Tony Blair pressured officials to keep UK soldiers accused of abusing Iraqis out of civil courts, files reveal

Documents released to National Archives reveal former UK leader Blair’s insistence that soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi detainees be kept out of civilian courts and the ICC

December 30, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK addresses the World Travel & Tourism Council Asia Summit on 10 September 2013 [World Travel & Tourism Council/Flickr]

Newly released government files suggest former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair put pressure on officials to prevent British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi detainees from being tried in civil courts, according to reports by British media on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

The documents, released to the National Archives at Kew, west London, reveal that in July 2005, a senior aide wrote to Blair reporting that the attorney general had met army prosecutors to discuss the case against British soldiers alleged to have beaten Baha Mousa to death.

Mousa was an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British military custody in Basra, Iraq, in Sept. 2003.

He was one of several civilians detained at a British army interrogation facility and subjected to severe mistreatment, including beatings, hooding, and stress positions.

Antony Phillipson, the then prime minister’s private secretary for foreign affairs, wrote: “Although if the Attorney General felt that the case was better dealt with in a civil court, he could direct accordingly.”

Blair underlined the paragraph and added, “It must not!”

Two years later, Corporal Donald Payne, who brutally mistreated Mousa and other civilians at a detention center in Basra in Sept. 2003, was court-martialed and became the first British soldier to be convicted of a war crime.

READ: No room for toxic Blair on Gaza peace council

Payne, who was jailed for a year and dismissed from the army, admitted punching and kicking hooded and handcuffed civilians, conducting what he called “the choir,” and striking prisoners in sequence, their groans or shrieks making up the “music.”

He admitted to inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians—a war crime under the International Criminal Court (ICC) Act 2001.

The newly released files appear to show Blair’s eagerness to ensure British soldiers facing allegations of wrongdoing in Iraq would not be tried in civilian courts or by the ICC.

Phillipson recommended that Blair request the Defence Ministry and the attorney general provide notes on proposed changes to legislation and an assessment of how they would be presented so the government could avoid being accused of making it impossible for troops to operate in a war zone.

Blair wrote in response: “We have, in effect, to be in a position where ICC is not involved and neither is CPS. That is essential. This has been woefully handled by the MoD.”

Earlier, Phillipson had told Blair that the Foreign Office expected the ICC prosecutor to decide whether to pursue a formal investigation into UK military operations in Iraq. Blair wrote in the margins, “This is vital.”

In 2020, the ICC formally abandoned a long-running inquiry into claims that British troops committed war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.

UN says war in Sudan has displaced nearly 13 million people


December 30, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Displaced Sudanese families shelter at the newly established Al-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah after fleeing Al-Fashir and other conflict zones in North Darfur following the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) takeover of the city, on November 6, 2025. [Stringer – Anadolu Agency]

The war in Sudan, which began on 15 April 2023, has displaced almost 13 million people, including more than four million who have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations.

The UN has described the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, citing severe deterioration in conditions across displacement camps in Tawila in North Darfur and Al-Afad camp in northern Sudan, as well as in the cities of El Obeid in North Kordofan, Kosti in White Nile State and Damazin in Blue Nile State.

UN estimates indicate that more than eight million Sudanese have been forced from their homes by the fighting. Separately, Sudan’s National Council for Child Welfare said the conflict has disrupted the education of nearly 12 million children across the country.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese Doctors Network accused the Rapid Support Forces on Saturday of killing more than 200 people on an ethnic basis in the areas of Amro, Sirba and Abu Qumra, days after the group announced it had taken control of those locations. The RSF has not commented on the allegations.

The Joint Force of Armed Movements in Darfur said last Thursday that it had repelled an RSF attack on several northern areas of North Darfur State.

Beyond Darfur, intense fighting has also continued for weeks across the three Kordofan states — North, West and South — between the Sudanese army and the RSF, triggering the recent displacement of tens of thousands more civilians.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF currently controls the five states of Darfur in the west, with the exception of parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The Sudanese army retains influence over most of the remaining 13 states, including the capital, Khartoum.

THE ONLY FREE PRESS IN ISRAEL

Israeli government announces boycott of Haaretz newspaper over claims it supports ‘enemies’


December 30, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem  [Noam Moskowitz – Knesset – Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, the government has announced a boycott of the newspaper Haaretz, accusing it of supporting “enemies” during wartime.

According to Galei Tzahal, the government has decided to sever ties with Haaretz in both advertising and editorial matters. Ministries, advertising agencies and state-funded companies have been instructed to halt all forms of contact with the newspaper.

An Israeli radio report said the boycott was implemented under a government decision issued in November 2024, which also called for isolating the newspaper from communication with official accounts of senior media offices within the Israeli army.

In a statement, the Israeli government said Haaretz had published editorials during the war on Gaza that “damaged the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the world and its right to self-defence”.

The statement said the government “will not accept a situation in which the publisher of an official newspaper in Israel calls for sanctions against it and supports the enemies of the state in the midst of war”. On this basis, it said all ties with the newspaper would be cut and no official statements would be issued through it.

The move comes about a month after the Knesset approved, in a first reading, a bill imposing new restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, according to Yediot Aharonot.

The Hebrew-language daily reported that the bill, titled “Reforming the Media System”, was submitted by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and passed its initial vote in the Knesset plenum.

The legislation expands the powers of rabbinical courts at the expense of the authority of Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, who opposed the bill. She warned that it “includes arrangements that exacerbate the risks to the image of a free press in Israel”.

“There is genuine concern about significant commercial and political influence and interference in the work of media institutions,” she said.

Lazzarini calls Knesset vote against UNRWA ‘outrageous’ and a challenge to ICJ rulings

December 31, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini holds a press conference at the UN headquarters on September 25, 2025, in New York City, USA.[Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]


The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, has condemned an Israeli Knesset (Parliament) vote targeting the agency, describing it as “outrageous”.

In a statement published on the X platform on Tuesday, Lazzarini said the legislation constitutes a blatant violation of the mandate granted to United Nations Relief and Works Agency by the UN General Assembly and represents a direct challenge to rulings issued by the International Court of Justice.

He said the legislation grants the Israeli government authority to confiscate UN property in occupied East Jerusalem, including UNRWA’s headquarters and its vocational training centre.

Lazzarini added that the bill explicitly excludes the agency from the immunities and privileges normally afforded to UN bodies, a move he said is intended to end UNRWA’s presence in occupied Jerusalem and sever all contact with its officials.

The UNRWA chief described the legislation as a serious blow to the multilateral system and part of a systematic campaign to discredit the agency and obstruct its role in delivering essential humanitarian assistance and development services to Palestinian refugees.

He stressed that Israel is obligated to act within the framework of the United Nations and its Charter, adding that any objections raised by Israel should be addressed through the appropriate UN deliberative bodies, rather than through unilateral legislative measures.

Spain orders removal of ads for rentals in occupied Palestinian territories

KUSHNER REALTY INC.

December 31, 2025 

Middle East Monitor 

A general view of Efrat Jewish Settlement in Bethlehem, West Bank on March 30, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]

Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs has ordered advertising platforms to remove listings promoting tourist accommodation in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, in a move framed as support for the Palestinian people.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ministry said it had identified 138 advertisements for tourist accommodation on seven platforms operating in Spain.

It said the multinational companies involved were issued with an initial warning, informing them that illegal content had been found on their platforms in the form of advertisements for accommodation located in the occupied Palestinian territories. The companies were instructed to remove or block the ads immediately.

The ministry warned that failure to comply would result in “further measures” being taken.

READ: Israel settler violence forces closure of only primary school in occupied West Bank village

The decision comes within the framework of a decree issued by the government of Pedro Sánchez, approved by parliament in October, which aims to “end the genocide in Gaza and support the Palestinian people”.

Related measures under the decree include a ban on the purchase and sale of weapons to Israel, as well as a ban on advertising products manufactured in Israeli settlements or in occupied territories.

Commenting on the latest decision, the ministry said that such tourist accommodation “contributes to the normalisation and perpetuation of a colonial regime that is considered illegal under international law”.

Similar steps have been taken elsewhere. In October, the Human Rights League in France announced action against online booking platforms that advertise tourist accommodation in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

WSJ editorial slams Trump's 'double-cross': He's playing businesses 'for suckers'

Matthew Chapman
December 30, 2025 

RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the U.S. economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst


The Wall Street Journal editorial board is not happy with President Donald Trump's latest plan to try to squeeze down the price of prescription drugs — an issue that has become popular in both parties in recent years, but that businesses are leery of.

Indeed, argued the board, Trump's new policy represents a betrayal of companies that made a deal with him to avoid this very situation.

"Days before Christmas, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 560-page regulation to implement the President’s 'most-favored nation' (MFN) plan in Medicare," wrote the board, which has extensively criticized many of Trump's policies in recent months. "The point is to force drug makers to sell drugs to Medicare at the lowest price available in other developed countries. This is bad policy for many reasons, but it’s also a government double-cross."

"More than a dozen firms struck agreements with the Administration this year to boost investment in the U.S. and to sell medicines directly to consumers at lower prices — supposedly in return for a reprieve from Mr. Trump’s threatened tariffs and most-favored nation regime," the board noted. "Now Mr. Trump looks to be playing them for suckers."

The board argued that the risk with Trump's plan, which requires drug companies to rebate the difference to Medicare on drugs based on the lowest price paid in a number of other countries, would prevent those other countries from getting as many drugs for fear the price controls there could be used against them in the huge Medicare market.

Worse, they argued, "Chinese biotech firms fast would be poised to take global market share from U.S. drug makers. Mr. Trump’s plan would also reduce the incentive to develop innovative medicines in the U.S. if firms don’t think they can make a profit to recoup their investment. The companies may also increase prices for commercial payers to offset the Medicare rebates."

"As for government savings, CMS projects that the MFN pilot would reduce Medicare spending by some $26 billion over five years — out of the roughly $7.5 trillion that Medicare is expected to spend in total over those five years," the board warned. "The cost in lost U.S. innovation will be far greater than the government savings."

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen wins 20th world chess title

By AFP

December 30, 2025


Norway's Magnus Carlsen has now won 20 world chess titles - Copyright AFP MAHMUD HAMS

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one chess player, on Tuesday won the World Blitz Championship in Doha, days after victory in the slightly longer ‘rapid’ format, to secure his 20th world title.

Carlsen, 35, beat Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 21, in the final, securing victory with black in the fourth and final game, after losing the first.

Blitz games are played with three minutes at the start for both players, plus an additional two seconds per move.

Carlsen almost failed to reach the semi-finals after suffering three defeats in the 19 qualifying games, finishing third in the standings.

He beat American Fabiano Caruana in the semis to take on Abdusattorov, rapid world champion in 2021.

On Sunday, Carlsen was crowned rapid world champion, where players have 15 minutes and 10 seconds added per move, finishing first in the regular standings, with the competition taking place without a final phase.

The Nordic grandmaster now has nine blitz titles, six in rapid and five in the most prestigious longer format, which involves more than 10 games between the world champion and a challenger.

Carlsen relinquished his long-format crown in 2023, citing lack of motivation. It is now held by India’s Dommaraju Gukesh.

In October, he and the International Chess Federation (FIDE) backed a new world championship format that sets the stage for his return.

The new “Total Chess World Championship Tour” will consist of four events a year and will crown one combined champion for three disciplines: fast classic, rapid and blitz.

A pilot version of the competition will be tested in the autumn of next year, with the first full season set for 2027.

Iran prosecutor pledges ‘decisive’ response if protests destabilise country


By AFP
December 31, 2025


There have been several days of protests in Iran, focused on the capital, against the tough economic conditions - Copyright FARS NEWS AGENCY/AFP HANDOUT

Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that economic protests that had gripped the country were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response”.

“Peaceful livelihood protests are part of social and understandable realities,” Mohammad Movahedi-Azad told state media after three days of protests by shopkeepers in capital Tehran, which were joined by students across the country.

“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response.”

His comments came days after the Mossad intelligence agency of Iran’s arch-foe Israel posted on social media that it was “with you on the ground” in a message to Iranian protesters.

Posting on its Persian-language X account, the spy agency encouraged Iranians to “go out into the streets together”.

The spontaneous protests, driven by dissatisfaction at Iran’s economic stagnation and galloping hyperinflation, began on Sunday in Tehran’s largest mobile phone market where shopkeepers shuttered their businesses.

They have since built momentum, with students at 10 universities in the capital and in other cities, including Iran’s most prestigious institutions, joining in on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, the protests remain limited in number and concentrated in central Tehran, with shops elsewhere in the sprawling metropolis of 10 million people unaffected.

Iran’s economy has been in the doldrums for years, with heavy US and international sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme weighing heavily on it.

The currency, the rial, has also plunged in recent months, losing more than a third of its value against the US dollar since last year.



– Last-minute bank holiday –



The streets of Tehran were calm early on Wednesday, a change from the usual chaotic and choking traffic, with the authorities having announced a bank holiday with just a day’s notice.

Schools, banks and public institutions have been closed with officials saying the directive was due to the cold weather and the need to save energy.

The capital’s prestigious Beheshti and Allameh Tabataba’i universities announced that classes would be held online throughout next week for the same reason, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The authorities have not linked the bank holiday to the protests. Tehran is experiencing daytime temperatures in the low single digits, which is not unusual for the time of year.

Weekends in Iran begin on Thursdays, while this Saturday marks a long-standing national holiday.

Iran is no stranger to nationwide protests, but the latest demonstrations have not come close to the last major outbreak in 2022 triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman.

Her death in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women sparked a wave of anger across the country.

Several hundred people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces.

There were also widespread protests in 2019, sparked by a sharp increase in the price of petrol.

Regional temperature records broken across the world in 2025

By AFP
December 30, 2025


Globally, the last 12 months are expected to be the third hottest ever recorded after 2024 and 2023 - Copyright AFP Sergei GAPON

Valentin RAKOVSKY

Central Asia, the Sahel region and northern Europe experienced their hottest year on record in 2025, according to AFP analysis based on data from the European Copernicus programme.

Globally, the last 12 months are expected to be the third hottest ever recorded after 2024 and 2023, according to the provisional data, which will be confirmed by Copernicus in its annual report in early January.

But the average, which includes land and oceans, masks overall records for certain parts of the world.

Many poorer nations do not publish detailed climate data, so AFP has completed the global picture by independently analysing Copernicus data from climate models, measurements from about 20 satellites, and weather stations.

The data spans the whole world, hour by hour, since 1970.

Here is what the detailed analysis revealed for 2025, during which 120 monthly temperature records were broken in more than 70 countries.



– Records shattered in C.Asia –



Every country in Central Asia broke its annual temperature records.

Landlocked, mountainous Tajikistan, where only 41 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water, saw the highest abnormal temperatures in the world, at more than 3C above its seasonal averages from 1981 to 2010.

Monthly temperature records have been broken every month since May, with the exception of November.

Neighbouring countries such as Kazakhstan, Iran and Uzbekistan experienced temperatures 2C to 3C above the seasonal average.



– Up to 1.5C hotter in the Sahel –



Temperature records were beaten in several countries in the Sahel and west Africa.

Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Chad saw a rare divergence in temperatures, notching 0.7C to 1.5C above their seasonal average.

The last 12 months were the hottest ever recorded in Nigeria, and one of the fourth hottest in the other countries.

Scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, who assess the role of human-induced climate change in extreme weather events, wrote in their annual report published on Monday that extreme heat events “have become almost 10 times more likely since 2015”.

Countries in the Sahel — the semi-arid region of west and north-central Africa stretching from Senegal to Sudan — are among the most vulnerable to rising temperatures, with many already facing armed conflict, food insecurity and widespread poverty.



– Scorching summer in Europe-



Around 10 European countries are on the verge of, or coming close to, breaking their annual temperature record, notably due to an exceptional summer.

In Switzerland and several Balkan countries, summer temperatures were 2C and even 3C above their seasonal average.

Spain, Portugal and Britain also recorded their worst summer on record, with extreme heat fuelling massive wildfires.

The driest spring in more than a century led to a UK water shortage.

Northern Europe was largely spared the heatwave that hit Europe at the end of June but it instead experienced an abnormally warm autumn.

The last 12 months are expected to be one of the two warmest years on record in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

Global ‘fragmentation’ fuelling world’s crises: UN refugee chief


By AFP
December 30, 2025


Filippo Grandi is leaving his post after 10 years as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI

Nina LARSON

The outgoing United Nations refugee chief fears an increasingly fragmented world is fuelling global conflicts and crises, and inflaming hostility towards people desperately fleeing for safety.

Reflecting on his decade at the helm of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi told AFP that one of the most worrying developments had been how divisions had left the world seemingly incapable of resolving conflicts — and increasingly unwilling to deal with the repercussions.

“This fragmentation of geopolitics that has caused the emergence of so many crises is perhaps the most worrying thing,” the Italian diplomat said in his final interview as UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“This world is unable to make peace; has become totally unable to make peace.”

Grandi meanwhile lamented a “race to the bottom” in terms of countries tightening laws and practices to keep asylum seekers and refugees out.

He noted “a growing hostility, a rhetoric by the populist politicians targeting and scapegoating people on the move”.



– ‘Horrifying violations’ –



Speaking at UNHCR’s Geneva headquarters a day before the end of his tenure, Grandi said he had been inspired over the past decade by how regular people worldwide showed kindness and hospitality to people on the move.

“In spite of all the politics, in spite of the real challenges that these movements represent,” he said, there is still a “deeply entrenched sense that if somebody flees from danger, one has the responsibility to help”.

He also highlighted inspiring moments, including in 2021 when he witnessed former Colombian president Ivan Duque grant legal status to 1.7 million Venezuelans.

And more recently, “at the border between Lebanon and Syria and talking to people who had made the choice to go back just a few weeks after the fall of the Assad regime”.

But the exhilaration felt in such moments had been matched by the “anger and profound sadness” felt in others.

“The worst is always when you witness an exodus that is caused by the most horrifying violations of human rights,” he said, pointing to Myanmar and Sudan.

On Thursday, Grandi, 68, will be handing over the UNHCR reins to Barham Salih, 65, Iraq’s president from 2018 to 2022, who was once a refugee himself.

“He will be an excellent leader for this organisation,” Grandi said, adding though that he had warned Salih: “It will be tough”.



– ‘Very painful’ –



Grandi acknowledged it was “very painful” to be leaving when his agency is going through a profound crisis.

The UNHCR, like many other UN agencies, has been clobbered by international aid cuts since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, and numerous other leading donors have also tightened their purse-strings.

The deep cuts have forced the agency to reduce aid and shutter services — at a time when global displacement is surging.

In June, the UNHCR estimated that more than 117 million people have fled from their homes — a figure that has nearly doubled in the past decade.

“We had to reduce the organisation by about a third,” Grandi said, adding that “even more painful” was that the agency “had to reduce what we deliver to refugees, to displaced people, to stateless people around the world significantly”.

Washington, traditionally the UN’s biggest donor, has branded the United Nations bloated and inefficient, and on Monday warned its agencies to “adapt, shrink or die”.

Grandi said reforms could be beneficial but fears that the current “criticism of multilateralism and the UN focuses on the wrong target”.

“States need institutions that help them work together,” he said, warning that the very concept of international cooperation appeared to be evaporating.

“What worries me most is this ‘my country first’ rhetoric,” he said, stressing: “It’s not just Washington — it’s global”.

“When that slogan is applied to international challenges, it is weak.”

Grandi insisted that “no country can do any of this alone, not even the United States”.

“The challenges will hit us all, including those countries first… We need to work together.”