The Venezuelan opposition has begun repeatedly calling for the nation’s military to act in the face of an increasingly oppressive dictatorship, urging soldiers not to follow orders to attack protesters with batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets.
A protester joining the thousands calling for an end to Venezuela’s socialist regime on Thursday approached an armed military vehicle wearing nothing but a knapsack and holding a Bible, demanding law enforcement stop attacking protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets.
In an interview with the Russian state outlet Sputnik, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad argues “there’s no difference” between American soldiers and “terrorists on the ground” in Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit China, Russia, India, and the United States, as well as make stops in Europe during a world tour next month intended to rehabilitate his public image after a controversial referendum vote greatly expanded his executive power.
An Associated Press (AP) “explainer” on the wave of protests in Venezuela this month omits the socialist government’s refusal to free prisoners of conscience, the rampant use of police brutality, and human rights violations against protesters in an attempt to explain the “economic” unrest in the nation.
The Venezuelan opposition called for a second “mother of all marches” on Thursday from the same 26 rally points from which hundreds of thousands took the streets to demand an end to socialism on Wednesday.
The business world awoke to a headline shocking to American audiences but quite routine for those following the past two decades of socialist rule in Venezuela: the government of dictator Nicolás Maduro had seized GM’s remaining plant in the country.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK), the election oversight agency, dismissed a call for annulling Sunday’s referendum to adopt a presidential system after opposition parties and international observers condemned the vote as neither free nor fair.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first interview since Sunday’s referendum to implement a presidential system in Turkey, protested those who noted his party won the vote by a slim margin, comparing the vote to a soccer game.
North Korea’s celebration of the “Day of the Sun” – the official name of the holiday honoring communist founder Kim Il-sung – culminated in the embarrassing failure of yet another missile launch, meant to highlight the nation’s military might.
Dissidents participating in what Venezuela’s opposition dubbed the “mother of all protests” Wednesday faced gang attacks, tear gas, and other repressive tactics by state police and civilian militias alike.
The largest opposition party in Turkey, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has officially launched a request for a recount of votes in Sunday’s referendum to expand President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s executive power.
The former head of the Office of Identification and Migration (Saime) in Venezuela told the Miami Herald this week that, while he was there, the office issued at least 10,000 passports to Syrian, Iranian, and other Middle Eastern nationals with no ties to Venezuela.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told leaders in Qatar and Bahrain during a regional visit this weekend that he would deploy Philippine troops to the region if necessary, promising that his soldiers are “very disciplined.”
Beijing’s message to the Trump administration that it would take an active role in diminishing tensions on the Korean peninsula has apparently reached Pyongyang. North Korean officials have reportedly not responded to requests from the Chinese government to meet for diplomatic talks.
After Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro repeatedly referred to the anti-socialist opposition as “the antichrist,” the leader of Maduro’s party in the legislature posted a photo of Hugo Chávez on social media to celebrate Easter, with the caption “Christ is Chavista.”
Turkey’s opposition parties are demanding a recount following Sunday’s referendum to install a presidential system of government greatly expanding the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Friday that North Korea and the United States must end the tense status quo of their relationship before it reaches an “irreversible and unmanageable stage,” suggesting China is willing to play a part in making this happen.
The Christian holiday occasion of Holy Week has brought a new wave of protests to Venezuela’s major cities – and with them another wave of violent police repression.
Chinese state media reported on Friday that Air China has suspended flights between Beijing and Pyongyang, North Korea. The airline is the only one of its kind connecting North Korea to China regularly, suggesting Beijing is seeking to heavily limit its ties to the country.
Japan scrambled Air Self-Defense Force jets over one thousand times in the 2016 fiscal year, the most on record, partly due to growing tensions with China over ownership of the Senkaku Islands.
A mob of supporters of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro stormed a Catholic Mass celebrating Holy Week on Wednesday, assaulting Archbishop of Caracas Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, injuring both believers attending the mass and media recording the scuffle, and reportedly looting the church.
North Korea has begun preparing festivities for the “Day of the Sun,” a holiday celebrating communist leader Kim Il-Sung. Satellite images suggest that among those festivities may be the nation’s sixth nuclear test, which would arrive at a particularly tempestuous time in the relationship between Pyongyang and its largest benefactor, China.
The United Nations children’s organization UNICEF announced this week that the Islamic State affiliate Boko Haram has used 27 children as suicide bombers in the past three months, nearly the same amount as in the entirety of 2016.
Venezuela gave its dictator Nicólas Maduro a cold welcome upon his return from Cuba Tuesday. A mob shouting insults at the head of state attacked his motorcade at a military event in eastern Bolívar state, pelting his car with eggs and rocks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and American counterpart President Donald Trump spoke on the phone Wednesday, with reports out of Beijing stating that Xi stressed that his nation is “committed to peace” on the Korean peninsula.
El socialismo ha destruido a Venezuela. La nacionalización de los negocios, el control asfixiante de precios, y un sistema draconiano de racionamiento de comida han dejado la nación pobre, enferma, y muriéndose de hambre. La represión política socialista ha terminado con las vidas de un sinnúmero de venezolanos y enjaulado decenas más en las cárceles violentas del país.
Socialism has destroyed Venezuela. State corporate takeovers, strict price controls, and a food rationing system have left the country poor, sick, and literally starving.
The political situation in Venezuela has destabilized significantly as the socialist dictatorship has attempted to nullify the opposition-held legislature and banned a presidential contender from public office for fifteen years. It is a bizarre time for dictator Nicolás Maduro to leave the country, yet he has done so, attending a leftist summit in Havana.
As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Moscow for talks with the Russian government, international observers have expressed growing concern of a showdown between two of the world’s major political powers.
China sent its top nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, special representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, to South Korea on Monday to discuss reaction to an increasingly belligerent North Korea, days after President Xi Jinping arrived from an in-person summit with President Donald Trump in Florida.
Police in Venezuela arrested six government office workers last week in a story largely lost amid the ongoing violent police crackdown on anti-socialist dissidents. The employees stand accused of selling authentic Venezuelan government documents, like passports and birth certificates, to Syrian nationals at $5,000 each.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte shocked international observers last week with a call to occupy the uninhabited islands of the South China Sea before China colonized them, an apparent about-face from his months-long campaign to improve bilateral relations with China.
The government of North Korea sent a “message of greeting to Bashar al-Assad” on Thursday meant to congratulate Assad for “the 70th anniversary of the [Baath Arab Socialist] Party’s founding.” North Korean state media published the congratulatory note on Friday, following the Trump administration’s decision to conduct airstrikes on a key Assad military base.
China’s state newspaper The Global Times published an editorial criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to conduct airstrikes in Syria, suggesting it was made “in haste,” but also observed that Trump appears to want “prove to the world that he is no ‘businessman president.'”
The government of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has condemned U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian airbase in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad troops that killed dozens of civilians, including children.
In an extensive piece published this week, Foreign Policy explores the past year of attempts to implement affirmative action in the schools of Brazil, a nation with an extraordinary number of mixed-race citizens. Many of these, the report found, applied to affirmative action programs only to be rejected for being too white.
Breast cancer patients in socialism-ravaged Venezuela are demanding that the Venezuelan Institution for Social Security, which provides health care, provide them access to better quality medication. They claim the Cuban-made drugs they have been taking come with a host of side effects, including intense pain.
On Thursday, following the publication of gruesome images of the victims of an apparent chemical attack on civilians, reports surfaced that President Donald Trump ordered a missile attack on a base in Syria. The reports follows a week in which President
Venezuela’s Catholic leadership has called for citizens to take up peaceful resistance against the socialist government this week, following a Supreme Court decision meant to grant the courts lawmaking power. The Vatican has also weighed in with a front-page feature in official publication L’Osservatore Romano.
