Zarah Sultana, the cofounder of veteran British socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s new left-wing political party, was forced to resign as president of the organization’s inaugural conference.
At the conference’s opening on Saturday, Corbyn had asked attendees to “come together” and urge the party to “come together” to avoid a messy start and establish itself as a viable left-wing rival to the ruling Labour Party.
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In Liverpool, Corbyn stated at the conference that the parties must come together and be one because division and division do not serve the interests of the people they want to represent.
A Sultana spokesperson said in protest of one of her supporters’ being denied entry to the event and several others’ party expulsions over alleged far-left membership, that she would not enter the conference hall on Saturday.
Jeremy Corbyn’s speech is seen before the delegation.
People who have traveled from all over the country, spent a lot of money on their train tickets, hotels, and were able to attend this conference have been informed that they have been expelled, she told UK’s Press Association news agency.
“That culture is reminiscent of the Labour Party, and it shows how members were treated disrespectfully on the eve of the conference.”
Since their announcement of the party in July, Corbyn, 76, and Sultana, 32, both former Labour MPs, have engaged in frequent dispute.
The expulsions were defended by a spokesperson for the new party, which is now known as Your Party.
The spokesperson claimed that members of another national political party allegedly endorsed Your Party in violation of the party’s clearly stated membership guidelines.
As British politics fractches into a multiparty system and Labour moves more liberal on some issues, this is the party’s most recent blow to its ability to gain on the left.
Two of the four independent MPs who initially backed the group later resigned due to differences, which included a dispute over a shoddy membership launch and legal threats.
Pope Leo XIV is currently on his third day of a three-day visit to Turkiye, where he will lead the Catholic Church in a Muslim place of worship.
The first US pope, led by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul, led a tour of the massive complex, which can accommodate 10,000 worshippers, before bowing slightly before entering the mosque on Saturday morning.
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Leo, who was wearing white socks for the 20-minute visit, exchanged a joke with one of his guides, the mosque’s lead muezzin, the official in charge of the daily calls to prayer.
The Blue Mosque’s muezzin, Askin Tunca, who calls the faithful to prayer, told reporters, “He wanted to see the mosque, he wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mosque,” Tunca said.
On November 29, 2025, Pope Leo XIV visits Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque).
Following the mosque visit, Tunca claimed to have asked Leo if he wanted to pray briefly during the tour, but the pope said he would prefer to stay inside.
Leo took the tour “in a spirit of reflection and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer,” according to the Vatican’s statement shortly after the visit.
Leo joked with Tunca while he did not pray during the tour. The pope spotted him being led out of a door that is typically an entryway and had a sign that read, “No exit.
Leo grinned and said, “It says no exit.” You can stay here, Tunca said, “You don’t have to leave, you can stay here.”
The pope’s first overseas trip, which also includes a trip to Lebanon, will take him to Turkiye until Sunday.
Leo, a relative unknown before becoming pope in May, is receiving close attention as he delivers his first speeches abroad and interacts with people who are mostly Catholic in Italy.
Sultan Ahmed I, the Ottoman Empire’s ruler from 1603 to 1617, is credited with overseeing the construction of The Blue and Mosque . The foundation of its well-known name is made up of thousands of blue ceramic tiles.
Leo did not travel to the famous sixth-century basilica, Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and later became a museum under Turkiye’s newly established republic, unlike his predecessors.
The US’s response to Israel’s killing of an Al Jazeera journalist is explained by whistleblower Steve Gabavics to Marc Lamont Hill.
Did the Biden administration assist in hiding Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder by Israeli forces?
The US Department of State sent a colonel-turned-whistleblower to investigate Abu Akleh’s murder in 2022, according to Marc Lamont Hill in this week’s UpFront interview.
Abu Akleh was shot 16 times while wearing a blue vest marked “press,” according to Gabavics, but the State Department labeled her killing “accidental” to avenge the Israeli government.
Tom Stoppard, a playful, provocative dramatist who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Shakespeare in 1998, passed away. He was 88.
United Agents claimed Stoppard passed away “peacefully” at his Dorset, southern England, home surrounded by his family in a statement released on Saturday.
He will be remembered for his writing, for example, humanity, brilliance, irreverence, generosity of spirit, and profound love of English, according to the authors. Working with Tom and getting to know him was an honor.
Few dramatists of the 20th century could match Stoppard’s scope and continued success in the world of comic invention and linguistic pyrotechnics.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, his first film, was released in 1966, and his 1993 film, Arcadia, his sequel, Leopoldstadt, has kept theatergoers amused and intrigued by his unique style of acting.
His writing had a distinctive style that earned him the name Stoppardian, frequently philosophical or scientific, but it was always funny. It refers to using verbal gymnastics to discuss philosophical ideas.
In a 1970s interview, the Czech-born Stoppard said, “I want to show that I can make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a few hours.”
Theatre is primarily a recreation, according to the statement. However, it can also be a place for people who like to stretch their minds.
On September 11, 2018, Stoppard arrives at Westminster Abbey for a memorial service for the late director of theatre Sir Peter Hall.
early years
On July 3, 1937, Stoppard, the son of Eugen Straussler, a doctor, and Marta (or Martha), nee Beckova, a nurse, was born in what was then Czechoslovakia.
When he was a baby, the Jewish family fled the Nazis and settled in Singapore.
However, his mother and his older brother Peter escaped to India with him because Singapore became unsafe there. After Singapore fell to the Japanese, his father perished while he remained there.
The family relocated to England after Marta Straussler wed Kenneth Stoppard, a major in the British army.
Pocklington in northern England, where Stoppard was born, became a boarder before dropping out of school at the age of 17.
He made the decision to avoid school. Instead, he immediately began reporting for a small newspaper in Bristol, western England.
He started working as a theater and cinema critic, and his passion for drama persisted.
[Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters] At the 76th annual Tony Awards in New York City in 2023, Stoppard accepts the award for Best New Play for “Leopoldstadt.”
a successful career
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy centered on two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which was immediately a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Before earning a Tony Award for best play in the United States, it moved to London’s West End.
“What’s it about”? Bemused theatergoers reacted frequently to the play frequently. According to Stoppard, who was questioned when he was speaking to a woman outside a Broadway theater, “It’s about to make me very wealthy.”
Hermione Lee wrote in Hermione Lee’s authorised biography, but he undoubtedly had managed to transform his previously fragile finances. He later questioned whether he had said “very.”
In fact, Stoppard’s work would go on to win numerous awards both domestically and internationally.
He received the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards’ 1997 knighthood, and in 2014 he was named “the greatest living playwright.”
He is best remembered for his movies, which include the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, to non-theatre-goers.
He won an Oscar for his screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, which won seven Academy Awards that year overall.
The director of the Broadway premiere of Stoppard’s marriage and affairs story, The Real Thing, said, “He has no apparent animus toward anyone or anything.”
More than a month and a half have passed since a ceasefire in Gaza was declared. 600 trucks bringing food, medicine, tents, fuel, and other basic necessities into the Strip were required as part of the agreement.
We’ve grown used to official pronouncements about daily truck crossings across the border. Releases include photos, careful documentation of crossings, and celebration-filled announcements.
Since the ceasefire began, 4,200 trucks carrying humanitarian goods have been bringing into Gaza each week. Since the start of the ceasefire, more than 16 600 food trucks have entered Gaza. 70% of the trucks that entered carried food. The Israeli occupation authorities’ November 26 update claims that there are more than 370, 000 tons of food.
The Palestinians in Gaza are regarded as having the highest levels of nutrition worldwide.
There are indeed many commercial trucks allowed in that carry food that is low nutritional value, like chocolate bars and biscuits, or that is too expensive, like frozen chicken that costs $25 per kilogram or a tray of eggs for $30, but it is unclear to many of us how Israel counts the “trucks of food” in this context.
The official count is also questioned by humanitarian organizations. Only half of the food aid needed for Gaza is imported, according to the World Food Programme. Only a quarter of the needed aid is actually allowed to enter, according to Palestinian relief organizations.
And then only a small portion of that amount actually gets to the displaced, impoverished, injured, and hungry. Because a large portion of the aid that enters Gaza ends up in a “Bermuda triangle”
On the map, the distance between the border and the displacement camps, where aid should be distributed, appears short, but in reality, it is the longest in terms of both security and political terms.
Yes, many trucks that pass through never reach the families who require the most supplies.
Trucks are mentioned, but no humanitarian packages are visible. They hear rumors of tons of flour, but they don’t see any bread. They never see trucks coming to their camps or neighborhoods, despite watching videos of them entering the Strip. Gaza appears to be the only place the aid leaves in the dark.
Recently, street conversation about the unaccounted for has gotten louder, especially now that basic food items have suddenly appeared in neighborhood markets but still have labels that read “Humanitarian Aid Not for Sale.” Cans of chicken meat marked “this label” are available for $15 each.
Aid packages frequently lack the promised items even when they reach the needy. For instance, when my family opened a food package that was supposed to contain six bottles of cooking oil, there were only three bottles of cooking oil and no rice.
Not just corruption, either. The Israeli army has been systematically destroying Gaza’s institutions after two years of the genocidal war. There is no organized body with the power to maintain public order and security.
From May 19 through November 29, 8035 aid trucks made it to their destinations in Gaza, according to the UN’s aid monitoring system, and 727 were “intercepted” either “peacefully” or “forcefully” between those dates.
Trucks are frequently forced to travel dangerous routes because the Israeli army places restrictions on the roads they can use. Some roads can only be used by armed groups and are not used by powerful neighborhood groups or neighborhood committees. A few dozen kilometers of travel is made possible by all of this. Aid enters Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle” in this manner.
International organizations are also unable to impose security. Because of the risk, they are unable to take trucks with them, and they are unable to accurately track every shipment. They rely on a system full of gaps that various parties can quickly exploit because of their reliance on local committees and volunteers.
Who actually benefits from the end of aid, in the middle of all this?
Some businesses are seeking quick profits. Local armed organizations are looking for cash sources. And there are, of course, the occupation and its allies, who want to keep using hunger as a means of political pressure. They all get relief from the suffering of regular Palestinians.
Since the ceasefire, there has been less attention to what is happening in Gaza. The world’s population is relieved that the genocide has ended, and it no longer wonders why Palestinians are receiving aid.
The disappearance of aid is being normalized in policy and political circles, as if it were a natural outcome of conflict. However, it is not an engineered crisis intended to be yet another form of collective punishment for the Palestinian people.
Trucks are disappearing into Gaza’s “Bermuda triangle,” but the strength of Palestinians to keep going is another factor as the world chooses to ignore it once more.
