The former chief of Venezuela’s military intelligence – and the highest-ranking military officer to defect to the US-backed opposition – has been nabbed in Spain on a US warrant for allegedly trafficking tons of cocaine.

Hugo Carvajal was arrested by Spanish police in Madrid on Friday and faces extradition to the US, where he was indicted in 2014 for allegedly having “coordinated the transportation of approximately 5,600 kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.” He will testify in a Saturday court appearance as to whether he wishes to fight the extradition, an official with Spain’s National Court told the AP. 

The Venezuelan ex-major general, whose nickname “el Pollo” means “the Chicken,” is accused of protecting a Colombian drug kingpin from arrest, allowing him to move about 5,600kg of cocaine in and out of Venezuela, and tipping him off to law enforcement activities. Carvajal allegedly was not only paid off by the kingpin and other members of his organization, but also invested in some of the drug shipments. He is also accused of providing weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

While Carvajal served as chief of military intelligence and counterintelligence under former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, he reportedly began to distance himself from Chavez’s successor President Nicolas Maduro after returning to Venezuela in 2014 from Aruba, where he had been briefly detained on the same US warrant, facing extradition until Maduro threatened retaliation against the island.

Carvajal left Maduro’s government in 2017, ostensibly in protest over the president’s plans to form a constitutional assembly that would reduce the power of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, and declared his allegiance to opposition leader and self-appointed president Juan Guaido in February, blaming Maduro for the “disastrous reality” of Venezuela. Last month, the president expelled Carvajal from the armed forces, accusing him of “acts of treason against the fatherland.”

Since embracing the US-backed Guaido, Carvajal has called on other members of the Venezuelan military to join the opposition, warning them against becoming “collaborators” of a “dictatorial government that has plagued people with misery” and accusing military leaders of being pawns of Cuba. He also gave a juicy interview with the New York Times, denouncing current and former members of Maduro’s government as drug traffickers, FARC and Hezbollah collaborators, and journalist blackmailers while denying his own guilt on the many of the same charges.

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WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange’s show ‘The World Tomorrow’ covered a number of controversial topics over 12 episodes that aired on RT in 2012. As he faces persecution in the US, RT brings you some of the show’s greatest moments.

From the first episode – in which he interviewed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – to the last, where his guest was Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Assange raised questions for which WikiLeaks became both famous and notorious in the West.

WATCH ALL EPISODES IN THIS YOUTUBE PLAYLIST:

At one point, Assange pre-empted his detractors by publishing a list of “criticisms” of the show, which ended up neatly matching the media and political outrage that greeted ‘The World Tomorrow’ and him personally.

In one episode, Assange interviewed former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg.

Assange also touched on the secret US drone war in Pakistan with opposition politician Imran Khan, who would become prime minister in August 2018.

In another episode, Assange sat down with Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador who had granted him asylum.

After his successor Lenin Moreno revoked Assange’s asylum and allowed UK police to arrest the WikiLeaks journalist on April 11, Correa called Moreno “the greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history… a corrupt man” whose crime “humanity will never forget.”

WATCH: The World Tomorrow w/ Julian Assange on RT.com

Assange was arrested on an extradition warrant from the US, where he is sought on charges of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion” with whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Manning had turned over thousands of US government documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, including the Iraq and Afghanistan “war diaries,” which contained the notorious “collateral murder” video showing US forces killing civilians.

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Dramatic videos and reports from conflict zones are being submitted to RT as part of the 2019 Khaled Alkhateb Memorial Awards. The international contest honors the RT’s stringer who was killed in a terrorist shelling in Syria.

The entries will be accepted till June 10 and the winners will be announced on July 30. On this day in 2017, Alkhateb lost his life in an attack by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), while reporting on the Syrian military advance on militants in Homs. The RT Arabic freelance journalist was just 25 years old.

The competition is in three main categories: best video journalism from a conflict zone in long and short form, as well as best written war reporting.

Entries from more than 20 countries in ten languages were in the running for the inaugural Khaled Alkhateb Memorial Awards last year. The high-profile jury, led by former CBS correspondent Philip Ittner and Tom Wragg of the Association for International Broadcasting, picked Iraqi journalist Asaad Al-Zalzali and his Irish colleague Jason O’Brien as winners for their reporting on the life in areas liberated from Islamic State.

The prize for the ‘Best Video Journalism from a Conflict Zone: Long Form’ went to Anna Karenina Tolentino of Singapore, who covered the liberation of the Philippines city of Marawi from IS-linked terrorists.

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Indonesia has lifted a tsunami warning that was issued earlier on Friday after a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sulawesi island.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s Geophysical Agency announced the warning after the quake hit 280 km (174 miles) south of the province of Gorontalo. It was in place for approximately 40 minutes.

It struck at a depth of 43 km (27 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey. The warning was issued for coastal communities in the Morowali district.

There were no reports of damage or casualties but the USGS warned that considerable damage was possible in poorly built or badly designed structures.

Indonesia lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a vast area in the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. The vast Indonesian archipelago is home to more than 100 volcanoes.

A 7.5-magnitude quake hit the other side of Sulawesi last year, triggering a tsunami which hit the city of Palu and killed more than 4,300 people.

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If you’ve seen the pictures of a frail Julian Assange being carried out of Ecuador’s London embassy like a bearded battering ram by a gaggle of coppers, then you did so courtesy of video agency Ruptly.

Normally the identity of the video agency that provides news footage is not worthy of a story in itself, but Ruptly has one distinctive factor which sets it apart: it’s Russian. Even worse, it’s Russian and it’s a subsidiary of RT.

CNN appears so shocked that the footage of Assange being manhandled “wasn’t captured by leading UK broadcasters like the BBC, Sky News or Independent Television News (ITN)” that it wrote a story headlined “How a Russian-owned media outlet landed the first video of Julian Assange’s arrest.”

CNN explains away the gazumping embarrassment by insinuating that Russia Link + Assange = Conspiracy.  

It uses an irrelevant quote from a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, and asks Ruptly’s deputy head of news if she feels pressured by the Russian government. She says no, although I suspect she does feel pressure to film newsworthy events as they happen.

The adjectives CNN uses to describe Ruptly are worthy of exploration and explanation. In the headline, the agency is described as ‘Russian-owned,’ which is another way of saying evil.

In CNN’s tweet, Ruptly is a ‘niche’ media outlet. ‘Niche’ is a term used to describe something that is a bit forbidden, maybe a bit filthy. If you Google the term ‘niche material’ at work, the IT department will be canceling your credentials within minutes.

CNN’s Hadas Gold wrote: “Ruptly, which has carved out a niche for itself by recording events around the world and selling the footage to other broadcasters, is a subsidiary of Russian state-backed media outlet RT.”  

I mean, if that is a niche, then it’s a pretty big one. I’ve never heard Reuters or AFP or AP described as niche before.

And in CNN’s online write up, Ruptly is described as ‘obscure.’ This put-down suggests Ruptly is not ‘one of us,’ not worthy of attention, not one of the chosen ones.  

Responding to CNN, Ruptly said: “We would like to point out that it is not exactly correct to call us a ‘niche’ or ‘obscure’ video agency. As an award-winning global multimedia agency, we provide news video, live events, and broadcast services to over 1,200 media clients worldwide, including some of the biggest names in news journalism. We have actually provided CNN with a number of materials since our launch.”

So CNN is a fan of obscure, niche material too! Isn’t that always the way?!

Just to clear up exactly how Ruptly got the footage, it stayed outside the Ecuadorian Embassy and filmed the door for days on end, even when all the other outlets went home. That’s it. Ruptly was there because the forthcoming arrest had been rumored for days, which was why the more well-known media outlets had also been there, but ultimately missed the money shot.

The Russian scoop is clearly embarrassing some members of the establishment media, but there’s no need to take the blame anymore, just like with Brexit and Trump, you can just blame Russia.

By Simon Rite

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Scientists studying the habitability of Earth-like worlds have discovered that the conditions for alien life exist on some of the nearest planets to our solar system.

The researchers found that rocky outliers in the habitable zone of neighboring red dwarf stars could host life despite the planets’ high levels of radiation exposure.

In a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Cornell University scientists found that life here on Earth evolved from creatures that endured even greater UV radiation exposure than nearly a handful of the closest exoplanets, i.e. planets outside our solar system.

By modelling the surface UV environments of our four closest potentially habitable exoplanetary neighbors, the authors found that these exoplanets’ radiation exposure was significantly lower than what Earth received 3.9 billion years ago.  

They concluded that ultraviolet radiation should not be considered a limiting factor in the search for planets that can host life. “Our closest neighboring worlds remain intriguing targets for the search for life beyond our solar system,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

The four planets studied were:

• Proxima-b (4.24 light years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus)

• TRAPPIST-1e (39.6 light years away in the Aquarius constellation)

• Ross-128b (10.89 light years away in the Virgo constellation)

• LHS-1140b (40 light years away in the Cetus constellation)

The closest planet, Proxima-b, receives 250 times more x-ray radiation and potentially hazardous UV radiation exposure than Earth does today. However, life on Earth survived far worse exposure, the authors argue, so why not on our neighboring exoplanets?

In addition, not all wavelengths of UV radiation are equally damaging and the planets’ ozone levels, not just their radiation levels, are important to factor in to any long-term habitability studies.

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Facebook has apparently blocked the page of former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, which was used to share WikiLeaks material. The move also comes after he bashed his successor for allowing to arrest Julian Assange.

Correa took to Twitter on Thursday night to decry the block, which he called a “show of desperation” following the publication of the INA papers, a trove of documents leaked last month that show current President Lenin Moreno’s involvement in a corruption investigation. Correa had been publicizing the papers on his Facebook page, which had 1.5 million followers.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the block to El Comercio, telling the paper that Correa’s page was blocked because it breached the company’s policies on “disclosure of personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses, bank account data, cards, or any record or data that could compromise the integrity physical or financial of the people in our community.”

The block also came one day after Correa branded Moreno “the greatest traitor in Ecuadorian history” for allowing British officers to enter London’s Ecuadorian embassy and arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. One week previously, WikiLeaks had suggested that Moreno would move to oust Assange soon, as revenge for WikiLeaks’ reporting on the INA papers.

There is at present nothing to suggest that Facebook blocked Correa on behalf of Moreno. However, the social media giant has been criticized before for deleting left and right-leaning activist and news pages in the US, and leftist news outlets in Latin America.

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After the International Criminal Court (ICC) declined to investigate claims of US atrocities in Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump cheered the decision but said the ICC was “illegitimate” and US and allies beyond its reach.

“This is a major international victory, not only for these patriots, but for the rule of law,” the White House said in a statement, referring to the ICC decision to reject the request to investigate the actions of US military and intelligence officials in Afghanistan.

The US “holds American citizens to the highest legal and ethical standards,” and has consistently refused to join the ICC because of its “broad, unaccountable prosecutorial powers,” threats to US sovereignty, and “and other deficiencies that render it illegitimate,” Trump said in a statement.

Last week, Washington canceled the entry visa of ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, saying that anyone who dared investigate US military or intelligence personnel would face the same fate. The Gambian lawyer had been conducting a preliminary investigation into claims of torture, cruelty and sexual assault by US and allied personnel in Afghanistan, dating to 2003-2004.

Bensouda had found a “reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in connection with the armed conflict in Afghanistan,” and was reportedly planning to open a formal investigation.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Bensouda last month to “change course” or face US sanctions, however, declaring that the US was determined to protect its troops and civilians from “living in fear of unjust prosecution for actions taken to defend our great nation.”

While Washington has pushed for the creation of ad-hoc international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), the US voted against the establishment of the ICC in 1998, and has refused to join or submit to its authority after the court was officially created in 2002.

The US has held itself above international law for decades. In 1986, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that Washington had violated international law by supporting the Contras in Nicaragua. The US refused to participate in the proceedings and blocked the enforcement of the judgment in the UN Security Council.

What makes the pressure on ICC different than in the past, UK journalist Neil Clark told RT recently, is that “interference and attacks are now in the open,” whereas in the past they would be confined to back channels and low-key intrigue.

“You know, it’s the empire with its mask off,” said Clark.

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Robert Tibbo, a lawyer for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, told RT that he believes Ecuador’s decision to strip away Julian Assange’s asylum is based on a very weak legal case and may amount to a breach of the constitution.

“Number one, there is a very high threshold to strip someone of an asylum. For what’s available in [the] public domain, I don’t see any evidence that would justify President [Lenin] Moreno or his administration stripping [Julian Assange] of that asylum status,” Tibbo told RT.

The lawyer said that by giving Assange only a “30-minute notice” before revoking his asylum and citizenship, Ecuador appears to have violated his rights under its own laws.

“There are at least five or six articles in the constitution that protect due process rights. It appears that Assange was never afforded any of these due process protections that are enshrined in this constitution.”

The UK gave Washington until June 12 to present the case for Assange’s extradition to the US, where he might face up to five years behind bars under the current indictment of conspiracy to hack a Pentagon computer. It is feared, however, that as soon as Assange is handed over to the US, the charges will pile on and might see him being locked up for life.

While the first extradition hearing is several months from now, Tibbo believes that the whole process is likely to drag on for years to come.

“His extradition proceedings in the UK will be expected to take many years to be resolved through first instance extradition hearings to any appeals Mr Assange would take,” the lawyer told RT, adding that “there is a big question” whether he will ever set foot on US soil.

However, if the US justice system succeeds in getting a hold of the publisher, his life could be in grave danger, Tibbo believes.

“Looking at Mr Assange’s health, it appears he is ill and is frail, any ill treatment of Mr Assange by the US authorities, if he landed on US soil, could amount to torture.”

The lawyer noted that it is likewise “a big question” whether a US court would heed the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which has stated that Assange has been arbitrarily held in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. While his exile there was nominally self-imposed, the only option was to step out into the hands of British police, facing near-inevitable extradition.

So far, Washington has a long track record of defying international bodies if they are reluctant to bend to its will.

Being the lawyer of Edward Snowden, one of the world’s most famous whistleblowers, who has resided in Moscow for almost six years now, Tibbo said that Assange’s case is “extremely different” from his.

“Mr Snowden is actually a whistleblower, he falls into a classic definition of whistleblower, whereas Mr Assange is a journalist and has worked with whistleblowers in the past.”

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Indian actress-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar has become a viral sensation this week for doling out swift justice after she was groped while campaigning in Bangalore.

The Indian National Congress candidate faced a torrent of jeers and what appeared to be flying vegetables as she was making her way through heaving crowds in the city in southern India on Wednesday.

During the commotion a man twice grabbed her from behind and without a moment’s hesitation she turned to face down her would be harasser and slapped him full force in the face.

“He groped me once and I turned around and started walking. He groped me for the second time. That’s when I turned and slapped him,” Sundar told The News Minute. Clips of the incident have gone viral on social media and Sundar has been hailed as a hero and an inspiration to women across India.

Reaction to the incident hasn’t been universally positive, but she has faced down detractors and taunts with some fiery ripostes.

No police complaint was lodged over the groping incident, hence no action was taken by authorities beyond giving a warning to the individual involved.

Sundar is a staunch advocate for women’s rights and a leading supporter of India’s #MeToo movement. She entered Indian politics in 2014 following a successful career in the Indian film industry.

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