Politics — Pete

The Guardian — World Aug 6 · 5 min read

Israeli strike that killed journalist in Lebanon was war crime, say rights groups

Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday. Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes. Continue reading...

The Guardian — World Aug 6 · 5 min read

Texts suggest Angus Taylor ‘paid money to the Reformers … or was refusing to’, Icac inquiry hears

Jean-Claude Perrottet, brother of former NSW premier, asked about messages referencing federal opposition leader and factional group Reformers Icac’s spotlight has shone on Dominic Perrottet’s brother – and it won’t be the last we hear from his family New South Wales’s anti-corruption watchdog has been shown text messages which suggest Angus Taylor “had paid some money to the Reformers … or was refusing to”, according to the lawyer assisting the inquiry. Taylor, the federal opposition leader, is not named in Icac’s allegations and has previously denied making payments to the hard-right factional group the Reformers. Continue reading...

The Guardian — World Aug 6 · 3 min read

Good Samaritan dies days after being attacked while trying to stop Melbourne shoplifters

Van Viet Truong was critically injured after coming to the aid of a fellow retail worker in Sunshine Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Council flags are flying at half-mast in honour of a good Samaritan who died days after he was allegedly attacked by shoplifting youths outside a local shopping strip. Van Viet Truong was critically injured after he rushed to the aid of a fellow retail worker trying to stop the group stealing clothes at Sunshine in Melbourne’s west on Saturday, police allege. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Politics Aug 6 · 5 min read

Has the UK government’s strategy on small boat crossings been effective?

As the number of migrants crossing the Channel is down by 43%, have ministers cracked the problem? The headline figures show that small boats crossing the Channel are down by 43% compared with January to mid-July 2025 – from 21,690 last year to 12,469 over the same period this year. Since Andy Burnham came to power on 20 July, however, there has been a small increase on the same period last year. Between 20 July and 2 August 2025 1,962 people crossed the Channel in small boats. Over the same period this year more than 2,000 have crossed. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Politics Aug 6 · 7 min read

The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason Okundaye

The Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality ‘To be honest with you, I thought you’d just believe me.” That was the breathtaking response of Prof Jason Arday when the Guardian interrogated the details he provided of an alleged racist campaign of intimidation against him, which involved a severed pig’s head, a masked man wielding a knife and bullets in the post. Arday had been unable to provide evidence, and when the Guardian contacted the relevant parties, including a south London butcher and the police, his claims were either refuted or could not be verified. Arday, whose appointment as professor of sociology of education at Cambridge became a widely lauded moment in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter, has found himself in the eye of the storm. Allegations of extensive plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, completed at Liverpool John Moores University, recently made their way from the Substack of self-described “race realist” academic Nathan Cofnas into the national press. The defence of Arday had rested on the fact that an investigation had already been conducted, and cleared him of plagiarism. And yet the case has taken on a life of its own. In recent weeks, more of Arday’s story has come under scrutiny: from claims of having installed water points in South America and west Africa with the charity WaterAid ( WaterAid said it does not send volunteers abroad ), to having run 30 marathons in 35 days, the last dozen or so after suffering a hairline fracture in his leg. After mounting pressure, Cambridge announced that it had launched a formal investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments. Following this announcement, Arday resigned from his positions at the university. Though he has chosen to step aside to preserve his “wellbeing” , this has become a national story that will not go away. Continue reading...