The UK’s largest public sector pension pool quietly sold its holdings of Israeli government bonds last year following months of activist pressure, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership currently manages nearly £120bn ($160bn) in assets on behalf of around two million people working in local government.
In 2024 and early 2025, Border to Coast bought Israeli government bonds worth $29.2m in two purchases made on its behalf by a US-based asset management firm.
But it divested from the bonds within months of the second purchase, and has refused to publicly say why.
Now, an investigation by MEE can shed light on the human rights concerns, private admissions and the chain of delegation that drove the decision, as well as the murky legal-political landscape that leaves British institutions silent about Palestine but loud on Ukraine.
How activists pushed the UK's largest pension megafund to divest from Israel
NATO Chief: Ukraine Must Have What It Needs to Defend Itself
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said continued support for Ukraine is central to the alliance’s security, as ministers discussed Kyiv’s battlefield needs and Russia’s attacks on civilians. He said Ukraine’s front line is stabilizing, praised Kyiv’s innovation in drone warfare, and said allies must keep support “substantial,” “predictable” and “sustainable.” Rutte also confirmed President Volodymyr Zelensky had been invited to NATO’s Ankara summit.
“Ukraine must have what it needs to defend itself today and deter future aggression tomorrow,” Rutte said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden.
“An important part of ensuring our own security is continuing our support for Ukraine,” Rutte said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha joined NATO foreign ministers on Thursday evening, as allies reviewed Russia’s ongoing war and Kyiv’s defense requirements.
George Soros group pledges $300m to US economic security and civil liberties
For decades, the Open Society Foundations have worked to advance justice and human rights in Africa, the Middle East and trouble spots around the world. But the OSF’s latest major investment is aimed at a crisis closer to home.
On Tuesday, the organisation, founded by the billionaire philanthropist George Soros and headquartered in New York, announced a $300m spend aimed at boosting economic security and defending civil liberties in the US.
The drastic commitment comes 16 months into Donald Trump’s second term as president, with millions of Americans suffering an affordability crisis and activists warning of an extraordinary attack on the rule of law.
“We certainly believe that civil society is essential and must stay on the playing field,” said Laleh Ispahani, managing director for the US at the OSF. “We’ve had experience in other countries, unfortunately, where civil society has been targeted by autocratic administrations. It does matter that we still are funding in most parts of the world and are very much in communication with one another as things are happening in the US.”hropist George Soros and headquartered in New York, announced a $300m spend aimed at boosting economic security and defending civil liberties in the US.
Soros has given more than $32bn of his personal fortune to causes around the world. He is also a longtime Democratic donor and favourite bogeyman for the right. The attacks frequently rely on antisemitic tropes, framing Soros – a Jewish survivor of the Nazi occupation in Hungary – as a “globalist” puppet master.
Why an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists
An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists as new data shows its ecological and environmental effects are intensifying.
The unusual area of warm water has persisted since peaking in size during September 2025 and still stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline – more than halfway across the Pacific – affecting a vast triangle-shaped region of oceanic habitats from Hawaii to British Columbia and southward to Mexico.
As recently as early April, marine scientists had hoped that the heatwave might diminish and the worst of its effects might be avoided. However, new projections released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show it is now expected to expand and strengthen in the months to come.
Scientists say the effects may already be far reaching. A surge in the marine heatwave would accompany the formation of El Niño in the tropical Pacific – resulting in an atmospheric and oceanic mélange that could influence everything from record-breaking temperatures on land to disrupted marine food chains.
California: 40,000 people ordered to evacuate over chemical leak fears
Authorities in Orange county, California have ordered the evacuation of 40,000 people over concerns about a chemical leak that threatened to spill or explode.
The problem arose on Thursday at a facility owned by GKN Aerospace in the town of Garden Grove, where a storage tank holding methyl methacrylate began off-gassing and threatened to fail. The chemical, which is highly flammable, is used to fabricate resins and plastics.
Local authorities originally responded to the incident with a hazmat team on Thursday, ordering local residents to evacuate. They lifted the order later that day, but the problem worsened due to “damage to a valve on the tank” that “created additional operational challenges, preventing complete mitigation”, Garden Grove authorities wrote in an evacuation order.
By Friday, new evacuation orders had expanded to residents in six cities.
Sunrise Movement takes credit for disrupting Trump's rally in New York state
The Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate justice organization that popularized calls for a Green New Deal, took credit for disrupting Donald Trump’s rally in New York state on Friday.
“The activists arrested were activists with Sunrise Movement,” a spokesperson for the group confirmed to the Guardian in an email.
Video posted on social media by the movement, recorded at two points during Trump’s speech to supporters at Rockland Community College, showed two activists protesting the president’s mass deportation campaign and his war on Iran.
Tulsi Gabbard Resigns As Director Of National Intelligence
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is resigning from her position next month, citing a family emergency.
“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” Gabbard wrote to President Donald Trump in a letter shared to social media. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
“At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,” she wrote, calling her husband her “rock.”
The letter was first reported by Fox News. Trump confirmed Gabbard’s resignation Friday afternoon in a Truth Social post, writing that she had done “a great job” and wished to spend more time with “her wonderful husband ... bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together.”
Trump directs legal migrants to return to home country to apply for green cards
The Trump administration on Friday announced prospective immigrants would need to return to their home country to apply for green cards, a move that would stifle the most common pathway used for legal immigration.
Under the new USCIS policy, those who have already legally lived and worked in the U.S. for years would have to return to their home country to apply to return.
Meanwhile, the State Department has halted immigrant visa processing in 75 different countries.
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly. From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” USCIS spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a release.
GOP Senators clash with Trump over $1.8B DOJ fund (WEB)
“This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes. When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.”
Immigrants in the U.S. have been able to apply for an “adjustment of status” — a process that allows them to shift between various permissions over their time in the country. A student or someone with work authorization may seek permanent residency, for example, as could someone who marries a U.S. citizen.
Judge tosses federal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, siding with the mistakenly deported man in finding that he was the subject of a likely vindictive prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s ruling marks an enormous victory for Abrego Garcia, whose case became a flash point in the administration’s heightened efforts to expel noncitizens from the United States after he was sent to his native El Salvador in violation of a court order.
“The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” wrote Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Obama who sits on the federal bench in Nashville, Tenn. “The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution.”
Abrego Garcia was hit with two human smuggling charges last year stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when he was pulled over for speeding and seen transporting men without luggage. He pleaded not guilty.
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