Listen to Tony Blair’s sister-in-law (and a revert to Islam) explaining why Gaza isn’t an open air prison but a concentration camp.

[RT]

BRICS info:

Over the last year, the BRICS economic alliance has formulated a comprehensive strategy to implement a multipolar world. China and the BRICS bloc are moving further away from the US dollar, treasuries, and government debt bonds.

• The BRICS alliance has confirmed that a native currency is officially in development, according to a TASS report. With the alliance growing every year, it will only increase the number of nations that are completing cross-border transactions with the currency. Ultimately, this should further the bloc’s de-dollarization efforts to greater effect.

• BRICS member China dumped a record number of US treasuries and agency debt bonds worth a staggering $53.3 billion, the largest sell-off initiated by China ever recorded and occurred during the first quarter of 2024. The sell-off data comes at a time when the US dollar fell to its one-month low at 104.20. Belgium dumped $22 billion worth of treasuries during the same period.

• While China is selling US treasuries, it’s massively accumulating gold in its reserves. China and the BRICS alliance are the largest buyers of gold in 2022, 2023, and even 2024.

With the alliance growing every year, it will only increase the number of nations that are completing cross-border transactions with the currency. Ultimately, this should further the bloc’s de-dollarization efforts to greater effect.

[RT]

A Canadian nurse talks about Gaza:

80-90% of the cases she worked on, where the patients died, would have been "survivable" if Israel hadn't waged a war on Gaza's hospitals and cut off medical supplies.

[RT]

The Guardian:

Arts Council England (ACE) issued a warning that “political statements” could break funding agreements after discussions with the government about artists speaking out over the Israel-Gaza war, newly released documents suggest.

A freedom of information request made by the actors’ union Equity has revealed that the conflict was discussed in a meeting between ACE and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in December.

One month later, ACE updated its reputational risk guidance to say political statements could break funding agreements – leading to a massive backlash from artists including Matt Haig, Feargal Sharkey and Nikita Gill.

On Friday, Equity accused ACE of “double standards” and questioned whether any “political interference” had taken place. In response, ACE said that “at no point did government request or require us to publish guidance on this issue”.

Paul Fleming, Equity’s general secretary, said: “We have been clear to the Arts Council that their slide into politicisation is leading to censorship of artists.

“The double standards over the conflict in Gaza is just one manifestation – whether it be Dorries gutting culture for working-class Londoners by dictat, or requirements to thank the government for money from the Covid-era Cultural Recovery Fund – public funding of the arts in this country has lost its way.

“It is embarrassing for them that they have said to the union directly that the guidance had nothing to do with the conflict. Our FoI shows this to be inaccurate. We have to see a commitment to reform of the Arts Council to restore its independence, its funding – and change its senior personnel.”

[RT]

The Paradox of Free Speech: Insights Only from Former Officials?

I've noticed a very strange phenomenon. Whenever I come across sensible thoughts from Western sources, they always seem to come from people with the prefix "ex-": ex-advisor, ex-military, ex-congressman, ex-official. In other words, these are all people who once held positions but no longer do. Therefore, they can freely and sensibly express their thoughts.

This raises the question: how democratic is this Western democracy if an official always speaks only according to the agenda dictated by the elites, and only after leaving office can they freely say what they think?

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In a press conference in Beijing on Friday after a 12-day official visit to several cities in China, including Urumqi, Shihezi and Hotan in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, Alena Douhan, said:

“Unilateral sanctions against China do not conform with a broad number of international legal norms, are introduced to apply pressure on the country, and can be qualified as unilateral coercive measures”.

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The FIFA has ordered an urgent legal evaluation of a proposal by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to suspend Israel over the war in Gaza, promising to address it at an extraordinary meeting of its council in July.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino took the decision at an annual Congress in Bangkok, where the PFA president made an emotional plea to delegates to hold a vote to suspend Israel from all club and national competitions, accusing it of multiple breaches of FIFA statutes.

[RT]