Investigators raided the French Justice Ministry as part of a conflict of interest probe into Eric Dupond-Moretti, the minister whose drive to introduce filmed court proceedings and re-write the judges' training book has angered the legal profession.

A source with first hand knowledge of the case said the raid was carried out by investigators working for a special court that deals with complaints against serving ministers.

The Justice Ministry, housed in an elegant 18th century palace in central Paris next to the Ritz Hotel, declined to give immediate comment.

In my time as a US intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, I was twice privy to the former US defense secretary's MO: to manufacture and manipulate 'intelligence' so as to start wars. The Devil will need to watch his back.

While I never met Donald Rumsfeld in person, our paths crossed indirectly on several occasions. What I learnt from these experiences hardened my heart toward a man who caused so much harm based on actions that placed ambition over integrity.

In the days following my September 3, 1998, testimony before a joint session of the Senate Armed Forces and Foreign Affairs Committees, where I challenged the US government's inconsistent policies regarding the disarmament of Iraq, I received a letter from the former defense secretary. When I heard yesterday that Rumsfeld had passed away at the age of 88, I re-read the letter and ruminated about the man who wrote it, and how I felt about him in retrospect.

So, the War on Reality is going splendidly. Societies all across the world have been split into opposing, irreconcilable realities. Neighbors, friends, and even family members are bitterly divided into two hostile camps, each regarding the other as paranoid psychotics, delusional fanatics, dangerous idiots, and, in any event, as mortal enemies.

In the UK, Germany, and many other countries, and in numerous states throughout the US, a "state of emergency" remains in effect. An apocalyptic virus is on the loose. Mutant variants are spreading like wildfire. Most of society is still shut down or subject to emergency health restrictions. People are still walking around in public with plastic face shields and medical-looking masks. The police are showing up at people's homes to arrest them for "illegally gathering outdoors." Any deviation from official reality is being censored by the Internet corporations. Constitutional rights are still suspended. Entire populations are being coerced into being injected with experimental "vaccines." Pseudo-medical segregation systems are being brought online. And so on ... you're familiar with the details.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, and a few other countries, and in various other states throughout the US, there is no apocalyptic pandemic. People are just going about their lives as normal. OK, sure, there is a nasty virus going around, so people are taking common sense precautions, as people typically do for any nasty virus, but there is no "state of emergency" in effect, and no reason to radically transform society into a paranoid, pathologized-totalitarian dystopia.

This state of affairs, in which two contradictory, mutually-exclusive realities exist, is ... well, it's impossible, and so it cannot continue. Either there exists a devastating global pandemic that justifies a global "state of emergency," the suspension of constitutional rights, and the other totalitarian "emergency measures" we have been subjected to since March of 2020 or there doesn't. It really is as simple as that.

Secret military documents found at a Kent bus stop show us how British foreign policy works. The papers were reportedly found by a member of the public and then ended up with the BBC.

The documents contained important details of a naval confrontation between Russian forces and a UK warship. And an investigation is being conducted into their loss. The documents provide a brief snapshot of the UK's international conduct and also ask serious questions about it.

We do live in extraordinary times.

On the day of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), President Xi Jinping, in Tiananmen square, amid all the pomp and circumstance, delivered a stark geopolitical message:

The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to intimidate, oppress or subjugate them. Anyone who tries to do this will find themselves on a collision course with a large steel wall forged by more than 1.4 billion Chinese.

I have offered a concise version of the modern Chinese miracle - which has nothing to do with divine intervention, but "searching truth from facts" (copyright Deng Xiaoping), inspired by a solid cultural and historical tradition.

The "large steel wall" evoked by Xi now permeates a dynamic "moderately prosperous society" - a goal achieved by the CCP on the eve of the centennial. Lifting over 800 million people out of poverty is a historical first - in every aspect.

As in all things China, the past informs the future. This is all about xiaokang - which may be loosely translated as "moderately prosperous society".

The concept first appeared no less than 2,500 years ago, in the classic Shijing ("The Book of Poetry"). The Little Helmsman Deng, with his historical eagle eye, revived it in 1979, right at the start of the "opening up" economic reforms.

Now compare the breakthrough celebrated in Tiananmen - which will be interpreted all across the Global South as evidence of the success of a Chinese model for economic development - with footage being circulated of the Taliban riding captured T-55 tanks across impoverished villages in northern Afghanistan.

History Repeating: this is something I saw with my own eyes over twenty years ago.

The Taliban now control nearly the same amount of Afghan territory they did immediately before 9/11. They control the border with Tajikistan and are closing in on the border with Uzbekistan.

Exactly twenty years ago I was deep into yet another epic journey across Karachi, Peshawar, the Pakistan tribal areas, Tajikistan and finally the Panjshir valley, where I interviewed Commander Masoud - who told me the Taliban at the time were controlling 85% of Afghanistan.

Three weeks later Masoud was assassinated by an al-Qaeda-linked commando disguised as "journalists" - two days before 9/11. The empire - at the height of the unipolar moment - went into Forever Wars on overdrive, while China - and Russia - went deep into consolidating their emergence, geopolitically and geoeconomically.

We are now living the consequences of these opposed strategies.

The new memoir by former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has drawn wide criticism for his failure to accept any blame on the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes, and his claims that when he and others promoted falsehoods about Iraq WMD they were merely minor "misstatements," not lies. But among his other misdeeds was offering misleading statements to the American public about the progress of the war in Iraq, often blaming journalists for being far too critical.

WikiLeaks' massive "war logs" release on Iraq last October exposed Rumsfeld in this regard over and over, but were quickly forgotten by mainstream journalists — even though the material was not "political" or even from the media but rather from U.S. soldiers on the ground. That's one reason I cover them in-depth (along with all the other WIkiLeaks releases and current controversies) in my new book The Age of WikiLeaks.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state of California ran afoul of the First Amendment by ordering charities to disclose the names and addresses of donors.

The 6-3 ruling is a win for advocates of privacy rights and the freedom of association.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion for the court, joined by the other five conservative justices.

"Our cases have said that disclosure requirements can chill association," he wrote. "The disclosure requirement 'creates an unnecessary risk of chilling' in violation of the First Amendment."

The three Democratic appointees disagreed with the ruling.

On Wednesday, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff toured the Isaac Middle School vaccination clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. This was their last stop on the Vaccine Month of Action Tour, an effort to make "every single person in America" get the jab.

They were just 2.2 miles down the street from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the historic Arizona audit. They should really tour that facility.

China's growing confidence was highlighted in a thunderous speech by Xi Jinping at an event to mark the Communist Party's centenary, at which he promised the country would no longer be oppressed by foreign powers.

If anyone needed a marker of where China has come from, where it is now, and where it is heading, it came at Thursday's event celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party (CPC), where Xi Jinping made a defiant address. Xi stated:

"no one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will never allow anyone to bully, oppress, or subjugate China," adding that anyone who tries to do so would "have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of Steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people."

He also praised the accomplishment of a "moderately prosperous society," reflecting on China's rapid economic development.

The West might be keen to dismiss all this as propaganda, yet China's trajectory speaks for itself. While the speech did not cover the disruptions along the way - including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both inflicted on the country by Mao Zedong's power struggles and ideological adventurism - the message was clear: what the CPC has delivered is both credible and substantial.

A total of 113 organizations have called on President Joe Biden to "disavow" and end overseas drone strikes carried out by the US government, saying it is imperative to both ending "forever wars" and "promoting racial justice."

Numerous anti-war and human rights organizations, including ones from countries including Yemen and Somalia, have attached their names to the letter, which was released on Wednesday and organized by the Human Rights and Security Coalition.
The groups praise Biden's promise to end the "forever wars" in the Middle East - though his administration abandoned former president Donald Trump's set goal of leaving Afghanistan by May and delayed the withdrawal. They also laud Biden's administration for "promoting racial justice" and "centering human rights in US foreign policy."

"Disavowing and ending" the US' drone strikes, however, is "imperative" in meeting previously set commitments to the goals the administration has set, the letter argues.