RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18546/iran-foreign-hostages

“[T]here are extensive, vague and arbitrary grounds in Iran for imposing the death sentence, which quickly can turn this punishment into a political tool…. In addition, the structural flaws of the justice system are so deep and at odds with the notion of rule of law that one can barely speak of a justice system. The entrenched flaws in law and in the administration of the death penalty in Iran mean that most, if not all, executions are an arbitrary deprivation of life.” — Javaid Rehman, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, October 25, 2021.

The Iranian regime most likely believes that detaining Western nationals will put pressure on the EU and the US to accept its demands and seal the nuclear deal as soon as possible.

The Biden administration and the EU should not remain silent in the face of the Iranian regime taking more foreign hostages. The only language that all rogue and predatory regimes, including that of the mullahs, understand is the language of pressure. Why not try using it?

The European Union appear excited that the nuclear talks have reopened again to revive the nuclear deal that will bring nuclear weapons to the “world largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Iran, and additional billions of dollars to the treasury of the country’s ruling mullahs and to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to practice more terrorism. In the meantime, the Biden administration and the EU have remained silent in the face of the Iranian regime taking more hostages.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence recently detained two French citizens. The Iranian authorities claimed that they arrested the two because they were planning to cause “chaos, social disorder, and instability”. Iran’s judiciary spokesperson, Zabihollah Khodaian, also stated that a Swedish-Iranian national, Ahmadreza Djalali, has received a death sentence and he will be executed by May 21, 2022. He was arrested in 2016 on the trumped-up charge of spying for a country that the Iranian regime wants to annihilate: Israel.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/05/a-christian-stoned-to-death-for-blasphemy-in-nigeria-when-will-it-end/?utm_source=

Last week in Sokoto, Nigeria, a young Christian university student was stoned, beaten, and burnt to death by a mob over allegations of “blasphemy.”  The mob accused her, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, of insulting the Prophet Mohammed in a WhatsApp classroom discussion group. Some of her classmates were outraged after Yakubu thanked Jesus for helping her in an exam. To the mob, the accusation of blasphemy justified murdering her.

Videos of the attack immediately began circulating on social media in Nigeria and worldwide. Against the background of an upcoming and contentious election in 2023 and of widespread kidnappings and terrorist and militant attacks in Northern Nigeria, the horrific murder of Yakubu is generating national uproar.

Unfortunately, some in Nigeria continue to defend the attacks. Violent protesters in Sokoto vandalized and set fire to Catholic churches on Saturday while calling for the release of Yakubu’s suspected attackers. In Maiduguri, another young Christian woman is facing calls for vigilante mob violence after being accused of posting blasphemy on social media.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18545/sri-lanka-crisis-china

Sri Lanka is only the world’s opening act.

Events in Sri Lanka also highlight how China is going about dominating the world. Beijing is corrupting national leaders, drowning them in debt, and ultimately destabilizing their governments. Beijing, it appears, is particularly targeting democracies.

China is the world’s predatory lender, something evident from its Belt and Road Initiative, also known as BRI. Beijing’s grand infrastructure project specializes in roads, ports, and railroads that have, like the Sri Lankan projects, little or no commercial justification. So far, 146 countries have signed BRI memo agreements with Beijing.

The Chinese have established a pattern. “China extends debt on onerous terms, backs up authoritarian governments when there are financial collapses or civil disobedience, and then takes everything it can find,” Cleo Paskal of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Gatestone.

In December 2017, Beijing took control of the Hambantota port…. Now there are concerns that Hambantota will eventually become a Chinese naval base. China’s admirals have long eyed Sri Lanka…

A base in Sri Lanka would allow Chinese aircraft and surface combatants as well as submarines to cut sea lanes in the Indian Ocean and force next-door India to divert military assets to a threatening presence.

Sri Lanka is now looking for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, but that is not necessarily a good idea. The international community should not be helping a voracious China gobble up small, vulnerable societies.

If the IMF bails out Sri Lanka without ensuring that it is no longer aligned with Beijing, it will have subsidized Chinese investment and politically reinforced a country that becomes a Chinese proxy.” – Cleo Paskal, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, to Gatestone, May, 2022.

On May 12, India confirmed that it would provide a desperate Sri Lankan government 65,000 metric tons of urea, pursuant to an existing $1 billion credit line. The sale, which overrides New Delhi’s ban on the exports of the commodity, relieves severe pressure on the government of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka since the end of March has been wracked by violent protests. “Shoot-on-sight” orders have for the most part restored order, but the unrest has led to the replacement of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, once the country’s dominate political figure. His brother, the president, is unlikely to survive the tumult. The ongoing economic and financial crisis is Sri Lanka’s worst since independence from Britain in 1948.