🇧🇷 Lula's Anti-US Battle Continues: UNASUR

Hello again, Global Recap readers! This is for all astronomy lovers.

Invisible to the Naked Eye: These images are composite pieces of technological artwork, created by combining X-rays and infrared light from five space-based observatories and one on Earth. These types of light are invisible to us, but reveal stunning details of famous regions of space.

The top left image is NGC 346, a star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 200,000 light years away! 🪐

🌎 Global Trivia

Did you get yesterday’s trivia correct too? If you chose b) Democratic Alliance, yes you did! It recently took legal action against its own government to force it to arrest Vladimir Putin upon his stepping foot on South African soil.

📈 Top News of the Day

• A Chinese J-16 fighter jet conducted an aggressive maneuver in international airspace over the South China Sea - leading the US military to release a video of the incident, showing the turbulence caused by the intercepting aircraft.

  • Beijing has responded to the US complaints about a Chinese jet’s interception of an American reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea by demanding an end to such flights. China says it owns the South China Sea in its entirety, a claim not recognized internationally.

• North Korea’s attempt to put the country’s first spy satellite into orbit failed embarrassingly on Wednesday. The launch prompted emergency alerts and evacuation warnings in parts of South Korea and Japan.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed the recent drone attack in Moscow on out-of-touch officials living in Moscow’s affluent suburb of Rublyovka and accused the Defense Ministry of doing nothing to launch an offensive.

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Turkey should drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO and that Turkey should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters.

• The European Union has imposed sanctions on 7 individuals from Moldova due to their actions that caused destabilization and undermined the territorial integrity of both Moldova and Ukraine. These sanctions were introduced just 2 days before a gathering of over 40 European leaders in Chisinau.

🇧🇷 Lula's Anti-US Battle Continues: UNASUR

What happened: Leaders from 12 South American countries met in Brasilia to engage in discussions concerning regional integration and the revival of the defunct Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

The previous inactivity of this bloc was attributed to the predominance of right-wing-leaning government leaders in the region. However, the recent emergence of left-wing leaders has led to its revival.

Included in their agenda is the establishment of a new currency for regional trade.



Regional Trade Currency: Brazilian President Lula da Silva proposed creating a regional trade currency for South America. He urged state banks to work together to reduce dependence on “extra-regional currencies” for trade. 



Although Lula didn’t explicitly mention the US dollar, he is clearly referring to it here.

Lula VS US: What was especially notable is the attendance of Venezuelan leader Maduro, after years of isolation by right-wing leaders.

Lula fired back at the US for imposing sanctions against Venezuela and dismissed claims that its government is authoritarian.

Argentinian President Fernandez and Chile’s Boric expressed support for Venezuela’s return to international bodies, while the latter also emphasized the region’s need to respect human rights.

The Only Absentee: Notably, the only South American leader who didn’t attend was Dina Boluarte of Peru, who is currently facing criminal charges.