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"We will lodge a protest if Bafana's Teboho Mokoena plays tomorrow! - Lesotho FA Secretary General Mokhosi Mohapi 🔥🇿🇦🇱🇸 #AbsaYourStoryMatters #AirMobile #BetwayPrem #CastleLager

90,679 görüntüleme • 11 ay önce •via X (Twitter)

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I asked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to assemble a coalition of the willing to carry out an operation aimed at weakening the Iranian regime. Here is his full response, which he gave during yesterday’s hearing in the European Parliament. An important signal is clearly visible in it. He indicates clear parameters within which he intends to act. That framework is defined by the cooperation between Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China. In international politics, this constellation is known as the axis of evil. Even without this context, NATO could act, as the Alliance also protects its member states from terrorism — and Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism. The president of NATO’s de facto leading country, Donald Trump, has called for NATO to be used collectively to protect member states from illegal migration. If NATO countries could act even to stop fortune-seekers from crossing borders, how much more justified would action be against terrorism directed at our countries. However, when it comes to influencing the NATO Secretary General, what ultimately matters is what he himself believes — and he has now stated this openly with regard to Iran. We must speak clearly about the crucial role Iran plays in the axis of evil that operates against Europe. We must speak about how Iran has directly enabled — and continues to enable — Russia’s imperial ambitions, first through Georgia, then through Ukraine, and potentially through other European countries. Iran is a financier, an arms supplier, and an enabler. How long can we afford to stand by and watch? An illegitimate regime that deliberately executes its own innocent citizens also threatens Europe through its nuclear programme. When we speak on behalf of the Iranian people in different forums and to different audiences, it is essential — in order to maximise impact — to understand how to speak the language and use the arguments that each audience finds relevant. We have now received a direct answer that shows how the NATO Secretary General views Iran. I therefore urge that this perspective be used, and when addressing NATO, I encourage using precisely the arguments outlined above. NATO will not come to anyone’s aid out of goodwill, but solely on the basis of its own security interests. Once this is understood, it becomes possible to persuade NATO using the right arguments. #FreeIran

MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen

23,575 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce

A new FATWA from Muslim League IN KERALA; Suprabhatham Bhajan from temples should not be heard outside.🚨🚨 This shocking slogan was raised during congress victory celebrations in Edavanna, Malappuram. Muslim League workers openly shouted provocative slogans saying that temple devotional music will be stopped, and that they will stop it. right in front of the Kolappad Mahavishnu Temple. This temple regularly plays early-morning devotional songs like Suprabhatham, strictly within legal limits and with police permission, following all rules laid down by authorities. Yet, the UDF has now come up with a dangerous new narrative—claiming that temple prayers are a “nuisance” to the public. This protest was staged right before the temple gate, clearly meant as intimidation. Riding on the support and influence of Muslim League and SDPI, the UDF has registered a big victory in Malappuram in the local body elections. Opposing anything perceived as “non-Islamic” and pushing minority appeasement to a new extreme seems to be the new strategy. What we are witnessing now is only the beginning. In the coming days, the people of Kerala will see and hear a far more dangerous version of this politics if it goes unchecked. Let’s be honest. If one short devotional song from a temple is a problem, then how are Hindus expected to accept Azaan five times a day, broadcast loudly across towns? How are we expected to sit quietly through long Friday sermons echoing for hours? In districts like Malappuram, Hindus are increasingly made to feel that their faith must stay silent, invisible, and apologetic — while others can dominate public space freely. A temple that has existed peacefully for decades is now being questioned.Devotion is being mocked. Faith is being portrayed as disturbance. This is the real condition of Hindus in Kerala today.!! If public religious expressions are to be restricted, it must apply to everyone — not selectively to Sanatana Dharma alone. Silence today will only invite more demands tomorrow. Wake up, Kerala. Before normal devotion itself is declared a crime.🤷🏻‍♂️ If this is not an attack on Hindu belief, what is it? Speak up against this!!

MAHARATHI

88,585 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce

Instead of sending the Parliamentarians, we should be sending the family members of the martyrs or the survivors or the brave armed forces who led the Operation Sindoor: Hon'ble AITC MP Abhishek Banerjee AITC National General Secretary also counters Union Minister Kiren Rijiju's comments which he made earlier today in connection with the delegation - If you want five members from Trinamool Congress, our Party is ready to, but you need to ask us atleast. In the Standing Committee meeting which I attended, it was not the Chairman who chose me but my Party has nominated me - I have said this time and again that when it comes to: fighting or combating any kind of terrorism, protecting & safeguarding the sovereignty and safeguarding the national interest - Our Party will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Union govt when it comes to these matters. I am reiterating this again, as for the Parliamentary delegation is concerned the Centre cannot decide unilaterally who will be part of the delegation from which Party. They have to call for wider deliberations with all political parties especially those from the opposition camps. If you want five names, Trinamool will nominate 5 names - I got a news in the noon that a Parliamentary minister has said that "they are representing the country." I couldn't agree with him more. When it comes to representing the country, we should jointly agree and unanimously come to a consensus that instead of sending the Parliamentarians, we should be sending the family members of the martyrs or the survivors. We should be sending the brave armed forces, the officers, who have led the Operation Sindoor from the front lines and have dedicated their lives for the country by spending countless nights of vigilance to let India sleep without fear. Who better can represent the country than these bravehearts? - How many of such members are part of the delegation? Can the Union Minister answer? This is not the time to politicise this matter. It can take a backseat. When it comes to country - there is no place for any politics. - Trinamool will definitely send its members but if you don't ask, how can we send? As Party's National General Secretary I am putting this straight on record that NO ONE WAS APPROACHED. They didn't even approach our Chairperson. What is the proof that they've approached us? - If you want to send the Parliamentarians, fine, but you also send those who fought from the front in Operation Sindoor. They will be able to tell the world better what Pakistan has done and I am totally for it - *the entire world should know Pakistan's nefarious acts.* We need to come together and fight this collectively but who should represent from my Party should be decided by us and not the BJP. - On Congress' protest: I cannot vouch for them. This doesn't come under my purview. - I still want to make it clear that if they still ask for names, I am ready to send them in an hour. They are not nominated at the mercy of the ruling dispensation at the Centre, they have been elected by the people.

MillenniumPost

11,095 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

After you lost every ounce of credibility if you had any Modibe Vladimir Modiba with you stand as always with the corrupt, spreading fake news like Ramaphosa lost, the NEC is going to remove Ramaphosa, KZn will be controlled by a MK. You lied to Somalialand government that you representing South Africa. You running away from paying a court order to Daily Maverick. The funny part was how when a reporter saw you you ran for your life. You very good at making stories, how can we forget before elections you claimed to be followed and allegedly stabbed. I don’t blame you , I blame people who believe your stories. YOU NEVER GET IT RIGHT. Then you had the nerve to go protect the allegedly very corrupt Imogen Mashazi, the CIO Mr. Moloko Monyepao and the most shocking part defending EMPD Deputy Chief Julius Mkhwanazi who is linked to Cat Malala’s etc. A fake news peddler like you who’s insight factor is crashing, allegedly privately employed by an MEC who you on a drunk rage on IG live said you worked for. Why you calling me Goolam thou, YOU ARE THE CREATER OF THE NAME TASNEEM FOR ME. This is how discredited you are. Yes as for working for Paul Mashatile I would believe but your reputation is TARNISHED FOR PROTECTING CAT MATLALAS FRIEND EMPD suspended deputy Mkwanazi. The radio station even apologised. You can dream on and live in your fantasy world if you think Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 or Khumbudzo Ntshavheni would even smell you. That’s how tarnished you are. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Even Dudu “Grenade” Zuma-Sambudla FIRED you. Now that you backed up into a corner you want to gossip and implicate ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula . If people believe you, they need to be mentally checked. You must be admit weskoppies,the waitlist is 57. The biggest joke is you saying FACTIONAL. You the godfather of creating factional stories glad thou people don’t believe you anymore. PAY DAILY MAVERICK THE R100K as per the court order. YOU ARE FINISHED YOUR CAREER IS EVEN FINISHED. Now you like the grannies in the township gossiping , making up stories and living in a fantasy world thinking Ramaphosa will come anywhere near you. Change, they will help you.

Goolam

34,723 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce

“The War of Attrition Is in Our Favor. Time Is Not on Israel’s Side.” 🎙️ Full Interview with Dr. Mohammed Al-Hindi Deputy Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and senior Palestinian negotiator in the Doha ceasefire talks | Al Jazeera Arabic, July 12, 2025. Video translations by Drop Site. ⸻ Host: Israeli families of captives held in Gaza have called for a protest today. They blamed what they called “the extremist government” for endlessly delaying the hostage deal. They said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must choose between the hostages and what they called “cheap political maneuvers.” At the same time, U.S. officials urged both parties in Doha to focus on hostages and aid entry, and to postpone discussions of final-status issues until a deal is reached on those two points. Joining us now in studio is Dr. Mohammed Al-Hindi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement. Welcome. Let me begin with the field situation. In the past hour alone, Israel launched fire belts on Beit Hanoun. There were also airstrikes on Al-Shati Camp and continued shelling on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood. Your response? ⸻ Dr. Al-Hindi: In the name of God, the Most Merciful. It’s clear that Israel is committing these crimes in front of the world — and no one moves. These crimes are not new — they happen constantly, not just today or this past hour. These are unprecedented crimes. Even during the times of the Mongols, people didn’t see such atrocities. But now it’s all broadcast live — sound and image — and still the world remains silent. All these so-called “international institutions” — human rights groups, democracies, etc. — are frozen. As if Israel controls the world. These crimes continue daily. The death toll averages 100 martyrs a day — these are not just numbers. These are human beings, with dreams, hopes, and roles in this region. Yes, we are a small people with limited resources — but we are part of a nation with history, culture, and contributions to humanity. And sadly, no one moves. Everyone is worried — not about death or suffering — but about Washington’s opinion. But the target isn’t just the Palestinian people. The whole region is in Israel’s crosshairs. And if the Palestinian resistance collapses, every Arab capital will become open to Israeli domination. ⸻ Host: At the same time, resistance factions appear coordinated. Resistance operations are escalating. What’s your assessment of that at this moment? ⸻ Al-Hindi: Everyone knows the options are limited. The only thing being offered to us is surrender — as if Israel is winning. But I must highlight the legendary resilience of the Palestinian people — not just the resistance fighters. The displaced, the starving, the wounded — the children who should be in school — they are the real symbol of endurance, not just for Palestine, but for the whole world. There are videos from the past two weeks showing wounded fighters with shattered legs continuing to fight. Scenes like these — a wounded fighter dragging himself forward to fulfill his duty — are unlike anything in human history. Their capabilities are limited — but their spirit and faith are strong. And in the face of that, what do we see from Israel? Cowardice. They bomb civilians, women, children, the starving — people standing in line for flour. And that flour gets mixed with the blood of the martyrs. That’s the story of these so-called “aid zones.” ⸻ Host: Do you believe this war of attrition is achieving its goals? Is it working? ⸻ Al-Hindi: We came to stop this aggression — this destruction. And the Palestinian factions, including our delegation, have shown real flexibility to reach a truce. We want our people to live, to receive aid, to regain basic rights. We made major concessions. And what was Israel’s response? More massacres. [Continues below.]

Drop Site

55,151 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

Clive Lewis's Water Bill - bringing water back to the people 💯 Please watch, listen or read this transcript. Because this is the sort of leadership Labour needs 👏 Clive Lewis MP He even calls for PR 👏 Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab) Margaret Thatcher’s revolution tore up the rulebook on political and economic management. She rewrote it with a single unwavering principle: that the pursuit of profit would serve the public good, even when it came to vital public services—even when it came to water. We often say that society stands on the shoulders of giants, but giants cast long shadows, and Thatcherism’s shadow looms dark over our water system today. Whether we see ourselves standing on her shoulders or trapped in her shadow, one thing is undeniable: she proved that the world can be made differently. And if it can be made differently once, it can be made differently again. That, as the brilliant anthropologist David Graeber understood, is the hidden truth of the world. It is something we create and can choose to create anew. We can do it better. Today, I want to show this House and this country that water is the lens through which we can imagine something better—a better way of running our economy, a better way of safeguarding our environment and a better way of empowering the public, for whom democracy supposedly exists. But that requires something very difficult: it requires us to break free from the constraints of our imagination and to let go of the idea that this economic model is all there is or all there ever could be. It saddens me to say that the Government’s Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 perfectly exemplifies this failure of imagination. One of its leading proponents has a particular rhetorical flourish they love to use when dismissing calls for public ownership of water. They say, “I’m more interested in the purity of our water than the purity of our ideology.” I love that quote. I love it because it lays bare just how deeply the ideology of privatisation, and all that goes with it, has embedded itself. So entrenched is it within our collective consciousness that we no longer recognise it as an ideology. We no longer see it for what it is: a systemic exploitation of a common resource for private gain. Instead, it has simply become the natural order of things. But how much longer can this go on? Since the crash of 2008, this ideology has been faltering under the weight of its own contradictions, yet its grip on British politics remains vice-like. Austerity, exploitation and corporate price gouging are still treated not as choices but as inevitabilities. Why? Because too many politicians on both sides of the House refuse to contemplate alternatives. For those on the other side of the House—on the Opposition Benches—I get it: this is their ideology. They are defending their class, and I would imagine they would go further still if they could. But on this side of the House, we have no excuse. We should be standing up for our class: working-class people—the public. Instead, we wrap their ideology in the language of fiscal responsibility, economic prudence and stewardship of the economy. But it is not fiscal responsibility when we balance the books on broken backs. It is not stewardship when the ship has been sold off and the crew left to drown. It is not prudence. It is power maintenance. Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (Lab) I hope the engineers can check that the microphones and speakers are working while I ask a quick question. My hon. Friend mentions Members on this side of the House. There are far more of us on this side since July last year than there were in 2019, with a very different approach taken in our manifestos. Does he fear that the shift in tone he is suggesting is one of the reasons that we did so badly in 2019 but so well last year? Clive Lewis No, I do not. We have a distorted electoral system. Bring on proportional representation, because if we had PR, we would have had a different Government in 2019 and most definitely in 2017. Sometimes politicians have to do what they believe to be right and lead from the front. I think we should lead from the front. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Ind) I compliment the hon. Member on his Bill. To help his argument, there was overwhelming opinion poll support for public ownership of water in 2017 and 2019, and there still is today. Clive Lewis I thank the right hon. Member for his point. I will come on to this later, and I hope other Members will pick up on it, but the fact that the public are way ahead of this House on the issue of public ownership is one of the reasons why so many people are losing faith in the two-party political system. One only has to look at some political parties whose Members are not in their place—at the Reform party, for example, which has a policy of public ownership of water. Yes, its Members will privatise the NHS, but they understand how popular this is, and they are ahead of the curve—they are ahead of us on this side. Neil Coyle Really? Clive Lewis On the issue of water, yes, I would say they are, because whether I like it or not, Reform has a policy for water to be owned 50% by pension companies and 50% by the public. As much as it grieves me to say it, that is a policy of public ownership. They are populist; they are listening to a popular voice. Mr James Frith (Bury North) (Lab) Will my hon. Friend give way? Clive Lewis I will make some progress and then give way, and I will also try to keep the volume down a little bit. This is about the maintenance of a political and economic model that was never built to serve the public—a model designed to shield the wealth of asset holders, landlords, shareholders, corporations and, yes, privatised water companies. But here is the great irony: the very greed, recklessness and contempt of the water industry—its excesses—have cracked open the door, and through that crack, we glimpse an opportunity. It is an opportunity to shatter the myth of privatisation’s inevitability, to break free from the narrow, self-imposed rules that have caged our Government’s economic choices, to expose its failures, to challenge its dominance and, above all, to show this country that there is an alternative—an alternative that is democratic, sustainable and run in the interests of the many, not the few. We can do it better. Mr Frith My hon. Friend is making a typically impassioned speech. He says the general public are ahead of us. Where might that same public be when faced with the bill for bringing in the nationalisation he is clearly wedded to? Furthermore, in the event that we do not have to buy the water industry but seize it, the implications of that seizure will cause an economic collapse. At what point will he take responsibility for either of those scenarios when confronting a public who are, he says, ahead of us on this issue? Clive Lewis I will obviously come to many of those points later in my speech, but let me make this point now: I do not believe in nationalisation, and this Bill has nothing to do with nationalisation. This is about giving the public a say over their water. It is about governance, standards and democracy. Mr Frith Will my hon. Friend give way? Clive Lewis No, my hon. Friend has made his point. Mr Frith On this point? Clive Lewis No, I am going to carry on and make some progress. You made your point. Let the public— Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani) Order. Mr Lewis, I do not believe I was making a point at all. Clive Lewis My apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker; I should have said that my hon. Friend made his point. The clock is ticking. The climate crisis is no longer a distant warning. It is our lived reality. Rising droughts, creeping desertification, depleted aquifers, wildfires, systemic collapse—these are no longer projections; they are the forecast turned fact. Preparing for this future and adapting to what is now inevitable has never been more urgent. The evidence is sobering. The UK’s water resources are under mounting pressure and not just from the climate emergency, but from rising demand and population growth. Experts now project that England could face significant water supply deficits as early as 2034 unless we act decisively. That is not a distant horizon; it is a little over a decade away. But while the threat has grown, our resilience has shrunk, because while the climate crisis has intensified, our water infrastructure has stood still, or, worse, been sold off, hollowed out and left to rot. In the 35 years before privatisation almost 100 reservoirs were built; in the 35 years since privatisation, not one major English reservoir has been built. But it gets worse, because in that same period private water companies have sold off 25 reservoirs without replacing one. Instead of investing in resilience, they have extracted value: £72 billion paid out in dividends while pipes leak, rivers choke, and the public pays the price. My hon. Friend the Member for Bury North (Mr Frith) asks how we can afford it; how can we not afford it? That is not mismanagement; it is a betrayal. If scientists tell us the climate crisis is an existential threat to humanity and to this country— Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab) Will my hon. Friend give way? Clive Lewis One second. If scientists tell us the climate crisis is an existential threat to humanity and to this country, we must treat it as such: an existential conflict. In that context, the actions of these companies—selling off reservoirs, failing to invest, polluting our water—are not just negligent; they are acts that actively undermine our national water security. In any other existential crisis, we might call that what it is: sabotage. And in a time of national peril, sabotage has another name: treason. Let me explain why this matters to me personally. When I served on tour in Afghanistan back in 2009—not in a boy band—I experienced something utterly alien to me: the gnawing fear of thirst; not the mild irritation of forgetting a water bottle, but the deep physical worry that there may not be enough clean water to get through the day. In Britain, we have been blessed: water falls from the sky; it fills our rivers, it soaks our fields, and we joke about it—it is part of who we are. But in Afghanistan there was no humour; only heat, dust and desperation. There I saw children trekking miles through the desert, not for food, not for money, but to beg for clean bottled water. Once we have seen that, and once we have felt that fear, we can never take water for granted again. We never again believe it is something we can waste or pollute or privatise without consequence. That is why I have brought forward this Bill: because anger is not enough; outrage, no matter how justified, will not fix the pipes, stop the sewage or fill the reservoirs. We need a plan. We need a strategy. We need a future. We can do it better. My Water Bill delivers that. It sets out the high standards our country deserves and the democratic governance our water system desperately needs. First, it establishes clear, ambitious targets to stop the sewage in our rivers and on our beaches, to restore our water to high ecological and chemical standards, and to deliver universal, affordable access to water as a basic human right—a right we have never had before in this country. It demands a system designed not just to extract profit but to adapt, to build resilience in the face of climate change, and to harness nature-based solutions that work with the environment, not against it. Secondly, it transforms governance. The Bill introduces representation for workers and local communities on the boards of water companies. It gives voting rights to employees and customers, so that those who use and maintain a system have a real say in how it is run. Water is not a commodity but a common good, and those who depend on it and pay for it should help govern it. Thirdly, the Bill lays the foundations for a democratic future. It establishes a commission on water ownership to advise the Secretary of State on long-term strategy, looking at international best practice, especially in OECD countries, where public water ownership is the norm, not the exception. Crucially, it creates a citizens assembly on water ownership to bring the public into the process, to deliberate, debate and decide how we can govern this most precious of resources. The public care, but how do I know that? I know because a small fraction of them are in the Public Gallery today, having travelled here from all over the country; I know because of the thousands of emails that have been sent to MPs across the House; and I know because those people will never stop campaigning until this injustice is resolved. They know that we can protect something not by selling it off, but by standing up for it, involving people in its care and ensuring that it serves the public, today, tomorrow and for generations to come. My Bill offers a pathway out of crisis. It offers control, resilience and democracy. It is not just about cleaning up our rivers, but about cleaning up the system that allowed them to be polluted in the first place. Privatisation is not just a problem—it is the problem. We can do it better. I can hear some people on the Labour Benches thinking, “But we have just passed”— Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab) You can hear thinking? Clive Lewis I can now—for my next trick, I can hear thinking! I can hear them thinking, “But we have just passed the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, Clive, so what are you talking about?” Yes, we have, but I am afraid to say it has been watered down—[Interruption.] Sorry, I had to get that one in—it was all going so well. The Act does not live up to what was promised, it does not deliver what is needed, and it certainly does not live up to its name. Do not get me wrong: it is a start. Grahame Morris I congratulate my good and hon. Friend on making an excellent speech and on advocating for public ownership of water and the opportunity to make things better. Does he agree that the mismanagement of the water companies under privatisation is a huge indictment of the whole principle? In my area, bills are way above inflation and huge dividends are being paid by borrowing money. At the very least, should our Government not be looking at stopping the payment of bonuses and share dividends while sewage pollution continues, and we have appalling mismanagement of the industry? Clive Lewis I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I agree with him wholeheartedly and I am just about to come to that point in relation to what the Water (Special Measures) Act does and does not do. It addresses some of those points, but as we have already discussed, privatisation is not just a problem, but the problem, and it is a big part of why so much has gone wrong. Unfortunately, the Water (Special Measures) Act does not live up to what was promised or what is needed, and it certainly does not live up to its name. However, it is a start, and I praise my colleagues on the Front Bench, including the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), who has done so much work in this area. Unfortunately, the Act is not a solution. Remarkably, my Government’s Water (Special Measures) Act does not even define what clean water means. There are no standards or targets—just vague intentions handed over once again to a regulatory system that has already failed us and to the companies that caused the mess in the first place. It says nothing about better governance, and absolutely nothing about the big, fat, humongous elephant in the room: who owns our water? If we do not deal with ownership, we cannot deal with accountability. If we cannot deal with accountability, we can forget clean water. No—we must go further on clean water standards, corporate accountability and what happens when companies fail. Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab) Does my hon. and gallant Friend accept that there is increased accountability in the Water (Special Measures) Act through the fact that many companies in the industry are now rewriting their articles of association to ensure that they are accountable not just to shareholders, but to the customers and users of water? Clive Lewis After 35 years of abject failure, it is too little, too late. My Bill would put the final nail in the coffin of this sorry chapter of our country’s water and water system. Neil Coyle Sticking with the puns, I commend my hon. Friend on his gallons of passion; he is always making waves. He criticises the Government’s legislation, which is obviously not yet in effect, but does he think that the Cunliffe commission will go any way towards addressing some of the concerns he has outlined? Clive Lewis Unfortunately, I do not, because again the elephant in the room—who owns our water—has been ruled out of the Cunliffe commission’s operational process. It cannot actually look at that issue. I have no issue with Sir Jon Cunliffe, but let us not forget that he originates from the Treasury—he probably has Treasury brain. That economic orthodoxy is part of the reason why we are in the place that we are. I do not have so much confidence in the Cunliffe commission, but I do have far more confidence in the People’s Commission on the Water Sector, which is being run by academics and which will report at the same time. I will be very interested to hear what it says. Neil Coyle Will my hon. Friend give way? Clive Lewis Those are the reasons why I have brought forward this Bill. The Government’s Act does none of those things, but my Bill does. Take just one example— Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani) Order. I believe Mr Lewis probably cannot hear interventions, because he is so loud himself. Members should intervene loudly if they wish to intervene. Clive Lewis I did hear the intervention, but I wanted to make some progress. Take this one example. Under this Bill, if a water company breaches the terms of its licence with a major sewage discharge, it can forget shareholder payout and piling on more debt. If it does it twice, it is in the last chance saloon. After three strikes, it is out—licence terminated and on its bike—and those price-gouging, asset-stripping, river-killing vulture capitalist outfits will be rolled into the sunset without a penny in compensation. What about those water infrastructure assets that they have been sweating for private gain? They go back into the public realm, thank you very much. If they start whining about debts, do not worry: we will do a full audit of what they invested, what they racked up in debt, what they paid out in dividends and what they stuffed into bloated executive pay packets. I will tell you this, Madam Deputy Speaker: I am yet to see a single privatised English water company walk away with anything other than a well-earned spanking and a sharp haircut for its creditors. Those assets will belong to the public once again, and we will not pay a penny more than they are worth. I can hear people thinking, “Where will the money come from? How will you invest in publicly owned water without the private sector?” I will tell them where it has not come from in these past 35 years—I am mind-reading again. Mark Ferguson (Gateshead Central and Whickham) (Lab) Will my hon. Friend give way? Clive Lewis I will just make some progress, and then I will give way. I am on a roll. Let me tell the House where the money has not come from for these past 35 years. It has not come from private shareholders or long-term thinking, and it certainly has not come from some mythical well of benevolent capitalism. The private companies have put in less than nothing; in fact, they have racked up more than £60 billion in debt. Thames Water has paid more than £7.2 billion in dividends since privatisation, and is now £15.2 billion in debt and counting—work that out. Now, it is trying to plug the hole with a £3 billion emergency loan that will cost 10% in annual interest. That is more than half a billion pounds a year, just for interest payments, courtesy of our bills. That money will not build a reservoir, fix a pipe or clean a river, but it will keep a rotten system afloat for a little longer. Noah Law My hon. and gallant Friend makes an impassioned case for public ownership—something that, in the right context, I am sure Members on all sides of the House can celebrate. On the point about the cost of financing to the public, though, does he agree that while there are some serious indiscretions in parts of the industry, such as in Thames Water’s case, this conversation about the appropriate financing model would be better entertained at a time when the cost of capital in the private water industry was not lower than the cost of public sector borrowing, on which, of course, we are in a very difficult situation? Clive Lewis The cheapest borrowing in the country, without a doubt, is public sector borrowing. The private water industry, which has had 35 years to sort this mess out, is not going to find investment. It is up to its eyeballs in debt. It is relying on a 50% increase in our bills by 2030, if we include inflation, and that is in the middle of a cost of living crisis. How can we justify that? The answer is that we cannot. Mr Frith The day after the seizure of public assets that my hon. Friend is describing, billions and billions of pounds of debt will come with it. What does he propose to do with that debt, other than refinancing, which is exactly where we are at now with the industry requirement to refinance the debt to try to keep bills down? Instead, he is advocating that the public purse take on that private debt. Clive Lewis At the beginning of my now seemingly rather long speech, I think I referred to a failure of imagination. Ask what Margaret Thatcher would have done when she was faced with similar problems. She would have fought her way through it. She changed the very fabric of our economy, our democracy and our politics, and she made it work. We can do the same, because the public are behind us. They want this to work. Mr Frith rose— Mark Ferguson rose— Clive Lewis I will make some progress. Let us recap, because I do not want to go on too long; I want to conclude, if I can. That money from Thames Water—that half a billion pounds in interest payments—will keep a rotten system afloat for just a little longer. The myth of privatisation is that the private sector will act in the long-term interests of the British public because it wants to turn a profit. That is preposterous, as is proven by the state of our water, and exhibit A is Thames Water. We can now turn to the question of where the investment will come from. Under public ownership, it will come from the only place it ever should have—from us, the public—and every penny of it will go back into the system. It will go into the pipes, the rivers, the seas we swim in and the water we drink. There will be a direct relationship between what we pay and what we get, with no offshore dividends, no bloated bonuses and no debt-laden shell games—just clean, accountable, democratic water. When I was in Afghanistan, every soldier had one critical duty: to stay hydrated. To dehydrate was considered a military offence, because it put the soldier and their team at risk. If someone ran out of water, we did not debate markets or metrics; we shared what we had. We had each other’s backs. As the desert-dwelling Fremen in James Herbert’s novel “Dune” believed: “A man’s flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe”. It is time our water returned to the tribe, to the people, to the public. We can do better; we must, and with this Bill, we will. I commend it to the House.

Farrukh

24,528 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce

Strike: Wike Approves Over N12bn January Salaries of FCTA Workers, Dismisses Blackmail The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has revealed that he has just signed January salaries of the FCT Administration workers amounting to over N12bn immediately after the Court ruling, suspending the strike embarked on by the workers. The Minister stated this while addressing journalists in his office after the court ruling. Wike insisted that the government has largely met workers’ legitimate demands despite the ongoing strike. He added that the strike had been hijacked by political interests, forcing the administration to seek legal intervention to prevent a breakdown of order. “I just signed January salaries amounting to over ₦12 billion,” the minister said. “Yet the FCT is entitled to only one per cent of federal revenue. If the Federal Government earns ₦1 trillion, the FCT gets about ₦10 billion. That allocation alone cannot even cover salaries, not to talk of running the administration.” He explained that the government initially chose dialogue and engagement when the strike began, noting that it did not rush to court. “When the strike started, we believed in dialogue. We felt the issues could be resolved through discussion. But when it became clear that politicians have hijacked the strike, we had no choice but to go to court and allow the law to decide,” Wike stated. The minister acknowledged workers’ rights in a democracy but insisted that strike action should always be a last resort. “This is a democracy. Everyone has the right to protest. But if workers made 14 demands and government addressed like 10, there should be room for understanding and patience,” he said. Drawing from his experience as a former governor and local government chairman, Wike said he understood labour struggles but warned against unrealistic demands. “When demands are legitimate, government should acknowledge them. But it is not always possible to implement everything at once. Government does not deny legitimate entitlements, especially wages,” he added. Wike also dismissed claims that he was chased out of office during the strike, describing such reports as false and politically motivated. “I was in my office, went to the airport to see Mr President, travelled to Turkey, and returned. These stories are deliberate misinformation,” he said. On revenue challenges, the minister disclosed that the administration has significantly improved Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), increasing it from about ₦9 billion when he assumed office to ₦30 billion. “When we take steps to improve IGR, people complain. But that progress is what sustains salaries, reforms, and development,” he said. He highlighted key reforms under the current administration, including the creation of the FCT Civil Service Commission, appointment of permanent secretaries, and establishment of the Office of the Head of Service. “Before now, workers retired at director level, but they can now rise to Permanent Secretary. This was made possible by the Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. "You cannot expect government to spend all available revenue on wages alone while neglecting massive infrastructure development,” Wike noted. Following the court order suspending the strike, the minister issued a stern warning to workers. “Disobeying the law has consequences. From tomorrow, any worker who refuses to resume work will face disciplinary action. Anyone who attempts to block government facilities will face the full weight of the law,” he said. Wike rejected claims that dialogue had broken down, insisting that engagement with unions has always been ongoing with his approval. “No amount of blackmail or political games will intimidate this administration. We will obey the court, and everyone else must do the same,” he declared.

Lere Olayinka - Aresa 1

11,368 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce

50 years ago yesterday: U.N. General Assembly adopts initial draft resolution declaring Zionism to be “a form of racism.” U.S. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan delivered this historic speech when the infamous act was ratified on Nov. 10, 1975: 🇺🇸 “There appears to have developed in the United Nations the practice for a number of countries to combine for the purpose of doing something outrageous, and thereafter, the outrageous thing having been done, to profess themselves outraged by those who have the temerity to point it out, and subsequently to declare themselves innocent of any wrong-doing in consequence of its having been brought about wholly in reaction to the “insufferable” acts of those who pointed the wrong-doing out in the first place. Out of deference to these curious sensibilities, the United States chose not to speak in advance of this vote: we speak in its aftermath and in tones of the utmost concern. The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. Not three weeks ago, the United States Representative in the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee pleaded in measured and fully considered terms for the United Nations not to do this thing. It was, he said, “obscene.” It is something more today, for the furtiveness with which this obscenity first appeared among us has been replaced by a shameless openness. There will be time enough to contemplate the harm this act will have done the United Nations. Historians will do that for us, and it is sufficient for the moment only to note the foreboding fact. A great evil has been loosed upon the world. The abomination of anti-semitism — as this year’s Nobel Peace Laureate Andrei Sakharov observed in Moscow just a few days ago — the Abomination of anti-semitism has been given the appearance of international sanction. The General Assembly today grants symbolic amnesty — and more — to the murderers of the six million European Jews. Evil enough in itself, but more ominous by far is the realization that now presses upon us — the realization that if there were no General Assembly, this could never have happened. As this day will live in infamy, it behooves those who sought to avert it to declare their thoughts so that historians will know that we fought here, that we were not small in number — not this time — and that while we lost, we fought with full knowledge of what indeed would be lost. Nor should any historian of the event, nor yet any who have participated in it, suppose, that we have fought only as governments, as chancelleries, and on an issue well removed from the concerns of our respective peoples. Others will speak for their nations: I will speak for mine. In all our postwar history there had not been another issue which has brought forth such unanimity of American opinion. The President of the United States has from the first been explicit: This must not happen. The Congress of the United States in a measure unanimously adopted in the Senate and sponsored by 436 of 437 Representatives in the House, declared its utter opposition. Following only American Jews themselves, the American trade union movements was first to the fore in denouncing this infamous undertaking. Next, one after another, the great private institutions of American life pronounced anathema in this evil thing — and most particularly, the Christian churches have done so. Reminded that the United Nations was born in struggle against just such abominations as we are committing today — the wartime alliance of the United Nations dates from 1942 — the United Nations Association of the United States has for the first time in its history appealed directly to each of the 141 other delegations in New York not to do this unspeakable thing. The proposition to be sanctioned by a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations is that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Now this is a lie. But as it is a lie which the United Nations has now declared to be a truth, the actual truth must be restated. The very first point to be made is that the United Nations has declared Zionism to be racism — without ever having defined racism. “Sentence first — verdict afterwards,” as the Queen of Hearts said. But this is not wonderland, but a real world, where there are real consequences to folly and to venality. Just on Friday, the President of the General Assembly, speaking on behalf of Luxembourg, warned not only of the trouble which would follow from the adoption of this resolution but of its essential irresponsibility — for, he noted, members have wholly different ideas as to what they are condemning. “It seems to me that before a body like this takes a decision they should agree very clearly on what they are approving or condemning, and it takes more time.” Lest I be unclear, the United Nations has in fact on several occasions defined “racial discrimination.” The definitions have been loose, but recognizable. It is “racism,” incomparably the more serious charge — racial discrimination is a practice; racism is a doctrine — which has never been defined. Indeed, the term has only recently appeared in the United Nations General Assembly documents. The one occasion on which we know the meaning to have been discussed was the 1644th meeting of the Third Committee on December 16, 1968, in connection with the report of the Secretary-General on the status of the international convention on the elimination of all racial discrimination. On that occasion — to give some feeling for the intellectual precision with which the matter was being treated — the question arose, as to what should be the relative positioning of the terms “racism” and “Nazism” in a number of the “preambular paragraphs.” The distinguished delegate from Tunisia argued that “racism” should go first because “Nazism was merely a form of racism.” Not so, said the no less distinguished delegate from the Union Soviet Socialist Republics. For, he explained, “Nazism contained the main elements of racism within its ambit and should be mentioned first.” This is to say that racism was merely a form of Nazism. The discussion wound to its weary and inconclusive end, and we are left with nothing to guide us for even this one discussion of “racism” confined itself to world orders in preambular paragraphs, and did not at all touch on the meaning of the words as such. Still, one cannot but ponder the situation we have made for ourselves in the context of the Soviet statement on that not so distant occasion. If, as the distinguished delegate declared, racism is a form of Nazism — and if, as this resolution declares, Zionism is a form of racism — then we have step to step taken ourselves to the point of proclaiming — the United Nations is solemnly proclaiming — that Zionism is a form of Nazism. What we have here is a lie — a political lie of a variety well known to the twentieth century, and scarcely exceeded in all that annal of untruth and outrage. The lie is that Zionism is a form of racism. The overwhelmingly clear truth is that is it not. The word “racism” is a creation of the English language, and relatively new to it. It is not, for instance, to be found in the Oxford English Dictionary (appears in 1982 supplement to Oxford Dictionary). The term derives from relatively new doctrines — all of them discredited — concerning the human population of the world, to the effect that there are significant biological differences among clearly identifiable groups, and that these differences establish, in effect, different levels of humanity. Racism, as defined in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, is “The Assumption that . . . traits and capacities are determined by biological race and that races differ decisively from one another.” It further involves “a belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race and its right to dominate over others.” This meaning is clear. It is equally clear that this assumption, this belief, has always been altogether alien to the political and religious movement known as Zionism. As a strictly political movement, Zionism was established only in 1897, although there is a clearly legitimate sense in which its origins are indeed ancient. For example, many branches of Christianity have always held that from the standpoint of biblical prophets, Israel would be reborn one day. But the modern Zionism movement arose in Europe in the context of a general upsurge of national consciousness and aspiration that overtook most other people of Central and Eastern Europe after 1848, and that in time spread to all of Africa and Asia. It was, to those persons of the Jewish religion, a Jewish form of what today is called a national liberation movement. Probably a majority of those persons who became active Zionists and sought to emigrate to Palestine were born within the confines of Czarist Russia, and it was only natural for Soviet Prime Minister Andrei Gromyko to deplore, as he did in 1948, in the 299th meeting of the Security Council, the act by Israel’s neighbors of “sending troops into Palestine and carrying out military operations aimed” — in Mr. Gromyko’s words — at the suppression of the national liberation movement in Palestine.” Now it was the singular nature — if, I am not mistaken, it was the unique nature — of this national liberation movement that in contrast with the movements that preceded it, those of that time, and those that have come since, it defined its members in terms not of birth, but of belief. That is to say, it was not a movement of the Irish to free Ireland, or of the Polish to free Poland, not a movement of the Algerians to free Algeria, nor of Indians to free India. It was not a movement of persons connected by historic membership to a genetic pool of the kind that enables us to speak loosely but not meaninglessly, say, of the Chinese people, nor yet of diverse groups occupying the same territory which enables us to speak if the American people with no greater indignity to truth. To the contrary, Zionists defined themselves merely as Jews, and declared to be Jewish anyone born of a Jewish mother or — and this is the absolutely crucial fact — anyone who converted to Judaism. Which is to say, in terms of International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted by the 20th General Assembly, anyone — regardless of “race, colour, descent, or nationally or ethnic origin …..” The state of Israel, which in time was the creation of the Zionist Movement, has been extraordinary in nothing so much as the range of “racial stocks” from which it Orient and Jew from the West. Most such persons could be said to have been “born” Jewish, just as most Presbyterians and most Hindus are “born” to their faith, but there are many Jews who are just converts. With a consistency in the matter which surely attests to the importance of this issue to that religions and political culture, Israeli courts have held that a Jew who converts to another religion is no longer a Jew. In the meantime the population of Israel also includes large numbers of non-Jews, among them Arabs of both the Muslim and Christian religions and Christians of other national origins. Many of these persons are citizens of Israel, and those who are not can become citizens by legal procedures very much like those which obtain in a typical nation of Western Europe. Now I should wish to be understood that I am here making one point, and one point only, which is that whatever else Zionism may be, it is not and cannot be “a form of racism.” In logic, the State of Israel could be, or could become, many things, theoretically, including many things undesirable, but it could not be and could not become racism unless it ceased to be Zionist. Indeed, the idea that Jews are a “race” was invented not by Jews but by those who hated Jews. The idea of Jews as a race was invented by nineteenth century anti-semites such as Houston Steward Chamberlain and Edouard Drumont, who saw that in an increasingly secular age, which is to say an age made for fewer distinctions between people, the old religions grounds for anti-semitism were losing force. New justifications were needed for excluding and persecuting Jews, and so the new idea of Jews as a race — rather than as a religion — was born. It was a contemptible idea at the beginning, and no civilized person would be associated with it. To think that it is an idea now endorsed by the United Nations is to reflect on what civilization has come to. It is precisely a concern for civilization, for civilized values that are or should be precious to all mankind, that arouses us at this moment to such special passion. What we have at stake here is not merely the honor and the legitimacy of the State of Israel — although a challenge to the legitimacy of any member nation ought always to arouse the vigilance of all members of the United Nations. For a yet more important matter is at issue, which is the integrity of the whole body of moral and legal precepts which we know as human rights. The terrible lie that has been told here today will have terrible consequences. Not only will people begin to say, indeed they have already begun to say that the United Nations is a place where lies are told, but far more serious, grave and perhaps irreparable harm will be done to the cause of human rights itself. The harm will arise first because it will strip from racism the precise and abhorrent meaning that it still precariously holds today. How will the people of the world feel about racism and the need to struggle against it, when they are told that it is an idea as broad as to include the Jewish national liberation movement? As the lie spreads, it will do harm in a second way. Many of the members of the United Nations owe their independence in no small part to the notion of human rights, as it has spread from the domestic sphere to the international sphere exercised its influence over the old colonial powers. We are now coming into a time when that independence is likely to be threatened again. There will be new forces, some of them arising now, new prophets and new despots, who will justify their actions with the help of just such distortions of words as we have sanctioned here today. Today we have drained the word “racism” of its meaning. Tomorrow, terms like “national self-determination” and “national honor” will be perverted in the same way to serve the purposes of conquest and exploitation. And when these claims begin to be made — as they already have begun to be made — it is the small nations of the world whose integrity will suffer. And how will the small nations of the world defend themselves, on what grounds will others be moved to defend and protect them, when the language of human rights, the only language by which the small can be defended, is no longer believed and no longer has a power of its own? There is this danger, and then a final danger that is the most serious of all. Which is that the damage we now do to the idea of human rights and the language of human rights could well be irreversible. The idea of human rights as we know it today is not an idea which has always existed in human affairs, it is an idea which appeared at a specific time in the world, and under very special circumstances. It appeared when European philosophers of the seventeenth century began to argue that man was a being whose existence was independent from that of the State, that he need join a political community only if he did not lose by that association more than he gained. From this very specific political philosophy stemmed the idea of political rights, of claims that the individual could justly make against the state; it was because the individual was seen as so separate from the State that he could make legitimate demands upon it. That was the philosophy from which the idea of domestic and international rights sprang. But most of the world does not hold with that philosophy now. Most of the world believes in newer modes of political thought, in philosophies that do not accept the individual as distinct from and prior to the State, in philosophies that therefore do not provide any justification for the idea of human rights and philosophies that have no words by which to explain their value. If we destroy the words that were given to us by past centuries, we will not have words to replace them, for philosophy today has no such words. But there are those of us who have not forsaken these older words, still so new to much of the world. Not forsaken them now, not here, not anywhere, not ever. The United States of America declares that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”

Hillel Neuer

68,720 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce

✨ A moment of pride, emotion, and deep significance for Rwanda. A lot has been said since last weekend in Berlin — but there is something I need to say too. Last weekend, my sisters, my comrades, my fellow freedom fighters — Carine Kanimba and Natacha Abingeneye — were elected to the WORLD LIBERTY CONGRESS Leadership Council, representing #Africa and #Rwanda on the global stage. And even more historic: Carine was also elected Secretary General of the Executive Council. They were chosen to carry the voice of all Rwandans, especially those who have no voice: ▫️those silenced, ▫️those imprisoned and tortured, ▫️those living as refugees in hardship and abandonment, ▫️those trapped in poverty and indignity under the weight of the FPR regime. ▫️... And let it be said clearly: these two women, through their integrity, courage, clarity of vision, and unwavering commitment, are — and will remain — leaders of the positive change Rwanda so desperately needs, today and tomorrow, without the slightest doubt. And for that reason, every Rwandan — wherever they are — should take a brief moment to rejoice. Because change is not a single moment; it is a process. The recognition they received from their fellow freedom fighters is one more step in the awareness and mobilization that will carry Rwanda toward the democratic future every Rwandan silently hopes for. To Carine, re-elected for the second consecutive term: your renewed mandate reflects the trust and admiration you inspire across continents. To Natacha, your election speaks to your authenticity, your strength, and your proven ability to transform conviction into meaningful impact. I am deeply honored to have been the first Rwandan ever to freely vote for both of them. And I sincerely hope that one day, all Rwandans will have that same privilege — to vote freely, in a free Rwanda, for leaders like them, standing in genuine democratic elections on our own soil. Finally, I want to congratulate the new Executive Council and extend my heartfelt appreciation to the outgoing leadership. Through this dignified and exemplary transfer of responsibility, they have embodied the values shared by the hundreds of freedom fighters within the WLC: integrity, solidarity, humility, and service to liberty. Congratulations, Carine. Congratulations, Natacha. And congratulations to the entire WLC family. And as for our struggle — it goes on. It is hard, it is long, but let everyone be reassured: we will carry it to the very end. 🌍🔥 CC: Masih Alinejad 🏳️ Félix Maradiaga Leopoldo López Garry Kasparov Shukria Barakzai Chemi Lhamo Andrei Sannikov #WorldLibertyCongress #Rwanda #FreedomFighters #Democracy #Justice #Leadership

Norman Ishimwe 🤝

17,776 görüntüleme • 8 ay önce