United Kingdom

There will be a flat 20p deposit on all eligible plastic and metal drinks containers. These deposits can be retrieved by returning containers to collection points at supermarkets.

The Welsh government want this to be devolved to them: https://exchangeforchange.co.uk/news/welsh-government-decision-on-exchange-for-changes-dmo-application/

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has declined to describe Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide.

Burnham, who is standing to be the MP for Makerfield in the by-election on 18 June and intends to replace Sir Keir Starmer as British prime minister, was asked about foreign policy an interview with the Guardian on Thursday.

According to the news outlet, Burnham declined to say Israel has committed genocide, explaining: "I can’t judge things of that enormity from where I am as mayor of Greater Manchester."

But Burnham added: "I do have concerns about the disproportionate nature of what has happened in terms of the destruction, and there has to be a full process of investigation and accountability."

London, United Kingdom – Sikh groups moved quickly to condemn the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, despite not being responsible for the actions of his killer, 23-year-old Sikh man, Vickrum Digwa.

But the British far right, which increasingly exploits crime cases in order to rally, has weaponised the case.

On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station before marching towards Digwa’s family home in a diverse neighbourhood. Several far-right figures, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, UKIP leader Nick Tenconi and Laurence Fox, addressed the crowd. Violence broke out, with missiles hurled at police officers and vehicles damaged. Some performed Nazi salutes while shouting “white power”.

Singh, of the Sikh Federation, criticised politicians from the far-right Reform UK and Restore Britain parties for drawing attention to Digwa’s religion and his kirpan, a ceremonial sword or dagger that is one of the five articles of faith for practising Sikhs, arguing that this had fuelled misconceptions about Sikhism. The court heard the murder weapon was not a kirpan but a separate Persian-style dagger that Digwa chose to carry.

This week, the British government banned Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, two leftwing US commentators with millions of followers, from entering the country on the grounds that their presence would not be “conducive to the public good”. It did not spell out what it meant by this very broad phrase, but Piker and Uygur have accused the government of denying them entry because of their prolific criticism of Israel. Some critics have accused the pair of antisemitism, which they deny.

Neither Piker nor Uygur have said anything that is more divisive or dangerous than former Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s declaration that all Palestinians were responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. A UN commission of inquiry found that Herzog incited the commission of genocide with this statement and said that his later modifications of that utterance were an effort “to deflect responsibility for the initial statement”. Still, the British seem fine with that first statement: Herzog met with Keir Starmer in London in 2025. Clearly that meeting was deemed to be conducive to the public good.

Wherever you live, whatever you believe, wherever you sit on the political spectrum, most of us have a shared understanding of basic moral concepts, of what is good and what is bad. We understand that children are innocent and should not be killed in the thousands. We understand that a region’s healthcare system should not be systematically wiped out and medics targeted. We understand that there should be laws around warfare to protect civilians. We understand that people should not be expelled en masse from their land, their homes replaced with luxury settlements. We understand that collective punishment is a crime, one that is very much not “conducive to the public good”.

When you stop someone from entering your country because you deem that they are not “conducive to the public good”, then I think it’s important to spell out exactly what you mean by “good”. The British government has declined to do that directly. But what has become very clear, over the last couple of years, is that the UK and US have deemed it conducive for the public good for Israel to be allowed to do whatever it likes, with no limits. What is morally bad, apparently, is talking about it.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have joined calls for the British government to place British citizens who have served in the Israeli military under surveillance.

Polanski signed an open letter organised by Declassified UK and the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper urging them to "track the movements of Brits who have served in the IDF" and "subject them to secondary screening where necessary at ports of entry".

The letter called for "robust war crimes investigations in line with domestic and international law".

Around 2,000 British-Israeli dual nationals have served in the Israeli military during Israel's war on Gaza, which a UN commission of inquiry found was a genocide last year.