Video: Port-au-Prince burns as fuel price protests continue - RT Ruptly

Around 500 protesters took to the streets of Port-au-Prince, Thursday, in the latest of a long line of protests regarding fuel prices. Tyres were burnt on the streets and there was a heavy armed police presence.

Video: Haiti protesters clash with police over high fuel prices - RT Ruptly

Police clashed with anti-government protesters in Port-au-Prince on Friday during a demonstration over high fuel prices across the country.

Video: Haitian Aid Fraud - RT Breaking the Set

Abby Martin Breaks the Set on Gunmen in Paris, Haiti’s Continuing Cholera, Mexico’s Massacres & Rejecting the IDF.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN: On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin, discusses the horrific attack in Paris by masked gunmen on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper that left 12 people dead and why other attacks that took place in the last 24 hours received almost no coverage. Abby then speaks with RT Correspondent, Polly Boiko, from Paris about what concrete details are known about the attack on Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters. Abby then talks to Jake Johnston, Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research about the fifth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that killed over 200,000 people and how aid relief is being squandered. Abby then discusses Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto’s visit to the White House and a new investigation tying his federal police to the abduction of 43 students back in September, leading to a crisis of confidence in the Mexican government. BTS wraps up the show with an interview with Israeli activist, Amit Gilutz, about why he is urging young Israelis to reject mandatory enlistment in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Video: Irwin Schiff - How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't

How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn’t is a simple comic book, yet it provides key insights onto the importance of savings and capital in an economy and the troubles of distorting these factors.

PDF: Irwin Schiff - How an Economy Grows and Why it Doesn't

Video: The Challenge of Liberty Summer Seminar 2014: Chris Coyne - The Independent Institute

The Role of Institutions


Chris Coyne discusses Institutions, spontaneous order, and the market process.

Exporting Democracy


Chris Coyne addresses the issues related to spreading democracy around the world.

Why Humanitarian Action Fails


Chris Coyne discusses the sometimes disastrous unforeseen consequences of poorly-planned humanitarian interventions around the world.

Video: The Last Days of Lehman Brothers (2009 Documentary)

On 12 September 2008 the heads of Wall Street's three biggest investment banks are summoned to a late afternoon meeting at the New York Federal Reserve. After six months of turmoil in the world's financial markets Lehman Brothers, the fourth biggest player on Wall Street, is on life support and the government is about to pull the plug.

As Lehman CEO Dick Fuld waits anxiously in his 7th Avenue headquarters for news from the Fed, US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson drops a bombshell - Lehman Brothers is not too big to fail and this time there will be no public money for a bailout. After 42 years with the firm he calls the mothership, Fuld's time is running out.

Drama going behind closed doors to tell the story of three days that shook the world.

Video: Detroit’s Identity Crisis - TeleSUR English The Global African

African-American’s make up over 80% of Detroit’s population - the largest share of the demographic pool of any major U.S. city. They also represent Detroit’s most disenchanted, unemployed and largely overlooked population when it comes to the revitalization of the city. This week on “The Global African” hosted by Bill Fletcher, Jr., we’ll discuss Detroit’s identity crisis and the activism behind bringing change to the city.

Video: Aaron Russo's America: Freedom to Fascism (2006 Documentary)

America: Freedom to Fascism is a 2006 film by Aaron Russo, which alleges among a variety of claims that income tax is illegal.

This documentary covers many subjects, including: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the income tax, Federal Reserve System, national ID cards (REAL ID Act), human-implanted RFID tags (Spychips), Diebold electronic voting machines, globalization, Big Brother, taser weapons abuse, and the alleged use of terrorism by government as a means to diminish the citizens’ rights.

The film’s claims about the illegality of the income tax in the United States have been critiqued as factually incorrect by some reviewers. The film has, however, developed a strong following.

Buy: Aaron Russo's America: Freedom to Fascism

Video: Carnaval des Fleurs (Carnival of Flowers) 2014 attracts tourists to Haiti - RT Ruptly

Tens of thousands of people danced through the streets in colourful flower themed costumes in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince for the annual Carnaval des Fleurs (Carnival of Flowers), Sunday.

The three day festival, which includes musical performances, giant floats, masquerade groups and theatrical performance on the streets, was turned from an annual event into a biannual one when President Michel Martelly took office in 2011.

Martelly revived the festival to attract tourists and ultimately bolster the Haitian economy and improve Haiti's image abroad. According to the Ministry of Tourism last year, approximately 2,873 visitors came to Haiti to partake in the event. However, the government's approximate $2 million (€1.49 million) expenditure on the event has been met with heavy criticism by those who believe the money could be better spent.

Video: The Atlantic Slave Trade - Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about one of the least funny subjects in history: slavery. John investigates when and where slavery originated, how it changed over the centuries, and how Europeans and colonists in the Americas arrived at the idea that people could own other people based on skin color.

Slavery has existed as long as humans have had civilization, but the Atlantic Slave Trade was the height, or depth, of dehumanizing, brutal, chattel slavery. American slavery ended less than 150 years ago. In some parts of the world, it is still going on. So how do we reconcile that with modern life? In a desperate attempt at comic relief, Boba Fett makes an appearance.

Video: Four Horsemen: a Renegade Economist film (2012 Documentary)

FOUR HORSEMEN is an award winning independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.

As we will never return to 'business as usual' 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and explain how to establish a moral and just society.

FOUR HORSEMEN is free from mainstream media propaganda -- the film doesn't bash bankers, criticise politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. It ignites the debate about how to usher a new economic paradigm into the world which would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

"It's Inside Job with bells on, and a frequently compelling thesis thanks to Ashcroft's crack team of talking heads -- economists, whistleblowers and Noam Chomsky, all talking with candour and clarity." - Total Film

"Four Horsemen is a breathtakingly composed jeremiad against the folly of Neo-classical economics and the threats it represents to all we should hold dear." - Harold Crooks, The Corporation (Co-Director) Surviving Progress (Co-Director/Co-Writer)

Video: Donetsk seeks to form 'National Bank' - Press TV INfocus

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A parliament member in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk says the parliament is planning to form a National Bank in order to facilitate tax payments.

"The biggest challenge at the moment is to form a National Bank, because without a National Bank, it is very hard to redirect taxes and payments," says Alexander Yevenievich, the minister of transport in the People's Republic of Donetsk.

"I think the winner will be the side that wins the economic war... the most effective way to win is to stop sending money to Kiev," says Yevenievich, adding that "If Kiev stops receiving money from us, it will fall apart."

The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since mid-April. The violence intensified after the two regions declared independence from Ukraine on May 12 following local referendums, in which the residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.

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Video: The Great Challenge: China, Russia - Press TV

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990, the US became the world's superpower. The US, then tried to contain its future rivals, that is Russia and China. With this aim, the US proposed the project of "the greater middle-east". The US occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and its presence in the middle-east was not for fighting terrorism or establishing democracy but for controlling the the region as the main source of energy. This way, the US wanted to control the world and its rivals in particular. In recent decades, Russia and China have become more and more powerful in the international arena politically, economically and militarily. Now they veto the US just to show that the country is no longer the superpower. And the US knows well that with China and Russia, it will not be able to execute its plan to control the world as easily as it could three decades ago.

Video: Slavery continues in Mauritania - Press TV Africa Today

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It was a controversial election, boycotted by several parties, but General Ould Abdel Aziz has been returned as the president of Mauritania, winning 82 percent of the votes.

Aziz has been congratulated by the African Union as well as the United States and France, which see him as a key ally in their "war on terror."

But while he claims to be a defender of human rights, Mauritania has become known as the last bastion of slavery.

Although the practice was finally criminalized in 2007, the country still has around six hundred thousand people, known as Haratan, who are held in bondage by fellow Mauritanians.

While the Haratan are black sub-Saharan Africans, their "owners" are overwhelmingly lighter-skinned Arabs.

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Video: Western oil companies ruining Africa's natural resources - Press TV Africa Today

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Virunga, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, is Africa's oldest national park, and home to half the continent's endangered mountain gorillas.

It is one of the world's great heritage sites with three thousand square miles of precious flora and fauna.

Since 2010, the British firm SOCO International has been exploring the region for oil, with the permission of the Congolese government.

Activists have campaigned against SOCO, saying the company is putting both the wildlife and livelihoods of the regional people at risk.

The Human Rights Watch has accused the government of DR Congo and the British oil company SOCO International of threatening those who want to protect the Virunga Park, and being behind the shooting of a park ranger.

In April Emmanuel de Merode, Virunga's chief park ranger was shot in an ambush. Under pressure, SOCO, which denied any involvement in the attack, has agreed not to pursue further oil exploration.

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Where the world's unsold cars go to die

In the past several years, one of the topics covered in detail on these pages has been the surge in such gimmicks designed to disguise lack of demand and end customer sales, used extensively by US automotive manufacturers, better known as "channel stuffing", of which General Motors is particularly guilty and whose inventory at dealer lots just hit a new record high. But did you know that when it comes to flat or declining sales and stagnant end demand, channel stuffing is merely the beginning?

Presenting...

Ecuador says USAID must leave by end of September

Ecuador has called for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to leave the country by the end of September.

In a letter obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday, Ecuador’s government told the USAID that it “must not execute any new activity,” nor widen any existing projects in the country.

The letter, dated November 26, 2013, was signed by Gabriela Rosero of Ecuador’s international cooperation agency and was sent to the US Embassy in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito.

The letter was reportedly addressed to USAID program officer, Christopher M. Cushing.

Rosero said that the USAID must pull out by September 30, and that “the decision has been made.”

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa suggested in December that the USAID's programs were no longer welcome in Ecuador, saying on one of his regular Saturday programs on television and radio that "we don't need charity."

Video: May Day protests shake Port-au-Prince, Haiti - RT Ruptly

Thousands took to the streets of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince for May Day, with some people setting fires and clashing with police. The rally was also aimed at ousting Haitian President Michel Martelly.

Thursday's protest was the third large anti-government action within a week, following several thousand demonstrators reportedly rallying on Saturday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien and a march on Monday through Port-au-Prince. Several people were detained at the protest.

Video: Ghana's EPAs dilemma: to sign or not to sign? - Press TV Africa Today

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The European Union has been trying hard to have African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries sign Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) which will create free trade areas between the two regions.

In 2007, Ghana initialed an interim EPA. Cote d'Ivoire fully signed onto it with Nigeria refusing to sign. Initially these EPAs were supposed to take effect on January 1, 2008.

Many ACP countries are reluctant to sign them because there is very little direct benefit for their people while the EU has set stringent time-frames to beat competition from the US, China, Brazil, Turkey and India.

Under these EPAs, ACP countries will have to progressively remove all duty and other import tariffs on goods manufactured in EU countries. This means they will lose a vital source of their developmental revenue while gaining "access to EU markets".

Ghana has been operating under a temporary EPA for the last seven years.

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US government ‘profiting from inmate labor’

“Although incarcerated, federal inmates feel a sense of patriotism and have continually contributed to our successful war efforts.”
—Federal Prison Industries (FPI)

Operating under the trade name of UNICOR with over 100 factories at 75 locations across the continental United States, Federal Prison Industries (FPI) produces a wide range of market-priced goods and services to the US Federal government and the private sector.

From manufacturing office furniture to recycling electronics, FPI operations even include a one-stop shopping call center staffed by inmates to speed processing of orders. Boasting ISO 9001:2000 certification and Lean Six Sigma processes in its factories, the FPI even makes helmets for the US military, using convict labor earning from $0.23 per hour up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour.

With a diversity of products and services from ADP (automatic data processing) and telecommunications services to XML (extensible markup language) tagging, the FPI is a huge government-run corporate entity, which not only sells to civilian federal agencies, but also to the US military.