the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Bolivian coup leader Luis Fernando Camacho is a far-right multi-millionaire who arose from fascist movements in the Santa Cruz region, where the US has encouraged separatism. He has courted support from Colombia, Brazil, and the Venezuelan opposition. by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton Part 8 - Mesa and Camacho: a marriage of capitalist convenience Back in Bolivia, Carlos Mesa occupied the spotlight as the opposition’s presidential candidate. His erudite image and centrist policy proposals put him in a seemingly alternate political universe from fire-breathing rightists like Camacho and Marinkovic. For them, he was a convenient front man and acceptable candidate who promised to defend their economic interests. “ It might be that he is not my favorite, but I’m going to vote for him, because I don’t want Evo, ” Marinkovic told a right-wing Argentine newspaper five days before the election. Indeed, it was Camacho’s practical financial interests that appeared to have neces

Ukrainian fascists who previously fought in a US-backed neo-Nazi militia joined the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, sharing their tactics and showing off their tattoos. by Ben Norton Part 2 - Ukrainian fascists join Hong Kong insurgency On December 1, the far-right activist Serhii Filimonov posted photos on Facebook showing himself and three Ukrainian friends upon their arrival in Hong Kong. The images were accompanied by the anti-Beijing’s unofficial slogan: “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong!!” Stand With Hong Kong is also the name of a Western-backed organization that has been lobbying the governments of the US, Britain, Germany, Canada, and Australia to impose sanctions and take punitive action against China. In a video they posted on social media, the Ukrainian white supremacists revealed that they had obtained a press pass, misleadingly portraying themselves as journalists. Joining Filimonov on the trip to Hong Kong was a notorious extreme-right Ukra

The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review.  globinfo freexchange   A cable from December, 2002, proves that the US officials were closely monitoring anti-war activities. The particular cable was describing a protest " against a possible U.S.-led operation against Iraq " in Istanbul, Turkey, an

In the past six months, the US has been playing up the idea of threats posed by Iran, and has been steadily announcing new deployments into the Middle East, mostly to Saudi Arabia and the vicinity, and very publicly aimed at Iran. With over 10,000 US troops already deployed, the Trump Administration is now considering an even larger deployment, again aimed at “countering Iran,” and potentially more than doubling the US footprint. The new plan would include dozens of additional US warships, substantial military hardware, and as many as 14,000 more US ground troops. It’s not clear where exactly these troops would be sent, but with Iraq already saying they don’t want any more, Saudi Arabia would likely be taking some of them. Each new deployment just adds to the tensions, and with Pentagon officials openly talking about the possibility of Iran attacking the US presence in the region, constant additions to that presence only raise the risk of war. Deployments raising the threat

The Real News Network Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced plans to cut SNAP benefits that could drive millions further into poverty. Liz Theoharis of the Poor People's Campaign and Karen Dolan of IPS join Marc Steiner to discuss the implications.

For nine months, travellers passing through the Hungarian-Serbian border, the Latvian-Russian border and the Greek-North Macedonian border, were given the option to participate in a video call with a virtual border guard prior to their crossing. The avatar would ask them a series of questions, from confirming their identity to describing the contents of their luggage, whilst recording and analysing their facial movements to determine the likelihood that they were lying. This software, called iBorderCtrl and funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 fund, is the latest in a stream of technologies being spearheaded by companies and governments around the world counting on the promise of AI – in this case Machine Learning – to solve social and political problems. The funding and testing of this technology comes amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the EU border, with thousands of migrants in transit arriving into Greece, Italy or via the EU’s land border in the Balkans. This crisis, of

Luego de presidir el golpe en Bolivia, los Estados Unidos declararon a Nicaragua como una “amenaza a la seguridad nacional” anunciando nuevas sanciones, al mismo tiempo que Trump designó a los carteles del narcotráfico en México como “terroristas” sin descartar una intervención militar. por Ben Norton Parte 2 - La administración Trump declara a Nicaragua una “amenaza a su seguridad nacional” Un día después del golpe en Bolivia, la Casa Blanca publicó un comunicado aplaudiendo el putsch militar y dejando claro cuáles son los dos países que vienen a continuación en la lista de objetivos de Washington: “Estos eventos envían una fuerte señal a los regímenes ilegítimos de Venezuela y Nicaragua”, declaró Trump. El 25 de noviembre, la Casa Blanca de Trump, de forma discreta publicó un comunicado caracterizando a Nicaragua como “una amenaza inusual y extraordinaria a la seguridad nacional y la política exterior de los Estados Unidos”. Esto prolonga un año más la orden ejecutiva

After presiding over a far-right coup in Bolivia, the US dubbed Nicaragua a “national security threat” and announced new sanctions, while Trump designated drug cartels in Mexico as “terrorists” and refused to rule out military intervention. by Ben Norton Part 3 - More aggressive US sanctions against Nicaragua Voice of America (VOA), the US government’s main foreign broadcasting service, noted that the extension of the executive order will be followed with more economic attacks. Washington’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Carlos Trujillo, told VOA, “ The pressure against Nicaragua is going to continue. ” The OAS representative added that Trump will be announcing new sanctions against the Nicaraguan government in the coming weeks. VOA stated clearly that “ Nicaragua, along with Cuba and Venezuela, is one of the Latin American countries whose government Trump has made a priority to put diplomatic and economic pressure on to bring about regime ch

The Jewish community’s alienation from Labour has been years in the making - but it is Johnson's Conservatives who have embraced hostility to minorities Jonathan Cook Part 4 - Other Jewish voices In contrast to the manufactured media consensus on Corbyn, an interview this month with John Bercow, the former Speaker of the House of Commons, was a reminder that there are contrary voices inside the Jewish community. After 22 years serving in parliament alongside Corbyn, Bercow observed of the Labour leader: “ I have never detected so much as a whiff of antisemitism from him. ” Nor, he added, from the Labour Party. There are good reasons why more Jews may be reluctant to speak up on Corbyn’s behalf, however. Last April, Jewish actor Miriam Margolyes found herself accused of antisemitism after she argued that the antisemitism complaints against Labour were being exaggerated to stop Corbyn from becoming prime minister. In a telling sign of how the climate against Corbyn i

While Lebanon’s protests remain focused on the economy and widespread corruption, Washington is increasingly determined to exploit the movement as a geopolitical weapon in the region. by Rania Khalek Part 2 - A leaderless resistance pressures the government Based in downtown Beirut, the protests initially included Hezbollah’s working-class base and civil society activists, symbolizing a rejection of the sectarian power-sharing system that was installed under French colonial rule and re-enforced under the post-civil war Taif agreement. Within days, however, the protests began to morph into a strange leaderless mix of middle and lower middle class students, along with liberals, civil society and NGO activists, US-backed political parties, small leftist groups, hipster types, and anti-Hezbollah activists.  While the vast majority of protesters simply sought a functioning government that could provide for their basic needs, the current make-up of their movement and lack