Russia and failed Ukraine invasion: Moscow protester says 'no future' for Russia under Putin as anger grows

Tens of thousands of people around the world have taken to the streets over the last week to protest against the Russian tyrant's unprovoked attack on Ukraine. In Russia, citizens in cities spanning from Moscow to Siberia have defied threats of arrest to send their leader a clear message - "No to War" - in a series of recent demonstrations. Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, many people ended up being arrested and detained by Russian police.

Read more at Russia news: Moscow protester says 'no future' for Russia under Putin as anger grows | World | News | Express.co.uk

Kazakhstan: Russian paratroopers arrive in Kazakhstan as unrest continues

Russian paratroopers have arrived in Kazakhstan as part of a “peacekeeping” mission by a Moscow-led military alliance to help the president regain control of the country, according to Russian news agencies.

Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, asked for the intervention from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – an alliance made up of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – late on Wednesday and it was swiftly approved.

It comes as violent clashes continue between protesters and the police and army in Kazakhstan.

Read more at: Russian paratroopers arrive in Kazakhstan as unrest continues | Kazakhstan | The Guardian

Cuba - unrest and demonstrations: Hundreds of Protesters Take To Miami Streets As Mayor Asks For U.S. Led Intervention in Cuba

Thousands of Cubans on the island are protesting against the government of Miguel Díaz Canel as the island suffers through one of its worst socio-economic crises since the fall of the Soviet Union. Worsening conditions, including the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, a worrying lack of food, medicine and other basic products are some of the reasons for the protests, some of the largest since the beginning of the dictatorship in the 1950's.

Read more at: https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/hundreds-of-protesters-take-to-miami-streets-as-mayor-asks-for-u-s-led-intervention-in-cuba/2492603/?fbclid=IwAR0mcm8jtD4gTHc1jyu3Knini8W9aXvVE4FPcJljMZYblWLFu2ycAq1aQnE

USA - Gun Control: ‘Guns are a way to exercise power’: how the idea of overthrowing the government became mainstream - by Lois Beckett

Josh Horwitz has been an American gun control activist for nearly 30 years. In 2009, he co-wrote a book warning that the idea of armed revolt against the government was at the center of the US gun rights movement.

Now, after a year that has seen heavily armed men show up at state capitols in Virginia, Michigan, Idaho and elsewhere to confront Democratic lawmakers over gun control and coronavirus restrictions, more Americans are taking gun owners’ rhetoric about “tyrants” seriously. Some of the same armed protesters who showed up at Michigan’s state house and at a pro-gun rally this summer were charged last week with conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s governor and put her on trial for tyranny.

Other members of the “boogaloo” movement have allegedly murdered law enforcement officers in California and plotted acts of violence across the country in hopes of sparking a civil war.

Read more at:
‘Guns are a way to exercise power’: how the idea of overthrowing the government became mainstream | US gun control | The Guardian

Turkish Elections: Turkish police storm opposition Bugun TV during live broadcast

Is Erdogan holding on to power with brute force?

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul stormed the offices of opposition television station Bugun TV during a live broadcast on Wednesday (October 28), just days before a general election.

The raid is part of a crackdown on companies linked to a preacher who is an arch enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Footage showed police spraying water cannnon at people in front of Koza Ipek outlet Bugun TV, which is owned by cleric Fethullah Gulen who is accused of plotting to overthrow the president.

Authorities on Tuesday took over 22 companies owned by Koza Ipek in an investigation of alleged financial irregularities, including whether it funded Gulen. The company denies wrongdoing.

Erdogan has clamped down on commercial interests belonging to once-influential followers of Gulen, his former ally, after police and prosecutors considered sympathetic to the cleric opened a corruption investigation of Erdogan’s inner circle in 2013.

For the complete report: Turkish Elections: Turkish police storm opposition Bugun TV during live broadcast

While Ukraine crisis escalates many American's do not even know where Ukraine is located

The British Guardian reports today that pro-Russian activists in Ukraine's industrial centre of Donetsk have proclaimed their independence from Kiev and pledged to hold a referendum in the next month, provoking fears that Moscow could be orchestrating a second Crimea scenario in Ukraine's east.

"Seeking to create a popular, legitimate, sovereign state, I proclaim the creation of the sovereign state of the people's republic of Donetsk," said a man into a loudspeaker outside the seized regional administration building to a cheering crowd.

The protesters said they would hold a referendum no later than 11 May on the region's status, and also asked Russia to ready "peacekeeping troops", in a scenario reminiscent of the events that led to the annexation of Crimea last month.

In Kiev, the interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said events in the east were being carried out according to a script written in Moscow.

But is this "storm in a cup of soup" really important to the US or to Europe for that matter? The Washington post recently reported: "On March 28-31, 2014, we asked a national sample of 2,066 Americans (fielded via Survey Sampling International Inc. (SSI), what action they wanted the U.S. to take in Ukraine, but with a twist: In addition to measuring standard demographic characteristics and general foreign policy attitudes, we also asked our survey respondents to locate Ukraine on a map as part of a larger, ongoing project to study foreign policy knowledge. 

We wanted to see where Americans think Ukraine is and to learn if this knowledge (or lack thereof) is related to their foreign policy views. 

We also found that only one out of six Americans can find Ukraine on a map, and that this lack of knowledge is related to preferences: The farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S.  to intervene with military force."

EU-Digest

Turkey Unrest Continues: Thousands rally in Istanbul against death of protester

Turkish police used teargas and plastic bullets Tuesday to prevent up to 3,000 protesters from entering Istanbul's Taksim Square as they rallied to protest against the death of a 22-year-old demonstrator in southern Turkey a day earlier.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 people rallied on the outskirts of Taksim Square, scene of unprecedented mass anti-government protests in June, and shouted slogans including "Taksim will be the graveyard of fascism", an AFP journalist witnessed.

Police prevented the protesters from entering the square, before pushing them back using tear gas and plastic bullets.

The tear gas disrupted a football match between the national under-21s and their Swedish counterparts taking place near the square, the Dogan news agency reported.

Ahmet Atakan died in hospital Monday night after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister during clashes between police and around 150 protesters in the southeastern city of Antakya in Hatay province near the Syrian border, Dogan said.Read more: Thousands rally in Istanbul against death of protester

Read more - TURKEY - FRANCE 24

Anti-austerity strikes sweep across Europe - by Sonya Dowsett and Andrei Khalip

Millions of workers joined strikes across southern Europe on Wednesday to protest against spending cuts and tax hikes that trade unions say have brought misery and deepened the region’s economic crisis.

Spanish and Portuguese workers were holding their first co-ordinated general strike and unions in Greece, Italy and France, Belgium also planned work stoppages or demonstrations as part of a “European Day of Action and Solidarity.”

“We’re on strike to stop these suicidal policies,” said Candido Mendez, head of Spain’s second-biggest labour federation, the General Workers’ Union, or UGT.

International lenders and some economists say the programs of tax hikes and spending cuts are necessary for putting public finances back on a healthy track after years of overspending.
While several southern European countries have seen bursts of violence, a co-ordinated and effective regional protest to the austerity has yet to gain traction and governments have so far largely stuck to their policies.

Read more: Anti-austerity strikes sweep across Europe - The Globe and Mail

Iran: Unrest in Tehran over rial currency plunge

A rapid plunge in Iran's currency has resulted in clashes in Tehran's central money exchange district, Ferdowsi. Police squads fired tear gas to disperse protesters and shut kiosks, according to witnesses. 

The rial, Iran's currency, has lost at least a third of its value against the US dollar in the past week, prompting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to largely blame Western sanctions.

A spokesman for the Tehran Grand Bazaar said it had also been closed because of shopkeepers' safety concerns, but it would reopen on Thursday. Ferdowsi Avenue nearby was the scene of hefty protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009, which were eventually put down by forces of his regime.

Read more: Deutsche Welle