La Macédoine du Nord sera-t-elle le premier pays des Balkans à émettre une monnaie électronique, des denars numériques, comme mode de paiement sécurisé ? L'objectif affiché est de mettre un frein à la corruption.
- Le fil de l'Info / Economie, Radio Slobodna Evropa, Macédoine du Nord
Le président de la jeunesse du quartier Sayo, dans la ville Beni (Nord-Kivu), John Kelia, a appelé mercredi 8 janvier la population de ce coin à se désolidariser de tout mouvement insurrectionnel.
Il a lancé ce message après qu’un déplacement massif de la population a été signalé dans cette partie de Beni le weekend dernier, pendant que des hommes armés non identifiés s’étaient installés dans l’une des cellules de ce quartier.
Le panel d’experts de la société civile a encouragé, lundi 6 janvier, les autorités congolaises à lutter contre l’exploitation illicite des minerais au Sud-Kivu.
Cette organisation a livré sa position dans une déclaration, faite à Kinshasa, intitulée : « Sud-Kivu, traque, arrestation et expulsion des chinois, du sensationnel au non-respect des procédures légales ».
Revue de presse kinoise du jeudi 9 janvier 2025.
Deux sujets se disputent les colonnes des journaux parus ce jeudi à Kinshasa. Le premier sujet porte sur les Forces armées de la RDC qui ont repris le contrôle de Masisi-centre dans le Nord-Kivu alors que le second sur le meurtre du journaliste Patrick Adonis à Lubumbashi, chef-lieu du Haut-Katanga.
Les récents combats entre les Forces armées de la RDC et les rebelle du M23 dans certaines parties de l’Est de la République démocratique du Congo ont causé le déplacement de plus de 100.000 personnes la semaine dernière, ont indiqué les Nations Unies.
Uncle Sam is getting his rear-end kicked by the Russians and Chinese (heck, even the North Koreans are starting to outdo the Americans) in the all-important realm of hypersonic weapons. Indeed, it’s possible that China is even already creating working defenses against hypersonic weapons (meaning that Beijing is doubling up on success whereas the Americans are still languishing in the design phase).
But a new U.S. defense project between the Department of Defense and contractor Kratos is desperately trying to change that with a new project. Given how key hypersonic weapons are, and will continue to be, the Kratos effort must be assessed.
Kratos Saves the Day?Under the rubric of “MACH TB 2.0,” Kratos is attempting to “enhance the United States’ capabilities in hypersonic technology through rapid, affordable testing,” according to Kalif Shaikh at Interesting Engineering, a trade publication.
Both the Kratos leadership and the top brass at the Pentagon believe that one of the key reasons that the Russians and Chinese have surpassed the Americans in developing a reliable, real-world hypersonic weapons capacity has to do with the extreme costs of hypersonic weapons development and testing.
In fact, when it comes to testing hypersonic systems, the United States is far behind the curve. Wind tunnels are key elements behind testing hypersonic systems. Guess where the world’s most powerful wind tunnel is for testing hypersonic systems? China.
Kratos is leading a group of powerful defense contractors, including the likes of Leidos and Rocket Lab, all of which are keen on expediting the R&D cycles of American hypersonic weapons. Kratos believes that it can reduce the risks and costs associated with hypersonic weapons development by accelerating the delivery of these systems in the field. One way to do that is by deploying advanced flying testbeds to allow for researchers to assess the efficacy of their hypersonic systems in real-world conditions.
Is the Problem Fundamental or Can It Be Resolved Quickly?Pentagon insiders (and those at Kratos) do not believe that the United States lacks the fundamentals to achieve parity with both Russia and China in hypersonic weapons. They think the problem is taking all the disparate pieces the Pentagon has been assembling for hypersonic weapons research and development and accelerating those projects. There might be something to this theory.
After all, hypersonic weapons have been researched since the last part of the Cold War. It’s not really new technology. The Americans, however, did not develop these systems, which left a gap for both Russia and China to fill.
So, it might very well be that this is an application problem rather than a fundamental inability to compete. Of course, the United States is being shown up by its rivals, notably China, in multiple other domains. Yet, the Americans are right to give the Kratos team a chance to see if it can accelerate the American development of hypersonic weapons. If Kratos is right, then the United Statees could achieve real parity with China and Russia in hypersonic weapons in the five years or so.
There are some problems with this outlook.
Fundamentally, the defense industrial base is broken and the procurement systems for these weapons systems are increasingly corrupt and inefficient. The quest for greater weapons has been hindered by defense firms’ massive profit seeking—even at the expense of national readiness.
Should the Kratos team be wrong, and the problems affecting America’s hypersonic weapons development are far more fundamental and systemic, then the United States will find itself in a world of hurt, as Chinese and Russian hypersonic weapons threaten the homeland in ways that conventional missiles simply cannot.
A global arms race is occurring, and the Americans are in the unenviable position of being on the defensive. Hopefully Kratos can help overcome these problems soon.
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
« Les pans du territoire qui sont occupés par les forces d'agression seront tous récupérés un par un », a déclaré ce mercredi 8 janvier le ministre de la Communication et Médias, porte-parole du Gouvernement, Patrick Muyaya. C’était à l’issue la réunion du Conseil supérieur de la défense élargi que le Chef de l’État congolais, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi a présidé ce mercredi à la Cité de l'Union africaine à Kinshasa.
Le bulletin météorologique de ce jeudi 9 janvier 2025 annonce une fin de semaine sous le signe de la stabilité et d’un ciel globalement dégagé […]
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