the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Venezuelan authorities have arrested two former bosses of the country’s giant oil industry on accusations of helping a coup plot. Former oil minister Eulogio del Pino and Nelson Martinez, the ex-chief of state oil company PDVSA, were arrested early on Thursday. Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the two were detained as part of an operation by the Military Counterintelligence Unit “ to dismantle the cartel that has been hitting the oil industry. ” The attorney said 14 other people were the target of the operation and that some were not in Venezuela. “ We hope they will be delivered to Venezuelan justice, ” he said, without elaborating on the identity of the suspects. Authorities also ordered the arrest of six executives of Citgo Petroleum Corp, the US-based subsidiary of PDVSA, last week, saying the people had received bribes worth more than $50 million to sign contracts to refinance $4 billion in debt without government approv

The White House has developed a plan to oust US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose relationship with President Donald Trump has been tense, and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, according to a new report. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly developed the transition plan and has discussed it with other officials, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing senior Trump administration officials who insisted on anonymity. Under Kelly’s plan, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, would replace Pompeo at the CIA. The shake-up would happen around the end of the year or shortly afterward, the newspaper said. The Senate confirmed Tillerson, 65, as secretary of state in early February. He had previously been the CEO of ExxonMobil, one the largest oil and gas companies in the world. It was not immediately clear whether Trump has given final approval to the plan, but he has been said to have been at odds with Tillerson over a host of

Secret British documents have revealed that deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had agreed to resettle Palestinians in Egypt over three decades ago. According to the documents, obtained exclusively by the BBC following a Freedom of Information Act disclosure request, Mubarak was responding to an American request when he made his offer. The former president stipulated that in return for agreeing to the move, an agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict must be reached. The documents show that Mubarak revealed the US request and his response during talks with the then British Prime Minister, the late Margaret Thatcher. The talks were held during his visit to London on his way back to Washington, in February 1983, where he met with the late US President Ronald Reagan. The two visits occurred eight months after Israel had invaded Lebanon on 6 June 1982 under the pretext of waging a military operation against the PLO. This was prompted by an assassination att

This article reassesses the relationships of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense with the American entertainment industry. Both governmental institutions present their relationships as modest in scale, benign in nature, passive, and concerned with historical and technical accuracy rather than politics. The limited extant commentary reflects this reassuring assessment. However, we build on a patchy reassessment begun at the turn of the 21st century, using a significant new set of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. We identify three key facets of the state-entertainment relationship that are under-emphasized or absent from the existing commentary and historical record: 1. The withholding of available data from the public; 2. The scale of the work; and 3. The level of politicization. As such, the article emphasizes a need to pay closer attention to the deliberate propaganda role played by state agencies in promoting the US national se

του system failure Άλλη μια κωμωδία παίχθηκε τις τελευταίες μέρες στη βουλή των Ελλήνων. Η αξιωματική αντιπολίτευση δείχνει να βρίσκεται σε απελπιστική κατάσταση καθώς προσπαθεί απεγνωσμένα να ανακαλύψει μεγάλα σκάνδαλα εκεί που δεν υπάρχουν. Είναι φανερό ότι ο πανικός που διατρέχει το επιτελείο της ΝΔ και τα εγχώρια συμφέροντα που αυτή εξυπηρετεί μεγαλώνει συνεχώς για δύο βασικούς λόγους: 1ον, η κυβέρνηση ΣΥΡΙΖΑΝΕΛ αρχίζει να σκαλίζει διάφορα σκάνδαλα του πρόσφατου παρελθόντος που 'καίνε' κορυφαία στελέχη της αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης και έτσι η ΝΔ ψάχνει απεγνωσμένα αφορμές για αντιπερισπασμό. 2ον, ο Τσίπρας εξελίσσεται στο πιο καλό και υπάκουο παιδί Ευρωπαίων και Αμερικανών, φροντίζοντας να δίνει συνεχώς τα διαπιστευτήριά του. Έτσι, ο Μητσοτάκης αισθάνεται ότι χάνει το ρόλο του, καθώς, αν και βρίσκεται πιο κοντά ιδεολογικά στο Δυτικό νεοφιλελεύθερο ιερατείο, θα πάψει να είναι χρήσιμος στους εκπροσώπους του.   Αλλά η πρόσφατη 'ξιφ