"Antisemitism in Canada has risen sharply in recent years, as demonstrated in hate crime statistics and the lived experiences of Jews across the country. These experiences are traumatic in themselves, while often reopening deep wounds rooted in the collective memory of the Holocaust and other historical forms of oppression."

"This pernicious form of hate has existed throughout Canada’s history, from exclusionary immigration policies and formal professional restrictions in the past, to contemporary forms of hate on Canadian streets, communities and online, often driven by conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns from around the world."

"In the 1960s, a special committee on hate propaganda recognized the then relatively small and uncoordinated dissemination of hateful materials as a clear and present danger to the functioning of a democratic society. In response, Parliament enacted criminal prohibitions on hate propaganda that remain in place to this day."

"While these prohibitions remain a critical guardrail against rising hate, the means by which hatred is spread has evolved, and Canada faces new challenges that demand new solutions."

"The committee believes that hate cannot simply be legislated away and that education is the main tool to combat hate. General awareness-raising for Canadians and educating Canada’s youth about past and present forms of antisemitism are essential to our social cohesion."

"Online spaces are saturated with hate and misinformation that fuel radicalization. Antisemitism in these spaces ranges from shockingly explicit hate material to insidious and subtle forms of manipulation. These flawed media and information systems are pervasive, and too often play a critical role in shaping the minds of young people."

"At the same time, the committee heard that antisemitism is growing in various workplaces, with many witnesses highlighting medical professions and academia with particular concern. While Jewish communities share commonalities, they are not all the same, and antisemitism is experienced differently by different people, including based on how antisemitism intersects with other forms of prejudice, such as sexism."

"Antisemitism remains a clear and present danger to Canada’s free and democratic society. As several witnesses noted, historically antisemitism has often served as the prelude to other forms of hate. The committee is keenly aware of the similarities between antisemitism, sexism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, as well as the ways in which individuals can face intersectional discrimination. These prejudices undermine the social fabric of our democracy. Moreover, the possibility that these divisions can be amplified and exploited by foreign adversaries is a threat that Canada must take seriously."

Senate of Canada, Standing United Against Antisemitism 

 

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Canadian Human Rights Commission joins people across Canada and around the world in honouring the six million Jewish lives taken during the Holocaust. Today marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, which alone claimed the lives of over one million Jewish people.

We call on everyone in Canada, to stand united today — and every day — against antisemitism.

We also remember the many others targeted by Nazi persecution, including ethnic Poles, Roma and Sinti communities, Soviet civilians, 2SLGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, and political and religious dissidents.

We must never forget or deny the scale of the Holocaust, or how these horrors were allowed to happen. They were the result of deliberate state actions that normalized dehumanization, exclusion, violence and hateful rhetoric.

Canadian Human Rights Commission  

 

While conflating hate-phobias newly skyrocketing in Canada, none of which are comparable to the rate of antisemitism newly reborn out of the ashes of the Canadian past, its embers re-ignited by the last several decades of immigration, migrants and refugee intake of people from North Africa and the Middle East, bringing with them their cultural/religious traditions of Jew-hate, the Senate investigation into Canadian antisemitism on steroids fails to make a connection between the rise of Jew-hate and the presence of Muslims cultivating it. The very same committee that feels it logical to lump anti-LGBTQ attitudes and 'Islamophobia' together with antisemitism.

 

In so doing the Senate has been singing from the hymnal of the governing Liberal party, which is functionally incapable of expressing its 'regret' at the rise of antisemitism in Canada, without pairing it with a revulsion against 'Islamophobia'. Islam has earned the kind of phobia it claims is expressed against its 'religion of peace' by distinguishing itself as the single most prevalent source of terrorism worldwide. A terrorism that has stalked communities and countries as organized jihadi groups whose names, such as the Islamic State in its many guises, taking over from al-Qaeda taught the world what human butchery in the name of  'peace' through conquest is.

 

It took over17 months for fifteen members of the Senate to interview 44 witnesses respecting Canadian incidents of Jew hate that have spiked in Canada as they have elsewhere since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel of 7 October, 2023 when thousands of Palestinians, including members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah, and Hamas, accompanied by ordinary Palestinian civilians flooded into Israel on an organized, planned and pre-practised barbaric splurge of mass rape, bestiality and slaughter. 

 

Palestinian student groups have been in the forefront of organizing mass anti-Israel rallies throughout Canadian cities, of organizing university pro-Palestinian camps, of organizing marches through Jewish communities to shout 'Final Solution', 'From the River to the Sea', 'Go back to Poland!', and 'Globalize the Intifada', yet the clever minds of the Senators have been unable to put two-and-two together, unless it's the 2+2 that links antisemitism with 'Islamophobia'. In so doing, they echo the very sentiments of the federal government, and from there most provincial and municipal authorities and police services taking their cue from above. 

"The committee is keenly aware of the similarities between antisemitism, sexism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, as well as the ways in which individuals can face intersectional discrimination."  

The 73-page report does go so far as to mention 'young Canadians' radicalized by 'social media', implicating 'malicious foreign actors'. But never do they outright use the revelatory words 'Muslims' or 'Islam'. To do so would be to invite condemnation as 'Islamophobes', and we cannot have that, now can we? Canada, they recommend, must "develop and support digital literacy and social media education initiatives". To change the indoctrinated minds of those nursed on the stereotypes of those accursed Jews who have assaulted the rights of Palestinians by resurrecting their Jewish state on Judean ancestral geography.

 

They could have studied a special report out in 2025 by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism for an accurate and realistic analysis that they themselves shirked at examining, lest they arrive at a similar conclusion: "For decades, organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is also an adherent, have managed to embed themselves at all levels of Canadian society. These organizations and their radical ideologies have significant carryover effects, most notably within the academic space."  

"They [Muslim Brotherhood] basically aim to be the gatekeepers to the Muslim communities, that whenever politicians, governments or the media try to get the Muslim voice ... they would go through them."

Lorenzo Vidino, expert on Muslim Brotherhood, 2015 report to the Senate  

Adil Charkaoui's speech has drawn broad condemnation from politicians like Premier François Legault and groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. (Adil Charkaoui/X)

 

"At no point has Canada's mandate included training members of the Azov Battalion."

"We have reinforced our policy to prevent any recurrence and remain firmly opposed to Nazism, racism, and all forms of extremism while promoting human rights, and the rule of law in all international engagements."

Canada's Defence Minister David McGuinty 

 

"In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West, to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination and instruction in irregular warfare."

Soufan Center

A member of the Azov Brigade (far right) takes a break during Canadian military leadership training at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in Quebec. The training ran from Jan. 13 to Feb. 5, 2026. Photo by SUPPLIED

 

It would appear that a member of the Azov Brigade had been in training at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in Quebec from January 13 to February 5, 2026 for leadership training, according to Canadian military personnel who had made contact with an Ottawa journalist specializing in military affairs. The Azov soldier's presence raised objections by Canadian Forces personnel who immediately on realizing the situation, relayed their objections to Canadian military officials. Their objections were ignored.

 

According to Kened Sadiku, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence, Ukraine had been told explicitly not to forward members of the Azov Brigade to Canadian military training. Despite which, while identifying the presence of  the Azov soldier among the non-commissioned member leadership training program, authorities in the Canadian Forces allowed the man to continue his training.  "Given that fewer than seven days remained in the course and the individual had effectively completed the training, it was determined that the individual would be permitted to graduate."

 

A new report from an American university says far-right extremists in Ukraine’s military have bragged they received training from the Canadian Forces and other NATO nations. Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV /GETTY

 

Because of its links to the far-right and neo-Nazis, the United States Congress in 2018 banned the use of U.S. funds in providing arms, training and other assistance to the Azov Brigade. Then-U.S. President Biden in 2024 lifted the ban for Azov, considered highly effective on the battlefield, defending Ukraine from President Putin's 'special military operation'.  In recognition of the unit's far-right associations, however, the Canadian Forces had a strict policy distancing itself from the Azov Brigade.

 

DND spokesperson Nick Drescher Brown a year ago noted that First Corps Azov was an established unit incorporated within the National Guard of Ukraine under the Ministry of the Interior. "It is important to note that such meetings [as when Azov personnel met with Canadian military personnel for a "friendly and open dialogue"] do not constitute endorsement of a particular individual or organization's position or values". Previously, Canadian military officers and senior DND personnel warned of Azov's neo-Nazi links. 

 

Canadian links to Azov had "dogged us for years", noted Lt. Col. Andrew Salloum, in 2022. "It's true that Azov was brought into the NGU [National Guard of Ukraine], but we don't train them because they are fanatics and we don't share their values."  Canada's Joint Task Force Ukraine produced a briefing on the Azov in 2017 that acknowledged its links to Nazi ideology. "Multiple members of Azov have described themselves as Nazis", warned the Canadian officers in their briefing.

 

In 2020 in Ukraine, it was reported that Canadian military personnel trained both members of the Azov unit and at least one Ukrainian soldier wearing the crest of a Nazi SS unit from the Second World War. Despite that the Azov Battalion was formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military, the battalion is known to have cultivated a relationship with members of the Atomwaffen Division, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi terrorist network. 

 

A news broadcast by German ZDF station showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion with Nazi symbols on their helmets. Photo by Files /ZDF station

 

"This  unit has a history of affiliations with the far right and Nazi [elements]. What doesn't the Canadian military understand about that?"

"It's not Russian propaganda, far from it. These people are neo-Nazis."

"There is an element of the ultra-right in Ukraine and it's absurd to ignore it."

Efraim Zuroff, Israeli historian 

"None of those men, or those who served with them, would now be eligible to teach at the university named in honour of their sacrifice."

"DEI has gone too far for too long."

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney 

 

"In a 2025 study, the Aristotle Foundation examined 489 job postings issued by ten Canadian universities and found just a dozen that did not contain some element saying that candidates would be prioritized based on their race, gender or sexual identity."

"Despite this, it's still somewhat rare for a university to explicitly turn away candidates based on identarian characteristics."

"In the Aristotle Foundation study, only16 of the 489 jobs they analyzed 'discriminated against candidates based on natural, uncontrolled factors or group identity'." 

Tristin Hopper, Journalist, National Post

Aristotle Foundation

 

All University of Toronto job postings and 96 percent of Dalhousie’s mentioned or implied a candidate’s “contribution to DEI” was an asset.

McGill and the University of Saskatchewan required all applicants to complete a DEI survey.

Nearly two-thirds of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) and 55 percent of the University of Manitoba’s job postings required candidates to submit a DEI statement or essay.                Aristotle Foundation

 

The sole university in Newfoundland, founded post-World War I in St.John's in memory of the contribution made by Newfoundlanders that was outsized to their population when fully one percent of the province's males died during the First World War -- giving birth to Memorial University, which now has a policy, sponsored by the Canadian federal government, of offering academic positions in favour of LGBTQ, women, Indigenous populations given priority to members of the 'white community' regardless of academic merit.

 

Founded as a 'living memorial', job postings while containing a reminder to applicants that the school was founded on the premise of honouring white-male sacrifices defending democracy to ensure that their "cause and sacrifice might not be forgotten", while denying positions to white-male Newfoundlanders presents a conundrum of mixed messages. At the present time, five job postings come complete with itemized restrictions that effectively shut the door to 'privileged' white males. Those five jobs are exclusively limited to "women, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, Indigenous peoples, racialized persons and those with disabilities".

 

(L-R) Muna-Udbi Ali, Assistant Professor, Black Studies in Geography and Environment, Faculty of Environment and Urban Change, York University; Cornel Grey, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Western University; and Stephanie Latty, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University.

 

These five-year postings in the hard sciences for the most part, include research positions for computational biochemistry, musculoskeletal health and 'AI-driven navigation for Arctic and harsh environments'. 'Indigenous knowledge, youth and digital technology' and 'community health and substance use', make up the last two of the postings. Universities now throughout Canada post academic positions that emphasize an 'equity' component meant to advantage some identity groups over others; the favoured from the disfavoured.

 

The Canada Research Chairs Program funds all of these screened positions, a $311-million federal program that financially supports roughly 2,000 academic posts at universities across the nation. Since 2021 the funding expresses strict targets on "equity, diversity and inclusion". At the least, 22.9 percent of all academic positions funded by the program must favour "racialized" individuals, 4.9 percent Indigenous people, 7.5 percent those with disabilities, and 50.9 percent either women or trans individuals. This, in a province where 87.4 percent of the population is of European stock in comparison to 69.8 country-wide.

 

 

Those looking to find work at Canadian public universities based on their qualifications alone might be hard-pressed as a recent study found that 98% of job postings had diversity, equity and inclusion requirements. Public universities now overwhelmingly mandate DEI policies for academic jobs across Canada.  True North

 

New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Webinar on best practices in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

"NFRF expects applicants to clearly demonstrate their strong commitment to EDI in their applications and in the implementation of their research projects, if funded."

"This webinar accompanies the “Best practices in equity, diversity and inclusion in research practice and design” guide to support NFRF applicants and reviewers in achieving greater equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in their research practice and design".

"Applicants and research administrators are encouraged to attend the EDI webinars to learn more about how to integrate EDI into a research project. These webinars apply to all NFRF competitions, including special calls."

Canada.ca

Canada Research Coordinating Committee

New Frontiers in Research Fund

"When he used his title in a letter supporting a friend's, client's, or potential client's immigration application, [Kalisa] did so in an effort to increase the chances that it would be approved."

"If it was approved, and the client or potential client became able to travel to Canada to view properties, [Kalisa] could gain a personal and business advantage, whether in the short or long term."

It seems unlikely to me that that trend would continue for 13 years ... if the grievor was merely confirming to those concerned that their applications were  being processed."

"I find that it is more likely than not that he shared additional information not available to the public about the status of the applications in question."

Labour Tribunal

Photo: Bohao Zhao

 A recently published online February decision of the federal labour tribunal confirmed the firing in 2017 of a longtime Canada Border Services Agency employee, while Placide Kalisa, who was contesting  his dismissal, characterized it as discriminatory, given his ethnicity. He plans to contest his firing confirmation by filing discrimination lawsuits against the CBSA and  his former union which had refused to represent his grievance against his firing.

Placide Kalisa was found, for 13 years of his employment with the federal border services, to have accessed government databases improperly, passing confidential information on to immigration applicants, among them some who would become his clients as an after-work real estate agent. Kalisa was a senior program officer, his job was to recommend whether the agency could safely remove inadmissible foreign nationals to certain countries. 

 

Deeply connected to the Rwandan community in Canada, Kalisa had emigrated decades earlier from Rwanda, and worked as a part-time real estate agent and manager. The tribunal had found that Kalisa had committed dozens pf "worrisome" unauthorized searches of  sensitive CBSA and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada databases from 2003 to his suspension in 2016. Some of those who benefited from his illegal intervention later became his real estate clients.

 

Canada Border Services Agency patch

In the space of two months, Kalisa had searched an IRCC database on 32 occasions after a Rwandan identified in the decision as "A.K." contacted him to ask why it was that his visa application had been denied.  Once he confirmed that A.K.'s background cleared any suspicion of having been involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Kalisa undertook an invitation letter for the man and his spouse, asking a colleague to sign in his stead. 

 

Kalisa was aware that A.K.'s purpose in coming to Canada was to acquire a condominium, and his invitation letter would support the visa applicant persuasively. Indeed, Kalisa had admitted he had written invitation letters and had conducted database searches for some seven individuals at the very least; each letter identified him as a CBSA employee which his agency title made clear.

 

While Kalisa denied wrongdoing throughout the grievance process, the tribunal dismissed his explanations for his actions, terming his testimony "implausible or unpersuasive". Kalisa, who required a top-secret security clearance for his CBSA work, had somehow forgotten to inform his employer that one of his friends happened to be a suspected criminal. The Rwandan embassy had given Kalisa a list of suspected war criminals with his friend's name on it.

 

Placide Kalisa, Realtor

Because Kalisa said he was certain his friend was not a war criminal, he failed to disclose his relationship, he explained to an unimpressed tribunal. "It was not for [Kalisa] to decide whether the embassy was right or wrong to include D.N.'s name on a list of suspected war criminals ... He was obligated to inform his manager of his association with D.N. He did not", the tribunal wrote. 

 

A series of trips that Kalisa took to Rwanda booked by D.N. led the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to begin an investigation that motivated CBSA to look into the work activities of its employee, in 2014. Two years on, CBSA reviewed Kalisa's security clearance, and his unauthorized searches in CBSA and IRCC databases were revealed, leading to his suspension and finally, his firing. 

"Since 2015, database usage -- including all adds/moves/changes/deletes -- are captured, logged, and stored to a repository which is accessible for internal auditing functions."

"Any new or updated systems are required to record to this system for auditing purposes."

Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdy 

Canadian Hypocrisy at the United Nations

Canada’s misleading denial that it nominated Iran to UN body addressing women’s rights & terror prevention   UN Watch

 

"There have been incorrect reports on social media about Canada’s position on the nomination of Iran to the United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee for Programme and Coordination – an advisory body with no decision-making role. Iran was nominated as part of the Asia-Pacific Group."

"Canada is not a member of the group and did not endorse or vote for this nomination. There was no vote, as per established procedures."

"Canada does not support Iran for positions of influence within the United Nations. We will continue to actively work with partners to counter Iranian candidacies."

Global Affairs, Canada  

 

"Canada’s foreign ministry made a misleading statement on X.com to mask the fact it allowed the nomination of the Islamic Republic of Iran to a UN committee that addresses critical issues including women’s rights and terrorism prevention — failing to object as the US did, and as Canada and EU states have done in the past."

"The fact is that Canada, as a member of the 54-nation UN Economic and Social Council, participated in the consensus nomination of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN Committee for Programme and Coordination on April 8, 2026."

"This committee deals with budget priorities and program coordination on critical issues, and will meet soon, May 14-21, to address women’s rights, human rights, and terrorism prevention."

"At a minimum, Canada should have taken the floor to object that it is wrong to nominate a regime that only months ago massacred thousands of protesters, and that brutally oppresses women, tortures political prisoners, and systematically violates basic human rights."

"This is exactly what the United States did in that meeting. It was the only country that formally objected and disassociated itself from the consensus decision, citing Iran’s appalling record on women’s rights.

Canada and other Western democracies, however, remained silent and allowed the consensus to pass in ECOSOC, a body of which Canada is a member."

UN Watch

 

"The United States disassociates from consensus on the nomination of Iran to the Committee on Program and Co-ordination."

"The regime threatens its neighbours and has for decades infringed on the Iranian people's ability to exercise their basic human rights."

"Due to these and other concerns, we believe Iran is unfit to serve on a body advising member states on program and budgetary matters."

U.S. Ambassador Dan Negrea 

The Security Council chamber at the United Nation in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt /Getty Images

 

Canada obligingly assisted  in the approval of a motion for the Islamic Republic of Iran -- that would be the Iranian regime that just a few months earlier responded to nation-wide protests against the regime by dispatching police, the IRGC and Basij to violently disband the protests by all and any means, leading to the killing of an estimated 30,000 Iranians and the arrests and death sentences of untold numbers of 'enemies of the Islamic Republic' -- to a position on the UN's Committee for Program and Coordination.

 

Iranian-Canadians who desperately wish for the Ayatollah-led, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-enforced Republic to fall, and yearn for the freedom from oppression that would mean for their families in Iran, would have reacted to the news of this incredible betrayal with disbelief. While at the same time, the infiltrated members of the regime and the IRGC that have made a home for themselves in Canada would have beamed with pleasure. Just as Hamas has on occasion congratulated the ruling Liberal government for some of its decisions, now the Iranian regime was given the same opportunity.

 

Officially, for internal consumption, the Liberal government of prime minister Mark Carney denied any such reports; that they did no such thing. The actual facts belie that assertion. Canada gave aid and comfort to a regime under the duress of a conflict brought by the State of Israel and the U.S. military launching an aerial war on the regime, its military, the IRGC, their weapons depots and rocket launchers and nuclear sites. While the Iranian regime presents a distinct danger with its nuclear ambitions and its sponsorship of terrorist groups to the world at large and the Middle East in particular, Canada's government calls for a ceasefire so the regime can survive.

 

Canada's decision at the April 8 meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council enables Iran to have an advisory and oversight role on programs as diverse as gender equality and terrorism prevention, as well as 'peaceful uses of outer space'. Global Affairs Canada's insistence that Canada's role in the event has been misunderstood, is an evasive and shameful tactic in a bid to shield the government from the shame and blame it most certainly deserves for betraying the most elemental foundations of human rights against tyrannical rule. 

 

Official video from the UN Economic and Social Council, most recently chaired by Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the UN, showed an official chairing a plenary session of the council where the Islamic Republic of Iran was included on a list of countries set to be appointed to a three-year term on the Committee for Program and Co-ordination. With no objections from the representatives of the assembled countries, the officiating individual bangs a gavel and declares: "It is so decided". 

 

And Canada helped in that decision; not a word of doubt expressed of the inappropriateness of a corrupt, terror-promoting, nation known for persecuting its own people -- much less its violence visited upon Iranian women who dare to oppose strictures placed upon their most basic of human rights -- sitting on such a committee from Canada.

 

Screenshot from a UN live stream showing the precise moment that a plenary session of the UN Economic and Social Council approved the nomination of the Islamic Republic of Iran to a UN oversight committee. Photo by UN

 

"They [Chinese space exploration] may be early. And recent history suggests we might be late."

"This time the goal is not flags and footprints [in returning astronauts to the moon]."

"This time the goal is to stay [sustaining a permanent presence on the moon]."

Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator 

The United States, considering itself the alpha nation in scientific innovation and advances was somewhat chastened and humiliated when it was Soviet Russia, whose own scientific entrepreneurship was considerable enough to enable it to be the first nation on Earth to send a cosmonaut into space to orbit Earth in 1961, advancing space exploration through a 108-minute mission to orbit Earth, making Yuri Gagarin the first human to leave the bounds of the planet.   

 

It took another eight years for the United States to catch up with Russia's space mission, when the Apollo 11 Mission carried three astronauts to the surface of the Moon, resulting in first Neil Armstrong's famous walk on the Moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin's, while Michael Collins remained in orbit. No country has since returned to the Moon. China has developed its own space program and ambitions for the Moon. Although Neil Armstrong planted the American flag during his 2-hour walk on the Moon's surface, the race is now on to see who will plant the next flag. 

 

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in a photograph taken by Neil Armstrong, who can be seen in the visor reflection along with Earth, the Lunar Module Eagle, and the U.S. flag^.

 

The present era in space travel sees China and the United States in a competition over who will first land humans on the Moon not merely for continued exploration purposes and greater familiarity with its surface and conformations and minerals, but to advance development plans for a permanent presence there, a manned station from which other missions further into the depths of outer space to reach Mars and possibly establish a colony there. 

 

CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – in the center of the image – peers out the window of the Orion spacecraft on day 3 of NASA's Artemis II mission. The controls over the commander and pilot seats are illuminated in the foreground, but the cabin is otherwise dark to avoid unnecessary glares on the windows.  Image Credit: NASA

China's space mission has already distinguished itself for having landed an unmanned mission on the never-before seen far side of the Moon where a robotic probe programmed to retrieve mineral samples succeeded in bringing them back to Earth for Chinese scientific study identification. China plans its seventh robotic mission to explore the lunar south pole, with its Chang'e 7 space capsule. Chinese astronauts are to revisit that part of the Moon where the Apollo 11 mission landed.

 

In April U.S. astronauts were sent by NASA on a ten-day lunar flyby, doing a figure-8 loop around the Moon and back, then returning to Earth, having flown further and higher than any other manned mission. As a prelude to plans to once again land astronauts on the Moon where both China and the U.S. plan to build nuclear reactors to power the lunar bases they intend to build as space-launch sites. 

 

China's plan is to build outposts around the south pole of the Moon, planning to tap frozen water, hydrogen and helium in that region. China's target for a return with a manned mission has a date of 2030. NASA hopes to beat them at it, knowing it's a long shot, but they plan on returning to the Moon with astronauts in 2028, two years sooner than China. The reality is that China with its centralized control funding projects decades ahead, has been where the U.S. has not yet ventured.

 

And it is the south pole that the U.S. too plans to return to, a competition that may determine, according to which country first reaches its target, which will be able to assume the greater authority over the region. NASA's plan is to launch six-month missions, arranging for a sustained presence. The U.S. spacecraft Orion carried the four astronauts (one Canadian) on the Artemis 11 mission this month. 

 

The lunar robot initiative is part of China’s broader 'AI in steel' strategy—embedding artificial intelligence into physical machines for real-world tasks.

 

Artemis 111 is to be launched next year, to test a lander being developed by SpaceX called Starship, while Blue Origin has another lander in development. Whichever lander is completed will be tested by NASA first. Artemis could be sped up in a new timescale through a recent program overhaul to include more launches to test components, lower risks and gain confidence.

 

China has two programs; crewed missions under the purview of the military, and civilian robotic missions. The Long March 10 is a Chinese government-built rocket, half as tall as a 30-story building, with seven engines at its base. The United States has the jump on China with rocket technology in that China cannot match SpaceX's reusale Falcon 9 rocket. 

 

A new spacecraft called the Mengzhou ('Dream Boat') is being developed by China to carry up to seven astronauts, designed for lunar missions and trips to the Chinese space station, some 450 kilometers above Earth. 

 

The Mengzhou is to carry astronauts to a lunar orbit where a rendezvous with a lander to take the astronauts to the moon's surface will be carried out. Once the Chinese astronauts get to their Lanyue lunar lander, it will turn toward the lunar surface where on landing it will become the astronauts' temporary home, data center and energy source. 

 

Artist's illustration of astronauts on the moon planting a Chinese flag. (Image credit: 3DSculptori/Stock/Getty Images)

 

International Rescue Committee

 

"Even before the war in Sudan erupted in April 2023, the country was already experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis that left 15.8 million people in need of aid. Now, three years of war have drastically worsened these conditions, displacing approximately 14 million people and leaving 33.7 million people—two-thirds of the population—in need of humanitarian support."

"The country’s food system has been pushed to the brink, with millions of families now surviving on just one meal a day, or less."

"Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world in terms of number of people who need humanitarian aid. It is also the largest and fastest displacement crisis."
International Rescue Committee 

 

As Sudan marks three years of war, MSF teams continue to treat people whose lives have been devastated by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A lack of basic services and constrained humanitarian access are compounding people's suffering.

The warring parties must protect civilians and be held accountable for their violations, and the international community must use diplomatic pressure to prevent further crimes. 

Medicins Sans Frontieres  

Patient Saidal Altaher, 2 months old, being treated for malnutrition at the pediatric hospital stabilization center in Port Sudan on Wednesday.  Bernat Armangue / AP

 

Described as the world's largest humanitarian challenge in terms of displacement and hunger, Sudan is suffering a crisis of abandonment with the world's attention turning to the Middle East and the standoff in Iran, and its blockade of the Hormuz Strait. In Sudan, 13 million people have been forced by the threat and violence of a bloody conflict to flee their homes, becoming internally displaced. Food and medicines are scarce and diseases like cholera are running rampant. 

 

The number of  dead from the conflict stands at 59,000 with 6,000 having perished over three days alone, as the RSF (paramilitary Rapid Support Forces) bulled their way through the Darfur outpost of el-Fasher in October, an offensive that the UN considers alike "the defining characteristics of genocide". Black Darfurians once again in the rifle sights of the horsed Arab Janjaweed as they were in the early 2000s.

 

Severe acute malnutrition is set to afflict 800,000 people in parts of Sudan, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Two of every three Sudanese require assistance, according to the United Nations. Health facilities have been impacted to the point where only 63 percent remain fully or partially functional to deal with the conflict's wounded and emerging disease outbreaks. 

 

Denise Brown, the UN's top official in Sudan, criticizing the international community for its failure to press for the end to the conflict, stating: "A plea from me: Please don't call this the forgotten crisis. I'm referring to this as an abandoned crisis", she corrected. 

 

People fleeing conflict in Sudan's Darfur risked being hit by drone strikes   Reuters

 

Following the deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, a power struggle emerged between the Sudanese military under General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who was initially Burhan's deputy at the ruling sovereign council of Sudan. Sudanese "have become powerless and are subjected to foreign dictates", claimed a Sudanese journalist and researcher.

 

Germany undertook to host a  conference in Berlin, welcoming governments, UN agencies and aid groups to take part, with a goal to rally donors to assist in funding strained humanitarian responses and to "promote an immediate ceasefire", according to the German Development Ministry. For its troubles, the Khartoum government condemned the conference as an 'unacceptable' interference on Sudan's internal affairs. 

 

The Sudanese military has control over the country's north, east and central regions, its oil refineries and pipelines, and Red Sea ports. The RSF and its allies control Darfur and the region at the border with South Sudan. Regions that both include oilfields and gold mines. Egypt supports the Sudan military, and the United Arab Emirates has been accused by the UN of providing arms to the RSF, which it emphatically denies. 

 

In the three years of conflict, widespread atrocities are known to have occurred;  rampant sexual violence in gang rapes and mass killings, among them. According to the WHO, hospitals, ambulances and medical workers have been attacked, claiming over 2,000 have been killed.  Most atrocities have been placed at the feet of the RSF and the Janjaweed, notorious for atrocities committed in the early 2000s against Black Sudanese farming communities. 

 

Sudanese army soldiers sitting atop a parked tank after their capture of a base used by the RSF, after the rival paramilitary group evacuated from the Salha area of Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan's capital, in May 2025.  Ebrahim Hamid / AFP via Getty Images