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A protester seen with a “Stop Arming Israel” placard during the demonstration. Tens of thousands of people marched in Berlin under the slogans “All Eyes on Gaza” and “Stop the Genocide,” demanding a ceasefire, peace talks, and an end to German arms exports to Israel, on 27 September 2025 [Vasily Krestyaninov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]
A group of activists chained themselves to railway tracks at the Port of Hamburg in Germany to protest the government’s arms exports to Israel and draw attention to civilian suffering in Gaza, Anadolu reports.
Around 40 demonstrators took part in the action on Friday, blocking the rail line between the Eurogate and Burchardkai container terminals. The group prevented freight transport by occupying the tracks for several hours.
Jule Fink, a spokesperson for the activists’ group, said they took part in civil disobedience to show solidarity with Palestine.
“It is clear that the Israeli government has been committing war crimes in Palestine for a long time. This is genocide, and the German government is actively complicit. Germany continues exporting weapons to Israel through its ports. Why do the people of Hamburg allow their port to be used for arms shipments?” she said.
Due to safety concerns, the 15,000-volt power lines above the tracks were grounded during the protest.
Some port workers showed support for the demonstration. The protest was ended by police officers who carried the activists off the tracks one by one.
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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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Zohran Mamdani votes on November 4 with his wife, Rama Duwaji (Photo via @ZohranKMamdani)
Cuomo concedes and conservatives lash out in fury; A rattled right-wing political class confronts a new era in New York, and the United States
Socialist Zohran Mamdani became the mayor-elect of New York City on November 4, winning with just over 50% of the vote (at the time of this writing, 93% of votes have been counted). Former governor Andrew Cuomo, who had already lost to Mamdani in the June Democratic Party primary, received 41.6% of the vote. Republican Party candidate Curtis Sliwa received just over 7% of the vote. Mamdani’s win was called by the Associated Press less than an hour after polls closed in New York City on November 4.
Thanking billionaire ex-mayor and campaign donor Michael Bloomberg, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat to upstart socialist Zohran Mamdani.
“This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city, and the future of this country,” Cuomo outlined at his election-night party in Midtown Manhattan. Cuomo warned that “we are heading down a dangerous, dangerous road,” preaching against divisiveness, despite being attacked by progressives for running racist advertisements against his opponent.
In Mamdani’s own victory speech, the socialist mayor-elect was not shy to call out Cuomo directly. “I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name, as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few,” Mamdani said, addressing the crowd at his watch party at the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre in downtown Brooklyn.
Mamdani also addressed Trump in his speech: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
Right-wing racism in full swing
Reactions from notorious right-wing figures poured in immediately. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a conservative embroiled in scandal alongside Trump for alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, said live on NEWSMAX that Mamdani’s win “breaks my heart.”
“Forget that he’s a communist,” Giuliani asserted. “He’s also a supporter of extremist Islamic terrorism.”
The Trump administration reacted with similar levels of malice and racism. Top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, and architect of Trump’s immigration policy, tweeted out a photo with no context at 10:08 pm on election night. The photo was a screenshot of a page on the official New York City government website, describing how “almost 50 percent of New Yorkers live in family households with at least one immigrant” – a post which could be seen to imply that immigration, legal or otherwise, are contributing to the problems that conservatives like Miller see with the recent election outcome. Such an assertion comes only weeks after a high-profile ICE raid in New York City’s Chinatown generated outrage nationwide.
Trump issued a slew of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, leading up to Mamdani’s victory, condemning the socialist candidate and issuing a reluctant endorsement to former political rival Andrew Cuomo. The following day, however, Trump’s only possible reference to Mamdani was an anniversary post celebrating his own electoral win last year, in which he referenced that “Affordability is our goal.” Mamdani had made the sky-high cost of living in New York City the centerpiece of his platform.
Democratic establishment issues lukewarm response
Some establishment Democrats have thus far issued no statement on Mamdani’s victory at all. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn resident and the Senator from Mamdani’s own state of New York put out a short statement congratulating Mamdani on his win and saying he looks forward to working with the new mayor-elect. Notably, he did not state who he voted for and never formally endorsed Mamdani during the race.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a last-minute endorsement of Mamdani on October 24 after repeatedlydodging press questions on the issue. Following Mamdani’s victory, Jeffries issued no direct congratulations, only a vague statement that “Donald Trump and Republicans haven’t done a damn thing to lower the high cost of living” and that “working class Americans know it.”
Low water levels at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden in June after dry weather exposed a 14th-century packhorse bridge. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
Government and water companies are devising emergency plans for worst water shortage in decades
Water companies and the government are drawing up emergency plans for a drought next year more extreme than we have seen in decades.
Executives at one major water company told the Guardian they were extremely concerned about the prospect of a winter with lower than average rainfall, which the Met Office’s long-term forecast says is likely. They said if this happened, the water shortfall would mean taking drastic water use curtailment measures “going beyond hosepipe bans”.
Droughts are usually multi-year events. While much of England went into drought this summer, with hosepipe bans across large swathes of the country, things were not as bad as they could have been because it had been a rainy autumn and winter the year before. This meant reservoirs were full and that groundwater – storage of water under the soil – was charged up.
But months of record dry weather meant a lot of that water was used, and it has not been replaced, despite roughly average September and October rainfall. Average reservoir storage is at 63.3% compared with the average of 76% for this time of year. Ardingly, in West Sussex, and Clatworthy and Wimbleball in Somerset, are below 30%.
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People meeting during the Cop30 local leaders’ forum at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro . Photograph: Tita Barros/Reuters
Host uses Indigenous concepts and changes agenda to help delegates agree on ways to meet existing climate goals
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From the very beginning, Brazil poured wide-ranging diplomatic effort into using the event to forge connections and foster climate networks, drawing on the Brazilian concept of the mutirão. Adapted from Indigenous practice, a mutirao “refers to a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another”, said André Corrêa do Lago, the Cop30 president.
“By sharing this invaluable ancestral wisdom and social technology, the incoming Cop30 presidency invites the international community to join Brazil in a global mutirão against climate change, a global effort of cooperation among peoples for the progress of humanity.” (Writing to participants, he could not resist mentioning another of Brazil’s passions: “As the nation of football, Brazil believes we can win by virada. This means fighting back to turn the game around when defeat seems almost certain.”)
Dozens of senior diplomats, community leaders and statespeople from around the world were recruited to be Cop30 envoys and ambassadors; as were a “circle” of previous Cop presidents, including the UK’s Alok Sharma; a circle of finance ministers; a people’s circle for Indigenous communities; and special envoys for energy, agriculture and business.
“Brazil have put a lot of preparation into this Cop over two years,” says Nicholas Stern, an economics professor at the London School of Economics. “Whatever comes out will be more considered than a rush job would have been. They have taken very important steps [in bringing experts together].”
Some of the circles have already borne fruit; the finance ministers’ meeting facilitated introductions not only among countries, but in some cases between finance and environment ministers within the same government. “Some of them appeared not to have known each other before,” one participant observed.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wanted social issues high on the agenda, so his environment minister, Marina Silva, set up an initiative called the global ethical stocktake (GES), which will pursue climate justice. Bringing together Indigenous people – who have been promised a much bigger role in this summit than previous ones – and representatives for poor communities, vulnerable people, workers and marginalised groups, the GES aims to ensure fairness and equity are key considerations in any climate policy.
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Exclusive: Research shows oil, gas and coal firms’ unprecedented access to Cop26-29, blocking urgent climate action
More than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to the UN climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, inadequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion, new research reveals.
Lobbyists representing the interests of the oil, gas and coal industries – which are mostly responsible for climate breakdown – have been allowed to participate in the annual climate negotiations where states are meant to come in good faith and commit to ambitious policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The roughly 5,350 lobbyists mingling with world leaders and climate negotiators in recent years worked for at least 859 fossil fuel organizations including trade groups, foundations and 180 oil, gas and coal companies involved in every part of the supply chain from exploration and production to distribution and equipment, research shared exclusively with the Guardian has found.
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The 30th UN climate summit (Cop30) opens on Monday in Belém, a city in the Brazilian Amazon – the world’s largest rainforest, which is being destroyed by ever-expanding fossil fuel exploitation, industrial agriculture and mining, among other extractive industries.
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Growing anger at the lack of meaningful action by the world’s wealthiest, most polluting countries has been compounded by revelations that the fossil fuel industry appears to be granted greater access to the climate talks than most countries.
Last year, 1,773 registered fossil fuel lobbyists attended the summit in Azerbaijan – 70% more than the total number of delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations combined (1,033).
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.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.
