Concepts part 7

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Official version of history

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Remember what George Orwell said about history in his book 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” The Communist Party in China is intent on controlling the past. China criminalizes the slander of its ‘heroes and martyrs,’ as it seeks to control history China’s Communist Party has always understood the importance of policing its history. On Friday, it tightened the screws further with a new law banning the slander of “heroes and martyrs” — figures drawn from wartime propaganda said to have given their lives in defense of the Communist Party or the nation. Lei Feng Chinese schoolchildren are taught about the heroic deeds of figures who fought against the Japanese during World War II, or who gave their lives for the Communist Party in the civil war with the Nationalists. Memorials to some of the most famous dot the country. Now, it will be illegal to suggest that those tales might not be wholly factual… (See Fact-Checking a Chines...
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Is public opinion as volatile as the polls?

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Has Putin met his match in Russia, and is it Putin? Trust in Vladimir Putin declines steeply among Russians, poll shows Trust in Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling party have declined steeply over the past year with analysts pointing to the government’s controversial pension changes as the main reason. In a poll by the independent Levada Centre, 39% of Russians listed Putin as a politican they trust. That is a 20% decrease from November 2017, when Putin was named by 59% of Russians, according to the same polling agency. The Levada polls are the latest to show a strong backlash as the Kremlin pushes unpopular social reforms to relieve pressure on the budget. This month, 45% of Russians told FOM (Public Opinion Foundation), a polling agency close to the Kremlin, they would vote for Putin if elections were held this Sunday. That rating was down from 67% at the beginning of the year. It is among the lowest support Putin has held in the last decade, according to FOM data, tied only with hi...
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Armed warfare in Nigeria

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Armed warfare in Nigeria As the presidential campaign begins in Nigeria, the warfare in the northeast continues and gets more complex. How will politics reflect this continuing warfare? Nigerian Islamists kill scores of soldiers in military base attack Islamic militants in Nigeria may have killed as many as 100 soldiers in an attack on a military base, according to media reports and security officials. The reported death toll is among the highest since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 and comes as the country prepares for elections in three months. The worst losses came when militants overran a military base in the village of Metele in the north-eastern state of Borno on Sunday. The area is the centre of an insurgency waged by Boko Haram, which was founded nine years ago to bring strict Islamic law to swaths of Nigeria, and a second newer group linked to Islamic State. Nigeria’s military and government have repeatedly said they are on the point of defeating the milita...
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