SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
July, 31 2015, 10:45am EDT
Contact:
Dermot MacWard: +44(0)20 7502 7252 / 0789 641 9683
Greg Challis 0780 779 5621
Cyclists to Ride 435 Miles to Fundraise for Gaza Children
WASHINGTON
More than 200 cyclists from across the UK, aged from 15 to 80, are joining a mass cycle ride to raise awareness and money for children in Gaza traumatised by the 2014 bombardment.
The Big Ride for Palestine will cover 435 miles between Edinburgh and London over nine days in August, passing through villages, towns and cities to draw attention to the 551 Palestinian children killed by Israeli missiles and the 400,000 left traumatized by the impact.
It is the brainchild of Dermot MacWard, a keen adventure cyclist and founder of Redspokes who arranges tours to far-flung corners of the world. He has recruited a team of volunteers to help the drive to raise PS50,000 for the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) which works to improve the health and well-being of Palestinian children in Gaza. MECA has been working in Gaza for 27 years and provides psychosocial support to children and families; builds water purification and desalination units to give children access to clean, safe water; sends shipments of medical aid to hospitals and clinics; and makes grants to community organizations working with children.
Dermot, a one-time sheet metalworker and mental health crisis worker said: "Like many people I watched the assault on Gaza last year with mounting disbelief and outrage. What got to me particularly was the hundreds of children who were killed and families left devastated.
"I decided something had to be done to try and help and started talking to friends. We made contact with charities on the ground in Gaza and they welcomed our support with open arms. But what they also said was: 'Please tell the world about what is happening to us in Gaza'."
Dr Mona El Farra, Gaza Director of MECA and Vice President of the Red Crescent of the Gaza Strip, has dedicated her life to developing community-based health programs. She lost 11 members of her extended family in an Israeli airstrike during the 2014 massacre of Palestinian civilians. Dr. El-Farra has traveled from Gaza to the UK to join the Big Ride. "The Big Ride is breaking barriers that separate human beings who should be equal regardless of race, colour or religion. We dream of a day when we can welcome cyclists in a free Palestine to enjoy the beauty of our country that has been devastated by long decades of Israeli occupation, disposition, and annihilation."
The Send-Off for The Big Ride is Saturday, August 1 at 10:30am in The Meadows, Edinburgh. Dr Mona El Farra will talk about her life in Gaza as a mother, doctor, and activist. Other speakers will include Claudia Beamish (MSP and Chair of the Palestine CPG) Sandra White (MSP Co-Convener of CPG) and Wael Shawish of the Association of Palestinians in Scotland.
The Big Ride has attracted participants from Britain, Ireland and North American. The youngest will be 15-year-old Ciaran Wakefield, a pupil at High Storrs School in Sheffield. Ciaran said: "As a teenager I look at Gaza and people my age there and think of the lack of opportunity they have and it's really devastating. It's so important that people find out what is happening in Gaza and Palestine, especially to young people.
"Personally it's going to be a great challenge for me. It's an amazing opportunity to do such a ride, a once in a life time opportunity. It'll be great to push myself and see if I can do it. I can't wait to get on my bike and find out what I've let myself in for!"
At the other end of the age spectrum is retired doctor Dr John Gleisner from Walthamstow in London. Mr Gleiser, who is 80, said: "I will be cycling as far as my legs will carry me. Definitely from Edinburgh to Newcastle and hopefully joining the last stage into London.
"I want to draw attention to how children in Gaza are living in what is an open prison, surrounded by Israeli forces in the air and on sea and land. There are children who die in natural disasters but this really is a man-made disaster creating suffering on an immense scale."
The Big Ride sets off from Edinburgh on Saturday August 1 passing through Selkirk (Scottish borders), Newcastle (August 2), Northallerton (August 3), Bradford (August 4), Sheffield (August 5), Loughborough (August 6), Northampton (August 7), Luton (August 8) and arriving in London on Sunday August 9 where there will be a reception and rally with speakers including Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Britain's largest trade union, Unite.
The Middle East Children's Alliance is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. MECA supports dozens of community projects for Palestinian children and refugees from Syria. Since 1988 we have delivered $27 million in food and medical aid to Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon. MECA welcomes the support of all people who care about children and their future.
LATEST NEWS
Warning of Superbugs, Groups Urge Trump EPA to Ban Use of Important Drugs as Pesticides
"Each year Americans are at greater risk from dangerous bacteria and diseases because human medicines are sprayed on crops," one expert said, calling out industry for the "recklessness and preventable suffering."
Nov 24, 2025
Just a month after the head of the World Health Organization warned that "antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide," a coalition of conservation, farmworker, and public health groups on Monday petitioned the Trump administration to ban the use of crucial drugs as pesticides.
The legal petition provides a list of "active ingredients that are themselves, or whose use can promote cross-resistance to, medically important antibiotics/antifungals," and requests that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancel registrations under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act of all products that contain them.
"Research is clear that the use of antibiotics and antifungals as pesticides poses a threat to public health because it contributes to the evolution of pathogens that are resistant to medicine," the petition states, referring to what are often called "superbugs."
"Petitioners make this request because of the critical nature of these drugs and drug classes to human and veterinary medicine, along with scientifically established concerns related to increasing resistance and declining efficacy rates as a result of prophylactic and other uses of these antimicrobials outside of the medical field," the filing continues.
"More than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, resulting in more than 35,000 deaths."
Noting that the use of antibiotic pesticides also "directly threatens the well-being of humans and animals through contamination of food supplies and crops," the filing adds that "petitioners believe that the most effective way to safeguard human and environmental health is to disallow the use of these ingredients in pesticide products."
The petitioners are the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University, Californians for Pesticide Reform, Center for Environmental Health, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, CRLA Foundation, Friends of the Earth US, Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, UNI Center for Energy & Environmental Education, and US Public Interest Research Group.
"Each year Americans are at greater risk from dangerous bacteria and diseases because human medicines are sprayed on crops,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "This kind of recklessness and preventable suffering is what happens when the industry has a stranglehold on the EPA's pesticide-approval process."
Donley and other campaigners have previously called out the Trump administration for spouting pesticide companies' talking points in the September Make America Healthy Again report, installing an ex-industry lobbyist in a key EPA post, and doubling down on herbicides including dicamba and atrazine—the latter of which is commonly used on corn, sugarcane, and sorghum in the United States, and last week was labeled probably carcinogenic to humans by a WHO agency.
Underscoring the urgent need for EPA action, the new petition highlights that "more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, resulting in more than 35,000 deaths," according to a 2019 report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Citing another CDC report, the filing points out that "the Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated the issue due to longer hospital stays and increased inappropriate antibiotic use, leading to an upsurge in the number of bacterial antibiotic-resistant hospital-onset infections by 20%."
Globally, antimicrobial resistance "has increased in 40% of the pathogen-antibiotic combinations monitored for global temporal trends between 2018 and 2023, with annual relative increases ranging from 5% to 15%," according to the WHO analysis released last month. By the end of that period, "approximately 1 in 6 laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide were caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics."
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that "we must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics, and vaccines. Our future also depends on strengthening systems to prevent, diagnose, and treat infections and on innovating with next-generation antibiotics and rapid point-of-care molecular tests."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Federal Judge Tosses Comey, James Cases Over 'Unlawful' Appointment of Trump Prosecutor
"This case was not about justice or the law; it was about targeting Attorney General James for what she stood for and who she challenged," said Letitia James' lawyer.
Nov 24, 2025
A federal judge on Monday threw out criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that President Donald Trump's handpicked prosecutor was illegally installed.
Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee, wrote in her Monday orders that former White House official Lindsey Halligan "has been unlawfully serving" as interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and that "all actions flowing" from her appointment "constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside."
Halligan is a Trump loyalist with no prior experience as a prosecutor—something that quickly became apparent as she made glaring mistakes in pursuit of charges against Comey and James, frequent targets of the president's ire. The charges against Comey and James were widely seen as flimsy and politically motivated.
Halligan was installed in late September, just two days after Trump fired off a since-deleted social media post complaining about the lack of action against Comey and James. Currie highlighted the post in her order.
"Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot," Trump wrote, directing his message at Attorney General Pam Bondi. "We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility."
Halligan's predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration for declining to seek indictments against Comey and James. Siebert privately voiced concern that there wasn't enough evidence to pursue charges.
Currie ruled that Halligan's Trump-directed appointment violated 28 US Code § 546 and the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. The Comey and James cases were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the Trump administration could try to install a new prosecutor to revive the charges—though the statute of limitations in Comey's case expired at the end of September.
Democracy Docket notes that Halligan "is the fourth Trump-appointed acting US attorney deemed to be serving unlawfully."
James, who brought a civil suit against Trump in 2022 for "fraudulent and misleading asset valuations," said Monday that she was "heartened by today’s victory and grateful for the prayers and support I have received from around the country."
"I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges as I continue fighting for New Yorkers every single day," James added.
Abbe David Lowell, James' attorney, said Monday that "this case was not about justice or the law; it was about targeting Attorney General James for what she stood for and who she challenged."
"We will continue to challenge any further politically motivated charges through every lawful means available," said Lowell.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Pentagon Threatens to Court Martial Democrat Who Warned Troops Against Following Illegal Trump Orders
"Fuck you and your investigation," replied Sen. Ruben Gallego in defense of fellow Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
Nov 24, 2025
The US Department of Defense on Monday announced it was launching an investigation into a Democratic senator who had participating in a video warning active-duty troops to not follow illegal orders given by President Donald Trump.
In a social media post, the DoD said it had "received serious allegations of misconduct" against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired US Navy captain who was one of several Democrats with backgrounds in national defense to speak out against the president potentially giving unlawful orders that pit the US military against American civilians.
As a result of the investigation, the DoD said that Kelly could be recalled to active duty to face potential court-martial proceedings for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
"All servicemembers are reminded that they have a legal obligation under the UCMJ to obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful," the DoD said. "A servicemember’s personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order."
In addition to Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Penn.), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Md.), and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) appeared in the video.
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025
In a follow-up social media post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked the Democrats in the video as the "seditious six" and said that Kelly had been singled out for investigation because he was the only member who was still subject to UCMJ given his status as a retired Naval officer.
"As was announced, the Department is reviewing his statements and actions, which were addressed directly to all troops while explicitly using his rank and service affiliation—lending the appearance of authority to his words," wrote Hegseth. "Kelly’s conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately."
Trump has been calling for the prosecution of the six Democrats who appeared in the video for the last several days, and he even went so far as to say in one Truth Social post they deserve to be executed for "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Shortly after the Pentagon announced its investigation into Kelly, he responded with a lengthy social media post in which he defended his service record and vowed not to back down despite threats from the Trump administration.
"If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work," he said. "I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution."
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) responded on X with a much shorter five-word post that read, "Fuck you and your investigation."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular