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Putin urges dialogue between Lukashenko and opposition

AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for dialogue between his Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko and the country’s opposition, exiled since Minsk suppressed mass anti-government protests last year. 

Putin has continued to back Lukashenko, increasingly isolated since crushing unprecedented demonstrations against his rule after he claimed to win an election last summer that the West says was rigged. 

Lukashenko’s regime imprisoned hundreds, forcing most of the opposition — which believes it won the election — to flee.

In an address to Russia’s foreign ministry, Putin said Belarus’s internal situation has “calmed down”. 

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“Nonetheless, there are problems. We are all well aware of this and of course call for a dialogue between the authorities and the opposition,” said the Russian leader, who regularly hosts Lukashenko. 

The Kremlin chief is known for not tolerating street protests and raising suspicions they are instigated by the West, while the Belarusian opposition has been actively courting Western leaders. 

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who the opposition believe was the real winner of last summer’s presidential election and has since fled to neighbouring Lithuania, said she had no contact with Moscow but welcomed the call.  

“Personally, I did not have contact with the Kremlin. But I welcome calls for dialogue,” she told the Belarusian-run news outlet Zerkalo.io. 

She added, however, that he her conditions for talking to the regime remain the release of political prisoners. 

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“No dialogue can start in prison. All political prisoners should be freed and violence stopped. Our conditions are the same,” she said.

There are 873 political prisoners in Belarus, according to rights group Viasna. 

Putin, Lukashenko’s main political and financial backer, has been calling for dialogue between Minsk and Brussels in a migrant crisis on the Polish border. 

The EU accuses Lukashenko of luring thousands of migrants — mostly from the Middle-East — to the Polish border as revenge for Western sanctions on his regime. 

The Kremlin this week welcomed “direct contact” between Minsk and Brussels, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Lukashenko. 

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It was the Belarus strongman’s first phone call with a Western leader since he dispersed the protests. 

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. 

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International

Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border

Donald Trump will sign over 200 executive orders this Monday, including declaring a national emergency at the southern U.S. border and designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorists on his first day as president, according to U.S. network Fox News.

A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.

The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”

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International

Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.

“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.

“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.

Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”

The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.

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International

Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan

Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.

The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”

This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.

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