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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez makes a speech during the Socialist International Council Meeting held at a hotel in Besiktas district of Istabul, Turkiye on May 24, 2025. [Beyza Cömert – Anadolu Agency]
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused Israel on Wednesday of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, stating that Europe is not doing enough to stop it.
Speaking before the Spanish parliament, Sánchez compared the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
He said: “No one that tramples on the EU’s founding principles – or that uses hunger and war to annihilate a legitimate state – can be a partner of the European Union,”
Sánchez warned that Netanyahu’s actions would be remembered as “one of the darkest chapters of the 21st century.”
He went on to say that “The harrowing images of children searching for their families under the rubble or dying of hunger in tents should not only move and shame us, they should compel the international community — and Europe in particular — to act.”
Sánchez also noted that Spain and Ireland were the first to request a review by the European Union in February 2024 of whether Israel is complying with the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
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Al-Qassam Brigades hand over 3 female Israeli hostages to Red Cross at al-Saraya as part of 1st phase of ceasefire and prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza on January 19, 2025 [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency]
A senior official in the Hamas movement, Taher Al-Nounou, has confirmed that the group has agreed to release 10 Israeli captives currently held in Gaza in order to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid and bring an end to the ongoing war on the Strip.
In remarks made to the press on Wednesday, Al-Nounou said that Hamas is showing a high degree of flexibility during the current negotiations taking place in the Qatari capital, Doha, and is responding positively to mediators.
He noted that this round of talks faces serious challenges, but stressed that the movement remains committed to its core demands, foremost among them the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a comprehensive end to the aggression.
He emphasised that Hamas’s primary goal in any negotiations is to safeguard the interests of the Palestinian people and stop what he described as “the crime of genocide”, while also ensuring that humanitarian aid can enter Gaza freely and with dignity.
Al-Nounou pointed out that the flexibility Hamas has demonstrated in dealing with proposals from mediators has been one of the main reasons for progress in the talks. He confirmed that the decision to release the Israeli prisoners falls within this humanitarian and political context.
Stressing the importance of international guarantees, Al-Nounou noted that the United States holds real leverage over Israel to end the war, and could compel it to adhere to any agreement reached—if it exercises the political will to do so.
Keir Starmer’s home secretary Yvette Cooper (right) has banned Palestine Action. (Photo: Alastair Grant / Alamy)
The Home Office briefed the Times that Palestine Action could be funded by Iran, and then UK media kicked into action spreading the story.
The proscription of Palestine Action took place alongside claims made in sections of the British media that the group could have been funded by Iran.
On the same day, 23 June, that home secretary Yvette Cooper formally announced to parliament she would proscribe the group, the Times published a report saying “Iran could be funding Palestine Action, Home Office officials claimed”.
It added: “Officials are understood to be investigating its source of donations amid concerns that the Iranian regime, via proxies, is funding the group’s activities given that their objectives are aligned”.
The Times provided no quotes from Home Office officials or any evidence of Iranian funding to Palestine Action.
The same day, the paper published another article, stating: “Support for the group [Palestine Action] from campaigns with alleged links to Iran has fuelled concerns it is unwittingly and covertly being funded by Tehran. It received backing yesterday by a group described in a government report as ‘aligned with the Iranian regime’”.
This referred to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a pro-Iranian UK-based NGO which had posted on X: “We stand in solidarity with our comrades PalestineAction!”
The Times noted that the IHRC was described in a 2023 government review of the Prevent counter-extremism programme as an “Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of ‘extremist links and terrorist sympathies’”.
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance acknowledge the crowd after Trump’s second inauguration in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kenny Holston/Pool/Getty Images)
“Every month that Donald Trump has been in power, we’ve seen a raft of anti-climate measures come out which are music to the fossil fuel industry’s ears,” said one investigator.
Oil, gas, and coal companies and individuals linked to the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry contributed more than $19 million to U.S. President Donald Trump’s second inaugural fund, an analysis by a leading international environmental and human rights group revealed Wednesday.
Scouring itemized U.S Federal Election Commission data, Global Witness identified 47 individual donations to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee between November 2024 and January 2025 totaling $19,151,933. Using an artificial intelligence tool developed by Global Witness to identify corporate lobbyists, the group’s researchers were able to automatically determine each donor’s ties to the fossil fuel industry.
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Global Witness said the $19.15 million figure “is likely an underestimate, as we did not count donations from diversified investors and businesses who couldn’t be said to primarily represent the fossil fuel industry,” and individuals with common names that couldn’t be identified were not included in the final report.
According to the analysis:
The list of donors includes individuals who were given ambassadorships or key positions in the Trump Cabinet.
For example, billionaire Warren Stephens donated $4 million on December 2, 2024, the same day Trump nominated him to be U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Stephens has extensive links to the oil and gas industry but also invests in other sectors and wasn’t included in our calculations of fossil fuel industry donors.
Trump also nominated Melinda Hildebrand—who donated $500,000 to the president’s inaugural fund—to be U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica.
Hildebrand is the vice president of Hilcorp Ventures, which claims to be of the largest privately owned oil and gas producers in the U.S. Her husband, founder and chairman of Hilcorp, donated another $500,000.
Among fossil fuel corporations, Chevron was by far the largest contributor to Trump’s inauguration fund, giving $2 million. Other companies including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum each donated $1 million.
Overall, Big Oil gave $445 million to Trump and other Republican candidates during the 2024 election cycle.
Trump accepted over $23 million from Fossil Fuel Lobby & Big Oil independently spent $445 million in 2024 elections.
In return Trump eroded our environmental regulations, hired a Fossil Fuel Executive as his Energy Secretary & let Musk defund FEMA. He is responsible for this ⤵️ https://t.co/wZuqUUbf9hpic.twitter.com/rKoRPTnive
Trump, who ran on a “drill, baby, drill” energy policy, has signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting fossil fuel production, including by declaring a fake “energy emergency” in a push to fast-track permit approvals. He also tapped former fossil fuel executives to head the Department of Energy and Interior Department, which have pursued a policy of opening up more public lands and waters for fossil fuel development.
At the same time, the Trump administration dropped out of the Paris climate agreement for the second time and moved to roll back the modest climate progress achieved under former President Joe Biden.
“It’s no surprise the oil and gas industry handed millions to Donald Trump for his inauguration, and they seem to have reaped a huge return on their investment,” Global Witness senior data investigator Nicu Calcea said in a statement Wednesday.
“Every month that Donald Trump has been in power, we’ve seen a raft of anti-climate measures come out which are music to the fossil fuel industry’s ears,” Calcea continued. “From plans to steamroll through dirty new coal plants, to the attempted quashing of ‘polluter pays’ laws that would hold oil giants accountable, it’s clear where his political priorities lie.”
“While Trump sides with his friends in oil and gas, we must keep up the fight for a fair, green future—that means pushing for wind and solar where we live, backing polluters pay bills, and resisting the development of oil, gas and coal projects across the country,” he added.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago speaks to journalists at a press conference to launch an open letter on work towards the COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil. (Photo: Rafa Neddermeyer/ COP30 Amazônia/PR)
In an exclusive interview, André Corrêa do Lago says negotiators can work out rules or a timeline for the energy transition, but it’s up to countries to act on what they agreed
When it comes to the most important thing to curb climate change – moving away from planet-heating fossil fuels – governments have done enough negotiating, and their focus now should be on putting what they already agreed into practice, Brazil’s COP30 president told Climate Home News.
That does not require repeating language in new UN texts or even consensus among countries about how to transition from coal, oil and gas, although they could choose to design a roadmap for that energy shift at this year’s climate summit in the Amazon, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago said in an exclusive interview.
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Brazil’s environment minister Marina Silva at a press conference in London. (Photo: Credit: Isabela Castilho / COP30 presidency)
The COP30 president emphasised that while this is up to governments, “we can’t keep the world waiting for negotiations to move forward” before acting to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.
“It’s not true that it depends on that. There’s already enough approval from countries. Individual countries can do it because implementation isn’t by consensus. Implementation is that each country does what it thinks it can do,” he explained.
