Iran

On this day:
1429
Hundred Years’ War: Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.
1775
American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
1776
The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
1967
Venera program: Venera 4 is launched (it will become the first space probe to enter another planet’s atmosphere and successfully return data).
1994
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in wrongful death civil suit.

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Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.--From Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address was delivered to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois on January 27, 1838, titled "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions". He was 28.

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Japan is on the verge of revolutionizing deep space exploration with its innovative nuclear battery technology, using the power of radioactive waste to provide energy for space probes for over a century, offering a reliable alternative to solar power in regions of space where sunlight is scarce.

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Iran

The United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors has approved a resolution declaring Iran is not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards, diplomatic sources told Al Jazeera. Russia, China, and Burkina Faso were among the members of the 35-seat board to vote against the resolution.

In response, Iran‘s Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) announced in a joint statement that the country will build a new uranium enrichment facility “in a secure location”, adding that “other measures … will be announced later”.

AEOI also announced that it will replace the first-generation centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear site with “advanced sixth-generation” centrifuges, signalling that it will continue its nuclear enrichment.

Israel’s foreign ministry urged the international community to “respond decisively” to the resolution.

Trump reiterated that he would not allow Iran to have an atomic bomb amid mounting speculation that Israel could strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

On Thursday, Israeli media reported that Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad intelligence agency head David Barnea will travel to meet Witkoff ahead of the US-Iran nuclear talks in Oman.

On Wednesday, Iran threatened to target US military bases in the region if conflict breaks out.

According to reports, the US has also evacuated military families and non-essential staff from several countries in the Middle East amid the ongoing regional tensions.

Wars in Europe are often distinguished by time, like decades or a hundred years. Someone casually questioning how the wars in history--countless and purposeless and unending--could possibly occur might well start here. Who wants this confrontation? Iran wants to obliterate Israel, and Israel does not want to be obliterated. Certainly, Israel's citizens don't want to be obliterated. But do Iran's citizens want to risk death to obliterate Israel?

This conflict has been simmering, with the occasional outbreak of murder, torture, and despair, for decades. This is beginning to look more and more like Iran has strapped on the traditional Middle East dress, the suicide vest. And Israel will not have some unresolved conflict with its sworn enemy. They will not take a standing eight count or stagger away, bloodied and damaged, having "learned their lesson". If they fail, they will take the entire Middle East with them to perdition.

Ahab to Ahab.

How could reasonable men reach this point? How could leaders of innocent civilians allow confrontations to progress to threaten themselves--even the whole world--with destruction?

The history of man has been a conflict between those who work and those who would rather steal from those who work than work themselves. Those who work gradually built up their defenses so that those who would not work would find stealing others' production too dangerous.

Enter ideology--philosophy, nationalism, and religion--that taught that stealing from others was just. And the death of others was deserved, even demanded, even inevitable, and that suicide was infinitely superior to certain mundane life situations. The tremendous advantages of the cohesion of family and community have become distorted and dangerous.

Madmen, ideologues, and morons will have their moment. And, despite Lincoln's confidence, even America may not be safe.