Foreign Office unit tracking Israel’s potential breaches of international law closed Exclusive: Officials warn department will lose access to database of 26,000 verified cases by cutting funding The Foreign Office unit tracking potential breaches of international law by Israel in Gaza and more recently Lebanon has been closed because of cuts within the department, the Guardian can reveal. The decision to shut the international humanitarian law cell follows a review by Olly Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office dismissed last week by the prime minister over the Peter Mandelson scandal. Continue reading...

Foreign Office unit tracking Israel’s potential breaches of international law closed

Met police in talks to buy Palantir AI tech for use in criminal investigations Exclusive: Internal concerns over allowing US firm linked to ICE and Israeli military to process highly sensitive data

Beggars belief that Met Police is in talks with #Palantir about giving them access to highly sensitive data, when there’s already such concern over its links with ICE & Israeli military. Palantir already has UK contracts worth over £500m, incl. with NHS. We should be scrapping them not signing more

@patrick-barlow.bsky.social
🤔 They arrested the same woman, who 2 years ago took them to court for her arrest of holding the same sign; where the judge ruled it is not illegal to hold this sign

Wait until Reform discover that Magna Carta was not written in English.

UK and France strike new £662m small boats deal The three-year agreement will see at least 50 riot-trained police officers drafted in to tackle violence and “hostile crowds”.

More cruelty from Labour today, who will send riot police to stop migrants in small boats

These are human beings fleeing war and persecution

If govt really wants to end dangerous channel crossings, they must open safe and managed routes to the UK

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Small boat crossings are still increasing" reports the BBC's flagship Radio 4 Today programme.

Editors could check BBC Verify, which reports they are down 35% year on year. The trend began Sept 2025, though crossings rose before that, but falling for over 6 months now if compared like with like.

Don't know if this was deliberate by Labour but an unusually brilliant move if so: the row will bring the PPB (and the remarks) to a much bigger audience than it would otherwise hit. And they can still run the "uncensored" ad online.

Has Richard Tice resigned from his front bench & deputy leader positions in Reform yet?

It's a week since controversy over his unpaid tax came to light. It is way more serious than anything related to Angela Rayner.

He called for her to go. But he remains in place.

Why won't Reform take action?

Happy St George’s Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. It’s time to tell more positive stories of England. If progressives don’t try to define an inclusive sense of English identity, then we leave it to the far right to determine who does and doesn’t belong - and that could hardly be more dangerous #AnotherEngland

Earth Day reminder that Trump’s EPA rolled back regulations governing clean air, water, wildlife, and toxic chemicals.

He’s pushed to open public lands to drilling and mining.

And he’s gutted clean energy programs while promoting dirty fossil fuels.

He’s a danger to our planet and our health.

Boris Johnson on his way back from a party

Kemi Badenoch can't believe Keir Starmer would allow anyone with links to the Kremlin anywhere near government

Today we remember Stephen Lawrence, murdered in a racist assault on this day in 1993 whilst waiting for a bus.

We recognise his loved ones' long struggle for justice and the legacy of change they have inspired. Rest in peace.

This is why science is so exciting: “This surprised me because we had no prior evidence…” Imagine the excitement in the lab when these results emerged! This tiny single-celled organism learned to ignore being gently tapped in its Petri dish. It learned. That’s amazing!

The underlying structural problems of UK politics that the country doesn't have the resources to do everything expected of it and a Westminster class in denial about this doesn't go away in the event of a new PM.

History shows that when we change our perspective, we change our hearts and our policy. It's time to see the big picture again.

#SeeTheBigPicture #ArtemisII #NASA #EarthDay

Miliband doubles down on net zero - Energy Live News Labour to announce breaking the link between gas and electricity prices and more renewables push

Ed Miliband today: "The era of fossil fuel security is over and the era of clean energy security must come of age....To ignore two crises in less than five years would be completely irresponsible… our action must now be faster deeper and more wide ranging.”

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. https://cnn.it/3Ovxzwk

Good. It’s easy to forget that climate change denial & shilling for fossil fuel companies provided a template for Tufton Street, Brexit & pretty much every egregious example of persuading populations to vote against their own interests. The story of Don Pearlman should be taught in kindergartens…

Free plug-in solar panels to be rolled out to some households The technology is designed to be a simpler and more affordable way of benefiting from renewable energy

"Low-income households will get [free] plug-in solar panels to cut their energy bills, the Government has announced."

This is how you do a just transition.
inews.co.uk/news/politic...

GOOD MORNING BLUESKY

They just couldn't leave well enough alone...All because Dicktator Donny is Jealous of Obama.

Also they have social media in Canada and Carney's doing fine.

They have it in Spain and Sanchez has been PM since 2018.

And in France where Macron's been President since 2017.

This morning I’ve seen Olly Robbins’s appearance before the select committee described as ‘box office’, while a commentator flagged up another key political moment with the words ‘bring the popcorn’.

That’s one of our main problems right there.

In other Ed Miliband news… the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (heat pump subsidy) is going up from £7,500 to £9,000 for homes in rural areas that rely on oil or LPG.

Given the spike in heating oil prices, and how good an option heat pumps are in rural areas, this is a good idea

We had a mass longevity movement in the 20th century. It was called public health. It included vaccines, antibiotics, nutritional programmes, maternal support, cancer research.

"We accidentally made an animated graphic for Reform and then did a party political broadcast for them by mistake."

Giles was so generous with his time and so helpful when it came to explaining to journalists very clearly and with quotable precision exactly how a wrong un landlord was being a wrong un. But mostly I just remember thinking he was a really, really kind human who cared about the state of others.

Reminded of Miliband's best line

The Home Office has extended the deadline for responding to this call for evidence to 6th May, but hasn't yet updated the webpage or issued public comms. If you want to confirm this, just email IABcallforevidence@homeoffice.gov.uk & you'll get an automated message with the extension info.

Olly Robbins had to implement something many people at the time believed to be a bad decision, badly made.

But enough of his time as Brexit negotiator.

A Labour Party spokesperson blamed the previous Conservative governments, adding Labour was "finally bringing down" immigration numbers. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had taken "decisive action" to cut small boat crossings and "restore control of our borders after the Tories' failed open borders experiment", they said. "We have already stopped over 42,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the Channel since the general election," they added. "We have removed or deported nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here."

Obviously Reform's proposals is simultaneously racist, economically and socially damaging and impractical.

But, yet again, instead of saying so, Labour/the government's response is tin-eared me-tooism.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...