research program as he awaited Sharhiari for an appointment at Shahid Beheshti University. He and his wife jumped out of the car just before the bike exploded, seriously injuring Abassi in the face and the hand.&lt;/p&gt;
         2028 &lt;p&gt;Eight months later on July 23, 2011, Darioush Rezaeinejad and his wife drove to pick up their daughter Armita up from kindergarten. At 4 p.m., the thirty-five-year-old postgrad in electrical engineering deposited his wife and child on the curb and was returning to his vehicle to park the car when two bearded motorcyclists pulled up next him and opened fire with nine-millimeter pistols. Rezaeinejad was shot five times in the arm, neck and chest. His wife, Shoreh Pirani, attempted to pursue the attackers, but they shot her too. The engineer died shortly after being hospitalized at Resalat Hospital. Shoreh recovered, and later&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.haaretz.com/1.5183498&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; told an interviewer&lt;/a&gt; that her five-year-old daughter continued to draw pictures of the moment of her father’s death.&lt;/p&gt;
         2029 &lt;p&gt;Darioush’s wife would also state in a later&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/features/2015/5/20/irans-nuclear-scientists-casualties-of-covert-war&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; interview&lt;/a&gt; that the engineer had been a member of the Iranian nuclear program and had received anonymous threats prior to his death. Tehran blamed the United States and Israel for the killing. The United States denied the charge, while Israeli government social-media accounts suggestively expressed that it did not condemn the killings, whoever might have perpetrated them.&lt;/p&gt;
         2030 &lt;p&gt;Six months later on January 11, 2012—nearly the anniversary of Alimohammadi’s killing—Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, an expert on uranium enrichment, was the next to fall victim while driving to work through Eastern Tehran in his Peugeot 405. Deputy director of the Natanz facility, he had been photographed with Mohamed Ahmadinejad, who was president at the time. Supposedly, he was tailed by multiple assassins, including the ubiquitous Kerhadkish. One of those assassins attached a magnetic mine to Roshan’s car, which detonated and killed him, but spared the life of his wife, who was sitting beside him.&lt;/p&gt;
         2031 &lt;p&gt;Iranian counter-intelligence operatives in the Ministry Of Intelligence and Surveillance apparently were at work, however. In 2011, reportedly thanks to a tip from a third country, MOIS picked up a twenty-four-year old aspiring kick-boxer named Majid Jamali Fashi, who claimed to have dropped of the explosive motorbike that killed Alimohammadi. Fashi confessed on public television to receiving training and a payment of $120,000 from Mossad (Institute), the Israeli spy agency connected to dozens of assassinations over the years, including&lt;a href=&quot;https://forward.com/news/336943/ht/?attribution=author-article-listing-1-headline&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; German rocket scientists&lt;/a&gt;, Olympic terrorist plotters, and the Canadian Gerald Bull, developer of the of the Iraqi Project Babylon “super gun.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2032 &lt;p&gt;In May 2012, Fashi was hung—and Tehran announced it had captured eight male and six female Iranian nationals involved in the killings. Iranian media subsequently aired a half-hour documentary dramatizing their confessions. The nationals were reportedly drawn from sympathizers or members of the MEK (Mujahedin of Iran), a violent opposition group to the government Tehran. In this account, the agents had received forty-five days of training in Israel, and then operated in multi-cell teams that had meticulously spied on their victims to determine their routines and then executed the hits based on instructions from Israeli handlers.&lt;/p&gt;
         2033 &lt;p&gt;Iranian security forces are infamous for using torture, sexual assault, and threats to relatives and to compel false public confessions of guilt. However, anonymous sources in Israeli intelligence and American diplomatic circles conveyed to media that Israel really was &lt;a href=&quot;http://world.time.com/2012/03/30/mossad-cutting-back-on-covert-operations-inside-iran-officials-say/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;behind the assassination&lt;/a&gt; campaign that Fashi at least had given a generally true confession, and that Israel really was training MEK members to serve as operatives in Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
         2034 &lt;p&gt;In 2014, a journalist revealed that Washington had&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-pushing-israel-to-stop-assassinating-iranian-nuclear-scientists/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; pressured&lt;/a&gt; Israel to cease the assassinations, which had threatened to derail attempts to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Tehran. Earlier, president Bush was reportedly angered to learn that Israelis &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.haaretz.com/1.5164851&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;posing as CIA agents&lt;/a&gt; had recruit Iranian nationals in Pakistan for its sabotage and assassination campaign in Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
         2035 &lt;p&gt;Of course, both public Iranian and anonymous Israeli accounts may be calculated and less than reliable. It seems possible, for example, that the Iranian nationals implicated in the assassination may have been working besides un-apprehended Israeli operatives from &lt;em&gt;Kidon&lt;/em&gt; (Hebrew for “Tip of the Spear”) an elite assassination unit within Mossad. According to some accounts, the attacks may also have stopped because additional killings would have posed too great a risk, and remaining targets were too well guarded.&lt;/p&gt;
         2036 &lt;p&gt;There are also a few ambiguous cases to consider. Earlier on January 15, 2007, Iranian scientist Ardeshir Hosseinpour died mysteriously in Isfahan due to a “gas poisoning” incident. The journals &lt;em&gt;Stratfor&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Haaretz &lt;/em&gt;claimed Hosseinpour’s death was the work of Mossad, while the Iranian government and sources in Mossad denied involvement. Years later, Hosseinpour’s sister claimed instead that the professor had been killed by the Revolutionary Guard for refusing to work with the nuclear program. In 2015, Iranian security claimed it had foiled another Mossad hit. Israeli sources don’t appear to have stepped forth to corroborate either claim.&lt;/p&gt;
         2037 &lt;p&gt;In 2018, an&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/05/israel-assassination-iranian-scientists-217223&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; article&lt;/a&gt; by Ronen Bergman in &lt;em&gt;Politico &lt;/em&gt;sketched out the longer history of the Israeli assassination campaign, identifying it as the “fifth prong” of a four-part strategy devised in 2003 by Tamir Pardo, then serving as deputy head of Mossad under Meir Dagan. The concept was to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, support for Iranian minorities and opposition groups, and interdiction of key nuclear technologies. Though the wider campaign involved close cooperation with the U.S., which famously collaborated to develop the Stuxnet computer virus responsible for destroying hundreds of Iranian centrifuges, Israel alone was involved in plotting assassinations, which the CIA claims it was unwilling to become involved in and preferred not to be aware of. (Bergman also gives an alternate versions of Rezaeinejad’s killing, claiming he was tailed by a lone motorcyclist, and shot while approaching the fortified Imam Ali facility.)&lt;/p&gt;
         2038 &lt;p&gt;Bergman alleges that the campaign was effective in terrorizing Iranian scientists into avoiding or disassociating with Tehran’s nuclear program, and caused Iran to institute expensive and highly time-consuming security measures to protect its scientists and attempt to root out traitors and bugs. In his account, Dagan saw the assassinations as potentially heading off a push by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu to directly attack Iranian nuclear sites from the air, a course of action he saw as disastrous.&lt;/p&gt;
         2039 &lt;p&gt;The Mossad campaign did, however, cause the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to plot a series of retaliatory terrorist attacks across the world using its Unit 400 cover operations branch. Hastily and ineptly planned, all but one of the roughly twenty Iranian plots&lt;a href=&quot;http://world.time.com/2013/02/13/spy-fail-why-iran-is-losing-its-covert-war-with-israel/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; failed&lt;/a&gt;, often in spectacular fashion. The campaign’s only “success” was the killing of five Israeli tourists and a local driver on July 18, 2012, in a suicide bombing executed by Hezbollah at the Burgas airport in Bulgaria.&lt;/p&gt;
         2040 &lt;p&gt;The Mossad assassination campaign did not continue after 2012, though both U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources allege it was effective in slowing the progress of the Iranian nuclear program. While assassination was disavowed by U.S. diplomatic and intelligence officials, some politicians have voiced their support for the scientist killings. After all, the reasoning goes, such targeted assassinations kill far fewer bystanders than would missiles launched in a wider military conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
         2041 &lt;p&gt;However, it’s hard to deny that the campaign used tactics that would be labelled “terrorism” or “murder” in the West were they waged against Israeli or American scientists engaged in weapons research. It seems assassinations are condemned or praised not according to the methods used but depending on who is performing them. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, which can already be linked to an&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-the-proxy-war-between-iran-israel-started-25879&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; escalating proxy war in Syria&lt;/a&gt;, may also see a resumption of the shadowy covert war between Israel and Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
         2042 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Sébastien Roblin holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://warisboring.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;War Is Boring&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This first appeared earlier in 2018.&lt;/p&gt;
         2043 &lt;p&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2044 
         2045 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/killing-tehran-how-israel-tried-everything-stop-iran%E2%80%99s-nuclear-program-190740&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2046 </item>
         2047  <item> <title>India’s Vaccine Rollout Has Been Truly a Lost Opportunity </title>
         2048  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190910</link>
         2049  <description>India’s prioritization strategy was limited to age, and to front-line workers specifically linked to COVID management.</description>
         2050  <author>Rajib Dasgupta</author>
         2051  <category>Coronavirus</category>
         2052  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190910</guid>
         2053  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:35 EDT</pubDate>
         2054  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2055  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Rajib Dasgupta&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2056 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Coronavirus, India&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2057 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206955&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/india%E2%80%99s-vaccine-rollout-has-been-truly-lost-opportunity-190910&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/india_18.jpg?itok=iD6a3coU&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;Door-to-door vaccination drive in India&#039;s rural Banaskantha district&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2058 &lt;h3&gt;India’s prioritization strategy was limited to age, and to front-line workers specifically linked to COVID management.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2059 &lt;title&gt;India’s Vaccine Rollout Has Been Truly a Lost Opportunity &lt;/title&gt;
         2060 &lt;p&gt;Some 6 months after India began what is said to be the largest COVID-19 vaccination drive in the world, equitable distribution has been a challenge.&lt;/p&gt;
         2061 &lt;p&gt;A recent instance from a remote area in one of India’s hill states is illustrative. According to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/himachal/no-net-in-remote-himachal-area-outsiders-book-90-vaccine-slots-259128&quot;&gt;news reports&lt;/a&gt;, over 90% of vaccination slots meant for locals were booked by people from other areas.&lt;/p&gt;
         2062 &lt;p&gt;Residents lost out because the area had no internet connectivity. To address the digital divide, local authorities had to appeal to the outsiders to cancel their bookings.&lt;/p&gt;
         2063 &lt;p&gt;This access issue is just one of many ways India’s prioritisation strategy for COVID-19 vaccination has fallen short.&lt;/p&gt;
         2064 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who gets the shot first: what did experts agree on?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2065 &lt;p&gt;The World Health Organization (WHO) had foreseen vaccine shortages and consequently, inequitable distribution. In 2020, it advocated a nuanced approach to ensure those who most needed the vaccine got it.&lt;/p&gt;
         2066 &lt;p&gt;The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) designed a document called the “&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-sage-values-framework-for-the-allocation-and-prioritization-of-covid-19-vaccination&quot;&gt;Values Framework&lt;/a&gt;”. This document listed over 20 vulnerable groups such as homeless peoples, those living in informal settlements, and those in urban slums.&lt;/p&gt;
         2067 &lt;p&gt;They underscored that countries ensure access to priority populations and take action to ensure equal access to everyone who qualifies under a priority group, particularly socially disadvantaged populations.&lt;/p&gt;
         2068 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did India prioritise vaccines?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2069 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/RevisedVaccinationGuidelines.pdf&quot;&gt;first phase&lt;/a&gt; of India’s rollout began in January, covering an estimated 30 million healthcare and front-line workers.&lt;/p&gt;
         2070 &lt;p&gt;On March 1, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.orfonline.org/research/indias-vaccine-rollout-a-reality-check/&quot;&gt;second phase&lt;/a&gt; began which incorporated people over 45 with chronic illnesses, and the over-60s. On April 1, this was &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/vaccine-updates/story/india-to-vaccinate-people-above-45-from-april-1-1782661-2021-03-23&quot;&gt;expanded&lt;/a&gt; to everyone over 45.&lt;/p&gt;
         2071 &lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/those-above-18-eligible-to-get-covid-vaccine-from-may-1-centre-2417262&quot;&gt;May 1&lt;/a&gt;, it was decided all adults over 18 would be included.&lt;/p&gt;
         2072 &lt;p&gt;Now, despite all adults being eligible, &lt;a href=&quot;https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in/&quot;&gt;only 10%&lt;/a&gt; are fully protected with two doses. Despite the overall pace of vaccination increasing, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://indianexpress.com/article/india/covid-vaccination-pace-drops-july-target-likely-to-be-missed-7423737/&quot;&gt;target&lt;/a&gt; of 135 million doses administered in July may be missed, and things look &lt;a href=&quot;https://theprint.in/health/15-crore-vaccine-doses-expected-in-august-delays-plan-of-1-crore-daily-shots/704263/&quot;&gt;unlikely to improve&lt;/a&gt; in August.&lt;/p&gt;
         2073 &lt;p&gt;With the threat of a third wave fuelled by variants, relaxing of lockdown restrictions, and the constant uptick in cases in two of the larger Indian states (Kerala and Maharashtra) as well as most of the North Eastern states, there’s an urgent need to increase vaccine coverage.&lt;/p&gt;
         2074 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; India prioritise vaccines?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2075 &lt;p&gt;India’s prioritisation strategy was limited to age, and to front-line workers specifically linked to COVID management — police and armed forces personnel, disaster management volunteers and municipal &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/COVID19VaccinationGuideforHealthcareandFrontlineWorkers.pdf&quot;&gt;workers&lt;/a&gt;. It did not address the real-world diverse spectrum of vulnerabilities.&lt;/p&gt;
         2076 &lt;p&gt;The Values Framework points to a range of vulnerabilities and priorities and includes people unable to physically distance such as those in geographically remote and clustered populations (detention facilities, dormitories, refugee camps and dense urban neighbourhoods).&lt;/p&gt;
         2077 &lt;p&gt;Levels of COVID-19 among &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/content/stateut-wise-prisons-response-to-covid-19-pandemic-in-india&quot;&gt;prison populations&lt;/a&gt; and high levels of antibodies (suggesting prior infection) among &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/serosurvey-mumbai-slum-antibodies-coronavirus-1745303-2020-11-30&quot;&gt;slum residents&lt;/a&gt; shows this is a legitimate concern.&lt;/p&gt;
         2078 &lt;p&gt;Then there are those who are at high risk of transmitting infection such as youth who are mobile but largely asymptomatic, and school-going children. Vaccinating them early would minimise disruption of their education and socio-emotional development. The union health minister has announced vaccination of children is likely to begin in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.livemint.com/news/india/covid-vaccination-for-children-centre-awaits-robust-results-of-clinical-trial-covaxin-zydus-cadila-11627388978998.html&quot;&gt;August&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2079 &lt;p&gt;Workers in non-essential but economically critical sectors, particularly in occupations that do not permit remote work such as construction and food services, should also be vaccinated early.&lt;/p&gt;
         2080 &lt;p&gt;While only health workers were included in the category of essential workers, &lt;a href=&quot;https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-coronavirus-pandemic-teacher-deaths-7335302/&quot;&gt;teachers&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://thewire.in/society/covid-19-india-frontline-health-workers&quot;&gt;childcare providers&lt;/a&gt;, agriculture and food workers, and transport workers should have been added to this category.&lt;/p&gt;
         2081 &lt;p&gt;Finally, to ensure equity, the needs of those who, at no fault of their own, are at risk of experiencing greater burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic, must be addressed.&lt;/p&gt;
         2082 &lt;p&gt;This would include those living in extreme poverty, low-income &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/24/india-migrant-workers-at-risk-of-being-left-out-of-vaccine-drive&quot;&gt;migrant workers&lt;/a&gt;, nomadic populations, refugees or internally displaced persons, populations in conflict settings, those affected by humanitarian emergencies, and hard-to-reach groups.&lt;/p&gt;
         2083 &lt;p&gt;At least one Indian state — Chhattisgarh — tried to reach out to its poorest, by &lt;a href=&quot;https://scroll.in/article/994435/chhattisgarh-took-the-right-step-towards-vaccine-equity-but-the-high-court-laid-down-quotas&quot;&gt;proposing&lt;/a&gt; those under the state’s food scheme be vaccinated first in the 18–44 years category. However, after the intervention of the courts, the state had to &lt;a href=&quot;https://theprint.in/health/chhattisgarh-changes-decision-to-first-vaccinate-antyodaya-card-holders-stands-by-logic/658933/&quot;&gt;reverse the order&lt;/a&gt; and allow vaccination for all adults.&lt;/p&gt;
         2084 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What’s the fallout?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2085 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-vaccine-inequity-worsens-countryside-languishes-2021-06-04/&quot;&gt;Rural-urban&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/india/women-falling-behind-indias-covid-19-vaccination-drive-2021-06-08/&quot;&gt;gender&lt;/a&gt; inequities in the vaccine rollout have emerged as significant concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
         2086 &lt;p&gt;By late May, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-vaccine-inequity-worsens-countryside-languishes-2021-06-04/&quot;&gt;114 of India’s least developed districts&lt;/a&gt; had administered just 23 million doses to its 176 million residents. India’s nine major cities received the same number of doses, despite having half as many people.&lt;/p&gt;
         2087 &lt;p&gt;During the same period, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reuters.com/world/india/women-falling-behind-indias-covid-19-vaccination-drive-2021-06-08/&quot;&gt;17% more men&lt;/a&gt; were immunised than women.&lt;/p&gt;
         2088 &lt;p&gt;Equity groups need to be given priority access to vaccinations to ensure those already more vulnerable to death, disease and destitution, and least likely to be able to seek treatment due to poverty, distance, or other social disadvantages, are protected.&lt;/p&gt;
         2089 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/rajib-dasgupta-1224581&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rajib Dasgupta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is the Chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2090 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/indias-vaccine-rollout-is-ignoring-the-many-inequities-in-its-society-165080&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2091 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2092 
         2093 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/india%E2%80%99s-vaccine-rollout-has-been-truly-lost-opportunity-190910&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2094 </item>
         2095  <item> <title>Male Fertility Is Declining – Studies Show that Environmental Toxins Could Be a Reason</title>
         2096  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190912</link>
         2097  <description>For decades, sperm counts and sperm health have been declining.</description>
         2098  <author>Ryan P. Smith</author>
         2099  <category>Health</category>
         2100  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190912</guid>
         2101  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:34 EDT</pubDate>
         2102  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2103  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ryan P. Smith&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2104 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Health, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2105 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/143547&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/male-fertility-declining-%E2%80%93-studies-show-environmental-toxins-could-be-reason-190912&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Baby.JPG?itok=ojqpSJhA&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2106 &lt;h3&gt;For decades, sperm counts and sperm health have been declining.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2107 &lt;title&gt;Male Fertility Is Declining – Studies Show that Environmental Toxins Could Be a Reason&lt;/title&gt;
         2108 &lt;p&gt;In the U.S., nearly 1 in 8 couples &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/menshealth/conditioninfo/infertility#f1&quot;&gt;struggles with infertility&lt;/a&gt;. Unfortunately, physicians like me who specialize in reproductive medicine are unable to determine the cause of male infertility around &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32667-2&quot;&gt;30% to 50% of the time&lt;/a&gt;. There is almost nothing more disheartening than telling a couple “I don’t know” or “There’s nothing I can do to help.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2109 &lt;p&gt;Upon getting this news, couple after couple asks me questions that all follow a similar line of thinking. “What about his work, his cellphone, our laptops, all these plastics? Do you think they could have contributed to this?”&lt;/p&gt;
         2110 &lt;p&gt;What my patients are really asking me is a big question in male reproductive health: Does environmental toxicity contribute to male infertility?&lt;/p&gt;
         2111 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Male fertility decline&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2112 &lt;p&gt;Infertility is defined as a couple’s inability to get pregnant for one year despite regular intercourse. When this is the case, doctors evaluate both partners to determine why.&lt;/p&gt;
         2113 &lt;p&gt;For men, the cornerstone of the fertility evaluation is semen analysis, and there are a number of ways to assess sperm. Sperm count – the total number of sperm a man produces – and sperm concentration – number of sperm per milliliter of semen – are common measures, but they aren’t the &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dev058&quot;&gt;best predictors of fertility&lt;/a&gt;. A more accurate measure looks at &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dev058&quot;&gt;the total motile sperm count&lt;/a&gt;, which evaluates the fraction of sperm that are able to swim and move.&lt;/p&gt;
         2114 &lt;p&gt;A wide range of factors – from &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32667-2&quot;&gt;obesity to hormonal imbalances to genetic diseases&lt;/a&gt; – can affect fertility. For many men, there are &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32667-2&quot;&gt;treatments&lt;/a&gt; that can help. But starting in the 1990s, researchers noticed a concerning trend. Even when controlling for many of the known risk factors, male fertility &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.00108961&quot;&gt;appeared to have been declining for decades&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2115 &lt;p&gt;In 1992, a study found a global &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.305.6854.609&quot;&gt;50% decline in sperm counts in men over the previous 60 years&lt;/a&gt;. Multiple studies over &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.00108961&quot;&gt;subsequent years&lt;/a&gt; confirmed that initial finding, including a 2017 paper showing a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmx022&quot;&gt;50% to 60% decline in sperm concentration between 1973 and 2011&lt;/a&gt; in men from around the world.&lt;/p&gt;
         2116 &lt;p&gt;These studies, though important, focused on sperm concentration or total sperm count. So in 2019, a team of researchers decided to focus on the more powerful total motile sperm count. They found that the proportion of men with a normal total motile sperm count &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2019.06.038&quot;&gt;had declined by approximately 10% over the previous 16 years&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2117 &lt;p&gt;The science is consistent: Men today produce fewer sperm than in the past, and the sperm are less healthy. The question, then, is what could be causing this decline in fertility.&lt;/p&gt;
         2118 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Environmental toxicity and reproduction&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2119 &lt;p&gt;Scientists have known for years that, at least in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Phthalates_FactSheet.html&quot;&gt;animal models&lt;/a&gt;, environmental toxic exposure can alter hormonal balance and throw off reproduction. Researchers can’t intentionally expose human patients to harmful compounds and measure outcomes, but we can try to assess associations.&lt;/p&gt;
         2120 &lt;p&gt;As the downward trend in male fertility emerged, I and other researchers began looking more toward chemicals in the environment for answers. This approach doesn’t allow us to definitively establish which chemicals are causing the male fertility decline, but the &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.21037/tau-20-685&quot;&gt;weight of the evidence is growing&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2121 &lt;p&gt;A lot of this research focuses on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/what-edcs-are/common-edcs/reproduction&quot;&gt;endocrine disrupters&lt;/a&gt;, molecules that mimic the body’s hormones and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.21037/tau-20-685&quot;&gt;throw off the fragile hormonal balance of reproduction&lt;/a&gt;. These include substances like phthalates – better known as plasticizers – as well as pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, toxic gases and other synthetic materials.&lt;/p&gt;
         2122 &lt;p&gt;Plasticizers are found in most plastics – like water bottles and food containers – and exposure is associated with &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.07.029&quot;&gt;negative impacts on testosterone and semen health&lt;/a&gt;. Herbicides and pesticides abound in the food supply and some – specifically those with synthetic organic compounds that include phosphorus – are &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2014.01.029&quot;&gt;known to negatively affect fertility&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2123 &lt;p&gt;Air pollution surrounds cities, subjecting residents to particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other compounds that likely &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1186/s12958-018-0430-2&quot;&gt;contribute to abnormal sperm quality&lt;/a&gt;. Radiation exposure from laptops, cellphones and modems has also been associated with &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1186/s12958-018-0431-1&quot;&gt;declining sperm counts, impaired sperm motility and abnormal sperm shape&lt;/a&gt;. Heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic are also present in food, water and cosmetics and are also known to &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reprotox.2017.07.021&quot;&gt;harm sperm health&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2124 &lt;p&gt;Endocrine-disrupting compounds and the infertility problems they cause are taking a significant toll on human &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2006.12.003&quot;&gt;physical and emotional&lt;/a&gt; health. And treating these harms &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2014-4325&quot;&gt;is costly&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2125 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The effects of unregulated chemicals&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2126 &lt;p&gt;A lot of chemicals are in use today, and tracking them all is incredibly difficult. Today, more than 80,000 chemicals are registered with the National Toxicology Program. When the program was founded in 1978, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-toxic-substances-control-act&quot;&gt;60,000 of those were grandfathered into&lt;/a&gt; the program with minimal information, and nearly &lt;a href=&quot;https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/annualreport/2019/annualreport_508.pdf&quot;&gt;2,000 new chemicals are introduced each year&lt;/a&gt;. Many scientists believe that the safety testing for health and environmental risks &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/will-the-new-toxic-chemical-safety-law-protect-us-60769&quot;&gt;is not strong enough&lt;/a&gt; and that the rapid development and introduction of new chemicals challenges the ability of organizations to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/top-problems-two-tsca-bills&quot;&gt;test long-term risks to human health&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2127 &lt;p&gt;Current U.S. national toxicology regulations follow the principle of &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122654&quot;&gt;innocent until proved guilty&lt;/a&gt; and are &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.0800404&quot;&gt;less comprehensive and restrictive&lt;/a&gt; than &lt;a href=&quot;https://echa.europa.eu/home&quot;&gt;similar regulations in Europe&lt;/a&gt;, for example. The &lt;a href=&quot;https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/78102/WHO_HSE_PHE_IHE_2013.1_eng.pdf?sequence=1&quot;&gt;World Health Organization&lt;/a&gt; recently identified 800 compounds capable of disrupting hormones, only a small fraction of which have been tested.&lt;/p&gt;
         2128 &lt;p&gt;A trade group, the American Chemistry Council, says on its website that manufacturers “have the regulatory certainty they need to innovate, grow, create jobs and win in the global marketplace – at the same time that public health and the environment benefit from strong risk-based protections.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2129 &lt;p&gt;But the reality of the current regulatory system in the U.S. is that chemicals are introduced with minimal testing and taken off the market only when harm is proved. And that can &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/will-the-new-toxic-chemical-safety-law-protect-us-60769&quot;&gt;take decades&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2130 &lt;p&gt;Dr. Niels Skakkebaek, the lead researcher on one of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.newsweek.com/2017/09/22/male-infertility-crisis-experts-663074.html&quot;&gt;first manuscripts&lt;/a&gt; on decreasing sperm counts, called the male fertility decline a “wake-up call to all of us.” My patients have provided a wake–up call for me that increased public awareness and advocacy are important to protect global reproductive health now and in the future. I’m not a toxicologist and can’t identify the cause of the infertility trends I’m seeing, but as physician, I am concerned that too much of the burden of proof is falling on the human body and people who become my patients.&lt;/p&gt;
         2131 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/ryan-p-smith-1238134&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ryan P. Smith&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an Associate Professor of Urology, University of Virginia&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2132 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/male-fertility-is-declining-studies-show-that-environmental-toxins-could-be-a-reason-163795&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2133 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2134 
         2135 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/male-fertility-declining-%E2%80%93-studies-show-environmental-toxins-could-be-reason-190912&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2136 </item>
         2137  <item> <title>There&#039;s a Reason the World&#039;s Best Militaries Love These Handguns</title>
         2138  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/191002</link>
         2139  <description>The global arms trade has produced many excellent handguns, but these are the best and best-loved. </description>
         2140  <author>Kyle Mizokami</author>
         2141  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/191002</guid>
         2142  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 11:24 EDT</pubDate>
         2143  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2144  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Kyle Mizokami&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2145 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2146 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/207039&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/theres-reason-worlds-best-militaries-love-these-handguns-191002&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/Glock%20%285%29.jpg?itok=iErMSEJt&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2147 &lt;h3&gt;The global arms trade has produced many excellent handguns, but these are the best and best-loved. &lt;/h3&gt;
         2148 &lt;title&gt;There&#039;s a Reason the World&#039;s Best Militaries Love These Handguns&lt;/title&gt;
         2149 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember:&lt;/strong&gt; The Sig Sauer P226 served with the U.S. Navy SEALs for twenty-eight years, before eventually being replaced by the compact version of the Glock 17, the Glock 19.&lt;/p&gt;
         2150 &lt;p&gt;The bustling global arms trade has resulted in many excellent handguns in the last hundred years. Some of the best handguns are more than a hundred years old, while others have been in production for less than a decade. All are excellent weapons for defense, and in some cases offense; they are equally at home in a homeowner’s gun safe or carried as an officer’s sidearm. Here are five of the best handguns currently in service worldwide. &lt;/p&gt;
         2151 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Colt M1911A1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2152 &lt;p&gt;Designed by prolific gun designer John Moses Browning, and first introduced in 1911, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-1911-pistol-the-gun-the-us-military-has-fired-anger-over-23497&quot;&gt;Colt 1911 pistol&lt;/a&gt; was meant to replace weaker .38 caliber pistols used by the U.S. Army during the Philippine Insurrection. The 1911 was the U.S. military’s first semiautomatic handgun, marking a permanent turn away from military revolvers.&lt;/p&gt;
         2153 &lt;p&gt;The original 1911 weighed 2.4 pounds and had a seven-round internal magazine. In 1924, the gun was updated, mostly for ergonomic reasons, to the 1911A1 standard. The 1911A1, while internally complex by modern handgun standards, is still a popular handgun. The end of handgun’s patent, coupled with the weapon’s enduring usefulness resulted in almost every major U.S. gun manufacturer releasing its own version of the handgun. In 2012, the U.S. Marine Corps Marine Special Operations Command adopted the Colt M45A1, an updated version of the 1911A1, as its standard handgun.&lt;/p&gt;
         2154 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Glock 17&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2155 &lt;p&gt;The&lt;a href=&quot;http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-glock-dominates-the-handgun-market-better-sig-sauer-23487&quot;&gt; Glock 17&lt;/a&gt; was built around three key ideas: simplicity, reliability and ease of use. The handgun is easy to take apart, with a single press of the button removing the slide for cleaning and access to the barrel. The Glock passed the Austrian Army’s reliability test with flying colors, jamming only once in ten thousand firings. And the weapon was expressly designed with an eye on “pointability”—the pistol’s natural ability to act as an extension of the shooter’s hand-and-eye coordination.&lt;/p&gt;
         2156 &lt;p&gt;From the original Glock 17, capable of carrying seventeen rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition, the Glock line has expanded to cover nearly all semiautomatic calibers, including .45 ACP, and the gun has replaced the 1911A1 pistol in such organizations as Marine Special Operations Command and the U.S. Army’s Delta Force.&lt;/p&gt;
         2157 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Sig P226&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2158 &lt;p&gt;Developed by the Swiss-German partnership Sig Sauer to replace the M1911A1 in the U.S. Armed Forces, the Sig P226 failed to win the contract but received a major boost when U.S. Navy SEALs rejected their Beretta M9 pistols &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-sig-sauer-p226-the-navy-seals-favorite-gun-23685?page=2&quot;&gt;in favor of the Sig&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2159 &lt;p&gt;The P226 was an evolution of the Sig P220, a postwar favorite of Western and Western-oriented (such as Japan) armies worldwide. The pistol is a so-called double-action design, meaning a single long pull of the trigger will both cock the pistol and release the firing pin, firing the pistol. Users can also operate the Sig in single action mode, in which the pistol is manually cocked and a shorter trigger pull releases the firing pin. The pistol is equipped with a side-mounted decocker for lowering the hammer without firing.&lt;/p&gt;
         2160 &lt;p&gt;The Sig Sauer P226 served with the U.S. Navy SEALs for twenty-eight years, before eventually being replaced by the compact version of the Glock 17, the Glock 19.&lt;/p&gt;
         2161 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Smith &amp; Wesson M&amp;P&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2162 &lt;p&gt;Smith and Wesson is one of the oldest names in American firearms. Although the company was mostly known for revolvers, it was inevitable that the company would come out with a Glock-style polymer handgun. The result, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.smith-wesson.com/mp&quot;&gt;M&amp;P&lt;/a&gt; (Military and Police) became highly successful in its own right.&lt;/p&gt;
         2163 &lt;p&gt;Introduced in 2005, the M&amp;P features a steel-reinforced polymer frame and stainless-steel slide. The M&amp;P was one of the first guns to feature three interchangeable palm swells, allowing the user to configure the pistol to better fit his or her hand. The M&amp;P also features ambidextrous slide stop and magazine release. Unlike the Glock, the M&amp;P can be disassembled without pulling the trigger.&lt;/p&gt;
         2164 &lt;p&gt;The M&amp;P is available in a number of midsize pistol calibers, including nine-millimeter, 357 Sig and .40 Smith &amp; Wesson, as well as .45 ACP. The M&amp;P mostly serves in police forces in the United States and abroad.&lt;/p&gt;
         2165 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The CZ 75&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2166 &lt;p&gt;One of the best handguns in the world wasn’t even available to recreational shooters for much of the Cold War. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://modernfirearms.net/en/handguns/handguns-en/czech-republic-semi-automatic-pistols/cz-75-eng/&quot;&gt;CZ 75 handgun&lt;/a&gt;, introduced in 1975, borrowed a great deal from John Moses Browning’s late model pistol, the Browning Hi-Power, both externally and internally, but is not a copy, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Browning%20and%20CZ.htm&quot;&gt;features significant differences&lt;/a&gt;. The nine-millimeter pistol could carry up to sixteen rounds, making it one of the largest-capacity handguns of its day.&lt;/p&gt;
         2167 &lt;p&gt;Locked away behind the Iron Curtain and unable to secure contracts with the Czechoslovakian government, the CZ 75 failed to gain adherents until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today the pistol is available in an updated form, the CZ 75BD, featuring a firing pin safety, decocking lever and underbarrel accessory rail, and available in a variety of midsized handgun calibers.&lt;/p&gt;
         2168 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the&lt;/em&gt; Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring &lt;em&gt;and the&lt;/em&gt; Daily Beast. &lt;em&gt;In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/kylemizokami&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;@KyleMizokami&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This first appeared in December of 2017 and is being republished due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2169 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2170 
         2171 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/theres-reason-worlds-best-militaries-love-these-handguns-191002&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2172 </item>
         2173  <item> <title>Cut Social Security and Medicare Spending? </title>
         2174  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190795</link>
         2175  <description>There isn’t much vocal pushback against high government spending.</description>
         2176  <author>Stephen Silver</author>
         2177  <category>economy</category>
         2178  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190795</guid>
         2179  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:55 EDT</pubDate>
         2180  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2181  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Stephen Silver&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2182 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;economy, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2183 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206843&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/cut-social-security-and-medicare-spending-190795&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-28T190245Z_867370846_RC2VTO937QG9_RTRMADP_3_USA-BIDEN.JPG.jpg?itok=dn_IIV_Q&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2184 &lt;h3&gt;There isn’t much vocal pushback against high government spending.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2185 &lt;title&gt;Cut Social Security and Medicare Spending? &lt;/title&gt;
         2186 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{127}&quot; paraid=&quot;282066028&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;The last few years have been something of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apple.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;a golden age for government spending&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2187 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{181}&quot; paraid=&quot;1887336379&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Since the start of the pandemic, both the Trump and Biden administrations have passed massive stimulus bills. Congress is currently negotiating even more spending, in the form of a pair of large infrastructure measures.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2188 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{199}&quot; paraid=&quot;823241405&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Meanwhile, there isn’t much vocal pushback against that spending. It wasn’t a major issue in the 2020 election, and the Republicans in Congress have not made spending concerns a major part of their messaging, which has traditionally been the case during past Democratic presidential administrations.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2189 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{217}&quot; paraid=&quot;994445119&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;However, a recent op-ed did in fact call for cutting of spending, including for Social Security and Medicare.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2190 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{235}&quot; paraid=&quot;872659203&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Peter Crabb, a professor of finance and economics at Northwest Nazarene University, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/article253032368.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;wrote in a column published by the &lt;em&gt;Idaho Statesman&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that “Congress must consider cuts in Medicare and Social Security.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2191 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{253}&quot; paraid=&quot;1631011639&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;“The bigger question no one wants to talk about is how much the government is spending and how it goes about raising taxes. This question has more serious implications for our economic well-being,” Crabb wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
         2192 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{16}&quot; paraid=&quot;1613436434&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Crabb went on to cite an economic theory called the Barro-Ricardo Equivalence, also known as the Ricardian Equivalence.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2193 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{34}&quot; paraid=&quot;668583254&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;“Barro-Ricardo equivalence states that the timing of government spending has no effect on the economy today,” he stated in the column. “If the government borrows more to spend now with the idea it will pay off the debt with tax revenues later, it is just the same as if the government raised taxes today. The public buys up the new bonds, and in so doing, reduces current consumption just as it would with a new tax.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2194 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{52}&quot; paraid=&quot;891376590&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;He goes on to note that under that theory, “the debt issue can be addressed only by changing the federal government’s long-run spending plans.” And he says that in order to cut spending, “ will have to consider cutting benefits in Social Security and Medicare, which make up most of the budget. . . . It’s time to end the borrowing debate and address the underlying cause of the problem.” &lt;/p&gt;
         2195 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{75}&quot; paraid=&quot;1237152869&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;The Ricardian Equivalence is far from a broadly accepted economic theory.  &lt;/p&gt;
         2196 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{96}&quot; paraid=&quot;1743779910&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;“In economics jargon, this idea is known as Ricardian Equivalence. According to this proposition, public transfers financed with government debt do not affect consumption because households save them to pay for the increase in taxes that will eventually be necessary to repay that debt,” the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’ Liberty Street Economics &lt;a href=&quot;https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2021/04/excess-savings-are-not-excessive/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;blog wrote in April.&lt;/a&gt; “If Ricardian Equivalence held, the marginal propensity to consume out of debt-financed transfers would be zero, and the resulting savings would never be spent.” &lt;/p&gt;
         2197 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{118}&quot; paraid=&quot;1112551225&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;Furthermore, it doesn’t appear likely that anyone in Congress—even the most fiscally conservative Republicans—believes there is an urgency to impose deep spending cuts, especially not ones that would trim popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.&lt;/p&gt;
         2198 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{ca653ddf-94a6-427e-9ff4-e38dcaf92c18}{138}&quot; paraid=&quot;1875949126&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the &lt;/em&gt;National Interest&lt;em&gt;, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to &lt;/em&gt;The Philadelphia Inquirer&lt;em&gt;,&lt;/em&gt; Philly Voice&lt;em&gt;,&lt;/em&gt; Philadelphia Weekly&lt;em&gt;, the&lt;/em&gt; Jewish Telegraphic Agency&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;Living Life Fearless&lt;em&gt;,&lt;/em&gt; Backstage&lt;em&gt; magazine,&lt;/em&gt; Broad Street Review &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; Splice Today&lt;em&gt;. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2199 &lt;p lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; paraeid=&quot;{4328fc73-041a-4860-a5e4-6fc94c02531b}{121}&quot; paraid=&quot;955986287&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot; xml:lang=&quot;EN-US&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2021%3Anewsml_RC2VTO937QG9&amp;share=true&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2200 
         2201 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/cut-social-security-and-medicare-spending-190795&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2202 </item>
         2203  <item> <title>Swimming Gives Your Brain A Boost – But Scientists Don’t Know Why</title>
         2204  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190784</link>
         2205  <description>Swimming offers a host of beneficial effects on the brain.</description>
         2206  <author>Seena Mathew</author>
         2207  <category>Health</category>
         2208  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190784</guid>
         2209  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:44 EDT</pubDate>
         2210  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2211  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Seena Mathew&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2212 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Health, &lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2213 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206831&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/swimming-gives-your-brain-boost-%E2%80%93-scientists-don%E2%80%99t-know-why-190784&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/swim.jpg?itok=szcLULfk&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; title=&quot;Olympics: Swimming-July 29&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2214 &lt;h3&gt;Swimming offers a host of beneficial effects on the brain.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2215 &lt;title&gt;Swimming Gives Your Brain A Boost – But Scientists Don’t Know Why&lt;/title&gt;
         2216 &lt;p&gt;It’s no secret that &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.018&quot;&gt;aerobic exercise can help&lt;/a&gt; stave off &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00667&quot;&gt;some of the ravages&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1123/japa.2016-0362&quot;&gt;aging&lt;/a&gt;. But a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14851&quot;&gt;growing body of research&lt;/a&gt; suggests that swimming might provide a unique boost to brain health.&lt;/p&gt;
         2217 &lt;p&gt;Regular swimming has been shown to improve &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14851&quot;&gt;memory&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14247&quot;&gt;cognitive function&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2018.10.005&quot;&gt;immune response&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.2040216.108&quot;&gt;mood&lt;/a&gt;. Swimming may also help repair damage from stress and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.20679&quot;&gt;forge new neural connections&lt;/a&gt; in the brain.&lt;/p&gt;
         2218 &lt;p&gt;But scientists are still trying to unravel how and why swimming, in particular, produces these brain-enhancing effects.&lt;/p&gt;
         2219 &lt;p&gt;As a &lt;a href=&quot;https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Seena+S.+Mathew+&quot;&gt;neurobiologist trained in brain physiology&lt;/a&gt;, a fitness enthusiast and a mom, I spend hours at the local pool during the summer. It’s not unusual to see children gleefully splashing and swimming while their parents sunbathe at a distance – and I’ve been one of those parents observing from the poolside plenty of times. But if more adults recognized the cognitive and mental health benefits of swimming, they might be more inclined to jump in the pool alongside their kids.&lt;/p&gt;
         2220 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New and improved brain cells and connections&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2221 &lt;p&gt;Until the 1960s, scientists believed that the number of neurons and synaptic connections in the human brain &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Life-and-Death-Neuron&quot;&gt;were finite&lt;/a&gt; and that, once damaged, these brain cells could not be replaced. But that idea was debunked as researchers began to see ample evidence for the birth of neurons, or &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.135.3509.1127&quot;&gt;neurogenesis&lt;/a&gt;, in adult brains of &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00319&quot;&gt;humans and other animals&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2222 &lt;p&gt;Now, there is clear evidence that &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1113/JP272761&quot;&gt;aerobic exercise&lt;/a&gt; can contribute to neurogenesis and play a key role in helping to reverse or repair &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191640&quot;&gt;damage to neurons and their connections&lt;/a&gt; in both mammals and fish.&lt;/p&gt;
         2223 &lt;p&gt;Research shows that one of the key ways these changes occur in response to exercise is through increased levels of a protein called &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363&quot;&gt;brain-derived neurotrophic factor&lt;/a&gt;. The neural plasticity, or ability of the brain to change, that this protein stimulates has been shown to boost &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.018&quot;&gt;cognitive function&lt;/a&gt;, including &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.2040216.108&quot;&gt;learning and memory&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2224 &lt;p&gt;Studies in people have found a strong relationship between &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363&quot;&gt;concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor&lt;/a&gt; circulating in the brain and an increase in the size of the hippocampus, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2335&quot;&gt;brain region responsible for learning and memory&lt;/a&gt;. Increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor have also been shown to &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2014.11.001&quot;&gt;sharpen cognitive performance&lt;/a&gt; and to help &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92341&quot;&gt;reduce anxiety&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1038/aps.2010.184&quot;&gt;depression&lt;/a&gt;. In contrast, researchers have observed mood disorders in patients with &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803645115&quot;&gt;lower concentrations of brain-derived neurotrophic factor&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2225 &lt;p&gt;Aerobic exercise also promotes the release of &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.26402/jpp.2018.1.01&quot;&gt;specific chemical messengers called neurotransmitters&lt;/a&gt;. One of these is serotonin, which – when present at increased levels – is &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20229&quot;&gt;known to reduce&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.2040216.108&quot;&gt;depression and anxiety&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.12965/jer.2040216.108&quot;&gt;improve mood&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2226 &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191640&quot;&gt;studies in fish&lt;/a&gt;, scientists have observed changes in genes responsible for increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels as well as enhanced development of the dendritic spines – protrusions on the dendrites, or elongated portions of nerve cells – after eight weeks of exercise compared with controls. This complements studies in mammals &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363&quot;&gt;where brain-derived neurotrophic factor&lt;/a&gt; is known to increase neuronal spine density. These changes have been shown to contribute to &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14851&quot;&gt;improved memory&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00093&quot;&gt;mood&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139739&quot;&gt;enhanced cognition&lt;/a&gt; in mammals. The greater spine density helps neurons build new connections and send more signals to other nerve cells. With the repetition of signals, connections can become stronger.&lt;/p&gt;
         2227 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But what’s special about swimming?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2228 &lt;p&gt;Researchers don’t yet know what swimming’s secret sauce might be. But they’re getting closer to understanding it.&lt;/p&gt;
         2229 &lt;p&gt;Swimming has long been recognized for its &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2013.03.063&quot;&gt;cardiovascular benefits&lt;/a&gt;. Because swimming involves all of the major muscle groups, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1642724/&quot;&gt;heart has to work hard&lt;/a&gt;, which &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01905549&quot;&gt;increases blood flow&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2006-923776&quot;&gt;throughout the body&lt;/a&gt;. This leads to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.03.018&quot;&gt;creation of new blood vessels&lt;/a&gt;, a process called angiogenesis. The greater blood flow can also lead to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2010.03.015&quot;&gt;large release of endorphins&lt;/a&gt; – hormones that act as a natural pain reducer throughout the body. This surge brings about the sense of euphoria that often follows exercise.&lt;/p&gt;
         2230 &lt;p&gt;Most of the research to understand how swimming affects the brain has been done in rats. Rats are a good lab model because of their &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3987984/&quot;&gt;genetic and anatomic similarity to humans&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
         2231 &lt;p&gt;In one study in rats, swimming was shown to &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103046&quot;&gt;stimulate brain pathways&lt;/a&gt; that suppress inflammation in the hippocampus and inhibit apoptosis, or cell death. The study also showed that swimming can help support neuron survival and reduce the cognitive impacts of aging. Although researchers do not yet have a way to visualize apoptosis and neuronal survival in people, they do observe similar cognitive outcomes.&lt;/p&gt;
         2232 &lt;p&gt;One of the more enticing questions is how, specifically, swimming enhances short- and long-term memory. To pinpoint how long the beneficial effects may last, &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14851&quot;&gt;researchers trained rats&lt;/a&gt; to swim for 60 minutes daily for five days per week. The team then tested the rats’ memory by having them swim through a radial arm water maze containing six arms, including one with a hidden platform.&lt;/p&gt;
         2233 &lt;p&gt;Rats got six attempts to swim freely and find the hidden platform. After just seven days of swim training, researchers saw improvements in both short- and long-term memories, based on a reduction in the errors rats made each day. The researchers suggested that this boost in cognitive function could provide a basis for using swimming as a way to repair learning and memory damage caused by neuropsychiatric diseases in humans.&lt;/p&gt;
         2234 &lt;p&gt;Although the leap from studies in rats to humans is substantial, research in people is producing &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/273185&quot;&gt;similar results&lt;/a&gt; that suggest a &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14247&quot;&gt;clear cognitive benefit&lt;/a&gt; from swimming across all ages. For instance, in one study looking at the impact of swimming on mental acuity in the elderly, researchers concluded that swimmers had &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.5530/ijcep.2018.5.4.22&quot;&gt;improved mental speed and attention&lt;/a&gt; compared with nonswimmers. However, this study is limited in its research design, since participants were not randomized and thus those who were swimmers prior to the study may have had an unfair edge.&lt;/p&gt;
         2235 &lt;p&gt;Another study compared cognition between land-based athletes and swimmers in the young adult age range. While water immersion itself did not make a difference, the researchers found that 20 minutes of moderate-intensity breaststroke swimming &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14247&quot;&gt;improved cognitive function&lt;/a&gt; in both groups.&lt;/p&gt;
         2236 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kids get a boost from swimming too&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2237 &lt;p&gt;The brain-enhancing benefits from swimming appear to also boost learning in children.&lt;/p&gt;
         2238 &lt;p&gt;Another research group recently looked at the link between physical activity and &lt;a href=&quot;https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00359&quot;&gt;how children learn new vocabulary words&lt;/a&gt;. Researchers taught children age 6-12 the names of unfamiliar objects. Then they tested their accuracy at recognizing those words after doing three activities: coloring (resting activity), swimming (aerobic activity) and a CrossFit-like exercise (anaerobic activity) for three minutes.&lt;/p&gt;
         2239 &lt;p&gt;They found that children’s accuracy was much higher for words learned following swimming compared with coloring and CrossFit, which resulted in the same level of recall. This shows a clear cognitive benefit from swimming versus anaerobic exercise, though the study does not compare swimming with other aerobic exercises. These findings imply that swimming for even short periods of time is highly beneficial to young, developing brains.&lt;/p&gt;
         2240 &lt;p&gt;The details of the time or laps required, the style of swim and what cognitive adaptations and pathways are activated by swimming are still being worked out. But neuroscientists are getting much closer to putting all the clues together.&lt;/p&gt;
         2241 &lt;p&gt;For centuries, people have been in search of a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.history.com/news/the-myth-of-ponce-de-leon-and-the-fountain-of-youth&quot;&gt;fountain of youth&lt;/a&gt;. Swimming just might be the closest we can get.&lt;/p&gt;
         2242 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/profiles/seena-mathew-1202692&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seena Mathew&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor&lt;/p&gt;
         2243 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article is republished from &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Conversation&lt;/a&gt; under a Creative Commons license. Read the &lt;a href=&quot;https://theconversation.com/swimming-gives-your-brain-a-boost-but-scientists-dont-know-yet-why-its-better-than-other-aerobic-activities-164297&quot;&gt;original article.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2244 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2245 
         2246 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/swimming-gives-your-brain-boost-%E2%80%93-scientists-don%E2%80%99t-know-why-190784&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2247 </item>
         2248  <item> <title>Is This the Start of a Russia-China Military Alliance? </title>
         2249  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190866</link>
         2250  <description>With the United States withdrawing from Afghanistan, Moscow and Beijing have become much more aware of the security situation on their own peripheries.</description>
         2251  <author>Mark Episkopos</author>
         2252  <category>Russia, China</category>
         2253  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190866</guid>
         2254  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:33 EDT</pubDate>
         2255  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2256  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Mark Episkopos&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2257 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;Russia, China, World&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2258 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206917&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/buzz/start-russia-china-military-alliance-190866&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/china_42.jpg?itok=2PSwgK8u&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2259 &lt;h3&gt;With the United States withdrawing from Afghanistan, Moscow and Beijing have become much more aware of the security situation on their own peripheries.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2260 &lt;title&gt;Is This the Start of a Russia-China Military Alliance? &lt;/title&gt;
         2261 &lt;p&gt;Russian and Chinese troops will hold a massive round of joint drills in August, the latest in a pattern of steadily deepening defense ties between Moscow and Beijing.&lt;/p&gt;
         2262 &lt;p&gt;Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian&lt;a href=&quot;https://tass.com/defense/1320697&quot;&gt; announced&lt;/a&gt; on Thursday that Russia and China will hold joint military exercises in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northern China during the first half of August. “Based on the consensus reached between China and Russia, the Russian Armed Forces will take part in the drills West/Interaction-2021 that will run in China at the beginning and in the middle of August,” Wu Qian said. The spokesman added that the drills will be held at the army base in the Chinese town of Qingtongxia.&lt;/p&gt;
         2263 &lt;p&gt;The drill’s underlying premise remains vague, with the Defense Ministry reportedly stating that the aim is to “strengthen and develop a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and China, maintain regional peace and stability and demonstrate the resolve to fight terrorism.” 10,000 military personnel will take part in the drills, which will also involve aircraft and artillery. Wu added that the drills will test joint reconnaissance, early warning, electronic warfare, and strike capabilities. Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe invited Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to attend the drills.&lt;/p&gt;
         2264 &lt;p&gt;Russia’s Defense Ministry&lt;a href=&quot;https://tass.com/defense/1320765&quot;&gt; confirmed&lt;/a&gt; the joint drills in a subsequent statement, adding that the Russian military will be represented by the Eastern Military District: “Units of a large military formation of the Eastern Military District will take part in the West/Interaction 2021 joint Russian-Chinese operational/strategic drills that will run on the territory of the People’s Republic of China in mid-August pursuant to the accords reached between the defense ministries of both countries.” China has been a consistent participant in Russia’s major Eurasian drills, including&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/vostok-2018-russia-china-making-guest-appearance-set-largest-wargames-over-three-decades&quot;&gt; Vostok-2018&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/did-russia-just-practice-fighting-war-against-nato-83301&quot;&gt; Tsentr-2019&lt;/a&gt;, and&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-russias-kavkaz-2020-war-games-matter-and-why-india-left-them-168273&quot;&gt; Kavkaz-2020&lt;/a&gt;, but experts say this is the first time that Russian forces will join a large-scale China-hosted drill on Chinese soil. These will also be the first joint drills held in China since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.&lt;/p&gt;
         2265 &lt;p&gt;The Chinese state news outlet&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1230026.shtml&quot;&gt; &lt;em&gt;Global Times&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; framed the exercises in stark geopolitical terms, averring that the upcoming drills display “a high level of mutual trust between the two militaries while also eyeing security and stability in Central Asia as the United States irresponsibly withdraws troops from Afghanistan.” The article argued that the Biden administration’s military&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/afghanistan-withdrawal-concludes-some-troops-remain-189386&quot;&gt; withdrawal&lt;/a&gt; from Afghanistan “has left a burden for neighboring countries” and that Russia and China need to “play their roles, jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, and prevent the development of terrorist forces in the region.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2266 &lt;p&gt;The contours of Russian-Chinese cooperation in&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/will-china-try-enter-afghanistan-next-189442&quot;&gt; Afghanistan&lt;/a&gt; are already beginning to take shape. Both&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/china/china-taliban-tianjin-afghanistan-intl-hnk/index.html&quot;&gt; Beijing&lt;/a&gt; and&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/feature/us-withdrawal-afghanistan-creates-uncertainty-russia-189499&quot;&gt; Moscow&lt;/a&gt; have held high-level talks with the Taliban as the militant group&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/world/asia/afghanistan-taliban-women.html&quot;&gt; inches closer&lt;/a&gt; to becoming the dominant actor in the country. Beijing has thrown its weight behind Russia’s ongoing efforts to secure the border between Afghanistan and Central Asia within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which counts both Russia and China as members.&lt;/p&gt;
         2267 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Mark Episkopos is a national security reporter for the &lt;/em&gt;National Interest.&lt;/p&gt;
         2268 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2269 
         2270 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/start-russia-china-military-alliance-190866&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2271 </item>
         2272  <item> <title>Shooting Dumb: The U.S. Military Is Facing a Smart Bomb Shortage</title>
         2273  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190846</link>
         2274  <description>Yet even if the Pentagon wants more smart bombs, the U.S. defense industry may not be able to provide them</description>
         2275  <author>Michael Peck</author>
         2276  <category>military</category>
         2277  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190846</guid>
         2278  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:22 EDT</pubDate>
         2279  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2280  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Michael Peck&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2281 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;military, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2282 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206897&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/shooting-dumb-us-military-facing-smart-bomb-shortage-190846&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/44908765754_49f8cc8cfb_o%20%281%29.jpg?itok=_4FPl-wL&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2283 &lt;h3&gt;Yet even if the Pentagon wants more smart bombs, the U.S. defense industry may not be able to provide them&lt;/h3&gt;
         2284 &lt;title&gt;Shooting Dumb: The U.S. Military Is Facing a Smart Bomb Shortage&lt;/title&gt;
         2285 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here&#039;s What You Need to Remember: &lt;/b&gt;Finally, while smart munitions are invaluable—better to expend a million-dollar missile than risk a $100 million aircraft—CRS asks whether there is always value for money. “For instance, in 2017 a U.S. ally used a $3 million Patriot missile to engage a $300 quadcopter drone,” the report notes.&lt;/p&gt;
         2286 &lt;p&gt;Since the 1980s, smart bombs have become the wonder weapons of modern warfare. One laser- or GPS-guided bomb can hit a target where a dozen dumb bombs from a World War II bomber would have missed.&lt;/p&gt;
         2287 &lt;p&gt;But precision-guided munitions, or PGMs, don’t do much good if you don’t have enough of them.&lt;/p&gt;
         2288 &lt;p&gt;“Current operations have demonstrated a large demand for all types of PGMs,” warns&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R45996.html&quot;&gt; a report by the Congressional Research Service&lt;/a&gt;, which is Congress’s research arm. “A potential high-intensity conflict would potentially require large stockpiles of all types of weapons. Several of these types of munitions—particularly JASSM, LRASM, and AARGM—are being procured in relatively small quantities, given their potential use rates in a high-intensity conflict scenario, along with the time it would take for replacement spent munitions once initial inventories are exhausted.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2289 &lt;p&gt;The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) is a cruise missile carried by B-2, B-1 and B-52 bombers, as well as F-15E and F-16 fighters. Costing about $1 million apiece, JASSM is designed to enable strike aircraft to destroy targets while keeping safely out of range of enemy air defenses. The&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/meet-lrasm-us-navys-powerful-new-missile-91706&quot;&gt; Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM)&lt;/a&gt; is an anti-ship missile launched from aircraft and surface ships, that costs about $3 million each. The Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) is an upgraded AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation (HARM) missile, which homes in on enemy radar sites. All three would probably be used intensively during a conflict against an adversary possessing sophisticated air defenses and naval forces.&lt;/p&gt;
         2290 &lt;p&gt;The CRS report coincides with a&lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/if-russia-invaded-europe-britian-would-need-bring-back-1-weapon-102817&quot;&gt; British study&lt;/a&gt; last month that warned that British ground forces would be overwhelmed by Russian artillery during a conflict in Eastern Europe. While Britain and NATO rely on air-launched PGMs, of which there is a limited number, Russia retains a huge arsenal of howitzers and battlefield rockets that make up in quantity what they may lack in precision.&lt;/p&gt;
         2291 &lt;p&gt;CRS questions whether the Pentagon even knows how many smart munitions it needs. “Congress has from time to time required DOD to assess munitions requirements, as well as to report on combatant command munitions requirements. More recently, Congress required DOD to provide an annual report on the munitions inventory, along with an unconstrained assessment of munitions requirements.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2292 &lt;p&gt;The pace of PGM acquisitions is also slow. “China and Russia have developed sophisticated systems over the past 10 years, while DOD has developed relatively few systems,” CRS warns. “Some analysts argue that these systems can exceed DOD munitions capabilities (such as range and speed). Can and, if so, should DOD develop new systems and at a pace that can match or exceed that of Chinese or Russian weapons systems?”&lt;/p&gt;
         2293 &lt;p&gt;Yet even if the Pentagon wants more smart bombs, the U.S. defense industry may not be able to provide them. “Another potential issue for Congress concerns the defense industrial base’s capacity for building PGMs, particularly for meeting increased demands for such weapons during an extended-duration, high-intensity conflict. The question is part of a larger issue of whether various parts of the U.S. defense industrial base are adequate, in an era of renewed great power competition, to meet potential wartime mobilization demands.”&lt;/p&gt;
         2294 &lt;p&gt;Then there is the question of whether America can even produce the components it needs to build smart bombs. Like many American products, PGMs use some foreign-made parts that are vulnerable to embargo or being tampered with.&lt;/p&gt;
         2295 &lt;p&gt;Finally, while smart munitions are invaluable—better to expend a million-dollar missile than risk a $100 million aircraft—CRS asks whether there is always value for money. “For instance, in 2017 a U.S. ally used a $3 million Patriot missile to engage a $300 quadcopter drone,” the report notes.&lt;/p&gt;
         2296 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/Mipeck1&quot;&gt; Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; and&lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.facebook.com/michael.peck.967&quot;&gt; Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This article first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2297 &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/44908765754/in/photolist-nifEcr-aoRoZT-dby5y9-bqCsKH-buz1iR-fgZL8F-ehmoxG-4FGpZn-bagUkH-2bqrasJ-c2WJWC-c2WJSS-B8WeK-dncsEJ-JpFY3&quot;&gt;Image&lt;/a&gt;: Flickr.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2298 
         2299 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/shooting-dumb-us-military-facing-smart-bomb-shortage-190846&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2300 </item>
         2301  <item> <title>Bad News: Social Security Covers Only 40% of Retirement Costs</title>
         2302  <link>http://nationalinterest.org/node/190799</link>
         2303  <description>Increasing healthcare costs often hurt seniors’ financial well-being more than any other factor—and more often than not, Social Security benefits won’t nearly be enough to cover such bills.</description>
         2304  <author>Ethen Kim Lieser</author>
         2305  <category>economy</category>
         2306  <guid isPermaLink="false">http://nationalinterest.org/node/190799</guid>
         2307  <pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2021 10:11 EDT</pubDate>
         2308  <source url="https://nationalinterest.org/rssfeed">The National Interest</source>
         2309  <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2310 &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;category&gt;economy, Americas&lt;/category&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2311 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/206848&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/reboot/bad-news-social-security-covers-only-40-retirement-costs-190799&quot;&gt;&lt;img typeof=&quot;foaf:Image&quot; class=&quot;resize-1440&quot; src=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/resize-1440/public/main_images/2021-07-26T090023Z_454950353_RC29SO9Z8PBF_RTRMADP_3_USA-IRAQ.JPG%20%281%29.jpg?itok=-5Hq22gf&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/a&gt; 
         2312 &lt;h3&gt;Increasing healthcare costs often hurt seniors’ financial well-being more than any other factor—and more often than not, Social Security benefits won’t nearly be enough to cover such bills.&lt;/h3&gt;
         2313 &lt;title&gt;Bad News: Social Security Covers Only 40% of Retirement Costs&lt;/title&gt;
         2314 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{5d0bc714-f0eb-498e-93ca-0b9d02ab15d8}{178}&quot; paraid=&quot;835876523&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Point: &lt;/strong&gt;In recent years, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/politics/important-don%E2%80%99t-claim-social-security-too-early-%E2%80%93-it-can%E2%80%99t-be-unclaimed-190648&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Social Security&lt;/a&gt; benefits, which were largely designed to supplement company pensions and retirement savings, are being relied on more heavily than ever to fund a comfortable retirement for millions of Americans.&lt;/p&gt;
         2315 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{5d0bc714-f0eb-498e-93ca-0b9d02ab15d8}{225}&quot; paraid=&quot;516133513&quot;&gt;However, do keep in mind that for an average Social Security beneficiary, the monthly payments will replace only about 40 percent of one’s past earned income. With this in mind, these individuals need to find a way to make up that other 60 percent if they want to keep a similar lifestyle. &lt;/p&gt;
         2316 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{5d0bc714-f0eb-498e-93ca-0b9d02ab15d8}{249}&quot; paraid=&quot;2124742739&quot;&gt;According to the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Social Security Administration&lt;/a&gt; (SSA), approximately 20 percent of married couples and 40 percent of singles receive at least 90 percent of their income from the Social Security program. &lt;/p&gt;
         2317 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{11}&quot; paraid=&quot;1791416010&quot;&gt;In an effort to help elderly Americans stay on track to achieve a comfortable retirement, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/retirement/2021/07/22/retirement-how-to-boost-income-to-supplement-social-security/47853603/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Motley Fool&lt;/a&gt;, a private financial and investing advice company, recently offered these pieces of advice.&lt;/p&gt;
         2318 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{32}&quot; paraid=&quot;1539378064&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Allot More Cash Into IRA or 401(k) &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2319 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{42}&quot; paraid=&quot;561320259&quot;&gt;If an individual can pump more money into a retirement savings plan, then “the easier it’ll be to make up for Social Security’s limited buying power,” according to Motley Fool. &lt;/p&gt;
         2320 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{74}&quot; paraid=&quot;1510798241&quot;&gt;Currently, Americans can contribute up to $19,500 annually into a 401(k) plan if they are under the age of fifty. For those over fifty, they can put in $26,000 a year. As for an IRA, one can contribute $6,000 a year if under fifty and up to $7,000 a year if over fifty.&lt;/p&gt;
         2321 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{104}&quot; paraid=&quot;2072889317&quot;&gt;“One thing you should aim to do is boost your savings rate—if not immediately, then over time. One strategy you can employ is to bank your raises for retirement since that&#039;s money you’re not used to living on anyway,” according to the company.&lt;/p&gt;
         2322 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{122}&quot; paraid=&quot;690796903&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Save In an HSA &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2323 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{128}&quot; paraid=&quot;1061191167&quot;&gt;Increasing healthcare costs often hurt seniors’ financial well-being more than any other factor—and more often than not, Social Security benefits won’t nearly be enough to cover such bills.&lt;/p&gt;
         2324 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{144}&quot; paraid=&quot;333322675&quot;&gt;“A good way to compensate is to contribute to a &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/health-savings-account-hsa/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;health savings account&lt;/a&gt;, or HSA, while you&#039;re working,” according to Motley Fool. “HSA funds can be carried into retirement and withdrawn tax-free to pay for healthcare expenses like Medicare premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.” &lt;/p&gt;
         2325 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{163}&quot; paraid=&quot;255570612&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Delay Filing for Social Security &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2326 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{173}&quot; paraid=&quot;1754965194&quot;&gt;“Social Security may only pay you enough to replace 40 percent of your former paycheck if you sign up for benefits at full retirement age,” according to the investment advice company.&lt;/p&gt;
         2327 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{187}&quot; paraid=&quot;1190912150&quot;&gt;Against this backdrop, take note that for individuals at full retirement age—currently sixty-six and two months (full retirement age will gradually rise to sixty-seven over the next several years)—the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/examplemax.html&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;maximum benefit&lt;/a&gt; amount is $3,113. But be aware that if one can wait till age seventy to file, they would be eligible for the absolute maximum benefits, which currently stands at $3,895.&lt;/p&gt;
         2328 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{214}&quot; paraid=&quot;1919103235&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based science and technology editor who has held posts at Google, &lt;/em&gt;The Korea Herald&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;Lincoln Journal Star&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;AsianWeek&lt;em&gt;, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethenlieser/&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2329 &lt;p paraeid=&quot;{d431efa6-8067-48bc-8fdc-3509b9574925}{214}&quot; paraid=&quot;1919103235&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: Reuters.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
         2330 
         2331 &lt;a href=&quot;https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/bad-news-social-security-covers-only-40-retirement-costs-190799&quot;&gt;Read full article&lt;/a&gt; </content:encoded>
         2332 </item>
         2333 </channel>
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