Just International

Trump Allegedly Demanded Zelensky Hit Moscow after a ‘Disappointing’ Putin Call

By Drago Bosnic

On July 15, Financial Times published a report claiming that US President Donald Trump reportedly demanded that the Zelensky government  escalate its long-range strikes on Russia. He allegedly even told the Kiev regime frontman Volodymyr Zelensky to attack Moscow and St. Petersburg and that Washington DC would provide the weapons. FT cited “two people briefed on the discussions”. The conversation reportedly took place on July 4 and came just a day after a “disappointing” call with President Vladimir Putin. If true, this could signal yet another instance of Trump’s increasingly aggressive stance on Russia. The US president is demonstrating hawkish behavior worthy of a ruthless neocon, something that he promised never to do.

“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? . . . Can you hit St Petersburg too?” Trump supposedly asked Zelensky, to which the latter responded: “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.”

According to FT, Trump not only supported the idea, but reportedly described his strategy as intending to “make [Russians] feel the pain” and eventually “force” them to the negotiating table. FT cites another anonymous Western official who was informed of the call and allegedly said that the conversation “reflected a growing desire among Ukraine’s Western partners to supply long-range weapons capable of ‘bringing the war to Muscovites’ — a sentiment echoed privately by American officials in recent weeks”. Both the White House and the Neo-Nazi junta are yet to respond to these claims. However, on the same day FT published this report, Trump told reporters that “Zelensky shouldn’t target Moscow” and that the US is “not looking to supply long-range missiles”.

“We’re going to see what happens with President Putin. So far, I have been very disappointed with President Putin. I have solved a lot of wars in the last three months, but I haven’t got this one yet. This is a Biden war, it’s not a Trump war. I am here to try and get us out of that mess,” he stated.

Trump also threatened additional tariffs and sanctions on Russia if a peace deal is not reached within 50 days. However, this is a rather mundane issue in comparison to deliveries of long-range weapons. FT also cited another “three people with knowledge of it” that the aforementioned discussion between Trump and Zelensky led to a “list of potential weapons for Kyiv being shared by the US side with the Ukrainian president in Rome last week”. During a meeting with the representatives of the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and NATO intermediaries, Zelensky reportedly received the said list and was told that the aforementioned weapons could “potentially be made available to Ukraine via third-party transfers” (in other words, European NATO member states).

Trump himself repeatedly stated that this arrangement is “good business” for the US MIC, as the EU/NATO would be paying for American weapons. In addition, it also allows him to circumvent the US Congress. Although Trump is yet to publicly confirm this, as he only pledged the deliveries of “Patriot” SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems during a recent meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, military sources are already reporting that long-range strike systems will also be delivered. This reportedly includes the AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile), a stealthy air-launched cruise missile with a maximum range of up to 925-930 km. It’s armed with a massive 450 kg multipurpose warhead.

The weapon, made by the infamous Lockheed Martin, comes in various iterations, including anti-ship and land-attack variants. The most important thing for the Kiev regime is that its US-made F-16s can also use these missiles. However, given its lack of strategic or even operational ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) capabilities, the Neo-Nazi junta would need to rely on the US/NATO in that regard, meaning that the world’s most aggressive racketeering cartel would effectively get directly involved. Although Russia has repeatedly warned against this, it seems that warmongers and war criminals in Washington DC simply don’t want to let go of this unique opportunity to blow up the entire planet to Kingdom Come.

It should be noted that we still don’t know whether FT is telling the truth. If this article came out just several months ago, it’s almost a certainty it would’ve been discarded as yet another instance of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). However, given the rather unpleasant (albeit not entirely unexpected) U-turn Trump made in recent weeks, these claims most definitely shouldn’t be ignored. In fact, although unfazed by Trump’s threats, Russia should certainly take this very seriously. Last year, the outgoing Biden administration flirted with the idea of providing the Neo-Nazi junta not only with “Tomahawk” cruise missiles, but also nuclear weapons. Although Trump is yet to go that far, his increasingly aggressive rhetoric is hardly reassuring.

FT’s sources reportedly confirmed that additional deliveries of the failed US-made ATACMS are also on the table. Last year, the Kiev regime complained that it expended virtually the entire supply delivered by the US (approximately 500 missiles, with only around 4% going through Russian air and missile defenses). However, the JASSM is a relatively new weapon and could pose a challenge for the Russian military (although it already demonstrated the ability to shoot down most of the similarly capable “Storm Shadow”/SCALP-EG). Given the terrorist nature of the Neo-Nazi junta, delivering such weapons can certainly cause uncontrollable escalation, particularly after the unprecedented attacks on Russian strategic aviation.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

17 July 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

US Tariffs: A Weapon of War. Manlio Dinucci

By Manlio Dinucci

Trump’s duties are intended to target the BRICS in the first instance. This is because the BRICS represent a multipolar world, something that is obstructed and fought over by the US-led West. The West is losing its centuries-long dominance and is seeking to preserve it by military force and war, from Europe to the Middle East and the Far East.

Trump is relaunching the trade war by threatening heavy tariffs, including on allies like Europe, unless they accept US conditions. Other countries have already been notified of very high tariffs. The aim is not simply commercial. Trump himself has confirmed this, threatening “an additional 10 per cent tariff on BRICS countries“. Brazil is a founding member. It hosted and chaired the last BRICS summit. This concluded on 6 July. The Rio de Janeiro Declaration marked it. The declaration was titled “Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance.” Brazil has been subjected to 50% tariffs. These tariffs apply to all products it exports to the US.

President Trump explained the official motivation for this measure as follows:

“It is in retaliation for Brazil’s treatment of former President Bolsonaro, a highly respected leader by the United States, who is being unfairly tried for an attempted coup’.”

By stating this, President Trump is effectively claiming the right to decide on the internal affairs of Brazil and any other country.

The BRICS group expanded to include 20 countries: 10 members and 10 partners. The members are: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (the founding members), as well as Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. Partners: Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. The BRICS now account for 56% of the world’s population and 44% of the world’s GDP( at purchasing power parity). They manage around a 25% share of world trade. They also own significant proportions of the world’s reserves of rare earth minerals, oil, natural gas, and mineral coal. This fast-growing reality, which is an expression of a multipolar world, is being hindered and opposed by the West, led by the United States. The West is losing the dominance it has exercised for centuries, and seeking to preserve this dominance through military might and war. This strategy lies at the root of the current wars and preparations for war in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East.

Manlio Dinucci, award-winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

14 July 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

The Real Reason the Gaza Genocide Hasn’t Been Stopped

By Chris Hedges and Francesca Albanese

6 Jul 2025

Francesca Albanese describes the dark, self-serving reasons that no UN member states have stopped the genocide in Gaza — namely, the economy of war, crisis and genocide that fuels the slaughter and fills the pockets of craven private actors.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-9yO7u6AaE]

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

UNICEF Voices Deep Dismay over the ‘Unconscionable’ Killing of Families Lining Up for Food Aid in Gaza

By UN News

12 Jul 2025 – The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has voiced deep dismay over the “unconscionable” killing of children during an aid distribution in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday 10 July 2025. 

UNICEF/Eyad El Baba | People gather in the vicinity of a food distribution by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Catherine Russell said she was appalled by the reported killing of 15 Palestinians, including nine children and four women, who were waiting in line for nutritional supplements provided by Project Hope, a UNICEF partner organization.

‘Mothers seeking a lifeline’

“The killing of families trying to access life-saving aid is unconscionable,” she said in a statement. “These were mothers seeking a lifeline for their children after months of hunger and desperation.”

They included Donia, whose one-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed. She reported that the boy had spoken his first words to her just hours earlier.

“Donia now lies in a hospital bed, critically injured by the blast, clutching Mohammed’s tiny shoe,” said Ms. Russell.  “No parent should have to face such tragedy.”

A ‘cruel reality’

For the UNICEF chief, “this is the cruel reality confronting many in Gaza today after months of insufficient aid being allowed into the territory, and parties to the conflict failing to uphold basic responsibilities to protect civilians.”

She explained that “the lack of aid means children are facing starvation while the risk of famine grows,” warning that “the number of malnourished children will continue to rise until life-saving aid and services are resumed at full scale.”

“International law is clear: all parties to the conflict have an obligation to protect civilians and ensure the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance,” she said.

“We call on Israel to urgently review its rules of engagement to ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, notably the protection of civilians including children, and to conduct a thorough and independent investigation of this incident and all allegations of violations.”

UN condemns killings

The UN yet again condemned the killing of civilians in Gaza, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York.

Furthermore, the UN humanitarian affairs office OCHA “stresses that parties are bound by international humanitarian law to prevent such excessive death and injury of civilians in the midst of war,” he added.

OCHA reported that another strike on Thursday [10 July 2025] reportedly hit the office of a humanitarian partner in Gaza City. Three staff there were killed.

Fuel running out

Mr. Dujarric also updated journalists on the dire fuel situation in Gaza, which impacts both the population and humanitarians.

A UN team managed to bring roughly 75,000 litres of fuel from Israel into the beleaguered enclave on Wednesday, marking the first such provision in 130 days.

He warned, however, that fuel is still running out and services will shut down if greater volumes do not enter immediately.

Water services at risk

“We and our humanitarian partners need hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel each day to keep essential lifesaving and life-sustaining operations going, meaning the amount entered yesterday isn’t sufficient to cover even one day of energy requirements,” he said.

One aid partner reported that fuel shortages could soon cut off supplies of clean drinking water to about 44,000 children, he added, which would further increase the risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and other waterborne illnesses. 

Meanwhile, UN partners providing education services said that between October 2023 and this June, 626 temporary learning spaces have been established in Gaza, with 240,000 students enrolled, roughly half of them girls.

However, only 299 spaces are currently operational due to the ongoing displacement orders, funding shortfalls and other challenges.

Aid workers also going hungry

Humanitarian partners in Gaza – who include first responders, health workers, and aid workers – “continue to deliver food and other assistance under intolerable conditions, and they themselves are facing hunger,” said Mr. Dujarric.

“A number of our own colleagues are also facing hunger. They also face water scarcity and threats to their personal safety, just like everyone else in Gaza,” he added.

The Spokesperson reiterated the UN’s long-standing message that “this catastrophic situation must end.”

He stressed that “a ceasefire is not only urgent, it is long overdue,” while also calling for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages.

UNFPA Palestine | Some Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes in the West Bank.

West Bank operations

Mr. Dujarric also addressed the situation in the West Bank, where humanitarians report and continue to warn of the intensification of Israeli operations in the northern areas.

“These operations are causing massive destruction, driving further humanitarian needs and dampening hopes of thousands of displaced families that they will eventually be able to go back home,” he said.

“Meanwhile, attacks, harassment and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have become a daily reality.”

He cited a settler attack on 3 July that led to the displacement of the Mu’arrajat East Bedouin community in the central West Bank.

“This is the ninth community to be fully displaced in the Ramallah and Jericho areas since January 2023 following the recurrent attacks by Israeli settlers.”

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

Burying Genocide: The BBC, Gaza and the Role of the UK

By Media Len

14 Jul 2025 – One might naively think that a national public-service broadcaster would inform the public about matters of national interest. Surely no reasonable person would deny that the public has a right to know what the government is doing in our name. But, over and above this basic requirement, a responsible public-service broadcaster should also scrutinise the government’s actions and statements, and challenge them robustly.

Instead, as Declassified UK has reported, Britain’s ‘obedient’ defence correspondents, including BBC journalists, are covering up British spy flights for Israel. The RAF has carried out more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza since December 2023. The Ministry of Defence insists that the flights, undertaken by aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, are solely to assist in providing information about Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023. But the British ‘mainstream’ media – which largely serves state-corporate interests, not the public interest – have not carried out a single investigation into the extent, impact or legal status of these flights.

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based charity that records, investigates and disseminates evidence of armed violence against civilians worldwide, has analysed flight-tracking data over or close to Gaza. They found that between 3 December 2023 and 27 March 2025, the RAF carried out at least 518 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) flights in or near Gaza’s airspace.

AOAV found that the RAF conducted 24 flights in the two weeks leading up to and including the day of Israel’s deadly attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024, which reportedly killed 274 Palestinians and injured over 700. Four Israeli hostages were rescued in the operation.

Iain Overton, the Executive Director of AOAV, noted that:

‘This is not the only instance where UK ISR flights have coincided with major Israeli military assaults. In the two weeks leading up to Israel’s attack on Rafah on 12 February 2024, which killed at least 67 Palestinians, the RAF flew 15 ISR missions over Gaza. Flights continued even during the so-called “limited ceasefire” in early 2025, with six flights recorded in February alone.’

He added:

‘With no parliamentary oversight or public scrutiny, it remains unclear how much British intelligence gathered from these flights has been shared with Israel.’

This is surely a significant question that responsible journalists should be raising; particularly, the national broadcaster. But, as Declassified UK has observed, the BBC has essentially remained ‘silent’ on whether these flights are contributing to the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide and war crimes in Gaza.

In an article jointly published by Declassified UK and The National newspaper in Scotland, Des Freedman, Professor of Media & Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, wrote:

‘thanks to dogged work by campaigners, independent journalists and pro-Palestine MPs, we know both that the flights are continuing to operate (as they did even throughout the ceasefire) and that spikes in the number of flights have coincided with especially deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza.

‘The lack of curiosity on the part of mainstream media is perhaps not surprising but it is deeply troubling.’

He added:

‘It’s hard to reconcile this silence with the energy with which mainstream media have investigated Russian spy planes flying over Ukraine and other military manoeuvres related to Putin’s invasion.’

On 7 July, we challenged Jonathan Beale, the BBC’s defence correspondent via X, linking to Freedman’s article:

‘Hello @bealejonathan,

‘As @BBCNews defence correspondent, why are you covering up British spy flights for Israel?’

Beale was clearly irked and posted this reply:

‘Why are you claiming “cover-up” – without a shred of evidence of what’s supposed to have been covered up? I’m curious as to how a media lecturer at Goldsmiths seems to have knowledge of “intelligence” that no other journalist has seen?’

A few minutes later, having now been alerted to the Declassified UK article, he confronted Freedman:

‘Please tell us Des as to how we can get the classified intelligence only you seem to know about. Why teach media studies when you can clearly scoop us all?’

Freedman responded reasonably:

‘As you know Jonathan, I don’t have access to classified files but to open news databases. Is any of the story incorrect? Instead of a snippy response, surely it would be better to use your contacts to investigate a story that’s in the public interest?’

As Declassified UK said in a follow-up post on X:

‘In a bizarre admission he [Beale] suggests that open source information on military flights is “classified”, raising the question – how do BBC journalists investigate the British military?’

The answer, of course, is that BBC journalists, along with other state stenographers, have learned not to investigate too deeply if they are to retain their privileged position.

When Declassified UK challenged Richard Burgess, the BBC’s director of news content, he gave this response befitting a senior news apparatchik:

‘I don’t think we should overplay the UK’s contribution to what’s happening in Israel.’

Why did Burgess say, ‘in Israel’? Did he just erase Palestine? Is he actually unaware that Gaza is an occupied Palestinian territory?

As if that was not already a bizarre and misleading form of words, consider this. Nobody is asking the BBC to ‘overplay’ what the UK is doing; but simply to report it, rather than bury it to the point of invisibility. Whitewashing genocide as ‘what’s happening in Israel’ is wretched BBC newspeak.

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour party leader, has called for a public inquiry to determine what the UK government is hiding about its role in Israel’s genocide, including RAF flights from Cyprus. In an article for the Morning Star, he wrote:

‘We have also repeatedly asked for the truth regarding the role of British military bases in Cyprus, concerning the transfer of arms and the supply of military intelligence.

‘When the Prime Minister visited RAF Akrotiri in December 2024, he was filmed telling troops: “The whole world and everyone back at home is relying on you.” He added: “Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about all of the time. We can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing.” What does the government have to hide?’

Corbyn continued:

‘Over the past 18 months, our questions have been met with evasion, obstruction and silence, leaving the public in the dark over the ways in which the responsibilities of government have been discharged. Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of democracy. The British public deserves to know the full scale of Britain’s complicity in crimes against humanity.’

And the British public-service broadcaster, along with the UK’s other major news outlets, should have been reporting this since October 2023. As Mark Curtis, co-director of Declassified UK, commented:

‘Britain’s national media are doing a wonderful job covering up the extent of British support for Israel during a genocide. It’s their most impressive performance since destroying the prospects of a decent government under Jeremy Corbyn in 2015-19.’

A Devastating Indictment of BBC ‘Impartiality’

The BBC’s Richard Burgess, quoted above, was speaking in parliament at the launch of a study by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) into the BBC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza. The report examined BBC content from 7 October 2023 to 7 October 2024. A total of 3,873 BBC articles and 32,092 segments broadcast on BBC television and radio were analysed.

CfMM’s key findings were:

  • Palestinian deaths treated as less newsworthy: Despite Gaza suffering 34 times more casualties than Israel, BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality and ran almost equal numbers of humanising victim profiles (279 Palestinians vs 201 Israelis).
  • Systematic language bias favouring Israelis: BBC used emotive terms four times more for Israeli victims, applied ‘massacre’ 18 times more to Israeli casualties, and used ‘murder’ 220 times for Israelis versus once for Palestinians.
  • Suppression of genocide allegations: BBC presenters shut down genocide claims in over 100 documented instances whilst making zero mention of Israeli leaders’ genocidal statements, including Netanyahu’s biblical Amalek reference (see below).
  • Muffling Palestinian voices: The BBC interviewed significantly fewer Palestinians than Israelis (1,085 v 2,350) on television and radio, while BBC presenters shared the Israeli perspective 11 times more frequently than the Palestinian perspective (2,340 v 217).

These findings show that the BBC values the lives of Israelis much more than the lives of Palestinians. This is part of a bigger picture of BBC News coverage conforming to the Israeli narrative, a key feature of BBC journalism going back decades. The CfMM report is a devastating indictment of the BBC’s endlessly repeated, robotic claim of ‘impartiality’.

At the parliamentary launch of the CfMM report, Burgess was also challenged by Peter Oborne, the former chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph. The exchange was filmed by someone at the meeting. Oborne robustly confronted Burgess with as many as six ways in which BBC News has misled its audiences. Independent journalist Jonathan Cook helpfully detailed these six points, while providing crucial context, which can be summarised as follows:

1. The BBC has never mentioned the Hannibal directive, implemented by Israel on 7 October 2023, that permitted the Israeli killing of Israeli civilians, often by Apache helicopter fire, to prevent them being taken captive by Hamas. See our media alert about this from February 2025.

2. The BBC has never mentioned Israel’s Dahiya doctrine which underlies Israel’s murderous ‘mowing the lawn’ Gaza strategy over the past two decades: repeated devastating assaults on the Palestinians in Gaza to weaken their resistance to the brutal and illegal Israeli occupation, and to make it easier to ethnically cleanse them.

3. The BBC has not reported the many dozens of genocidal statements from Israeli officials since 7 October. In particular, the BBC buried Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biblically-inspired comparison of the Palestinians to ‘Amalek’ – a people the Jews were instructed by God to wipe from the face of the earth.

4. By contrast, as reported in the CfMM study, on more than 100 occasions when guests have tried to refer to what is happening in Gaza as genocide, BBC staff have immediately shut them down on air.

5. The BBC has largely ignored Israel’s campaign of murdering Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

6. Finally, Oborne observed that the distinguished Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, who lives in the UK and teaches at Oxford University, has never been invited to appear by the BBC.

Cook noted:

‘Unlike the Israeli spokespeople familiar to BBC audiences, who are paid to muddy the waters and deny Israel’s genocide, Shlaim is both knowledgeable about the history of Israeli colonisation of Palestine and truly independent. […] His research has led him to a series of highly critical conclusions about Israel’s historical and current treatment of the Palestinians. He calls what Israel is doing in Gaza a genocide.’

Cook added:

‘He is one of the prominent Israelis we are never allowed to hear from, because they are likely to make more credible and mainstream a narrative the BBC wishes to present as fringe, loopy and antisemitic. Again, what the BBC is doing – paid for by British taxpayers – isn’t journalism. It is propaganda for a foreign state.’

The BBC Is Being Lead by a ‘PR Person’

When the BBC dropped the powerful documentary, ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack’, it compounded its complicity in Israel’s genocide. The Corporation’s earlier withdrawal of ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’, had already epitomised how much the UK’s national broadcaster is beholden to the Israel lobby (see our media alert here).

‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack’ details how Israel has systematically targeted hospitals, health care centres, medics themselves and even their families. Doctors told the filmmakers of how they had been detained, beaten and tortured by the Israelis, confirmed by an anonymous Israeli whistleblower. The nonsensical reason given by the BBC for cancelling the film, which it had itself commissioned from Basement Films, was the risk that broadcasting it would create ‘a perception of partiality’. Reporting the truth about Israel’s crimes would be ‘partial’? Such inversion of reality has become standard for the national broadcaster.

The film was instead shown by Channel 4 on 2 July. After watching it, Gary Lineker, who had essentially been pushed out of the BBC for his honesty on Gaza and other issues, said that, ‘The BBC should hang its head in shame.’

Yanis Varoufakis, the economist and former Greek finance minister, said:

‘I can’t see how the BBC will ever recover from its headlong leap into this ethical void, all in the name of not upsetting the perpetrators of the most horrific genocide since the end of the 2nd World War.’

Ben de Pear, the documentary’s executive producer for Basement Films and a former Channel 4 News editor, accused the BBC of trying to gag him and others over its decision not to show the documentary. In a statement that he posted to LinkedIn, de Pear said the film had passed through many ‘BBC compliance hoops’ and that the BBC were now attempting to stop him talking about the film’s ‘painful journey’ to the screen:

‘I rejected and refused to sign the double gagging clause the BBC bosses tried multiple times to get me to sign. Not only could we have been sued for saying the BBC refused to air the film (palpably and provably true) but also if any other company had said it, the BBC could sue us.

‘Not only could we not tell the truth that was already stated, but neither could others. Reader, I didn’t sign it.’

At a conference in Sheffield, de Pear criticised Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, over the BBC’s decision to drop the film:

‘All the decisions about our film were not taken by journalists, they were taken by Tim Davie. He is just a PR person. Tim Davie is taking editorial decisions which, frankly, he is not capable of making.’

De Pear added:

‘The BBC’s primary purpose is TV news and current affairs, and if it’s failing on that it doesn’t matter what drama it makes or sports it covers. It is failing as an institution. And if it’s failing on that then it needs new management.’

Of course, as Media Lens has long argued and demonstrated with copious examples since our inception in 2001, the BBC isn’t ‘failing’. It is doing precisely what it was set up to do: namely act as a mouthpiece for establishment power and as an enabler of state crimes.

Media Lens is a UK-based media watchdog group headed by David Edwards and David Cromwell.

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

BRICS Offers a Real Alternative to Transform the International Order: Diaz-Canel

By Telesur

Present and future generations deserve a world of peace and security, the Cuban president stressed.

7 Jul 2025 – Today, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel attended the BRICS leaders’ summit in Brazil.  Specifically, he spoke during the session on “Environment, COP30, and Global Health,” held in Belem.

From Brazil, Diaz-Canel argued that the U.S.-controlled international order perpetuates a structure of domination that reinforces inequality and poverty in Global South nations. Below is his full speech:

“I must begin by thanking, on behalf of my country and my people, our inclusion in BRICS as a partner. Today, BRICS represents hope—the hope that multilateralism can be saved from the chaos and dysfunction into which the arrogance of a few has plunged the United Nations.

Born 80 years ago to prevent war as a solution to conflicts, the U.N. now requires deep reforms long demanded by the Global South for over half a century. This octogenarian institution is dangerously fragmented and severely threatened by the erosion of multilateralism, heightening risks to international peace and security.

The horrors of recent weeks and months demonstrate where the diplomacy of force leads. The U.S. government, wielding its undeniable military, economic, and financial power—though lacking moral authority—consistently disregards international law and the U.N. Charter.

It withdraws from international bodies, declares plans to seize and annex territories, promotes supremacist ideologies, carries out violent and racist mass deportations of migrants, and no longer hides its self-serving geopolitical ambitions. This is the same power that backed Israel’s recent aggression against Iran and directly attacked the Persian nation by bombing three nuclear facilities.

[https://twitter.com/carantosan/status/1942271064236548181]

Cuba reiterates its solidarity with the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran following Israel’s aggression and strongly condemns the U.S.-led attack. These actions violate the U.N. Charter and international law, as well as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

We also firmly condemn the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, perpetrated by Israel with the unwavering political, military, and financial support of the United States. The U.S. government ensures the Zionist regime’s impunity and obstructs U.N. Security Council action through its undemocratic veto power.

A comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to achieving peace in the Middle East, especially at this critical juncture in international relations. Until this brutality ends, we remain in the prehistory of what was once envisioned as a hopeful peace project: the so-called United Nations.

That is why I speak of hope. Against this threatening backdrop, BRICS emerges—a group whose member and partner nations, despite their vast differences and disparities in development, advance shared ideals of peace, dialogue, mutual respect, cooperation, and solidarity.

The group’s commitment to a more just and inclusive international order is inspiring. Without such an order, sustainable development—long denied to nations shackled by centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism—will remain out of reach.

To achieve this, we must fundamentally reform the current international financial architecture and its opaque, undemocratic institutions, designed to perpetuate the exclusion and exploitation of Global South nations. Equally essential is inclusive and democratic governance of artificial intelligence, ensuring all nations benefit while preventing its use against peace and international law.

[https://twitter.com/SpoxCHN_LinJian/status/1942231123616260527]

Present and future generations deserve a world of peace and security, where social justice, cultural and religious pluralism, and democratic access to science and technology prevail. A world where all human rights are realized without politicization or double standards, based on cooperation and respect for each nation’s right to choose its political, economic, and social system—free from external interference. A world without cruel blockades or unilateral coercive measures that violate international law.

After six decades of a foreign-imposed economic blockade—repeatedly tightened with the explicit aim of provoking social unrest—Cuba now faces another illegal act of imperial overreach.

We arrive at this summit amid news of a new U.S. presidential memorandum imposing additional coercive measures aimed at suffocating our economy. This document revives the imperial delusion that outsiders can dictate who governs our nation and how—all in the name of so-called democracy!

No other country has had to build its social and development project under the prolonged, cruel, and systematic siege of history’s most powerful nation. The blockade is an act of aggression, enforced through offensive extraterritorial measures that violate all nations’ sovereignty. Rooted in the past, it is unjustifiable and must end.

Unilateral lists and certifications—like Cuba’s baseless designation as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’—have no place in the 21st century. The U.S. has no moral authority or international mandate to judge Cuba or any other nation.

To confront shared challenges, humanity needs no blockades, false supremacism, or exploitation. What we urgently need is respect for our differences, more dialogue, cooperation, and integration. We need a renewed commitment to multilateralism to ensure peaceful coexistence and equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development for all.

That is why we must nurture and strengthen BRICS—an alliance we join with the noble aspiration to contribute and learn. In this endeavor, you can always count on Cuba!”

[https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/1941997394180374724]

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

The Persecution of Francesca Albanese

By Chris Hedges

10 Jul 2025 – When the history of the genocide in Gaza is written, one of the most courageous and outspoken champions for justice and the adherence to international law will be Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, who today the Trump administration is sanctioning. Her office is tasked with monitoring and reporting on human rights violations that Israel commits against Palestinians.

Albanese, who regularly receives death threats and endures well-orchestrated smear campaigns directed by Israel and its allies, valiantly seeks to hold those who support and sustain the genocide accountable. She lambasts what she calls “the moral and political corruption of the world” that allows the genocide to continue. Her office has issued detailed reports documenting war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, one of which, called “Genocide as colonial erasure,” I have reprinted as an appendix in my latest book, “A Genocide Foretold.”

She has informed private organizations that they are “criminally liable” for assisting Israel in carrying out the genocide in Gaza. She announced that if true, as has been reported, that the former British prime minister David Cameron threatened to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, which Cameron and the other former British prime minister Rishi Sunak could be charged with a criminal offense for, under the Rome Statue. The Rome Statue criminalizes those who seek to prevent war crimes from being prosecuted.

She has called on top European Union (EU) officials to face charges of complicity of war crimes over their support for the genocide, saying that their actions cannot be met with impunity. She was a champion of the Madleen flotilla that sought to break the blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid, writing that the boat which was intercepted by Israel, was carrying not only supplies, but a message of humanity.

You can see the interview I did with Albanese here.

Her latest report lists 48 corporations and institutions, including Palantir Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin, Alphabet Inc. (Google), Amazon, International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with banks and financial firms such as BlackRock, insurers, real estate firms and charities, which in violation of international law, are making billions from the occupation and the genocide of Palestinians.

You can read my article on Albanese’s most recent report here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned her support for the ICC, four of whose judges have been sanctioned by the U.S. for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant last year. He criticized Albanese for her efforts to prosecute American or Israeli nationals who sustain the genocide, saying she is unfit for service as a special rapporteur. Rubio also accused Albanese of having “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.” The sanctions will most likely prevent Albanese from travelling to the U.S. and will freeze any assets she may have in the country.

The attack against Albanese presages a world without rules, one where rogue states, such as the U.S. and Israel, are permitted to carry out war crimes and genocide without any accountability or restraint. It exposes the subterfuges we use to fool ourselves and attempt to fool others. It reveals our hypocrisy, cruelty and racism. No one, from now on, will take seriously our stated commitments to democracy, freedom of expression, the rule of law or human rights. And who can blame them? We speak exclusively in the language of force, the language of brutes, the language of mass slaughter, the language of genocide.

“The acts of killing, the mass killing, the infliction of psychological and physical torture, the devastation, the creation of conditions of life that would not allow the people in Gaza to live, from the destruction of hospitals, the mass forced displacement and the mass homelessness, while people were being bombed daily, and the starvation — how can we read these acts in isolation?” Albanese asked in an interview I did with her when we discussed her report, “Genocide as colonial erasure.”

The militarized drones, helicopter gunships, walls and barriers, checkpoints, coils of concertina wire, watchtowers, detention centers, deportations, brutality and torture, denial of entry visas, apartheidesque existence that comes with being undocumented, loss of individual rights and electronic surveillance, are as familiar to desperate migrants along the Mexican border, or attempting to enter Europe, as they are to Palestinians.

This is what awaits those who Frantz Fanon calls “the wretched of the earth.”

Those that defend the oppressed, such as Albanese, will be treated like the oppressed.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. 

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

This Is How the U.S.-Run GHF Tried to Build a Local Network of ‘Aid Collaborators’ in Gaza

By Tareq S. Hajjaj

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has taken over the aid system in Gaza on behalf of the Israeli army by cultivating a local network of companies and organizations to collaborate in its operations. The organizations that refused have been shut down.

10 Jul 2025 – The Israel-backed and U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been weathering one public relations disaster after another as new information continues to expose the organization’s complicity in Israel’s plans to “concentrate” Gaza’s population in camps ahead of their forcible displacement — in keeping with Israel’s stated military goals of conquering the Strip and expelling its people. In service of these goals, the GHF has replaced the UN’s aid distribution system with what Gazans describe as “death traps,” leading Palestinians to accuse the organization of fulfilling Israeli military objectives under the guise of humanitarianism.

In order to bolster this facade, the GHF has been actively attempting to pressure international humanitarian organizations into cooperating with the GHF and participating in its operations. The GHF has also actively attempted to form a local network of distributors run by companies known to have collaborated with the Israeli army in the past.

Speaking with several individuals and organizations approached by the GHF, Mondoweiss investigations reveal that Israel and the GHF are attempting to coerce local and international actors into cooperating with the U.S.-Israeli aid scheme. In some cases, the GHF has tasked local companies to engage in outreach to the population to advertise its centers and handle distribution and logistics.

According to sources inside Gaza, the Israeli army is also pursuing a broader strategy of pressuring humanitarian organizations to either operate under the GHF framework or cease their activities altogether. The Israeli military has reportedly forced several international organizations to distribute their aid through GHF centers, overriding previous agreements that allowed them to operate independently. In many cases, aid shipments that entered through Israeli-controlled crossings were redirected — without the knowledge or consent of the aid organizations — to the U.S. company’s centers.

An official security source in the Gaza civil government told Mondoweiss in mid-June that Hamas possesses “reliable intelligence” confirming that the GHF has been pressuring local institutions to participate in its operations. These attempts were meant to force organizations to cooperate in a strategy of “engineering starvation and managing chaos,” the official said, which he said was part of “a politically motivated and security-driven project disguised in humanitarian garb.”

“However, these institutions, guided by their national consciousness and ethical commitment, refused to become tools for a party responsible for our people’s suffering,” he added.

But there are some organizations that have cooperated. The GHF and the Israeli army have essentially pursued two paths in dominating the humanitarian landscape in Gaza: forcing international organizations to either work with the GHF or to halt operations, and using local gangs and businesses as part of its “native” network, giving a Palestinian face to an Israeli-U.S. operation with military and political objectives. Here is how it has attempted to achieve the objective of building this network of “aid collaborators.”

The case of the al-Khozandar Company

On the night of June 11, 12 employees working for a local trading company were killed after being publicly detained by groups affiliated with Hamas’s security forces. Locals said they were from the Arrow Force, the Hamas unit tasked with hunting down looters and Israeli-backed gangs in Gaza. After being reportedly beaten and shot in the foot, the security members publicly accused the individuals of working for a company allegedly collaborating with the Israeli military. Eyewitnesses told Mondoweiss that the employees were then lynched by a crowd of people who were allegedly incited by the security members, who reportedly told the crowds that the employees were responsible for the deaths of their loved ones at GHF sites.

It later became clear that the individuals were employees of the al-Khozandar Company, a commercial firm owned by a Palestinian residing in Cairo.

The killing of the employees sparked controversy and outrage, with the victims’ families issuing a statement on June 17 demanding accountability. The statement also denied allegations that their sons were working with the Israeli-backed gang led by Yasser Abu Shabab that loots aid across Gaza, calling the accusations “false and baseless.”

The events surrounding the incident, however, reveal a more complex picture. Before the families had issued their statement, the GHF condemned the “murder of 12 of our aid workers.” In contrast, the families stated that their sons were on their first day of work for al-Khozandar, suggesting that the company was working closely with the GHF.

The security source in the Gaza government who spoke to Mondoweiss in June identified the Mohsen al-Khozandar Trading and Transport corporation, headed by a man named Muhammad al-Khozandar, as a “morally and nationally compromised” company that “coordinates directly with suspicious foreign actors at the expense of our people’s interests.” This company, the source added, “contributes, whether knowingly or not, to the systematic killing and starvation of Palestinians.”

He asserted that “certain measures” have already been taken against the company, and that “more will follow,” including classifying the company as a “complicit entity.”

The Khozandar company has been operating in Gaza for years. Also known as “Three Brothers,” the company specialized in bringing goods into Gaza in coordination with Israel before the war, which led Hamas to classify the company as “collaborating with the occupation,” according to the security source. The source added that, during the war, the company’s activities expanded noticeably beyond trade, raising suspicions of collaboration with the Israeli army’s military plans.

According to the Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties, Palestinian workers employed by Three Brothers have been “forced to work under conditions resembling modern slavery,” and have been forced to sort and load aid boxes under direct Israeli supervision and to “serve American mercenaries.” The workers were subject to degrading searches by Israeli soldiers, and were not paid any wages, only receiving a few cigarettes and a single daily meal as compensation, according to the Geneva Council, based on testimony it says it has verified.

Al-Khozandar began implementing the U.S.-Israeli aid distribution scheme in Rafah after it contracted with Safe Reach Solution (SRS), a military contractor that is also the parent company of the GHF and has reportedly conducted military-intelligence operations in Gaza using Israeli data. According to a Financial Times investigation, the arrangement was for SRS to provide security at the GHF centers, while the Khozandar company would run distribution, specifically at the Tal Sultan center in Rafah.

According to local reports, al-Khozandar’s role in the aid scheme is to engage local individuals and civil society organizations to cooperate with the GHF, while the FT investigation quoted a source that said Three Brothers would be “the first interface with the population” at the distribution sites, and that the Khozandar team “was well known to the Israeli security establishment and had a long history of working with them.”

The FT reported that SRS had approached several other prominent businessmen in Gaza to staff the centers, but that they refused to participate in the U.S.-Israeli scheme, “arguing it amounted to forced displacement of people in the enclave.”

Meanwhile, the al-Khozandar family in Gaza issued a statement in May disavowing the Mohsen Khozandar Company and condemning any activities carried out by Muhammad al-Khozandar and his brothers, who manage the firm. The statement was supported by the Contractors Union and business owners in Gaza, who described any cooperation with this scheme as a “betrayal of national unity” and demanded strict accountability for all those involved.

Local testimonies also indicate that the company’s managers from the al-Khozandar family phoned several prominent influencers and content creators in Gaza, urging them to promote the company’s aid centers and claiming they were safe and free from inspections or any violations of people’s dignity.

Yahya Hilles, a digital creator, told Mondoweiss that a person going by the name of Noor al-Khozandar contacted him and spoke with him for over an hour, trying to convince him to encourage people to go to the GHF centers. Hilles explained that he consulted his family elders, who firmly opposed any involvement in promoting this project.

“Noor al-Khozandar kept insisting, urging me to go, film, and promote the centers, but I repeatedly asked him why he came to me specifically,” Hilles said. “He gave no clear answer. He knew that people trust me and believe what I share on social media, so he wants to drag me into this. He told me there would be no soldiers or Americans, and that I would just carry aid and return home.”

“I knew that, even if things might go smoothly the first or second time, it might later turn into a disaster,” Hilles added. “In that case, I would be responsible before my people, so I categorically refused. I told him clearly: this issue is bigger than one person, with serious security and political implications. It cannot be handled through a simple call from one person to another.”

Israeli army attempts to strong-arm international organizations

Rahma Worldwide is among the most active humanitarian organizations in Gaza since the war began, although it has been operating in the territory since 2017. During the war, it became notably involved in facilitating the entry of medical delegations and volunteers to Gaza hospitals, where they provided services for a limited time before leaving the territory.

The organization has an extensive history in humanitarian relief. Recently, however, the Israeli military attempted to coerce Rahma Worldwide into operating under the umbrella of the GHF. In late May, the organization’s director, Dr. Shadi Zaza, told Mondoweiss that Rahma Worldwide rejected the collaboration.

Zaza stated that the organization operates in Gaza as part of a group that includes several humanitarian institutions, including some affiliated with the UN. He said that the Israeli army had informed them of the addition of a new institution — the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — to this group, and later announced changes to the aid distribution plan, including designating new distribution points where each organization would be required to send its staff.

“We are always on standby,” Zaza said. “We’re ready anytime we’re permitted to bring in aid. Our goods are prepared and waiting at the crossings.” He noted that Rahma Worldwide had received permission the previous month to deliver four trucks carrying 4,000 food parcels, only to be surprised by an Israeli army order to transfer the aid to distribution points managed by the GHF, along with a demand that Rahma staff help with distribution there.

“We categorically refused this request,” Zaza stated. “Our agreement with the army was clear — we would distribute our parcels at locations designated for our organization, not those belonging to any other.”

Despite Rahma Worldwide’s request that the parcels be redirected to their own sites, the army insisted on sending them to the GHF-run facilities. The army also declared that GHF was now the sole authority responsible for aid distribution in Gaza.

Accordingly, the 4,000 parcels were transferred to Rafah, and the army contacted Rahma’s team, urging them to assist with distribution. But the team reached out to the organization’s U.S. headquarters, which unequivocally rejected involvement with the GHF.

“We will not be part of this mechanism. We reject it entirely,” said Zaza, highlighting that the army continues to pressure aid groups, especially those importing goods from Egypt, Jordan, or even the West Bank, insisting that all items be sourced from within Israel.

As a final request, Rahma Worldwide asked for its logos to be removed from the food boxes that were to be distributed at the GHF’s sites to avoid appearing as a participant or collaborator in the distribution scheme. This, Zaza said, reflects the organization’s firm opposition to the scheme.

According to the organization, some of the logos were removed, but boxes bearing the Rahma logo were nonetheless distributed at locations affiliated with the GHF on at least one occasion, which the organization said was beyond its control.

Rahma identified these Israeli efforts early on as attempts to forcibly integrate them into the GHF’s network. Upon the organization’s refusal, the army imposed even more stringent conditions for aid entry.

“We have over 20,000 food parcels ready in our warehouses,” Zaza added. “But we refuse to deliver them through the American organization’s mechanism. That organization was originally just one of many working here—we had no issue with that. But now that it’s trying to monopolize aid and impose its control, that is completely unacceptable.”

This stance of refusal reflects a broader trend among humanitarian organizations in Gaza, many of which oppose the GHF for its role in facilitating Israeli military objectives. Continued pressure for these organizations to work with the GHF or leave, some warn, could lead to the withdrawal of many aid organizations from Gaza entirely, creating a severe gap in humanitarian assistance.

“If Israel continues imposing this style of control and management, we simply won’t bring in aid,” Zaza said. “Other organizations may follow our lead. This policy — though unofficial — may well be Israel’s way of clearing the field of independent organizations and turning humanitarian work into a fully controlled instrument.”

Some international humanitarian organizations have begun cutting ties with the Boston Consulting Group, the company that helped conceive and launch the GHF and had even modelled the costs of “relocating” Palestinians outside of Gaza. Save the Children recently ended a two-decade partnership with the BCG over its role in the GHF, calling the aid organization’s plan to forcibly displace Gaza’s population “utterly unacceptable.” BCG’s chief executive admitted that its involvement in the GHF was “reputationally damaging” and the result of “deliberate individual misconduct” and “missed warning signs.”

The GHF has continued to push organizations to work with it as the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen. On July 6, the GHF announced that it had met with the Country Director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to propose a plan to help it “feed the north of Gaza.”

“Right now, nearly all their trucks are being looted,” the GHF said. “We hope they will put politics aside and accept our proposal soon so we can achieve our shared mission: getting more aid to the people of Gaza.”

The GHF was responding to a WFP statement that the need for food in Gaza was desperate. “WFP stand ready to assist the entire population,” the WFP said. “We have the food, the capacity and the systems.” The WFP could not be reached for comment regarding whether it had agreed to work with the GHF.

In an abrupt development on Monday, July 7, the GHF announced the closure of its center in central Gaza near the Netzarim Corridor until further notice. This was followed by another announcement on Wednesday, July 9, declaring the closure of its distribution point in Khan Younis. At present, only the GHF’s distribution center in Rafah remains operational.

These announcements come amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. One of Hamas’s conditions for the prospective 60-day ceasefire period is that aid distributions be handled exclusively by the United Nations and its agencies operating in Gaza, completely excluding the GHF. This condition was reportedly accepted in the ceasefire talks.

This has led local reporters to speculate that the closure of the GHF’s distribution centers indicates that an agreement regarding the ceasefire’s terms is near, with the GHF complying with Hamas’s demand by halting its operations in the Strip. Local sources say it is expected that the Rafah distribution center may also be closed in the coming days, signaling that the ceasefire might soon go into effect.

Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Gaza Correspondent for Mondoweiss and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union.

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

Why Public Funds Should Be Deposited in Publicly-Owned Banks

By Ellen Brown

8 Jul 2025 – A thriving economy requires that credit flow freely for productive use. But today, a handful of giant banks diverts that flow into an exponentially-growing self-feeding pool of digital profits for themselves. Rather than allowing the free exchange of labor and materials for production, our system of banking and credit has acted as a tourniquet on production and a drain on resources.

Yet we cannot do without the functions banks perform; and one of these is the creation of “money” as dollar-denominated bank credit when they make loans. This advance of credit has taken the form of “fractional reserve” lending, which has been heavily criticized. But historically, it is this sort of credit created on the books of banks that has allowed the wheels of industry to turn. Employers need credit at each stage of production before they have finished products that can be sold on the market, and banks need to be able to create credit as needed to respond to this demand. Without the advance of credit, there will be no products or services to sell; and without products to sell, workers and suppliers cannot get paid.

Bank-created deposits are not actually “unbacked fiat” simply issued by banks. They can be created only when there is a borrower. In effect, the bank has monetized the borrower’s promise to repay, turning his promise to pay tomorrow into money that can be spent today — spent on the workers and materials necessary to create the products and services that will be sold to repay the loans. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, “many that understand Business very well, but have not a Stock sufficient of their own, will be encouraged to borrow Money; to trade with, when they have it at a moderate interest.”

If banks have an unfair edge in this game, it is because they have managed to get private control of the credit spigots.  They have often used this control not to serve business, industry, and society’s needs but for their private advantage. They can turn credit on and off at will, direct it at very low interest to their cronies, or use it for their own speculative ventures; and they collect the interest as middlemen. This is not just a modest service fee covering costs. Interest has been calculated to compose a third of everything we buy.

Anyone with money has a right to lend it, and any group with money can pool it and lend it; but the ability to create money-as-credit ex nihilo (out of nothing), backed by the “full faith and credit” of the government and the people, is properly a public function, the proceeds of which should thus return to the public. The virtues of an expandable credit system can be retained while avoiding the exploitation to which private banks are prone, by establishing a network of public banks that serve the people because they are owned by the people.

The Stellar Example of the Bank of North Dakota

Publicly-owned banks can exist at many levels, from giant multinational infrastructure banks, to national infrastructure or postal banks, to local banks owned by states, counties, cities or tribes. In his 2021 book titled Public Banks, Professor Thomas Marois showed that 17% of banks are publicly owned, with collective assets just under $49 trillion. In the US today, many groups are working on establishing local public banks. But our only existing state-owned bank is the century-old Bank of North Dakota (BND), a stellar model that will be the focus of this paper.

The BND was founded in 1919, when North Dakota farmers rose up against the powerful out-of-state banking-railroad-granary cartel that was unfairly foreclosing on their farms. They formed the Non-Partisan League, won an election, and founded the state’s own bank and granary, both of which are still active today.

The BND operates within the private financial market, working alongside private banks rather than replacing them. It provides loans and other banking services, primarily to other banks, local governments, and state agencies, which then lend to or invest in private sector enterprises. It operates with a profit motive, with profits either retained as capital to increase the bank’s loan capacity or returned to the state’s general fund, supporting public projects, education, and infrastructure.

According to the BND website, more than $1 billion had been transferred to the state’s general fund and special programs through 2018, most of it in the previous decade. That is a substantial sum for a state with a population that is only about one-fifteenth the size of Los Angeles County.

The BND actually beats private banks at their own game, generating a larger return on equity (ROE, that is, net profit divided by shareholder equity) for its public citizen-owners than even the largest Wall Street banks return to their private investors (for figures, see below). These profits belong to the citizens and are generated without taxation, lowering tax rates. On October 3, 2024, Truth in Accounting’s annual Financial State of the States report rated North Dakota #1 in fiscal health, with a budget surplus per taxpayer of $55,600. Small businesses are now failing across the country at increasingly high rates; but that’s not true in North Dakota, which was rated by Forbes Magazine the best state in which to start a business in 2024.

Why So Profitable? The BND Model

For nearly a century, the BND maintained a low profile. But in 2014, it was featured in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that the Bank of North Dakota “is more profitable than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a better credit rating than J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and hasn’t seen profit growth drop since 2003.” The article credited this success to the shale oil boom; but North Dakota was already reporting record profits in the spring of 2009, when every other state was in the red and the oil boom had not yet hit.

The average ROE of the BND from 2000 through 2024 (its latest annual report) was 19.4%. Compare JPMorgan Chase (JPM), by far the largest bank in the country, with 2.4 trillion in deposits. Its average ROE from 2000-23 was 11.38% over the same period. For a detailed breakdown, see here.

How could the BND have outperformed JPM, the nation’s largest bank? Most important, it has substantially lower costs and risks than private commercial banks. It has no exorbitantly-paid executives; pays no bonuses, fees, or commissions; has no private shareholders; and has low borrowing costs. It partners with local banks in “participation loans,” avoiding loan origination costs. It engages in old-fashioned conservative banking and does not speculate in derivatives, so it has no losses or risk from derivative trades gone wrong.

The BND does not need to advertise or compete for depositors. It has a massive, captive deposit base in the state itself, which must deposit all of its revenues in the BND by law.  Most state agencies also must deposit there. The BND takes some token individual deposits, but it does not compete with local banks for commercial deposits or loans. As for municipal (as distinct from state) government deposits, the BND generally not only reserves those deposits for local community banks but enhances their ability to secure municipal deposits. In many states, stringent collateral requirements are attached to municipal government deposits, such as a 110% collateral requirement with high quality securities. This essentially prevents local banks from using municipal deposits to fund local lending. In North Dakota, however, the BND provides letters of credit that guarantee the deposits of municipal governments and other public corporations, making collateral unnecessary and making municipal deposits available for local lending. In addition to its deposit base, the BND also has a substantial capital base, with a capital fund totaling $1.059 billion in 2023, along with deposits of $8.7 billion.

Among other costs avoided by the BND are those for fines, penalties and settlements arising from government and civil lawsuits. Since the year 2000, JPM has paid more than $40 billion in total fines and settlements to regulators, enforcement agencies and lawsuits related to anti-competitive practices, securities abuses and other violations; and it is still facing several hundred open legal cases.

The State’s Deposits Are Safer in Its Own Bank

The BND is not only more profitable but also safer than JPM. In fact federal data show that JPM is the most systemically risky bank in the country. The BND, by contrast, has been called the nation’s safest bank. Its stock cannot be short-sold, since it is not publicly traded; and it will not suffer a run, since the state would not “run” on itself.

Compare JP Morgan Chase, which has over $1 trillion in uninsured deposits, the type most likely to be withdrawn in a crisis. In March 2023, the FDIC insurance fund had a balance of only $116.1 billion – only 5% of JPM’s total deposits of $2.38 trillion. JPM also had major counterparty risk in the derivatives market, with close to $60 trillion in total (notional) derivatives. The risks of large notional derivative exposures were highlighted in the 2012 “London Whale” scandal, in which JPM incurred $6.2 billion in losses from exotic derivatives trades.

Not just the Bank of North Dakota but North Dakota’s local banks are very safe, aided by the BND with liquidity, capitalization, regulation, loan guarantees, and other banker’s bank services. No local North Dakota banks have been in trouble during this century, but if they were to suffer a bank run, the BND would be there to help. According to its former CEO Eric Hardmeyer, the BND has a pre-approved fed funds line set up with every bank in the state; and if that is insufficient for liquidity, the BND can simply buy loans from a troubled local bank as needed.

Today, state governments often deposit their revenues in giant Wall Street banks designated as SIFIs (Systemically Important Financial Institutions), including JPM; but those banks are riskier than they appear.  They “insure” their capital with interconnected derivatives backed by collateral that has been “rehypothecated” (pledged or re-used several times over). The Financial Stability Board in Basel has declared that practice to be risky, “[a]s demonstrated by the 2007-09 global financial crisis.” The five largest Wall Street depository banks hold $223 trillion in derivatives — a risk highlighted by the Bank for International Settlements as “huge, missing and growing” in its December 2022 Quarterly Review — and they have a combined half trillion dollars in commercial real estate loans, also very risky in the current financial environment.

Under the Dodd Frank Act of 2010, a SIFI that goes bankrupt will not be bailed out by the government but will be recapitalized through “bail-ins,” meaning the banks are to “bail in” or extract capital from their creditors. That includes their “secured” and “collateralized” depositors, including state and local governments. Under the Bankruptcy Act of 2005 and Uniform Commercial Code Secs. 8 and 9, derivative and repo claims have seniority over all others and could easily wipe out all of the capital of a SIFI, including the “collateralized” deposits of state and local governments. The details are complicated, but the threat is real and imminent. See fuller discussions here and here, David Rodgers Webb’s The Great Taking, and Chris Martenson’s series drilling down into the obscure legalese of the enabling legislation, concluding here.

Even if the SIFIs remain solvent, they are not using state deposits and investments for the benefit of the state from which they come, and often they are betting against the public interest. The BND, on the other hand, is mandated to use its funds for the benefit of the North Dakota public. Other states would do well to follow North Dakota’s lead.

Advantages of a State-owned Bank for the Public, Local Government and Local Banks

Like private banks, a publicly-owned bank has the ability to create money in the form of bank credit on its books, and it has access to very low interest rates. But the business model of private banks requires them to take advantage of these low rates to extract as much debt service as the market will bear for the benefit of the bank’s private investors. A public bank can pass low rates on to local residents and businesses. It can also recapture the interest on local government projects, making them substantially cheaper than when funded through the bond market. As described above, the BND’s profits belong to the citizens and are generated without taxation, lowering tax rates.The BND also serves North Dakota’s local banks. It acts as a mini-Fed for the state, providing correspondent banking services to virtually every financial institution in North Dakota. It provides secured and unsecured , check-clearing, cash management and automated clearing house services for local banks. It participates in their loans and guarantees them, so the banks are willing to take on more risk, and they have been able to keep loans on their books rather than selling them to investors to meet capital requirements.  As a result, North Dakota banks were able to avoid the 2008-09 subprime and securitization debacles and the 2023 wave of bank bankruptcies.

By partnering with the BND, local banks can also take on local projects that might be too large for their own resources or in which Wall Street has no interest, projects that might otherwise go to out-of-state banks or remain unfunded. Due to this amicable partnership, the North Dakota Bankers’ Association endorses the BND as a partner rather than a competitor of the state’s private banks.

Serving the State as a Rainy Day Fund and for Disaster Relief

Unlike the Federal Reserve, which is not authorized to support state and local governments except in very limited circumstances,  North Dakota’s “mini-Fed” can help directly with state government funding. Having a cheap and ready credit line with the state’s own bank reduces the need for wasteful rainy-day funds invested at minimal interest in out-of-state banks.

The BND has also demonstrated the power of a state-owned bank to leverage state funds into new credit-dollars for disaster relief. Its emergency capabilities were demonstrated, for example, when record flooding and fires devastated Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1997. Floodwaters covered virtually the entire city and took weeks to fully recede. Property losses topped $3.5 billion. The response of the state-owned bank was immediate and comprehensive. It quickly established nearly $70 million in credit lines – to the city, the state National Guard, the state Division of Emergency Management, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and for individuals, businesses and farms. It also launched a Grand Forks disaster relief loan program and allocated $5 million to help other areas affected by the spring floods. Local financial institutions matched these funds, making a total of more than $70 million available.

The BND coordinated with the U.S. Department of Education to ensure forbearance on student loans; worked closely with the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Administration to gain forbearance on federally backed home loans; established a center where people could apply for federal/state housing assistance; and worked with the North Dakota Community Foundation to coordinate a disaster relief fund, for which the bank served as the deposit base. The bank also reduced interest rates on existing Family Farm and Farm Operating programs. Remarkably, no lives were lost, and the city was quickly rebuilt and restored.

More recently during the COVID crisis, North Dakota distributed unemployment benefits through community banks coordinated by the BND 10 times faster than the slowest state, and North Dakota’s small businesses secured more Paycheck Protection Program funds per worker than any other state.

Progress and Challenges

In the past 15 years, groups across the country have worked diligently to establish publicly-owned banks in their states and communities. A big push came in 2011 with the Occupy Wall Street movement, demonstrating that even the dry subject of banking can incite large groups of people to take action in times of economic crisis. Many people moved their individual deposits out of big Wall Street banks into local community banks, but what about the large public deposits held by state and local governments? No community bank was large enough for their needs. The Bank of North Dakota demonstrated the feasibility of another alternative: the state or city could form its own bank.

Although more than 50 public bank bills and resolutions have been filed since 2010, the only new bank to emerge is the Territorial Bank of American Samoa, founded in 2016. Lobbying in opposition by big private banks has deterred politicians, who are reluctant to rock the boat when times are good and no immediate need is perceived. However, times are not so good today for the majority of the population, and they could soon get worse even for the wealthy.

To muster the political will to take action, politicians need a business plan in which the benefits of establishing their own banks clearly outweigh the costs; and public bank advocates today face hurdles that the BND avoided by being grandfathered in before the relevant agency rules were instigated.

One hurdle is that states today typically require uninsured public funds to be backed by pledged collateral (i.e. surety bonds or letters of credit) exceeding 100 percent of the value of the deposits. California, for example, has state tax revenues exceeding $80 billion. As a single deposit in a bank, only $250,000 of that sum would be covered by FDIC insurance, leaving the balance uninsured; so the state insures that balance with a collateral requirement that is 110% of uninsured deposits. The result is to tie up more liquidity than the deposits provide. Public banking advocates argue that the requirement is unnecessary and unfairly burdensome for state-owned banks. The deposits of the BND, which was chartered as “the State of North Dakota doing business as the Bank of North Dakota,” are backed by the state itself. Meanwhile, letters of credit, e.g. from a Federal Home Loan Bank, are a viable alternative.

Another hurdle is that most state constitutions prohibit the state from “lending its credit” to private parties. This has been construed as prohibiting the state from owning a bank, but legal memoranda have refuted that interpretation.

Besides a profitable business plan, politicians need a push from their constituents to take action, and most people haven’t heard of public banks and don’t understand the concept. Wider public exposure and education are necessary. Even many politicians are unaware of how banking actually works. Chartered depository banks have the power to create money as deposits when they make loans, expanding the local money supply and increasing the capacity for local productivity. Over 95% of our money supply today is created by banks in this way. This vast power to create money as credit is one that properly belongs in the public domain.

Times are changing, and public banking momentum continues to grow. By making banking a public utility, with expandable credit issued by banks that are owned by the people, the financial system can be made to serve the people and local enterprise without draining their resources away. Credit flow can be released so that industry and free markets can thrive, and the economy can move closer to reaching its full potential.

Ellen Brown is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, 

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org

China, Russia Vow ‘Strategic Coordination’ to Promote Peace in West Asia

By The Cradle News Desk

China’s foreign minister said the two countries are working to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue.

10 Jul 2025 – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart on 10 July that Beijing and Moscow should strengthen strategic coordination to promote peace in West Asia.

According to a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry, Yi said the two countries should push for a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue during a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur. “Peace cannot be achieved through force, and applying pressure won’t solve problems.”

Dialogue and negotiations were the solution to the conflict, Yi added.

The two foreign ministers also discussed China–Russia coordination with the countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“Russia and China stand united in opposing actions and plans to militarize the region, including attempts to deploy NATO-standard military infrastructure,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated after the meeting.

During the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro on 7 July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow was ready to aid in mediating negotiations between the US and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Lavrov offered Russia’s technical assistance to help Iran replenish its depleted uranium stocks by removing uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels and replacing it with uranium suitable for power generation. “We have technological capacities and we are ready to offer them, taking the excess of overly enriched uranium and returning the power-generation-grade uranium to the Islamic Republic and its nuclear facilities.”

The US and Israel have insisted that Iran end all uranium enrichment on its own soil. Tehran insists that enriching uranium within its borders is its right under international law and according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Iran is seeking relief from US sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program, which it insists is for producing energy, not a nuclear weapon.

On 8 July, Iran denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that it had requested to resume talks with the US over its nuclear program.

“No request for a meeting has been made on our side to the American side,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Tuesday.

The US and Iran were engaged in nuclear talks in June when Israel launched a surprise war on Tehran on 13 June. During the 12-day war, Israeli bombing killed 1,060 people, while Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attacks on Israel resulted in at least 28 deaths.

The US joined the attack on 22 June by bombing three of Iran’s major nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Trump reportedly used the nuclear negotiations to deceive Iranian leaders into thinking that no Israeli attack was imminent.

“Israel and the US carried out a multi-faceted misinformation campaign in recent days to convince Iran that a strike on its nuclear facilities was not imminent,” the Times of Israel reported.

A US official told the Israeli news site that US President Donald Trump was an “active participant in the ruse,” and knew about the military operation in advance.

14 July 2025

Source: transcend.org