Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly leaves for Ukraine Jan. 16 for a six-day visit which is scheduled to include meetings with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Deputy PPM Olga Stefanishyna and probably Canadian troops deployed on Operation Unifier. “The amassing of Russian troops and equipment in and around Ukraine jeopardizes security in the entire region. These aggressive actions must be deterred,” Joly said today. “Canada will work with its international partners to uphold the rules-based international order and preserve the human rights and dignity of Ukrainians.”

The Taiwanese navy commissioned new minelaying vessels Jan. 14 as part of its defences against China. The initial order of four ships manufactured by Lungteh Shipbuilding also is part of a drive to revitalize the domestic arms industry and reduce dependence on U.S. suppliers. The ships’ automatic mine-laying system was developed domestically.

The U.S. accused Russia today of sending saboteurs into eastern Ukraine to stage an incident which could be used as a pretext for invasion. One official is quoted as saying said Russia was “laying the groundwork . . . through sabotage activities and information operations, by accusing Ukraine of preparing an imminent attack against Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.”

Elaine Luria, a Virgina Democrat, navy veteran and vice-chair of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, says new legislation is needed to allow the U.S. to respond faster if China invades Taiwan. She said Jan. 12 that President Joe Biden “would have to come to Congress for authorization to respond” militarily as required by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

A former U.S. paratrooper who leads the far-right Oath Keepers militia has been charged with seditious conspiracy over the mob attack on Congress a year ago. Arrested at home in Texas, Stewart Rhodes is among 11 persons charged Jan. 13 and the Justice Department has accused him of military-style tactics in coordinating the attack.

Three rockets launched from a nearby neighbourhood targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone Jan. 13 while a fourth landed in a nearby residential complex. The Iraqi military said a girl and a woman were injured in the latest in a series of drone and rocket attacks this month on the U.S. presence in Iraq.

The websites of seven Ukrainian government ministries and other services were rendered temporarily unavailable today by what the foreign ministry says was a huge cyberattack. A ministry official said that while it was too early to assign blame, “there is a long record of Russian cyber assaults against Ukraine.” The hackers said in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish that Ukrainians should “be afraid expect the worst.”

The minimum hourly wage in Nova Scotia will rise by 40 cents to $13.35 in April and Premier Tim Houston said Jan. 13 that further increases recommended by a review committee would be discussed. If implemented, those would see increases to $13.60 in October and to $15 by April 2024. A Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said that while the increase this spring is based on the Consumer Price Index, it is below a “living wage” and should be more than $22 an hour.

Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian security officer, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court today of crimes against humanity. Having entered Germany on a visa in 2014 and arrested five years later, he was accused of overseeing a detention center in Damascus where prosecutors said thousands of prisons were tortured and dozens killed during the ongoing civil war.

Sensitive to Russian troops buildups along Ukraine’s border, the Lithuanian government has decided to accelerate its procurement of a purchase of a multiple launch rocket system believed to be the M270 manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The two other Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, also have confirmed plans to procure MLRS systems.

Militarized versions of Raytheon’s tube-launched Coyote drones have succeeded in blowing up a range of other UAV mid-flight in U.S. Army tests at high and low altitudes. Video released by the company shows the radio/radar-controlled drone detonating in close proximity to either destroy the targets or at least damage them irrecoverably.

SolarWinds, a Texas-based IT management and software company, reported Jan. 11 that hackers have supplanted insiders as the largest source of security threats to the U.S. public sector. Some 56 per cent of the 400 respondents to a commissioned survey said the hacker community was a key issue for public sector organizations, followed by careless or untrained insiders at 52 per cent and foreign governments at 47 per cent. Concern evidently was higher at the state and local level than federally.

Raytheon has been contracted to retrofit the U.S. Navy’s Flight IIA Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers with more advanced radars. The $237-million project is expected to give the older ships the same level of detection and protection as the class’s later destroyers.

Results of a peer-reviewed study published today in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences shows that the world’s oceans last year were at their warmest in recorded history as average temperatures rose for the sixth consecutive year. “The ocean heat content is relentlessly increasing globally, and this is a primary indicator of human-induced climate change,” commented report co-author Kevin Trenberth, distinguished scholar at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

South Korea and Japan have confirmed that North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile today, less than a week after it launched what it claimed was a hypersonic missile. The latest launch comes shortly six countries urged the North to cease its “destabilising actions.”

A Kremlin spokesman said today that Russia is not optimistic after a first round of talks with the U.S. about the Ukraine crisis and would not allow its demands for western security guarantees to bog down in negotiations. “There are no clear deadlines here, no one is setting them; there is just the Russian position that we will not be satisfied with the endless dragging out of this process,” Dmitry Peskov said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told provincial and territorial premiers Jan. 10 that the federal government has enough coronavirus vaccine to enable all eligible Canadians to receive boosters as well as fourth shots where advised. He also confirmed plans to deliver 140 million rapid tests.

A plan to phase out the Luftwaffe’s 90 Panavia Tornado strike aircraft, which first entered service in 1979, is being revisited. Germany initially ditched the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a candidate, preferring a mixed fleet of Boeing FA-18 Super Hornets and Eurofighter Typhoons, but in confirming the review today, the defence ministry declined to say today whether the F-25 is back on the table.

Iran’s addition of another destroyer, four more submarines and 110 combat speedboats to its maritime forces last year, with plans for even more procurements, is said to present a growing threat to its neighbours.

An attempt by four military personnel to have legal protection against disciplinary measures against unvaccinated service members has been rebuffed by the Federal Court of Canada. Justice Janet Fuhrer said in her ruling that they had failed to meet any of the legal requirements for an injunction against the directive issued by the Chief of the Defence Staff.

MGen Dany Fortin’s bid to have himself reinstated as the head of the federal coronavirus rollout will go ahead after a Federal Court of Appeal judge adjourned a government motion to quash it. The Attorney General had sought to cut short the appeal, contending it was moot because the position no longer exists. Federal Court of Canada ruled last October that Fortin should use the military grievance process to make his case, but his counsel challenged that.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is not ruling out the possibility of Canada sending weapons to Ukraine as Russia increases its troops presence along its border. However, she stressed Jan. 9 that NATO’s focus is on diplomatic initiatives, which was “exactly why I had on Friday an important meeting with all the foreign ministers. . . . Ukraine's security is Europe's security and therefore it is the world and Canada's security.”

Lockheed Martin has received an $847 million order for long-lead components and services to produce 105 more F-35 fighters for the U.S. and allied customers for the aircraft. Long-lead items reportedly are difficult and time-consuming to obtain, so the new order is necessary to keep aircraft production on schedule.

Australia and Japan have agreed to make it easier for their military forces to visit each other’s countries for exercises. Their prime ministers signed an agreement during a Jan. 6 virtual meeting, Australian PM Scott Morrison saying that it would “underpin greater and more complex practical engagement between the Australian Defence Force and the Japanese Self-Defence Forces.”

Russian troops have deployed to the northern Mali city of Timbuktu to train domestic forces at a base vacated by France and western allies last month. Details are sketchy but France, the former colonial power, said just before Christmas that Russia mercenaries working for the Wagner Group had arrived but that was denied by the Mali government.

Widespread protests against rising fuel prices have prompted Kazakhstan’s authoritarian president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, to fire his cabinet, impose states of emergency and call for Russian support through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation of former Soviet states to deal with what he called foreign-trained “terrorists.” An estimated 2,500 Russian troops arrived Jan. 6 to help Kazakh forces deal with the increasingly violent demonstrations which have resulted in the deaths of demonstrators and police.

The apparently unprecedented belly-landing earlier this week of one of South Korea’s more than 30 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters (the same model being offered to Canada) has resulted in the entire fleet being grounded pending an investigation. It was returning from a training flight when an electronics failure evidently caused the landing gear to malfunction.

USAF F-16 fighters from Ramstein Air Base in Germany flew to Poland Jan. 4 to work with Polish and Belgian F-16s on air policing missions. NATO says the three countries’ aircrews will practise “advanced airborne maneuvers” to strengthen command and control procedures in coordination with a German operations centre.

The Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) in the U.S. Army has its first chief technology officer. It said Jan. 4 that the appointment of Chaneta Samms, formerly chief of plans and programs at the Army Research Lab, reflects the service’s push to “strengthen the integration of its multi-billion dollar research and technology mission.”

Gov Greg Abbott of Texas has told National Guard members in his state that they can ignore Department of Defense coronavirus vaccination rules. “President Biden . . . is not your commander-in-chief under our federal or state Constitutions,” Abbott said Jan. 4. “As long as I am your commander-in-chief, I will not tolerate efforts to compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine.” Abbott is one of seven Republican state leaders challenging the federal policy.

A virtual meeting of NATO foreign ministers is scheduled for Jan. 7 to assess the situation in Ukraine. The extraordinary meeting of the 30 alliance members kicks off a week of intense diplomacy over troop buildups along the Ukrainian border with Russian and U.S. officials meeting in Geneva Jan. 12 followed by talks in Vienna of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna.

Israel has agreed to buy two Boeing 767-based KC-46A tankers and 12 Lockheed Martin CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift cargo helicopters with an option for six more. Both aircraft in the $3.1-billion procurement will replace legacy platforms.

Despite attempts by two U.S. administrations to shut down the military’s terrorist detention and trial facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the Department of Defense has begun a $4-million courtroom expansion. Public attendance at trials in the original Camp Justice courtroom will still be permitted but the new courtroom will only be viewable remotely through a “virtual gallery with multiple camera angles.”

A former Republican party staffer in Congress wants Airbus shut out of the competition to supply the U.S. Air Force with new tankers, a move which would clear the way for Boeing which has put up its 767-based KC-46A against the A330-based Multi-Role Tanker Transport. “The company is guilty of misbehavior when it comes to defense contracting,” writes Lynn Haueter, alluding to fines Airbus agreed to in 2020 to settle international investigations into alleged bribery. “Airbus should be ineligible for new defense contracts . . . until it can prove it has changed its ways.”