RACHEL REEVES’S decision to protect fat cat bankers has lost the public £15 billion — money that could have saved freezing pensioners and hundreds of thousands of children from going hungry, a damning new report found today.
Campaigners for a windfall tax on banking profits slammed the Chancellor after it emerged that Britain’s four biggest banks made a record £45.9bn in profits for 2024.
Positive Money found that the policy, called for by unions and left MPs, would have brought in an additional £14.7bn for the Exchequer this year after Lloyds Bank became the last of the so-called Big Four to announce its £6bn pre-tax profits for last year.
The group calculated that increasing the existing surcharge on bank profits from 3 to 35 per cent, in line with the government’s windfall tax on energy companies, could have raised this sum from Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and NatWest alone.
This would be enough to cover the cost of scrapping the two-child benefit cap — fives times over.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Destruction is seen in a cemetery resulting from Israeli attacks as Palestinians try to locate the graves of their relatives in Beit Lahia, Gaza on February 3, 2025. (Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
British lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn called for Israeli officials, and countries that have funded the bombardment of Gaza, to “face justice for every single life lost.”
Authorities in Gaza and human rights advocates have warned for months that because of the decimation of the enclave’s healthcare system and civil services, the official death toll was likely a significant undercount—and on Monday, officials said thousands more Palestinians had been confirmed killed by Israel’s U.S.-backed onslaught since October 2023.
Salama Maarouf, head of Gaza’s government media office, told the press gathered at the mostly destroyed al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City that the death toll currently stands at 61,709, with thousands of Palestinians who had previously been listed as missing now presumed dead.
The death toll was previously reported to be 47,487 on Saturday. Journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News said Monday that the number is rapidly going up as “people returning to their neighborhoods discover mass graves and people buried under the rubble or killed and their bodies left at the scene.”
Maarouf said officials now believe the bodies of about 76% of those killed have been recovered, but noted that 14,222 people are still believed to be trapped under rubble or inaccessible to rescue and recovery crews.
Those confirmed to have been killed include 17,881 children, including 214 newborn babies. More than 200 journalists were also killed by Israeli forces before a cease-fire deal was reached in mid-January.
Days after the cease-fire agreement, journalist Prem Thakker of Zeteo News noted that the death toll was expected to explode due to the bodies “recovered.”
“The horrors we are about to discover if a cease-fire actually holds will underscore why Israel didn’t want international journalists inside—and why they kept targeting Palestinian journalists,” said Thakker.
The updated death toll was publicized as mediators from the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt began talks on the second phase of the three-part cease-fire agreement. In the first phase, nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are set to be freed from Israeli prisons by March, and 33 Israeli hostages are scheduled to be released by Hamas as Palestinians return to their neighborhoods—many of which have been reduced to rubble—and hundreds of aid trucks are allowed into the enclave.
The talks that began Monday aim to establish a permanent cease-fire, with Israeli forces making a complete exit from Gaza.
Fighting could begin again in March if a long-term deal isn’t reached in the coming weeks.
British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn said that as the “true scale of Israel’s atrocities” emerges, “officials must face justice for every single life lost.”
“So should those who continued to send weapons,” said Corbyn, “knowing full well they were enabling genocide.”
As humanitarian and medical workers continued recovery missions in Gaza, the death toll in the West Bank on Monday rose to 70 since the beginning of 2025, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israeli forces and settlers have waged attacks in several West Bank towns and refugee camps in recent weeks, and the Trump administration said late last month that it would continue providing military aid to Israel as it froze nearly all foreign assistance.
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/O74hZCKKdpAGenocide 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.
Susan Moffat, a British musician and theatre artist [Susan Moffat/linkedin]
British musician and theatre artist Susan Moffat has declined an OBE in this year’s Honours List, citing Britain’s colonial legacy and its response to what she describes as the “horrific war” being waged against Palestinians in Gaza.
Moffat, who was nominated for her services to the British community, penned a powerful letter explaining her decision, drawing parallels between her work with Bosnian genocide survivors and the current situation in Gaza.
“I remember screaming at the television during the Bosnian genocide, asking why nobody was stopping it. Now I find myself asking the same question about Gaza,” Moffat told MEMO.
Our leaders have placed value on one set of lives over another, while nations play games with which people get to live and which don’t.
Moffat, who has worked extensively with survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, drew powerful parallels between past and present atrocities. The artist cited the message from the Mothers of Srebrenica: “We must not remain silent, nor stand on the side. We must raise our voice, we must act for all those whose voice cannot be heard but who suffer injustice, especially if those are children, women, civilians.”
In her letter declining the OBE, Moffat addressed the ongoing impact of colonialism and its modern manifestations, particularly in Palestine. “Without acknowledging this legacy, would for me, feel discordant with the work I strive to do,” she wrote, questioning the appropriateness of accepting an honour tied to Britain’s imperial past while similar injustices continue.
Moffat also reflected on the broader implications of colonialism and its enduring impact: “The devastation wrought by empire is not a distant historical footnote but a profound reality that continues to shape our world. The structures of colonialism, its extraction of wealth, and the human suffering it inflicted have left enduring scars. Communities in the Global South are still recovering from the looting of resources and the imposition of arbitrary borders that fuel conflicts today.”
The artist went on to stress that “to accept an honour tied to the ‘Order of the British Empire’ without acknowledging this legacy, would for me, feel discordant with the work I strive to do.” Moffat explained that her decision is a response to the broader cultural context. “Conversations about history, accountability, and justice are often reduced to soundbites about so-called ‘cancel culture’,” Moffat said. “In truth, what is often dismissed as cancel culture is a growing demand for a more honest reckoning with our past,” Moffat went on to warn that the far-right seeks to “sanitise history” and “do a disservice to the potential for growth and reconciliation.”
Speaking to MEMO, Moffat emphasised the role of artists and musicians in combating injustice. “For our kids to understand their true legacy, both good and bad, we must be honest about our past and present actions,” Moffat explained.
When discussing what might have influenced her decision differently, Moffat outlined specific actions the UK government could have taken regarding Gaza, where more than 46,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed. “We should have upheld international law and stopped the bombing of schools and hospitals. We should have ended the blockade and used our diplomatic leverage to ensure Israeli forces didn’t target civilians. We should have issued a stronger condemnation of illegal settlements and taken a more decisive stance against the targeting of civilian infrastructure and demonstrated that we as a nation truly stand against injustice.”
Moffat went on to add that “the British government has failed to play its moral role,” stressing: “If our nation had shown the courage to prioritise humanitarian concerns over political expediency, to stand firmly against civilian casualties, and to be a genuine voice for peace and justice – that would have given me reason to reconsider accepting this honour.”
Reflecting on the ongoing devastation, Moffat emphasised the urgency of immediate action: “We keep saying ceasefire now and all wars end, so let’s put the end at the beginning. Why wait for more suffering when we know peace negotiations are inevitable?”
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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
Rally outside prosecutors office in Guayaquil demanding the immediate return of the four disappeared children. Photo: CDH Guayaquil.
The case has revived an existing social trauma about the disappearance of children, especially poor and Black ones, at the hands of the State. There is a general feeling of pain and uncertainty among the population.
Four children in Guayaquil, Ecuador were disappeared after they were arrested by state forces on December 8. The news of their parents desperately searching for their underage children has dominated the news in Ecuador for the last several weeks even amid the festive season. On December 8, Ismael and Josué Arroyo (15 and 14 years old), Saúl Arboleda (15 years old), and Steven Medina (11 years old) were detained by a military contingent patrolling the area where the boys were playing football. The four young Afro-Ecuadorian boys have not been seen since then.
What is known about the disappearance of the children?
According to the relatives of the victims, the children went to play a football game in the neighborhood of Las Malvinas, south of Guayaquil. At some point after the game, soldiers came and arrested the four of them. A now widely circulated video,clearly shows how the military captured and beat the child detainees, and then took them away in a white van. While Ecuador also has a police force to carry out arrests and general internal public safety tasks, in the last Popular Consultation carried out in the country, people voted to grant the army special powers to carry out internal security controls. The military’s powers have vastly increased since President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency in the country in January 2024.
One of the children’s parents, Luis Arroyo, reported that shortly after their detention, he received a call from his son asking for help and to be rescued. That call was the last time he heard his son’s voice. A key witness, who reportedly lent his cell phone to the boy to call his father, reported that the child had been beaten by the military and was naked.
After several days without answers, it was reported that four charred corpses were found in Taura, near a military base. The parents have already been summoned to the city morgue to confirm if they are their children. However, the state of decomposition and calcination of the bodies is so advanced that it is not possible to know with the naked eye if the remains correspond to the four missing children. Currently, forensic analyses are being carried out to determine the correspondence between the missing children and the remains that were found. Several experts have stated that, if such correspondence is confirmed, the crime could be defined as an “extrajudicial execution”.
Palestinian children inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on January 1, 2025. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel’s military bombed two refugee camps in the besieged enclave, pushing the official death toll since October 7, 2023 to 45,553.
Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip continued unabated on the first day of 2025, with airstrikes and drone attacks across the besieged enclave killing more than 20 people on Wednesday, including women and children.
One Israeli strike on the Jabilia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 15 people, including four children and one woman, according to Al Jazeera. Others are still missing under the ruins of the house targeted by Israeli forces, which have systematically destroyed the Palestinian territory’s civilian infrastructure during the nearly 15-month assault.
The Associated Press reported that “another strike overnight in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.”
“A third strike early Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies,” AP added.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Wednesday that the Israeli military’s latest attacks pushed the official death toll in the enclave since October 7, 2023 to 45,553—a count that experts believe dramatically understates the actual toll.
Israel’s incessant attacks and obstruction of humanitarian assistance have turned Gaza into what one aid group recently called a “death trap,” with no safe place for civilians who are at growing risk of disease and starvation—emergency conditions exacerbated by winter weather.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Tuesday that six babies have frozen to death in Gaza in recent days.
“More babies will likely die due to the cold, lack of shelter, and basic winter supplies,” the organization warned. “Blankets, mattresses, and warm clothes are sitting outside Gaza waiting for approval to get in. The siege must be lifted.”
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said Tuesday that “horrors continue” in Gaza “under the world’s watch,” pointing to Israel’s killing of aid workers, attacks on U.N. shelters, and torture of detainees.
“In northern Gaza, since the intensification of the military operation nearly three months ago, there has been a significant increase in attacks on our staff, buildings, and operations,” said Lazzarini. “I reiterate my call for independent investigations into the systematic disregard for the protection of humanitarian workers, premises, and operations. This cannot become the new standard and impunity cannot become the new norm.”
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
