Author: dizzy
Anger and grief pours out at weekly ceasefire protests
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anger-and-grief-pours-out-weekly-ceasefire-protests

People take part in a silent procession and vigil by healthcare workers 4 Palestine in central London, February 10, 2024 ANGER and grief poured out at the weekly ceasefire protests across Britain on Saturday after news emerged that the body of six-year-old Gazan Hind Rajab was discovered following her calls for help.
The young girl was found dead beside the wreckage of a car with the bodies of her family she was hiding in 12 days after her pleas to rescue services for help were broadcast worldwide.
Using her mobile phone she had begged for help from the Red Crescent aid organisation which dispatched an ambulance and two paramedics to find her.
The bodies of the paramedics and the bullet-riddled and mangled ambulance and car were also found on Saturday.
At demonstrations across the country, children were among speakers addressing silent vigils.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anger-and-grief-pours-out-weekly-ceasefire-protests

Image of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. UK halts aid to UNRWA in Gaza over Israeli allegations that 12 staff from a total of 13,000 were involved in the 7 October 2024 attack on Israel. 
Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel’s Gaza genocide. Morning Star: Ever-increasing militarisation leaves us all poorer
IF THERE was one thing that British listeners should have picked up from Vladimir Putin’s interview last week, it was the intervention by Britain’s then prime minister Boris Johnson over Easter 2022.
Putin confirmed that, just prior to Johnson’s visit, a signed agreement had been reached ratified by the representatives of both Ukraine and Russia and counter-signed by France and Germany.
Johnson’s intervention caused Volodymyr Zelensky to back out of the agreement. Whether Johnson acted alone or on behalf of the US government, or elements within it, we do not know. But it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.
What we do know are the human consequences. According to the UN, just over a thousand civilians had lost their lives by April 2022. Since then 10 times that number have been killed and the same ratio is likely for the much higher level of military casualties.
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Jeremy Hunt’s May 2023 Budget found an extra £11bn for defence. For the forthcoming Budget still more money was being proposed over the weekend “to strengthen Britain’s defences in the Red Sea.” Britain remains the second biggest contributor to Nato after the US.
Yet Britain is a country that can no longer afford the basic infrastructure needed for clean water, rail transport or a national grid capable of connecting existing renewable capacity — let alone a viable health service and effective schooling.
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dizzy: I disagree with the contention: ” … it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.” It preseupposes that Johnson was measured in his behaviour when he was often poorly-briefed and out of control. [17/2/24 e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/06/boris-johnson-mistake-could-harm-case-for-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-say-family ]
Rupert Murdoch met Rishi Sunak five times in 12-month period
Media mogul met government representatives 12 times in 2022-23 when he was chair of News Corp

Meetings between Rishi Sunak and Rupert Murdoch have been analysed by the campaign group Hacked Off Composite: PA/Reuters The media mogul Rupert Murdoch met Rishi Sunak five times over a 12-month period before he stepped down as the chair of News Corp in September last year, according to government records.
Official records of government meetings, analysed by the campaign group Hacked Off, show that the former head of News Corp – which owns the Times and the Sun newspapers in the UK – personally met government representatives 12 times between October 2022 and September 2023, including five meetings with the prime minister.
These include a dinner in December 2022 and a meeting the following day with Robert Thomson, the CEO of News Corp, Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News UK, the Times editor Tony Gallagher, former Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker and Sun editor Victoria Newton to “discuss the PM’s priorities”.
The two men then met again in May 2023 for a “politician discussion” and again in June for the Times CEO summit and subsequent party, and in September last year for a “social meeting”. There are no publicly available minutes of the meetings.
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The actor and Hacked Off campaigner Hugh Grant, whose damages claim against the Sun publisher News Group Newspapers (a subsidiary of News Corp) is expected to go to trial next year, called for an end to “secretive” meetings between media barons and the government, after the records showed that there were 534 meetings between the press and the government over a 12-month period.
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Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.




