US National Debt Surpasses $35 Trillion

On Monday, July 29, the United States of America's gross national debt surpassed $35 trillion for the first time. 

 

This data, released by the US Treasury Department, reflects the ongoing fiscal challenges facing the nation. According to the fiscal data available on the US Treasury's website, the total public debt stood at $35,001,278,179,208.67 and counting.

 

According to the House Budget Committee’s calculations, the debt now equates to $104,497 per person, $266,275 per household and an eye watering $483,889 per American child. Over the past 12 months, the debt increased by $2.35 trillion, with the rate of increase equating to $74,401 in new debt per second. 

 

The surpassing of the $35 trillion mark in national debt reflects the need for a comprehensive and sustainable fiscal strategy. 

 

Already, the ever-growing debt levels raise concerns about the long-term economic stability of the country. High levels of debt can lead to increased borrowing costs, crowding out of private investment, and potential constraints on future government spending.

 

But in reality, the government couldn't care less because on the same day, the Pentagon announced that the US will send an additional $1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

 

In fact, the US Department of Defense trumpeted that since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, more than $56.1 billion in “security assistance” has been given to Ukraine.

 

And according to a fact sheet released by the Pentagon on Monday, since the start of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in February 2022, the US has allocated more than $55.4 billion in aid to Ukraine. The document lists an array of munitions for air defense, artillery, mortar systems, anti-tank and anti-ship missiles, tanks, helicopters, drones, and a wide array of other battlefield hardware.

 

Russia’s ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov muses: “One can only imagine what good the resources pumped into the neo-Nazi and terrorist Kiev regime would do if they were spent on peaceful needs, on development, and on addressing the multiple social and economic issues” at home.

 

He's damn right, of course, but we all know the US doesn't give a shit! Not at all!

 

Whether Americans care to admit it or not, their country's continued spending spree is clearly unsustainable. You can stretch a rubber band farther and farther, but eventually, it will break. That's a given.

Population of Siberian Tigers in China Bounces Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The population of Siberian tigers in China is growing following a concerted effort to save the endangered species, and the construction of a national park-based system which has provided a suitable habitat for tigers. 

 

China is blessed with four subspecies of tigers: Siberian tiger (Scientific name: Panthera tigris altaica), Indochinese tiger (Scientific name: Panthera tigris corbetti), Bengal tiger (Scientific name: Panthera tigris tigris) and South China tiger (Scientific name: Panthera tigris amoyensis) making it the country with the most tiger subspecies. 

 

Over recent years, the country has continuously strengthened tiger conservation efforts through a series of effective measures, including establishing a series of natural reserves and management stations in the wild tiger distribution areas, designated important tiger habitats, strengthened habitat patrols and monitoring, the Global Times learned from National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) on Monday, which also marks International Tiger Day.

 

China has built a Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park covering an area of 1.41 million square kilometers, putting in place an integrated "sky and ground" monitoring system. 

 

The enhancement of tiger habitats has effectively protected the largest population and the only stable breeding family of tigers in China. Within the national park, the tiger population has grown to around 70, and in 2023, eight breeding families and over 20 cubs were recorded, with a distribution range exceeding 11,000 square kilometers, about 80 percent of the total area of the park. 

 

The government remain committed to improving the scientific rescue process and standards for endangered species such as the Siberian tiger, as well as establishing a system for the prevention and diagnosis of common diseases, according to the NFGA.

 

Measures have been implemented to strictly prohibit the sale, purchase, import, and export of tigers and their products, and to disrupt the poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tiger products. 

 

And China is actively engaging in international cooperation and exchanges with countries where tigers are distributed. In March this year, China and Russia jointly established a research lab on Siberian tiger conservation at Northeast Forestry University in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. The lab encompasses research areas such as wildlife ecology and management, Siberian tiger feeding and breeding, and wildlife genetics.

 

Also known as the Amur tiger, the Siberian tiger is one of the most endangered animals in the world and a rare species of the forest ecosystem mainly living in Russia's Far East and Northeast China. About 500 Siberian tigers are believed to be living in the wild, according to Xinhua News Agency.

 

China is one country that takes wildlife conservation very seriously. For sure, Malaysia can learn much from China.

Pearly-Thinaah Beat World No. 9 Pair and Smash Their Way into QFinals in Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malaysia's women doubles pair Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan smashed their way into the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics when they beat Indonesia's world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti 21-18, 21-9 in their last Group A match today. 

 

Pearly-Thinaah needed to win in straight games to make it into the last eight and rose to the occasion. 

 

The victory meant that the world No. 13 pair managed to overtake Japan's two-time former world champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara to second spot in the toughest group in the competition after the latter had earlier lost 16-21, 15-21 to China's world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan. 

 

[Earlier, Qingchen-Yifan secured a 21-16, 21-15 victory over Matsumoto-Nagahara in their final match to top Group A]. 

 

Pearly-Thinaah are only the second Malaysian women's doubles pair to make it into the last eight in the Olympics since Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

 

[Kindly note that men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei too have confirmed their tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics quarterfinals].

 

We've not won a gold medal at the Olympics. Can we depend on Pearly-Thinaah as well as Aaron-Wooi Yik and Tang Jie-Ee Wei to break the duck in Paris?

 

FYI, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, cyclist Azizulhasni Awang clinched silver, while badminton duo Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik brought home bronze. 

 

These victories were a proud continuation of the success Malaysia tasted at 2016 Rio, our most triumphant Olympics, where we secured four silvers and a bronze. Our silver medalists were Lee Chong Wei in the men’s singles category for badminton; Goh Wei Shem and Tan Wee Kiong in the men’s doubles category for badminton, Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the mixed doubles category for badminton; and Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong in the women’s synchronised 10m platform for diving. And the bronze went to Azizulhasni Awang in the men’s keirin category for cycling track.

McDonald’s Profits Plunge 12%

Fast food giant McDonald's vowed Monday to win back consumers with better value offerings after they reported a rare sales decline that the company partly attributed to an exodus of inflation-weary low-income consumers.

 

McDonald’s worldwide sales fell 1 percent in the April-June period, the first drop since the last quarter of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic and government restrictions closed businesses and kept millions of people at home. 

 

For much of the recent period of rising consumer prices, McDonald's garnered strong sales gains from diners who "traded down" to the fast food giant from more expensive rivals. But the market had, however, shifted in the most recent period. 

 

"We are seeing trade down, but what we're seeing is that the loss of the low-income consumers is greater than the trade-down benefit", said Chief Executive Christopher Kempczinski on a conference call. "You're seeing with that low-income consumer, in many cases, they're dropping out of the market, eating at home and finding other ways to economise". 

 

Profits for the quarter ending June 30 were $2.0 billion, down 12 percent. And revenues were essentially flat at $6.5 billion.

 

In their home market of the United States, McDonald's same-store sales fell nearly 1%. They experienced a drop in guest counts, although results were bolstered somewhat by digital and delivery growth. Outlets in so-called international developmental licensed markets, which are operated by licensees, saw a steeper decline, with sales falling 1.3 percent amid weak consumer sentiment in China and the drag from the Israel-Gaza war, which has seen consumers boycott the chain. 

 

Executives cautioned that the weakness from the latest quarter was extending so far into the third quarter. 👍👍👍

Thailand Offers New Hope for Tigers

Today is International Tiger Day and there’s good news for the big cats in Thailand. 

 

The tiger population in the country’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) – an 18,000-square-kilometer (6,950-square-mile) area of forest encompassing 11 national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries – is estimated to have more than tripled between 2007 and 2023, from 41 to 143. 

 

The remarkable comeback was observed in a new collaborative study "Rigorous assessment of a unique tiger recovery in Southeast Asia based on photographic capture-recapture modeling of population dynamics" led by Thailand’s Department of National Parks and the Wildlife Conservation Society, newly published online in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 53, September 2024, e03016.

 

It’s not just tigers bouncing back: a companion study, published alongside the tiger assessment, found that populations of threatened ungulate species – hoofed mammals like deer and wild cattle, that are the main prey for the tigers – have doubled in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, one of three protected areas, along with Thung Yai East and Thung Yai West, in the forest complex. 

 

This increase reflects “more effective management” of the forest and is the result of more than a decade of conservation interventions, says Pornkamol Jornburom (right), director of WCS Thailand and one of the wildlife biologists working on the new study. 

 

“This forest complex is the home of many endangered species”, she adds. She hopes WEFCOM can be “a role model for conservation and recovery of the wildlife population”. 

 

WEFCOM represents the biggest forest area in Thailand, and the largest forest track in mainland Southeast Asia, according to WCS and is a hugely important habitat, not just for tigers, but endangered animals including Asian elephants, hornbills, and banteng. 

 

The complex has a huge diversity of species too: 150 mammals, 490 birds and 90 reptiles. 

 

It’s also a relatively uncommon landscape in the region. Most tiger conservation focuses on protecting small, isolated areas, but WEFCOM connects multiple national parks and protected areas through forest corridors across a wide expanse – vital for tigers, which require up to 300 square kilometers (115 square miles) of habitat to roam. 

 

The DNP began working with WCS to “build and strengthen site-based protection”, says Jornburom. Patrol teams began using GPS to precisely identify locations, and a standardized reporting form to collect data has helped to identify patrol routes, distribution of wildlife, and sites of illegal activity. 

 

In 2007, conservationists installed camera traps which built up a data set that researchers could use for their population assessment in the current study across the three main protected areas.

 

Individual tigers can be identified by their unique stripes, similar to a human fingerprint. 

 

Jornburom says the 250% increase in tigers, as well as the twofold increase in banteng (Scientific name: Bos javanicus) and sambar deer (Scientific name: Rusa unicolor) is proof that the increased patrols are working. 

 

“When we conserve tigers, it actually leads to conserving many other species: not only the prey, but also the habitat”, she says. 

 

While Thailand’s success story offers hope, the outlook across the region is not so optimistic. Once widespread across Southeast Asia, tigers became extinct in Singapore, Java and Bali in the 20th century, and in recent years have also disappeared from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the wild. This has left small, isolated tiger populations in Myanmar, Indonesian Sumatra, and peninsular Malaysia – the latter of which is worrying conservationists after a recent spate of tiger deaths. 

 

Tigers are a “conservation-dependent species” that require constant interventions to protect them from the threat of hunting and poaching, says Stuart Chapman, leader of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. 

 

In Southeast Asia, their numbers are so low that they’ve reached a “tipping point” where accidents, disease or conflict can cause populations to go extinct, he adds. “Every tiger counts, particularly when populations get to such low levels that recovery then depends on no additional threats coming in that can potentially wipe them out”. 

 

Chapman, who was not part of the study, says that the research from WEFCOM is a “historic” moment for the species, and shows that “with good habitat management and healthy prey populations, results are possible”. 

 

According to the DNP’s most recent survey, there are an estimated 179 to 223 adult tigers in the wild in Thailand, up from 148 to 189 tigers in 2022. 

 

WEFCOM currently boasts most of the country’s tiger population, and has the potential to support up to 2,000 tigers, according to WCS. However, this depends on factors like effective protection, prey availability, and community engagement, says Jornburom, adding: “We also need more technology to help and support the (rangers) on the ground”. 

 

She is optimistic that with more patrols and funding, the population in WEFCOM can continue to grow – and hopes that other national parks will adopt the model to save their tiger populations too. 

 

“I think it’s a very inspiring model of intervention for other landscapes and protected areas – not only in Thailand, but also our neighboring countries”. 

 

Given that Malaysia's tiger population is dire, it's time we learn from the Thais.

Cheetah Cubs Born in Saudi Arabia After 40 years of Extinction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four small furry bundles with distinctive ginger and black-spotted fur, dark tear tracks and coal-black noses have raised hope of a once extinct species returning to its historic hunting grounds on the Arabian Peninsula. 

 

The iconic big cats, speed racers of the animal kingdom, have become a focus of attention in Saudi Arabia ever since the discovery of mummified cheetahs in caves in the north of the country. 

 

The finds, which ranged in age from 4,000 to as recent as 120 years, proved that the animals, primarily found in eastern and southern Africa, once called this more northerly region home. The realization kick-started the country’s Cheetah Conservation Program to bring back the cats to their historic Arabian range. 

 

The initiative, to captive breed cheetahs while at the same time conducting an analysis of their environmental needs and implementing appropriate habitat preservation, has had its first major success with the birth of these healthy cubs.

 

Set up by the National Center for Wildlife, the Program was inaugurated last year. The NCW oversee scientific research and field studies and devise strategies and conservation projects to maintain Saudi Arabia’s rich biodiversity for future generations. 

 

The team from NCW that studied the mummified cats was able to not only outline the timeline of the extinction of cheetahs in Saudi Arabia, to prove that their disappearance is relatively recent, but also to extract genetic samples that have been compared to cheetahs in other parts of the world to establish the cats as a distinct sub-species, known as the Asiatic cheetah (Scientific name: Acinonyx jubatus venaticus). It is the hope of the scientists that cheetahs from the NCW facility will eventually be returned to the wild to repopulate the Peninsula.

 

Next steps include identifying suitable protected areas for reintroduction, working on community partnerships to safeguard the animals from human activity once they have been released and then, after reintroduction, monitoring the cats and ensuring the establishment of a self-sustaining breeding population. 

 

The four youngsters currently learning their big cat ways from their mother are going to be unknowing pioneers in a step forward, however small, in Asiatic cheetah conservation.

Pearly-Thinaah Stun World No. 6 Pair in Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malaysia's women's pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan put their Paris Olympics campaign back on track when they stunned Japan's world No. 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara today. 

 

Pearly-Thinaah outlasted the 2018 and 2019 world champions 18-21, 21-15, 21-16 in 73 minutes to mark their first victory in the highly-competitive Group A which also has China's world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan and Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti. 

 

It was a superb response from the world No. 13 Malaysian duo after having lost to top seeds Qing Chen-Yi Fan in their opening match yesterday. A second defeat would have ended their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.

 

The pair will next face Indonesia's world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti on Tuesday and need another win to seal the last eight spot. Only the top two pairs in the group advance to the last eight.

 

👇This was a supercomputer prediction made on the Olympic Games Paris 2024 (July 26–August 11, 2024). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It'll be interesting to know if this turns out correct. I'm betting China will do much better than the forecast. At least a hundred medals.

Sharks off Brazil Coast Test Positive for Cocaine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirteen Brazilian sharpnose sharks (Scientific name: Rhizoprionodon lalandii) caught off Rio de Janeiro have tested positive for cocaine, marine biologists who carried out the tests have reported. 

 

High concentrations of cocaine were found in the sharks’ muscles and livers by researchers at the Rio de Janeiro-based Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Benzoylecgonine was also detected in the same sharks. Benzoylecgonine is one of the byproducts produced when cocaine is consumed.

 

The 13 sharks were three males and 10 females, five of which were pregnant. All the sharks were captured from fishing boats off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro from September 2021 to August last year. 

 

Samples were taken from the sharks, and the concentration of cocaine was found to be more than 100 times those previously reported in any other aquatic animals, according to the study.

 

Although further research is needed, the study suggests this is mostly down to more people using cocaine. A rise in cocaine use in the region, coupled with an inadequate drainage system, has caused higher quantities of cocaine to be present in seawater.

 

The study states: “Global COC [cocaine] consumption has increased exponentially in the last decades, as highlighted in the United Nations World Drug Report. About 22% (4.8 million) of the estimated 22 million COC users worldwide reside in South America as of 2021, with Brazil emerging as the second largest consumer market in this area”. 

 

The study added that sewage analysis covering 60 million people in 37 countries from 2011 to 2017 had consistently revealed the presence of cocaine in aquatic environments.

 

Experts warn of potential health effects on sharks, such as impaired vision affecting hunting abilities, but no evidence yet of altered behavior due to cocaine exposure.

 

The cat’s out of the bag. 

 

On the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, fans were shocked to learn that their beloved cat-inspired character is, in fact, not a feline at all. 

 

“Hello Kitty is not a cat”, Jill Koch, the senior vice president of marketing and brand management at Sanrio, the creators of the iconic cartoon, told Today. “She’s actually a little girl”. 

 

In fact, she’s a tiny girl – who “weighs three apples” and stands five apples tall – raised in the London suburbs with her twin sister Mimmy, their parents and even her own pet cat.

 

But fans of the widely celebrated character are not so convinced of this fact, while some were gobsmacked that Hello Kitty resided in the UK.

 

“She has cat ears and whiskers???” one dismayed user wrote on TikTok.

 

“If she has ears like a cat, has whiskers like a cat, she is probably just a little girl”, quipped another. 

 

“So she has whiskers, ears, and is named ‘Kitty,’ but is actually human? What?” an aghast viewer commented. 

 

“She’s British?!” someone else said.

 

According to anthropologist and author Christine R Yano, “The Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain” at the time of Hello Kitty’s conception, she previously told the Los Angeles Times. 

 

“They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So, the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time”, she explained, adding that Hello Kitty is, in fact, “a little girl”. 

 

Whatever lah! Anyway, we can expect a slew of festivities and plentiful memorabilia to celebrate this year!

Woke Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris

Olympics opening ceremonies typically feature culture. And the 2024 Summer Olympics is no different. 

 

But it's not what you would expect! The XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024 promotes a different type of culture. 

 

On Friday, a performance which parodied Leonardo Da Vinci's famous fresco 'The Last Supper' featuring drag queens in the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris sparked outright indignation and fury among Christians while supporters praised its message of tolerance. 

 

It was a recreation of the well-known biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles sharing a last meal before crucifixion, but with a group of drag queens, a transgender model and a naked singer painted blue all over, and with only vines covering his genitals – derisively referred to as "Blue Scrotum" on social media platforms – and who supposedly represented the Greek god of wine Dionysus. 

 

On X, @VincentOshana described it as an "abomination": "The opening ceremony of the Olympics mocked Jesus by recreating 'The Last Supper' with drag queens, a gay Smurf, and a few children sprinkled in there just for fun. Clearly overt pagan, satanic symbolism".

 

Gustavo Marval @gnmarval added: "They’re not even hiding it anymore". 

 

Florida Cracker @realfloridacrac: "Wtf is going on in the world?"

 

MPBe1 @bellone_melissa: "Honestly my eyes are tired of seeing these perversions constantly".

 

The Catholic church in France too criticised the segment. 

 

"This ceremony has unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we very deeply deplore", the Conference of French bishops said in a statement.

 

All I can say is that the Frenchies have entirely given themselves over to debauchery.

 

Note that France, while proud of its rich Catholic heritage, has a long tradition of secularism and anti-clericalism. Blasphemy is not only legal, but also considered by many as an essential pillar of freedom of speech in a democratic society.

 

As Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the opening ceremony, said: "We are lucky in France to live in a free country".

Pearly-Thinaah Go Down Fighting to World No. 1 Pair in Paris

Malaysian women's pair Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan put up a good fight – but it was not enough to overcome China's world No. 1 Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan, the reigning Olympics silver medallists, at the Paris Olympics today. 

 

Pearly-Thinaah went down 21-17, 22-20 for an opening defeat in Group A. 

 

The world No. 13 Malaysians must now win their remaining two matches to advance to the knockout round. 

 

Pearly-Thinaah will seek to bounce back when they take on Japan's world No. 6 Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara tomorrow. 

 

In case you're interested to know, China won the first gold medal of the 2024 Olympics in mixed team air rifle shooting. 

 

And China's second gold medal came from the women’s synchronised 3m springboard event.

 

I expect China to do well!

Chimpanzees Gesture Back And Forth Quickly As In Human Conversations

When people are having a conversation, they rapidly take turns speaking and sometimes even interrupt. 

Now researchers who have collected the largest ever dataset of chimpanzee “conversations” – from hand movements to lunging or even pirouetting – have found that they use rapid gestures to communicate with one another. The findings are published July 22, 2024, in the journal Current Biology, Volume 34, Issue 14.

“While human languages are incredibly diverse, a hallmark we all share is that our conversations are structured with fast-paced turns of just 200 milliseconds on average”, said Catherine Hobaiter (right) at the University of St Andrews, UK. “But it was an open question whether this was uniquely human, or if other animals share this structure”. 

“We found that the timing of chimpanzee gesture and human conversational turn-taking is similar and very fast, which suggests that similar evolutionary mechanisms are driving these social, communicative interactions”, says Gal Badihi (right), the study’s first author.

The researchers knew that human conversations follow a similar pattern across people living in places and cultures all over the world. They wanted to know if the same communicative structure also exists in chimpanzees (Scientific name: Pan troglodytes) even though they communicate through gestures rather than through speech. To find out, they collected data on chimpanzee “conversations” across five wild communities in East Africa. 

Altogether, they collected data on more than 8,500 gestures for 252 individuals. They measured the timing of turn-taking and conversational patterns. They found that 14% of communicative interactions included an exchange of gestures between two interacting individuals. Most of the exchanges included a two-part exchange, but some included up to seven parts. 

Overall, the data reveal a similar timing to human conversation, with short pauses between a gesture and a gestural response at about 120 milliseconds. Behavioral responses to gestures were slower. 

“The similarities to human conversations reinforce the description of these interactions as true gestural exchanges, in which the gestures produced in response are contingent on those in the previous turn”, the researchers write. 

“We did see a little variation among different chimp communities, which again matches what we see in people where there are slight cultural variations in conversation pace: some cultures have slower or faster talkers”, Badihi says. 

“Fascinatingly, they seem to share both our universal timing, and subtle cultural differences”, says Hobaiter. “In humans, it is the Danish who are ‘slower’ responders, and in Eastern chimpanzees that’s the Sonso community in Uganda”.

This correspondence between human and chimpanzee face-to-face communication points to shared underlying rules in communication, the researchers say. They note that these structures could trace back to shared ancestral mechanisms. 

It’s also possible that chimpanzees and humans arrived at similar strategies to enhance coordinated interactions and manage competition for communicative “space”. The findings suggest that human communication may not be as unique as one might think. 

“It shows that other social species don’t need language to engage in close-range communicative exchanges with quick response time”, Badihi says. “Human conversations may share similar evolutionary history or trajectories to the communication systems of other species suggesting that this type of communication is not unique to humans but more widespread in social animals”. 

In future studies, the researchers say they want to explore why chimpanzees have these conversations to begin with. They think chimpanzees often rely on gestures to ask something of one another. 

“We still don’t know when these conversational structures evolved, or why!” Hobaiter says. “To get at that question we need to explore communication in more distantly related species – so that we can work out if these are an ape-characteristic, or ones that we share with other highly social species, such as elephants or ravens”.

Stuck in Space for 51 Days Already

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Boeing Starliner has been stuck in space for 51 days and NASA are still uncertain on how to bring back the two stranded astronauts to Earth. Or even when.

 

That's Boeing for you!

 

US-based credit rating agency Fitch have warned of an imminent default in Ukraine, announcing in a statement on Wednesday that they had further downgraded Kiev’s credit rating. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The agency said the move from ‘CC’ to ‘C’ reflects their view that a default or default-like process for Ukraine has already begun, after Kiev reached an agreement in principle with a band of foreign investors to restructure its $20 billion debt. 

 

The Ukrainian government on Monday struck a preliminary deal with the bondholders’ committee on restructuring terms. The proposal provided a 37% nominal haircut on Ukraine’s outstanding international bonds, saving Kiev $11.4 billion in payments over the next three years. 

 

Ukraine will issue new Eurobonds in return. The move comes after the Ukrainian parliament approved legislation last week allowing the government to suspend debt payments for three months and enter a debt default, while the restructuring agreement with investors is finalized. 

 

Fitch have also predicted the state deficit to remain high at 17.1% of Ukraine’s GDP this year, noting defense spending amounted to 31.3% of GDP in 2023. And they project government debt to surge to 92.5% of the country’s GDP in 2024.

Kamala Harris is On a Roll

Out of the blue, US Vice President Kamala Harris has broken President Joe Biden's record in a new poll, giving Democrats their best chance of defeating Donald Trump yet.

 

A Morning Consult poll released Thursday shows Harris leading the former President 46 percent to 45 percent – the highest level of support recorded for Democrats since tracking began in 2022. She also leads Trump 40 percent to 38 percent among independent voters. 

 

"Her level of support at the start of her campaign exceeds the highest level of support we gauged for Biden", the pollsters alleged. 

 

The survey results are the first from Morning Consult since Biden announced Sunday that he would withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Harris as the Democratic nominee. The pollsters update their 2024 tracking page on a weekly basis. 

 

In fact, it is even claimed that Harris (left) is a unifying force for the Democratic Party. The percentage of Democrats has more than doubled since last month, with nearly 2 in 3 now saying they support Harris at the top of the ticket. Wow, Harris is on a roll!

 

Recent polls show that she's helped close the "enthusiasm gap" that has plagued Democrats this election cycle. Not only has excitement jumped among Democratic voters, but they are also now more likely than their Republican counterparts – 27 percent to 24 percent – to say they're "much more motivated" to participate in the political processes this year.

 

Harris is sure to fancy her chances of beating Trump this November!

The 101 on Your Fave Malaysian Durians

Sea Turtle Rock Mural Becomes Local Sensation

A ginormous sea turtle has been delightfully captivating beachgoers near the shore of Pantai Tanjung Pelindung near Kuantan, Pahang where hundreds turn up daily to get close to capture pictures. 

 

However, there is no issue of human-animal conflict as the gigantic "beached" sea turtle is here to stay as the stunning sea creature look-alike is drawn on two huge turtle-shaped rocks. 

 

The "masterpiece" on the life-sized rock was transformed by four Kuantan muralists namely Amir Faruk, Kamal Idris, Azri Azahar and Muhd Ikmal Manan, who spent five days completing the job. 

 

Team leader Amir said they never expected the mural to become viral on social media with tons of reposting and attracting such a huge crowd to gather at the beach.

 

It was reported that former Kuantan City Council mayor Hamdan Hussin, who is now the Pahang Land and Mines office director who proposed the idea after he noticed the perfectly shaped "head" and "body" formed on the rocks. He goes walking at the beach regularly.

 

And this is the first time the artists had used the spray-paint technique on rocks. The mural measuring about 20m long and 10m in height was completed on July 16. 

 

It has been said that to capture a perfect picture of the sea turtle, visitors have to position themselves at an ideal location along the shore to capture the full image of the sea creature. 

 

The turtle mural project was coordinated with Tourism Pahang – and it is hoped that the once less popular beach becomes a tourist attraction.