Stephen Bell

Hands off Cuba! 🇨🇺🇨🇺🇨🇺

"For Saar and Netanyahu, the problem is not what Ben-Gvir is doing; it is that he is showing it so brazenly. The concern is optics – that a video made visible, to a European audience and with European citizens in it, what has long been standard practice towards Palestinians." aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/…

⚡️BREAKING: The New York Times obtained autopsy reports for 14 of the 15 people killed in the March 23 Israeli attack on an ambulance and fire truck in Gaza. The reports show that most victims—paramedics and rescue workers—were killed by gunshots to the head, chest, or back. Four were shot directly in the head [executed]. Others had shrapnel wounds. Despite wearing medical uniforms and traveling in marked vehicles with sirens, they were shot multiple times at close range. Israel initially lied about the crime committed then later took responsibility once the lies were exposed. The 15 victims included 14 rescue workers and a UN employee. Israeli soldiers buried the bodies in a mass grave and crushed and buried the ambulances, fire truck, and UN vehicle.

I am so inspired by this proletariat revolt of farmers and workers across Bolivia.

"Asked who is most responsible for the war, a plurality of Americans (30%) blame the United States. About as many blame Iran (28%) and slightly fewer blame Israel (24%)." So 54% of Americans blame the United States or Israel for the war. Just 28% blame Iran.

I have written to Andy Burnham to ask whether he would establish an independent public inquiry into the British government’s complicity in genocide.

Al-Wefaq Condemns Bahrain’s Escalating Campaign Against Shia Religious Institutions and Practices Bahrain’s authorities are facing mounting criticism over an unprecedented effort to criminalize a religious tradition rooted in more than fourteen centuries of Islamic practice. The controversy centers on allegations linked to the collection of religious dues, whereby the charges effectively target the entire Ja‘fari school of thought and reflect a broader pattern of #sectarian discrimination directed at Bahrain’s longstanding Shia community. According to @ALWEFAQ recent statement, the criminalization of a central religious obligation — amid claims that additional aspects of #Shia religious life may also come under scrutiny — represents a form of collective punishment based on sectarian identity. The measures are part of a wider process of political exclusion, social marginalization, and the systematic weakening of Shia representation within state institutions. Particular concern was expressed over the detention of senior clerics, preachers, and religious representatives across Bahrain, including figures associated with Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani. The statement characterizes these arrests as an unprecedented move aimed at restricting religious practice and targeting individuals solely for carrying out religious and social responsibilities. The developments further reflect a coordinated state approach involving political, legal, executive, and judicial mechanisms, accompanied by media narratives allegedly designed to justify the campaign through incitement and misinformation. Al Wefaq warns that the current escalation represents one of the most severe episodes of sectarian polarization in Bahrain’s recent history, raising concerns that Shia citizens may increasingly face intimidation over the practice of their religious rituals and communal traditions. It further adds that continued governance through sectarian policies, exclusion, and coercive methods risks deepening societal divisions and undermining social cohesion. The statement calls for greater international attention and engagement from legal, humanitarian, and human rights institutions, asserting that the situation carries broader moral and legal implications. Concluding its remarks, Al Wefaq reiterates that #Bahrain’s long-term stability depends on the establishment of a democratic political framework grounded in civil liberties, political participation, pluralism, and equal representation. The society states that only an inclusive system can safeguard diversity and prevent the recurrence of political and social crises.

The Russians intercepted an RAF spy plane 20 miles from Russia and 2000 miles from the UK. UK accuses Russia of aggression.

@ALWEFAQ: A court in #Bahrain has handed down a five-year prison sentence to citizen Mahdi Salah for documenting recent events, sparking immediate condemnation from rights advocates who blast the ruling as politically motivated and a severe blow to free expression.

Lots of complaint about capping food prices. But temporary price contols in an emergency are key to ensuring people can afford the basics of life, as even some opponents admit. Bank of England Governor: Caps on food prices are not sustainable thetimes.com/business/econo…

Step Up Solidarity With Cuba Now! Because: the Trump administration is ramping up its actions against Cuba. #CubaNoEstáSola (See Professor Christina Pagel's @chrischirp timeline of US escalation against Cuba. It is based on information collated by the Trump Action Tracker.) christinapagel.substack.com/p/is-trump-abo…

🚨Following our campaigning, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has intervened to stop a £50million Met Police contract with Palantir. Palantir supplies Israel with AI and surveillance technology used in its genocide in Gaza. It should not receive a penny of public money. (1/5) theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/m…

In the rich countries poor people are going to be badly hit by shortages and higher prices. In the Global South the consequences will be very severe and potentially devastating. All because of Trump's war on Iran.

If the EU stated its real policy, unconditional support for Israel, it would revolt the European populations. If they stated a fictional policy of helping Gazans, working for peace, no-one would believe them. Silence is the outcome.

When US imperialism won the first Cold War it created a certain derangement, completely divorced from reality, among elements drunk on their 'victory'.

That mound of earth holds 500,000 bodies because there was no one left alive to bury them separately. Viktor Putin died of diphtheria in the winter of 1942. He was two years old. His mother had placed him in a children's shelter hoping it would save his life. The shelters were supposed to protect kids from the bombing. Diphtheria killed him instead. There was no medicine. There were barely any calories. By that winter, Leningrad residents were rationed 125 grams of bread per day. A single slice. His mother Maria collapsed near a pile of corpses shortly after. Workers began dragging her body toward the mass graves. She woke up on the stretcher. Putin's father Vladimir was at the front, hit by a German grenade, crawling back to Soviet lines with shrapnel in his legs. Five of his six brothers were already dead. 872 days. That's how long the siege lasted. 3 million people lived in Leningrad when it started. 700,000 were alive when it ended, and 300,000 of those were soldiers who came from elsewhere. The city lost roughly 80% of its original civilian population. The death toll exceeded Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Putin was born in 1952, eight years after the siege lifted. He never met Viktor. He has said publicly, "I don't even know where my brother is buried." He's standing at Piskarevskoye Cemetery, the largest mass grave from the Second World War. The grave doesn't have Viktor's name on it. None of them do. He visits every January 27th. He has done this for over two decades. The flowers go on a mound of earth covering thousands of unnamed dead, and somewhere in that ground is a two-year-old boy who shares his last name.

Those in the European Parliament who are the first to give lectures on democracy just uncritically applauded a delegation from the UAE that has neither real elections, nor a legislative parliament, and is accused of sponsoring the worst war crimes. Shocking double standards ⤵️

#الدراز #البحرين | النيابة العامة تجدد حبس مجموعة من شباب #الشيعة لمدة اسبوعين 1.سيد سجاد الموسوي 2.سيد قاسم الموسوي 3.سيد محمد الموسوي 4.سيد حسن سيد ماجد 5.سيد عباس سيد جعفر 6.سيد حسن حيدر 7.سيد ماجد هادي 8.سيد محمد علي سيد نجيب 9.علي المرزوق 10.محمد علي صالح 11.علي عيسى 12.علي حسين جارالله 13.امين الحواج

Very normal behavior for a “democracy” with absolutely nothing to hide.

Israel has dangerous contempt for all those who support justice for the Palestinians, or even food for them. This is the state that the Western governments support, who have qual contempt for their own populations.