Omnipresent and all-too-powerful, the cartels' influence reaches very high. Generals, judges and high-ranking officers are in their pockets. An effective narco-state, in Mexico everyone who is anyone has been bought, and whoever tries to expose them is killed. Every year, dozens of journalists learn the hard way that exposing government/cartel corruption is not tolerated.

[...]

But this rags-to-riches entrepreneurial 'success story', touted mainly by the corporate media and successive Mexican governments, only goes so far in explaining how this lurid state of affairs came about. On their way to becoming multinational operators, the cartels had the help of the self-styled 'masters of the universe' in Wall Street and the CIA. Without their involvement they could never have 'made it'. High-level US involvement was present throughout the cartels' rise. Long before the cartels came on the scene, these usual suspects were already long in the game. In a very real way, the cartels are merely the Latin American arm of a very North American business.

El Chapo Guzmán, Washington's Drug Problem, and the North American Police State

The 21-year-old man who launched a sword attack on a school in Sweden and stabbed two teachers and two pupils stopped to pose for pictures with students before continuing his horrific spree.

Wearing a mask and holding a sword already covered in blood, the attacker stands next to two young students at the school, seconds before stabbing a teacher, who died at the scene.

Another teacher was rushed to hospital in in Trollhättan, north of Gothenburg, alongside the injured students, two boys aged 11 and 15.

The 11-year-old later died from his wounds, local media reports.

The anonymous girl who took the photograph told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that they thought it was a Halloween prank when they saw the masked man.

In the weeks before the attack, the 21-year-old, who was described by witnesses as wearing a 'Darth Vader mask and helmet' had expressed sympathies with Nazi Germany and extreme right-wing organisations.

An investigation by magazine Expo into the murderer's social media activities found that he had 'liked' several YouTube videos glorifying Nazi Germany and showed support for anti-immigration and right-wing politicians on Facebook.