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As Spain’s prime minister announced deep austerity cuts in order to secure funds from the EU to bail out Spain’s failing banks, the people of Spain have taken to the streets once again for what they call “Real Democracy Now.” This comes a week after the government announced it was launching a criminal investigation into former CEO of Spain’s fourth-largest bank, Bankia.

“The situation in Israel and Palestine is very simple,” said Noam Chomsky during a meeting with Tomas Hirsch, Humanist and Former Chilean Presidential Candidate. According to Chomsky, the real problem is Washington. Israel could not do what it is doing today unless it had the support of the US and it has been that way for over 35 years.

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, yesterday approved a bill on third reading that will allow the authorities to compile a website blacklist, fuelling concern about Internet filtering and censorship. The bill will have to be passed by the upper house and ratified by President Vladimir Putin before it takes effect.

Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutiérrez, a reporter for the Christian radio station Stereo Naranja, was shot dead with two of his cousins on 8 July in Villanueva in the northern department of Cortés while on holiday visiting his family.

He was to have taken part in celebrations on 21 July marking the first anniversary of the station, located in Sonoguera in the department of Colón.

Armed attacks on [news media](http://en.rsf.org/mexico-grenade-attack-and-car-bomb-hit-29-03-2012,42207.html) are relatively common in northern Mexico, but the region saw three grenade attacks on newspaper buildings in a single day yesterday and in one case shots were also fired at the building’s facade.

We reproduce here part of an investigation carried out by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism [BIJ](http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/11/inside-the-citys-best-connected-lobby-group/) on the workings of the City of London, the Financial District at the centre of a system that affects every aspect of ordinary people’s lives.

Four people dead, many injured and a priest battered by the police following massive protests in Cajamarca, Peru, are just the tip of the iceberg. Conga gold mine threatens the water of four lakes. The same story repeats throughout several Latin American countries. Multinationals (surprise, surprise!) are involved. Financial crisis fuels Gold (and other minerals) Rush

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit with expressions of deep disappointment from broad sections of members of the media and the environmental NGOs, who saw little new commitments to action in the final text that was adopted by the heads of states and governments and their senior officials.

Although the elections and the political reforms are needed in the wake of the Arab Spring, premature elections could usher in a period of continued political instability punctuated by violence, or introduce new totalitarian regimes that would assume power under the pretext of maintaining order and also keeping stability.

Seemingly unconnected events like the unfolding civil war in Syria and a President deposed by his Parliament in Paraguay are in fact remarkably similar in their ultimate goals, if not in their methods. As the International Financial Empire fears losing its hegemony we witness its attempts to discipline dissenting voices.