U.S. TRIES OH, SO HARD TO DEFEND ISRAEL

A journalist questioned why the US is quick to conclude Russia attacked a Ukrainian children’s hospital on 8 July while it tends not to blame Israel when Gaza Strip hospitals are blown to pieces.

For Africans, this difference in treatment is critical as media coverage of Western military interventions in Africa barely get the same amount of news coverage.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller dismissed that anyone other than Russia could have attacked a Ukrainian children’s hospital.

Continued….. He went on to downplay Israel’s attacks on primarily women and children. The military onslaught has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip’s civilian infrastructure, including about 66 per cent of hospitals. Yet, Miller blamed H*mas for allegedly using Palestinians as a shield, a claim that has been thrown around since the most recent escalation in the 76-year Israeli occupation began. But the claim has yet to be supported by evidence.

US hypocrisy runs deep as Israel is the United States’ largest recipient of foreign aid since World War II. US arms manufacturers generate billions selling weapons to Israel. Meanwhile, the US has vetoed proposed permanent ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council.

Video credit: @StateDept

Over four years after the Black Lives Movement erupted in America, following the murder of George Floyd, police brutality continues to be a major issue.

According to the non-profit Mapping Police Violence, 27 per cent of people killed by US police in 2021 were Black, despite making up only 13 per cent of the county’s population. All this is happening despite efforts by police to diversify, with 60 per cent of the NYPD, for example, identifying as an ethnic minority.

Continued….. One reason, says professor James Smalls, is cowardice. In this interview, he recalls what he once saw first-hand in 148th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem in New York City in the US. A Black officer had put his foot on the head of a handcuffed Black homeless woman, in view of his White sergeant. When Mr Smalls complained, he was told the homeless woman was ’unruly'. The professor says it was a statement of her ‘nothingness.’

Scope for such discrimination has just got a whole lot worse. US Supreme Court justices recently ruled it’s okay to arrest those living outside, even if they have no other place to go. It’s hard to disagree with the professor in this interview with @Ineverknewtv.com. Criminalising and dehumanising the vulnerable is not the answer, it’s spineless.

Video credit: @https://ineverknewtv.com/

Twenty-four-year old Ugandan TikToker, Edward Awebwa, has been jailed for six years for insulting the country’s President and his family.
Aweba was accused of sharing ‘really vulgar’ content between February and March that demeaned Yoweri Museveni. It was said Awebwa also shared misleading information on new tax increases. The courts charged him with hate speech and dissemination of misleading and malicious information. Awebwa pleaded guilty to the charges.

Rights groups have often raised concerns over a lack of freedom of speech and expression in Uganda. They’ve called for amendments to the Computer Misuse Act which has stifled media in the country. Since coming to power in 1986, Museveni has been notorious for setting draconian laws that criminalise journalism and rights to information. Those found to be speaking out of turn can face a jail term of up to 10 years.

FOOD SECURITY WITHOUT LAND. HOW?

The saying goes, ‘When the white man came, he had the Bible and we, the land. He told us to close our eyes and pray. When we opened them, he had the land and we, the Bible.’ 

The sentiment is as accurate now as it was in the early stages of colonisation. As Booker Ngesa Omole pointed out at an African Liberation Day event in Nairobi, another round of scramble for Africa’s land has kicked off in earnest.

For example, initiatives that push Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) seeds into African farms and criminalise sharing indigenous seeds are in play. African communities are also increasingly being forced out of our lands to make space for ‘conservation.’ This ignores the role indigenous communities have played in protecting the ecosystem and that Africa emits less than 4 per cent of global carbon emissions despite being home to more than 15 per cent of the world’s population.

Continued….. Meanwhile, left out of the mainstream conversation is that a significant number of Africans are landless. This is the missing link, says Omole, national vice chairperson of the Communist Party of Kenya (@communistske on IG, TikTok and X). Africans need to reclaim their land from minority occupants.

Video credit: @bookerbiro

France has created a new military command to occupy Africa, a move that appears to follow the controversial US Africa Command (AFRICOM) established in 2008.

A French government decree announced that a commander-in-chief, Pascal Ianni, has been tapped to lead the ‘General Command for Africa’ starting on 1 August.

This comes as the European colonial power has pulled soldiers stationed on African soil. Reports say France plans to keep around 600 French soldiers across Chad, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon, down from the 3,800 troops in Africa. News reports claim France plans for ‘discreet’ operations to attract little visibility.

This comes after a series of anti-imperialist revolutions in the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger booted French troops, threatening France’s control over Africa’s Sahel region, which France has militarily occupied for decades through Senegal. Additionally, the Central African Republic expelled the French military in 2022.

NEW U.K. P.M. OKAY WITH ISRAEL STARVING PALESTINIANS

Britain’s new prime minister barely warmed his seat at 10 Downing Street when this 9-month-old interview re-circulated online, showing his hypocritical stand on Israel violating Palestinians’ human rights. 

In October, LBC radio host Nick Ferrari (@nickferrarilbc on X) asked Keir Starmer if Israel needed to cut off electricity and water to Palestinians. As the UK Labour Party leader, Starmer told Ferrari that Israel has the right. The public denounced the 61-year-old politician for not calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but he appeared to have given in to pressure earlier this year. 

As the new prime minister since 5 July, Starmer has called for an ‘urgent’ ceasefire, but many still have a bitter taste in their mouths from his previous stance.

Do you think a change in leadership makes a difference for the UK’s foreign policy? Let us know in the comments.

Video credit: @LBC (IG, X and TikTok)

BIDEN CALLS ZELENSKY 'PRESIDENT PUTIN'

Seems US President Joe Biden can’t get names right.

At the NATO Summit held on 11 July in Washington, the 81-year-old accidentally introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky using Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name. 

At the same event, he made a similar flub during a press conference, calling US Vice President Kamala Harris 'Vice President Trump.'

Because of moments like these over the past few years, many have questioned Biden’s ability to do his job and run for a second presidential term this November.

Video credit: @CNN

KENYA ‘OPPOSITION’ DRAGS RUTO OVER HAITI

While Kenyan police were being flown to Haiti on a US-backed and UN-led peacekeeping campaign, their colleagues at home were busy arresting, abducting, torturing and killing youth protesting IMF-backed economic policies. In this clip, the Secretary General of the main ‘opposition’ party, Edwin Sifuna, accuses President William Ruto of giving police the short end of the stick. At the time of departure to Haiti, Kenyan police officers had been paid roughly $200 instead of the promised $1,000. The US government has pledged at least $200 million to Kenya as part of their police force intervention onto the Caribbean island. However, the bigger concern was that the deployment was in contravention of the wishes of Kenyans.

Kenyan president William Ruto’s invocation of Pan-Africanism and moral responsibility as rallying calls for shipping police to Haiti simply boils down to what many view as a thinly veiled US occupation of the small Caribbean island nation yet again.

Continued….. Aware that Haiti’s crisis is caused by external forces, Ruto avoids mentioning the culprits. For decades France has forced Haiti to pay reverse reparations to slave owners after freeing themselves from slavery. Meanwhile, the US has consistently looted Haiti’s gold, imposed dictators, and deposed, not once but on two separate occasions, the island-nation’s popularly elected leader Jean Bertrand Aristide.

What are your thoughts on the convenient glossing over of these factors in the longstanding destabilisation of Haiti?

Freedom and South Africa are like twins - rarely is one mentioned without the other after the end of apartheid.

This time, freedom came for 6 captive lions held on a farm in Free State when South African police, acting on a tip-off from an animal rights group, arrested two wildlife traffickers who had sold them to undercover detectives. Vietnamese Nguyen Huu Tao and his associate, Nico Scoltz were detained on July 5 after attempting to illegally sell the big cats. The arrests came after Wildlife Justice Commission, a Dutch foundation assisting law enforcement fight wildlife trafficking, alerted police to an Asian man selling lions.

Continued….. Vietnam is a major hub in the illegal wildlife trade. South Africa has the world’s largest captive lion population, estimated to be around 8,000 on 350 farms while only 3,500 lions are left in the wild. Lions are currently listed as “Vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Africa has around 23,000 lions left in the wild, down from over 200,000 a century ago.

ISRAEL’S INHUMANE TREATMENT OF PALESTINIAN HOSTAGES

Russian novelist and journalist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-81) once said, ‘The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.’

While we cannot confirm how Israeli hostages are treated in H*mas custody, these clips reveal a glimpse of two value systems.

The first shows what appears to be a disabled Palestinian after Israel released him from administrative detention, meaning he was held without charge. Israel detains about 2,000 Palestinians as such. The West touts Israel as a democracy, but the facts paint a different picture.

The second clip shows H*mas releasing a few of the 109 Israeli hostages who had been set free in November during the temporary ceasefire in the latest escalation in the 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Continued…. About 116 Israelis remain in H*mas custody, 79 of whom are believed to be civilians, according to Amnesty International.

Western media outlets are also complicit in Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians as they use the term ‘prisoners’ for all detained Palestinians, including children arbitrarily arrested and sometimes held for years without being formally charged. However, Israelis, including security forces captured by Palestinian resistance groups, are referred to as ‘hostages.’

Video credit: @aljazeera (on top) and @AlArabiya_Eng (on bottom)

JOHN H. CLARKE: FIGHT FOR FREEDOM NEVER ENDS

US-born Black historian and professor John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998) always championed the importance of education. He pioneered the creation of Pan-African and African-diaspora studies, focusing on the history, culture and education of Africans worldwide.

In this clip, he reminds us that freedom - including in what we learn and think - is never secure, but must always be fought for: each generation must reach out for it with its own hands and hold on tight to it. Freedom cannot be gifted to the next generation.

How are you fighting for yours?

ISRAELI PM: 'U.S. WON'T FORCE US INTO ANYTHING'
A ‘self-licking ice cream cone’ is a self-perpetuating system that exists to sustain itself.
In this TV clip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 74, may have been the 30-something-year-old Israeli ambassador to the UN at the time of this interview that some claim took place in the 1980s. Here, we hear him telling an Israeli journalist that Israel controls the US House of Representatives and Senate (collectively known as the US Congress), and has a strong lobby in the form of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Continued......AIPAC spends hundreds of millions of dollars backing elected officials as well as candidates in US elections. AIPAC just recently announced a $100 million ‘war chest’ to defeat US candidates who don’t fully support Israel amidst its military onslaught on the Gaza Strip. So far, Israel has k*lled at least 38,000 Palestinians, according to official estimates news outlets have released. But it may be as many as 186,000 casualties, according to a recent Lancet medical journal report.
AIPAC-bought candidates push through pro-Israeli policies, such as billions of dollars in military aid. And here comes the ‘self-licking’ part. US diplomatic, financial and military support allows Israel to carry out atrocities against Palestinians. Because of the billions of dollars Israel receives, the Israeli lobby can finance its political goals using mere hundreds of millions with change to spare.
Have a watch, and let us know what you think.

THE REAL FACE OF ISRAEL

Another day and here we see more evidence of Israel’s dehumanising occupation of Palestine.

In this 2016 clip, investigative journalist Abby Martin exposed a figure lauded as a hero in Israel. His claim to fame was the cold-blooded execution of an injured Palestinian. Interestingly, the video was captured in occupied Hebron in the West Bank, putting to rest the oft-heard erroneous conclusion that the events of 7 October pushed Israel to the wall. Such an argument negates decades of the Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

Important to address is the role the West plays in maintaining the Israeli occupation. Through diplomatic cover, and financial and military support, Israel enjoys a blank check with no consequences as it continues its military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

Video credit: @empirefiles, @fababs (IG) @abbymartin (X)

RACISM AND THE “THREE LIONS”

England will face Spain in the final of football’s Euros on Sunday, with both sides enjoying stand-out performances from their Black players. There’ve been crucial goals from Watkins, Saka and Bellingham for the Three Lions and 16-year-old Yamal has grabbed headlines for the Spanish.

But as Ahmed Ghoneim reports in Africa in 90 seconds, the tone can quickly change if things go wrong over 90 minutes. Black players often face racial abuse if their team loses, or are scapegoated by the media. There are plenty of examples, and it’s not only about tabloid sensationalism. It’s about deeply ingrained attitudes. In the past, the English FA reportedly enforced a racial quota on the national team. Imagine, a team not deemed ‘English’ enough without limiting Black players.