As the government quietly upgrades the role of Britain’s special forces, their growing global footprint and near-total exemption from democratic oversight should alarm us all, says ROGER McKENZIE
Gaza ‘ceasefire deal’ isn’t a ceasefire or a deal
The so-called peace deal trumpeted by Blinken is so weighted towards Israel’s political goals as to be a total non-starter, while at the same time the US continues to reject any meaningful arms embargo, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
MISERY: A woman sits on the curb next to her belongings outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip
By pressuring Mexico to halt oil shipments, Washington is escalating its blockade of Cuba into a direct bid for economic collapse and regime change, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN
A society that grows accustomed to ‘undesirable’ people also grows accustomed to undesirable deaths. Minneapolis serves as a wake-up call, including for our own refugee policies, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
Recent research pushes back the date of the earliest cave art by several thousand years. ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT look into the science applied
As Labour plans a centralised National Police Service, the resignation of a chief constable over the Maccabi football ban reveals how policing, technology and narrative management converge when public order and class power are at stake, says NICK WRIGHT
Sudan’s paramilitary attacked a Chadian military garrison, killing seven soldiers and prompting the government to issue a “final warning. PAVAN KULKARNI reports
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described his government’s proposed new “ceasefire deal” for Gaza as being agreed upon by Israel. Blinken, who has visited Israel for talks at least nine times since October 7, has stated that Hamas’s refusal to sign the deal is all that is preventing a ceasefire from being put in place rapidly.
But arguably this can be seen as deeply misleading. In reality, the so-called deal appears to be neither a ceasefire nor a deal. Instead, it is so heavily weighted in favour of Israel’s political goals and military objectives that it would amount to a capitulation by the Palestinians of Gaza to a new reality that would leave them under even greater control and occupation than what has been imposed on them for the best part of two decades.
Yet despite this, according to Israeli media reporting of comments by Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, Israel is still refusing to agree the deal — reporting completely at odds with the claims of the US government spokespeople and the Democrats, the US party of government.
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The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
