In July, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in landmark demonstrations protesting long-standing restrictions on rights, scarcity of food and medicines, and the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government responded with brutal repression....
...Ramón Saúl Sanchez (click here) with the Cuban American group Movimiento Democracia said he met a group of 22 Cubans who were standing along a main road, waiting for U.S. authorities to pick them up. He and Keys officials said the Biden administration needs a more coordinated response.
“There is a migration and humanitarian crisis, and it is necessary for the president to respond by helping local authorities,” Sanchez said.
Cubans are willing to take the risk because those who make it to U.S. soil almost always get to stay, even if their legal status is murky. They also arrive by land, flying to Nicaragua, then traveling north through Honduras and Guatemala into Mexico. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the U.S.-Mexican border, almost six times as many as the previous year.
In Cuba on Wednesday, the U.S. reopened visa and consular services at its Havana embassy for the first time since a spate of unexplained health incidents among diplomatic staff there in 2017 prompted a sharp reduction in American diplomatic presence....
The fast-food giant, which exited Russia in May, banned its local franchisee from procuring meat patties from Russian suppliers, the report said.
McDonald's declined to comment on the report.
The company's licensee in Kazakhstan was forced to temporarily close its restaurants in November after cutting ties with Russian companies and running out of supplies, three sources with knowledge of situation had told Reuters.
The exit highlights the supply issues faced by many Kazakh businesses in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions against Moscow that followed. Neighboring Russia is Kazakhstan's main trading partner....
Ashgabat - Pro-Russian propaganda (click here) efforts are under way in Turkmenistan, with officials in the authoritarian state vilifying the West for supporting Kyiv and whitewashing Moscow's image amid its unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
Education officials along with police and intelligence officers have held several meetings with students and employees in the Balkan and Lebap provinces in recent days, urging people to shun Western media and culture that they say brainwash young Turkmen.
In one of such meeting in Balkan Province on December 8, officials warned against the "poisonous" influence of the West on the youth of Turkmenistan, a participant told RFE/RL.
"The officials said that a war such as the one in Ukraine can happen in Turkmenistan too, tomorrow, if we don't keep our youth away from the Western media and culture," said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing repercussion in the strictly controlled state.
"They added that American and European media information - which [they claimed] poisons the minds of young people - is the main reason the war broke out in Ukraine."...
Three countries in the same area seemed to have moved together to find common ground for energy production.
Russia is nothing but a propaganda machine. Its reputation is heard and understood along with the propaganda it permeates. These countries are still in fear of Russia because of logistics.
Entertain this idea; as Russia loses control of its global network of countries, the crisis becomes a further burden to the Free World. Where is the breaking point for the Free World? How long can it possibly continue to help allies of Russia from abandonment?
I think it is worth the effort to counter Russian fear tactics with the truth and empowerment for these countries to move out from under Russian shadows. They need to seek autonomy and relations between each other to sustain them and begin to grow their own ability for economic viability outside the problems of Russia and it's hatred of others.
There is a place for the United Nations here. There is a need to promote autonomy and regrouping of economic opportunity as Russia implodes from Putin's propaganda wars and five year communist calendar. Russia can only lean on these countries. Russia has no power to stop them from autonomy and economic growth between them.
