"Intentionally not remembered":how the German authorities are trying to stop ...the celebration of Victory Day
by Irina Taran
May 8th, 9:20pm
(RT.ru)
German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, congratulated citizens on
the day of liberation from Nazism on social media, without
mentioning the Soviet Union. This caused a wave of
criticism among users ----- who also expressed
dissatisfaction with the ban on Soviet
symbols at military memorials in Berlin on May 8-9.
Earlier, the Russian Embassy in Germany --- demanded that this
decision be reversed, and the Russian Foreign Ministry called
this measure a shame. According to experts, the German
authorities are attempting to rewrite history by
deliberately ignoring the crucial role of the
Red Army in liberating both Germany
and the rest of Europe.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz congratulated the Germans
on the day of their liberation from Nazism, without mentioning
the USSR.
Also, some participants in this discussion, expressed
their dissatisfaction with the ban on Soviet symbols
at military memorials in Berlin on May 8-9.
Sevim Dagdelen, a foreign policy expert from the German BSW
party, criticized this move on the social media platform X.
She called the ban on using the "banner of the liberators
from fascism" - a shame. Additionally, Dagdelen quoted Ernest Hemingway's "Greeting to the Soviet Army on Its 24th Anniversary," written in February 1942.
In this text, Hemingway stated that anyone who loves freedom - "owes a debt to the Red Army
that they will never be able to repay."
Moscow's position
It is worth noting that the German authorities - have imposed a
ban on the display of Victory symbols at Berlin's three largest
war memorials: Treptower Park, Tiergarten, and Schönerer
Heide. These measures will remain in effect until 23:00
Moscow time on May 9. They include the display of
Soviet, LPR, DPR, Crimean, Zaporizhzhia, and
Kherson region flags, military uniforms, Saint George's ribbons, and other symbols.
Additionally, the display and performance of Russian military songs and marches --- is prohibited.
The Russian embassy demanded - that these measures be lifted.
The diplomats emphasized that the German authorities wanted
to restrict the rights of the descendants of Soviet soldiers who
liberated the city, as well as the residents and visitors who
wanted to celebrate the holiday in a dignified manner.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also called the ban
...a shame.
"It's a shame that... Mertz... has brought shame upon his country
--- by prohibiting the use of Victory symbols by those who want
to honour the German anti-fascists who sacrificed their lives,"
said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria
Zakharova, during a briefing.
In addition, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev
drew attention to the fact that there are aspects of German
and European historiography where the role of the Red
Army in defeating the Nazi regime ---- and liberating
Europe - is presented in an unobjective manner.
As he said in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper,
attempts are being made to reinterpret the significance and
meaning of Soviet monuments in Germany. Nechaev
emphasized: that Soviet soldiers came to Europe
as liberators from Nazism - and cleared these
territories of this terrible phenomenon.
Now, attempts are being made to “reinterpret this significance,”
and Moscow is resolutely opposing them, Nechaev said.
He emphasized --- that the Soviet Union played a
crucial role in the victory.
"Erase from mass consciousness"
For their part, political analysts state --- that the German
authorities are trying to rewrite history by deliberately
omitting the decisive role of the Red Army in the
liberation of Germany and Europe.
"By banning Victory symbols and deliberately omitting the role
of the Red Army, the German leadership is trying to erase the
historical truth that is inconvenient for modern Germany -
...from people's memories. The ban on holiday symbols
is a way to completely erase the sense of gratitude
towards the liberating people, from the German
public consciousness," Pavel Feldman ---- a
professor at the Academy of Labour and
Social Relations and a candidate of
political sciences, told RT.
According to him, the German authorities are deliberately
trying to devalue the contribution of the USSR ---- and
therefore of Russia, to the liberation of the world
from Nazism.
"This is petty, ungrateful, and, from an historical perspective,
extremely dangerous for Germany itself, as those who
forget the lessons of the past ---- risk repeating the
same mistakes. Merz...... is turning a blind eye to
a rehabilitation of SS units in the Baltic states
and Ukraine, while simultaneously banning
anti-fascist symbols in Germany.
''This behaviour suggests that the German authorities may
be subconsciously viewing themselves as the heirs and successors of the regime that was defeated by the
Soviet army in 1945," Feldman said.
Nikolai Mezhevich, Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of
Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences --- pointed out
that the desire to rewrite history is not limited to Germany
..but extends to the entire EU. The analyst noted that the
EU Commissioner for Defense, Andrius Kubilius, also..
failed to mention the crucial role -- played by the
Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany.
"Please note that in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, serious
persecution has been declared -- against anyone who is
willing to celebrate May 9. All they need to do is wear
a badge, even if ------- it's a badge with a picture of
Nicholas II, who has nothing to do with May 9.
In this regard Germany is lagging behind the
Baltic states. However ------- Germany will
continue to implement its initiatives....
aimed at erasing historical memory,"
said Mezhevich in an interview
with RT.
According to Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the
Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, the German
leadership's position --- is to reject the idea of
Germany's guilt for the outbreak of World
War II - and the events that occurred
during this conflict.
"Germany deliberately does not mention the policies and plans
of Nazi Germany regarding the Soviet Union and its peoples.
In general, Germany is currently pursuing a policy of
militarization, aiming to become the largest
military power in the EU once again, and
is planning a large-scale war with
Russia," Nemensky said in an
interview with RT.
However, the memory of the Third Reich's crimes
in Eastern Europe ------ is a significant obstacle in
preparing for such a scenario, the analyst noted.
"All of this --- is being done to prepare public opinion for a
new major military conflict in the east. To achieve this,
Russians and Russia must once again be demonized,
and the enormous contribution of the Red Army to
the liberation of Europe from fascism must be....
forgotten," Nemensky concluded.
___________________________________
The German government has avoided
answering the question.. about the
country's liberators from Nazism
May 8th, 8:45pm
(RT.ru)
Steffen Meyer, Deputy Spokesperson for the German
Government, declined to answer the question of
who liberated Germany from Nazism.
The agency RIA Novosti drew attention to this.
It is noted that at a government briefing, a journalist
asked Mayer whether German Chancellor Friedrich
Merz intentionally did not mention the liberators
in order to avoid mentioning Russia or
the USSR.
The government spokesman replied that he believed it
could be due to "a limit on the number of characters
in social network X."
The journalist then asked directly who the liberators
were. According to the agency, Mayer replied that
"this is historically well-documented." However,
when the journalist asked him to name the
liberators, Mayer remained silent.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said
that there are calls in Europe ---to repeat Hitler's
experience--- and preparations are underway
for an attack on Russia.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council
Dmitry Medvedev noted: that Germany has not
undergone a real denazification.
__________________________________
MP: The revival of Nazism in Europe
will have serious consequences
for Europe
by Polina Poletaeva
May 8th, 18:10pm
(RT.ru)
Alexey Chepa, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma
Committee on International Affairs, spoke to RT about
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's decision not to
mention the Soviet Union in his statement on the
anniversary of the liberation from the
Nazi regime.
The parliamentarian reminded the German
Chancellor .........of his Nazi ancestors.
"He's a fascist by nature. We all know Mertz's opinion,
and he's not popular. Everyone understands who he
is," Chepa said.
The RT interlocutor, also expressed confidence that
the revival of Nazism in Europe would have serious
consequences for the country.
Earlier, it was reported that Merz had published a
statement on the occasion of the anniversary of
the liberation from the Nazi regime, without
mentioning the Soviet Union ---- or the
soldiers of the Red Army.
In his address, the Chancellor also stated that
this date obliges Germany: to stand up for a
free, democratic, and united country in a
"strong Europe."
_________________________________________
The German Foreign Ministry: has
presented a plan for ''reforming''
the EU
May 6th, 9:23pm
(Izvestia.ru)
German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul announced
the need to reform the EU on Wednesday, May 6, and
presented a corresponding plan.
The transformation plan includes six points that should
make the association more effective. The initiative is
based on the implementation of a "strengthened
cooperation" mechanism.
"First, we want to use the 'enhanced cooperation' mechanism
in Brussels more often. This means that in areas of policy
where the joint progress of all 27 member states is not
achievable in the foreseeable future, we will move
forward --- with a smaller group of countries,"
Wädehul explained --- during an event
organized by the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation (whose activities are
considered undesirable in the
Russian Federation).
________________________________
Germany is militarizing
in preparation for a
war with Russia
by Vladimir Kolinichenko
May 5th, 10:37pm
(Vesti.ru)
Germany ---- is conducting accelerated militarization,
preparing for a military confrontation with Russia,
Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey
Nechaev said ---- in an interview
with Izvestia.
The ambassador noted - that Germany
is pumping its military industry with
budgetary and borrowed funds.
''It is noteworthy that, while distancing itself from
accusations of turning into a country of armed
conflict in Ukraine.... Germany --- is clearly
preparing for a military confrontation
with Russia --- which involves the
accelerated .....militarization of
Germany ...and the expansion
of the Bundeswehr,'' Izvestia
quotes Nechaev as saying.
Germany is improving its military aid programs
for Ukraine. For example -- Berlin is focusing
on providing Kyiv with long-range drones,
the ambassador emphasized.
Germany - has approved a new version of its military
strategy, which sets the goal of creating the most
powerful army in Europe - by 2039. Russia is
described in this document as the
"main threat".
Mélenchon vows: to withdraw France
from NATO ------ if elected president
May 9th, 5:06pm
(RT.ru)
The leader of the France Unbowed movement (La France
Insoumise) has declared his intention to withdraw
France from NATO if he is elected president.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon made the announcement during an
interview with LCI news channel on Friday, stressing --
that the alliance primarily serves to position Europe
under the influence of the US.
“If I am president, France will leave NATO,” he said, noting
that the military alliance’s primary function is “placing
us under the supervision of the United States.”
Mélenchon, a long-time critic of NATO, further stated
that distancing France from the alliance aligns with
the nation’s “historic line.”
He referenced former President Charles de Gaulle’s
decision in the late 1960s -- to withdraw France
from NATO’s integrated military command.
The presidential hopeful also criticized former
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial
2009 decision ..to reintegrate France
into NATO’s command structure.
Mélenchon’s proposed withdrawal from NATO, would
be approached in phases ----- beginning with France
exiting the alliance’s integrated military command.
He also indicated plans to distance France
from joint military equipment programs
with the US military.
Mélenchon’s announcement comes amid heightened
geopolitical tensions ....and ongoing debates
surrounding Europe’s defense autonomy
and military spending.... as well as
the peninsular’s ''reliance'' on
US security assurances.
Mélenchon officially announced his candidacy
for the French presidency ---- on May the 3rd.
______________________________________
Exclusive - Le Gall: Iran War illegal,
EU must stop guarding 'Israel'
May 9th, 1:32pm
(Al Mayadeen English)
French MP Arnaud Le Gall tells Al Mayadeen the US war
on Iran is illegal, and criticizes Paris for allowing US
aircraft to use its airspace.
Arnaud Le Gall, French National Assembly member
representing La France Insoumise (LFI) - and head
of the French-Lebanese Parliamentary Friendship
Committee, has called the war on Iran "illegal
and illegitimate" in an interview with Al
Mayadeen about the US war on Iran,
Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and
what he sees ---- as Europe's
wilful failure.. to act on its
own stated principles.
Le Gall argued - that France was wrong to allow US aircraft
to use its airspace in attacks against Tehran, and says the
EU must suspend its trade agreements with "Israel," a
move he believes Germany and France have so far
failed to pursue ------ with the seriousness the
situation demands.
A war of Trump's own making
The war, Le Gall said, was launched by "aggressive regimes,
the American and Israeli regimes, not in service of the
Iranian people or the peoples of the region, but in
pursuit of regime change in Iran."
He described Trump as having entered the war, "without careful
calculation," arguing that the aggression is also bound up with
Washington's broader economic competition with China and
its interest in controlling strategic trade routes, including,
potentially, as a way of undermining Beijing.
But he was skeptical..... that the strategy had achieved its aims.
"This strategy has not proven particularly successful," he said,
pointing to the inflationary consequences --- of the Strait of
Hormuz closure and to the looming global economic crisis.
"Trump now finds himself trapped in a crisis of his own making,"
Le Gall told Al Mayadeen. "Iran....... is a very large country,
comparable to France -- in terms of strategic capabilities
& geographic depth. It is capable of enduring pressure."
''It appears - that Iran may have been preparing for such a war
over the past decades, given that it views it as an existential
conflict. Trump, for his part, should have thought carefully
before embarking on a war of this magnitude.''
On the ongoing negotiations between Washington and
Tehran via Islamabad, Le Gall said he could "only
hope" they succeed, while making clear that
the war's origins, not just its resolution,
must be confronted honestly.
Europe'scontradiction
For Le Gall, the position taken by France, Europe, Canada,
and Australia - exposes a contradiction that cannot be
glossed over, whereby governments that say they
oppose the war, have nonetheless, refused to
call it illegal - or condemn the aggression.
"These European and Western policies ------ are fundamentally
wrong," he said. "France should not align itself with Israel, a
state that is destabilizing not only the region, but the entire
world. This war is illegal --- and illegitimate."
France should not align itself with Israel ------ a state that is
destabilizing not only the region, but the world as a whole.
''This war is illegal and illegitimate. We are not defending
the Iranian regime; rather.... we are speaking about the
''legality and legitimacy of this war.'' - Arnaud Le Gall.
He criticized the French government for its initial hesitation in
defining its position ---- and for remaining "trapped within the
framework of its alliance with the United States and Israel."
That hesitation... had real consequences, as France did not
prevent US aircraft from using its airspace to attack Iran,
a position, Le Gall said ---- LFI explicitly opposed.
He singled out Spain and Ireland as having taken more serious
steps, contrasting them with Germany, which he accused of
placing itself "on the wrong side of history" ----- by opposing
suspension of the EU's partnership agreement with "Israel."
On the question of whether Trump's US can still be considered
an ally, Le Gall explained that "the United States is neither a
friend nor an enemy. It is a major power." He pointed to US
pressure on Europe through trade conditions, Trump's
interference in European politics through support
for far-right parties, and Washington's
increasingly transactional view
of the continent.
"The United States is neither a friendly state nor an enemy
state. It is ....an extremely powerful country, the world's
foremost military power, as well as a major financial
and economic force. This - is a reality that cannot
simply be ignored or denied. The United States,
therefore, carries significant weight on
multiple levels internationally, but it
cannot necessarily be regarded as
a friend or ally." - Arnaud Le Gall
Lebanon: 'Israel is attempting to
turn Lebanon into another Gaza'
On the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon, Le Gall
was categorical in rejecting the narrative that frames the
assault - as a limited operation against Hezbollah.
"I do not believe it," he said, dismissing the framing as one
"widely promoted in Europe." The scale of the attacks,
their geographic spread...... and their social and
economic toll tell a different story, he argued.
He pointed to the use of the (internationally banned) white
phosphorus, the systematic destruction of the economic
and social life in the south, and the Israeli expansion
into southern Syria, as evidence that "this is a war
against the Lebanese people, not merely
against Hezbollah."
''The scale of these strikes and attacks, their geographic
spread, and their social and territorial impact ------ all
demonstrate otherwise. Added to this ----- are the
threats issued by the 'Israeli' side, particularly
by the more ...radical 'Israeli' leaders. All of
these actions and consequences affect
Lebanon in its entirety. 'Israel' - is
seeking --- to turn Lebanon, into
another Gaza; this is therefore
- a war against the Lebanese
people, not merely against
Hezbollah."
He also addressed the November 2024 agreement, which
he said "Israel" has failed to honour. "There are rules
that must be respected," he said, calling on the EU
to suspend trade relations with "Israel" as the
most effective lever available. "That would
significantly affect the Israeli economy."
Le Gall also pushed back against the argument that the
Lebanese Army should disarm what some call "illegal
militias." "How can a country enduring war, fully
impose its authority over all its territory?" he
asked. "That only happens in times of
peace, stability, and prosperity."
On France's role, he acknowledged the constraints, namely
US marginalization and the Israeli rejection of meaningful
French participation, but argued -- that Paris must act
beyond the limits set by Washington and Tel Aviv.
He stressed the importance - of maintaining and expanding
UNIFIL's presence in southern Lebanon, describing it as a
critical force for both confronting Israeli destruction and
documenting war crimes.
"France should go beyond Washington and Tel Aviv,
and reject the unacceptable pressure coming from the United States," he said.
NATO, debt,and the presidential race
On NATO, Le Gall argued that "we need to stop overanalyzing
Trump's threats," explaining that the alliance serves US
economic interests at least as much as European
security ones, particularly through European
dependence on US weapons purchases.
"We would rather dedicate these resources to our own
independent defense policy instead of deepening
dependence on the United States."
"As far as we are concerned... we believe NATO has become,
to some extent, a burden. The conditions imposed by Trump
focus on requiring every member state to allocate 5% of its
budget to funding NATO. Where would that money go if we
accepted such terms ....and dedicated those resources
accordingly? Those funds, would ultimately be spent
on weapons and ammunition -- purchased from the
United States.
'We want ---- instead, to devote these budgets to our own
independent defense policy ----- not to serving American
interests or increasing our dependence on Washington."
The domestic consequences of the war, are already
reshaping French politics, he warned. The closure
of the Strait of Hormuz & the broader disruption
to global supply chains are feeding into rising
prices --- and declining purchasing power,
grievances he traces back further.... to
the accumulated anger that produced
the Yellow Vest movement. France is
simultaneously facing a deepening
debt crisis ----- compounding the
inflationary pressures.
LFI, he said, is "the only political party in France proposing
concrete economic, financial measures to reduce prices,"
and has built that platform ------ into the centre of its
presidential campaign.
That campaign --- is now formally underway, with Jean-Luc
Mélenchon having announced his candidacy for the next
presidential election. Le Gall outlined the key pillars of
what a Mélenchon presidency.... would mean: the
establishment of a Sixth Republic - to dismantle
what he calls France's "democratic monarchy";
increased taxation of the wealthy in place of
the indirect tax burden expanded under
Macron; and a reduction of racism
and anti-Muslim discrimination.
"We seek to reverse Macron-era policies under a Mélenchon
presidency," Le Gall said, describing LFI as the only party
to have entered the race with a coherent platform.
Whether that platform finds purchase..... with a French public
increasingly stretched by war-driven inflation and
institutional distrust ---- may well determine the
"There was no point in them. At the time, President
Biden believed that if economic sanctions were
imposed, Russia would surrender within two
months. However, it has now been proven
that he was wrong," he emphasized.
The Japanese parliamentarian noted that
he wants to achieve the lifting of anti-
Russian restrictions.
Suzuki had previously said that the reasons
for the current conflict in Ukraine - were
created by Kiev.
_____________________________________________
"I will lay flowers... at the grave of the Unknown
Soldier." Fico will arrive in Moscow on May 9.
What is the reason for this decision?
by Victoria Kondratyeva (Editor
of the "World" Department)
May 5th, 4:45pm
(Lenta.ru)
Slovak Robert Fico will not attend the Victory Day Parade on May 9
during his visit to Moscow due to the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.
About this in an interview with "Lenta.ru", was told by Mikhail
Vedernikov, of the Academy of Sciences.
''Last year, Fico did the same thing — he came to Moscow, but
avoided attending the military part of the parade. He does
this because he does not want to associate his visit
with official events in Ukraine,''
Earlier, during a visit to Yerevan, Fico said that he would visit
Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but
would not attend the military parade marking the 81st
anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
"I will lay flowers on the grave of the unknown Red Army
soldier to express gratitude for the liberation on behalf
of the Slovak people, and I will have a short meeting
with Putin. That's it. I am not going to attend a
military parade," the Slovak PM said.
Fico also spoke about the pressure the West is putting on him
because of his trip to the Russian capital amid the Ukrainian
conflict: "I will not allow myself to be forced to feel
any remorse."
The Slovak Prime Minister's plans to visit Russia, caused outrage
in the EU. On April 18, Lithuania and Latvia announced that they
would not allow Fico's government plane to fly to Moscow. On
April 19, Estonia announced the same measure, for which
they were thanked by the Ukrainian.... Andriy Sibiga.
In response -- Fico harshly commented
on the decision of the Baltic republics.
''I don't know what they teach you in school, but you should know
that 60,000 Red Army soldiers died here in Slovakia. If [you
know that] --- tens of thousands of people died during the
liberation of [our] country, then - [is it] a big deal for you
--- that I'm going to put some carnations on the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier?''
What message does Fito want to send in Moscow?
As Vedernikov pointed out, Fito's visit is a tribute to the Red
Army and has no political implications. This explains his
plans to skip the Victory Parade.
"He explains his visit to Moscow by his desire to pay tribute to
the Soviet soldiers who performed heroic deeds during the
liberation of Eastern Europe, including modern-day
Slovakia," the researcher emphasized.
The expert added that Fico would visit Moscow not as a
representative of the EU, but solely as a politician from
Slovakia, where there is a special attitude towards
the memory of World War II.
"Even Fico's opposition politicians emphasized the importance
of the Soviet army in the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945
and participated in commemorative events. Historical
events, such as the liberation of Bratislava and the
Slovak National Uprising... these --- are the key
elements of today's Slovakia's historical
policy," Vedernikov recalled.
Therefore, the interlocutor added, the Slovak politician's visit
is his personal decision, and he is not conveying any
message from the EU.
''Unfortunately, there is no hidden meaning in Fico's visit, and
there are no new trends in the politics of both Slovakia and
the EU. They do not affect the overall course of Brussels,
which remains highly confrontational towards Moscow.''
Which other foreign politicians will visit Moscow on May 9?
On May 3, Russian President's Press Secretary Dmitry
Peskov announced that Vladimir Putin would hold
several bilateral meetings on May 9.
"[May 9] will be a busy working day. There will be bilateral
meetings ---- with the guests who will be with us," the
Kremlin spokesman said, of the president's plans.
It is clarified that we are talking about Fico, as well as President
of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. However, the full list of
guests who will attend the Victory Parade.... is unknown.
As Peskov pointed out, the Kremlin will announce it
in due time.
European officials will visit the Russian border on May 9
On May 5, the Estonian Broadcasting Company ERR reported
that Estonian Prime Minister Kirsten Michal, would arrive at
the Russian border on May 9 to attend a concert in Narva
to celebrate..... Europe Day!
It is specified that the holiday events will be held in close
proximity to the Russian border, on Rynochnaya and
Stockholm Squares.
In addition, the EU Commissioner for the Equality of Generations,
Youth, Culture, and Sport, Glenn Micklethwaite, will visit Narva.
According to Vedernikov, this gesture is related to the Estonian
Prime Minister's attempt to gain control over the agenda in
Ida-Viru County, where the majority of the population....
is Russian.
''He wants to take the initiative in the region of Estonia where
there is traditionally a high level of support for Russia.
His actions are likely aimed at preventing a wide-
spread celebration of May 9 and turning it into
a European-wide policy,'' Mikhail Vedernikov,
Leading Researcher, at the Department of
Central and Eastern European Studies at
the Institute of Europe of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, remarked.
____________________________________
Former police officers convicted
in El Salvador of homicide and
aggravated robbery
May 5th, 10:49am
(Prensa Latina)
Former police officers in El Salvador were sentenced to
up to 540 years in prison for the crimes of homicide,
robbery and illicit groups, in the midst of the fight
against criminal structures that the country is
carrying out today.
The Fifth Court Against Organized Crime of San Salvador,
sentenced Roberto Carlos García Martínez, alias Bestia,
to 540 years in prison, and Francisco Eduardo Ramírez
Vicente, alias Yeiko to 216 years --- according to a
publication by the El Salvador Judicial Centres
on the social network Facebook.
Nine other defendants were sentenced to sentences
ranging from five to 173 years in prison for the same
crimes, the text says.
During the hearing, 11 cases of aggravated homicide
and 21 cases of aggravated robbery to the detriment
of companies and individuals were assessed, hence
the judge when issuing the ruling --- stated that the
defendants took advantage of their position as
agents of authority to violate the population
and commit atrocious crimes.
The document specifies that the criminal structure had
been operating nationwide since 2018 and was made
up of ..former police officers, former soldiers and
civilians; The latter collaborated and provided
information to the leaders about the
movements of businesses and
victims, who were killed,
if they resisted during
the robberies.
Although the 11 convicted operated nationwide, the highest
incidence of crime, was recorded in Chalatenango, Nueva
Concepción and San Miguel. In the latter, they assaulted
cooperatives and companies dedicated to the sale of
motorcycles, the publication notes.
_____________________________________
Study Highlights Economic Impact
of Free Transportation in Brazil
May 5th, 8:41am
(Prensa Latina)
An eventual implementation of free public transport in Brazil's 27
capitals could inject up to 60 billion reais (12 billion dollars)
annually into the economy, according to a study
released today.
The research, carried out by specialists from the University
of Brasilia and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
concludes that the so-called "zero fare" on buses
and metropolitan rail systems could function as a policy of income distribution ...and
economic dynamization.
According to the study, the total potential volume of resources
released would reach R$60.3 billion per year, although the net
impact will be R$45.6 billion (US$9 billion) when discounting
existing gratuities for sectors such as students, the elderly
and people with disabilities.
The researchers explain... that eliminating spending on tickets
would make it possible to transform this cost into disposable
income for families, which would generate an immediate
effect on the consumption of goods and services, as
well as on tax collection.
The analysis, coordinated by Professor Thiago Trindade, argues
that the measure could play a role similar to that of large social
programs such as the Bolsa Familia, by acting as a form of
"indirect wage", especially for the benefit of the most
vulnerable sectors, the black population and the
inhabitants of urban peripheries.
According to the data used, based on the 2024 National Mobility
Survey and records of transport operators, the average
expenditure on tickets ---- represents a significant
burden for workers, who could save between
eight and 10 reais per day (up to two
dollars) on commuting.
The study, cited by media such as G1 and Agencia Brasil, also
suggests that the zero rate could be conceived as a social
right, in line with public services such as health or
education ------ while strengthening the country's
role in policies aimed at reducing inequalities.
Regarding financing, the researchers point out that it would be
possible to implement the model without increasing federal
spending, through mechanisms such as the restructuring
of the voucher-transport system with contributions from
public and private companies.
The research, was promoted by the Parliamentary Front in Defense
of Zero Fare in the National Congress, with support from the Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation, and is part of a growing debate on the
role of public transport .....in social inclusion and
economic development.
_________________________________________________
Vietnamese leader receives
a warm welcome in India
May 5th, 8:35am
(Prensa Latina)
India received here today the President of Vietnam, To Lam, who
is on his first state visit to the South Asian nation, with a warm
welcome.... representative of the excellent ties between the
two countries
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanan Drai welcomed the
Vietnamese leader upon his arrival in New Delhi on Tuesday,
where he will stay until May 7 ....accompanied by a large
delegation of leaders and businessmen.
For India, the Vietnamese leader's visit represents an opportunity
for a new impetus in bilateral ties, on the occasion of the tenth
anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
between the two countries.
The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Vietnam will receive a ceremonial welcome tomorrow on
the esplanade of the Rashtrapati Bhavan ....and will later hold a
comprehensive dialogue with Prime Minister Modi, on bilateral
relations - plus regional and global issues of mutual concern.
President Droupadi Murmu will also meet with the Vietnamese
leader, who will also visit Bodh Gaya and Mumbai.
Regarding the visit, the Ambassador of India to Vietnam, Tshering
W. Sherpa, highlighted among the areas of bilateral cooperation
politics, defense and security, people-to-people exchanges,
plus improving connectivity, and boosting bilateral trade.
He pointed out - that trade between the two countries doubled
in the last 10 years, reaching approximately 16 billion dollars
- and having considerable growth potential.
He also underlined the growth of flights to 90 per week between
the two nations and cultural cooperation such as Buddhism
as a spiritual connection.
The Indian ambassador highlighted innovation, science
and technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence,
and pharmaceuticals, as well as the automotive
industry, transportation, and connectivity
infrastructure --- as potential areas
of collaboration.
________________________________________
Brazilian Institute presents world map
that inverts North-South axis
May 5th, 8:18am
(Prensa Latina)
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics today promotes
a new world map that inverts the traditional North-South axis,
places Brazil in the centre - and shows the continents in real proportions - with a focus on global biodiversity.
The new cartographic piece, entitled "Species Richness 2025",
was presented this Monday at the Itamaraty Palace, is part of
the celebrations for the 90th anniversary of the organization
and proposes a different view of the planet both in its
representation and in its content.
Among its main characteristics is the decision to place Brazil
in the centre of the map, as a way of reflecting its role on the
global stage, especially on issues related to the environment
and biodiversity.
Likewise, the map inverts the traditional North-South orientation,
which breaks with a historical convention of cartography and
proposes ----- that there are multiple ways of visualizing the
world, beyond the dominant non-spinning perspectives.
The new map challenges centuries of Eurocentric vision and places
the Global South at the centre of the debate on biodiversity, power
and the planet's future, said IBGE President Marcio Pochmann.
Another key element --- is the use of the Equal Earth projection, a
modern technique that allows the continents to be represented
in real proportions, by avoiding the distortions present in the
Mercator projection, used since the sixteenth century.
On traditional Mercator-based maps, regions near the poles
appear oversized, while Africa and South America are
visually reduced.
In contrast, the Equal Earth projection offers a more
balanced representation, in which continental
areas ---- maintain their actual size.
The map also incorporates information on biodiversity - through
an indicator that measures the richness of species in different
regions of the planet, and considers groups, such as
amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles and fresh-
water fish in areas of 100 square kilometres.
The initiative was presented as part of the start
of a commemorative calendar that includes
other statistical and geographical
publications, such as Brazil in
figures-2025 ----- and IBGE
Around the World.
The first of these texts, in its 33rd edition, presents a complete
overview of the country's social, demographic and economic
data, and the second, launched in Portuguese, Spanish and
English, presents an overview of the main international
actions carried out by the Institute in 2025.
_____________________________________________
Exclusive:China Coast Guard officers
raise national flag, at Tiexian Jiao in
South China Sea - clean up rubbish
left by illegal Philippine personnel
by Hu Yuwei, Fan Wei and Xue Ke
May 4th, 3:52pm
(Global Times)
The China Coast Guard (CCG) carried out maritime law enforcement
and exercised territorial jurisdiction by landing on Tiexian Jiao in
the South China Sea on Sunday. The operation came after five
Philippine crew members illegally set foot on China’s Tiexian
Jiao of the Nansha Qundao the same day, the Global Times
has learned from the CCG.
Photo's show CCG law enforcement officers patrolled Tiexian Jiao, displayed the Chinese national flag - to demonstrate national sovereignty - and collected video evidence...... of the Philippines’ illegal activities - and the ecological damage to the reef.
Footage also shows that after landing on the reef, CCG officers
cleaned up the pollutants discarded by Philippine personnel
....including plastic bottles, foam boards and plastic bags.
They also conducted a full inspection of Tiexian Jiao
with metal detectors.
According to sources, five Philippine crew members illegally set
foot on Tiexian Jiao on Sunday, ignoring repeated dissuasion
and warnings from the Chinese side. CCG law enforcers
identified the intruders --- and tackled the incident in
accordance with the law - effectively safeguarding
China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights
and interests.
Insiders told the Global Times.... that the CCG carries out
comprehensive inspections on Tiexian Jiao to prevent
Philippine personnel from hiding markers and other
illegal items on the reef. Such operations fully
embody --- China’s exercise of sovereignty
and jurisdiction over its own territory.
________________________________________
Viet Nam, India to inject new
momentum to bilateral ties
May 4th, 6:31am
(VGP)
General Secretary and President To Lam’s state visit to India from
May 5-7 will create new momentum and shape a framework to
elevate Viet Nam–India relations to a new level in the next
phase, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nguyen
Manh Cuong.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the visit, the Deputy Foreign
Minister described the trip as a major diplomatic event of
special significance as it is the first visit by the top
Vietnamese Party and State leader ---- and takes
place on the occasion of the 10th anniversary
of the Viet Nam-India Comprehensive
Strategic Partnership.
The visit demonstrates Viet Nam's high regard for its
Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with India
and the broader South Asian region.
It also offers a meaningful opportunity for both countries
to review a decade of their Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership framework, and consolidate their
multifaceted cooperation.
The primary objective is to create a "qualitative leap" ..in the
relationship, ensuring it is commensurate with the potential
and rising positions of both nations on the global stage.
This alignment is particularly focused on long-term national
aspirations: Viet Nam's goal to become a developed
country by 2045 and India's vision for 2047.
Bilateral relations have already seen robust growth in recent
years. The two-way trade reaches approximately US$15-16
billion annually, making India among Viet Nam's top 10
trade partners.
The defense and security sector saw high levels of mutual
trust with deepened collaboration in joint training and
capacity building. Leaders of the two countries are
expected to discuss breakthroughs in innovation,
artificial intelligence, digital transformation,
satellite data, and clean energy.
The visit stands as testament to Viet Nam's consistent
pursuance of a foreign policy of independence, self-
reliance, and the diversification of external ties.
Viet Nam and India share a common vision
......of an international rule-based order.
The visit also follows a period of intense regional diplomacy
for Viet Nam, including the recent official visit of Japanese
Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae to Ha Noi, which further
emphasized Viet Nam's strategic role in building a
"stronger and more prosperous" region.
During his stay in New Delhi and Mumbai, General Secretary and
President, To Lam ---- will engage in a diverse agenda, including financial and sci-tech forums. These interactions are expected
to deliver concrete benefits to citizens and businesses alike
while contributing to regional peace, stability, and
sustainable development.
Vietnamese Ambassador to India Nguyen Thanh Hai noted the
visit will provide the "important impetus" needed to ensure
the partnership remains a cornerstone of both nations'
foreign policies ....in the new era.
According to the diplomat, the two countries prioritize
strengthening cooperation in innovation, so as to
achieve the goals ---- of making Viet Nam a
developed country by 2045 - and India
a developed country by 2047.
In addition, both sides will continue to boost cooperation
in the economic, trade, and investment pillars, and
promote people-to-people exchanges in culture,
education, and tourism.
__________________________________________
Guatemala-Belize trade exchange
maintains its favourable trend
May 4th, 12:36am
(Prensa Latina)
Trade between Guatemala and Belize maintains a favourable
trend today, just over 16 years after the entry into force of
a bilateral agreement to boost the regional economy.
The balance with that neighbouring country has been positive
over the decade, driven mainly by exports of products such
as fuels, construction materials, manufacturing, and
processed foods, an official source detailed.
Last year alone, the land of the quetzal registered shipments
to Belize for 142.72 million dollars, while imports totaled
9.68 million, the local Export Agency added.
The agreement signed at the end of June 2006 and ratified by
both nations at the beginning of April 2010 established a
cooperation framework that promotes the exchange of
goods, the elimination of trade barriers, and the
generation - of more favourable conditions for
the productive sectors, the entity explained.
Since its implementation, it noted, both territories have granted
tariff preferences to more than 70 items, including agricultural
products, manufacturing, industrial materials and consumer
goods. In addition, it defined institutional mechanisms,
such as the Administrative Commission and various
technical committees, that made it possible to
follow up ---- on commitments, resolve trade
obstacles and promote trade facilitation.
He mentioned among the most relevant advances the creation
of technical groups for export and investment promotion, the
updating of rules of origin and customs procedures and the
strengthening of sanitary measures, both phytosanitary
and technical.
However, it noted, there are still opportunities to deepen its
impact, especially in expanding product coverage,
promoting bilateral investment, facilitating
logistics and land transportation,
among others.
The evolution of this instrument, according to the Guatemalan
Exporters Agency, demonstrates the importance of having
flexible mechanisms that make it possible to adapt to
the dynamics of international trade.
__________________________________________
Petro denounced that Colombia's
peace plan is being sabotaged
from Ecuador
May 4th, 12:08am
(Prensa Latina)
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, denounced that
Ecuador is sabotaging his country's peace program and
the massive and voluntary eradication of illicit crops
that the government is promoting today in the
southern territories.
He explained this .....on his account on the social network, and
added that the sabotage of these measures is comprehensive
and has the help of some corrupt police officers in the US....
and in Colombia itself.
The president then stated that the weapons with which civilians
are murdered in the department of Cauca, in the southwest,
come from Ecuador, and that ammunition and explosives
enter through the border.
He also stated that, while he is accused of having alleged links
with criminal gangs, those who have these links ---- and use
them, are Ecuadorian politicians.
“They have sought to divide and end the peace process in southern
Colombia by blowing up laboratories with dozens of civilian deaths,
they have demanded extraditions in Colombia, of those who make
peace, forgetting that I have extradited 800 people, including 15
Ecuadorians”, he said in reference to the neighbouring country.
He stressed that the objective is to militarily harass and escalate
the conflict to sabotage the elections and make the candidate
of former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) win.
“I know that extreme right sectors in Colombia that have traveled to
Miami and Quito --- have built a kind of strategy for Uribe's extreme
right to win the elections with its candidate, forgetting that this
Colombian extreme right is the main ally of Colombian drug
trafficking”, he also stated in his statement.
For this reason, he emphasized, they seek to destroy
the peace process with some armed organizations
in Colombia, that have decided to dismantle these
illicit economies, especially in southern Colombia.
In Petro's opinion, Ecuador's actions “end
legal trade, so that illegal trade remains”.
The New Granada president also considered, that
what this Ecuadorian president --- Daniel Noboa,
has done, is use Colombia and its government
to divert the debate from Ecuador's powerful
politicians linked to drug trafficking.
“It is this link between politics, power and drug trafficking
that elevates the power of drug trafficking and violence,
that is why Ecuador ......became the world's largest
exporter of cocaine and has a homicide rate that
is double that of Colombia”, he wrote.
Tensions between both countries have been
growing for weeks both in the commercial
and diplomatic spheres.
Recently, Petro assured that he will file a criminal lawsuit
against Noboa for slander, after the latter insinuated
that the New Granada president... would have had
contacts with the drug trafficker known as Fito.
_________________________________________
Nine provinces of Ecuador under curfew
May 4th, 12:07am
(Prensa Latina)
Ecuador is - today - under a new night curfew in nine
provinces and four cantons, within the framework
of the Government's strategy to confront
violence and organized crime.
The measure, ordered by President Daniel Noboa
through decree 370, began this Sunday and will
apply every day until May 18 between 11pm
and 5am (local time).
The mobility restriction applies in Guayas, Manabí,
Santa Elena, Los Ríos, El Oro, Pichincha,
Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los
Tsáchilas and Sucumbíos, in
addition to the cantons of
La Maná, Las Naves,
Echeandía and
La Troncal.
During these hours, only health personnel, members
of the public force and workers linked to risk,
emergency and disaster management...
may circulate.
The decree establishes that controls will be carried
out rationally and proportionally, considering the
particularities of each case.
The provision is part of the current state of emergency,
which also suspends rights such as the inviolability of
homes and correspondence.... which allows raids by
public forces.
The Government justified the measure, with which it
seeks to deepen operations against criminal
structures and reduce violence.
The Executive maintains that the decision also responds
to an effect of displacement of criminal activities after
the curfew applied last March in four provinces,
which are now repeating (Guayas, Los Ríos,
El Oro, and Santo Domingo de
los Tsáchilas).
Productive and tourism sectors have expressed concern
about the economic impact of the measure, especially
in activities that depend on night logistics, such as
the transfer of export goods.
The repeated application of states of emergency and
curfews is part of a security strategy that has
become common since 2024, when the
Government declared the existence
of an internal armed conflict.
Since then, these measures have been applied
intermittently in different areas of the country,
with results that generate debate, since,
despite these operations, arrests and
seizures, violence has remained at
high levels.
Ecuador faces an unprecedented security crisis,
after closing 2025 with over 9,000 homicides
and registering 2,086 murders - in the first
quarter of 2026.
_______________________________________
Russian oil supplies to Indonesia
will begin in the near future
May 2nd, 8:23pm
(RT.ru)
Indonesian Energy Minister Bahli Lachadalia said
that Russian oil supplies to the country will
begin in the near future.
"For me, the most important thing is that we have all
the reserves. And Russian oil will arrive soon," he
said, according to RIA Novosti.
Earlier, Indonesia .....announced its
willingness to process Russian oil.
_____________________________________
A rally..... was held in Chisinau
to commemorate the victims
of the Trade Union House
murders - in Odessa
May 2nd, 3:40pm
(Izvestia.ru)
A rally was held in Chisinau at the Ukraine embassy, which was
timed to coincide with the anniversary of the tragedy on May 2,
2014, in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. Footage from
the scene of the action on May 2 was shown by Izvestia.
"Today is actually a black date for the entire post-Soviet space,
and even for the entire world. On May 2, people were burned
at the Trade Union House in Odessa because they thought
differently," said one of the protesters.
He called the burning of people the first manifestation of fascism.
He noted that, every year, events are held at the embassy in
Chisinau in memory of the 48 Odessa residents who died.
Another protester expressed his bitterness for the Ukrainian
people. According to him, the tragedy occurred in Odessa,
which is a hero city.
Earlier today, the Federation Council chair, Valentina Matviyenko
said that Russia will not let the tragedy in the Odessa House of
Trade Unions be forgotten, and that this crime has no statute
of limitations. Matviyenko pointed out that there is no point
in expecting justice for the participants in the punitive
action ----- from the president of Ukraine, Vladimir
Zelensky and his entourage.
In Donetsk, on May 2, they honoured the memory of those who
died in the arson attack on the Trade Union House in Odessa.
The event was organized by activists from the Young Guard.
Together with the residents of the city... they came to the
memorial site with carnations and laid them on the wall
with the names of the victims.
_______________________________________
China -has banned the implementation of
US sanctions against five oil companies
May 2nd, 2:54pm
(RT.ru)
The Chinese government has banned the recognition and enforcement of US sanctions against five Chinese oil
companies. The relevant resolution was issued
by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
"The Sanctions... should not be recognized,
applied, or respected," the statement says.
These sanctions target Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian),
Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, Hebei
Xinhai Chemical Group, Shouguang Luqing
Petrochemical, and Shandong
Shengxing Chemical.
Earlier, China announced measures
to protect companies that were
included in the 20th package
of EU sanctions.
_____________________________
Putin ratifiedmilitary cooperation
agreement between Russia
and Nicaragua
May 2nd, 7:49am
(Prensa Latina)
President Vladimir Putin today, signed a law that ratifies
the intergovernmental agreement between Russia and
Nicaragua on military cooperation -- according to a
publication published on the official website of
legal acts.
According to the text, ratification will facilitate the development
and strengthening of military cooperation between the two
countries, and provide the necessary legal basis for
defining the objectives, guidelines and forms of
their bilateral military cooperation.
It shall also ensure the protection of the interests of Russian
citizens performing tasks within the framework of this
Convention, within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua.
The statement specifies that the authorized bodies of the parties
for the implementation of the agreement are the Russian
Ministry of Defense and the General Command of
the Nicaraguan Army.
On April 22nd, the State Duma (lower house of the Russian
parliament) ratified the military cooperation agreement
between the two nations, signed in Moscow on
September 22, 2025.
Previously, on January 30th, the Russian president promulgated a
pact with Nicaragua for the reciprocal protection of the citizens
of the two countries ---- against abuses.... in the field of
Region ..and North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region posted the fastest growth compared with 2025.
In addition, large-scale entertainment events have also boosted
tourism consumption. A concert by the Chinese comedian Yue
Yunpeng drove hotel bookings around Guangzhou Baoneng Performing Arts Centre ---- up 7.9 times during the holiday the highest growth among commercial areas nationwide,
while concerts by rock band Mayday from the Taiwan
island - made Beijing's National Stadium - the Bird's
Nest - the second most popular hotel booking for
commercial areas during the holiday ---- with
bookings rising 91%, according to Qunar.
Provincial football leagues across the country have also remained
highly popular. Qunar data showed that on May 1, Jiangsu ranked
second nationwide in hotel bookings with the Jiangsu Football
City League - "Su Super League," also known as Suchao.
Meanwhile, boosted by a similar football league in Central China's
Hubei Province, Wuhan entered the national top 10 for hotel
bookings, per data by Qunar.
Movie box office for the May Day holiday... is gaining momentum as
box office tracking site Maoyan, reported that the total box office
for the holiday - surpassed 100 million yuan on Friday afternoon.
Crime thriller Cold War 1994 and suspense thriller Vanishing Point
are leading in the box office chart with over 15 million yuan each.
Hollywood blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada 2 is also a strong
contender during the crowded holiday film season as a total of
12 films are hitting the screens during the May Day holiday.
Upbeat --- economic data
What lies behind the robust tourism and leisure consumption
potential is China's upbeat economic figures at the start
of 2026.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that in
the first quarter, the value added of the service sector grew 5.2
percent year-on-year, while that of accommodation & catering
rose 4.3%. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached
12.7695 trillion yuan, up 2.4 percent year-on-year, with
relatively fast growth in retail sales of tourism-
related leasing services and culture, sports
and leisure services.
Although the service sector's prosperity index declined in April,
market expectations remained positive, with the business
activity expectation index rising 0.6 percentage points
from the previous month to 55.4 percent, staying in a
relatively high expansion range above 55 percent,
indicating improved confidence among service
enterprises, said NBS chief statistician
Huo Lihui.
The national conference on the service sector, which was held in
early April this year in Beijing, has sent a clear signal that China
will promote a high-quality service sector driven by demand,
reform, technology and global cooperation, to meet its own
development goals and foster inclusive growth, the Xinhua
News Agency reported on April 9.
Jiang said that the strong holiday consumption is underpinned by
a solid domestic economic recovery and expected growth in the
service sector, while the conference has also encouraged
localities to roll out supportive measures to promote
the integrated development.... of culture,
commerce, tourism and sports.
_________________________________
The US national debt --- has exceeded
100% of GDP, reaching $31.27 trillion
May 1st, 11:26am (Izvestia.ru)
The volume of the US' national debt has exceeded by more than
100% the size of the country's economy and is approaching the
record figure that was established after the end of World War 2.
This was reported on Thursday, April 30, by the US TV channel
Fox Business News (FB), citing data obtained by the Bureau
of Economic Analysis (BEA).
"Given the latest data showing that the national debt exceeds
the size of the US economy, the federal government is rapidly
approaching the record debt-to-GDP ratio of 106% ----- set in
1946," the article states.
It is also noted ---- that the U.S. national debt has reached $31.27
trillion. At the same time, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)
as of March 2026, amounted to $31.22 trillion. The publication
notes ---- that this figure has approached the designated
historical maximum achieved against the backdrop
of the army's demobilization.
Analysts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 15
presented their forecast, according to which, by 2031, the
volume of the national debt of the US.. will increase to
142% of GDP.
This, in their opinion, will happen due to the increase in
Washington's spending of the state budget, and the
deficit of funds themselves. Experts believe, that
this situation may increase the risks for global
financial stability.... including affecting
interest rates.
_____________________________________
What to know about May Day demonstrations
as workers face rising energy costs due to illegal war on Iran
by Sylvie Corbet
May 1st, 11:15am
(AP)
Activists worldwide gathered for May Day rallies and street protests
on Friday, calling for ----- peace, higher wages and better working
conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs
and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
May 1st, is a public holiday in many countries, to mark International
Workers’ Day, or Labour Day, when workers’ unions traditionally
rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political
issues. Demonstrations are being held from Seoul, Sydney
and Jakarta, to many European capitals --- and in cities
across the United States.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in
the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which
represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries
said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and
see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the United States, people opposing U.S. President Donald
Trump’s policies ----- are undertaking marches and boycotts.
Rising energy prices and living costs
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle
East ......emerged as a key theme in Friday’s rallies.
In the Philippines’ capital of Manila, large crowds marched to call
for higher wages and lower taxes as protesters denounced the
United States’ role in the Iran war. Some held banners reading
“no troops, no bases, no war games, resist U.S.-led wars.”
Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near
the U.S. Embassy.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here
is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata,
leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labour federations.
In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto joined a May Day rally
in the capital, Jakarta, greeting tens of thousands of people
amid a tight police and military presence. Workers called
for stronger government protection amid rising prices
and difficulties in finding raw materials for industry.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but
many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home
if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-
old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government
estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on
financial support from the International Monetary
Fund and allied nations.
Demonstrations across the world
In Istanbul, police detained some 15 protesters who tried to
reach Taksim Square, the epicenter of landmark 2013
protests, in defiance of a government ban.
Turkey’s government has long declared the square off-limits
for demonstrations on security grounds, but some political
parties and trade unions vowed to march there.
In France ---- unions called for demonstrations in Paris and
elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,”
linking workers’ daily concerns - to conflicts in Ukraine
and the Middle East.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17
billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable
employment and curb labour abuses ------ ahead of May Day.
The measures.... extend tax breaks, to encourage hiring
young people and disadvantaged women..... and seek
to address exploitation tied to platform-based work.
Opposition parties dismissed the package as
“pure propaganda.”
In Portugal, proposed labour law changes by the centre-right
government sparked a general strike and street protests
last year. There is still no deal ..after nine months of
negotiations with unions and employers. Unions
say the proposals will weaken workers’ rights,
including by expanding overtime limits ----
and reducing benefits.
France’s mandatory day off
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated
debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on
the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day
when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and
only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport
and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work
on the day prompted a major outcry from unions
and left-leaning politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers’ unions
said, in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week
introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work.... to
people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary
in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May
Day --- as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses
Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming
from a century of building social rules ------ that have led to the
labour code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Calls for street protests and boycotts in the US
Activists and labour unions are organizing street protests
and boycotts across the United States, where May Day
is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions,
has called on people to protest under the banner of
“workers --- over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump’s policies, organizers listed
thousands of May Day actions across the country and are
seeking an economic blackout through “no school,
no work, no shopping.”
Demands include --- taxing the rich and putting an end
to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,
Roots in Chicago
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more
than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labour history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through
strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally
turned deadly... when a bomb exploded and the police
responded with deadly gunfire. Several workers -
immigrants - were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; and four...
were executed.
Unions later designated May 1st to honour workers. A monument
in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them, with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano
in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta,
Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed
to this news article.
_______________
''American dream'' increasingly
distant for Latinos in the US
May 1st, 8:52am
(Prensa Latina)
According to a recent poll, for Latinos in the United States the so-
called "American dream" is today increasingly a utopia due to
the economic situation, for which they blame President
Donald Trump.
The finding by Voto Latino and Murmuration noted that 83 percent
of that demographic said that "elected officials, including the
President and members of Congress, have at least some
influence over their personal financial situation" or, in
other words, that they are the cause of their ills.
For 65 percent of those interviewed, people who work hard have
difficulty getting ahead, while 77 percent consider that having
their own home and a comfortable retirement are no longer a
realistic matter.
"Rising costs force Latino families to make unthinkable decisions
on a daily basis. From gasoline to food to rent, the pressure is
relentless. When people cut spending on essentials just to
be able to pay for gas, this indicates a deeper problem in
our economy," said Beatriz López, executive director of
Voto Latino, quoted by the newspaper La Opinión.
Trump promised during his election campaign in 2024 that he would
lower costs from the first day of his arrival in the White House
and to a large extent his promise of change seduced many
Latino voters.
More than a year after his return to power, reality says otherwise.
The promised Golden Age is uncertain and more than a few are
beginning to question President Trump's economic policies
such as his imposition of tariffs on dozens of countries,
which resulted in everything being more expensive
in the markets, and the war he started with Iran
that sent the price of oil through the roof and,
therefore, of gasoline.
____________________________________________
The Soyuz-5 launch vehicle
was launched.... from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
April 30th, 6:27pm
(RT.ru)
This was reported by Roscosmos.
"On April 30, at 21:00 Moscow time, a new Russian medium-class
Soyuz-5 launch vehicle was launched from the 45th platform at
Baikonur Cosmodrome," the report said.
It is specified that the first and second stages of Soyuz-5 operated
normally, and the mass-dimensional model was placed on a
calculated suborbital trajectory, followed by a fall in a
previously closed area for shipping and aviation
in the Pacific Ocean.
Earlier, the Progress MS-34 transport and cargo spacecraft
docked to the Zvezda module of the Russian segment of
the International Space Station.
____________________________________
Argentine President on U.S.
aircraft carrier USS Nimitz
April 30th, 2:11pm
(Prensa Latina)
In a new show of alignment with the current U.S. government of
Donald Trump, Argentine President Javier Milei today visited
the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which is in maneuvers... in
the Exclusive Economic Zone of this country.
The local press echoed the event this Thursday. For the newspaper
La Nación, "the governments of Donald Trump and Javier Milei
took another step to strengthen the strategic alliance in
military matters with the visit of the head of the U.S.
Special Operations Command South, Rear Admiral
Mark A. Schafer, and the arrival of two warships
to participate in military exercises."
On the account in X Argentine Armed Forces, the government
shared photos of the president and his entourage arriving
at the aircraft carrier ......and walking on its runway.
The Passex 2026 maneuvers are carried out in the waters of the
country's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Sea of Argentina,
off the coast of Mar del Plata, in the South Atlantic.
Página12, for its part, reports that "in another of his eccentric trips,
Milei left this morning for the South Atlantic --- to take a tour of the
deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, one of the largest
ships of the U.S. war fleet ......that carries out naval exercises in
southern Argentina."
He adds that this visit "was the product of an effort by Ambassador
Peter Lamelas and is another example of the ''harmony'' between
the administration of Donald Trump and the Casa Rosada."
Lamelas coordinated the details for Milei to depart from the
Metropolitan Airport aboard the Grumman C-2 Greyhound
warplane, to the aircraft carrier that sails off the coast
of Mar del Plata, the newspaper expanded.
He was accompanied by his sister Karina, the Minister of Defense,
Carlos Presti; the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marcelo Dalle
Nogare; the head of the Navy, Juan Carlos Romay; and the
president of the Chamber of Deputies, Martín Menem.
The president also met with Rear Admiral Schafer, who
heads the Special Operations Command South.
The USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is one of the oldest and most important
nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. It is
a ship with an autonomous operational capacity, thanks to the
presence of its two nuclear reactors.
The naval unit has a length of 333 metres with a capacity to
operate up to 90 aircraft and a crew of more than 5,000
crew members.
[Rhondda Records adds: Let's hope there are no members
among the 5,000 crew, who are disgruntled enough to
set Milei on fire, or stick him down a toilet!]
_______________________________
Russian bombers --- fly over
Norwegian & Barents seas
April 30th, 1:28pm
(Prensa Latina)
The Tu-95MS strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force made
a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Norwegian
and Barents Seas, the Ministry of Defense reported today.
"The Tu-95MS strategic bombers of the long-range aviation of the
Russian Aerospace Force made a scheduled flight in the air-
space over the neutral waters of the Barents & Norwegian
Seas," the statement from the military entity said.
The aircraft - were escorted by Su-30SM fighters, the note said,
adding that the flight lasted more than six hours and included
an in-air refueling.
"At certain stages of the route, the strategic bombers
were escorted by fighters from foreign states,"
the publication adds.
Russian long-range aviation makes regular flights
over the neutral waters of the Arctic, the North
Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean, as well as the
Baltic and Black Seas.
______________________________________
Mexico Signals Possible Political
Target... After U.S. Indictments
April 30th, 11:07am
(Prensa Latina)
President Claudia Sheinbaum today pointed out possible political
objectives in U.S. accusations against Mexican officials, due to
the absence of clear evidence, and rejected any foreign
interference in this Latin American country.
"As President of the Republic, my position on these facts is:
truth, justice and defense of sovereignty," said the head of
the Executive in reference to Washington's requests for
provisional detention for extradition purposes for 10
officials and former officials.
Sheinbaum said that, if the Attorney General's Office (FGR)
receives strong and irrefutable evidence under Mexican
law, or in its own investigation finds elements
constituting a crime, it must proceed
according to law, under
national jurisdiction.
"I have always said it clearly and we have acted accordingly:
we are not going to cover anyone who has committed a
crime; however, if there is no clear evidence, it is
evident that the objective of these accusations
by the Department of Justice is political,"
she said.
When reading a statement, she stressed that under no
circumstances will "the interference of a foreign
government in the decisions exclusively
concerning the people of Mexico"
be allowed.
In her usual meeting with the media, the dignitary recalled that,
since she assumed the Presidency, she swore to respect the
Constitution and the laws, in addition to assuming the firm
commitment to ensure the well-being of the people and
the defense of national sovereignty.
"Mexico establishes a relationship of equals with all nations,
never of subordination and even less of surrender,"
she emphasized.
The U.S. Department of Justice for the Southern District of New
York yesterday made public the putting of charges against the
10 citizens, including the acting governor of Sinaloa, the
senator for the state and the mayor of Culiacán.
"Attached to this indictment, he published a document called in
Spanish Accusation of replacement under confidentiality. This
led to an estrangement from the Legal Department of Foreign
Affairs, given that these processes are confidential, in
accordance with the treaties on the matter,"
Sheinbaum said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Washington's requests
the day before, said that the documents did not attach evidence
and sent the information to the FGR, in accordance with the
current regulatory framework.
On Wednesday, the Prosecutor's Office declared that it will
initiate an investigation after the requests of the US and
confirmed that they lack sufficient evidence.
According to reports, the U.S. Department of Justice
filed charges against the citizens for alleged links
to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Through a message on the social network X, the governor
of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha, "categorically and absolutely"
rejected the accusations made against him by the US
Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New
York, as "they lack any veracity or foundation."
________________________________________________
Russia and Belarus develop
mining machinery company
April 30th, 9:59am
(Prensa Latina)
A joint venture between Belarus and Russia for the development of
hydrogen and unmanned mining machinery, was inaugurated in
Moscow, the multinational channel TVBrics reported today.
The new company will create a comprehensive product combining
innovative engineering with high commercial efficiency, the main
goal of which is to integrate into the Russian mining industry
comprehensive solutions including hydrogen dump trucks
and unmanned vehicles.
These technologies are expected to reduce the operating costs,
reduce the carbon footprint and increase safety in mining work.
The company's activity, will ensure complete support for innovative
solutions: the implementation of machinery on the Russian market, the creation of infrastructure, the adaptation and support of IT solutions and technical services, including training, technical support and software modernization.
The Belarusian side will focus on the manufacture of dump trucks
-- and the development of specialized software. The Russian side
will ensure the integration of the solutions in mining enterprises.
The joint efforts are aimed at creating a unique platform for
the development and deployment of artificial intelligence,
telemetry and hydrogen energy technologies.
"It is not only a new stage of cooperation, but a fundamental step
towards the technological sovereignty of our states. Today -- we
are combining the power of Belarusian mechanical engineering
and digital skills, with the investment potential of our Russian
partners," said Sergey Lesin, CEO of the largest Belarusian
manufacturer of mining machinery.
The participation of the Belarusian code in the project is 100%
and the development is in demand in the countries of the CIS
(Commonwealth of Independent States.) The new company,
has export potential, as it offers a comprehensive product:
The Costa Rican publication SURCOS highlighted the preparations
today to celebrate International Workers' Day this May 1 in Cuba,
where "thousands of workers will take to the streets to defend
socialism and the Revolution."
The acts to date "in addition to six decades of infamous and
criminal commercial and financial blockade by the United
States, face an oil siege ordered by the White House,
which threatens a military intervention against the
island," describes an article by local journalist
Rafael Ugalde.
"Washington and Havana," recalls the commentary "The Claim of
the Martyrs," "had a particularly contradictory recent meeting,
because while it was taking place, U.S. President Donald
Trump was once again placing the island on the radar
of a possible escalation."
The also lawyer and renowned Costa Rican intellectual alluded in
this regard to the contradictory and threatening attitude of the
president of the northern country in the midst of the current
tensions, "by suggesting that Cuba could be the next
target, after other conflict scenarios."
According to Ugalde, "the so-called 'Trumpism' knows how to
'bully' everyone. No one doubts that. But he has no idea
about the history of the Cuban people."
The writer quotes the First Secretary of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the republic,
Miguel Díaz-Canel, who, he stressed, "stopped Trump in
his tracks and with few lines, describing his threats as
'serious' and as a 'challenge to the sovereignty of
the island'."
"Immediately afterwards," the Costa Rican commentator points out,
"Trump was warned - by the president of the Caribbean country:
"Cuba will not surrender and will defend itself until death; and
added, in case Trump were short of understanding, that any
attempt at military aggression ---------------- will be met with
unassailable resistance."
The SURCOS article, a summary of the origin of International
Workers' Day, under the influence of "The Chicago Martyrs,"
specifies that Costa Rica has celebrated it since 1913, "at
the initiative of the General Confederation of Workers and
the Germinal Centre for Social Studies."
__________________________________________
Kommersant: Ukraine is trying to challenge
the arbitration decision to pay $104 million
to Tatarstan
April 30th, 2:07am
(RT.ru)
Ukraine intends to appeal the arbitration court's decision, to
recover $104 million from the Ministry of Land and Property
Relations of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia.
As claims Kommersant newspaper, citing the Global Arbitration
Review, in 2016 the Russian region initiated investment
arbitration against Ukraine, with claims worth about
$300 million. The claims concerned the loss of the
plaintiffs 28.78% stake in Ukrtaatnafta CJSC –
their joint venture with Ukraine, which
owned the Kremenchuk Refinery.
According to the article, the arbitration proceedings
were administered by the Permanent Court of
Arbitration in The Hague.
In 2023, the arbitration ruled that the Ministry of State
Property's share - had been expropriated by the
Ukrainian courts, which violated the 1998
Investment Protection Agreement
between Russia and Ukraine,
and the defendant state,
must pay the investor
$104 million.
The Ukrainian side.. is currently trying to overturn this
decision in the Paris Court of Appeal. The case will
be considered in the coming months.
In December, Russian investors demanded
€53 billion from the EU --- for the seizure
of assets.
_____________________________________________
Serbia has stated.... that it receives gas
on the most favourable terms in Europe
April 29th, 3:57pm
(RT.ru)
Nenad Popovic, Minister without Portfolio in the Serbian
government responsible for international economic
cooperation, said that Serbia receives the most
favourable gas prices in Europe.
"We, as Serbia, which is a very attractive country for
investment today, gets the best energy prices from
Russia.. Serbia gets the cheapest gas in Europe,"
TASS quoted him as saying.
The day before, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic
announced explosives found near a gas pipeline
leading to Hungary.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called the
attempt to sabotage the Serbian section of the
Turkish Stream gas pipeline - an attack on the country's sovereignty.
_____________________________________________
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung
congratulates ASEAN U17
title winners
by Huong Giang
April 29th, 2:55pm
(VGP)
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on Wednesday hosted a reception
for the national U17 football squad after they won the 2026
ASEAN U-17 title in Indonesia.
Viet Nam defeated Malaysia 3-0 in the final of the ASEAN U17
Championship in Indonesia on April 25 to clinch the ASEAN
U-17 title for the fourth time, becoming the most
successful team in the history of the
regional competition.
This regional title ---- serves as an important stepping stone
as the team now looks ahead to higher-level competitions,
including the AFC U17 Championship and, ultimately,
qualification for the FIFA U17 World Cup.
More than just an historic milestone, the 2026 championship
provides strong evidence that Viet Nam's long-term youth
development strategy is on the right trac --, laying a firm
foundation for the nation's ambitions on the continental
and global stage.
The title was forged through a particularly convincing journey
- a flawless, unbeaten campaign marked by resilience,
determination, and ambition, featuring four wins,
one draw, and 19 goals scored, said Prime
Minister Le Minh Hung.
The Prime Minister expressed his belief that the team will
continue to maintain their faith, gaining more momentum
to strive for even greater victories in the future.
On the occasion, the national football squad was awarded the
Prime Minister's Certificate of Merit for their exceptional
achievement in the 2026 ASEAN U17 Championship.
______________________________________
They promote a trade and investment
platform with China ------ in Cuba
April 29th, 1:28pm
(Prensa Latina)
Authorities and businessmen from this province today
identified business opportunities with the Investment
and Trade Platform for Latin America (Picla), Cuba's
and China's initiative for industrial development.
The meeting, which included the participation of Governor
Manuel Hernandez, focused attention on strengthening
electronic commerce and direct access to suppliers
and logistics services of the Asian giant.
The initiative promotes the articulation of businesses
without intermediaries to guarantee the supply of
raw materials to companies and ventures in
high demand, in the territory of east Cuba.
Institutions such as the University of Holguín and the Scientific,
Technological and Industrial Park - will lead the process in the
province to finalize future agreements that increase the
competitiveness of the local business sector.
Picla aims to interconnect the two nations to energize strategic
sectors through the commercialization of products and
access to essential inputs... in a broad environment
of economic cooperation.
_____________________________________
They will apply a financial program
to help Colombian coffee growers
April 29th, 1:21pm
(Prensa Latina)
More than 100 thousand Colombian producers will be
able to benefit from a program designed to protect
coffee growing ----- from climate impacts, such as the economies and markets associated with the El Niño phenomenon and the global fertilizer
situation, it was known today.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, for this purpose, nearly
52 billion pesos will be invested (about 14 million 400 thousand
dollars at the current exchange rate), the scope of which will
benefit 610 coffee-growing municipalities in 23 departments.
It is estimated that around 108 thousand coffee growers
will receive support to invest in fertilization, renewal
and production, while women and young people
will be worthy of an additional bonus.
The resources for the program will be provided exclusively
by the Coffee Price Stabilization Fund and the Faia
Mitigation 2026 program.
The Ministry explained that the initiative does not constitute
another subsidy, but rather a strategy for early income
protection, productive strengthening and structural
defense of the peasantry.
He recalled that 97 percent of the country's coffee growers
are small producers and 91 percent grow crops on less
than three hectares.
In the construction of the program, he stressed, it was taken
into account --- that the lack of adequate fertilization can
reduce crop productivity between 20 and 46 percent,
in addition, that timely nutrition allows production
to increase from 12 to 17 loads per hectare,
which represents an increase of close
to 42 %.
_____________________________________
Mexico agreed to collaborate with
Petrobras in biodiesel production
April 29th, 12:32pm
(Prensa Latina)
President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed today - that Mexico
agreed to collaborate with Petrobras to take advantage of
technological developments ---- in areas such as oil
extraction and biodiesel production.
In response to a question about the recent visit to the country of
the president of Petrobras, Magda Chambriard, the dignitary
said that the company of the Southern giant has developed
many methodologies for crude oil extraction and the
production of biodiesel or ethanol.
“So, we agreed to collaborate so that we can take advantage of
many technological developments that they have and that they
can take advantage of technological developments that we
have”, the Chief Executive stated .....during her usual
press conference.
She also announced that on May 13, a team from Petrobras'
production, exploration and transformation area will arrive
to work together with technicians from Mexico.
The meeting between Chambriard and Sheinbaum in this
capital on April 24 took place before an upcoming visit
by the president to Brazil, scheduled for the middle of
the year.
Sheinbaum and his counterpart from the South American giant,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have held dialogues to follow up on
joint economic development, education and science
projects, as well as the visit made in August by
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.
On that occasion the official traveled accompanied by a
large group of the cabinet and Brazilian businessmen.
In addition, together with the then Mexican Foreign Minister,
Juan Ramón de la Fuente, he signed the joint declaration
for the monitoring and implementation of trade and
investment agreements, plus those referring to
agriculture, health and energy issues.
Cultural guild commemorates
International Dance Day
April 29th, 12:05am
(Prensa Latina)
Today the world celebrates International Dance Day, established
in 1982 by the United Nations Educational Organization,
science and Culture, in tribute to this discipline as
a universal art.
The date remembers the birth of the Frenchman Jean-Georges
Noverre (1727-1810), considered the creator of modern ballet,
whose theoretical and practical work marked a decisive turn
in the history of dance.
In each edition, a personality from the choreographic field
shares a message....... aimed at professionals and
organizations from more than 200 countries.
This year, the author is the Canadian Crystal Pite (1970),
recognized for her exploration of the collective in
movement, and the theatrical charge of
her creations.
We are dancers, all of us. Life moves us; life dances us.
As ephemeral as breath, as concrete as bone, dance
is made of us. We sculpted space, Pite writes.
We write with our bodies in a wordless language that
we nevertheless deeply understand. By dancing, we
gracefully inhabit the interior space and that
around us, she stresses.
For the choreographer, artistic manifestation, like life,
is created and destroyed at every moment.
«Like love, it is beyond reason», she
adds, in her message.
It's hard to imagine what a dance artist can do in a world that
urgently needs radical transformation and healing. And yet
art, like hope, is a form of love. Generative even in
desolation, art dissolves the hardening mind
and acts as a balm that repairs it,
she reflects.
Founder of the Kidd Pivot company, she has signed pieces
such as Betroffenheit, Flight Pattern and Revisor, and
awarded with international awards, such as the
Olivier Award.
''Dance is a tool for artistic and social reflection; like
any manifestation of art, it is capable of expressing
emotions and experiences that transcend words,
cultural, political and geographical borders.''
The full message published by Crystal Pite
is available on the Cubarte portal website.
_________________________________________
The new Hungarian government -will
investigate the circumstances of
the 1990s privatization.
April 28th, 10:18pm
(Izvestia.ru)
Hungary will launch an investigation - into the so-called
spontaneous privatization of 1988-2000, during which
embezzlement occurred. This was announced on
April 28 by the leader of the Tisa party, Peter
Magyar, who will soon become the head
of the Hungarian government.
"We will create a commission that will investigate and find out
who became the beneficiary of the embezzlement that was
allowed during the "spontaneous privatization" in the
period 1998-2000," he said in the social network
X (ex. Twitter).
The politician clarified that the commission would also have
to examine the possible involvement of “state security
agencies and party leadership” in the embezzlement.
Magyar on April 25 appealed to the leadership of the law
enforcement agencies ---- to forbid the exit abroad of
businessmen from the entourage of the country's
Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. In addition, he
appealed to the Prosecutor General's
Office and the police: to detain
individuals who allegedly
caused damage to the
state - in the amount
of trillions of forints.
________________________
Dmitriev suggested.....that Sweden
should ask Russia for aviation fuel
April 28th, 9:11pm
(Izvestia.ru)
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment
Fund (RDIF), said on April 26, that Sweden should
turn to Russia.. due to a possible shortage of
aviation fuel.
"Repent and ask Russia for aviation fuel," he
wrote on the social network X (ex. Twitter).
Thus, Dmitriev commented on a post by the BRICS
News news portal, which reported on a possible
shortage of fuel for aircraft carriers..... in the
near future.
It's as simple, as this: the EU opposition is
demanding that aviation fuel be imported
from Russia.
European storage facilities have less than 20 days
of supplies left, and the tourist season ---- may
be disrupted.
Armando Mehma, a member of the Finnish national
conservative Freedom Alliance party --- said on
April 1 that the EU's refusal to use Russian
oil and gas ----- was an act of so-called
euro-suicide.
In response --- Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for
the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated on
April 13, that the alliance was paying a high
price - not for its dependence on foreign
energy - but for its betrayal .....of its
own interests.
The Financial Times newspaper pointed out on April 23
a sharp increase in prices for energy resources, that
is now recorded in the EU. It was noted: that such
a situation was caused... by the lack of an
alliance of sufficient resources, to
purchase the required goods.
_________________________________
The Emirati Oil Free Zone:What Will
Change for the Global Oil Market
After May 2026
April 28th, 3:58pm
(Pravda.ru)
The global oil industry is preparing for major changes
after an official announcement from an influential
Middle Eastern player about the severance of
long-standing ties.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced its withdrawal
from OPEC and the OPEC+ format as of May 1, 2026. The
country intends to increase production in a targeted
manner, taking into account demand and
market conditions.
"We believe that the world will need more energy in the future,
and leaving OPEC and OPEC+ will allow us to meet these
needs while continuing to cooperate with our partners
and investors," said the UAE Minister of Energy and
Infrastructure, Suheil al-Mazroui.
By withdrawing from OPEC, the Emirates are no longer bound by
production quotas and can produce and export as much oil as
they want. This move, which was not coordinated with other
members of the cartel, is seen as a potential weakening of
OPEC's unity.
The Emirates has two ports that do not open in the Strait of
Hormuz. One of them is Fujairah. It is the largest tanker
refueling centre in the region and the most important
terminal for oil exports. The port is served by the
Habshan — Fujairah strategic pipeline, which
allows the UAE to supply oil directly to the
Indian Ocean. However, even before the
war, its capacity covered only about
36-50% of the country's current
export potential.
Even at the pipeline's maximum capacity (1.8 million bpd),
more than 1.7-2 million barrels per day still need to be
shipped through terminals in the Persian Gulf (such
as Jebel Danna or Das), which requires passage
through the Strait of Hormuz. However, the UAE
is already building a second oil pipeline with a
capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day from
Ruwais to Fujairah. It is expected to be
operational in 2027.
In March, the port's infrastructure ---- was hit by several drone
attacks, temporarily paralyzing the shipping operations at Oil
Terminals 1 and 2. By the end of April, most of the berths
had been restored, but the Mena Fujairah terminal is still
operating with restrictions ---- due to damage to the
naphtha tanks. This means that, until a peace
agreement is reached with Iran.... the UAE's
strategy for generating additional revenue
will not be effective. Additionally, the
post-war decline in oil prices, will
have a significant impact on
the UAE's budget.
For the world, this means the end of an era of predictable oil
prices, as the UAE is the third-largest contributor to the
cartel's quotas. The decision is clearly political.
Reuters views the UAE's decision as a significant blow to Saudi
Arabia, the de facto leader of the organization. The agency
also suggests that this move could be seen as a victory
for Donald Trump, who has previously accused OPEC
of inflating oil prices and linked U.S. military support
to Gulf countries to their oil policies. It is possible
that Trump pushed for this decision.
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi joined the organization in 1967,
before the formation of the unified UAE state in 1971.
OPEC was established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
and Venezuela to coordinate oil policies and influence global
prices. The OPEC+ format later.... brought together OPEC
countries and major independent producers, including
Russia. OPEC+ accounts for approximately half of
global oil production.
_____________________________________________
They denounce to Unicef - a plan to
eliminate school feeding in Chile
April 28th, 3:57pm
(Prensa Latina)
Chilean deputies today sent a letter to the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) ----- where they express their
concern about the possibility that the government
of José Antonio Kast eliminates the School
Feeding Program (PAE).
In the letter, addressed to the Unicef representative here,
Violet Speek-Warnery, the legislators cite a document
from the Ministry of Finance that calls for stopping
dozens of social projects --- including the PAE,
executed by the National Board of School
Aid and Scholarships (Junaeb).
“The mere threat of suppressing the program that today
benefits nearly two million children and adolescents
violates the right to food, enshrined in international
treaties”, legislator Luis Cuello, of the Communist
Party, warned.
Although the Government came out to clarify that the
Treasury circular only contains “suggestions”, the
parliamentarians warned - that the risk of cuts
persists as long as the document is in force.
They also added that these “recommendations” are in
line with the Government's fiscal strategy of cutting
budgets for ministries to compensate for tax cuts
for large ''multinational'' companies.
Deputy Juan Santana, of the Socialist Party, denounced
that the Executive ------ “is focusing on the financial
evaluation of the program, but totally ignoring
the social benefits that it brings”.
The legislators recalled that the Junaeb School Feeding
Program not only fulfills a nutritional function, but is
also a structural support for school performance
or even attendance, especially in vulnerable
contexts of ---- poverty.
For this reason, its eventual elimination, or even significant
reduction, would have effects that go beyond the budget.
The deputies ask Unicef for a statement on the importance
of not going backwards in the state guarantee of the right
to food for children and adolescents. In addition to the
two legislators mentioned, the letter is signed by
Patricio Pinilla, from Christian Democracy and
Daniela Serrano and Lorena Pizarro, from the Communist Party.
____________________________
Westlosing leadership positionto
Global South: Russia’s president
April 28th, 2:07pm
(PressTV)
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West
is losing its economic and political leadership
position in the world, giving way to the
countries of the Global South.
A more complex -- multipolar -- architecture of global
development is taking shape as Western countries
lose their dominance and yield to new growth
centres in the Global South, the Russian
president said on Tuesday, in a video
message to participants of the
Open Dialogue Forum.
“States that truly understand and appreciate the importance
of national sovereignty in the political, economic, cultural
and social spheres are playing an increasingly important
role, and they -- can determine the vector of their own
development, based on their own values, resources
and priorities, identity and sovereign worldview,”
he stated.
Prior approaches and established norms of business and
international relations are steadily losing their efficacy,
partly due to the actions of Western countries, which
are relinquishing their leadership positions, he noted.
“The events of recent years show that all elements of global
growth, from economics and finance to technology and
demography, are changing irreversibly,” Putin added.
The global development model, he argued, will only be
sustainable if it is built on the principles of equality
--- and takes into account the interests of all
countries. No nation can develop alone,
at the expense of others, or to
their detriment.
“It is important to focus the entire global development platform
so everyone, anywhere on Earth can have the right to a
successful future, choose their own path, and put
their choice into practice, step by step,”
the Russian president concluded.
The Global South emerged in part - to help countries in the
southern hemisphere collaborate on political, economic,
social, environmental, cultural, and technical issues.
Since 1995, exports within the Global South have
surged by 1,300 percent, double the growth
rate of exports to the North.
Countries of the Global South are no longer merely suppliers
for the West; they are increasingly fueling each other’s
economic and financial development.
More than 40 percent of exports from developing countries
now remain within the Global South, twice the share in
2000, indicating deepening interdependence.
Benefiting from expanded South-South trade relations,
developing economies today account for about 45%
of global GDP, up from 25% in 2000.
_____________________________________
Japanese Prime Minister... to pay an
official visit to Viet Nam this week
April 28th, 1:36pm
(VGP)
Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is set to pay an
official visit to Viet Nam from May 1-3 at the invitation
of her Vietnamese counterpart, Le Minh Hung, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated on Tuesday.
This is Takaichi Sanae's first visit in her capacity
as the head of the Japanese Government.
At a press meeting in Ha Noi on April 28, Japan's
Ambassador to Viet Nam Ito Naoki, said the
visit reflects the fact that Prime Minister
Takaichi Sanae personally ---- and her
Government, attach importance to
the relations between Viet Nam
and Japan.
It also demonstrates their recognition and
high regard, for Viet Nam's role on the
international stage.
The Ambassador noted that the visit aims to strengthen
and build trust between the leaders of the 2 countries.
Both sides ..will discuss key areas of cooperation in
the coming period, such as the economy, energy,
and people-to-people exchanges.
Viet Nam and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1973
and upgraded their ties into a Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership in 2023. Japan..... is Viet Nam's largest
provider of ODA, the biggest labour cooperation
partner, the third-largest investor, and fourth
-largest partner in tourism and trade.
Bilateral trade value reached over US$51.43 billion last year.
The Japanese Embassy in Viet Nam reported that in the
first quarter of this year, the figure increased by 12.7%
compared to the same period last year --- with firm
expectations of reaching US$60 billion by 2027.
As of January 31, 2026, Japan had 5,722 valid investment
projects in Viet Nam with a total registered capital of
US$78.9 billion, ranking third among 153 countries
& territories investing in the S. East Asian nation.
In the semiconductor sector, Viet Nam aims to train 500 PhD
researchers by 2030, and Japan has announced it will
accept about half of them, through international
joint research programs.
There are more than 680,000 Vietnamese people living
in Japan, making them the second-largest foreign
community in the country.
___________________________
China's top management
evaluates economy
in first quarter
April 28th, 11:18am
(Prensa Latina)
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China today analyzed the
economic situation - and outlined priorities
to consolidate and promote high-
quality development.
Chaired by the general secretary of the Party, Xi Jinping,
the meeting noted that the economy began the year
with positive results and with key indicators
above expectations.
Participants warned that difficulties and challenges
persist, so the foundation ...must be strengthened.
The meeting stressed the need to maintain the principle
of progress with stability and balance development
and security.
The Political Bureau indicated that China must deepen
reform and opening-up, while reinforcing its scientific
and technological self-sufficiency.
The meeting proposed building safe and controllable
industrial chains ....against the ''external'' dangers.
The meeting proposed implementing a more proactive
fiscal policy and accommodative monetary policy --
with a precise approach.
It also urged expanding domestic demand and
optimizing supply, to boost economic growth.
The Political Bureau highlighted the importance
of stable employment, businesses, markets,
and expectations.
The meeting highlighted the need to guarantee basic
well-being, the payment of salaries, and the
functioning of the government.
The meeting noted that monetary policy should
ensure sufficient liquidity and a stable yuan
exchange rate.
It also called for boosting consumption by
increasing quality goods and services.
The Political Bureau urged - to strengthen key
infrastructure such as electrical networks,
digital systems and modern logistics.
The meeting - advocated accelerating industrial
modernization and maintaining the weight of
the manufacturing sector.
The meeting highlighted the implementation
of the initiative “IA plus” to develop the
smart economy.
Likewise, it asked to face external challenges
with measures aimed at sustaining high-
quality growth.
The meeting called for a stable real estate market
and for controling local government debt risks.
It also stressed the need to reform small and
medium-sized financial institutions and
strengthening capital markets.
The Political Bureau -- reiterated the priority of
employment and the strengthening of public
services such as education, health and
child care.
China seeks to consolidate its economic strength
in a complex international context, with stress
on macroeconomic stability and sustainable
development... in the period of the 15th Five Year Plan (2026-2030).
________________________________________________
Sonority of Nicolás Guillén in China
with All the flowers of April
April 28th, 4:01am
(Prensa Latina)
The sound and indigenousness of the poetry of Cuban
Nicolás Guillén focused today on the presentation of
the Mandarin edition of the anthology --- "All the
flowers of April", by this Caribbean poet.
The Yilin Press publishing house promoted this initiative
with the help of Peking University professor and
renowned translator Zhao Zenjiang, in charge
of compiling and translating the texts.
In statements to Prensa Latina, Geober Guibert Pardo,
Director of International Relations of the Cuban
Ministry of Culture, highlighted Zhao's ability
to transmit «that living source that is Cuban
culture, so that its essence and musicality
reach the Chinese reader intact».
During the presentation, the director of the Cubapoesía
Cultural Centre, Alex Pausides, stated that publishing
Guillén in Mandarin constitutes “the most powerful
and exact way --------- to proclaim the universal
dimension” of the poet.
He pointed out that Guillén is part of a generation born
in 1902 along with figures such as Nazim Hikmet and
Langston Hughes, considered essential -- in 20th
century poetry.
The director stressed that the work of the National Poet
of Cuba occupies a relevant place within the literary
tradition along with authors such as José Martí
and José Lezama Lima.
He highlighted that Guillén integrated the poetic tradition
in the Spanish language with Afro-Antillean elements,
which gave his creation a deep humanism and a
representative expression of mestizo culture.
For his part, the deputy editor of this publishing house, Li
Ruihua, assured that this book allows Chinese readers
to approach justice, in the sensitivity and strength
present in his work.
He stressed the desire to expand literary cooperation
between both countries through new translations,
and cultural exchange projects.
Also on this day, the book «Cantar de Alejandro» was
presented in the context of the centenary of the
birth of the historic leader, Fidel Castro.
«All April Flowers» was presented last week at the
Second Daliang Mountain Poetry Days, China.
In parallel, a bronze sculpture by Nicolás Guillén was
inaugurated and installed, in La Casa del Poeta, in the Villa de Baimiao, in Xichang.
According to specialized sources, this is not the first
Mandarin translation of Nicolás Guillén's work.
In 1959, the Editorial de Literatura para el Pueblo
published two anthologies --- titled «Selected
Poems» and «Sudor y Látigo; 13 poems».
Guillén visited ...and got to know the People's Republic
of China.... proclaimed by Mao Zedong in 1952 and
then visited again, in 1959.
_________________________________________
ANDIS scandal ---continues tarnishing
the image of Argentina's government
April 28th, 12:42am
(Prensa Latina)
Diego Sapagnuolo, close friend of President Javier Milei
who directed the National Disability Agency (ANDIS),
appears today before the court that will expand its
investigation into new events related to the
bribery scandal.
This Tuesday begins a series of 35 investigations into the
case that involves Karina Milei, sister of the president
and general secretary of the Presidency, in which
criminal maneuvers.... for over 75 billion pesos
(54 million 348 thousand dollars) are aired.
Among those mentioned will be accused of laundering “black
money” obtained at ANDIS, among them Alan Pocovi, linked
to the Menem family, and Sergio Mastropietro, Fred
Machado's former partner, who was accused of
drug trafficking and extradited to the US,
where he is being tried by a court
in Texas.
Spagnuolo is the main figure of “Coimagate”, the case in which
a “huge corruption plot” is being investigated in ANDIS during
the libertarian government. The accused, who was also the
president's lawyer, will be the first to testify of the 35
summoned by Judge Ariel Lijo now in charge of the
case by instruction of prosecutor Franco Picardi.
For Picardi, the former director of ANDIS is one of the heads of
the criminal organization. In a series of leaked audios that
were the media trigger for this case, Spagnuolo is heard
saying that a system of bribes operated in the
organization under his command, that ends
up in his hands.... by Karina Milei.
His defense alleges that these recordings were adulterated,
but references to “3% for KM” appear from the analysis of
the accused's cell phones. 3% is the same figure that the
former head of ANDIS is heard saying in the aired audios
brought to light by the Carnaval Stream media.
In addition to Spagnuolo, this Tuesday Daniel María Garbellini,
who was in charge of the Program Directorate “Include
Health”, must go before the court, the area from
which the manipulated purchases that are
being analyzed in Justice --- were made.
Garbellini is one of the 19 defendants.
This process contributes to further tarnishing the image of the
government and especially of the Milei brothers. On Monday,
the Torcuato Di Tella University released its Government
Confidence Index (ICG), which reflects that Argentines
trust their president .....less and ........less.
The ICG prepared by that private institution shows that this
indicator fell 12.1% in April, and has been declining for four consecutive months.
The deterioration of the index was general, as its five components - showed negative variations in April, with especially marked falls in the key areas of the evaluation of government management.
The Efficiency parameter was the one that fell the most, with
21.4%, followed by ---- the General Government Evaluation
(-17.2%) and Concern for the general interest (-13.9%).
The Honesty component fell minus 8.4% and the
Ability to govern fell to minus 2%.
A trio of surveys whose results were released in recent days
detected that over 60% of Argentines are today dissatisfied
with the government management of Milei and his ''team''.
Brussels is unable to establish relations with any of the
great powers. The EU's relationship with China --- has
entered a phase of open confrontation.
The EU has faced critical
sanctions .....from China
On April 23, Brussels approved the 20th package of sanctions
against Russia, which included 16 major Chinese companies
for the first time ------- "for supplying dual-use goods and
components to the Russian defense industry".
Within 24 hours, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce added seven
European defense companies.... to its export control list. These
companies are now prohibited from importing dual-use goods
from China. The companies include - FN Herstal and
FN Browning (Belgium), Hensoldt AG (Germany),
Excalibur Army, Omnipol, SpaceKnow, and
the Czech Aviation Research Institute
(Czech Republic).
And this is despite the fact that representatives of the European
defense industry and Ukrainian drone manufacturers in April
called dependence on Chinese components (motors,
controllers, communication modules) "a huge
risk ---- to supply security."
China also provides the EU with the lion's share of the metals
needed for the production of electronics and ammunition.
Official Beijing has made it clear that it may restrict the
supply of rare-earth magnets and minerals.... to EU
factories, which are essential for the European
defense industry and the transition to
green energy.
Finland will block duty-free trade with China
But the EU is not content to inflict damage on itself. Today,
Finnish Foreign Minister, Elini Valtonen, declared China's
support for Russia to be a "disqualifying factor" for the
EU-China trade agreement. According to Valtonen,
Beijing's support -- violates the principles of the
UN Charter, which is unacceptable to the EU.
"Either China will stop military support to Russia - or we
will block the trade agreement (with the EU)," she said.
Finland's position effectively amounts to a veto. Despite
the fact --- that this agreement was presented as a
"growth tool," Finland - is currently destroying
its own economy, particularly in the areas
of tourism and trade with Russia.
Europe is sliding.... towards vassalage
French President Emmanuel Macron said recently that Europe
finds itself in a unique historical situation where the leaders
of three world powers-Russia, China and the United States-
are actually "opposed" to European interests. According
to him -- the United States is focused on the domestic
market and the confrontation with China, pushing
the interests of Europe ---- to the background.
Beijing is accused of "unfair competition" and excessive
subsidies for its industries (electric vehicles and clean
technologies), which undermines European industry.
Russia is also seen as an existential threat forcing
Europe ---- to urgently shift to a "war footing" in
the economy.
Macron calls on EU countries to a "strategic awakening" and
autonomy, namely, to build their own defense system,
introduce protective duties --- and issue common
"Eurobonds of the future "(common debt),
so as not to become a "vassal" of
other powers.
But time.... is running out. In the drivers of the future (artificial
intelligence, chip production, quantum computing), the EU is
already years behind the US and China. The EU's share in
global GDP - has almost halved over the past 30 years
(from over 25% to ~14%). Decades of underfunding
of the military have created a situation -- where
European security is impossible - without the
US "umbrella" and intelligence. It will take
10-15 years.... to build a fully autonomous
army, and that's at best. Macron's ideas
about "eurobonds" are met with strong
resistance -- from "frugal" countries
(Germany and the Netherlands).
While the EU is searching for consensus, its competitors are not
idle. With a massive trade deficit (almost 360 billion euros in
2025) and a budget deficit (3.1% of GDP), as well as a GDP
growth rate of only around 1.5%, the EU lacks the
resources to make a significant leap forward
and will likely disintegrate into several
smaller European unions --- that will
seek out opportunistic partners.
This, includes Russia.
______________________________________________
Colombia: Cepeda - retains leadership
in voting intentions according to poll
April 27th, 1:39pm
(Prensa Latina)
The presidential candidate for the Historical Pact, Ivan Cepeda,
retains the leadership in voting intentions in Colombia for the
first round to be held next month, according to a poll
released today.
According to the Spanish GAD3 poll - commissioned by RCN
Television, the left-wing candidate would obtain 36 percent
support on May 31, followed by the far-right Abelardo De la
Espriella with 21 percentage points, while the right-wing
Paloma Valencia would reach 13 percent of the votes.
In a possible second round, Cepeda would prevail
over the other two opponents already mentioned.
He would surpass De la Espriella with 46 percent against 35,
and would also be ahead of the bet of Uribism with
44 percent against 37.
The GAD3 survey conducted 1,500
interviews between April 20 & 22.
This is the second poll that in less than 24 hours ratifies
Cepeda as the favourite in the voting intention,
although there are differences between
the numbers of each of the polls.
According to Invamer's analysis, released the day before,
the Pact candidate ---- would get 44.3% in the first round.
De la Espriella would obtain 21.5 percent and the bet of
the Democratic Centre party, Paloma Valencia, would
deserve 19.8 percent.
In a possible second round, which would take place on
June 21, Cepeda would lead De la Espriella with 54.6
percent to 42.6 percent and also beat Valencia with
51.2 percent to 46.6 percent.
According to the survey, 56.5 percent of those surveyed
said that they will surely go to the polls on May 31.
Invamer also revealed that 47.3 percent of those
interviewed approve of the management of the
country's current president, Gustavo Petro.
The sample data reveal that 3,800 surveys were applied
in 149 municipalities (24 capitals and 125 non-capitals)
between April 15 and 24, 2026.
There are currently 13 candidates in contention for the
Presidency of Colombia, so some analysts predict
the need for a second round.
To win in the first round, 50 percent plus
one of all valid votes.... is required.
__________________________________________
Latin America raises its voice in Russia
in defense of the peoples of the world
April 27th, 1:27pm
(Prensa Latina)
Representatives of political parties and movements in
Latin America and the Caribbean today joined the
initiative of the Just Russia Party to hold the
first Forum of the International Socialist
Network --- 'Sovintern'.
The event, in the opinion of the organizers, seeks to
consolidate a space for cooperation between
progressive forces that share values
associated with the tradition of
defense of the peoples.
Together with the more than 100 attendees from 70
nations in Europe, Asia and Africa, the delegations
from Latin America told their experiences in the
midst of the turbulence that the world... is
currently facing.
"Recovering, updating, reinforcing the ideas of socialism,
which is the true viable alternative to capitalism - is of
the utmost priority in the face of the prevailing critical
world situation. Threats and dangers of a Third World
War, ongoing genocides, added to the climate crisis,"
Chilean doctor Pablo Sepúlveda Allende told Prensa
Latina exclusively.
Along these lines, the deputy of the Guatemalan Congress, and
militant of the Winaq political movement, Sonia Gutiérrez, said
that the Moscow meeting ''represents hope as long as there is
a unity that transcends borders with the same thought, with
the same vision ------- of saving humanity.''
The Forum also received calls not to let the Latin American
peoples be intimidated by the United States' intentions
to turn the region into its backyard.
Our flags remain firm - because the enemy is still the same, it
is still imperialism that today, without euphemisms, does not
speak to you of a struggle for democracy but openly speaks
of seizing our strategic natural resources, denounced the
member of the 'EVO People of Bolivia' movement,
Adriana Salvatierra.
She also criticized how ''Washington no longer speaks of the
risk of mass weapons of destruction, but directly imposes
geopolitical control of natural energy resources, as well
as assassinates and destroys boats, and kidnaps with
impunity leaders such as the Venezuelan President,
Nicolás Maduro --- and his wife, Congresswoman
Cilia Flores.''
For his part, the member of the national board of directors of the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Jesús Farías, recalled the
events that took place in Caracas and three other states,
on January 3, catalogued by the political leader as
the greatest aggression in the history of the
South American nation.
"Socialism is not a walk in the park, it is a very hard struggle
because it is about privileges that the large corporations of
territorial control lose, that the large imperialist states lose.
And of course, that resistance --- generates a great battle.
We have lived it in the flesh. However, on the socialist
system, the Bolivarian government remains -- at the
forefront, which is a great victory within this very
complex situation," added the deputy of the
National Assembly of Venezuela.
And it is no coincidence that this first Forum of the International
Socialist Network was held just on the 63rd anniversary of the
first visit of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel
Castro, to the Soviet Union, the space served as a stage to
perpetuate his legacy in the year of his centenary.
"From Fidel we learned that there is no force more powerful than
the unity of people and the integration of peoples. We are living
in times of threat, blockade, bombings, assassination, & state
terrorism, which is why - it was necessary and of tremendous
importance to integrate progressive forces at a global level,"
said Fidel Castro Smirnov, a member of the Cuban
Academy of Sciences.
____________________________________________
Poll shows continuity of very close
electoral scenario...in Brazil
April 27th, 10:47am
(Prensa Latina)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads the voting
intentions for the first round of the presidential elections,
while the second round shows a technical tie scenario,
according to a poll released today.
The poll, conducted by the firm Nexus, showed that the head of state has 41% of the support for the October 4 elections in the first scenario studied, followed by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, with 36%, which configures a close dispute between the two candidates.
According to the survey, commissioned by the bank BTG Pactual,
other candidates appear with significantly lower levels of
support, including the former governors of Minas Gerais,
Romeu Zema (4%), and Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado (3%).
In two other scenarios analyzed, the Brazilian leader maintains
his lead over Bolsonaro, although in the third the difference is
reduced to 3 points, with Lula's support standing at 41%.
With respect to a possible second round, the poll shows
a technical tie ....between the two main presidential
candidates -- as the president reaches 46 percent
of the support, compared to 45% for the senator.
In a previous measurement, released at the end of March,
both appeared equal with 46 percent, which shows
stability in the dispute.
The poll also projects runoff scenarios against other candidates,
in which Lula would obtain 45 percent against 41 percent for
both Zema and Caiado, with percentages of undecided
and invalid votes above 10 percent.
____________________________________________
China rejectsU.S. ''sanctions''
on its refining company
April 27th, 8:45am
(Prensa Latina)
China today rejected the sanctions announced by the US
against a private refining company from the Asian
country for ....alleged ''links'' with Iran.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing
consistently opposes unilateral sanctions
without a basis in international law.
The spokesman pointed out that these measures constitute
an erroneous practice of "extraterritorial jurisdiction" and
urged the United States to stop the indiscriminate use of
sanctions -------- and correct its actions.
He also stressed that China will firmly protect the
legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises.
The spokesman reiterated that unilateral actions affect
the international economic and trade order.
China has repeatedly criticized Washington's unilateral
sanctions, in a context of tensions over restrictive
measures linked to third countries such as Iran..
in the midst of a turbulent regional context.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the
Hengli Petrochemical refinery (Dalian), which it said is
During his visit to Germany, Brazilian President Lula
da Silva, said that the country was tired of being
an invisible developing nation.
"Brazil is tired of being a small, developing country,
tired of being treated as a third world country, an
invisible country," TASS quoted him as saying.
According to him, the country has long deserved
a different treatment on the global stage.
He clarified that Brazil has achieved economic stability,
attracts foreign investment, and is ready to increase
cooperation with its partners.
Earlier, the Brazilian president called on the US
------- to treat other countries as equals.
___________________________________________
EU Commissioner: EU residents
cannot afford decent housing
April 20th, 12:05pm
(RT.ru)
The EU is experiencing a deep housing crisis, according
to the EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing,
Dan Jorgensen.
"We are in the epicentre of the housing crisis," he said
at a press conference in Barcelona, according to
RIA Novosti.
According to him, many categories
of citizens cannot afford housing.
Jørgensen noted - that the problem affects teachers,
police officers, and medical professionals, as well as young people.
"They can't live in decent housing... Young people
can't start an adult, autonomous life,"
he emphasized.
Earlier, the head of the RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, said
that EU officials - had underestimated the
consequences of their decisions,
for the region's economy.
___________________________
Mass shooting in Louisiana,
the deadliest in the US
- for two years
April 20th, 10:06am
(Prensa Latina)
The city of Shreveport, Louisiana, remains shocked today
after the murder of eight children, between three and 11
years old, in an act of violence that marks the deadliest
mass shooting in the United States since 2024.
The attacker, a 31-year-old father identified as Shamar
Elkins -- who shot and killed his seven children and a
cousin, and seriously injured two women, including
his wife, in a series of attacks on at least two
homes before dawn this Sunday.
Authorities described the crime as an act of “domestic
nature” and Elkins reportedly fled the area in a stolen
vehicle by assault and a police chase ensued,
where he was injured ...and died.
“This is a tragic situation, perhaps the worst tragic
situation we have ever had in Shreveport”,
Mayor Tom Arceneaux said...... at a
news conference.
For his part, the Speaker of the United States House of
Representatives, Mike Johnson, who was elected by
the Shreveport area to Congress, described the
deaths as “heartbreaking”.
“We keep the victims, their families and loved ones,
and our Shreveport community very much in our
thoughts and prayers.... during this incredibly
difficult time”, he said.
So far the deadliest shooting in the last two years
was in January 2024 in Chicago, when a 23-
year-old man shot eight people, most of
them his relatives.
At least 114 mass shootings have been reported
so far in 2026 in the country, according to the
Gun Violence Archive tracker.
________________________________
Russia asks....to avoid
a pandemic of fascism
April 20th, 2:45am
(Prensa Latina)
Russia urges the world community not to forget the lessons
of the past and stop the spread of revenge moving towards
a terrible pandemic of fascism, the spokesperson for the
Foreign Ministry, María Zajárova, said today.
When answering a question from the TASS news agency.. about why there is a wealth of falsification of history by
the West, the diplomat recalled the concept of revenge
....as something that was not very clear in her youth
“some term that, apparently, I think we... never
relate to in real life», she said.
Zakharova, who participated in the Day of Commemoration
of the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People, noted
that “we probably learned poorly from the movie Ordinary
Fascism, because there was - this warning: that a huge
and terrible pandemic of historical revenge can grow
from a small bacillus», she highlighted.
The diplomat pointed out that the citizens of the Soviet
Union and then Russia understood the «bad» essence
of the concept of revenge, but they could not think
of its future expansion....... in the minds of the
Western elites.
Zakharova stressed that attempts by Western countries
to rewrite history have clearly demonstrated the true
meaning of revanchism.
«This means ----- that they do not want to live with the
understanding that they have lost, they do not want
to give us victory - they do not want to recognize,
despite the Nuremberg Tribunal - despite --- all
of the decisions enshrined in the UN Charter,
they don't want to recognize that there are
winning countries, or that our country
occupies a central place among
them», she stressed.
__________________________
Three medals, the goal of
Vietnamese athletics for
the Asian Games
April 20th, 5:05am
(Prensa Latina)
Get three medals, one of each colour, today, is the objective
set by Vietnamese athletics for the twentieth edition of the
Asian Games (Asiad 20), scheduled for next September in
Nagoya, Japan.
This is an ambitious goal, but the team is confident
of achieving the best possible results thanks to
meticulous preparation, both in quantity and
quality, carried out in recent times, the
Hanoi Moi newspaper assessed, in
a comment.
The publication recalled.... that the last three continental
events clearly reflected the ups and downs of Vietnam's
representation in the field and track events.
At the 2014 Asian Games, two silver medals were achieved
and four years later the harvest was a pair of titles and
three bronze medals, which was followed by a total
failure in the 2022 event.
This reality, the newspaper opined, makes the goal of
winning a gold medal in the next XX Asian Games an
extremely difficult challenge: to win, the coaching
staff of the Vietnamese athletics team has been
developing a plan ---- focused on improving the
performance of their athletes.
Among the main trump cards... of the beautiful sport in
Vietnam are Nguyen Thi Oanh, Hoang Nguyen Thanh
and Nguyen Trung Cuong, who have maintained a
constant level, and young talents like Phung Thi
Hue, in the hectometre, and Bui Thi Kim Anh, in the high jump.
According to the president of the Vietnamese Athletics
Federation, Hoang Ve Dung, the XX Asian Games are
not just an immediate goal, but also a crucial test
for the rise of this discipline in the Asian sports
scene and, even more so ---- to ensure its
participation in the Olympic Games.
“If we take advantage of this opportunity well, it could be
a turning point - to consolidate our position and begin a
new stage of development for Vietnamese athletics”,
he predicted.
_____________________________
Zakharova called attempts to rewrite historyan
insult------- to the memory of the Soviet people
April 18th, 10:34pm
(Izvestia.ru)
Attempts to rewrite history and equalize the aggressor and
the liberator in World War II --- offend the memory of the
Soviet people and contradict the decisions of the
Nuremberg Tribunal, which made a clear
decision on this issue.
This was stated by Maria Zakharova, the official representative
of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on April the 19th, in
connection with the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of
the Genocide of the Soviet People.
"Attempts to rewrite history, to equalize the aggressor and
the liberator, offend the memory of the Soviet people and
contradict the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal --
which recognized the Nazi leadership as criminal,
& the Soviet people as a victim and the victor,"
she said to RIA Novosti.
The diplomat emphasized that during the Nuremberg Trials,
one of the authors of the plan to attack the USSR, Field
Marshal Friedrich Paulus ------ provided evidence, that
Germany was responsible for starting World War II.
Zakharova noted days earlier that the Russian Foreign Ministry
is conducting systematic work --- to promote the international
recognition of the genocide of the Soviet people. Cooperation
has been established within the framework of the Russian-
Belarusian working group ---- on establishing the
circumstances of the genocide of the Soviet
people during the Great Patriotic War.
This qualification has already been mentioned in joint
statements by the foreign ministers of Russia and
Belarus, as well as the presidents of Russia
and Kazakhstan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 8 signed a law on
punishment for denial and approval of the genocide of
the Soviet people. So, for public denial of the fact
of genocide ---- you may be threatened with
imprisonment for up to three years.
____________________________________________
Lula summons Security Council
as many ----defend Cuba
April 18th, 7:56am
(Prensa Latina)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva today
called on the UN Permanent Security Council to
change its behaviour, while defending
Cuba's sovereignty.
At the closing of the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy,
part of the Global Progressive Mobilisation -- that has
been in session since yesterday, in Barcelona, the
president of the South American giant, stressed
that "no president, of any country in the world
has the right ------- to impose rules on other
presidents. None."
In a blunt and categorical tone, Lula da Silva pointed out that
"the five (permanent) members of the UN Security Council,
must meet to change their behaviour. We can't wake up
every day in the morning .......and go to sleep at night
....always with a president's tweet ----- threatening
the world, declaring war."
No one has the right to impose rules on other countries,
he said, and then expressed great concern about
what is happening in Cuba.
"We have to stop with this blockade of Cuba and let
Cubans live their lives. It is not possible for us to
remain silent ---- in the face of that," he said.
Shortly before, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum,
proposed a statement against military intervention in Cuba,
in her speech at the IV Summit in Defense of Democracy.
"I want to propose a statement -- against military intervention in
Cuba. May dialogue and peace prevail," she stressed --- at the
meeting in which the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and Uruguay,
Yamadú Orsi, among others, fully agreed.
_________________________________________
To Lam Exalts Contributions to the Unity of the Elderly and Community Leaders
April 18th, 3:25am
(Prensa Latina)
The general secretary of the Communist Party (CPV) and President of Vietnam, To Lam, praised here today --- the
contribution that elders & community leaders make to
national unity & the safeguarding of cultural heritage.
These comrades are not only guardians of community
memory, but also spiritual pillars, points of trust and
contributors to maintaining stability and cohesion
at the local level, the Vietnamese leader noted -
at an event held on the occasion of Vietnam's
Day of Ethnic Cultures.
To Lam stressed - that protecting the cultures of ethnic
groups is not only about preserving heritage, but also
about safeguarding the spiritual foundations of
society, strengthening national unity and
creating an intrinsic force - a power -
for sustainable development.
He noted that, despite achievements in this endeavour,
it must be frankly acknowledged "that the cause of
preserving and promoting the cultural values of
ethnic groups faces many new difficulties and
challenges, some of which are long-term
problems that have a direct impact on
the foundations of the country's
sustainable development.
In areas with a minority population, it is essential to achieve
harmonious development that combines the improvement
of the standard of living with the preservation of cultural
identity, integration with cultural autonomy, and, above
all, emphasizing the leading role of the community,
he said.
The party leader and head of state also called for
working together to maintain peace in the
villages, thus contributing to stability
at the local level.
"With their prestige, responsibility and close ties with the
village, the companions, elders and brothers should
continue to set an example, encouraging villagers
not to pay attention to false incitement, not to
break the law .....and not to allow negative
elements to infiltrate the community,"
he said.
To Lam stressed that the preservation of culture should
be closely linked to economic development, especially
community-based tourism, so people can preserve
their identity and increase their income, thus
generating a long-term motivation..... for
cultural preservation and promotion.
At the event, Vietnam's Minister of Culture, Sports and
Tourism Lam Thi Phuong Thanh said that to date the
country has revived over 180 traditional festivals
linked to tourism development and established
nearly 200 models to preserve & experience
the culture associated with the so-called
chimneyless industry.
More than 720 popular culture clubs were also built and
5,760 traditional performing arts groups were formed,
and 50 programs were implemented for the research,
restoration and preservation of intangible cultural
heritage ....at risk of disappearing.
In addition... 351 ethnic minority intangible cultural heritage
properties are included in a list of 735 national intangible
cultural heritage properties drawn up by the ministry.
Established in 2008 by government decision, Vietnam's Day
of Ethnic Cultures has become an important holiday for
people from all ethnic groups to meet, interact and
immerse themselves in traditional festivals and
their unique cultural spaces.
_________________________________________
Vietnam Recognizes Progress in
Expanded Human Capital Index
April 18th, 3:04am
(Prensa Latina)
The advances shown today by Vietnam in the Expanded
Human Capital Index (HCI+) were recognized by
international organizations by placing it
among the top five.... with the best
performance among countries
with similar income levels.
The recognition was made public in the context of the
2026 Spring Meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), held recently in
Washington D.C., according to the Ministry of
Finance of Vietnam.
This distinction by multilateral financial organizations
endorses the results in the development and use of
human resources, as well as in the promotion of
competitiveness and the transformation of
the labour market, the ministry said.
He further stressed that these results are linked to the
implementation of resolutions on the protection and
care of people's health and the development of
education and training of human resources
by 2030.
From the perspective of economic experts, he added, the
results of the HCI+ index in 2026 are not only related to
education and health, but also to the management of
public finances.
"Vietnam is considered to have the ability to transform the
investment resources of the budget for education and
health into economic results," the Vietnamese
government's electronic newspaper said
in releasing the information today.
Compared to other countries in the region with a similar
income level, he said, Vietnam has achieved greater
efficiency --- in converting skills into jobs and
real income.
The recognition at HCI+ 2026 once again demonstrates the
validity of its people-centric strategy - and proves the
effectiveness of the allocation and utilization of
domestic financial resources, a vital factor
for competitiveness in the new era,
the publication concluded.
_____________________________
Vietnam: Deeper reforms to
ensure quality of growth
April 18th, 2:02am
(Prensa Latina)
Despite having a projected growth that leads the region,
Vietnam today needs deeper reforms to guarantee its
quality, said the director of the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) here, Shantanu Chakraborty.
Vietnam is facing the need to modernize its growth model
from labour-intensive industries ---- to higher value-added
sectors, he told the government's electronic newspaper.
Chakraborty stressed that although the resilience of the
Vietnamese economy in the face of global challenges
is clearly demonstrated, "behind the positive figures
lies the need for deeper reforms --- to ensure the
quality of growth".
Vietnam's current economic dynamism is not simply a
recovery from crises, but reflects the fundamental
factors that have been strengthened over many
years of integration, he said.
According to the expert, in order to maintain high and
sustainable growth, Vietnam cannot rely solely on
traditional engines, but needs to focus its
attention on improving the productivity
and efficiency of the economy.
While Vietnam has deeply integrated into global value chains
and developed a strong export-oriented manufacturing base,
the domestic sector's value-added remains low, he said.
In this sense, the director of the ADB in this Southeast Asian
country said that "the advantage of low labour costs is not
sustainable in the long term. This underscores the urgent
need to improve its position in the global value chain."
To improve its position, he said, the ADB highlights four key
factors: a transparent business environment, access to
long-term capital, high-quality infrastructure.. and a
skilled workforce.
"These are fundamental conditions for Vietnam to move from
participating in supply chains -- to generating greater value
within them," Chakraborty said.
On the other hand, he pointed out that one of the strategic
recommendations made by that financial institution was
that improving energy efficiency was much more cost-
effective than simply focusing on the development
of new energy sources.
This indicates a shift in focus, from expanding supply to
optimizing energy use across the system, he explained.
Chakraborty also stated that the ADB "greatly appreciates
the recent progress in Vietnam's institutional reform, in
particular the establishment of a central role for the
private sector and efforts to simplify procedures."
The simplification of the two-tier administrative apparatus
and increased decentralization to local authorities are
expected to significantly improve the speed of
decision-making, he predicted.
______________________________________
The Total Dictation and the Children's
Russian Language Olympiad will be held in New York
April 17th, 9:05pm
(RT.ru)
On Saturday, April 18th, the Russian-American Heritage Centre
will host the Total Dictation educational event for adults and
the Russian Language Olympiad for children in the US state
of New York, according to Olga Zatsepina, President of
the Russian-American Heritage Centre.
The project organizer told RIA Novosti journalists about this
The events are organized as part of the Russian-American
History Month. The writing of the text... will take place at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Manhattan, the Russian
Consulate General and the State of New Jersey.
The children's Olympiad will be held on April 25.
The head of the centre explained that such events
help compatriots test their knowledge and stay
connected to their roots.
"But the most important thing is that it's
an opportunity to experience Russian
culture," Zatsepina said.
__________________________________________
Fico: The abolition of the veto power
will be the beginning of the end of
the EU
April 17th, 7:50pm
(RT.ru)
The abolition of the veto power of EU member states
will be the beginning of the end of the EU. This
opinion was expressed by the Slovak Prime
Minister, Robert Fico.
According to him, the EU is experiencing a huge crisis.
"The abolition of the veto... is the beginning of the end
of the EU, the beginning of the end, of this important
international organization which none of us wants,"
TASS quoted him as saying.
Earlier, Politico reported... that more and more EU
countries want to limit or abolish the right of veto.
EU Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen called for a majority vote
in the EU.
_________________________________________
Viet Nam, China, sign 32
cooperation documents
April 17th, 4:09pm
(VGP)
Viet Nam and China signed 32 cooperation documents,
covering a wide range of areas, within the framework
of the state visit to China by General Secretary and
President To Lam and his spouse from April 14-17.
The documents -- include a cooperation plan between the
Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) and the Communist
Party of China (CPC) ...for the 2026–2030 period; plus a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation
between the Organisation Commission of the CPV
Central Committee and its Chinese counterpart;
a cooperation agreement between the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam ----- and the
International Liaison Department of
the CPC Central Committee.
Meanwhile, the governments of the two countries signed an
MoU .....on cooperation within the framework of the Global Security Initiative; plus a handover certificate for project
documents supporting the preparation of a feasibility
study for the Lao Cai - Ha Noi - Hai Phong railway
line; and an agreement on cooperation and
mutual administrative assistance in
customs matters.
The other documents - include an official letter on a project to
build a second campus (first phase) of the Vietnam Academy
of Traditional Medicine ---- using non-refundable aid from the
Chinese government, signed between the Vietnamese
Ministry of Health and the China International
Development Cooperation Agency.
Also, an MoU between the Ministry of Construction of Viet Nam
and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China -- on implementing railway training cooperation to enhance the capacity of Vietnamese railway personnel;
an MoU on vocational education cooperation between
the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam
and the Ministry of Education of China.
The Ministry of Science and Technology of Viet Nam and the
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China
also inked an MoU on implementing a joint Viet Nam-
China research programme; and another MoU on
cooperation in digital technology.
Meanwhile, the Ministries of Public Security of the two
countries --- signed a protocol on the establishment,
management, and operation, of a ministerial-level
hotline; an MoU -- on cooperation and exchange
in culture, arts, and sports; and another MoU
on cooperation in ensuring security and
order in tourism activities.
The Ministries of Justice of Viet Nam and China inked an
MoU on cooperation on strengthening partnership in
resolving civil and commercial disputes among
border residents; and a cooperation
programme in 2026 – 2027.
Other signed documents are MoUs on establishing a working
group to negotiate and promote the construction of a cross-
border economic cooperation zone -- & a working group on
production chain and supply chain cooperation, between
the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Viet Nam and the
Ministry of Commerce of China; a protocol on phyto-
sanitary requirements for the export of pomelo &
lemons between the Ministry of Agriculture and
Environment of Viet Nam .....and the General
Administration of Customs, China, (GACC);
an MoU on joint implementation of human
resource development cooperation plans
between the Ministry of Finance of Viet
Nam and the General Administration
of International Cooperation and
Development of China.
Also signed were the Minutes of the meeting on a field survey
for a feasibility study of an aid project for Viet Nam to repair
and upgrade....... the Viet Nam-China Friendship Palace; a
cooperation agreement between the Voice of Viet Nam
(VOV) and Xinhua News Agency of China; an MoU on
cooperation between the Viet Nam News Agency,
(VNA) and Xinhua -- under the mechanism of the
Global South Media and Think Tank Forum; an
MoU on information cooperation between the
Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences and
Xinhua; an agreement.... on enhancing
cultural and artistic cooperation in
2026-2027, between Viet Nam
Television (VTV), and China
Central Television (CCTV);
a cooperation agreement
--- between the Ministry
of Culture, Sports and
Tourism of Vietnam
and CCTV.
Also....... an MoU on enhancing cooperation between VNA
and CCTV; a cooperation agreement between the CPV’s
Communist Review and CCTV; an MoU on cooperation
between Hanoi and Beijing for the 2026-2030 period;
an agreement to establish provincial-level friendly
relations between Phu Tho province of Viet Nam
and Shanxi province of China; a cooperation
agreement on cadre training between the
Party Committees of the provinces of
- Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Cao Bang,
Tuyen Quang, and Hai Phong city
of Viet Nam...... and the Party
Committee of the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous
Region of China.
Also an MoU between the People's Committee of Lang Son
province and the People's Administration of the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region on confirming the location,
type, opening time, working hours, and upgrading of
the Chi Ma (Viet Nam) – Ai Dian (China) border gate
----- to an international border gate.
_____________________________________________
Colombia: Candidate Cepeda rules out
resigning from the campaign due to
threats
April 17th, 2:29pm
(Prensa Latina)
The presidential candidate for the progressive movement
of Colombia Historical Pact, Iván Cepeda, affirmed today
that threats to end his life - will not stop his political
work or his proselytizing campaign -ahead of
the elections.
This was stated by the candidate for the Casa de Nariño in a
video broadcast on his social networks after the country's
president, Gustavo Petro reported that the US' CIA has
the real and concrete data of a possible attack
against the still senator.
Cepeda, who leads the voting intentions in the country for
the first round according to all polls, commented in his
statement this day that he has received precise
information on different occasions about
attempts to assassinate him.
He added that he ruled out making a fuss about this
since he does not want to sow alarm or panic in
public opinion, and that he chose to assume
a responsible attitude.
The candidate considered that, after the Colombian
president's comment, the current circumstances
can be considered serious, to which he will pay
full attention, and therefore will ask the
authorities to inform him in detail.
However, he ruled out that this will cause
a setback in the activities on his agenda.
“Under no circumstances will I abandon my political work
or the electoral campaign and I decisively call on my
followers, my teams, the citizens who will vote for
me, that we redouble our efforts and that we do
not give in to terror, nor to the forces that
want to end the process of change in
Colombia”, he noted.
Recently, the National Government announced that the
strength of the defence schemes assigned to the
candidates will continue to be increased and
security will be available in each H.Q. of
the 13 presidential candidates.
According to the Minister of the Interior, Armando
Benedetti, there have been 107 members of the
National Protection Unit (UNP), 160 members
of the National Police, and 29 conventional
vehicles, 39 armoured vehicles --- and 29
protective vests, among the measures.
He added that, to guarantee proselytizing work, each
movement of candidates for the presidency or vice
presidency is accompanied by at least 40 police
officers, with support from motorized units
and specialized personnel.
The presidential elections in Colombia will take place
on May 31 and whoever reaches half plus one
of the valid votes - will win.
Analysts predict that since there are 13 candidates,
a second round could be necessary, which would
take place on June 21.
To date, Cepeda, Paloma Valencia (right) and Abelardo
De la Espriella (ultra-right) lead in voting intentions,
according to surveys.
___________________________________________
ILO warns of 284 million workers
in extreme poverty
April 16th, 5:05pm
(Prensa Latina)
Some 284 million workers today suffer from
extreme poverty around the world, said
director general of the International
Labour Organization (ILO),
Gilbert F. Houngbo.
During the Spring Meetings of the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Houngbo
also noted, that around 2.1 billion workers,
an amount that represents about 58% of
the global workforce....... remains in
''informal'' employment.
Structural weaknesses in the labor market and
the escalation of the war in the Middle East
threaten the income and employment of
millions of people, the director of said
UN specialized agency warned.
In his remarks, Houngbo stressed that persistent
decent work deficits are undermining social
cohesion and economic resilience.
He also observed - that the increase in sovereign debt,
limited fiscal space and high economic uncertainty
further restrict the ability of governments to
support workers and strengthen the
labour markets.
The conflict in the Middle East is intensifying pre-existing
vulnerabilities -- and transmitting disruptions through
energy markets, trade disruptions and rising costs,
which increases the risk of serious and lasting
effects in the world of work, he said.
In the hardest-hit countries, he said, damage to infrastructure,
disruptions to business activity, displacement and insecurity
are expected to reduce employment and incomes, while
putting pressure on labour market institutions and
public services.
Disruptions to energy, trade and supply chains
are affecting employment, wages and the
working conditions in many economies.
Low-income households, workers in the informal economy,
migrant workers and small businesses, bear the heaviest
burdens, with an increased risk of child labour, forced
labour ....and other serious, decent work negatives.
Houngbo urged governments to act quickly
to protect workers, preserve fiscal space
for social protection ---- and implement
active measures.
«Effective social protection, livelihood support and active
labour market policy measures -- are essential to prevent
vulnerable workers and households from falling further
into insecurity», he indicated.
In conflict-affected countries, recovery & reconstruction
must incorporate decent work, labour rights, social
protection and fair working conditions ---- from the
beginning, the director general of the ILO stated.
____________________________________________
Unicefdelivers donations to maternal
and pediatric hospitals in Cuba
April 16th, 4:31pm
(Prensa Latina)
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), today
made a donation of 100 oxygen concentrators for
emergency services ------ in Cuban maternal and
pediatric hospitals, its Havana office reported.
On its Facebook account, the UN entity in the Caribbean
nation published that half of these teams have already
been transferred to the territories.. of Havana, Villa
Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Las Tunas,
Granma and Santiago de Cuba.
Sunny Guidotti, acting representative of UNICEF in Cuba,
said that every input, medicine, or piece of equipment
that arrives in the country constitutes an opportunity
to improve health services and save lives -- like the
concentrators intended for the care of girls, boys,
adolescents and pregnant women.
The publication adds -- that the donation is integrated into
international cooperation actions that support the Cuban
health system in strengthening maternal and child care
and responding to medical emergencies.
Raimel Milan, specialist in the Medicinal Gases Area of the
National Centre for Electromedicine, appreciated this
equipment and said that --- although its benefits do
not replace a bottle of oxygen, they are feasible
in the event of a medical emergency, due to
their capacity of 10 litres per second and
their easy maneuverability in hospitals
and homes.
The Cuban National Health System thanked UNICEF
for the donation of the oxygen concentrators.
In addition, he expanded on this by stating that this
support strengthens the response capability of the
maternal and pediatric hospitals and contributes
to saving lives in emergency situations.
________________________________
Costa Rica opens literary
call with a citizen focus
April 16th, 4:04pm
(Prensa Latina)
The Ministry of Culture and Youth (MCJ) of Costa Rica today
called the Ordinary Competition of Competitive Funds for
Literary Arts Projects 2027, initiative to strengthen the
relationship between creation and citizenship.
The call ------ promoted by the National Library System and the
College of Costa Rica, to democratize access to literature, is
aimed at writers, editors, researchers and cultural managers
who wish to transform their ideas into proposals with social
and territorial impact.
The objective is for the stories to circulate and reach more
people, especially those who have been far from the
cultural offer, stated the Minister of Culture,
Jorge Rodríguez, in a press release.
Rodríguez stressed that literature constitutes
an essential tool to build citizenship, critical
thinking and identity.
The contest includes four modalities: Stimulus for Literary
Creation, for works in genres such as novel, short story,
poetry, essay, chronicle, dramaturgy and translation,
together with Training and Research, aimed at
strengthening skills in editing, criticism
and sectorial studies.
Added to the above is Editing and Dissemination, with
support for the production and promotion of works
and Reading Promotion, focused on communities
with greater access needs.
Applications will be open until August 31 of this year,
with results in December and execution between
March and November 2027.
In the words of the MCJ, the central axis will be Audience
Development, which requires proposals to detail how
they will be linked to their audiences, recognition
of the diversity of readers and the promotion
of active participation.
The participation bases are available on the official
website of the ministry, and applications must be
sent in digital format via email.
______________________________________________
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung
to visit Viet Nam next week
April 16th, 9:25am
(VGP)
South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung will pay
a State visit to Viet Nam from April 21-24, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced
on Thursday.
The visit will be made at the invitation of
the General Secretary and President of
Viet Nam To Lam, said the ministry.
____________________________________________
Nicaragua - projects GDP growth of 3.5% to 4.5%
April 16th, 12:22am
(Prensa Latina)
The Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN) projects growth
in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this year in
a range of 3.5 to 4.5 percent --- it transpired today.
According to the Macroeconomic Outlook 2026 report, this
forecast --- is based on the solid performance recorded in
2025, when the national economy grew by 4.9 percent
---------- driven by the expansion of most sectors, the
dynamism of investment, domestic consumption
and the favourable performance of exports.
The document, cited by Informe Pastrán, indicates that --- in
the first months of this year the Monthly Index of Economic
Activity (IMAE) showed an interannual growth of 6.4% in
January, with emphasis on the service, mining,
construction and livestock sectors.
Likewise, it highlights that the economy maintains
macroeconomic stability, with an unemployment
rate of three percent last February, and a
projection of between 3.0 and 3.5%
as an annual average.
Formal employment.. also shows strength, reflected in the
increase of more than 8,700 members of the Nicaraguan
Social Security Institute in the first months of the year.
In terms of prices, the BCN expects inflation to remain
low, in a range of 2.5 to 3.5% ....at the end of 2026,
aided by the reduction in international inflation.
The above is also supported by the application of
appropriate monetary and fiscal policies,
the subsidies for essential goods and
services.. as well as maintaining
the exchange rate slide at zero
percent, the text specified.
On the other hand, the entity revised upwards the
projection of the current account surplus of the
balance of payments, placing it between 5.0
and 6.0 percent of GDP.
This result responds to the dynamism of merchandise
exports and free zones, which in January 2026 grew
53.5 percent year-on-year, along with positive flows
of foreign direct investment and external income.
______________________________________________
They highlight the forecast
for Brazil's return to the
10 largest economies
April 15th, 3:28pm
(Prensa Latina)
Brazilian media today highlight the forecast of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Brazil's
return to the group of the 10 largest
economies in the world in 2026.
According to the World Economic Outlook report, the
organization raised the growth projection of the
Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from
1.6 to 1.9% for this year, and anticipated a
positive impact derived from the global
situation, especially due to the
country's status as a net
energy exporter.
According to the IMF, the current geopolitical scenario,
with tensions in the Middle East, could contribute
about 0.2 % to the growth of Brazil's economy.
The Brasil 247 portal highlights that the upward revision of
growth -- together with the strengthening of the oil sector
and the evolution of the exchange rate, will allow Brazil
to regain 10th position in the global ranking ....rising
above Canada, after having occupied 11th place
in the previous two years.
Along these lines, O Globo explains that the appreciation
of the real against the dollar affects the measurement
of Brazil's GDP in US currency, which favours the
world position of the South American giant.
Other media, such as Diário da Manhã, mention that the size
of Brazil's GDP could be around 2.64 trillion dollars in 2026,
affirming its return.... to the group of the main economies
on the planet.
Likewise, the IMF report, cited by the press, highlights that
the country has macroeconomic fundamentals that
strengthen its capacity to respond to external
shocks, i.e., robust international reserves, a
low dependence on foreign currency debt
and a flexible exchange rate regime.
Projections also point to possible continuity in improving
global positioning, with Brazil expected to advance to
ninth place in 2027 and eighth in 2028.
However, analyzes collected by the press warn that the
size of GDP does not in itself reflect the level of well-
being of the population, therefore, indicators such
as GDP per capita offer a more precise view of
the distribution of wealth.
Internationally, the IMF reduced its global economic growth
forecast for 2026 to 3.1 percent, which contrasts with the
slight improvement in the outlook for the Brazilian
economy ---- in the midst of a more complex
global environment.
_______________________________
Glas suffers neurological event
in Ecuadorian prison,lawyer
denounces
April 15th, 3:28pm
(Prensa Latina)
The former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas, detained
in a maximum security prison, suffered a “neurological
event, a seizure”, reported his defense lawyer Sonia
Vera, who denounced the lack of medical care.
“On April 13 at dawn, Jorge Glas presented an acute episode
in prison with loss of consciousness, fever and signs
compatible with a neurological event, a seizure.
Hours without medical attention. No
emergency protocol. No hospital
transfer”, Vera reported this
Wednesday on her
X account.
As she warned, the former vice president's health would
be highly complex, without a clear diagnosis, and his
life would be at risk ------- in the custody of the
Ecuadorian State.
The lawyer attached to her publication a document --- that
would correspond to a medical report on Glas' condition
and indicated that the official diagnosis would have
been reduced to........ “dizziness and fainting”.
Assemblywoman Viviana Veloz, of the Citizen Revolution
(RC), stated that Glas's situation “is not a political
issue, it is a human issue” --- and demanded
“guarantees, respect for their rights and
urgent international surveillance”.
RC legislator Xavier Lasso also recalled the situation
in Glas just 10 years after the devastating Manabí
earthquake and the country's energy crisis, two
issues that he dealt with during his period as
Rafael Correa's vice-governor.
“All this is paradoxical because the little electricity we
have today is thanks to the hydroelectric plants that
Glas promoted -- as well as the reconstruction of
Manabí and #Esmeraldas.But -- it is irrational
political hatred that keeps him imprisoned.
And that “feeling” comes from the elites
that currently govern Ecuador”,
Lasso noted.
Last week, more than 350 artists, intellectuals,
politicians and academics from 30 countries
demanded the release of Glas and respect
for international law by the Government
of Daniel Noboa.
The statement, released by the International Committee
for the Freedom of Jorge Glas and the Lawfare
Observatory, gathers signatures from former
presidents, legislators, jurists, academics
and human rights defenders ----- who
describe the former president as
a “political prisoner”.
Among the signatories are the Australian journalist
and founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange, the
musician Roger Waters... and the French
political leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
They point out that Glas' case shows judicial
persecution - and warns about his state of
health ...and conditions of confinement
in the Encuentro Prison-- a maximum
security penitentiary built by Noboa
in the Ecuadorian province of
Santa Elena.
“Although there is no evidence against him, Jorge Glas
served 100 percent of his accumulated sentence for
the cases called Odebrecht and Bribery”, the
text maintains.
He adds that - “to keep him imprisoned, a file called
Manabí Reconstruction was created and, without
a single piece of evidence against him, he
remains detained”.
Likewise, the document questions the police incursion
into the Mexican embassy in Quito on April 5, 2024,
where Glas was in asylum - and the police forces
violently broke in to abduct him, in a vile action
repudiated by the international community.
__________________________________________
Sánchez's visit opened
a new chapter in
China-Spain
relations
April 15th, 11:48am
(Prensa Latina)
The head of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez,
concluded today an official visit to China, where he
held meetings with the country's leaders, which
strengthened political mutual trust and
multi-sector cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang
and the head of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress, Zhao Leji, met
with Sánchez separately.
The parties decided to establish diplomatic and
strategic dialogue mechanisms to promote a
more stable growth of ties.
China and Spain agreed: to promote development
driven by innovation and strengthen cooperation
in renewable energies.
During the visit, both sides signed 15 cooperation
documents in areas such as trade, education,
agriculture, science and technology.
China expressed its willingness to increase
the import of Spanish products and
encourage investments by
Chinese companies
in Spain.
The Spanish side highlighted that cooperation
in energy and technology will contribute to
economic growth and resilience.
The two nations agreed on the need to defend
multilateralism and international law.
Spain positively valued the global initiatives
proposed by China ...and expressed
its willingness -- to strengthen
coordination -- in the face
of global challenges.
Likewise, the parties noted - that greater
cooperation between China and Europe
benefits both regions - and the world.
In this regard ----- Madrid expressed
willingness to play a constructive role... in strengthening
these relations.
During his stay, Sánchez visited Tsinghua
University, the Chinese Academy of
Sciences and the technology
giant Xiaomi.
The head of the Spanish Government
expressed an interest in promoting
international cooperation... and
contributing ---- to a multi-
polar world.
Sánchez's visit - the fourth in four years
- reflected the interest of both parties
in consolidating the comprehensive
strategic partnership & expanding
cooperation - in an international
context marked by economic
and geopolitical change.
__________________________
Brics India 2026 begins discussions on
cooperation in the healthcare sector
April 15th, 11:05am
(Prensa Latina)
With new cooperation proposals, india today chaired
the first meeting of the Health Working Group as
part of its presidency this year of the Brics.
The meeting, which brought together senior health officials,
technical experts and delegates --- from member countries
Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia,
The United Arab Emirates and Indonesia...... promoted
deliberations on the priority areas of public health
cooperation, according to a report from the
government entity.
Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava emphasized that
Brics India presidency this year will focus on fostering
sustainable ...and evidence-based inclusive health
cooperation, and recognize the diversity of the
health systems & socioeconomic contexts
of the BRICS member nations.
He highlighted --- the importance of adaptability, mutual
learning and leveraging collective experience ---------- to
The test takeoff and landing of the reusable Amur-SPG space
rocket are scheduled for 2028, the Russian deputy prime
minister, Denis Manturov, told the press today.
«Last year, technical specifications were approved for the
middle-class Amur-SPG rocket and for the prototype of its
reusable first stage. The launch and landing of the
experimental prototype should take place in
2028”, said the senior official at the
Russian Space Forum, at the
Russia National Centre
in Moscow.
Manturov added that this is a very important step towards
a new generation of national launch systems based on
reusable technologies.
The deputy prime minister stressed that the main objective
of the Russian space industry .....is to guarantee its
technological sovereignty.
«Russia is firmly committed to the task of guaranteeing the
technological sovereignty of the space industry. This is
our fundamental priority», he declared, although he
added ...that the country is open to mutually
beneficial partnerships.
In addition to the rocket, Manturov noted that the project
of a Russian orbital station - is entering its active phase.
«To ensure a continued presence in space -------- the Russian
orbital station project enters its active phase. The decision
to maintain the orbit at a level of 56.1 degrees will make it
possible to take advantage of the existing infrastructure
in the Russian segment of the International Space
Station, it will be modernized and coupled
to new modules», he explained.
Likewise, he stressed that the start of the deployment
of the Russian station ---- is also scheduled for 2028.
_____________________________________________
The Estonian Navy refused to detain
Russian vessels due to the risk
of escalation
April 10th, 9:07pm
(RT.ru)
Estonia will not detain Russian vessels in the Baltic Sea
due to the threat of a possible military escalation,
according to Ivo Vark, the commander of
the Estonian Navy.
His words are quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Tallinn.. has decided to abandon attempts to intercept
ships of Russia's so-called shadow fleet in the region.
"The risk of military escalation is too high," Vark said.
According to the military, the country's authorities will
only consider the option of military intervention if there is a direct threat.
In particular, he mentioned scenarios involving damage
to underwater infrastructure or large-scale oil spills.
Earlier, The Telegraph newspaper reported that the UK
is not seizing tankers carrying Russian oil --- due to
concerns about violating international law.
____________________________________________
Reuters: The war in the Middle East
is bankrupting Ukrainian farmers
by Alexey Komolov
April 10th, 5:39pm
(Rossiyskaya Gazeta)
To share
The US-Israel conflict with Iran is causing serious damage
to Ukrainian farmers, according to Reuters.
It is noted that the US-Israeli strikes on Iran have caused
unprecedented disruptions in fuel supplies, resulting in
a nearly doubling of fuel prices. As a result, Ukrainian
farmers are facing rising costs, and there is little
they can do about it.
According to one of the agency's interlocutors, who represents
the agricultural sector, farmers already need to stock up on
fuel for harvesting, as a failure to harvest --- "will lead to
a complete collapse."
After the US and Israel's attacks on Iran and the Islamic
Republic's retaliatory actions, the Strait of Hormuz, a
key route for the global supply of oil and liquefied
natural gas from the Gulf countries, was
effectively blocked.
Against this backdrop, fuel prices are rising
in most countries around the world.
______________________________________
Russian Ambassador Kelin
called the tanker escort
a surprise for Britain
by Alexander Mironov
April 10th, 4:35pm
(Vesti.ru)
The military escort of Russian-owned oil tankers ------ through the English Channel is a promised surprise for London. This, was announced by Andrey Kelin, the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, in an interview with the Vesti news service.
''The fact that there was a combat escort is really great.
We promised this surprise to the British, and now it's
happening,'' the diplomat noted.
Earlier, the Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate "Admiral Grigorovich"
led two oil tankers through the English Channel. The Kremlin
explained that they resorted to escorting the vessels,
to protect them from international piracy.
_____________________________________
Colombia reciprocates hike of tariffs
to 100 percent of Ecuador
April 10th, 4:38pm
(Prensa Latina)
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia
reported today 100% tariffs on imports from Ecuador,
in response to a similar measure taken by Daniel
Noboa's government.
The minister of the portfolio, Diana Morales, further stated
in a press release from the Executive tried “all diplomatic
efforts and dialogue possible” in order to seek a way out
that would benefit the two countries, the entrepreneurs,
and especially ....the communities on both sides of
the border.
She regretted --- that there was no positive response
and, on the contrary, the administration of Noboa
announced a hardening on the business front.
Morales said that: facing the announcement to impose a
tariff of 100% on Colombian products that come on the
market of their neighbour, “we are forced to modify
the Decree 170 ------- level with the new rate
raised by Ecuador”.
According to the note of the Ministry, the proposal will be
immediately sent to the Committee on Customs, tariff
and non-Tariff Foreign Trade (Triple-A) to start the
modification process of the standard.
The tariff imposed by Ecuador to the colombian products, which
initially was 30%, and now it goes to 100%, would upset the
balance of the conditions of competition and of the
market between the countries, which negatively
impacts the domestic producers that compete
with products of the Ecuadorian territory,
said the agency.
It also recalled the communication that Colombia presented
to the Andean Community (CAN) --- a lawsuit against the
measure adopted by Ecuador, since it violates the
Cartagena Agreement of 1969.
On the other hand, the Ministry said that the Government will
promote the implementation of measures of relief for the
entrepreneurs... aimed at strengthening their liquidity
and to sustain the productive fabric of the country.
In this sense, he added, we will promote lines of credit
with favourable terms and conditions, a greater
acility of access to funding, and mechanisms
that allow firms to cope with this economic
period ---- without affecting its operation
and / or employment.
The impact of the actions taken during the previous
day by Ecuador go beyond the commercial sphere.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, asked the
ambassador to the neighbouring nation to return to
Bogota, as it was considered that their decision
violated the Andean Community.
___________________________________
Mendel: EU politicians ---- have already
seen throughZelensky's double game
April 9th, 5:04pm
(RT.ru)
Most European politicians have accused Vladimir
Zelensky of being two-faced. This opinion was
expressed by his former press secretary,
Yulia Mendel.
"A huge number of politicians and diplomats —— almost
all of them -- were puzzled by his behaviour. He gained
their trust, made solemn promises and demonstrated
understanding, only to act in a completely opposite
manner," she wrote on social media.
According to Mendel, this approach by the head of the
Kiev regime “did not go unnoticed” by the EU leaders.
Earlier, the head of EU diplomacy, Kaja Kallas,
complained... that she had no good news on
the allocation of a €90 billion loan to Kiev.
____________________________________________
Zakharova:The US--- is demonstrating its
aggression:due to its debts in the world
April 9th, 4:24pm
(RT.ru)
The United States is constantly demonstrating its aggression
& the fact is, that it owes huge sums to the rest of the world,
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeslady, Maria Zakharova said.
According to her...... the United States
owes the rest of the world $39 trillion.
"It's either a real estate bubble or an artificial intelligence
bubble. Everyone understands this. But the client is
constantly showing aggression," RIA Novosti
quoted her as saying.
Earlier, it became known that the US national debt, according
to the US Ministry of Finance, exceeded $39 trillion for the
first time in history. Translated into rubles, this is
3.24 quadrillion.
__________________________________________
Kallas:
The EU is not helping the Gulf countries
because of their approach to Ukraine
April 9th, 3:50pm
(RT.ru)
The EU does not want to provide significant assistance to the Gulf
countries in the conflict over Iran, as they are not helping Europe
in Ukraine, according to Kaja Kallas, the head of EU diplomacy.
"We also, have our own security zone in Europe... We still haven't
seen the Gulf countries really helping us there (in the conflict in
Ukraine. — RT), and it can't be a one-way street," she said
in an interview with CNN, according to RIA Novosti.
Earlier, the Berliner Zeitung wrote that Vladimir Zelensky,
amid uncertainty with Western military aid, is seeking
The Vietnamese holidays between April 25 and may 3, next,
are perceived today as a golden opportunity to boost
domestic tourism before the high season.
From the 25th to the 27th of this month people will take the day
off for the Day of Commemoration of the Kings Hung, while
from April 30 to May 3 will be non-working days on the
occasion of the Day of the Liberation of the South
and the Reunification of Vietnam and the
International Day of Work.
This creates favourable conditions.... for the tourism industry to
accelerate growth and achieve significant progress before the
high season of Summer, said a commentary posted on the
newspaper Hanoi Moi's digital edition, this thursday.
Given the current situation, characterized by the increase of
the prices of plane tickets and transport resulting from the
conflict in the Middle East, the travel trends during the
holiday will change, predicted personal sector
specialists consulted by the publication.
According to the director of VietSense Travel, Nguyen Van Tai,
the tourists in the area of Hanoi are showing more interest in
affordable tours by road, with domestic destinations such as
Ninh Binh, Sam, Are, Ha Long, Sa Pa, Moc Chau, Dien Bien
and Ha Giang.
The deputy general director of Viet Travel Company, Pham Anh
Vu, also noted that the number of vacationers who opt for domestic trips - is higher and the duration.... is longer.
To date, he said, the tours are the main product of the company,
representing approximately 65 percent, while for international
travel, customers choose safe and nearby destinations, like
Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand and Singapore.
For his part, the director of marketing BestPrice Travel, according
to Bui Thanh, stressed that despite facing a period of increased
transportation costs, clients have not diminished their desire to
travel, but prioritise destinations ....with reasonable prices.
In this sense, the journal warned about the proliferation of many
cheap, widely advertised in social networks travel offers,
which pose a risk of poor quality ....and tourist scams.
He pointed out - that in social networking platforms such as
Facebook and TikTok, have appeared numerous ads which
offer surprisingly low prices with attractive offers such as
“No hidden costs”, “hotel central”, and “luxury bus with
bunk beds, among others.
He warned, however, many publications lack complete
information about the organiser... do not have clear
directions and use personal accounts to collect
tourists' deposits.
For its part, the airline Vietnamese low-cost Vietjet Airlines
has already announced that it will operate nearly 3,800
flights in the period between 25 April and 5 May,
up 16% ....from 2025.
___________________________________________
Viet Nam welcomes U.S.-Iran ceasefire
April 8th, 3:39pm
(VGP)
Viet Nam welcomes the ceasefire reached between the U.S.
and Iran on April 7, said Spokesperson of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Pham Thu Hang.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang
Pham described the ceasefire, as an important step forward
in reducing tensions and restoring peace, stability, security
and safety in the Middle East.
Viet Nam calls on the relevant sides to exercise restraint, take
responsible actions, not complicate the sitution; respect the
independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the
countries; ensure security and safety for civilians
and civil infrastructure, as well as maritime
safety and freedom in the region, said
the Spokesperson.
She also calls on the relevant sides - to actively engage in
dialogues... to seek peaceful solutions to differences on
the basis of the fundamental principles of international
law and the United Nations Charter --- for their own
benefit, and for peace, stability, cooperation and
development in the region ....and the world.
__________________________________
Colombia:More than 10 million
travelers.... traveled by air
April 8th, 11:43am
(Prensa Latina)
More than 10 million passengers traveled in Colombia
by air between January and February of this year, as
announced today by the Colombian Association of
Travel and Tourism Agencies (Anato).
Of that total, the source detailed, 5,700,000 correspond
to national traffic and 4,300,000 to the international
segment, which together represents a growth of
8.1% compared to the same period in 2025.
“In February alone, air traffic reached nearly four million
passengers, with a growth of nine percent, driven
mainly by the dynamism of the international
market”, declared the executive president
of Anato, Paula Cortés.
The board also recalled that Colombia reached an historical
record of more than 57,500,000 travelers last year, which
in his opinion reflects the consolidation of air transport
as a key mode of mobility.
The behaviour of the first two months is in line with
the recent growth trend of the sector, he said.
In the same period of the previous year, he noted, a sustained
recovery was already evident, with increases of close to 5%
in total traffic, a trend that will accelerate.... in 2026.
______________________________________
Guatemala ----- seized weapons
and ammunition in containers
....from the US
April 8th, 11:38am
(Prensa Latina)
The National Civil Police (PNC) of Guatemala reported today the
seizure of firearms, ammunition and accessories located in a
container in Santo Tomás de Castilla from the United States.
Through its profile on the social network X, the institution detailed
that the incident occurred in eastern Puerto Barrios, department
of Izabal, when the authorities were carrying out routine
inspections and found the box destined for Santa
Cruz Barrillas, Huehuetenango.
In it, he noted, there were two rifles with telescopic sights,
two.223 rifles, two pistols, all with their magazines and
without documentation, three additional telescopic
sights, as well as 2,798 rounds of ammunition in
different calibres.
The PNC presumes that the shipment sought to evade the
controls established for the transfer and possession of
weapons in the country, so the case .....is already
under investigation.
He expressed that the corresponding procedures will continue
to establish the exact origin of the weapons, identify those
responsible for the shipment and determine if there is
a link with criminal structures.
Guatemalan security forces, according to the most recent
records from 2024 to 2026, reported a notable increase
in both the frequency of these findings and the
volume of weapons seized.
Analysts on the subject described it as common that
trafficking does not occur in massive shipments of
weapons alone, but rather....... through the “ant”
method, or in parcels.
Weapons usually come hidden in household items (washing
machines, refrigerators or stoves), boxes of clothes and
groceries or hidden in compartments of imported cars.
The official records for 2025 reported an historic figure of
almost four thousand weapons seized nationwide, an
increase compared to the 3,751 seizures in 2024.
___________________________________________
Thousands of young people in
El Salvador neither study
nor work
April 8th, 10:52am
(Prensa Latina)
At least 310,500 young people in El Salvador neither
study nor work, official reports indicated today.
The data extracted from the 2025 Multiple Purpose Household
Survey (EHPM) of the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) specify
that the ages of these people range between 15 and 29
years old, and the so-called NEETs represent 20.6%
of the population.
A review of the El Mundo newspaper survey... suggests that by
reducing the focus only on the population between 15 and 24
years old, the EHPM 2025 showed that 19.1 percent of these
young people do not work or study, equivalent to 186,115.
The publication asserts that on previous occasions, the BCR
clarified in the EHPM reports that the NINI population faces
limited possibilities for professional development as they
are not included in the educational system.
The document specifies that the female population between
15 and 29 years old is more likely to not study or work, with
31.3% in this situation, compared to 9.1 percent for men,
a gap of 22.2 points.
_________________________________________
With the Mining Law --- Venezuela
ensures resources for the people
April 8th, 9:53am
(Prensa Latina)
The president of the National Assembly (parliament) of Venezuela,
Jorge Rodríguez, stated today that with the Organic Mining Law
Project, it is ensured that every resource on Venezuelan soil
translates into well-being for the people.
In a message on his Telegram account, the deputy of the
Homeland Bloc alluded to the ordinary session the day
before where they discussed in debate - the articles
that establish the bases for “the creation of mixed
companies; environmental protection
guarantees and the sustainability
of the sector”.
The legislator wrote last night on the same platform that it was a
day of “intense legislative debate”, in which they advanced in
the second discussion of the Organic Mining Law Project,
proposed by the president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez.
He stressed, in this regard, that they managed to advance
in the approval of more articles that “strengthen the
sovereignty of our resources”.
In the opinion of the head of the Legislative Branch, this legal
instrument ------ is essential to promote national economic
development and modernize the legal framework of
mining activity.
Yesterday the National Assembly advanced in the unanimous
approval of another 60 articles in the second discussion of
the Mining Bill, to total 115 of the 130 that the legal
regulations have.
In the ordinary session - the third in which the norm is analyzed -
the legislators debated part of the chapter dedicated to the
Sanctioning Regime of this legal instrument, of which,
12 of the 18 articles were validated.
A press release from parliament, indicated that
it punishes those who operate outside the law.
Likewise, the exploitation of minerals without proper mining
authorization stands out, which will lead to the payment of
a fine of “up to a thousand times the exchange rate of the
highest value currency, published by the Central Bank
of Venezuela”.
He exemplified with article 114 that it penalizes “delay or
omission in the delivery of reports and plans required by
the authorities” with fines of 500 and up to a thousand
units of the currency of greater value, depending on
the severity of the fault.
This Bill was submitted to public consultations with workers
in the mining sector in the state of Bolívar (south), one of
the ones .....with the greatest extractive potential in
the country.
Among its principles it establishes that the right of ownership
of deposits falls only on the Republic and considers deposits
“public domain assets, inalienable and imprescriptible”,
according to its article three.
It stipulates -- that the management and stewardship of mineral
resources is the responsibility only of the national government
through the corresponding portfolio and proposes the creation
of the National Mining Fund ......with the objective of obtaining
resources intended for social projects.
_________________________________________
Drone football - gains
momentum in China
by Song Haoxin
April 8th, 3:26am
(Prensa Latina)
Drone soccer, an emerging sport that combines
aviation technology with soccer competition,
is rapidly gaining popularity in China.
The trend was evident.... at the recent Final of the Ablefly
National Drone Football Championship - held in Chengdu,
Sichuan province. The huge event had the participation
of 1,116 Chinese and foreign teams.
Within the fenced arena, players maneuvered spherical
drones with hand controllers, sending them through
the air in quick offensive and defensive plays, as
spectators watched enthusiastically as the
buzzing drones traced dynamic arcs....
across the field.
Drone soccer....... is an emerging competitive sport that
integrates drone flight control with the soccer format.
Players use remote controls, adjusting the altitude
and rotation with the left hand and directing the
movement forward, backward, left and right
with the right, as if they were playing
«football in the air».
The matches follow a five-on-five format. A valid goal is
scored when a spherical drone passes completely
through the opponent's circular arc.
Teams compete in group stages, crossover playoffs, qualifying
matches, semi-finals and the final to determine the winner.
In the field, spherical drones fly at high speed, creating
an intense visual impact and a high appeal for viewers.
«This sport is powered by technologies such as multirotor
propulsion systems, AI-based visual positioning and anti-
interference communication algorithms», says event
director Yang Xuefan.
«The positioning error ----- in the coordination of multiple drones
remains within 2 centimetres, turning cutting-edge technology
into an accessible mass sport.»
«It's incredibly exciting, like playing chess on a 3D board.
You need both quick reflexes and tactical thinking»,
said a contestant ------ from the University of
Electronic Science and Technology
of China.
From precise control and teamwork to real-time decision making,
players sharpen their concentration, judgment and coordination
in high-speed competitions.
Many participants noted that the sport ......not only improves their
understanding of flight technology, but also offers an immersive
experience at the intersection of technology and athletics.
In the stands, waves of applause and astonishment echoed
throughout the venue. «I thought - it was just flying drones,
but the competition is intense and highly technological»,
exclaimed a Chongqing spectator.
For many, this event was their first close encounter with
drone football, and a glimpse into what «sports of the
future» could look like.
An interactive zone also attracted families, allowing children to
experience first-hand, the appeal of low-altitude technologies.
Beyond the excitement in the countryside, the event also
highlighted the development of the low-lying economy.
Along with the competition, exhibitions were held on the
development of smart sports in Chengdu.. and on low-
altitude industry in Shuangliu district, showing the
achievements of more than 30 local companies.
Drone football is gaining significant traction in Chengdu.
The city promotes it as a key sport in schools --- and
trains teachers and integrates it into the science
education curricula.
«Drone football is not just a trendy sport, it is a vital link -- that
connects young people, aeronautical technology and the low-
altitude economy», an official from the Chengdu Sports
Office said.
«In the future, relevant technologies, standards and talent pool
can be extended to fields such as logistics, inspection and
emergency response», he added.
_________________________________________
Michelle Bachelet launches official
page of her candidacy for the UN
April 8th, 1:35am
(Prensa Latina)
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet launched the website
to promote her candidacy for the UN Secretary General, with
a call to ''renew the organization'' to face today's
global challenges.
“Facing its centenary, the UN must project itself as an efficient
organization in management, coherent and effective in action,
and reliable in leadership, capable of inspiring the people of
the world again”, said the former president.
On the official page https://michellebachelet.org/ the program
and the main axes of her application to the highest
international organization appear.
The so-called “Vision Statement” recognizes that the multilateral
entity is at a critical crossroads and faces challenges such as
the intensification of armed conflicts, the rapid advancement
of technology and the growing threat of cyberattacks, to
which is added - the climate crisis.
“Building the United Nations the world's needs must be at the
centre of our collective mission”, the text states, and it
advocates strengthening international law.... and a
reform of the institution, faithful to its founding
principles and adapted to the challenges of
the 21st century.
On April 21, the presentations that the candidates for the
general secretary must make to present their programs
begin --- in order to lead the organization.
Bachelet, a pediatrician by profession and member of the
Socialist Party, was the first and only woman to hold the
presidency of Chile, a position in which she served for
two periods (2006-2010 and 2014-2018).
In 2010, the then Secretary General of the United Nations,
Ban Ki-moon, appointed her as executive director of the
UN Women agency, an entity called to fight for the
rights of women in the world.
She also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The former president has broad national and international
support and the sponsorship of Brazil and Mexico,
despite the fact that the Chilean president,
José Antonio Kast, decided to withdraw
his support, on the ''advice'' of an
extreme rightwing party that
props up his coalition.
Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan, Macky Sall
and Virginia Gamba also compete in the
race -- for the direction of the highest
international organization for the
period 2027-2031.
___________________________________________
Platform to modernize public
management launched
in Laos
April 8th, 12:30am
(Prensa Latina)
The Lao government today presented the
G-Chat v2+LaoAI platform to strengthen
cybersecurity, improve administrative
efficiency.... and advance the digital
transformation of the public sector.
The system was presented by the Ministry of Technology
and Communications at an event, with the participation
of Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith.
Minister Santisouk Simmalavong noted that the tool will
strengthen data protection and reduce dependence on
foreign platforms.
In turn, he indicated that the platform will allow faster,
more transparent and efficient coordination between
state institutions.
The system integrates LaoAI, an artificial intelligence
platform that supports officials in document writing
and information management.
Authorities highlighted that this will facilitate processes,
reduce repetitive tasks and optimize work time.
The Government considers that this initiative consolidates
the development of a modern, safe public administration
adapted to technological advances.
______________________________________
The EU ...has announced plans
to strip Hungary of its voting
rights if Orbán wins
April 6th, 9:25pm
(Izvestia.ru)
The EU plans to deprive Hungary of its voting rights in the EU
Council in the event of the victory of the ruling Fidesz party
of the country's current Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the
parliamentary elections, Pekka Toveri --- the head of the
Committee for Parliamentary Cooperation Ukraine/EU
in the EU Parliament, told Izvestia.
"A plan is being created in case Orbán ''steals the election''.
Most likely... Hungary's voting rights will be revoked to
allow the loan to be approved. I don't have a specific
timeline, but it's likely to happen very soon after
the election,"Tovughry said.
Earlier, on March 31, Kaja Kallas, the head of EU diplomacy (Lol),
visited Kyiv, where she said that she had“no good news about
the allocation of a €90 billion loan”for Ukraine.
She emphasized that the EU Commission hopes
that this decision will be approved at the next
meeting of the EU Council.
_______________________________________________
Road blocked in Guatemala
in rejection of fuel prices
April 7th, 6:05pm
(Prensa Latina)
Demonstrators today blocked a highway in Guatemala
in rejection of the rise in fuel prices, in a new day
that gave continuity to other protests.
The passage continues to be closed.. at kilometre 210,
University Centre of Cobán, capital of the department
of Alta Verapaz, according to information shared by
the General Directorate of Road Protection and
Safety (Provial), which monitors the situation.
This entity reported in the morning the blockade on route CA-2
West, kilometre 189.3 El Asintal, Retalhuleu, and on RN-16,
kilometre 72 Culiapa, Puerta Roja village, Santa Rosa.
The demonstrators mainly question the value of diesel, which
exceeds 43 quetzals (almost 5.6 dollars) per gallon, which
begins to raise the issue of operations under new prices,
especially for public transport.
The Chamber of Agriculture said, for its part, that the sector
registers significant increases in its production costs ----
driven mainly by the rise in fuels and fertilizers.
According to a survey, almost 90 percent of producers report
increases, and these inputs represent between 10 and
40 percent of their price structure.
The entity called for the implementation of temporary measures
to reduce the cost of fuels and fertilizers - including the
temporary suspension of import and distribution
taxes - as well as to give priority ------ to the
maintenance of roads.
The urban and interurban transport sector of this capital held
a peaceful march the day before to show discontent with
the rise in diesel, which left operators "on the edge of
operational collapse", they deplored.
The heads of congressional blocs listened to their concerns and
the population expects a definition in the plenary session this
afternoon, after over 15 days waiting for an agreement.
The deputies have before them at least five main proposals
(between bills and government proposals), such as a
possible subsidy of eight quetzales (just over a
dollar) a gallon of diesel, which would cover
about three months.
________________________________________
Iran’s Hormuz Strait TollHits Petrodollar,
Accelerates.... BRICS De-Dollarization
April 7th, 5:30pm
(sputnikglobe)
While the US - was stepping up attacks on Iranian civilian
infrastructure, the Hormuz Strait toll scheme in yuans
and stablecoins ......was gaining steam.
Iran's strategy "significantly weakens 'maximum pressure' by
bypassing dollar-based systems," Dr. Alam Saleh, a political
analyst at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the
Australian National University, tells Sputnik.
This way, Iran is "effectively challenging the US economy and
the US dollar’s position as the global reserve currency, as
well as the petrodollar system," echoes Dr. Hasan Selim
Ozertem, an Ankara-based security & political analyst.
Stablecoins operate on decentralized blockchain
networks, making them harder to trace and block
Yuan payments are made - through China’s Cross-Border
Interbank Payment System (CIPS) - a viable alternative
to SWIFT
US attacks cannot reverse the emerging trend, since
transactions are likely processed in Iranian
underground facilities
Blueprint for BRICS
"It sets a powerful precedent, encouraging BRICS to experiment
with non-dollar trade," says Saleh. "The Strait of Hormuz could
indeed become a testing ground for petroyuan and crypto-
based energy transactions."
Iran's strategy.. can be scaled at a global level, Ozertem believes. In that case --------- it could "redefine the rules of international finance."
"For other BRICS members --- particularly Russia, China, and potentially India --- this model offers a blueprint for reducing dependency on the US dollar -- in the energy trade," the security expert emphasizes.
_______________________________________________
President of Colombia: repeated complaint -
about the condition of Jorge Glas
April 7th, 3:32pm
(Prensa Latina)
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, insisted today on his
complaint that former Ecuadorian Vice President, Jorge Glas,
(2013-2018) is a "political prisoner" and asked international
entities to remain attentive to his physical condition.
"Jorge Glas is a Colombian citizen and is a political prisoner.
ask international human rights organizations to ensure
their rights. His state of health already compromises
his life because, being in prison, he has not been
given enough food and he is already suffering
from severe malnutrition and loss of muscle
mass," the president wrote on his account
on the social network X.
He added in his message that "letting a person die of
hunger, being under the care of a government, is a
crime against humanity."
The head of state's pronouncement is the second
issued in 24 hours on the situation of Glas, who
was granted Colombian nationality in
September of last year.
Petro reiterated his alert despite the comments made
earlier by the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa.
As alleged on his account of the social network X, the
Ecuadorian leader, the complaint of his New Granada
counterpart - "constitutes an attack on sovereignty
and a violation of the principle of non-intervention,
enshrined in Article 19 of the Charter of the
Organization of American States and in
international law."
Other personalities in Colombia also express
their concern about Glas' physical condition.
Senator Gloria Flórez, for example, considered that the
former vice president is subjected to undignified
conditions "deliberately."
"He has lost 14 kilograms, his physical, health and
psychological condition is quite worrying," she
said in a message released on his account
on the social network X.
The legislator - also asked human rights defenders in Latin
America and the world to defend Glas - "victim of so many
humiliations by the Noboa government," as she remarked.
Glas has been held in the Encuentro Prison, in Santa Elena,
since November 10, after being transferred from the
maximum security prison La Roca, in Guayaquil.
His defense reported that he served the sentences imposed
in the Odebrecht and Bribery cases, however, he continues
to be detained.. for the process called Reconstruction of
Manabí, whose written sentence of first instance was
notified six months later ----- violating guarantees of
due process.
The former vice president, considered one of the symbols of
judicial persecution or "lawfare" in Ecuador, was in the
Mexican embassy in Quito from December 2023
to April 5, 2024.
That day, police violently and without authorization entered
the diplomatic legation and apprehended him --- despite
having asylum from the then government of Andrés
Manuel López Obrador.
_____________________________
India - with world record in
Rifle and Pistol World Cup
April 7th, 3:15pm
(Prensa Latina)
India opened the Rifle and Pistol World Cup with gold
and a world record in the mixed 10-metre air pistol,
thanks to the surgical precision of Palak and
Mukesh Nelavalli.
The Asian duo turned the final into an exercise in mettle and
accuracy and shot by shot, like an infallible metronome,
they were building a historic mark of 487.7 points,
also a world record in the youth category, which
shook the galleries of Granada.
In the duel for the title -- Palak scored 243.0 points and Mukesh
contributed 244.7, a perfect combination to break records and
wills. Behind, the Chinese pair of Qianxun Yao and Kai Hu
secured silver with 484.8, while Hungary, with Veronika
Major and Akos Karoly Nagy, took bronze (414.9).
The warning had come from qualifying: the Indians were second
with 581-17x, only surpassed by China (586-23x). In the final,
however, they raised their aim and competitive character
to record levels.
Palak, just 18 years old, had already announced his breakthrough
with gold at the 2023 Asian Games and an Olympic quota for
Paris 2024, while Mukesh, junior world champion, confirms
his projection as one of the strongest hands of the
immediate future.
In this way, India opened its campaign in Grenada with a blow of
authority: a gold that not only weighs in the medal table, but
also sets the pace for a generation..... that shoots with
precision and dreams big.
___________________________________________
Income of Colombian women who earn
the least:grew in Petro's government
April 7th, 1:18pm
(Prensa Latina)
An analysis by the Vida Thought Centre released today in this
capital revealed a 40.3 percent increase in the average real
income of working women in Colombia with the lowest
salaries ...between 2022 and 2025.
For that same sector, according to the graphs released, income
growth was 11.3 percent during the government of Iván Duque
(2018-2022), in the second term of Juan Manuel Santos (2014
-2018) they reached 19.9 percent, while the first (2010-2014)
experienced an increase of 8.5 percent.
The country's president, Gustavo Petro, highlighted the figures
in a message released on his account on the social network X.
He pointed out ----- that income in Colombia was distributed in
favour of poor women during his government as never before.
Other figures account for the achievements of
the current administration in social matters.
A report by the Bank of the Republic pointed out that between
2021 and 2024 monetary poverty in Colombia was reduced
from 39.7 to 31.8 percent, that is, about three million
400 thousand people .....stopped being in that
condition in this period.
Likewise, according to the National Administrative Department
of Statistics, multidimensional poverty in 2024 closed at 11.5
percent, with a reduction of 0.6 percentage points compared
to 2023.
_______________________________________________
Colombia --- 113 people accused of
kidnapping and extortion arrested
April 7th, 12:26pm
(Prensa Latina)
Colombian law enforcement agencies captured 113 people
accused of crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and
related conduct during an operation carried out in
a dozen departments, according to local media
reported today.
The National Police, in coordination with the Prosecutor's Office,
executed the Hunter Plan "Operation Garnet" against 15
criminal structures, including the Clan del Golfo, the
Conquistadoras de la Sierra Self-Defense Forces
and gangs such as Los Costeños, Los Pepes
and Oficina de la Costa, according to a
report by Caracol Radio.
According to the news source, during the actions carried out
in large cities such as Bogotá, Cúcuta, Cartagena and
Barranquilla, 585 items used in illicit activities were
seized, including firearms, ammunition, grenades,
motorcycles and more than a hundred cell
phones used to carry out extortion.
The media detailed that in the northern department of La Guajira,
for example, the authorities managed to capture 13 alleged
members of the "Autodefensas Conquistadoras de la
Sierra" in the municipalities of Riohacha
and Dibulla.
Among those arrested are financial leaders, logistics coordinators
and those responsible for collecting extortion, who, according to
the investigations, maintained an organized system of economic
pressure against merchants, transporters, cattle ranchers and
businessmen in the tourism sector, he added.
The economic demands, he revealed, could reach up to 50 million
pesos (about 13,600 dollars at the current exchange rate),
depending on the economic activity of the victims.
______________________________________________
Smear campaign against Russian
media denounced in Colombia
April 7th, 11:52am
(Prensa Latina)
Russia is the target today of an organized campaign aimed
at discrediting the country and its media, according to
the embassy of the European nation in this capital.
In a statement, the diplomatic mission disqualified a report by the
so-called Digital News Association, which would contain alleged
evidence that "Russia has trained over 1,000 content creators,
journalists or 'influencers' to disinform in 8 Latin American
countries," including Colombia.
The mission rejected that several Latin American media, including
some Colombians, "without modification or verification," echoed
the alleged investigation, known in the New Granada nation
after an article broadcast by the Spanish agency EFE.
"You can tell at first glance that this is an organized campaign
aimed at discrediting our country and the Russian media. No
evidence is presented, only accusations are hurled: this is
today -- the 'standard' of the Western investigative press,
when the issue is related to Russia," the note remarks.
He added that it is curious how a "ghost report," produced by
a little-known organization with dubious reputation, was
never published on the Internet.
"All the articles in the Colombian press are based exclusively on
what EFE wrote. Following the blind faith in the veracity of what
the Spanish agency published, the media of this country did
not bother to deeply validate the facts, which in effect
constitute fantasies that have no contact with
reality," the statement said.
The mission added that it is "saddened" that the national press
is susceptible to the influence of the flow of politically biased
information ...from the West.
"It is unfortunate to see that, on this occasion, even some
prominent politicians in Colombia have been carried
away by this farce, publishing it on their social
networks," he said.
The note also warned that Western countries refuse to accept
that there are alternative sources of opinion to those they
impose on the rest of the world, which is why they look
for every opportunity to damage the image of the
Russian media.
"In the countries of Europe and North America --- the Western
authorities have the administrative tools and simply prohibit
the transmission and operation of media such as Russia
Today or Sputnik in the national territory. In Latin
America they use other tactics and channels to
defame the aforementioned media and our
country," he said.
On the other hand, he called on the Colombian press "to adopt a
more responsible approach when publishing news of this type
that launches serious, but unfounded, accusations against
other countries."
He also urged people... to follow the accounts of Russia Today
and Sputnik in Spanish to have an alternative vision of reality.
Colombia achieved 52 nominations in the South American region
for the World Travel Awards, the prestigious international
awards that recognize key sectors of the travel industry,
tourism and hospitality, it was known today.
The New Granada nation competes as a leading destination
in adventure categories, beach with San Andrés, cruises,
culinary, culture, nature, green destinations, whale
watching and tourism for young people,
according to a communication from
ProColombia government agency.
Regarding specific attractions, the Las Lajas Sanctuary and
the Tayrona National Natural Park represent the country in
the category of main tourist attraction in South America,
the source added.
The entity added that urban competitiveness also becomes
relevant - with Bogotá and Medellín nominated as leading
destinations for business trips and urban getaways.
Likewise, he elaborated, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Medellín,
Cartagena and Cali, make up the category of cultural
city destination, which constitutes the section with
the greatest presence of Colombian cities on the
entire list.
For its part, Boyacá appears as a leading regional destination,
Cartagena stands out in the categories of honeymoon
destination and romantic destination, and Cali
is recognized for its sports tourism offer.
In the airline sector, Avianca has candidates as a leading
airline, brand and lounge, while El Dorado International
Airport competes as the main terminal in the region.
The nominations are open to voting for the general public
and professionals in the sector, a process that will close on June 12, the source said.
Although the location and date of the awards ceremony
will be announced soon, ProColombia said that those
interested in participating in the election of the
winners can do so...... through the
organization's official link.
This gentleman picks holes in the intellectual ''mistakes'' of the West and points to the best solution for the world's people.
Britain's enemy is not Russia but its own ruling class, UN report confirms by John Wight November 19th, at 2:48pm
John Wight has written for a variety of newspapers and websites, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counter- punch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal.
As the UK political establishment rips itself to pieces over Brexit, a far greater crisis continues to afflict millions of victims of Tory austerity.
A devastating UN report into poverty in the UK provides incontrovertible evidence, that the enemy of the British people, is the very ruling class that has gone out of its way these past few years to convince them it is Russia.
Professor Philip Alston, in his capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, spent two weeks touring the United Kingdom. He did so, investigating the impact of 8 years of one of the most extreme austerity programs among advanced G20 economies in response to the 2008 financial crash and subsequent global recession.
What he found was evidence of a systematic, wilful, concerted and brutal economic war, unleashed by the country's right-wing Tory establishment, against the poorest and most vulnerable section of British society – upending the lives of millions of people who were not responsible for the aforementioned financial crash and recession, but who have been forced to pay the price.
From the report's introduction:
"It…seems patently unjust and contrary to British values that so many people are living in poverty. This is obvious to anyone who opens their eyes: to see the immense growth in foodbanks, and the queues waiting outside them, the people sleeping rough in the streets, the growth of homelessness, the sense of deep despair - that leads even the Government to appoint a Minister for Suicide Prevention - and civil society to report in depth, on unheard of levels of loneliness and isolation."
Though as a citizen of the UK, I respectfully beg to differ with the professor's claim, that such social & economic carnage, seems "contrary to British values,"(on the contrary - it is entirely in keeping with the values of the country's Tory establishment, an establishment for whom, the dehumanization of the poor and working class, is central to its ideology), the point he makes about it being "obvious to anyone who opens their eyes," is well made.
For it is now the case that in every town and city centre in Britain, it is impossible to walk in any direction for more than a minute, before coming across homeless people begging in the street. And the fact that some 13,000 of them, are former soldiers, casualties of the country's various military adventures in recent years, undertaken in service to Washington, exposes the pious platitudes peddled by politicians & the government as reverence for the troops & their 'sacrifice,' as insincere garbage.
As inequality increases, the wealthy and powerful become more desperate to cling onto their gains and distract us - with imagined threats and political sideshows - such as Jingoism, Russophobia and red-baiting...
Overall, 14 million people in the UK are now living in poverty, a figure which translates into an entire fifth of the population. Four million of them are children, while, according to Professor Alston, 1.5 million people are destitute – that is, unable to afford the basic necessities of life.
And this is what the ruling class of the fifth largest economy in the world, a country that parades itself on the world stage, as a pillar of democracy and human rights, considers progress.
The values responsible for creating such a grim social landscape, are compatible with the 18th, not the 21st century. They are proof positive, that the network of elite private schools – Eton, Harrow, Fettes College et al. – where those responsible for this human carnage are inculcated with the sense of entitlement and born to rule ethos that defines them, are Britain's hotbeds of extremism.
Professor Alston:"British compassion for those who are suffering, has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach, apparently designed to instill discipline where it is least useful, to impose a rigid order on the lives of those least capable of coping with today's world, and elevating the goal of enforcing blind compliance, over a genuine concern to improve the well- being of those at the lowest levels of British society."
Here, set out above in bold relief, is the barbarism that walks - hand in hand - with free market capitalism. It is the same barbarism that was responsible for pushing post-Soviet Russia into a decade-long economic and social abyss, in the 1990s, and the values that have pushed 14 million people in the UK into the same economic and social abyss, in our time.
Austerity, it bears emphasizing, is not and never has been, a viable economic response to recession, in a given economy.
Instead, it is an ideological club, wielded on behalf of the rich and big business, to ensure that the price paid for the said economic recession, is borne exclusively by those least able to bear it - namely the poor and working people. It is class war by any other name, packaged and presented, as legitimate government policy.
However in Britain's case in 2018, this is a war like no other, because, as Professor Philip Alston's report lays bare, one side in this war has been throwing all the punches and one side has been taking them.
As the saying goes, wars take place when the government tells you who the enemy is; revolutions take place when you work it out for yourself.
(Source - RT)
_______________________________________________
Keiser Report: Reality of Creditor Jubilees
- fantastic - asks ''why don't we act like Jesus preached - and forgive debt?''
When what we do now, is what led to the slavery of feudalism: by refunding the creditors, instead!
Marx's theory still shines with truth: Xi May 4th, at 10:53am
Xinhua - Two centuries on, despite huge and profound changes in human society, the name of Karl Marx is still respected all over the world and his theory still shines with the brilliant light of truth, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a grand gathering in Beijing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth.
Xi said Marx is the "teacher of revolution for the proletariat and working people all over the world, the main founder of Marxism, creator of Marxist parties, a pathfinder for international communism and the greatest thinker of modern times."
"Today, we hold this grand gathering with great veneration to mark the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, to remember his great character and historic deeds and to review his noble spirit and brilliant thoughts," Xi said at the event.
''With noble ideals and no fear of difficulty or adversity, throughout his life, Marx devoted himself to perseveringly striving for the liberation of humanity, scaling the peak of thought in his pursuit of truth, and the unremitting fight to overturn the old world and establish a new one'', according to Xi.
''Marx is not only a great figure who bore the weight of the world, but also an ordinary person with a passion for life, who was sincere and true to his friends'', Xi said.
''The most valuable and influential spiritual asset that Marx left us is the scientific theory named after him -- Marxism. Like a spectacular sunrise, the theory illuminated the path of humanity's exploration of the law of history, and humanity's search for their own liberation'', Xi said.
"The thought and theory of Marx are of his times and go beyond his times," Xi said. "They are the essence of the spirit of that times and the essence of the spirit of all humanity."
Xi said Marxism is a scientific theory that reveals the rules of human society's development, in a creative manner.
Having developed the materialist conception of history and surplus value theory, Marx showed how humanity would leap from the realm of necessity, to the realm of freedom, and also showed the road for people to realize freedom and liberation, Xi said.
Marxism, the first ideology for the liberation of the people themselves, is a theory of the people.
"Marxism, for the first time, explored the path for humanity's freedom and liberation from the stance of the people, and pointed out the direction, with scientific theory, toward an ideal society with no oppression or exploitation, where every person would enjoy equality and freedom," Xi said.
Stressing that practicality is a prominent characteristic of Marxism that makes it different from other theories, Xi said Marxism is a theory of practices that directs the people to change the world.
It is an open theory that is constantly developing and always stands at the frontier of the times, Xi said.
"That is why it is always able to keep young, explore the new issues in the development of the times and respond to the new challenges for human society."
The general secretary said that over the 170 years since publication of The Communist Manifesto, Marxism had been spread around the world, unrivaled in the history of human ideology in terms of the breadth and depth of its influence.
After the end of World War II, a large number of socialist countries were established, Xi said, stressing that the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially, has greatly increased the socialist strength in the world.
"There might be setbacks in the development of socialism in the world, but the overall trend for human society's development has never changed, and it will never change," Xi said.
"Marxism has not only profoundly changed the world, but also China," Xi said.
The reverberations of the October Revolution in Russia brought Marxism-Leninism to China, pointing out the direction forward, offering a brand new choice for the Chinese people in their struggle to survive, and setting the scene for the birth of the CPC.
Since the CPC's birth, it has combined the fundamental principles of Marxism with the reality of the Chinese revolution and construction, transforming the Chinese nation from "the sick man of East Asia" to one who has stood up, by uniting and leading the people through long-term struggle.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only through socialism, can we save China," Xi said.
Since reform and opening up, the CPC has combined the fundamental principles of Marxism, with the reality of China's reform and opening up, and the nation who stood up, has grown rich.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only through socialism with Chinese characteristics, can we develop China," Xi said.
In the new era, the CPC again combined the fundamental principles of Marxism with the reality of China in this new era, uniting and leading the people in "under- taking the great struggle, building the great project, advancing the great cause and realizing the great dream."
The Chinese nation has come to embrace a tremendous transformation, as the one who has grown rich, now, is becoming strong.
"This tremendous transformation serves as cast iron proof that only by adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, can we realize national rejuvenation," Xi said.
"It is perfectly right for history and the people to choose Marxism, as well as for the CPC to write Marxism on its own flag, to adhere to the principle of combining the fundamental principles of Marxism, with China's reality, and continuously adapt Marxism to the Chinese context and the times."
_____________________________________
China lifts 740 mln rural poor out of poverty since 1978 September 3rd, at 12:57pm
Xinhua - China lifted 740 million people in rural areas out of poverty from 1978 to 2017, roughly 19 million each year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
The poverty ratio in rural areas dropped 94.4 percentage points during the same time period with an average annual decrease of 2.4 percentage points, according to the NBS.
NBS data shows that China's poverty relief achievements have contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty alleviation work, in the past 40 years.
The average annual income of rural residents in impoverished areas rose an average of 10.4 percent each year from 2012 to 2017, up 2.5 percentage points from the average for rural residents.
Over the past five years, over 68 million people were lifted out of poverty in China. The country aims to further lift 10 million people out of poverty this year and eradicate poverty by 2020.
China recently released guidelines on winning the battle against poverty in the next three years, in order to prepare the nation for eradicating poverty by 2020.
According to the guidelines, the impoverished people should be guaranteed food & clothing, and children from poor families should be guaranteed a 9-year compulsory education. Basic medical needs and living conditions of the impoverished, should also be guaranteed.
People whose annual income is lower than 2,300 yuan (337.3 U.S. dollars), are defined as living below the poverty line, in China.
Almost half of Russians see USSR collapse as shameful – poll January 17th, at 12:11pm
The collapse of the Soviet Union is considered a reason to be ashamed, by 45 percent of Russians, according to a recent opinion poll. The only option that scored higher, is Russia’s failure to eradicate poverty.
The poll, conducted in late 2018, by the Levada Center is its latest study of what Russians are proud and ashamed of, about their nation. The demise of the USSR, saw a rebound in popularity from a low point of 28 percent in mid-2015, and is at a level comparable with the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The only more popular answer is Russia’s failure to eradicate poverty, which was named as a reason to be ashamed, by 61 percent of the people polled. This answer has topped Levada’s polls, for decades.
Russians are also ashamed of fellow countrymen treating each other disrespectfully (37 percent), Russia’s failure to catch up economically with the Western powers (24 percent), the out- come of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms (24 percent), and Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror (21 percent).
On the opposite side of Russians’ national identity are the qualities and events, people are proud of.
Defeating Nazi Germany in World War II remains the one thing Russians are overwhelmingly proud of (87 percent).
There is also the role that the country played in space exploration – about half are proud to belong to a space pioneering nation.
The third most popular option is accepting Crimea (the breakaway former Ukrainian region) as part of Russia again, which is seen as a point of national pride, by 45 percent.
Many people are also proud of Russian literature, science, and martial prowess, Soviet-era industrialization and the best qualities of the Russian character, like resolve and patience.
A record 75 percent said Russia is definitely, or most likely, a great nation today, while 88 percent believe that it should be one.
There was no apparent correlation between wishing greatness for Russia and regretting the USSR’s collapse, the agency noted, suggesting that Russians expect a great nation to - first and foremost - provide social justice, and protection.
Sixty-two percent said the Russians are a great people.
Levada remarked that about 80 percent of the people polled, identified themselves as Russians.
When asked what makes them feel connected to their people, most respondents named national history (53 percent), Russia’s land (35 percent), their place of birth (33 percent), and the nature that they call their own (25 percent).
The formal national symbols, including the flag, the coat of arms, and the national anthem, was the least popular option (5 percent).
Interestingly, religion is a relatively small factor in Russian national identity (9 percent).
(Source - RT)
____________________________________________
Number of Russians who regret collapse of USSR hits 10-year high December 26th, 2017, at 7:20am
The number of Russians who regret the collapse of the Soviet Union has reached its highest level since 2009, with almost an equal share saying the event could have been avoided.
A public opinion poll conducted by the independent Levada Center in late November this year found that 58 percent of Russians now regret the collapse of the USSR. Twenty-five percent said they felt no regret about this, and 16 percent could not describe their feelings in one word.
When researchers asked those who regret the end of the USSR what the primary reasons were behind their sentiments, 54 percent said that they missed a single economic system, 36 percent said they had lost the feeling of belonging to a real superpower, 34 percent complained about the drop in mutual trust among ordinary people, and 26 percent said that the collapse had destroyed the ties between friends and relatives.
The same research showed that 52 percent of Russians think that the collapse of the USSR could have been avoided, 29 percent said that the event was absolutely inevitable, and 19 percent did not have a fixed opinion on the matter.
The share of those who regret the demise of the Soviet Union has risen continuously over the past decade, but in 2009 it was even higher than today – at 60 percent. The all-time high – 75 percent – was recorded in 2000.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly addressed the issue of the collapse of the USSR in his speeches. In an address to the Russian parliament in 2005 he called the event the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century and a cause of major disruption for the Russian people. In September 2016, Putin said the Communist Party should have transformed the Soviet Union into a democratic state, rather than see it break into separate nations.
At the same time, Putin has always emphasized that he and other Russian officials have no plans to revive the USSR, and has expressed anger that people cannot accept this. He's also accused Western governments of deliberately confusing modern Russia with the USSR and harming the interests of ordinary people, on the pretense of preventing an imaginary threat.
Historian:Russia's October Revolution Was Inevitable, Relatively Bloodless November 10th, at 4:33pm by Ekaterina Blinova
The October Uprising of 1917 became the logical conclusion of the February Revolution, Michael J. Carley, a professor of history at the Universite de Montreal has told Sputnik. According to the academic, the Russian Revolution was inevitable and occurred because evolutionary processes of change to benefit the lives of ordinary people had failed.
"February 1917 marked the beginning of a revolutionary change in power in Russia, that was accomplished in October," Michael Jabara Carley, professor of history at the Université de Montréal and the author of "Silent Conflict: A Hidden History of Early Soviet-Western Relations,"told Sputnik, commenting on the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
"The tsarist order was bankrupt and doomed. Almost everyone at the time said so. The immediate cause of the bankruptcy was the Great War [The First World War]," the Canadian academic stressed, adding that "the result was calamity marked by millions of casualties, large territories lost and an economy thrown into chaos, by the unsustainable financial and economic demands of fighting a world war."
Russian Provisional Government: 'Neither Revolutionary, Nor Democratic'
The so-called February Revolution, which is regarded as a combination of a popular uprising with an elitist anti- monarchist plot, led to the abdication of Russian Emperor Nicholas II and the establishment of the Provisional Government.
Still, the Provisional Government"was neither revolutionary nor democratic,"the academic pointed out: The crux of the matter was that it was largely controlled by the "bourgeois" urban and rural elites and old tsarist establishment"that was opposed to the revolution and attempted to block its further development."
October Uprising Was Relatively Bloodless
The professor explained why, contrary to popular belief, the October Revolution of 1917 that took place on November 7 (October 25 in the Julian calendar) was relatively bloodless.
"Well, in the first instance because the Provisional Government was utterly discredited. It had no popular support. It was a head without a body. It could give orders or issue decrees, but had no power to enforce them. In a revolutionary period, power comes from the support of the insurgent masses and the Provisional Government had none,"Carley told Sputnik.
The professor suggested that 1917 could have been averted if old elites as well as their forebears had not blocked"political and economic evolutionary processes"in Russia.
'Provisional Government Became a Cork in the Bottle'
"The Provisional Government became a cork in the bottle holding back the revolution,"the historian said."The revolutionary masses in Petrograd [Saint Petersburg] and elsewhere put pressure on their socialist leaders to blow the cork out of the bottle…. It was the Bolsheviks who put themselves at the head of the mass movement & articulated its demands, essentially peace, bread and land."
He pointed out, however, that"the Bolsheviks themselves were not united on all the big issues and most importantly on the seizure of power in October (the Julian calendar)."
"I would propose that the Provisional Government collapsed of its own rot. The insurgent masses led by the Bolsheviks only had to kick it over,"Carley remarked.
Was the October Revolution of 1917 Inevitable?
"It is a question impossible to answer except in this way: popular revolutions come about because political and economic elites over time are too selfish to share wealth and power with the masses,"Carley responded."Like the tsarist autocracy, they treat the masses as a resource to be exploited and rung dry. When evolutionary processes of change fail, revolution is often the result."
According to the academic, it is wrong to think that such revolutions succeed "because of the evil genius and cruelty of a small revolutionary elite"
"They succeed because of mass support and effective, responsive leadership."
The question then arises as to whether it was possible to follow an evolutionary path, rather than go through a revolution.
"A revolution occurred because evolutionary processes of change to benefit the lives of ordinary people had failed,"the professor responded."Serfdom, inequality, exploitation, violence, continued unabated until 1917."
October 1917: 'Driver of Transformations Across the Globe'. Revisiting the October Revolution of 1917.
Addressing the 14th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that"the largely utopian social model and ideology" the Soviets tried to implement initially following the 1917 revolution became "a powerful driver of transformations across the globe, caused a major revaluation of development models, and gave rise to rivalry and competition, the benefits of which were mostly reaped by the West."
The Canadian professor disagrees that the term "utopian" could be used with regards to the "Communist model," for instance.
"Is free, public education for everyone, no matter what their class, nationality or religion, utopian? Is the elimination of illiteracy, utopian? Are women's rights, or universal health care, utopian? Was the desire to create a more equal society, socially, economically and politically, utopian?"Carley asked, adding"in fact, that Soviet society was eventually able to withstand and then to destroy almost single- handedly, the so-called invincible Nazi 'colossus.'"
Still, he believes that the 1917 revolution certainly was"a powerful driver of transformations"around the world since it"inspired successful revolutionary movements in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Cuba."
As Putin noted during his Valdai speech "many Western achievements of the 20th century were an answer to the challenge posed by the Soviet Union," such as"raising living standards, forming a strong middle class, reforming the labour market and the social sphere, promoting education, guaranteeing human rights, including the rights of minorities and women, overcoming racial segregation."
Red October: Allied Intervention and 'Beginning of Cold War'
The October Revolution became the trigger for the Civil War (1917-1922) and prompted the Allied intervention of major foreign powers in Russia.
The Canadian academic pointed out that the October Uprising "produced an immediate violent reaction by the United States, France and Britain, whose elites attempted to overthrow the Soviet government."
"The foreign intervention against Soviet Russia fed a civil war and exacerbated the violence of the counter-revolution by many times over,"Carley said."On its own, the former tsarist elite could never have mounted such violent resistance to the October Revolution."
The professor underscored that after their failure to overthrow the Soviets,"the Western powers spent the next 70 years, with the exception of a truce between 1941-1945, in trying to harm or bring down the USSR and all those revolutions to which it had given birth."
According to the academic, the Cold War started in October (November) 1917.
"Just ask the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cubans, or N. Koreans about the frightful price of resistance to US and Western hegemony,"Carley remarked."Or for that matter, we might ask, if we could, the soldiers, sailors and workers of Soviet Russia, what price they had to pay, to defend their revolution."
(Source - Sputnik)
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Communist leader dispels new Russian budget as "oligarch orientated" October 28th, 2017 Fort Russ News - KtovKurse translated by Inessa Sinchougova
Communist Party leader, Gennady Zyuganov, called the draft federal budget for 2018-2020, "a budget of the oligarchy", which will increase stagnation and poverty.
On Friday October 27th, the State Duma considered the first reading of the draft budget for 2018 for the planning period 2019-2020. According to the draft of the Ministry of Finance, the budget deficit in 2018 will be 1.3 trillion rubles or 1.37% of GDP, in 2019 it will be 867 billion rubles or 0.84% of GDP, and in 2020 - 960 billion rubles or 0.87% of GDP.
Such a budget Zyuganov considers "a budget for the oligarchy, where further stagnation and deepening of poverty in the country will occur."
In his opinion, the draft budget does not meet the current challenges and can only aggravate the split in Russian civil society.
The Communist Party leader stressed that incomes and expenditures are constantly declining. Zyuganov noted that "in plain language" this means that the "share of the national pie" created by the working people is constantly shrinking in the budget.
Zyuganov's main issue with the budget was the reduction in government expenses for 14 out of 13 articles listed within. He explained that for eight of these articles, expenses are simply cut, and for four other articles, a small increase is offset by inflation, and as a result, real costs are below the ones prophesized.
According to Zyuganov, the current budget policy "creeps of the old Gaidar-Chubais reforms. It does not smell of modernization, nor a breakthrough for the future."
"I do not know why the president has not reacted to this helplessness, to this impotence of the financial and economic blockade on behalf of the government," Zyuganov said.
President Vladimir Putin does not oversee forthcoming bills until they pass all the stages of parliamentary negotiation - that is until his signature is required. It remains to be said that a majority of Russia's parliament and governmental organs, are liberal representatives, both economically and culturally, whereby it is only the President that stops certain bills being passed.
Without looking at the document in detail (which is not yet available to the public) it makes sense to assume that the Communist Party leader has every right to become concerned at this early stage.
Zyuganov's Communist Party enjoys the second most popular rating in the Russian political sphere, after United Russia (Vladimir Putin.)
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And a Record Number of Russians Want Socialism Back !!!
First published in Komsomolskaya Pravda Translated by Kristina Kharlova
The number of those nostalgic for the Soviet Union, is now growing steadily.
According to the findings of sociologists, 56% of respondents now express regret for the collapse of the Soviet state.
A majority of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, and do not mind if it's restored — conclude the sociologists of "Levada-centre".
2016 sees a record number of respondents nostalgic for the Soviet Union, in the whole history of public opinion surveys.
At the same time, the percentage of those who don't long for the Union, decreases over time: if, in November of last year it was 37%, today only 28% do not feel any pity.
58% of Russians would like a socialist system and the Soviet Union to be restored, and 31% say they don't want the Soviet Union back.
Over half of respondents, 51%, believe that it was still possible to save the country in 1991 while 33% of Russians say the collapse was 'inevitable'.
Experts, meanwhile, note that those most nostalgic for the Soviet Union don't yearn so much for the Soviet ideology, as for the stability, justice, confidence in the future, secure jobs, free education, medical care and housing.
Serbia:Mass anti-NATO demonstrations silenced Nothing has been the same since NATO brutally bombed Yugoslavia 17 years ago. The 5th column, trained by NATO, took over the destroyed country to continue the job that the West had started.
The economy collapsed, the country was ripped apart, and the Army, dismissed.
Year by year, malicious plans brainstormed by NATO, and executed by the government, are pushing all of the Balkans into the deep maw of the West's 'modern' imperialism.
The latest move was the Agreement with NATO about logistics. Parliament has approved, and the President has signed, an agreement which gives NATO soldiers immunity and freedom of movement on the territory of Serbia. The same people who killed thousands of innocent Serb civilians are now given freedom and immunity. NATO personnel rule the roost in Serbia
NATO personnel are exempt from paying taxes, VAT and/or customs duties. The adoption of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), lets NATO soldiers use Serbia's infrastructure, with free transit across the whole territory of Serbia, as well as protection from the law -- being given 'special status' while staying in Serbian territory.
However, although almost two decades have passed since NATO's cruel attack, most Serbs have not forgotten how important freedom is -- which is the main problem for the ruling elite.
In the mainstream media, news about signing the agreement with NATO, was published as small & irrelevant. In a couple of sentences, mainstream journalists wrote about it, as if it was tomorrow's weather forecast, but they couldn't fool people.
Boiling situation hidden by Government
The situation was boiling. A few patriotic parties and war veterans managed to organize a protest -- & expected no more than a thousand people in Belgrade, to show their disagreement with the ruling party's decisions.
On the 20th February, more than 15,000 Serbs, mostly youth, came onto the Belgrade streets to join in with the protesters. Even the police were surprised, quickly trying to reinforce -- fearing nonverbal shows of disagreement.
The mainstream media weren't at all interested in massive protests in the capital city. They just reported, after the protest, that there were only a couple of hundred demonstrators.
Amongst all media, just one, the alternative patriotic website, Srbin info, sent reporters to the vicinity, to cover the whole protest.
It was the only media that had pictures and videos of the massive protests, showing the huge number of protesters.
During the protest, over 2,000 readers per second were following their live streaming of the demonstrations. Each minute, their website was gaining more followers.
Just a couple of minutes after the end of the peaceful protest, huge cyber-attacks began.
The weak website couldn't defend itself from the biggest attacks in its history, & the web- site eventually crashed. Attacks continued for 24 hours, never letting the website repair.
The only possible source of the attacks on the website & freedom of the speech, is the ruling elite. There is no one else who would be able to manage such strong attacks.
The main problem for the alternative, free media in Serbia is that the web providers, most of them belonging to the SBB company, part of the Soros foundation, don't want to reveal who was behind the attacks. However, some opposition forces, also attacked by hackers, discovered that the IP address of the hacker belongs to one of the directors of SBB company.
It is also interesting that 25% of web providers and some mainstream media in Serbia - belong to David Petraeus, former director of the CIA.
Despite their crashed website, Srbin info reporters managed to find way to send the real story & used Facebook to spread the truth. A video showing the masses of people protesting, was viewed by over 1,700,000 Facebook users --- a huge number for Serbia, with its 7 million population.
For 48 hours after the attack, the website was closed.
Thanks to its loyal readers, who appreciate Srbin info's fight for freedom of speech, donations were collected to make a new website, with better protection.
But the problem of having a neutral web provider who will not sabotage the website -- after orders from the Government -- still exists. A much worse problem.... is that the once proud and honorable Serbia, is now under the boots of imperialists.
LEN RE-ELECTED - VICTORY FOR LEFT!
"Serving you, our members, is the greatest privilege of my working life. I'm proud to have stood shoulder- to-shoulder with you in your struggles and proud to have been asked by so many, to continue to fight for you"
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The Corbyn Supporters From Hell - Attila The Stockbroker,15th Oct 2015 at The Blue Boar Hotel, Maldon, Essex, UK
ONE UNION
Two weeks before Brexit, the African Union announced a new single African passport that permits holders to enter any of the 54 AU member states without a visa – an interesting turn in African history which NO-ONE in the West knows or cares about ! What a stunning reflection of how far our mindset and media are, from the 'world community' we say we love.
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ADAM JOHANNES, CO-CONVENOR, PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY
“Most people under 40 have never been a member of a trade union. So unions are irrelevant, right? Wrong. Unions are more relevant than ever before. With in- work poverty, zero hours contracts and precarious employment, trade unions urgently need to make inroads into the private sector where the majority of us work, but a majority are still un-unionised.”
3 recent campaigns show how this might be done -
1. BETTER THAN ZERO
"Better than Zero" is an exciting campaign launched last year by the Scottish TUC to combat employers using zero-hours contracts. It is run by young people for young people to take on the issue of insecure work. Its activists are mostly in their teens or twenties. The campaign calls upon an older generation not to stand by while a generation of young people are forced into insecure work.
It has responded to tip off from employees in workplaces charging staff for training or uniforms, and bars and restaurants where workers tips are taken by the company. It's fought against people routinely expected to work additional late hours at short notice, with little or no thought given to how they'll get home & whether they will be safe.
The campaign uses direct action, stunts and creative protests such as targeting bars and restaurants with 'flash mob choirs', activists and former staff posing as customers, before each stand up in a restaurant to make speeches while other activists leaflet out- side, Halloween funeral marches on exploitative employers, or, memorably, activists clad in chemical-spill clean up garb placing several popular bars & restaurants in 'quarantine', for exploitative work practices. A recent campaign victory saw restaurant chain Las Iguanas end a policy of deducting money from staff tips.
2. SPORTS DIRECT
Unite has waged a dynamic fightback against Sports Direct including pickets of over 30 stores across the UK, occupations, direct action such as the unfurling of a #SportsDirectShame banner by Newcastle United fans at the club owned by Sports Direct boss, Mike Ashley, other banner drops from bridges, shareholder action, and a social media campaign,
Sports Direct is Britain's biggest sportswear company. It made over a billion in profits last year, but the majority of its workers agency staff are on zero hour contracts with no holiday or sick pay, and no guaranteed work from one week to the next. It has been called more 'workhouse' than workplace with intense surveillance and searches of staff, a culture of fear, bullying and intimidation rife.
Unite's campaign had forced the issue of its Victorian working conditions into national media & a company review. Unite demands all staff are re-employed on permanent contracts on a living wage. So far they have won a pay rise for staff and the company is now being investigated by HM Revenue & Customs after the union exposed it for effectively paying under the minimum wage.
3. PIZZA EXPRESS
Unite scored a victory against Pizza Express after exposing and ending the company deducting a proportion of staff's hard earned tips as an 'admin fee', recruiting new members. The campaign involved union activists going into Pizza Express branches to speak to waiting staff, weekly pickets, handing out hundreds of flyers with customers given a ‘scrap the admin fee’ postcard to leave with their cash tips, and finally a 'meal of justice' when protesters went into a restaurant, enjoyed a meal and when the bill came, one person stood up and told customers about the admin fee while others handed out postcards. Customers often respond with spontaneous applause.
We need to think creatively of how to bring politics into the workplace whether collections for refugees in Calais, foodbanks or local homeless, organising delegations from our work to local protests, or even setting up People's Assembly networks with likeminded people we work with.
Cardiff People's Assembly is part of The People's Assembly Against Austerity, a UK anti-cuts network sponsored by eight trade unions. Locally we have worked with Unison defending our city's library service & PCS to organise solidarity with museum workers, we will be supporting Unite Community's day of action against benefit sanctions. With much of our nation's workforce unorganised in their workplace in unions, joining movements like ours can boost people's confidence to stand up to their employers and build workplace organisation.
In the 1980s Thatcher declared war on the unions --- as a prelude to letting the market rip through society --- transforming us into a highly unequal low pay, low skill economy. The assault on the 'social wage' means we now have the highest private rents, highest energy bills, highest rail fares, and most expensive university education in the EU. Now the Trade Union Bill aims to take out a key part of the resistance to extend the cuts, privatisation and outsourcing agenda and shift even more power and wealth from the 99% to the 1%.
Our economy is dominated by low paid jobs. Low pay makes people insecure. A low pay economy and tax avoiding corporations make it hard to invest in public services. Joining a union is one way to fight back.
Profit Is The Only Concern For Railway Privateers 2016 Thursday 29TH DEC
The only way to have a public transport system worthy of the name is to have a fully nationalised railway,says GORDON MARTIN
All things transport have been making the news in Scotland for a number of months and the signs are this isn’t going to change in the dark winter months ahead.
Scotland’s railways have been subjected to an unprecedented level of scrutiny and criticism with opposition politicians, media columnists and some trade union officials calling for Nicola Sturgeon to sack her Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP.
In my view the roots of the public’s dissatisfaction with Scotland’s railways goes back to the Scottish government’s ill-conceived decision to award the ScotRail franchise to a state-owned rail operator.
Unfortunately for passengers and the ScotRail workforce, the state in question was not our own — and the Netherlands now benefits from profits made by its state company, Abellio, out of ScotRail.
A public-sector bid from Scotland was not allowed when the franchise was awarded to Abellio for a 10-year period. With profit the first and only concern of the profiteers at Abellio, a major dispute with Scotland’s biggest rail union RMT was highly predictable.
Abellio’s attack on the role of the guard on our trains brought a summer of discontent as industrial action spread across much of the Scottish rail network.
The Scottish government quickly showed its true colours. The normally very assured and competent First Minister committed a monumental blunder when she disgracefully inferred the strike was only about who pushed a button to open and close train doors.
While the SNP government very often claims to be on the side of working-class communities, it remains very much a political party wedded to capitalism. The First Minister should have taken the trouble to speak to disabled passengers or those travelling on Scotland’s trains who feel vulnerable in any way about how crucial the role of the guard is in making their journey a safer, more relaxing experience.
Thankfully the Scottish government and Abellio ScotRail finally saw sense and a negotiated settlement was reached which was favourable to RMT and which will see safety-trained guards remain in place.
Following on from our successful efforts to Keep The Guard on the Train, RMT has launched a high- profile “Safer Scottish Trains” campaign designed to ensure trains, stations & rail infrastructure in general are properly resourced and managed to ensure the best possible service is delivered.
Everyone, in particular disabled people, should be able to travel on a 21st-century rail network without having to check ahead days in advance to ensure staff will be in place to assist them.
At the same time, Westminster and the European Union have also intervened in a negative way which may have serious repercussions for rail workers and passengers in the years ahead.
Earlier this month Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary in Theresa May’s rotten Tory government, delivered a speech which potentially takes the rail industry back to the complete fragmentation foisted upon the people of Britain by the hapless government of John Major in the 1990s.
Grayling now seeks to reintroduce “competition” into rail infrastructure, maintenance and repairs.
Inevitably this will eventually lead to the complete break-up of Network Rail. The centralised standards implemented by this public-sector organisation will be discarded and profit and loss will become the decisive factor in deciding the standards for maintaining the rail infrastructure. This is a frightening scenario with potentially deadly outcomes and RMT will fight this with everything we have.
The latest plans for railways across the EU, the ultimate bosses’ club, are contained within the Fourth Railway Package which MEPs are voting on. These proposals make it mandatory to put rail passenger services out to competitive tender. With the Scottish government recently beginning to engage with the rail unions and others regarding a public-sector bid for the ScotRail contract, the 4th Railway Package underlines how fragile and fleeting this public-sector bid could ultimately be.
Scotland’s ferry sector also had a fair amount of publicity in the last year or so, with RMT engaged in a high-profile, long-running and ultimately successful campaign to keep CalMac ferries in public ownership.
RMT stands by our assertion that the Clyde and Hebridean ferry service did not have to go out to tender under the Teckal exemption.
Unfortunately, the Scottish government are keen to be seen as good Europeans, despite the negative impact on the Scottish people, and meekly went along with directives from the EU.
The uncertainty for island communities and the stress for the CalMac workforce while their future was unclear, was not high on the government’s agenda.
Unfortunately it looks highly likely that the workforce and the islanders on the Northern Isles are about to be put through the same uncertainty as their counterparts on the west coast.
The government is once again meekly following diktats from Brussels by putting the Northern Isles ferry service out to a competitive tendering process, despite the people of Britain voting to leave the EU, including a sizeable section of the Scottish working class.
RMT has a clear and principled position which is to insist that the Northern Isles contract is brought back into public ownership forthwith.
We demand an immediate end to the exploitation of eastern European seafarers. These workers, employed on a Scottish government contract, are being paid wages at a derisory rate while being denied the protection of a trade union agreement with wages and conditions covered by collective bargaining agreements.
As part of our ongoing Save our Seafarers campaign, we have highlighted this disgraceful fact to the media and the public with our slogan SNP — Ships of Shame.
This is causing the government and, in particular, the Transport Minister a great deal of embarrassment. I make no apologies for this and I sincerely hope the embarrassment will lead to action before too much longer.
It is clear to everyone, with the possible exception of right-wing profiteering zealots, that the only way to have a public transport system worthy of the name is to have a fully nationalised railway, properly resourced, with adequate staffing levels --- together with a publicly owned ferry operator, working exclusively on behalf of ferry users and the Scottish government, & money raised reinvested --- instead of lining the pockets of private shareholders.
Gordon Martin is Scottish regional organiser of the RMT.
(source - Morning Star)
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Tory aid-dumping revelation means the money should be seized and used by Mike Sivier
The worst part of this is, it suggests that people who said the International Aid budget could be used in better ways, were right.
The Times reports that the Tories have been ‘dumping’ billions of pounds in aid into shady World Bank funds, to sit unused indefinitely – in order to "keep up the appearance" of meeting the government’s commitment to donating 0.7% of the UK’s GDP in foreign aid.
According to the Times, at least £9 billion has been transferred like this in the past 5 years. Rather than helping developing countries, the money, which is spread across over 200 different bank accounts, simply sits there – doing nothing except rack up World Bank ‘administration fees’.
UK International Development Secretary Priti Patel’s only qualification for her job appears to be the fact that she had previously wanted to get rid of it and the funding it oversees. This seems to be the standard Tory qualification for any ministerial role that is supposed to help people – Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt infamously wrote a book, before becoming Health Secretary, that called for abolition of the ’60-year-old mistake’ of the NHS.
Clearly, to a Tory, maintaining the appearance of doing something is far more important than actually doing it – especially if it helps you put cash into the bank accounts of your backers and allies and ideally while you get rid of the very thing you’re supposed to be looking after. If you hear Tories say ‘reform’, run for cover – or better yet, get the pitchforks out.
Source: Keeping up appearances: aid-dumping shows Tories care for PR, not people The SKWAWKBOX
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Left Looks To Unite To Protect Its Power Base CHARLEY ALLAN
The Labour right was desperate to see the back of “Red Len,” as the tabloids call him.
But Len won his victory. Now’s the perfect time to join Unite, with full membership costing just £3.50 a week, reduced to 50p for the unemployed.
The AWL and its allies may have won the national committee battle, but they won’t win the OMOV war --- if the movementists get organised.
A new current called Opening Momentum has rallied round the point that anti-OMOVers had denied members their advertised right to “vote in national-level elections.”
And it’s crucial that every member who really believes in the fabled “new kind of politics” turns up to their local branch meetings - if they have them - to halt plans for a parallel party.
This is bigger than Momentum. We need to see much more direct democracy in Labour itself, although there will always be resistance from those who benefit most from the delegate system.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of new Labour members and Momentum’s top priority --- should making sure their voice is heard at next year’s party conference.
The Labour left can’t afford to be crushed again on the conference floor, as happened this year.
While Momentum was dazzling everyone with its World Transformed free festival, right faction Labour First was distributing fliers to let delegates know when and where vital votes were taking place.
Critically, Momentum must:- have slates of candidates ready when local constituency parties select conference delegates in thecoming months.
The new left movement needs to get serious if it wants to win the looming electoral battles within Labour, the trade unions and the grassroots.
Defending, strengthening and expanding this power base at the ballot box, will take back the leadership, and keep the movement fighting fit for the general election.
• Chat to Charley on Twitter: @charleyallan.
(source - Morning Star)
A New Lucas Plan For The Future by David King
The ideas pioneered by the Lucas workers are just as, or more, relevant now than in the 1970s, and there are strong political similarities in the situation.
As in the ’70s, we have an economic crisis caused by unjust economic policies and the failure of successive governments’ industrial strategy.
As usual, this has hit the working class hardest, and anger over this is being channelled into racism against immigrants. Now, the environmental effects of industrial capitalism are far more evident than 40 years ago, already creating wars, militarisation and widespread concern about insecurity.
Finally, introduction of new technologies threatens structural unemployment on a scale considerably greater than the ’70s.
The Tory government’s response to the economic and political crisis, despite continuing to publicly espouse neoliberal principles, looks a lot like a classic Keynesian economic stimulus package.
In the last few months it has made decisions to go ahead with a range of industrial infrastructure megaprojects — Hinkley C, fracking, HS2 and the Heathrow third runway, as well as pressing ahead with spending £200 billion on Trident renewal.
A key element in the case for all these projects is the jobs that they will generate or preserve, although the jobs estimates are bound to be inflated, while the price tag will be massively underestimated.
Compared to the ’70s, far fewer jobs will be created in this way because, due to automation and mechanisation, they are all highly capital rather than labour-intensive.
The Lucas Aerospace workers’ idea of socially useful production suggests a far better way forward.
Even in the early phase of the environmental movement, before most socialists realised the significance of these issues, the Lucas Plan acknowledged that protecting the environment is part of the concept of socially useful production.
With the exception of HS2, all the new projects are environmental anathema, and the damage that project would do to the English countryside and people’s homes and communities, for the sake of saving 30 minutes of executives’ time, makes it emblematic of neoliberalism.
The working-class people who voted for Brexit are demanding jobs and regeneration of their communities, but these industrial vanity projects are not the solution.
Now is the moment to realise the proposals of the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group (Million Climate Jobs Campaign), which is often seen as a successor to the Lucas Plan.
We should be investing in renewable energy, home insulation, public transport etc as part of the international trade union initiative of Just Transition, ie transition to a low-carbon economy with job protection for workers in industries that need to be phased out.
Imagine what could be achieved in regional economic renewal and environmental benefits with the Trident billions.
But exactly how that money should be spent should not be decided by economic planners alone.
One of the great strengths of the Lucas Plan was that it came from the bottom up, from workers, not managers.
Recognising that they could not, by themselves, define what people need, the Lucas workers began to work with various regional communities to develop “popular planning for social need.”
In London, the Greater London Council created technology development networks that involved users, for example disabled people, in technology design.
These traditions of bottom-up local planning have been continued by various citizens’ local planning initiatives, such as Just Space in London, and would be vital to a democratic solution to the crises.
The current economic and environmental crises are symptoms of a deeper crisis in the industrial capitalist mode of production, and they demand a fundamental rethink of how we produce the basic things that people need for a decent life.
One of the less well-remembered, but crucial aspects of the Lucas Plan was the workers’ struggle against the automation and deskilling of their work with computer-controlled machinery, a struggle shared with trade unionists around the world in that period.
As Phil Asquith of the Lucas Combine puts it, “Harold Wilson’s ‘white heat of the technological revolution’ was burning up workers’ jobs.’
The continuation of this trend over the last 40 years is a major source of the jobless recoveries and income polarisation that are creating the “squeezed middle” of angry, Daily Mail- reading, Brexit voters.
Forecasts suggest that digital technology will eliminate half the jobs in the economy over the next 20 years, but its track record shows that it creates far fewer new jobs to replace them.
One response to this that has become popular on the left is the belief that automation will usher in a post- capitalist society, if we can only feed those useless human workers with basic income.
This is a complex argument, but one thing for sure is that this was not the Lucas workers’ philosophy.
Instead of: “Demand Full Automation, Demand Universal Basic Income, Demand the Future,” they would have reminded us that the romance of high-technology leads to what historian of technology David Noble aptly called: “Progress without people.”
The Lucas workers’ slogan would likely have been: “Demand Democratic Control of Technology, Demand Socially Useful Production, Demand Equality and Sustainability.”
They were very clear that the idea of socially useful production is also about how things are produced.
There is no point in socially useful products if they are made in a way that alienates and deskills the workers who produce them.
They went on to design “human-centred technologies,” in which the point was to use and develop workers’ skills, rather than design them out of the production process.
A skills and people-based, more labour-intensive approach is, in the era of Brexit and environmental crisis, a much better way to create a socially just, sustainable economy than old-fashioned, capital- intensive high-tech mega projects. This is the agenda we will be discussing in Birmingham today.
(source - the Morning Star)
Construction Workers Can’t Be Expected To Work Into Their Sixties by Brian Rye (source - The Star)
British governments seem to think one of two things about construction workers: they're either superhuman, or they don’t give a toss about them. That would be the logical conclusion, given the raise in the pension age, to 68.
With the state pension age due to rise to 67 by 2026 and 68 by 2044, our political elites seem to believe that we are breeding a race of human beings with quite exceptional physical capabilities.
While professional sportspeople are pretty much done by their mid-thirties, with their strength, speed and stamina leeching away by the day, the British construction worker - if you believe our politicians - lives in a world that defies conventional science.
Despite the early starts, the exposure to the elements, the heavy lifting, the long hours, the poor diet & susceptibility to minor injury, these lions of the labour force are all going to get their telegram from the king - because the stats say we’re all living longer.
Sadly, if you have a shred of common sense you will immediately know this is not true.
Construction workers are the same as any other human being. Like professional sportspeople, they can feel their physical abilities start to wane from their mid-thirties.
The only difference being: construction workers have to stay in the game. & not only that, given the increase in the pensionable age, the game just went into extra time.
Empathy is a wonderful characteristic for a human being to possess because it creates understanding and caring for others.
So we have to ask ourselves, as our besuited, overweight politicians sit back in their comfy chairs before skipping off to their subsidised three-course meal in the House of Commons - with a glass of wine or two — how much empathy are they feeling with their compatriots in construction?
Can they imagine the freezing mornings, the hours of standing up, the repetitive physical work or the greasy chips for lunch? It would seem not.
Recent research carried out by the TUC, in a report called Postponing the Pension, shows that a significant proportion of the population won’t reach the pensionable age of 68 in any fit state to enjoy their retirement.
The results show that half a million workers within five years of the state pension have had to leave work for medical reasons, and that nearly half of 60 to 64-year-olds stopped working before their official retirement age.
This is why Ucatt is currently trying to get the Labour Party to support policies that would mean a future Labour government would introduce a flexible pension age for physically demanding professions.
Construction work is hugely physically demanding because it involves prolonged standing, highly repetitive work, heavy lifting, working with the hands lifted to shoulder height or higher, and working with the back twisted or bent forward. It can lead to musculoskeletal disorder, cardiovascular disease and long-term sickness absence.
These work conditions and their effects need to be factored into the calculation of a pensionable age. It is only fair.
At 60, most politicians are on a few company boards, are picking up consultancies, maybe writing a book and reaping the benefits of a lifetime’s work.
The current presidential candidates in the US are 68 (Hillary Clinton) and 70 (Donald Trump) - beneficiaries of a lifetime of comfort, good food, little or no physical exertion and excellent healthcare on demand.
These individuals see no reason to retire - they’re feeling fine. Construction workers often aren’t feeling fine.
We all know that one in four people in Britain will now live to 100 — but what about the other three? At what age will they be checking out? And what jobs are they doing?
According to figures from the government’s own Office for National Statistics, doctors and accountants are outliving builders and cleaners, by as much as eight years.
Men in professional occupations can expect to live to 80, almost eight years longer than those in unskilled jobs, whose life expectancy is 72.7. So people are not all the same - shock, horror! Comparing the accountant to the construction worker is comparing apples with oranges - and yet our governments conveniently ignore this.
Our ageing population and the fears surrounding the viability of the state pension in the future has caused the political class to legislate in a heavy- handed, insensitive and unsophisticated way.
The phrase “we’ve all got to work longer” is bandied about by those sitting comfortably behind a desk. For those leading a more active life, this phrase is just a plain, old-fashioned threat.
To quote ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: “Living longer doesn’t mean we are able to work longer in physically demanding jobs like that of the firefighter, police officer or paramedic. And it’s not just in the emergency services. Construction workers, care workers and prison officers cannot be expected to work into their sixties. We need a flexible pension age that allows people to work for as long as they want to.”
Ucatt’s campaign plainly states “68 is too late.” It’s a campaign that needs to be fought to a victory - for the sake of thousands of British workers. We need to present our case, find broad support and build empathy within the country. And we have to find acceptance that it may cost us all a little bit more while we’re of working age.
Otherwise we will all be using another well- known phrase: “flogging a dead horse.”
We’ll leave the last words to Mr Corbyn: “If we want dignity for all in old age, then it has to be paid for.”
Brian Rye is acting general secretary of Ucatt.
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Britain’s workers feel stressed and insecure (originally in the Morning Star) by Carolyn Jones
The UK's 31 million workers are among the most insecure, stressed and unhappiest in Europe.
No wonder! According to the latest report by the Institute of Employment Rights (IER), the evidence is damning.
On average, UK workers work more hours per week, more days per year, more years before retirement -- after which, they receive lower levels of pension -- than most of their European counterparts.
In comparison to other European workers they generally receive less education and training, and (because of lack of employer investment) their productivity is lower.
They get fewer paid holidays than almost all European comparators and their pay is so low that a great proportion of them are in poverty --- with the state subsidising employers’ low wages.
And it doesn’t end there. The UK has a high proportion of its workforce in so-called “self- employment,” agency work, temporary work, and/or on zero-hours contracts.
It has more part-time workers who want full- time jobs, than other European countries.
UK workers have less entitlement to redundancy pay, sick pay, and maternity pay, than most European workers.
Workers’ rights to remedies for unfair dismissal and discrimination are set low and have been made practically unenforceable by the imposition of high access fees.
In the UK, unlike most European countries, there is no ministry of labour, no labour inspectorate and a negligible complement of health and safety inspectors.
All this in the fifth richest nation in the world. It is obscene. So what’s to be done?
An excellent starting point is the establishment of Jeremy Corbyn’s Workplace 2020 initiative. Launched in May 2016, the aim of the project is to start a national conversation on what work should be like in 2020.
Under the chairmanship of Ian Lavery, shadow trade union minister, the Labour Party wants to hear the good, the bad and the ugly stories about working life in Britain.
On a recently launched website people can submit their comments, complaints and suggestions on a range of workplace issues.
So whether it’s job security, pay and pensions, training and apprenticeships, diversity and equality, trade unions or health and safety that raises your passion, there’s scope to feed into the policy agenda.
Once again the Labour leadership team is turning out to the country for ideas rather than assuming it knows best in the corridors of power.
Labour is already committed to raising the minimum wage, banning zero-hours contracts, ensuring workers are given access to justice, and giving temporary workers the same rights as permanent staff. But it recognises that more needs to be done -- not just to secure fairness at work but to rebuild the UK's economy and industry.
So, at the request of Jeremy Corbyn and Ian Lavery, the IER drafted a contribution to the review, using 15 of its academic and legal experts. At the heart of our proposals is the need to ensure the voice of the UK’s 31 million workers is heard & respected -- in government (via a ministry of labour), in the economy (via a national economic forum) and in industry (via sectoral employment commissions).
The manifesto offers 25 major policy recommendations for consideration.
It proposes changing the way in which working conditions are regulated. It moves responsibility for workplace regulation from legislation to collective bargaining.
It calls for the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016, the removal of tribunal fees and the introduction of fundamental & enforceable rights for workers, enforceable in a labour court with the assistance of labour inspectors.
The Thatcher concept of individual rights for individual workers has to go. It does little for workers, it’s costly to enforce and it fails to deliver fairness at work.
IER’s manifesto offers a system based on the collective voice of workers, negotiating collectively agreed standards & delivering collectively enforced fairness at work.
A new framework of labour law should be built on the following 10 points:
A ministry of labour
A national economic forum
Sectoral employment commissions
Sectoral collective agreements and wages councils’ orders
Workplace bargaining
A strengthened framework of statutory employment rights
Labour courts and labour inspectors
Employment tribunals
Stronger support for freedom of association and collective rights
The right to strike
Carolyn Jones is director of the Institue of Employment Rights
A manifesto for labour law: Towards a comprehensive revision of workers’ rights --- is available from IER. Go to www.ier.org.uk for more information.
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Why Labour is putting energy reform at the heart of its green agenda Jeremy Corbyn
No issue better connects the environment to people’s lives than energy. To deliver clean, affordable electricity,we need to change our undemocratic system of supply.
We are on course for a climate catastrophe. 2016 is set to be the hottest year on record. Unless the Paris agreement’s target of limiting the rise in temperatures by 1.5C is met, heatwaves like that in 2003, which killed tens of thousands of people in Europe, will become the norm. And that's before considering rising sea levels and desertification, that will sink cities, and kill and displace millions, or the fact that the Earth has already lost half its wildlife, in the past 40 years.
The task for politicians is to propose real solutions to the single most important issue facing humanity. Too often, the environment is considered a matter for scientists, enthusiasts & activists. To increase public understanding and energise the political debate, we need more than facts – we need a programme that resonates with people’s every- day experiences, offering not just warnings, but opportunities and improvement.
No issue better connects the environment to people’s lives than energy. In Britain today, 7 million households struggle to pay their bills because of spiralling costs, while the big six energy companies have seen their profits rise by more than tenfold since 2007. The energy market is not just expensive, inefficient and polluting – it is, above all, undemocratic.
In order to deliver clean, affordable heating and electricity we need to change the whole system of energy supply. When energy is driven by the needs of people, it will be greener – because saving the planet is in the interests of everyone.
That is why I am today announcing a bold new set of policies which will pioneer a democratic, community- led system of energy supply. Over the course of the next parliament, we will use public investment and legislation to promote the creation of over 200 local energy companies, giving towns, cities & localities the powers they need to drive a clean, locally accountable energy system with public, not-for-profit companies.
At the heart of this policy will be a new generation of community energy co-operatives. We will create 1,000 of these co-operatives with the support of a network of regional development banks, and legislate to give them the right to sell energy directly to the communities they serve.
At the same time as building a new publicly run, locally accountable energy system, we will invest in the high quality homes & insulation needed to make Britain environmentally sustainable. We will create a National Home Insulation programme to insulate at least 4m homes to energy efficiency standard B or C. In the private rented sector, we will set compulsory standards at the same level & end the misery of cold rented accommodation. This would save millions of people money on their bills as well as saving energy that is currently wasted on poorly insulated homes.
In order to have any hope of keeping the rise in temperature to 2C – let alone meeting our Paris agreement target of 1.5C – we need to keep 80% of fossil fuels in the ground. This can and must be done. Scotland is already on course to generate 100% of its electricity by renewables, & Britain has an ample supply of wind & water. In government, I'll commit to generating 65% of Britain’s electricity from these sources by 2030.
All of these measures will create secure, skilled employment for hundreds of thousands of people. As part of our transition to a low-carbon economy, we estimate that we will create 316,000 jobs in wind, solar and wave power. We'll use a £500bn national investment programme, with a National Investment Bank and a network of regional development banks, to ensure that these jobs and opportunities are created in places where they are most needed – in coastal towns and areas with high unemployment.
Too often, environmental catastrophe is explained in the same terms as an asteroid hitting the earth. But the problems and the solutions are political – they are about the prioritisation of profit over the needs of people and, at the heart of it all, a lack of democracy in how decisions are made. By democratising our energy supply, and giving people power over their own destinies, we can rebuild and transform Britain so that no one and no community, is left behind.
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Together --- Stronger!
Change, when it comes, will not come from Westminster. The campaign to save our NHS must become a visible reality on every high street and a priority for Labour members.
The NHS is at breaking point, and as Keep Our NHS Public secretary John Lister says: “by 2020 it will all be over.”
To reverse the damage of four more years of A&E closures, outsourced or pared-down services and reduced access, could verge on the impossible.
MPs who obsess over the need to attract Tory voters may find that the champions who saved a local A&E win more hearts and minds than a lorryload of anti-immigration mugs ever could.
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HELP JOHN DUNN
John Dunn, ex-miner and a Labour Party member for 45 years, was blocked from voting for Corbyn, because he challenged Owen Smith for exploiting the legacy of Orgreave for electoral purposes.
He has been told he is suspended from the Labour Party.
John says: "45 years continuous membership and they couldn't even address me by my name"
It looks like the NEC are creating their very own blacklist.
Labour grew hugely under Corbyn and the ''guess'' is --- most of new members were Corbyn supporters.
A DREAM COME TRUE
Support for Jeremy Corbyn from Tyrone O’Sullivan, a fourth-generation south Wales miner, who led a workers’ buy-out of Tower Colliery, to save it from closure.
"I’ve been close to Jeremy since the miners’ strike. Knowing the man, knowing his abilities and his education, it was a dream come true for me when he became leader. His ideas and values are more necessary, here in south Wales, than probably anywhere else in the country. He wanted victory for Labour, but only under our terms - for a change."
O’Sullivan, a lifelong Labour member, says Jeremy is the only true socialist we have had as leader --- for 20 or 30 years.
____________________________________
PEOPLE DESERVE RESPECT
Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership opponent flaunted his contempt for democracy by backing a second referendum on UK membership of the EU.
And MPs pressured Jeremy Corbyn to resign, by constant smears, media lies and attacks on Labour's membership !!!
No wonder the Unite policy conference has overwhelmingly backed mandatory reselection of MPs - to ensure genuine democratic accountability in the party.
____________________________________
Unite pushes for reselection of MPs by Conrad Landin
Candidates ‘should reflect members’ views’
Labour's largest affiliate is now behind the push for mandatory reselection of MPs, as Jeremy Corbyn critics have “destabilised” the party, to ditch anti-austerity policies.
Delegates at general union Unite’s conference are resolved to support the approach, in order “to ensure democratic accountability, and the rights of party members to select candidates that reflect their views.”
Currently, sitting MPs are only subject to a “trigger ballot” -- where they automatically become the candidate -- unless a super- majority of branches in the constituency support a new selection.
London and eastern region's delegate, Kevin Parslow: “The current trigger mechanism is difficult, & weighted in favour of the incumbent.
“We put ourselves up as reps and branch officers for election regularly.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for MPs to put themselves up for re-selection. They should be accountable to us, and not to Murdoch’s press: they're there because they have the Labour Party name on the ballot paper.”
Mike Hedges, another London delegate: “Four weeks ago I would have spoken against this motion--- but after the treachery of 172 MPs --- we have no option.”
The union’s leaders are also mandated to “support moves to bring more democracy into policy-making -- by returning powers to the party conference.”
A Unite spokesperson:
“This vote simply reflects the immense frustration that our members feel. They look at the conduct of some within the party, the challenge to the elected leader, and they feel angered.
“They want Labour fighting the Tories, not among themselves.”
KEEP FIGHTING FOR MORE DEMOCRACY!
Momentum and Labour are engaged in a huge consultation to expand democracy in Labour...
WHY NOT PASTE THE LINK BELOW AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION?
http://www.peoplesmomentum.com/democracy-review
* * *
With 640,000 members - and a huge 200,00 joining in just 2 weeks- Labour was the largest left-wing party in Europe.
If you haven't done so already, join Labour, join Momentum, and let's rebuild #BuildOurMovement.
join.labour.org.uk
join.peoplesmomentum.com
_________________________________
GMB Wins Lidl Recognition by Peter Lazenby Ruling affects hundreds of warehouse staff
The Star - General union GMB has won a landmark legal ruling giving hundreds of warehouse workers at giant cut-price supermarket chain Lidl the right to be represented by the union.
The German-owned chain opposes union recognition and resisted the union’s claim.
But the Central Arbitration Committee, whose decisions are legally binding, supported the GMB case, and gave the union full rights to represent and negotiate on behalf of its 223 members among warehouse workers at Bridgend, south Wales.
GMB now presses ahead with its campaign for recognition at 8 more Lidl warehouses across England and Scotland.
National secretary Justin Bowden says: “Lidl’s attempts at union-busting were quite properly thrown out by the judge --- in a massive victory for rights at work.
“[Wednesday’s] ruling opens the gates to not only improving employees’ pay & terms and conditions at the Bridgend site, but is also a major victory for the GMB’s campaign for a trade union voice at the workplace.
“The suggestion that Lidl’s workers don't need the option of a trade union to stick up for them and fight for their interests is baloney, pure and simple.
“As a result of today’s ruling, employees will get the chance to decide for them- selves, if the company’s own ‘personal personnel hotline’ is any match for an independent union taking their side & defending their interests in the workplace.”
GMB Wales and south-west regional secretary John Phillips adds: “Regrettably, Lidl continues to show both hostility towards GMB & shameful disregard for the wishes of its own workforce, with expensive challenges against fair and objective decisions made by independent third-party organisations.”
Lidl is also resisting attempts by shop workers’ union Usdaw to recruit and represent staff in its supermarkets.
An Usdaw spokesperson said: “Lidl will not even let our representatives into stores, to talk to staff.”
Lidl has 637 stores & 9 regional distribution centres --- employing over 18,000 staff. Its ambitions to expand in Britain, could see it more than double in size --- with plans for 1,500 stores & 2 more distribution centres.
_______________________________
Tax offices’ own cleaners don’t get minimum wage
Cleaners at 6 government offices on Mersey- side walked out over their employer’s failure to pay them the legal minimum wage.
The staff began the two-day strike, because they have not received that £7.20-an-hour rate the government introduced on April 1.
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Wales: 50,000 days lost due to teacher stress
The number of teachers off sick due to stress in Wales has soared by thousands in just one year, new research shows.
Stress-related illness caused the 51,795 sick days: an increase of 2,568 on 2014, freedom of information figures revealed.
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Unions stood by Corbyn & McDonnell
The entire labour movement could have been concentrating all of our efforts - on bringing down this mean government.
Instead, 172 Labour MPs launched an attempted coup on Corbyn. If it's true that Angela Smith MP described the 10,000 activists, including general secretaries of affiliated trade unions, who were at a recent pro-Corbyn rally, as “dogs,” --- then serious questions need to be asked about the relationship between the PLP and the trade union movement.
Every trade union in Britain has regular elections for shop stewards, branch secretaries, and their general secretary.
It's time those who fund the Labour Party demanded the same level of democracy for sitting MPs.
Anything less than a mandatory reselection of MPs before every parliament is now untenable.
Let’s get this straight: none of these MPs backed Corbyn for leader, most of them abstained in the Welfare Reform Bill, many of them voted for the Iraq war, & to this day, hero-worship Tony Blair.
The 172 Labour MPs aren't just trying to change the Labour leader -- they are plotting to drag the movement back to a Blairite view of politics.
The vote of no confidence wasn't just an attempt to oust Corbyn --- it was a declaration of war on the entire organised left.
The gloves are off and there’s no going back. Everyone will need to decide: which side are you on? I stand with Corbyn and McDonnell.
Dave Smith is co-author, with Phil Chamberlain, of Blacklisted: The Secret War between Big Business and Trade Unionists, (New Internationalist Publications).
________________________________
RMT: We Must Fight Assault On Our Rights Union ‘disappointed’ with lack of action from TUC
Unions should move to take “generalised” strike action: with or without a go-ahead from the TUC, RMT activists insisted.
The union was meeting in Cardiff that week --- but you wouldn't know it, if you'd read the Welsh press!
Delegates at the transport union’s annual general meeting in Cardiff expressed disappointment that fiery rhetoric about defeating new anti-strike laws was not followed up with action.
The union unanimously passed a motion expressing concern at the TUC’s “lack of campaigning” on the issue and called for a “high-profile campaign.”
Leeds delegate Trevor Howard said: “Personally, my own view is that the TUC is a waste of space and it needs to be reorganised.”
The Trade Union Act, which received Royal Assent last month, imposes arbitrary thresholds on strike ballots & other curbs on labour movement activity.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It’s fundamentally undemocratic when you put these thresholds in.”
He said unions must respond to the law by ramping up their organising. “Whatever we do, we’ve got to make sure we get our members’ support,” he said.
And he praised Jeremy Corbyn’s Workplace 2020 agenda, which aims to introduce new labour rights.
“What we need to be doing is turning the tables,” he added: “We’ve got to get an alternative to this legislation --- to get us positive rights.”
Cash blasts ‘self-indulgent MPs’ for sabotaging left’s moment
“Self-indulgent” Labour MPs have squandered the left’s best moment to go on the offensive, RMT's general secretary, Mick Cash, stressed.
He used his address to the transport union’s annual general meeting to warn of “massive fights ahead” amid “political and economic turmoil.”
He said the divisions in the Tory Party and shockwaves in the world of capital should have been an opportunity for the left to get its message across. But he said this had been sabotaged by the frontbenchers resigning and calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s head.
He fumed: “What have they done? Self-indulgence. They’ve created division, they created a lack of leadership of progressive forces.
“They’ve created a situation where, if we’re not careful, we’ll have a Tory government ------ and worse, a Tory government supported by Ukip.
“We need to seize the opportunity to put forward an agenda to fight against austerity, against cuts and for workers’ rights. But that won’t happen if our politicians in London are playing the game they’re playing.
“Ordinary working people are sick of the political class and what they’re doing --- and yet they’re doing it again.”
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Putschist MPs ‘Let The Tories Off The Hook’ Unions rally round previous Labour leader
Union reps on Labour’s ruling executive signed a defiant statement to show that Mr Corbyn still has institutional support.
The leader of Labour’s most recent affiliate Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack pointed his hoses at the quitters, saying their action was “co-ordinated to cause maximum damage” to Mr Corbyn.
“It is bizarre that some of the MPs making the loudest criticism of Jeremy Corbyn over the referendum -- completely failed to convince the electorate in their own constituencies,” he said.
“After the referendum, Labour should be setting out policies to defend jobs, public services & wages, as an exit from the EU is negotiated. Instead, some Labour MPs are playing irresponsible & silly games, from their Westminster bubble.”
Unite south-east secretary Jenny Formby, one of the executive members behind the statement in support of Mr Corbyn, said it was “nonsense” to blame him for the result. “Now, more than ever, is a time for loyalty and unity,” she stormed.
Communication Workers’ Union leader Dave Ward fired off a missive, stating Mr Corbyn “has our full support” as leader.
“Jeremy Corbyn is, and remains, the catalyst for change in the Labour Party and the country,” he said. “Those who seek to oust him, represent the politics that forgot ordinary people.”
And food union BFAWU turned up the heat. They said plotters would “only serve to let the Conservative government off the hook for the damage they've heaped upon our communities & the crisis they've caused in pursuit of power.”
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WHERE IS MOST UK YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT?
WALES!
(WHERE IN WALES? GUESS !!!)
Youth unemployment rates in some parts of Britain, such as the North East, have reached the highest recorded level ever, recent data gathered by the GMB union shows.
The GMB report says unemployment rates among people aged between 18-25 have hit record levels.
Wales is top of the unemployment list, with almost 23,000 claimants. The GMT reveals that some parts of Wales have a jobless rate of 37%.
Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary:
"In the UK there are nearly 400,000 young workers aged 18-24 claiming jobseeker's allowance. When you add to that number the rest of the young people not in jobs, but seeking work, the real number is more than double that figure.”
The number of young UK job seekers is really almost one million;- which makes this young generation the real victims of the current recession in Britain.
Kenny again: “The Government is in denial that it is deliberately creating unemployment.”
This is while reports say almost 150,000 jobs are under threat across the country.
What Wales needs is AN ECONOMY
ONE THAT WILL LAST
"Regional aid" - artificially importing factories that owe no allegiance to Wales - has failed.
Innovation means NEW ! New thinking.
Stop moaning about the past. Start building an economy NOW, for our youngsters.
Or else!!!
New means old, if you want to build a genuine economy. From the ground up, means exactly that!
Agriculture, producing smart new food and drinks. But based on our strengths.
All the land we need is here, and if we look up, 80 percent of Wales' "valley" land is up in the air, like Penrhys!
And it's almost unused. Imagine! All that land from the Rhondda over to Aberdare and beyond.
I'm sure people with vision can see orchards and new products... new ways of working, etc.
All it requires is a WILLINGNESS TO CHANGE.
ALL TOGETHER NOW FOR PEACE
The UK's TUC is calling on the UK government to end its meddling policies in the Middle East and North Africa. “The “war on terror” is still continuing and has failed, after ten years, to bring the promised peace and stability to either the Middle East or the wider world,” the motion says...
UK FOLLOWING US DOWN THE DRAIN
Last year’s table of 10 top EU economies - assessing income, prices, working culture & public spending, put the UK in last place.
The UK now has the 4th-highest retirement age of any country averaging 63.1 years - and this,thanks to the Tories AND a supine work-force, is set to keep rising higher and higher.
Average net household income after tax, (and remember, this "average" includes the stinking rich) is £37,172 a year, but even after ignoring the ridiculously high "average", this is now much lower than the average amount earned in Ireland, the Netherlands & Denmark, where there are less of the obscenely rich, to distort the figures.
In Wales, we know that the "average" worker earns far less than this: (£15,000 after tax)
Life for most in the UK is set to get even worse - if people don't fight back - as public services are to be cut more, after the next Spending Review ..and will lead to budget cuts of up to 40% in many public service departments.
France and Spain again top the quality of life index, as workers there have more paid holidays, earlier retirement, lower prices, longer life expectancy and, just to rub it in... better weather.
There are no separate figures for Wales.... why?
Could it be that knowing... might lead to discontent or is it because Welsh workers, with their vibrant economy, as they stop mindlessly following London... and build their new economy, are now so well off, that the English might get jealous? Yeah, right!
The lesson is obvious. Strong unions with gutsy membership abound on the continent, while UK residents sink apathetically down & down & down.
As Tony Blair said: we British are "special".
We think life gets better for us if we let the bankers of London exploit the rest of the world, and our non-working workforce sinks into apathy and selfishness...
Makes you proud, doesn't it! Does it?
WORKERS ACROSS EUROPE UNITE & FIGHT TO STOP CUTS PEACE - NOT WAR AND LOOTING !
Workers from across Europe took part in a major demonstration in Brussels --- to demand that austerity measures be dropped in favour of an end to wars & for peaceful reconstruction.
Europeans took to the streets of Brussels to demonstrate against wage & pension cuts and diminishing job opportunities.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), one of the EU's leading unions, says that about 100,000 people from 30 countries took part, and police estimates say 20,000.
“Cutting in a recession's crazy and we must fight it,” AFP quotes the ETUC's general secretary, a prominent UK union leader.
Marches also took place in Portugal, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Poland, Ireland and France.
The rallies coincided with a general strike in Spain where the government froze pensions and cut the salaries of government workers.
“This is the worst economic crisis in the post- war history of Western Europe,” the eTUC leader adds.
"We call for a rethink and a change - in Spain and in Europe. We are mobilizing, and they will have to listen to us."
The union says European workers could be the main victims of a financial crisis set off by bankers and traders.
Many European governments have imposed reductions in wages, pensions & employment - to deal with the escalating economic issues.
The OECD has released its long awaited Action Plan to curb "base erosion and profit shifting" (BEPS) by large multinational enterprises.
"The OECD Action Plan has the ambition to effectively curb tax evasion by large multinational enterprises – but it is a plan, and it needs effective commitments by governments and effective implementation,” says ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
The Action plan consists of 15 measures to strengthen corporate income tax rules and prevent tax avoidance through manipulating intra-group transfer pricing between subsidiaries, and the use of empty shell companies in low tax jurisdictions.
Tax challenges created by globalised production and service systems, the digital economy and increasing importance of "intangibles" – r & d, and intellectual property – feature prominently in the OECD Action plan.
