Police detain protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists were due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024
YOUR PARTY parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to oppose the government’s National Security (State Threats) Bill today as ministers started to rush the measure through Parliament.
He warned that the Bill “is an alarming expansion of state power, and an escalation of the government’s chilling assault on the right to protest.
“This week more than 100 people were arrested for holding placards in support of a group that has taken direct action against British complicity in genocide. Meanwhile, Britain continues to sell arms to a state whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“This Bill represents a further, grave risk to our civil liberties. Under the new legislation, people can be criminalised for ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of’ bodies that the Home Secretary deems prejudicial to ‘the safety or interests’ of the UK.”
Mr Corbyn added: “Deliberately vague and open-ended, this legislation gives the Home Secretary sweeping powers to criminalise political campaigns of their choosing.
“We are going down a very dangerous path, and the fact that this legislation is being rushed through Parliament in one day should alarm us all.
He suspended MPs including John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana.
Keir Starmer has described scrapping the two-child benefit cap as his proudest moment as prime minister – despite previously suspending Labour MPs for voting for its removal.
Starmer was asked “What have you been most proud of as prime minister?” in an interview with Beth Rigby on Sky News on Wednesday.
“Lifting half a million children out of poverty by removing the two-child benefit cap,” he replied.
“That is something I’m proud of because that will be felt not just this year, next year, not just during the duration of this government, but for those children it will be felt for the rest of their lives.”
However, Starmer’s boast has drawn accusations of hypocrisy from social media users, who have pointed to his previous decision to punish his own MPs for voting for the policy.
In July 2024 Starmer withdrew the whip from seven backbench Labour MPs for backing a Scottish National Party amendment calling for the cap to be axed.
The amendment was defeated by 363 votes to 103, with rebel MPs John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Apsana Begum, Imran Hussain, Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana all suspended from the Labour party. An additional 42 Labour MPs abstained.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
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US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the press before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, United States, on May 12, 2026. [Kyle Mazza – Anadolu Agency]
“Syria can do the job” of fighting Hezbollah better than Israel, Donald Trump has said, in a remarkable rebuke of Tel Aviv’s war in Lebanon and its mounting civilian toll.
Speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the G7 summit in Evian, Trump said he was “not happy” with Israel’s handling of Lebanon and warned that its offensive was undermining Washington’s efforts to secure a wider regional deal with Iran.
“I’m not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah,” Trump said. “It just goes on forever, and when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran.”
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody,” he added, in one of his sharpest public criticisms yet of Israel’s military tactics.
Trump then suggested that Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who took power after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in 2024, should be allowed to confront Hezbollah instead.
“If Israel can’t do the job, without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job. Syria will do the job,” Trump said.
The US president said he had told Israeli officials that they should let Syria “take care of Hezbollah,” adding: “I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”
The comments underline growing frustration in Washington with Israel’s expanding war in Lebanon, which has become a major obstacle to US efforts to consolidate an agreement with Iran. The US and Iran have reached a framework to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ease the blockade on Iranian ports and begin a 60-day negotiation period towards a final settlement. The deal is also expected to include a ceasefire across several regional fronts, including Lebanon, where Hezbollah has supported Iran militarily.
However, Israel is accused of undermining the effort with strikes on Lebanon.
Lebanon has become a key pressure point in the US-Iran negotiations. Tehran backs Hezbollah and has insisted that Israel’s continued presence and attacks in Lebanon must be addressed as part of any wider regional arrangement.
Trump’s comments suggest that the White House increasingly views Israel’s Lebanon campaign as a direct threat to its wider regional strategy. The US president had already warned Israel and Hezbollah to “stand down” after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut threatened to complicate the Iran talks.
Israel’s offensive in Lebanon began in March. Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,800 people, wounded thousands and displaced large numbers of civilians. Israeli ground forces have also occupied hundreds of square kilometres of southern Lebanon.
Israel has insisted that it will not halt its campaign until Hezbollah is defeated. But Trump’s remarks expose a widening rift between Washington and Tel Aviv over the scale, duration and political cost of Israel’s military operations.
Syria’s new rulers are also deeply hostile to Hezbollah because the Lebanese group fought on behalf of the deposed Assad regime during the Syrian civil war. That hostility appears to be what Trump was referring to when he said Al-Sharaa was “very good with Hezbollah” and “does not like them.”
But any Syrian military role in Lebanon remains highly unlikely. Al-Sharaa has denied reports that Syria is preparing to intervene, saying the rumours were “nothing but speculation” and stressing that Damascus wants to end the war in Lebanon, not expand it.
Al-Sharaa has dismissed claims of Syrian military intervention as “completely untrue,” adding that the priority was stability while Israeli attacks had displaced more than 1.5 million people.
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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/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Pope Leo XIV greets migrants during a visit to the Las Raices reception centre in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain on June 12, 2026. [Andres Gutierrez – Anadolu Agency]
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday stressed the need for the recently announced agreement between the US and Iran to enforce security and stability across the Middle East, Anadolu reports.
“I hope that this agreement will contribute to strengthening mutual trust, security, and stability in the Middle East, and promote paths of dialogue and cooperation among the peoples,” the pontiff said through US social media platform X.
He also welcomed, “with satisfaction,” the agreement as an “encouraging outcome of patient work in dialogue and negotiation.”
“I express my gratitude to the countries that have strived to foster the encounter between the parties and make such an understanding possible,” the pope added.
Washington and Tehran reached a temporary truce this April through Pakistani mediation before announcing a framework agreement this Monday to end the conflict. The accord is expected to be formally signed in Switzerland on Friday.
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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/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, during a news conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, on, 05 February , 2024 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has decided to appoint relatives of slain Israelis as official prison inspectors in a move aimed at tightening detention conditions for Palestinian detainees, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
“The minister’s goal is to worsen the conditions of security prisoners,” people close to Ben-Gvir said, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
Israel uses the term “security prisoners” to refer to Palestinian detainees.
According to the broadcaster, Ben-Gvir decided to appoint the family members as official visitors and inspectors of Palestinian prisoners instead of qualified professionals.
“Minister Ben-Gvir reduced the number of inspectors to fewer than 20, and instead appointed bereaved families,” the channel said.
The inspectors are responsible for overseeing prisoners and monitoring their detention conditions and treatment inside Israeli prisons.
The move drew criticism in Israel, with political sources describing it as “a crazy decision that violates the law and will harm international relations,” Channel 12 reported.
“With all due respect to the bereaved families, ultimately they are not an official or professional body,” the channel quoted former senior officials in the Israel Prison Service as saying.
The former officials warned that the move could trigger international criticism and escalate tensions inside and outside prisons.
Since taking office in late 2022, Ben-Gvir has moved to tighten detention conditions for Palestinian prisoners, including through policies that rights groups describe as food deprivation and medical neglect.
The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said Tuesday that Palestinian prisoner Imad Sarhan faced medical neglect and was not examined for more than two and a half years before his death on Saturday at Gilboa Prison.
According to the group, Sarhan suffered from several health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
Sarhan’s death raised the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7, 2023, to 104, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Around 9,500 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are being held in Israeli prisons and face starvation, torture and medical neglect that have led to the deaths of dozens of detainees, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights reports.
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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/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Police detain protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists were due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024
