Israel has abducted the sister of Irish president Catherine Connolly during its criminal assault on the Gaza-bound humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF). Margaret Connolly, a physician, is among eight Irish citizens kidnapped in international waters by the genocidal occupation.

President Connolly promptly condemned the abduction, describing it as “upsetting”, adding that:

I’m very worried about her, and I’m also very concerned about her colleagues on board.

Fifty GSF vessels were attempting to break Israel’s war crime, a brutal starvation blockade of Gaza. At least a dozen of the ships were attacked yesterday and their crews abducted. The Irish government condemned Israel’s actions as “wrong” and “unacceptable”.

UK citizens are also among the victims, but UK PM Keir Starmer has still kept silent about Israel’s crimes. Abductees in previous flotillas have been beaten and tortured, and at least one has been raped. The occupation regime regards rape as a weapon of war. Its routine and brutal rape of Palestinian prisoners has begun even to catch the attention of US ‘mainstream’ media, but is still mostly ignored by UK ‘msm’ – though a few have noted Israel’s threat to sue the New York Times for covering it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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While navigating difficult circumstances during his life and football career, international striker Aymen Hussein always returned strongly to shine. Now, he’s fulfilling a long time promise to fans to lead Iraq to the 2026 World Cup.

Iraq, Aymen Hussein and a viral video

It was 10 years ago when Hussein first promised to take his country’s national team to the World Cup, a dream that came true after a long journey through the qualifiers, the Asian play-offs, and then the final stage in the global play-offs in Mexico, where he played 21 full matches on his journey back to the World Cup spotlight.

Things became difficult for the team after Hussein suffered career-impacting injuries. At one point, this prompted fans to call for him to be excluded from the national team, but Hussein would come back stronger every time, whether in the qualifiers or the continental championships.

The 30-year-old began playing football with clubs in Duhok and played for several Iraqi teams. His professional career started in Qatar, the UAE and Morocco, before returning to Iraq, where he scored more than 100 goals.

Hussein contributed to Iraq winning the 2023 Gulf Cup title in Basra and scored 93 goals wearing the ‘Lions of Mesopotamia’ jersey. The most precious of which was his goal against Bolivia, which announced Iraq’s arrival at the World Cup.

Hussein continued to spread joy to his country and all Arabs, writing a historical chapter in his football journey filled with lessons and achievements.

From the moment Iraq made its historic second return to the World Cup after 40 years, a video of Hussein promising to lead Iraq to the World Cup in 2016, went viral. In 2026, his promise is finally being fulfilled.

Fighting mentality and team spirit

Iraq’s national team coach, Graham Arnold, confirmed that the Lions of Mesopotamia will enter the 2026 World Cup with a fighting mentality and team spirit, relying on discipline and determination in facing one of the toughest groups in the tournament.

During a press conference in Baghdad, Arnold said that the Iraqi national team is aware of the magnitude of the challenges that await it in the World Cup, especially after being placed in a group that includes France, Norway and Senegal. However, he stressed that the players will enter the tournament with great confidence and a desire to honour Iraqi football.

Featured image via Rodrigo Oropeza/ Getty Images

By Alaa Shamali

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The CPS has added Lewis Chiaramello from the ‘Brize Norton 5‘ to the prosecution of the ‘Filton 24’ anti-genocide activists – making them now the Filton 25. Chiaramello is scheduled to enter his plea this Thursday, 21 May 2026. The move comes as the state pushes to sentence four of the group as terrorists, despite them being convicted only of criminal damage. The Filton incident took place before the Starmer regime unlawfully banned Palestine Action as a terror group at the behest of the Israel lobby.

Filton 25: a show of support

Supporters have asked everyone who can do so to join them from 10am on Thursday 21st May outside Westminster Magistrates’ court for a demonstration. The “Free the Filton 24” campaign said:

The Filton case now has 25 defendants. We stand with Lewie, and Lewie stands with Palestine.

So do Skwawkbox and the Canary.

Featured image via Getty/Brook Mitchell

By Skwawkbox

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Georgia Republicans are already bracing for their bruising Senate primary to continue past Tuesday night.

Once viewed as a clear GOP pickup opportunity, the contest to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has remained largely static for months — with no candidate fully separating from the field and President Donald Trump yet to get involved.

Many expect the contest to go to a runoff, interviews with more than half a dozen GOP strategists and campaign officials reveal. Rep. Mike Collins, the front-runner, is likely to make the cut, but it’s unclear whether he’ll face fellow Rep. Buddy Carter or former football coach Derek Dooley, who’s had a late rise in the polls.

That means while the candidates are poised to duke it out until June 16 for the GOP nomination, Ossoff has free rein to shore up his cash advantage and attack lines ahead of November. The Democrat, Republicans say, is beatable — but the path to unseating him gets more difficult if their own primary drags on.

“The longer the party stays fractured … that harms the chances in the general election,” said Jason Shepherd, the former Cobb County GOP chair. “The beneficiary of all this is Jon Ossoff. All he has to do right now is continue to raise money.”

Cole Muzio, a conservative activist and president of the Frontline Policy Council who voted for Collins, said the nearly large faction of undecided voters “is wild for what was initially supposed to be the most competitive race in the country…. It is not a good scenario.”

With Trump still on the sidelines, the candidates have been largely left to battle it out on their own, exposing fault lines over MAGA loyalty. Collins and Carter, both allies of the president, have mostly aimed their fire at one another as they work to win over the far-right base.

Collins, who has the backing of the Club for Growth PAC, a major conservative super PAC, appeared at a campaign rally with Trump earlier this year, while Carter has presented himself as a “trusted MAGA warrior.” Carter has ramped up his spending in the contest’s closing weeks, but recent polling shows Dooley beating him in second place.

And that’s exactly where Dooley’s campaign says they want him to be.

Dooley jumped into the race with Gov. Brian Kemp’s backing — and he’s gained momentum in the final stretch by leaning on his status as a political outsider and emphasizing his ties to a popular governor whose approval rating is nearly 20 points higher than Trump’s in Georgia.

His rise is emerging as yet another test of Kemp’s political muscle against the party’s more hardline MAGA wing. The governor has joined Dooley at dozens of campaign stops. And Hardworking Americans, a Kemp-aligned PAC, is up on the air on Dooley’s behalf.

“I’m totally fine with the timing of where we are, because really all we lost is the D.C. chattering class thinking that Derek didn’t have a chance. I’m more than happy to overperform expectations,” said one senior Dooley adviser, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Traditionally, you want to be spending your money and peaking when people are voting or right before they’re voting, and that’s what we’ve been able to do.”

Dooley’s campaign declined to comment.

Collins spokesperson Corbin Keown said in a statement that “despite the field outspending Mike Collins 15-to-1 in advertising, Georgians have consistently shown that they want [his] conservative record.” Carter, in a statement, expressed confidence in his standing with voters and said “Ossoff is desperate to face one of my primary opponents because he knows their baggage would distract from his terrible record.”

Republicans are hopeful that Tuesday night’s outcome — especially if it’s a runoff — will finally force Trump’s hand on an endorsement, putting the national political spotlight back on the Georgia Senate race.

The Collins campaign is already looking to make a pitch for Trump’s backing after the results come in.

“We are definitely going to make the case starting Wednesday that it’s clear he’s the best candidate for the general,” said one Republican strategist close to Collins’ campaign.

Trump’s endorsement has already proven to have significant sway in Republican primaries. His efforts to run challengers against several state GOP senators in Indiana and against Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana paid off. His endorsement of Barry Moore in Alabama’s Senate race helped him become the new front-runner. And he’s fronting a challenger to Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie in what has turned into a very tight — and incredibly expensive — contest.

But even though all three leading GOP candidates for Georgia Senate have had meetings at the White House, they’ve had little luck getting Trump to weigh in publicly. That has meant that other party operations, such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee — which typically follow the president’s lead or wait until a nominee emerges from the primary — have also stayed on the sidelines.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some Republicans argue that outside funding will ramp up significantly once the primary concludes.

“Every race in Georgia will tighten between now and Sept. 1, and when it comes time to put resources together, Georgia will be in the fold,” said one Georgia-based GOP strategist close to Kemp. The Senate Leadership Fund, the top Senate GOP super PAC, has committed an initial $44 million in Georgia.

But in the meantime, the fractured primary field has started Republicans on their back foot while Ossoff continues to raise money. The Democrat ended the first quarter of the year with $31 million in the bank, according to federal campaign finance reports, and has largely allowed his trio of challengers to battle themselves rather than taking direct aim across the aisle.

“[The race] will tighten, I think, but right now, it’s looking a little gloomier than what it normally would just because Ossoff is building a war chest and we’re infighting and all these things,” said another Georgia-based Republican strategist, who is unaffiliated with a Senate campaign.

Beyond contending with Ossoff’s warchest, the Senate GOP candidates continue to face another hurdle: Breaking through with voters at the same time as the Republican gubernatorial race is sucking up all the political — and advertising — oxygen.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire Rick Jackson, who are locked in their own monstrously expensive primary, have spent a combined $94 million in that race so far. Their television and digital ads, paired with an overwhelming amount of physical mailers, has made it harder for candidates in other races to attract Georgians’ attention.

“The challenge for the Senate race is you’re not going to see a slowdown in spending in the governor’s race come the runoff,” Muzio said. “Can any of these guys really elevate above the noise to make a clear message?”

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Bezalel Smotrich has announced the imminent ethnic cleansing of an entire Palestinian Bedouin village in the West Bank. This is in response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing a warrant for his arrest.

Smotrich, the Israeli far-right finance minister, said he was informed that the ICC in ⁠The Hague ⁠had ⁠requested a warrant for his arrest.

West Bank retaliation

In 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC found that there were:

reasonable grounds to believe that each has committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others.

The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.

Smotrich is the leader of the far-right Religious Zionist party and an illegal settler who lives in the Occupied West Bank.

His Ministry of Finance owns an arms factory in the UK, which has recently been awarded contracts with the UK government.

Smotrich has repeatedly called for Israel to completely ethnically cleanse all 1.8m people from Gaza, so it can ‘be settled’.

Previously, Israeli courts tried Smotrich on charges of ‘Jewish terrorism’. According to The Times Of Israel:

He was arrested by the Shin Bet’s division for suspected Jewish terrorism during the disengagement from Gaza.

Shortly before the August 2005 operation to remove Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four more in the West Bank, Smotrich and four other activists were detained and found to be in possession of 700 liters of gasoline and oil.

He is a self-described fascist homophobe, has mocked non-Orthodox jews, discriminated against Arabs, and opposed legislation to combat violence against women. Essentially, he is an egotistical piece of shit.

According to Al Jazeera:

The ICC accusations reportedly centre on Smotrich’s forced displacement orders for Palestinians, his support for moving Israeli settlers into occupied territory, and his claim it may be “justified and moral” to starve Palestinians in Gaza.

Forced displacement

In response to the arrest warrant, Smotrich is once again going on the attack.

He announced that:

the first target that will be attacked: immediately after my remarks, we will sign an order for the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar.

This will forcibly displace the entire Palestinian community from this occupied West Bank village, which has already endured a years-long legal battle with Israeli authorities for its survival.

Back in 2018, Israel’s supreme court permitted the illegal terrorist state to forcibly transfer the entire Bedouin community from Khan al-Ahmar. At the time, this consisted of 173 people in 32 families. However, the government then delayed the decision.

The community belongs to the Jahalin tribe, which came from the area of Tel Arad in the Negev desert. The IOF originally expelled it in the 1950s. Now, it is the largest refugee tribe in the West Bank.

The members first leased land to live on and to graze their flocks. However, Israel then built the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The IOF once again forcibly displaced them, and they settled in their current location.

For years, Israel has been attempting to forcibly transfer the community a third time.

The community already suffers constant harassment at the hands of the Israeli authorities, making life there unbearable, with a view to making residents leave.

Israel has also refused to connect the community to the electric grid and roads and has repeatedly demolished structures.

Now, Israel is planning to demolish every single structure in the community and expel the residents. The settler-colonial state will now demolish the local school. It also serves the children of 11 other Palestinian communities.

War crimes

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), forced displacement is a war crime in international and non-international armed conflicts.

Additionally, when it is committed as part of a “widespread or systematic attack” directed against any civilian population, deportation or forcible transfer of populations in occupied territories are “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions.

They can also be qualified as crimes against humanity under Article 71 of the Rome Statute.

Of course, international law does not seem to apply to Zionists. Moreover, ethnically cleansing a whole village is just another day in the life of Smotrich and the Zionist regime.

It has been 18 months since the ICC issued warrants for the arrests of Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Since then, multiple countries have allowed them to enter without enforcing the warrants, which does not leave much hope for Smotrich’s arrest. However, it does reaffirm what anyone paying attention already knew – Smotrich and Israel are war criminals.

Featured image via Amir Levy / Stringer/Getty Images

By HG

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On 14 May, King’s College London (KCL) and Cranfield University announced that the two institutions planned to merge following August 2027. However, student-led activist coalition KCL Stands for Justice (KCL SfJ) has spoken out against the merger, due to Cranfield’s deep links to the arms industry.

In a statement on social media, KCL SfJ wrote that:

Cranfield reported an £8.2m deficit for 2024-25, and KCL is stepping in to absorb all of its debt and financial obligations.

How does KCL justify taking on millions in debt while its own staff are forced to work multiple jobs and live outside London because their pay rises don’t even meet inflation?

Simple, management is sacrificing staff livelihoods to directly benefit from and integrate with the military-industrial complex.

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*Oh, and don’t forget Vice-Chancellor Shitij Kapoor earns over £300k a year.

Over the 2023-24 financial year, Cranfield actually made a £29m surplus. However, its fortunes suddenly plummeted in 2024/25, which the university blamed on a drop in international student recruitment.

The universities insist that the merger will not necessitate job losses. However, KCL stated that:

In merging with Cranfield, King’s, as the larger partner, will take on Cranfield’s assets and liabilities, including borrowing commitments

In return, KCL hopes to benefit from Cranfield’s “longstanding partnerships with industry and government”.

KCL and ‘Longstanding partnerships’

So, what do those “longstanding partnerships” look like exactly? Cranfield began life in 1946 as the College of Aeronautics, specialising in aircraft research and design. It’s now a predominantly postgraduate institution specialising in technology, management and applied research.

Part of that ‘applied research‘ includes COTEC, the Cranfield Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre. KCL SfJ claimed that:

– COTEC built a dedicated arena to physically test the fragmentation and velocity of 155mm high-explosive shells for Rheinmetall Italia.
– In January 2024, Rheinmetall delivered 10,000 rounds of precision tank ammunition to Israel.
– Rheinmetall partnered with the Israeli genocide manufacturer, Elbit Systems, to co-develop a fully-automated wheeled 155mm self-propelled howitzer – the type of artillery weapon used to fire 155mm shells.

Likewise, Cranfield has also boasted of its:

enduring partnerships with organisations such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems

Airbus subsidiary Airbus DS Airborne Solutions has a long-running partnership with the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.

Rolls-Royce is a major supplier for the Israeli military (IOF). In particular, the company signed a $180m dollar contract to supply diesel engines for the IOF’s Eitan APC.

Likewise, BAE Systems has held four military export licences to Israel since 2021. This includes the company’s role as the main UK company involved in the production of F-35 aircraft, which is also used by the IOF.

Israeli military links

KCL SfJ also highlighted Cranfield’s role in founding the ‘Technology and Growth Alliance’, stating that:

Cranfield is the only university to be a founding partner in a new defence alliance, which brings together defence firms, academics, investors, accelerators and organisations from across the defence industry.

Other founding members include BAE Systems, Thales, Leonardo, Helsing and ADS.

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Much like Rolls-Royce and BAE, Thales, Leonardo, and ADS have links to the Israeli military. Helsing insists that it has no weapons deployed in theatres other than Ukraine; however, it has direct contracts with several other companies which do.

Beyond its links to the arms trade, Cranfield also has form for suppressing pro-Palestinian protest. FOI requests have revealed that the university has admitted to sharing students’ personal data with the police over their support of the Palestine movement, and even referred up to four students to Prevent.

‘Completely shut out’

Obviously, KCL SfJ are deeply unhappy that their university is being merged with an institution with so many links to the armourers of Israel’s genocide.

Adding insult to injury, the activist group also stated that students and staff weren’t consulted on the merger:

The decision to merge with a highly militarised university was allegedly made at a private dinner between the two vice-chancellors, Shitij Kapur and Karen Holford.

Both students and staff were completely shut out of the decision-making process. Instead of being given a voice on whether our university should absorb a failing defence hub, we were simply told via national news.

Management’s only real communication to students dismissively claims the merger will have “no impact” on their day-to-day experience.

In response, KCL SfJ wrote:

We demand a voice.
Say NO the the Cranfield merger!
Say NO TO GENOCIDE!

Tag @lifeatkings and let them know we will not let this go by quietly!

As more and more universities across the UK are facing dire financial straits, many are reaching for desperate solutions like cutting courses and jobs to the bone.

In the KCL/Cranfield merger, we’re instead seeing an appeal to the seemingly-infinite pockets of weapons manufacturers. However, as KCL SfJ have demonstrated, the student body won’t let themselves be dragged into complicity with Israel’s genocide without a fight.

Featured image via Getty/Dan Kitwood

By The Canary

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