China's Quest for Space Dominance

"China started relatively late on agile satellite technology but achieved a large number of breakthroughs in a short period of time."

"The level of our technology has reached a world-leading position."

Yamg Fang, Beijing-3 project lead scientist

 

"It reflects the fact that Chinese space technology is catching up with the United States."

"This suggests that the U.S. commercial satellite industry will face competition from the Chinese. We can assume that the Chinese military satellites are at least as good."

"Until now the Chinese have been investing a lot of money in space, but rather on the Soviet model. There has been a lot of quantity, but not a lot of quality."

"If you thought that the U.S. was sitting pretty as an unchallenged superpower, that was never going to last."

Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist, Harvard Smithsonian Centre 

The new Beijing-3 satellite equipped with artificial intelligence is capable of high-resolution images in panoramic screening areas up to three times more swiftly than versions designed in the United States, scientists involved in the project claim. Photographs of large areas can be taken with enough clarity to enable identification of military vehicles and weapons being carried, while the nimble satellite rotates at speeds unprecedented -- up to 10 degrees a second.

The study carrying details of the extraordinary claim has been published in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Spacecraft Engineering. The advanced engineering being claimed as having succeeded where no other technology has yet gone before, is beyond impressive. The "nimbleness" of the satellite equips it to carry forward tasks considered technically impossible. This new satellite has exhibited its purposeful prowess by photographing the 6,300 kilometre winding Yangtze River running between the Tibetan plateau and the East China Sea.

 

It took the satellite one trip over China from north to south, to complete the phenomenal task, according to project lead scientist, Yang Fang. Beijing-3, he boasted, was two to three times faster than WorldView-4, to the present the most advanced Earth observation satellite developed by Lockheed Martin with similar technology, in the United States. 

 

It's a safe bet that on the evidence of the past, China utilized its usual short-cuts in experimental technology by lifting data through cyber-spying to enable it to 'improve' on the original.

 

The Chinese satellite was tested in June, according to the information included in the published study, by performing "an in-depth scan" of a central area of San Francisco Bay, where it captured images totalling 3,800 square kilometres in a mere 42 seconds, the scientists employed by DFH Satellite Company Ltd, part of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, elucidated. 

The images, 50 centimetres per pixel "sharp enough to identify a military vehicle on the street and tell what type of weapons it might be carrying", certainly qualified as a reason to keep American. political thinkers up at night, fuming over the certainty that China appears to be rapidly advancing in its goal to equal and fully surpass technological advantages in new technologies with military applications, over those of the U.S.

WorldView-4 by contrast, with its commercial satellite product gives images of some 30 centimetres per pixel and though other military-grade satellites are able to capture a similar level of detail, the opinion of experts is that the main technological advance of imaging at this resolution and the speed at which it appears to work is quite impressive.

"President Xi Jinping has declared that China’s ‘Space Dream’ is to overtake all nations and become the leading space power by 2045." 

"This all feeds into China’s ambition to be the world’s single science and technology superpower."

Christopher Newman, professor of space law and policy, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

A Long March-7 Y3 carrier rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft blasts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on May 29, 2021 in Wenchang, Hainan Province of China.

Yuan Chen | VCG | Getty Images

Vladimir Putin Redeeming the Glory of the USSR

"Memorial is a special organization with its own ideology. We combine what's called relevant human rights activities with historical studies and comprehending the historical path of Russia in the 20th century."

"It seems that such a union does not please someone in the Russian leadership."

Oleg Orlov, Memorial board member

"The decision ...confirmed that the history of political terror ... does not remain an academic theme for Russia of interest for just specialists but an acute problem for modern Russia."

"Our country needs an honest and scrupulous reflection on its Soviet past."

"Memorial is the need for Russia's citizens to know the truth. Nobody will succeed in 'liquidating' this need."

Memorial statement

Supporters hold placards saying "we will live forever" with Memorial's flame symbol above the Russian word "we"    Reuters

 

The Supreme Court of Russia has found the country's most seasoned human rights group, Memorial International, to have offended the country's dignity and pride in its past. The group has been ordered to disband. Critics within Russia of the Kremlin, of its policies, of its crackdown on dissenting voices, and above all, of its president-for-life, disturb the peace and serenity that Moscow enjoys in the capable hands of its new czar who aspires to return Russia to its former glory days.

The order for Memorial International to cease and desist, to fold up and be no more, more or less caps a few successful years of silencing and setting aside critics of the regime. As explained by Moscow, it owes the nation protection from those involved in extremism, who plan to do harm and destabilize Russia, with the considerable encouragement, incitement to violence, and funding from abroad. Clearly, foreign agencies are at the heart of nefarious plots to unseat the government and the Kremlin will not stand for it.

Memorial's mission is to document and to remind the nation of what Josef Stalin wrought in his "Great Terror", when those inconvenient to and critical of his brutal regime were sacrificed to the altar of Communism. The mass killings of intellectuals, Bolshevik officials, political officials, members of the military, writers, ethnic minorities, scientists, writers, foreigners and peasant land-owners. Along with any other groups Stalin conceived of as saboteurs. 

 

The number of dead during the great purge has been variously estimated to be between three-quarters of a million, to two million people, while political prisoners numbered around a million, sent to the Gulags, as Stalin's reign consolidated its position by eliminating challengers and suspected challengers. Since Vladimir Putin ascended to power and changed the constitution to allow him to reign in perpetuity, he has imprisoned critics, assassinated others, a silencing mechanism hugely relied upon for its finality, however clumsily undertaken.

 

He has banned political groups critical of his administration, and imprisoned their leaders on implausible charges. He has taken to emulating Stalin's purges to silence his critics. And he seems determined to restore the reputation of the USSR as a force for good, both for Russia and for its satellite states. Memorial was established during the period of 'glasnost' introduced to Russia by then-president Mikhail Gorbachev, determined to modernize Russia and move it away from a closed state. 

Addressing the court, a state prosecutor stated that Memorial had promoted a 'false image' of the USSR as 'a terrorist state', besmirching its proud memory during the Second World War. "Someone" was paying Memorial for such treachery, he averred. Subsequently, Memorial was found to have broken a controversial law on foreign agents by repeatedly failing to use a disclaimer in its materials and its website relating to receiving foreign funds.

This, despite that Memorial is quite openly frank that it receives funding from abroad, where its website lists funding from Poland, Germany, Canada and the Czech Republic. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, spoke of the court order as "a blatant and tragic attempt to suppress freedom of expression and erase history". Memorial had been co-established by nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov.

It had recently challenged the repression of critics, publishing lists of people it considers to be political prisoners. In 2015, Russian authorities had placed Memorial on an official list of "foreign agents", burdening it with restrictions on its activities. The Memorial Human Rights Centre and Memorial International were accused of violating the foreign agent law.

Memorial International, according to prosecutors, breached regulations through failing to mark all its publications, including posts on social media with the distinguishing label. They also accused the group of condoning terrorism and extremism. According to President Putin, Memorial had defended organizations that Russia labels extremist and terrorist; its list of victims of Soviet-era repression included Nazi collaborators.

 

The image of Musk and his Chinese doppelganger was posted beneath a tweet from Musk claiming that he will pay 11 billion USD in taxes this year.

Elon Musk enjoys great popularity among young Chinese, in China. He has also invested a great deal in China. Unfortunately, the great admiration he enjoys as a role model for innovative, bold gestures and a startling imagination with an enduring belief that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that he cannot achieve on the strength of the force of his character, his vision and enterprise, is not universally beloved in China. Oh, the Chinese Communist Party respects his enterprise and ability to make money for himself and his enterprises, but they have certain reservations about anyone -- just ask Jack Ma -- who thinks too big for their britches.

And no one individual can possibly challenge the supremacy of the Chinese State and its enterprises. Including Beijing's claim to shooting for the stars. Starting modestly with a space station of its own. So when a world-class entrepreneur like Elon Musk displays a gusto for outmaneuvering and out-satelliting the most technically advanced, ardent of nations in space exploration he was guaranteed to raise the hackles of the CCP. All the more so that he is a certified American strategist-capitalist-innovator.

Not that this far-reaching technical-whizz-kid hasn't raised the hackles of other non-state groups, such as scientists in the field of astronomy and astro-physics who depend on their ability to read the stars, as it were, though the grace of dark skies enabling powerful telescopes to reach far into the deepest recesses of the universe, back in time and space to analyze the beginning of all that exists, but will be hampered by Musk's plans to string satellites in a wide net impeding the course of astronomical investigation by lighting up the skies.

Now, however, Beijing accuses Elon Musk of "space warfare" in close encounters of a different kind, where some satellites launched as part of his groundbreaking global internet initiative experienced a near-miss with China's recently-launched space station. Starlink Internet Services, a division of the Musk Space-X aerospace company, saw some of its satellites involved in two "close encounters" with China's space station in July and October.

China subsequently submitted a document to the United Nations apace agency: "For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control", China reported on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Now that's awfully serious; it's obvious that a collision of any dimension has the potential to end badly. Remember not so long ago when China insisted it had the right to send up rockets directed to destroy some of its old space junk still in circulation?

And the United States and European Space Agency were concerned over the detritus not only having the potential to intersect with their communication satellites but their space missions as well, including the international space station, where astronauts were actually forced to take evasive action when a piece of a destroyed Chinese weather satellite was headed toward it?

 

The ISS is a big target for space debris, but it's no sitting duck   NASA

.China launched Tianhe, the largest of its three modules which will make up its space station, in April. The end of 2022 will see the completion of the space station following four crewed missions meant to build on the initial module. Scientists urge space-travelling governments to share data to reduce risk of catastrophic space collisions in view of close to 30,000 satellites and other debris orbiting Earth. Close to 1,900 satellites have been deployed by Space X alone in service to its Starlink broadband network, meant to blanket the world with universal internet coverage.

According to China's state-operated tabloid Global Times, the satellites, 42,000 thousand of which Musk plans to orbit could be "used to detect China's space perception capabilities and test whether China can accurately grasp their actions". The paper wrote: "The aerospace industry is currently concerned about the military application of Starlink satellite because after the deployment of more than 40,000 satellites, the normal launch of other countries will be affected."

Musk may just run into problems making his world-wide high-speed internet connectivity viable; planning to ask China for permission to build antenna dishes or ground links on its territory to send and receive data from the Starlink spacecraft initially, China saw that plan as interfering with its censored internet network, the "Great Firewall", blocking access to websites like google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and international media. How else might it succeed in ensuring its 1.4 billion population is shielded from criticism against its communist leaders?

The Chinese division of Tesla last month, also owned by Musk, announced that Starlink would not launch services in China. All Tesla cars and charging stations would use network services provided by Chinese operators with all data maintained within the country. This, the result of China forcing foreign companies to retain all records collected from Chinese consumers within the country. Tesla in China employs quite a lot of Chinese workers.

 

"What will happen to Tesla in China, if some day Starlink's low-orbit satellites collide with our country's low-orbit satellites or other spacecraft", worried one Chinese, writing on Weibo. What, indeed?! After all, China appears to feel entitled to viewing space as its personal jurisdiction and it is very jealous of its reputation and sovereignty. And Musk feels that nothing is beyond his enterprising spirit to accomplish as a private, non-state investor in space.

 

How Rich? Well.....In the Uber-Lavish Style to Which They've Become Accustomed

"[I will] do my best to come to a conclusion as to what is reasonable, while remembering that the exceptional wealth and remarkable standard of living enjoyed by these children during the marriage takes this case entirely out of the ordinary."

Justice Moor, British High Court

"Some of those figures on the trampolines the strawberries, the ponies -- would be absolutely shocking to average Emiratis or even expats, but the royals in Dubai bring ridiculous spending to a whole different level."

"I'd see it a lot. It wasn't uncommon for them to have tigers and leopards and monkeys just hanging around in their gardens, or they'd just change their cars every few days because they felt like it."

"It's the opposite [that some aristocrats or royals living elsewhere try to screen high-spending addiction from the public] -- if you did that it would be seen that you're not successful, that you're somehow down on your luck."

"So  you've got to have the best of the best."

David Haigh, British human rights lawyer

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and his estranged wife, Princess Haya Bint Al-Hussain  Reuters

For the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's former wife Princess Haya Bint al Hussein, the best-of-the-best is yawningly ordinary. "Household spending" to those rich as Croesus -- the legendary icon of untold wealth, reputed to have been the richest man on Earth -- comes to a neat $142.7 million annually. This refers not to the purchase of a sumptuous mansion-cum-palace, but the upkeep of said palace. And the two children of the royal pair must have a special trampoline; one that is built deeply inground, like a pool, the cost of which is $69,000. Oh and incidentally, allowance for a nine and 14 year-old each comes to a miserly $1.72 million annually.

 

That old slough-off of 'money is no object'? Well, it applies in spades to oil-wealthy royalty in the Middle East who it seems cannot spend the windfalls of energy exports fast enough or fully enough. For a lifestyle that the judge weighing the absolute minimum needs of a divorced wife and the offspring of a dissolved marriage of the ruler of Dubai, described as "truly opulent and unprecedented standard of living enjoyed by these parties". Yes, indeed!

 

How does $8.77 million annually for holidays, a paltry $1.72 million on leisure activities, $5.16 million to renovate an English country home every ten years, $3.26 million for an extension to a kitchen and addition of piza oven strike you? And why on Earth would a married couple with that kind of disposable income decide to call their marriage quits when each could live in a separate palace at a second's whim for relief from too-close contact?

 

Zabeel Palace, Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed

Ah well, Sheikh Mohammed lost his temper when Princess Haya had a fling with her bodyguard. So incensed was the cuckold that his wife fled the near geographic vicinity with children Jalila, 14, and Zayed, nine to London three years ago. The good judge found in Princess Haya's favour in a divorce settlement totalling $952.2 million. There remains some uncertainty whether the settlement will in fact fulfill Princess Haya's needs in upholding her living standards.

After all, Sheikh Mohammed has wealth in the stratosphere, his riches valued around $17.9 billion, making his obligation to pay his ex-wife and their two children under a billion in living expenses rather niggardly. In 1979 his first marriage to Sheika Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum -- mother of a dozen of the Sheikh's thirty children -- was quite the public event in Dubai. He had a 20,000-seat stadium built for the occasion, a five-day extravaganza with a total cost of around $127 million.

The two offspring of this ill-fated marriage can be guaranteed they will never know squalid poverty living out of their $17 million annual allowance. This is a lifestyle shared by others in the oil-rich Middle East. Qatar's second in line to the throne, 30-year-old Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, for example, used Los Angeles' Beverley Wiltshire hotel as his student lodgings while attending the University of Southern California.

"From the moment al-Thani stepped off the plane, an entire economy quickly grew up around him to meet his wishes and whims", including drivers, security, fixers and, university faculty members reveal, "a graduate student who served as his academic 'Sherpa'," according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. And then there is the Saudi prince who reserved 80 individual seats on an Emirates plane for his falcons.

And not to be overlooked; Mohammed Bin Salman, crown prince and now de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, proud owner of the most costly home in the world, a $395-million French chateau. Owner as well of the world's most expensive artwork, a painting of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, purchased at Christie's for $576 million, displayed for his delectation on his superyacht.

 

The superyacht Pegasus VIII in all its glory   Getty

Death of a Motorist

"This was no oopsie, this not putting the wrong date on a check, this was not entering the wrong password, this was a colossal screw-up, a blunder of epic proportions, it was precisely the thing she was warned about for years, it was irreversible and it was fatal."

Prosecutor Erin Eldridge

 

"I could stop right here. Because if you presume, which you have to do, if you presume that she did not cause the death, which you have to have the presumption of innocence, did they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she caused this death? No."

"Daunte Wright caused his own death, unfortunately. Those are the cold hard facts of the evidence." 

Potter’s attorney Earl Gray

 

"[The verdict] provided some measure of accountability for the senseless death of their son, brother, father and friend."

"From the unnecessary and overreaching tragic traffic stop to the shooting that took his life, that day will remain a traumatic one for this family and yet another example for America of why we desperately need change in policing, training and protocols."

Statement: Attorneys Benjamin Crump, Antonio Romanucci and Jeff Storms

A jury has found former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter guilty on two manslaughter charges in the death of Daunte Wright. Potter shot and killed the 20-year-old Wright during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis earlier this year.  Pool via Reuters

A 26-year veteran of the Minneapolis police force now faces the potential of 15 years in prison for the shooting death of yet another black man. The criminal and unintentional death of George Floyd in 2020 is still reverberating if not around the world, then in Minnesota. And it was no doubt the proximity in time and place with that outrage still seething in the trial of Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death that led to the guilty verdict in the trial of 49-year-old Kim Potter.

 

Young Black men earned a broad national reputation as a criminal underclass in the United States. Their presence in prisons over-representing their numbers in society as a reflection of their gang memberships propensity to crime and violence. A long history of racial discrimination may play a part in this penchant for black youth to lend themselves to petty crime, to violence and to a loathing for law enforcement whether or not American Blacks have proven themselves more than capable of matching their white peers in any profession.

The presence of black mayors and chiefs of police appears to have made little impression on the trajectory black youth so often take for their future in crime and nor did the event of a black president of their country, black magistrates, academics, journalists, health professionals all distinguishing themselves in pride of careers. Police still face an overwhelming black presence in crime and law enforcement. Even so, statistics appear to bear out that white criminals come to grief just as often as do blacks.

The temper of the times, with Black Lives Matter turning the tables on white 'supremacy' and the sordid history of racial discrimination, slavery and violence against blacks in America set the stage for this police officer's harsh jury judgement of guilt in the death of black motorist Daunte Wright during a traffic stop gone dreadfully wrong when it was discovered that the man stopped for a minor traffic infraction had failed to appear in court on a criminal charge.

Then-senior-officer Potter's body camera took footage of the encounter when she and two other officers pulled over the 20-year-old motorist at the traffic stop. When Daunte Wright resisted being handcuffed, a scuffle broke out and a melee ensued, with then-Officer Potter warning him repeatedly he would be tasered if he continued to resist arrest. In the heat of the scuffle she withdrew what was meant to be her stun gun, but which was her service revolver.

Calling, 'taser, taser, taser', she shot the resisting young man in the chest, killing him. She realized instantly what had occurred, and blurted out her belief that she would be held responsible for Daunte Wright's death, even while she declared it had been an accident. In the confusion of the struggle between the resisting man and the three police officers, an automatic action thought to be warranted under the tense situation went badly wrong.

Nothing could restore a man's life. And justice is not always the poultice to cover a sore. Extenuating circumstances often influence a judgement between deliberate action and involuntary error. Both prosecutors and defence attorneys were in agreement that Officer Potter had drawn the wrong weapon in error, with no intention whatever of doing harm to Daunte Wright, much less ending up being the instrument of his death.

Prosecutors insisted that the officer's prior 26 years of experience in law enforcement made it inexcusable that an error of this magnitude could occur. Charging her with deliberately taking a conscious, unreasonable risk using any weapon under the circumstances. These are predictable courtroom claims, easily made by those whose professions will never bring them to a violent, potentially dangerous encounter with a felon.

The officer's attorneys, for their part, placed the responsibility for the young man's death squarely on his own behaviour, resisting arrest and in so doing creating a fraught situation, justifying the use of force. Her decision to use a taser on an unruly man resisting arrest was not out of line in her professional conduct. A psychologist, Dr.Laurence Miller, testified about "action error" occurring when someone takes an unintended action, intending to act otherwise.

In their collective wisdom -- or in a reflection of the temper of the times in an overheated reaction to historical wrongs of black victimization -- the jury chose to make an example of a police officer whose judgement was called into question on the basis of a bad situation turning into an untenable, and truly unjustifiable loss of human life. Leaving Kimberley Potter guilty of first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, April 11.

 

 

Accommodating 'Racialized' Victimhood

"Racialized students benefit from being taught by racialized teachers. The deleterious effects of the MPT [Math Proficiency Test] on racialized teacher candidates who have been unsuccessful in the test outweighs its benefits."

"Racialized teacher candidates have gone through an education system in which they have suffered discrimination and disadvantage."

"The candidates are then required to take 'high stakes' standardized tests which the available data shows they are more likely to fail."

Ontario Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court

 

"The mathematics part is all about logic. The pedagogical part is a lot of memory work."

"A lot of people who failed the test were educated outside of Canada. It wasn't about math skills, it was about memorization."

"Lots of people who come to Canada came as professionals. We are eager to contribute. But it was a bit of a trap."

Richard Atimniraye Nyelade, Cameroonian immigrant to Canada

Richard Atimniraye Nyelade   Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

That 'trap' has now been opened, expunged from the laws and regulations that saw a need to ensure that teachers in Ontario were in command of mathematics to the extent that they could adequately convey their knowledge to their students. A challenge from the Ontario Teacher Candidates' Council -- its membership comprised of immigrants to Canada aspiring to the teaching profession who found the math test to qualify as teachers beyond their scope of academic reach -- which saw fit to challenge the need to become proficient in math as teachers in the Ontario school system.

The judicial review they had requested with the argument that the test had a disproportionately negative effect on' racialized' candidates, convinced the progressive sympathies of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court that the requirements infringe on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In their December 17 decision it was noted that 'racialized' teachers were under-represented in Ontario and that alternatives to the MPT existed as options.

The math test for those wishing to be certified teachers was mandatory, but has now been judged to be unconstitutional. Abrading the rights of 'racialized' would-be teachers, but at the same time, impeding the rights of the children and students of the province to be adequately taught the important subject of mathematics. The Math Proficiency Test (MPT) was introduced alongside a number of provincial strategies meant to improve math skills of students as a result of provincial test scores dipping. 

All new teacher candidates wishing to teach in publicly funded schools were mandated to take the test. One of the founders of the Ontario Teacher Candidates' Council, Bella Lewkowicz, now an Ottawa teacher, heralded the decision as "a huge victory. It's not often that educators can claim victory over the Ministry of Education", she stated. A classic case of the trail wagging the dog.

 

Richard Atimniraye Nyelade, originally from Cameroon, failed to pass the test twice. He succeeded on the third try. He arrived in Canada in 2018, with his bachelors degree from his native country along with a master's from Norway, enrolling in a University of Ottawa teaching program, planning to teach in his first language, French. "I did it because, when you arrive as a newcomer, you want to be sure to contribute to society", he said. But obviously on his own terms, not on those that society deemed best for its student population.

 

There are 50 mathematics content questions to the test, along with another 21 questions related to math pedagogy. Applicants must score 70 percent on both parts of the test to qualify as a pass. Once the province began officially administering the test, demographic data indicated disparities in success rates where candidates identifying as Indigenous and Black enjoy sucess rates 20 percent under those of white candidates.

 

Francophone candidates had lower success rates as well, as opposed to anglophones (in officially bilingual Canada francophones are certainly not considered 'racialized' or under-privileged). 55 percent of non-white candidates writing the test in French succeeded in comparison to 84 percent of white candidates writing in French; data that helped the court to form its opinion. Those whose first language is neither French nor English scored lower success rates.

 

Students in Quebec tested better than Ontario students in math where success is attributed to requiring student teachers to take courses in math methodology and content, instead of a high-stakes test. "I was in the middle of my program when they dropped this bomb" (the MPT requirement), commented Ms.Lewkowicz, who took the test and easily passed after graduation from University of Ottawa, and now teaching French in Ottawa.

The court ordered the regulator to grant certification to candidates who failed to pass the test, and that the test requirement be removed from the Ontario College of Teachers Act, legislation governing the teaching profession. The Ontario College of Teachers stated it had not been a party to the court proceeding. According to Mr. Atimniraye Nyelade, francophone candidates from countries like Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Haiti have encountered the same problem he did with the math test.

Yet another instance of new immigrants to a country where rather than integrating and adjusting to the values, priorities and legislation of their adopted country, steps are taken to cry foul and demand extraordinary treatment geared particularly to their shortcomings rather than taking responsible action to upgrade their qualifications to match expectations of any citizens, to prove they meet the required qualifications of a profession they wish to become part of.

Grade 2 teacher Vivian Mavraidis walks through her classroom at Hunter's Glen Junior Public School, which is part of the Toronto District School Board, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Vladimir Putin's Ongoing Power Plays

"Everything is under a lot of stress and a lot of pressure."

"That is why we are seeing these astronomical gas prices."

Nathan Piper, head of oil and gas, Investec

"Whether they are doing it to put pressure on Europe, or simply because it is commercially advantageous, is still not clear."

"They now appear to be deliberately withholding volumes to the European spot market."

Dr.Jack Sharples, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

A Russian soldier takes part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia. Russian troop concentration near Ukraine has raised concerns of a possible invasion. Photograph: AP

 

In 2019 Russia's Gazprom saw a record year in sales to Europe. The following year demand crashed when the pandemic shut down countries, until the rebound of 2021 as economies began reopening. For whatever reason that European governments and industry experts can only speculate on, Russian supplies failed to bounce back when the economies began refreshing.

The mystery is why exactly more gas is not forthcoming from Russia. Russia's state energy giant, Gazprom, has been fulfilling its contractual obligations to the letter, but has failed to respond as one might suppose a business anxious to make gains, normally would. On the other hand, this could conceivably be a game that Moscow has played before during energy-starved European winters when the Kremlin saw fit to innocently hold back gas supplies.

The supply crunch in Europe is building to crisis proportions. Demand for Russian natural gas and liquefied natural gas in Asia rose when an extremely cold season late last year extending to early 2021 along with an unexpectedly low renewable sources performance had Europe turning expectantly to Russia.

Europe was left with depleted reserves when demand saw prices pushed higher and European energy companies decided to place less into storage. Poor wind power performance in 2021 and nuclear power plants in Germany and France closing down forced energy suppliers to focus their reliance increasingly on gas. This winter sees all of these conditions come to a head.

 

CF Industries fertilizer manufacturing complex, forced to shut down due to high natural gas prices in Ince, U.K.  Photographer Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg

 

Russia is thought to be in possession of spare production capacity, with investors on the European spot market waiting for signs Russia may decide to open the taps. But the amount that Russia is prepared to sell on the European spot market has plunged. In response to which a Gazprom spokesman said the company "supplies gas in accordance with the customers' requests in full compliance with the current contractual obligations". Full stop.

Leaving Dr.Sharples and his team to speculate that Russia, like Europe, was struggling to replenish storage levels on the vague supposition that enough gas to go around was simply not there. That was relegated to the wastebasket of hope once Gazprom announced it had no need to continue topping up its facilities after November 8. And so, the plot thickens.

 

Leaving some experts to suggest a geopolitical pressure tactic by Vladimir Putin since gas flows across the Ukrainian border also appear heavily down. Pressure by Moscow for EU regulators to approve the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, where Western leaders foresee Russia diverting flows away from Ukraine at the very time Putin is amassing troops at the border.

 

The potential exists for Gazprom testing European patience to the point of backfiring. Investment could be driven to alternative sources of energy and in the process break Europe of its gas addiction. In the meanwhile European power prices hit a new record while France faces a winter supply shortage of huge proportions. Its heavy industries forced to curb production across the region.

 

Electricity delivery for the coming year leaped to an all-time high for both Germany and France, two of the largest economies in the European Union. France will no longer think of exporting power to other countries, facing outages at nuclear plants, and needing all the energy it can source for itself. France, in the face of this severe situation is forcing factories to cut output or altogether shutter. 

"If we have a very, very cold day, it could be problematic, especially if we have to import and our neighbours have problems, as well."

"This is the domino effect we need to fear. But electricity will be expensive, there's going to be a cost to pay."

Anne-Sophie Corbeau, research scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, Paris

And in Germany, power for next year leaped in megawatt-hour cost after a 25 percent rally. "The strength in the French market has been the main engine -- aside from gas prices -- of strength in neighbouring markets, including Germany, in recent days", commented the head of European power analysis at S&P Global Platts. 

Tubes for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are piled on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen in north-eastern Germany in December 2019. Photograph: Stefan Sauer/DPA/AFP/Getty Images

The Temper of the Times : Russia/NATO/U.S./Ukraine

"We are concerned about the build-up of the U.S. and NATO military forces directly near the Russian borders, as well as the conduct of large-scale exercises, including unplanned ones."

"[Russia is prepared to take] military measures responding to aggressive [Western actions in Ukraine, to] react toughly to unfriendly steps."

"Russia is against bloodshed, it wants to resolve issues by political and diplomatic means, but with security guarantees."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Servicemen walk in a trench at the line of separation, Luhansk region, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, eastern Ukraine, December 9, 2021.  Alexei Alexandrov

Russia's defence minister, Sergey Shoygu, spoke of American companies "preparing a provocation with chemical components in Eastern Ukraine", its intentions clearly violently antagonistic to Greater Russia's relations with its near and dear neighbours. Another symptom of which is the eight thousand American troops deployed in Eastern Europe. Paranoia in close company with hyperbolic threats of reaction should the West commit to aggressing Russia.

Of course to the casual onlooker 8,000 American troops arrayed against an estimated 100,000 Russian counterpart troups might not appear much of an even battlefield, but such matters are obviously in the eye of the beholder. This is, after all, Russia's part of the world, and it is beyond alarming to view the encroachment by the West in Russia's near-abroad, for which it has future plans that are effectively being challenged.

This new cat-and-mouse game of challenge and counter-challenge, where each protagonist declares themselves positioning for the purpose of sovereign rights on the one hand and protection of same for other principals on the other has been heating up for years. The buildup of U.S. and NATO forces in Russia's garden is not the least bit appreciated. It began decades ago, in fact, with Ronald Reagan's vision of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiatiive; 'Star Wars'.

Vladimir Putin is straightforward in his warning that should the West continue its "obviously aggressive stance" Moscow would respond as it must, with no option but to hit back with "appropriate retaliatory military-technical measures". And Russia's recent upgrading of its military-technical apparatus may very well rival that of the United States at this point. Neither of necessity has a wish to actually and actively engage in combat.

 

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets virtually via a secure video conference with Putin from the Situation Room at the White House on Dec. 7. Putin urged the West to make a legal pledge not to deploy forces and weapons to Ukraine. Adam Schultz/The White House via AP

Both imagine a scenario where bluff and hyperbole will cause the other to back down, preparing to save face with some measure of compromise. The issue for Russia is how to deflect Western concern over its intentions with respect to Ukraine, a neighbouring country that Russia has historically considered an integral part of its own geography, counting on its shared history and Slavic origins to soften Ukraine's resolve to remain fully sovereign and allied with the West.

Kyiv has been battling ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatists since 2014 in eastern Ukraine, struggling against a civil war situation where Russian troops have been deployed, along with military technology such as advanced missiles in support of the rebels who insist on the success of their mission to restore vast tracts of Ukrainian territory of the Donbas region's Luhansk and Donetsk as a gift to Russia.

Mr. Putin's demands that NATO cut off membership discussions with Ukraine and withdraw alliance forces from former Soviet states has made no inroads in NATO's intentions. He has also expressed his "extreme concern" over cruise missile deployments by the U.S. in Poland and Romania. "If this infrastructure moves further -- if U.S. and NATO missile systems appear in Ukraine -- then their approach time to Moscow will be reduced to seven or ten minutes". 

Clearly there is no trust between Russia and the West, and just as clearly each has been provocative in their relations impinging one on the other. Russia by threatening the independence of its neighbours with its clear intention of restoring to whatever degree it might manage, a semblance of its former Soviet Union status, the West by interfering in Mr. Putin's dream of a resurgent Russia with pliable satellite states meekly surrendering their sovereignty to a threatening neighbour.

Military vehicles and tanks from Poland, Italy, Canada, and the United States roll during a NATO military exercise in Latvia in September. NATO responded to Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by bolstering its forces near Russia and conducting drills on the territory of its Baltic members. Roman Koksarov/AP

The Beginning of the End of the Soviet Union

"A great empire, a nuclear superpower, split into independent countries that could co-operate with each other as closely as they wanted, and not a single drop of blood was shed. It wasn't a tragedy at all. We decided to shut the prison of nations. There was nothing to feel contrition for."

"All versions of the union treaty boiled down to the restoration of the old ways or to Gorbachev's proposal of a new structure where he still would be the boss."

"Kravchuk [Ukraine's Leonid Kravchuk] was focused on Ukraine's independence. He was proud that Ukraine declared its independence in a referendum and he was elected president on December 1, 1991."

"Gorbachev told me in a mentor tone: 'Do you know what the international community would say?' And I responded that I do know. By that time the conversation with [U.S. President] Bush already started and I was hearing it. I said that Yeltsin was telling Bush about it and he [Bush] was reacting in a positive way."

Stanislav Shushkevich, 86, Republic of Byelorussia (Belarus) 

"What they so hastily and stealthily did in Belavezha was like a plot to kill an injured but still living person by dismembering it."

"The striving for power and personal interests prevailed over any legal arguments or doubts."

Mikhail Gorbachev, 90, former USSR president

"The Ukrainian independence referendum and the subsequent decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet to disavow the 1922 treaty on creation of the USSR put a political and legal completion to the process of disintegration."

"Yeltsin and Shushkevich first tried to persuade Kravchuk to maintain some form of union, but after the referendum, he wouldn't even like to hear that word."

Sergei Shakhrai, top Yeltsin aide

Soviet tanks near the Kremlin in August 1991 after an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. The deal signalling the USSR’s demise was signed months later. Photograph: Dima Tanin/AFP

 

The beginning of the end was heralded unintentionally by former general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev when he introduced the Soviet Union reformation concepts of glasnost and perestroika, the political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the 1980s, whose revelation became a worldwide sensation, that the USSR was opening up as Mr. Gorbachev tried to ease tensions between the Soviets and the West. He was a passionate reformer, one critical of the excesses of Stalin, like Nikita Khrushchev before him.

With the first crack of solidarity within the union, three Slavic republic leaders on December 8, 1991 met at a hunting lodge, a dacha in Viskuli, Belavezha forest to declare "the USSR ceases to exist as a subject of international law and as a geopolitical reality". Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine and Stanislav Shushkevich head of the republic of Byelorussia took pride in co-signing the agreement, producing a "diplomatic masterpiece" of dissolution.

Eight other Soviet republics swelled the alliance two weeks later, thus terminating the authority of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The former Soviet republics revolving like satellites around the sun of Moscow, was no more. In his memoirs, the former president was bitter about the 1991 agreement destroying his own efforts to save the USSR from collapse with a new "union treaty" among the republics. 

 

The rebuttal from Shushkevich pointed out that he and the other leaders felt Gorbachev's plans to resurrect the union was pointless. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had already seceded and the backdrop of the failed August coup against Gorbachev had seen his authority eroded, an encouragement to other republics to seek their own independence. 

 

The three schemers, Shushkevich, Yeltsin and Kravchuk were accompanied by a few senior aides when they arrived at the Viskuli lodge. The atmosphere was later described as tense with the realization that the stakes were high including the risk they were taking of arrest on charges of treason should Gorbachev be so inclined. Eduard Shirkovsky, head of the KGB also at the hunting lodge had assured Shushkevich no threat to their safety existed. 

Gorbachev had decided against moving against the plot fearing bloodshed in a volatile situation at a time the loyalties of the Soviet army and law enforcement were split. "If I decided to rely on some armed structure, it would have inevitably resulted in an acute political conflict fraught with bloodshed", he later wrote, blaming Yeltsin for spearheading the Soviet collapse, ambitious to take over the Kremlin.

Ukraine had declared its sovereignty after the August coup that had weakened Gorbachev's authority. The previous week Kravchuk had been elected Ukraine's president in a vote that gave full support to its independence from Moscow. At the hunting lodge Kravchuk was forcefully determined, rejecting a revamped version of the Soviet Union. 

Describing the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century", Vladimir Putin continues to to state his conviction that Ukraine unfairly inherited historic areas of Russian heritage with the demise of the USSR. Russia's response ultimately was to annex Crimea and back ethnic Russian Ukrainian rebels in eastern Ukraine, leading inevitably to the current Russian buildup of troops along the border with Ukraine.

Russia Soviet Collapse Anniversary

(Yuri Ivanov)

"Modern Ukraine is entirely the product of the Soviet era."

"We know and remember well that it was shaped -- for a significant part -- on the lands of historical Russia."

"It's crystal clear that Russia was effectively robbed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

North Korea's Decade With Baby Dictator

"All people and soldiers should have absolute trust in the general secretary, have their fate and future completely entrusted to him and guard his safety and authority."

"He is, indeed, the greatest man and the great sage of the revolution all the people on this land follow with their deep affection and sincerity."

State Rodong Sinmun newspaper

"He has tried to differentiate himself from the reigns of his father and grandfather. [Including] legitimizing his own leadership by establishing an ideological system of 'Kim Jong-unism'[ that is centered on 'Our People First' 'Our Nation First' and self-reliance."

"At the same time, he has been using the same old brutal playbook to maintain power and control over officials."

Duyeon Kim, adjunct senior fellow, Centre for a New American Security, Washington, D.C.

"To a certain extent, he [has] ruled by fear, as we saw from Jang's brutal execution, and the unusually frequent personnel shuffles in the top echelons of the military in the first few years of his leadership."

"[He is] backed up by a powerful system that has withstood all sorts of storms since the founding of North Korea."

"It also has to do with a clever leadership strategy. This is a man who values pragmatism and understands the importance of keeping up with the times to stay competitive and improve the people's living standards."

Minyoung Lee, Seoul-based non-resident fellow, 38 North Program, Stimson Centre, Washington

Citizens visit the bronze statues of their late leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, on the occasion of 10th anniversary of demise of Kim Jong Il.  VOA

 

The tenth anniversary of the death of North Korean former leader Kim Jong-il saw a ceremonial service where thousands of people paid their respects to the former leader, with his son Kim Jong Un in attendance. Footage televised by KCTV showed Kim visiting his father's mausoleum, standing on a platform with crowds of people below, on the palace grounds in Pyongyang.

 

Flags at half mast, the thousands gathered at the annual memorial bowed silent heads, portraits of the country's former leaders, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung facing them. A ten-day period of remembrance for the "Great Leader" was officially ordered, a ban on alcohol, on laughter, on any overt signs of happiness ordered. Police ordered to look for signs of disobedience to the ban and to arrest any that dared to contravene the ban. Involuntary smiles to be suppressed on pain of incarceration.

The occasion of the tenth year since the death of the former leader of North Korea also marks the tenth year of the ascension of his son, Kim Jong Un who assumed the post of supreme leader at age 29 on his father's sudden death of a heart attack. Kim appears to have met all the yardsticks and then some of strong leadership, North Korean-style. Presenting himself as a brutal oppressor, a ruthless tyrant, but a loving dictator to his people.

The internal palace intrigues have presented no problem to this scheming tyrant who hasn't hesitated to order the murder of anyone who he believed to have challenged his authority or nurse aspirations to take his place. He has achieved some milestones beyond what his father and grandfather managed in meeting with a U.S. president, with the president of South Korea, and establishing a personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Loving his people so deeply he defied international sanctions in his ongoing bid to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. That the expense involved in these enterprises meant that much of his population lives in poverty and episodes of food and energy scarcity erupt time and again does not appear to give him sleepless nights. 

This loving supreme leader ordered the imprisonment and then the execution of his uncle, Jang Song-thaek who, with his wife, had avuncularly taken the young Kim under his wing as he ascended to the leadership, guiding and encouraging  him, before he became strangely persona non grata when Kim appeared to view him as an adversarial threat. 

Even his half-brother Kim Jong-nam was not immune to suspicion as a possible usurper of Kim's place as supreme leader. So a rather awkward and amateurish plot to assassinate him with the lethal VX nerve agent was carried out in 2017. Academics studying his regime of 'benevolent' dictatorship give him credit for modernizing state television programming, for introducing economic reforms, and for inclusion in his speeches of the 'people'.

North Korea continues to be a hermit kingdom, one engrossed in building a nuclear stockpile, catering to the neuroses and paranoia of a man fascinated by military weapons of mass destruction and seeing no reason whatever why his impoverished nation should possess such weapons to prove to the world what a global power it represents. While during the pandemic the nation's rudimentary health care system is close to buckling.

 

KCNA