The continuing killing of Palestinians in Gaza has to stop

Almost every day there are grim reports of Palestinians, often in their dozens, being killed in air attacks by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), often, it is claimed, while queuing up for UN food aid. Civilian deaths in war are always tragic, always unacceptable but, sadly, always inevitable. However, the toll of civilian deaths in Gaza, now purported by the Hamas-run health service to total 60,000 (although at least 17,000 of those were Hamas fighters), has reached a level that is way beyond acceptable or proportionate. Added to that, the IDF is bulldozing huge areas of urban living areas, reducing homes to rubble. What is the objective, what is the meaning of this? Can it be any longer justified by the IDF mantra that every Hamas member must be eliminated? The more Hamas members are killed, the more radicalised the people of Gaza will become and the more likely it is that they will be replaced by fanatical jihadists who will join the cause against Israel. Hamas, in other words, will probably keep going because their ranks of survivors will be boosted by jihadist volunteers which means the war will never come to an end. It's the civilian deaths which in the end will force Israel to compromise on its objectives because even Donald Trump, a devout supporter of Israel, will put his foot down. The civilian deaths in Gaza have to stop.

Trump and MAGA unite over "defamatory" Epstein article

In the Donald Trump and MAGA world there's nothing mnore likely to unite them inextricably than an article in a heavyweight newspaper they claim to be false and defamatory. Trump is using The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over the sensational report yesterday that he sent a letter to the sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein to mark his 50th birthday with a drawing of a naked woman and his signature over a lower party of that sketch. With Trump claiming he never sent the letter and had never drawn a sketch of a naked woman, his supporters in MAGA who had become angry at the president's failure to release everything about the Epstein grand jury investigation, leapt to his defence and turned their attention to the Big Bad Media, their favourite topic. This is likely to go on and on. The Wall Street Journal is sticking by its story and presumably has a copy, fake or otherwise, or the original alleged Trump drawing. Meanwhile he and his loyal supporters are back to their former cosy love-in and hamering away at the newspaper for publishing a "fabricated" letter. One interesting and curious development is that while Trump denies doing drawings - not his style - he has actually done numerous ones in the past, all or mostly all, of tall buildings which he has given to charity to raise funds for different organisations. Good for him but it does raise a tiny question: he appears to have a talent for drawing sketches of buildings along a waterfront, all with his familiar signature written at the bottom. If this libel suit ever gets to court, there will no doubt be a full exchange on Trump's past drawing abilities.

Cover-ups always get found out

Politicians never learn. What really gets to people are cover-ups. We appear to have two going on at the moment: one in the US over the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and here in the UK over the release of personal data about thousands of Afghans who worked for the British in the war in Afghanistan and the names of special forces and MI6 personnel who backed them. The Epstein conspiracy theories, both about his supposed secret client list and his death in a prison cell in 2019 have been running for a long time but have suddenly leapt again into the headlines because the Wall Street Journal has reported that Donald Trump wrote a letter to Epstein on his 50th birthday and included a hand-drawn picture of a naked woman with his partial signature written over it. Trump has said it's a total fabrication and denies ever writing such a letter, let alone drawing a picture of a naked woman. He is suing the paper and, as Trump would say, we'll see what happens next. Also Pam Bondi, the attorney general, has confused everyone by first saying she had an Epstein client list on her desk and then denied having any such thing. So whether it's a cover up or not, it seems like one to most people. So, unless Trump wants this to linger on all summer, total transparency should be the order of the day. Let it all out. Likewise in the UK, this gross leak identifying thousands of potentially vulnerable Afghans and the superinjunction imposed to stop anyone knowing about it should be sorted as quickly as possible. Conservative defence ministers from the last government who were responsible for covering it all up have said they did it to save lives. Prove it.

Syrian leader has toughest job in the world

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Syrian president, must be eligible for the "most difficult job in the world" title, followed closely by Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The new Syrian leader who did the Syrians and the world a favour by ousting President Bashir al-Assad, has just had his presidential palace bombed by Israel. While it must surely be in Israel's national interest for a new leader in neighbouring Syria to be given a chance to forge stability and peace in his country, Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't like the way the minority Druze people in Syria are being treated, so he sent jet fighters in to bomb a few government targets to get the message across that the Druze (allies of Israel) who live in the southwest and near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (formerly part of Syria) and in a suburn of Damascus must be protected from discriminatory attacks. Bombing seems to be the answer every time in the Middle East these days. Al-Sharaa has enough trouble on his hands what with the heady mix of Isis, al-Qaeda, numerous other militia groups, Turkish forces, American troops etc etc, all pounding their beat in different parts of the country. Throughout it all, he is trying to rebuild Syria's economy and develop relations with a formerly hostile western world and sort out Vladimir Putin who wants to keep his troops and aircraft in the country which he had been allowed to do under Assad. Bombing by Israel must have been the last straw.

Nightmare human crisis on Iran/Afghanistan border

Apart from the daily slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, can there be anywhere worse on the planet right now than Afghanistan? More than one million Afghans who have lived in poverty but relative safety in Iran, some for all of their lives, are being kicked out of Iran as illegal immigrants and thrown to the mercy of the Taleban. These Iranian refugees are not wanted in Iran where they have become a source of hatred and persecution and they are not wanted in Afghanistan where the Taleban does not want, nor can afford, to take responsibility for them. Some will temporarily find refuge with relatives but since the majority of Afghanistan's 41 million population are living close to or actual poverty, with no jobs, little food and constant fear, these million or so Afghans from Iran will soon be in desperate straights. Can the world help? Does the world care? The biggest problem for these poor people is that the western world is so relieved to be shot of Afghanistan that they cannot be stirred to launch a massive assistance programme. The Taleban won't allow it and since the Kabul government is not recognised by the vast majority of the planet, there is little incentive to do anything that might benefit the medieval rulers. So these million Afghans have a terrible future ahead of them. Many will die. Men, women and children kicked out of Iran in intense heat only to perish in what is supposed to be their own country of origin.

Trump and "great gentleman" King Charles

There has been such a fuss about Donald Trump's upcoming State Visit to Britain in September. Was he deliberately snubbed when it was made clear he wouldn't be addressing the Houses of Parliament? Obama did. Was it a poke in the nose when President Emmanuel Macron was invited fo a State Visit before him? Was it going to be a nightmare for Charles, having had his own state visit to Canada recently when Trump was earbashing the new leader Mark Carney and telling Canada to become America's 51st state? Judging by a twenty-minute chat with the BBC's Gary O'Donoghue, chief North America correspondent, Trump is all very relaxed about the trip to Britain. He says he doesn't want MPs to give up their holidays to come and listen to him giving a speech during parliamentary recess, and insists all he wants to do is meet up with King Charles whom he describes as a "great gentleman". Not addressing parliament will probably save him from a lot of protesting anti-Trumpers. The last time he came on an officiaL visit to Britain during his first term in office, some idiots flew a huge rubber Trump baby balloon over central London which I thought at the time was unnecessarily disrespectful. I doubt the people of Windsor, where the State Visit will take place, will resort to such rudeness, for the sake of the king.

Trump is back on Ukraine's side

It took a few hiccups and a dressing down in the Oval Office, but Donald Trump is now back on side, pro-Ukraine and pro-arming Ukraine. It has taken six months of prevarication and six months of brutal bombing by Putin. But today Trump announced a new arms deal for Kyiv and a potential sanctions programme against Moscow. No longer a friend of Putin because of the Russian leader's betrayal of the so-called trust between the two, Trump has decided to go all out to help his former sparring partner Volodymyr Zelensky. What a reversal of intentions, what a change in mood on the part of the US president. And it's all because he is angry with Putin for playing him along. Every time they chatted on the phone, Putin talked "nice", as Trump later said. But then off he went and bombed Ukraine to bits. That was like Trump being slapped hard in the face and you don't do that to a man like Trump. So Zelensky is now his new best friend and the dancing with Putin days are over. I wonder if Putin realises he has miscalculated. Having Trump on his side was surely a bonus for him, but now he has screwed up. Bye bye Putin.