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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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Leader of the Hamas movement, Sami Abu Zuhri, at the "Flood of the Free" conference:

📌 We say in an important message to the Westerners who stood against the resistance and declared that their goal was to destroy Hamas. After 8 months, the resistance is still resisting and its hand is the upper hand in the battle. And that it is fine, and its leadership, Sinwar Abu Ubaida al-Deif, they are all fine, and its weapons and tunnels are fine as well.

📌If the occupation imports weapons during the battle, then the resistance has its weapons manufactured during the battle.

📌They thought that Hamas would not last more than a month at most, and today is the eighth month.

📌 We are going to negotiations to stop the waterfall of our people’s blood. As for the resistance, it is ready to continue no matter how long this battle lasts.

📌Hamas is a symbol of a nation of 2 billion people. It is not just a party, but rather the entire Ummah.

📌Hamas is no longer a name of a Palestinian organization, but rather a title of the project to liberate Palestine.

Middle East Eye:

Tracking Sinwar has taken on a new urgency within the US intelligence community because the Biden administration believes it could help pressure Israel to end the war by declaring “total victory”.

Current and former US officials, who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the mission, said the US was expanding its search efforts across the region, after believing the 61-year-old was hiding in tunnels deep below Gaza.

One of them told MEE that the Biden administration is now exploring possibilities that Sinwar fled to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and from there may have even escaped to either Lebanon or Syria.

The current and former officials did not reference any specific intelligence but said one factor driving the debate was that US intelligence was lagging on Sinwar's last whereabouts.

According to the officials, the Biden administration is roughly one month behind on tracking Sinwar's last known location, which was within the Gaza Strip.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who also advised four US presidents on national security, told MEE that the lack of clarity surrounding Sinwar's last location was "pretty bad."

When asked about the timeframe, he said: "One month means you aren't even close to real-time information."

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Austria restores funding to UNRWA.

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A video [subtitled] shows a Palestinian man persistently making pastries amid explosions and gunfire in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. He expressed his determination, stating that he wanted to feed people who were starving.

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