🇩🇪🗳📃 — Key notes about the Thuringian elections:

➡️ In Thuringia, where the most radical sector of the party is based, the AfD has just won the first state election in the party's history.

➡️ For the first time since 1933, a Nationalist Party is set to have been elected to control a German region

➡️ This marks the first time since World War II that a German State east of the Zonengrenze is under control of German nationalists

➡️ If, indeed, AfD takes power in Thuringia, it will be, as expected so far, none other than Bjorn Hocke, the most right-wing figure in post-Cold War German mainstream politics to be sworn in as local Governor

We made a quick post about Mr. Hocke a year ago, but recapitulating:

📝 His grandparents were some of the millions of ethnic Germans who were expelled from East Prussia during the Post-WW2, today divided and part of Russian Federation, Poland and Lithuania, by the Soviet & Polish authorities

📝 Hocke defends the replacement of Post-WW2 Liberal German values for a Nationalism-based Prussian virtues, and promotes very natalist views, specifically the idea of "three-child family as a political and social model."

📝 Hocke was the figure behind the idea of Re-migration and large scale deportations out of Germany, which caused a controversy after holding a meeting with major politicians, activists and even large corporation owners to promote this idea, causing AfD to be banned from the ID Party group in EU for "Right-wing extremism" and triggering a wave of mass protests calling for the outlawing of AfD

📝 German media claims that Mr. Hocke is closely tied to National-Socialist Movements all over Germany, specially the National Democratic Party of Germany, the "most significant neo-NS party to emerge after 1945"

📝 In 2014, talking to party colleagues, Hocke advocated the abolition of section 86 of the German Criminal Code, which "outlaws spread of propaganda by unconstitutional organizations" (As German Ultranationalist groups) and section 130 of the German Criminal Code, which "criminalizes incitement to hatred towards other groups". This, technically, would make Holocaust Denial and Anti-Muslim hate speech legal in Germany

📝 In January 2017, Mr Hocke caused a major controversy in German society and even inside AfD for "calling to the Monument in Memory to the Murdered Jews of Europe to be entirely demolished and torn apart", which almost caused to him to be banned from AfD by the then-Party President Frauke Petry, which later left the party for saying that "Right-wing radicalism within the party was hopeless big"

📝 In 2023, a movement started by the German left, which considers him as the "Hitler of 21st Century", started a petition to revoke Höcke's eligibility to run for parliament based on article 18 of the German Federal Constitution, because supposedly Höcke is too dangerous to be left close to power. The petition gathered 1.7 Million signatures.

🇨🇳🛰🇺🇸 Chinese researchers assess U.S. space situational awareness, call for boost in China’s capabilities

Chinese researchers are calling for improved space situational awareness, following an assessment of U.S. capabilities and trends.

An article titled “A Review of Space Situational Awareness Satellites: Silentbarker,” published in the journal ACMSR, provides an in-depth review of the development, status and future trends of space situational awareness (SSA) satellites.

It focuses in particular on four significant programs developed by the United States. These are the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), the Space-Based Surveillance System (SBSS), the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) and Silentbarker.

In light of the assessment, the authors, many of whom are attached to the Space Engineering University in Beijing, call for expanded Chinese SSA.

“The impact of space situational awareness satellites extends far beyond the protection of space assets to a wide range of other applications,” the report states.

Space Situational Awareness refers to the ability to detect, track, catalog, and understand objects and activities in outer space.

SSA can help “monitor and maintain national space security, thereby promoting national defense security and foreign policy implementation,” the report states, while adding that SSA can support international cooperation, and, on the commercial front, optimize the location and orbit of satellites. It also outlines benefits for academic purposes.

China is already at work in this area, says Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation.

“China is developing a sophisticated network of ground-based optical telescopes and radars for detecting, tracking, and characterizing space objects,” Samson told SpaceNews.

“Like the United States and Russia, several of the Chinese SSA radars also serve missile warning functions. While China lacks an extensive network of SSA tracking assets outside its borders, it does have a fleet of tracking ships and is developing relationships with countries that may host future sensors,” Samson says.

“Since 2010, China has deployed several satellites capable of conducting RPO on orbit, which likely aids in its ability to characterize and collect intelligence on foreign satellites.”

However, the researchers are calling for greater commercial capabilities. These can assist optimizing satellite operations, improving service coverage, and managing space traffic.

The U.S. is currently leading the way, the article says. It notes that its “deployed satellites and mature technology provide many learning opportunities for other countries.”

🔗 https://spacenews.com/chinese-researchers-assess-u-s-space-situational-awareness-call-for-boost-in-chinas-capabilities/

🇩🇪🗳❗️ — In Saxony State, according to the State election projections by Research Group Elections/ZDF, 6:30 p.m, the Christian Democratic CDU leads over the German Nationalist AfD by only 0.6%!

✝️ CDU (Center-Right | Christian Democrats | EPP)

➡️ 31,9% (-0,2)

🇩🇪 AfD (Far-Right | Right-wing Nationalist | ESN)

31,3% (+3,8)

🇩🇪 BSW (Left | Left-wing populists | Non-Inscrits):

11,6% (NEU)

🌹 SPD (Center-Left | Social-Democrats | PES):

7,8% (+0,1)

🌳 GREENS (Center-Left | Green politics | Greens/EFA):

5,2% (-3,4)

✊ Left Party (Left | Democratic Socialists| GUE/NGL):

4,5% (-5,9)

Other:

7.7% (-6.0)

🔗 Deutschland Wählt (@Wahlen_DE)

🇯🇵🔪❗️ — The president of Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Yamaha Motors Yoshihiro Hidaka was stabbed, his 33-year-old daughter is suspected of the assassination attempt, Kyodo writes.

➡️ Hidaka lived with his daughter, she did not work. After the assassination attempt, she was detained.

➡️ Details of the incident, as well as possible motives for the assassination attempt, are not specified.

🇫🇮🇷🇺📡 — The Finnish Transport and Communications Authority claims that there has been a significant increase in GPS failures in the Gulf of Finland.

➡️ Helsingin Sanomat previously wrote that the number of failures this year is already three times higher than in the whole of 2023, with most of them occurring near the border with Russia.

🇷🇺🪖📈❗️ — On yesterday, September 16, 2024 AD, Russian media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, by an official decree, increased the staffing level of the Armed Forces to 2 million 389 thousand people, including now 1.5 million military personnel.

➡️ The previous time the staffing level was increased in December 2023, it was 2,209,130 ​​people, including 1,320,000 military personnel.

🏴‍☠️⌛💥🇻🇪 — Erik Prince, the creator of the private army Blackwater, has shared a website (http://yacasivenezuela.com) featuring a countdown timer and a powerful message for the people of Venezuela.

"VENEZUELA IS ABOUT TO CHANGE ITS COURSE. In a very short time, you will be able to witness and be a protagonist in the movement that will fulfill the will of the Venezuelan people. The regime's game is over: this time, it's DIFFERENT. Almost There, Venezuela."

@realErikDPrince 🖇

🏴‍☠️💥🇻🇪🇻🇪 — Erik Prince, the creator of the private army Blackwater, has denounced that Nicolás Maduro has stolen three elections in Venezuela, claiming that in the last one, the opposition received 70% of the votes, excluding Venezuelans abroad

🛠 Prince labeled the regime as a "Marxist-socialist dictatorship" and noted that Venezuelans are eager to receive international help to regain their freedom.

🇺🇸💰 He also revealed that he requested the Biden Administration to increase the reward for the capture of Maduro and his allies to 100 million dollars per person, using confiscated Venezuelan funds.

🏴‍☠️💥🇻🇪🇻🇪 — Erik Prince, the creator of the private army Blackwater, appears in a video requesting donations through the platform 'Ya Casi Venezuela' to finance a paramilitary operation aimed at overthrowing the leader of the Venezuelan regime, Nicolás Maduro.

@yacasivenezuela 🖇

#BREAKING

🇱🇧⚠️📞 — Lebanon’s Health Ministry urges all citizens who own Pager communication devices to immediately dispose of them and throw them away after a large scale Israeli cyberattack caused hundreds of such devices to explode

🥇📈🚀Yesterday, 16 September 2024, GOLD has reached a new All Time High, $2589.7/oz

@FelipeChannel

🇮🇱🇱🇧📡📉 — Local lebanese netizens report failures and disruptions on mobile and GPS networks following the pager explosions