the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

The currency hit a new record low Thursday of 39 pesos per U.S. dollar, making it the world's worst-performing currency. Argentina's central bank yanked higher its benchmark interest rate to a dizzying 60 percent on Thursday in a bid to control rampant inflation as the peso currency plummeted 15.6 percent to a record low 39 pesos per U.S. dollar. Latin America's third biggest economy is expected to shrink this year, weighed down by inflation running at 31 percent, while already-scare credit gets choked off by increasingly onerous borrowing costs. The central bank raised the rate from 45 percent. The central bank issued a statement saying it called a special meeting of its monetary policy committee, which voted unanimously to hike its key interest rate " in response to the foreign exchange rate situation and the risk of greater inflation. " The moves came a day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for the government to in

In the first physical settlement of the Chinese yuan-denominated oil futures contract, five companies will deliver a total of 600,000 barrels of Middle Eastern crude grades to buyers of the September futures contract. China’s crude oil futures launched in March, with crude set for delivery in September, the first month which the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) designated for deliveries in order to allow the contract to develop and accumulate volumes for physical delivery. The deliverability, the volume, and smooth process will be key to China fulfilling its ambition to have the yuan-priced oil futures contract become a major crude benchmark on a global scale like the Brent and WTI benchmarks, analysts told Reuters. The first such test will be next month, during which Chinese companies, including state-held majors, will deliver oil against the Chinese oil futures contract to storage facilities that are among the eight sites that the Shanghai exchange h

In a direct attack on democratic rights and freedom of speech, the newly-installed Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared its intent to deny courageous US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning a visa to address what are expected to be large audiences in major Australian cities. Just days before Manning was due to speak in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and then in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, the Australian government issued her with a “Notice on Intention” to deny her an entry visa. This was done on the spurious grounds that she fails the Migration Act’s “character test” because of a “substantial criminal record.” Similar moves are underway to ban her from New Zealand. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) condemns the planned political censorship and demands its immediate reversal. Manning is not a “criminal.” Her heroic act in leaking more than 750,000 classified US military and diplomatic documents, which were the

Progressives choose an increasingly defensive stance against the establishment pressure globinfo freexchange Last month, right after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' unprecedented victory, we immediately identified typical operations by the establishment machine to make Bernie's progressives comply with the US political status quo. It seems that the progressives are choosing an increasingly defensive stance against the establishment pressure, obviously because they fear that the smearing campaigns against them will be multiplied towards 2020 presidential election. Their further 'slippery' towards the establishment lines was really deafening, if we look at two tweets by Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, concerning John McCain: John McCain’s legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service. As an intern, I learned a lot about the power of humanity in government through his deep friendship with Sen. Kennedy. He meant so

Exclusive leaked scenes from Al Jazeera’s “The Lobby – USA” documentary show how Emergency Committee for Israel Executive Director Noah Pollak and the Hoover Institution astroturfed an inflammatory protest against the 2016 Students for Justice in Palestine national conference. by Max Blumenthal The Grayzone Project has released scenes from an investigative Al Jazeera undercover documentary, “The Lobby – USA,” whose publication was blocked by the government of Qatar under Israel lobby pressure. The footage reveals how Emergency Committee on Israel Executive Director Noah Pollak and the right-wing Hoover Institution organized an astroturfed a protest aimed at disrupting the 2016 Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) national conference. According to one Hoover Institution campus fellow, “ This is the first foot soldier activity that I think we’ve been forced to do. ” A Hoover fellow who identified himself as “Marshall,” explained the background of

From the Kosovo Protection Corps in the Balkans to the White Helmets of Syria, a group of well-connected people with the fundings of governments and elite billionaires have sought to wage a war on public opinion and have recently exploited Jo Cox’s death to do so. by Vanessa Beeley and Whitney Webb Part 3 - The Balkans, the Jo Cox Foundation and James Le Mesurier Unsurprisingly, the Jo Cox Foundation retrospectively endorses the NATO intervention in 1999 and upholds the narratives that manufactured consent for this NATO-state unlawful aggression that was never legitimized by a UN mandate. Jo Cox named her first child Lejla, in memory of a “ Bosniak genocide victim she met at Srebrenica. ” Cox based much of her argumentation for military intervention in Syria upon the dubious and deadly case for military interference in the Balkans. In February 2018, Brendan Cox resigned from both the Jo Cox Foundation and More In Common after sensationally admitting to being a r

If the paeans to McCain by diverse political climbers seems detached from reality, it’s because they reflect the elite view of U.S. military interventions as a chess game, with the millions killed by unprovoked aggression mere statistics. by Max Blumenthal Part 3 - ‘They are Not al-Qaeda’ When a violent insurgency swept through Libya in 2011, McCain parachuted into the country to meet with leaders of the main insurgent outfit, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), battling the government of Moamar Gaddafi. His goal was to make kosher this band of hardline Islamists in the eyes of the Obama administration, which was considering a military intervention at the time. What happened next is well documented, though it is scarcely discussed by a Washington political class that depended on the Benghazi charade to deflect from the real scandal of Libya’s societal destruction. Gaddafi’s motorcade was attacked by NATO jets, enabling a band of LIFG fighters to capture him, sod

As Chile nears its 45th anniversary since the socialist government of Salvador Allende was overthrown, former National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) and National Information Centre (CNI) agents are being released from prison on parole, despite having been handed multiple lengthy prison sentences. by Ramona Wadi Part 4 - Chile: where torturers seek the prosecution of investigative writers For Javier Rebolledo, who has dedicated his work and writing to uncovering and documenting dictatorship crimes, justice has proved to be nothing but a travesty. In July, El Desconcierto reported that former DINA agent Raul Pablo Quintana Salazar, who is serving a prison sentence in Punta Peuco, pressed charges of calumny against Rebolledo for information included in his book Camaleon. If the court rules in Quintana’s favor, the author faces a sentence of up to three years in prison. The purportedly injurious information relates to court testimony in which a former officer

The Labour leader's opponents don't care about anti-Semitism. They'll just do anything to remove Corbyn by David Hearst Part 5 - Everyone's fight The third victim of this campaign is anyone, be they Palestinian or Israeli, Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, who is identified and targeted by Israel as a dissenter. Let’s just record what happened to Jewish American journalist Peter Beinart at Ben Gurion Airport. Beinart, who has publicly expressed his support for boycotting products manufactured in the settlements in the occupied West Bank, was interrogated for an hour about his political writings and activities . " The session ended when my interrogator asked me, point blank, if I was planning to attend another protest, " Beinart wrote. " I answered truthfully: No. With that I was sent back to the holding room. " Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu immediately rowed back and claimed Beinart’s interrogation had been a

Brazil's Supreme Court will weigh in September an appeal by jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to be set free so he can join the presidential campaign already underway, a court spokesperson said on Monday. Lula was jailed in April to start serving a 12-year sentence on a corruption conviction, that the prosecutors have so far failed to bring concrete evidence for. He has appealed an earlier decision by a Supreme Court justice who rejected a habeas corpus writ his lawyers had filed seeking his release. The full 11-member court will now rule on the appeal by electronic vote between Sept. 7 and 13, the spokesperson said. Lula is leading polls by a long stretch ahead of the Oct. 7 vote despite not being able to campaign or take part in presidential debates. Even if Lula is freed while awaiting appeals of his conviction, Brazilian electoral court could also ban him from running based on the rule barring candidates whose guilty verdicts have bee

"Despite the severity of the situation we continue to see a complete disregard for the people in Yemen," says co-author of UN's investigative report by Jon Queally Evidence presented as part of a wide-ranging investigation sponsored by the United Nations and released Tuesday shows that the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates waging a war in Yemen—armed and with backing from the United States and the United Kingdom—have likely " perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, violations and crimes under international law. " Conducted by the Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen, a body of Yemen and regional experts created by the UN Human Rights Council, the report documents how indiscriminate bombing by the Saudi-led coalition has devastated the Yemeni population and details how civilian targets have repeatedly been struck. " Despite the severity of the situation we continue to see

Five days ago US National Security Advisor John Bolton warned the Syrian government against using chemical weapons in its offensive to liberate Idlib province from the jihadist militants that took control in 2015. Russia has said US naval ships, loaded with Tomahawk cruise missiles, have moved into the Mediterranean. These events are very similar to what occurred back in April when the US fired missiles at Syria for what it said what the use of chemical weapons. Although there has been debate over whether chemical weapons were in fact used, the US is said they are prepared to act again if needed. Related: ‘ Foreign specialists’ may stage chemical attack in Syria in 2 days to frame Assad

CNN’s blockbuster July 26 story – that Michael Cohen intended to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he was present when Donald Trump was told in advance about his son’s Trump Tower meeting with various Russians – includes a key statement about its sourcing that credible reporting now suggests was designed to have misled its audience. Yet CNN simply refuses to address the serious ethical and journalistic questions raised about its conduct. The substance of the CNN story itself regarding Cohen – which made headline news all over all the world and which CNN hyped as a “bombshell” – has now been retracted by other news outlets that originally purported to “confirm” CNN’s story. That’s because the anonymous source for this confirmation, Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis, now admits that, in essence, his “confirmation” was false. As a result, both the Washington Post and the NY Post outed Davis as their anonymous source and then effectively retracted their stories “confirming” parts o