August 23^rd was a big news day all over the world. The western media's focus on the events of that day was solidly on the unproven claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the sabotage or shooting down of an executive jet that killed his former associate Yevgeny Prigozhin. In reality, however, there was a far more important story that was coming out of South Africa. In fact, Putin had a far more important job to do on that day due to his desire to make progress in stripping the United States of its dollar hegemony. Putin was engaged by videolink in the discussions taking place in Johannesburg regarding expanding the so-called BRICS monetary union, in part to include measures that would diminish the dominance of the dollar in the world economy. That objective would have been damaged severely if Putin had been implicated in the spectacular public assassination of a rival on the same day as the BRICS meeting that would have been not only an embarrassment but also very damaging vis-a-vis his credibility as a statesman. If Putin had really wanted to kill Prigozhin, there were less politically damaging ways to do so and as of this writing the cause of the airplane crash remains unknown. By one theory, the death of Prigozhin was carried out by an airplane bomb planted by US or British intelligence working with Ukrainian agents inside Russia to discredit the Russian leader, knowing that even if he were innocent he would be blamed for the killing, which is precisely how the story has been developing in the US and Europe.

The name BRICS comes from an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill reportedly coined the term BRIC (without South Africa) in 2001 and the group was set up a few years later using the acronym. Recently, the drive to expand BRICS has gained momentum as a result of the completely avoidable Ukraine war. The venerable status quo for international finance was developed in the wake of the Second World War at Bretton-Woods, where the instruments of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created, to include endorsing the dollar as the de facto world reserve currency for many transactions. The entire structure is, by design, managed by a transatlantic capitalist cabal based in Washington.

Files relating to Prince Andrews numerous business trips will not be released until 2065, meaning the disgraced Duke will not face public scrutiny unless he lives to the age of 105.

The Duke of York's correspondence with Ministers - including details of dealings as a trade ambassador - came to light in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made to the Foreign Office made by royal biographer Andrew Lownie.

Several requests were made by the royal expert seeking further information on numerous business trips - which were usually paid for by the taxpayer - taken by the Prince, now 63.

The US, UK and European Union are making a new push to convince the United Arab Emirates to stop the flow of goods to Russia that could help in its war against Ukraine.

Officials from Washington and European capitals are visiting the UAE this week where they will raise concerns with their Emirati counterparts about the trade of dual-use products like computer chips and electronic devices, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The visit is not surprising. For months now, senior US officials have publicly labelled the UAE "a country of focus" as they look to clamp down on Russia's evasion of Western sanctions.

In a one-sentence notice on its website on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Premier Li Qiang would represent China at the G20 summit in New Delhi later this week.

The apparent snub appeared to confirm earlier reports that President Xi Jinping will not attend.

It comes with Beijing facing Western pressure on Beijing over its stance on Russia's war in Ukraine and amid worsening relations between India and China.

"NATO's noble lies are contradicted by the facts on the ground, by Haiti, Palestine, Syria and the terrible carnage for absolutely nothing in Ukraine."

The recent statement on Haiti by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova is scary in its starkness. In speaking of "pervasive rape," "extreme hunger" and other recurring features of modern Haitian society, she echoes UN and human rights spokespeople that only large contingents of foreign special forces troops can restore even a semblance of law and order there.

High up in the Himalayas, we have the Indians building the world's largest and most expensive mountain tunnel so that they can rush troops to the Chinese border all the quicker. Just over the border, we have the Chinese building the world's largest dam, which will dwarf even the Yangtze's Three Gorges Dam. Leaving to one side the ecological fallouts from these projects, we can be sure the Yanks will bomb one or both of them at the most opportune moment to get the world's most populous country at the throat of the world's second most populous country. Divide and conquer, as the Caesars had it.

Israel, which seems to have carte blanche to rob, maim and murder, is barely worth a comment, except to say that their back story, that a God, most of them do not believe in, told the British and French at the end of The Great War to allow these fascists to rob this land of milk and honey from the Palestinians, its rightful owners. Though their back story is obvious nonsense, it works as they get legions of others to be fully complicit in their crimes.

The weaponization and militarization of the federal government continues unabated as Congress and the states sit back and do nothing...

When the corporate media asked the IRS why it needed automatic weapons, millions of rounds of ammunition and heavily armed staffers trained in the "use of deadly force," they said it was for "administrative reasons."

But we now know that the globalists are not just arming the IRS, along with just about every other federal agency. They are militarizing these agencies to the hilt with military-grade weapons not available to American citizens.

Why, for instance, would the IRS need armored vehicles, flash-bang grenades loaded with tear gas, and .40-caliber submachine guns?

The IRS has been arming up for at least ten years. At the end of 2017, the IRS had 4,487 firearms and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition in its weapons cache, according to an August 8, 2022, Forbes article, "Inflation Reduction Act Unleashes A Tougher IRS." You can bet they've got a lot more than that stored up six years later in 2023.

Here's an excerpt from the Forbes article:

"The Schumer-Manchin tax bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the Senate on Sunday, raises taxes and will give the IRS billions to go into what the Wall Street Journal called 'beast mode.'"

The video below by Mark Gifford, a pastor from Lee's Summit, Missouri, who runs the God Family and Guns YouTube channel, explains why this militarization is taking place.

Top U.S. officials are speaking at cross purposes when it comes to Julian Assange. What is really going on? asks Joe Lauria.

It was a little more than perplexing. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Australian soil, left no doubt about how his government feels about one of Australia's most prominent citizens.

Blinken, in Brisbane on July 31 with the Australian foreign minister at his side, said:

"I understand the concerns and views of Australians. I think it's very important that our friends here understand our concerns about this matter. What our Department of Justice has already said repeatedly, publicly, is this: Mr. Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country. So I say that only because just as we understand sensitivities here, it's important that our friends understand sensitivities in the United States."

In other words, when it comes to Julian Assange, the U.S. elite cares little for what Australians have to say. There are more impolite ways to describe Blinken's response. Upwards of 88 percent of Australians and both parties in the Australian government have told Washington to free the man. And Blinken essentially told them to stuff it. The U.S. won't drop the case.

A few days before Blinken spoke, Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia and daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, was also dismissive of Australians' concerns, telling Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio:

"I met with Parliamentary supporters of Julian Assange and I've listened to their concerns and I understand that this has been raised at the highest levels of our government, but it is an ongoing legal case, so the Department of Justice is really in charge but I'm sure that for Julian Assange it means a lot that he has this kind of support but we're just going to have to wait to see what happens."

The US says Beijing is 'uninvestable' for the private sector - but the communist state keeps opening up...

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo recently went on an official visit to China, announcing the establishment of new communication channels between the US Commerce Department and its Chinese counterpart. But she also said that she's hearing from US companies that "China is uninvestable because it's become too risky." While her comments are obviously disingenuous given the context of Washington's trade war with Beijing, they do slightly hint at an ongoing debate within China that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is keenly aware of.

To address the obvious, the US had routinely violated its own World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations to launch a foolhardy trade war during the administration of former President Donald Trump. But once a new administration, and a new political party, entered the White House, it didn't stop there. The Biden administration also announced restrictions on outbound foreign investment in China's high-tech fields, like semiconductors, quantum computing, supercomputing, and artificial intelligence - all sectors deemed a national security risk by the US.

Biden has similarly tried to strangle China's access to crucial semiconductors, last year tightening a chip-export ban to China that banned sales and access to chipmaking technology in an effort to close off Beijing's technological development. Just days after taking office, Biden also strengthened an executive order by his predecessor in delisting Chinese firms from US exchanges.

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says that under his own "fraud" standard, Special Counsel Jack Smith could be indicted for omitting a key portion of then-President Donald Trump's speech in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.

The indictment charges Trump with four counts, including "conspiracy to defraud the United States." But in a portion recounting Trump's speech at the "Stop the Steal" rally, Smith repeats the errors made by House Democrats in Trump's second impeachment trial: he focuses on Trump's use of the phrase "fight like hell," and omits a sentence highlighted by Trump's defense team:

"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."

Dershowitz told the Megyn Kelly Show podcast on Friday that by his own standard, Smith could be charged with fraud, because of his omission of Trump's "peaceful" rhetoric.

"Under the indictment itself, Jack Smith could be himself indicted. He told a direct lie in this indictment. He purported to describe the speech that President Trump made on January 6th. And he left out the key words, when President Trump said, 'I want you to demonstrate peacefully and patriotically.' You know, a lie by omission, under the law, can be as serious as a lie by commission."

The fact that Smith repeated the error of the House impeachment managers would appear deliberate, because these phrases were the crux of Trump's Senate trial. Trump's lawyers even played footage of Democrats using similar "fight" rhetoric, to show its common usage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will ask his country's parliament to dismiss Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov this week, and he wants Rustem Umerov to be his successor.

Zelensky's decision, which he announced during his nightly address on Sunday, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of the country's defense leadership since Russia invaded more than a year and a half ago. Reznikov has been defense minister since Nov. 2021.

"I've decided to replace the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war. I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole."

Reznikov has helped secure billions of dollars of Western military aid to help the war effort, but he, among others, has faced graft allegations surrounding his ministry that he has characterized as smears. He was supposed to come to Washington, D.C., this week.