Latin America's Popular Movement Patria Grande warned about the implementation of the US' new plan of invading Latin America. Under a new "Plan Condor," the United States is seeking to regain control over the region with the support of right-wing forces, Cuba's news agency Prensa Latina wrote, referring to the organization.

As an example, the group cited a recent coup attempt in Brazil, claiming that in this way the US is trying to prepare the ground for "a decisive offensive against governments and peoples" of other Latin American countries as well, including Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.

"The empire [...] tries to retake control over the continent after a decade of articulated leftwing progressive governments which emerged as a consequence of intensive popular struggles against neoliberalism," the news agency wrote. The aim of this strategy is to "start a new cycle of neoliberal adjustment on the entire continent," the media source noted, citing the movement.

Late on Sunday, Brazil's lower house members voted in favor of impeaching the country's president Dilma Rousseff, sending the vote to the upper chamber known as the Federal Senate. Rousseff, who was accused by the opposition of corruption and manipulating state bank accounts, said Monday that the procedure of impeachment against her is devoid of any legal grounds.

Initially, Plan Condor, also known as Operation Condor, was carried out in the 1970s-1980s by the intelligence services of six Latin American countries — Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil — with the support of the United States. The aim of the operation was to eliminate left-wing political and oppositional forces in these countries.

This is an English translation of an article that I wrote for the German magazine, Compact. I was encouraged by the high level of intelligent discourse that Compact brings to its readers. If only the US had more people capable of reaching beyond entertainment to comprehending the forces that affect them, there might be some hope for America.

Compact brings hope to Germany. The German people are beginning to understand that their country is not sovereign but a vassal of Washington and that their chancellor serves Washington's hegemony and American financial interests, and not the German people.

Hillary Clinton is proving to be the "teflon candidate." In her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has escaped damage from major scandals, any one of which would destroy a politician. Hillary has accepted massive bribes in the form of speaking fees from financial organizations and corporations. She is under investigation for misuse of classified data, an offense for which a number of whistleblowers are in prison. Hillary has survived the bombing of Libya, her creation of a failed Libyan state that is today a major source of terrorist jihadists, and the Benghazi controversy. She has survived charges that as Secretary of State she arranged favors for foreign interests in exchange for donations to the Clintons' foundation. And, of course, there is a long list of previous scandals: Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate. Diana Johnstone's book, Queen of Chaos, describes Hillary Clinton as "the top salesperson for the ruling oligarchy."

Saudi Arabia has made it a condition for oil production freeze agreement that all OPEC members and large oil producing countries should take part in it, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday.

"Saudi Arabia has made it as a condition for signing freeze production agreement that all OPEC member countries and major exporters outside the cartel are obliged to comply with it. Unfortunately, they did not specify what they meant by major exporters," he said.

On April 17, Doha, Qatar, hosted a meeting of representatives of oil-producing countries. The meeting was attended by the delegations from 18 countries. The 19th participant - Iran - on the eve of the meeting refused to discuss the "freeze" of oil production. Teheran explained it by the recent removal of sanctions that were imposed on Iran.

The participants of the meeting failed to agree on the "freeze" of oil production level.

After the talks that lasted more than 12 hours, the parties stated that they need a little more time to think, and the market is currently doing well.

The ceasefire regime in eastern Ukraine was violated 4,700 times in 24 hours, OSCE's representative at the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik said Wednesday.

Addressing reporters in Minsk, Sajdik stated that both sides were violating the ceasefire and heavy weapons were again being used.

Kiev has been conducting a military operation against Donbass independence supporters since spring 2014, when they refused to recognize the new coup-imposed Ukrainian government and declared sovereignty.

President Barack Obama has said the classified pages of the 9/11 Commission report that do not "compromise major national security interests" may "hopefully" be soon released, but argued against any potential legal action against Saudi citizens.

Obama, who flew to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, discussed in an interview with Charlie Rose his relationship with the Saudi regime and the controversially-classified 28 pages of the report, which some believe contain links between 9/11 terrorists or Al-Qaeda and Saudi officials.

The full conversation aired Tuesday night on PBS after initially airing highlights on CBS News.

Moscow wants groups sabotaging the Syrian cease-fire to be put on the UN terror list along with Islamic State, Russia's Foreign Minister said, while the French FM agreed the truce was "fragile" and stressed Russia's role in restoring Syrian "statehood."

"There is much evidence that Jabhat al-Nusra is mimicking and trying to disguise itself under new names, uniting with small groups not included in terrorist lists, hence, trying to escape retribution," Sergey Lavrov told reporters after meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in Moscow.

Lavrov specifically referred to two militants groups, Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam, which are fighting government forces in Syria, saying that Moscow had wanted them to be put on the terrorist list from the start, but had agreed to hold off on its demand as a compromise measure. Groups listed by the UN as terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra, are not included in the Russia-US brokered ceasefire in Syria, and can still be attacked.

"[...] Russia was for those organizations being included on the list of terrorist and extremist groups. At the time, our Western partners, most of whom shared this position, asked us to compromise, because some countries in the region were categorically against those groups being counted among terrorists," Lavrov explained. "We agreed to that to reach at least some kind of forward movement."

In recent years, waves of whistleblowers have emerged, exposing the unprecedented scale of government and institutional corruption. From Chelsea Manning to Edward Snowden, their courage and conscience not only revealed a system virtually devoid of morality, but it unmasked some of the operators of its machinery; those who act remorselessly without any regard for others.

This callous and conniving sector of society has a name. They are psychopaths. Psychopathy expert Robert D. Hare called them "social predators". Social worker Steve Becker depicted them as "exploitative-consciously violating individuals". He described how a psychopath possesses an extreme sense of entitlement; an attitude of getting whatever he wants, and in his pursuit, others are simply an object that exist mainly "to satisfy his gratifications".

The existence of this small population has been mostly hidden and our ignorance about them allowed this unknown minority to infiltrate society. These predators among us seemed to have risen to the top of social hierarchies and gradually alter their environment in a way that mimics their nature. Modern corporations have come to function as one nucleus of this predatory system. Law professor and the co-creator of the film "The Corporation", Joel Bakan examined the characteristic attributes of the typical corporation and asserted how corporations are psychopathic by design, as they are "purely self-interested, incapable of concern for others, amoral, and without conscience".

Corporate influence has been increasing within virtually every aspect of life. The electoral arena in the US is especially infested with covert control by Big Pharma, Monsanto and the weapons industry, to name a few. With the unlimited corporate financing of candidates, US politics has degraded into a charade of what amounts to a two-party duopoly, where most candidates from left to right cannot even run a campaign without in some way becoming puppets on a string for these corporate masters behind the scenes.

The Turkish President continues to exacerbate and profiteer on the Syrian crisis and now holds Europe hostage to a refugee crisis.

"The European Union needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the European Union," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed in a televised speech to municipal leaders in Ankara on Tuesday.

The proclamation comes after the European Parliament published a 2015 progress report on Turkey, accusing Erdogan's government of "backsliding" on its commitment to democracy and the rule of law, and raising concerns over Ankara's track record on human rights and freedom of the press.

Erdogan's government has increasingly come under fire for human rights violations against the country's Kurdish minority, funneling arms and funding Daesh through an illicit oil trade, undermining the Syrian coalition against Islamist radicals, seeking to reconstitute the Ottoman empire, cracking down on freedom of the press, attacking US protesters during a visit to Washington, fomenting a civil war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory, and trying to blackmail the European Union regarding the Syrian refugee crisis, among other concerns.

International Military Review - Syria (Apr. 19)

Syria's chief negotiator at the Geneva peace talks Bashar Ja'afri accused Israel of "cooperating" with the Islamic State and Al Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Golan Heights

According to Ja'afari (quoted by RT):

"This Israeli provocation confirms without any doubt the cooperation between Israel and terrorists of Daesh (Isis) and Nusra Front on the demarcation line between where the Golan is and UN troops are positioned.

"It is no coincidence at all that this Israeli escalation was accompanied by irresponsible statements by members of the so-called Saudi delegation at talks here in Geneva," Ja'afari added, referring to the main opposition group.

The statement of Syria's envoy to the peace talks confirms something which is known and documented. Israel alongside Saudi Arabia and Turkey is a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Israel does not deny that they have been supporting Al Qaeda out of the Golan Heights from the very outset of the war on Syria (March 2011). The occupied Golan Heights is being used as a military and logistics hub in support of Al Qaeda. Military aid and supplies are channeled into Syria through the occupied Golan Heights.