US accuses UK of 'significant human rights issues' and restricting free speech
The unflattering assessment comes via a new version of an annual Human Rights Practices report, with its publication coinciding with Vice President JD Vance's holiday in the Cotswolds.
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It says human rights in the UK "worsened" in 2024, with "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression", as well as "crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism" since the 7 October Hamas attack against Israel.
On free speech, while "generally provided" for, the report cites "specific areas of concern" around limits on "political speech deemed 'hateful' or 'offensive'".
Sir Keir Starmer has previously defended the UK's record on free speech after concerns were raised by Mr Vance.
In response to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: "Free speech is vital for democracy around the world including here in the UK, and we are proud to uphold freedoms whilst keeping our citizens safe."
The US report highlights Britain's public space protection orders, which allow councils to restrict certain activities in some public places to prevent antisocial behaviour.
It also references "safe access zones" around abortion clinics, which the Home Office says are designed to protect women from harassment or distress.
They have been criticised by Mr Vance before, notably back in February during a headline-grabbing speech at the Munich Security Conference.
The report also criticises the Online Safety Act and accuses ministers of intervening to "chill speech" about last summer's murders in Southport, highlighting arrests made in the wake of the subsequent riots.
Ministers have said the Online Safety Act is about protecting children, and repeatedly gone so far as to suggest people who are opposed to it are on the side of predators.
Read more politics news:
The report comes months after during a summit at the White House, cutting in when Donald Trump's VP claimed there are "infringements on free speech" in the UK.
"We've had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that," the PM said.
But Mr Vance again raised concerns during a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at his country estate in Kent last week, saying he didn't want the UK to go down a "very dark path" of losing free speech.
The US State Department's report echoes similar accusations made by the likes of Nigel Farage and Elon Musk.
The Trump administration itself has been accused of trying to curtail free speech and stifle criticism, most notably by targeting universities - Harvard chief among them.
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Fox News
37 minutes ago
- Fox News
DNC rips JD Vance for fishing with British foreign secretary in latest bizarre attack; Republicans hit back
The Democratic National Committee slammed Vice President JD Vance for fishing on a private lake with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during Vance's official trip to the United Kingdom. Republicans were quick to respond to what appears to be the latest in a series of attacks by Democrats against the vice president over outdoor activities and family outings Vance mixes in during his rigorous official travel schedule. The DNC War Room issued a press release Wednesday titled "VACATION VANCE AT IT AGAIN: Vance Fished 'Illegally' With UK Foreign Secretary While Americans Drown in Sky-High Costs." Vance and Lammy met at the foreign secretary's official country residence, known as Chevening House, located south of London, on Friday for talks centered on the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine. They went fishing on the estate grounds before their scheduled meeting. Vance briefly joked to reporters that the "one strain on the special relationship" he has with Lammy "is that all of my kids caught a fish, but the foreign secretary did not." The vice president soon delved into more serious topics, including telling reporters that, unlike the U.K., the United States has "no plans to recognize a Palestinian state" given the "lack of a functional government" in Gaza. Their meeting came a week before President Donald Trump's upcoming high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. In its release on Wednesday, the DNC charged, "Vance is living it up on his summer holiday — on the taxpayers' dime — all while working families face sky-high inflation and the largest cuts to health care and food assistance in American history." Kiersten Pels, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement to Fox News Digital, "The DNC's donors are OK with funding press releases on a fishing rod license? They might want to pull their money out now before the last of it vanishes down the drain." U.K. outlets reported that Lammy did not buy a valid fishing license before the outing with Vance. In a statement to Sky News, the British Foreign Office said the secretary "has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week." The agency reportedly requires rod licenses for fishing of freshwater species in England and Wales for people 13 or above. During his visit to the U.K. last week, Vance also gave a brief address to U.S. troops stationed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The DNC claimed Vance spoke to troops "for only six minutes before returning to his $10,000 per week luxury Cotswolds manor." The release also took issue with Vance allegedly "using public resources" earlier this month "so he could do boating on his birthday." "Vance fished 'illegally' in the United Kingdom, potentially costing the foreign secretary a £2,000 fine. Vance even had former Chancellor George Osborne plan his vacation's social agenda, including relaxing in the 'Hamptons of the UK,'" the release said. The DNC further charged that Trump and Vance "ripped away health care from 17 million Americans, slashed food assistance for over 22 million families, and unleashed economic chaos on the American people — all to give their billionaire friends and donors another round of massive tax handouts." "While working families struggle to get by, it's clear where Vance's loyalties lie — and it's not with them," the DNC wrote. The latest attack comes after Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, bemoaned Vance's recent visit to Disneyland with his children. "Hope you enjoy your family time," Newsom wrote on social media. "The families you're tearing apart certainly won't." In response, Vance wrote, "Had a great time, thanks." Critics also attempted to paint Vance as entitled after the vice president's security detail had an Ohio river's water levels raised to accommodate a kayaking trip he and his family took to celebrate his 41st birthday. The U.S. Secret Service made the request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so that motorized watercraft and emergency personnel could operate safely. Before his political career, Vance notably penned an autobiography, "Hillbilly Elegy," which describes how he was raised by an opioid-addicted mother in Appalachia, joined the Marines and found success at Yale Law School. In a recent interview on "The Katie Miller Podcast," Vance revealed that reserving "sacred time" with family allows him to balance his official duties with the duties of being a husband and father. "It's possible to do it even in my job," he said. "Yes, if like a war breaks out, then sometimes you have to cancel even the sacred time. But we've been pretty good about making sure that I have at least a couple of hours with my family every single day."
New York Post
43 minutes ago
- New York Post
How Hamas turned kids into terrorists with TV show featuring jihadi mouse, bloodthirsty bunny
American kids may have grown up with Mr. Rogers telling them, 'You are special just the way you are,' but for a child in Gaza there was Farfour—a plushy, genocidal TV mouse screaming 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Farfour, a costumed Mickey Mouse knockoff, was co-host of a kid's program called 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' which aired on Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from April 2007 to October 2009. For anyone wondering how the ideologically-crazed fanatical fighters of Hamas came to be, the show offers some answers. 15 Farfour, a homicidal Mickey Mouse ripoff who advocated martyrdom and Islamic world domination, was murdered on air by IDF soldiers in a skit. YouTube 15 Criminologists have identified the tactic of using 'the deviant peer' to recruit children into abusive situations. YouTube Billed as educational programming to teach Islamic values to schoolchildren — much like a 'Sesame Street' or 'Barney & Friends' for the Middle East — 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' was a colorful, sing-song blood orgy celebrating Jew hatred and martyrdom. The kids who grew up watching it are now fighting age men — like those who carried out the October 7 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted 251 hostages. On the show, Farfour promised the kids of Gaza that together they'd oversee Islamic world domination and liberate Jerusalem from the 'murderers.' He mimicked grenade-throwing and shooting an AK-47. 15 Nahoul, a killer bee, preached to the school kids: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived. YouTube 15 Co-host Saraa Barhoum chats with Assoud the bunny, who promises kids, 'I will finish off the Jews and eat them.' YouTube Mia Bloom, professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University, remembers 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' well from her research into terror tactics. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda that is almost impossible for a child to break out of. And so the kids grow up thinking that every Israeli should be killed because every Israeli is bad and evil,' she told the Post. The show's co-host, Gaza child star Saraa Barhoum — around ten years old when the show first aired and the daughter of a university professor mother and a Hamas spokesman father — said in a 2007 interview she wanted to be either a doctor or a martyr when she grew up. 15 11-year-old co-host Saraa Barhoum, who said she wished to be a doctor or a martyr when she grew up, stands outside the Al-Aqsa studio headquarters with producer Hazem Sharawi in 2007. Tribune News Service via Getty Images 15 Mia Bloom, a terrorism tactics researcher, says traumatizing children is a means of abusive control. Courtesy of Mia Bloom She also launched a singing career, recording pop songs with lyrics like, 'raise your sail for the sailors, and let your lighthouse illuminate the sea of blood.' 'There's a concept in criminology called a deviant peer. If I'm a recruiter—if I'm trying to get kids—I'm not going to use a 75-year-old man. I'm going to use a cool kid who's maybe a few years older,' Bloom says. 'Unfortunately, it's a common thing that happens within the child abuse space.' Disney, notorious for swooping in on copyright infringement, was aware of Farfour's Mickey Mouse likeness but chose to remain silent. They didn't have to for long: the network murdered Farfour on air during the first season. In the scene, the terror Mouse is being interrogated by IDF soldiers who beat him to death after he refuses to hand over documents. '[Hamas's] argument would be: 'These kids are already traumatized — this kid doesn't have a house, lost a sibling — the trauma is already there and the trauma is all around them.' 15 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Middle East expert Bloom says. YouTube 15 The messages of 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' were reinforced relentlessly in Gaza society, through textbooks, news programs, and magazines. YouTube 15 Western children's shows like 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' emphasize teaching tolerance and understanding, while children in 2000s Gaza were taught that Jews are descended from pigs. John Beale 'By traumatizing the children through the 'Pioneers' show, Hamas basically controlled the narrative and they could direct the trauma, instead of having this vague generalized trauma across society,' Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms: Children and Terrorism' said. On the show, Farfour was replaced by a bloodthirsty bumblebee with a squeaky voice named Nahoul, who preached to the kiddos: 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,' referring to the fictional town where the characters lived, and 'revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets.' In season two, Nahoul gets sick. The Israeli authorities won't issue him a travel permit to receive medical treatment in Egypt and he dies. Nahoul is replaced by his rabbit brother, Assoud, a mangy Bugs Bunny knockoff, who tells the tykes at home in one episode: 'A rabbit is a term for a bad person and coward. And I, Assoud, will finish off the Jews and eat them.' In another episode Assoud is tempted by Satan to steal money from his father and sentenced to have his hand cut off, 'as the Prophet Mohammed commanded.' Assoud later dies in an Israeli strike and is replaced by a bear. 15 In one episode, Palestinian children joined in for a sing along in-studio welcoming their own death. YouTube 15 Farfour was the first 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' co-host to be murdered on air. Each of his replacements were killed on screen by Israelis. YouTube 15 A still from Tomorrow's Pioneers showing Assoud the bunny and his young co-host. IMDb In another episode, children were invited into the studio to tell the hosts of their wish to die as martyrs, and then sing a song about it. 'This kind of layered trauma that you're deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,' Bloom says. 'It relates to October 7th. To have those resources and instead of making things better, you've just made things so much worse.' 15 Farfour the jihadi mouse told Hamas children 'We will liberate Al-Aqsa,' referring to the mosque in Jerusalem. YouTube 15 On Oct. 7, 2003 roughly 3,000 Hamas terrorists attacked various points in Israel, killing 1,200 civilians. Many would have grown up watching 'Tomorrow's Pioneers.' 15 Bloom, author of the book 'Small Arms' compares Hamas' afterschool program to ISIS requiring children to attend public beheadings. 'It's a constant stream of horrific propaganda.' While little information is publicly known about the estimated 3,000 Hamas fighters who conducted the Oct. 7 slaughter, ages 16-35 are considered 'fighting age' for men—meaning many of those combatants grew up watching their favorite plushy woodland creatures get executed by Jews on afterschool television. 'It's not just the 'Pioneers' TV show. It was amplified and reinforced by the textbooks that the children would read in school that demonized Jews and basically referred to Jews as apes and pigs and other dirty animals,' Bloom says. A 2008 analysis of Palestinian schoolbooks found a passage comparing Jews to 'invading snakes.' In popular media, a late 1990s Palestinian magazine article explained that Jews are the actual sons of apes and, due to the shame felt by this, the 'Jewish ape Darwin' invented the theory of evolution and applied it to all humans. Bloom, who has studied genocide, extremist movements, and child soldiers across the world, says it reminds her of the Taliban and ISIS—both of whom held public beheadings and required children of the community to attend. 'It's not exactly the same because killing Farfour was fake. But it's this idea of exposing children to obscene levels of violence. And it creates a preparedness to justify violence and to choose violence over other options.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hostage families sue ICC prosecutor, allege court has become 'branch of Hamas'
The lawsuit accuses ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of turning the court into "a branch office of the terrorist organization," Hamas. The families of three hostages currently being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas - Avinatan Or, Eitan Mor, and Omri Miran, filed a lawsuit for NIS 20 million against International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, NGO Shurat Hadin, which is representing the families, announced on Wednesday. The lawsuit accuses Khan of turning the court into "a branch office of the terrorist organization," Hamas. It demands that Khan be investigated for acting against Israel under ulterior motives - namely to sideline allegedly sexual abuse allegations against him. "The defendant not only slandered the State of Israel, not only presented false representations to the plaintiffs, but also provided services to terrorist organizations and assisted them," reads the lawsuit. It adds that when he finally did request arrest warrants for the three chief Hamas leaders - Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, all of whom were killed by Israel over the past two years - he coupled them with warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Additionally, the lawsuit notes that it took him eight months to issue the warrants. It further notes that warrants were not issued against leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who too held hostages captive, as well as against other Hamas leaders. Shurat HaDin chief: The ICC has become a branch of Hamas "The blood libels the defendant wove against the State of Israel and its leaders, by creating a false moral equivalence between the State of Israel — the victim — and the terrorists who hold the hostages and abuse them daily, granted legitimacy to the terrorists to continue extorting Israel while holding and abusing the hostages," reads the lawsuit. Shurat HaDin founder and president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said, "The International Criminal Court has become a branch of Hamas. Through his direct actions, he gave an enormous tailwind to the terrorist murderers."
