IndustryStandard

Britain’s Ministry of Defence made 49 official visits to Israel since 7 October 2023, averaging almost two trips a month during the Gaza war.

The figures were obtained through a freedom of information request by the charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) and shared exclusively with Declassified UK.

They reveal the scale of British engagement with Israel’s armed forces during their bombardment of Gaza, which a United Nations commission of inquiry has classed as a genocide.

The number of visits is four times higher than previously disclosed in Ministry of Defence (MoD) transparency logs, which showed 12 visits by senior officials.

Israeli journalist Guy Peleg, who published the leaked video showing a group of Israeli militants raping a Palestinian detainee inside the Sde Teiman, is now facing harassment wherever he goes.

Zohran Mamdani says he’s keeping New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. It is his first major concession not just to the political establishment but more significantly to the national security system.

This week, I credited Mamdani with having run a campaign that literally met voters where they were at — in bodegas, subway stations and busy sidewalks, where he asked ordinary people to share their concerns. It was a rare moment where people rather than the politician were the main character. His decision to keep Tisch, however, is a whiplash-inducing swing back to the usual protagonists of American life.

The Harvard-educated Tisch, 44, is daughter of billionaire James Tisch, the Chairman of the Board of Loews Corporation. (Members of the Tisch family contributed over $1.2 million to the Cuomo-aligned Super PAC Fix the City.) Though she’s only been Police Commissioner for a year, Tisch has taken national security doctrine to heart.

At a press briefing last month, Tisch called a proposed $80 million federal cut to the NYPD’s counterterrorism budget a “betrayal” and demanded that the matter be placed above politics.

“Counterterrorism funding cannot be a political issue,” Tisch said. “If these cuts go through as planned, it will represent a devastating blow to our counter-terrorism and intelligence programs in New York City.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has to go. That’s the conclusion of multiple Democratic groups, House members, and candidates after Schumer oversaw his caucus implode ahead of passing a continuing resolution to fund the government with nothing more than a meaningless promise on the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Preserving health care was the whole point of the government shutdown; Democrats and workers nationwide begged Schumer to hold the line. Now, they say he has disappointed them for the last time.

No Senate Democrats have joined their colleagues in seeking Schumer’s resignation and none responded to requests for comment from the Prospect. But every single one of them has the power to force a vote on Schumer’s continued control of the caucus. If they wanted to, one of Schumer’s colleagues could bring forward a motion to amend the Democratic Caucus Rules to say that he should lose his leadership position if a set number of members disapprove of him. The motion would be “self-executing,” resulting in Schumer’s removal at the same time that it’s approved.

“Most Senate experts would say it’s highly unlikely,” said Daniel Schuman, executive director of the American Governance Institute, who wrote about how to push Schumer out in March, the last time he blinked and enabled a government funding bill that President Trump promptly violated. “But if the members are really pissed off, this is a mechanism they have.”

WASHINGTON—Having thus far caved on eliminating the filibuster, advancing an adequate climate change agenda, and protecting voting rights, congressional Democrats told reporters Wednesday they were sick and tired of being blamed for cowardice on issues that, in reality, they just didn’t care about.

“I’ve had it with being labeled spineless simply because, at the end of the day, I really don’t give a shit whether we tax the rich to help poor families or hungry children or whatever,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), stressing that his complete lack of interest in passing tough regulations for the financial services industry, supporting a Green New Deal, and ending the War on Terror hardly meant he was weak-willed or timid.

“That’s so unfair. If these were issues Democrats truly cared about, then we’d fight the Republicans tooth and nail on them. We’d even have the guts to risk the lucrative relationships we’ve formed with powerful corporations, defense contractors, and billionaire donors.

But for something like an eviction moratorium, Medicare for all, or a fracking ban? No fucking way.” Reached for comment, the hundreds of handsomely paid former Congress members now working as lobbyists and sitting on corporate boards were happy to acknowledge their utter cowardice.

Western media has failed to accurately describe events at the heart of an Israeli military scandal, after the country’s top military lawyer was arrested for leaking footage of IDF soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner in a detention centre.

The attack was so brutal that the man was hospitalised with a ruptured bowel and intestines, severe anal and lung injuries and broken ribs. He needed multiple surgical operations for his injuries. The soldiers “inserted a sharp object into [his] anus and ripped his rectum apart”, according to Mondoweiss.

However, Western mainstream media outlets including Sky News, the BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent have failed to use the word ‘rape’ in their headlines when reporting on the story. The incident has been largely referred to as ‘abuse’.

Western media has failed to accurately describe events at the heart of an Israeli military scandal, after the country’s top military lawyer was arrested for leaking footage of IDF soldiers allegedly gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner in a detention centre.

The attack was so brutal that the man was hospitalised with a ruptured bowel and intestines, severe anal and lung injuries and broken ribs. He needed multiple surgical operations for his injuries. The soldiers “inserted a sharp object into [his] anus and ripped his rectum apart”, according to Mondoweiss.

However, Western mainstream media outlets including Sky News, the BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent have failed to use the word ‘rape’ in their headlines when reporting on the story. The incident has been largely referred to as ‘abuse’.