Wins on Earth and in Space

 

Hungarians voted in record numbers—77% of those registered—April 12th to rid themselves of Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn, whose authoritarian rule had been systematically destroying Hungary’s democratic institutions. From rigging elections to controlling media, universities, and courts, Orbàn believed in “my way or the highway.” 

Hungarians had clearly had enough of far-right “illiberal” government, not only throwing out the prime minister but electing to parliament a supermajority with more than two-thirds of the opposition party (Parliament building on the Danube in Budapest  pictured). They intend to undo as much of Orbàn’s anti-democratic policies as they can, beginning with electoral structures that gave him and his party an advantage (like U.S. gerrymanders).

From 1945 to 1990, Hungary was a Soviet satellite but became a relatively liberal democracy after the Soviet collapse. Hungary joined NATO and the EU, building on a knowledge-economy supported by good public education including free university for those qualified. (Hungary has 67 universities including several of Europe’s oldest. So many Hungarian physicists and mathematicians worked in the Manhattan Project unlocking the secrets of nuclear energy that a running joke was that it must be Hungary’s water. What it was, of course, were universities strong in math and the sciences.) 

Orbàn’s rule saw rising prices and widespread corruption as well as close ties to Putin’s Russia, all highly unpopular with the public. In the U.S., Orbàn’s policies were a model for the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the framework for Trump Administration policies. Trump even sent Vice-president Vance to Hungary to help rally Orbàn supporters. Vance failed. Hungarians wanted their free democracy back and chose to side with Europe, not Russia or the U.S. Hungarians got what they wanted by voting in record numbers. Democracy works.

On April 13th, Canadians elected three new Liberal Party members to the House of Commons, giving Prime Minister Mark Carney a clear majority. Carney earned a doctorate in economics at Oxford, worked at Goldman Sachs, was governor of the Bank of Canada then of the Bank of England, followed by several years as UN special envoy for climate action and finance.

Carney’s rousing speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year marked him as one of the influential leaders of the free world. Carney said that U.S. economic and foreign policies during the past year, especially tariffs, have “ruptured” the largely stable relations among most nations that have endured for nearly 80 years. With his new governing majority, Carney plans to reduce Canada’s dependence on the U.S., certainly in trade. It’s not a divorce, however. A Canadian was a crew member on the recent Artemis II Moon mission.

In Greek mythology, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and Leto, a Titaness. Artemis is goddess of the hunt, of wilderness, and of nature. NASA’s Artemis II was our first manned flight to the Moon in 50 years. The Orion spacecraft was launched by a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket April 1 from Kennedy Space Center on a 10-day mission to test how well the Orion works in deep space, to study crew health, to test optical communication with Earth, to photograph the far side of the Moon, and to prepare to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually establish a permanent base. 

The Orion crew included U.S. astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. As they passed above the Moon’s far side, they were 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than humans had ever been. Quite a ride!