In a starkly poignant address, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa challenged the world's perception of Africa and African nations at the New Global Financial Pact Summit in France on Friday, June 23.

"We are not beggars," the South African leader declared, standing shoulder to shoulder with his African counterparts.

The sentiment resonated throughout the venue, packed with European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the summit, and the heads of financial and economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Such channels were described as crucial as the two countries' forces increasingly "rub up against one another"

The US will continue to diplomatically insist on the restoration of direct communication channels with China in order to prevent future incidents or accidents, according to Kurt Campbell, who serves as the coordinator for the Indian and Pacific regions on the White House National Security Council (NSC).

Discussing the strategic and military implications of the AUKUS military alliance between Australia, the US and UK at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Monday, Campbell said it was crucial for China and the US to take "practical steps that would enable effective communication to deal with an unintended set of circumstances or an accident or a mishap."

According to the UN report, dozens of civilians were tortured "in official pre-trial detention facilities"

The United Nations has recorded a significant increase in law violations by Ukrainian security forces since start of Russia's special military operation, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a report on Tuesday.

"Since 24 February 2022, OHCHR has documented a significant increase in violations of the right to liberty and security of person by Ukrainian security forces. Out of the overall number of such cases, OHCHR documented 75 cases 92 of arbitrary detention of civilians (17 women, 57 men and 1 boy), some of which also amounted to enforced disappearances, mostly perpetrated by law enforcement authorities or the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the report read.

Following Wagner's 'rebellion' - which was nothing more than a blatant coup attempt, and a PR stunt demonstrated by Prighozin's top-notch theatrics - NATO and the Collective West's excitement over the possibility of Russia descending into chaos and civil war were quickly turned into utter disappointment.
The first draft of the extraordinary events that took place in Russia on The Longest Day - Saturday, June 24 - leads us to a whole new can of worms.

The Global Majority badly wants to know what happens next. Let's examine the key pieces in the chessboard.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is cutting to the chase: he has reminded everyone that the Hegemon's modus operandi is to back coup attempts whenever it can benefit. This dovetails with the fact that the FSB is actively investigating whether and how Western intel was involved in The Longest Day.

President Putin could not have been more unequivocal:

"They [the West and Ukraine] wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, so that soldiers and civilians would die, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would break apart and choke on bloody civil strife (...) They rubbed their hands, dreaming of getting revenge for their failures at the front and during the so-called counter-offensive, but they miscalculated."

Cue to the collective West - from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on down - frantically trying to distance itself even as the CIA leaked, via its trademark mouthpiece, the Washington Post, that they knew about "the rebellion."

The agenda was painfully obvious: Kiev losing on all fronts would be ritually buried by wall-to-wall coverage of the fake Russian "civil war."

There's no smoking gun - yet. But the FSB is following several leads to demonstrate how the "the rebellion" was set up by CIA/NATO. The spectacular failure makes the upcoming NATO July 11 summit in Vilnius even more incandescent.

The Chinese, much like Lavrov, also cut to the chase: the Global Times asserted that the idea of "Wagner's revolt weakening Putin's authority is wishful thinking of the West," with the Kremlin's "strong capacity of deterrence" further increasing its authority. That's exactly the reading of the Russian street.

The Chinese reached their conclusion after a crucial visit by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Rudenko, who promptly flew to Beijing on Sunday, June 25. This is how the iron-clad strategic partnership works in practice.

Without the public support of any political figure in Russia, military or police unit, regional governor, or the officers of his Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin and his thousand rank-and-filers have agreed to return to their base camps on terms negotiated late on Saturday afternoon between Prigozhin and Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus President.

The one-armed rebellion has failed with recriminations, immunity from prosecution, and almost no bloodshed. The Kremlin solution has followed the precedent of General Alexander Lebed's rebellion against President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, not the violent end of the rebellion of Yemelyan Pugachev (left) of 1773-75.

Dmitry Rogozin, who was one of the strategists of Lebed's campaign for the presidency and later became a deputy prime minister under President Vladimir Putin, made the difference clear in a statement he issued early on Saturday, before Putin spoke at 10 o'clock.

"I know the situation at the front as well as Prigozhin and I have never hidden my position, but whatever the explanation for an armed rebellion, it is still an armed rebellion in the rear of a belligerent army. In a war, you have to shove your political ambitions up your ass and support the front with all your might. Any attempts to weaken it are nothing but aiding the enemy."

Another of Lebed's comrades of 27 years ago, Sergei Glazyev, followed with a repudiation of Prigozhin of his own. None of the well-known critics of Putin on domestic policy, nor the military bloggers who have attacked the tactical management and strategic priorities of the Special Military Operation, supported Prigozhin.

The House of Representatives included a rule in the annual defence bill passed last Thursday banning the Department of Defence from funding organisations that police and rank news sites according to how 'reliable' they are. This is particularly good news because the rule singled out the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), Graphika, NewsGuard and other organisations that deliberately try to 'disrupt' the funding of news publishing sites on the grounds that they publish 'misinformation', 'disinformation', 'malinformation' and 'hate speech' - deliberately vague terms that are often applied to information and opinions that these organisations disapprove of or believe their funders disapprove of.

Rich McCormick, a Republican Representative from Georgia, who sponsored the amendment, said:

"Proud to pass my amendment that prohibits the Department of Defense from contracting with any one of a number of 'misinformation' or 'disinformation' monitors that rate news and information sources. While these media monitors claim to be nonpartisan, the reality is they are not."

The recent emergence of 'media monitors' like the GDI, Graphika and NewsGuard has opened up a new front in the battle for online free speech.

"At exactly the point of the AFU's weakest moment and near-collapse on the battlefield he chose to strike Russia in the back as if obviously driven by a hidden hand."
— Simplicius on Substack

You'd think that the hapless DC neocons, Antony Blinken and his boss, Victoria Nuland, plus the gang at Spook Central, would have learned a lesson about the diminishing returns of color revolutions: namely, that these bold pranks blow back... and not in a good way.

The New York Times informs us that US Intel was well aware weeks beforehand of the developing coup attempt by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his personal army, the Wagner Group. Congressional leaders were briefed a day prior to its roll-out. Well, golly, can you suppose for a New York minute that Russia's intel agency didn't know all about it, too?

The 2003 war was not a crime because President George W. Bush was never charged, John Kerry has insisted...

The US-led invasion of Iraq was completely different to the current Ukraine conflict, Washington's special envoy for climate change John Kerry has told French TV channel LCI.

He appeared on LCI's Sunday evening show hosted by Darius Rochebin, who had previously interviewed him for a Swiss outlet in 2017. Rochebin tweeted a video segment of the interview, in which he confronted Kerry about the West accusing Russia of aggression regarding Ukraine. The French journalist noted that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was an actual war of aggression, based on the lie that Baghdad secretly possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"No," Kerry replied. "Because there's never even been, you know, a process of direct accusation of President [George W.] Bush himself."

He added that there had been "abuses" in the course of that conflict, and that he "spoke out against them." When Rochebin asked him directly whether the Iraq War had been a crime of aggression, Kerry repeatedly denied it.

"No, No, No. Well, you didn't know it was a lie at the time. The evidence that was produced, people didn't know that it was a lie," the former diplomat said, before telling Rochebin that he doesn't intend to "re-debate the Iraq War" at this point.

The stalled effort is actually "some kind of preparatory operation," the Ukrainian Defense Minister insists...

Expected results from Kiev's ongoing counteroffensive against Russia have been "overestimated," Ukraine's Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov has claimed. The offensive by Ukrainian forces should be treated as "some kind of preparatory operation" rather than a decisive battle, he added.

Reznikov gave an interview to Fox News which was published on Sunday, in which he insisted Kiev had never planned the offensive to be a "blitzkrieg." The minister admitted that the Russians had erected "very strong defensive lines" all along the frontline.

"It's some kind of preparatory operation, shape operation certainly. And we understand that they use very strong defense lines, especially minefields. The 'expectation was overestimated' for the Ukrainian 'counteroffensive plan'."

At the same time, the minister insisted the stalled effort was the "next step to victory."

Arnon Milchan begins testimony via video link in Israeli prime minister's corruption trial

An Israeli producer of blockbuster Hollywood films has taken the stand in Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial, describing how he routinely delivered tens of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars and other gifts requested by the Israeli prime minister.

Arnon Milchan, who appeared by video-conference from the UK city of Brighton, near where he is based, is a key witness whose testimony is essential for prosecutors who are trying to prove that Netanyahu committed fraud and breach of trust in one of three cases brought against him.

Prosecutors hope Milchan's testimony, which began on Sunday and is expected to run through this week and next, will paint a picture of plush favours granted to Netanyahu and his wife that allegedly spurred him to use his position of power to advance Milchan's interests. The defence will try to lay out its case that Netanyahu was not acting in Milchan's personal interests and that the gifts were just friendly gestures.

Prosecution and defence lawyers are questioning Milchan in a hotel conference room in Brighton. No journalists are allowed to be present, but Netanyahu's wife Sara, who is on a private visit to Britain, will sit in.