@yogthos And then the upper stage blew up, creating a debris field of more than 700 objects that now threatens satellites in the same orbit: reuters.com/technology/space/c…
China has a really bad track record with their stages. They have launch sites where they drop the first stages on land - sometimes hitting or almost hitting villages (which is really bad as many of these stages use toxic propellants). Their upper stages re-enter the atmosphere in an uncontrolled way (most other rocket launchers do this in a controlled way and let them re-enter at "Point Nemo").
Yeah, it says the Russian Orthodox is separate from the larger Eastern Orthodox Church, and they’re a minority in Ukraine compared to the other Orthodox Christians. So I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal. Hopefully they just target bishops or whatever and change a few signs, and don’t really mess with people’s individual churches and priests.
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
Reuters - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Reuters:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Very High - United Kingdom
> Wikipedia about this source
I think it’s interesting is that so many autocracies keep up the pretense of democratic and rules-based governance; even North Korea has elections. Same with political trials like you see in so many authoritarian regimes, from modern Russia or China to Nazi Germany – it’s like autocrats need to be able to pretend to themselves that the system they run is fair and just, and that they’re not just tyrants who govern with impunity and enforce rules arbitrarily.
What I don’t get is why? Why bother when it’s immediately obvious to everyone that it’s all a sham? Why not drop the pretense, which everybody knows is just a pretense?
One, it does give some room to dismiss accusations, even if just rhetorically.
Two, when you are able to coerce your subjects to say the sky is green, the sun sets in the East, and Dear Leader won the election, its an exercise of power over them. It feeds the ego and it becomes a litmus test for the disloyal.
Given what happened in Rwanda 30 years ago, and given that we haven’t seen a repeat since then, I think Kagame is doing a good job. I’m not sure how I feel about him being in power for so long, but I also don’t think we’re in the best place to judge (the West) given how abysmally we failed Rwanda over the past 200 years.
reuters.com
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