DAN HODGES: Keir Starmer's strange response to Israel's bombing of Iran tells you everything. This is no moment for cowardice
On October 7 last year, on the first anniversary of the Hamas atrocities, Keir Starmer penned an article expressing his support for . And explicitly, his support in the confrontation with .
'We must also stand with Israel in the face of Iranian aggression,' he wrote. 'Iran's support for terrorism and armed groups across the region has long menaced the Middle East. And its outrageous attack on Israel last week brings us to a dangerous inflection point. A direct Iran-Israel conflict would have devastating consequences for the people of the Middle East and across the world. All sides must do everything in their power to step back from the brink and avert it.'
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Wales Online
24 minutes ago
- Wales Online
Eluned Morgan says she will hold UK Government's feet to fire on funding promise
Eluned Morgan says she will hold UK Government's feet to fire on funding promise The First Minister says she has received categorical assurances that control of post EU funding will return to Wales First Minister Eluned Morgan. (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne ) First Minister Eluned Morgan said she will hold the UK Government's 'feet to the fire' after receiving what she said are categorical assurances that Sir Keir Starmer will follow through on a manifesto pledge of returning the running of post EU structural funding to the Welsh Government. What became the Shared Prosperity Fund, which will from next year will be known as the Local Growth Fund, was established by the former Tory Government of Boris Johnson as a replacement for the loss of structural funding from the EU following Brexit to some of the most deprived communities in the UK, including the Valleys and west Wales. EU structural funding was administered by the Welsh Government via the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO). With lobbying from then Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, the decision was taken that the post EU funding would bypass the Welsh Government and go straight to local authorities who were able to bid for funding for local based projects. Sir Keir Starmer first pledged a return of control to the Welsh Government when addressing the Welsh Labour's annual conference in 2023. It was also confirmed in the party's General Election manifesto last year. Confusion over the role of the Welsh Government in running of the fund was created in the spending review documentation last week from Chancellor Rachel Reeves setting out UK Government departmental spending settlements for the next three financial years starting next April. It clearly highlighted a role for the Wales Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in partnership with the Welsh Government on post EU structural funding. Article continues below It says: 'As one of the representatives for the nations, the Wales Office will work with the MHCLG to implement the new local growth fund, working in partnership with the Welsh Government. This will ensure that this funding is spent on projects that matter to the people of Wales and will drive growth across the country.' Similar language was also used in the documentation for Scotland nod Northern Ireland. Over the last week the Welsh Government has been seeking clarification, with the First Minister now saying she has received assurances from the Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones - although she didn't mention Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner. At a meeting of the Senedd committee for culture, communications, Welsh language, sport and international relations, Blaenau Gwent Labour MS Alun Davies said the spending review reference had seemingly broken the manifesto pledge by the Prime Minister on repatriating powers back to Wales. In response Ms Morgan said:'Just to make it clear I am not accepting what was put in there (spending review) in the way it has been interpreted. I have had a categorical assurance from the Secretary of State for Wales that this will be decided and managed by the Welsh Government. "This was a commitment by the Prime Minister on the stage of the Labour Party conference and I have made it absolutely clear that we will be holding their feet to the fire on this. And I am actually more confident that we are going to get to the place that I want to be, because I have been given those reassurances and it is something I also made clear in a meeting last week in front of the First Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones). In response Mr Davies said he very much welcomed the clarification. In the spending review it was confirmed that Wales will get an allocation of £630m over a three year period from April next year from the MHCLG's local growth fund. Wales getting a 22% allocation of the total funding available. If it was allocated to Wales under the Barnet Formula it would only receive around 5%. A UK Goverment source said 'Wales got the best deal on growth funding of any U nation. Every penny and the overall share of Wales' fund was protected. We are wholly committed to delivering Keir Starmer's pledge to restore the decision making role to Welsh Goverment.' Article continues below If the Welsh Government is to control the fund it will need to set up a delivery team as well as setting priorities for investment. A Welsh Government spokesman said; 'We will ensure this £630m funding has greater impact than the legacy Shared Prosperity fund. "We will continue to discuss the detail of this funding with the UK Government and will decide how it is used to support our economic ambitions and bring prosperity to all parts of Wales.'
The Guardian
26 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Why establishment Democrats still can't stomach progressive candidates like Zohran Mamdani
Who's afraid of Zohran Mamdani? The answer, it would seem, is the entire establishment. The 33-year-old democratic socialist and New York City mayoral candidate has surged in the polls in recent weeks, netting endorsements not just from progressive voices like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders but also his fellow candidates for the mayoralty, with Brad Lander and Michael Blake taking advantage of the ranked-choice voting system in the primary and cross-endorsing Mamdani's campaign. With the primary just around the corner, polls have Mamdani closing the gap on Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York. This has spooked the establishment, which is now doing everything it can to stop Mamdani's rise. Take Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed Cuomo earlier this month and followed this up with a $5m donation to a pro-Cuomo Pac. The largesse appears motivated not by admiration for Cuomo – during his mayoralty, sources told the New York Times that Bloomberg saw Cuomo as 'the epitome of the self-interested, horse-trading political culture he has long stood against' – but animosity towards Mamdani and his policies. Mamdani wants to increase taxes on residents earning more than $1m a year, increase corporate taxes and freeze rents: policies that aren't exactly popular with the billionaire set. Bronx congressman Ritchie Torres (who was once progressive but moved steadily away from that and now receives fundraising assistance from far-right donors) is another establishment Democrat trying to prevent a Mamdani win at all costs. Torres, who makes his pro-Israel positions explicit, has criticized Mamdani for pro-Palestine comments. Torres has even said he won't run for governor in 2026 if a socialist like Mamdani becomes the mayor because it will 'revolutionize the political landscape'. The New York Times' editorial board is also aghast at Mamdani's sudden popularity. On Monday, it published a piece urging New Yorkers to completely leave the candidate off their ranked-choice ballot, arguing that the assemblyman is woefully underqualified for office and has a bunch of wacky progressive ideas that will never work including free buses and frozen rent. The Times, which announced almost a year ago that it will not make endorsements in local elections, did not officially endorse a candidate but it certainly didn't tell people not to put Cuomo on the ballot. It seems being accused of sexually harassing multiple women and then going after those women in an aggressive and intrusive way (including demanding gynecological records) isn't as disqualifying as progressive policies. And, of course, the sexual harassment is just one of many scandals that Cuomo has weathered, including allegations he covered up nursing home deaths during the pandemic. The Atlantic also came out with an anti-Mamdani piece, albeit one that was more subtle and which focused on the process rather than the personality. Staff writer Annie Lowrey argued that ranked-choice voting in a mayor primary, used by New York City since 2021, is not truly democratic: 'Without ranked-choice voting, Cuomo would probably steamroll his competition. With ranked-choice voting, Mamdani could defeat him.' While there are problems with ranked choice (as there are with first-past-the-post systems), I think the bigger democratic threat might be a system in which a billionaire can swoop in with millions to prop up their preferred candidate at the last minute. All of this is anti-Mamdani mobilization is depressingly predictable: the Democratic establishment is allergic to fresh blood and new thinking. Shortly after Trump won the election last year, and the Democrats also lost the House and the Senate, Ocasio-Cortez launched a bid to become the lead Democrat on the House oversight committee, which is an important minority leadership position. Ocasio-Cortez has become a lot more establishment-friendly since getting into power in 2018 (New York Magazine even decreed in 2023 that she is just a 'Regular Old Democrat Now'), but she's still not centrist enough for the Democrats, it seems. Nancy Pelosi reportedly sabotaged the 35-year-old congresswoman's ambitions and ensured that 74-year-old Gerry Connolly, who had esophagus cancer at the time, got the job instead. Connolly died age 75 earlier this year, becoming the sixth House Democrat to have died in office in 12 months. Then there's the Democratic backlash to David Hogg, the young Parkland shooting survivor turned politico. The 25-year-old was briefly vice-chair of the Democratic national committee but stepped on powerful toes by criticizing the party for its 'seniority politics'. Hogg, who has said that he's worried about his generation losing faith in democracy, pitched competitive primaries which challenged Democratic incumbents who'd become too complacent, injecting new blood into the party. This did not go down well and various members of the DNC had voted to hold new vice-chair elections that could have led to his ouster. Instead of waiting to be kicked out, Hogg recently said he'd step away from the role. I am not a Mamdani evangelist, but while some of his ideas are a little pie in the sky, he's authentic and ready to fight for normal people rather than corporate interests. Sure, he doesn't have a lot of experience. But he has a huge amount of potential. He's managed to get at least 26,000 New Yorkers to volunteer for him. And I don't mean they've sent a couple of text messages: one week they knocked on almost 100,000 doors. Michael Spear, a professor of history and political science at a Brooklyn college, told Jacobin the degree to which Mamdani's campaign has galvanized New York City voters is unprecedented: 'I don't think there is anything like it' in New York history. Nobody in the Democratic establishment is quite so delusional that they think the party is doing great. Everyone knows there is a need for change and yet they seem keen to sabotage anyone who might bring that change. Instead of rallying around fresh talent like Mamdani that can clearly mobilize young voters, the Democrats are mulling a $20m plan to try to manufacture a 'Joe Rogan of the left' who can connect with young men, rather than support an authentic grassroots candidate who is already connecting with them. Will centrist interests prevail in New York? We won't know until, at the very earliest, late on primary night, 24 June. Whatever happens, though, you can bet that Democrats will continue to do their very best to kneecap anyone who wants to drag them way from their obsession with doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Pro-Israel hackers drain $90 million from Iran crypto exchange, analytics firm says
Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex, was hacked for more than $90 million Wednesday, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. The funds were drained from platform wallets into addresses bearing anti-government messages explicitly referencing Iran' s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, pointing to a politically motivated cyberattack, Elliptic said. Pro-Israel hacking group Gonjeshke Darande, or ' Predatory Sparrow, ' claimed responsibility for the attack and said it would release the exchange's source code. Elliptic said the exchange was offline at the time of its post. Predatory Sparrow also claimed credit for a separate cyberattack on Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah this week. Fighting erupted between Israel and Iran on Friday and the countries have continued to trade missile fire. Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened the U.S. with 'irreparable damage' Wednesday in response to President Donald Trump's demand that the country surrender. Though the stolen assets have not been conclusively attributed to the group, Elliptic noted that the funds were sent to cryptographic addresses the hackers likely cannot control — suggesting the money was intentionally destroyed as a symbolic act rather than stolen for profit. Elliptic's research linked the exchange to Iran's IRGC, a powerful branch of the military designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and Canada. Past investigations have connected the platform to sanctioned IRGC-linked ransomware operatives and individuals close to Khamenei. Blockchain data also shows activity between the Nobitex exchange and wallets associated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis.
