PAUL NEWMAN MASTERCLASS: US-ISRAEL HYPOCRISY

Washington has long applied double standards when it comes to the rule of law, particularly in relation to Israel.

In this 1983 video, actor Paul Newman brings up another hard-to-argue-against example. The U.S. downplayed Israel's downing of Libyan-Arab Airline Flight 114 in 1973, but caused an uproar when the Soviet Union downed Korean Airlines Flight 007 in 1983. The incident was used to justify astronomical US defence spending.

Well, forward wind to today and not a lot has changed. While demanding Russia’s president is prosecuted for war crimes in Ukraine, the US defends Israel’s war on Gaza, despite the ICJ warning of plausible genocide.

Watch Paul Newman get a round of applause on the Phil Donahue show, as he highlights Washington’s selective moral outrage.

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OTA BENGA: THE BOY EXHIBITED IN A HUMAN ZOO

How Western colonisers practised barbarism in the name of science. The Tragic story of Ota Benga.

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ALI ‘MAKE SOME NOISE’ BONGO GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE

Gabon's deposed president, Ali Bongo, who last year pleaded with friends around the world to “make some noise" after he was overthrown in a military coup, has gone on hunger strike - in protest over his and his family’s alleged torture. According to the family's lawyer, two of his youngest sons, Jalil and Bilal, have decided to join him on the hunger strike.

Ali Bongo was placed under house arrest in the capital, Libreville, along with Jalil and Bilal, after a group of Gabonese soldiers staged a coup and annulled the results of the country's disputed presidential election in August 2023, in which he was declared the winner with 64.27% of the vote. He was set to rule the Central African nation for a third term, having succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who had been in power from 1967 to 2009 (when he died).

Continued.....In October 2023, Gabon's new leadership also imprisoned the deposed first lady, Sylvia Bongo, and her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo, on corruption and embezzlement charges. On May 14th, the family's lawyer claimed in a statement cited by AFP that both had been subjected to physical assault while in custody.

The oil-rich Central African nation is part of OPEC and was colonised by France until 1960, when it became independent. It is currently under the leadership of Brice Oligui Nguema, a military officer who is serving as interim-president.

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PRO-PALESTINE TIKTOKERS SPOOK U.S. SENATOR

So, US senator and former presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has finally admitted the truth. A US ban on TikTok aims to combat the spread of information sympathetic to Palestine. He was speaking during a forum staged by the Washington-based think-tank, McCain Institute. And there wasn’t much protest from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was sat alongside him. It follows accusations the app, which has servers in China, promotes pro-Palestinian accounts. Too bad.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who owns X, and Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Meta, overwhelmingly support US foreign policy. Their apps are accused of censoring those challenging Western mainstream narratives, but there’s no talk of taking them down. Get the picture? So much for free speech.

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ILLEGAL MINERS TERRORISE SOUTH AFRICAN RESIDENTS

Huge job losses in South Africa’s mining sector and widespread poverty have seen the illegal mining sector boom. And that’s also led to a boom in violent crime, as gangs vie for control of abandoned mines. Residents of a slum near Joburg are pleading with the authorities to do more, amid a surge in rapes and murders - blamed on illegal mining gangs. It’s led to a debate about what the root cause of this violence really is: is it pure criminality, or rooted in the lack of opportunity most face? Let us know your views on the issue in the comments.

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UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS STUDENT SPEAKS OUT FOR PALESTINE

On 9 May, African Stream journalist Inem Richardson visited the University of California Davis student encampment set up in solidarity with Palestine. An encampment representative and law student, Stanford McConnehey, shared that imperialism links the struggle in Palestine with the struggles waged in Africa, the Caribbean and the world at large. His analysis demonstrates US students are aware of the violence of 'Yankee' imperialism wherever it rears its ugly head, whether through US military bases that encircle the world, funding proxy wars, performing coups d’état, providing arms and other ways the United States uses to protect its economic dominance.

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Libyan authorities have arrested and jailed several high-ranking customs officials for attempting to smuggle abroad about 26 tonnes of gold - worth nearly $2 billion.

The smuggling operation, planned to be executed through the Misrata International Airport in Western Libya in December 2023, was foiled after leaked phone calls between the customs officials and a commander in the joint operations force led to their capture. Libyan law authorises only the country’s central bank to export gold.

Libya has been plagued by political instability since NATO’s 2011 overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi. The country is split between Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Continued…Libya has become a key hub for illicit gold-trafficking over the past decade, according to the non-governmental The Sentry. Additionally, Libya has one of the highest human-trafficking ranks in the world, scoring 8.5 out of 10. Slave auctions have been documented in Libya as thousands of migrants transiting the unstable North African state are caught and sold off by traffickers.

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RANIA KHALEK: PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
MORALLY RIGHT

Watch @BTnewsroom’s @RaniaKhalek dismantle mainstream media’s coverage of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. While on the UK's Piers Morgan Uncensored show, she made three key points.

First, is the disinformation that came out following the October 7th escalation of hostilities between Palestine and Israel. Claims, including 40 beheaded babies, were used to justify the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Interestingly, while even segments of Israeli media walked back those allegations, Western media remains stubborn.

Second, there was the claim that Israeli massacres of Palestinians were justifiable since H*mas attacked first. She points to the hypocrisy and dehumanisation of Palestinians because if they regarded Palestinians as humans deserving of dignity, outlets like Piers Morgan’s, would place the recent hostilities in their 75-year context of oppression and subjugation of Palestinians.

Continued…. Thirdly, on whether she condemns H*mas, a question fronted to nearly every pro-Palestine guest on his show, she says no. That would be akin to condemning slaves for rising against their enslavers. It's a mirror of brother Malcolm X’s response when he was asked whether he condemned the Mau Mau who fought the British to liberate Kenya from colonialism.

Tell us what you think of her straight talking.

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CONGO: DAY OF RECKONING FOR RWANDA COMING

A sombre mood filled the city of Goma in DR Congo’s east as the city laid to rest victims of rocket attacks on nearby refugee camps.

The atrocities, which Kinshasa says were carried out by the M23 rebel group with assistance from Rwanda, were perpetrated on May 3rd. They killed 35 people - mostly women and children.

During the funeral, Modeste Mutinga, DRC’s minister of social action and humanitarian affairs, angrily warned Kigali that it would face trial at The Hague for this and other alleged war crimes. Mutinga said the attacks were a reflection of the 'cruelty and guilt of Rwanda and its leader Paul Kagame.'

The United Nations and others have also accused Rwanda of being the force behind M23. Kigali has denied the allegations.

What do you think? Should Kagame stand trial as a war criminal?

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THE U.K. STARTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Under UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ‘Stop the Boats’ initiative, the United Kingdom will begin deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda within several weeks, according to reports. But does the UK have any right to worry about so-called 'illegal immigration’?

In a 6 May livestream with @authentic_african, African Stream journalist Inem Richardson called out Britain's colonial history as the root of the modern 'migration crisis.' The pair explored reasons why Rwanda might have agreed to such a collaboration with the UK and Rwanda’s history in similar deals.

Watch the whole livestream, 'UK Begins to Deport African Asylum Seekers to Rwanda,’ on our YouTube channel under the ‘Live’ tab.

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MACRON INCITED REPRESSION IN SENEGAL - NEW PM

Senegalese prime minister Ousmane Sonko has hit out at Emmanuel Macron for "inciting repression."

The newly minted premier alleges the French president praised Senegal’s last president, Macky Sall, for crushing protests. These erupted when Sall postponed the elections that had been due in February indefinitely.

The protesters were also demanding the release of a popular opposition duo - (now PM) Ousmane Sonko, who was barred from running for president, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who ended up becoming the presidential candidate and winning (once the country’s top court ordered he elections to go ahead in March).

Continued......Senegal's constitutional crisis threatened to destabilise the West African nation, which is widely seen as a bastion of democracy in the region. With three nations in the Sahel resorting to revolution to bring about change, some were anticipating the same would happen in Senegal. Given that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have all cut exploitative ties with France, it’s easy to see why Macron didn’t want Paris-friendly Sall to go.

Are the days of French meddling in African affairs finally numbered?

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JAPANESE BABY KILLERS IN CONGO

You might have seen a viral video of a man claiming the Japanese government wants African men to help repopulate the country. And it was claimed they’d be paid $75,000 for every baby born. Well, it was fake news.

However, what isn’t fake is our report about Japanese mine workers in 1970s DRC conspiring with camp doctors to euthanise healthy, mixed-race babies they’d had with Congolese women.

The survivors accuse their fathers of wanting to kill them to erase any trace of their existence, before returning to Japan. These are shocking allegations that haven’t received anywhere near enough media attention. Please help us get the word out.

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DO WHITE SUPREMACISTS ENVY OUR MELANIN?

Frances Cress Welsing (1935-2016) was an American psychiatrist who held the controversial view that White supremacy is the expression of an inferiority complex. In particular, she argued that Whites fear ‘genetic annihilation’ by Blacks, claiming that their low levels of melanin are a form of albinism that’s genetically recessive.

Her work has been criticised as pseudoscientific and as itself supremacist. But in this clip, she clarifies that she never claimed Whites are inferior - only that they ‘feel’ inferior, for the reasons given. She also starts off with an account of how her views got her fired from Howard University.

Have a listen and let us know what you think of her explanation of White supremacy as a kind of melanin envy.

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“WE MUST RECOGNIZE ANCIENT EGYPT AS PART OF AFRICAN CULTURE”

The Great Pyramid of Giza is way more than just a tomb. That’s the opinion of British writer Graham Hancock, who gave this thought-provoking interview to podcast host Joe Rogan. They talk about Africa’s ‘incredibly sophisticated’ ancient cultures and, of course, Egypt was central to it. However, Hancock dismisses mainstream beliefs the pyramids were extravagant resting places for power-mad pharaohs. Spoiler alert, he reckons they’ve been designed to pass on extraordinary secrets to subsequent civilisations.
Whetted your appetite? You can watch the full interview at: JRE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su6FgfQwWlw&t=288s

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SHOULD BLACK AMERICANS CARE ABOUT NATO?

Here’s a question: should Black Americans support NATO? We’d love to hear your answers in the comments, but before posting, have a listen to TikTok commentariat member @prodigalsun3. In this clip, he answers that question with a rather good (in our book) analogy.

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There’s a last-gasp effort to stop Kenyan police being sent to Haiti. Around 1,000 are due to go to help ‘restore order’ and the first 200 are expected to arrive next week.

However, a legal team from a Kenyan opposition party says President Ruto is in breach of a High Court ruling. They’ve now submitted another court application after Judges previously declared the mission unconstitutional. Despite that, Ruto pushed ahead with the plan and signed a deal with Haiti’s then-prime minister Ariel Henry in March.

Human rights groups have condemned the deployment, saying previous interventions were disastrous for Haiti. Washington is promising to pay Nairobi $100m for sending its officers. US forces will also build a base on the Island to accommodate them.

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TRAUMATISED GIRL REVEALS CONGO HORROR

It’s difficult to watch this heartbreaking interview of a traumatised girl in a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fighting back tears, she tells how even here isn’t safe, with rebels frequently carrying out kidnappings.

She bears what can best be described as the ‘face’ of the Congo. An innocent child scarred by the daily horrors of the long-running conflict that’s impacted millions of defenceless Congolese.

The country’s east is one of the most dangerous places in the world for women and girls. There’s the ever-present danger of rape, abduction or murder as they go in search of food and other essentials. As as this sister reveals, conditions in displacement camps are no better. They’re often overcrowded and unhygienic, with inadequate facilities for the protection of vulnerable refugees.