ANTI-WAR campaigners have called for the further removal of US militarism from Britain after the country’s bombers were withdrawn from RAF Fairford.
Downing Street insisted the site remains safe following the withdrawal, despite initial reports linking it to recent threats against the base.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later downplayed the move, saying: “It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out.”
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Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Sophie Bolt welcomed the removal of the B-1 bombers from the site, saying it was “something we have long campaigned for.”
“This also extends the extends to the removal of US nuclear weapons — now stationed at RAF Lakenheath — US fighter jets, personnel and US military control of RAF bases,” she said.
“It’s time to end the uncontrolled and unaccountable foreign military presence in this country.”
The justice secretary Alex Norris, pictured at Westminster Abbey’s annual judges’ service, said he had changed course after hearing ‘the strength of feeling on the proposals’. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
Critics say scrapping of plans, which aimed to increase judge-alone trials to deliver swifter justice, leaves court system and victims vulnerable
Ministers have scrapped plans that would have slashed the number of jury trials in England and Wales and replaced them with a judge sitting alone.
The proposals had sparked a fierce backlash from lawyers, who have welcomed the U-turn. But the victims’ commissioner expressed concern about the abandonment of measures drawn up by the then justice secretary, David Lammy, under Keir Starmer’s government, to tackle the record backlog in the courts.
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Lammy’s proposals came after a government-commissioned review by the former judge, Sir Brian Leveson, who recommended taking away the right to jury trial from thousands of defendants to prevent the criminal justice system from collapsing.
But critics, including Geoffrey Robertson, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, where Starmer, Lammy and the attorney general, Richard Hermer KC, spent part of their professional careers, accused Labour of abandoning a centuries-old right and claiming that it would not reduce the backlog substantively. Some Labour MPs also opposed the move.
A satellite image of Hurricane Lowell, left, Hurricane Karina, centre, and Hurricane Marie, right, over the Pacific Ocean earlier this month. Photograph: NOAA/AFP/Getty Images
Warnings about the catastrophic effects of vital ecosystems collapsing were not published under previous PM
UK spy chiefs warned government ministers of the catastrophic impacts on national security from the collapse of vital ecosystems around the world, driven by the climate crisis and the overexploitation of nature. But their report, which was supposed to be published almost a year ago, was suppressed under Keir Starmer. Now the government is briefing foreign ministers from other countries on the findings, with a view to gathering global support for more concerted action on the risks.
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The report, which was originally commissioned under the previous Tory government, looked at the potential consequences of a range of scenarios such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, which scientists have warned could be close to switching from a rainforest to a savannah-like system under the impact of heating and deforestation. The authors found these could result in food shortages in the UK, which imports about 40% of its food. The report also reviewed the development of new pandemics from areas deforested and overexploited, border disputes among countries affected by the climate crisis, increased Russian and Chinese influence over critical mineral supply chains, and civil tensions within the UK as these impacts play out.
Collapsing ecosystems overseas – the Congo basin was also a focus – could result in mass migration as people are forced to leave areas no longer habitable, triggering potential unrest and “more polarised and populist politics in the UK and its allies”, along with “more strain on national infrastructure”, and conflict could result from countries fighting over scarce food supplies. While the risk of nuclear war is still regarded as small, it is a potential impact.
One person who had seen the whole report described it to the Guardian as “apocalyptic”.
Israeli settlers fly flags over a home they seized from a Palestinian family south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank in August. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
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The Guardian understands Miliband will say in his speech that the sanctions marked a definitive change in how Labour will approach the situation in the Middle East.
“I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you, you were right,” he will say.
“And under Andy’s leadership, we have reset our approach. We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank. We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. And we match words with actions.
The British government has not suspended or revoked a single additional arms export licence for Israel since announcing what Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described as a “double lock” on military sales, according to an investigation by Declassified UK.
Miliband announced a package of measures on 8 September targeting Israel’s illegal occupation and settlement activity. The measures included plans to prohibit trade with illegal settlements and refuse applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation of Palestinian territory.
However, responding to a parliamentary question from independent MP Iqbal Mohamed, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade confirmed that no further licences had been suspended or revoked since the announcement.
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Labour reformulates Blair’s triangulation strategy
This is how it works. Andy Burnham or Ed Miliband say “You were right on Israel and Palestine, we were wrong.” That’s 2 corners of the triangle.
The new formulation is “Having acknowledged that you were right and we were wrong, we’re going to continue in exactly the same way. We won’t do anything differently. Hopefully you’re too stupid to notice.”
Ed Miliband claims that he and Andy Burnham have reformulated Blair’s triangulation strategy. Their new formulation entails acknowledging that they were wrong on Israel and Palestine but entails doing absolutely nothing about it and continuing exactly the same policies hoping that you’re too stupid to notice.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.
The four men are being held in a Tunisian jail, with one on the ‘brink of death’.
High-profile political leaders, artists, and activists – including Greta Thunberg – have called for the immediate release of four pro-Palestine organisers who are on hunger strike in a Tunisian jail, including one “on the brink of death”.
Wael Naouar was rushed to hospital yesterday after spending 40 days on hunger strike, according to the Gaza Sumud Flotilla (GSF), an organisation that looks to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver emergency aid by sea.
Alongside Thunberg, South African politician Zwelivelile Mandela, who is Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has also signed an open letter urging the Tunisian government to free Naouar and his three co-defendants. Both Thunberg and Mandela joined the same aid flotilla as Naouar last year.
Other signatories to the letter include Irish rap group Kneecap and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham. They are also calling for “urgent medical care” for the detained men.
The four were arrested in March after being accused of misusing funds raised for the organisation. He launched his hunger strike at Mornaguia prison to protest his detention and that of his fellow activists – Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri and Nabil Channoufi, who began their strikes around two weeks ago.
Naouar is in a semi-comatose state, GSF said, adding that the Tunisian authorities have sought to impose an information blackout to prevent updates about his condition. Naouar’s father said he was close to death after visiting him earlier this week.
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 Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
