A gas platform in the North Sea off Norway. New fields in Scottish waters would leave the UK still dependent on supplies from Norway and elsewhere. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Exclusive: research finds Jackdaw field would provide only about 2% of current demand, and Rosebank only 1%
Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown.
The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources.
The Rosebank field, also in Scottish waters but mainly containing oil, would displace only about 1% of the UK’s gas imports.
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, the campaign group, which compiled the data from public sources, said: “New fields like Jackdaw and Rosebank would do vanishingly little to boost UK gas production. Even in the most optimistic scenario, and assuming none of its gas is exported, Jackdaw would provide just 2% of UK demand over its nine- to 12-year lifetime.”
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.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
The waters of southern California historically warm every few years. But the marine heatwave that started last fall wasn’t caused by tropical currents. Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Researchers warn the high-pressure conditions could disrupt marine life and ecosystems if it continues
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The waters of southern California historically warm every few years as tropical currents make their way north, a phenomenon known as El Niño. But the marine heatwave that started last fall wasn’t caused by tropical currents. Instead, a high-pressure atmospheric system – think of calm, sunny days – has perched above southern California, warming both air and sea above historic levels. The same phenomenon has helped fuel a ferocious California heatwave on land.
The extended ocean warming has drawn comparisons to “the Blob”, a three-year marine heatwave caused by similar prolonged high-pressure conditions a decade ago that devastated marine life. The next few weeks are likely to determine whether this marine heatwave fizzles out or evolves into something more Blob-like, scientists say.
“The biggest concern is how the year plays out,” Andrew Leising, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said. “We could be looking at much larger impacts next fall and winter, if it stays warm and then it’s followed by a strong El Niño.”
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Prolonged ocean heat has a devastating impact on phytoplankton and can cause harmful algal blooms. Those changes can wreak havoc on many forms of marine life, from sea lions and dolphins, to shore birds and halibut. The Blob years led to one of the worst Dungeness crab seasons in recent history, said Melissa Carter, a researcher at the UC-San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Such heatwaves are becoming more common and lasting longer, partly because of the slow warming of the oceans driven by the climate crisis, and partly because of atmospheric changes that scientists are still struggling to understand.
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.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, raid the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank on January 31, 2026. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]
“A people that oppresses another cannot itself be free” -Friedrich Engels –
Zionism is racism. I state this plainly, not as a slogan designed to provoke, but as a conclusion drawn from history, lived reality, and the political structure that has emerged in what is now called Israel. I am not interested in diluting this claim to make it more comfortable, nor in softening its edges to invite polite debate. Some ideas demand clarity, not compromise.
Zionism presents itself as a movement for Jewish self-determination. In isolation, that principle sounds reasonable—every people should have the right to shape their political future. But no political project exists in isolation.
Zionism did not emerge in an empty land, and it did not unfold without consequence. It took root in a place where another people already lived, and its realization required their displacement, their fragmentation, and their continued subordination.
The events of 1948 are not a tragic misunderstanding or an unfortunate byproduct of state-building. They are central. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes, entire villages were destroyed, and a society that had existed for generations was systematically dismantled. Palestinians remember this as the Nakba – “the catastrophe”—and that name is not rhetorical exaggeration. It is an accurate description of a foundational rupture that continues to shape every aspect of Palestinian life.
What followed was not a temporary injustice but the consolidation of a system. Land laws, citizenship structures, and state policies were crafted in ways that privileged Jewish identity while marginalizing Palestinians, whether they remained within the borders of Israel or lived under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. This is not incidental. It is the logical outcome of a state built to maintain a demographic and political majority for one group over others.
Supporters of Zionism often argue that it is not racism but national liberation—a response to centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. That history is undeniable and horrific.
The genocide of European Jews stands as one of the greatest crimes in human history. But historical suffering does not grant moral exemption. It does not justify the dispossession of another people, nor does it transform inequality into justice.
If anything, it should deepen the commitment to universal rights, not narrow them.
To point this out is not to deny Jewish history or identity. It is to reject the idea that safety for one people must be built on the exclusion or subjugation of another. A political ideology that enshrines ethnic or religious preference into law – especially in a land shared by multiple communities—cannot be reconciled with genuine equality. When rights are distributed based on identity, discrimination is not a flaw in the system; it is the system.
This reality is visible not only in historical events but in present-day structures. Palestinians in the occupied territories live under military rule, subject to restrictions on movement, access to resources, and basic civil liberties. Within Israel itself, Palestinian citizens face systemic inequalities in areas such as land allocation, housing, and political power. The fragmentation of Palestinian identity – into citizens, residents, refugees, and those under occupation – is not accidental. It is a method of control.
Language often obscures these realities. Terms like “security,” “conflict,” and “disputed territories” create the impression of symmetry, as though two equal sides are engaged in a balanced struggle. But the lived experience tells a different story: one of power and dispossession, of a state with overwhelming military and political dominance over a stateless people. Naming that imbalance matters, because without it, injustice can be reframed as inevitability.
There are those who challenge this system from within. Voices like Miko Peled—an Israeli raised within the Zionist establishment—have come to reject the ideology precisely because they see its consequences. Their critiques are not born of ignorance or hostility but of proximity and reflection. They demonstrate that opposition to Zionism is not synonymous with hostility toward Jews; it is a political and ethical stance against a specific system of power.
Critics of this position often respond by labelling it extreme or unfair. They argue that Zionism has multiple interpretations, that it can be reformed, or that it simply expresses the desire of a people to live in safety. But the question is not what Zionism claims to be in theory. The question is what it has produced in practice. And in practice, it has created and maintained a reality in which one group’s rights and freedoms are structurally elevated above another’s.
If we apply the same moral standards we claim to uphold elsewhere – opposition to segregation, to ethno-national supremacy, to systems that privilege one group over another—then the conclusion becomes difficult to avoid.
When a state defines itself in ways that systematically advantage one identity while disadvantaging others, it enters the realm of discrimination. When that discrimination is entrenched in law, policy, and daily life, it is not incidental. It is foundational.
This is why I say that Zionism is racism. Not as an insult, but as a description. It names a system in which identity determines rights, in which history is used to justify inequality, and in which the pursuit of one group’s security has come at the cost of another’s freedom.
There is a tendency to treat such statements as beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse, to insist that they are too harsh, too absolute, too divisive. But discomfort is not the same as inaccuracy. If anything, the resistance to naming the problem reflects how deeply normalized the system has become.
Conclusion: No system built on inequality can endure without resistance, and no injustice has ever been resolved by refusing to name it. If we believe in dignity, equality, and freedom as universal principles, then they cannot stop at the borders of Palestine, nor be conditional on identity. The choice is not between politeness and truth – it is between maintaining a system of domination or confronting it honestly. I choose honesty. And honesty demands that we say it without hesitation, without dilution, and without apology: Zionism is racism.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
A view of a civilian vehicle caught fire as people gather around it after the Israeli army, violating the ceasefire, targeted it on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 04, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Around 20 boats preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla’s “Spring Mission 2026” are set to depart from the southern port city of Marseille, France, as part of an initiative aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenging the ongoing Israeli policy, with vessels readied for weeks at L’Estaque Port by the France Campaign coalition, including the Thousand Madleens to Gaza movement and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on April 03, 2026. [Esra Taşkın – Anadolu Agency]
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2025. [Ahmet Serdar Eser – Anadolu Agency]
The Iranian foreign minister said Saturday that “radioactive fallout will end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran,” following the US-Israeli airstrikes that hit Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, Anadolu reports.
“Remember the Western outrage about hostilities near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine?
“Israel-U.S. have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran,” Abbas Araghchi said through US social media company X.
Attacks on Iranian petrochemical facilities also reveal “real objectives,” Araghchi argued.
Earlier in the day, US and Israeli strikes hit Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, killing one person.
The attack came as regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing over 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
A view of a civilian vehicle caught fire as people gather around it after the Israeli army, violating the ceasefire, targeted it on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 04, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Around 20 boats preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla’s “Spring Mission 2026” are set to depart from the southern port city of Marseille, France, as part of an initiative aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenging the ongoing Israeli policy, with vessels readied for weeks at L’Estaque Port by the France Campaign coalition, including the Thousand Madleens to Gaza movement and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on April 03, 2026. [Esra Taşkın – Anadolu Agency]
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The groundbreaking ceremony of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, held in Bushehr, Iran on November 10, 2019 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]
Russia started a large wave of evacuation on Saturday from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant following US-Israeli attacks that killed one of the plant’s security personnel, Russian media reported.
Citing Alexey Likhachev, the head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, state news agency Tass said 198 employees are expected to return to Russia within two or three days. Russia helped build the plant and, as of last year, had some 700 personnel working there.
Likhachev underlined that developments around the plant are unfolding according to an “undesirable scenario.”
“As they say, our bad premonitions were not wrong. Overall, the escalation of the conflict around the Persian Gulf is leading to corresponding consequences near the plant,” he said.
One member of the plant’s security personnel was killed when it was hit on Saturday, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The outlet said that one of the plant’s auxiliary buildings was damaged by the blast and shrapnel.
The region has been on alert since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing more than 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
A view of a civilian vehicle caught fire as people gather around it after the Israeli army, violating the ceasefire, targeted it on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 04, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Around 20 boats preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla’s “Spring Mission 2026” are set to depart from the southern port city of Marseille, France, as part of an initiative aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenging the ongoing Israeli policy, with vessels readied for weeks at L’Estaque Port by the France Campaign coalition, including the Thousand Madleens to Gaza movement and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on April 03, 2026. [Esra Taşkın – Anadolu Agency]
