"The U.S. has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action." 

"Space control encapsulates the mission area required to contest and control the space domain -- employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities."

"These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes." 

U.S. Space Force spokesperson

US Space Command has announced it has put weapons in space for the first time. (Reuters: US Space Command/Christopher DeWitt)

 

"[The] weaponization of outer space turning it into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there [must be avoided at all costs]."

"We urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space."

Guo Jiakun, Foreign Ministry, China 

 

"[Space must be kept] free of any weapons."

"We are counting on broad international consolidation to continue working toward the complete demilitarization of space."

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman, Kremlin, Russia

The US Space Force's deployment will likely provoke other countries to follow suit, experts warn. (Reuters: Mike Blake

 

American authorities unceasingly portray China and Russia as aggressors worldwide. And the truth is, they have proven themselves to be just that, in their focus on territorial expansion and their willingness to author conflicts to gain their goals. Russia for the time being, more obviously prepared to declare war by any other descriptions which ends up killing tens of thousands of civilians and military alike. China's forte has been on the commercial side, with loans to developing nations for vital infrastructure, making for indebtedness, just as it has succeeded in becoming the global colossus of manufacturing, stripping it from the West, providing cheaper alternatives to a welcoming marketplace. 

 

Taiwan awaits the inevitable from China in Beijing's long march toward 'unification' where war is not ruled out to achieve its intentions. Although the United States has been the leader in space exploration, China has been close behind, landing a rover on the far side of the moon and acquiring valuable samples to answer astronomical questions of Earth's evolution even as the U.S. looks further into the universe to decipher its origins and creation. Russia was first in space exploration with Sputnik, falling behind ever since.

 

China is among the countries with its own space ambitions. (Reuters: China Daily)

 

International cooperation with the long-shared Space Station that temporarily housed both Russian and U.S. astronauts and scientific experiments, worked well as long as it lasted, but a resurgence in American pride and status as the world's sole superpower urges it forward continually to distinguish itself from its competitors seeking similar status and recognition. And then there is India which has also convincingly demonstrated that the world's most populous country is also capable of great scientific engineering feats in outer space.  

"The only difference is that the U.S. used to keep it ambiguous, whereas now it has gone public, which shows that Washington is no longer trying to hide it."

"China will not stand by and do nothing."

"Whether China deploys weapons in space will depend entirely on whether the United States moves in that direction."

Song Zhongping, independent military commentator, Hong Kong 

U.S. Space Force Guardians assigned to Space Delta 5 monitor computer workstations at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S., December 18, 2025. U.S. Space Forces/David Dozoretz/Handout via REUTERS

 

The sensitive issue of the militarization of space is a troubling one. The very thought of these national powers developing the methodology and structures involved in producing space weaponry to challenge each other's military aspirations beyond the confines of Earth is bedeviling beyond measure, representing a failure of human willingness to respect parameters beyond which none should seek to venture. The executive branch of national politics and their elite military counterparts see no reason to curtail their ambitions.

 

That life on Earth will become more fraught with existential challenges while the heavens above are wracked with powerfully destructive weapons of mass annihilation, particularly at a time when artificial intelligence is being worked to contribute to the functions of design, manufacture, scheduling and  schemes of alpha conquest and control, risking at the same time the eventual autonomous devolution of AI estimating that humankind has failed its own test of humanity, and that it is time for a higher intelligence that is not human to make its mark, adds substantially to 'what could conceivably go wrong'.

 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches a classified payload for the United States Space Force at Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2024. Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

 

Neither the advance toward the militarization of space, nor that which continues to further develop artificial intelligence capabilities beyond the capacity of human ingenuity to control can be of any benefit to humanity, and indeed has the potential to end humanity. That the United States of America under the controlling mind and hand of a a megalomaniac for whom caution is a difficult-to-spell word and a concept he will not recognize, as his whims and arrogance disrupt human relations and nation-to-nation coherence is no shrugging matter.  

"There is a regulatory vacuum because Article 4 of the 1967 treaty only forbids weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in orbit."

"Moscow and Beijing have been wanting to work for about 20 years on a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in space [while] western states are trying instead to work on the notion of responsible behaviour."

"The U.S. announcement will likely give impetus to the restrictive approach that Moscow and Beijing are pushing for." 

Laetitia Cesari, space law expert  

The US military's unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, pictured at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, the US in 2025. — Reuters/

 

"Norway now finds itself in the most serious security situation since 1945."

"[Svalbard has for too long been seen by nations as a place where] everyone who wants to can come up and do almost whatever they want."

"That's not the fact. This is Norwegian sovereign territory. So we're making that a bit clearer."

Eivind Vad Petersson State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway 

The Svalbard Archipelago   Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

 

Following World War 1, Norway's claim to the Arctic archipelago and its islands was officially recognized. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 banned the presence of activity linked to the military while granting all other nations choosing to sign on to the agreed-upon treaty access to hunting, fishing, mining and land ownership. Over the years, close to fifty countries added their names to the treaty which allowed them access.

 

Of late, studies of the geology of Svalbard and the ocean floor surrounding it have identified vast amounts of copper, zinc, cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements buried in the ocean floor. These are eagerly-sought-after minerals that power electric car battery technologies and wind turbines. It was  generally taken that the Svalbard Treaty granted signatories rights to its surrounding seas and seabed. Until January 2024 when Norway's governing party announced it would pursue deep-sea mineral exploration in an enormous sweep of its seabed.

 

The remote, frigid island, viewed as hostile to human life on a prolonged basis where minus 34 Celsius temperatures were not unknown, were initially home to Norwegian miners and Russian fur trappers. Longyearbyen, Svalbard's largest town, these days boasts candlelit restaurants, hotels, daily flights to the mainland, and is home to 2,500 people from 50 countries. According to the town's mayor, a surge in investment, official visits and strategic attention has recently focused on Svalbard.

 

 

Recently, the Energy Ministry of Norway publicly declared that Norway's goal in exploiting the natural geology of the area had a defined purpose; the goal of "profitable and sustainable" pursuit of seabed minerals, including the seabed around Svalbard. As Norway moves toward consolidating its sovereign rule over the island, its attitude toward foreigners and civil rights has hardened. Foreigners since 2021 were able to cast a vote in the political arena. 

 

That changed when authorities declared that voting in local elections would be off limits to foreigners living on Svalbard if they had not lived on Norway's mainland for the previous three years. "Should have been done a long time ago", said Mr. Petersson. The Svalbard Treaty guaranteed "equal access, not equal rights", he said, pointing out that in other countries foreigners are not given the right to vote. 

 

Svalbard is located about 800 kilometers from the North Pole, one of the only places on Earth where instant connection is possible with polar-orbiting satellites, leading to uninterrupted, clearer feeds and faster downloading speeds; more advantageous than anywhere else on the planet. In fact SvalSat, the world's largest satellite downloading station is based on Svalbard. 

 

Telecommunications domes of KSAT, Kongsberg Satellite Services, on a mountain near Longyearbyen. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images 

Fur traders from the Pomor region in northwestern Russia arrived at Svalbard some 300 years ago. The Soviets established several coal mining towns in Svalbard a century ago and had signed the Treaty. Of the mining towns, only one, Barentsburg, remains and still operates minimally. Once there was a population of 1,000, now reduced to around 300. One Russian official claimed the archipelago should be renamed the "Pomor Islands".

 

A powerful radar system monitoring space weather and the atmosphere is at the service of Chinese scientists. Data gathered from this equipment have been shared with the China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, a Chinese defense organization. Members of the U.S. House Select Commission on the Chinese Communist Party are convinced China is performing military research on Svalbard in defiance of the Treaty proscription. 

 

Outside the Yellow River Station where the Chinese scientists live a pair of granite lions stands guard.  

Norway ordered the Chinese to remove the lions, each of which weighs 900 kilograms, installed 20 years ago when the Chinese government agents arrived on Svalbard. For the first time last summer, the archipelago's sole university,   the University Center, operated by the Norwegian government, barred entry to Chinese students, identified by Norwegian intelligence agencies as a potential security risk. 

 

Criticisms of China's activities represent "nothing but distortion of facts and groundless speculation", according to officials at the the Chinese Embassy in Norway. As for the lions standing guard, they continue to remain where they were placed two decades earlier. 

"While the Russian geopolitical threat remains paramount, Chinese encroachments facilitated by an isolated Russia may complicate the Arctic security landscape in the longer term. The coast guard agencies of Russia and China recently signed a cooperation agreement on strengthening maritime law enforcement to great fanfare in Murmansk, a city on Russia’s western flank close to Norway."

"Moreover, when all other Arctic coast guard agencies suspended their participation in the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, Russia invited China to join the forum—clear signs of China’s expanding presence in the High North."

"As Iris A. Ferguson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for arctic and global resilience, has put it, Chinese efforts aim “to normalize its presence and pursue a larger role in shaping Arctic regional governance and security affairs.”"

Center for Strategic and International Studies  

The world’s northernmost Lenin statue looks over the abandoned Russian city of Pyramiden on Svalbard, summer 2018. Photo: Alina Bykova

 

"One could argue that we've lost that unifying sense of right and wrong."

"The very sense of [the] liberal, permissive, non-judgmentally embracing society that our countries were fundamentally founded on is now being openly exploited for the purpose  of reshifting the balance." 

Former Vice-Chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, Mark Norman

 

"Symbolic politics has never been sufficient, it is a sign of weak leadership. Condemnations without enforcement, statements without consequences and gestures without policy are not leadership."

"Canadians do not need additional legislation layered over existing statutes. We need the consistent application of the laws already in force.e"

"Canada is lost and no longer immune. A nation cannot remain open if it forgets how to be a nation. The choice is not between tolerance and cohesion. It is between a confident pluralism anchored in shared civic norms, and a politics of endless accommodation that dissolves the very framework that makes diversity possible."

Larry Maher, CEO, Exigent Foundation

Anti-Israel protesters block a downtown Toronto street to pray as police watch. Photo by Caryma Sa’d/X

 

It took no more than a  decade to fundamentally alter Canada, reverse many of its values, not the least the outstanding human right assurance of equality and rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. With that assurance came the expected responsibility of each member of society to respect the social contract that ensured equal opportunities (if not equal outcomes) to succeed and prosper for Canadian citizens who obeyed Canadian laws and whose experience in the general education system helped them to understand their citizen obligations to the country. 

 

In an earlier era those rights and obligations were unevenly applied and issues of discrimination against minority groups reflected a European heritage of entitlement and belittlement of the exotic 'others' who had made their way into North America, many as refugees fleeing persecution and conflict. Under moderately good governance evinced by leaders who at best understood their own guiding obligations to the people they served, laws were passed that ushered Canada into an era of fair justice and social cohesion.

 

Migrants from abroad who entered Canada in the first half of the 20th century as immigrants from impoverished backgrounds to make a home for themselves in a new country where opportunities abounded worked hard, obeyed laws, and accommodated themselves to a new culture with values that suited their own notions of being and belonging. Canadian authorities refined immigration rules to eventually reflect Canada's needs in a point system that rewarded education, professional qualifications, age suitability and an assessed philosophical fit.

 

A succession of Liberal governments in more recent times gradually morphed toward the kind of liberal progressivism that loosened qualifications and requirements of suitability to join the Canadian population. Sympathy for people searching for haven from authoritarian governments, from endemic poverty, from societal crime rates, from conflict zones opened the gates of entry to Canada wide, including the refugee class and illegal migrants who bypassed normal entrance procedures to declare themselves refugees. 

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, is greeted by Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, centre, as he arrives in Doha on Jan. 18. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

 

The intake swelled, fulfilling what government and business leaders professed to be a need to replace an aging, low-child-bearing population with new recruits to build Canada's working population. Entry to the country no longer relied on screening for adaptability and suitability for integration into the prevailing culture, its values and its laws. To the point where landed immigrants and new citizens openly declared their defiance of those values and accompanying laws, bringing havoc and division and open discrimination to the very streets of the cities throughout the country where they settled in influential numbers.

 

Newcomers to the country felt no loyalty to the country that had adopted them and there were no expectations from government that they should integrate and accept the prevailing social order as it was. Instead religious and ideological divisions erupted and with no amending reaction from government and institutions at any level, those divisions deepened, becoming more publicly expressed, including through deliberate acts of law-breaking.   

 

Canadians of long standing were treated to displays of overt challenges to the  public order in universities and cultural institutions where mass protests took to the streets, bringing foreign campaigns, conflicts, ideological convictions averse to Canada's own, to the fore, with no government intervention at any level. All the while Canada congratulated itself as a bastion of liberal democracy. Politicians rather than applying themselves to Canada's and its populations' defense, eyeing the numbers of voluble protests and the votes they represented, chose appeasement of activist groups.

 

Canadian PM Mark Carney : China's President Xi Jinping AP

 

And from the outside world, lax attention to the actions of foreign powers that invaded Canada's sovereignty through the infiltration of foreign agents acting on their behalf on the social, academic and political levels exercised the 'soft power' of authoritarian regimes and of extremist movements, effectively interfering in Canada's politics as well as the social contract unique to Canada. Russia, China, Iran, 
Qatar, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood all have made an indelible impact within Canada with their malign presence. 

 

The moral, institutional foundations of Canada's principles of equality and human rights have been assailed by Islamist, Marxist, socialist and other radical engagements in destabilizing Canada, as well as other Western nations they have entered both legally and under the radar. What all these Western nations appear to have in common is an attitude of oblivious disinterest in the interference and subtle changes being wrought in normalizing abnormal social behaviour and its effect on their institutions.

 

The exploitation of liberal societies, priding themselves on their Democratic principles of inclusion appear willing to accept the slow erosion of their adherence to the public weal rather than risk being labelled racist, exclusionary or 'Islamophobic'. Identity politics, moral relativism, and DEI guide governments content to do nothing in response to the unravelling of their nations' stability and social coherence. If there is a solution to Western democracies' inaction in the face of this dilemma, it has not yet shown its face. 

 

Canadian universities have seen a surge of pro-Palestinian protests following similar demonstrations across North America.  University Affairs

 

Canada, Infiltrated by Foreign Agents

"Unlike some of its allies, Canada lacks a transparent mechanism to ensure the public is informed about attempts by foreign entities to influence Canadian political and governmental processes. As a result, foreign principals and their proxies can secretly seek to shape Canadian decisions and public opinion."

"Some activities by foreign entities are carried out secretly or in a non-transparent manner, often using proxies and tactics such as spreading misinformation."

"Non-transparent foreign influence activities that aim to affect political and governmental processes for the undisclosed benefit of a foreign power undermines Canada's sovereignty and democracy."

Federal government document on a Foreign Agent Registry

 

"If that's accurate, it means a scale of influence that's already significant."

"A registry of that size only matters if it leads to enforcement, and it raises real capacity concerns." 

"I worry about managed compliance rather than deterrence of a counter-intelligence threat."

Dennis Molinaro, intelligence analyst, author: Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China's Secret War Against Canada 

The Peace Tower is seen on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

 

According to the federal government's own estimates close to 2,500 businesses or people are in Canada surreptitiously acting on behalf of foreign states for the purpose of directly influencing local politics and governments. They would all be required to register publicly under regulations linked to a long-awaited foreign agent registry. A tool that was expected to be fully operational a year ago, still awaiting the appointment of a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner who would be tasked with overseeing the registry.

 

Business and individuals would have to provide data describing the work they perform on behalf of and at the behest of a foreign government, meant to influence Canadian politics and governments. Penalties have been proposed ranging from $50 to $1 million imposed on foreign agents failing to respect registration rules. The document itself estimates that 1,550 businesses and 872 individuals will be required to declare foreign influence activities targeting Canada. 

 

Democratic allies such as the U.S., U.K., France and Australia set the standard in public registries for foreign agents; Canada has not yet recognized the absolute necessity to follow suit, the Liberal government taking its time to join them in this critical exercise. It is well known and has been proven that foreign agents abound in Canada representing the interests of China, Iran, Russia, and India. Members of Iran's IRGC are known to be resident in Canada, harassing Iranian-Canadians. Mainland Chinese agents in Canada track and threaten Chinese-Canadians hostile to the CCP. Russian agents are known to spread false and misleading new stories, among other issues.

 

Canada's Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree  

 

Canada is also known as a conduit for money-laundering benefiting countries and groups hostile to Canada and its democratic values. In sum total, countries from everywhere on the globe, many falling under a non-hostile category, conduct foreign influence sorties in Canada. It is those countries who secretly seek influence among Canadians and the country's democratic institutions with the use of illegitimate means such as disinformation and misinformation that the registry will track. 

 

A year and a half ago Parliament passed a bill that promised the creation of a public registry of agents working for a foreign government. It is only in this new year that a 30-day consultation period will proceed to finalize a registry. And even then until a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner has been appointed, the registry cannot be implemented. An appointed commissioner would be responsible for hiring staff and implementing a secure IT protocol for the public registry. 

 

The truth of the matter is that Canada under the Liberal government fails to take the matter of foreign influence in the country seriously. The most challenging and threatening foreign predator in Canada is the Chinese Communist Party. Its influence within the Chinese community, manipulating the voting patterns of those loyal to Beijing is a direct interference in the sovereignty of the country. Yet the Liberal government itself is well infiltrated by Chinese influencers at every level. 

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to travel to Beijing next week, accompanied by Liberal Member of Parliament Michael Ma, to meet with China's President Xi Jinping on outstanding trade issues. The issue of interference in Canadian affairs will certainly not be raised, nor would the harassment of Chinese-Canadians become an issue between the two premiers.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney embraces Michael Ma, Member of Parliament for Markham-Unionville, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals hours earlier, at the Liberal caucus holiday party in Ottawa, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

 

"The things they said were plausible and they were consistent with more than 15 years of engagement with China, Russia and Iran. [But] not everything that they claimed by showing a satellite image was necessarily proven by that image... It's not nothing, but I don't regard it as a significant 'Ah-hah!"

"Venezuela now for literally more than two decades has been one of the biggest strategic challenges to the U.S. To me the drugs the U.S. is currently going after are only the tip of the iceberg of a broader, longtime, multi-dimensional threat."

Dr. Even Ellis, research professor, U.S. Army War College 

 

"There were several times when I was confounded by what he [Lee Wheelbarger, former U.S. army technology developer] presented to me, and then it  blew my mind when I validated it was accurate: 'Holy crap, OK, cool'."

"One thing I've learned is he's not going to put his word on the line unless he feels he can back it up. He will substantiate everything he has."

Michael Torres, retired U.S. air force colonel

Satellite show images of Trump's strike on Venezuelan neighbourhoods, The Independent 

 

According to Dr. Ellis of the Army War College, military ties that Venezuela has with Russia, China and Iran are of long standing. Venezuela purchased $12 billion in defence materiel from Russia starting in 2006 that was inclusive of a fleet of Sukhoi-30 fighter jets, helicopters, numerous S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and armed vehicles. A Russian fleet of war-vessels visited both Cuba and Venezuela last year. At least 27 of its K-8 fighters have been supplied to Venezuela by China, along with radars and associated equipment, while the Republic of Iran sourced Venezuela with a number of fast-attack boats, trained Venezuelan special forces members and collaborated on the production of drones. 

 

Intelligence experts are mulling over a report arguing that satellite images reveal a launch site in Venezuela that has the potential to aim ballistic missiles at Washington, D.C., produced by a group of amateur intelligence analysts. The report was released just prior to the dead-of-night surprise American military raid that captured Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, taking them back to the United States to stand trial in New York for drugs and weapons charges deemed to be criminal offences in the United States, but not necessarily in Venezuela.

 

Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026, in New York City. Photo by XNY/Star Max /GC Images

 

According to the group's report, it was in fact, not drugs but military developments in Venezuela alongside Russian, Chinese and Iranian troops stationed nearby that persuaded the Trump administration to make their strike, despite that the U.S. military dismissed that contention as "speculative". "I don't think it [scooping up the Venezuelan president and his wife] has a damn thing to do with the drug boats. I think the drug boats are completely irrelevant. That's an excuse", stated Lee Wheelbarger, who led the group investigation whose findings, including a video compilation of satellite picture were presented to a defence-oriented think tank meeting, the Mackenzie Institute, in Toronto.

 

A spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command covering South America contended that the organization makes no comments on "speculative reporting or unverified premises. Our mission remains focused on supporting regional stability, combating illicit activities, and working with our partners to address shared security challenges". Yet according to a Russian lawmaker, Russia considered supplying its new Oreshnik ballistic missiles to Venezuela, requested by Nicolas Maduro along with other equipment from Russia, China and Iran.

 

It has been confirmed that Venezuela has close military ties with the three countries, as well as with Hezbollah out of Lebanon, the Iranian proxy militia. The images collected by Wheelbarger's group and the analyses produced led to conclusions explaining the sudden midnight action by the U.S. against Venezuela. Action culminated from the threatening appearance of American warships, including an aircraft carrier patrolling the region, even as the U.S. destroyed dozens of boats claiming they were carrying drugs to end up in the United States. Deadly incidents decried as extrajudicial executions by those purportedly involved in drug trafficking who would normally face arrest and trial.

 

Wheelbarger, for several years a senior technologist with the U.S. army -- was a contractor developing night-vision equipment, communications gear and an advanced technological protocol enabling battlefield medics to transmit images to military hospitals, and then receive instructions on a video display -- was lauded  with claims that "Wheelbarger's electronic creations have extended the eyes and ears of America's intelligence network", by the History Channel's Modern Marvels program, in 1999. 

 

According to the man himself, he engages in the collection of publicly available images from 28 satellites operated by Maxar Technologies, Planet Labs, Airbus Defence and Space, BlackSky, Capella Space,     ICEYE, SkyFi, European Space Imaging, Apollo Mapping, Satellite Imaging Corp., and L3 Harris Geospatial; also accessing images from ground cameras, along with another video method that remained unexplained, to glean information from global human sources. He possesses three-dimensional  renderings of military hardware that can be placed over satellite images to match shape and size aiding in identifying specific equipment. 

 

A clearing on a mountain near Caracas, Venezuela that a group of private intelligence analysts says shows three rows of missile "tubes" that could be the launch sites for intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Photo by Lee Wheelbarger

 

In his Toronto presentation video he identifies images close to Caracas including a Russian base complete with 94 T-72 and T-74 tanks. Impressively, he points to a mountain hollowed out in the creation of a subterranean military complex with openings cut into the hill surrounded by rebar suggesting creation of a massive concrete facade with "millions of cubic yards" of excavated dirt piled nearby. The mountainside features an area with three parallel, straight lines of holes which Wheelbarger and  his colleagues identify as tubes to fire intermediate-range ballistic missiles from, basing their theory on matching underground launch sites located in Iran.

 

Jeff Nyquist, writer and geopolitics blogger who collaborates with Wheelbarger, notes that intermediate-range missiles could reach north to the U.S. capital. The Cuban airfield images cigar-shaped objects at a runway's end, identified by the analysts as Kitchen missiles. Russian weapons travelling at almost five times the speed of sound that can destroy naval ships, usually fired from aircraft, generally the Tu-22 bomber, not seen in the images, but readily disassembled and smuggled into Cuba on larger cargo planes, according to Wheelbarger. 

 

A stun­ning U.S. raid to cap­ture Venezuela’s pres­id­ent came after a group of ama­teur intel­li­gence ana­lysts argued that satel­lite images reveal a Venezuelan launch site that could send bal­listic mis­siles as far north as Wash­ing­ton, D.C.  National Post

 

U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS)

"[European allies risk] civilizational erasure [as a result of their migration and free speech policies]."

"[Economic stagnation in Europe] is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure."

"[Ending the war in Ukraine is a core U.S. interest to] reestablish strategic stability with Russia." 

"[Europe is enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birthrates], censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition [along with a] loss of national identities and self-confidence."

"Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies. Many of these nations are currently doubling down on their present path. We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence." 

"[As for the Middle East], America's misguided experiment with hectoring [countries in the Middle East, especially monarchies in the Gulf, about their traditions and forms of government]."

"[The Arab nations are] emerging as a place of partnership, friendship, and investment. We should encourage and applaud reform when and where it emerges organically, without trying to impose it."

"[The U..S. strategy] is motivated above all by what works for America -- or, in two words, 'America First'."

U.S. National Security Strategy 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at an event in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Trump's new national security strategy was welcomed by Moscow, according to a Kremlin spokesperson on Sunday. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press)

 

"The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision."

"[The current U.S. administration is] fundamentally different from the previous ones." 

"President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision."  

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Spokesman  

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.(Sergei Ilnitsky/The Associated Press)

 

"This NSS is a real, painful, shocking wake-up call for Europe. It is a moment of cavernous divergence between Europe’s view of itself and Trump’s vision for Europe."

"If Europe had any doubt that the Trump administration is fully committed to a tough love strategy, it now knows for sure. The administration is asking—demanding, really—that Europe polices its own part of the world and, most importantly, pays for it itself."

"The most worrying parts of the strategy are the ones that chastise Europe for losing its European character. The sentiment behind the words seems to stoke fear of migrants and an adherence to an idealized, old-world Europe that is questionable at best. Modern Europe is vibrant, evolving, and—largely—pretty happy."

"The majority of Europe’s reaction to this NSS is likely to be the same aghast shock as met Vice President JD Vance’s Munich speech."

Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) 

Released on Friday, the Trump administration's new national security strategy will give no comfort whatever to its heretofore allies in Europe, while Russia has already expressed its cautious pleasure, and China will be satisfied to an extent; Latin America has more to puzzle over, and the Middle East will feel somewhat gratified and no little relieved, for the most part. America's erstwhile partners in Europe stand to wallow in discomfort and uncertainty, not quite recognizing its place in this new America First reality imposed upon the world.

 

A disconcerting pivot from the role of controlling, stabilization empire of the globe to a new hands-off policy which allows other nations the pleasure of going it alone when it comes to stability and self-defense. With the second election/administration of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States of America a new world order came into effect. On the other hand, Mr. Trump remains dedicated to 'peace' and peace-making, still counting on the Nobel Committee to come to its senses in 2026 -- which hasn't given it pause in striking 'terrorist' boats in the Caribbean Sea trafficking drugs to the U.S.

 

This is a document required by law that the administration must release; and it presents a break from former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration's course of intent which implemented a campaign to reverse Mr. Trump's first administration's trajectories. In brokering an end to the four-year-stagnant conflict in Ukraine, the first shock was the virtual abandonment of Ukraine's sovereign rights and a surprise embrace of Moscow's territorial imperative. An end to the war is not designed to liberate Ukraine but rather to consolidate a rapprochement with Russia.

 

As for America's European allies, their intransigence in supporting Ukraine and expecting the United States to continue the previous administration's commitment to that end, has left those expectations adrift and discombobulated. Trump's position in a drive to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia", when Europe's concerns are the Kremlin's yearning to restore the Soviet bloc to its former glory and NATO is stuck in a position of unease when its member-states are forced to cope with mysterious drones flying over their airports and military bases, flounders with its most powerful ally scorning its utility.

 

Jewish population of greater New York reaches 1.4 million. JNS

 

The United States, of course, faces no issues of immigration/migrant/refugee instability where Congress is faced with elected Representatives from Somalia and 'Palestine' backgrounds along with other Muslim Arab-Americans whose loyalties to the United States are not always evident. The U.S. 'melting pot' has installed imams in mosques whose Friday sermons don't exactly praise democracy and love of their fellow-man. New York electing an avowed Socialist, Muslim extremist whose contempt for America's ally in the Middle East has him broadcasting his intention to 'arrest' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he come to New York City, the major home of Jewish-Americans.

 

The world at large is extremely well aware of the presence of Donald J. Trump in the White House. It is still reeling from the economic blows of trading with the United States where former free-trade agreements have been swept into the dust heap of the past as economy-crippling tariffs have taken their place. The sovereignty of nations called into question when U.S. national security under Mr. Trump eyes Greenland and Canada as potential extensions of the United States. It's Mr. Trump's very own version of How to Win Friends and Influence People.  

J.D. Vance and Donald Trump   Getty Images

"That strategic clarity is entirely missing from the new NSS, which is more polemic than policy. The north star of great power competition with China and Russia—around which the first Trump administration built bipartisan consensus—is gone."

"Rather than describing the scope and scale of China’s systemic challenge to the United States and our allies and partners, the 2025 NSS makes clear that economics are “the ultimate stakes.” The new paramount objective of Washington’s China policy is a “mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing.” 

"The discussion of Russia is mealymouthed at best: The document declines to characterize the threat Moscow poses to U.S. interests. It instead opts for the bizarre formulation, “many Europeans regard Russia as an existential threat.” 

"And while the 2017 NSS highlighted Iran and North Korea as second-tier threats, the new NSS does not mention North Korea at all and downplays the danger posed by Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer."

"Vance’s speech in Munich could have been interpreted back in February as the ideological views of just the vice president and parts of the radical MAGA base. But now, these views have become the administration’s official policy, which will only accelerate Europe’s efforts to hedge against the United States and to build up its own autonomy."

Council on Foreign Relations  

The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, seen from the air in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)

  

Canadian Security Intelligence Service Report

"Worryingly, nearly one in ten terrorism investigations at CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] now includes at least one subject of investigation under the age of 18."

"Fortunately, only a small number of youth or adults with extreme views resort to violence. But when they do the consequences are devastating."

"[CSIS has helped to disrupt 24] violent extremist actions [that led to arrests of terrorism peace bond charges in just over three years]." 

"[Our agency is focusing more resources on] particularly alarming [cases involving plots by Iranian intelligence to repress -- and sometimes kill -- critics and dissidents of the regime in Canada]."

"In more than one case, this involved detecting, investigating and disrupting potentially lethal threats against individuals in Canada." 

CSIS Director Daniel Rogers 

Dan Rogers appears at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions hearings, in Ottawa. (Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press)

Young people in Canada, warns the director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service, are increasingly radicalized online, resulting in rising violent extremism, markedly among those under 18 years of age. Motivated to extremism by a variety of ideologies among which are antisemitism, xenophobia, misogyny 'extreme interpretations' of religion or accelerationism [an inclination to accelerate the collapse of society], spreading with the momentum of social media's vast influence.

 

Teens and even children appear more susceptible to believing what they see and hear online; the allure and excitement of the socially forbidden; violent extremism seems like an adventure to their immature minds, drawing them into a never-ending cycle of the ever-increasing volume of viciously anti-social tropes. Speaking before an audience of government and police officials, academics and reporters in his first annual speech, Mr. Rogers attested to his increasing concern of the spread of extremism within the Canadian public.

 

A minor in Montreal was arrested, alleged to be planning an attack for Daesh (Islamic State); another, a 15-year-old in Edmonton suspected by police of planning to commit attacks on behalf of an online transnational violent group. 60 people have been injured, 29 killed in Canada in the past 11 years as a result of some attacks that were carried out before they could be apprehended. Many more were disrupted with the intelligence assistance CSIS provided. 

"Chinese spies have tried to recruit Canadians with access to government plans, intentions, information and military expertise, through social media and online job platforms."

"Both of those countries [China and Russia], and others, have a significant intelligence interest in our Arctic and those who influence or develop its economic or strategic potential."

"It's no surprise, then, that CSIS has observed both cyber and non-cyber intelligence collection efforts targeting both governments and the private sector in the region."

"CSIS will be challenged to adopt technology and use data in new and more significant ways to keep Canadians safe and to secure an advantage for Canada."

CSIS Director Daniel Rogers 

 CSIS assisted in the arrest of two 15-year-olds in Ottawa, plotting to commit a mass casualty attack against the Jewish community. Information leading to the arrest of a man planning a Daesh-inspired attack on the New York Jewish community saw CSIS contributing important information. China's reputation for spying on Canada to appropriate state, military and intellectual property continues unabated. Chinese agents entering Canada, he pointed out, increasingly target the private sector. While both China and Russia engage aggressively for more intelligence and influence in the Canadian Arctic. 

 

Canadian soldiers prepare for a surveillance mission in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, as part of the annual Operation Nanook on Sept. 6. The exercise sees the small team inserted onto a remote mountain top with no additional support, honing their survival skills for multiple days. (David Common/CBC)

"Non-Arctic states, including the People’s Republic of China, seek to gain a strategic and economic foothold in the region. Russia, an Arctic state with a significant military presence in the region, remains unpredictable and aggressive." 

"National governments are still targeted for sensitive intelligence, military and economic secrets but so too are corporations and other levels of government whose data, technological innovations, influence and access to resources can shift the balance of advantage." 

"We benefit greatly from intelligence and security sharing by the United States, and we contribute back, So I think it’s still strong."

"Today, while the goals are similar, the targets are more varied. Some of the world’s most advanced and emergent technology is now held by private sector and academic institutions."

CSIS Director Daniel Rogers 

The Chinese vessel Xue Long, seen here in East Antarctica, is believed to be dual purpose, meaning it’s primary role is research but what it surveils can also be used for Chinese military purposes. (Andrew Peacock/Reuters)

That Eureka! Moment

"We are already in the midst of a three-way arms race among Russia the United States, and China."

"A resumption in testing of nuclear warheads would make this unstable situation worse, possibly far worse."

William Hartung, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

 

"By foolishly announcing his intention to resume nuclear testing, Trump will trigger strong international opposition that could unleash a chain reaction of nuclear testing y U.S. adversaries and blow apart the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty."

Daryl Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association

 

"The only one who would benefit from nuclear warhead testing would be China, because they haven't done as many as Russia and the U.S."

"[As far as  nuclear weapons themselves], everything is done now through computational testing."

"The U.S. is far ahead of Russia and China on how much data it has from this, so it really doesn't need it at the moment [explosive testing]."

"None of them actually want to return to testing, but because they're thinking the other is preparing for testing, then that's how we end up testing."

"So that's the big risk involved at the moment."

Doreen Horschig, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

A mushroom cloud rises from a test blast at the Nevada test site on June 24, 1957.

US Energy Department/AP

 

"First of all, every statement in that post [President Trump's musing statement on his social media site, Truth Social] is wrong."

"It’s not true the United States has the world’s most nuclear weapons. It’s not true that other states are carrying out nuclear tests."

"[Trump] seems to think it’s the Department of Defense that carries out nuclear tests. It’s not. It’s the Department of Energy."

Matthew Bunn, nuclear weapons expert, Harvard University 

 

"Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosive test, so I’m not reading anything into it or reading anything out."

"[The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation defines nuclear tests as] generally controlled explosions of [a] nuclear device, such as bombs or warheads [and Russia’s missile and torpedo tests do not meet that strict definition]."

U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Richard Correll 

Photo: CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images

Once again, U.S. President Donald Trump's casual musing and extemporaneously-impulsive decision-making is turning incredulous heads in disbelief, shocking supporters and critics alike, and cutting like a buzzsaw through the corridors of international political diplomacy. This is a man who likes to keep people on their toes, a man who doesn't mind that what erupts from his mind and mouth is not particularly true, nor his decisions based on his warped perspectives creating blinding headaches for other world leaders; worth it all, and more, for the attention he garners. Attention that is proof-positive of the exalted political position he holds as the commanding, demanding most powerful man at the helm of the world's sole super-power.

 

What emerges from his mind and his mouth emits are his truths and if they're his truths then everyone must pay due attention and with it the homage he craves. Do otherwise and the wrath of this demi-God knows no bounds; his decisions can make and break the most carefully guarded quality of a nation's possessions; its economic health and security. While saying in one breath that he abhors conflicts and human death, he embarks on his own special eradication gambit, a 'war on terror' focusing on Venezuela and authorizing U.S. military assets to blow fishing boats out of the water in his measure of illustrating conflict/death.

 

U.S. testing, he announced, of nuclear warheads would commence "immediately", while on the other hand musing about the dire necessity of prolonging non-proliferation agreements for the good of humanity. It is not beyond reasonable to imagine the consequences that might ensue from his impulse of resuming nuclear tests; the risk of an expanded arms race becomes a huge potential. Nor that he announced his firm intention to proceed instanter comes at a time when internaional arms control has become wobbly.

 

If Washington's decision via its incendiary president was meant to match the positions taken by Beijing and Moscow, the president's decision would logically have been to remain wary in the realization that those he considers adversaries have the potential to resume nuclear testing, yet have chosen to refrain from so doing, in favour of continuing to honour the non-proliferation agreements they signed. Claiming that he authorized nuclear testing "on an equal basis" with Moscow and Beijing, is just Trump being Trump, take-it-or-leave-it. 

 

He has no realization that his 'immediate' decision itself cannot be implemented 'immediately'; it would take years of preparation before such resumption could take place, after a hiatus of decades. But it most certainly would spur Beijing and Moscow to rush to engage their own capabilities in a match with Washington's. All three of these world powers have in the interim engaged in testing delivery systems, not warheads; Russia's most recent of the platforms being tested appearing to have galvanized Mr. Trump's response, clearly demonstrating he cannot differentiate nuclear explosives from their delivery systems. 

 

Beijing responded politely indicating its hopes that Washington would reconsider and remain respectful ofits obligations to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and "take concrete actions to safeguard the global nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation system", while Moscow took pains to carefully describe to the American president that testing its nuclear-powered and -capable weapons did not constitute a direct test of atomic weaponry. (It's the delivery systems, stupid!)

 

The United States and Russia together represent the world's two leading nuclear powers; China is behind them in developing its nuclear arsenal but still remains far behind the other two. It was likely that last year's Pentagon warning that China is moving quickly on nuclear arms, particuraly in the development of operational warheads, that lodged itself firmly in Mr. Trump's mind; he doesn't like to be upstaged by anyone, nor that any other country reach for a position too close to that of the United States in superiority of numbers of anything.

 

The New Start arms control agreement between Washington and Mosow limits each to 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads, including a suspended verification mechanism, to expire in February2026, which Russia has proposed extending for another year. "Sounds like a good idea to me", Trump responded, without committing to anything that solid. "We are starting to work on that, a big problem for the world when you take off nuclear restrictions", he averred, in direct contradiction with the position he now takes. China's warhead total is one-third of that of Russia and the U.S.

 

And then there is the existential question, querulous but potently aware: How many warheads does it take to destroy this Earthly home we share? A minute proportion of the total, presumably. Which brings us to another question: How absurdly, dangerously pathetic can the powers that threaten our survival possibly be? Their actions, needless to say answer the second question, and until and unless a final solution is seriouisly entertained we won't know the answer to the first. And wouldn't know it in any event, since there woould be no one left to do the calculations of that Eureka! moment. 

 

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping look at each other after their summit meeting in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30, 2025. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP

"The post also comes just weeks after Putin offered to continue to observe the limits of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) if the United States reciprocated. On October 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed his “hope” that Trump would positively respond to Putin’s offer and the principles discussed at the Anchorage Summit, saying, “President Trump has repeatedly spoken positively about this initiative put forward by President Putin, so we are actually hoping that these positive reactions will be translated into some kind of official announcement.” Other than an off-handed remark by Trump that it sounded “like a good idea,” there has been no official announcement from the White House on the future of New START, which expires in February 2026 and is the last remaining bilateral strategic arms control agreement of its kind. Trump’s post could also be an effort to generate negotiating leverage with Moscow."

"Finally, the administration should also take the opportunity to clarify Trump’s statements and recommit to nuclear agreements that are in U.S. interests. Washington would be worse off if states, particularly China, return to nuclear testing, which it likely would in response to U.S. test plans. This would undermine the norm against nuclear testing and could result in a reverse normative cascade, with implications for other rules of the road, such as nuclear nonproliferation."

Heather Williams, director, Project on Nuclear Issues, senior fellow, Defense and Security Department, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.