Yearly Archives: 2024

Pro-Palestine journalist Asa Winstanley’s home raided by British counterterror police

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… [C]ounterterrorism forces raided Winstanley’s home in London, seizing electronic devices used in his work. Although Winstanley was not arrested, the equipment was confiscated by the police. …

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Asa Winstanley. Photo: R Witts Photography: Electronic Intifada

British authorities targeted journalist Asa Winstanley in a counterterrorism raid, marking the latest crackdown on journalists opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its ongoing genocide in Gaza

Journalist with the Electronic Intifada Asa Winstanley is one of the latest targets of British authorities cracking down on activists and journalists opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. On Thursday, October 17, counterterrorism forces raided Winstanley’s home in London, seizing electronic devices used in his work. Although Winstanley was not arrested, the equipment was confiscated by the police.

The operation was based on the heavily criticized 2006 Terrorism Act, whose broad provisions can be easily misused to stifle discussion on controversial topics, the editors of The Electronic Intifada said in a statement. Media workers’ trade unions have already warned that applying the law to journalists will have a chilling effect on press freedom and free speech.

Winstanley was told he was being investigated for “encouragement of terrorism,” a charge human rights associations have previously criticized for being too vague and opening the door to the suppression of free speech. The police informed Winstanley that the raid was triggered by material he shared on social media.

Read more: Pro-Palestine activists are under attack in Europe

Editors of the renowned pro-Palestine outlet described the action against Winstanley as the “latest use by British authorities of repressive ‘counterterrorism’ legislation to crack down on journalists and activists involved in reporting on or protesting Israel’s crimes.” Previously, journalists like Richard Medhurst and Palestine solidarity activists Mick Napier, Tony Greenstein, and Sarah Wilkinson, among others, were targeted by the authorities over speeches made at rallies and opinions expressed on social media.

Several activists from Palestine Action involved in direct action against companies complicit in Israel’s crimes, including Elbit Systems, have also been detained by British police on alleged terrorism charges over recent months. Like in Winstanley’s case, “counterterrorism powers are being used to raid, arrest, and imprison pro-Palestine activists and journalists,” according to Palestine Action.

Winstanley has been a vocal critic of Britain’s complicity in the occupation of Palestine, with his investigations covering the Labour Party’s links with the Israel lobby. As a result, he has faced legal threats from the party, which is currently in power in the UK and has promoted the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine since winning the election.

“The raid on Winstanley’s home is clearly intended to intimidate and silence him, as well as other journalists and activists,” concluded The Electronic Intifada.

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Continue ReadingPro-Palestine journalist Asa Winstanley’s home raided by British counterterror police

NHS buildings ‘falling apart’ as government sidesteps urgent funding issues

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-buildings-falling-apart-government-sidesteps-urgent-funding-issues

A general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London

CAMPAIGNERS slammed the government for “not talking seriously” about health service funding today, after it emerged that the bill to fix crumbling NHS buildings has soared while patients and staff are left in harm’s way.

New figures show that the cost to eradicate NHS repairs in England jumped to £13.8 billion in 2023, up by a fifth compared to the previous year.

Costs amounting to £3bn were attributed to “high-risk” repairs, which could cause injury if left unaddressed.

NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said: “Vital bits of the NHS are literally falling apart after years of underinvestment nationally.

“The safety of patients and staff is at risk.

“The list of essential repairs across the NHS waiting to be done keeps getting longer and the costs are rocketing.”

The spiralling maintenance backlog outstrips the cost of running the NHS estate itself, which also increased by 11 per cent to £13.6bn.

King’s Fund chief executive Sarah Woolnough said the backlog has grown due to the “repeated raiding” of capital budgets to shore up day-to-day running costs, coupled with “short-term sticking plaster solutions.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-buildings-falling-apart-government-sidesteps-urgent-funding-issues

Continue ReadingNHS buildings ‘falling apart’ as government sidesteps urgent funding issues

‘I Care About Little Kids Dying’: Ocasio-Cortez Hits Back at Fetterman Over Gaza

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Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conference to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.  (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“I care about human rights,” said the New York congresswoman in response to her Democratic colleague in the Senate. “I care that billions of U.S. tax dollars’ worth of weapons are carrying out unspeakable atrocities.”

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized fellow Democrat and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman on Wednesday for failing to hold the U.S.-armed Israeli military accountable for killing and harming civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks came in response to Fetterman’s dismissal of her earlier call for an arms embargo on Israel, which has received billions of dollars worth of weapons and other military aid since the Hamas-led October 7 attack.

“The tragedy in Gaza is 100% on Hamas,” Fetterman wrote on social media with a screengrab of a Hill headline outlining Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks. “Stop using civilians and hospitals as shields, surrender, and release all remaining hostages—and this ends.”

Ocasio-Cortez then retweeted Fetterman’s words with her own rebuttal.

“I dunno man. I care about little kids dying,” the New York lawmaker replied. “I care about human rights. I care that billions of U.S. tax dollars’ worth of weapons are carrying out unspeakable atrocities. I care enough for us to do better.”

“Hope this bleak dunk attempt gets you whatever it is you’re going for,” she concluded.

The exchange comes as Israel has intensified its assault on northern Gaza in recent days, bombing homes and schools-turned-shelters in the Jabalia refugee camp and issuing new evacuation orders for the beleaguered region yet placing snipers on roofs and shooting people who try to flee. On Saturday, the Palestinian Deputy Observer to the United Nations Majed Bamya called Israel’s escalation in the north a “genocide within the genocide” and the World Food Program said that no food had been able to reach the area since October 1, warning that the ramped up attacks were having “a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families.” However, 50 trucks carrying aid including food were allowed to enter the north on Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks that prompted Fetterman’s rejoinder came in response to the weekend’s atrocities.

“The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals,” she wrote on social media on Monday. “This is a genocide of Palestinians. The U.S. must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the U.S. response. She backed a House resolution calling for a cease-fire weeks into the war, and demanded an end to the flow of weapons from the House floor in March, when she described Israel’s actions in Gaza as an “unfolding genocide.”

Fetterman, meanwhile, has faced protests from some of his more progressive constituents over his hardline pro-Israel stance.

On Tuesday, news broke that the Biden administration had reportedly written a letter to the Israeli government threatening to cut off the flow of weapons to the country unless it took “urgent and sustained actions” to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within 30 days.

Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘I Care About Little Kids Dying’: Ocasio-Cortez Hits Back at Fetterman Over Gaza

With $75 Million Gift, Musk Joins Right-Wing Billionaires Bankrolling Trump Campaign

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a campaign rally with Republican nominee Donald Trump on October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In the third quarter of 2024, Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, and Richard Uihlein donated a combined $220 million to super PACs supporting the Republican nominee.

Prominent members of the United States’ billionaire class have shelled out massive sums in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign to elect one of their own, Republican nominee Donald Trump, to the White House, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk donating nearly $75 million in recent months to a super PAC supporting the former president’s bid for a second term.

According to federal filings made public Tuesday, at least six other billionaires joined Musk in donating to pro-Trump super PACs in the third quarter of 2024: Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; businessman Richard Uihlein, the heir to a brewing fortune; David Millstone, co-CEO of Standard Industries; Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply; Kelcy Warren, the chair of Energy Transfer Partners; and financier Ike Perlmutter.

Combined, Musk, Adelson ($95 million), and Uihlein ($49 million) funneled around $220 million over the past three months to super PACs supporting Trump, whose campaign has also received huge financial support from reclusive GOP megadonor Timothy Mellon.

Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the critical social media platform X, sent roughly $75 million in donations to his pro-Trump America PAC, which has been accused of voter deception. The Guardian‘s Hugo Lowell noted that Musk’s PAC is “doing the bulk of the Trump campaign’s ground game work across the battleground states,” and the billionaire has been using his social media platform to incessantly promote the former president.

As The New York Times reported earlier this month, America PAC has offered to pay $47 to those who help the organization “find Trump voters.”

Trump—whose campaign has focused heavily on delivering more billionaire-enriching tax cuts—has said that, if he wins next month’s election, he would put Musk “in charge of cost-cutting.”

The head of the American Federation of Government Employees expressed alarm last month over Trump’s push for a “government efficiency commission” headed by Musk, warning that the two billionaires only “care about one thing: lining their own pockets.”

In an X post early Wednesday, Musk announced that he “will be giving a series of talks” throughout the key battleground state of Pennsylvania over the next several days as part of his effort to boost the Trump campaign, whose fundraising operation has struggled to keep up with that of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

CNN noted Wednesday that Harris, who has also received support from prominent billionaires, “has set a blistering pace—raising $1 billion since she became the Democratic standard-bearer in late July—a milestone achieved faster than any other presidential contender.”

“Tuesday’s filings show that a high-dollar fundraising committee that channels money to her campaign and aligned Democratic committees, took in $633 million during the third quarter—four times the amount raised by Trump’s equivalent fundraising arm in that time,” CNN added.

The Washington Post emphasized that “a full picture of the financial strength of the Trump and Harris efforts will not be available until Sunday, when the campaigns and parties file detailed reports with the Federal Election Commission.”

This year’s election is on track to be the most expensive in U.S. history, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, with at least $15.9 billion flowing to candidates for federal office and super PACs—an outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

A report published last month by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimated that by the end of August, just 150 billionaire families in the U.S. had spent nearly $1.4 billion attempting to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.

“Billionaires are making their ‘voices’ heard—make sure theirs don’t drown out yours,” ATF wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, urging people to turn out to vote next month.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingWith $75 Million Gift, Musk Joins Right-Wing Billionaires Bankrolling Trump Campaign