14 h. ago Microsoft faces growing unrest over role in Israel’s war on Gaza: ‘Close to a tipping point’

Turmoil spreads at company over Israel’s extensive use of its AI and cloud computing services in Gaza warFor the second time in the last month, Microsoft employees disrupted high-level executives speaking at an event celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary on 4 April, in protest against the company’s role in Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza.AI executive Mustafa Suleyman was interrupted by employees Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal. The two were fired within days. The Microsoft president Brad Smith and the former CEO Steve Ballmer were shouted down at Seattle’s Great Hall on 20 March by a current and former employee. Continue reading...

Politics

38 h. ago BBC is embroiled in yet another impartiality row after Radio 4's Today programme failed to mention Labour's role in Birmingham bin strikes

Wednesday's episode of BBC Radio 4's Today programme made no reference to the party in charge of the city, prompting criticism from the Tories.

Events

51 h. ago Postmortems of rescue workers killed in Gaza show ‘gunshots to head and torso’

Findings likely to increase pressure on Israel to give a full account of incident amid accusations of war crimeThe Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timelineThe doctor who carried out the postmortems of the 15 paramedics and rescue workers who were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March has said they were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives.There was international outcry last month after it emerged that Israeli troops had launched a deadly attack on a group of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, civil defence and United Nations workers, as they carried out a rescue operation in southern Gaza. Continue reading...

Events

51 h. ago Autopsies of rescue workers killed in Gaza show ‘gunshots to head and torso’

Findings likely to increase pressure on Israel to give a full account of incident amid accusations of war crimeThe Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timelineThe doctor who carried out the autopsies of the 15 paramedics and rescue workers who were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March has said they were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives.There was international outcry last month after it emerged that Israeli troops had launched a deadly attack on a group of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, civil defence and United Nations workers, as they carried out a rescue operation in southern Gaza. Continue reading...

Events

53 h. ago Over 10% of members of UK’s main Jewish umbrella group sign letter urging end to Gaza war

Over 10% of members of UK’s main Jewish umbrella group sign letter urging end to Gaza war  The Times of Israel

Events

56 h. ago Unite is accused of 'grandstanding' after upcoming conference agenda fails to mention Birmingham bin strikes once... while mentioning Gaza 16 times

The union is spearheading the strikes which have left rubbish pilling up in the streets of England's second city, but the issue does not make the preliminary agenda for a forthcoming conference.

Events

5 d. ago Gaza is a ‘killing field’ where people are being starved. How long will the world tolerate this? | Arwa Mahdawi

What is happening is, quite simply, annihilation. Yet our politicians keep funding it and media outlets normalize itWhere do I even start? In recent weeks I’ve sat down to try and write about Gaza and, every time I steel myself to write about one atrocity, another atrocity is committed. Palestinian journalists have been burned alive, babies have frozen to death, medics have been executed and buried in mass graves, kids are being killed in their sleep. Meanwhile, in the US and Germany, speaking out about dead Palestinian babies can land you on a deportation list. Arguing that international human rights law should be respected can put you at risk of being snatched off the street and stuck in a detention centre.I don’t know where to start and I don’t know what is really left to say at this point. After 18 months of endless carnage, it should be clear to everyone that this is not a war. That this is not self-defence. What is happening in Gaza is, quite simply, annihilation. A litany of ...

Events

1 week ago Politicians want to normalise what’s happening in Gaza. Our moral outrage won’t let that happen | Nesrine Malik

The more shocking the carnage becomes, the more people are punished for speaking out. This just makes it clear how much is really at stakeGraphic images. Distressing footage. Blurred-out posts that only clicking a consent button will reveal. For a year and a half now, disclaimers have hung over what the world sees from Gaza. Sometimes, the scenes stop me in my tracks as they are suddenly recalled, like a nightmare forgotten but then vividly remembered. Except without the relief that it was all a dream. Last week, I watched footage that showed what appeared to be the shattered, headless corpse of a baby. I have seen shredded body parts collected in plastic bags. Heard the screams of the dying and the silence of the dead, as cameras capture them piled together, some in entire families. Israel’s assault on Gaza defies inurement. As time goes by, even as the threshold for what is seen as intolerable increases, the graphic and varied forms of killing continue to scale the hurdle of numbn...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘I heard them take their last breath’: survivor recounts Gaza paramedic killings

Munther Abed, 27, was in the first ambulance on the scene of an airstrike near Rafah when Israeli soldiers opened fire• Gaza paramedic killings: a visual timelineA survivor from a massacre of Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza has said he saw Israeli troops open fire on a succession of Red Crescent ambulances and rescue vehicles and then use a bulldozer to bury the wreckage in a pit.Munther Abed, a 27-year-old Red Crescent volunteer, was in the back of the first ambulance to arrive on the scene of an airstrike in the Hashashin district of Rafah before dawn on 23 March, when it came under intense Israeli fire. His two Red Crescent colleagues sitting in the front were killed but he survived by throwing himself to the floor of the vehicle. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Palestinians must have the final say in Gaza’s reconstruction | Ahmad Ibsais

Rebuilding is more than reconstruction: it is resistance. It is our refusal to be erased, our determination to remain and exist on our landOn the 17th night of Ramadan – a time meant for prayer, reflection and mercy – Gaza burned. Once again, our screens fill with images too harrowing to describe: tiny bodies wrapped in bloodstained cloth, fathers carrying their children’s remains in plastic bags, mothers screaming into skies that rain death instead of mercy. In less than an hour, Israeli airstrikes killed over 350 Palestinians, including 90 children. Entire families wiped out as bombs fell on areas Israel itself had designated as “safe zones”, turning supposed sanctuaries into mass graves.This was not merely a resumption of violence. This is the continuation of a genocide that never truly paused, only ebbed enough to vanish from headlines while Palestinians continued to die by the dozens daily. The heaviness of this moment is unbearable, bringing back the brokenness of the past yea...

Politics