South Africa election: ANC losing majority in early results


Results from South Africa's general election are expected in the coming days© Provided by DW - South Africa

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday was on the path to losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in three decades since coming into power.

South Africans voted on Wednesday in the 7th general elections since the dawn of democracy, although since 1994, never before has the future of South Africa's political landscape looked so unclear.

What we know about the results

Partial election results with 42.8% of the votes counted had the ANC with 42.7%, far below the 50% threshold needed for a majority in parliament. The party won 57.5% of votes during the previous election in 2019.

The country's pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) has 23.57%, while the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are neck and neck with the newly formed uMkhontowe Sizwe party (MK) of former President Jacob Zuma, with 9.53% and 10.08% respectively.

The potential loss of a parliamentary majority could result in the ANC being forced into a coalition for the first time since coming into power in 1994.
What we know about the counting process

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said that all votes had been counted by Thursday afternoon but most had yet to be validated.

The IEC said in a briefing that the process was "proceeding well," however it was going to take longer than the usual 24 hours to reach an 80% tally due to the new three-ballot system

The new system is comprised of a national ballot of the 52 parties vying for 200 National Assembly seats.

There is also a regional ballot of political parties and independent candidates contesting seats reserved for each province in the National Assembly.

This is followed by a provincial ballot, unique to each of the country's nine provinces and includes parties and candidates vying for seats in each provincial legislature.

The final results are expected in the next three days.
Elections 'a serious test for the ANC'

DW correspondent Dianne Hawker has been tracking developments in South Africa and said that Wednesday's vote was "a serious test for the ANC government," adding that there have been "a lot of concerns raised by citizens about how the ANC has managed the government over the last 30 years."


"We are seeing the result of that management in the results we are seeing coming from the IEC national results center at the moment," Hawker explained. The results seen thus far "can be taken almost as a referendum of their conduct up until this point."

Who the ANC chooses as an alliance partner if the current picture remains unchanged was anyone's guess Hawker said.

"There are so many parties participating in this election and to be quite honest it's quite difficult to give a prediction this early on as to who they could choose to get into a coalition with if they do."

"Part of the reason for that is that the ideological backgrounds of these parties varies significantly and everybody of course wants their own policies to come to the fore."

kb/fb (Reuters, AP)

An arresting picture of a child in Rafah that should end the supply of arms to Israel

The Guardian

Thu, 30 May 2024


Mike Godridge was transfixed by the look in this boy’s eyes and says ‘the UK should immediately cut off the supply of arms to this out-of-control regime in Israel’.Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty

I was transfixed by the look in the eyes of the boy in the centre of the photo of devastation in Gaza (‘Bodies everywhere’: the horrors of Israel’s strike on a Rafah camp, 29 May). This is no “tragic mishap”, but an act of war. Instead of platitudes, the UK should immediately cut off the supply of arms to this out-of-control regime in Israel.
Mike Godridge
Brampton, Cumbria

Haaretz stories cast doubt on health of Israel’s ‘democracy’

Haaretz staffer says he was told by a senior official that he would ‘suffer the consequences’ if he publishes the story.


Cohen served as the Mossad chief from 2016 to 2021 under the previous term of Netanyahu as prime minister [File: Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images]

Published On 30 May 2024

Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published two eyebrow-raising pieces in a row that cast doubts on Israel’s democratic norms.

On Wednesday, it published an opinion piece by Jonathan Pollak with chunks of text redacted, referencing a standing gag order preventing media from discussing “administrative detention” – a system under which Israeli forces hold Palestinians indefinitely without charge or due process.

The following day, it published a story detailing how, two years ago, the Israeli government prevented it from publishing an investigation using “emergency powers” and threats. This story later became the subject of an explosive report by +972 Magazine and the Guardian, alleging intimidation efforts by its intelligence agency, Mossad, against an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor.
Obscuring/redacting truth

The “redacted” opinion piece was marked up deliberately by Haaretz staff, a stark visual representation of the opacity of the “administrative detention” system.

The headline read: “Israel’s Cause for Detention: …” with everything after the colon obscured by black squares reminiscent of the black marker used by censors of old.

And so the piece continued, describing the plight of those Palestinians caught up in an indiscriminate Israeli dragnet that would rather hold massive numbers of people indefinitely than follow due process.

Wherever the writer referred to police statements or anything to do with process or vague charges, the dreaded black marks appeared again, frustrating the reader and doubling down on reminding them of the perils of censorship.

The writer, Jonathan Pollak, is a longtime Israeli anti-Zionist activist who has had several run-ins with the Israeli security establishment, having been arrested several times in the past and convicted on at least four occasions on protest-related charges.
His most recent arrest was in January 2023, charged with throwing stones at a Border Police jeep. As his trial date approached, he took the unusual step of demanding that his trial be held not in a civil court but in a military court, the opaque justice system inflicted on thousands of Palestinians every year.
Exposure at a difficult time for Israel

In a piece by Gur Megiddo, Haaretz said on Thursday that it had been ready to publish a story about alleged Mossad pressure on the International Criminal Court prosecutor as long as two years ago.

Instead, Megiddo’s piece said, “Israeli government officials had used emergency powers to prevent the story from being published at the time.”

It is a revelation that has amplified accusations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not above subverting the freedom of Israel’s media to block damaging stories.

Megiddo, who was the author of the earlier investigation, said that before he published that investigation, he received a call from a senior security official summoning him to his office.

During his meeting with the official, he was told that if he published, he “would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside”, he said.

The report by +972 and the Guardian, published on Tuesday, centred on allegations that then-Mossad head Yossi Cohen attempted to extort then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, to force her to drop an investigation of alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Palestine.

“One of the investigation’s key findings would have been known to readers of Haaretz a long time ago if Israel was the democratic state it claims to be,” said Megiddo.

“Now the affair has been exposed at a difficult time for Israel.

“Instead of being exposed in an Israeli newspaper, the investigation has now appeared in a newspaper with global circulation. Instead of contending with the story during peacetime, it must now deal with it in the midst of the war.”



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day in Jerusalem, on May 6, 2024 [Amir Cohen/Pool/Reuters]

Cohen’s covert contact to pressure Bensouda took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territory, the Guard report said.

Last week, Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, applied for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu partly based on that probe launched in 2021.

Khan announced his office had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and his now-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

In a post on X, Esther Solomon, editor-in-chief of Haaretz described Megiddo’s account as “chilling”.

Niall Stanage, associate editor of the American political newspaper, The Hill, described the report as a “new twist on Mossad intimidation of the ICC”.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said “it is to the credit” of Bensouda that despite Israeli threats against her, “she opened a formal investigation of Israel in March 2021 as her term was ending rather than leave it to her successor.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Israeli attacks against UNRWA ‘must stop,’ says head of agency

'These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold the perpetrators accountable,' says Philippe Lazzarini

Servet Günerigök |30.05.2024 - 

A view of destroyed clinic belonging to the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after Israeli attack on Gaza City, Gaza on May 17, 2024.


WASHINGTON

The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Thursday that Israeli attacks against the agency have to stop.

Philippe Lazzarini said the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip "has produced a blatant disregard for the mission" of the UN, including attacks on employees, facilities and operations of the UNRWA.

"These attacks must stop and the world must act to hold the perpetrators accountable," he wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York Times.

He said UNRWA staff are regularly harassed and humiliated at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Lazzarini noted that at least 192 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza and more than 170 UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed.

"UNRWA is not the only U.N. agency that faces danger. In April, gunfire hit World Food Program and UNICEF vehicles, apparently inadvertently but despite coordination with the Israeli authorities," said Lazzarini.

He said Israeli officials are threatening the work of the agency and delegitimizing it by "effectively characterizing it as a terrorist organization that fosters extremism and labeling U.N. leaders as terrorists who collude with Hamas.

"By doing so, they are creating a dangerous precedent of routine targeting of U.N. staff and premises," said Lazarrini. "If we tolerate such attacks in the context of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, we cannot uphold humanitarian principles in other conflicts around the world," he said.

He also said after the attacks of Oct. 7, Israel unleashed a campaign to equate UNRWA with Hamas and depict the agency as promoting extremism.

"In a new dimension to this campaign, the Israeli government made serious allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attack," said the UNRWA chief. "We must meaningfully defend U.N. institutions and the values they represent before the symbolic shredding of the charter establishing the United Nations. This can only be achieved through principled action by the nations of the world and a commitment by all to peace and justice.”

Israel has launched a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, killing more than 36,170 people and injuring 81,400 others.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Lava continues to flow from Iceland volcano but not at powerful level as eruption

Lava flows from a volcano in Grindavik, Iceland, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing red lava that once again threatened the coastal town of Grindavik

By Marco Di Marco - Associated Press - Thursday, May 30, 2024

GRINDAVIK, Iceland — Lava continued to spurt from a volcano in southwestern Iceland on Thursday but the activity had calmed significantly from when it erupted a day earlier.

The eruption Wednesday was the fifth and most powerful since the volcanic system near Grindavik reawakened in December after 800 years, gushing record levels of lava as its fissure grew to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in length.

Volcanologist Dave McGarvie calculated that the amount of lava initially flowing from the crater could have buried Wembley Stadium in London, which seats 90,000 people, under 15 meters (49 feet) of lava every minute.

“These jets of magma are reaching like 50 meters (165 feet), into the atmosphere,” said McGarvie, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University. “That just immediately strikes me as a powerful eruption. And that was my first impression … .Then some numbers came out, estimating how much was coming out per minute or per second and it was, ‘wow.’”

The activity once again threatened Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people, and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions.

Grindavik, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, has been threatened since a swarm of earthquakes in November forced an evacuation in advance of the initial Dec. 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption consumed several buildings.

Protective barriers outside Grindavik deflected the lava Wednesday but the evacuated town remained without electricity and two of the three roads into town were inundated with lava.


“I just like the situation quite well compared to how it looked at the beginning of the eruption yesterday,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.

McGarvie said the eruption was more powerful than the four that preceded it because the largest amount of magma had accumulated in a chamber underground before breaking the earth’s surface and shooting into the sky.

The rapid and powerful start of the eruption followed by it diminishing quickly several hours later is the pattern researchers have witnessed with this volcano, McGarvie said. The unknown question is when it will end.

“It could go on for quite some considerable time,” McGarvie said. “We’re really in new territory here because eruptions like this have never been witnessed, carefully, in this part of Iceland.”

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, sees regular eruptions. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.

None of the current cycle of eruptions have had an impact on aviation.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from London.

Tens of billions of dollars worth of gold flows illegally out of Africa each year, a new report says
 PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

Miners extract mud they hope contains gold at a gold mining site at which adults and youth work in the village of Mawero, on the outskirts of Busia town, in eastern Uganda 

By Jessica Donati - Associated Press - Thursday, May 30, 2024

DAKAR, Senegal — Billons of dollars in gold is smuggled out of Africa each year and most of it ends up in the United Arab Emirates, where it is refined and sold to customers around the world, according to a report published Thursday.

Over $30 billion worth of gold, or more than 435 metric tons, was smuggled out of the continent in 2022, according to the report published by Swissaid, an aid and development group based in Switzerland. The main destinations for African gold were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Switzerland.

The authors of the report said their goal was to make the trade in African gold more transparent and put pressure on industry players to do more to make gold supplies traceable and supply chains more responsible.

“We hope that this will improve the living conditions of local populations and the working conditions of artisanal miners throughout Africa,” Yvan Schulz, one of the report’s authors, told The Associated Press.

The report found that between 32% and 41% of gold produced in Africa was not declared. In 2022, Ghana was the largest gold producer in Africa, followed by Mali and South Africa, it said.

The UAE was by far the main destination for smuggled gold, the report said, with some 405 metric tons of undeclared output from Africa ending up there. During a 10-year period between 2012-2022, that amount summed up to 2,569 metric tons of gold, worth around $115 billion. The report said the gap between UAE imports and exports from African countries has widened over the years, meaning that the amount of gold smuggled out of Africa appears to have increased over the past decade. For example, it widened from 234 metric tons in 2020 to 405 in 2022.

Switzerland, another main buyer of African gold, imported some 21 metric tons of undeclared gold from Africa in 2022, the report said. The real figure could be much higher if African gold imported through third countries was taken into consideration, the report said, but once gold is refined, it is virtually impossible to follow its flow to it final destination.

The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, which contains detailed imports and exports statistics, shows that Switzerland is the main buyer of gold from the UAE. “Sourcing gold from the UAE is notoriously risky,” the report said, describing the difficulty in ascertaining the origins of the refined gold.

A official within the UAE government’s media office said the country has taken significant steps to address concerns around gold smuggling and the risks it poses. The continued growth of the UAE’s gold market reflected the confidence of the international community in its processes, the official said, responding on behalf of the country’s press office without providing further identification.

“The UAE remains steadfast in its efforts to combat gold smuggling and ensure the highest standards of transparency and accountability within the gold and precious metals sector,” the official said.

The Swiss government said it was aware of the challenges identifying the origins of gold and that it had introduced measures to prevent illegal flows.

“Switzerland is and stays committed to improve the traceability of commodity flows, the transparency of statistics and the quality of controls,” Fabian Maienfisch, spokesperson for Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, said.

The report compared export data from African countries with import data from non-African countries, along with other calculations, to extrapolate the data. Among its recommendations, it called on African states to take steps to formalize artisanal and small scale mining and reinforce border controls. It also called on non-African states to publish the identity of the countries of origin and the countries of dispatch of imported gold, and to work with authorities to identify illicit gold flows.

___

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.



Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.

Kenyan MPs probe alleged British Army crimes

May 30, 2024 
By Mohammed Yusuf

A general view shows Kenyan lawmakers inside the Parliament building in Nairobi, Kenya, June 15, 2023.

NAIROBI, KENYA —

A Kenyan parliamentary committee is visiting central Kenya to hear from locals about the conduct of a British Army training unit that is accused of human rights violations, including the unresolved death of a woman more than ten years ago. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission prompted the inquiry by petitioning parliament to hold the British army accountable for alleged human rights abuses.

Kenya's Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs is visiting Laikipia and Samburu counties. They're there to hear people's complaints and look into reported abuses by the British army in the area.

The committee, which started its inquiry on Tuesday, listened to families who blame the deaths of their relatives on unattended explosives around British training camps.

The lawmakers also heard complaints of abuses at the hands of British officers, including mistreatment, torture, and unlawful detention and killings.

The committee chair, Nelson Koech, outlines explains some of the other complaints they heard from Laikipia and Samburu residents.

"We've listened to people from different areas, to Lolldaiga Hills, where it's believed that officers from British Army lit fire, were burning vegetation and an entire conservancy, and driving animals out of the conservancy to where the human population is because many people have been maimed or killed by animals that now are under distress because of the training that is happening in those grounds, to many other allegations of water becoming heavily polluted. People are now starting to get effects from the fire and having chest problems," Koech said.

In March 2021, a British training exercise caused a fire in the Lolldaiga Conservancy that lasted for several days.

Local activist James Mwangi wondered why the British army was allowed to train in water catchment areas with dangerous weapons.

"Lolldaiga supports so many water streams. Why are they allowing the army to train with chemical and poisonous weapons that they don't know how to use," Mwangi said.

The inquiry was prompted by a petition to the parliament from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Kenya has a defense cooperation agreement with the British government that allows up to 10,000 soldiers per year to conduct exercises in the East African nation.

According to the Kenyan government, the presence of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya, or BATUK, provided 3,000 people with jobs and contributed $45 million to the economies of Isiolo, Laikipia, and Samburu.

Koech says the parliamentarians will listen to all those who allegedly suffered from British Army activities and other government agencies to verify any abuses and human rights violations.

"You must remember this is one side of the story we have listened to. We will be visiting BATUK, and we will be going there personally to get information from the British army. This inquiry is important to mention that in an inquiry of this nature, the verdict of this inquiry is equivalent to the verdict of a high court of Kenya," Koech said.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Kenya told the French news agency AFP that they intend to cooperate with the inquiry.

In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was killed, allegedly by a British soldier. An investigation did not begin until 2019 and the findings of that probe were never made public.

In 2021, the Sunday Times reported that a British officer confessed to killing a 21-year-old in central Kenya to a colleague. Afterward, Kenyan police said they were reopening the inquiry. Wanjiru’s family told the parliamentary committee to take her killing seriously and remove obstacles that may stop the prosecution of the British soldier.

The killing of Wanjiru has led to tensions between Kenya and Britain regarding the jurisdiction of British soldiers who commit crimes in Kenya. The committee found that while some victims received compensation, it was usually less than what they were promised.

The committee will present its findings to the full parliament and also closely examine the Kenya’s defense cooperation agreement with the British government.

Plaid Cymru launch campaign as Starmer defends Labour’s record in Wales

Andy DaviesHome Affairs Correspondent30 May 2024

Ciaran Jenkins: ‘ Sir Keir Starmer defended his party’s record in office in Wales and backed embattled First minister Vaughan Gething in his visit to Abergavenny this morning.

Mr Gething has had a rocky start to his tenure, with continuing questions over a £200,000 donation to his leadership campaign.

The visit coincided with Plaid Cymru’s leader – Rhun ap Iorwerth – launching his party’s campaign, where he accused Sir Keir of taking Welsh voters for granted and also vowed to pick up seats at the expense of the Conservatives.’

Andy Davies reports.

WALES

Steel union to start industrial action at Tata

Felicity Evans,BBC Wales money editor

BBC

Unite, one of the three unions at Tata Steel's Port Talbot plant, has announced it will begin industrial action on 18 June

One of the unions at Tata Steel's plants in south Wales has announced it will begin industrial action on 18 June.

Unite said members at Port Talbot and Llanwern would begin a "work to rule" and overtime ban in protest at the company's plans to close both blast furnaces with the loss of 2,800 jobs across its UK operations.

Tata Steel UK, which is proposing to build a greener electric arc furnace at the Port Talbot site, said it was disappointed, but that the current business was "unsustainable", losing £364m in 2023-24.

The Community union, which represents the bulk of workers at Port Talbot, has told its members that it is considering an improved redundancy offer which it will put to them once negotiations are completed.

Steelworkers march over thousands of job losses

Tata redundancy offer callous, say steel unions

Tata Steel workers vote for industrial action


All three of the unions at Tata's Port Talbot site, the UK's biggest steel plant, have balloted for industrial action, but Unite is the only one to announce dates.

Tata has previously warned that it could withdraw the enhanced redundancy packages on offer if workers take industrial action.

Peter Hughes, Unite's regional secretary for Wales, said: "Our members will not stand quietly by and allow Tata to needlessly trash jobs and communities and commit serious harm to both the Welsh economy and national security."

The union said that "strike action will be scheduled if the company does not row back on its plans."

Union members will protest at the company's plans to close both blast furnaces, with the loss of 2800 jobs across its UK operations


Last week the Community union, which also opposes Tata's plans, wrote to its members telling them the company had further improved its redundancy support package.

The letter said Community was continuing wider negotiations to "get the best deal possible for all workers affected, as well as the best deal possible to ensure future investment for Port Talbot and the downstream sites".

It said those changes would be put to members "to have their say" once the negotiations were finalised.

Tata said it has agreed a deal with the National Grid to supply electricity for plans for a new electric arc furnace in Port Talbot in 2027


Tata recently announced that it had agreed a deal with the National Grid to supply electricity for the new electric arc furnace in 2027.

The UK government is providing a £500m subsidy to support the building of the electric arc furnace which will cost a total of £1.25 billion.

Responding to Unite's announcement of industrial action, Tata said it had repeatedly written to Unite raising concerns about "significant irregularities in the ballot process" for industrial action.

The company also said that by restructuring its UK operations "we will be able to sustain the business as we transition to new electric arc furnace technology."

A transition board has been set up, with a £100m fund to support workers who face losing their jobs.

 ICJP Seeks Urgent Clarification from FCDO & MoD on British Spy Planes over Gaza

London, 30th May 2024: Yesterday, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) wrote to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), seeking urgent clarification on the role of British reconnaissance aircraft flying over Gaza since December 2023.

The letter seeks clarity on whether information gathered in-flight is being shared with the International Criminal Court (ICC), for its war crimes investigations in Gaza, and, additionally, whether British intelligence has been shared with the Israeli military. ICJP’s letter warns the government that sharing intelligence with the Israeli military could amount to British complicity in Israeli war crimes, actionable under Article 25 of the Rome Statute. Meanwhile, failure to share intelligence with the ICC would violate UK obligations as a State Party to the Rome Statute.

Over 200 such flights have taken place since December, mostly deploying Shadow R1 aircraft. Reportedly, British planes were flying over Gaza on the 1st April – when an Israeli strike killed three British nationals in a World Central Kitchen vehicle – and on the 26th May – when an Israeli strike massacred at least 45 displaced Palestinians, asleep in tents in Rafah. The public urgently requires information about these and other incidents, to establish whether British intelligence was in Israeli hands at the time of the strikes, including intelligence potentially used for target acquisition.

It is also imperative to know whether footage captured of these apparent war crimes will be shared with the Hague. In Parliament, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps declined five times to confirm or deny whether such intelligence will be shared with the ICC. This is despite the fact that the UK, as a State Party to the Rome Statute, has committed to support the ICC’s mandate to prosecute individuals for international crimes.

The mass number of flights made, and the specialist visual and intel-gathering capabilities of the Shadow R1, mean that British reconnaissance units will have gathered a vast amount of a) potentially useful evidence for ICC investigation, and b) potentially useful military intel for Israeli operations in Gaza. The government claims that these flights are only assisting in the identification and recapture of hostages but has provided insufficient information for the public or legal experts to establish the veracity of that claim.

ICJP Legal Officer Zaki Sarraf has stated:

“The government has provided the public with little-to-any information on the nature or volume of intel shared with Israel, nor whether it will be shared with the ICC. On both counts, it is imperative that the public knows. British spy planes flying over Gaza whilst Israel commits brutal war crimes against the Palestinians is deeply concerning, particularly considering the UK government’s opacity on the issue.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians is an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law. 
2. For more information, to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, or to view a full copy of the letter, please contact the ICJP news desk at press@icjpalestine.com. 
3. Kennard, Matt (8th May 2024), ‘Revealed: UK Military has flown 200 spy missions over Gaza in support of Israel’, Declassified UK
4. Vernon, Hayden (2nd December 2023), ‘UK surveillance aircraft to search for Hamas hostage sites in Gaza’, The Guardian

UK

Rishi Sunak wears £750 ($954.92 USD)

 backpack on visit to one of poorest areas of the country

The luxury accessory had his initials engraved on the side.

 by Ryan Price
2024-05-30 


Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been photographed on a visit to one of the least affluent areas of the country wearing a designer backpack worth £750.

The Conservative Party leader was boarding a sleeper train to Penzance, on the coast of Cornwall, for the next leg of his campaign trail, ahead of the general election on 4th July.

In the clip shared to social media, Sunak can be seen approaching the doors of the carriage, before shaking hands with two members of rail staff and jumping on board.

The Mirror must have been struck by how fancy his bag looked, and took it upon themselves to identify it’s make and manufacturer.

The backpack was identified as a Tumi Arrive Bradley model, which is out of stock on the Selfridges website but was previously available for a whopping £750.

We found a similar model on the official Tumi website which is going for the higher price of £1100.

The description of the aesthetically pleasing accessory is as follows: “This sleek design is as functional as it is stylish, letting you protect and carry everything from your laptop and tablet to your glasses, phone, and keys.

“The Arrivé collection takes its cues from automotive design, with high-polish chrome details, elegant curves, and sleek magnetic zippers. Our ultra-modern pieces make world-class business partners and travel companions.”


It’s likely that the country’s leader paid a little extra for his backpack, considering it’s been personalised with his initials on the side.

Penzance is the first stop on this week’s leg of the campaign trail, with the Prime Minister set to visit Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales and the Tees Valley too in the coming days.

After arriving in Cornwall, Mr Sunak faced questions about why he’s taking levelling up funds away from the county to pay for his recently announced National Service plan.


The scheme could deprive some of the UK’s poorest areas of cash for community safety and high street regeneration.

Considering Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty are the richest inhabitants of Downing Street in history, it’s not entirely surprising that he is the proud owner of one of the most expensive backpacks on the market.

Perhaps someone should have advised the Prime Minister to swap the Tumi bag out for an Umbro one before he headed to the train station.

Rishi Sunak challenged over Partygate by factory worker whose mother died during pandemic


30 May 2024

,

The Prime Minister was quizzed by a worker during a visit to a factory in Milton Keynes. Picture: Getty Images


By Flaminia Luck@flaminialuck

Rishi Sunak has been confronted over the Partygate scandal while on the election campaign by a worker whose mother died during the pandemic.

Nick Fox, 35, quizzed the Prime Minister how he could be trusted during a staff Q&A at a cherry picker manufacturer near Milton Keynes.

The environment, health and safety officer said he lost his mother in 2020, a month after Mr Sunak attended then-prime minister Boris Johnson's birthday celebration in No 10.

"How can anyone trust you or the party after things like this?" Mr Fox asked him.

Mr Sunak replied: "Well, I'm really sorry that you lost your mum and particularly in those circumstances, because it wasn't easy for so many people during the pandemic, the impact it had on everyone's life.

"And I can't imagine what it must have been for you not to be able to be with her at that time. It's really tough.

"And I'm sorry for what was going on in Downing Street. And for my part, I apologise that I showed up to a meeting earlier."

The Prime Minister went on to highlight his work as then-chancellor implementing the furlough scheme during the Covid-19 crisis.

He said: "As you know, I was working on things to help you and your business and many other families like that.

"And in fact, it was probably in that same period of time that you got to know me as chancellor.

"Most of you didn't know who I was before then, and I popped up on your TV screens, announced the furlough scheme ... Hopefully, some of you here benefited from some of the support that we put in place."

Rishi Sunak at a staff Q&A on the campaign trail at Nifty Lifts headquarters, Buckinghamshire. Picture: Getty

Mr Fox later said he was not convinced by Mr Sunak's answer.

"He talked about hard times and this kind of thing. They haven't tightened their belts. They gave a load of contracts to their mates and this kind of thing.

"His apology isn't accepted. I wasn't looking for an apology either."

He said he was "not really that surprised" when he found out about parties in Downing Street around the same time his mother, Christine Fox, died aged 66.

"I think we all knew things like that were going to happen. It was going to be one rule for us and another rule for them.

"It doesn't really make it any easier. It's still very frustrating."

Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson were fined for attending the then-prime minister's birthday gathering in Downing Street in June 2020.

Mr Sunak reportedly spent hours agonising over whether to resign as chancellor when he was issued with a fixed-penalty notice in April 2022, but ultimately decided against it.

Read more: Moment 'Britain's worst dine-and-dash couple' arrested by police after racking up nearly £1,200 in unpaid food bills
'Cold comfort'

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: "Rishi Sunak will go down in history as the partygate chancellor.

"People up and down the country won't forget Sunak's involvement in Boris Johnson's lying and lawbreaking government.

"His weasel words will come as cold comfort to bereaved families who struggled during the pandemic."

Shelagh Fogarty responds to Rishi Sunak not voting on Partygate report

Last year, the Prime Minister was criticsed for abstaining on a vote over the Partygate scandal.

MPs were invited to vote for or against the Privileges Committee's finding that Boris Johnson knowingly and repeatedly lied in Parliament.The vote concluded with an overwhelming majority in favour of the report.

However, as this was a "free vote" some MPs were absent - including Rishi Sunak.