🛰️ Lawmakers urge Elon Musk to activate SpaceX’s StarShield for Taiwan

SpaceX's StarShield, a satellite network crucial for Taiwan's defense amid rising threats, faces a hurdle. Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, hesitates to extend the service to Taiwan despite a Pentagon contract mandating it. Check out the full story by reading today’s Must Read.

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MUST READ

🛰️ Lawmakers urge Elon Musk to activate SpaceX’s StarShield for Taiwan

SpaceX’s StarShield, a satellite network designed for the U.S. military, could be a lifeline for Taiwan in the face of growing aggression. But there’s a problem: Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has been reluctant to provide the service to the island nation despite having a contract with the Pentagon that requires him to do so.

That’s why a group of U.S. lawmakers, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), sent a letter to Musk on Wednesday, urging him to make StarShield available to American defense forces in and around Taiwan.

The letter comes as tensions between China and Taiwan have escalated recently. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to reunify it. Conversely, Taiwan is a self-governed democracy that enjoys strong support from the U.S. and other countries.

🪙 Colombia plans to get treasure from the galleon San José 316 yrs after it sunk

In 1708, a gold, silver, and precious jewel-laden Spanish galleon, the San José, was sunk just south of the Colombian coast by the British Royal Navy squadron. 316 years later, the Colombian government plans to raise the sunken treasure estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

Plans were announced on February 23 for a deep-water expedition to explore the wreck and validate the presence of the supposed sunken goodies. The first port of call is to conduct scientific research to determine which pieces around the 1,969-foot (600-meter) deep shipwreck can be extracted.

Colombia located the galleon in 2015, but its exact location is now a state secret due to legal and diplomatic disputes. The government plans to invest $4.5 million this year to explore a sunken 62-gun, three-masted galleon that was ambushed while it was on its way to Cartagena, Colombia.

🧊 China’s ‘Ice City’: A frozen wonderland across 300 football fields

Since 1963, the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been a global standout. Alongside Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival, it holds its place among the world's premier ice and snow festivals.

This year’s Harbin’s ice park sprawls over 810,000 square meters, meticulously crafted from 250,000 cubic meters of ice harvested from the frozen Songhua River. A team of around 300 ice miners, comprising construction laborers and farmers, undertake the task each December.

Since artificial ice lacks the necessary thickness and strength to endure the wind, it involves extracting thousands of ice blocks from the expansive Songhua River, transporting them via truck, and assembling them to form towering ice structures.

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