World leaders have descended upon Austrian capital Vienna to participate in the ongoing nuclear deal being negotiated primarily between the United States and Iran. Today, MintPress spoke to Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran. Dr. Marandi is currently in Vienna as part of the Iranian delegation. While corporate media often portray Iran as a recalcitrant pariah and the United States as a long-suffering broker in the situation, Dr...
Jan 12, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 10
As world leaders, celebrities, business moguls and activists alike descended on Scotland for the COP26 climate summit, behind the scenes powerful financial groups were and are attempting to rewrite the rules of international trade and to privatize nature under the guise of sustainability. While there has been a great deal of finger pointing, the enormous and tangible changes necessary to steer the planet away from devastation are yet to appear. The world is still on course to warm 2.4°C above pr...
Nov 17, 2021•36 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Welcome to MintCast, the official MintPress News podcast featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. Today MintCast host Mnar Adley is joined by Vanessa Beeley, an independent investigative journalist and war correspondent based in Damascus, Syria. While the U.S. military occupies a third of Syria -- mostly in the northeast, controlling Syria's vast oil reserves and water supplies -- Syria continues to rebuild after nearly a decade of destabilization efforts by the U.S. a...
Nov 04, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Virtually nobody trusts what they read any more. The United States ranks dead last among 46 nations surveyed in confidence in the press. Only 29% of Americans say they broadly believe what they read, see or hear in mainstream media. And more than three quarters of the public think that big outlets knowingly publish fake news. The term “fake news” first came into common usage around the 2016 election, where Clinton claimed that Trump was being buoyed by false information shared on sites like Face...
Oct 27, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Despite a number of embarrassing political events over the past number of years, Great Britain still likes to regard itself as a forward-thinking, world-leading country and a force for good. Surveys show that the United Kingdom retains a great deal of positive sentiment around the world. One historian whose work has done a great deal to shatter the myths of empire is Mark Curtis, who joins Alan MacLeod on the Mintcast today. Mark Curtis is a historian and journalist, the co-founder of Declassifi...
Oct 22, 2021•59 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Brazil, the world’s fifth-largest country, is at a political crossroads. Heading into next year’s presidential elections, the country’s 211 million people are faced with choosing between social democrat and anti-imperialist Lula Da Silva (president between 2003 and 2010) and far-right populist incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. But many are worried they will not even be allowed to elect anyone. Whispers are turning into shouts about a military-backed coup before next year, as the ailing Bolsonaro -- trai...
Sep 24, 2021•59 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Shocking almost everybody in positions of power, life-long socialist and anti-war activist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the British Labour Party in 2015. There was no honeymoon period for the Londoner, however, as right away the media, the government and even senior members of his own party began attempting to oust him. Defying the critics, Corbyn held on and took Labour to arguably its greatest-ever electoral success in 2017. However, his poor handling of Brexit and an unprecedented phon...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 4
After organizing coups, overthrowing democratically-elected heads of state, and arming death squads all around the world in the 1960s and 1970s, it was clear that the CIA had an image problem. The Reagan administration, therefore, began constructing a network of outsourced private organizations that would do the dirty work of the U.S. empire, shielding the U.S. government from the prying eyes of investigators and journalists. “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,”...
Sep 04, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 3
After 20 years of war and occupation that have caused the deaths of almost a quarter of a million people and displaced 5.9 million more, the United States appears to have finally (tacitly) admitted defeat in Afghanistan, pulling its forces and representatives out of the country. The U.S.-installed government fell within days, with President Ashraf Ghani escaping to the United Arab Emirates, reportedly with $169 million in cash stuffed in his suitcases. Ghani’s departure is illustrative of the ex...
Aug 26, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 2
It’s a story that has captivated many for over three decades. In 1987, locals in Tallahassee, Florida alerted police to a strange incident in a local park. Six dirty, hungry and poorly clothed kids — almost resembling feral children — were in the custody of two extremely sharply dressed men. Both men were questioned but later released by police, although when it transpired that the men and the children were members of an obscure cult, situated in Washington, D.C. and called “The Finders,” the st...
Aug 12, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Around one quarter of the world lives in countries under unilateral United States sanctions. While American government officials insist that sanctions are targeted at officials committing human rights abuses in foreign countries, the United Nations notes that they always “disproportionately affect the poor and most vulnerable.” In Cuba, U.S. sanctions are causing shortages that led to widespread protests earlier this summer and are slowing the worldwide rollout of Cuba’s domestically produced co...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Edward Snowden has called it “the story of the year.” An Israeli spying company has been caught selling software to authoritarian regimes that have used it to surveil more than 50,000 people worldwide. That company is NSO, founded in 2010 by former members of Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s notorious intelligence squad. Their product is called Pegasus, and it was sold to military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies in 40 countries, among them some of the world’s worst human rights abus...
Jul 23, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Welcome to the MintCast Podcast — an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. I’m your host Mnar Adley. A string of spontaneous protests in Cuba became the unlikely focus of worldwide media attention earlier this week, the story dominating headlines for two straight days. Political and media figures across the spectrum weighed in, including the President of the United States. Joining me to discuss the protests, their causes, and the relationship betwee...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 2Ep. 28
Despite the official ceasefire, Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem continues to be a flashpoint of violence. Last week, Israeli forces fired stun grenades and sprayed skunk water on worshippers and protesters gathering near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. Evidently, new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is willing to be as aggressive and provocative as his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. While the attacks on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood are new, the tactics and the violence against ...
Jun 30, 2021•52 min•Season 2Ep. 27
In recent years, the big networks have hired a wide range of “former” agency veterans and officers, supposedly to give independent and expert commentary and analysis on all matters national security. These have included former CIA Directors John Brennan ( NBC , MSNBC ) and Michael Hayden ( CNN ), ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper ( CNN ), and former Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend ( CBS ). News for so many Americans comes delivered through ex-CIA interns like Anderson...
Jun 28, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Colombia is regularly described as the Israel of Latin America. Although on opposite sides of the world from each other, the two countries share many similarities. They are both key outposts of U.S. power in their regions, helping make their neighborhood safe for American businesses and American profits. Both governments are carrying out wars against indigenous populations. Both talk of a “peace process” with their enemies but neither seems to get any closer to a lasting agreement. And both smea...
Jun 08, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 25
It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words; images have the ability to move people in ways that words alone cannot. Iconic pictures from war zones, such as those of a dead Syrian child on the beach, of Vietnamese girls covered in Napalm or American soldiers planting their flag at Iwo Jima, become anchors around which people understand conflicts, and the world more generally. Cartoons as well have the power to challenge and change people’s minds, satirizing the powerful and revealing...
Jun 04, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Amidst a decade-long war that has devastated the country, Syrians went to the polls last week in an election that gave another seven-year term to current leader Bashar al-Assad. With a turnout of over 78%, Assad achieved an overwhelming victory against his nearest opponent, Mahmoud Ahmad Marei. Supporters of the president took to the streets in the hundreds of thousands as the results were publicized, celebrating what they saw as a repudiation of violence and a step forward for the beleaguered n...
Jun 02, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 23
The Israeli state, too, has many deep connections with the social media giants. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked boasted that she worked closely with Facebook to censor Palestinian voices, with the Silicon Valley corporation agreeing to take down around 95% of the content she asked them to. Today, former Director General of the Ministry of Justice Emi Palmor sits on Facebook’s advisory council, the board ultimately responsible for content moderation on the world’s largest news and social m...
May 21, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Images from the Israeli onslaught against Palestine have dominated both news broadcasts and social media as the world expresses its outrage over the bombing of civilian targets. Much of the strongest support for the creation of Israel comes from the Evangelical Christian community in the West, who see the construction of a Jewish state in the Holy Land as the fulfillment of an ancient Biblical prophecy bringing the world one step closer to the end times where the righteous will ascend to heaven,...
May 20, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Despite publicly urging caution, restraint and calling for a ceasefire, the United States government continues to aid Israel, this week approving $375 million worth of arms sales to the Jewish state, even as it uses U.S.-made weaponry to attack civilian buildings and other infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hospitals, health clinics and homes have been destroyed, with reports confirming the deaths of at least 63 children in Gaza alone. Three pregnant women have also been killed. As of Wednesday m...
May 19, 2021•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 20
Welcome to MintCast, the official MintPress News podcast featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. I’m your host, Mnar Adley. Even as the Biden administration calls for calm to be restored across Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, on Monday it approved $735 million in new arms sales to Israel. U.S. weapons continue to be used in the onslaught against a civilian population. The death toll continues to rise and is now well above 200. Joining MintPress to discuss the latest d...
May 18, 2021•53 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Welcome to MintCast, the official MintPress podcast featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. I’m your host , Mnar Adley. Israel’s latest attack on Palestine has captured the world’s attention. On Saturday, the Israeli military attacked the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza, killing 10 people, including eight children. The same day, Israeli missiles hit a highrise building housing the headquarters of Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press . On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at le...
May 18, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. I’m your host Mnar Muhawesh Adley . Within just three months in office amid a global pandemic, the Joe Biden administration recently ordered an airstrike that dropped 1.75 tons of explosives on a town in Syria near the Iraq border. The move is re-inflaming tensions between Washington and Damascus as the war enters its 10th year. Joining me today to discuss the latest on the ground in Sy...
Mar 12, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence -- I’m your host, Mnar Adley . Today we’re joined by Raul Diego, a MintPress staff writer, filmmaker and photojournalist who will discuss the anti-Chinese lockdown propaganda and how the COVID economic disaster is paving the way for surveillance, digital currency and human capital markets based on a series of articles he wrote for MintPress News . A recent letter addressed to the FBI, en...
Mar 05, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence -- with host Mnar Muhawesh Adley . Joe Biden may have won the presidential election, but his victory masks a deeper rot within the American political system, one where both parties have become servants to increasingly powerful corporations, Wall Street, and the military industrial complex. The Democratic Party, in particular, presents itself to the public as a symbol of social justice an...
Dec 18, 2020•43 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence-- I’m your host Mnar Muhawesh Adley . President Nicolas Maduro is celebrating this week after a clear victory in the National Assembly elections that took place on December 6. Boosted by a partial opposition boycott, the ruling socialist coalition led by Maduro received over 69% of the votes cast and won a massive 253 of the 277 seats in the National Assembly, the only branch of governme...
Dec 11, 2020•50 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence-- I’m your host Mnar Muhawesh Adley . Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of Iran’s most senior nuclear scientists, was assassinated in his car last week on the outskirts of Tehran. State sources in the Islamic Republic are claiming he was killed with a remote-controlled machine gun. While no party has taken responsibility, the Iranian government has already pointed the finger at a number of suspect...
Dec 03, 2020•39 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence-- I’m your host Mnar Muhawesh Adley . Lebanon is reeling from a blast that destroyed much of the capital Beirut on Tuesday, August 4. 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the city’s port is thought to have caught fire and exploded, killing at least 157 people and injuring thousands more. The blast, believed to be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, destroyed much of the ci...
Aug 12, 2020•58 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Welcome to MintCast -- an interview series hosted by Mnar Muhawesh Adley featuring dissenting voices the establishment would rather silence. In this episode, we are joined by activist, journalist and documentary filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield whose new documentary, “Hard Road of Hope,” shares the stories of people in West Virginia and their struggle against the corporate state. West Virginia. It’s been dubbed as a throwaway state with throw away people. It’s a region in America often brushed under ...
Jul 10, 2020•47 min•Season 2Ep. 11
