Green Party leader Zack Polanski said money would be better spent on renewable energy
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has criticised government plans to build a new generation of nuclear reactors, calling it old technology that is like “creating a fax machine”.
Centrica and US firm X-energy aim to create up to 2,500 jobs in Hartlepool by building 12 new advanced modular nuclear reactors.
Polanski said it was technology “from a long time ago” and that money would be better spent on wind and solar power, which could deliver thousands of jobs.
Labour MP for Hartlepool Jonathan Brash said the technology was being pioneered in the United States and that the companies were also working with schools and colleges to recruit a local workforce.
The nuclear site will be developed next to the town’s existing nuclear power station, which is set to be decommissioned in 2028.
The government previously said that the deal could secure the next 50 years of clean, homegrown energy and that it “marks the dawn of a new golden age for British nuclear”.
EIGHT firms that recently donated to the Labour Party were awarded contracts worth close to £138 million within the first year of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, researchers revealed today.
Their report, for the Autonomy Institute think tank, found that the firms’ donations, totalling £580,000, were tiny compared with the multimillion-pound public contracts they received.
Among them were accounting firm PwC UK, which had donated £236,000 since 2022 and been awarded £67m in contracts, and business consultancy Baringa Partners, which had given £30,000 since last year and signed deals worth £35m.
The trend carries on from the previous Tory government. Looking at May 2015 until last July, the report identified 29 companies which had donated £11m to the Conservative Party and then received contracts worth £2.3 billion.
These included Covid testing firm Randox Laboratories, which took £132.4m in contracts after donating £44,000, and consultancy KPMG, which secured £236m in deals after donating £170,000.
The report found that since 2000, for every £1 donated by a “giver and taker” company, they were awarded £1,294 in public contracts.
It describes the relationship between donations and government contracts as a “cause of concern for democratic governance, raising questions for transparency, accountability, and public trust” and calls for a ban on public contracts for firms that have made donations over the last decade.
Keir Starmer commits to restore honesty and integrity to politics and whores out access to all areas of Number 10 to a huge donor.Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Protesters hold signs during an anti-ICE protest outside of San Francisco City Hall on October 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“Maybe other cities should try to convince a wealthy tech CEO or two to keep the president from siccing his agents on them,” quipped one writer.
After threatening for days to deploy troops to San Francisco, President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would pull back for the moment, apparently after some of his billionaire “friends” in the city called him and asked him not to.
“The Federal Government was preparing to ‘surge’ San Francisco, California, on Saturday,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “But friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress.”
Trump said he “spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around. I told [Lurie], I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove. I told him, ’It’s an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let’s see how you do?‘”
In a separate post, Lurie affirmed that he had spoken with Trump. He said he told the president that “San Francisco is on the rise,” and that a military occupation would “hinder our recovery.”
Although Trump is walking back his troop threat, for now, US Customs and Border Protection agents still arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
The Associated Pressreported that “police used at least one flash-bang grenade to clear a handful of demonstrators from the entrance” of Coast Guard Island in Alameda, where the CBP agents will be based.
In addition to threatening San Francisco in recent days, Trump has sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois—where a judge has halted the deployment.
Like virtually all of the cities where Trump has either surged or threatened to surge federalized troops, San Francisco has no crime wave to “turn around.” In fact, crime has been falling precipitously in the city. Homicides dropped by 35% during 2024 and hit a 60-year low this year, contradicting Trump’s assertions that the city is a “mess” and that people there lived in constant fear of being “mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted, or shot.”
Lurie said he agreed to help Trump go to war on this imaginary crime wave, and said he would welcome “would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and US attorney.”
Trump said he was persuaded to hold off on the surge of troops after he was called by two Silicon Valley billionaires, Marc Benioff and Jensen Huang, whom he called “great people.”
Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, was a longtime Democrat who quickly morphed into an outspoken Trump supporter after his victory in 2024. He was also an initial champion of Trump’s proposal to send troops to San Francisco, but later backed off and even apologized after facing criticism from local officials and former political allies.
Huang, the CEO of the computer tech company Nvidia, meanwhile, cut an unprecedented deal with Trump in August that allowed the company to sell computer chips in China if it handed 15% of the revenue from those sales to the federal government, which was described as a “shakedown” by one financial columnist.
Trump said that these two and some unspecified “others” called him, “saying that the future of San Francisco is great” and that “they want to give [Lurie’s efforts] a ’shot.‘”
“Therefore,” Trump said, “we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday.”
Hafiz Rashid, a writer for the New Republic, quipped that “maybe other cities should try to convince a wealthy tech CEO or two to keep the president from siccing his agents on them.”
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.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.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Francesca Albanese (international lawyer) briefs the media ahead of the 23rd Nelson Mandela annual lecture at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on October 22, 2025, in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Francesca Albanese wrote that states that supported Israel financially and militarily “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts.”
A report by one of the United Nations’ leading expertson Israel-Palestine describes the more than two years of genocide in Gaza as a “collective crime,” for which all nations with financial, diplomatic, and military ties with Israel are culpable.
The draft report, published Monday, was written by Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who is expected to speak at length on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza this weekend as part of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s lecture series in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Her report names more than 60 countries, without which she says the systematic destruction of Gaza—which has killed or injured more than 10% of the strip’s population and displaced nearly everyone there—would not have been possible.
“Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through third states’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection, and, in some cases, active participation,” Albanese wrote. “The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met, and justice is upheld.”
🚩My new report is out. With their actions and omissions, third states have enabled the oppression of the Palestinian people and their genocide.
Those states have an obligation to stop their complicity and deliver justice.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 22, 2025
Her report says that the states most responsible are “primarily Western ones,” the United States being chief among them.
The US accounts for two-thirds of Israel’s annual arms imports. And according to a report out this week from the Center for International Policy, it has spent over $38 billion since October 2023, both directly arming Israel through military grant programs and waging war against its enemies in Iran, Lebanon, and other nations across the Middle East.
Under both a Democratic and Republican administration, the US has also provided critical diplomatic cover for Israel, proposing temporary “pauses” and “truces” to the conflict before international bodies, “sidestepping a permanent ceasefire and ensuring a continuation of the violence.”
On several occasions, the US has used its veto power to block unanimous votes in favor of a binding ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council. In September, it did so for the fifth time, vetoing a 14-1 resolution that would have required both parties to halt the violence and release all hostages.
American non-governmental organizations supported by US President Donald Trump were also directly involved with the creation and administration of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which administered aid sites after humanitarian organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were pushed out. In just over three months, more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers were killed in routine massacres by Israeli troops, who have described the GHF sites as “killing fields.”
Many senior US politicians, Albanese said, have helped to prolong the genocide through rhetoric that frames Israeli lives as more important and worthy of protection than Palestinian ones.
“Israelis were depicted as ‘civilians’ and ’hostages,‘ and Palestinians as ’Hamas terrorists,‘ ’legitimate’ or ‘collateral’ targets,’ ‘human shields’ or lawfully detained ’prisoners,‘” she wrote.
Albanese also singled out many European nations as particularly culpable. These include Germany, which provided Israel with over $565 million worth of weapons, making it the second-largest exporter behind the US; and the United Kingdom, which has participated in hundreds of surveillance missions over Gaza and whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, defended Israel’s right to cut off water and power to civilians at the war’s outset.
She also called out others that increased trade with Israel during the two years of genocide—Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Denmark, and France—as well as Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. She said their continued economic support not only “legitimizes and sustains the Israeli apartheid regime” but “countered the trade decline Israel might otherwise have faced” as a result of its increasing global isolation.
Albanese wrote that for helping Israel, which she described as a “genocidal apartheid state,” these nations “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts.”
Though a ceasefire is now in effect between Israel and Gaza, Albanese said on Wednesday that the plan, which currently has Israel occupying more than half the Gaza Strip, was “absolutely inadequate and it doesn’t comply with international law.”
She said that the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western nations in recent months has “been a pretense of doing something while the emergency was to discuss… how we stop the genocide.”
Albanese said that the states “who still have ties with Israel, diplomatic, but especially economic, political, and military ties, are all responsible in some measure.”
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.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.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) rise and political future on “The Axios Show” on October 23, 2023. (Photo: Axios/screenshot)
In addition to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said the senator, “you’ve got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House… And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future.”
Despite the Trump administration’s increasing assaults on immigrant communities, the political left, and the rule of law, US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday said he is optimistic “about our political future” when he looks at progressive leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In excerpts of the latest episode of “The Axios Show” by the news outlet Axios, which is set to be released in full on Friday, Sanders (I-Vt.) weighed in on the recent news that Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is considering a presidential run in 2028.
When host Alex Thompson asked him whether Ocasio-Cortez would be a “formidable” candidate, Sanders replied, “I think she would.”
He added that a number of other Democratic elected officials would also be good candidates, and said the congresswoman’s future political moves are “her decision to make.” Ocasio-Cortez has also been named as a potential challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2026.
Sanders spoke about Ocasio-Cortez’s ability to connect with voters she meets in person.
“I’ve been out on the streets with her, people come up, and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open,” he said. “It’s just something that’s a gift that she has. It’s a quality that she has, she’s a great speaker out there.”
While progressive electoral successes like Ocasio-Cortez’s have often been dismissed by centrist Democrats and Republicans who claim left-wing candidates don’t have appeal outside of deep-blue urban areas like New York City, the congresswoman—who’s often called by her nickname, AOC—has received warm receptions in conservative, rural parts of the country, including when speaking to crowds of thousands with Sanders on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour this year.
“She comes from the working class, she was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother,” he said. “She knows what it’s like not to have any money and she’s going out, fighting for working families all over this country.”
“I do want to say, it’s not just Alexandria,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House…I mean literally dozens… And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future.”
Sanders also spoke about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is running a campaign focused on lifting up the working class in the primary against multiple candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills, as the party aims to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Platner has been the subject of controversy in recent days over deleted Reddit posts he wrote in the past and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—one that he got while serving in the military and that didn’t prevent him from being approved to reenlist. He announced Wednesday that he had gotten the tattoo covered with another image, before continuing his campaign with a town hall where he spoke to hundreds of Maine voters.
When Thompson asked Sanders about Platner’s controversies, he answered that he is “not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, ‘What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Platner’s chest?’”
“Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues,” he said before speaking about the progressive oyster farmer’s impressive campaign rallies and the “dark period” he went through in the past.
“He went through some very difficult experiences in the military,” said Sanders. “Seeing his friends killed… He went to the VA and by the way, he says they rebuilt his life. He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period.”
“The guy that I saw up on the stage in Portland, Maine, rather a brilliant guy,” said the senator. “Really a strong fighter for the working class, very articulate, very smart and what he said is, ‘Yeah, I went through a dark period and said stupid things. I am not the person that I was back then.’”
“And I think as a nation,” he added, “especially given the fact that we have a president who was convicted of 34 felonies, maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness.”
📺 EXCLUSIVE: On the latest episode of The Axios Show, @SenSanders defends Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying there might be "one or two more important issues" than the Marine veteran's tattoos.
Front Orca supports AOC, urges her to kick some ass.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
A view of, £5, £10, £20 and £50 bank notes
