RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17113/lukashenko-crushes-belarus

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since he came into power in 1994, has cracked down violently on the still-ongoing protests in which police have detained more than 33,000 people.

Belarus “is not a member of the Council of Europe – it still has the death penalty which is an automatic bar to its membership. This means that it is not subject to… requirements… to bring its prison system in line with the norms outlined in the European Prison Rules…. All prisoners are vulnerable to their treatment in custody being manipulated at the behest of investigators to exact confessions and witness statements from them. The lack of transparency of the Belarus prison service is almost absolute.” — Judith Pallot, Director of the GULAGECHOES project at the University of Helsinki, Open Democracy, November 20, 2020.

The US has “designated” several individuals and entities in Belarus for their role in undermining democracy and human rights abuses. The EU has also imposed several rounds of sanctions against high-level officials…. It is up for debate, however, whether sanctions have any effect on the leadership of Belarus, especially because Belarus largely relies on Russia, not the West…. “The individuals on the list don’t care about being on it. On the contrary, they consider it a medal of honor.” — Artyom Shraibman, a political analyst based in Minsk, politico.eu, September 19, 2020.

“I will not suddenly give up the presidency. I have nothing other than Belarus. I cling to it and I hold on to it”. — Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, France 24, February 11, 2021.

It has been six months since protests began in Belarus against the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko and the unfree elections that took place there on August 9, 2020. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since he came into power in 1994, has cracked down violently on the still ongoing protests, in which police have detained more than 33,000 people.

On November 5, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a report, OSCE Rapporteur’s Report under the Moscow Mechanism on Alleged Human Rights Violations related to the Presidential Elections of 9 August 2020, which concluded that the presidential elections “fell short of fulfilling the basic international requirements for genuine elections. Accordingly, the allegations that the presidential elections were not transparent, free or fair were found confirmed.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/uk-foreign-secretary-claims-britain-dismantling-robert-spencer/

The Islamic State (ISIS) is newly emboldened by the departure of Donald Trump from the Oval Office and the return to power of the forces of appeasement, denial, weakness and surrender. The National reported Thursday that “children are being exposed to ISIS terrorism online during lockdown, raising fears of brainwashing,” according to British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Raab talked tough in response, but all he really offered was more of the same: lip-service to counterjihad efforts from a government that lacks the will to confront this foe, and would rather pretend that its real problem is “right-wing extremists.”

Dominic Raab (pictured above) told Parliament that “security services were fighting hard to combat the threat,” but he also recounted “the terrorists’ rising global influence, with armed groups in Africa and Asia adopting its violent methods.” The “biggest worry,” however, “was the ‘perfect storm’ of young people stuck indoors during lockdown, and going online to relieve their boredom where they were subjected to extremist indoctrination.” Accordingly, Raab said, “we can see a worrying rise in the proportion of children and teenagers that are now being arrested for terrorism offences.”

Yeah, that’s it, Raab, boredom leads to jihad. Give these boys a basketball and a job at Tesco and all will be well, right?

ISIS, he continued, is “still able to carry out lethal attacks,” and contrary to all the propaganda about “white supremacists,” it is still Britain’s “most significant terrorist threat.” Raab asserted that ISIS “more and more reliant on its perverse propaganda and warped narrative to try and maintain its relevance and cement support for its terrorist attacks. Daesh [the political elites’ favored euphemism for the Islamic State] maintains a steady drumbeat of violent communications, which they distribute with encrypted messaging applications.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-different-center-holds-in-germany-11615848274?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

Germany on Sunday fired the starting pistol on this year’s marathon of local and federal elections, with regional votes in two states. The results suggest voters are tiring of political stasis as Angela Merkel’s 16-year run as chancellor nears its end.

The result is a very German shake up, since the governments in the two states that voted won’t change. The left-leaning Green party extended its 10-year hold on Baden-Württemberg with an increased vote share of 32.6% compared to 30.3% in 2016. The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) finished first in Rhineland Palatinate, although with a slightly smaller share of 35.7% from 36.2% five years ago.

The shock is the poor performance of the second-place finisher in each race, Mrs. Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). The party’s share of the vote sank to postwar lows in both states—24.1% in Baden-Württemberg and 27.7% in Rhineland Palatinate. This extends the CDU’s multiyear downward trend as voters grow less enamored with it each time they’re asked to pass judgment. The electoral skepticism includes their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, whose vote share fell by 10 percentage points in 2018 state elections.

This steady ebb of voter confidence is an immediate challenge for Armin Laschet, selected by CDU members in January to be their new party leader and potential candidate to replace Mrs. Merkel in national elections in the autumn. He’s too new on the job to be directly responsible for these local losses. A scandal involving pandemic procurement among some CDU politicians in Berlin didn’t help. Neither did a botched Covid-19 vaccine rollout and escalating political tensions surrounding Mrs. Merkel’s lockdowns.