Guardian

Labour Together hired private investigators to dig dirt on journalists who exposed secret Starmer donations

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-hired-private-investigators-dig-dirt-journalists-who-exposed-secret-starmer

 Downing Street chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, in Downing Street, central London, ahead of the visit today of President Zelensky, October 10, 2024

A BLAIRITE think tank reportedly paid at least £30,000 for private investigations into journalists who exposed its failure to declare £740,000 said to have supported Sir Keir Starmer’s rise to power.

Labour Together was run by the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney when it did not register the donations between 2017 and 2020. 

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons took the helm when Mr McSweeney left Labour Together in 2020 and joined Sir Keir’s team.

Under Mr Simons’s leadership in 2023, Labour Together hired APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists from the Guardian, the Sunday Times and other outlets and to identify their sources of stories about its funding, according to Democracy for Sale.

The late filings led to a £14,250 fine by the Electoral Commission in September 2021.

One of the APCO’s reports for Labour Together was reportedly an investigation into the London-based investigative outlet run by the South African journalists Paul Holden and Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World Investigations.

Mr Feinstein said: “Labour Together, led by Starmer’s Chief of Staff, tried to dig dirt on me, my colleague Paul Holden and our organisation. 

“It was already known I was likely to stand in the election against Starmer. Their contempt for British democracy must lead to their removal from office and investigation by law enforcement.”

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-hired-private-investigators-dig-dirt-journalists-who-exposed-secret-starmer

Continue ReadingLabour Together hired private investigators to dig dirt on journalists who exposed secret Starmer donations

The Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather

Spread the love

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/26/the-guardian-view-on-adapting-to-the-climate-crisis-it-demands-political-honesty-about-extreme-weather

The aftermath of Hurricane Melissa in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 4 November 2025. Photograph: Ina Sotirova/The Guardian

The record-breaking 252mph winds of Hurricane Melissa that devastated Caribbean islands at the end of October were made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Scorching wildfire weather in Spain and Portugal during the summer was made 40 times more likely, while June’s heatwave in England was made 100 times more likely.

Attribution science has made one thing clear: global heating is behind today’s extreme weather. That greenhouse gas emissions warmed the planet was understood. What can now be shown is that this warming produces record heatwaves and more violent storms with increasing frequency.

What we can do to minimise, or at least reduce, the risks to life from such events – as well as more gradual changes – is what climate adaptation experts think about all the time. The alarming consensus is that we are not doing anywhere near enough. The result is paid for in lives: floods and cyclonic storms across Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia left hundreds dead at the end of November.

…

For the rich world, adaptation is prudent. For the poor world, it is survival. The latest UN report is unequivocal: developing countries will need more than $310bn annually by 2035, yet received just $26bn in 2023. Catastrophic floods in Asia and worsening droughts in Africa this year point to the growing need to accelerate climate adaptation.

Under the Paris agreement, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – country plans to tackle global heating – are meant to cover both emissions reduction and adaptation to climate impacts.

But NDCs end up focusing mostly on cutting greenhouse gases and establishing decarbonisation pathways. That needs to change. National adaptation plans, which came out of Cop16, need to be foregrounded. These put adaptation centre stage – and demand real plans, real finance, real justice. They ask the question that really matters now: how do vulnerable nations survive a warming world that emissions cuts alone can’t stop?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/26/the-guardian-view-on-adapting-to-the-climate-crisis-it-demands-political-honesty-about-extreme-weather

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.
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.
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.

The Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather

‘When you plant something, it dies’: Brazil’s first arid zone is a stark warning for the whole country

Continue ReadingThe Guardian view on adapting to the climate crisis: it demands political honesty about extreme weather

BBC and Guardian editors held private meetings with Israeli General

Spread the love

https://www.declassifieduk.org/bbc-guardian-editors-private-meetings-with-israeli-general-kohavi

General Aviv Kohavi led the IDF for four years up to January 2023. (Photo Ilan Assayag / Alamy)

DECLASSIFIED UK Exclusive: Former IDF chief of staff met with Britain’s top journalists to promote Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israel’s former top military officer, General Aviv Kohavi held private meetings with the editors of major British news organisations one month after the Gaza bombing began, Declassified can reveal.

The meetings took place with Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Richard Burgess, director of news content at the BBC, and Roula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times. 

Further meetings were due to be held with Sky News chairman David Rhodes at the Israeli embassy, and then shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, between 7 and 9 November 2023, according to Kohavi’s itinerary.

By this time, Israeli forces had killed over 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and Israeli officials had made several public statements of genocidal intent. Kohavi had only stepped down from running Israel’s military months earlier. 

During his tenure, he justified attacks on journalists, saying the soldiers who shot reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank “showed courage” and that he had not one “gram of regret” for flattening the Associated Press (AP) office in Gaza.

The information about General Kohavi’s visit comes in documents obtained in Israel under the Freedom of Information Act by lawyer Elad Man and seen by Declassified.

They reveal how Kohavi’s tour of Britain was planned with support from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), and Ministry of Defence.

The trip was specifically designed to take advantage of a perceived “reversal in the attitude of Western countries toward Israel [in light of] the severity of the events… of October 7”.

To this end, Kohavi was tasked with cultivating support for Israel as it escalated its brutal military offensive in Gaza.

…

Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/bbc-guardian-editors-private-meetings-with-israeli-general-kohavi

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
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/O74hZCKKdpA
UK 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
UK 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
Continue ReadingBBC and Guardian editors held private meetings with Israeli General

Fossil fuel industry accused of seeking special treatment over oilfield emissions

Spread the love

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/18/fossil-fuel-industry-accused-of-seeking-special-treatment-over-oilfield-emissions

Protests against the Rosebank oilfield in Edinburgh in 2024. Labour pledged in its manifesto to halt new North Sea licensing, but Rosebank was awaiting final approval when the party won the general election. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Lobbyists argued it was unfair for their industry to be treated the same as others as end product – oil and gas – inevitably produced emissions

Experts have accused the fossil fuel industry of seeking special treatment after lobbyists argued greenhouse gas emissions from oilfields should be treated differently to those from other industries.

The government is embroiled in a row over whether to allow a massive new oilfield, Rosebank, to go ahead, with some cabinet members arguing it could boost growth and others concerned it could make the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 impossible to reach. Labour made a manifesto commitment to halt new North Sea licensing, but Rosebank and some other projects had already been licensed and were awaiting final approval when the party won the general election.

Documents seen by the Guardian show the industry group Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) asking for Rosebank and other oilfields’ “scope three emissions” – those caused by the burning of extracted oil and gas – to be treated differently because that was the point of their business.

A court case recently found the licence granted to Rosebank by the previous government was unlawful as it failed to take these emissions into account.

…

I am only able to quote a small section of this copyrighted article. See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/18/fossil-fuel-industry-accused-of-seeking-special-treatment-over-oilfield-emissions

Orcas are pleased that Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields are blocked.
Orcas are pleased that Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields are blocked.

Continue ReadingFossil fuel industry accused of seeking special treatment over oilfield emissions

DWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’

Spread the love

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/03/dwp-blocked-whistleblower-giving-evidence-to-carers-allowance-review

The Department for Work and Pensions’ offices in central London. The review will look in part at why the DWP allowed carers to unknowingly accrue overpayments of thousands of pounds. Photograph: Benjamin John/Alamy

Staffer told by official it would be inappropriate for him to give evidence to review of scandal-hit benefit

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of blocking a whistleblower who repeatedly raised the alarm about carer’s allowance from giving evidence to an independent review of the scandal-hit benefit.

The DWP staffer was told by a senior official it was inappropriate to share with the review their knowledge of the inner workings of a system that has become notorious for its often cruel treatment of unpaid carers.

The review will examine how hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers ended up with huge debts and in some cases a criminal record for mostly minor and accidental breaches of carer’s allowance benefit earnings rules.

Approached by the Guardian last month with evidence that officials had rejected requests from individual staff members to make submissions to the review, the DWP said there was “no blanket ban” and it wanted “everyone” to contribute.

However, when the whistleblower, Enrico La Rocca, subsequently reapplied for permission he was told by the DWP’s personnel department that it would not be appropriate for him to give evidence.

Ministers announced the review in October after a Guardian investigation that revealed DWP officials and Conservative ministers had allowed flaws in the system to continue for years, despite promises to fix the problems.

…

Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/03/dwp-blocked-whistleblower-giving-evidence-to-carers-allowance-review

Continue ReadingDWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’