Elisabeth Schweiger

When Britain backed Iran’s dictator The UK armed the Shah’s “autocracy” and directly aided his brutal security service in the decades leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, declassified files show.

What happened the last time the US/UK changed the regime in Iran?

The UK armed the Shah’s “autocracy” and directly aided his brutal security service in the decades leading up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. 👇

www.declassifieduk.org/when-britain...

Keir Starmer’s expertise on or credibility in international law is not what it used to be

Starmer says his approval for the US to use British bases to bomb Iran is “permitted under international law” as “acting in the collective self-defence of regional allies”.

He condemns Iran’s retaliatory strikes but not the US/Israeli bombing of Iran.

www.gov.uk/government/s...

Melania Trump is still scheduled to chair the UN Security Council mtg on Monday 3PM on the topic of "children, technology & education in conflict" 2 days after US/Israeli strikes in Iran (inc reportedly hitting a girls' school)

Maybe it’s because I’m a colonial historian but so many of these white nation states seem to behave exactly like they did in the 19th century: ‘your leaders aren’t right for you,’ ‘we’re only killing you/colonizing you/installing puppet leaders for your own good’

Eisenhower

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz Age-verification systems require collecting sensitive data to support the biometric information. In no time, the internet will become a fully surveilled digital panopticon, says technology journalist Taylor Lorenz

The world wants to ban children from social media, but there will be grave consequences for us all | Taylor Lorenz

Starmer urges restraint on Iran but not on the states guilty of aggression: Israel and the USA

This approach in itself undermines the rule of law and international law

Regardless of what we think of the Iranian regime

Trump admin blacklists Anthropic as AI firm refuses Pentagon demands "The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Anthropic takes the high road. Thank you!

Anthropic, which signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon in July, wanted assurances that its AI models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance of Americans. The Pentagon strongly resisted that request.

Trump is marching toward war with Iran. He hasn’t bothered to make clear why | Mohamad Bazzi The US spent months promoting a false case for the invasion of Iraq. This time, we’re in the dark about Washington’s goals

“The last time the American people trusted a president intent on going to war, it ended in catastrophe. And yet Trump now risks sleepwalking the US into another war without even bothering to build a case based on a lie” — my latest for @theguardian.com on echoes of the 2003 Iraq war

Military AI companies arguing that the laws of war do not apply to their type of warfare
www.thetimes.com/article/86e7...

anyway the consultation shuts tomorrow, one minute to midnight UK time: www.gov.uk/government/c... Amnesty have some good guidance here. Go on: media.amnesty.org.uk/documents/Am...

Photo of the choir Protest in Harmony

Protest in Harmony www.protestinharmony.org.uk

They have been doing this for more than a year, every week and collected thousands for MAP @medicalaidpal.bsky.social

As the awful situation in Palestine is disappearing from media discourses, this choir is standing in the Scottish weather, singing for justice and humanity

Every Friday this group of peace activists gather in Edinburgh in front of St Giles to sing for Palestine

It's rare to see how lobbyists operate. But the Epstein-Mandelson correspondence shows us what happens all the time: plutocrats and government ministers conspiring against the public interest. This is why all lobbying should be in the public domain, but despite Labour and Con promises, it's not. 🧵

We need a better way to get the 3800+ kids out of ICE detention than this. We know Liam’s name and we can advocate on his behalf, but that isn’t true of almost any of the other people stuck in detention centers.

We have to stop ICE on a systemic level.

Trump’s board of peace is an imperial court completely unlike what was proposed The US president’s global club was endorsed by the security council on a false prospectus and seems aimed at displacing the United Nations

Trump’s board of peace is an imperial court completely unlike what was proposed

Venezuela without Venezuelans As bombs fall and power shifts, Venezuela is reframed as a geopolitical case study, while the voices of those living through the crisis are pushed aside

Venezuela without Venezuelans

The utterly shameless & widely covered "report" out today, claiming net zero will "cost" £9tn is based on:

* Assuming free fossil-fuel energy, free petrol cars, free gas boilers, free gas power plants etc

AND

* Including climate damages in the "cost" of net zero

I kid you not, it is that stupid

Home Office tells Gaza academic his bid to bring family to UK not urgent Bassem Abudagga losing hope after being told wife must go to visa application centre, of which none remain in Gaza A Palestinian academic has failed in his latest attempt to be reunited with his family in the UK after the Home Office concluded their case was not urgent and it was more appropriate for his two children to remain with their mother in a tent in Gaza. Bassem Abudagga was also told in a letter from Home Office officials that no reason had been found that was “sufficiently compelling” to defer a requirement that his wife attend a visa application centre (VAC) in Gaza so she could provide fingerprints to satisfy the conditions for evacuation. Continue reading...

Home Office tells Gaza academic his bid to bring family to UK not urgent

Worth remembering:

The US capture of President Nicolás Maduro – and attacks on Venezuela – have no justification in international law This may be the moment when Western Europe realizes that the US has abandoned the core values that united them for the past century, writes the head of Chatham House’s International Law Programme.

The US operation to capture Nicolás Maduro may well be the moment when Western Europe realizes that the US has decisively abandoned the core values that united them for the past century.

UN experts urge UK to protect lives and rights of pro-Palestinian detainees on hunger strike GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed grave concern for the lives and fundamental rights of eight pro-Palestinian activists imprisoned in the United Kingdom, who have been on indefinite hunger strike s...

UN experts urge UK “to immediately guarantee appropriate healthcare for all hunger strikers, and engage in meaningful dialogue and action to address not only the claims of the protestors, but also … an end to the repression of Palestine activism.”

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

www.civilrightsteaching.org/resource/nat...

Lufthansa resumes military deliveries to Israel German air freight had halted the shipments for a week, citing UK regulations

👉 NEW -- Lufthansa resumes military deliveries to Israel

by Dania Akkad

German air freight had halted the shipments for a week, citing UK regulations.

www.declassifieduk.org/lufthansa-re...

The US is not just Europe’s unwilling ally, but an adversary steeped in far-right ideology | Cas Mudde Don’t say you weren’t warned: Trump’s new national security strategy seeks to destroy liberal democracy as we know it, says academic and author Cas Mudde

The US is not just Europe’s unwilling ally, but an adversary steeped in far-right ideology | Cas Mudde

Qatar and Egypt urge Israeli withdrawal to secure next step in Gaza peace deal Mediators of delicate truce say troop removal and deployment of international force crucial to second phase Qatar and Egypt, the guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement. The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal’s first phase. Continue reading...

Qatar and Egypt urge Israeli withdrawal to secure next step in Gaza peace deal

UK immigration status fears prompt carer to cancel benefits she is entitled to Woman cancels all benefits including disability living allowance for daughter after policy change announcement A low-paid carer from Ghana has cancelled all the benefits she is legally entitled to, including the disability allowance one of her children receives, owing to fears about her immigration status after the policy changes announced by the home secretary. The radical changes to legal migration announced by Shabana Mahmood on 20 November will penalise those who are living and working legally in the UK, but who claim benefits. Continue reading...

UK immigration status fears prompt carer to cancel benefits she is entitled to