Icebreaker diplomacy finally gives Canada the upper hand over Trump

High up in the Arctic, the stillness of remote terrain is sporadically interrupted by enormous ships crashing through ice sheets, carving paths through the frozen wasteland.

Icebreakers, as these vessels are known, can weigh more than 30,000 tons and have become critical in moving cargo, supplying research stations and projecting military power in the region.

The US may be the unchallenged power in its own hemisphere, but it is far more vulnerable in the Arctic because its fleet of icebreakers lags well behind those of rival powers and allies alike.

The situation is “abysmal”, one former admiral told The Telegraph.

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Jeffrey Epstein calls himself ‘Tier One’ sex predator in newly released Steve Bannon interview

Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein described himself as a “Tier One” sexual predator in a videotaped interview with former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon that was released by the Justice Department Friday.

The financier, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, clarified that he was at “the lowest” level of perversion in response to offscreen questions from Bannon — who fell in with Epstein after leaving President Trump’s first administration and sought to improve the sex offender’s public image, The Post reported this past summer.

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Richard Ciano: Tear down the signs in Carney’s little shop of hypocrisy

It takes a special kind of hubris to stand in Davos, surrounded by the global elite, and lecture the world on the virtues of “living in truth.” Yet there was Prime Minister Mark Carney, channelling the dissident spirit of Václav Havel to chastise the international community for clinging to a “rules-based order” that no longer exists. Carney invoked Havel’s famous parable of the greengrocer — the shopkeeper who puts a sign in his window reading “Workers of the World, Unite!”, not because he believes it, but because “it has been done that way for years” and it buys him a quiet life.

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‘Kill chains’ are the future of war. Humans may not be

By the end of January Grok, the artificial intelligence program developed by Elon Musk’s X platform, will be plunging its digital tentacles into some of the Pentagon’s most heavily classified computer systems and intelligence databases, harvesting “all appropriate data” to provide American war planners with fresh insights.

Opening a back door into the world’s most powerful military for Musk — whose Grok tool is being investigated by the European Union for generating sexual deepfake images — may sound eccentric at best and foolhardy at worst.

But it is only one of the conundrums of a profound but little-heralded revolution that is unfolding at the top of armed forces across the West and beyond.

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Heaping Vitriol on the Alberta Independence Movement Has the Opposite Effect Than Intended

The number of people lining up to support Alberta independence has reached a level that can’t be ignored, regardless of where people stand on the issue. Politicians and pundits have stopped ignoring the movement, but their reactions have been feeding separatist sentiment rather than defusing it. It’s almost certain that an independence referendum will be held in the fall of 2026. Opponents to Alberta independence must temper their reactions to the movement and embrace some political nuance if they want to see the “yes” side of the independence referendum defeated.

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Xi’s corruption purge to make army ready to invade Taiwan

At the press of a button, the lids of the missile silos in western China should open to launch nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States.

But according to US intelligence released in 2024, the materials used to construct them were too heavy. Not only that, some of the missiles were filled with water rather than fuel.

The scandal – or some form of it – appears to have driven Xi Jinping, China’s president, to remove the entire leadership of Rocket Forces, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) division responsible for Beijing’s nuclear deterrent, in the months before the leak was published.

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DOBBIE: Globe trotting PM needs to show some results

After a year of the Prime Minister whizzing around the world, Canada still has nothing concrete to pin our hopes on for a happier, more prosperous country.

Relationships with the United States are strained with Mr. Carney earning the title of Governor from Mr. Trump for the thinly veiled speech criticizing the President delivered by the Prime Minister to the world at Davos. Then, according to a witness to a phone conversation between the two, the prime minister climbed down from his lofty position. But once again, Mr. Carney has a different story to what the witness heard, telling Canadians that he stood by his word. This is not the first time we have seen conflicting stories from Mr. Carney about what he has said or not said.

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Violent Radical Leftists Brutally Beat Policeman During Protest in Turin

Turin, Italy saw scenes of extreme violence on Saturday during a demonstration agains the eviction of the illegally occupied Askatasuna anarchist ’social centre’ last December. The centre was shut down and the property seized at the end of last year by DIGOS, the General Investigations and Special Operations Division (DIGOS) of the Italian Police, after the centre’s activists took part in an attack against the headquarters of Italian newspaper La Stampa.

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Canadians now prioritize trade with China over human rights concerns

A growing majority of Canadians now view economic engagement with China as more important than focusing on the country’s human rights record, a new Angus Reid Institute poll shows.

Three-in-five respondents (59%) said trade and investment opportunities should be Canada’s main priority, marking a sharp shift from recent years when human rights concerns dominated public opinion.

(Incognito)

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