Jess Salter

Close to 100 charities condemn ‘devastating’ impact of a year of UK aid cuts In a joint statement, 93 NGOs call on the government to reverse ‘short-sighted’ reduction of up to 40 per cent in Britain’s aid budget

93 UK INGOs have issued a joint statement to mark one year since the UK aid cuts were announced, calling on the government to set out a plan to reverse the cuts, ensure poverty reduction is central to it development agenda & help make the global system fairer.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

YouTube video by Sky News Mozambique hit by worst flooding in more than 20 years

The British minister talks proudly here of the UK’s role in helping flood survivors in Mozambique. What isn’t mentioned is that the U.K. is slashing its aid budget so help like this is getting rarer youtu.be/1dfNpUNp52Y?...

One overlooked aspect is that graduates are now forecast to cover 83% of higher education costs – the funding system has been almost entirely privatised.

Hugh Bonneville, "I condemn the October 7th Hamas attack just as much as I condemn what Israel has done to Gaza"

"All I care about is humanity"

"And most people watching this program would agree with that"

It's their world and we're just living in it.

The amount of published social media posts that have the typo "know" instead of "no" that I've seen in the last few days is worrying...

Twitter thread in Spanish by José Mario de la Garza, a human rights lawyer in Mexico, translated using Google Translate: 1. Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally right. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest. 2. The problem is not Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it is “overthrowing a dictator”; tomorrow it will be “correcting an election,” “protecting interests,” “restoring order.” The law does not absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades.

Cont’d: 3. The uncomfortable question is not whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it makes us uncomfortable.

Maduro isn't the problem: he's the face of the problem. Removing him from power would be merely opening the door. Behind him is the machine: Rodríguez, Cabello, the military command, the operators of repression and plunder. If you only change the person at the top and leave the system intact, what follows isn't democracy: it's a reshuffling. And there's something even more difficult: Chavismo didn't just capture institutions, it captured daily life. Economy, media, bureaucracy, employment, fear, favors, blackmail. A country can't be "de-Chavistaized" by decree or by an electoral miracle. The real transition begins when that network is broken without setting the country ablaze. The challenge is enormous, and it's also a moral one: to unite without vengeance, but without impunity. Targeted justice for those most responsible, truth for the victims, guarantees that the rest will dismantle the system, and a plan for people to live again—not just survive. Because freedom doesn't come with a new president: it comes when the state ceases to be a threat.

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

Let's not forget that Trump just pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández - ex-Honduras president who backed a coup, committed election fraud, violently repressed activists, lawyers, Indigenous people, youth etc - and was entenced to 35 years by an American jury for trafficking drugs and weapons into the US

How private investors are making billions from countries in debt Exclusive: As an escalating climate crisis and a difficult economic outlook put ever greater pressure on developing countries, new analysis shows how wealthy private investors in the Global North are ...

With over 30 countries facing high risk of debt distress & most of these debts owed to private creditors governed under English law, the UK and other governing jurisdictions, must use their powers to compel private creditors to comply with greater debt relief. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

How do public perceptions of government spending match with reality?

A YouGov experiment put a series of govt spending areas as head to head match-ups and asked Britons to say which they thought more was spent on

Read more here: yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

Bond reacts to Reform UK proposals to cut the UK aid budget by 90 per cent to £1 billion | Bond Today, Tuesday 18th November, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has declared that the Chancellor should slash the UK aid budget by 90% to £1 billion, to

Cutting UK aid is not a simple solution - Zia Yusuf claims the UK sends "hundreds of millions" to Turkey, but figures show the country received just £13m last year, mainly for a refugee support programme, given Turkey hosts the world's 2nd largest amount of refugees. www.bond.org.uk/press-releas...

Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham - BBC News In a statement the institution also says it is "proposing to reduce its nursing offer".

My alma mater @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is cutting the modern languages undergrad courses. As an alum of Spanish this is incredibly damaging for students & runs the risk of turning into the "University of Little England" The decision needs reversing. www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....

This is how Labour can fix the finances - without forcing ordinary people to pay the price | LBC Rachel Reeves should ask the wealthiest and the biggest polluters to contribute their fair share, writes Ellie Chowns MP.

In this @lbc.co.uk piece, @elliechowns.bsky.social proposes 4 policies that Labour could introduce to strengthen the public finances without hitting ordinary people, including taxing the super-rich, going further on polluter pays & supporting a fairer global tax system.
www.lbc.co.uk/article/labo...

Aid cuts could set back fragile gains in eliminating neglected tropical diseases | Letter Letter: In response to an editorial on the uptick in malaria, Prof Heather Ferguson writes that progress against dengue, leprosy, rabies and other conditions could unravel

"To safeguard fragile gains against malaria, NTDs and other diseases, the UK government must maintain its support for international development. Eliminating these scourges is in the UK public’s best interest."
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

Even in this place, I feel the sheer scale of foreign aid being demolished isn't fully appreciated. As it stands, it is perhaps *the* most catastrophic change to preventable deaths in our lifetimes, and the salience - even in presumably friendly spaces - is basically zero

apnews.com/article/myan...

Don't just call Reform racist and expect the country to agree with you. Show them an alternative, what an alternative future could look like to Reform's pathway to further economic decline.

Poor nations pay more on debt interest than they get for climate aid The world’s least developed countries paid US $37 billion (£28bn) to service their debts in 2023, but received only $32 billion (£24bn) in climate finance

The world's least developed & most climate-vulnerable countries are paying more in debt than they receive in climate funding, new research from @iied.bsky.social finds.
@bondngo.bsky.social urges the UK and other rich countries to end this vicious cycle.
www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Headline: "Man who appealed Pelicot rape conviction handed longer jail term"

The world's in a bad way, but now and then something goes right

Bond statement on the second anniversary of the 7th October attacks | Bond 7 October 2025 marks the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. Two years on, the conflict in Gaza continues, with at least 67,160

Today marks the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. Two years on, the conflict in Gaza continues, with at least 67,160 Palestinians confirmed killed and Gaza enduring one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in our time.
www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/10...

Tell me it's party conference season without telling me it's party conference season #labourpartyconference

Opinion | The Tax on Being a Girl

"As medical care evaporates, it is moms who die in childbirth. As food disappears and babies cry from hunger, some overwhelmed husbands abandon their wives and children. As social order unravels, it is mostly girls who are raped, & then scorned for having been raped."
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...

African countries push for radical change to tackle climate crisis as key summit ends Nick Ferris reports from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, where activists back ambitious final declaration at second African Climate Summit – but pile scorn on lack of help from rich nations

"The UK was represented by a less senior figure in climate envoy Rachel Kyte. The FCDO told @the-independent.com that the UK had no message for the media at the summit - and at one panel on the future of aid Kyte did not appear, despite being on the programme."
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

BII has grown — but is it delivering for the poorest? A new analysis by Bond UK raises questions about whether the U.K.’s development finance institution is living up to its mandate, even as it expands in size and reach.

BII concentrates 53% of it's investments in 5 middle-income countries (India, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa & Kenya) despite it's mandate to support economic growth for the benefit of the poorest populations.

@bondngo.bsky.social's new briefing on BII in @devex.com 👇
www.devex.com/news/bii-has...

The Parliamentary Black Caucus condemns in the strongest terms the recent rise in racism, abuse and anti-migrant hatred that we have witnessed in many parts of our beloved country. Whilst all people have the right to peaceful protest, we are clear that racism, intimidation and violence have no place in our society and must be met with a clear and robust response from the police authorities. From people being assaulted and abused in public because of their ethnicity, religion or dress, to racist graffiti sprayed on buildings, to intimidatory and violent protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, this is an alarming time for many people, especially those from minoritised communities. We stand in solidarity with all those who are fearful, targeted or at risk.

The Government must show leadership. It must take urgent steps to reduce tensions, call out and challenge racist rhetoric and behaviour wherever it occurs, and take far more seriously the threat posed by the far right — which police have identified as the UK’s fastest-growing threat. We also call on the public to reject the divisive agenda of the far right, who are seeking to exploit recent tensions to spread anti-migrant hatred as well as mis and disinformation. This country is stronger when we stand together. We absolutely should have space in our country for informed discussions around migration, immigration and integration. This should be based on facts, compassion and most importantly, humanity. The Parliamentary Black Caucus believes in a patriotism that is inclusive, welcoming and proudly anti-racist — because only unity and solidarity will defeat the far right.

As Chair, here is our cross-party joint statement from the Parliamentary Black Caucus, regarding the rising threat of racism and violence from the far-right.👇🏾

Spain, Ireland and now Slovenia saying they will not participate in Eurovision this year if Isreal remains a participant

A note to The Lead readers about Angela Rayner at the top of our weekend newsletter

This is out of the Trump playbook. How low are the Tories going to stoop

Labour had 9.7 million voters in July 2024.

2 million (20%) now don't know, but haven't chosen a rival. These prefer Lab & centre-left to right

2.6 million to centre/left (27%)
900k Labour to LD (9%)
800k Labour to Green (8%)
900k across others (9%)

800k Lab 2024 to Reform (8%)
A sliver to Cons

This video doing the rounds again today. What Farage is promising still impossible.

Wearing a black T-shirt in a coffee shop and someone asks me for the bill. 🙈