While Sudan’s war has no end in sight, as atrocities and abuses mount there's been a coup in another African country.

Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and detained a president whose family ruled for 55 years.

While Sudan’s war has no end in sight, as atrocities and abuses mount there's been a coup in another African country.

Soldiers in Gabon say they’ve seized power and detained a president whose family ruled for 55 years.

Let me translate: That's a dynasty and "president" means King.

I have a gut feeling that in recent decades French foreign policy has tolerated and pampered state leaders in many former colonies, who robbed their states, increased their private property through corruption but willingly served French interests. As long as they did enough for their peoples, everything was fine. It was peaceful, everything looked democratic, the way we like to see it from Europe. The despot who preserves order and tranquility in the state is valued; the revolution that wants to eliminate unacceptable conditions is not appreciated. This post-colonial era seems to have come to an end.

The destructive influence of Russia, Wagner and Russian money on current developments in West Africa remains largely unknown. A military coup or revolutionaries usually also want to improve the lives of their peoples. One thing is certain: Putin is indifferent to the fate of West Africans.

The 'Axis of Evil' loses 1, but gains 2 more.

These 4 countries are the new 'Axis of Evil'.

The world underwent significant changes during the presidency of George W. Bush. He was in office when the planes hit the World Trade Center in 2001, initiated the invasion of Iraq, and introduced the term "enhanced interrogation techniques" for the torture methods used by Americans in the fight against terror.

He also coined the term "Axis of Evil," which originally included Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

Two decades later, the question arises whether these three countries still constitute this infamous axis.

According to Anna Libak, the foreign editor of the danish paper, Weekendavisen, they do not. While Iran and North Korea remain, Iraq has been replaced by China and Russia.....

I wonder how long this 1 will last for.

Azerbaijan and Armenian forces reach ceasefire deal for breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, officials say.

I wonder how long this 1 will last for.

Azerbaijan and Armenian forces reach ceasefire deal for breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, officials say.

Even before the dissolution of the USSR, around 1988, this old ethno-religious conflict between Christian Armenians and Muslim Azerbaijanis arose over Nagorno-Karabakh, the predominantly (~75%) Armenian-populated mountainous region within Azerbaijan. The Kremlin in Moscow acted clumsily and wasn't able or not willing to calm down the conflict. With the collapse of the USSR and the independence of the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan things escalated. At that time the Armenians were militarily stronger. They supported the separatists in Karabakh. Confident of their strength, they occupied the formerly autonomous region, extended it to their own borders and drove the thousands of Azerbaijanis living there from their homelands. The Armenians had the backing of Russia, whose “peacekeepers” secured Armenian interests. The Armenians have also lived in the region for thousands of years, and were increasingly pushed out of their homelands by the Ottomans (Turks) until the Turkish genocide of the Armenians after WW1. The holy mountain of the Armenians, Ararat (where, according to the Bible, Noah's Ark landed) has been part of Turkey for ~100 years now. Millennia-old Armenian churches, built long before Christianity reached the Roman Empire in Europe, bear witness to Armenia's history. It is the misery of nationalism, especially Persian, Ottoman and Russian imperialism, that has plagued these region for 200 years, which since ancient times had been a melting pot of different peoples and different faiths living together peacefully.

Azerbaijan has now taken advantage of Russia's weakness and insignificance and, with the support of Turkey, has created facts and reconquered its Armenian-occupied territories.

The current solution will achieve peace if the Azerbaijanis are smarter than the Armenians in 1992 and do not expel the Armenian population from their homelands in Nagorno-Karabakh now, but grant them certain autonomy rights. Otherwise the next war will start soon. Unfortunately, the Azerbaijani President Aliyev is not a thoughtful statesmen, but a despot like the Turkish Sultan, Erdogan.

We Germans have just diversified our natural gas purchases and concluded extensive supply contracts with Azerbaijan, our reliable and respected, peace-loving partner there. The Armenians have no gas reserves. Bad luck for them.

The world would be so much nicer without religion and far right wing politicians continually spouting out their hate and calls for violence amongst their followers.

More religious Americans support the use of political violence.

The world would be so much nicer without religion and far right wing politicians continually spouting out their hate and calls for violence amongst their followers.

More religious Americans support the use of political violence.

The world is heading for more dark ages.

I think that it's already is. :-(

After several wars, the Arab world has recognized its military inferiority against the West. The Soviet Union's expansion efforts failed due to the inferiority of its economic model. The Ayatollahs were once isolated worldwide after they came to power, not able to spread their fundamentalist religious revolution.

Over the last few decades, the three (individually or together?) have developed an extremely powerful weapon and placed it throughout the democratic societies of the Western world: Psychological warfare through target group-specific propaganda and infiltration of elites and opinion leaders. They spent billions of dollars on this.

Let's hope that democracies recognize the extent of this in time and take tough action against it. What I am currently observing makes me pessimistic.

Religion has had that weapon since the invention of religion. Various flavors and times have been better able to wield it. Science and reason are not weaponized. As more and more children are funneled into religious schools more cannon fodder soldiers are created.

Earth is headed for a very long period of dark age where truth will be suppressed. I hope we don't enter it by nuclear winter, but we may.

If a planet's general IQ isn't high enough to reject all religion as fairy tale, then it should not have invented the ability to destroy itself. We did and that is our problem. Humanity is not long term unless religion is snuffed out.

Hmm, you may be assessing religions too one-sidedly and too negatively. Most countries in the world have citizens with a religious denomination, regardless of how loosely or strictly they practice it. There is peace almost everywhere. The red line seems to be that religion must be a private matter. It must not dictate government action.

I write this from the experience of growing up in a state where churches and religion almost completely disappeared under decades of communist pressure. It is today a marginal phenomenon for the smallest minorities. Something is missing here today that holds people together as a community, thus preventing conflicts.

Another loser wants to start a war by wanting to take what doesn't belong to them. :-(

Concerns have grown that a new international war could emerge after a nation with ties to Russia and China held a vote on invading an oil rich neighbour.

A new flashpoint for international conflict is brewing after a Latin American government declared an overwhelming victory in a referendum that asked voters if it should be able to annex two thirds of a neighbouring oil rich country, “by all means”.

Venezuela, a near dictatorship with close links to Russia and China, said an astonishing 95 per cent of voters backed the territorial claim to the Essequibo region of Guyana.

On the streets of Caracas people were seen holding flags with an adjusted map of Venezuela which included the region in Guyana.

There are fears Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro, who has been in power for a decade and has trampled democracy, could follow a Russian playbook of using disputed referendums, elections and misinformation in an attempt to justify military action.

Venezuela has long claimed the Essequibo region but its rhetoric has increased since oil was found there which some have said could turn Guyana, one of the poorest states on the continent, into a South American version of the rich United Arab Emirates.....

I think not. When I started school in the USA, it was still segregated, de facto not de jure, and 99.99% of children were enrolled in public schools. While I was in school forced desegregation became mandated by the courts. A large number of one skin color pulled their children out of public school and their only other option was the Madrasa or religious education. Thus began the continuing decline in public schools and the massive flight from them. Now fully half of the upper class children do not attend the public schools. The Madrasa's indoctrinate their radical beliefs of hatred of all who aren't identical to their ideal. They don't, can't, teach science because it conflicts with the story of their sky fairy.

We are entering a new period of dark ages. Too many have been brainwashed.

think not. When I started school in the USA, it was still segregated, de facto not de jure, and 99.99% of children were enrolled in public schools. While I was in school forced desegregation became mandated by the courts. A large number of one skin color pulled their children out of public school and their only other option was the Madrasa or religious education. Thus began the continuing decline in public schools and the massive flight from them. Now fully half of the upper class children do not attend the public schools. The Madrasa's indoctrinate their radical beliefs of hatred of all who aren't identical to their ideal. They don't, can't, teach science because it conflicts with the story of their sky fairy.

We are entering a new period of dark ages. Too many have been brainwashed.

We most certainly are in a "Dark Ages" period again and how do religious schools now teach history and science when they believe that the world isn't anymore than 7.5 thousand years old (or 1,000yrs less than that) when we can date civilisation here down under to at least 75,000yrs ago with artifacts from some sites here that could possibly be closer to 105,000yrs?

Thankfully I missed segregation and face the lottery for the Vietnam War here (but not by much in both cases while being right in the middle of the "stolen generation" side) and so becoming the first of my generation to break my father's side of the family's military history that goes back to a lot longer than the 2nd Boer War that I knew of when I was a kid looking at photos (it seems that it goes well back to the English Channel forts before Cook landed here), which I could put down to the 27yrs between my dad and his oldest brother, or that it was a part of early history here that the family at the time wanted to bury because of certain atrocities that could've been done by my 1st fleet ancestor (yes, I found out about 15 months ago that I wasn't a convict's ancestor, but an oppressor's).

Which is why I reckon that religious brainwashing should not be involved in politics in any shape or form. If a politician wants to push religious (or racist) crap then you should run as fast as you can away from them!

Sadly the uneducated morons flock to these nationalist idiots that are playing for their vote just so that they can become dictators or ultimate kings (very few have performed the later thankfully).

If a politician wants to push religious (or racist) crap then you should run as fast as you can away from them!

Nay, run at them as fast as possible with a pitch fork.

Make no mistake about how Khamenei is at war with the world and his own people:


Iranian plots against the UK {and USA and Europe} revealed


And Iran is the puppeteer providing and pulling the strings for the atrocities they have commissioned through Hamas.

How long will the West continue to pander to such warfare?

As repeatedly proven, appeasement never works.


Stay safe folks??...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

We can never have peace while we have murderous fools like this pair around.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin have something in common – ongoing war is a distraction they need.

In an increasingly troubled world, two men have a clear incentive to keep their wars going – Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu and Israel are becoming increasingly isolated, with even some traditional political, media and academic supporters turning against them as the situation in Gaza descends into one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of modern times.

US vice-president Kamala Harris has bluntly said that too many innocent Palestinians are being killed in Gaza, while CNN, traditionally a strong supporter of Israel, this week is calling for urgent action after the US was the only member of the UN Security Council to block a ceasefire in Gaza. It ran a headline: Global Outrage After US Vetoes UN Ceasefire Resolution.

And former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk labelled Mr Netanyahu "a clear and present danger" to Israel, saying he should resign immediately.

Indyk argued that Netanyahu was causing a rift with US President Joe Biden, who he described as "Israel's only friend in this crisis".

And then there's that "other war" which has been relegated in the news cycle by the Israel-Hamas war – Ukraine.......

Getting rid of this pair would be a start on the road to peace.

Getting rid of this pair would be a start on the road to peace.

Add Khamenei and the Mullahs too. Then most of the other belligerent leaders in the world will purr like kittens (Maduro, Lukashenka, Hezbollahs' Nasrallah, Yemen's Huthis, ...). But their disappearance may encourage others (like Erdogan) to rebuilt their Empire. A balance of evil and good powers is probably the best we can hope for. At least, that is 'absence of war'... so peace?.

How long will the West continue to pander to such warfare?

As repeatedly proven, appeasement never works.

But opposing such warfare has to achieve a positive cost-benefit ratio. Difficult to predict the outcome (e.g. confronting Huthis). The Mullahs have become experts in carefully testing the West's red lines.

We should not forget Putin either for still the endeavors he could make.

Finite for only Chaos and next infinite for only an end when it could be still existing.