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Updated document, which emphasises harm done to African women, is being considered by other Caribbean countriesBarbados’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, has announced a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders asserting the “moral, ethical and legal case” for reparations over damage caused by hundreds of years of enslavement.Mottley was speaking at a “historic” conference in Ghana to advance the push for reparatory justice after the United Nations adopted a landmark resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. Continue reading...

‘Mastermind’ Dawie Groenewald given fine of 2m rand or four-year jail term almost 16 years after arrestTwo traffickers of rhino horns have been sentenced by a South African court in what police said was the world’s largest such case, partly bringing to an end an almost two-decade legal saga.Dawie Groenewald and Tielman Erasmus had faced more than 1,700 charges ranging from illegally hunting and dehorning rhinos to racketeering and money laundering. Continue reading...

While Donald Trump is being excoriated by Republicans over his Iran deal, which one GOP lawmaker called “… a tremendous foreign policy blunder,” MS NOW’s Bill Rohde stated on Thursday morning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can expect that his role in advising the president to launch the war has put his job at risk.Discussing the blowback Trump is facing over the war that, for the moment, has ended in a stalemate, Rohde claimed that Hegseth is already a prime target instead since he is already on the outs with a substantial number of Republican lawmakers.“At some point. President Trump is the person most responsible for this strategic defeat and failure,” Rohde told the "Morning Joe” co-hosts. “But I would argue the person second most responsible, who is in the most dangerous position politically, is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He repeatedly lied to the American public in his press conferences about the progress of the war, and he also refused to give basic information to members of Congress. There's a lot of ill will among senators and House members towards Pete Hegseth.”Quoting Hegseth asserting “The aftermath of this is going to be in our interest,” Rohde asked, “Did he warn the president about the Strait of Hormuz before this war? Was he honest with the American public? And to the 50,000 Americans who risked their lives in the 13 soldiers who died? You know, his performance is just something that has to be looked at.”Co-host Willie Geist added, “We haven't seen the defense secretary in public much since those podium-banging news briefings that he would give every week, where he would lecture the media about how to cover the war, what was actually happening, and from all the reporting that he would show the president of the United States an iPad with things blowing up to show that they were doing well. It turns out this is a much, much more complicated problem than can be solved by blowing things up.” - YouTube youtu.be

According to former CIA official Marc Polymeropoulos, Donald Trump’s Iran deal, which has set off a deluge of criticism within the Republican Party, has left the leadership of Israel in a state of shock.Appearing on MS NOW with “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist, Polymeropoulos, who just returned from Tel Aviv, claimed he found a sense of betrayal during his visit. Geist prompted the 26-year veteran of the CIA with, “Marc, take us to Tel Aviv this morning. And what Bibi Netanyahu must be thinking; that he got his man in the White House in Donald Trump, that he went to the Situation Room, sold the war successfully. He thought that Donald Trump, the United States military, would come in and finish off Iran, take out the regime, and now he sits here this morning with this memorandum of understanding anyway, with explicit language that says there can be no attacks on Lebanon.”“So the Israelis I speak with are in a state of panic, one former Mossad official said, literally, ‘I can't believe this is happening,’” he reported. “But in some ways they should have known better,” he explained. “And one analyst actually told me, ‘Look, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu decided to ride the tiger — that's Donald Trump. And the tiger just turned around and just bit him on the rear end.’”“And like many of us predicted he would, he continued, “Because Trump was no dedicated, you know, savior. He was not the messiah for Israel. He's too transactional.”“Let me just add one quick thing, Willie,” he insisted. “Let's not forget at the end of the Biden administration, if you calculate what President Biden did after October 7th, he gave the Israelis $18 billion in military aid. Yet somehow, he is seen as not a supporter of Israel. That was preposterous. And right now, I think the Israelis are realizing that Trump was not who they thought he was, and that this MOU actually puts them in a very precarious national security situation, particularly in terms of ballistic missiles and what to do about Hezbollah, a terrorist entity sitting on their northern border.” - YouTube youtu.be

President Donald Trump's shifting relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be a boon for Vice President JD Vance's 2028 presidential ambitions, an analyst reported on Wednesday.Jonathan V. Last, editor of The Bulwark, explained that a split between America and Israel could redefine the MAGA coalition. Although Vance is in a tough position with pro-war Republicans furious over the surrender and blaming the vice president — instead of Trump — he could also win over America First isolationists who have been skeptical of the relationship with Israel."Playing the part of Trump’s surrender monkey queers Vance with both wings of MAGA," Last wrote. But there could be more to it for the vice president, who was skeptical of the war to begin with."The best thing that could happen for Vance would be Trump souring on Israel," Last wrote."Israel will be one of the big cleavages in the post-Trump GOP," Last wrote. "The rising, young segment of the base is . . . skeptical of America’s relationship with Israel. But the establishment wing of MAGA remains pro-Israel. So long as Trump was wedded to Israel and Bibi Netanyahu, Vance was going to have to tread lightly. He’d have to signal enough of his Israel skepticism to keep the Tucker-wing of MAGA guessing while staying publicly aligned with Trump."If that changes, and Trump does turn on Israel, it could reveal a different future MAGA."Netanyahu has tried to undermine the deal. He is likely to fail because Trump needs to end the war, period. Which leaves Netanyahu with a choice," Last wrote.The Israeli prime minister could examine two potential options: pretend Trump's deal is a good one and try to convince the Israeli public it is, or condemn the deal and break away from Trump.Trump has criticized Netanyahu, calling him "crazy," and as the president's popularity has dropped in Israel, it could reveal that Israelis have soured on Trump — and Republicans might not have realized this as fast as Israelis have, Last explained."Vance has neither of those advantages and on top of that, he’s a bad politician," Last wrote. "He’s good at managing up, not pandering down. My guess is that Vance has taken stock of the situation and realized that he may be over a barrel now, but there is a path for him. If he leans into Iran, takes ownership of Trump’s surrender, then he can take advantage of any Trump-Israel schism and exit this war in a reasonably strong position with the Republican base."

The internet fired off stunned reactions on Wednesday as President Donald Trump gave a meandering speech after the G7 Summit in France.Trump spoke about the Iran agreement from Évian-les-Bains and talked for more than 40 minutes on a stage with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick standing behind him.Political and media experts commented on the president's demeanor and claims."This is one of the most erratic press conferences I think I've ever seen from Trump. He sounds like he's got a rotten cold," Mikey Smith, deputy political editor for The Mirror, wrote on X."Even with the bronze plaster on his face, the president looks exceedingly unwell," former CIA case officer and political commentator, wrote on X."Ummm………….," political commentary account Spiro’s Ghost wrote on X."A few missiles never hurt anybody," Ron Filipkowski, MeidasTouch editor and attorney, wrote on X."This is the dumbest speech in the history of speeches. My 7th grade speech for class secretary was better," Georgetown University professor Anthony M. Hopper wrote on X."Sounds like Trump's personal 'Strait of Hormuz' just opened," former Metro editor at the Chicago Tribune Mark Jacob wrote on Bluesky."Heads up to the moms whose SNAP benefits just got cut," editor Amanda Katz, former Washington Post writer, posted on Bluesky.This is one of the most erratic press conferences I think I've ever seen from Trump. He sounds like he's got a rotten cold. https://t.co/CWF2i1FlB6— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) June 17, 2026

Donald Trump’s much-anticipated press conference to address his Iran peace deal didn’t last long on MS NOW, with host Alicia Menendez cutting in as he discussed the war before taking questions, with the president sounding both hoarse and out of breath.Before taking questions, the president jumped from topic to topic about the attack on the Middle Eastern country as he was flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.With the president taking deep breaths after every sentence which were amplified by his microphone, he was telling the assembled reporters about burying Iran's nuclear program, saying, “Those mountains collapsed right on top of everything. Nobody's going to get that for a long time unless we want to get it. We will get it. But we're the only ones that can. And they say China has the equipment to get it, and we have the equipment.”At that point the audio was cut and Menendez informed her audience, “A rambling, incoherent president of the United States attempting to take a victory lap over his page and a half Iran agreement. Let's bring in MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter David Rohde and former Undersecretary of State under President Barack Obama, Richard Stengel. So much to tease apart from what we have just heard from the president of the United States, let's start with a fact check on the way he described the JCPOA and how it compares to the agreement currently before him.”“Well, Alicia, as you know, we haven't actually seen that agreement. We do know, supposedly that it's one and a half pages long,” Stengel observed. “The JCPOA agreement, which was negotiated over two years with a number of other countries that he's visiting now, England, France, Russia, was hundreds of pages long, and it was specifically about nuclear enrichment and the nuclear threat.”“There are no kind of reflexive protections in the Trump agreement. And it's also just much broader. I mean, to get to the fact check, he talked about the $1.5 billion that was given to Iran after the signing of the JCPOA,” he elaborated. “That was Iran's money. That was interest on the money that was in the United States that Iran had deposited here. Again, it's been reported that this will be a $300 billion fund that Iran will be able to access, as well as a relaxation of the sanctions against Iran, which gives them billions and billions of dollars. So, as you say, it's incredibly inarticulate and 100% wrong over and over.” - YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump’s pride in getting an Iran deal done, despite accusations that it was a complete capitulation to Iran’s leadership, led MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle to haul out the “Trump Always Chickens Out” (TACO) taunt.During a discussion of the deal with former diplomat Richard Haas and MS NOW’s David Rohde, she asked the two experts what the US got out of the deal.According to both, the US was definitely on the losing end and the deal could easily fall apart.“There's concerns that [Israel Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu is going to try to blow up this deal because it's so bad for Israel in the long term,” Rohde explained before adding a curt, “It is.”“And I'll just keep it short,” he continued. “I agree with what [New York Times conservative] Bret Stephens said. He said President Trump launched a war of choice. The really big issue was ground troops, and if you really wanted to win this war, he would need to take Kharg Island or actually, I think, land some troops in Iran.” “I'm not saying we should invade Iran with our ground troops, but when you go to war, you must fight totally and completely and show personal courage and he [Trump] blinked,” he accused. “President Trump kept dropping bombs and it didn't work. And bombs aren't enough to win a war.”“TACO: the war edition,” host Ruhle joked as her guests laughed. - YouTube youtu.be