In the News

A recent cyberattack against Saint John’s IT systems has been confirmed as ransomware. City manager John Collin said Nov. 17 that there is no evidence that anyone’s personal information had been compromised but he urged residents to monitor their bank accounts.

Mexico’s defence minister from 2012 to 2018, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, has been freed by the U.S. so that his own government can investigate alleged involvement in drug-related corruption. Cienfuegos was arrested in Los Angeles last month but in announcing the decision to drop criminal charges, U.S. officials said Nov. 17 that “important foreign policy considerations outweigh the government’s interest in pursuing the prosecution.”

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says that while his predecessor, Andrew Scheer, was legally able to employ his sister while he was Speaker House of Commons, rules permitting the practice have since changed. “I have a very high bar of ethics and I expect my team to live up to and exceed the expectations Canadians place upon us,” O'Toole says. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose caucus recently saw the departure of an MP for hiring a family member, says the Scheer situation is a matter for Conservatives to address.

Christopher Krebs, a former Microsoft executive appointed by President Donald Trump two years ago to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has been summarily fired. Trump said Krebs’ description of the recent U.S. election as “the most secure in American history” was “highly inaccurate” and he continued to insist that the election was fraudulent.

Six months after it responded aggressively to Israeli’s plans to annex large parts of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority is resuming cooperation. The protest resulted in financial hardship for thousands of residents.

The National Reconnaissance Office has a new intelligence satellite in orbit, its fourth successful launch this year. “NROL-101 is another example of the NRO’s commitment to constantly evolving our crucial national security systems to support our defense and intelligence partners,” says Col Chad Davis, director of the NRO Office of Space Launch.

China is preparing to use one of its massive Long March-5 boosters to launch a mission which is expected to return lunar materials to Earth for the first time in several decades. The launcher been moved from its hangar to the nearby Wenchang launch site on the southern island province of Hainan. A robotic lander would drill two metres into the lunar surface, capturing core materials and regolith.

Three U.S. and one Japanese astronauts have arrived at the International Space Station, the first crew rotation to be delivered by a civilian contractor, SpaceX, which has a NASA contract for six crew deliveries. Three crewmembers still aboard the ISS are scheduled to return to Earth on a Russian Soyuz capsule while the SpaceX capsule remains docked for the duration of the latest six-month rotation.

A World Health Organization investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is expected to begin in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the new coronavirus was first identified. Most researchers think it originated in bats, but how it jumped to people remains a mystery and one virologist says “it will be key for the investigators to establish a collaborative relationship with scientists and government officials in China.”

Eight years of talks have resulted in the creation of a new international trading bloc that accounts for nearly a third of the global economy. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership involves 15 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and 10 Southeast Asian countries

St. John has shut down much of its information technology systems after the New Brunswick city experienced a “significant” cyber attack. Critical services such as 911 emergency are not affected, but many online services such as bill payments are. The city says it’s unclear whether customers’ personal information is at risk.

Three U.S. and one Japanese astronaut were launched to the International Space Station by SpaceX, the first full “taxi flight” by a private company. The capsule is due to dock with the ISS late Nov. 16 after needing some 27 hours to achieve the necessary orbit.

Ten CBSA and RCMP officers who were on duty at Vancouver International Airport when Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested 23 months ago at the request of the U.S., are on the witness list when a B.C Supreme Court extradition hearing resumes. Paused at the end of October, the hearing now is expected to continue at least into early December.

The aerospace and security sectors are among 17 chosen by the British government for tighter regulation which would block foreign direct investment by potentially hostile interests. The measure is part of a National Security and Investment Bill designed to review mergers, acquisitions and other considered a threat to national security.

Recent Russian military operations inside the U.S. economic management zone off Alaska were the latest in a series of escalated encounters across the North Pacific and the Arctic, where the retreat of polar ice continues to draw new commercial and military traffic. The local U.S. Coast Guard chief, RAdm Matthew T. Bell Jr., says that while Russian operations in the Bering Sea are not unusual, “the surprise was how aggressive they got on our side of the maritime boundary line.”

A western separatist movement, the Maverick Party, plans to model itself on the Bloc Québécois as it prepares for the next federal election. Its interim leader, former Reform and Conservative MP Jay Hill, says the BQ has been “very effective in representing the interests of their constituents.”

Switzerland says that effective in 2022, bribes paid by companies to private individuals and money spent to facilitate crimes will no longer be tax-deductible. The government says the move, which would comply with OECD recommendations, would “harmonize” its tax and criminal laws.

Two days after it was declared the winner of the latest U.S. elections, president-elect Joe Biden’s embryonic administration announced a COVID-19 advisory board stacked with infectious diseases research and former public health officers. The speed of the announcement has the scientific and medical communities hopeful that the incoming government can do a better job than President Donald Trump’s lameduck administration of handling the pandemic which has killed nearly a quarter of a million Americans.

Leaked recordings indicated that World Health Organization scientists have been frustrated by mistakes made by some of the organization’s main funding sources as the COVID-19 pandemic exploded. Central to the problem, and the scientists' unwillingness to go public, is that the WHO has no authority to investigate independently, relying instead on backchannelling and member states’ cooperation.

What appears to have been an accident during a routine helicopter flight in Egypt has resulted in the deaths of all but one of nine members of an international keeping mission. Six of seven U.S. members of the Multinational Force and Observers group died in the crash, as did French and Czech personnel.

Provincial and municipal leaders are being urged by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “do the right thing” to curb the spread COVID-19. Promising financial support if needed, he says he hopes no premiers or mayors were “easing public health vigilance because they feel pressure not to shut down businesses or slow down our economy” because “that’s how we end up with businesses going out of business and the economy damaged even more.”

It used to be that a “dry cell” was the type of battery used in many flashlights. Now it’s the name of a Correctional Service of Canada policy whereby prisoners suspected of having ingested or hidden contraband within their bodies are kept under constant supervision for days on end without access to a flushing toilet or running water. A former correctional investigator says the CSC should scrap the “demeaning, undignified and painful confinement.”

The government is launching talks on support for the airline industry but Transport Minister Marc Garneau suggests it will be conditional on passengers getting refunds for flights cancelled due to COVID-19. “We are ready to establish a process with major airlines regarding financial assistance which could include loans and potentially other support to secure important results for Canadians,” he says.

In a policy reversal from President Donald Trump's administration, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is imploring Americans to wear a mask as the best way to turn around the COVID-19 pandemic. Warning that the U.S. faces a “very dark winter" with the “worst wave” of the virus yet to come, he says Americans must rely on science.

President Donald Trump has fired Mark Esper as U.S. Secretary of Defense, replacing him in an acting capacity by Christopher Miller, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Trump offered no explanation in his social media announcement but Esper has been at odds with the President for several months on the proposed use of troops for law enforcement.

An EU economic blacklist of Belarus officials has been expanded to include President Alexander Lukashenko and his son Victor, a national security analyst, as well as the head of the secret police and the president’s chief of staff. The EU disputes Lukashenko’s claim to have fairly won reelection in August and deplores his crackdown on opponents.

No decisive winner in the U.S. presidential election is evident despite President Donald Trump’s insistence, while awaiting final counting of mailed ballots, that the incumbent Republicans had “already won it.” He also repeated his unsubstantiated claim that there would be “fraud” and that the Republican-dominated Supreme Court likely would have to intervene.

Sixteen U.S. departments and agencies, including the FBI and the Commerce Department, are the target of 16 freedom-in-information lawsuits filed by China's Huawei technology giant in a bid to force the release of documents the company believes could reveal political motivations behind the arrest in Vancouver of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, two years ago. The U.S. wants Meng extradicted.

Be sure to check out the Senate of Canada building during Remembrance Week. The old train station, which once welcomed soldiers returning from war, will be illuminated every night with images of red poppies to honour those who lost their lives in war. 

The Canadian Forces has spent more than $1 million to train its operatives on "behaviour modification" techniques for use in Canada. Examples include the mission to manage public perception surrounding Op Laser (COVID response) and the more bizarre mission that had our military creating and disseminating fake news and forged letters to warn the Nova Scotia public that wolves were causing problems in the province (which was untrue).

Criticism that government guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic has been confusing has prompted Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, to explain that the advice has had to evolve alongside the science. Meanwhile, she says, “public health has always had key messages that were exactly the same.” These included social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and wearing masks.

Citing “protests and demonstrations” in several U.S. cities, Australia is advising its citizens to avoid travelling to the U.S. However, if travel is necessary, it urges them to “avoid areas where protests are occurring due to the ongoing potential for violence” and to stay in touch with their embassy.

The U.S. is not ruling out further sanctions against Turkey if it makes its Russian anti-aircraft missile system fully operational. “Sanctions is very much something that is on the table,” says Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper. “Operationalizing such an asset . . . incurs further risk of sanctions and further risks of restrictions.”

During the televised news conference after a virtual EU-Canada Leaders Meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau condemned the recent terror attacks in France. "The criminals, terrorists, the cold-blooded murderers who perpetrated these attacks do not represent Islam. They do not get to define Muslims in Canada, in France, or anywhere around the world.