world news

7-17-19   With One Belt One Road, Xi wants to move China to the center of global authority, convincing more countries to accept Chinese preferences for less transparent economics and more authoritarian politics, very much at the expense of the rules-based order that the United States and its allies have tried to build since World War Two.  https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-one-belt-one-road-to-global-hegemony_3006029.html

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This undated Ministry of Defence handout shows the HMS Duncan, a Type 45 Destroyer, which will relieve HMS Montrose in the region as Iran threatens to disrupt shipping. (Ben Sutton/Ministry of Defence via AP)

7-18-19     A U.S. defense official said earlier this week that America “has suspicions” that Iran had seized the oil tanker (on 7-14) when it turned off its tracker in the Strait of Hormuz.  An Emirati official said the small oil tanker made no distress call before switching off its tracker.  https://www.theepochtimes.com/iran-seizes-foreign-oil-tanker-accused-of-smuggling-fuel-state-tv_3007443.html

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7-17-19  WASHINGTON—A practitioner of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong who was persecuted in China for her faith was among 27 survivors of religious persecution who met with President Donald Trump at the White House on July 17.

Yuhua Zhang, 59, was imprisoned and repeatedly tortured in China for 7 1/2 years for refusing to renounce her faith before escaping to the United States in 2015.  https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-meets-with-falun-gong-practitioner-other-survivors-of-religious-persecution_3006607.html

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7-17-19  “Five years ago our family members got on a plane in Amsterdam to make their way home.  Not far into the journey, their plane was shot out of the sky by a missile from the 53rd anti-aircraft brigade of the Russian army. Our beloved family members were all murdered in a brutal and senseless act," reads an open letter published by Novaya Gazeta.  The families have called on Russia to cooperate fully with the investigation, as you have promised in Resolution 2166 of the United Nations Security Council, but have so far failed to do; take the share of responsibility for the shooting down of MH17; and to stop "your disingenuous denials, your lies and deceit".

https://www.unian.info/world/10620699-russia-has-done-its-best-to-hide-truth-families-of-mh17-victims.html
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AFP/Moscow 7-17-19

  Russian officials have refused to register nearly 30 candidates for elections to Moscow’s local parliament, including prominent critics of President Vladimir Putin despite protests over the move.
Opposition politicians have been fighting to get on the ballot for September’s elections to the Moscow city legislature as they seek to capitalise on growing public discontent over falling living standards and unchecked corruption.
But many observers say authorities have used spurious reasons to prevent popular allies of opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running for the Russian capital’s legislature.  https://www.gulf-times.com/story/636765/Russia-bars-opposition-candidates-from-Moscow-city
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The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and the situation in Crimea.  The text was adopted with 458 votes in favour, 80 against and 89 abstentions, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

MEPs call on the Russian authorities to release without further delay and unconditionally all illegally and arbitrarily detained Ukrainian citizens, both in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and to provide for their safe return, including Crimean Tatars, the recently detained Red Square peaceful demonstrators of July 10, 2019, Ukrainian citizens detained on politically motivated charges and the 24 crew members of the Ukrainian naval vessels who were seized near the Kerch Strait by Russian military forces on November 25 last year.    https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/2742966-european-parliament-adopts-resolution-on-political-prisoners-of-kremlin.html