the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

French train drivers, teachers and refinery workers were among those who walked off their jobs on Thursday (19 January) in a nationwide day of strikes against government plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.   by EURACTIV.com with Reuters  Part 2 - Public transport woes Public transport was severely disrupted. Only between one-in-three and one-in-five high-speed TGV lines were operating, with barely any local or regional trains running, the SNCF rail operator said. In Paris, some metro stations were closed and traffic was seriously disrupted, with few trains running. In the busy Gare du Nord station, people rushed to catch the few trains still operating while employees in yellow vests were assisting frazzled commuters. Zoheir Djema, 42, who arrived at the station from nearby Chantilly, said he would head back home after he found out there would be no return trains in the afternoon. Restaurant worker Beverly Gahinet, who missed work because her train was cancelled, said

Consortium News   The former leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, defends Julian Assange at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Washington DC. He appeals to politicians worldwide to recognise the threat that criminalising journalism poses, and stand up for their democracies and citizens' right to tell & know the truth.

The governments of Brazil and Argentina are making plans to create a new currency for Latin America, called the Sur (“south” in English), according to a report in the Financial Times . Other countries in the region will be invited to use the currency. Their goal is to “ boost regional trade and reduce reliance on the US dollar ”, the newspaper noted, citing government officials. Argentina’s Economic Minister Sergio Massa told the Financial Times that the South American nations will soon “ start studying the parameters needed for a common currency, which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks ”. Massa said they are preparing “ a study of mechanisms for trade integration ”. But he cautioned that it could take years to develop, and this is just “ first step on a long road which Latin America must travel ”. Brazil and Argentina will discuss the currency plans at the meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CE

BRICS is “developing a fairer system of monetary exchange” to challenge the “dominance of the dollar”, South Africa revealed. Saudi Arabia is considering selling oil in other currencies. Economist Zoltan Pozsar says the US “unipolar era” is over.   by Ben Norton  Part 1 The international economic system had been dominated for decades by the United States, but this financial architecture is rapidly fracturing with the creation of new institutions in the Global South. The BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is working “ to develop a fairer system of monetary exchange ”, to challenge the “ dominance of the dollar ”, South Africa’s foreign minister has revealed. Saudi Arabia publicly confirmed that it is considering selling its oil in other currencies. China’s President Xi Jinping said Beijing will buy energy from the Persian Gulf states in its own currency, the renminbi. Prominent economist Zoltan Pozsar, of the Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse, has observed th

Western sanctions led Russia to greatly increase trade with Asia, while devastating Europe’s economy. The US tech war against China is damaging its own industry.   by Renate Bridenthal  Part 3 - Western sanctions lead to more Russian self-sufficiency Sanctions have been raining down on Russia ever since, against individuals, companies, and government agencies, most importantly against its oil exports, but also against its sale of aluminum, uranium, and agricultural goods. Initial harm included a sizeable drop in Russia’s GDP and living standards, the loss of foreign investment, a sharp increase in inflation, and a temporary depreciation of the ruble. The U.S. later restricted Russia’s access to capital markets and to oil and gas extraction technology, which can inhibit Moscow’s financing of oil field development, notably in the Arctic, where Russia has the longest shoreline. However, Putin turned much of this around with policies of import substitution, government subsidies, and the na

Advancing global de-dollarization, China’s central bank is boosting its gold reserves while signing currency swap deals in yuan with countries like Argentina, encouraging the use of renminbi instead of US dollars.   by Ben Norton  Part 3 - Chinese and Argentine central banks sign yuan currency swap deal Argentina has struggled for centuries with odious debt owed to colonial and neo-colonial powers. Today, the South American nation is trapped in $44 billion in dollar-denominated debt with the IMF. Seeking to fortify its sovereignty and weaken US control, Argentina has strengthened its relations with China and Russia. China is already Argentina’s second-biggest trade partner, after Brazil, and the ties between the countries are growing. In February 2022, Buenos Aires joined Beijing’s massive global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. Argentina has also applied to join the expanded BRICS+ bloc, alongside Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. This January 8, the

Democracy Now!   In Washington, D.C., human rights and free speech advocates gather today for the Belmarsh Tribunal, focused on the imprisonment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been languishing for close to four years in the harsh Belmarsh prison in London while appealing extradition to the United States on espionage charges. If convicted, Assange could face up to 175 years in jail for publishing documents that exposed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five major news organizations that once partnered with WikiLeaks recently called on the Biden administration to drop charges against Assange.    British MP and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is in Washington, D.C., to participate in the Belmarsh Tribunal, speaks about Assange and freedom of the press. We also speaks about the state of leftism around the globe, from labor rights in the U.K. and Europe to the war in Ukraine, to political unrest in Brazil and Peru. 

globinfo freexchange     As we described many times in this blog, corporate power grew rapidly since the early 70s with the rise of neoliberalism and its subsequent establishment as the dominant culture, especially in the West.  In the motherland of neoliberalism, the United States, corporations essentially legalized corruption in politics during the 70s in order to capture the entire political system and put it under their complete control. As David Harvey describes in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism :                          The supposedly ‘progressive’ campaign finance laws of 1971 in effect legalized the financial corruption of politics. A crucial set of Supreme Court decisions began in 1976 when it was first established that the right of a corporation to make unlimited money contributions to political parties and political action committees was protected under the First Amendment guaranteeing the rights of individuals (in this instance corporations) to freedom of speec

Some of the most incendiary accusations made against Iran’s government by corporate media, celebrity influencers and Western leaders in the past months are little more than fabrications. And most remain uncorrected.   by Setareh Sadeqi and Christopher Weaver   Part 1   Protests in Iran that ostensibly began as a reaction to the death of a woman in police custody in September 2022 have prompted unprecedented international opposition to its government, not only from the usual Western, Israeli and Saudi suspects, but from celebrity social media influencers with no previous record of commenting on Iranian affairs. Iran is now the target of a carefully coordinated information war with a single goal to drive international support for regime change by any means – whether through sanctions, armed insurrection, military intervention, or some combination of the three. Before a largely uncritical audience of billions of admiring Instagram followers who do not speak Farsi and have little to no und

by Sarantis Michalopoulos   Part 2 - A blow to the rule of law   His opinion triggered strong reactions from all opposition parties and justice stakeholders. A common point of all reactions to the prosecutor’s opinion is that it essentially blocks ADAE’s controls, intimidates and hinders the investigation of the wiretapping scandal. “ The opinion of Mr Ntogiakos is a flagrant violation of the Constitution. No law and no opinion can invalidate the Constitution, and the mission of the ADAE defined there to control and ensure the privacy of communications, ” main opposition Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras (EU Left) said in a statement. Xenofon Contiades, professor and president of the Center for European Constitutional Law, slammed the prosecutor, saying the “ legal community will strongly oppose the unthinkable interference of the prosecutor in the constitutionally and legislatively enshrined mission of ADAE ”. The Greek government said it “ fully respects ” justice and blamed Tsipras for c