#Western ‘dictator envy’ ignores strengths of democracy

#Western ‘dictator envy’ ignores strengths of democracy

“Western ‘dictator envy’ ignores strengths of democracy” Some Western leaders envy dictators’ powers. President Donald Trump said, when North Korea’s Kim Jong-un speaks, “his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” President Barack Obama told reporters it would be so much easier to be the president of China. Canada’s…

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#I was reunited with mom after being stolen at birth

#I was reunited with mom after being stolen at birth

“I was reunited with mom after being stolen at birth” A 38-year-old man in Texas has been reunited with his birth mother after learning he was stolen at birth and placed for adoption. Tyler Graf was raised in Minnesota “by a very loving, caring family,” who adopted the Chilean boy as a baby. Records claimed…

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#Inside Cuba’s crackdown after dramatic protests

#Inside Cuba’s crackdown after dramatic protests

“#Inside Cuba’s crackdown after dramatic protests” In the wake of the July 11 street protests that rocked Cuba’s Communist regime, the Havana government has moved to reassert control by arresting hundreds of their own citizens, more than three dozen of whom are suspected of having been “forced disappearances”  Beginning the week after the demonstrations, Cubans…

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#Authoritarianism advances as world battles the pandemic

#Authoritarianism advances as world battles the pandemic

“#Authoritarianism advances as world battles the pandemic” LONDON — Here’s some of what happened while the world was distracted by the coronavirus: Hungary banned the public depiction of homosexuality. China shut Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper. Brazil’s government extolled dictatorship. And Belarus hijacked a passenger plane to arrest a journalist. COVID-19 has absorbed the world’s…

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#For democracy, it’s a time of swimming against the tide

#For democracy, it’s a time of swimming against the tide

“#For democracy, it’s a time of swimming against the tide” The old Nicaraguan revolutionary, with his receding hairline and the goatee that he had finally let turn grey, spoke calmly into the camera as police swarmed toward his house, hidden behind a high wall in a leafy Managua neighborhood. Surveillance drones, he said, were watching…

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#Study finds ‘good’ governments fall harder than dictatorships

#Study finds ‘good’ governments fall harder than dictatorships

“#Study finds ‘good’ governments fall harder than dictatorships” Oh, how the mighty have fallen … and may fall again. A new historical review by anthropologists at Purdue University has revealed that “good” governments — meaning those that supported social programs and did not amass disproportionate wealth — suffered “major” collapse compared to more tyrannical regimes….

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