Barack Obama

media conference

Speculation of more privatisations by the Nicol谩s Maduro government is growing amid fears incoming United States president Donald Trump may tighten sanctions on Venezuela, reports Federico Fuentes.

As another New South Wales Labor leader bites the dust, Aleks Wansbrough聽asks聽why 鈥渞eliable Gladys鈥 is so immune to criticism?聽

In 2008, the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations published a聽听迟颈迟濒别诲 US-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality. Timed to influence the foreign policy agenda of the next US administration, the report asserted: 鈥渢he era of the US as the dominant influence in Latin America is over.鈥

Then, at the Summit of the Americas the next year, then-president Barack Obama promised Latin American leaders a 鈥渘ew era鈥 of 鈥渆qual partnership鈥 and 鈥渕utual respect鈥.

Under the Donald Trump administration, the US government and weapons manufacturers are making a killing through arms sales to other countries, writes Jose Olivares.

What鈥檚 the fate of Cuba in the age of Trump? It is not an easy question to unravel, but Canadian author and journalist Arnold August provides some answers in his latest book, Cuba-US Relations: Obama and Beyond.

For the better part of six years, Baba Jan, a founding member and activist of the left-wing Awami Workers Party (AWP) in the Pakistani-occupied disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, has been behind bars on a life sentence for 鈥榯errorism鈥 charges. His crime? Demanding rights for Hunza鈥檚 poor and displaced.

One year after European Union leaders signed a deal with the Turkish government to cut off the wave of desperate refugees seeking to reach Europe鈥檚 shores, the policy has caused even more death and suffering.

US President Donald Trump promised to cut through the disarray in the two parties of capitalism in the US by forcing on them a new strongman 鈥 himself 鈥 who knows how to get things done and make deals.

But the Republican health insurance debacle, with Trump鈥檚 replacement to Obamacare being withdrawn due to lack of support in Congress, not only cut him down to size, but represented the triumph of that very disarray over the new president. The strongman proved to be not so strong and the dealmaker could not close the deal.

March against DAPL in San Francisco.

A Lakota prophecy tells of a mythic Black Snake that will move underground and bring destruction to the Earth. The 鈥渟eventh sign鈥 in Hopi prophecy involves the ocean turning black and bringing death to many sea-dwelling creatures.

It does not take an over-active imagination to make a connection between these images and oil pipelines and spills.

In 2010 President聽Obama聽directed聽the CIA聽to assassinate an American citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, despite the fact that he had never been charged with (let alone convicted of) any crime, and the agency successfully carried out that order a year later聽with a September 2011 drone strike.

A placard condemns Obama's drone wars.

Powers that went largely unchallenged during the Obama administration are now in the hands of President-elect聽 鈥 and that鈥檚 a frightening prospect.

End the embargo of Cuba cartoon

New at LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal:聽Kurdish women struggle for a new society in Rojava and聽Fidel Castro: 'We don't need anything from the Empire'.