It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, September 07, 2024
India: Olympic wrestlers join opposition Congress party
Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who led protests against sexual harassment, are entering politics on the side of India's Congress party.
Bajrang Punia (l) and Vinesh Phogat (r) were praised by the Congress party's general secretary KC Venugopal (center)Image: Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times/Sipa USA/picture alliance
Indian Olympic wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia announced on Friday they will be joining the opposition Congress party, after almost a year of protesting against sexual harassment.
Phogat was given a ticket by the Congress party, which will allow her to contest the upcoming state elections for Haryana from the Julana constituency.
The Haryana wing of the Congress party welcomed the two wrestlers in a post on X.
Phogat, Punia say 'fight will continue'
"I thank the people of the country and the media, you supported me throughout my wrestling journey. I thank the Congress party, it is said tough times tell you about who is with you. When we were dragged on the roads, all parties except the [ruling] BJP stood with us and understood our pain and tears," Phogat told reporters in New Delhi.
"Our fight will continue and we will win, in court and in life. I am proud to be with a party that stands with women and against any injustice," she added, speaking at an event introducing them into the Congress party.
"The hard work that we did during the protests and in support of farmers, soldiers and the youth, we will continue that hard work for our country," Punia told media.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal told reporters said the two wrestlers "have not only brought glory to the country in the sports field but have also fought a strong battle against injustice on the street."
Sexual harassment protests
Phogat, Punia and fellow Olympic wrestler Sakshi Malik have been protesting against the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh since last year.
Singh was also a former member of parliament from India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has been charged with sexual harassment and criminal intimidation in June last year. He has denied any wrongdoing.
On Saturday, Singh reacted to the news of Phogat and Punia joining the Congress by saying it was all part of a political conspiracy.
Last month, Phogat, 30, announced her retirement from wrestling. She had contested in the Paris Olympics where she failed to make weight for women's 50kg freestyle final by 100 grams.
She returned home to an emotional welcome from thousands of fans and wrestlers.
The state of Haryana is heading to elections next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP is seeking a third consecutive term in power.
Millions stream music on Spotify. Some pay a monthly subscription fee for uninterrupted access. Others sit through regular commercial breaks. But how does money from advertisers and subscription fees move to artists’ wallets?
Chrissy Teigen and other celebrities rolled up their sleeves to serve customers at a fundraiser for advocacy organization One Fair Wage, calling for an end to sub-minimum wages for tipped service workers.
The dye that gives foods, drugs, and cosmetics a lemon yellow color can also make mice transparent, as illustrated in this generative image
In an effort to enhance the research abilities of biologists, Stanford University researchers have discovered that applying a popular food coloring to the skin of mice allowed them to see through to the rodents' internal organs and other structures.
While scientists have ways to peer deeply into the tissues and bodies of humans and other animals, most of those techniques can only be carried out through biopsy procedures or after the subject being studied is dead. Being able to look inside a creature that is alive offers scientists another tool to analyze biological functions and advance their research. It can also be a more humane way to carry out research that doesn't involve the pain or death of animal subjects.
One of the issues with trying to look through the skin of a living animal is that the protein and fat-based components of its skin are very good at scattering light. This effectively makes their skin opaque. However, the Stamford researchers discovered that the application of tartrazine, a food dye more popularly known as FD&C Yellow 5, tamed this scattering effect. Specifically, the dye was found to absorb light in the near ultraviolet and blue part of the spectrum, which allowed red and orange light to penetrate deeper into the tissue of mice. This basically turned their skin transparent, an effect that easily reversed once the dye was washed away.
The researchers applied the dye to the abdomen of mice and were able to watch neurons that they had tagged with fluorescent markers working in real time to reveal the gut motility in the rodents. Such a technique could help gain better insights into digestive issues such as IBS. The team also applied the dye to skulls of the mice, which allowed them to see the workings of cerebral blood vessels, and to the hindlimbs of the rodents, which made the operation of their musculature visible.
"Our approach … presents opportunities for visualizing the structure, activity, and functions of deep-seated tissues and organs without the need for surgical removal or the replacement of overlying tissues with transparent windows," write the researchers about their findings.
The discovery may also expand the types of animals that scientists use to conduct research. Writing about the study in the journal Science, Christopher J. Rowlands and Jon Gorecki – two researchers not involved in the study – point out that zebrafish and nematodes are often selected for studies because they already have transparent skin that allows researchers to view their internal processes. However, with the new dye-based procedures, nearly any animal can become temporarily transparent to give researchers a peek inside.
Rowlands and Gorecki also point out the significance of the finding.
"On the basis of (these) results," they write, "it is reasonable to expect 10-fold imaging-depth improvement given adequate dye penetration. With this, feats such as multiphoton imaging across a whole mouse brain or locating tumors around blood vessels beneath centimeter-thick tissues with optical coherence tomography catheters may become possible."
The study has been published in the journal Science.
Live Mouse Turned Temporarily Transparent Thanks To Yellow Food Dye And Clever Physics
“If you aren’t familiar with it, it looks like a magic trick.”
Laura Simmons Editor and Staff Writer EditedbyMaddy Chapman
As the tartrazine dye is applied, the blood vessels in the mouse's brain become visible through the skin! Image credit: Stanford University/Gail Rupert/USNSF
We at IFLScience are lucky enough to explore the weird, the wacky, the downright out of this world – sometimes literally! – every single day. And yet sometimes, a study hits our desks that leaves us with little to say but… “Wow!” That was pretty much our reaction when we learned that scientists had used food dye to turn a living mouse temporarily transparent
Making an “invisible mouse” might not sound like a pressing scientific priority at first glance – surely there’s cancer to be cured and pandemics to prevent? But the benefits of making skin transparent to visible light quickly become clearer when you consider that without that, the only way to look inside the body is with scans, even the best of which can only achieve a limited view, or surgery.
“Looking forward, this technology could make veins more visible for the drawing of blood, make laser-based tattoo removal more straightforward, or assist in the early detection and treatment of cancers,” said Dr Guosong Hong, a Stanford University assistant professor who helped lead the project, in a statement.
So, how did they do it? Surprisingly, the team used an ingredient you might even have lurking in a kitchen cupboard: the yellow food dye tartrazine. Combining this with a hypothesis born out of studying old optics textbooks, they thought of a way of applying well-known physics concepts to entirely new biomedical applications.
“We combined the yellow dye, which is a molecule that absorbs most light, especially blue and ultraviolet light, with skin, which is a scattering medium,” first author Dr Zihao Ou explained in another statement. “Individually, these two things block most light from getting through them. But when we put them together, we were able to achieve transparency of the mouse skin.”
Ou added, “For those who understand the fundamental physics behind this, it makes sense; but if you aren’t familiar with it, it looks like a magic trick.”
The magic, or physics – however you choose to look at it – lies in how dissolving the tartrazine in water alters its refractive index in such a way that it happens to match the refractive index of the lipid molecules in bodily tissues. As the tartrazine solution is rubbed into the skin, the light scatter within the tissue is gradually reduced, like the mist disappearing from your windscreen on a cold morning.
As this example using raw chicken meat shows, the text sitting behind the tissue gradually becomes more visible as the transparency increases. Photographs illustrating the difference in the transparency of chicken breast tissue after soaking in tartrazine solutions with an increasing concentration. Scale bars: 1 cm. Image credit: Guosong Hong/Stanford University
Doing this on a slab of meat is one thing – what about a living mouse? The team applied the tartrazine to the skulls and abdomens of mice, and waited a few minutes for the dye to fully diffuse into the skin. Then, they were able to visualize the blood vessels of the brain and the workings of the digestive system through the skin – no scalpels or scanners required.
Time-lapse images of blood vessels in the brain just beneath the skull of a sedated mouse, revealed without any surgery, incisions, or damage to the mouse’s bone or skin. Image credit: Stanford University/Gail Rupert/NSF
Any excess dye can simply be washed off, while the dye that has been absorbed is harmlessly processed and excreted in urine within about 48 hours.
“It’s important that the dye is biocompatible – it’s safe for living organisms. In addition, it’s very inexpensive and efficient; we don’t need very much of it to work,” Ou said.
But please don’t take this as license to go rummaging in your kitchen and rubbing food dye on your skin. This hasn’t been tested in humans yet, and our skin is about 10 times thicker than a mouse’s, so some more experimentation is going to be needed to figure out how to make it work. But if the team can do it, the possibilities are exciting.
“Many medical diagnosis platforms are very expensive and inaccessible to a broad audience, but platforms based on our tech should not be,” Ou said, adding that using this method to open up the body to exploration with a light microscope could “completely revolutionize existing optical research in biology.”
Who would have thought adding yellow dye to skin could make it see-through? We know, we know – it’s physics. But we’re going to choose to call it magic for just a little bit longer.
Scientists make tissue of living animals see-through
Date:September 5, 2024
Source: University of Texas at Dallas
Summary:
In a pioneering new study, researchers made the skin on the skulls and abdomens of live mice transparent by applying to the areas a mixture of water and a common yellow food coloring called tartrazine.
FULL STORY
In a pioneering new study, researchers made the skin on the skulls and abdomens of live mice transparent by applying to the areas a mixture of water and a common yellow food coloring called tartrazine.
Dr. Zihao Ou, assistant professor of physics at The University of Texas at Dallas, is lead author of the study, published in the Sept. 6 print issue of the journal Science.
Living skin is a scattering medium. Like fog, it scatters light, which is why it cannot be seen through.
"We combined the yellow dye, which is a molecule that absorbs most light, especially blue and ultraviolet light, with skin, which is a scattering medium. Individually, these two things block most light from getting through them. But when we put them together, we were able to achieve transparency of the mouse skin," said Ou, who, with colleagues, conducted the study while he was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University before joining the UT Dallas faculty in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in August.
"For those who understand the fundamental physics behind this, it makes sense; but if you aren't familiar with it, it looks like a magic trick," Ou said.
The "magic" happens because dissolving the light-absorbing molecules in water changes the solution's refractive index -- a measure of the way a substance bends light -- in a way that matches the refractive index of tissue components like lipids. In essence, the dye molecules reduce the degree to which light scatters in the skin tissue, like dissipating a fog bank.
In their experiments with mice, the researchers rubbed the water and dye solution onto the skin of the animals' skulls and abdomens. Once the dye had completely diffused into the skin, the skin became transparent. The process is reversible by washing off any remaining dye. The dye that has diffused into the skin is metabolized and excreted through urine.
"It takes a few minutes for the transparency to appear," Ou said. "It's similar to the way a facial cream or mask works: The time needed depends on how fast the molecules diffuse into the skin."
Through the transparent skin of the skull, researchers directly observed blood vessels on the surface of the brain. In the abdomen, they observed internal organs and peristalsis, the muscle contractions that move contents through the digestive tract.
The transparent areas take on an orangish color, Ou said. The dye used in the solution is commonly known as FD&C Yellow #5 and is frequently used in orange- or yellow-colored snack chips, candy coating and other foods. The Food and Drug Administration certifies nine color additives -- tartrazine is one -- for use in foods.
"It's important that the dye is biocompatible -- it's safe for living organisms," Ou said. "In addition, it's very inexpensive and efficient; we don't need very much of it to work."
The researchers have not yet tested the process on humans, whose skin is about 10 times thicker than a mouse's. At this time it is not clear what dosage of the dye or delivery method would be necessary to penetrate the entire thickness, Ou said.
"In human medicine, we currently have ultrasound to look deeper inside the living body," Ou said. "Many medical diagnosis platforms are very expensive and inaccessible to a broad audience, but platforms based on our tech should not be."
Ou said one of the first applications of the technique will likely be to improve existing research methods in optical imaging.
"Our research group is mostly academics, so one of the first things we thought of when we saw the results of our experiments was how this might improve biomedical research," he said. "Optical equipment, like the microscope, is not directly used to study live humans or animals because light can't go through living tissue. But now that we can make tissue transparent, it will allow us to look at more detailed dynamics. It will completely revolutionize existing optical research in biology."
In his new Dynamic Bio-imaging Lab at UTD, Ou will continue the research he started with Dr. Guosong Hong, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and a corresponding author of the study. Ou said the next steps in the research will include understanding what dosage of the dye molecule might work best in human tissue. In addition, the researchers are experimenting with other molecules, including engineered materials, that could perform more efficiently than tartrazine.
Study authors from Stanford, including co-corresponding author Dr. Mark Brongersma, the Stephen Harris Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, were funded by grants from federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. As an interdisciplinary postdoctoral scholar, Ou was supported by the Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute at Stanford. The researchers have applied for a patent on the technology.
Journal Reference:Zihao Ou, Yi-Shiou Duh, Nicholas J. Rommelfanger, Carl H. C. Keck, Shan Jiang, Kenneth Brinson, Su Zhao, Elizabeth L. Schmidt, Xiang Wu, Fan Yang, Betty Cai, Han Cui, Wei Qi, Shifu Wu, Adarsh Tantry, Richard Roth, Jun Ding, Xiaoke Chen, Julia A. Kaltschmidt, Mark L. Brongersma, Guosong Hong. Achieving optical transparency in live animals with absorbing molecules. Science, 2024; 385 (6713) DOI: 10.1126/science.adm6869
Cite This Page:
MLA APA Chicago University of Texas at Dallas. "Scientists make tissue of living animals see-through." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 September 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240905143615.htm>.
Israel has trotted out the same excuses for its genocide in Gaza. How much more should we tolerate?
Amnesty International has urged a war crimes probe into Israel’s flattening of eastern Gaza. The genocidal army have been razing homes and farms in eastern Gaza to expand a so-called buffer zone between it and the Palestinian territory.
Amnesty said: Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques.
They continued that they believed Israel’s actions since 7 October: should be investigated as war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment.
Protect or punish?
Israel has in several cases said it was destroying “terror” infrastructure to protect Israeli communities living on the other side of the fence. It did not reply to a request from Amnesty for comment. And, an Amnesty investigation which examined satellite imagery and videos posted by Israeli soldiers between October and May, showed:
newly cleared land along Gaza’s eastern boundary, ranging from approximately 1 to 1.8 km (0.6 to 1.1 miles) wide.
The expanded buffer zone covers around 58 square kilometres (22 square miles), or about 16% of the Gaza Strip, it said. More than 90% of buildings within that zone appeared to have been destroyed or severely damaged.
Amnesty also found that more than half of the agricultural land in the area showed: a decline in health and intensity of crops due to the ongoing conflict.
Israel has been accused of manufacturing famine in Gaza. Israel have also repeatedly lied about both their actions and motivations. It has become commonplace for them to claim they’re dismantling Hamas even while bombing refugee camps, schools, hospitals, and aid convoys.
Genocidal intent
Even if Hamas were operating in all of these locations, Israel has clearly decided that killing civilians – including children – is an acceptable cost. As of August 2024, Israel had killed 16,456 children. With a death total of over 40,000 Palestinians, one in 50 of Gaza’s children have been killed.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said of the death toll:
This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the [Israeli military] to comply with the rules of war.
The past year or so has been rife with Israeli atrocities.
The decomposing bodies of babies were discovered in a Gaza hospital that was surrounded by Israeli tanks. Mass grave after mass grave have been uncovered, with unmarked bodies buried together. Hospitals have been routinely targeted and besieged, with medical professionals being targeted.
As of March 2024, 103 journalists were killed in 150 days in Gaza. Journalists, and their families, have been targeted in an effort to silence reporting of the genocide. This list is but a fraction of the barrage of death and destruction Israel has rained down onto Palestine.
The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, found from an investigation in March 2024 that:
There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.
And yet, we’re still supposed to swallow the lie Israel so often trots out, that they’re doing all this in the name of stamping out Hamas? If targeting civilians did somehow stamp out Hamas, would that even be worth it? Of course it wouldn’t.
“Collective punishment” in Gaza
When even the likes of Amnesty International are calling for investigation of war crimes, then Israel have very clearly overstepped international standards. Amnesty’s Erika Guevara-Rosas said:
Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of the entire area. The homes were not destroyed as the result of intense fighting. Rather, the Israeli military deliberately razed the land after they had taken control of the area.
She added:
Israeli measures to protect Israelis from attacks from Gaza must be carried out in conformity with its obligations under international law including the prohibition of wanton destruction and of collective punishment.
Amnesty believe they have found evidence that Israel has been using military procedures that target civilians and destroy infrastructure:
In four areas investigated by Amnesty International, the destruction was carried out after the Israeli military had operational control over the areas, meaning that it was not caused by direct combat between the Israeli military and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. In these parts of the Gaza Strip, structures were deliberately and systematically demolished.
International humanitarian law often falls short when it comes to determining the destruction caused for people’s lives and lands. Even then, Amnesty’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out collective punishment, and unnecessarily destroyed civilian objects. Their findings cannot be clearer:
Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects is a war crime.
Is this new information? No. Will it halt the ongoing genocide against Palestinians? Unlikely.
And yet, we must not let Palestinians die in the dark. We must show up on the streets and refuse to let up until Palestine is free.Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, and featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News
UK
WE ARE DOPE FOR HOPE
Greens aim to counter ‘doom and gloom’ message as they kick off party conference
The Green conference will begin on Friday in Manchester, kicking off this year’s party political conference season. Green party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay (PA) PA Wire
1 day ago The Green Party has said it will aim to counter “Labour’s message of doom and gloom” as it holds its first party conference since the general election.
The Green conference will begin on Friday in Manchester, kicking off this year’s party political conference season.
At the summer election, the Greens won a total of four seats in Parliament, holding the Brighton Pavilion seat formerly represented by Caroline Lucas, and gaining three other constituencies across a broad swathe of English regions.
As its members gather with swelled parliamentary ranks, the party is expected to call on Sir Keir Starmer to offer a more hopeful message to the public while governing.
Green Party co-leader and Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer said: “As Greens, we counter Labour’s message of doom and gloom. Things can get better – and fast – but only if the new Government has the courage to invest.”
The four new Green MPs who won seats in the 2024 general election (Ian West/PA) PA Wire
Ms Denyer said she and her party would push the Government to be “braver and bolder”, including on the Budget.
She added: “The Budget at the end of October will set the course for the rest of this Parliament. Green MPs do not accept the need for public spending cuts. On July 4 people didn’t vote for things to get worse. They voted for change, and that’s what we are offering as Green MPs.”
The party will urge Rachel Reeves to adopt a series of tax reforms and rises at the Budget aimed at increasing health spending, carrying out social care reform, and embarking on a nationwide home insulation programme.
Among the tax hikes the Greens propose are a wealth tax on billionaires and multi-millionaires, reforms of capital gains tax and inheritance tax, and closing loopholes in the windfall tax on fossil fuel producers.
Adrian Ramsay, the other Green co-leader and Waveney Valley MP, said: “We need to invest in defending public services and protecting our environment – and we can do so with some changes to the tax system to ask the wealthiest in society to pay a little more.
“These tax changes are modest by the standards of many other European countries who recognise that having high quality public services and a greener economy needs investment.
“Rolling back neo-liberalism not only works, it wins for the Left too!”
By Jess Barnard, Labour NEC member
Latin America’s Left continues to show a better world is possible. Although defeats for the Left often get more press attention, progressive governments have been elected in countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Honduras in recent years.
I was privileged to go to a Workers’ Party Congress in Brazil prior to Lula returning to the Presidency, seeing for myself how massive social movements can both resist a right-wing government and provide a basis for democracy and social progress to advance.
Our comrades elsewhere are also getting on with the business of building a better society.
Honduras has given free electricity to the poor and clamped town on corporate tax avoidance.
Bolivia has made the right to food a reality through the Bonus Against Hunger initiative, which helped over four million people, partly funded through a wealth tax.
The lesson here is that rolling back neo-liberalism not only works, it wins for the Left too! Yet – as has happened time and time again – the US Empire is striking back.
As well as blockading Cuba, it has enforced heavy sanctions on Venezuela, in a bid to force ‘regime change’ in the oil-rich country. These efforts have rightly been opposed by the aforementioned progressive governments.
We must both offer solidarity against these reactionary attacks and take inspiration from how people are fighting back through mass movements against neo-liberalism and US-domination.
Jess Barnard is a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee. You can follow her on X on x/twitter here.
You can follow Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America at facebook and x/twitter.
Jess will be speaking alongside guests from across Latin America at the major ‘¡Viva la Solidaridad! Stand with Latin America’s Left’ event in Liverpool at 6.30pm on Monday September 23 at the Racquet Club Hotel & Ziba Restaurant, L3 9AG. Reserve a place in advance here.
UK
Analysis
Met Police disrupts this Saturday’s massive anti-genocide march – to suit small pro-Israel rally
Pro-Palestinian groups say police attacking democracy and civil rights in last-minute two-hour delay
Anti-genocide groups have accused the Metropolitan Police of deliberate disruption of a huge pro-Palestine march in London on Saturday, by imposing a ‘last-minute’ two-hour delay on the usual start time – apparently to accommodate a small pro-Israel demo, expected to be at most a few hundred people, at a sandwich chain that has decided not to expand into Israel and then at the Israeli embassy.
Massive anti-genocide marches have started at noon for almost a year and this was both the advertised time for Saturday and the time notified to the Met a month ago, but while Metropolitan Police chiefs have previously refused to target the peaceful marches, this appears to have changed under Keir Starmer’s burgeoning police state and organisers have been told at short notice not just that they must start at 2.30pm instead – posing problems for many who have to travel into London and get home again afterwards – but also that anyone who marches earlier than 2.30pm will be arrested.
Saturday’s march is the first that will march from the city centre to the Israeli embassy in Kensington.
But restrictions imposed on organisers this week include pushing back the start time of the protest to 2.30pm, two-and-a-half hours after the midday gathering time already advertised, and the usual start time for previous demonstrations.
MEE understands that police have also told organisers that participants could be arrested if they march before 2.30pm.
The anti-war march’s organisers have issued a statement condemning the ‘unjustified’ police manoeuvre as an attack on the democratic rights of UK citizens:
We are deeply concerned by the Metropolitan Police’s decision to impose severe and unjustified restrictions on Saturday’s demonstration against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
These new conditions, including a delayed start time of two and a half hours after the advertised assembly, effectively hinder our fundamental right to peaceful assembly and protest. For 18 consecutive marches since October, we have gathered at 12 PM and commenced shortly thereafter-an arrangement that accommodates those travelling long distances, including thousands who have pre-booked coach travel.
The last-minute disruption of these plans, without any clear rationale, raises serious questions about the police’s respect for our democratic rights.
Since notifying the police of our intentions on 8 August, we have faced a series of delays, obstacles, and uncooperative behaviour. Meetings have been cancelled without notice, and our reasonable proposal for an alternative route to the Israeli Embassy was dismissed outright.
Now, with just four days’ notice, the police have imposed these new conditions without explanation, creating unnecessary obstacles for a demonstration expected to draw over one hundred thousand people.
The treatment of the Palestine movement by the police is unprecedented and deeply troubling. The consistent refusal to consider our proposed routes and the imposition of unreasonable conditions appear to be based on unfounded assumptions that our protests will lead to disruption or disorder, despite our long history of peaceful demonstrations. Such actions risk undermining the right to protest, a cornerstone of democracy.
It is crucial that the police reconsider these actions in light of their responsibility to uphold democratic freedoms. We will assemble at the advertised point, and, in exercising our right to peaceful protest, we will march to the Israeli Embassy. It is essential that the police recognise the importance of respecting the rights of citizens to gather and express their views peacefully.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign Palestinian Forum in Britain Friends of Al-Aqsa Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The order to change the start time is superficially to accommodate a pro-Israel demonstration by an Israeli-founded group called ‘Stop the Hate UK’ (STHUK), which was only arranged and announced this week. The group is angry at sandwich chain Pret for ‘caving in’ to pro-Palestine pressure and cancelling plans to expand into Israel after of a boycott campaign by opponents of Israel’s genocide. The pro-Israel group subsequently added a plan to demonstrate at the Israeli embassy, supposedly to commemorate Israelis killed at the Nova music festival on 7 October, even though an ‘immense’ number of these is now freely admitted by Israeli media to have been murdered by their own military.
Itai Galmundy, co-founder of STHUK, is also linked to the pro-Israel ‘Enough is Enough 2024) group. He spoke to far-right channel GB News, repeating long-debunked propaganda about the October Hamas raid, accusing the peaceful marches of representing ‘mob rule’, claiming he was threatened with death by a pro-Gaza marcher in front of a police officer and admitting that his group’s demo is specifically targeting the pro-Palestine march:
Source: GB News Twitter
Palestine movement challenges police restrictions against national demonstration
“In the week that the government had to admit that it must suspend at least some arms licences to Israel, albeit just a fraction, it is imperative that the police do not hinder an entirely peaceful march in support of the people of Palestine.”
By the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Organisers of the national Palestine demonstrations will set out their concerns about increasingly heavy-handed policing and attempts by the Metropolitan Police to seriously restrict them marching this Saturday in central London, at a press conference in Westminster this afternoon.
They will call on the government to show its support for the democratic right to protest and to intervene to make the Met see sense.
The Metropolitan Police has placed restriction orders on the protest, delaying the start time by one and a three quarter hours to 2.30pm. A meeting on Monday between the Met and representatives of the six organisations behind the pro-Palestine protests, which have seen hundreds of thousands of people on the streets in demand of an immediate ceasefire since 7 October, failed to resolve the issues, with the police continuing to put obstacles in the way and refusing to confirm when the two sides would meet again.
A spokesperson for the march organisers said: “We will set out to the media our concerns that the actions of the Met over the past week are part of a pattern of increasingly heavy-handed policing tactics that place unjustified and impractical restrictions on our democratic right of peaceful protest.
“In the week that the government had to admit that it must suspend at least some arms licences to Israel, albeit just a fraction, it is imperative that the police do not hinder an entirely peaceful march in support of the people of Palestine, an end to the genocide in Gaza and a ban on all Israeli arms sales.
“These moves have not been explained by the police but will cause serious disruption to an anticipated 100,000 people. It is not practicable to make changes to an agreed route at such a late stage without creating major logistical difficulties. The route has been advertised across all social media and in emails to members and supporters of all of our organisations. Coaches have been booked to arrive for the 12 noon assembly time, and many tens of thousands of people have pre-booked other transport to arrive at that time and to return home after a rally which they would expect to be finished no later than 4.30pm.
“Our clear message to the Met is ‘We Will March’. We call on the government to show it supports the democratic right to peaceful protest and intervene to get the Met to see sense.”
The organising coalition comprises the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestine Forum in Britain, Stop The War, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of Al Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain.
The National March for Palestine takes place on Saturday, 7th September, assembling at 12PM.
Seasonal workers on British farms are being given substandard accommodation and "unacceptable" living conditions, an ITV News investigation has found. Footage obtained in our investigation shows evidence of mould and dampness on the walls of an old, leaky caravan at one location in Essex. The windows on the accommodation at Leabank Nursery are visibly in a state of disrepair, the furniture is stained, the heater doesn't work, and even the toilet is broken.
