The United States Department of Defense has purchased a series of assets from SpaceX, the space flight and satellite company founded and controlled by Elon Musk, in order to prevent the businessman from cutting off communications with the Ukrainian Armed Forces at will. as it did in 2022 to stop the advance of Kiev's forces in the Kherson region and to abort an attack with underwater drones against the Russian Black Sea fleet, in Crimea.

The decision of the United States Department of Defense had been made public in June, although it has now come to light again after the unofficial biography of Musk written by journalist Walter Isaacson has revealed what SpaceX did in Kherson and Crimea. Since the chapter of the book that tells how Musk interrupted Ukrainian communications can be accessed, both the biographer and the biographer have launched a race of contradictory statements to try to explain the decision.

On Wednesday, Musk was questioned by a journalist from the British television network Sky who asked him in Washington: “Have your ego and ignorance cost lives in Ukraine?” Musk, who always stands out for giving his opinion on everything – from the war in Ukraine to the rescue of children trapped in a cave in Thailand or gender change operations – looked ahead and did not respond.

The operation affects the Starlink network, owned by SpaceX, which has more than 4,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth and provides data in remote places by not requiring ground antennas.. The amount that the Pentagon has paid for the systems has not been made public. But it's probably a good deal for the world's largest spaceflight company, SpaceX, which in 2022 put more cargo into orbit than all the space agencies of the rest of the world's states combined..

The operation also reveals how Musk has the State as a client and as a subsidizer: less than three years ago, Starlink requested a subsidy of 886 million dollars (831 million euros). When he was denied, he went to court.

On Wednesday, at a conference of high-tech leaders who share their ideas and, in several cases, are investors in their companies – a much friendlier environment than the meeting with the British journalist – Musk recovered the floor to give, once more, lessons of geopolitics when he said that the situation of Taiwan “is similar to that of Hawaii, because it is a part of China that, arbitrarily, is not part of China, fundamentally because the United States has prevented any type of reunification”. The businessman's phrase has not, predictably, gone down well with Taiwan, whose Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, responded this Thursday with a clear “listen: Taiwan is not China.”. And it's certainly not for sale.”

China only officially annexed Taiwan in the late 17th century – the island had previously been under Chinese influence, but had also been independent and even part of the Spanish and Dutch empires – and has not exercised sovereignty over it since 1895.

Musk has a very great economic interest in China. The electric car manufacturer that he directs and of which he is the main shareholder, Tesla, obtained 31% of its income and 21% of its profits from its sales in China in the first quarter of the year.. Musk has celebrated the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and his dependence on Beijing could be, more than his alleged sympathy for Russia, the cause of his relative hostility towards Ukraine..

Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has been charged with three counts of making false statements in connection with possessing a firearm for 11 days in 2018.. The three crimes could carry a maximum of 25 years in prison, although the case falls within the federal justice system – that is, outside of the 50 states that make up the United States – and, due to the precedent in its operation, it is extremely unlikely that the maximum sentence will be set.

The key to the accusation is that, when he purchased a Colt revolver on October 12, 2018, Biden lied on the forms he filled out by declaring that he did not use illegal drugs, which was not the case.. The defendant was in possession of the revolver for 11 days.. Despite the opposition of some conservative judges, in the United States, the possession of weapons by people with drug addictions or who consume them is a crime. Hunter Biden has had a life marked by alcohol and drug addictions and a series of more or less chaotic relationships, from strippers to the widow of his older brother, Beau, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.

Biden's defense will try to have the charges dismissed at trial and to force the Prosecutor's Office to seek a new agreement with the accused, like the one that had already been reached in July but that was blown up at the last moment.. The news, which was expected after this failure in the negotiations between the Prosecutor's Office and Biden's lawyers, adds another factor of tension to the pre-campaign of the United States elections.. With part of the Republican Party planning an impeachment against Joe Biden for his son's activities, and with Donald Trump facing four criminal cases and several more civil cases, the 2024 elections may be more a chronicle of courts than politics.

Paradoxically, the charges against Hunter Biden have been presented by David Weiss, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice of the Government chaired by his father.. Weiss, who was appointed prosecutor of the state of Delaware – where the Biden family resides – by President Donald Trump, began investigating Hunter Biden five years ago. As the investigations progressed, the White House intervened, and the current attorney general – a position equivalent to that of Minister of Justice in Spain – Merrick Garland decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the president's son.. The White House has refused to assess the accusation in any way, in the same way that it did not make any type of statement the four times that Donald Trump was subjected to the same process.

Biden is not only under the spotlight of Justice for his revolver but also for not having filed his income tax return.. These are activities that would deserve applause from the most conservative wing of the Republican Party – the same one that wants to impeach the president -, for whom personal income tax is unconstitutional and the possession of firearms should be completely liberalized or even mandatory. In fact, the legal doctrine defended by Republican judges is more favorable to Biden than that of Democrats.

Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has been charged with three counts of making false statements in connection with possessing a firearm for 11 days in 2018.. The three crimes could carry a maximum of 25 years in prison, although the case falls within the federal justice system – that is, outside of the 50 states that make up the United States – and, due to the precedent in its operation, it is extremely unlikely that the maximum sentence will be set.

The key to the accusation is that, when he purchased a Colt revolver on October 12, 2018, Biden lied on the forms he filled out by declaring that he did not use illegal drugs, which was not the case.. The defendant was in possession of the revolver for 11 days.. Despite the opposition of some conservative judges, in the United States, the possession of weapons by people with drug addictions or who consume them is a crime. The news, which was expected after this failure in the negotiations between the Prosecutor's Office and Biden's lawyers, adds another factor of tension to the pre-campaign of the United States elections.. With part of the Republican Party planning an impeachment against Joe Biden for his son's activities, and with Donald Trump facing four criminal cases and several more civil cases, the 2024 elections may be more a chronicle of courts than politics.

Paradoxically, the charges against Hunter Biden have been presented by David Weiss, the special prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice of the Government chaired by his father.. Weiss, who was appointed prosecutor of the state of Delaware – where the Biden family resides – by President Donald Trump, began investigating Hunter Biden five years ago. As the investigations progressed, the White House intervened, and the current attorney general – a position equivalent to that of Minister of Justice in Spain – Merrick Garland decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the president's son.. The White House has refused to assess the accusation in any way, in the same way that it did not make any type of statement the four times that Donald Trump was subjected to the same process.

Biden is not only under the spotlight of Justice for his revolver but also for not having filed his income tax return.. These are activities that would deserve applause from the most conservative wing of the Republican Party – the same one that wants to impeach the president -, for whom personal income tax is unconstitutional and the possession of firearms should be completely liberalized or even mandatory. In fact, the legal doctrine defended by Republican judges is more favorable to Biden than that of Democrats.

The magnitude of Storm Daniel, which has severely affected the eastern Mediterranean, could have caused fewer deaths and structural damage in Libya if the country had a strong government and infrastructure, experts say. Rescue teams continue working to recover the bodies and expedite the burial process, in an attempt to prevent the spread of diseases due to the decomposition of bodies in stagnant waters.. “Access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities is necessary to avoid a new crisis within a crisis,” Elie Abouaoun, Libya director of the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement.

“Warnings could have been issued and emergency management forces could have carried out evacuations. “We could have avoided the majority of human casualties,” Petteri Taalas, head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said at a press conference in Geneva.. The organization, a United Nations agency, warned that the magnitude of the disaster is due to the fact that institutions “do not function normally” and that in the past they had tried without success to help the country reform its weather safety system.. “The economic losses could not have been avoided, but they would also have been minimized if appropriate services had been implemented,” he added.

The torrent of water swept away dozens of buildings, vehicles and roads.. Nearly 30,000 people are displaced, a third of the city's population. Its mayor, Abdel Moneim Al-Ghaithi, fears that the death toll could double, even rise to 20,000 dead.. “The situation is very serious and surprising for the city of Derna. “We have not been able to face it with our capabilities,” he told the media.

Derna is a coastal city located in the east of the country. Since 2014, Libya has been divided into two rival administrations in the west and east of the territory.. The western part has its capital in Tripoli, is administered by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads a UN-backed government.. Derna is located in the eastern part, a Tobruk-based entity governed by Osama Hamad. Marshal Khalifa Hafter continues to exert great influence on the eastern government, even meeting with the Egyptian authorities this week to arrange the sending of humanitarian aid.

Libya has had virtually no national government since the 2011 protests that led to the assassination of leader Muammar Gaddafi.. Rival factions have caused clashes for years, until agreeing on a fragile ceasefire in 2020. This division has hindered economic and infrastructure development in the country, creating a situation of great vulnerability to disasters such as the floods of recent days.. The division also slows down the mobilization of resources in a time of emergency. “Lack of coordination has slowed the relief response. The collapsed roads have also made it more difficult for humanitarian aid to enter,” Libya Observer analyst Ahaber Abdulkader Assad told the Turkish channel.. “With two governments it is very difficult to expedite aid. They both ask for help and foreign countries want to send it but they don't know who to coordinate with.. Furthermore, everything has to first go through the Benghazi airport, be approved by the eastern authorities, it is a very slow process,” he describes.

The Western government has sent humanitarian aid to Derna, although there are few occasions in which both entities have come together to make common decisions that concern the country.. The Libyan Central Bank continues to pay salaries to officials of both entities and decisions have been made regarding the oil distribution of the territories, but even these meetings have caused tensions, with the eastern part demanding a greater equal distribution of oil resources.

The city of Derna in particular has not only been the scene of fighting that led to the division of the country, it has also suffered serious negligence in its infrastructure.. The dams that have given way to the flooding of Storm Daniel were built in the 70s and have barely been maintained in recent decades. An academic investigation published last year warned of the urgency of reinforcing these facilities. “If a major flood occurs, the result will be catastrophic for the people of the city,” said its author, Abdelwanees A.Ashoor.