Report: Russia Sends ‘Security Contractors’ to Venezuela to Protect Maduro

(Photo Credit: The Kremlin)

 

The Wagner Group is the same quasi-independent mercenary group that was routed by U.S. forces in Syria last year.

Russia has reportedly doubled down on its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by sending “security contractors” to Caracas to provide protection for the dictator.

Populism and paralysis in the West

By spring 2019, ‘our politics will be even more poisonous than now’

Is it coincidence or contagion, this malady that seems to have suddenly induced paralysis in the leading nations of the West?

With lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen’s confession that he colluded with Donald Trump in making hush money payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, America’s stage is set for a play that will run two years.

‘Your time is up’ South Africa sets date for white farmer land grabs – March 2019

DEBATE: There were heated scenes as politicians debated the proposals (Pic: GETTY)

 

SOUTH Africa has set a date for when its much-criticised land expropriations can begin after a politician declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

The country’s National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77.

A South Korean delegation asks Washington for nuclear weapons

A photo distributed on Sept. 3 by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, at an undisclosed location. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via Associated Press)

 

The heated debate in South Korea over redeploying U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory has now reached Washington. A senior delegation of South Korean lawmakers is in town making the case to the Trump administration and Congress that such a move is needed to confront North Korea’s growing nuclear capability and place more pressure on China.

“We are here to ask for redeployment of tactical nuclear warheads in South Korea,” Lee Cheol Woo, the head of the intelligence committee of South Korea’s National Assembly, told me Thursday morning.

Russia, China Playing Major Role in Keeping Venezuela Afloat

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro / Getty Images

 

The countries ‘have provided capital, goods, services, and political backing’

Russia and China have played a major role in keeping the dictatorial Maduro regime in Venezuela afloat, according to expert testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday.

Evan Ellis, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a professor at the U.S. Army War College, appeared before the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee for a hearing on the malicious influence of state and criminal actors in the Latin American nation’s ongoing breakdown.

Brexit under threat: Macron set for landslide victory that may drastically alter EU exit

Emmanuel Macron is facing election success while Theresa May faces chaos (Reuters)

 

EMMANUEL Macron is on course for another landslide win as voting on Sunday opened in parliamentary elections that will have huge implications for Brexit.

According to final opinion polls, the 39-year-old head of state’s Republique En Marche! (REM) party could win between 395 and 425 seats in the National Assembly.

If the CEVIPOF-Le Monde figures prove correct, this would be far above the 289 needed to secure an absolute majority.

South Korea Suffered 114,000 Cyberattacks in Five Years

For a very informative perspective on how often and to which magnitude cyberattacks are happening worldwide, and especially against the United States, see the following live map linked from another post:

America: In the Cybercrosshairs

 

South Korea has announced that its government institutions have suffered more than 114,000 cyber attacks since 2011.

The figures were published on Friday in a report by the country’s National Assembly’s Public Administration & Security Committee, technology news site CNET reported. The committee found that 114,035 cyber attacks, ranging from attempts to access classified information to leaking sensitive data, had been recorded between 2011 and June 2015. Less than one percent of the total attacks originated from IP addresses in North Korea.

Nicaragua leader moves closer to indefinite power

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega moved closer to indefinite re-election Tuesday after his allies in the National Assembly approved constitutional changes that opponents say are designed to keep the Sandinista leader in power for life.

The legislation eliminates presidential term limits and lowers the bar for re-election by naming the candidate with the most votes as the winner, eliminating the current requirement for the winner to garner at least 35 percent. Ortega is serving his third term under a supreme court decision that overrode the constitutional ban.

US and China: The Fight for Latin America

According to Robert Valencia, China is vying for greater economic influence in Latin America, to include possibly constructing and operating an alternative ‘Panama Canal’ through Nicaragua. One unanticipated consequence of this burgeoning US-China rivalry, Valencia observes, is that it might push Latin American countries closer together.

During the first weekend of June, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in California to discuss cyber espionage and territorial claims in the Pacific Rim. While tension on these topics has hogged the headlines, the fight for influence in another area could be even more important—Latin America. Other emerging markets in Africa, where China has an overwhelming influence due to foreign direct investment in mining and oil, also offer economic opportunities, but Latin America has an abundance of natural resources, greater purchasing power, and geographic proximity to the United States, which has long considered Latin America as its “backyard.”

Nicaragua gives Chinese firm contract to build alternative to Panama Canal

Nicaragua has awarded a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal, in a step that looks set to have profound geopolitical ramifications.