Headlines

Vladimir Putin is looking forward to deep integration and is hinting at a political takeover

However, Belarus’s leader upsets Vladimir Putin by cosying up to the West

Minsk, Jan.13.– A giant statue of Lenin still stands before the forbidding House of Government in Minsk, built by Stalin in 1934 and occupied by the Gestapo a few years later. But behind this totalitarian façade now sits a government that is trying to work out how to reform Belarus’s economy while following a political trajectory set a quarter-century ago by the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko. Now he must also fend off Russia’s looming threats to its independence. This is not an easy circle to square. But Mr Lukashenko is no ordinary politician.

A former collective-farm boss, Mr Lukashenko was swept to power in a landslide in 1994, three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has ruled Belarus ever since, making him Europe’s longest-serving president. Unlike his peers in other European former Soviet republics, who rejected the old system as they asserted independence, he cherished the Soviet legacy.

Los Angeles, Jan.7.– Los Angeles County has agreed to conduct a purge of its voting rolls, in a move that could strip perhaps 1.5 million inactive voters from the lists of those eligible to cast ballots.

The county made the deal in a settlement last week with Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest firm, saying that under a recent Supreme Court ruling, it has a duty to remove names of people who appear to have either died, moved from the county or lost interest in voting.

Jan. 2 (DP.net).– China's President Xi Jinping said in a speech commemorating the end of a military campaign against Taiwan 40 years ago, that the self-ruled island “must and will be” reunited with China. Although he briefly referred to a “peaceful reunification,” Xi said his government reserves the right to use “all necessary measures” to bring Taiwan back into its fold — a top priority for Beijing, but a move Taiwanese independence supporters have long feared. The island state has found itself increasingly isolated in the global community as allies drop direct diplomatic relations under Chinese pressure.

China's Xi threatens Taiwan with force but also seeks peaceful 'reunification'  

BEIJING/TAIPEI, Jan. 2 (Reuters).– China reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control but will strive to achieve peaceful “reunification” with the self-ruled island that has a bright future under any future Chinese rule, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

 Hong Kong, Dec. 24.– China’s media recently reported that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) would conduct a study into Cambodia’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). If it had been just China conducting this study, there would be little interest in the topic. It is a foregone conclusion that Cambodia’s ruthless oligarchic regime is already a subsidiary of China. As testimony, the country’s seaside province of Sihanoukville now resembles China’s Macau.

China’s media recently reported that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) would conduct a study into Cambodia’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). If it had been just China conducting this study, there would be little interest in the topic. It is a foregone conclusion that Cambodia’s ruthless oligarchic regime is already a subsidiary of China. As testimony, the country’s seaside province of Sihanoukville now resembles China’s Macau.