"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
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As Maia Sandu’s approval ratings collapse and opposition grows bolder, the September elections may redefine the country’s path between East and West
Moldova is heading into its most consequential election in decades, and the stakes could hardly be higher. With parliamentary elections set for September 28, President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU government faces growing discontent, sagging approval ratings, and a surge of opposition anger – both in the streets and in the courts.
What began in 2020 as a hopeful project of reform and Western integration is now mired in economic crisis, corruption scandals, and an increasingly authoritarian style of governance.
The jailing of opposition figures, crackdowns on Russian-language media, and a widening cultural divide have turned Moldova into a political battleground between East and West – between promises of a Western European future and calls to return to a policy of neutrality. As Sandu’s ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) fights to hold its majority, Moldova’s fragile democracy is approaching a critical test: can it deliver change without losing legitimacy?
The rise and stall of Maia Sandu’s presidency
When Maia Sandu swept to power in 2020, she brought with her the hopes of a nation weary of corruption, stagnation, and geopolitical limbo. A former World Bank economist with a reputation for integrity, Sandu promised to chart a new course – one that would steer Moldova away from its oligarchic past and toward a European future. Her Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) soon gained a parliamentary majority, allowing her to consolidate power and push through ambitious reforms.
For a brief moment, it worked. Sandu’s technocratic image and Western credentials won praise not only from pro-EU voters but also from moderates and even some traditionally pro-Russian Moldovans who were tired of business as usual. The country secured EU candidate status in 2022, and for the first time in years, Moldovan politics seemed to have a clear direction.
But three years later, the mood has shifted dramatically. A growing number of Moldovans believe that Sandu has overpromised and underdelivered – and the numbers reflect it. According to recent polls, 34.9% of respondents now disapprove of her performance, while only 30.6% express support. Her once-untouchable image has been eroded by street protests, rising prices, and accusations of political overreach.
The early glow of reform has faded into frustration. From 2022 to 2024, waves of protests swept through Chisinau and other cities, with demonstrators demanding lower utility costs, government subsidies, and in some cases, Sandu’s resignation. Chanting“Down with Maia Sandu,” many took to the streets not as die-hard Russophiles, but as ordinary citizens who felt abandoned by the very leaders they had helped elect.
Meanwhile, opposition parties – long fragmented and discredited – have begun to regroup. Their message is simple: the Sandu experiment has failed. And for many Moldovans, that claim is starting to ring true.
Continue reading this somewhat lengthy but very informative piece on RT at:
Samantha Power has admitted that Washington financially supported the pro-Western candidate that won the last presidential election
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) invested tens of millions of dollars in Moldova to support pro-EU President Maya Sandu, former USAID chief Samantha Power has admitted in a call with Russian pranksters.
Speaking to the famous duo Vovan and Lexus, who apparently pretended to be Western officials, Power recalled that under her leadership, USAID made “unprecedented investments” in Moldova and “massively” expanded its presence in the country.
She recalled that in the USAID supplementals designated for Ukraine, there was always “tens of millions of dollars” earmarked for Moldova and noted that these funds “went much more further in Moldova than in Ukraine” given the country’s small size.
However, she bemoaned the fact that US President Donald Trump has halted all spending on the country since coming into office and dismantled USAID. Trump had previously said the agency was run by “radical lunatics”and officially dissolved it last month, with the remnants being absorbed into the State Department.
Power added that the halt in funding to Moldova was particularly concerning ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country, noting that Sandu had only narrowly managed to retain her post in the last election. Power described Sandu as a “democratic bright spot,” recalling that she had graduated from the Kennedy School of Harvard University.
Power suggested that with Trump going to the sidelines on Moldova, it was now up to Europe and people like French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to step in and play a more “important” role.
Power’s comments come as Sandu’s government has faced mounting accusations of eroding democracy by banning opposition parties and cracking down on Eurosceptic politicians and journalists. Earlier this month, Moldovan authorities also sentenced Gagauzia Governor Evgenia Gutsul, who advocated for closer ties with Russia, to seven years in prison.
Russia has slammed Sandu and her government as blatantly Russophobic for targeting politicians and media that favor better relations with Moscow. Russian officials have also condemned Gutsul’s arrest as evidence the EU was forging a “liberal dictatorship” in Moldova.
Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov and Aleksey Stolyarov, known by their nicknames Vovan and Lexus, are famous for deceiving high-profile public figures into making awkward remarks during conversations they believed would remain private.
Over the years, dozens have fallen for their trickery, including former US President George W. Bush, the late US statesman Henry Kissinger, former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, former British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and many others.
Karol Nawrocki has said that under current conditions Kiev should not be in NATO either
Ukraine must meet specific conditions before joining the European Union and cannot currently become a NATO member,Polish President-elect Karol Nawrocki said in an interview with national media on Monday.
Nawrocki restated his stance on Kiev’s membership aspirations on Polsat News channel, as he prepares to take over presidential duties in early August. He confirmed that he intends to meet with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky after his inauguration.
“I am against Ukraine’s unconditional accession to the European Union,” Nawrocki said. It made strategic sense for Ukraine to join the 27-strong bloc, he said, but stressed that such a partnership must be grounded in equality.
Nawrocki recalled that Poland itself had to spend years meeting the EU’s entry requirements.
He mentioned friction between the two nations regarding Ukraine’s access to the Polish agricultural market and Kiev’s glorification of historical figures responsible for atrocities against Poles during World War II.
“Today, there is no possibility for Ukraine to join NATO,” Nawrocki added. He argued that Ukraine’s active conflict with Russia means that all NATO countries would be dragged in, in such a case.
Russia has long cited NATO’s pledge to admit Ukraine, first formally declared in 2008, as a core threat to its national security. Moscow has said deepening NATO-Ukraine ties since the 2014 coup in Kiev were a key factor underlying the current conflict.
The EU, originally established for economic integration, is increasingly seen in Moscow as a hostile military power in its own right. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently described it as “essentially a branch, or rather an appendage of NATO.”
Brussels has advocated a rapid military buildup across EU member states, projecting hundreds of billions of euros in defense spending as a deterrent to Moscow. Russian officials have dismissed these efforts as fear-based tactics meant to divert funding from social programs.
Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right, suffered a stunning blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.
The ruling, which Le Pen has appealed, banned her from standing for office for five years, which would scupper her ambition of taking part in the 2027 vote, in which President Emmanuel Macron cannot stand because of term limits.
Le Pen has denounced her conviction as a "political decision" and a "witch hunt".
"I have accepted the possibility that I may be unable to run. Jordan has accepted the possibility that he may have to take up the torch," Le Pen told French far-right weekly Valeurs Actuelles.
A Paris appeals court could reach a decision in the embezzlement ruling in summer 2026, which means Le Pen could still run if her conviction is overturned or the sentence amended.
"Until then, I will continue to fight," Le Pen told the magazine.
"Of course, the situation is not ideal. But what else do you suggest? That I commit suicide before I'm murdered?" she said.
She also said the anger of French voters should not be underestimated if she were barred from running, saying such a scenario could render the elections illegitimate.
"Many French people, regardless of their political convictions, would then understand that the rules of the game have been manipulated," Le Pen said.
Speaking to French daily Le Parisien in May, Bardella gave the clearest indication yet that he would be the RN candidate for president if Le Pen were unable to stand.
"There is no ambiguity about the fact that Marine Le Pen is my candidate, but that if she was prevented from running tomorrow, I think I can tell you that I would be her candidate," he told the newspaper.
"I cannot be clearer than that," Bardella said, emphasising "the overriding necessity to be united".
Le Pen had previously played down a potential candidacy for Bardella, saying in April that he would be the party's candidate "if she were hit by a truck".
The contours of the 2027 presidential election remain largely unclear, with only the centre-right former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe the main player to clearly state he will stand to replace Macron.
Le Pen scored her best-ever result in the 2022 presidential vote, surpassing both left-wing groupings and the conservative right-wing party.
But in March she was handed a five-year ban on running for office after being convicted of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament to channel funds to her party to employ people in France.
Gabon votes in first presidential election since coup ended
55-year Bongo dynasty
Africa
Gabon voted on Saturday for its first elected leader since a 2023 coup overthrew the Bongo dynasty, which had ruled Gabon for more than 55 years. The Bongo family has been accused of looting the wealth of a nation where a third of its 2.3 million people live in poverty despite the nation's vast oil resources.
Voters in Gabon headed to polling stations on Saturday in the first presidential election since a 2023 military coup ended a political dynasty that lasted for more than 50 years.
Some 920,000 voters, including over 28,000 overseas, were registered to participate across more than 3,000 polling stations. After voting ended at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), the interior ministry said turnout had run to 87.12 percent.
It is a crucial election for the country’s 2.3 million people, a third of whom live in poverty despite its vast oil wealth.
Nineteen months after overthrowing president Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for more 55 years, Nguema has pitched himself as a change agent cracking down on the corrupt old guard.
Nguema, 50, has criss-crossed Gabon in a baseball cap with the slogan, "We Build Together" during the campaign.
Polling stations opened at 7am (0600 GMT) and closed at 6pm (1700 GMT), with the result due on Sunday.
His main challenger is Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who was serving as prime minister under Bongo before the August 2023 coup, the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.
A new constitution approved in November cleared the way for Nguema's candidacy.
Analysts say his status as the frontrunner comes from a sense that people were broadly happy with the coup and him being the most visible candidate during the campaign.
Nze's close ties to the old government – which was accused by critics of vote-rigging – also undermine his warning that Nguema poses a threat to Gabonese democracy, said Florence Bernault, a historian of Central Africa at Sciences Po.
"He doesn't seem to be very well placed to criticise," Bernault said.
France 24
Power cuts
Gabon's economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023, driven in part by infrastructure projects and increased production of commodities such as oil, manganese and timber, according to the World Bank.
But many voters told Reuters they were mostly concerned about basic services, citing power cuts that plague the capital.
"We talk about it every day. So this is a primary urgency because we don't want to have this anymore, these daily power cuts," said 40-year-old electrician Herve Regis Ossouami.
"I don't know a Gabonese person who would say they don't want water and electricity."
Lukashenko tells Belarus officials to
self-fund ‘mistresses’
State money allocated to support athletics must be spent properly, the country’s president has declared
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called for the exclusion of personal expenses from state funds earmarked for promoting sports. Instead, he has urged top government officials to fund their “mistresses” with their own money.
Speaking on Friday at a meeting focused on support for physical culture and sports organizations, the Belarusian leader told officials to report on various issues, including oversight of state funds allocated to national sports clubs and federations.
“I want to warn you, guys, it’s not hard these days to track how this money is being spent – and we will track it,” Lukashenko cautioned.
“But I want to say, man to man, that you should support your family, loved ones, mistresses, or anyone else with your own money. That will be the right thing to do – both humanely and manfully,” the president added, noting that officials can earn money wherever they want.
Lukashenko expressed hope that his comments would prompt officials to draw the right conclusions.
“The real question is: how fairly – and more importantly, how responsibly – are clubs managing these funds? Or are they just blindly using them? What exactly are the finances being spent on?” he asked.
Combating corruption was one a key theme of Lukashenko’s presidential campaign ahead of an election held in January. In early February, the Central Election Commission declared the 70-year-old politician the winner with 86.82% of the vote. None of the other candidates received more than 5%.
In December, upon appointing Ruslan Chernetsky as Minister of Culture, the Belarusian leader expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the country’s film industry.
“I just want to say man-to-man, Ruslan – you have no other choice: either die, or bring order to the sector,” Lukashenko said at the time.
