Gary Lineker says BBC ‘bowing to pressure from the top' over Gaza documentary
Lineker, who worked for the BBC for 28 years, expressed his devastation at the BBC's perceived decline in recent years, calling the film 'one of the most important' he had seen.
The documentary examines allegations that Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted hospitals and healthcare workers during the Gaza conflict, a claim Israel denies.
Despite commissioning the film, the BBC pulled it over 'impartiality concerns', leading to an outcry from the public and 600 public figures. In a 20 June statement the BBC said 'broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards' of the BBC.
'Gaza: Doctors Under Attack' eventually aired on Channel 4.
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Powys County Times
32 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
PM's Europe ‘reset' has delivered change in French tactics on small boats: No 10
Sir Keir Starmer's 'reset' with Europe has delivered a change in French tactics on tackling small boats crossing the Channel, Downing Street has said. Number 10 said reports French police officers had used knives to puncture a boat in waters off the French coast for the first time were a 'significant moment' that could have 'a major impact' on smuggling gangs. A spokesman said: 'We welcome action from French law enforcement to take action in shallow waters, and what you have seen in recent weeks is a toughening of their approach.' The Government has repeatedly pushed for French authorities to do more to prevent boats leaving the shore, including changing existing rules to allow police officers to intervene when dinghies are in the water. Those changes have not yet come into effect, but reports on Friday suggested tougher action was already being taken. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she welcomed the reports, adding she had been 'working very closely with the French interior minister' to ensure the rules were changed 'as swiftly as possible'. Downing Street attributed the change in stance from French law enforcement was thanks to the Prime Minister's 'reset' in relations with Europe, as he has looked to heal the wounds caused by the Brexit years. The spokesman said: 'No government has been able to get this level of co-operation with the French. That is important. 'We are looking to see France change its maritime tactics, and that is down to the Prime Minister's efforts to reset our relationship across Europe.' But a charity operating in northern France told the PA news agency that French police had already been intervening in crossing attempts in shallow waters despite the new rules not yet being in place. Kate O'Neill, advocacy coordinator at Project Play, said: 'This is not a new tactic … it's something that has been happening for a long time in Calais and surrounding areas.' She also warned it was a 'dangerous' tactic as children were 'often in the middle of the boats'. Responding to footage of Friday's incident broadcast by the BBC, Ms O'Neill said: 'The events taking place in the BBC coverage are not only upsetting to watch, but show clear evidence of police officers endangering a child.' She added: 'While talks are ongoing to allow the interception of boats in shallow water, it remains illegal at this time under maritime law and violates the obligations of the UK and France under international law – including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 'This footage highlights the danger involved in intercepting and slashing boats in the water, and we implore decision makers to consider the potentially fatal consequences of allowing this to take place even more frequently.' In its manifesto last year, Labour promised to 'smash the gangs' smuggling people across the Channel in small boats. But a year into Sir Keir's premiership, the number of people making the journey has increased to record levels. Some 20,600 people have made the journey so far this year, up 52% on the same period in 2024. Downing Street acknowledged that the numbers 'must come down', but could not guarantee that they would in the next year. On Friday, Ms Cooper said part of the reason for the increase in crossings was a rise in the number of people being crammed onto each boat. She suggested that all migrants who arrive on an overcrowded boat where a child has died should face prosecution. Ms Cooper told the BBC's Today programme it was 'totally appalling' that children were being 'crushed to death on these overcrowded boats, and yet the boat still continues to the UK'. The Government has already included a new offence of 'endangering life at sea' in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently making its way through Parliament. Ms Cooper has previously said this would allow the authorities to act against people 'involved in behaviour that puts others at risk of serious injury or death, such as physical aggression, intimidation, or rejecting rescue attempts'. But on Friday, she appeared to go further by suggesting even getting on an overcrowded boat could result in prosecution. She said: 'If you've got a boat where we've seen all of those people all climb on board that boat, they are putting everybody else's lives at risk.' Some 15 children are reported to have died while attempting the crossing in 2024, and Ms O'Neill told PA police tactics were making the situation more dangerous. During a series of broadcast interviews, Ms Cooper also declined to confirm reports the UK was looking at a 'one in, one out' policy that would see people who had crossed the Channel returned to Europe in exchange for asylum seekers with connections to Britain. Asked about the policy, she would only tell Sky News that ministers were 'looking at a range of different issues' and 'different ways of doing returns'.
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The new Corbyn-Sultana party may be the most sinister Britain has seen in decades
Not since Pulp and the Pyramid Stage were united in perfect harmony in 1995 has the Glasto crowd been this excited about a new partnership. They once chanted: 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn' to the beat of the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. They have since declared 'death, death' to an actual army, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Now, as if by some Eavis-inspired magic, these two worlds have collided to produce Jeremy Corbyn: The Sequel, guest-starring Zarah Sultana. Although the Marxist mash-up is yet to be officially confirmed, we understand the former Labour MPs are unified by a desire to harness Left-wing and Muslim anger to defeat centrists such as Wes Streeting at the next election. Heady stuff. In a social media post, Sultana said the Government is 'an active participant in genocide' in Gaza and highlighted growing poverty, Labour's position on welfare, and the cost of living as reasons for establishing her new party. 'Labour has completely failed to improve people's lives. And across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists. But the truth is clear: this Government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.' In fact, a majority of Britons (55 per cent) do not view Israel's actions as genocidal, according to the latest YouGov poll, but pro-Palestinian fanatics have never been very good with facts. Corbyn, never a man in much of a hurry, has not yet broken his silence to say whether or not he supports the new party Sultana claims to have set up with him. As soon as he does, we can surely expect a slow pilgrimage of so-called 'progressives' to Islington North, where all new members will be given rainbow 'Queers for Palestine' badges and keffiyeh scarves. Disappointingly, old Compo's lefty pals John McDonnell and Diane Abbott have refused to sign up. Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich, who once had to apologise for using the phrase: 'Get on your knees, bitch' has also sadly ruled himself out as a future minister for women and equalities. Shame. Sultana famously once said she would 'celebrate' the deaths of Tony Blair and Benjamin Netanyahu – yet claims to espouse a 'socialism without barbarism'. I'm not so sure. I'm not certain someone like Sultana – the MP for Coventry South who lost the Labour whip soon after being re-elected in 2024 – should be considered an expert on barbarism. She once wrote of her support for 'violent resistance' by Palestinians. Sultana has been accused of using racist slurs while a student at Birmingham University, when she described a Jewish student as a 'YT' (whitey) in a Facebook post. In 2015, the 31-year-old, who sat on the national executives of both Young Labour and the National Union of Students, posted on Twitter: 'Yay, the white woman didn't win the Ethnic Minorities Officer Election!' Yay, indeed! She has previously criticised the police and the monarchy. In 2014, she posted: 'Can we get rid of the monarchy while we're fighting the establishment and its institutions? Viva la revolucion!' In 2015, she tweeted: 'Solidarity with those protesting in London right now. Keep safe from the thugs that are the police.' Although she later apologised for her comments about the police, she denies any suggestion she is an anti-Semite, insisting: 'As an anti-racist campaigner and a Muslim, I'm committed to fighting racism in all its forms and I know that these forms are interconnected and must be fought collectively.' Which brings us nicely on to Corbyn, who similarly claims to be a lifelong 'anti-racism campaigner', despite presiding over the Labour Party when a number of Jewish MPs and members were forced out. In 2016, the 76-year-old said he regretted once describing Hamas and Hezbollah as 'friends'. The admission came two years after he attended a wreath-laying in Tunisia for Palestinian leaders linked to the Black September group which carried out a terror attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics, killing 11 people Israelis. Corbyn insisted he was primarily there to pay his respects to the victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike on Palestinian Liberation Organisation offices in Tunis. Despite being pictured holding a wreath, he said: 'I was present at that wreath-laying, I don't think I was actually involved in it.' Right, Jezza. The important thing to note here is that this isn't Change UK, dreadful though Anna Soubry is. This has the potential to be a political force more frightening than anything Britain has ever known. Despite Sultana's insistence that she is standing up for an 'island that's suffering' – she is not actually interested in the needs of British citizens; her primary aim is to 'free Palestine'. The clue is in the line that she wants 'money spent on public services, not forever wars'. Similarly, her suggestion that 'we need homes and lives we can actually afford, not rip-off bills we pay every month to a tiny elite bathing in cash,' suggests that she is , in fact, more than content with waging a 'forever war' when it comes to class. Or against those she disagrees with, who in her mind are either Tory scum, Zionist scum, racist scum or, of course, genocidal maniacs. Contrary to preaching 'gentler, kinder' politics, Corbyn and Sultana are the high priest and princess of the kind of nasty, vindictive, and divisive hard-Left ideology that saw the Jewish former Labour MP Luciana Berger require police protection to attend the Labour Party conference in 2018. Given half the chance, they would impoverish us in their communist quest for a more 'equal' society and would revel in our immiseration, believing that we must pay for the sins of empire. Sultana describes Farage as a 'grifter'. Yet in her and Corbyn we have the ultimate pair of political fraudsters, purporting to represent the many when, in fact, they are simply a mouthpiece for a vocal minority of deranged zealots.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
A ceasefire in Gaza appears to be close. Here's why it could happen now
After nearly 21 months of bloody war, it now appears a question of when rather than if a new ceasefire brings a pause to the fighting that has devastated Gaza, destabilised the region and horrified onlookers across the world. On Friday, Donald Trump said he expected Hamas to agree within 24 hours to a deal that Israel has already accepted. Analysts predict a formal announcement after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, arrives in Washington on Monday on his third visit to the White House since Trump began his current term. If it does come into effect, a new ceasefire will be the third during the war, in which about 57,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died. The first lasted just 10 days in November 2023. The second was forced on a reluctant Netanyahu by Trump in February this year and ended in March when Israel reneged on a promise to move to a second scheduled phase that could have led to a definitive end to hostilities. The terms of the new deal include the staggered release of hostages held by Hamas, freedom for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails, a surge of desperately aid into Gaza and the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from some parts of Gaza seized in recent months. Once again, the ceasefire will last for 60 days, during which time talks about what happens next will be held. Trump and regional powers are offering guarantees to reassure Hamas that Israel won't simply return to an all-out offensive and that meaningful discussions about a permanent end to the war will actually take place. One factor that has brought a new ceasefire closer is the brief conflict last month between Israel and Iran, which ended in a US-brokered ceasefire. This capped a series of military and political developments that had seriously weakened Tehran and the various militant groups it had supported around the region, which include Hamas. More important is the boost this gave Netanyahu. Though polls record only a slight increase in support for his Likud party and in his personal popularity, many Israelis nonetheless rejoiced in what was seen as a crushing victory over a much-feared foe. If he brings the war in Gaza to what is seen by voters as a successful, or at least acceptable, close, Netanyahu can stand in elections likely next year claiming to be the man who made Israel safer than it has ever been, even if few have forgotten the security and strategic failures that led to the Hamas attack of October 2023 in which militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200, mostly civilians. By the end of this month, Israel's parliament will have risen for a three-month recess and courts will also not sit, giving Netanyahu respite from the threat of a no-confidence vote or dissolution motion as well as from continuing cross-examination in his ongoing trial for corruption. This undermines the threats to collapse the government made throughout the conflict in Gaza by far-right coalition allies bitterly opposed to a deal with Hamas. Successive opinion surveys show that an agreement that brings back hostages would be very popular with Israelis, so this too would help Netanyahu as new elections loom. Israeli casualties in Gaza – 20 soldiers died in June – are also causing concern. A poll published by Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, on Friday showed a further boost for the prime minister as hopes of a ceasefire rose. As for Hamas, analysts and sources close to its leaders say the militant Islamist organisation is divided, much weakened by the Israeli onslaught in Gaza and aware that it has very few allies who can or will offer any practical support. The main current aim of its leaders is to retain some presence in Gaza, even a residual one. This alone would constitute some form of victory, and partly explains the determination with which Hamas seek a permanent end to the fighting. Whether it will get one or not is still unclear. Israeli media have been briefed by 'sources close to Netanyahu' that if Hamas cannot be disarmed in Gaza and its leaders exiled from the devastated territory through negotiations then Israel will resume military operations, and that Washington would support its decision to return to war. Many 'close to Netanyahu' also continue to support mass 'voluntary' emigration from Gaza, or the relocation of much of its population to an area in the south, or both. Recent days have been noisy with voices: American, Israeli, Saudi Arabian, Qatari and many others. Those barely heard have been those of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel's offensive continues. On Friday, local officials and medics said Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in the territory and another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.
