Norway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.

A public consultation on the opening up of nine new Norwegian oilfields closed on Wednesday. The areas in question are much further north in the Arctic than the concessions the US president, Donald Trump, announced for Alaska this month.

Experts say the area is regarded as risky both environmentally and in terms of profitability. They also say the decision risks antagonising other nations which are party to the 100-year-old Svalbard treaty, which regulates activity in the area concerned.

While international commentators compare the ongoing unrest in Belarus with the 2014 Ukrainian Maidan, President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes his northern neighbour won't follow in Ukraine's footsteps.

"I wouldn't want them to have similar events to what we had in 2014," Zelensky told France-based news network Euronews. "I don't want the Belarusian people to die. I don't want them to be shot dead or to have some other serious bloodshed caused by the government."

In February 2014, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office after months of protests on the streets of Kiev. At one point, clashes between demonstrators left over 100 dead and many more injured. Zelensky hopes Belarus will avoid a similar fate.

"I really think that it is not too late for the authorities and society to start a dialogue," he said, clarifying that "Ukraine will not intervene."

Belarus is currently experiencing mass unrest following the disputed results of the August 9 presidential election, deemed by the opposition to have been falsified. Since Election Day, protesters have clashed with police on the streets of the country, with the security forces using tear gas and rubber bullets against citizens. According to the official result, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won 80 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya came second with 10 percent.

Left-wing Canadian activists took to social media to claim that Joe Biden's DNC acceptance speech had been plagiarized.

Judge for yourself. Biden's words were: "For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. And light is more powerful than dark."

In his goodbye letter just before his death, Layton wrote the following: "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair."

China said Wednesday it remains firm in its insistence that Canada make the first move to end the detention of two Canadians, following a meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers.

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor have been held in China on unspecified national security charges for more than 620 days in apparent retaliation for Canada's late 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive at tech giant Huawei and the daughter of the company's founder.

Meng was detained at Vancouver's airport at the request of the United States, which wants her extradited to face fraud charges over the company's dealings with Iran. Her arrest enraged Beijing, which calls it a political move aimed at constraining China's rise as a global technology power.

The rapid onset of a mysterious illness that almost killed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week and ultimately led to his emergency airlifting to Germany for treatment while in a medically induced coma immediately prompted widespread speculation from the Western media that the authorities had tried to poison him, but it's unrealistic to imagine such a scenario since there are several compelling reasons why the government wouldn't ever want to harm him as well as some relevant arguments for why the West wants their targeted audience across the world to think otherwise.

The Mysterious Illness

The Western media has been captivated by the curious case of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after the rapid onset of a mysterious illness almost killed him while he was mid-flight from Siberia to Moscow to face charges of slander after calling a World War II veteran a "traitor" earlier this summer for supporting amendments to the constitution. Navalny was ultimately airlifted to Germany for treatment while in a medically induced coma at his wife's request. Private individuals footed the bill, and the authorities didn't object to his departure. Prior to that, the Russian doctors shared their preliminary diagnosis that his illness was caused by a "metabolic disorder" which might have been triggered by a "sharp drop in blood sugar". They also confirmed that "no poisons or traces of poison have been found in his system", which is why a law enforcement source told TASS that "There are no grounds for opening a criminal case, no crime elements have been identified." An industrial chemical was found on his hands and clothes during testing, but the Omsk Regional Office of the Interior Ministry is of the belief that "it may have appeared after contact with plastic glass".

The UK government has received so many complaints from Iraqis who were unlawfully detained and allegedly mistreated by British troops that its defence ministry says it is unable to say how many millions of pounds have been paid to settle the claims.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials in London say they can provide approximate figures for the thousands of Iraqis who have lodged complaints against British forces involved in the 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

However, they maintain that they cannot disclose how much UK taxpayers' money has been spent settling their claims, saying that it would take weeks for civil servants to collate the figure.

The department is claiming that it is unable to disclose the sums paid at a time when the UK parliament is about to debate a deeply controversial law which would introduce a partial amnesty for the country's service personnel who have committed serious crimes - including murder and torture - while serving outside the country.

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Friedrich Nietzsche

The other day the U.S. State Department published "Pillars of Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem". The report should have a disclaimer like this:

Everything you read in the NYT or hear Rachel Maddow say about Russia is true: Putin is a murderer, a thief and a thug, he shot down MH17, poisoned the Skripals, elected Trump, invaded Georgia and stole Crimea. If you question any part of this, you are controlled and directed by Russian Disinformation HQ.

Freedom of speech does not entitle you to doubt The Truth.

The methodology of all of these things - this is one of several - is uncomplicated. Paul Robinson has commented on the dependence of so much comment about Russia, and this report in particular, on the myth of central control.

1. Anything anywhere on Russian social media, whether sensible or crazy, was personally put there by Putin to sow discord and weaken us. All social media or websites based in Russia are 100% controlled by Putin.
2. The Truth about Russia is found in the West's official statements and in the "trusted source media". Anyone who questions it benefits Putin, who wants to bring us down, and is therefore acting as a servant of Russian Disinformation HQ.

The narrative on COVID-19 is about control. The conspiracy thinkers appear to be correct in this.

Let us demonstrate some insanity: What would you say if I told you that the CDC is uncertain that masks provide any protection at all from the coronavirus?

Does that sound crazy to you? We finally see President Trump wearing a mask here and there, and his opponents Joe Biden and Kamala Harris look like bad renditions of Old West bandits as they campaign for President (not Vice President, but President and handler).

Well, watch this presentation by Tucker Carlson. You will also see that the coronavirus is being connected to climate change of all things and that there is indeed an enormous power play making use of this very mild pandemic disease. Tucker notes the CDC doubt at timestamp 7:00. See for yourself.

What do you call an economy of monopolies without competition or any regulatory restraints?

An economy of monopolies that controls both the buying and selling in the markets they control?

Monopolies with the power to commit legalized fraud and the profits to buy political influence?

Monopolies whose black box algorithms are all-powerful but completely opaque to public scrutiny?

Call it whatever you want, but it certainly isn't Capitalism, which requires competition and market transparency to price capital, labor, risk, credit, goods, services, etc.

Black Box Monopoly is the death of Capitalism as it eliminates competition and market transparency.

Okay, I admit it, the title is rather hyperbolic :-) But here is what I am trying to say: there are signs that Russia is intervening in the Belarusian crisis (finally!).

First and foremost, we can see a truly radical change in Lukashenko's policies: if his initial instinct was to unleash a brutal repression of both the violent rioters and the peaceful demonstrators, now he has made a 180 and the outcome is quite amazing: on Sunday there were large anti-Lukashenko demonstrations yet not a single person was detained. Not one. Even more amazing is this: the Polish-run Nexta Telagram channel (which is the main medium used by the Empire to overthrow Lukashenko) initially called for a peaceful protest, but at the end of the day a call was made to try to take over the main Presidential building. When the rioters (at this point we are dealing with an illegal, violent, attempt to overthrow the state - so I don't call these people demonstrators) got to the building they were faced with a real "wall" of riot cops in full gear: this (really scary) sight was enough to stop the rioters who stood for a while, and then had to leave.

Second, Lukashenko did something rather weird, but which makes perfectly good sense in the Belarusian context: he dressed himself in full combat gear, grabbed an AKSU-74 assault rife, dressed his (15 year old!) son also in full combat gear (helmet included) and flew in his helicopter over Minsk and then landed in the Presidential building. They then walked to the riot cops, where Lukashenko warmly thanked them and which resulted in the full police force giving him a standing ovation. To most of us this behavior might look rather outlandish if not outright silly. But in the context of the Belarusian crisis, which is a crisis primarily fought in the informational realm, it makes perfectly good sense.

• Last week Lukashenko said that no other elections, never mind a coup, will happen as long as he is alive.
• This time Lukashenko decided to show, symbolically, that he is in charge and that he will die fighting along his son if needed.

The message here is clear: "I am no Ianukovich and, if needed, I will die just like Allende died".