Bits and Bites from Around the World > A Hut on the Moon? China to Lead New Economic World Order; Man Climbs Tree to Avoid Covid Shot

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‘Mystery hut’ spotted on dark side of Moon

6 Dec, 2021 13:15

©  CNSA / Our Space

A Chinese Yutu 2 rover has spotted an odd object on the far side of the Moon, and it’s been described in initial reports by media outlets as a “mystery hut.” Yutu 2 is now poised to take a closer look at it.

The strange cube-shaped object was first spotted by the Chinese lunar expedition in November, China’s science outreach channel Our Space reported. The rover detected the object on the horizon some 262 feet (80 meters) away to the north as it was traversing the Von Kármán crater in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon.

The press office of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) published a photo of the object rising over the horizon against a background of dark skies. Few details can be ascertained from the photo, however, and the nature of the object remains unclear.

The Chinese have expressed a strong interest in investigating this “mystery hut,” and the rover is now expected to spend the next two or three lunar days – the equivalent of two or three months here on Earth – moving towards the object while avoiding the craters that pockmark the far side of the Earth’s satellite.

Yutu 2 made the first-ever landing on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019 and has been moving around the 115-mile-wide (186-km-wide) Von Kármán crater ever since. It is part of China’s fourth expedition to the Moon and the second that has involved a rover.

Will Yutu 2 find Obi won in the hut, or is it, perhaps, Putin's summer home?

Prominent US billionaire forecasts new economic world order

10 Dec, 2021 16:55

© Getty Images / jcrosemann

China is winning the economic competition against the United States, according to Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, Bridgewater Associates.

When asked by the BBC on Thursday whether China was beating the US, Dalio said: “Yes, it’s winning.”

“Their growth rate at a slow level is about twice the Western world’s growth rate at a fast level.”

The billionaire also predicted that the Chinese economy will overtake the US in size to become much more powerful.

“[China is] four times the size population-wise [than] the United States. So, if its per capita income was half the size, the [economy] as a whole would be twice the size.

“So yes, that’s the character of the environment where it’s [China is] winning and it has a lot more likelihood of being much larger, stronger in most ways.”

Dalio has been embroiled in controversy over recent comments about China. In an interview with CNBC, the businessman compared Beijing to a “strict parent” while talking about the country’s human rights record. He later said he was misunderstood and that he took China’s human rights record into account when investing there.

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+COVID-19: Telangana man climbs on tree to avoid getting vaccinated

Published:  December 08, 2021 15:27

IANS

  

Hyderabad: With the health authorities going door to door to expedite COVID-19 vaccination and achieve 100 per cent target in Telangana by the end of December, incidents of vaccine hesitancy are coming to light.

In one such incident in Telangana's Sangareddy district on Tuesday, a man climbed on a tree to avoid vaccination. When the health workers reached the house of Ghousuddin at Rejinthal village in Nyalkal mandal of Sangareddy district, he refused to take the vaccine.

Though Ghousuddin's father Sardar Ali and other family members tried to persuade him to take the jab, the 33-year-old refused to budge. When the locals insisted, the man climbed on a tree. According to eye-witnesses, he sat on the tree for one hour and got down only after the health workers had left the place.

In another incident in Sangareddy town, a group of residents refused to take the vaccine and even tried to attack the health employees who were going door to door to administer the doses. Some people in the Nalsabgadda area raised objection to the visit by the team of health workers and refused to take the vaccine. They entered into an argument with the officials and asked if it was compulsory to take the vaccine.

This led to tension in the area. The health staff informed the police that a man tried to attack them. They also staged a protest demanding action against him. A police officer who rushed there said a case would be registered if the health employees lodge a written complaint. The police officer later succeeded in persuading the residents to take the vaccine.

The health workers are going door to door across the state to ensure 100 per cent vaccination. Since 51 per cent of the eligible people have not taken the second dose despite completing the gap time between two doses, the department is trying to administer the dose by going to their doorsteps.

According to the director of public health, out of 2.77 crore targeted population, 2.58 crore (93 per cent) have taken the first dose. Only 1.37 crore (49 per cent) have taken the second dose.

Of the 33 districts, the percentage of eligible people who have taken the second dose is 40 or less in 16 districts. Kumaram Bheem district has the lowest percentage (16) of people who have taken the second dose. Only 19 per cent have received the second dose in Vikarabad and Jogu Lamba Gadwal districts.

Orban Goes Star Wars on EU Migrant Invasion

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban & Billionaire George Soros © Reuters

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has apparently called on Hungarians to beware of the power of the Sith in his latest speech on migration crisis in Europe. He also declared Eastern and Central Europe the last ‘migrant-free zone.’

"We should never underestimate the power of the dark side," the prime minister said, referencing Star Wars as he referred to the plots of those behind the “migrant invasion,” adding that they “have no solid structure but extensive networks.”

The EU and some of its key member states have been “taken hostage” by a “speculative financial Empire” through an orchestrated “invasion of new immigrants,” Orban said in Budapest on Monday, adding that this mysterious “financial power” was behind the “latest great migration of peoples” that flooded Europe with “millions of migrants.”

“This plan was developed to make Europe a mixed [multicultural] continent,” the prime minister said at an event commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary, adding that “only we managed to stand up against it,” apparently referring to the governments of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which have taken a staunch anti-migrant stance and refused to accept refugee quotas imposed by Brussels.

Orban then declared Central and Eastern Europe the continent’s last "migrant-free zone." The Hungarian leader expressed the hope that, by acting together, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia could potentially stop mass immigration.

He went on to say that the ultimate goal of the massive inflow of migrants into Europe consisted of depriving it of its Christian and national identity. The prime minister then stressed that Europe should remain "safe, fair, civic, Christian and free" and should regain the splendor he said it had before embracing multiculturalism.

Orban’s remarks concerning the “financial power” behind the mass immigration apparently referred to the Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros. The Hungarian prime minister has already accused Soros of seeking to create a "new, mixed, Muslimized Europe” in July. He also repeatedly blamed the tycoon of fueling the refugee crisis in Europe, adding that “Brussels has come under George Soros’s influence.”

Orban’s words were echoed by Hungarian MP Andras Aradszki, who claimed that “Soros and his comrades want to destroy the independence and values of nation states” by bringing migrants into Europe. He slammed the billionaire by calling him “Satan” earlier this month.

Lurching to Starboard

Orban’s latest remarks also come as Central and Eastern European countries witness a shift to the right. In Austria, two anti-migrant parties took the first two places in the parliamentary election, and are now expected to form the ruling coalition.

Just a week later, parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic ended up in a victory of an anti-establishment movement headed by a local billionaire dubbed “the Czech Donald Trump,” who is particularly known for his severe criticism of the EU’s immigration policies.

Hungary itself is engaged in a bitter row with the EU over the refugee relocation quotas, together with Poland and Slovakia. The issue dates back to the EU decision made in 2015 to rehouse some 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy over a period of two years, only around 27,700 of whom have been settled so far.

Budapest also faces pressure over the fence that covers one-quarter of the length of its borders and was designed to stop the inflow of migrants and asylum seekers at the peak of the refugee crisis. Despite repeated criticism from many European countries, Hungary refuses to remove it and claims that it has helped to cut the inflow of migrants by 99.7 percent since 2015.