World Briefing: October 15, 2024
India has withdrawn its envoy to Canada & other officials and diplomats whom Ottawa named as "persons of interest" in a matter related to alleged Indian state sponsored killing of Sikh separatist leader in BC last year. It brings bilateral relations to a new low and hands beleaguered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a renewed foreign policy crisis just as he prepares to head to the polls. India has also threatened further action against Canada. New Delhi rejected the "preposterous imputations" of the Canadian assertion, made in a diplomatic communication on Sunday, saying it was part of Trudeau's "political agenda" centered around "vote bank politics." Meanwhile, Trudeau said the Indian government has made a "fundamental error" as he accused it of supporting a campaign of violence against Canadians on Canadian soil. "I think it is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians, here on Canadian soil. Whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts, it is absolutely unacceptable," Trudeau said during a Thanksgiving Monday news conference. "No country, particularly not a democracy that upholds the rule of law, can accept this fundamental violation of its sovereignty."
Context: depending on how you look at it, India has just handed the beleaguered Canadian PM Justin Trudeau a political time bomb which paints him and his foreign minister as incompetent handlers of foreign policy. Or a pre-election gift - allowing Trudeau to ascend from rock bottom public opinion polling as ‘Captain Canada’ - standing up to a much larger bully, India. My guess is the former as India has the capacity to hurt Canada significantly by withdrawing more foreign students, slowing tourism and unleashing trade retaliation. Indian nationals make up almost 50 percent of all incoming foreign students to Canada.
When the Trudeau government went up against Beijing over the Meng Wanzhou (CFO of Huawei), it didn’t end well for Ottawa. However the rap sheet against India, as presented by Canada, is eye popping: Indian officials engaged in extortion, homicides and violence acts on Canadian soil. They say despite the warnings the threats haven’t subsided and India has not cooperated. Speaking about the alleged actions of Indian officials in Canada, Richard Fadden, the former director of CSIS, told the CBC’s Power and Politics: “To suggest another friendly state is involved in this sort of activity..In another time and another place, this would’ve been regarded as close to an act of war.”
One thing for sure: Trudeau was foolish and reckless to make allegations against India in the House of Commons last fall when an investigation was still underway and no charges had been laid. Calling out India as essentially a state sponsor of terrorism on Canadian soil was unprecedented. (A case in point: Turkey waited almost a month before publicly calling out Saudi Arabia for the brutal murder in 2018 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi). In this case, Trudeau’s intel appears to have come initially from the Americans (and now from his own law enforcement organs) and did not include definitive evidence. His initial handling of this affair deeply ruptured and already poor bilateral relationship.
UNICEF has called for an immediate end to the “shameful violence against children” in Gaza, as Israel continues to attack refugee camps and medical facilities housing displaced Palestinian refugees. “Today, our screens were once again filled with horrifying reports of children killed, burnt, and families emerging from the bombed tents in Gaza. These should shock the world to its core,” UNICEF wrote in a post on X “There is no safe place for children in Gaza,” it added. Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesperson: "The images and video of what appear to be displaced civilians burning alive following an Israeli air strike are deeply disturbing and we have made our concerns clear to the Israeli government. Israel has a responsibility to do more to avoid civilian casualties — and what happened here is horrifying, even if Hamas was operating near the hospital in an attempt to use civilians as human shields"
Aid to several communities impacted by Hurricane Helene was temporarily paused in parts of North Carolina over the weekend due to reports of threats against Federal Emergency Management Agency responders, amid a backdrop of misinformation about responses to recent storms. Some FEMA teams helping disaster survivors apply for assistance in rural North Carolina are currently working at secure disaster recovery centers in counties where federal workers are receiving threats, a FEMA spokesperson told CNN on Monday. “For the safety of our dedicated staff and the disaster survivors we are helping, FEMA has made some operational adjustments,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Disaster Recovery Centers will continue to be open as scheduled, survivors continue to register for assistance, and we continue to help the people of North Carolina with their recovery.” - CNN
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley said former President Trump is "a fascist to the core," according to journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, "War," multiple outlets reported on Friday. Milley's existing scorn for the GOP presidential nominee has escalated. "He is now the most dangerous person to this country," he told Woodward. “I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he's a total fascist," Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, said to Woodward. The Army veteran was a source for Woodward and journalist Robert Costa's 2021 book, "Peril." Milley, who Trump nominated to be chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has previously made criticisms of the former president. Milley has been criticized by the far right. A never-sent draft resignation letter by Milley said Trump was "doing great and irreparable harm" to the U.S. in 2020, after police used tear gas and batons to clear protestors and journalists out of the then-president's way for a photo op.- Axios
The lead counsel for a public inquiry into the 2018 death of a British woman poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent said Monday that there was enough poison in the vial she unwittingly opened to kill thousands of people. Dawn Sturgess and her partner collapsed after they came into contact with a discarded perfume bottle containing the nerve agent Novichok in the southwest England town of Amesbury. She had sprayed the contents of the bottle on her wrist and died days later. Her partner survived. “The evidence will suggest that this bottle — which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people — must earlier have been left somewhere in a public place creating the obvious risk that someone would find it and take it home,” lead counsel Andrew O’Connor said. Their exposure came four months after a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter were sickened by Novichok in an attack in the nearby city of Salisbury. - AP
Germany narrowly avoided a plane crash earlier this year after a parcel destined for an aircraft’s hold burst into flames before the flight in a suspected act of Russian sabotage, one of the country’s spy chiefs has said. He also warned of a dramatic increase in “aggressive behaviour” by Russian agents. Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, said that only a lucky coincidence meant that the package caught fire on the ground at a DHL logistics centre in Leipzig and not in mid-air. He did not say if it was a passenger or freight plane. Haldenwang told a parliamentary committee at the German Bundestag that if the package had ignited during the flight, “it would have resulted in a crash”. While he did not name the suspected perpetrators, the German news agency DPA said security services were working on the assumption that the attack was connected to Russia. It was not clear to whom the parcel was sent. Appearing before members of parliament, Haldenwang and other German spy chiefs issued the latest western warning that the Kremlin had significantly stepped up its destabilisation efforts, with attempted acts of espionage and sabotage increasing “both quantitatively and qualitatively” in Germany. “We are observing aggressive behaviour by the Russian intelligence services,” he said, adding that Moscow was “putting people’s lives at risk”. He warned: “It affects all areas of our free society.” - FT
A court in Moscow has sentenced a French researcher to three years in a penal colony for breaking Russia's controversial law on registering as a "foreign agent". Laurent Vinatier, who worked for a Switzerland-based conflict mediation NGO, was arrested in June while gathering what prosecutors say was information on Russia's military. Speaking in the courtroom in Russian, Vinatier apologised, saying he was unaware he should have registered. The 48-year-old, who had earlier admitted his guilt, recited a verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. France described the court ruling as "extremely harsh", calling for the researcher's immediate release. Vinatier's defence team said he would appeal - BBC
