later: The King’s speech is today whereby King Charles reads a speech prepared by the UK government with details of what the government intends for the new parliamentary session. The UK government must call a general election before 17 December 2024.
One of the many occasions climate change denier and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
Briefly, Liar and cheat Boris Johnson won the 2019 general election with a huge majority. He achieved this by lying and misleading the UK electorate promising to “Get Brexit done” and an oven-ready deal and similar associated lies. The UK electorate were tired of the Tories Brexit BS and wanted it finished. It’s still unfinished of course.
Image of Elmo (left) and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson (right)
Boris was deposed as a result of the Partygate Scandal – repeatedly lying that there were no parties at Downing Street when there were so many at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when such social meetings were forbidden.
Then we briefly had Liz Truss replacing Boris. She trashed the UK economy with her and Kwasi Kwasi Kwarteng’s bonkers budget. It may be worth investigating who has benefited financially from that budget.
Lettuce complains about being compared to Liz Truss.
Sunak replaced Liz Truss as Conservative Leader and therefore UK Prime Minister. His government has made huge assaults on the right to protest and is in thrall to the fossil fuel industry pursuing a climate-denying programme of fossil fuel expansion with huge fossil fuel subsidies. Many regard his climate-denying actions as criminal. He must be aware of the effects of his actions.
We have idiots like Lee Anderson repeatedly attacking the poor, Sue-Ellen Braverman wanting to take tents away from homeless people so that they die of exposure, open sewers full across the UK with UK abandoning EU pollution regulations.
Relatives carry the body of 8-month-old Ahmed Barhom during a funeral for members of the same family killed in Israel’s bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. (Photo: Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
“These children are not worthless casualties,” said one advocate. “These children are as precious as any innocent children. They don’t just deserve to not die. They deserve to live free.”
As journalists in Gaza reported that the Israel Defense Forces bombed the cancer ward of a pediatric hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, advocates for a cease-fire in the blockaded enclave pleaded with powerful Western countries allied with Israel—including the United States—to take action to stop the bombardment that has now killed more than 4,000 children in one month.
Local news outlets Palestinian Hadath, Mayadeen, Haya Jadeeda, and Quds Networkreported that the third floor of al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital had been hit by an Israeli airstrike, while Reutersreported that eight people had been killed in the attack.
The Daily Beast reported late last month that medical providers in the ward, which is called the Dr.Musa and Suhaila Nasir Pediatric Cancer Department and is the first and only children’s oncology department in Gaza, feared a possible bombing of the hospital, where at least 10 children were receiving in-patient treatment and could not be evacuated when Israeli officials threatened northern Gaza with imminent airstrikes.
“It’s an impossible situation,” said Dr. Zeena Salman, an American pediatric oncologist who has volunteered at the hospital, told The Daily Beast. “There’s a number of patients who are not stable enough to transfer to another hospital. And there may not be enough resources in the hospital.”
Al-Rantisi Hospital has also been providing shelter to around 1,000 civilians since Israel’s total siege in Gaza began last month.
On Sunday, United Nations agencies representing children, women, refugees, and health services issued a joint call warning that “women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden” of Israel’s attack on the enclave, which it commenced on October 7 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostage.
While claiming to be targeting Hamas, the IDF has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians since October 7 as it has bombed hospitals, schools, and refugee camps—all while blaming Hamas for civilian casualties by saying the group is using Palestinian people as “human shields.”
“The idea that ‘they were being shielded by children so we murdered the children too’ is so absent of morality, it’s outrageous,” said author Gabrielle Alexa Noel last week in response to an MSNBC segment in which anchor Joy Ann Reid also condemned the claim.
This is why once someone brings up human shields, I know they don’t care.
Because the idea that ‘they were being shielded by children so we murdered the children too’ is so absent of morality, it’s outrageous. https://t.co/b26AfTPtT2
The death toll in Gaza, said Khaled Engindy of the Middle East Institute, is now the equivalent of “killing 1.5 million Americans, including 600,000 children, in the U.S. in under a month.”
Toby Fricker, spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), toldThe Guardian that while it can take time to verify the number of dead children and adults in Gaza as hundreds go missing under rubble after bombings, “the numbers are obviously catastrophic.”
“Verification doesn’t occur in real time, which is why we say ‘reportedly killed,’ but, generally speaking, in all conflicts we substantiate initial estimates and in Gaza they have tended to be pretty consistent,” said Fricker, rebuking claims perpetuated by U.S. President Joe Biden recently that Gaza’s health authorities, which are controlled by Hamas, release inaccurate casualty counts.
The U.N. agencies warned that with roughly 50,000 pregnant people in Gaza, children born during the war will be among the most at risk if the U.S. and other countries supporting Israel’s siege don’t join the growing call for a cease-fire. One hundred and thirty premature babies living in incubators are also at risk.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell also warned last week that for the children who survive the fighting in both Gaza and Israel, the consequences of the trauma they are living through, including the loss of their parents and, in some cases, their entire family will have consequences that “could last a lifetime.”
One UNICEF aid worker stationed in Gaza said last week that her children, aged seven and four, have been “begging for drinkable water and showing signs of severe psychological distress and fear.”
“Since the seventh of this month, my mission in life has become to keep them alive,” the worker, Nesma, told the agency. “I don’t have the luxury to think about my children’s mental health. As a humanitarian worker, I feel absolutely helpless as I cannot provide for my kids with the basic needs of life, let alone the children of Gaza. I keep telling myself, ‘Nesma, keep them alive.’ And when all of this ends, I will provide them with mental support and medical care.”
Sharing the sounds of constant airstrikes on social media, UNICEF said people in areas not experiencing conflict “can choose to turn off this sound. Children in conflicts can’t.”
You can choose to turn off this sound. Children in conflicts can’t.
The children of Gaza and Israel need an immediate ceasefire. Their lives depend upon it. pic.twitter.com/uJt339S7SY
On Sunday, Dr. Omar Suleiman of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research posted a video of two young children desperately searching for their family members after a bombing at Bureij Refugee Camp when they were reunited with their younger brother, who tearfully told a bystander, “I need my mother.”
This video is not gruesome, yet it’s just as heartbreaking. Over 10,000 have now been killed in this genocide, but no one who “survives” this will ever be the same. These children are not collateral damage. These children are not worthless casualties. These children are as… https://t.co/8IN0TlN5Xy
“These children are not worthless casualties,” said Suleiman. “These children are as precious as any innocent children. They don’t just deserve to not die. They deserve to live free.”
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants’ surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages. licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
“Does he think the world is not seeing the horrific reality in Gaza? Does he think we will believe his lies?” said one peace advocate. “No, we won’t.”
Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations claimed in a televised interview Sunday that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” and was swiftly rebuked by people around the world.
Challenged by CNN‘s Dana Bash, Ambassador Gilad Erdan doubled down on his position: “I’m not saying that the life in Gaza is great. And, obviously, Hamas is the only one that should be held accountable for any situation in Gaza. But there’s a standard, due to international humanitarian law.”
“What does it mean, a humanitarian crisis? And I’m saying, again, there is no humanitarian crisis, based on the international humanitarian law, right now in Gaza,” added Erdan, who also cast doubt on the death toll being shared by local officials.
U.S. Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) called Erdan’s comments “unbelievable,” given the current conditions in Gaza a month into the war Israel launched after a Hamas-led attack on October 7, and urged the ambassador to resign from his position.
Unbelievable response by Israeli Ambassador to UN, claiming there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
No food, water, fuel or telecommunications. Almost 4,000 kids dead since October 7th. 1/4 of buildings in northern Gaza destroyed.
Also responding to Erdan’s appearance on “State of the Union,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group CodePink, said: “Does he think the world is not seeing the horrific reality in Gaza? Does he think we will believe his lies? No, we won’t.”
As of Sunday, Israel’s air and ground assault of the besieged enclave—enabled by billions in U.S. military support—has killed at least 9,770 people, including over 4,000 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry last month publicly identified thousands of the dead as Israeli officials and others, including U.S. President Joe Biden, questioned the figures.
Those who have so far survived the Israeli assault are facing limited power, water, and communication services as well as dwindling supplies of food and medicine. The United Nations World Food Program stressed Sunday that the aid entering Gaza “is nowhere near enough to meet the exponentially growing needs.”
“Right now, parents in Gaza do not know whether they can feed their children today and whether they will even survive to see tomorrow,” said Cindy McCain, the U.N. program’s executive director, as she returned from the Rafah border crossing in Egypt. “The suffering just meters away is unfathomable standing on this side of the border.”
Erdan’s interview Sunday was not the first time during the war that the Israeli government has contested conditions in Gaza. During a Sky News appearance in Mid-October, Israeli diplomat Tzipi Hotovely also said that “there is no humanitarian crisis.”
Israel’s agency overseeing policy for the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, maintained in a statement on Tuesday that there is “currently no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip” despite the mounting evidence to the contrary from aid agencies, journalists, and people living there.
The statement said the Israeli government was monitoring the supply of water, food, fuel, and energy in Gaza and asserted that “the situation is far from crisis.”
The newspaper added that “asked on Tuesday why Israel had cut off water supplies, in particular, to Gaza, the agency said that ‘according to international law, Israel has no obligation to provide goods and services to the terrorist organization Hamas—especially in cases where the enemy uses them for war purposes (for example, with respect to electricity and fuel).'”
A statement yesterday from the Israeli agency that coordinates government policy in Palestinian territories (COGAT): There is “currently no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
This is all you need to know about the reliability of Israeli government agencies. pic.twitter.com/wl5t2Ns5Pk
Former U.S. Ambassador David Satterfield, recently appointed by Biden as the special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, told reporters in Jordan on Saturday that “there is no evidence that Hamas is seizing or blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip.”
It looks as though there is only one scenario that offers hope for November 2024: the increasingly unpopular Democratic president announces in the coming weeks that he won’t seek reelection.
If you get your news from Biden-protecting outlets (MSNBC is just the most extreme of many), you’ve been warned daily that the Trump movement is preparing to steal the 2024 election. It’s a totally legitimate worry – given that MAGA forces nearly stole the 2020 election.
But there’s another totally legitimate worry that Biden-friendly media don’t like to discuss – that Joe Biden is such a weak candidate, he’s likely to lose a fair-and-square election in 2024. And likely to lose even to the discredited, unstable, repeatedly indicted Trump.
The New York Times/Sienna College poll of registered voters released Sunday should cause alarm: Biden is trailing Trump in head-to-head match-ups in five of the six most crucial battlegrounds states – all of which Biden won in 2020. The president trails Trump in Nevada by more than 10 points. He trails Trump in Georgia by six points, in Arizona and Michigan by five points, and in Pennsylvania by four points. (Only in Wisconsin does Biden lead, and that’s by only two points.)
If your news diet is provided by MSNBC or other pro-Biden corporate outlets, you may have heard Biden likened to the second coming of FDR, a savior to the working classes. That’s not how the working classes see him. They see him as economically ineffectual, especially in dealing with inflation. “Bidenomics” may be a success story in the studios of MSNBC or CNN or NPR; it’s not seen that way by the voting masses.
The “not-as-bad-as-Trump” pitch is obviously not satisfying many Democratic-leaning voters and activists, especially young progressives who are angry with Biden over Gaza civilian deaths and other failings.
In fairness to Biden-allied media, many of those who voted for Biden in 2020 – but now tell pollsters they won’t do so in 2024 – are “low-information voters.” While some are misinformed by right-wing outlets, most don’t pay close attention to news or politics. You can tell that from the ill-informed quotes they gave to the Times.
But in my view, the new poll actually understates the problems for Biden. The president has lost many of the activists who are needed to inform the ill-informed, to organize get-out-the-vote campaigns and mobilize occasional voters. These activists are often highly informed. Indeed, they are so well-informed that they know all too well about Biden’s policy reversals and broken promises. For example, thousands of climate activists mobilized in swing states to help Biden defeat Trump in 2020. Will they in 2024?
As civilians in Gaza are being massacred day after day, Biden’s one-sided “I stand with Israel” policy is losing him countless young activists and racial justice organizers who mobilized for him against Trump in 2020. In Michigan and other swing states, Arab and Muslim activists who detest Trump have said they won’t vote for Biden, let alone mobilize for him
Let me be clear about my own position: On every issue where Biden’s policies are mediocre (like on climate or the corporate greed that has fed inflation) or awful (like Israel-Palestine), Trump’s policies are even worse. Far worse. That’s not debatable.
But the “not-as-bad-as-Trump” pitch is obviously not satisfying many Democratic-leaning voters and activists, especially young progressives who are angry with Biden over Gaza civilian deaths and other failings.
As my RootsAction colleagues and I have been pointing out for the last year via the Don’t Run Joe and then Step Aside Joe campaign, there’s a major split between Democratic Party leaders and donors on the one hand, and Democratic voters on the other. Polls have long shown that the Democratic base does not want Biden to run in 2024. But Democratic leaders and officials have ignored the party’s core constituencies.
As for the big donors who’ve funded Biden for years (some of whom donate to both parties), they’d rather lose with Joe than risk the election of a change-oriented Democrat they don’t know well or can’t control.
There is only one scenario that offers hope for November 2024: the increasingly unpopular Joe Biden announces in the coming weeks that he won’t be seeking reelection (President Johnson took that step in March 1968). This would lead to a wide-open primary process featuring competition between Vice President Harris (with approval levels even lower than Biden’s) and various senators, Congress members, governors and activists.
In an open primary process, the activist base of the party—which is more progressive than the party leadership on every issue from racial justice and economics to climate and foreign policy—could exert its influence and make demands on the candidates. For example: given that most activist Democrats don’t believe “self-defense” justifies the day-in day-out massacre of Palestinian civilians, there’s a real possibility that the winning Democrat would have a more even-handed approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
What’s needed is a democratic and transparent primary process. Such a process could enable the party to unify and rally behind a Democratic nominee who is capable of soundly defeating Trump and Trumpism.
The UK government is to diverge from the EU’s standards for monitoring the quality of water in England.
An exclusive report by the Guardian this week revealed that instead of being covered by the EU’s water framework directive (WFD), as it was when the UK was in the European Union, the government will use its own, as yet undisclosed, methodology to assess the quality of England’s waterways. Under the WFD, a national chemical and ecology survey was carried out every year. But from 2016, the government made the decision that water quality under WFD would only be tested every three years, instead of annually.
The last time a full water assessment of England’s rivers took place was in 2019, when just 14 percent were found to be in good ecological health. None however, met good chemical health standards.
According to the report, government officials told stakeholders about the change at a meeting. A source from an NGO who had attended the meeting said: “When asked how this would affect assessments against the target set out in the government’s environment improvement plan, officials commented that this data would no longer be used for that purpose, and that Defra were looking to use the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) process to assessment performance. I question how developed the work on the NCEA is and whether this is suitable.”
Campaigners have warned that diverging from EU environmental standards will lead to England’s rivers and waterways becoming even more polluted if the new measuring methods are less rigorous. They also warn that it may make it more difficult for the state of England’s rivers to be compared with those in the EU, meaning the public will be left in the dark about water pollution and sewage.
