
Thousands rally in London demanding ‘Welfare Not Warfare' (VIDEOS)
The demonstration, organized by the People's Assembly, began at midday at Portland Place and moved toward Whitehall, with participants chanting and holding placards that read 'Tax the Rich,' 'Nurses Not Nukes,' and 'Welfare Not Warfare.'
Trade unionists, campaigners, and activists from across the country rallied under the slogan 'No to Austerity 2.0,' calling on the Labour government to abandon fiscal policies that cut support services while escalating defense spending.
'Scrapping winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, cutting disability support, and slashing foreign aid—while boosting defense spending—are not 'tough choices,' they are political choices,' a spokesperson for the People's Assembly said.
Thousands on the streets in London with @pplsassembly against welfare cuts. Welfare not warfare! #welfarenorwarfare#wedemandchangepic.twitter.com/wlq1hNA41O
Demonstrators condemned Prime Minister Keir Starmer's 'battle-ready, armor-clad' rhetoric, accusing him of using the language of conflict to silence criticism of his economic agenda. 'His war-mongering talk of war-readiness and a new era of threat are a cynical attempt to deflect any criticisms of his policy of cuts and austerity,' one campaign leaflet read. 'His call for everyone to be part of the defense of the country is an attempt to label anyone who opposes his obscene militarism and austerity as unpatriotic.'
'We will not and never will accept a government that is more interested in arms sales than in looking after the poor in its own country,' Martin Cavanagh, President of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), told the crowd.
#WelfareNotWarfare#TaxtheRichPeople's Assembly March today in London pic.twitter.com/cM1uFmqjMP
Angela Grant, President of the DWP group, said people were 'dying because they do not have food in their bellies,' while military budgets rise and the NHS continues to be underfunded.
Labour leader Keir Starmer unveiled the Strategic Defense Review on Monday, committing to increase military spending to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The government's plan includes expanded production of warplanes, long-range missiles, and its nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
All the crimes in your name,Labour Party Shame Shame!Anti Austerity March London today pic.twitter.com/gOOr8dWEew
Defense Secretary John Healey said last week that the UK was 'sending a message to Moscow' by allocating billions of pounds for new munitions factories and long-range strike capabilities.
In addition, London has pledged to deliver 100,000 drones to Ukraine by April 2026. A government statement confirmed that £350 million from a wider £4.5 billion Ukraine support package would be used for new drone shipments.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Russia Today
16 hours ago
- Russia Today
Jeremy Corbyn launches new UK political party
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced the launch of a new political party in the UK, vowing to challenge what he described as a 'rigged system.' Corbyn led Labour from 2015 to 2020, but was expelled from the party in 2024 after running as an independent in his Islington North constituency. He had already been suspended over his response to allegations of anti-Semitism within Labour, which he denied, calling the claims politically motivated. His supporters saw it as a smear campaign tied to his anti-austerity and anti-war views. In a statement on X on Thursday, he declared it was 'time to build new kind of political party – one that belongs to you,' emphasizing the party's commitment to tackling inequality. The party is expected to include other left-wing figures suspended or expelled by Labour, particularly Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, who was reprimanded in 2024 after voting to lift the cap on child benefits – a policy widely criticized by anti-poverty campaigners. A website, ' has been launched, though Sultana clarified that the party is 'not called Your Party.' It's time for a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you. Sign up at Corbyn and Sultana said 4.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK and criticized a 'rigged system' where corporations profit from rising bills while 'billions' are set aside for war.'We cannot accept these injustices – and neither should you,' the statement reads, going on to advocate 'mass redistribution of wealth and power' by taxing the wealthiest. Corbyn has clashed frequently with Labour's current leadership over military support for Israel and Ukraine. The UK has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kiev's war effort. Corbyn has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution and questioned whether the UK is 'at war' with Russia. Moscow perceives the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia. The Kremlin has consistently denounced Western arms deliveries to Kiev, saying that they only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome. It has also accused the EU and UK of impeding ongoing peace efforts and criticized their expanded defense budgets, warning it could precipitate a broader conflict in Europe.


Russia Today
19 hours ago
- Russia Today
India and UK sign multibillion-dollar free trade agreement
India and the UK signed a multibillion-dollar free trade agreement (FTA) in London on Thursday, at a meeting of prime ministers Narendra Modi and Keir Starmer. Modi called the signing a 'milestone moment,' while Starmer described it as the 'the biggest and most economically significant' trade agreement signed by the UK since Brexit. 'I am delighted that after the hard work of several years, today our two nations have signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement,' Modi said. He added that the deal 'would boost key sectors including Indian textiles, footwear, gems and jewelry, seafood, and engineering goods.' Under the agreement, India has agreed to reduce its average tariff on UK imports from 15% to 3%. The move will make British products such as gin and whisky, electricals and medical devices, cosmetics, chocolates, and luxury cars cheaper in India. ❗️ 'Historic Day': After Many Years of Hard Work a Comprehensive FTA Has Been Concluded - 🇮🇳PM Modi 'Duty-free access for about 99% of Indian exports unlocks nearly $23 billion in opportunities for labour-intensive sectors, marking a new era for inclusive and gender-equitable growth,' Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on X. Total trade between the UK and India was $57.7 billion in 2024, according to UK Trade and Investment data. The two countries have set a target to increase bilateral trade to $120 billion by 2030. The pact will also benefit India's services sector, including information technology (IT), IT-enabled Services (ITeS), financial services, professional services such as management consultancy, architecture, and engineering, and education-related services. Another highlight is the exemption from social security contributions in the UK for Indian professionals on temporary assignments of up to three years. 'Chefs, yoga instructors, musicians, and business visitors will benefit, advancing our vision to be a global talent hub,' Goyal said. The FTA, which was approved by the Indian cabinet, has not yet been cleared by the British Parliament. It is expected to take at least a year to come into effect, according to the BBC.


Russia Today
2 days ago
- Russia Today
How the Epstein saga exposed a system built on silence
In an age where every celebrity meltdown or presidential tantrum is livestreamed, where partisan jabs flood timelines within seconds, and where outrage is algorithmically amplified to viral proportions, one might assume that the most heinous crimes – especially those committed against the most vulnerable – would dominate media discourse. Yet the opposite is true. Global child trafficking, particularly when it implicates oligarchs, elite institutions, humanitarian organizations, and religious authorities, remains one of the most underreported, diluted, and actively suppressed issues across both mainstream and alternative media ecosystems. The selective silence is not accidental as it is designed to shield power from scrutiny while feigning moral concern. Take the decades-long cover-up of Jimmy Savile's crimes in Britain. For years, the BBC and the broader British establishment, including members of the royal family, ignored, enabled, or even protected a prolific predator in their midst. Keir Starmer, now prime minister, has faced longstanding accusations that he obstructed investigations into Savile's network during his tenure as head of the Crown Prosecution Service. Instead of truth and accountability, Britain witnessed institutional inertia and elite protectionism. Across the Atlantic, things are no better. US President Donald Trump – whose populist rise partly hinged on 'draining the swamp' and exposing elite pedophile rings – recently declared that there is 'nothing to see' in the Jeffrey Epstein files. He even dismissed ongoing public concern about the case as 'stupid.' This abrupt reversal betrayed many who viewed Epstein's exposure as a gateway to unraveling deeper systemic rot. Except for hardcore MAGA grifters and the 'compromised cohort', nobody bought Trump's deflections this time around. MIT scholar and activist Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai recently issued a single, scathing tweet – linked here – sharing FBI and DOJ files which contradicted Trump's words. These were not conspiracy breadcrumbs but official documents, offering a damning appetizer for anyone willing to dig deeper. But legacy media will ignore it, and alternative influencers will likely pivot to more 'monetizable' culture-war topics. Curiously, the Democratic Party – always eager to weaponize Trump's prevarications – remained suspiciously muted on the subject. The reason is not hard to fathom. America's political establishment functions as a duopoly. Republican or Democrat, both parties have skeletons in the same basement. When it comes to institutional crimes against children, mutual silence becomes a form of mutual protection. At one point, the hashtag #PedoPete – referring to then-President Joe Biden – trended briefly on Twitter. Today, the trend has flipped: #PedoTrump now circulates with greater, more sustained intensity. These hashtags may sound juvenile, but they reflect the fact that both sides of the political divide are equally compromised. When elite crimes threaten to break through media filters, the duopoly instinctively closes ranks. This is not just a media failure. It is a civilizational failure. The refusal to investigate, question, or even discuss the abuse of children by people in power suggests that, despite all our technological progress, we remain governed by the same feudal reflexes which protect the nobility, silence the peasants, and punish the whistleblowers. That so few journalists, influencers, or institutions dare to speak plainly about this issue is not due to lack of evidence. It is due to a lack of will. The media's silence is not benign; rather, it is complicity by omission. And increasingly, even independent platforms mirror the same herd behavior: Mainstream mimics mainstream; conspiracy mimics conspiracy. Viral outrage loops endlessly, but the hard questions go unasked. In an attention economy driven by clicks and tribal confirmation, there's little incentive to tackle issues that require long attention spans, moral courage, or cross-partisan inquiry. And so, the real stories – the ones involving systemic abuse, elite immunity, and generational trauma – remain locked in the basement of our public consciousness. The question is no longer whether the truth is out there. It is whether we are still capable of seeking it. According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 1.7 million children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation worldwide. (I believe this number to be grossly underreported). The figure does not include forced labor, child marriages, and trafficking under the guise of 'adoption' or 'rescue'. These crimes often occur in the shadows, but the silence surrounding them is deafening, especially considering the alleged involvement of trusted institutions like the UN, NGOs, and faith-based charities. In 2017, leaked internal UN reports and whistleblower testimonies revealed a disturbing pattern of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in several African countries, notably the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Victims were children – orphaned, impoverished, and completely powerless. These revelations barely made headlines beyond a few days of fleeting, dissembled horror. There was no sustained investigation, no sweeping reckoning. The UN promised reforms, but follow-up reporting was minimal. And today, those same peacekeeping structures continue to operate with minimal public scrutiny. What happened to the Syrian children who disappeared during the years the West, Israel, Türkiye, and Global Jihad Inc. waged war on Bashar Assad? There were disturbing allegations that US intelligence had recruited children as suicide bombers for its jihadist proxies, some of whom were also accused of harvesting the organs of over 18,000 minors. So is it any wonder that Trump – who once vowed to defeat 'radical Islamic terror' – personally lavished praise on Syria's new president and jihadist war criminal extraordinaire Ahmed al-Sharaa? There is perhaps no greater moral shield for crimes against children than the Trojan Horse of charity. Some of the most egregious trafficking networks operate under the halo of humanitarian work. In Haiti, multiple investigations have revealed how certain orphanages and foreign-run NGOs were fronts for abuse and trafficking. In India and Nepal, similar patterns emerged: Western 'voluntourists' and missionaries gain access to vulnerable children under the pretext of aid, only to become conduits for exploitation. Mother Teresa's charity organization itself was linked to child trafficking networks spanning India to Haiti. Stories like these are often relegated to obscure human rights blogs or independent journalists with limited reach. Beholden to the same donor networks and oligarchic interests, the mainstream press simply looks away. While the AI boom dominates headlines in terms of productivity and existential risk, almost no major outlet has dared to delve into how generative AI tools are being used to create photorealistic child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The dark web is rife with communities exchanging AI-generated images, bypassing existing legal frameworks which often only address real photographic evidence. This raises disturbing questions: What constitutes child abuse imagery in the age of AI? How will law enforcement adapt? And why is no one talking about it? The tech platforms developing these tools are often mum about their misuse. Regulatory agencies are slow, and public debate is nearly non-existent. The media, meanwhile, prefers to debate AI replacing screenwriters rather than protecting children. In fact, AI parodies of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza are more likely to get censored than child sexual abuse material. The Epstein case should have shattered any illusions about elite immunity. A convicted sex offender with connections to presidents, royalty, and top scientists managed to operate a trafficking network for years – even after his initial conviction. His mysterious 'death in custody' convinced no one with two functioning brain cells. His co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted. Yet not a single client has been named in court. Rather than igniting systemic media scrutiny into elite involvement in trafficking, the Epstein saga has been conveniently bracketed as an anomaly or relegated to conspiracy land. But it was never just about Epstein. Similar scandals have emerged in the UK (the VIP child abuse ring), in Hollywood (Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon), and within religious institutions across continents. While the media has been reduced to a recycled echo chamber, the lesson bears repeating: The elite criminal class continues to get away with crimes against children with impunity. The hashtag #ArrestObama is trending before another sensationalist deflection takes over. What next? A few carefully scripted jabs at Benjamin Netanyahu to regain credibility with disillusioned MAGA voters? The decentralization of news via social media was expected to fill in vital gaps in mainstream reports. To some extent, it has. Survivors, whistleblowers, and independent researchers have found platforms to speak out. Hashtags like #SaveTheChildren briefly trended. But these moments are fleeting. The attention span of social media is short, and the billionaire owners of these platforms are inextricably linked to various elite pedophile networks. A 2024 meta-analysis by the University of Edinburgh estimated 302 million children (1 in 8 globally) experienced online sexual abuse annually, with platforms like Facebook serving as vectors for exploitation. Earlier, in 2020, Facebook accounted for around 20 million child sexual abuse material reports, constituting nearly 95% of all incidents submitted through its systems. By comparison, Google logged 500,000, Snapchat 150,000, and Twitter just 65,000. Serious discussions are also often hijacked by fringe accounts, QAnon-style disinformation, or bad-faith actors. As a result, the issue itself becomes tainted via guilt by association. Even legitimate stories and investigations are dismissed because they were shared by someone with suspect affiliations. This is a classic tactic perfected by the likes of the CIA and Mossad. The cost of media complicity in the face of global child trafficking is not just journalistic failure; it is moral collapse. The ongoing crimes against children is a human story of betrayal, of complicity, and of the innocent lives that are shattered while the world scrolls on.