JEAN SHOUL—The federal government has deployed the air force to attack bandit camps with daily and nightly flights over Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina states. Buhari has ordered security forces to “shoot any person or persons seen carrying AK-47s in any forest in the country” and banned all mining activities in Zamfara, where the illegal hunt for gold is fueling the crisis. According to the United Nations, 279,000 people were displaced in the northern states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina by the end of 2020, with nearly 2.6 million people across the three states facing food insecurity in 2021. Zamfara’s provincial governor has ordered 6,000 troops to root out bandits from their camps in the vast Rugu forest spanning northern Nigeria and parts of neighbouring Niger.

None of this has succeeded in quelling the violence. The security forces’ brutality and corruption have only served to exacerbate hostility to the federal and state political and economic elites.

CGTN—In response to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s two-day visit to China starting on Sunday, Wang rejected the U.S. proposed strength-based approach of conducting international relations.

There is never a country that is superior to others, and there shouldn’t be one, Wang stated, stressing that China will not accept any country that thinks itself more superior than others.

GABRIEL ROCKHILL—It is often presumed that intellectuals have little or no political power. Perched in a privileged ivory tower, disconnected from the real world, embroiled in meaningless academic debates over specialized minutia, or floating in the abstruse clouds of high-minded theory, intellectuals are frequently portrayed as not only cut off from political reality but as incapable of having any meaningful impact on it. The Central Intelligence Agency thinks otherwise.

Dennis Etler, an American academic committed to peace and anti-imperialist struggles, worked tirelessly to push back against the barrage of disinformation the West has hurled and continues to hurl at China. Dennis understood well that in the US playbook. character assassination usually precedes all-out attacks and even full kinetic wars. This is why the Big Lie, on which the Western elites and particularly the US rely so heavily, is also so eminently dangerous. Dennis saw early that President Xi was a superior type of politician, and an extraordinary human being, and that under his direction China would probably accomplish great things. He therefore founded a page on Facebook (!) simply entitled Xi Jinping – China’s Exceptional President.

WJ ASTORE—Serving in the U.S. Air Force, Daniel Hale witnessed America’s drone assassination program and decided to speak out against it. As he awaits sentencing under the Espionage Act for sharing secrets about that program so that the American people could gain insight into the murderous realities of this war from a distance, he penned this letter to the judge hearing his case.

It is a heartfelt and harrowing letter that should be read by all Americans. The Biden administration is seeking a 9-year prison sentence and would prefer an even tougher punishment. This is exactly what is wrong about the United States today: the innocent are punished severely while the guilty are celebrated and promoted.