Venezuela migrant crisis begs a 'coherent, predictable and harmonized' response: UNHCR
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-29
There is "no end in sight" to the massive movement of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, now at around 4.3 million in number, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) shared on Thursday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1045241
Brazil's Bolsonaro causes global outrage over Amazon fires
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-08-29
The far-right populist leader initially dismissed the hundreds of blazes and then questioned whether activist groups might have started the fires in an effort to damage the credibility of his government, which has called for looser environmental regulations in the world's largest rainforest to spur development. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/08/29/brazils-bolsonaro-causes-global-outrage-over-amazon-fires/
Live Updates: FARC Party Affirms Goal of Peace in Colombia
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Update: Colombia's President, Ivan Duque condemned the actions of the minority faction of the FARC and asked Interpol to step in while putting a bounty on information on those who have decided to take up arms. Duque also accused, without offering any proof, the government of Venezuela of being supportive of this faction. No mention was made of the inability of the government to provide security to social activists and former members of FARC who have been murdered since the signing of the Peace Agreement. He further announced the creation of a security detail in charge of tracking down the rebels. Finally, he s…
telesurenglish.net/news/Live-Updates-FARC-Party-Affirms-Goal-of-Peace-in-Colombia-20190829-0015.html
Massive March in Argentina to Protest Macri, IMF Policies
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Dozens of social movements and trade unions mobilized more than 250,000 people across Argentina, striking Wednesday under the "emergency to confront hunger" slogan. The protesters marched to demand the implementation of a food emergency bill, an extension of the social emergency bill, and an increase in the complementary social wage, among other basic social demands. | RELATED: | Default Looming? Argentina Asks IMF to Restructure Debt Payments | The organizations, union trades, along with ot…
telesurenglish.net/news/Massive-March-in-Argentina-to-Protest-Macri-IMF-Policies-20190828-0032.html
Argentina: Capitalist Offers Payouts To Staff If Macri Succeeds
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Two leading businessmen, one of whom is a lawmaker, in Argentina, are offering large sums of money to their workers if neoliberal President Mauricio Macri succeeds in reaching the second round, and ultimately, wins. The offer of 'cash for votes' has been condemned as bribery and demagogic. | RELATED: | Massive March in Argentina to Protest Macri, IMF Policies…
telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-Capitalist-Offers-Payouts-To-Staff-If-Macri-Succeeds-20190829-0005.html
Maduro Confirms New Dialogue With Venezuelan Opposition
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, confirmed on Wednesday that his Government resumed contacts with Norway to engage in dialogue with the opposition, after the freezing of the negotiating table in protest against the executive order imposed by the U.S. against the South American nation. | RELATED: | Cuba, Canada Meet to Discuss US Intervention in Venezuela | "I can report that contacts with the Norwegian government have resumed, there have been several meetings, contacts wit…
telesurenglish.net/news/Maduro-Confirms-New-Dialogue-With-Venezuelan-Opposition-20190829-0009.html
How Bolsonaro's climate change denial & anti-indigenous policies led to massive fires in the Amazon
Amy Goodman | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-29
In Brazil, fires continue to rage in the Amazon, and new drone footage shows the smoke and flames gathering strength. A vast plume of smoke has spread across South America and the Atlantic Ocean and is visible from space. The fires are also destroying large swaths of land in Bolivia. The fires are unprecedented in …
nationofchange.org/2019/08/29/how-bolsonaros-climate-change-denial-anti-indigenous-policies-led-to-massive-fires-in-the-amazon/
Amazon Fires Will Have Global Consequences. The UN Must Act
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-29
| The Amazon is burning. Nearly 75,000 fires have started in the iconic Brazilian rainforest this year to date, an 84 percent increase from the year before. Since August 10, a spate of intentionally set fires have been raging in the Amazon. But Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro, who t…
truthout.org/articles/amazon-fires-will-have-global-consequences-the-un-must-act/
"The Amazon is not empty land": Indigenous people's fight for life in Brazil
CP Editor | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-29
counterpunch.org/2019/08/29/the-amazon-is-not-empty-land-indigenous-peoples-fight-for-life-in-brazil/
Indigenous Women of the Amazon Send a Call: The Fight for Mother Earth Is the Mother of All Fights
Osprey Orielle Lake | commondreams.org | 2019-08-29
A fire burns trees next to grazing land in the Amazon basin in Ze Doca, Brazil. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/amazon_fires_0.jpeg …
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/29/indigenous-women-amazon-send-call-fight-mother-earth-mother-all-fights?cd-origin=rss
Neocolonialism Will Spell the Amazon's Demise
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-29
The 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz unnecessarily handed Brazil's Neofascist Bolsonaro a propaganda coup with which to rally his dwindling support. With his approval falling to record lows and facing international attacks of unprecedented intensity, their colonial-sounding rhetoric allowed him to appear heroically nationalistic, a defender of Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon, when in reality he and his government are fully geared to serve the interests of foreign capital in true comprador tradition. | Jair Bolsonaro is effectively the G7's guy. H…
truthdig.com/articles/neocolonialism-will-spell-the-amazons-demise/
Brazil, the Amazon, and Global Warming
Dean Baker | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-29
Brazil has gotten a huge amount of bad press with the fires in the Amazon with the emphasis on the harm its development policies are doing to efforts to limit global warming. While the policies of Brazil's right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, are disastrous, there is an important part of the story that is being left…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/29/brazil-the-amazon-and-global-warming/
Colombia: Over 8 Million People Have Been Affected by War
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
Up to August 1, 2019, the Colombian armed conflict had generated 8,874,110 "registered" victims, according to the National System of Attention and Reparation for Victims (SNARIV), an official policy instrument created in 2012 to comply with the Land Restitution and Victims Act (Law 1448). | RELATED: | Minority Faction of FARC Leadership Take Up Arms | Among the accumulated historical national data, there are also 7,535,682 people displaced from their homes, 1,009,990 homicides, 416,463 peopl…
telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Over-8-Million-People-Have-Been-Affected-by-War-20190829-0014.html
Belarus Wants to Reset Diplomatic Ties With US: Lukashenko
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-29
The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, met with the U.S. National Security Official, John Bolton, in the capital city of Minsk Thursday as the two nations seek to strengthen their diplomatic ties. | RELATED: | Bolton Bemoans Venezuela's Upcoming Democratic Elections | During Bolton's visit, Lukashenko expressed Belarus' desire to 'reset' relations with the United States, despite Minsk's close ties with Russia. | "Despite all the noise around your visit, there is a lot of pos…
telesurenglish.net/news/Belarus-Wants-to-Reset-Diplomatic-Ties-With-US-Lukashenko-20190829-0003.html
No Refuge for the Amazon in Evo Morales' Bolivia
Devin Beaulieu | commondreams.org | 2019-08-29
Response by the ideologically leftwing government of Evo Morales has been forced, instead, largely due to domestic pressure by Bolivians that increasingly view the response as not only as too little too late, but also directly blame Morales' pro-development policies for ongoing destruction of the Amazon. (Photo: Evo Morales by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/gettyimages-1155098303.jpg …
commondreams.org/views/2019/08/29/no-refuge-amazon-evo-morales-bolivia?cd-origin=rss
The Other Man-Made Disaster Ravaging the Amazon
Leo Schwartz | thenation.com | 2019-08-29
The Other Man-Made Disaster Ravaging the Amazon…
thenation.com/article/peru-la-pampa-illegal-gold-mining/
Report: One Venezuelan Migrant Killed Every Day in Colombia
Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-28
Criminal activity and xenophobic attacks have been cited among the main causes.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14641
US Opens Venezuela Interest Section in Colombia as Guaido Rebuffs Further Talks
Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-28
It remains unclear whether the new Venezuela Affairs Unit will facilitate talks with Caracas.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14640
Argentina Asks IMF to Restructure Debt Payments
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-28
Argentina will renegotiate with the holders of its sovereign bonds and the International Monetary Fund to extend the final payment date of its debt obligations as a way of ensuring the country's ability to pay, Minister of Economy Hernan Lacunza informed Wednesday. | RELATED: | Argentina: 'IMF is Responsible for the Catastrophe', Fernandez | "The markets will see this as a default," Hernan Esteves, an economist with Buenos Aires consultancy FyEConsult, told Reuters, adding that "th…
telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-Asks-IMF-to-Restructure-Debt-Payments-20190828-0027.html
Transnational Honda shuts down production in Argentina
wsws.org | 2019-08-28
Honda said it was discontinuing car production in Argentina, "in the face of abrupt changes occurring to automobile industries around the world."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/28/hond-a28.html
Canada and Bolsonaro
Yves Engler | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-28
By now most environmentally conscious people understand that Jair Bolsonaro is a bad guy. Brazil's president has scandalously blamed environmentalists for starting fires burning in the Amazon region, after having called for more "development" of the huge forests. Canadians are lucky we have a prime minister who is not such an embarrassment and understands environmental…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/28/canada-and-bolsonaro/
Cuba, Canada Meet to Discuss US Intervention in Venezuela
teleSUR-EF | telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-28
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel reiterated his country's solidarity with Venezuela during a meeting Wednesday with Canadian Foreign Minister Cynthia Freeland upon her official visit to Havana. | RELATED: | Purdue Pharma Threatens Bankruptcy To Settle Opioid Lawsuits | During the meeting, Diaz-Canel told Freeland of his "concern" about the damage being caused to Venezuela and its population by "economic sanctions, siege policies and isolation" as a result of the United States'…
telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Canada-Meet-to-Discuss-US-Intervention-in-Venezuela-20190828-0031.html
How Bolsonaro's Climate Change Denial & Anti-Indigenous Policies Led to Massive Fires in the Amazon
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-28
In Brazil, fires continue to rage in the Amazon, and new drone footage shows the smoke and flames gathering strength. A vast plume of smoke has spread across South America and the Atlantic Ocean and is visible from space. The fires are also destroying large swaths of land in Bolivia. The fires are unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. So far this year, there have been nearly 73,000 fires in Brazil, with over half of them in the Amazon region — an 83% increase from the same period last year. Far-right Brazil…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/28/brazil_jair_bolsonaro_unprecedented_amazon_fires
What Will It Take To Declare A Climate Emergency?
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-27
Students march in Melbourne, Australia. Source AAP. The Embassy Protectors Defense Committee is calling on the US State Department to drop the federal charges against us. On May 16, federal forces invaded the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC in violation of the Vienna Convention and arrested four Embassy Protectors even though we were there with …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/what-will-it-take-to-declare-a-climate-emergency/
Clampdown on Housing Rights Activists in Bolsonaro's Brazil
Michael Fox | thenation.com | 2019-08-27
Clampdown on Housing Rights Activists in Bolsonaro's Brazil…
thenation.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-activists-housing-homeless-rights/
Rainforest on Fire: Brazilians Mobilize Against President's Amazon Policies
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-27
Mobilizations took place throughout Brazil on Monday, to declare their opposition to President Bolsonaro's environmental policies, which have contributed to the largest increase in Amazon rainforest fires in years…
therealnews.com/stories/rainforest-on-fire-brazilians-mobilize-against-presidents-amazon-policies
A Top Financier of Trump and McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation
Ryan Grim | theintercept.com | 2019-08-27
Steve Schwarzman is the CEO of the Blackstone Group, which partially owns a Brazilian firm that is helping transform the Amazon from jungle to farmland.
theintercept.com/2019/08/27/amazon-rainforest-fire-blackstone/
Glenn Greenwald on the Amazon fires and the fight for Brazil's future
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-27
Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept discusses the record-setting Amazon forest fires, the struggle against Brazil's far-right government, and how his…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/27/glenn-greenwald-on-the-amazon-fires-and-the-fight-for-brazils-future/
Amazonia in Flames
Peter Koenig | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-27
On 28 October 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil with 55.1% of the vote and with a gigantic help from Cambridge Analytica. At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2019 in Davos Switzerland, Bolsonaro made a sumptuous presentation, "We Are Building a New Brazil". He outlined a program that put literally Brazil up …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/amazonia-in-flames/
Canada's PM Trudeau Supports Brazil's Environmentally Criminal President not the Amazon Rain Forest
Yves Engler | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-27
By now most environmentally conscious people understand that Jair Bolsonaro is a bad guy. Brazil's president has scandalously blamed environmentalists for starting fires burning in the Amazon region, after having called for more "development" of the huge forests. Canadians are lucky we have a prime minister who is not such an embarrassment and understands environmental …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/canadas-pm-trudeau-supports-brazils-environmentally-criminal-president-not-the-amazon-rain-forest/
Venezuela: "Landowners Persecute and Murder the Yukpa with Impunity"
Alex Anfruns | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-27
The French journalist Angèle Savino lived in Venezuela for thirteen years, during which time she followed closely the conflict between the Yukpa and the major landowners. "After Chavez decided to hand over the land to the Yukpa, the assassinations ensued" — she confides. Convinced that in Venezuela, the indigenous struggle for land is also that …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/venezuela-landowners-persecute-and-murder-the-yukpa-with-impunity/
Football is 'refuge for those who have left everything'; UN initiative aims to bolster well-being of refugee, migrant children in Peru
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-27
Sport brings people together "regardless of conditions or flags", a senior United Nations official in Perú said on Tuesday referring to a new initiative launched over this past weekend to promote the well-being of children and youth in Lima's refugee and migrant communities through football.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1044991
Venezuela: Major Gas Explosion Called Act of 'Sabotage'
TeleSur English | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-26
Government spokespersons have blamed opposition activists from First Justice Party.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14637
MLB Breaks Ties with Venezuelan Baseball over US Embargo
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-26
All US-based ball players, including Venezuelan nationals, are now barred from playing in Venezuela.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14639
Max Blumenthal: US sanctions on Venezuela are 'sociopathic'
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-25
The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discusses his heated exchange with a former Obama official and a member of Venezuela's far-right opposition…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/25/max-blumenthal-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-are-sociopathic/
La Via Campesina: Burning the Amazon is a crime against humanity
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-25
Amazon rainforest La Via CampesinaIssue 1235 Brazil climate emergencyAugust 26, 2019La Via Campesina is a global social movement that unites 148 groups representing small farmers, peasants, rural workers and indigenous communities around the world. | It fights for…
greenleft.org.au/content/la-via-campesina-burning-amazon-crime-against-humanity
Analysis and implications of the Argentine elections
unitedEditor | uwidata.com | 2019-08-24
The victory of Alberto Fernández in the PASO has generated a financial, social and political earthquake in Argentina. Who is Fernández, and what would his victory mean for the crisis-worn South American country? Argentina's internal political context Fernández' incumbent opponent, Mauricio Macri, was likely surprised that, after the economic and social disasters of left-wing Peronism …
uwidata.com/5041-analysis-and-implications-of-the-argentine-elections/
Brazil Isn't the Only Far-Right Government Destroying the Planet
Basav Sen | progressive.org | 2019-08-24
As the Amazon burns, the terrifying parallels between the U.S. and Brazilian governments highlight the damage authoritarian leaders are doing.
progressive.org/dispatches/brazil-far-right-destroying-planet-sen-190824/
Argentina's Economic Crisis Deepens as Macri Applies IMF Measures
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-23
President Macri is trying to blame his predecessor and likely successor in office, Cristina Fernandez and Alberto Fernandez for Argentina's steep economic crisis. However, the IMF plan he is applying lays out very clearly where the real blame lies, says CEPR's Mark Weisbrot…
therealnews.com/stories/argentinas-economic-crisis-deepens-as-macri-applies-imf-measures
GOP Lobbyists Help Brazil Recruit U.S. Companies to Exploit the Amazon
Lee Fang | theintercept.com | 2019-08-23
This summer, fires are being used to clear wide swaths of the Amazon at an unprecedented rate. One-fifth of the Amazon has already been destroyed in the past 50 years; further industrialization of the rainforest risks destroying another fifth, a loss that would be catastrophic for the global ecosystem. | The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world's largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests a…
theintercept.com/2019/08/23/gop-lobbyists-help-brazil-recruit-u-s-companies-to-exploit-the-amazon/
Venezuela's Maduro Confirms Secret Trump Talks as US Navy 'Ready' For Action
Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-23
US Southern Command chief said US Navy will "do what needs to be done."
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14634
Bolivian Mine Workers Strike Against one of World's Largest Mining Corporations
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-23
The Japanese Sumitomo corporation runs one of the world's largest zinc, copper, and lead mines in Bolivia, where it has been denying workers overtime pay, despite a court order to pay them. We talk to the mine workers' union president, Henry Cayo…
therealnews.com/stories/bolivian-mine-workers-strike-against-one-of-worlds-largest-mining-corporations
"Our House Is On Fire": Brazil Faces Global Outrage as Massive Fires Spread in Amazon Rainforest
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The United Nations is calling for the protection of the Amazon amid fears that thousands of fires raging across Brazil and some parts of Bolivia are rapidly destroying the world's largest rainforest and paving the way for a climate catastrophe. The fires have spread a vast plume of smoke across South America and the Atlantic Ocean that's visible from space. They're unprecedented in recorded history, and environmentalists say most of the fires were deliberately set by illegal miners and cattle ranchers. Indigenous people in Brazil have accused far-right President Jair Bolsonaro of encouraging the destruction. Bols…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merkley_us_nuclear_policy_green
Sen. Merkley on the Dangers of a New Nuclear Arms Race & Why He Backs the Green New Deal
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
Fallout from the Trump administration's decision to pull out of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is mounting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to prepare for what he called a "symmetrical response" after the U.S. tested what it said was a nonnuclear cruise missile earlier this week. The U.S. launch was the first test of its kind since the Trump administration withdrew from the INF. We speak to Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon about U.S. nuclear policy, as well as the Green New Deal, President Trump's wish to buy Greenland and…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/amazon_fires_brazil_andrew_miller
Collusion in Brazil's judiciary brings the curtain down on the rule of law
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-22
corruption Tony RosenbergIssue 1234 Brazil Operation Car WashAugust 22, 2019Messages between Brazil's federal prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, who led Operaàßà£o Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) and then-judge, Sergio Moro, have revealed that the evidence used…
greenleft.org.au/content/collusion-brazil-judiciary-brings-curtain-down-rule-law
Meet Alvaro Enciso, the Artist Placing Crosses in Sonoran Desert to Memorialize Migrant Deaths
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-21
More than 3,000 human remains have been found in the Sonoran Desert, most of them of migrants fleeing their home countries to embark on an uncertain and perilous journey to the United States. On a recent visit to the Arizona borderlands, Democracy Now! accompanied Tucson-based artist Alvaro Enciso into the desert at the site where he placed four unique markers to honor four immigrants killed in a car accident years ago as they fled from Border Patrol. In the past five years, Enciso, who is originally from Colombia, has built and installed over 900 crosses across the treacherous Sonoran Desert in Arizona as part o…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/21/alvaro_enciso_unique_crosses_sonoran_desert
40 rebuttals to the media's smears of Julian Assange — by someone who was actually there
Fidel Narváez | thegrayzone.com | 2019-08-20
A former diplomat who worked in the Ecuadorian embassy while Julian Assange lived there in asylum debunks 40 of CNN's…
thegrayzone.com/2019/08/20/cnn-media-smears-julian-assange-fidel-narvaez/
Say no to the McCarthyite attack on Chicago teachers
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-08-20
As the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) find itself locked in tough contract negotiations and faces the possibility of a strike, corporate and right-wing media like the Chicago Tribune, Breitbart and others have launched a bizarre attack that seems like it is straight out of the 1950s red scare. Rather than addressing the real problems impacting teachers and students in Chicago schools, these reactionary pundits have decided the rant and rave about – of all things – a delegation of teachers that traveled to Venezuela earlier this summer. | Here are the facts of the matter. A group of teachers who are also members of…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/8/20/say-no-mccarthyite-attack-chicago-teachers
Venezuela Oil Production Continues Slump as US Embargo Deters Foreign Trade
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-19
July's production was 740,000 barrels per day, 4 percent lower than in June.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14631
Venezuelan Opposition Journalist Served as Agent for US, UK Gov't
TeleSUR English | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-08-14
In a U.S. diplomatic cable, Bocaranda is dubbed a "reliable source" and to be "strictly protected."
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14627