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May 13, 2026 - World

Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissentWhen Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally.Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials. Continue reading...

May 13, 2026 - World

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing backlash after interrupting a panel at the Africa Forward Summit in Kenya

May 13, 2026 - World

Trump has already delivered China's ambitions with "self-inflicted" wounds, an ex-GOP strategist warned ahead of the president's visit with the country's leader, Xi Jinping."China's ambitions, whether they are military or economic, have been delivered up by Donald Trump," Rick Wilson said on a Tuesday episode of his podcast. Trump was set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from May 12-15 with business leaders like Elon Musk, and Wilson noted he's going in with "cataclysmically low poll ratings" and "tremendous political weakness" amid the war in Iran.However, while "we've lost the war in Iran," Trump started delivering "self-inflicted" wounds that benefit China's ambitions well before that, Wilson said."Trump starts a trade war. Almost every nation in South America is on the wrong side of Trump's trade war," Wilson explained. "What happens in South America? They cut deals with China. They're selling their products to China."Looking at Trump's government cutbacks, Wilson said that the DOGE decision to dismantle USAID is also helping China's global standing rise above that of the United States. "If you had gone into any African country two years ago, where there's a famine, where there's sickness, where there's poverty, where there's disease, where there's misery, you would have seen USAID workers," Wilson said. "You know what you'd see now? China. Because Elon and DOGE cut USAID and killed the program. So now those bags of food don't say, 'A gift from the people of the United States.' Now those bags of food say 'A gift from the people of the People's Republic of China.'"Wilson predicted that as people watch Trump's visit to China, they'll see him "with a sense of discomfort, with a sense of embarrassment," even though Trump will "bluster and yell and try to pretend that he's got the strong hand here. He does not. Xi Jinping has the strong hand."

May 12, 2026 - World

During a Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Sen Patty Murray (D-WA) got under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s skin just moments after she took a potshot at Donald Trump.Murray’s line of questioning centered around the Pentagon seeking a $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money at a time when American families’ lives are being made worse by the unprovoked war on Iran that has sent gas prices skyrocketing and on a day when it was reported that US inflation jumped 3.8 percent.“Secretary Hegseth, the president has called Medicaid, Medicare, and child care ‘little scams ‘and said "we're fighting wars, we cannot take care of daycare." I'm trying to understand that,” she began. “Is it your position you're asking taxpayers for another half a trillion dollars for the war, that American families should be forced to give up child care and health coverage so that you can have $1.5 trillion for this budget?”The former Fox News personality airily replied, “Senator, that's not my department.”He then added, “I certainly support this, and I also support the president's efforts to find and remove fraud wherever possible in general. We do that in our department as well.”“I'm not talking about fraud. I actually asked whether an American family should lose their healthcare or their child care to pay for this budget. That is literally what the president suggested,” Murray reminded him.‘’The president has proposed a historic $1.5 trillion budget that will defend the nation and confront threats like Iran, which previous presidents allowed to happen, as Senator [Lindsey] Graham (R-SC) pointed out,” he stated. “Previous administrations said they wanted to take care of this problem, and they did not, and he's doing it.”“The question in front of the American people is what are they being asked to give up for this $1.5 trillion,” the Democrat from Washington pushed back. “That's where I was talking about. And last thing, Mr. Secretary, your budget request cuts through Trump's ramblings and really, to me, makes the truth clear, that you and the president don't value families as much as you value defense contractors. You want to increase the war budget, every penny —.”Holding up a cautioning finger, Hegseth interrupted the senator and claimed, “I meet every family at Dover [Air Force Base]. Don't tell me we don't care about families! We sure do, and we take care of them in every way we possibly can.”The nonplussed Murray replied, “I'm asking you about taxpayer dollars that everybody has. We've been to war before. We have asked people to do victory gardens. We've asked them to pay more — you are not doing that. You are taking, asking for $1.5 trillion, which means something else has to be given up. That is what this committee is looking at. You want to increase the war budget a trillion dollars. That is taxpayer money that could be used to feed families or build new affordable homes or wipe out some diseases completely or increase child investments 20 times over. But you are asking us to blow it all on war, and that's not even counting the money that you have spent bombing Iran, or you may still request in a separate supplemental.” - YouTube youtu.be

May 12, 2026 - World

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) pointed out to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the U.S. had "not won this war" with Iran despite the rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump's administration.During a Tuesday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the war, Shaheen pointed to reports that Iran was receiving intelligence from Russia."Russia is making $4 billion from oil sanctions relief because we've loosened those sanctions," she explained. "As has been testified to. An Iranian Shahed drone costs about 35,000. That's enough money for hundreds of thousands of drones supporting Russia's war in Ukraine and billions for Iran to reconstitute its industrial base.""Senator, we know Russia is a nefarious actor on a lot of levels and account for that," Hegseth insisted. "All evidence to the contrary!" Shaheen interrupted. "We're not accounting for that if we're giving Russia the opportunity to earn $4 billion a month, $20 billion by the end of the year if we leave those sanctions lifted for that time during which they can continue to fund Iran.""The destruction of Iran's defense industrial base has been clear and overwhelming," the defense secretary argued. "What we see is Iran still producing drones," the senator observed. "They're still engaged in this conflict. We have not won this war despite the rhetoric.""If Iran still has almost 50% of their missile capacity and the ability to pull drones," she added, "and still injure our allies and U.S. service members, then we have not won the war."