Pepe Escobar discusses the failure of the US-Russia talks in Geneva, NATO's refusal to make any diplomatic concessions, and if war could be on the horizon. We address the impact on Ukraine, Europe, Germany, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. PART 2 OF 2
Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar discusses the violent coup attempt in Kazakhstan, and its crucial importance as an ally of Russia and the center of China's Belt and Road Initiative. He also addresses US, British, and Turkish meddling, and why this massive and misunderstood country is suddenly at the heart of the new cold war. PART 1 OF 2
Economist Michael Hudson discusses the global inflation crisis and how the US Federal Reserve has given trillions of dollars to large banks. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=m7eAbbVMr_4
In Chile's presidential election, far-right Pinochet dictatorship supporter José Antonio Kast, the son of a German Nazi, was defeated by young center-left social democrat Gabriel Boric. Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with journalist Pablo Vivanco about what this victory means, Boric's major weakness on US imperialism, and the prospects of rewriting the Pinochet-era constitution. VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=dSCmGvcxXWU Follow Pablo on Twitter at @PVivancoGuzman...
The US government claims Russia is planning to invade Ukraine, but is this true? Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with analyst and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter about Western governments' dubious claims, and NATO's designs for the region. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NLpPyuzxSf4 Follow Scott on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter
Nicaragua's Sandinista government has broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized the People's Republic of China. We discuss the historic decision and its huge geopolitical implications. A Chinese company plans to build an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua, to challenge the monopoly of the US-dominated Panama Canal. And the same week, Nicaragua signed agreements strengthening ties with Russia and collaborating on nuclear energy projects. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EDADaUXL6kM...
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the November 21 mega-elections in a landslide, getting more votes in 20 of 23 states and the capital Caracas. So the US government responded by trying to discredit the vote. Venezuelan journalist Diego Sequera speaks about the elections, the historic victory of the ruling party of President Nicolás Maduro, and Washington's attempt to de-legitimize the process. VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=p5ZrAMexvk8 Follow Diego on Twitter at twitter.com/QueraEls...
Nicaraguan diplomat Michael Campbell Hooker speaks with Ben Norton about why they are leaving the Organization of American States (OAS), which he says is a "failed," "coup-plotting" organization dominated by Washington. Campbell also responds to US attempts to discredit Nicaragua's November elections, and explains the importance of autonomy for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on the Caribbean Coast. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DTRODfuRp6o TRANSCRIPT: https://thegrayzone.com/202...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss Washington's new hybrid war on Nicaragua's Sandinista government, the US/EU/OAS refusing to recognize the election results, Congress passing the RENACER Act, and Biden imposing sanctions. We speak with British journalist Steve Sweeney of the newspaper Morning Star, who was due to travel to Nicaragua to observe the election, but was detained in Mexico in mysterious circumstances. Follow Steve on Twitter at twitter.com/SweeneySteve Read Ben's report from insid...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with Stella Moris, the fiancée of imprisoned WikiLeaks journalist Julian Assange, about CIA threats, the appeal hearings in the US extradition case, and how this scandal threatens freedom of the press around the world.
Remember Russiagate claims of "Kremlin meddling"? Well, the US government is blatantly interfering in Nicaragua's elections. Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal discuss how, mere days before Nicaragua's November 7 elections, Meta/Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, and Google/YouTube purged thousands of pro-Sandinista journalists, activists, and media outlets. Meanwhile, the US Congress voted for more crushing sanctions. We address the gaping holes in Facebook's bogus report falsely claiming the Sandinistas ...
Ben Norton speaks with Ángel Rodríguez Rivera, president of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors, about the devastating neoliberal economic policies forced on Puerto Rico. Washington imposed an unelected fiscal control board, called the junta, to control Puerto Rico's finances. Now it is pushing through so-called "debt restructuring," in law PC1003, that will slash social benefits, defund public universities, and crush working-class people in order to pay off foreign corporate d...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton speak with economist Michael Hudson about his book "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire." Professor Hudson just published a 3rd edition that updates his analysis for the 21st century, discussing the new cold war on China and Russia and the ongoing transition from a US dollar-dominated financialized system to a "multipolar de-dollarized economy." VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uiz934HVZjY Michael Hudson's website: michael-hudson.com...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the Pandora Papers, how zero US politicians or oligarchs were implicated, and the CIA's growing use of "hack-and-dump" operations. The group behind the Pandora and Panama Papers, the ICIJ, is the anti-WikiLeaks. It is funded by regime-change organizations and billionaires, while working with US government front groups. We show how the Washington is increasingly weaponizing so-called "anti-corruption" efforts against Official Enemies as a form of lawfare (jud...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss shady Facebook "whistleblower" Frances Haugen and how her testimony only helps US spy agencies, justifying further government censorship while demonizing Washington's Official Enemies, from China to Iran, Myanmar to Ethiopia. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ilOl9bLfFgc
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the CIA's plot to assassinate or kidnap WikiLeaks journalist Julian Assange, which was first reported by The Grayzone in 2020.
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the absurd media propaganda about "Havana Syndrome," claiming without any evidence that Cuba, Russia, China, Vietnam, and Official Enemies of the US government are supposedly attacking CIA spies with microwave energy, or sonic weapons, or ray guns, or... something. In reality, scientists say it is most likely psychogenic, or psychological, a kind of mass hysteria for coup-plotting spooks.
Ben Norton analyzes the lies and misleading claims in US President Joe Biden's speech at the United Nations, and shows how the corporate media coverage is very misleading. VIDEO: https://rokfin.com/post/53970/Bidens-UN-speech-shows-further-US-commitment-to-war-and-meddling-not-diplomacy
Ben Norton speaks with journalist Brian Mier of independent news website Brasil Wire about the fascistic Jair Bolsonaro government in Brazil, the far-right's attacks on democracy, and the rumors of plans for a military coup to prevent popular leftist former president Lula da Silva from returning to power in the 2022 elections. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BiVixfNIfSs Check out Brasil Wire: https://brasilwire.com Follow Brian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianMteleSUR...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks with Professor Asad Abukhalil, and the millions of victims of the "War on Terror." We speak about US imperialism's constant meddling in the Middle East, and Washington's hybrid wars on Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and more. We also addressed how Bush-era neocons have been rehabilitated by and even merged with the Democratic Party and liberal "humanitarian interventionists." VIDEO: https:...
Ben Norton was invited to give this talk on US hybrid warfare in Latin America. He analyzes how imperialism has evolved in the 21st century, and looks at Washington's interventionist campaigns across the region, from Bolivia to Venezuela. Then Ben discusses the case of the 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua. The talk goes from the beginning to 1:00:00. A 30-minute Q&A then follows after. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=X87h8kh_8cI...
Ben Norton discusses his The Grayzone investigation "How elite US institutions created Afghanistan's neoliberal President Ashraf Ghani, who stole $169 million from his country": https://thegrayzone.com/2021/09/02/afghanistan-ashraf-ghani-corrupt VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bgTu7MC3gVc Watch Ben's weekly show Propaganda Today, where he streamed this video, and get access to exclusive content over at Rokfin: https://rokfin.com/benjaminnorton...
On Foreign Agents, Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton expose the biggest frauds recruited as defectors and dissidents to lie about Official Enemies by the US regime, from North Korea's Yeonmi Park to Kuwait's Nayirah to Syria's Bana al-Abed. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pJCY7dS7StU You can watch Max's show Foreign Agents at Rokfin and subscribe to get all exclusive content here: https://rokfin.com/stream/8605/Foreign-Agents-5--Dissidents-defectors--deceivers-of-the-US-regime...
We discuss how the US government is destabilizing the strategic Horn of Africa with Eritrean journalist Elias Amare. We talk about the conflict in Ethiopia, the TPLF's attacks on the government in the Tigray region, and the role of the Biden administration's sanctions and meddling. Is the United States using the "humanitarian interventionist" playbook like it used to justify the devastating NATO regime-change war on Libya in 2011? VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=v8vRaWgI86Q Follow Elias on Twitter at...
We continue our discussion with geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar of the end of the 20-year US/NATO war in Afghanistan, the opium ratline the CIA used to fund dirty covert ops, the fight over pipelines, and the estimated $1 trillion worth of untapped mineral reserves in the country, as well as Washington's "pivot to Asia" and how Afghanistan is central in the new cold war on China and Russia. PART 2 OF 2 VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QiF3TQZSxhs...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss the end to the 20-year US/NATO war in Afghanistan with journalist Pepe Escobar, who has extensive experience reporting in the country and was even arrested by the Taliban. We talk about how the geopolitics of the conflict, how the Taliban has changed, what the future government could look like, and the corruption of US puppet President Ashraf Ghani and other CIA assets. PART 1 OF 2 VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QiF3TQZSxhs...
Max Blumenthal discusses US government-backed regime-change guru Gene Sharp with scholar Marcie Smith Parenti. They talk about Sharp's NED-funded Albert Einstein Institution; his explicitly neoliberal, pro-corporate, and pro-imperialist politics; and the manuals Sharp wrote teaching people how to do so-called "color revolutions" (ie, soft coups) against Washington's targets, from Yugoslavia to Venezuela to Hong Kong. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ruu9aDHTqJU Read Marcie's article "Change Ag...
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss how the US government laid the groundwork for unrest in Cuba, the Biden administration's escalation of the economic war, and how CIA cutouts like USAID and the NED have cultivated a counter-revolutionary cultural network of rappers, artists, and social media influencers to push propaganda. We had planned on speaking with Havana-based journalist Cristina Escobar, but at the last minute when we started recording she unfortunately was unable to join us. Read Ma...
Max Blumenthal discusses his reporting at the US Capitol on the protests demanding an eviction moratorium, the huge impending economic crisis, the opportunism of the Squad, and how Democratic Party warmongers like Adam Schiff cynically exploited it to do a photo op. VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3aHgChJxsdg
We briefly discuss how the US government and corporate media are heavily amplifying small protests in Cuba to destabilize the country. While Washington suffocates the Cuban people with an illegal, 60-year blockade that the entire world just voted against at the UN, C-list celebrities are promoting #SOSCuba propaganda, and thousands of bots are spreading fake news on social media.
