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Activists gather to stage a protest demanding the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 06, 2026. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the detained director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been nominated for the European Parliament’s 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the parliament announced Thursday, Anadolu reports.
Abu Safiya was nominated by the Greens and The Left political groups as one of six candidates for the annual award, which recognizes individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Abu Safiya, a Palestinian pediatrician and former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been held in Israeli custody since his detention by Israeli forces in December 2024.
He has been detained without charge or trial, with Israel alleging that Abu Safiya is affiliated with Hamas, an allegation his lawyers and family have denied.
Rights groups have also raised concerns about his health and treatment in custody.
The parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Development committees are due to vote on a shortlist of three nominees on Oct. 19 in Strasbourg, while the laureate is scheduled to be selected on Oct. 22.
The other 2026 Sakharov Prize nominees are El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, nominated by the Europe of Sovereign Nations group; the International Criminal Court and its officials, nominated by the Socialists and Democrats; and Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu, nominated by the European People’s Party and European Conservatives and Reformists.
The remaining nominees are Iranian activists Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, nominated by Patriots for Europe, and Standing Together, an Israeli Jewish-Palestinian grassroots movement, nominated by Renew Europe.
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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.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
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United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States on February 04, 2025. [Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency]
US President Donald Trump declined to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for another term in office ahead of upcoming elections, avoiding direct backing of his long-time ally in an interview published on Thursday, Anadolu reports.
“Well, I can only say that I’m not involved in politics anymore, except that we’re popular—,” Trump told TIME magazine when asked whether the premier should be given another term in Oct. 27 elections.
Pressed again, he responded: “No, my primary thing—I do want to help them defend Israel,” pivoting away from an explicit endorsement in the interview conducted on Monday.
Trump pointed instead to his personal standing among the Israeli public, claiming his popularity reaches “like 99%” due to past policies.
Asked whether Washington could work more effectively with opposition contender and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, Trump said he did not “hear bad things about him,” but cautioned against dismissing Netanyahu.
“People have written off Bibi (Netanyahu) many, many times, just like they’ve written off me many, many times,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t underestimate Bibi.”
Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu is said to have become more strained in recent months due to the war in Iran, and Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon and Gaza.
Trump also cast doubt on reports that Netanyahu received advance intelligence warnings ahead of the Oct. 7 attacks, arguing that Israeli forces would have been placed on alert. “I don’t think so. I think … if he would have known, he would have done something about it,” he said.
Expanded Iran war and maritime control
Addressing the Iran war, now into its seventh month, Trump said he deliberately broadened military operations to dismantle Tehran’s armed and nuclear infrastructure after initial estimates projected a four- to eight-week campaign.
“Only because I wanted to go further,” Trump said, explaining why strikes continued past early targets. “I could have stopped there, and I felt it was just inappropriate.”
Trump acknowledged Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz “worked for a little while” but claimed the US later took control of the strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil consumption flowed before the war on Feb. 28.
The US president also confirmed rejecting an Iranian truce offer that proposed reopening the strait, dismissing the terms as “not good enough.” Asked whether Washington plans to intensify air strikes following the upcoming US congressional midterm elections, Trump first said it is “possible” before quickly changing course. “I can’t tell you that.”
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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.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Metropolitan Police officers detain a pro-Palestine demonstrator outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, United Kingdom on June 15, 2026. [Raşid Necati Aslım – Anadolu Agency]
Scottish Greens on Thursday urged the British government to reverse the ban on the Palestine Action group after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said “we hear” the millions of people who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people, Anadolu reports.
“The people who have marched, organised and spoken out against Israel’s genocide have helped force Palestine onto the political agenda. They deserve to be heard and their rights respected,” Maggie Chapman, Scottish Greens spokesperson, was quoted by Scottish daily The National as saying.
Her comment came after Miliband said earlier this week that they hear the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people.
“You were right. And under (Prime Minister) Andy’s (Burnham) leadership, we have reset our approach.”
Chapman said Miliband is right to acknowledge the outrage felt by millions of people who have watched the devastation of Gaza and demanded that their government act.
However, she underlined that the UK government needs to reverse the ban on the Palestine Action group if it is “serious” about the change in its political stance on Palestine.
“That acknowledgement will ring hollow as long as Labour maintains a ban that has criminalised hundreds of people for calling out genocide and other war crimes, waving banners and wearing t-shirts.”
She added: “If the Labour Government is remotely serious about changing course, it must end the proscription of Palestine Action and defend our fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful protest.”
Chapman called on the UK government to ban all arms sales to Israel and ensure that the UK is “no longer complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.”
The decision to ban Palestine Action has led to thousands of arrests of people accused of supporting the direct-action protest group.
Palestine Action was banned on July 5, 2025 under the Terrorism Act after members of the group entered a Royal Air Force base and spray-painted two aircraft, causing £7 million ($9.4 million) in damage, according to police.
The High Court ruled in February that the ban was disproportionate and unlawful, but its decision was overturned last month by the Court of Appeal.
In July, however, the UK’s highest court granted permission for Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori to challenge a Court of Appeal ruling upholding the ban on the group.
Human rights groups, along with UN experts, have criticized the escalating crackdown on peaceful protests in the UK, urging the government to lift its designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Al-Mawasi in Rafah in 2023 (left) and 2026, with huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline. Composite: Google
Satellite imagery shows further destruction of homes, businesses and places of worship since fragile ceasefire
An update to Google Maps has revealed the extent of devastation during the three-year Gaza war and the severity of the continuing humanitarian crisis faced by the territory’s 2.3 million inhabitants.
The images were taken in June this year and show further destruction of homes, businesses, places of worship and infrastructure since a fragile ceasefire came into effect almost 12 months ago.
They show huge tented camps lining much of the shoreline, often within a few metres of the sea. Gaza’s once busy main port, now badly damaged and empty of fishing boats, is surrounded by makeshift accommodation. Any available open space in Gaza City is packed with shacks, tents and huts.
…
More than 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters in Gaza, where about 82% of structures – roughly 200,000 buildings – have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.
A recent UN assessment estimated that the number of destroyed structures across Gaza had increased by 9% since the declaration of a ceasefire in October 2025.
Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States, on September 24, 2026. [Mehmet Eser – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli occupation leadership has long been accustomed to staging bizarre spectacles on some of the world’s most prominent international platforms, but what Benjamin Netanyahu did during his latest appearance on 25th September 2026 surpassed all expectations. The leading suspect wanted by the International Criminal Court took to the podium to deliver his annual speech at the 81st session of the General Assembly carrying a Starlink satellite dish. He went so far as to display a piece of technological explosive equipment in full view of the world, appearing in the form of a handheld communications device.
This is not entirely new. Year after year, Netanyahu has become accustomed to performing his theatrical tricks on the platform of the United Nations General Assembly, bringing to New York each time propaganda boards, photographs and drawings accompanied by provocative and elaborate spectacles.
Yet, until September 2026, the world’s foremost international forum had never witnessed a Starlink satellite dish being displayed in this manner, nor had a representative of a member state dared to carry and boast about an apparent explosive device in full view.
The Israeli Prime Minister took to the podium holding up a Starlink satellite device, using it as a prop to divert attention from the international condemnation he had anticipated would once again empty the UN hall, as it had the previous year, with dozens of delegates walking out as he began speaking. This time, he appeared determined to pull more rabbits from his magic hat, drawing attention away from the embarrassment of addressing a largely empty hall while once again resorting to his familiar theatrical style, marked by arrogance and provocation.
The Israeli prime minister knows that this approach cannot convince a world that can see the reality on the ground.
The notorious war criminal is not primarily concerned with winning hearts and minds or appealing to the conscience of nations horrified by the atrocities of genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, settlement and arrogance.
Netanyahu sought to distract the world with an entirely different narrative centred on Iran’s restrictions on this satellite technology, in the hope of obscuring the reality witnessed by the entire world, while naturally ignoring the restrictions imposed by the occupation and genocide regime on Starlink in the Gaza Strip, for example.
One of the purposes of this theatrical appearance was to portray Israel’s most prominent official as an extremely confident speaker, still capable of creating events, setting the pace like a conductor and controlling the international narrative. This was essentially a domestic electoral speech, even though he was once again isolated as he addressed the General Assembly, whose seats were largely emptied in protest at his appearance, while the Israeli delegation busied itself giving him a standing ovation. What matters to Netanyahu is to appear once again in images that seize attention and dominate the headlines of the world’s media, through an extraordinary and striking scene featuring a Starlink satellite dish on the General Assembly platform. What a spectacle!
Over the years, Netanyahu has come to define a new Israeli approach to addressing the international community, characterised by excessive theatrics, arrogance, provocation and moralising, and far removed from the traditions of diplomatic dignity and measured language.
It is also marked by a barrage of carefully crafted accusations against those bold enough to remind the world of rights, justice and international law, among them Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of the city that hosts the world’s foremost international forum.
Representatives of the occupation’s ‘diplomacy’ follow Netanyahu’s theatrical school in their public appearances. One of them is Ambassador Danny Danon, who appeared in a video strutting through the corridors of the General Assembly, accompanied by a camera phone carried by one of his aides, during an extraordinary episode of verbal harassment directed at the Iranian delegation. The troublemaker Danon also carried the same Starlink device and repeatedly urged the Iranian delegation to take it to Tehran. This blatant provocation is, in reality, designed to portray Israel’s internationally isolated position as self-confident, as though it still has something to say and something to initiate in full view of the world; as though it remains capable of lecturing others about values and freedom of expression, and of continuing to manufacture events and distract the world with sensational stories, as if no genocide had taken place in Gaza in full view of the world. Danon has not abandoned his style of arrogance and provocation, even towards international figures. He went so far as to call UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese a ‘witch’ after she presented her report to a General Assembly committee on the genocide in Gaza on 28th October 2025. Danon attacked Albanese at the time, saying: “Ms Albanese, you are a witch, and this report is another page in your spell book.”
There is nothing new in this. Representatives of ‘Israeli diplomacy’ have become accustomed to launching fierce verbal attacks against UN officials themselves, as former Israeli envoy Gilad Erdan did in his repeated attacks on UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He said, for example, that Guterres had “lost his moral compass” (November 2023), accused him of “blindness to terrorism” (January 2024), and went so far as to say: “The only one who should be blacklisted is the Secretary-General, who encourages terrorism, and whose decisions are driven by hatred of Israel” (June 2024).
The most significant international precedent brought by the Israeli leadership to the General Assembly platform during the 81st session, however, was the display and flaunting of a model of a deadly explosive device in full view of the world. The Israeli prime minister showcased one of his country’s achievements: the booby-trapping of communications devices and their transformation into tools for killing, maiming and injuring on a scale unprecedented in the world.
Netanyahu pulled a pager from his pocket and proudly displayed it, showcasing the lethal technological capabilities of Israel’s intelligence services, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that this particular device caused deaths, injuries, mutilation and terror among children and women on a large scale in Lebanon.
In his speech, Netanyahu sought to highlight the Israeli occupation leadership’s continued exploitation of available technologies for control, targeting, killing and destruction. This was essentially an ‘achievement’ message aimed primarily at the Israeli public. What the war criminal did not say was that humanity’s advances in technology, communications and software are being harnessed in a race to serve the occupation’s programme of control, domination, oppression, genocide and accelerating ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The international community has yet to fully confront the use of artificial intelligence to commit war crimes on an unprecedented scale. This is among the issues exposed by reports and testimonies, including the documentary film NAZA, made by two Israelis who recently received an honorary award at the Venice Film Festival and which provided detailed operational accounts of such practices.
The rounds of provocation and arrogance staged by Israeli occupation leaders in diplomatic corridors should not surprise the international community, so long as it continues to allow those who have trampled humanitarian conventions and international law underfoot to take to the world’s most prominent platforms and deliver theatrical speeches, rather than face international justice.
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
