Category Archives: Global Politics

Death: an occupational hazard in Donbass | News | DW.COM | 01.04.2017

the list of the early separatist leaders still alive in Eastern Ukraine has again gotten shorter. Many of those men have been murdered outright. In February, Mikhail Tolstykh was killed when an incendiary rocket was fired into his Donetsk office. A few months prior, Arsen “Motorola” Pavlov was killed when a bomb exploded in his apartment building’s elevator. Both men had been presented as war heroes on Russian state television. Separatists blame “Ukrainian saboteurs” for the murders – foreign agents in communist parlance. Kyiv denies the accusations.

Source: Death: an occupational hazard in Donbass | News | DW.COM | 01.04.2017

Tillerson′s first Turkey visit ends in impasse as US shifts position on Assad | News | DW.COM | 30.03.2017

Assad’s future up to Syrian peopleAnother key point of the press conference was the US diplomat’s comments on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – the closest indicator to date on the Trump administration’s attitude towards Damascus.”I think the… longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people,” Tillerson told reporters. This was a turning point from the government of President Barack Obama, which regarded Assad’s removal as a key point of any future peace in Syria.Washington’s envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, reiterated this position on Thursday when she said that the government had to prioritize defeating IS over forcing Assad to step down. “Our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out,” Haley said.

Source: Tillerson′s first Turkey visit ends in impasse as US shifts position on Assad | News | DW.COM | 30.03.2017

As an Israeli soldier, I played God with Palestinians | +972 Magazine

The idea that one can detain and physically harm a person who doesn’t have the right to respond is one of the most revolting aspects of human existence. Last night this memory came back to me. Just a small episode — there are thousands of them every day. I wasn’t very far from shooting a man who probably had young children and parents waiting for him back at home.This situation, which has become so natural for us, just like for the police officer in East Jerusalem, allows us speak to an Arab from a position of superiority. As if we were his God, to demand his identification card, to slap him and shove him if necessary, even if he is the same age as your father or young enough to be your child. It is the most disgusting thing I carry with me from my army service.

Source: As an Israeli soldier, I played God with Palestinians | +972 Magazine

White House to States: Shield the Undocumented and Lose Police Funding – The New York Times – They are sworn to protect and serve their citizens, not White House cronies and traitors.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said state and local governments seeking certain law enforcement grants would have to certify that they were complying with a law that bars any official from withholding information from the Department of Homeland Security about a person’s immigration status. Those that are violating the policy could see such grants clawed back, he said.Mr. Sessions’s appearance was an effort to threaten painful consequences for so-called sanctuary cities, those that decline to cooperate with the federal government in efforts to track and deport undocumented immigrants.“I strongly urge our nation’s states and cities and counties to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws and to rethink these policies,” Mr. Sessions said. “Such policies make their cities and states less safe — public safety as well as national security are at stake — and put them at risk of losing federal dollars.”

Should we blame Islam for terrorism? | David Shariatmadari | Opinion | The Guardian – And blame slaughter of North and South American native people on Christian Theology, as well as convert or die in Spain? Slaughter of Muslims in Burma on Buddha’s followers?

For some – and I suspect this includes Steve Bannon, Marine Le Pen and more than a few British pundits – the natural conclusion is that people should be convinced to abandon Islam, and if that doesn’t work, it should be driven out. This, of course, would be a grossly illiberal and violent programme – but one, I suppose, that sits in a rather long tradition of nationalism and supremacism in the west.Remind me: who’s special again?

Source: Should we blame Islam for terrorism? | David Shariatmadari | Opinion | The Guardian

Rise of Hindu ‘extremist’ spooks 40 million Muslim minority in India’s heartland | World news | The Guardian – Hindu Fascists will go after Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains…

The men, allegedly part of a religious activist group called the Hindu Yuva Vahini, cornered one of the parishioners. Smartphone footage shows the woman pulling her blue shawl tightly around herself as she answers questions about her involvement with the church. “No one is forcing me to convert,” she insists.“If the police hadn’t arrived, we don’t know what would have happened next,” Joshua says. “After the men left, everyone in the church was silent, so frightened. This is a time of testing for us.”Last week, the monk who founded the HYV, and whose firebrand Hindu supremacist vision guides the organisation, was selected by the party of prime minister Narendra Modi to lead the most populous state in India – the equivalent of the sixth largest nation on earth.

Source: Rise of Hindu ‘extremist’ spooks 40 million Muslim minority in India’s heartland | World news | The Guardian

Star Witness In Treason Trial Involving Trump’s Campaign Chair Was Just Shot Dead

Yesterday, documents surfaced showing that former Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort had received at least $750,000 in illegal payments from former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, who is about to be tried for treason in absentia in Ukraine.Today, Denis Voronenkov was shot to death in the streets of Kiev in broad daylight, just a few weeks after he said he would testify against Yanukovych and his cohorts — Manafort included.This is only the latest in a list of Russian dissidents to be murdered or die under mysterious circumstances since the U.S. Election. The timing of Voronenkov’s murder in conjunction with the latest revelations about Manafort — a man he was likely to incriminate — makes this latest tragedy all the more suspect.

Source: Star Witness In Treason Trial Involving Trump’s Campaign Chair Was Just Shot Dead

U.S. Officials Claim Trump Associates May Have Coordinated With Russians 

On Wednesday, U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that the FBI has information suggesting that Trump associates were in communication with Russia in order to “possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” confirming what has been speculated for months.

Source: U.S. Officials Claim Trump Associates May Have Coordinated With Russians 

[UPDATE] Man Arrested For Deadly Midtown Stabbing Reportedly Came To NYC To Kill Black People: Gothamist – And keeping laptops off of flights from Saudi Arabia is supposed to keep us safer? And racist nuts from Baltimore???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

A police source now tells the Daily News that the suspect in custody is a Maryland white supremacist who told cops he came here from Baltimore for the express purpose of murdering black people. Specifically, the News’s source says the suspect was motivated “by rage against black men who get romantically involved with white women.”An NYPD spokesman would not confirm or disconfirm the racial motivation, but told us a 28-year-old male suspect has been taken into custody. The spokesman said more details about the homicide would be provided at an NYPD press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. today. We’ll update as more information becomes available.

Source: [UPDATE] Man Arrested For Deadly Midtown Stabbing Reportedly Came To NYC To Kill Black People: Gothamist

Erdogan Warns Europeans on Their Safety as Tensions Rise With West – The New York Times – More Fascist than could have been imagined a short time ago. Caliph-wannabes threaten and threaten and threaten until Turkey is totally isolate and walled in/out.

“If you go on behaving like that, tomorrow nowhere in the world, none of the Europeans, Westerners will be able to walk in the streets in peace, safely,” Mr. Erdogan said at a meeting in Ankara, the capital.The outburst was his latest attempt to rally nationalist voters before the tightly contested referendum.