Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Brazil's Supreme Court greenlights probe into Bolsonaro's COVID-19 response
The Supreme Federal Court has confirmed its earlier decision to set up an investigative committee to probe Brazil's handling of the pandemic.
Brazil's top court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a congressional inquiry into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic under President Jair Bolsonaro.
With 10 votes to 1, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) gave its approval of the investigation after it received support from over a third of lawmakers.
"Denying the right to install the commission if the requirements are met harms the right of the parliamentary minority," the STF said in a statement following the ruling.
The probe was launched by Brazil's Senate on Tuesday. It is a political headache for Bolsonaro who is already facing rising disapproval ratings as Brazil suffers one of the highest COVID-19
death tolls in the world.
What will the investigation look into?
Leader of the Senate Rodrigo Pacheco said the probe would look into the federal response to the health crisis as well as how
federal resources were buted to states.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo called the approval of the investigation a loss for Bolsonaro but pointed out that he was able to shed some of the distri
pressure by including the response of state and municipal governments.
The president has shown his anger at the proposed investigation, blasting lawmakers and STF judges alike.
On Wednesday he said the country was a "powder keg" and that there would be "serious problems" caused by measures that aim to curb the virus.
What is the COVID-19 situation in Brazil?
Brazil's coronavirus-related death toll is over 350,000, second only to the US in terms of COVID-19 fatalities.
The country has seen the situation deteriorate in recent weeks, with daily deaths at times surpassing 4,000. The P1 variant in the country also appears to affect younger people more.
The healthcare system in the richest and most populous city, Sao Paulo, was on the verge of collapse on Wednesday as hospitals ran dangerously low on treatment drugs, the Folha de Sao Paulo reported.
"Collapse is imminent," Sao Paulo's health secretary said in a letter seen by the newspaper.
ab/msh (Reuters, LUSA)
"The
Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan respects the US decision and we will work with our US partners to ensure a smooth transition," Ghani tweeted. "Afghanistan's proud security and defense forces are fully capable of defending its people and country."
wd/dj (AP, dpa)
the only true "game-changer" humanity has seen since that cliché was coined.
Sample return missions from Mars
But all that starts with simpler things. NASA's helicopter plays neatly into a joint project that the American space agency is running with its European counterpart, ESA.
Their so-called "Mars Sample Return Campaign" aims to bring samples of Martian rock, soil and dust back to Earth.
Perseverance and Ingenuity, known collectively as the Mars 2020 Mission, are central to the campaign.
The plan is for Perseverance to stash samples of rock and soil in an area around Jezero Crater, where the rover landed in February. Those samples will then be collected, all things going to plan, by a subsequent mission at the end of this decade.
Sample retrieval and mobile launchpad
NASA and ESA have been studying options for what they are calling a Sample Retrieval Lander. That lander will include another rover, which will collect the samples, a mobile launchpad and a rocket-like capsule to bring the stuff back.
Using what scientists hope to learn about launching from Mars and test flying Ingenuity, the capsule — or "ascent vehicle" — will leave the planet in around 2028 and rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft. That spacecraft will then grab the samples
and take them on their onward journey home.
What good is getting Martian dirt?
First, it's to see whether we can.
Nations around the world are working on returning all kinds of samples from space.
Scientists are still working on and investigating crateloads of samples returned from the moon during NASA's Apollo missions in the late 60s and early 1970s.
But there is a growing sense that nations feel they can demonstrate a greater competence in space by getting new samples from moons, asteroids and other planets, such as Mars.
For a start, it demonstrates technological ability. That's why China has been running sample return missions from the moon most recently. And Japan is also planning a mission to return samples from one of the Martian moons, Phobos, in about 2024.
Then it's about mining for resources. The moons, asteroids and other planets in our solar system are made from similar cosmic minerals and materials to those found on Earth. So, there's massive commercial intent.
And at some point, nations will want to defend their commercial interests in space, even if militarily. Hence, refer back to point one: Demonstrating technological ability.
Ultimately, however, it's about seeing whether we can learn about the geology and biology on Mars in ways that can't (yet) be achieved by remote labs,
such as that on the Perseverance rover.
And, there again, it's about those ever-present questions, both scientific and philosophical: Is there life on Mars and can we use what's there to build a new life for humans on Mars?
Only, we're a sentimental species, aren't we? Even the hardiest of us will probably want to keep an option open of returning to Earth if things don't quite work out on the Red Planet. And that tiny drone they call a helicopter is a down-payment on that very human desire for a place we all call home.