Rivkah Brown

Labour rescinded my conference pass over an unspecified "breach of the event code of conduct".

10 minutes later, @owenjones.bsky.social received a similar email.

This is a terrifying, authoritarian crackdown on press freedom.

Labour Is Struggling to Keep Palestine Off Its Conference Agenda | Novara Media Palestine Action supporters, anti-genocide marchers and pro-Palestine celebrities have disrupted the start of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, which the party had hoped would be about anything...

Starmer wanted Labour conference to be about taking chunks out of Farage and his "racist" and "immoral" policies. That isn't happening.

Perhaps he's struggling to seize the moral high ground, says @labourlewis.bsky.social, because he's supporting a racist, immoral war in Gaza.

My report:

Government Department Cancelled a Charity Bake Sale for Palestine | Novara Media Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero cancelled a planned fundraiser after officials accused the charity, Medical Aid for Palestinians, of political lobbying. Rivkah Brown reports.

NEW: DESNZ cancelled a bake sale by staff for @medicalaidpal.bsky.social, saying the charity was too politically sensitive.

Union members wrote to secretary of state Ed Miliband citing "anti-Palestinian racism" and received no response. novaramedia.com/2025/09/18/g...

Arrogant and Inept, Keir Starmer’s Hubris Is Blowing Up in His Face | Novara Media Liberals and lobby journalists jubilated last year when the grownups were finally put back in charge. Now, Starmer’s future and indeed Labour’s seem as certain as an iceberg lettuce, writes Joe Guinan...

The belly flop is the signature move of this government. “Phase two of my government starts today,” Keir Starmer intoned on 1 September, signalling little more, it turned out, than his own hubris.

A portrait of a PM in his final throes, by @joecguinan.bsky.social novaramedia.com/2025/09/15/a...

Marie launched Changing Politics in 2018. If she thought McSweeney had no idea what he was doing, why did she write this 5 days after Starmer made him chief of staff?

Glad mainstream journalists have finally asked Peter Mandelson some tough questions about his association with Jeffrey Epstein, which has been public knowledge since at least 2019.

Here's me asking Epstein's beloved "Petie" about his late friend at 2023 Labour conference

BBC Ignored Internal Request to Correct Claim Anas Al-Sharif Worked With Hamas | Novara Media Exclusive: A leaked email shows that the BBC ignored an internal request to correct reporting that smeared Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, killed by Israel in August, as a Hamas operative. Ha...

Big scoop from @novaramedia.com's Harriet Williamson: BBC Global News execs wrote to BBC News (the UK service) telling them to correct their claim that Anas al-Sharif worked with Hamas, as the BBC had no evidence for it.

BBC News *ignored their own colleagues* and the article remains uncorrected.

Zack Polanski is doing what Corbyn couldn’t: Play the media game The new Green Party premier’s first move? Launch a podcast. It’s a sure sign of a leftwing leader that’s not about to repeat past mistakes, writes Rivkah Brown.

The first move of new Green party leader @zackpolanski.bsky.social wasn't a policy (he'd already made a wealth tax his big thing) – it was a podcast.

It's a sure sign of a leftwing leader who's learned from his predecessors' mistakes.

Me for @thenewarab.bsky.social: www.newarab.com/opinion/zack...

The National Gallery Only Spent £150 Retouching Van Gogh Frame After Just Stop Oil ‘Souping’ | Novara Media Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer were jailed last year after being found guilty of causing between £8,000 and £10,000 worth of damage. Yet emails between gallery staff show the amount actually spent on...

Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer were handed a combined 3.5 years for doing £8-10k of damage to the frame of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Turns out the gallery spent just £150 retouching it.

And we're really still talking about 2-tier policing? novaramedia.com/2025/08/22/t...

Why Did the Guardian Run an Unverified Antisemitism Story? | Novara Media A man claimed to be the victim of an antisemitic mob. His alleged assailants say he instigated the altercation, calling Arabic-speaking patrons ‘terrorists’. The Guardian printed one side of the story...

A man claimed to be the victim of an antisemitic mob. His alleged assailants say he instigated the altercation, calling Arabic-speaking patrons ‘terrorists’. The Guardian printed one side of the story. This is how hysteria is manufactured. Me for @novaramedia.com novaramedia.com/2025/08/11/w...

The Fifa Museum Is a Masterclass in Reputational Whitewashing | Novara Media Handing world cups to fascist dictatorships, brown-nosing Trump, endless corruption scandals - there’s an awful lot of history on display at Fifa’s Zurich museum and absolutely none of the stuff that ...

I had no idea that Fifa awarded the 1934 World Cup to fascist Italy despite Mussolini using the tournament as a propaganda tool. Just one of the many things *you too* can learn from Juliet Jacques's excellent @novaramedia.com peice about Fifa's revisionist history. novaramedia.com/2025/08/04/t...

Why was this story – which weaponises hostages' experiences to undermine Palestinians' claim to recognition – leading @theguardian.com's homepage until moments ago?

“I suppose this is Kath [Viner, the paper's editor-in-chief] trying to both-sides a genocide again," one Guardian journalist told me.

Zack Polanski Is Done Talking | Novara Media The Green politician’s surprise leadership bid has excited a rudderless left. Could he turn the Greens from a byword for well-meaning environmentalists into a mass movement? Rivkah Brown meets Zack Po...

Green leadership candidate Zack Polanski says would-be members of a rumoured new left party should "stop pissing about and join the Greens". My profile for @novaramedia.com novaramedia.com/2025/06/25/z...

Which do we prefer: cute with a hint of sneer or straight-on with a hint of babushka?

How are political prisoners treated compared to, and by, other prisoners? How do they adapt to confinement? What's the most popular vape flavour at HMP The Mount?

This and more on episode 2 of Committed ⛓️ open.spotify.com/episode/655Q...

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

open.spotify.com/episode/0ilc...

Committed | Novara Media Britain is locking up peaceful climate activists. You’ve probably heard of some of them – they’re the road-blockers, soup-throwers and spray-painters who’ve made headlines around the world with Just S...

@clarehymer.bsky.social and I have spent the past 5 months interviewing Britain's political prisoners about life inside – and thinking about the kind of people that give up their freedom for a cause.

Ep 1 of Committed is out today, listen here or on the NM podcast feed novaramedia.com/committed/

Always blows my mind that Miriam Margolyes can be on the cover of Vogue one minute but the minute she opens her mouth about Palestine...............crickets

Running an inflammatory headline from a 3-month-old report on antisemitism today, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, is the kind of irresponsible, sensationalist journalism I'd expect from the Jewish Chronicle, not the Guardian.

Itsu said Jeremy Corbyn 4 PM

Police also cite complaints from rabbis inc Barry Lerer, who in September delivered the sermon: “It is time to go to combat our enemies, not only on the battlefield but the hostile press, those on social media, the UN and governments." A good-faith actor?

Palestine Marchers Set to Defy Police Ban | Novara Media The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has always cooperated with police, until now. Rivkah Brown reports on why the group is refusing to cancel Saturday's central London march, despite the Met doubling do...

NEW: The Palestine movement is headed for a historic confrontation with police this Saturday as organisers say they'll go ahead despite a police ban.

Police cite disruption to nearby synagogues – despite services finishing 2 hours before protesters arrive.

novaramedia.com/2025/01/14/p...

“We are not calling for demonstrations to be banned,” the Jewish Leadership Council's Claudia Mendoza told the Times. "We just want it to start away from the synagogue.” Not what she'd have said a year ago! 3/

are taking a noticeably more conciliatory tone, shifting their focus away from smearing the Palestine demos as antisemitic (which hasn't worked, not least because of growing numbers of Jewish participants) to complaining specifically about the disruption caused to synagogues. 2/

There has been a notable shift here in the approach of the PSC, which previously changed the start time of its marches to accommodate the police's demands – but is now doubling down on its plans. Clear emboldening of the Palestine movement.

By contrast, rightwing Jewish groups 1/

British Jews Call Bullshit on Met’s Attempt to Ban Palestine March | Novara Media Over 700 British Jews, including prominent human rights lawyers and academics, have signed a statement slamming the Met’s ban on an upcoming Palestine demonstration over supposed synagogue disruption....

NEW: 700+ British Jews have signed a statement criticising the Met's attempted ban on Saturday's Palestine march, calling it a "brazen attempt to interfere with hard-won political freedoms by conjuring up an imaginary threat to Jewish freedom of worship.” novaramedia.com/2025/01/13/b...

I Drank the Russell Brand Kool-Aid | Novara Media His outsider status and unabashed spiritualism made TV star Russell Brand feel like a kindred spirit to a young Alison J Carr. As his alleged sexual misconduct and alt-right tendencies come to light, ...

Hugely enjoyed Allie Carr's thoughtful, vulnerable long read about falling in and out of love with Russell Brand
novaramedia.com/2025/01/13/i...

SCOOP: BBC News global director Jonathan Munro lambasted journalists who said they feared the BBC could be "aiding and abetting genocide" by suppressing the ICJ ruling, suggesting the ruling wasn't as significant as they thought. novaramedia.com/2025/01/09/b...