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Russia launched a record aerial assault on Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday. 805 large strike drones and 13 missiles were launched. Ukrainian air defences intercepted 747 of the incoming projectiles. At least 11 people were killed and 75 injured across Ukraine, but rescue operations are still ongoing, and those numbers could change.

Strikes hit at least eight regions across the country and targeted multiple cities.

For the first time since February 2022, a Government building was hit in Kyiv. In the capital, five people were killed, among them a 32-year-old mother and her three-month-old son. A local resident described what happened when the missile tore through their high-rise: "A woman and a child flew out from the 6th floor, apparently through the 5th, together with the stove."

Twenty more were injured in Kyiv. A pregnant woman wounded in the attack was forced into premature labour, giving birth to a son. Both remain in serious condition.

In Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Dnipro, civilians were killed and injured, said President Zelensky in his evening address. In Kremenchuk, a railroad bridge was destroyed. He called on allies to impose stronger sanctions and urged partners to cut Russia's oil and gas revenues, which he said continue to finance Moscow's "war machine."

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described the attacks as a "serious escalation," stating, "Russia is intensifying its terror against Ukraine, and this requires a tough response from our allies. For the first time, over 800 drones and missiles in one night…

"The greatest cynicism is that these brutal attacks are occurring at a time when President Trump is making every effort to achieve peace. But instead of responding to these efforts and agreeing to a leaders' meeting, Putin is rejecting diplomacy and increasing terror. Only pressure on Moscow can stop the escalation of terror. The Russian war machine is sustained by revenues from oil and gas. We call on our allies to cut off this funding in order to end the war."

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International Leaders Condemn the Attacks

President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized the need for stronger defensive measures, stating, "Together with France, we are preparing new measures to strengthen our defences." French President Emmanuel Macron stated, "Russia, meanwhile, is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror."

Other European leaders also swiftly condemned the attacks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen remarked that once again, the Kremlin was mocking diplomacy, trampling international law and killing indiscriminately.

The head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, tweeted: "To talk about peace while bombing residential buildings shows what 'peace' means for Putin."

Lithuania's President Gitanas Nausėda called the strikes a "blatant violation of international law." Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson urged the EU's next sanctions package to more deeply target Russia's military economy.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attacks as "cowardly," stating that they showed Putin "is not serious about peace."

In Washington, US President Donald Trump expressed readiness to impose new sanctions, stating he was "not thrilled" with Moscow's actions and would speak to Putin "very soon." US envoy Keith Kellogg wrote that Russia has no intention of ending the war diplomatically. The US Treasury said it is working with European allies on new sanctions, including measures targeting countries that continue to buy Russian oil.

Contin...

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Zack Polanski's landslide election as leader of the Green Party of England & Wales secured a rare raft of headlines for the party. But less noticed was the election of two deputies - both of whom support Polanski's vision for a more hard-hitting, left-wing approach from the Greens.

Members elected two local councillors as co-deputy leaders. Cllrs Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward will serve alongside new leader Polanski.

Millward is co-leader of Wealden District Council in Sussex, while Ali is the first Green councillor to represent the diverse, working-class Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds.

He made ensuring the Greens become a more "working class" party - and shedding its middle-class image - central to his leadership bid. We caught up with him shortly after his election.

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Josiah Mortimer: Congratulations Mothin. How are you feeling?

Mothin Ali: Very excited. It's really positive…There's hope there.

Josiah Mortimer: You stood on a left-wing, working class platform. You must be encouraged by the fact that Polanski was elected - particularly over his perhaps more moderate opponents?

Mothin Ali: Adrian [Ramsay] and Ellie [Cowns] and Zack bring individual qualities. They've got different approaches. Zack is very similar to me in our messaging, so there's a natural connection there. It's exciting.

Josiah Mortimer: How do you envisage working together? What do you see changing in the Green Party over the next year or so?

Mothin Ali: We're going to be a lot more assertive in our approach. Greens are genuinely really nice people, and one of the things about being really nice people is we often avoid confrontation. What we haven't done in the past is take the fight to Labour, take the fight to Reform, and I think that's what we're gearing up for. We've got people who are assertive, but also people who can put their message across in a coherent way and in a language that resonates with ordinary people.

Josiah Mortimer: Do you think Greens have been too 'nice' traditionally?

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Mothin Ali: I'm not going to say that. Greens originate in the Quaker movement and the Quaker movement is always about - we can talk until we find a solution. I like that approach. I've used that personally with people who I disagree with, especially on the right, when I've been out door-knocking or campaigning. We might not agree on everything, but let's get talking, at least we understand each other, and even when we disagree, we can disagree with respect.

Josiah Mortimer: A key part of your platform was boosting the Greens among working class people. What are your plans there, and why does it matter to you?

Mothin Ali: The Greens have always traditionally been quite southern-focused and quite middle class. Working class communities, whether they're ethnic minority communities or white working class communities, have been taken for granted by, traditionally, the Labour Party. A lot of industrial towns have just been forgotten about. That's not mainly down to Labour - that goes all the way back to Thatcherism, closing down coal mines and not replacing those jobs. We've got generations of worklessness, people who have been forgotten.

We've got people who've always voted Labour, always supported Labour, but have been taken for granted. What we really need is real political hope, and we need people who won't be manipulated by charlatan...

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One cannot help but feel a measure of sympathy for Angela Rayner. I know her well enough to say that she came into politics for the best of reasons: a desire to serve, a determination to improve the lives of people whose struggles she understood from her own experience.

But the further up the ladder one climbs in politics, the more insistent the temptations become. This is not simply about individual weakness or personal failing. It is structural.

Over the past 40 years, Britain has built a society in which consumption, status, and proximity to wealth have become defining features of the political class. The gravitational pull of money is now so great that even those who arrive in Westminster with the clearest sense of purpose find their heads turned.

Angela's story is not unique. She came from humble beginnings, but the wealth that circles political life today is more concentrated, more brazen, and more intrusive than in the past.

The old checks and balances, party rootedness in mass membership, trade union accountability, and a press less entangled with oligarchic interests have all weakened.

Where once honour, public service, even a sense of historical duty could command respect, today those values are dimmed in comparison to the pursuit of material position.

Reform Deputy Leader Owns £4m Mansion and Belgravia Pad While Attacking Angela Rayner's 'Property Mountain'

EXCLUSIVE: Richard Tice MP co-owns Buckinghamshire estate with tennis court and lake - despite his attacks on Rayner's £800,000 flat purchase

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The mechanism is subtle but relentless. It is not corruption in the brown-envelope-under-the-table sense. It is the slow, almost invisible turning of heads.

You are introduced to those who walked this path before you, former ministers who now sit comfortably in boardrooms or on the payroll of consultancies with six and seven-figure salaries. You are invited to corporate boxes at sporting events, to private dinners, to concerts and premiers. Lavish clothes or spectacles can be "within the rules," provided they are declared. But by then the damage has been done.

The message is implicit but unmistakable: play the game, listen to us, and you too can enjoy more of this. The logic creeps into your personal life. You stretch to buy the house that can host the right gatherings. You measure your worth by the standards of a world that equates success with possessions and proximity to privilege. And once you are on that path, it is hard to step off.

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This is, of course, a simplification of a complex socio-economic and political process. But as someone who came from a council estate myself, I see it all around me in Westminster. And it is not going to be changed by media witch-hunts, the tutting of ethics advisers, or even the occasional burst of public outrage.

As Gladstone once warned, "Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right." But in our current system, what is morally questionable is too often normalised, excused, and rebranded as "just the way things are".

Real change will only come from a collective decision to choose a different path: to stop outsourcing our state to private interests, to end the revolving door between Government and corporate boardrooms, to challenge the idea that the role of politics is to serve vast concentrations of wealth.

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Whose money a political party takes can tell you a lot about which interests they are likely to serve. In the case of Reform UK's Birmingham conference that includes crypto firms, right-wing think tanks and the kind of sponsors that other political parties would run a mile from. Here are just some of the corporate interests bankrolling Reform UK's conference.

Big Tobacco

Nigel Farage has never hidden his love of smoking. A self-described "chain smoker" he once branded smokers the "heroes of the nation" for how much tax is paid on cigarettes. His support of smoking appears to have been rewarded at the conference with sponsorships of fringe events. One panel titled "Revitalising the Great British High Street - how to reverse decades of decline" is being sponsored by the right wing think tank The Adam Smith Institute and ironically given the preponderance of vape shops on Britain's high streets, Japan Tobacco, one of the three largest tobacco firms in the world which also owns shares in various vape companies. Japan has been branded as a "tobacco state" by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, because of the closeness between big tobacco - particularly Japan Tobacco - and government.

Another firm at the conference is Forest Online, hosting a panel called "The Politics of Prohibition: The Fight for Choice. Forest describes itself as "voice and friend of the smoker" and lobbies against regulation of smoking. According to the Bath University-run site Tobacco Tactics, Forest has received money from several major Tobacco firms including Phillip Morris and Japan Tobacco International. Speakers on the panel include Simon Clarke, the director of Forest and Christopher Snowden of the Institute for Economic Affairs thinktank (which has received Big Tobacco funding for decades according to Tobacco Tactics).

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Right Wing Think Tanks

Reform UK conference has attracted right wing think tanks like moths to a flame. The traditionally Conservative-aligned think tanks with an office on Tufton Street like the Institute for Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Taxpayers Alliance are all sponsoring panels or hosting stands at the conference, as is The Centre for Social Justice - the think tank established by former Conservative leader and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith.

Also sponsoring the conference are two think tanks more associated with the radical or populist right. The Heartland Institute, a climate-change denying think tank with links to the Trump administration, which famously once paid for a billboard comparing people who believe in climate change to the Unabomber, is sponsoring an event titled "Is Climate Realism Inevitable". The speakers on the panel include the US head of the institute James Taylor and the UK head and former UKIP leader Lois Perry, as well as Lord Monckton, another former UKIP leader and figures from the IEA and Taxpayer's Alliance. Farage was a guest of honour at the UK launch of Heartland in January of this year.

Additionally, the Prosperity Institute - formerly the Legatum Institute - the think tank funded by the investment firm Legatum, is sponsoring two events, one on reversing the "Boris wave" (a right wing meme referring to the post-Brexit spike in immigration) and another titled "Drill Baby Drill: Abandoning Net Zero and restoring Energy Abundance". At the first talk, another right wing think tanker Alp Mehmet, from the Centre for Migration control, spoke from the audience advocating an end to international student visas and at the second, one ...

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Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice co-owns a second home purchased for £4 million in 2013, Byline Times can reveal - despite attacking Angela Rayner for supposedly owning a "property mountain".

Open source imagery and Land Registry data unearthed by author Guy Shrubsole and this outlet reveal the Buckinghamshire mansion - and 12,800m2 of land around it - is a lavish property, complete with a tennis court, lake, a long driveway, and outbuildings.

The property is nearly 100 miles from Tice's seat in Skegness. Tice is also listed as owning a leasehold flat in Belgravia, London, now believed to be worth around £1.6m, Byline Times has found. The findings came as Reform's largest ever conference kicked off in Birmingham.

Tice's real estate portfolio contrasts with the party's recent attacks on Rayner's so-called "property mountain", for buying an £800k flat in Hove, which the Deputy Prime Minister is now being investigated over for not paying £40,000 in stamp duty.

Rayner added the property to her three-bedroom grace-and-favour flat at Admiralty House, in central London, and a £650,000 constituency home near Manchester.

But Reform MP Tice also holds substantial stakes in - and remains a director of - at least four property companies, according to his register of interests and Companies House records: Quidnet Capital Partners LLP, Enjoyouretirement Ltd, Tisun Investments Ltd, Quidnet REIT Ltd. Tice is a Non Executive Director at Quidnet REIT, for which he earns £10,270 for 25 hours work a month.

According to their website and Tice's LinkedIn, he remains CEO of Quidnet Capital Partners, which boasts that it specialises in "corporate/public-to-private transactions", property "asset management" and "sourcing and executing [real estate] acquisitions".

Speaking about Quidnet REIT in March to The Times, Tice said: "I control most of the business. Actually, I'd like more backbenchers to have second jobs."

Tice's house in a leafy area of Buckinghamshire also contrasts with Reform's attempts to court working-class communities, which had led to accusations of hypocrisy over his attacks on Rayner. The Deputy Prime Minister has now resigned amid the allegations she avoided paying enough stamp duty on her south coast property.

A Best for Britain spokesperson told Byline Times: "[Reform] try to present themselves as men of the people (and they are all men) - but the truth, Reform's leadership is a collection of former bankers being promoted by billionaires with Tice increasingly looking like the Monopoly man."

The property is not declared in his register of interests as an MP. Tice lists nothing under 'land and property' in his declarations, but the rules allow this to exclude property lived in only by the MP or a family member. Electoral roll records suggest a relative of his lives at the property, so there is no suggestion that rules have been broken.

Tice and his ex-wife separated in 2019 and have since divorced, and he is now in a relationship with Telegraph writer Isabel Oakshott, who lives in Dubai, which he visits.

The revelations come after a mysterious offshore entity connected to Tice was folded months after legal campaigners at Good Law Project exposed its existence.

Financial records for the Jersey-based entity, 'Gellymill Ltd' did not have Tice's name on them, and instead made reference to corporate directors and secretaries linked to an offshore trust services provider.

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The controversial cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, accused by critics of spreading anti-vax misinformation laden with conspiracy theories, will give the only health-related address on the main stage of the Reform Party conference this weekend.

Leading doctors have urged Reform leader, Nigel Farage, not to put lives in danger by handing Malhotra - who claims that mRNA COVID vaccines did more harm than good - a prime conference slot.

The British cardiologist is chief medical adviser to MAHA Action, a US campaign group advocating the "Make America Healthy Again" agenda of Robert F Kennedy Jr, US President Donald Trump's secretary of health and human services.

Reform has said Malhotra will speak about "making Britain healthy again" and he has insisted his main topic in Birmingham will be the "commercial influence over science" and the importance of health living, but, his inclusion in the conference has raised concerns that Farage may be tempted to follow Kennedy's lead in scrapping vaccine research, and replacing expert advisors.

Over the summer, Kennedy cancelled $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccines and earlier sacked all 17 members of the official government committee that advises on immunisation.

Jeanette Dickson, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the professional standards body for Britain's 400,000 doctors, told The Times: "We must not let ignorance and ideology replace evidence-based medicine. It is a very dangerous step to replace peer-reviewed, proven science with simple-sounding populism."

The decision to embrace Malhotra is one of several actions by Farage that suggest Reform is heading towards closer policy alignment with Trump and Project 2025.

In May 2024, Farage was himself accused by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of "spreading misinformation" after becoming the face of Action on World Health (AWH), a campaign for the UK to end its membership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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AWH has received favourable coverage in right-wing newspapers, repeating the narratives of groups associated with coordinated COVID disinformation that has seeped into the mainstream media via outlets like the Telegraph, GB News and TalkTV.

Malhotra's speech comes as health officials warn that vaccination rates in children starting school in September have fallen below the levels required to prevent spread through herd immunity, while in the US the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) has been pitched into chaos after CDC chief Susan Monarez was fired and several other top officials resigned in protest at RFK Jr's assault on established vaccine science.

This comes in the wake of a gunman's attack on the CDC building, which killed a police officer, after the man was reportedly inspired by anti-vax conspiracies.

On 27 September 2022, Malhotra published a paper with Clare Craig of the anti-vax HART group in his own journal calling for the immediate halt to COVID vaccinations.

The paper was released via a press conference by the World Council for Health (WCH), founded by Tess Lawrie of disinformation groups HART and Pandata as an umbrella organisation for groups promoting a range of alternative treatments from ivermectin to protection from 5G. WCH's coalition partners includes Children's Health Defence that was founded by RFK Jr.

Lawrie also founded the British Ivermectin Research Group (BIRD). BIRD is the sister organisation to Pierre Kory's Frontline Covid Critical Care (FLCCC) organisation in the US, together they led the way in promoting ivermectin as an alternative treatment for COVID, long COVID, and "spike detox...

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A neo-Nazi music festival that was due to be held in Great Yarmouth this weekend has been cancelled under pressure from anti-facist campaign group Hope Not Hate.

The event, billed as 'Resurrection 4', was described by Hope Not Hate as "the biggest white power gig in Britain in 10 years" and was due to see 500 neo-Nazis and skinheads interested in the 'oi' punk scene descend on to the seaside town.

The festival was organised by Rob Claymore, a supporter of the British Movement, an openly Nazi organisation, and Robert Bray a veteran of the neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour. Recent posts in a Telegram channel linked to the British Movement include the claim that the group is the "voice of national socialism in Britain" and a photo of someone holding leaflets next to Buckingham Palace which read "stand up for the 14 words" a reference to the nazi slogan "we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children".

In January of this year, Blood and Honour had their assets frozen by the British Government. Although it has not been proscribed, it is the first extremist right wing organisation to face an asset freeze under the Treasury's sanctions regime.

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According to Hope Not Hate, several members of the bands booked for the festival have ties to, or are members of, fascist groups. This includes Gary Smith, the drummer of the band Crucified who is a former activist for Combat 18, a fascist group. Smith was also a member of the band No Remorse which made what German authorities described as "the most extreme nazi CD ever produced".

Sal, a Great Yarmouth local resident told Byline Times, "it was organised for the same time as Pride, I don't know if that was deliberate, but I felt very uneasy about it being in the town. I believe in freedom of speech, so I felt kind of uneasy about it being completely cancelled. But it would have been much better if it could have been held in a camp or a venue out of town so it didn't coincide with the [LGBTQ+} pride events and didn't upset people in the town."

According to Hope Not Hate, the festival sold 500 tickets before it was cancelled, netting an approximate £35,000.

Hope Not Hate started a campaign to get the festival cancelled in August. Over 34,000 people responded to HNH's call to write to the Home Office urging them to cancel the visas of international bands booked for Resurrection 4, the festival was pulled and local police say they are investigating the matter.

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Nick Lowles, CEO of Hope Not Hate said "These hate-fests have no place in our communities, as is evident from the over 34,000 people who joined Hope Not Hate in emailing the Home Office and spreading the word. The cancellation will be a huge financial hit for the promoters and will deter people from planning similar nazi skinhead gigs."

Rupert Lowe, the Independent MP for Great Yarmouth who previously sat with Reform UK, appears not to have commented publicly on the plans to hold the neo-Nazi festival in his constituency.

On Rupert Lowe's lack of public opposition to the festival Sal told Byline Times: "this directly affects his constituency, the people in it, and the holidaymaker trade. He should be very vocal in his opposition to it, but he's not. He's not uttered a word. So, I'm pretty disgusted with him at the moment".

Lowe has however indicated his opposition to the possibility of asy...

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The Conservative party, whose leader Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly pledged to fight for "free speech", has banned Byline Times from attending her party's annual conference.

The party gave no explanation for the ban, but a Conservative official said that the decision had been taken by "our media team".

The ban comes despite Byline Times having previously being approved to cover Conservative conference under the leadership of Badenoch's predecessors Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.

As a member of Parliament's press lobby I have also attended conference under the leaderships of Theresa May and David Cameron. At no point over those more than ten years were any complaints made to me, or any issue raised about my attendance at the annual event.

A spokesperson said in a statement: "I'm sorry to inform you that your media registration has not been approved by our media team this year. This decision was made following a thorough review of all accreditation requests, and I understand that this may be disappointing news - particularly given your longstanding attendance and engagement with the event.

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"We genuinely value your past participation and the coverage you've provided over the years. Please be assured that the decision was not taken lightly."

The ban comes despite Bandeoch's repeated commitments to upholding free speech and support for a free press.

"Free speech is a Conservative principle and is under threat", Badenoch said earlier this year, insisting that "we must fight for it".

"Silencing free speech harms democracy, culture and individual resilience."

The ban follows this news organisation last year revealing how Conservative party councillors had posed for the cameras as supposedly ordinary workers in order to ask questions of Rishi Sunak during a televised election campaign event.

We also revealed in 2023 how the party had secretly exempted selected media organisations from its previous plans to charge journalists for attending its conference. The money-raising plans were later withdrawn entirely.

A leading free speech campaign group described the decision to ban Byline Times from the Conservative conference as "concerning".

"Concerning news that the Conservatives led by Kemi Badenoch have banned Byline Times from attending their annual conference - ironically amid the party's claim to uphold free speech," a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the Conservative leader was contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.

The ban follows a series of other media organisations also being banned from covering the upcoming Reform UK conference.

Like the Conservatives, Nigel Farage's party have also made protecting "free speech" a central campaigning issue.

The Reform leader was confronted at a US congressional hearing about free speech on Wednesday, after his party banned a series of critical news organisations, including New World and DeSmog from covering its own party conference. Byline Times has previously also been blocked from attending the party's events.

Asked about the bans, Farage boasted about the number of questions he takes at press conferences, while failing to deal with questions about all the news organisations banned from ever asking questions at them, saying only that "somebody else" may have banned them.

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The arrest of seven leading activists from the 'Lift the Ban' campaign against the proscription of pro-Gaza group Palestine Action - now designated a 'terror' organisation - has been damned as 'chilling' by the Liberal Democrats and the human rights group Amnesty International.

Speaking to Byline Times, the Lib Dems called for a review of the controversial law which outlawed the direct action group, members of which are accused of breaking into RAF Brize Norton in June this year to sabotage aircraft they believed were destined to assist Israel's war on Gaza.

The alleged participants were arrested under existing laws, but Home Secretary Yvette Cooper rushed out the designation of Palestine Action as a 'terrorist' group shortly after, meaning supporters of the organisation can now land over a decade in prison.

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The Liberal Democrats have now added their calls to warnings from Amnesty International after counter-terrorism police arrested seven of the 'Lift the Ban' campaign's key spokespeople in 'dawn raids' in London, Cumbria and Yorkshire on Tuesday morning, over Lift the Ban protests, under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Today the Daily Mail and The Sun both have front pages dedicated to attacking an alleged assault on free speech in the UK, focusing on the arrest of Father Ted writer and anti-trans activist Graham Lineham over allegations of inciting violence. The Mail claims Britain is becoming "North Korea" while The Sun says the UK is "f*cked". But they do not mention the arrests of pro-Gaza campaigners.

Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is in the US, seemingly calling for sanctions on the UK by Donald Trump to push Keir Starmer to repeal the Online Safety Act, which he claims is undermining free speech.

The Lift the Ban campaign is being spearheaded by Defend Our Juries, a group initially set up to defend climate campaigners from the likes of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil facing criminal action.

DoJ founder Tim Crosland was arrested just hours before he was due to hold a press conference announcing that the mass action against 'terror' ban on Palestine Action will proceed in Parliament Square on Saturday 6 September from 1pm. At least 1,000 people have now pledged to hold signs saying 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action' this weekend, according to the group.

Over 700 people have now been arrested opposing the Palestine Action ban, including 500 at the last demonstration outside Parliament Square. More than 100 of them have now been formally charged for peaceful protests shortly after the ban came into force. The vast majority of attendees were sitting down holding cardboard signs. Defend Our Juries hopes to make the ban on PA untenable given the scale of potential arrests.

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Defend Our Juries has said its 'mass action' will go ahead on Saturday despite the 'targeted arrest' of key spokespeople.

The arrests include young law student Paddy Friend, who was due to speak at the press conference alongside Tim Crosland. You can see a video of his arrest here.

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs Lisa Smart, told Byline Times: "The arrest of these campaigners under terror laws, following hundreds of arrests under the same powers last month, is deeply alarming. If charged, they could face up to 14 years in prison simply for expressing support for Palestine Action.

"The right to peaceful protest is a cornerstone of a liberal democracy - this sets a dangerous precedent and risks a chilli...

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Yvette Cooper on Monday announced that the Government was suspending all refugee family reunion to the UK. This is a shameful decision that will have devastating consequences for the affected families and will do nothing to placate politicians like Nigel Farage, and the racists terrorising asylum hotels.

Contrary to Cooper's claims, UK family reunion rules are already extremely restrictive. Refugee sponsors can bring children or pre-flight spouses and no other family members can apply. This is simply not fit for purpose when assessing family dynamics for those fleeing conflict zones. Children are often orphaned in such settings, with older siblings taking on de facto parental responsibility. UK family reunion rules do not reflect this reality, and rather than closing down the scheme, any sensible government, focused on preventing dangerous journeys, would expand the scope of family reunion.

The limited scope of family reunion though is just one problem. Those in conflict zones usually cannot even submit applications. This is because they must attend a Visa Application Centre, and no such centres exist in Gaza, Sudan, Eritrea or Afghanistan. The last Conservative Government's position was that lone children should take dangerous cross-border journeys to neighbouring countries and attend visa centres. Depressingly, Labour is failing these children just as catastrophically.

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Cooper justified suspending family reunion by arguing that refugees should wait longer before reuniting with loved ones, as this would allow them to find jobs and housing. Cooper herself is a parent and a partner. If she relocated to a third country, does she really think she would feel settled and able to flourish if her partner and children were living thousands of miles away. If she does, let's rephrase the question: does she really think she'd be able to flourish if her partner and children were living thousands of miles away in a warzone and every night she lay awake worrying whether they'd survive until the morning?

Cooper's Government is now waging a sustained campaign attacking asylum rights as they attempt to ward off the electoral threat from Reform. They've already banned refugees making irregular journeys to the UK from ever securing British citizenship. In July, they closed the Afghan resettlement schemes, one of the few safe routes to the UK. Last week, they reduced the move-on period for newly recognised refugees leaving asylum accommodation from 56 to 28 days. All of these moves are regressive, cruel and bound to fail on their own terms, preventing refugees from fully integrating into society, encouraging unsafe journeys and increasing refugee homelessness.

Nigel Farage has made clear he is happy returning refugees to face torture, death and execution. This was a chilling proposal from an elected politician, a clear violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and a repudiation of any sense of moral decency. Keir Starmer's response has also been pathetically weak. He didn't condemn Farage's support of torture, he just said Farage's plan wouldn't work.

Both main political parties are now trying to fight Reform on their territory, with a race to the bottom to propose ever more extreme and cruel immigration policies. Some of Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp's language has been truly dehumanising in recent weeks, as he and the Conservatives more desperately seek air time and attention.

Labour and the Conservatives cannot out-Reform, Reform. When either party proposes something more extreme, Reform will simply raise the stakes. And what ...