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More than 80 MPs and peers have written publicly to foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, demanding immediate sanctions on Israel for its Gaza genocide.

Indefensible

Leeds East Labour MP published a copy of the letter. It reminds Cooper of her government’s “indefensible” failure to do anything meaningful to curb Israel’s arrogant impunity or fulfil the UK’s obligations under international law:

BREAKING: With @Imran_HussainMP and 80 other MPs and Lords, I have written to the Foreign Secretary calling for comprehensive sanctions on Israel.

The world’s top court is clear. Israel’s occupation of Palestine is illegal – and Governments must act now to end it! pic.twitter.com/bzRzwokgy5

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) July 14, 2026

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In full, it reads:

14 July 2026

Dear Foreign Secretary,

Re: Two Years On – the Government Must Act in Line with the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Israel

We write ahead of the second anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) landmark Advisory Opinion on Israel’s occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, issued on 19 July 2024. We urge the Government to impose sanctions and other concrete measures to uphold its legal obligations under this ruling and wider international law.

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The world’s highest court, the ICJ, found that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is unlawful. It called for Israel to end this presence “as rapidly as possible” and cease all new settlement activity.

Two years on, Israel has not only ignored the Court but deepened its illegal occupation. This includes recent orders by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Israel’s army to seize large areas of the Gaza Strip, alongside intensified annexationist measures in the occupied West Bank, including the approval of plans to register land there as Israeli state property.

These examples underline how, without much bolder action, the Israeli Government will continue to simply ignore the words of condemnation from political leaders and governments and deepen its illegal occupation.

All States have an obligation to act.

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The ICJ is clear that all States have an obligation not to recognise this illegal situation and “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The Court also made clear that all States must “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory” and “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the OPT.”

Additionally, the ICJ reiterated the obligations of all State Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.

The Government’s Responsibilities

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The ICJ’s Opinion identifies clear legal responsibilities on the Government. Yet, despite acknowledging the Court’s findings, two years on, the Government has still not formally responded or taken the steps required to meet its legal and moral obligations. Further delay is simply indefensible.

The Government knows what needs to be done. It has rightly imposed widespread sanctions on Russia for its illegal war on Ukraine. Yet there has been no such comprehensive response to Israel’s actions in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

We are clear that international law cannot be applied selectively. The Government must apply the same principles to Israel’s unlawful occupation as it does elsewhere.

In line with the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion and to uphold its legal obligations, we urge the Government to act without delay by:

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• Banning all trade in goods and services with illegal Israeli settlements and taking action against companies profiting from or sustaining the illegal occupation.
• Imposing targeted sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on all individuals and entities complicit in maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the OPT, including political leaders responsible for illegal settlement expansion and annexationist policies.
• Suspending the UK-Israel trade agreement until Israel complies with international law.
• Ending all arms transfers to Israel, including F-35 components and other equipment that may be used in violations of international humanitarian law.

If the Government wants to show that its stated commitment to international law and human rights is more than words, then it must act decisively and without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Burgon MP and Imran Hussain MP

The letter is co-signed by the following parliamentarians. If your MP has not signed, write to them and demand that they do:

Diane Abbott MP
Lorraine Beavers MP
Shockat Adam MP
Orfhlaith Begley MP
Lord John Alderdice
Apsana Begum MP
Tahir Ali MP
Sian Berry MP
Paula Barker MP
Lara Bird MP
Lee Barron MP
Olivia Blake MP
Baroness Christine Blower
Rachael Maskell MP
Ian Byrne MP
Paul Maskey MP
Ellie Chowns MP
Douglas McAllister MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Andy McDonald MP
Pat Cullen MP
John McDonnell MP
Ann Davies MP
Llinos Medi MP
Marsha De Cordova MP
Abtisam Mohamed MP
Carla Denyer MP
Iqbal Mohamed MP
Dave Doogan MP
Lord Shaffaq Mohammed
Lord Alf Dubs
Grahame Morris MP
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
Brendan O’Hara MP
Colum Eastwood MP
Simon Opher MP
Sorcha Eastwood MP
Kate Osborne MP
Cat Eccles MP
Yasmin Qureshi MP
John Finucane MP
Adrian Ramsay MP
Mary Kelly Foy MP
Martin Rhodes MP
Andrew George MP
Marie Rimmer MP
Mary Glindon MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Lord Peter Hain
Liz Saville-Roberts MP
Claire Hanna MP
Lord Prem Sikka
Chris Hazzard MP
Lord Indarjit Singh
Lord John Hendy
Cat Smith MP
Chris Hinchliff MP
Hannah Spencer MP
Daire Hughes MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Rupa HuqMP
Jon Trickett MP
Adnan Hussain MP
Baroness Pola Uddin
Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi
Kim Johnson MP
Nadia Whittome MP
Afzal Khan MP
Steve Witherden MP
Ayoub Khan MP
Mohammad Yasin MP
Ben Lake MP
Peter Lamb MP
Ian Lavery MP
Chris Law MP
Brian Leishman MP
Clive Lewis MP
Baroness Ruth Lister
Cathal Mallaghan MP

Starmer’s government is about to end. New PM Andy Burnham has offered only mealy-mouthed words on Israel and Gaza so far. He must be made to listen and implement real change.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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LONDON — A police cover-up after a 1989 football stadium tragedy was seminal in shaping soon-to-be new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s political outlook.

Upon returning to the House of Commons this evening for the first time as a member of parliament, Burnham used his maiden speech to hail a proposed new Hillsborough law — named after the Sheffield football stadium where 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives in a crush — which imposes a duty of candor on public officials.

Burnham faced raw anger and heckles of “justice” and “truth” in 2009, when he was culture secretary, at a memorial service at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

Days before he moves into No. 10 Downing Street, Burnham pledged to end the U.K.’s “cover-up culture” and put “decency back at the heart of the British state.”

Burnham said the law will “change the way this country thinks and works about justice,” as it “truly is a rewiring of the state and a passing of power from the authorities to the hands of ordinary people.” MPs approved the legislation Tuesday evening, and it will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

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A prominent Arabic-language media outlet appears to have ties to Israeli intelligence. Jusoor, which boasts 11 million Facebook followers and bills itself as the “pulse of the Arab street”, may be anything but an ordinary news outlet, according to leaked documents seen by +972 Magazine.

+972 reported on 13 July that Jusoor:

describes itself as an “independent media platform” that is “not affiliated with any political entity” and seeks out stories that “reflect the pulse of all societies and peoples” in the Middle East and North Africa.

The publication’s main output consists of short video segments circulated largely through social media, where its audience has grown rapidly. On Facebook alone, it recently surpassed 1 million followers.

But new documents suggest that:

the outlet has been connected with intelligence services in Israel. And an examination of the organization and individual behind the outlet points to Jusoor’s role within a vast and long-term covert operation designed to engineer public opinion in the Arab world in favor of Israel and its allies.

The ‘Shia Axis’ project

The leaks came about after Iranian hackers got access to millions of documents:

from the inboxes of Israeli politicians, ministries, and other prominent institutions and organizations.

+972 reported how one recent hack:

made accessible to journalists via the nonprofit whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets, targeted Israel’s foremost security think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

The INSS collaborates:

closely with Israel’s intelligence community — comprising the Mossad, the Shin Bet, and the Military Intelligence Directorate — and whose fellows often come directly from its ranks.

The INSS runs a program about the so-called “Shia axis”:

encompassing Iran and its allies including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and, prior to its collapse, the Assad regime in Syria.

Among the thousands of leaked files and messages from this program, clues have emerged regarding who is actually behind Jusoor and what its real mission is.

One leaked email describes an October 2024 Zoom meeting between the Shia Axis project and the founder of the Center for Peace Communications (CPC) Joseph Braude. The emails claim CPC counters extremism in the region. Both Braude and CPC are key players in the project.

Another email claims CPC works to:

manage creative consciousness campaigns against Israel’s enemies, with a recent emphasis on Hamas and Hezbollah.

Jordanians, Cyprus and a secret meeting

Another leaked message from September 2025 describes:

a secret meeting took place in Cyprus involving an INSS fellow and several journalists, researchers, and influencers from Israel and Jordan. Israel’s deputy ambassador to Jordan was also present.

An INSS member summarised this meeting as being about:

actions needed in the media to improve relations between Israel and Jordan.

The workshop, the summary goes on:

was organised by the Center for Peace Communications and the Jusoor channel, led by Joseph Braude and his team.

The summary also says many of the Jordanian participants in the meeting:

take part, openly or covertly, in the activities of Jusoor.

According to +972:

the group agreed to establish teams for future projects, specifically to support “videos that will be produced by CPC and shown on the Jusoor channel” that would “disprove anti-Israeli conspiracy theories” or feature Israeli speakers “expressing appreciation for the Jordanian royal house.”

Gaza reporting and remarkable levels of access

The leaks contain other strange details about Jusoor too. At the height of the famine in Gaza, Jusoor still had on-the-ground access to the besieged area. And one leaked message details how Jusoor reached out to an “anti-Hamas activist” inside Gaza to try and source footage of thriving food markets, people shopping for food and:

videos of people cooking, eating, filling up buckets of water, and kids playing with water.

+972 reported:

Despite mounting international concern over the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza, Jusoor appeared to be seeking footage portraying the exact opposite, which could then be used to fend off allegations of impending famine.

The footage was never provided, presumably because no such scenes existed in an active famine.

Jusoor also published:

a largely sympathetic video profile of Yasser Abu Shabab, the then-leader of the pro-Israel Popular Forces militia in Gaza, a little over a year ago.

Going even deeper, +972 reported that:

According to U.S. tax documents, CPC is a relatively small organization based in Long Island, New York, with an official annual budget of roughly $1.5 million. All of its publicly listed donors support Jewish and pro-Israel initiatives.

Jusoor editor Hadeel Oueis is “employed directly by CPC”, +972 reported. Oueis, a Syrian national based in the US, was once known as Hadeel Kouki. She came to prominence as a young anti-Assad activist during the Arab Spring.

+972 reported:

In 2012, still using the name Kouki, she was invited by the Geneva-based pro-Israel advocacy group UN Watch to a conference it co-organized, as well as a meeting of the Human Rights Council.

From there, according to Oueis’ biography on WINEP’s website, she met a U.S. delegation that helped facilitate her relocation to the United States.

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You can and should read the full, highly detailed +972 report here. If Jusoor is an influence operation, it is one of many. The Canary has reported on similar projects like the BlackCore scandal, English language psychological operations courses and Israeli military-controlled journalism. And as Israeli control of the narrative on Palestine cracks further, we can expect many more to come to light.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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MADRID — A soccer-racism row involving a former prime minister has triggered renewed scrutiny of a perennial Spanish problem.

Mariano Rajoy, who governed Spain between 2011 and 2018 as leader of the conservative People’s Party, described the French team in a column he wrote for El Debate news site as a “very high-level squad. Of course, without Frenchmen,” in reference to the African heritage of some of the players.

The remarks sparked a fierce backlash from across the border ahead of tonight’s World Cup semifinal between Spain and France in Dallas.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “France has no skin color. Any contrary claim stems from stupidity, racism or a combination of the two.”

Several other French politicians also criticized Rajoy, while the French soccer federation president, Philippe Diallo, wrote on social media that the remarks “carry an intolerable whiff of racism.”

Even the spokesperson for the far-right National Rally party, Julien Odoul, said: “Mr. Rajoy is a racist. Simply, his statements are scandalous, shameful, and regrettable. Everyone should condemn them.”

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also took France’s side against his predecessor.

“There are those who still measure belonging by surname, place of birth, or skin color,” he wrote on social media. “Spain belongs to those who love it and work for it. Not to those who shame it with xenophobic comments. France, we will see you in the semi-final. May the best team win and may racism lose.”

Rajoy’s comments have reignited a debate that has dogged Spanish soccer for decades, even as it has morphed into a World Cup superpower. While high-profile cases involving stars like Samuel Eto’o and Vinícius Júnior have prompted tougher punishments and greater public condemnation, racist abuse from the stands — and broader questions about race, identity and belonging in Spain — have proved harder to eradicate. The latest controversy underscores how soccer reflects Spanish tensions that extend beyond the pitch.

In 2004, Spain fans made monkey noises at Black English players during a game in Real Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium. Weeks earlier, Spain’s then-coach Luis Aragonés had been caught on microphone calling French star Thierry Henry a “black shit.”

In 2006, Barcelona’s Cameroonian forward Samuel Eto’o refused to continue playing a league game in Real Zaragoza’s La Romareda Stadium after home fans repeatedly directed monkey chants at him. Eto’o’s stand was seen as a reckoning for racism in Spanish soccer, although many believed the €9,000 fine handed to Real Zaragoza was laughable.

In the years since, there have been a number of similar incidents. Most notoriously, in 2023, Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior stopped playing and confronted Valencia fans who had been shouting racist abuse at him in their Mestalla Stadium. The controversy drew a show of outrage and solidarity for the player from the Brazilian government.

Racist abuse by fans had become increasingly common in the 1990s as Spanish soccer drew more players from abroad, including Africa and South America. At approximately the same time, Spain was also starting to see a large influx of immigrants, many of them from those same continents.

In a 2024 research paper on racism in Spanish soccer, the Funcas think tank, an independent institution focused on economic and social analysis, found that many radical fans were unhappy about the arrival of nonwhite players in La Liga.

“What is happening in football reflects what is happening, sooner or later, in broader society,” one fan was quoted as saying in the document.

“If there isn’t a solution, we’ll be invaded by a legion of foreigners and Spain will lose its identity,” the fan added.

Although Spanish authorities have clamped down on radical fan groups since the turn of the century, many of those sentiments have not gone away.

However, the Júnior episode shows that Spain’s soccer institutions take racist abuse more seriously than they did 20 years ago. Three Valencia fans were given eight-month jail sentences for their role in the Mestalla incident. Four fans of Real Madrid’s cross-town rival Atlético de Madrid were also given jail terms for hanging an effigy of Júnior from a bridge before a game.

The Rajoy racism case has surprised many because he is viewed as a moderate and yet his comments chime with the sentiments of the far right.

Political commentator Marc Bassets from the left-leaning El País warned in an op-ed that the kind of opinions voiced by Rajoy are too often tolerated or trivialized. He said the broader political context is significant, including the far-right Vox party’s introduction of a Spaniards-first “national priority” policy in regions where it governs alongside Rajoy’s PP.

“In times of ‘national priority’, the white noise of casual racism that can be seen in society risks becoming even more casual,” Bassets said.

At a press conference Monday, Spanish football star Lamine Yamal hit back at Rajoy.

“If football has a purpose, it is to unite society, and there is no better example [of that] than us and France,” Yamal said, describing both national teams as models of integration.

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It’s getting harder and harder for climate deniers to refute what’s happening to the planet. Well – that’s not true – these people are liars who will literally say anything. It is getting harder for them to convince anyone they’re correct, though.

The latest example of the climate catastrophe making itself obvious is the record-breaking heat we’ve experienced, and the inevitable wildfires which followed. The Fire Brigades Union have spoken out about how the situation affects them, with Greens leader Zack Polanski supporting them:

The climate crisis is not a distant threat.

It's here. And it's happening now.

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And our Fire Brigade on the frontline of it are asking for help. https://t.co/Nl8GV79S1k

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) July 14, 2026

Raging

To head off some potential pushback, climate change isn’t what’s starting the fires; it’s what’s allowing them spread so rapidly and extensively. Climate change makes extreme drought more likely, and with drought comes the conditions needed for raging wildfires.

In the clip above, Steve Wright of the Fire Brigades Union says:

There’s wildfires all across the UK at the moment; a major incident in North Wales… we’ve seen our members on the front line in East and West Sussex; we’ve seen them on the front line attending fires in London, Derbyshire, all across the UK at the moment, and this is a an ever-increasing risk that firefighters are dealing with.

We’ve been raising the alarm for a number of years… they are ferocious fires. They are resource heavy. You need firefighters on the ground quickly to deal with them, but as you’ve already highlighted these are impacting in communities. The smoke from these fires travel long distances, and the one in North Wales is all across Merseyside… really worrying times…

we’re making the case that there needs to be further investment so communities are better prepared – there’s more resilience in our communities, and to respond to these incidents.

Resources

When asked if firefighters have the resources they need, Wright answered:

Well, no, is the honest answer. We’ve lost 12,000 firefighters since 2010. And there has been investment in new equipment, new policies, and procedures of how we train and deal with wildfires, but you need firefighters to deal with these incidents… And that is an issue that we’re finding all across the UK.

In 2022, remember – what we thought was the real hot summer – when we saw whole streets in London burning. It was the busiest day for London Fire Brigade since the Blitz. But major incidents are now being called regularly.

When asked what the primary cause of these fires is, Wright said:

Well, there’s lots of ways that fires will start. I think the issue that we see now is that wildfires grow at the ferocity… they do now because of the dry land. We haven’t had rain for a couple of weeks in most areas, and fires are able to grow exponentially and out of control, whereas in the past they wouldn’t have grown as quickly as they do…

also we have slower response times in the fire service now; slower response times than we had in the mid-1990s. So it’s taken us longer to get to these incidents; less firefighters on the ground to deal with them. So it’s a combination of issues.

Climate action, now

While some politicians still deny it’s happening, the impacts of climate change are increasingly obvious. Fires are just one such example, and unless the government supports our firefighters, lives will be lost.

Beyond that, we need to remain committed to the global push to ensure this planet and its people have a future. The alternative is this all goes up in flames.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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The Starmer regime’s war on human rights continues with the passage of Shabana Mahmood’s punitive ‘Immigration and Asylum Bill‘ through Parliament.

Burnham rallies behind Mahmood

The bill’s provisions demonise asylum seekers and wage war on human rights and Britain’s obligations under international law. Presumptive next prime minister Andy Burnham supposedly represents change — at least that’s the claim — but it’s not borne out by events so far.

And the same goes in this case, as Burnham voted yesterday in support of Mahmood’s racist new law.

Budget bigotry

Among its multiple abusive provisions, Mahmood plans to have asylum appeals decided by people without legal qualifications. Legal experts and human rights groups have pointed out how dangerous this move to prioritise speed over justice really is. Mahmood sneeringly dismissed the warnings, saying:

To those who say that such decisions can be taken only by a judge, I need point only to the complex and weighty decisions taken each and every day by those without law degrees… A person does not have to be a judge to have good judgment.

That might be so, but a person does need legal qualifications to know what is lawful.

The bill also removes or severely narrows the application of human rights law to asylum claims, slashes ‘modern slavery’ protections for people trafficked into slavery and doubles the amount of time refugees must be in the country before being able to claim permanent residency or apply for citizenship.

Doesn’t work

The United Nations Refugee Agency has pointed out that similar changes in Australia did the opposite of what Mahmood says she wants. Instead of speeding up the asylum system, the changes increased backlogs and created big delays. This has not deterred Mahmood from her attempt to pander to the racist right. It did not deter Burnham from supporting it.

The bill passed its second reading. Yet again, Burnham is indicating that he will be ‘continuity Starmer’ in a less drab package.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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In a scathing new report, the International Development Economics Associates Limited (IDEAs) has documented the heavy toll Global South continues to pay for a war it did not create — as corporations cash in.

The report describes a state of siege across the Global South region, with countries facing mounting economic pressure as the fallout from the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran spreads.

Global South picks up the tab

The report stated that operations of Epic Fury waged by the US, and Roaring Lion waged by the colonial-settler state Israel have led to substantial hardship for countries throughout the global south.

real and financial effects being felt across the three continents of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, due to the contraction of energy supply and rise in energy prices.

NEW REPORT: “The War on Iran and the Global South”, focusing on significant realised & potential economic impacts of US–Israeli war on Iran & the #GlobalSouth, & analysing transmission channels through which the effects of conflict are likely to unfold. https://t.co/qmkuiLT6W2 pic.twitter.com/bx9jqWwrbo

— International Development Economics Associates (@DevEconNetwork) July 14, 2026

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While defense contractors, oil giants, and Wall Street banks reaped record profits, countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America watched their economies crumble, their food supplies dwindle, and their people succumb to a crisis thousands of miles away of Trump and Netanyahu’s making.

The report criticises these Western corporations: their actions have intensified economic challenges particularly for many nations in the south, many of which are deeply affected by global policies.

There have been a few winners able to exercise their economic power to benefit from an otherwise damaging set of developments. Defence companies have seen exponential and sustained gains. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX Corporation are some of the major beneficiaries of the war, with Lockheed Martin’s stock price increasing nearly 40% since the beginning of 2026. The US remains the world’s largest military spender and arms exporter and it has proposed a $1.5 trillion defence budget for the financial year 2027, the largest in history and a 50% increase relative to financial year 2026.

The war has also boosted profits of global giants in the energy sector. According to estimates from diverse sources, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies reported extra earnings of between $3.3 bn and $4.75 bn in the first quarter of 2026. US Commercial banks have also reaped huge sums of profit in a short period of time.

As central facilitators of global finance, major Wall Street banks are capitalising on the current volatility through a surge in trading activity.

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Hedge funds and operators in prediction markets also emerged as significant profit takers. In the first few weeks of the war, hedge funds increased their net-long positions on Brent crude.

Asia feels the sting

The report states that challenges facing Asia are a microcosm of issues affecting the South on a global scale.

the impact of the ongoing war will be particularly severe on countries in the Asian continent due to their geographical proximity with Iran and the Gulf countries.

Nations like Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam face dire consequences, who, as is explained in the report, represent significant populations within the global south socioeconomic landscape.

both source between 85-90 percent of their oil from the Middle East, [and] are likely to face dire effects.

They added that across Asia: countries have brought into force various kinds of austerity measures such as energy rationing… moving to a four-day work week… and requiring airlines to switch to emergency operations mode.

It notes that China is relatively unscathed as it:

took the precaution of building considerable reserves equivalent to several months of [oil] imports, allowing it to weather a temporary shock and smooth the effects of a price spike.

The report warns that the overriding risk for countries in the south is a balance-of-payments crisis as the fallout from the war deepens and influences global conditions.

The forgotten victims of the Global South

It also stated that the war has hit Gulf-based migrant workers hard.

They note that migrant workers — estimated at 25 million across the Gulf — comprise between 76 and 96 percent of the labour force, describing them as the “backbone of these economies” and demonstrating how the movement of people from the south impacts global economies.

The report details how: migrants from the south, particularly, have been disproportionately affected by the conflict.

migrant workers are frequently situated in labour camps or exposed areas (such as construction sites, ports, and airports) that are less protected from military attacks.

Employers are also reportedly using the war as a pretext for withholding wages, denying exit, or dismissing workers without compensation in contravention of existing laws.

Economic shocks ripple into Africa

Meanwhile, Africa is being pummeled by the “5Fs” — fuel, freight, fertilizer, food, and finance. As the IDEAs’ report notes, African countries despite not being directly involved:

are, in direct or indirect ways, exposed to its devastating effects due to the continent’s structural external vulnerabilities.

rising energy prices do not necessarily translate into a net gain for African exporters, given the potential slowdown in global growth and the simultaneous rise in import costs.

[The war] can have lasting impacts on global fertilizer production and trade… compromis[ing] food security in African countries, especially Eastern African ones.

They added that:

For Africa, the war against Iran aggravates an already precarious African debt situation. Twenty-two sub-Saharan African countries figure among those with the highest ratios of external interest or principal payments to revenues, and collectively account for 44 percent of total interest payments of all low-income countries (LICs) projected over 2024 to 2027 (IMF, 2025).

These vulnerabilities mirror struggles seen throughout the Global South more broadly, and devastatingly.

Latin America and the Caribbean feel the squeeze

Energy-importing economies, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean, are likely to face worsening external balances and inflationary pressures, as well; these regions are key components of the global south.

The countries most exposed to rising international prices are those most heavily reliant on energy imports, including the Dominican Republic, Chile, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and El Salvador, the report adds.

Epic Fury (United States) and Roaring Lion (Israel) leave behind an economic trail of misery, Lockheed Martin, BP, and other corporate giants reap the rewards — and the Global South pays the price.

Featured image via the International Development Economics Associates Limited (IDEAs)

By Nandita Lal

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DALLAS, Texas — The World Cup was supposed to be Dallas’s moment to shine. The city is famously image-conscious, and the powers-that-be trumpeted the fact that more Cup matches were scheduled here than any other host city. It seemed like a coup for a town whose football team (the other kind of football) bills itself as “America’s team.”

But off the pitch, Dallas leaders have spent the spring and summer fighting a series of political fights, many of them centered around sports. It’s a cautionary tale to the many European tourists who have marveled at America’s glittering sporting venues, but are unaware of the complex economic and political forces that have shaped them, for better and for worse.

Before the soccer tournament even started, the city’s pro basketball team had announced it was leaving its downtown arena. Then the hockey team decamped for a new arena in the suburbs.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was booed when he attended a World Cup Fan Fest. Along the way, the city was forced to furlough non-essential workers because of a budget shortfall, so the public libraries were closed for a day last week.

“There’s a lot of — the only word I can think of is — drama,” City Councilmember Paula Blackmon said.

To be clear, the World Cup matches aren’t being played in Dallas. They’re 15 miles west, in Arlington, Texas. The Texas Rangers play baseball a few blocks away.

But Dallas proper could still stake a claim as a professional sports hub. The Dallas Mavericks (basketball) and the Dallas Stars (hockey) have spent the last 25 years at American Airlines Center, a retro-styled arena just north of the central business district, which is served by its dedicated light rail stop. That arena’s future has been at the heart of the fighting.

Last fall, the city began discussing the idea of tearing down its City Hall to make way for a new sports arena. The building is showing its age — or its neglect — and city officials estimate it’ll take hundreds of millions of dollars to repair it.

Some in Dallas questioned whether the teams need a new arena, since the American Airlines Center — which is 1.6 miles from City Hall — seems to work just fine. Others objected to tearing down the building since its architect, I.M. Pei, is kind of a big deal.

The conflict divided the city council into two factions — the majority in favor of tearing down the building, the minority trying to preserve it. Blackmon and another council member, both of whom favor preserving the old City Hall, sued the city in June trying to block a vote on tearing down the building.

To some extent, the fight has been a proxy for the broader fight over how to preserve downtown Dallas. AT&T, the telecom giant which has had its corporate headquarters in Dallas since 2008, announced this spring it’s moving to the suburbs, citing rising crime, homelessness and government dysfunction. Even the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, the most Dallas of institutions, is closing its downtown store.

Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, who got into politics after a career as an investigative reporter, said the fracas over the sports arena is a symptom of the city’s dysfunctional government. Dallas has a weak mayor and its city council has been divided for decades, which gives developers — and sports teams — the upper hand in negotiating with the city.

Miller is famous locally for turning down the Dallas Cowboys when team owner Jerry Jones asked for a publicly-financed stadium inside the city in the early 2000s.

The Cowboys — like the Mavericks and Stars before them — promised to help redevelop neglected parts of the city. Miller argued that the city was better off putting its funds into basic services like public safety and infrastructure — and pointed to a string of broken promises from the sports teams and other big developers.

“It’s kind of Dallas’ Achilles heel, because Dallas will just do anything to quote unquote ‘save the teams,’ even though all the teams are all within a 30-minute drive of all of our homes,” she said.

Dallas’s local organizing committee for the World Cup declined to comment for this story, as did a spokesperson for the Mavericks. A spokesperson for the Stars didn’t respond to requests for comment. Johnson, the Dallas mayor, also declined several interview requests.

Most of the fighting has been invisible to World Cup fans, who will flock to town Tuesday for the region’s final World Cup match, which is the semi-final between France and Spain. But the outcome of the city council fight could affect Dallas for decades to come.

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