A duck, sometimes also a dick

Keir Starmer is on course to turn Labour into Change UK. Remember them? No one will remember Labour either after the right of the party is done with it. Deservedly so if it makes Starmer leader.

Iran’s legal position regarding the Strait of Hormuz rests on a firm and multi-layered foundation in international law that has been consistently articulated, formally recorded, and never relinquished. First, the applicable treaty framework does not support the imposition of the “transit passage” regime on Iran. The UNCLOS introduced transit passage as a novel legal construct, granting expansive rights—including overflight and submerged navigation—to foreign military assets. However, Iran never ratified UNCLOS and explicitly rejected this regime upon signature. Under general principles of treaty law, a state cannot be bound by provisions of a treaty it has not ratified, particularly where it has expressly objected to those provisions at the time of signature. This position is reinforced by the doctrine of the persistent objector. Even if one assumes, arguendo, that transit passage has evolved into customary international law, Iran has consistently and openly rejected its applicability. As such, it is not bound by that rule. Second, in the absence of a universally binding transit passage regime, the governing law reverts to earlier treaty law and customary principles, most notably the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone. Both Iran and key user states such as the United States are not parties to UNCLOS, creating a legal vacuum in which reliance on earlier treaty regimes is not only appropriate but necessary. Under this framework, the right of passage through territorial seas is not unlimited. It is conditioned on innocent passage, a well-established rule allowing coastal states to regulate navigation to protect their security and public order. Crucially, innocent passage excludes activities that threaten the coastal state, including military operations, intelligence gathering, and acts connected to hostile conduct. Third, the geographic reality of the Strait of Hormuz strengthens Iran’s legal position. The navigable channels lie entirely within the overlapping territorial seas of Iran and Oman. This is not a high seas corridor but a maritime space subject to coastal sovereignty, albeit qualified by navigational rights. That sovereignty carries with it the right to adopt and enforce laws necessary to safeguard national security. Fourth, even under UNCLOS itself, the regime of non-suspendable innocent passage remains a legally recognized alternative in certain straits. This regime is more restrictive than transit passage and explicitly allows the coastal state to take necessary steps to prevent passage that is not innocent. Iran’s interpretation is therefore not a legal aberration, but a plausible reading grounded in existing law. Fifth, and most critically in the present context, the law of armed conflict and the UN Charter fundamentally alter the legal landscape. Following an unlawful use of force against it, Iran is entitled to invoke its inherent right of self-defense. In such circumstances, the legal characterization of passage cannot be divorced from the realities of hostilities. Vessels and aircraft associated with belligerent states—or facilitating military operations—cannot claim protected navigational rights while simultaneously contributing to acts of aggression. International law has never required a state to permit its own territorial sea to be used as a conduit for hostile operations. On the contrary, the right of self-defense permits proportionate measures to prevent such exploitation. Conditioning passage on neutrality and non-hostility is therefore not only lawful but necessary to uphold the integrity of that right. Finally, the conduct of other states further undermines any claim that Iran’s position is exceptional. The United States itself is not a party to UNCLOS yet selectively invokes its provisions as customary law when convenient.

The spiral of impunity is accelerating. The US President, thoroughly corrupt and criminally complicit with an oppressive foreign regime (Israel) is on an impunity-fueled, deranged rampage, committing gross violations of human rights at home and perpetrating murder in the Caribbean, the strangulation of Cuba, genocide in Palestine, and unlawful aggression and war crimes in Iran. He is now openly threatening imminent and even more massive war crimes in Iran. He and his collaborators are a global threat and must be stopped. Every person in the US has a moral duty to act within their power to stop him, and US officials are duty-bound to invoke the #25thAmendment to remove him and then to prosecute he and his collaborators for their grave crimes.

The BBC has belatedly included a note explaining its removal of a quote from a young Iranian claiming to be "OK" with a nuclear strike on his country. This whole episode raises questions about the journalistic ethics/integrity of BBC News Persian & BBC News online as a whole

Tabiat Bridge in Tehran is designed by Iranian female architect Leila Araghian. Trump has threatened us with "Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day". So much for saving Iranian women.

@TVMovieAddict She's back to throwing tantrums all over the docket again. This, from this chuckleclown who, only a week ago, sent a barrage of a thousand exhibits (guess that's trimmed down by default now) to overwhelm the Wayfarer lawyers. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

I’m happy Justin Baldoni didn’t settle. Now the jury can see everything and why he hired crisis PR. He can show them the bread crumbs Blake Lively was leaving to make people question what’s going on. From the public outings without Justin to refusing to say his name in interviews. She knows the public is nosy and would start to question everything. She had the cast unfollow him. She went on interviews and told everyone she could she took authorship of this movie. People were upset that she refused to talk about DV. I hope lively gets asked about that on the stand. Also there were only negative articles about Justin being published. You had an insider make a post on Reddit in August 2024 about the drama. Creators were getting messages saying something was going to come out about Justin. Of course this man had to hire crisis pr because she was ruining him. #justinbaldoni #blakelively

Glad Keir Starmer's Labour government is prioritising stopping musicians from performing. Wouldn't want them distracted from their complicity in Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people and an illegal war on Iran. What a pathetic excuse of a Prime Minister.

Back off chubby, let the kid eat!

@schatow @blakelively There is no amount of money she can give him that could make up for what she did to him, his family, his community, and his studio.

Settlement flopped… @blakelively must be assembling her revenge 🐉 🐉 squad. #blakelively #justinbaldoni #livelyvsbaldoni

Ukraine's Zelensky, who overstayed his term that ended in 2024, visited the unelected dictator of Syria, former Al-Qaeda leader and ex ISIS ally. Zelensky is also helping Gulf monarchies wage war on Iran, and he supported Israel's genocide. This is what NATO calls "democracy".

@PanopticonGaze @ashleybrianaeve "Raisin Eyes" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Love it!

#BlakeLively & her team are so predictable. #popculture

I wish we were ruled by these fellas instead of the Epstein class.

See, they know all the words. They just choose not to use them for Israel.

So bizarre to have a president who says this shit out loud. He is constitutionally incapable of internalizing any of the developments in imperialism since 1850. His mind is a Risk board and can’t contain any other thoughts

The dirty role of the Guardian is exposed yet again. no one should believe they couldn’t see what has been going on with Starmer, mcsweeney& co we knew - Why didn’t they? just like they played along with the fake antisemitism to destroy Corbyn and our movement . It’s all propaganda to blind people to what’s going on in the interest of the ruling class. Don’t trust it one inch.

Like clockwork. What the establishment did to Corbyn here in the UK really did set the playbook for the rest of these freaks to try heading off left wing political movements across the West, huh.

Racist monsters. When these pilots slaughtered women and children there was no "human dimension."

Psssst, it's what they've always looked like.

I'm just a wickle 30 year old baby with a PHD who didn't know what he was doing when he hired private investigators to snoop on journalists investigating the crimes of the very influential think tank I was a director of

It's pretty spooky to get FBI files from 60 years ago and find that you were named in them when you were... eleven. I suppose that's why they call them spooks! More on the book here: steve-howell.com/cold-war-puert…

This is over a year old, but it has still only ever been seen by a minority of my followers, so I hope you will forgive me it you are seeing it again.