A snapshot of interesting news stories, presented in a short catch-up style format in order to save time and to help bring our readers up to speed on the most talked about topics this week. All sources are included for those who like to dig a little deeper.
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1) This week, we learn that the Tories are happy to nationalise the weapons industry supply chain… too many Tory MPs rely on it for their livelihood I suspect?.
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2) Boris Johnson’s climate spokesperson told everyone to to join the Green Party if they want to save planet.
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3) Government figures on Covid deaths shot up from 35 to 91 daily, inside of 3 weeks.
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4) Also this week, Two pro-Palestinian Olympic Judo athletes, Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool and Algeria’s Fethi Nourine, were sent home for refusing to face the Israeli contestant.
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5) Matt Hancock lost a no confidence vote brought by councillors in his constituency.
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6) Owen Jones posted an interview with Matthew Alford, a Lecturer in Politics, Languages & International Studies and an expert on Hollywood’s relationship with the Pentagon and the CIA. This is a fascinating exposé on the extent to which the Pentagon controls the narrative in Hollywood movies to convey a pro-War, pro-torture, pro-nuclear narrative and sets the US up as the superior and moral authority on everything.
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7) Also this week, Britain told Farage to get stuffed! The RNLI reported a 2,000% increase in donations on Wednesday, after Farage attacked them for rescuing migrants. They received £200,000 in donations in one day, whereas the normal average is £6,000 to £7,000 and they’ve also seen a surge of interest from volunteers. CLICK HERE if you’d like to visit the RNLI website to donate.
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8) We learned that Boris Johnson’s ‘royal yacht’ vanity project could cost taxpayer at least an extra £50m more than initially expected. I guess he must imagine British tax payers are never happier than when they have, yet another, bottomless pit to try and fill?
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9) Also this week, Children’s services in NE England report a 77% rise in the care population since 2009 while London saw a 25% drop off. What kind of fucked up Tory levelling-up is this then?.
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10) Shocking anti-Palestinian BBC bias was on full display this week. They deliberately imbedded a purely speculative story about aid money possibly finding it’s way into the hands of so-called Palestinian militants in a story about a Palestinian photographer who was trying to raise money for Unicef and for the victims of the recent Israeli military bombardment of Gaza.
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11) It seems Israel is really spooked by Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling their products to the occupied territories, so much so, that they’ve started a world wide diplomatic campaign to pressure them, and their parent company (Unilever), to force them to change their mind. Worried that there might be a domino effect where other companies could follow Ben & Jerry’s example and withdraw from occupied territories, the Israeli government has instructed all it’s diplomats to rally pro-Israel groups and activists to organise demonstrations outside their company offices, to publish public statements in the media and on social media condemning the decision and to push governments to pass anti-BDS legislation.
Seems to me the best way to counter this level of interference by a foreign state is to show Ben & Jerry’s our support. All we have to do is make sure we put their products in our shopping trolleys. In fact, if we can demonstrate that there would be no adverse effect when companies decide to withdraw from the occupied territories then there’s a good chance more companies might follow their example. In fact, there’s a good chance Ben & Jerry’s might see a boost to their sales which would give other companies even more incentive to pull out of the occupied territories.
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12) The killings continued this week, as a 12yr old Palestinian boy, Mohammed al-Alami, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while travelling in a car with his father and sister. Just days before the incident, a 17yr old boy, Mohammed Munir al-Tamimi, was also shot and killed by soldiers while protesting over illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
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13) Also this week, a judge decided that a neo-Nazi satanist teenager who downloaded terrorist material, used encrypted social media apps to communicate and etched swastikas and messages about killing so-called “race traitors” should be allowed to avoid prison time because he’s studying for his A-Levels.
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14) This week we learnt that Alzheimer markers have been found in Covid patients who suffered neurological symptoms. Although it’s unclear if patients might have already been predisposed to the condition, Doctors have found that scans taken before and after a person develops Covid symptoms showed changes similar to those seen in Alzheimer patients.
Conversely, genetic markers that are linked to an increased risk of getting severe Covid-19 might also be linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
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15) New research shows Tories receive £17,500 a day in donations from property developers (well over £500,000 a month). So guess who’s side the Tories are really on. I’ll give you a clue… it aint the workers!
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16) Home affairs select committee finds that the police and successive governments over the last 2 decades have done sod all to stamp out racial injustice in police ranks – referring to “systemic” failings leading to “unjustified inequalities”.
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17) Revealed this week that, last April, the Home Office set up a fake charity website purporting to offer advice to asylum seekers and then spent £23,000 on a social media campaign pushing links to asylum seekers in France & Belgium. The site had no government branding or references, it made a number of false claims trying to deter asylum seekers from coming to the UK, it used a private registration tool to conceal the identity of who really owned the site (i.e. the Home Office) and it even invited asylum seekers to email them for information but users had no idea that they were actually contacting the British government.
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18) This week, we learned what NHS professionals really think about the govt’s handling of the Covid pandemic.
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19) Also this week, an NHS Dr revealed gov’t plans to write off over-70’s in the event of a pandemic overwhelming the NHS. Dr Moosa Qureshi acquired government documents through a FoI request and it seems the government were engaged in a ‘pandemic planning exercise’ back in 2016 when they were proposing a Triage system that would offer “end of life pathways” instead of medical assistance to people over a certain age. Although we’re told it was never an ‘official’ policy, it certainly could help to explain why care homes were so badly neglected and why Covid patients were being transferred to care homes and allowed to infect other elderly and vulnerable residents.
“The Information Commissioner held that clinicians must be supported by a clear framework when allocating care during a severe pandemic, and that the framework needs public debate… The NHS triage paper provides real guidance for front-line staff if NHS services are overwhelmed. Why did the Department of Health, NHS England and BMA keep it secret from healthcare professionals?” asks Dr Qureshi
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20) Finally, yesterday we discovered that the Tory party chair is Camilla’s nephew and that he’s made a small fortune selling access to uncle Charlie (including to Tory donors)? Who knew?
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