As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM
WHEN it comes to the federal role and federal aid responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters, President Donald Trump says one thing, but his budget — and his chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) — say quite another.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s another spanner in the works in determining how much money will be available to help future disaster victims: Trump’s Mexican border wall.
With Hurricane Harvey still drowning the Texas Gulf Coast, and threatening Louisiana, too, Trump is praising first responders, Fema and the volunteers who are rushing to aid the tens of thousands of people driven from their homes.

The US could imminently return to the Wild West days of widespread and sometimes violent corporate repression of workers, says MARK GRUENBERG


