This legend is Irish-born Ceire Ní Ghribín. She travelled to Rafah, Gaza, where she treated children, which is why she stood her ground and doubled down on her socials.
"There were three guys with an Israeli flag who had no reason to be bringing politics into a Scotland vs Brazil game, and I stand by what I said. I was there. It’s a genocide... I should’ve added ‘Free Lebanon’ too."
I didn't vote for Keir Starmer to be leader - but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
At the start of his leadership, I should have asked more questions.
I'm not making the same mistake this time with Andy Burnham.
From the outset of his leadership of Labour in 2020, Starmer had worked assiduously to purge the party of its left wing over criticisms of Israel – under the guise of addressing a supposed “antisemitism crisis”.
It hardly came as a surprise, then, that he alienated swaths of the British public with his first foreign-policy test – in Gaza.
In late 2023, as opposition leader, when he had a chance to distance himself from the Tory government’s illegal collusion with Israel, Starmer shocked even sections of his party’s right wing by declaring that Israel’s denial of water, food and power to millions of Palestinians was an act of “self-defence”.
A former human rights lawyer, Starmer was excusing an unquestionable war crime.
The International Criminal Court would later issue an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of crimes against humanity over the starvation blockade of Gaza endorsed by Starmer.
Once in office, Starmer proved no better. He repeatedly denied that the situation in Gaza was a genocide, even though he himself had argued before the International Court of Justice in 2014 that a Serbian attack on the Croatian city of Vukovar 23 years earlier was a genocide. That attack was many orders of magnitude less destructive than Israel’s erasure of Gaza.
Starmer refused even to admit that Israel was committing war crimes in the enclave – not least, because to do so would have required him to stop colluding in those atrocities.
His government continued to sell arms to Israel, and allowed Israeli arms manufacturers such as Elbit Systems to operate factories in the UK to build killer drones for use in Gaza.
British planes transported large shipments of weapons to Israel that helped level the tiny territory, while also carrying out endless surveillance flights over Gaza to supply Israel with intelligence used to obliterate the enclave.
At the same time, Britain provided diplomatic cover for Israeli crimes, including at the UN Security Council, and welcomed Israeli generals and politicians suspected of war crimes.
But most significantly of all, the Starmer government went further than the Conservatives in cracking down on basic and long-cherished rights to speech and assembly to stifle protests against what a consensus of experts concluded early on was a genocide by Israel.
In this regard, Starmer appeared to be extending to the wider public the dirty-tricks, antisemitism smears he had used against Corbyn and his supporters.
In the previous Conservative government, home secretary Suella Braverman had branded anti-genocide demonstrations in London that attracted hundreds of thousands of Britons as "hate marches".
Starmer’s first home secretary, Yvette Cooper, not only continued the theme but recruited Britain’s draconian terrorism laws to further chill the protests.
Journalists and political activists who criticised the government’s complicity in genocide had their homes raided by police at dawn, and faced the threat of up to 14 years in jail for “supporting terrorism”.
Next, Cooper proscribed as a terrorist organisation the direct action group Palestine Action, which targeted Israeli factories hosted on British soil that make killer drones to be used in Gaza.
It was not just the first time in British history that a direct action group had been proscribed. In a related legal first, the judge in the trial of four Palestine Action activists sentenced them this month as terrorists, even though none had been convicted of a terrorism offence or of causing intentional violence.
A popular backlash was inevitable. Thousands of elderly Britons – from vicars and lawyers to doctors and army veterans – took to the streets in protest at an unprecedented assault on civil liberties.
In a clear indication of the deeply authoritarian instincts of Starmer and his government, the police were sent in to arrest the protesters en masse. They now face charges of “supporting terrorism”.
Meanwhile, the government announced it was preparing to scrap the right of many defendants to trial by jury – one of the most important safeguards against the dangers of state overreach.
It was hard not to conclude that the government’s urge to dispense with juries followed from the fact that juries had shown themselves far less ready than judges to convict those caught up in Starmer’s wholesale assault on rights of speech and protest.
This is an extract from my latest article Burnham must break with Starmer's dishonest politics. Find a link to the rest of the article in the reply post ⬇️
“Andy Burnham has spent years crafting a specific public myth. He is the 'King of the North,' the casual jacket-wearing, anti-Westminster populist who promised to smash the Whitehall bubble, reverse decades of devastating de-industrialization, and bring failing water utilities back under public control.”
But as he prepares to enter Downing Street as Prime Minister, the mask has officially slipped. Burnham has handed the keys of Number 10 to his new Chief of Staff, James Purnell—the ex-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, a former BBC executive, and the CEO of Flint Global, an elite corporate lobbying outfit that protects private water companies from state takeovers and was recently sold to a private equity firm notorious for price-gouging the NHS.
This appointment exposes the absolute hypocrisy behind Burnham's carefully managed rhetoric on devolution and public control. Before he even steps foot inside Number Ten, we must demand a full, unvarnished list of all James Purnell's corporate conflicts of interest—because right now, devolution and reindustrialization is the bait, and corporate capture is the switch.
Editor: Ranjan Balakumaran @financialeyes
💔 BREAKING UPDATE: The devastation in Venezuela is almost unimaginable.
Two powerful earthquakes struck just minutes apart, leaving buildings collapsed, families trapped beneath the rubble, and desperate loved ones searching for survivors.
The U.S. Geological Survey has warned the disaster could ultimately claim between 10,000 and 100,000 lives, though officials have not yet confirmed a death toll. (Reuters)
Please keep the people of Venezuela, the first responders, and every family still waiting for news of a loved one in your prayers. ❤️🇻🇪
Venezuela has been hit by a devastating earthquake while the USA are holding their President hostage and stealing their oil.
The USA should pay with all their stolen money to rebuild Venezuela.
One of the most detestable acts of Zionists are their feeble attempts to reinvent Palestinian history. Foolish daft bat Maureen Lipman talked of how Isrss are Eli’s made the deserts bloom promoting the big fat lie of land for a people for people without land. It was bollocks but today one Ziobot told me that Jaffa Oranges are Israeli produce! The Jaffa orange—also known as the Shamouti orange—was developed in the 1850s by Palestinian farmers near the port city of Jaffa. Renowned for its thick peel, which made it ideal for long sea voyages, it quickly became a major international export and cultural symbol. Next they will be claiming hummus and olives are theirs! Harvesting the oranges was a real Palestinian event and family celebration.
Labour Together has been forced to disclose internal documents to Jeremy Corbyn in response to a Subject Access Request.
The 583-page disclosure exposes new details about how Labour Together worked to dismantle the Corbyn project and undermine the British left.
"What is revealed makes the call for an independent inquiry into Labour Together overwhelming", says John McDonnell MP.
My latest with Paul Holden & Jessica Murray in @declassifiedUK:
Two former Israeli prime ministers, former heads of all Israeli security services, former Israeli judges, a Nobel laureate and Israel’s most revered living novelist are among the signatories to a “final warning” over violence against Palestinians. They demand immediate action to “eradicate Jewish terrorism”.
If any non-Jewish person uttered the phrase "eradicate Jewish terrorism", @jessebrown would go berserk.
#Palestine #genocide
Meanwhile, back in Britain, the Westminster media bubble studiously ignore any real mention of Gaza when it comes to explaining why Starmer became so unpopular. 'Don't mention the war'.
Surgeon Nizam Mamode, who was recently in Gaza, says people in the UK dont realise whats still happening there
Presenter: who do you blame for that?
You
Mamode says the evidence is overwhelming, & he references yesterdays UN report that Israel targets & kills Palestinian kids
The child, Yamen Ashraf Othman, who was arrested by Israeli forces after they raided his family’s home in the village of Majdal Bani Fadel, south of Nablus.
"We were occupied in Norway.. & those resistance fighters in Norway are our heroes, & the German occupiers called them terrorists.. Palestine is defending itself. Israel is attacking"
@DrMadsGilbert talking to @MyriamFrancoisC
Watch it here: https://t.co/Q90dofiHZv
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) stated that the condition of released journalist Mujahid Bani Mifleh reflects the severe treatment endured by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Mujahid was urrested under administrative detention in June 2025 and released in January 2026. He suffered a serious brain hemorrhage just two days after his release and continues to undergo extensive medical treatment.
According to PPS, his case is one among thousands involving torture, starvation, denial of medical care, and psychological abuse inside Israeli detention facilities.
"McSweeney quietly inflamed the 'antisemitism crisis' that would dog Corbyn’s leadership from at least 2018.
"He did so by seeding and placing stories into the press that helped to build the narrative that Corbyn’s Labour had become riddled with antisemitism".
https://t.co/YChCpCVXcR
Ain’t no way Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are taking over Albania’s island to build a luxury resort. These people aren’t playing games. They understand their collective power and will burn it all down before they allow their land to be stolen. All power to the Albanian people!