Over a thousand Vermonters lined both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield, Vermont, Saturday morning protesting Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting nearby Sugarbush Resort this weekend with his family. Vance’s ski vacation comes right after Friday’s disastrous meeting where US President Donald Trump and Vance ambushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Oxford University got another reminder of its complicity with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza – as activists took to one building to protest its involvement.
Oxford students and local activists have once again took to action in a bold protest targeting the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. This demonstration is in response to the University’s ongoing investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer implicated in the genocide of Palestinians, and to protest Oxford’s hosting of politicians deeply complicit in Israel’s genocide.
In an action organised by students and local community members, Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government was sprayed with messages of ‘DROP ELBIT’ and ‘FREE PALESTINE’, the glass panes on the building’s exterior shattered:
Oxford’s ties to Elbit Systems, which manufactures drones used by the Israeli military, have been a source of mounting criticism, and led to a previous visit by Palestine Action in October 2024, in collaboration with Oxford residents, targeting the University’s administrative offices in Wellington Square, to demand total divestment from Elbit.
The symbolic act of defiance comes the day before former prime minister Rishi Sunak is due to join the Blavatnik School’s Board, an individual infamous for his support for Israeli war crimes and genocide. The protestors view the involvement in University administration of Rishi Sunak, who gave his “unequivocal” support for Israel’s siege and massacres in Gaza, as part of a broader strategy to legitimize and perpetuate the UK’s support for Israel’s military actions, including the ongoing occupation of Palestine.
“We are here to send a clear message to Oxford: its role in funding and profiting from the genocide of Palestine cannot go unchallenged” said a spokesperson for Palestine Action:
Oxford’s investment in Elbit Systems is not just a financial decision, but a political one that supports the violence and oppression faced by Palestinians every day.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons firm, responsible for production of 85% of Israel’s military drones and directly linked to documented war crimes against Palestinians of the most heinous nature.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Asia Pacific Report
The State of Palestine has submitted a written plea to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) asking it for an advisory opinion regarding Israel’s obligations not to obstruct humanitarian and development assistance in the territories it occupies, Al Jazeera reports.
In the submission, Palestinian officials affirmed the responsibility of Israel, as an occupying power, to not obstruct the work of the UN, international organisations, and third states so they can provide essential services, humanitarian aid, and development assistance to the Palestinian people.
Many states, as well as international groups, have submitted written pleas to the ICJ ahead of oral proceedings set to start next month.
Last July, the ICJ issued a historic advisory opinion determining Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.
Widespread ‘torture’ of Gaza medics in Israeli custody
In a separate report, the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights accused the Israeli military of detaining more than 250 medical personnel and support staff since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023.
More than 180 remained in detention without a clear indication of when or if they would be released, the physicians’ report said.
“Detainees endure physical, psychological and sexual abuse as well as starvation and medical neglect amounting to torture,” the report said, denouncing a “deeply ingrained policy”.
Healthcare workers were beaten, threatened, and forced to sign documents in Hebrew during their detention, according to the report based on 20 testimonies collected in prison.
“Medical personnel were primarily questioned about the Israeli hostages, tunnels, hospital structures and Hamas’s activity,” it said.
“They were rarely asked questions linking them to any criminal activity, nor were they presented with substantive charges.”
Where does Trump stand on the Gaza ceasefire?
With phase one of the ceasefire due to end today and negotiations barely started on phase two, serious fears are being raised over the viability of the ceasefire.
President Donald Trump took credit for the truce that his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff helped push across the finish line after a year of negotiations led by the Biden administration, Egypt and Qatar, reports Al Jazeera.
However, Trump has since sent mixed signals about the deal.
Earlier last month, he set a firm deadline for Hamas to release all the captives, warning “all hell is going to break out” if it didn’t.
But he said it was ultimately up to Israel, and the deadline came and went.
Trump sowed further confusion by proposing that Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million be relocated to other countries and for the US to take over the territory and develop it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the idea, but it was universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, including close US allies. Human rights groups said it could violate international law.
Trump stood by the plan in a Fox News interview over the weekend but said he was “not forcing it”.
Responding to DAWN’s referral of Biden, Blinken & Austin to the ICC for investigation for aiding Israeli war crimes, @alhaq_org‘s @SJabaren says:
“Finally, we see an effort to hold” accountable “US officials who have armed, financed and politically defended Israeli atrocities.” pic.twitter.com/yCpRaogE2I
— DAWN MENA (@DAWNmenaorg) February 28, 2025
‘Finally’ an effort to hold the US accountable, says Al-Haq director
Palestinian human rights activist Shawan Jabarin has welcomed a plea by the US-based rights group DAWN for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Joe Biden and senior US officials for aiding Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
In a video posted by DAWN, Jabarin, director of the Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said the effort was long overdue.
“For decades we have called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law, but time and again, the US has used its power and influence to block that accountability, to shield Israel from consequences and to ensure that it can continue its crimes with impunity,” Jabarin said.
“Now, finally, we see an effort to hold not just Israeli officials accountable but also those who have made these crimes possible: US officials who have armed, financed, and politically defended Israeli atrocities.”
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
The University of Cambridge has lost its legal bid to stop pro-Palestine, anti-genocide protests on certain parts of its campus.
Palestine campaigners have welcomed an important victory in defence of their rights to protest. At short notice the University of Cambridge attempted to secure a draconian five year long injunction to prevent specifically Israel and Palestine-related protest at key sites on campus.
This unprecedented attack on the right to protest and freedom of expression was defeated in court by the ELSC, who intervened in support of campaigners.
The University of Cambridge attempted to argue that the injunction until 2030 was urgently required before graduation ceremonies this weekend, but the judge Mr Justice Fordham dismissed this application, saying he would grant only a “very narrow and limited court order” until Saturday 1 March 2025.
This only prohibits entry and erecting structures – other protest is not injuncted.
A further hearing is scheduled for March as the judge said it was “a matter of significant concern” that the university’s application offered little time for potential interested parties to properly respond.
Ahead of the hearing, ELSC, PSC, Liberty, and UCU were joined by Cambridge SU and the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Assembly to condemn the university’s discriminatory attack on fundamental rights to protest, which disproportionately affects Palestinian students and staff.
The university sought to silence those demanding that it ends its complicity in Israel’s genocide. PSC research has previously found that British universities invest nearly £430m in companies complicit in Israel’s violations of international law.
Ben Jamal, PSC director, said:
This is an important victory for freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, both of which should be cornerstones of university life. The University of Cambridge tried to single out Palestinian staff and students and those speaking up for international law, and subject them to draconian restrictions not applied to protestors on any other issue. This decision should mark a watershed in defence of freedom of expression and the right to protest.
Anna Ost, senior legalofficer, ELSC, said:
This is a significant victory – one that sends a strong message to other universities attempting to impose such draconian restrictions on freedom of assembly and protest. The University of Cambridge’s efforts to undermine its students’ civil liberties – by seeking an injunction to effectively ban expressions of Palestine solidarity both on and off campus until 2030 – represented the broadest restriction on university protests to date. We are thrilled that the court has refused to grant it today, but this fight is not over. Another hearing is scheduled for the end of March, and we hope the court will recognise, as we do, that this is a blatant violation of students’ fundamental rights.
Since October 2023, we have witnessed ongoing attempts to undermine students’ right to protest and to challenge their institutions’ complicity in violations of international law and genocide. It is our responsibility to fight this wider pattern of repression against our movement, on university campuses or otherwise, and against our civil liberties in the legal terrain.
Cambridge 4 Palestine commented:
This decision represents a massive political victory for our movement in solidarity with Palestine, and for student political expression at large. The court has revealed that Cambridge’s racist targeting of Palestinian identity, and demonisation of students and staff who protest the University’s complicity in genocide is baseless and unacceptable.
At the same time, however, C4P asserted that “the freedom to protest is the bare minimum and a fundamental right. Our true win will come when we see an end to the University’s partnership with Israel’s genocidal campaigns”.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Palestine Action has been at it again. During the early hours of Friday 28 February, Aviva offices were targeted in Perth and Motherwell, Scotland. It is, of course, over the insurance giant’s complicity with Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Activists from Palestine Action Scotland covered both sides of the Aviva offices in blood-red paint to symbolise the company’s complicity in Palestinian bloodshed, spray painted messages such as “Drop Elbit” and broke window:
BREAKING: Palestine Action target Aviva's offices in Motherwell, Scotland.
Aviva provides the legally required insurance for Elbit's Israeli drone factory in Staffordshire to operate.
Without it, Elbit couldn't build engines in Britain to power Israeli killer drones. pic.twitter.com/pyAvs2iU05
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) February 28, 2025
BREAKING: Palestine Action Scotland target Aviva's offices in Perth.
Overnight, actionists targeted two premises belonging to the insurance firm in Scotland.
Aviva must stop providing insurance for Israel's biggest weapons producer. pic.twitter.com/I2XYuVdEpd
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) February 28, 2025
The two actions taken today in Scotland follow an occupation of ‘The Aviva Centre’ in Bristol last month by Palestine Action.
Aviva provide mandatory employers liability insurance for a Staffordshire-based drone factory UAV Engines, owned by Israel’s biggest weapons producer, Elbit Systems. Without it, Elbit would not be able to build engines which power Israel’s killer drone fleet. Elbit Systems manufacture 85% of Israel’s military drones, which are used to massacre people in Palestine and Lebanon, and are often marketed as “battle-tested” after first deploying them against Palestinians in Gaza.
Aviva proclaim to respect human rights within their social responsibility policies, but providing insurance for UAV Engines is a clear contradiction which should be immediately rectified.
In direct contradiction with facilitating Elbit weapons production, ‘The Aviva Business Ethic Code’ states: “Respecting our customers, colleagues, communities, partners and the environment is part of our approach to human rights. As a company, we have an obligation to ensure our business activities do not cause or contribute to violations of human rights of others“.
Palestine Action have also repeatedly targeted Allianz, who provide insurance for other Elbit weapons factories in Britain. Through targeted direct action, Palestine Action are applying necessary pressure to break the links which allow the production of Israeli weapons on British soil.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
By providing the legally required insurance for Elbit’s Israeli drone factory to operate in Britain, Aviva directly enables and profits from the genocide of the Palestinian people. Whilst direct action may seem like a rude awakening, it pales in comparison to waking up to missiles being dropped by Israel’s killer drone fleet.
Palestine Action will continue to target all those who facilitate the operations of Israel’s biggest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, until they cease ties.
Featured image via screengrab
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
A climate crisis protester was found guilty of obstructing a railway line that carries trees to Drax’s climate-wrecking biomass power station – for less than a minute. If that seems an excessive weaponisation of the law against people standing up for the planet, it only gets worse in the wider context. This is because, the very next day, Drax was posting another year of whopping mega-profits.
So what do you do in the face of the complicit state and criminal justice system serving the interests of forest-razing Drax? Well, protesters from campaign group Axe Drax had one idea – and it involved FIRE.
Climate mega-polluter Drax has had a good week. However, it has meant bad news all round for people and the planet.
First, on Wednesday 26 February, a jury guided by a corporate servile judge handed climate protester and retired GP Diana Warner a guilty verdict. It was over an action in December 2021. Warner obstructed a railway line that carries trees destined to be burned by Drax’s Selby power plant in Yorkshire.
As the biggest burner of woody biomass worldwide, its the UK’s single largest carbon polluter, and then some. In 2023 for instance, the planet-wrecking wood pellet plant pumped out 11.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. It meant that Drax’s Selby power station put out the equivalent of nearly 3% of the UK’s territorial emissions.
At Leeds Crown Court, Judge Kearl instructed the 12-person jury to ignore their consciences in the case. Notably, the judge told the jury that:
You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence not your conscience
He directed them to try Warner solely on the basis of whether she a) trespassed on Network Rail’s land, and b) caused an obstruction. Despite this, the jury still raised the concern over conscience, before ultimately finding Warner guilty.
The jury queried Judge Kearl over their moral concerns, raising the question:
As a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict. What should we do?
Of course, it isn’t the first case where a judge has tried to silence the jury’s right to acquit defendants. Notorious judges Christopher Hehir and Silas Reid – who have repeatedly handed out guilty verdicts to protesters – have been a leading example of judge hostility to juries ruling with their consciences.
Warner will now face sentencing on 25 March.
In a statement, Warner said that:
I believe that the jury showed they understood and agreed with me, through the question they asked and through their body language. I believe that they understood that I took the action to make the point that the government must review its position on Drax. The government must work towards getting the UK’s flexible energy in ways that are really sustainable.
Following Warner’s guilty verdict, on the 27 February, Drax posted its full year results. Across its 2024 operations, the greenwashing giant raked in £1.06bn in profits.
Its gargantuan payouts also come the same month the Labour Party government has granted Drax £2bn in taxpayer subsidies. On Monday 10 February, the government extended this sum propping up the destructive industry from 2027 to 2031.
Moreover, despite these marking its highest ever earnings in more than three decades of its operations, it announced it would slash investment in plans to reduce its emissions. Specifically, as the Guardian reported, after stonking profits AND more government subsidies, it threatened to ditch carbon capture and storage (CCS) plans unless the government could guarantee its returns on this.
Obviously, the Canary has highlighted how CCS is a false climate solution and con anyway. But the point it underscored is that even with its highest ever profits, Drax is rowing back on the minimal efforts to ‘green’ its mega-polluting business. Go figure. Needless to say, it was an opportunistic smokescreen all along.
However, climate campaigners from Axe Drax were undeterred by the latest court ruling against their fellow activist.
Protesters from the anti-biomass energy group pitched up outside Drax’s major wood pellet burning power plant in Yorkshire.
And the gaslighting ‘green’ energy giant got burned:
In front of its infamous site, protesters set alight a banner effigy to “our future” and “our money” that Drax was busy burning away in a background:
All the while, pollution belched out from the smokestacks at Drax:
The not remotely ‘renewable‘ energy giant has wrecked numerous old-growth forests and plundering nature reserves for its pellets.
Moreover, as the Canary reported only this week, Drax pellet mills in the US are having devastating impacts on nearby communities’ health.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s climate criminal Drax that should really be in the dock again? As Warner mused in her statement, her trial:
is important because it clearly shows that the courts are protecting wealthy people and corporations.
Naturally, she’s right on the money – because Drax are clearly rolling in it with the full support of both the UK government, and the courts. Evidently, it’s clearly coming at an unconscionable expense for communities and biodiversity.
Rosie from Axe Drax said:
It is perverse hypocrisy that the same private company can have billions in subsidies from our bills pledged in the same month they announce over a billion in earnings, all while our genuine public services continue to crumble. We should not be lining the pockets for Drax’s shareholders while seeing cruel cuts to winter fuel payment and disability benefits.”
Helen Hart from Extinction Rebellion Leeds added that:
Burning trees in power stations for six more years is not a climate solution. It’s a climate crime that’s taking a torch to our future. If that wasn’t bad enough, this madness is being underwritten by billions of pounds that is being added to our energy bills, which is ending up in the pockets of mega-rich shareholders when it is badly needed to fix our broken public services.
Time and again we are seeing this government failing to stand up to powerful interests and do the right thing. That’s why we need a citizens’ assembly that is independent and made up of a cross-section of ordinary people.
Featured image and additional images supplied
This post was originally published on Canary.
Climate crisis campaigners turned up at the door of planet-burning company BP to call out the fossil fuel major’s predictably risible row-back on renewables, as it once again ramps up its oil and gas investment.
On February 26, BP slashed its investment in renewables. As Reuters reported:
BP cut planned annual investment in renewable energy businesses by more than $5 billion, from its previous forecast, to between $1.5 billion and $2 billion per year.
By contrast, the climate-wrecking corporation announced an annual increase in oil and gas spending. To the tune of $10bn, BP’s explosive investment in fossil fuels will surge its oil and gas production:
to between 2.3 million and 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2030. It pumped 2.36 million boepd in 2024.
BP’s CEO Murray Auchincloss said the “strategy reset” demonstrated the corporations “unwavering focus” on boosting shareholder profit.
However, the green energy snake-oil sales-merchant of climate doubt wasn’t about to get away with this without a fuss. At least, that was thanks to climate campaigners pitching up with placards outside BP’s HQ in London.
Campaigners from Fossil Free London were joined by a coalition of climate groups. This included anti-fossil fuel activists from Weald Action Group. Last year, on behalf of the group, campaigner Sarah Finch famously took on UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) in a groundbreaking case that set a vital new precedent and potential death blow to the UK industry around their downstream emissions.
After BPs announcement, the groups gathered outside the climate-wrecking corporation’s London HQ in St James’s Square on Wednesday evening:
BREAKING: We’re outside BP’s HQ because they’ve just announced they will be ditching their green pledges and our lives, in favour of short term profits from expanding for even more OIL and GAS.
Big Oil is killing us!!
BP’s greed is literally setting fire to our only home. pic.twitter.com/ZPT6rBRkBY
— Fossil Free London (@fossilfreeLDN) February 26, 2025
Campaigners held a banner reading “Big Oil is Killing Us” while chanting “Who kills? BP kills!”:
Protesters drew a link between BPs fossil fuel profiteering and the climate crisis impacts that have been hitting communities this year already. Mudslides have devastated Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, and communities in Australia, Brazil, and South Africa suffered extreme flash flooding:
BPs announcement came just weeks after the hottest January on record, where wildfires ravaged California. One campaigner called out BP’s complicity in the Los Angeles loss of life to the infernos that tore across the US city:
Of course, BP reneging on its renewables investment was only to be expected. Big Oil’s profit golden-boy wasn’t going to grow a green energy conscience and stop pumping out the petroleum.
After all, this isn’t the first time the company has ditched its renewables arm. In the 2000s, the oil and gas giant suddenly seemed to manifest a moral compass – sort of. It was out with the old British colonial corporate brand legacy, in with the swanky millennial bug in the Big Oil system that was ‘Beyond Petroleum’. Needless to say, this image didn’t exactly last long. It quickly dumped its renewables rebrand when it got in deep water – quite literally with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that took the sheen off its slimy PR stunt.
Honourable mention should also go to the personal climate culpability coinage con that is ‘carbon footprints’. Also the brainchild of BP, its slick blame-game did plenty to murky the waters of fossil fuel companies’ role in fueling the climate crisis as well.
Climate activists have been warning people for years that once a fossil fuel corporate capitalist, always a fossil fuel corporate capitalist. Once again, BP has only proven this point to be painfully obviously the case.
To sum up: we can’t trust the same colonial forces that flung the planet into this mess, to fix it. Climate campaigners outside BP HQ highlighted why relying on fossil fuel companies to save the planet is a fool’s errand.
Campaigner with Fossil Free London Robin Wells said:
The reality behind this oily money that BP is hellbent on creating is written in skulls and bones. The climate crisis is the greatest threat to society and human survival that humanity has ever known. From Valencia to Pakistan, the activities of these climate criminals will kill us. They must be regulated, they must be forced to pay up, they must be stopped.
Weald Climate Action Group protester Lorraine added:
BP’s decisions today to double down on its oil and gas productions and abandon its already weak renewable commitments is nothing short of reckless. They are, yet again, chasing short term profits at the expense of the future of our planet. Communities across the globe are already suffering the catastrophic consequences of fossil fuel expansion. We will not stand by while BP accelerates the climate crisis in the name of corporate greed.
Featured image and additional images via Fossil Free London
This post was originally published on Canary.
Show Israel the Red Card is a new initiative from Celtic fans that has been adopted by other football fans the world over. Their social media profile reads:
We are a campaign group based in Scotland, committed to the sporting and cultural boycotting of Israel and supporting a free Palestine.
The action began at the Celtic v Bayern Munich game on the 12 February, where Celtic fans unveiled, alongside symbolic red cards, a banner that read:
show Israel the red card.
Leaflets circulated at the game read:
At the start of the second half, please Show ‘Israel’ the Red Card to send a direct message to Uefa (Union of European Football Associations) and Fifa (International Federation of Association Football) to apply their respective statutes and suspend ‘Israel’ from competition.
By doing so, you will not only be doing the right thing but you will be joining football fans of conscience and courage around the world who will be adopting the same message.
Despite Israel’s continued genocide in Palestine, global footballing associations have allowed Israel to continue to participate in competitions. In May 2024, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for a ban on Israel’s footballing participation. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the governing body of international football, have repeatedly delayed a decision.
This cowardly decision stands in stark contrast to Israel, as of November 2024, killing 344 Palestinian footballers. Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans went on a racist rampage in Amsterdam rife with anti-Arab slurs. In October 2024 Gaza football writer Abubaker Abed told Al Jazeera:
More than 50 sports facilities have been reduced to rubble in Gaza, including nine out of 10 of Gaza’s stadiums. Almost every club has been destroyed in this war, while one stadium in Deir el-Balah has been turned into a shelter for thousands of displaced people.
It is inconceivable that FIFA would allow any other nation to kill another nation’s footballers, destroy stadiums, and use threatening behaviour at games without any response. It’s a disgrace that, just like other institutions, they’ve equipped Israel in behaving with impunity.
In encouraging others to join their protest, a statement from a group of Celtic fans read:
We call on football fans around the world who value life, humanity, dignity, freedom, peace and justice to be courageous and to use your platform to stand against the crimes of Israel and stand with Palestine. You can make a stand by adopting to show Israel the red card and by flying the flag of Palestine.
Football is an incredibly powerful tool. If the football world unites to isolate Israel, then other arenas will inevitably follow this example. It is time for both UEFA and FIFA to practice the values which they preach: equality, respect and human rights.
Fans have responded with gusto, with supporters around the world joining the Show Israel the Red Card movement. Drop Site News reported that:
The “Show Israel the Red Card” movement, sparked by Celtic’s Green Brigade, has rapidly spread across 72 teams in 25 countries and six continents. Fans are unfurling banners, displaying red cards, and waving Palestinian flags to protest Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.
In Spain, Osasuna fans joined together to show Israel the red card:
Osasuna Fans banner yesterday:
“Show Israel The Red Card” pic.twitter.com/JJv7Cr3v5V
— Real Madrid Info ³⁶ (@RMadridInfo) February 16, 2025
Malaysian fans did the same:
Malaysian football fans join the global call to show ‘Israel’ the red card. pic.twitter.com/5MUpnGi68h
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) February 24, 2025
In Sevilla, Spain fans showed out in force:
Incredible scenes at Sanchez Pizjuán stadium as Sevilla fans join the "Show Israel the Red Card" campaign during their game vs. Mallorca in La Liga.
Coincidentally, the phrase above them reads "it's said they never give up"
Football fans are really not giving up on this one
pic.twitter.com/m3HCzwsChc
— Leyla Hamed (@leylahamed) February 24, 2025
Fiery scenes in Chile:
The red card is shown once again in Santiago, Chile – this time by the Garra Blanca Antifascista of @ColoColo pic.twitter.com/XHK3yWbgXK
— North Curve Celtic (@NCCeltic) February 25, 2025
Celtic fan collective, North Curve Celtic, shared news of protests that show Israel the red card in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia:
The Red Card campaign officially arrives in Morocco with the Los Matadores and Fondo Norte of MA Tetouan.
Morocco now joins Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in showing the red card from Africa. pic.twitter.com/HslmPUc5XC
— North Curve Celtic (@NCCeltic) February 25, 2025
Quds News Network showed more images including from France and Greece:
“Show Israel the Red Card”
From France to Greece, Morocco to Chile, and Spain to Italy, football fans worldwide are expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people by calling for a suspension of Israel from international competitions.https://t.co/XGCsbDQHF3
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 25, 2025
Cork City fans unfurled their own banner:
#CorkCity fans call for #Israel to be sanctioned. The slogan is written in their own Irish language.
The literal translation is 'Card of Red for Israel'
#FreePalestine #RedCardIsrael pic.twitter.com/RJzdsQihZ3
— Football Fans Against Fascism (@Class1Action) February 16, 2025
Just as a cultural boycott became a growing movement during South African apartheid, there is clearly a similar need for a cultural boycott of apartheid Israel. Institutions like FIFA have repeatedly shown themselves to be cowards who will not act unless forced to by fans – if even then. The more people who can boycott anything coming out of Israel the better – these football fans via Show Israel the Red Card are showing more backbone than the most powerful people and institutions in the world.
As Omar Al Akkad’s new book states: one day, everyone will always have been against this.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
The following is a comment piece from Cornwall Resists over claims made by Nigel Farage about a protest on Monday 24 February. Farage has written to Labour Party home secretary Yvette Cooper claiming that free speech and democracy were under attack, and that him, his MPs, and his party were under threat:
NEW: Nigel Farage has written to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper after several people were injured at an Antifa protest outside Reform UK’s Cornwall conference yesterday pic.twitter.com/6dYqE0i6xS
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) February 25, 2025
Ironically, he also went on his GB News show to claim the same – saying “democracy was under attack”. The media outlet posted his tirade on X before deleting it:
Nigel Farage concerned about the state of free speech as he's literally hosting a fucking show.
You should not be able to work in the media if you are an MP. https://t.co/qauJRAjRBk
— Curtis Daly (@CurtisDaly_) February 26, 2025
You can still watch it here.
So, Cornwall Resists have hit back with the following response to Farage and Reform.
Oh dear, we seem to have rattled Nigel Farage the fascist.
We’re going to celebrate that as a win!
According to Farage, we’re domestic terrorists who should be proscribed, describing us as “a very violent and dangerous organisation”.
He also claims hundreds of people contacted the venue asking them to cancel his conference, and that we prevented 100 people from attending altogether. If this is the case, we’re very happy with that result. We hope that Carn Brea Leisure centre will think again next time Farage wants to use its premises as a breeding ground for hate. We do not tolerate hate, especially on our turf.
Like most people, we aren’t pacifists – we will defend ourselves and our communities when under attack. As we saw in Plymouth last summer when fascists attacked us for hours with bricks and fireworks, the police do not protect us. We – the people – protect us.
But let’s also be clear – the violence that occurred on Monday night was instigated by the police, Reform-hired security, and Reform supporters.
On Monday afternoon Cornwall Resists were able to block one of the entrances to the conference that Farage was attending. We didn’t try to storm it, we simply stood in the way. Reform supporters didn’t have to walk through us – they could have gone back to the main entrance, which many did. However instead of redirecting Reform supporters back to the main entrance, the police and Reform security tried to get them through our blockade by violently assaulting people, punching people and throwing them to the floor.
Reform supporters were deliberately provoking protesters, getting in their faces and even punching one person in the face. The police did nothing to stop them, so it was down to us to protect our friends and allies. Across the road a Reform supporter spray-painted “Islamism is Nazism”.
Farage singling out former Camborne mayor Zoe Fox is disgraceful. Zoe turned up to support a lawful protest against a far-right party threatening her community. At no point did she ever incite violence. Likewise, Farage blaming Zarah Sultana for our protest is a disgrace. While we have nothing but solidarity with Zarah, she had zero influence on our protest. Both these unwarranted attacks reek of misogyny and will fuel unwarranted online hatred.
This online hatred is one of the reasons we wear masks. Labour’s new proposal to ban face coverings at protests will put us at physical risk. Antifascism is dangerous. There are violent individuals who spend their time trying to identify us so they can take revenge on us and our loved ones, for speaking out. The threat when they do this is very real. In 2021 we saw it locally when Penzance mayor Nicole Broadhurst received racist threats and had to have a panic alarm installed in her house. We live in our communities, some of us have children or live with vulnerable people. We should not be expected to put the safety of our loved ones at risk just for attending a protest.
We also hide our identities to resist police harassment, as new legislation has criminalised many forms of protest. Under the public order act, protesters who haven’t even committed an offence can be handed Serious Disruption Prevention Orders. These will prevent people from attending protests, stop them seeing named people, prevent them from organising online and can be enforced by electronic tags. Antifascists are labeled “aggravated activists” by the police, and you don’t need to have a criminal record to be added to their databases, simply associating with a known person and going to several protests is enough. This information has been used countless times to harass and intimidate campaigners. No-one should face police intimidation for standing up to fascists.
And it’s not just antifascism. Police have collaborated with illegal blacklisting that prevented people getting work because of left-wing political views, and trade union activity. No-one should face police harassment, intimidation or criminalisation for campaigning. So Cornwall Resists advocates wearing masks on all demos regardless of whether there is a risk of far-right violence. We will continue to do so regardless of the proposed legislation.
Our protests were not antidemocratic. Democracy is about more than ticking a box every few years. It means “power to the people”. ‘Reform’ divides communities. They act in the interests of the rich and powerful. 17 local groups coming together to oppose a far-right conference is more democratic than a supposed ‘political’ party that fuels hatred, spreads misinformation and incites mobs to race riots. True democracy is communities coming together to say no to hate.
Kernow is broken. We all know radical change is needed. Our land has become nothing but a playground for the rich. We are priced out of our communities. Our land is stolen by second home owners; services have been decimated by years of austerity. Our Cornish language, history, culture and desire for autonomy is mocked or dismissed. Mainstream political parties don’t represent us. But neither does “reform” and their far-right views.
Farage is not a man of the people. On top of his £91k a year salary, he earns over £1 million in other work. He is part of the problem. He is part of the rich elite that is screwing over the rest of us while the planet burns. Nigel Farage talks about taking “his” country back, but we don’t want to be part of his country. Our problem is with second homes, not with refugees fleeing torture.
We recognise that while not every Reform voter is a fascist, those at the top of the party undoubtedly are. Their rhetoric is a threat to every person of colour, trans person and disabled person. And when a fascist comes to speak in our community we have to stand up and say no.
We know to stop the far-right will take more than one protest at a conference. We need to organise our communities to build an alternative to Farage and his hate. 17 local groups came together for this protest. We live and work in our local communities. We are the carers, the shop workers, the mothers, the grandmothers, the charity workers, the NHS workers, the hospitality workers, the teachers, the volunteers, the students. It’s up to us, all of us, to do our part.
Whenever and wherever fascists mobilise in Kernow, we will be there, we will mask up, and we will do what is necessary to stop them.
We are proudly Cornish. We are proudly antifascist.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Fuel poverty and climate groups protested outside energy giant SSE’s offices in Glasgow as households face rising energy bills due to the 6.4% increase in the energy price cap – allegedly due to wholesale gas prices.
Fuel Poverty Action, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, Friends of the Earth Scotland, and Unite Community branches protested outside the company’s city centre building:
Energy regulator Ofgem today announced a rise of £111 in average household energy bills, which it made clear was due to “our reliance on international gas markets leads to volatile wholesale prices, and continues to drive up bills”:
In 2023 an estimated 34% (around 861,000 households) of all households in Scotland were in fuel poverty, with 491,000 households in extreme fuel poverty.
SSE have made £8 billion in profits since the start of the energy price crisis. The company operates 14 fossil fuel power plants in the UK and Ireland and generates the majority of its energy from burning gas:
Dylan McAllister, a member of Fuel Poverty Action Glasgow, said of the energy price cap rise:
Millions of people have suffered this winter in cold damp homes – and coming into spring the future doesn’t look much brighter, with Ofgem set to wave through yet another bill increase. Ofgem have signed off on profits for shareholders and huge pay packets for energy bosses – but when it comes to protecting us from being ripped off they’re nowhere to be seen. They’ve failed to scrap cruel standing charges despite the clear verdict of their own consultation, and failed to tackle hugely inflated electricity prices, four times more expensive than gas.
With Ofgem under government review, it’s time to make regulation work for ordinary people, not the interests of private energy firms. Nearly 70,000 people have signed a new petition calling for just that.
Climate campaigners are also warning that SSE’s proposals to build a new power station at Peterhead that burns gas to generate electricity would lock people in Scotland for years into higher bills driven by the international price of gas.
Despite these concerns, the Scottish Government is considering approving the controversial project which could operate until 2059, well past the 2045 ‘net zero’ target for Scotland. Adding carbon capture to power plants could further increase the cost of electricity with the additional levies added to bills to pay for the £22 billion handout to the technology by the UK government:
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said of the energy price cap rise:
Burning expensive gas to generate electricity will leave us all more vulnerable to international price shocks like we have suffered in recent years. The sure-fire way to bring down bills is a mass programme of home energy efficiency and powering our lives using affordable renewable energy that is run in the public interest.
Families across Scotland will rightly be worried about another increase in energy bills due to the global price of gas, so it is mind blowing that Scottish Government Ministers are considering locking people further into this exploitative system. The only beneficiaries from a new gas burning power station at Peterhead will be greedy energy companies like SSE who have been lobbying hard for its approval.
In fact, costly technology like the carbon capture proposed at Peterhead will be subsidised through additional levies on household energy bills, and its consistent failures around the world show it is wasting precious time and money.
Even if new gas wasn’t such an awful deal for consumers, this project should not go ahead because of the enormous climate pollution it will inevitably bring. Building new fossil fuel infrastructure will take us in entirely the wrong direction, undermines a just transition and keeps power in the hands of companies who have been allowed to exploit us for too long.
Featured image and additional images via Garry F McHarg/Focal Scotland.
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Tuesday 25 February, activists from Palestine Action once again parked up outside the Elbit Systems HQ at Aztec West 600, Bristol. We say ‘parked up’. They, of course, blockaded the factory to stop its complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Arriving with a truck full of manure, Palestine Action blocked the only entrance into the British Headquarters of Israel’s biggest weapons firm. The activists then secured the vehicle, before locking-on inside, effectively shutting down Elbit HQ:
Whilst capturing the action, an independent press certified photographer was wrongfully arrested at the scene.
According to Israeli media, Elbit provides up to 80% of the Israeli military’s land based military equipment and 85% of its killer drones. It supplies huge numbers of munitions and missiles – including the so-called ‘Iron Sting’, developed and deployed for the first time in the Gaza genocide, in which the deadly technology produced by Elbit has played a central role.
The Bristol HQ acts as a logistics hub for the weapons firm, from where its British operations are directed and controlled.
Palestine Action first shut down the Israeli weapons HQ on 13 April 2021, with a rooftop occupation. Its campaign against the site has been as relentless as our campaign to kick Elbit out of Britain, with blockades, rooftop occupations, property damage, and paint attacks. In addition, actions took place on 2 November 2021, 15 May 2022, 16 May 2022, 31 October 2023, 7 November 2023, 13 November 2023, 18 January 2024, 14 February 2024, 20 March 2024, 2 May 2024, 24 June 2024, 15 July 2024, 16 July 2024, and the 12 November 2024.
Today’s blockade takes place at a time when the British state is increasingly employing Draconian tactics against anti-Genocide protestors, which extends to the misuse of so-called ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation, and the imprisonment without trial of 20 Palestine Action members. These include 18 people arrested, and remanded in custody, accused of attacks upon Ebit’s second Bristol site at Filton. Some of the Filton 18 have been imprisoned since August 2024.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
Despite a supposed ceasefire, Israel continues to kill Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, to destroy civilian infrastructure, and to imprison and torture men, women, and children. Britain is entirely complicit, having aided, abetted, armed, and lied for the Zionist state since its inception, and throughout the Gaza Genocide.
Palestine Action are committed to ridding British soil of the weapons makers making fat profits from the murder of Palestinians. Direct Action is our proven tactic, and we will not be intimidated. We will shut Elbit down.
Featured image/video via Palestine Action
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Workers at Yosemite National Park in California unfurled a large, upside-down U.S. flag at a popular summit in the park on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s firing of around 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) employees last week. The inverted flag — generally recognized to be a symbol of “dire distress” — was hung on a 3,000-foot tall summit called El Capitan.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Four Just Stop Oil supporters have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance, with a fifth person being acquitted by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.
Daniel Knorr (23), Margaret Reid (54), Indigo Rumbelow (30) and Ella Ward (22) received a majority guilty verdict. They were arrested in the early hours of 5 August 2024 as they left a BnB in Gatley Close to head to Manchester Airport. Noah Crane (19), who was arrested later on 5 August at his home in Birmingham, was acquitted.
All five were charged with conspiracy and held in prison on remand until 4 February when bail was granted on the second day of the trial.
Sentencing has been adjourned until 23 May for pre-sentencing reports and bail has not been granted.
In the 15-day trial before Judge MacAdam, four defendants freely admitted planning to access the airport via the perimeter fence and then if possible three would glue on to the taxiway. They made the case that they were seeking to prevent harm and inform the public of the huge risks now unfolding due to the collapsing climate. That this is no longer a problem for future generations, but our problem happening now.
Noah Crane, the fifth defendant, chose not to enter the witness box, although each of his co-defendants gave evidence that he was not involved in the planning of the action and they had told him nothing. His only link to the action was, when requested, to purchase four phones, unaware of what they would be used for.
All defendants had the legal defences of necessity and reasonable excuse withdrawn by Judge MacAdam. Ella Ward additionally had self defence withdrawn on the basis that there was ‘no immediate threat.’ They were left only with the defence of denying the indictment. This meant no expert scientific evidence was heard by the jury.
The prosecution presented evidence of an imaginary scenario in which flights were disrupted and the police Protest Removal team took two hours to arrive before removing any Just Stop Oil supporters ‘glued on’.
Prosecution witness PC Ben Rigby, the officer in charge of Manchester’s protest response, testified that if the defendants had accessed the airport, the police would not use ‘blue lights’ when responding, and would go through the full security clearance to get ‘airside’. While the Head of Airport Security, Mr Tim Cook indicated that there could be ‘flexibility’ around security clearance for the responding police security team, but neither confirmed or denied vulnerabilities in the CCTV coverage of the airport perimeter.
Judge MacAdam, during legal hearings at the start of the trial, informed the defendants that due to the workload of his position he did not read a great deal about climate science and was therefore neutral.
The following statement was issued on behalf of the defendants after the verdict
We thank the jury for their service and accept their decision. The acquittal of Noah Crane calls into question the six months he was forced to serve on remand at the age of 18. Physics doesn’t care if we were acquitted or not – all that matters now is how hot our world gets and how quickly. The unfolding horror of climate collapse is the future that awaits us, our children and our children’s children.
During the trial Judge MacAdam said “if you knew a disaster was going to happen you would take steps to warn people” – we took those steps and have been found guilty, the bigger crime would have been not to act. The government is not taking the steps needed to protect us, to avoid total ruin. We call on them to act, to address the real security threat and do what is necessary to defend our future.
Daniel Knorr issued a statement saying:
In the second week of trial Judge MacAdam sought clarification from me, asking “If you knew a disaster was going to happen you would take steps to warn people wouldn’t you?
Wasn’t that exactly what I was trying to do? The British legal system knows the stark reality we face and seemingly understands the commonsense response to such reality. Yet again and again it is those seeking to stop the harm who end up in the dock and those profiting from destruction who are protected.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
Yet again our courts have demonstrated that they are out of step with what is happening in the real world. A world of increased heating, panicking scientists and oblivious politicians. We risk ruin and judges and legal experts discuss the finer points of necessity and reasonableness. None of this is reasonable. All those who took part in the prosecution of Just Stop Oil supporters deserve our sympathy, the guilt that they experience due to the collapse of our living world will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Indigo Rumbelow and Margaret Reid represented themselves. Ella Ward sacked her barrister during the second week of the three week trial. Noah Crane and Daniel Knorr had legal representation.
2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful.
Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works. Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.
You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org
Featured image via Just Stop Oil
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Since the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, three little words keep coming up.
In one of his first executive orders, the president instructed agencies to terminate the so-called “Green New Deal,” which he has described as “ridiculous” and “incredibly wasteful.” The administration’s disdain for the concept is clear, with Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt referring to it as “the Green New Scam.”
In reality, there is no Green New Deal law in effect in the United States today, despite previous attempts to pass one in Congress. What Trump actually paused funding for in his executive order was the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act: a spending bill passed under former president Joe Biden and the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history.
The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, was heralded as a major win for climate organizers — but most of them don’t think the law lives up to their original vision of a transition to renewable energy that creates good, well-paying jobs. In the face of rollbacks, these activists are questioning whether their calls for a Green New Deal have been effective or have divided voters. After Trump won the popular vote in November, some climate advocates are searching for new ways to talk about the changes they want to see, ones that might resonate more broadly across the political spectrum.
“This is a live question of debate,” said Dejah Powell, membership director of the Sunrise Movement. Some organizers worry the climate movement has failed to move the public, she said, partly because “[w]e actually are missing a total, compelling vision that touches on the undercurrent of where we are in society.”
If you had to pinpoint the moment when the Green New Deal burst into the public consciousness, it would be shortly after the 2018 midterms, when more than 200 young people with the Sunrise Movement orchestrated a sit-in outside Senator Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill. The newly elected representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the protesters, who urged Pelosi, the House’s Democratic leader, to pass stringent action on climate change. They came prepared with a draft resolution of what they called the “Green New Deal.” It was a reference to the New Deal of the 1930s, a series of ambitious initiatives and reforms — including the Civilian Conservation Corps, Social Security Act, and Works Progress Administration — that President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched to provide economic relief during the Great Depression.
In February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez, joined by Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, introduced resolutions for a Green New Deal in both the House and the Senate. The plan called for a large-scale mobilization “not seen since World War II” to completely transform the economy, eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and create millions of jobs. At the time, people laughed at the idea, Markey said on a mass organizing call last month hosted by more than 50 climate organizations. The measure was largely symbolic: These were non-binding resolutions, meaning that even if they passed a vote in Congress, they would not become law. Either way, opponents made their disapproval known. The resolution failed in a Senate vote mere months later, and a second attempt in 2021 also went nowhere.
“But you know what we knew?” Markey said. “That we were building a movement that was going to build the momentum that was going to wind up with the IRA being passed.” Since the original resolution, Democrats have introduced a range of more targeted Green New Deal bills, focused on issues ranging from health to urban infrastructure to public housing to public schools. None of these bills made it out of committee.
Many credit the enthusiasm the Green New Deal generated for pushing Biden to prioritize climate change during his presidency, even if it didn’t result in exactly what they were calling for. The IRA is sometimes talked about as a mini Green New Deal — but there are key differences between the two. While both support reducing emissions, the Green New Deal resolutions in Congress called for a massive mobilization effort to reach net-zero emissions and transition to 100 percent renewable energy in 10 years. The IRA was far less ambitious, seeking only to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
There is common ground between the two initiatives: Both framed the energy transition as an opportunity to create new jobs. And both placed a unique focus on these being good-paying, ideally union jobs. But here too, the Green New Deal aimed higher, calling for the creation of millions of these jobs, while the IRA was projected to support around 1 million jobs over a decade. (A recent estimate found that the IRA created just under 350,000 jobs in its first two years.) Rather than envision a full-scale transformation of the economy, the IRA focused more on incentivizing decarbonization through tax credits for clean and renewable energy projects. It also offered subsidies for households to install heat pumps and solar panels and buy electric vehicles. This targeted approach also missed some bigger-picture goals of the Green New Deal, like ensuring clean air, water, and access to healthy food for all.
Even after the IRA, some lawmakers haven’t given up on a Green New Deal — even if it’s bound to go nowhere under Trump. On the call with climate organizers last month, Representative Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, said she plans to reintroduce a version of the Green New Deal focused on public housing. “Now, I’m not naive,” she told attendees. “You and I both know that a bill like this will not pass this Congress.” Ramirez hopes that in four years, assuming Democrats regain control of Congress, those demands will become law.
Grace Adcox, the senior climate strategist at the progressive think tank Data for Progress, said the Green New Deal is still a powerful motivator for those who are part of the climate movement. In the organization’s most recent survey, from last January, 65 percent of voters expressed support for a Green New Deal that would create jobs, modernize infrastructure, and protect vulnerable communities. “I don’t think that there’s an argument to move away from it altogether,” Adcox said, even though the phrase is less effective for people who have heard it “being thrown around negatively.”
According to Josh Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy at the center-left think tank Third Way, the Green New Deal catchphrase wasn’t designed to build a broad consensus beyond the left.
“The proposals in the Green New Deal have never matched the values of anywhere close to a majority of Americans,” he said. “Republicans continue to bring it up as a prop to scare voters, because it’s not popular with voters.” Freed argued that some policies organizations embrace as part of the platform, like banning new fossil fuel projects or declaring a climate emergency, repel the voters that Democrats are trying to win back after losing both houses of Congress and the White House last November.
Freed acknowledged that the idea of well-paying jobs and addressing climate change sounds good in the abstract — “who doesn’t like puppies and candy?” he wrote in a recent blog post. But he said that a Green New Deal becomes less popular when voters learn about the cost. For years, Fox News has harped on the price tag of the Green New Deal, pointing to an analysis that it would cost upwards of $90 trillion. (There’s been plenty of debate over that number.) Of course, the price of inaction is also high. The federal government has calculated that failing to address climate change could cost it $2 trillion a year by 2100 and shrink U.S. gross domestic product by as much as 10 percent.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the economy ranked highest among issues concerning voters, according to Gallup polling. Climate change, meanwhile, was near the bottom of the list of 22 issues. This difference in priorities is something the climate movement is still learning to incorporate into its talking points.
“Increasingly, we’ve been leaning into this framing of climate as a story about the economy,” Adcox said, pointing to how failing to act on climate change can lead to higher prices for home insurance and groceries. The story of global warming “is a story about costs, and it’s a story that people are facing every day.”
Within the Sunrise Movement, which has over 100 local chapters and groups across the country, Powell said members are wondering how to evolve the organization’s messaging — and potentially expand their demands. The idea of a “Green Reconstruction” has been floated as a way to connect the climate crisis to other social and economic injustices, said Powell, like threats to U.S. democracy and the rising cost of living. The name alludes to two eras in U.S. history: the Reconstruction that took place after the American Civil War, and the Second Reconstruction, the name sometimes given to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Both were times of deep social and political upheaval, when calls for racial justice faced violence and backlash. Under this framework, said Powell, the climate group could push for “reconstructing our entire economy in every sector to address the climate crisis.” But not everyone is convinced: “Some people are like, you know, it’s hard to put on a banner.”
Despite climate activists’ efforts to gin up enthusiasm for a greener, more equitable economy, Trump has consistently painted climate policy as restrictive, designed to take something away from voters. These kinds of talking points are an effective way to activate voters’ fears, according to John Marshall, the CEO of Potential Energy Coalition, a nonpartisan marketing firm focused on climate action. Trump has said that now that he’s killed the Green New Deal — read, the IRA — Americans can “buy the car they want to buy.” With this framing, he’s simultaneously attacking both the actual bill Biden signed into law and any future climate resolutions progressives may introduce.
Marshall said that approaches that emphasize slow, gradual change poll better than those that call for a complete transformation overnight. Whether or not that’s useful advice to organizers is another story. Daniel Aldana Cohen, who co-wrote the book A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal, argued that progressives need to be clear about the scale of the climate crisis and not concede too much to conservatives and others who want to downplay its impacts. And he believes tying climate equity to large-scale public investment is still the right move: “You can’t fundamentally transform the economy in secret,” he said, so the movement might as well talk about it.
Cohen said he doesn’t know exactly what the best message will be. But he said progressives should continue advocating for climate policy “you can touch, like literally touch.” The climate movement has an opportunity, said Cohen, to now demand “not just green jobs and green careers or some, but quality of life for everyone.”
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The uncertain future of the Green New Deal on Feb 21, 2025.
This post was originally published on Grist.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Palestine Action has welcomed action by an anonymous group of people against Labour Party-run Hackney Council. It is over the council’s complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
After years of local campaigning to get Hackney Council to drop their investments in genocide, anonymous activists have escalated the situation and covered Hackney Town Hall in blood-red paint:
The local authority invests tens of millions in companies arming Israel, including Israel’s biggest weapons firm Elbit Systems. Elbit are up to their necks in Palestinian blood, producing weapons, in this country, which have been central to the genocide in Gaza, including the engines used in Israel’s killer drone fleet.
A statement issued by the activists reads:
For years, local campaigners have been opposing Hackney Council’s investments in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In the wake of the genocide, three neighbouring boroughs have moved to divest from complicit companies. Yet Hackney remains committed to its exposure, totaling tens of millions invested in arms manufacturers directly supplying the Israeli military in its genocidal crimes, companies illegally operating in the West Bank, and companies supplying services that perpetuate the crime of apartheid.
Divestment is possible!
Despite their refusal, so far, to budge on divestment from genocide, and a consistent pro-Israel bias, Hackney Council have shown a propensity for decorating, previously labelling ‘Free Palestine’ graffiti “anti-Semitic”, and hastily having it painted over. Now they have a whole Town Hall to re-decorate.
On Thursday 20 February there is also set to be a protest over the council’s investment policies:
The monthly Pensions Committee meeting is this Thursday. Please join the PSC rally in front of Hackney Town Hall. The Council is investing in companies who arm Israel such as Elbit, Raheton, BA Systems. You are also welcome to join us inside.
Solidarity
— Chiara Lauvergnac (@Lauvergnac) February 19, 2025
A Palestine Action spokesperson said:
Despite the dishonest reporting of the BBC, and much of the mainstream media, most people in this country are opposed to the murder of Palestinians by the Israeli regime, and to British participation in it. Hackney Council are profiting from the slaughter, by investing in Israeli arms companies like Elbit.
The campaign against all those who facilitate and profit from the production of Israeli weapons is growing, and Hackney Council will be better off if they listen to the local community and divest.
Featured image and video supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Seven people have been arrested after Palestine Action shut down the Israeli-owned Rafael weapons factory in Newcastle on Tuesday 18 February. The group’s action was over the company’s direct supply of weapons to the genocidal state of Israel.
Three people used a specially-adapted vehicle to block both entrance to the weapons plant, with an activist locked on inside the secured vehicle. Others climbed on top of the security box and covered the premise in blood-red paint to signify the blood of the Palestinians murdered by the weapons built by Rafael:
The activists were later removed and arrested by Northumbria police force and a further three members of the public were arrested for being seen to be supporting the blockade:
Another supporter was arrested outside the police station whilst awaiting the release of the others who were detained.
Speaking from the roof of the site, one of the activists said:
This factory is owned by the Israeli state and is aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza – and we want it gone.
Rafael is Israel’s third biggest weapons firm, and owned directly by the Israeli state. At the time they acquired Pearson Engineering and Armstrong Works, in September 2022, it was described as a vital part of the “strategic expansion” of Israel’s weapons manufacturing capabilities, as well as a way of trying to get round any future arms embargoes.
This morning’s action marks the start of an escalation of the direct action campaign against the Israeli weapons maker. Palestine Action said Rafael can expect to be increasingly targeted to disrupt the manufacture of Israeli weapons.
It takes place at a time when, despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to murder Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, to take hostages and imprison them without trial, and to destroy homes on the West Bank, and whole towns and villages in Lebanon.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
The police are arresting supporters and activists who oppose the Newcastle weapons factory which is owned by the Israeli government. All whilst they’ve done nothing about the fact that Pearson Engineering is owned by wanted war criminals. The actions by the police are a demonstration of how the state favors war criminals over its own citizens.
No matter what it takes, members of the public will continue to take action to disrupt Israeli weapons factories and won’t stop until factories like this one are shut down for good.
Featured image and additional images via Martin Pope
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Three Just Stop Oil supporters who participated in a slow march at Vauxhall in 2023 to demand an end to new fossil fuels have been found guilty of breaching police conditions imposed on their march.
On 15 June 2023, William Ward, Christopher Grove, and David Kearns participated in a slow march at Vauxhall to demand an immediate end to new oil and gas licensing, a demand that has since been adopted as policy by the Labour Party government:
The Just Stop Oil action happened on the day after new regulations came into force giving police officers greater powers to shut down protests. The regulations were later found to have been introduced illegally by then-home secretary Suella Braverman.
It was judged that she had acted outside her powers, had overreached in defining “serious disruption” as merely “more than minor” and that it had been wrong to consult only with law enforcement agencies about the repercussions of the change.
The trio appeared before Judge Balmain accused of a breach of Section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 Regulations 2023 as they were said to have caused ‘more than minor disruption’. They were found guilty and each given a conditional discharge of 12 months and £333 costs.
William Ward, 67, a retired engineer from Surrey said:
One day, very soon people will look back and say that the law got it wrong; why did they waste time prosecuting peaceful people for taking action to prevent billions of deaths and enormous suffering? Time is short and the government needs to come clean and admit to the public how bad our situation is. They need to get on with the job of cutting oil and gas demand through common sense, cost effective measures like insulating our homes, building more renewables and investing in public transport.
I hold my head up high that I did the right thing for my three grandchildren and the millions of vulnerable people already suffering from the consequences of unchecked fossil fuel burning throughout the world.
In the 20 months since they took action, global heating has continued to accelerate and the world shows no signs of reducing fossil fuel burning.
Just last month, 2024 was confirmed as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last week, January 2025 was confirmed as the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the pre-industrial level, according to European space agency Copernicus.
In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful. Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works.
Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Tuesday 18 February, activists from Palestine Action began shutting down the Rafael weapons factory at Armstrong Works, Scotswood Road, Newcastle. It is, of course, yet another company complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
A specially-adapted vehicle was used to block both entrance to the weapons plant, with an activist locked on inside the secured vehicle:
Others climbed on top of the security box and covered the premise in blood-red paint to signify the blood of the Palestinians murdered by the weapons built by Rafael:
Activists were still there eight hours later – stopping all production at the factory:
Geordies don't want an Israeli weapons maker in their city.
Nearly eight hours later and actionists are still shutting down the war machine. pic.twitter.com/zuHhOo58LD
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) February 18, 2025
Rafael is Israel’s third biggest weapons firm, and owned directly by the Israeli state:
Pearson engineering, which is currently shut down by Palestine Action, is owned by the Israeli ministry of finance.
How is it possible for wanted war criminals to own weapons factories in Britain? pic.twitter.com/A0BdR59rBb
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) February 18, 2025
At the time they acquired Pearson Engineering and Armstrong Works, in September 2022, it was described as a vital part of the “strategic expansion” of Israel’s weapons manufacturing capabilities, as well as a way of trying to get round any future arms embargoes.
The site specialises in producing armoured military vehicles and tanks, including armoured bulldozers and ‘Robotic Combat Vehicles’. Rafael, the parent company, manufacture a range of weapons, advertised as “extensively battle proven by the Israeli Air Force”, including guided Spike missiles, which have slaughtered thousands of Palestinians. Labour ‘Lord’ John Hutton is amongst the directors of the Israeli state owned weapons factory.
In September 2023, Rafael announced that Armstrong Works would be playing a significant role in delivering the Samson 30mm Remote Weapons Station. These remotely-controlled “High Lethality” death-factories include an arsenal of long-range weaponry, such as high-calibre machine-guns, 30mm cannon, 40mm grenade launchers, and Spike missiles.
As well as being used on vehicles, they are used around the perimeters of besieged Gaza, and recently in Southern Lebanon, allowing the Israeli military to kill from afar.
In May 2023, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, Palestine Action occupied the roof of the Rafael factory, shutting it down for two days, and causing £69,000 in damage to the weapons site, plus £600,000 in losses, while no weapons were being produced.
Since then, there have been regular protests outside the factory gates by local pro-Palestine activists, some of which the police have attacked violently, with arrests being made.
This morning’s action marks the start of an escalation of the direct action campaign against the Israeli weapons maker, and they can expect to be increasingly targeted to disrupt the manufacture of Israeli weapons. It takes place at a time when, despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to murder Palestinians, both in Gaza and the West Bank, to take hostages and imprison them without trial, and to destroy homes on the West Bank, and whole towns and villages in Lebanon.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
The Israeli government owning a weapons factory in Newcastle is a stain on the whole community. The Israeli death machine has to be stopped, and with the British government entirely complicit in the genocide, it is up to ordinary people to do their part to halt the manufacture of Israeli weapons here. We put Rafael on notice, that we will shut them down at every opportunity. Each hour of production lost means less lives taken.
Featured image via Martin Pope and additional images via Palestine Action and Martin Pope
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Monday 17 February, Extinction Rebellion climate activists occupied McKinsey & Co and its London headquarters to demand it cuts all ties to its fossil fuel industry clients and starts putting planet before profit.
Dozens of police arrived on the scene and arrested four campaigners, including two who were stood outside the building holding a banner:
The protest began at midday when activists sprayed fake crude oil over the building’s glass and steel exterior:
A group of climbers scaled the entrance portico, lighting up smoke flares and unfurling a massive banner reading, “McKinsey & Company: Cut the Ties to Fossil Fuels”:
On the pavement outside, a long list of climate crimes committed by ‘The Firm’ was read out over a megaphone, as three people in hazmat suits kneeled before an activist dressed as a McKinsey & Co partner who ‘drowned’ them in oil, in a scene symbolising the effect on humanity of McKinsey’s ever-expanding fossil fuel business strategies:
Demonstrators handed out leaflets to staff and passers-by, informing them of what is going on, asking staff to boycott fossil fuel clients within the firm and to demand McKinsey stops working to increase fossil fuel production:
Police even had to use a cherry picker to get the Extinction Rebellion activists down:
McKinsey & Co. is the world’s biggest management consultancy with 45,000 employees operating globally. They work directly with Big Oil CEOs to maximise profit at the expense of people and planet.
Recent investigations and analysis reveal that McKinsey & Co is central to driving the climate and ecological emergency and show McKinsey clients are responsible for around half of all the CO2 emitted worldwide since the Paris agreement was signed.
The company’s client list includes most of the worlds’ biggest polluters, including ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Eni, Saudi Aramco, and Sinopec. McKinsey typically help their clients maximise production ignoring the increasingly desperate pleas of climate scientists and the United Nations.
McKinsey clients Shell and BP have been scaling back their transition to renewables and Aramco’s CEO described the phase-out of oil as a “fantasy” that should be abandoned.
McKinsey & Co. has also been working with the Saudi government to artificially stimulate demand for oil in order to offset declines due to efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
Another client is Koch Industries, notorious for funding the thinktanks and other climate-denial groups that lobby against action on the climate crisis.
McKinsey & Co. is also working in India to increase the country’s oil refining capacity by 200m tonnes a year and help meet its aim to become a gas-based economy despite the fact that 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the first calendar year in which annual average temperatures were higher than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. “Limiting global warming to 1.5C would require the CO2 rise to be slowing, but in reality the opposite is happening,” says Richard Betts of the Met Office.
The company also worked for Big Oil at COP28, peddling a narrative aimed at undermining the goals of the Paris Agreement
Sandra Magee, 41, a farmer from North Devon present at the McKinsey & Co action, said:
McKinsey and Company develop the strategies which are propelling our planet into a catastrophic ‘hothouse earth’ state. We’re here to tell McKinsey employees that a habitable planet is infinitely more important than the profits of a few fossil fuel execs. Demand action on climate from your CEOs, not collaboration towards our mutual destruction!
Caroline Hartnell, 74 from Wandsworth, London, said
Wake up! Fossil fuel emissions trap heat equivalent to a million Hiroshima bombs every day. Last month was the warmest January on record at 1.64ºC above pre industrial levels, the agreed safe limit was 1.5ºC. You are living through the sixth mass extinction event. So what we need from McKinsey and Co. is less greed. We demand McKinsey and Co. put Planet before Profit.
Featured image and additional images via Will Colebourne
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist, in Avarua, Rarotonga
More than 400 people have taken to the streets to protest against Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown’s recent decisions, which have led to a diplomatic spat with New Zealand.
The protest, led by Opposition MP and Cook Islands United Party leader Teariki Heather, has taken place outside the Cook Islands Parliament in Avarua — a day after Brown returned from China.
Protesters have come out with placards, stating: “Stay connected with New Zealand.”
The protest in Avarua today. Video: RNZ
Some government ministers have been standing outside Parliament, including Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana.
Heather said he was present at the rally to how how much Cook Islanders cared about the relationship with New Zealand and valued the New Zealand passport.
He has apologised to the New Zealand government on behalf of the Cook Islands government.
Leader of the opposition and Democratic Party leader Tina Browne said she wanted the local passport to be off the table “forever and ever”.
“We have no problem with our government going and seeking assistance,” she said.
“We do have a problem when it is risking our sovereignty, risking our relationship with New Zealand.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Long Covid-suffering performers sounded the alarm on this chronic illness emergency in the performing arts outside the BAFTAs. Members of Protect the Heart of the Arts, an action network of performers and allies, staged a protest, with one member rushing security, chanting “Silence=Death”, echoing the iconic AIDS crisis slogan:
The protest called for Covid protections on-set and onstage, drawing attention to Long Covid as an occupational injury:
High-profile performers are increasingly speaking out about their long Covid struggles, including Matt McGorry, Alyssa Milano, Colin Farrell, and Dave Navarro.
Performing is an inherently high-risk profession for airborne pathogens like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid. Actors, singers, and theatre workers spend hours in poorly ventilated indoor spaces, often without access to effective Covid protections such as HEPA air filtration, accurate molecular testing like PlusLife, and audience and crew mask wearing.
This has had dire consequences, particularly in live performance. High-profile productions in the West End and on Broadway, such as David Tennant’s Macbeth and Audra McDonald’s Gypsy, experienced unprecedented runs of cancellations due to illness within the company.
Long Covid is a multi-system condition with over 200 documented symptoms. It affects breath control, stamina, memory, and cognitive function – essential abilities for anyone working in the performing arts.
A 2022 study in the Journal of Voice found that 30% of Broadway performers suffered long-term vocal damage after Covid infection. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that two million people are living with Long Covid, but a population-wide study by Hastie et al. (2023) suggests the true number may be as high as one in ten in the UK.
According to the Economist (2024), an estimated 27 million deaths worldwide are attributable to Covid – far beyond official figures. These deaths are not just from the initial infection but also from long-term health effects such as heart attacks, strokes, aggressive cancers, and suicides.
Taking part in the BAFTAs protest were members of COVID Action, a grassroots campaign of individual activists and labour and trade union organisations. Hazards Campaign also supported the action, saying “We have been supporting a hierarchy of controls approach: proper ventilation, more space, masking if necessary”.
Co-founder Charles Waltz said:
In just four years, Covid has killed more people than AIDS did in forty—both have devastated the arts.
Governments, institutions, and workplaces once built the infrastructure to protect us, but now they’ve torn it all down, leaving us exposed. We’re staging this die-in because without urgent action, we’re not just losing individual careers, we’re losing lives. And with them, the very ability to create art at all. At a time when the world needs art more than ever to remind us of our shared humanity, we are being abandoned.
Glenda, a performer and founding member of the group that was at the BAFTAs, said:
I’ve endured my form of Long Covid since 2023, as a result of just one infection.
As a writer, I’m compromised by my symptoms; as an actor, I’m compromised, and thereby excluded, by the lack or absence of mitigations in industry settings. I strived to perhaps earn something approaching a living from my vocation. But earning a living and, indeed, ‘living my life’ since 2020 never meant compromising my instrument, be it body, voice or imagination…it never meant being sickened; avoidable or further disablement; dying with or from something that’s ultimately preventable.
We have to follow the science, not superstition – THIS is not ‘The Scottish Play’, THIS continues to be a tragic farce. Viruses are indifferent to the past-tense: their show will go on stopping ours, be it temporarily or permanently.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By Protect the Heart of the Arts
This post was originally published on Canary.
Another year, and another conference organised by the same people who have been organising conferences for nearly as long as I’ve been alive has been announced. And in the time-honoured tradition of the ‘socialist’ left of British politics, it’s ignored the majority of minoritised communities – including chronically ill, disabled, and homeless people. But apparently, though, ‘we demand change’ – albeit it’s ‘we’ in the loosest possible sense of the word.
We Demand Change is a Peace and Justice Project-hosted ‘summit’ that is supported by Stop the War Coalition, Stand Up to Racism, StrikeMap, and other groups and trade unions. The Peace and Justice Project is buried in the small print as the organisation that owns the website. Therefore, we can conclude that it has been one of the main instigators of this.
It says on the site:
We call on all trade unionists, campaigners and activists to join us on 29th March in Central London to begin to construct – through debate and discussion – a network of activists across campaigns and unions to turn the tide on despair.
A network that can deliver solidarity to those who are taking action to protect their living standards and with those who are building the movements to free Palestine, end the drive to a war economy, stop the far right and prevent the further deterioration of our planet.
This is something we can all get behind, I’m sure. So who is speaking on 29 March? The We Demand Change line up as of 16 February is:
OK. Does anyone see the problem with this line up?
Over a week since the group launched, I have some questions:
Yes, you’re right. They’re not featured at the summit.
As has been so often the case, We Demand Change appears to be focusing on the right-wing narrative of ‘working people’. The group’s statement makes a fleeting mention of people reliant on social security:
His [Starmer’s] government has backed genocide in Gaza, underfunds our schools and hospitals, cut benefits, pensions and winter fuel allowances and has refused to implement manifesto commitments to save the planet.
And that’s it. Otherwise, it’s the usual exclusionary tropes:
Working people did not vote for more of the same. They expect real change so that our lives are not one continuous struggle to make ends meet.
Sorry – was it only working people that voted on 4 July last year? Of course not.
As always, chronically ill, disabled, homeless, and non-working people are ignored – despite the fact they have the right to vote.
Now, we’re sure We Demand Change will roll out an excuse for this. The group will probably add a disabled speaker in the next few weeks. Or claim they hadn’t forgotten – but were waiting to announce more speakers.
But that’s not the point.
When you centre working people as the priority (and let’s be real, based on the weighting of the line up, white people) and leave chronically ill, disabled, homeless, and non-working people – as well as minoritised women – as an after thought, you expose yourselves for the political games you are actually playing.
This idea of ‘working people’ as being central to politics and democracy is a right-wing narrative that firstly Labour, and now We Demand Change, are playing into as a way of appealing to right-wing voters. Anyone who doesn’t work is either old, a benefit-scrounger, or an ‘illegal’ – and therefore spending working people’s money.
Moreover, as the Canary’s Nicola Jeffery previously wrote of how the Labour Party has treated disabled people:
Were we literally just a trend to these people?
That has felt the case for many years, and not just in Labour. The socialist left in the UK pulls disabled, homeless, and other minoritised people out of the hat when they’re useful to them, and then puts them back when they’re not.
Regardless, whatever the reason for We Demand Change’s exclusion of the most minoritised people in society from its event, it’s the same bullshit we’ve had for decades.
Certain people’s voices – either the middle class ones or those who have had a platform for years – are the ones we’re allowed to hear. Yet it these same voices that have failed to bring about change for the rest of us in the first place.
And that’s not going to end well.
Paula Peters is a prominent disability rights activist. She told me of the We Demand Change summit:
It’s of vital importance that We Demand Change organisers reach out to all grassroots roots activists and groups who have been and continue to be at the sharp end of ongoing austerity and the sharp end of resistance to austerity. That an inclusive accessible movement is built where all groups are heard, welcomed, and listened to, and ideas shared and built upon so that we can all bring the change we need. It needs to break down class divides and political division.
We really to hear from grass-roots housing activists who are organising on their housing estates to stop them being demolished from property developers; from grass roots activists who are building mutual aid support in their communities to support neighbours who are struggling in poverty, with housing issues and a climate crisis.
We need to hear from disabled people fighting against social care cuts, fighting for a national independent living service, highlighting the appalling impact of benefit cuts and sanctions, and the tragic human cost of benefit deaths and the tragic impact and human cost of the coronavirus pandemic.
Everyone has a voice and so many amazing activists are doing amazing campaigning work in our communities that we need to hear and learn from and build solidarity links between groups.
A movement must bring everyone together build campaigns together and resist the neoliberal government together. If we do not do this; we are in serious danger of having a Reform government in 2029.
It’s almost as if for some of the speakers on We Demand Change’s line up, it’s a career for them – whereas, for the rest of us, it’s a fight for survival.
Correction.
It’s not ‘almost as if’. For many of the speakers, politics and activism is a career; one that they’ve done very well out of – arguably at the expense of the rest of us.
If it wasn’t a career for them, then the We Demand Change line up would be featuring the minoritised groups I previously mentioned. And when you don’t start from the bottom – centering those who the system has minoritised the most, and who’s lives are most at risk – then whatever you do will not only fail but also just continue to prop up the system, anyway.
Overall, the whole thing looks like a re-run of the past 15 years – and I can’t help but think ‘here we go again’.
I’m waiting for you to prove me wrong, We Demand Change. I sincerely am.
Featured image via the Canary
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
Palestine Action was once again out in force, targeting Brighton company L&B Plating which is complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And this time, the group showed just how an intricate web of companies all have a hand in the killing of Palestinians.
On Thursday 13 February, activists targeted L&B Plating Company in Brighton over its complicity in genocide and links to suppliers of Israeli weapons:
Actionists damaged vehicles and spray painted at the site, demanding they terminate their contract supplying the local L3 Harris weapons factory.
After the action, messages reading “Free Palestine” and “Drop L3” were visible on buildings of the metal and coatings specialist:
The company provides a specialist service to L3 Harris, whose Brighton factory produces bomb release mechanisms for F35 fighter jet planes. These planes are known to be responsible for the delivery of thousands of bombs on targets including tented refugee encampments in Gaza and healthcare workers in Lebanon.
This action is part of continued disruption to the Israeli weapons supply by Palestine Action and coincides with an ongoing campaign from local residents and workers groups calling for the Harris facility to be permanently shut. The local campaign group have also contacted L&B Plating Company directly, calling for them to cut ties with the weapons supplier.
Earlier this week, former UK Foreign Office second secretary Mark Smith reported that the UK government had systemically edited documents and suppressed evidence of war crimes in order to facilitate the ongoing sale of UK weapons to Israel.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
At this point any company that can be linked to UK weapons exports to Israel cannot be surprised by a visit from Palestine Action. With the UK government continuing to double down and furnish the Israeli military with weapons, we are doubling down our commitment to smash the supply chain. L&B Plating should immediately cut ties with the F3 facility. If they don’t, they can be assured that we’ll be back.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
US vice-president told litany of tales of Europe’s rights infringements in speech to leaders at defence gathering
In JD Vance’s confrontational and pugnacious speech at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president ran through a series of examples to highlight his claims that Europe has gone off the rails. Here, we look at what he said – and whether it stacks up.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
This Valentine’s day, climate crisis activists from around the country descended on doorsteps of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in London. They were there to call on Labour Party energy secretary Ed Miliband to end the government’s toxic love affair with infamous planet-wrecker Drax.
Climate activists from across the UK gathered on 14 Feb 2025 outside the DESNZ office in London:
Drax is the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, harming forests, biodiversity and communities around the world. We need to fund real climate action, not Drax’s dirty scam. @Ed_Miliband
#StopBurningTrees #DumpDrax pic.twitter.com/oFAoDeOyOo
— XR Edinburgh and Lothians (@xr_Edinburgh) February 14, 2025
They came together to express their anger about the government’s cosy relationship with the UK’s biggest carbon polluter. In particular, the groups took the DESNZ to task for greenlighting the continuation of enormous subsidies for Drax’s destructive biomass power station. Already, the company has leached £7bn of public money since 2012 through these subsidies.
Dressed in pink and red for Valentine’s day, protestors gathered under the slogan: “Ed Miliband: Dump Drax”:
Protesters brandished placards telling the DESNZ why forest-destroyer Drax shouldn’t be its Valentine:
Anti-biomass and climate groups Biofuelwatch, Campaign Against Climate Change, and Axe Drax delivered powerful speeches about the impacts of Drax’s mega-polluting biomass power station.
Activists also penned a poignant break-up poem and called out the government for getting into bed with the greenwashing energy giant online:
DUMP DRAX THIS VALENTINE’S DAY
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Drax is burning forests,
And we’re DONE with you.— Digital Rebellion
(@xrdigitalrebel) February 14, 2025
On Monday 10 February, the government announced its decision to extend subsidies for Drax past 2027, to 2031. The continued bungs to the carbon mega-polluter will cost taxpayers at least £1.8bn in new subsidies. Therefore, protestors condemned this decision, highlighting the impact on taxpayers, forests, and frontline communities abroad. On top of this, they drew attention to the staggering scale of emissions from its wood-burning pellet operations.
Bioenergy giant Drax operates the world’s largest wood pellet-burning biomass power station near Selby, Yorkshire. The UK’s single largest carbon dioxide emitter, in 2023, it belched out 11.5m tonnes of the greenhouse gas driving the climate crisis.
Drax 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, the company has situated its wood pellet production sites predominantly in environmental justice communities. These include majority Black communities in places like Mississippi and Louisiana. There, Drax’s facilities emit large amounts of pollutants that cause respiratory and pulmonary health impacts.
The UK government also greenlit these subsidies the day after another damning report on Drax’s environmental impacts. Specifically, the BBC revealed that Drax had once again failed to disclose that it had sourced from primary and old-growth forests in 2020-2021. After an investigation by Ofgem, the energy regulator fined the company £25m.
The demonstration was part of a wider emergency mobilisation coordinated by the Stop Burning Trees Coalition. Groups held demonstrations simultaneously in Leeds, Tyneside, and Nottingham. These built on the momentum of demonstrations earlier in the week in Bristol and Somerset on Monday after the decision was announced.
Lead campaigner for the Stop Burning Trees Coalition Merry Dickinson said:
The recent Government decision to extend subsidies for Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, spells disaster for bill payers, forests, communities suffering Drax’s pollution, biodiversity and our planet. This decision will drive us closer to climate chaos and result in vital forests being destroyed whilst putting an added burden on bill payers. Using our money to fund forest destruction, pollution and the profits of Drax’s shareholders is a disgrace. We need investment in real green energy, in climate action that genuinely reduces emissions and brings down people’s bills.
Echoing this, bioenergy campaigner for Biofuelwatch Sally Clark said:
The Government’s decision to grant billions more in renewable subsidies from our energy bills to the world’s biggest tree burner, Drax, is a catastrophe for forests, wildlife, communities and the climate. If the Government is serious about tackling the climate emergency and the cost of living crisis, it should be investing in genuine climate solutions like home insulation or wind and solar power, not sending our futures up in smoke by funding big polluters like Drax.
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
On Friday 14 February, the Home Office finally announced the sacking of Lord Walney (John Woodcock) and the axing of his role as ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.
Lord Walney’s responsibilities will be transferred to a new expanded Commissioner for Counter-Extremism role, as part of a wider reorganisation of how protest and extremism are monitored within the Home Office.
His departure raises further questions about the mass jailing of political opponents of the oil and arms industries he represents. Since his May 2024 report, which called for members of Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as organised criminals, more than 50 have been imprisoned, some for up to five years.
Meanwhile the outcome of the Court of Appeal hearing into 16 members of Just Stop Oil, jailed for a combined 41 years in the months following Walney’s report last May, is expected within weeks.
A spokesperson for the Free Political Prisoners campaign, which has been calling for Lord Walney’s sacking since September, said:
It was a grave error of judgement on the part of this Government to allow an oil and arms industry lobbyist to drive the agenda on silencing those holding those same industries to account. Many peaceful people are filling our overcrowded prisons as a result.
This doesn’t end with Walney’s sacking. The immense damage he has done to democratic freedoms must be repaired. Those silenced and jailed on his recommendations must be freed. The corrupting influence of other industry lobbyists on the courts must be stopped.
Lord Walney (real name, ‘John Woodcock’) resigned from the Labour Party in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which have still not been investigated.
In 2020, Boris Johnson appointed him to the House of Lords, and gave him the role of ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.
He used that role to obtain the following paid positions:
The terms of his engagement required him to disclose any conflicts of interest directly to the Home Office, but it is unclear whether he did so.
In May 2024 Lord Walney published a report, falsely presented to the public and parliament as ‘independent’, which called for groups such as Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil to be treated as organised criminals. He also suggested that jury acquittals in the trials of such cases were a problem that needed to be addressed.
The surprise was not that Lord Walney acted in his clients’ interests, but rather that the Labour government continued to present him to the public as ‘independent’ for so long, encouraging judges to act on his recommendations.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
A Just Stop Oil supporter who sprayed King’s College Cambridge with orange paint in 2023 to demand an end to new fossil fuels was found guilty at Peterborough Magistrates Court on Thursday 13 February.
On 12 October 2023, Chiara Sarti – a PhD student at King’s College, Cambridge – used a fire extinguisher to spray orange paint over the iconic neo-gothic gatehouse of the college to demand an immediate end to new oil and gas licensing, a demand that has since been adopted as policy by the Labour Party government:
Today they appeared before a magistrate accused of criminal damage under £5,000 for their action on 12 October 2023. The cost of the damage caused by the action was put at £2,430.
In their defence Chiara said:
I have never tried to avoid accountability for my actions. I accept all consequences that come with that. In particular, I have a high respect for the rule of law and I’ve taken action from a place of conscientious objection. I do absolutely hold true that none of us should be above the law, whether it’s students, government officials or fossil fuel executives. Fundamentally it is a deep respect for the law which has led me to take action.
Pronouncing a guilty verdict the judge said:
You’ve raised a number of things in your defence, in particular Articles 9 and 10. And I don’t think anyone will criticise the thoughts and beliefs you have. Article 10 doesn’t come without responsibilities.
The case law suggests there can be a defence of necessity – you raised the issues of the great fire of London – but of course the reasons those persons pulled down the houses was to save people from immediate danger because the fire would otherwise have spread. The case law I’m concerned with is the immediacy of the threat that may well be faced isn’t so immediate that it gives you a defence of lawful excuse.
Chiara was found guilty and given a 12-month conditional discharge and fined £3,080.
Speaking after the verdict Chiara said:
I have a responsibility to my generation to make it clear that burning oil means mass starvation. I refuse to lie to my students and pretend that this is OK. I do not consent to plans that will result in 3C of warming and mass death within a few decades.
Arrests, fines and prison don’t change this reality. When fossil fuel firms have bought our government, when politicians are prioritising corporate profits and the wealth of billionaires over the wellbeing of ordinary people, it’s time to put our bodies on the line and reclaim Parliament from the corporate interests that dominate it.
In the 16 months since Chiara took action, global heating has continued to accelerate and the world shows no signs of reducing fossil fuel burning.
Just last month, 2024 was confirmed as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last week, January 2025 was confirmed as the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the pre-industrial level, according to European space agency Copernicus.
Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, said the January data was “both astonishing and frankly terrifying”, adding:
On the basis of the Valencia floods and apocalyptic Los Angeles wildfires, I don’t think there can be any doubt that dangerous, all-pervasive, climate breakdown has arrived. Yet emissions continue to rise.
Back in November, the Global Carbon Project published its projection for 2024 fossil fuel use showing a rise of 0.8% over 2023. This would be almost 8% higher in 2024 than in 2015, the year the Paris climate agreement was signed.
The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said:
The 2C target is dead, because the global energy use is rising, and it will continue to rise.
In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful. Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works.
Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org
Featured image and additional images supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, February 13, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Kurdistan security forces’ assault on 12 news crews covering a February 9 protest by teachers and other public employees over unpaid salaries, which resulted in at least 22 journalists teargassed, two arrested, and a television station raided.
“The aggressive treatment meted out to journalists by Erbil security forces while covering a peaceful protest is deeply concerning,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We urge Iraqi Kurdistan authorities not to target journalists during protests, which has been a recurring issue.”
Kurdistan has been in a financial crisis since the federal government began cutting funding to the region after it started exporting oil independently in 2014. In 2024, the Federal Supreme Court ordered Baghdad to pay Kurdistan’s civil servants directly but ongoing disagreements between the two governments mean their salaries continue to be delayed and unpaid.
Since the end of Kurdistan’s civil war in 1998, the semi-autonomous region has been divided between the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah. While the KDP has discouraged the teachers’ protests, the PUK has sometimes supported them, including through affiliated media outlets.
At the February 9 protest, a crowd of teachers from Sulaymaniyah tried to reach Erbil, the capital, and were stopped at Degala checkpoint, where CPJ recorded the following attacks:
“One of them chambered a round [into his gun]. I tried to leave but one of them attempted to strike me with the butt of a rifle, hitting only my finger. Another grabbed my camera and took it,” Abdulhadi told CPJ.
“There are still wounds on my face from when I fell,” she told CPJ, adding that she was taken to hospital and given oxygen.
“I couldn’t see anything and was struggling to breathe. My cameraman and I lost consciousness for three hours,” Mariwan told CPJ.
“My face is still swollen, and I feel dizzy,” she told CPJ.
“We were placed on oxygen and prescribed medication,” reporter Ramyar Osman told CPJ, adding that camera operator Sayed Yasser was hit in the knee by a rubber bullet.
“I had an allergic reaction and my face turned red. I had to go to the hospital,” he said.
Raided and arrested
Abdulwahab Ahmed, head of the Erbil office of the pro-opposition Gorran Movement KNN TV, told CPJ that two unplated vehicles carrying Asayish officers followed KNN TV’s vehicle to the office at around 1:30 p.m., after reporters Pasha Sangar and Mohammed KakaAhmed and camera operator Halmat Ismail made a live broadcast showing the deployment of additional security forces by the United Nations compound, which was the protesters’ intended destination.
“They identified themselves as Asayish forces, forcibly took our mobile phones, and accused us of recording videos. They checked our social media accounts,” Sangar told CPJ.
KakaAhmed told CPJ, “They found a video I had taken near the U.N. compound on my phone, deleted it, and then returned our devices.”
In another incident that evening, Asayish forces arrested pro-PUK digital outlet Politic Press’s reporter Taman Rawandzi and camera operator Nabi Malik Faisal while they were live broadcasting about the protest and took them to Zerin station for several hours of questioning.
“They asked us to unlock our phones but we refused. Then they took our phones and connected them to a computer,” Rawandzi told CPJ, adding that his phone was now operating slowly and he intended to replace it.
“They told us not to cover such protests,” he said.
CPJ phoned Erbil’s Asayish spokesperson Ardalan Fatih but he declined to comment.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
