Latest news with #PalestinianAction
Fox News
10-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Hundreds of anti-Israel protestors arrested in London for supporting group banned under terrorism law
Police in London arrested over 360 anti-Israel protesters on Saturday as throngs of people intentionally violated a new ban on support for a particular pro-Palestinian group. The U.K. Parliament passed a ban on public support for Palestinian Action early last month after members of the group broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized aircraft. The U.K. ban states that supporting the organization is akin to supporting terrorism, and therefore illegal. The anti-Israel protesters in London this weekend argue the ban is an illegal infringement on freedom of speech. London Police arrested at least 365 people before the demonstrations ended. More than 500 protesters filled the square outside the Houses of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying signs reading, "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." That was enough for police to step in. "We are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested," the police force said in a statement. The protest's organizer, Defend Our Juries, said it intended for the protest to show that the new law was impossible to practically implement. "The police have only been able to arrest a fraction of those supposedly committing 'terrorism' offenses, and most of those have been given street bail and allowed to go home," Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, said in a statement. "This is a major embarrassment to (the government), further undermining the credibility of this widely ridiculed law, brought in to punish those exposing the government's own crimes." The protest comes just one day after the Israel's security cabinet approved a plan to occupy Gaza City, marking an escalation in Israel's ongoing war against Hamas. The office said the Security Cabinet had adopted, by vote, five principles for concluding the war which include: the disarming of Hamas, the return of all hostages – living and deceased, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. "A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Asked in an interview with Fox News ahead of the Security Cabinet meeting if Israel would "take control of all of Gaza," Netanyahu replied: "We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza."
The Guardian
06-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Worrying' levels of screen time means young people losing confidence to socialise in person, minister warns
Update: Date: 2025-08-06T07:53:12.000Z Title: Starmer Content: Good morning. Keir is out on a visit today and he will be doing broadcast interviews. It may be the only time we hear from him this week, and there is no shortage of topics that journalists will want to ask him about. By the end of the day we may get new, or newish, lines on Gaza, the 'one in, one out' returns deal with France, tax rises and the black hole in the government's finances (priced at more than £40bn, according to a report from a well-respected thinktank today), Ukraine, the case for and against disclosing suspects' immigration status and the demonstration planned for this weekend against the decision to proscribe Palestinian Action. But wants to talk about something else – less party political, less 'Westminster agenda', but arguably as or even more important than these other topics: what the internet is doing to our children. Officially, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, are just announcing an £88m investment in youth clubs. But they also want to talk about what they suggest is the harm being done to children by social media, who they say are spending so much time on their screens that they are losing the ability to socialise in person with other people. In a statement in the government's news release about the funding, says: Growing up today is hard for young people. As they navigate their way through the online world, too often they find themselves isolated at home and disconnected from their communities. As a government, we have a duty to act on this worrying trend. Today's investment is about offering a better alternative: transformative, real-world opportunities that will have an impact in communities across the country, so young people can discover something new, find their spark and develop the confidence and life skills that no algorithm can teach. In an interview on the Today programme, Nandy was asked to elaborate on what theis 'worrying trend' was. She replied: It keeps me awake at night. We when we were first elected into government last year, one of the first things that I did was to appoint a group of young people to oversee the first national youth strategy in several decades. I was astonished to find that we didn't have one. What we found through that process is that the majority of young people – and it does appear to be a majority – spend all, or almost all, of their free time alone in their bedrooms, online, and are losing their confidence to connect to people in the real world. A significant number of them say that they have no adult in the world who they would trust to help and support them. That is really, really concerning. And one of the reasons that we're announcing this funding today is to open up opportunities to young people in youth clubs and in schools to live richer, larger lives because there is a pressing need for our generation to step up and help before it's too late. Here's Eleni Courea's overnight story about the initiative. I will post more from Nandy's interviews soon. The visit is taking place in Hertfordshire this morning. Other than that, the diary is relatively empty, but, of course, that does not mean there will be nothing to cover; news is not always predictable. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can't read all the messages BTL, but if you put 'Andrew' in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @ The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can't promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
The Herald Scotland
24-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
We took action in Kosovo. Why should Gaza be any different?
The UK is threatening more sanctions against [[Israel]] but in reality they have no effect at all. Why would [[Israel]] listen to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer or his Foreign Secretary David Lammy? They have no influence in what is an ongoing genocide. The UK continues to supply arms, materials and surveillance for Benjamin Netanyahu's regime and instructs the police to arrest anyone who supports Palestinian Action, an activist group calling for an end to the ethnic cleansing and massacres in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel is going even further with raids and attacks on Syria and Lebanon, not to mention Iran. Why doesn't the UK Government have the guts to call for military action against [[Israel]]? Roll back to 1999 when Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic attempted to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of Kosovar Albanians. There were pictures of tens of thousands fleeing, some with all their belongings piled on the back of tractors. There was then a massacre at a village called Racak when 43 civilians were killed, prompting Nato to intervene and effectively end the war. I was there reporting for Reuters and Sky News and saw the victims and knew this was a defining moment. Why hasn't the same happened in response to Israel's refusal to accept international law in Gaza? Yes, the attack by Hamas in October 2023 was appalling but since then more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, their homes destroyed, settlers are taking over whole villages, Americans are eyeing up seaside lots, olive groves have been ripped out (by settlers) and fishermen refused access to the waters. There are dozens of innocent people being killed every day. Surely it couldn't be anything to do with race or religion could it? Andy Stenton, Glasgow. Read more letters Corruption in Ukraine I note that your front-page article on President Zelenskyy's latest olive branch to his Russian counterpart ("Zelenskyy repeats his offer to meet with Putin to negotiate peace deal", The Herald, July 23) makes no mention of the first public protests against him since the war began. These took place in a number of cities after the parliament backed a bill limiting the power of anti-corruption agencies. With Ukraine already in lowly 105th place on Transparency International's corruption-perceptions index, this bill should be a warning to investors. Unfortunately Keir Starmer has a bombastic 100-year deal with Ukraine. George Morton, Rosyth. Take tough action on migrants I have long argued through the courtesy of your Letters Pages that the only sure way to stop the small boats invasion is to kill off the demand (illegal migrants) which in turn will kill off the supply (the gangs). That could be achieved by legislating that anyone arriving illegally is automatically disqualified from staying, no ifs, no buts. With its huge Westminster majority, the Labour Government should have no problem in passing this legislation and thus fulfilling its stated 'duty" to stop this illegal invasion. The only question is why are Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper not doing that immediately rather than fiddling about with unrealistic schemes such as ' one in, one out" and grand-sounding but placebo-like 'international co-operation agreements" to 'smash the gangs" which will never stem the demand which fuels the flow across the Channel? For anyone who doubts the seriousness of the small boats invasion, I commend a report recently on Talk TV (why not our national broadcaster the BBC?) by an investigative journalist with a camera crew (filming apparently covertly) from around the migrant camps near Calais. The report revealed that thousands of mainly young men are camping out there waiting to cross, with these numbers increasing as more and more are brought in daily by large coaches. This illegal invasion of the UK is huge and growing. We don't know who they are and it is high time the Government took the gloves off to deal with it. Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop. Our leaders have no idea It is patently obvious the current Labour Government has no idea how to fix Britain. All it does is to make things worse. People always claim they go into politics to make things better. Surely these same people must realise when they are out of their depth? Admitting this is never a consideration but it really should be. This argument holds good in Scotland too, when after 18 years of trying, the SNP has achieved precious little. Politicians really must take responsibility for the powers they wield. It seems these days very few do. This should worry us all. Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow. We must focus on nuclear David Hay (Letters, July 23) tries to rubbish nuclear power as being unecological. His figures of Norway generating 85% of its electricity from hydro electric power stations ignores the fact that 90% of Norway's population lives in the near coastal regions, leaving the mountainous valleys available for such schemes. Doing so in Scotland would require Highland clearances on a biblical scale. The Netherlands might be targeting 2030 for generating 70% of its power by wind but that requires the wind to blow, otherwise the wind turbines are merely sculptures of steel and carbon. Wind turbine blades have a 'time-life' where they have to be replaced before the fatigue they experience breaks them catastrophically. Originally 25 years, this is now 15 to 20 years because the designers seemed ignorant of the fact that a leading edge doing 300 miles per hour into rain, dust, hailstones and birds causes damage which is escalated by frost. This requires expensive maintenance and downtime as steeplejacks apply sticking plasters for as long as they dare. In the 1920s Tommy Sopwith was putting steel deflectors on the leading edge of his wooden propellers but that information was either not in the designer's computers, was ignored or was treated as an irrelevance. University studies tell us that right now we are scrapping 200,000 tonnes of time-lifed blades per annum and as a result of the exponential growth in the industry this will be 30 million tonnes by 2030 and 50 million tonnes by 2050. These blades cannot be recycled or put to landfill, they will last millions of years so what part of 'eco' do they fit into? Where are they going to go? In the USA they are being buried in vast tracts of land but even that is a limited resource. Mr Hay might also be unaware that the replacement carbon fibres and resins require oil as a source for the raw material and concrete for the bases, whose creation is a major producer of CO2. The waste from a nuclear plant is limited and can be stored safely. Hitachi is currently working on a reactor that will produce waste with a half life of 1,000 years instead of 30,000 years, a big step forward. We are a clever species, we should be working on reducing that further. We are currently in a situation where overcapacity of wind generation requires generators to be paid to stop generating, sending our hard-earned cash to the overseas corporations that own the windfarms. This is utter madness. We should also be charging them for their inability to supply in times of low wind speeds and cloudy days because regardless of the eco-qualities we still need a generating capacity to cover the shortfall and that will require gas or nuclear generation. For the last 50 years nuclear power has supplied a steady 40% of our base generation. It should remain so. Peter Wright, West Kilbride. The Torness nuclear power station (Image: Getty) Nationwide alert I was delighted to read that the CEO of Nationwide Building Society is to earn just over £19,000 per day for her sterling work in helping to run a business ("Nationwide customers angry at 'controversial' decision", heraldscotland, July 21). Obviously she is much more important than nurses, midwives, doctors, and the general female population. Running a business, to the uneducated, seems a fairly straightforward task, but we all know that without paying these people extraordinary amounts of money the country would collapse. As she laughs her way to the bank, every day, she may well think "ordinary people are so thick that they believe all our nonsense that we must pay indecent amounts of money or life would never be the same again". B McKenna, Dumbarton.
The Guardian
05-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Palestine activists arrested in London next to Gandhi statue
People holding signs holding signs referencing Palestinian Action have been arrested by police, a day after the group was proscribed a terrorist organisation. More than two dozen people gathered close to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square in London, holding signs that appeared to express support for the group. At about 1:40pm, Metropolitan police officers began arresting activists who held the signs. More details soon …
Business Recorder
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
PARTLY FACETIOUS: The deep state in power in most of world's democracies?
'So going back to a former Interior Minister…' 'Granted that he did not win the 2024 elections…your cough is as artificial as…as…as…' 'Can't think of anyone – governments all over the world are taking decisions that are shameful to say the least. The UK government has banned the Palestinian Action because its members spray-painted one of their aeroplanes and the country's prime minister together with many of his cabinet members condemned the chant of death to Israeli Defence Force (IDF) at the Glastonbury music festival as a hate crime that is…' 'I don't get it. Cartoons of our Prophet are freedom of speech, while these two events are hate crimes?' 'Well, they are protecting their way of life.' 'You need to do what analysts are doing in the US for some time now – pointing to a divide, a widening divide between those in government and the public that voted them into power.' 'Hamm right, so in other words the deep state is in power in most of the world's democracies which explains why their foreign policy is based on history that doesn't go beyond…' 'Beyond 2022 as far as the Ukraine war is concerned and 7 October 2023 as far as the Israelis are concerned.' 'Indeed, so the Western way of life that must be protected at all costs does not look at the historical context or the entry of two more superpowers on the world scene – China and Russia and…' 'But what did you begin by referring to a former interior minister? You reckon the Chief Minister has forgiven him for daring to say he will not support the passing down of the inheritance to blood…' 'She is not known for forgiving…' 'That reminds me where is her husband and children and…' 'You know it's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't as far as you are concerned. Appreciate the fact that the only family member she is allowing herself to be photographed with is daddy and no one else.' 'Hamm, her picture with or without daddy is plastered all over Punjab with no more than 100 meters between each picture…' 'That's for the hapless Punjabis with little access to beauty and poise and…' 'You being facetious?' 'Over exposure makes the heart grow weaker.' 'There is no such expression…' 'OK going back to the former Interior Minister there are some who say he is the only one who The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless will agree to talk to, and he has strong ties with the deep state, though time and again The Man Who Must Remain Nameless and Faceless has said he will only negotiate with the establishment.' 'So how deep is the state?' 'Don't be facetious.' 'No, seriously, I want to know.' 'Deeper than a sinkhole that suddenly appears in front of you, and you have no time or means to avoid it.' Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
