The UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia is one of the most under-analysed by the mainstream media, depriving the public of key knowledge about the UK's role in the world.
Check out Declassified's recent revelations in this thread.
We've revealed the UK military has a team of high-ranking soldiers embedded in the Saudi armed forces who are believed to be taking their orders from Saudi commanders.
This involves training the Saudis in “internal security”, paid for by the Saudi regime. rb.gy/mq4w2y
The UK has a secretive £2bn program it manages for the Saudi Arabian National Guard, which protects the ruling family and has been active in the war in Yemen. Sangcom employs ten times more people than the British government publicly admits. rb.gy/st1vxz
Details of these UK support programmes for the Saudis have been largely kept out of the mainstream media, along with known details about the UK's role in the Yemen war. See our media analysis here. rb.gy/ehiktw
The UK government is so keen to protect its support for the Saudis from public scrutiny that sensitive discussions by ministers about Saudi in 1996, which likely involved controversial arms deals, were censored from a series of newly declassified files. rb.gy/tqs4hn
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🚨Today, the Home Secretary is attempting to appeal the High Court's decision to allow a judicial review of the ban on Palestine Action.
Declassified is monitoring the hearing, and we'll be posting some live updates here👇
In July, Justice Chamberlain granted leave for a judicial review on the ban of Palestine Action on two grounds:
1) that the proscription was a disproportionate interference in Articles 10 (freedom of expressoin) & 11 (freedom of assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); 2) That Huda Ammori should have been consulted by the Home Secretary before the decision was made to proscribe.
Justice Chamberlain also noted in July that, without judicial review, there could be "different and possibly conflicting decisions" before different judges arising out of prosecutions following mass arrests following the ban.
Over 1,000 people have been arrested since the ban for alleged support for Palestine Action, with Chamberlain saying "there is a strong public interest in allowing the legality of the order to be determined authoritatively as soon as possible" via judicial review rather than dozens of individual, potentially conflicting cases.
Read this to believe it. Foreign minister @JennyChapman says her government won't send home Israeli soldiers being trained in the UK during a genocide because it "would be unnecessarily disruptive to them and their lives".
Here's what @JennyChapman also said in the parliamentary debate yesterday about barring Israeli soldiers from UK training.
"I very much hope that we can restore the arrangement as it was" and that Israel "is a long-standing friend and ally".
@JennyChapman In her further apologia for Israel, minister @JennyChapman rejected the UN commission of inquiry's conclusion that Israel is conducting genocide.
🚨Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori will ask for permission to challenge the group's proscription at the High Court today.
Declassified is monitoring the hearing, and we'll be posting live updates here👇
Context: Palestine Action was proscribed on 5 July, marking the first time in history that a civil disobedience group is branded a terrorist organisation.
The proscription came after activists sprayed paint into the engines of two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton.
Ammori was refused "interim relief" earlier this month, meaning Judge Chamberlain declined to temporarily suspend the proscription order pending future hearings.
She was then refused an appeal on the "interim relief" decision, meaning the order was permitted to come into effect.
What is Labour's new 'warfighting readiness" - as outlined in its 'strategic defence review' - all about❓
A thread.
The basic problem for Whitehall planners is that the current rulers of the world are losing their military advantage.
So UK officials, steeped in imperialist global intervention and believing they have a right to shape the world according to their interests, are finding this more difficult.
So they have to find ways to get the public to stump up more money to "shape the environment" in favour of the elite's interests.
🚨Julian Assange's final extradition hearing has just opened at the High Court in London.
Declassified is monitoring the hearing, and we'll be posting live updates here👇
A brief recap:
The US seeks the extradition of Julian Assange for 18 alleged offences relating to the obtaining and publication of sensitive information.
If extradited, Assange faces up to 175 years in a US supermax prison.
Assange's journey through the UK courts has been long and winding.
In January 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against extradition on mental health grounds. This decision was overturned in December 2021 when the US provided assurances about prison conditions.
🚨A senior World Food Programme official has testified to British MPs about how an Israeli tank "opened fire" on civilians in Gaza who were "desperately trying to get their hands" on humanitarian aid. committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1…
"I do not think I have ever seen the speed at which the situation has deteriorated in the Gaza Strip", the official said.
"There is a smell of death in buildings and from buildings... It is under bombardment every day. You wake up to the sound of drones".
"You meet walking zombies in Gaza because people just cannot believe the situation they are living in", the official added.
The level of hunger in Gaza is now "catastrophic".