EDITORIAL

The World at a Turning Point—Is the Human Race Morally Fit to Survive?

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—Step back and view the current situation in the world as a whole. The Western world, which has been the center of world progress since the European Renaissance, is in chaos. The German government is collapsing, as both of the parties which have led that nation since World War II have lost nearly all their support across the country. Angela Merkel, who has ruled for 18 years, and was anointed the “leader of the free world” by those who fear and despise Donald Trump’s efforts to form a bond of friendship with Vladimir Putin, has announced her resignation as party leader as of the CDU congress, and will likely be replaced as Chancellor in December. France’s Macron is facing a similar revolt. The British can’t figure out how to Brexit.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche has just returned from a series of high-profile speeches and private meetings in Russia, where she found the greatest respect for Lyndon LaRouche, but also a deep-seated concern that global war was now possible. President Vladimir Putin has long warned that President Bush’s dumping of the ABM Treaty in 2002 forced Russia to launch a massive research and development program to develop the necessary defenses against the missile defense systems placed in Europe, which would otherwise have given NATO a first strike capacity. Now, the announced intention to pull the U.S. out of the INF Treaty leaves them no choice but to prepare for war.

Russia’s senior arms control official, Andrey Belousov, speaking at the United Nations on Friday, Oct. 26, said the following: “Here recently at the meeting, the United States said that Russia is preparing for war. Yes, Russia is preparing for war, I have confirmed it. We are preparing to defend our homeland, our territorial integrity, our principles, our values, our people—we are preparing for such a war.” He articulated the Russian reasoning: “Russia is preparing for war, and the U.S. is preparing a war. Otherwise, why would the United States withdraw from the treaty, build up its nuclear potential and adopt a new nuclear doctrine?”

Last week, President Putin said that Russia would never initiate a war, but that if war were launched on Russia, there would be a devastating response, and the war would be total.

On the U.S. side of the Atlantic, an historic decision is about to be made by the American people: Will they support the elected President’s intention, expressed in all his recent rallies, and to establish friendly relations with Russia, to make a deal with China that can allow a return to his close friendship with Xi Jinping? Or will they allow a Democratic Party which has lost any purpose whatsoever other than to impeach Trump, to take control of Congress, returning to the war mobilization against Russia and China launched under President Obama?

Trump is doing his part. He will be holding eleven rallies over these last six days before the election. Each rally turns out tens of thousands of supporters—a process not seen in this country in recent times, perhaps ever. His message of peace with Russia and China, pointing to his historic transformation in the Koreas as a model, wins cheers from the throngs at his rallies. And yet, the British, the corrupt U.S. press, and the criminal former intelligence officials under Obama are frantically trying to salvage the collapsing Russiagate scam run by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. If the American people come through in this election, those criminal elements will themselves be put on trial, for their collusion with a foreign power—Great Britain—first to subvert the 2016 electoral process, and then to attempt a coup against the elected President, based on lies concocted by British intelligence official Christopher Steele and his mentors at MI6 and GCHQ.

The expansion of the new paradigm across Asia, Africa and Ibero-America, centered on the New Silk Road process, witnessed a major leap forward over the past week, as Shinzo Abe joined with Xi Jinping, pledging “cooperation rather than competition,” and as Narendra Modi joined with Abe to pledge the same joint development process in third countries in Asia and Africa. Bringing East and West together in the process of peace through development is, for the first time in history, within the grasp of this generation of Mankind.

As Helga Zepp-LaRouche saw in Russia, and as the LaRouche campaigns in the U.S. and across Europe demonstrate, people are increasingly listening to the wise words of Lyndon LaRouche. As the global crisis rips away their delusions, the ideas developed and fought for by LaRouche over the past 50 years provide the necessary escape from war and financial chaos, and a basis for creating a truly global Renaissance of all Mankind over the next 50 years.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Key U.S. Demographic Markers Plunged after 2007 Breakdown of the Wall Street System

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—Fertility rates in the United States dropped precipitously from 2007-2017, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data Brief released this month reports. Such demographic declines are another marker of the Dark Age caused by the dying monetarist system, accompanying the rising death rates and soaring suicide and drug addiction. Among the brief’s key findings were that:

“During 2007-2017, total fertility rates in the United States fell for rural and metropolitan counties: 12% in rural, 16% in small or medium metro, and 18% in large metro counties.” (Total fertility rate is the estimated number of lifetime births expected for 1,000 women.)

Similarly, during 2007-2017, the mean age of at which women had their first birth “rose by 1.3 (rural), 1.5 (small or medium metro), and 1.8 years (large metro).”

The downward trends in total fertility and the increase in mean maternal age over time occurred for each selected race and Hispanic-origin group, in both rural and metro counties, the CDC found from its review of National Vital Statistics System data.

President Trump Steps Up His Organizing Right Up to Election Eve

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—The White House announced on Monday that President Donald Trump will lead even more rallies between now and the Nov. 6 election. Starting on Oct. 31, the President will hold 11 rallies in eight states, in six days. The states include Florida (twice), Indiana (twice), Missouri (twice), West Virginia, Montana, Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio. The candidates he is supporting in Georgia and Florida are running for governor; the other candidates are running for the Senate.

Those campaign rallies are:

Oct. 31: Fort Myers, Florida (Ron DeSantis—governor; Rick Scott—Senate)

Nov. 1: Columbia, Mo. (Josh Hawley—Senate)

Nov. 2: Huntington, West Virginia (Patrick Morrisey—Senate) and Indianapolis, Indiana (Mike Braun—Senate)

Nov. 3: Bozeman, Montana (Matt Rosendale—Senate) and Pensacola, Florida (DeSantis and Scott)

Nov. 4: Macon, Georgia (Brian Kemp—governor) and Chattanooga, Tenn. (Marsha Blackburn-Senate)

Nov. 5: Cleveland, Ohio (Jim Renacci—Senate), Fort Wayne, Ind. (Braun) and Cape Girardeau, Missouri (Hawley)

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Thank the DOJ-Run ‘Lava Jato’ Operation in Brazil for Jair Bolsonaro’s Election as President

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—Not unexpectedly, on Oct. 28, Brazil’s right-wing retired Army Capt. Jair Bolsonaro won in the second round of presidential elections, garnering 55% of the vote over the Workers Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad, with 45%. He will take office on Jan. 1, 2019.

The only reason Bolsonaro won, is because the British and the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), operating through State Department-trained Judge Sergio Moro, threw former President Lula da Silva in jail in April 2018 on “corruption” charges as part of the “Lava Jato” (“Carwash”) operation, preventing him from running for President. Had he run, it is widely admitted that Lula would have easily won the elections.

Lula and his successor and ally Dilma Rousseff (illegally deposed from office in August 2106 as part of Lava Jato) were strong organizers for the BRICS and were very sympathetic to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Lava Jato not only got rid of those two key politicians, but has further wiped out most of the nation’s productive institutions, and has helped deeply polarize the country by sinking it into deep economic and political chaos.

It is this, and not Bolsonaro’s “tough on crime” program, that explains his victory. Media references to Bolsonaro as a “Tropical Trump” are pure sophistry.

Having served for years as a mediocre Congressman, considered to be that body’s resident nutcase, Bolsonaro only gained international notoriety thanks to years of coverage by the New York Times. Now, his election has created the conditions to drive Brazil, South America’s biggest economy, which should be an important partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, into political breakdown and social upheaval. Just what London ordered.

Bolsonaro’s core base consists of the militant shocktroops trained and financed by London’s radical free-marketeers—the Atlas Foundation, for example—who led street demonstrations in 2016 demanding the impeachment of then-President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff’s replacement, Michel Temer, plunged the country into deep recession with his free market gouging. Now, Bolsonaro’s future finance minister, Paulo Guedes, a hard-core University of Chicago-trained neo-liberal economist and hedge fund owner, has announced a program guaranteed to provoke popular rage and economic chaos: “reforming the state” (privatizations), controlling “government overspending and waste,” enacting deeper pension reform and combatting corruption.

Asian Nations Seek To Protect Their Citizens from Canada’s Pot Promotion

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—China, South Korea and Japan have warned their citizens residing or traveling in Canada against marijuana use or transportation, even though that is fully legal as of Oct. 17 in that country.

The Chinese Consulate General in Toronto sent its citizens in Canada a letter, to “remind” Chinese citizens that “in order to protect your own physical and mental health, please avoid contact with or using marijuana,” international media reported yesterday.

South Korea and Japan went a step further, warning their citizens that if they smoke marijuana in Canada, they may be prosecuted upon their return home for violating national laws prohibiting marijuana use, even though the violation occurred when out of the country.

Huge NATO Exercise, Russian Missile Tests in Close Quarters Off Norway

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reported today that NATO had been informed by Russia last week that Russia will hold missile tests from ships off the Western coast of Norway from Nov. 1-3. Stoltenberg said NATO will proceed with its “Trident Juncture” exercise as planned, “and I don’t expect that that will cause any serious problems, but as I said we will follow the movement of the Russian maritime capabilities closely, and they are informed about our exercise, so we do whatever we can to avoid any dangerous situation.”

Trident Juncture is the biggest NATO exercise since the Cold War, involving more than 50,000 NATO troops, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 vehicles in war games of potential conflict with Russia, close to Russia’s borders, in Norway, Iceland and Finland.

Most of NATO’s war games will take place in central Norway, but some operations are scheduled to take place on the coast and in the Norwegian Sea, very near where Russia has significant naval forces, the Telegraph reported. Norway reported earlier that it had received a notice from Russia warning planes not to fly in the area of the missile tests.

The Telegraph reported that when meeting his Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the intensity and size of NATO exercises had reached levels unprecedented since the Cold War, and included training for offensive operations. The week before, he had said Russian fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept NATO planes near its borders 120 times this year.

ECONOMY

Putin Boosts Agriculture Self-Sufficiency at Stavropol Meeting

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—Earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin attended a meeting on agriculture in Stavropol Territory, one of Russia’s main farm regions, and reviewed the successes made over the past five years, and the “strategic goals” to be met. He reported on how national agriculture output had grown by 20% over the five-year period, saying, “This is a breakthrough, without exaggeration, a real advance.” Putin emphasized this by remarking on production and exports in 2017. He said, “Last year exports of foodstuffs and agricultural commodities increased 21% and surpassed $20 billion. Until very recently this seemed impossible. Let me remind you: Our arms sales, which have always been a source of pride, amount to $15 billion. Agricultural producers surpassed this export volume by $5 billion.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Thai Prime Minister Launches Kra Canal Study

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—For the first time, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered the primary economic planning group, the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), and the Office of the National Security Council (NSC) to “look into a proposed canal project connecting the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Sea,” according to the Bangkok Post today.  Prime Minister Prayut has, until today, insisted that he would not move on the Kra Canal, but leave it for whatever government comes in when they finally hold elections, which are expected next year.

This announcement comes after a growing discussion internationally about the Canal, with the Panamanian Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado offering her country’s support while visiting Thailand last week, and former German Defense Minister Rudolf Sharping telling a conference in Germany that the Canal was being planned and that Germany should pay attention.

The Post reports that retired Army Commander Thawatchai Samutsakorn, the Vice President of the Thai Canal Association (TCA) which promotes the Canal and has worked with Chinese and Japanese organizations which are interested, had called for an exploratory committee to be set up before the military leadership steps down. “After the poll, when we have [active] opposition parties [again], they would oppose the campaign without taking into account the potential benefits to the country and the public,” General Thawatchai said.

Pakdee Tanapura, a longtime friend of the LaRouche movement in Thailand, has been the driving force in mobilizing support for the Kra Canal since the 1980s.

General Thawatchai said the Kra Canal would complement the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), Prayut’s primary focus for Thai development. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping directly discussed joint investments in the Thai EEC during their summit last week in Beijing. If China and Japan begin joint projects in Thailand, the issue of cooperation in building the Kra Canal would clearly be on the agenda.

“If we dig the canal, we would become the leader of ASEAN,” General Thawatchai said.

On the opposition claim that the Canal would divide the country and encourage the insurgents in the south of the country, General Thawatchai said: “If the villagers have [more] money, they certainly wouldn’t consider joining an insurgency.”

He also said that besides China and Japan, Germany is also ready to invest in the project.

China International Import Expo Opening To Host 18 Heads of State

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—There will be an extraordinary density of meetings and diplomacy taking place around the Nov. 5-10 China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, organized by the Ministry of Commerce, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang announced Oct. 29 that 18 heads of state will be attending the opening of the Expo, many of whom are also in China for state visits and/or bilateral diplomacy.

At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the following heads of state or government will be attending the opening session:

President of the Czech Republic Milo Zeman, Chairman of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel; President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina; President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta; President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite; President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela; President of El Salvador Salvador Sánchez Cerén; President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset; Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Henry Puna; Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic; Prime Minister of Egypt Mostafa Madbouly; Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán; Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze; Prime Minister of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith; Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat; Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan; Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, and Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Also, as Lu Kang reported, at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the Republic of El Salvador, President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba will pay state visits to China from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8.

Lu also said that at the invitation of Premier Li Keqiang, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation will pay official visits to China over Nov. 2-7. During the visit, Premier Li Keqiang will hold the 23rd regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian prime ministers.

Myanmar and Bangladesh Agree To Start Repatriation of the Rohingya in November

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—Despite escalating attacks on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis, Myanmar and Bangladesh plan to begin the repatriation of the estimated 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in November. Myanmar has constructed housing for those whose villages were burned during the military confrontation last year after Rohingya terrorist gangs attacked Myanmar police outposts.

According to the Guardian, Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and the Burmese Foreign Secretary Myint Thu met today and drew up a concrete plan to start repatriations. “We have shown our political will, flexibility and accommodation in order to commence the repatriation at the earliest possible date,” Myint Thu told reporters, while Haque said, “We are looking forward to starting the repatriation by mid-November.”

The head of the UN fact-finding mission into the Rohingya crisis, Marzuki Darusman, claimed last week that Myanmar is still conducting attacks on the remaining Rohingya, and “It is an ongoing genocide that is taking place at the moment,” said Darusman. The fact is, the UN and the Soros human rights mafia do not want to see a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN in June, which stipulated that certain conditions needed to be met in order for the repatriation of the Rohingya to take place, including the guaranteed security of the Muslim minority, and a pathway to citizenship.

Myint Thu insisted the Myanmar government was working to eliminate the discrimination in Rakhine State by the Buddhist radical elements against the Muslim Rohingya ahead of repatriation. “We have trained the police, different law and enforcement agencies in workshops—educating them against discrimination. Also, we have been raising awareness against such discriminations,” he said.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Sets New Records, on Its Way to Closest Approach to the Sun

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on Oct. 29 set a record for the closest approach to the Sun of any spacecraft. That record had been held by the German-American Helios 2 probe, which came within 26.55 million miles of the Sun in April 1976. Yesterday, at 1:04 p.m. EDT (17:04 UTC), the Parker Solar Probe crossed past that point, setting the record for proximity to the Sun. Also on Oct. 29, the probe surpassed the record for speed that Helios set of 153,454 miles per hour, as it was pulled toward the Sun by its enormous gravity. According to NASA, the Parker Solar Probe passed that speed yesterday at 10:54 p.m. (02:54 UTC Oct. 30). Eventually the Sun’s gravity will accelerate the probe to about 430,000 mph, NASA officials have reported.

The probe will make 24 close fly-bys of the Sun over the next seven years. The closest of those approaches is coming on Nov. 5, with encounter starting on Oct. 31.