(2021-05-08). How Biden Funded Colombia's Deadly Police Regime. popularresistance.org In the last week, Colombia has exploded in nationwide protests and work stoppages against the government of President Ivan Duque. With over 19 people killed by state forces in the last week, and with image after image of brutal police repression going viral across the world, the protests have sparked international outrage and concerns about human rights abuses. Joining this chorus of voices is a growing number of organizations and politicians urging Joe Biden's government to take direct action to curb police violence in Colombia and stop its continued funding of the country's brutal riot cops, commonly referred t…
(2021-05-08). Venezuela's Delcy Rodriguez Provides More Details About Bot Campaign (ICC). orinocotribune.com 
A big data investigation carried out by independent experts determined that local and international right-wing elements used social media networks to carry out a campaign of media denigration and defamation against Venezuela on the issue of human rights, with the result that the South American nation is now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). "They want to classify [them as] international crimes without them having been committed," said the Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, in a press conference broadcast this Friday, May 7 by state-owned Venezolana de…
(2021-05-08). Massive Fire Broke Out Near Key Iranian Nuclear Reactor, Major Oil Export Port (Video). southfront.org 
Screen grab from one of the fire videos. | Late on May 7, a massive fire broke out in the Iranian city of Bushehr, where a nuclear plant, an oil port and a military naval base are located. | Residents of Bushehr were quick to upload footage of the fire, which spread near the entrance of the city's main port, to social media | According to the Fars News Agency, fifteen firefighters, six trucks and a tanker were mobilized to face the massive fire, which was put down within two hours. No human losses were reported. | T…
(2021-05-08). [Editorial] India's COVID-19 emergency. thelancet.com The scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend. As of May 4, more than 20 ∑2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported, with a rolling average of 378‚Äà000 cases a day, together with more than 222‚Äà000 deaths, which experts believe are likely to be substantial underestimates. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and health workers are exhausted and becoming infected. Social media is full of desperate people (doctors and the public) seeking medical oxygen, hospital beds, and other necessities. Yet before the second wave of cases of COVID-19 began to mount in early March, I…
(2021-05-08). Busybodies Outside The Gates — OpEd. eurasiareview.com By Azu Ishiekwene* | Bill and Melinda Gates had barely finished saying the "D" word when all kinds of marriage counsellors and grief-mongers besieged social media with suggestions of why they think the couple is breaking up. | The sentiments, ranging from the probable to the bizarre, with a sprinkling of fictional tales in between, have defied the couple's request for privacy. Misery loves company. Some accounts even make you wonder if the composers might have had a bedside view of the 27-year-old marriage. | A break-up is a messy thing. You don't have to experience it to know. But for all those who are outsid…
(2021-05-08). 'Onus is on US, not Iran': FM Zarif. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, May 08 (MNA) — The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has tweeted on the anniversary of the US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal, reminding the new US administration how the crisis over JCPOA started.
(2021-05-07). 'Super Mustache' Strikes Back: Right Wing Could Not Resist Temptation to Blame Venezuela for Colombia's Uprising (+ 'Dissipated Molecular Revolution'). orinocotribune.com 
Although Colombia is ablaze with massive protests everywhere and brutal police repression, its politicians and media could not resist the temptation to blame Venezuela for the social unrest. Of course, this also made it much easier to avoid addressing Colombia's system—the disastrous management of the COVID-19 pandemic, horrific police brutality, and neoliberalism—as the cause of the uprising. | On social media networks, the defenders of Colombia's "imperfect democracy" justified the repression as the way to prevent their country from "ending up like Venezuela." | A week into the strike and demonstrat…
(2021-05-07). Cuba Rejects the Expulsion of Its Diplomat from Colombia. telesurenglish.net Cuba's Foreign Affairs Ministry (MINREX) Friday rejected Colombia's decision to declare the Cuban First Secretary in Bogota Omar Garcia a persona non grata in this Latin American country. | RELATED: | "We have summoned the Colombian ambassador in Havana to convey our energetic rejection of the decision taken by his country on Thursday night," MINREX Director General for Latin American Affairs Eugenio Martinez tweeted.
(2021-05-07). Join the Twitter Storm to #SaveSheikhJarrah and End Canadian Complicity — Saturday May 8. samidoun.net 
#SaveSheikhJarrah Demand Action and Accountability from the Canadian Government Twitter Storm and Social Media Campaign Saturday, 8 May 10 am Pacific — 1 pm Eastern — 7 pm central Europe — 8 pm Palestine Sample Tweets and Images: bit.ly/sheikhjarrahtweets In occupied Jerusalem, Palestinians from the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan are threatened with imminent expulsion and violent forced eviction from their homes by the Israeli occupation regime. This is part of the ongoing Nakba in Palestine — the ongoing Israeli plan to dispossess Palestinians from their homes and land and perpet…
(2021-05-07). Khamenei: "Israel Is Not a Country, but a Terrorist Camp" telesurenglish.net Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has blasted Israel as nothing more than a "terrorist camp" and urged the Palestinians to unite their efforts in fighting Tel Aviv. Israel has "turned occupied Palestine into a base for terrorism," Khamenei tweeted. | RELATED: | "Israel isn't a country; it's a Terrorist Camp against Palestinians & other Muslim nations," he wrote, adding that it was "everyone's responsibility" to fight against it. | In follow-up twee…
(2021-05-07). Controversy on Social Media After Lenín Moreno Says 'I Wish I had a Better People'. orinocotribune.com 
This Wednesday, April 5, during his participation in the Defense of Democracy in the Americas forum, Lenín Moreno, outgoing president of Ecuador, criticized his fellow Ecuadorians while recounting an anecdote. | "At some point a person told me in an upfront manner as people are do: 'I wish we had a better president.' I said to him: 'I wish I had better people too.'" The outgoing president of Ecuador made the comment at the forum that brings together right-wing presidents and former presidents in Miami, USA. | Alguien que humilla al pueblo ecuatoriano con sus expresiones, merece todo nuestro desprecio y rechazo.
(2021-05-07). Venezuela's Attorney General's Office Denounces Bot Campaign before the International Criminal Court. orinocotribune.com This Thursday, May 6, Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced that Venezuela's Public Ministry (MP) sent a fourth report to the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to denounce a widely extended and active community on social media networks that uses "fraudulent means" to generate opinions that threaten Venezuela. | In the statement, the Venezuelan prosecutor's office denounced the campaign before the ICC, citing a study carried out by communication experts which determined that a "very small core number of profiles are capable of generating trends on the network, using…