Tony Blair, Iraq and the JP Morgan millions | Andrew Feinstein | UNAPOLOGETIC

"Who was he representing in 10 Downing Street? The people of Britain? Or the executives at JP Morgan Bank?"

After leaving office, Tony Blair was paid millions a year by JP Morgan. Andrew Feinstein traces that relationship back to the invasion of Iraq, and the contract to rebuild its banking system.

Andrew Feinstein spoke to Ashfaaq Carim about Blair, Iraq and the revolving door between politics and profit.

Full episode on our YouTube channel
https://youtu.be/u3I8cF2pNqI

Palestinian mourns mother and grandmother killed in Israeli strike on Gaza home

Fouad al-Najjar spoke about the loss of his mother, Maria Hafez Najjar, and his grandmother, Maysa Khader Abu Daoud, who were killed while they slept when an Israeli strike hit their ground-floor apartment in the al-Asala building, west of Gaza City.

He said the loss of his mother and grandmother had come as a profound shock to the family, leaving deep pain among relatives and members of Gaza’s Christian community.

Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Church mourned Maysa Abu Daoud and her daughter Maria Najjar, whose bodies were laid to rest at a funeral attended by family members and members of the Christian community.

Green Party recognises Zionism as a form of racism and backs single Palestinian state

The Green Party of England and Wales has voted to declare Zionism a form of racism in an unprecedented move at its party conference in Brighton, Middle East Eye has learnt.

The vote by party members on Sunday makes it the first major party in the UK to recognise Zionism as a form of racism - and to back a single democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups, rather than a two-state solution.

1,022 members voted for the motion while 813 voted against it.

Canadian journalist documents Israeli settlers intimidation in Palestinian town

In footage posted to his social media, Canadian journalist Fin de Pencier documents armed Israeli settlers trespassing on Palestinian land in the town of Duma as part of daily settler intimidation and attacks in the occupied West Bank.

De Pencier is heard telling one of the settlers to stop pointing his gun at him.

The UK's Green Party declares 'Zionism is racism'

The UK’s Green Party declared that ‘Zionism is racism’ at its party conference in Brighton yesterday, passing the motion by 1,022 votes to 813. It has caused a media frenzy online. So what does the motion actually mean and is it useful for Palestinians?

Kieran Andrieu, a Palestinian member of the Green party and a vocal supporter of the motion, says it is “vital”.

“There's always enormous pushback against calling a spade a spade when the particular spade in question creates so much jeopardy and there's such high stakes involved” he says.

Trump says Iran taking LA or San Diego a ‘small price to pay’ for global safety

Speaking at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska on Monday evening, US President Donald Trump said high gas prices were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe”, suggesting that he would let Iran “take” US cities like Los Angeles and San Diego. 

“Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That’s a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon,” he said.

94-year-old human rights lawyer recounts arrest by UK police

In an interview with Middle East Eye, Margaret Owen, a 94-year-old human rights lawyer, recounts how police arrested her outside the Labour Party conference in Liverpool for holding a sign expressing support for proscribed group Palestine Action. 

“We were all sitting there very quietly, writing our labels … And the police were running or going around with cameras at random, photographing us all. And then they began to take people … And then they came to me,” she says. 

Owen also saluted foreign secretary Ed Miliband’s “huge courage” for imposing a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements and recognising the illegal occupation of Palestine, but reproached him for not “saying it was a genocide” nor banning the sale of all arms to Israel.

Smotrich for further annexations in Gaza and Lebanon

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to permanently extend its sovereignty over territory held by Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon during an address at the National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem.

“That would demonstrate to our enemies the price of defeat and create a deterrent against future attacks on Israel and its citizens,” the far-right minister said.

Footage shows clashes between Houthis and government forces near Bab el-Mandab strait

Footage posted online showed Yemeni government forces firing at Houthi fighters by a beach side as fighting raged by the strategic Red Sea passage. 

In one video, Yemeni government fighters say they’re by the Bab el-Mandab strait as they film themselves shooting at Houthi fighters escaping to the sea. In another video, government-aligned soldiers in an armoured vehicle driving over bodies and armed and unarmed men.

The videos come after Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counter-offensive to retake Red Sea coastal territory that the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, captured last month.