Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana branded Andy Burnham a ‘boring nice guy’
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Ms Sultana, who represents Coventry South, was first elected in 2019 as a Labour MP. But shortly after the 2024 General Election she was suspended from the Labour Party for rebelling against the party line on the two-child benefit cap.
She later left the party and went on to set up Your Party with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In a debate this [last] week, she said: “The Prime Minister has reeled off a list of policies since coming into office. Interestingly, he has failed to mention one major Intervention: his Government have continued his predecessor’s policy of arming Israel—an apartheid state that has committed and continues to commit genocide in Gaza.
“Instead of deflection and the boring nice-guy act, will he finally admit to the House that he has chosen to continue arming Israel and is therefore complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people?”
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.Genocide denier and Current [former] UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Gasoline and diesel prices are displayed at a gas station in El Monte, California on August 26, 2026. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty Images)
“Labor Day weekend travelers are facing the highest gas prices ever for this time of year,” said the American Automobile Association.
The average price for a gallon of diesel fuel in the United States hit an all-time high average price of $5.85 on Friday as the Trump administration’s war on Iran and its resulting disruptions to the global energy market showed no signs of ending.
The Associated Press noted that “because diesel is used for many freight and delivery networks, higher diesel prices mean higher transportation costs for a long list of everyday goods.”
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was just under $4.15 on Friday—up from $3.20 a year ago and an increase of nearly 40% since the US and Israel started bombing Iran in late February, prompting the Middle East country to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for the global oiltrade.
“Labor Day weekend travelers are facing the highest gas prices ever for this time of year,” AAA said on Thursday. “The national average has never been above $4 per gallon on Labor Day. The current Labor Day record is $3.82, set on September 3, 2012. Even though gasoline demand decreases this time of year, typically bringing down gas prices, this year is different due to the high cost of crude oil.”
Kendall Witmer, rapid response director for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement Friday that “working families deserve to enjoy their hard-earned holiday weekends, but Trump and Republicans’ agenda has made everything from gas to groceries more expensive and left families with no breathing room.”
“It’s no wonder Americans are rejecting Trump and Republicans,” Witmer added, “forcing Trump’s approval ratings to fall to embarrassing lows.”
President Donald Trump’s White House has thus far responded dismissively to concerns about surging gas prices, even as they appear to pose a significant threat to the Republican Party’s chances of retaining control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.
At a rally in New York last month, Trump told Americans that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” is worth the price for waging the Iran war, which is historically unpopular with the US public.
During a press conference on Thursday, US Vice President JD Vance suggested Americans should be grateful that gas prices aren’t even higher.
“Gas, frankly, could’ve been much, much higher were it not for our efforts,” said Vance, referring to the administration’s attempts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The New Republic’s Hafiz Rashid observed that Vance’s remarks “belie the fact that the Iran war was arbitrarily and unnecessarily started by the Trump administration.”
“There was no threat to the flow of oil and gas or other maritime traffic traversing through the Strait of Hormuz prior to the war,” Rashid wrote. “If not for the efforts of President Trump, gas would in fact be much, much, lower.”
While the administration claims the Strait is now open and that dozens of vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil are transiting the critical waterway daily, analysts have cast doubt on the assertion. Al Jazeera noted Thursday that “according to marine analytics firm Kpler, just six vessels crossed the Strait on Wednesday, 11 on Tuesday, and five on Monday. It put the 10-day average at 13 vessels per day.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), left, speaks with Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) during a hearing on February 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“The American people do not want American military integration with a country responsible for war crimes, international law violations, and mass killings amounting to genocide.”
A coalition of over 50 rights groups on Thursday wrote to leaders in Congress to “strongly urge” them to reject not only specific proposals in each chamber’s version of the next Pentagonbudget, but also “any legislation seeking to intertwine US and Israeli defense or intelligence capabilities.”
The provision in the House-approved National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 (HR 8800) is Section 219—previously titled Section 224—and the related but slightly different proposal in the pending Senate bill (S. 4784) is Section 1217. Congressional leadership is expected to negotiate a version of the full NDAA that can pass both GOP-controlled chambers.
“The provisions would establish a new US Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative aimed at accelerating joint research, development, and integration of Israeli-origin and jointly developed defense technologies into US military systems and programs of record,” says the new letter to the chairs and ranking members of both Armed Services committees: Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-RI) and Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.).
“This would expand US-Israeli military integration across some of the most sensitive domains of emerging technology, including quantum computing, AI and autonomous systems, cyber and electronic warfare, directed energy, and defense industrial base co-production, while expediting pathways from R&D into procurement,” notes the letter, first reported by Reuters.
Congressional consideration of the provision comes nearly three years into US-armed Israeli forces’ campaign in the Gaza Strip—decried as genocide by many activists, experts, and governments around the world—in response to the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel. The violence has claimed over 73,000 Palestinian lives and continues, despite a nearly year-old ceasefire.
“These facts alone should prevent even the discussion of deepening military ties, especially given the complete inability of the United States to apply existing laws, such as the Foreign Assistance Act or the Arms Export Control Act, that would require the suspension of US military aid and arms transfers to Israel,” the groups argued. “The American people do not want American military integration with a country responsible for war crimes, international law violations, and mass killings amounting to genocide.”
Pointing to polling that has shown growing opposition to US military aid to Israel “across the political spectrum,” the coalition wrote that “Section 219/1217 works to hide continuing US military support to Israel from public scrutiny and congressional oversight and involvement. Far from working to shift the US-Israel relationship in line with American public opinion, this section encourages the direct use of Israeli-manufactured technology into the US’ systems, which may render the United States dependent on Israel’s provision of such technologies, and make disentangling the relationship in the future ever more difficult.”
“At a time in which American interests are increasingly diverging from those of Israel, and American public opinion is turning increasingly against unconditional support to Israel, creating new points of influence for Israel in the U.S. defense-technology ecosystem is exceptionally dangerous,” stresses the letter.
It also sounds the alarm about Section 622 of the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act, which was introduced in May by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and “would limit the president’s ability to restrict America’s intelligence-sharing and military collaboration with Israel by requiring the president to identify and document a specific national security concern that necessitates any changes, and expand intelligence sharing and cooperation with countries that have normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.”
“Governments have an obligation to ensure the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms when advancing their national security interests, including countering threats to their populations’ right to privacy or other freedoms,” the letter declares. “Intertwining US and Israeli information-gathering and defense raises significant concerns given the recent evidence of Israeli espionage against people in the US, including government officials.”
Signatories include A New Policy, Amnesty International USA, Demand Progress, IfNotNow Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Just Foreign Policy, National Lawyers Guild, National Nurses United, Peace Action, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, RootsAction, Win Without War, and dozens of other organizations.
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on October 27, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Organizations should never face IRS scrutiny because political officials disapprove of their views.”
A pair of Senate Democrats on Thursday launched an investigation into reports that the Trump administration is planning to weaponize the Internal Revenue Service against left-leaning nonprofits, targeting the tax-exempt status of groups seen as political enemies of the White House and potentially burying the organizations with huge penalties without adequate due process.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) announced their inquiry in response to recent reporting by the right-wing New York Post, which reported late last month that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS “could revoke the tax-free status of left-wing nonprofits such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”
Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Warnock called the story “disturbing” and argued it suggests “political considerations—including the timing of the 2026 midterm elections—are influencing” the administration’s targeting of left-leaning nonprofits. The NY Post, which cited three unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported that “Bessent’s inner circle is drafting a blueprint that could ultimately strip non-compliant organizations of their 501(c)(3) status.”
“The reviews could result in massive back payments and civil penalties,” the outlet added.
The Democratic senators noted in a letter to Bessent and Frank Bisignano, the chief executive of the IRS, that Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code prohibits senior executive branch officials from “directly or indirectly” requesting that the IRS conduct or terminate an investigation into any particular taxpayer.
“The New York Post’s reporting fits a wider pattern of the Trump administration actively using national security directives to weaponize the IRS against protected First Amendment speech,” Wyden and Warnock wrote, citing the presidential memorandum known as NSPM-7. “Rather than targeting actual violence, these directives explicitly conflate terrorism with subjective political viewpoints—such as ‘anti-capitalism,’ ‘anti-Christianity,’ and views on race, migration, and gender.”
Wyden and Warnock demanded that the Treasury Department and IRS turn over the reported “blueprint” crafted by Bessent’s inner circle as well as “all policies, directives, guidance, criteria, and other documents concerning Treasury and IRS implementation of NSPM-7 as it relates to tax-exempt organizations, including criteria for selecting organizations for examination or possible revocation.”
The senators also demanded to know whether any executive branch officials in the Trump administration have “identified or recommended” particular organizations—including any of those named in the Post report—for IRS investigation.
“Americans of every political persuasion must be able to trust that the IRS applies the tax code objectively under one set of rules,” Wyden and Warnock wrote. “Organizations that violate section 501(c)(3) should face appropriate enforcement regardless of their politics—and organizations should never face IRS scrutiny because political officials disapprove of their views.”
The senators launched their probe as two Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced legislation aimed at guaranteeing that the IRS can’t strip nonprofit organizations of their tax-exempt status “without evidence and without a fair process.”
Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), the lead sponsors of the Protecting the Rights of Organizations Fairly (PROOF) Act, note that “under current law, many due process protections that are supposed to apply when the IRS examines most nonprofits exist only in the agency’s own internal manual—guidance the IRS can rewrite or suspend on its own authority through an internal memo with no public comment, no rulemaking, and no vote, and that carries no force of law.”
“The IRS should never be a weapon to punish a president’s political enemies,” Doggett said in a statement on Thursday. “No organization—left, right, or center—should lose its tax-exempt status on an accusation, without evidence, and without a fair chance to be heard.”
“The PROOF Act is simple,” he added. “If the government wants to take away a nonprofit’s status, it has to show its proof and follow the law. Today, it may be an organization to which the Trump regime objects. Tomorrow, it could be any of us.”
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Kids have lunch at the children’s center of the main library in San Francisco, California. Photo By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
“Without congressional action to reverse the SNAP cuts, children will lose critical food benefits that help families keep hunger at bay.”
Millions of children across the United States are at risk of losing access to free school meals due to the unprecedented federal nutrition aid cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law last summer.
The 2025 Republican budget law enacted the largest cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since its inception more than six decades ago. The cuts have already pushed SNAP enrollment to its lowest level in 17 years, with roughly five million people—including 1.5 million kids—losing aid. Because school districts across the US use SNAP participation rolls to automatically sign children up for free school meals, kids who lose federal aid are at risk of also losing access to free school-time meals.
“Cuts to SNAP are not going to stop at the grocery store,” Clarissa Hayes, deputy director of child nutrition programs and policy at the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), told Stateline earlier this week. “They really are going to threaten children’s access to school meals, which is obviously going to increase hunger at home and in the classroom, and is going to have that negative ripple effect across children’s health and academic performance.”
FRAC estimated in a recent report that a record 55,362 schools nationwide “offered breakfast and lunch to all their students through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP)” during the 2025-2026 school year.
But the number of children who are directly certified for free school meals determines schools’ eligibility for CEP as well as the federal reimbursement schools receive under the program, meaning huge declines in SNAP participation could result in schools losing eligibility for CEP or leave them unable to afford it.
Students who are no longer automatically enrolled in free school meal programs will have to apply, an often confusing process that requires family income documentation and other paperwork hurdles.
“Without congressional action to reverse the SNAP cuts, children will lose critical food benefits that help families keep hunger at bay, and the progress we have made on Healthy School Meals for All could unravel,” said Crystal FitzSimons, the president of FRAC, which estimates that nearly 28 million children attended a CEP school during the 2025-2026 school year.
A survey released last month by the No Kid Hungry campaign found that close to 60% of parents said “their child wouldn’t have enough to eat if it weren’t for the meals they receive during the school day,” underscoring the potentially devastating impact of a large-scale loss of access to school breakfast, lunch, and snacks.
“An overwhelming majority (89%) indicate that school meals take some pressure off their family when it comes to feeding their children,” the campaign said.
Democratic members of Congress are increasingly sounding the alarm over the 2025 GOP budget law’s impact on school meals as the new school year begins.
US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) wrote in a letter to the US Department of Agriculture last week that “no child should lose access to breakfast or lunch at school because a parent was unable to satisfy a new bureaucratic requirement for food assistance.”
“And no school should be forced to jeopardize its meal program because federal policy has made it harder to identify children who qualify for assistance,” Krishnamoorthi added.
