Kernow Damo

Right, so Israel is once again rattling the sabre at Iran. Another operation. Another historic mission. Another promise that this time, somehow, the same people who have spent years chewing through soldiers, reservists, vehicles, ammunition, money and basic supplies are going to produce a fresh war out of the cupboard like there’s another fully staffed army hiding behind the beans. There isn’t. Th...

Right, so Donald Trump has rewarded the UAE for helping America’s war against Iran. Not with a medal. Not with a little certificate in a gold frame. Not even with one of those ghastly commemorative plates nobody wants but everybody pretends is tasteful. No, the UAE gets easier access to advanced AI chips now, servers, military equipment, satellites, drones, sensitive dual-use technology, a great b...

Right, so Volkswagen had a problem. Its Osnabrück plant was running out of road, car production was winding down, thousands of jobs were hanging in the balance, and somebody somewhere clearly thought: well, if we can’t sell enough cars, perhaps we can start building bits for Israel’s missile systems instead. Enter Rafael. Israeli government-owned. Iron Dome manufacturer. Very keen on a German fact...

Right, so ABC Australia’s flagship current-affairs programme, 7.30 , invited Professor Mohammad Marandi on to discuss Iran, apparently under the impression he had never done a television interview before. Because this was either a spectacular insult to his intelligence or to ours. Possibly both. The woman interviewing him was Sarah Ferguson, the long-serving host of 7.30 , with a reputation for co...

Right, so Donald Trump has turned up in Ankara, Turkey and casually reopened a question Israel desperately wanted kept shut: Turkey getting back into the F-35 programme. At the same time, Turkey has helped Syria install a new radar at Damascus airport, which means the skies Israel has spent years treating like its own private bypass might not be quite so empty anymore, so perhaps those settlers wh...

Right, so Trump says America hit Iran “very hard”. NATO’s Mark Rutte, a man who sold out his last ounce of dignity along with his spine for a seat right next to Little Donnie says it was “absolutely necessary,” because of course of he did. US Central Command, CENTCOM, says it was all about protecting commercial shipping and innocent civilian mariners. And then because they tempted fate too much, t...

Right, so Donald Trump has managed to restart his Iran war using a photograph from the last one. He’s posted this to Truth Social That fire allegedly showing the latest attacks on the Iran’s coastal city of Chabahar? It’s from June of last year. Not this attack. Not this week. Not even this year. And while Trump was busy passing off last year’s flames as proof of this year’s brilliance, these were...

Right, so Ireland has pushed a total ban on goods from Israel’s illegal settlements through the Dáil and on into the Seanad. And the amount of trade involved is about €200,000 a year. Two hundred grand. Now, to most normal people, that is still a lot of money. You’d notice if somebody removed €200,000 from your bank account. I certainly would if I had it to begin with. But in terms of internationa...

Right, so Israel said full operational control of Bint Jbeil district in southern Lebanon was only days away. Days. That was back in April. Well now we’re in July aren’t we and an Israeli reservist has just been seriously wounded inside the town, nothing unusual perhaps there, but it came in the wake of some stellar level of incompetence. You see the building he was shot from had been already been...

Right, so that was that then. Donald Trump’s latest triumph in world peace. Twenty-one days old, the deal that wasn’t quite a deal, just a Memorandum of Understanding and it’s already lying face-down in the gutter. Three weeks ago, this was a win. A breakthrough. Proof of the great dealmaker at work again. Sixty days of negotiations, an end to military operations, shipping through Hormuz, Iranian...

Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu may finally have managed to drive this one right to the edge. Trump’s Board of Peace was already floundering. Israel was still blocking aid, Gaza was still being starved and bombed, and this grand new institution with its flags, crest and very important-looking blue backdrop was producing about as much peace as a parking enforcement notice. Then the civilian government...

Right, so. Britain has apparently found the threat. She’s 84 years old, she’s a retired Anglican priest, she walks with a stick, wears a clerical collar and a crucifix, and for this the state has decided terrorism law is the appropriate tool. Meanwhile Elbit Systems gets more contracts. Its executives get conference seats. Its technology gets plugged into British military systems. And another Isra...

Right, so Nigel Farage has resigned as MP for Clacton. Except, of course, he’s standing again. Well nice try sunshine, but you’re kidding nobody. What he’s doing here, at the expense of all of us, because by-elections cost a mint in and of themselves, is trying to replace one question with another. Instead of "Did you break the rules?" he wants the conversation to become "Can he still win Clacton?...

Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu has been on Fox News claiming that Christian villages in Lebanon want to be annexed by Israel. Yes. Annexed. Not just “Israel protects them.” Not just “they’re worried about Hezbollah.” Not just the usual security porridge ladled out in front of an American TV audience. He went further than that. He claimed some Christian villages in Lebanon had actually asked to be an...

Right, so this is what a “withdrawal framework” looks like now, apparently. Not a convoy leaving. Not a border post being handed back. Smoke. Lebanon gets told there is a deal. A framework. A peace step. A route back to sovereignty. You can almost smell the conference-room coffee. And then the ground blows up, because Israel’s idea of withdrawal, by the look of it, comes with a detonator in the we...

Right, so Ben-Gvir was apparently meant to be heading to New York. For of all things, a police summit. Yes, Ben-Gvir at a police summit, because apparently irony died and was buried, complete with a judicial badge pinned to the coffin. But then something funny happened. Not so much funny ha-ha, more funny “oh look, there’s lawyers at the airport.” The Hind Rajab Foundation and the Center for Const...

Right, so Keir Starmer’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, a woman who has just now decided to take herself and her department off of Twitter due because despite it being her brief, legislating its behaviour appears to be beyond her has gone to Parliament with a plan for “trusted news” online, because apparently Independent media outlets are a much safer target. What counts as trusted news though? Pub...

Right, so Israel’s grand security zone in southern Lebanon has apparently reached the “put a shop-window soldier in the firing line and hope for the best” phase. Despite talks of some miracle new defence system in the offing, this is not a fancy laser, it is not a brand new air defence system to be deployed in Lebanon called the iron scrotum or some such other daft name, not one of those glossy st...

Right, so this is the bit of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Iran War victory lap that he’s been running for months now, no it wasn’t all about running away from his corruption trial apparently, that he doesn’t want anywhere near, because you can say “contained” as many times as you like. You can say “localised”, “manageable”, “operational”, all those lovely little words officials use when something is on fi...

Right, so Bezalel Smotrich has looked back at the Hamas hostage story, the families, the people who never came home, the deals he fought, the war his government kept selling as “total victory,” and somehow arrived at the conclusion that what this whole thing really needed was a round of applause for Bezalel Smotrich. Because of course it did. Why have grief, negotiations, pressure, families campin...

Right, so Palantir, the giant US surveillance-tech firm that keeps turning up wherever public systems, police data, health data and state power are being bundled into something shiny and expensive, has just hit a rather awkward patch of road, you’ll be broken hearted to hear I’m sure. Its boss has been boasting about Israel. Europe is starting to back away. France is moving off. Spain has reported...

Right, so Lloyds, one of the biggest banks in Britain, has cut off The Canary from its own cash. This isn’t demonetising a YouTube video. Not suspending a social media account. Not sending one of those cheery little “we’re updating our terms” emails that everyone deletes while making tea. A bank account. The thing a media outlet needs to pay staff, pay contractors, take donations, pay bills, and k...

Right, so Israel invaded Syria and lost the phone. Not a metaphor. Not a joke. Well, it is a joke, unfortunately for the IDF, tiny violin time again, but it’s also the news. Israeli forces went into Abdin, in southern Syria’s Daraa province and the locals said to themselves we’re not having this. Residents blocked roads. Stones were thrown. Young men and boys were apparently among those throwing t...

Right, so Israel has got itself a shiny new Lebanon deal. A ceasefire deal. A de-escalation deal. A Washington-backed framework, which means they don’t need to cease firing at all. Very serious people have apparently been very seriously working on this, which is always comforting, isn't it? Nothing says peace quite like a conference table full of people who won't be anywhere near the blast radius....

Right, so this is one of those stories where the danger isn't wearing a helmet, waving a flag, or kicking someone's door in at six in the morning. It's sitting in a Bill. Nice and quiet. Grey paper, serious title, national security sprayed all over it, but not in a nice way, more like a skunk. Starmer seems to be thinking just how much authoritarian borderline fascist policy can I ram through befo...