In a message posted to his Truth Social account, president Donald Trump has announced a plan which will surely repress the vote in the Midterm Elections:

"there will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!"

Trump's authoritarian takeover and interference in the midterm elections under the guise of "election integrity" has begun. pic.twitter.com/FHYYKQ3u3h

— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) February 13, 2026

Given Trump's dire polling, however, simply repressing the vote may not be enough.

Trump thanks you for your "attention"

The president's post reads in full:

The Democrats refuse to vote for Voter I.D., or Citizenship. The reason is very simple — They want to continue to cheat in Elections. This was not what our Founders desired.

I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future. There will be Voter I.D. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not! Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel.

Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

He has, in his own words:

searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject.

We'll be honest…we're not sure what this means. At the same time, we're confident he hasn't done it.

Can you really imagine the tycoon-turned-politician searching the depths of anything? The man has all the depth of a contact lens.

Recently, Trump claimed the US is the only country which allows mail in ballots. This may shock you, but the truth is actually somewhat different to what president Trump suggests:

"We're the only country with Mail In Ballots"

- Donald Trump

Fact Check: 70-80 countries worldwide
Roughly one-third of the world's countries allow some form of postal voting. pic.twitter.com/f69uDu5BlJ

— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) February 13, 2026

He has also threatened to deploy his masked ICE goons to disrupt voting:

There are 39 other countries with mail-in voting.
Trump's plan is simple. If you block mail-in ballots, all ICE has to do is disrupt, intimidate and assault at polling places in blue areas to insure Trump remains King forever.
It's really that simple pic.twitter.com/3DdF782K8T

— BigBlueWaveUSA2026®

It must be that fresh mountain air

Bork!Bork!Bork! Just picture it. You're at a Swiss train station, looking for information on your connecting line. You peer up at the platform sign hoping to find out how long you'll be waiting and whether you're standing in the right place. But instead of helpful info, you see "* Installation log files are stored in /tmp." Gee, thanks a lot!…

What is the automotive equivalent of Word, and where does Copilot fit?

In the Venn diagram of car owners whose vehicles have a certain amount of "character" and individuals who use Microsoft's applications, there is an intersection of people who accept a quirk or two but not an unexpected explosion.…

Airbnb plans to double down on artificial intelligence to improve its user experience for both guests and hosts. During a fourth-quarter earnings call, Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky, said the company is building an "AI-native experience" aimed at helping guests book trips, assisting hosts with their listings, and running the company more efficiently. According to Chesky, there's an AI search tool to help guests book trips that's live for a small percentage of users right now.

In a shareholder letter posted on Airbnb's website, the company said it's conducting early testing with an AI-powered search that is "focused on giving guests a more natural way to describe what they're looking for, and ask questions about the listing and location." The letter added that the AI search tool will become "a more comprehensive and intuitive search experience that extends through the trip," but the company didn't offer a definitive date on when it would be available to the public.

While it may feel like Airbnb is late to incorporating AI into its ecosystem, it introduced an AI chatbot that handles customer service requests last year. While the AI agent is only available to users in North America currently, Airbnb said that it already handles a third of customer requests without the need for human intervention, as reported by TechCrunch. Chesky also said during the earnings call that the AI chatbot would tackle "significantly more" customer tickets a year from now and that it would roll out to the rest of the world.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/airbnb-is-testing-out-ai-search-with-a-small-percentage-of-users-203054011.html?src=rss

Five Years Ago

As you probably know, we marked the 30th anniversary of Section 230 this week, so it's not surprising that this same week in 2021 we were celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special online event where we were joined by Chris Cox and Ron Wyden. We also wrote about the many reasons to celebrate the law and explained how it lets tech companies fix content moderation issues, and how to think about 230 in the context of online advertising. Plus, we celebrated the matching anniversary of the Declaration Of The Independence Of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow. Of course, none of that stopped the GOP from rolling out a dumb new talking point saying 230 should be killed if net neutrality happens, nor did it stop Orrin Hatch from telling flat out lies about what 230 does.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2016 we were, of course, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Section 230 and doing the same for the aforementioned Declaration. We also looked at the impact of Title II regulation a year after the many doomsayer predictions about it. Meanwhile, Warner/Chappell had to pay up in the lawsuit over the Happy Birthday copyright while the plaintiffs began seeking to declare the song in the public domain, Honda got hit with the Streisand Effect in its attempt to get Jalopnik to dox a commenter, a judge changed their mind and allowed James Woods to unmask a Twitter user who made fun of him, and Techdirt received (and rebuffed) yet another bogus legal threat from Australia.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2011, while Righthaven was going after a new target that had a strong fair use case, we wondered what the shutdowns of ACS:Law and MediaCAT meant for the future of the US Copyright Group, just as the latter was teaming up with the producers of The Expendables to shake down thousands of people. Meanwhile, a report from IP Czar Victoria Espinel was little more than a list of lobbyist talking points, the MPAA filed a surprisingly weak billion dollar lawsuit against Hotfile, the US Chamber of Commerce was calling for more censorship and more IP protectionism, and a bizarre opinion piece in NME claimed the recent takeover of EMI by Citigroup was proof that file sharing had "murdered the music business".

Disney is going after another generative AI tool, accusing ByteDance and its recently released Seedance 2.0 of using its copyrighted material without permission. As first reported on by Axios, the Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming the Chinese company developed its Seedance tool "with a pirated library of Disney's copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney's coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art."

The letter, which was obtained by Axios, included examples of Seedance videos featuring copyrighted Disney characters, including Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Peter Griffin and more. Even though ByteDance just released Seedance 2.0 on Thursday, it's already earned praise, but also indignation from Hollywood studios, when it comes to its AI-generating capabilities.

With the strong early momentum, Seedance has already found itself in hot water with one of the largest media companies in the world. However, it's not the first time that Disney has threatened legal action against an AI company, since Character.AI received a cease-and-desist letter for the same offense in September. A few months later, Disney even accused Google of copyright infringement when training its AI models. On the other hand, Disney partnered with OpenAI in a three-year licensing agreement that allows the AI giant to generate images and videos using that highly sought-after intellectual property.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/disney-accuses-bytedance-of-virtual-smash-and-grab-when-using-copyrighted-works-to-train-its-ai-191116136.html?src=rss

Need something new for your reading list? Here are two titles we think are worth checking out. This week, we read Aoife Josie Clements' deeply unsettling Persona, and the first issue of Bleeding Hearts, from the relaunch of the DC imprint, Vertigo.

---

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-the-unsettling-new-horror-novel-persona-185152256.html?src=rss

OpenAI's GPT-4o may have survived its first brush with going offline, but it won't be as lucky this time. OpenAI has officially retired GPT-4o, the ChatGPT model that was seen as more conversational and notoriously sycophantic, on February 13. The news of GPT-4o's end was first announced in a post on the OpenAI website in January, but the discontinuation also included GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT.

It's not the first time that OpenAI has delisted GPT-4o as an option for ChatGPT. In August, the AI giant sunsetted the GPT-4o model in favor of rolling out and prioritizing the latest GPT-5 model at the time. However, a wave of user complaints led OpenAI to restore access to GPT-4o but with no guarantee that it'll be around forever.

This time around, OpenAI doesn't seem very open to preserving access to GPT-4o, especially since it'll serve only a small portion of the user base. The company wrote on its website that "the vast majority of usage has shifted to GPT‑5.2, with only 0.1 percent of users still choosing GPT‑4o each day." On top of that, OpenAI is facing several wrongful death lawsuits that specifically mention the GPT-4o model. Despite the two weeks of notice before GPT-4o's last day online, there is still a vocal group of users mourning the loss of their AI boyfriends and even calling for OpenAI to open-source their preferred model.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-has-officially-retired-the-controversial-gpt-4o-model-181553067.html?src=rss

The Crew-12 mission, SpaceX's 20th human spaceflight, launched at 5:15 AM Eastern on February 13 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It's expected to dock with the International Space Station today, February 14, at 3:15 PM, and you can watch the event below as it happens. By the time the mission's Dragon capsule docks with the ISS, it will have traveled approximately 34 hours since lift off. Inside are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

The four spacefarers are joining the three remaining passengers onboard the ISS after Crew-11 flew back to Earth a month earlier than planned. If you'll recall, NASA made the decision to cut their mission short after one of the crew members had a medical issue that instruments on the ISS aren't capable of diagnosing. While the crew member was stable, the agency decided to bring the whole mission home out of an abundance of caution.

Crew-12 will be staying on the ISS for eight months and will conduct a number of scientific experiments, including ones related to human health and ones meant to advance technologies for future missions to the moon and Mars. They will study how pneumonia-causing bacteria can lead to long-term heart damage, for instance, and will also look into how a person's physical characteristics can affect blood flow during spaceflight. NASA's live coverage for the docking starts at 1:15 PM.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/watch-the-nasa-spacex-crew-12-mission-dock-with-the-iss-180000450.html?src=rss

In recent years, many right wingers have centred their politics around pretending that London is some sort of post-apocalyptic hellscape. Politicians like Tory-defector, the tax-dodging Zahawi have echoed these narratives. This plays well with people outside of London; it plays less well with the people who've been there.

Although it's obviously disgusting to see a liar pretending to be a coward, you do have to admire the effort these right wingers go to. Or the effort they usually go to, anyway. There was no such effort in this claim from Reform's Nadhim Zahawi:

London 'not safe', claims Reform UK's Nadhim Zahawi after he's 'forced to cross street from man who hadn't slept' https://t.co/pzEk8pjXi5

— LBC (@LBC) February 13, 2026

Tired rhetoric

First things first, London is relatively safe — especially in the historical sense:

London struggles with petty crime (shoplifting, snatch theft) but levels of serious crime (assault, murder) have just fallen to the lowest since records began.

The drop in murders of under-25s is particularly striking… pic.twitter.com/nRyFVHwOhV

— Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) January 12, 2026

Lowest London murder rate in a decade, after significant decline. taking into account population, since records like this began in 2003

At 1.1 in 100k one of the safest major cities in the globe, safer than all big American cities, & every single US State https://t.co/klGSh3Qf9b

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) January 12, 2026

Of course, this doesn't mean it's safe enough for the snowflakes who would rather everything was covered in safety foam.

As reported by LBC:

"An individual walked past me. I literally walked off the pavement into the middle of the road, kept a very close eye at 8am, right, to see whether…"

Nick asked whether the man appeared to be drunk or aggressive.

Mr Zahawi replied: "He just looked at, you know, like, you know, he hadn't slept for, you know, a week and just looked like somebody that might be violent.

"I don't know. But I just walked away from the pavement, and I'm a big guy, and I don't feel safe that my 13-year-old can walk in London. That can't be right."

Out of all the traits that a person might find dangerous, 'tiredness' isn't usually one of them.

Realistically, an incredibly tired person is going to be less dangerous than the alternative. It's the well-rested ones you need to watch out for; those people have energy to spare, and their braincells are firing like popping candy.

As a result of his sickening shitbaggery, people have been rightfully mocking Zahawi:

Can't have been easy to do the media after a near death experience like this.

Thoughts and prayers etc.pic.twitter.com/2l6V2c60TB

— Stephen Flynn MP (@StephenFlynnSNP) February 13, 2026

"You boy! Did you walk past Nadhim Zahawi looking slightly scruffy and make him fear that western civilisation would collapse?" pic.twitter.com/LKGlA8NSU5

— Mark Hammond (@MarkHam80780803) February 14, 2026

Breaking:Nadhim Zahawi inoculated after passing man in street who might have been working class. pic.twitter.com/oIqeU4lsq7

— Mark Hammond (@MarkHam80780803) February 14, 2026

London's murder rate in 2025 was reported to be at its lowest level in decades and the lowest per capita since comparable records began, BUT there was a man who looked like he hadn't slept. https://t.co/DCVM6wfPmy

— richard bacon (@richardpbacon) February 14, 2026

Don't fear the sleeper

If you thought being terrified of tired people was bad, it gets worse; Zahawi also fears the asleep:

Nadhim Zahawi has a form. Remember when he saw a homeless vulnerable person in distress, and his first thought was to take a picture and post it on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/8zasIFWpWB

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 13, 2026

Be safe out there, people; some of these cockney psychos are operating on less than 8 hours a night.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

ISIS — remember them? Tommy Robinson certainly does, because he's on the run from them apparently:

Tommy Robinson has left the country. Apparently, ISIS is targeting him, and he's asking for donations for the relocation and the ongoing security costs. pic.twitter.com/VOrES3YYAW

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 13, 2026

It looks like Robinson has put the 'dick' in 'predicament'.

On the run

Tommy Robinson announced he was fleeing from ISIS in a video he voluntarily uploaded:

We don't know why we're giving him advice, but Tommy Robinson — if you're on the run from international death squads — don't publish a video from the airport you're flying out of (have you thought this one through mate?)

In Tommy Robinson's own words, he is:

A PRIORITY TARGET FOR ISIS!!!

We dunno, Tommy Robinson; it seems like they've got bigger things to worry about since they lost the caliphate.

We're pretty sure we talk about Robinson more than ISIS does, and we wouldn't even say he's one of our priority targets.

Given the situation, many people are making the same point about Robinson's predicament:

Is he….. seeking a safe country while unable to financially support himself?

Well, well, well. https://t.co/EPe2yJ6seY

— Ginger Tucci (@Ginger_Tucci) February 14, 2026

Just to confirm, fighting age man #TommyRobinson feels unsafe here, so has fled to another country, leaving his family behind.

Sadly, the delicious irony of this will be lost on his low IQ gang of fanboys. pic.twitter.com/lmgHHwGeP6

— Benny Dreadful

Green MP Ellie Chowns challenged the thrust of Reform's entire game on BBC Question Time.

"It's inequality"

Chowns took apart the notion that immigration is to blame for the UK's woes:

Reform UK, before it was the Brexit Party, before when it was UKIP, has been busy for many years fermenting this idea that immigration is the problem in this country. It's completely untrue. Inequality is the problem in this country. The housing problems are…  because we have had 40 years of governments not investing in housing. The health problems… are because we've had governments… failing to invest in our public services, presiding over decline. It's inequality.

Ellie Chowns, "Reform UK, before it was the Brexit Party, before when it was UKIP, has been busy for many years fermenting this idea that immigration is the problem in this country"

"It's completely untrue"

"Inequality is the problem in this country"

"The housing problems is… pic.twitter.com/XYVFIyibVJ

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 12, 2026

Indeed, Oxfam found in 2023 that 1% of Britons have more wealth than 70% of the country.

It's not foreign born people who are the issue — it's the super rich migrating their finances to avoid tax and Labour — doing nothing to fix the issue. Tax doesn't fund public spending but it can help control inflation through reducing the amount of pounds available.

Meanwhile, net zero immigration would actually contract the UK economy by 3.6%. Chowns' is not wrong to diagnose inequality as the core issue — one compounded by the economic disparity such a contraction would cause. People cannot afford to have children, driving dependence on imported workers.

Another reason inequality is the core issue is that it literally caused the 2008 financial crash. That's because people didn't have enough money to keep up with inflated house prices. So banks gave them excessive credit — known as sub-prime mortgages — and house prices relative to income have  worsened since. No wonder Chowns received such applause on BBC Question Time.

High inequality: low demand

We must also remember that inequality depresses demand for products and services. People currently living in poverty would spend more if they had the security of home ownership, while excess wealth at the top stagnates or inflates the value of assets.

£1 million sitting in a bank account would be spent by hundreds of less well off people, but if just one person has it no economic growth happens. It doesn't necessarily mean everything should be entirely economically equal, but the level of disparity today is simply ridiculous. On top of that, immigration adds further demand for products and services, expanding the economy.

Reform's whole mantra is completely wrong — economically and morally. Chowns got right to the heart of it on BBC Question Time and the audience thanked her for it.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

In an interview with NBC, victims of Jeffrey Epstein have accused attorney general Pam Bondi of foul play:

BREAKING: Multiple Epstein victims tell NBC News that Pam Bondi intentionally un-redacted their names and other victims' names as a way to threaten them into silence!

"I think we all realize now that [the DOJ] really wanted to silence us, and [they] thought that [they] could… pic.twitter.com/c6zeiFFAvG

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 12, 2026

"Intentional"

Ed Krassenstein wrote above:

BREAKING: Multiple Epstein victims tell NBC News that Pam Bondi intentionally un-redacted their names and other victims' names as a way to threaten them into silence!

"I think we all realize now that [the DOJ] really wanted to silence us, and [they] thought that [they] could scare us by putting our names out there."

"It had a list of victims, and one was redacted. That makes no sense. This is a list of victims. That is INTENTIONAL!"

This is an impeachable offense. Pam Bondi needs to be impeached immediately!

The women speaking in the video are the same group who stood behind Pam Bondi when she spoke before the Justice Department Oversight committee. The reason the women are raising their hands in the below image is because they were asked to indicate which of them have been ignored by Bondi's Department of Justice (DoJ):

An image we won't soon forget. Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to look at Epstein survivors pictured behind her on the Hill today. pic.twitter.com/KYCBQCXz3Y

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 11, 2026

Failed by the DOJ

Regarding coverage of victims, Maddison Wheeldon wrote for the Canary:

According to BBC News, on Friday 30th January two lawyers for Epstein's victims insisted that a New York federal judge order the DOJ to remove the website holding the files. They stated that the negligent release was:

"the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history".

At the Canary, we agree wholeheartedly.

This US-led failure to redact identifying images and names of victims has made the complete removal of such content the only viable response. Once again, women around the world are left feeling exposed and vulnerable, while so-called efforts to 'protect women' operate instead to shied powerful perpetrators of abuse. Yet again, a manipulative and abusive system has retraumatised the very women it was ostensibly meant to serve.

For more on the Epstein Files, please read:

• The media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors (Maddison Wheeldon).
• Epstein files show how racialised trafficking erased Black girls from victimhood (Vannessa Viljoen).
• Epstein's 'broligarchy' is being ignored by the corporate media (Alice Charles).

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

On 13 February, the High Court ruled that the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group was "disproportionate". Since then, various politicians including Zarah Sultana have come forwards to voice their support for the ruling. The problem is that many of them didn't speak up when it counted:

On the vote to proscribe Palestine Action, Liberal Democrat MPs abstained.

Stop gaslighting people.

When it mattered, you didn't show up. https://t.co/nSd2SHcCWf

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 13, 2026

Suppression

Reporting on the ruling, Maddison Wheeldon wrote for the Canary:

The government's choice to proscribe Palestine Action has been met by widespread public condemnation both at home and abroad. It has been viewed as an attempt to shut down solidarity that British people have shown with Palestinians through their legal right to protest.

Israel's ongoing, horrific genocide against Palestine has been met with absolute impunity by Western leaders, resulting in mass protest and civil disobedience across the UK since October 2023. This proscription of direct-action group Palestine Action in the UK has widely been declared as an authoritarian and draconian overreach into the hard-fought civil liberties of British citizens.

Today's ruling marks a positive step in the right direction.

In the video above, Davey says:

This High Court judgment shows prescribing Palestine action was a grave misuse of terrorism laws. Labour must accept its mistake, drop its appeal and stop wasting taxpayers' money and suppressing civil liberties. Degrading counter-terror powers is a genuine threat to national security.

Davey isn't wrong in what he's saying. The problem is he's showing he isn't a leader — he's a follower. And others have noticed too:

Ed Davey says banning Palestine Action was a grave misuse of terrorism laws.

Every single LibDem MP, including Ed Davey, abstained in the vote to ban them (66 had no vote recorded and 6 abstained by voting both for and against) pic.twitter.com/Y8qmDxO1pg

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 13, 2026

As Richard Burgon noted, only 22 MPs voted against the government:

I welcome the High Court ruling that the ban on Palestine Action is unlawful.

I was one of just 22 MPs who voted against proscribing Palestine Action and in my speech in Parliament I warned the Government of the consequences of its ban.

The Government must not seek an Appeal.

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) February 13, 2026

Only 22 MPs voted against proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. They should be proud of themselves; the other 628 should be ashamed. pic.twitter.com/Z2507SzhI9

— Karl Hansen (@karl_fh) February 13, 2026

Labour MP Karl Turner at least had the decency to admit that he "bottled it". Just like with Davey, though, this will come across to many as a face saving exercise:

This is true. I bottled it and voted with the government. But should have stood firm. I told them though. PM and Home Sec. https://t.co/b9rfxasDAN

— Karl Turner MP (@KarlTurnerMP) February 13, 2026

Turner also said that Starmer's government pushed the ban on the basis that they 'knew more' than they could let on (something the court case has ultimately disproven):

Just because it's this MP or that MP on the left of the party warning the powers that be shouldn't mean the helpful advice is discounted. @johnmcdonnellMP and many others warned the government at the time and we were just pushed aside as not knowing what they knew.

The BBC is looking for a new head of its Arabic-language service to please Israel lobbyists. Mouthpieces for the occupation had complained it was too quick to blame Israel for its actions. The move is intended to force BBC Arabic to use the same dishonest framing as its English-language services.

The manufactured furore began in November 2025. Pro-Israel pressure groups complained that the BBC Arabic coverage of its 'war' in Gaza was "critically different" from English coverage. This meant that it was - this is not satire — "painting Israel as the aggressor" in Gaza.

BBC and the mirage of impartiality

Yes, genocidal Israel has murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza along with hundreds of journalists and their families. It uses weapons that are illegal under humanitarian law on families in tents. But saying Israel is the aggressor is beyond the pale to the BBC. There was also criticism of BBC Arabic's guests, because two of them had supported violence against Israelis.

Commenting on the BBC Arabic reshuffle, the Arabic-speaking Israeli 'journalist' Edy Cohen, welcomed the move:

Thank you Sir @Keir_Starmer
BBC Removes Head of Its Arabic Service and Moves to Restore Its Professional Integrity
Sources within the BBC have told us that the broadcaster is moving forward with reform measures for its Arabic service, aiming to align its work with the high… pic.twitter.com/HJozDFvMMC

— إيدي كوهين אדי כהן

One of the biggest criticisms of Reform is that it's just a rebrand of the Tory Party. Now, ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe has created his own spinoff party, and it's shaping up to be…a rebrand of a rebrand:

Ten years with the Conservatives and today I'm joining Restore Britain. I've always said it would take something genuinely compelling to make me defect, and this is it. https://t.co/eyeu9b2MIU

— Monika Užkalnytė

Data published by the Israeli army shows that 50,632 servicemen fighting in the ranks of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) hold two or more nationalities (listed below).The data does not indicate how many were reservists versus active-duty soldiers — fighting for Israel.

As reported by the Canary's Joe Glenton, the data was obtained by Declassified UK obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Americans rank first (12,135), French second (6,100), and Russians third (5,000). Nationals from Germany, Ukraine, Britain, Romania, Poland, Canada, and Latin America also feature on the list. Of these, 4,440 soldiers hold two foreign nationalities, while 162 hold three or more — serving in military operations in Gaza, waged by Israel.

Less expected are Arab nationals from Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, and Algeria, who appear in the data — albeit in noticeably smaller numbers.

1. United States: 12,135 soldiers
2. France: 6,127 soldiers
3. Russia: 5,067 soldiers
4. Germany: 3,901 soldiers
5. Ukraine: 3,210 soldiers
6. Britain: 1,686 soldiers
7. Romania: 1,675 soldiers
8. Poland: 1,668 soldiers
9. Ethiopia: 1,387 soldiers
10. Canada: 1,185 soldiers
11. Hungary: 885 soldiers
12. Italy: 828 soldiers
13. Argentina: 609 soldiers
14. Netherlands: 559 soldiers
15. Brazil: 505 soldiers
16. Australia: 502 soldiers
17. South Africa: 415 soldiers
18. Belgium: 406 soldiers
19. Austria: 390 soldiers
20. Switzerland: 373 soldiers
21. Spain: 372 soldiers
22. Czech Republic: 309 soldiers

Conflicting jurisdictional obligations

The presence of dual-national IDF servicemen has raised questions about their legal obligations — in other words, when serving in Israel, whose laws are they answerable to.

These concerns have also culminated in criminal investigations into the conduct of soldiers deployed in Gaza since 2023.

In the UK, human rights groups collaborating with the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights submitted a report to the Metropolitan Police war crimes unit. Their findings highlight the participation of British nationals in Gaza and their possible involvement in suspected war crimes.

In June 2025, Canadian authorities, responding to complaints, launched preliminary investigations into Canadian nationals serving in the IDF suspected of war crimes.

Meanwhile, Belgium is investigating a Belgian soldier fighting for an elite IDF unit deployed in Gaza. That said, Belgium imposes no restrictions on dual nationals serving in foreign militaries.

Suspected Gaza war crimes

International organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have long called for independent investigations to ensure that dual citizens are acting in compliance with international humanitarian law. A recent investigation by Al Jazeera Arabic found that six Israeli snipers hold dual nationalities and were implicated in attacks targeting civilians in Gaza.

According to local estimates, the war in Gaza, now in its third year, has resulted in more than 72,000 deaths and approximately 171,000 injuries. In addition, there has been widespread destruction of infrastructure, with humanitarian and legal repercussions extending far beyond the battlefield.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly been asking tech companies for information on accounts posting anti-ICE sentiments. According to The New York Times, DHS has sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta over the past few months. Homeland Security asked the companies for names, email addresses, telephone numbers and any other identifying detail for accounts that have criticized the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or have reported the location of its agents. Google, Meta and Reddit have complied with some of the requests

Administrative subpoenas are different from warrants and are issued by the DHS. The Times says they were rarely used in the past and were mostly sent to companies for the investigation of serious crimes, such as child trafficking. Apparently, though, the government has ramped up its use in the past year. "It's a whole other level of frequency and lack of accountability," Steve Loney, a senior supervising attorney for ACLU, told the publication.

Companies can choose whether to comply with the authorities or not, and some of them give the subject of a subpoena up to 14 days to fight it in court. Google told The Times that its review process for government requests is " designed to protect user privacy while meeting [its] legal obligations" and that it informs users when their accounts have been subpoenaed unless it has been legally ordered not to or in exceptional circumstances. "We review every legal demand and push back against those that are overbroad," the company said.

Some of the accounts that were subpoenaed belong to users posting ICE activity in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania on Facebook and Instagram in English and Spanish. The DHS asked Meta for their names and details on September 11, and the users were notified about it on October 3. They were told that if Meta didn't receive documentation that they were fighting the subpoena in court within 10 days, Meta will give Homeland Security the information it was asking for. The ACLU filed a motion for the users in court, arguing that the DHS is using administrative subpoenas as a tool to suppress speech of people it didn't agree with.

In late January, Meta started blocking links to ICE List, a website that lists thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents' names. A few days ago, House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) also asked Apple and Google to turn over all their communication with the US Department of Justice to investigate the removal of ICE-tracking apps from their respective app stores.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/homeland-security-has-reportedly-sent-out-hundreds-of-subpoenas-to-identify-ice-critics-online-135245457.html?src=rss

Apple has steadily expanded home screen customization on the iPhone over the past few years, and iOS 26 continues that trend with more visual control over app icons. Building on the changes introduced in iOS 18, the latest update lets you resize icons, remove app labels, apply system-wide color tints and make icons translucent using Apple's new Liquid Glass design language.

Most of these options live in one place: the Customize menu, which appears after entering edit mode on the home screen. While iOS still doesn't allow total freeform icon placement or third-party icon packs without shortcuts, the tools Apple provides are now flexible enough to dramatically change how an iPhone looks and feels. This guide walks through how to customize app icons and layouts using the options available in iOS 26, with a focus on icon size, color, appearance and arrangement.

How to customize your iPhone home screen

All home screen customization starts the same way.

1. Go to the Home Screen.

2. Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen background until the apps begin to jiggle.

3. Tap Edit in the top left corner, then select Customize from the menu.

A customization panel appears along the bottom of the screen. Changes made here apply across all home screen pages at once, rather than on a per-page basis.

From the Customize menu, you can:

• Adjust icon size

• Change appearance (e.g., Dark)

• Make icons translucent with a clear look

• Add a color tint to icons and widgets

How to make app icons larger and remove labels

One of the simplest changes in iOS 26 is also one of the most visually impactful. From the Customize menu, tap the icon showing two app squares of different sizes. This switches the home screen to Large App Icons mode.

When large icons are enabled, app labels disappear entirely and the icons themselves expand to fill more of the grid. This creates a cleaner look and makes apps easier to tap, particularly on iPhone models with larger screens. The tradeoff is that fewer icons fit on each screen and spacing between rows becomes more pronounced.

To revert to standard icons with labels, repeat the steps and tap the same button again.

How to change the appearance of app icons

iOS 26 offers four icon appearance styles: Default, Dark, Clear and Tinted. These options are available from the top row of the Customize panel. From the Customize panel, you can tap the sun icon across all options in the top left-hand corner to toggle wallpaper dimming. This generally makes app icons and labels easier to read. 

The Default option keeps icons looking as the developers intended, with no system-wide color or transparency applied.

Selecting Dark applies a darker background to supported app icons and widgets. Apple's own apps fully support this mode, and some third-party apps do as well, though many retain their original colors. When Dark is enabled, iOS can also dim the wallpaper slightly, which may help reduce power usage on OLED displays.

The Clear option enables translucency across all apps on the Home Screen. This removes all color but retains app labels. The layered, frosted-glass effect changes depending on the background image. Clear icons can be paired with Light, Dark or Auto styles using the options along the bottom of the Customize panel.

Tinted mode allows all supported app icons and widgets to take on a single color scheme. After selecting Tinted, color and saturation sliders appear at the bottom of the screen. Adjusting these changes the hue applied across icons, creating a uniform look that can range from subtle pastels to high-contrast monochrome themes.

If you want a specific color from your iPhone's wallpaper, select the eyedropper tool, then tap and hold while dragging the cursor across the screen until you land on your chosen color. Like the Clear option, you'll be able to select from Light, Dark or Auto when adjusting the Tinted settings.

The Auto option allows icons to switch between light and dark appearances based on system-wide light or dark mode.

How to arrange apps around the home screen

App placement works the same way it did before iOS 26, but the visual changes introduced by larger icons and spacing make layout choices more noticeable.

Apps can be rearranged by accessing an empty space on the Home Screen, then tapping and holding until the apps start jiggling. From here you can drag icons to new positions. The grid remains fixed, meaning icons cannot overlap or be placed freely, but there is more flexibility in how empty space is used.

Icons can be clustered toward the bottom of the screen, aligned to one side or arranged to frame a wallpaper. With large icons enabled, the gap between the dock and the first row of apps becomes more pronounced, but it cannot be filled with additional icons.

Changes apply across all home screen pages, so reorganizing one page does not affect icon size or appearance on another.

What iOS 26 still doesn't allow

Despite expanded customization, some long-standing limitations remain. iOS 26 does not support per-app icon color selection, custom icon packs without shortcuts or freeform icon placement outside the grid. Icon appearance settings apply globally, not per page or per app.

Widgets, lock screen customization and focus mode filters add additional layers of personalization, but those tools sit outside the scope of the home screen Edit menu.

iOS 26 gives iPhone users more control over the look of their home screen than ever before, even if Apple's approach remains structured. By combining icon resizing, appearance modes and careful app arrangement, it's possible to create a layout that feels cleaner, more personal and easier to use without relying on workarounds.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-customize-your-iphone-home-screen-with-ios-26-130000798.html?src=rss

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. A whole bunch of compelling games arrived this week, and Sony dropped some news about more that are on the way to PS5 and other platforms during its State of Play stream on Thursday. 

For one thing, I didn't have a prequel for Neva, one of my favorite games of the last few years on my bingo card. I'm very much looking forward to checking out that DLC next week. 

It's really neat that Motion Twin and Evil Empire — the studios behind Dead Cells and its expansions, respectively — are getting to make a proper Castlevania game. While it might not be developing many games in-house anymore, giving external studios the chance to run with its franchises is a very smart move on Konami's part. Not least because we're getting a Silent Hill game set in Scotland as well.

I've had Big Walk on my radar since the game was first shown off at The Game Awards a couple of years back. This is a co-op multiplayer game from Untitled Goose Game studio House House and publisher Panic in which you'll go on adventures with your friends and help each other through puzzles and other challenges using voice, text chat and gestures. You can just hang out with your buds and watch the sunset or put their binoculars into the ocean too.

Expect Big Walk to arrive later this year on PS5 (including as a Monthly Game for all PS Plus members), Steam and Epic Games Store. There will be support for cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.

Also, Remedy Entertainment is technically an indie studio. As such, I can mention here that I cannot wait for Control Resonant, which is probably going to break my brain with all the perspective shifting Remedy showed off in the gameplay trailer. 

New releases

As with any successful heist, planning and execution are equally paramount in Relooted. Setting things up properly before hightailing it out of a museum with artifacts reminds me a bit of Teardown albeit without all the voxel destruction. But Relooted is a lot more than that. 

It's an anti-colonialist story in which parkour enthusiast Nomali and her crew take back African artifacts (all of which exist in real life) from Western museums. I did encounter some performance issues while playing on PC, but that didn't take too much away from the enjoyable, in-the-moment action and having to adjust escape routes on the fly when things go awry. Nor did the framerate drops detract one bit from the important story that South African studio Nyamakop is telling here.

Relooted is out now on Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox Series X/S. It typically costs $15, but there's a 10 percent discount on Steam until February 24. It's available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2 developer Tarsier Studios is back with another slice of atmospheric horror. In Reanimal, two siblings set out to save their missing friends and escape from an island they once called home. However, they'll have to face a litany of dangers, including a lot of creepy creatures. 

I haven't played Reanimal yet, but the various trailers have have always grabbed my attention. It's out now on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 for $40.

Reanimal has single-player, couch co-op and online co-op modes. A friend pass that allows you to invite a pal to play with you online at no extra cost should be available soon.

Mewgenics had been in the works for a very long time before it arrived this week. It was initially announced in 2012 when co-developer Edmund McMillen was still part of Super Meat Boy studio Team Meat. After years of Mewgenics being in development hell amid McMillen focusing on projects such as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, he's finally seen the game through with the help of longtime collaborator Tyler Glaiel.

This is a turn-based strategy roguelike in which players breed cats and then take kitties with wild mutations and blends of powers into combat. There's a lot to explore and discover here. McMillen and Glaiel claim the main campaign runs for over 200 hours. Having more than 10 character classes (each with 75 unique abilities), more than 900 items and hundreds of bosses and enemies could well ensure that things stay fresh enough to justify that run time.

Reviews have largely been positive for this one, though the humor didn't click for some critics. Mewgenics is out now on Steam. It usually costs $30, but you can save $3 if you buy it by February 24.

Rogue Point is a co-op shooter for up to four players that's worth paying attention to, in large part because it's from the team behind Black Mesa, the fan remake of Half-Life. It's now available in early access on Steam, typically for $20, though there's a 15 percent discount until February 26.

This appears to be in the vein of tactical shooters like Ubisoft's Tom Clancy games. There are objective-based missions and a Counter-Strike-style economy for unlocking and upgrading gear. While there are only four maps as things stand, Crowbar Collective has implemented a system that randomizes the layouts to keep things fresh. 

Upcoming 

Steam Next Fest is almost upon us. Many developers and publishers are preparing to release demos for their games, but some are arriving ahead of the event, such as one for Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! The demo is a blast and it feels like the kind of retro Starship Troopers shooter I wish we'd had in the late '90s. 

I really enjoy Helldivers 2, which takes a lot of inspiration from Starship Troopers. In turn, this game draws from Helldivers 2, with features like tossing a flare to tell a support craft to send gear down to the planet's surface. I just wish the mech was a bit more fun and effective to use.

If you would like to know more about this game from Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun developer Auroch Digital and publisher Dotemu, you can check out the demo on Steam. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! is coming to Steam, GOG, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on March 16.

A demo for a line-based puzzle title called Rope popped up on Steam this week ahead of the full game's arrival in April for about $3.50. The aim is to connect ropes of the same color to clear them. More rules will be introduced over time to make the game more challenging.

While Rope looks charming enough, I mainly wanted to include it in this week's roundup because I thought developer Ikuo's comments in the press release were quite lovely. 

"My games are neither flashy nor extravagant. Instead, I focus on preserving the essence of play. Like hide‑and‑seek or tag — simple rules that draw you in until you forget the time," Ikuo said. "Rope brings that timeless spirit of play into a modern puzzle game. It is intuitive, endlessly replayable and quietly absorbing. I aimed to create a small, understated experience that stays with players long after they put it down. I hope this game leaves even a small impression on someone's heart."

The Mermaid Mask is a project that SFB Games put on the backburner after another one of their games became a hit (that would be Crow Country, which was one of our favorite games of 2024).

This point-and-click puzzle game is the latest installment in the long-running Detective Grimoire series. A teaser trailer doesn't give away too much, but I do enjoy what we see of the hand-drawn 2D animation here.

Here's hoping this is a worthy follow-up to Tangle Tower, an Apple Arcade game we enjoyed very much. We'll find out for sure when The Mermaid Mask lands on PC and consoles this summer. In the meantime, you can check out an updated demo that just hit Steam ahead of Next Fest. 

The premise of The Stairwell is practically identical to that of The Exit 8. You walk through a small, contained scene multiple times. If everything looks okay, keep walking forward. If something is out of the ordinary, you turn around. Just try not to miss many anomalies. Rather than walk through corridors as in The Exit 8 (the film adaptation of which looks pretty promising), The Stairwell sees you going up or down a seemingly infinite tower as you try to reach the goal. 

This anomaly game, which is from Hidden Palace, has been on Steam since last year. It's coming to PS5 on February 19. Expect jump scares. 

Let's wrap things up for this week with an arcade game that requires just two inputs: one button to turn left, and another to veer right. You can't control the speed of your craft in Ship v Maze. All you can do to avoid crashing and ending your run is to react quickly enough to steer your ship through various obstacles. It's all about putting your reflexes to the test.

Ship v Maze is from Cosmic Droplet (aka solo developer Frederic Vanmol), It'll hit Steam on April 2 for $4. A demo is available now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/relooted-reanimal-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-120000234.html?src=rss

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Labour's plan to counter the growing success of Polanski and the Green Party is to rerun the smears MPs levelled against Jeremy Corbyn. They're struggling to repeat the same playbook, however, because the Labour right is in power — and everyone hates them. As such, when they wag their fingers and say 'that guy's an extremist', people think 'these finger-wagging liars think I'm an idiot'.

Of all the finger wagging idiots in the Labour Party, none are more loathed than the top man — Keir Starmer. And this is how Greens leader Polanski responded to Starmer's latest push to neutralise criticism:

The caretaker PM is running scared and resorting to more smears because he knows the game is up.

Labour is sinking in Gorton and Denton and it's left to the Greens to challenge the far right threat of Reform.

Island of strangers? No. An Island of hope and unity. https://t.co/OH5iy21LDo

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 13, 2026

Extremists?

In the above tweet, the Times' Steven Swinford notes that:

In his strongest attack yet on Labour's new electoral rivals, the prime minister will use a speech in Munich to warn that, for all their differences, both parties are "soft on Russia and weak on Nato"

He will argue their approach would lead only to "division and capitulation" and the result would be that "the lamps would go out across Europe once again"

If you're unfamiliar with 'NATO', it's the protection racket run by the United States. As we reported, the US recently threatened to invade NATO member Greenland. This means NATO is effectively dead as a serious project. Before all that happened, Polanski suggested we should question the reliability of the US, and still, he's the one who's not serious according to some.

Swinford continued:

He will argue their approach would lead only to "division and capitulation" and the result would be that "the lamps would go out across Europe once again"

His comments are a direct quote of Sir Edward Grey, a former British foreign secretary, who, on the eve of the First World War, warned that the lamps were "going out" all over Europe

"It's striking that the different ends of the spectrum share so much," Starmer will say. "Soft on Russia and weak on Nato — if not outright opposed. [They are] determined to sacrifice the longstanding relationships that we want and need to build on the altar of their ideology. The future they offer is one of division and then capitulation. The lamps would go out across Europe once again."

He will add: "We must level with the public and build consent for the decisions we will have to take to keep us all safe. Because if we don't, the peddlers of easy answers on the extreme left and the extreme right are ready. They will offer their solutions instead."

Sir Keir Starmer: Vote Reform or Green and risk war

Unserious comments from an unserious man.

After all, Starmer is the man who supported an ongoing genocide. He's also the guy who failed to stand up to Trump any of the times he threatened to invade other countries. Well, to be fair, he did send a single soldier to defend Greenland.

Opposing genocide is extremism?

As Ed Sykes reported for the Canary on 14 February, the Greens' opposition to Zionism has landed them in trouble with the establishment:

There have historically been different strains of Zionism — the Jewish nationalist movement behind the colonisation of Israel. But the dominant form today is a supremacist extremism that empowers racism, apartheid, and genocide. Zionism is not Judaism, no matter how much Israel's leaders and cheerleaders want to blur the line.

Now, Green members are campaigning for a spring conference motion that seeks to acknowledge that "Zionism is Racism" and declare the party as "an Anti-Zionist Party." They also seek a rejection of cynical attempts to "equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism" in order "to silence legitimate criticism" of Israel.

Journalist Matt Kennard highlighted that the media is now gunning for the Greens as a result:

Green Party will likely vote to be first major UK political party that is anti-Zionist at its Spring Conference (Motion A105)

This will be a watershed moment in British politics

So the subversion steps up. This absurd article is the beginning

Anti-Zionism is anti-fascism pic.twitter.com/oP9PfM0X0L

— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) February 12, 2026

Two fronts

Reform have also responded to Starmer's attack:

In a desperate attempt to save his job, Keir Starmer is attacking Reform UK today.

This weak, unpatriotic Prime Minister caves in to China, gives away the Chagos Islands and refuses to properly fund our armed forces. He is on borrowed time.

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) February 14, 2026

As you'll see from our coverage, it's obvious we're no fans of Farage or Reform. At the same time, it's obvious why Starmer is resorting to attacking his rivals; it's because his Labour Party have nothing to offer.

Nothing besides endless paedophile scandals, that is.

What a sorry state of affairs.

Featured image via Barold/the Canary

By Willem Moore

Activists and politicians are urging the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to boycott upcoming Nations League fixtures against the illegitimate settler-colony 'Israel'. In a remarkable twist of fate, the Republic of Ireland has ended up in the same group as the land thieves for the 2026-2027 UEFA Nations League. This means Europe's most pro-Palestine nation will potentially face-off against the world's most anti-Palestine band of genocidal thugs.

Kosovo and Austria are the other teams in the group. Ireland are due to play Israel in September and October 2026.

However, the likes of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) have demanded things don't even get that far. The pro-Palestine campaign group said:

The apartheid state should have been expelled from UEFA for its crimes against Palestinians, long before its genocidal war on Gaza. We demand that the FAI refuse to play these fixtures. We need a national sporting body to stand up and call the bluff of the governing organisations. Boycott apartheid Israel all day, every day until freedom for Palestine.

Boycott is the essential tool to prevent Zionist sportwashing

Unlike in the case of Russia, UEFA and FIFA — the administrative bodies for football in Europe and worldwide respectively — have pissed about endlessly when it comes to getting rid of the genocidaires squatting illegally on historic Palestine. They banned Russia almost immediately after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Yet nearly two and a half years into the world's first live-streamed genocide, perpetrated by the Netanyahu regime, they have dodged removing 'Israel'.

Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit (PBP) also called for refusing to play the fixtures:

The Government should stop trying to normalise the Israeli regime. Israel is not a normal state, it is a regime based entirely on ethnic cleansing, apartheid and barbaric genocide of Palestinians. Like apartheid South Africa, boycott can help dismantle this cruel regime.

Sporting and cultural boycotts were indeed crucial to ostracising that racist regime. The likes of Eurovision and the Nations League are crucial to maintaining the Zionist charade of straddling two continents. 'Israel' is Schrödinger's Colony, existing in two (terror) states simultaneously: both a 'nice, normal white European country' just like us, as it supposedly shows by competing in the above contests. Yet we are asked to believe its inhabitants are indigenous to the land they've been stealing for the past 100 years, despite largely arriving from overseas to steal the territory from its rightful owners — the Palestinians.

Boyd Barrett was referring to comments from the pathetic Micheál Martin. The treacherous Taoiseach once again showed his fealty to Ireland's masters by declaring:

It [the matches against 'Israel'] should go ahead, and I think the FAI has taken the correct decision to fulfil the fixture.

RTE say Martin has said there is "no official boycott of Israel in Ireland". The question is why, especially when the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is calling for it. There is no prospect of the Zionist entity changing of its own accord. It can only be shifted by external pressure and that means boycott — wreck its economy, and cut all ties with it culturally and in the sporting realm.

Others must join Ireland to force UEFA's hand

Previous calls by activists to boycott athletic contests with the terrorist pseudo-state have been unsuccessful. Some members of the Irish women's basketball team refused to travel for a fixture in Riga against the Zionist entity. Irish players then refused to shake hands with the land thieves on the other side. The match ultimately went ahead, however.

The FAI did pass a vote in November 2025 calling for the illegal settler-colony to be banned from international football. However, it seems the heads of Irish football are less keen when it actually comes to putting this into practice themselves. The FAI is adamant that the Nations League games will go ahead. They say they have consulted with UEFA, who are threatening disqualification if Ireland refuse to play.

The means of solving this problem is much like that faced by workers at their place of employment. If only one threatens to rebel, it's trivial for the employer to say "fine, piss off — I'll have no trouble replacing just you". The task for the boss becomes much harder if everyone gets in a union and threatens to walk out.

That's what's needed here — with sufficient pressure from local activists in a country where the vast majority of people will oppose playing 'Israel', Ireland can provide the credible threat of withdrawal.

The trick will be working with other nations to get them to join this threat, forming a united front that the craven bosses at UEFA can't ignore. If successful, it could be the beginning of the end for the Zionist fake-state's continued sport-washing of its disgusting atrocities.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on Friday morning detained and cautioned a pro-Palestine activist under anti-terror law. This happened despite a judicial review that very morning ruling the group's ban is unlawful. Máire Mhic an Fhailí was held by police for around 30 minutes at Laganside Courts in Belfast. This was for wearing a t-shirt with the words "I support Palestine Action".

Earlier that morning, the High Court in London had ruled that the British government had been wrong to ban the direct action group. They determined the proscription amounted to:

…very significant interference with the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of assembly.

When activists conveyed this information to PSNI officers, they seemed unaware of the ruling. The officers scrambled to confirm it for themselves.

Mhic an Fhailí was previously arrested in August 2025 for what the police claimed was also Palestine Action support. However, this essentially amounted to punishment for speaking Irish. The PSNI were admonished by the police ombudsman on that occasion. This was for their failure to adequately cater to the activist exercising her right to use a language. Notably, this is a language that supposedly now has parity under the law.

Police again discriminate for speaking Irish

Despite this, Mhic an Fhailí was again held on Friday for far longer than necessary due to police not being able to properly translate her answers. Speaking outside court, she said:

Although we heard today in the courts that the proscription of Palestine action has been declared illegal, I was still detained in the courts for wearing the Palestine action t-shirt. Furthermore, I gave my name and address in Irish, which caused another difficulty.

They said they couldn't provide an interpreter and I refused to back down by giving my name in English. And so they checked my name in Irish and found my name and address on their police files. And so, they let me go eventually.

It remains to be seen whether the PSNI will follow the course of London's Met Police. The Met have said they will hold off on arrests in the aftermath of the High Court verdict. In a statement on Friday, they said:

The High Court has found that the decision to proscribe Palestine Action was unlawful.

However, the group remains proscribed pending the outcome of any Government appeal, which means expressing support is still a criminal offence.

We recognise these are unusual circumstances.

From a Metropolitan Police perspective, officers will continue to identify offences where support for Palestine Action is being expressed, but they will focus on gathering evidence of those offences and the people involved to provide opportunities for enforcement at a later date, rather than making arrests at the time.

This is the most proportionate approach we can take, acknowledging the decision reached by the court while recognising that proceedings are not yet fully concluded.

The Six Counties police have recently pledged to ratchet up a clampdown on support for proscribed groups. They have been heavily criticised for going after anti-genocide protesters showing support for Palestine Action, while turning a blind eye to support for actual terrorist groups like the Ulster Volunteer Force.

However, they still emphasised that direct police involvement in removing material such as banners would be minimal. Land owners are still expected to be the ones taking primary responsibility. This is for ensuring their property isn't used for unlawful displays.

A win for Palestine Action, but British state still criminalising anti-genocide protest

Mhic an Fhailí was at the courts supporting the for four activists being dragged through the so-called justice system for peaceful opposition to Zionist starvation policies. The charges relate to two protests held in July and October 2025, in which roads were blocked near Belfast City Hall. In addition, Mhic an Fhailí herself is among 9 activists currently under threat of prosecution for the demonstrations.

The activists come from a range of Palestine solidarity groups, including BDS Belfast, Belfast Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Mothers Against Genocide and Queerde. The group's campaign is entitled No Crime in Opposing Genocide.

In an update on today's court session on the BDS Belfast page, they state that Friday's hearing was largely a formality. The actual contest on their charges will likely take place in April. All activists intend to plead not guilty. Indeed, they have the right under international law to oppose their government's involvement in genocide.

Speaking outside court, BDS Belfast activist Damian Quinn said:

Those peaceful activists went to a protest and then stood on those roads because the British government and the North of Ireland government and the Irish government are doing nothing for the Palestinian people.

He continued:

It's our right under international law and under the Genocide Convention to oppose genocide, to prevent and oppose genocide. We don't wait until the [International Court of Justice] ICJ say it's genocide, we already know it's genocide.

The fact that the trial is still proceeding shows the success of Palestine Action at the High Court is just one step in a long road to stop the criminalisation of anti-genocide protest. Zionist influence on British politics is enormous, and removing its harmful effect on democracy will be a long struggle.

Featured image via Barold/the Canary 

By Robert Freeman

Just ask DeepSeek

Two of the world's biggest AI companies, Google and OpenAI, both warned this week that competitors including China's DeepSeek are probing their models to steal the underlying reasoning, and then copy these capabilities in their own AI systems.…

The 62nd Munich Security Conference opened on 13 February 2026 in Munich, Germany, and this year's gathering feels different from past editions. For decades, Munich was about jets, troops, and treaties. Today, cyber and AI are no longer peripheral; they are part of the architecture of security itself. Cyber risks, digital infrastructure, and emerging technologies […]

This story continues at The Next Web

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Back in 2023, we talked about a strange trademark dispute out of the UK concerning oat-based milk products. Specifically, Oatly, a large producer of oat milk, applied for a trademark in the UK for its slogan, "Post Milk Generation." Dairy UK, a lobbying organization representing dairy farmers in the country, opposed the trademark in the application stage, arguing that a UK regulation prevented any company from using the word "milk" in conjunction with "products that are not mammary secretions." Oatly successfully argued that its slogan did not run afoul of the regulation because it was both not suggesting that its product was milk and was instead describing the consumers of Oatly's product, or the generation that was moving beyond milk. In other words, there was no association being made with milk here; in fact, the opposite was the messaging.

That should have been the end of this nonsense. Instead, Dairy UK appealed that decision and the London Court of Appeal reversed the lower court's decision. Suddenly, Oatly could not trademark the slogan, nor use it on its products, ostensibly.

Oatly stated that the reversing of the decision was absurd and clearly a ploy by Dairy UK to limit competition with its members. The company appealed up to the UK Supreme Court which, amazingly, affirmed that Oatly cannot have its slogan trademarked.

The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that Oatly cannot use its "Post Milk Generation" trademark on oat-based food and drink, handing a landmark victory to the dairy industry, as it contends with record-low farm numbers, falling retail volumes, and collapsing wholesale prices.

The judgment arrives at a precarious moment for British dairy. The number of British dairy farms has fallen to a record low of 7,010 — an 85% decline from an estimated 46,000 in 1980, according to industry estimates and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). 

It's hard to see this as anything other than a national-level court falling all over itself to protect a domestic industry from foreign competition. The explanation the court offered for its decision is equally confusing. For one, while Oatly pointed out again that its use of the word "milk" in the slogan is not describing the product, but the consumer, the court said that doesn't matter at all. The word instead simply suffers from a blanket ban on any marketing or trade dress if it doesn't come from a nipple.

Then, when Oatly also points out that its use obliquely informs the public that the product does not contain milk — hence the "post milk generation" language -, the court points out that because Oatly has stated that the slogan doesn't describe the product, any insinuation about the product itself doesn't count as it's not direct and clear enough.

The second: even if the word "milk" is caught, is Oatly saved by an exception that allows protected terms when they "clearly" describe a quality of the product, such as being milk-free? Again, the court said no. Lords Hamblen and Burrows, writing for the unanimous panel of five justices, held that the slogan describes a type of consumer — younger people turning away from dairy — rather than anything about the product itself.

Even if it could be read as referencing a milk-free quality, it does so in an "oblique and obscure way" that fails to clarify whether the product is entirely milk-free or merely low in dairy content.

This is the court acknowledging explicitly that Oatly's slogan is not describing the product, but the consumer. It also claims that a slogan that describes a consumer that has moved beyond milk isn't clear enough as to whether the product is sufficiently non-milk. What?

All the court has demonstrated is that Oatly is definitely not trying to call its product milk and is not trying to confuse anyone with its slogan. For that, Oatly doesn't get its trademark.

Again, the lobbying efforts here are quite clear. And they appear to have influenced the court's decision. In fact, what Dairy UK is trying to restrict goes well beyond the word "milk" to the point of absurdity.

The Supreme Court has emerged from years of lobbying action. An investigation by Greenpeace's Unearthed, based on documents obtained through disclosure, revealed that Dairy UK had been lobbying for tighter enforcement of dairy term protections since at least 2017. 

Committee meeting notes showed the association presented "the issue of misuse of protected dairy terms" to a Business Experts Group panel and was subsequently tasked by Defra with developing a briefing paper for the Food Standards Information Focus Group (FSIG).

Dairy UK submitted a position paper to Defra in November 2022, backing FSIG draft proposals that would have gone significantly further — banning descriptors such as "yoghurt-style," homophones like "mylk," and even phrases like "not milk." Forty-four plant-based companies and NGOs, including Alpro, Oatly, Quorn, and the Good Food Institute, co-signed an open letter opposing the restrictions.

If we've reached the point in which someone who doesn't produce milk can't point out on its trade dress that their product is "not milk", then we've crossed the Rubicon into a land of dumb.

Was the court solely looking to protect suffering UK dairy farmers in its decision? I can't say so for sure. But what is very clear is that nothing in its decision has anything to do with protecting the public from deception, which is the entire point of trademark law to begin with.

Startup expects to complete construction of its first fuel plant later this year

Amazon inched closer to its atomic datacenter dream on Friday after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensed its small modular reactor partner X-energy to make nuclear fuel for advanced reactors at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.…

Whilst the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) loves to brag about catching "benefit fraud", it's been called out for not doing enough to stop benefit errors in its own system.

DWP pulled in front of the Public Accounts Committee for their own fuck ups - again

The DWP was once again up in front of the Public Accounts Committee. This time, it was defending what it was doing to tackle fraud and error.

A big chunk of the committee was taken up with scrutinising the powers of the new bank snooping bill. This was covered extensively by the rags because the penny has finally dropped that they can spy on ALL our bank accounts.

However, much of the coverage misses that the DWP was also called to account for its own behaviour. Specifically, due to its own error, the department is overpaying and underpaying a huge number of claimants.

Underpaid benefits cancelled out overpaid benefits

PAC found that claimants were overpaid by £1 billion in 2024-25 due to the DWP's own errors. This is up from £0.8 billion in 2023-24. However, this is cancelled out by the fact that claimants were underpaid by £1.2 billion for the same reason 2024-25. This is up from £1.1 billion in 2023-24.

The report said:

The DWP has carried out some work to tackle the root causes of fraud and error - but this has focused on those committed by claimants, rather than errors by officials.

As usual, the DWP is spending all its time demonising claimants and not actually doing anything to fix its fucked up system that allows so many to fall through the cracks. This is clear through the media narrative of disabled claimants and the treatment of carers.

The report reiterates that errors in the system are largely down to those who control the system, who don't really give a fuck about fixing it.

Claimants not reporting worsening conditions, for obvious reason

Another issue, the report claims, is that not enough claimants are reporting when their circumstances change.

A particular problem is that disabled claimants are not informing the DWP when their condition worsens, meaning they could be entitled to more money.

This rose from approximately £3.1 billion in 2023-24 to £3.7 billion in 2024-25. However, there's a very obvious explanation for this.

When a disabled claimant reports that their condition worsens, they have to be reassessed. Anyone who's gone through the benefits assessment process knows how utterly soul-destroying it is.

There's also no guarantee that you will get more money at the end of it. With assessments being so cruel, there's always the possibility of ending up with less money or losing all your benefits. So for many, it's just not worth the stress.

Whilst a change of circumstance can be made online for Universal Credit, other benefits require you to call. The DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 report found that 3.6 million calls about PIP went unanswered in that same period.

The committee has said the DWP needs to address its own errors and how these can be fixed. But having reported on the DWP for a long time, I'm fairly certain this will be a tick-box exercise or something they attempt to sneak out.

Does the DWP actually care about changing?

The committee has ordered the department to do more to make it easier for claimants to report changes. Worryingly, though, beyond "build trust", there isn't really much mentioned about how the culture of the DWP has to change. If claimants felt safe enough to report changes and could be sure they wouldn't lose money, more would report worsening conditions.

Unfortunately, though, it's clear from the DWP's actions that the department would much rather demonise claimants and ensure as many are kicked off vital benefits as possible. Ensuring more who actually need the support get it just wouldn't fit their benefit scrounger narrative.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Dirty - no doubt Israel-driven - tactics are in play against UN special rapporteur for occupied Palestine Francesca Albanese.

Albanese being hit with dirty tactics again

Albanese has become a towering - and targeted - symbol of the dignity of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and of opposition to Israel's crimes against them. So fearless and effective has Albanese been that the Israeli regime and its western collaborator governments have tried desperately to silence her - and failed.

An attempt to prevent her re-accreditation in her (unpaid and voluntary) role was resoundingly defeated. Escalating sanctions against her have failed to intimidate her and have elevated her standing in the eyes of many right-minded people.

So now the Israel lobby has gone to the bottom drawer of its dirty tricks chest. And to their shame, several Western governments are aiding and abetting the genocidal occupier.

We love you @FranceskAlbs you are our lighthouse in a storm

— Carol Anne Grayson (@Quickieleaks) February 13, 2026

An edited version of an Albanese speech has been circulated in which she appears to say that Israel is the "common enemy of the world". Not that she'd be wrong if she did say it - but she didn't. More to the point, she provably didn't say it.

But shamefully, the French government - knowing that she didn't say it - is demanding her resignation for the comment. Even after this was shown beyond doubt, the French still won't apologise - and other governments continue to amplify the lie and the demand. Here's what she really said, versus the fake:

When sovereign states amplify claims rooted in doctored videos shown to be false, we must STAND IN SOLIDARITY AND DEMAND AN APOLOGY. France and others owe @FranceskAlbs an unambiguous apology and reckoning. pic.twitter.com/gTzVryKulv

— Ahmed Eldin | احمد الدين (@ASE) February 13, 2026

Albanese also responded publicly. With characteristic directness, she accused France of stepping in dogshit and refusing to clean its shoe by apologising:

A lie was exposed. Instead of retracting it, the SYSTEM that enabled the genocide, attacks the messanger. France knows it stepped in something foul, but pride forbids correction: the archives are ransacked for any stray word. Others repeat the falsehood.
The Inquisition is back. https://t.co/DeYmXN3Mgl

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) February 13, 2026

The Israel lobby - in and outside Israel - is desperate to silence the fearless Ms Albanese. Instead, those using these disgusting tactics must be 'consigned to the dustbin of history'. You know, the type you see in parks - where the dogshit goes.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

News of the deal came about two weeks after CEO Bill McDermott swore off any "large scale" M&A this year. A spokesperson called this deal a "tuck in."

Despite its CEO's insistence that it wasn't doing any "large scale" deals soon, ServiceNow has acquired yet another company. This time, the software firm has scooped up Pyramid Analytics, an Israeli corporation with data science and preparation expertise. The goal is to build additional context and semantics into its software stack.…

Copyright owners increasingly claim more draconian copyright law and policy will fight back against big tech companies. In reality, copyright gives the most powerful companies even more control over creators and competitors. Today's copyright policy concentrates power among a handful of corporate gatekeepers—at everyone else's expense. We need a system that supports grassroots innovation and emerging creators by lowering barriers to entry—ultimately offering all of us a wider variety of choices.

Pro-monopoly regulation through copyright won't provide any meaningful economic support for vulnerable artists and creators. Because of the imbalance in bargaining power between creators and publishing gatekeepers, trying to help creators by giving them new rights under copyright law is like trying to help a bullied kid by giving them more lunch money for the bully to take.

Entertainment companies' historical practices bear out this concern. For example, in the late-2000's to mid-2010's, music publishers and recording companies struck multimillion-dollar direct licensing deals with music streaming companies and video sharing platforms. Google reportedly paid more than $400 million to a single music label, and Spotify gave the major record labels a combined 18 percent ownership interest in its now- $100 billion company. Yet music labels and publishers frequently fail to share these payments with artists, and artists rarely benefit from these equity arrangements. There's no reason to think that these same companies would treat their artists more fairly now.

AI Training

In the AI era, copyright may seem like a good way to prevent big tech from profiting from AI at individual creators' expense—it's not. In fact, the opposite is true. Developing a large language model requires developers to train the model on millions of works. Requiring developers to license enough AI training data to build a large language model would  limit competition to all but the largest corporations—those that either have their own trove of training data or can afford to strike a deal with one that does. This would result in all the usual harms of limited competition, like higher costs, worse service, and heightened security risks. New, beneficial AI tools that allow people to express themselves or access information.

Legacy gatekeepers have already used copyright to stifle access to information and the creation of new tools for understanding it. Consider, for example, Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, the first of many copyright lawsuits over the use of works train AI. ROSS Intelligence was a legal research startup that built an AI-based tool to compete with ubiquitous legal research platforms like Lexis and Thomson Reuters' Westlaw. ROSS trained its tool using "West headnotes" that Thomson Reuters adds to the legal decisions it publishes, paraphrasing the individual legal conclusions (what lawyers call "holdings") that the headnotes identified. The tool didn't output any of the headnotes, but Thomson Reuters sued ROSS anyways. A federal appeals court is still considering the key copyright issues in the case—which EFF weighed in on last year. EFF hopes that the appeals court will reject this overbroad interpretation of copyright law. But in the meantime, the case has already forced the startup out of business, eliminating a would-be competitor that might have helped increase access to the law.

Requiring developers to license AI training materials benefits tech monopolists as well. For giant tech companies that can afford to pay, pricey licensing deals offer a way to lock in their dominant positions in the generative AI market by creating prohibitive barriers to entry. The cost of licensing enough works to train an LLM would be prohibitively expensive for most would-be competitors.

The DMCA's "Anti-Circumvention" Provision

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "anti-circumvention" provision is another case in point. Congress ostensibly passed the DMCA to discourage would-be infringers from defeating Digital Rights Management (DRM) and other access controls and copy restrictions on creative works.

In practice, it's done little to deter infringement—after all, large-scale infringement already invites massive legal penalties. Instead, Section 1201 has been used to block competition and innovation in everything from printer cartridges to garage door openers, videogame console accessories, and computer maintenance services. It's been used to threaten hobbyists who wanted to make their devices and games work better. And the problem only gets worse as software shows up in more and more places, from phones to cars to refrigerators to farm equipment. If that software is locked up behind DRM, interoperating with it so you can offer add-on services may require circumvention. As a result, manufacturers get complete control over their products, long after they are purchased, and can even shut down secondary markets (as Lexmark did for printer ink, and Microsoft tried to do for Xbox memory cards.)

Giving rights holders a veto on new competition and innovation hurts consumers. Instead, we need balanced copyright policy that rewards consumers without impeding competition.

Republished from the EFF's Deeplinks blog.