Despite the courage and enormous sacrifice of the soldiers of the Ukrainian army, despite the billions of dollars the West has poured into arming its proxy, an overextended Ukrainian army is showing signs of buckling.   

Donald Trump’s conduct in Venezuela – working in concert with local elites – would be familiar to an 18th Century Bourbon King or a British monarch. If they had such a thing as shame, the American elites should wince that their country, born out of an epic anti-colonial struggle, now plays the role of a Prussian army seeking to impose its will on another state.

Something truly horrific is being planned for Venezuela. Generals are being bought and paid for, death squads are being organised and a major regime change operation is slowly gathering steam that, if executed, will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Venezuela and possibly the region beyond.

Now that everyone is aware of the volatile political game the Prime Minister and others are willing to play in order to support Israel, what do you think anti-genocide, anti-racist, anti-fascist groups within the West Midlands will do to oppose this invasion should the ban be lifted? What do you think will be the response from Britain’s far-right? Tommy Robinson has already said he is organising his supporters for the match day.

Western leaders, including in my own country, have refused to even reply to requests that petitions/insistences be made to the Israelis to save the great Palestinian leader. They have shown more empathy for the remains of deceased Israeli hostages crushed under the rubble of buildings bombed by the Israelis, hypocritically blaming Hamas for not releasing the remains fast enough! Such is the moral calibre of our leaders. 

Much of what we thought we knew about the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 has turned out to be false or only partially true. We owe it to ourselves and, above all, to the Palestinian people, to understand both what really happened that day and why it happened.  

If we wish to live in a world where international law is applied fairly and is not simply a sham tool deployed by the powerful to bludgeon the weak then we must address the inconsistency of calling Israel (a state committing genocide) our ally whilst banning Hamas.

All over the world more and more people are taking direct action, stepping in because of the criminal failure of governments to fulfil their legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to “prevent and punish the crime of genocide”.

Leaders like Macron, Merz, Kallas, von der Leyen and Starmer have abandoned diplomacy, so vital in dealing with your adversaries – even hated ones – and spend their time grandstanding, insulting adversaries, and endlessly hugging each other.  How long this can go on for is uncertain because they are simultaneously kicking  down the pillars of their own economies and democracies.