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foreign politic

in the Senate, the Democrats win a new seat and the majority

by archyde December 7, 2022

Pastor Warnock finally took it to Georgia. Democrats no longer need the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris to ensure they dominate the upper house of Congress.

The victory of Raphael Warnock, re-elected senator from Georgia on Tuesday, gives the majority to the Democrats in the Senate. Joe Biden’s party wins a seat compared to the current distribution of the upper house, for two years equally divided between 50 Democratic senators and 50 Republicans. Only the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris ensured the dominance of the Democrats.

Pastor Warnock won a very close vote against his Republican opponent, former American football champion Herschel Walker. During the election on November 8, Warnock had already beaten Walker by 37,000 votes out of nearly 4 million votes cast, but he had not reached the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a second round.

“The people have spoken”

“After a hard-fought campaign, or rather campaigns, I have the honor of speaking the most powerful words in a democracy: the people have spoken,” Warnock said Tuesday night to cheering fans in Atlanta. Since 2020, Warnock has taken part in four polls. First black senator from Georgia, he is now elected for 6 years.

“A vote is a form of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children,” also launched Warnock, a Baptist pastor at Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King preached. “Georgians, you prayed with your lips and your legs, your hands and your feet, your heads and your hearts. You’ve worked hard, and here we are, together.”

Herschel Walker, American football star, had been supported by Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. But his campaign had been somewhat disrupted by a series of incriminating allegations, including that he paid for the abortions of two former girlfriends.

But Walker didn’t follow his mentor’s lead, and admitted defeat Tuesday night as soon as the screenings gave Warnock the win. “The numbers don’t seem to add up,” said the former footballer. “There are no excuses in life, and I’m not going to look for any now because we fought like hell.”

Georgia, a disputed state

This Democratic victory consolidates the relatively good performance of Joe Biden’s party in the midterm elections, which promised to be difficult. However, it retains Georgia’s status as a disputed state between Democrats and Republicans.

In 2020, Biden had been the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in 30 years. A few months later, in January 2021, when Trump was contesting the results of the presidential election, the election of Warnock and the other Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff had given their party control of the Senate in extremis. But Georgia also re-elected Republican Governor Brian Kemp on November 8 with a comfortable margin, and a series of elected Republicans, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The choice of Herschel Walker in the Republican primaries, supported by Trump, had been criticized by many elected officials of the party. His immense notoriety, due to his football career, was quickly offset by questions about his fitness for office, and his controversial personality. Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, had criticized this choice which made it difficult for the Republican victory. “The quality of candidates matters”commented the senator.

Walker’s loss is another setback for Trump, who has announced his third White House bid for 2024 and was counting on the candidates he backed to cement his control over the Republican Party. For Democrats and for Joe Biden, the new majority in the Senate provides welcome leeway. The party will no longer have to rely on the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris to get out of the tied votes. Democrats will no longer be dependent on the defection of a single senator to pass bills or certify nominations, as has been the case for the past two years. They will also hold the majority in the Senate committees, so far divided with the Republicans.

SEE ALSO – “Big French companies don’t want a war with the United States”, says Gérard Araud

December 7, 2022 0 comment

world

Iranian regime abolishes morality police

by archyde December 4, 2022

This gesture of power towards women and protesters comes on the eve of three days of strikes and demonstrations.

It is a gesture – the first – of the regime towards the protesters. But it shouldn’t be enough to extinguish their anger. On Sunday, the Isna news agency indicated that the revolutionary justice, in the person of the Attorney General, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, had announced the day before that “the morality police”, at the origin of the revolt launched two months ago and half against power, “has been abolished by those who created it”.

Known as the “orientation patrols”, this police had been created under the ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), to “spread the culture of decency and the hijab”, compulsory in the Islamic Republic of Iran, for more than forty years. It was this morality police who arrested on September 13 Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, in Tehran, accusing her of improperly wearing the veil. His death three days later – after succumbing to a beating, according to his family – sparked a wave of protests during which women burned their headscarves, shouting: “Woman, life, freedom. »

They have since been joined by students across the country, as well as residents of Kurdistan and Balochistan provinces, in a protest movement of a magnitude and duration unprecedented since the advent of the revolutionary regime in 1979.

Despite the death of more than 400 demonstrators, the arrest of more than 15,000 others and bloody repression, particularly in the peripheral provinces, the regime is unable to quell popular anger and the fed up of the population. Until now, he had only opted for repression in the face of his opponents.

“It’s a victory for the demonstrators”, estimates from London Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, at the head of a think-tank, who however believes that “this concession will not satisfy the demands of the protesters who are deeper” than the wearing of the sail. Faced with a power unable to reform itself over the years, many of them are calling for the fall of the regime.
Although significant divisions have not emerged publicly between Islamic Republic officials, “some Revolutionary Guards (the very powerful elite unit in charge of protecting the regime) had criticized the morality brigade for its behavior which threatened the survival of the regime,” says academic and Iran specialist Jonathan Piron.

First concession

Before the election of the ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raissi in June 2021, it was not uncommon to see girls drop their headscarves over their shoulders for a few moments, which did not attract the wrath of a religious police, which had become, on the other hand, more intrusive for a year and a half . The Attorney General also announced that Parliament and another body headed by President Raissi were working on a modification of the law on the wearing of the veil, without specifying in what direction the text will be modified, within two weeks.

According to some parliamentary sources, the police could cease all arrests and impose fines for non-respect of the veil. In recent weeks, more and more Iranian women, young people in particular, have been walking around unveiled, or even without a simple headscarf, without the police reacting.
These announcements come as calls have been made for three days of protests and strikes starting on Monday. For Jonathan Piron, “the regime is seeking to demobilize the demonstrators, but since there is no breach within it, it will not fundamentally back down”. His opponents, however, have just shown that street pressure pays off. While “their movement has experienced a certain decline in recent days”, according to researcher Farhad Khosrokhavar, it will be interesting to examine the impact of this first concession of power on the mobilization.

SEE ALSO – Protests in Iran: negotiating with the United States »wouldn’t solve anythingSays Ayatollah Khamenei

December 4, 2022 0 comment

News

the federal appeals court in Atlanta inflicts a setback on him

by archyde December 2, 2022

By canceling the appointment of an independent expert to review the documents seized from the former US president, the Atlanta federal appeals court allows special prosecutor Jack Smith to conduct his investigation.

A US appeals court inflicted another defeat on Donald Trump on Thursday, December 1, by overturning a previous court decision appointing an independent expert to review documents seized from his Florida home by the Federal Police (FBI). Federal Court of Appeals judges in Atlanta unanimously overturned a Florida judge’s order to appoint the expert, which temporarily barred federal investigators from using the documents in their investigation criminal.

On August 8, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, seizing boxes containing thousands of confidential documents, some of which were classified as defense secrets, which the Republican had not returned after leaving the White House, despite multiple requests.

Federal investigators suspect the Republican of having thus violated an American law on espionage which very strictly regulates the possession of confidential documents. Donald Trump assured that these documents had been declassified.

The appeals court ruled Thursday that the August 8 search and seizure was not illegal and that the Florida judge had no authority to limit the Justice Department’s review of those documents, which leads the investigation. His decision gives a free handto Special Prosecutor Jack Smithappointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland, to investigate Donald Trump in this case as well as for his role in the events leading to the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

SEE ALSO – Donald Trump officially candidate for the presidency of 2024

December 2, 2022 0 comment

world

Iran would have tried to have Bernard-Henri Lévy assassinated, according to the Washington Post

by archyde December 1, 2022

The American daily investigated assassination attempts from Tehran, in particular against BHL, citing “government documents” and confidences from “American, European and Middle Eastern officials”.

During one of his last interviews, the famous French philosopher told the Figaro : «only death will stop me“. Did he brush against it without knowing it? According to Washington Post which publishes this Thursday a long investigation into Iranian abuses in the heart of the Western world, Bernard-Henri Lévy would have been the target of an assassination attempt orchestrated by the Al-Quds force, the elite unit of the Guardians of the Islamic revolution in Iran – the clandestine services of the ideological army of the Tehran regime.

According to information from Washington Postwho says he consulted “government documents“and interviewed”about fifteen officials from the American, European and Middle Eastern intelligence servicesthe Iranian government is said to have intensified to worrying proportions its assassination or kidnapping projects directed against Western personalities hostile to its interests, in particular activists or journalists. Tehran has also recently reportedly targeted former top US leaders, as well as dissidents who fled the country. Each time according to a procedure that is repeated: Iranian agents approach dealers and offer them a large sum of money in exchange for the execution of the crime.

Among the targets, therefore, of these unsuccessful attempts would be former White House adviser John Bolton, Israeli businessmen who had stayed in Cyprus, and therefore also BHL. Iranian special forces would have approached an Iranian dealer in Paris to charge him with the job, in exchange for 150,000 dollars for him and his accomplices. The intellectual and journalist has never hidden his aversion for the government of the mullahs in Iran, and called again last October, in the columns of Point to a “emancipatory uprisingin the streets of the country, shaken by an unprecedented protest movement following the death of a young woman arrested by the regime’s police.

This is not the first time that this assassination plan has been mentioned, but each time it was discussed in veiled terms: thus last April, the Israeli media had mentioned the existence of a conspiracy Iranian regime aimed at eliminating, among other targets, “a Jewish French journalist“. The sum of 150,000 euros was already mentioned. Quoting renowned Israeli analyst Yossi Melman, Le Figaro then reported that the murder by Israel of an Iranian officer in May was linked to this assassination plan, fanned by a contract killer working for Colonel Khodayari, who was conducting external operations on behalf of Tehran.

The Washington Post further reports that a kidnapping attempt was foiled against Masih Alinejad, an American journalist of Iranian origin, also known for her commitment to human rights in Iran.

SEE ALSO – Iran: can the regime survive the revolt? Find the Club Le Figaro International

December 1, 2022 0 comment

world

Moscow denounces the pope’s “unchristian” remarks on Russian minorities

by archyde December 1, 2022

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – In an interview, Pope Francis castigated the “cruelty” of “Chechens” and “Buryats”.

Russian criticism of Pope’s remarks on ethnic minorities in Russia, Moscow accuses Berlin of “demonizing” Russia, “no legitimacy” of a Russian court on the intervention in Ukraine… Le Figaro takes stock, Thursday 1 December, of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow denounces the Pope’s “unChristian” remarks on ethnic minorities in Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced this Thursday remarks “not christiansof Pope Francis, after the latter had described as “cruel» Russian soldiers from certain ethnic minorities fighting in Ukraine.

«Pope Francis recently made statements not at all comprehensible, absolutely not Christian, pointing to two peoples of Russia, to say that we must expect from them atrocities during military combats“, estimated the Russian minister during a press conference.

SEE ALSO – In Bahrain, the Pope prays for Lebanon and Ukraine

«It does not help the authority of the Holy See“, he added. For the past three days, various Russian officials have been offended by remarks made by the pope during an interview with a Jesuit newspaper.

In an interview published on November 28 on the website of the Jesuit newspaper America, François says he has “a lot of information about the cruelty of the troops” Russians in Ukraine. “Perhaps the most cruel are those who come from Russia, but [qui ne sont] no Russian tradition, like the Chechens, or the Buryats”did he declare.

Russia has been accused of disproportionately sending men from ethnic minorities from poor and remote regions of Siberia and the Caucasus to the front lines. A unit based in peacetime in Buryatia has thus been accused of having played a central role in the massacre of civilians in Boutcha, near the capital kyiv. Russia has denied these crimes and referred to a “stagingof Ukraine and its Western allies.

Chechen leader’s men Ramzan Kadyrov They forged a reputation as ruthless fighters by chasing down a jihadist rebellion in the Russian Caucasus in the early 2000s, but also by eradicating all forms of opposition. They were also deployed in Ukraine, participating in particular in the conquest of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, largely destroyed today.

Genocide by hunger in Ukraine: Moscow accuses Berlin of “demonizing” Russia

Russia has accused Berlin of seeking to “demonizeafter German MPs passed a resolution calling it “genocidethe Stalin-orchestrated famine that claimed millions of lives in Ukraine in the 1930s.

In 1932 and 1933, about 3.5 million Ukrainians perished as a result of the “Holodomor», a term which means, in Ukrainian, extermination by starvation. Harvests were then confiscated by the Stalinist regime in the name of land collectivization. Ukraine and many historians believe that this massive famine, which also caused many victims in Kazakhstan, another former Soviet republic, is a “genocide“. But Russia, where President Vladimir Putin is trying to rehabilitate the Stalinist past, refutes any desire to exterminate the Ukrainian people.

Tribunal over Russian intervention in Ukraine would have ‘no legitimacy’

The Kremlin has claimed that establishing a tribunal to try Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, including possible war crimes, would “notno legitimacy“, Brussels having declared itself the day before in favor of such a project.

«Regarding these attempts to create courts, they will have no legitimacy, we will not accept them and we will condemn them“, told the press the spokesman of the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov. He also claimed that the Russian investigators were carrying out work “meticulous“to document in Ukraine”all the crimes of the kyiv regime».

SEE ALSO – The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says that death in Ukraine “wash away all sins»

December 1, 2022 0 comment

world

live on Russian TV, propagandists worry about the possibility of losing the war

by archyde November 30, 2022

By Le Figaro

Posted
1 hour ago, Update 1 hour ago

President Putin awards RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan the “Order of Alexander Nevsky” in Moscow on May 23, 2019. EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA / POOL / AFP

Invited by the famous pro-Kremlin host Vladimir Soloviev, the director of Russia Today spoke on the set of the fear of senior Russian officials in the face of possible sanctions from the International Criminal Court in the event of a Russian defeat.

It is rare that the public television channel Rossiya-1, under Kremlin control, deviates from the government’s narrative. On Monday November 28, however, the presenter Vladimir Soloviev himself raised the question of a potential Russian defeat in Ukraine. «It would be a disaster for our country. It is not an option. We must not lose the war“, Then dismissed the guest of the day, Margarita Simonian, editor-in-chief of Russia Today.

«That another district of kyiv is deprived of electricity will not change the scale of the disaster that will befall our country if we lose, it is unimaginable, we cannot lose“, she says according to the translations of BFM TV and some Free Belgium . “(The Ukrainians) are getting ready to take our Crimea. So we do the only thing we can do in this situation: bomb them“, continues the editor-in-chief, whose RT channel has been banned in Europe at the start of the Russian invasion due to his propaganda speech. «Russia does not bomb for fun. God knows we didn’t want that. Nobody wanted that. And I know our government didn’t want that either“, she says.

Fears of a judgment in the Criminal Court

The journalist then evokes the fears of certain military leaders who, she deplores, would be afraid of legal reprisals in the event of a Ukrainian victory. A state of mind that Margarita Simonian criticizes. “Unfortunately I know a lot of people who think that. Including people from the highest spheres“, she says. “They are afraid and dare not say things clearly for fear of what people might think there.“, understand, at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where war crimes and crimes against humanity are tried.

«I spit on what they think there. People who are afraid of The Hague should rather be afraid of losing the war, being humiliated and betraying their people“, still believes the guest, completing his diatribe. The host Vladimir Soloviev then takes the floor to conclude – visibly throwing a chill on the set: “The Hague will no longer exist if this happens. There will be nothing at all. The whole world will be reduced to ashes”.

SEE ALSO – Putin wants to use winter as ‘a weapon of war’, says Stoltenberg

November 30, 2022 0 comment

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