RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/deadly-sino-indian-border-clash-sparks-fears-of-renewed-conflict/

For decades, China and India have managed to maintain an uneasy peace on their disputed border. That peace may now be in jeopardy.

For the first time since 1975, the long-running Sino–Indian border dispute has turned deadly, claiming the lives of at least 20 troops. For decades, the two sides have avoided active military hostility, despite occasional brinkmanship. While China and India appeared to be pulling back in recent weeks, the deaths could reignite the border stand-off that started in early May.

“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday with casualties on both sides,” the Indian Army said in a statement Tuesday. An Indian officer and two soldiers died in the clash, and another 17 Indian troops later succumbed to their injuries due to the sub-zero temperatures of the Himalayan border region.

The editor of the Global Times, a Chinese state-run newspaper, said that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had also suffered casualties, but did not specify whether any of its troops had died. “I want to tell the Indian side, don’t be arrogant and misread China’s restraint as being weak,” Hu Xijin said in a tweet. “China doesn’t want to have a clash with India, but we don’t fear it.”

On June 6, the two sides agreed to a de-escalation plan in commander-level talks. The agreement reportedly included a roadmap to disengagement from three of the four stand-off points in the disputed border zone, according to Dhruva Jaishankar, the director of the Observer Research Foundation’s U.S. Initiative. In the ensuing days, officials in the border region conducted further dialogue to facilitate de-escalation.

 https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/black-lives-matter-in-lithuania/

Lithuania is about the most ethnically pure country in the world. They have almost zero diversity. However, this past week, young Lithuanians showed they care about Black Lives. On June 5, approximately 1,000 youthful demonstrators took to Lithuanian streets to show their support. Their support for those racially different surprised people worldwide who never expected encouragement of diversity. After all, Lithuania is a country where members of Parliament are able to openly throw the Nazi salute without objection or consequence.

MP’s identified as Arūnas Gumuliauskas and Audrys Šimas throwing the Nazi Seig Heil salute in a Parliamentary meeting of the National Security and Defense Committee on May 20, 2020 (Photo from Lithuanian Government feed. Free for public use.)

At sporting events, some Lithuanians openly throw the Nazi Seig Heil salute

In the capital city, Nazis march openly and freely.

Neo-Nazi march in Vilnius on March 11, 2020. Banner is the ethnically purist racist rallying cry: “Lithuania for Lithuanians” – a goal already achieved
Multiple monuments for Holocaust perpetrators populate the country.

Newly installed monument for genocidal mass murderer Jonas Noreika on a government protected national heritage building

The government of Lithuania is deeply involved in Holocaust revisionism and considers Holocaust perpetrators as their national heroes.

Lithuania states they have banned Communist and Nazi displays, but if the demonstrations are pro-Nazi, they seem never to be prosecuted, or cause official concern.

Even the Lithuanian military glorifies the Nazi leader that first called for the elimination of Jews in Lithuania, Kazys Skirpa. The military showcased his photograph on the front cover of their national Lithuanian military magazine in 2020.

http://www.amilimani.com/index.php/component/k2/item/123-islam-the-iranian-version

Before the Islamic invasion of 1979, Iranian people had a different view of Islam. The kind of Islamic version people believed did not exist beyond their own imagination. To them, that was the real Islam. Kind, perfect and peaceful. With the return of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, ‘real’ Islam was reintroduced to the populace and it turned Iran and Iranians’ fictitious beliefs into a nightmare.

Most people around the world are not aware of this fact. I believe, historians conclusively need to elucidate this reality so that Iran is not referred to as an Islamic country.

Before the invasion of 1979, Iranians in general lived in a peaceful and relatively calm country that did not impose the religion of any kind on its citizens. Major events in Shi’a Islam was only celebrated during certain days of the year. These innocent and naïve Iranians had a completely imaginary and unrealistic vision of ​​Islam without the slightest idea what the real Islam was, what the Qur’an said, what the Prophet of Islam did, and did not do. Irrespective of any and all, they attributed Islam with their own vision, fantasy, ideals and beliefs. In other words, Islam was only as good as the person practicing it.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16105/egypt-christians-persecuted

On May 30, 2020 — two days before President Trump congratulated Copts around the world — Egyptian authorities demolished the village of Koum al-Farag’s only Coptic church, even though it had … served three thousand Christians. According to the report, “The destruction of the church was a punishment for the ‘crime’ of building rooms for Sunday school…. When the work began, some extremist Muslims began to attack Christians.”

Police further arrested and imprisoned 14 Christians overnight. The nearest church to the Christians of Koum al-Farag, most of whom are limited to traveling by foot, is 10 miles away.

“No one should fear for their safety in a house of worship anywhere in the world.” — President Donald J. Trump, “Presidential Message on Global Coptic Day, 2020”, June 1, 2020.

All that former President Barack Obama could bring himself to do [after the 2011 Maspero Massacre, when the Egyptian government slaughtered and ran over dozens of Copts with tanks for protesting the burnings and closures of their churches] was call “for restraint on all sides” — as if Egypt’s beleaguered Christian minority needed to “restrain” itself against the nation’s armed and aggressive military.

On June 1, 2020, President Trump issued a statement titled “Presidential Message on Global Coptic Day, 2020.” (Copts are Egypt’s indigenous Christians, now a minority.) After sending his “best wishes” to the “millions of Coptic Christians in the United States and around the world,” he said that recognizing Global Coptic Day provides “an opportunity for the world to mark the contributions, legacy, and ongoing challenges facing the largest Christian group in the Middle East.” He continued:

“Today is also a time for us to acknowledge the importance of religious freedom and reaffirm our commitment to promoting and defending this core tenet of a free society. Tragically, far too many people the world over face persecution on account of their faith.”

This is certainly true for the Copts. Most recently, on April 14, 2020, an Islamic terror plot to bomb Coptic churches around Easter was thwarted. Previous plots, however — which also targeted churches during Christian holidays, when they are most packed with people and therefore offer the greatest harvest of slain Christian worshippers — came to fruition:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16106/libya-powers-play-with-fire

Cameron’s friends tell me that he and Sarkozy were both pushed into the Libyan adventure by then US President Barack Obama who wished to test his “leadership from behind” theory which, in turn, flattered the European midgets.

Libya is currently the largest theater of proxy wars in the Greater Middle East. More foreign powers are involved in the Libyan proxy war than in Syria.

According to Moscow sources, Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to gain a pause-and-resupply base for his navy on Libya’s 1,770-kilometer-long Mediterranean coast to complement the aero-naval base he has obtained in Tartus, Syria.

The second reason why this mini-world war is worthy of attention is that Libya, with the longest shoreline on the Mediterranean, is also neighbor on land to six countries, all of which could be destabilized or worse. It is no surprise that, thanks to Egyptian efforts, the Libyan dossier is slated to come up in the African Union as a threat to security across the continent.

A series of seesaw battles, in some of which Haftar’s forces scored tactical gains, has shown that without military intervention by a bigger player, neither side is able to kick the other out of the game…. The prospect of Libya being Syrianized must be taken seriously.

With coronavirus lockdown gradually whittled down, last week we started working on a series of conferences on the greater Middle East region for one of the local universities. As we suggested topics we came to Libya where a forgotten war has been going on for almost a decade.

The response from committee members was almost unanimous: Who cares about Libya?

Evil tongues might suggest that, coming from French and British academics, this “who cares” sounds like an attempt to hide a shameful family secret.

After all, the tragic mess we witness in Libya today is, in good part, a result of policies pursued by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Premier David Cameron, who took on the job of toppling Col. Muammar Gaddafi without knowing what they would need to do next.

Cameron’s friends tell me that he and Sarkozy were both pushed into the Libyan adventure by then US President Barack Obama, who wished to test his “leadership from behind” theory which, in turn, flattered the European midgets.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16108/finally-a-good-new-snap-back-plan-on-iran

The RSC plan also advocates that Congress impose further new sanctions on “Iran’s petrochemical, shipping, financial, construction and automotive sectors.” Legislation would also target “Iran’s human rights violations and regional aggression, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. And it suggests sanctioning the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a European mechanism that the United States has criticized as a way to evade US sanctions on Iran.”

In an unprecedented but welcome manner, the RSC bill would for the first time place “new sanctions on the arms industries of countries like Russia and China that return to selling weapons to Iran, the banks facilitating any sale of weapons to Iran, and the companies shipping weapons.”

Diplomacy will not stop Iran. Real pressure will.

With the new RSC strategy, the US and its allies have a real shot at taking down the regime in Iran. That would indeed signal the success of economic “maximum pressure.”

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) in the House of Representatives, proposed on June 10, 2020, an unprecedentedly strong new Iran policy. The package of proposed legislation would end all Iranian waivers, snap-back economic sanctions in place prior to the Iran nuclear deal, and set severe economic penalties on those seeking to sell advanced weaponry to Iran.

The new GOP plan also advocates that Congress impose further new sanctions on “Iran’s petrochemical, shipping, financial, construction and automotive sectors.” Legislation would also target “Iran’s human rights violations and regional aggression, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. And it suggests sanctioning the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), a European mechanism that the United States has criticized as a way to evade US sanctions on Iran.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16101/china-takes-over-hong-kong

“Germany is leading the whole Europe, they’re so ambitious, they want to be leader but morally they are so collapsed.” — Ai Weiwei, artist, La Repubblica, June 1, 2020

“China is a predator and Europe is its prey”. — François Heisbourg, French scholar, Le Figaro, May 29, 2020.

There is no mediation with Chinese imperialism.

“Why die for Hong Kong?”, the Europeans shortsightedly seem to say today.

During the last year of protests, Hong Kong’s demonstrators have waved the American flag. China well knows the meaning of that small outpost on its doorstep, with its freedom of speech and rule of law. Have you seen the European flag being waved in Hong Kong? No, and with good reason.

In the aftermath of China’s approval of a new national security law for Hong Kong, which de facto ends the autonomy of the former British colony guaranteed by an international treaty, two Anglo-Saxon democracies immediately protested very loudly.

The United States and the United Kingdom tried to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council to deal with the matter (China prevented it). Then the governments of the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada released a joint statement stressing that the international community has a lasting interest in the stability and autonomy of Hong Kong. The UK even announced that it will extend to more than three million residents of Hong Kong a renewable one-year visa and the eventual possibility of obtaining British citizenship. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the possibility of canceling the privileged commercial status that the US has so far given to Hong Kong, and President Donald Trump announced sanctions against Chinese leaders responsible for introducing the national security law in Hong Kong.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16104/antifa-history

Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat organizational structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local groups.

Antifa’s stated long-term objective, both in America and abroad, is to establish a communist world order. In the United States, Antifa’s immediate aim is to bring about the demise of the Trump administration.

A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and Europe is to employ extreme violence and destruction of public and private property to goad the police into a reaction, which then “proves” Antifa’s claim that the government is “fascist.”

Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the German government to fight the far right. — Bettina Röhl, German journalist, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.

“Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against politicians and police officers. It promotes senseless damage to property amounting to vast sums.” — Bettina Röhl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has blamed Antifa — a militant “anti-fascist” movement — for the violence that has erupted at George Floyd protests across the United States. “The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” he said.

Barr also said that the federal government has evidence that Antifa “hijacked” legitimate protests around the country to “engage in lawlessness, violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent.” Earlier, U.S. President Donald J. Trump had instructed the U.S. Justice Department to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.

Academics and media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have argued that the group cannot be classified as a terrorist organization because, they claim, it is a vaguely-defined protest movement that lacks a centralized structure. Mark Bray, a vocal apologist for Antifa in America and author of the book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” asserts that Antifa “is not an overarching organization with a chain of command.”