… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Donald Trump

  • UN officials: Occupied West Bank at ‘breaking point’

    Spread the love

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

    Israeli forces conduct a raid, taking extensive security measures on August 09, 2026 in Nablus, West Bank, Palestine. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]

    UN officials said Tuesday that the occupied West Bank has reached a critical “breaking point,” citing a record surge in violence by Israeli occupiers and a systematic unraveling of Palestinian statehood, Anadolu reports.

    “Humanitarian organizations cannot create the political conditions that children need to be safe,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman told the Security Council. “That responsibility rests with member states who have the power to change them.”

    She presented four urgent requests to the international community: prioritizing the protection of children by ending administrative detention, halting forced displacements through diplomatic pressure, ensuring safe access to schools and hospitals, and allowing vital humanitarian supplies to move without delay.

    Sulieman reported a harrowing toll on minors, noting that 174 Palestinian children have been verified killed in the occupied West Bank since January 2024. “That is more than one child every week,” she noted.

    She revealed that at least 355 Palestinian children are being held in military detention, the highest in eight years, with nearly half detained without charge or trial.

    Systematic displacement

    Deputy Special Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov echoed the alarm, describing the situation as an emergency requiring immediate action to prevent de facto annexation. He said that in 2026, dozens of Palestinians have been killed and approximately 3,800 displaced due to demolitions, evictions and attacks by occupiers.

    READ: Israeli army evicts Palestinian family, turns West Bank home into military post

    “Settler violence has reached unprecedented levels,” Alakbarov emphasized, citing more than 1,400 documented incidents this year affecting 260 communities. He warned of a clear pattern where Palestinian populations are forcibly removed from their villages before occupiers seize the vacated land. The official noted that for the first time, land was explicitly seized in “Area A” to build infrastructure for occupiers.

    Fiscal, political instability

    Alakbarov also highlighted the acute fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority (PA), which reportedly lacks $6 billion in clearance revenues withheld by Israeli authorities. Amid the turmoil, he welcomed preparations for legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28.

    Alakbarov concluded that they are “interconnected steps, not isolated developments,” aimed at weakening Palestinian governance.

    He said if the situation continues to unravel, it will undermine implementation of resolution 2803 (2025) and erode the prospects for realizing a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace based on the two-state solution, urging an immediate “and in full” implementation of resolution 2803, together with the New York Declaration.

    Resolution 2803 endorses a peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump for the Gaza Strip and a temporary international force in the enclave following two years of war.

    Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, Israeli forces and occupiers have escalated attacks in the West Bank, killing more than 1,183 Palestinians, injuring 13,000 and arresting nearly 25,000, according to Palestinian figures.

    Palestinians warn that the escalation is part of Israeli efforts to impose facts on the ground, paving the way for annexation of the occupied West Bank and undermining the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders under relevant UN resolutions.

    READ: Israeli occupiers establish illegal settlement outpost in yard of Palestinian home in West Bank

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
    Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
    Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up

    This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

  • Burnham urged to tackle cost of living crisis by pressuring Trump to end Iran war

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/07/unions-andy-burnham-uk-cost-of-living-crisis-donald-trump-iran-war

    US air force personnel prepare to load munitions on to a heavy bomber aircraft at the RAF Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

    Trade unions say UK prime minister must begin by revoking permission for US to use RAF bases for airstrikes in Gulf

    Trade unions have called on Andy Burnham to tackle the cost of living crisis at its source by pressuring Donald Trump to bring the conflict in the Middle East swiftly to an end.

    Leaders from 10 unions, including Unison, the UK’s largest, urged the prime minister to oppose further fighting in the Gulf to help bring down energy and fuel costs.

    To put pressure on Trump, unions said Burnham must begin by revoking permission for the US to use RAF bases to launch airstrikes on Iran.

    …

    The general secretaries of 10 UK trade unions, representing more than 2.3 million workers, said in their letter to Burnham that he should do more to oppose “the US and Israel’s devastating, illegal war on Iran”, which was “deepening the cost of living crisis faced by our members and the British public”.

    “Since the war started, the average British household has seen its annual energy bill rise by £221, while monthly food bills are forecast to rise by £32.80. Without an end to the war, there will be no end to this cost of living crisis,” they wrote.

    The general secretaries said they were encouraged by the new government’s focus on the cost of living and the measures it was taking “to make life more affordable”.

    But they said they were “deeply concerned” that it had “authorised US airstrikes to be conducted from bases on British territories as part of the escalating war against Iran”.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/07/unions-andy-burnham-uk-cost-of-living-crisis-donald-trump-iran-war

    Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
    Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    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.

  • Nigel Farage’s Anti-Climate Record

    Spread the love

    Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog dated Jun 3, 2024

    Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage speaking at a Reform UK press conference on 3 June 2024. Credit: Reform UK / YouTube

    The Reform UK leader is a vocal opponent of net zero policies, and has questioned the basis of established climate science.

    Pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has announced that he will be standing to be an MP at the upcoming general election and will be replacing Richard Tice as leader of the populist party Reform UK. 

    Farage, who says that he hopes to become “the voice of opposition” in Parliament, has long been a vocal opponent of climate action and a critic of climate science – campaigning for a referendum on the UK’s 2050 net zero emissions target.

    When he was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), the party’s 2015 and 2017 election manifestos pledged to rip up green measures, repeal the UK’s Climate Change Act, withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement – the flagship deal to tackle global emissions – and support fossil fuel extraction.

    These reflected Farage’s personal views on climate action. In 2015, he told the libertarian website Spiked: “I think wind energy is the biggest collective economic insanity I’ve seen in my entire life. I’ve never seen anything more stupid, more illogical, or more irrational.”

    Farage is a presenter on GB News, the right-wing broadcaster that has regularly provided a platform to climate science denial and attacks on green reforms since it launched in June 2021. 

    Speaking on GB News in August 2021, Farage said that he was “very much an environmentalist” and that he couldn’t “abide things like plastics in our seas, pollution in our rivers.” However, on the issue of climate change, he added: “What annoys me though, is this complete obsession with carbon dioxide almost to the exclusion of everything else, the alarmism that comes with it, based on dodgy predictions and science.”

    The world’s foremost climate science body, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has stated it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”, while scientists at NASA have found that the last 10 years were the hottest on record. Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest since records began in 1880.

    The IPCC has also stated that carbon dioxide “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, which has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought”.

    Farage has been a vocal critic of net zero. He has claimed that the policy is an “act of self harm” and has called for it to be scrapped. 

    He has said: “It will not bring economic benefits. It will make everybody a whole lot poorer. And yet the lemmings in Parliament are taking us towards an economic cliff,” adding: “I can’t think of an issue on which the public and politicians are more divided.”

    In fact, politicians are markedly less in favour of climate action than the general public. New polling by YouGov for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has shown that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of the public believe the best way to achieve energy security is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and instead expand the use of renewable energy, compared to 48 percent of MPs. 

    The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on its net zero policies, has estimated that the cost of achieving net zero will be less than 1 percent of UK GDP, while the government independent spending watchdog – the Office for Budget Responsibility – has said that, “the costs of failing to get climate change under control would be much larger than those of bringing emissions down to net zero”.

    Farage has also claimed that, “If green technology is going to work, it ought to work without ordinary folk subsidising it” – referring to the government grants and investment dedicated to developing clean energy sources. The UK government has given £20 billion more in support to fossil fuel producers than their renewable energy peers since 2015.

    Farage has also spread conspiracy theories about anti-pollution measures being used to control people’s lives. 

    In a video posted on Twitter, he argued that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s calls to reduce air pollution by cutting car engine use would pave the way to “climate lockdowns”. 

    He said: “Mark my words this isn’t going to end with 20mph zones and low-traffic neighbourhoods. No no. This is the beginning of climate lockdowns. We will have, in years to come, days where we’re told we can’t drive, we can’t do this, you can’t do that while Sadiq Khan is leading the way. Remember you heard it here first. Climate lockdowns.”

    The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has highlighted how climate lockdown claims are part of “a conspiratorial narrative which claims that global elites are using climate change as a pretext to restrict individual freedoms and civil liberties.”

    Farage and Reform UK

    Farage used his announcement to state his belief that Labour will win the general election, which will be held on 4 July, and that the Conservative Party has “crushed itself”. With the Tories predicted to lose in a landslide, Farage appears to believe that he can lead a new right-wing movement.

    The Reform leader was already a key figure in the party prior to today’s announcement, effectively owning the party as well as serving as its president. Reform operates as a private company without a democratic structure, so Farage’s majority shareholding meant that could have appointed himself as leader at any time. 

    Despite Farage failing to be elected as an MP when he stood in seven previous general elections, and Reform only winning two councillors in May’s local elections, polls indicate that Farage may succeed in becoming the MP for Clacton.

    If this is the case, Farage will be advocating in Parliament for the anti-climate policies that have been proposed by his party. 

    Reform has called for the UK’s net zero emissions target to be scrapped, and has proposed holding a referendum on the policy – a campaign launched by Farage in 2022. 

    The party’s policy agenda states that: “Westminster’s net zero plans send our jobs and money overseas, making us net poorer and net colder”, adding that net zero policies are “net stupid”. 

    The party’s former leader Tice, who will now become its chairman, is a prominent climate science denier. Tice has claimed that “there is no climate crisis”, and has also expressed the view that “CO2 isn’t a poison. It’s plant food”.

    Of the £2.5 million that Reform UK has received in donations since the 2019 election, around 92 percent (£2.3 million) of that income has been given by fossil fuel interests, polluting industries, or climate science deniers.

    Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog dated Jun 3, 2024

    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.

  • Nigel Farage Dubbed ‘MP for Washington’ for Parroting Trump in Parliament

    Spread the love

    Article by Adam Barnett republished from DeSmog

    Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Credit: House of Commons (CC BY-3.0)

    Reform leader boosted the president’s attacks on UK Chagos Islands policy more often than raising the cost of living.

    Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used a quarter of his speeches in Parliament to boost U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the UK’s Chagos Islands deal – three times more than he raised the cost of living.

    DeSmog’s analysis of parliamentary records finds that the former Clacton MP – who resigned last month in response to a series of financial scandals – raised the UK’s proposed deal with Mauritius in 10 of the 40 times he spoke in the House of Commons.

    Farage, who was first elected to Parliament in July 2024, mentioned Chagos more than any subject except immigration. This compares with only one speech about winter fuel payments, one on energy policy, and one about UK budget measures, all topics with a direct impact on the cost of living.

    “Seeing how often Farage has voiced views that line up perfectly with Trump’s interests, you might think he was the MP for Washington DC, not Clacton-on-Sea,” said Graeme McGregor, campaign manager at the Good Law Project.

    “He ought to spend more time focusing on issues that matter to people in Clacton, rather than his pastimes of grandstanding, jet-setting and schmoozing.”

    A version of this article was published by The Mirror.

    Most of Farage’s Chagos speeches also mentioned Trump, whose opposition to the deal saw it shelved in April. Negotiated by the previous Conservative government, it proposed giving Mauritius control of the islands, which are located in the Indian Ocean, with a 99-year lease for the UK to run the Diego Garcia military base, which is seen as a crucial asset by the U.S. government.

    In December 2024, Farage told the Commons he had “just returned, hotfoot, from a very full Mar-a-Lago”, Trump’s resort in Florida, and that “several members” of the incoming administration had expressed “deep disquiet” about plans to “surrender the sovereignty of the islands”.

    This was echoed in February 2025, when Farage claimed the agreement could destroy hopes of a UK-U.S. trade deal, claiming Britain’s chances of avoiding American tariffs would “evaporate”.

    “The special relationship will be dangerously fractured if the government carry on with this,” he added.

    The Reform leader also used the Commons to boast of his close relationship with Trump.  “I think I am in a fortunate position. It is not just that for 10 years I have stood up and defended President Trump – I was very much on my own in those days – but that I know half his Cabinet,” he said in February 2025.

    Farage has also campaigned against the Chagos deal in meetings with U.S. government officials, and tried to visit the Islands in February on a trip funded by Christopher Harborne, the donor at the centre of his resignation scandal.

    DeSmog has previously reported that Farage mentioned his constituency just twice in Parliament in the past 12 months, and only six times since his 2024 election. Over the same period, he has received £2.3 million in non-parliamentary income.

    He has also made a series of trips to the United States to speak at pro-Trump events, and has addressed Trump-aligned conferences in London, including the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), and CPAC Great Britain.

    Reform, which has received more than £24 million from oil and gas interests, has vowed to emulate Trump’s policies – campaigning for the “mass deportations” of immigrants and dramatically increased fossil fuel extraction.

    https://infogram.com/farages-commons-speeches-1h0n25ojjqv7z4p


    Chagos Lobbying

    In an interview on his GB News show in January, Farage urged Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to build opposition to the Chagos deal in the United States. Farage has also reportedly raised the issue directly with the White House on several occasions.

    In February, he attempted to visit the Chagos Islands via the nearby Maldives to support four Chagossians who are opposed to the deal. He has claimed he was blocked from entry by the UK government, which said it had no prior knowledge of Farage’s visit.

    The £25,000 trip was paid for by Harborne, the crypto billionaire whose £5 million undeclared “gift” to Farage before the 2024 election was being investigated by parliament’s standards commissioner when the Reform leader resigned last month.

    The investigation is expected to resume if he wins the by-election on 13 August, which all major parties have boycotted.

    Like Trump, Harborne — who has given Reform more than £25 million to date — also appears to oppose the Chagos deal. As well as bankrolling Farage’s visit to the region, Harborne has pledged to fund the small group of Chagossians trying to halt the UK government’s plan.

    Nick Dearden of the campaign group Global Justice Now, told DeSmog: “Farage made his name lecturing us about British sovereignty, but he clearly has no idea what this means, because whenever British interests are attacked by Donald Trump, Farage sides with the bully-boy in the White House.

    “Trump has repeatedly interfered in British politics, slamming our energy policy, forcing changes in our regulation of Big Tech companies and even fleecing the NHS,” Dearden added. “His poodle, Farage, has not stood up to him on one occasion. Instead, he has used his position to support a man who is so clearly trying to weaken us.”

    Nigel Farage and Reform UK have been contacted for comment.

    Farage’s Chagos Chatter in Parliament

    “…how confident is the foreign secretary that Donald Trump, if he becomes the 47th President of the USA, will approve of this deal, given the importance of our relationship with America?”
    7 October, 2024

    “I assure the House, having been in America last week and knowing the incoming U.S. defence secretary very well, that there is outright hostility towards this deal. […] Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet for America, so the minister will find outright hostility.”
    13 November, 2024

    “I have just returned, hotfoot, from a very full Mar-a-Lago. I spoke to several members—senior administrators, especially—of the incoming administration, which will be in the White House in 32 days’ time. Let me assure you that there is very deep disquiet among them all as to what this deal may mean for the long-term future of Diego Garcia and whether such a deal will hold […] They also cannot understand why we would surrender the sovereignty of the islands on an advisory judgment from a pretty obscure court.”
    18 December, 2024

    “Diego Garcia is probably the single most important thing that we give America right now. Without it, America does not have access to the middle east, India and much else.

    […] I genuinely fear that if this continues and the American administration wakes up to it – I could quote three members of the Cabinet I have spoken to personally about it – our chances of not just avoiding tariffs but moving on to a sectoral free trade deal will all but evaporate. The special relationship will be dangerously fractured if the Government carry on with this…”
    4th February, 2025

    “The Americans, by the way, have been pretty busy with foreign policy just lately, so it is perhaps no wonder that Diego Garcia has not been high on their agenda, but when they wake up to the fact that this has been done – wholly unnecessarily – I would not be surprised if we find ourselves, together with the European Union, in their tariff regime.”
    5 February, 2025

    “[Urgent question:] To ask His Majesty’s Government to give us an update on the situation with regard to the Diego Garcia American military base and the British Indian Ocean Territory, especially in light of the recent comments of the American President.”
    25 February, 2026

    Article by Adam Barnett republished from DeSmog

    Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION 'gift' that he didn't declare.
    Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION ‘gift’ that he didn’t declare.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    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.

  • More than 1 million children lost access to food benefits after Trump bill passed

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/25/food-stamps-children-trump

    A person receives food aid bags at the Young Family YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia, 6 November 2025. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

    Analysis finds more than 4 million Americans lost Snap benefits, or food stamps, from July 2025 to March 2026

    More than a million children across the US have lost access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) food benefits since Congress approved the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

    The analysis found that more than 4 millions Americans were removed from Snap from July 2025 to March 2026, marking a significant decline in participation in the federal food assistance program.

    …

    According to the CBPP analysis, children make up a significant portion of those losing benefits, with more than 1 million children across the 19 states studied no longer receiving Snap assistance.

    In Louisiana, nearly one in four children receiving Snap benefits lost assistance. Massachusetts and Texas each saw close to one-fifth of children enrolled in the program removed from Snap.

    The report comes as participation in the program continues to fall nationwide following major reductions to the federal food assistance program under the Trump administration.

    Snap, commonly referred to as food stamps, provides monthly benefits to low-income and no-income households to help pay for groceries and remains the country’s largest food assistance program.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/25/food-stamps-children-trump

    Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it's fun to kill everyone ... unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
    Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone … unless he gets distracted or falls asleep.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.