Ben Cowles

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Cowles

GRETA THUNBERG joined climate campaigners, search-and-rescue workers and activists on World Refugee Day today as she signed a declaration linking the Gaza genocide, climate destruction and “fortress Europe.”The Maldeen declaration — named after the ship the Israeli military seized when it tried to break the country’s illegal blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza — was drafted by the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy (Pics).

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Cowles

ACTIVIST-RUN refugee rescue organisations have saved more than 175,000 lives in the central Mediterranean since 2015 — despite growing harassment from the EU and member-state governments. SOS Humanity said today that over the last 10 years 175,595 people were saved by “the civil fleet,” as the NGO rescue organisations are collectively known — consisting of 15 rescue vessels, seven sailing ships and four reconnaissance aeroplanes.

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Cowles

MORE THAN 1,800 people have died trying to reach Spain in just the first five months of this year, a study released today reveals. From January through to the end of May 2025, a total of 1,865 people died in 113 tragic incidents, the Spanish activists network Caminando Fronteras published in a report today. The report — entitled Monitoring the Right To Life on the Euro-African Western Border — found that 112 women and 342 children from 22 countries were among the dead.

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Cowles

A PALESTINIAN solidarity group called on the Egyptian authorities today to release three of its organisers who they say were abducted, detained and beaten by the secret police. The group, Global March to Gaza, had hoped to bring thousands of people from across the world to march peacefully from the Egyptian capital of Cairo to Rafah, just across the country’s border with Palestine, last weekend, but were met with state repression.

1 week ago | morningstaronline.co.uk | Ben Cowles

PEOPLE began to flee Iran’s capital today hours after US President Donald Trump said “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran” on social media as Israel continued to bomb the country for a fifth day. The Iranian authorities hadn’t issued any warnings or guidance for residents to flee the city when the Star went to press today. Witnesses in Tehran told reporters today that sirens continued to blare across the city every few hours and that people were rushing for shelter.