Normalizing Anti-Semitism as 'Insensitive'

"The anti-Semitic tropes of Zionists controlling governments and of dual loyalty are two of the more abhorrent expressions of paranoid anti-Jewish conspiracy theories."
"Radical and racist statements such as these must result in the immediate disqualification of a candidate for political office. It is unacceptable for any candidate to speak in this deplorable fashion toward any religious minority."
Michael Mostyn, chief executive, B'nai Brith Canada
 
"In January of 2017, Guillet celebrated the release of Raed Salah, a Hamas-aligned activist who has accused Jews of staging the 9/11 terror attacks and has claimed that Jews use children's blood for baking 'holy bread'. The candidate went on to hail Salah as a 'jihad-fighter', and 'frontier-fighter' whom 'Allah will surely support'. Guillet offered his congratulations to Salah on being freed from 'the prisons of occupied Palestine', and prayed that he will some day be successful in the fight to liberate 'the whole of Palestine'. Salah had been serving a nine-month prison term in Israel for 'incitement to violence and racism'."
"In a late 2017 interview with Radio Canada International, Guillet called Israel an apartheid state. Guillet also accused Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, of directing his government to support an 'Israel first' agenda. He accused Kushner of dual loyalty because of his Jewish background and inaccurately described him as an 'ultra-Orthodox' and 'fundamentalist' Jew."
"Guillet has also stated on Facebook that 'the Zionists control American politics', promoting the common antisemitic trope of Jews manipulating world governments."
B'nai Brith Canada Website

Imam Hassan Guillet has been dropped as a candidate by the Liberal Party of Canada following claims he made anti-Semitic comments. (CBC)

B'nai Brith launched a campaign against the nominated candidacy for the October federal election, of a Montreal-based imam, Hassan  Guillet, a Lebanese by birth who had emigrated to Canada in 1974, and who had made a celebrated eulogy at the funeral of three of the Muslim men who had died after a deadly attack in a Quebec City mosque where in 2017 six people were killed and 19 other worshippers were wounded when a man opened fire at the mosque where 57 people were present. 

The human rights lobby group's overtures to the Liberal Party of Canada succeeded in the Liberal Party revoking Mr. Guillet's candidacy for the Montreal riding he wished to represent. It was historically a riding represented by Italian Members of Parliament, reflecting their majority numbers in the riding. 

Of more recent vintage, a demographic change has taken place where, Mr. Guillet claimed that Muslims now represent as many of the riding population as do Italians. He claimed to be able to speak Italian, and that he would represent the interests of all those in the riding. Perhaps not all, if others living there happened to be Jews however, since his fairly acid remarks on Jews and Israel could fairly be ascribed to an anti-Semitic attitude.

"Anti-Semitism is unfortunately all too real in Canada and threatens the safety and security of Jewish-Canadians. As political leaders, we need to speak out and condemn it at every opportunity", responded the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Andrew Scheer. Under the previous Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper it was not a matter of debate whether Canada was a friend of Israel and was dedicated to protecting Canada's Jewish population from discriminatory hatred.

"Following a thorough internal review process that has been ongoing for a few weeks, the Liberal Party of Canada has made the decision to revoke the candidacy of Mr. Guillet for the riding of Saint-Leonard -Saint-Michel in this fall's election."
"[Hassan Guillet's comments] are not aligned with the values of the Liberal Party."
Parker Lund, Liberal Party spokesperson

In fact, the Liberal Party in a statement issued for the media and public consumption said:
"The insensitive comments made by Hassan Guillet are not aligned with the values of the Liberal Party of Canada", which is in and of itself rather remarkable. 

An imam who has put himself on record through his statements on social media platforms as totally inimical to the survival of a Jewish State in the hope that 'Palestine' would be 'returned' in its entirety to the Palestinians, and who spoke admiringly of 'jihad' as well as repeating an ancient blood-libel against Judaism, is viewed as 'insensitive' by the Liberals.

These utterly repellent and alarmingly, distinctly anti-Semitic sentiments freely expressed have no place in a civilized, democratic country that guarantees equality and respect to all its citizens. 

That this man could be under the radar but yet his comments detected and known by the Liberal Party of Canada whose nominations committee was mulling over their next step; whether to remove or to simply sit on it in the hopes that no one would notice, and then taking action when it was brought to public attention that a potential Montreal Member of Parliament under the Liberal banner is yet another undercover Islamist should surprise no one.

But it does. And it is gut-wrenchingly disappointing.

Inexplicable Human Rights Defences

"It's been very stressful -- I couldn't understand why I had a complaint against me."
"When it comes to inviting someone into your home to look after your children you should be able to ask any question necessary."
Danielle, Edmonton mother [last name withheld]

The written human rights complaint filed in April 2019 by James Cyrynowski of Edmonton. (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms)

"We believe that there's no human right to babysit another person's children and that the anxiety that these kind of cases are causing to parents is something that should and can be avoided."
"It's just a question of basic information about a person and for someone to view these questions as prohibited, or for the Human Rights Act to be interpreted in that manner, certainly goes against common sense."
"It goes against the rights of parents to make reasonably informed decisions about the care of their children and it really is an intrusion violating freedom of expression."
"It is a sad state of affairs when numerous Alberta parents are subjected to the stress of the Alberta Human Rights Commission process simply for seeking to make informed decisions for the care of their own children."
"We encourage any parents facing these complaints to contact us to receive help free of charge in defending against this state overreach into their personal lives."
Marty Moore, staff lawyer,  Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

A woman in Edmonton became yet another victim of James Cyurynowski who has filed numerous complaints of discrimination based on gender or other grounds with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. He had applied for babysitting jobs on previous occasions, and when his application had not been accepted, he has resorted to filing human rights complaints on the basis of gender discrimination. Because employers are barred from rejecting a job applicant based on their family status under the province's rights law, this man has taken advantage to file claims against unsuspecting victims.

On the basis of one of his complaints a mother was ordered to pay this man $1,500 in damages. A court battle ensued over the order and the mother won her case, but not before she had suffered the indignity of being charged with discrimination and human rights abuse and suffered through a period of anxiety and victimization of a human rights code gone badly awry. The latest complaint this congenital sociopath has lodged with the Commission is against a single father of young children.

In filing a discrimination suit against Danielle he cited her advertisement on Kijiji of her need to hire someone to care for her children, two to eleven years of age, between the time she had to leave for work and when they were expected at daycare. When Cyrynowski responded citing his early childhood education certificate, a car and the previous nine years looking after children citing his experience experience, she asked whether he had any children of his own.

She explained that she would have had more confidence if he'd had children of his own, that he would be able to care for her children: "like I would relate to another parent easier". In the end she chose someone else, since the other person lived in her neighbourhood, close to the daycare facilities her children attended. Two months on, Cyrynowski reported this woman to the Human Rights Commission with the terse note: "I was asked if I had children. I do not. I didn't get the job."  It is beyond mind-boggling that a rights body can contests a parent's right to select who will care for their children.

Danielle discovered she was in the commission's cross-hairs when she received correspondence informing her the complaint had been accepted, and she was alerted to the official need to defend herself.

Five years earlier in the case of another mother whom Cyrynowski complained to the commission about for similar reasons, because she had advertised for an "older lady" ideally to look after her children, and he hardly fit the bill, but that this was an instance of gender discrimination against Cyrynowski. When the commission director and chief commissioner overruled the finding to accept that case, the Alberta Court of Queen';s Bench and Court of Appeal upheld their decision, while the Supreme Court of Canada refused Cyrynowski's appeal.

In her 2017 ruling, Queen's Bench Justice Dawn Pentelechuk stated it was reasonable to find that having a gender preference was "a bona fide occupational requirement" for services such as babysitting, with the chief commissioner pointing out that the parent-child bond was "one of the most revered relationships recognized in society and law".

That the Alberta Human Rights commission continues to accept this man's string of complaints over parents turning down his applications for child-minding unbelievable in itself. That he has been permitted to torment people in this manner is incredible. This absurdity has been taken up by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a conservative NGO that has been championing the rights of parents to determine who will look after their children as their temporary proxies.

That this man's search for victims to harass and righteously alert the Human Rights Commission to gender bias in such a sensitive area as people's trust in who will be entrusted with their children's welfare is unspeakably vile. The role of the Human Rights Commission in this errant search for social justice is beyond absurd in their perception of what constitutes an abuse of human rights. For in actual fact, the situation is entirely reversed; this predator is abusing the human rights of parents to make concerned choices for their children's welfare.

The single father of a five- and eight-year-old was searching for someone reliable to care for his children. Ten people responded to the advertisement he had posted on line; one of the respondents was James Cyrynowski. All respondents were asked their age and gender, obvious questions any parent would want to know. In the end no one was hired when the father, identified only by his first name of 'Todd', to protect the identity of his children, realized he had no need of a sitter after all due to changed plans.

Soon afterward an employment discrimination complaint under the Alberta Human Rights Act was filed by Cyrynowski, which stated: "I applied for a job on Kijiji involving babysitting two boys. I got a message 10 minutes later asking for my age and if I’m male or female. I told him I’m male and 28 years old. I never heard back from him since". And so was launched yet another episode of malicious mischief masquerading as a human rights complaint by this serial abuser of human rights.

"I was shocked and bewildered by the complaint", Todd explained of the complaint filed in 2017, processed in May of 2019, and Todd notified officially last month. "I realize now I have to be careful in what I say. I was just trying to get to know the potential babysitters a bit first and would have to do a more detailed follow up later. I ended up not needing a babysitter though, so more follow-up never happened."

A man is facing a human rights complaint after he asked for the age and gender of a potential babysitter for his two children.

Legitimizing China's Global Influence

"He told me about how the Confucius Institute had nothing at all to do with [the] Chinese government, then very strongly expressed concerns this might adversely impact trade relationships with China and the Chinese government."
"It also turned out his translator was someone who was a teacher for the Confucius Institute."
"I was concerned when I saw that same playbook being operated here in Canada, and our school system being used as a conduit for extending that influence."
"It gets to a point where we in Canada and in New Brunswick, we have to start playing hardball back. The world is getting to be a much rougher place and if we don't stand up in it, we get pushed over."
"In this case we stood up, and we're still standing."
Dominic Cardy, New Brunswick Education Minister

"We hope New Brunswick could grasp the opportunity of pragmatic cooperation with China instead of letting it slip from hands, meet each other half way and make joint efforts to promote the healthy development of the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields."
"[New Brunswick could be imperilling the] rapid development [in trade and educational coooperation that New Brunswick and China have seen in recent years]."
Embassy of China, Ottawa

Musicians with the Confucius Institute play dulcimers during Global Confucius Institute Day at the Centre for Education in Edmonton on Sept. 27, 2014. The Edmonton school board recently renewed its Confucius contract for another five years.  Codie McLachlan/Postmedia/File

Dominic Cardy once was associated with the National Democratic Institute, a democracy-promotion agency based in the United States where, in the early 2000s, he was a close witness in Nepal and Cambodia to China's escalating influence. That experience echoed more recent events involving him as provincial minister of education in New Brunswick, where reports have been received from parents respecting the Confucius Institute currently installed in the provincial school system, ostensibly to deliver Chinese language lessons and cultural lessons in elementary and middle schools.

The province through its ministry of education was preparing itself not to renew the contract to permit the extra curricular Mandarin and Chinese cultural lessons after a decade of contract renewals. It is a commonplace contract subsidized by the Communist Party of China, installed in universities, colleges and other institutes of education throughout Canada -- and just incidentally throughout the world at large. Mr. Cardy was surprised when in his official capacity as his province's education minister he was confronted by a Chinese diplomat stationed in eastern Canada.

Without so much as a heads-up, his unannounced visitor, the Chinese consul-general in Montreal sought out Mr. Cardy to urge him in his capacity as education minister to refrain from releasing the Confucius Institute and its programs from the New Brunswick school system. With that urging came dire warning that should he chose to proceed with contract non-renewal he would be responsible for placing in peril the province's growing and remunerative trade with China.

Typically, a Liberal-appointed Canadian ambassador to Beijing forced to resign his position after he appeared to support Beijing's position in its outrage over the detention of Huawei's CFO last December by the RCMP at Vancouver's international airport -- on an extradition request from the U.S. State Department for interference in U.S. sanctions against Iran which led to the arrest of two Canadians under bogus charges of espionage, a death sentence imposed on another Canadian and an embargo of Canadian Canola products to China -- attempted to intervene, to no avail.

Singers from Meyonohk School perform during Global Confucius Institute Day at the Centre for Education in Edmonton on Sept. 27, 2014. Codie McLachlan/Postmedia/File

Neither the advice of the former ambassador nor the strenuously threatening lobbying of the Chinese diplomat served to change New Brunswick's position. The Liberal opposition in the province also criticized the decision but the announcement proceeded that the province is prepared to end the school system's contract with the Confucius Institute, cancelling cultural lessons in elementary and middle schools, while permitting the continuation of language courses in high school until the current contract runs out.

Reports from parents complain that the Institute restricts or distorts discussions of China; its teachers bar discussions about Tiananmen Square, and insist Taiwan is part of the People's Republic. Maps showing China includes Taiwan have also been used as Chinese propaganda. Now Mr. Cardy,  his government a progressive conservative one, faces ongoing criticism from the opposition Liberals claiming $137 million in export business has been endangered as a result of geopolitical dabbling.

It is no secret that the Confucius Institute has an agenda as an arm of the Chinese government, to strike partnerships with educational institutions abroad, offering funding to support extra-curricular Mandarin instruction and cultural courses to students. Establishing a base, in other words, among an emerging population demographic, sympathetic to and supportive of the government of China. In the final analysis seeking to buy recognition and support from the international community through outreach and indebtedness.

This stealth infiltration is a distant but distinct partner of the "one road, one belt" initiative where China invests hugely in countries abroad, lending out impressive sums for national building projects of roads, bridges and other communication infrastructures to benefit the loan nation and make it indebted to China whose benefit is control and command and enhanced trade opportunities. Chinese infiltration of other nations' business with establishing contacts at all levels of government, of persuading Chinese expatriates living abroad of their duty to support the government is devious.

Its expertise in subterfuge and espionage and its aggressive policies of embedding its communications industries' technologies in those of other countries gives it entry to state, military and industrial secrets meant to be shielded from unsanctioned eyes. While the Chinese Communist Party excels at portraying itself as a neutral, non-threatening bridge between societies, its assertive campaign for influence and command  has been well recognized globally.

In Canada, some agencies are beginning finally to respond; shutting out the Chinese overtures to protect themselves from undue influence and certain surveillance.

Extending Human Rights to Jihadis Dedicated to Koranic Jihad Counselling to Mass Murder

"The question here is not actual prejudice, which in these kinds of circumstances is impossible to gauge, but prejudice to the due administration of justice flowing from the denial of a jury selection method which was in law properly invoked."
"[The jury selection process allows defendants to make decisions whether prospective jurors may be questioned on impartiality]."
"It was an error of law for the trial judge to refuse to exercise a discretion based on a view that a remedy not sought by Jaser would have better achieved his ends." 
"Here, one jury was selected for both appellants. In the circumstances of this case, as the jury was not properly constituted for Jaser, it cannot be considered to have been properly constituted for Esseghaier."
Ontario Court of Appeal

"The decision might be a bit hard for some people to get through, because there's a lot of technical language."

"But the bottom line is the fair jury selection process is a hallmark of Canadian justice. Mr. Jaser has been in jail since 2013, and still hasn't had a trial in front of a jury that was chosen legally, so we think this is the right result."

Megan Savard, one of Jaser's lawyers

"Fair jury selection is especially important in cases with saturation-level publicity and it can be hard to find impartial jurors in a highly publicized case like this one."

"So it is important to use the jury selection procedure created by Parliament. Jury selection is one of the few things that a defendant gets to choose around mode of trial and the courts are always protective of it."

Frank Addario, one of Jaser's lawyers

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for Raed Jaser, left, and Chiheb Esseghaier. The men were found guilty on terror-related charges in connection with a plot to derail a passenger train. (John Mantha/Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Found guilty at trial of terrorism in connection with a plot they decided upon out of many discussed between the two men -- to derail a Via Rail passenger train between Canada and the United States -- Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier have been the beneficiaries of the Ontario Court of Appeal finding the jury that had convicted them in 2015 had not been properly selected. It was the lawyers for Raed Jaser who had challenged the legality of the jury makeup, but his victory in being granted a new trial has been extended to his fellow jihadist Chiheb Esseghaier.

During the trial that convicted him of terrorism charges, Esseghaier scorned the Canadian justice system. It was only under Sharia law that Koranic justice could be meted out. And since the Koran extols the virtues of jihad and exhorts its faithful to embrace jihad, the man held that he was fully justified in plotting a terrorist attack with the co-defendant for the purpose of avenging Muslims in countries that the West had identified as harbouring threats to the West through a series of deadly attacks.

The trial that saw these men being found guilty on eight terror-related charges between them saw them sentenced to life in prison. Life in prison in Canada is nothing like a sentence of life imprisonment; these two would-be slaughterers of innocent life under Canadian law would have the opportunity of appearing before a parole board in 2023, a decade after they were arrested, eight years after being found guilty of terrorism, to plead for parole accelerating the opportunity of becoming free men to roam the streets of Toronto and Montreal to resume their psychotic fantasies of vengeance.

Accused Chiheb Esseghaier (L) and Accused Raed Jaser sit in the University Avenue courthouse in Toronto on Jan. 29, 2015. Sketch by Pam Davies / Toronto Sun/ Postmedia Network

Following their convictions on terrorism charges, through the lawyers representing their interests both challenged their convictions, Esseghaier continuing to represent himself after firing his court-appointed lawyers. According to the legal finding of the Ontario Court of Appeal recently brought down, the trial judge had erred in denying Jaser the method of jury selection he had stated was his preference, that prospective members of the jury be questioned on their impartiality.

Given that the news media were loud, front and centre for months on end about this case and the two  jihadis' actions and plots and the testimony of a undercover FBI agent who had convinced them that he was willing to aid and finance their plot as a sympathetic-to-the-cause fellow Muslim, no one could possibly among the general public, fail to have consumed the news where it was made clear that the case against the two was fairly ironclad, as terrorists.

The sham that questioning would result in, to elicit from each juror a self-professed capacity to remain neutral irrespective of having been aware of the details of the case through daily reportage, was dismissed out of hand by the presiding judge. He decided against having the jury pool appointing 'triers' who would question the other jurors as to their capacity to wipe their minds clean of impressions of guilt, to view the accused neutrally, to arrive at an opinion as to guilt or innocence.

The trial judge responded to Jaser's request for the jury to be chosen by rotating triers with the intention of excluding any jurors who professed an incapacity to be neutral when sitting in judgement at trial by stating he was not prepared to grant the request since the issue could be solved by the use of static triers, an alternative he imposed, and now rejected by the Court of Appeal, which has ordered new trials for both convicted terrorists.

A screen grab from court exhibit surveillance video of September 2012 for train bridge terror plot released Feb. 9, 2015. Court Exhibit

With the presentation of the same evidence that had been used in the original trial it is difficult to see what can be achieved in new trials other than taxpayer expense in a situation that can only logically result in a like finding of guilt on the part of both men. The recording where they discuss terror plots to be carried out to retaliate for military actions Canada took part in, in Muslim countries, the photographs showing the two examining the likeliest site they would use to derail a train full of people over an overpass for maximum carnage, will all be re-presented.

This represents yet another instance where Western justice bends over backward in an energetic, guilt-ridden, good-faith response to deadly jihadist violence against its own civilian communities to ensure that those who dedicate themselves to the annihilation of innocent lives are still deserving of 'justice' untrammelled by any vestige of due punishment accomplished by sidestepping the fine points of the law. 

The situation is right in line with 'progressive' values that punctiliously avoid identifying Islam with violence, Muslims with terrorism, profiling and common sense observations that terrorism in today's world is invariably linked to the grim pathology of Islamist ideology of conquest. This is uncivil, and wildly unacceptable to draw conclusions from reality to identify Muslims with terrorism. And so subterfuges and delicate maneuvering is undertaken to avoid giving offence while at the same time practising limp defence. 

Obsequious and nerve-rattling conciliation that only results in the Muslim world responding with contempt, recognizing the weakness of the tolerance that the West sees as its strength and the world of Islam identifies as fear and weak-willed responses from a non-Muslim world community ripe for conquest.

The appeal in the case centres on the way the first trial's jury was selected. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Discard the Old, Herald the New

"The location is very strategic -- it's in the centre of Indonesia and close to urban areas."
"The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the centre of governance, business, finance, trade and services."
Indonesian President Joko Widodo

"The move will have an environmental impact. Jakarta has suffered so many failures from pollution, water crisis, and flooding."
"We don't want these problems in the new capital."
Jasmine Puteri, senior forest campaigner, Greenpeace

"By moving the capital you're not going to solve the problems of Jakarta."
"The ones really excited about moving the capital are the developers."
Elisa Sutanudjaja, executive director, Rujak Center for Urban Studies

Floating houses on Mahakam river in Samarinda, near the site of the new capital.

BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images

Looking into the foreseeable future there are many island-states and cities in the world that have advance warning they will eventually be consumed by rising sea waters, among them Houston, Texas, Lagos, Nigeria, New Orleans, Louisiana, Washington, DC, Beijing, China. What most of these cities with the exception of Washington face has come about partially as a result of poor stewardship, using too much groundwater at a time of rising sea levels courtesy of climate change. Miami, Florida sees its Everglades receding as a result of irrigation of crops in an otherwise dry geology.

And in Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the world's mega-cities with its ten million population -- 30 million in its greater metropolitan population area, land misuse and abuse and groundwater extraction, exacerbated by rampant construction has resulted in environmental chaos. It is now classified as one of the fastest-sinking cities on the globe with a forecast that by 2050 a full third of the city may be fully submerged.

This is a disaster that has been seen unfolding for many years, and the process has simply accelerated since no remedial action has been undertaken. The subsidence of the city has left 40 percent of the city's residents without water piped into their homes. "The city is sinking by one to 20 centimetres a year", earth scientist Heri Andreas of Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia has stated along with his calculation that the ground in some areas of the city has already sunk two to four metres below sea level.

North Jakarta is sinking by about 25cm every year

Jakarta seems doomed, and its government has decided on abandoning it to its fate, more or less. Indonesia is preparing to move its capital to the eastern edge of Borneo Island, shifting its political centre safely away from the megalopolis on the edge of disintegration. The city was built in an earthquake zone near the confluence of 13 rivers. Built on swampland, the city is the victim of poor urban planning, resulting in confining congestion and deadly pollution levels.

An inspection of buildings in Jalan Thamrin, central Jakarta found many operators pumping groundwater without a permit   AFP

Now, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world has a proposed new location where it has been judged a "minimal" risk of natural disasters threaten. Indonesia owns 180,000 hectares of land on Borneo, with the Indonesian side of the huge island comprising five provinces known for rainforests, orangutans and coal reserves. The move will necessitate the building of new government offices and homes to accommodate the 1.5 million people who are civil servants.

The cost of this venture? About $44 billion. The government is prepared to submit a bill and a feasibility study results to its parliament for approval of a new capital. "The economic impact was good in Brazil" [when Brazil moved from Rio de Janeiro to the government-blueprinted Brazilia in 1960, a city cited as a model in well-planned, modernized urban architecture], enthused Rudy Prawiradinata, deputy minister for regional development.

"Environmental issues", he promised, would set the new city's design as yet another showpiece of urban architectural planning. Jakarta is to be retained as Indonesia's financial centre, while the city's chronic dysfunctional problems would be addressed responsibly, although it is already being suggested that the city will face neglect as the government focuses on its new site- and purpose-specific location, 'forgetting' the plight of its former capital.

Israeli Pre-Emptive Defence

"It is an unusual event that has caused a lot of anxiety and will burn in the memory of this city." "Crying, vomiting, uncontrollable tremors, abdominal pain and headaches, and difficulty falling asleep."
"It’s impossible to get used to such a difficult reality."
Hila Gonen-Peretz, head, local trauma center, Sderot, Israel

"My mother was lying and covering my little sister, who is just a year old. Her whole life is ahead of her and she was traumatized for life. My sister did not choose to be born into this reality. A reality of fear, a reality of sadness and pain."
"Islamic Jihad and Hamas control us. They tell us when to go to school, when to go to work, when to cancel a big performance, and when to run in fear and cry."
Uri, a 12-year-old attendee at the Live Sderot music festival

"They [the bomb shelters] were all filled to the brim with a long line outside."
"I was able to find a place for my children in one of them, and I started looking for other children who were left outside and let them in."
"It was a shocking experience. This was an attempt at a mass attack, I have no doubt. [Gaza terrorist groups] haven’t received a proper response at all, and there’s nothing stopping them from doing it again."
"Until yesterday, the terrorist organizations did not dare to shoot at a mass event. I have lived in the border area for 16 years, and I do not remember such a thing. Today they feel they can — and they’ve proven it, too."
Amit Casper, Sderot resident

Streaks of light are pictured as rockets are launched from the northern Gaza Strip toward Israel, as seen from Sderot, Aug. 8, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen

"The IDF, by Israeli aircraft, was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones."
"[The Israeli attack targeted] a number of terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias."
"This was a significant plan with significant capabilities that had been planned for a few months. It was not something done on a low level, but rather top down from the Quds Force."
"[The Iranian attack was believed to be] very imminent.The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity."
IDF military spokesman Jonathan Conricus

"[The Israeli strike represents a] major operational effort."
"Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces are operating in every arena against Iranian aggressiveness."
"If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first. I have directed that our forces be prepared for any scenario."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows a part of an Iranian drone as he speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 18, 2018. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Yes, the Israeli air force may have focused on and struck military installations which intelligence had highlighted as preparing an imminent deadly strike with the use of armed drones, and performed successfully, but this is an antagonist that plays by its own rules bypassing all international war conventions practised by civilized nations, despite that war is hardly a civilized interaction between countries.

Iran and its proxy militias, and its Syrian ally play by their own rules, and there is nothing civilized about them. As payback for the destroyed drones and the failed mission meant to wreak deadly havoc within Israel planned so carefully by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force, it is a civilian population across the border from Gaza that has been targeted yet again, sending a panicked population which has been ceaselessly targeted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, into bomb shelters.

Iran is determined to destroy Israel's presence in the Middle East. It plans for a pincer movement using its allied militias, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran-associated Shiite militias in Syria, along with Hamas in Gaza to attack on a number of fronts, gambling that Israel's defence will be fragmented and distracted and unable to shelter its citizens from the scourge of total war. In the past, Israel has withheld the full force of its military's destructive capability, to spare civilian lives.

Should such an all-out-from-all-directions attack occur there would be an incentive for Israel to sacrifice the civilian lives of other countries' nationals alongside those of the militias threatening the existence of Israeli citizens. Israel bombed Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria and struck in Lebanon as well, sending an indelible message of its intention to thwart any and all attacks on Israel's existence. Since the last Lebanon war with Hezbollah Iran has supplied its proxy militia with updated, technically advanced war machinery.

In Gaza, the same thing has occurred; an agreed-upon 'hudna' as a temporary truce to enable Islamist forces to recoup their losses, introduce new forces, stockpile greater numbers of bombs and rockets, undergo more intensive training, to enable yet another attempt at destroying the hated Jewish State. Hezbollah has gained more experience in delivering death upon helpless civilians and conducting siege warfare aiding the butcher Bashar al Assad in Syria slaughter Sunni Syrians.

Now Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general warns of a "new phase of war" to respond to the "targeted attack" in southern Beirut, vowing "the time when Israel would strike anywhere in Lebanon and stay secure has ended". The reverse message of Israel's prime minister. Israel targets militias, threats against its existence. Its adversaries target Israeli civilians equally with members of the military; they are all Jews, after all.

Lebanon's prime minister in calling the bombing a "clear violation" of Lebanese sovereignty overlooks the fact that the violation has already taken place with Iran manoeuvring Lebanon for attacks and Hezbollah overtaking its rule of law.

An Iran-made drone is launched during a military drill in Jask port, southern Iran, in this picture released by Jamejam Online December 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Jamejam Online, Chavosh Homavandi, File)

Pick Your Version : Rewrite History

"August 23 will mark 80 years since the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany that sparked World War II and doomed half of Europe to decades of misery. The Pact contained the secret protocol which effectively carved up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence."
"This is why on this day proclaimed by the European Parliament as a European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes we remember all those whose deaths and broken lives were a consequence of the crimes perpetrated under the ideology of Nazism and Stalinism."
"Pain and injustice will never fall into oblivion. We will remember."
Joint statement: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania

"Naively calculating that the war would pass them by, the Western powers played a double game. They tried to steer Hitler's aggression eastwards."
"In those conditions, the USSR had to safeguard its own national security by itself."
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov

"The Soviet Union made massive efforts to lay the groundwork for a collective resistance to Nazism in Germany, made repeated attempts to create an anti-fascist bloc in Europe. All of these attempts failed."
And when the Soviet Union realized that it was being left one-on-one with Hitler's Germany, it took steps to avoid a direct confrontation, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2015

"Putin is saying that annexation of the Baltic states, aggression on Poland, aggression on Romania, on Finland, all of this was not a big deal, a natural part of history, and that is a problem."
"We should ask ourselves why we commemorate all these historical events. Not because these politicians are historians."
"We do it to send a message to our contemporary society about what is right and what is wrong."
Slawomir Debski, political scientist, historian, Director, Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding

German Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop (L), Soviet head of state Joseph Stalin (2nd L) and his Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (R) are seen on 23 August 1939 in Kremlin in Moscow during the signing of the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, making the outbreak of war virtually inevitable.AFP/Getty Images

They certainly deserved one another's company, the Black Widow Spider and the Deadly
Scorpion. A pact to ensure they agreed as they attacked and invaded their neighbours in Eastern Europe, a pact to divide the spoils, a pact to make certain that one would not turn on the other. And then, of course, it was set aside, and Nazi Germany set upon Communist Russia, two ideologies, fascism and communism at supposedly opposite ends of the political spectrum, but in reality uncannily alike in their despotism and carnage of the human spirit.

Representatives of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met in 1939 as a preliminary to World War II. The non-aggression agreement complete with an agreeable formula to loot Europe and divide the spoils between them. Poland, which had undergone so many invasions and entitled 'ownerships' that it could vie with Afghanistan as a wearily war-torn nation, to be shared between them while the fate of Estonia, eastern Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Romania ceded to the open maw of the USSR.

Germany, however, did not appear to be looking for a rival as a world power prepared to overwhelm the world, but a temporary rival it could appease for a time before adding it to its list of conquests. While Russia felt content to absorb its neighbours in the near-abroad in its tentacle grasp, leaving Germany to get on with its invasion of Western Europe. Hitler's sinister deadly plans for the Final Solution merely in its initial stages would face no objections from Stalin.

Hitler's troops hit Poland, and then Stalin's. And soon the Baltic states were annexed to Moscow's grand plan of absorbing the east, establishing the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, satellite states loyal without choice to Russia's persuasive force. All this history now revealed in living colour in a new exhibition presenting the fateful pact as a normal business agreement between two political entities, two countries with the best interests of the continent in their rear view mirror, ever closer.

For many years the existence of such a pact was described as a fabrication by Russia until the 1980s when Russia finally agreed, yes, the protocol was real, but as real as any compact between two nations potentially useful to each other would be. And the pact undergoes a not-too subtle transformation as a self-protective measure by the USSR defending itself against the seemingly evident potential of West's eventual pact with Hitler that would target Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has her own interpretation, condemning the secrecy of the pact yet explaining: "Molotove-Ribbentrop Pact is difficult to understand without considering the additional secret protocol. (Agreement on dividing the spoils of invasion and occupation). With that in mind, I think it was wrong, it was done illegally", she stated; 'illegally'?

"Contrary to allegations that the agreement between Stalin and Hitler triggered #WWII in fact the USSR was practically the last geopolitical actor forced to sign an agreement with the Nazi Germany #TrueHistory."
Russian mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Britain's perfidiously cowardly appeasement through then-British leader Neville Chamberlain was the closest the West ever got to an 'agreement' with Nazi Germany. And an infuriated British political establishment made quick work of his "peace in our time". "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war", Winston Churchill informed Chamberlain predictively.

Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is photographed signing the Munich Treaty as Hitler’s secretary Martin Bormann (R) looks on on September 29, 1938 in Munich. AFP/Getty Images

 

 

The Great Indian Democracy That Fails Half Its Population

"India’s criminal justice system remains inaccessible and insensitive to most survivors of sexual violence. These survivors face barriers in getting their cases registered with the police, have inadequate legal support, and are forced to wait years to have their cases heard."
"According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, around 100 sexual assaults are reported to police every day. Shocking though that is, the actual number of attacks is far higher, with a government survey finding that 99.1% of sexual violence cases go unreported, often due to pressure from family members."
"Immediate, systemic change is needed to ensure expeditious trials and day-to-day hearing of cases, such as took place in the Kathua trial. Justice needs to be done and be seen to be done so that all survivors of sexual violence can place their faith in the legal system, safe in the knowledge that they will be heard and their claims treated seriously."
"The onus is now on the Indian government to move beyond token action and ensure that the criminal justice system is responsive to survivors needs and is equipped to handle the high volume of sexual violence cases that are currently pending."
"Better implementation of existing laws, the introduction of much needed procedural reforms, and clearing the large backlog of cases pending in criminal courts, are all key. So is handling sexual violence cases with greater sensitivity, a more accountable police force, and bigger budgetary allocation by the government to end gender-based violence."
"This includes giving sufficient funding to women’s rights organizations that are delivering vital support services at the grassroots to women and girls."
Divya Srinivasan, South Asia Consultant, Equality Now

NEW DELHI, Jun 28 2019 (IPS) - Early in 2018, India was shaken by the horrific details surrounding the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kathua, a district in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

One of the most populous nations on Earth, with its diverse population, languages, religious devotion, highly intelligent people achieving recognition in the arts, sciences and technology, along with those in the nation mired in extreme poverty, shut out of advantages and suffering under a still-resonant caste system though it is now illegal, India has its problems. The fundamentalist orthodox among the majority Hindu population and the extremists among the huge albeit minority Muslim population along with simmering Sikh separatist agitation keeps the government on its toes.

Beset with so many difficult headaches there is one yet more, and it victimizes fully half of the Indian population; its girls and women, susceptible to sexual violence, rape, murder and a combination of atrocities that beggar description. In India, more than in most other countries, the lives of girls and women are fraught with the danger of extreme violence, in a culture that refuses to surrender its view of women as expendable objects to be viciously exploited and discarded.

Indian women no longer keep their heads down hoping to avoid notice leading to harassment and attacks. They now publicly campaign for protection from predators. Although the Indian government has made some changes to its laws favouring a more stringent application of justice for women and punishment for their tormentors the prevailing attitude by police and security officials goes into fallback mode of shrugging and ignoring the situation. This is just what happened time and again in the state of West Bengal in the case of a resident who terrorized his neighbours.

The son of a village council leader with the Trinamool Congress party, Mafizul Haz, accused of violent crimes among which rape and bullying stand out, terrorized his community with complete impunity. He remained protected in the coddling aura of his father's political influence as the younger son of Ainul Haq, a council leader -- where in rural India the council system frequently replaces the authority of police, courts and jailers all at the same time.

And although there were countless accusations launched and registered against the man in the Tufanganj police station, no remedial action was ever taken; he has never been held to account for, nor held to be responsible for his vicious behaviour and psychopathic actions harming others. Which led the villagers to inaugurate their own form of action to punish the criminal living among them. Although the man probably deserved to be lynched that would without doubt have brought the wrath of the village council to snap to attention on the villagers themselves not the perpetrator of their problems.

Fed up finally with the lack of attention to their pleas for intervention by authorities, the residents of Balabhut in the district of Cooch Behar gathered at night at the predator's property to quietly and swiftly dig a deep trench surrounding his house, effectively marooning him from the village and its victimized population. Placing him in a position where, when he became aware of the situation that he was under siege, caused him to unwillingly plead with those taking revenge, to provide him with food and water.

Home of Ainul Haq’s son Villagers dug a five-feet deep gully around the home of Ainul Haq’s son

Canada Is Back ... Cowering Behind China

"Loudness is not necessarily persuasive and people can tell right from wrong."
"We urge the Canadian side to reflect upon its wrongdoing, take China's solemn position and concerns seriously, immediately release Ms. Mene Wanzhou and ensure her safe return to China."
Geng Shuang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson

Lawyers for Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou say it would be in Canada's national interests to end extradition proceedings against their client. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

This is China telling Canada that in honouring its extradition treaty with the United States by holding Huawei CFO Meng Wanqhou for an extradition hearing, allowing her bail so she can live in comfort in either of her two luxury homes in Vancouver, Canada has assaulted Chinese sensibilities and China will not stand for this kind of impudence. In view of Canada's lack of respect and restraint for the majesty of this world power, two Canadians languish in a Chinese prison, refused legal advice, exposed to harsh interrogations, charged with crimes against China, and imports of Canadian canola, swine and beef have been halted while Chinese diplomats excoriate Canada for its perfidy.

Canada has appealed to the international community to come to its aid in condemning China's spiteful aggression. A few pallid statements of regret at the situation from G7 allies has resulted and the stalemate continues, with China threatening 'consequences', all the more so should Canada decide against awarding Huawei telecommunications contracts with the emerging G5 upgrades. So, is Canada reciprocating on the importation of Chinese goods by imposing restrictions and high customs and excise taxes? Official Canada is on its best tippy-toes behaviour, attempting to soothe the Angry Panda.

This Liberal government had envisioned free trade agreements with Beijing, and now it is reeling under the weight of the wrath of the Communist Government of China. With the mass demonstrations taking place in Hong Kong, watered-down statements urging both Hong Kong and Beijing to exercise restraint and avoid violence have emanated from the squeaky-voiced Cabinet of Justin Trudeau. That there are 300,000 Hong Kongers with Canadian citizenship has not persuaded Ottawa to raise a strident protest against Beijing's forcefulness despite the 'one country, two systems' agreement.

A protester holds a sign reading 'God bless Hong Kong' during a demonstration in Hong Kong on Thursday. High school students thronged a downtown square to debate political reforms. (Vincent Yu/The Associated Press)

And otherwise? How is Canada expressing its frustration and disappointment for China's heavy-handedness? It's verbal attacks and threats, its very successful efforts to destroy Canadian farmers' livelihoods? Goodness, conciliation, that's how. Isn't that the way that weak, small, unimportant-to-the-international-community governments assert their credentials as world players? The weak acceding to the strong; bullied and bully?

"It is worth flagging to people that the main beneficiary will be the Chinese government, more so than the government of Nunavut or the government of Canada."
"This is for the mining projects and nothing else. We think we're stumbling into a lot of easy money when in fact the costs are very high and in some cases actually exceed the benefit."
Dr.Michael Byers, political science professor, Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law, University of British Columbia

"On behalf of MMG, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Canadian government for their support and funding."
Geoffrey Gao, CEO, MMG

"Canadian taxpayers have been paying for highways in the southern part of Canada. Our organization's trying to create jobs that are badly needed up here."
Stanley Anablak, president, Kitikmeot Inuit Association

"The problem with [permafrost] is, if you tear into it just like you do a regular road-building project, you'll wind up with just a bunch of melting road."
"You might have a big grassy plain, and it looks quite beautiful, but if you tear into it ... it'll start to thaw out, and then now it's black, and it's thawing, and the sun's being attracted to it, and you've created this open sore in the tundra."
Lake Pickell, general manager, Arctic Construction

Snow ploughs keep the metre-plus thick ice road on Yellowknife Bay clear for traffic.   Lynn Martel

The road in question is a permanent one, to replace the seasonal ice road representing the sole entry to isolated Arctic communities and more to the point, mining sites, where a Chinese mining company, MMG, controlled by the government of China, holds several mineral deposit sites in the region. This will be a costly venture. The 700-km highway from Yellowknife to a port in the proposal stage on Nunavut's Arctic coast will largely serve the interests of the Chinese government, but it is to be paid for by Canadian taxpayers.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, the same government pleading with China to release two Canadians charged with spurious accusations as payback for arresting Huawei's CFO, has pledged over $50 million for a feasibility study of a highway where the current ice roads are now unreliable as a reflection of climate change. $50 million just for the feasibility study alone. The pledge has the approval of local Inuit leaders even while critics insist the major beneficiary would be the mining company. According to Professor Byers, there is a possibility that Chinese workers will be brought in to build the road.

The Slave Geological Province contains unexplored zinc and copper deposits of interest to the mining company, and the proposed route of the new highway would open up opportunities to begin operations there. This is hugely peculiar. Canada has some of the largest private mining operations in the world, operating mines all over the world. But not in critical areas of Canada? While China has been dredging and exploiting natural resources rapaciously all over the world, Canada included.

That the route would be over 100 kilometres' distant from the nearest communities, Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay, speaks to the direction of this initiative and whose interests it is meant to benefit. Despite that, according to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the highway would result in lower costs for building materials and even loaves of bread which are priced between $6 and $10 each at stores in the northern areas of the Arctic. The five area communities are serviced when a ship from Quebec arrives once yearly with supplies.

Ice roads, like this one shown in an aerial photo near Yellowknife,are no longer considered reliable due to the warming climate. Ben Nelms/Bloomberg

Though the cost estimate of such a highway is $1 billion, it could conceivably be more, resulting from the challenges inherent in building on melting permafrost. Contractors would have to lay down geotextile matting to circulate cool air to the ground under the new road, explained Lake Pickell of Arctic Construction; skilled in building all-weather roads in the Yukon. This kind of road, he said, can withstand melting permafrost, and can be built atop swamps as well.

Well, a swamp is what Canada is stumbling about in, with respect to negotiations on any level with China. And we're not performing very well at it. China has informed Canada to stick to its own business and not to interfere in the Hong Kong matter. To take China's example, it has called upon its citizens studying in Canada to rally to Beijing's defence, holding counter-rallies in Canadian cities to the pro-Hong-Kong rallies called in support of guaranteed independence for the city-state.

 Righteous Hypocrisy or Just Plain Sanctimony?

Russian Defense Ministry officials show off Russia's 9M729 cruise missile at the military Patriot Park outside Moscow on January 23. Moscow insisted the range of a missile system that has prompted Washington to withdraw from a key Cold War-era arms treaty is allowed under the agreement. VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

"It is noteworthy that the test of an advanced Tomahawk-type missile was conducted just 16 days after the U.S. withdrew from INF, and the treaty was terminated."
"Perhaps, there can be no clearer and more explicit confirmation of the fact that the United States has been developing such systems for a long time, and preparations for quitting the agreement included, in particular, the relevant research and development."
"The missile had been fired using the Mk41 vertical launching system. That's a universal launching system that is suitable for both firing SM-3 interceptor missiles and ground-to-ground and surface-to-surface cruise missiles. All that is regrettable."
"The United States has evidently set the course for fomenting military tensions. Russia will not be pulled into [a] new arms race."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

"We do not give in to provocations. As Russian President [Vladimir Putin] said in France yesterday, we reiterate our commitment to a unilateral moratorium on deploying land-based intermediate-range systems until the U.S. deploys such systems in some part of the world."
"Several weeks and even months are not enough to make preparations for such a test."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

The U.S. conducts a test flight of a conventionally-configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California, August 18. The weapon, which the Pentagon told Newsweek "was a variant of the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile" using a Mark-41 Vertical Launch System, was said to have flown more than 310 miles, a range once restricted by a deal signed by Washington and Moscow in 1987 and since abandoned by both. U.S. Department of Defense

"[The test occurred] less than three weeks after the U.S. announced its official withdrawal from the INF Treaty."
"This move by the U.S. will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation and a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation." 
"We advise the U.S. to abandon its outdated Cold War mentality and zero-sum game concept, maintain restraint in the arms development, earnestly safeguard the existing arms control system and do more that is conducive to maintaining global strategic balance and stability and conducive to international and regional peace and tranquility."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang

Three radiation victims were brought to the Arkhangelsk regional hospital

"[The emergency room continued to admit other patients for about an hour, until the doctors realized that the three] had received a very high radiation dose."
"The radiation picture was developing by the hour. Blood tests were being done, and every hour you could see that this or that cell count was plunging. That signified a very high radiation dose."
"[The casualties' clothing was removed, along with stretchers and a] highly radioactive bath."
"Our cleaners should have been advised, they're just simple country folk, they were just picking up sacks and bundles and carrying them out."
Arkhangelsk medics

 According to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) operating as an international network of radiation monitoring stations, two Russian radiation monitoring stations went offline two days following a mysterious nuclear accident in Arkhangelsk near the northern frontier of Russia. The logical conclusion being that a rather clumsy cover-up operation had been launched; none too subtle, at that. Russian officials have their own explanation.

According to a local news website there is a simple enough explanation, "network and communications problems" have beset the stations in Dubna and Kirov, necessitating their temporary shut-down. Completely defensible, logical and acceptable. And that mysterious explosion hard by a military test range on August 8? What explosion? Oh, that one. Yes the one where five nuclear scientists died. The one where nearby Severodvinsk was the site of a brief and inexplicable radiation spike.

Take it from the Russian military, though, no radiation was released, and they should know, should they not? The public was notified through an official statement from Severodvinsk authorities of a radiation level increase, but that official statement was unofficially withdrawn from the website of the city government. The CTBTO head, Lassina Zerbo noted his organization was looking at "technical problems experienced at two neighbouring stations", amid speculation the blast was caused by a failed nuclear-powered cruise missile.

And according to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, two of the Russian specialists who died in the explosion at a White Sea missile testing range died of radiation sickness before they could be shipped out to Moscow for treatment, and not as a result of traumatic injuries caused by the blast's impact. An unnamed medical worker involved in their care explained: "Two of the patients did not make it to the airport and died. The radiation dose was very high, and symptoms of radiation sickness grew every hour."

Rest assured, all is well. The blast, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, took place during a test of 'promising' new weapons systems. "When it comes to activities of a military nature, there are certain restrictions on access to information". Moscow, he stressed cannot reveal everything because of its delicate military nature, so which weapons system was being tested is kept under careful wraps, understandably.

"[Medics were speaking out now because they feared for their own health and did not want any similar] safety violations [to recur]."
"We don't want them to bring us next time not three, but ten people, God forbid, and hide the information from us again."

Lassina Zerbo ✔ @SinaZerbo

To requests on #IMS detection beyond #CTBT, data in, or near the path of potential plume from the explosion are being analyzed. We’re also addressing w/station operators technical problems experienced at two neighboring stations. All data are available to our Member States.

CTBTO ✔ @ctbto_alerts

In response to media queries, and to meet civil society expectations on applications of #CTBTO data beyond the Treaty, we confirm an event coinciding with the 8 Aug explosion in #Nyonoksa, Russia, was detected at 4 #IMS stations (3 seismic, 1 infrasound).