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Israeli forces raid Syria’s Daraa countryside

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

A view of military vehicles patrolling the Syrian-Israeli border in the Majdal Shams area of the Golan Heights, as the Israeli army reinforces its ground forces amid ongoing military mobilization in the region on December 15, 2024. [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli forces raided the Wadi al-Raqad area in the western Daraa countryside in southern Syria on Wednesday, opening fire before withdrawing from the area, Syrian state media reported.

Syria’s Alikhbariah TV said Israeli forces entered the Wadi al-Raqad area, opened fire and later withdrew.

There were no reports of casualties or material damage, and Israeli authorities did not immediately comment on the raid.

The incursion came a day after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa condemned continued Israeli violations that he said undermine regional security and called on Israel to withdraw from areas it has occupied in southern Syria.

Southern Syria has witnessed repeated Israeli raids and attacks in recent months, including search operations, arrests and the establishment of military checkpoints.

The moves escalated after the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime in December 2024, when Israel announced the collapse of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and seized control of the Syrian buffer zone.

Syrian authorities have repeatedly urged Israel to return to the 1974 deal and withdraw fully from occupied areas.

READ: Israel to keep troops in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely

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/
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 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

Continue ReadingIsraeli forces raid Syria’s Daraa countryside

Why this by-election is just ‘Me vs The Establishment’, by Count Binface

https://newsthump.com/2026/07/08/why-this-by-election-is-just-me-vs-the-establishment-by-count-binface/

People keep asking why I’m standing in the Clacton by-election, and the answer is simple.

This is no ordinary election. This is me versus The Establishment.

On one side, there’s me: a self-funded independent in a shiny bin, taking on the political machine armed with little more than a manifesto and several kilos of reinforced aluminium.

On the other side, there’s Nigel Farage.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Surely Nigel Farage is the anti-establishment candidate?”

Well, he was. Then he spent thirty years becoming the establishment.

When you’ve got billionaire donors, wealthy financiers, television studios, newspaper columns, a party built around your own personality and enough millionaire backers to make a yacht club feel underfunded, you don’t really get to call yourself the outsider any more.

I, meanwhile, remain proudly unsupported by foreign-based billionaires, convicted fraudsters or cryptocurrency tycoons. If anyone has been secretly wiring millions into my campaign account, I can assure you they’ve used the wrong account number.

Nigel says this election is about letting the people decide whether he should be allowed to carry on secretly enriching himself in the shadows and doing whatever Nigel Farage wants Nigel Farage to do. I couldn’t agree more. That’s exactly the sort of thing The Establishment always says.

…

Article continues at https://newsthump.com/2026/07/08/why-this-by-election-is-just-me-vs-the-establishment-by-count-binface/

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.
Continue ReadingWhy this by-election is just ‘Me vs The Establishment’, by Count Binface

Betting odds slashed on Count Binface to beat Farage in Clacton by-election

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clacton-byelection-count-binface-farage-b3010969.html

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Count Binface at the vote counting for the Makerfield by-election (Reuters)

The Tories, Lib Dems, Greens and Labour have all announced that they will not stand in the by-election with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch describing it as “fake” and Sir Keir Starmer calling it “a desperate political stunt”.

Count Binface, who has become a cult figure in elections up and down the UK, posted on X with a picture similar to the Batman symbol used to call the superhero into action, with the words “On my way, Clacton.”

The comedian, … an “independent space warrior” and wears a bin on his head, has contested a number of elections, most recently the by-election in Makerfield, where he received 95 votes.

On X on Tuesday, the count wrote: “Any Clacton residents who want to nominate your friendly neighbourhood intergalactic space warrior, ping me a line!”

…

The … candidate has pledged to make corners in football properly refereed, end subsidy for food and drink in parliament, conscript people who play loud music on public transport and force cyclists who break the highway code to ride unicycles instead.

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Count Binface has become a focus of a potential tactical voting campaign to oust Mr Farage.

It comes as supporters of Mr Farage insist that he has not made a fool of himself despite the other political parties refused to stand against him. [Is that not grammatically correct? despite that?]

…

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clacton-byelection-count-binface-farage-b3010969.html

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 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.
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.
Continue ReadingBetting odds slashed on Count Binface to beat Farage in Clacton by-election

Morning Star: Josh Simons in Downing Street would poison a Burnham premiership from the start

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/josh-simons-downing-street-would-poison-burnham-premiership-start

…

Reports that McSweeney’s successor Josh Simons will head Burnham’s No 10 policy unit suggest this is part of a wider ruling-class project to reassemble as much of the Mandelson-McSweeney project as possible and ensure it remains the dominating influence in government.

Simons headed Labour Together when it hired private investigators to smear and intimidate journalists who had helped expose its financial misconduct, notably Holden but including the Morning Star’s Andrew Murray.

It would be the height of folly for Burnham to give Simons a political role, whether or not this was the gentlemen’s agreement that saw Simons resign his Makerfield seat to let Burnham run.

It would reinforce the “jobs for the boys” impression of government by clique and confirm that the system looks after its own, no matter how outrageous their behaviour.

It would show that the disgraced think tank is still in charge …

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/josh-simons-downing-street-would-poison-burnham-premiership-start

dizzy: Looks like we have no change apart from the front man. I am disappointed in those that abandoned their stated intentions and contributed to achieving this … It wasn’t without warning, was it?

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Josh Simons in Downing Street would poison a Burnham premiership from the start

Why sanctions are needed on Israel

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-sanctions-are-needed-israel

 NAKBA 78: Protesters on the huge London rally on the anniversary of the Nakba in May

History suggests apartheid ends not through appeals to conscience alone but through sustained economic and political pressure, says HUGH LANNING

…

With every red line it crosses from the Nakba to genocide, Israel reveals its contempt for international law. It revels in the impunity the Western world grants that result partly from guilt rightly felt for the horrific crimes we inflicted on Jewish people in our countries, not just in the second world war, but over centuries of antisemitism, which is still ongoing.

But also, because Israel is a major part of the West’s colonial and now neoliberal strategy in the Middle East.

Under the protective wing of an increasingly authoritarian US and led by the ever-stronger fascist and racist tendencies within, Israel believes it has a generational opportunity to conquer Palestine completely and establish the zionist dream of  a “greater Israel” from the river to the sea.

The mentality is: “If we got away with genocide in Gaza, we can get away with anything.”

How is this avalanche of violence, death and atrocity to be stopped? Well, not by the mealy mouthed “sanctions” recently announced by Yvette Cooper. When is a sanction not a sanction? When it does nothing to the perpetrators of the crime. Under international law the official role of sanctions is to bring pressure to bear on the miscreants to achieve compliance.

The token measures announced “target individuals and entities involved in financing and enabling settler violence in the occupied West Bank.” No mention of the Israeli state.

The Israeli government is a settler government; the forcible settlement of the West Bank is its official policy. It legalises and legitimises even the outlier settlements illegal under Israeli law. The IDF either stands idly by or actively protects and supports the settlers as they go about their violent business. Not surprisingly as many of the soldiers are themselves settlers — brothers and sisters of those committing the crimes.

The government itself is riddled by members of extreme settler parties. Indeed, Israel is a settler colonial entity, all but a few of its citizens are settlers.

…

Apart from an arms embargo on the two-way trade with Israel, the new Burnham government ought to institute an audit of all government, local and national, expenditure, contracts and co-operation to identify and stop any support for companies engaged in supporting the settlements and the occupation — Oracle and Palantir being obvious examples.

As the US has done with Russia and supporters of Palestine — follow the money. The war, the occupation, the settlements are all funded with much investment and finance coming from abroad and being channelled through British financial institutions. This should be stopped.

The EU has a positive trade agreement with Israel treating it an as associate member which Britain is trying to replicate following Brexit. These trade agreements should be ended.

The government and its representatives ought to support, not block, moves in international bodies to ban and boycott Israel — be it Fifa or Eurovision — Israel should be treated as the apartheid state it is.

So complicit has the British state been for decades, the list of what could be done is almost endless.

…

Hugh Lanning will be among the speakers at a Labour and Palestine online event on Tuesday July 7 looking at ending Britain’s role in crimes against the Palestinian people. Find out more and register for the meeting at bit.ly/endukcomplicity.

Join the National March for Palestine July 18 in central London at noon. Visit palestinecampaign.org for more details.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-sanctions-are-needed-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/
Genocide denying former UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
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.
Continue ReadingWhy sanctions are needed on Israel