In early December I travelled to Venezuela to be an election observer at their national assembly election. I was part of a group of eight persons from Canada and US organized by CodePink. There were about two hundred international observers in total, including the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts. […]
Month: January 2021
The Julian Assange Extradition Verdict
The barrister-brewed humour of Edward Fitzgerald QC, one of the solid and stout figures defending a certain Julian Assange of WikiLeaks at the Old Bailey in London, was understandable. Time had worn and wearied the parties, none more so than his client. Fitzgerald had asked for water, but then mused […]
The Middle East On The Crossroad Of Civilizations (III)
Part I, Part II The Middle East as a “powder keg” The focal feature of both the history and the politics of the region of the Middle East in the Modern and Contemporary Age (during the last 250 years) is the constant conflicts between different internal and external conflicts. Therefore, […]
A Perfect Storm Gathers In Persian Gulf
On the first anniversary of the killing of the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a targeted drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020 that was approved by President Donald Trump, something had to happen. Tehran regularly insisted that the killing has not yet been avenged. And US […]
A Deeper Morality
“Not guilty by reason of insanity.” Such a ruling in a modern court-of-law makes complete sense, even if some would argue that the bar for measuring insanity is rather unclear. It carries with it an understanding that we are not always responsible for our actions. In modern thought, we consider that […]
Russia Respects International Law, But Won’t Let It Be Exploited For Lawfare
The recent amendments to the Russian Constitution confirm that domestic document’s precedence over international law, and while Russia still respects the latter, it won’t ever let it be exploited for “lawfare” like in the Yukos case. The Russian people overwhelmingly voted over the summer for a series of amendments to […]
Arbitrariness And Censorship Are Back In The West
When we founded the Voltaire Network in 1994, our first concern was to defend freedom of expression in France, and then around the world. Today, however, this concept is, in our view, distorted and fought against. We will therefore try to define this ideal further. The circulation of ideas experienced […]
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