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Italy

New Homophobia Low: Facebook Page Urges Aborting 'Gay' Unborn

LA REPUBBLICA (Italy)

ROME – Online homophobia has reached a new low in Italy where a Facebook page circulated this month with the declaration: "Aborting a gay (fetus) is an act of faith."

Rome daily La Repubblica reported that the Italian language Facebook account was opened on June 19 with this false claim: "Thanks to the miracle of science we are able to impede (homosexuality)…Yes, I know that it is terrible to abort the poor babies affected by the gene of sodomy. But it is the lesser evil." Updates followed with bogus reports of scientific studies that could determine homosexuality in the unborn, and invented would-be mothers adding posts about having to decide to abort after finding out their baby would be gay.

The virtual space generated more than 2,000 comments, mostly but not all critical, before Facebook closed the page after a week of protests from civil rights groups and politicians. Several noted that beyond the false news in the digital troll, there was also "incitement to abort." Gay rights activists noted that Italy has no law specifically punishing acts of homophobia.

"I put myself in the shoes of young gay people who must read these things," Paola Concia, a member of the Italian Parliament, told La Repubblica.

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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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