The Pro-Europeans Defeated the Pro-Russians in the Moldovan Parliamentary Elections

The ruling pro-European party won the most votes and seats in the Moldovan parliamentary elections over the pro-Russian party, despite the heavy Russian interference I had posted about last week. The pro-Europeans nearly won a majority of votes, besting the pro-Russian party by a more than 2:1 margin. The ruling party won a majority of seats in Moldova’s Parliament, thereby avoiding the necessity of forming a coalition government with smaller parties. There were bomb threats not only in Moldova, but Romania, Italy, Spain and America where the Moldovan diaspora was voting, just like when the Russians made bomb threats during the 2024 United States elections. A breakaway part of the former Soviet Republic is populated by Russian speakers and occupied by Russian troops against Moldova’s will. The Russian Federation, which invaded the former Soviet Republics of Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, as ex-Soviet intelligence officer Vladimir Putin, the Russian tyrant, is trying to restore the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. As I have been posting, Russia uses many methods to engage in political interference in European States and America, among various other machinations. Moldova is a candidate for joining the European Union, which was a major issue in the campaign, as membership would reduce Russian influence. Moldova, like Romania earlier this year, now provides a model for defending against Russian interference. Moldova exposed Russian interference, conducted hundreds of raids and scores of arrests, and banned two Russian-financed political parties. Moreover, Moldova and its ruling party framed the election as a choice between being under Russian influence versus independence and alignment with Europe.

Foreign Digest: Russian and Serbian Interference in Moldova and Montenegro

Moldova: Moldova has reported heavy Russian interference in the Moldovan parliamentary elections this week and has conducted hundreds of searches and scores of arrests. Russia’s interference includes cyberattacks, fake news, influencing polls, bribing voters in the Moldovan diaspora, intimidation, and even training to cause riots. Moldovans and Romanians were trained in Moldova and Serbia. Orthodox Serbia is a traditional ally of Russia. The Serbian opposition validated the Moldovan accusations about training Moldovans and Romanians to riot against the Moldovan government on election day, and Serbia did arrest two Serbs for conducting the training. The Russian interference in Moldova also included paying Orthodox Priests to preach against the West. Russia’s interference is an attempt to disrupt Moldova’s accession to the European Union. The fake news is disinformation aimed against the West and the EU and in favor of cultural and religious ties with Russia. Moldova is a former Soviet Republic. Russian troops occupy a breakaway territory populated by Russian-speakers. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is a former Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union. Montenegro: Montenegro’s only fact-checking platform cites disinformation from Russia and neighboring Serbia as attempting to undermine the former Yugoslav Republic’s integration with the European Union, versus being oriented toward Russia. Serbia had dominated Yugoslavia under Communist rule, until its breakup began in 1991, which led to several wars as the Communist Serbian dictator fomented Serb nationalism, both in Serbia and the other former Yugoslav Republics that became independent. The German Federal Information Office also identified Serbia as the reginal hub for disinformation and misleading information.

Foreign Digest: India, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and Russia

India: The Indian Maoists announced last week that they are giving up armed struggle, after a recent government offensive, thereby ending the “Naxalite” rebellion, which began in 1967 and claimed 12,000 lives. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) will enter into dialogue with the Indian Government. Iran: The United Nations Security Council rejected a resolution last week that would have extended the delay since 2015 on the reimposition of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran for advancing its nuclear weapons program. The sanctions will be reimposed later this month, absent any agreement. Cuba: There have often been spontaneous protests by Cubans against the frequent and lengthy electricity blackouts in the failed socialist State and for liberty. As usual, however, the Communist Cuban dictatorship does not tolerate the freedom to assemble peacefully and arrests protestors. Cuba’s energy crisis has been worsening, with often most of the Caribbean island plunged into the dark. Venezuela: An international U.N. Mission sent to Venezuela has reported state repression by the South American State’s Socialist dictatorship. It observes the absence of an independent judiciary and the rule of law, which allows arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and torture, and then gives impunity to those who commit such acts. Thus, the report determines the state repression is a “crime against humanity.” The Mission’s report calls for international action to restore human rights and justice for victims. Syria: United States forces killed a terrorist leader of the Islamic State terrorist organization in Syria a few days ago. The Islamic State is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for killing nearly 3,000 people in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America, among many other attacks around the Islamic world and beyond. The U.S. led an international mission since 2015 against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as it had globally against al-Qaeda since 2001 in the War on Terrorism, which succeeded in taking away all of the organization’s territory in Syria and Iraq and killing its leader, who had claimed a caliphate. Some American forces have remained in Syria in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces since the fall of Syria’s tyrannical Assad regime, with the acceptance by the new Syrian Government, and in Iraq in support of the Iraqi Government. In both cases, the U.S. helps protect its ethnic Kurdish allies. Several of al-Qaeda’s affiliates around the Islamic world switched allegiance to the more brutal Islamic State. Despite suffering many hard blows, both organizations remain a threat to America and the world. Russia: The Trump Administration has announced that is cutting back U.S. support for the defense of the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against Russian aggression, even after recent Russian incursions onto the territory of members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Russo-Ukrainian War. NATO is the defensive alliance led by the United States that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression against its members since 1949. The Baltic States are NATO members. Russian Federation tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence officer intent on restoring the Soviet Union and Russian Empire. The Baltic States were the first Soviet Republics to gain independence from the Soviet Union. Russia has invaded the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Ukraine and kept troops in a breakaway part of the former Soviet Republic of Moldova, while trying to maintain its dominance over other former Soviet Republics and satellite states. Russia had successfully backed the isolationist Trump’s presidential candidacies in 2016 and 2024, as I have posted. The real estate tycoon had done a considerable amount of business with Russians, which, as I have also posted, he falsely denied continuing to do during his first campaign.

Foreign Digest: Guyana, Nicaragua, Nepal, Russia and Brazil

Guyana: The incumbent President of Guyana was reelected in last week’s election I had posted about. He defeated an upstart corrupt businessman who was favorable to the Venezuelan Socialist dictatorship. Venezuela claims most of its South American neighbor’s territory, despite international rulings against it. Nicaragua: Marxist Nicaragua signed commercial agreements with the Russian Federation last week for the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that it has conquered and annexed. As I have posted, the Central American State’s dictatorship is one of the few in the world to recognize Russia’s conquest of Ukrainian territory through aggression. Nepal: The Nepalese coalition government of Marxist-Leninists and center-left republicans was overthrown last week in a popular revolution against rampant nepotism and corruption amidst widespread poverty that forced the resignation of the Marxist-Leninist Prime Minister and other officials. The trigger for the uprising was a social media ban because of government policy for regulation that limited free expression and also remittances from Nepalese working abroad sent back to their families in the predominately Hindu State in the Himalayas. The protest met with deadly force, which increased the opposition. Government buildings were burned. I have posted of the rotation between Marxist-Leninist and Maoist-led coalition governments since the decade-long Maoist rebellion and takeover of Nepal and the abolishment of the monarchy in 2008 and establishment of a constitutional parliamentary republic. A former supreme court justice with an anti-corruption record was sworn in as interim prime minister after the military reestablished order. The Nepalese popular overthrow is part of a trend in South Asia, as the governments of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were also overthrown in popular rebellions in the last few years. Russia: Russia violated Polish airspace last week by launching an attack by 19 drones through Belarus to attack Ukraine, one of which was downed, causing damage to a house. Ukraine, Poland and the European Union determined the incursion was deliberate, not an accidental stray, because of the number of drones and their route. Russia is not only trying to use additional flight corridors for attacking Ukraine, but tests NATO’s defenses. Russia has been engaged in a sabotage campaign against NATO and European Union members during its aggression against Ukraine, in addition to its usual cyberattacks, election interference and attacks on exiles. Russia invaded the former Soviet Republic in 2014 and in a full-scale manner in 2022. Aircraft from Poland’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies helped defend the former Soviet satellite State, which was the first time that NATO has engaged in defensive action over its own territory in the defensive pact’s its 76-year history. NATO responded with a mission for better coordination of its air defense along its eastern flank. Russia violated Romanian airspace yesterday with another drone aimed at Ukraine. Romania is also a NATO member. Brazil: The pro-Trump far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted last week and sentenced to over 27 years imprisonment by a panel of five Supreme Court Justices for leading an attempted coup d’etat in 2022. Bolsonaro had lost re-election in the presidential election, but like Donald Trump after the 2020 United States presidential election, would not accept the results, despite a lack of convincing evidence of fraud, and inspired a mob to take over government buildings. Prosecutors developed abundant evidence of the breadth of the coup. Bolsonaro also plotted a military coup. Part of the conspiracy included murdering the winning presidential candidate and other government officials. His conviction was upheld by the fuller body of Brazil’s highest court. The ex-leader of the South American State already been convicted of fraud and banned from serving in elective office for three years. Bolsonaro was under house arrest for bail violations. Seven military and civilian officials who were leaders of the coup were also convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Most military stayed loyal to the constitutional representative republic. The Trump Administration interfered in Brazil’s judicial system with sanctions against one of its Supreme Court Justices and increased tariffs against Brazil. As Bolsonaro and his supporters favored the sanctions, the public blamed them for the interference and supported Brazil’s exercise of its independence and sovereignty.

Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America

Today is the twenty-fourth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America by the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda, which killed nearly 3,00 people. The hijacking of civilian airliners and the crashing of them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a field in Pennsylvania (after the passengers attempted to overtake the hijackers) were the deadliest terrorist attacks in world history. The attacks sparked the United States-led War on Terrorism, in which the Taliban militia that was the de facto ruler of most of Aghanistan was overthrown by 2021 for harboring al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda’s leadership has been decimated, but it remains a threat, as does its offshoot, the Islamic State, even though the latter was deprived of its territory and like its parent organization, its leader was killed. The two Islamist terror organizations have affiliates around the Islamic world. The U.S., which led an international coalition that overthrew the Taliban, is still engaged in military missions, although usually not combat missions, against these and other terrorists in several predominately Muslim States. The U.S. also shares intelligence with allies and leads efforts against the financing of terrorism. The sucess of these efforts and those of the military, intelligence and security agencies, policymakers and even private citizens have prevented any other attack on such a scale. But a major concern is the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2021, after the U.S. withdrawal of the 2,500 American troops engaged in a non-combat mission since 2014, after a partial U.S. withdrawal and an end of its combat mission, in support of the Afghan government that was an ally of the U.S. There had been no American troop losses since February 2020. The deal that the Trump Administration negotiated with the Taliban terrorist sponsors legitimized them, undermined the Afghan government that was excluded from the negotiations and reduced Agfhan military morale. Trump’s deal also included the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners of war and hamstrung the American-led coalition from engaging the Taliban ahead of the promised withdrawal of American forces by August 2021. The Taliban, who are intertwined with Islamist terrorists, promised only not to harbor al-Qaeda again. The head of al-Qaeda took up residence in the Afghan capital of Kabul, however, until the U.S. killed him in a raid under Trump’s successor. The lack of an American presence on the ground in Afghanistan inhibits the ability to gain intelligence against terrorists and to strike al-Qaeda targets along the Afghan-Pakistan border. One consolation was the rescue of many Afghans who had worked for the U.S. or its international or Afghan allies, but the first Trump Administration put up obstacles to refugees trying to flee Afghanistan and the second has ended protections for Afghans in America, leaving them vulnerable to deportation and thus persecution and death at the hands of the Taliban, thereby undermining U.S. security by undermining confidence in the U.S. because of its failure under Trump to protect those who work with us from risk. The second Trump Administration has engaged in combat with other terrorists and talks toughly against other terrorists or overly broadly labels others “terrorists” to invoke measures against them, after Donald Trump had focused on ending (i.e. losing) the War on Terrorism, including the Afghan campaign because of his isolationist views. The threat from al-Qaeda and its affiliates has hardly been mentioned by the Administration, as it had hardly arisen in the 2024 presidential election campaign. Moreover, the Trump deal with the Taliban and the subsequent withdrawal under his liberal Democratic sucessor encourages terrorists to continue to fight the U.S. and ocassionally inflict casualties, as Islamist terrorists believe the American people will tire of what they regard as lengthy wars, or even non-combat support missions, especially if there is not a clear goal of victory, such as destroying the Taliban, which should have been the goal. The Trump deal with the Taliban, based on a lack of American patience, thus rewards the patience of the Islamist terrorists who regard even twenty years as only a brief warin the long course of history, and their sporadic attacks for intimidating Americans to give into their demands of withdrawal so they could sieze power. Greater confidence, patience and willingness to sacrifice are necessary to prevent more deaths and injuries from terrorists. To win the war against Islamist terrorism, instead of only a strategy of defensive vigilance and responding ad hoc to threats from terrorists, a more comprehensive strategy of defeating the terrorists must be adopted. Americans were hit in the bloodiest way in their history 24 years ago, but the day is not only a sad commemoration of a massacre, but the beginning of American-led resistance to global terrorist threats. To prevent another attack on the scale of September 11, or many smaller-scale attacks on Americans and others around the world, the terrorist enemy must be defeated and the threat eliminiated.

Foreign Digest: Russia, Guyana and Venezuela

Russia: The Russian Federation jammed the navigation of the European Union President’s airplane over Bulgaria. The Russians increasingly jam the global positioning system (GPS) navigation of aircraft, ships and drones in Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia since the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022. The navigation of an aircraft carrying the British Defense Secretary was jammed last year over Eastern Europe and the German Defense Secretary twice this year over the Baltics. Europeans near Russia have been forced to use backup systems to GPS. The jamming is part of Russia’s sabotage campaign that includes vandalism, arson and even attempted assassination. Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, an ex-Soviet intelligence officer, is trying to restore the Soviet Union/Russian Empire. Guyana and Venezuela: Guyana is conducting its presidential and parliamentary elections today. Two major ethnic-based parties have traded power since independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 in the South American State, but a wealthy gold mine-owning upstart is a major challenger, despite being under United States sanctions for bribery. Control over Guyana’s relatively new oil major resources, which have recently fueled its world-leading economic growth, is at stake. Meanwhile, election commission officials came under fire from Venezuela in the territory the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela claims. The Venezuelan claim is one of the major issues in the election campaign. As I mentioned in my last post, the United States has dispatched a naval flotilla to the southern Caribbean for anti-drug trafficking operations and also to deter Venezuelan aggression.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia

Venezuela: Trinidad and Tobago offered the United States military access if it were necessary to defend Guyana against the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela, with which the island State in the Caribbean Sea shares a maritime border. Trinidad and other States in the Caribbean are adversely affected by the drug trafficking from Venezuela. As I had noted in my last post, the U.S. has increased its bounty for the Socialist dictator of the South American State, Nicolas Maduro, who is wanted for drug trafficking. An American flotilla of warships has been dispatched for anti-drug trafficking operations, but which could also strike Venezuela. Ecuador and Colombia: Ecuador and the United States have intercepted shipments of tons of cocaine, as well as explosives coming from the neighboring South American State of Peru that officials believe would have been sent to the Marxist narco-terrorists in neighboring Colombia. As I noted in my last post, the Colombian narco-terrorists are holdouts of a rebel organization that had fought for over four decades until signing an agreement to end hostilities nine years ago. They have recently increased their activity. Meanwhile, a seventh suspect has been arrested in Colombia for his role in the assassination plot against a conservative Senator and presidential aspirant who died earlier this month from his wounds in June. Bolivia: Even ahead of the Bolivian presidential runoff election, in which a center-right political leader faces off against a conservative former President, thereby marking the two-decade streak of election wins by the Socialists in the South American State, Bolivia’s courts have been reviewing the criminal cases against conservative leaders, The conservatives were prosecuted in connection with the popular uprising against a Socialist Bolivian President. The increasingly authoritarian President, who was seeking a fourth term, despite a two-term constitutional limit and the rejection of a popular referendum to end term limits, was forced to flee the capital. One conservative leader has been released after his conviction was overturned and one of the cases of former interim President Jeannine Anez has been thrown out, but she remains imprisoned on other related charges.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela and Colombia

Venezuela: The United States increased the reward to $50 million for the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the Socialist Venezuelan dictator, for drug trafficking charges. It also advised Americans not to travel to the South American State for any reason. The Socialist regime released some political prisoners and sent others to house arrest, but many others remain behind bars. Colombia: There were deadly attacks in different regions of Colombia by dissident holdouts of the Marxist narco-terrorists who had signed a peace deal in 2016 after a nearly 40-year-long rebellion. The elected leftist Colombian Government has launched a counteroffensive. The Government of the South American State has failed to end the insurgency, despite its attempts to negotiate with the dissidents. The narco-terrorists rely on trafficking cocaine. The cultivation of coca leaves has reached record levels in Colombia.

Trump’s Oval Office Re-Design Is a Symbolic Rejection of its Federal Revival Style and the Founders’ Values It Represents

Donald Trump’s recent changes to the interior design style of the Oval Office are highlighted by the controversial use of gilding and golden décor items. This change in style represents a significant symbolic rejection of the values of the Founding Fathers reflected in the room’s original Federal Revival style. Architecture is a language, through which architects speak the spirit of their age. The elements that characterize a particular design style symbolize the values of its era. Architectural styles are mirrored also in the styles of furniture and décor items, which are inspired by similar structures and motifs. Together with architectural design, they form a consistent interior design style. The Oval Office is in the West Wing extension of the Executive Mansion, commonly called the “White House.” It was built during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in the Federal Revival style. An understanding of the origins of the style reveals the values it represents. Neo-Classical Origins of the Federal Style as the “American Style” The origins of the Federal Revival style begin in the late Italian Renaissance, with the Neo-Classical style, named for its new interpretation of the styles of the Classical civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome, the ideals of which the Renaissance esteemed. Neo-Classical is typified by such design elements as classical columns, pediments and arches, and by the color white. The inspiration for white arose from the color of ancient structures and sculptures, some of which were white, while others had simply lost their paint, unbeknownst at the time of the Renaissance. The British substyle of the Neo-Classical is the Georgian style, named for the three Kings named George of the House of Hanover from the early Eighteenth to the early Nineteenth Centuries. The American version is the Federal style, which arose after the establishment of the federal Union of States under the Constitution. As it differs slightly from the Georgian style, it is the true “American Style.” Federal style is inspired by the Roman Republic, which was fitting for the new American Republic based on the ideals of equality, liberty and representative government. It thus emphasizes more curvilinear forms than the rectilinear Georgian. The Romans had not invented the arch, but they had taken it to new heights, both literally and figuratively, expanding them into vaults and domes. Federal style emphasizes columns, arches (which are often elliptical instead of rounded), and domes. Ellipses are a defining shape of the style. Architect Thomas Jefferson’s dome over his home Monticello and the rotunda of the main edifice of the University of Virginia he founded and the serpentine walls of its campus are archetypal examples of the style the Founding Father pioneered. The Federal style’s emphasis on symmetry and proportion is symbolic of the balance between the three Branches of Government. Its restrained elegance and understated characteristic symbolize the restraint expected of a chief executive in a constitutional republic, versus the excessive power of a monarch. The style’s Classical-inspired color of white represents the chasteness of the young Republic. As one of the colors of the American Flag, white also represents purity. The choice of color for the “White House” was thus obvious. Roman-inspired design motifs for architecture, furnishings and décor typical of Federal style include the eagle, the mace and the goddess Liberty. The Federal style lasted until it was supplanted in part by the Greek Revival style, which symbolized the democratizing trend of the populist Jacksonian Democrats, who took their inspiration from the democracy of the ancient Greek city states, in preference for that form of government over the representative governance of the Roman Republic. The Federal Revival Style Renewed interest in America’s Colonial and Federal era heritage during the American Centennial of 1876 led to the Colonial and Georgian Revival styles and the Federal Revival style. These revival styles had their own distinct features and modern elements that differentiated them from the original styles they were reviving, but they were at least somewhat faithful to the styles that inspired them. The Federal Revival style for the West Wing fittingly matches the Federal style of the Executive Mansion. The Oval office, with its elliptical shape and white interior, is particularly representative of the style. Theodore Roosevelt’s selection of the style was in sharp contrast to the “Gilded Age” style of the era, which literally takes its name from its characteristic gilding of interior spaces with gold leaf paint. The Gilded style reflects the extreme ornateness of the late Victorian Era, which is not an American style. Its excessive ornamentation communicates ostentatiousness, which was a status symbol of American industrialists during the turn of the Twentieth Century. Trump’s Gilded Design Symbolically Clashes with the Federal Revival Style Trump makes use of both gilding and golden décor items as status symbols to prove his wealth, which is his characteristic marketing strategy and reflective of his narcissist ego. He once said, for example, that one had to be wealthy to be considered “great.” The real estate tycoon’s heavily gilded Trump Tower penthouse interior is thus as over the top figuratively as it is literally. Restraint is not one of Trump’s qualities and chasteness is not associated with him. Trump’s gilding of the Oval Office and motif of golden decor clashes with its Federal Revival design. Although some gilding could be incorporated into the style to highlight its architectural features, Trump’s is too excessive to be consistent with the style. His imitation of the Gilded Age industrialists’ mansions reflects his lack of respect for the Federal style and the Founders’ federal principles it symbolizes. All the glitter makes a statement, versus being understated, thereby symbolizing the excessive exercise of power versus restraint. The heavy use of the yellow metal greatly detracts from the characteristic white of the Federal Revival style, symbolizing brashness versus chasteness. Trump, who admires Andrew Jackson, could have chosen Greek-style décor to symbolize the populist Trumpist emphasis of democracy over representative government as a more subtle change. Instead, Trump has chosen a style that is based neither on Classical democratic or republican ideals, nor even completely American in its heritage, but which most clearly represents a display of wealth and power. Trump’s gilded style is thus the design equivalent of squaring the walls of the Oval Office. Moreover, instead of conserving the American Style, Trump’s rejection of the Federal style reveals his general lack of conservative inclination. Restoring the Oval Office to its intended design would be one of the most symbolic means for a future occupant to supplant Trumpism.

Foreign Digest: Colombia and Bolivia

Colombia: A center-right Colombian Senator died last week of wounds suffered in June by an assassin. The murdered Senator had been a leading possible presidential candidate. The leftwing Government of Colombia has arrested the juvenile assassin and several of the other conspirators. The ruling party won the elections two years ago for the first time in the South American State. Bolivia: Bolivia is holding the first round of presidential elections today. The ruling Socialist party has been in power for 20 years, but is split three ways between a candidate favored by the incumbent President, a second candidate who is a former authoritarian President who is term-limited but advocating for Bolivians to cast blank ballots to undermine the legitimacy of the vote, and a third candidate who is a legislator who offers himself as a conciliatory choice between the other two Socialist candidates. A conservative former President and a center-right legislator are the two candidates leading in the polls. Bolivia was swept up by the Socialist revolution in Latin America that emanated from Venezuela in 2002, but which has since been set back in several States. The revolution led to the election of socialists and far-left anti-American leaders who became increasingly authoritarian and eliminated or tried to eliminate presidential term limits, while wrecking their economies with socialist policies, and often fostering public corruption. As no candidate is expected to win a majority in today’s balloting, Bolivians will head to the polls for a runoff election in several weeks.

William Webster, in Memoriam

William Webster, the only person ever to head both the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, passed away last week in Warrenton, Virginia at the age of 101. The career public servant was a conservative Republican who was appointed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents to high offices. Born in St. Louis, Missouri I 1924, Webster served in the Navy during the Second World War and Korean War. Appointed a U.S. Attorney in 1960 by President Dwight Eisenhower, he next was appointed federal District Judge in 1970 and then Appeals Court Judge three years later by President Richard Nixon. Judge Webster was then appointed CIA Director in 1978 by President James Carter, serving until 1987, when he was appointed FBI Director by President Ronald Reagan, a role in which he served until 1991. President George W. Bush appointed the octogenarian Webster Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, where he served until 2020, among other federal or legal professional commissions upon which he served. Webster also spent his last years as a private citizen serving America by warning of the danger that Donald Trump’s poor character would cause the U.S. and the world, like many former security and intelligence officers from both Democratic and Republican administrations, with whom he publicly joined. Webster won many awards for his service to American security, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. May Webster’s legacy of service inspire patriotism, duty and honor among Americans for another hundred years and more.

Armenia and Azerbaijan Have Signed a Peace Deal

Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a peace deal that ends the conflict between the two former Soviet Republics since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 in the South Caucuses region. I had posted about an agreement reached between the two States in an earlier phase. After the Muslim Azeri dictator defeated the separatist ethnic Armenian Christians in an enclave, Nagorno-Karabakh, that was the basis of the conflict and the failure of Russian peacekeepers to protect the ethnic Armenians that Armenia was defending, the peace deal has become necessary to defend Armenia against a feared Azeri invasion of the Armenian corridor between Azerbaijan to its east and an Azeri exclave on its western border. The American-mediated agreement extends United States influence at the expense of Russia’s role that it had exercised since the end of the Cold War and breakup of the Soviet Union. An aspect of the deal are the rights to the transportation route from Azerbaijan to Turkey through the afore-mentioned Armenian corridor. The deal thus respects Armenian sovereignty and territorial integrity. It also ends the Organization for Security and Cooperation’s Minsk Group co-chaired by the U.S., Russia and France on Nagorno-Karabakh, from which most of the over 100,000 Armenian residents fled. There was no agreement about their right to return or their property losses. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have become more diplomatically distant from Russia with Armenia, having been let down by its Russian ally, and Azerbaijan angered over the Russian shootdown of an Azeri civilian airliner over Ukraine during Russia’s aggression against that former Soviet Republic that I had posted about. As I have posted, Armenia has been turning toward Europe and the West. Azerbaijan has been forging closer ties with Turkey, which is Armenia’s western neighbor and which is a traditional Russian enemy. The Azeri friendliness with both Islamist Turkey and Iran, which borders both Armenia and Azerbaijan to the south, added pressure on Armenia to conclude the best deal it could to protect the traditional Christian State’s sovereignty.

Foreign Digest: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Belarus, Venezuela, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzogovina

El Salvador: El Salvador amended its Constitution to remove the limit on presidential terms, which had been one term, and extended the term office from 5 to 6 years. The current President, who as I have posted is becoming increasingly authoritarian, is in his second term, despite the previous one-term limit. Life presidencies have been a hallmark of growing autocracy in Latin America, whether the elected leaders are leftist or populist far-right like the Salvadoran strongman. Nicaragua: The Marxist Nicaraguan dictatorship recognized Russian sovereignty over conquered Ukrainian lands, despite the Russian Federation’s recognition of the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, making the Central American State’s regime one of the few to legitimize aggression. Cuba and Belarus: Communist Cuba has been arresting more dissidents for their peaceful dissent against the Caribbean State’s tyrannical dictatorship. Meanwhile, Belarus has been modernizing Cuban missiles. The former Soviet Republic of Belarus was complicit in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Belarusian support for Cuba is an example of cooperation among what I call the “Axis of Rogues,” which work together to oppose liberty, representative government, the United States and the West, which their dictatorial governments recognize as threats to their tyrannical rule. Venezuela: The arrests and imprisonment of many political prisoners under harsh conditions by the Venezuelan Socialist dictatorship have become so frequent that even Venezuela’s Communist Party has increasingly been speaking out against the tyrannical regime in the South American State. Lebanon: The Lebanese Government voted unanimously to disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization backed by the Islamist Republic of Iran that also has a political party that has sometimes dominated Lebanon’s politics and that has American blood on its hands. Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Bosniak Republic leader’s sentence of imprisonment for violating the constitution has been confirmed. Electoral Commission has voted to remove him from office, which will take effect after appeals have been exhausted. Elections must then be called within 90 days. But he is refusing to give up power. The pro-Russian ethnic Serbian nationalist who favors succession from Bosnia and Herzegovina and union with Serbia and who denies the genocide committed by Serbs is under United States sanctions for corruption. Bosnia, a former Yugoslav Republic, is divided into a Croat (Catholic Slavic) and Bosniak (Muslim Slavic) republic and a Serbian (Orthodox Slavic) republic, with a relatively weak central government ruled by a European Union-appointed High Representative. The arrangement was part of the 1995 Dayton Accords negotiated by the U.S. under the Clinton Administration that ended the civil war, but ratified the genocidal “ethnic cleansing” inspired by Yugoslav and Serbian Communist dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who was trying to create a “Greater Serbia” amidst the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia into its religious and ethnic components.

Update on the Trump Administration’s Anti-Migrant Policies and the Resistance to Violations of Liberty

The Trump Administration, after claiming it had no legal control over hundreds of Venezuelan refugees it had deported without due process to El Salvador, despite a contractual arrangement that obligated the United States to pay for their incarceration in a Salvadoran prison built for “terrorists,” where they were confined in inhumane conditions that clearly violated human rights, has exchanged the Venezuelan refugees for Americans held by Venezuela. I have posted that El Salvador’s right-wing populist pro-Trump President has become increasingly authoritarian, as human rights organizations have observed. The Central American State’s Head of State is in his second term, despite a constitutional limit of one term, as I have posted. Thus, the Venezuelan refugees, who were baselessly accused of membership in gangs, but never criminally charged, were used as bargaining chips in exchange for Americans held by Venezuela’s Socialist dictatorship, which, therefore, was a propaganda victory for Venezuela. The oppressive South American State’s regime was able to portray itself as rescuing its countrymen from persecution caused by the U.S. and its ally. The Trump Administration’s deportations of Venezuelan and Afghan refugees seeking asylum, for example, undermine U.S. foreign policy because the U.S. justly condemns and sanctions dictatorships for repression, but deporting refugees with a credible fear of persecution contradicts the policy, as the deportations falsely imply the refugees’ fear is baseless. Instead of targeting its efforts against those who are a security threat, the Trump Administration, is deporting migrants while they are shopping, attending school, seeking employment, working, receiving medical care, attending religious services at places of worship, attending legal and immigration hearings, and even appearing for naturalization process appointments. The Administration is thereby discouraging these activities, which, in some cases, represent a violation of freedom. In one extraordinary response to Trump Administration raids in churches, the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Bernardino is exempting Catholics from the obligation to attend Mass in his California Diocese if they have a genuine fear of being deported. Discouraging migrants from attending their immigration hearings or naturalization process is counterproductive to the Trump Administration’s claimed goal of enforcement of immigration laws, but reveals the true purpose of demagogy based on xenophobia. I have been posting how Christian and other religious organizations, secular human rights organizations, immigration lawyers, businesses, communities and States have resisted the Administration’s anti-migrant policies. As I have noted, the violation of the freedom and rights of any person is a threat to the violation of the freedom and rights of everyone, as Americans believe that every human has a birthright of liberty.

Foreign Digest: Russia and Afghanistan

Russia: A European Union report finds that Russia has used banned chemical weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine many times during its full-scale invasion since 2022 of the former Soviet Republic. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has agreed to send more arms to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression. A Russian hacker ring has been targeted by international law enforcement, including by the United States and several Western European States that are NATO and EU members. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom UK attributed to Russian military intelligence services other cyberattacks and acts of sabotage on it and fellow NATO members, the U.S, France and Estonia. NATO and the EU condemned the Russian attacks on allies of Ukraine. The EU vows a response, beyond their multiple rounds of sanctions. The former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan is suing Russia for the downing of a civilian airliner in December and its failure to apologize or offer any compensation. The shootdown is in addition to Russia’s shootdown of the Malaysian civilian airliner in 2014 over Ukraine I posted an update about earlier this month. Afghanistan: The UN is requesting a pause on repatriations of asylum-seeking Afghan refugees to Afghanistan, especially those at risk of persecution, arbitrary detention and torture. The Trump Administration has ended legal protections for Afghan refugees, including those who worked with the U.S. and its coalition that overthrew the Taliban regime in 2022. The oppressive Islamists had harbored al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed nearly 3,000 people, more than any other terrorist attack in world history. The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after the U.S. and its coalition allies abandoned their Afghan Government allies who had taken power after the Taliban had been overthrown, but only Russia recognizes them diplomatically as the legitimate government of the Central Asian State, as I had posted earlier this month. The Taliban have been targeting Afghans who worked with the U.S. and its allies for persecution, including death. Trump’s betrayal of the Afghans, which has outraged American veterans of the War on Terrorism, undermines U.S. security.

Foreign Digest: Russia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, the European Union, Venezuela and Cuba

Russia and Afghanistan: The Russian Federation has become the first State in the world to recognize diplomatically the Islamist Afghan Taliban regime as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The Taliban had harbored the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, until being overthrown by a United States-led international coalition in 2002, after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America killed nearly 3,000 people, the most in history. The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after the U.S. and its allies withdrew and the Afghan Government collapsed. The Taliban pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists again, but they have engaged in deadly reprisals against former Afghan Government officials and have oppressed Afghans, particularly women and religious and ethnic minorities while imposing strict Islamist law. Communist China praised Russia’s recognition of the Taliban. Russia and Ukraine: European Court of Human Rights ruled in four cases brought by Ukraine and the Netherlands that Russia has committed atrocities in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022, including destruction of property, kidnapping of children, torture, rape and murder, and was responsible for the downing in 2014 of a Malaysian civilian airliner over Ukraine that had departed from the Netherlands, killing nearly 300 people. Russia had supplied the missile to the separatists it had fomented that year, after seizing Crimea from Ukraine. Russia never properly investigated the shootdown and refused to answer to the inquiry, both of which were themselves violations of the European Convention on Human Rights treaty had Russia signed. The European Court is part of the Council of Europe, which expelled Russia in 2022 after its aggression against Ukraine, but to which Russia remains legally subject. The United Nation’s aviation ministry had found in May that Russia was responsible for shooting down the passenger jet. Ukraine and many private individuals have cases before the European Court. The UN and the International Criminal Court have also ruled against Russia for its aggression. Russians were convicted in a Dutch criminal court in abstentia for the shootdown of the civilian airliner. As I have posted, Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin is an ex-Soviet intelligence agent intent on restoring the Soviet Union. Georgia: Daily protests have continued in Georgia for well over 200 days against the pro-Russian and increasingly authoritarian Georgian Government of the former Soviet Republic in the South Caucuses. The desire of most Georgian people to join the European Union and be aligned with the West and the United States, as opposed to Russia, was highlighted by the abundance of American flags carried by demonstrators on American Independence Day. Hungary: The European Union report has found no progress made by the autocratic far-right anti-migrant Hungarian Government on eight areas, such as the fight against corruption, the independence of the media from public service, and the promotion of a safe civic space. Hungary is the least free and most corrupt member of the 27-member EU. Though an ally of the U.S. through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the former Soviet satellite’s ruling party is pro-Russian. European Union: The center-right-led EU Commission President Ursula van der Layen, of Germany, easily survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament brought by the far-right 360-175. She leads a broad coalition that includes centrists and the center-left. Some far-left members also backed the no-confidence vote. In parliamentary systems, a government must have the support of a majority of the members, expressed in a vote of confidence. Van der Layen dismissed the effort as based on conspiracy theories from anti-vaxxers and apologists for Putin. Venezuela: A UN report has found a situation of a total emergency, increased repression, and state impunity by the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela. There were over 500 state killings and over 2,600 arbitrary arrests, the UN report found, in the South American State. Cuba: A Cuban political prisoner who was the leader of the opposition to the Communist dictatorship of Cuba, died last week after a hunger strike against the inhuman treatment of political prisoners in Cuba and lack of basic freedoms. The Communists have ruled the Caribbean Island State since 1959, murdering tens of thousands of opponents and repressing the Cuban people to keep power.

Measles Outbreak Update: Highest Total Cases in America in Decades

The measles outbreak in America as reached nearly 1,300 cases, which has passed the total for 2019, when the United States lost its status of having eradicated the preventable contagious virus that is particularly dangerous for children. It is the worst year for measles in America since 1991, before eradication by 2000. Fourteen States still have outbreaks, with Texas being the worst focal point, from which the contagion as spread to other States, and where there have been three deaths. The outbreak in America and thousands of cases in outbreaks in Mexico and Canada has been transmitted especially through Mennonites. The ethnic German Anabaptists have close-knit communities and low vaccination rates. In America, the vaccination rate is less than 93%, which is below the 95% needed to prevent outbreaks and to protect the relatively few who cannot be effectively vaccinated for medical reasons. The vaccine for measles, which used to be the leading cause of deafness, is 97% effective, as demonstrated by the eradication of the disease in many countries around the world, and safe, as proven by numerous scientific studies. The only study to suggest a link to autism was fraudulent, but some people on the far left and the far right, as well as libertarians, nevertheless oppose the measles vaccine and other vaccines, or at least vaccine mandates, as I have posted. As I have also posted, Russian disinformation against vaccines has increased vaccine hesitancy for measles and other preventable diseases and therefore caused more cases of such diseases and deaths in Europe and America as a kind of biological warfare by Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence agent, against the West and its allies. The Trump Administration has undermined vaccines as an essential tool for public health in several ways because of leftwing Democrat Health Secretary Robert Kennedy’s conspiracy theories, instead of encouraging vaccination as the most effective tool against deadly contagious diseases like measles.

Independence Day Thoughts on the American Revolution and a Legislative Check on the Executive

As Americans celebrate Independence Day, which is observed on the date of the Declaration of Independence, which explained the reasons for the passage by Continental Congress two days before of the resolution of independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of the Thirteen American Colonies as States, some thoughts on the American Revolution are currently relevant. The American Revolution had begun in response to a tax levied on the colonists in 1765 by the British Parliament to pay for defense against the French, who held parts of North America. The American colonists did not object either to defense against the French, or paying taxes, but resented the lack of representation in Parliament that deprived them of their ability to consent to taxation and its particular from of imposition, unlike their fellow British subjects in the British Isles. In the U.K. Britons were represented by over 600 Members of Parliament, but Americans, who numbered around a third that of Britons, were not represented at all. There were not even any non-voting delegates from any of the American colonies, including the other British North American colonies or possessions around the world, or even a collective delegate for the North American colonies, which the Americans regarded as unfair. The distance of thousands of miles and the slow pace of travel meant that the Members of Parliament had no familiarity with the American Colonies whose interests they represented in abstentia. The British Parliament had been founded in the 13th Century through the Magna Carta, which limited the absolute power of the King. It was strengthened after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that deposed an absolutist monarch and further limited royal power. After an interregnum of anarchy, civil war and republican government, and a restoration of monarchy, through the unwritten British Constitution, the King governed through a prime minister, with the Parliament acting as the national legislature. But King George II influenced his Prime Minister to rule tyrannically, as did his colonial Royal Governors. Instead of resisting such abuses, the Sovereign’s supporters in Parliament became complicit in enacting authoritarian laws against the rebellious Americans, over the loyal opposition of the Whigs like Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism. The lack of a legislative remedy encouraged the American Colonists to change their goal at the start of the Revolution from a peaceful protest in favor of equal recognition of their natural rights toward independence from the United Kingdom. The Declaration of Independence expressed a litany of the abuses committed by the British monarchy against the American Colonists. Thus, the British oppression of the American Colonists represents an example of the danger when the Executive Branch of government is authoritarian and the Legislative Branch fails to act as a check on it. As Americans observe the start of the 250th year of their independence from the British they would profit by recalling the Spirit of 1776 and defending vigorously against the current threats to equality, liberty and representative government by an autocratic federal Executive and a complicit Legislature.

More Anti-Trumpist Conservative Republican Organizations

Since last year, more organizations have been founded by conservatives and Republicans against populist Trumpist policies, namely protectionism, nativism and isolationism, which are anathema to conservatism, and in favor of true conservative policies. The Reagan Caucus: A relatively grassroots organization, the Reagan Caucus (ReaganCaucus.org), focuses on promoting traditional conservative principles and opposing each of the populist Trumpist policies, and particularly supporting the election of conservative Republican candidates who do not share Trumpist views. The Cost Coalition: The Cost Coalition was formed recently, as a project of the bipartisan American Values Alliance. Led by Terry Holt, campaign staffer and former spokesman for President George W. Bush and House Speaker John Boehner, the Cost Coalition focuses on the cost of Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs, which it identifies as “the biggest middle class tax hike in modern history.” Austin Weatherford, the senior congressional staff person for United States Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, is another prominent Republican staffer for the organization. Our Republican Legacy: Our Republican Legacy (ORL Team & State Chairs | Our Republican Legacy) was founded last year by numerous prominent Republicans and conservatives to promote five traditional conservative Republican principles that the GOP has retreated from under the influence of Trumpism: unity, the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise and peace through strength. ORL was founded by former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle and Mike Pence, former Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio, the late Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, Secretary of Defense William Cohen of Maine, and several other former members of Congress. It was recently relaunched under the joint leadership of Danforth, Cohen, former Montana Governor and Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Racicot, and former U.S. Representatives Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Barbara Comstock of Virginia. ORL is staffed and advised by former Washington State Republican Chairman Chris Vance, former Reagan and Bush Administration Treasury official Greg Wilson and former congressional staffers. The organization already has 17 State Chairmen, including one for Pennsylvania, many of whom are current or former elected officials, former congressional or federal or state administration staffers or Republican officials, as well as a former North Carolina State Supreme Court justice. There has been cross-promotion between ORL and Principles First, the grassroots organization I had posted about previously that hosts an increasingly popular alternative to the Trumpist Conservative Political Action Committee conference, and the Reagan Caucus, as it is critical for principled conservatives, though they focus on different niches and hold reasonable differences in perspectives and political strategies, to work together to stand for conservative principles versus Trumpist populism and toward the greater goal of taking back the GOP and especially the conservative movement from Trumpism. The American people deserve a center-right alternative to both the left and Trumpism.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Venezuela: The center-right Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Cortina Machado, noted last week that the Socialist dictatorship of Venezuela is producing drones with Iranian technology. The South American State is thus the only State in the Western Hemisphere, other than the Unted States, that can produce drones. Venezuela’s could possibly reach Florida. Machado observed a growing threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism, which has signed 400 accords with Venezuela. Iran, which foments Islamist revolution around the Islamic world, committed two terrorist attacks in Argentina in the 1990s. Late last week, the ex-head of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence pleaded guilty to narco-terrorism charges in the United States federal District Court in New York after having been extradited from Spain in 2023. He funded the Colombian Marxist narco-terrorists. Venezuela’s relationships with Iran and the Columbian terrorists are examples of why I include it in what I call the Axis of Rogues, including Russia, China, North Korea, and their allies. North Atlantic Treaty Organization: The 32 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including the U.S., pledged to increase the defense spending from 2% of gross domestic product to 5% within 10 years, with 3.5% for military spending and 1.5% for broader security (e.g. infrastructure, cyber, hybrid, and resilience). Although Donald Trump sought to take total credit for the increases in NATO spending during his times in office, the members had pledged in 2013 when Barack Obama was President to increase their spending to 2% which most of them had reached, and some members, especially those in Eastern Europe, had already begun increasing their spending in the face of the growing threat of Russian imperialism, more than Trump’s misleading claims that member States were not “paying” into NATO. Members, including the U.S., pay relatively little into the administration of NATO; their spending is independent of the organization. NATO was formed early in the Cold War to protect Western Europe against the Soviet Union. It has been the most successful defensive pact in history, having prevented the Soviets and their Russian successors, who are trying to restore the Soviet Union/Russian Empire, from any major military attack against its members. Ever since Trump travelled to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, he has complained that American allies supposedly have not spent enough for their defense, as if their increased spending would proportionately decrease U.S. spending. Moreover, he implies that American spending to defend its allies is a kind of favor to allies that only benefits them, instead of recognizing common interests and ignoring the many defensive benefits to the U.S. of having allies. The only time the NATO alliance’s defensive provision that an attack on one is an attack on all has been invoked was after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America.

Pope Leo XIV Chooses a Refugee as His First Episcopal Appointee in America

Pope Leo XIV has appointed a refugee who fled Communist persecution in Vietnam as a child with his family as the Bishop of Sand Diego, the American Pontiff’s first appointment of a Bishop in America. Pope Leo, the Bishop of Rome, has clearly preached against divisions and in favor of unity and has emphasized Christian love for the poor and marginalized, including migrants and refugees. His first episcopal appointment thus sends a clear message. The new Bishop of San Diego and his auxiliary Bishops will stand with refugees at their asylum hearings on June 20, International Refugee Day. The presence of clergy is a favorable factor for refugees seeking asylum who must prove a credible fear of persecution. As I have posted, the Trump Administration has ended legal protections that had been granted to certain groups of refugees already present and ended legal pathways for refugees seeking asylum in America, while conducting mass deportations of migrants, including some present legally, and even without due process, including refugees seeking court hearings for their asylum claims, for which it has been criticized by various Christian denominations, as well as by employers; lawyers, human rights advocates, and law enforcement officers; and by liberals, libertarians and conservatives.

Latin American Digest: Bolivia, Argentina, Cuba, Columbia, and Nicaragua

Bolivia: The Bolivian Government has barred the former left-wing authoritarian President from being a presidential candidate in the August 17 Bolivian presidential election. Bolivia is led by the same Socialist party as the former President, who served three five-year terms, despite a constitutional term limit of two terms and was forced from office by a popular uprising in 2019 when he sought a fourth term. After a period in which a center-right leader held power as the constitutional successor, the Socialists were elected in 2020 to lead the South American State, but the current President and the former President had a falling out. The former President, who has been fomenting civil unrest, is being investigated for crimes. Another member of the ruling party will stand as a presidential candidate instead. Argentina: The former leftwing Peronist President last week was sentenced to prison for corruption and barred for life from holding office. She had been elected as President of the South American State in 2007 and served until 2015, succeeding her husband, who had served the previous four years. She was elected Vice President four years later, serving a four-year term and continued to be the leader of the left-wing party that is one of the legacies of Peronism, named for the Argentine fascist leader Juan Peron. Columbia: Some of the offshoots of the Marxist narco-terrorists since who fought a civil war in Columbia from 1964 until a peace deal in 2016 have continued fighting. There was a deadly flare-up of fighting by one group a few months ago in one part of the South American State near the Venezuelan border and another flareup by another group recently in the southeastern part of Columbia. The war killed tens of thousands of people. Cuba: The United Nations issued a report last week on the many Cuban violations of human rights in its prisons. Communist Cuba holds many political prisoners. After a deal reached with the United States, in which Cuba released some of its political prisoners, two prominent ones were returned to prison. Today, all of the Catholic Bishops of the Caribbean Island State called for structural, social, economic and political changes that are urgently needed amidst the suffering of the Cuban people. Nicaragua: Former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro died yesterday in exile in Costa Rica at the age of 94. She was elected President in 1990 and served until 1997. Her election ended the civil war that was caused by oppression by the Marxist Sandinista regime that seized power in 1979 after a guerilla war, led by Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinistas. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union backed the Sandinista regime while the U.S. backed the rebels after it became clear the Sandinistas would not share power. Chamorro, like the Sandinistas, had opposed Nicarabua’s Somoza dictatorship that had murdered her husband, the publisher of La Prensa, the only independent newspaper still published in the Central American State. She had been appointed by the Sandinistas as one of two right-wing representatives to the Ortega-led junta that officially ruled until Ortega’s election as President in 1985, but when it became apparent they had no real power, she and the other conservative resigned in 1980. She is credited as President with maintaining a constitutional republic, reestablishing international banking relationships and ending hyperinflation. Ortega was elected President again in 2007, promising not to rule as a dictator again, but he has instead been tyrannical, as I have posted. Chamorro fled the increasing persecution in Nicaragua in 2023.

Foreign Digest: Netherlands, Iran and Syria

Netherlands: The rightwing Dutch Prime Minister resigned earlier this month and the far-right anti-migrant party left the governing coalition because its demands for severely limiting the grant of asylum to refugees were not met by the other coalition parties. The main center-right and two other parties had formed a coalition government for the Netherlands after the far-right party won the most votes and seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections, but fell short of the required majority to govern alone, as I had posted. There will have to be new elections and likely another protracted negotiation to form a coalition government. The Netherlands is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Iran: The International Atomic Energy Agency censured the Islamic Republic of Iran last week for violating its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. It is the first time in decades that the UN watchdog composed of a number of member States has censured Iran. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for peaceful means, but the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism has enriched uranium beyond the threshold needed for energy production and could assemble nuclear weapons within months. Iran’s threat to increase enrichment in response prompted strikes on its nuclear program by Israel, which the Islamic Republic has repeatedly threatened. As with previous Iranian attacks on Isreal this year, the U.S. and some of its allies are intercepting Iranian missiles and drones targeting the Jewish States. Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy foments Islamist revolution throughout the Islamic world, backing guerillas and terrorists, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. Syria: The United States struck Islamic State targets in Syria last week. The IS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed a record 3,000 people. The U.S. has maintained since the Syrian Civil War left a power vacuum a small force in northeast Syria against the IS and al-Qaeda and also sometimes strikes Iranian-backed militia when attacked by them. The American forces are being kept there since the fall of Syria’s Assad regime under the leadership of the new Islamist-led government that is cooperating with the U.S. against the IS.

Update: Measles Outbreak in America

Because of vaccine hesitancy caused by anti-vaccine disinformation, the measles outbreak in America continues to worsen, after the disease had been domestically eradicated by the 2000s. There have been nearly 1,100 cases, many hospitalizations and at least 2 deaths. Most cases were of children who were unvaccinated. There are now 30 States reporting cases, between the main outbreak that started in Texas and others. Measles, the most contagious virus, is not the deadliest disease, but can cause serious illness and death, and was the leading cause of deafness before a vaccine was developed. Numerous scientific studies have confirmed the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine. Because not everyone can be effectively vaccinated against contagious diseases because of immunity deficiencies, those who cannot are protected if a high percentage of others in the community are vaccinated. America, Europe and Central Asia have been suffering an increase in measles and other diseases that had nearly been locally eradicated because of vaccines. Far-left, far-right and libertarian ideologies oppose vaccination, or at least vaccine mandates, while Russia has deliberately spread anti-vaccine disinformation in the West in an effective biological warfare campaign. Christian and conservative beliefs in personal responsibility toward the community compel vaccination to protect the vulnerable.

Foreign Digest: Venezuela, Romania, Cuba, Poland

Venezuela: There were multiple arrests of opposition figures by the Venezuelan Socialist dictatorship ahead of and during the elections last week. The opposition boycotted the elections because the South American State’s regime does not allow free and fair elections. As I have posted, it did not accept the results of the presidential elections in July, in which the center-right opposition easily won, according to the documentary evidence the opposition secured, international observers, many Latin American States, the United States, and its allies. The boycott was successful in denying legitimacy to the dictatorship, as the rate of abstention exceeded 85%. Romania: The presidential election held a week ago was confirmed by Romania’s election authorities and the new President has been sworn in. He is moderately conservative and is pro-European and pro-Ukrainian. The defeated Russian-backed far-right anti-Ukrainian Trumpist candidate conceded, but then alleged fraud. As I have posted, the first-round vote in December was annulled because of heavy Russian interference on behalf of an unknown candidate with no party and no spending, who came in first, but was later charged with election crimes and barred from running. The Trumpist candidate defeated last week had promised to name the barred candidate prime minister. Romania has thus demonstrated how to thwart attempted Russian interference, instead of acquiescing to it, like the U.S. did in 2016 and again in 2024. Romania, a former Communist and Soviet satellite state, is a strategic U.S. ally as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Cuba: Donald Trump removed temporary protected status from 300,000 Cuban refugees in America, in addition to Venezuelans, Afghans, and others seeking asylum from persecution. Cubans fleeing the Communist tyranny on their Caribbean island State had previously been less restricted than other refugees. Because of their experience of suffering under socialism and dictatorship, Cubans who become naturalized U.S. citizens usually are conservative, register as Republicans and vote for GOP candidates, including Trump. Thus, Trump’s nativist policies, in addition to undermining American security, the economy and the budget, deprive America of the benefit of those who especially appreciate freedom. Poland: The Polish presidential election was held today. The centrist pro-European pro-Ukrainian Mayor of Warsaw backed by the ruling center-right-led coalition was leading against the far-right party candidate whose party was put out of power last year because of its increasing authoritarianism. The far-right candidate was backed by the Trump Administration against the pro-Western candidate. Poland, a former Communist and Soviet satellite state, is a strategic U.S. ally as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.