LEFT-WING campaign group Momentum has begun lobbying Labour MPs to block cuts to welfare spending.
A Commons vote is expected after the government’s proposals to reduce spending on benefits sparked an angry backlash among Labour’s grassroots.
Sir Keir Starmer, who has described the benefits system as the “worst of all worlds,” was jeered at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions as he insisted that Labour had a duty to reduce social security costs.
Labour MPs urged him to “provide compassion” to those who cannot work, stressing that disabled people have become “frightened” after hearing their party use the “language of tough choices.”
Ministers have already pledged to cut £3 billion from the welfare budget over three years and next week are expected to announce in a green paper that billions more will be axed from the main disability benefit, the personal independence payment (PIP) and funding to help those with long-term illness to return to work.
Cutting PIP could push 700,000 disabled people into poverty, disability charities have warned.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.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.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage attends a farmers protest in Whitehall, London, March 4, 2025
REFORM’S pro-worker mask has slipped, the TUC said today, after all its MPs joined the Tories in opposing Labour’s employment rights law.
Nigel Farage’s Commons contingent voted against the legislation despite polling showing that its main provisions are highly popular in their own constituencies.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Reform and the Conservatives have shown their true colours once again.
“Instead of voting for common-sense reforms, like banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and day-one access to sick pay, they have voted to deny millions basic protections at work.
“Nigel Farage is not on the side of working people. He’s a political fraud, defying his own constituents to oppose stronger workers’ rights.”
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
In the aftermath of the Iraq war, several attempts were made to establish an inquiry surrounding the conduct of British military operations. Published in 2016, the Chilcot inquiry found serious failings in the British government, which ignored the warnings of millions of ordinary people over its disastrous decision to go to war.
History is repeating itself. Today, the death toll in Gaza has reportedly exceeded 61,000. Two Israeli officials are wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations, including the sale of weapons, the supply of intelligence and the use of Royal Air Force bases in Cyprus.
Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of democracy. Therefore we are demanding an independent, public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israel’s military assault in Gaza. This inquiry should establish exactly what decisions have been taken, how they have been made and what consequences they have had. Any meaningful inquiry would require the full cooperation of ministers involved in decision-making processes since October 2023.
Many people believe that the government has taken decisions that have implicated officials in the gravest breaches of international law. These charges will not go away until there is an inquiry with the legal power to establish the truth.
Jeremy CorbynIndependent Alliance, Brendan O’Hara Middle East spokesperson, Scottish National party, Carla Denyer Co-leader, Green party, Brian LeishmanScottish Labour, Diane AbbottLabour, Zarah SultanaIndependent, Richard Burgon Labour
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Interaction between a pensioner and a cop in Buenos Aires on March 12. Photo: Argentina Humana / X
More than a hundred people were arrested and dozens were injured in the police repression. Movements and press organizations have called for the resignation of the Secretary of Security, Patricia Bullrich.
On March 12, Javier Milei’s right-wing government brutally repressed a demonstration of retirees and their supporters, including fan clubs of football teams, demanding better living conditions. The Buenos Aires Police reported that at least 124 people were arrested in the protests outside Congress. For its part, the Emergency Medical Attention System (SAME) reported that, at the end of the day of protests, 46 people were injured.
Early on March 13, a judge in Buenos Aires, Karina Andrade, ruled to free 114 of the detainees arguing that the constitutional rights to protest, to manifest in democracy, and free speech, had been put at risk. She added that elderly people are “one of the most vulnerable sectors of our country” and they are protected.
Retirees demand to live with dignity
For the past several months, retirees have been protesting every Wednesday to demand an improvement in their living conditions. Thanks to Milei’s neoliberal adjustments, their quality of life has drastically declined.
According to data from the Ombudsman’s Office for the Elderly, a pensioner needs at least 1,200,523 pesos (USD 1,066) per month to cover their basic expenses. However, the minimum pension in February was 343,086 pesos (USD 321), including a bonus of 70,000 pesos (USD 65). The glaring gap between the cost of living and the income of pensioners has been the key motivating factor driving adults of 70-90 years old to take to the streets every week and risk brutal repression from Milei’s right-wing government.
According to Florencia Abreju, an Argentine journalist, “The cuts to medicines, the reduction of medical assistance, and the excessive increase of basic services have aggravated the situation even more. Why always with the retirees? The answer is clear: Milei’s government destroys the rights of all, starting with the weakest.”
Repression was ordered by Milei’s government
This Wednesday was not the first time that the Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich had ordered repression, but the level of force used by the police was certainly more extreme. Tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, pepper spray, blows with batons, etc., were some of the means of repression used by the Argentine police to confront the demonstrators, who were mostly retirees.
Pensioner dousing his face with milk after being tear gassed. Photo: Argentina Humana / X
One of the victims is photographer Pablo Grillo, who suffered a serious head injury while taking pictures of the protest and the repression. As seen in a video, the police fired a tear gas bomb at him which directly impacted his head, causing a severe wound that kept him on the verge of death at the Ramos Mejía hospital in Buenos Aires.
The Executive justified the widespread repression of the protests by citing the participation of several fan organizations of various Argentine soccer clubs, such as Chacaritas, Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Rosario Central, among others. According to Bullrich, the members of the so-called “barras bravas” are dangerous groups and this justified the forceful response of the National Police, even though several of the injured and detained do not belong to such groups. On her X account, the Security Secretary wrote “Our forces are deployed to enforce the protocol: traffic is not cut and the barras bravas, on the sidewalk.”
However, for Florencia Abreju, this type of rhetoric seeks to discredit the legitimate claims of the protesters. “The most alarming thing is that the government, through Bullrich and her officials, justified the repression and stigmatized the protesters… This discourse seeks to criminalize social protest and delegitimize the demands of people who take to the streets to defend their rights. The stigmatization of militancy and fierce repression are tools typical of an authoritarian government that is willing to do anything to stay in power.”
Several journalists demand Bullrich’s resignation
In response to the repression ordered by the Secretary of Security and in solidarity with the injured journalist, several journalists have begun calling for Patricia Bullrich’s resignation. The Association of Graphic Reporters of Argentina expressed in a communiqué “Institutional violence and impunity for crimes committed by the security forces have increased…Today [we demand] that the President [Milei] immediately remove [Patricia Bullrich] and place her and her subordinates at the disposal of the justice system. Otherwise, we make him morally, politically, and criminally complicit in the crimes committed by his [Security] Secretary.”
“They shot a colleague in the Congress…Tomorrow all the journalists in Argentina must be asking for the resignation of whoever ordered the shooting of the colleague,” said a journalist on the Crónica TV Show as images of the repression flashed on the screen.
For now, Milei shows no signs of backing down from his internal security policy of openly and forcefully repressing demonstrators opposing his neoliberal agenda. In this regard, Abreju points out “Repression, stigmatization, and authoritarian discourse are signs of a government that is in decline but does not hesitate to resort to excessive force to impose its agenda through terror. It is time to be alert and united in the face of this subjugation of rights. What is at stake is not only the future of retirees but democracy and the future of the nation. Today, as never before, it is necessary to defend what has been conquered and repudiate the systematic violence that seeks to install fear in the people with an already known recipe.”
Scenes from Israel’s siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital. On the left, the last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as he walks towards Israeli tanks. On the right, IOF forced health workers and patients to strip and evacuate the hospital. Photo: Screenshots
Despite being interrogated for 13 consecutive days, and subjected to brutal torture and abuse, a Palestinian lawyer confirmed that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has kept his morale high.
After over two months of imprisonment in Israeli jails, new information has been revealed about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza. According to Palestinian lawyer Ghaid Qassem, who visited Dr. Abu Safiya last week, he has gone through long periods of sustained interrogation and torture and several prison transfers.
Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested amid a brutal siege of Kamal Adwan Hospital by Israeli forces, which culminated on December 27, when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) set Kamal Adwan Hospital on fire. The IOF also ordered 350 people, including 75 patients and their escorts, along with 185 medical staff to evacuate the hospital.
In the months prior, Dr. Abu Safiya had been using his own social media page and giving interviews on local and western media in order to provide constant updates about Israel’s siege of the hospital and pleading for international institutions to take action to stop Israel’s attacks. He had become a visible spokesperson for the people of Gaza during the genocide and in particular, the healthcare workers who have faced disproportionate levels of violence as they struggled to keep the healthcare system online amid Israel’s blockade and targeted attacks.
While media reports had circulated indicating that Dr. Abu Safiya was set to be freed in the final stage of the first phase of the Hamas-Israel prisoners-for-captives swap deal at the end of February, Israel continues to imprison the hospital director, in defiance of the massive international campaign demanding his release.
Abu Safiya’s abuse and solitary confinement in Israeli detention
Prior to meeting Qassem on Thursday, March 6, Abu Safiya was only allowed to see a lawyer once throughout over two months of detention. During his imprisonment, he spent a couple of weeks in solitary confinement inside Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman detention camp, which he described as a “slaughterhouse”.
While at Sde Teiman, Dr. Hussam reported being “forcibly stripped, having his hands shackled, and being made to sit on sharp gravel for approximately five hours by Israeli forces.”
Moreover, he was subjected “to severe physical abuse, including beatings with batons and electric shock sticks, as well as repeated blows to the chest.”
The Palestinian doctor was later transferred to Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, where he was placed in solitary confinement for 25 days, then he was moved to section 24 with other detainees from Gaza.
Qassem clarified that section 24, alongside section 23, is designated for prisoners from Gaza to keep them isolated from other Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and the territories that were occupied by Israel in 1948.
Horrific accounts from the “slaughterhouse”
Based on Abu Safiya’s accounts, as well as other prisoners she met, Qassem described the conditions inside Sde Teiman, stating: “if we talk about this prison, it is a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word. The torture, violations, and starvation are unprecedented.”
The lawyer provided further details of atrocities practiced against Palestinian prisoners in the notorious detention facility, which included shackling prisoners for 10 months straight, denying amputees medical care, binding elderly detainees and blindfolding them.
In addition, prisoners narrated how they endure freezing temperatures in open-air cages, where they are constantly exposed to wind and rain, forced to sit on the ground, prevented from speaking, praying, or even reading the Quran.
In terms of psychological torture, Qassem was informed that the “Israeli intelligence often tells prisoners in Sde Teiman that their entire families have been killed, whether true or not”. “Such tactics leave deep psychological scars,” she said.
Israel placed Abu Safiya under “unlawful combatant” status
On February 12, the head of the IOF’s Southern Command, Yaron Finkelman, issued an order to detain Abu Safiya under the “unlawful combatant law” instead of conducting a standard legal trial,” according to the Palestinian Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.
Qassem explained that Israeli authorities resorted to classifying Abu Safiya as an “unlawful combatant” as they could not build a case against him after failing to find any evidence against him following 45 days of interrogation.
With this classification, they stripped Abu Safiya of his basic legal rights, including representation or a formal indictment, and justified the repeated extension of his detention without charge.
Prolonged consecutive interrogation sessions and brutal torture
The testimonies of the Palestinian lawyer revealed that Abu Safiya was subjected to prolonged interrogation sessions throughout 13 consecutive days, and that each interrogation session lasted about 8 to 10 hours. Abu Safiya also experienced torture and beating, in addition to verbal and psychological abuse.
Qassem referred to the forced media appearance of Abu Safiya in an interview aired by Israel’s Channel 13, late February as evidence of the psychological abuse Abu Safiya endured.
The attorney pointed out that Abu Safiya was not aware that the interview was recorded. “He was caught off guard by the filming. He was not informed, and after the interview, he was isolated, humiliated, beaten, and tortured,” she said.
For many, the Israeli occupation authorities aimed to demoralize Abu Safiya and his supporters over the globe by filming him exhausted and shackled. Nevertheless, Qassem confirmed the steadfastness that Abu Safiya demonstrated.
Unshaken by the gross inhumane treatment and torture he suffered, the resilient iconic Palestinian doctor told Qassem: “a person creates a history, and history is built upon the stands one takes. Such history is to be recorded and taught to others.”
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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
