Two of Belarus' most prominent opposition activists campaigning against the rule of authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko have now been sentenced to lengthy prison terms: Maria Kolesnikova to 11 years and Maxim Znak to 10.

Kolesnikova, a highly trained musician as well as a political activist, is one of the three women who together challenged Lukashenko in last August's election. She also helped lead calls for a new vote, after it took place amid opposition and international claims of fraud, sparking an undeniably brutal crackdown afterwards. Kolesnikova was the only one of the trio who remained in the country, the others having fled.

Znak is a lawyer who has worked with the opposition for many years. Both are members of the Coordination Council, set up by anti-Lukashenko factions in an effort to oust him.

The pair share common ground in that they have contributed to keeping the protests non-violent, despite the government's recourse to political deportation and detention as well as widespread abuse. That much has been confirmed in a recent report by the UN Human Rights Council, which concluded that, in the face of peaceful demonstrations, "the authorities responded with unjustified, disproportionate, and often arbitrary force."

French cement giant Lafarge, charged with "crimes against humanity" over paying Islamic State to keep its Syrian plant running, had been informing the country's spy agencies about its ties with terrorists, leaked papers revealed.

According to a batch of official French documents obtained by Turkish Anadolu news agency, Lafarge representatives have held multiple meetings with domestic, foreign and military intelligence services during the Syrian conflict. The French spy agencies were accused of having used the company's relationship with Islamic State (IS, Daesh, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other militant groups to keep up to date with the events on the ground in Syria. They also refrained from warning the cement maker that its ties with terrorists were a crime, according to the agency.
Lafarge is blamed for paying almost €13 million ($15.3 million) to IS and other armed groups to make sure its plant in northern Syria remained operational after the fighting in the country erupted in 2011. Rights groups, which brought claims against the company, alleged that this money had been used to facilitate the movement of staff and goods through terrorist checkpoints. Lafarge reportedly also purchased oil and raw materials from the militants, while supplying them with cement that they used to build fortifications and underground tunnels.

A wiser, better-traveled and social media-savvy Taliban will strive to avoid the many dire mistakes of its 1996-2001 rule

The announcement by Taliban spokesman Zahibullah Mujahid in Kabul of the acting cabinet ministers in the new caretaker government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan already produced a big bang: it managed to enrage both woke NATOstan and the US Deep State.

This is an all-male, overwhelmingly Pashtun (there's one Uzbek and one Tajik) cabinet essentially rewarding the Taliban old guard. All 33 appointees are Taliban members.

Dr. Kerry Chant, the Chief Health Officer of New South Wales, sent social media into a frenzy on Thursday, after she referred to a post-lockdown "new world order" during a Covid-19 press conference.

After State Premier Gladys Berejiklian had unveiled her administration's plan for Greater Sydney's path to freedom out of lockdown, Dr. Chant revealed the new vaccine requirements for workers and customers when the city reopens.

Both parties at reopened businesses would have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Dr. Chant announced, and workplaces would "have some system of checking that." But it was her next comment that really stirred up a storm.

The house of cards is crumbling. It's is a known fact, that the so-called SARS-CoV-2 "virus" has never been isolated and purified - which logically leads to the conclusion that the entire covid-story - what has been keeping the world in a trauma for the last 18 months - is a huge fraud of biblical proportion, not comparable to anything that has happened - or rather, was done - to humanity in recent history.

Global Research's Correspondent at UN headquarters, New York, Carla Stea, reports on 31 August 2021, that the latest official figures (August 30, 2021) point to 38,488 mRNA vaccine reported and registered deaths in the EU, UK and US (combined) and 6.3 million reported "adverse events".

Although, these are the official figures, they are vastly under-reported. They only represent the figures reported by the official Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in the US, created in 1990, and to those officially reported by the European Medicine Agency (EMA).

According to the CDC's own account, these agencies report under normal circumstances only between 1% and 10% of all cases. And most likely in the covid cases, where reporting is made difficult, even less. In other words, less than 10% of deaths and injuries are reported. For vaccine adverse events approximately one percent of the injuries are registered and reported (according to a study by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc)

Seventy years ago, the thankless task of ideological indoctrination in Polish universities fell upon the communist leadership and their approved instructors. The people would learn what was best for them, even if it killed them. Today, by contrast, the students seem perfectly happy to indoctrinate themselves. No government coercion necessary. Things have a way of coming full circle, and then some! "The Legutko Affair," covered in last month's issue of The Postil should demonstrate that. But before discussing the present state of affairs, we must return to the past. The time is 1951, just a few years after the imposition of communism. The place: the gothic lecture hall at Jagiellonian University, Professor Legutko's alma mater.

Previously, students had heard lectures here by scholars like Roman Ingarden, a student of Husserl. But when the students were herded into the hall that year to attend the recently introduced Marxist-Leninist indoctrination lectures, a new man appeared at the lectern, informing them he was to be their new professor. This particular class of students — soon to graduate with degrees in psychology — were about to learn some important lessons about the nature of totalitarianism. In a twisted way, these were actually lessons in psychology, though that certainly was not their professor's intention.

First of all, the man spoke nonsense unfitting of a university, and the students immediately recognized this — or at least most of them did. Second, he wasn't even a real professor. The students soon discovered that he had attended high school, but it was unclear if he had ever actually graduated. Third, this new "professor" treated the students with contempt and barely concealed hatred. His tyrannical teaching style mirrored that of the communist party leadership — whom he had to thank for his new, "socially advanced" position.

"I submit to you that systemic racism is not the problem and critical race theory and reparations are not the answer."

California governor recall candidate Larry Elder told Fox News in a recent interview that he would back legislation that forbade critical race theory in California's schools.

His exact words being "My preference is for local school boards to decide what the curriculum is, but I think this is so bad and so insulting that I would look into some legislation like that."

Last week, there was a lawsuit announced by parents in San Diego disputing the requirement that students are obligated to chant and pray to Aztec gods as part of the curriculum.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau teed off on Rebel News journalist Tamara Ugolini after Wednesday's federal leadership debate after asking Trudeau why their news organization had to fight the federal government in court to ask him questions post-debate.

Trudeau held no punches, calling the Rebel a website that spreads "misinformation and disinformation" regarding COVID data.

Trudeau also said that the Rebel — which he refused to call a media organization — was "partly responsible" for the "polarization we see in this country."

The head of Russia's space command has offered to sit down with billionaire tycoon Elon Musk, the founder of American rocket firm SpaceX, to discuss efforts to explore the universe and whether there's life on other planets.

Speaking to CNN as part of his first interview with Western media, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said the South Africa-born entrepreneur was an example of how wealthy people should invest in important causes. Rogozin told the US outlet that "I like what your people are doing - people who spend their own money on things useful for overall society."

According to him, Musk "realizes many of the ideas and thoughts that we wanted to realize, but did not get to because, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, our space program halted for some time. We respect him as an organizer of the space industry, and as an inventor who is not afraid to take risks."

The dramatic arrest of more than two dozen Russian 'mercenaries' in Belarus, last year, came as the result of an elaborate Ukrainian intelligence operation secretly backed and financed by American spy agencies, CNN has reported.

The broadcaster, which is known to have a close relationship with members of Washington's intelligence community, alleges that Kiev's spooks conspired to convince authorities in Belarus to arrest a group of 33 Russians last June on charges that they were planning to interfere in the country's upcoming elections. Three "former high-ranking Ukrainian military intelligence officials" are said to have revealed "how they orchestrated the extraordinary operation aimed at luring suspected war criminals out of Russia to face prosecution for atrocities committed in Eastern Ukraine."

According to CNN, the arrests, which damaged relations between Moscow and Minsk, were part of "an elaborate intelligence sting by Ukraine, with the knowledge and alleged support of the United States." Operatives reportedly posed as representatives from a private military company, offering large sums for non-existent security work, in an effort to lure mercenaries out of Russia. Ukrainian officers are said to have then sifted through the applications for those they believed to have fought in the country's bloody civil war alongside troops loyal to the two self-proclaimed Donbass republics.

Former Kiev intelligence officials who reportedly spoke to CNN alleged that "the Ukrainian-led operation got US cash, technical assistance, and advice from the CIA on how to draw the Russian mercenaries in." However, Washington has apparently denied these claims, saying any suggestions it was directly involved in the operation were "false." Instead, an unnamed American source seemingly told journalists that the country had been aware of the operation, but had not played an active part in it.