"Tibet Action Institute [TAI] has documented intensifying efforts to discredit, intimidate and silence Dr. Gyal Lo -- a former university professor in Tibet and China and one of the most prominent Tibetan human rights advocates in the world today."

"The campaign has included harassment of his family members in Tibet; Chinese state media attacks on him by name; efforts to discredit  his academic reputation; defamatory depictions online; incidents of suspected surveillance and intimidation in Toronto and Geneva; and now, abuse of international legal processes."

The Tibet Action Institute 

 

"Prime Minister Mark Carney's "values-based realism" -- business first, human rights second -- has suffered a a reality check by the Chinese government, as it hounds and persecutes a Tibetan activist and Canadian citizen in Toronto."

Gyal Lo, an expert on China's assimilation policies in Tibet, and an eyewitness to its "residential schools", fled China in 2020, fearing for his life."

"China has now served  him legal documents in Canada in connection with a civil suit in China."

Michael Higgins, investigative journalist, National Post 

Prime Minister Mark Carney, fourth right, meets with President of China Xi Jinping, fourth left, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

 

Canada's latest Liberal prime minister, Mark Carney, took up where his predecessor left off, making friends with the world's greatest trade predator to curry investment and trade agreements. Justin Trudeau left China, tail between his legs after being summarily rebuffed, and Mark Carney followed in his jet contrail years later to make nice with Chinese President Xi Jinping in his pursuit of trade agreements with any country that is not the United States with President Trump's punishing trade tariffs. 

 

Canada, which prides itself on its human rights record, has latterly limped along fatuously with diminished pride, making trade and investment agreements with exemplars of human rights abuse which include Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China. These Liberal-celebrated nation-to-nation compacts with the world's signal abusers of human rights and supporters of terrorist organizations most of which appear on Canada's own terror lists, represent the Canadian prime minister's "principled and pragmatic" game plan to extend Canada's trade prospects in attempting less reliance on its bullying neighbour. 

"Canada and other governments have opened the door for these attacks on their own soil by relegating human rights issues to private exchanges and failing to push back as Beijing openly doubles down on repression."

"They urgently need to reverse course."

Chemi Lhamo, advocacy manager, Tibet Action Institute  

Prime Minister Carney is not the least bit interested in the fact that Freedom House has noted that "China conducts the most sophisticated, global and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world". Nor that the Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China stated that in its exchanges with China, Canada was "far too often prioritizing trade and investment over human rights", accusing Canada of being "inattentive to human rights in China", urging Carney to "put human rights first". 

 

In Mr. Carney's famous Davos speech when he spoke of "principled and pragmatic" approaches, he somehow overlooked the 'principled' aspect of his negotiations with dictators and human-rights abusers and those whose intentions are completely adverse to any self-respecting democracy, much less their unabridged connection to and support of terrorist groups led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

In forging new ties with China, that he believes advantages Canada with new trade opportunities, Carney spoke of his new "strategic partnership and that "We must be pragmatic. We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be". This is the same Carney that spoke glowingly of Canada's "commitment to fundamental values" and "respect for human rights". "Engagement is not approval", he said sanctimoniously in Turkey where gays are persecuted. His only commitment, he responded, was the promotion of human rights in Canada.

 

"Promoting and ensuring that all Canadians can live their full selves in Canada -- first and foremost, that's our responsibility", he declared righteously. On that score, Jewish Canadians might have quite a lot to say. Given the Liberal intake of the past decade and ongoing, of immigrants, refugees and illegal migrants into Canada of people from North Africa and the Middle East, who enter without intelligence scrutiny, and the ensuing aggravation, persecution, harassment and threats from that growing community toward the much smaller but traditional Jewish community, with no government notice, much less concern other than to mouth mushy statements that antisemitism is not welcome in Canada, Mr. Carney remains uninvolved and not "all Canadians can live their full selves in Canada" where violence against Jews continues apace. 

"Only in Canada can you write a national security strategy without mentioning the specific malign actors that seek to threaten Canadian security and interests."

"China and Russia are omitted altogether."

Richard Shimooka, Aleander Lanoszka, Balkan Devlen, Macdonald-Laurier Institute  

Canada's foreign interference inquiry in its final report last year labelled China as "the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada's democratic institutions", China viewing Canada "as a high-priority target". Inconvenient details. 

"Canada and China will … pursue pragmatic and constructive engagement in public safety and security."

"Our law enforcement agencies will increase co-operation to better combat narcotics trafficking, transnational and cybercrime, synthetic drugs and money laundering – and create safer communities for people in both our countries."

Signed legal agreement between Carney and Xi  

Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with President of China Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

"The world became a very small place [after the shooting because of the outpouring of support for police which came] from literally around the world."

"[Police] are convinced … there was divine intervention [during the Yom Kippur shooting, because the right officers were at the right place at the right time]."

"Our message to all assembled is that we will be with our Jewish community – or any community that needs us – now, at the moment of need, and after."

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd

 

"I just worry that we’ve become so polarized as a society, [and people with different views] can’t even talk to each other, let alone hear each other or discuss [issues]."

"[There is] too much drama and emotionally-driven [behaviour instead of people basing ideas on facts and data, not what they’ve heard from others]."

"[I am shocked when reading online comments suggesting] violence is somehow justified."

"How have we forgotten our history? … We’ve been down this road before, and it never leads to good ends."

Reverend Brad Beale, priest, St.Thomas Anglican Church, chaplain Belleville Police Service 

Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd, left, speaks as part of a prayer walk Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026 at Robin Jeffrey Park in Belleville, Ont. Listening at right was Rev. Brad Beale, the police service’s chaplain and a co-organizer of the event. Luke Hendry / The Belleville Intelligencer

 

This week an interfaith prayer walk took place to promote peace and unity joined by religious groups, police and citizens in Belleville, Ontario, following on the violent and deadly attack on the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in the city. The armed attacker who shot and seriously wounded the Belleville Police officer seated in an unmarked vehicle in front of the synagogue did not survive his shoot-out with wounded  constable Jeff Smith and his colleague Michael McCurdy who prevented the attacker from creating his intended slaughter inside the synagogue. 

 

He had shouted as he ran toward the vehicle where constable Smith was dispatched to help protect the house of worship and its congregants, "You are going to die for the Jews", before discharging his weapon at the constable's head and back. In the end, the one-time member of the Canadian Armed Forces died as a result of his venomous racist hatred. Both constables have yet to return to work; constable Smith engaged in a long convalescence from life-saving surgeries, and constable McCurdy recovering from the trauma of the lethal engagement.

 

The organized walk which included several hundred people from the community took place when local congregations expressed their interest in holding an event post the September 20 shooting to demonstrate their solidarity with the Jewish community under stress. The walk was also an opportunity to express the community's appreciation for the police whose outstanding service had protected the synagogue's congregants from certain death. 

 

Sandra Amaral of Brighton and Pastor Andrew King of Toronto, both Seventh Day Adventists, carry a banner promoting peace during a prayer walk Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026 in Belleville, Ont. People of numerous faiths came together for the event. (Luke Hendry / The Belleville Intelligencer)

 

"Hearing the shots, yelling for people to get down, hearing the glass breaking and screams, watching parents hold their children ... I cannot begin to tell you what we as a community in Canada, as a country, very nearly lost that evening,"  

"If you had asked us what we thought our security needs were on Sept. 19, before this all unfolded, what we would have told you is that our priorities were replacing broken windows and installing burglar alarms."

"In short, we were targeted because we dared to live publicly as Jews."

Shima Vigodda, vice-president, Sons of Jacob Synagogue

 

"When gunfire erupted outside, we instantly knew the gunman was there for us inside. We knew how serious the danger was. What terrified us was the possibility that the gunman could make his way into the building and reach us."

"We come together to pray, never imagining we would find ourselves fearing for our lives. The shooting was outside, but the terror was inside with us."

"[Another attack could have a different outcome.] The next time, we may not be so fortunate. And the next family may not make it home."

Doug Lobel, congregant, Sons of Jacob Synagogue 

A forensics officer points towards a police vehicle (out of frame) at the scene of a shooting at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, where a man armed with a shotgun exchanged gunfire with a police officer stationed outside the Synagogue late Sunday evening as people were arriving for Yom Kippur. The suspect's shotgun can be seen lying on the ground adjacent to the officer. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

 

Belleville saw another two incidents of antisemitism when flyers with antisemitic messages were distributed in the neighbourhood of the synagogue shortly after the September 20 shooting. In October police announced charges against a Belleville resident in a third and separate case. The congregation, comprised mostly of volunteers who maintain the synagogue on a low budget, knows it must change its security to continue into the future. Bullet-resistant glass, inner- and outer-door replacement, a safe room, fencing and physical barriers are all needed. 

"That’s my neighbourhood. These are my neighbours and my friends. It shakes you to the core when you see that happen in a community that you just don’t think this will happen in."

"If it can happen in Belleville, it can happen anywhere in Canada. I don’t care if it’s in Hanover, Ontario; Owen Sound, or Weyburn in Saskatchewan. It can happen in any of these communities."

"[The officers’ presence at the synagogue meant Smith and McCurdy] truly [saved] what would have been, I think, by all accounts, a massacre — and that was averted that day due to the bravery of the police."

"[The online spread of hatred is a factor accelerating these threats. The speed at which the hate has spread is quite shocking."

Chris Malette, MP for Bay of Quinte  

Police stand in front of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont., on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ian MacAlpine

"[In Denmark, we get funding and economic support for getting an education, and we're very proud of this."

"[It would be wrong to dismantle one of the world's strongest educational systems."

Oscar Tonberg Hoffman, Danish High School Students' Association 

 

"I'm infuriated that we finally get a supposedly 'red' government in Denmark that includes the left parties and anyway we get cuts to our welfare and to the economies of  young people whilst they're funding corporate tax reductions and warfare."

"I hope they will look at this demonstration and change their mind."

Kiern Hindshaw, 23year-old agronomy student 

 

"It's important when you are in school and trying to educate yourself."

"It's hard to have to pay for yourself, so sometimes it's nice to have a little helping hand with the SU [student allowance]." 

Dagmar Demuth, high school student

Students protest as 21 organizations organizes a joint demonstration against cuts in educations in front of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday Nov. 4, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard / Ritzau Scanpix via AFP)

 

Once a government in any country, including Scandinavian countries known for their social largesse, enacts a social program benefiting the populace, however absurd that program might be in the light of day, reading the details of a universal program that makes no exception for the wealthy, it becomes nigh impossible for any succeeding government to announce changes or restrictions on the benefit-holders. This is an obvious and recognized political swamp that governments however well intended, swim in through inattention to consequences. 

 

Make people dependent on social hand-outs and they and future generations have every expectation that they will continue, irrespective of whether or not they represent a sound fiscal decision by competent intelligent lawmakers who fail to foresee what a trap they've engineered before it's too late. People resent having their special benefits withdrawn or minimized. Once given, they feel they are entitled. And when a decision is made to modify the conditions of eligibility of a once-universal program, anger and resistance can be guaranteed.

 

The riotous and extremely well-attended rallies by students in France denouncing their government's lack of diligence in upgrading the school system, having sufficient numbers of teachers on hand, and failing to refurbish school infrastructure before they reach the stage of fatigue-collapse, has, despite the government crackdown, inspired students in other countries to feverishly embark on their own student grievances against governments not attuned to the needs and educational priorities of their youth population.

 

Denmark is a somewhat late entry, but there thousands of young Danes have protested over a plan by government to restructure a welfare program for students, where the prospect of cutting students allowances predictably enraged those accustomed to these benefits, sufficiently so to engage in street protests against their uncaring government.A dozen high school and university student associations have taken to the ramparts, marching from the City Hall Square in Copenhagen to Parliament over proposed cuts to their entitlements.

 

Students attend a joint demonstration against cuts in educations in front of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, 4 November, 2026.  Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix Foto via AP

 

Across Denmark, an estimated 40,000 students from 57 schools were out protesting. Police in Copenhagen were in full-force presence to control the 13,000 student groups campaigning for an uninterrupted flow of  social largess benefiting Denmark's students. Chanting "Broken Promises", carrying signage that read "Save SU", and "Less Support, Less Educated" along with "Don't Cheat the Young", flagellated the Danish government for its betrayal of Denmark's youth.

 

Denmark's centre-left government, according to a draft budget bill, has plans to abolish the SU allowance for students who live with their parents and whose parents' total annual income is the equivalent of $146,950 annually. For students whose parents earn between $88,000 and $146,950, the amount they receive could become progressive. Until the present time, all students over age 18 have received that financial bonus so that both high school and university students have been recipients.

 

Roughly 14,000 students may lose their grant, according to the Higher Education Ministry, while another 8,000 students would see theirs reduced. SU represents a cornerstone of Denmark's egalitarian  university system, in force since 1970, which in theory enables all young Danes to receive an education irrespective of their parents' income. Student receive at present $242 monthly for those who live with their parents, and $1,559 for those who live on their own. 

 

Another proposal is for the government to alter eligibility for unemployment benefits  for recent university graduates to be paid only to those who have worked during 18 of the last 24 months of their studies. According to student protest organizer Oscar Tonsberg Hoffmann, high school organizations attempted to share a dialogue with the government but were  unable to meet with success. 

 

The Socialist Peoples Party and the Social Liberal Party within the government had opposed education cuts, but have since, nonetheless supported this contentious move. "It's no secret that this not an initiative that comes from us", pointed out Interior and Economic Affairs Minister Pia Olsen Duhr who had vowed her Socialist People's Party would not touch the student grant system. "But we have made compromises in this government, and I fully stand by them", she stated. 

 

Students attend a joint demonstration against cuts in educations in front of the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, 4 November 2026. Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix Foto via AP

 

On any given day in 2021, an estimated 7 million men, women, and children were living in modern slavery in Africa, a prevalence of 5.2 people in modern slavery for every thousand people. Africa had the fourth highest prevalence of modern slavery among the five regions of the world, following the Arab States (10.1 per thousand), Europe and Central Asia (6.9), and Asia and the Pacific (6.8). Forced labour was the most common form of modern slavery in the region, at a rate of 2.9 per thousand people, while forced marriage was at 2.4 per thousand.

When considering the total number of people in forced marriage worldwide, 13 per cent (3.2 million) were in Africa, second to Asia and the Pacific, which at 65 per cent has by far the highest share of the world’s forced marriages. Fourteen per cent of all people in forced labour were in Africa (3.8 million), the third highest behind Asia and the Pacific (55 per cent) and Europe and Central Asia (15 per cent).

The countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery in Africa are Eritrea, Mauritania, and South Sudan. The countries with the lowest prevalence of modern slavery in Africa are Mauritius, Lesotho, and Botswana.

Nearly 4 million men, women, and children experience forced labour in Africa, particularly in the mining, agriculture, fishing, and domestic work sectors.1 African job seekers misled by traffickers with false promises are subjected to forced labour abroad, such as in the Gulf states.2 Children are also exploited in their pursuit of education. For example, under the confiage (trust) system in Togo, children from rural areas are sent to cities to complete their education and live with relatives, who may force them into domestic servitude.3 Nigerian girls seeking employment as domestic helpers to help pay for schooling are also subjected to domestic servitude.4 In Senegal, talibe (student, seeker) children in Quranic schools are forced to beg.5

In Africa, forced marriage particularly impacts women and girls. One in every 300 females in the region was in a forced marriage compared to one in every thousand males.6 In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of child marriages increased in Sudan, Egypt,7 and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),8 and they nearly doubled in communities across Senegal and Uganda.9 Women and girls living in conflict zones also experience forced and child marriage, including as a negative coping mechanism by families to protect them from further violence10 and by fighters who abduct, marry, and exploit women and girls as domestic and sexual slaves.11 Forced commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls is used as a weapon of war by both state and non-state groups, reportedly in the Central African Republic, the DRC, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan,12 and by both parties to the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.13

Global Slavery Index  Africa Walk Free 

 

Commonwealth Heads of Government  CHOGM

 

The leaders of Commonwealth states meet every two years in a celebration of links representing mostly former colonies of the colonialist British Empire. Among the 56 Commonwealth member-states, mostly from the British Empire, the summit has presented as opportune time to press Britain for reparations reflective of its role in the transatlantic slave trade. About a dozen former colonial British nations that include Jamaica, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda, are relentless in their demands for billions in compensation owing to them.

 

The Commonwealth Heads of Government met in Antigua and Barbuda on Monday and although expressing deep regret on the part of Britain for their role in the slave trade, their tendency is to avoid the issue with no intention of responding positively to the demands for financial reparations. "Slavery was an evil in which people from every continent and region participated. We should be honest about the whole history, not select the parts that are politically convenient today, especially given Britain's leading role in ending the  transatlantic slave trade", responded Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK Conservatives. 

 

"If Caribbean countries are asking Britain for a formal apology for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade will they also be asking the same of the descendants of African kingdoms, rulers and merchants who captured, sold and profited from the trade?", she demanded to know. African nations themselves were warmongering slave owners and traders. Arab and Persian Islamic slave traders were responsible for forcibly bringing both Black and White slaves into their service in the Middle East and Turkey. This was (and remains) legal under Sharia law. Only non-Muslims could be legally held as slaves by Islamic tradition.

 

King Charles and Andy Burnham at Chogm in Antigua on Tuesday. The government is reducing aid to countries it judges rapidly developing, such as Antigua and India. Photograph: Chris Jackson/PA

 

In the world view of activists for reparations it is Europeans alone who are held responsible for slavery. The wealth that was acquired through the use of slave labour in Europe and the Americas motivated the racist predation of Blacks, those dedicated to forcing white guilt to acknowledge a responsibility to pay back the wealth accumulated by their ancestors through slave labour to now share it with those whose ancestors they had enslaved, are adamant in their reasoning.

 

A United Nations resolution earlier this year demanding western nations agree to "reparatory justice" was supported by the African Union. No explanation of what has happened to the $2trillion in aid in the past five decades handed over to African nations from the West. While the current office holder at 10 Downing Street has expressed his revulsion over Britain's role in the slave trade, as did his Royal Majesty, neither contemplate the possibility of responding in the affirmative to the demands. Prime Minister Burnham was applauded for Commonwealth leaders, nonetheless for an "essential first step" by stating his country should spend more on foreign aid. 

 

Between the beginning of the fifteenth century and the end of the eighteenth, millions lived and died as slaves in African Muslim societies. From the Mediterranean coast to the grasslands of West Africa, in the Nile Valley and the Horn, and all along the Indian Ocean littoral, Muslims predominated or exercised great influence. In all these regions slavery was economically, socially, and politically important, and its scale increased throughout our period before reaching wholly unprecedented levels in the nineteenth century. Islamic principles and practices shaped the nature of slavery in Muslim societies, but they did so in uneven and contingent ways. In this chapter, we will examine the ways in which Islamic ideas about slavery were negotiated in the historical experience of Muslim Africans. There are three major components of any system of slavery: reduction of human beings to servitude, distribution of the enslaved within and between societies, and the nature of servitude within a society. These categories are utilitarian, not absolute. Biological reproduction of slaves belongs in categories one and three. Category three implies the continuous reproduction of the meanings of category one without the initial act of capture or birth. Examples could be multiplied. The categories are heuristic aids, not precise hermeneutical tools. In these sections we will survey Islamic legal, intellectual, and moral discourses on slavery in relation to the historical record. This initial discussion will treat themes common to all of Islamic Africa, providing a necessary context. 

The History of Slavery, Part 3: Christian Slaves and Muslim Masters—Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean, 1500-1800

Enslavement was a real possibility for anyone who traveled in the Mediterranean or who lived along the shores in places like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, and even as far north as England and Iceland. For example, in 1632, pirates captured the Irish city of Baltimore. They and others were snatched from their homes, taken in chains to the slave markets of Algiers and sold to the highest bidder. Some spent the rest of their lives rowing galleys. Others toiled in quarries or on farms. Attractive women were sent to harems and became a pasha’s concubine.

This episode looks at a little-known chapter in the history of slavery. Although few know the stories of these captives, the threat of piracy on the Mediterranean had a huge impact on the Western World. Thomas Jefferson developed the U.S. navy to eliminate the Barbary Threat. Miguel de Cervantes spent years in North Africa. Even John Smith of Pocahontas fame was a slave in Istanbul.

History on the Net 

 

"The injury tore off half of my foot, so a lot of blood was lost already."

"I think if that incredible little bird hadn't flown in, well, getting out from there would have been unrealistic."

"From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful that they actually flew in and picked me up."

"I think this needs to be developed and expanded because we have a lot of guys who cannot get out of the situations they find themselves in."

"Having to walk very many kilometres with that level of shelling that is going on, whether walking yourself or carrying a wounded person -- let's just say making it out of there is not very likely"

24-yr-old Ukrainian serviceman with call name of 'Izyum' 

Izyum being helped to the drone.  Courtesy of SkyFall

 

Ukrainian technology company SkyFall developed a drone intended to reduce rescue times from hours to minutes on the battlefield. Drones capable of reaching hard-to-access combat zones where unmanned ground vehicles are currently in use. The drone in question was designed for the specific purpose of evacuating injured soldiers from high-risk areas where heavy artillery fire and hostile drone activity guarantees dangerous rescue operations.

 

These specialized serial rescue drones for the evacuation of wounded battlefield soldiers are now in use by the Ukraine military. So far, in two instances representing a rescue rehearsal in real time, two stranded troops were  brought to safety from near the Russian border in the initial operation to test the utility of these specialized drones. Both were resounding successes. 

 

Up to the present, Ukrainian ingenuity in technical design and production has seen the world introduced to drone warfare where these products have been refined, their purpose more specific and elaborate, for communication, dropping food, medicine, and ammunition to awaiting recipients, taking real-time videos to relay back to command posts, and as lethal weapons dropping explosives on enemy positions. Now that entrepreneurial genius has produced life-saving evacuation drones.

 

StarGate is a heavy hexacopter developed by SkyFall.  Courtesy of SkyFall

 

The new StarGate drone is a six-rotor aircraft fitted out with an enclosed evacuation capsule. According to the 475th Separate Assault Regiment, two separate missions in the past week proved the successful design will be a true life-saving addition to the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian invaders. Izyum had been wounded and then had no option but to wait for two days for an evacuation. Unable to walk the 20 kilometres from the combat zone, he was the second drone rescue. 

 

Landing in a field with tall grass tangled with fibre-optic spool cable, the drone with its orange-and-black cigar-shaped stretcher could have become entangled and immediately put out of commission. That scenario did not develop, however, and the rescue mission succeeded; a flight that lasted under 15 minutes before the soldier was brought to safety and medical attention. 

 

The soldier rescued in the first mission, who goes by his call sign Kolobok, crawls to the drone.  Courtesy of SkyFall

 

The drone had been tested for several weeks before being deployed to the battlefield by the 475th regiment, known as Code 9.2. Both rescued men had sustained "severe limb injuries and were at positions in the grey zone, approximately five kilometres from the state border with Russia", a strip of territory that separated Ukrainian and Russian forces. 

 

The drone is capable of carrying 330 pounds, equipped with signal jammers and autonomous navigation to counter Russian electronic warfare systems, according to its manufacturer. SkyFall has plans to design and produce a dedicated unit for the rescue drones, and with it, providing pilots and deployment specialists. "Service members who weren't sure if they would ever make it out of the positions are now able to return home and hug their children", a SkyFall representative explained. 

 

Ukrainian forces used the new StarGate drone to pull off two daring rescue missions in October. Courtesy of SkyFall

  

"[H]alf of registered voters say the economy and health care are extremely important to their vote, and 47 percent say the same thing about Iran."

"Roughly four in ten rate income and wealth distribution (44 percent), gas prices (42 percent), immigration (40 percent) and abortion (38 percent) as extremely important." 

Gallup poll

 

"The ongoing development of the Democratic Party as a party not of labour but of socioeconomic elites, and the ongoing development of the Republican Party as a party not of business but of working class social conservatives represents a major, perhaps the major American political development of the 21st century."

Eitan Hersh, Tufts University, Sarang Shah, University of California-Berkley 

"I think we're going to do great -- but if we didn't win, I veto everything."

"I'll be vetoing, vetoing. And then they'll come along and we'll probably make some deals along the way."

"[Democrats are] extreme and dangerous radicals [who will] steal your wealth [and let in migrants to] ransack, rape and plunder." 

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Democratic and Republican observers review ballots during midterm elections at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Fairburn, Georgia, US, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Edgar Su

 

Polls in the United States indicate that Democrats are poised to seize the House of Representatives and if that were not enough, they're within reach of he Senate, with today's vote representing President Trump's waking nightmare. A record 54 million Americans chose to cast their ballots early. A number of citizens so anxious to have their say that it surely bodes ill for the current administration in the White House. 

 

A truly divided nation, caught between an incumbent whose impulsive decision-making has made life an suspense of mercurial decision-making, an economic straitjacket, as opposed to a competing aspirant to the White House whose previous administration was no beacon of light before being ousted and is now flirting with deep-left socialism brought to the fore by the Democratic Socialists of America, arguably the Democrats' latest flirtation with a system of governance foreign to the U.S.

 

This midterm election is the most tense of any in living memory; the U.S. two-party-rule of Republican and Democrat where each now sits firmly on the fulcrum of extremism, worrying to an electorate in the middle, in a fierce battle for dominion. Neither party is exceptionally a firm choice by Americans, their loyalties have been burdened by the fundamentalist hardening of attitudes on either side. The situation is one of distaste for both parties, a desire to rid the White House of the current office holder whose abuse of office has aroused fed-up anger, while at the same time knowing the alternative is likely no improvement.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump, pictured in Washington, D.C. The U.S. midterms happen on Tuesday, Nov. 3, when all 435 members of the House and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for election. As well, there will be state-level elections. The U.S. midterms are seen as a referendum on Trump's leadership and will determine who takes control of Congress.Photograph courtesy of the White House/Daniel Torok

 

For the past several decades U.S. elections have been based on a kind of musical chair performance, where an incumbent government has grown stale long before its administrative time has elapsed, leading voters to welcome the alternate party, an exchange that has become predictably routine as neither party has been willing to embrace the moderation of inclusive governance in preference to fiercely promoting their ideological positions as immutable, the scaffold on which their administration bases all their legislative decision-making.

 

The only enthusiasm most of the voting public displays now is to vote to rid themselves of the current office holders and hold their collective breath in the hope that the opposite player will hold off for a tolerable period from promoting and acting on decisions that echo those they replaced in reverse-mode: party-first, national interests trundling along behind. Sending the Republicans a stout message that the governing style of an egocentric, mercurial, personal-profit-oriented president is not to be repeated by either party.  

 

The mild socialism that the Democratic party has developed has devolved from its moderate view of a regulated capitalist economy, with the state involving itself in welfare issues and supporting tolerant social mores is now represented at the common level with underemployed urban socialists finding dissatisfaction with their opportunities and unmet aspirations, whose resentments have found solace in the uptake of discovering the source of world conflict and economic downturns through antisemitism.

 

Still from video   Global News

 

"[T]oo many Democrats are noticeably and shamefully silent with antisemitism comes from the far left", observed Democratic New Jersey member of Congress Josh Gottheimer. In the same token a rise of bigotry has arisen on the far-right membership-flank of the Republicans, deplored by GOP Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Republicans have also embraced a steep level of trade protectionism, a favourite whipping-target of their president who initiated a wholesale tariff war on enemies and allies alike as soon as he resumed office.

 

Can getting out the vote on this critical shape-shifting dual-role, intermittently exchanged style of government drive a new, more internally and globally appreciated direction for a nation whose wealth and power have monumental international influence, and repair both the internal hostility engendered by the parties' divisions and derision-propelled opponent-status, and the confusion abroad caused by a president who has spoken of foreign allies and global democratic institutions in the most derogatory of terms? 

 

Still from video   Global News

  

Ivan Zalisko of Ukraine celebrates his bronze-medal win against Islam Aslanovitch Kazharov of Russia in the74-kilogram freestyle division at the U20 world wresting championship August 23 in Bratislava Slovakia.

 

"Athletes can only inspire us if they are able to compete." 

"They can only do so if we keep sport strictly neutral ground, if politics does not take over on the field of play."

IOC president Kirsty Coventry

 

"Any conversation about returning Russian athletes to the international arena can only happen after the war ends, a just peace is established, every single abducted Ukrainian child is returned home, and international law is fully restored."

"Until that moment, isolation is not political -- it is a matter of basic human decency."

Ukraine Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi

 

"The boycott agenda of the '80s very nearly destroyed the Olympic movement."

"Eventually, the politicians began to understand that maybe it was a good idea for the world to come together through sport."

"Over the last decade, politicians have again turned to using sport as a tool to sanction, declaring who can and who cannot participate."

"I have argued in my book Fast Tracks and Dark Deals, that the biggest single threat facing the future of sport is the growing political weaponization of sport." 

Michael Payne former IOC marketing chief  

According to IOC president Kirsty Coventry, "politics does not take over on the field of play". Ukraine has other ideas. Along with former IOC executives who feel that politics and sport, on the record, remain inseparable. In the Youth Olympics that began Saturday in the Senegalese capital Dakar, Ukrainian and Russian athletes competing against one another may test Coventry's stated direction. Is it not political, after all, when 13 Russian athletes parade with the national flag and their national anthem is played at an Olympic event for the first time in six years? 

 

The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) officially opened on Saturday 31 October 2026, marking the first Olympic sporting event ever held on the African continent.  Sport Europe

 

Ukraine has chosen not to boycott sporting events that Russia has competed in, choosing instead to meet their Russian opponents straight on during sport events that see them competing against one another. The idea is to challenge their Russian competitors on the field of sport just as their Ukrainian military counterparts meet their Russian opponents on the field of conflict, knowing that all things being equal their chances of overcoming the adversity that the Russians represent are magnified by their emotional 

response to the violence imposed upon them by a traditional Russian warmonger.

 

There was a hugely successful boycott when the 1975 Montreal Games highlighted a multilateral campaign to isolate apartheid South African from world sport. It was the Canadian Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that brought the matter of South African apartheid to a head, campaigning against that most basic corruption of human rights. The time had long passed when a European country could with impunity occupy another less-economically-developed nation and rule it as they saw fit, declaring he indigenous population inferior and reaping the benefits of natural resources not their own. 

  

Ukrainian Ivan Zalisko became the bronze medalist of the U20 World Cup in freestyle wrestling

 

The ideal of sports bringing countries together as one huge family celebrating athletics and competition whereby those that excel in their techniques, athleticism, performance level and professional expertise to be declared champions, does have expectations that enthusiasm for sport can overcome national hostilities. The very fact that North and South Korea, even while technically at war paraded in unison at the Sydney Games in 2000, fielding a joint ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang was enlightening entertainment, but once the festivities were concluded, the divided states were no closer to peace than previously.

 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose standards are clearly not that of the IOC's Coventry,  stands accused of crossing the line in sport and national neutrality given his personal alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, awarding him the FIFA Peace Prize. "It was a fake award with no public criteria, jury or process. I think that changed the perception of FIFA from working with a political leader to endorsing one. That's not neutrality", observed former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns. 

 

Perhaps it was that very close relationship with President Trump, and his soft spot for Russia, refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine and causing over a million conflict deaths among Russian servicemen alone in the process, that convinced Infantino to open FIFA completely to Russia where it is competing at the under-15 football world cup this month. The ban on the country, he stated. has not "achieved anything, it has just created more frustrations and hatred". 

 

Olga Kharlan won Ukraine's first medal at the Paris Olympics. "It's special because it's for my country. It's for people in Ukraine, it's for defenders [soldiers], it's for athletes who couldn't come here because they were killed by Russia."

"[Globally speaking,] sport has never been separate from politics."

"When I heard anyone use that phrase it sounds naive at best and cynical at worst."

"The real principle is neutrality. The Olympic movement only works if it stays independent of governments."

"Sport opens doors but it can't make anyone walk through them. Still, I think an open door is worth a great deal when every other one is shut." 

"The lesson is that a boycott works when it is sustained, collective, and aimed squarely at the wrongdoer." 

Former International Olympic Committee marketing executive Terrence Burns 

"[The attacks ​are] very cruel [and] deliberate when everyone expects de-escalation steps."

"[Ukraine had intelligence] about ⁠preparations by the Russians of new ballistic missile strikes. We need the means ‌to take out all this Russian evil. We are expecting relevant decisions."

"A horrific Russian attack on Dnipro train station. The Russians used a drone to attack a platform where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing."

"How many such terrorist attacks has Russia carried out on our people after lifting sanctions on some Russian oligarchs and energy companies instead of de-escalating."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

 

"It was hell. The train stopped at night somewhere in central Ukraine. I don’t even know the name of the town. Half asleep, I just heard the conductor say ‘evacuation’. We took only our personal belongings and valuables with us. It was raining outside. Thank you to the conductors for handing out blankets."

"That’s how we held out for two hours. While kamikaze drones were buzzing overhead, we crawled under a goods wagon. The last carriage in the train was full of children. They were being taken back from hospital. They were crying in their sleep. I thought I’d ended up in some sort of horror film. But no, this is our life."

Ukrainian journalist Tetiana Zaiets 

Boryspil, in the Kyiv region. Trains were evacuated and travellers stranded during Russia’s days-long air assault on Kyiv

 

"The enemy has chosen our passenger services as a target", commented Oleg Golovashchenko, head, state operator passenger company, Ukrainian Railways. Drone attacks have forced Ukraine to institute a safety process, now routine, of evacuating trains when danger of a drone attack seems imminent. Passenger trains are typically paused for as long as it takes for the danger to pass. Passengers are escorted off the trains to ensure they will not become trapped in any that are struck by explosives.

 

These massive and increasingly frequent attacks on trains, train stations and railway infrastructure have made any kind of journey potentially dangerous undertakings. Mass transit use in Ukraine is an absolute necessity for any number of reasons, from short trips to and from a place of employment, to longer business trips between cities, and trips for family reunification, brief or prolonged. There are no longer trips taken casually with the impulse for a trouble-free, pleasant outing.  

 

Emergency employees work at a railway station hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Reuters)

 

Ukraine's skies have for years been closed to passenger flights; the only planes are those of the Ukrainian military or those of the Russian military's 'special military operation' in the beleaguered country's airspace. Train travel is the only option in a country where suddenly missiles and drones erupt on missions of destruction of civilian infrastructure, not excluding schools, hospitals, shopping centers, apartment blocks. There are no international rules of warfare protecting civilian enclaves that Moscow respects.

 

Reliance on trains in Ukraine has become a mainstay of travel, from short trips to lengthy travel plans. Through 2026 alone, Russian aerial attacks targeting rail lines have resulted in damage to 4,856 railway facilities, among which are 380 locomotives out of commission and 146 carriages destroyed, according to Ukrainian Railways. At least 50 railway personnel have lost their lives. Those attacks have made it compulsory that when attacks appear imminent, trains must pause and passengers evacuated.

 

Daily, there are one hundred to two hundred evacuations, resulting in widespread delays lasting hour after hour across the country. Some 30 kilometres from the Russian border, trains chugging to and from the north-eastern terminus stop frequently in response to attack threats on the Kharkiv-Kyiv route, Ukraine's largest, most populous cities. 

 

A Ukrainian railway carriage that was attacked by a Russian drone on Jan. 27, 2026, is displayed at the Kyiv central train station on Feb. 23, 2026. | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

 

Departing Kharkiv overnight, passengers making sleep preparations are given warning their rest could be rudely interrupted through the necessity of an emergency evacuation. "We brought them aboard the train, we must get them to their destination alive", explains 50-year-old train attendant Mykola Kryvenko. Mere  hours into the journey the night-time silence in the carriage is disturbed when the sound of hurried footsteps break out and there are compartment door knocks. "Evacuation, evacuation", the rudely awakened passengers hear the train attendant's call. The sounds of nearby Russian drones clear drowsy heads.

 

The platform swiftly fills with people intently aware of sounds in the sky. Attendants urge passengers to place some distance between themselves and the emptied carriages, as the sounds of approaching drones increase in volume. Suddenly the sky is lit with explosions in the near distance, and passengers pick up a running pace to separate from the train while others quietly edge further and then further again from direct proximity to the stilled train. 

 

Refugees arriving in Lviv on evacuation trains from Kharkiv and Kryvy Rih make their way through the train station. Photograph: Jelle Krings

 

 Once the sounds of explosions fade and danger seems to have passed, the passengers soon re-embark when the crew announces an all-clear, and the journey continues. But Ukraine's winter is approaching and uppermost in mind is the fear that this winter will be harsh and train travel will become even more fraught with danger. Should potential disruptions take place to electricity, water and heating resulting from Russian attacks on energy infrastructure intensify, the near future is one of anxious apprehension.

Frequent train pauses and the evacuations that accompany them will become all the more difficult with the onset of freezing temperatures, snowfall and deadly interruptions. Plans are underway at Ukrainian Railways to allow passengers to remain on board paused trains at preventative stops. Golovashcenko, head of the passenger company, adds that blankets and heating pads will be on hand with the new preparations to ensure that people keep warm in harsh winter conditions  

 

Pixabay.com via Defence24