MintCast

After witnessing the ongoing attack from a coordinated campaign to silence him, tens of thousands of people from around the world have come out in support of hip hop artist, campaigner and host of the _MintPress_ podcast “[The Watchdog](https://www.mintpressnews.com/category/podcasts/),” Lowkey. An [online petition](https://www.change.org/p/spotify-do-not-buckle-to-pressure- from-the-israel-lobby-to-deplatform-lowkey) addressed to music giant Spotify, demanding …

In just a few short weeks, Russia’s war on Ukraine has precipitated a massive exodus of refugees. According to the [United Nations](https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine), more than 4.3 million people have fled the country since February 24, the majority of them – 2.5 million – traveling west to Poland. Media across the world …

It is becoming increasingly hard, it seems, to have civil conversations. Amid an increasingly polarized political climate, families and friendships are being ruined by intense disagreements. According to a CBS News/YouGov poll, the majority of Americans now believe that their political adversaries pose the greatest threat to democracy and way …

Ethiopia is not a country that is on many Americans’ radar. Yet, since 2020, a brutal civil war has raged, displacing an [estimated](https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/response-internal- displacement-ethiopia-fact-sheet-january-june-2021) 4 million people. As the conflict continues, hawks in Washington are beginning to circle, demanding the U.S. intervene militarily. When it comes to Ethiopia –[ said](https://twitter.com/AlMariam1/status/1422569526844039175) …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Virtually nobody trusts what they read any more. The United States [ranks](https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last- among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/) 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](https://www.monmouth.edu/polling- …

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](https://www.visitbritain.org/britain%E2%80%99s-image-overseas) that the United Kingdom retains a great deal of positive sentiment around the world. One historian whose work …

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 …

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 …

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 …

After 20 years of war and occupation that have caused the deaths of almost a [quarter of a million](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human- and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022) people and displaced [5.9 million](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/refugees/afghan) 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 …

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. …

Around [one quarter](https://www.mintpressnews.com/coronavirus-quarter-worlds- population-under-us-sanctions-appeal-to-un/266096/) 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](https://undocs.org/A/HRC/37/L.34) that they always “disproportionately affect the poor and most vulnerable.” In Cuba, U.S. …

Edward Snowden has [called](https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1416797153524174854) 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 …

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 …

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 …

In recent years, the big networks have [hired](https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-cia-used-to-infiltrate- the-media) 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_ …

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 …