new authoritarianism

Israeli Government takes legal step toward Ben-Gvir’s proposed “crocodile prison” plan

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Crocodiles [Wikipedia]

The Israeli government has taken a legal step that could enable the implementation of a proposal by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to use crocodile-filled waterways around detention facilities holding Palestinian prisoners, according to Israeli media reports.

Israeli Channel 7 reported on Thursday that Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman signed a declaration changing the legal classification of crocodiles to “cared-for wild animals.” According to the report, the reclassification would allow government agencies, including the Israel Prison Service, to keep crocodiles at their facilities under specified conditions.

The report said the amendment removes a legal obstacle that had previously prevented the proposal from moving forward, as crocodiles had been classified as protected wild animals and could not legally be kept outside licensed zoos.

READ: Israeli minister proposes keeping Palestinian detainees in facility ’surrounded by crocodiles’

According to Channel 13, the amendment followed objections from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to the proposed project, which Israeli media have referred to as a “crocodile prison.”

Earlier this year, Ben-Gvir proposed building a high-security prison surrounded by waterways containing crocodiles, saying the measure would strengthen prison security and help prevent escape attempts by Palestinian security prisoners.

Channel 7 reported that the Israel Prison Service is examining the feasibility of the proposal and has conducted visits to zoos to study the handling and care of crocodiles.

According to the report, officials involved in the assessment concluded that crocodile-filled waterways around certain prisons could potentially reduce security costs while increasing deterrence.

READ: Israeli rights group demands independent medical examination of detained Gaza hospital director

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
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.

Continue ReadingIsraeli Government takes legal step toward Ben-Gvir’s proposed “crocodile prison” plan

Israel continues killing Gaza children as ‘matter of routine’: Haaretz

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A child is brought to the mortuary of Nasser Hospital after being killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis, Gaza on March 23, 2025. [Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency]

Israel continues to kill children in Gaza as a “matter of routine,” with 274 children killed since the Oct. 10 ceasefire took effect, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday.

The newspaper said the figure means an average of one child has been killed each day since the ceasefire began.

It added that more than 21,000 children have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023.

According to Haaretz, the vast majority of the children were killed in airstrikes, while others died from sniper fire, collapsing buildings or shrapnel.

Some children also died from wounds that Gaza’s collapsed healthcare system could no longer treat, while others died from hunger and disease, although they were not included in the reported death toll, the newspaper said.

READ: Israeli strikes kill 5 Palestinians in Gaza despite ceasefire

Haaretz also highlighted Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis, saying homes remain destroyed and about 1.7 million people are still living in tents without electricity, running water or sanitation.

Rats and mosquitoes are widespread, infectious diseases are spreading, and tens of thousands of people are suffering from skin infections amid intense heat and harsh conditions inside the tents, the newspaper added.

Israel has continued to violate the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10, 2025, killing 1,127 Palestinians and injuring 3,643 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry on Thursday.

Since Israel’s genocide began on Oct. 8, 2023, at least 73,250 Palestinians have been killed and 173,751 injured, according to the ministry. It added that about 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

READ: Committee of families of political prisoners calls for release of Dr Shaima Abu Ghali

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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
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.

Continue ReadingIsrael continues killing Gaza children as ‘matter of routine’: Haaretz

Morning Star Editorial: Good riddance to Labour’s worst leader

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/good-riddance-labours-worst-leader

ON FRIDAY Keir Starmer will leave the leadership of the Labour Party, having debased and disgraced the office over his six-year tenure.

Whatever hopes and fears there may be concerning his successor, Andy Burnham, it would be near impossible for the new leader to be as bad as the outgoing one.

Starmer was elected on a fraudulent prospectus, posing as a supporter of Jermey Corbyn with added “competence” when he was no such thing.

He soon revealed himself to be an entrenched rightwinger, who discarded all the policies and commitments on which he had stood for election.

He also discarded the coalition of voters that Corbyn’s leadership had assembled in 2017 and secured even fewer votes in 2024 that Corbynism did at its 2019 nadir.

Instead he handed the party over to the most bitter and malicious rightwingers, thirsting for revenge against the left.

The most authoritarian Labour leader ever, his tenure was marked by expulsions, witch-hunts, the withdrawal of the whip from dissenting MPs and the marginalisation of the membership.

His initial mendacity and deceit shaped everything that happened since, marking him out as untrustworthy and politically incoherent.

His predilection for falsehoods stayed with him to the end. At his last Prime Ministers Questions in the Commons he smeared Labour under Corbyn as having been found “institutionally antisemitic.” No such finding was ever made.

Just two weeks ago he claimed he had inherited a bankrupt party. False again.

Having failed so spectacularly as prime minister, it seems that Starmer can only find consolation in smearing his predecessor, who was everything he is not in terms of principle and conviction.

Nor was he competent. It is now acknowledged that he failed to make any preparations for government, despite it being evident from 2022 at least that a Labour victory was certain.

So he had blundered from U-turn to U-turn, launching attacks on working people only to be forced to retreat under mass pressure.

He has hewed close to Treasury and City orthodoxy in economics while backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, sabre-rattling against Russia and pandering to Donald Trump.

At home, he has extended authoritarianism by every measure, from proscribing Palestine Action to curbing jury trials to clamping down on the right to protest.

The future of our economy and social provision has been mortgaged to a massive arms build-up.

And, like Boris Johnson before him, Starmer has been up to his neck in sleaze.

In opposition he claimed epic expenses. Then he took free clothing, glasses, accommodation and tickets from millionaire Waheed Alli in an orgy of grifting, even as he was slashing winter fuel benefit for pensioners.

He was finally undone by appointing Peter Mandelson, already known to be a close friend of convicted financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and an intimate of sundry oligarchs, as ambassador to Washington.

A brazenly factional move, it led to the departure of Starmer’s consigliere Morgan McSweeney, without whom he lost whatever capacity to govern that he had to begin with.

The damage he has done to the Labour Party is immense and lasting. Even by David Lammy’s diminished standards to declare this week that Starmer will be remembered as “a giant of the labour movement” was a remarkably stupid encomium.

He will be remembered in fact as Labour’s least successful prime minister since Ramsay MacDonald, who at least had the distinction of being the first, and its most dishonest and undemocratic leader ever.

Starmer was one thing only — a loyal servant of the bourgeois state. When he steps down today, the air is at least a little cleaner in the labour movement.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/good-riddance-labours-worst-leader I hope that Morning Star will excuse me republishing this in it’s entirety. Morning Star‘s copyright is acknowledged.

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Good riddance to Labour’s worst leader

Nigel Farage Made £2.3 Million in Two Years While Serving as Clacton’s MP

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Nigel Farage explains that he's called another byelection in Clacton-on-Sea because he should be able to secretly enrich himself without scrutiny and accountabilty and that the rules shouldn't apply to him.
Nigel Farage explains that he’s called another byelection in Clacton-on-Sea because he should be able to secretly enrich himself without scrutiny and accountabilty and that the rules shouldn’t apply to him.

Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

The Reform leader pocketed major sums from second jobs and donor gifts.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage amassed £2.3 million in income and gifts during his first two years in Parliament, DeSmog can report.

On 7 July, Farage announced that he would be resigning as Clacton’s MP in order to trigger a by-election. The Reform leader has been under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over the £5 million undeclared gift that he accepted from billionaire crypto investor Christopher Harborne, the party’s biggest donor, before the 2024 general election.

DeSmog’s calculations indicate that, during his two years as Clacton’s MP, he accepted more than £2.3 million in external income and gifts, including over £720,000 from the right-wing broadcaster GB News, and more than £770,000 from the metals trading company Gold Bullion. That’s equivalent to £3,151 a day, or £22,000 a week.

Farage’s declaration of interests also shows that he received at least £85,000 in gifts from Harborne, as well as more than £39,000 from convicted fraudster George Cottrell, who also gave undeclared gifts and support to Farage in the year prior to the 2024 election.

The £2.3 million received by Farage has been on top of his roughly £98,000-a-year public salary. DeSmog revealed last week that Farage has only mentioned Clacton twice in Parliament during the past year. 

“The government urgently needs to impose tougher limits on MPs’ second jobs,” Kamila Kingstone, a senior campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption, previously told DeSmog, “so that the public can be confident that their representatives are working in the public interest rather than to line their own pockets.”

Farage’s plan to reset the narrative by forcing a by-election – his attempt to prove that voters are on his side – appears to have backfired. All the major parties have withdrawn from the contest, leaving the Reform leader to fight the by-election against Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a space-travelling bin. 

Public concern over the gifts Farage has received from donors also appears to be growing. New polling from YouGov found that 40 percent of Reform’s own voters see Farage as sleazy, matched by 73 percent of the public as a whole. 

Public First polling also shows that 44 percent of voters disagree with Farage that he is a victim of the political establishment, compared to 28 percent who believe he is.

“Nigel Farage is a multi-millionaire who is out for himself and working for the interests of his super-rich friends,” a Green Party spokesperson previously told DeSmog. “His whole career has been focused on personal gain and public division.”

DeSmog revealed in April that over 70 percent of Farage’s personal benefactors are based abroad – including Harborne, the Thailand-based crypto investor who has gifted flights and accommodation to Farage worth £85,453 since July 2024.

Meanwhile, Reform’s policy positions seem to align closely with the interests of its donors. 

Farage has lobbied against regulation of the crypto industry, promising a UK “crypto revolution” if he becomes prime minister, and has shares in digital treasury company Stack BTC. He is due to speak at a crypto-backed conference this week, despite the furore over his gifts from crypto billionaires. 

As revealed by DeSmog, Reform has also accepted £24 million from oil and gas interests while denying basic climate science and advocating for the dramatic expansion of fossil fuel production.

The government is currently considering how to reform the political finance system to limit the influence of major donors on UK democracy, with a growing number of MPs calling for a cap on the amount that can be donated by any one individual or organisation. Reform has been lobbying for the rules to remain the same.

Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.

Nigel Farage reminds you that he's the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Nigel Farage reminds you that he’s the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
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.
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.
Continue ReadingNigel Farage Made £2.3 Million in Two Years While Serving as Clacton’s MP