Russia, Diving Nuclearshod Over Its Arctic Neighbours

"Russia is determined to control access, setting the terms for exploiting regional shipping and resources. It wants to extend command over stretches of Arctic water, with little justification under international law."

"If Canada wants stronger maritime security -- as the Canadian Coast Guard's transfer to the Department of National Defence last September suggests -- it must grasp Russia's Arctic plans and the long-term persistent threat they pose." 

Alexander Dalziel, Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Sergey Sukhankin Jamestown Foundation 

 

Canada has for too long neglected its share of the Arctic against the predatory plans of Moscow which has made no secret of its determination to extend its recognized territorial claims by rebuilding its old semi-abandoned bases, investing in nuclear-powered ice-breakers, strengthening its air capabilities in its long-range plans of controlling shipping lanes, and harvesting minerals and oil in their oceanic fastness. 

 

The provocative act of planting its titanium Russian flag on the Arctic seabed in 2007 was a signal of its entitled 'ownership' of an extended, contested area alerting placeholders, Canada, United States, Denmark and Norway that their own long-acknowledged territory at sea can no longer be taken for granted.

 

Securing and safeguarding the Arctic was a major topic for discussion, along with strengthening maritime security in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans during the recent NATO summit in Turkey. Russian President Vladimir Putin's territorial ambitions focused the discussion on setting global terms for regional exploitation of the undersea resources, and the associated need to agree on how best to ensure maritime security in the face of a national leader unconcerned with international law. 

 

Ivan Papanin was laid down in 2017 and is expected to join Russia’s Northern Fleet by the end of 2024. Two additional vessels of the type are under construction for the naval units of the country’s border patrol. gCaptain

 

Russia makes no secret of its intention to resort to military means with its formidable nuclear submarines in play and its paramilitary Russian Coast Guard prepared to control access to the Northern Sea Route, north of Russia, bordering on U.S. territory in the east, Norway in the west. Russia's focus is the promotion of year-round shipping through the Arctic. Its investment in ice-class liquefied natural gas carriers illustrate its regional power assertion.

 

Norwegian and European authorities sanctioned Russian fishing industries on suspicion of espionage and infrastructure sabotage. The Russian proposed "Transarctic Transport Corridor" to connect southern industrial centres and Siberian resource projects to foreign markets through the Northern Sea Route is a marked concern, while offshore drilling and underwater mining are seen as insurance against dwindling land resources. 

 

While Russia polishes its credentials as the only serious player in the Arctic, entitling it to expand its boundaries and without consultation with the other Arctic nations set standards running loops around its Arctic neighbours, its state media invested in propaganda elevating Russian plans, express contempt for Canadian, American or Danish development plans in the North American Arctic, marking them with a hostile purpose, a potential "bridgehead" with which to threaten Russia; its own three-decade military presence aside. 

 

Three Russian nuclear icebreakers in the Arctic. (Source: Atomflot)

 

"The Arctic is central to Russia's deepening partnership with China and its broader authoritarian agenda. Moscow is courting Chinese investment while giving Beijing access denied by Arctic democracies."

"China  is using Arctic waters to diversify its export routes while gaining experience operating in the region."

"The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says that both countries are increasing their espionage activities."

Alexander Dalziel/Sergey Sukhankin 

Terra Nullius, Svalbard: Cold Shore

"Norway now finds itself in the most serious security situation since 1945."

"[Svalbard has for too long been seen by nations as a place where] everyone who wants to can come up and do almost whatever they want."

"That's not the fact. This is Norwegian sovereign territory. So we're making that a bit clearer."

Eivind Vad Petersson State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway 

The Svalbard Archipelago   Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

 

Following World War 1, Norway's claim to the Arctic archipelago and its islands was officially recognized. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 banned the presence of activity linked to the military while granting all other nations choosing to sign on to the agreed-upon treaty access to hunting, fishing, mining and land ownership. Over the years, close to fifty countries added their names to the treaty which allowed them access.

 

Of late, studies of the geology of Svalbard and the ocean floor surrounding it have identified vast amounts of copper, zinc, cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements buried in the ocean floor. These are eagerly-sought-after minerals that power electric car battery technologies and wind turbines. It was  generally taken that the Svalbard Treaty granted signatories rights to its surrounding seas and seabed. Until January 2024 when Norway's governing party announced it would pursue deep-sea mineral exploration in an enormous sweep of its seabed.

 

The remote, frigid island, viewed as hostile to human life on a prolonged basis where minus 34 Celsius temperatures were not unknown, were initially home to Norwegian miners and Russian fur trappers. Longyearbyen, Svalbard's largest town, these days boasts candlelit restaurants, hotels, daily flights to the mainland, and is home to 2,500 people from 50 countries. According to the town's mayor, a surge in investment, official visits and strategic attention has recently focused on Svalbard.

 

 

Recently, the Energy Ministry of Norway publicly declared that Norway's goal in exploiting the natural geology of the area had a defined purpose; the goal of "profitable and sustainable" pursuit of seabed minerals, including the seabed around Svalbard. As Norway moves toward consolidating its sovereign rule over the island, its attitude toward foreigners and civil rights has hardened. Foreigners since 2021 were able to cast a vote in the political arena. 

 

That changed when authorities declared that voting in local elections would be off limits to foreigners living on Svalbard if they had not lived on Norway's mainland for the previous three years. "Should have been done a long time ago", said Mr. Petersson. The Svalbard Treaty guaranteed "equal access, not equal rights", he said, pointing out that in other countries foreigners are not given the right to vote. 

 

Svalbard is located about 800 kilometers from the North Pole, one of the only places on Earth where instant connection is possible with polar-orbiting satellites, leading to uninterrupted, clearer feeds and faster downloading speeds; more advantageous than anywhere else on the planet. In fact SvalSat, the world's largest satellite downloading station is based on Svalbard. 

 

Telecommunications domes of KSAT, Kongsberg Satellite Services, on a mountain near Longyearbyen. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images 

Fur traders from the Pomor region in northwestern Russia arrived at Svalbard some 300 years ago. The Soviets established several coal mining towns in Svalbard a century ago and had signed the Treaty. Of the mining towns, only one, Barentsburg, remains and still operates minimally. Once there was a population of 1,000, now reduced to around 300. One Russian official claimed the archipelago should be renamed the "Pomor Islands".

 

A powerful radar system monitoring space weather and the atmosphere is at the service of Chinese scientists. Data gathered from this equipment have been shared with the China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, a Chinese defense organization. Members of the U.S. House Select Commission on the Chinese Communist Party are convinced China is performing military research on Svalbard in defiance of the Treaty proscription. 

 

Outside the Yellow River Station where the Chinese scientists live a pair of granite lions stands guard.  

Norway ordered the Chinese to remove the lions, each of which weighs 900 kilograms, installed 20 years ago when the Chinese government agents arrived on Svalbard. For the first time last summer, the archipelago's sole university,   the University Center, operated by the Norwegian government, barred entry to Chinese students, identified by Norwegian intelligence agencies as a potential security risk. 

 

Criticisms of China's activities represent "nothing but distortion of facts and groundless speculation", according to officials at the the Chinese Embassy in Norway. As for the lions standing guard, they continue to remain where they were placed two decades earlier. 

"While the Russian geopolitical threat remains paramount, Chinese encroachments facilitated by an isolated Russia may complicate the Arctic security landscape in the longer term. The coast guard agencies of Russia and China recently signed a cooperation agreement on strengthening maritime law enforcement to great fanfare in Murmansk, a city on Russia’s western flank close to Norway."

"Moreover, when all other Arctic coast guard agencies suspended their participation in the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, Russia invited China to join the forum—clear signs of China’s expanding presence in the High North."

"As Iris A. Ferguson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for arctic and global resilience, has put it, Chinese efforts aim “to normalize its presence and pursue a larger role in shaping Arctic regional governance and security affairs.”"

Center for Strategic and International Studies  

The world’s northernmost Lenin statue looks over the abandoned Russian city of Pyramiden on Svalbard, summer 2018. Photo: Alina Bykova

 

From The River To The Sea

"We are getting more and more phone calls and conversations of concerned people — if it’s Israelis who invest in Ireland and are concerned about their investment, if it’s Israelis who have relocated to Ireland into different tech companies and either are requesting to be relocated somewhere else or asking to return to Israel."

"I think it sends the wrong message about the location and the centrality of Ireland as a tech hub when there are more and more people who are concerned about moving to Ireland. I don’t think that this is the message that Ireland wants to send to the world … And this is not what we want to see."

"[Many Irish sympathize with Israel] behind the scenes. I think there is a lot of potential in our bilateral relations, if it’s cybersecurity or health care, climate change. I hope to be given that opportunity to continue that."

Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich

Anti-Israel demonstrators stand outside the Israeli embassy after Ireland has announced it will recognize a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Molly Darlington

 A March poll by the Palestinian polling group elicited the data that seven in ten Palestinians approved of the October 7 sadistic barbarity that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist operatives inflicted on southern Israel's kibbutz residents. Poll results rendered the information that Palestinians in the West Bank outdid their Gaza counterparts with a greater number supporting Hamas as the duly constituted government in both territories.

Israelis, looking back in appalled anger at the carnage wrought by the Palestinian terrorist operation of October 7 are almost equal in numbers in rejecting a renewed Palestinian enclave in  Gaza. It seems that in the West, in European countries in particular, Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups are not held in any judgement. Israel, on the other hand, is held to a standard not expected of Palestinians. When Palestinians invoking their 'refugee' status as 'victims' everlasting as long as Israel exists, commit to the goal of destroying Israel, their ongoing violence against Israel and its population is considered irrelevant.

 

Israel's responses to deadly raids, however, are viewed through the magnified lens of international demands that restraint be the order of the day, not the wholesale intention of responding militarily to the rocket barrages, and suicide missions -- and above all the October 7 sadistic savagery with its death count, determined to prevent the promise of more October 7s, until Israel is destroyed -- by taking the initiative to destroy first those whose unremitting violence against Israeli existence must be final and complete.

 

Ireland has led the way in persuading Spain and and Norway -- all three countries known to be hostile to Israel -- to formally recognize the 'State of Palestine', rather than await a final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority government on mutual recognition and a corresponding decision on conditions both agree upon, setting standards and boundaries as well as pledges of non-hostile cooperation. Israel has been available for talks in the critical issues involved, the Palestinians have evaded them.

Choosing instead their slow and steady scheduling of the poisoning of Palestinian minds against their Jewish neighbours, inculcating in those minds the need for 'resistance' against the 'occupation'; an occupation necessitated by the urgent call to protect Israelis of all ages against lethal attacks that Palestinians are taught by their governments it is their duty to carry out to martyrdom in the greater interests of opposing Israel's presence and committing to killing Jews.

Sovereignty recognition must pass some elemental standards, not the least of which under international law a state must have fixed borders, a permanent population, uncontested government with control of its security and commitments to amiable foreign relations. In light of the most recent of the ongoing attacks against Israel and its people, to proceed at this unresolved juncture to recognize a Palestinian state that refuses to negotiate with the neighbour it threatens, to agree on boundaries and future relations is beyond premature.

Granting that status for the Palestinians is not only premature, it represents a reprehensible decision to reward savagery committed against a neighbour where 1,200 lives of Israeli citizens were extinguished on one fateful day of carnage dedicated to terrorizing, slaughtering and hostage taking. Neither Palestinians, nor now Israelis favour the two-state 'solution' the West is anxious to hasten to reality, seemingly to solve a brutal, unresolved issue of two peoples rivalling one another in a competition for territory.

 

Israelis settled for a state on a small portion of their historical ancestral land mass; Palestinians rejected outright the opportunity offered them through the Partition Plan of the United Nations in 1947. Consistently since then when war after war broke out as surrounding Arab states attempted to dislodge the Jewish State from the Middle East, Israel successfully clung to its territory, militarily defeating its enemies and frustrating Palestinian aspirations to achieve a state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea.

 

Which is to say, without a presence of an Israeli state, leaving the entire area to the Palestinian Arabs. That remains the goal of both Fatah (West Bank Palestinian Authority) and Hamas (Gaza Strip). Fatah and Hamas oppose one another with a hostility born of ideological differences and factional rivalry. Their only area of agreement is the destruction of the State of Israel. That part of the West that is amenable to granting State status to Palestinian aspiration is effectively agreeing that the use of violent sadism was justifiable and awaited reward.

 

Countries that would never tolerate violence against their claims to sovereignty and against their populations, appear to feel that having suffered the intolerable, Israel should merely shrug and count its losses to satisfy the demands of a global community fixated with the entitlements and inalienable rights of a Palestinian population that chooses its method of persuasion, trumping lethal violence over the negotiating table. In the process the pretense for consumption by the West, frequent appeals to victimhood. Appealing for help from the international community to bypass normal international standards to qualify for statehood.

 

Looking ahead to the eventual agreement on statehood for 'Palestine', the issue of who would govern is critical to relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians make no secret of the fact that the majority reject 88-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected to his position as President decades ago, with no election keeping him in office for the past 20 years. Their choice of governance has been stated time and again in their admiration for Hamas's agenda. 

 

Ireland, Spain and Norway would never agree to live alongside another state with destructive tendencies and an agenda that included ongoing violence against a neighbour. Yet they deem it acceptable for Israel and they prefer to force the matter by supporting a Palestinian State that is loathe to bargain in good faith with Israel, since to do so would be to forego their ambition to have free reign from "The River to the Sea" in perpetuity.

 

 

Negotiated Settlements Set Aside by Norway, Ireland, Spain

"Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing that we recognize the state of Palestine. Each of us will now undertake whatever national steps are necessary to give effect to that decision."

"There is never a wrong time to do the right thing".

"It was my government’s preferred position to recognize a two-state solution as part of a peace process to bring that about, but sadly, unfortunately, such a comprehensive peace settlement now seems, in many ways, further away than it has ever been."

"We believe you can’t say you’re in favor of a two-state solution and not recognize the very existence of two states."

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris

From left, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, Spain's President Pedro Sánchez and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are pictured.  Getty Images/PA/Reuters

 

 

Was ever a sentence uttered that should have been corrected as 'There is never a right time to do a wrong thing'? Israel, in reacting to the tripartite statement in shock and disbelief is entirely correct in chiding these three Western democracies for their gross error in judgement, deciding between them that the 'right thing' to do is to reward terrorist groups in the Middle East for their vicious penchant to declare their intention to destroy a legally and morally constituted state on its own ancestral geography that has been challenged for possession by a group of Arab (of mostly Egyptian origin) colonizers claiming it as their own. Did the three ask themselves why it was that a negotiated settlement was further away than ever?

 

The opportunity for a two-state 'solution' was offered through the UN's partition plan, promptly and gratefully accepted by Israel, furiously rejected by those now calling themselves 'Palestinians' who preferred to wait out the intentions of surrounding Arab/Muslim countries to march on the nascent state of Israel with a view to preventing the establishment of the Jewish state. Succeeding wars failed just as the initial one did, but the Palestinian-Arab determination to wreak havoc on Israel with the ultimate aim to destroy it and murder all its population has never faded.

 

The October 7 butchery that took place in southern Israel by the terrorist groups Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, aided and abetted by Palestinian civilians exhibiting raw savagery in the sordid, ghoulish sadistic cruelty meted out to innocent civilians has few parallels in modern history. This declaration by Palestinians both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who have been polled to render 85% support to Hamas terrorism and their approval of the October 7 bestiality represents the level of civilization that Spain, Norway and Ireland are prepared to recognize and legitimize with statehood.

 

Israel is dismayed, but perhaps not completely surprised by the three countries turning their backs on the only democracy in the Middle East, distinguished from all others because it is Jewish, its origins the very land it now sits upon, along with other areas the world prepared to honour and hand over to an Arab population that has no intention, ever, of living in peace with the original inhabitants of the land. In their preparation to recognize the State of Palestine, no effort has been made by Spain, Norway and Ireland to condemn the Palestinians for their aspirations to destroy Israel.

 

Nor has any overture been made to persuade the Palestinians through their leadership to turn their ambitions toward statehood infrastructure and the merits of civilized behaviour in favour of completely foregoing its lethal hostility against Israel. Needless to say, with no expectations of Palestinians curbing and abandoning their commitment to violence against Israel, the announcements of support in the form of recognition of their ambitions to form a legitimate state with no pre-conditions sits extremely well with the Palestinian leadership -- the Palestinian Authority and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

 

Envoys of the three countries were summoned by Israel in a diplomatic expression of profound disappointment in their judgement and decision-making. The European ambassadors to Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said grimly, would be requested to witness video footage of the October 7 attack, to ensure they had intimate first-hand knowledge of what had transpired, through videos produced by the terrorists themselves as they rampaged through Israeli farming kibbutzim, raping and vandalizing, torturing children and women before murdering them.    

 

"[A Palestinian state is] a prerequisite for achieving peace in the Middle East."

"There will be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution."

"There can be no two-state solution without a Palestinian state."

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre

 

"This recognition is not against the people of Israel and certainly not against the Jewish people."

"It’s not in favor of Hamas."

"It’s in favor of co-existence."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

"[Recognizing a Palestinian state would be a] reward for terror."

"This will be a terror state, which will attempt to perpetrate the onslaught of October 7 time and again, and to that we shall not agree."

"This evil must not be given a state."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

A man waves the Palestinian flag in front of the Norwegian Parliament building during a demonstration in Oslo, Oct. 28, 2023. (Frederik Ringnes/NTB via AP)

 

 

The Penalty is Freya's

"[Freya] posed a continued threat to human safety. Through on-site observations the past week it was made clear that the public has disregarded the current recommendations to keep a clear distance to the walrus."

"Therefore, the directorate has concluded, the possibility for potential harm to people was high and animal welfare was not being maintained."

"We have considered all possible solutions carefully. We concluded that we could not ensure the animal's welfare through any means available."

"We have great regard for animal welfare, but human life and safety must take precedence. [The operation was] conducted in a humane fashion."

Frank Bakke-Jensen, director, Norwegian Fisheries

Freya, named after a Norse goddess, became a celebrity after being seen in viral videos climbing into small boats to nap. NTB/AFP via Getty Images

The 'operation' in question was a reference to the decision to euthanize the young walrus that has become such an endearing curiosity with its presence -- its comfort in the presence of humans and its propensity to want to join humans in their aquatic activities -- that people out of curiosity flocked to see her. In so doing, placing her in danger. She no more was aware of her strength and the potential for inadvertently harming people through close contact, than were the people who ignored cautionary signs and requests that they stay beyond a safe distance from the animal.

The difference being, of course, that Freya the Walrus was innocent of intent to harm, not understanding she could accidentally cause grief, the prospect of which would be beyond her animal brain -- and humans whose intellectual capacity was evidently no greater than Freya's continuing to ignore the pleas to protect themselves while protecting the walrus, placing both themselves and the trusting animal in harm's way.

Tourists and locals both, in Norway, have all been responsible for the reluctant decision by authorities to remove Freya from the danger people placed her in, while endangering themselves at the same time. Leaving animal welfare activists to mourn the loss of life of this friendly animal as being "infinitely sad". People had taken to swimming alongside the mammal and did not hesitate to bring children within touching distance. And as ignorant people are wont to do, some threw objects at her.

 

TOR ERIK SCHRDER/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

 

Freya weighed in at about 1,300 pounds. She occasionally climbed onto boats, getting herself comfortable to bask in the sun or to have a nap, lying in the boat. On occasion those boats would sink; no harm to Freya. Walruses have a protected status in Norway. Unfortunately, people enthused at her presence allowed their curiosity to get the better of their common sense, and in the process consigned her to death.

Officials hoped that she might leave of her own volition, considering euthanasia to be a last resort. Authorities' pleas to maintain a safe distance went ignored and Freya continued to attract attention. An image of Freya crowded by people within touching distance of the walrus was released a week ago by Norway's fisheries minister in a last-gasp effort to attempt to persuade people to be reasonable. 

Normally walruses live in the Arctic, so Freya's extended journey to Norway was highly unusual when she showed up after travelling into the North and Baltic Seas. She had been sighted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. But she spent part of the summer in Norway. In mid-July she was first seen in Oslo. She was estimated to be five years old, when she died.

Photo: TOR ERIK SCHRDER/NTB/AFP via Getty Images

Islam Quite Simply Incompatible with Gay Rights

"Around 2015 we were worried about this person. We have followed him, to a degree."

"In more recent times, he was not one of the people we were the most worried about."

Roger Berg, acting head of PST (Norwegian Domestic Security agency)

 

"We are sorry that once again we have to say that a Pride event must be cancelled."

"It is wrong, as the police claim, that this was meant to be a small event. We understand that people are now frustrated and still want to gather."

Oslo Pride

 

"I know how many of you felt when it turned out that the perpetrator belonged to the Islamic community. Many of you [Norway's Muslim community] experienced fear and unrest " 

"You should know this: We stand together, we are one community and we are responsible for the community together."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere

People bring flowers and rainbow flags to pay tribute to the victims as they take part in a spontaneous Pride parade, following a shooting at the London Pub, a popular gay bar and nightclub, after the official event was cancelled, in Oslo, Norway, June 25, 2022. Haakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB/via REUTERS

Another shock in Norway. The country's right-wing (Anders Brevik) has already made it abundantly clear how much they fear and detest the entry to the Nordic country of people from the Middle East, people practising a different religion linked to a different history, culture and set of laws, not secular like that of most Western democracy, but theocratic, linked to and a mainstay of Islam which regulates every aspect of the Muslim faithful's lives.

Norway insists that it is open to immigration and migration from the Middle East, prepared to welcome and absorb people radically differently socialized than indigenous Norwegians. And the country's political elite make it a point of pride that their welcome is unconditional. Native Norwegians are not so sure. There has been a lashback of anti-Muslim sentiment, with a hefty third of Norwegians uncomfortable to say the least with the presence of Muslims among them.

The 42-year-old suspect in the attack that took place during an LGBTQ festival in Oslo, was no recent immigrant. He was brought by his family to Norway while still an infant, so he has lived in Norway all his life. He is considered to be a radicalized Islamist, and was recognized as such from 2015 onward by Norwegian police authorities, but not considered to be a high-value threat. As with most of these terrorist actions, he has been described as mentally ill.

 

2 dead, 21 wounded in Norway LGBT nightclub shooting  (photo credit: REUTERS)

 

Married, children, he has lived on the dole for years. Iranian by birth, he was arrested after a shooting in the nightlife district of the country's capital early on Saturday, held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism. It was actually people on the scene who followed him after the shooting and took him into initial custody until the arrival of police. Two people were killed and another 21 were injured in what has been named an "Islamist terror act".

Clearly, he was 'radicalized' while a long-time citizen of the country. Clerics established in mosques throughout the non-Islamic world are known to be involved in introducing impressionable young Muslims to the concept of jihad and violent missions in the glories of martyrdom. Police in Oslo have thus far had no luck in their attempts to question the man identified as Zaniar Matapour.

He has made his own demands, however, that he would make a statement to be recorded and videotaped only if it were to be released to the public "with no time delay so it won't be censored or manipulated", his defence lawyer explained. Clearly, a type of 'manifesto' that he believes will deliver a welcome message that Gay Pride and LGBTQ festivities are sinful and not permitted by Islam. Punishment is their due and he assigned himself to deliver that punishment; death to the unbeliever.

The killer opened fire at three locations; outside and inside the London Pub, a popular gay bar in Oslo. Despite which police investigators feel confident in stating it was yet too soon in their investigation to determine whether the man had specifically targeted the gay community. Police found two weapons at the scene, one a fully automatic gun. Despite which, police recommend that all further LGBTQ events be cancelled for the present, not ruling out further and ongoing threats.

 

 

Norway's Human Rights Justice System

"According to Norwegian law he has a right now to go before a judge." 

"He emphasizes that right. And his motivation for doing so is difficult for me to have an opinion on."

"According to the law there is no obligation that you have to be remorseful."

"So it is not a legal main point. Absolutely the legal problem is whether he is dangerous."

Øystein Storrvik, Breivik’s defense lawyer

 

"The only thing I am afraid of is if he has the opportunity to talk freely and convey his extreme views to people who have the same mindset."

"I think personally it is absurd he has this possibility. I think he is ridiculous, but you have to remember that him having all this attention will be hard for the survivors and the parents and some people can be re-traumatized."

Lisbeth Kristine Røyneland, head, family and survivors support group

Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik arrives in court on the first day of a hearing where he is seeking parole, in Skien, Norway, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB scanpix via AP)

It's questionable whether a man with expressed fascist views who set out to commit a mass atrocity, could be any more notorious than Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik. The world read in horror of his murderous exploit in 2011 after he had planned to execute a brutal plan of mass murder where he began by setting off a car bomb in Oslo outside government headquarters where the blast killed eight people outright, wounding dozens of innocent bystanders in the process. That bloody event was just the start, he went on to complete the major part of his plan.

 

Driving to a recreational island where a leftist political group, the Labour Party, was holding a youth event at a summer camp he opened fire, shooting at defenceless people, mostly teens desperate to escape the nightmare that had suddenly erupted on an idyllic day of togetherness in recreation and politics where the man known as Norway's mass killer, took the lives of sixty-nine fellow Norwegians. Because from the perspective of his fascist ideology they practised a deplorable political agenda.

He was arrested and stood trial for his unspeakably evil act of war against decency, law and order. Norway's social culture, reflected in its laws, saw this mass murderer imprisoned in conditions that few other countries' prisons reflected. An obvious belief in redemption that included an morally unscrupulous sadist. He had a nicely furnished 'cell' that might equal hotel accommodations elsewhere in the country; proffered respect for his 'human rights' denied to others by his terrorist act of obliteration of human life.

He had the audacity in 2016 to sue the government that was treating him with kid gloves of understanding and hope for time to correct his mode of thought and execution of fascist 'justice'. Claiming isolation from other prisoners and frequent strip searches violated his human rights, initially he won his case. Somehow good sense and justice prevailed and the verdict was subsequently overturned in 2017. In fact, had he not been kept in solitary confinement, his life might have been forfeit, with other prisoners conducting jungle justice on the conscienceless slaughterer of youth.

Terrified youngsters hid in the woods, with some jumping into the water to escape the hail of bullets   AFP

The psychiatrist who had followed Breivik since 2012, Randi Rosenqvist, expressed her professional opinion in saying she could "not detect great changes in Breivik's functioning" from his original criminal trial to his current presentation. He had been convicted of terrorist acts, having been found criminally sane when a court rejected the prosecution's claim that he had been psychotic.

Having served a decade in prison for his horrific, planned and executed murder spree, he presented himself in court at a parole hearing to decide whether he might be released from prison. His appearance was as deliberately provocative as his acts of bloody carnage. With shaved head, a black suit bearing fascist messages, he made a white supremacist sign, then raised his right arm in that abhorrent Nazi salute, entering court.

 

Signs he carried read "Nazi-Civil-War", among other slogans. He blamed the commission of  his crimes on online radicalization through a network of leaderless far-right extremists. It was those online contacts he attributed to having motivated his attacks. He said, incredibly, "I was brainwashed". He quite evidently knows his civil rights under Norway's laws.

 

He was given the maximum 21-year sentence in 2012, on his conviction. The sentence came complete with a rarely-used clause within the Norwegian justice system; he can be held indefinitely should he continue to be considered a danger to society. The clause, however, gives him the right under the law to demand a parole hearing after a decade of detention. Which offers  him the opportunity for annual parole hearings enabling him to publicly.air his murderously pernicious ideology. 

Locals gathered boats near the island to try and help those jumping into the water to escape  AFP

Magnifying Grief

"Grief is a normal response to the loss of someone close, but traumatic losses may severely harm survivors for years."

"Our findings suggest that when treating trauma survivors, targeting symptoms of PTSD early might help them avoid complicated grief later on. Complicated grief has been defined as a persistent, intense yearning, longing and sadness, usually accompanied by insistent thoughts or images of the deceased and a sense of disbelief or an inability to accept the painful reality of the person's death."

"The fact that we found that PTSD symptoms predicted complicated grief reactions at a subsequent time point, but complicated grief did not predict the development of PTSD, is interesting because it suggests that targeting PTSD symptoms may hinder later development of complicated grief."

"This may have important implications for clinicians working with bereaved trauma survivors."

Kristin Alve Glad, researcher, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies

Terrified youngsters hid in the woods, with some jumping into the water to escape the hail of bullets.  AFP

A new study placed its focus on survivors of the terrorist attack that took place in Oslo, Norway, and on the nearby island of Utaya in 2011, when 77 people lost their lives. This event -- a shooting spree combined with a bombing -- represented the deadliest attack to take place in Norway since the Second World War. Published in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, the research found symptoms of a more complex grief can intensify over time with the potential to prevent survivors from leading normal lives.

 

In most instances when people suffer a shocking loss such as the death of a loved one, the sorrow it brings tends to recede with the passage of time. However, those people who experience PTSD resulting from a traumatic event which directed involved/impacted them personally and that also claimed the life of someone near and dear, according to the study conclusions, may end up suffering from a persistent sense of sadness which leaves them with an inability to cope, years on.

 

A total of 275 people were interviewed for the study; of that number 256 had lost a close friend, six lost a family member, and thirteen lost a close friend and family member/partner. In face-to-face interviews conducted by health-care professionals on three separate occasions -- five months after the attack, 15 months later, and finally 30 months later -- participants were asked questions relating to symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

 

Other questions were asked with a view to revealing feelings of complicated grief; as example, those related to difficulty in accepting the loss, managing intense grief and coping with thoughts focusing on death. The researchers found that those who reported symptoms of PTSD to be significantly likelier to relay feelings of complicated grief; those who still felt the effects of PTSD a year following the event were seen to struggle with the most intense symptoms of this severe form of grief.

 

Survivors were seen to have taken on a particularly heavy toll of grief from the terrorist attack since while they lost loved ones, they were also participants in the traumatic event, the researchers found. Leading to the conclusion that the "dual burden" of unexpected loss in combination with high exposure to the event steered PTSD symptoms in the direction of complicated grief, not identified in those who were removed from the violence.

 

The hope is that this refined understanding of the relationship between PTSD and complicated grief may lead to assisting in the development of targeted therapies to be used in giving aid to survivors who have lost loved ones to unexpected trauma. 

Locals gathered boats near the island to try and help those jumping into the water to escape   AFP

Health Benefits for Elderly Exercisers

"Participants in the control group did not receive supervised exercise,  yet exercised at relatively high levels throughout the five years."

"The central implication is that either shorter-duration vigorous physical activity or longer-duration moderate physical activity or a combination of the two, that amount to the same amount of work each week, will have the same favourable health outcomes with vigorous physical activity being the time-efficient alternative."

Norwegian researchers

 

Results from a study led by a team of researchers in Norway have ascertained that exercise for older adults leads to better health outcomes along with an increase in longevity. Just in case there are still people in the elder demographic who believe that exerting themselves physically to exercise their bodies and clear their minds is out of the question for the silver-haired who are more likely to believe and practise that old adage that quiet, and prolonged restful poses represent the formula to a long and tranquil life. 

 

The researchers set out to compare three distinct exercise routines on a group of age 70 to 77 Norwegians whom they divided into three groups. 780 people were enlisted in the control group which was asked to adopt the national guidelines for physical activity of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise preferably every day of the week. The second group comprised of 387 participants used two days of the 30-minute workouts for 50 continuous minutes of exercise, done at an intensive equivalent to 70 percent of their maximum heart rate.

 

And the third group of 400 people was also tasked with using two days weekly of the 30-minute workouts' the routine then constituted of four high-intensity intervals of four minutes performed at 90 percent of their maximum heart rate. All three groups whose average age was 72.8, saw fitness and health data compiled at the beginning of the study and collected again at intervals of one, three and five years follow-ups afterward.

Researchers now know more about the types of exercise that older adults tend to prefer and the factors that increase the risk of dropping out of an exercise program. (Photo: Andrea Hegdahl Tiltnes, NTNU)

 

The two non-control groups met regularly with exercise professionals to have supervised workouts designed to make certain that participants exercised in the appropriate training scenario with intensity measured by heart rate monitors and ratings of exertion collected. Self-reporting was the mode of analyzing adherence to the exercise routine; anyone who participated in less than 50 percent of the workouts was considered non-compliant. When the study was finalized, two physicians analyzed medical data relating to all three groups, (inclusive of deaths), while which exercise routine was linked with each group was withheld from the physicians.

It was anticipated by the researchers that the two groups exceeding the national recommendations for physical activity would result in added boosts of longevity, yet it was found that no differences resulted in the analysis in the mortality rate between those who followed the 30-minute conventional routine and those who did not. A slight boost in longevity among the high-intensity interval group when compared to the exercisers who performed 50 minutes of continuous moderate-intensity exercise was, however, noted.

Researchers suspected that the outcome related to the overall good health of the study subjects. 80 percent of the subjects reported a medium or high levels of physical activity at the study initiation, suggesting that exercise routines undertaken individually already contributed to their overall health and longevity. 47 percent of the exercisers performing the high-intensity interval training remained faithful to the end of the study in comparison to the 69 percent of controls who maintained their routine for the full five years.

Peak oxygen uptake represented an unexpected finding; a measure of cardiovascular fitness showed no age-related decline over the course of the study; good news for older exercisers since a decline in peak oxygen uptake typifies the age group involved and is associated with an increased risk of premature death and coronary heart disease. The conclusion is that there is a number of options for older adults anxious to reap health benefits that physical activity offers. 

 

For active older adults, judging the effectiveness of a workout by its length or intensity is not particularly good practice.

 

"First of all, I have to say that exercise in general seems to be good for the health of the elderly. And our study results show that on top of that, training regularly at high intensity has an extra positive effect."

"Among most 70-77-year-olds in Norway, 90% will survive the next five years. In the Generation 100 study, more than 95% of the 1500 participants survived!"

"Both physical and mental quality of life were better in the high-intensity group after five years than in the other two groups. High-intensity interval training also had the greatest positive effect on fitness."

"In the interval training group, 3% of the participants had died after five years. The percentage was 6% in the moderate group. The difference is not statistically significant, but the trend is so clear that we believe the results give good reason to recommend high-intensity training for the elderly."

"One challenge in interpreting our results has been that the participants in the control group trained more than we envisioned in advance. One in five people in this group trained regularly at high intensity and ended up, on average, doing more high-intensity training than the participants in the moderate group."

"You could say that this is a disadvantage, as far as the research goes. But it may tell us that an annual fitness and health check is all that's needed to motivate older people to become more physically active. In that case, it's really good news."

Dorthe Stensvold, professor, Cardiac Exercise Research Group (CERG), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Preserving Heirlooms

"The seed vault is the backup in the global system of conservation to secure food security on Earth."

"We need to preserve this biodiversity, this crop diversity, to provide healthy diets and nutritious foods, and for providing farmers, especially smallholders, with sustainable livelihoods so that they can adapt to new conditions."

Stefan Schmitz, executive director, Crop Trust, Bonn

Journalists and cameramen walk under a gust of cold wind near the entrance of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that was officially opened near Longyearbyen on February 26, 2008.Larsen, Hakon Mosvold/AFP/Getty Images

Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation seeds destined for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

"It was the recognition of the vulnerability of the world’s gene banks that sparked the idea of establishing a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility. The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates [backups] of seed samples from the world’s crop collections."
"Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up."

Crop Trust

There are a good many well organized, dedicated seed banks around the world, where heritage seeds are banked and maintained, and for many the purpose is to supply small-hold farmers and people living in poverty around the world with seeds to grow their own crops. Located in areas around the world from North America, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, India and Oceania, among others, research and collection and distribution helps to ensure that seeds to produce grains and vegetables to feed the world will never be lost.

An employee of the Potato International Centre (CIP) in Lima, handles seeds of potatoes and sweet potatoes being cultivated at the Centre. January 25th, 2008. Seeds of these tubercules were sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SISV) in Norway. ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/Getty Images

One of many interesting seed banks is maintained in a special vault in the Arctic meant to preserve seeds for rice, wheat and assorted food staples, where a million varieties are preserved. This place is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built into a mountainside and designed as a storage facility, with its goal to protect the integrity of vital crop seeds should cataclysms of nuclear war or plant pathogens strike the world order when it becomes imperative to safeguard global food supplies.

Crop Diversity Trust

Boxes of seeds stored deep inside the mountain in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

It is also called the "doomsday vault", and was built in 2008 by the government of Norway on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago located between Norway and the North Pole under the auspices of the global Food Trust. This week, the vault was opened to receive seeds from 30 gene banks including seeds from India, Mali and Peru, alongside Britain's Royal Botanical Gardens' banked seeds from Highgrove, Prince Charles' private estate.

At one time, an estimated 7,000 different plants were cultivated around the world. However, according to agricultural experts, at the present time about 60 percent of food comes from three main crops; maize, wheat and rice, a focus lacking in diversity to the extent that should each of those crops -- which use a diminishing number of seed types, lacking diversity -- fall victim to an overwhelming challenge due to climate change, vulnerable mono-seed harvests may fail.

Statistics warn that one in nine people around the globe -- according to the United Nations' World Food Programme -- go to bed hungry. According to scientists, erratic weather patterns could threaten both the quality and quantity of food available on a broad scale. Norway recently completed an $11 million upgrade to the building which had been constructed as a safe food vault at Svalbard in reflection of the preservation qualities of the Arctic cold.

And then it was discovered during a period of inclement weather in the form of an unexpected thaw of permafrost, that the doomsday vault had been compromised by meltwater entering the tunnel vestibule. The good news part in the alarming bad news story is that none of the seeds received water damage.

This photo March 1, 2016 shows a man carrying one of the newly arrived boxes containing seeds from Japan and USA into the international gene bank Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), outside Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen, Norway. HEIKO JUNGE/NTB Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

 

 

 

 

The Chinese Arctic Circle

"For anyone interested in geopolitics, this is the region to follow in years to come. [Huang] might be just another smiling businessman [but] we are talking about perceptions here."
"And the perception is that China wants a foothold in the Arctic."
"When you are a big country, you can claim to be whatever you want, and people believe you."
Willy Ostreng, president, Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research

"No need to doubt that billionaire Huang Nubo is a straw man for the Chinese Communist Party and the country's authorities."
Nordlys, northern Norway newspaper

"We will throw in the polar bears for free."
Ole Einar Gjerde, Norwegian realtor

Eerie: A green aurora appears over Svalbard in Norway, an area close to the north pole which is shrouded in darkness for much of the year

For sale by private owner: Arctic tract of land roughly twice larger than Manhattan. Major attraction, icy beauty, peace and quiet; this is no Manhattan. The property exists, wintry-cold in perpetuity, located across an icy fiord's distance from Longyearbyen, capital of the country's most northern territory. The property is for sale. Those with deep enough pockets and even deeper covert interests beyond what is being claimed have expressed their desire to own it. Will Norway permit that to happen?

The property business deal Mr. Giaever is eager to conclude as is the buyer who suffered a rebuff the year before when he attempted to purchase a tract of frozen wilderness in Iceland, has reason to believe he will have better luck with Norway. A preliminary deal was reached, to buy a waterfront plot for roughly $4-million near the northern city of Tromso. It is, however, the much larger tract of land on Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago that Norway's state broadcaster claims to be the real target.

Chinese tycoon, Huang Nubo's company, Beijing Zhonkun Investment Group has denied Norwegian media reports that it is aiming to buy high Arctic land. Its only, and above-board focus, it claims, is on plans to build a luxury resort complex in Lyngen on the Norwegian mainland near Tromso. Its ownership would place Mr. Huang's company inside the Arctic Circle, and as such has drawn well-founded suspicion. The seller, Ola Giaever, eager to sell his property near Tromso states: "This is a business deal. Nothing less (sic: nothing more?) is going on."

China, though not even remotely a country bordering the Arctic -- such as Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway and Iceland -- has a keen interest in the area. That interest is propelled by the prospect of eventual exploitation of the mineral and fossil fuel resources held to be embedded in the area. To that end, though preposterous, China even declared itself a "near Arctic state" despite the tip of its northernmost region being thousands of miles from the Arctic Circle.

"Xuelong" or "Snow Dragon has concluded a three months long Arctic expedition (Photo: antarctica.gov.au)

China, according to Mr. Ostreng, has "openly declared its Arctic ambitions", investing in an icebreaker -- the Snow Dragon -- sending scientists to Scalbard along with teams of international researchers, lobbying successfully to be accepted as an observer at the Arctic Council, itself a collection of countries with legitimate connections to the Arctic: Norway, Canada, Iceland, Russia and the United States.

Husky's delight: A rare pink sky over Svalbard, Norway. The spectacular sight only occurs once in every five years

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the region of the Arctic contains roughly 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its natural gas, untouched reserves to this date, resulting from the difficulty and high infrastructure cost of development. Russia, a legitimate stakeholder in the area, has announced a $400-billion investment to extract Arctic resources over the next two decades; assuming it can find the wherewithal for that planned investment.

Russia and China have historically been at odds with one another, but relations have warmed somewhat of late. Which hasn't meant that Russia is unconcerned over China's interest in the Arctic. "The struggle for resources is getting tougher", observed Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, who contends the Arctic holds over 20 percent of the world's oil reserves.

A wisp of green light twists over a pink sky in this incredible picture of northern lights over Svalbard in Norway. German photographer Kerstin Langenberger, 29, captured the incredible moment when she was travelling 800 miles from the North Pole

The Norwegian land now in dispute on Svalbard, up for sale is owned by descendants of a Norwegian shipper who bought it in 1937. It is the sole privately held territory left in Norway, and the first to be available for development since 1952. The state of Norway owns all else, and the area holds a Norwegian state coal company, Store Norske, and a Russian state-owned coal company, the Arctic Coal Trust.

The five countries whose territory does verge on and include territory within the Arctic Circle speculate China's efforts to attain a permanent foothold in the region of growing geopolitical and economic importance will deleteriously impact on their own interests. All the more so as expectations that global warming will continue to melt the Arctic seas, making year-round shipping from Asia less expensive, and enhancing prospects for natural resources exploitation.

1. 7,519 mi

   Distance from Arctic Cir to China