Important Takeaways:
- This month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a Chinese military research team, led by assistant researcher Li Shibin from the National University of Defense Technology, has developed an innovative cooling device capable of managing the intense heat generated during hypersonic flight.
- The SCMP report says that the device operates for up to 2.5 hours and is a crucial advancement for long-duration, high-speed missions, allowing for journeys from one side of the Earth to the other. The team’s invention is detailed in the Journal of National University of Defense Technology.
- SCMP says that the cylindrical cooling system utilizes the thermal energy from aerodynamic heating to drive an active cooling cycle, ensuring the proper functioning of critical components under strenuous flight conditions.
- SCMP reported that Chinese scientists are advancing hypersonic weapon technology with a new HGV capable of exceeding Mach 15 speeds. This vehicle utilizes a “skipping stone” trajectory for extended range and maneuverability.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. Navy maintains carrier superiority over China, but Beijing has demonstrated its ability to track American carriers, raising concerns. In 2015, a Chinese Kilo-class submarine shadowed the USS Ronald Reagan for over 12 hours near Japan, highlighting China’s growing submarine capabilities.
- While China’s naval modernization is significant, the defensive architecture of U.S. carriers ensures robust protection against potential threats in the Western Pacific.
- The U.S. retains carrier superiority over its adversaries, both in the size and capabilities of its fleet.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Scientists are keeping a close eye on Kilauea and a new pulse of seismic activity.
- Although the volcano is not erupting, in the past 8 hours, 200 earthquakes have been detected in the Upper East Rift Zone.
- USGS officials say this may indicate magma being supplied to the zone.
- At this time, an eruption is not imminent.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- As many as a million jobs could vanish from US jobs data in revised numbers released this week.
- Jobs growth in the year through March was likely much lower than initially estimated, top bankers are warning.
- This could refuel concerns that the US economy is not as robust as it has appeared, and that the Federal Reserve is falling behind in its aim to lower interest rates.
- The government will release its first revisions of jobs growth data on Wednesday, and then the final numbers are due early next year.
- Goldman Sachs economists expect jobs growth for the year will be at least 600,000 weaker than current estimates – and the decline could be as much as a million.
- A downward revision of more than 501,000 would be the largest in 15 years, Bloomberg reported, and would suggest the labor market has been cooling for longer than was originally thought.
- The unemployment rate also edged higher to 4.3 percent – the highest level since October 2021.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- US job growth in the year through March was likely far less robust than initially estimated, which risks fueling concerns that the Federal Reserve is falling further behind the curve to lower interest rates.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. economists expect the government’s preliminary benchmark revisions on Wednesday to show payrolls growth in the year through March was at least 600,000 weaker than currently estimated — about 50,000 a month.
- While JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasters see a decline of about 360,000, Goldman Sachs indicates it could be as large as a million.
- There are a number of caveats in the preliminary figure, but a downward revision to employment of more than 501,000 would be the largest in 15 years and suggest the labor market has been cooling for longer — and perhaps more so — than originally thought. The final numbers are due early next year.
- Once a year, the BLS benchmarks the March payrolls level to a more accurate but less timely data source called the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which is based on state unemployment insurance tax records and covers nearly all US jobs. The release of the latest QCEW report in June already hinted at weaker payroll gains last year.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering ending his campaign to join forces with Republican rival Donald Trump, Kennedy’s running mate said in an interview posted online on Tuesday.
- The vice presidential candidate, Nicole Shanahan, said that as independents, she and Kennedy ran the risk of drawing support from would-be Trump voters and clearing the way for Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to win the November election.
- “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump,” she told Los Angeles media company Impact Theory. When asked about the timing of their decision, she did not say.
- “Not easy, not an easy decision,” she added.
- Earlier in the interview, Shanahan stated, “I did not put in tens of millions of dollars to be a spoiler candidate.”
- “I put in tens of millions of dollars to win, to fix this country, to do the right thing,” she said. “We don’t want to be a spoiler.”
- “We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot,” Shanahan added.
- Trump told CNN on Tuesday he would “certainly be open” to Kennedy playing a role in his administration if the independent candidate drops out of the race and endorses him.
- “I like him, and I respect him,” Trump told the network in an interview after a campaign stop in Michigan.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Hamas representatives told various media outlets that the provisions U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that day were a “coup against” a previous Hamas-friendly proposal Israel rejected.
- Blinken was in Israel on Monday to discuss what he called the “last opportunity” for an end to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold territory used to launch the unprecedented October 7 attack on the Israeli homeland. Reaching a ceasefire agreement this week would grant President Joe Biden and his political party a major diplomatic victory to tout during the ongoing Democratic National Convention (DNC)
- Blinken did not specify why the current talks are the “last opportunity” for a deal. Pressed by reporters on Monday, he offered only that “intervening events come along that may make things even more difficult if not impossible” if the parties wait longer to hash out an agreement.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- In the wake of a powerful earthquake shaking Russia and subsequent volcanic eruption, the country has been hit by two more seismic events.
- This magnitude 4.6 earthquake was reported in Buryatia, Russia, around 12 miles from the town of Severomuysk, while the 5.2 magnitude quake was detected 40 miles northeast of the tiny Russian island of Shikotan, just off the coast of Japan’s Hokkaido.
- These quakes occurred only days after a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky early on Sunday, occurring about 60 miles off the country’s far eastern coast. Russian news outlets reported that Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky residents experienced some of the strongest shaking they had “in a long time,” according to the Associated Press. No major damage has been reported as a result of the quake, Russian media TASS reports, but “buildings are now being examined for potential damage, with special attention paid to social facilities.”
- In the day after the M7.0 quake, over 30 aftershocks were felt around the nearby region.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Thousands of Russian troops face being cut off in what would be a major military embarrassment for Vladimir Putin’s generals.
- Russia’s army is struggling to contain a daring and ambitious Ukrainian attack that has seized so far around 483 square miles of territory, along with 92 settlements.
- Ukraine has sought to press home its attack and has shown no sign of curtailing its assault.
- Three bridges across the Seim River have been either destroyed or badly damaged, it has been claimed, with Ukraine now poised to take even more territory.
- Kyiv’s army is looking to push forward from its existing bridgehead around the Russian town of Sudzha, captured two weeks ago.
- Reports suggest that Ukrainian forces are just 1.6 miles away from the Seim River, where Russian soldiers are stuck in the Korenevsky district.
- If the Ukrainians succeed in reaching the Seim, then Russian troops south of the river will effectively be cut off from the rest of their army.
- Ukraine’s troops will also gain another sizeable chunk of Russian land, around 270 square miles.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Families of hostages received alarming messages demanding ransom payments and threatening that without action, they may never see their loved ones again.
- The messages included warnings such as: “If you don’t fight the government, you won’t see your loved ones return.”
- An initial investigation suggests that those behind the threats are hostile actors, either of Iranian origin or affiliated with Hamas.
Read the original article by clicking here.
