EDITORIAL
Oligarchs Panic That Trump May Turn the Election—Dangerous Diversions Are Appearing Everywhere
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump is fully deployed to assure that the “Impeachment Party”—once known as the Democratic Party—is denied their effort to take over the Congress and launch an impeachment. He has held 12 rallies across the country in support of Republican candidates, repeating everywhere that a vote for Democrats this year is a vote against himself. He plans to hold 10 more rallies in the final days preceding the election on Nov. 6. Although he seldom engaged the press in his first two years, in the past three weeks he has held numerous press conferences and interviews, fully confident and determined in his role as President. The LaRouchePAC-sponsored Independent Congressional candidacies in Texas and South Dakota of Kesha Rogers and Ron Wieczorek are rallying people around the country, regardless of party affiliation, to defend the nation against the British-orchestrated coup attempt, and organizing Americans to back Trump’s intention to establish peace and friendship with Russia and China, restore American System economic policies in the U.S., while calling on Trump to join in the new paradigm for global development represented by the Belt and Road Initiative.
The British and their assets in the U.S. are not pleased. In the past week we have seen the “caravan” of people from Honduras and Guatemala, openly mobilized and financed by George Soros’s NGOs, being driven toward the U.S. border, trying to force a showdown that they believe will undermine Trump’s resolve and public support. Even the Presidents of these two impoverished nations have denounced the operation as a destabilization of their own countries, and created a “Safe Return” fund to entice the marchers back to their homelands. Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has offered jobs and work visas to the marchers if they would stay in Mexico.
And now we have the mail-bomb operation, with primitive pipe-bombs mailed to Obama, Hillary Clinton, CNN and others—even George Soros himself—although they may have been so poorly constructed that they could not explode. CNN President Jeff Zucker immediately blamed Trump and his press spokesperson Sarah Sanders, claiming that their attacks on the press constitute an invitation for terrorist assassinations! Trump, in fact, strongly denounced the criminal acts and swore to catch the perpetrators. The Washington Postheadlined an article: “Amid Incendiary Remarks, Targets of Trump’s Words Become Targets of Bombs.” They also denounced those who questioned the bombs as a possible “false-flag” operation, of the sort now widely recognized due to the fake chemical weapons attacks in Syria by the terrorist White Helmets.
The New York Times went so far as to publish a short story by a British pulp novelist about a Russian hit-man, with help from the U.S. Secret Service, assassinating President Trump.
These actions have a destabilizing purpose, but there is a process underway in humanity at large which cannot easily be stopped. The British people have rejected the EU dictatorship, and now the same sentiment has led to a new government in Italy which is putting the health and livelihood of their citizens ahead of the unelected Brussels oligarchs. The elections of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, and Donald Trump in the U.S.A. demonstrate the old Abe Lincoln saying: You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Most importantly, there is now more than one choice facing the citizens of the world. The “one game in town” era of IMF dictates, the “Washington Consensus,” is dead, although the dinosaurs have so far failed to concede their demise. The Belt and Road is being embraced across Asia, Africa and Ibero-America, and increasingly in both Eastern and Western Europe. This is what the Lords of the City of London and Wall Street fear most. When they heard this past week that Trump plans to meet Vladimir Putin in Paris immediately after the election, and that he is also to meet with Xi Jinping at the end of November in Argentina, all the King’s horses and all the King’s men have been deployed to prevent this affront to the British Empire’s division of the world by the upstart President of the breakaway colony across the Atlantic. But Humpty Dumpty is about to take a great fall.
It is the power of ideas which has created this mass strike ferment around the world, ideas conceived and set in motion by Lyndon LaRouche over the past half-century, finding resonance in the minds of creative people in nations around the world. These ideas have drawn on the rich classical culture of Plato and Schiller, the Confucian view of a harmonious society, the American concept of the general welfare, the scientific spark of Krafft Ehricke’s Extraterrestrial Imperative, among others. It is these universal ideas which must guide us in this moment of decision for the fate of mankind.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Trump To Hold Ten Rallies in the Final Six Days of Campaign
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—The Washington Examiner reports that President Trump is planning at least ten rallies in the six days before the election. As of today, Trump has held 12 “Make America Great Again” rallies for Republican incumbents and candidates for the House and Senate.
Trump has also spent a great deal of time with the press, demonstrating what so disturbed Lesley Stahl—that Trump is fully confident and determined in the Presidency. “From Oct. 6 to Oct. 23, the President took well over 300 questions from reporters, sat down for at least eight interviews with the media, held a number of unscheduled press conferences, and hosted over 20 public events,” the Examinerreports.
Trump is also contributing $6 million for an advertising campaign that will run through Election Day in support of Republican candidates, and another $3 million to the Republican National Committee.
New York Times Peddling More Fake News To Undermine Trump’s Relations to China and Russia
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—What appears to be yet another effort by the New York Times to create a chasm between President Donald Trump and China and Russia, it carried an article today claiming President Trump’s iPhone calls to old friends and business associates are being monitored by Chinese and Russian spies for information on policy and how the President thinks. The article claimed the American intelligence agents believe China is listening in to the President’s private calls. While they may not have access physically to his phone, Chinese spies could intercept unsecured calls over mobile phone networks or tap the phones of people the President calls, reports Britain’s Telegraph, citing the New York Times.
However, the story is fake. Responding to the news item, President Trump said he only uses government-issued phones, that he “seldom” uses them anyway and that “The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cell phone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it,” he posted on Twitter.
Soros Hand Becoming More Visible in Migrant Caravan Crisis
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—The role of the British Empire’s asset George Soros in the migrant caravan moving through Central America and Mexico is becoming more visible—not only because he is handing out dollars to the migrants. Rather, along with a number of Soros-financed NGOs (see Morning Briefing for Oct. 25), key figures involved in promoting this destabilizing effort belong to Soros’s stable of former and current Ibero-American leaders who share his worldview of global drug legalization and “democracy.”
One individual under scrutiny in both Honduras and Guatemala is former Honduran President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, who was removed from office in 2009 after he attempted an unconstitutional coup d’état to remain in office. Close to the psychologically-unstable Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a British asset, Zelaya had in 2008 called for legalizing all “chemical, synthetic and natural” drugs. Since 2009, he has unsuccessfully run twice for President.
Zelaya today is in the thick of the migrant crisis, justifying the caravan by pointing to the country’s poverty and drug violence, for which he blames President Juan Hernandez (in office for less than a year). Calling Hernandez a “lackey of imperialism,” Zelaya demands that he resign immediately, threatening that the migration wave will continue unless Hernandez steps down. Law enforcement sources have identified Zelaya’s cohort, former LIBRE deputy and migrant-activist Bertolo Fuentes, as an organizer of the caravan, known to coordinate with the Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) grouping, backed by a coalition of Soros-financed NGOs.
Central American Presidents are in an untenable situation. Their countries are mired in poverty and horrific drug and gang violence, which they alone cannot remedy. Unlike the free-market boondoggle known as the Alliance for Prosperity, which Vice President Mike Pence has promoted for the region, its problems can only be addressed by a massive infrastructure-building program such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, implemented ideally in conjunction with the United States and Mexico.
Absent that, on Oct. 20, Hernandez and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced a $27 million “Safe Return” program, offering jobs, housing, scholarships and other benefits as incentives for migrants to return home. In Mexico, President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) also announced that once he takes office, he will offer migrants work visas and jobs. Forbes Mexico reported that in a recent phone call with President Donald Trump, AMLO discussed how the two countries can collaborate on infrastructure and economic development plans, to help create jobs and halt the migratory flow.
Chickenhawks Rally for Renewed Vigilance in Countering China
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—An all-day conference on Oct. 24 at the Hudson Institute and sponsored jointly by the Hudson Institute and Freedom House under the caption of “China’s Global Challenge to Democratic Freedom” brought together the various anti-China institutions that have been set up over the last few decades in order to stop or at least to hinder China’s entry into the international community and economy. The choreographer was none other than Hudson’s Mike Pillsbury (the original “Pillsbury Doughboy” for those who know their American culture and World War I military history), who has been on the scene for many years. The organizations that were gathered here—Freedom House, Radio Free Asia, the Executive-Congressional Commission on China, and Epoch Times—have all been a result of Pillsbury’s diligence in countering China since the 1980s. His book, The Hundred Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy To Replace America as the Global Superpower, has become something of a bible for this crowd. In the book, he depicts his metamorphosis from a pro-China “panda-hugger” to a “China hawk,” after discovering China’s allegedly actual sinister motives to become the world’s “hegemon,” from reading a few novels from the Ming Dynasty such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. But, like his mentor, Andy Marshall, he often acts from behind the scenes, and on this occasion he viewed most of the conference from his office before arriving at the end to give his summing up, i.e. his blessing, to the day’s events.
Three panels: One on how to counter the interference abroad of the Communist Party (CPC); a second on the CPC’s influence on the media; and the third on the CPC’s influence on U.S. college campuses. Just a few items of importance in what was really a unified diatribe against China, using the old, stale arguments that have been repeated ad infinitum. Chubby little Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, who has made a name for himself regurgitating whatever is fed to him by the not-so-loyal opposition to Trump, hailed Hudson’s hosting of Vice President Mike Pence Oct. 4 as the “watershed moment” in shifting U.S. China policy. He was, however, concerned that this was far from a “done deal.” While the President has felt himself free to criticize China on trade, Rogin said, every time someone in the White House tried to raise the issue of closer ties to Taiwan (which they obviously have done), Trump has taken it off the table. According to Rogin, it is because Trump had promised President Xi Jinping in their first, April 2017 meeting that he would not touch that “third rail” of Taiwan in U.S.-China policy.
“The Doughboy” came out at the end to sum things up. Pillsbury briefly reiterated the role played by the formation of Radio Free Asia and the Executive-Congressional Commission on China watch-dogs, both of which he was instrumental in arguing for during his time at the Pentagon and on the Hill, in keeping close tabs on Chinese activity in the U.S. But now he said that a more concerted effort is needed given the acceleration in Chinese efforts to “muddy the waters,” i.e., to tell the truth. One of the ways Beijing does this, one panelist complained, is the “outrageous” moves by the Chinese Ambassador to allow himself to be interviewed on television! This referred to Ambassador Cui Tiankai’s Oct. 14 appearance on Fox in which he defended China against the various media accusations thrown at it.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Cancellation of the INF Treaty Could Threaten Europe
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference in Moscow with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, after their talks on Oct. 24, said Europeans will be caught in the crosshairs of any potential conflict between the U.S. and Russia if they agree to host U.S. nuclear missiles, but that there is no real reason to put Europe in such a danger, RT reported. Putin was outlining a scenario in which the U.S. would move to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and decide to place nuclear missiles in Europe. The INF pact, which came into force in 1988, prohibits the development, production and deployment of land-based and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 km and 5,500 km.
“If the U.S. does end up pulling out of the INF treaty, then the most important question is what will they do with the missiles that will reappear again?” he asked. “If they are supplied to Europe, then of course we will have to respond in kind, and the European countries that agree to this—if things come to this—should understand that they will be subjecting their own territory to the threat of a possible retaliatory strike,” he stated. “This is an obvious situation. We will go back to Pershings in Europe,” referring to the late 1970s, when the Brzezinski regime under Jimmy Carter sought to have NATO deploy intermediate-range Pershing II missiles in Western Europe.
Retired General Hodges Makes Insane Argument, Get Ready for War with China within 15 Years
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)— Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe until 2017, ranted Oct. 24 that the U.S. will likely be at war with China within 15 years. Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, a two-day meeting of military and political figures from Central Europe, Hodges said: “I think in 15 years—it’s not inevitable—but it is a very strong likelihood that we will be at war with China…. The United States does not have the capacity to do everything it has to do in Europe and in the Pacific to deal with the Chinese threat.”
This insanity was aimed at convincing Europeans to “do more to ensure their own defenses,” AP reported.
Hodges told AP that the evidence of the China threat included the near-miss between a U.S. Navy destroyer and a Chinese warship in the South China Sea, China’s “constant stealing of technology,” and how China is “gaining control of infrastructure by funding projects in Africa and Europe.” Truly, building infrastructure in Africa and Europe is a great danger to mindless imperial thinking.
ECONOMY
Saudi Arabia Plans To Join Partnership with Russia-China Investment Fund
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—With Saudi Arabia’s leadership under dramatic attack in the United States and Europe, it was announced today at the Future Investment Initiative being held in Riyadh that Saudi Arabia is planning to provide major investments into the Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) with the fund expected to be renamed, according to its CEO Kirill Dmitriev, who is also CEO of the sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). “In the near future, we will announce that Saudi Arabia is investing in RCIF and the fund will be renamed as the Russian-Chinese-Saudi Fund,” Dmitriev said, according to RT. “Thus, the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia will join our partnership with China. That means significant investments from the Saudi side,” Dmitriev said.
The joint RCIF was established in June 2012 by China’s state-owned China Investment Corp. (CIS) and RDIF, to focus on projects that foster bilateral economic cooperation between Moscow and Beijing. Both participants raised a combined $2 billion in equal shares, RT wrote.
In addition, Dmitriev told reporters at the FII forum that the Russian Railways will soon submit an application for the construction of railways in Saudi Arabia, TASS reported.
It is evident that the Saudis are planning to develop closer relations with both China and Russia. Recently, in the wake of the strains in bilateral relations caused by the Oct. 2 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate at Istanbul on Oct. 2, President Donald Trump said that if the U.S. deprives the Saudis of weapons in punishment, they will go to China and Russia to meet their requirements. It appears to be more than weapons.
Europeans Speak Out To Defend Italy’s Sovereignty vs. EU Threats
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria said he was “stunned and a little bit surprised by some superficial considerations” in the Moscovici-Dombrovskis letter which rejected the Italian budget proposal on Oct. 22. “Maybe it was written a bit in a hurry.” Tria implied that the EU Commissioners Pierre Moscovici and Valdis Dombrovskis did not even read the motivations sent by the Italian government.
Two Italian journalists have filed a lawsuit against Moscovici and Dombrovskis for manipulation of the markets against Italian bonds with their public statements.
Following Pierre Moscovici’s speech to the European Parliament announcing the EU rejection of the Italian budget, Italian MEP Angelo Ciocca (Lega) moved to the podium, took his shoe off and stamped the text of Moscovici’s speech “with the sole of a shoe made in Italy,” as he later put it in a tweet.
Moscovici responded: “Initially ones smiles and banalizes it because it is ridiculous, but later one gets accustomed to a dull, symbolic sort of violence. And one day you wake up with fascism,” Italy’s ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.
French leftist National Assembly Deputy Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise) defended the Italian government’s choices in a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Oct. 23. Although he is in the political opposition to the government parties, he said, “I prefer to defend popular sovereignty and the Italian government. For the first time the Commission is attacking the budget voted up by the parliament of a state that respects the Treaties. Since it is not a question of respecting the treaties, but of a budget choice, it is clearly an expropriation of popular sovereignty.” Mélenchon was backed by Emmanuel Maurel, an MEP who left the Socialist Party to join Mélenchon, and by Gabrielle Zimmer of Germany’s Die Linke.
IMF-Dictated Budget Passes Argentine House, Amidst Rising Citizen Rebellion
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—At the end of a marathon session that lasted into the wee hours of this morning, Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies passed by a vote of 138-108 the 2019 austerity budget dictated by the International Monetary Fund as a conditionality for its $57 billion bailout package.
During the congressional debate, legislators nearly came to blows at several points, while representatives of social organizations, trade unions and political groups protested outside. Police repression was fierce, and black-clad, masked police provocateurs were identified as instigators of violence.
Now the bill will go before the Senate where it is likely to face a tougher fight.
The “zero deficit” budget includes across-the-board drastic cuts in government expenditures, including for social services, productive investment, urban development/housing, as well as constant increases in public utility rates. Inflation continues to rage at 40% annually, cutting deeply into worker wages.
To get a flavor of the debate, note the remarks of Agustin Rossi, head of the Kirchnerite FpV bloc, who warned that the same policies imposed by previous monetarist finance ministers had never worked, going back to London’s José Martinez de Hoz of the 1976-83 military dictatorship. “Why do you think they will work this time?” he demanded, Página 12 reported. Now, “instead of the Titanic sinking, the entire iceberg will sink.” Graciela Camaño, a Peronist legislator from the Renewal Front, put it this way: “What the hell do you want? For the whole [Metropolitan Buenos Aires] region to blow up?”
The backdrop to this situation is the expanding, nationwide mobilization against the IMF’s austerity regime embraced by President Mauricio Macri. Indicative was the Oct. 20 march to the Basilica of Lujan, to pay homage to Argentina’s patron saint, the Virgin of Lujan. An annual event, this year’s pilgrimage became a peaceful political event, in which almost 1 million people—an unprecedented number—marched under the banner of “Peace, Bread and Jobs” to the Basilica.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Italian Prime Minister Conte Meets Putin, Reiterates for Group of 8 To Include Russia
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was in Moscow yesterday, where he met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin. Conte also met with Italian industrialists in Russia. Sanctions, Libya, Syria, the INF Treaty and economic relations were the subjects of the talks.
In their joint press conference, Putin stressed that the economic issues were prominent on the agenda. Conte called the meeting “very positive” and said that “Russia is fundamental to finding solutions to regional crises.” Putin ensured Russia’s participation in the international Libya conference Nov. 12-13 in Palermo but avoided answering a direct question as to whether he will personally be present.
(Both Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have been invited. They will be in Paris Nov. 11 for the World War I centennial.)
On Libya, Conte said that he and Putin agreed that there should be an “inclusive process of reconciliation led by the UN” that respects the will of the Libyan people.
“Russia’s participation is fundamental for the solution of the Libyan question,” Conte declared.
On Syria, Putin stressed that the stabilization of the country will help reduce migration to Europe, while Conte stressed that both views converge especially concerning support for the UN Geneva negotiations.
On Ukraine, Conte said that “there is no alternative to the Minsk agreement” and reiterated support for the Normandy Group of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany; and for the OSCE.
Responding to a question on EU sanctions against Russia, whether Italy will go so far as to veto them in the EU, Conte said that he would not anticipate what Italy will do, but said the Italian position “is even more ambitious: We want to convince all our European partners” that sanctions are not a goal but an instrument and should be lifted as soon as possible.
During his visit, Italian and Russian firms signed deals for €1.5 billion. Putin said they are considering connecting Italy to the Turkish Stream pipeline through Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and other countries.
As soon as he arrived in Moscow, Conte met Italian entrepreneurs who are in Russia. When Annarita Pilotti, head of the shoemakers association, called for lifting sanctions, she received an ovation. Conte replied that Italy considers sanctions an instrument and not a goal, and that “Russia is our special partner, a strategic partner, and you will recognize that since the beginning I have shown attention to this country. I proposed a G8, with President Putin at a table with the G7 partners, in order to solve all important crises in the world.”
Putin Ready for a Washington Summit; Ryabkov Encourages U.S.-Russian Business Collaboration
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists yesterday the Kremlin was ready to discuss the possibility of a summit in Washington next year, in addition to the expected meeting between Trump and Putin in Paris on Nov. 11, after U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, in Moscow told Russia’s Interfax news agency that such a full-scale summit was possible. “Undoubtedly (we are) ready,” Peskov told journalists. He also confirmed that the issue has been “raised” during Bolton’s Oct. 23 meeting with the Russian President, but that “so far there is no concrete decision on this.”
Also on Oct. 24, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Channel One there should be broad cooperation between Russian and U.S. business in the sphere of high technology. “I want to confirm the interest of business circles of the two countries toward expanding cooperation and, at the very least, toward continuing the wide cooperation not only in trade, let’s say in metals and soybeans, but also in the high-technology sector, including start-ups and pharmaceuticals, aviation, titanium production, and so on,” Ryabkov said reported TASS.
“Sanctions are an obstacle, but interests prevail. The U.S. delegation has been the biggest at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum for two consecutive years. Unfortunately, we see political leverage in the U.S., when economic and business interests are in fact sacrificed to geopolitics,” Ryabkov stated. It was impossible to imagine five or ten years ago that “the U.S. would risk their own fundamental principles of freedom of entrepreneurship, inviolability of U.S. dollar as a world reserve currency,” he went on. “However, I think that from the economic point of view, the prospects for our relations are better than they seem.”
Reflecting Improved Relations, China and India Plan Military Exercises This Year
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Indicating improved relations between China and India following an informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, China on April 27-28, the seventh India and China joint military exercises will be held in China this year, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian told a media briefing in Beijing today. “The two sides agreed to hold the planning conference in Chengdu to further discuss on details of the joint exercises,” he said, PTI reported.
The seventh joint military exercise is significant since this will be the first such military drill to be held since both sides were locked in a 73-day standoff in Doklam in the Sikkim sector of the border last year. Last year’s scheduled “Hand-in-Hand” exercises, focusing on counter-terrorism operations, were not held due to the Doklam stand-off.
Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe visited India in August and met Prime Minister Modi and held talks with Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Egypt To Join Tanzania In Building Stiegler’s Gorge Hydroelectric Plant
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Tanzanian President John Magufuli called Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi by phone to tell him the Cairo-based firm Arab Contractors had won the tender to build the 2115 MW hydroelectric dam in Tanzania’s Stiegler’s Gorge on the Rufiji River. Arab Contractors Co. will partner with El Sewedy Electric, an Egyptian engineering services company in the project, reported the Tanzania daily The Exchange today. The two Egyptian companies were picked from the five shortlisted companies. When built, Stiegler’s Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station will be East Africa’s largest hydropower plant. The cost of building the plant is estimated at $3 billion.
Built along the Rufiji, Tanzania’s largest river, environmentalists are “cautious” about the project which would be located in the Selous Game Reserve, which they worry would affect the major tourist site. Among those expressing “caution,” was a 55-page report by the World Wildlife Fund last year essentially opposing it. However, President Magufuli has replied by saying only a fraction of the river’s water resource will be utilized. The government allocated 40% of the country’s budget for Stiegler’s Gorge, cementing its commitment and support, The Exchange article said.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Russia Successfully Launches a Soyuz Rocket
Oct. 25 (EIRNS)—Russia launched a Soyuz rocket today, just two weeks after a failed launch to the International Space Station on Oct. 11. The payload was a reconnaissance satellite, used for electronic surveillance. The launch was originally scheduled for last week, but was delayed due to the failure. Although the commission investigating the failure has not announced the cause, obviously know what it is, and they checked today’s rocket before launching it.
The next launch of an unmanned Progress cargo supply ship to the space station is scheduled for Nov. 18. The next crewed flight is to take place in December. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said that they expect that launch, whose crew will include a NASA astronaut and Roscosmos cosmonaut, to take place as scheduled.
Nothing beats the track record of the Soyuz—over 1,800 variations of the rocket that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin have been launched. Although over recent years Russia has suffered a number of launch failures, these were in upper stages, not the Soyuz.
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