Category: Dissidents

Systematic human rights violations ‘an everyday occurrence’ in Cuba

     

A flotilla of shipments from Venezuela gave Cuba some respite this week from crippling fuel shortages in the wake of tougher U.S. sanctions, while Russia’s prime minister pledged during a… Read more »

Hong Kong protests ‘raining on China’s parade’: clash of ideologies gives the lie to 70th anniversary

     

China’s President Xi Jinping presided over the country’s National Day, marking 70 years of Communist Party rule. The military parade included 15,000 personnel, 160 aircraft, and hundreds of weapons—some new—in… Read more »

Renewing the promise of reconciling political Islam and democracy?

     

  Jamal Khashoggi and I disagreed on almost all political issues, but we agreed on one thing: that the Arab world had profoundly changed in ways that rendered the old… Read more »

New sanctions target Cubazuela links

     

The United States hit Venezuela with a new round of sanctions on Tuesday, targeting the crisis-battered country’s ties with Cuba, which supports Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, AFP reports: The move… Read more »

China’s authoritarian model poses long-term threat to democracies

     

China poses a long-term threat to the United States, to liberal democracy and to the international order,  John C. Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy, told a policy forum in… Read more »

A ‘confrontation of monumental proportions is coming’ in Hong Kong

     

The Sharp Sword stealth drones and the intercontinental ballistic missiles and the truck-borne monuments to the Communist struggle are ready. Flowers have been planted and red lanterns hung along all… Read more »

Captive Society: What do Iran’s leaders really fear?

     

What do Iran’s leaders really fear? New York Times columnist Bret Stephens asks. Above all, a revival of the Green Movement that nearly toppled the regime following the stolen presidential… Read more »

Citizen K: Putin’s nightmare? The ballot box

     

By any measure, the decline of Putinism is indisputable. It was best captured by a poll conducted in May by the government-run Public Opinion Center, which showed that public trust… Read more »

“Iron curtain of information” descending on Cuba

     

Some 14 Cuban non-governmental organizations* have declared that a new “iron curtain of information” is descending that further censors access to the internet, and restricts the flow of information. The… Read more »

Cuba: battling economic crisis, escalating attacks on civil society

     

Communist-run Cuba has imposed sweeping price controls on all state and private businesses as it battles a deepening economic crisis and mounting U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports: Resolutions published in the… Read more »