Foreign Digest Updates: Philippines and Macedonia

Philippines

            The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, the “Filipino Trump,” last week admitted to the “sin” of “extrajudicial killings.”  His public policy is to encourage Filipinos to murder suspected drug dealers.  As President of the United States, Donald J. Trump praised Duterte’s policy.

Macedonia

An overwhelming majority of votes in the Macedonian referendum were in favor of changing the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to North Macedonia, but the turnout was well short of the constitutionally requisite threshold of 50% voter participation.  

The proposed name change was the result of an agreement between Macedonia and Greece, which I had posted about in my post from June of this year, Foreign Digest: Macedonia, Colombia and Nicaragua, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2018/06/foreign-digest-macedonia-colombia-and.html and again in Foreign Digest Updates: Macedonia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iran and Turkey, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2018/06/foreign-digest-updates-macedonia.html, after the Macedonian Parliament approved the agreement.  Greece had been concerned about separatism in its homologous province of Macedonia, which borders its northern Slavic neighbor.  The quarter-century-long dispute has been an impediment to the Balkan State’s entry into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because of the Hellenic Republic’s veto.  The authoritarian and kleptocratic Russian Federation regime of Vladimir Putin has been propagandizing against the agreement.  There was a boycott of the referendum by the President, who disagreed with compromising with Greece.  The Prime Minister declared his intention to continue to resolve the dispute in order to integrate Macedonia with Europe.

Foreign Digest Updates: Nicaragua, Russia, Hong Kong and Sweden

Nicaragua     

            There continue to be deadly protests against the authoritarian Marxist Sandinista Nicaraguan regime.

Russia

            The Russian democratic opposition leader Alexi Navalny was arrested again yesterday, immediately after having been released from prison, because of his organization of peaceful protests against the tyrannical and kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin.  Over the last several months, here have been frequent protests for liberty and against corruption and Russian intervention in Syria’s Civil War.  The regime does not tolerate the freedom of peaceful assembly.  It has arrested thousands of protesters.

Hong Kong

            A pro-independence Hong Kong party was banned recently by the pro-Peking territorial government.  The territory was promised basic liberty and the free market after reverting to Chinese rule from rule by the United Kingdom in 1997, but the Communist Chinese regime based in Peking has been gradually violating Hong Kong’s freedoms and self-government.

Sweden

           The center-left Prime Minister of Sweden lost a vote of confidence this week in the Parliament, following recent parliamentary elections in which no party won a majority and the liberals lost seats.  The loss of confidence was a first in Swedish history.  The leader of the largest center-right party will attempt to form a government.  Although his party also lost seats, the two smaller parties in the center-right bloc gained seats.  The far-right nationalists gained seats, as did smaller left-wing parties.

Foreign Digest Updates: Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, Ethiopia and Eritrea

Italy

            Italy’s Interior Minister, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, is being investigated by Italian prosecutors for closing ports to migrants who had been rescued at sea.  The United Nations’ refugee body also criticized him and is probing his actions.  The Deputy Premier is the head of the far-right anti-immigrant pro-Russian Northern League party.

Hungary

            The European Parliament condemned Hungary for violating European Union rules on migration by blocking refugees seeking asylum, which now allows the body to consider sanctioning the far-right anti-immigrant Hungarian President.  The vote was not close.  The Hungarian Government describes itself as “illiberal” in the sense of not tolerating liberty.

Turkey

            Over two years after an attempted military coup d’etat, the Islamist authoritarian Turkish government continues to use it as an excuse to squash dissent.  There have been more arrests, including of hundreds of soldiers, for alleged ties to a Muslim cleric in exile in Pennsylvania who is critical of the regime.

            Meanwhile, the President installed his son-in-law as chief of the central bank and has appointed himself as head of the Turkish sovereign fund, after having obtained more powers through constitutional amendments.

Venezuela

            The Secretary of the Organization of American States has warned Venezuela that a military option has not been ruled out to oust the Socialist authoritarian regime because of its human rights abuses and the refugee crisis its policies are creating for other South American states.

Ethiopia and Eritrea

           Ethiopia and Eritrea formally signed their peace treaty today, after a ten-year civil war that killed ten thousand people.

Seventeenth Anniversary of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks on the United States

           Today is the seventeenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda Islamists.

            As always, I am grateful to all the American military, law enforcement and civilian public servants, both elected and appointed, who have contributed to the prevention of any other attack on nearly such a scale on American soil.  The many U.S. allies in the global War on Terrorism have also helped to keep Americans safe.

            Because that awful day in 2001 was also a Tuesday, I am reminded that it was Primary Election Day in New York State and the World Trade Center, which, along with the Pentagon in Virginia, was one of the targets, was a polling place.  The destruction of the Center and the state of emergency called because of the attack necessitated the postponement of the election.  Thus, the massacre was an attack on representative government.  Voting, therefore, is not only an act of liberty, but one of defiance against terrorists, as well as a means to elect officials to continue the necessary work to thwart terrorist plots and prepare for any response to emergencies.  

           May the United States and its allies continue to be vigilant against terrorism and other militant attacks and defeat the terrorists.  May God protect American civilians and servicemen and may God bless America.

Foreign Digest: European Union, Russia, Sweden

European Union: end annual time changes

The European Union recommended last week that its member states end the annual switch to Summer Time (daylight savings time) because of popular opinion against it and studies that prove the inconvenient and costly change to and from daylight savings times interferes with sleep and health and causes more traffic accidents.  E.U. members must decide whether to remain on standard or daylight savings times permanently.

Russia: update on pension protests

            Protests are continuing against the Russian Federation’s planned changes to pensions, namely to increase the retirement age.  As the freedom of peaceful assembly is not tolerated by the authoritarian and kleptocratic regime, hundreds of protestors have been arrested.  The arrest of the democratic opposition leader, Alexei Navalny a week ago was in advance of an opposition meeting to plan protests against the pension changes.

Sweden: parliamentary elections 

           In the Swedish parliamentary elections today, the far-right nationalist anti-immigrant party won seats at the expense of the ruling liberal bloc of parties, but not enough for a majority to form a government.  In both the liberal and center-right blocs, the largest party of the bloc lost seats, but smaller parties gained.  In the liberal bloc, the center-left party lost seats, but the Communists and Greens gained, although not enough to offset the losses suffered by the center-left party.  The center-right bloc gained a handful of seats, despite its largest party, who were the main opposition party, losing several seats, as two of the bloc’s three smaller parties gained seats.  Some grand center-left-right coalition would have to be formed to keep the far right from power.

Foreign Digest: Russian Chemical Attack, North Korean Cyberattacks, Italian Vaccination Mandate

Russian chemical weapons attack

            British authorities charged two Russian Federation military intelligence agents last week with the chemical weapons attack on a Russian exile in the United Kingdom this summer and demanded their extradition.  The attack, which also sickened other civilians, targeted a critic of Russian policies.  The authoritarian and kleptocratic Russian regime of Vladimir Putin routinely demands the extradition of exiles critical of its tyranny and corruption or even assassinates them.

North Korean cyberattacks

            The United States charged a North Korean agent last week with the cyberattack on Sony in 2014 and on other businesses last year.  The Communist regime was upset at Sony for a movie critical of the Hermit Kingdom’s tyrannical ruler.  Sony was also threatened with the destruction of its theaters, which should have merited a re-listing of North Korea on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Italian vaccination mandate

            Appeals to reason are defeating populism, as the populist Italian Government is abandoning its brief experiment with effectively voluntary vaccinations at the start of the school year, amid a measles outbreak, after objections from the health care community, opposition parties and the European Union.  Vaccinations for nursery and elementary school students are now again mandatory, instead of reliance on self-certifications by parents.  

           Anti-vaccination is a populist theme on both the far left and the far-right, in addition to the opposition to mandatory vaccination by many libertarians.  Putin’s Russian regime exploits this populist theme to discourage vaccinations as a kind of biological warfare against the West.

Update: Conservatives and Republicans Are Organizing against Trumpism

           In May of this year, I posted a compilation of organizations in which prominent conservatives and Republicans are at least a part that are opposing various aspects of Trumpism: Conservatives and Republicans Are Organizing against Trumpism,
http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2018/05/conservatives-and-republicans-are.html and have updated it periodically as new organizations are discovered or founded.

           Included in that post were the following orgnizations: Stand Up Republic (https://standuprepublic.com/), Stand Up Ideas (https://standupideas.com/), The Committee to Investigate Russia (https://investigaterussia.org/), Renew Democracy (https://www.renew-democracy.org/) and Republicans for the Rule of Law (https://www.ruleoflawrepublicans.com/).  Since then, I have added in folow-up posts the Alliance for Securing Demoracy (https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/) and Republicans Fighting Tariffs (https://terribletariffs.com/).

           An additional organization is Protect Democracy (https://protectdemocracy.org/).

Foreign Digest Updates: Russia, Nicaragua and Brazil

Russia

            There have been large protests across Russia against the unpopular plans by the authoritarian and kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin to raise the pension age.  The unusual public reaction has forced the tyrant to moderate his proposal slightly, but the protests are continuing.  These protests have been in addition to those of the democratic opposition against authoritarianism and corruption.

Nicaragua

           The Marxist authoritarian Sandinista government expelled the United Nations High Commission after the Commission authored a report of human rights abuses by the regime.  A protest yesterday against the expulsion was stopped violently from reaching its particular destination in Managua by pro-government thugs.  The freedom of peaceful assembly has been violated frequently by lethal violence by the regime.

Brazil

            Brazil’s highest court today has barred former liberal President from standing for election for president, after his conviction for corruption.  His liberal successor was impeached and removed from office for corruption.