Excluded Headlines: US mainstream media loses the plot on Mexico. Brazil, Zimbabwe, Peru, Iran ...
Stay up to date on the Global South news stories the US- and Eurocentric media overlook, with author and journalist, Tamara Pearson.
In this week’s Global South news:
48 die in Brazil floods - Southeast Brazil has been hit by extremely strong rains and streets in Juiz de Fora, a city of 560,000, are covered in mud, while authorities are concerned about more landslides. -AP, CD
US mainstream media makes Mexico’s suffering about US tourists - After the US has driven the so-called War on Drugs in Mexico for the past 20 decades, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and forced disappearances, then largely forced the Mexican government to capture the head of the organised crime corporation, the CJNG, the US media then made the ensuing violence about US tourists. Many states shut down schools and universities after the CJNG responded to the death of the cartel leader, El Mencho, with hundreds of roadblocks, burning public buses and public banks (not typically used by tourists, but which locals depend on). Some 60 security forces and organised criminals were killed in confrontations. -AP, AP
Zimbabwe turns down US$367-million US health “deal” - The US offered Zimbabwe the money over five years to support a million Zimbabweans to receive HIV treatment in exchange for broad access to health data and control over the country’s disease response. -PANW
Cuba doctors expelled from Honduras while Cuba returns fire on Florida boat in its waters - Under pressure from the US, the Honduran government has cancelled its agreement with Cuba and will expel 169 Cuban doctors working there. A US-civilian boat attacked Cuban personal in Cuban waters, and the authorities fired back, killing four people. - TI, LJ
Pakistan declares open war on Afghanistan - Pakistan has bombed Kabul and other cities after Afghanistan attacked its border. The Pakistani government declared open war, after there have been various back-and-forth deadly strikes between the two countries since October. - SCMP, F24
No deal reached in US-Iran talks - While the US has deployed its largest military presence in the region in nearly 20 years, it is also demanding that Iran destroy its three main nuclear enrichment sites. The two countries are holding indirect, mediated talks around the demand, and while they aren’t agreeing, technical details will be addressed on Monday, suggesting there has been some progress. While the US insists on zero enrichment, Iran wants to continue its nuclear power development program, with safeguards. The US has threatened “really bad things” if Iran doesn’t agree to its demands. - PD, PBS
Peru political upheaval - Last week, Peruvian legislators installed Jose Balcazar as interim president after Jose Jeri was voted out of office by Congress after just four months following a scandal. Then, Balcazar swore-in Denisse Miralles as prime minister on Tuesday, despite having officially announced days earlier that the position would go to former presidential candidate Hernando de Soto. -PR, EP, R
Useful reads
India’s surplus labour trap
Anatomy of a general strike: how workers in the Indian state of Karnataka shut down production.
As Nepal votes, climate change is an elephant in the room for Sherpa community
Cubans Struggle Against a Tightening US Noose
Trump demanded El Mencho’s head, Mexicans are paying the price
RSF using Sudan’s civilians as currency (short video)
With foreign backing, Israel’s solar energy boom is powering apartheid