cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/21352

The world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy” that is harming billions of people, a UN report has declared.

The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report’s lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social cohesion.

All life depends on water but the report found many societies had long been using water faster than it could be replenished annually in rivers and soils, as well as over-exploiting or destroying long-term stores of water in aquifers and wetlands.

This had led to water bankruptcy, the report said, with many human water systems past the point at which they could be restored to former levels. The climate crisis was exacerbating the problem by melting glaciers, which store water, and causing whiplashes between extremely dry and wet weather.

Prof Kaveh Madani, who led the report, said while not every basin and country was water bankrupt, the world was interconnected by trade and migration, and enough critical systems had crossed this threshold to fundamentally alter global water risk.

The administration of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE University) will be offering students who are facing expulsion for academic failure the option of signing a contract with Russia’s Ministry of Defense. The independent science-focused publication T-invariant has published a copy of the letter, sent to the university’s instructors, outlining the plan.

According to the document, from this point on male students will be offered an alternative to expulsion — one year of service in Russia’s Unmanned Systems Forces, during which the student will be granted academic leave and will be able to resume their studies afterward. Students are promised that after one year they will be discharged from the army unless they themselves choose to extend the military contract; they are also promised that they will serve exclusively in the Unmanned Systems Forces, with assignment to other units prohibited.

“We draw your attention to the fact that all notifications must be sent strictly via corporate email (the use of messengers in this case is not permitted). Starting January 22 (Thursday), we will request statistics on such notifications sent to your students on a weekly basis. By default, the text specifies a period (three days) during which the expulsion must be suspended to allow for the student’s response,” the letter says.

[You can read the letter in full at the linked article, ed.]

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This past December, students at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) said they were being urged to enlist for military service as drone operators. A representative of the university’s Military Training Center came to one of the lectures and offered students facing expulsion the option of signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense for the duration of their academic leave.

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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53778337

The Canadian Armed Forces have modelled a hypothetical U.S. military invasion of Canada and the country’s potential response, which includes tactics similar to those employed against Russia and later U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, two senior government officials say.

It is believed to be the first time in a century that the Canadian Armed Forces have created a model of an American assault on this country, a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a partner with the U.S. in continental air defence.

A military model is a conceptual and theoretical framework, not a military plan, which is an actionable and step-by-step directive for executing operations.

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the military’s thinking on this matter publicly. The officials, as well as a number of experts, say it is unlikely the Trump administration would order an invasion of Canada. Open this photo in gallery:

Canadian soldiers patrol the area around a NORAD satellite relay dome. The Canadian Armed Forces' model of a U.S. invasion is believed to be the first it has produced in a century.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

The Globe reported this week that Canada is considering sending a small contingent of troops to Greenland to join a group of eight European countries that are holding military exercises as a show of solidarity for Denmark, of which the self-ruling island is a territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been challenging NATO allies with repeated calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland and threats to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose the takeover. Those threats escalated after his attack on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

Mr. Trump has also repeatedly mused about Canada becoming the 51st state. On the weekend, NBC reported Mr. Trump has been increasingly complaining to aides in recent weeks about Canada’s vulnerability to U.S. adversaries in the Arctic. Steve Bannon, the former Trump chief strategist who remains close to the President, said Canada is “rapidly changing” and becoming “hostile” to the United States.

The two senior government officials said military planners are modelling a U.S. invasion from the south, expecting American forces to overcome Canada’s strategic positions on land and at sea within a week and possibly as quickly as two days.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he’s concerned about the U.S. escalation over the future of Greenland and its sovereignty as President Donald Trump threatens tariffs.

The Canadian Press

Canada does not have the number of military personnel or the sophisticated equipment needed to fend off a conventional American attack, they said. So, the military envisions unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military or armed civilians would resort to ambushes, sabotage, drone warfare or hit-and-run tactics.

One of the officials said the model includes tactics used by the Afghan mujahedeen in their hit-and-run attacks on Russian soldiers during the 1979-1989 Soviet-Afghan War. These were the same tactics employed by the Taliban in their 20-year war against the U.S. and allied forces that included Canada. Many of the 158 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014 were struck by improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

The aim of such tactics would be to impose mass casualties on U.S. occupying forces, the official said.

Canadian troops would engage in unconventional warfare, which includes ambushes, sabotage, raids, and hit-and-run tactics similar to what the mujahedeen and Taliban used in Afghanistan.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail

The modelling provides the keenest insight yet as to the level of threat assessment now being actively discussed by Canada with respect to the Trump administration.

One of the officials noted, however, that relations with the U.S. military remain positive and the two countries are working together on Canada’s participation in a new continental defence system, or “Golden Dome,” to defend against Russian or Chinese missiles.

The military has also run models on missile strikes from Russia or China on Canadian cities and critical infrastructure.

Military planners envision an American attack that would follow clear signs from the U.S. military that the two countries’ partnership in NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, was ending, and the U.S. was under new orders to take Canada by force.

Conscription has been ruled out for now, but the level of sacrifice that would be asked of Canadians remains a central topic, the officials said. General Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defence Staff, has already announced her intention to create a 400,000-plus-strong reserve force of volunteers. The officials said they could be armed or asked to provide disruptions if the U.S. becomes an occupying power.

A senior Defence Department official said Canada would have a maximum of three months to prepare for a land and sea invasion. The first indications that invasion orders had been sent would be expected to come from U.S. military warnings that Canada no longer has a shared skies policy with the United States, the source said.

This rupture in the joint defence agreement would likely see France or Britain, nuclear-weapon states, being called on to provide support and defence for Canada against the U.S.

The Globe is not identifying the senior defence official, who was not authorized to discuss Canadian war-modelling scenarios. Open this photo in gallery:

A Canadian soldier dismantles a drone during a training operation in the Northwest Territories. Drones and other weapons that could destroy American tanks could be employed to disrupt an invasion, according to Retired Major-General David Fraser.COLE BURSTON/AFP/Getty Images

Retired major-general David Fraser, who commanded Canadian troops in Afghanistan alongside the United States, said Canada could also use drones and tank-killing weapons like the Ukrainians used against the Russians to blunt their invasion in February, 2022.

Mr. Fraser said it is unthinkable that Canadian planners have had to draw up a U.S. invasion scenario. Whatever Mr. Trump does with Greenland and possibly Mexico would weigh into any Canadian scenario, he said.

But Canada can count on support from European countries, Britain, Japan, South Korea and other democratic nations.

“You know if you come after Canada, you are going to have the world coming after you, even more than Greenland. People do care about what happens to Canada, unlike Venezuela,” Mr. Fraser said. “You could actually see German ships and British planes in Canada to reinforce the country’s sovereignty.”

Mr. Fraser said Canada should immediately place more military assets in the North to claim its right to the region.

If the threat from the U.S. became serious, he said Canadian soldiers would be placed along the border even though there is no realistic possibility that Canada could defeat the U.S. militarily.

Insurgency tactics would be the best way to deal with U.S. invading forces, he said.

“There is a quantum difference between defending another land like Canadians did in Afghanistan versus defending Windsor, Ontario. You do not walk across that border because everybody is your enemy then,” Mr. Fraser added.

Retired lieutenant-general Mike Day, who headed Canadian Special Forces Command and served as chief strategic planner for the future of the Canadian Armed Forces, said it was “fanciful” to think the Americans would actually invade Canada.

But he acknowledged Canada’s armed forces could not stand up to the world’s biggest and most sophisticated military. He said, however, that the U.S. would have great difficulty occupying a country the size of Canada.

“We wouldn’t be able to withstand a conventional invasion. We would, for a limited period of time, be able to defend a very small civilian population, like the size of Kingston,” he said.

“Notwithstanding the size of the American military, however, they do not have the force structure to occupy, let alone control every major urban centre in Canada.”

“Their only hope would be a Russian-like drive to Kyiv and hope that works and the rest of country capitulates once they seize the seat of power in Ottawa,” he added. “Like Ukraine, it would inconceivable to me that we would give up if they seized our capital.”

Gaëlle Rivard Piché, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, said she did not see a situation where the U.S. would attack Canada. But she also said it’s crucial for Canada to significantly build up its defence capabilities.

“Clear signalling to our neighbour to the south that we want and we’re willing and able to rapidly be a credible ally that is capable of defending itself, ensuring our own national security, our national defence, will play a deterrence role towards a potential willingness by the United States to control some of Canada or to invade a portion of Canada,” she said.

An RCMP Blackhawk helicopter patrols at Roxham Road along the Canada-U.S. border. Experts say even if the U.S. does not invade, Canada must still strengthen its military presence near the border.Carlos Osorio/Reuters

University of Toronto political scientist Aisha Ahmad said Canada needs to drastically boost its homeland defence capabilities, regardless of the potential U.S. threat to the border.

“The better Canada can embrace this approach to homeland defence, the less likely all of these horrible scenarios that nobody wants will ever come to pass,” she said.

U.S. generals would be aware that Canadians would fight back against an invasion, using whatever tactics would be the most effective, she said.

“I do believe that there are intelligent generals south of our border who could very easily identify that risk environment.”

The leading French economist Gabriel Zucman is urging European governments to inflict financial pain on American billionaires in response to US President Donald Trump’s effort to seize control of Greenland, a mineral-rich island that some of Trump’s rich campaign donors see as a potentially massive profit opportunity.

“Access to the European market—by billionaires and the companies they own—should be made conditional on paying a wealth tax: in effect, a tariff for oligarchs. If Elon Musk, for example, wants to keep selling Teslas in Europe, he should have to pay it. If he refuses, Tesla would lose access to the European market.”

Greece and Israel plan to increase cooperation in security and defence, Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias and his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz said on Tuesday following talks in Athens.

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In a steady stream of posts on social media, Morten Messerschmidt, the head of the Danish People's Party, is trying to extricate himself from the quagmire he has created for himself. "Portraying me as someone who serves a cause other than Denmark and who would sympathize with threats to our kingdom is unhealthy. It is slander," he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, January 18.

And yet, how can one not be surprised by the 180-degree turnaround of that same person? After all, a year ago he was posting selfies on X from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's property in Palm Beach, Florida; now, he is criticizing the Danish government, accusing it of trying to maintain dialogue with the US about Greenland. This position has left Messerschmidt isolated on the Danish political scene, where there is broad consensus around the strategy adopted by the coalition led by Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen.

Messerschmidt, who is thus no stranger to contradictions, was the only one to oppose the meeting between Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on January 14. For him, "walking into the lion's den" and "inviting oneself to meetings with a nation that threatens Denmark" was dangerous.

These statements are all the more surprising given that Messerschmidt traveled to Florida in January 2025, at a time when Trump, then newly elected president, had already made clear his intention to annex the Danish autonomous territory. The billionaire's threats did not deter him. On the contrary: In a photo posted on X on January 20, 2025, he was seen attending a reception organized by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in honor of Trump's inauguration, celebrating "common sense" and "wokeism" being dead.

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It was 19 days after his arrest by the Israeli army in Tulkarem, in the north of the occupied West Bank, on February 23, 2024. Sami Al-Sa'i, a 47-year-old Palestinian journalist, had just been transferred from a military base to Megiddo prison. "The guards told me to undress and throw my clothes in a trash bin," recounted the father of six in front of reporters on Wednesday, January 14. "They asked, 'Are you with Hamas? Are you a journalist?' The beating started. They hit every part of my body," he said. "They took me to another room. They told me to kneel down. I thought they wanted to humiliate me. They beat me again."

At that moment, according to his account, the detainee was blindfolded. The guards held him down completely. "They tried to force something hard into my anus," he said. "I resisted, I tensed my muscles with all my strength. But it was too painful, they penetrated me deeply. The pain was terrible. (…) They did it again." The man heard his guards laugh and then smoke a cigarette. They then carried him into a shared cell. For several days, he cleaned the wound with toilet paper.

Al-Sa'i spent 16 months in "administrative detention," a seemingly neutral term referring to incarceration without charge or any means of defense, a practice that Israeli authorities have used extensively against thousands of West Bank residents since October 7, 2023. "They wanted me to collaborate with them, and I refused," he explained. On top of the rape he said he suffered, he also endured regular beatings, humiliation and food deprivation. The journalist lost 30 kilos during his detention. He was released on June 10, 2025, without explanation or charge.

Al-Sa'i stressed that he had never imagined the intensity of the abuse, even though he had already been detained twice by Israel, for four months in 1997 and nine months in 2016, accused of activism in support of Palestine. In 2018, he also gave testimony to the NGO Human Rights Watch about the violence he had suffered in Palestinian prisons. That report also revealed the extent of torture carried out by Hamas in Gaza and by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Americans: the low interest rates, and easy borrowing which have come with having the rest of the world decide to buy US government debt may well come to an end as a result of Trump's threatening to invade a European country. This will have huge ripple effects over time, driving up the cost of housing, and making jobs scarcer.

Summary: the ceasefire did not hold, Kurds are withdrawing and doing a general mobilization, Kobani is under siege, imprisoned Islamic State fighters broke out of an abandoned prison, etc. The Syrian civil war has basically started again.

Powerful solar activity released by the sun is heading for Earth and it’s likely to create dazzling auroral displays in unexpected areas Monday evening and early Tuesday morning. It could also disrupt satellite-based communications and GPS accuracy.

“An S4 severe solar radiation storm is now in progress - this is the largest solar radiation storm in over 20 years,” SWPC shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The last time S4 levels were observed was in October, 2003. Potential effects are mainly limited to space launch, aviation, and satellite operations.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/41954666

Israel demolished structures inside the UN Palestinian refugee agency's (UNRWA) East Jerusalem compound on Tuesday after seizing the site last year, in an act condemned by the agency as a violation of international law.

Surrounded by Israeli forces, ​bulldozers razed several large buildings and other smaller structures inside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's compound, where dozens of ‍agency staff once worked.

UNRWA, which has been accused of bias by Israel, has not used the building since the start of last year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises ​and cease its operations.

If issued, the invitation would mark the first time Russia has been included in a G7-format meeting since it was expelled from the former G8 following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.