A relative carries the body of Palestinian child Muath Al-Basus, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, September 4, 2025
UN specialist speaks out as Gaza tribunal told of atrocities
MINISTERS could face prosecution for war crimes as the Gaza tribunal today heard that Israeli military deliberately mutilated boys’ genitals for “target practice.”
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese said that British policymakers who green-lit economic ties with Israel, and who allowed the trade of arms during the genocide met the “criminal threshold” for complicity in war crimes.
The Jeremy Corbyn-led tribunal also heard shocking first-hand accounts from medics and humanitarian workers and legal experts who worked in Gaza.
British doctor Nick Maynard, who recently returned on his third trip to Gaza since October 7, told of the injuries he saw while working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which he said amounted to a “daily witnessing of war crimes.”
He said that Israeli forces targeted specific body parts of Palestinian children, citing examples of bullet wounds in their head, neck and abdomen.
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Ms Albanese said that Britain’s failure to uphold the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide could leave government officials at risk of prosecution.
She said: “This failure to abide by international obligations alone could be sufficient to establish a case for criminal complicity in the actions of Israel.
“Conduct such as the present and moral support [for Israel] has been found to meet the criminal threshold for complicity for individuals before international tribunals.
“Government officials can be held individually responsible if found complicit of crimes .
UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide providing Israel with army 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.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/O74hZCKKdpA
This image was posted on social media by President Donald Trump and shows a boat that was allegedly transporting cocaine off the coast of Venezuela when it was destroyed by US forces on September 2, 2025. (Photo: President Donald Trump/Truth Social)
“Drug trafficking is a crime, not an act of war,” noted one critic. “Traffickers must be arrested, not summarily executed.”
Legal and human rights experts said that Tuesday’s deadly US attack on a boat the Trump administration claimed was transporting cocaine off the coast of Venezuela violated international law.
“Drug trafficking is a crime, not an act of war,” former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth said on social media following the strike, which US President Donald Trumpsaid killed 11 people. “Traffickers must be arrested, not summarily executed, which US forces just illegally did.”
“Trump admits he ordered a summary execution—the crime of murder,” Roth added. “Drug traffickers are not combatants who can be shot on sight. They are criminal suspects who must be arrested and prosecuted.”
Declassified video showing the U.S. committing a war crime when it fired on a civilian vessel near Venezuela.Being suspected of carrying drugs does not carry a death sentence and certainly not without due process.
Michael Becker, an associate professor of international law at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland, told the BBC Wednesday that the Trump administration’s designation of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua and other drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations “stretches the meaning of the term beyond its breaking point.”
“The fact that US officials describe the individuals killed by the US strike as narcoterrorists does not transform them into lawful military targets,” Becker said. “The US is not engaged in an armed conflict with Venezuela or the Tren de Aragua criminal organization.”
“Not only does the strike appear to have violated the prohibition on the use of force, it also runs afoul of the right to life under international human rights law,” Becker added.
Luke Moffett, a professor of international law at Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland, told the BBC that while “force can be used to stop a boat,” this should generally be accomplished using “nonlethal measures.”
Such action, said Moffett, must be “reasonable and necessary in self-defense where there is immediate threat of serious injury or loss of life to enforcement officials,” and the US attack was likely “unlawful under the law of the sea.”
“It reflects the worst of US militarism—secretive, unilateral, and contemptuous of due process, human rights, and the rule of law.”
The peace group CodePink said Wednesday that “even if Washington’s claims are accurate, drug trafficking does not justify a death sentence delivered by missile.”
“International law is clear: The use of force is only lawful in self-defense or with explicit UN Security Council authorization,” the group continued. “This strike had neither. It reflects the worst of US militarism—secretive, unilateral, and contemptuous of due process, human rights, and the rule of law.”
“Under US law, it’s equally indefensible,” CodePink argued. “The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to authorize war. Unilateral action may only be used in emergencies or self-defense, and this strike meets neither.”
CodePink continued:
With the US Southern Command assets already deployed in the region, why blow up a vessel instead of capturing and interrogating the crew? If the goal were really to uncover evidence of [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro’s alleged involvement, this reckless approach raises only two possibilities: Either the narrative is fabricated and Washington used it as a pretext for a deadly show of force or it’s real, and the US chose extrajudicial killing over law, evidence, and humanity.
CodePink called on Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) “to lead the fight in Congress to stop this escalation,” urging him to “introduce legislation to block unauthorized military force, hold hearings to expose the dangers of border militarization, insist on transparency of all relevant directives, and rally Congress to cut off funding for these reckless operations.”
Tuesday’s attack came amid Trump’s deployment of an armada of naval warships off the coast of Venezuela, whose socialist government has long endured US threats of regime change—and sometimes more.
Infused with the notion that it has the right to meddle anywhere in the hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine, the US has attacked, invaded, occupied, and otherwise intervened in Latin American and Caribbean nations well over 100 times since the dubious declaration was issued by President James Monroe in 1823.
Since the late 19th century, oil-rich Venezuela has seen US interventions including involvement in border disputes, help with military coups, support for dictators, and attempts to subvert the Bolivarian Revolution—including by officially recognizing opposition figures claiming to be the legitimate presidents of the country.
Critics of US imperialism highlighted Washington’s hypocritical policies and practices toward Venezuela.
Former Philippine President Duterte is in custody in The Hague, having been charged by the International Criminal Court for ordering the summary execution of alleged drug traffickers. Trump just ordered the summary execution of 11 alleged drug traffickers. https://t.co/T4tjhVNNeh
“Venezuela produces no cocaine, but US warships patrol its coastline under the banner of a ‘drug war,'” New Hampshire Peace Action organizing director Michael “Lefty” Morrill wrote Wednesday.
Meanwhile, neighboring Colombia and nearby Peru—the world’s two leading cocaine producers—get no such treatment. Nor does Ecuador, which has emerged as one of the world’s leading trafficking hubs.
Morrill also briefly explored bits of the long US history of supporting narcotraffickers when strategically expedient, noting that former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega “was first a CIA asset, then branded a narco-dictator and dragged to a US prison.”
“The Taliban was once a strategic partner in Afghanistan’s opium trade, before being cast as the world’s largest trafficker,” he added. “‘Drugs’ are not simply powders; they are pretexts, shaped to fit the contours of empire.”
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Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo speaks before the Miami-Dade County Health & Safety Committee on March 14, 2025. (Photo: Joseph Ladapo)
“Florida’s decision to erase school vaccine requirements will cause preventable illness and death,” said one immunologist. “Not just for kids in Florida, for whole communities, of all ages, across the country.”
In a decision that has terrified medical professionals, Florida’s surgeon general announced Wednesday that he would seek to end all childhood vaccine requirements in the state, which he compared to “slavery.”
Currently, Florida requires children to be immunized against deadly diseases like measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, and hepatitis in order to attend public school.
At a press conference alongside the state’s anti-vaccine Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said that he believed the decision to make these vaccinations optional would receive the blessing of “God.”
“Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery,” Ladapo said of the mandates. “People have a right to make their own decisions. Who am I, as a government or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Our body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.”
Many Republican-led states have rolled back requirements for residents to receive the Covid-19 vaccination and, in some cases, restricted access to it. But Ladapo, who has in the past been caught personally altering data to exaggerate the risks of the Covid-19 vaccine, is treading new ground with his pledge to eliminate “every last one” of the state’s childhood vaccine mandates, something no state, red or blue, has done.
While Ladapo’s decision is unprecedented, it is in step with the position of the current Republican Party, which is making health policy under the stewardship of longtime anti-vaccine influencer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is the secretary of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump.
Kennedy has limited who is eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine and is reportedly considering pulling it from the market altogether. And alongside a handpicked panel of anti-vaccine activists, he has also launched an effort to revise the entire childhood vaccine schedule.
In April, as a measles epidemic swept through pockets of Texas with low vaccination rates and killed two unvaccinated children, Kennedy downplayed the disease’s severity and hyped long-disproven claims about the dangers of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, which virtually eradicated the disease in the US for over 20 years.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of parents declining to vaccinate their children has soared across the US. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, during the 2019-20 school year, just three US states had rates of MMR vaccination lower than 90%. In 2025, that number had increased to 16.
As of July, 1,280 measles cases had been reported in the US—the most cases since 1992, before the MMR vaccine became part of the standard childhood vaccine schedule. In 92% of cases involving children and teenagers, the people who became infected were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination statuses.
Following news of Florida’s decision to end childhood vaccine requirements, Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Washington Post: “We can expect that measles will come roaring back. Other infectious diseases will follow. This is an unprecedented move that will only put our children at unnecessary risk.”
Measles is not the only vaccine-preventable illness experiencing a resurgence. After the rate of whooping cough vaccinations dropped below the 95% threshold required for herd immunity during the 2023-24 school year, the number of cases of the disease doubled, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Florida will repeat what happened in West Texas, where immunization rates are low,” said Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, a pediatrician who serves as Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “All for health freedom propaganda, and lousy Fox News sound bites.”
According to CDC data, Florida has one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the country, with just over 88% of kindergarteners receiving the required shots in the 2023-24 school year. But just as they did in Texas, the effects may harm people across the country.
“Florida’s decision to erase school vaccine requirements will cause preventable illness and death. Not just for kids in Florida, for whole communities, of all ages, across the country,” said Dr. Andrea Love, an immunologist and microbiologist, who writes a newsletter responding to medical misinformation. “Pathogens don’t follow state lines.”
Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, called the plan “a recipe for disaster and exactly the wrong approach to protecting state residents from infectious diseases.”
“High immunization rates against dangerous infectious diseases such as measles and polio protect individuals as well as their communities,” Steinbrook said. “If this plan moves forward, Florida will terminate one of the most effective means of limiting the spread of infectious diseases and embolden [Kennedy] to wreak even more havoc on vaccinations nationally. The Florida Legislature and state residents must vociferously reject these plans.”
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Palestinians walk through a makeshift tent camp for displaced people near the Gaza City port, September 1, 2025
A SPOTLIGHT will be shone on British state complicity in the Gaza genocide tomorrow [today] as Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project launches an independent probe into the government’s role in the crisis.
It comes after ministers blocked a widely supported Bill presented by the former Labour leader for an official inquiry into Britian’s involvement in Israel’s war crimes.
The tribunal, to be held at Church House in Westminster, will hear from United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese among other witnesses over the next two days.
Writing in the Star, Mr Corbyn outlined the tribunal’s plans, which, he stressed, are not a substitute for an official probe, which would have more powers.
He said: “Earlier this year, I presented a private member’s Bill to Parliament, calling for an independent, public inquiry into Britain’s involvement in Gaza.
“I wanted to know: Why does our government continue to provide military support for Israel? What weapons have been supplied? Which of those weapons have been used in Gaza? Why does our government permit the supply of components for F-35 jets?”
Yet the government blocked the Bill. Mr Corbyn writes: “If the government had nothing to hide, it would stop blocking our efforts to expose the truth.”
The tribunal will issue a public report, focused on whether Britain has upheld its legal obligations to prevent genocide, which all scholars now concur is under way in Gaza.
Keir 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.
The Chinese flag is raised ahead of a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, September 3, 2025
THE world is facing a choice between peace or war, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned today during celebrations to mark the end of World War II.
He was joined in Beijing by Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and dozens of other world leaders at China’s largest-ever military parade.
The three leaders met for the first time, holding private talks after the parade in a show of diplomatic unity.
China also flexed its military muscle during the parade marking 80 years since the country’s victory over Japan, revealing aerial and underwater drones, hypersonic missiles and fighter jets and bombs.
Addressing more than 50,000 people in Tiananmen Square, Mr Xi said: “Today, humanity is again faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum.”
He declared that China “is never intimidated by any bullies” and “unstoppable.”
Mr Xi also said that the world must “never return to the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak” during a lunch reception speech stressing the establishment of the United Nations and international law as achievements of anti-fascist victory.
“We sincerely hope that all countries will draw lessons from history, value peace and work together to … create a brighter future for humanity,” he said.
He concluded by toasting to “common prosperity for all humankind.”
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A relative carries the body of Palestinian child Muath Al-Basus, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, September 4, 2025
