Donald Macintyre

The Taliban have gutted Afghan media since taking control of the country in August 2021.

HRW's @fereshtaabbasi.bsky.social details the harsh conditions and growing challenges journalists are facing in Afghanistan ⤵️

Trump gave Amazon a $16 billion tax break to accelerate its investments this year.

Now, Amazon will replace 600,000 workers with robots as Jeff Bezos accelerates his plan to automate warehouses.

No. Corporate tax breaks do not trickle down to workers. Never have. Never will.

The timing is accidental but this revised edition has just gone on online. www.amazon.co.uk/Gaza-Prepari...

Greater Manchester Muslims show solidarity in wake of synagogue attack The Manchester Council of Mosques and the Anwaarul Haramain Jam’e Masjid have released statements.

quite right.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

Manchester Council of Mosques have issued this statement in sadness, shock and solidarity with the Jewish community about this attack at the synagogue in Manchester

Palestinian statehood is the bare minimum - what Starmer needs to do next Every diplomat knows there is a menu of options if the Government chooses to enact them

A thought or two on what might follow the latest multilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood
inews.co.uk/news/world/p...

What is a reactionary centrist, and does the UK have them? A term favoured by US progressives can help us understand Britain’s drift to the right

we need a label for UK politicians who endlessly "empathise" with fascist concerns - let's try a US one

my latest with @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/709...

As Israel seeks to empty Gaza City, its residents weigh whether to leave The Israeli military is trying to transfer nearly 1 million people from Gaza City. Many are wrestling with the costs and perils of moving to a massive encampment.

Milshtein warned that Israel’s advance into Gaza City will probably result in more deaths of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians and a long, grinding insurgency that could become “like the U.S. in Iraq.”

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Lib Dem leader to boycott king’s Trump banquet in protest over Gaza Exclusive: Ed Davey says Starmer should engage with US president but they should not close their eyes to crisis

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey takes a welcome and principled stand. www.theguardian.com/politics/202... .

Israel's denial of the Gaza City famine sums up its disregard for civilian lives Such nonchalance may have its roots in a shift in Israeli military thinking that goes back 20 years

inews.co.uk/opinion/isra...

My full statement on the Gaza Famine :

As Netanyahu starves Gaza, there is a whole new battle to be fought in Israel – against complacency | Aluf Benn Here in Tel Aviv, beaches and restaurants are packed. Amid that distraction, the PM is playing his power games and purging his generals, says Aluf Benn, editor-in-chief of Haaretz

"As Netanyahu starves Gaza, there is a whole new battle to be fought in Israel – against complacency. Here in Tel Aviv, beaches and restaurants are packed."

Aluf Benn

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Funerals have taken place in Gaza City for five Al Jazeera journalists killed in what the UN has condemned as a grave breach of international law.

In Dublin, members of the National Union of Journalists gathered to condemn the targeting of journalists in Gaza.

#VMNews

Today - 11/08/2025 - BBC Sounds News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Tremendous --as ever--reporting from the West Bank by Jeremy Bowen on BBC Today prog--albeit deeply depressing. Get it from one hour 36 mins in.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Prominent Al Jazeera journalist killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza Anas al-Sharif was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City A prominent Al Jazeera journalist who had raised concerns about being killed has died in an Israeli airstrike. Anas al-Sharif, known for documenting the release of hostages and for removing his body armour after a ceasefire, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City along with three colleagues. Continue reading...

Prominent Al Jazeera journalist killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

Silence is surrender | Editorial ***

Sorry--should of course have said Friday's editorial in Haaretz. Just caught up.
www.haaretz.com/opinion/edit...

Silence is surrender | Editorial ***

Yesterday's powerful editorial from Haaretz
www.haaretz.com/opinion/edit...

Twice this year, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social visited the front lines of Sudan’s brutal war. No international organizations, diplomats, or Americans are coming to fill the void that years of violence have created, she reports.

Read The Atlantic’s September cover story: https://theatln.tc/KmMlZX6H

If Trump doesn’t act now, rogue leaders everywhere will act with impunity Israel plans to take control of Gaza City - only the US President can use his leverage to force a ceasefire

inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

Starmer has forgotten the human rights lawyer he used to be with his Palestine plan He needs to do far more if his foreign policy is to recover the true respect he promised

"The ceasefire condition is tantamount to saying to the Palestinians that to secure UK recognition, they need to go on being killed in Gaza." A bit on the perverse conditionality in Starmer's shift to recognising a Palestinian state
inews.co.uk/opinion/star...

Netanyahu is Israel to pariah status – and Starmer can’t stop him Opposition to the war in Gaza is growing around the world, with even Trump voicing his concern about scenes of starvation. But, writes Donald Macintyre, Benjamin Netanyahu is also fighting for his pol...

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...

Former Sun editor appointed communications chief at heart of Starmer Government David Dinsmore, who was editor of the tabloid newspaper between 2013 and 2015, will serve as a senior civil servant.

A top man in Murdoch's UK operation--and former editor of The Sun--given powerful new job in Starmer government. Cui bono in relation to this startling appointment?
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Recognising the state of Palestine is now the only option for the UK If not now, when?

Well as a first step anyway............,

inews.co.uk/opinion/reco...

And given that even old school Likudniks no longer in the Knesset like Benny Begin, Reeven Rivlin et al, opposed Odeh's exulsion, striking that supposedly centrist opposition leaders like Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid abstained rather than join Yair Golan's Democrats in voting against it.

There is one clear winner in the welfare debate… and it isn’t Liz Kendall The work and pensions secretary was made to defend her beleaguered benefits bill without either the prime minister or chancellor – which made for a poor show indeed, says Donald Macintyre

Labour MP Rachel Maskell's complaint that these “Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party” summed up a measure by a government applying so little of the expertise it showed in winning a mandate to planning what to do with it. www.independent.co.uk/voices/liz-k...

Israel’s conflict with Iran hasn’t ended the war in Gaza But Netanyahu has bought himself time that Palestinians can ill-afford

Xavier Greenwood and me for the Observer

Observer.co.uk/news/international/article/israels-strikes-on-iran-ease-pressure-on-netanyahu-in-gaza

On Iran, It’s Trump vs. MAGA Today on TAP: What happens when a failing dictator is on the ropes? He imagines winning World War III.

Kuttner on Trump's conflicting pressures over Iran
"Trump is the dummy, but a dummy who commands the world’s largest military. The two competing ventriloquists are Bannon and Netanyahu."
prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...

Israelis are convinced Palestinians want to leave Gaza. What do Gazans themselves say? ***

Dahlia Scheindlln excellent as usual on a crucial issue www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

Priorities.

Even if Putin falls - another despot is waiting in the wings The shift away from liberal democracy is much bigger than the Russian president

Thoughts from earlier this week on would --and wouldn't--happen if Putin fell. inews.co.uk/opinion/puti...