Tag Archives: dictators

NPR reports: The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases. But if you happen to utter the word “coronavirus” while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there’s a good chance you’ll be arrested. That’s because the Turkmen government, run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reportedly banned the …

The Guardian reports: Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for spreading misinformation and gives no clear time limit to a state of emergency that allows the nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to rule by decree. Parliament voted by 137 to 53 to pass the measures on Monday afternoon, with the two-thirds majority …

Axios reports: Belarus is the only European country that is still playing soccer. Why? Because President Alexander Lukashenko, a man often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” said so. Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until it was dissolved in 1991. Lukashenko has been president since 1994 and has continued many Soviet-era policies. The coronavirus “is just another psychosis, …

USA Today reports: Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian leader who for nearly 30 years was the resolute face of stability in the Mideast before being forced by the military to resign after 18-day nationwide protests that were part of the Arab world’s 2011 pro-democracy upheaval, died on Tuesday. He was 91. Throughout his rule, he was a stalwart U.S. ally, a …

Business Insider reports: If Americans are concerned that President Donald Trump and Republicans are moving the US toward becoming a one-party, authoritarian state, they are running out of time to stop them, experts warned. Trump has exhibited autocratic impulses since his 2016 campaign and from the moment he entered the White House. The president has attacked virtually every democratic institution …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump praised China’s death penalty for drug dealers, Monday, though he added he doesn’t know if the United States “is ready” for similar sentences. “Criminal in China for drugs by the way means that’s serious. They’re getting a maximum penalty,” Trump noted. “And you know what the maximum penalty is in China for that, and it …

The New York Times reports: John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, privately told Attorney General William P. Barr last year that he had concerns that President Trump was effectively granting personal favors to the autocratic leaders of Turkey and China, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton. Mr. Barr responded by pointing to a pair of Justice …

Reuters reports: The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president’s spokesman said on Friday. President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S. nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of …

The BBC reports: General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military leader, has been sentenced to death at a special court hearing in Islamabad. The three-member court sentenced him over a high treason charge that has been pending since 2013. Gen Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and served as the country’s president from 2001 to 2008. He is …

The New York Times reports: Egyptian security forces arrested a senior editor of the country’s last significant independent news outlet on Saturday, in a new peak to a six-year-old crackdown on press freedom under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The editor in chief of the outlet, the online publication Mada Masr, said Saturday that a few weeks ago, the authorities had …

Politico Europe reports: Spain’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Francisco Franco’s remains can be removed from the Valley of the Fallen, endorsing the Socialist government’s plans against his descendants’ will. The generalísimo’s body is set to be disinterred from the giant mausoleum on the outskirts of Madrid — a basilica dug into a hillside topped by a cross 150 …

Axios reports: Searching a room for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at last month’s G7 summit in France, President Trump called out: “Where’s my favorite dictator?” Why it matters: Sisi really is a dictator, and he really is closely allied with the Trump administration. Trump is untroubled by the idea of partnering with authoritarians, but his remark was “met by …

The New York Times reports: Robert Mugabe, the first prime minister and later president of independent Zimbabwe, who traded the mantle of liberator for the armor of a tyrant and presided over the decline of one of Africa’s most prosperous lands, died on Friday. He was 95. Mr. Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state before his ouster in 2017, …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project. He also has told worried …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Friday dug in on his strategy of attacking four progressive minority congresswomen despite some backlash from within his own party, saying he doesn’t care how it affects him politically. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad politically. I don’t care,” Trump told reporters of his attack against the group of Democratic lawmakers, known …

The Hill reports: President Trump made history on Sunday by crossing into North Korea as part of a meeting with Kim Jong Un in which he and the North Korean leader agreed to restart stalled nuclear talks. Trump and Kim shook hands across a concrete slab forming the line between to the two nations at the Demilitarized Zone, according to …

The Guardian reports: Mike Pompeo has said the US is attempting to check reports that a senior North Korean official involved in Pyongyang’s nuclear negotiations with Washington had been executed. “We’ve seen the reporting to which you are referring,” the US secretary of state told a news conference in Berlin in answer to a question. “We’re doing our best to …

Newsweek reports: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has claimed he was once gay but “cured” himself of homosexuality in controversial remarks made during a trip to Japan. According to Rappler, a Filipino news publication, Duterte mocked his political opponent Senator Antonio Trillanes IV by saying his movements show he is homosexual. Duterte also reportedly “confessed” that he was gay before he …

“He’s a real personality and he’s very smart. He’s sharp as you can be, and he’s a real leader, and he’s pretty mercurial. I don’t say that necessarily in a bad way, but he’s a pretty mercurial guy. He likes me. I like him. Some people say ‘oh, you shouldn’t like him.’ I said, ‘why shouldn’t I like him? I …

The Associated Press reports: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday he hopes to extend his high-stakes nuclear summitry with President Donald Trump into 2019, but also warned Washington not to test North Koreans’ patience with sanctions and pressure. During his televised New Year’s speech, Kim said he’s ready to meet with Trump at any time to produce an …