Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Responding to the news that Lord Mandelson has been sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the United States, Green Party Leader, Zack Polanski, said:
“Starmer’s instinct was to stand by Peter Mandelson, despite the evidence. His resignation now isn’t a matter of principle; it’s simple political expediency. It’s a symbol of a broken politics where the same insiders always fail up. How long until Mandelson ends up in a high-paid consultancy somewhere? While another washed-up former Westminster insider ends up in Washington? His resignation, like his original appointment, is a sign of a dirty, broken political system.”
The Green Parties across the UK, the Scottish Greens, the Green Party of Northern Ireland, the Green Party of England and Wales, and the Welsh Green Party have today issued a rare joint call on the BBC to withdraw from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest coverage if Israel’s state broadcaster is permitted to participate.
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.
In a letter to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, the four Green Parties warn that Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 2023 has left more than 64,000 Palestinians dead, over 160,000 injured, and entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble. UN officials have repeatedly said Israel’s actions bear the hallmarks of genocide. British Green Parties have repeatedly called on the British state to act in line with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The leaders also highlighted Gaza as the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded, with more reporters killed there in the last two years than worldwide in the three years before combined.
Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said:
“Eurovision is supposed to stand for peace, shared humanity and a lot of fun. Those values cannot coexist with complicity in genocide. By standing alongside Israel’s state broadcaster, the BBC would not just be ignoring the mass killing of civilians, it would also be turning its back on journalists being silenced and murdered for telling the truth. That is indefensible.”
Broadcasters across Europe are already taking action. Ireland’s RTÉ and Slovenia’s RTVSLO have pledged to withdraw if Israel participates, while Spain’s Culture Minister has raised the same, and Iceland is consulting the public. The BBC cannot stay neutral in genocide.”
Ross Greer, Co-Leader of the Scottish Greens, said:
“We’ve been here before. In the fight against apartheid South Africa, cultural boycotts were vital in telling oppressive regimes they would not be normalised. The same principle applies today. Israel must not be allowed to use Eurovision as a platform to launder its reputation while committing atrocities.”
Malachai O’Hara, Leader of the Green Party of Northern Ireland, said:
“This is a moment for moral clarity. Either the BBC stands on the side of peace, justice and international law – or it lends legitimacy to a state committing mass human rights abuses. The choice could not be starker.”
Anthony Slaughter, Leader of the Welsh Green Party added:
“The UK cannot look away while children starve, while families are bombed from their homes, while an entire people are brutalised. The BBC has a responsibility to act, and the time to act is now.”
The joint letter concludes:
“The Eurovision Song Contest is supposed to celebrate peace, unity, and shared humanity. Those values cannot coexist whilst arming a genocide. We therefore call on the BBC, in the strongest possible terms, to withdraw from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel’s state broadcaster is permitted to participate. In the face of genocide, we urge you to act.”
A view of one of the displays at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) UK, September 11, 2025
ANTI-ARMS campaigners have lodged a criminal complaint with the Met Police’s war crimes unit, accusing exhibitionists at the DSEI arms fair “aiding and abetting” Israel’s offences in Gaza.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said it had reported the criminal liability of several individuals linked to atrocities in Gaza who attended the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair at the ExCeL Centre in London, last week
Of the hundreds of companies present, 51 were Israeli firms, including Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries — all named in a UN report as central to Israel’s military genocide in Gaza.
Under terrorism laws, it is an offence to engage in “conduct ancillary” to war crimes or crimes against humanity, including aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring such offences.
A CAAT spokesperson said: “These are the arms companies arming the [Israel Defence Force].
“These are the arms companies facilitating and profiting from Israel bombing hospitals, killing journalists and creating a man-made famine.
“UK law is clear — these individuals should be investigated for crimes against humanity, not invited to profit from the unspeakable devastation they have caused in Gaza.”
dizzy: Article quoted in full, very short to select a small section.
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 object 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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during the American Compass Fifth Anniversary Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, on June 3, 2025. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP)
“Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” said one free speech advocate.
Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State Marco Rubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism…
The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine “has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of pro-Palestine views, describing them as “Hamas supporters.”
These include Columbia protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from Israel.
Mast—a former soldier for the Israel Defense Forces who once stated that babies were “not innocent Palestinian civilians”—has previously called for “kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,” speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime.
As Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, noted in The Intercept, there is little reason to restrict people convicted of terrorism or material support for terrorism, since—if they were guilty—they’d likely be serving a long prison sentence and incapable of traveling anyway.
“I can’t imagine that if somebody actually provided material support for terrorism, there would be an instance where it wouldn’t be prosecuted—it just doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Journalist Zaid Jilani noted on X that “judges can already remove a passport over material support for terrorism, but the difference is you get due process. This bill would essentially make Marco Rubio judge, jury, and executioner.”
The bill does contain a clause allowing those stripped of their passports to appeal to Rubio. But, as Hamadanchy notes, the decision is up to the secretary alone, “who has already made this determination.” He said that for determining who is liable to have their visa stripped, “There’s no standard set. There’s nothing.”
As Seth Stern, the director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, noted in The Intercept, the language in Mast’s bill is strikingly similar to that found in the so-called “nonprofit killer” provision that Republicans attempted to pass in July’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act. That provision, which was ultimately struck from the bill, would have allowed the Treasury Secretary to unilaterally strip nonprofit status from anything he deemed to be a “terrorist-supporting organization.”
Stern said Mast’s bill would allow for “thought policing at the hands of one individual.”
“Marco Rubio has claimed the power to designate people terrorist supporters based solely on what they think and say,” he said, “even if what they say doesn’t include a word about a terrorist organization or terrorism.”
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
dizzy: There are similarities to what’s happening in UK with showing support for Palestine Action currently being a terrorist offence. Disagreeing with the dominant Neo-Liberal/Capitalist ideology is becoming terrorism.
“Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk’s murder,” said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed Friday that he and President Donald Trump would use this week’s assassination of Charlie Kirk to “dismantle” the organized left using state power.
In a rant on Fox News, Miller—the architect of Trump’s mass roundups and deportations of immigrants—shouted that the best way to honor Kirk’s memory was to carry out a political purge against the left, which he called a “domestic terrorism movement in this country.”
Miller provided few details on what specific left-wing figures or groups he believed were stoking this violence. He claimed the left was waging “doxxing campaigns” against right-wing figures, though he cited no specific examples.
He did, however, cite many examples of harsh, but nevertheless First Amendment-protected, speech that he considered an incitement to violence, including that “the left calls people enemies of the republic, calls them fascists, says they’re Nazis, says they’re evil,” and claimed that many people online were “celebrating” Kirk’s assassination.
“The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven,” Miller said, was, “that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence, and we are going to do that.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership,” Miller vowed to shut down these unspecified leftist groups.
“I don’t care how,” he said. “It could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection. But we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism, that are committing acts of wanton violence.”
RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which the government has traditionally used to prosecute organized crime groups. Trump later said one of his targets for these charges may be the billionaire liberal donor George Soros, the owner of the Open Society Foundations nonprofit, whom Trump accused of funding “riots,” a charge Soros denied.
Miller did not limit his call to destroying those who commit crimes. He also spoke of those “spreading this evil hate,” telling them, “You will live in exile. Because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, to take away your power, and if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom.”
An official White House account on X reposted a clip of Miller’s comments calling for the “dismantling” of left-wing organizations:
.@StephenM: The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his Creator in Heaven was that we have to dismantle and take on the Radical Left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence… and we are going to do that. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GxVGWk7n5e
“Trump signaled he intended to use Kirk’s shooting as a pretext for a broad crackdown on the left,” said Jordan Weissman, a journalist at The Argument. “Here’s Stephen Miller being much more explicit. He’s talking about RICO and terrorism charges, echoing right-wing influencers.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, meanwhile, pointed out the irony of the threat coming from Miller, noting that he “routinely slanders his political opponents with vile language that treats disagreement as if it’s treason.”
Little is still known about what, if any, political ideology precisely motivated Kirk’s alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was apprehended in Utah on Friday. Robinson was not affiliated with any political party, and the scrawlings he left behind at the scene of the crime contain a mishmash of hyper-online but only vaguely political symbols and phrases.
But even before the suspect had been identified or apprehended, efforts had begun on the right to use Kirk’s murder as an excuse to crack down on their left-wing enemies. In an ominous speech Thursday night, Trump blamed the shooting on the “radical left,” saying it was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
On Fox News Friday, Trump indicated that he was extending this dragnet to anyone who has expressed harsh words for figures on the right. The president said:
For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country and must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges and law enforcement officials.
The portrayal of the left as a unique “national security threat” is not borne out by data. On Friday, The Economist published an analysis of data from the Prosecution Project, an open-source database that catalogues crimes that seek “a socio-political change or to communicate.”
The findings reaffirm what has been found in previousstudies: That “extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers.”
During the same Fox interview, when a host noted the prevalence of right-wing extremism, Trump said: “I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’”
Trump concluded: “The radicals on the left are the problem.”
EARHARDT: We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?
TRUMP: I'll tell you something that's gonna get me in trouble but I couldn't care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime. The radicals on the left… pic.twitter.com/snOESz3x5a
Meanwhile, virtually all prominent figures and groups on the left—from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to writers for left-wing publications like Jacobin or The Nation to activist groups like Public Citizen, MoveOn, the ACLU, and Indivisible—have unequivocally condemned violence against Kirk, even while repudiating his views.
“Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk’s murder,” saidNew Republic writer Greg Sargeant. “We really could see Stephen Miller and Kash Patel use the FBI for 60s-style domestic persecution.”
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
A view of one of the displays at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) UK, September 11, 2025
