Smoke rises in Gaza from an Israeli strike, June 2025. (Photo: Saeed Qaq / Alamy)
Britain’s obedient defence correspondents are refusing to report a story of clear public interest in the middle of a genocide.
Published in collaboration with The National
Britain’s mainstream media have not carried out a single investigation into the extent, impact or legal status of the more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza that the RAF has carried out since December 2023.
The Ministry of Defence continues to insist that the operations, carried out by Shadow R1 aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, are designed purely to assist with the discovery of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023.
It appears that Britain’s obedient defence correspondents have no appetite to challenge this or even to raise the slightest concern about the legal or ethical implications of providing intelligence support to Israel in the middle of a genocide.
Yet thanks to dogged work by campaigners, independent journalists and pro-Palestine MPs, we know both that the flights are continuing to operate (as they did even throughout the ceasefire) and that spikes in the number of flights have coincided with especially deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The lack of curiosity on the part of mainstream media is perhaps not surprising but it is deeply troubling.
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Out of 993 stories on the “defence review” in UK media on 2 June, a tiny handful took the time even to acknowledge the existence of significant public opposition to increases in defence spending, particularly at the expense of cuts to public services.
The vast majority of published criticism of Labour’s defence plans come from the Tories or military voices arguing that “this is too little, too late” or that it isn’t clear where the money will come from. There is, apparently, no space for hard news content that investigates whether increased defence spending is either effective nor necessary.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media’s continuing silence on RAF spy flights over Gaza is a flagrant abdication of their stated responsibility to ask tough questions of military planners.
Far from holding power to account, mainstream media – through their silence and meekness – are allowing the government to get away with murder in Gaza.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, January 3, 2024
THE NHS could face six months of disruption after resident doctors in England voted in favour of strike action today.
Downing Street said that pay negotiations would not be reopened because the government “can’t be more generous” than it has been already this year.
Some 90 per cent of voting resident doctors in England, formerly known as junior doctors, said they would down stethoscopes and take to picket lines amid an ongoing row over pay.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said that there had been a turnout of 55 per cent and that resident doctors needed an increase of 29.2 per cent to reverse “pay erosion” since 2008-09.
The union added that there was “still time to avert strike action” and urged the government to “come forward as soon as possible with a credible path to pay restoration.”
Len McCluskey talks on stage during a live debate, at the Labour Live event at White Hart Lane Recreation Ground, north London, June 16, 2019
LABOUR could lose trade union support to a new party of the left, former union leader Len McCluskey has warned.
Mr McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the union from 2011 to 2021, told GB News that the new party called for by independent MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn could prove attractive to disillusioned trade unionists.
“If this new party demonstrates it’s credible, then trade unions will consider their affiliations,” he said.
“If the new party proves credible, then I will join it, I will campaign for it and I will urge individuals and trade unions to give their support.
Israeli army vehicles moves in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel on July 6, 2025
RAMZY BAROUD highlights a new report by special rapporteur Francesca Albanese that unflinchingly names and shames the companies that have enabled Israel’s bloody massacre in Gaza
FRANCESCA ALBANESE, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in occupied Palestine, stands as a testament to the notion of speaking truth to power. This “power” is not solely embodied by Israel or even the United States, but by an international community whose collective relevance has tragically failed to stem the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Her latest report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on July 3, marks a seismic intervention. It unflinchingly names and implicates companies that have not only allowed Israel to sustain its war and genocide against Palestinians, but also confronts those who have remained silent in the face of this unfolding horror.
Albanese’s “economy of genocide” is far more than an academic exercise or a mere moral statement in a world whose collective conscience is being brutally tested in Gaza. The report is significant for multiple, interlocking reasons. Crucially, it offers practical pathways to accountability that transcend mere diplomatic and legal rhetoric. It also presents a novel approach to international law, positioning it not as a delicate political balancing act, but as a potent tool to confront complicity in war crimes and expose the profound failures of existing international mechanisms in Gaza.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva leads the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 6, 2025. Photo: X
New tensions have arisen between the United States and Brazil after Trump claims that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-right-wing leader, is innocent
On July 7, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, published a message on Truth Social defending former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and claiming he has been mistreated and is innocent. Bolsonaro was los reelection in the 2022 elections and later the Supreme Court declared that he was ineligible to serve in public office due to his numerous violations.
Trump wrote: “Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro. I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE… This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10, and now our Country is the “HOTTEST” in the World! The Great People of Brazil will not stand for what they are doing to their former President.”
He also claimed that the alleged persecution of Bolsonaro is a “witch hunt”: “I’ll be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro, his family, and thousands of his supporters, very closely. The only Trial that should be happening is a Trial by the Voters of Brazil — It’s called an Election. LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!”
In response to these statements, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asserted that the US president’s declaration is interference and that Brazilian sovereignty must be respected. “The defense of democracy in Brazil is a matter for Brazilians. We are a sovereign country,” Lula reminded Trump. “We do not accept interference or tutelage from anyone. We have solid and independent institutions. No one is above the law. Especially those who attack freedom and the rule of law.”
For her part, Brazil’s secretary of state, Gleisi Hoffmann, was more confrontational:
“Donald Trump is very mistaken if he thinks he can interfere in the Brazilian judicial process. The period when Brazil was subservient to the US was during Bolsonaro’s presidency, when he saluted his flag and failed to defend national interests. Today, he is answering for the crimes he committed against democracy and the electoral process in Brazil. You can’t talk about persecution when a sovereign country complies with due process in the democratic rule of law, which Bolsonaro and his coup plotters have tried to destroy. The US president should take care of his problems, of which there are many, and respect the sovereignty of Brazil and our judiciary.”
Trump’s comments were made while Lula leads the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the economic bloc denounced “unilateral, punitive, and discriminatory protectionist measures” and called for the strengthening of multilateralism to create a more equitable global order.
What is Bolsonaro accused of?
Former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), a longtime friend of Donald Trump, thanked the US president for his support: “I was delighted to receive the note from President Donald Trump. This lawsuit to which I am responding is a legal aberration (Lawfare), clear political persecution, already perceived by everyone with common sense … I thank the illustrious President and friend. You went through something similar … Your struggle for peace, justice, and freedom echoes across the planet. Thank you for existing and for giving us an example of faith and resilience.”
According to the Brazilian justice system, Bolsonaro led, together with several high-ranking military officers and other far-right politicians, an attempt to delegitimize and reverse the electoral results that marked his defeat in October 2022 by the current President Lula da Silva, who obtained 50.9% of the valid votes, to the far-right’s 49.1%. On January 8, 2023, hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the headquarters of the legislative and judicial branches in Brasilia.
The protesters entered the Three Powers Square a week after Lula assumed his mandate as president of the country. Following the declaration of a state of emergency, security forces took several hours to expel Bolsonaro’s supporters, while most governments around the world condemned the incursion.
For his part, Bolsonaro has denied his participation in the events, in which, according to the Brazilian justice system, generals Augusto Heleno and Walter Braga (former Secretary of Defense), as well as former Secretaries, Anderson Torres, Augusto Heleno, and the 2022 electoral campaign aide, Mauro Cid, are also involved.
The charges are attempted coup d’état, participation in an armed criminal organization, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law, aggravated damages, and deterioration of historical heritage. The final decision of justice will be known in the coming months and will surely affect the political future of the Amazonian nation.
Junior doctors and members of the British Medical Association (BMA) outside Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, January 3, 2024
