Recent articles

Pope Francis caught the headlines in March, calling for negotiations to end the Ukraine War. The pope has made dozens of calls for peace talks in this war, but this is the only time that he’s gained significant attention. This was because the language that he used was distorted into an anti-negotiations weapon, with the claim that the pope asked Ukraine to ‘raise the white flag’ of surrender.

The pope didn’t talk about ‘raising the white flag’ in his recorded interview with Swiss television; he talked about ‘the courage of the white flag’. 

Over the past few months, Electronic Intifada (EI) and other independent outlets have gathered together the growing evidence that the Israel defence forces (IDF) deliberately attacked vehicles and buildings on 7 October 2023 when they either knew that Israeli civilians were inside or when there was a significant risk that Israeli civilians might be harmed.

US peace activist and author Joseph Gerson did a talk for PN on 22 February based on his book: ‘Empire and the Bomb: How the US Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World’ (see p15): www.tinyurl.com/peacenews4166

Shadow World Investigations, Demilitarise Education, Forces Watch, Declassified UK and CAAT launched their ‘Arms Out Tour’, which offers workshops and films to local groups around the UK: www.tinyurl.com/peacenews4215

The high court in London saw two simultaneous unrelated protests in February.

Outside (20 – 21 February), people gathered in solidarity with Julian Assange as lawyers tried to get a further appeal for him.

Inside (21 February), Defend Our Juries organised a 100-person sit-down in the lobby or central hall of the court. There were three separate Citizens’ Juries, considering different questions, including: ‘Why not trust juries to hear the full story?’

We only have room for some court reports this issue but there has been quite a bit of climate action in the last two months. 

We will just mention the ‘Insure Our Future’ Global Week of Action against insurance companies, which saw more than 57 events in 31 countries from 26 February – 3 March, including a classical dance protest outside Lloyds of London on 26 February (see above).