Yearly Archives: 2025

Labour MPs urge Starmer to change course after Reform takes Runcorn safe seat

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-mps-urge-starmer-change-course-after-reform-takes-runcorn-safe-seat

 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and actor Ross Kemp join the national phone bank at the Labour Party headquarters in central London, during campaigning for tomorrow’s local elections, April 30, 2025

LABOUR MPs, trade unions and campaigners called on the government to urgently change course today after Reform UK overturned the party’s majority of 15,000 to win the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by six votes for its candidate, former Conservative councillor Sarah Pochin. 

Thursday’s local elections saw the far-right party also take their first mayoralty in Greater Lincolnshire for ex-Tory MP and minister Andrea Jenkyns, and come close seconds to Labour in three other mayoral races, as well as taking hundreds of council seats from the Tories and winning control of many councils.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer responded to the losses by saying ”I get it,” and pledged to go ”further and faster” in changing Britain.

But veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott said: ”Labour leadership is saying the party will go further and faster — in the same direction. 

”They don’t seem to understand: it is our current direction that is the problem.”

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP said: ”The message to ministers is: drop plans to attack disabled people.”

And Labour MP for Leeds East Richard Burgon said that Labour’s defeat in Runcorn was ”entirely avoidable” and a ”direct result of the party leadership’s political choices.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-mps-urge-starmer-change-course-after-reform-takes-runcorn-safe-seat

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves discuss wasting money including David Lammy spending £1MILLION on private jets.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves discuss wasting money including David Lammy spending £1MILLION on private jets.

Continue ReadingLabour MPs urge Starmer to change course after Reform takes Runcorn safe seat

Revealed: Forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels soar in Trump’s first 100 days

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-drill-baby-drill-tariffs

Expected greenhouse gas emissions from US oil and gas fields has jumped under Trump, after previously dropping under Biden, forecasts show. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Tariff chaos hampers Trump’s pledge to ‘drill, baby, drill’, but analysis still shows surge in planet-heating emissions

Donald Trump’s ambitions for the US to “drill, baby, drill” for more fossil fuels have ironically been hampered by the economic chaos unleashed by his own tariffs, but the US is still on track to increase oil and gas extraction, causing a surge in planet-heating emissions, a new analysis shows.

The US was already the world’s leading oil and gas power, producing more of the fossil fuels than any country in history during Joe Biden’s administration. But Trump has sought to escalate this further, declaring an “energy emergency” to open up more land and ocean for drilling and launching an unprecedented assault on environmental regulations in his first 100 days back in the White House.

This new political climate means that the expected amount of greenhouse gas emissions from active and planned projects in US oil and gas fields has jumped under Trump, after previously dropping under Biden, forecasts shared with the Guardian show.

Despite awarding more drilling leases than Trump in his first 100 days, Biden also pursued policies to combat the climate crisis that saw oil and gas companies revise down their production estimates. That situation has now reversed, threatening a pulse of new pollution that will further add to the fever of a planet already suffering from heatwaves, floods, droughts and other disasters accelerated by global heating.

“The uptick in embodied emissions from forecast US oil and gas production is worrying,” said Olivier Bois von Kursk, policy adviser at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, which tracks emissions projections from the lifetime of projects, based on data from research consultancy Rystad Energy. “The world can’t afford more climate chaos.”

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The International Energy Agency, which has forecast that global oil and gas demand will peak by 2030, has said that no new major fossil fuel projects can occur if the world is to stay within agreed temperature limits and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. Last year was the hottest, worldwide, ever recorded and governments are collectively failing to meet targets to avert escalating disasters.

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Tariffs on solar panels from Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia have been ratcheted up to as much as 3,521%. “We don’t want windmills in this country,” the president said shortly after his inauguration in January. “We don’t want windmills. You know what else people don’t like? Those massive solar fields.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-drill-baby-drill-tariffs

Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
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.
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 ruthless agenda’: charting 100 days of Trump’s onslaught on the environment

Continue ReadingRevealed: Forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels soar in Trump’s first 100 days

Britain’s joint air strikes on Yemen are another dangerous escalation

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britains-joint-air-strikes-yemen-are-another-dangerous-escalation

 A Yemeni soldier inspects the damage reportedly caused by U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, April 27, 2025

WHILE today electors endured the rituals of our vastly undemocratic electoral system, Britain was at war. As we approach the anniversary of the victory over fascism in Europe, the Royal Air Force is in action against our former colonial subjects in the Yemen.

Far from defending our shores from foreign invaders, the Royal Air Force is attacking Yemeni targets in co-ordination with Donald Trump’s military as part of the multi-national operation in the Middle East in defence of Israel.

Parliament has not met to discuss launching a war, the British people have not been consulted and only the most alert will have noticed this dangerous escalation in a region where British public opinion is overwhelmingly in sympathy with the Palestinian people who, both in devastated Gaza and in the Occupied Territories and the West Bank, are bearing the brunt of Israel’s genocidal attack.

Make no mistake, US and British logistical support allows Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people. It is a joint operation with intelligence and communications support from British military assets in the region including in Cyprus where an unequal treaty imposed on that country permits Britain to maintain military bases, airfields and electronic intelligence gathering installations.

Long deployed to Israel’s strategic advantage, now these assets are targeted on Yemenis who have leveraged their advantageous strategic position aside the Red Sea and the approaches to the Suez Canal to interdict shipping they suspect of supplying Israel.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britains-joint-air-strikes-yemen-are-another-dangerous-escalation

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.
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.
Continue ReadingBritain’s joint air strikes on Yemen are another dangerous escalation

UN calls on Israel to lift its blockade of aid into Gaza and end the ‘cruel collective punishment’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/un-calls-israel-lift-its-blockade-aid-gaza-and-end-cruel-collective-punishment

 Palestinian children receive donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, April 21, 2025

THE UNITED Nations emergency relief co-ordinator urged Israel today to lift its blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip, saying the halting of humanitarian aid amounts to “cruel collective punishment.”

Israel has blocked any humanitarian aid from entering the territory since it broke the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in March, throwing Gaza into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of bombings.

Israel claims that the blockade and its renewed military campaign are intended to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages it still holds and to disarm.Israel’s latest destruction of Gaza followed Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251.Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.As Israel continued its strikes on the Palestinian enclave, another 18 people were killed and dozens more were wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said today.

Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said today that while the hostages should be released and should never have been taken in the first place, international law mandates that Israel allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/un-calls-israel-lift-its-blockade-aid-gaza-and-end-cruel-collective-punishment

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.
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.

Continue ReadingUN calls on Israel to lift its blockade of aid into Gaza and end the ‘cruel collective punishment’

Activists disrupt Drax’s shareholder AGM

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-disrupt-draxs-shareholder-agm

 Activists hold a banner as they blockade the entrance

MORE than 50 activists disrupted Drax’s annual investor meeting in London today, bringing proceedings to a halt for an hour.

The firm operates a wood-burning power plant in Yorkshire, which has received some £6 billion in green subsidies, while operating as Britain’s largest carbon emitter.

Despite a BBC investigation finding that it has burned wood from rare forests in Canada, the firm is set to continue to receive taxpayer money until at least 2031. 

Activists blocked the entrance to the venue, preventing shareholders from entering, and dropped a large banner reading “Drax Kills.”

Inside, activists physically disrupted proceedings, rushing to the stage shouting “Drax kills,” before the meeting was forced to close.

Axe Drax spokesperson Sam Johnson said: “We’ve seen over the last year repeated desperate attempts from Drax to silence dissent — from spending millions working with the police to shut down peaceful protest, to silencing whistleblowers. “

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-disrupt-draxs-shareholder-agm

Continue ReadingActivists disrupt Drax’s shareholder AGM