UK
MPs urged to cut ties with activist who accused Israel of genocide in Gaza

Will Hazell
Sat, 4 November 2023

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei clashed with Tory MP Bob Stewart - JULIAN SIMMONDS

MPs working on democracy in the Gulf have been urged to sever ties with a body whose members have accused Israel of perpetrating “genocide” and compared it to Russia.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Democracy and Human Rights draws its secretariat from the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) – a campaigning organisation co-founded by the activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.

Mr Alwadaei was involved in a confrontation outside the Bahraini Embassy in December with the Conservative MP, Bob Stewart, which last week resulted in Mr Stewart being found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence and fined £600 for telling Mr Alwadaei to “go back to Bahrain”.

Mr Stewart made the comment after the activist had shouted at him: “For how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?”

Now Mr Alwadaei and another Bird member are facing criticism about comments they have made about Israel and its military operation in Gaza.

Last month, Mr Alwadaei published a post in Arabic on Twitter saying the “Zionist occupation” was presiding over a “human genocide”, revealing “the ugly face of colonial countries, Western hypocrisy, and its involvement in war crimes in Palestine”.

He claimed Gazans had been left with the option of succumbing to “genocide or ethnic cleansing”.

Mr Alwadaei also retweeted a cartoon posted by the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff depicting an Israeli soldier washing blood off his hands from a tap painted in the American flag under a headline “white-washing war crimes”.

Mr Latuff has been accused by a number of Jewish organisations of using anti-Semitic imagery in his cartoons, something the cartoonist has denied. 

ANTI ISRAEL ANTI ZIONISM IS NOT ANTISEMITISM 

Mr Alwadaei has also previously described Israel as an “apartheid state” and protested against the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain.

Nicholas McGeehan, a member of Bird’s advisory group, meanwhile reposted a tweet on the day of the Hamas attack from the Egyptian activist Hossam Bahgat saying: “You cannot support freedom fighters in Ukraine as they resist Russian occupation but not in Palestine against Israeli occupation, unless you have no conscience. Watching Western government,media and pundits (and Arab Zionists) today.”

Subsequent tweets posted by Mr McGeehan have been critical of Hamas’s attack.

He also retweeted a post from the Palestinian activist Marwa Fatafta that claimed “Israel and Russia are two faces of the same coin”, and another from her saying that a picture of the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen meeting Israeli president Isaac Herzog showed “people who committed genocide”.

The comments have drawn particular criticism because Bird is the official secretariat for the Gulf APPG.

Tory MP Bob Stewart was convicted of racial abuse - JULIAN SIMMONDS

APPGs are informal committees set up by MPs and peers with a shared interest in a subject. On Parliament’s website, Mr Alwadaei is listed as the “public enquiry point” for the Gulf group.

A spokesman for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said: “These social media posts are grotesque.

“For an organisation ostensibly concerned with human rights and democracy, these individuals seem to aim considerable vitriol at the only state in the region that has either.

“Clearly, people with such inflammatory views have no place serving on the secretariat of an APPG.”

The spokesman added that the APPG’s members should “distance themselves” from such “odious” views.

The claim that Israel is responsible for genocide is controversial.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish civil rights organisation, has said that accusing Israel of genocide is inaccurate, sensationalist and “serves to demonise the state of Israel and to diminish recognised acts of genocide”.

Some people have applied the term in relation to the situation in Gaza. Last week, the director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights quit his role citing “a genocide unfolding before our eyes”.
Claim of apartheid is contentious

The claim that Israel is an apartheid state is also contentious. While some organisations such as Amnesty International have made this claim, the ADL said it is “inaccurate, offensive and often used to delegitimise and denigrate Israel as a whole”.

Lord Mann, the Government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, said Mr Alwadaei’s comments raised questions about his appropriateness to provide the APPG’s secretariat.

The peer, who sits on the Bahrain APPG, said: “I don’t find the views at all acceptable, but if that’s his view, that’s his view.

“But that’s not what APPGs and their secretariats are about. They are there to help Parliament to have rational debate, and that language isn’t rational, measured debate that’s a constructive contribution.”

In response, Mr Alwadaei pointed to how UN special rapporteurs warned there was a “risk of genocide” in Gaza last month.

He said: “My personal views on the behaviour of the Israeli state in Gaza are legitimate criticisms shared by UN experts and in any event, I never claimed that my personal views on Twitter are representing my work at Bird and they have no bearing on our work for the APPG.”

He added that thousands of children had been killed in Gaza and “UN experts have called for the prevention of a genocide”.

Mr McGeehan said: “I’m proud to support Bird’s vital work on Bahrain and would encourage all your readers to follow the work of human rights activists from the Middle East like Marwa Fatafta and Hossam Baghat.

“It is vital that Israel’s war crimes in Gaza be called out vociferously and that the warnings of genocide from scholars of genocide and UN experts be heeded.

“This is a very weak attempt to delegitimise important criticism of Israel’s actions by conflating support for the Palestinian cause with support for Hamas and its indefensible massacre of Oct 7.

“This sort of threatening, ad hominem journalism, imperils freedom of speech at a time when conscientious discussion and reporting of flagrant and systematic violations of international law in the Middle East is desperately needed.”

Tory MP Bob Stewart guilty of racially abusing activist after saying ‘go back to Bahrain’


Ted Hennessey and Nicholas Cecil
Fri, 3 November 2023

Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham, was found guilty of racially abusing an activist (PA Wire)

A senior London Tory MP has been found guilty of racially abusing an activist by telling him to "go back to Bahrain".

Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham, also told Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei "you're taking money off my country, go away!" during a row outside the Foreign Office's Lancaster House in Westminster on December 14 last year.

Rishi Sunak faced immediate calls to suspend Mr Stewart as a Tory MP following the conviction, for which he was handed a £600 fine.The 74-year-old had been attending an event hosted by the Bahraini embassy when protester Mr Alwadaei shouted "Bob Stewart, for how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?"


During a heated exchange, Stewart replied: "Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain."

In footage played during a trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, he also said: "Now shut up, you stupid man."

Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring found the MP guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence and gave him the £600 fine, with additional legal costs bringing the total to £1,435.

Mr Goldspring, despite mentioning Stewart's "immense positive character", remarked: "I accept he is not racist per se, but that is not the case against him.

"Good men can do bad things."

Stewart, asked for his thoughts on the allegations of racial hostility, had earlier said: "That's absurd, it's totally unfair, my life has been, I don't want to say destroyed, but I am deeply hurt at having to appear in a court like this."

The MP declared: "I am not a racist."

He continued: "He was saying that I was corrupt and that I had taken money.My honour was at stake in front of a large number of ambassadors. It upset me and I thought it was extremely offensive."

Following the conviction, calling for Mr Stewart to be suspended from the Parliamentary Tory party, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain MP said:"Failing to remove the whip sends a dangerous message that behaviour like this is acceptable.”

Stewart told the court he had "no idea" who Mr Alwadaei was and said he used the word "hate" because of what the protester was saying.

The MP went on: "'Go back to Bahrain' meant 'Why don't you go back to Bahrain and make your point there?"'

He told of being "goaded" and "embarrassed" by Mr Alwadaei.

Asked if he accused Mr Alwadaei of taking money from the UK, the MP went on: "I made the assumption he too was living in this country and was benefiting from living in this country.

"I certainly didn't mean he was a freeloader."

The MP used the phrase "my country" because he "assumed" Mr Alwadaei was from Bahrain but accepted the words "this country" would "perhaps have been better", the court heard.

Stewart, a former British Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in 1969, said he is a "friend" of the Middle Eastern country.

He went on: "I've spent my whole life in a way defending minorities and people of different colours."

The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation after a complaint was made by Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) activist Mr Alwadaei, who has said he is living in exile after being tortured in the Gulf state.

Speaking about the row, Mr Alwadaei said: "I feel that I was dehumanised, like I was someone who is not welcomed in the UK."

He added: "Because of my skin colour, because of where I came from, he feels I am taking money from his country."

During his evidence, Mr Alwadaei said he was exercising his right to protest by questioning Stewart and had not intended to insult the MP.

He accused Stewart of being financed by Bahrain and of acting as a "well-known defender" of the regime, the court heard.

The protester also claimed that during a trip to the country, Stewart had chanted "god save the king of Bahrain".

Mr Alwadaei went on to say if he did return to Bahrain, he would "undoubtedly be killed and tortured".

Paul Jarvis, prosecuting, said: "Mr Alwadaei felt upset and humiliated by what had taken place."

He added: "He (Stewart) demonstrated racial hostility towards Mr Alwadaei by way of his comments."

However, the prosecutor said Stewart "was not motivated by racial hostility", merely demonstrating it.

Mr Jarvis told the court Stewart later said he "regretted" the comments and that he should have ignored the protester.

Paul Cavin KC, defending, had argued: "There is no right to confront an MP in public and expect answers in a measured House of Commons way."

He added: "Any hostility was based on the complainant's behaviour, conduct and speech towards the defendant."

Parliamentary records show Stewart registered flights, accommodation and meals worth £5,349 during a four-day trip to Bahrain last November paid for by its ministry of foreign affairs.

A separate entry covered by the Bahraini government shows another trip, worth £1,245.56, to visit an air show and meet its foreign minister.

Mr Alwadaei alleged the country is "corrupt" and a "human rights violator".

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, 90, giving character evidence, said "kind" and "thoughtful" Stewart has a "flippant" manner, adding: "He is given to saying things that are unwise but his heart is absolutely in the right place."

Stewart had kept the Tory whip after being charged and denying the offence.

Sunak urged to expel MP guilty of racial abuse who told protester to ‘go back to Bahrain’

Jane Dalton
Fri, 3 November 2023

Rishi Sunak has been urged to remove the Tory whip from backbencher Bob Stewart after he was found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats led calls for the prime minister to act against the “totally unacceptable” behaviour of the former Army officer, who told an activist to “go back to Bahrain”.

Stewart, 74, also told Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei “you’re taking money off my country – go away!”

The MP for Beckenham in southeast London, who told the court he was not a racist, had claimed his “honour was at stake” during a row between them at a rally in central London.

In the exchange on 14 December last year, Mr Alwadaei shouted: “Bob Stewart, for how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?”

During the row outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House in Westminster, Stewart replied: “I didn’t. Now shut up, you stupid man.”

Footage played during a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court also showed that he said: “Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.”

Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring found Stewart, who had denied the charge, guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.

After giving his verdict, he fined the MP £600, with additional legal costs, bringing the total to £1,435.

Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said: “This is yet another serious Conservative scandal. This behaviour is totally unacceptable for a sitting MP. Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party need to immediately take action, and remove the Conservative whip.”

Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “It’s time Sunak finally acted with integrity. This should start with immediately removing the whip from Bob Stewart. Failing to remove the whip sends a dangerous message that behaviour like this is acceptable.

“Rishi Sunak has allowed his first year as prime minister to be dogged in sleaze and scandal; the very least he could do now is to finally crack down on it.”

Last year, The Independent revealed that Stewart, who has spoken in defence of the Bahraini regime in Parliament, has received at least £10,000 worth of hospitality and travel from the country’s rulers.

He has been paid to travel to the country on numerous occasions, with thousands of pounds spent on him each time.

The register of MPs’ interests shows that for the latest trip, the government of Bahrain provided him with flights worth £649.66, accommodation worth £428 and meals worth £167.90, all with a total value of £1,245.56.

In a speech in Bahrain, he said the country’s leadership had “done a very good job of changing the way it looks after its citizens” – before elections that were internationally condemned as a sham.

He also said: “I can say this now, as a British [citizen]: God save the King of England, and God save the King of Bahrain!”

Mr Alwadaei, director of the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and himself a political exile from the country, told The Independent last year he was devastated by Mr Stewart’s praise for the regime.

“As a Bahraini who was rendered stateless as a revenge tactic because I dared to protest the presence of Bahrain’s dictator who was visiting the UK, I cannot return to my country, simply because I took a stand for human rights,” he said.

“I’m devastated to see Bob Stewart going to Bahrain at the expense of the subjugated people of a corrupt dictatorship. Our people would not choose to finance an MP legitimising sham elections when opposition leaders languish behind bars.”

Since 2011 the Bahrainian government has banned several opposition parties. It has also tightened restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, according to human rights groups.

Stewart is on the intelligence and security committee of Parliament, the national security strategy committee and the Northern Ireland committee.

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

Israel-Hamas war: How much influence does Biden's America have over its ally?
ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NONE...

Sky News
Updated Sat, 4 November 2023

Maybe there will be a breakthrough in the hours or couple of days ahead.

But it doesn't feel likely from the language we've heard from the men (they are all men) driving the war and the diplomacy in this conflict.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, spent Friday in Israel meeting the Israeli leadership and Saturday in Jordan meeting Arab leaders.


He was threading the tightest of diplomatic needles: maintaining full support for Israel's right to defend itself while demonstrating to the world that America is capable of influencing events to bring about an end to civilian casualties.

The Israeli objectives are clear and perhaps summarised most succinctly by war minister Benny Gantz to me on Friday.

"Everything that happens in Gaza right now is rightly connected to break Hamas and release the hostages. All the rest are simply details."

Those "details" were outlined by the Jordanian foreign minister alongside Mr Blinken in Jordan.

He reminded the world that 3,700 children have died in Gaza in the last four weeks. That's more, he said, than all the children killed in all conflicts globally since 2019.

He added that the situation in Gaza will create "a sea of hatred that will define generations to come".

That's the deep long-term concern. The damage may already have been done - hatred sowed through events generated by the protagonists on both sides - but the extent of the impact depends, most immediately, on the ability to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.

What's the difference between a ceasefire and a humanitarian pause?

The Arab nations and the United Nations secretary-general are calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The Americans, the British and many other Western nations are choosing different language - a humanitarian pause.

What's the difference? A ceasefire is political in nature, providing parameters to allow for negotiations. There's no way Israel is anywhere near close to negotiations with anyone in Gaza. Even on hostages, they are clear: unconditional release now.

A humanitarian pause is, as the name suggests, humanitarian, not political. Its singular aim is to provide space for aid to get in and civilians to get out.

Israel believes aid will be passed to Hamas

So what's the problem? Well, Israel doesn't believe that the aid (fuel for hospitals included) won't be passed to Hamas for war purposes.

America's special envoy to the crisis, David Satterfield, said this weekend that he has not seen any attempts by Hamas to interfere with or take aid shipments destined for civilians from the few trucks allowed in last week.

But that hasn't prompted Israel to change course so far. It begs the question: how much influence does Biden's America really have over an ally that changed after the 7 October attacks?

Gaza fuel will only last a few days

What's at stake? Well beyond the colossal civilian death toll (and the lasting impact that will have) here are a few numbers passed to me by a senior UN official this weekend.

Gaza has about 160,000 litres of fuel left. That will last a few days. After that, the hospital generators shut down, the sewage system shuts down, and the lights go out.

There are about 9,000 cancer patients in Gaza right now. There are 1,000 dialysis patients, 50,000 pregnant women.

Some 5,000 women give birth every month in Gaza; that's about 160 babies born every day in hospitals under bombardment which could soon have no electricity.

These are the "details" as Israel responds in the only way it says it can to its darkest day exactly a month ago.

Schools and hospitals hit by strikes as Israel snubs US warnings with increased attacks in Gaza

Bel Trew
Sat, 4 November 2023 

Intense airstrikes by Israel on Gaza have damaged United Nations schools, hospitals and ambulance convoys, despite mounting pressure from the US and Arab states for Tel Aviv to allow humanitarian pauses.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu snubbed blunt warnings from Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, on Friday that Israel risks losing any hope of an eventual peace deal with the Palestinians unless it eases the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

A day later Mr Blinken, who has called for “localised pauses” in fighting over a blanket ceasefire, travelled to Amman, the capital of Jordan, to frantically lobby support from senior regional officials, who remain angry and deeply suspicious of Israel as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

In a rare public disagreement at a news conference, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, standing alongside Mr Blinken, repeatedly pushed for a total cessation of hostilities, saying the death of thousands of civilians could not be justified as self-defence.

An Israeli airstrike at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people (Reuters)

Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 9,250 Palestinians have been killed during the last month of war.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinians said at least five UN schools, sheltering displaced civilians, have been damaged in strikes in the last 48 hours, killing more than 40 people according to initial reports. The latest was a school in Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza which was hit twice on Saturday, killing as many as 15 people including children, according to the health ministry.

The Independent asked the Israeli military for comment but has yet to receive a reply.

The World Health Organisation said that on Friday three hospitals and an ambulance convoy have come under fire, killing and injuring dozens of people, attacks it said might “violate international law”.

Gaza’s health ministry said two more people were killed on Saturday in a strike by the gate of Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, now the heart of the combat zone.

“At least one strike hit the school yard where there were tents for displaced families,” Juliette Toma, a UNRWA spokesperson said of Saturday’s strike on the UN school. “Another strike hit inside the school where women were baking bread.”

The UN-run school in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip (Reuters)

The Israeli army has pounded Gaza from the air and sea, imposed a crippling siege and launched a ground assault, in retaliation for a deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel when militants killed hundreds of people and took dozens hostage.

One month in, the widening offensive in Gaza has stirred global alarm as humanitarian conditions in the strip collapse: food is scarce and medical services are shuttering.

Civilians have told The Independent of risking their lives to queue for bread for hours, and drinking dirty water. Doctors have spoken about operating without anaesthetic and using washing up liquid to clean wounds.

Israel has repeatedly ordered Palestinian civilians, including the wounded in hospital, to evacuate to the south of the country, as it has intensified its strikes and pushed ground forces deeper into the besieged area.

US special envoy David Satterfield said that while up to 1 million people had moved to the south of the Gaza Strip, some 350,000 to 400,000 still remained in northern Gaza City and its environs that have now become an intense combat zone.

The United Nations has said for many, especially the wounded in hospitals, evacuating would be impossible. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces hit a convoy of ambulances trying to head south twice on Friday resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries. Israel claimed responsibility for the attack saying they were targeting Hamas operatives that were hiding in ambulances.

Smoke rises following Israeli strikes in Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City on Saturday (EPA)

But it has raised serious concerns about safe routes out for civilians.

Israel said on Saturday it would try to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to evacuate from the north along central Salahuddin road after multiple reports the central and coastal roads to the south have been hit by Israeli tank fire and airstrikes.

Israel said the Saturday corridor attempt failed after their forces were attacked by Hamas militants.

Hamas “exploited the humanitarian window that the IDF provided to residents of the Gaza Strip to move southwards, and the terrorists fired mortars and anti-tank missiles at IDF troops who arrived and operated to open the route”, the army said.

Saturday’s meeting with Mr Blinken was convened by Jordanian foreign minister Ayman al-Safadi, who said the gathering was organised “in the context of their efforts aimed at stopping the Israeli war on Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing”.

Washington has tried to speak with Israel, Arab states and international organisations on the future of Gaza and has dismissed ceasefires in place of seeking localised humanitarian “pauses”.

“A ceasefire now would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7,” Mr Blinken said on Saturday as he engaged in frantic diplomacy in the region. He added: “No nation, none of us would accept that ... So it is important to reaffirm Israel’s right and its obligation to defend itself.”

But both Jordanian foreign minister Mr Safadi and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry appeared reluctant to openly discuss those conversations and instead zeroed in on the need for a ceasefire.

“The international community’s responsibility always is to seek the cessation of hostilities, not promote the continuance of violence,” Mr Shoukry said. “I think we need to get our priorities straight. Right now we have to make sure that this war stops.”

Sameh Shoukry, left, Ayman Safadi, centre, and Antony Blinken in Amman on Saturday (Getty)

Mr Safadi added: “What happens next – how can we even entertain what will happen in Gaza when we do not know what kind of Gaza will be left.”

Arab states are also concerned by the risk of the conflict spreading into the region.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militias backed by Iran have both launched attacks on Israel since 7 October, while Tehran-backed Iraqi Shia militias have been firing on US forces in Iraq and Syria.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati – who was the first to meet with Mr Blinken – stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza. Mr Mikati also said “Israeli aggression” in southern Lebanon must stop.

The US has grave concerns that Hezbollah, which has already stepped up rocket and cross-border attacks on northern Israel, will take a more active role in the conflict.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave his first major speech since the 7 October attacks on Israel. He did not forecast his group’s greater involvement despite professing it was not perturbed by US attempts to deter it and threatened that the US would “pay the heaviest price” if it did not reign in Israel.

Israel's bombing of a refugee camp could be a turning point. Even its closest allies are expressing concern.


Charles R. Davis
Sat, 4 November 2023 

The aftermath of an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza.REUTERS

Following Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, President Joe Biden pledged US support for Israel.


But US officials are increasingly concerned about Israel killing Palestinian civilians.


An IDF attack on a refugee camp this week, which killed dozens, caused alarm in Washington.

After the October 7 massacre, what else was there to say, as an American president, except that Israel — like any country on Earth — has the right to defend itself?

"And let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel's back," President Joe Biden said while on a stop in the country, about 72 hours after 1,400 people there had been slaughtered, some tortured first, some burned alive. "These atrocities," Biden said, "have been sickening."

About a month later, more than 9,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are now dead, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, most killed by one of the 10,000 bombs that Israel has dropped in its campaign to eliminate the militant group. At least 72 United Nations aid workers have also been killed, most inside their own homes, already far more than in any previous conflict.

Israel insists that, unlike Hamas, it does not target innocent people. But there can be no doubt that it is killing them, even if the militant group it's after shares the blame for using civilians as shields. And what the Israel Defense Forces considers a tolerable amount of "collateral damage" is not necessarily shared by its own allies.

A strike this week on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, for example, killed a senior Hamas commander, according to the IDF; it also killed dozens of civilians, prompting a UN official to suggest that Israel's actions may be "disproportionate" and tantamount to "war crimes."

It was also "jarring" to Israel's most important ally, according to CNN, which cited two sources familiar with the reaction in the White House, and may well mark a turning point in terms of US support for Israel — from steadfast, in the immediate aftermath of Hamas's butchery, to hesitant in the wake of Israel's savage response. Biden, in particular, "didn't like this at all," one person told CNN, referencing the attack on the refugee camp. The outlet noted that US officials have now repeatedly warned Israel, in private, that its killing of civilians, intended or not, is at the very least a strategic blunder that will leave the country isolated and endangered.

US concerns aren't just being expressed in private, though.

All along, even as it pledged weapons and moved its own military assets to the region, the Biden administration was publicly advising Israel to abide by international law, something you don't do if you think abiding by it is a given.

Operating under the theory that the best approach was that of a concerned friend, not one of Israel's many international critics, Biden himself warned Israel against being blinded by a desire for vengeance — "While you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it" — a warning he delivered as a piece of advice from a country that had failed to heed it itself: "After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes."

But warnings, after four weeks of bombardment, have now become admonishments. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that Israel, frankly, needs to "do more to protect Palestinian civilians." While still defending Israel's right to defend itself, Blinken said that right does not mean anything the IDF does is acceptable. "As Israel conducts this campaign to defeat Hamas, how it does so matters," Blinken said, speaking just after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The White House is now calling for a "humanitarian pause" to the fighting, imploring Israel to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip, where the civilian population is in dire need of fuel, food, and medical supplies.

And while no one in the administration is suggesting, yet, that the United States will pull back from supplying the IDF with more weapons, the point it is arguing — that every Palestinian civilian's life matters and that each life that's ended erodes public support and damages Israel's long-term security — is being ably demonstrated by the criticism now being aired by those who consider themselves friends of the Israeli people.

Sen. Dick Durbin, an influential Democrat from Illinois, is now echoing his party's progressive wing in calling for a cease-fire, albeit on terms Hamas is unlikely to accept: releasing the 240 hostages it has in Gaza, first, in exchange for Israel pausing its air campaign. Even so, the emphasis on diplomacy — on ending a conflict that has "reached an intolerable level" of violence — is a marked departure from the immediate aftermath of 9/11 (America's or Israel's).

The number of people calling for a "pause" or "cease-fire," who can't be accused of apologism for terror, only grows each time Israel is itself accused of an atrocity.

"I share Israel's desire to destroy the threat from Hamas," Sen. Chris Murphy, a liberal Democrat from Connecticut, said this week. "But the way in which the current campaign is being waged — most recently evidenced by the terribly high human cost of the strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp — suggests that they have not struck the right balance between military necessity and proportionality."

The question, though, is what these concerned allies are going to do about it. Israel is led by a prime minister who has lost the confidence of his people, blamed for presiding over what may be the worst security failure in the country's history — a man accused of valuing first and foremost his own political "survival," and whose only redemption may well be in the form of Hamas being utterly destroyed, whatever the cost.

If Netanyahu ignores the private warnings and public advice and insists on driving his country into a moral and strategic abyss, will Israel's powerful friends step up and take away the keys?

Video seems to show Hamas fighter running up to an Israeli tank, planting an explosive on it, then shooting it

Mia Jankowicz
Updated Fri, 3 November 2023 

A still from footage released by Hamas' Al-Qassam brigade on November 2 2023, showing the moment a fighter places a device on an Israeli tank.Al-Qassam Brigades/Telegram

Hamas' fighters released footage purporting to show an Israeli tank under attack.


It's one of a number of videos documenting the group's guerrilla tactics against heavy armor.

The IDF said it has killed Hamas' head of anti-tank units.

Hamas released footage that appears to show the guerrilla-style destruction of an Israeli tank in Gaza.

In what appears to be helmet-cam footage, the fighter spies a number of tanks from behind bushes. He then rushes out and places an explosive on one of them, before dashing away.

From behind cover, he fires a rocket-propelled grenade and a brief burst of flame is seen in the distance. The tank struck appears to be one of Israel's Merkava main battle tanks.

In a second clip, a fighter picks up pieces of metal detritus, with the captions claiming they are the remains of the same tank.

The video, released on Thursday, can be seen in this post on X:

The explosion may have been the result of the Merkava's Trophy active protection system activating, as The Drive reported.

Insider was unable to verify the footage, and a spokesperson for the IDF declined to comment.

It's one of several videos released by the Al-Qassam Brigade, the wing of Hamas that led the mass assault on October 7. Both Hamas and Al-Qassam are separately designated as terrorist organizations by an array of countries.

According to commentary attached to the video on the group's channels, the fighter fired an Al-Yassin-105 shell at the tank, which was said to be east of Gaza's Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

The IDF said on Wednesday that it killed the head of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, Muhammad A'sar, in an air strike, according to Sky News.

Israel's troops moved two miles into Gaza on Monday, according to a CNN analysis. The IDF says it lost 16 fighters in the ground operation, per Sky News.

Hamas claims to have destroyed several tanks in Gaza since then.

Helmet-cam footage shared on Wednesday appeared to show tanks being targeted by fighters from tunnels and from behind brush cover, in strikes the group says were also east of Al-Zaytoun.

Following Israel's declaration of war on Hamas, the commander of Israel's armored corps, Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim told The Economist that the forces' tank divisions would not repeat the mistakes made by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

"They fought there in a single-corps fashion, instead of using combined arms tactics," Ibrahim said.

That is to say, Israel wouldn't be sending tank formations out alone — as Russia so disastrously did — but would use them in combination with infantry, artillery, air cover and intelligence support.

That video did not align with that — there were no visible infantry or other forces who acted to stop the Hamas fighter. Some commentators said that Israel had made a mistake by not posting infantry near its tank.

Tanks in general have been shown to be far more vulnerable to highly-powered, inexpensive munitions in recent conflicts. In Russia's case, large numbers of tanks were left to be picked off from a safe distance by Ukraine's nimble forces.

Analysts have predicted that Israel's fight in Gaza — which has seen massive civilian destruction — would not be a lightning offensive.

Shlomo Brom, an IDF director of strategic planning, told The Guardian that taking the north of Gaza — where the IDF believes most of Hamas is based — "will be slow, very hard."

Leftist Democrats invoke human rights law in scrutiny of Israel military aid
Robert Tait in Washington
Fri, 3 November 2023 


Leftwing Democrats in Congress have invoked a landmark law barring assistance to security forces of governments deemed guilty of human rights abuses to challenge the Biden administration’s emergency military aid program for Israel.

Members of the Democratic party’s progressive wing say the $14.3bn package pledged by the White House after the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis breaches the Leahy Act because Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has overwhelmingly harmed civilians. An estimated 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, among them 3,700 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas.

The act, sponsored by the former Democratic senator Patrick Leahy and passed in 1997, prohibits the US defence and state departments from rendering security assistance to foreign governments facing credible accusations of rights abuses. The law was originally designed only to refer to narcotics assistance, but was later expanded, with amendments covering assistance from both state department and Pentagon budgets

Several governments, some of them key US allies, are believed to have been denied assistance under the law, including Turkey, Colombia and Mexico.

Proponents of applying the act to Israel point to the rising death toll in Gaza from military strikes on the territory, the displacement of more than 1 million people from their homes and a surging humanitarian crisis after Israeli authorities cut water, food, fuel and electricity supplies.

“I am very concerned that our taxpayer dollars may be used for violations of human rights,” said the congressman Andre Carson of Indiana in an email to the Guardian, in which he accused Israel of “war crimes”, citing this week’s deadly bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp and the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) alleged use of white phosphorus.

“Last year, I voted to provide $3 billion dollars of strategic and security assistance to Israel. But we must absolutely make sure that none of those funds are used inappropriately, in violation of US law like the Leahy Act, or in violation of international law.”

But earlier this week, the Biden administration said it was not placing any limits on how Israel uses the weapons provided to it by the US. “That is really up to the Israel Defense Force to use in how they are going to conduct their operations,” a Pentagon spokesperson, Sabrina Singh, said on Monday. “But we’re not putting any constraints on that.”

The Israeli government and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have so far not responded to calls for a humanitarian pause and have rejected calls for a ceasefire, as demanded by some progressive Democrats.

Joe Biden promised a lavish military aid package to Israel in an Oval Office speech after visiting the country following the Hamas attack. US commandos are currently in Israel helping to locate an estimated 240 hostages, the number given by IDF, including American citizens, seized in the assault, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Carson, one of three Muslims in Congress, said he previously raised concerns about possible Leahy Act violations last year after the shooting death of the US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank. An Israeli investigation subsequently admitted there was a “high probability” that she had been killed by Israeli gunfire, after initially blaming Palestinians.

Usamah Andrabi, the communications director for Justice Democrats – a political action committee that helped elect leftwing House members nicknamed “the Squad”, which include some of Congress’s most vocal advocates for Palestinian rights – also invoked the Leahy legislation.

“I think the Leahy Act should absolutely be looked into right now, when we are seeing gross violations of human rights,” he said. “[The Israelis] are targeting refugee camps, hospitals, mosques all under the guise of self-defense or that one or other member of Hamas is hiding there. It doesn’t matter whether Hamas is there or not, because you are targeting civilians. No amount of tax dollars should be justified for that.”

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Deployment of white phosphorus near populated civilian areas is a war crime.’ Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Like Carson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most high-profile members of “the Squad”, specifically identified the supposed use of white phosphorus – as claimed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International – as a transgression that should disqualify Israel from receiving US assistance. The IDF had said it does not use white phosphorus against civilians, but didn’t clarify whether it was used at the time.

“Deployment of white phosphorus near populated civilian areas is a war crime,” she said. “The United States must adhere to our own laws and policies, which prohibit US aid from assisting forces engaged in gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

Congressional calls for scrutiny over US funding for Israel predate the current war in Gaza.

Last May, Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, introduced the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation bill, designed to prohibit US funds from being used to enforce Israeli occupation policies in the West Bank.

“Not $1 of US aid should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish families’ homes, or permanently annex Palestinian lands,” McCollum said at the time. “The United States provides billions in assistance for Israel’s government each year – and those dollars should go toward Israel’s security, not toward actions that violate international law and cause harm.”

The bill, which has not passed, was co-sponsored by 16 other House Democrats – including some who have not supported the current calls for a ceasefire – and endorsed by 75 civil society groups, including Amnesty, HRW and J Street.

McCollum’s office did not respond to questions over whether she now supported extending her bill to Gaza or using the Leahy Act to block Biden’s emergency fund package.

In a speech on the Senate floor this week, the senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont called Israel’s Gaza campaign “morally unacceptable and a violation of international law” but stopped short of opposing Biden’s assistance program.

Instead, he demanded a “clear promise” from Israel that displaced Palestinians will be allowed to return to their homes after fighting stops and for the abandonment of efforts to annex the West Bank, a territory claimed by Palestinians as part of a future state.

Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday. Photograph: Reuters

“The United States must make it clear that these are the conditions for our solidarity,” he said.

In a letter to the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, Sanders and five other Democratic senators – Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Peter Welch and Mazie Hirono – said they supported approving Biden’s proposed overall $106bn aid package to Israel, Ukraine and other foreign crisis areas “without delay”.

But they demanded that an equal sum be allocated to “domestic emergencies”, including childcare, primary health care and the opioid epidemic.

A separate letter the six sent to Biden asks a series of searching questions about Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

“We have serious concerns about what this invasion and potential occupation of Gaza will mean, both in terms of the long-term security of Israel and the well-being of the Palestinian residents of Gaza,” it says. “Congress needs more information about Israel’s long-term plans and goals, as well as the United States Government’s assessments of those prospects.”

Iranian activist who took iconic picture of woman’s defiance tells of her Tehran jail hell

Liz Perkins
Sat, 4 November 2023 

Yalda Moaiery at the International Women's Media Foundation 2023 Courage in Journalism Awards - Vince Bucci/Getty Images

An Iranian political activist has told The Telegraph how she was kept in solitary confinement and tortured while being held in a notorious jail in Tehran.

Photojournalist Yalda Moaiery, 42, came to the attention of Iranian authorities after Donald Trump, the former US president, tweeted her photograph of a demonstration at Tehran University - changing her life forever.

Mr Trump shared the iconic image of a female student raising a clenched fist after a smoke grenade was fired by Iranian riot police in December 2017, in protest at the country’s economic situation.

He did so to mark the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and in the caption he wrote: “40 years of corruption, 40 years of repression, 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only 40 years of failure. The long-suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future.”

But Ms Moaiery became a target for authorities after her photograph gained such prominence and she told The Telegraph it led to her time behind bars at the brutal Evin Prison.
‘There were conflicts with the police’

She said: “I took that in 2017 and it was a demonstration. People were protesting over the economic situation at that time.

“I took that picture at Tehran University and there were some conflicts between the students and guards and police.

“Suddenly that girl went to the main door of the university and raised her hand to protest and I took that picture suddenly there.

“One year after that, nothing happened from the system but one year later Donald Trump used that on his Twitter. It was for the 40th anniversary of the revolution and he wrote something against the system and everything.

“Everything started at that time. They started to arrest me, asking me a lot of questions - the interrogations took like one year.

“After that, they sentenced me to two years in jail, it still remains and I have to go to jail if I go back to Iran. My life changed after that picture.”

Last year, she was arrested again and on Sept 19 2022, she was taken to Qarchak Prison for two months before being moved to solitary confinement in Evin Prison in Tehran.

She was jailed in the wake of the mass demonstration, which marked the first day of the movement Women Life Freedom.

“They wrapped my scarf like a rope under my neck and they pushed me to a van. The sexual abuse happened in the last seconds before they wanted to put me into the van,” she said.

“In the first hours, they didn’t even recognise me, they thought I was a normal person. When we were going to the police station, they asked for my social security number, they recognised me and everything changed.

“I was told I had two months in public prison in Qarchak Prison and one month in a solitary cell in Evin Prison - the [in]famous one.

“Public prison you know I could handle it. It’s like high school or something, a lot of women are living together.

“We didn’t have good access to baths or toilets. We didn’t have enough food, bread, water. We didn’t have enough oxygen.”

She added: “The solitary cell is completely different, it was really hard for me to handle it. I was thinking of killing myself because of those conditions.

“My interrogations would be at night. It’s a torture technique actually.

“For example, when you are going to rest, you are going to sleep. I was taking a shower and they started knocking and say you have to get ready and go to another dark place and sit in front of them.

Yalda's 2017 picture of an Iranian woman raising her fist amid the smoke of tear gas in Tehran

 - Yalda Moaiery/AFP/Getty Images

“I couldn’t see them at all. It was a very very small place, they covered a mirror and I could only see myself there.

“This place is the worst place that you could ever imagine - the name of that place is the end of the world.”

She was released on bail and after several months was one of 80,000 people to receive the amnesty of the country’s leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Her bravery during her 23-year career has taken her to the Middle East and Africa and has recently had her work published in The Washington Post.

Ms Moaiery was recently honoured by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s 34th Annual Courage in Journalism Awards at the Washington DC home of the publication’s proprietor and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez

“It was amazing, one of the best ceremonies. Between the three, that one was amazing,” she said.

“Mr Bezos was very friendly and cool, it was great.

“After my speech, he shook my hand and Miss Sanchez hugged me. He said, ‘I’m really interested by you’ and he was very kind to me. I appreciate that.”
‘It was great honour’

She was awarded the Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award for her incredible strength and perseverance despite being arrested and detained in Tehran, leading her to also be honoured at the Los Angeles home of the US journalist Willow Bay, who is married to Disney managing director Bob Iger.

“It was a great honour for me to meet Bob Iger, he was so kind and nice to me,” she said.

“I was super-lucky to meet these people during this trip.”

A final awards ceremony was held in New York at the Bank of America in recognition of the media industry’s most intrepid women.

Anti-hijab protests 'changed Iran and its prisons', says freed researcher


Joris FIORITI
Sat, 4 November 2023 

Adelkhah has spent much of the last half decade in an Iranian jail

 (JOEL SAGET)

The protest movement that erupted in Iran last year has transformed the country both outside and also inside prison, a French-Iranian academic, who returned to Paris last month after being held in the country since 2019, told AFP.

Fariba Adelkhah was finally allowed to leave Iran in October after a four-and-a-half year ordeal that began with her sudden arrest in 2019 and saw her spend years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

But there she was also able to witness the courage of her fellow women inmates, who included this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, amid the "Woman. Life. Freedom." protests.

Female political prisoners have often sung together in a show of defiance, Adelkhah, who was released from prison in February but remained unable to leave Iran for months, told AFP in an interview in Paris.

That movement "has changed Iranian society and also its prisons," said Adelkhah.

The movement, calling for the end of Iran's imposition of a headscarf on all women and clerical rule, was sparked by the death in Iranian custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

She died after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's dress rules for women.

Iranian security forces have cracked down on the protests in the country, killing hundreds, according to rights groups, and have executed seven men in cases connected to the protests.

Adelkhah said that in Evin the resistance movement brought together people from all walks of life -- including rights activists, environmentalists, political opponents, and representatives of religious minorities.

"We became united by this cause," said the 64-year-old researcher in Iranian Shiite religion and politics.

She herself was arrested on June 5, 2019, at Tehran's airport, where she was waiting for her companion Roland Marchal. Neatly-dressed security agents "very respectfully" asked her to follow them, she said.

Several hours later she was questioned for the first time, her head "facing the wall."

- 'Psychological humiliation' -

She would be subjected to many other interrogations in the future but she was never hit, Adelkhah said.

"This happens very often to men, but I never heard women mention it when I was detained," she said.

"But the absence of physical violence does not prevent constant psychological humiliation," she quickly added.

Others including rights activist Mohammadi have spoken of the sexual abuse of detainees in prisons.

The researcher was eventually sentenced to six years in prison. A five-year term was handed down for "colluding with foreigners" and one for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic," she said.

Marchal, a French sociologist specialising in sub-Saharan Africa, was arrested together with Adelkhah. He was released in March 2020 as part of a prisoner exchange between Tehran and Paris.

"I still don't understand what I was accused of," sighed Adelkhah, smiling.

While in jail Adelkhah, along with another prisoner, Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, staged a hunger strike that lasted 50 days.

They were among some two dozen Western passport holders held in Iran in what activists and some governments have termed a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking.

Some have now been released, including all the American detainees, but around a dozen Europeans are still believed to be held, including four French nationals.

- 'Space of combat' -

The "Woman. Life. Freedom." protest movement has seen women prisoners defy prison authorities in Evin.

In the jail, located in the hills of northern Tehran, female prisoners are bareheaded when they are among themselves, but are required to cover themselves if a man enters or if they have to go to the hospital.

After the start of the protests, "nearly no one wore the veil" when a man entered, said Adelkhah.

On Wednesday, Iranian prison authorities have blocked the jailed rights activist Mohammadi's hospital transfer for urgently needed care over her refusal to wear the compulsory hijab, according to her family.

Adelkhah praised the 51-year-old journalist and activist, seen as one of the women spearheading the uprising who has been repeatedly jailed and has been imprisoned again since 2021.

She said Mohammadi has turned prison into "a space of combat, of protest par excellence", adding that she was "more heard" in jail than when she is outside.

The researcher was still in Iran when Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in early October. She said she saw "smiles" in the streets.

While the government quashed the daily protests with its repression, the slogan "Woman. Life. Freedom." has become part of Iranian culture, she argued.

"The Islamic Republic is forced to give ground over many things," said Adelkhah.

Today like-minded Iranian women greet each other when they go out without their headscarves. Before it was "unthinkable," said the researcher.

Now they tell each other: '"You are so beautiful!'"

jf-as/sjw/rox

'Britain's loneliest sheep' rescued from remote shore in Scottish highlands

Sky News
Updated Sat, 4 November 2023 



"Britain's loneliest sheep" has been rescued by a group of farmers in the Scottish highlands.

Fiona, as she has been called, was stranded at the foot of some cliffs for at least two years.

Now, though, she has been recovered using "heavy equipment", said Cammy Wilson, a sheep farmer from Ayrshire.


While she is "over-fat" and it was "some job lifting her up", she is in "incredible fettle", Mr Wilson added.

Fiona was spotted on a shingle beach by a resident of Brora while kayaking in 2021, The Northern Times reported.

Jillian Turner took the same journey last month and saw the ewe again.

"She called out on our approach and followed the group along the shore, jumping from rock to rock, calling to us the whole way," she told the newspaper.

"The poor ewe has been on her own for at least two years - for a flock animal that has to be torture, and she seemed desperate to make contact with us on the two occasions we've gone past her."

The Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was in attendance for the rescue and Fiona is in "good bodily condition, apart from needing to be sheared".

It added: "She will now be taken to a specialist home within Scotland to rest and recover. We are delighted that [she] is ready to start her new life."

Mr Wilson said: "Britain's loneliest sheep is lonely no more."

UK

LICENSE OWNERS NOT DOGS
Ban on XL bully dogs ‘will leave abandoned strays roaming the streets’

ITS THE OWNER NOT THE BREED

Joe Pinkstone
Sat, 4 November 2023

Don't Ban Me - License Me spokeswoman Sophie Coulthard with her XL bully Billy - Paul Grover

The ban on XL bully dogs could lead to a large number of them being abandoned on the streets as strays, charities have warned.

It will be illegal to sell, breed or abandon an XL bully type dog from Jan 1 2024 and it will be an offence to own one from Dec 31 unless the animal is registered to the Index of Exempted Dogs.

In the latest incident on Friday, two people were taken to hospital with serious injuries after an attack by a suspected XL bully.


One woman reportedly fell out of the window of the flat where the attack happened on Friday night in Mansfield, said Nottinghamshire Police.

The large dog, believed to be an XL bully, was seized from a nearby property and taken to secure kennels.

Campaigners against the ban on American XL bully dogs have launched a legal challenge to the Government asking for the planned ban to be scrapped in favour of tightening laws around breeding and owning dogs, and educating owners.

Campaigners from Don’t Ban Me – License Me, largely made up of XL bully owners, have raised more than £50,000 towards a Judicial Review and plan to ask the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to rethink its plans to ban the breed.

John Cooper KC, the campaigners’ barrister, sent a Pre-Action Protocol in Judicial Review to Therese Coffey, the Environment Secretary, last Thursday, Nov 2.
Knee-jerk reaction

He said “It was a knee-jerk reaction done too quickly without proper consideration of the evidence – much of the evidence hasn’t been examined at all, and some of it is wrong.

“The public must be protected, but the Government’s decision does not protect them. The Dangerous Dogs Act of l99l didn’t stop dog bites or fatalities – in fact there are more fatalities and bites now than then.

“The way forward isn’t to add XL bullies to the banned list, but for owners to have proper control over their animals, and for there to be severe penalties for dog owners who don’t take their responsibilities seriously.

“Vets being asked to euthanise any XL bully dogs who don’t have an exemption certificate by the end of January 2024 say they can’t administer it. This ban is an ill thought-out mess.”

The ban has been called a “death sentence” and some charities, such as Dogs Trust, have already said they will not take in any more XL bully dogs because they have a policy of never putting down a healthy dog..

Animal charities told the Telegraph that any dogs in their care in 2024 will most likely have to be euthanised because it would be unethical to keep them in a kennel for the rest of their lives, which is the only other option, and many shelters are already full.

As a result, there are fears owners forced to relinquish their dogs will abandon them on the streets because it is the best chance the animal has at survival.

An owner can have the dog euthanised by a vet and get £200 compensation from the Government, or the dog can be given to a charity for rehoming until the end of the year. A charity will get £100 compensation from the Government for euthanising an XL bully.
Unscrupulous owners

The more unscrupulous owners may also opt for at-home destruction of animals too, to avoid veterinary costs, now the business of breeding and selling XL Bullys is outlawed.

Dr Sam Gaines, head of the companion animals team at the RSPCA, told the Telegraph: “It is now our fear that, as a result of this ban, we will see more dogs being abandoned and surrendered.

“In most cases, we expect that owners who are not going to be able to keep their dogs will do the responsible thing and not just abandon them on the street, but I think we have to expect that there will be some dogs that will be abandoned.

“We are going to end up with lots of authorities that are going to have to go out and collect those dogs and then euthanise them.”

Coventry council has reportedly seen a small rise in the number of stray XL bully dogs already this year. It is the statutory duty of the local authority to collect stray dogs where they are kept in a council pound for a week and their owners sought. In normal cases the stray will enter the rehoming process after seven days but if the dog meets the XL bully definition then it will be destroyed as of 2024.

However, some councils have already said they will not collect a stray dog if it is suspected it is an XL bully. Colchester and Cumberland councils have said the dog is too dangerous for their staff to collect and are in talks with their local police forces to help collect suspected stray XL bullys, for example.

‌This will add an additional burden on the dog units of local police forces which will be tasked with assessing if every XL bully in the country meets the definition laid out by Defra this week.

‌The definition of what an XL bully is includes descriptors of head size, height, muscularity and other physical features but was made without the input of the leading UK dog experts who withdrew from talks with the Government because of concerns it was too vague and broad a description.

‌The Government’s definition could also cover non-XL bully breeds, the experts say, with other bulldogs, mastiffs and some mongrels likely to inadvertently meet the XL bully criteria.

‌“Defra has been told that one of the big unintended consequences of having a broad definition is that potentially hundreds of thousands of dogs are going to be caught up in this,” Becky Thwaites, head of public affairs at Blue Cross, told the Telegraph.
Increased levels of euthanasia

‌Since the ban was formally announced on Tuesday, shelters have seen a surge in inquiries, with owners of an XL bully trying to figure out the best course of action.

‌“We’ve already been taking an increased number of calls from owners who are really worried about what this announcement means for them,” said Ms Thwaites.

‌“There’s going to be thousands of dogs who are going to be coming into organisations like ourselves, and it’s going to be a real challenge to rehome them. Ultimately, these pets are going to have to be put to sleep based purely on a law that we know actually isn’t even going to improve public safety.

‌“We are planning for increased levels of euthanasia over the next three months.”

‌She added that staff in the rescue sector are distraught at the prospect of spending months killing thousands of XL Bully dogs.

‌“I think we’ve got to be very realistic that the likelihood of being able to rehome some of these dogs is going to be very, very difficult,” Ms Thwaites said.

‌“The only thing we can do [with surrendered XL Bullys] is to keep it in a kennel for the rest of its life and that is not something from a welfare point of view that we could ever do.

‌“We aren’t able to provide the stimulation that a dog would need. It is a death sentence for dogs, that much we know.”

UK

Labour wants local authorities to have power to shut undersubscribed academy schools

Academy schools could be shut under Labour plans - Owen Humphreys/PA

Labour is planning a major reversal of Michael Gove’s education reforms by giving councils powers to close down undersubscribed academy schools, The Telegraph can reveal.

Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, wants to give local authorities a beefed-up role to help manage a demographic bust of primary aged children which will require closing schools across the country.

However, the move will raise concerns among academy supporters that Labour is rolling back parental choice and competition between schools which can help to drive up standards. (THIS IS THE NORTH AMERICAN SCHOOL MODEL DOES NOT IMPROVE STANDARDS)

According to figures published by the Department for Education (DfE) last month, the number of children attending state nurseries and primary schools is projected to fall by more than 400,000 from 4,593,497 this year to 4,180,930 in 2028.

Reduction in birth numbers since 2013

The DfE said the trend is “primarily due” to “continued reductions in the birth numbers since 2013”, although “there was a larger drop in the population in 2021 which may have been connected to the pandemic”.

The demographic trend will mean that some schools will have to close because the decline in their pupil numbers will make them unviable.

The situation is not currently as acute in secondary schools, where numbers are expected to peak in 2024 or 2025 before beginning their decline.

In London, the contraction in primary numbers is already under way, with Hackney council planning to close four of its own schools at the end of this academic year.

However, academies are outside local authority control, meaning councils have no powers to compel them to reduce their pupil rolls or close.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson meets pupils

 - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Labour thinks the Conservatives’ education reforms have made the schools system too fragmented, with the party intending to hand local authorities a crucial role overseeing place planning and managing the decline in numbers.

Under Ms Phillipson’s plans, councils would be responsible for coordinating how many places should be provided across different schools and which should remain open.

A Labour spokesman said: “Labour’s priority is the same priority as parents’: for every child, a good local school where children are happy and get the first-class education they all deserve.

“That’s why Labour’s focus will be on ensuring that academies, multi-academy trusts, maintained schools and local authorities work together to deliver high and rising standards for every child.

“Labour will require all schools to cooperate with their local authority on admissions, special educational needs and disabilities inclusion and place planning, making all branches of the education system work together more effectively so that we drive high and rising standards in our schools despite the challenging fiscal environment.”

The approach was hinted at by a set of amendments which Labour put forward for the Schools Bill last year - a piece of legislation to rationalise the schools system which the Government has since abandoned.

Labour sought to strip away some of the freedoms currently afforded to academies, with control over their admissions handed to local authorities.

The party’s latest plans are likely to be welcomed by councils.

Fears of dilution of education market

Earlier this year, London Councils, a cross-party group representing the capital’s boroughs, said that the Government needed to “give local authorities the power to manage an academy’s reduction of published admission numbers or closure, where there is clear evidence of a significant drop in demand and a need to act to ensure a school remains viable”.

However, supporters of Mr Gove’s reforms will see it as the dilution of an education market in which schools sink or swim based on whether they can attract parents by demonstrating high standards.

A Conservative source said: “Everything we’ve done as a Conservative government has driven up the standards in schools - with 88 per cent now rated good or outstanding up from just 68 per cent under Labour. A big part of that has been the expansion of multi-academy trusts and moving away from local authority control.”

The source claimed that Labour was motivated by “ideology” and a wish to restore power to local authorities, rather than what is best for children’s futures.

UK
Labour considering ‘robot tax’ for firms that replace staff with AI

Will Hazell
Sat, 4 November 2023 

Will artificial intelligence wipe out jobs? - Chainarong Prasertthai/iStockphoto

Labour frontbenchers have been considering a “robot tax” that would target companies that sack staff and replace them with artificial intelligence, The Telegraph can disclose.

The idea has been raised during discussions with third-party organisations, and was suggested by Alex Davies-Jones, the shadow minister for technology and digital economy, at a fringe event at last month’s Labour conference.

It suggests a possible revival of a “robot tax” mooted during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

However, the party has since sought to play down Ms Davies-Jones’s comments.

The breakneck speed with which AI is advancing has raised the prospect of huge swathes of the economy becoming automated in the coming years, with the investment bank Goldman Sachs predicting earlier this year that AI had the potential to replace 300 million jobs globally.

Speaking at a Labour conference event organised by the think tank Demos, Ms Davies-Jones suggested that the tax system could be used to discourage AI-related redundancies.
UK sees ‘very real threats’

Ms Davies-Jones said that the UK was already seeing “very real threats” involving “AI taking jobs”, with the issue being felt in her constituency of Pontypridd in South Wales “where we’re seeing automation come in”.

“We’ve all seen it in our shops where there’s no longer people on the tills, you have all of these machines working, people are losing their job. We’ve seen big employers cutting jobs and claiming AI is a result of that.”

She then went on to suggest that companies making such decisions could be required to pay more tax.

“What we’re saying is that if you’re a big business and you’re coming to the UK and you are potentially cutting jobs, then you’re saving money, so where should that money be going back?

Alex Davies-Jones - ROGER HARRIS

“Should you be investing that money back to the taxpayer? Should that money be coming back to government?”

She suggested that companies using AI to create jobs could likewise see their tax bills go down.

“If you’re a business and you want to come to the UK and you’re creating jobs because of AI, then should we be giving you those incentives to do so? That’s definitely something we’re looking at in terms of policy.”

Ms Davies-Jones acknowledged that a Labour government would need to be careful that its policies did not scare international companies away.
‘We have to get the balance right’

“We don’t want them to leave us and go elsewhere,” she said. “So it’s about how we get that balance right.”

A spokesman for the party said: “Ideas that are not Labour Party policy are discussed at fringe events at the Labour Party conference.

“The Labour Party has no plan to tax business for using AI. Our policy is to harness the potential of AI to deliver better public services and get the economy growing.

“Labour recognises that because of Tory failure to grow the economy, the tax burden is at its highest level for 70 years. Labour’s plans would bring stability and economic security to make working people better off.”

NOT JUST A TAX....

THE MOB'S CROONER
Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia, review: a compelling tale of a very glitzy bromance

Anita Singh
Sat, 4 November 2023 

John F Kennedy and Frank Sinatra attend a Democratic Committee dinner in Los Angeles in 1960 - Benjamin E 'Gene' Forte/Getty Images/CNP

“The Rat Pack was the Mount Rushmore of men having fun,” someone said at the beginning of Kennedy, Sinatra and the Mafia (Channel 4), which is the sort of quote that gets my attention. Mind you, it’s not difficult to be seduced by this story, which takes us from the tenements of Hoboken to the glamour of Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

Despite the title, it is more Frank Sinatra’s story, with John F Kennedy playing second fiddle. It wasn’t that way in real life. “Sinatra, all his life, could never totally glory in his own genius because he always saw himself as lesser than, and Jack Kennedy was class incarnate. Sinatra was helplessly and hopelessly and pitifully drawn towards what he considered ‘class’ because he didn’t think he had any, and Jack Kennedy was the whole package.” That’s the opinion of James Kaplan, a Sinatra biographer and one of many engaging contributors to this lively history.

To understand Sinatra’s mindset, the film documented his humble roots and a rise aided at almost every step by the mobsters whom he idolised from childhood. When he suffered a career slump in the early 1950s, it was the Mafia who stepped in, offering him gigs at their clubs. On the up again, he was introduced to Kennedy, then a rising political star. A friendship developed which benefited both men – proximity to power for Sinatra, access to showbusiness and beautiful women for Kennedy – but Sinatra felt genuine affection, it was suggested here, whereas for Kennedy it was a means to an end.

Sinatra and the Mob helped to get Kennedy into the White House, but there the relationship cooled. Told that he had to call off a planned stay at Sinatra’s compound in Palm Springs – FBI director J Edgar Hoover had caught wind of a love triangle involving the president, his mistress and Mob boss Sam Giancana – Kennedy went to stay at Bing Crosby’s house instead. Sinatra, who had gone to great lengths to ready his home for the presidential visit, felt so humiliated that he smashed up the newly installed helicopter pad with a sledgehammer.

Sometimes the commentary strayed from fact to what feels like fiction – did Sinatra and Kennedy really experience their first meeting as a “thunderbolt”, as Kaplan suggests? Does the Mob focus skew the emphasis, as when biographer Robbyn Swan claimed that the star’s career came to a halt “because the world began to notice that he was associated with organised crime” and no other reasons? It’s difficult to know the answer to these questions without doing more research. But it’s the sign of a decent documentary that it leaves you wanting to go and find out more.