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Category: Protest

  • Israel’s Eurovision appearance has turned into a PR disaster for the war criminals

    Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision song contest has always been controversial. The geographers among you may recognise that Israel isn’t even part of Europe (much like Australia). Beyond that, the nation of Israel has been repressing and murdering the Palestinian people for decades, and as such there’s a movement to boycott their cultural outputs.

    The Israeli government has likely been very happy with its inclusion in Eurovision. Now, however, it looks like the competition is just another area in which they’re suffering one PR nightmare after another:

    The turning tide against Israel – even at Eurovision

    As pictured above, protesters unveiled Palestinian flags during the performance by Israeli singer Yuval Raphael. Protesters also threw paint, as a spokesperson from the hosting Swiss Broadcasting Corporation reported:

    At the end of the Israeli performance, a man and a woman tried to get over a barrier onto the stage.

    They were stopped. One of the two agitators threw paint and a crew member was hit. The crew member is fine and nobody was injured. The man and the woman were taken out of the venue and handed over to the police.

    Raphael, who attended the Nova Festival which was attacked by Hamas in October 2023, sang a ballad titled New Day Will Rise. As those who support the boycott have pointed out, Palestine is facing one new day after another in which more of Gaza is reduced to rubble while Israel carries on as if that’s all normal:

     

    Back to Europe, another PR nightmare for Israel were the broadcasters who used the opportunity to highlight Israel’s ongoing atrocities:

    As the Mirror reported:

    Belgium’s broadcaster VRT appeared to make a U-turn during Saturday evening’s Eurovision final after their choice to air an anti-Israel, pro-Palestine VT during the semi-finals.

    It comes after Spain risked a huge Eurovision fine by displaying a statement ahead before the show, showing a black screen with white text in both Spanish and an English translation about “justice for Palestine”.

    Prior to the final, the Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU) had warned Spain’s broadcaster RTVE of “punitive fines” if their commentators repeated references of the Gaza conflict, as they had done during the semi-final on Thursday.

    Another controversy comes from Israel allegedly running targeted ads for its own entry during the official stream – something which is pissing off people who take Eurovision seriously and people who take genocide seriously:

     

    #With Israel’s entry achieving second place, some are also accusing the nation’s far-right supporters of abusing the voting system:

     

    Another point of interest was the accusation that Eurovision obscured the reaction to the Israeli performance:

    This was allegedly confirmed by Irish host Graham Norton:

     

    ‘Children burnt to death in tents’

    Let’s not forget that Israel is generating far worse headlines than those related to Eurovision. The following is the front page of Al Jazeera’s hub for Israel-Palestine news stories:

    As Al Jazeera reported:

    The Israeli military has killed at least 125 Palestinians, including children sleeping in tents, as it unleashed a wave of air strikes across the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Sunday.

    At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 wounded after Israeli warplanes bombed a tent camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

    Horrific verified videos from the scene showed many bodies, including some on fire. The dead and wounded were taken to a nearby field hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex.

    At least 125 people were killed on Sunday morning, including 42 in the heavily-bombarded northern parts of Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic. Three journalists were also among the victims.

    The death toll has been rising sharply in the past four days, with hundreds massacred as the Israeli military prepares to significantly intensify its ground invasion of the Palestinian territory despite international criticism.

    The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement provides a clear argument for why it’s important that the world boycotts Israel’s cultural endeavours:

    Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash, or artwash, its genocide in Gaza and underlying regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation over the Indigenous Palestinian people. Israel’s genocide has included a deliberate obliteration of archeological sites and cultural heritage across Gaza.

    Just as South African anti-apartheid movements had called on international artists, writers and cultural institutions to culturally boycott South Africa, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urges international cultural workers and cultural organizations, including unions and associations, to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israel, its lobby groups or its complicit cultural institutions.

    International venues and festivals are asked to reject funding and any form of sponsorship from the Israeli government or complicit entities. Since Israel’s cultural institutions are implicated in genocide, apartheid and military occupation, international artists and arts organizations have a profound ethical duty to do no harm to the Palestinian struggle by working to end links of complicity with those institutions. Accountability for Israel’s oppression against Palestinians is more urgent than ever.

    Tens of thousands of artists across the world and a rapidly growing number of arts organizations have publicly endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel.

    Why?

    The case for a cultural boycott of Israel

    Israeli government officials have summed up how Israel instrumentalizes culture to cover up its grave violations of international law. “We are seeing culture as a hasbara [propaganda] tool of the first rank,” one official admitted, “and I do not differentiate between hasbara and culture.”

    Israel’s cultural institutions are part and parcel of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and military occupation against the Palestinian people. These institutions are clearly implicated, through their silence or active participation in supporting, justifying and whitewashing Israel’s systematic oppression and denial of Palestinian rights.

    According to the BDS movement’s Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel, in order for Israeli cultural institutions to end their collusion in Israel’s regime of oppression and become non-boycottable, they must fulfill two basic conditions:

    1. Publicly recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law (including the three basic rights in the 2005 BDS Call) and
    2. End all forms of complicity in violating Palestinian rights as stipulated in international law,including discriminatory policies and practices as well as diverse roles in whitewashing or justifying Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

    When international artists perform at complicit Israeli cultural venues and institutions or at events sponsored by Israel, its lobby groups or its complicit institutions, they help to create the false impression that apartheid Israel is a “normal” state. The absolute majority of Palestinian writers, artists and cultural centers have endorsed the cultural boycott of Israel, and there is a growing number of anti-colonial Israelis who support BDS, including the cultural boycott of Israel.

    Israel losing the culture war even at Eurovision

    We’re at a point now where Israel has completely destroyed its reputation internationally. While it still enjoys the support of world government’s and institutions, those relationships are increasingly in peril, with even the United States showing some signs that it’s growing tired:

    It’s clear that history will not look kindly on those who turned a blind eye in this moment.

    Hopefully Eurovision will come to understand this and get back to its original mission of spotlighting the worst music that Europe has to offer – not genocidal Israel

    Featured image via Eurovision Song Contest (YouTube) / The Independent (YouTube)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Mass protest by parents prompts reversal of private school closure in China | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Palestine Action just smashed JP Morgan’s genocidal complicity wide open

    In the early hours of Wednesday 14 May, activists from Palestine Action targeted Edwards Accountants in Birmingham, and JP Morgan at Victoria Embankment in London. The action drew attention to the two companies dripping in complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    JP Morgan and Edwards Accounting get the Palestine Action treatment

    Activists covered both firms were covered in red paint. The dripping paint splatters were symbolic of the companies’ bloodstained complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide:

    Pillars and entrance to JP Morgan spattered with red paint.

    Red paint dripping down a window.

    They also completely shattered the front glass doors of JP Morgan:

    JP Morgan front doors completely shattered with glass everywhere.

    Activists sprayed messages to Edwards Accountants across its walls:

    Red graffiti reading: "Accounting for Apartheid"

    Red graffiti on the floor that reads: "Edwards is guilty"

    Financiers and accountants complicit in genocide

    Both firms directly enable the operations of Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. Edwards Accountants are the listed accountants for Elbit Systems UK and its subsidiaries. Meanwhile, JP Morgan hold Elbit shares worth over $22m.

    On 12 May, financial reports showed JP Morgan had reduced their investment in Elbit Systems by over 53%. However, they still remain a major investor in the company which is a major supplier of weapons for the Israeli military, which is committing genocide in Gaza.

    Elbit supplies over 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land based equipment, as well as missiles, bullets, targeting gear, digital warfare and surveillance technology. The Israeli weapons maker also market their weaponry as “battle-tested” on Palestinians, as they are first developed during attacks on Gaza.

    Commenting on both actions, a Palestine Action spokesperson said:

    Palestine Action is committed to the liberation of the Palestinian people. As part of our commitment, it is crucial to disable the operations of Elbit Systems, which involves targeting all those who profit from and enable the Israeli weapons maker. Our actions will cease against JP Morgan and Edwards Accountants once they end their ties to Elbit Systems.

    Featured image and additional image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Extinction Rebellion sink a Lamborghini in front of a fossil fuel/insurance company love-in

    On Wednesday 14 May, environmental groups including Extinction Rebellion met delegates at Europe’s largest insurance brokers conference in Manchester Central with a colourful and dramatic protest. They were there to demand the industry stops backing fossil fuel projects.

    And what better way to call out flush fossil fuel financiers than to put a sinking Lamborghini at the event’s front door?

    BIBA insurance meeting: Europe’s fossil fuel financiers gather

    BIBA is an annual meeting that brings together insurance professionals from across Europe. It describes itself as:

    Europe’s largest insurance broking event

    The conference’s theme for 2025 is ‘A New Era’.

    Amongst the guest speakers was the former manager of the England men’s football team, Gareth Southgate.

    Activists have targeted the event for three consecutive years to call out the role that insurance plays in enabling large fossil fuel projects.

    A new report by Boycott Bloody Insurance shows that there are 33 British insurance companies active in large fossil fuel projects. Just five companies had invested $6.5bn. In April, campaigners in Manchester celebrated the decision by Chubb to rule out backing the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). They had targeted Chubb’s offices in Manchester on several occasions. In 2023, Patience Nabukalu, a young activist from Uganda, joined them. Marsh McLennan, who are the insurance brokers for EACOP despite a backlash from their staff, attended BIBA.

    Extinction Rebellion stage creative actions against the insurance industry

    Extinction Rebellion organised the day of action as part of its Insure Our Survival campaign. It saw a collaboration with Friends of the Earth, Manchester Greenpeace, and other groups. The day featured a programme of dramatic and impactful visual activities, which they invited the delegates to engage with:

    Two men hold and read mock newspapers The Sin and the Daily Fail. Headlines read: "Floody Hell UK!" and "Crisis? What crisis? Insurers cozy up to Co2 clients" Other text on them reads: "Even 'A' lister's can't fly from flooding" and "Not good enough" next to a flood sign.

    Extreme weather and intense rainfall hazard signs. A banner in the background reads: "Insurers capitalise, while floodwaters rise"

    The creative disruption kicked off outside Manchester Central just after 8am with the arrival of a life-sized model of a Lamborghini sports car:

    Vivid green model of a Lamborghini sports car, with three activists sat inside. One drives, another holds a 'Daily Fail' newspaper, and the last is holding a speech bubble placard reading: "Floody hell!! Flood waters are rising!!" Behind, activist hold a banner reading "insure our futures, not fossil fuels" and "Insure survival". A hazard sign with "Intense Rainfall" has been placed behind. A dog wearing a coat reading "steward" sits on the bonnet. Extinction Rebellion

    This was made to look as though it sinking in flood waters to highlight the danger of extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis:

    Vivid green Lamborghini with two activists inside rowing through flood waters. A bright pink banner behind reads: "Only fools insure fossil fuels"

    Vivid green Lamborghini with two activists inside. One drives while rowing, and the other holds speech bubble placards reading "Floody hell!! Flood waters are rising!!" and "So are our insurance premiums" Extinction Rebellion

    The car had been converted into a James Corden style Karaoke booth where activists sung pop songs about extreme weather and encouraged delegates to join them, and to do the right thing and abandon ties with insurance companies enabling fossil fuel projects.

    ‘A New Era’? Not for fossil fuels, flooding, fires, and climate breakdown

    Across the day, there were multiple creative demonstrations. There was a climate choir, samba drummers, street theatre, synchronised dance known as Discobedience, and testimonies by people affected by extreme weather.

    The Oil Slicks, an Extinction Rebellion performance group, made an appearance. The group highlighted the fact that fossil fuels must be kept in the ground, and that urgent action is required to address the climate crisis locally and across the globe.

    Activists chalked the pavements with the dates of major flooding events, and representations of flood victims:

    Chalked pavement with a body shape outline and words reading: Flood victims, Pakistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, Pontypridd, Brazil.

    Martin Porter, a spokesperson for the coalition who organised the disobedient reception party, said ahead of the event:

    We look forward to welcoming the delegates back to Manchester and hope we will inspire them to take action. The insurance industry is well aware of the risk from climate change and cannot continue to ignore the issue. ‘Business as usual’ is not an option.

    BIBA needs to decide if ‘A New Era’ means floods, fires, heatwaves and climate chaos, or one where brokers refuse to enable carbon bomb projects. We call on each and every one of the delegates to become climate heroes themselves and to help change their industry.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Mass protest by parents prompts reversal of private school closure in China

    A mass protest by parents this week against the planned closure of a private school in northern China prompted a rare reversal by authorities, officials and parents said.

    Video posted on social media showed hundreds of parents outside the Nangong municipal government building in Hebei province on Sunday, demanding Fengyi Elementary School stay open after learning it was set to close its doors.

    The planned closure appeared to be part of a broader government effort that began several years ago to scale back private education and boost state-run schools.

    In the video, posted on X by Yesterday, a project that documents mass protests in China, the demonstrators could be heard shouting “Disagree!” and “Leaders come out!”

    Video: Mass protest by parents prompts reversal of private school closure in China

    Witnesses told RFA that the protest continued into the night, and police were dispatched to maintain order.

    A parent who did not want to be named for safety reasons told Radio Free Asia on Thursday that the school was well-regarded and parents would compete for placements for their children through a public lottery.

    With the school’s closure, children were going to be sent instead to public schools with a reputation for chaotic management and high turnover of teachers, he said.

    “They (the government) saw that the school had high educational quality and that parents with financial means sent their children to Fengyi Elementary School, so they wanted to close it down,” the parent said.

    As well as being told the school would close, parents were told to choose a public school for their children. The video posted on X showed a form for them to fill out to list the priority of their school choices.

    But following the protest, authorities reversed course.

    An official from the Nangong City government office confirmed a “protest by thousands of parents a few days ago,” but said that “the problem has been resolved” and that “Fengyi Elementary School will not be closed.” The official said he wasn’t able to provide further details and the matter was being addressed by the Education Bureau.

    In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to scale back private education and bring private schools under state control with the justification that it would promote fairness in education and reduce costs for parents. However, it has more recently eased restrictions on private tutoring.

    According to statistics released by the Ministry of Education last October, the total number of private schools in the country has decreased by more than 20,000 in the past four years, and by more than 11,000 in 2023 alone. The data also showed that the current number of students enrolled in private schools stood at less than 50 million, down more than 3 million from 2023. In total, that represents nearly 17% of the total student population nationwide.

    But private schools remain a first choice for many parents in China even as local governments have implemented policies to restrict the private education and narrow the gap in the quality with education offered in the public sector.

    Jia Lingmin, a retired teacher from Zhengzhou, Henan, told RFA that as birth rates in China continue to decline, the number of children entering school is also decreasing year by year, and many public schools are facing the problem of insufficient enrollment and closure.

    “Private schools have high education quality and a good teaching environment, and many parents are willing to send their children to private schools,” she said.

    Yao Li, a parent in Handan, Hebei, said that although public schools offer free tuition for ages at which education is compulsory – from age 6 to 15 – parents still generally prefer private schools in terms of education, teacher quality and management methods.

    The Nangong City Education Bureau Office did not respond to RFA’s call seeking comment.

    Edited by Mat Pennington.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jewish anti-Zionists IJAN respond to police ban on protest against Israeli ambassador

    Police have banned a regular protest by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) from gathering near genocide–supporting Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely’s residence in London. A letter from the group and a comment from a holocaust survivor have responded to the ban and the misinformation surrounding it.

    IJAN: peaceful anti-genocide protests vs aggressive agitation from genocide-supporters

    IJAN insisted that:

    In almost 20 months of peaceful protesting, the International Jewish Antizionist Network has never “intimidated” anyone, Jewish or not, attending prayer services. As a Jewish organisation we would never do that. But the police have caved in to pressure from the Board of Deputies of British Jews who are well connected with Parliament and the Prime Minister. Any “hate speech” came from them.

    It explained that:

    As our outspoken, well-informed Jewish-led opposition to genocide grew in numbers, the Zionist establishment orchestrated provocative and threatening counter-demonstrations to shut us down. The Board of Deputies [BoD] called on Zionists to turn up and they did, shouting and dancing to loud music with banners claiming “There is no genocide in Gaza”! Holocaust denial would likely be prosecuted, but denying today’s genocide against Palestinians seems to be entirely acceptable. They are responsible for the police having to close the Finchley Road to move them away.

    It accused the police of consulting with local people who objected to the protest while ignoring those who supported it. And it added:

    The claim that Swiss Cottage is a Jewish area is also false. The most recent census shows: 27.7% Christian, 28.6% no religion, 16.4% Muslim and 8.5% Jewish.

    ‘Criminalising pro-Palestinian protest on behalf of the Zionist establishment’

    Criticising prime minister Keir Starmer’s regime for its genocide apologism, IJAN stressed that:

    This government, like the previous Tories, refuses to recognise the genocide in Gaza despite international pressure and court rulings so it can continue its lucrative arms sales and other support for Israel. They are determined to criminalise pro-Palestinian protest on behalf of the Zionist establishment. The BoD is even “investigating” dissent within its own ranks – 36 members objected to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian children (after 18 months!) Financial Times (LINK).

    And it insisted:

    As Jews who remember the genocide against us, and like millions around the world, we will never be silenced about the genocide of Palestinians. Never.

    Holocaust survivor says BoD agitation “made me anti-Zionist”

    Jewish holocaust survivor Dr Agnes Kory, meanwhile, released a statement saying:

    Prior to the Friday 2nd May 2025 protest, the Board of Deputies [of British Jews] issued a call to their members, allegedly asserting that these IJAN protests were anti-semitic. As a result of the Board of Deputies call, the twenty or so IJAN protesters were confronted by about sixty or more BOD protesters who shouted abuse at the small IJAN gathering, blocked Finchley Road and played amplified loud music to drown out IJAN speeches.

    She argued that:

    The undue influence of the Board of Deputies over the British police is likely to increase antisemitism.

    And she said:

    As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, by default I have been a life-long Zionist although critical of some of Israel’s policies. The abusive behaviour of the 2nd May 2025 BOD counter-protesters tipped the balance and made me anti-Zionist.

    Featured image supplied

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • People are coming together on 7 June to oppose Labour’s DWP benefit cuts

    Leading trade unionists, MPs, and campaigners will take the Labour Party government to task over its austerity-riven budget and vicious Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts to disabled people’s benefits. The People’s Assembly is coordinating a major ‘Welfare not Warfare’ and ‘No To Austerity 2.0’ demonstration for 7 June.

    No to austerity 2.0: groups gear up for another DWP Welfare not Warfare demo in June

    Pressure is mounting on the government over its austerity 2 budget, and after it blamed migrants for the state of broken Britain on Monday.

    Campaigners, activists, MPs, and trade unions are coming together. They will host what they are calling the first anti-austerity demo under a Labour government. In particular, they are gearing up to counter the latest attack on chronically ill and disabled people’s welfare entitlements. Starmerite Labour has firmly couched these plans in its rampant neoliberalist austerity ideology.

    The protest is partly in response to the plans DWP boss Liz Kendall laid out in March to ‘reform’, that is – cut – chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits. It set this out in its Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working green paper.

    Notably, the paper included a suite of regressive reforms to make it harder for people to claim disability benefits like Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The changes it’s proposing target neurodivergent, learning disabled, and those with mental health disorders. Moreover, disabled people who need help with things like cutting up food, supervision, prompting, or assistance to wash, dress, or monitor their health condition, will no longer be eligible.

    And revelations from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has also shown that the changes will disproportionately hit PIP claimants over 50 as well. Specifically, the criteria goalpost shifts will deny 1.09 million (nearly 70% of those who could lose out) the Daily Living component of PIP. Part of this cohort is obviously also people Labour is already hammering with the Winter Fuel Payment cuts.

    Labour lies: time to call it out

    Overall, Labour and the DWP have already lied about the number of people its Green Paper plans will affect. Research keeps exposing the devastating scale of the governments planned cuts. While its impact assessment calculated 370,000 current claimants, and 420,000 future ones would lose their DWP PIP entitlement, it’s likely to be much higher than this.

    Another FOI 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. And in early June, parliament is expected to vote on these plans.

    It’s why the People’s Assembly ‘No To Austerity 2.0’ demo for Welfare not Warfare will bring together a wave of opposition. Together, they’ll call out the Labour’s cuts to disability benefits, Winter Fuel Payments, and proposed cuts to public services to fund increased arms spending. On 7 June, the People’s Assembly and its supporters will be uniting to demand Welfare not Warfare and No To Austerity 2.0.

    Coming together to oppose the DWP cuts

    Major trade unions, including NEU, PCS, RMT, UNISON, UNITE and others, along with NHS campaigners and disabled activists, have pledged to support the action.

    Diane Abbott MP, who recently hosted a debate in parliament over the cuts, will speak out against the government’s plans. Trade union leaders from Unite the Union, PCS, NEU, RMT, alongside veteran campaigners from the anti-austerity movement, will speak about the need to defend welfare and public services and invest in education and good jobs.

    Increased votes for Reform UK in local elections in England in May 2025 show Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ Austerity 2.0 is fuelling a right-wing backlash.

    The People’s Assembly demo will hold Labour ministers’ feet to the fire over their shameless, careerist lurch to the right. They’ll make known that this Labour government can get away with its brutal scapegoating of marginalised communities no more.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Disability doesn’t discriminate, so why are disabled people’s organisations?

    As a disabled and chronically ill person, there is nothing worse than ableism: the blatant mix of classism, discrimination, and a basic belief that non-disabled people are superior to disabled people. But disablism – a more conscious and direct act of blatant discrimination or abuse directly aimed at a disabled person based on prejudice around disability and ideas of inferiority (often being more overt and intentional) – is potentially worse.

    It is even worse when it’s being committed by another disabled person, especially when this is being committed by so-called disabled activists, organisations, and charities that are supposed to be protecting and supporting the disabled people that they claim to represent. You may think this doesn’t happen – but it does, and the number of people affected by it appears to be on the rise.

    Ableism or disablism?

    As a long time campaigner and activist, I was completely disgusted when I recently experienced this behaviour myself from a disabled people’s campaign group. This experience left me feeling upset, used, and incredibly insulted. It was very clear that the group had absolutely no consideration of the chronic conditions I lived with and that their method of organising wasn’t accessible for everyone who wanted to support them in both direct actions and online.

    Along with the fact that there is so much of an assault on disabled and chronically ill people right now, under this Tory – sorry Labour – government, the last thing we need is for us to be attacking each other. So, I began to ask myself if this experience has happened to me, am I the only one that has been treated like this? And if so, what is going on here?

    Disablism at its worst

    I wanted to know if this was just a one-off experience for me. So, I decided to reach out on X to see if anyone else had experienced this type of behaviour within disabled and chronic illness communities. I was completely shocked at the number of responses I received both openly and via private message.

    There was clearly a huge issue here, and it wasn’t just me:

    Along with many other disabled and chronically ill activists, campaigners, and organisers there was sadly a wave of responses. From disabled people’s campaign groups to established charities, the disablism was rife.

    One of the people who responded to my post was journalist Melissa K. Parker. Melissa explained to me that:

    When I started the online campaigning against assisted dying it was because, to me, there was a gap. There was no focus on online campaigning, and I couldn’t understand the lack of it because it felt like common sense.

    When I reached out to certain organisations they would say “we have a plan, wait for that…” but it just never happened.

    Let me be clear, I believed and still believe we are fighting for our lives. When I asked for help, a simple share, I was most often told ‘no’ by some of the most prominent organisations. I look back on that time – and I was going through it, a right state, wrecked – and just thinking that if I could get certain organisations behind it, I could do something. I think and believe this is backed by others experiences, and these organisations are disorganised, too concerned with upsetting those in power, hostile to new ideas, and slow to any kind of meaningful action.

    It’s a shame because we need more hand-made protests like that. Why wouldn’t a disability rights organisation want that…? To me, it’s the kind of thing that Barbara Lisicki and others did. It’s become too polished and pristine, done just right. Who does that serve…?

    Disability activist or careerist?

    It was becoming quite clear that the same people who had mistreated me also had form. But it wasn’t just the campaign groups. This problem stretched deep into charities too:

    Many chronically ill and disabled people were being let down, ignored, or removed because their needs don’t fit the narrative being offered. It was telling that there was an almost narcissistic need for some activists to be in total control of organisations. This even extended to people being removed from safe spaces and groups, with no apparent cause or reason. Controlling moderators were not sharing important articles and information to chronically ill and disabled people, due to their choice of disassociation.

    This really has gone too far.

    I asked disabled campaigner Chronically Vexed what they had experienced as a disabled activist trying to start a petition. They told me:

    When I started my petition against the government over their proposed disability benefit cuts, I didn’t think the biggest gatekeepers would be from my own community.

    I didn’t expect unconditional support, but I didn’t think I would be excluded from spaces by other activists. I thought we all had the common aim of getting these proposals stopped – but obviously for some organisations, optics and keeping the status quo are more important.

    It’s exhausting fighting the government – and that should be using all my energy. But sadly it’s more exhausting dealing with this childish pettiness, bullying, and passive aggression from organisations and activists who should know better.

    There’s space for everyone in this fight back against these cuts, let’s not exclude people.

    And this is just one example of one person trying to share a petition (which you can sign here). How many more chronically ill and disabled people are being pushed out of disabled activism by other disabled activists?

    Fighting back against disabled disablism

    There was clearly a major problem with how many disabled and chronically ill people were being treated like this. I remembered trying to get other organisations to support the campaign group the Chronic Collaboration I set up.

    Repeatedly, I told other activists about the fact that there are so many people at home who cannot make a protest in person but want to be included yet are being ignored.

    I was repeatedly ignored myself.

    So, when I saw that there had been a “Disability Rebellion” recently set up for this very reason, I got in touch to ask the organiser, Atlanta, what her experience of discrimination and exclusion by other disabled people was. Atlanta told me:

    So in setting up Disability Rebellion, I have tried to reach out to other movements/charities and have found that some have been unwilling to engage with me. One group in particular doesn’t seem keen on working with newer activists and on the few occasions they’ve interacted with me, it was to be critical over trivialities.

    They showed no interest in working with Disability Rebellion. I didn’t realise until recently that other people faced the same issues and some have told me that they have encountered outright hostility from them.

    Disability Rebellion is working with movements because we can make a bigger impact working together and I believe that gatekeeping fosters the very division that the government can use against us.

    We do not believe in gatekeeping and we believe that we are stronger together. We also believe in organising protests online because many organisations are not utilising the power of online activism, which leaves out the disabled activists who cannot leave their home or get to protest in person.

    A lot of disabled people have told me that they don’t feel represented because they can’t go and protest in person. We want activism to be accessible to all.

    Calling out the disablism

    There is clear gaslighting, gatekeeping, bullying, and discrimination against younger and newer activists – who are clearly being targeted by older, set-in-their-ways activists who also believe they have full ownership of disability activism and full control of what we can and can’t campaign about.

    Shockingly, this is literally going on right now.

    As I was writing this article, new campaign group Crips Against Cuts put out this statement over one of the organiser’s use of accessibility aids:

    This, along with my own experiences, has been incredibly difficult for me to write about and go through – as it has for the others that have been affected by this behaviour.

    Disability doesn’t discriminate – and yet we do

    The last thing I want to do is to criticise the community I come from; the community I want to continue to support – especially at a time when we are already being targetted so much by our current government. But I cannot accept this behaviour from my community either.

    This needs to be called out for what it is. Furthermore, we all need to look at our own behaviour. If this was an employee-employer situation, many of the cases I’ve mentioned here would constitute legal proceedings.

    We know that disability doesn’t discriminate – so, neither should we. Otherwise we are letting the same rhetoric we are fighting divide and conquer us.

    If this doesn’t change it will quite literally set back the fight and potentially change the progression of disability rights campaigning in this country.

    As Canary columnist Rachel Charlton-Dailey has documented in her brilliant new book Ramping Up Rights, the history of fighting for the rights of chronically ill and disabled people has been hard enough as it is. Yet some people in our own communities seem determined to make it even harder.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Nicola Jeffery

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Courts are set to sentence 19 Just Stop Oil supporters this May

    Throughout May, courts will sentence 19 Just Stop Oil supporters for their planning of and participation in protests calling for a faster transition away from fossil fuels. All of them could face years in prison if previous sentencings are anything to go by.

    Between them, they have already spent 91 months in prison on remand for these charges, an equivalent of 7 years and 7 months. This is despite the fact that courts have handed not a single one of them a custodial sentence yet.

    Just Stop Oil: 19 supporters facing sentencing in May for peaceful protests

    The 19 Just Stop Oil supporters will attend the following sentencing hearings:

    • M25 Gantry Conspiracy: Two separate trial groups will be sentenced for planning the climbing of gantries on the M25 in 2022. 9 May in Southwark Crown Court: Abigail Percy-Ratcliffe (25), Ian Bates (65). 15 May in Southwark Crown Court: Phoebe Plummer (24), David Mann (53).
    • M25 Gantry Climbing: One group will be sentenced for climbing gantries on the M25 in 2022. 9 May in Southwark Crown Court: Amy-Rose Friel O’Donnell (22), anonymous.
    • Heathrow Airport Conspiracy: One group will be sentenced for a conspiracy to cause disruption at Heathrow Airport. 16 May in Isleworth Crown Court: Hannah Schafer (61), Rosa Hicks (29), Sally Davidson (37), Luke Elson (32), William Goldring (27), Sean O’Callaghan (30), Luke Watson (35), Rory Wilson (25), Adam Beard (56).</li>
    • Manchester Airport Conspiracy: One group will be sentenced for a conspiracy to cause disruption at Manchester Airport. 23 May in Minshull Crown Court: Margaret Reid (54), Indigo Rumbelow (31), Ella Ward (22), Daniel Knorr (23).

    These sentencing hearings will be among the first to take place since Just Stop Oil hung up the high vis in March.

    Lord Walney effect: jail sentences for peaceful protest

    Judges have previously argued that high sentences were required to deter others from taking similar action with Just Stop Oil. However, it is now unclear who this would deterred – and from what action – in the group’s absence.

    Courts will hand the 19 defendants sentences for taking entirely nonviolent actions to demand that the government accelerate their transition away from fossil fuels. In the cases of the airport conspiracies, activists didn’t even carry out the planned actions.

    All 19 were convicted in the months after the disgraced ‘Lord’ Walney, the paid oil and arms industry lobbyist, called for groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action, who oppose his clients’ interests, to be silenced and jailed. Prior to Lord Walney’s report in May 2024, jail sentences for peaceful protest in Britain remained extremely unusual.

    Courts are carrying out the sentencings within the wider context of a prison overcrowding crisis. Prisons are releasing thousands of inmates early to avoid catastrophic prison conditions. Currently, 31 supporters of Just Stop Oil, Palestine Action, and HS2 Rebellion find themselves in UK prisons. The UN has previously described the excessive sentencing of UK protesters as ‘not acceptable in a democracy’.

    M25 Gantry Conspiracy & Climbing

    The charges against the M25 Gantry Conspiracy defendants are the same as those that led to courts handing down the unprecedented custodial sentences to the Whole Truth Five in 2024.

    On 7 March, the Court of Appeal ruled that those sentences were “manifestly excessive”. It reduced them to three to four years. It suggested that treating earlier Just Stop Oil cases as a precedent for sentencing risked “undesirable and unwarranted sentence inflation”.

    These sentencing hearings will show what this High Court ruling means for future protest cases.

    Defendants include 24-year-old Phoebe Plummer. Plummer previously received a two-year sentence for throwing soup at the glass covering Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

    Previous climbers of gantries received custodial sentences of up to two years.

    Heathrow Airport and Just Stop Oil

    Three of the nine defendants in the Heathrow Airport case have been in prison on remand since July 2024.

    They are now potentially facing retrial after evidence emerged that jurors engaged in jury misconduct, making their guilty verdicts manifestly unsafe. Their judge also implied that the existence of a climate emergency is a matter of opinion. This provides further grounds for appeal.

    However, the sentencing hearing of the Heathrow 9 will proceed despite the validity of their convictions being seriously called into question.

    Manchester Airport

    The four defendants in the Manchester Airport case have been held on remand since August 2024. Noah Crane (20), who spent half a year on remand on the basis of allegedly buying phones for fellow protesters, joined them during their trial. His jury unanimously found him not guilty.

    The defendants include Indigo Rumbelow (31), one of the co-founders of Just Stop Oil.

    Defend Our Juries spokesperson Tim Crosland said:

    Labour is cutting corners wherever you look, from winter fuel payments to pensioners to disability benefits to flood protection. And yet, they somehow find the funding to imprison 19 peaceful climate protesters for almost eight years between them before they have even been sentenced. We are dreading seeing how many years will be added on top of that now that the days of their sentencing hearings have finally arrived. The courts of this country are serving the interests of the fossil fuel industry, not the interests of ordinary people who are scrambling to get by.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Our Position on Palestine Is Not Fringe’:CounterSpin interview with Danaka Katovich on attacks on activists

     

    Janine Jackson interviewed CODEPINK’s Danaka Katovich about attacks on activists for the May 2, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

     

    Arrest of Code Pink's Medea Benjamin

    CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin

    Janine Jackson: It is misleading to portray public protest simply in photos of people being dragged off the street by law enforcement, because protest and dissent take many forms, some less visible than others. Still, the people in those photos have meaning for us, about being vocal and visible in frightening times. If standing up and speaking out loud in oppressive times were easy, well, there’d be less oppressive times, wouldn’t there? Whatever one’s imaginings about what they woulda, coulda done, the reality is that it is not a walk in the park to protest in person, knowing that you may face a lethally armed officer, tasked with grabbing you and throwing you in a cell, with the weight of the state behind them.

    The state also has many forms of attacks on protesters and protest, and those are not always so visible, either. All of that is in play right now, and here to talk about it is Danaka Katovich, national co-director of the group CODEPINK. She joins us now by phone. Welcome to CounterSpin, Danaka Katovich.

    Danaka Katovich: Thank you so much for having me, Janine.

    JJ: I know that you see what’s happening to CODEPINK as just a piece of a bigger issue, but maybe first tell us a little about what’s been happening to CODEPINK in the last few months.

    Common Dreams: Push Back Against Sen. Cotton’s McCarthyite Lies About CODEPINK: Women for Peace

    Common Dreams (3/27/25)

    DK: Yeah. I think this new wave started with Sen. Tom Cotton, who’s the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. When he was at a hearing, during a CODEPINK disruption of the hearing, he stated, like it was a fact, that CODEPINK is funded by the Chinese Communist Party. We’re not, but someone in such a high position of power saying that is difficult to navigate, scary; you wonder what they’re going to do next.

    And the very next day or two days later, Sen. Jim Banks, in a different Senate hearing, repeated and regurgitated the same lies about us, and asked Pam Bondi to investigate CODEPINK for these fake and not real ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

    And they’re doing that to—you know, we’re very in their face. We’re in Congress every single day, challenging them on the genocide in Gaza, and their support for the genocide in Gaza, and their constant willingness to ignore the American public. It’s their job to listen to the American public and represent us, but they don’t do that. And we’re very in their face, and they’re trying to intimidate us, and scare us into being quiet.

    JJ: MAGA couldn’t hate CODEPINK any more than they do, to the extent that they know you exist. So is the hope to isolate CODEPINK, even among other pro-Palestinian groups?

    DK: I don’t think so, to be honest. In my honest assessment, I think they are going after us because we’re a well-known group—online, at least—and we post everything that happens to us, and all the interactions that we have, to educate the public on what’s really going on in Congress. So I don’t think it’s to isolate us from the Palestine movement. If it is, it’s absolutely not working.

    Code Pink: I Have 2.1 Million Reasons

    CODEPINK (4/30/25)

    JJ: I sense that CODEPINK, along with other groups, understands that you have to talk around dominant media narratives. I just saw a message today talking about how simple it is to want a child born in Gaza to live. I think people can get explained away from that basic human understanding, told that politics is over your head and let smarter folks decide. But folks who don’t do organizing think maybe you just come up with a magic message, but it’s much more human to human than that, isn’t it?

    DK: Oh, absolutely. And that’s what’s really rooted me in this work, is our position on this is not fringe. A poll came out last week that said 70% of Democratic voters do not support sending weapons to Israel. That is so vastly different than what that poll would’ve been two years ago, or was two years ago.

    I’ve not had to read a million books—I mean, I have, but a lot of people haven’t read a million books—to have the opinion that Palestinians in Gaza, and children in Gaza, deserve every single right to dignity and life that any person on this Earth has.

    Because we’re seeing their faces, we’re hearing their voices. We see what they’re going through on our phones every single day. There’s no shortage of content coming out of Gaza that Palestinians have demonstrated their humanity in the worst situations of their life. And I think people don’t have to be even politically aware to not support what’s going on in Palestine.

    JJ: The expansive and transparently intimidating effort, the work that’s being applied against CODEPINK, to say you’re funded by Communist China, that’s meant to keep folks from listening to you, or thinking about what you have to say. But that intimidation could be applied to anyone that they designate they don’t want us to hear from. So it’s not like they’ve set themselves any guardrails. This is a bigger thing.

    CNBC: White House Blasts Amazon Over Tariff Cost Report: 'Hostile and Political Act'

    CNBC (4/29/25)

    DK: Yeah. What’s funny is this morning, before we did this interview, the Trump administration was doing a press conference about Amazon. Amazon said that they were going to post the prices for how the tariffs are affecting consumers, and the Trump administration and the press secretary, I can’t remember her name, said Amazon is partnering with a Communist China propaganda arm.

    JJ: Right. So it’s a go-to.

    DK: It’s literally whoever they disagree with, which is probably great for us, because they’re completely making their propaganda seem so pathetic and deluded.

    JJ: Right. But following from that, because it’s fascinating to me, in the way that MAGA and the right will just throw charges out there. And then when they’re disproven, they’ll say, Yeah, but they’re really still true.

    It reminds me of the way prosecutors will never accept a wrongful conviction: If he didn’t do what we sent him to prison for, he did something else. So we were still right to send him to prison.

    FAIR: NYT Reveals That a Tech Mogul Likes China—and That McCarthyism Is Alive and Well

    FAIR.org (8/17/23)

    And I think, at a certain point, an observer has to acknowledge that truth is not the point. It’s just us versus them. And I think a lot of folks lose the plot right there, because we don’t know how to operate in a system where truth doesn’t matter. So in the face of just blatantly false charges against you, how do you keep going forward, and help other folks go forward themselves?

    DK: I think one way we’ve done it is help people realize just how ridiculous it is, because they can say whatever they want, and they will continue to say whatever they want. They’re saying it as if it’s a fact. Even though, if any of this were true, they would’ve shut us down years ago, when they started bringing up these allegations. I think that is one way we approach it, is just making it as ridiculous as it is, and unserious as it is.

    JJ: Finally, we need a brave independent press corps right now, that could push back on these scurrilous attacks—scratch ’em, you can see their falsehood, but they’re part of attacks on democracy and on human rights. Corporate media—spotty, good things here and there. But in the main, I don’t see it.

    But of course, corporate media are not the only media. I wonder what your thoughts are, overall, on the state of journalism and protest, and just what you would like to see from reporters in this moment.

    DK: When Mahmoud was arrested by ICE agents, I think there was a different sort of pushback than there were on groups that are being attacked in such ways, like these vague and false claims about supporting terrorism, or supporting Hamas, or being funded by these foreign agencies or whatever. I think there was some pushback from even mainstream media. They were asking critical-thinking questions that I feel like they’ve been completely not doing for years and years.

    But when it’s a group, when it’s CODEPINK or all these other Palestine organizations, they don’t ask these critical-thinking questions that they’ve asked when it happens to individuals. So, when someone accuses a feminist organization in the US of being funded by a foreign government, I would like to hear them challenge that, because it’s a direct attack on civil society. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and they’re trying to take us down a peg, and even mainstream media who claim to support women’s rights and all of these things don’t even question it at all. So I’d love to hear them actually be critical of the Trump administration in a way that’s not just benefiting their specific neoliberal values.

    Danaka Katovich

    Danaka Katovich: “Their goal here is to make people afraid of expressing a very normal human opinion.”

    JJ: And then, any final thoughts for activists who might be kind of afraid to go out in the street or to join an organization, because they feel targeted and fearful? What do you have to say to folks?

    DK: I would say the fear is the point of all of this. I fluctuated between being scared that they want to shut down CODEPINK… The thing that I come back to is, their goal here is to make people afraid of expressing a very normal human opinion. The point is fear. And I think if they’ve instilled fear, then they’re winning. And I think it’s OK to be afraid. I think it’s normal and human. But in this trajectory that we’re on, it will only get scarier to resist what is happening.

    JJ: And we’ll do it in community, yeah?

    DK: Absolutely.

    JJ: We’ve been speaking with Danaka Katovich. She’s national co-director at the group CODEPINK. Thank you so much, Danaka Katovich, for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

    DK: Thank you so much for having me on.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Police ban Jewish anti-genocide protests outside Israeli ambassador’s home in London

    The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) has been committing time every week to protesting against far-right ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who has previously egged on the genocide in Gaza. But the Metropolitan Police have once again banned IJAN from gathering near Hotovely’s residence in Swiss Cottage, London, where the group had promised to protest until the UK followed the example of other countries by expelling its Israeli ambassador.

    Swiss Cottage protests banned

    The Met released a statement on 7 May saying it:

    has intervened to block a protest group gathering in Swiss Cottage this Friday in an effort to prevent further serious disruption to the life of the community.

    By “the life of the community”, the police are apparently referring to the ambassador of a country currently being investigated for genocide and whose prime minister is a wanted war criminal.

    The Met has placed “Public Order Act conditions” on the IJAN protest, stating that:

    It may now not take place in Swiss Cottage or anywhere in the shaded area on the map below.

    Because of the wide area the police designated as a no-go zone, the ban seriously limits the protest from having any significant impact on Hotovely. But IJAN’s commitment to pushing for Hotovely’s expulsion is clear:

    Previous ban and relocation

    As the Met explained:

    In February, conditions were imposed requiring the protest to relocate outside the Swiss Cottage area. After an eight-week period where protests were held outside New Scotland Yard, the protest returned to Swiss Cottage last week, prompting a further assessment of its impact.

    Chief Superintendent Jason Stewart suggested that “confrontation between this protest and counter protest groups” has played a part in encouraging the police to “use our powers to require the protest to take place elsewhere”. Counter protests have involved particularly aggressive scenes from genocide apologists:

    https://twitter.com/IJAN_Network/status/1918215031264625122/video/2

    Before the previous ban, the Swiss Cottage protest had been growing in size, and increasing police discomfort was clear. Police cracked down on activists – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – who were opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    One was Haim Bresheeth, a 79-year-old Jewish peace activist and an “advanced cancer patient with a serious heart condition”. His parents survived the Holocaust. He grew up in Israel, and fighting in two wars for the country turned him into a pacifist. Police arrested him in early November because of his opposition to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and its decades-long oppression of Palestinian people.

    Last week, around 200 people turned up at the protest:

    Pro-genocide agitators also attended, but “failed to disrupt” the event:

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • After decades, everything is #StillTheSaME on this year’s ME Awareness Day

    Monday 12 May is ME Awareness Day – for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). Historically, it has been marked with patients sharing stories online, and campaigning for improved treatment and research. However, this year one group is taking the fight for patients directly to Westminster, and the Canary is proudly supporting it. Us and the group want to show that in decades, nothing has changed for people with ME – thanks to government, the medical profession, and not least the media.

    #StillTheSaME

    On Monday 12 May, the Canary and Not Recovered UK will be at Westminster. We will be protesting outside both the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and parliament, starting at 12pm at Old Palace Yard (opposite parliament) and lasting until around 2pm. It is over what Not Recovered UK has branded things being #StillTheSaME.

    We’ll be there with banners and placards like this:

    ME Awareness Day ME/CFS

    However, the most important part of the protest is for people house-or bed-bound to be able to get involved online. So, we’ll be livestreaming what we’re doing onto our X (Twitter) account. And, we want people with ME, their families, and advocates to get involved too.

    The campaign is centred around newspaper headlines from decades ago; ones like this:

    In 2025, ‘top experts’ are still probing the disease – yet patients lives are no better. So, this is why Not Recovered UK is using #StillTheSaME – because so little has changed. And the group and the Canary will be asking politicians why.

    If you’re following the protest at home, we want you to tag your MP and ask them why things are #StillTheSaME. We also want you to make some noise about why nothing has changed for people with ME in so many decades. You can tell your stories if you wish. Ultimately, we want to get both #MEAwarenessDay and #StillTheSaME trending. Not Recovered UK will be providing a resource pack with images and comments for people to be able to easily put together social media posts.

    Where’s the funding?

    Part of the problem is research funding. For example, a 2016 report highlighted that ME research represented approximately 0.02% of all active awards from major UK funding agencies. Additionally, the research spend per patient for ME/CFS was just £40 between 2006 and 2015, compared to £320 for rheumatoid arthritis and £800 for multiple sclerosis.

    So, Not Recovered UK and the Canary will be trying to speak to politician and civil servants – particularly from the DHSC – to ask why the new ME Delivery Plan contains no money for research funding:

    ME/CFS

    But overall, ME is a controversial disease – if you believe what you read in some of the media and listen to some medical professionals – although it really shouldn’t be.

    ME/CFS: complex, or made complicated?

    Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) is a complex and debilitating chronic illness characterised by extreme fatigue that is not relieved by rest and is worsened by physical or mental exertion. The exact cause of ME remains unknown, and it is believed to result from a combination of factors, including infections, immune system abnormalities, hormonal imbalances, and genetic predisposition.

    A hallmark of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), where even minor physical or cognitive activity leads to a dramatic worsening of symptoms, often lasting days or longer and all too often with a permanent worsening for the patient.

    Other major symptoms include profound fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive impairments (commonly described as “brain fog”), orthostatic intolerance (difficulty standing upright, often resulting in lightheadedness or fainting), muscle and joint pain, severe gastrological disruption, and sore throat or tender lymph nodes without clear infection. Symptoms vary in severity and can fluctuate unpredictably.

    The illness significantly impairs quality of life, with many patients unable to maintain employment, education, or social activities. In severe cases, individuals may become housebound or bedbound. At its worst, ME has killed people.

    Despite decades of research, there is no definitive cure for ME, and treatment focuses primarily on symptom management. Common strategies include pacing (to avoid overexertion), medications for pain and sleep disturbances, and supportive therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or graded exercise therapy (GET)—though the latter is controversial and rejected by patients and doctors due to evidence that it worsens symptoms.

    Patients and advocates often express frustration and distress at the lack of progress in understanding or treating ME. Several reasons contribute to this perception:

    • Historical stigma and disbelief: ME has long been dismissed as psychosomatic, leading to underfunding and a lack of scientific inquiry.
    • Biological complexity: The illness affects multiple systems—neurological, immune, metabolic—making it hard to study and diagnose.
    • Diagnostic challenges: There is no single biomarker for ME, and diagnosis relies on clinical criteria, which can vary.
    • Limited funding: Research into ME has historically received significantly less funding than diseases of similar prevalence and impact.

    The same old trickery

    Spoiler alert: the entire section above was written by AI. We did this to make a point: that a bot can write something more robust and accurate on ME/CFS than a lot of the media and some medical professionals can.

    A good example of this is a Mirror article from 1998 – where notorious quackery-peddler ‘Sir’ Simon Wessely was about to release a new book. It and him were seemingly claiming that exercise/activity could cure ME – with the Mirror peddling it unquestioningly:

    Of course, this was as much of a lie then as it is now – yet some medical professionals still push this. Moreover, the corporate media is a fair-weather friend when it comes to ME, too:

    And of course, this applies to chronically ill and disabled people more broadly. For example, the Times is up for an award for its coverage of ME – largely due to the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, journalist Sean O’Neill’s daughter. Sadly, the Times would throw chronically ill and disabled people under the bus for anything else – unless they’re middle class and don’t claim benefits (obviously):

    But ultimately, the corporate media is just a mirror on the real problem: a system that refuses to give people with ME (and chronically ill and disabled people more broadly) the dignity and respect they deserve.

    ME/CFS: cruel

    So, Not Recovered UK and the Canary will be outside the DHSC and parliament asking why nothing has changed in decades – and what the UK government is going to do about it.

    We want you to join us in person if you can. You can DM the Canary or Not Recovered on X for details – or just show up at Old Palace Yard at 12pm. Alternatively, get involved on X from 12pm with the livestream with a view to getting the hashtags trending.

    The cruel treatment of people with ME, and the terrible state governments, medical professionals, and the media have left them to live in, is utterly unacceptable and always has been. It should not be #StillTheSaME – and its time to remind the world of this.

    Featured image and additional images via Not Recovered UK

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • New York unions protest Trump administration this May Day


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Tanya Clay House on Freedom to Learn, Danaka Katovich on Attacks on Activists

     

    Right-click here to download this episode (“Save link as…”).

     

    Ruby Bridges. the first Black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans.

    Ruby Bridges challenged US segregation in 1960.

    This week on CounterSpin: You can say someone ‘supports the rights’ of people of color to vote, or to have our experience and history recognized—as though that were a passive descriptor; she ‘supports the rights’ of people of color to be seen and heard. The website of the Kairos Democracy Project has a quote from John Lewis, reminding us: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”

    Tanya Clay House is board chair at Kairos and a longtime advocate for the multiracial democracy that the Trump White House seeks to denounce and derail—in part by erasing the history of Black people in this country. As part of that, she’s part of an ongoing project called Freedom to Learn and its present campaign, called #HandsOffOurHistory. We hear from Tanya Clay House about that work this week.

     

    Arrest of Code Pink's Medea Benjamin

    Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin

    Also on the show:  Corporate news media evince lofty principles about the First Amendment, but when people actually use it, the response is more telling. When USA Today covered activism in Seattle around the WTO, it reported: “Little noticed by the public, the upcoming World Trade Organization summit has energized protesters around the world.” You see how that works: If you’re the little-noticing “public,” you’re cool; but if you band together with other people and speak out, well, now you’re a “protester,” and that’s different—and marginal. Whatever they say in their Martin Luther King Day editorials, elite media’s day-to-day message is: ‘Normal people don’t protest.’ In 2025, there’s an ominous addendum: ‘Or else.’

    Danaka Katovich is co-director of the feminist grassroots anti-war organization CODEPINK, currently but not for the first time at the sharp end of state efforts to silence activists and activism. We hear from her this week.

     

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Police raid Axe Drax supporters home for writing on a whiteboard and windows with a marker pen

    At 1am on Saturday 26 April, cops raided an Axe Drax supporter’s house. Police have now released them under investigation for burglary. This was all over an action where activists had written on some windows and a whiteboard with dry wipe pen in a private office.

    Axe Drax: police raid activist’s house

    Police seized their phone and laptop and denied them a phone call for 13 hours. While inside, police arrested and released arrestee supporter waiting at the station.

    This follows Axe Drax and Reclaim the Power occupying the European headquarters of one of Drax’s biggest suppliers, Enviva, on Friday 25 April:

    The arrest was over the action targeting Enviva, the world’s biggest wood pellet exporter. Despite this, the majority of the bail conditions are focused on Drax.

    They include banning them from Drax’s AGM on 1 May and from Drax sites across the UK. Additionally, these also bar them and from Enviva’s European headquarters in York. Further to this, their bail conditions prohibit them from speaking about the arrest and raid over the internet.

    Drax and Enviva: partners in deforestation

    Drax Power Station, located near Selby in Yorkshire, is the world’s biggest woody biomass power station and the UK’s single largest carbon emitter.

    The company sources from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. In many of these places, the company is responsible for razing high-risk forests, including old growth, ancient trees.

    What’s more, Drax’s has situated its wood pellet production sites, predominantly in environmental justice communities. There, its operations emit large amounts of pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs. Notably, these are linked to respiratory and pulmonary health impacts.

    The UK government counts woody biomass as carbon neutral, allowing Drax to claim renewable energy subsidies.

    Meanwhile, Enviva is the world’s largest producer of biomass wood pellets. Enviva is one of Drax’s main suppliers, providing about 15% of the wood pellets that Drax burns at is power station.

    Its operations destroy 175,000 acres of Southern forests every year and it exports approximately 6.2 million metric tons of pellets per year.

    Enviva’s plants are located in predominantly Black and brown, and low-income neighborhoods, where its facilities expose residents to tonnes of air pollution each year.

    Whistleblowers have accused Enviva of sourcing almost exclusively whole trees and failing to replant forests. Scientific studies have concluded what on the ground research has been showing for years: that Enviva is contributing to deforestation in the US Southeast.

    Police acting as Drax’s ‘private security’

    Axe Drax spokesperson Rosie Gloster said:

    What we are seeing here is yet another example of Drax treating the Police like their own private security. It’s beyond clear the raid and arrest were an attempt from Drax to crush dissent once again. Why else would the bail conditions focus on Drax – when it was an action targeting Enviva? Drax and Enviva are both companies who make their money from poisoning communities in the Southern US and destroying vital forests. We will not stop disrupting their destruction, this response alone shows we are having an impact.

    A spokesperson from Reclaim the Power said:

    Just like last summer, when Police spent over £3 million shutting down our peaceful climate camp, Drax have once again treated the Police like their own private security. It is clear that Drax and Enviva will do anything they can to avoid a light being shone on their poisonous pollution and destruction. Using Police as a tool to repress dissent is an age old technique by polluters like Drax – we will not let them intimate us.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

  • Campaigners just disrupted a Heathrow panel appearance – to expose protest injunctions protecting fossil fuel major Shell’s AGM

    Climate campaigners from Fossil Free London have disrupted Heathrow Airport’s panel appearance at the Innovation Zero conference at Olympia London. It was to call out the airport’s injunctions. These are set to prevent campaigners from protesting at fossil fuel major Shell’s upcoming AGM.

    Heathrow protest injunction to stop campaigners at upcoming Shell AGM

    On Wednesday 30 April, Activists turned up to challenge Heathrow’s director of carbon strategy Matthew Gorman:

    In particular, they railed against the airport’s anti-protest injunction. It currently prevents them from attending Shell’s annual general meeting. This is because the fossil fuel major will be holding on airport grounds in May.

    Heathrow airport took out a court injunction covering the premises last year. Notably, it did so in response to Just Stop Oil’s plan to ‘disrupt’ airports that summer. This bans any person associated with any environmental group from entering the airport’s grounds. In doing so, it means that they would risk up to two years in prison, fines and/or seizure of assets.

    Legal experts and human rights organisations have expressed concern over the increasing private use of sweeping protest injunctions to suppress peaceful climate demonstrations.

    Big polluter bedfellows

    Fossil Free London has consistently held Shell’s feet to the fire. In recent years, it has crashed Shell AGM over its role in environmental damage and human rights violations in the Niger Delta, as well as their fossil fuel expansion.

    Director of Fossil Free London Robin Wells said:

    Heathrow’s not only locking in devastation for all British people by expanding the airport, they’re now getting into bed with the climate criminals at Shell, letting them hide behind this anti-protest injunction.

    Corporate polluters are scratching each other’s backs and laughing all the way to the bank while our rights to survive and advocate for our survival are being washed away in the rising tide of repression they’re funding.

    Heathrow is actively contributing to the oppression of communities in the Niger Delta, shielding Shell from accountability. They must scrap this injunction.

    Featured image via screengrab

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Gallery: Doctors, health workers challenge NZ government over national crisis

    Asia Pacific Report

    Thousands of senior hospital doctors and specialists walked off the job today for an unprecedented 24-hour strike in protest over stalled contract negotiations and thousands of other health workers protested across Aotearoa New Zealand against the coalition government’s cutbacks to the public health service Te Whatu Ora.

    In spite of the disruptive bad weather across the country, protesters were out in force expressing their concerns over a national health service in crisis.

    Among speakers criticising the government’s management of public health at a rally at the entrance to The Domain, near Auckland Hospital, many warned that the cutbacks were a prelude to “creeping privatisation”.

    “Health cuts hurt services, the patients who rely on them, and the workers who deliver them,” said health worker Jason Brooke.

    “Under this coalition government we’ve seen departments restructured, roles disestablished, change proposals enacted, and hiring freezes implemented.

    “Make no mistake. This is austerity. This is managed decline.

    “The coalition can talk all they like about spending more on healthcare, the reality for ‘those-of-us-on-the-ground’ is that we know that money is not being spent where it’s needed.”

    Placards said “Fight back together for the workers”, “Proud to be union”, “We’re fighting back for workers rights”, and one poster declared: “Don’t bite the hand that wipes your bum — safe staffing now”.

    Palestine supporters also carried a May Day message of solidarity from Palestinian Confederation of Trade Unions.

    Fighting back for NZ’s public health system
    1 of 18
    Fight back together for health workers
    TWO 1: Fight back together for health workers. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 2: Proud to be union. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 3: Support public health workers. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 4: Health worker Jason Brooke speaking. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 5: Fight back “together” is the theme. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 6: PSA “standing together for public health”. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 7: “Don’t bite the hand . . .” Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 8: An AUT student nurse speaking on the realities. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 9: “I’m fighting back for workers’ rights.” Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 10: A health aide speaking. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 11: Environmental filmmaker and storyteller Juan Parada at the rally. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 12: Fight back posters. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 13: Health = wealth. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 14: “Invest in health.” Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 15: “Tikanga mahi.” Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 16: “Free Dr Abu Safiya” – Kathy Ross. Image: David Robie
    TWO 17: Palestinian May Day solidarity pamphlets – Del Abcede. Image: David Robie/APR
    TWO 18: Palestinian May Day trade unions solidarity message. Image: David Robie/APR

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • UK government colluded with the Israeli embassy over Palestine Action ‘Filton 18’ cases

    New documents have further exposed the UK government’s collusion with the Israeli embassy in the arrest and imprisonment of the ‘Filton 18‘ Palestine Action activists.

    Filton 18: government collusion with the Israeli embassy

    As the Guardian reported on Tuesday 29 April:

    The UK government shared contact details of counter-terrorism police and prosecutors with the Israeli embassy during an investigation into protests at an arms factory, official documents suggest, raising concerns about foreign interference.

    The documents suggest political interference in the ongoing case and policing operations. Throughout, state authorities have repeatedly used counter-terror powers to repress activists taking direct action against the Israeli weapons industry in Britain.

    Specifically, a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOI) disclosures show the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) directly facilitating Israeli interference in ongoing cases against activists. In the weeks following the first arrests of Filton 18 activists, the AGO shared contact details for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and the ‘SO15’ Counter-Terrorism Command overseeing the investigation, with the Israeli embassy.

    In August 2024, the first ten activists of the ‘Filton 18’ were imprisoned after a raid on an Elbit Systems weapons plant in Filton, Bristol. There, they had destroyed Israeli quadcopter drones. Police arrested, imprisoned, and detained them under ‘Counter Terror’ powers. During their pre-charge and pre-trial detention, the courts used this to deny their basic rights. Four UN special rapporteurs have condemned the use of counter-terrorism powers in this case.

    Attorney General’s Office: emails to deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK

    In the weeks after their arrest, correspondence demonstrates the extent of communications the AGO held with the Israeli embassy. Although the contents is almost entirely redacted, the subject heading of one email shows the AGO’s head of international law and national security Nicola Smith sharing information “to Israelis re CPS/SO15 contact details” on 9 September 2024.

    The AGO sent the email to Daniela Ekstein, the deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK. It appears to be a follow-up to a meeting that Smith, Ekstein, the embassy’s counsellor of political affairs Yosef Zilberman, and AGO director Douglas Wilson held on 28 August.

    Previously, Palestine Action obtained documents showing that Wilson, who the AGO copied into the email, had discussed ongoing cases of Palestine Action activists with the Israeli embassy. He had shared details relating to SO15, the Counter Terrorism Command. In an unprecedented move, the CPS, as the body prosecuting the case, has submitted to the court that the Filton18’s alleged offences have a ‘terrorism-connection’.

    Logically, after the AGO facilitated contact, subsequent correspondence would have presumably taken place between the embassy, CPS, and SO15. Just over two months after the email, terrorism police raided an additional ten activists’ homes. They and arrested them under those same powers. Following this, they charged eight of the activists and remanded them to prison.

    Filton 18 charges must be dropped amid political interference

    Any improper influence by the Israeli embassy would result in a violation of the Crown Prosecution Service’s General Principle 2.1 that:

    The independence of the prosecutor is central to the criminal justice system of a democratic society. Prosecutors are independent from persons or agencies that are not part of the prosecution decision-making process. CPS prosecutors are also independent from the police and other investigators. Prosecutors must be free to carry out their professional duties without political interference and must not be affected by improper or undue pressure or influence from any source.

    With the possibility of diplomatic involvement in the Crown’s case, Palestine Action has called for the CPS to drop the charges. This evidence is the latest in a series of documents detailing apparent interference in Palestine Action cases. These have shown deep collusion between the CPS, Home Office, AGO, senior police officials, and representatives of Elbit Systems and the Israeli embassy.

    The correspondence raises questions of embassy interference in all manner of policing operations relating to Palestine in Britain. This is particularly pertinent in the context of the state liberally deploying counter-terror powers against activists, journalists, and academics supportive of Palestinian liberation.

    A Palestine Action spokesperson stated:

    The Israeli Embassy has attempted to interfere in our cases for years. For the first time, our activists are detained for direct action under counter terror powers, the CPS pursuing ‘terrorism-connected’ charges. As this unprecedented escalation of state repression happens, the Israeli Embassy has secured direct communication with the CPS and the ‘counter-terror’ police responsible. Political interference is forbidden in our legal system, and in the Filton 18 case its resulted in the most draconian laws being wielded against them. In light of the information uncovered, continuing the prosecution against them is a serious miscarriage of justice. They must be released and all compromised prosecutions of activists and journalists must be stopped.

    Clare Rogers, mother of Filton 18 Political Prisoner Zoe Rogers, said:

    My 21-year-old daughter Zoe has been in prison for 8 months without trial and counting. She took action against Elbit because she couldn’t sit on her hands and do nothing while her government committed war crimes by supplying arms to Israel. It’s sickening to learn that the brutal repression she & the Filton18 are experiencing may have been planned in secret conversations between our government and the Israeli embassy. In a just nation, the Filton18 case would be thrown out as soon as this political interference came to light.

    Featured image via Martin Pope

    By The Canary

  • This May Day weekend, activists are taking on the epitome of exploitative capitalism: Elon Musk

    Over May Day weekend, workers and activists are taking on the epitome of exploitative capitalism: far-right billionaire ‘broligarch’ Elon Musk.

    May Day weekend: taking down Musk one Tesla site at a time

    On Saturday 3 May, Tesla Takedown UK, anti-Trump organisation Indivisible London, and the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will bring the fight for workers and against billionaires to nine separate locations across the UK. They plan to take action in Bristol, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Winchester.

    Elon Musk has become the world’s richest man due partly to his talent for stock pumping. But largely, his vast fortune comes from squeezing profits out of workers. In short, he has amassed his mega profits through his spectacular disregard for unions, workers’ rights, and workplace safety.

    In 2022, one out of every 21 workers at Tesla’s Austin gigafactory was injured badly enough to require reporting to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And this only got worse in 2023: with one in 13 workers injured on the job there. This April, a California judge found Tesla liable for “serious and wilful misconduct”. This was after a California worker was badly hurt performing a maintenance task colleagues had identified as dangerous.

    Billionaire fortunes: built off the backs of workers

    It’s Musk’s work at DOGE, the government office named for a meme, that has brought his attitude to workers into the spotlight. During his time heading it, his team – which included literal teenagers – fired public servants at a whim. The Tesla Takedown movement aims to finish Musk as a political force in the US and worldwide. It plans to do so by tanking Tesla’s stock price, the main source of his liquidity.

    Tesla Takedown UK organiser Theodora Sutcliffe said:

    From union-busting in Sweden to supporting Tommy Robinson and Germany’s AfD, Musk is meddling in politics around the globe.

    But Tesla shares are down more than 40% from their December peak, showing that protests work.

    This May Day weekend, Tesla Takedown UK, PCS, and Indivisible London want to highlight the fact that billionaires’ wealth doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s built off the backs of workers. From Jeff Bezos sending Katy Perry to space while timing Amazon staff’s toilet breaks, to Mark Zuckerberg building an underground bunker in Hawaii while Facebook content moderators struggle with PTSD, billionaires need to respect their workers.

    Indivisible London organiser Alyssa Elliot said:

    Musk is an unelected billionaire who has been allowed to completely dismantle government institutions that are vital for workers in the United States and around the globe.

    But labour movements have shown over and over again that the people have more than the people in power, and now workers everywhere are uniting against the tech broligarchy.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

  • Trump is bypassing community input to fast-track energy projects that risk pollution

    This story is part of a Grist package examining how President Trump’s first 100 days in office have reshaped climate and environmental policy in the U.S., and is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan.

    When President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office, he directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use emergency permitting for projects to boost energy supplies, including oil, natural gas, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, hydropower, and critical minerals.

    Doing so effectively created a new class of emergency permit to fast track energy projects across the country. But environmental advocates worry this will harm the ability of the public to weigh in on projects that will contribute to climate change and harm sensitive ecosystems.

    Speeding up permitting for high-profile proposals will likely gain attention and trigger lawsuits, said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. But he worries that under the order, there will be less scrutiny paid to less well-known projects.

    “The one thing that is clear is they’re cutting back,” he said. “They’re shortening the amount of time for public comment.” 

    Three laws grant the Army Corps authority to permit projects that impact wetlands and waters, including assessing their environmental effects: the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.

    The agency typically uses emergency permitting for projects that prevent risk to human life, property, or of unexpected and significant economic hardship, such as rebuilding infrastructure after a hurricane. Creating emergency procedures to address energy supplies is new. And according to Bookbinder, it’s illegal.

    The corps has allowed the president to amend its regulation without going through the required process, he said, “And the president can’t do that.”

    Emergency procedures will be determined by each Army Corps district, a process Bookbinder called “rather opaque.” For instance, he said, it’s not clear whether or how the corps will go through the environmental analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The landmark 1970 law requires the federal government to account for environmental impacts before permitting a project, and is sometimes the only opportunity for people to weigh in on projects that will affect them. 

    This is part of a much larger effort to increase energy production, including through drilling and mining; last week the Interior Department announced it would fast-track such projects on public lands. The Trump administration has also moved to unravel and decentralize how NEPA is implemented.

    More on Trump’s first 100 days

    Doug Garman, a spokesperson with the agency headquarters, said in an email the Army Corps is still required to comply with “all applicable laws and regulations,” including NEPA, and that “coordination of these reviews will be subject to the emergency declared under [the executive order.]”

    Garman said current regulations do allow the agency to respond to the declared emergency in this manner.

    Concrete changes are already taking place. Two Clean Water Act permits for Texas projects — that the corps designated as emergencies — now have shortened comment periods lasting less than two weeks: the Texas Connector pipeline supplying Port Arthur liquefied natural gas and the Rio Grande liquefied natural gas ship channel. 

    The Army Corps also announced it will speed up its review of a contentious tunnel under the Great Lakes that would house a section of the Line 5 pipeline, which carries oil and natural gas liquids from Wisconsin to Ontario. The 72-year-old pipeline currently runs about four miles underwater in the straits between lakes Michigan and Huron. 

    Shane McCoy, a regulatory branch chief with the corps’ Detroit District, told reporters the emergency procedures “truncated” its timeline but that they weren’t “eliminating any of the steps” in the process. The corps said the project qualifies as an emergency and that a faster review will allow it “to address an energy supply situation” which would risk life, property, and unexpected and significant economic hardship. 

    The pipeline’s owner, Canada-based Enbridge, first applied for a federal permit to build the tunnel in 2020. It says doing so would make the pipeline safer by reducing the risk of an oil spill and calls it “critical energy infrastructure.” 

    But the permitting process had been deeply flawed even before it had been fast tracked, according to seven tribal nations in Michigan that withdrew from federal talks on the tunnel. 

    “The Straits of Mackinac is spiritually, culturally, and economically vital to Tribal Nations,” tribal leaders wrote in a letter to the corps, saying that the agency’s environmental review process “disregards this deep place-based connection and instead seems designed to ensure that oil — and its associated threats — will continue to exist throughout the treaty ceded territory, including in the Great Lakes and the Straits.”

    The decision to speed up that review was the “final straw,” according to Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

    “We will continue to defend the rights of the Great Lakes. See you in court,” she said in an emailed statement after the change was announced. 

    People launch a canoe into the water near St. Ignace, Michigan, during a protest against Line 5 in August 2024.
    A group of protestors paddle out into the waters off St. Ignace in Michigan as part of a protest against the Line 5 pipeline in August 2024. Izzy Ross / Grist

    There’s also the matter of the energy emergency itself. The executive order holds that the country’s “insufficient energy production, transportation, refining, and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy.” But many energy experts have said that isn’t accurate, adding to numerous legal questions surrounding the order. 

    Under former President Joe Biden, the United States produced record amounts of oil and gas, and remained the world’s largest liquid natural gas exporter, though that administration cut back on leasing federal lands for drilling and slowed some gas exports. 

    The White House did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

    “Overall, our production levels for fossil fuels were quite high,” said David Spence, a professor of energy law at the University of Texas at Austin. “So on the oil and gas side of things, to the extent that the Trump administration wants to increase production, it’s going to be incremental at best because the market will only take as much as the market wants, and we were doing a pretty good job of satisfying that demand beforehand.”

    Faster permitting will likely benefit individual projects, Spence said, along with oil companies and exporters of products like liquefied natural gas.

    While Trump’s executive order doesn’t directly mention wind or solar, it implied that such energy made the grid unreliable. It also includes critical minerals in its push for domestic extraction — minerals used in renewable technologies. Spence said the supply of critical minerals is less secure because the U.S. relies on foreign imports. “If that’s what the emergency is aimed at, then you can sort of make that case with more of a straight face.” 

    Still, he said in an email, “I generally think that ‘energy independence’ is a silly idea. Trade happens because it benefits both parties. Getting in the way of that takes away those benefits.”

    Editor’s note: Enbridge is among IPR’s financial sponsors. Financial sponsors have no influence on IPR’s news coverage.

    This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump is bypassing community input to fast-track energy projects that risk pollution on Apr 29, 2025.

    This post was originally published on Grist.

  • Palestine Action Scotland just smashed another cog in Israel’s genocide supply chain

    Palestine Action has done it again and hit a cog in the machinery of Israel’s ongoing genocide – this time, a specialty metal alloys facility in Scotland.

    Palestine Action Scotland: Righton Blackburns’ supply chain links to Israel

    In the early hour of Friday 25 April, an autonomous group acting under the banner of Palestine Action Scotland targeted metals and plastics supplier Righton Blackburns.

    The group said they targeted the company’s service centre on Fullarton Drive, Shettleston, because it is a link in the supply chain for companies in Scotland. This includes Leonardo and Thales – two companies that provide Israel with parts for arms it has used to attack Palestinians.

    Activists smashed the the atrium and windows of the 20,000 square foot facility which houses Righton Blackburns:

    They sprayed red paint across the exterior and inside the building. A slogan reading “Drop Thales and Leonardo” was graffitied over its walls.

    Righton Blackburns supplies aerospace and defence companies with speciality alloys that have military applications.

    Notably, its customers include Thales, BAE Systems, and Leonardo. Local residents across Scotland have kept up the pressure against these genocide complicit companies in regular blockades since October 2023.

    Leonardo manufactures parts for Apache helicopters and targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets. Israel has used these to bomb Gaza. Meanwhile, French company Thales, in Govan, designs the Watchkeeper drone. These are the drones that Israel uses to surveil Palestinians. BAE Systems works closely with Israeli weapons firm Plasan.

    Supplying the aerospace and defence industry: complicit in genocide

    The group that carried out Friday’s action said in a statement:

    We are ordinary local residents taking direct action against the bloody supply chain enabling Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Anyone similarly horrified by this state of affairs could do as we have done.

    Our governments are not only standing by while a genocidal campaign is carried out in plain sight, but is actively supplying the armaments that enable Israel’s disgusting crimes against humanity. Marching from A to B to ask politely for change is no longer sufficient for people of conscience. We are all complicit. Our actions on Friday morning were not a protest, but a direct intervention to disrupt the flow of weaponry and surveillance equipment.

    Israel’s overt goal of exterminating Palestinians is made possible by facilities such as Righton Blackburns, from where vital parts are distributed to the assembly lines of Leonardo and Thales that make the planes, drones and weapons that are tearing the limbs off civilians and beheading Palestinian children even as you read this.

    Responding to the call from within Palestine, and inspired by decades of Palestinian resistance, we will not allow these horrors to be enabled and perpetrated by companies operating from inside our communities in Glasgow – communities that overwhelmingly oppose Israel’s crimes. Until companies such as Righton Blackburns remove themselves from the supply chain that arms Israel, they will remain a target.

    By The Canary

  • Rousing finish to the RAF Lakenheath peace camp – but seven arrested by cops

    Seven people were arrested during a blockade that closed the main gate of RAF Lakenheath on Saturday 26 April, during peaceful protests in opposition to any return of US nuclear weapons to the Suffolk air base:

    RAF Lakenheath

    RAF Lakenheath: final day of shut down

    250 people from across the country – as well as international delegates – participated in the demonstration and blockade, which marked the final day of the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace peace camp:

    RAF Lakenheath

    There has been a continuous presence of campaigners outside the main gate of the base since 14 April, as well as events highlighting Lakenheath’s role in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the role of the military in climate breakdown, and NATO’s nuclear network in Europe:

    The protests come after the Mirror ran an exclusive investigation revealing a shocking government cover up about the new US nuclear weapons deployment. Legal letters from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to the Ministry of Defence resulted in the declassifying of a document exempting US Visiting Forces in Britain from meeting nuclear safety regulations. This blanket exemption not only applies to troops stationed at RAF Lakenheath, but across all US bases in Britain.

    This means that Suffolk County Council will never be informed of the US nuclear bombs arriving at RAF Lakenheath. The council would therefore be under no obligation to have emergency plans in place in the event of a nuclear accident at the base:

    CND General Secretary Sophie Bolt said:

    Solidarity with the seven people who were arrested as part of this successful action which shut down the main entrance to RAF Lakenheath for over three hours.

    Rather than arresting people for peacefully protesting the return of US nuclear weapons to Britain and the base’s role in supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the police should be investigating the clear violations of international law being facilitated by both the British government and US bases in Britain.

    Nuclear weapons don’t make us safer, they make us a target. We’re going to keep on protesting at these bases to stop US nuclear dangers. We want an end to these US bases in Britain.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Ignore the MSM: Youth Demand were right to disrupt the London Marathon

    Youth Demand supporters have disrupted the London Marathon:

    Youth Demand is a youth-led civil resistance group calling for the government to impose a full trade embargo on Israel, and make the fossil fuel elite pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning.

    At approximately 10:35am on Sunday 27 April, two Youth Demand supporters jumped over the barriers and threw red powder paint in front of the men’s elite race at the London marathon as it crossed Tower Bridge. The two supporters were seen wearing t-shirts that read ‘Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel.’ City of London police quickly moved to arrest the pair.

    Youth Demand London Marathon

    Youth Demand: righteous anger at the London Marathon

    Before taking action at the London Marathon, Youth Demand’s Willow Holland, 18, from Bristol, said:

    I am taking action with Youth Demand because I have run out of other options: thousands are being killed in Gaza, our government is making no effort to stop it and no other course of action, marches or rallies, has worked. I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians.

    Profit should never be prioritised over basic decency, we’re taking action for human lives and human rights. We don’t want blood on our hands, we don’t want to be forced into complicity with a genocide. We need more people in resistance, refusing to be complicit whilst upholding international law, now more than ever. Join us in resistance, sign up at youthdemand.org.

    Also taking action was Cristy North, a live-in carer from Nottingham, who said:

    I’m taking action today at the London marathon because the people in Palestine are running out of time. We have tried all other avenues to get the government to stop arming Israel and yet our government is still enabling a genocide. They are making the UK people complicit in breaking UK domestic law by using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law.

    I absolutely refuse to be complicit with it in any way, and I’m disgusted at this government’s inaction, and the absolute absurdity of politicians completely ignoring international laws. This is absolutely urgent, and this is why I’m taking part in civil disobedience.

    Commenting on the action, a spokesperson from Youth Demand said:

    This is a race against time: Gaza is running out of food. Millions of starving Palestinians are being bombed with UK complicity. By continuing to arm Israel, Starmer has crossed the line from genocidal denial to genocidal complicity. We can’t allow politicians to run away from accountability for their war crimes. History will judge all the bystanders that cheered on this monstrous crime.

    Israel: ongoing genocide and war crimes

    This action comes as the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says its food stocks in Gaza, which more than 400,000 people rely on, have been completely “depleted” by Israel’s blockade. Since March 2nd, Israel has fully blocked all aid supplies, including food, medicine and fuel, from entering Gaza, in defiance of a 2024 order from the World Court. At least 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal onslaught on Gaza.

    Since December 2023, the British army has flown over 500 spy flights over Gaza, raising fears of complicity in Israeli war crimes. These continued during and after the ceasefire, despite Israel’s bombing campaign killing thousands of children. The UK government has also refused to deny Israeli F-35 fighter jets bombing Gaza have access to the Akrotiri RAF bases in Cyprus.

    Two British MPs who have recently visited from the occupied West Bank to see Israel’s treatment of Palestinians have told of being detained and had guns pointed at them by Israeli police. MP Shockat Adam warned that the West Bank could turn into the next Gaza and said that “we are one minute to midnight at this moment.”

    Youth Demand said:

    Young people will not accept these crimes against humanity and we will not be led by war criminals and arsonists. We cannot allow those in power to get away with facilitating the systematic annihilation of an entire people. Only mass resistance can put an end to this genocide. Join us at youthdemand.org.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Topless blockade at RAF Lakenheath sees activists take a stand

    At 9:30am on Friday 25 April, twelve women, intersex, non-binary and trans activists – aged from 24 to 91 – held a topless blockade of the main gate of RAF Lakenheath, denouncing the deadly entanglements between military emissions, climate destruction, authoritarianism and genocide.

    RAF Lakenheath: blockaded already

    Standing with their mouths taped shut to symbolise the silencing of women/FINT folk’s voices, the rebels also had chains binding their wrists to reflect how they are bound by the structures created by men for profit.

    Their bodies were painted with the words “Violence,” “Displacement,” “Brutality,” “Exploitation,” “Silencing” and “Oppression” as they stood hand in hand forming a powerful image blockading the vast military complex:

    War and climate change are both strongly linked to gender-based violence around the world. Evidence shows climate change and conflict are deeply entwined, each contributing to the other in a vicious cycle.

    Lucy Porter, a local resident who took part in the action, said:

    Women, trans, non-binary, and intersex people are hit hardest by climate change, war, and rising fascism. They often struggle to access food, water, and healthcare, and face a higher risk of violence and displacement during crises. These groups are rarely included in decision-making, and emergency aid often overlooks their needs. At the same time, they are increasingly targeted by far-right groups and media. These patterns aren’t random – they come from systems built on patriarchy and power that value control over care.

    The action is held on the penultimate day of the two-week Lakenheath Peace Camp which has seen activists from near 60 groups across the UK protesting the return of US nuclear weapons to USAF Lakenheath.

    The camp ends tomorrow with a mass blockade which will shine a spotlight on the UK government’s ongoing cover-up of plans for US nuclear weapons deployment to Britain as exposed earlier this month by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

    As the world teeters on the edge of political breakdown and  irreversible climate breakdown, these protesters are calling for urgent demilitarisation, an end to imperialist warfare, and real, intersectional climate justice rooted in global solidarity.

    Standing up against the machine

    Today’s action was a collaboration between a number of groups including XR UK and XR Cymru.

    Chrissy Jenkins, a carer from Cwmbran who took part in the action said:

    When so many people are seeing the impact of food insecurity, housing shortages, global warming, and the biodiversity crisis, it is an absurdity that everyday working people’s taxes are being spent on the murder of innocents and the further destruction of land which could provide food, housing and space for nature to thrive.

    As an auntie and a carer, I cannot stand by and watch the military and fossil fuel industrial complex put profits over people. I have watched in horror the UK and US’s participation in war crimes and genocide in Gaza. Can we not evolve beyond this brutality? I believe we can.

    I am here to make a stand for the most vulnerable in our world, the children, the elderly, women, non-binary, trans, intersex and working class people. These are the people who will be most affected and they deserve our protection.

    Tez Burns, 36, action participant from Swansea said:

    I’m joining the Can’t Bare The Harm demonstration because the manufacture and use of weapons leads to increased carbon emissions, making the climate crisis worse and degrading and destroying the lives of those of us who are vulnerable.

    I’m topless because I want to show how vulnerable I, a non-binary assigned female at birth (AFAB) person, am right now in this present moment. Imagine in a war zone, if I had no shelter or protection, how open to harm myself and all other women and AFAB people are?

    I’m topless so you can witness my vulnerability and relate. How would you feel? People are defenseless right now, because we insist on business as usual, when we need to ‘break the chain’.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Peter Oswald completes his 150 mile pilgrimage for Palestine: an act of ’empathy’ and ‘resistance’

    On 18 March 2025, award-winning playwright Peter Oswald set out on an extraordinary journey. Walking from Bristol to London, over the last 13 days of Ramadan, and entirely while fasting, Oswald has now completed his 150 mile pilgrimage for Palestine.

    Peter Oswald completes his pilgrimage for Palestine

    Founder of the Hands Up Project Nick Bilbrough joined him, accompanying Oswald by bicycle. The walk culminated at Parliament Square on 30 March at 2pm.

    Dubbed ‘The Pilgrimage for Palestine’, the initiative aimed to raise awareness of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine, challenge rising Islamophobia in the UK, and raise funds for the Hands Up Project. The UK-based charity connects children around the world with young people in Palestine through creative storytelling and education.

    The journey has so far raised over £18,000 and captured the imagination of the nation. It has drawn coverage from multiple outlets including Al Jazeera, the Independent, and the London Evening Standard.

    Oswald said:

    This pilgrimage was an act of empathy and resistance. It was a public declaration that we will not look away.

    A walk of remembrance, resistance, and solidarity

    Throughout the route, Oswald and Bilbrough stopped in towns and cities to sell poetry collections written by Palestinian children through the Hands Up Project. Tragically, Israel has since killed some of the young authors – their poems now a heartbreaking testament to the lives lost and the dreams stolen.

    In Newbury, the pilgrims were welcomed by the mayor, who – despite criticism – opened the council chamber to offer shelter to a crowd of supporters and briefly flew the Palestinian flag from Town Hall.

    In Bristol, Feda Shahien from the Bournemouth Red Line presented Oswald with the key to her grandmother’s home, from which her family was forcibly displaced during the 1948 Nakba. Oswald later handed the key to a young Palestinian woman in traditional dress in Parliament Square – symbolising both remembrance and resistance.

    The march was not without confrontation. At its conclusion, the pilgrims were targeted by Zionist protesters, one of whom threw liquid at them, leading to a police arrest.

    Yet solidarity remained the heart of the journey. At every stop, local mosques and Muslim communities welcomed the pilgrims to break fast at iftar, join in prayer, and share moments of reflection and unity.

    Peter Oswald: ‘the world must not look away’

    On 31 March, Peter Oswald concluded his pilgrimage with a powerful event at the Marylebone Theatre. Comedian Jen Brister hosted it.

    Highlights included:

    • A performance from The Arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu by Enfield People’s Theatre
    • Poetry by Fatima, one of the Filton 18, read by her mother Sukaina Zainab
    • Recordings and translations of work by Gazan poet Batool Abu Akleen, underscored by the sounds of drones and gunfire
    • Reflections from Peter Oswald and Nick Bilbrough
    • A closing iftar at iconic Palestinian restaurant Shakeshuka, opened specially for the occasion.

    During the pilgrimage, Israel once again shattered the ceasefire in Gaza. The pilgrims remained in contact with Ashraf Kuhail, a Hands Up Project teacher in Gaza. Kuhail continues teaching despite bombardment and blockade.

    Bilbrough said:

    We will never stop being witnesses. The world must not look away.

    Organised by the Bristol Palestine Alliance, The Pilgrimage for Palestine is now evolving into an ongoing activist initiative. Future projects include a storytelling pilgrimage and other community-led actions rooted in art, resistance, and justice.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Youth Demand block London Bridge in latest swarm to #ShutItDown4Palestine

    Youth Demand supporters have taken to the streets once more to demand that the UK government impose a total trade embargo on Israel, and make the super rich and fossil fuel elite pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning.

    Youth Demand: London Bridge is falling down

    At 9:50am on Thursday 24 April, around 25 supporters of Youth Demand disrupted traffic at London Bridge South for around 12 minutes, departing after police arrived on the scene. The supporters could be seen holding signs which read ‘Stop Arming Israel’:

    At around 10:55am the supporters regrouped at Kennington Road, disrupting traffic for around 20 minutes:

    Youth Demand

     

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    A post shared by Youth Demand (@_youthdemand)

    A Youth Demand Spokesperson said:

    13 have been killed overnight and this morning, including children. The UK continues to support Israel’s genocide through arms sales, logistical support and reconnaissance. Our leaders are participating in this genocide because they believe there is a tactical advantage to having somewhere in the middle east that is aligned with ‘Western values’. That is why they say there needs to be a ceasefire, whilst doing nothing materially to change the situation in Palestine. What are our values worth when they are based on the theft of peoples’ land and the murder of innocent children?

    One of those taking action is Fiona Moir from Bridport, who said:

    I am so very upset and angry that my country is supporting Israel in its genocide of Palestinians. I am a peaceful law abiding citizen but the current situation in Gaza needs voices like mine to help express how many people in this country are feeling about Israel’s atrocities. Watching the daily death toll rise, especially of women and children, is like watching a present day holocaust, right in front of us! We can’t stand by and let this happen. Never again, means never again for anyone.

    Israel continues its genocide

    Overnight at least 13 people have been killed in Gaza including many women and children. Israel maintains its eight week blockade on food, medicine and aid entering Gaza, while continuing aerial attacks on homes and tent shelters. “The Gaza Strip is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023,” said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in its latest situation update on April 23. [2]

    Youth Demand said:

    Young people will not accept these crimes against humanity and we will not be led by war criminals and arsonists. We cannot allow those in power to get away with facilitating the systematic annihilation of an entire culture. It’s time to take to the streets day after day and to demand better. Only sustained mass resistance can put an end to this genocide.

    Join us at youthdemand.org

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine Action’s Ferranti 2 ‘defiant’ and ‘unrepentant’ despite sentencing

    Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court has now handed out six month suspended sentences to the ‘Ferranti 2’ Palestine Action activists for an action the pair took against Elbit Systems over four years ago.

    Palestine Action: Ferranti 2 activists receive suspended sentences

    The activists carried out the action at Elbit’s Ferranti weapons factory in Oldham in February 2021. There, they chained the gates of the entrance shut, and liberally covered the building in symbolic blood-red paint. They sprayed the words “Shut Elbit Down” above the entrance.

    A relentless direct action campaign by Palestine Action eventually led to the factory, which had produced imaging technology for Israel’s killer drone fleet, closing down permanently in 2022.

    In December of last year, a judge at Manchester Magistrates Court convicted Adam and Drew of criminal damage. This was after the judge ruled out all defences to the charge before their trial even began. Because of this ruling, the activists were unable to introduce any evidence of the genocide in Gaza, the role of Elbit, Israel’s biggest weapons maker, or any of the reasons which led to them taking action.

    Refusing to plead ‘guilty’, the pair represented themselves in court, and despite having all their defences denied to them, entered court “as the accusers, not the accused”. Giving evidence, Drew explained how:

    We had tried all avenues available to us.

    Adam told the court how they arrived at the site before any workers, so as to avoid any harm or inconvenience to them. He said that the damage caused was not reckless, and that they had been careful not to risk injuring anyone.

    The Jury were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. However, it found the activists guilty of criminal damage, by a majority decision, on 6 December 2024.

    ‘Drop the charges, not the bombs’: supporters turn out in number

    As with other Palestine Action activists, the prosecution and sentencing of Drew and Adam takes place at a time when the Israeli state, and their arms manufacturers, are attempting to interfere in the British judicial process, and where the British government is abusing terrorist legislation.

    A large crowd of supporters met Adam and Drew with Palestine flags and banners as came to court:Large crowd gathers with Palestine flags outside Manchester Crown Court.

    One read:

    Drop The Charges, Not The Bombs!

    Large group of protesters holding Palestine flags, including one which reads: "Drop the charges, not the bombs" with four illustrations of Palestine showing increasing Israeli annexation. Defendant Drew stands wearing a suit and keffiyeh in the centre.

    Palestine Action Ferranti 2 activist stands with a raised fist, wearing a suit and keffiyeh, next to Ferranti 2 activist Adam, while protesters with Palestine flags and a banner reading: "Drop the charges, not the bombs" behind them.

    Over 40 people packed the public gallery, with other supporters outside the court.

    The two activists were defiant, unrepentant, and in good spirits.

    In court, the prosecution called for terms of imprisonment for the 2 activists, of between 6 and 18 months. The defence rebutted their arguments. Before Judge Bernadette Baxter, the court handed Drew and Adam six month suspended sentences, with a requirement to do 250 hours unpaid work, and £750 costs.

    They left court with their heads held high, to the cheers of waiting supporters:

    Palestine Action Ferranti 2 activist Drew stands amid a crowd of supporters holding banners and flags outside court.

    Both Adam and Drew thanked those who had supported them throughout the past 4 years, and delivered a strong message of defiance, and a call for solidarity with the 20 Palestine Action political prisoners currently in jail, and for further action to shut Elbit down.

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said:

    The permanent shutting down of Elbit’s Oldham death factory was a major victory in Palestine Action’s direct action campaign against the Israeli weapons maker. Drew and Adam played a significant part in that victory, and despite being denied all defences by the trial judge, they refused to plead guilty, and stood true to their values, despite the threat of prison. It is Elbit and the politicians complicit in the Gaza genocide who should have been standing in the dock, not those who risked their liberty to save lives.

    Featured image and additional images via Martin Pope

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Palestine Action just forced ANOTHER company to cut ties with Elbit

    Palestine Action has secured another impressive victory against arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and genocidal Israel. This time, its concerted direct action has forced Manchester-based metal components manufacturer Dean Group International to sever all ties with Elbit’s UK subsidiary Instro Precision.

    The company has confirmed this to Palestine Action in an email. In this, it promised to never to work with Elbit Systems or its subsidiaries in the future.

    The move comes less than three weeks after Palestine Action targeted Dean Group in a direct action campaign, exposing its complicity in the production of Israeli weapons.

    Palestine Action defeat another company connected to genocide-complicit Elbit Systems

    Specifically, Dean Group’s “commitment not to engage with the Elbit or Instro supply chains” follows Palestine Action’s rooftop occupation and property sabotage at Dean Group’s site in Irlam, Greater Manchester on 31 March 2025.

    Activists had scaled the factory roof and drenched the building in blood-red paint – a visual representation of the Palestinian bloodshed enabled by companies like Dean Group that supply parts for Elbit’s weapons manufacturing.

    Activists targeted the same Irlam site in July 2024, dismantling its occupation-enabling products.

    Dean Group were confirmed to have been supplying Instro Precision when activists entered the Instro premises in Kent. There, the former’s materials were found alongside the sniper sights and weapons components which Instro exports en-masse to Israel.

    Notably, during previous direct actions at Elbit’s Instro Precision facility in Broadstairs, Kent, Palestine Action uncovered evidence of Elbit using subcontracted metal parts that Dean Group had supplied. Instro Precision manufactures surveillance and targeting equipment that the Israeli military has used in its attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Dean Group severe all ties with Elbit subsidiary Instro Precision

    Following the March action, Dean Group formally confirmed to Palestine Action that it had terminated all business relations with Instro Precision and would categorically not engage with Elbit Systems or its subsidiaries going forward.

    This latest victory mirrors a series of wins by Palestine Action in their campaign to dismantle the supply chain that enables Israeli warfare, including but not limited to:

    • In 2023, recruitment firm iO Associates dropped Elbit Systems following repeated actions.
    • In 2024, their suppliers Hydrafeed, lobbyists APCO Worldwide, and hauliers Kuehne+Nagel all cut ties with Elbit after Palestine Action targeted them.
    • Most recently, Fisher German confirmed it would no longer manage property for Elbit’s drone production site in Shenstone.

    A Palestine Action spokesperson said:

    Another link in Elbit’s war machine has been smashed. Dean Group’s decision to walk away from Instro Precision – and to reject Elbit Systems entirely — proves that sustained direct action works. This is not just a symbolic win- it’s an operational blow to Elbit’s ability to produce the weapons used to massacre Palestinians.

    Palestine Action’s direct action campaign continues to target Elbit Systems and all those who facilitate its business. With every broken contract and severed supply line, the campaign moves closer to its goal: shutting Elbit down for good.

    Featured image via Direct Action Images 

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Trump & Musk’s War on Education & Students: Professors Say “Hands Off” at NYC Protest


    This content originally appeared on Laura Flanders & Friends and was authored by Laura Flanders & Friends.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Edinburgh just came out in force against the Supreme Court’s roll-back of trans women’s rights

    On Saturday 19 April, around 2,000 protesters turned out in Edinburgh against the UK Supreme Court’s roll-back of transgender women’s rights.

    Members of the public marched from the foot of The Mound to the UK government building to rail against the disgraceful far-right-fueled ruling.

    Supreme Court assault on trans people’s rights: protest in Edinburgh

    Members of the community, including individuals from Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh, organised the protest:

    Supreme Court protest in Edinburgh over trans rights

    Together, gender queer communities and allies galvanised a highly energised crowd against the Supreme Court ruling. Throughout, the rhetoric was one of encouraging solidarity within the trans community, rather than begging the government for help. This included a call to autonomously establish sources of “Food, Housing, Medicine and Trans Joy”.

    One protester, the poet Ellie Mental said:

    This protest shows one thing more than any other; where they need to bus in a couple hundred to their fill out little hate meets, thousands organically show up to support us. where they need to utilise courts to enforce their bigotry, we have a real community at our backs. Where they have billionaires bankrolling their cruelty.

    This was a reference to the American dark money used to fund many anti-trans organisations.

    Mental continued that:

    We rely on each other’s compassion and strength. for every step they push us back, we don’t falter. we stand firm. we push back. we’re not going anywhere.

    Red, an ally who attended the protest, said:

    As a cisgender woman and a survivor of sexual violence, I think the Supreme Court decision is an insult. It’s something that should frighten all of us, cis or trans. It’s done nothing to clarify anyone’s rights or protect anyone – all it does is legitimise the kind of blind bigotry that’s made it harder and harder for organisations supporting women and LGBTQ+ people to operate freely. Me and many others like me are out here protesting today because trans women’s rights are all of our rights. We’re all on the same side here and I’m sick of people who pretend to speak for me targeting my friends and family and making all of us less safe and more afraid. This ruling represents the wants of a tiny minority of bigoted, vindictive people – and we can’t let it stand unchallenged.

    Supreme Court hostile to trans existence in Scotland and beyond

    Many of those present feel that the UK parliament and Supreme Court has shown that they are actively hostile towards trans existence. The reason for this is that have repeatedly blocked Scotland’s cross-party efforts to reduce unnecessary legal burdens on trans people, and to bring legislation in line with international standards of human rights. Flyers distributed at the demonstration said:

    We urge the people of Scotland to resist and ignore Wednesday’s verdict.

    Cordially sharing the foot of the mound with street preachers celebrating Easter, protesters chanted “out of the clinics, into the streets”, “A, B, abolish the GIC”, and “you can shove your Supreme Court up your arse”. It proceeded along the road to the Queen Elizabeth House, where more speeches and chants took place.

    Q is a scholar and trans activist who gave a speech during the rally who has organised in India, Ireland, and Scotland for over a decade on queer rights and inclusion, and sexual liberation for women, trans and lower caste communities. At the protest, Q said:

    As the world slowly shifts into democratic backsliding, trans people have been weaponised into a distraction, where instead of addressing a housing crisis, poverty, homelessness, an underfunded NHS, care for the most vulnerable in our society, an ongoing genocide in Palestine, the murder of children and civilians using weapons manufactured in our country, on our soil, they choose instead to target, disenfranchise, and attack the 1% using flawed notions of biology and justice. But the politics of hate they are fuelled by separates them from us and our politics of warmth, hospitality, and care.

    Solidarity and community that the ‘transphobes could never’

    This last month has seen rapid organisation of the trans community in Scotland, with multiple protests and mutual aid organisations being established. In the face of adversity, the trans community is coming together in prefigurative solidarity in order to build powerful networks of support:

    Leith-based writer Josie Giles said:

    Today proved the enormous power of trans people’s collective organising. Together we have all the strength and skills we need to fight the powers that seek to exclude trans women from public life, and to seize what all oppressed people need: food, housing, medicine and a joyful life. Our liberation is workers’ liberation and women’s liberation. And trans people said it loud: Free Palestine!

    Sam, an Edinburgh local, said:

    Seeing people from literally every sort of local community I can think of made “Whose streets? Our streets” sound legit. The transphobes could never.

    Featured image and additional images supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.