“Molenbeek would love to be forgotten, because it is the very example of the failure of the multicultural society, which remains an untouchable dogma in Belgium”. — Alain Destexhe, honorary Senator in Belgium and former Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders, Le Figaro, May 3, 2022.
“The truth is awful things are now happening. Last year there were race riots in Oldham in the old industrial revolution heartland of England. This year it is the burning of Jewish synagogues in Marseilles by Muslim youths angry at the Israeli response to the Intifada. All over Europe, it is the undoubted rise of crime among immigrant youth.”
The role of the United States in strengthening the eastern flank of NATO
The period after the end of the Cold War led to significant changes in the military-political sphere of Eastern Europe. Many of these changes were caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to the formation of independent states, for example, in the Baltics. NATO’s military presence in Eastern Europe has steadily increased since the late 1990s. and continues to grow today. Despite the end of the Cold War and the disappearance of the main threat to Western countries, this organization has not curtailed its activities, but, on the contrary, is expanding its sphere of interests at the expense of the former member countries of the Warsaw Pact Organization and the republics of the former USSR. After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine, the activity of the North Atlantic Alliance in Eastern Europe intensified even more.
U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines because he was unhappy with the level of support provided by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed.
The two no-confidence votes tabled to topple French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s government were rejected on Monday (20 March), keeping her in power for the time being. Despite this, the political crisis is far from over, MPs and observers note.
Abstract: Italy is a crucial epicenter of insurrectionary anarchism, a transnational extremist tendency that promotes “self-organized” illegal and violent actions, even against people. In particular, over the last two decades, dozens of acts of violence, including letter bombs, homemade bombs, and shootings, have been claimed under the banner of the Informal Anarchist Federation (Federazione Anarchica Informale, FAI), a loosely connected network that has also fostered relationships with likeminded groups abroad. The Italian counterterrorism system has successfully addressed this threat with aggressive rules, measures, and practices, that, in part, derive directly or indirectly from the long fight against the Mafia. However, today Italian authorities face a new challenge, posed by the case of Alfredo Cospito, an influential exponent of the FAI network who started an indefinite hunger strike in prison in October 2022. The handling of the Cospito affair highlights the complex political, legal, and ethical dilemmas that liberal democracies have to address in combating terrorism.
To harness the best of new technology for Alliance security and defence, NATO agreed at the 2021 Brussels Summit to create a unique transatlantic innovation ecosystem.
[E]conomic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned [about] the “crapification” of the U.S. economy…. customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last.
Politicians seem to be heading in a similar direction…. Western governments are filled to the brim with people entirely lacking in real-world experience or specialized knowledge.
The White House unveiled its budget request for the 2024 fiscal year Thursday, with the largest ever proposed spending on the military. It is a $1 trillion budget for world war. The Biden administration wants the resources to fight Russia in Ukraine, intensify its buildup towards war with China in the Far East and sustain US military aggression in the Middle East.
Implications for human rights in Africa
Terrorism and the ‘war’ on it have been at the centre of international politics for the past 20 years. Terrorism was a reality in Africa long before it shot to the top of the international agenda with the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and it constitutes a far more serious threat today. In the intervening period, laws, policies, practices and institutions have proliferated around the world and across the continent, with the stated objective of countering ‘terrorism’, ‘extremism’ and an ever broader range of related threats.