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In this mailing:
* Giulio Meotti: Christians Massacred, Media Look the Other Way
* Amir Taheri: Moscow Divided Between Two Proverbs


** Christians Massacred, Media Look the Other Way ([link removed])
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by Giulio Meotti • September 8, 2019 at 5:00 am
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* "In the same week as the awful attack on the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand... more than two hundred Christians were killed in Nigeria. There was hardly any mention of the latter in the news. There were no marches for martyred Christians, no tolling of church bells ordered by governments, no 'Je suis Charlie' t-shirts... no public outrage at all." — Fr. Benedict Kiely, Crisis Magazine, September 4, 2019
* NASA's satellites observed the Amazon fires, prompting world leaders to pledge to protect the rainforest. But the burning, chopping and murder of Christians is not tracked by satellites and their suffering is not seen on our televisions and newspapers. Actually, it seems in the West as if the persecution of Christians does not even exist.
* The Vatican and Pope Francis have a choice: to shed light on these persecuted Christians or be accused of willful blindness.... The Vatican should dedicate the next synod to them.

Pictured: Sobame Da, a mainly Christian village in Mali, after the June 2019 attack by Fulani gunmen in which 100 men, women and children were slaughtered. (Image source: United Nations/MINUSMA/Flickr ([link removed]) )

"In the Amazon rainforest, which is of vital importance for the planet, a deep crisis has been triggered by prolonged human intervention, in which a 'culture of waste' (LS 16) and an extractivist mentality prevail", the Vatican stated.

"The Amazon is a region with rich biodiversity; it is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious; it is a mirror of all humanity which, in defense of life, requires structural and personal changes by all human beings, by nations, and by the Church."

That is why a Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region has been scheduled to meet in Rome from October 6 to 27. In an interview with Italian paper La Stampa, Pope Francis said that one of the biggest challenges to the Amazon region is the "threat to the life of the populations and territory which derives from the economic and political interests of the dominant sectors of society."

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** Moscow Divided Between Two Proverbs ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • September 8, 2019 at 4:00 am
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* Putin has also succeeded in establishing Russia as the key player in war-torn Syria by marginalizing not only Iran but also Turkey and the United States. Putin adulators are especially proud of his success in playing the Iran card against the United States while squeezing the Tehran mullahs for unprecedented concessions.
* The impression one gets in Moscow these days is that reality may have started to bite at the edges of the hubris nurtured by Putin's opportunistic tactics and the weakness of the Western, especially European, response.
* Well-to-do Russians, the backbone of Putin's system, are sore about the fact that they are no longer treated as welcome friends in the Western world, to which they think they belong. The less privileged Russians are equally unwilling to find their nation grouped together with a number of "Third World" countries such as Syria, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.

The impression one gets in Moscow these days is that reality may have started to bite at the edges of the hubris nurtured by Putin's opportunistic tactics and the weakness of the Western, especially European, response. (Image source: iStock)

In Russia, August is often regarded as the uncertain season closing the short summer and opening the path to the long duet of autumn and winter. It was, therefore, no surprise in a recent visit to Moscow to see that sense of uncertainty reflected in the political mood of the Russian elites.

To be sure, the uncertainty one notices is still in filigree. Officials and intellectuals supporting the current government are still full of self-confidence, not to say bombast, defending President Vladimir Putin's "strongman" politics. Nevertheless, conversations regarding the political situation in Russia soon reveal three sources of uncertainty, perhaps even anxiety.

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