Shortly before taking office, Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, apologised for our party’s initial response to Israel's war on Gaza, saying we got it wrong.
He was right to apologise, but in the face of overwhelming evidence of Israel’s genocide and war crimes, and the UK’s long complicity, it is far from enough.
Today, the foreign secretary has announced a sanctions regime banning trade with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, a step that I and more than 140 Labour MPs have called for.
This is welcome and long overdue, not just because it puts pressure on the Israeli government, nor simply because it is what is required of us under international law, but also because it is only fair given the UK’s role in creating a situation where Palestinians are systematically denied their fundamental rights and subjected to the most violent repression by Israel.
Banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements is a start, but Labour must not stop there
NAZA: Film exposing systematic killing in Gaza gets record 24-minute standing ovation at Venice
A documentary examining the Israeli military systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza received a record-breaking standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.
NAZA, directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, drew a record-breaking 24-and-a-half-minute standing ovation at its world premiere, the longest at Venice, according to Variety.
The reception surpassed the 22-minute ovation given last year to Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which tells the story of the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024.
Members of the Venice audience held Palestinian flags during the applause, while Abraham and Szor, who were visibly emotional, were embraced by the film’s executive producer, The Zone of Interest director, Jonathan Glazer.
Online, the documentary received heavy praise from festival-goers and many activists.
US supreme court again rejects Missouri maps drawn to boost Republicans in midterms
The US supreme court again rejected a push backed by Donald Trump to overhaul Missouri’s congressional maps in an effort to hand Republicans an edge in November’s midterm elections.
Its latest ruling, after days of confusion, comes less than two months before the pivotal midterm elections in which control of the narrowly divided US House of Representatives could be determined by a handful of seats.
Following conflicting decisions that spanned four courts, Wednesday’s ruling appeared to set the stage for the state to use its old electoral maps this year.
The end result does not completely end confusion for Missouri’s voters, who cast ballots in primary elections using the new map, butwill vote in November on the older map.
“The state, the election apparatus, had no business going forward with the primaries under that bill, under that circumstance,” said David F Walbert, a storied voting rights attorney in Georgia, who has argued voting rights cases before the US supreme court. “The problem that we’re dealing with today is 100% the result of the state machinery that created this.”
Scientists say August was Earth's hottest month they've measured
Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, blowing far past a key climate threshold, due to the dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Nino, according to the European climate service Copernicus.
August's sizzle also helped push the globe and the United States to swelter through the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer scientists have measured.
"It is now time to stop acting surprised that our warming planet keeps getting warmer. This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago," Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler said in an email. "The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we're going to do anything about it or just stand there while the climate train runs us over."
Globally, August was 1.65 degrees Celsius (nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, far exceeding the longer term 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The eight hottest months on record have all been from July 2023 on, according to Copernicus data.
Acting Navy secretary says Iran ‘blew the hell out of’ US base in Bahrain: Report
The acting U.S. Navy secretary Hung Cao said that the Iranian military severely damaged a major Navy installation in Bahrain, acknowledging the extent of damage sustained by the base during the conflict.
“They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” Cao said in an interview with The Epoch Times, which was published Thursday, referring to the Naval Support Activity Bahrain (NASB), which serves as the headquarters for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
The base has been heavily targeted by Iran after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against the Islamic Republic in late February.
The Navy has relied on NASB as its main logistics hub in the Middle East.
Cao said the Navy is weighing what to do with NASB, including whether to repair the base.
“I have a task force that’s looking at that,” he told the news outlet.
In late August, the Navy’s top officer said it would be a while before the service branch would return to the base, including to retrieve the personal goods from sailors.
Sanctions on Israeli settlements: Here’s what Europe is saying and doing
Relations between Israel and European states have deteriorated after the UK led moves on Tuesday to impose sanctions against Israeli settlements.
In London, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, using some of the harshest language by a government minister about Israel, said that the decision came amid the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists”.
In Paris, meanwhile, his opposite number Jean-Noel Barrot announced similar measures, saying that “France cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike”.
In a joint statement, they, along with the foreign ministers of Spain, Ireland Norway and others, confirmed their intention to “introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures”.
Several countries, notably Sweden, Denmark and Finland, later stated that they would only impose sanctions as part of joint EU action rather than unilaterally, according to Israeli media reports.
Several European countries previously issued sanctions following a 2024 ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the settlements were illegal under international law.
The moves come amid deadlock in the EU over proposals to introduce an EU-wide ban on settlement goods, with key states such as Germany and Italy stalling.
Grief, fury, conspiracy: inside Turning Point USA after Charlie Kirk’s killing
As Charlie Kirk’s family, friends and colleagues barreled through the sky to Utah, one staffer kept throwing up in her mouth. Each time she quietly swallowed. She did not want to add to the distress of the others sitting in deathly silence on the jet – especially Kirk’s 36-year-old wife, Erika. She was already a widow.
Those who work at Turning Point USA – the ultraconservative activist organization based in Phoenix, Arizona, that Charlie Kirk founded – believe deeply in a Christian God. Many also believe that Satan and his deputies vie for influence on Earth. Earlier that day, on 10 September 2025, those forces had seemingly persuaded an angry young man to hide on a roof at Utah Valley University, where Kirk was speaking to 3,000 people, with a loaded rifle.
Since Kirk started Turning Point as an 18-year-old high school graduate in 2012, the organization had become a big operation. It employed more than 400 staff, boasted an operating budget of greater than $100m and hundreds of chapters at colleges and high schools, and had launched a political arm, Turning Point Action, that endorsed candidates and mobilized Republican voters. Although Kirk, now 31, told confidants that he had no interest in office, some political observers thought he might one day be the Republican nominee for president.
As an attack dog for the Trump administration and an organization that has often framed political disagreements as civilizational struggles, Turning Point promoted the dangerous and destabilizing idea that Democrats stole the 2020 election; the organization has also often adopted stances that contradict Kirk’s own stated commitment to free speech.
Special education head at Education Department abruptly resigns
Kelly Rogers told employees Wednesday that she is resigning from her post overseeing special education at the U.S. Education Department as the agency is in the midst of upheaval and downsizing.
Rogers, who has been overseeing the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) since May, announced her departure less than a day before much of her staff were scheduled to move to the Department of Health and Human Services building in Washington D.C., according to internal emails reviewed by NPR. She was supposed to continue overseeing those staff from her perch at the Education Department. Now, it is unclear who will serve in the role after she leaves on Sept. 11.
One of the main things OSERS does is support states and schools with programs for people with disabilities, including the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It also manages about $15 billion in federal funding supporting students with disabilities.
The move of special education offices to HHS is part of the Trump administration's historic actions to dismantle the Education Department altogether.
Democratic socialist ousts Providence mayor in primary
Democratic socialist David Morales is projected to oust Providence Mayor Brett Smiley (D) from a Tuesday primary, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Morales, a state lawmaker, leads the incumbent by about 14 percentage points, per DDHQ.
The primary results in Rhode Island mark another win for the Democratic Party’s left flank, which has picked up key victories in local, House and Senate races across the country this year.
The primary results in Rhode Island mark another win for the Democratic Party’s left flank, which has picked up key victories in The primary results in Rhode Island mark another win for the Democratic Party’s left flank, which has picked up key victories in local, House and Senate races across the country this year.
More Articles...
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- UK recognises 'ethnic cleansing' in West Bank, sanctions settlements and declares Israeli occupation illegal
- Ukraine Extends Full Tuition Compensation for Veterans' Children
- US strikes Iran, destroys 5 oil tankers amid escalating war
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