Misión Verdad (2023-08-26). Central American Parliament Expels Taiwan as Observer, Replaces With China. orinocotribune.com The Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) expelled Taiwan as observer and replaced it with the People's Republic of China, after having maintained Taiwan as a permanent observer for more than two decades. | On Monday, August 21, PARLACEN voted 5-1 in favor of expelling Taiwan as an observer and inviting China to take its place. The only PARLACEN member that voted for Taiwan was Guatemala, which is the only Central American country that still recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign state. | The representatives of the six member states of the bloc met in Managua, capital of Nicaragua, and proposed welcoming China as a pa…

Staff (2023-08-25). Are "Mugshots" Unethical? How Jailhouse Photos Undermine Defendants & Reinforce Systemic Bias. democracynow.org While being booked for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump made history as the first former president to have his mugshot taken and released to the public. Shortly after the image of Trump scowling at a police camera started to circulate, the embattled real estate mogul and politician began using it to raise money for his 2024 presidential campaign. "Mugshots have these various ways of being deployed … to craft a narrative, or to reinforce a narrative," says Emory University professor Carol Anderson, who contrasts the novelty of Trump's mugshot with the usage of…

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2023-08-22). US Warships Provoke in South China Sea, but Don't Help Fight Fires in Hawaii. libya360.wordpress.com In this editorial the Chinese newspaper Global Times addresses the prolonged wildfires that have ravaged Hawaii's Maui Island, which, as of Thursday August 17, had claimed the lives of 99 people, with more than 1,000 missing. Global Times contrasts the US' response to such disasters, citing also that to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as well as the recent…

ecns.cn (2023-08-22). Parliament's removal decision applauded. ecns.cn China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that China welcomed and highly praised the Central American Parliament's decision to remove the Taiwan region as "a permanent observer".

LEPAIO (2023-08-18). No More AFL-CIO Support For Coups On The 50th Anniversary Of The 1973 Chile Coup. indybay.org September 11, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the US coup in Chile that cost the lives of tens of thousands of workers and people. The AFL-CIO leadership was centrally involved in this coup and continues to cover up it's role and also continues to take tens of millions of dollars from the National Endowment For Democracy NED for operations in over 62 countries. An educational conference will be held in Washington DC on September 10 and a rally at the AFL-CIO headquarters on September 11th to demand justice and against the continued funding of the AFL-CIO international operations by the US government.

Michael Fox (2023-08-17). El Salvador's model of authoritarianism may be spreading to countries like Costa Rica and Honduras. therealnews.com Costa Rica, a tourist's paradise and a country without a military, has historically been one of Central America's strongest democracies, but times are changing. Last year, Costa Ricans elected Rodrigo Chaves, a man fashioned in the mold of Donald Trump, as their new president. In office, Chaves has attacked his political opponents, focusing particularly on the media and universities, and he has harnessed the power of social media to push conspiracy theories and fake news. And, as of late June, Chaves had the fourth highest approval rating—71%—of any public official in the world. Chaves's popular…

teleSUR, SH (2023-08-15). Presidente nicaragàºense encabeza aniversario de la Fuerza Naval. telesurtv.net El presidente Daniel Ortega, reconoció la labor y esfuerzo de la Fuerza Naval en el resguardo de las costas del país.

ecns.cn (2023-08-15). Satellite images show Maui devastation in contrast. ecns.cn The death toll from the Maui wildfires reached 99 on Monday. It's the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in modern U.S. history, surpassing the Camp Fire that erupted on Nov. 8, 2018 in California and killed at least 85 people.