Chinese dictator Xi Jinping held a meeting of the Communist Party’s political bureau in which 2019 was discussed as an especially “challenging” or “testing” year for communism, particularly due to China’s sputtering economy.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Thursday suggested tighter controls on live streaming of public performances, including plays, music, and comedy shows.
Police in Siberia’s Yakutia region on Tuesday arrested Aleksandr Gabyshev, a shaman who had announced his intention to march on Moscow and “drive [Russian President Vladimir] Putin out of the Kremlin.”
Iran indicated Monday it wants to swap more prisoners with the United States following the release of Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, traded for Chinese-American scholar Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton.
A Bloomberg News report on Sunday described how Communist China uses its “social credit system” to control not just citizens but corporations – and not just domestic companies, but foreign companies seeking to do business in China as well.
A Hong Kong police official announced on Monday that 6,022 people have been arrested since protests began six months ago – 2,393 of them students and 340 under the age of 16, the youngest just 11 years old.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met in Paris on Monday in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatist forces have been waging a deadly insurgency for the past five years.
China responded on Friday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Decency Act by using its state media to praise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison stationed in Hong Kong.
China’s Huawei telecom giant on Friday announced plans to build the world’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform.
A group of 62 Islamic State fighters, including 30 Pakistanis and two Turkish nationals, surrendered to Afghan military forces in the Nangarhar area on Tuesday. The Afghan government, which is busy arranging extradition for captured foreign nationals, said the latest in a series of surrenders indicated ISIS is losing its ability to effectively resist the national military.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Madhi announced his resignation on Friday in an address broadcast on state television. He did not specify exactly when his resignation would take effect, but the Iraqi parliament will meet on Sunday to begin the process of choosing a successor.
A study published by the Lowy Institute of Australia on Wednesday found that China now has more diplomatic missions around the world than the United States, with a total of 276 posts to America’s 273.
Protest movements are sweeping the world, from Hong Kong to Iraq. Protesters in each country are aware of the other movements and frequently give them shout-outs or adopt their tactics. The fate of all these movements is uncertain, but they share a more unambiguous commitment to sovereignty than most global protest stories of the past few decades, and perhaps an understanding that national and cultural identity are vital weapons against authoritarian hegemonic powers. Smaller governments may not guarantee freedom and human rights, but big ones almost guarantee their absence.
The two-week police siege of Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University ended on Thursday as police entered the campus after a hundred-member search party of university staffers determined there were no protesters remaining inside.
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli admitted during a television interview on Wednesday that at least 200,000 people participated in protests inspired by rising gas prices across a hundred towns and cities last week, setting fire to about 730 banks, 50 bases used by security forces, 70 gas stations, and 140 government sites.
The Turkish National Security Council issued a statement on Tuesday that “Operation Peace Spring,” the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria, will continue despite cease-fire agreements brokered with the United States and Russia.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday blamed the United States and other “foreigners” for “interference in Iran’s internal affairs” for supporting the recent protests over gasoline price increases. Meanwhile, at a chemical weapons conference in The Hague, Iran’s representative denounced the U.S. as a threat to global security.
Organizers of Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year parade, a major annual event since 1996, announced it will not be held in 2020 because its route through an area that has seen a great deal of protest activity over the past five months is “too risky.” The parade will reportedly be replaced by a carnival, which would be stationary and easy to secure.
Hundreds of Hong Kong residents took to the streets on Monday to demand freedom for dozens of protesters who remain trapped on the campus of Polytechnic University by a ten-day police siege.
Reuters reported Monday the Chinese government has established a “crisis command center” in Shenzhen, the Chinese city closest to Hong Kong.
Security forces killed 13 protesters on Sunday in one of the bloodiest days of the Iraqi protest movement, now in progress for almost two months.
A group of men supporting the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah attacked a group of anti-corruption protesters Sunday night in Lebanon.
Iran’s week-long blackout of the Internet ended on Sunday, unleashing a flood of online videos that revealed chaos and repressive violence during nationwide protests over rising gas prices.
Pro-democracy candidates in Hong Kong’s weekend elections scored a stunning blowout victory, routing pro-Beijing candidates by winning 389 out of 452 seats in the legislature in a contest with over 70 percent voter turnout.
The police siege of Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University continued on Thursday, with about a hundred pro-democracy demonstrators trapped inside along with a substantial number of student bystanders.
Ali Saeedi, a hardline Iranian cleric close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, admitted on Wednesday that top officials were surprised by the intensity of protests against the recent gasoline tax hike.
The South Pacific nation of Tuvalu on Thursday rejected a $400 million plan to build artificial islands in the area proposed by companies linked to the Chinese government.
A police siege of the Catholic Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, ended on Wednesday after a mob loyal to Communist dictator Daniel Ortega broke into the building and attacked opposition hunger strikers.
A group of student protesters trapped inside Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University attempted to escape through the sewers on Wednesday, but the effort was thwarted when firemen sealed the manhole they were trying to use.
Amnesty International said on Tuesday that Iranian security forces have killed at least 106 civilians in 21 cities during five days of protests, and there are “some reports suggesting as many as 200 have been killed.”
