🔍Competition for the Arctic heats up: who are the top claimants?

Donald Trump’s Arctic appetites are growing, with Canada added to Greenland in his territorial wish list. Besides reawakening the 19th century vision of a US ‘manifest destiny’ of control over North America, a takeover of Canada and Greenland would add dramatically to Washington’s Arctic possessions, upping the US share of the region’s vast, untapped natural resources, and giving Trump an opportunity to challenge Russia’s Northern Sea Route.

Who controls what in the Arctic right now?

Measured from the North Pole to the Arctic Circle (67° north of the Equator), the Arctic stretches across roughly 20 mln sq. km of sea and land area, with the Arctic Ocean covering 15.5 mln sq. km of that. The region is home to vast, untapped natural resources, opportunities for game changing new trade routes, and prospects for taking existing geostrategic and military competition to new levels. It’s no wonder Donald Trump wants to increase US territorial possessions in the region.

🔸 United States: Current Arctic claims - about 10%*

US Arctic possessions include about 1/3 of Alaska (about 575,000 sq. km), plus a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone off the state’s coasts. In 2023, Washington added a cool million sq. km to its continental shelf claims, more than half of that off Alaska, in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

🔸 Canada: Current Arctic claims - about 25%*

40% of Canada’s 9.98 mln sq. km land mass and 70%+ of its coastline are situated in the Arctic. Canada’s Arctic shelf claims were extended to 1.9 mln sq. km, all the way to Russian waters, in 2022, and include claims to the North Pole.

🔸 Denmark (via Greenland): Current Arctic Claims - about 20%*

Denmark is an Arctic power thanks to its control of Greenland (although for how long is unknown, given the island’s drift toward independence). About 2/3 of the 2.17 mln sq. km island lies above the Arctic Circle, allowing Copenhagen to lay claim to some 900,000 sq. km of the continental shelf, including the North Pole.

🔸 Russia: Current Arctic claims - about 50%*

About 1/5 of Russia’s 17 mln sq. km landmass lies above the Arctic Circle, and Moscow’s continental shelf claim stretches 2.1 mln sq. km, including the North Pole.

🔸 Norway: Current Arctic claims - about 5%

Norway’s Arctic claims are the comparably modest, with about 1/3 of the country of 385,200 km classified as northern, and Arctic shelf claims stretching some 235,000 sq. km.

* due to conflicting claims and the very rough nature of these estimates, the total adds up to more than 100%.

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🔥 California wildfires and Ukraine: a surprising connection?

As uncontained deadly wildfires ravage southern California, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has dug itself into a hole in its overzealous effort to support Ukraine.

1️⃣ In 2022, the department donated “surplus” equipment to Ukraine, as reported by ABC 7. That gear could have been critical in addressing today’s crisis.

2️⃣ Further compounding the issue, Mayor Karen Bass reduced the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget by $17.6 million for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, while earlier proposing a $23 million reduction.

3️⃣ The city has also been grappling with federal firefighter shortages since 2020. According to Fox News, fewer than 4,000 LA Fire Department personnel are tasked with serving a population of four million.

“There will be more than a couple of billion dollars remaining in PDA [Presidential Drawdown Authority] assistance for future use after Jan. 20,” a senior defense official recently said during a briefing on Ukraine.

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Labour, Tories, and Britain's grooming gangs scandal: Decades of silence and inaction explored

Prime Minister Starmer’s Labour Party has blocked a Tory-led push for a new probe into the so-called grooming gang scandal afflicting the UK, with a bill on the matter defeated 364-111 Wednesday. What are grooming gangs? Why is the state trying to hide or understate their significance? What’s at stake? Here’s what to know:

◻️ “Grooming gangs” involve groups of Britons, mostly of Pakistani descent, engaging in the systematic sexual exploitation of children, mostly girls, in communities across the UK.

◻️ In 2012, The Times published an explosive report uncovering grooming gang activity in Rotherham, England, unearthing a scandal creating victims for many years, but long hushed up to sidestep uncomfortable questions about Britain's immigration and integration policies.

◻️ A follow-up 2014 study by respected academic Dr. Alexis Jay found that 1,400+ children were ‘groomed’ in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 alone.

◻️ The national shock from the revelations sparked local inquiries, uncovering evidence of similar exploitation in towns and cities across England, from Oxford and Rochdale to Oldham and Telford.

◻️ In 2015, Dr. Jay was tapped to lead a national probe, which she completed in 2022, uncovering an “epidemic” of abuse. Besides grooming gangs, the probe looked into exploitation by state institutions and the church.

◻️ The report demanded “urgent” action, from mandatory reporting of child sex crimes, to more stringent standards for persons working with children, full-time attention to the problem via a minister for children, etc. Last week, Jay said the report’s recommendations have largely gone unheeded.

◻️ Elon Musk brought attention to the issue last week in a tirade of explosive X posts charging Starmer and Labour of enabling grooming gangs and halting probes into suspected crimes.

◻️ In reality, successive Conservative governments have also taken little action to crack down on the crimes over their 14 years in power.

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Europe imported a record 17.8 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia in 2024, an increase of over 2 million tonnes from the previous year. That was despite EU efforts to reduce reliance on Russian fossil fuels, a British newspaper reports, quoting Rystad Energy.

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🔥Is the US green lobby fueling catastrophic wildfires?

At least five people have died in uncontained wildfires raging across Los Angeles County, with the death toll expected to rise. Some are blaming green policies for exacerbating the disaster.

Here’s why:

👉 Environmental regulations

🔸 The green lobby has pushed for changes to traditional fire management policies. For example, the US Forest Service announced on October 24, 2024 that it would suspend prescribed burning in California “for the foreseeable future.”

🔸 Prescribed burns are controlled fires that remove dry vegetation which otherwise fuels wildfires and allows them to spread to taller vegetation. Critics argue this suspension has left California more vulnerable to large-scale wildfires.

👉 Environmentalist arguments

Advocates for limiting prescribed burns cite several reasons:

🔸 Prioritizing staff and resources for actual wildfire suppression.

🔸 Alleged risks to air quality, ecosystems, and carbon emissions in the context of climate change.

What critics and research say:

🔊 A 2023 study by Columbia and Stanford researchers found that low-intensity fires (including prescribed burns) reduce wildfire risk by about 60%.

🔊 Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE) warns that blocking prescribed burns increases wildfire severity.

🔊 The Fire Surrogate Study (published in Ecological Applications) found prescribed burning and restoration thinning to be “very effective” in reducing catastrophic wildfire risks in California.

🔊 The California Policy Center emphasizes that thinning forests is crucial for mitigating fire hazards.

The money trail:

🔸 Spending on environmental lobbying has surged during the Biden administration.

🔸 US environmental groups spent approximately $30.5 million on federal lobbying in 2023, with Nature Conservancy leading as the top spender, according to OpenSecrets.

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In Europe, even Trump’s allies are put off by his talk about annexing neighbors

It’s “not a very wise move on Trump’s part” to talk about “potentially annexing other countries” before he’s even back in the White House, veteran European politics and economics observer Christian Schweiger told Sputnik, commenting on the president-elect’s provocative talk about the potential takeover of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“I think this type of claiming of the territory of other countries will also not ring well in other European countries, including those where Trump usually has at least some sympathy or even partnership, like in Central and Eastern Europe,” Schweiger explained.

Besides Hungary, Trump can expect to find partners in Slovakia and Italy, Schweiger said. He can also look forward to the possibility of Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl coming to power in Austria, and enhanced cooperation with AFD as the German party’s poll numbers surge.

On security issues, Trump’s support for peace negotiations to end the Ukrainian crisis will likely find support among Europe’s populists (with the exception of Italy’s Georgia Maloney), but the reaction to his demand that Europe boosts its defense spending to 5% of GDP is likely to be negative, Schweiger says.

EU should brace for downturn in ties

Schweiger expects the incoming administration’s relations with the European Union to “deteriorate substantially, because within the EU we have Ursula von der Leyen as the head of the European Commission,” the antithesis of Trump politically and supporter of “escalating the conflict [in Ukraine] and confronting Russia militarily.”

“As to what the Germans and the French are saying about Trump's imperialist plans for Greenland and Panama: they are to be ignored, both leaders count for nothing today,” veteran international affairs observer Gilbert Doctorow told Sputnik.

“The international law to which they may make reference is dead, killed by the USA in a number of shocking cases going back to Kosovo ‘independence’ [and] the illegal invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq,” Doctorow stressed.

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EU and Slovakia join forces to solve energy crisis amid Russian gas shutdown

The European Commission and Slovakia have agreed to set up a high-level working group to find energy solutions amid the suspension of Russian gas transit through Ukraine, according to a joint statement.

"We had a good and open discussion on the energy situation and wider implications of the end of the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine ... In this context, we have agreed to set up a High-Level Working Group to follow up and identify options based on a joint assessment of the situation and see how the EU can help," the statement, following a meeting between EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, read.

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🌐 ‘Imperialism,’ ‘confusion,’ and a hard ‘no’: Global reaction to Trump’s takeover plans

US president-elect Donald Trump's suggestion of annexing Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal—while not ruling out the use of military force—has sparked a heated global debate. Reactions ranged from amusement and ridicule to outright condemnation and calls for rearmament.

🔊 Denmark: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared that "Greenland is not for sale," while King Frederik X updated the royal coat of arms to highlight Greenland. Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede dismissed Trump’s remarks, insisting: "Our future and fight for independence is our business."

🔊 Germany: Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that "the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country." He added that Trump’s remarks had caused "notable incomprehension" among European Union (EU) leaders.

🔊 France: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot insisted that the EU “will not allow any nation to threaten its sovereign borders," but added he did not believe the US would invade Greenland. But Government Spokeswoman Sophie Primas called Trump’s remarks "imperialism" and urged Europe to "be aware, protect ourselves, and rearm."

🔊 The UK: Foreign Secretary David Lammy dismissed Trump’s remarks as just another of his provocative statements, saying the US leader "recognizes, I am sure, that Greenland is a kingdom of Denmark." Lammy avoided a repeat of his attacks on Trump while in opposition, remarking: "I'm not in the business of condemning our closest ally."

🔊 Panama: Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha responded to Trump’s suggestion of a takeover the Panama Canal by asserting that "the only hands operating the canal are Panamanian, and that is how it is going to stay."

🔊 Canada: Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc firmly rejected Trump’s "51st state" idea, calling it "a way to sow confusion, agitate people, and create chaos—knowing this will never happen." Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre declared that "Canada will never be the 51st state. Period."

Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: "There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the US," prompting a sharp reply from Trump ally Elon Musk, who posted: "Girl, you’re not the governor of Canada anymore, so it doesn’t matter what you say."

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💲 The damage from the raging wildfires in California is estimated to be nearly $50 billion, JPMorgan Chase said in a letter to its clients.

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