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  • Palestine Action defendants drop lawyers and self-represent due to ‘decisions made by the court’

    Palestine Action defendants drop lawyers and self-represent due to ‘decisions made by the court’

    Six activists linked to the pro-Palestinian advocacy group Palestine Action made a dramatic procedural move on Wednesday, choosing to represent themselves during their trial over an August 2024 raid on an Israeli-owned Elbit Systems manufacturing facility near Bristol’s Filton area. The group, facing charges of criminal damage for the break-in, said court rulings left their defence lawyers unable to continue representing them, forcing them to deliver their own closing remarks to the jury. Only one defendant, 23-year-old Samuel Corner, retained his legal counsel; Corner faces an additional additional charge of grievous bodily harm with intent for allegations he struck a police officer with a sledgehammer during the incident.

    Many of the activists spoke through tears, their voices shaking with emotion as they laid out their motivations directly to the jury. In her address, 29-year-old Charlotte Head explained that court decisions left her barrister unable to continue her representation, and warned the jury that planned UK government reforms seek to eliminate jury trials entirely. “They are afraid of the power you hold as a jury,” Head told the assembled court.

    Head has pleaded not guilty to the criminal damage charge, arguing her actions were legally justified because the facility produced weapons. Though the court ruled that events following October 2023 are irrelevant to the proceedings, Head referenced the ongoing conflict in Gaza implicitly, tying her actions to the broader crisis. She described her prior experience volunteering with migrants and refugees in the Calais refugee camp in France, where she said she witnessed violence that she believes was funded by UK government money. Extending that argument, she claimed the UK is complicit in the Gaza crisis by allowing Israeli weapons manufacturers to operate on British soil.

    “The devastation I had witnessed in Calais was happening on an exponential scale,” Head said. “Watching a genocide live-streamed on my phone, I couldn’t sit back and do nothing when I knew once again our government was directly involved.”

    Head told the jury she exhausted all conventional channels of political advocacy before joining the Palestine Action action: she wrote to her Member of Parliament, receiving only an automated reply, and joined mass national protests, even as civilian areas in Gaza continued to be destroyed. She became involved with the group during a protest encampment outside London’s Hackney Town Hall, where activists called on the local council to divest from Israeli arms companies. After months of peaceful campaigning that produced no change, she said, “I had no other choice, no other options were available because we tried them all.”

    In her own closing address, 22-year-old Zoe Rogers echoed Head’s argument, pointing to evidence presented during the trial that confirmed Elbit Systems manufactures weapons for Israel on UK soil, and that British research and development has played a critical role in the Israeli military. She noted that the Filton facility targeted in the raid has been visited by the Israeli ambassador and holds official export licenses to ship weapons to Israel, framing the company as the “backbone of the Israeli military.” Like Head, Rogers said she and her co-defendants had tried every legal, democratic avenue to end UK support for Israeli arms manufacturing, and none of those efforts succeeded.

    Rogers drew attention to what she called a pattern of censorship throughout the three-week trial, telling jurors “you might have noticed certain words have been blacklisted, that, until our speeches, the word ‘genocide’ hasn’t been said once. It’s almost as if topics of conversation have been banned.” She accused prosecution officials of suppressing the reality of the facility’s role in the Gaza conflict rather than debating the facts of the case. “The prosecution knows full well that we are right that this factory is supplying weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza,” Rogers said. “They are choosing to suppress the truth rather than contest it.”

    The activist acknowledged that she faces major personal consequences including potential prison time that she has much to lose, but confirmed she intentionally planned to be arrested during the raid. She reminded jurors that they must be certain of the defendants’ guilt to convict, asking “How can you be sure, when you know that you haven’t heard the whole truth?” Breaking down in tears as she concluded her address, Rogers added, “There’s one thing you can be sure of, I’m proud, so proud I took part in this.”

    This report draws from original independent coverage by Middle East Eye, a publication specializing in on-the-ground reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region.

  • Indians lost $25bn to digital fraud in 2025 – now its central bank is fighting back

    Indians lost $25bn to digital fraud in 2025 – now its central bank is fighting back

    Over the past five years, India’s rapid embrace of cashless digital payments has unlocked unprecedented convenience for millions of consumers — but it has also opened the door to a soaring wave of cyber-enabled financial fraud that has drained billions of dollars from ordinary accounts. The scale of the crisis became stark in new data showing nearly 2.5 million Indian citizens lost a combined $25 billion to digital scams in 2025 alone, marking a staggering 4,300% increase in total losses since 2021. This explosive growth has forced India’s central banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to intervene with a slate of proposed policy changes aimed at curbing the harm, though industry experts warn the new measures face major implementation hurdles and may deliver only limited impact. The human cost of the crisis is illustrated by the experience of Alok, a business analyst based in Pune whose identity has been protected by changing his name. In February, he received an urgent text message claiming he owed a 1,000 rupee ($10.75) speeding fine, warning that his driving license would be suspended if he did not pay immediately. Pressured to act quickly, Alok clicked a linked payment portal and entered a one-time password (OTP) to complete what he thought was the small transaction. Within minutes, his credit card had been charged the full maximum limit of $3,225. Alok had fallen victim to one of India’s most common social engineering scams, where fraudsters use psychological manipulation — stoking fear and urgency — to trick users into revealing sensitive authentication details that allow scammers to drain their accounts. These fake messages mimic official government or bank communications, directing unsuspecting victims to convincing phishing websites that harvest their credentials. As digital payment adoption has accelerated far faster than public digital literacy and regulatory safeguards, this type of fraud has evolved into a national crisis. In response, the RBI released a public discussion paper earlier this month outlining a series of potential reforms to crack down on illegal activity. The most notable proposals include mandating a one-hour processing delay for account-to-account money transfers, requiring additional authentication from a pre-approved trusted person for high-value payments made by vulnerable groups such as senior citizens, imposing stricter limits and ongoing reviews for large credits to new customer accounts to flag potential money mule accounts used to launder fraudulent funds, and giving consumers the ability to toggle digital payment services on or off and set custom transaction limits, similar to the controls already available for physical credit and debit cards. While experts broadly praise the RBI’s proactive, consultative approach to addressing the crisis, many question the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed policies. Rajesh Bansal, former CEO of the RBI Innovation Hub, told the BBC that while a payment processing delay could block the type of OTP scam that targeted Alok, these simpler scams now make up only a tiny fraction of total fraudulent activity in India. “These scams were the dominant variety three or four years ago, but frauds have now moved to another level, and are far more sophisticated,” Bansal explained. Wriju Ray, a senior leader at leading regulatory technology firm IDfy, notes that implementing a system-wide payment delay would also be logistically extremely challenging. India’s digital payment ecosystem is built around the core principle of instant transaction processing, so adding delays would require a complete overhaul of existing network architecture, from transaction queuing systems to transaction cancellation protocols. The RBI itself acknowledges this challenge, admitting in the discussion paper that the change would require significant cost and effort across the entire industry, and would contradict the core design of India’s real-time payment infrastructure. Bansal compares the change to “building an expressway and adding speed breakers every few kilometres” — creating unnecessary friction for legitimate users that will do little to stop determined scammers. Ray adds that fraudsters are already likely to adapt to the change, for example by instructing victims to complete transactions an hour in advance to avoid triggering any fraud alerts. Other proposals also raise practical questions, experts say. While extra authentication for elderly users is a well-intentioned idea, it is unclear how the rule would work in practice: what if the trusted person is traveling abroad? And if the trusted person approves a transaction that still turns out to be fraudulent, who bears legal responsibility for the loss? The plan to strengthen detection of money mule accounts through stricter checks and credit limits may be effective, but it would also impose heavy new compliance costs on financial institutions — costs that would ultimately be passed on to ordinary consumers, Ray argues. Bansal adds that the RBI already has a fully developed mule detection platform called Mulehunter.AI, which was created during his tenure as CEO and is designed to provide real-time intelligence on high-risk beneficiary accounts. The platform has yet to be rolled out for widespread real-time use across India’s banking system, and Bansal is calling for its immediate, expedited implementation as a more effective immediate solution. Beyond regulatory changes, experts agree that policy intervention is only one piece of the puzzle. Closing the gap between rapid digital adoption and public digital literacy is a critical, long-overdue priority. India’s population has moved to digital payments at a breakneck pace that outstripped the growth of consumer education and fraud awareness safeguards. While the RBI has launched public awareness campaigns, recruiting high-profile celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan and running ads during widely viewed Indian Premier League cricket matches, experts say far more investment is needed to bring digital literacy to all segments of the population, particularly vulnerable groups like the elderly that are most often targeted by scammers. Experts also add that the RBI needs to deepen cross-agency collaboration with police forces, relevant government ministries, the securities and markets regulator, and other stakeholders to tackle the root of the fraud crisis, as fragmented responsibility across agencies has slowed effective action to date. Despite the concerns about the specific proposals, experts do welcome the RBI’s new open, consultative approach to addressing the problem — a marked shift from the bank’s past practice of issuing top-down decrees without public input. Ray notes that the ongoing public discussion of the crisis is itself a positive step that will ultimately lead to more effective, widely accepted regulation over time.

  • A son overlooked and a jailed tycoon: Inside Samsung’s succession drama

    A son overlooked and a jailed tycoon: Inside Samsung’s succession drama

    For many global corporate giants, a changing of the guard at the C-suite rarely makes front-page news. As long as products reach consumers, services run smoothly and supply chains hold steady, public attention rarely turns to who sits in the boardroom. But for Samsung, South Korea’s largest and most influential family-owned chaebol, leadership transitions are never just internal business — they are national news that can shape the trajectory of an entire economy. The decades-long drama of Samsung’s royal family succession reached its long-awaited conclusion in July 2025, when the Seoul High Court upheld an acquittal for chairman Lee Jae-yong on fraud charges tied to the 2015 merger that secured his grip on the empire, closing a 10-year legal saga that once brought down a South Korean president and upended the future of the world’s biggest tech manufacturer.

  • In Gaza, life flickers as power cuts shatter livelihoods and healthcare

    In Gaza, life flickers as power cuts shatter livelihoods and healthcare

    Gaza City, Palestine — When 34-year-old baker Abrar Abdu pulled open the door of her oven after hours of careful preparation, she was left speechless. In her small, dimly-lit workshop, the only light came from her phone’s flashlight, which cast a shadow over 27 completely ruined cakes, destroyed by an unexpected power outage that left her aging oven malfunctioning.

    Abdu is one of thousands of Palestinian small business owners navigating Gaza’s escalating total energy crisis, a disaster that has unfolded since Israel cut all power connections to the 2.2 million-person enclave at the start of its military campaign in 2023. The territory’s only power plant ceased operations on October 11 that year, after running out of fuel under a strict Israeli blockade on energy imports. Today, Gaza remains trapped in near-total darkness, with most residents relying on expensive, overstretched private generators or limited, costly solar infrastructure just to access basic power.

    For Abdu, the latest power failure was a devastating blow that wiped out months of slow progress toward rebuilding her small cake shop after the war. She was forced to issue apologies to waiting customers, refund all orders, and absorb the full cost of spoiled ingredients, a loss she says has pushed her business to the edge of collapse. “I have incurred devastating financial losses due to the chronic instability of the electricity generators,” Abdu told Middle East Eye in an interview, adding that the crisis threatens not just her own livelihood, but the incomes of her small team of employees.

    Even after the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israeli restrictions on fuel and critical equipment imports remain fully in place, deepening the humanitarian crisis and derailing fragile efforts to rebuild civilian life. Abdu explained that the dependence on overpriced commercial generators has created a constant cycle of financial stress: at one point, the business was forced to halt production for nine straight days due to repeated generator breakdowns. “This leaves us in a constant struggle against financial ruin, the loss of our clientele, and the burden of paying workers who support their families amid extreme poverty,” she said.

    The crisis hits hardest at Gaza’s already crippled healthcare system, which has been left on the brink of collapse after repeated Israeli attacks and restrictions on medicine and medical equipment. Hospitals across the strip are almost entirely dependent on generators to keep critical care units running, but years of blockade and the intensification of the energy crisis have left this infrastructure failing. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex, said key generator components have worn down completely, and entire units have stopped operating due to constant mechanical strain, a lack of spare parts, and shortages of specialized maintenance oil.

    Abu Salmiya described conditions inside the hospital as “tragic,” with frequent generator failures disrupting life-saving services including intensive care units, neonatal incubators, and dialysis centers. “These departments cannot afford even a minute of downtime. Consequently, we have been forced to shut down non-critical wards to keep life-saving sections operational,” he told MEE. Hundreds of patients waiting for scheduled surgeries now face indefinite delays, as hospital administrators are forced to prioritize only the most urgent, life-threatening cases. Fluctuating, unstable power has also permanently damaged thousands of pieces of sensitive medical equipment, which require a consistent energy flow to operate safely.

    The Association of Generator and Alternative Energy Owners in Gaza has issued repeated urgent warnings in recent weeks over the growing shortages of mineral oil and spare parts, warning that the entire system is on the edge of total failure. “If the current situation persists, Gaza will sink into total darkness,” said Mustafa Abu Hassira, a senior official with the association. “If these generators continue to fail without the necessary oils and parts for maintenance, people will have neither water nor light in their homes. This will paralyze what remains of commercial and industrial activity.”

    Abu Hassira noted that Gaza has endured an Israeli-led technical blockade for nearly 20 years, after Israeli forces bombed the main transformers of the territory’s only power plant and imposed a full blockade in 2006. For decades after that, residents relied on a patchwork of aging private generators, with access to just a few hours of power per day. “We have endured a technical blockade for 15 years, during which we were prevented from importing new generators. But the real collapse began when this war started,” he said. “Most of the vital generators in the strip have been destroyed, and operational infrastructure has been targeted, leaving us with a stark reality: no spare parts, no mineral oils, and no prospect of repair.”

    With no access to proper maintenance supplies, generator owners have been forced to use makeshift alternatives including industrial diesel and even cooking oil, which speeds up engine wear and causes irreversible damage. Abu Hassira reported that of the 150 large generators that once provided basic power for public services across Gaza, roughly 60 have now stopped working entirely, and the number of failed units grows every day. Prices for the few remaining supplies of proper mineral oil have skyrocketed from 14 shekels per litre to 1,500 shekels per litre, putting it out of reach for most small operators. “We are not just facing an electricity crisis; we are facing total paralysis that will dismantle what remains of the local economy and cut off the basic necessities of life,” he added.

    The energy crisis has now spilled into every corner of civilian life, even affecting transportation across the strip. With fuel and maintenance parts impossible to import, around 70 percent of Gaza’s vehicles were destroyed during the war, and the remaining fleet is at risk of total collapse, according to Anas Arafat, spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Transport and Communications. Restrictions on spare parts, oil, and tyres have left the surviving vehicles vulnerable to permanent breakdown, Arafat explained, warning that the impact extends far beyond civilian travel: “Without them, ambulances cannot transport the wounded, water trucks cannot distribute supplies, and the generators powering hospitals and bakeries will fail. The wheels of life in Gaza may stop at any moment unless this crisis is resolved urgently.”

    For Abdu, the crisis comes after she made a painful effort to rebuild her business following the war. Her bakery was forced to shut down when she and her family were displaced, and it was only after the 2025 ceasefire that they were able to return to Gaza City, repair the damaged workshop, and restart operations after four months of work. “We invested thousands to repair our ovens and refrigerators. After nearly four months, we managed to reopen despite the challenges,” she said.

    Solar power, the only alternative to private generators, remains out of reach for most small business owners like Abdu, with a basic setup costing as much as 5,000 shekels ($1,400) — a sum most cannot afford. Unstable power has already damaged her ovens and refrigerators, adding more unexpected costs to an already strained budget. “We continue to bleed money due to power outages while paying more for raw materials than larger businesses,” she said. “Our suffering as we try to rebuild from the ashes remains invisible.”

  • UK: Starmer condemns antisemitic attack after two Jewish men stabbed in London

    UK: Starmer condemns antisemitic attack after two Jewish men stabbed in London

    A violent stabbing incident that left two Jewish men seriously injured has shaken Golders Green, a majority-Jewish residential neighborhood in northwest London, with a suspect taken into custody following a rapid intervention by local Jewish community security volunteers. On Wednesday afternoon, members of Shomrim, the neighborhood Jewish security patrol, detained the attacker before official police forces arrived to take him into formal custody, according to initial incident reports. Immediately after the assault, the two wounded men received urgent on-site care from Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer emergency ambulance service, before being transported to local hospitals for further treatment for their serious injuries. In the wake of the attack, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a forceful condemnation of what he labeled an unambiguously antisemitic act of violence. “The antisemitic attack in Golders Green is utterly appalling,” Starmer stated, extending public gratitude to both the community volunteer groups and law enforcement for their fast response. “Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,” the prime minister emphasized, adding that all those responsible for the violence would face full legal accountability. This assault comes at a moment of growing national crisis, as the United Kingdom has recorded a dramatic surge in antisemitic hate crimes across the country in recent months. Over the past 30 days alone, London’s Metropolitan Police has launched investigations into dozens of suspected antisemitic incidents, including multiple acts of arson targeting Jewish community spaces. Just one week prior to the Golders Green stabbing, on April 15, an arson attack damaged a synagogue in Finchley, another north London neighborhood with a large Jewish population. Two additional suspected arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in the capital followed within days of the Finchley incident. Security and community officials link the sharp rise in antisemitic violence to heightened geopolitical tensions following the U.S.-Israeli military strike on Iran earlier this year, which has coincided with a surge in hate speech and targeted attacks against British Jewish communities. In an official statement released on April 20, Security Minister Dan Jarvis outlined new government measures to address the growing threat. Jarvis confirmed that the UK government has allocated an extra £5 million ($6 million) in the current financial year to fund the deployment of specialist security officers to high-risk locations across the country, to better protect vulnerable faith communities. “The government’s commitment to supporting British Jews is an enduring one,” Jarvis said. “We are taking firm steps to root out antisemitism wherever it appears across public life – from our public services to our universities, charities and beyond.”

  • Israeli officers say Lebanon mission focused on ‘systematic destruction’ of buildings

    Israeli officers say Lebanon mission focused on ‘systematic destruction’ of buildings

    Deep divisions have emerged within Israeli military ranks over the nature of ongoing operations in southern Lebanon, with senior officers confirming that the force’s core mission has shifted from active combat to the systematic leveling of civilian infrastructure and residential communities, a new investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed.

    The Wednesday report outlines a coordinated, top-down plan to destroy predominantly Shia villages across the border region, a strategy explicitly designed to block displaced local residents from returning to their homes once operations conclude. Under the current operational framework, infantry units are assigned specific geographic zones to clear for demolition, with commanding officers mandated to submit daily tallies of the number of structures destroyed to senior leadership.

    “The only mission is to continue the destruction,” one unnamed Israeli commander told Haaretz. “There are no other tasks.” A second senior officer pushed back against official Israeli military narratives that frame the campaign as targeting solely “terrorist infrastructure,” saying: “These are not terrorist infrastructures – everything is being destroyed.”

    Not all Israeli personnel have echoed the description of a blanket demolition order. One separate officer maintained that operations are targeted exclusively at Hezbollah’s underground militant networks, weapons caches, and surveillance and communications systems, arguing that “We are operating pragmatically, according to operational need.”

    Despite this official framing, on-the-ground data and visual evidence confirm the scale of devastation being inflicted on civilian communities. Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research estimates that approximately 40,000 housing units have been partially or completely destroyed since operations began in early March. On peak days of activity, more than 1,000 residential structures are damaged or leveled, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Drone footage circulated publicly in recent weeks shows entire southern Lebanese villages wired for controlled demolition before being completely destroyed by Israeli explosive teams.

    The investigation also uncovered that the majority of demolition work is being carried out by private contractors, whose compensation is tied directly to the volume of destruction they complete. “The companies profit based on the number of houses [destroyed],” one serving Israeli soldier told Haaretz. “And we’re there to provide security, at risk to our lives.”

    Multiple frontline soldiers have criticized the demolition mission as strategically senseless, noting that the task of guarding contractors while they destroy civilian structures leaves troops exposed to regular Hezbollah drone strikes. “We stand exposed, guarding demolitions while drones are in the air,” one soldier said.

    Official casualty figures from Lebanon’s Ministry of Health underscore the devastating human toll of the two-month campaign. Since Israeli ground operations launched on March 2, at least 2,290 people have been killed across Lebanon, including 100 rescue workers and healthcare personnel, and more than 7,500 others have been wounded. The violence has displaced roughly 1.2 million people nationwide, nearly a quarter of Lebanon’s total population.

    Though a US-brokered truce was announced in mid-April, Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have continued uninterrupted in southern Lebanon, triggering renewed exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militants. Israeli forces maintain a permanent presence roughly 10 kilometers inside sovereign Lebanese territory, with consistent reports of targeted strikes on civilian areas and ongoing demolition of residential structures.

  • Kuwait revokes journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin’s citizenship

    Kuwait revokes journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin’s citizenship

    A high-profile, award-winning Kuwaiti-American journalist who spent nearly two months in Kuwaiti custody for sharing public materials related to the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran has been formally stripped of his Kuwaiti nationality, marking the latest step in a sweeping regional crackdown on dissenting speech that has accelerated sharply since the outbreak of the conflict.

    Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, 41, a veteran contributor to leading international outlets including *The New York Times*, Al Jazeera English and PBS whose work has earned honors including the British Journalism Award and Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender Award, released a statement Wednesday through his legal team following the citizenship revocation. “I am free – but many remain behind bars in Kuwait and across the region for speaking the truth,” he said. “Today, my sisters and I have become part of the more than 50,000 Kuwaitis who have had their citizenship revoked.”

    Born in the United States, Shihab-Eldin was arrested on March 2 during a routine family visit to Kuwait. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, his detention followed his online sharing of publicly available footage and imagery tied to the Iran war, including video of a U.S. fighter jet crashing at an American air base located on Kuwaiti territory. His international legal counsel confirmed he was cleared of all criminal charges and released from prison last week, but the unexpected citizenship revocation immediately stripped him of legal status as a national of the country.

    In a joint statement, Shihab-Eldin’s lead lawyers Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Kate Gibson condemned the prolonged abuse of his rights. “Ahmed Shihab-Eldin is a superb journalist and storyteller,” they said. “For 52 days, he was wrongly imprisoned and endured repeated, grave violations of his fundamental rights due to his work. For reporting. For expressing opinions. For simply doing his job.”

    The revocation of Shihab-Eldin’s citizenship is not an isolated incident: Kuwait has overseen a mass campaign of citizenship stripping in recent months that rights campaigners warn could eventually impact hundreds of thousands of people, a push that has gained significant momentum since the US-Israeli war on Iran began. In December 2024, Kuwait’s legislature passed a new law that explicitly allows the state to revoke citizenship for a broad set of vaguely defined infractions, including actions deemed “moral turpitude or dishonesty,” threats to state security, or even criticism of the emir or prominent religious figures. Prominent Kuwaiti Islamic scholar Tareq al-Suwaidan was among the high-profile figures stripped of nationality in recent months.

    Multiple motivations have been documented for this mass revocation campaign beyond the crackdown on anti-government dissent. For decades, Kuwait has relied on its oil wealth to fund a generous national welfare system for citizens, supported by a large low-wage migrant labor force. As oil-rich Gulf states move to diversify their economies and restructure public spending, citizenship stripping has emerged as a tool to preserve welfare access for a smaller group of eligible citizens without collapsing public finances. Tiana Danielle Xavier from the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion explained to Middle East Eye in December that the policy is being deployed in part to maintain Kuwait’s existing welfare and public sector arrangements while avoiding economic instability. Xavier also noted that the campaign directly violates established international human rights law, which bans arbitrary deprivation of nationality, prohibits discriminatory treatment, protects individuals from being rendered stateless, and requires all citizenship decisions to follow formal due process.

    The crackdown extends far beyond Kuwait’s borders. Just days after Bahrain’s King held a meeting with Kuwait’s foreign minister, the Bahraini government revoked the citizenship of 69 people, accusing the group of sympathizing with Iran and aiding foreign entities. The list includes people accused of harming Bahrain’s national interests, as well as their dependent family members. Rights campaigners confirmed to Middle East Eye that most of those targeted belong to the Ajami community, a long-established ethnic group in Gulf states whose ancestry traces back to southern Iran.

    Bahraini-Danish activist Maryam al-Khawaja told Middle East Eye that regional Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regimes have exploited the outbreak of the Iran war to escalate repression across the board. “Unfortunately, since the beginning of the war on Iran, the GCC regimes have taken this as an opportunity to crack down even harder,” she said.

  • China calls US hypocritical for expressing concern over Panama’s sovereignty

    China calls US hypocritical for expressing concern over Panama’s sovereignty

    PANAMA CITY – A new high-profile diplomatic confrontation between the United States and China has broken out over a port and shipping dispute in Panama, dragging the Central American trade hub into the middle of intensifying great power competition in the Latin American region. The war of words erupted this week after the U.S. State Department joined several smaller regional allies to accuse Beijing of violating Panama’s national sovereignty, a charge China has forcefully rejected as unfounded distortion while turning accusations back on Washington for its own history of interference in the hemisphere.

    The origins of the current dispute stretch back to earlier this year, when Panamanian authorities took control of two strategically critical ports along the Panama Canal from a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based logistics firm. In early April, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio claimed that in response to the port seizure, China had engaged in “bullying” behavior by temporarily detaining and delaying dozens of commercial ships flying Panama’s national flag. China has repeatedly denied these allegations from the start.

    Last Tuesday, the State Department released a coordinated joint statement alongside six regional partners – Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago – condemning the alleged ship detentions. The statement labeled the incident a “blatant attempt to politicize maritime trade” and affirmed that the signatories stood in solidarity with Panama. In a separate social media post Tuesday evening, Rubio, who currently serves as U.S. Secretary of State, emphasized that “the sovereignty of our hemisphere is non-negotiable.”

    This latest escalation in U.S.-China tension comes as the Trump administration has adopted a far more aggressive policy approach to Latin America than any U.S. administration in recent decades. The current administration has carried out a high-profile overnight raid that captured Venezuela’s sitting president, pushed sweeping regulatory and political changes in Caracas, imposed a strict oil blockade on Cuba, intervened openly in regional elections, and even threatened direct military action against drug cartels based in Mexico.

    On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian pushed back firmly against the U.S.-led accusations during a regularly scheduled news conference, calling the joint statement “completely unfounded and distort reality.” Jian went on to question the U.S.’s own credibility on the issue of Panamanian sovereignty, pointing to Washington’s own historical actions in the country.

    “Who occupied the Panama Canal for a long time, invaded Panama with its military, and arbitrarily trampled on its sovereignty and dignity? Who covets the Panama Canal, seeks to turn this international waterway — meant to remain permanently neutral — into its own territory, and disregards the sovereignty of regional countries? The answer is self-evident,” Jian said. He closed by noting that the United States itself is the power that has “politicized and securitized the issue of ports.”

    Shortly after China’s rebuttal, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino released a public statement seeking to defuse the rising tension. Mulino expressed appreciation for the “solidarity of friendly countries” regarding the status of Panamanian-flagged vessels in Chinese ports, but made clear that Panama sought to avoid being pulled into a larger diplomatic conflict. “We do not wish to engage in controversy, as we value respectful relations with all nations,” he said.

    The current dispute is just the latest flashpoint in a long-running push by the United States to counter China’s expanding economic and political influence across Latin America. For Panama, the strategic importance of the Panama Canal to global trade has placed the country directly in the middle of the escalating geopolitical rivalry between the two global superpowers, a standoff that intensified last year after former President Trump openly accused Beijing of seeking to control the critical international waterway.

  • ‘It’s Green all the way, darling’: The coming political earthquake in East London

    ‘It’s Green all the way, darling’: The coming political earthquake in East London

    For nearly 60 years, one political reality has remained unshaken in Newham, east London: since the borough’s founding in 1965, the London Borough of Newham has been continuously governed by the Labour Party, a rock-solid stronghold for the centre-left party in the capital. But as voters head to the polls for local elections on May 7, that long-standing status quo is at greater risk than ever before, as the Green Party surges to challenge Labour’s grip on power across multiple east London boroughs.

    While small independent left-leaning groups such as Redbridge Independents have chipped away at Labour’s support in the region, political analysts and campaigners are increasingly pointing to a growing “Green wave” that could flip multiple councils away from Labour control. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has set ambitious targets for significant gains nationwide, and polling indicates the party is on track to seize outright majorities in two other east London boroughs, Hackney and Lewisham. Newham, however, has flown under the radar of most national political coverage – despite emerging polling that puts the Green Party within striking distance of a historic upset here.

    Recent polling offers competing snapshots of the tight race in Newham: a YouGov survey released last week placed the Greens five percentage points behind Labour, with the local Newham Independents grouping a further four points behind the Greens. But a new study commissioned by the London School of Economics and published this Monday puts Green support at 34%, a single percentage point ahead of Labour.

    Areeq Chowdhury, the 33-year-old Green Party candidate for Newham mayor, who spoke to Middle East Eye during a campaign stop in Plaistow Park on Monday, is clear about his chances: he is confident he can win. For Chowdhury, this election is rooted in widespread voter discontent, both with local Labour governance and the national party under Keir Starmer. “There’s a huge amount of discontent with the Labour Party locally,” he explained. “We’re at the highest level of homelessness. One in 18 people are homeless. We’ve got the title of litter capital of England.”

    Chowdhury is no stranger to the Labour Party: he was a member from his student years, and even won election as a Labour local councillor in 2022. His defection to the Greens in 2023 was driven by two core frustrations: Starmer’s Labour refusal to take a strong stance against the Israeli military campaign in Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire, and the party’s repeated high-profile U-turns on key progressive campaign pledges, including cuts to welfare benefits for disabled people. “A big part of why I joined Labour was things like human rights and standing up for workers,” he said. “The more I got to know about the Green Party, the more I understood that actually they were focused on the correct issues facing society, around the environment and human rights.” For many Newham voters, he added, Labour’s weak position on Gaza was the “trigger for people to look elsewhere”.

    The Green momentum stretches beyond Newham, across east London’s boroughs. In Waltham Forest, recent YouGov polling puts both Labour and the Greens at 30%, setting up a knife-edge contest for council control. Green candidates on the ground say voters are linking national political failures directly to local quality-of-life issues. Eva Tabassam, 35, a first-time Green candidate for Cann Hall ward who joined the party last summer, says voters consistently raise both international conflicts and local struggles on the campaign trail. “They go hand in hand,” she explained. “We get a mixture of big things, like the illegal war on Iran. We also get told about what’s happened in Palestine and the government’s complicity in that.” Tabassam added that it is often non-Muslim voters who first bring up Gaza, alongside criticism of Starmer’s repeated policy U-turns, the ongoing cost of living crisis, sky-high local rents, and the two-child benefit cap – all issues that directly impact daily life for east London residents.

    Peter Ibrahim Kanyike, 26, the Green candidate for Waltham Forest’s William Morris ward, says his local campaign focuses on bread-and-butter issues: cleaner public streets, improved safer parking for local businesses, and better accessibility for residents. But he echoes the sentiment that national political discontent is driving Green gains. “I think there’s a load of concern with the direction that society is going in and how the current government, Labour specifically, have directed society in that way,” he said. “The Greens want to create a council and a borough that works with our neighbours. That feeds into policy, and I think that’s one of the overarching concerns – society-building, working with each other.”

    On the streets of Newham’s Stratford district, public opinion remains mixed: many voters are still undecided, and some are unaware that an election is just days away. While one voter told MEE she planned to vote for Reform UK over its anti-immigration platform, another middle-aged woman said she was voting Green out of concern for future generations. “My grandchildren are not here yet, and I want them to enjoy the planet,” she said. “It’s green all the way, darling. We need the oxygen. We need the plants, which are part of our biodiversity for the planet.” For long-time Labour voters, the shift is already palpable within families: an elderly Moroccan long-time Labour voter told MEE his daughters are pushing him to switch to the Greens over the party’s position on Gaza, and he is still considering changing his vote on election day.

    The Green’s gains, particularly around their stance on Gaza, have drawn criticism from right-wing party Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage has accused the Greens of engaging in “sectarian politics” over the issue. Chowdhury calls the accusation “completely racist”, noting that the Greens are a broad coalition of progressive voices that welcomes diverse communities. “The Green Party is at the same time an Islamist party and a super LGBT party? Right. The reality is that we’re a coalition of progressive voices [that] wants to build a better society. So we have a lot of diversity in our party, and we have a lot of Muslims joining the party. We do have a lot of LGBT people join the party, people from every different community.” Chowdhury added that he has faced constant racist abuse during the campaign, including repeated calls for his deportation.

    Tabassum pushes back against the common misconception that Muslim voters and climate action are disconnected issues. “There seems to be this weird perception that these two things are so artificially distinct,” she said. “As Muslims ourselves, we’ve always been taught to protect the world and nature and environment and living things around us. So I don’t know why there seems to be this artificial separation of the two.” Kanyike added that the Green’s welcome for Muslim voters is not sectarianism, but a commitment to inclusion: “I think critics are just afraid because Muslims are finding a party that actually wants to support them. We actually focus on unity rather than division. Just because we’re welcoming different groups doesn’t mean that we’re being sectarian. Our focus is to be open for all groups.”

    Labour still retains solid support in the region. Phil, a Labour voter shopping at Westfield Stratford, told MEE he remains resolute in his support for the party, calling it the only “sensible” option in UK politics. “They’re less extreme, they look after the individual people,” he said. “And yes they’ve made mistakes in the past two years but I still think they’re the people for me.” He dismissed the Greens as well-meaning but unfit to govern, and called Reform UK “a complete load of loonies. It’s sensational stuff, and it’s actually nasty and evil in many ways.”

    Green Party officials frame the 2024 local elections as a turning point for the party. Faaiz Hasan, the Green Party’s national elections coordinator, said the vote “comes at a critical time” for UK politics. “This is the moment that we can actually start putting forward an alternative vision for the country that is not based on blaming migrants, is not based on blaming people of colour or others, but identifies that the real issue is not race, it’s class, and the concentration of wealth and power in a very tiny group of people,” he said.

    Nationally, polling suggests the Greens could win control of nine councils across the UK, including the east London seats of Lewisham and Hackney. Even if the party falls short of capturing an outright majority in Newham, political observers broadly agree that these elections will cement the Green Party’s status as a major national political force, with a permanent foothold in local government across the country. For Labour, which has dominated east London politics for generations, the Green surge is already a major cause for concern.

  • New petition seeks ‘accountability’ from UK over role in Israel-Palestine

    New petition seeks ‘accountability’ from UK over role in Israel-Palestine

    A groundbreaking 400-page legal petition has been launched by the Britain Owes Palestine campaign, demanding that the United Kingdom acknowledge its historical responsibility for decades of conflict and human suffering in the Israel-Palestine region and open sealed archival records documenting alleged ethnic cleansing and genocide against Palestinian people.

    The petition, formally titled “Regarding Britain’s responsibility for wrongs and reparations in Palestine”, traces the UK’s actions across a critical 31-year period, starting with the 1917 Balfour Declaration — the UK’s controversial pledge to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine for the Zionist movement — and concluding with the end of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1948, which paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel.

    The document argues that when the UK seized control of the territory from the Ottoman Empire during World War I, its colonial administration systematically denied self-determination to the Palestinian Arab majority, laying the structural groundwork for a discriminatory political order that eventually devolved into apartheid and mass displacement of Palestinians.

    Specifically highlighted in the petition is the UK’s use of sweeping emergency powers to crush the 1936 Arab Rebellion against British rule, a policy that codified violence and collective punishment as state-sanctioned practice while stripping Palestinian activists of access to judicial recourse.

    The 14 lead petitioners are all people directly or indirectly harmed by these historical events. Many are descendants of Palestinians who experienced the 1948 displacement, whose own lives and family trajectories have been permanently reshaped by the outcomes of British colonial policy. The petition emphasizes that while the 14 petitioners represent themselves and their extended families, every Palestinian community around the globe continues to bear the consequences of the UK’s historical actions, making the group a reflection of broader Palestinian civil society.

    Beyond a formal official apology delivered before the UK Parliament, the petition demands three core actions: the declassification of all previously undisclosed British government archives related to the mandate period, a full public government response to the documented allegations, formal acknowledgement of the UK’s wrongdoing, and formal consideration of reparations for harms done.

    For Palestinians and Arab communities globally, the 1948 events that accompanied Israel’s creation are known as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”. During this period, more than 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their ancestral homeland, and hundreds of Palestinian villages, residential properties, and community institutions were systematically destroyed by Zionist militias. Palestinians who remained in the territory that became the State of Israel were placed under strict military rule that lasted until 1966.

    Decades later, the 1967 Middle East war left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an occupation that continues today. Millions of Palestinians living in these occupied territories are currently governed under conditions that multiple leading international human rights organizations have formally classified as apartheid.

    The petition comes amid the current UK government’s unwavering public support for Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip, a conflict that has killed more than 70,500 Palestinians as of recent counts and reduced the majority of the densely-populated enclave to rubble, with many critics describing the military action as genocidal.