Continued….. In his 2020 book, ‘American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free,’ Hegseth stated that 'Next to the communist Chinese and their global ambitions, Islamism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world. It cannot be negotiated with, coexisted with, or understood; it must be exposed, marginalised, and crushed.'

Considering all this, it becomes increasingly clear why Hegseth may be Trump's worst cabinet pick.

Video credit: @thegrayzonenews

Sources;

https://www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth-defense-secretary-white-supremacist-trump-1986435

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/politics/pete-hegseth-defense-department.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pete-hesgeth-tattoo-trump-administration-b2648147.html

https://www.jns.org/trumps-nominee-for-secretary-of-defense-once-suggested-a-temple-could-be-built-on-temple-mount/

Nelson Amenya (@amenya_nelson on X) woke up to an avalanche of plaudits from around the globe the day after Kenyan President William Ruto cancelled a proposed $1.84 billion airport takeover deal with India-based Adani Group and a $736mn deal with Adani to construct and operate the electricity infrastructure.

In July, the 30-year-old exposed documents detailing negotiations between Ruto's government and tycoon Gautam Adani's company for a 30-year lease on Kenya's main airport.

The proposal for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) included a clause allowing Adani to retain an 18 per cent equity stake in the airport’s business dealings starting at $46.3 million following the 30-year lease, plus an additional 10 per cent every five years in perpetuity.

Continued……. Some suggested the airport be renamed after Amenya, pursuing a master's degree in business administration at École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris—better known as HEC Paris—while others said he deserves protection for spearheading robust citizen activism against corruption in Kenya.

Sources:

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/whistleblower-nelson-amenya-celebrated-as-a-hero-for-exposing-the-secret-adani-deal-for-kenyas-airport-11732214923169.html

https://x.com/amenya_nelson/status/1811458518861644006

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/104690-treasury-cs-mbadi-flags-unusual-speed-adanis-jkia-proposal-clearance-suspects-foul-play

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/kenya-airport-whistle-blower-nelson-amenya-fears-for-his-life/article68704848.ece

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/who-is-nelson-amenya-whistleblower-who-exposed-the-jkia-adani-deal-in-kenya-646522.html

https://nairobiwire.com/2024/10/despite-living-in-france-adani-jkia-whistleblower-doesnt-feel-safe.html

Continued……https://www.adaniwatch.org/furore_over_adani_s_pitch_to_revamp_nairobi_airport

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/companies/adani-fights-back-on-jkia-leasing-deal-4766340

Page 10, point no. 14:
https://khrc.or.ke/storage/2024/09/KHRC-and-LSK-v-KAA-and-Adani-Application-for-Judicial-Review.pdf   

https://khrc.or.ke/case/khrc-lsk-sue-to-block-adanis-30-year-jkia-lease/

https://nation.africa/kenya/business/high-court-halts-proposed-leasing-of-jkia-to-adani-4755544 [paragraph 13]

The people have spoken, and Zambia's star striker Barbra Banda is the 2024 BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year.

The striker, who plays for the United States National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) 2024 champions, the Orlando Pride, received the most football-fan votes, beating four others who made the shortlist compiled by global football experts, including coaches, administrators and sports journalists.

The award is among the accolades the football star has bagged in the last few years, cementing her place among the sport's greatest. Banda’s stellar performance as the Zambian national team’s captain and striker has helped turn the country into a powerhouse for women's football.

The 24-year-old arrived on the global stage during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where @BarbraBanda11 scored hat tricks (three goals in a match) in back-to-back group games,  becoming the first footballer—man or woman—in Olympic history to score two hat tricks in the same Olympic tournament.

Continued……. In March, Banda became the second-highest compensated women's footballer in history when Florida-based football team Orlando Pride signed her for $740,000. She previously played for the Chinese Women's Super League.

The run-up to the victory was not easy for Banda as she faced opposition over alleged high testosterone levels. In October, the United Kingdom-based Women's Rights Network (WRN) condemned Banda’s nomination for the BBC award, describing it as bringing women's sport into ‘disrepute.’ WRN insinuated Banda should not be allowed to compete in female sports due to 'questions' over her 'sex.' It cited the now-debunked claim that the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) disqualified the Zambian star after failing a gender test conducted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the governing body for African football. However, at a July 2022 media conference, CAF said no such test was ever conducted. 

Such rows have affected several African female athletes in recent years. In August, Algeria's Olympic boxing champion, Imane Khelif, filed a criminal complaint in France against X owner Elon Musk and British author JK Rowling for alleging online that she was a man. In 2021, Namibian sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi were forced to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics over 'elevated blood testosterone levels.'

Sources:

https://olympics.com/en/news/the-future-is-now-for-zambia-s-star-barbra-banda

https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/who-is-barbra-banda-get-to-know-uswnts-biggest-worry-ahead-of-zambia-showdown-at-2024-paris-olympics/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13963931/fury-bbc-womens-footballer-year-barbra-banda-gender-row.html

https://x.com/WomensRightsNet/status/1846240186935451986

https://www.facebook.com/SmartEaglesZambia/videos/we-dont-know-who-disqualified-barbara-banda-caffaz-knows-something-about-this-so/843053303765934/

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c8jypk4xz7xo

https://app.asana.com/0/1202659536484511/1208071545632989

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/03/sport/christine-mboma-beatrice-masilingi-ruled-ineligible-testosterone-spt-intl/index.html

As the phrase widely credited to Guinean Pan-Africanist first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré (1922-84), goes: 'When you are praised by the colonist, it means that you are bad for your people. When they say you are bad, it means that you are good for your people. The day they say I'm good, that'll mean I betrayed you.'

In this carousel, we present moments that should raise questions about four African leaders whom Western leaders have praised. But why might the West favour them?

Let’s start with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, who recently claimed terrorism has only heightened since Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger booted French troops, even though the Global Terrorism Index reports a stark increase in terror-related deaths in Africa's Sahel region once Western military occupations began following the 2011 NATO invasion of Libya.

Continued……Some have accused Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of being a CIA asset after US government agencies refused to remove redactions from documents on alleged drug trafficking and money laundering, admitting doing so could expose Tinubu or others as US intelligence assets. After becoming chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Tinubu declared coups d’état would no longer be tolerated and unsuccessfully attempted to impose sanctions on Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger following their withdrawal from the Western-aligned ECOWAS.

Continued….. https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2024/04/22/rwanda-bill-kigali-is-safer-than-london-claims-deputy-foreign-secretary/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/26/un-report-rwanda-congo-hutus

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/gangs-police-haiti/

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/us-kenya-haiti-intervention

https://www.blackagendareport.com/kagame-murderer-millions-congo-and-rwanda

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/608962-we-will-not-tolerate-coups-in-west-africa-tinubu.html?tztc=1

https://ituc-africa.org/African-workers-Welcome-ECOWAS-Revocation-of-Sanctions-on-Burkina-Faso-Niger.html

https://x.com/african_stream/status/1858902469016723619 

https://www.theafricareport.com/353594/tinubu-eyes-second-term-as-ecowas-chairman-despite-turbulent-tenure 

https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/tête-à-tête/20241005-ghana-president-akufo-addo-security-sahel-worsened-french-troops-left

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/burkina-faso-ap-wagner-group-united-states-ghana-b2246156.html

https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/GTI-2022-web-09062022.pdf

BLACK PRISONERS SELF IMMOLATE TO ESCAPE ABUSE

Red Onion State Prison in the US state of Virginia is under fire for its inhumane conditions, with about a dozen inmates over the last year-and-a-half resorting to extreme measures like self-immolation to escape racism and abuse. 

Reports say injured prisoners received delayed medical care, followed by punitive measures such as harassment and solitary confinement upon their return to prison. The facility has a longstanding reputation for cruelty, with organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemning its excessive use of solitary confinement and systemic racism.

Continued……The situation reflects broader patterns within the US prison-industrial complex, which incarcerates Black people at five times the rate of white people in state prisons. The whole system—which includes much more than state prisons—detains 2.2 million people, 20 per cent of the world’s incarcerated population, exploiting prisoners for cheap labour through a loophole in the US Constitution’s 13th Amendment that allows slavery as punishment. This profit-driven model has led to practices such as denying bail to low-risk offenders to sustain a supply of exploitable labour, reinforcing systemic racial and economic inequalities.

Sources
News
https://www.prisonradio.org/news-update/self-immolation-at-red-onion-state-prison/
https://virginiadefender.org/2024/11/09/crisis-cover-up-at-red-onion-super-max/

Continued….Sources;

Racial makeup of US prisons
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/13/politics/black-latinx-incarcerated-more/index.html

US prison population
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-10-13/report-highlights-staggering-racial-disparities-in-us-incarceration-rates

Low risk offenders denied bail
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1219187249/prisoners-are-suing-alabama-over-forced-labor-calling-it-a-form-of-slavery

MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS: DEFEND THE FIGHT FOR AFRICAN SOVEREIGNTY

During the historic summit noscriptd, ‘Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel,’ held 19-21 November in Niger’s capital of Niamey, hundreds of people gathered at the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre to show unwavering support for the revolutionary process underway against neocolonialism in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. 

The conference brought together Pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist delegates representing popular movements and organisations from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States.

Manolo De Los Santos (@manolo_realengo on X), executive director of the New York-based movement incubator The People's Forum, stepped on stage to fire up the crowd with a powerful message: That the flame of revolution must not stop and that Africans must continue to fight for dignity and sovereignty from imperialism.

Continued….​​Between 2021 and 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger—with the support of their populations—expelled Western-aligned governments through coups d’état and demanded the withdrawal of French troops from their territories. Since then, the three states have established the Alliance of Sahel States confederation, an anti-imperialist bloc that shares defence, economic and foreign policies, with an eye on becoming a federation and eventually unifying the continent.

Video credit: @peoplesforumnyc (X)

Pan-Africanist, philosopher, and organiser Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) powerfully and tirelessly advocated for the economic liberation of African people worldwide. His succinct words echo just as strongly now as they did then.

His teachings prompt us, as Africans, to recognise that there is still much to be done to achieve true independence. To depend on another means to relinquish control, sovereignty and ultimately the very thread of existence we hang on to, as their whims determine our state.

Needless to say, if money is the world’s language, until Africans are economically independent, we have no tongue.