RAMZY BAROUD on how Israel’s narrative collides with military failure
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Fake news from Israel
In times of war, the press should consider whether the most sensational stories are true before publishing. Of course, it doesn’t — and there’s no penalty when they turn out to be nonsense, laments SOLOMON HUGHES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
ROGER McKENZIE explains how Ibrahim Traore has sparked the flames of hope across Africa, while the Western powers seek to extinguish all attempts to build true sovereignty in the long-exploited continent
DANIEL GOVER considers the procedural complexities awaiting a Private Member’s Bill in its passage through Commons and Lords
JAMIE TUCKNUTT reports on an initiative that brings together two epochs of the city’s anti-fascist struggles
Just as German Social Democrats joined the Nazis in singing Deutschland Uber Alles, ANDREW MURRAY observes how Starmer tries to out-Farage Farage with anti-migrant policies — but evidence shows Reform voters come from Tories, not Labour, making this ploy morally bankrupt and politically pointless
KEITH FLETT traces how the ‘world’s most successful political party’ has imploded since Thatcher’s fall, from nine leaders in 30 years to losing all 16 English councils, with Reform UK symbolically capturing Peel’s birthplace, Tamworth — but the beast is not dead yet
With turnout plummeting and faith in Parliament collapsing, BERT SCHOUWENBURG explains how radical local government reform — including devolved taxation and removal of party politics from town halls — could restore power to communities currently ignored by profit-obsessed MPs
IN 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded its neighbour Kuwait. The war was a quick victory, with fatalities on both sides in the hundreds. However, Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait was grim: resisting Kuwaitis were imprisoned and tortured. Up to 600 Kuwaiti prisoners were killed by the Iraqi occupiers.
But the news was dominated by one story that turned out to be untrue. From 1990 on, many newspapers reported invading Iraqi troops had looted Kuwait’s hospitals; the invaders supposedly took away incubators, leaving between 90 and 300 premature babies to die on the floor.
This terrible crime was reported in every top newspaper, was the subject of hearings in US congress and was referred to by many politicians. Those who raised doubts about the story were attacked by newspapers like the Telegraph.
More from this author
Labour’s pop-loving front bench have snaffled up even more music tickets worth thousands apiece, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
Secret consultation documents finally released after the Morning Star’s two-year freedom of information battle show the Home Office misrepresented public opinion, claiming support for policies that most respondents actually strongly criticised as dangerous and unfair, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
SOLOMON HUGHES highlights a 1995 Sunday Times story about the disappearance of ‘defecting Iraqi nuclear scientist.’ Even though the story was debunked, it was widely repeated across the mainstream press, creating the false – and deadly – narrative of Iraqi WMD that eventually led to war
Despite Labour’s promises to bring things ‘in-house,’ the Justice Secretary has awarded notorious outsourcing outfit Mitie a £329 million contract to run a new prison — despite its track record of abuse and neglect in its migrant facilities, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
