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Nicolas Maduro at an industrial site in Barinas.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a series of economic measures on October 20 after the release of a new poll predicting a victory for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in December's parliamentary elections.

In what could be a historic move for reparations, car manufacturer Volkswagen has opened dialogue with the Brazilian government to negotiate compensation for the German multinational鈥檚 support of Brazil鈥檚 1964-鈥85 dictatorship. Volkswagen was among many private companies that backed Brazil鈥檚 military dictatorship financially and operationally. Corporate complicity was revealed by Brazil's Truth Commission that investigated dictatorship-era crimes against humanity.
Israel is carrying out summary executions of Palestinians, Amnesty International has confirmed. Sometimes it lets injured Palestinians bleed to death. The human rights group says it has 鈥渄ocumented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extra-judicial executions.鈥
An produced by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said a US warplane shot at survivors attempting to escape the group鈥檚 hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after the building was bombed by the US last month, on November 11.
Protesters outside 10 Downer Street, while inside Cameron was hosting Sisi. November 5, 2015.

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has railed at Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to host Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in his London residence on.

Israeli occupation forces executed an injured Palestinian in Hebron on October 29, an eyewitness told Electronic Intifada on October 30. Video corroborates this clear case of extra-judicial execution, a war crime and part of a pattern of such killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Last month, 71 Palestinians had been killed according to the Palestinian Authority health ministry on October 30. This number includes five Palestinians who died as a possible result of tear gas inhalation, delayed medical treatment due to checkpoints and medical neglect by prison authorities.

Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg By Kate Evans Edited by Paul Buhle Verso Books, London, 2015, 220 pages $16.95. Perhaps a new comic-book super hero is about to take the world by storm. An unlikely Frau Luxemburg, who transforms from a tiny and odd-looking outsider into the almost unstoppable Red Rosa 鈥 Revolutionary Scourge of the Oppressors.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has accused the Irish government of cosying up to British intelligence agency MI5 and the British government in a bid to halt the growth of Sinn Fein in Ireland's south. A recent British report claimed the Irish Republican Army Council still exists 鈥 something flatly rejected by Sinn Fein. The IRA decommissioned its weapons in an internationally validated process in 2005 as part of the peace process in the six counties of Ireland's north still claimed by Britain that began with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell threw his weight behind students who took to the streets on November 4 over Tory plans to cut maintenance grants and raise tuition fees.
Russia's initiation of air strikes in Syria on September 30, a year after a US-led coalition began air strikes in Syria 鈥 both officially targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) 鈥 began the latest round of speculation of a 鈥渘ew Cold War鈥 with Russia and its allies pitted against the US and other Western imperialist powers.
The Mike Baird Coalition government sold $1 billion of state-owned property in 2013 and 2014, escalating its neoliberal drive to privatise public assets. Office blocks, hospitals, schools and even an island are on the block in this wholesale theft of the people's property, in the interests of the banks and big business. In 2011鈥2012, the state government sold assets worth $5 million. In late 2012, it established a new agency, Government Property NSW, to identify and manage the state's substantial real estate holdings.
The Annual General Meeting of Transfield Services (where shareholders voted to change its name to Broadspectrum) was the focus of refugee rights protests in Sydney on October 28. The Refugee Action Coalition, along with other groups including No Business in Abuse (NBIA) protested at the meeting. Around 150 protesters were stationed at the front of the building, drawing attention from shareholders, onlookers and the media.