Month: August 2017

Tensions mount in the Korean Peninsula, as South Korea conducts bombing drills in response to its northern neighbour’s latest test missile launch

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The drums of war keep getting louder around the Korean Peninsula, as tensions mount between all sides.

The latest missile launch by North Korea has been answered by a simulated bombing raid by its southern foe.

The exercise, ordered by the South Korean president Moon Jae-in, called for a squadron of F15-K to drop MK84 ordnance on practice targets on a shooting range sited near the border.

The -K variant of the F15 series is specifically manufactured for the South Korean Air Force by Boeing. It can carry almost 14 tons worth of weapons, including the MK84 multi-purpose bomb.

Second only in size to the largest Daisy Cutter weapon, the MK84 -deemed ‘the Hammer’ by F-117 pilots who dropped it during the First Gulf War- the MK84 delivers over 400kg of explosive power to the target.

The bombing drill was intended as a show of ‘overwhelming force’ to the Pyongyang regime.

The move comes hours after North Korea conducted another test missile launch. The weapon, believed to be a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, flew over the northern Japanese territory of Hokkaido and triggered a planned response. Air-raid sirens blared, trains stopped, and people received text messages urging them to seek shelter immediately.

The missile is believed to have experienced a mid-flight malfunction and splashed down on Japanese waters.

The move marks a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict involving North Korea and the US’s allies in the area, South Korea and Japan.

 

Two next-generation Russian Kilo-class submarines set to begin operations in the Mediterranean Sea

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Two brand new, next-gen Kilo-class subs will soon join the Russian fleet currently deployed in the Mediterranean sea.

The craft, named Kolpino and Velikiy Novgorod, feature ultra-silent diesel-electric engines, and are designed to operate against surface and submerged vessels.

These new additions to the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean pack a powerful punch. Their weapon loadout includes Type 53 torpedoes -each equipped with a 700lb high explosive warhead-, mine laying capabilities, and Kalibr cruise missiles.

Kilo-class vessels first entered service in 1980. The design was intended for anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare in relatively shallow waters.

Russia maintains a large maritime force on station in the Mediterranean, including the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, from which the Soviet air force carried out a number of bombing sorties into Syria.

Scientists develop new process to induce death of cancer cells

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The fight against cancer has scored a major victory today, after researchers develop a brand new process to induce the death of cancerous cells.

The new method, known as Caspase Independent Cell Death (CICD), has achieved total eradication of tumours in experimental models.

Current standard treatments for cancer patients include chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which kill off cancer cells via apoptosis.

Apoptosis is a sort of ‘programmed cell death’, where a cell is effectively induced to kill itself. This process involves proteins called caspases, which kick off the apoptosis process by breaking down the essential components needed for cell survival. The cells shrink, and as they do, they send out distress signals which are picked up by the human immune system. Macrophages (white blood cells) are then dispatched to consume the dying cell, essentially cleaning up the body. Apoptosis is often neat and leads no trace of the cell.

Despite its efficacy, apoptosis often fails to kill off all targeted cells, and crucially, the remaining cancerous cells fail to trigger an immune response, which is the reason why some types of cancer tend to reoccur.

CICD triggers cell death in such a way that the dying cell alerts the human immune system via the release of inflammatory proteins. The body responds and kills off the cancerous cells that escaped treatment.

CICD has shown great potential by inducing complete tumour regression in experimental models, and the results suggest new ways of treating cancer more effectively in the near future.

Clinical trial shows that anti-inflammatory drug greatly reduces risk of cardiac events and the onset of cancer

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A recent clinical trial for an anti-inflammatory drug has yielded encouraging results for patients who have previously suffered a heart attack.

The drug in question, canakinumab, was tested on 10,000 patients who had already experienced a heart attack and also had inflammation biomarkers. The four year-long clinical trial, sponsored by the drug’s manufacturer Novartis, yielded extremely positive results.

The study design called for a subcutaneous canakinumab injection every three months for the active group, or statins or placebo for the control groups. Patients participating in the trial were followed for four years.

At the end of the trial period, the study team reported a remarkable 15% reduction in the reocurrence of vascular events (including non-fatal heart attacks and strokes). Typically, about 25% of patients who survive a heart attack will experience another cardiac event within five years, despite regular medication. Canakinumab induced a marked reduction of such incidence.

In addition to that, the drug was found to reduce the incidence of cancer onset by about half.

According to medical sources, the results were ‘above and beyond’ for those patients taking statins, the current standard treatment for vascular inflammation.

About 200,000 require urgent medical treatment for a cardiac event in the UK alone every year.

Tobe Hooper, creator of the seminal 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, dies aged 74

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Tobe Hooper, the director of the horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has died aged 74.

Hooper, also a screenwriter and producer, directed well known films like Poltergeist (1982), and the much-loved TV adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Salem’s Lot (1979), which saw a limited cinema release in a shortened version across Europe.

Hooper’s will always be remembered and associated with creating the horror masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Made on a tiny budget and using a bunch of students and teachers as actors, Hooper crafted an enduring nightmare that not only became a huge success at the box office, but also became one of the most influential horror films ever.

The film depicts a group of students running into a family of sadistic cannibals, including the infamous Leatherface, a brutish killer whose grunts and savage methods of abattoir-style killing and creepy face mask became the stuff of nightmares for many moviegoers the world over.

Chainsaw… fell foul of UK’s draconian censorship rules back in the 1980s and was thrown into the so-called ‘video nasties’ category, until the up-and-coming VHS market rescued the film.

Hooper continued working pretty much until the end of his life, but never again attained the same success as in his early forays into the horror genre.

The cause of Hooper’s death has not yet been released.

Trump v Kim: Warmongering rhetoric escalates between the two leaders, as the US President now retorts that North Korea ‘will regret any action it takes on Guam’

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have been playing a high stakes poker game for some time, using world peace as a bargaining chip.

A few days ago, the US President said that North Korea would be met with ‘fire and fury like the world has even seen’, if the Pyongyang regime threatened US soil.

In response to such inflammatory comments, North Korea retorted that it is planning to launch an attack on the Pacific island of Guam, which is both a popular tourist destination and home to Andersen Air Base. The 36th Wing is housed there, providing mission support duties to a large number of civilian and military aircraft. Crucially, a significant portion of the US’ long-range capability (six B-1B bomber aircraft) are based at Andersen.

Trump, incensed at such low blow, today said that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, will ‘truly regret’ any action it takes against Guam.

Against such warmongering background, China stepped up and said that, should military conflict actually break out, the country will remain neutral if North Korea strikes first. However, if the US and/or South Korea are the ones to start the conflict, China will intervene militarily to defend the current socio-political landscape in the region.

Far from shying away from provocative rhetoric, Trump resorted to Twitter to say “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”

The standoff carries dark and ominous undertones not seen since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, and the escalation of the Cold War after the Able Archer European wargames of 1983.

North Korea is profoundly resentful of the latest raft of sanctions set against the country, over its ongoing testing of missiles, and both it and the US remain locked in a high-risk game of nuclear intentions, after US intelligence sources claimed that North Korea had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a missile that could theoretically reach US soil.

Still, despite the highly charged rhetoric, there has been no discernible change in the state of readiness of US military assets, so the next steps remain unclear.

The Great Irish Mortgage Rip-off: Interest rates in Ireland far surpass the average across the Euro zone

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If you are lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) to have a mortgage, a large chunk of your monthly income is probably being gobbled up by it, preventing you from living the life you want while funding a bank’s speculation game.

The word mortgage literally means ‘death pledge’, and such device is designed to keep people in hock to a financial institution for the best part of their lives.

Mortgages are big business for these institutions, and in Ireland, they make an extra buck or two by keeping interest rates artificially higher than the average across the Euro zone.

Here, you can expect to pay an average of 3.5% variable rate, whereas in most of Europe, it stands at 1.83%, on average.

Financial gurus here say that the reason for such disparity is the higher funding costs in Ireland, and that the volatility of the Irish market makes lending a much riskier proposition.

Al-Jazeera hits back at Israel’s proposal to block the news channel’s signal in the country

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Al-Jazeera has hit back at Israel’s proposed ban of the broadcaster’s signal in the country.

The news channel, which is owned by the Qatari Government and based in the country’s capital, Doha, has faced similar bans on other Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Now, Al-Jazeera says that Israel’s position makes mockery of the country’s claim to uphold democratic values, and aligns it instead with the very countries it professes to oppose.

Al-Jazeera’s troubles began soon after the outset of the Gulf Crisis, when several neighbouring countries colluded to ban Qatar from their airspace, and also forbid the importing of any Qatari products.

Last month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Al-Jazeera of ‘inciting violence’ over its coverage of clashes between Muslim worshippers and Israeli security forces.

The Great American Eclipse: Vast swathes of the United States will be plunged into darkness on August 21

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The United States is gearing up for a once-in-a-century astronomical event.

On August 21, 2017, the Moon will be positioned between the Earth and the Sun just right, creating a total solar eclipse, the first since 1979.

The event will be visible across the entire continent as the shadow of the Moon crosses the country, but a 70 miles-wide strip will experience night-like conditions for a brief period of time.

Spanning from South Carolina to Oregon, the so-called ‘path of totality’ will be plunged into total darkness for just over two and a half minutes. Planets and stars will become visible during this time.

The event will commence at 9.05am local time on the Pacific coast (5.05pm UK), and will finish at 4.09pm local time on the east coast (9.09pm UK).

 

Actor, director, and playwright Sam Shepard dies, aged 73

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Well known actor, director, and playwright Sam Shepard has died, aged 73.

Oscar-nominated and Pulitzer-winner Shepard became known to cinema audiences with his depiction of famous test pilot Chuck Yeager in the seminal 1983 drama The Right Stuff, based on an eponymous book by Tom Wolfe.

Shepard’s creative versatility kept him writing, acting, and directing for most of his life, turning him into a leading figure in the American stage also. His 1979 play Buried Child won the Pulitzer prize and was nominated for five Tony awards.

More recently, Shepard played Colonel Garrison in the gritty war movie Black Hawk Down, and had a role in the Netflix exclusive series Bloodline.

Shepard passed away due to complications of ALS, most commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, at the age of 73.

He is survived by his son, Jesse, from his marriage to actress O-Lan Jones, and two children, Hannah and Walker, from his relationship with Jessica Lange.