the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

US sanctions have forced Russia to look at ways of securing its foreign reserves. In recent years, Moscow has increased purchases of physical gold and dramatically reduced its share of US debt bonds.
The political standoff started in 2014, shortly after the conflict in Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea in favor of joining Russia. Several rounds of US sanctions followed, with the latest affecting major Russian companies and individuals who run them.
In April, Russia sold half of its US sovereign debt bonds, getting rid of nearly $47 billion worth of securities, according to US Treasury data released last week. The sell-off is a signal that Russia’s financial regulators are diversifying the country’s foreign exchange reserves, say analysts at the Copenhagen-based Danske Bank.
Russia sold more than any other major foreign holder of US debt – even as its reserves grew on the back of rising oil prices. The country’s current stake shrank by nearly four times against the hefty holding of mor…

Omar Gomez Lucatero, an independent candidate who aspired to be the mayor of Aguililla in the state of Michoacan, was murdered next to the local cemetery, which is close to a military barracks. His death brings the number of politicians murdered to 120 since September 2017, since the official beginning of this latest electoral season, the most violent in the country's history.
The governor of Michoacan vowed to carry out detailed investigations to find the responsible people of Lucatero's murder.
According to local newspapers, Gomez was shot dead when exiting his home in Las Palomas community, located in a region called “Tierra Caliente.” The region is located between the states of Mexico, Guerrero and Michoacan, and has a high presence of criminal organizations of different sorts, including the Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Nueva Familia Michoacana cartels.
In a video uploaded to social media, the cousin of Gomez Lucatero says an armed group had arrived at the candidate's…

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As Julie Hyland, the assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK), mentioned in her recent speech outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London:
It is shameful that Jeremy Corbyn has not made a public statement in Julian’s defence since he was elected party leader, almost three years ago. There is no question that if he used his considerable support to pledge Labour’s defence of Assange and WikiLeaks, there would be thousands here today and those plotting against him would have to think twice.
The next weeks are critical. We call on workers and youth in Britain and across the world to break this wall of silence by renewing the fight for Assange’s freedom as vital to the defence of free speech and a critical and independent media.
And she is right.
The new Ecuadorian administration under Lenín Moreno tightens noose around Julian Assange and now Ecuador methodically pushes him into the hands of the US empire.

In a parallel action for the support of Julian …

globinfo freexchange
Ben Norton of the RealNews spoke with scholar Baris Karaagac about Turkey's economic ills, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party (AKP) neoliberal nationalist policies, and the repression against Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Leftists, and Kurds.
Karaagac reveals that there is a wider battle behind the rise of ultra-nationalism in Turkey, concerning the dominant ideology of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism's brutality is now quite evident in Turkey as the big capital is taking advantage of Erdogan's permanent state of emergency, in order to suppress workers' resistance and any demand for upgraded labor rights or other progressive policies.
Karaagac explains:
Erdogan sees the Kurdish movement and its political party, the HDP, as its most critical of opponents. That is the decisive force in terms of whether or not the AKP and Erdogan will remain in power, both in parliament and presidency.
The leader of the HDP has been in prison for more than one year, and…