Foreign Digest: Lebanon, the United Kingdom, Nigeria and Italy

Lebanon: There was a violent clash precipitated by a riot in a Christian neighborhood by Islamist supporters of the Shi’ite Hezbollah Party, the political arm of the Iranian backed terrorist organization. The Islamists were protesting against the judge in the investigation of responsibility for last year’s disastrous explosion in the port of Beirut that killed hundreds, wounded many more and damaged many buildings. Hezbollah and Amal Shi’ite officials were subpoenaed because of their role in the negligent storage of non-military explosives. The local Christian militia clashed with the Hezbollah and Amal militias in the deadliest sectarian fighting in 13 years. Lebanon suffered a sectarian Civil War from 1975-1990. It is currently facing a severe debt crisis, economic problems and power shortages. United Kingdom: A Member of the British Parliament, a pro-life Catholic in the ruling Conservative Party, was assassinated by a violent Jihadist last week in the latest attack by Islamists in Western Europe. Nigeria: The leader of an Islamic State offshoot of the Boko Haram Islamist terrorist organization was killed by one of his own bombs in Nigeria. As I had posted, Boko Haram’s leader, as well as the Islamic State’s leader in the Sahel were recently killed. Thousands of Boko Haram fighters have since surrendered. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by their Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad alone. Italy: Italy launched its “Green Pass” program, by which workers, train passengers and attendees of certain entertainment venues can present proof of vaccination for Coronavirus 2019 or proof of recent natural immunity or recent negative tests. The program, the first anywhere in the world, spurred hundreds of thousands of new vaccinations last week, as well as violent protests. Italy has a high vaccination rate. It was the first Western State to be hard hit by the pandemic in 2020 and the first to impose a national lockdown. Millions of Italians have been infected and over 130,000 killed by Covid-19.