2024

BOOSTING DEFENCES ​ Ukraine is no longer just calling younger reservists to serve but prisoners as well and Sweden, a new NATO member, is boosting defence spending, while countries from Poland to Lithuania try to beef up their ranks so close to the enemy's borders. Russia's recent battlefield successes, all the while recent exercises involved the use of tactical nuclear weapons, have put Europe on alert, and some would say on a war footing, as the French president refused to walk back statements NATO may one day have to send troops to Ukraine. A million Ukrainians have stepped up to serve after recent changes to conscription laws, and some 4,500 Ukrainian conscripts have agreed to sign contracts under a new parole law as parliament passed a bill that would allow some categories of prisoners, though certainly not those serving for the worst offences, to be conscripted. The country which is short of everything from ammu-nitions to able-bodied fighters, has been changing its conscription laws, recently agreeing to lower the age of those serving from 27 to 25, an unpopular but necessary measure. Its allies are also beefing up their defences as Russia prolongs its offensive well into a third year, undeterred by sanctions which have sought to choke its military, especially countries closest to the front lines. Among them the Baltic state of Lithuania conducted the largest military exercise in modern Lithuanian history, involving not only the military but also local governments, charitable organizations and even the Catholic Church. The country has launched a quarter billion euro program to ensure preparedness by designating thousands of air-raid shelters and promoting efforts to make sure citizens are ready for anything by securing a stockpile of supplies. “I feel we are on the edge of changing times,” Darius Domarkas, of the ministry of the interior told the Globe & Mail. “We don’t know what’s coming.” Poland, which has been a key ally of Ukraine, says it wants to create the strongest army in Europe over the next decade, working on its recruitment strategy short of bringing back compulsory military service and launching a multimillion dollar program to build bomb shelters, just in case. “War is no longer a concept from the past,” its Prime Minister Donald Tusk said recently. “We have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the prewar era.” Germany meanwhile, which has considerably boosted defence spending, is looking into reintroducing conscription for all 18-year-olds, possibly including women, a move intended to send “a strong signal” to both allies and rivals. Berlin is seeking to boost the size of its armed forces from some 180,000 to more than 200,000. Germany ended conscription in 2011 and well before that France did the same in 1996, another country possibly looking to reintroduce it. New NATO member Sweden reintroduced it in 2018, more recently broadening its "total defence service" to include up to 100,000 men and women eventually. While other NATO newbie Finland never ended conscription Latvia reintroduced it in January while Estonia has always maintained a form of conscription since the break up of the USSR but recently expanded its scope, as Sweden has done. "Some form of conscription does still exist today in most European countries," notes Rod Thornton of King's College. "But as the implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine come to be better understood, introducing or extending conscription is increasingly being discussed in European NATO states." As the UK's election campaign got underway, the ruling and lagging Conservative Party said it would introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if it won the July 4th election. "Britain today faces a future that is more dangerous and more divided. There's no doubt that our democratic values are under threat," said PM Rishi Sunak. "That is why we will introduce a bold new model of national service for 18-year-olds." Is the same idea bound to spread overseas? The new Scandinavian NATO members and Baltic states are particularly motivated to up defenses due to their proximity with Russia, which recently floated the idea of revising the territorial boundaries in the Baltic. Lithuania called a circulated draft proposal of Russia's defense ministry to update the coordinates agreed to in 1985 an "obvious escalation" that had to be met with an "appropriately firm response". Provocation has been Moscow's modus operandi, recently reiterating it would not hesitate to strike British targets if the UK's weapons were used by Ukraine to strike into Russia. Then again Washington has permitted Ukraine to do so with US weapons. In addition European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is backing a request from Poland's and Greece's Prime ministers to create an EU-funded air defense shield. "The current fragmented landscape is simply not up to today's needs and requirements," argued Tusk and Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a letter addressed to her. "Europe will be safe as long as the skies over it are safe," they added, stressing the need for a continental air defense system to protect Europe's airspace. A new tool in a new, tense environment. ​ DOUSING THE FLAMES ​ Smouldering businesses and cars, soldiers at the airport and barricades watched over by armed men while residents under a state of emergency remained hidden indoors or formed community watches as hoodlums roamed. This isn't Haiti or Sudan but the largest city on an island belonging to a major power, albeit a distant one. This week France sent hundreds of gendarmes and security forces thouands of miles away to bring calm to the restive Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia, in a state of upheaval after French lawmakers started toying with electoral reform. Half a dozen people were killed and hundreds injured when those opposing a reform allowing more residents of the overseas territory the right to vote lit buildings and cars on fire and confronted overwhelmed police forces despite the appeal for calm of local leaders, including members of the separatist parties. At the height of the crisis some even voiced concern the overseas territory of 270,000 would return to the state of civil war which tore it apart in the 1980s, before a peace accord in 1998 opened the door to granting more powers to the distant islands. Three referendums on separation followed, all resulting in a refusal to break from France, although the last one in 2021, during the pandemic, was boycotted by separatists who asked for a delay due to covid-19, which ravaged the Native Kanak community. Over the years immigration has reduced the share of the population of the Kanaks, now numbering some 111,000, fearful of losing voting power. Nearly a third of this population lives below the poverty line, feeding the troubles. For years the right to vote had been limited to well-established residents, barring those who had moved to New Caledonia more recently, a reality Paris considered out of date and in need of reform. But opponents are particularly outraged France had not reached out to the territory before introducing legislation, and failed to bring up this constitutional reform when president Emmanuel Macron visited last year. The troubles resulted in hundreds of incarcerations and many decimated businesses as well as the shut down of the capital's airport. While Paris called for talks between the archipelago's parties this week's violence left them in no mood to sit down as the island awaited the arrival of forces from both France and nearby Tahiti. A few areas of the capital remained volatile after some of the worst violence abated. Officials are particularly concerned the island is awash with arms, some 100,000 in all, making the tensions potentially explosive. The government blamed hoodlums for the troubles but also accused Azerbaijan, at odds with Paris over Armenia, for forging ties with local separatists, and shut down Tiktok, a platform often used by protesters planning trouble, a decision which was met with much criticism. The incidents are further impoverishing a territory struggling with an economic slowdown, early estimates placing damage in the area of 200 million euros. Residents were struggling to obtain supplies after the destruction of a number of busineses and supply networks. ​ LES CAMPUS EN ÉBULLITION ​ Un certain air des années 60 balaie cette manifestation universelle contre la guerre à Gaza, du moins son côté à la fois gauchiste et anti-guerre. A-t-elle fait pression sur Washington, qui menace dorénavant de freiner ses livraisons en armement? Entamée aux Etats-Unis aux premières heures des représailles l'automne dernier sur des campus américains réactionnaires, elle a pris une nouvelle ampleur avec l'établissement et le démantèlement de camps pro-Palestiniens au printemps, à temps pour les cérémonies des promotions de 2024, qui n'ont pas été épargnées. Les premières interventions policières sur les campus de New York à la Californie en passant par le Texas, menant à des centaines de détentions, ont engendré de nouveaux mouvements ailleurs aux Etats-Unis, puis dans le monde. Au Canada et en Europe, les campements et occupations de bâtiments se sont multipliés, alors que les rues du Moyen-orient redoublaient de colère. Au coeur du débat nord-américain, les liens financiers entre l'état hébreu et les facultés, sur fond d'appel au cessez-le-feu. Fort bien, un sain débat a bien sa place au sein de ces institutions d'enseignement supérieur, mais s'agit-il d'un véritable débat ou d'une litanie de propos, dont certains dérangent et dépassent les bornes? "Intifada! Intifada!" chantent des manifestants sur le campus de l'université McGill à 11 heures du soir près d'une pancarte déclarant que le campement a l'aval d'une première nation livrant un "combat semblable contre l'oppresseur". Mais d'autres, selon les détracteurs, prononceraient des propos antisémites derrière ces clôtures érigées par les manifestants, ce qui provoque un avertissement de l'administration et les condamnations de parlemen-taires locaux, jusqu'au premier ministre. Les cours de justice au Québec trancheront cependant, rejetant des demandes d'injonction pour obtenir le démantèlement du campement, en faisant une affaire à régler hors des tribunaux. Animé de manifestants des universités du centre-ville, le campement de McGill regroupe aussi des participants de l'UQAM et de Concordia, campus réaction-naire quand on se souvient des manifestations qui avaient annulé un discours de Benjamin Netanyahu au tournant du siècle. En effet la cause, comme l'homme, n'en est pas à ses premières heures. Mais seule McGill a l'espace urbain permettant un campement d'envergure dans le centre de la métropole. L'administration souhaite le départ de ces étudiants venant d'ailleurs et de manifestants à temps plein qui ne font pas parti du corps universitaire. Puis comme au sein de manifestations de tout genre, les causes preuvent prêter à confusion. "On est ici parce que... commence une étudiante interviewée à l'université Columbia de New York, avant le démantlement de son campement. Pourquoi est-on là déjà?" demande-t-elle à une amie à ses côtés. Suivent des interventions policières, parfois musclées, aux Etats-Unis, et même en France, puis dans l'ouest canadien alors que le mouvement gagne de l'ampleur de la Grande-Bretagne puis jusqu'en Australie. Parallèle avec les manifestations anti-Vietnam côté américain? Les jeunes impliqués ne risquent pourtant pas d'être envoyés au front, en cette époque où la notion de conscription n'existe presque plus mais fait objet d'un rappel en Europe. Pourtant certains rapprochements sont évidents, note l'historien Ralph Young de l'université Temple: "Ce qui est similaire, c'est qu’il s’agit, dans les deux cas, d’une question morale, dit-il. Les manifestants de 1968 n'étaient pas seulement de jeunes hommes en âge de servir. C’étaient aussi des gens qui trouvaient que le pays était impliqué dans quelquechose qu’ils considéraient comme moralement répréhensible. Ils partagent cette passion avec les jeunes étudiants d’aujour-d’hui." Ce qui est étonnant est la portée internationale de ce mouvement, qui ne se limite pas aux Etats-Unis mais s'étend ailleurs, un peu comme le mouvement écologiste ou celui de Metoo. Robert Cohen de l'université de New York y voit un autre parallèle: "Les étudiants qui manifestent actuellement veulent que les universités se dissocient des entreprises liées à Israël. On peut faire un lien avec le mouvement anti-apartheid des années 1980, qui a réussi à isoler l’Afrique du Sud sur la scène internationale, dit-il. La différence, c'est qu'il n'y avait pas beaucoup de sympathie pour le régime de l’apartheid. Ce n'est pas le cas pour l'État d'Israël, qui bénéficie de beaucoup de soutien." Mais ce soutien est-il en train de faiblir? Le conflit d'ailleurs déchire de nombreux pays qui appuient l'état hébreu et son droit de se défendre, tout en regrettant la virulence de la riposte israélienne. En Amérique du nord, les manifestations ont un impact sur la politique à moins d'un an des élections, notamment sur les partis cherchant à être ré-élus. Puis la réflexion à Washington en matière de livraison d'armement, entamée dans d'autres capitales, montre que l'appui même là n'est pas sans limite. La patience des universités le sera-t-elle? ​ LA GUERRE OUBLIÉE ​ Au coeur des décombres, entre les bélligérants, la famine sévit après des mois d'un conflit encore sans issue. On penserait à Gaza, et voilà tout le problème, car plus d'un an après le début des éclats le Soudan a pris des allures de grand conflit oublié, laissant un monde préoccupé par deux autres guerres plutôt indifférent. Ce Soudan déjà éclaté en deux parties dont on a semble-t-il oublié les horreurs au Darfour, une crise qui à l'époque avait bien mobilisé un défilé de condamnations. Or c'est bien la sur cette terre si aride que la plus grande famine de la planête pourrait sévir, et peut-être même un génocide. La catastrophe peut se résumer par le seul camp de réfugié de Zamzam, au Darfour, où périt un enfant chaque deux heures. Le conflit, qui a déplacé plus de 8 millions de personnes, a notamment chassé les agriculteurs de leurs terres, menaçant la population toute entière. Au Darfour, région synonyme de massacre et de misère où vit un quart de la population soudanaise, « il y a 78 % de nourriture en moins comparé à l’année dernière», alerte Eddie Rowe, directeur du Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM) au Soudan. Human Rights Watch parle même de génocide au Soudan, dénonçant «une campagne systématique visant à se débarrasser, y compris par le meurtre, des habitants de l’ethnie massalit». Le pays de 48 millions d'habitants reste proie aux violences qui ont débuté il y a plus d'un an, en avril 2023, lorsque les paramilitaires des Forces de soutien rapide (FSR) s'en sont pris à l’armée du général Abdel Fattah al-Burhane. Dans la région d’al-Jazira les combats ont ravagé quelques 250 000 hectares, réduisant la récolte nationale de 800 000 tonnes de blé de 70%. Pourtant une conférence à Paris le mois dernier n'a pu réunir que la moitié des quatre milliards d'euros de promesse d'aide réclamée par l'ONU, alors que le Congrès américain débloquait des milliards pour venir en aide à d'autres pays sous pression, de l'Ukraine à Taiwan. "Ce soutien... va permettre de répondre aux besoins les plus urgents dans les secteurs de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnels, de la santé, de l'eau, de l'assainissement, de l'éducation, de la protection des plus vulnérables," avait déclaré le president Emmanuel Macron. Or les axes utilisés par le PAM lors des dernières semaines pour fournir une aide alimentaire d'urgence à plus de 300 000 personnes dans le Nord, l'Ouest et le Centre du Darfour sont dorénavant fermés par le conflit, aggravant la crise alimentaire qui menace 18 millions de malnutrition. A Paris quatorze pays ont également adopté une déclaration commune appelant "les acteurs étrangers" à "cesser d'apporter un soutien armé ou du materiel aux parties du conflit." On y évoque de probables "crimes de guerre" et "crimes contre l'humanité". Certains craignent d'ailleurs une nouvelle désintegration du pays et une véritable destabilisation d'une Corne de l'Afrique. "Au-delà du financement, il faut mettre de la pression pour qu'il y ait un cessez-le-feu immédiat parce que si l'on continue comme ça, dans un an, le Soudan risque de se désintégrer", a alerté le chef de la diplomatie tchadienne Mahamat Saleh Annadif. Plus d'un an après le début du conflit Jean Stowell de Médecins sans frontières dénonce "un vide humanitaire extrêmement inquiétant", tandis que d'autres exigent des sanctions contre les bélligérants qui bloquent la réponse humanitaire qui peut exister. ​ THE ELECTORAL MARATHON ​ Running the world's largest election is no small feat. India is taking six weeks, not to campaign, but to allow its 969 million electors to exercise their democratic right. You would think with that many people and possibly as many points of view there would be a plethora of political parties vying for power, an there are, but only a few are really in the race, supported by an alliance, and only one seems able to muster a majority. India's opposition is fractured and despite a rare show of unity early on by a dozen opponents calling on voters to "save democracy", the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is unlikely to be dislodged ten years into Narendra Modi's prime ministership. And this lead may be giving him an aura of invicibility, and with it, a focus on his base that may be leaving millions of his citizens behind. Less than a week into the voting marathon of the world's most populous country the incumbent wasted no time sparking controversy, uttering what the opposition denounced as a hate speech, for referring to Muslims as "infiltrators" during a campaign stop. It isn't the first time Modi has fanned the flames of Hindu nationalism and left members of minori-ties increasingly insecure. In time some who have been able to afford it, notably in the Sikh community, have even been driven to immigrate, deploring a central government increasingly looking after its own. The statement wasn't a slip, Modi has repeatedly targeted minorities and even accused the rival Congress party of plotting to confiscate the jewellery of Hindu women so they could be given to poorer Muslim families, a reference to a former Congress leader who pleaded for redistribution of wealth. As the latest electoral stage got underway, a petition gathering over 17,000 signatures addressed to the electoral commission asked for measures be taken against Modi for uttering hatred. "For those following Indian elections in the last decade those comments come as no surprise," notes Georgetown professor Irfan Nooruddin. "He has often successfully used hateful discourse targeting Muslims to mobilise his electoral base." Modi's campaign utterances stand in stark contrast which speeches he gives on foreign visits, lauding India as diverse and the world's largest democracy. India is being courted heavily as the world witnesses the emergence of a Chinese superpower, while an old one, Russia, asserts itself militarily. This can result in leaving the West looking the other way on sensitive internal matters, Noorudding says. "Westerners have made the choice of looking the other way to avoid seeing this rhetoric and all that's happened in India during the last decade," including the weakening of institutions and pressure on the free press. But Sometimes it's been difficult to do so, especially after Delhi was accused in the US and Canada of ordering the assassination of foreign, often separatist, critics it brands as terrorists. According to observers such daring actions play well to domestic audiences, especially during a campaign, and allow Modi to project the image of the defender of the nation. The term terrorist is increasingly being used to target critics, and this sort of inflammatory vernacular is slipping into the ranks of the citizenry, often aimed at minorities. Muslims say they are increasingly disparaged or discriminated against, and this is reflected in a report by the India Hate Lab which documented 668 hate speech events targeting Muslims in 2023, noting an uptick as the year went on, as the election neared, especially in BJP-ruled states. "Muslims have become second-class citizens, an invisible minority in their own country," told the BBC author Ziya Us Salam. Modi denies minorities are being mistreated in India. In a country of 1.4 billion "you cannot generalise one or two incidents," insists BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam. "If someone portrays it as something targeted against Muslims, they are wrong." The opposition is instilling fear in minorities to gather support and weaken Modi, Islam says. While the parties traded barbs a few weeks in, voting participation was slipping, possibly due to unseasonably hot temperatures, in a political climate that is just as torrid. ​ PRIX A L'ENTRÉE ​ Menacées par l'érosion, prises d'assaut par les touristes chaque été, les îles de la Madeleine dans le Golfe du St Laurent ont décidé, comme beaucoup de lieux prisés par les visiteurs à travers le monde, de passer à l'acte et mettre en place des mesures pour limiter l'accès à leurs trésors en période de forte affluence. Mais la réaction a été vive et plutôt désagréable, forçant la municipalité d'à peine 12,000 âmes de justifier son acte... et de limiter les commentaires sur ses pages des médias sociaux. En effet certains visiteurs n'y ont vu que du feu lorsque les îles ont imposé un système de "passe des îles" entre mai et octobre avec code QR de 30$ pour financer le maintien des lieux et autres coûts associés aux visites, nombreuses pendant la période estivale. Un certain vent de mécontentement se lève contre les afflux touristiques de manière générale dans plusieurs régions, de Barcelone aux îles Canaries, site de manifestations récentes de citoyens éprouvés par les hordes de touristes, malgré les retombées économiques. Par conséquent certains lieux ont décidé d'imposer des frais d'entrée, notamment Venise qui exige une somme de 5 euros aux visiteurs à partir de cette année. D'autres le font depuis plus longtemps, du Bhoutan aux îles de Pâques puis à Londres, pour y limiter la circulation dans le centre, mesure qu'imite New York cette année. Ceci dans un environnement inflationniste généralisé. Mais les îles de la Madeleine, qui pourraient pénaliser les visiteurs non munis de code à raison de 1000$, vont trop loin d'insurge une Québécoise, comme d'autres, outrée de devoir débourser pour visiter sa propre province. "Jamais au grand jamais, j'accepterais de me plier au dictat d'un code QR pour visiter ma région, nous ne sommes pas des bêtes de foire, encore moins des esclaves, proteste Yolaine Lebrasseur sur la page Facebook de la municipalité. J'ai honte de mon Québec, même les plus belles villes du monde ne vont jamais aussi loin. À boycotter. C pas le 30$ qui m'écoeure... C le code QR pour entrer chez toi !!!! Je passe mon tour !!!!" D'autres ont été plus directs, forçant la municipalité à limiter les commentaires sur sa page Facebook. "Malgré l'appel au calme et au respect publié hier sur cette page, force est de constater que la nature de certains propos demeure inacceptable et que des commentaires inappropriés persistent". Autant dire que les mesures du genre ne sont pas accueillies favorablement partout. Des résidents de la Sérénissime se sont eux-même prononcés contre le nouveau tarif à l'entrée, faisant remarquer que la cité des Doges prenait alors des allures de Disneyland tandis que les nombreux problèmes n'en étaient pas réglés pour autant entre les canaux de la lagune italienne. ​ TRYING TO KEEP LID ON VIOLENCE ​ Over six months into the crisis in the Middle East have fears of a wider war become a reality after Iran fired over 300 drones, cruise and other missiles towards Israel in retaliation for the destruction of its compound in Damascus? Israel's response was key, Tehran considering itself satisfied it had avenged the killing of its two generals. Israel on the other hand considered the matter far from over after this, the first attack from Iranian soil, despite its allies' insistence it should consider the lack of damage "a win" and hold fire. Indeed Israeli, British, French, Jordanian and American forces were able to target most of the projectiles as they made their way over the region's airspace towards Israel, while the Iron Dome got many of the rest, leaving just a few to bypass defenses causing minor damage and one injury. The counter measures had proven so effective they drew global praise and envious remarks from Ukraine, also being supported by Western allies in its struggle against a threatening foreign power. On the same day Israel also faced simultaneous fire from Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Yemen while Iranian forces attacked an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The United States had been warning about the imminence of an Iranian attack, in its latest display of intelligence capabilities, but its stern message to Tehran it should not carry on with such an act went unheeded. Washington, it soon turned out, would also be ignored by embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, determined to defend and avenge the homeland at all cost. Or at least send such a message. Israel's Western allies had rallied behind the Jewish state days after they had balked at continued military assistance in view of the country's destruction of Gaza in its ongoing response to the October 7 terror attacks, showing the relationship is not without its strains. The US had moved more military assets to the region ahead of the Iranian attack and the UK said it would send more fighter jets to defend Israel as the attack was unfolding. But London also demanded Israel provide more aid to Gaza, keeping the festering conflict in the spotlight, all the while it and other Western allies faced criticism for arming the Jewish state. Despite its limited damage overall, the Iranian attack was significant in that it was the first time the regime directly targeted Israel despite decades of tensions, notably over the development of Tehran's nuclear programme. While Iran said the attack was in retaliation for the Damascus strike, embattled prime minister Netanyahu said his forces would respond in kind, heralding a possible new cycle of violence. ​ But when Israel did strike it was with a missile strike on a base in central Iran away from population centres. It did not seem Tehran would be ready to engage in a new round of open warfare. Still the tit for tat was enough to send oil prices skyrocketing. In the meantime the West is hitting back Iran with new sanctions, in particular against its thriving drone industry. But Iran, like other countries such as Russia, has been able to circumvent sanctions, notably those facing its petroleum sector. Meanwhile this weekend US lawmakers finally passed a long delayed bill providing billions in military aid for both Ukraine and Israel. ​ ISIS MAKING A COMEBACK? ​ After years of describing its attack in Ukraine as a "special operation", terms possibly meant for something that involved a quick victory, the Kremlin was finally ready to admit Russia was in a state of war. Hours after this change in semantics this would prove truer in more ways but one. The attack of a concert venue in the outskirts of Moscow which killed over 130 people was the most important attack in the country in over 20 years, but Ukraine would have little to do with it. The shooting of innocent civilians gathered to listen to a music concert had all the hallmarks of an ISIS attack and came weeks after Western embassies, acting on intelligence chatter, had advised their citizens to avoid large gatherings in Russia. As suspected the Kremlin immediately pointed to Ukraine, even if an ISIS statement soon after claimed responsibility. The old foe had some capabilities left it would seem, including being able to strike at the heart of a major power. It took hours for the Kremlin to officially react to the attack, which by then had resulted in the arrest of four people police claimed were directly involved. ​ But Moscow wasn't ready to drop chances of linking the bloodshed to Ukraine however, President Putin in his first appearance, claiming the people arrested - who were later described as Tadjik Muslim extremists - were seeking to flee to Ukraine after the attack, alleging a window had been prepared along that border, something Kyiv said was "absurd", pointing out the border was the front line in the war and denying any responsibility in the shooting. Of course by now there is no free press left across Russia to question how its intelligence services, the country being run by a recently re-elected former agent, could have missed chatter on such a devastating attack. Or why it didn't take more seriously warnings from the West something was in the air. Putin had dismissed such warnings as an attempt to destabilize the country. This was just the latest major intelligence failure Russia experienced in recent years, having first failed to see Ukraine would resist the first push into its territory, then unprepared for Prigozhin's short-lived mutiny. In any case how could there have been so little security around such a large venue considering the tense national environment, or so delayed a response time? Russia later did cancel all major venues across the country soon after the attack. The shooting harkened back to the 2002 takeover of a Moscow theater by Chechens. Russia's response to that hostage taking had however hardly been a lesson in negotiations, resorting to a brutal security operation which killed 130 people. The Beslan school siege by Chechens 20 years ago had resulted in over 300 dead, many of them children. ISIS said it had carried out its latest attack against "Christians" describing it as part of a wider war between itself and countries "fighting Islam." The Islamic state has been critical of Russian actions in Chechnya but also abroad, such as in Syria. Russia is of course hardly the only country IS has a beef against and the organization has been rebuilding, as feared, in failed states such as Afghanistan, where it has been taking on the ruling Taleban. Could we be on the verge of a new series of global terror attacks? “I think their ideology inspires them in terms of selecting targets," told Al-Jazeera Murat Aslan, a military analyst and former Turkish army colonel. "First of all, Russia is in Syria and fighting against Daesh like the United States. That means they see such countries as hostile. They are now in Moscow. Previously they were in Iran, and we will see much more attacks, maybe in other capitals.” They have been responsible for a number of attacks, in Kabul notably, including a 2021 attack which killed 175 civilians, and orchestrated a separate attack of the Russian embassy there. Iran has also been a target more recently, Tehran blaming them for attacks in Shiraz killing 14 last year. “ISIS in its original regions of operations, Syria and Iraq, also sees [an] uptick in operational capabilities,” notes Kabir Taneja, a fellow at the Strategic Studies programme of the Observer Research Foundation, adding it remains “ideologically powerful even if not politically, tactically or strategically … that powerful any more”. And it struck at a time the world's powers are preoccupied with a number of major conflicts “How to combat this is the big question at a time when big power competition and global geopolitical churn has put counterterrorism on the back burner.” Just a day before the attack, U.S. Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla warned American lawmakers "ISIS-Khorasan retains the capability and the will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning." And ISIS' list of foes is a long one, lashing out in its publications at targets including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as leaders of Hamas not to mention Putin and the Taleban. France, which raised its terror level after the attack and ahead of the Olympics, said it had foiled a dozen terror plots in recent years. Other EU countries such as Italy also upped their readiness. Djihadists are also making gains in Africa, a continent where some countries have ironically turned to Russia to fight extremism, with limited success. The group "has grown more ambitious and aggressive in its efforts to gain notoriety and relevance," notes author Amira Jadoon. "It has effectively fused a wide range of regional grievances into its global jihadist agenda." Russia remains a particularly attractive target, as it is preoccupied with Ukraine and is home to potential jihadists. ​ LA GROGNE A CUBA ​ Marqué par des interruptions de courant fréquentes et des carences alimentaires importantes, le territoire serait au bord de l'effondrement. Gaza? Haïti? En fait c'est de Cuba dont il serait question alors que la grogne monte sur fond de faiblesse économique et de sanctions américaines. Au point même où le gouvernement aurait, au même titre que ces deux autres territoires, fait appel à l'aide des Nations unies. Ce n'est pas l'avenir qu'entrevoyaient les habitants de l'ile de Caraïbes avec la montée au pouvoir de Miguel Díaz-Canel, mettant fin à la période Castro. Celui-ci n'inspire pas le respect que certains pouvaient ressentir envers la grande famille de la révolution, et s'est empressé d'accuser les Etats-Unis, ces démons de toujours, d'"interventionnisme" alors que la rue cubaine se fait de moins en moins timide face au pouvoir. Les Etats-Unis nient toute implication, mais le chef d'état cubain estime que 65 années de sanctions constituent un blocus "criminel" de l'ile des Caraïbes. Les manifestations se multiplient depuis la mi-mars et ce même à Santiago, berceau de la révolution et lieu de repos du Comandante, où des manifestants faisaient appel à plus de nourriture et d'électricité. Le manque de médicaments, sur une ile dont le système de santé gratuit est symbole de fierté, et l'inflation sont également à l'origine des manifestations, dans un pays où elles ont rarement été tolérées et où plusieurs opposants du régime croupissent en prison. Le régime a dû imposer des mesures d'austérité et des hausses de coûts impopulaires, le prix du carburant alimentant les vieilles américaines des années 50 ayant grimpé d'environ 500%. La dernière fois qu'une telle contestation s'était emparée de l'ile, en 2021, le régime avait eu recours à la force. Mais cette fois la Havane, en plus des arrestations coutimières, a dû faire de rares appels au calme et à l'aide internationale, et même au Programme alimentaire mondial, en raison du manque de nourriture qui menace une population déjà soumise à l'imposition d'un carnet de rationnement sévère. En 2023 le pays admettait déjà avoir de la difficulté à importer de l'alimentation en raison du manque de devises. La production agricole nationale, pendant ce temps, dégringolait. Cuba a vu 5% de sa population prendre la mer entre 2021 et 2023, notamment de jeunes Cubains instruits cherchant à échapper à la faim et à la répression du régime, selon l'auteur Juan Pablo Spinetto. "La situation représente un test important pour la région - et une occasion, dit-il. Mais malgré tout le scénario le plus probable est celui de l'incertitude et du chaos." Pour le chercheur Arturo Lopez-Levy «le modèle est en crise». «Ce qui se cache derrière les protestations, ce sont fondamentalement les pénuries et la rupture du pacte social». Même le tourisme, manne économique principale du pays, est en chute depuis le retour des restrictions américaines qui avaient été levées avec l'arrivée d'Obama, au point même où certains Cubains ont été attirés par les campagnes de recrutement de l'armée rouge pour fournir les rangs de la guerre en Ukraine, chose qui n'a pas manqué de faire scandale à La Havane. ​ A STRONGMAN IN JAKARTA? ​ In an age authoritarianism is making global gains the results of Indonesia's presidential election will do little to allay fears democracy is on the decline. In March a former special forces general with ties to the country's notorious past dictatorship who has been accused of human rights violations was confirmed as the winner of the recent elections over two candidates who vowed to dispute the results. Prabowo Subianto, 72, was backed by the outgoing leader Joko Widodo, whose son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is slated to become vice president despite being 37. This normally would have precluded him from holding office until the constitutional court made an exception to the rule candidates had to be at least 40. Widodo's brother-in-law, who was the court's chief justice at the time, was later removed for failing to recuse himself. This is but one of the irregularities noted by Subianto's opponents, who vow to pursue their cause before the courts. But Subianto alone has been under much scrutiny as questions abound about alleged ties to torture, disappearances and other human rights abuses going back to the final years of the notorious Suharto, whose daughter he was once married to. Subianto was expelled from the army over accusations of involvement in kidnappings and torture of activists and some fear his response to protest and criticism may come in the form of crackdown in the struggling democracy that is the world's largest Muslim nation. Subianto, who had previously lost twice to him, vowed to preserve Widodo's legacy and its so-called Jokowinomics. Forced out by the country's two-term limit, Widodo leaves the helm as "one of the most well-liked leaders in the world, with approval ratings around 80 percent", notes Foreign Policy, owing to a certain personality cult built up thanks to social media, such as TikTok. The numbers speak for themselves however with the GDP rising by 43% under his tenure, and his promise to spread development, notably by boosting infrastructure projects and moving the capital to Borneo by 2045, no small infrastructure feat, though the decision has not been without controversy. Yet “the human rights situation took a turn for the worse,” notes Human Rights Watch, pointing to challenges to freedoms of speech and assembly and to protections for minorities, such as the LGBTQ+ community. “Under his tenure, free elections have been threatened, civil liberties have declined, corruption fighters and legislative checks weakened, and the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs has grown,” charged two authors in the Journal of Democracy in 2021. In other words, everything to prepare Subianto's rise to power, while at the same time, with the exception enabling Raka's candidacy, setting the stage for the country's latest dynasty. "The President's not-so-behind-the-scenes maneu-vering in the 2024 race" was plain for all to see, noted the Jakarta Post's Endy Bayuni, "To many voters, a Prabowo presidency is really Jokowi 3.0". The first foreign trip after his election, before he formally ascends to the presidency in October, was to China, to reaffirm ties with the regional power. But it was quickly followed by a trip to Japan, showing the country intends to keep a middle road approach to super power relations. China became Indonesia's greatest trading partner under Widodo and Jakarta has taken a neutral stance on the territorial dispute opposing Manila and Beijing over the South China Sea, which caused more incidents in recent weeks. ​ UN PAYS EN GUERRE ​ Les pétards du nouvel n'avaient rien de festif en Equateur. Le lendemain de la déclaration de l'état d'urgence, des éclats retentissaient dans ce pays troublé par une guerre de gangs se disputant les artères de circulation de la drogue. Violences, explosions, kidnappings de membres de forces de l'ordre; les incidents se multiplient dans cet ancien havre de paix sud-américain devenu cauchemar quotidien. Des téléspectateurs ont été choqués de voir un gang armé et cagoulé prendre d'assaut un poste de télévision en direct et ses présentateurs en otage, armes à la main. Le jeune et nouveau président du pays Daniel Noboa venait de décréter l'état d'urgence à travers le pays après l’évasion de l’ennemi public numéro un, Adolfo Macias, alias «Fito ». Après l'attaque du poste de télévision il fit une autre déclaration: Le pays était proie à un conflit armé interne et donc en état de guerre. L'Equateur, ce pays de biodiversité à la géographie notoire, est depuis quelques temps proie à la violence et notamment à des soulèvements dans les prisons controlées par les gangs. A peine arrivé au pouvoir le président a été critiqué par l'opposition et la presse pour avoir recours à l'état d'urgence afin de tenter de calmer la crise, en raison des insuccès de cette méthode dans le passé. Selon le président de la Commission de justice du Parlement Vicente Taiano «par le passé, plus de dix ans d’état d’exception n’ont servi absolument à rien ». Certains kidnappings ont d'ailleurs eu lieu dans les zones désignées par l'état d'exception. Le pays sombre dans la violence depuis plus d'un an, période marquée par l'assassinat du candidat anti-corruption Fernando Villavicencio lors de la campagne électorale de l'automne, tué quelques jours après avoir été menacé par un des gangs de la drogue. Le prédécesseur de Noboa s'était déjà engagé à sévèrement punir les membres du crime organisé avec tous les pouvoirs à sa disposition, ce qui semble n'avoir que provoqué une réaction encore plus virulente de la part des narcocriminels qui contrôlent de nombreux pénitenciers à travers ce pays de 17 millions d'habitants témoins de scènes plutôt colombiennes ces derniers temps. L'Equateur souffre d'une situation géographique qui le situe, entre le Pérou et la Colombie, au coeur de la route de la drogue qui remonte d'Amérique du sud aux grands marchés nord-américain et européen. Les cartels mexicains auraient même un rôle important dans le financement de ce conflit sanglant. Le maire de la communauté de Manta avait également péri sous les tirs dans cette recrudescence de la violence. Face au "cauchemar" généralisé que traverse le pays, une certaine unité se forge malgré tout dans la classe politique, l'ancien président Rafael Correa, qui avait pourtant appuyé l'opposant de Noboa lors de l'élection, déclarant depuis l'étranger: "Président Daniel Noboa vous avez notre soutien total et sans réserve, s'il vous plait ne cédez pas, dit-il, le crime organisé a déclaré la guerre à l'Etat et l'Etat doit l'emporter." Une lourde tâche pour ce jeune dirigeant de 36 ans, à ses premiers mois à la tête d'un pays traversant une tourmente sans précédent. Les risques sont considérables. Cette semaine on apprenait déjà le décès du procureur enquêtant sur l'occupation du poste télévisé. "Nous combattons tous les jours pour ne pas devenir un narco-état, déclara Noboa à la BBC. Je crois que nous pouvons gagner et je ne vais jamais cesser de me battre jusqu'à ce qu'on gagne." ​ RETOUR DU TERRORISME? ​ La sécurité était resserrée en Europe et ailleurs pendant les fêtes alors que la menace d'attaques planait sur l'Occident. Le terrorisme effectue-t-il un retour alors que perdure la guerre au Moyen-orient? L'attaque d'un touriste allemand, causant sa mort et blessant d'autres touristes à Paris en novembre annonçait possi-blement un retour en force de cet ancien mal. Quelques jours plus tard les autorités danoises, allemandes et hollandaises arrêtaient des suspects radicalisés sympa-thisants du Hamas qui préparaient dit-on des attaques en Europe alors que le Mossad sonnait l'alarme sur le vieux continent. De l'autre côté de l'Atlantique, ce même redressement des mesures alors que le FBI mettait en garde à propos de la possibilité d'actes en lien avec la cause palestinienne. Un accident spectaculaire sur un pont reliant le Canada aux Etats-Unis cet automne avait semé des craintes pendant quelques heures avant que tout lien au terrorisme soit écarté. Il suivait une mise à jour du Foreign Office britannique avertissant ses citoyens que le Canada pourrait être visé par un attentat. En plein Hannoukah la police ottavienne quant à elle annonçait avoir arrêté un jeune qui mijotait dit-on un complot terroriste contre la communauté juive dans la capitale. On n'en était pas à la première menace contre cette population au Canada, mais la première qui aurait pu impliquer des explosifs. La menace du groupe terroriste envers la communauté juive s'étend bien au-delà de la région immédiate du Moyen-orient, inspirant des actes d'antisémitisme partout dans le monde. Le niveau d'alerte terroriste au Danemark était à 4, soit le second plus élevé, alors que les Pays-bas faisaient grimper le leur à "substantiel". Les Etats-Unis auraient cependant déjà détourné le regard de leurs services de renseignement du terrorisme à la menace chinoise, un geste qui selon le Wall St Journal aurait peu de succès. Entre temps un ancien ennemi semblait refaire surface. En Turquie les autorités déclaraient à quelques jours du nouvel an avoir arrêté une trentaine de membres de l'Etat islamique prêts à passer à l'acte contre des églises et des synagogues. La Turquie avait procédé à l'arrestation de non moins de 300 militants du groupe lors d'interventions à travers le pays la semaine précédente. Le groupe y a été actif ces dernières années, faisant près de 40 victimes lors de l'attaque d'une boite de nuit en 2017. Fort heureusement les célébration du nouvel an semblent s'être déroulées sans incident majeur, d'importants effectifs ayant été déployés dans certains pays, notamment en France. Mais au moins un incident, dans l'état de New York, a causé la consternation, un véhicule impliqué dans un incident explosant en raison de sa cargaison de conteneurs d'essence. Visait-il un concert près du site de l'incident? Quelques jours plus tard EI se disait responsable d'un attentat sanglant en Iran. Après avoir perdu son caliphat en Irak le groupe s'est dispersé, notamment en Afghanistan et au Pakistan, mais garde une emprise sur une partie de l'Afrique selon le rensei-gnement américain, où il pourrait répandre son influence et ses attaques. ​ THE PERILS OF SHIPPING ​ A little over a decade after piracy off the horn of Africa made sailing dangerous in that region of the world shipping companies are steering clear of another body of water as the Hamas-Israeli conflict enters another month. And the war may be extending the danger zone to waters much further away. US, British and French navy vessels in the Red Sea have made a habit of shooting down rockets and drones originating in Yemen, leaving companies to make the difficult decision to choose a longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope. This isn't the first time the region has been troubled. A few years ago a ship ran aground in the Suez Canal forcing a similar rerouting, adding to the shipping woes which followed the restart of business after the pandemic. Shippers are increasingly sidestepping minefields as they navigate global waters, both literally and figura-tively. At the other end of the continent the sort of piracy that was making the Horn of Africa's risky waters at the turn of the century has impacted ships off the West Coast of the continent. Further North Black Sea shipping has become a challenge due to mines dropped during that other war, one vessel heading to Ukraine recently hitting one of them. The China Sea meanwhile remains contested waters as tensions rise over Taiwan. Halfway across the globe shipping is further disrupted by low water levels in the Panama Canal, forcing companies to use another longer route around, though some of the months-long restrictions were being lifted in December. In addition, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre, piracy and hot spots for shippers include the Singapore Strait, for its armed robberies, as well as some waters off South America, particularly off Peru. The Red Sea crisis therefore only added to an already tense environment for global shippers in many parts of the planet, impacting commerce and trade. And while the industry is used to being challenged, the rocket firing and drone attacks represent a whole new level of threat. Concerned by this the US launched a task force with allied nations to make the area safer, a global policing role some fear will be reviewed should there be a change of administration in the While House following this fall's elections. In the mean time Iran, which had previously threatened ships in the Red Sea, warned such a task force would face “extraordinary problems” for challenging its perceived authority there, and dispatched a warship to the waters. “Nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance,” defied Iran’s Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani. The naval task force, numbering a dozen nations, quickly went to work taking down Houthi vessels and could possibly even target the source of the rockets and drones in Yemen, where the Iran-backed group operates. The latter have attacked ships there for years, including Saudi vessels which were forced to withdraw from the waters, but are doing so increasingly now. The stakes have been particularly high since the capture of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in late November, a ship believed to be Israel-owned. In December BP paused transit through the Red Sea after shipping giants MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM and Maersk had done so earlier. Encouraged by the launch of the task force, Maersk initially resumed passages, before an attack on one of its ships caused it to pause traffic there once more. 18 companies have chosen the long way around so far. In addition last month a tanker also believed to be Israeli-owned was targeted in the Indian Ocean much further away, an incident the US blamed on Iran. Combined all these incidents in the Red Sea and elsewhere will have a global impact, "add to the price of energy, it's going to add to inflation, it's going to create wider military and international tensions," said Radhika Desai of the University of Manitoba. And while avoiding the Suez Canal saves from having to pay pretty hefty fees, the rerouting isn't an easy option as shippers face African ports often ill equipped to welcome them. "Even the state that Durban is in now, it is still the most advanced and largest port in Africa, so ships rerouting around the continent have very limited choices for berthing for replenishment," logistics and supply chain consultant Alessio Lencioni told Reuters. The strike on a ship off India added to the area of the perceived threat, and prompted Delhi to send three warships in the area, as the troubled seas require extra policing well beyond the Middle East region. ​ LES DÉFIS DE KYIV ​ Le nouvel an n'avait rien de trop réjouissant pour Volodymyr Zelensky. Revenu quasiment bredouille de Washington cet automne alors que les Républicains bloquent le passage du financement de la guerre, eux qui pourraient l'emporter aux élections de 2024, il connaissait un blocage semblable en Europe malgré le gain d'un allié à Varsovie après la défaite du parti populiste. Au Canada la politique a également empêché la modernisation du traité de libre-échange avec l'Ukraine, un geste qui ne change en rien l'appui d'Ottawa dans la guerre contre la Russie mais qui résume la période difficile que traverse le pays est-européen à la veille du deuxième anniversaire du début de l'invasion. Par ailleurs le front semble inchangé malgré la poussée ukrainienne de 2023 et le ravitaillement militaire fait défaut. Les appuis se poursuivent pourtant mais on exige d'en savoir plus sur la stratégie de Kyiv à court et plus long terme. Pendant ce temps l'éternel premier ministre hongrois posait son veto au financement provenant de l'Union européenne. Entre août et octobre l'aide des alliés auraient diminué de 90% par rapport à l'année précédente. Moscou ne pouvait que se réjouir de ces embûches en plus des frappes continues sur le territoire ukrainien. Zelensky n'a-t-il pas d'ailleurs souffert de la perte de ses habitants, pas juste au front mais avec ces nombreux expatriés de moins en moins enclins à retourner chez eux? Entre temps la démocratie est en suspens au sein de ce pays qui se dit combattre la dictature aux portes de l'UE en son nom. Zelensky affirme pouvoir organiser des élections malgré la guerre, mais estime que son peuple ne le souhaite pas. Pourtant un certain nettoyage a été jugé nécessaire. Zelensky a dû renvoyer des membres de son entourage trouvés coupables de corruption, ce virus qui ronge le régime de l'intérieur depuis des années. C'est un sujet qui préoccupe notamment les Etats-Unis, son aide se chiffrant en milliards de dollars. Un rapport confidentiel obtenu par Politico met en garde que la “perception de la corruption aux échelons supérieurs pourrait saper la confiance du public ukrainien et des dirigeants étrangers envers le gouvernement de guerre”, et jouer dans les mains de Vladimir Poutine, qui n'a pas de pareils comptes à rendre. La question précède l'invasion russe et mettre un terme à la corruption pourrait devenir une condition du versement de l'aide du futur. Il est notamment question pour Washington de "déoligarchiser" une partie de l'industrie nationale, cette ancienne habitude communiste qui a laissé l'économie entre les mains de quelques grands acteurs, notamment dans le secteur énergétique. En fin d'année le ministère de la défense mettait la lumière sur une tentative de magouille entourant l'achat d'obus, que certains auraient prévu d'acheter à des prix artificiellement élevés, alors même que le nouveau ministre s'engageait à mettre fin à la corruption. Il s'agit précisément du genre de combine qui alarme les alliés de Kyiv. De manière générale la grogne s'installe en Ukraine après deux ans de guerre, les recruteurs de l'armée se montrant plus agressifs face au manque de soldats au front. Ils auraient besoin d'un demi million de combatants pour poursuivre la lutte, puis la contre-offensive de 2023 n'a pas porté fruit, mais la Russie n'a pas fait d'importants gains l'an dernier non plus, rappelle Zelensky en conférence de fin d'année. Geste encourageant, une première depuis des décennies, le Japon s'engage à livrer des armes, et les Pays-bas des F-16. En fait les premiers chasseurs auraient été livrés. Pendant ce temps la Grande Bretagne annonçait l'envoi de 200 missiles anti-aériens et Washington songeait à puiser dans les 300 milliards en actifs russes gelés pour soutenir Kyiv, même si la légalité du geste n'est pas entièrement garantie. L'ironie cependant est assurée. Puis il faut bien puiser l'espoir là où on le peut. ROCKET SCIENCE ​ Nobody said rocket science would be easy. Fifty years later, amid a barrage of space launches led by the private sector, it's still proving quite the challenge to return to the moon. The failure of January's US mission to send an unmanned lander to Earth's satellite was followed by NASA's decision to delay plans to return there, including the Artemis II mission that was to involve a Canadian astronaut as early as this fall, now pushed back to 2025. Landing on the moon will have to wait the following year. Space has been the subject of renewed interest as both new countries and private companies launched recent missions, some successful, others not. During the Cold war the main power rivals succeeded launching a number of successful moon landings in the 1960s and 70s. It was decades before others joined the feat, adding them to their big power ambitions as China joined the elite club in 2013 and India last August. That didn't prevent Delhi from suffering a more recent setback, while private missions by newcomers Israel and Japan, as well as veteran player Russia met the same fate. Until this week. Japan's successful unmanned moon landing this week made it just the fifth country to join the exclusive space club. Perhaps space gazers have something to look forward to after all this year. Days before a SpaceX ship took off with four astronauts heading to the International space station. The private sector has had mixed results as it multiplied launches. In November SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to eventually carry astronauts, exploded in space after a successful launch. Even that failure was painted as a learning experiment however. Astrobotic Technology's January peregrine moon lander mission however, after initially getting off the ground, became a dud when the vehicle started leaking fuel six hours into the flight. What would have been the first US spacecraft to attempt a soft landing on the moon in more than half a century experienced a "critical loss of propellant" that ultimately doomed the mission. But the number of space launches overall has, with the involvement of the private sector and dominant SpaceX in particular, skyrocketed not to say exploded over time. In January alone the US-based company had half a dozen scheduled launches, usually to send Starlink internet satellites into orbit but also to supply the International Space Station. Last year it sent 80 missions into orbit, a number that will nearly double this year. But other players are joining the action. Later this year, while Canada will not yet see one of its astronauts fired into space as first scheduled, it will be the scene of the first commercial launch from Canso, Nova Scotia, home of Canada's first commercial spaceport. While satellite launches will be in its future, Maritime Launch Services is getting off the ground planning its first commercial sub-orbital research flights in 2024. Delays to the much trumpeted Artemis II mission however show the remaining challenges tied to more complex matters such as lunar exploration. “Safety is our top priority, and to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time development, operations and integration, we’re going to give more time on Artemis II and III,” explained NASA administrator Bill Nelson. NASA’s Inspector General had previously cited challenges for the mission to address. One involved the ground structure used to build, transport and launch the program’s Space Launch System rocket, which “sustained more damage than expected” after Artemis I. He also cited the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft, which “eroded in an unexpected way” during the Artemis I mission after it was exposed to high temperatures during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. We're a long way from a permanent moon base, let alone Mars, but interest in space matters has never been so widespread. And now a new flag has been planted on our favorite satellite. ​ VISIT FROM THE TROPICS ​ Their buzzing is the annoying soundtrack of summer evenings spent outdoors and their bite an itchy discomfort in normal times. But in the course of history mosquitoes have proven the deadliest animal known to man, resulting in about a million deaths worldwide, spreading a number of infections from Malaria to Zika. The development of the Panama Canal alone was marked by such a heavy human toll due to mosquito-borne infections as man attempted to tame the jungles of the Central American country that intial French efforts had to be abandoned. And while taking precautions against these flying hazards is usually something for travellers heading to rural areas of the tropical world to consider, that may be about to change. With climate change countries further north, and especially their urban settings, are becoming new areas of concern. This was hardly more apparent than following a series of incidents over the summer which saw a Canadian citizen die of the extremely rare mosquito-borne Eastern equine encephalitis, while further south former top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci contracted another virus carried by mosquitoes, the West Nile virus. EEE had even prompted officials in Massachusetts to take the extreme measures of shutting down public parks in some towns where the rare but deadly virus had been detected. Fewer people now think these decisions were exaggerated in view of the potential threat posed. Health officials in Canada's capital are now dispensing the sort of health advice more familiar to travellers heading for tropical destinations known for their health risks. While vaccines do exist for some mosquito-borne infections such as the chikungunya virus, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and dengue, West Nile Virus, the most common of these infections in the US, and EEE are best avoided by covering up, wearing deet, avoiding outdoor activities when mosquitoes are out and getting rid of standing water that facilitates breeding. The latter may not always seem that easy after a summer season marked by heavy rains in some parts, which followed a particularly warm winter that allowed mosquitoes to multiply sooner. "While it's true that so few mosquitoes are infected, the higher number of mosquitoes makes it more likely that such an encounter will happen," told TIME Dr. Photini Sinnis of the Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Mosquito populations are really climate-driven and habitat-driven." And changing climates mean some infections previously found in tropical climates may now make their way north to more temperate environments. Battles against those invaders are also taking place in the form of genetic modifications of mosquitoes or infecting them with a virus-killing bacteria, as tested in parts of Southeast Asia and Australia to fight the spread of dengue. Now these efforts were sure to be emulated in countries of the northern hemisphere dealing with a new stinging reality, as global warming extends the dangers posed by mosquitoes, taking new dimensions even in areas they were known to spread. ​ LÉGERS DÉLAIS ​ Il n'y a nul doute, le développement du chemin de fer trans-canadien d'un océan à l'autre a joué un rôle capital dans l'unification et la croissance du pays, mais qu'en est-il de l'état de ce parcours de fer au premier quart du XXIe siècle? Alors que le court lock-out du fret par rail a eu un impact important au niveau du commerce national et nord-américain, l'immobilisation d'un train dans un corridor essentiel de l'est du pays a rappelé les retards à combler au niveau passager dans ce triste réseau bien maigrichon. Car les tracés de fer sont bien rares à travers cette étendue de 10 millions de kilomètres carrés, étant plutôt concentrés dans le centre du pays. Et pourtant c'est là qu'ont été bloqués des passagers d'un train assurant la liaison entre Québec et Montréal, la plus importante dans la province, pendant 10 heures lors de la haute saison touristique. Pas de quoi impressionner ces visiteurs asiatiques et européens dont les nations roulent sur lignes à haute vitesse depuis des lunes. Le Canada est le seul pays du G7 à ne pas avoir de telles lignes, malgré les décennies de projets dans ce sens, laissés au stade de rêve. En ce moment les futurs plans parlent de réseau à haute fréquence plutôt qu'à haute vitesse. Le train VIA qui a fait la manchette était pourtant dernier cri, dans le sens canadien du terme, soit un engin vieux de quelques années, un "bolide" pouvant atteindre presque 200km par heure... C'est plutôt loin des 460 km-heure du maghlev assurant la liaison Pudong-Shanghai ou des Shinkanzen nippons. La Chine a vite rattrapé son retard et trône dorénavant au classement mondial avec 40,000 kilomètres de rails à haute vitesse. Ils ne sont pas les seuls, alors que l'Europe est couverte de lignes à TGVs le continent asiatique étend ses réseaux d'Indonésie en Thailande. Pendant ce temps cet été un sondage sur le corridor central Québec-Toronto laissait paraitre cette faim indubitable pour des lignes à grande vitesse, laissant de côté les rails actuels où les trains à marchandise ont d'ailleurs la priorité, car il s'agit des mêmes parcours. Ceci a posé problème pour plusieurs passagers de trains de banlieue, privés de service lors du lock-out. Déjà faut-il s'étonner du manque de connections au niveau national, le plus flagrant empêchant les deux métropoles de l'Alberta d'être liées par un chemin de fer, puisque le trans-canadien passe uniquement par Edmonton avant de poursuivre son chemin dans les Rocheuses. Evidemment celui-ci est de toute beauté, mais il faut croire que le développement du réseau passager au pays a été plutôt limité depuis la pose du dernier piton en Colombie-britannique, un événement dont le 140e arriversaire sera célébré l'an prochain. Quatre des sept grandes lignes au pays sont de simples "routes aventures panoramiques". De nombreux rails ne servent qu'au loisir, reliant des destinations jadis desservies par les grandes lignes, comme ce Southern Prairie Railway faisant quelques kilomètres à partir de Régina, ville-reine abandonnée malgré ses liens royaux. Calgary et Régina ont cessé d'être desservies avec le temps, une décision qui a semé la consternation. Des projets provinciaux sont pourtant en branle pour relier les villes albertaines, un projet dont une étude serait preparée l'an prochain en vue d'une mise en service... dans les années 40 (ce qui parait aussi lointain qu'ancien). C'est un retour en arrière puisque Calgary et Edmonton ont déjà été reliées par le rail. D'autres tronçons disparus s'étendaient sur l'ile de Vancouver, puis à Prince Albert dans le centre du pays et à Gaspé dans l'est. Ce pays trop grand, trop vide, est saupoudré de petites gares abandonnées depuis des lunes, dans des communautés comme Killaloe ou au centre d'Owen Sound en Ontario, ou à Wakefield au Québec encore, souvent converties en boutiques, d'où ne partent que des trains fantômes aussi mobiles que le VIA 622 pris entre Montréal et Québec a pu l'être pendant ces longues heures. Alors que la ligne de Winnipeg, coeur du pays, vers Churchill dans le nord, existe toujours, elle a connu des hics lors des dernières années qui ont fait souffrir les habitants de cette petite communauté du nord connue pour ses ours polaires. Ceci dit des projets de train à haute fréquence, diminuant le trajet entre Montréal et Toronto à moins de quatre heures, sont bel et bien en développement nous rassure-t-on, mais pas pour la première fois. Ces 1000 kilomètres et fer relieraient Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montréal, Trois-Rivières et Québec à partir du milieu des années 30. Raison principale de cette accélération? La fin du partage des lignes avec le transport de fret. Ca c'est le point de départ, et ce n'est pas l'espace qui manque. Pourtant ce partage des rails n'avait rien à faire avec le calvaire du train 622, qui n'a pas seulement retardé les passagers d'une demi-journée, mais les a privé d'eau et d'électricité (donc d'air climatisé) pendant plus d'une heure. Y avait-il une armée d'employés alignés, la tête baissée implorant le pardon, à leur débarquement, comme il se produit au Japon après un bref retard? Non mais le ministre du transport allait tout de même demander des comptes à la compagnie ferroviaire et exiger des changements. «Au-delà de cet incident... c’est extrêmement révélateur de la désuétude du service ferroviaire de passagers au Québec et Canada,» a fait remarquer le chef du Bloc québécois Yves Francois-Blanchet. La peur d'une grève à Air Canada et la fin du service de bus Greyhound ont également mis en évidence le manque d'alternatives pour voyager au pays. Puis le projet haute vitesse oublie l'ouest du pays, note le journaliste Doug Todd qui a déjà travaillé dans le milieu ferroviaire. Ce dernier n'en revient pas qu'on utilise encore les locomotives de son époque, contruites en 1950. «C'est ridicule, écrit-il, et pas seulement du point de vue entretien et sécurité.» Puis un projet d'envergure à la taille du pays pourrait soigner bien des maux: «A une époque où les divisions sont importantes, ce serait une excellente manière de tisser de nouveaux liens entre les gens à travers ce magnifique pays.» Se rapprocher de l'esprit unificateur de 1885. ​ THE TERROR THAT LINGERS ​ Governments have come and gone, all promising ruthless crackdowns on Islamist militants in the north of Nigeria, but little has changed. Ten years after the kidnapping of over 200 girls from a school in Chibok in the country's restless Borno state, Boko Haram is still spreading its unforgiving dose of violence and terror against innocent civilians, killing up to a 100 in Mafa when men on motorbikes stormed into town and attacked a local market. Days later 200 escaped a prison in Maiduguri, east of Mafa, when flood waters destroyed a wall, freeing Boko Haram commanders among them, promising more pain for the millions already exposed to the group's senseless violence, which has jumped borders into neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. "Despite intensified offensives by the Nigerian military, the movement and its offshoot — the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) — have persisted as a significant threat to Nigeria and its neighboring states in the Lake Chad region," summarized a report by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data this Spring. "The audacious attacks perpetrated by both factions on civilians and security posts, coupled with the adverse effects of their activities on vulnerable populations, underscore their adaptability and resilience in the face of sustained national and regional military campaigns by the Lake Chad Basin Multinational Joint Task Force over the past decade." The Task Force is comprised of some 10000 troops from half a dozen countries including Nigeria, Cameroon and Benin, with the support of the US and EU, It's mandate is to "checkmate trans-border armed banditry around the general area of Lake Chad Basin" established three decades ago, a goal with limited success however. While the terror organization lost some territory after the initial response of the Nigerian military and its partners following the Chibok incident, which drew global attention to the crisis, it remains as dangerous as ever after it split up into two groups in 2016, which have engaged in deadly clashes since. Militant activity, when curtailed in the restive northeast of the country, has been carried out in areas of the northwest, taking more victims. One of the splinter groups, the Islamic State of West Africa Province, has in fact over time evolved into "an alternative to the state" in some areas according to the report, as Islamist groups have attempted to do elsewhere. "This strategy aims to disrupt the civil-military relationship between government security forces and affected communities in the region. The group provides security, services, and livelihoods in communities it controls, allowing it to sustain itself within a competitive ecosystem of contested governance." The Task Force has attempted to strike back with measures of its own including "community-based quick-impact projects... instrumental in delivering medical supplies and treatment to communities in areas controlled by Boko Haram." Observers agree security efforts have registered some success after the arrest and killing of a number of Boko Haram’s foot soldiers and key commanders, as well as the surrendering of "over 100,000 Boko Haram associates and combatants" but the lack of funds and disputes involving their disbursement have hampered some of the security efforts. While the Nigerian government has been able to rescue 20 of the missing Chibok girls over time, over 90 girls remain missing, with some feared dead. ​ ONE YEAR ON ​ One year after the terror attack which relaunched hostilities between Hamas and Israel the conflict has expanded as Israeli troops conducted limited ground incursions into neighboring Lebanon to root out Hezbollah all the while the Jewish state considered how to respond to Iran's latest rocket attack. As embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN Secuity Council, a day after having been accused of genocide by the Palestinian leader, the IDF targeted Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut, killing leader Hassan Nasrallah, who hadn't been seen in public in years. The death of the leader who had had such a sweeping influence in the region was felt all the way in Tehran, where supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location as the regime plotted its reaction. An Iranian commander was also killed in the attack, showing the close ties between Iran and the terrorist group based in Lebanon. Tehran, which earlier this year had targeted Israeli territory for the first time, promptly retaliated by sending nearly 200 rockets towards Israel, causing little damage and few injuries. It's not the first time such a clash shakes the region, even strikes by the Islamic Republic are not unexpected, an indication itself of the new more volatile realities one year after the October 7 attacks. Less than twenty years ago, a similar conflict with Hezbollah also left thousands on the move in an attempt to flee the hostilities. 2006 was also the year Hamas gained power in elections in Gaza, forever changing the relationship with its neighbor. The cedar nation has seen little peace since, rocked by a financial crisis and more recently the blast of the port of Beirut, which years later may create complications in any effort to evacuate the capital's citizens and expats. Thousands were trying to move away from the violence, leaving some in the path of strikes as Israel vowed to root out the evil which had been sending rockets into its territory despite calls by allies for a ceasefire. None seemed likely before new hostilities as Iran warned the targeting of its allies in southern Beirut constituted a game-changing escalation that will “bring its perpetrator an appropriate punishment.” Nasrallah had led Hezbollah since 1992 when former leader Abbas-al-Musawi was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike. Instead of bringing and end to threats from southern Lebanon the killing unleashed a torrent of attacks and bombings, not only in Israel, which was targeted by rocket attacks, but in Turkey and most notably Argentina, where the bombing of the Israeli embassy killed 29 people. Hezbollah has extended its reach and strengthened ties with Iran since, as shown in the response to Israel's ground incursion. The 1992 killing showed the impact of such clashes can be more than regional, but also that the group can survive decapitation attempts. Over the last year however Israel has methodically taken out a number of Hezbollah commanders, leaving the group depleted and unable to respond to Nasrallah's assassination in Beirut. Still some fear an Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon may give Hezbollah's recruitment a boost, the group maintaining a large arsenal of rockets to target Israel in the weeks ahead. ​ VICTIMES ENCORE ​ Ils fuient leurs pays depuis des lunes en raison des violences qui ont anéanti leurs services publics et rendu leurs communautés inviva-bles. A présent ils sont persécutés même sur les terres de leur refuge, même là où ils imaginaient avoir la peau sauve. Car ce n'est pas tout que les réfugiés haïtiens soient pourchassés lors de leur longue marche à travers l'Amérique centrale pour se rendre à l'eldorado nord-américain, intimidés et parfois violentés par les passeurs et gangs qui profitent de ce flux interminable de migrants poussant contre vents et marées vers le nord. Une fois installés sur la terre de l'Oncle Sam, ils craignent à nouveau. C'est le produit de fausses rumeurs véhiculées par des candidats dont les propos anti-immigrants n'étonnent plus, à un moment où le pays traverse une campagne électorale sans pareille, marquée de l'habituel discours de la démesure, certes, mais aussi par des violences inouïes. Les débats électoraux entre le candidat républicain et démocrate, bien que rares, ont eu un impact immédiat sur la campagne en cours. Le premier a évincé le président sortant dont l'âge et les facultés avaient été mis en question. Le second a plus sérieusement posé les projecteurs sur l'ancien président Trump, auteur de propos confus et parfois insensés. Alors que ces derniers ne surprennent malheureuse-ment plus, ils ont montré la portée du discours politique du candidat de droite, même lorsqu'il est dénudé de toute vérité. La communauté haïtienne de la ville de Springfield en Ohio en a fait les frais après la reprise de rumeurs voulant qu'elle s'adonne au vol et à la consommation d'animaux de compagnie. Depuis, le téléphone de plusieurs institutions locales ne dérougit plus en raison d'appels à la bombe, alors que les membres de cette communauté préfèrent se cacher et espérer que la tempête ne passe, comme les ouragans qui ont tendance à s'acharner sur leur patrie insulaire. Il ne s'agit pas de leur premier défi, loin de là, et il ne s'agit pas non plus des premières menaces contre cette communauté qui depuis des années a cherché le refuge en Amérique. "Je me souviens des années 80 quand ils s'attaquaient aux réfugiés, se remémore péniblement l'ambassadeur haïtien au Canada Wien Weibert Arthus, Haïti était une cible. Dans les années 90, losqu'ils faisaient des recherches sur le SIDA, Haïti était (encore) une cible." A une époque où son pays souffre de violences (3600 persones tuées depuis janvier) et d'une crise humanitaire forçant quelques 360000 Haïtiens à fuir, les propos de Trump sont inhumains et racistes, dit-il. "Ils cherchent une vie meilleure, dit-il. Qu'ils soient quelque part au Canada, aux Etats-Unis ou en France, ils travaillent très fort." C'est également le message du maire de Springfield, qui tente de rassurer sa communauté déchirée par ces mots venus de loin, et visitée par le groupe extrémiste Proud Boys. Tout cela même si les politiciens derrière cette fausseté admettent qu'ils sont plutôt insouciants avec les détails. "Si je dois inventer des histoires pour que les médias américains portent leur attention sur la souffrance des Américains c'est ce que je vais faire," avoue le colistier de Trump JD Vance, sans hésiter. Ce n'est pas compter la souffrance d'Américains de souche haïtienne installés en Ohio depuis des décennies. Un groupe haïtien sans but lucratif a annoncé qu'il portait des accusations au criminel contre Trump et Vance suite à ces déclarations, citant le "chaos" qui s'est emparé de leur communauté depuis. Cette nouvelle n'a que provoqué de nouvelles insultes de la part de certains élus républicains, Clay Higgins, dans un tweet qui a par la suite été retiré, demandant à ces "voyous" de déguerpir pour regagner "le pays le plus déguelasse de la terre". ​ FROM THE SHADOWS ​ Their targets have varied from terrorists to spies and even world leaders, and their methods were as diverse as the imagination of their architects. Blacks operations such as the pager attacks perpetrated on Hezbollah in Lebanon have been used for years to target opponents by a number of countries, including North Korea and Russia, but also the United States and Israel. These unclaimed operations don't always take place in the shadows, as shown when pagers and walkie talkies belonging to Hezbollah detonated in public, claiming innocent civilian victims along the way. The attack not only killed a number of Hezbollah operatives but also instilled fear in these devices, and paranoia on the use of technologies that rule our everyday lives. In the aftermath of the blasts which took place over two days, killing dozens and injuring thousands across Lebanon, people unplugged a number of devices, from laptops to baby monitors, losing sleep over the technology that surrounded them. Lebanon soon after prohibited bringing pagers or walkie talkies on planes. The tech targeted was relatively old and specifically used (to attempt to evade surveillance techni-ques involving more modern devices. The method, though shocking, was only ground breaking in that it killed multiple targets at the same time over a wide geographic area. But the attack was in a way revisiting the past. Nearly thirty years ago Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency had similarly eliminated one of its most prized targets at the time, Yahya Ayyash, the so-called "engineer" bombmaker who had developed the use of devastating suicide bombing, making him a dreadful household name. He died in 1996 when his booby-trapped cell phone exploded. Israel has developed over time a fierce reputation for these types of covert attacks. It hasn't been alone. Both sides of the Iron Curtain have developed unique ways of targeting opponents. An autopsy investigating the death of dissident Bulgarian playwright Georgi Ivanov Markov revealed the umbrella he claimed to have been stabbed with by a stranger who bumped into him in 1978 was probably tipped with a poisoned needle. Poison-tipped umbrellas soon after became a staple of spy movies. While attempts on Fidel Castro's life by the CIA were countless, none was perhaps more documented than the plan to target his legendary beard, which he sported until his death. This was listed by a CIA inspector general's report as one of a number of failed attempts on Castro's life or reputation, which included spraying the air of a radio station with chemicals that produced hallucinations similar to LSD or contaminating one of his cigars to disorient him. The beard plot aimed to rid him of his facial hair by putting thallium salts into his shoes, a project that worked out about just as well as the Bay of Pigs invasion. The more controversial covert attacks of the sort orchestrated by the CIA, a former agency general counsel noted, had ended up leaking in the press one way or another, and this often reflected poorly on the agency. In time it became the world's top bogeyman, being blamed for operations it had little implications in. "The cumulative effect of CIA covert action over the years has been that when anything negative happens, the CIA is blamed," observed Ronald Kessel in his book Inside the CIA. The agency was, he notes as an example, falsely fingered by the Indian media after the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Black operations such as Israel's can end up killing innocent victims but primarily seek out specific targets in an attempt to strike them surgically, avoiding the use of less discriminate target attacks such as air or tank strikes. Without officially acknow-ledging it was behind the pager and walkie talkie blasts, Israel did say it was entering a new phase of its now year old war, which from Gaza has spread north to the West Bank and Lebanon. The operation may have been more sophisticated than initially thought, as explosives were concealed in the batteries of the pagers. The attack did not fail to be condemned by the UN, which stated that civilian consumer goods should not be used in deadly attacks and pointed to possible war crimes. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it is important "that there is an effective control of civilian objects, not to weaponize civilian objects. That should be a rule that everywhere in the world governments should be able to implement." The attack also once more brought into question the vulnerability of supply channels for consumer products. There have already been concerns about the questionable practices of some manufacturers, issues raised amid suspicions about products built by companies with close state ties such as Huawei, and more recently, Tiktok. Some experts suspect the pagers were tinkered with many months ago and detonated by fear of raising suspicion, all the while spreading chaos and confusion. ​ UN VATICAN MUSULMAN ​ Les derviches tourneurs sont-ils près d'avoir enfin leur chez soi après un siècle de persécutions? Rome a son Vatican, Tirana projette d'avoir son propre micro-état religieux, l'état souverain de l'ordre Bektachi connu pour ses derviches; un lieu saint comme celui que l'on retrouve en sortant de la station de métro Ottaviano au coeur de la cité éternelle, mais Musulman. Cet espace de 10 hectares serait le plus petit micro-état au monde selon le dirigeant albanais, du moins dans la liste de ceux qui sont reconnus, une capitale pour cet ordre chiite soufi fondé en Turquie au 13e siècle. Elle serait à l'image de cette religion musulmane moins stricte et autoriserait la consommation d'alcool tout en laissant les femmes se vêtir comme bon leur semble. Le premier ministre Edi Rama explique au New York Times que le but est précisément de faire rayonner cette religion plus tolérante: “Nous devrions nous occuper de ce trésor qu'est la tolérance religieuse, sans jamais la prendre pour acquise," dit-il. Le haut lieu de la religion musulmane, la Mecque, interdit notamment la présence de non Musulmans. La Mecque et le Vatican attirent des fidèles et des touristes du monde entier. L'ordre Bektachi avait notamment été épousé par les gardes janissaires de l'empire ottoman mais sa capitale a dû être transportée à Tirana sous le régime séculier de Kemal Ataturk. Le derviche Baba Mondi, un ancien officier albanais, est le chef spirituel de cet ordre ancien et serait le dirigeant de cet état souverain. Les formalités doivent entre complêtées pour définir le statut de ce micro-état, qui devra également obtenir l'aval du parti socialiste albanais au pouvoir. "Nous méritons un état, insiste Mondi, nous sommes les seuls au monde à dire la vérité à propos de l'Islam (et) ne le mêlons pas à la politique." Cet ordre n'en a pas été épargné pour autant, ayant été persécuté à la fois par des Chrétiens et des Musulmans d'autres souches. Les fidèles n'ont pas trouvé de repos bien longtemps sur leur terre de refuge non plus sous le régime communiste et athée d'Enver Hoxha, entrainant enprisonnements, torture et travaux forcés. Cette persécution officielle a pris fin après l'écroulement du rideau de fer dans les années 90, mais les fidèles restent la cible de certains Musulmans, notamment sunnis, plus radicaux. "Nous savons tous que les trois principaux ennemis sont, premièrement, l'ignorance, puis la pauvreté, souvent le résultat de la situation politique, et finalement l'égoisme, résume Mondi à EuroNews. Ces trois facteurs peuvent être détruits si les personnes collaborent ensemble." L'Europe n'en serait pas à son premier micro-état, elle qui en abrite déjà une demi-douzaine dont San Marin, Andorre et Monaco entre autres, chacun avec une niche touristique bien définie. Plusieurs micro-états sont souvent le fruit de projets fantaisistes suivant une interprétation légère de la loi, menant à des créations non reconnues sur la scène internationale, dont le Sahara occidental et Sealand, une ancienne plateforme de défense maritime au large de la Grande-Bretagne. THE HORROR It's a horror story with multiple harrowing chapters unlike anything seen anywhere else outside a war zone, and it is getting worse. It is in part built on fear and anger, emotions acted on with lethal weapons that are too readily available, with deadly consequences. Fear of a cheerleader who opened the wrong car door, of a teen who knocked on the wrong door or a man who turned into the wrong driveway. And anger, the irrational reaction of a homeowner who reacted to a basketball landing on his property with a handgun, grazing a six-year-old girl and injuring her parents. Another, told to stop shooting outside his home, killing 5. All this happened in the U.S. recently, often hitting youngsters. The gun epidemic in America has reached new levels of absurdity. And in a nation which has embraced gun culture to the point of marketing some weapons to youngsters, the perpetrators themselves can be as young as six. That was the age of a young student who shot his teacher in her Virginia classroom. She survived. But... Six. Too young to be charged. Apparently not too young to use or have access to a gun. This is the madness the U.S. is seeing, and the story is a recurring one after a pandemic which for a while had limited gun play, now once more taking place with a vengeance. "We have to know that this isn't the way to live," told AP John Feinblatt of Everytown for Gun Safety. "We don't have to live this way. And we cannot live in a country with an agenda of guns everywhere, every place, every time," By mid-April some 88 people had been felled in 17 mass killings in the U.S., all of them involving firearms. Among them a shooting in March of six people in Tennessee was already the 16th K-12 school shooting in 2023 in the United States, a jump from single digit numbers since the pandemic. The US had by then recorded 130 mass shootings this year, double what was seen before 2020 by this time of year, and no amount of prayers or slight gun law tweaks have been able to slow the death toll which has steadily crept since the infamous Columbine shooting over three decades ago. Of course these types of shooting occur everywhere (one in Serbia killed 9 this week) , not only in schools, and not only in the US, but school or college related shootings targeting those barely beginning their lives have killed 175 people in America since Columbine, according to a database compiled by The AP, USA Today and Northeastern University, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Over 2,800 people in the U.S. have died in mass killings since 2006. And mass killings are happening on average once a week this year, a dizzying pace. The culprit in Tennessee, a former school staffer in her 20s, had no less than half a dozen weapons registered to her name and used a semi-automatic weapon to cause that recent chapter of American carnage. Less than a year before an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults. The series of incidents have caused some concerned nations to warn their citizens about travelling to the U.S., not for political reasons, but out of fear. Fear to visit a country where politicians have seen the barrel of a weapon in an increasingly divided country girding for an election. In Washington president Biden, who just announced his re-election bid, did sign a milestone gun violence bill last year, but sometimes admits he is exhausting attempts to bring in tougher gun laws, facing stiff resistance in Congress. There has been some movement at the state level in some cases, but not always. The assembly in Nashville was flooded with protesters demanding stiffer gun laws days after the K-12 shooting. Lawmakers there were actually debating expanding access to firearms when the shooting occurred. Laws had already been softened in recent years, making it easier to acquire firearms and no longer requiring a licence to carry a concealed weapon. In Michigan recently the governor signed a new law making criminal background checks mandatory to buy shotguns and rifles, while a ban on a number of types of semi-automatic rifles was signed into law in Washington state. But elsewhere it has been two steps back. The lessons either never seem to register, or aren't the ones one would expect to draw from such madness.