Continued……. But there is a sense in which the BBC might be right. The revolutionary Burkinabe leader has been causing Western governments and their mouthpiece newsrooms concern, as they are more used to pliant African leaders who enable them to exploit the continent as they please. Since coming to power, Traoré has carried out much-needed reforms, such as giving the French military the boot and giving Burkinabe people more control over their resources.

As a new generation of conscious, pan-African leaders emerges in the Sahel and across Africa, we can only hope there will be more grounds for ‘concern’ at the BBC!

WHEN NETANYAHU MARKED LIBYA FOR DESTRUCTION

In September 2002, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a bold case to Congress for the US war on Iraq, claiming that Israel’s enemy, Iraq, had nuclear weapons, when in fact, the said weapons did not exist. He included Iran and Libya in his list, suggesting these countries were on the verge of getting weapons of mass destruction.

Fast forward to March 2003, when the US-led coalition invaded Iraq based on these pretences, k*lling 2 million and devastating what was once known as the cradle of civilisation, Mesopotamia.

Continued……Then, in 2011, under the pretext of protecting Libyan civilians from a supposedly brutal regime, the US-led NATO coalition bombed Libya and took out its revolutionary Pan-African leader, Muammar Gaddafi, arming terror groups, sparking civil war and creating the conditions for modern slave markets.

Netanyahu has a long history of advocating for military interventions, leveraging his influence in Western capitals to uphold his country’s colonial and imperialist agendas in West Asia. Perhaps it’s time to view his more alarmist warnings about so-called rogue states with a critical eye.

Video credit: @cspan

Sources:

https://www.c-span.org/program/house-committee/israeli-perspective-on-conflict-with-iraq/125088

https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2002-09-13-30-former-67437682/384518.html

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2024-09-30/ty-article/.highlight/for-netanyahus-government-the-endgame-of-war-is-war/00000192-43b3-d755-add7-63f7b7700000

U.S. BILL CALLS TO SANCTION ICC OVER ISRAEL ARREST WARRANTS

‘Put the ICC prosecutor Kareem Khan back in his place.’

That’s how Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, describes a bill to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

On 4 June, the House passed the ‘Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act’ for a second time by voting 243-140. This act aims to sanction anyone who assists the ICC in investigating, detaining, or prosecuting citizens from the US and its allies that don’t recognise the court’s authority. Both the US and Israel did not sign the Rome Statute that created the ICC.

If the US Senate, which has a pro-Israel Republican majority, approves the bill, ICC judges could face sanctions like asset freezes, travel restrictions, and visa denials.

Continued……….. In November, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and a Hamas official, claiming ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that these people are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, stated that Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip, home to over 2 million Palestinians, could potentially be g*nocidal. They ordered Israel to take steps to comply with the 1948 UN G*nocide Convention. The latest Gaza Health Ministry figures indicate Israel’s actions have resulted in over 46,000 Palestinian deaths and more than 100,000 injuries, with many victims being women and children. However, in July, the Lancet medical journal estimated Israel had already k*lled more than 186,000 people.

This situation starkly contrasts with US calls for the ICC to arrest Global South leaders, including those from Sudan, Syria, Myanmar and Russia.

Video credit: @CNNnews18 (X)

Sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/9/us-house-votes-to-advance-bill-to-sanction-icc-over-israel-arrest-warrants

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/icc-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-gallant-deepen-israels-isolation-27d2a86a


https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/north-africa/us-imposes-sanctions-on-sudan-rsf-leader-hemedti-4882058

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2nqg05pz9o

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1157406

https://theconversation.com/icc-arrest-warrant-for-vladimir-putin-a-king-size-dilemma-for-south-africa-202528

'THE WORLD NEEDS AFRICA'

Africa does not need the world, the world needs Africa. It’s a simple message from the former African Union envoy to the U.S. Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao.
The continent has all the resources everyone else needs, and without them countries like France would be third-world.

Have a listen to another minute of straight talking from Chihombori.
This time she’s tongue-lashing Washington elites during a speech at The Brookings Institute think tank.

Credit: The Brookings Institution

ISRAEL IN AFRICA

Many African nations cut diplomatic and other ties with Israel after the 1973 Ramadan War (Yom Kippur War). However, many factors - from the desire for Israeli agricultural and security technologies to various US-brokered deals (Camp David, Oslo, Abraham Accords) aimed at peace and normalisation - have seen most of Africa back on diplomatic talking terms with Tel Aviv. Even South Africa, which strongly sympathises with the Palestinian cause and regards Israeli actions as comparable to the apartheid regime’s, has an embassy in Tel Aviv. However, Pretoria downgraded relations last year - and currently has no ambassador. Out of the Alliance of Sahel states (AES), only Burkin Faso recognises Israel but has no formal relations with it. There is no Israeli embassy or consulate in Burkina Faso. However, the Israeli Embassy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, issues visas to citizens of Burkina Faso.

Continued….. There is no such service for citizens of Mali and Niger.

Keeping their backs turned fully towards the Israeli regime are Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, and Tunisia. Could Israel’s current indiscriminate war against Gaza change the overall picture? Let us know in the comments.

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‘WHO DID YOU EXPLOIT TODAY?’

‘Who did you exploit today?’ That’s what Tahmel Morton asks men working on Wall Street in New York. Filmed as a comedy sketch for the MTV2 programme ‘Wonder Showzen,’ what makes it so funny is how it sheds light on a brutal yet taboo reality.

With its origins dating back to 1711, Wall Street emerged as none other than a slave market where stolen Africans were auctioned as cattle and commodities to the highest bidder. The founders and their descendants of top Wall Street financial institutions, such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and JP Morgan (to name a few), made astronomically large sums of money through the labour of enslaved Africans in the US South, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands. And speaking about the US South, let’s not forget the US North.

Continued……. Their businesses and institutions equally profited from chattel slavery by building slave ships, financing plantations in the US South, trading enslaved Africans to and from the Caribbean islands and beyond, and benefitting from slave labour at so-called prestigious colleges, such as Princeton, Harvard and Brown.

By the end of the 19th century, Wall Street banks embarked on a brutal mission of colonial expansion into the Caribbean, targeting countries such as Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Panama with the goal of taking over local banks, forcing them to rely on the US dollar, opening Caribbean branches of Wall Street banks, controlling commodity financing, and re-organising national debt owed to Europe.

Wall Street investment firms have since destroyed the lives of many working-class African-descent people in the United States by controlling the housing market and buying up entire neighbourhoods, putting the ownership of single-family homes out of reach for millions of people. They have created a global economic order in which a worker’s most important task is to maximise a company’s share value.

The question to investment bankers, hedge-fund managers, stockbrokers and financial managers on Wall Street remains: Who did you exploit today?

Video credit: @mtv2

KENYA ABDUCTIONS: RIGHTS GROUPS
RAISE ALARM

The Kenya Human Rights Commission, along with several other rights groups, has raised concerns regarding the rise in abductions in Kenya. In a recent case, five young Kenyans were taken in broad daylight by unknown individuals and released after protests erupted in the streets. Human-rights organisations have reported that at least 82 individuals have been kidnapped since anti-government protests began in June 2024, with some 20 still missing.

Rights groups have accused the police of carrying out these abductions, a claim that the force has vehemently denied.

Continued……. Impeached former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua, who has had a public fallout with President William Ruto, claims that a secret government unit is responsible for the abductions, as well as for the torture and killing of government critics.

The introduction of a controversial IMF-backed finance bill sparked anti-government protests in early 2024. Resentment towards the government is at an all-time high as Kenyans struggle with the soaring cost of living.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced8q1yxggqo
https://www.voanews.com/a/anger-over-abductions-mounts-in-kenya/7916747.html

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sso/?content=eyJpdiI6Ik1zVkJFWmtMTHBwamRJR3l5VElPMmc9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiemJGRDZuZU1NWkZrdzZYdnVtUmFMakQ2MWpLOGxmNk83OVdwczgrZ3U2SnBlSlRWRVZQSithT0tDWGJrRnVPMVp1WGNhbmhSTlhpbG03NlUvR1pta0xKdThGNkgyK0VrSHFlTnJkSUpxMkU9IiwibWFjIjoiZDk2MDI1Y2NiODQ5ODA3M2JhY2Y1M2QwMDk3MGI4NzE0NmE1NTAxMjg3YzE0ZTYwMzllNmY1NDY3OWZkMTZiMCIsInRhZyI6IiJ9

https://web.facebook.com/CitizenTVKe/videos/abducted-youth-set-freefive-youth-abducted-by-unknown-people-freed-they-were-aba/1145853836881969/?_rdc=1&_rdr#

U.S. SANCTIONS RSF BUT NOT UAE FOR GENOCIDE

Belatedly, the US has slapped sanctions on the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in Sudan and its chief - for genocide. The group’s atrocities in the proxy war tearing that country apart have been known about since at least May last year. Shamefully, though, Washington is still refusing to punish the RSF’s main outside backer, the United Arab Emirates. That might have something to do with it being a client of the US. The latest sanctions further highlight the inconsistent way in which US sanctions are applied, with Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza going unpunished.

Continued……Sources:

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2772

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz0re4vm7mvo

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sudan-genocide-rsf-civil-war-us-sanctions/

https://sudanhorizon.com/u-s-sanctions-on-goni-hemettis-brother/

https://www.reuters.com/world/uae-flights-flood-airstrip-un-says-supplies-weapons-sudan-rebels-2024-12-12/

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-minerals/beneath-shine-tale-two-gold-refiners/
https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/us-treasury-department-abandoned-major-money-laundering-case-against-dubai-gold-company/

https://www.state.gov/genocide-determination-in-sudan-and-imposing-accountability-measures/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/politics/icc-sanctions-house-israel.html

HOW UK MEDIA DEMONISED ASIAN MEN AS SEX PREDATORS

The far-right billionaire owner of Tesla and X, Elon Musk, in recent weeks, has used his social media platform X to attack and spread misinformation demonising South Asians and Muslims in the UK over a decade-old child sex abuse scandal. However, the demonisation of both groups over the so-called Grooming Gang Scandal predates Musk’s recent ramblings on X. In this clip, UK rapper and activist Lowkey (@lowkeyonline) gives a striking example of how the British media has been fanning the flames of racism that have been engulfing the country lately.

When a report by the Quilliam Foundation concluded that so-called ‘grooming gangs’ - which prey on often underage girls to sexually abuse them - consisted, in the UK, predominantly (84%) of Asian men, the media ran wild with the story, plastering their front pages with headlines that painted immigrants as sex pests.

Continued……. Yet the study had serious methodological flaws - so bad that Lowkey calls them criminal. First and foremost, the sample size was tiny (a hundred or so cases) compared with the vast number of sex crimes committed in the UK - so no general conclusions could confidently be inferred from it.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales reported that an estimated 1.1 million adults (798,000 women and 275,000 men) aged 16 years and over were victims of sexual assault (including attempts) in the year ending March 2022. Around 227,500 identifiable child abuse offences were recorded by the police in the year ending March 2019.

Of course, when the flawed nature of the study was finally realised, the media did little to disabuse the public. Why do you think that was?

CIA CAUGHT DEALING DRUGS?

People like journalist Gary Webb (1955-2004) have uncovered the CIA's connection to drug trafficking, reporting that the CIA facilitated crack-cocaine routes from South America to mainly Black neighbourhoods in the US to finance anti-communist efforts. Initially published in the San Jose Mercury News, Webb compiled his findings into a book noscriptd, ‘Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.’

The Iran-Contra affair is an example of the US arming Nicaraguan right-wing militia (Contras) using profits from CIA-run drug operations. 

Webb's eye-opening revelations led to several congressional inquiries, including a notable 1996 town hall meeting where Michael Ruppert (1951-2014), a former narcotics officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), confronted ex-CIA Director John Deutch with proof of the agency's involvement in drug trafficking that contributed to the crack-cocaine crisis in Black communities.