Foreign Digest: Gaza Strip, Armenia and Greenland

Gaza Strip: There were protests last week against Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist terror organization that governs the territory. The oppressive Hamas has used Gaza as a launching pad for terrorist attacks on Israel, which prompted a devastating Israeli response. The Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, has declared that it will rule again in Gaza, after Hamas had split from it. As in both territories, which are inhabited mostly by Arabized Muslims, there is a significant Arabized Christian minority. Armenia: The Armenian Parliament overwhelmingly approved membership in the European Union last week as the former Soviet Republic pulls further out of the Russian orbit, following last year’s takeover by neighboring Azerbaijan of the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, over with the two southern Caucasian States had fought two wars, while Russian peacekeepers proved ineffective in defending the Armenians of the enclave. Around 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh fled to Armenia afterward, as I had posted. Mostly Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan recently signed a peace agreement that requires parliamentary ratification. Armenia recognizes Azeri control of the territory and does not claim any right of return of displaced persons, while the deal settles or withdraws compensatory claims and does not allow private claims, while not addressing war crimes. The agreement rejects any third-party peacekeepers, including the Russians and thus also an EU border monitoring mission. Azerbaijan demands Armenia amend its constitution to remove the clause claiming Nagorno-Karabakh. Border transportation connections will have to be negotiated separately, including any link between Azerbaijan and its exclave west of Armenia. Greenland: Four of Greenland’s political parties have formed a broad coalition government across the political spectrum, led by the leader of the center-right pro-business party that is moderately pro-independence that won the most votes and seats in the parliamentary elections earlier this month. The result was a repudiation of Donald Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland. The staunchest pro-independence party will not be part of the coalition. The self-governing arctic territory of Denmark, an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, hosts a strategic U.S. military base. The neo-imperialist Trump has also threatened to retake the Panama Canal from Panama and has been pressuring Canada to join the American Union as a state. While denying Russian imperialism, isolationist Trumpist Republican J.D. Vance contradictorily claims Russia and Communist China are coveting Greenland as a justification for its acquisition by the U.S. While on Danish and Greenlandic soil at the American base last week, Vance undiplomatically criticized Denmark as not a good ally, despite Denmark’s participation in the Cold War and the War on Terrorism with its dispatchment of combat troops, as well as the current Western opposition to Russian aggression. The combination of Trump’s protectionism and his imperialism mark a return to the long-rejected economic system of mercantilism that had been practiced in colonial times by the British Empire and the other European powers, which was one of the causes of the American Revolution.

Foreign Digest: Syria, Hungary, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Turkey, and Italy

Syria: There were demonstrations in Syria recently both against sectarian divisions and in favor of the Russian military withdrawal from Syria after an uprising in Latakia Province by pro-Assad forces earlier this month. The Mediterranean province is the base of the Alawites, the minority Shi’ite Muslim sect, of which the Assad family, who ruled the Arab State tyrannically for over 50 years, was a member. Russia had backed the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War, until its fall in December. There were protests across Syria last week against the divisions and in favor of national unity. The de facto Syrian government reached deals with the Kurds and Druze, who each have their own militias and have achieved a degree of autonomy, to integrate the ethnic and religious minorities into the national Syrian state. Hungary: There was a mass protest last week against the authoritarian far-right anti-migrant pro-Russian Hungarian Government, led by the center-right opposistion leader who is the leading contender in the Hungarian presidential elections against the longtime autocratic President. Nicaragua: Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that Catholic Priests are now constrained by the Marxist Sandinista Nicaraguan dictatorship to receive weekly permission to celebrate Mass and for the content of their preaching to receive approval, under threats of detention or exile. Public processions and other public expressions of faith have already been banned. Evangelical Protestants also face restrictions of the freedom of religion in the Central American State. I have posted about religious repression in Nicaragua and political repression against opposition leaders and the prohibitions of civil, political or religious organizations and the exiling of clerics and others critics of the regime. Venezuela: The center-right opposition leader Maria Cortina Machado and her bloc’s presidential nominee, Edmundo Urrutia Gonzalez have asked the United States for protections for Venezuelans who are not members of a criminal gang or associates of the Socialist dictatorship after Trump Administration of the United States declared a Venezuelan gang terrorists and agents of the regime that are invading America and deported hundreds of Venezuelans it accused of being members of the gang, without any allegation of any crime committed and without due process, including refugees who followed the law to seek asylum from persecution. There was also a protest last week by family members of the accused, who claim their relatives are not members of any gang. Meanwhile, there was a United Nations report on repression by the Socialist dictatorship in the South American State. Turkey: The arrest last week of the Mayor of Istanbul, who is the most prominent opposition leader, on corruption charges by the Islamist authoritarian President has sparked mass protests in Turkey. As Istanbul, the largest Turkish city, has been expanded to include the entire province of Istanbul on both the European and Asian sides of the Bosporus Straight, the ancient city’s mayor is the equivalent to a governor in terms of the size of his district. The Mayor of the former Byzantium/Constantinople is the leading presidential challenger to the incumbent President. Italy: The Italian Government has banned the use of asterisks and schwas in Italian schools, which were used by some in place of gender-based forms of the Italian language. As I have posted, gender is a grammatical term for the masculine or feminine forms of words in certain languages.

Foreign Digest: Romania, Philippines, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greenland

Romania: Romania last week banned the candidacy of the pro-Russian anti-migrant neo-Nazi presidential candidate who came in first in the first round of the Romanian presidential elections in December, which were overturned because of heavy Russian interference on behalf of the unknown independent who spent no campaign funds, as I had posted. They have been rescheduled for May. The ban was upheld by the Romanian high court. Another far-right candidate who opposed the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was also banned for her views that were incompatible with her constitutional duties. Philippines: The former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, “the Filipino Trump,” was arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity for his policy of encouraging the murder of suspected drug dealers. Thousands of Filipinos were killed, including those who were not drug dealers. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. cooperated with the arrest. His running mate and Vice President, who is Duterte’s daughter, was impeached for threatening to kill Marcos, as I had posted. Serbia: There have been mass protests by Serbians against the corrupt, authoritarian pro-Russian Serbian President. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The President of the Republica Serpska, the Bosnian Serb entity of the multi-ethnic State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was charged with attacking the constitutional order. Serb-dominated Yugoslavia had fought a war against Bosnian independence, like most of the other former Yugoslav Republics that sought independence from Communist Yugoslavia after 1991. The war resulted in a partition into Serbian and Croatian-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) autonomous entities in Bosnia. Serbia is often accused of interfering in some of its former constituent parts. Greenland: A center-right party that favors gradual independence for the self-governing Danish country of Greenland won the most votes and seats in the Greenlandic parliamentary elections last week. The party, like the other leading parties across the political spectrum, whether they are pro-independence or not, is opposed to Donald Trump’s pressure for the arctic island to become United States territory. It will have to form a coalition with other parties, as it was well short of a required majority to form a government. The pro-American party failed to meet the threshold to win any seats in the assembly. Trump has threatened to seize the island by any means, including by force. There was a protest at the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk today. Denmark is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The U.S. already has a military presence in Greenland. The imperialist Trump has also threatened to use force to take the Panama Canal and is pressuring Canada to join the American Union as a state.

Assurances Given by Trump Nominees as Concessions to Skeptical Republican Senators

Several of Donald Trump’s nominees were unfit for reasons of character, inexperience or irrational views. His nominee for Attorney General was forced to withdraw, and there were several Republican votes against a few nominees, who were nevertheless confirmed by the GOP-majority Senate, despite mostly Democratic opposition. A few of them had to give assurances to skeptical Republican Senators to win their votes to confirm them in the exercise of the Advise and Consent Clause, which is one of the checks and balances of the Constitution. Many Trumpists had urged the upper chamber of Congress to give up the exercise of its power to let Trump chose whomever he wished, no matter how unqualified. The assurances were a small consolation to anti-Trump Republicans and conservatives who were horrified by Trump’s selections, although some of the appointees are already backing away from their promises. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised tougher sanctions on the Russian Federation, but after his appointment said that he would either increase or decrease sanctions, depending on Russian willingness to negotiate an end to its aggression against Ukraine. Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert Kennedy gave an assurance he would revise the recommended vaccine schedule. Although he has encouraged consideration of vaccination because of the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico that has sickened well over a hundred people and killed two, he ordered a study of any link to vaccines and autism, even though numerous studies have already disproven any link. The only study that had ever suggested a link between a chemical formerly included in the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was a fraudulent study conducted by someone who wanted to produce his own vaccine. That study was withdrawn by the health journal that had published it. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard gave an assurance to punish leakers, after having expressed sympathy for one who leaked a massive amount of classified information during the War on Terrorism and fled to Russia. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel promised that his deputy would be a career agent, as has been the practice throughout the FBI’s history for reasons of experience and morale for the agents, but Trump instead appointed an ex-Secret Service agent who is a conspiracy theorist, failed Republican nominee and radio talk-show host. Continued vigilance by Congress and the public will be necessary to monitor this dishonest Administration.

Foreign Digest: Russia, Romania, the Sahel, and Turkey

Russia: Russian hackers conducted cyberattacks against Italy for a week recently, in express retaliation for the Italian President’s accurate comparison of the Russian aggression against Ukraine with the aggression by Nazi Germany before the Second World War. Italian government ministries, ports, banks and other targets were struck by denial-of-service attacks, but the Italian countermeasures rendered the attacks mostly futile. Russia frequently engages in cyberattacks against Europeans and Americans. Italy has been one of the most-struck States by cyberattackers in the world in recent years. Romania: Romania arrested Russian-backed coup plotters and expelled Russian diplomats for espionage to support the coup attempt. The plotters planned to change Romania’s Constitution, name, flag and national anthem and withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the defensive pact led by the United States. The European Court of Human Rights denied the far-right presidential candidate’s appeal of the annulment of the first round of the presidential election in December because of heavy Russian interference. As I had posted, the unknown independent who did not spend money won the most votes. The pro-Russian candidate was recently charged with election-related crimes. Center-right parties have formed a bloc with centrist and center-left parties for the rescheduled presidential elections behind a single candidate. The Sahel: For the second consecutive year, there has been more terrorism in the Sahel (the savannah region south of the Sahara Desert in Africa) than any other region in the world. The surge in terrorism is occurring despite military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that overthrew elected pro-Western governments, supplanting them with military dictatorships that rejected Western defensive support and accepted instead support from Kremlin-associated Russian mercenaries, based on the justification that the previous governments were not adequately defeating the Islamist terrorists. Turkey: The Marxist terrorist Kurdish party, the PKK, has announced that it is giving up its bloody armed struggle against Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States led by an Islamist autocrat. Although the Kurds have been allies of the U.S. in Iraq and Syria against Islamist terrorism in the War on Terrorism, some of them are themselves terrorists. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in Turkey. Like Turks, they are overwhelmingly Muslim. The end to the conflict between them and Turkey could help ease tensions between Turkey and Kurds in Iraq and Syria.

Abolish Daylight Saving Time, Not Standard Time

There is widespread opposition to the twice-a-year waste of time and money to change the clocks, but there is division of whether to remain on Standard or Daylight Saving time and the tradeoff between more daylight in the morning versus the evening, respectively. It may be tempting to agree with either change to avoid the cost and disruption to sleep, but one of these options is better than the other. Because the main reason to oppose changing the clocks is the disruption to sleep and the consequent harm to health and safety, as I have posted every year, Standard time is optimal because our bodies' circadian rhythm is based on it. Therefore, the United States should remain on Standard time to promote health and safety, in addition to saving time and energy.

Trump’s Appeasement of Russian Aggression against Ukraine Abandons U.S. Security Policy and Forfeits American Leadership of the Free World

For the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, Ukraine sponsored a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russian aggression and calling for Russia to withdraw, which passed 93-18. Even traditional Russian ally Serbia voted in favor of the resolution, while other pro-Russian States did not vote or abstained. The United States, under the Russian-backed Trump Administration, voted against the resolution, together with Russia, North Korea, Belarus and other repressive States. The U.S. instead offered a neutrally worded resolution that did not blame Russia for starting the Russo-Ukrainian War, which also passed. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, seizing Crimea and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022, trying to conquer the entire former Soviet Republic and taking much of the Russian-speaking areas in eastern Ukraine where Russia had fomented a separatist war. Russia had formally recognized Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The United States and its major Western European allies had guaranteed Ukraine’s security in exchange for Ukraine giving up its Soviet nuclear weapons arsenal, as Russia had demanded. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer trying to restore the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. Trump is abandoning the longtime American policy of opposing aggression as a fundamental principle of international security, freedom and prosperity. Instead, he is trying to appease Russia, which backed his candidacies for president in 2016, 2020 and 2024, by forcing Ukraine to accept Russian theft of its territory in exchange for a cease-fire, with no U.S. security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression. Trump’s demand that Europe provide security guarantee to Ukraine would forfeit American leadership of the Free World. He would thus encourage more aggression by rewarding it, and deny freedom to Ukrainians living under Russian occupation. Trump tried to coerce Ukraine into signing a deal to give up its mineral rights, with no express security guarantee and then publicly berated the Ukrainian President in the Oval Office in the most undiplomatic manner ever in American history. There have been condemnations of Trump’s appeasement policy from conservatives in America and abroad, as well as from others across the political spectrum, and reiterations by U.S. allies of strong support for Ukraine. The U.S. cut its support for repairing the Ukrainian electrical infrastructure, which Russia targets in a terrorist fashion to plunge Ukrainian civilians into the cold. There were pro-Ukrainian protests in America, as well as against leading pro-Russian Trumpists Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, the businessman and government contractor who was Trump’s biggest campaign contributor and who is a special employee in the Trump Administration exercising broad powers without full security clearances or Senate confirmation.

Foreign Digest: Romania, Venezuela, Philippines, Brazil, Germany, Austria and Russia

Romania: United States Vice President JD Vance, a Trumpist Republican, recently criticized Romania for overturning its presidential election in December, but the election results, in which an unknown independent candidate who did not spend any money came in first, was tainted by significant Russian interference on behalf of the pro-Russian anti-migrant neo-Nazi party. Therefore, a new election will be held in May.Foreign interference renders an election fraudulent, like that of Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, whose election was heavily backed by Russia. Vance baselessly claims the 2020 election, which Trump lost, was fraudulent, but now contradicts himself in expecting Romania to accept election fraud. His only consistency is backing pro-Russian candidates. As I have posted, three center-right parties, which formed a government with the ruling center-left after parliamentary elections in the meantime, will jointly support a candidate. A center-right candidate had come in second in the overturned election. The far-right candidate was charged last week with multiple election violations. Romania is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Venezuela: The Carter Center, which sent observers to Venezuela for its presidential election in July, has determined that the center-right opposition candidate, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia, was the winner of the election. The Carter Center again noted the fraud committed by the Socialist dictatorship on behalf of the President who was seeking reelection. The Socialist have ruled the South American State for 25 years after being elected and then becoming increasingly authoritarian. Venezuela is becoming increasingly aggressive against Guyana, most of whose territory it claims, despite international rulings in favor of Guyana that Venezuela had previously recognized. Philippines: The Vice President of the Philippines was impeached late last month for threatening to assassinate the President. She is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the “Filipino Trump,” who backed the presidential candidate with her on the ticket, instead of trying to seek another term. The Philippines, a key ally of the U.S. versus Communist China, hosts bases it allows the American military to use. Brazil: The far-right populist former Brazilian President was charged last week with attempting a coup. The Trump-like former President was already barred from office for five years for corruption. Germany: The conservative bloc of parties won the most votes and seats in the German Parliamentary elections last week, defeating the ruling center-left bloc and the far-right, but well short of a majority. The center-right Christian Democratic Union and their conservative Bavarian allies will have to form a coalition with the center-left party of the outgoing Chancellor. Russian interference on behalf of the pro-Russian anti-migrant far-right neo-Nazi party, which also benefitted from support by Vance and Elon Musk, as I had posted about last month. Austria: Three centrist parties, including the main center-right party, the main center-left party and a centrist party, have agreed to form a coalition government, keeping out the anti-European pro-Russian extreme right party that had won the most votes and seats in the parliamentary elections five months ago, as I had posted. The coalition will be led by a chancellor of the center-right party. Russia: There was a protest by the Russian opposition based in Germany. Basic freedoms are not tolerated by Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, the ex-Soviet intelligence officer who came to power 25 years ago and became increasingly authoritarian. The opposition have either been murdered, imprisoned or driven into exile.