sure its intended to
but it doesn’t
True. Reality is surprisingly malleable.
The outrage didn’t end once it was revealed the mass-stabber in England was a Welsh Christian
I find it hard to link the dr bit with killing ppl bit.
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To add to all the active foreign players with a presence in Syria, France is now reporting air strikes on ISIS strongholds in Syria. The strikes come from aircraft in the French military aircraft base set up in Abu Dhabi in 2009.
As I understand it, the UAE places restrictions on the use of aircraft strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
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Wtf??
It appears vehicles are the new weapon of choice. This on top of the German one and the US one:
Yeah, it’s been posted in the US thread as well. Pretty bad.
Crickey, rough start to 2025
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Not bad for a 17 year old.
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Pretty similar to the attack in La Rambla in Barcelona about the same time. That was going to be a bombing but the cell leader blew himself up the night before and the rest of the cell decided to improvise. They fled to southern Catalonia and tried again, but all 5 of the gang were shot by police.
Netflix documentary - 800 Metros
Trudeau resigns as Canadian PM
Yep, Gonski. He was just too much on the nose with the electorate.
So parliament is now prorogued- all business suspended- until a new leader is elected. It will take a while, and the GG has allowed until March 24th.
How does this affect the country?
Well, firstly the Conservatives are predictably “outraged” They want an election now, as polls have them 20 points up, ( due to Trudeaus unpopularity). They were also relying on the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to follow thru with their threats to support a no confidence motion in parliament Trudeau stayed on, ( due to the Liberals having a minority government). Now he has gone, that threat may not apply, ( the NDP specifically said they’d pull support “…if Trudeau stays…”, as opposed to the Liberals as a party).
Also their arguement is a little rich, considering Harper, ( the previous Conservative PM) prorogued 4 seperate times to avoid no confidence votes…
At this early stage, the front runners for the job appear to be:
- Crystia Freeland, the ex deputy PM whose resignation as finance minister brought this all to a head. Tough and a skilled negotiator. She has already gone head to head with Trump during his last Presidency over Trade relations and arguably came out ahead.
- Mark Carney, the ex head of the Bank of Canada/Bank of England. Trudeau has been reaching out to him for a while, ( as has a number of the Liberals) as his economic credentials and centralist stance carry a lot of creedance.
- Melanie Joly, the current Foreign affairs minister. Younger, (and very much seen as a rising star in the party), she also brings the considerable francophone vote to the table being a Montreal based minister.
So a bit going on atm. And with the second Trump administration due in 2 weeks, its all happening!!
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Quick update- Jagmeet Singh, ( the NDP leader) cams out this morning and suggested Canadians should not support ANY Liberal leader. Bit of a change. That is a worry for the Libs, unless the new leader can mend some fences
Finlands coastguard arrived so quickly that it seems to have caught the Eagle S red-handed, as the ship’s crew hurriedly retracted its anchor chain.
Finland seizes a tanker, getting tough on hybrid warfare
Russian-linked attacks on undersea infrastructure are rising
Photograph: AFP
Dec 31st 2024|Tallin
Finland’s seizure on December 26th of the Eagle S, a Russian-linked sanctions-busting “dark fleet” tanker, could mark a turning-point in Europe’s response to the Kremlin’s hybrid-warfare campaign. The ship had been dragging its anchor along the seabed, trying to damage the 170km (106-mile) Estlink 2 power cable, which links Finland and Estonia. The shutdown of the cable led to a sudden drop in electricity supply to Estonia. Suspecting sabotage, the Finns sent coastguards to board the almost 20-year-old vessel, registered in the Cook Islands, and sailed it to Finnish waters for investigation.
A few days later Finland’s Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the dragging track was “dozens of kilometres” in length. The anchor has not been found. The damage to Estlink 2 will take months to repair. It is the first time a government has impounded a commercial ship for undersea-cable damage. There have been at least two similar incidents in recent months. Finland’s move represents a growing shift towards a tougher approach.
Map: The Economist
In mid-November the Yi Peng 3, a Chinese-flagged bulk carrier, was suspected of severing two fibre-optic cables in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone. The Danish navy detained the vessel and Swedish police boarded it, but were only allowed to observe a lacklustre investigation by Chinese officials. After sitting between Sweden and Denmark for a month the ship was allowed to continue its voyage. Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, had no doubt it was sabotage: “Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed.” Another Chinese ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline in October. Chinese authorities claimed this too was an accident.
Besides the acute threat of damage to infrastructure from such ships, there is also evidence of espionage. Eagle S and Swiftsea Rider, another dark-fleet tanker used by Russia to evade sanctions, share the same ship managers and have a similarly opaque ownership structure. Both were kitted out as “spy ships”, according to an investigation by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping information service. They were crammed with high-tech intelligence-gathering equipment used to monitor NATO ships and aircraft. It is not clear who would have operated the equipment on the Eagle S, but it is unlikely to have been the Georgian and Indian seafarers who made up most of its crew.
On December 30th NATO held a hastily convened meeting at its Brussels headquarters to discuss ways of countering the threat in the Baltic. In a statement the alliance said it would enhance its military presence “to maintain vigilance, increase situational awareness, and deter future incidents”. Other measures are under consideration too. In May NATO established a new Maritime Centre for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure.
The tough response of Finland and Estonia was welcomed by other Baltic allies and by NATO’s new secretary-general, Mark Rutte, who are frustrated that not enough has been done until now to deter Russian sabotage. The Latvian prime minister, Evika Silina, told the BBC on December 29th that “we should stop them [dark-fleet tankers] going through the Baltic Sea…Our government has the power to seize those ships which do not obey international law.” It was no coincidence, she added, that the Eagle S carried Russian spying equipment. In an interview with The Economist on December 16th the prime minister of Estonia, Kristen Michal, called Russian hybrid attacks “the first and utmost security threat in this region”. The challenge, he said, is “to catch those carrying out attacks and then to call Russia out”.
The seizure of the Eagle S sets an important precedent, says Charlie Edwards of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank. “In the past we have been too cautious. NATO hasn’t really had a strategy which has had any deterrent impact on the dark fleet.” Some 70% of Russia’s oil is shipped through the Baltic and Black Sea, he notes, and up to 12 dark-fleet tankers pass through the English Channel every day. NATO navies track them but do nothing to impede them. The Eagle S has also been accused of dropping “sensor-type devices” while transiting the Channel.
Mr Edwards believes that part of the excessive caution stems from an overgenerous interpretation of the protection to freedom of navigation provided by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). However, that freedom is based on the concept of “innocent passage”. If a ship threatens peace, good order and security, it forfeits that right. Dark-fleet ships that are likely to have inadequate insurance against environmental or other damage, which are believed to have conducted sabotage and which are packed with spying gear seem hardly innocent.
Keir Giles, a Russia expert at Chatham House, another London-based think-tank, says it is vital that Russia’s expanding hybrid war against Europe be exposed. The past year has seen mysterious fires at defence-industry facilities, packages exploding in warehouses and a plot to kill the boss of Germany’s biggest arms firm, Rheinmetall. With attacks on undersea infrastructure, he says, it is only through seizure of a vessel that evidence can be gathered and culprits brought to court.
That appears to be the approach the Finns are taking. Finnish prosecutors are preparing charges (of aggravated interference with telecommunications and aggravated vandalism) against the operators and owners of the Eagle S.
Until now, Russia has regarded such “grey zone” activities as relatively low-risk, given the difficulties of attribution. The Baltic was complacently described by some as a “NATO lake” after the recent admission to the alliance of Sweden and Finland. Russia sees it differently. Finland and Estonia have shown how Russia’s strategic calculus could be challenged. Will others follow their example? ■
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Following these American bushfires.
The damage in LA and surrounds sounds hectic.
They do things differently in Brazil.
8 January marked the second anniversary of the storming of the Capitol in Brazil, a few days after Lula’s inaugural.
The Electoral College subsequently disbarred Bolsonaro from standing for office until 2030. He was found to have used government resources to undermine trust in the voting system.
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