Theresa May finds herself without EU support in Brexit negotiations, and Titanic wreckage was discovered in 1985 as part of secret US mission.
Donald Trump support Saudis, US senators don’t
The US Senate is seeking to take back the control of foreign policy from US President Donald Trump — success notwithstanding.
First, battered by negative publicity for its continued support in the war against Yemen, in which tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and where large parts of the population, especially children, have starved to death, Trump finally agreed to pull out of the war. The US Senate Thursday approved the decision with a 56-41 vote.
Second, also Thursday, the Senate approved a resolution claiming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was responsible for the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Istanbul in October.
However, Trump continues to back MBS, saying, “He’s the leader of Saudi Arabia. They’ve been a very good ally.”
Despite the Senate, however, it isn’t clear if both these resolutions will be implemented because in the US presidential system, the buck stops with the president.
In the case of Yemen, Trump has agreed to pull off the US — for now.
Last month before the Yemen peace talks in Sweden, the Saudi-UAE coalition backed by the US intensified raids on Houthis resulting in the death of 3,000 people, marking it the most horrific month in two years.
EU refuses refuse to help Theresa May salvage Brexit deal
Just a day after UK Prime Minister Theresa May cancelled the vote of confidence, the European Union has refused her appeal to collaborate on salvaging her Brexit proposal by putting a 12-month limit on the Irish backstop, reported The Guardian.
May had hoped that EU will work with her in mapping a legal guarantee, that may help her in getting it passed through the parliament.
After a discussion among the 27 member countries, EU Commission chief Jean Claude Juncker suggested that the demands are difficult to fulfill.
Juncker said, “Our UK friends need to say what they want, rather than asking what we want. We would like in a few weeks for our UK friends to set out their expectations because this debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise and I would like clarifications.”
Titanic wreckage was discovered during secret US mission
Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic wreckage in 1985, in an interview with CNN said that the expedition which found the remains of the ship was part of a US military mission to recover two sunken nuclear submarines on the bottom of the ocean.
Ballard was a commander in US Navy and a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at the time.
The Navy had offered him funding to search for Titanic on the condition that he first explored the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion, the two American nuclear submarines than sank in the 1960s, Ballard told CNN.
He said the discovery of Titanic formed a great cover story, and the media was oblivious of what he was actually doing.
The true story of the mission is now on exhibit in Washington’s National Geographic Museum.
Buddhist statues have expressions, says new study
The Ashura Buddha statue in Kofukuji temple in Nara, Japan, is one of many statues which may look silent, but not expressionless. The Nara Buddha is happy and at the same time sad, said a new study.
A team led by the vice-president of Nara University, Syunichi Sekine, carried out a project last year to quantitatively assess expression of more than 200 Buddhists statues, reported The Asahi Shimbun.
Sekine’s team used artificial intelligence for the “first of its kind” project, which was carried out by a total of 18 students.
The Ashura statue from the Nara period (710-784) in Japan is designated a national treasure by the government.