On The Horns of a Dilemma

"It's about getting quantity at a cheap cost."

"[Falling US inventories help explain the rush to get more arms now; stockpiles are] getting low relative to the levels we like to keep on hand and certainly to the levels we're going to need to deter a China conflict."

"[The US exit from Afghanistan left lots of air-dropped bombs available. They cannot be easily used with Ukrainian aircraft, but] in today's context we should be looking for innovative ways to convert them to standoff capability."

Tom Karako, weapons and security expert, Center for Strategic and International Studies

 

"I keep telling this to everyone in world media — let nations that operate NASAMS — such as Spain, Australia, and the U.S. — donate just one battery each."

"Many countries have it, and there are many AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles around."

"We’d be able to substantially amplify our defense."

 Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesman, Ukrainian Air Force 

A M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) takes part in a military exercise near Liepaja, Latvia September 26, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo

Boeing has proposed the supply of cheap, small precision bombs fitted onto available rockets, themselves in great abundance, to allow Kyiv to strike far behind Russian lines. The West has been struggling to supply Ukraine with the arms it requests to equal the playing field in Russia's war imposed upon Ukraine. And the Pentagon has opened its ears to Boeing's suggestion.

Ukraine's need for more and more powerful munitions cannot be denied. Even as the U.S. and allied military inventories continue to shrink. Despite this there is a dire need to supply Ukraine, valiantly fighting for its very existence against an indomitable enemy whose reputation has recently been shattered as a nation whose fighting forces are unbeatable. Ukraine has proven otherwise and sorely requires more ammunition to entirely rout Russian forces from its sovereign territory.

More weapons, more sophisticated equipment is due Ukraine and Boeing's proposed system, Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) is now included in a handful of plans to launch new munitions into production for Ukraine and for other Eastern European nations jittery about Moscow's intentions with respect to their own sovereign rights as former USSR satellites.

The West has struggled to meet Ukraine's demand for more arms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's previous appeals to the U.S. to provide his forces with the 297-km range ATACMS missile were spurned; the range of the GLSDH's 250-km would still see Ukraine hit valuable military targets out of reach at present, to aid its counterattacks in disrupting Russian rear areas. The U.S. previously had forbidden Ukraine to press any advantage it might gain from bombing directly into Russia, for fear of widening the conflict.

This injunction effectively pinned Ukraine's left arm behind its back, allowing its right arm free rein to defend itself as best it could. The prospect of delivering GLSDBs by spring of 2023 banks on the Ukrainian military succeeding in continuing its aggressive counteroffensive that has proven so disastrous for the Russian military, forcing its ignominious retreat from Ukrainian territory President Putin had 'annexed' and declared part of Russia's geography.

Weapons experts made familiar with the plan point out that the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) with the M26 rocket motor are plentiful in U.S. weapons inventories. In the meanwhile, Russian missiles are relentlessly being showered over cities all over Ukraine, in a deliberate plan to render the country utterly miserable during the coming winter months aiming directly at the country's infrastructure, as Russia continues to advance its war crimes targeting civilian areas and inevitably causing civilian deaths.

Ground-launched small-diameter bomb (GLSDB). Photo: Saab

The Obdurate Autocratic Failings of the Chinese Communist Party on Zero-COVID

"The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium."

"There will be some intsability in the process."

"Without the clear signal of party leader divisions -- I would expect this kind of protest might not last very log."

"[It is] unimaginable [that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests]."

Hung Ho-fung, Johns Hopkins University

"[The West's vaccines offer] a major solution [to China's COVID problems."

"[According to health experts zero-COVID is unlikely to be achieved until vaccine uptake among China's elderly sees an improvement]."

"[Efforts are underway to increase coverage but] it's unlikely things will get better for the next  half of the new year."

Xi Chen, associate professor, Yale University

A protester is arrested by police in Shanghai on Sunday night. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/AFP via Getty Image

 

Local authorities in China, making no allusion to credit the mass protests springing up all over China against the crude lockup methods being employed to stem the rising tide of COVID-19 outbreaks, have begun to ease imposed restrictions reflecting the state's zero-COVID mandate. In Beijing, the city government announced it plans to phase out gating to block access to apartment compounds where infections are diagnosed.

Manufacturing and trade centre Guangzhou, the current hot-spot in the latest wave of infections, announced that selected residents no longer will be required to undergo mass testing. The stringent measures originally in place to minimize deaths at the same time that other countries suffered magnitudes of infections and deaths no longer has the silent consent of the Chinese population.

According to the Chinese Communist Party ruling China, anti-coronavirus measures must continue "targeted and precise", while at the same time the least possible disruption should be caused to people's lives; local officials threatened with their jobs or similar punishments should outbreaks occur, codify their own strategies to match the central government's zero-COVID command-and-control demands.

Their response has been the imposition of quarantines and allied restrictions exceeding what the central government recommends. Hardships imposed on the population appear to be of no concern to the Xi administration, beyond the anodyne recommendations that lockdowns not cause community unrest. Millions of people in Shanghai were placed under strict lockdown in the spring, resulting in food scarcity and access to medical care being restricted.

Despite the ensuing turmoil, Xi loyalist, the city's party secretary, saw appointment to the No.2 position of the Communist Party. On the past weekend, protests were so sweeping in numbers and inclusivity many from among the educated urban middle class of the ethnic Han majority were in full vocal attendance. This is the group the ruling party relies upon to recognize a post-Tiananmen agreement that a better quality of life would accompany autocratic rule.

Following a fire on Thursday that killed at least ten people living in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi, where residents have been locked into their homes for four months, furious protests erupted particularly when the city council suggested those that died were insufficiently motivated to save themselves, prompting an avalanche of angry online questions whether firefighters or people attempting to escape the fire were blocked by locked doors or similar pandemic restrictions.

Foreign governments have suggested to Beijing that it use vaccines developed in the West to improve protection for its people, and once more effective vaccines are widely used the government could reconsider and ratchet back the draconian restrictions of the current zero-COVID policy. Beijing has consistently refused to import the mRNA-based more highly successful vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, insisting its own home-grown vaccines are effective.

 

They are not, however. Moreover, the most vulnerable in the population, the elderly, have not received vaccinations in numbers that should satisfy any responsible government. Analysis indicates that millions of unprotected people could perish under current circumstances should zero-COVID be abandoned. The acceptance of Western vaccinations could turn that scenario around.

"Europe and Germany have had very good experience with administering mRNA vaccinations", stated Steffen Hebestreit, adding that Olaf Scholz had "made this clear" to Chinese officials during a visit by the German chancellor to China. China is steadfast in its reliance on its own vaccines based on older technology, failing to offer the same protection as the West's vaccines against severe disease and death.

"'Zero COVID' [was] supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the 'Chinese model', but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal."

"But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to  yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it."

Andrew Nathan, Chinese politics specialist, Columbia University

Protesters are fed up with lockdowns, but their government is not budging

Behind Enemy Lines on the Home Front

"[Putin is] clearly weaponizing winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people [and] trying to freeze the country into submission."

"Having struggled on the battlefield Moscow is now adopting a cowardly and inhumane strategy that punishes Ukrainian men, women and children."

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

"We have chopped wood, we will survive."

"They [Russian invaders] have destroyed my apartment already. That was worse than this. This is our life and our life has prepared us."

"We will not give up, and everything that happened in March was much worse than now. We already know it can be worse."

Tatiana, Ukrainian internally displaced citizen

"I am a bit worried about winter but we have been preparing getting firewood ready and warm clothing."

"More than anything we hope that there will not be another invasion."

"Although we had no electricity [for six months under Russian military occupation], somehow we survived."

"Human beings will find a way to survive in any conditions."

Artem Famenko, 39, municipal water department worker, Izyum, Ukraine

Tetiana Reznychenko, a resident of the Ukrainian village of Horenka, shovels snow near her apartment building, which has no electricity, heating or running water, November  2022

 

In preparation for being plunged into the icy depths of winter, Ukrainians in the east in particular are gathering firewood, knowing how imperative it is to be self-reliant at a time their country is under siege by an aggressor pursuing a punishing strategy of forcing millions of ordinary citizens to scrounge for materials in the hopes of getting through a stark winter without electricity and heat; possibly a shortage of food and medicines, and potable water.

The city of Izyum in the east, occupied by the Russian military for six months and finally freed from Russian occupation and the indignities, dangers and hardships accompanying that state, are relieved they have been returned to Ukrainian rule through a Ukrainian military counteroffensive that routed the Russian military. The city, however, was ransacked and much of it ruined. And now that the Russians hastily retreated, they still aim their missiles and drones at the city, acts of war against civilian infrastructure.

City residents will take whatever opportunity presents itself to stock up on firewood, including chopping  ammunition crates discarded by the retreating Russian military. The outlook for survival is grim but they face it with confidence, Ukrainians preparing themselves, knowing that mid-winter will bring plunging temperatures as low as -20C and the prospect of a winter as miserable as those they suffered through during World War II.

 

Members of Ukrainian army prepare BM-21 Grad rockets to be launched in Bakhmut, Donetsk, Ukraine on November 26, 2022

 

They are under no illusions, knowing full well that it is not only the brutal winter cold without adequate heating and electricity that will test their endurance, but the constant shelling of civilian infrastructure, from apartment buildings to hospitals that will challenge the resolve of the people to endure and hope for better days and an end to the 9-month-long war. There is much work to be done, firewood chopped and ready, windows to be covered for cold-insulation and amassing warm winter clothing.

"[Putin's Wednesday barrage had created a situation not seen for 80 or 90 years] -- a country on the European continent where there was no light."

"Together we endured nine months of full-scale war and Russia has not found a way to break us, and will not find one."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

"Put simply, this winter will be about survival."

"We expect two to three million more people to leave their homes in search of warmth and safety."

Dr. Hans Kluge, Europe director World Health Organization

For most people who refused to leave their city for other parts of Ukraine more secure and further from enemy lines, the fear is the possibility of a return by the Russian occupiers. The occupation from March to just a few weeks ago was agonizing, a terrible time in the lives of the residents of Izyum and other nearby communities. The prospect of their winter hardships while concerning, seems less worrisome than the thought of falling under Russian occupation again.

 

Ongoing waves of Russian missiles and explosive drones badly damaged the entire country's power grid, knocking up to half of the country's capacity off line. Some of the most damaging attacks struck the system in midweek. Half of Kyiv was still without power two days later, while engineers struggled to reconnect people to the grid. Authorities established "invincibility centres" for people to charge their phones, to warm up and to be given hot drinks. 

Aid agencies warn that winter will see misery on a greater scale afflict a people already under huge stress by relentless Russian missile attacks targeting the width and breadth of the country Russian is doing its best to eviscerate Ukraine. Over six million Ukrainian citizens left their homes in a mass movement to other, safer parts of the country. A like number of Ukrainian refugees have gone abroad for safe haven. Their government has appealed to them to remain where they are through the winter, to save energy for use in hospitals and other critical social welfare establishments.

A view from Kyiv after the snow hits capital city on November 19, 2022 as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Ukraine

 

For Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, no assistance has trickled through since the beginning of the conflict. With winter offering more difficulties to daily living, the concern is that they may succumb to the necessity to make perilous trips across front lines. "It's going to be an incredibly difficult winter and providing humanitarian assistance is a matter of life and death" Marysia Zapasnik, Ukraine director for the International Rescue Committee aid agency, said grimly.Troops on either side, are facing living in the open under freezing rain conditions.

Some Ukrainian servicemen are beginning to suffer from trench foot, a condition associated with swelling and numbness of the feet. Hopes are high nonetheless that they will be able to endure the rigours of winter better than their poorly equipped Russian counterparts. Lacking proper winter equipment and clothing, newly mobilized Russian forces complain of being thrown into the forest unprepared.

"Of course we are nervous. We understand winter is coming and we understand that the attacks will continue."

"All these strikes are concentrating our community, concentrating our nation to unite. Yes the situation is hard, but it's a great mistake for our enemy to think they can change the will of the Ukrainian people."

Mayor Igor Terekhov, Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine

Winter weather could disproportionately harm poorly-equipped Russian forces in Ukraine,' defence analysts from the ISW said (destroyed Russian convoy pictured in Bucha, March 1 2022

Beijing's Zero-COVID Protests

"[It is necessary] to strengthen the management and service guarantee [of quarantine centres and field hospitals where people who test positive for COVID-19 or ha.cve been in close contact with an infected person are taken by police]."

"[Authorities must] further accelerate [their construction and] coordinate the allocation of space, facilities, materials, personnel and other resources."

Beijing city government spokesperson Xu Hejian

People sing slogans while gathering on a street in Shanghai. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

 

"On the second night of protests, 2,000 miles northwest of the Foxconn factory, a fire broke out in a residential compound in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region. Ten died. Neighbours videoed the inferno on their phones, triggering yet another wave of anger online. Some pointed out that the youngest victim was only three and had lived almost his entire life under zero Covid. Others speculated that doors had been sealed in the block as part of the lockdown, meaning victims couldn’t escape."

"Late on Friday night, the Urumqi authorities made things worse with a press conference which seemed to blame the victims for their ‘lack of survival know-how’. Fury, and protests, ensued."

"Whether the fire was made worse by lockdown or not, the tragedy and the callous official response confirmed what many already suspected: their lives are cheap in the name of pandemic control."

Cindy Yu, Assistant Editor, The Spectator, U.K.

 

In some parts of China's capital, residents began sweeping items off supermarket shelves, while the urgency of their demands were overwhelming delivery apps on Friday. The city government had ordered an urgent need to speed up construction of COVID-19 quarantine centres and field hospitals. China's Zero-COVID policy is not to be relaxed, its government has made it quite clear that it will not tolerate the spread of the pathogen, and a recent upsurge in cases has only increased its resolve.

 

Chinese citizens, beyond weary with the constant lockdowns and stern conditions that have compromised their quality of life for too long, are desperate to see an end to these unlivable conditions and the constant threat of isolation, impairing their ability to work, to attend school, to buy food, to acquire needed medications, in short, the ruination of normal life, being forced to live under abysmally unnatural circumstances. Deprived of normalcy.

 

The uncertainty and fear surrounding unconfirmed reports of lockdowns in some select districts in the capital fuelled a demand for food and other basic living supplies fuelling unusually large turnouts of shoppers in the northern suburbs of the city, resulting in market shelves emptying of products in quick order, in a city of 21 million people.

 

Across the country daily cases of COVID are reaching record numbers with Friday alone notching up 32,695 new cases, almost half of which were in Beijing, mostly asymptomatic. Field hospitals along with improvised quarantine centres have been thrown together in gymnasiums, exhibition centres, where large open indoor spaces have become synonymous with poor sanitation, scarce food supplies, overcrowding and lighting that remains bright for 24 hours a day.

 

Instructions not to leave compounds have gone out to most residents, watching themselves being fenced in, where workers in white hazmat suits stop unauthorized people to ensure residents have recent negative test results on cellphone health apps before they can gain entry. University campuses are closed, students shifted to online classes. Grocery delivery service is at full capacity. Some delivery personnel are  unable to appear for work at grocery deliveries, with their own compounds locked down. 

 

The World Health Organization has called for a change in operations from the zero-COVID strategy, a recommendation that the Chinese Communist Party rejects. Cases and death counts in China remain low in comparison to other parts of the world, yet Beijing insists on isolating every case to entirely eliminate the virus. Where other governments eased antivirus controls, relying on vaccinations and immunity from past infections to aid in death prevention and serious illness, China's President Xi Jinping is immovable in his conviction that China can tame Nature.

 

Confronting authorities in Shanghai, some protesters called for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to step down

Another Earthquake, Another Tragedy for Indonesia

"The challenge is the affected area is spread out -- "

"On top of that, the roads in these villages are damaged."

"[Many of the victims were children at school at the time the quake hit]."

Henri Alfiandi, head, National Search and Rescue Agency

 

"Everything collapsed beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child."

"Two of my kids survived. I dug them up ... Two others I brought here [Cianjur hospital, in Cianjur, Indonesia] and one is still missing."

Cucu, 48, Cianjur resident

 

"At leas six of my relatives are still unaccounted for; three adults and three children."

"If it was just an earthquake, only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide."

"In the residential areas there were eight houses, all of which were buried and swept away."

Zainuddin, Cugenant resident

Rescuers carry a body bag with a victim through the rubble of collapsed buildings during a rescue operation after earthquake hit in Cianjur, West Java province, Indonesia, November 22, 2022, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Yulius Satria Wijaya/ via REUTERS

Indonesians live with the potential danger of earthquakes and resulting tsunamis. That ever-present danger and the island group's history of catastrophic events killing thousands of people over the years never prepares anyone for the new earth-shaking events that erupt from time to time, killing more people. As tremblors go, this was a relatively modest earthquake, but it was so close to the surface that its effects were devastating.

 

The earthquake that struck West Java killed 268 people, with the prospect of many more being found not to have survived an ensuing landslide that destroyed many buildings. Many of the dead were children in classrooms when the quake's effect created chaos and turmoil and unspeakable destruction. Days after the quake, 151 children were still missing as rescue teams worked unflaggingly to try to free those trapped in the earthquake rubble, hoping to find survivors.

 

The most populous province was struck on Monday afternoon with significant damage from a shallow 5.6-magnitude quake. Significant damage resulted in the town of Cianjur, some 75 kilometres from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. At least one village is known to have been buried under a landslide that followed the quake. 

 

It was reported that over a thousand people were injured, and 58,000 people displaced, while 22,000 house were damaged. Rescue efforts were  hampered by landslides and rough terrain. Strong earthquakes of magnitude 6 or 7 are common enough in Indonesia, mostly offshore where fautt lines run, but this quake of a lower magnitude resulted in deadly consequences simply because it struck land at fairly shallow depth.

 

Many of the dead were killed when the poorly constructed buildings they lived in collapsed. Now, after the fact, and with a long history of vulnerability to earthquakes, President Joko Widodo is calling for earthquake-proof housing in reconstruction. "My instruction is to prioritize evacuating victims that are still trapped under rubble", he announced.

 

In the town of Cianjur, survivors gathered in the hospital parking lot where the injured were treated in tents while others were hooked up to intravenous drips on the pavement, medical workers stitching up patients under torch light in the night. "Many bodies are lying in the hospital grounds, it's very crowded", observed one individual whose relative was being treated. In one area of the hospital parking lot people held up cardboard signs pleading for food and shelter in the absence of the delivery of emergency supplies.

 

One of the worst-hit areas was Cugenang, struck by a landslide the quake had triggered. Footage of people digging into the earth and the rubble of destroyed buildings by hand using hoes, sticks, crowbars and other tools were shown on television news channels. In some areas rescue efforts were complicated by outages in electricity. In the wake of 145 after-shocks, officials warned of more landslides in coming weeks.

 

A man carries an injured child to receive treatment at a hospital, after an earthquake hit in Cianjur, West Java province, Indonesia, November 21, 2022, in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Yulius Satria Wijaya via REUTERS

The Democratically Helpful Chinese Communist Party

"They are by and large an extension of the apparatus of Beijing."

"I definitely think this is an area where our security agencies or the police should pay close attention."

Karen Woods, founder, independent Canadian Chinese Political Affairs Committee

 

"This really is like an ideological invasion."

"I think that undermines our national security, our social security."

Jonathan Fon, Toronto paralegal

 

Deposit Photos

"{The Chinese Council for Western Ontario Elections'  goal is simply to] introduce Canadian democracy to the Chinese community, to help Chinese Canadians better understand Canadian elections, participate in the democratic process, and participate actively in elections."

"We support candidates of any race, as long as they oppose racial discrimination and support multiculturalism."

"We are willing to share our network resources with them to help them gain recognition and support from Chinese voters."

Toronto businessman Guo BaoZhang, executive president, Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association

The Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association building in Markham, Ontario. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post/File

Now that is really interesting. Chinese Canadians have a long history of residence and citizenship in Canada. A history that dates back to the 19th Century with the building of Canada's national railways. Chinese Canadians have established themselves in every facet of life in Canada, from little shop owners to the professions of law and medicine, to professorships in Canadian universities and to the ordinary-man-in-the-street or family-on-your street category.

As Canadian citizens, they know all about Canadian politics, they pay their taxes and they vote in all elections just like any other Canadians. Now, in the last few  years Beijing has turned its eyes on these Canadian citizens of Chinese extraction -- including many who have more recently arrived in Canada as immigrants or to study at Canadian universities, from both the mainland and Hong Kong. Beijing's United Front Work Department operates in tandem with Chinese diplomats assigned to Canada in Chinese consulates and embassy to impress on Chinese Canadians their obligations to China.

That obligation as ethnic Chinese, is to help promote China and China's interests broadly, within Canada. In the 2019 general election, Canadian Intelligence tracked the Chinese Communist Party's interference in promoting candidates of Chinese extraction suborned by China through ideological indoctrination and financial funding to election wins. It has also been revealed that political insiders defend and promote China's interests in various provincial and federal legislatures.

Now the introduction of a new organization whose goals on the surface are to assist Chinese Canadians in becoming more accomplished members of a democracy. Who might've thought? Yet another group has infiltrated Canada whose purpose is to further the interests of Beijing in a country that it is clearly at odds with, given fairly recent events, and a new, frosty relationship between China and Canada. China's growing aggressive tendencies are not limited to Canada, they surface elsewhere as well.

The website of the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association identifies it as having been established under the guidance of the United Front Work Department, itself a branch of the Chinese Communist Party with a clear mission to expand Beijing's worldwide influence. Influence made its presence years ago with the endowment by China in Western university-based Confucius Institutes; established ostensibly to help the world know of the wisdom and culture of China.

Beijing is well known for its ulterior motives in relations with other countries; its constant espionage feelers out via Chinese-loyalists in relaying back to China industrial, military and political state secrets. It has latterly been revealed that Beijing operatives and police forces have opened 'police stations' in Canada as well as in other foreign countries to keep tabs on expatriate Chinese, and to 'persuade' those critical of Beijing to return to China, under the guise of giving them assistance in renewing passports and driver's licenses; the while subtly threatening the well-being of family members in China.

The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service saw fit to brief Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office in January regarding a Chinese program that funded 11 candidates sympathetic to China during the last federal electon; a member of the Ontario legislature and community groups were engaged as go-betweens. In a brief, unscheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 meeting in Indonesia, Trudeau claims to have raised the matter of Chinese political interference in Canada. Followed by Trudeau later denying he had ever been briefed.

Beijing's underhanded, interfering CCP-linked groups have not yet been challenged by the Government of Canada in a manner that would reflect the unwelcome nature of their organizational destabilization of the country. That Beijing is the least bit involved in promoting anti-discriminatory measures in Canada is beyond ironic, given its treatment of Tibetans and Muslim Uyghurs in Tibet and Xinjiang.

A multi-party committee in Ottawa has agreed to examine China's influence in Canada's elections following a Global News story citing a Beijing campaign to subvert Canadian democracy.

Securing Safety and Security in Israel

"This is a complex, combined attack in two areas, which appears to be the result of an organized infrastructure, and not [a] spontaneous act as we have come to know in recent years."

Omer Bar Lev, Israeli public security minister

"A boy who fought hard, set out on a good path despite not having an easy life. I can testify that nobody felt anger with this child."

"He didn't know what anger was. He would help everyone in the street and was loved by mankind."

"I didn't think I would be eulogizing another student from the same class."

Rabbi Naftali Schreiber

"Heartbroken to confirm that a  young Canadian lost his life in this morning's reprehensible terror attack in Jerusalem."

"Our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to others wounded in this attack. Canada continues to condemn all forms of terror."

Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Lisa Stadelbauer

The explosions happened at two busy areas of Jerusalem as people were heading to work  EPA

"[Aryeh Schupak] was a boy who never wronged anyone in the world, and he was murdered simply because he was Jewish."   

"[Security forces will] find these heinous terrorists, those behind them and those who provided them with weapons." 

"I want to say to the citizens of Israel: We will find them. They can run, they can hide - it won't help them; the security forces will reach them. If they resist, they will be eliminated."

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid 

Nowhere else in the world do citizens of a country go about their daily lives knowing that there but for the grace of god they would be spared or dead at some unforeseen moment. In Israel, death stalks the wary and the unwary alike, whether by bombs, knifings, car-rammings, stoning, or gunfire, all at the hands of Arab Palestinians who have been indoctrinated by their leaders to hate Jews and pledge their own lives to the destruction of Israel and the death of its Jewish citizens.

This time, a double bombing, a half-hour apart, at two targeted public bus stops. A total of seventeen people were wounded, some seriously, and one 15-year-old boy on his way to seminary classes, died. He had felt ill that morning, but decided he would go to school regardless. So slender a hairsbreadth of chance for fate to determine who will live and who will die."Only one thing comes to mind, what's important, what's not. Appreciating every minute with a child and with the family", said his stricken father.

 

Aryeh Schupak, 15, was killed while he was heading to a Jewish seminary   Reuters

 

The family, originally from Russia, emigrated to Israel when Aryeh was a child; they held dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship. The deadly bombing took place in the Har Nof neighbourhood at 7 a.m. at the bus stop; a second detonated at 7:30 a.m. at Ramot Junction, injuring three other people. Hidden in bags, the explosive devices, packed with nails. were detonated remotely by mobile phone.

The dual attacks, while universally condemned by the UN, the EU, the US and elsewhere, were celebrated in Gaza, with a Hamas spokesman praising the explosions, although not claiming responsibility for the coup. The blasts, claimed Abdel-Latif Al-Qanona, were linked to "crimes conducted by the Occupation and the settlers". The crime being the very existence of Israel, which Hamas's charter promises to eliminate.

Months of rising tension have wracked the area since Israel launched a crackdown, responding to deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israeli cities. Up to the two bombs being set off, Israeli police have faced a string of stabbings, shootings and car rammings by Palestinians, placing the country on high alert. In response to the situation, the Israeli military conducted almost nightly raids in the West Bank, focusing in particular around Jenin where some of the assailants have originated.

Jenin is also where 20 to 30 Palestinian terrorists stormed a  hospital a day ago where an injured Israeli Druze teenage high schooler was being treated after a car accident. He was on life support during attempts to treat his severe injuries. His father was standing outside the door to his room, when the assailants stormed through, taking his son off life support, and kidnapping 17-year-old Tiran Fero. The Druze community rose up, demanding the return of his body and a funeral was held, thousands in attendance.

Mourners hold up a picture of Druze teenager Tiran Fero at his funeral in Daliyat al-Karmel, northern Israel, November 24, 2022. (Shir Torem/Flash90)

Love, Not Hate

"It's the reflex. Go. Go to the fire. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don't let no one get hurt."

"I'm not a hero. I'm just some dude."

"I wish I could have saved everybody in there."

"I wish I could have done more."

Rich Fierro, former U.S. military

 

"He had just gotten a new job at a Colorado Springs FedEx distribution centre, and was thrilled to have received his first paycheque.:"

He couldn't wait to save enough money to get his own apartment."

Family of 22-year-old Raymond Green Vance

Richard Fierro, right, talks with his brother Ed Fierro about his efforts to subdue the gunman in Saturday's fatal shooting at Club Q, during a news conference Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, outside his home in in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Richard Fierro served fourteen years in the U.S. military, was awarded the Bronze Star twice, serving as a field artillery officer in three tours of Iraq and one of Afghanistan. He just happened to be at a Colorado LGBTQ club in support of a drag show performer who was a friend of his daughter. When gunfire broke out, his army training took over.

 

He grasped the armour-wearing gunman, pulling him to the floor, then took possession of a pistol the man was wielding and beat him with it. This followed the gunman's shooting to death of five people and wounding at least 17 others. Among the dead was Fierro's daughter's boyfriend, Raymond Vance.

Colorado Springs' mayor, John Suhers -- where the assault on the gay bar took place -- had earlier identified Mr. Fierro as one of two 'heroes' who had sprung into action. Thomas James was the other, who "saved a lot of lives" by taking the gunman out of commission, at the Colorado Springs Club Q.

Mr. Fierro described a young man who had been dancing with his daughter, pulling her away to safety when the shooting began. And he described a drag performer who kicked the gunman with high heels while Fierro held down the 22-year-old shooter. He praised James for removing the rifle from the gunman's grasp, an AR, and kicking him.

When police arrived on the scene, they saw Fierro holding the gun he had taken from the shooter, detaining Fierro for an hour, questioning him. He spoke of the shock of his daughter's boyfriend's death. A young man he had known since his daughter was in high school. "He's a good kid. And I loved him", said Fierro.

 

The young man was there, at the club as a first-time visitor, as a supporter of the LGBTQ community. The families of all five shooting victims spoke of their loss, of their love and admiration for their lost children, sister, wife. Kurt Paugh spoke of his wife Ashley who he described as an "amazing mother", who worked at a non-profit helping to find homes for foster children. "This included working with the LGBTQ community to find welcoming foster placements for children", he added.

Two transgender club bartenders were murdered in the assault, both young, with their lives ahead of them, cut tragically short.

In this image from El Paso County District Court video, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, center, could be seen slumped over in a chair in a brief video appearance from jail in Colorado Springs, Colo., Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. | El Paso County District Court via AP

Russia Losing the Battle to Ukraine, And Maliciously Terrorizing Its Population

"This winter will be life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine."

"Attacks on health and energy infrastructure mean hundreds of hospitals and health care facilities are no longer fully operational, lacking fuel, water and electricity."

Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director for Europe, World Health Organization

 

"Russia’s infrastructure bombing campaign has been so severe that in one single attack no less than eight missiles were fired at a thermal power plant in eastern Ukraine to ensure its destruction."

"Despite the severity of the bombing, Ukrainian technicians and engineers have been rushing to repair the damaged infrastructure, often risking their lives amid the threat of further airstrikes."

"Nevertheless, the situation is fast becoming critical."

Aura Sabadus, Atlantic Council 

"The unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to settle the problem, to start negotiations, its refusal to seek common ground — this is their consequence."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Russia may have suffered losses on the battlefield, but they are still able to carry on their scorched-earth assaults on Ukraine from the east side of the Dnieper River where they are dug in and holding on to the terrain, much reduced from the territory claimed by the Kremlin weeks earlier in its 'annexation' proclamation. Russian bombers have been well practised in shelling civilian enclaves; their work for Bashar al-Assad in Syria stood them in good stead as practise runs.

There too, they bombed hospitals, schools, markets, civilian infrastructure of multiple-family dwellings where Syrian Sunni "terrorists" defied the tyrannical rule of the Assad regime. There was no Russian conscience at that time, and nor is there one at the present time, as the Kremlin feels itself justified in 'saving' Ukraine from its 'neo-Nazi' government as ordered by President Vladimir Putin who enjoys making his own history and whose agenda is the destruction of Ukrainian heritage and culture.

Against all recognized international norms, Russia has embarked on its 'special military operation' to reunite an unwilling Ukraine with the Russian Federation. Moscow's intention was that this would be a swift operation and then it could concentrate similar reunifications with others of its neighbours all of which shudder at the very prospect of once again becoming victims of a sovereign-entitlement Russia deeply engaged in empire restoration. 

Ukrainian authorities are desperately engaged in evacuating civilians from the liberated areas of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions with the prospect of a lack of heat, power and water resulting from Russian shelling producing unlivable conditions for the coming winter. Millions of people, according to the World Health Organization, face a "life-threatening" winter in Ukraine. Residents of the southern regions are being urged to move to safer areas in central and western areas of the country.

The government is providing transportation, accommodations and medical care to evacuees, prioritizing women with children and the elderly. Last month Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Verescchuk urged people living abroad to wait out the winter before returning to Ukraine, as an additional assist in consErving energy. And that residents who have the resources, to leave for several months to save power for hospitals and critical facilities.

Residents are warned of health risks like respiratory and cardiovascular problems with people attempting to warm themselves with the use of charcoal, wood, diesel generators and electrical heaters. Kherson, so recently retaken by Ukraine, has been evaluated for its critical loss of infrastructure destroyed by the Russian military in what could only be an organized, malevolent destruction of civil infrastructure to deliberately make life untenable for Ukrainians.

Ukraine's power grid and allied infrastructure has been continuously pounded and shattered from the air, the cause of widespread blackouts that leave millions of people without electricity, without heat, without water. Four-hour or longer power outages have been scheduled in 15 of Ukraine's 27 regions in a coping strategy of desperation. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renews\ed his calls for NATO nations and other allies to confer on Russia the label of a terrorist state. The Russian shelling of energy supplies tantamount "to the use of a weapon of mass destruction". "The terrorist state needs to see that they do not stand a chance", he said speaking to NATO's 68th Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Madrid through video conference.

Pedestrians walk down a street during a power cut in downtown Kyiv on November 10, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)

Toppling the Iranian Regime

"[The Islamic Republic's] strategic patience [is wearing thin; Tehran is preparing to[] punish [them: the U.S., United Kingdom, Israel and Saudi Arabia for their role in fomenting protests in Iran]."

"[The U.K. would] pay [for harbouring journalists working for a Persian-language satellite channel based in London whom British police have warned that the IRGC] represents an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families]."

Esmaeil Khatib, Iranian Intelligence Minister

 

"[We warned back in 2006 that Iran represents a threat to] the entire free world [as it] is not only seeking nuclear weapons, it is also destabilizing Lebanon with its Hezbollah proxy, supporting Palestinian terrorist groups, fueling Shiite militancy in Iraq and urging that Israel be wiped off the map."

National Post editorial

 

"[The National Post, as an institution, has been sanctioned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry for its] anti-Iran approach."

"[The sanctions are being imposed on the newspaper and eight individuals] for supporting terrorism and the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group, inciting and encouraging terrorist acts and violence against the people of Iran, propagating false information about Iran and participation in the implementation and escalation of oppressive sanctions against the people of Iran."

"Obviously, the sanctions will not rule out the criminal prosecution of the individuals in competent courts of law due to their involvement in criminal actions."

National Post, 4 November 2022

In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, Iranians protests the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police last month, in Tehran, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Photo by AP Photo/Middle East Images

The Conservative-led government of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper closed off diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012. Cited were Iran's intrusions in Canada on the lives of Iranian-Canadians, an 8-month attack on the British embassy in Tehran giving notice that diplomats are in danger there. The fact that Iran was providing military aid to the Assad regime in the civil war in Syria, another; failing to comply with UN resolutions on its nuclear program, along with support of terrorist groups.
Also cited was Iran's routine threatening of Israel's existence, its racist antisemitic rhetoric and genocidal incitement. Official Canada spoke of Iran as "among the world's worst violators of human rights".

 

The Liberal, Trudeau government that followed stated its intention of restoring diplomatic relations with Iran. And in fact, negotiations between Canada and the Islamic Republic were taking place to achieve that end. Given more recent episodes in Iran's ongoing persecution of its people and its new role in providing Russia with killer drones in Ukraine, along with the stalemate between the IAEA over nuclear inspections and the continued stalling on a nuclear program that is close to achieving Tehran's purpose, capped by the murder by morality police of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, resulting in widespread protests, diplomatic renewal is no longer on the horizon.

 

 The ongoing protests erupting in every city across the country have brought out the country's police forces making use of deadly force. Estimates vary widely, but according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran the most recent figures are over 300 dead, although other sources place that figure much higher. Tens of thousands of Iranians have been arrested. A week ago the Iranian parliament voted in favour of the death penalty to teach them -- protesters -- "a good lesson". The possbility of mass executions cannot be entirely discounted should the regime feel itself endangered.

 

Mourners chanted anti-establishment slogans at the funerals of two protesters killed in Javanroud  Hengaw

 

In the past decade, an estimated 6,876 Iranians have been executed, among them 67 youth and 185 women. The execution of protesters for crimes against god and nation are in their nascent stages. The International Atomic Energy Agency has released a report noting the Islamic Republic has amassed some 62.3 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, a mere step from weapons-grade. Last week an IRGC official laid claim to his country's having developed hypersonic missiles able to evade modern air-defence systems.

 

The current government of Canada has been derelict in dealing adequately with the threat that Iran poses to the international community. It remains hesitant to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, which it clearly is, and despite the fact that the Parliament of Canada voted in favour of doing just that. It would be humorous if it were not so diabolically serious that Iran accused Canadians it has targeted for sanctions of "facilitating and supporting terrorist acts". Threatening the seizure of the property in Iran of the eight Canadians sanctioned; of which there are precisely none.

 

Nor may they make use of Iran's banking system, or travel to the country. They are, needless to say, horribly disappointed. The people of Iran, out on the streets protesting courageously braving the assaults from the basij paramilitary and the riot squads and other policing agencies have seen expatriate Iranians living abroad coming out in droves to protest before Iranian embassies in foreign cities. They have seen people not of Iranian origin worldwide express solidarity with their struggle and protesting on their behalf to reawaken the world's conscience. 

 

What they need, desperately, to see is the regime of the Ayatollahs and the IRGC falter and fall. Leaving the population to recover its dignity and its hope for the future. A population that will be free to choose for itself whether it will remain a theocracy, whether it will continue to foment violence and terrorism at home and abroad, or will relax the restrictions imposed on them to be victims bound to a theological ideology that has been corrupted and anti-human in its sweep of human rights violations.

 

Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 - Group B - England v Iran - Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar - November 21, 2022 Iran players line up before the match REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

 

 

 

Iran on Fire With the Passion of Liberation

Billboard featuring Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei torched in southern Iran, November 14, 2022  (photo credit: 1500tasvir)

"The report is a lie."

"[The] doors of the house of the late founder of the great revolution are open to the public."

Tasnim news agency

 

"The counter-revolutionary media tries to create turmoil by spreading lies and false information."

"The burning down of Imam Khomeini’s historic house, a place with spiritual value to Iranians, was one of those lies."

Deputy Governor, Markazi province, Behnam Nazari

 

“Hear it from me myself on how the shooting happened, so they can’t say it was by terrorists because they’re lying."

“Maybe they thought we wanted to shoot or something and they peppered the car with bullets … plainclothes forces shot my child. That is it."

Mother of ten-year-old Kian Pirfalak, city of Izeh

Video shows protesters walking by and chanting as the ancestral home of late Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is seen on fire.

Little might the Iranian morality police in Tehran imagine what their actions in arresting a young Kurdish woman in violation of the state's dress code for women would ignite. Maha Amini's interrogation and death propelled the murder of an innocent  young woman into the catalyst for an uprising that all the Ayatollahs' fearsome police and military cannot extinguish. The people have risen and their courage has been aroused in defence of human dignity and freedom.

Months of rioting in every city of Iran, that had first surfaced in Kurdish Iran, continue to protest against the theocratic reign of the Ayatollahs and the tyranny extended by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, aided by their Basij paramilitary enforcers. Thousands of protesters have been arrested, and a number have been sentenced to death for crimes against the state. Now, the ancestral home of the venerated late founder of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has been symbolically destroyed.

The Iranian population, in particular the minority groups, are determined to topple the Islamic Republic of Iran. Activists who have been organizing protests in defiance of the threat of imprisonment and even death, whose goal is to overturn the regime, reported that protesters set fire to the former Khomeini home, now a museum. People cheered as a flash of fire sparked the building in Khomein, south of Tehran.

Under intense pressure from nationwide protests demanding an end to clerical rule since September, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called upon his military to put down the riots by all means necessary. Tear gas and live bullets are in use in response to the protests gripping the nation.  Human rights groups maintain that 326 Iranian protesters have met their death at the hands of police.

Protesters continue to defy Iran's regime, taking to the country's streets on Tuesday to mark three years since another deadly crackdown on unrest. Kaveh Shahrooz, a human rights activist, lawyer and senior fellow at the MacDonald Laurier Institute says the government's efforts to 'scare' the protesters are failing

Videos posted by 1500 Tasvir show marchers in cities in Sistan Bainchistan province where protesters chanted "Death to Khamenei" in the capital Zahedan, and demonstrators in Chabahar removing and trampling an avenue sign named after Ayatollah Khomeini. A funeral ceremony was held for seven people killed in the city of Izeh in the nation's southwest by what the regime called terrorist acts. The mother of 10-year-old Kian Pirfalak was heard naming security forces for her son's death. 

Tasnim news agency reported demonstrations by pro-government forces in the city of Mashhad where two members of the Basij military were killed days earlier. Riot police confronted a crowd at the funeral of Aylar Haghi, a medical student killed by security forces surfaced on video. According to authorities she died after falling into a a construction site excavation.

In the Kurdish-populated northwest demonstrators occupied a police station in a Friday continuation of protests. Iranian authorities say many members of the security forces have been killed by “rioters and thugs backed by foreign foes“. According to state television, 41 had died, including members of the security forces.

Fire and smoke are seen at Fuladshahr, Isfahan province, Iran in this still image from a social media video released on Friday and obtained by Reuters (Reuters)