The two
leading center to center-right Irish parties, which have dominated politics in
the Republic of Ireland since independence from the United Kingdom a century
ago, will form a coalition government to keep a far-left party out of
government after its best-ever election showing earlier this month.
The Netherlands is holding a trial over the
shoot-down of a Malaysian Air civilian liner over Ukraine
in 2014 by separatists aided by the Russian Federation , killing nearly
300, including many Dutch. The airliner
had departed from the Netherlands . The regime led by tyrant Vladimir Putin is
not cooperating with the probe.
Meanwhile
last week, there was more harassment of Alexei Navalny, the Russian democratic
opposition leader and more arrests after a peaceful protest against Putin.
Constitutional
changes were made by the end of the week to allow Putin to remain in power for
many more years. The ex-Soviet
intelligence officer has held power, either as President or Prime Minister, for
the last 20 years. After being elected,
Putin has become authoritarian by limiting freedom of the press, speech and
assembly, for example, while eliminating the independence of the judiciary and
while not allowing free and fair elections in order to stay in power.
Nine years
of civil war in Syria have now
killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions, leading at one point to
the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the
Second World War. Since 2011, Syrians,
including non-Islamists, Kurds and Islamist terrorists have rebelled against
the tyrannical regime of Bashar Assad, who is backed by Iran , Hezbollah (the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese
Shi’ite terrorist organization) and Russia . The United
States and its allies have backed non-Islamist and
Kurdish rebels while focusing primarily on fighting the Islamists, like
al-Qaeda and its offshoot, the “Islamic State,” which had declared a caliphate
in Iraq and Syria , while Turkey is backing its own
faction. As Russia has increased its
intervention and the Americans have abandoned their Kurdish allies and largely
withdrawn, the Syrian regime has been winning back most of the territory lost
to the rebels, except the areas with the highest Kurdish population. Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons
against civilians and Russia
has targeted hospitals among other atrocities committed by the Syrians and
Russians.
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