NewsExpress

British Museum removes 'Palestine' to appease Israel lobby's UKLFI [ 15-Feb-26 9:33pm ]

Yet another UK institution has caved in to the bullying of the Israel lobby. The British Museum has removed the word "Palestine" from its displays after demands from the notorious "apartheid lobby" group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

The British Museum caves to the Zionist lobby

Like its fellow lobby group CAA, UKLFI is under investigation for using vexatious lawsuits for political ends. The group was humiliated in January 2026 in its tenth attempt to get Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sitta struck off the medical register. The malicious case failed. But that wasn't all.

The case judge derided UKLFI's argument as biased, unreasonable and unevidenced - adding for good measure that it couldn't even meet the lowest legal standard.

But despite this discrediting judgment, the British Museum folded rather than stand its ground against racist intimidation. UKLFI boasted that the museum is in the process of changing its displays to replace "Palestinian" with "Canaanite". The group's ludicrous argument was that using "Palestine" is "historically inaccurate" and:

erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity…

…For example, the information panels in the Levant gallery, covering the period 2000-300 BC, have all been updated to describe in some detail the history of Canaan and the Canaanites and the rise of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel using those names. A revised text devoted to the Phoenicians was installed in early 2025.

Supposedly, the British Museum changes are for "neutrality". Zionists, who support the racist colony established in 1948 by violently expelling at least 700,000 Palestinians from their homes ancestral lands, claim that Palestine never existed. Its adherents even claim that the indigenous people simply simply "abandoned" their homes in 1948.

The group is also being investigated by lawyers' professional body the SRA for "vexatious and baseless" threats to silence support for Palestine.

Featured image via the Canary

Violent Israeli settlers attack Palestinian community in Jericho and expel all 15 families [ 15-Feb-26 6:35pm ]

A Palestinian community, which lives in the village of Deir al Dik al-Tahta in the Tel al Samrat area of Jericho, has been attacked by Israeli colonial settlers and expelled from their homes.

Israeli settlers attack another village near Jericho

The attack, which occurred on 11 February and lasted most of the daylight hours, involved around 30 masked settlers. They arrived in ATVs, cars, and tractors, and stole 120-150 sheep, a car and a tractor:

According to the community, although they called both the Palestinian and Israeli occupation police, no one came to their assistance. The settlers, who are all armed by the government, pointed guns at the heads of the Palestinians, even children, and told them to leave or they would all be killed. They threw stones and assaulted members of the community. 10 Palestinians were beaten and injured, including women and children, and one person needed stitches in his head.

The settlers bulldozed and destroyed 19 buildings, including 15 residential homes, and stole jewellery and money. All 15 families, including 15 children, have been evacuated to temporary accommodation. They are currently too afraid to return to what is left of their homes:

Just above the community is an illegal outpost and a military camp:

So for the past two years, as in the rest of Palestine, settlers and the Israeli occupation army have joined forces and terrorised the community. There is no accountability or justice for Palestinians, and the occupation can literally get away with murder. They aim to ethnically cleanse the occupied West Bank of Palestinians.

No justice

Tel al Samrat is in the Jordan Valley. This sparsely populated agricultural area of the West Bank is rich in resources, and the Israeli occupation has wanted to annex the region since 1967. In the past two years settlers violence has increased considerably. So have demolitions of residential and agricultural structures. Large areas are also being declared so called "state land" or "military firing zones", to prevent Palestinians from accessing their land. An Israeli law is then implemented, confiscating land from Palestinians.

The Israeli occupation recently expanded its control over Palestinian lands, by changing rules to land registration in the occupied West Bank. The changes will mean, among other things, it will be easier for illegal settlers to buy Palestinian land.

Featured image and additional images via the Canary

Academic quits Berlin Film Festival for silencing criticism of Gaza Genocide [ 15-Feb-26 4:14pm ]

Gaza - academic quits Berlin international film festival

Celebrated Indian academic and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy has withdrawn from the Berlin International Film Festival in protest. She described this as a reaction to the jury's refusal to address Israel's two-year-long genocidal war in Gaza.

Roy said her exit was prompted by "unconscionable" statements, as she described, from the festival jury about the need to keep art and politics separate. She outright rejected their position. In her view, it was an attempt to silence debate about the crimes Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. These are "unfolding before the eyes of the world," she said.

False neutrality

The 76th session of the Berlin Film Festival, which began last Thursday, featured more than 200 films, with 22 competing for the "Golden Bear" award.

This year's jury is headed by the multi-award winning German director Wim Wenders. During a press conference, Wenders warned artists and filmmakers against wading into politics, stating that:

We have to stay away from politics, because if we make films of a purely political nature, we enter the arena of politics. We represent a counterweight to politics, indeed its opposite, and we must serve the interests of the people, not the interests of politicians.

Another juror peddling the same line is Polish producer Eva Puszczynska. She objected to a question about Israeli aggression on Gaza and German support for Israel, sheepishly stating that:

Many other wars in which genocide crimes are committed and not talked about.

Puszczynska downplayed the question as "very complex," suggesting that it would not be fair for the committee to provide an answer — Roy vehemently disagrees.

Art is political

Roy explained that while her participation had been inspired by the political solidarity from the German public towards Palestinians, she changed her decision after hearing the jury's statements. Furthermore, she said that she was disturbed by the position adopted by the German government and cultural institutions towards Palestine.

She held the view that the jury was using the claim 'art is not political' to:

silence any discussion about a crime against humanity.

She stressed that artists, writers, and filmmakers have a moral responsibility to:

do everything in their power to stop what is happening.

Roy has consistently characterised events in Gaza represents as a genocide against Palestinian people. She held the governments of the United States, Germany and other European countries responsible for supporting and financing Israel, considering them "complicit" in these crimes.

She concluded by saying that she was shocked and disgusted, adding that history would hold accountable anyone who chose silence.

Featured image courtesy Arundhati Roy

By Nazli Tarzi

The Times' Labour Together scoop is actually six months old [ 15-Feb-26 3:28pm ]

Labour Together — Keir Starmer, Gabriel Pogrund, and a spy with a camera

The big scoop on Sunday 15 February has been that Labour Together paid investigators to spy on journalists. The problem is that this 'scoop' actually came out months ago:

If you've seen the Sunday Times today you'll know Labour Together were secretly hiring people to investigate journalists. Sadly you won't know that The National exclusively broke this story six months ago, since our work is not credited at all. https://t.co/cbvK1Di18Z

— Laura Webster (@LauraEWebsterr) February 15, 2026

Labour Together

In the National article highlighted above, Peter Oborne and Richard Sanders wrote:

Labour Together, the Labour Party grouping that helped propel Starmer to power, hired the individuals to find information on Paul Holden, the journalist whose book The Fraud was the source for revelations that resulted in the downfall of Paul Ovenden earlier this month.

It also explored Holden's personal life, sought points of "leverage" that could be used against him and tried to place stories in the media that would damage his reputation.

Reporting on the Times' story for the Canary, Skwawkbox reported:

'Labour Together' — the sabotage outfit that brought down Jeremy Corbyn and conned Labour members into choosing Keir Starmer — paid investigators to spy on, and smear two Times journalists. Unsurprisingly, the pair — Harry Yorke and Gabriel Pogrund — have publicised their experience as unique.

@Gabriel_Pogrund and I were the subject of a disgraceful smear campaign — just for doing our jobs

I'm proud that The Sunday Times is calling it out on the front page tomorrow

Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalistshttps://t.co/Uw9UjNJtzm

— Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) February 14, 2026

Labour Together is a pressure group within the broader Labour Party. Morgan McSweeney is the man who used to run this operation; he's also the guy who recently resigned in disgrace as Starmer's chief-of-staff.

It's been known for years that Labour Together target journalists. McSweeney actually went after the Canary, and the mainstream media cheered him on, because these people are scum:

The man pulling Starmer's strings has resigned in disgrace

McSweeney said the Labour right needed to "Kill the Canary - before the Canary kills us".

Guess we're the last bird standing.https://t.co/G3YuBIYAnM

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) February 8, 2026

This is how we reported McSweeney's downfall:

As journalist Paul Holden covered in The Fraud, the Labour Together schemer Morgan McSweeney was the man who spent the last decade manoeuvring to:

Bring down Jeremy Corbyn.

Position the Labour right as the leaders of the Labour Party.

Return to government.

To 'bring down Corbyn', McSweeney worked to ensure that Labour lost the 2017 and 2019 elections. Because we have more than two brain cells, we understood that a group which will work against their own party will work against anyone.

For whatever reason, proper journalists like Yorke and Pogrund didn't think the vicious Labour Together would target them. What a shock it must have been to find out they're not special:

Let me be more explicit about this: Gabriel Pogrund is scum who should be hounded and pelted with rotting fruit through the streets like Cersei Lannister for reading out the shite he was sent by Morgan McSweeney as a national emergency. He knew exactly what he was doing then. https://t.co/qBhdlsyYLb

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) February 15, 2026

Yorke literally engaged in the same sort of smears as Labour Together:

Journalist Harry Yorke was "smeared" by the Labour Right as "part of a Russian conspiracy".

Now, where have I seen such "disgraceful" tactics before?

Israeli 'tours' around occupied Hebron are used as psychological warfare on Palestinians [ 15-Feb-26 3:02pm ]

Outside the City of Hebron is the largest Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. It is called Kiryat Arba, and is thought to house more than 10,000 illegal settlers, although exact numbers are unknown. These large settlements have everything that settlers might need, including schools, health centres and shops. They also have their own roads and buses, which Palestinians are obviously not permitted to use.

But Hebron is unique in Palestine, as it is also the only occupied West Bank city with settlements inside its centre - within Palestinian neighbourhoods. Five settlements, which are all illegal under international law, are within the Old City. Known as H2, this area makes up around 20 per cent of the Hebron centre. It is under full 'Israeli' military control, as opposed to H1, which is under Palestinian Authority administration:

A total of about 500 settlers live in the Old City settlements and are protected by around 1500 Israeli occupation soldiers. Both settlers and the military have made life extremely difficult and dangerous for the 33,000 Palestinians living in H2.

Hebron: increasing the Jewish presence

The Old City of Hebron used to be the commercial centre for the Southern West Bank, but the economy has now collapsed in the area. While the occupation is attempting to drive Palestinians away and erase the Islamic identity of Hebron, it aims to increase Jewish presence in the city. And while Palestinians endure severe military restrictions and daily violence, settlers travel to Hebron every Saturday for a tour of the Old City. They are, of course, protected by large numbers of Israeli occupation soldiers.

The tours, which are surveilled using US-made MQ-9 Reaper drones, start at the al-Ibrahimi Mosque, and allow these settlers to walk around the city and maintain their presence in the area:

The aim is to intimidate Palestinians and show them these Zionist colonisers are in control. It also sends a message to these settlers that Palestinian land and property are there to be taken. Young settlers are encouraged to take back their homes and land that was supposedly promised to them by God thousands of years ago.

In these photos, the settlers can be seen concluding their tour by passing through the gate onto Shuhada Street. This street, once the main commercial centre in the whole of Hebron, is now closed to Palestinians. The building these settlers enter used to be a Palestinian school, until the occupation turned it into a Jewish one.

Ethnic cleansing

Hebron is a significant religious place for both Muslims and Jews. It is one of the four holy cities in Judaism, and Jews consider the city the birthplace of the Jewish people.

In Arabic, Hebron is known as Al Khalil, meaning 'the friend,' referring to Abraham, who is considered a prophet in Islam and whose remains are believed to be buried in the Ibrahimi Mosque. Muslims also believe Hebron was a stopping point during the Prophet Muhammad's night journey to Jerusalem.

Settlers have a five-star lifestyle for free. They are paid a salary, do not need to work and have everything provided to them by the Israeli occupation government, including weapons. They work with the Israeli occupation's government, military and police, making life as difficult as possible for Palestinians.

The aim of the Zionist project is displacement and ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine, and Jewish supremacy in occupied Palestine. These ambitions are enabled by the unconditional support governments around the world give to the criminal state of 'Israel'.

Featured image via the Canary

https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WhatsApp-Video-2026-02-08-at-8.46.48-PM.mp4

Umm al Kheir: the occupied community being terrorised by Israelis [ 15-Feb-26 2:40pm ]

Umm al Kheir is in the South Hebron Hills. It is one of 12 communities that make up Masafer Yatta, in the Israeli-controlled area of the West Bank known as Area C. The village is home to 37 Bedouin families, approximately 300 people. These Palestinians were originally herders in the Negev, but were forcibly displaced from their land by the Israeli occupation during the Nakba of 1948. The community then settled in Masafer Yatta, and has written documents proving ownership of their land.

Illegal colonial settlers are stealing more and more of Umm al Kheir

But since 1981, with the arrival of the first illegal Jewish settlers to the area, the community has suffered immense hardship, which has intensified today. The settlers stole a large area of village land to build the illegal Carmel settlement, where they live today. They regularly terrorise the community and have blocked all entrances to the village for Palestinians, except for one.

Last year, seven settler families stole yet more land, close to the community centre in Umm al Kheir. They are currently living in mobile homes on this land, have fenced off any available grazing, and have recently erected Israeli flags along the whole of its perimeter.

Khalil Hathaleen is Head of the village Council in Umm al Kheir. He tells the Canary about some of the problems the village has been facing.

Last year, Khalil's much-loved brother, Awdah, was fatally shot by an illegal settler, Yinon Levi.

Levi had driven through Umm al Kheir in a bulldozer to carry out infrastructure work at what is now the illegal outpost, next to the community. The killing, which happened in broad daylight, resulted in the occupation arresting Palestinians from Umm al Kheir on stone-throwing charges, while Levi walked free.

Levi, who is sanctioned by the UK, owns a company called Eyal Hari Yehuda Company Ltd, or Eyal Judaean Mountains Company Ltd, which is known for its work demolishing Palestinian homes in both the West Bank and Gaza.

The loss of Awdah was a huge blow to the community, but it was intentional

Awdah was father to three young children, one of whom is still severely traumatised by the killing of his father and is unable to sleep at night. His wife, Hanady, tells us that Awdah is irreplaceable.

She says:

It's really hard to see the settlers getting on with their daily lives, while here they have destroyed a whole community. They destroyed a family; they destroyed my sons. I don't see any life for me now that they have killed my husband. All the happiness and goodness have gone with him. Awdah was loved by everyone, and he made everything easy when he was here.

You thought there were no problems when he was with us. He would solve all the problems and show the world what life was like in Masafer Yatta. They killed him on purpose.

More than 100 structures have been demolished in the village over the years. In October 2025, more homes, the community centre, and the children's playground were all issued final demolition orders. The Israeli occupation is expected to come at any time, to flatten these structures, make families homeless and further destroy the fabric of this community.

Khalil says:

Before 7 October, our community had around 5000 goats and sheep. Now there are around 800, and they are kept inside all the time. The animals are now in jail, and this has destroyed the families here. Now there is no source of income for them.

The Israelis have made them very poor. Some cannot afford basic food, let alone milk, for their kids. Any money from the goats and sheep is now used to cover the food, as they cannot go out to graze at all. This is all happening because of the occupation and the violence from the settlers. The settlers killed my brother. Where is the justice in the world?

The occupation's government, military and police all work together with the settlers, to forcibly displace Palestinians in Umm al Kheir

Recently, a settler went into Umm al Kheir with his sheep. This action was obviously an attempt to intimidate residents of the village and show them that settlers are in control. When activists- who were from the Centre of Jewish Non-Violence, objected to his presence, the police were called out and arrested them, instead of the settler.

There has also been nighttime activity on the stolen land of the outpost, with armed Jewish settlers and their children digging along to music. The occupation's military and police see these actions but do nothing to stop these Zionist colonisers. Instead, they attempt to stop and arrest those who witness and document the occupation's many crimes.

Bedouins are herders and traditionally moved with the seasons to the best grazing areas. Due to the Israeli occupation, this is no longer possible, but their livestock are still an extremely important part of their life and an essential source of income.

But in Umm al Kheir, as in other communities in Masafer Yatta and elsewhere in the West Bank, they have been unable to graze their sheep and goats because of the presence of settlers and the theft of their land.

There are now only 800 animals in Umm al Kheir, down from 4000 several years ago, and they are costing money to keep because they can no longer graze outside. As a result, the community has lost their only source of income and has been left with nothing.

"What's happening in the West Bank is a slow genocide"

Mahmoud Hathaleen, a resident of Umm al Kheir, and a cousin of Awdah, tells the Canary:

Settlers claim that we exist illegally here, and have asked the Israeli government to make more pressure on us, so we leave. They are confiscating our land, demolishing our homes and attacking us in the night, to make pressure on us to leave this land. The outpost built last year has a new road across our land, to connect it to all the settlements.

They made this road in the night, and was supported by the IDF ( Israeli occupying forces), the civil administration and the police. Sometimes these settlers also work in the IDF.There is no light at the end of the tunnel for us. All Palestinian people have lost hope, We all feel there is no solution, no future.

Nobody cares for Palestinian life - not the Arab league, not Europe or the US. What's happening in the West Bank is a slow genocide, killing Palestinians slowly.

The international presence is welcome in Umm al Kheir. This not only plays an essential role in non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation but is urgently needed. Do not be put off from visiting the West Bank. Palestinians in communities across the territory are extremely welcoming and need our help, right now.

https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WhatsApp-Video-2026-02-08-at-9.24.14-PM.mp4

The occupation has only one aim - to colonise and drive Palestinians from their land. This forcible displacement is implemented through violence and land theft by illegal settlers and is happening throughout Area C of the West Bank. These settlers have the full support and backing of the 'Israeli' government, work together with the occupation's military and police, and are protected by them.

Occupation's Security Cabinet has now approved measures to tighten 'Israeli' control over West Bank and make it easier for settlers to purchase Palestinian land

They receive a salary, have no living expenses, and pay no tax. They are all armed by the occupation and given vehicles. In the case of Umm al Kheir, the settlers have also been given sheep and goats. Pylons have also been erected on the village land to provide the settlements with electricity. Whilst Umm al Kheir are not permitted to be connected to the grid, the settlers' chicken factory has electricity 24 hours a day.

Settlers all over the West Bank use "security" issues as an excuse to push the government and the army to expel Palestinians and declare their land a closed military zone. Palestinians are unable to access this land, but settlers are still allowed to move freely in these areas. Several years later, it becomes their own property.

After the signing of the Oslo Accords, in the 1990s, the West Bank was divided into Area A, B and C. Area C makes up more than 60 per cent of the entire West Bank, and is the most fertile, resource-rich land in the occupied territory. But 'Israel' controls everything in area C, including 'security' and planning.

On 8 February 2026, the "Security Cabinet" also approved measures pushed by Ministers Katz and Smotrich, to deepen the de facto annexation of the West Bank. The 'Israeli" government has described these as steps towards the "normalisation " of Jewish life in the West Bank.

These approved decisions will bring far-reaching changes to land registration and will make it much easier for settlers to acquire Palestinian land and build settlements.

According to the Jerusalem Post, a Jordanian-era law has also been repealed, which barred the sale of land to Jews. The approved decisions also allow the Israeli occupation to demolish buildings owned by Palestinian families in Area A.

Despite constant fear and uncertainty, the people of Umm al Kheir remain steadfast. Every demolished home is rebuilt; every fenced-off patch of land becomes a reminder of what they refuse to relinquish — their right to exist on their own ancestral soil. Each act of resistance is a refusal to disappear. Despite everything, the community of Umm al Kheir still believes in freedom.

Featured image and additional images via the Canary

Even Wes Streeting is decent compared to Keir Starmer [ 15-Feb-26 1:54pm ]

Imagine if you will, for just one moment, having the fucking brass neck to (falsely) boast that you booted Jeremy Corbyn out of the Labour Party while that utterly vile specimen, Epstein's best pal, Mandelson, was up to his eyeballs in nonce-worshipping. Corbyn's Labour certainly had its faults, but it never recruited Peter Mandelson. No shadow cabinet appointments, no diplomatic roles, Crony Mandelson was persona non grata.

Keir Starmer's government is a gutless, corporate-kowtowing betrayal of everything the Labour Party was supposed to stand for under Jeremy Corbyn. A Corbyn premiership would have been a revolutionary upgrade, not this tepid, right-leaning bullshit we're stuck with.

I guess it's easy to think about what could've been.

What could have been

Corbyn's Labour would have built solidarity with global struggles rather than bowed to NATO warmongers and US hegemony. Starmer's Labour is a whitewashed, Zionist-appeasing machine that silences dissent and props up imperialism.

Corbyn's Labour would have prioritised aid over arms and cooperation over conquest, turning the UK into a force for global equity, not another lapdog for empire. Starmer's Labour has escalated tensions with Russia and China to please the Atlanticist overlords and ramped up military spending to 2.5% of GDP while nurses line up at food banks.

Corbyn's Labour would have ended the failed neoliberal austerity policies that have hollowed out Britain for decades. Rail, mail, water, and energy would've been back in public hands where they belong, rather than lining the pockets of fat cat shareholders. Starmer's Labour ruthlessly ditched those Corbyn-lite pledges faster than a rat fleeing a sinking ship. His "fiscal responsibility" rhetoric is simply code for continuing Tory-lite cuts, cosying up to big business with tax breaks for the filthy rich while public services crumble to the fucking ground.

Starmer's Britain

Starmer's Britain is still a playground for billionaires, while Corbyn would have taxed them into oblivion to fund the NHS properly, not this half-arsed patching-up.

Starmer's "growth" is a euphemism for gangrenous decay. NHS waiting lists are stagnating, schools are falling apart and councils are on the brink of bankruptcy, all while he funnels your billions into private health vultures and arms dealers.

Keir Starmer isn't building Britain, he's burying it alive, six-feet-deep in austerity's grave, like a gravedigger with a knighthood.

You see, Jeremy Corbyn wasn't just a better option, he was the perfect antidote to the poisonous, soul-sucking capitalist rot that Keir Starmer is peddling as "change".

So next time you hear or see the oligarchs plaything taking a swipe at his predecessor, just remember the Labour Party didn't have a place for an honourable, decent man like Jeremy Corbyn, but it has plenty of room for paedo-enablers, Tel Aviv bootlickers, corporate shills and Blairite zombies.

And that's just Peter Mandelson.

Decency???

To be honest, I am absolutely sick of hearing the liberal media tell us that Keir Starmer is a beacon of decency, a steady hand rescuing Britain from Tory chaos. In reality, the BBC and Guardian's insistence on Starmer's decency is just cover for their own complicity in propping up a system that chews up poor and working class people.

Starmer is anything but decent. If you have read the last five hundred words you might even agree with me, wherever you place yourself on the Overton Window.

Starmer's entire rise reeks of deceit and opportunism.

Starmer won the Labour leadership in 2020 by pledging a raft of left-wing Corbyn-lite policies such as scrapping tuition fees, nationalising utilities, and defending migrants rights. But once in power, they were abandoned faster than a bad date.

That isn't decent, it's calculated betrayal.

What about the freebies? I haven't forgotten about that, and I doubt you have either. More than £100,000 of freebies from the elite — more than every other Labour leader combined — while pensioners freeze and children go hungry under Labour's austerity-lite regime.

If that's decent, I'm a devoted Faragist.

Authoritarian thuggery

Then there's Starmer's vicious purge of the Labour left, which the liberal media whitewashes as "professionalising" the party. Starmer and his former enforcer, Morgan McSweeney, have systematically expelled or marginalised anyone with a whiff of socialism under the guise of rooting out antisemitism, but really to crush dissent and drag the party to the right to the delight of their elitist paymasters.

Decency? No. Authoritarian thuggery? Yes.

On Gaza, his slow-footed, mealy-mouthed response to Israel's actions has been a national embarrassment and a fucking disgrace and has truly exposed his lack of moral spine.

Complicit Keir Starmer is a jellyfish, drifting with the tides of power rather than boldly standing against injustice.

Even the ultra-Blairite, Wes Streeting privately thinks Israel is a "rogue state" committing "war crimes" and "calculated brutality", yet publicly it's business as usual for this dreadful, callous government.

Remember, "decent" Starmer rolled out the red carpet for Israel's war criminals, licensed the tools of their barbaric, criminal slaughter, and suppressed the movement demanding accountability, only to be told it was unlawful.

Maybe someone in the liberal media can explain to me how supplying military equipment to a baby-killing regime is in any way, "decent"?

Haven't the actions of this vile, discredited Prime Minister caused enough harm to children already? Their blood is on your grubby hands, Keir Starmer.

Starmer: a gutless fraud

Less than two years into the age of beige, Starmer is the most unpopular PM on record, with polls tanking and chants calling him a "wanker" echoing from football grounds to darts halls across the country.

We are not fooled. Keir Starmer isn't a fighter for the people, he is a doormat for the establishment.

Keir Starmer isn't decent, he is a man without conviction and the embodiment of everything that is so very wrong with centrist politics — hollow, elitist, and utterly treacherous.

Starmer's diabolical legacy was secured some time before the latest Peter Mandelson scandal.

History will not remember Keir Starmer as a decent Prime Minister, it will remember him for the gutless fraud that he is.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachael Swindon

Reform just revealed its plan to tackle poverty is to deny it exists [ 15-Feb-26 1:05pm ]

Reform UK - Zia Yusuf and Trevor Phillips

If you're wondering how Reform plan to tackle poverty, we now have an answer to that. The plan is to deny it even exists

Zia Yusuf claims that "real poverty does exist in this country."
@TrevorPTweets challenges Reform UK's head of policy on his comments #TrevorPhillips https://t.co/LFPXoeri6h pic.twitter.com/lqN76RkQ1q

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 15, 2026

Denial

In the clip above, Zia Yusuf says:

So firstly, it's really important people understand when the term poverty is used primarily by left-wing politicians, let's define that term. It is… a relative term, which means that you could literally - this is a mathematical fact - you could increase everybody's incomes tenfold and that statistic would stay the same.

Oh my god, shut the fuck up, you oily, little nerd.

'I can tell you mathematically what poverty is'.

You sound like a Star Trek android, and not the good one.

We can tell you what poverty is, Zia, because most of us here at the Canary have experienced it.

Poverty is not having enough to get by.

Poverty is watching your outgoings outpace your incomings.

Poverty is spending hours a week figuring out how to make the money go around.

Poverty is constantly worrying about bills and life choices.

Poverty is fear and anxiety.

Poverty is the feeling that things will only get worse.

Yusuf thinks it's a mathematical equation, because he has no idea what the fuck he's talking about; he's just another ex-Tory, ex-Goldman Sachs rich boy who wants to gut the welfare state to give his billionaire mates handouts.

Too much will never be enough for these people.

They will take more than they can ever spend, and they will shit, and piss, and moan as they bite the hand that feeds them.

Yusuf continued:

But the most important thing is that Reform, we are fiscally prudent, and we wanted to make sure anything we announced was going to be fiscally neutral.

"Fiscally prudent", is it?

If you're familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, start imagining the end credits now as you read the following headlines:

Reform have totally let the cat out of the bag about who they are.

Zia Yusuf lecturing that poverty and peoples everyday struggles with rising bills and rent is exaggerated.

A party of the failed status quo, funded and representing big corporate interests. https://t.co/G000aCvbLl

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 15, 2026

Social bullshittery

Phillips asked Yusuf if poverty measures are all made up, to which Yusuf responded:

No, it's worse than that, because real poverty does exist in this country, Trevor. And absolute poverty does exist in very, very small pockets. If you actually want to do the right thing for as many people as possible in this country, then you need to create social mobility. That has been crushed by the Tory government and now this Labour government.

To be clear, 'social mobility' is not the phenomenon in which everyone becomes more affluent. It's the phenomenon in which some working class people land middle class jobs. This is great for sly politicians like Yusuf, because it allows them to point at the fortunate few and say:

See - it is possible for you layabouts to earn more — anyone on poverty wages is just lazy.

If you're old enough, you will remember the UK's middle class did indeed expand in the 90s. Social mobility was happening on a larger scale, and we got the 'lower middle class' — i.e. working class families who could afford to alternate between taking their kids on holiday to Menorca and Butlin's Pwllheli (if that seems oddly specific, I'm talking from experience).

This phenomenon happened because we took advantage of the cheap labour of countries like China, allowing us to live beyond our previous means. We could have locked in that progress, and ensured the country's wealth was evenly distributed. We didn't do that; instead we got runaway capitalism, with the rich claiming more wealth and authority, and the rest of us losing our rights and purchasing power.

Now, we're at a point where social mobility can't happen because even the middle class are fucking struggling. Tinkering around the edges or making savings here or there won't cut it; we need to hobble the billionaire class, and we need to rob them of their power and influence.

Only then can we have a society in which people can live day to day without dreading tomorrow.

Bootstrapping

You've probably heard the phrase 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps', but did you know where it comes from? As Useless Etymology report:

The phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" originated shortly before the turn of the 20th century. It's attributed to a late-1800s physics schoolbook that contained the example question "Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?"

So when it became a colloquial phrase referring to socioeconomic advancement shortly thereafter, it was meant to be sarcastic, or to suggest that it was an impossible accomplishment.

It's literally impossible for everyone in a capitalist system to be well off and content, because it's a tornado designed to pull everything up to the top.

In other words, beware of geeks bearing false grifts.

Featured image via the Canary

Polanski demolishes denial of Starmer's authoritarianism [ 15-Feb-26 12:16pm ]

Zack Polanski has appeared on the 15 February edition of Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips. If you're unfamiliar with Phillips, he has a decades' long history in Labour Party politics. As such, it wasn't surprising to see him denying the creeping authoritarianism which is happening under Keir Starmer's government:

Phillips "This is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things they say"@ZackPolanski: 2,700 people have been arrested for holding up signs

And well done to Zack for challenging Phillips smear that 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is antisemitic pic.twitter.com/fuEDYQJa9K

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Labour liar, pants on fire

In the clip above, Phillips says:

In the press release today, you talk about a 'Big Brother Britain'. I'm assuming that you're talking about George Orwell's oppressive state rather than the telly programme. Isn't this going over the top a bit? I mean, this is not a country where people get thrown in jail for things… they say, at least not very often.

If you're a regular reader of the Canary, you'll know this is complete horseshit from Phillips. Thankfully, Polanski explained why for us:

Well, I think we're spiralling down that road. First of all, we saw 2,700 people potentially imprisoned, some of them waiting trials, a lot of them for holding up signs saying, I oppose a genocide. We have seen a genocide happen in Israel now for the last couple of years.

To add some specificity, the signs in question said this:

I oppose #GenocideInGaza I support #PalestineAction https://t.co/6j08nAMQNS

— Steve Mackie (@1SteveMackie) February 14, 2026

The government proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, which allowed them to arrest those who support the group. The people who held these signs got arrested for speech, albeit in written form.

As we reported on 13 February, a court has now overturned the proscription. Polanski also touched on this:

"The govt have been completely shamed in court & I'm proud the entire Green MP group all voted against proscription of Palestine Action"@ZackPolanski on the high court declaring the proscription unlawful pic.twitter.com/XUqaelUN8o

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

Back to the interview, Phillips responded:

No, that's not the signs that they're being arrested for. It is signs which say things like, from the river to the sea, a sign which imply elimination of the State of Israel, which are at some sense antisemitic and intimidating.

This simply isn't true; Trevor Phillips is a fucking liar.

He's not just any liar, either; he's a liar who picked Peter Mandelson of all people to be the best man at his wedding.

The 2,700 in question relates to those arrested for supporting Palestine Action. Additionally, the 'River to the Sea' chant is a call for the Palestinians to no longer be contained in an open air prison — not anything else.

Polanski responded:

Well, as a Jewish person, I don't find that antisemitic. And in fact, Benjamin Netanyahu himself has used that phrase.

I'm one of only five people in British history who have been Jewish and lead a political party. So antisemitism needs to be taken really seriously in the same way that Islamophobia or any form of racism or hate crime needs to be taken seriously.

But criticism of the Israeli government, I would say, is a moral responsibility when we're seeing what they are doing to innocent people day in, day out. And our government is not just complicit in that. They are actively enabling it.

So for people who are protesting against the genocide, I would say those people are actual patriots of this country who are saying, let's have a world where we make sure we're standing for human rights.

It's not just Palestine action, though, by the way. We've seen authoritarianism over the prime minister wanting mandatory ID cards. We've seen the authoritarianism of scrapping jury trials. Pattern over pattern shows that Keir Starmer is a deeply desperate caretaker prime minister who is clinging on to power by trying to crush dissent.

Things took a turn for the ridiculous later on, by the way:

So Phillips moved from talking about thousands of people arrested under terrorism legislation for holding up signs to criticising the idea that the UK is becoming an oppressive police state & then declaring the solution to fly tipping is more surveillance. He really is woeful.

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 15, 2026

In bed

As Novara's Aaron Bastani highlighted, the New Labour types have a lot of support in broadcast media:

The press broadly backs the Tories. But why does the Labour right get such easy treatment from broadcast media?

The answer is political sympathies. Just look at who is married to who. TV news, and New Labour, until recently, went together like sun and shadow. pic.twitter.com/zwPZJOkUNl

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 5, 2026

Haven't seen many/any videos of the broadcast media harassing Mandelson outside his house. Was constant during Corbyn leadership - and indeed for some time after.

I'd say 'curious', but it's because basically the whole of broadcast media (except GB News) swings New Labour.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 10, 2026

Phillips perverting reality as he did above is a clear example of this.

Featured image via the Canary

Rupert Lowe's 'Restore' is bad news for everyone but the Green Party [ 15-Feb-26 12:03pm ]

Gains for Greens: Rupert Lowe, Zack Polanski, and a new poll

As we reported on 14 February, Reform-reject Rupert Lowe has formed his own party called 'Revive'.

Or was it 'Repeat'?

Hang on a minute…

…oh, it's actually 'Restore'.

We're sure it won't cause a problem that the 'Reform' and 'Restore' are basically the same word.

And sarcasm aside, it does look like the Lowe vehicle has legs:

This the first opinion poll, hypothetical or otherwise, to show the Green Party polling at 20%

McSweeney's sabotage outfit spied on Murdoch hacks [ 15-Feb-26 11:41am ]

Labour Together hired to spy on Times journalists

'Labour Together' — the sabotage outfit that brought down Jeremy Corbyn and conned Labour members into choosing Keir Starmer — paid investigators to spy on, and smear two Times journalists. Unsurprisingly, the pair — Harry Yorke and Gabriel Pogrund — have publicised their experience as unique.

@Gabriel_Pogrund and I were the subject of a disgraceful smear campaign — just for doing our jobs

I'm proud that The Sunday Times is calling it out on the front page tomorrow

Labour activists paid for smear campaign against journalists https://t.co/Uw9UjNJtzm

— Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) February 14, 2026

Labour Together pursues journalists

The Sunday Times, which covered the story, reported that:

The group that helped to get Sir Keir Starmer elected as Labour leader hired lobbyists to investigate the personal, political and religious background of a Sunday Times journalist behind an article about secret donations that funded its work.

Labour Together paid £36,000 to Apco, a US public affairs firm, to examine the "backgrounds and motivations" of reporters behind a story before the general election.

The aim was to discredit The Sunday Times's reporting by falsely suggesting its journalists might be part of a Russian conspiracy or had relied on emails hacked by the Kremlin.

Apco produced a 58-page report including almost ten pages of deeply personal and false claims about Gabriel Pogrund, the Sunday Times Whitehall editor. He and Harry Yorke, the newspaper's deputy political editor, were named as "persons of significant interest".

Old news

But Pogrund and Yorke only stand out for being the only 'mainstream' hacks known to have been targeted by Labour Together. The pressure group was formerly run by disgraced Starmer adviser Morgan McSweeney and other 'red Tories' in Starmer's faction. But these latest revelations and labour Together'S spying activities is not new — not in any real sense. Their not-so-covert operations have been in the public domain for months.

In fact, news of the spying broke on the Canary in September 2025. McSweeney's outfit set investigators on Paul Holden, the author of The Fraud. This exposes Labour Together's dark tactics and Starmer's dishonesty. Furthermore, the book has been serialised by the Canary.

Labour Together did the same to Andrew Feinstein, the author and former Mandela government minister. He stood against Starmer in the 2024 general election and decimated his majority. Moreover, it did the same to journalists John McEvoy, Khadija Sharife and Peter Geoghegan.

Labour Together's spies targeted Pogrund for being Jewish — ironic given their weaponisation of supposed 'Labour antisemitism' against Corbyn and the left. But they did the same to the Jewish Feinstein. They smeared Pogrund and Yorke as being linked to Russia — they'd done the same to Feinstein and Holden.

In fact, not even the 'news' about Yorke and Pogrund is new. The Canary reported it last week. No wonder McSweeney and his cadre are scared of the Canary. They have tried and failed to destroy it while Corbyn was still leading Labour.

Featured image via the Canary

Labour referred to police for alleged by-election bribery [ 15-Feb-26 10:52am ]

Labour Party — Lucy Powell in front of an Indian buffer

The by-election in Gorton & Denton is looking like a two-way race between the Green Party and Reform UK, but Labour are still fighting to win.

According to a new report in the Telegraph, Labour are throwing the kitchen sink at the race. Or, to be more specific, they're using the sink — and everything else in the kitchen — to prepare delectably illegal meals for potential voters (allegedly):

Labour referred to police over freebie gala dinner for 600 Gorton & Denton voters - attended by senior Labour figures including deputy leader Lucy Powell
Electoral law bans using food and drink to corruptly influence voters
Paywall-free link in replies

Independents gear up to kick out 'Labour-Tory coalition council' in Kirklees [ 15-Feb-26 10:16am ]

Kirklees council coalition of independents

Independent progressives have launched their local election campaign to defeat what they call the "Labour-Tory coalition council" in the West Yorkshire borough of Kirklees. They say the "corrupt" council has "bowed the knee" to London's austerity agenda. And they're fighting back with a promise to stop destructive cuts and closures once and for all.

The Canary went along to the campaign launch to find out more.

Kirklees independents challenge Labour-Tory coalition

Campaigners, trade unionists, and politicians across Kirklees have been working together for months now to oppose cuts, racism, and war. They form the People's Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE), and have received the support of Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn of Your Party.

PACE has consistently highlighted the serious issues facing local communities, supporting community campaigns against controversial council decisions. And in October, it showed the power of grassroots organisation with an impressive march through the town of Huddersfield.

On 7 February, PACE held its election campaign launch in Huddersfield. And at the end of the event, the Canary spoke to:

Mohammed Abubakar

Abubakar will be standing as an independent candidate in the Crosland Moor ward, where he grew up. And he's making it very clear to voters that he's "not in it for a career or for money", because he has promised to donate:

at least £200 every month from my personal allowance to local projects.

He stressed that:

Poverty has been on the increase, whereas we're one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

And in particular, he said:

Young people have been neglected so much in our area.

The underfunding of schools and closure of youth centres has coincided with problems with crime. And as Abubakar asserted:

When you have kids picking up knives or guns and we have teenagers going into this gang culture, they're not to blame. We are.

He wants to act as "a servant" to local people, listening to them and voicing their concerns. And apart from issues like fly-tipping, potholes, and restoring parks, people have told him about a family becoming homeless following a parent's death or an employee needing food-bank support despite being in work.

Abubakar's values have driven him to take action. As he told us:

The best of mankind are those who benefit mankind the most. And so, if I'm not benefiting people, then I've just wasted my life.

He already participates in the running of a "young leaders programme" and a food bank — supporting the distribution of hot meals to the community since 2021. Speaking to the Canary, a longstanding member of the community emphasised how:

things have just got worse and worse and worse.

He added:

I think a lot of people have lost hope in politics, and rightly so. But I think the solution, the answer to that isn't to step away… we still need to carry on fighting and supporting candidates that are there for the community.

Mike Forster

Forster will be standing as a PACE candidate in the Ashbrow ward. And he insisted:

Our priority is twofold in this area. One, we have to stop Reform. That has to be our number one priority. And the second will be that we've got to kick out this corrupt Labour council. And for that to happen, there will need to be cooperation between the independents, PACE and any other candidates who we would see as being progressive left, and they hopefully will have the power. We, by our arithmetic, then we think that we will have the majority of the councillors who will be able to form a group within the council who can hopefully run affairs.

On the council, Forster would prioritise opposing attempts to privatise dementia homes, stopping a local property development causing a public health crisis due to the presence of asbestos and other toxic substances, reversing the closure of leisure centres, and preventing ongoing rises to council taxes.

He also clarified what PACE will be pushing for, saying:

We're advocating what we call the needs budget. That is that the budget should be led by the needs of the people of Kirklees and not by the budget that's imposed by a centralised government. And that will mean having to stand up to the government and demanding more resources for Kirklees. I'm not afraid to do that.

This Labour council has bowed the knee because it is a Labour government and they're too afraid to speak out for themselves and for the people of Kirklees, and that's why they've got to go.

A "clique" of around four people run the council today, he said, and "yes people" in the cabinet just "go along with everything that they say":

And when Labour needs the votes, they reach out to the Tories, who are only too happy to go into coalition with Labour in order to force through cuts.

This is why they "need to go", he insisted:

They need to fight for the local communities and not for their own party labels or their own careers.

Unity on the left

Many candidates, Forster asserted:

would have stood under the Your Party banner if we'd got our act together.

And it's "very disappointing" that this didn't happen on time, he lamented. But PACE isn't about sitting around and waiting. It's about getting on with organising on the ground, as:

we've demonstrated through PACE over the last year with our demonstration, our founding conference, and all the campaigns that we have supported.

Addressing the topic of unity on the left, he said there have been conversations with the Green Party and, hopefully, "an electoral agreement" will eventually come. He added that current Green councillors have locally "been supportive of what we've been doing" and asserted:

we will continue to work with them in whatever way we can.

Regarding progressive independent candidates Abubakar and Naeem, meanwhile, he stressed that they're:

founding members of PACE and have supported everything that we've done, and they will be standing on the programme that PACE stands for as well.

He also asserted:

We've already started work in the areas where we're standing… and the response we've already been getting on the doorsteps is encouraging.

Alison Gaughan

Gaughan is a trade unionist and disability rights campaigner, and she has also been active in PACE. She will be supporting the local election campaign in Kirklees against what is:

effectively a Labour-Tory coalition council that is failing the people of Kirklees

The council, she said:

is pushing through cuts, blaming them on the government. But really, they just don't care about the effect it has on working-class people. There's a lack of democracy in the council — all the decisions are made in backrooms by a small group of councillors.

She added:

I teach young people from some of the most deprived wards in Kirklees, and really there's just been let down after let down for these communities.

A key slogan for PACE, she asserted, is:

we're against cuts and closures

And while collaboration and unity on the left is essential, she said cuts and closures are absolutely "our red line". So in terms of working with Greens or other progressives:

if they stay the right side of [that line], yeah, we'll work with them.

Waseem Naeem

Naeem will be standing as an independent in the Greenhead ward. He emphasised his desire for:

Love and peace to everyone

But he also told us:

I'm not afraid of saying what needs to be said… Change is not going to happen by being as nice as pie.

Having grown up on a council estate at a time when it "was a bit of a taboo for Pakistani Asians", it wasn't always easy. As he said:

I remember coming home, saying to my mum, why am I this colour? Why am I being called this?

But he added:

I'm very, very thankful that my mum got me the right ethics and values into my mind where she always said 'we've got it bad now, but there are far more good people than bad people'. So my whole life has revolved around knowing that there are far more good people who are quiet than bad people who are loud.

And remembering the nice people around him growing up, he insisted:

We need that community cohesion back. It doesn't matter where you're from, what you've done, but we need to listen to one another so we can eradicate the fears that people have got and put hope into one another that 'you know what? That person walking down the street, my next door neighbour, we're all here to live peacefully at the end of the day and work for one another and we all want everyone to be happy.

For young people in particular, he stressed, many just want hope:

Recently it's kind of nosedived because they're thinking 'well, there's nothing for us to do'…

Following a "spate of knife crime", he said:

I helped to set up the Safe Zone Project… [which] has all been about community spirit.

And as he asserted:

If we have somewhere that the youth know they can go to, as a youth club primarily… it will open a floodgate and it will deal with a lot of stuff. Knife crime will go down itself, gang culture will go down itself, and there will be that community cohesion.

If he gets into the council, he insisted, the local people will be the boss.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

Trump plans to illegally suppress the vote in the Midterm Elections [ 15-Feb-26 9:43am ]

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®

14-Feb-26

Zahawi recounts terrifying moment he met a tired man in London [ 14-Feb-26 4:32pm ]

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

Tommy Robinson claims to be on the run from ISIS [ 14-Feb-26 4:06pm ]

Images of Tommy Robinson in a state of panic

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

Ellie Chowns wins applause on BBC QT, exposing Reform UK immigration myths [ 14-Feb-26 3:52pm ]

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

Epstein victims claim DoJ un-redacted their names to intimidate them [ 14-Feb-26 2:12pm ]

Epstein victims standing behind Pam Bondi

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

Zarah Sultana calls out Lib Dems' Palestine Action hypocrisy [ 14-Feb-26 1:44pm ]

Zarah Sultana and Ed Davey in front of a pro-Palestine march

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.

BBC removes head of Arabic service to please racist Israel lobby [ 14-Feb-26 1:19pm ]

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

Rupert Lowe's Reform breakaway party is already attracting Tories [ 14-Feb-26 12:49pm ]

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

Dual-nationals fighting for Israel implicated in war crimes [ 14-Feb-26 12:27pm ]

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.

United States: 12,135 soldiers
France: 6,127 soldiers
Russia: 5,067 soldiers
Germany: 3,901 soldiers
Ukraine: 3,210 soldiers
Britain: 1,686 soldiers
Romania: 1,675 soldiers
Poland: 1,668 soldiers
Ethiopia: 1,387 soldiers
Canada: 1,185 soldiers
Hungary: 885 soldiers
Italy: 828 soldiers
Argentina: 609 soldiers
Netherlands: 559 soldiers
Brazil: 505 soldiers
Australia: 502 soldiers
South Africa: 415 soldiers
Belgium: 406 soldiers
Austria: 390 soldiers
Switzerland: 373 soldiers
Spain: 372 soldiers
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

Polanski calls Starmer 'caretaker PM' in response to 'extremist' jibes [ 14-Feb-26 10:46am ]

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

"Boycott Israel" — Irish football team rally against Zionist sport-washing [ 14-Feb-26 10:29am ]

Calls to boycott Israel in UEFA Nations League

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

Northern Irish police caution Palestine Action activist, despite High Court victory [ 14-Feb-26 9:49am ]

Palestine Action activists cautioned by police

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

DWP slammed by MPs for demonising claimants instead of fixing own system [ 13-Feb-26 11:44pm ]

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

Genocide-enabling France uses fake video to demand Albanese resignation [ 13-Feb-26 11:35pm ]

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

13-Feb-26

EXCLUSIVE: TSSA union boasts - and accused of lying - about disenfranchising retired members [ 13-Feb-26 10:32pm ]

The TSSA union's deeply unpopular general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust moved this week to disenfranchise all the union's retired members - and now she's boasting about it. Not just that, but senior TSSA figures say that she and her coterie are lying to justify it - and have put the union's structures into collapse.

TSSA union: yet more scandal

In an email to members, the union management boasted that it is "proud" of what it has done - and claimed that disenfranchising TSSA's many retired members was "long overdue" and "another important Kennedy Review milestone":

We are proud to share that TSSA has reached another important Kennedy Review milestone.Following a recommendation of the Kennedy Review, the Executive Committee has agreed to consolidate our retired members into a single National TSSA Retired Members' Branch. This is a long-overdue change and brings TSSA into line with the approach already adopted by many other unions.

This new national structure will provide retired members with a centralised branch through which they can coordinate strategically, share experience, and network with peers at their own pace and convenience. Just as importantly, it will amplify the collective voice of retired members, creating a strong "super branch" that can speak clearly and confidently within the union and beyond.

We look forward to working closely with members of the new National Retired Members' Branch and to the valuable contribution they will continue to make to TSSA's life and direction.

This change will also have an impact on working members. As retired members move into the national branch, there may be vacancies for officer roles in local branches/divisional councils. We strongly encourage members to step forward and consider standing for these positions where opportunities arise.

The Kennedy Report exposed the bullying and sexual harassment of former general secretary Manuel Cortes and his cronies. Members and staff, furious at Eslamdoust's endless war on union workers and member democracy, are not shy about saying that Eslamdoust is propagating the abuses of the Cortes era rather than undoing them.

But the Kennedy Report doesn't say one word about closing retired branches. Not one.

No recommendations to close branches

In fact, the report only mentions retired members - at all - one single time. Not to recommend closing their branches, but to say that the union relies too heavily on them and needs to encourage more working members to take up positions.

It also notes that if working members are not actively engaged in the union, TSSA management can easily stitch up elections to key positions - ironically exactly how Eslamdoust was installed despite having no relevant experience. Because of this, the report suggests that TSSA staff who are not TSSA members (most are GMB members, a union now de-recognised by Eslamdoust and her allies:

Finally, for this foreword, I want the TSSA to examine its democratic standing and traditions. It appears that engagement at branch level is dwindling and is heavily orientated towards retired members. This can present a real problem. Not only because it detaches the leadership from reality of the current world of work as it is being experienced by members, but also because it means there is no healthy throughput of talent to key roles within the organisation. Only TSSA members can stand for election to General Secretary (GS), the most powerful role in the union. The most likely candidate to be successful in a GS election is someone who knows the organisation inside and out - i.e. a staff member. Very few staff members belong to the TSSA. So, GS elections are, to all intents and purposes, uncontested (or are notionally contested by candidates who have little prospect of winning). A key individual is seen to be 'groomed' for the post by the small number of senior managers who hold power, and that individual is then 'crowned.'

That's all clear enough - and not remotely what the management claims. So to try to persuade furious members that it is, Eslamdoust's ally John Rees sent an email to retired members claiming that the change is "fully aligned" with Kennedy's recommendations. And to embellish the claim, he added that it was "comprehensively and fully accepted" by the union's annual conference after its publication:

This change is fully aligned with the recommendations of the Kennedy Report, which was comprehensively and fully accepted by TSSA Annual Conference in 2023. The report set out a clear direction to consolidate retired members' structures in order to strengthen representation, improve consistency, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Nonsense

Poppycock, says retired assistant general secretary Steve Coe - who wrote and moved the 2023 conference motion. Coe told Skwawkbox:

Mr Rees has been fed this from on high, a deliberate lie to justify their actions.

Coe added that the 2023 conference motion merely 'noted' the Kennedy Report and did not endorse it, let alone "comprehensively and fully". He underlined that there are no Kennedy recommendations "relating specifically to retired members" and "certainly not to consolidate retired members' structures".

He went on:

This is not only a massive blow to retired members, who have now almost entirely lost their representation and their voice at conference. It's also a massive blow to the majority of TSSA's working branches. Most branches run on retired members. Most will struggle to fill officer positions and struggle even to have a quorum in order to vote validly on anything or put motions to conference.

But this is not accidental. TSSA management is not just silencing retired members, it's silencing most members and neutering conference - all to protect a general secretary who is unfit for the role and held in contempt by members and staff.

Coe also pointed out the inherently discriminatory nature of the move:

Retired members are now all forced into a branch consisting only of other retired members. They have been summarily ousted from positions they were democratically elected and are barred from standing for them again. It's ageism and illegal, as well as completely undemocratic - neither retired members, nor the wider membership through conference, have been consulted, let alone asked to vote on it.

A wrecking ball to TSSA

In 2024, Eslamdoust and her allies wrecked the TSSA's annual conference and blocked a planned no-confidence vote against her.

But this is just the tip of a very large iceberg of member, rep and staff disgust with their 'leader'. The TSSA has been embroiled for years in strikes because of the union workers' fury at Eslamdoust's attacks on them and their GMB union reps, both public and private. The attacks culminated, in January 2026, with Eslamdoust de-recognising GMB as the workplace union - an outrageous move for a union boss that came after Eslamdoust told the Guardian that she is only being criticised because she is female.

After her demand for special treatment failed, the TSSA is now accused of trying to neuter democratic opposition - starting with retired members.

Featured image via the Canary

Voting Labour just handed Reform a council by-election win in a "warning" for Gorton and Denton [ 13-Feb-26 9:50pm ]

Throughout social media, people are warning that a Reform victory in a council by-election is a lesson for the parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton.

The results? Reform win.

Reform won in Fletton and Woodston with 29.4% of the vote. The Greens narrowly came second on 27.6%. Meanwhile, Labour were fourth on 16.8%.

Many social media users are pointing out that Labour has split the vote here. If just a few of the voters for the governing party had opted for the Greens, then the Zack Polanski-led party would've won the seat and not Reform.

One user said voting Green Party is a double win:

vote labour, get reform. vote green not just to keep out reform, but for policies you can actually believe in! that actually want to help normal people! what a revelation!

Commentator Owen Jones, meanwhile, called the council result a "warning":

A warning here. The Greens nearly won - but Labour split the vote, handing Reform the seat.

Former MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who defected to the Greens, added:

Labour splitting the vote and letting Reform in. Up and down the county the only way to stop reform is to vote Green.

Polanski: 'Labour is not a left-wing vote'

The Electoral Calculus has the Greens winning the seat, not Reform. But in the world of the corporate media, opting for the Greens splits the 'left' vote, not Labour. ITV's Robert Peston recently challenged Green leader Zack Polanski on that:

Wouldn't you regret Reform UK coming through in Gorton and Denton if The Greens split the left vote?

Polanski responded:

We cannot say that Keir Starmer's Labour would be a left wing vote. This is the party that wanted to slash disability benefits, then had to be shamed not to do it. It's the same party that eventually lifted the two child benefit cap, but it took over 18 months of children living in poverty. And it's the same party that is arming an ongoing genocide in Gaza. So I don't think on any metric you can say Keir Starmer's Labour party represents the left in the country. That's why I'm confident and not complacent that we can win in Gorton and Denton.

It's arguable that Keir Starmer's Labour is closer to Reform than the Greens. And as Polanski has previously said, it would take a change of leadership and direction for the Greens to work with Labour against Reform.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

Matt Goodwin claims young men are flocking to Reform. Facts utterly demolish him. [ 13-Feb-26 9:42pm ]

Reform's candidate for the parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, Matt Goodwin, claimed on social media:

One of the untold stories in British politics right now is Reform's very strong support among young men.

But people swiftly pointed out that the favoured party among young men is actually the Greens, according to YouGov.

The facts vs Matt Goodwin

For young men, Green support is at 30%, and Labour support is at 21%. When it comes to the Lib Dems, it's 17% for young men, while the Conservatives and Reform both trail on 12%.

Matt Goodwin's narrative is actually the opposite of the truth. Young men appear to understand that their material conditions will improve through cuts in the cost of living rather than through cuts to public services. And that a shift from landlords to affordable housing would benefit them. Free tuition for university may also play a part. The Greens harbour these policies.

There are other factors that play into how young men might vote. 42% of men aged 20-34 say they feel lonely "often or very often," and, concerningly, there is a very high suicide rate for men under 50.

But the YouGov polling suggests that young men are turning towards hope and a more integrated society that recognises the individual but also the importance of community.

Gorton and Denton

Matt Goodwin's rival in the Green Party at the Gorton and Denton by-election has exemplified why many are turning to her party. Speaking to Channel 4, Hannah Spencer said:

We care about lots of different things. We care about what's happening here locally, as well as things across the world… Living standards are lower here, people's incomes aren't changing, and we have fuel poverty, which is not even a phrase we should be using in 2026. We need people in parliament where the decisions are being made, that have got the background and the relevant lived experience, to be able to feed into decisions that are being made

As a plumber, Green candidate Spencer says she understands hard graft and will therefore represent the working class parliament.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

Quakers bring reparations conversation into parliament amid growing debate [ 13-Feb-26 7:57pm ]

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Wale Hudson-Roberts and Richard Reddie at Quaker reparations meeting in parliament

As debates about Britain's history, race, and responsibility continue to surface, Quakers in Britain have co-hosted a discussion in Parliament exploring what reparations might mean in practice.

The event took the title 'Approaches to Reparations: Faith-Based, Community, and Grassroots Perspectives'. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on African Reparations co-hosted and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP chaired.

It brought together faith leaders, community organisers, and racial justice advocates. They took part in an open conversation about accountability, repair, and justice in a UK context.

Reparations are a process

Interest in reparations for African chattel enslavement has grown in recent years. And particularly since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Yet the UK continues to struggle with how, or whether, to respond.

In 2024, the Canary published a stinging letter from academic Gus John to then foreign secretary David Lammy. He described reparations as "a process, not a single act". And he accused the government of "insisting that this is all in the past".

Recent pushback against the new Archbishop of Canterbury for defending the Church of England's programme for repairing the harms of African chattel enslavement underlined how contested these conversations remain.

Panellist Richard Reddie, director of justice and inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, said:

There is a great deal of literature in the Bible that makes the case for reparations.

Kojo Kyerewaa, national organiser for Black Lives Matter UK, said:

We need to relate reparations to the daily lives of people, and make the links between that which they already know about what is unjust and reparations as a liberatory pathway.

That way we can begin to reshape the world towards justice, and we deserve nothing less.

Quakers in Britain agreed in 2022 to consider making practical reparations for the transatlantic trade in enslaved people, colonialism, and economic exploitation.

Marghuerita Remi-Judah, co-clerk of the Quakers in Britain Trustees' Reparations Working Group, said:

We need to name our part in the history.

The Quaker testimony is one of peace…enslavement was violence, antithetical to peace.

The decision followed years of research, listening, and discernment. And it reflects a wider commitment to anti-racism, truth-telling, and action rooted in faith.

The panel, which also included Reverend Wale Hudson-Roberts, head of racial justice for the Baptist Union, explored how reparations work has developed from grassroots and local initiatives.

Panellists discussed the role of education and community leadership, and how institutions respond to difficult questions and resistance.

Featured image via Michael Preston for Quakers in Britain

Valentine's themed protest targets Rosebank oil field [ 13-Feb-26 6:36pm ]

Protesters against Rosebank oil field hold giant love hearts saying Hot Earth, Rosebank Kills, Save Me

Climate campaign group Fossil Free London has held a Valentine's Day themed protest in St. Dunstan's in the East churchyard. The stunt comes ahead of the UK government's decision on whether to approve or reject the Rosebank oil field.

Campaigners stood in couples - wearing suits and pastel frilly dresses - holding up oversized love heart sweet placards that read: 'Save Me', 'Hot Earth' and 'Stop Rosebank'.

Rishi Sunak's Conservative government originally approved the oil field in 2023. But the Scottish courts overturned this decision in January 2025. The ruling demanded that Rosebank's primary owner, Norwegian state oil giant Equinor, provide a more detailed assessment of the project's full climate impacts.

Burning Rosebank's total estimated oil and gas reserves would emit more carbon dioxide than the world's 28 lowest-income countries combined release annually.

Rosebank: UK pays, Norway profits

Equinor would sell the vast majority of Rosebank's oil on the international market for export. It would neither lower energy bills nor increase energy security in the UK. Meanwhile, UK public money would pick up the bill for most of its development costs.

Ahead of Equinor's profits announcement at the start of February, Fossil Free London staged a protest over its role in Rosebank.

Most of Rosebank's profits would flow into Norway's substantial sovereign wealth fund. This potential megapolluter could also send profits of over £200m to the Delek Group. Delek is an Israeli fuel conglomerate that the UN has flagged for human rights violations in Palestine.

Robin Wells, Director of Fossil Free London, said:

This Valentine's Day the U.K. government will be deciding whether Rosebank is hot…or not. But we know that Rosebank will be too hot to handle…Labour, save us from all new oil projects, because Rosebank will kill millions!

Featured image via Fossil Free London

Job done: US armada back to Middle East as Venezuelan oil flows to Israel [ 13-Feb-26 6:08pm ]

The US armada president Donald Trump spent months assembling in the Caribbean will return to the Middle East. The news comes after reports that Venezuela had shipped oil to Israel for the first time in nearly two decades.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in the Caribbean in November 2025. The Ford and her fleet were one facet of a massive military build-up. The US also rebuilt regional bases and carried out drone strikes on alleged 'narco-terrorist' boats.

It was all about drugs, the US administration had claimed. That argument has fallen apart since the US kidnapped the country's president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. Nearly every reference to the drug cartel Maduro supposedly ran was from dropped from the US indictment.

The New York Times said on 13 February:

The Ford strike group's new orders will have it joining the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf as part of President Trump's resurgent pressure campaign against Iran's leaders.

They added:

Mr. Trump had indicated earlier this week that he wanted to send a second carrier to the region, but neither he nor the Navy had identified the vessel.

It appears the US has achieved its immediate military aims in Venezuela.

Oil to Israel

Maduro's successor Delcy Rodriguez - who seems more at ease with US empire - has been in charge since Maduro was snatched. Though Venezuelan officials said the reports of oil shipments to Israel were "fake".

But Bloomberg reported on 10 Feb:

The oil is being transported to Bazan Group, the Mediterranean country's top crude processor, people with knowledge of the deal said, asking not to be identified because the information isn't public.

But details are still hazy and those involved are staying tight lipped:

Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel's energy ministry declined to comment on where the country gets its crude from.

The US carrier group's Caribbean mission seems to be done - for now. With a more amenable leader in place in Venezuela, the warships are being sent back to the the Gulf region to deal with Iran. The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier fleet in the area.

As the Canary argued on 29 January, a strike on Iran is far more complicated than the attack on Venezuela. The fact remains, however, that while the US is an empire in decline it still has a long reach. And it still has a president willing to threatened, cajole, and kill to meet his ever-changing imperial whims.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

The four siblings in white shrouds sums up the horrors of Gaza [ 13-Feb-26 5:57pm ]

The scene needed no explanation. A white shroud, rectangular and silent, lay in the middle of a small square crowded with weary faces. Around it, men lined up to pray, their eyes fixed on something that could not be fully seen, but only imagined. Inside, what were believed to be the remains of a mother and her four children. Four siblings who came into life after years of deprivation, then left it all at once.

The image encapsulates two years of heavy waiting in Gaza. Two years in which the story remained suspended between loss and hope, between unanswered questions and a small hope that the absent ones would return to be buried as befits human beings. Only today was the final scene completed: a funeral prayer that was two years late.

Gaza: four siblings buried together

In the front row stands the father, Fadi Al-Baba. Those who know him do not need to ask him how he feels. His eyes say it all. In front of him is the white shroud, inside which lie his wife and four children who came to him after a long wait. Four siblings, who were a promise of a life that would make up for years of patience, turned into a memory buried by Israel's genocide under its rubble, before the earth returned them in a small white bag.

The loss was not a fleeting moment. It was an extended period of time. From the day of their martyrdom until the day of their burial, the father lived on the edge of absence; no proper farewell, no grave to visit. Today, as he raises his hands in funeral prayer, it seems as if that first moment is returning with all its weight. As if two years have shrunk into a single tear.

The white shroud in the photo is not just a piece of cloth. It is the final resting place for five souls. It's a witness to a family story whose first chapter was never completed. It is a summary of questions bigger than a photo: How can such a long wait end in silence? How can a father say goodbye to his children together, after dreaming of them together?

The stories never end

The stories of Gaza never end, because they are never told in full. Every photograph opens the door to a postponed story, and every delayed funeral reveals a period of pain that remains unwitnessed. In this photograph, we see only a white shroud and a grieving father, but behind them lies a history of longing, deprivation and waiting.

The scene ends with a final burial, but it does not end the story.

Some losses are not buried, but remain alive in the memory of a father who, whenever he sees four children together, will remember that he had four… who returned to him in a single shroud.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

Corbyn drama 'A Very British Sabotage' seeks eye witnesses [ 13-Feb-26 5:48pm ]

Corbyn chairs first shadow cabinet A Very British Sabotage

Writer Joseph Tucker is working on a drama about Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. The script will draw on Alex Nunns' book The Candidate and Paul Holden's recent release, The Fraud. To round out his research, he's appealing for additional eye witnesses.

Sabotage of Corbyn

Under the working title A Very British Sabotage, the drama promises to lay bare:

the subversion of UK democracy by vandal elements within the Labour Party. They prioritised sabotage over winning an election and governing the UK at a critical point.

Both Nunns and Holden wrote about how Corbyn and his team faced huge opposition from within their own party. Holden, writing more recently, was able to show how Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn with the grubby help of Morgan McSweeney.

Clearly the stage is set for all manner of duplicity, intrigue and back-stabbing.

Tucker has already undertaken a great deal of research but he'd still like to obtain more contextual information. To this end he's put out an appeal for eye-witness accounts from anyone who was in the thick of it.

Tucker's request

I am producing a drama exploring Jeremy Corbyn's tenure as leader of the Labour Party, based on two books, The Candidate (Alex Nunns) and The Fraud (Paul Holden).

As part of my research I wish to speak confidentially with people who worked in Labour Party HQ (Southside) 2015-19. Accounts will inform dramatic reconstruction and institutional context. Identities will be handled with care. Anonymity and attribution will always be discussed and agreed in advance. All information shared will be subject to verification and corroboration.

Are you former:

Political communications staff?
Policy or governance staff?
Junior employees with lived experience of internal culture?

A formal legal framework is in place to protect sources and the materials shared during this process. Material provided will not be published as standalone news reporting.

If this sounds like you, please email: Southside@MaximumVolume.com

Coming soon

Production on A Very British Sabotage should be beginning soon. So if you've got a story to share, please get in touch pronto. Otherwise, keep an eye out for further updates as the project moves towards release.

Featured image via the Canary

UK companies breaking Equality Act over use of Nimbus Disability Access Cards [ 13-Feb-26 5:45pm ]

Several UK companies may be breaking the law over their exclusive use of the Nimbus Disability Access Card.

Had it confirmed by someone who knows the Equality Act that venues who only accept the Nimbus card are breaching the act.

A blue badge, PIP/DLA letter, letter from a GP/Consultant or any other form of proof should not be refused under the act.

— Disability Rebellion (@DRDisabilityReb) February 11, 2026

Under the Equality Act [2010, s.20], organisations must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people to ensure they are not at a "substantial disadvantage".

The law requires organisations to do this, regardless of whether a disabled person has paid for an access card or other third-party subscription.

However, some UK organisations are now only accepting Nimbus Access Cards as proof of disability, including Legoland Windsor, Alton Towers, and Thorpe Park.

Basically, everything that Merlin Entertainment UK owns is now only accessible to disabled people who pay for an Access Card. There's no surprise that the same company that mistreats penguins is also mistreating disabled people.

Also on the list are Wembley Stadium, Download Festival, York Barbican, York Maze, and MCM Comic Con. And they're just the ones we've found in an hour.

Of course, this is already causing problems for both disabled people and their carers.

After 20 years as a carer to a severely disabled young person, I'm now facing barriers I've never faced before. Everywhere I go, the answer is "Nimbus."

No card? No carer entry. No PIP. No Blue Badge. No Carer's Allowance accepted.

That's gatekeeping & it's deeply worrying.

RFK fears no germ because he used to snort coke off toilet seats [ 13-Feb-26 5:40pm ]

RFK Jr admits snorting cocaine off toilets

Robert F Kennedy Jr just told equally off-the-wall podcast mullet Theo Von he used to snort cocaine off toilet seats. Which is, uh, fine. But the conspiracist buffoon RFK, who thinks tap water turns kids gay — or something like that, I've lost track — was actually using this example to tell us something TRULY WEIRD.

RFK, as he is known, was actually justifying his inane anti-intellectualism by saying he does not fear germs BECAUSE he used to snort cocaine of a toilet seats.

Reminder: this guy is in charge of what passes for healthcare in America.

Dear Lord…

Not scared

Kennedy was talking about addiction. Both he and Theo Von openly talk about addiction. And addiction is not a joke. Yet somehow they managed to make a mockery of the topic:

I'm not scared of a germ… I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.

Adding:

I know this disease will kill me.

They were complaining that Covid-19 meant they couldn't attend their addiction meetings. Kennedy told Von:

Like, if I don't, if I don't treat it, which means for me going to meetings every day. It's just bad for my life.

And in some level they have a point. Covid hit all kinds of people very hard: people with addiction issues, kids, older people, mentally ill people, women locked into abusive relationships and so on.

But the messenger matters.

Wild claims

RFK is known for making wild claims about medicine — something he appears to known (somehow) less than nothing about. Forbes did a useful list of some of his most colourful fantasies. These include that old classic that vaccines cause autism. He said the US government:

knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children.

Okay, toilet boy.

RFK once said Bill Gates exaggerated Covid to push vaccines as part of what he called:

a historic coup d'état against Western democracy.

Hmm…

He also claimed Covid targeted people ethnically:

COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.

And that:

the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

Nice eugenics there, big man.

Kennedy also suggested AIDS does not cause HIV. That 5G gives you cancer. And that raw milk — knew it was in here somewhere — is fine. Also that fluoride:

is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.

IQ loss, hey. Are you sure it was just cocaine on the toilet seat, mate? He also thinks that mass shooting are caused by anti-depressants.

Looking at the state of Trump's cabinet picks, we probably shouldn't be surprised this lad made the cut. Yet somehow even with all we know about US politics generally — and especially US politics under Trump — RFK still manages to come out with something so completely off-piste than you have to just stop and take it in.

Featured image via YouTube/the Canary

By Joe Glenton

SHOCK: Zionist lobby groups horrified by court unbanning sabotage of Israeli murder factories [ 13-Feb-26 5:36pm ]

Two Israel lobby groups have reacted with horror to the High Court's decision today, Friday 13 February, to unban Palestine Action, a group that specialises in sabotaging Israeli weapons factories.

What a shock.

Zionists need their fainting couches over Palestine Action

A panel of High Court judges have today declared the Starmer regime's 'terrorist' ban on Palestine Action to be unlawful and a breach of UK human rights. The so-called 'Jewish Leadership Council' (JLC) and the 'Board of Deputies' (BOD) have expressed their dismay.

Unsurprisingly, it was expressed in the most weaselly way possible. T

he groups start by claiming to respect the need for judicial oversight, lie that Palestine Action attacked "Jewish communal life" and turn the whole thing into - you've guessed it - an attack on the decision of the judicial oversight:

We recognise the vital importance of judicial oversight in matters of national security and civil liberties. However, the practical impact of Palestine Action's activities on Jewish communal life has been significant and deeply unsettling.

On top of everything else, this antisemitic statement doesn't explain how a group that only targets weapons factories and other support for Israel's genocide and war crimes is supposedly impacting "Jewish communal life".

And if this wording sounds a bit familiar, it's probably because it basically recycles the BOD's statement and logical gymnastics of just over a week ago - 4 February 2026 - when a jury acquitted six Palestine Action activists who were viciously attacked by security guards as they tried to disable an Israeli murder-drone factory in Bristol.

"While it is important to respect the integrity of the judicial process", the BOD said, it clearly didn't think it important enough to actually apply to the jury's decision:

We are concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Palestine Action, an organisation that has been proscribed as a terrorist group, and whose activities have included targeting businesses linked to the Jewish community in London and Manchester.

Hmmm. And while both the BOD and JLC present themselves as "Jewish" and "communal", the situation is not as clean as they paint it. The BOD has managed to remain a charity (though also a limited company), even though its core purpose is explicitly political - and explicitly to promote the interests of a particular foreign power.

Shilling for Israel

The BOD's constitution states that it exists to do everything it can to advance Israel's "standing":

Take such appropriate action as lies within its power to advance Israel's security, welfare and standing.

The 'mission statement' of the JLC, another limited company rather than actually a 'council', says that its job is to make the UK 'Jewish community' is engaged with Israel". JLC played a role in a 2025 smear campaign against then-new education union leader Matt Wrack, a vocal critic of Israel. It was also heavily involved in the efforts of Morgan McSweeney's so-called 'Labour Together' to destroy the Canary.

Both are prominent players in the UK Israel lobby that has boasted of its role in banning Palestine Action. As has been demonstrated, they were already trying to undo the decision of a British jury to suit Israel's interests. Not quite such a shock, then, that they are now clutching pearls over yet another court setback.

Featured image via the Canary

DWP forced to admit 1 in 5 privately contracted benefit assessors aren't safeguard trained [ 13-Feb-26 5:35pm ]

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been forced to admit that a large number of privately contracted benefit assessors have not received safeguarding training.

This puts vulnerable disabled claimants at risk of harm whilst navigating the cruel benefits system, which has already claimed so many lives.

DWP were called up on their duty to safeguard in May last year

In May 2025, a report from the Work and Pensions Committee on safeguarding vulnerable adults called for a new independent organisation to be set up. The body would bring to light the number of claimants who had been put at risk by the DWP.

At the time, chair of the committee Debbie Abrahams said

Deep-rooted cultural change of the DWP is desperately needed to rebuild trust and put safeguarding at the heart of policy development.

Then in December 2025, in a written statement, DWP chief Pat McFadden gave an update to the House of Commons. He said he wished to "reaffirm" his department's commitment to safeguarding and their responsibility to protect claimants.

In his statement McFadden said:

Our immediate priority is to make safeguarding everyone's business, with clear steps to recognise, respond to, and report concerns.

Mcfadden pledged that all clinical roles will have mandatory Level 3 safeguarding training. He said:

Safeguarding must be a system-wide endeavour. It requires transparency, accountability, and collaboration across Government and with partners.

Surprise, Labour blames the Tories

However, as the WPC heard this week, that is not the case. Employment Minister, Diana Johnson, was giving evidence on the state of employment support for disabled people when she shared an update on safeguarding vulnerable claimants.

As is typical with this Labour government she started by blaming the Tories, as if Labour haven't been in power for a year and a half. In which time they've either done fuck all or made disabled people's lives worse with their policies.

Johnson said she was shocked that the last lot:

Didn't think that safeguarding was an issue that they needed to be concerned about

Which is all well and good but your lot haven't done much better Diana, despite you claiming that "things have moved on considerably"

Labour proved just as bad as Tories once again

As proof of this she shared that while all of the DWP's own clinical staff get mandatory Level 3 training, only 1 in 5 of contracted staff get the same level.

This means staff employed by Maximus, Capita, Serco, and Ingeus who inflict cruel benefit assessments on disabled people aren't trained in recognising harms or risks to life. These companies carry out hundreds of thousands of PIP and WCA assessments every year.

She blamed this huge oversight on the fact that there's such a high turnover rate of staff, meaning there's not enough time for training.

She said:

In terms of our contractors that we use in the DWP, we hover around 80 per cent in terms of the training at level three because of the churn and the turnover of those individuals

DWP staff don't stick around, wonder why

In January, the DWP published a report from 2022 which showed that 52% of new benefits assessors didn't make it through their first year. Assessors reported feeling "despised" and like "cogs in machines". So it's no wonder there's such a high staff turn over.

One of the respondents from the survey reported "working herself to death", as she had no choice but to work from 5am to 10pm. This will only be ramped up by the DWP's desperate attempts to massage the numbers of the PIP reassessment backlog.

As the Canary previously reported, the department diverted staff from dealing with new claims to get the backlog down. While the DWP got to brag that it carried out 96% more reviews in quarter 3 of 2024, 40,000 new claimants were kept waiting. As a recent report found, delays to PIP are endangering people's lives and costing the DWP too.

Labour are worse for disabled people than the Tories - it's time they admitted that

It's absolutely unacceptable that the people who are supposed to determine whether disabled people get the support they need are not trained to protect vulnerable people. In a department that is responsible for so many deaths, this seems like a deliberate, violent act. But it's just another in a long line for the DWP.

It's also getting beyond fucking old that the now Labour led DWP are still blaming the Tories. Not only have they been in power for a year and a half, but in that short time they've planned cuts and policies which are even more dangerous to disabled people.

You don't get to act like our saviours whilst you're building the gallows yourself.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Reform mimics Trump amid his biggest attack on climate rules yet [ 13-Feb-26 5:28pm ]

Donald Trump has launched an attack on the very foundation of US climate regulation. And it could represent his biggest assault yet, leading to both higher greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in health risks for ordinary people. In the UK, meanwhile, Reform continues to mimic Trump's anti-climate agenda.

Trump's massive climate rollback could lead to "58,000 additional premature deaths"

Both Trump's regime and its critics have noted the scale of this move, calling it either the "largest deregulation" ever in US history or:

the most significant rollback on climate change yet

As the BBC reports, Trump has revoked a key:

scientific ruling that underpins all federal actions on curbing planet-warming gases.

The "endangerment finding" of 2009 ruled that numerous greenhouse gases are "a threat to public health". And this conclusion turned into:

the legal bedrock of federal efforts to rein in emissions, especially in vehicles.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund's Peter Zalzal, Trump's move could cost ordinary people more in:

additional fuel costs to power these less efficient and higher polluting vehicles

It could also:

result in up to 58,000 additional premature deaths, 37 million more asthma attacks

The winners, of course, would be billionaire polluters. And they're celebrating twice as hard, because Trump is also increasing funding for coal facilities and pushing the US military into deals with power plants using coal. Coal stocks are predictably doing well as a result.

"Trump's EPA repeals science" sums it up. pic.twitter.com/elI4YYIQVc

— Jeff (@jepaco) February 13, 2026

Today, the US @EPA rescinded its 2009 endangerment finding: a drastic move even in the context of the Trump administration's larger deregulatory and anti-climate agenda.

This move poses a particular threat to reproductive rights. Read more: https://t.co/CckiPuttHC

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) February 12, 2026

Reform is a Trump tribute act

Reform UK, meanwhile, is busy mimicking Trump. And it would do that, because it's firmly in the pockets of the billionaire polluters mentioned above. Currently, Reform's anti-climate agenda is focusing on scamming people into thinking reducing greenhouse gas emissions is bad.

The party hasn't just been pushing climate-change denialism and dangerous industries like fracking. It's also been repeating over and over again its attacks on the global effort to limit carbon emissions ('Net Zero'):

Ed Miliband and Vladimir Putin are the same, in terms of your electricity bill

Superb by @KathrynPorter26

Net Stupid Zero is driving bills UP

Not down

We have been conned and misled

https://t.co/IENYf5oDrS

— Richard Tice MP

Palestine Action ruling must become a landmark moment [ 13-Feb-26 5:05pm ]

We reported earlier today on the High Court's decision taken this morning, in which the Judge declared the government's proscription on Palestine Action was 'disproportionate'.

The judge even went as far to point out that the ban infringes on the human rights of people in the UK.

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. Nevertheless, as our own Skwawkbox pointed out:

However, the 'proscription' remains in place for at least another week while the government has a chance to prepare submissions on the court's finding. It remains a criminal offence, for the time being, to express support for Palestine Action. Police should, of course, weigh whether it's worth arresting people when no prosecutions are likely, but their record suggests they won't.

Court rules Palestine Action ban 'disproportionate' - but still banned for now…https://t.co/Frv3cct00j

— SKWAWKBOX (@skwawkbox) February 13, 2026

Palestine Action - anti-genocide protesters stand firm

We wrote recently about the fate of 2,787 people arrested on terrorism charges for holding up paper signs saying 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' Notably, acts of protest which are in line with our legal duty as citizens in response to the widely recognised genocide of Palestinians. As we wrote:

Evidence of UK complicity in crimes against genocide continues to mount. In October 2025 the UN issued its draft report Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime detailing the complicity of states including the UK in the destruction of Gaza. Amongst other things, the UK continued to supply arms including components for F-35 stealth bombers, undertook daily surveillance flights over Gaza for Israel, maintained normal trade relations, and allowed Israel to undertake international crimes with impunity.

In December Declassified UK released its film Britain's Gaza Spy Flight Scandal, investigating the hundreds of RAF intelligence flights conducted on behalf of Israel.

MP Zarah Sultana has welcomed the court's decision, rightfully calling out how the government has abused its power to silence valid dissent from its own people:

The High Court has confirmed what we all knew: proscribing Palestine Action was unlawful.

The state must stop using "counter-terror" powers to criminalise solidarity and intimidate working-class people out of protest.

The Labour government must lift the proscription now and…

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

Sultana's statement in full:

The High Court has confirmed what we all knew: proscribing Palestine Action was unlawful.

The state must stop using "counter-terror" powers to criminalise solidarity and intimidate working-class people out of protest.

The Labour government must lift the proscription now and drop every case NOW.

We will not stop until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea

No more blurring right and wrong

We have all had to sit by whilst we learn more seemingly every day that make clear our own leaders cannot distinguish right from wrong. Whether it's supporting mass murder in Gaza or working alongside crooks who have willingly mixed with convicted paedophiles, a corrupt and sinister pattern speaks for itself.

In fact, our own Skwawkbox reported on how Starmer's apology for working with a paedo came armed with a propaganda-like attack at pro-Palestine protesters. All of this reinforces one point: the challenges we face are linked, bound together by a system of elite power and control.

Skwawkbox wrote:

Starmer said he was sorry for believing Mandelson's lies — 'Peter' was never added as Starmer tried desperately to distance himself. Distance himself from the man he took on as his senior adviser when Mandelson's closeness to child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein was already well known. From the man he then appointed as ambassador to the US, despite knowing the same.

Then added:

And then, out of nowhere, Starmer began attacking the hundreds of thousands of people who march against Israel's genocide. He repeated the Israel lobby's lie that marching against genocide makes UK Jews scared. Nonsense. UK Jews are front and centre of every march and rally — so much so, that the BBC and others have to hide them. Leaving them in would expose that lie and the lie that all Jews support Israel, you see.

Ordinary people see clearly what leaders do not

Those with power clearly have a real problem deciphering their moral compass. On the other hand, protesters have shown unwavering moral clarity, refusing to cower in the face of police intimidation and draconian penalties as they speak out over the tens of thousands of babies and children killed by Israel.

However, the fate of those nearly 3,000 protesters is still confusing. This follows the government being granted the right to appeal today's High Court decision. As a result, there is an arguably deliberate grey area now as to whether support for the 'unlawfully' proscribed group would still result in police arrest.

Q: Does this mean I won't get arrested if I say 'I support Palestine Action."

A: Technically arrests can continue because the government granted an appeal in a week.

But police told protesters outside the court they've been instructed from on high not to conduct arrests. https://t.co/rAjSzgs9bJ

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) February 13, 2026

Human rights lawyer Shoaib Khan broke down the absurdities of the case against Palestine Action:

Court: Even discounting Pal Action's non-peaceful activities, proscription resulted in very significant interference with rights of free speech & assembly. Since Home Sec's policy was not properly applied, interference did not meet requirement that it must be prescribed by law.

— Shoaib M Khan (@ShoaibMKhan) February 13, 2026

Since the High Court handed down its judgment, supporters have flooded in with reactions to its legal stance:

Massive victory as court rules that Palestine Action proscription ruled disproportionate and resulted in a very significant interference in the right to freedom of speech and assembly. BUT proscription remains in force until hearing on 20th! pic.twitter.com/Kxjrc1P4DM

— Campaign Against Arms Trade (@CAATuk) February 13, 2026

Now Palestine Action's ban has been ruled to be unlawful, this seems like a good time to get this petition moving.

Let's get Israeli influence out of our Government for good. https://t.co/f1bW3X7482 https://t.co/Fby6z8ZHwe

— Wolfie.

Footballer Mario Balotelli racially abused by UAE fans [ 13-Feb-26 5:03pm ]

Ex-Inter, Man City and Italy player Mario Balotelli says he was racially abused by fans in UAE. Balotelli currently plays for Saudi team Al-Ittifaq.

The player said:

This kind of behaviour cannot be normalised, excused, or ignored. I'm speaking out to bring awareness - not just for myself, but for every player who has been subjected to this. Enough is enough.

He added:

I've always condemned all acts of racism, but I didn't expect it here. I hope serious measures are taken to prevent this from happening again.

The Independent said neither Al-Ittifaq nor their UAE opponents on the day have commented. Balotelli played for Inter and AC Milan, Man City, Liverpool and other clubs before joining the Saudi team.

Racism in football reflects society

Football writer Valerio Moggia said racism was common in the Saudi league. In a July 2025 blog, he wrote about racism experienced by Brazilian winger Malcolm:

Malcom was seen having a confrontation with some fans at the stadium, at the end of the match. Videos of this argument circulated online, causing critics for the Brazilian's behaviour towards fans: the player's Instagram account was stormed by angry people, and some of them have resorted to racist epithets, calling him "monkey".

Moggia said:

Gulf countries are not usually linked to racial discrimination's episodes, seen as a mostly Western issue. But a closer look to Saudi society reveal that ethnic and religious biases are very common, even between Saudi citizens.

His excellent study of racism in Saudi soccer can be read here.

Yvette Cooper should resign after Palestine Action fuck up [ 13-Feb-26 4:55pm ]

Social media users are calling on Yvette Cooper to resign after the High Court ruled the ban on Palestine Action was unlawful.

Just heard on the radio that the then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's proscribing of Palestine action was illegal. She must resign immediately. All those wrongly arrested and charged must be exonerated. A total misuse of the police to mask complicity with Israel's genocide.

— candyman (@PeacheyGabriel) February 13, 2026

Yvette Cooper - just go, already

Yvette Cooper studied at both Oxford and Harvard - she is not unintelligent. She knew full well that in attempting to ban Palestine Action, she was attacking our right to peaceful protests - one of the cornerstones of our democracy.

Yvette Cooper must have fully understood that her unlawful proscription of Palestine Action was an attack on the fundamental freedoms of a democratic society. She did it anyway.

After today's High Court ruling, she should no longer remain as a minister.https://t.co/Uc7NX8ax0X

— Martin O'Neill (@martin_oneill) February 13, 2026

She can't jail nuns anymore - someone get her a therapist.

It's Friday. Palestine Action is now legal again. Shabana 'migrant hunter' Mahmood is crying into her Pret lunch. Yvette Cooper is beating her husband in apoplectic rage because she can't jail nuns anymore. Spring has returned.

— Alex Yousif (@LibMarx93) February 13, 2026

We already know she has no morals - or personality.

Palestine Action: If Yvette Cooper had one iota of morality she would resign!!

— Martin O'Neill (@DrNostromo) February 13, 2026

Yvette Cooper should resign - or even better, Starmer should fire her. But Starmer won't fire a guy like Mandelson until he's really left with no choice. So I can't see that happening.

I can't see how Yvette Cooper manages to remain in govt. post end of this Palestine Action quashed conviction. I expect the Govt. to loose its appeal as well. She equated that PA where the same as AQ, ISIS, Combat18 - making a mockery of how serious terrorism is. She has to go!

— CronusTitan (@CronusTitan2) February 13, 2026

Did Cooper's top-secret information about Palestine Action ever come to light? Or did that disappear along with Cooper's last shred of integrity?

Has secret info' about Palestine Action only Yvette Cooper knew about been revealed yet, or are they in fact just a figment of her imagination?

— James Mealey (@Jamesmealey10) February 13, 2026

There's probably some blank piece of paper sitting in a folder marked 'classified' somewhere in London.

There is no question that Cooper should resign - along with any other shady minister that backed the Proscription of Palestine Action - yes, Luke Akehurst, I'm talking directly to you.

Yvette Cooper should resign, say Palestine Action activists
Palestine Action activists have called for former home secretary Yvette Cooper, who made the decision to proscribe the group last year, to resign.

In a speech outside the high court this morning, activist Lisa Minerva… pic.twitter.com/JEJOoLZ6Qg

— Gareth Jones Society

Water industry cynically cited the new DWP deductions cap while lobbying to hike bills [ 13-Feb-26 4:48pm ]

Letters from Yorkshire Water and Water UK to Ofwat. An arm in a suit pointing up, with twenty pound notes floating in the air above. Water company logos in the background with green textured overlay. DWP

The UK's water and sewerage industry weaponised Labour's Universal Credit deductions cap to lobby for higher bill hikes - all with the aid of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Documents the Canary obtained via Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal how industry body Water UK and Yorkshire Water separately lobbied regulator Ofwat ahead of Labour implementing the 15% cap on Universal Credit deductions.

What's more, figures they relied on to call for raising bills majorly conflict with data the Canary previously acquired from the DWP. Notably, Water UK cited a figure for the industry's annual deductions that was over four times the amount shown by the official government data.

So the documents exposed that not only did the industry cynically exploit the new deductions cap - but it appears it also inflated figures to do so.

DWP cap aiding greedy water companies

The Labour Party government first announced its so-called Fair Repayment Rate plans in the 2024 Autumn Budget.

In April 2025, the DWP brought the new cap into effect. It reduced the deductions the DWP can take on monthly payments for various debts to 15%.

However, as the Canary already highlighted, the half-assed measure amounted to little more than tinkering around at the edges of a vicious debt chasing mechanism. In effect, it merely extends claimants periods of indebtedness, instead of actually removing the debt. To make matters worse, built-in loopholes mean that for many, DWP deductions will still exceed the cap.

Nevertheless, in theory, it means that some claimants in debt will have more of their Universal Credit each month.

So of course, private sector corporations cashing in from the deductions regime weren't happy about this. Unsurprisingly, the water and sewage companies - sixth in line for deductions - was one such industry.

Water industry will lose out? Cry me a river

Less than a month after Labour announced the new cap, Water UK CEO David Henderson wrote to head of Ofwat David Black. He laid out how it would cause the industry to lose out on £200m in deductions over the next five years.

Naturally, the industry body also couldn't help but play the victim even more where migration to Universal Credit was concerned. In particular, it noted how people moving from legacy benefits like Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) would "become eligible" for the new cap. It argued that this could "increase bad debt further" for water firms. The implication was that the industry wouldn't be able to rob as many claimants of their welfare.

Following this, Yorkshire Water lobbied the regulator on 26 November 2024. In a letter headed RE: Impact of October Budget, the water firm wrote:

With the cap lowered to 15%, water charge arrears, ranked low in priority, face reduced success rates.

In the last year, we received £11 million from DWP payments, which could decrease by 50%.

Although this doesn't directly translate into bad debt, mitigating the impact will require increased debt recovery efforts and promotion of social tariffs, resulting in higher costs.

Predictably, both demanded greater 'allowances' to account for this. In simple terms, this would mean Ofwat increasing what it allows companies to charge - ergo, bill hikes for customers.

Bogus figures

Of course, the disparity between Water UK and Yorkshire Water's figures with the data the Canary obtained from the DWP also raises significant questions.

Water UK claimed industry deductions for 2024 sat at £100m. Meanwhile, Yorkshire Water suggested its slice of this alone came in at £11m.

By comparison, the DWP's data for a similar twelve-month period (March 2024 - February 2025) showed total deductions at £22m.

The first cause of the disparity could be because the department itself provided erroneous data.

However, the more plausible explanation is that Water UK and Yorkshire Water both inflated their figures to press for larger bill increases.

And notably, even Ofwat wasn't buying their calculations. Specifically, in its 'final determinations' for its 2024 price review of the industry, the regulator challenged the credibility of Water UK's claim that:

190,000 households were subject third-party deductions via Universal Credit in 2023-24, equivalent to around £100 million revenue.

Because, as it pointed out, on average this would work out at a £526 annual deduction per household. It commented how this:

seems very high relative to the average water bill.

This would be just shy of £44 a month. By contrast, the DWP's data showed that water company deductions were £20 a month on average.

Moreover, as Ofwat also highlighted:

Water UK also seem to assume that water companies can recover all the water bill through third party provision, which would be surprising given water companies are 6th in line behind other service providers (housing, accommodation, hostel, rent and service charges, gas and electricity).

Blaming welfare claimants for bill hikes

Already, the DWP's data is also throwing cold water on its far-fetched claims. The idea that the cap would cause the industry to lose out on £40m in Universal Credit deductions is preposterous. This is obviously not least because, according to official government data, 12 months of deductions are barely just over half of this in total. Furthermore, even the 40% drop in deductions is implausible.

Crucially, we now have the first few months worth of data that shows the effect the new cap is having on deductions. June saw a decrease of 22% from £1.8m to £1.4m. For July and August, the decrease was around 28% from £1.8m to £1.3m in each month respectively.

At the end of the day, the industry's figures don't add up. However, what's clear is that it tried to use welfare claimants to hike customer bills. And it sure seems like it attempted to wilfully mislead Ofwat to do this.

Of course, for the shameless profiteers that are privatised water, exploiting the hardships of its poorest customers is all-too on-brand.

Featured image via author

By Hannah Sharland

ICE chief insists paramilitary force won't 'guard' US polling stations [ 13-Feb-26 4:37pm ]

ICE chief, Todd Lyons, claims his thugs won't be guarding polling stations

Trump's personal fascist militia are pulling out of Minneapolis. But undoubtedly, this not be the last we will be seeing of them.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other US state thugs terrorised locals for months — even killing two — as they sought to bring the city under control where their presence is fiercely contested.

ICE and border patrol operations are being carried out under the guise enforcing migration laws. However, there are stirrings of a full assault on US democracy — with new leaks showing how agents are now spying on American citizens who oppose them.

Border Czar Tom Homan said on 11 February:

A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through next week.

Bizarrely, he claimed that the move was driven by a drop in local opposition to ICE thuggery.

A small footprint of personnel will remain for a period of time to close out and transition full command control back to the field office, as well as to ensure agitator activity continues to decline and that state and local law enforcement continue to respond to ensure officer and community safety.

Homan has previously moaned that ICE were treated meanly. This time around, he's arguing that violent officers going around — dressed like special forces soldiers — are lawful, labelling them:

legitimate federal law enforcement agency. We're not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process.

If you say so, Tom. The mirage doesn't fool us.

Critics suggested the withdrawal was due to the optics of militarised, masked thugs swaggering about the streets and beating people up:

ICE is backing out of Minneapolis because they see how poorly this operation polls with American public. That's the only reason they're retreating - because of polls, not people's safety.

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 12, 2026

And on 12 February a judge ruled that the Trump administration was breaching the constitutional rights of detainees in Minnesota by blocking access to legal counsel inside "ill-equipped" and "overcrowded" facilities.

Homan was sent in to replace Border Patrol's fun-size fascist-themed boss Greg Bovino. This is the same guy who lost his job after the street execution of local nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents.

Attack on democracy

ICE chief Todd Lyons was questioned by lawmakers on 12 February. He tried to quash rumours ICE would 'guard' US polling stations. The notion that Trump's boot-boys would do so is widely seen as an open attack on the democratic process.

Trump has floated the idea of nationalizing (federalising, in US terms) American elections — pivoting away from the traditional model in which states maintain substantial power over election processes. This is usually referred to part of 'state's rights'.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) tested Lyons at a session of the Homeland Security Committee:

You listen to what the president and his cabinet are saying, I have to ask about our 2026 elections.

She continued:

The president says we should federalize our elections, even though the U.S. Constitution was written by our founders to give that power to the states so that we would never have a president who took too much power and tried to become a king.

Lyons told Slotkin:

So, ma'am, we're civil, obviously we do civil enforcement and criminal law enforcement There's no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility.

Challenged again, Lyons maintained ICE would have no role in election security. Slotkin back referred to Trump's own comments:

I'm talking about something that I think would be extraordinary in American history, which is uniformed and massed ice agents encircling polling places.

And it's not fantasy, it's not made up. These are things that the president and his cabinet have suggested. They've suggested invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow active duty military to do the very same thing.

Lyons again denied the possibility. Slotkin told him:

Great. Well, I hope that in the privacy of that meeting, when that comes down, and the president feels like he's going to lose the midterm elections, that you don't buckle.

But democracy isn't just about elections. It is about the freedom to organise and express yourself. And the Feds are trying to stop that too.

ICE spies

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) controls ICE. And DHS is spying on activists. US reporter Ken Klippenstein has seen leaked files telling us how:

The new program, called "masked engagement," allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.

A senior DHS offical told Klippenstein:

that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.

Masked engagement is a special category of surveillance. Unlike the more passive masked 'monitoring', 'engagement' operations give state security forces a licence to enter chats and groups to obtain intelligence.

The new practice of masked engagement allows for operations where a federal government employee or contractor uses fake identities or credentials that conceal their official affiliation.

ICE operate under the aegis of Trumpian anti-immigration policy. They are much more than that.

ICE are Trump's personal posse. The agency is there to discipline the US population — if necessary with lethal force. But, as Minnesotans have just shown us, ICE can be beaten on the streets.

We must take on board those lessons, and sustain the momentum.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

High Court rules it's discriminatory to enforce trans bathroom ban in public spaces [ 13-Feb-26 4:35pm ]

The UK High Court has decided that the interpretation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) interim guidance on a bathroom ban for trans people is incorrect.

However, as has always been the case with this deeply transphobic piece of legislation, it is extremely difficult to parse because it is, at its core, nonsensical.

The Good Law Project challenged the EHRC's interim guidance in the High Court. The EHRC interpreted the Supreme Court's ruling on Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) as the basis for a blanket ban on trans people using single-sex facilities.

Instead, the Good Law Project explained:

The High Court has now said that this interpretation of the law is wrong. Service providers may lawfully allow trans women to use women's facilities without being forced to open them to cis men. And such facilities may simply be labelled for 'men' and 'women'.

Put simply:

The court has also made clear that it will likely be discriminatory to force trans people to use facilities based on their sex recorded at birth. In short, the law does not require a bathroom ban.

Trans bathroom ban faces more opposition

The new ruling states:

[1] In workplaces, it is compulsory to provide sufficient single-sex toilets, as well as sufficient single-sex changing and washing facilities where these facilities are needed.

[2] It is not compulsory for services that are open to the public to be provided on single-sex basis or to have single-sex facilities such as toilets. These can be single-sex if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim and they meet other conditions in the Act. However, it could be indirect sex discrimination against women if the only provision is mixed-sex.

Effectively, in workplaces, it is compulsory to provide single-sex spaces, but it is not compulsory in services that are open to the public.

'Leftists' are disgracing themselves over Chomsky and Epstein [ 13-Feb-26 3:43pm ]

Since the latest release of the Epstein files, a media circus has ensued over the political and business figures connected to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The giddy fervour from some corners has been evident as people work their way through a huge number of files featuring the most powerful and elite people we know.

In a world where sexual violence is much more commonplace than we might like to admit, it is unsurprising that Epstein and his cabal of violent predators are the focus, and not the people they tortured and abused. Academic Harsha Walia had a stark and insightful summary of the situation:

Sexual violence, especially of children, is not an otherwise perverse symptom of elite rule or empire - it is literally at the CENTER of how violence and domination is structured around the world. We cannot keep treating sexual violence as a "private" issue, or as "divisive" to movements, or weaponize it to settle other political scores.

It is how power reverberates and is reproduced.

Sexual violence - especially against children - is not an aberration in our societies. It is not exclusively the preserve of the elite or powerful. It is a function at the very core of neoliberal racial capitalism. Epstein was a well-documented white supremacist and Zionist, and that is at the heart of how he and his fellow paedophiles operated.

So why is it that leftists have spent considerable time and energy since the latest release of the files defending prominent fellow leftists who allied themselves with Epstein?

Epstein files show the misogynist rot within the left

One of the most prominent leftist names mentioned in the files is that of the revered Noam Chomsky. His work has been crucial for leftists, but the academic has long known to have been friends with Epstein. Fellow academic Chris Knight has had pieces claiming to explain the reasons behind the friendship published in both CounterPunch and Novara Media.

The latter publication ran the story with the headline:

There Are Two Noam Chomskys. The One You Love, and the One That Was Friends With Jeffrey Epstein

Along with the tagline:

Not a straightforward guy.

The CounterPunch article and the one posted on Novara are similar versions of effectively the same piece.

In the version published a few days later on Novara, Knight admits:

Emails released last month by the US Department of Justice, however, now make it difficult to respect Chomsky's views on anything at all.

How generous. By Knight's own admission:

The emails even reveal that shortly before Epstein's arrest and death, in July and August 2019, Chomsky was still intending to be interviewed for a documentary that Epstein was making. It seems Chomsky remained loyal to his cherished "friend" right until the end.

Chomsky was a loyal and steadfast friend of Epstein. Epstein was a known serial child rapist, child trafficker, and overseer of one of the most brutal and extensive grooming gangs in modern times. The details of such horrific crimes were an open secret even before the release of the files. Now that the files have been released, Chomsky's wife has described their close friendship with the dead paedophile as part of "serious errors in judgement."

Bizarre response

In both pieces, Knight muses on why Chomsky would have associated with Epstein. He makes it clear that Chomsky has a reputation for associating with people he should ostensibly have opposed - CIA directors, war hawks, and other reprehensible people. Knight maintains that:

Chomsky was at no point the perfectly principled radical intellectual admired by so many of his followers. If he had been, he would have resigned from MIT long ago. Yet, had he done so, he would never have come to know the US military establishment from the inside in a way that enabled him to become that establishment's most knowledgeable and assured critic.

Who needs Chomsky to be perfect? Perfection is a far cry from a close personal friendship with a notorious paedophile and sex trafficker. Chomsky didn't step down from MIT, or stop associating with rabid Zionists not as some kind of intellectual checkmate, but because he didn't want to.

Society is far too willing to dismiss the experiences of those living at the sharp end of racial capitalism as 'identity politics.' But, we're supposed to believe Chomsky needed to pal around with some of the most morally bankrupt people for research purposes? Please.

He knew exactly what he was doing. There is no duality or cognitive dissonance in Chomsky's behaviour. He knew exactly what was doing, and he did it for decades. How could one of the most pre-eminent researchers not know the extent of Epstein's crimes? Are we supposed to accept that he's a genius researcher who can't operate a simple Google search on the background of one of his best friends?

Business as usual

Knight's passionate defence of Epstein is an obscene rehabilitation, a loving re-casting of Chomsky as somehow duped, tricked, or seduced. Knight concludes that:

It would be foolish to stop learning from his writings. It would be equally foolish to gloss over his mistakes. Instead of deciding whether to cancel or exalt him as an individual, I suggest we prioritise developing what he advocates, however hypocritically: a revolutionary politics for our times.

Since the latest release of the Epstein files, who exactly has demanded we "stop learning" from Chomsky? In fact, what is actually happening is that people are parsing through a release of files that deliberately exposes and intimidates victims and survivors of Epstein.

The choice is not whether to accept or reject Chomsky, whether to rehabilitate or castigate him. Instead, the choice facing us is a moral one: do we infantilise and clean up Chomsky's actions, or do we accept that he repeatedly and knowingly chose to not only associate with, but loved a renowned pedophile and sex trafficker?

It is no choice at all.

I was raped as a child. Like many others who have been sexually abused, every time rape is discussed in the media, there are many all too willing to degrade the horror of abuse and defend those around the abusers. As such, the many attempts at rehabilitation of those implicated alongside Epstein in any way, whether Chomsky or anyone else, feel like an attempt to defend the rape that so many of us have had to come to terms with.

Knight - or someone from his team - offered a version of his above articles to the Canary. We immediately recognised that to publish such a thing would not only violate all of our values, it would also denigrate the experiences of victims and survivors. Shame on CounterPunch and Novara for giving a platform to the reprehensible attempt to clean up Chomsky's image or work.

Featured image via the Canary