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What’s Really Happening with Mpox

The Mpox Emergency

By David Bell | Brownstone Institute | August 18, 2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) acted as expected this week and declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). So, a problem in a small number of African countries that has killed about the same number of people this year as die every four hours from tuberculosis has come to dominate international headlines. This is raising a lot of angst from some circles against the WHO.

While angst is warranted, it is mostly misdirected. The WHO and the IHR emergency committee they convened had little real power – they are simply following a script written by their sponsors. The African CDC, which declared an emergency a day earlier, is in a similar position. Mpox is a real disease and needs local and proportionate solutions. But the problem it is highlighting is much bigger than Mpox or the WHO, and understanding this is essential if we are to fix it.

Mpox, previously called Monkeypox, is caused by a virus thought to normally infect African rodents such as rats and squirrels. It fairly frequently passes to, and between, humans. In humans, its effects range from very mild illness to fever and muscle pains to severe illness with its characteristic skin rash, and sometimes death. Different variants, called ‘clades,’ produce slightly different symptoms. It is passed by close body contact including sexual activity, and the WHO declared a PHEIC two years ago for a clade that was mostly passed by men having sex with men.

The current outbreaks involve sexual transmission but also other close contact such as within households, expanding its potential for harm. Children are affected and suffer the most severe outcomes, perhaps due to issues of lower prior immunity and the effects of malnutrition and other illnesses.

Reality in DRC

The current PHEIC was mainly precipitated by the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), though there are known outbreaks in nearby countries covering a number of clades. About 500 people have died from Mpox in DRC this year, over 80% of them under 15 years of age. In that same period, about 40,000 people in DRC, mostly children under 5 years, died from malaria. The malaria deaths were mainly due to lack of access to very basic commodities like diagnostic tests, antimalarial drugs, and insecticidal bed nets, as malaria control is chronically underfunded globally. Malaria is nearly always preventable or treatable if sufficiently resourced.

During this same period in which 500 people died from Mpox in DRC, hundreds of thousands also died in DRC and surrounding African countries from tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and the impacts of malnutrition and unsafe water. Tuberculosis alone kills about 1.3 million people globally each year, which is a rate about 1,500 times higher than Mpox in 2024.

The population of DRC is also facing increasing instability characterized by mass rape and massacres, in part due to a scramble by warlords to service the appetite of richer countries for the components of batteries. These in turn are needed to support the Green Agenda of Europe and North America. This is the context in which the people of DRC and nearby populations, which obviously should be the primary decision-makers regarding the Mpox outbreak, currently live.

An Industry Produces What It Is Paid for

For the WHO and the international public health industry, Mpox presents a very different picture. They now work for a pandemic industrial complex, built by private and political interests on the ashes of international public health. Forty years ago, Mpox would have been viewed in context, proportional to the diseases that are shortening overall life expectancy and the poverty and civil disorder that allows them to continue. The media would barely have mentioned the disease, as they were basing much of their coverage on impact and attempting to offer independent analysis.

Now the public health industry is dependent on emergencies. They have spent the past 20 years building agencies such as CEPI, inaugurated at the 2017 World Economic Forum meeting and solely focused on developing vaccines for pandemic, and on expanding capacity to detect and distinguish ever more viruses and variants. This is supported by the recently passed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR).

While improving nutrition, sanitation, and living conditions provided the path to longer lifespans in Western countries, such measures sit poorly with a colonial approach to world affairs in which the wealth and dominance of some countries are seen as being dependent on the continued poverty of others. This requires a paradigm in which decision-making is in the hands of distant bureaucratic and corporate masters. Public health has an unfortunate history of supporting this, with restriction of local decision-making and the pushing of commodities as key interventions.

Thus, we now have thousands of public health functionaries, from the WHO to research institutes to non-government organizations, commercial companies, and private foundations, primarily dedicated to finding targets for Pharma, purloining public funding, and then developing and selling the cure. The entire newly minted pandemic agenda, demonstrated successfully through the Covid-19 response, is based on this approach. Justification for the salaries involved requires detection of outbreaks, an exaggeration of their likely impact, and the institution of a commodity-heavy and usually vaccine-based response.

The sponsors of this entire process – countries with large Pharma industries, Pharma investors, and Pharma companies themselves – have established power through media and political sponsorship to ensure the approach works. Evidence of the intent of the model and the harms it is wreaking can be effectively hidden from public view by a subservient media and publishing industry. But in DRC, people who have long suffered the exploitation of war and the mineral extractors, who replaced a particularly brutal colonial regime, must now also deal with the wealth extractors of Pharma.

Dealing with the Cause

While Mpox is concentrated in Africa, the effects of corrupted public health are global. Bird flu will likely follow the same course as Mpox in the near future. The army of researchers paid to find more outbreaks will do so. While the risk from pandemics is not significantly different than decades ago, there is an industry dependent on making you think otherwise.

As the Covid-19 playbook showed, this is about money and power on a scale only matched by similar fascist regimes of the past. Current efforts across Western countries to denigrate the concept of free speech, to criminalize dissent, and to institute health passports to control movement are not new and are in no way disconnected from the inevitability of the WHO declaring the Mpox PHEIC. We are not in the world we knew twenty years ago.

Poverty and the external forces that benefit from war, and the diseases these enable, will continue to hammer the people of DRC. If a mass vaccination campaign is instituted, which is highly likely, financial and human resources will be diverted from far greater threats. This is why decision-making must now be centralized far from the communities affected. Local priorities will never match those that expansion of the pandemic industry depends on.

In the West, we must move on from blaming the WHO and address the reality unfolding around us. Censorship is being promoted by journalists, courts are serving political agendas, and the very concept of nationhood, on which democracy depends, is being demonized. A fascist agenda is openly promoted by corporate clubs such as the World Economic Forum and echoed by the international institutions set up after the Second World War specifically to oppose it. If we cannot see this and if we do not refuse to participate, then we will have only ourselves to blame. We are voting for these governments and accepting obvious fraud, and we can choose not to do so.

For the people of DRC, children will continue to tragically die from Mpox, from malaria, and from all the diseases that ensure return on investment for distant companies making pharmaceuticals and batteries. They can ignore the pleading of the servants of the White Men of Davos who will wish to inject them, but they cannot ignore their poverty or the disinterest in their opinions. As with Covid-19, they will now become poorer because Google, the Guardian, and the WHO were bought a long time back, and now serve others.

The one real hope is that we ignore lies and empty pronouncements, refusing to bow to unfounded fear. In public health and in society, censorship protects falsehoods and dictates reflect greed for power. Once we refuse to accept either, we can begin to address the problems at the WHO and the inequity it is promoting. Until that time, we will live in this increasingly vicious circus.

David Bell, Senior Scholar at Brownstone Institute, is a public health physician and biotech consultant in global health. He is a former medical officer and scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), Programme Head for malaria and febrile diseases at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in Geneva, Switzerland, and Director of Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund in Bellevue, WA, USA.

August 18, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

Mali Cuts Ties with Ukraine Over Kiev’s Support for Al-Qaeda

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | August 6, 2024

Mali has severed its diplomatic ties with Ukraine following an attack by the local Al-Qaeda affiliate on Malian forces. Kiev called the move short-sighted.

Late last month, opposition forces, including an al Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), killed scores of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group that is supporting Bamako.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), said Kiev aided JNIM in its assault. “The rebels received the necessary information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals.” An estimated 84 Russian contractors were killed, along with nearly 50 Malian soldiers.

Bakamo expressed “deep shock” over the “subversive remarks” and received the statement as an admission of Kiev’s involvement in the slaughter of its soldiers.

Malian government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga denounced Ukraine for supporting JINM. He said Yusov’s remarks confirmed “Ukraine’s involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups.”

“Mali condemns the hostility of the authorities of Ukraine who do not observe that Mali has always called for a peaceful settlement of the crisis between the Russian Federation and Ukraine,” he added.

Kiev responded by claiming Bakamo failed to provide evidence proving Ukraine backed the terrorists. “It is regrettable that … Mali decided to sever … relations … without conducting a thorough study of the facts and circumstances of the incident … and without providing any evidence of Ukraine’s involvement in the said event,” a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Kiev added it has the right to take all necessary political and diplomatic retaliations.

Following the 2011 American-backed uprising in Libya that ousted long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi, jihadist groups spread into neighboring countries and throughout the African Sahel. In the following decade, Mali experienced several coups as the jihadists destabilized the region.

During the latest coup in 2021, Assimi Goïta swept into power in Bakamo. Part of the policy of the junta has been to expel France, Mali’s long-time colonial ruler. Under Goïta, Mali has stepped up ties with Moscow including the private military firm Wager.

August 6, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

Pediatrician Slams $11.9 Billion Plan to Vaccinate 500 Million Children by 2030

By John-Michael Dumais | The Defender | July 17, 2024

Global childhood immunization rates stalled in 2023, leaving millions of children “vulnerable to preventable diseases,” according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

The latest WHO-UNICEF estimates show that 14.5 million children missed all doses of “routine” DTP vaccines last year, an increase from 13.9 million in 2022. The report also laments the gaps in measles vaccinations, noting that outbreaks hit 103 countries.

Dr. Paul Thomas, a pediatrician and co-author of the upcoming book, “Vax Facts: What to Consider Before Vaccinating at All Ages & All Stages of Life,” told The Defender that the global vaccination programs continue to use the dangerous whole-cell DTP formulation instead of the less risky acellular version.

The whole-cell vaccine, which contains the entire Bordetella pertussis organism rather than just purified components, has since the 1930s resulted in widespread reports of neurological damage. It was phased out in the U.S. by 1997, but the formulation has continued to be used in low- and middle-income countries, potentially killing millions of children.

“The irony is that success, when it is measured by how well a country or region or doctor vaccinates, in reality rewards the pharmaceutical industry and all who profit from vaccine sales at the expense of the health of the individual and the community,” Thomas said.

Thomas, the author of a study comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, argued success should be measured on the overall health of the population, not on vaccination rates.

“The less we vaccinate, the healthier the population,” he said. “We need new metrics!”

The report comes as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, unveiled an ambitious $11.9 billion plan — including $9 billion in new funding — to vaccinate 500 million children by 2030, with existing and new vaccines.

Key findings from WHO-UNICEF report

The WHO-UNICEF report states that the stagnation in global vaccination rates highlights ongoing challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about disease outbreaks, particularly measles, and the impact of climate change on vaccine-preventable diseases.

The report centers on the number of children who received three doses of the DTP vaccine — a key marker for global immunization coverage — which stalled at 84% (108 million) of children in 2023, a number the WHO nonetheless called “impressive.”

The global health agency blamed the data trends on poor access to health services during the pandemic that persists, and on fragile, conflict-ridden areas.

The increase of 600,000 “zero-dose” children was particularly concerning to the WHO in light of its Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) goals. IA2030 aims to “leave no one behind” by reducing the number of zero-dose children by 50% and with “500 vaccine introductions” of “new or under-utilized vaccines” in low- and middle-income countries by 2030.

Measles vaccination rates also remain a significant concern to the WHO. In 2023, only 83% of children worldwide received their first dose of the measles vaccine through routine health services, while just 74% received their second dose.

These figures fall short of the 95% coverage the WHO claims is needed to “prevent outbreaks, avert unnecessary disease and deaths and achieve measles elimination goals,” according to the WHO-UNICEF press release.

“Measles outbreaks are the canary in the coalmine, exposing and exploiting gaps in immunization and hitting the most vulnerable first,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Thomas disagreed with this take, stating that measles is not a threat to well-nourished, healthy children and that the focus on vaccines as a solution “is destroying the immune systems” of those who are highly vaccinated.

“The focus should be on making sure children of the world have adequate nutrition and adequate support of vitamins A, D and C,” he said.

Thomas emphasized the importance of comparing health outcomes for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. “The results will be shocking to all who are not informed,” he said.

Report notes ‘progress’ including HPV vax uptake

Despite the overall stagnation in global immunization rates, the WHO highlighted some areas of what it called “progress” and “resilience.”

The African region made notable strides in 2023, defying global trends by increasing routine immunization coverage. The number of zero-dose children in Africa fell from 7.3 million in 2022 to 6.7 million in 2023, with 1.5 million more children vaccinated with the DTP vaccine than in 2019, according to the report.

Bangladesh, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Ukraine made notable strides in recovering post-pandemic vaccination rates, according to Dr. Katherine O’Brien, WHO director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, and Dr. Ephrem T. Lemango, UNICEF’s associate director of immunization, who both spoke at a CNN news briefing.

The report also noted that global human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage in girls increased from 20% in 2022 to 27% in 2023, returning to near pre-pandemic levels.

Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, said in the press release, “The HPV vaccine is one of the most impactful vaccines in Gavi’s portfolio, and it is incredibly heartening that it is now reaching more girls than ever before.”

Thomas called the HPV shot “the most dangerous vaccine on the planet other than COVID,” and argued that it “should have been removed from the market long ago.”

“The push to increase vaccine uptake is all about money,” Thomas said. “What do you think is causing the continued ‘vaccine hesitancy’?”

The WHO also announced a call for proposals for a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine accelerator program “to fast-track the development, approval, and use of innovative” TB vaccines for adolescents and adults, and a call for experts to develop novel TB vaccines.

In its coverage of the WHO-UNICEF report, Axios noted that a new malaria vaccine began being distributed to children in the Ivory Coast. Health workers hope this will usher in a “new era” for controlling malaria in Africa.

Gavi and its ambitious plan ‘a big part of the problem’

The WHO report highlighted Gavi’s “2026-2030 Investment Opportunity” unveiled at the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation on June 20 in Paris.

The plan aims to vaccinate 500 million children by 2030 — which Gavi claims will avert up to 9 million deaths. Gavi is seeking $9 billion in new pledges of the $11.9 billion needed for the strategic period.

The proposal includes plans to vaccinate 50 million children against malaria and protect 120 million girls from cervical cancer through HPV vaccination.

The investment plan includes the “Day Zero Financing Facility for Pandemics” designed to provide a $2.5 billion “surge financing capacity to support a rapid vaccine response during major public health emergencies.”

Gavi also launched the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, a $1 billion initiative to boost vaccine production in Africa.

French President Emmanuel Macron, hosting the forum, emphasized the importance of global vaccination efforts and local production:

“This tough period has also reminded us all that every nation needed to be assured that it had the means to protect its citizens: this is what we have been calling ‘health sovereignty,’ which starts with access to the essential health products that are vaccines, which implies much more local production.”

The proposal received initial support, with $2.4 billion in new pledges announced at the launch event, including $1.58 billion from the U.S., according to the WHO press release.

Thomas said that Gavi and others involved in financing and increasing vaccine distribution are “a big part of the problem” and called for “a total paradigm shift.”

“Imagine the health and freedom and happiness that could be enjoyed worldwide if we focused on healthy nutrition, and assessed health by looking at all health outcomes when we do an intervention,” he said.

Thomas said:

“People are waking up to the truth; vaccines are destroying our health. COVID vaccines helped this awakening, but those who research the childhood vaccines will find a similar challenge. What we have been told is false.

“Vaccines are not safe and effective. Vaccine serious side effects are not one in a million but rather in the 5-10% range.

“Vaccines are not providing herd immunity but instead are creating a population more vulnerable to infections of all kinds and increasing chronic diseases including neurodevelopmental and autoimmune disorders, allergies and cancer, to name just a few.

“The WHO and all who partner with it to bring us pandemics and more immunizations need to be exposed.”

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

July 21, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , , | Leave a comment

Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali sign treaty to become confederation

Al Mayadeen | July 7, 2024

“This summit marks a decisive step for the future of our common space,” Capt. Ibrahim Traore, the leader of Burkina Faso, wrote on X.

The military-led governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger convened their first joint summit on Saturday in Niamey, the capital of Niger. During this historic meeting, they announced the formation of a confederation of the three Sahel states.

In their inaugural summit since coming to power, the leaders adopted a joint statement outlining a treaty to establish the confederation.

“This summit marks a decisive step for the future of our common space. Together, we will consolidate the foundations of our true independence, a guarantee of true peace and sustainable development through the creation of the ‘Alliance of Sahel States’ Confederation,’” Capt. Ibrahim Traore, the leader of Burkina Faso, wrote on X.

Tensions with ECOWAS persist

The summit appears to signal a departure from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Tensions between the Sahel nations and ECOWAS escalated after Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani seized power from the elected President Mohamed Bazoum in a coup in Niger last July. In response, ECOWAS imposed sanctions on Niger and threatened intervention, further straining relations.

“The AES (Alliance of Sahel States) is full of enormous natural potential which, if properly exploited, will guarantee a better future for the people of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso,” said Traore.

“Our people have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS,” stated Tiani to his fellow Sahel leaders.

The three AES countries accuse ECOWAS of being manipulated by former colonial ruler France, with Tiani calling for the new bloc to become a “community far removed from the stranglehold of foreign powers.”

Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso’s military leaders have all rejected French influence, expelling French troops from their countries and turning instead toward what they call their “sincere partners” – Russia, Turkey, and Iran. They emphasize sovereignty as a guiding principle of their governance and aim to establish a common currency.

July 7, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Germany to Close Airbase in Niger After Negotiations on Soldiers Immunity Fail – Reports

Sputnik – 07.07.2024

The German armed forces will give up its airbase in Niger, which was used as a military transport hub, by August 31, as the sides failed to extend the agreement concerning the base, German media reported on Saturday, citing the German Defense Ministry.

The talks broke down after the new Nigerien authorities had refused to grant German soldiers with immunity from prosecution, the NTV news outlet reported, citing a document the ministry had presented before the parliament.

Germany expects to withdraw its troops from the country by the end of August as well.

The German military has used the base in Niger’s capital, Niamey since 2013 as a supply center for its armed forces in neighboring Mali, which were stationed there as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

Nigerien authorities, which took power in a military takeover in July 2023, have since then also terminated military agreements with France and the United States, which led to the French and US forces’ withdrawal from the country.

July 7, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

The WHO pandemic treaty: dead but not buried

BY KEVIN BARDOSH | UNHERD | MAY 28, 2024

As the World Health Assembly began this week in Geneva, it was announced that member states had failed to reach agreement on a new, legally binding pandemic treaty.

Despite not reaching the deadline after more than two years of negotiations, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, remained confident that the 194 member states would eventually reach an agreement, perhaps in six to 12 months. Health diplomats are also confident that amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) — a parallel set of global governance rules, including a new tiered system to declare a pandemic — will go ahead this week. We will have to wait and see.

Front and centre in the failure of the treaty this week were disputes between the Global North and South regarding pathogen sharing and access to the new tests, treatments and vaccines that would be developed by the pharmaceutical industry in the event of a new pandemic. This rekindled longstanding neocolonial sentiments, especially among African countries, concerned that access to pharmaceutical products would be dependent on fulfilling treaty obligations.

Recent analyses have also shown that, to meet basic targets of the treaty, developing countries would need to heavily invest in pandemic preparedness and response to the tune of some $31 billion per year. This level of financing would take away vital budgets from existing health systems and skew national priorities. Is this really in the best interest of developing countries?

Other criticisms of the treaty have come from US and UK conservatives. Senate Republicans recently called for the Biden administration to reject the treaty and shift focus to “comprehensive WHO reforms that address its persistent failures without expanding its authority”. With US elections set for November, negotiators in Geneva are well aware that Donald Trump may withdraw from the WHO if elected, as he did in 2020. In the UK, Nigel Farage also came out against the treaty, expressing concern about future WHO-supported lockdowns: “The WHO can be a force for good in the world, but only if it returns to its noble principles and core objectives.”

Yet the WHO has vehemently rejected any concerns about the treaty infringing on “national sovereignty”, previously calling them “fake news, lies, and conspiracy theories”. Mainstream news outlets — from the New York Times to Reuters — have reiterated these talking points. Recent articles in Health Policy Watch called for critics, or rather “spreaders of disinformation”, to be treated like an “organised crime” network. Any legitimate criticism is unwelcome.

Those in global health leadership want bolder steps to manage the “infodemic”. But advocates of the treaty have regularly engaged in misinformation themselves. Take, for example, a recent video from former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, now WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing. In the video, Brown makes the bold claim that “the world needs agreement on the pandemic accord” since “no one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere”. The latter statement is a perfect illustration of the propaganda tools used by governments in the name of “health” during Covid: utopian, illogical, and Orwellian.

The negotiations and media framing of them, therefore, represent the cultural ethos of biosecurity, which prioritises “making the world safer” (security) over all other values and, given our collective experiences during Covid, basic principles of logic and Western democratic norms.

The WHO is also, this week, seeking an unprecedented increase of its budget by $7 billion over four years to respond to crises. Yet the organisation has failed to conduct a serious post-mortem of the failures of the Covid pandemic response. Instead, media outlets and health authorities complain about “mistrust” and “populism” without any mention of the harms of vaccine mandates and coercive and ineffective lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, and other Covid measures. We must march forward into a global treaty, no questions asked.

Yet this problem is now systemic in global public health. Many preeminent Covid evaluation reports are deeply flawed. A recent paper called the UK Royal Society’s assessment, published last year, “irrelevant and weak from a methodological point of view but also dangerously misleading in terms of policymaking. This is how misinformation occurs.”

Many countries, the UK and US included, are still in the process of evaluating their Covid response. Others have none planned. It seems more than reasonable that the global public health community should first be obliged to take a serious, evidence-based look at just how wrong the experts got it from 2020-22. But to do that, we need the WHO to be less concerned about fighting “conspiracy theorists” and “far-Right nationalists” and more concerned about earning back the trust of the world’s public. It will be a long road ahead.

Kevin Bardosh is a research professor and Director of Research for Collateral Global, a UK-based charity dedicated to understanding the collateral impacts of Covid policies worldwide.

May 30, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , | Leave a comment

Pentagon orders withdrawal of all US combat troops from Niger

Press TV – May 11, 2024

The US military has ordered its troops to pull out from Niger following the cancellation of a military agreement by the African country’s new leaders.

Niger’s new leaders demanded the withdrawal of American and French troops after they ousted Western-backed president Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, 2023.

They announced on March 17 that Niger had canceled a 2012 military cooperation agreement with the US, calling for an end to the US military’s “illegal” presence in the country.

The Pentagon this week formally ordered all 1,000 US combat troops to withdraw from Niger, Politico reported on Friday.

The order comes as newly-arrived Russian forces have been living at the same airbase as American troops in the capital of Niamey, Base 101, for weeks.

According to a US official, troops will be relocated to another base within the region from which they can still carry out their military operations.

Until the country’s military overthrew the pro-Western government in a coup last summer, a US-built drone base near Agadez in central Niger had been a linchpin for Washington’s military operations in the Sahel region.

Bazoum, and the previous Nigerien governments before him, had given the US military the green light to operate in the country, train Nigerien forces, and take part in what the Americans described as counter-terrorism activities.

However, the new leaders reject the “illegal” presence of US troops on Niger’s territory, saying “it was not democratically approved and imposes unfavorable conditions on Niger, particularly in terms of lack of transparency on military activities.”

Niger also called for the exit of French troops from the country and canceled two security and defense partnerships with the EU last year.

Instead, the West African country signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen defense cooperation with Russia last December.

Niger has also signed a trilateral defense agreement with neighboring Burkina Faso, and Mali, binding the three Sahel countries to assist one another in the event of a military attack on any one of them.

May 12, 2024 Posted by | Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

US losing ground globally to Russia and China – report

RT | May 9, 2024

While both China and Russia have improved their standing in the world over the past year, the US has seen its approval rating deteriorate in the Middle East and even in Europe, according to respondents from 53 countries.

Dubbed Democracy Perception Index 2024, the survey was compiled by the German company Latana, on behalf of Alliance of Democracies, a NGO headed by former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Russia and China are now viewed as positively as the US in most of the surveyed countries in Asia and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), as Washington’s approval plummeted due to the conflict in Gaza. Things aren’t looking up for the US in Europe, either.

“For the first time since the start of the Biden administration, many Western European countries have returned to net negative perceptions of the US,” according to Frederick DeVeaux, the senior researcher at Latana.

The reversal of previously positive attitudes has been “particularly stark in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland,” DeVeaux said.

America’s global reputation took a beating since last year, in particular in Muslim-majority countries surveyed – Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, and Türkiye. The researchers attributed this to President Joe Biden’s unequivocal support to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, sentiments about Russia and China in every region except Europe are steadily getting more positive.

The European region is the only one besides the US that still supports cutting economic ties with Russia over the Ukraine conflict, while the rest of the world prefers to keep doing business with Moscow. The world is also divided “between the West and the rest” when it comes to possibly sanctioning Beijing if it were to “invade” the island of Taiwan.

The Democracy Perception Index is an annual survey carried out in 53 countries. This year’s research canvassed some 63,000 respondents for opinions about “democracy, geopolitics and global power players.”

May 9, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Russophobia, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New President of Senegal: It’s time for France to leave, we need to reconsider all agreements with Paris

TopWar | March 29, 2024

France’s fiasco on the African continent continues. Now Paris has received a blow from where it could hardly have expected it – from Senegal, the West African country most closely associated with France.

The recently elected President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, made a harsh statement regarding the former metropolis. Once a French colony, Senegal spent almost its entire sovereign history collaborated closely with Paris and was considered by the latter as the most important outpost in West Africa. But it is possible that this situation will remain a thing of the past.

“It’s time for France to leave the country, and we need to reconsider all agreements with Paris” – said the new head of the Senegalese state.

A 44-year-old left-wing politician who won the presidential election, Faye advocates distancing himself as decisively as possible from France and Western countries in general and weakening the country’s economic dependence on the former metropolis. In economics, he advocates the elimination of the CFA franc as a currency, and in politics he is guided by left-wing pan-Africanism.

According to Faye, Dakar needs to reconsider cooperation with France in the political, economic, cultural and military spheres. In fact, we are talking about the plans of the new leadership of Senegal to abandon close ties with the French state. Previously, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and the Central African Republic broke off close relations with France.

Senegal remained one of France’s most reliable allies on the continent. Severing ties with this country will lead to very unpleasant consequences for Paris in terms of its African policy. Moreover, Dakar’s actions can become an example for the latest former African colonies collaborating with France.

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

South Africa says Israel’s attack on Gaza is undermining the ICJ

MEMO | March 20, 2024

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor accused Israel yesterday of setting a precedent in defying the decisions of the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the UN also known as the World Court, and insisted again that Gaza is witnessing a deliberate “starvation” campaign.

South Africa took Israel to the ICJ in December, accusing it of committing genocide in the military offensive it has been waging since October. Pretoria’s move angered Israel and was condemned by the US.

Pandor pointed out that Israel has defied the ICJ’s January ruling which ordered the occupation state to do everything in its power to prevent genocide. Earlier this month, Pretoria asked the ICJ to impose “provisional measures” to put an end to the “widespread starvation” occurring as a result of Israel’s military attack in Gaza.

Pandor made her comments at a symposium at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington DC. “The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel,” she warned. “We’re seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes. I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example.”

The minister noted that Israel’s actions may be interpreted by other nations that they have a licence to do what they want and will not be stopped.

She added that South Africa’s post-apartheid democracy, in going through international institutions on this issue, was “merely practicing what is preached to us every day” by the West. “The ICJ has not been respected. And the day that an African disrespects [the court] I hope we don’t go to that leader and say ‘Listen, you’re out of bounds; because you’re an African, we expect you to obey’.”

South Africa once again petitioned the court in The Hague to order measures for Israel to stop “widespread starvation” due to its attack on Gaza.

Israel denounced the petition, describing it arrogantly as “morally repugnant” and noting initiatives it is taking, including suspending aggression for humanitarian reasons.

A food security assessment backed by the UN has found that Gaza faces imminent famine, with about 1.1 million people, or nearly half of the population, suffering from “catastrophic” hunger.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Niger broke military pact with US after being ‘warned’ about Iran, Russia ties

Press TV – March 19, 2024

Niger’s junta decided to suspend a military agreement with the United States after a delegation of senior US military officials visited the Western African country and “expressed concerns” about its growing relations with Russia and Iran.

The Pentagon said on Monday that the officials traveled to the Nigerien capital Niamey last week to discuss the matter with the country’s military leadership, seeking clarification about the way ahead.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh asserted that the US government had “direct and frank” conversations in Niger, and was continuing to communicate with the country’s ruling military council – known as the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

“The US delegation was there to raise a number of concerns. … We were troubled (about) the path that Niger is on. And so these were direct and frank conversations, to have those in person, to talk about our concerns and to also hear theirs.

“US officials expressed concern over Niger’s potential relationships with Russia and Iran,” Singh said.

Niger’s junta announced on Saturday that it had canceled a 2012 defense cooperation agreement with the US.

“The government of Niger, considering the aspirations and interests of its people, responsibly decides to denounce with immediate effect the agreement that permitted US military personnel and civilian employees from the American Department of Defense on Niger’s territory,” Nigerien government spokesman Amadou Abdramane said in a statement on national television.

The move followed a visit to Niamey by a delegation of senior US military officials led by Under Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee.

Abdramane accused US officials of not following diplomatic protocol and not informing Niger about the composition of the delegation.

He added that Niger regretted the “intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right of choosing their partners and partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism.”

High-level Russian military officials, including Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov, have visited Niger and met with the country’s military leadership.

The prime minister of the ruling junta, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, visited Iran in January.

Foreign Minister of Niger, Bakary Yaou Sangare, visited Tehran in October 2023 to explore opportunities for strengthening political and economic ties, as well as boosting cooperation in scientific and technological sectors between the two countries.

Commending Iran’s skills in various economic, scientific, and technological sectors, the Nigerien diplomat underscored that Iran’s capabilities are well-matched to cater to Niger’s requirements in the energy and industrial domains.

March 19, 2024 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Latest European Propaganda: Russia Is Flooding Europe With Illegal Migrants

By Robert Bridge | Strategic Culture Foundation | March 5, 2024

Western media is in full-blown hysteria mode, asserting that Vladimir Putin is ‘weaponising’ the flow of migrants in an effort to destabilize upcoming European elections.

Right up there with ridiculous claims of “little green men” and “tractor protests from Moscow,” Europe is now accusing Russia of fielding paramilitary forces and private mercenaries for the purpose of directing waves of migrants from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea and into the heart of Europe, an apparent effort to ratchet up the spring fever just in time for general elections across the continent.

With no loss of irony, Western propagandists are disseminating allegations that the Kremlin is in the process of agitating those African nations that for so long suffered from European colonial rule, namely Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, Ghana, Central African Republic and Libya, a formerly highly developed country that was destroyed by a U.S.-led attack in 2011.

The Telegraph would have its British readers believe it has “seen” intelligence documents detailing plans for “Russian agents” to create a “15,000-man strong border police force” comprising former militias in Libya to control the flow of migrants. Anyone hoping to review something like photographic evidence of this massive army would be advised not to hold their breath. Apparently, the thousands of Russian recruits are so technologically advanced they are invisible to spy satellites.

While it stands to reason that millions of desperate refugees from these turbulent nations would seek shelter in Europe, or possibly even in the United States, risking a trans-Atlantic journey to reach the wide-open U.S.-Mexican border, Brussels simply hopes to deflect attention away from its immigration failures onto Moscow, a sham that is transparent to anyone with even a half-functioning brain.

Let’s not forget that we’ve heard such allegations before.

Without so much as a single apprehended trespasser, Moscow was accused of trying to foment a refugee crisis by transferring asylum seekers to its border with Finland, thus prompting the new NATO lackey to close its land crossings with Russia in contravention of all diplomatic norms. The truth of the matter is that Helsinki was aggravating Russophobia to make the bitter pill of increased spending on Western-made (read: American) armaments go down smoother for Nordic voters.

Belarus, Russia’s closest ally, has also been accused – once again, without a shred of evidence – of sending immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa to its borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

The latest wave of Russophobia to strike the European capitals comes at a time when migration is set to be a key issue in general elections on the continent, as well as in the UK, where the drumbeat about Russian-sponsored migrant invasion parties resonates the loudest.

An unidentified security source reportedly told the Telegraph : “If you can control the migrant routes into Europe then you can effectively control elections, because you can restrict or flood a certain area with migrants in order to influence public opinion at a crucial time.”

“A failure to control the number of migrants coming to the UK is already seen as a major weakness for Rishi Sunak who is struggling to push through a scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda to stop the flow of small boats across the Channel,” the British daily continued.

Sunak made “stopping the boats” one of his top priorities as Prime Minister, though a survey of British sentiment earlier this year showed that three-quarters of voters believe the pledge has not gone well.

Since June 2023, over 52,000 illegal migrants were recorded as entering the UK, up 17 percent on the previous year. Data released last month revealed that the number of illegal migrants granted asylum in the UK hit a record high in 2023 as border guards waved through thousands of applications “in an attempt to clear a huge post-pandemic backlog.” What is even more laughable, albeit totally predictable, is that the people doing the “waving through” were British border officials, not secret “Russian agents.”

With EU elections in June, the European parliament looks set to shift hard to the right, with migration already proving to be a key issue for voters. Who best to blame for this approaching debacle? Certainly not Angela Merkel, who is personally responsible for much of the mess. Once again, Russia serves as a convenient bogeyman for the blockheaded decision-making processes coming out of the EU, and we’ve heard such accusations before.

In February 2016, one year after Merkel opened the floodgates to some 2 million migrants, many of them Muslims from Syria, U.S. General Philip Breedlove, Head of NATO forces in Europe, blamed Russia for working to exacerbate the refugee flows in a dastardly ploy to destabilize and destroy the EU. In a testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, he said, “Together, Russia and the Assad regime are deliberately weaponizing migration from Syria. In an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve.”

Nearly a decade later, the same reckless utterances are being made, although this time around the European public, more skeptical about ‘Russia the enemy’ narrative following the Nord Stream fallout, is prepared to express its anger at the ballot box come June during elections for European Parliament. Far-right populist parties are polling well in several EU countries, notably in Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. This terrifies Brussels, as the threat of a right-wing takeover appears imminent, and Europe has only itself to blame for that.

March 5, 2024 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

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