Category: Foreign

  • Putin to deliver state of the union address Feb. 29

    Putin to deliver state of the union address Feb. 29

    Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is to deliver his state of the nation address on Feb. 29, two weeks before the presidential election in which he is seeking another six-year term.

    Putin will address the Federal Assembly about his goals for the coming year, the Kremlin said yesterday.

    It is all but certain that Putin would secure a fifth term in the elections ion March 15 to March 17.

    The candidates on the ballot who were not from United Russia, the party associated with Putin, supported his policies, meaning there was no genuine political competition.

    The war in Ukraine is expected to loom large in the speech to be broadcast on state television.

    February 29 is just five days after the two-year anniversary of Putin’s all-out invasion. 

    Putin has promoted a prison officer days after the death of leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny.

    Deputy head of FSIN prison authority, Valery Boyarinev, was promoted to colonel general of Ministry of Internal Affairs.

    The director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was established by Navalny, wrote on his Telegram channel that Boyarinev was responsible for Navalny’s torture in prison.

    “This must be understood as Putin’s open reward for the torture,’’ Ivan Zhdanov said of Boyarinev’s promotion.

    Read Also: Putin’s 143 million prisoners

    In July 2023, an order by Boyarinev to restrict the opposition politician’s ability to buy food and daily necessities became known during a court hearing against Navalny.

    The Kremlin has denied an international investigation demanded by European Union into the death.

    “We do not accept such demands at all,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday, according to Russian news agencies. Russia sees this as interference in its internal affairs.

    EU foreign policy Chief Josep Borrell had called for an independent international investigation into Navalny’s death.

    But Navalny’s spokeswoman said there was little hope of Russia releasing the body to his wife or mother anytime soon.

    The mother of Navalny has sent a video message to Putin pleading for his body to be released.

    In the one-minute video, Lyudmila Navalnaya stands outside the “Polar Wolf” prison camp where her son had been jailed while serving a decades-long sentence.

  • U.S. signals plan to block proposed Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN

    U.S. signals plan to block proposed Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN

    The United States has said it will block another resolution that will soon be presented at the United Nations urging a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza.

    Algeria has proposed a new resolution be put to a vote on Tuesday at the UN Security Council (UNSC) that seeks an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, while also demanding an “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

     “Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield in a statement on Saturday.

    The envoy said the resolution could “run counter” to the goals that Washington says can be achieved through diplomacy in talks between Israel and Hamas that Qatar and Egypt are also mediating.

    A potential agreement, which has been under discussion for weeks, proposes a weeks’ long truce, during which Israeli captives held in Gaza can be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and more humanitarian aid can enter the besieged Gaza Strip.

    Read Also: Gaza hospital officials missing after being summoned by Israeli forces

    The talks appeared to suffer a setback last week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas’s demands “ludicrous”, and mediator Qatar has said the discussions have not been promising.

    “The Council has the obligation to ensure that any action we take in the coming days increases pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal on the table,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

    The US has used its veto power to support Israel at the Security Council on dozens of occasions. It has done so several times since the start of the war on October 7, most recently in early December when it vetoed a ceasefire resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates.

    A UNSC resolution was passed in late December, but it was roundly criticised by human rights organisations and others for being a “watered down” version of the original proposal.

    The Algerian proposal for a vote on a new resolution comes amid growing fears that Israel is planning a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, home to around 1.4 million Palestinians displaced from other parts of the territory since October. Aid agencies and the UN have warned that a ground assault on Rafah could be catastrophic.

  • Brazilian president compares Gaza war to Holocaust

    Brazilian president compares Gaza war to Holocaust

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described yesterday ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza as “genocide,” comparing it to the acts of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, according to local media.

    “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Brazil’s Canal Gov channel quoted Lula da Silva as saying.

     “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit.

    “It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” he added.

    Israel yesterday criticized Silva for comparing the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip to Hitler’s Holocaust against Jews, with Tel Aviv announcing that it would summon the South American country’s envoy for an official protest today.

    In a statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called da Silva’s statements “shameful” and “serious.”

    “No one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself. I have ordered the people of my office to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand call tomorrow,” he added on X.

    Read Also: Gaza Strip at my doorstep

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Brazilian president “crossed a red line.”

     “The words of the president of Brazil are shameful and alarming,” he said in a statement. “This is about trivialising the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”

    The Israeli premier argued that Tel Aviv fights for its future “while upholding international law.”

    Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The ensuing Israeli attacks have killed nearly 29,000 and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities, while less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

    The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

    Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

  • Israel has achieved nothing, says Palestinian PM

    Israel has achieved nothing, says Palestinian PM

    Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned Israel yesterday, saying the government has “achieved nothing” other than death and destruction in Gaza since the war began in October.

    “We know it has been an Israeli programme to push the Palestinians out of Gaza,” he said at the Munich Security Conference. “The Israelis can’t speak for anything but the reality speaks for itself.

    “(Benjamin) Netanyahu has achieved nothing until now. He killed 28,000 people. He injured 70,000 people and he destroyed 281,000 housing units. This is the only thing that Israel has achieved in Gaza until this single minute.”

    Prospects of a ceasefire in Gaza dimmed on Saturday as the US vowed to veto a draft UN resolution calling for an immediate end to fighting in the battered enclave, where Israeli forces have killed almost 29,000 Palestinians.

    Israel has repeatedly rejected pleas for a ceasefire, saying it will not stop attacks on Gaza until it has “complete victory” over the Hamas militant group.

    Washington has said a proposal put forward by Algeria would not achieve what negotiators have wrangled for weeks to secure, including a hostage exchange deal, an extended pause in fighting and increased humanitarian aid into Gaza.

    Read Also: How Israeli govt constantly attacks Palestinians, by envoy

    Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said Washington was working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, which would bring an “immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks”.

    The Algerian proposal, she said, “would not achieve these outcomes, and indeed, may run counter to them. We have communicated this concern repeatedly to our colleagues on the council. For that reason, the United States does not support action on this draft resolution.”

    Palestinian officials told The National the resolution would be put before the Security Council on Tuesday. Guyana, which this month holds the rotating presidency, did not immediately confirm this.

    This would be the third ceasefire resolution to be vetoed by the U.S., which has criticised previous measures for not condemning the Hamas attacks of October 7.

    In Munich, Shtayyeh called for an “immediate ceasefire” and said the international community must put pressure on Israel to halt its planned offensive on the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter after fleeing Israeli attacks on northern and central areas of Gaza.

    “Everyone should be holding Israel responsible for the atrocities,” he added.

    He later confirmed Moscow has invited Palestinian factions for talks on February 26.

  • Trump unveils ‘Never Surrender’ footwear

    Trump unveils ‘Never Surrender’ footwear

    Straight off the back of being ordered to pay more than $300 million in his high-profile fraud trial, Donald Trump has already embarked upon a new money-making scheme – selling trainers.

    The former president unveiled his new “Never Surrender” high-top shoes at SneakerCon in Philadelphia on Saturday.

    The golden shoes began with a hefty price tag of $399, but have already been resold for many times more online.

    The first “official” piece of Trump merchandise gels well with two of the former president’s favourite things – America, and himself.

    The bright gold high-top shoes are emblazoned with a large “T” on the side, with the U.S. flag stitched around the collar, providing “both style and comfort” and described as “perfect for any Trump supporter”.

    Customers are once again being offered to “be a part of history” by buying the shoes, with only 1000 pairs supposedly being made.

    Each pair is numbered and “at least 10 pairs” will be autographed by Trump, according to the website selling the shoes.

    “They’re for the go-getters who don’t know the word quit. With a standout gold finish and the ‘T’ badge, these kicks are for true Patriots,” a description reads.

    “Wrapped with an American flag on the collar, they shout out to the brave and the free. The Never Surrender sneakers are your rally cry in shoe form. Lace-up and step out ready to conquer.”

    Two other pairs of shoes are also available; a pair of white “POTUS” shoes, and another pair of red “T-Wave” shoes.

    The “Never Surrender” high tops have a hefty price tag of $399, but the shoes have already sparked fierce bidding wars online due to their exclusivity.

    Read Also: Trump not immune from election subversion charges, Us Court rules

    A quick eBay search yesterday showed a pair of the shoes going for just short of $5,000. One Maga supporter claimed to have paid $9,000 bidding on an autographed pair.

    The high tops are already sold out online, with further pre-orders available, according to the website.

    The two other pairs of shoes available online are both retailing for $199 on the website.

    The new website also sells other Trump-branded shoes and “Victory47” cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle.

    Despite the shoes and website espousing Trump-like rhetoric of the kind often seen on his campaign trail, the website claims to have no connection to “any political campaign”.

    The former president was met with loud boos as well as cheers at the Philadelphia Convention Center as he introduced the footwear.

    “There’s a lot of emotion in this room,” he said of the reaction, after holding up and showing off a pair of gold shoes, then placing one on each side of his podium.

    “This is something that I’ve been talking about for 12 years, 13 years. And I think it’s going to be a big success.”

    Trump campaign officials promoted the appearance in online posts.

  • 400 detained as Russians mourn death of Navalny

    400 detained as Russians mourn death of Navalny

    Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported Yesterday.

    His body has been taken to the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital’s morgue, Novaya Gazeta Europe reports, but as of Saturday no post-mortem examination had been performed.

    A paramedic for the Salekhard ambulance service told the news outlet usual procedure did not appear to be followed in the wake of his death.

    “Usually, the bodies of people who die in prison are taken straight to the Bureau of Forensic Medicine… but in this case, it was taken to the clinical hospital for some reason,” he said.

    “They drove him to the morgue, brought him in, and then stationed two policemen in front of the door.

    “They might as well have put up a sign saying ‘something mysterious is going on here’.”

    The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the future on President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms.

    The news reverberated across the globe, with many world leaders blaming the death on President Vladimir Putin and his government. In an exchange with reporters shortly after leaving a Saturday church service, President Joe Biden reiterated his stance that Putin was ultimately to blame for Navalny’s death. “The fact of the matter is, Putin is responsible. Whether he ordered it, he’s responsible for the circumstance,” Biden said. “It’s a reflection of who he is. It cannot be tolerated.”

    Read Also: UK: 50,000 Russians dead or wounded in Ukraine

    Meanwhile, Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, published a picture of the couple on Instagram yesterday in her first social media post since her husband’s death. The caption read simply: “I love you.” Hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician. In over a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid.

    More than 200 arrests were made in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, the group said. Among those detained there was Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church — a religious group independent of the Russian Orthodox Church — who announced plans on social media to hold a memorial service for Navalny and was arrested on Saturday morning outside his home. He was charged with organizing a rally and placed in a holding cell in a police precinct, but was later hospitalised with a stroke, OVD-Info reported.

    Courts in St. Petersburg have ordered 42 of those detained on Friday to serve from one to six days in jail, while nine others were fined, court officials said late on Saturday. In Moscow, at least six people were ordered to serve 15 days in jail, according to OVD-Info. One person was also jailed in the southern city of Krasnodar and two more in the city of Bryansk, the group said.

    The news of Navalny’s death came a month before a presidential election in Russia that is widely expected to give President Vladimir Putin another six years in power.

    Questions about the cause of death lingered, and it remained unclear when the authorities would release Navalny’s body. More than 12,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for the politician’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said yesterday.

  • Nigerian is UK School of Health’s overall best graduate

    Nigerian is UK School of Health’s overall best graduate

    A Nigerian, Douye Nomayo, has received the prize for the best overall performance in the School of Health and Psychological Sciences at City, University of London.

    The medical doctor, who graduated with a distinction, received the prize after obtaining a Master’s degree in Health Policy from the university.

    Before migrating to the United Kingdom (UK), Nomayo worked at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, for nine years.

    In a statement, the award winner said she decided to pursue a second degree in Health Policy because of her interest in the area.

    “During my time spent working in the hospital, I saw the suffering people went through to access healthcare due to high cost or unavailability.

    Read Also: Nigerian emerges overall best in UK school of health

    “I realised that healthcare practitioners must get more involved in politics in order to get the problems in the health sector on the political agenda quickly. I set out to understand the financial and political aspects of policy-making in healthcare and learnt how to formulate, evaluate and improve on existing policies.

    “Several countries have gone through health system reforms and their experiences can be leveraged upon to produce changes that will be financially feasible and acceptable to both healthcare providers and the Nigerian population,” she said.

    Also, Nomayo blamed the migration of Nigerian medical professionals to foreign countries, particularly the UK and the United States, on insecurity and economic factors.

    “The level of insecurity became so high, forcing so many people to leave. A lot of medical doctors were kidnapped, and some were even killed,” she said.

    According to her, medical professionals are not adequately paid for their work, while most of the hospitals in Nigeria are poorly equipped.

  • The Israel of Shaitan

    The Israel of Shaitan

    Whilst much of the world and most of America watched the superbowl the other night, the State of Israel was busy bombing and slaughtering the Christian and Muslim women and children of Rafah and its sprawling refugee camp in far away Gaza.

    100 innocent and defenceless people were killed, most of whom were women and children, in the space of a few hours of relentless bombing.

    Israel has expressed her intention to continue to bomb and unleash horror on Rafah despite the stern  warnings and desperate pleas from the rest of the world not to do so including her two greatest allies and closest friends, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

    The Jewish state has murdered no less and probably far more than 35,000 Palestinian civilians in the last four months, 17,000 of whom are children, and injured over 100,000.

    I am compelled and constrained by my faith and love for humanity to oppose and resist such a monstrous entity that is given to commiting such inhumane and genocidal crimes against my fellow human beings for WHATEVER reason and neither can I be expected to confer on it some far-fetched and illusionary notion of “the right to exist”.

    Surely no country, particularly one which was artificially-created and which was built on the blood, sweat, suffering, toil, tears and bones of the Palestinian people like the Zionist state, has the right to exist.

    The oppressor has no right to exist if that “right” entails cheating, pillaging, plundering, enslaving, murdering at will and occupying the land of the oppressed.

    The usurper, the conqueror, the pillager, the rapist, the mass- murderer, the thief, the land-grabber, the ethnic cleanser, the butcher of the elderly and the murderer of women and children may have the weapons, wealth, international support, power, wherewithal and homicidal disposition to commit and get away with his horrendous crimes against humanity but he has no “right to exist” other than the one that he forcefully and erroneously appropriated and conferred upon himself.

    He exists and commits such unspeakable atrocities only because he has the power to do so and to get away with them and not because he has any right to exist.

    Great nations and powerful empires come and great nations and powerful empires go.

    That is the way of the world, it is inevitable and it is well reflected in history.

    The Babylonian, Persian, Mongol, Ottoman, Roman, British, Spanish, Russian, Han and Greek empires collectively and respectively once ruled the civilised world and their power was deemed to be never-ending and irresistible but where are they today?

    They had their time, sometimes stretching into hundreds of years, but eventually they crumbled and were compelled by the force of circumstances which were beyond their control to relinquish power, to leave the scene, to crumble and to eventually vanish into the night.

    And in that crumbling their so-called “right to exist”  solely for the purpose of destroying, enslaving, subjugating and tormenting others disappeared into the night with them.

    So it shall be for the Zionist state if she does not repent, go back to God and change her wicked ways.

    Like Juilus Caesar she came, she saw and she conquered.

    From the time that she was re-established 75 long years ago she boastfully flaunted her awesome power, magnificent glory, unprecedented excellence and stupendous wealth over much of the world and particularly over the Palestinian people.

    Like the Virgin Daughter of Babylon who was graphically displayed and meticulously described in Isaiah 47 of the Holy Bible she loudly and boastfully proclaimed to the world and all that cared to listen that “I AM and there is none besides me!”

    Yet despite her hubristic pride and vainglorious proclamations of invincibility it is self-evident to the discerning that with her blind, vengeful and savage rage, her unconciable lack of restraint and self-discipline, her inexplicable descent into madness and the abominable atrocities that she is committing in Gaza on a daily basis her cup is full and the Most High God has set His heart and the people of the world against her just as He did 2000 years ago after they murdered our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

    He shall surely break her yoke, bring her to her knees, revoke her “right to exist”, scatter her to the four corners of the earth, compel her to vanish into the night and ensure that her insidious and perfidious intention to establish a “Greater Israel” whose borders stretch from Egypt to Iran crumbles and is blown away with the wind.

    The Zionist state’s sole purpose of existence is to crush, conquer, enslave and exterminate the Palestinian people in their nefarious and sinister expansionist quest and to deny them what is rightfully theirs including their identity, their history, their heritage, their land, their dignity

    and their lives.

    Worse still they seek to achieve this with the full backing and blind support of a Biden-led United States of America that is simply incapable of any rational thinking or being impartial when it comes to this matter and that has wilfully shunned world opinion, given a thumbs up to genocide, supplied aid, arms, money, and material support to the ethnic cleansers, abandoned the cause of the Palestinian people and given their oppressors the right, the weaponry and the means to wipe them off the face of the earth.

    Yet consider this.

    No matter how powerful she deems herself to be the Jewish state has an Achilles heel and a soft and vulnerable underbelly and she will NEVER achieve these objectives.

    More importantly in the fullness of time and in the process of trying she may well be totally crushed and removed from the map of the world.

    This is because God alone rules in the affairs of men and He is just and true.

    The Bible says He is slow to anger but irresistible in battle. His power is awesome, His majesty is irresistible and His justice is swift.

    He is a man of war and as the Bible asks, “who can stand against Him?”

    He contends against those who contend against us, He fights for the rights of the less privileged and the underdog and He rises in defence of the enslaved and the oppressed.

    He removes mighty Kings from their thrones in the blink of an eye and He causes paupers, the rejected, the hated and the deprived to rise up in power and excel.

    He is the father of the orphan and the husband of the widow.

    He is the champion of the poor, the needy, the elderly and the defenceless infant and He is the avenger of our blood.

    His name is the I Am That I Am, the Ancient of Days, the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the Lamb of God, the Ressurected Messiah, the Coming King and the Lord God of Hosts and at the appropriate time He will honor His word and rise up for the occupied, the cheated, the subjugated, the humiliated, the denied, the oppressed and the enslaved and strike down their strong tormentor.

    Simply put there is no place or space in todays world for the worst, most brazen, most primitive and most insidious form of racism, colonialism and fascism that today’s  Zionist State of Israel embodies, manifests and represents.

    And neither does a vicious, relentless, barbaric, cruel, heartless and blood-lusting apartheid Jewish state which is led by evil men who have lost their sense of reason, their minds and their humanity and who behave in a worse manner than the wildest of beasts have a right to exist.

    They LOST that right when they embarked on violating all international norms, laws and protocols and chose to target and kill Palestinian women and children for their sport and pleasure.

    And the sordid and reckless friends and company that they keep do not help matters.

    For example, egged in their insanity and to the brink of catastrophy by delusional clowns like the newly-elected Argentinian President who went to Israel a few days ago, wept at the praying wall in Jerusalem and proclaimed that the Jewish state should proceed to build the second Jewish Temple on the Al Aqsa mosque as soon as possible ignoring the fact that this would undoubtedly and instantly provoke millions of Muslims all over the world to violence, likely result in WW111 and probably end with the total and complete obliteration and annihilation of Israel, the Jewish state continues to wallow in her pitiful delusion of invincibility and infalliblity.

    I guess one cannot expect any better  counsel from a man who leads a Latin American country in which every single black person was wiped out, exterminated and eliminated at the outset on the grounds of not wanting their “beautiful” white bloodlines and unsullied Spanish heritage to be infiltrated, soiled, sulllied and diminished by the blood of the black African and which acted as a secure and valued safe haven for Hitler’s Nazis after World War 11.

    With friends like President Javier Milei of Argentina the Jews do not need any enemies!

    Surely this is not the Israel of King David, the greatest of all the Jewish Kings and a man who was described in the Holy Bible as being “a man after God’s heart”.

    This is not the Israel of Prime Minister Golda Meir, who described herself as being first and foremost “a Palestinian”.

    This is not the Israel of Prime Minister Yizthak Rabin who fought for peace with the Arabs and who was murdered by one of his own for doing so.

    This is the Israel of Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu, a bloodthirsty, deluded and demonic meglomaniac and tyrant who is not a Jew in the true sense of the word but rather a bloodlusting and fascitic Nazi and flaming Zionist.

    His is not the Ancient Israel of the Holy Bible which prided itself on decency, righteousness, the love and fear of God and justice but rather the Israel of the Rothchild family, the Israel of the Zionists and the Israel of shaitan.

    His is not the Israel that is the beloved of the Lord and the apple of God’s eye but an Israel that does not know or recognise God and one that has no sense of decency, goodness, mercy and compassion.

    His is not the Israel that is guarded jealousy by the Archangel Michael but rather an Israel that is led, guided, motivated and propelled by Beelzbub, Asmodeus and the principalities and demons of hell which seek to lead her to enmity with God and utter destruction.

    Yet as insane and extreme as Netanyahu appears to be his bellicose disposition is nothing compared to the utter psychotic  and sociopathic depravity of some of his cabinet Ministers such as the far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said that the Palestinian people should be driven into the Sinai desert or into the sea and who suggested that the 2.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip should be displaced and scattered into 100 different countries at 25,000 Gazans per country or the Minister of National Heritage, Amihai Ben Eliyahu, who said that a nuclear bomb should be dropped on Gaza and that everyone in it, including the women and children, should be sent to an early grave!

    If you think these outrageous submissions and nauseating contributions are, to say the least, shameful and unacceptable, I challenge you to listen to those that were made by some of Netanyahu’s other right wing Cabinet members such as the Minister of Intelligence, Gila Gamliel and the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich.

    Their views are truly beyond the pale and would make even Dr. Faustus’ demon, Mephistopheles, tremble.

    Yet it doesn’t stop there. Worse of them all is a modern-day Jezebel by the name of Tally Gotliv who is an Israeli MP and who, just a few days ago on the floor of the Israeli Knesset, said that the war must continue in Gaza, there must be no ceasefire, the occupation must be sustained, the siege must not be lifted and the people of Gaza should not be allowed one drop of water or one morsel of food and instead must be “starved to death!”

    This modern day harpy should have not been named Tally at all but rather Medusa the Gorgon or Cruella De Ville!

    Does anyone still believe that these bestial creatures are God’s chosen people or some kind of star-studded master race?

    They may be a chosen people but judging by their rhetoric, speech and actions they were not chosen by God but rather by the devil.

    To talk about wiping out a whole race of people with nuclear weapons is, to say the least, cold-blooded and barbaric and it is the kind of rhetoric that Hitler’s Nazis indulged in.

    It has no place whatsoever in todays world and whether it comes from the Jews or anyone else we must condemn it in the strongest terms.

    The State of Israel that I know, that I love, that I pray for everyday and that is eulogised, celebrated and  enunciated in the Holy Bible is not one and the same as the vile, callous, murderous, beastly, accursed and blood-drunk Zionist entity that is presided over by the creature called Bibi Netanyahu, that falsely and erroneously describes itself as Israel and that feeds and drinks on the blood, flesh, tears, misery and suffering of the Palestinian people.

    The Israel of old that I knew and loved was a shining beacon of light, love, joy, hope and goodness to the world and to humanity and was truly a blessing to all but Netanyahu’s Israel is a curse to the world and is shrouded in perfidy, deceit, evil and darkness.

    To those that still claim to love the Zionist state and who believe that they are above the law and can get away with anything I say this: search your conscience, find your humanity and always remember that God is fair and just.

    He will never support or encourage the barbaric things that Israel is doing in Gaza and neither can there be any blessing in supporting it.

    Be guided, be wise and never forget that every form of evil and oppression has an expiry date.

    For the Palestinian people and indeed all those from all over the world that stand by them and that are weeping for them, the night may be dark but joy comes in the morning!

    Permit me to end this contribution by sharing a little more about the nature, history, character and experiences of these beautiful Palestinian people that Israel wishes to remove from the records of history.

    Ever since the people of Gaza voted for Hamas in a free and fair election in 2006 Israel turned their entire territory into the worlds largest and most horrifying concentration camp and open prison.

    Right from the outset everything and everyone, including food, water, medical provisions, electricity and other essentials of life that went in and out of Gaza was controlled by the State of Israel.

    All her borders were closed and no-one could go into or come out of the Strip without the permission of the Jewish authorities.

    In addition to that no nation, corporation or individual from the international community was allowed to provide them with succour, aid or provisions without the permission of the Israelis which was almost impossible to get.

    They were treated like caged rats and they were subjected to what can best be described as a military siege and blockade from the land, the sea and the air right from the outset whilst their people, including women and children, were systematically targeted for humiliation, slaughtered, butchered, tortured, maimed, abducted, raped and murdered by members of the Israeli Defence Force whose greatest claim to fame for the last 20 years is the ability not to fight and win wars against other standing armies successfully but to rape, pillage and slaughter innocent and defenceless Palestinian civilians including women and children.

    Permit me to add the following which in my view serves as the ultimate indignity and humiliation.

    As a matter of policy the Israelis do not return the bodies of any Palestinian, whether man, woman or child, that dies in their prisons.

    If you are a Palestinian and you go to jail or are put in detention in Israel, if you die there you are NEVER going home to be buried and your loved ones will never see you or your body again.

    You will be denied the normal burial writes which are accorded to every himan being and your body will be dropped in some filthy hole in the corner of some rat and cockroach infested Israeli jail like that of a stray dog!

    This is utterly heartless but what is even worse is the fact that when Palestinians die or are killed by the Jews either on the battlefield, in their homes, in their hospitals, on their streets or indeed anywhere else and the Israeli Defence Force has access to their bodies they cut them open, remove their vital organs, take them back to Israel and sell them on the international black market!

    One is constrained to ask whether those that insist on doing such abominable things are really human beings?

    The Palestinians of Gaza are a people that have been living under the most grotesque, repressive, repressed and insidious form of bondage and occupation for the last few decades yet they remain strong, focused, fearless, resilient, gallant, heroic, confident, courageous and irrepressible.

    What makes the wickedness and cruelty that they have been subjected to all the more difficult for them to bear is the fact that contrary to Israeli and Western propaganda and their inexcusable and deplorable revision and outright perversion of history the Palestinians are a proud, noble, enlightened, refined, cosmopolitan, technologically-advanced, peace-loving people whose sacred values and noble heritage are second to none and whose rich history of peace, tolerance, civilisation, accommodation, religious diversity, charity, kindness and peaceful coexistence with their guests and neigbours goes back thousands of years.

    Again they are by far the best educated people in the Middle East and possibly amongst the best educated in the world with 30% of them being PhD holders whilst 99% of their over 14 million population are literate.

    There are seven million Palestinians living in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel put together whilst another seven million live in the diaspora and are spread all over the world doing skilled jobs, running businesses and attending universities and other institutions of higher learning.

    Abandoned by much of the Arab world in their struggle for emancipation due to American and Jewish influence and pressure, they have soldiered on regardless making huge contributions in science, the arts, commerce, sports and virtually every other field of human endeavour.

    Read Also: Erdogan, el-Sisi demand Israel halt looming offensive on Rafah

    They are not only industrious and hard working but they have remarkable foresight and have resolved never to bow, submit, capitulate or bend the knee to their Zionist oppressors and colonial masters but rather to stand firm, stand tall, maintain their self respect and dignity, thrive, survive and resist them till the very end even if it means that they all die trying.

    This courageous thirst and quest for freedom, emancipation and liberation despite the horrific circumstances they have been subjected to can only but be admired and applauded by all right thinking people.

    They are indeed a testimony to courage and a great source of inspiration to the downtrodden and those that the famous Afro-American author Franz Fanon described in his famous book titled ‘The Wretched of the Earth’.

    Like the black majority population of the old apartheid South Africa who stood firm against all odds, fought hard, held on to their dream of freedom and were martyred in their thousands for hundreds of years till it eventually came they have refused to bend the knee and become slaves to the Zionists and instead, like Patrick Henry the famous American revolutionary courageously proclaimed to King George 111 of England in 1775 they have defiantly shouted “give me liberty or give me death” and they have courageously screamed “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

    Literally every single Gazan and Palestinian is committed to this noble cause of liberation and is prepared to sacrifice their lives for it and nothing provides a more eloquent testimony to this than their willingness to protect themselves militarily and wage war against their oppressors.

    Consequently they manufacture virtually all of their own weapons and their ably-trained and well- equipped armed wing, known as the Al Qasam Brigade, has proved to be a formidable fighting force in battle and one which has given the Israeli Defence Force a bloody nose.

    I watched the Minister of Social Services of Gaza, Dr. Ghazi Hamad, who is a leading member and an influential and powerful figure in the Hamas Government speak on Seun Okinbaloye’s Channels Television ‘Politics Today’ show last tuesday evening and I was very impressed by the way he marshalled his points and stated his case.

    He spoke in a concise, eloquent, refined and effective manner and his arguments and submissions were irrefutable, incontrovertible and compelling.

    Millions of Nigerians were spell-bound and star-struck when they heard him as he calmly enunciated the truth about the events of October 7th (for which he refused to apologise) and the history of the Palestinian struggle.

    He made four notable points.

    Firstly that a person whose home or country has been forcefully occupied by a foreign power and aggressor and whose family members and compatriots are being killed on a daily basis cannot be legitimately described as a terrorist as a consequence of his quest to throw the occupier out and free his people by any means, including violent ones.

    This appears to me to be sound logic.

    You cannot beg a famished wolf to leave the sheep pen and you cannot appeal to a hungry tiger to leave the chicken coop. You can only drive them out by force.

    You either tread the path of violent resistance to evil or you shamefully submit, close your eyes, prepare for the worse and die a shameful and cowardly death.

    For those who have bought the lies of the West and Israel and that continue to dismiss Hamas as nothing but a terrorist organisation I ask the following.

    How can an occupier of someone elses land and a violent conqueror describe those whose land and people they have suppressed, conquered, subjugated, humiliated, enslaved and violently and forcefully appropriated describe their victims and those whose lives, homes and land they have taken and captured as terrorists simply because they have opted to undergo an armed struggle in an attempt to defend themselves, fight back, deliver their people and take back what is rightfully theirs?

    Surely those that resist such oppression cannot fairly be described as terrorists but rather as freedom fighters.

    This is precisely what happened in apartheid South Africa and after decades of suffering, degradation, oppression, subjugation, humiliation,  murder, persecution and destruction the black South Africans took their nation back through a gallant and courageous armed struggle which was waged by the armed wing of the ANC known as Umkontho We Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation).

    History is replete with such examples.

    The courageous and fiery black American preacher and slave Nat Turner did the same in the southern American state of Virginia when he led his fellow black slaves in a violent and murderous rebellion, known as the Southampton Insurrection, against their white slave owners in 1831.

    The Americans themselves waged a violent and bloody revolution and war of independence against the  oppression and subjugation of their erstwhile British colonial masters in 1775.

    The French broke their own shackles of bondage and oppression in 1789 with a violent and extremely bloody revolution against the subjugation of the monarchy and the ruling class durng which they killed or drove into exile most of the French upper classes and ruling elite and sent the King, his Queen and other members of his family to the guillotine.

    The English waged their own war of emancipation in 1642 when Oliver Cromwell unleashed a violent revolution and civil war against King Charles 1st and not only removed him from power and established the Parliamentary system of Government but also beheaded him!

    The Russians embarked on their own revolution in 1917 when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks fought a civil war against Tsar Nicholas 11, removed him from the throne, ended 300 years of the brutal oppression of the Romanov dynasty, took power for the people and established a Communist nation known as the USSR.

    Toussant Louverture did the same in Haiti in 1801 when he led his army of black slaves in a war of emancipation against the French, defeated them in battle and established the western worlds first free black nation.

    Closer to home Fl. Lt. John Jerry Rawlings freed the people of Ghana from oppression, corruption, subjugation and suppressive military rule in 1979 when he organised a coup detat and effected what he himself described as a revolution after which many members of the erstwhile ruling class were executed.

    I could go on and on.

    If armed struggle against the unjust, vicious, relentless usurper and wicked oppressor is a legitimate form of resistance in all these countries and cases and if it worked successfully for them why should the Palestinians not do the same?

    Are they not human beings too or are they less human than the rest of us? Do they not also have a duty to their people and indeed an obligation to God to resist every form of oppression, injustice and evil?

    Do the great faiths of Islam and Christianity not insist on this in their Holy books?

    They most surely do.

    The second point the Minister made when asked about whether or not Hamas would release the remaining over 100 Israeli hostages that they abducted on October 7th, was that they would only do so once the Israelis released at least 5000 of the 7000 prisoners, most of whom were women and children, that they had arrested and kept in illegal detention and held without trial from both Gaza and the occupied West Bank for the last few months and years.

    When asked about the targetting and killing of women and children by Hamas and particularly the ugly events of October 7th he made the point that it was not and had never been the practice and intention of Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigade to target women and children and that the Israeli Defence Force has targetted and killed thousands of Palestinian women and children over the months and years BEFORE October 7th and yet the world turned a blind eye to it, sat back and said nothing.

    Though in my view two wrongs do not make a right again this appears to me to be a fair point.

    Are Palestinian women and children not human beings as well? Does red blood not flow through their veins too? Do they not also have a right to life?

    Israel has indeed been slaughtering them at will over many decades without a word from the world but the barbarity and brutality of their post October 7th butchery on Palestinian babies, infants, children and youths beggars belief. Such wickedness has never been seen in modern history.

    The Zionists have murdered no less than 17000 Palestinian children in Gaza and maimed and wounded thousands of others in the last four months alone and yet they are still claiming to be the victims?

    Surely this makes no sense. As bad as October 7th was, Israel’s response is disproportionate, barbaric, unacceptable and can best be described as a Nazi-like World War 11 second holocaust.

    What Hitler and the Germans did to the Jews between 1936 and 1945 is precisely what the Zionists are doing to the Palestinians today.

    The Germans called it the “Final Solution” then and I call it the “Final Solution” today.

    The only difference is that the race of the victims are different and the hunted has now become the hunter.

    Finally he made the point that whilst the whole world appeared to have abandoned the Palestinians and were indifferent to their suffering and struggle over the last 70 years and given the fact that the path of peaceful negotiation that Fatah, the PLO and the President Mahmoud Abbas-led occupied West Bank Government had chosen to tread had not produced any positive results over the last 30 years, Hamas had no intention whatsoever of abandoning their people, renouncing their armed struggle or submitting to Israel and her allies.

    Can anyone legitimately fault the logic of his position? Yours truly certainly cannot.

    This is especially so given the fact that Netanyahu has proclaimed that there will and cannot be a two-state solution as long as he is in power and given the fact that he has thrown the American-brokered Oslo Accord agreement into the dustbin.

    To him and those that share his views the Palestinian people must either be totally subjugated, enslaved, colonised, occupied and beaten into cowardly submission or they must be totally and completely eliminated, exterminated and removed from the face of the earth.

    Given this, would any right thinking person that has even a modicum of self-respect and honor not fight back?

    Should one not rather be prepared to die on their feet than live in chains and on their knees?

    That is the position of Hamas and frankly it is unassailable in its rationale and logic.

    It is no wonder that Juilus Malema, the fiery young South African MP and politician, recently said “anyone that condemns or does not support Hamas in their armed struggle against the Israelis is a coward!”

    I commend Channels Television and Seun Okinbaloye for providing Dr. Hamad with their powerful platform and for cultivating the courage to enable us to hear the other side of the story.

    The Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, one Michael Freeman, who appeared on the same show the following evening in a futile attempt to do some damage control by responding to and countering Dr. Hamad was not only completely out of his depth but was also inexplicably agitated, overly emotional, unnecessarily abusive, deeply insulting, overtly and manifestly offensive and worse of all he was disingenuous, deceitful, dishonest, vulgar, out of control,deranged, enraged, condescending and wholly and completely ineffective.

    Simply put he spoke nothing but specious lies and rubbish and he did so in the most simplistic and condescending manner.

    His appearance was merely a pitiful regurgitation of the puerile  propaganda and infantile lies that the Jews have peddled and churned out over the years and he painted the picture of a drowning man who was representing a dying, discredited, old and mortally wounded flogged horse.

    He was not only unconvincing and irritating but also malevolent and bellicose in his approach and choice of words and thoroughly nauseating.

    I could literally see two little devil horns sticking out of his balding head and smell the sulphur of hell seeping through my television screen as he bellowed whilst the words “mendacious”, “deceitful”, “liar”,  “propagandist”, “artful dodger”, “lover of carnage”, “drinker of blood”, “eater of flesh”, “poisonous viper”, “child-killing terrorist”, “dark oppressor”, “dung-eating coprophiliac” and “accuser of the brethren” were spiritually inscribed on his ugly Zionist head.

    I guess one can expect no less from a creature who represents satan’s kingdom on earth, who speaks for a

    a vile race of quislings that fawn before their masters and genuflect at their every word and whose nation thrives, flourishes and excels on lies, falsehood and the premeditated and systemic mass murder, ethnic-cleansing, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and wilful slaughter of innocent and defenceless men, women and children.

    Whether Freeman likes it or not Ghazi Hamad’s appearance on Channels proved to yours truly and millions of other Nigerians that the leadership of Hamas are not the primitive, barbaric and ignorant stone age cavemen and blood-lusting terrorists that Israel and the West portrays them to be.

    They are not a bunch of ignorant and illiterate savages, village idiots, genocidal maniacs, cruel beasts,  unrefined field hands, war mongering and blood lusting meglomaniacs and primitive barbarians that they have been portrayed to the world to be but rather a cerebal, intellectual and highly knowledgeable group of civilised men and women who have leaders that are quite capable of holding their own with any others in the world.

    It is no wonder that the Zionists have not been able to defeat them or break their spirit despite the fact that no less than 70% of Gazans have at one time or the other been detained in Israeli prisons.

    It is no wonder that if there is an election in Gaza today Hamas would win hands down just as they did in previous elections.

    This is the bitter truth and unpalatable reality that the world does not wish to hear.

    We pray for peace and justice for the Palestinian people and we cry to the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to bring the State of Israel back to her senses before it is too late. Shalom.

  • ‘How fentanyl is killing more young Americans’

    ‘How fentanyl is killing more young Americans’

    The U.S. has a fentanyl crisis, which kills more of its young people than anything else. Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Senior Fellow of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution’s Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology and the Director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors,  described fentanyl as a devastating public health crisis in the United States and North America with a substantial potential of spreading around the world reports United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU. She speaks at a Foreign Press Center briefing. Excerpts: 

    The problem 

    Fentanyl today is killing more Americans – between the age of 18 and 49 – than any other public health issues.  We’ve seen death rates of about 300 Americans daily.  But as I mentioned, this situation is not just confined to the United States.  Fentanyl is a very significant challenge in Canada as well, and it is a very significant and spreading challenge in Mexico.  Even though the Government of Mexico claims that there is no fentanyl produced in Mexico or no fentanyl used in Mexico, autopsies by NGOs in the northern part of Mexico, for example, recently showed that at least one-third of corpses that were brought to morgues on which autopsies were conducted had fentanyl present in their bodies. 

    In this context of a very significant public health crisis, no doubt one of the most serious ones – and not just between this 18 to 49 age group; we also seeing extraordinary death rates on fentanyl related causes for Americans over 50 and 65, something that is very unprecedented in drug markets – there are some good news.  Let me start with basic approach of the U.S. Government, which is a whole-of-government approach on fentanyl that is most welcome, and I would hope over time to see that expanded into a whole-of-government approach on organized crime groups that bring in fentanyl but that oftentimes are poly-crime entities.  

    Sources 

    Certainly, the two principal backers of supply to the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación are deeply involved in the variety of other illegal economies.  They’re also taking over legal economies in Mexico.  And their counterparts are delivering precursor chemicals from China.  Chinese criminal networks are also often poly-crime entities.  So a whole-of-government approach against these organizations, not against just the specific substance, would perhaps further advance U.S. policy. 

    And then lastly, you have registered some very good news in what’s happening in supply side.  Namely, after several years of a hiatus of U.S.-China cooperation, the United States has been able, through very effective diplomacy, to resurrect cooperation with China.  There have been several aspects to that.  In November during the summit between President Xi and President Biden, China announced that it was now committed again to cooperating with the United States on halting – on reducing the flow of precursor chemicals from China.  This is very welcome news.  

    The Chinese angle

    For several years, we have had no meaningful cooperation with China, and China would say that the problem of fentanyl use in the United States is that of U.S. doing.  Now, China has recognized its responsibility.  It has taken some actions.  It has sent notices to Chinese industry, Chinese chemical-pharmaceutical industry, to – that it will be monitoring and acting against precursor flows.  It has taken down some websites selling precursor flows.  It has perhaps taking further actions against some companies.  The robustness of that is yet to be seen,  something to be watched in 2024.  

    How did we get to this moment, where cooperation with China has been restarted?  Well, I think there are two dimensions to it.  One is the basic geostrategic picture with both China and the United States realizing that after several years of significantly intensified tensions between the two countries it was important to put a ceiling underneath the freefall of the relationship.  And they judged that counternarcotics cooperation was one fruitful aspect – one fruitful venue to stabilize the relationship.  

    The role of diplomacy 

    But second was the role of U.S. diplomacy, highlighting to Chinese officials how significant the issue was and how much the United States was prioritizing it.  This has had multiple dimensions to it.  China was placed in the fall of 2023 on the so-called majors list.  That’s a list of countries that are of major concern to the United States for illicit narcotics.  That was a big blow to China’s reputation that prides itself on being the world’s tough drug cop.  The United States also was able to create a global coalition against the threat of synthetic drugs that was launched in July of 2023.  About 90 countries joined, yet China abstained. was not interested.  And once again, it realized that its reputation was significantly at stake.  So between the U.S diplomacy and both countries hoping to stabilize the relationship, we now have the beginning the launch of new cooperation, yet to be seen in 2024 and beyond how strong it is.  

    Mexico 

     Mexico is our neighboring country; it is our partner.  It’s a country where communities, families live on both sides of the border.  It is more than just our neighbor; it is part of the North American community.  Yet unfortunately, we have had also very inadequate and still deeply troubling lack of cooperation from Government of Mexico in terms of acting against cartels like Sinaloa and Jalisco and in terms of stopping the flows of fentanyl to the United States.

    First of all, over many months the top levels of the Mexican Government has been denying that any fentanyl is synthesized in Mexico; something I certainly don’t believe; something that the United States Government – for which I don’t speak – does not believe in its reports.  Moreover, to the extent the Mexican Government has acted against synthetic labs, destroyed synthetic labs, they – which it claims are for producing methamphetamine, not fentanyl, there have been important investigative reports by Reuters showing how the data is manipulated, cooked by the Mexican Government and significantly overstates the actions that are in fact taken.

    More broadly, in my extensive research Mexico over many years, including over many months last year, I have seen a government that is not willing to confront the cartels in the context where criminal groups are increasing their territorial power, the power over populations, the takeover of legal economies and impact even institutions.  

    Now, this is, of course, taking place in the very difficult context of migration, where migration imposes a straitjacket on U.S. policy.  Certainly the failure to have a meaningful immigration reform that would reduce the flow of people who are undocumented to the United States, it’s a major source of outrage for the Mexican Government in being able not to act on criminality that is so deeply threatening the United States and that is even more deeply threatening Mexico and Mexican people. 

    Misuse

     The most extensive documented misuse of fentanyl is in Canada and to a lesser extent in Mexico.  When I say to a lesser extent in Mexico, it’s not perhaps because there is less use of fentanyl in Mexico, but because it’s less documented.  As I mentioned, the Government of Mexico has been in denial that there is any production and use of fentanyl in Mexico.  Consequentially, there has been very limited collection of information data about what is happening with use. 

    To the extent that the data has been done, it’s been done by it’s by done by nongovernment entities mostly and has found significant use and major threat in certainly northern Mexico, where these studies have been conducted.  So in places like Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez, fentanyl is deeply spreading and spread already across local drug markets.  And certainly what we see with drug groups historically and (inaudible) today is that they often pay their local dealers, they often pay their allies, their partners in kind.  They find it much more convenient to pay in drugs rather than to pay in cash.  This then creates domestic markets.  This has set off a major methamphetamine epidemic in Mexico and this is likely why we are seeing fentanyl spreading significantly in northern Mexico.

    The second country affected is, of course, Canada, where opioid epidemic use are very significant and fentanyl is a very significant component of that, including in places that have highly advanced harm-reduction policies, such as in British Columbia, in Vancouver.

    Outside the North American space, we have seen limited instances.  There is an established fentanyl market in Europe, in Austria, that has been in existence for over 20 years.  About a decade, decade a half ago, there were instances of fentanyl popping up in the northern – in the Nordic countries, but police officials there, law enforcement at the time was able to stamp it out very quickly.

    In the past three, four years, we have seen instances of fentanyl popping up in Western Europe.  But perhaps the more concerning drug there is another type of synthetic opioid and synthetic class of opioids, and that’s nitazenes, that seem to be what is more threatening in Western Europe right now than fentanyl class of synthetic opioids.  That might change.

    We have also seen instances of fentanyl in Argentina, Brazil, various reports of fentanyl supply in Colombia, efforts by criminal groups in Colombia to divert fentanyl from legal medical use for the illegal market.  All of these are so far limited.

    But let me add one important element here:  Fentanyl and a lot of the modern drugs – synthetic drugs – that are emerging around the world, like nitazenes, are very dangerous drugs not simply because of the enormous potency, their high chance of resulting in lethal overdose or dramatic and often horrific morbidity, but they are also driven by suppliers.  These drugs are not drugs that consumers start asking for.  In the United States, fentanyl was introduced by suppliers – first Chinese criminal networks, Chinese producers, later on Mexican cartels.

    The cartels 

    Mexican cartels are now starting to operate in Europe.  They have established methamphetamine markets there.  We see big rise in meth use in places like Germany, France, Spain.  It is only a matter of time before they start introducing fentanyl into those markets as well.

    As to Asia, the claim is that we have not seen the spread fentanyl in Asia.  Nonetheless, there is also very inadequate collection testing.  So when drugs are seized, they’re often not testing for fentanyl or other types of synthetic opioids.  When someone overdoses, they are not necessarily testing for synthetic opioids of any kind.  So the picture is not as clear.  The data is not as strong.

    Australia and New Zealand are another market where I think there is a high potential for fentanyl emerging.  There are many reasons with – they’re highly valuable markets with high profit margins.  We see again not just the Chinese criminal networks that have long been dominant actors in methamphetamine there, but also now Sinoa Cartel and Jalisco Nueva Generación trying to penetrate those markets, bringing in cocaine, bringing in meth, and those established channels provide ample opportunities for spreading synthetic opioids.

    And final word here:  Synthetic drugs overall, and particularly synthetic opioids, whether they are of the nitazene class or the fentanyl class, provide enormous advantages to smugglers.  They are so potent that very small amounts are sufficient to supply markets and very small amounts of precursors are sufficient to produce these drugs.  So they present enormous advantages from a smuggling perspective vis-a-vis plant-based drugs like cocaine and heroin, and that is the reason why we are seeing a synthetic drugs revolution sweeping global markets.

    Progress report 

     The United States fortunately has made great progress in how it thinks about users.  For decades, the United States erroneously treated users as villains.  Often it would imprison people for nonviolent drug use.  That has caused a whole variety of devastating cascade effects, whether on public health, the health of communities, families, as well as on the criminal justice system.  

    There is more and more recognition and embrace of the idea that substance use disorder is a chronic illness and then it requires treatment and support, both effective psychosocial treatment as well as access to insurance that can cover, medical coverage.  There is more push for the medical profession to recognize substance use.  We now have drugs that – like buprenorphine that reverse overdose that the United States criminalized for decades.  

    The reason why we have the ability to reverse so many overdoses is because of buprenorphine.  So last year some 70,000 Americans died as a result of fentanyl; 110,000 Americans – that is in 2022 – 110,000 Americans overall.  The actual number of overdoses was significantly higher, and fortunately those devastating death rates are so low because of drugs like buprenorphine that can reverse overdose.  And so the United States moving to allowing that at state level, at community level, at a federal level, has been big progress.

    Even so, we are still in a situation where only 13 – 1-3 – percent of people with substance use disorder who want to seek treatment are able to do so.  Often people who are able to seek some treatment will run into obstacles with with insurance that stops covering it in a matter of weeks for what needs to be lifelong medical psychosocial support.  So progress on the domestic side on how we think about substance use, a very long way to go yet. 

    On the international side, there are challenges, including what’s happening with U.S. Congress.  The polarization of politics in the United States is being dramatically manifested with what’s happening with the budget, with the inability of U.S. Congress to fund the government for anything but short periods of time.  And that has dramatic repercussion for the ability to stem the flow of fentanyl to the United States.  

    Read Also: Why Nigeria must avoid the fentanyl crisis

    The Republican side is often complaining that the U.S. southern border is open, undefended, unsecure.  It is the case that legal ports of entry are the predominant venue though which fentanyl comes in.  It’s being brought in by trailer trucks and personal vehicles, the vast majority of which are driven by U.S. citizens and having U.S. license plate.  Migrants are very small percentage, in the single digits, of carrying fentanyl.  By and large, they do not.  This is not the way fentanyl enters the United States.  

    Yet we are in a situation where only some 2 percent of cars can be inspected for carrying contraband in legal ports of entry.  Yes, you did not mishear me: 2 percent.  The numbers of trailer trucks is higher; somewhere between 20-30 percent are being inspected, but vastly inadequate.  The Biden administration has for some years now been asking Congress to pass a budget that would allow the installation of screening equipment that would allow the number of vehicles screened to go up to 70 percent for trailer trucks and for personal vehicles to go to about 40 percent.  Still far from hundred, but far better than 2 and 20-30 kind of ratio.  Yet the Republican side has not been willing to pass even that very simple technical measure.  So the polarization of politics is having significant impact on how we can respond effectively to supply side. 

    That said I think it’s very appropriate that the Congress has been concerned about supply from China, that the Congress has been concerned about supply from Mexico.  Many hearings have been held about those two issues.  Again, the inability to pass meaningful immigration reform is a key vulnerability for U.S. supply side efforts because it gives this preponderant leverage to the Government of Mexico and allows it to ignore its own responsibilities toward its citizens and its responsibilities toward the United States in acting against criminal groups. 

  • Erdogan, el-Sisi demand Israel halt looming offensive on Rafah

    Erdogan, el-Sisi demand Israel halt looming offensive on Rafah

    Turkey’s  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi leader have called for a halt to Israel’s looming offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza as the leaders held bilateral talks in Cairo.

     Erdogan’s visit to Egypt yesterday comes as ties between Ankara and Cairo are back on track after years of tensions and frosty relations.

     The Turkish leader arrived in the Egyptian capital, his first visit to Cairo in over a decade, after visiting the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, where he met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

     Erdogan met el-Sisi at Cairo’s Ittihadiya palace, according to Egyptian state media. Their talks focused on bilateral relations and regional challenges, especially efforts to stop the war in Gaza, el-Sisi later said at a joint news conference.

     “We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza] and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank” to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state, el-Sisi said.

     Erdogan said Turkey was determined to step up talks with Egypt at all levels to establish peace and stability in the region.

     “We will continue to cooperate and stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers to put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza,” he said.

     Egypt and Turkey fell out after the Egyptian military in 2013 removed President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, amid mass protests against his government.

     Over the past few years, Ankara abandoned its criticism of el-Sisi’s government as it tried to repair frayed ties with Egypt and other regional powers. In November 2022, Erdogan and el-Sisi were photographed shaking hands during the World Cup in Qatar.

     The war in Gaza has reached a critical point, with an impending Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah, along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, where some 1.4 million people – more than half the territory’s population – are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters.

    Speaking at the news conference with el-Sisi, Erdogan urged Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid a ground offensive in Rafah and accused the Israeli government of committing “massacres” in Gaza.

    Read Also: Saudi Arabia: no diplomatic ties with Israel without independent Palestine

    “Efforts to depopulate Gaza are not acceptable,” he said.

    Egypt is concerned that a ground assault on Rafah would push hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians across the border and into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. It has threatened to suspend the country’s decades-old peace treaty with Israel.

    Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, has been working to try and broker a ceasefire and the return of the remaining 130 captives held by Hamas, around a quarter of whom Israel believes to be dead. The negotiators held talks in Cairo on Tuesday but there were no signs of a breakthrough.

    Erdogan also said that Turkey was ready to cooperate with Egypt to rebuild Gaza, pledging to boost trade with Egypt to $15bn in the short term.

    Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas fighters carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people and seizing around 250 others as hostages, according to Israeli authorities.

    Israel responded with a devastating bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, killing more than 28,500 people, according to Palestinian authorities. The Israeli assault has reduced much of the besieged territory to rubble and displaced more than 80 percent of the population, according to aid agencies.