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Foreign Affairs: Democracy Versus the Pandemic
16
Jun
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Foreign Affairs: Democracy Versus the Pandemic

The Coronavirus Is Emboldening Autocrats the World Over By Larry Diamond PEJOURNAL - In late March, Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte rammed a bill through his country’s parliament that granted him vastly expanded emergency powers, ostensibly to fight the novel coronavirus. The bill authorized Duterte to reallocate the national budget as he saw fit and to personally direct hospitals. “Do not challenge the government,” he bellowed in a menacing televised address. “You will lose.” Six days later, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushed even more expansive emergency legislation through his rubber-stamp parliament, enabling him to suspend existing laws, decree new ones,…
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Seyed Hassan Nasrallah
16
Jun

Seyed Hassan Nasrallah

"The option of buying gasoline and gas from Iran, in the national currency as a result of previous experiences should be considered by the Lebanese , but I have not yet spoken to the Iranians on this issue."
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Reuters: Pompeo to meet Chinese delegation in Hawaii this week
16
Jun
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Reuters: Pompeo to meet Chinese delegation in Hawaii this week

PEJOURNAL - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet a Chinese delegation at a U.S. military base in Hawaii this week to discuss bilateral ties that have soured deeply since the start of the year, sources familiar with the matter said. In addition to an intensifying strategic rivalry, the world’s top two economies have been at loggerheads in recent months over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and China’s move to impose new security legislation on Hong Kong. Experts say relations have reached their lowest point in years, and in mid-May President Donald Trump even went so far…
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SCFR: Roots Causes of China-India Border Tension
15
Jun
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SCFR: Roots Causes of China-India Border Tension

PEJOURNAL - For almost a month now, severe border tensions between India and China have erupted in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Indian media reported, citing Indian officials that thousands of Chinese troops have entered the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. According to these reports the Chinese forces reportedly pitched tents in the area, dug trenches, and deployed heavy military equipment a few kilometers deep in what India regards its territory. China, on the other hand, says it is India that has actually changed the border equations. India has recently built a…
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Reuters: Systemic racism slows economic growth: Dallas Fed chief Kaplan
14
Jun
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Reuters: Systemic racism slows economic growth: Dallas Fed chief Kaplan

PEJOURNAL - Systemic racism and high unemployment levels among black and Hispanic Americans create a drag on the U.S. economy, Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said on Sunday. “A more inclusive economy where everyone has an opportunity will mean faster workforce growth, faster productivity growth and will grow faster,” Kaplan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Kaplan said he agreed with his counterpart at the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, Raphael Bostic - the Fed’s only African-American policymaker - who on Friday called for an end to racism and laid out ways the U.S. central bank can help. The comments…
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Reuters: Macron says France won’t remove statues, erase history
14
Jun
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Reuters: Macron says France won’t remove statues, erase history

PEJOURNAL - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday fighting racism should not lead to a “hateful” re-writing of history following worldwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a police officer in the United States. Some protesters in the United States and elsewhere have targeted statues of historic figures associated with slavery or other past human rights abuses. “I will be very clear tonight, compatriots: the Republic won’t erase any name from its history. It will forget none of its artworks, it won’t take down statues,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
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CNN: Cathartic acts of rage, or the rewriting of history? How statues became political lightning rods
14
Jun
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CNN: Cathartic acts of rage, or the rewriting of history? How statues became political lightning rods

PEJOURNAL - Statues are products of one era built to endure into others. They loom over streets and squares while the views of those who pass by change, from generation to generation. Most people, most of the time, are indifferent to these persons of stone and bronze. Not now.From Richmond, Virginia, to Bristol in England, statues of men who championed or traded in slavery centuries ago are being torn down. The soul-searching about race prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has extended into how the history of racial persecution and prejudice is remembered. It is a heated…
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UWI: Humiliating the US both in the Caribbean Sea and the Persian Gulf: Iran’s oil export to Venezuela
14
Jun
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UWI: Humiliating the US both in the Caribbean Sea and the Persian Gulf: Iran’s oil export to Venezuela

PEJOURNAL - Bilateral trade between countries seems would normally be a rather typical matter. However, when the trade on the agenda between the two countries that have been under the pressure of the United States for a long time with the ultimate goal of destroying these countries entirely, it becomes a symbolic act of resistance against the world imperialist system. Iran has been dealing with the harshest economic and fiscal sanctions ever seen after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Tehran considers the US’ sanctions an obvious violation of international law r, and calls it “state economic terrorism”. On the other hand,…
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AP: Iraqi army says two rockets hit Taji base that hosts US troops
14
Jun
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AP: Iraqi army says two rockets hit Taji base that hosts US troops

PEJOURNAL - Two rockets have hit an Iraqi base frequented by US troops north of Baghdad without causing any casualties, Iraq's military says. The Katyusha rockets struck Camp Taji and caused minor damage but no injuries, according to the Iraqi military statement. In March, two US and one British soldier were killed following a barrage of rockets on Camp Taji, which has been used as a training base for a number of years.
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Poland invaded the Czech Republic last month, but says it was just a big misunderstanding
14
Jun
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Poland invaded the Czech Republic last month, but says it was just a big misunderstanding

PEJOURNAL - The Polish military has admitted it accidentally invaded the Czech Republic last month, but it insists its brief occupation of a small part of the country was simply a "misunderstanding."Polish soldiers mistakenly crossed the country's border with Czech Republic in late May before setting up there, the Czech foreign ministry told CNN. The soldiers, who had been guarding parts of the closed Polish-Czech border during the coronavirus pandemic, then started turning away Czech citizens who were attempting to visit a church in their own country.The snafu led the Czech embassy in Warsaw to take "immediate action" and notify…
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