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Category: Analysis

  • Decoding PNG leader Marape’s talks with French President Macron

    ANALYSIS: By Scott Waide, RNZ Pacific PNG correspondent

    The recent series of high-level agreements between Papua New Guinea and France marks a significant development in PNG’s geopolitical relationships, driven by what appears to be a convergence of national interests.

    The “deepening relationship” is less about a single personality and more about a calculated alignment of economic, security, and diplomatic priorities with PNG, taking full advantage of its position as the biggest, most strategically placed island player in the Pacific.

    An examination of the key outcomes reveals a partnership of mutual benefit, reflecting both PNG’s strategic diversification and France’s own long-term ambitions as a Pacific power.

    A primary driver is the shared economic rationale. From Port Moresby’s perspective, the partnership offers a clear path to economic diversification and resilience.

    But many in PNG have been watching with keen interest and asking: how badly does PNG want this?

    While Prime Minister James Marape offered France a Special Economic Zone in Port Moresby (SEZ) for French businesses, he also named the lookout at Port Moresby’s Variarata National Park after President Emmanuel Macron drawing the ire of many in the country.

    The proposal to establish a SEZ specifically for French industries is a notable attempt to attract capital from beyond PNG’s traditional partners.

    Strategically coupled
    This is strategically coupled with securing the future of the multi-billion-dollar Papua LNG project.

    Macron’s personal undertaking to work with TotalEnergies to keep the project on schedule provides crucial stability for one of PNG’s most significant economic ventures.

    For France, these arrangements secure a major energy investment for its national corporate champion and establish a stronger economic foothold in a strategically vital region between Asia and the Pacific.

    In the area of security, the relationship addresses tangible needs for both nations.

    PNG is faced with the immense challenge of monitoring a 2.4 million sq km Exclusive Economic Zone, making it vulnerable to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

    The finalisation of a Shiprider Agreement with France provides a practical force-multiplier, leveraging French naval assets to enhance PNG’s maritime surveillance capabilities. This move, along with planned defence talks on air and maritime cooperation, allows PNG to diversify its security architecture.

    For France, a resident power with Pacific territories like New Caledonia and French Polynesia, participating in regional security operations reinforces its role and commitment to stability in the Indo-Pacific.

    Elevating diplomatic influence
    The partnership is also a vehicle for elevating diplomatic influence.

    Port Moresby has noted the significance of engaging with a partner that holds permanent membership on the UN Security Council and seats at the G7 and G20.

    This alignment provides PNG with a powerful channel to global decision-making forums. The reciprocal move to establish a PNG embassy in Paris further cements the relationship on a mature footing.

    The diplomatic synergy is perhaps best illustrated by France’s full endorsement of PNG’s bid to host a future UN Ocean Conference. This support provides PNG with a major opportunity to lead on the world stage, while allowing France to demonstrate its credentials as a key partner to the Pacific Islands.

    This deepening PNG-France partnership does not exist in a vacuum.

    It is unfolding within a broader context of heightened geopolitical competition across the Pacific.

    The West’s view of China’s rapid emergence as a dominant economic and military force in the region has reshaped the strategic landscape, prompting traditional powers to re-engage with renewed urgency.

    increased diplomatic footprint
    The United States has responded by significantly increasing its diplomatic and security footprint, a move marked by Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Port Moresby to sign the Defence Cooperation Agreement.

    Similarly, Australia, PNG’s traditional security partner, is working to reinforce its long-standing influence through initiatives like the multi-million-dollar deal to establish a PNG team in its National Rugby League (NRL), a soft-power exercise reportedly linked to security outcomes.

    This competitive environment has, in turn, created greater agency for Pacific nations, allowing them to diversify their partnerships beyond old allies and providing a fertile ground for European powers like France to assert their own strategic interests.

    A strong foundation for the relationship is a shared public stance on environmental stewardship. The agreement on the need for rigorous scientific studies before any deep-sea mining occurs aligns PNG’s national policy with a position of environmental caution.

    This common ground extends to broader climate action, where France’s commitment to conservation in the Pacific resonates with PNG’s status as a frontline nation vulnerable to climate change.

    This alignment on values provides a durable and politically important basis for cooperation, allowing both nations to jointly advocate for climate justice and ocean protection.

    For the Papua New Guinea economy, this deepening partnership with France is critically important as it provides high-level stability for the multi-billion-dollar Papua LNG project and creates a direct pathway for new investment through a proposed SEZ for French businesses.

    Vital economic resource
    Furthermore, by moving to finalise a Shiprider Agreement to combat illegal fishing, the government is actively protecting a vital economic resource.

    For Marape’s credibility in local politics, these outcomes are tangible successes he can present to the nation as he battles a massive credibility dip in recent years.

    Securing a personal undertaking from the leader of a G7 nation, gaining support for PNG to host a future UN Ocean Conference, and enhancing national security demonstrates effective leadership on the world stage.

    This allows him to build a narrative of a competent statesman who, through “warm, personal relationships”, can deliver on promises of economic opportunity and national security while strengthening his political standing at home.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • More bare-faced lies from Starmer over DWP cuts, as ANOTHER parliamentary group slams plans

    Just as prime minister Keir Starmer has refused to budge on ramming through Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts to chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits, another parliamentary select committee has unequivocally shamed the government’s plans.

    Significantly, in a damning new report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty and Inequality has outlined how the goal-post changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) could strip some claimants of nearly £10,000 a year in vital financial support.

    The new report has thrown further cold water on the Labour Party government’s nonsensical claims that the cuts are about supporting chronically ill and disabled people into work. Instead, the APPG warned they will entrench ever-deeper poverty and cause “unprecedented hardship” for these communities.

    DWP cuts: Starmer doubling down on callous plans

    En route to the G7 summit in Canada on Sunday night, Starmer told reporters that his government would push the DWP cuts through parliament.

    As the Guardian reported, he said:

    We’ve got to reform the welfare system.

    He continued that:

    Everybody agrees with that proposition, so we’ve got to do that basic reform. It doesn’t work for those that need support and help into work, and it doesn’t work for the taxpayer.

    So, it’s got to be reformed. The principles remain the same; those who can work should work. Those who need support into work should have that support into work, which I don’t think they are getting at the moment.

    Those who are never going to be able to work should be properly supported and protected, and that includes not being reassessed and reassessed. So, they are the principles. We need to do reform and we will be getting on with that reform when the bill comes.

    Starmer’s response followed DWP boss Liz Kendall’s confirmation on 11 June that the government is pressing ahead.

    Reportedly, as many as 170 Labour MPs could rebel against the plans.

    The outlet noted how this indicated that the government is not planning to make any further ‘concessions’ to quell MP discontent. To date, these so-called concessions Kendall had put forward offer pitiful ‘protections’, for a tiny proportion of claimants.

    And on Monday 16 June, an APPG that includes more than 40 Labour members completely rebutted Starmer’s reasoning.

    Evidence of the cruel impacts mounts up

    Specifically, the Poverty and Inequality APPG published a new report slamming the government’s Green Paper plans.

    As the Big Issue reported:

    Some 800,000 people could lose PIP support entirely, the report finds, with some individuals set to lose £886 per month.

    Siân Berry, Green Party MP and co-chair of the group, told the outlet that:

    Disabled people are already squeezed beyond belief, they’re already living in much deeper poverty.

    She said:

    The public is being encouraged by the government to think that benefits are somehow generous or additional. They are not. Disabled people are already genuinely struggling to get by.

    Berry, alongside co-chair and Labour peer Ruth Lister, therefore argued that:

    Disabled people already face unacceptable levels of hardship. These proposals won’t remove barriers to employment – they will add new ones by stripping people of the income they rely on to survive.

    The evidence is clear: these cuts will deepen inequality and force people further into crisis. We urge the government to listen to those most affected and change course immediately.

    Many chronically ill and disabled people in work and not in work rely on the disability entitlement. PIP isn’t an out-of-work benefit, but the government has been attempting to blur this line with its supposed ‘reforms’. Instead, the benefit helps disabled people with the additional costs of living they incur in a non-accessible society built for non-disabled people.

    Many have already pointed out how removing the benefit for some and reducing it for others will only have the opposite effect.

    Meanwhile, it will also push those who can’t work into greater poverty. Disabled people already live in poverty at twice the rate of non-disabled people.

    Labour has been lying all along

    Starmer’s latest brazen, bare-faced spin over the government’s plans is nothing new. Ministers have repeatedly made fallacious claims on the impact the so-called reforms will have.

    Just this week, Kendall ignored warnings from Work and Pensions committee chair Debbie Abrahams. In an obtuse response to a letter the committee chair had penned urging the government to change course, she wrote that:

    With PIP caseload and costs forecast to continue rising, reforms are needed now to make the system sustainable, while supporting those people with the greatest needs. The rate of increase of the PIP caseload has outstripped the growth in disability prevalence – and this situation is not sustainable if we want our welfare safety net to exist for those who need it in future. However, I want to be clear that these changes are aimed at reducing the rate of
    growth in PIP, not reducing it in cash terms. PIP spending will continue to rise in real terms even after the proposed changes, and the number of people on PIP will still increase, with 750,000 more people forecast to be on PIP by the end of the Parliament.

    Of course, her claim the ‘reforms’ are not about reducing it in cash-terms are a blatant lie too. For many, this will be precisely the impact of the DWP cuts. Moreover, suggesting it will increase in real-terms because more people will claim it, is another farcical manipulation. Any rise in claims will likely reflect increasing ill health, and better awareness of entitlement to the support. In short, this does not represent a real-terms ‘increase’ for individual claimants.

    Entrenching poverty for chronically ill and disabled people

    From the start, the DWP’s impact assessment was considerably flawed.

    For one, it misleadingly calculated its figures using the fact it had ditched previous Conservative plans for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The problem with this, of course, is that the previous government hadn’t actually implemented this policy. In other words, it isn’t the current situation for claimants. This didn’t stop the impact assessment offsetting the number of adults and children it would throw into poverty using this.

    So it’s likely to be much higher than the 250,000, including 50,000 children, the assessment claimed. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has estimated this would be closer to 400,000 people, including 100,000 children.

    The impact assessment already forecast a staggering average annual loss of £4,500 for some 430,000 PIP claimants. However, the new APPG report shows that, in reality, it will be much starker for many.

    Moreover, Labour and the DWP have persisently lied about the number of people its Green Paper plans will affect.

    DWP cuts to impact more than a million people

    Research keeps exposing the devastating scale of the government’s planned DWP cuts. While its impact assessment calculated that 370,000 current claimants and 420,000 future ones would lose their DWP PIP entitlement, it’s likely to be much higher than this.

    A Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by a member of the public unearthed that around 209,000 people getting enhanced rate DWP PIP Daily Living will lose it. On top of this, around 1.1 million people getting the standard rate will lose it.

    In total, then, nearly 1.4 million people could, on reassessment, lose their Daily Living element of DWP PIP. However, as the Canary’s Steve Topple previously noted, this doesn’t tell us how many could lose their full PIP altogether. This is because the data does not show how many of these people get standard or enhanced Mobility Element of DWP PIP.

    Nonetheless, it’s evident that the plans will be enormously detrimental for chronically ill and disabled people.

    ‘How am I meant to survive?’ Starmer ignoring disabled people’s fears

    Now, the Poverty and Inequality APPG’s report has set out the real-world impact to claimants in no uncertain terms.

    The publication reviewed a number of responses to the government’s consultation over its Green Paper. These revealed the harrowing reality and fears of chronically ill and disabled claimants reliant on the disability benefit.

    As the Big Issue reported, one said:

    The cuts/changes to eligibility for PIP will decimate my life if they go ahead. It will cost me £8,400 a year. How am I meant to survive?

    Another wrote that:

    In short: people will die. It remains to be seen if I’ll be one of them because, if things go ahead as planned, I don’t see a way forward.

    Starmer doubling down in the face of these genuine and valid concerns shows something only too characteristic of this government. That is, its brutal belligerence in punching down on chronically ill and disabled communities – with neither concern nor remorse over the catastrophic impact its policies will inevitably wreak.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Why Israel’s shock and awe has proven its power but lost the war

    COMMENTARY: By Antony Loewenstein

    War is good for business and geopolitical posturing.

    Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington in early February for his first visit to the US following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he issued a bold statement on the strategic position of Israel.

    “The decisions we made in the war [since 7 October 2023] have already changed the face of the Middle East,” he said.

    “Our decisions and the courage of our soldiers have redrawn the map. But I believe that working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it even further.”

    How should this redrawn map be assessed?

    Hamas is bloodied but undefeated in Gaza. The territory lies in ruins, leaving its remaining population with barely any resources to rebuild. Death and starvation stalk everyone.

    Hezbollah in Lebanon has suffered military defeats, been infiltrated by Israeli intelligence, and now faces few viable options for projecting power in the near future. Political elites speak of disarming Hezbollah, though whether this is realistic is another question.

    Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE accounted for 12 percent of Israel’s record $14.8bn in arms sales in 2024 — up from just 3 percent the year before

    In Yemen, the Houthis continue to attack Israel, but pose no existential threat.

    Meanwhile, since the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, Israel has attacked and threatened Syria, while the new government in Damascus is flirting with Israel in a possible bid for “normalisation“.

    The Gulf states remain friendly with Israel, and little has changed in the last 20 months to alter this relationship.

    According to Israel’s newly released arms sales figures for 2024, which reached a record $14.8bn, Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates accounted for 12 percent of total weapons sales — up from just 3 percent in 2023.

    It is conceivable that Saudi Arabia will be coerced into signing a deal with Israel in the coming years, in exchange for arms and nuclear technology for the dictatorial kingdom.

    An Israeli and US-assisted war against Iran began on Friday.

    In the West Bank, Israel’s annexation plans are surging ahead with little more than weak European statements of concern. Israel’s plans for Greater Israel — vastly expanding its territorial reach — are well underway in Syria, Lebanon and beyond.

    Shifting alliances
    On paper, Israel appears to be riding high, boasting military victories and vanquished enemies. And yet, many Israelis and pro-war Jews in the diaspora do not feel confident or buoyed by success.

    Instead, there is an air of defeatism and insecurity, stemming from the belief that the war for Western public opinion has been lost — a sentiment reinforced by daily images of Israel’s campaign of deliberate mass destruction across the Gaza Strip.

    What Israel craves and desperately needs is not simply military prowess, but legitimacy in the public domain. And this is sorely lacking across virtually every demographic worldwide.

    It is why Israel is spending at least $150 million this year alone on “public diplomacy”.

    Get ready for an army of influencers, wined and dined in Tel Aviv’s restaurants and bars, to sell the virtues of Israeli democracy. Even pro-Israel journalists are beginning to question how this money is being spent, wishing Israeli PR were more responsive and effective.

    Today, Israeli Jews proudly back ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza in astoundingly high numbers. This reflects a Jewish supremacist mindset that is being fed a daily diet of extremist rhetoric in mainstream media.

    There is arguably no other Western country with such a high proportion of racist, genocidal mania permeating public discourse.

    According to a recent poll of Western European populations, Israel is viewed unfavourably in Germany, Denmark, France, Italy and Spain.

    Very few in these countries support Israeli actions. Only between 13 and 21 percent hold a positive view of Israel, compared to 63-70 percent who do not.

    The US-backed Pew Research Centre also released a global survey asking people in 24 countries about their views on Israel and Palestine. In 20 of the 24 nations, at least half of adults expressed a negative opinion of the Jewish state.

    A deeper reckoning
    Beyond Israel’s image problems lies a deeper question: can it ever expect full acceptance in the Middle East?

    Apart from kings, monarchs and elites from Dubai to Riyadh and Manama to Rabat, Israel’s vicious and genocidal actions since 7 October 2023 have rendered “normalisation” impossible with a state intent on building a Jewish theocracy that subjugates millions of Arabs indefinitely.

    While it is true that most states in the region are undemocratic, with gross human rights abuses a daily reality, Israel has long claimed to be different — “the only democracy in the Middle East”.

    But Israel’s entire political system, built with massive Western support and grounded in an unsustainable racial hierarchy, precludes it from ever being fully and formally integrated into the region.

    The American journalist Murtaza Hussain, writing for the US outlet Drop Site News, recently published a perceptive essay on this very subject.

    He argues that Israeli actions have been so vile and historically grave — comparable to other modern holocausts — that they cannot be forgotten or excused, especially as they are publicly carried out with the explicit goal of ethnically cleansing Palestine:

    “This genocide has been a political and cultural turning point beyond which we cannot continue as before. I express that with resignation rather than satisfaction, as it means that many generations of suffering are ahead on all sides.

    “Ultimately, the goal of Israel’s opponents must not be to replicate its crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, nor to indulge in nihilistic hatred for its own sake.

    “People in the region and beyond should work to build connections with those Israelis who are committed opponents of their regime, and who are ready to cooperate in the generational task of building a new political architecture.”

    The issue is not just Netanyahu and his government. All his likely successors hold similarly hardline views on Palestinian rights and self-determination.

    The monumental task ahead lies in crafting an alternative to today’s toxic Jewish theocracy.

    But this rebuilding must also take place in the West. Far too many Jews, conservatives and evangelical Christians continue to cling to the fantasy of eradicating, silencing or expelling Arabs from their land entirely.

    Pushing back against this fascism is one of the most urgent generational tasks of our time.

    Antony Loewenstein is an Australian/German independent, freelance, award-winning, investigative journalist, best-selling author and film-maker. In 2025, he released an award-winning documentary series on Al Jazeera English, The Palestine Laboratory, adapted from his global best-selling book of the same name. It won a major prize at the prestigious Telly Awards. This article is republished from Middle East Eye with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Is genocide the new normal? Could Israel and the US destroy Iran?

    COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

    “Just do it, before it is too late,” US President Donald Trump said.

    The Western media described Trump’s and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats after the first wave of attacks on Iran as “warnings”. They were, in fact, expressions of genocidal intent.

    “The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come.

    “And they know how to use it. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire … JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

    As Pascal Lottaz and a number of other analysts pointed out on Friday, preemptive war or just war theory requires imminent threats not conceptual ones. As I also pointed out on Friday, the United States’ own intelligence agencies have consistently determined that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons programme and there has been no change to the regime’s position since the Grand Ayatollah issued a fatwa against such weapons in 2003.

    Israel and the US may now have forced a change in that theology or calculus.

    What we are witnessing is a war of aggression designed to trigger regime change and destroy Iran — to reduce it to the kind of chaos that Israel and the US have inflicted on Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and many other countries.

    This is only possible because of the collusion of the Collective West. At the core of this project of endless violence towards non-white people is racism: contempt for people who are not like us.

    Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds.
    Today an overwhelming majority of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians — one of the very definitions of genocide — not just from Gaza but from Israel itself. Nearly half of Israelis support the army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, a recent US Penn State University poll finds.

    Genocide has been normalised in Israel. Yet our political leaders and much of our media tell us we share values with these people.

    One of the sickest, most profoundly tragic ironies of history is that the long suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of Western racism has culminated in a triumphalist Jewish State doing to the Palestinians what the Plantagenets and the Popes, the Medicis and the Russian boyars, the Italian Fascists and the Nazis did to the Jews.

    Europeans perpetrated the Holocaust not the Palestinians or the Iranians. Israel, dominated as it is by Ashkenazi Jews, has now been incorporated into the Western project to maintain global hegemony.

    They are today’s uber Aryans lording it over the untermenschen. It is the grim fulfillment of what the Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned back in the 1980s was Israel’s incipient slide into what he termed “Judeo Nazism”.

    ‘We, the Israelis, are the victims’
    Isn’t it time we woke from our deep slumber? Generations of people in Western countries were lied to for generations about the Zionist project. We were bombarded with propaganda that the Israelis were the victims, the plucky battlers; the Palestinians were somehow a nation of terrorists in their own land.

    So too, the propaganda goes, are pretty much all of Israel’s neighbours, particularly Iran.

    The propaganda shredded our minds, particularly people of my generation. It made most of our populations and all of our governments totally indifferent to the constant killing, repression and land thieving by generations of Israelis.

    “We, the Israelis, are the victims.” They weep for themselves as they rape Palestinian prisoners — and call themselves heroes for doing so. In researching stories like this I had the unpleasant experience of watching videos of both the rape of Palestinians prisoners at Sde Temein (gloatingly shared by the perpetrators) and the repellent sight of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rabbi blessing one of these rapists and praising him for his work.

    We are repeatedly told we share values with these people. I believe our governments really do share those values. I do not.

    ‘Hath not a Palestinian eyes? If you prick an Iranian do they not bleed?’
    I’m a student of Shakespeare and have spent hours every month reading, watching and studying his plays. The Merchant of Venice, a complex play with highly contested interpretations, can be viewed as a masterful exploration of a dominant society enforcing its own double standards on a Hated Other.

    The last time I watched it was a Royal Shakespeare Company performance with Palestinian actor Makram Khoury in the role of Shylock (the Jew).

    Over the centuries Shylock had morphed from a pantomime villain, to an arch-villain to, in the 19th Century, a figure of pathos, dignity and loss, through to 20th Century interpretations of him as a powerful, albeit highly flawed, figure of resistance in the face of a supremacist society.

    Palestinian Makram Khoury’s performance capped this transition and was an eloquent plea to see our common humanity whether we be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other slice of humanity.

    “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

    How would our reading of this passage change if we changed “Jew” to “Palestinian” or “Iranian”?

    Only an utterly incoherent and damaged mind can continue to believe the propaganda coming out of the White House, the Pentagon, and out of the mouths of psychotic madmen like Netanyahu, Smotrich and the rest of Team Genocide.

    It’s time to wake up. If not, we ourselves become victims. Only a hollowed-out heart and mind could content themselves with turning a blind eye to genocide, to turn a blind eye to the war of aggression just launched against Iran.

    How will this end?

    Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He contributes to Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific, and hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz.

  • DWP will still cut 1.9 million disabled people’s Universal Credit – despite Kendall’s ‘protections’

    New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reveal a startling trend: over one-third of Universal Credit claimants are chronically ill and/or disabled. Yet despite this, Liz Kendall’s new ‘protections‘ in her upcoming planned cuts will do nothing for these 1.9 million people

    DWP Universal Credit

    With mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder emerging as the leading reasons, the data highlights the ongoing challenges faced by disabled people in the UK. Musculoskeletal conditions, like arthritis and fibromyalgia, are also significant contributors to this growing number.

    As of recent statistics, approximately 2.6 million claimants—about 35% of the total on Universal Credit—are currently unable to work due to health issues.

    Nearly 1.9 million of these individuals, equivalent to nearly three-quarters of those in this group, receive the Limited Capability For Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) top-up of £423 monthly.

    This scheme ensures that the DWP cannot force them to seek employment. In contrast, around 382,000 individuals fall under the lower incapacity group, which has been discontinued, of Limited Capability for Work (LCW), which offers no additional payments but expects participants to start preparing to rejoin the workforce.

    The figures come at a time when the DWP is about to cut disabled people’s Universal Credit.

    Cuts are coming for most – despite what Kendall says

    As the Canary previously reported, the proposed DWP changes focus on tightening eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and reducing the health-related component of Universal Credit. Specifically, the government plans to raise the threshold for PIP qualification, requiring claimants to score at least four points in one daily living activity, a move projected to disqualify over one million chronically ill and disabled people.

    Additionally, the health top-up for Universal Credit will be frozen at £97 per week for existing claimants and reduced to £47 for new applicants, leading to an average annual loss of £1,700 for about three million people. It is this which will affect the 1.9 million chronically ill and disabled people on Universal Credit.

    Just days ago, Kendall came out and said some Universal Credit claimants would be protected from the DWP cuts. As the Guardian reported:

    The sickest benefit recipients with less than 12 months to live and those with lifelong, often progressive and incurable conditions will automatically get a higher rate of universal credit and will not have to go through reassessments, which take place on average every three years.

    However, this is a tiny proportion of the 1.9 million people on DWP LCWRA.

    Of these, potentially around 25,000 people are terminally ill. Because it is unclear what Kendall means by “lifeline… progressive and incurable conditions”, we don’t know how many other disabled people will be free from cuts.

    However, it is unlikely to be many. So, regardless of what Kendall says, the DWP will still be cutting money from chronically ill and disabled people.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A video like no other – why the Israeli military revealed its own failure

    By Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo

    Unlike the Palestinian message, the Israeli message is not global, but very much a localised cry for help — get us out of Gaza.

    This is not your typical video. The event itself might be similar to numerous other events in Gaza — a fighter emerging from a tunnel, placing a bomb under an Israeli Merkava tank, and returning to his tunnel before a massive explosion takes place.

    This is what is called an operation from zero distance. But the video, this time, is different, as it was not released by the Al-Qassam Brigades or any other group.

    There is no foreboding music in the background, no slick edits, no red triangles. The reason? The video was released by the Israeli army itself.

    This raises many questions, including why the Israeli army would report the bravery of a Palestinian fighter and the successful blowing up of the pride and joy of the Israeli military  — the Merkava.

    The answer might lie in the sense of despair in the Israeli military, an army that knows well that it has lost the war or, at best, is unable to clinch victory, even after it laid Gaza to waste and exterminated nearly 10 percent of its 2.3 million population (between the killed, wounded, and missing).

    This sentiment is now very well-known among Israelis, as Israeli media, which initially touted the idea of “total victory”, is now the one promoting a version of Israel’s own total defeat.

    On verge of ‘collective suicide’
    Writing in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, retired Major-General Itzhak Brik said that Israel was on the verge of “collective suicide” and that the army has effectively been defeated by Hamas in Gaza.

    “With a political and military echelon of this type, there is no need for external enemies; they will bring disaster upon us in their stupidity,” he warned, adding:

    “We may soon reach a point of no return, and the only thing left for us to do is pray to our God to come to our aid, and then we will all become messiahs who pray for miracles.”

    General Brik can no longer be accused of being the detached former soldier who is horribly misreading the situation on the ground. Even those on the ground are expressing the exact same sentiment.

    On Tuesday, June 4, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an Israeli infantry soldier who expressed a feeling of brokenness after returning to fighting in Gaza, stating that “everyone is exhausted and uncertain”.

    The Israeli soldier reportedly added that he feelt there was no appreciation for the lives of soldiers fighting in Gaza and that they had moved from offence to defence, noting that the soldiers “doubt the objectives of the war”.

    ‘Hamas has Defeated Us’ – Ret. Israeli Maj. Gen. Brik Speaks of ‘Collective Suicide’

    Dominant global narrative
    Many in the pro-Palestine circle, which now represents the dominant global narrative on the war, are celebrating the bravery of the young men in the video and, by extension, the bravery of Gaza, deeply wounded but still fighting — in fact, winning.

    But there is more to the story than this. The fact that a tank belonging to the 401st Brigade would be blown up in such a way, under the watchful eye of Israeli drones, which could only report the event without being able to change it, is telling us something.

    But unlike the Palestinian message, the Israeli message is not global, but very much a localised cry for help — get us out of Gaza.

    Whether Israeli politicians, lead among them the master of political survival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will listen or not, that is a completely different question.

    Republished with permission from The Palestine Chronicle.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Jeremy Corbyn dismantles Rachel Reeves – saying she’s protecting the “corporate elite”

    Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has delivered a reality check to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

    Jeremy Corbyn: Reeves “holding our country to ransom”

    In the MP for Islington’s response to the spending review, he began:

    Until this government stands up to the corporate elite holding our country to ransom, it will never bring about the change the British public deserves

    Jeremy Corbyn went on to detail what standing up to the corporate elite would look like:

    The government could, if it wanted to, tax the wealthiest in our society in order to end child poverty, fix the social care crisis, and fund a bold programme of public investment. It could end the rip-off of privatisation and finally bring water and energy and healthcare into public ownership. It could take on fossil fuel giants to kickstart a Green New Deal. Instead, today’s unambitious statement bakes in decades of inequality, depriving millions of people of the resources they need.

    Rampant inequality is a key issue in the UK. And Reeves’ review does little to address it. According to Oxfam, 70% of the country own less wealth than the top 1% as of 2023. That is why so many are calling for a wealth tax, which would rebalance society by £22bn every year.

    The privatisation of public utilities experiment has been a disaster. Whether it’s a lack of investment in critical infrastructure, asset stripping, across the board high rents on essentials, botched surgeries or eye watering fees for gas companies being ‘on standby’ (£12.5bn in ten years under the ‘capacity market’ scheme, plus price increases of 15000% under the ‘balancing mechanism’ scheme).

    “Complete con”

    Jeremy Corbyn continued:

    As we speak, a quarter of a million people are homeless. For many of my constituents, the never-ending promise of “affordable housing” has been a complete con. The government must tell us: will its latest announcement result in proper social housing or subsidies for private developers? When will it get to the heart of the housing crisis and control rents?

    Reeves remains silent on how many of the 1.5m new homes will actually be social housing. So far she has merely branded around 35,000 a year of them as ‘affordable’. Short of stopping treating housing like an asset altogether, rent controls could go very far in circumventing the housing crisis.

    For more than 70 years, between WWI and the late 1980s, the UK had a system of rent control. It’s a policy that could drive down poverty and put more pounds in peoples’ pockets – as Labour has repeatedly pledged to do.

    In many European countries there is some control over rents. In Sweden, tenant unions and landlords negotiate rents based on average earnings, inflation, and costs. In the UK, we do not have such a procedure and under 45s alone wasted £56.2bn in passive income for landlords in 2024.

    “Wake up”, says Jeremy Corbyn

    The independent MP then turned to foreign policy:

    Instead, the government continues to find endless money for weapons of war. As conflict rages around the world, the government needs to wake up, end its complicity in genocide and stop fuelling the wars of today and tomorrow.

    According to Oxfam, the UK government has licensed £500 million worth of arms to Israel since 2015. That’s while it oversees an apartheid regime and exterminates Palestinian civilians indiscriminately.

    It’s too bad the British public snoozed on a Jeremy Corbyn premiership.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Rachel Reeves still silent on how many of the new homes will be social housing

    During Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ spending review, she remained silent on how many of Labour’s 1.5 million new homes will be social. She did announce £39 billion over ten years for ‘affordable’ housing. This is a lot more than the £2bn she pledged in the Spring Statement. But she also hasn’t detailed what she defines as affordable.

    Reeves herself rents out her former home in South London for £3,200 per month. Is that ‘affordable’? And more broadly, 85 MPs are landlords this parliament – more than half of which are from Labour (also the biggest party).

    Rachel Reeves: not nearly enough in the spending review

    That said, it is possible that Labour’s dire polling and the lurch to Reform are pressuring them to do better, like we saw with the recent Winter Fuel payment U-turn. But Labour’s annual £3.9bn over five years (and five more if they get elected) will only make around 35,000 ‘affordable’ homes a year available (based on Reeves’ Spring Statement estimate of £2bn for 18,000). And there are 1.3 million households on the waiting list for social housing. That will not nearly fix the problem, especially as it’s unclear how many will be social. Nor is it clear what ‘affordable’ means.

    At present, we’ve gone backwards. Analysis from Crisis shows that there was a net loss of over 180,000 social homes over the past 10 years through sales and demolitions outpacing builds.

    And as Alex Clegg, Economist at the Resolution Foundation, has said:

    Over a million children living in poverty today would not be below the poverty line were it not for sky-high housing costs, especially in the private rented sector

    Think large

    The thing with social rent is the tenant is still paying large sums that do not contribute to ownership of the property. In fact, social housing should be reimagined so the monthly amount paid contributes to ownership of the property with the housing stock organised and provided at cost price.

    On top of the seemingly lacklustre housing commitment, Reeves has announced above inflation social rent increases to help pay for it. As well as higher rents for the least well off, this can only increase the benefits bill for the government. 73% of social renters already claim legacy housing benefit or that element of universal credit.

    Despite housing being a common necessity to all that could be organised at cost price, Real Estate is the most profitable industry in the UK. Top companies average an astonishing £686,000 of profit per year per employee. That’s a private tax on homes at 23 times the UK average salary, per employee.

    This is a scandal that Labour should end. But that doesn’t look likely – not least after the spending review.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump’s National Guard goons could be about to get their asses whipped in LA

    Over the past few days, Donald Trump has turned towards national guard troops and marines as protests rage in Los Angeles. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been met with robust community resistance as they attempt to detain and deport so-called ‘illegal immigrants’. Amnesty International have called Trump’s immigration policies “racist” and “harmful.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have made it clear that Trump is treading a dangerous path:

     he simply cannot accomplish his immigration agenda without violating the Constitution and federal laws.

    Now, Trump is accused by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, of overreaching his presidential powers by deploying the national guard without Newsom’s agreement.

    Trump calls on national guard

    Initially, it appeared that a federal judge agreed with Newsom that Trump had overreached. The president of the US is only allowed to deploy the national guard in an emergency. However, given Trump has long thirsted to bring the army in to suppress protests, the temptation was clearly too much. Initially, district judge Charles Breyer had ruled that Trump’s decision to call in 4000 national guard troops was “illegal.” When discussing if Trump had followed the correct procedure for how the national guard are called up, Breyer wrote:

    At this early stage of the proceedings, the Court must determine whether the President followed the congressionally mandated procedure for his actions.

    He did not. His actions were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

    And, Breyer concluded that:

    He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith.

    Breyer than stayed the order until the Trump administration could have a chance to appeal the ruling. Appeal they did, and the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeal stayed Breyer’s order until the 17th June. At that point, three judges will determine whether to consider Trump’s decision to deploy the troops as illegal or proportionate.

    Trump’s decision to deploy the national guard is the first time ever in US history that a president has invoked the special permission necessary for the head of state to overrule federal governors.

    Unwanted celebration of army

    Importantly, there are significant protests planned for the weekend. While anti-ICE protests have spread across the country, this weekend is likely to see ongoing flashpoints. In his endless worship of the trappings of the army (if not actual support for the people in them), Trump has organised a parade for the 250th anniversary of the US army. However, the parade is seen as a gaudy extravagance by many. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols explained:

    Trump is, in many ways, very childlike. He likes shiny things and uniforms and big parades, and he’s wanted this for a while, but I think he and the other people around him are also more than happy to create a second kind of symbolism here, of: I’m the president. I’m the commander in chief. I can put tanks in the streets anytime I feel like it.

    The notion that the parade is an attempt to bolster the administration’s perceptions of power has not been lost on military veterans. Major general Paul Eaton told the Guardian:

    This is the politicisation of the armed forces. It casts the military in a terrible light – it’s that man on horseback, who really doesn’t want to be there, out in front of American citizens.

    Retired lieutenant general Jeffrey Buchanan said:

    The military’s ultimate loyalty is to our constitution, not to a particular leader. We’ve had plenty of tensions between military leaders and presidents in our history, but we’ve always maintained this tradition.

    Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of advocacy group, Vet Voice Foundation, told the Independent:

    What we’re seeing now is a deliberate effort to turn the military into a political prop.

    And, Trump’s decision to go over the head of Newsom to deploy the national guard is also being viewed by veterans as an attempt to politicise the military. Major general Randy Manner said:

    He [Trump] escalated immediately for reasons that are only political reasons. They are not reasons that are justifiable.

    Lure of power

    We’re not usually ones to quote warmongers, from the US army no less, but there is something telling in their comments. Trump loves the pomp and parade that he has made part and parcel of his flexing of power. He is so addled with lust for power, that he won’t care that he’s trampling over the US constitution and inflaming an already precarious situation.

    Like everything he does, Trump will have to face up to the legal implications of his rash decision to deploy the national guard. Protests have largely been peaceful but let’s be clear: the demonisation and deportation of immigrants is reason enough to not be peaceful. Trump and his administration are instructing ICE to hunt down immigrants like the gang of thugs that they are. Near-constant footage of the protests shows ICE officers covering their faces to hide their identities as they attempt to tear apart communities.

    Throwing the military in the mix is, as Trump well knows, a surefire way to cause even more chaos. LA protests have centred on the attempted deportation of largely Latino communities. As ever, the state’s deathly defence of borders at all costs is one that is the work of white supremacy. The national guard don’t want to be deployed, Newsom doesn’t want them to be deployed, but Trump, as ever, will only achieve one thing: an abuse of power designed to terrorise anyone with basic moral decency.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel aid distribution in Gaza turns from relief to extermination

    In the Gaza Strip, which has been suffering from Israel’s suffocating and tight blockade for years, the lives of civilians are at stake on a daily basis, with the deterioration of economic and social conditions and the shortage of basic materials such as food, medicine and fuel. Thousands of residents, including women, children and the elderly, are forced to go to humanitarian aid distribution centres every day, seeking food to stave off hunger and medicine to treat their illnesses, in the desperate belief that aid is their last hope for survival.

    However, in a tragic turn of events, these centres are no longer just relief points for civilians, but have become targets for Israeli occupation forces to fire on, in a deliberate crime confirmed by dozens of testimonies and documents showing that targeting civilians as they arrive at or return from distribution centres has become a systematic policy aimed at exterminating Palestinians under the eyes of the world.

    Motives for seeking aid: suffering with no options

    The people of Gaza live under the weight of a blockade that restricts the movement of goods and people, a fuel shortage that has led to long hours of power cuts, and the almost complete destruction of health and education infrastructure. In this bitter reality, civilians have no choice but to turn to aid distribution centres that provide them with some basic foodstuffs and essential medicines to treat chronic diseases that worsen in the absence of adequate medical care.

    One resident told the Canary:

    When you can’t find enough food for your children or medicine for their illnesses, you have no choice but to stand in line for hours, no matter the risks.

    Israel: systematic targeting: from aid to death

    Official reports issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza document more than 120 deaths near aid distribution centres in the last three months alone, including 45 children and 30 women. These tragic figures are not just statistics, but real stories of families who lost loved ones while waiting for a better life.

    Independent human rights organisations confirm that Israel targeting civilians going to or returning from distribution centres is not an accident, but a deliberate policy based on creating a state of terror and intimidation among the population in order to maintain a suffocating siege aimed at weakening the capacity for resistance and achieving slow genocide.

    Umm Muhammad, who lost her young son in the aid queue, says: ‘My son was just a child looking for food, but he came back to me as a lifeless body, and my tears never dry.’

    Repeated tragedies and ongoing fears

    Israel’s crimes did not stop at direct shooting. Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid make the arrival of basic supplies a rare event that is insufficient to meet growing needs, increasing the number of people queuing in front of distribution centres and doubling the risk of them being bombed.

    Gaza residents live in a state of constant fear as tragic incidents near aid distribution centres continue to occur. Every day, civilians go out in search of the basic necessities of life, not knowing whether they will return safely or as lifeless corpses. The situation is exacerbated by random explosions and occupation shells that do not distinguish between children, women or the elderly.

    In this atmosphere of terror, tension among the residents is increasing, who are now living on the brink of psychological and physical collapse, while infrastructure continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, compounding the suffering of the sick and wounded who cannot find adequate treatment or proper medical care.

    In a scene where hope mixes with terror, aid distribution centres in Gaza have turned into death zones, where the dream of survival has become a daily nightmare for civilians, amid suspicious international silence. In the face of this ongoing tragedy, urgent action is needed to save innocent lives and force the occupation to stop its policy of systematic killing of those who are only seeking their daily bread.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Alaa Shamali

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • An even larger monopoly is brewing in UK broadband. It’s obvious it should go to public ownership.

    A larger monopoly, or more specifically, a larger oligopoly (where not one but a few companies control the market) is potentially brewing in UK broadband. BT is considering buying Talk Talk, which would increase its market share from 28% to 36%. This would increase the broadband big three’s market share, including Sky and Virgin, to 76% of the market.

    Broadband is an essential. Nationalise essentials

    Jeremy Corbyn was right in 2019. The lack of competition is part of the reason broadband should be publicly owned and delivered free (or at low cost) to residents. A YouGov poll found three times as many Britons support this policy than disagree with it.

    Indeed, BT or British Telecom was in public ownership until the Tories privatised it in 1984. And what’s more, the public purse funded the forerunner to the internet, Arpanet, through the US defence department. The public paid for the development of the internet, then private companies came along and added toll gates to the system of communication.

    Corbyn planned to nationalise OpenReach, part of BT, and use it to provide high speed internet to every citizen and business across the country. There is, de facto, a highest quality available internet connection and ways to make that universally accessible. Market ‘competition’ just provides differing worse versions of the service, stifles investment in fiber particularly for rural areas and siphons off cash for shareholders. The ‘rare earth elements’ necessary for high speed full fiber are not actually rare but relatively abundant. At present, 69% of the country has access to full fiber compared to 89% in South Korea.

    Profiteering and false competition

    The private companies rolling out faster internet already receive large public subsidies. From 2012-2020, these companies received £1.7bn in public funds to invest in providing wider access to Wifi. At the same time, BT alone made a net profit of £1.9bn in 2023.

    On top of that, the previous Tory government had a £5bn scheme entitled Project Gigabit aimed at providing a faster and more available service. But this was centred on injecting artificial competition into the market and the lack of organised direction meant that, in the words of former BT chief executive Philip Jansen:

    we’ve ended up with hundreds of fibre companies all building in the same places

    This is a further reflection of the madness of private competition delivering an essential. It’s akin to rail companies building competing tracks in the same city or town: a waste. Or water companies delivering competing pipe infrastructure. Obviously it makes much more sense for a publicly owned company to operate one system as a monopoly.

    Corbyn was right on that one.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK’s lapdog leaders too scared to condemn Israel’s unprovoked attacks on Iran

    Britain’s spineless political leaders have miserably failed to condemn Israel’s dangerous and unprovoked attacks on Iran. That’s because they’re powerless to do so, as lapdogs of US imperialism and active participants in the ongoing US-Israeli genocide. And that should worry us, because it could spark a world war.

    Israel has killed around one child per hour in Gaza since October 2023, trying to terrorise Palestinians into leaving their homeland. Iran has not. Yet British prime minister Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy are trying to ‘both sides’ Israel’s latest act of aggression, continuing a clear tradition of shamelessly supporting Israeli war criminals (who have nuclear weapons) while making absurd exaggerations about an essentially non-existent threat from Iran (which doesn’t have nuclear weapons). As a junior partner to the US empire, though, you wouldn’t really expect anything else from the British establishment.

    Starmer and Lammy prioritise US & Israeli interests over human life and international law

    If Starmer and Lammy actually cared about peace, human life, or international law, they would stop participating in and covering for the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. But in reality, they are self-interested tools of a British establishment that cares primarily about its ongoing gig as the US empire’s faithful sidekick. Real power lies with the US, and its Israeli outpost, so Britain’s spineless leaders are (once again) faithfully trying to shift the blame away from Israel and onto Iran. (The mainstream media, of course, does exactly the same.)

    Starmer couldn’t even say it was Israel that attacked Iran while urging “all parties to step back” and calling for “restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy”.

    Nor could Lammy as he slightly reworded this meaningless nonsense:

    Previously, both Starmer and Lammy have had no problems naming and condemning Iran when it has responded to Israeli aggression, or insisting that Israel has rights that it doesn’t. (For the record, Israel doesn’t have a legal right to self-defence in territory it illegally occupies. Iran does have the legal right to respond to Israeli aggression.)

    The British establishment is an escalator – not a de-escalator with Israel

    Let’s put to one side the role British colonialism played in bringing death and destruction in the Middle East, and particularly in helping to set the Israeli state up as the next big thing in Western colonialism.

    The fact is that, today, British politicians are simply fulfilling their duty as imperial lackeys – with only superficial differences between blue and red Tories. We can see this in the ongoing arms transfers to Israel, the participation of RAF Akrotiri in the Gaza genocide, attacks on international law and British law, the ongoing British training of Israeli occupation forces, and the repression of dissent. And in exchange for doing the bidding of arms profiteers, genocidal Israeli occupiers, and other big business interests, the UK’s top politicians receive generous financial donations (including from the influential pro-Israel lobby).

    In these ways, Gaza is Britain’s genocide too. And the money-hungry, misanthropic cowards that wealthy interests helped to install in government aren’t about to risk their journey on the gravy train by standing up for international law.

    UK foreign policy is not about to change. Because it’s no accident. It is, by design, a tool of genocidal imperialism.

    ‘The Nazis and the Allies should both show restraint’

    The ‘two sides’ bullshit has to stop. Because this is not about two sides. In a World War Two comparison, it’s like someone asking the Nazis and Allies to ‘both show restraint and de-escalate tensions’ – which would be patently absurd. No good-faith actor would suggest that as Nazis exterminated millions of Jewish and other civilians in the Holocaust.

    The US-Israeli genocide is the Nazi Holocaust of our day. And the only restraint we really need is for that genocide to stop and the forces committing it to face justice. Anything else is just a cynical distraction.

    The simple fact is that Israel has engaged in wanton brutality in Palestine. Iran, on the other hand, has faced down Israel’s aggression with massive restraint. While Iran is not perfect, there is absolutely no moral equivalence. Israel has spent decades as a settler-colonial aggressor (including against Iran), but Iran has suffered decades of imperialist interference. Suggesting they’re somehow on the same footing is both obscene and dangerous, further empowering and shielding genocidal war criminals in Israel.

    A mass movement is currently rising in Britain to counter the gold-digging lapdogs of the political establishment. And for it to have any meaningful impact, it must stand firmly against US imperialism and the ongoing stranglehold it has over our lives. It must also be a mass grassroots movement. Because while money can corrupt a handful of leaders, it’s near-impossible to corrupt thousands and millions of people desperate for peace.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Western MSM downplay bloodthirsty Israel’s latest attack on Iran

    Israel have attacked Iran with several air strikes overnight. Zionist butcher Benjamin Netanyahu has explained that the attacks are an attempt to damage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure:

    This operation will take as long as is needed to complete the task of fending off the threat of annihilation against us.

    Over the past week, Israel have bombed Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and now Iran. The Israeli army said that they had used 200 fighter jets to strike 100 locations. As is commonplace with Israel, there are several reports coming in of children and other civilians being killed. Amongst the dead civilians are a number of high level Iranian officials and scientists. Al Jazeera reported:

    Iranian state media has reported several casualties, with civilians and senior Iranian officials among the dead. Confirmed killed are Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, and nuclear scientists Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi. It also said six scientists were killed in the overnight attack.

    Israel have targeted several nuclear facilities in Iran. Whilst no spikes in radiation levels have been reported yet, the situation remains dangerous. As Al-Jazeera explained:

    Attacking nuclear facilities can cause several consequences of unpredictable scope, including radioactive leaks, explosions and long-term contamination

    In response, Iran has launched around 100 drones towards Israel, and promised further retaliation.

    Israel kills kids – not just in Gaza

    Many of the targeted officials were struck in their homes. That means residential areas were bombed, and children and other civilians have been killed. Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said:

    I express my condolences to the Iranian people over the martyrdom of several military commanders and nuclear scientists, as well as civilians, including children. We strongly condemn this cowardly and inhumane crime. There is no doubt that the guilty will be severely punished.

    Middle East Eye also verified that they have seen footage of destroyed residential buildings.

    However, inevitably, the killing of civilians has not made headlines in mainstream Western media. Journalist Assal Rad shared horrific footage of a dead child ignored by corporate media:

    In the quoted tweet from Rad, The New York Times headline presents Israel’s attack as a surgical one targeting nuclear capabilities. Imagine the uproar the same paper would have were there civilians killed in a Western country by an Arab state. All of a sudden, there would be lovingly assembled profiles on the dead, along with analysis pieces decrying the viciousness of such brutal killings. But, because it’s Israel killing Arab Muslim children, mainstream media isn’t even bothering to mention the deaths.

    Associated Press followed a similar pattern:

    Israel often brags about how precise its strikes are. After all, they’ve killed enough Palestinian women and children to prove it. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) clarified:

    𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐃𝐅 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦.

    The footage posted by Rad clearly shows a residential area devastated by the “precise” strikes. Despite decades of Israeli lies and prevarication, the fact that the Associated Press still saw fit to parrot the IDF version of events in their headline demonstrates their craven allegiance to genocidaires.

    Propaganda over Israel and Iran

    Nevertheless, other corporate outlets did the same thing. One commenter called out CBS for their despicable parroting of Israeli propaganda:

    CNN also appeared to be pretending that Iran deployed 100 drones out of nowhere:

    Journalist Richard Medhurst took the meda’s passive language to task:

    The growing use of ‘pre-emptive strikes’ is similar to the use of ‘pre-crime’ when it comes to crimes Muslims might commit. Israel’s attack was out of the blue, carried out while people slept in their beds, and evidently had a civilian impact. Had Iran attacked Israel first, there’s no doubt that these same media outlets would suddenly have found themselves capable of writing in the active voice.

    Writer Ayesha Siddiqi decried the subtle, but impactful, attempts to make violence acceptable when carried out against certain people:

    And, writer Farah-Silvana Kanaan pointed out just how dangerous such rhetoric is:

    Lawyer Noura Erakat shared a screenshot of headlines from several legacy media outlets:

    Manufacturing consent

    Had Iran been the first to attack, we’d be seeing an entirely different set of headlines from the corporate media. All of a sudden, they’d be able to find compassion and sympathy for the terror wrought when civilians are attacked while in their beds. For Israel, they’d employ the active voice that didn’t downplay one iota of the brutality and violence unleashed on unsuspecting residents. But, instead they have a different gift for Israel: the gift of manufacturing consent for the ZIonist state’s barbarism.

    Zionism is no more than a death cult constantly jostling for war and death.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The amendments MPs are debating show how dangerous the assisted suicide bill really is

    Parliament could be set to pass assisted suicide in the House of Commons within the course of the next week. Friday 13 June will see MPs debate and potentially vote on a number of amendments to the prospective legislation brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. Then, MPs in the House will likely hear the Third Reading of the bill the following Friday 20 June.

    This is to say that, parliament could be about to put through a bill multiple large medical bodies, social and palliative care groups, 350 Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) have unequivocally opposed. Crucially, they have each highlighted the serious risks the bill poses to some of the most marginalised people in the UK.

    In particular, it could dangerously impact poor, chronically ill, disabled, older communities, and those living with mental health conditions. These happen to be all groups the pro-assisted suicide camp has repeatedly smeared, gaslit, ignored, and excluded from processes surrounding the bill.

    Assisted suicide bill: amendments and then a possible vote within the next week

    A huge number of representative bodies, charities, and community campaign groups have come out against the bill. These include, but is not limited to:

    Nevertheless, Leadbeater and supporters still plan to try ram the bill through. A growing number of MPs have purportedly changed their mind since the Second Reading in November. Some had already conditioned their support at Third Reading on the committee strengthening the bill’s safeguards. Consequently, as severe concerns about the bill come to light, more and more MPs are pulling their support.

    Despite this, it’s still unclear how many MPs will support it, and how many will vote against. According to ITV, so far it knows the voting intentions for 222 out of 650 MPs, relaying that:

    94 MPs are so far planning to vote for it, 97 plan to vote against it, 14 remain undecided and 17 are due to abstain.

    What are MPs debating and voting on this Friday?

    Parliament will be debating a number of amendments to the bill on Friday 13 June.

    Kim Leadbeater has included an amendment to broaden who has “no obligation” to participate in assisted dying provision. It stipulates that no person is under any duty to provide assisted suicide. It specifies how medical practitioners, health and social care professionals, and pharmacists can refuse to participate in the provision of assisted suicide.

    She has also introduced clauses about replacing the doctor overseeing or the independent doctor involved the provision of assisted suicide. It sets out how the Secretary of State can appoint a new doctor to continue the process towards the patient getting approved for assisted suicide. The amendment raises the issue that disability rights campaigners and others – including disabled parliamentarian Tanni Grey-Thompson – have underscored around patients “shopping around for doctors” to approve an assisted death.

    A further amendment she has tabled requires doctors who have refused an assisted suicide application to produce a report. This would set out their reasons for rejecting it. They would have to send this to the patient, the patient’s GP, and the so-called Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner.

    Then, there’s one that concerns regulation of approved substances and devices used for assisted deaths. Dr Caroline Johnson MP has made an amendment to this to ensure the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is consulted before the Secretary of State makes any such regulations. It also requires the MHRA to have approved said ‘medical devices’.

    A further amendment to Leadbeater’s from Gregory Stafford MP forbids the use of medical devices that kill the patient using gas. Tom Tugendhat has added an amendment that would stop governments from using Henry VIII powers to make these regulations.

    Leadbeater’s prohibition on advertising: a disingenuous fig leaf

    Leadbeater also wants to introduce a clause to prohibit advertising around assisted suicide. Already a sign of how ill-defined and ripe for abuse this clause would be, a further amendment closes a loophole which allows for “exceptions”.

    The example it gives is advertising to “users” – in other words, potential patients – and providers. The Guardian gave the Spen Valley MP a soapbox, reporting on a letter she has written to MPs to promote this. However, the “exceptions” provision Leadbeater has built in obviously makes a mockery of the suggestion it would present an outright ban.

    Will nonprofits pushing to expand assisted suicide be encompassed by this? Pro-assisted suicide lobby group Dignity in Dying mounted a concerted Facebook campaign ad spree. The group also put astoundingly insensitive and problematic promotions in the London Underground.  Leadbeater could be offering the ban in response to this. In other words, it’d act as a strategic fig leaf to push the bill over the line.

    However, there’s no guarantees the regulations would capture these types of promotions in their scope.

    Basic safeguard amendments show what a mess the assisted suicide bill is

    Then, there are a huge number of amendments from other members of the House. Many of these MPs have brought them forward after Leadbeater and her pro-assisted suicide-stacked committee shot them down at committee stage. Now, MPs concerned over the state of the bill’s supposed ‘safeguards’ are left with this last-ditch attempt to shore up woeful protections for marginalised and vulnerable communities the legislation will put at risk. For instance, these include amendments ensuring:

    • No health professional can raise assisted suicide with a patient first. Another amendment specifically ensures this for individuals with Down Syndrome or learning disabled people.
    • Appointment of a consultation board comprised of people representing marginalised communities. Specifically, it stipulates that the board must consult Black, Asian, and other racially minoritised communities.
    • That doctors and the Assisted Dying Review Panel is sure “beyond reasonable doubt” that patients have satisfied all criteria for approval of assisted suicide. This includes criteria around capacity, and acting without coercion or under pressure.
    • No detriment for care homes or hospices not providing assisted suicide – ensuring funding is not conditional on their participation. Nearly 350 end of life care clinicians have written to the health secretary this week on this. They have warned that if the government pulls NHS funding to hospices over their refusal to take part in assisted suicide services, it would force them to close.
    • To stop the meaning of terminal illness encompassing those who become so by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.
    • Remove the automatic assumption that a person applying for assisted suicide services has capacity.
      Eligibility made contingent on whether a person has “relevant and available” palliative care options.

    That these aren’t already part of the bill should raise blaring alarm bells among MPs before a final vote.

    The slippery slope in action

    Meanwhile, other amendments demonstrate the very slippery slope risks that chronically ill and disabled communities have been warning about. Pro-assisted suicide MPs are seeking to expand the scope of the bill. Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon, with the support of other Lib Dems, Labour, and Green MPs, has tabled an amendment to increase the bill’s provision from six months to within a year of dying for those with neurodegenerative illness or disease.

    Dr Ben Spencer has put forward one to simply remove the six month time limit eligibility altogether.

    Of course, ultimately parliament will not get to vote on many of these amendments after debating them. The speaker will decide on which of these the House gets to make a decision over.

    What’s more, an aspect of parliamentary procedure could further restrict the time MPs get for deciding on these. This is because the speaker can also choose from the list of amendments from the last debate on 16 May. Parliamentary rules dictated that the vast majority could not be moved for decision by the speaker at the first debate. This is down to rules revolving around the order they appear in the amendment paper.

    No amount of amendments will make assisted suicide safe for marginalised communities

    At the end of the day however, no amount of amendments will make the assisted suicide legislation safe for those this neoliberal capitalist society continues to sideline. The bill enters into a UK where the state is pushing chronically ill and disabled people into deadly poverty with sweeping welfare cuts, health and social care is inaccessible to non-existent, and the corporate media and politicians alike scapegoat, dehumanise, and exploit marginalised demographics.

    While all this remains the case, legalised assisted suicide will be ripe for abuse. State and societal coercion will intersect as an ever-present, treacherous lived reality for oppressed communities. These are facts MPs voting on this bill in the coming week would do well to remember

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • MSM covers up David Cameron’s possible prosecution for threats against ICC

    Middle East Eye (MEE) revealed on 9 June that former UK prime minister David Cameron had threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Israel’s behalf, trying to stop the court issuing arrest warrants for the war criminals behind the ongoing genocide in Gaza. And although Cameron could face prosecution as a result of his unscrupulous efforts, the mainstream media seems to have agreed not to cover the story.

    From the BBC to the Times, the Guardian to the Telegraph, and all through the slimy establishment swampland of Britain’s mainstream media, it’s as if this didn’t happen or didn’t matter. But it did, and it does. Because a high-level British politician trying to interfere with an international institution on behalf of a genocidal state is precisely the kind of thing UK media should be shouting from the rooftops – especially when that politician may be criminally liable for doing so.

    David Cameron: arrest warrant or even jail time possible

    Months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, David Cameron spoke to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on the phone, threatening to “defund the court and withdraw from the Rome Statute” (the founding charter of the court) if the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals. According to sources around Khan after the exchange, he suggested the threats may constitute blackmail, adding that they debased both Cameron and Britain, bringing shame to them both. Four legal experts, meanwhile, told MEE that the ICC could use Article 70 in the Rome Statute to go after Cameron as a result of the call. This punishes parties responsible for:

    impeding, intimidating or corruptly influencing an official of the Court for the purpose of forcing or persuading the official not to perform, or to perform improperly, his or her duties; and retaliating against an official of the Court on account of duties performed by that or another official.

    Because the ICC is in a vulnerable position due to overwhelming US hostility to international law, it is unlikely to seek Cameron’s prosecution. But theoretically, he could face an ICC arrest warrant himself and even a sentence of five years in prison.

    UN expert Francesca Albanese told MEE that, if there’s evidence of Cameron’s interaction with Khan, he may have committed a “criminal offence” and “an obstruction of justice”.

    Defence of Israel’s genocide has exposed Britain as a ‘gangster nation and rogue state’

    Journalist Peter Oborne, meanwhile asserted that David Cameron had “disgraced Britain” and:

    should be held accountable for his blatant attempt to bully the court in defence of Israel

    He added that Cameron had been:

    caught red-handed in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

    And via his actions, he has joined:

    a small group of unsavoury world leaders who have menaced or bullied the ICC.

    He also made Britain:

    part of a group of gangster nations and rogue states

    Oborne urged the Keir Starmer’s government to launch “an urgent enquiry” into Cameron’s behaviour. A number of MPs to the left of Starmer’s regime have already called for action too.

    Shameful silence from a subservient, complicit media

    If you search for ‘David Cameron’ and the ‘ICC’ online right now, you will see nothing from Britain’s mainstream media outlets on the scandal. In fact, you’ll find much more about cricket! And that says everything you need to know about how the establishment media works in Britain. The state and its genocide–supporting agenda will always receive the faithful support of its propaganda wing… but only until it’s impossible for outlets to ignore a story.

    So how about we try and make it harder for the propagandists to ignore this? You can complain to the BBC here, the Guardian here, the Mirror here, the Independent here, the Times here, the Telegraph here, Sky News here, ITV here, and Channel 4 News here. Ask them and others why they decided not to cover Cameron’s actions and possible prosecution. Tell them why this matters to you, and why they will lose your trust if they fail to report on it.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • DWP work coach told a lung cancer patient they should ‘get a job and support the nation’

    A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) work coach told a chronically ill and disabled woman that it was her responsibility to “support the nation” and get a job. In a covert recording of a call passed to the Canary, the work coach repeatedly showed the lack of empathy or understanding that exists at the DWP – even to someone who just days later got a lung cancer diagnosis.

    Grace’s experience

    Grace, who is using a pseudonym to protect her identity, told the Canary:

    Before becoming severely disabled I worked from the age of 16. I trained and worked as a chef then went on to run nightclubs and bars. I could also build and paint and decorate and fix things so did a lot of that. I’m also an artist and musician.

    I worked and paid taxes for about 25 years.

    Eight years ago, I caught an infection that eats your heart valves and nearly killed me. I needed emergency open heart surgery, a new valve, and leaflet patches. I also got a PE in my lung and had three mini strokes. Now, eight years later, these issues are causing more and more problems with my muscle strength, brain function, and memory loss (I repeat myself a lot!).

    A few years after I started on the chronic pain pipeline, I was first diagnosed with coccydynia, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, osteopenia, COPD, Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome, and mild heart failure.

    I’ve had three lumbar disc slips and one mid-back, two of which required hospitalisation. I even lost consciousness and vomited.

    I’m just 45, but my health is absolutely terrible. I just recovered from pneumonia, which nearly put me in the hospital. I pay privately from my PIP for care twice a week, but I’m struggling to afford the care I need. Some of my daily medications include morphine, pregabalin, and diazepam.

    Switchover to Universal Credit

    Yet despite all of this, Grace has faced a succession of issues from the DWP. She told the Canary:

    I receive twelve mobility points on my PIP, have a blue badge, and a freedom pass. I’m quite severely disabled. PIP gives me 3-5 years at a time. I don’t leave the house much and use a stick or a chair when I do – on a good day.

    Since January, when they automatically moved me to Universal Credit, I’ve been receiving less than half of what I was getting previously on bi-monthly ESA. My private but previous support group payments were £450 every two weeks, but now I get £400 monthly.

    So, as you can imagine, the savings have gone, and I’m even skipping meals to pay for care.

    The reason Grace’s Universal Credit is lower than her ESA is because she is yet to have a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This will decide whether or not she is fit for work – and therefore, whether she will be entitled to the health-related element of Universal Credit.

    This is where the problems from the DWP worsened for Grace. Because a call with her work coach just showed how intolerant and unempathetic the department’s staff are.

    DWP staff are disabled too

    The Canary has been passed a recording of the call. During it, the work coach explained to Grace what would happen with her WCA. However, it was what they said on top of this which was most shocking.

    The work coach repeatedly pushed DWP propaganda and tropes around disabled people onto Grace. For example, regarding whether she would receive Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA), the work coach said:

    There are so many people who are disabled in the country, but are able to do some sort of work-related activities, or are able to do some sort of work even with their long-term disabilities.

    In other words, why can’t you?

    The work coach then went on to pressure Grace, by saying:

    There are people who are disabled within the… [DWP] who work as a work coach with long-term health conditions, and who are able to do some sort of work.

    This trope, that because some chronically ill and disabled people are able to work everyone else should, is a key line of DWP propaganda at present. Yet after Grace explained how sick she was – including the amount of medication she is on – the work coaches response was even worse.

    Get a job you scrounger

    Grace had said that:

    It’s not that I don’t want to work. I physically cannot work. I’m laying on a sofa at the moment under a blanket with pure exhaustion after a three-month flare-up. I’m not well. I take morphine every day. I take diazepam every day. I take heavy painkillers. So I’m not someone that needs to be told that I can sit at a computer for two hours a day and press some buttons. Like, I can’t.

    The work coach’s response was as follows:

    Nobody’s telling you to touch a computer. There are other forms of work that are available that you can do… Disability doesn’t define you as a person. It’s not whether or not you’re disabled enough. It’s about what skills you have to support the nation. It’s not just to support the nation, but it’s also to support yourself as well.

    At this point, Grace and her carer who was supporting her with the call rightly told the work coach she was being ‘judgemental’. They then accused them of being ‘discriminative’. This classic piece of gaslighting is the DWP’s MO in a nutshell.

    After Grace challenged the work coach on the fact that they had told her that she could work (“there are other forms of work that are available that you can do”), the work coach proceeded to backtrack, claiming:

    Once in this conversation, did I tell you that you would have to go out and work?… Not once did I confirm that you had to go out and work.

    The work coach is either a) grossly incapable of doing the job they are supposed to be doing, or b) intentionally gaslighting Grace. Regardless, all this left Grace extremely distressed.

    The DWP work coach ‘made me feel ashamed’

    She explained how this whole situation with the DWP has affected her:

    It’s been almost six months since the switchover, and I’m on less than half of my previous benefits. I’m feeling incredibly anxious and my CFS is flaring up because of it. I even felt suicidal after this call with my “work coach” from DWP. The call was so demeaning and patronising that it made me feel sick to my stomach. Suicidal, and needed to call scope for benefits advice and a shoulder to cry on.

    I know I’m not the only one who’s going through this. There are millions of people out there who are being put through this kind of treatment, and I just want to make sure that people understand what’s happening. I’ve been through a lot, and I’m not going to let anyone make me feel ashamed about my health. I’ve tried my best to adapt and find ways to work, but it’s not easy.

    I’m also recovering from pneumonia related to my lung condition, so I’m not in the best shape right now. I’m hoping that the government will take a closer look at what they’re doing and make some changes. We (disabled) may (sometimes) be fiscally net negative, but most of us lead full lives and contribute in different but important ways.

    Since we spoke to Grace, her situation has deteriorated.

    Now with lung cancer

    Not one single member of DWP staff has replied to her requests in her Universal Credit journal to try and support her.

    And in the past days, she has now been given a lung cancer diagnosis. Grace told the Canary:

    I went into hospital with sepsis after having pneumonia on Friday and walked out Saturday with a 5cm mass on my right lung. A malignant growth. I have lung cancer I may die.

    Now I have MacMillan they’ve intervened with the DWP. Now we have cancer too they need to start paying me my LCWRA payment element that’s been missing for six months. Yet no one’s replied on my journal to me or my carer for over three weeks now. I’m hoping McMillan have some clout.

    Of course, it would be easy for the DWP to say that Grace did not have a lung cancer diagnosis at the time the work coach spoke with her. Therefore, if she had have done, the work coach would not have said those things. This is of course a nonsense excuse that only serves to play into the narrative of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ disabled people narrative the Labour Party government is pushing. It should not matter what diagnoses people have. If they and their doctors are saying they cannot work, they cannot work – and an unqualified work coach should not question that.

    More broadly, what Grace’s call with the DWP work coach shows is myriad of issues.

    The DWP: broken beyond repair

    There is often a clear lack of understanding from work coaches of chronically ill and disabled people’s personal circumstances and support needs. There’s often also a lack of awareness around impairments and health conditions.

    Work coaches like this one display little more ability than to be able to repeat the tropes that the DWP and media spoon-feed to the population. They might not even realise what they’re doing. And moreover, there is a complete lack of empathy.

    However, Grace’s experience points to a wider problem.

    The DWP is filled with box-tickers and robots who are there to complete the most basic elements of their jobs, and nothing more. In a role where you are dealing with chronically ill and disabled people who often have complex needs, you need people who – for want of a better phrase – give a shit.

    Sadly, most DWP staff do not. If they did, they would be mortified at the tens of thousands of deaths on the DWP’s watch and have resigned their positions years ago.

    As Grace summed up:

    The whole thing has been horrific. It’s a huge scandal really. They’re already either making mistakes, or on purpose pushing us off legacy benefits like ESA and into Universal Credit.

    Yet no one seems to want to own up.

    The lack of accountability at the DWP – from both staff and the institution as a whole – is what compounds the systemic issues that exist in the first place. Grace’s experience is a microcosm of just how abusive, vicious, and at worst, deadly the DWP is. But when an institution is designed to be that way, no amount of policy changes can alter that.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • That Spending Review funding ‘increase’ for the NHS is not all it’s cracked up to be

    On Wednesday 11 June, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the details of the Labour Party government’s latest Spending Review. Corporate media pundits and politicians alike have been hammering the observation that the NHS took the ‘lion’s share’ of the new funding.

    Notably, Reeves proclaimed the government’s “record cash investment” for day-to-day NHS spending of £29bn. She boasted in typical three-word political slogan that this would mean:

    More appointments. More Doctors. More Scanners.

    However, the commentary from the billionaire press and Westminster political classes missed a key point. This is the fact that, when you dig into it, the so-called spending increase is not really an increase at all.

    What’s more, who profits from the new funding was glaringly absent from the discourse. Of course, that would be the private sector – all while Labour’s promises to improve the state of the NHS will likely fall flat. As ever then, it’s the public that will continue to lose out thanks to Labour’s austerity and neoliberal ideological agenda.

    Spending Review: More funding to the NHS?

    Self-aggrandizing Labour MPs and supporters showered praise on Reeves’ supposed cash uplift for the key public service. This included Reeves’ sister and Labour MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich Ellie Reeves:

    Health secretary Wes Streeting is never one to miss the chance to toot his own horn:

    Meanwhile, some corporate media talking heads – like Sky’s Beth Rigby – were more critical:

    Of course, this is a false dichotomy. Labour can put more money into the NHS AND other budgets. Labour is making a political choice not to increase spending for other public services and departments. Campaigners have pointed out repeatedly that if Labour levied a modest 2% annual tax on assets over £10m, it could generate £24bn a year. In other words, the problem isn’t in the lack of Treasury revenue, but in the lack of political will to tackle gross inequality.

    Instead, loathe to lay the costs on its wealthy donors and capitalist connections, the Labour government has been on a budget-cutting warpath against the most marginalised communities.

    What does the Spending Review say about the NHS?

    For the NHS, the Spending Review put forward the following:

    • The NHS in England will get a real-terms annual £29bn funding increase, equating to 3% growth in “day-to-day spending”.
    • Real-terms increase of £2.3bn between 2029-2030 for the DHSC.
    • £10bn for NHS technology and its digital transformation plans.
    • £30bn over the next five years for maintenance and repair of the NHS estate.

    The cash injection to operational spending will take the NHS day-to-day budget up to £226bn by 2028-29.

    As a result of all this, the government claims this will enable it to cut waiting times to meet statutory targets. Specifically, this sets out that the NHS will see 92% of patients for treatment within 18 weeks of referral for non-emergency care. The SR points out that currently, this sits at less than 60% of patients. It also notes that waiting lists since Labour took power have remained stubbornly high at 7.4 million.

    It also promises that this will help it deliver:

    • Training and recruiting “thousands more” GPs – though it doesn’t set a specific target.
    • 700,000 more urgent dentist appointments over the SR period.
    • Employing 8,500 more mental health staff by the end of Parliament.

    It’s not all as it seems

    Health and social care think tank the Nuffield Trust has called out the glaring cons in the so-called Spending Review increase.

    For one, it fails to make up for more than a decade of Tory austerity. The period between 2011 and 2024 saw a pitiful 2.4% average budget increase that the new spending fails to address.

    Moreover, it highlighted how Labour’s 3% supposed increase is still less than the historic long-term trend between 1979 and 2020 of 3.7%. This also means the annual health spending is less than under previous Labour governments.

    In short, after years of chronic underinvestment, the ‘increase’ won’t be enough to keep pace with growing costs and demand.

    In reality though, it can hardly be called an increase.

    Nuffield Trust senior policy analyst Sally Gainsbury pointed out how when you factor in rising costs to the NHS, the funding from the Autumn budget has already been “more than wiped out”. This includes rising expenses on everything from inflation to a growing, ageing population, and planned expansions in elective care capacity to drive down wait times that Labour is promising. Gainsbury extended this to the funding Reeves announced in the SR:

    Compared to the settlements for other departments – from policing to education – the NHS deal looks generous. But seen in the context of all the promises made by the government to the British people – to drive down waiting lists, shift care closer to home, rapidly improve tech – and the commitments to meet staff pay demands and rising costs of new drugs, today’s settlement soon melts away.

    The NHS is not in a vacuum

    What’s more, Labour’s stagnant Spending Review funding, and cuts in some areas, will only worsen the health of marginalised communities. Gainsbury underscored the lack of social housing commitments as one area the government is failing to deliver, and putting people’s health at risk due to homelessness and atrocious temporary housing. She also hinted at the impact of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) callous and devastating cuts. Gutting the welfare system for chronically ill and disabled communities is set to push hundreds of thousands, if not millions, into state-sanctioned poverty.

    In short, real-terms spending cuts is putting the health – and lives – of poor, chronically ill and disabled communities at risk. In turn, their deteriorating health means they’ll need expanded care – but Labour’s new NHS funding won’t keep pace with this.

    There were other issues too. These included:

    • Capital funding is staying flat in real-terms. This means there’s a severe lack of investment for repairs and upgrades to the NHS’s crumbling estate. In October, NHS England estimated that it has a maintenance backlog of £13.8bn.
    • Social care funding is flatlining. The SR promises £4bn in 2028/29 for adult social care. However, the Health Foundation has previously calculated that the social care budget needs £6.4bn for that period. This is required to meet rising costs, demand, and improve access.
    • Big Pharma driving up the cost of drugs will also eat into this funding. Labour Party MPs – including key ministers like the chancellor and health secretary Wes Streeting – have taken sizeable donations from the sector and its lobbyists.

    Waiting list promises not enough

    What’s more, Labour’s pledge to cut waiting list targets doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

    Even supposing its funding ‘increase’ drives down treatment waiting lists for non-urgent treatment, there’s nothing in the SR to match for initial outpatient appointments. Notably, the figures the SR is referring to concern waiting times for treatment, so don’t take into account the length of time patients wait to see a specialist consultant in the first place.

    The NHS doesn’t publish centralised data for this. So the Canary has brought together wait times for first out-patient appointments for services across England to get a sense of the broader picture. The graph below demonstrates the wait times for first appointments in a number of specialisms at nine separate NHS trusts:

    Waits for these initial consultations can be as long as 26 weeks in some cases. It’s typically only after these first outpatient appointments that consultants will refer patients on for treatment.

    Therefore, it means that while patients could see wait times drop for treatment referrals, getting these in the first place could still take many months.

    In short, Labour’s SR is focusing solely on bringing down treatment wait times. But it’s ignoring the need to also set targets for bringing down these first outpatient appointment wait times in tandem. It means patients could still face astronomical waits for the care and diagnosis they need.

    Privatisation: the missing puzzle piece with the Spending Review

    All of this is to ignore where Labour will likely funnel this new funding to the NHS. And that’s straight into the corporate coffers of the private sector.

    Of course, there’s no word on how much of the new spending will go to private healthcare companies in the review itself. However, Labour has made repeated platitudes to increasing the role of the private healthcare sector. So, it logically follows that’s where it plans to direct at least some – if not the vast majority – of this new funding.

    We already know the government is courting big AI tech firms to take control of NHS patient data. Incidentally, these have been lobbying Labour ministers as well. Will it be these parasitic corporations that will be clamouring for a slice of that £10bn NHS technology profit pie? It seems highly likely.

    Campaign group EveryDoctor’s Julia Patterson told the Canary of the Spending Review:

    This Labour government came to power promising the public that they would rebuild the NHS. This is so important, because the service is in a state of absolute emergency. Millions of patients cannot access timely healthcare in the NHS, and the staff morale is extremely low.

    This has not happened by accident- it has happened because of intentional political decisions over the past 15 years to starve the service of resources, and privatise areas of the NHS too. The funding announced by Rachel Reeves represents a *lower* real terms increase of funding for the NHS than the average of the previous decades.

    This is unacceptable, and the public deserves better than this. Every single patient deserves to be safe in the NHS, and every single staff member deserves to be properly supported to do their important work. This Labour government should stick to its promises and commit more funding to the NHS immediately.

    Overall, Labour’s Spending Review was more grandiose warm words than anything with actual substance. When it comes down to it, the funding commitments will mean little for the public’s health. The private sector on the other hand, will likely soon be reaping the rewards.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Yvette Cooper faces campaign to reverse Palestinian resistance as being illegal

    Yvette Cooper is facing a vital new campaign from an advocacy organisation to de-proscribe Palestinian resistance. CAGE have made a formal application to the home secretary for the de-proscription of Hamas.

    A proscribed organisation is one which the government believes:

    • commits or participates in acts of terrorism
    • prepares for terrorism
    • promotes or encourages terrorism (including the unlawful glorification of terrorism)
    • is otherwise concerned in terrorism

    In an application seen by the Canary, CAGE set out an argument to de-proscribe Hamas based on:

    the systemic suppression of political speech, particularly within Britain’s Muslim communities.

    Proscription means that it is a criminal offence to belong to, invite support for, or wear clothing depicting a proscribed organisation. Hamas’ military wing were proscribed in the UK in 2001, and the organisation as a whole was proscribed in 2021.

    Awaiting review from Yvette Cooper

    Yvette Cooper now has 90 days to respond to the application. CAGE have made it clear that their application is rooted in principles of freedom of speech, rather than any particular politics.

    Palestine Action co-founder, Richard Barnard, said:

    Many may be under the illusion that free speech is protected in Britain, but unfortunately they are wrong. I was targeted and silenced by the state for giving a speech in support of the Palestinian people.
    There’s no doubt that the prosecution against myself, and many others, is entirely political. Evidence suggests that foreign interference has led to many of us being targeted to protect the Zionist regime by silencing critics of genocide.

    In their application, CAGE demonstrate the impact of Hamas being proscribed:

    The human cost is clear. The proscription is enabling unjust consequences: teachers suspended, doctors struck off, students expelled, and charities paralysed, all without due process, and often without any formal conviction.

    For CAGE, their application is about protecting freedom of speech:

    The systematic suppression of pro-Palestinian speech does not merely harm the individuals and communities targeted; it threatens the broader principles of open debate and political freedom upon which a free society must be based.

    CAGE cite Dr. Sophie Haspeslagh’s book, Proscribing Peace: How listing armed groups as terrorists hurts negotiation. Haspeslagh explains that systems of proscription often hurt the path to peace. CAGE write that:

    Ultimately, her work shows that like with Sinn Fein and the African National Congress, ultimately governments must negotiate those they once considered ‘terrorist’.

    Organisation after organisation, from the United Nations to Human Rights Watch to Amnesty International have released reports evidencing Israel’s genocide against Palestine. These findings have painted a picture of Israel’s war crimes against civilians in its pursuit of Hamas. And, importantly, Hamas’ very existence cannot be understood without reckoning with the siege and occupation that settler colonial Israel have imposed on Palestine for decades now. That, surely, cannot be ignored by Yvette Cooper when considering the context of the application.

    As CAGE argue above, designations of terrorism obstruct the peace process. In addition to this, such labels are often motivated by political choice rather than absolute fact. As administrators of parts of Palestine, Hamas must be part of any movements towards peace, as CAGE argue:

    While the organisation Hamas remains a proscribed organisation, there can be no effective debate or discussion about the long-term future of Palestine, as one of the main political parties in the region is vilified by the legal structures of the British state.

    Testimony for Yvette Cooper

    In their application, CAGE also collect the testimony of those whose expressions of political opinion have been curtailed by the proscription of Hamas. In one such case:

    Six students from a University reposted a Middle East Eye article on the University’s Palestinian Society Instagram story, that discussed the death of Ismail Haniyeh and referred to him as a martyr. The students simply reposted the articles without any additional commentary. The University reported them to the police for support of a terrorist organisation, namely Hamas.

    The Police, after two weeks, informed the university that no further action would be taken.

    The government should have no right to uphold such restrictions on speech and opinion. Sharing articles that discuss the death of someone in Palestine is not an example of proportionate restrictions under proscription laws.

    In another case:

    K, the President of a Palestine Society at a prominent University, circulated the headline “resistance fighters launch surprise attack against Israel” as a part of a weekly digest to update their audience of Palestine related news. Another student, on seeing this, made a complaint to the University, citing his fear and distress, while simultaneously threatening K on social media with prosecution.

    Again, there is an apparent danger that any characterisations of Palestinian resistance are deemed to fall under a flawed definition of terrorism. By November 2024, Israel had dropped 85,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza – far outstripping World War II munitions. Opposition to such destruction, of one’s home, one’s people, one’s loved ones is not innately terrorism.

    Ms L, saw her husband arrested for posting social media commentary on Palestine. Ms L herself was then sanctioned by the secondary school who employ her. As CAGE write:

    The criminalisation of Mrs L by the school and maligning of her character  impacted Ms L’s mental health and family life. She felt targeted and unduly criminalised by her employer and was reluctant and fearful about returning to work as a result.

    A healthcare professional for the NHS, M2, was reported to her Trust by co-workers after posting content about Palestine on her personal Instagram story. CAGE reported that:

    Following a decision being made on her case, and continuing after her appeal was successful, M2 was subject to intense scrutiny and micromanagement on her managed return. The impact on her personal and professional life has been immense.

    CAGE includes many more examples, from teachers, doctors, students, academics, and many others facing formal disciplinary action and sometimes even involvement from the police for how they discussed Palestine privately. The question, then, facing Yvette Cooper in this application is one not of political allegiance, but of freedom of speech. Is this really the environment the government should be cultivating?

    Erosion of rights

    The weight of these testimonies cannot be understated. They paint a damning picture of an erosion of rights, particularly for British Muslims.

    Yvette Cooper’s decision will be eagerly awaited, but in the meantime we cannot lose sight of the fact that Israel have committed war crime after war crime in their relentless pursuit to obliterate all Palestinian life and culture. Hamas’ existence, and Palestinian resistance more broadly, should not be proscribed by the UK as terrorism.

    Just as history has proven the likes of the African National Congress to have been combating apartheid, so too must our government recognise that proscription is a restriction of freedom of speech.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • After a cutting question from Richard Burgon, Keir Starmer’s callousness was just on full display

    At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Labour MP Richard Burgon challenged Keir Starmer on the cuts to disabled people’s support:

    Burgon: ‘drop the cuts’

    The MP for Leeds East said:

    Mr Speaker… no Labour government should ever try to balance the books on the backs of disabled people. Yet in just a few weeks time that is what the prime minister
    will ask this House to do. Many of us will not be able to go along with that, because it will mean that people who need assistance to cut up their food, to wash themselves, to dress themselves and to go to the toilet will lose the PIP they currently get – that’s vital support. This week the prime minister changed direction on winter fuel payment, will he do the same in relation to this and now drop these disability benefit cuts.
    On 9 June, the Labour government confirmed a welcome U-turn on the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. Now any pensioner on £35,000 or less will receive the payment. This will stop thousands of low income pensioners from being pushed into poverty.
    But it raises the question of why Labour is going ahead with the disability benefit cuts. Particularly when the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has itself admitted that the cuts will push 670,000 families that are already in poverty into even deeper financial strain.
    This is the continuation of extracting money from the least well off and transferring it to the rich through a rigged system of real estate, privatised utilities, tax breaks, bloated salaries and monopolies.
    There are various wealth taxes that could rebalance the economy in a progressive way – by tens of billions per year, far exceeding the amount the government may take from disabled people via DWP cuts. For one, the Labour government could bring in a wealth tax of 1-2% on assets worth over £10m. This would rebalance society by £22bn per year.

    In the October 2024 budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves did raise capital gains tax. But equalising the tax on the passive income of capital gains with the tax charged on working people’s income would rebalance society by a further £12.7bn. Research from Oxford University shows that this measure has the support of 62% of the public.

    Cruel Starmer

    At PMQs, Starmer responded:

    Mr speaker, it’s very important we make the changes to our welfare system. It’s not working, it needs reform. I think everybody agrees with that. It doesn’t
    work for anyone. We will do so on a principled basis that those who can work should work, those that want to work should be supported to do so and that we must protect those with the most severe disabilities who will never be able to work

    Starmer is totally wrong here and he knows it. There is a consensus on welfare and it’s the opposite to what he says  – that it simply isn’t enough. In fact, a whopping 91 charities have united to demand that the Labour government introduces an Essentials Guarantee to alleviate poverty in a country where 4.5 million children fall bellow the line.

    Burgon is spot on to hold Starmer’s feet to the fire at PMQs.
    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Kendall just confirmed DWP cuts to disabled people’s benefits will not be delayed

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), under Secretary Liz Kendall, is pressing ahead with sweeping cuts to disabled people’s benefits set to take effect in 2026, despite widespread criticism and the absence of a comprehensive impact assessment. These reforms, aiming to cut nearly £5 billion from the welfare budget, have sparked significant concern among disability rights advocates, economists, and even members within the Labour Party. 

    DWP cuts: callous to the core

    The proposed changes focus on tightening eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and reducing the health-related component of Universal Credit. Specifically, the government plans to raise the threshold for PIP qualification, requiring claimants to score at least four points in one daily living activity, a move projected to disqualify over one million chronically ill and disabled people.

    Additionally, the health top-up for Universal Credit will be frozen at £97 per week for existing claimants and reduced to £47 for new applicants, leading to an average annual loss of £1,700 for about three million people. 

    The DWP’s decision to proceed without a full impact assessment has drawn sharp criticism. As Sky News reported:

    The chair of the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee wrote to the secretary of state, Liz Kendall, last month, calling on the government to delay the changes until a full assessment is carried out of the impact on employment, poverty and health.

    Chair Debbie Abrahams urged a delay until assessments on employment, poverty, and health outcomes could be conducted. She warned that the reforms might push many into deeper poverty and further from the labor market. 

    However, Kendall has doubled down on her vindictive stance.

    Kendall: doubling down

    She said in a letter to Abrahams she was rejecting any delay to DWP cuts because, as Sky News reported, “the bill needs final approval from parliament in November in order for the changes to take effect in 2026”

    Kendall wrote:

    We need urgent action to help people who can work, into work. With one in eight young people now not in education, employment or training and nearly 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness, and spending on health and disability benefits set to rise by an additional £18bn, we must change course.

    We have consistently been clear that we are not consulting on every proposal.

    Instead, parliament will have the opportunity to fully debate, propose amendments to, and vote on areas where we have announced urgent reforms that are not subject to consultation.

    With PIP caseload and costs forecast to continue rising, reforms are needed now to make the system sustainable, while supporting those people with the greatest needs.

    Kendall’s dismissal of these concerns, citing urgency due to rising DWP benefit costs and increasing numbers of young people not in education, employment, or training, has been seen as prioritising fiscal targets over the well-being of vulnerable populations. Her assertion that “reforms are needed now” overlooks the potential long-term social costs and the immediate hardships these changes may impose – including the deaths of chronically ill and disabled people.

    Potential Consequences of DWP cuts

    Economists and social policy experts have expressed skepticism about the projected savings. The Institute for Fiscal Studies noted that similar past reforms have often failed to deliver anticipated savings due to unforeseen claimant behavior and administrative complexities. 

    Moreover, the reforms could disproportionately affect individuals with mental health conditions and those with less visible disabilities, who may find it more challenging to meet the stricter assessment criteria. This raises concerns about increased reliance on already strained local authority services and the NHS, potentially offsetting any savings from reduced benefit payments.

    The cuts have also caused unrest within the Labour Party. Over 100 Labour MPs have expressed concerns, with some signing letters opposing the changes. Critics argue that the party is abandoning its commitment to social justice and the protection of vulnerable citizens. 

    The DWP’s and Liz Kendall’s determination to implement these disability benefit reforms without a comprehensive impact assessment reflects a troubling disregard for the potential adverse effects on chronically ill and disabled people.

    The lack of thorough analysis and consultation undermines the credibility of the entire government, and shows it and the DWP have zero commitment to evidence-based policymaking. Kendall should be ashamed – but it’s unlikely she is.

    Featured image via the House of Commons

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Met Police putting Israeli apartheid tanks on our streets is just part of its complicity with war crimes

    Last week, BBC London posted a video saying “Have you seen the Met Police new SandCats?”. The police force was proudly parading around the Israeli armoured vehicles, despite the apartheid state’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. But the Met’s love-in with Israel is no new thing.

    Met Police and the SandCats

    In total, the force has ordered 18 SandCats, which Israeli occupation forces have long tested on Palestinians. And officers have already been training in the streets. The Met hasn’t used them in operations yet, though, claiming it’s saving them for “the most serious public disorder”. That’s not particularly comforting, though, when we consider the state’s increasing repression of anti-genocide activism, its raiding of journalists’ homes, efforts to protect Israeli war criminals, important participation in the Gaza genocide via RAF Akrotiri, attempts in court to defend ongoing arms transfers, and general cosiness with the Israel lobby.

     

    View this post on Instagram

     

    A post shared by BBC London (@bbclondon)

    Just part of the story

    The Met has refused to reveal its cooperation with Israeli police, despite admitting it hosted “an Israeli police delegation” in 2022. But as Declassified UK has reported:

    Senior Metropolitan Police officers are regular attendees at a think tank closely tied to Israel’s military and intelligence services and have accepted hospitality from its embassy in London.

    At the same time:

    A number of high-ranking MPS officers have also accepted gifts or hospitality from the Israeli embassy in London, despite MPS guidance stating that such offers be refused.

    Also:

    Collaboration between the Israeli government and the MPS dates back to at least the early 2000s, when an MPS team was sent to Israel

    Other police forces, meanwhile, have used controversial facial recognition technology from Israel’s Corsight AI. The Met appears to have a different provider for its own invasive mass surveillance – Japanese company NEC‘s NeoFace® Watch. But then, NEC itself also has operations in Israel. And prime minister Keir Starmer seems to be fond of the idea of increasing the use of facial recognition technology.

    Considering police spent decades infiltrating primarily left-wing activist groups, we should be very wary of the direction things are going, and the people British police are working with on that journey.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Keir Starmer just got schooled over nationalising water companies

    Ewan McGaughey, professor of law at King’s College London, has informed Keir Starmer that bringing the water industry into public ownership would actually cost nothing.

    Schooling Keir Starmer

    In a report for Common Wealth, McGaughey argues that Keir Starmer and the government can bring the water companies into ‘special administration’ for their failings. Sky high debt, eye watering dividends and sewage dumping from the companies means the government can use such a process. Special administration is designed to protect vital public services that are too big to fail in order to maintain the service when the provider is failing.

    And according to McGaughey, private water companies have already breached the threshold. He writes:

    True and fair value in law — the amount that would need to be paid for public ownership — is different from market values. Market values do not reflect losses from market failures, such as the costs of pollution, or the monopoly profits taken by shareholders and banks. The question in law for a court is whether a “fair balance has been struck” in paying compensation when a government puts a company into public ownership. This concept of a “fair balance” enables the Government to take into account returns already paid to shareholders and bondholders, or the damage caused by pollution, and subtract this from market values.

    Going further, McGaughey said that the cost of nationalising the water companies would actually be negative if there was a provision in the law. That is, the harm shareholders and bondholders have caused should bring about a ‘bail in’ legal provision whereby they pay for damages. In other words, the ‘fair balance’ should mean the water companies paying us, not us paying them.

    Nonsense from the profiteers

    The professor, who specialises in insolvency law, called out Keir Starmer for using a figure that the water industry itself cooked up to argue that nationalisation would be too expensive. United Utilities, Anglian Water, Severn Trent and South West Water commissioned a 2018 paper by the Social Market Foundation, which the government has referenced. Labour used it to argue the cost would be £90bn, posing a “huge burden on the public purse”.

    But the opposite is true. As well as the cost of nationalisation being zero (or negative), a University of Greenwich study for We Own It recently found that there is a “privatisation tax” of 35% on our water bills. In other words, we’re spending over one-third more than we need to every time we turn on the taps – because of privatisation. The research found that the UK public would save £5 billion per year on water bills if the government brought water into public ownership.

    And it’s actually getting worse under Labour. McGaughey points out that Ofwat is enabling companies to hike bills by 36% over the next five years. He states that nearly every river in England is polluted, our bathing quality is the fifth worst in Europe (and there is a trend showing public ownership contributes to a cleaner environment) and Wall Street banks are extracting another £800 million from Thames Water through a new loan.

    ‘Democratising water’

    In summary, McGaughey says that public ownership should mean water staff and bill payers making up a substantial portion of the boardroom that runs the utility. He concludes:

    First, worker representation — of at least one third of a board of directors — is the standard in most wealthy democratic countries for all large companies, not just those in the water industry. Staff are the experts who know far better than foreign shareholders and banks how to fix our water.

    Second, bill-payer representation, in place of working competition, is found in most modern publicly owned companies. For instance, in Berliner Wasserbetriebe (Berlin Waterworks) which was brought back into public ownership in 2013, half of the board of directors is elected by workers and unions, and the other half is chosen by the Berlin City Council. Water users see the problems of pollution, and care about the waste of their hard-earned money the most.

    The UK has lagged behind other countries in democratic representation in companies, historically preferring top-down Whitehall appointments to publicly owned boards. Now is the time to give change a chance.

    Instead, Keir Starmer seems to be in bed with the profiteering firms, receiving donations from KKR, which was bidding on Thames Water. Labour should stop that and listen to McGaughey.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel accused again of the crime against humanity of extermination as governments and MSM fail

    A blistering report from UN experts has determined that Israel is committing:

    the crime against humanity of extermination.

    The report is a summary of “factual and legal findings” by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It wouldn’t be outlandish to consider that this statement may well reverberate around the inevitable denials, detractions, and outright lies from Israelis defending their genocide.

    Extermination in a legal sense has a precise application, and is used to denote “intentional and massive homicide of an entire group of persons.”

    Journalist Assal Rad called out the lack of coverage from mainstream media of what should be a landmark moment in global legal understanding of Israel’s genocide:

    Israel attacks

    The report outlines in meticulous detail how Israel have destroyed numerous education facilities. And, importantly:

    The Commission could not identify any military objective for the demolitions of educational facilities.

    Between 7 October 2023 and 25 February 2025:

    • 403 of a total 564 schools were directly hit by Israeli bombs
    • approximately 1 million displaced people have been sheltering in clearly marked UNWRA shelters in Gaza since October 2023, and at least 742 people have been killed and at least 2406 injured by Israeli attacks
    • more than 57 university buildings completely destroyed
    • 612 staff reported killed, and 2769 injured, along with 190 academic staff reported killed

    Not only have Israel systematically destroyed schools and universities, they have made efforts to raze them to the ground. And, whilst sending terrified Palestinians running for shelter from their attacks, have even bombed schools and hospitals being used as places of shelter from bombs.

    Religious attacks

    The report also examined Israel’s attacks on religious and cultural sites in Palestine. As of November 2024, UNESCO has confirmed damage to 75 religious and cultural sites in Gaza. The World Bank assesses this damage of up to $120 million. In comparison to the damage caused to such sites in 2014, the report found that:

    This represents a 100-fold increase in the estimated cost of damage, mirroring the unparalleled rise in attacks on cultural and religious sites in Gaza since October 2023.

    The report also notes allegations against Israeli security forces who are accused of looting Palestinian heritage and culture sites. As with their attacks on schools being used to shelter people, the commission outlines how Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked people sheltering in mosques from bombing. Israeli settlers are also known to have attacked religious sites, including graffitiing slurs on religious sites and burning mosques. The report finds a pattern of Israeli impunity:

    The Commission has documented many incidents in which Israeli officials have: seized or allowed settlers to seize cultural heritage sites; excavated, developed and expanded such sites for tourism purposes, including those containing artefacts representing various cultures and periods in history, while excluding non-Jewish history.

    Israeli authorities have also allowed – and some would argue enabled – Israeli settlers to take over historically Palestinian areas:

    Israel has also increasingly taken steps to seize, expand and develop for tourism purposes sites that have Jewish and non-Jewish historical significance in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

    The report found that:

    The purported need to protect heritage sites has been used for decades as justification for the displacement of Palestinians.

    Palestinians are restricted from entering their own religious and cultural sites:

    Palestinians worshippers wishing to enter the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount site have been subjected to increased security checks, checkpoints, harassment and assault, and criteria, linked to age, gender and place of residence, have been applied by Israeli authorities to restrict which Palestinians are allowed to enter.

    Genocide

    The report concludes that:

    The destruction of the education system in Gaza is one element on a continuum of harm to educational facilities and personnel across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The education system in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has suffered from increasing military operations by Israeli security forces, harassment of students, checkpoints, demolitions and settler attacks, affecting more than 806,000 students.

    As many UN reports before this one has found, Israel is violating – with total impunity – established international legal norms.

    The Commission finds that the increased military operations by Israel in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the acquiescence of Israel in settler violence there, are a violation of the obligation of Israel to ensure the safety of the occupied population.

    And, crucially, this latest report establishes Israel’s purposeful destruction of Palestinian religious and cultural sites:

    Since October 2023, Israeli security forces have caused damage to more than half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip as part of their wider campaign of devastation of civilian targets and infrastructure.

    After detailing Israeli attacks at the Ihya al-Sunna Mosque and the Saad al-Ghafari Mosque, the commission finds that:

    the conduct of the Israeli security forces that caused the death of civilians at the two aforementioned mosques was part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and that Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination.

    Israel is committing extermination

    One particular recommendation that should ring loudly in the ears of Starmer and his ilk is that:

    The Commission recommends that all Member States…cease aiding or assisting in the commission of violations; and explore measures to ensure the accountability of perpetrators of international crimes, grave human rights violations and abuses in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

    Of course, this determination of extermination comes as individual activists have had to take it upon themselves to do what governments and mainstream media won’t: hold Israel to account. The kidnapped crew of the Madleen have continued their protest. One crew member, Thiago Ávila, has begun a hunger strike; his counterpart Greta Thunberg has received international media with accounts of their detention and deportation by Israeli authorities; Rima Hassan is still detained by Israeli authorities.

    And, the Maghreb land convoy has departed for Rafah just days ago. Diplomats, activists, and volunteers are travelling from Algeria, through Tunisia, and eventually planning to arrive in Rafah. Middle East Monitor reported that:

    The land convoy will include union and political figures, as well as human rights activists, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and members of youth organisations.

    Already on its departure from Algeria, the convoy has attracted thousands of supporters to see them off, and even join them. Mainstream media and governments may well ignore both this report and the actual impact of both the Madleen and the Maghreb land convoy but the message is clear: people around the world stand with Palestine and are willing to risk everything while governments remain not only complicit, but guilty.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • State thuggery and illegality escalate in Iran… no, wait, in the US, Israel, and the UK

    We’re seeing an escalation of open state violence and illegality right now. But it’s not Iran or another Western establishment bogeyman responsible. It’s in the heart of the Western political order – in the US, Israel and, yes, the UK too.

    US soldiers in the streets, Israeli occupiers abduct international civilians as genocide continues

    In recent days, the US government has ramped up its violent and highly controversial attacks on immigrant communities. And its actions have sparked mass protests in Los Angeles. The Donald Trump administration has responded by unnecessarily and provocatively sending in thousands of National Guard soldiers and hundreds of Marines. So far, authorities have engaged in open shows of brutality, shooting at both Australian and British journalists. Protests are now spreading around the country against Trump’s repression.

    Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in occupied Gaza, meanwhile, continues to face resistance. And its most recent challenge to international law has come with its illegal abduction of civilians from an aid boat in international waters which was heading to Gaza. After the kidnapping, Israeli occupation forces unlawfully held the international volunteers offshore with no outside contact for almost a day before taking them to the mainland. The Adalah legal centre says four crew members of the Madleen Freedom Flotilla accepted deportation and “left or are on their way to their home countries”. It added:

    The remaining eight are still detained and will contest their deportation before an Israeli tribunal

    Since 2023, Israel’s genocide and Western support for it have seen the masks of ‘democracy, international law, and freedom’ slip. The world has seen the establishment’s true face of elite control, repression of dissent, and flouting of international norms. Even academics from Israel have joined the global scholarly consensus that the apartheid state has been committing genocide. And as the United States once again vote against a ceasefire amid a brutal starvation campaign in Gaza, it was clearer than ever for most that it is also a US genocide.

    US, Israeli, and UK masks are off

    Israeli occupiers, meanwhile, have long documented their war crimes, fully expecting to benefit from ongoing impunity. And the Israeli state is so confident about this that it has even admitted to backing criminals with links to Daesh (Isis) in Gaza. Now, even though Israel illegally abducted Western civilians – including prize-winning climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan – from international waters, their governments have overwhelmingly failed to hold the settler-colonial power to account. Chief among those was the UK, whose shipping flag the aid vessel carried.

    British inaction, however, is unsurprising. Because around the time Israeli thugs attacked the civilian ship, a UK plane was actually heading towards Gaza from RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus – as has become routine during the genocide. The base has indeed been “a foundational asset” for Israel’s criminal assault on the occupied Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, as the British government tries to defend its complicity in court, more and more reports have shown how arms have continued to flow from Britain to Israel. Evidence of the influence the Israel lobby has over Keir Starmer’s cabinet also keeps coming in. And the Foreign Office has told hundreds of staff members that, if they’re unhappy about all this, they should just resign.

    The disdain for humanity and international law in the halls of British power are clear also in the raiding of journalists’ homes, the repression of anti-genocide activism, and former prime minister David Cameron’s attempts to bully the International Criminal Court into not issuing arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals.

    The US and its junior partners in the UK and Israel have long flouted international law, but rarely so openly and defiantly as today.

    The media can’t hide this anymore

    The mainstream media – like British state propaganda outlet the BBC – have tried to cover for Western crimes while keeping a veneer of respectability. But the livestreaming of the US-Israeli genocide has made that near-impossible. As actor Liam Cunningham put it recently, ongoing media platforming of Israeli war criminals is like “contacting Heinrich Himmler for his take on the genocide” after discovering “the horrors of Auschwitz” back in the mid-1940s.

    Social media makes it a lot harder for establishment propagandists to hide the truth. And the truth the world is seeing is that it’s not Iran, or the Houthis, or even Hamas that are committing countless war crimes (and self-documenting them) – it’s Israel, with Western backing. It’s not the West’s Middle-Eastern bogeymen routinely bombing hospitals, assassinating media workers, or killing thousands of children before starving the rest to death. It’s Israel.

    More and more people can now see through the hypocrisy.

     

    We see the truth. And we’re not having it!

    As Israeli occupation thugs stopped civilians getting aid to Gaza, politicians may have stayed quiet, but ordinary people didn’t. Throughout Europe, people took to the streets in solidarity:

    The movement to take aid to Gaza by land, meanwhile, is quickly growing:

    And as Donald Trump tries to scapegoat immigrant communities in order to militarise the streets and crush dissent, one message bears repeating over and over again:

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Shocking ‘war crimes’ article shows the BBC knew all along Israel is violating international law

    A stark new article from the BBC is surprisingly frank in its portrayal of Israel of a nation which is openly violating the Geneva Convention. Clearly, this is another sign that the the tide is turning on Israel and its supporters in the West. Beyond that, it’s an inadvertent admission of what many of us already knew; that the BBC has known what’s going on all along.

    The section which proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt is the article’s ending:

    I keep thinking about something an Israeli officer said the only time I’ve been into Gaza since the war started. I spent a few hours in the ruins with the Israeli army, one month into the war, when it had already made northern Gaza into a wasteland

    He started telling me how they did their best to not to fire on Palestinian civilians. Then he trailed off, and paused, and told me no-one in Gaza could be innocent because they all supported Hamas.

    Just imagine if the BBC had focussed on this clear genocidal intent instead of the Israeli government’s lies and spin.

    The BBC: ‘even wars have rules’

    The piece from international editor Jeremy Bowen is titled as follows:

    Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes – how governments respond could haunt them for years to come

    It begins with a statement which is obvious to most of us:

    Even wars have rules. They don’t stop soldiers killing each other but they’re intended to make sure that civilians caught up in the fighting are treated humanely and protected from as much danger as possible. The rules apply equally to all sides.

    If one side has suffered a brutal surprise attack that killed hundreds of civilians, as Israel did on 7 October 2023, it does not get an exemption from the law. The protection of civilians is a legal requirement in a battle plan.

    The BBC would have to present this as uncommon knowledge, because they’ve spent so much of the past 20 months giving air time to people who argue that Israel can do what it likes in response to the October 2023 attack.

    Author Jeremy Bowen ends his intro with the following (emphasis added):

    At the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva (ICRC) the words “Even Wars Have Rules” are emblazoned in huge letters on a glass rotunda.

    The reminder is timely because the rules are being broken.

    You could call this article from the BBC a lot of things, but timely is not one of them.

    Israel’s war on journalism

    Bowen goes on to talk about how hostile to journalism Israel is:

    Getting information from Gaza is difficult. It is a lethal warzone. At least 181 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war started, almost all Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel won’t let international news teams into Gaza.

    Since the best way to check controversial and difficult stories is first hand, that means the fog of war, always hard to penetrate, is as thick as I have ever experienced in a lifetime of war reporting.

    It is clear that Israel wants it to be that way. A few days into the war I was part of a convoy of journalists escorted by the army into the border communities that Hamas had attacked, while rescue workers were recovering the bodies of Israelis from smoking ruins of their homes, and Israeli paratroopers were still clearing buildings with bursts of gunfire.

    Israel wanted us to see what Hamas had done. The conclusion has to be that it does not want foreign reporters to see what it is doing in Gaza.

    This is the sort of reporting we should have seen from the BBC all along, but it does leave some things out. One thing of note is that this hasn’t simply been “difficult” for journalists, as Al Jazeera reports:

    Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 232 journalists – an average of 13 per month – making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded, according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project.

    More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia and the United States war in Afghanistan combined, the report published on Tuesday found.

    “It is, quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters,” the analysis said.

    It’s worse than just deadly, too, with Al Jazeera publishing allegations that Israel has deliberately targetted journalists:

    The report explained it was unclear how many Palestinian journalists in Gaza have been specifically targeted by Israeli attacks and “how many were simply the victims, like tens of thousands of fellow civilians, of Israel’s bombardment”.

    However, it cites the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as documenting 35 cases where Israel’s military likely targeted and killed journalists because of their work by the end of 2024.

    Among them was Al Jazeera reporter Hamza Dahdouh, who was killed on January 7, 2024 when a missile struck the vehicle he was travelling in in southern Gaza. He was the fifth immediate family member of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, to be killed by Israeli attacks.

    Why were so many journalists in the West comfortable to ignore the targetted elimination of their Palestinian peers?

    That’s a question we hope they’ll one day have to answer.

    Why this admission from the BBC now?

    The article quickly tells on itself as to why the Western establishment is suddenly asking questions of Israel (emphasis added):

    To find an alternative route through that [fog of war], we decided to approach it through the prism of laws that are supposed to regulate warfare and protect civilians. I went to the ICRC headquarters as it is the custodian of the Geneva Conventions.

    I have also spoken to distinguished lawyers; to humanitarians with years of experience of working within the law to bring aid to Gaza and other warzones; and to senior Western diplomats about their governments’ growing impatience with Israel and nervousness that they might be seen as complicit in future criminal investigations if they do not speak up about the catastrophe inside Gaza.

    The first paragraph suggests it’s been impossible to report on the conflict, which is funny because outlets like The Canary, Declassified UK, Al Jazeera, and others have managed just fine.

    Bowen is suggesting he’s had to be clever to get to the bottom of things, but it’s the second paragraph which highlights what’s actually going on. Politicians and media figures are waking up to the reality that unlike in previous assaults, Israel may not stop this time.

    We may be watching its final solution on the Palestinian people unfold in realtime, and when it’s over, all those who supported Israeli propaganda will be judged. Whether they’re judged in the court of public opinion or the Hague remains to be seen, but one things is clear; the BBC has been a key purveyor of Israel’s narratives.

    Benjamin Netanyahu

    While there’s a lot more you could say about Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu, this passage does at least show him up for the crooked and amoral chancer he is:

    In Europe there is also now a widely held belief, as in Israel, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war not to safeguard Israelis, but to preserve the ultra-nationalist coalition that keeps him in power.

    As prime minister he can prevent a national inquiry into his role in security failures that gave Hamas its opportunity before 7 October and slow down his long-running trial on serious corruption charges that could land him in jail.

    This next passage demonstrates Netanyahu’s victim complex:

    Rival politicians inside Israel accuse Netanyahu of presiding over war crimes and turning Israel into a pariah state.

    He has pushed back hard, comparing himself – when the warrant was issued – to Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer wrongly convicted of treason in an antisemitic scandal that rocked France in the 1890s.

    If there’s a problem with this section – and there is – it’s that it puts too much emphasis on Netanyahu as an individual; it also suggests a level of opposition to him which simply isn’t there. Israel was oppressing Palestine long before Netanyahu took power, and polling within the country shows broad support for ethnically cleansing Gaza. The horrors didn’t start with Netanyahu and they won’t stop with him either.

    It’s important to point out what’s being said here, because there are many Western supporters of Israel who have moved from ‘what Israel is doing is fine’ to ‘what Netanyahu is doing is wrong’; a shift which allows them to continue supporting the broader Zionist project of maintaining a colonialist ethnostate in the Middle East without feeling uncomfortable about the overt barbarism that’s currently on display.

    The many dead

    Bowen covers the high casualty rate for Palestinians, as well as Israel’s efforts to suppress this information:

    The latest figures from the ministry of health in Gaza record that Israel killed at least 54,607 Palestinians and wounded 125,341 between the 7 October attacks and 4 June this year. Its figures do not separate civilians from members of Hamas and other armed groups.

    According to Unicef, by January this year 14,500 Palestinian children in Gaza had been killed by Israel; 17,000 are separated from their parents or orphaned; and Gaza has the highest percentage of child amputees in the world.

    Israel and the US have tried to spread doubt about the casualty reports from the ministry, because like the rest of the fragments of governance left in Gaza, it is controlled by Hamas. But the ministry’s figures are used by the UN, foreign diplomats and even, according to reports in Israel, the country’s own intelligence services.

    Bowen also touches on the fact that much higher estimates exist:

    A study in medical journal The Lancet argues that the ministry underestimates the numbers killed by Israel, in part because its figures are incomplete. Thousands are buried under rubble of destroyed buildings and thousands more will die slowly of illnesses that would have been curable had they had access to medical care.

    What he doesn’t do is highlight just how high some of these alternatives are. The Lancet study in question is presumably the one which was published in January of this year, with France 24 reporting:

    A study in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that 64,260 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which would mean the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41 percent.

    An earlier study published by the Lancet found the following, as reported by Al Jazeera:

    The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people, according to a study published in the journal Lancet.

    The outlet further expanded on the study’s reasoning:

    “In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths,” it said.

    After applying a “conservative estimate” of four indirect deaths per one direct death, “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable” to the Gaza war, the study found.

    Such a number would represent almost 8 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

    The Lancet study noted that Israeli intelligence services, the UN and the World Health Organization all agree that claims of data fabrication levelled against the Palestinian authorities in Gaza over its death toll are “implausible”.

    It pointed out that the toll is likely much higher because the destruction of infrastructure in Gaza has made it extremely difficult to maintain a count that is not lower than the actual death toll.

    Starvation as a weapon

    The recent shift against Israel seems to have happened because Israel has more openly deployed starvation as a means of warfare. While this is far from a new phenomenon, the fact that it’s become more pronounced has caused widespread revulsion among the public. While many of us rightfully view Israel’s bombing campaigns as equally genocidal, it’s sadly the case that more people can kid themselves into thinking this sort of violence is acceptable to get at the ‘bad guys’ (in this instance the Hamas fighters which Israel alleges are hidden beneath the hospitals and schools it blows up).

    Speaking on the weaponisation of famine, Bowen reports:

    Israel has put severe restrictions on food and aid shipments into Gaza throughout the war and blocked them entirely from March to May this year. With Gaza on the brink of famine, it is clear that Israel has violated laws that say civilians should be protected, not starved.

    A British government minister told the BBC that Israel was using hunger “as a weapon of war”. The Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said openly that the food blockade was a “main pressure lever” against Hamas to release the hostages and accept defeat.

    Weaponising food is a war crime.

    It’s good that the BBC is stating it this bluntly, and that it acknowledges that this has happened “throughout the war”. Again, though, groups like Human Rights Watch were reporting on this as early as 2023:

    “For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.”

    Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 displaced Palestinians in Gaza between November 24 and December 4. They described their profound hardships in securing basic necessities. “We had no food, no electricity, no internet, nothing at all,” said one man who had left northern Gaza. “We don’t know how we survived.”

    Famously, our current prime minister Keir Starmer backed Israel’s right to ‘cut off water and energy’ at the time (before later rowing back the comments when he realised he was condoning a war crime).

    There’s one more thing to note, however, and that’s that Israel was weaponising hunger and poverty far before 2023, as reported in the Conversation:

    But as much as things have worsened in the past 18 months, food insecurity in Gaza and the mechanisms that enable it did not start with Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

    A U.N. report from 2022 found that 65% of people in Gaza were food insecure, defined as lacking regular access to enough safe and nutritious food.

    Multiple factors contributed to this preexisting food insecurity, not least the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and enabled by Egypt since 2007. All items entering the Gaza Strip, including food, became subject to Israeli inspection, delay or denial.

    Basic foodstuff was allowed, but because of delays at the border, it could spoil before it entered Gaza.

    A 2009 investigation by Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz found that foods as varied as cherries, kiwi, almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were prohibited entirely.

    At certain points, the blockade, which Israel claimed was an unavoidable security measure, has been loosened to allow import of more foods. In 2010, for example, Israel started to permit potato chips, fruit juices, Coca-Cola and cookies.

    By placing restrictions on food imports, Israel has claimed to be trying to put pressure on Hamas by making life difficult for the people in Gaza. “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” said one Israeli government adviser in 2006.

    To enable this, the Israeli government commissioned a 2008 study to work out exactly how many calories Palestinians would need to avoid malnutrition. The report was released to the public only following a 2012 legal battle. Echoes of this sentiment can be seen in the Israeli decision in May 2025 to allow only “the basic amount of food” to reach Gaza to purportedly ensure “no starvation crisis develops.”

    The long-running blockade also increased food insecurity by preventing meaningful development of an economy in Gaza.

    Desperate and hungry people do desperate and unpredictable things; especially when their efforts to protest peacefully are murderously suppressed, as they were during the peaceful 2018 March of Great Return.

    This is what Amnesty said of that protest back in 2018:

    More than six months have passed since the “Great March of Return” protests started in the Gaza Strip on 30 March.
    Their calls for Israeli authorities to lift their 11-year illegal blockade on Gaza and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their villages and towns have not been met.
    According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, since the start of the protests, over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations. At least 10,000 others have been injured, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. Of those injured, 5,814 were hit by live ammunition.

    They added:

    Over the last 11 years, civilians in the Gaza Strip, 70% of whom are registered refugees from areas that now constitute Israel, have suffered the devastating consequences of Israel’s illegal blockade in addition to three wars that have also taken a heavy toll on essential infrastructure and further debilitated Gaza’s health system and economy. As a result, Gaza’s economy has sharply declined, leaving its population almost entirely dependent on international aid. Gaza now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world at 44%. Four years after the 2014 conflict, some 22,000 people remain internally displaced, and thousands suffer from significant health problems that require urgent medical treatment outside of the Gaza Strip. However, Israel often denies or delays issuing permits to those seeking vital medical care outside Gaza, while hospitals inside the Strip lack adequate resources and face chronic shortages of fuel, electricity and medical supplies caused mainly by Israel’s illegal blockade.

    The protests were launched to demand the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees to their villages and towns in what is now Israel, and to call for an end to Israel’s blockade. They culminated on 14 May, on the day of the US embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when Palestinians commemorate the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands in 1948-9 during the conflict following the creation of the state of Israel. On that day alone, Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians, in a horrifying example of use of excessive force and live ammunition against protesters who did not pose an imminent threat to life.

    Rules of war

    From this point in the article, Bowen goes even heavier on Israel breaking the ‘rules of war’, interviewing high-level diplomats in the process:

    War is always savage. I was in Geneva to see Mirjana Spoljaric, the Swiss diplomat who is president of the ICRC. She believes it can get even worse; that there is no doubt that both parties are flouting the Geneva Conventions, and this sends a message that the rules of war can be ignored in conflicts across the world.

    After we walked past glass cases displaying the ICRC’s three Nobel peace prizes and handwritten copperplate reproductions of the Geneva Conventions, she warned that “we are hollowing out the very rules that protect the fundamental rights of every human being”.

    The Geneva Conventions are all well and good, but this focus on the rules of war is another way of allowing Israel to maintain some sense of legitimacy. Inherent to this line of thinking is that the issue isn’t the invasion; it’s the improper way in which Israel is waging it.

    Why can’t we just say war is bad, and demand that Israel stop?

    Israel is entirely reliant on Western weapons and funding after all; without that, the genocide would end tomorrow.

    Never again, says the BBC

    Grimly, Israel has abused the memory of the Holocaust to pursue its own genocide against the Palestinian people. And thankfully, Bowen’s article touches on that:

    British barrister Helena Kennedy KC was on a panel that was asked by the ICC’s chief prosecutor to assess the evidence against Netanyahu and Gallant. Baroness Kennedy and her colleagues, all distinguished jurists, decided that there were reasonable grounds to go ahead with the warrants. She rejects the accusation that the court and the prosecutor were motivated by antisemitism.

    “We’ve got to always remember the horrors that the Jewish community have suffered over centuries,” she told me at her chambers in London. “The world is right to feel a great compassion for the Jewish experience.”

    But a history of persecution did not, she said, give Israel licence to do what it’s doing in Gaza.

    “The Holocaust has filled us all with a high sense of guilt, and so it should because we were complicit. But it also teaches us the lesson that we mustn’t be complicit now when we see crimes being committed.

    “You have to conduct a war according to law, and I’m a firm believer that the only way that you ever create peace is by behaving in just ways, and justice is fundamental to all of this. And I’m afraid that we’re not seeing that.”

    Stronger words came from Danny Blatman, an Israeli historian of the Holocaust and head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

    Prof Blatman, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, says that Israeli politicians have for many years used the memory of the Holocaust as “a tool to attack governments and public opinion in the world, and warn them that accusing Israel of any atrocities towards the Palestinians is antisemitism”.

    The result he says is that potential critics “shut their mouths because they’re afraid of being attacked by Israelis, by politicians as antisemites”.

    Those who have stood against Israel for decades know all this. As such, it’s somewhat shocking to see the BBC reporting it; it was, after all, one of the key vessels Israel used to attack and smear us.

    The BBC‘s complicity was particularly apparent when Jeremy Corbyn led the Labour party, as we reported extensively. This next quote is from our coverage of a widely criticised Panorama ‘documentary’:

    On 10 July, the BBC‘s Panorama broadcast an hour-long show called Is Labour Antisemitic? The BBC claimed it used “exclusive interviews from key insiders and access to confidential communications” in order to reveal “evasions and contradictions at the heart” of the Labour Party. Yet, a new report documents a “catalogue of reporting failures” against the BBC‘s own editorial guidelines.

    Journalist Fréa Lockley further reported:

    BBC guidelines note that looking at “a series of programmes” on a topic can establish impartiality. As MRC said, “Panorama has broadcast three editions focused on the Labour Party, all of which have taken an overwhelmingly critical view of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership”. Presenter John Ware’s first show ‘Labour’s Earthquake’, prompted Corbyn’s office to issue a formal complaint calling it a “hatchet job”. Ware is openly critical and has “long declared his opposition” to Corbyn. Neil Grant – who’s also been behind a series of anti-Corbyn programmes – was the executive producer on two Panorama shows. MRC noted:

    “Handing two editions to the same presenter with known (and hostile) political views on Corbyn without seeking to offer a counterposing perspective is hardly a ringing endorsement of the BBC’s commitment to due impartiality.”

    Panorama failed to document “the overwhelming support” for Corbyn from members. Nor did it show that in 2017, he “led the party in a general election that saw the biggest increase in Labour’s share of the popular vote since 1945”.

    As MRC’s chair Natalie Fenton told The Canary:

    “How can it be right that two recent editions of Panorama on the Labour Party have been presented by a journalist who has publicly declared his hostility to Jeremy Corbyn?”

    The wrong side of history

    Towards the end of the piece, Bowen touches on the accusations of genocide – accusations we at The Canary fully agree with:

    We asked Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court justice, for his opinion.

    “Genocide is a question of intent,” he wrote. “It means killing, maiming or imposing intolerable conditions on a national or ethnic group with intent to destroy them in whole or in part.

    “Statements by Netanyahu and his ministers suggest that the object of current operations is to force the Arab population of Gaza to leave by killing and starving them if they stay. These things make genocide the most plausible explanation for what is now happening.”

    In articles like this one from Bowen, you can feel the ground shifting beneath us.

    It’s obvious to everyone that Israel has created an impossible rift between the image it wants to maintain and the actions it cannot stop itself committing. Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of that rift when it’s finished forming. There may be no coming back.

    We’re glad to see the BBC has to report some semblance of the truth now, but we’re not going to pretend this is about anything other than self-preservation. We’re also not going to let them get away with rewriting their role in all of this; especially with them admitting that they knew all along:

    Then he trailed off, and paused, and told me no-one in Gaza could be innocent because they all supported Hamas.

    Featured image via Tim Loudon (Flickr) – UNRWA (Wikimedia)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • What MSM won’t tell you as Israel illegally attacks the Freedom Flotilla

    Israeli occupation forces have illegally abducted civilians from international waters. They were taking aid on the ‘Madleen’ Freedom Flotilla boat to break Israel’s starvation stranglehold on occupied Gaza during the ongoing genocide. But you won’t get headlines like that from the “sinister and complicit” Western media.

    Illegally abduction on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters

    Israeli pirates “attacked/forcibly intercepted” the the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) civilian ship “at 3:02 am CET in international waters”, according to the FFC. It asserted:

    The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo—including baby formula, food and medical supplies—confiscated.

    It quoted lawyer Huwaida Arraf saying:

    Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen… This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the ICJ’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. These volunteers are not subject to Israeli jurisdiction and cannot be criminalized for delivering aid or challenging an illegal blockade—their detention is arbitrary, unlawful, and must end immediately.

    The Israeli kidnappers reportedly jammed the boat’s radio signal to stop it calling for help, surrounded it with drones which ‘dropped a white substance’ onto it, and ordered the civilians on board to throw their phones into the water. Among the Freedom Flotilla abductees were prize-winning climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan.

    Actor Liam Cunningham, who has been supporting the Madleen’s efforts, responded by calling people to pay attention to the media reaction:

    If you want to know how sinister and complicit the western press is. Read and listen carefully to the reporting of the illegal ramming, boarding and kidnapping of the volunteers onboard the #FreedomFlotilla near #Gaza they were carrying humanitarian aid.

    In particular, he highlighted how LBC immediately platformed Israeli propaganda:

    Other outlets simply said Israel ‘took control‘ of the Madleen, ‘diverted‘ it, ‘seized‘ it, or ‘intercepted‘ it and ‘detained’ those aboard. Sky News, meanwhile, focused on platforming the vile smears of war-criminal Israeli minister Israel Katz.

    Israeli pirates flout international law yet again

    Back in 2010, long before the current genocide, Israeli occupation forces murdered 10 people in a similar freedom flotilla that was trying to break Israel’s siege of Gaza. Israel’s brutal blockade created “the world’s largest open-air prison” for the territory’s highly concentrated population .

    15 years later, Israel is once again flouting its duty as an occupying power to provide sufficient aid to the occupied Palestinian territory or to allow others to do so. And weeks after attacking another civilian aid boat in international waters, Israel has now torpedoed another attempt to bring relief to the starving people of Gaza.

    As Amnesty International boss Agnes Callamard responded:

    Israel interception of Madleen violates international law.

    As the occupying power (as recognised by the ICJ), Israel has a legal obligation to ensure civilians in Gaza have sufficient food and medicine.

    The Madleen Freedom Flotilla carries the UK’s shipping flag. The British government, however, has not only been quiet so far about Israel’s hijacking of the ship. It actually sent another plane to Gaza from RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus – which has been “a foundational asset” for Israel’s genocide.

    Keep resisting the selfie genocide

    Journalists and others have been carefully documenting Israeli war crimes in Gaza. And because Israeli soldiers have been flaunting their crimes on social media (and even dating apps), there is a massive video database. This is on top of crimes like bombing hospitals, cutting electricity, or assassinating media workers.

    The video footage of Israeli crimes isn’t just in occupied Gaza either. It’s in the occupied West Bank too. It’s a clear pattern of proud self-documentation from the occupying power.

    This context is why Israel’s attempts to call the Madleen Freedom Flotilla a ‘selfie stunt’ are all the more ridiculous.

    There have now been calls for more boats to sail towards Gaza in solidarity, for people to call on their governments to secure the Madleen Freedom Flotilla crew’s release, and for the intensification of the land caravan of aid that is already on the way to Gaza.

    In Britain, meanwhile, emergency protests will take place today in London and elsewhere:

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • New research shows HALF of the UK experiences financial insecurity

    47% of UK adults (28.3 million people) experienced financial insecurity – or ‘economic precarity’ – in 2022/23, according to new research led by the London School of Economics (LSE). Given the UK is one of the richest countries in the world, it’s clear that rampant inequality – where 1% of the population have more wealth than 70% – is a factor.

    The number of adults facing economic precarity has risen significantly since 2014/15, where it stood at 29% (16.7 million people).

    Large numbers of adults experienced other forms of insecurity in 2022/23. A further 46% of adults experienced health insecurity. 27% faced housing insecurity, while 36% experienced work insecurity.

    Austerity-driven economic precarity

    The study found that the rise of economic precarity is driven by austerity cuts such as the benefit freeze and NHS underfunding, along with inflation in utilities, consumer and housing costs.

    The research underscores the need to bring public services back into public ownership and deliver a Green New Deal. A publicly owned Green New Deal would remove profiteering from the energy system including the national grid, uphold the UK’s role in stopping the climate crisis, bring about cheaper renewable energy and shield the UK from volatile global gas markets, all in one fell swoop.

    Instead, Labour appears to have abandoned its previous commitment to what chancellor Rachel Reeves called ‘securonomics’. Indeed, they are not nationalising utilities like Keir Starmer pledged to. And they are continuing with Tory austerity, whether it’s the illogical and cruel two child benefit cap or the cuts to disabled people’s support. All this is deepening people’s economic precarity.

    Multiple insecurities

    The report also found that 9% of people (5.2 million) experienced a combination of financial, health and housing insecurity in 2022/23. That’s up from 6% in 2014/15.

    For some groups of people, that figure of economic precarity and its intersections is much higher. It includes:

    • 32% of people who are economically inactive due to being long term sick or disabled
    • 28% of unemployed people
    • 27% of lone parents
    • 21% adults living alone

    The study notes that the surge in economic precarity negatively impacts society in multiple ways. It leads to mental health issues, difficulty raising children and makes it hard for people to take up further education. 57% of those with multiple insecurities felt constant strain.

    It’s clear that austerity and inequality is having a destructive impact on the UK. We must reverse these trends.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The ELSC is taking legal action to stop drone exports to genocidal Israel

    The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) has pursued legal action in an attempt to halt the scheduled transfer of Skylark drone parts from Germany to Israel this coming week.

    According to open-source intelligence and export documentation, the flight is expected to carry components of Skylark, a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), manufactured by Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s main military suppliers.

    The plane shipment will be arriving from Budapest and is then due to travel from Frankfurt on an El Al passenger flight to Tel Aviv on Tuesday June 10.

    German authorities urged to prevent plane carrying Skylark drone parts from flying to Israel

    The ELSC, acting on behalf of a Palestinian plaintiff from Gaza, has filed two emergency motions with the Administration Courts of Frankfurt and Berlin last Friday, to urge German authorities to block the transit of these drone components through Frankfurt Airport.

    Partner lawyer with the ELSC Ahmed Abed said his client has lost more than 60 family members, including his father and sister whom he had to leave bleeding with serious head wounds, to rescue the rest of his family from bombing. The two of them could not be saved, and both died. Five more of his siblings all under the age of 18 were also killed.

    Released data by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs reveals Germany has exported weapons to Israel worth more than €485 million between October 2023 and May 2025. Germany is the second largest exporter of arms to Israel, amounting to 30% of Israel’s arms, following the U.S. at 69%.

    This is a continuation in Germany’s pattern of allowing transit of weapon parts to Israel as reported over the past year, by Irish publication The Ditch, which found Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, to be heavily involved in the transportation of weapons to the IDF through Irish airspace.

    ELSC: “one day accountability will come”

    A ELSC spokesperson told the Canary:

    We are discussing arms deliveries that persisted even after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s assault on Gaza constitutes a plausible case of genocide. These deliveries continued long after numerous UN bodies and international human rights organizations—entities that Europe and Germany routinely rely on in other contexts—raised numerous alarms.

    Germany knowingly and willfully continued to supply weapons to Israel in violation of international law. Beyond providing military support, it has publicly defended and justified Israel’s crimes, systematically silenced critics of its complicity, and remained in blatant denial of the atrocities broadcast to the world in real time.

    This is complicity with full awareness. And one day, accountability will come.

    In addition to the ICJ ruling, in June 2024 UN experts called on states and arms manufacturers supplying weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israeli forces, to end their arms transfers to Israel, or risk being complicit in serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian laws, and possibly genocide.

    Since then, leading Palestinian and international human rights organisations, the world’s top genocide scholars, and Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation in Palestine, have all reached the same conclusion – Israel is committing a genocide.

    By filing this urgent motion, ELSC is looking to prevent further irreparable harm to civilians in Gaza and to hold the German state accountable for its legal obligations under international humanitarian and criminal law and The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

    It’s time to hold politicians and weapon companies to account

    Lawyer Ahmed Abed told us that:

    Words of sorrow by the German government are worthless for the Palestinians in Gaza as long as it lets arms be used to kill them. It is time to bring accountability against the politicians and manufacturers who support the weapon export for the genocide.

    The Skylark drones are being used by the Israeli military to identify and surveil targets in Gaza, relaying real-time coordinates for artillery strikes. These strikes have resulted in the large-scale killing of civilians and the destruction of critical infrastructure.

    On Elbit’s website, Skylark is described as a ‘battle-proven, high­ performance’ system, which has been delivered to over 30 different users worldwide, and has ‘outstanding capabilities based on operational experience gained through tens of thousands of operational sorties by the IDF and various NATO and other international users’.

    The drone was first used in large quantities during Operation Protective Edge, in which Israel killed more than 2200 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 500 children, in the Summer of 2014.

    El-Al is Israel’s national airline, and although privately owned, is known for its close relationship with the Israeli government, regarding security and for performing military operations, with the airline not only handling civilian air travel but also supporting national security initiatives, including logistics for the military.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Charlie Jaay

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • “It changed everything”: how running helped a trauma survivor rebuild

    Exercise has well-documented mental health benefits. From decreasing stress to improving mood, memory and sleep, the effects are far-reaching and long-lasting. Trauma can lead to a variety of mental health challenges, including PTSD, C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression, but research shows that endurance sports can provide a powerful emotional release.

    Trauma: stuck in the body

    Trauma manifests in the body. This means it gets ‘stuck’ in our nervous system in the same way it’s originally experienced. When triggered, or when recalling a memory, you can hear, see, and feel things as if they’re happening again for the first time. Your body holds it all in your nervous system in an unfinished, unresolved state. This often presents in physical sensations and unconscious behaviours.

    However, exercise improves communication between the body and brain after trauma. It helps our nervous system burn off adrenaline and, in the long term, reduce cortisol levels, meaning it can move out of a chronic state of fight or flight. Meanwhile, it can also increase serotonin and dopamine, which both play an important part in regulating our mood and emotions.

    Enduring

    Trauma survivors know how to endure. But endurance sports like running allow them to endure on their own terms. They know they can get through hard things. For some, it was the only choice they ever had. But endurance sports allow them to take back control.

    Anthony Daunt is an ultra-endurance athlete and the father of two beautiful young girls.

    He ran his first marathon in 2014, and this July is taking part in an IronMan, but says:

    Truthfully, I’ve been training for it my whole life — I just didn’t always have the miles to prove it. The mental toughness, the grit, the need to keep moving through pain — those qualities were forged long before I ever laced up a pair of running shoes.

    Image: Anthony Daunt

    Trauma causes immense suffering, but endurance sports like running bring a different kind of suffering. One with purpose. He said:

    I needed a container to hold the chaos, a place where pain could be moved through, not just managed. Running didn’t just call to me… it challenged me. It offered the kind of suffering that came with purpose, something trauma never gave me.

    Endurance sports allow Anthony to find the best version of himself. Running strips everything away, leaving no room “for ego, distraction or performance”.

    It makes me feel alive. It’s where I reconnect with my body, my breath, and my truth.

    It’s just me, the road or trail, and the choice to keep going. And with every step, I reclaim more of who I really am.

    Bi-lateral stimulation

    Cecile Tucker is a trauma therapist in Canada.

    She told the Canary that trauma survivors may turn to endurance sports in an attempt to regulate a nervous system that is stuck in long-term dysregulation.

    She said:

    Trauma survivors may be, whether consciously or not, self-prescribing these endurance sports as a way to regulate neurotransmitters, self-soothe or reconnect to their bodies in a way that they can control.

    Cecile also pointed to Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. This has been proven to help people recover from trauma. It uses bilateral stimulation to aid the integration and processing of painful memories or information.

    @ceciletuckercounselling If you’re looking for an emdr therapist we have a team at WellMind ready to help! Link in bio. #trauma #traumatherapy #cptsd #complextrauma #healingtrauma #therapistsoftiktok ♬ original sound – Cecile Tucker, counsellor

    According to Cecile, endurance sports that involve rhythmic movement patterns from left to right will mimic this bilateral stimulation, and when done alongside therapy, will further soothe the nervous system and aid in trauma processing.

    However, Cecile emphasised awareness and mindfulness when using any activity to soothe and manage trauma.

    Checking in on the effects and impacts on our traumatised parts, allows these activities to be extremely healing. When we do them as a way to avoid or push through our trauma, they can lead to further dissociation and wounding. Making sure that we are engaging in endurance sports in a way that facilitates our healing is, of course, very important!

    Trauma can affect how a person sees themselves and the world around them. Often, the world no longer feels like a safe place, or with childhood trauma, it may have never been. Endurance sports allow a person to create a sense of safety within themselves.

    Ultimately, running gave Anthony the tools to rebuild.

    It taught me how to stay when everything in me wanted to run away. And over time, it showed me that what I thought was broken… was actually being rebuilt stronger.

    It gave me clarity on my mission — to inspire others who carry deep wounds to see that their pain is not the end. It’s the starting line.

    It helped me overcome the belief that I wasn’t enough. That I was broken beyond repair. That my past disqualified me from a powerful future. When I push my body past its limits, I realise that those old narratives were lies — and every mile I run is a reminder that I’m rewriting the story, not just for me… but for my daughters, my wife, and everyone who’s still stuck in the pain I’ve run through.

    Feature image via Anthony Daunt 

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Starmer government has made quite the admission by nationalising military homes

    While Keir Starmer U-turned on his leadership pledges to bring water, energy and mail into public ownership, he is re-nationalising 36,347 military homes. The 1996 sell off under Tory prime minister John Major was a massive scam that cost the public purse billions.

    As James Schenider, former communications director for Jeremy Corbyn, pointed out on LBC:

    Hold on Labour, so rent’s a bad thing?

    The Labour government says that the deal will save £230 million in rent per year. It continues:

    Billions of pounds will be saved by the deal over the next decade, delivering savings for taxpayers and enabling additional investment into homes for military families. The landmark move reverses a sale undertaken by the Government in 1996.

    This certainly raises the question why any of us are renting our housing from the private sector, rather than a system where home ownership is provided publicly and paid at cost price. The fact that Real Estate is the most profitable industry in the UK underscores this. Top companies average an astonishing £686,000 of profit per year per employee. That’s a private tax on homes at 23 times the UK average salary, per employee.

    Labour’s trumpeting of the nationalisation of armed forces homes also raises the question of why the NHS is renting infrastructure from the private sector. And it raises the question of why we will continue to rent trains from ‘rolling stock’ companies. Labour is only bringing the operating companies into public ownership.

    The military homes sell off con

    In 2018, the NAO found that privatising the military homes in 1996 cost the public between £2.2bn and £4.2bn more than if the government had maintained public ownership. That’s partly because of rent and partly because of the ever inflating housing bubble. From 1996-2018, UK property prices rose by 284% (this in itself is a major scam maintained by politicians and real estate investors). It’s no wonder the 1996 deal became known as “the goldmine of the decade” for private buyers.

    Investors in Annington – the company created to manage and own the properties – received returns of 13.4% between 1996 and March 2017.

    On top of that, the military homes did not receive maintenance under private ownership. And the backlog of repairs could cost an additional £4bn.

    Speaking about the 1996 deal, Robert Razzell, chief financial officer at UK Government Investments, made plain why privatisation is a failure across the board. The private company did not maintain a basic standard for the homes:

    The problem was the MoD as [the] tenant couldn’t redevelop the estate. What tenant could ever redevelop an estate? They were getting a government rental stream. There’s no risk to that. Why would they tear down those units and redevelop them, taking all that construction and development risk? They didn’t have many obligations under the lease. In fact, it’s hard to think of any obligations they had.

    This exactly applies to utilities like water and energy, where the companies are guaranteed an income stream from UK households. That’s because everyone needs water and energy everyday. It’s why we don’t see investment in the sewage system and instead see raw sewage dumped in our environment.

    So, it’s time for Starmer to go further and nationalise the utilities he initially pledged to. Rent in itself is almost always a scam.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By James Wright