Author: M Barbu

How Autocrats Endure

Viktor Orban and the Myth of the Self-Destructing Strongman

The timing could not have been more striking. On April 3, nearly six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine had apparently reinvigorated and reunified the liberal democratic West, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was easily reelected to his fourth consecutive term in office, and his fifth in total. Although Orban has long emulated Putin and presides over an increasingly authoritarian regime—and although he faced for the first time a largely united opposition front—he had little trouble winning, drawing more than 53 percent of the vote and securing a continued supermajority in parliament. With the retirement of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he also now carries the dubious distinction of being the longest-serving head of government in the European Union, a supposed bastion of human rights and democracy.

The New Nuclear Age

How China’s Growing Nuclear Arsenal Threatens Deterrence

In late June 2021, satellite images revealed that China was building 120 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos on the edge of the Gobi Desert. This was followed by the revelation a few weeks later that another 110 missile silos were under construction in Hami, in Xinjiang Province. Together with other planned expansions, these sites amount to a dramatic shift in the country’s approach to nuclear weapons. For decades, China maintained a relatively small nuclear force, but according to current U.S. intelligence estimates, that arsenal is now on track to nearly quadruple, to 1,000 weapons, by 2030, a number that will put China far above any other nuclear power save Russia and the United States. Nor does it seem likely that Beijing will stop there, given President Xi Jinping’s commitment to build a “world class” military by 2049 and his refusal to enter into arms control talks.

Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Sign Action Plan To End Use of Child Soldiers, UN Announces

The Houthi rebels in Yemen have agreed to end and prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The United Nations praised the Houthis on Monday in its announcement that, as part of a two-month nationwide truce, the Houthis signed an Action Plan with the UN to protect the children affected by the armed conflict in Yemen. Thousands of child soldiers have fought on the side of the Houthis during the ongoing, seven-year-long civil war in Yemen.

That ‘Liberal, Post-Modern’ Life

It was aimed at explaining – and insulting – Russians but it wound up illuminating a lot more beyond Russia. In an April 12 interview on German television, German researcher Florence Gaub (a citizen of both Germany and France) said the following:

“We should not forget that, even if Russians look European, they are not European. In a cultural sense, they think differently about violence or death. They have no concept of a liberal, post-modern life. A concept of life than each individual can choose. Instead, life can end early with death. Russian life expectancy is quite low, you know, 70 years for men. That is why they treat death differently, that people simply die.”[1]

With Russian Route Blocked, Uzbekistan Looks to Indian-Iranian-Afghan Chabahar Port Project

The Russo-Ukraine war, the extensive Western sanctions against Russia, and the growing possibility that European border states will block east-west transit corridors traversing Russian territory into Europe are having far-reaching implications for the landlocked countries of Central Asia, which have historically relied on road and rail corridors through Russia to reach markets there and beyond. Prior to the war, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus had all hoped to be part of the “New Eurasian Land Bridge” linking Europe to East Asia. But those aims were derailed when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale re-invasion of Ukraine on February 24. This has created a severe headache for China, endangering as it does its Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) northern route, which crossed Russia and the Black Sea via Central Asia (South China Morning Post, March 12).

Anger as hate preacher Anjem Choudary blames BRITAIN for ‘radicalising’ David Amess killer Ali Harbi Ali – after terrorist watched his extremist videos

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has blamed Britain’s foreign policy in Syria and Iraq for radicalising David Amess’ killer.

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was handed a rare whole life tariff after being convicted of murder and preparing terrorist acts on Monday by jurors who spent just 18 minutes deliberating.

ISIS killer El Shafee ElSheikh convicted

Elsheikh’s defence attorneys argued that the government had failed to prove he was one of the “Beatles” but the 12-person jury disagreed, convicting him of all charges.

A US federal jury in Virginia convicted on Thursday, after an 11-day trial, an ex-British jihadist over his involvement with a notorious Islamic State (ISIS) terror cell.

Dutch ISIS recruits ‘held frontline roles’ despite their protestations

Dutch ISIS recruits held pivotal roles in the terrorist group — not the minor roles they have claimed — and they should be held fully accountable for their crimes, a report from the Counter Extremist Project think tank says.

Claims that they were radicalised and groomed online have also been dismissed after evidence has emerged that many were members of extremist group Sharia4Holland — an offshoot of Britain’s Anjem Choudary’s banned Al-Muhajiroun group.