The emergency department at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, Smethwick, January 8, 2025
Royal College of Emergency Medicine says advertisement is ‘normalising’ patients being treated in the corridors
A LONDON hospital has advertising for “corridor care” nurses because so many A&E patients are being cared for while waiting for beds or treatment.
The 12-hour shifts were advertised by Whittington hospital in north London.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said the advertisement indicated the “normalising” of patients being treated in the corridors of hospital A&E departments.
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Retired paediatrician Dr John Puntis, co-chair of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, said: “There can be no bleaker illustration of the current state of the NHS than ‘care’ delivered in corridors.
“Winter pressures on an already overstretched service were entirely predictable.
“Six months in power and Labour has done nothing pro-active to alleviate this situation.”
He accused the government of instead “throwing money at the private sector.”
A petition signed by more than 1.6 million people urging the government to enforce a total ban on bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides has been handed in to the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) by environmental campaigners [1].
The petition, which was coordinated by Greenpeace UK, has amassed a staggering 1,645,000 signatures from the British public and was delivered directly to Defra for the environment minister, Emma Hardy. It was delivered in the form of a bee hotel by campaigners dressed in ‘worker’ bee outfits carrying placards reading, ‘Pesticides Buzz Off’, ‘Protect Our Bees’ and ‘Bee Safe’. They were joined by Siân Berry, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, who is a supporter of the campaign.
Separately, 15 leading climate and nature charities – including Pesticide Action Network, RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and Greenpeace – have written to the environment minister, calling for an end to the emergency authorisation of neonicotinoids on sugar beet crops [2].
In the letter they state: “By not allowing another emergency use of neonicotinoids, there will be more incentive for British Sugar and the government to fund research into alternatives, and to adopt nature-friendly farming approaches including Integrated Pest Management (IPM).”
Greenpeace UK’s campaigner, Anthony Lewis, said: “Using neonicotinoids to ‘protect’ crops is like setting fire to your house to protect it from burglars. Yes, it will destroy pests, but it will also kill bees and other vital pollinators we depend on for the food we’re trying to grow. It’s absurd.
“Bee populations have been decimated over recent years, with the use of neonicotinoids one of the drivers of this decline. As leading environmental charities and experts on nature protection, along with 1.6 million members of the public, we implore the government to implement a full and final ban on the use of all bee-killing pesticides once and for all.”
Bees are essential for our survival – pollinating much of our food and playing a critical role in sustaining ecosystems around the world. However, wild bee populations have fallen by a third, with the use of pesticides on farms a key contributor to their rapid decline.
The use of neonicotinoids, which are particularly lethal to bees and other vital pollinators, was outlawed across Europe in 2018. However, despite the ban, the previous UK government approved the ‘emergency’ authorisation of these deadly chemicals for four years in a row, against the scientific advice of the government’s own Expert Committee on Pesticides.
Black bees
During its election campaign, the Labour Party made a commitment to end these exemptions for bee-killing pesticides and the government announced last month that it was drawing up plans to outlaw the use of some neonicotinoids. However, whatever the proposals being brought forward in future, another ‘emergency’ derogation could be allowed. A decision on whether to grant this emergency authorisation again this year is expected imminently.
Saed Abu Nabhan, a freelance Anadolu cameraman in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli army long-range rifle attack on Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.
The Israeli military first surrounded an area in the Al-Jadeed Refugee Camp, located in the central Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat region, where many journalists were present, before targeting those in the area.
Footage from the scene shows a wounded individual being rushed out of a house on a stretcher with the help of aid workers.
Nearby, Abu Nabhan is seen trying to run while covering the incident with his equipment. At that moment, he is targeted by what appears to be a shot fired from a long-range rifle.
Abu Nabhan then falls to the ground and lies motionless. People nearby struggle fearfully to approach him due to the threat of being targeted by Israeli bullets.
Official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported on the attack, confirming that Abu Nabhan was killed.
Separately, at least one person was reported dead, with the deceased and injured taken to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, following an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza’s Shuja’iyya neighbourhood.
The death of Abu Nabhan brought the total number of Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since 7 October, 2023 to 203. Reports also indicate that 399 journalists have been injured, and 43 others captured.
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 46,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on 7 October, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
A group of activists gather in front of Sde Teiman prison in the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip, demanding the release of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza and the release of Palestinians who were arrested without charge, in Negev Desert, Israel on January 10, 2025. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli activists demonstrated on Friday to demand the release of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who was arrested by their country’s army in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago and continues to be forcibly disappeared.
According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, the demonstration occurred in front of the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp in the south, organised by the Standing Together movement, consisting of Israeli activists who support peace, equality and social justice.
On 27 December, the Israeli army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, setting it on fire and rendering it out of service. It arrested more than 350 people inside, including the hospital director, Abu Safiya.
At first, the Israeli army denied arresting Abu Safiya but later admitted to doing so; however, it continues to withhold any information about his place of detention, putting him in a state of forced disappearance.
Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations believe that the Israeli authorities are holding Abu Safiya in the Sde Teiman detention camp.
Sde Teiman is located inside a military base in the Negev desert and was established by the Israeli army immediately after launching the genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October, 2023. Many of those arrested in the Strip were transferred there, including children, youth and the elderly.
Human rights and media reports state that Israeli soldiers committed horrific human rights violations against detainees in this detention centre, subjecting them to various forms of torture and humiliation.
JEREMY CORBYN has demanded ministers come clean about the RAF’s use of Cyprus bases to aid Israel.
The former Labour leader, now an independent MP, has written to the Foreign Office urging it to tell the truth about RAF Akrotiri’s role in the continuing genocide in Gaza.
He asked it to confirm if the base in Cyprus was being used to ship weapons to Israel and how many US air force flights had been made from it to assist the onslaught against the Palestinians.
“We deserve to know the full scale of our government’s complicity and participation in genocide,” Mr Corbyn said in the letter.
His intervention follows a Christmas visit by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to the base, where he boasted that it was not possible to talk publicly about the vital work being carried out there.
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 Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
