As the BBC has reported overnight:
The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, an outspoken critic of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), some of whose judges have already been sanctioned by the US.
Rubio said the US was sanctioning Albanese for directly engaging with the ICC in its efforts to prosecute American or Israeli nationals, accusing her of being unfit for service as a UN Special Rapporteur.
The sanctions are likely to prevent Albanese from travelling to the US and would block any assets she has in the country.
I linked Albanese's report on the economics of genocide in Gaza yesterday.
Now the Trump regime has made clear where it stands. It stands for:
- Genocide
- Profiteering from human misery
- Undermining international law
- Fascism
- Organised terror
Some of us warned this was where Trump would be. Nothing about this is, in a sense, unexpected. Everything is rolling forward in accordance with he plan Trump had. But that does not change anything: the fact that tyranny was planned does not stop it from being tyranny, and that is what is being delivered.
As Albanese said on Twitter, seemingly in response:
The world is in need of courageous people. She is one, thank goodness.
And in the end, right prevails.
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We certainly need more brave people of integrity to speak out. Whether or not you agree with their political views a few come to mind: Bernie Saunders, Mary Trump, Greta Thunberg, Mehdi Hassan, Owen Jones, George Monbiot. Zarrah Sultana. And I think there is more dissent in the US then we are hearing about, the same as were not hearing much about the protests within Israel against their government.
I was looking at the official numbers killed in Gaza, as reported by the Hamas run health ministry, and one thing is striking. They don’t seem particularly high, roughly in line with peacetime population growth, and I’m wondering if the Hamas run health ministry have been under-reporting them by an order of magnitude.
a number of NGOs say the real total is higher. The local health authority is counting known deaths. Many lie under the rubble.
Very much so Ian. At this point in the genocide it would be far simpler just to report the number of Gazans left as it must be lower than it was in 1948 by now.
A recent (27 June) report in the journal Nature cites an independent study: “Almost 84,000 people died in Gaza between October 2023 and early January 2025 as a result of the Hamas–Israel war, estimates the first independent survey of deaths.” The study is not peer reviewed but was posted on the preprint server medRxiv last week.
I think that Francesca Albanese calls it absolutely right.
Given that most of us on this blog (trolls excepted) support Francesca Albanese, perhaps we should write to the US embassy asking to be put on the sanctions list. Copy local MP with note asking what the UK’s govs position is on this.
Also, given the calls for sanctions against the genocidal regime of Israel, should we also be calling for sanctions against the United states of trump? (UST).
Clearly the current Uk zionist gov will roll along with whatever Trump says or does, but readers could write to their MP making it clear that failure to distance him/herself from UST, Israel and genocide will result in a campaign against them at the next election along the lines that they favour genocide and dead children. Some/many? MPs are troubled already, this needs to be leveraged.
Which one of you is Spartacus? I am I am I am I am I am I am I am…….etc.
Do you want to share a draft letter, Mike?
here you go.
Dear Mr Ambassador,
I am writing to you on the subject of your government’s imposition of sanctions on the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. I note that your secretary of state Marco Rubio linked the imposition to her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose judges have already been sanctioned by the US because they think the Israeli government should be tried for the crime of genocide. The conclusions I draw from this is that the current US administration stands for
• Genocide
• Profiteering from human misery
• Undermining international law
• Organised terror
No doubt you would demur. However, history shows that US administrations of various political stripes have supported genocidal regimes regardless of the clear evidence of genocide. In 1979, the US administration (under both Carter and Reagan) supported the regime of Pol Pot who committed genocide against the Cambodian people (I believe that 1/3 of the population were murdered). The geopolitical consideration then was that the Pol-Pot regime was supported by China (good), those that turfed out Pol-Pot were supported by Vietnam/Russia (bad). The geopolitical considerations now seem to be Israel (good) vs Iran (bad). US administrations may change but the ability of the USA to regularly put itself on the side of genocidal regimes does not.
From the above you will deduce that I support both the report and position of Francesca Albanese, i.e. a position that anybody with a shred of empathy and common sense (= believing the daily evidence of both genocide and ethnic cleansing by Israel as shown on mass media). I find it rather sad that once again American actions (support genocide) contradict American narratives regarding democracy and justice.
Given all the above and my support for Mrs Albanese, are you going to sanction me? i.e. ban me from the USA and seize any assets I have in the USA because I do not support genocide and support those that call it out?
Your etc
Have you sent it?
Yup. With my name and address. With copies to the Belgian Foriegn Ministry and local MP.
I will have to think about that
I can’t find it right now but there is a paper in the Lancet suggesting a death toll of about 180000
“The world is in need of courageous people. ”
Indeed it is – and urgently.
As one of the fortunate generation growing up just after WW2, with free health care and education up to Ph D level, I have been greatly saddened by the progressive loss of much of what I enjoyed. But I never imagined the UK could sink so low. At the age of 83, with severe mobility problems and other serious health issues, I can no longer do much more than write and sign petitions.
So I have again written to my supportive MP, on of the back-benchers who voted against the proposed Welfare bill, with a link to the previous blog on the speech of Francesca Albanese, asking her to do whatever she can to circulate it and garner support among MPs.
I suspect a well-presented strong moral stance on this would be supported by a majority of the population. But maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part?
A majority, maybe, yes
But 30% would line up with Trump
I think John Perkins is one of those courageous people.
[Neoliberal economic] “strategy is based on the four pillars of fear, debt, anxiety over insufficiency, and divide and conquer.” — Confessions of an Economic Hitman (2024) John Perkens.
Pretty much sums up how the public is feeling, and suggests that political ideas of the last 40 years are not just due to incompetence, but the game plan all along.
To add another example that you may have missed, on Tuesday Paramount settled the lawsuit that Trump brought against the CBS programme “60 Minutes” for what he alleged was a rigged interview with Kamala Harris during the election campaign. No legal expert thought the lawsuit would succeed, but CBS’s corporate owner (Paramount) are in the process of a merger, for which they require the permission of the Federal government – and they were never going to get that from Trump – UNLESS they agreed to settle the lawsuit (for $16 million I think), thus accepting that “60 Minutes” was in the wrong, when it was more than likely it was not. Illegal to use Presidential power in that way? Yes. But whose going to do anything about it.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court continues to slow walk their examination of Trump’s tariffs – which are clearly in breach of US law, on several levels – thus enabling him to continue to use tariffs as his personal weapon, as and when he pleases, and depending on whether he’s playing golf or not. The Court do manage to get to other cases much quicker, of course, particularly ones where they’re confident they can rule in Trump’s favour (which is going to be hard with the tariffs as the trade/tariff expert’s on a lower court have already ruled they are clearly illegal, and put forward a multi-page explanation of why specifically written for the benefit of the non experts on the Supreme Court. Despite that, I’ll bet the Trumpists on the Court find otherwise. They just have to buy themselves enough time to figure out how.
I know that law doesn’t count for much nowadays (except that we “untermenschen” are expected to obey it without question, in advance as well as retrospectively), but doesn’t Francesca Albanese have diplomatic status as a “Special Rapporteur” of the UN giving UN members obligations to co-operate with her under the UN Charter? (USA & the Netherlands take note)
Seeing the litany of complaints against her is like reading the index of an Israeli manual on how to bring down critics of Israel.
The only thing they haven’t accused her of so far, is sexual abuse.
Incidentally she has also been vocal about women’s rights in Afghanistan and I see that the International Court system is acting on her criticism with action against the Taliban supreme leader.
Given that the UN General Assembly and Security Council meet in New York (which I think is still in the USA) wouldn’t arresting her at a US border present one or two legal issues?
Answer: yes. But maybe Trump does not want the UN
Special Rapporteurs – their legal rights.
https://changingglobalorders.web.ox.ac.uk/article/uns-human-rights-elites-who-are-special-rapporteurs
Lema @Lemapal just tweeted:
MEP @MatjaNemec just nominated Francesca Albanese @FranceskAlbs for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize — the UN expert who continues to fight the genocide in Gaza with clarity, courage, and truth.
He stands beside the woman targeted for saying what international law demands.
We urge MEPs to co-sign.
she is indeed a courageous lady – but this is link below is beyond belief, and made more so by the comments beneath the article
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b7cdf7a201ee73ff
I did that Susan
I wish I had not
My browser settings default to not showing comments. It helps keep me relatively sane.
That man was using so many different playbooks for his takedown at the same time, it got quite confusing ticking off all the items from my mental checklist. At least he didn’t quite accuse her of eating babies…
My favourite bits were his references to Smotrich & Gvir’s “unpleasantness”. Yes, Jake, I suppose you could describe ethnic cleansing as “unpleasant”. But I’d call it a war crime. Hope you don’t mind.
Agreed
Richard – sorry to have highlighted this article and the comments- but it/they needed to be highlighted – sickening.
He was appointed editor of The Jewish Chronicle in December 2021, succeeding Stephen Pollard.[16] In January 2025, he stepped down to work on writing books.[17]
Obvs he is a zionst and genocide apologist. In his rant he uses the word “depraved” – the only one who is is Simons.
This was bound to happen; the US and Israel was not going to allow such a voice of integrity to continue. It would be so wonderful if she got the Nobel peace Prize that I understand Trump wants so badly! ( How he thinks he even qualifies after funding a genocide for 30 months I can’t fathom) The spread of illegality that started with Israel and the US support of it is spreading like a poison. Today I received this post from” The Intercept “documenting the violent arrests of so called undocumented immigrants in the US; arrested at gunpoint while overtaken on the street, roughed up and thrown into vans by masked men roaming the streets looking for anyone that looks a little brown to presumably be flown off to some mega jail somewhere. Many appear to be American citizens caught up by mistake but as long as they’re poor there doesn’t seem to be many apologies. Its totally disgusting!! Unbelievable – even in America but this is how a society comes apart.. first they come for… and then …