It wasn't fear of illness that kept Palestinian prisoners away from prison clinics. It was fear of the "treatment" itself.

This is how released prisoner Ahmed Shaqoura describes the year and a half he spent in Israeli occupation prisons. According to his testimony, the medical clinic became another site of torture and humiliation, not healing.

In a testimony published on his personal account, Shaqoura recounts a journey that began with his arrest and transfer to the Jalameh military interrogation centre. There, he says, torture was immediate. He describes severe beatings, insults, and deliberate humiliation. His hands were bound with plastic zip ties tightened so harshly that his skin tore and his palms swelled.

The resulting medical neglect, he says, nearly led to the amputation of his hand. The injury still affects him today, both physically and psychologically.

Palestinian prisoners' road to the clinic: torture in itself

Shaqoura describes his first transfer to the clinic as an act of humiliation in itself. Handcuffed and shackled, he was forced to walk on his knees.

Every minute on that journey, he says, felt longer than a lifetime. The pain was not only physical, but a deliberate crushing of dignity.

When he arrived, there was no doctor in the usual sense. He recalls:

It was a torturer in a white coat

The man pressed violently on the wound, hurled insults, wrapped it hastily, and coldly told him to leave. This was not treatment, but a message: the pain was intentional.

Even when an interrogator noticed the swelling and ordered medical attention, nothing changed. Complaints were pointless. Shaqoura says:

They are eloquent in their words, but ineffective in their actions

Ofer Prison: medicine as oppression

After his transfer to Ofer Prison, conditions worsened.

During his first visit to the doctor there, one of his teeth broke. At the doctor's request, a guard climbed onto Shaqoura's back. The weight pinned him to the ground. The doctor then attempted to strike his eyes with an iron ruler, hitting his forehead instead.

According to Shaqoura, this was not an isolated incident.

He recounts the case of another prisoner suffering from haemorrhoids who repeatedly begged for care. When finally taken to the clinic, the man was beaten and dragged back bleeding.

Guards mocked him as they pulled him along the ground, saying: "This is how we treated you."

Paracetamol — and silence

In another incident, many prisoners developed painful boils. Shaqoura was among them.

His hand swelled to seven times its normal size. The pain was unbearable. Nights passed with cries for help unanswered.

There was no doctor, no response, and no concern. He says:

The only treatment was paracetamol — and a lot of silence.

He also describes other doctors who openly beat prisoners, treating them not as patients, but as targets for violence.

An unforgettable scene

One of the most harrowing moments in Shaqoura's testimony occurred after a prisoner was killed by guards in a nearby section.

At dawn, the body was brought in and placed in a black bag in front of the cells. The corridor echoed with laughter and mockery. Shaqoura said:

The guards joked "Tie him up tight, so he doesn't run away." At that moment, I felt even the night was ashamed of us.

Why Palestinian prisoners fear the clinic

Shaqoura ends his testimony with a clear answer. Prisoners do not refuse treatment. They fear the clinic because it is not a place of healing.

In the reality of occupation prisons, the clinic is an extension of the system of oppression. A space meant to protect life becomes another station of suffering, where pain is policy and humiliation is routine.

This is not an isolated account. It reflects the lived reality of thousands of prisoners, where human values are stripped of meaning and even medical care becomes a weapon.

Featured image via author

By Alaa Shamali

Police in Las Vegas have arrested an Israeli citizen in an armed raid after an illegal 'biolab' made several people exposed to it 'deathly ill'. 55-year-old Ori Salomon aka Ori Solomon was arrested on charges "disposing of and discharging hazardous waste" charges - and later also charged with illegal possession of six firearms - including an assault rifle of Israeli make.

An Israeli IWI Tabor x95 rifle of the type found at Salomon's property.

Police recovered more than 1,000 samples of likely hazardous material after finding a freezer, multiple fridges and other laboratory material including:

biosafety hood, a biosafety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids.

Bizarrely, it was not the first such raid. A Limited Liability Company tied to the county's record of the property has the same name as a company named in an ongoing federal case in California involving a similar biological laboratory.

Israeli biolab raid

The Las Vegas raid followed a tip-off that lab equipment and hazardous materials were being stored at the residential property. The weapons charge was added later because the original warrant for the raid did not include firearms. The charge sheet says that Salomon/Solomon:

knowing that he was an alien admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa, knowingly possessed the firearms below, which were in and affecting interstate commerce, all in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(5)(B) and 924(a)(2):

a. a Springfield Armory SA-XD ACP 45 caliber bearing the serial numberUS734441;
b. a Savage Mark II .22 caliber rifle bearing the serial number 399291;
c. a Euroarms Brescia-Italy .36 Navy bearing the serial number 30614;
d. a Springfield Armory XD-9 9mm Handgun bearing the serial numberXD193283;
e. an IWI US Tavor-x95 5.56 bearing the serial number T0066621; and
f. a Glock 19 9mm Handgun bearing the serial number ANK965US.

The IWI Tavor-x95 'bullpup assault rifle' is made in Israel and used by Israel's military. The Austrian Glock 19 is also widely used by Israeli armed forces.

Court documents state that after entering the garage, several people became "deathly ill," and "could not get out of bed", according to local TV station KLAS. Samples have been taken by FBI aircraft to the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland.

Local media have speculated that the Israeli biolab may have been involved in the production of counterfeit medicines. However, there is another possibility. Islamophobic Israel advocates have claimed that 'Iranian' cells in the US were planning terror attacks.

The claims appear to be an attempt to fuel US aggression toward Iran and led to warnings that Israel itself is planning 'false flag' attacks in the US. The colony has a long and proven record of using such attacks to achieve political and military ends.

Featured image via author

By Skwawkbox

Keir Starmer has 'apologised' for Peter Mandelson in a speech in Sussex. Kind of, but not really. You know the kind of thing. The "I'm sorry people felt offended" apology that puts the blame on others.

Starmer turns on Mandelson after it's too late

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.

From the man whose protégé he still has as his chief of staff.

Despicably, Starmer then cynically exploited Epstein's victims to try to get himself off the hook. It was the first time he'd mentioned them since Mandelson blew up in his face. It was only to use them, shamelessly, to excuse not releasing what pre-ambassador vetting had told him about Mandelson and Epstein.

The Met Police, very conveniently, announced that the Mandelson vetting records can't be released because releasing them might compromise an investigation. Everyone understands this, surely correctly, to mean the supposed investigation into Mandelson's insider trading and leaking of state information to Epstein.

Starmer claimed he was deeply frustrated by the Met's decision. Yeah, right. But then he claimed that he accepted it because releasing the Mandelson files might rob Epstein's victims of justice for Epstein's crimes. Exposing Starmer's decision to ignore Mandelson's ardour for the child-rapist poses zero threat to the US investigation into Epstein's crimes against children and young women.

It was an appalling, disgusting, entirely cynical ploy

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.

To reinforce his smear, Starmer reminded his listeners that Jews suffered the UK's most recent terror attack. He left out that the Jewish casualties at the Manchester synagogue attack were shot by armed police. Also left out that the people of Palestine continue to suffer daily terrorist attacks by Israel — including many bombed and burned this week. Also 'forgot' to mention the 1.5m Palestinians starving and freezing in Gaza under Israel's blockade. He 'forgot' to mention that the Gaza 'ceasefire' is a sick joke. He 'forgot' to mention that Israeli extremists are attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and burning their homes.

Of course he did. Starmer is too determined to criminalise pro-Palestinian speech and protest. He is holding anti-genocide protesters in prison without trial, arresting grannies for opposing genocide. He sends his lawyers to try to ensure journalists who support Palestinian rights and freedom are locked up.

And he doesn't give a flying you-know-what for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein beyond their usefulness to keep the Mandelson files hidden. To anyone watching closely, he made that perfectly clear.

Watch below:

https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Starmer-Mandelson-hb.mp4

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Jeffrey Epstein and the far-right figures around him wanted to push US war with China. And elitist bigotry was very much part of this.

Today, the US Cold War against China is escalating, particularly in Latin America. But with Donald Trump trying to assert US dominance and reduce Chinese influence in the region, he's also been showing the world his clear disdain for international law.

And as past chats between Trump associates Jeffrey Epstein and Steve Bannon show, that's not the only disdain within these circles of power.

From Epstein to Vance — a swamp of racism and classism

The idea that a Global South nation could become an economic superpower within decades clearly causes discomfort among Western white supremacist elites. In particular, it has increasingly exposed US decadence, amid extreme militarisation, growing wealth inequality, and political capture by misanthropic billionaires.

The first Trump administration didn't just further empower racists. Its public demonisation of China also coincided with increasing hate crimes against Asian communities in the US.

Epstein and Bannon — both millionaires — referred to the Chinese government as "peasants". And current US vice-president JD Vance has said the same thing. (Vance rose to prominence thanks to billionaire Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who also appears in the Epstein files.)

Interestingly "peasants" to describe the Chinese is the exact same term that JD Vance used

Keir Starmer's Number 10 is refusing to say whether new peer — and 'Labour Friend of Israel' member — Matthew Doyle ended his friendship with paedophile former 'Labour rising star' Sean Morton after Morton's conviction. The PM's office is also refusing to say what Starmer knew about the status of the pair's friendship before Doyle was made a peer last month.

The 2018 conviction

Morton is a Scottish former Labour councillor convicted in 2018 of counts of possessing serious child sexual abuse images and extreme pornography. He was placed on the sex offenders register and, in another example of light sentencing of Labour paedophiles, made to do 140 hours of community service.

The questions come as Starmer admitted this week to knowing about Peter Mandelson's ongoing, ardent relationship with serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer knew about it when he appointed Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US. He must also have known about Mandelson's insider-trading with Epstein.

It's already a matter of record that Starmer gave Doyle the peerage despite knowing Doyle campaigned for Morton's election after Morton had been charged. The refusal to deny it also strongly suggests that Doyle continued the friendship after conviction — and that Starmer knew. It suggests it so strongly that even liberal Zionist Gabriel Pogrund finds the silence "weird". Pogrund said that:

This is getting weird now

In response to @TomTugendhat, Darren Jones doesn't even acknowledge question re Lord Doyle

PM/McSweeney warned about his links to paedophile Sean Morton, so ordered investigation before peerage approved

Yet zero info on what it found, inc when… https://t.co/lNmsewhBbb pic.twitter.com/x6iGMC4a3c

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) February 3, 2026

As well as being another example of Starmer appointing friends of paedophiles, the Doyle-Morton case is the latest in Labour's long list of Zionist child abusers. Former Blair and Starmer adviser Doyle is a member of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), the Israel lobby group connected with Israeli embassy cash and anti-Palestinian racism. He has also been a listed speaker at events held by notorious lobby group BICOM.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is under pressure to kick MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy out of the party altogether for her friendship with Sean Morton. Duncan-Glancy resigned her front-bench position and said she will not seek re-election, calling the friendship a "serious lapse in professional judgment". Right. Sarwar appears no better than Starmer, but Duncan-Glancy at least fell on her sword.

But all this is just the tip of a very large nonceberg of the overlap between paedophilia and 'Labour' support for Israel.

Starmer about to hit the Nonceberg

Starmeroid MP Dan Norris's recent arrest for rape was his second on suspicion of sex offences. The first, in 2025, was for alleged rape and paedophilia and is still under investigation. As we've seen, Starmer's mentor and chief adviser Peter Mandelson resigned over his notorious links with serial child rapist and Israeli agent Jeffrey Epstein. In early January, Israel fanatic Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) organiser Liron Velleman admitted child sex offences.

We're just getting started.

In January last year, former Blair minister Ivor Caplin was arrested in a sting operation as he allegedly attempted to meet a 15-year-old boy for sex. Local police went after local left-winger Greg Hadfield for exposing the explicit content Caplin posted on his X feed - Hadfield defeated the 'vexatious' charge in November 2025. However, no charges have yet been brought against Caplin and a court did not impose bail conditions after his initial bail expired. Despite the ongoing police investigation, Caplin was recently invited to speak on LBC about Keir Starmer's move to block Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham's bid to stand in a parliamentary election.

There's more

Hackney councillor Tom Dewey, an organiser in pro-Israel group 'Labour First', admitted possession of the most serious category of child rape images in 2023. The party knew of his arrest when it allowed him to stand for election. After his conviction, it blocked local women members from its systems to prevent them discussing the case.

And in March 2025 Sam Gould, who worked for Starmer's health secretary Wes Streeting, quit as a Redbridge councillor after being convicted on two separate counts of indecent exposure to a 13-year-old girl.

The LFI/JLM paedophile issue mirrors the even wider issue in Israel itself. The regime is currently ignoring well over 2,000 extradition requests for alleged and convicted paedophiles. In April 2025, Shoshana Strook, the daughter of Israel's far-right settlements minister fled to police and asked them to protect her, accusing both her parents and one of her brothers of raping her as a child, over a period of years, and filming the rapes.

Jewish anti-Zionist academic Norman Finkelstein says Israeli society is "rotten to the core". That sickness doesn't stop at the border.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

The leaders of two political parties keen to tout their pro-Palestine credentials have attended an event at Google Ireland's headquarters, a firm heavily complicit in so-called 'Israel's' genocide in Palestine. Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin and Ivana Bacik of Labour both revealed the shallowness of their Palestine support by attending.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to put economic pressure on the Zionist terror regime, outlines Google's role in the slaughter:

Project Nimbus, the joint $1.22 billion contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021, provides cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence and other technology services to the Israeli government and the Israeli military. Nimbus offers the platform for the Israeli military to run deadly AI programs such as Lavender and Gospel - crucial to the Gaza genocide.

In April 2024, months after the ICJ ruled Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, Google signed a new contract with the IDF, allowing military units to access Google's automation technologies, data and AI services.

Google — 'Celebrating women', while those in Gaza give birth without meds

The event in Dublin focused on the Google Community Women's Leadership programme. It:

…celebrated 11 phenomenal women from across the Dublin Docklands…

This constitutes an example of 'femwashing'; i.e. using a veneer of feminism in an attempt to associate positive values with a company engaged in appalling crimes. The activist group Your Tech Their Deaths, which regularly protests outside Google offices, highlighted the revolting hypocrisy on show. Criticising the attendance of politicians who claim to back Palestinian rights, they said:

By appearing on stage at Google you insult Gazan women who bury their children thanks to Google's military contract with israel. Your actions mock Palestinian women required to birth babies without pain relief or after care, often with deformities due to chemical weapons used by israel and targeted by Google's Project Nimbus.

By proclaiming yourself "Pro-Pal" to voters, then sitting next to gen@c!ders, you all whitewash the extermination of an entire people, plus insult the Irish women you are meant to represent.
Shame on you.

They went on to flag the attendance of Dublin councillors Kourtney Kenny and Gayle Ralph, who both supported the renaming of Herzog Park. The Dublin green space is named after war criminal former 'Israeli' president Chaim Herzog. The renaming bid failed due to behind-the-scenes chicanery. The campaign group slammed the decision to whitewash the image of a company participating in the:

…murder of Palestinians. Like Hind Rajab. The inspiring little girl that never got the opportunity to grow into an inspiring woman.

Sinn Féin's McDonald posted on her Facebook after the event:

Congratulations to these 11 amazing women graduating tonight from the Community Women Leaders programme at Google!

Former MP Rory Stewart has no idea what a low income is. The posh boy podcaster beloved of centrist dads put forward a rousing defence of impoverished - checks notes - Members of Parliament in an interview during which he wore a frankly troubling polo neck jumper.

In a hand-wavey waffle about poor MPs being easily manipulated by the wealthy (what?), Stewart told LBC:

We've got hundred of MPs on very low incomes, some of them very insecure, struggling to get jobs when they leave, they are perfect prey for wealthy well-connected men who can offer them board positions, invite them to parties, put them on private planes.

Here's Rory Stewart describing MPs as being on "low incomes".

Their basic annual salary is £93,904, putting them in the top 5% of earners.

There's a nuanced debate to be had about MPs' pay, but describing them as "low income" is an insult to those who really are. pic.twitter.com/2qE8fYn1sJ

— James Hanson (@jhansonradio) February 4, 2026

Okay, mate. For the record the basic MPs wage is £93,904 per year. That's after their 2.8% pay rise from April 2025.

The average wage in the UK seems to be about £30,000. The mathematical geniuses among us will notice that that is…. quite a lot less than what MPs get paid.

It's almost like Roderick James Nugent "Rory" Stewart - a humble Oxford educated one-time tutor to the future king of England, former army officer, and imperial governor of a province of Iraq - hasn't got a fucking clue what he is talking about.

Roderick rides again

Stewart, born in Hong Kong to a diplomat who is said to have been a top candidate to head MI6, spent a number of years as a Tory MP.

For the 4287th time, I find myself going back to his *drum roll* voting record from those heady days.

Admittedly, I usually reach for these receipts when some centrist dad fuckwit in the pub tries to claim Stewart is a sort of sensible, moral conservative….

But any excuse to get Roderick's voting record out is good enough for me. I have actually had it tattooed on my body so people can just read it now.

Let's have a little look at Rory's votes on benefits:

• Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits

• Generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax")

• Consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability

• Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices

Sounds like man who really understands the value of money on these benighted islands, doesn't he?

How about tuition fees?:

• Consistently voted for university tuition fees

Oof…

Corporate tax?

• Almost always voted for reducing the rate of corporation tax

Oh Rory…

Climate change?

• Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change

Bloody hell, Roderick. If only the melts knew how to Google, you'd lose half the listenership on your shit podcast with war criminal Alastair Campbell.

Speaking of which, where are you on war - a very expensive and wasteful business that…

• Consistently voted for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system

• Consistently voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas

Immigration? Come on Rozzer, you can pull this back from the brink.

• Tended to vote for a stricter asylum system

• Consistently voted for stronger laws and enforcement of immigration rules

Well, shit. It turns out Rory is just a bog-standard Tory. Nothing more, nothing less. Rory is simply defending the well-off. Which includes MPs. And he isn't convincing anybody otherwise. With the sole exception of your tedious Rest is Politics-obsessed Blairite uncle who likes to play devil's advocate over things he knows nothing about in the pub.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

The Trump administration has returned $500 million in oil money from previous oil transactions with Venezuela. A US official said it was to keep the country's services running. The US kidnapped Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. In his place, former oil minister deputy Delcy Rodriguez is running the oil-rich nation.

A US official told The New Arab on 4 February:

Venezuela has officially received all $500 million from the first Venezuelan oil sale.

The unnamed individual said the money would be:

disbursed for the benefit of the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the US government.

The cash seems to have been from an oil deal struck in January:

So in essence, we allowed Venezuela to use their own oil to generate revenue to pay teachers and firefighters and police officers and keep the function of government operating so we didn't have systemic collapse.

The official said the money, which had been held in Qatar, was a:

temporary, short-term account to ensure Venezuela received the funds needed to operate.

Venezuela: agreed-upon procedures

The official even explained there were plans to move money from future oil sales:

into a fund located in the US and to authorise expenditures for any obligation or expense of the government of Venezuela or its agencies and instrumentalities upon instructions that are consistent with agreed-upon procedures. 

The New Arab also reported pro-Maduro street protests. Maduro's son Nicolasito was in attendance. He told reporters of the demonstrators:

These people are not American.  We have achieved a profound anti-imperialist consciousness.

Maduro is in a New York jail. He claims he is a prisoner of war. The US has indicted him for drugs and weapon possession charges Yet whatever the balance of power in Venezuela is now - and whatever the anti-imperialist rhetoric on display - this seems to suggest that the Venezuelan government is not calling the shots any more.

Trump's massive military build-up and eventual special forces raid on Venezuela seems to have done the job. The US seeks to dominate the Western hemisphere entirely. Trump has now moved onto bullying Iran. The Venezuelan revolution, whatever its merits and shortcomings, seems to have stalled for now.

Time will tell if it becomes another footnote in US imperial history.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Mass arrests by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are overwhelming the US court system in Minnesota.

The Trump administration's massive deportation spree in Minnesota - pompously titled 'Operation Metro Surge' - created a corresponding surge in emergency legal cases. This left courts so short-staffed that several top lawyers quit outright. Still others have voiced their intention to follow suit in recent weeks.

The Minnesota US attorney's office stated that:

The Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in this district has been utterly overwhelmed by the number of recent habeas petitions in Minnesota, during a time when the Office is short staffed.

ICE flouting orders

Justice Department records show massive numbers of legal violations by ICE, including violations of judges' orders, illegal arrests, and botched court filings.

Minnesota judges are particularly alarmed at defiance from Homeland Security and their Justice Department counterparts in Washington. In particular, ICE is regularly flouting orders to bring their detainees before a judge when ordered - a legal right and duty known as habeas corpus.

Politico described one situation in which:

In one recent case, ICE arrested a man with no criminal record who was residing legally in Minnesota on a rare "T" visa, meant for victims of a severe form of human trafficking or who aided law enforcement in a trafficking investigation. A day after a magistrate judge inquired about the case, the Justice Department said it should be dismissed because the man had been released. Four days later, however, DOJ sent a cryptic filing misidentifying the man as "she" and suggesting he had been relocated to a detention facility in El Paso.

DOJ then blew off the deadline to clarify what had occurred, leading the judge to conclude that "ICE transferred Petitioner from Minnesota to Texas without notice and indeed, from this record it appears that even [DOJ] may not have known about the transfer."

'Broken system'

Underscoring the depths of the crisis, on Tuesday 2 February, a judge asked prosecutor Julie Le why his federal court orders were being ignored by ICE. Le, in apparent distress, said:

The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.

She went on to add that:

Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.

Le argued that ICE officials simply ignore her and other Justice Department lawyers when they tell them to obey the courts. Even simple inquiries went completely unanswered, and Le's threats of legal repercussions made no impact.

The prosecutor branded the situation a "broken system", and even revealed that she'd tried to quit - but there was no-one ready to replace her.

Open authoritarianism

However, Trump's team are denying their responsibility for the situation. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), tried to blame the judges themselves for the crisis:

The Trump administration is more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary to deliver President Trump's deportation agenda for the American people. It should come as no surprise that more habeas petitions are being filed by illegal aliens — especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people's mandate for mass deportations.

This line of reasoning is severely faulty. It is a court's role, when necessary, to determine the legality of an individual's actions. If the state could ignore a habeas petition on the grounds of an individual being "illegal", it could simply declare anybody illegal without trial.

This is both clearly a monstrous abuse of power, and precisely what the Trump administration is doing.

A Justice Department spokesperson likewise blamed "rogue judges" for the massive increase in detention cases. They argued that without the judges rulings, there wouldn't be any "concern over DHS following orders."

That is to say, if the judges didn't demand that ICE follows the law, there would be no issue. Again, an openly authoritarian proclamation.

Shock and awe

The fact that Minnesota's courts are overwhelmed is not a glitch in the system. It's not a result of the Justice Department being understaffed, or - God forbid - ICE being under-resourced. Rather, this overwhelm is part of the plan.

Trump has always relied on shock and awe tactics. He perpetrates as many open crimes and heinous violations of basic human decency as quickly as possible, such that his opponents barely have time to muster a reaction before the next onslaught.

Because the courts are overwhelmed, ICE and the Trump administration can act with impunity. The administration has said outright that if it's allowed to break the law, then there won't be any issues. It intends to break the law; it intends to ignore basic legal rights; it intends to deport anyone it sees fit. This was always the plan.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

An inquiry into the deaths of at least 30 people who drowned while trying to cross the English Channel in 2021 has found that emergency services could have prevented the deaths.

On November 24, 2021, the dinghy they were travelling on started to fill with water and capsized. To date, it is the deadliest small boat disaster on record in the English Channel.

Only two of the people on board survived. Emergency services found them nearly 12 hours after they called for help.

In total, authorities found 27 bodies and confirmed another four people were missing.

Channel crossing: a damning inquiry.

The inquiry found that staff numbers across the national network at HM Coastguard were "above what was required". However, the recommended seasonal staffing at MRCC Dover is three operational staff for search and rescue. Importantly, this number "was not satisfied". The inquiry found:

 The only fully qualified staff member working in the search and rescue team at MRCC Dover that night was the Search and Rescue Mission Co-ordinator (SMC). The two others in the SMC's team that night were trainees: one was partially qualified but deemed to be operational, and the other was non operational.

Shockingly, these staffing pressures meant that the SMC was unable to take a break. This:

unsurprisingly left him feeling overwhelmed and fatigued. The short staffing also resulted in an absence of appropriate supervision for the non-operational trainee, who was called on to undertake operational tasks.

Moreover, both Border Force Maritime and the RNLI lacked sufficient resources to deal with the situation.

Despite a seemingly healthy number of surface assets available on the night of 23 to 24 November 2021, HM Coastguard and Border Force were reluctant to deploy more than one, as this would have reduced the availability of an already insufficient number of assets on the following day.

A surveillance aircraft that should have provided "critical intelligence" also did not launch due to poor weather. Of course, there was no contingency plan.

Additionally, authorities missed calls and texts from the boat, or did not follow them up. This, combined with the widely held belief that the people on the boat were exaggerating their distress, meant that the coastguard underestimated the urgency of the situation.

To make matters worse, HM Coastguard did not inform the helicopter searching the area to look for people in the water. The report states:

There were problems with the search undertaken by the helicopter R163. Based on the drift analyses commissioned by the MAIB, it is likely that the area covered by R163's search contained the swamped small boat. However, its search was not effective for locating a swamped small boat or people in the water. R163 was not tasked to incident 'Charlie' specifically and was not informed by HM Coastguard that it was to locate a sinking small boat or people in the water. The captain of R163 told the Inquiry that if he had been informed that there were people in the water, "that does change things". Instead, R163 was tasked to look for the multiple small boats that were believed to be in a similar area.

Ultimately, authorities and emergency services could have prevented all of the deaths. The inquiry report concludes:

As the analysis makes clear, the flaws in HM Coastguard's decision-making were systemic. In particular they are attributable to the inordinate pressure on HM Coastguard staff at MRCC Dover handling search and rescue for small boats, the absence of effective supervision of those staff, the limitations of the remote working model to assist them, and the belief which had developed among HM Coastguard personnel that callers from small boats regularly exaggerated their level of distress.

Featured image via Channel 4 News/ YouTube

By HG

This article contains graphic details of rape and sexual assault.

The latest tranche of Epstein documents have provided further evidence that he was not only a vile paedophile, he was also an appalling racist. We've previously covered Epstein's sickening fantasies about using the supposedly "superior gene pool" of himself and the children he raped to create a "super-race".

However, the new files provide further evidence of his eugenicist views. In an email to linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky, the now-dead former financier suggested that Black people are less intelligent than others:

The test score gap amongst African-Americans is well documented. 20 years of testing. Many countries. James Watson had some of his private views made public and hence his dismissal from society. He told me that after one sentence he became an un-person. Making things better might require accepting some uncomfortable facts. You told me that.

Epstein - racist views and racist friends

James Watson was a Nobel Prize winner alongside Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin following their discovery of DNA. He was also a horrible racist. He said:

There's a difference on the average between blacks and whites in IQ tests. I would say the difference is genetic.

Watson described himself as "gloomy" regarding Africa's prospects due to his claim that:

…all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.

Epstein appeared to indicate in another email that he was meeting Watson for breakfast. A white supremacist podcaster called Jean-François Gariépy also says Epstein gave him $25,000.

Epstein was of course a major backer of the world's leading racist endeavour, the genocidal land theft project that is so-called 'Israel'. He was a likely Mossad spy and has been pictured wearing an Israeli Genocide Forces sweatshirt. He was also a close friend of former 'Israeli' prime minister Ehud Barak. It is alleged Barak was the man who Virginia Giuffre alleged raped her "more savagely than anyone had before".

Former 'Israeli' PM bemoans "quality" of African and Arab people

Now, in a newly released audio recording, Barak can be heard in conversation with Epstein. Adding an extra layer of racism to his already racist desire to have new arrivals to 'Israel' steal Palestinian land, Barak talks of controlling the "quality" of these aspiring land thieves. He says:

…we can control the quality much more effectively than our ancestors, or the founding fathers of Israel, could deal with the waves. [It] was a kind of salvation wave from North Africa, from the Arabs, from wherever.

They took whatever came, just to save people. Now we can be selective.

Note the use of "whatever", rather than "whoever", as if Black and Arab people are just convenient objects to pad out the settler-colony's demographics. Rather than what he clearly sees as sub-standard material, the Nazi instead wants another "one million Russians".

A number similar to that came to invade historic Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. Given it's a conversation with a child rapist, Barak - being the sickening creep he is - inevitably turns the conversation in a smutty direction, saying:

I think that many will prefer it to be Belorussians [who arrive]. Many young, handsome girls will come. Tall, thin.

This is the only moment Epstein can be heard in the recording, letting out a chuckle.

Zionism is a fundamentally racist ideology

Of course, this all makes sense, given Zionism is a fundamentally racist project at its core. It grants one ethnic group exclusive rights to land they have no claim on, as they exterminate the native inhabitants. The racism which Barak espouses has just been an additional stain on top of that underlying bigotry.

Historian Avi Shlaim has recounted his early experiences of racism as an Arab Jew upon his family's arrival from Iraq. Ethiopian Jews who arrived in the Zionist pseudo-state were sterilised, so they couldn't outnumber the preferred white population. Arab people in 'Israel' are denied the same provision of services as their Jewish counterparts, including access to bomb shelters.

It's not only racism that the Zionist entity shares with Epstein. It is also a vehicle for mass sexual abuse. Paedophiles have used the apartheid colony as a means of evading justice elsewhere. The most senior figures in the Zionist government have refrained from deporting such individuals.

Palestinian children are routinely sexually assaulted in the brutal prison system run by the terrorists in West Jerusalem. Children are "hit or touched on the genitals", with 69% being strip searched.

Palestinians have recounted systematic sexual abuse in the 'Israeli' system of torture camps. Those kidnapped describe being raped with dogs, iron bars and batons. Tamer Qarmut was kidnapped from Gaza in November 2023. He described his abuse:

He [the guard[ shoved a wooden stick up my anus, left it there for about a minute, and pulled it out. Then he shoved it back in, even harder, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. After a minute, he pulled the stick out again, told me to open my mouth, pushed the stick into my mouth and forced me to lick it.

Knesset members have defended the right to rape kidnapped Palestinians. They even staged a violent protest at a torture centre when it appeared rapists may be held to account for their crimes.

The Zionist entity is effectively Epstein in 'state' form. A project of massive racism, violence and sexual abuse, allowed to continue its crimes way beyond the time it should have been held to account.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage are no party of the people. Their emerging Epstein links show how their relationships with unaccountable transnational ruling elites let them play politics on easy mode. What has changed is that we're starting to see more and more receipts.

If Farage's outfit knows one thing it is money. A privately-educated banker himself, Farage has always played the tweed populist while making money moves behind the scenes. For example, this virulent critic of Muslims and Islam was in the Middle East last week ago courting UAE billionaire's for donations.

But there is more. Property tycoon billionaire and Reform treasurer Nick Candy has now been revealed as an associate of late child-rapist, Zionist, and fascist Jeffrey Epstein.

Reform have an Epstein problem

As Skwawkbox reported recently, the Epstein files name Candy in relation to Epstein. There was even an email talking about Candy's property firm selling a London flat for Epstein.

The emails appear to show, among other things, that Epstein was a fan of Candy, that Candy and Epstein appear to have swapped phone numbers through a third party, spoke directly - and that disgraced Labour grandee Peter Mandelson was also in the mix.

You should read the full report here.

A former Tory donor, Candy shifted to Reform UK in 2024 and now serves as their treasurer. He even promised the party a massive sum to support their bid for office. Even far-right tech baron Elon Musk - another Epstein associate - approved of the move.

Candy's job is to elicit money for the nativist party whose officials have spent the last week dodging questions on Epstein. One even threatened to storm out of a TV interview when pushed on the party's connections to Epstein.

Needless to say the full extent of Candy's - and his financial dealings - with Epstein are still hazy. Yet the pair's apparently rather collegiate relationship tells a story.

Questions to answer

Tax expert and economist Richard Murphy drew out some of the contradictions in the Reform UK/Epstein relationship.

Murphy wrote on 5 February:

In December 2024, Candy announced that he had quit the Conservatives and would "become the treasurer for Reform UK". He then joined Nigel Farage and Elon Musk at a strategy meeting at Donald Trump's Florida mansion, the latter two of whom also appear in the Epstein files.

Adding:

The trio's names all appear in a tranche of three million documents released by the US Department of Justice last Friday

Murphy rightly noted:

Appearing in the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing.

But as he pointed out questions remained. And that no Reform MP seemed to have attended the debate on Epstein and Mandelson on 4 February:

That is true, but questions still need to be asked about this and about why, apparently, no Reform MP thought it appropriate to be in the Commons yesterday. Why could that be?

But what are we to make of it all? Because treating Epstein as an aberration, rather than a product or expression of a system, rather misses the point.

Global transnational elites

Epstein was many things. And by all credible accounts every single one of those things was reprehensible. He was a prolific (and prolifically self-serving) operator in international affairs: connector, deal-maker, and schmoozer. Epstein was one figure in an amoral network of transnational elites, dealing in information and brokering power.

He traded in what he and his vile cohorts considered nothing more than property, be it human (his sex-trafficked victims seem to be regularly sidelined in all this) or inanimate. His own politics were clearly of the furthest right.

Ultimately men like these - and they are overwhelmingly men - want to make a world in their own image. With that in mind organisations like Reform UK  - led by people with bottomless reserves of base viciousness, bigotry and ambition -  are going to have a profound appeal for powerful, hyper-rich grotesques like Epstein.

The core truth is Reform UK aren't popular, they're just connected. They're the electoral wing of a propertied global cartel. Underneath the pint-swilling, faux-populist trappings they represent an identifiable set of class interests. Those interests, as it happens, are the same values as tech barons, billionaires, bankers and property tycoons, petro-lords and bought-and-paid-for politicians and abusers whose names are all over Epstein's gruesome files.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Piers Corbyn, brother of Jeremy Corbyn, is officially on the ballot for the Your Party Central Executive Committee (CEC) in elections ending 5 January. This is despite Piers's links to various conspiracy theories.

A pale imitation of his younger brother

Corbyn passed the ballot with 103 votes as an independent yesterday. Since then, people have raised their concerns:

Piers Corbyn is a climate change denier who has been protesting outside refugee hotels alongside fascists of late. The fact that he's allowed to be in YourParty, nevermind that he has been endorsed for its CEC by 102 London members, is shocking. https://t.co/jZBIpwk87p

— Adam Ramsay (@AdamRamsay) February 4, 2026

Piers has a long history of controversial beliefs, having been very active in the anti-vax movement, leading to his arrest on several occasions. He didn't stop there, going on to harass NHS workers, accusing them of murder. He also turned up at a drag story time in Brighton screaming "Your parents were straight!"

To be fair, some of the above is kind of tame compared to the time Piers was arrested on suspicion of inciting arson.

Observers have also clocked Piers holding signs saying 'Stop the Boats' outside of migrant hotels:

Jeremy Corbyn has demanded a focus on the victims of Jeffrey Epstein as the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson grows. Speaking from the Central Lobby on 5 February, Corbyn called for the US authorities to interview Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Victims of Epstein's vile network will be scarred forever by the horrific abuse they suffered. It is them we should be thinking about.
pic.twitter.com/EBgrCCUJnC

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 5, 2026

Corbyn makes plea

Corbyn rightly emphasised that the political activity around the latest Epstein File releases should not overshadow the woman and girls involved in these sex trafficking rings. Pointing out the tragic case of Virginia Giuffre who sadly died by suicide in April 2025, he continued:

Others are in a desperate situation. They will be scarred forever by the experience of the behaviour of Jeffrey Epstein. It is the victims we should be thinking about.

Corbyn's suggestion that both Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor would only be questioned under voluntary circumstances is worrying. These two perverted predators should be in fucking prison, not being politely asked to consider facing justice.

Unaccountable

These remarks are absolutely right. It's the women and girls who have had their lives ruined who should be at the forefront of these investigations.

As Maddison Wheeldon wrote for the Canary:

It is time we empathise and choose to empower women and girls, not continue this toxic cycle of even the reveal of abuse not centring the abused.

Featured image via Sky News

By Antifabot

As we've reported, Donald Trump has been deploying masked goons to terrorise US cities. These anonymous thugs work for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and yet the Trump regime is using them to intimidate all Americans - not just those who were born outside the states. This recently saw ICE agents murder Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.

Now, Trump has offered the most self-pitying response when asked about their murders:

Trump on ICE: I hate even talking about it. 2 people out of tens of thousands and you get bad publicity.

Llamas: But they were Americans who died.

Trump: They don't talk about that we have small trucks. We have been very tough on the waters.

Llamas: The waters?

Trump: Where… pic.twitter.com/eO8juwpY4v

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 5, 2026

Pitiful Trump

To Trump, the great unfairness isn't that his goons shot an American in the back; it's that he's getting bad publicity as a result.

Truly, he's the least self-aware and most self-centred man to have ever existed. As such, it makes sense he'd end up as the US president. Trump is the embodiment of the past 80 years of the American Empire without any of the pretence.

In other news, Trump has defended Bill Clinton:

Trump: It bothers that they're going after Bill Clinton. I like Bill Clinton.

Reporter: What do you like about him?

Trump: He got me. He understood me. pic.twitter.com/wNowPvORka

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 5, 2026

If you're wondering why they're "going after" Clinton, it's because - like Trump himself - he features heavily in the Epstein Files. Once again, it's a case of 'poor me' from Trump, although this time he's extended his definition of 'self' to include the other degenerates who enjoyed Epstein's company.

It's obvious Trump isn't thinking about Epstein's victims at all. Sadly, he isn't alone in this, as Maddison Wheeldon wrote for the Canary:

"flawed redactions" of the Epstein Files have made nearly 100 survivors vulnerable, with the women's lives "turned upside down." However, the mainstream media circus around the release of the files is conveniently diminishing both the horror and scrutiny of these atrocious crimes, as well as the accountability of the powerful figures responsible for them.

Yet another lawsuit

In this clip, Trump is defending his decision to sue the US Inland Revenue Service:

Trump: Essentially, the lawsuit has been won. I guess I won a lot of money. I'll give 100% to charity.

Reporter: You're taking it out of the system.

Trump: No, I'm putting it back into the system. I'm giving it to charity.

Reporter: 38 trillion in debt and we're taking 10… pic.twitter.com/ylhbRG4Vg1

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 5, 2026

On this topic, AP reported:

In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn, of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense and national security tech firm — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about Trump and others to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.

The outlets were not named in the charging documents, but the description and time frame align with stories about Trump's tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans' taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica. The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he first entered the White House and no income tax at all some years thanks to reported colossal losses.

Regardless of the precise details, it's obviously not sustainable to have a country in which the leader is suing his own governmental departments.

ICE

For readers in the UK, it's worth bearing in mind that both Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have both spoken about importing ICE-style policing to the UK. These same leaders have also done more than their fair share of sucking up to the US president. As such, we need to ask ourselves: is this pathetic, declining mess of a country really what we want to emulate in the UK?

Featured image via NBC

By Willem Moore

Peace campaigners have held two days of protest to call attention to a controversial arms fair hosted by Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

There were no arrests outside the Specialist Defence and Security Convention (SDSC-UK) on 3-4 February. Although two protesters were carried off the site.

Actions by around 60 protesters included a mock drone attack 'die-in', street theatre from the Red Rebels, a silent vigil led by Quakers, interfaith prayers and drumming.

Arms fair 'not welcome'

The Stop SDSC-UK campaign includes Quakers, Campaign Against Arms Trade and others. A spokesperson for the campaign said:

The SDSC-UK isn't just another exhibition, it's a showcase for companies that profit from war, human suffering, and corruption.

Weapons sold here end up being used against civilians in conflicts from Yemen to Gaza. This is not welcome in our city.

The SDSC-UK has faced protests in every community it has visited. Campaigners forced previous events out of the Three Counties Showground in 2023 and the Telford International Centre in 2025.

Notorious exhibitors at the arms fair have included:

• Thales, linked to arms used against civilians in West Papua and breaches of sanctions against Russia.
• BAE Systems, whose fighter-bombers have been used in Yemen and whose deals have been tied to massive bribery scandals.
• Qioptiq / Excelitas, providing military optics to regimes known for human rights abuses.
• L3 Harris, whose bomb racks have seen use in conflicts in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, and Libya.
• Elbit Systems, a key part of Israel's drone fleet involved in attacks condemned as potential genocide in Gaza.

An open letter to Paul Reeve, CEO of the NEC Group, signed by over 400 individuals and 30 organisations including Pax Christi and the Peace Pledge Union. Their Peace Dove mascot delivered it to the NEC on 21 January.

In their letter, the campaigners said hosting the arms fair goes against the NEC's stated commitment to honest, ethical business.

The UK arms industry alone emits over 1.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. And it has links to nearly half of all international trade corruption cases.

The spokesperson added:

The NEC cannot claim to be a responsible, ethical venue while hosting an event that fuels oppression and destruction around the world.

Campaigners are calling on the NEC to refuse to host the next SDSC-UK.

Featured image via Hugh Warwick / Flickr

By The Canary

Rabid media coverage of the Epstein files has breathlessly focused on political gossip at the expense of centring victims and survivors. As such, public discussion of elite sexual abuse often gravitates towards spectacle: powerful men, hidden networks and institutional failure. Of course, coverage from mainstream media is complicit in upholding power structures that decide who counts as a victim - and who doesn't.

Instead, the newly released Epstein files point to an uncomfortable reality. It has been noted from FBI interview records and grand jury testimony that Epstein's "preference was short, little, white girls." Crucially, Epstein's operation did not rely on chance or opportunism. Instead, Epstein paid girls to recruit other minors and enforced his preferences through discipline and reward. When recruiters failed to comply, the system reprimanded them. In practice, race did not sit in the background. Rather, it structured how the trafficking itself operated.

When recruiters violated those expectations, Epstein reprimanded them. In one instance, he refused to allow a Black girl to massage him, telling the recruiter that he "was not interested in black girls." As a result, racial selection operated not as personal taste but as an enforced rule within the trafficking system.

This is not simply evidence of personal bias. It is evidence of racialised trafficking.

Epstein files: trafficking as selection, not chaos

A 2019 prosecution memorandum from the Southern District of New York reinforces this pattern. Drawing on multiple victims' accounts, the memo describes how Epstein's operation recruited, paid, recycled, and excluded girls. Epstein "expressed displeasure" when certain girls were brought to him and "did not like dark-skinned girls".

This language confirms that race operated as a selection criterion within the abuse economy. The operation expected recruiters to internalise Epstein's preferences and adjust their behaviour accordingly. When recruiters failed, the system punished them through loss of payment, emotional reprimand, or exclusion from favour. Trafficking here did not operate opportunistically or chaotically. It functioned as a regulated system, with whiteness operating as currency and Blackness marking disposability.

Black women-led anti-trafficking advocates have long warned that sexual exploitation cannot be understood outside race. As survivor-leader Vednita Carter, founder of Breaking Free, has stated:

Prostitution is a racial justice issue..you can't just take race out of it.

The Epstein files bear this out.

Institutions frame misogynoir solely as hypersexualisation, with Black women and girls rendered excessively visible and exposed to violence. The Epstein material reveals a quieter but equally damaging mechanism. Black girls were not hypervisible. Institutions filtered them out. Their exclusion did not signal safety. It signalled erasure.

Exclusion from the pipeline meant exclusion from testimony, from media coverage, and from public memory. It also reinforced a persistent myth: that elite sexual exploitation primarily harms white girls.

Who counts as the "real" victim?

This is how racialised sexual violence hides. Black girls are routinely denied access to the category of the "ideal victim": young, innocent, credible and deserving of sympathy. Research on adultification bias shows that Black girls are routinely denied the presumption of innocence and vulnerability afforded to white girls.

That category was never built to include them. When Black girls are missing from abuse narratives, it is not because they were protected, but because institutions are structured to look past them.

This omission is not politically neutral. Silence here is not an oversight. It is an organising strategy. When Black girls are written out of sexual abuse narratives, institutions are spared the obligation to protect them, fund services for them or confront the racialised nature of exploitation.

How institutions fail Black survivors

The National Black Women's Justice Institute has noted that Black women and girls face "intersecting challenges rooted in racism, sexism and systemic oppression", which not only heighten vulnerability to trafficking but also create barriers to recognition, justice, and healing once harm occurs.

Elite abuse narratives often rely on a narrow feminist crime that centres white girlhood as the default site of innocence. This framing does not merely overlook Black girls. It depends on their absence. It allows institutions to perform concern while leaving intact the racial hierarchies that decide whose suffering is legible.

Eugenics as context, not spectacle

It is within this framework that Epstein's documented interests in eugenics becomes relevant. As the Canary has previously reported, Epstein repeatedly expressed "Nazi-like" eugenic obsessions around intelligence, breeding, and hierarchy. These views are disturbing, but they are not the story on their own.

What matters is how this ideology aligns with the trafficking practices documented in the files.

Eugenics did not create Epstein's abuse, but it helped rationalise the sorting, ranking, and exclusion that defined it. Belief systems rooted in hierarchy sustain racialised trafficking by framing inequality as natural and exclusion as reasonable.

In that sense, Epstein's eugenic thinking functions as context rather than cause. It helps explain how institutions normalised racial selection, enforced it through practice, and largely refused to interrogate it.

Misogynoir as subtraction

Understanding misogynoir only through sexualisation misses how it operates in elite abuse systems. Here, misogynoir functions through subtraction. Black girls disappear twice: first from protection, then memory -trafficking organisations working with Black survivors have warned that this has material consequences. This leads to gaps in accountability, long-term support, and prevention. Absence from the record becomes absence from remedy.

When abuse narratives centre those only deemed recognisable victims, accountability remains partial. Power survives by narrowing the field of concern.

The Epstein files show how institutions produce that acknowledgement: through recruitment rules, racialised preferences, reprimand, reward, and silence.

Why this matters now

Public outrage around sexual exploitation often peaks around individual villains, then dissipates. Structural analysis demands more and offers less comfort. Without it, the same hierarchies persist.

Institutions continue to under-identify Black girls as victims of sexual violence, under-protect them, and write them out of high-profile cases. When commentators read that absence as evidence of safety rather than exclusion, misogynoir does its quiet work.

The Epstein files do not simply expose an individual abuser. They show how systems of power decide whose suffering they record in the first place. As long as racialised trafficking remains peripheral to how institutions understand sexual exploitation, they will continue to frame abuse as exceptional rather than structural.

This is not a failure of evidence. It is a failure of political will.

Featured image via the Canary

By Vannessa Viljoen

Academic Shaiel Ben-Ephraim describes himself as a "Jew from occupied Palestine". He has posted what he describes as "probably the most important Hebrew tweet I've ever seen". Ben-Ephraim introduces and translates the Hebrew words of Israeli general Moshe 'Bogie' Ya'alon, one of Israel's most senior military and establishment figures.

Ben-Ephraim's words - and the explosive words of Ya'alon - need little elaboration, except to flag to readers that Ya'alon describes Israel as ethno-supremacist "Judeo-Nazis" for their crimes against Palestinian people. And he mocks the common Zionist tactic of complaining that we must never compare Israel to the Nazis. Read in full below - emphases added:

This is probably the most important Hebrew Tweet I've ever seen. Moshe Ya'alon is a former chief of staff and defense minister. The absolute cream of the Israeli defense establishment. In this text he admits that the Israeli government and settlers have become Judeo-Nazis and their policy is based on Jewish supremacy. Here is a full translation:

"On the last Tuesday evening, I attended an event marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. When I got home, I received a message about Jewish pogromists attacking Palestinians in the south of Hebron, stealing their livestock, and burning their property. "We can't compare!…"

After ambulances, which tried to reach the scene, were delayed by the Jewish terrorists, three Palestinians were evacuated to the hospital, one of them with skull fractures. "No event can ever compare to the Holocaust, which we endured!" …

I turned, of course, immediately to the security authorities in the area, and I was assured that the incident was being handled by the IDF. To this day not a single Jewish terrorist has been stopped (as in many other cases), because … the Israel Police is controlled by a convicted criminal, a fascist racist Nazi, the Shin Bet is controlled by a representative of "Jewish supremacy" from the schools of the rabbis Tao, Lior, Ginzburg, and Zini (Dodo), the defense minister prevents administrative detentions of Jewish terrorists, and the other minister in the Ministry of Defense encourages illegal outposts and equips them with off-road vehicles, to torment the lives of Palestinians, to evict them from their land, and to settle the land with Jews (you'll ask again why I blamed the government for "ethnic cleansing"!?). The ideology of "Jewish supremacy," which has become dominant in the Israeli government, resembles Nazi racial theory, "but we must not compare!" …

When I commanded the Jerusalem and Samaria Division, the Central Command, and the IDF, I was acquainted with the warnings of Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, regarding the process of dehumanization to the point of turning us into "Judeo-Nazis" (as he put it), under our control of another people. I did my best, even as defense minister, "so that we may know how to defeat terrorism and remain human."

I never deceived myself into thinking that only through concessions would we achieve "peace now," and I also understood the danger of "Jewish supremacy" over our future and our existence. Therefore I advocated separation according to the proto-programmatic speech of Yitzhak Rabin of October 5, 1995, and therefore I named my book is "A Long Short Way." As of now, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz was right and I was wrong.

The task of the next Israeli government is to prove that Professor Leibowitz was wrong, and not to bring ruin upon our state. The government of "Jewish Supremacy" — the government of lies and betrayal — the government of messianism, the traitors and the corrupt — must be replaced before ruin."

Israelis of conscience see that it is adopting the policies of Judeo-Nazism and Jewish supremacy. They have known it for a long time. But most do not have the courage to say so. This is an earthquake.

Unsurprisingly, the silence of 'mainstream' media and pro-Israel groups on Ya'alon's words is deafening.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Keir Starmer is perhaps the most unpopular prime minister we've ever had, and he's embroiled himself in what may be the most disgusting scandal. Can this loathed public figure survive this self-inflicted catastrophe?

Almost certainly not.

And one person who's ahead of the curve on this is Zack Polanski:

Important discussion this evening on Palantir.

Keir Starmer having meetings in Washington - and then the US spy tech company receive £260m.

The largest defence contract in British history - through Peter Mandelsons lobbying company. https://t.co/i9lDjfEx22

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 4, 2026

Time to go

As we've reported, Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson to be ambassador to the US despite knowing he maintained a friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction. The media presented it as some great revelation when Starmer admitted to this in parliament yesterday, but it was never a secret; the media just failed to interrogate Starmer when he returned Mandelson to public office.

We reported on Mandelson maintaining his ties with Epstein way back in 2023.

It wasn't a secret.

Starmer knew.

The media knew.

This is all just a grim pantomime.

In the clip above, Polanski describes hiring Mandelson as "the most catastrophic lapse in judgement you can imagine". In our opinion, the "lapse of judgement" is that Starmer thought the media would ignore this obvious scandal forever. It's not that he hired a notorious sleazeball, because he clearly doesn't care about that; after all, he's part of a movement which is entirely comprised of such people:

Peter Mandelson is not some random outlier.

He was one of the founders and central pillars of the New Labour project.

He was a central player in the Starmer project - including as mentor to the chief of staff.

He is the very core of the Labour Right! https://t.co/lypJOfU8hz

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) February 4, 2026

Polanski also said:

I think it's clear the Prime Minister should do the right thing and step down, because actually the rut runs right throughout the Labour government.

This is a man in Keir Starmer who knew that Peter Mandelson was friends with one of the most known paedophiles in the world, was still staying in his apartment, and he brought him into the heart of government solely because, I imagine, he thought he could whisper in Trump's ear.

Step down

Polanski is absolutely correct that the "right thing" for Starmer to do would be to "step down". Given that this is the guy who hired Mandelson, however, there's no reason to expect him to do the right thing.

Featured image via Zack Polanski

By Willem Moore

In a 3 February debate, nationalist and unaligned Northern Ireland Assembly members (MLAs) pilloried the selective education system used on 11 year olds in the region. MLAs described their own experiences of feeling "like a failure" after not passing the test, which determines whether pupils will go on to a selective grammar school via success in the test. Those who get a lower one of the six bands in the Schools' Entrance Assessment Group (SEAG) exam will typically attend a non-selective school.

Cara Hunter, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA for East Derry, described the stress young children are subjected to. She recalled from her childhood:

…breathing exercises in a circle [and] relaxing music before going to sit the exam.

If schools are deploying on 11 year olds techniques more common to a trauma counselling session, it's fair to say you've failed to produce a humane education system. Danny Baker of Sinn Féin recalled speaking to parents of a child who didn't leave his room for three days after failing the test.

The politicians made their points during a debate on a motion that called on:

…the Minister of Education to produce a time-bound plan to end academic selection and transfer tests in post-primary admissions and to develop and implement a fair, inclusive and non-selective system of primary education that ensures equality of opportunity for all children…

Northern Ireland unusually focused on tormenting 11 year olds with academic selection

The non-binding motion passed by a margin of 48-30. Voting was split between nationalist and unionist camps, with all 'no' votes coming from the latter bloc. No unionist MLA voted for the motion. Nowhere in Britain maintains a system where academic selection features to such an extent. In England, only around 5% of state secondary are grammars. In the North of Ireland, that figure is over 40%. Scotland and Wales have entirely comprehensive (i.e. non-selective) systems.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA David Brooks was the most staunch defender of the current approach. He declared that he "absolutely believes in academic selection". Describing his own upwards trajectory as a working class pupil who passed the old '11 plus' test and went to a grammar school he said:

…a generation of children from working class families - many without an academic tradition at home - have used grammar school as a ladder of opportunity.

This is a little like the fobbing-off exercise deployed by private schools when they grant scholarships to a handful of less affluent students. 'Ignore all those people drowning,' they effectively say. 'Just keep focusing on the few we've granted a lifeboat.'

The man at the centre of the debate, education minister and rabid Zionist Paul Givan, said MLAs were failing children by labelling them failures for children not passing the selection process. This dishonestly misrepresented what was actually being said - that children were made to feel like failures by a system that pressured and graded them at such an early stage in life.

Nick Mathison from Alliance criticised the test itself, saying it doesn't offer any "objective measures of ability". The current format focuses on evaluating ability in English and Maths, which is indeed a limited spectrum of human capacities. It ignores social, musical, physical and empathic qualities, along with many others, in favour of a narrow definition of what we ought to value.

He also decried the missed opportunity for "deep learning", saying:

From P5 [around age 9], certainly from P6-7, almost all focus is on exclusively teaching to the SEAG test, an exclusive focus on numeracy and literacy.

Only ending inequality can fix education gap

Baker denounced the pressure the transfer test puts on the "same schools doing all the heavy lifting". These schools take on a disproportionate number of children with additional support needs and those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, leaving fewer resources to dedicate to teaching. Qualifying for free school meals is a strong indicator of poverty. Around 16% of children at selective schools have this entitlement, against roughly 39% in non-selective ones.

In what was a largely intelligent and civilised debate, only leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the insufferable Jon Burrows, sought to inject inanity into proceedings. He made a nonsensical point about selection providing choice, and followed up with a smear on how this preference would be "ideologically inconsistent" for Sinn Féin MLAs to back, given their apparent support for Marxism.

A) A society drawing on the best of Marx's thought would likely be considerably more democratic and choice-rich than our current system of fake free markets; and B) It'll be a fine day when the targets of his ire are even one quarter as Marxist as his fevered imaginings.

His unionist fellows Brooks and Givan did make one valid point - the observation that no school system, be it selective or otherwise, can ever be truly free from existing inequalities. Affluent parents will always have the option of buying tuition for their children, or moving house to within the catchment area of the best schools.

Like so many societal ills, the underlying cause is an economic system - capitalism - that distributes resources so unequally and gives some children unfair advantages from the moment of birth. The true solution is to fix this shoddy foundation which everything else is built upon.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

Zarah Sultana has thrown her support behind the Green Party's Gorton and Denton candidate, Hannah Spencer. In doing so, she's demonstrated exactly how solidarity on the left should work. In a statement, Sultana said:

The candidate list is now published and it is clear that Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and trade unionist, is the strongest challenger to Labour and Reform. ​ I am, therefore, giving my personal critical support to her and the Green Party in this by-election, and I urge others to do the same.

I have always been clear that the left is strongest when it is united. ​ Our real opponents are not one another. ​ They are Reform and the far-right.

However, Sultana's comments are unfortunately at odds with a statement from the Grassroots Left slate for Your Party - who she backs.

Zarah Sultana at odds with the Grassroots Left

Your Party (YP) had already issued a statement outlining that after deliberation with local members, it had decided that a YP candidacy would not serve their 'collective goals' of defeating Reform. But, the Grassroots Left (GL) slate subsequently stated that:

Grassroots Left will not lend unconditional support to the Green Party candidate, because the Greens are a pro-capitalist, pro-Nato party and have been enforcing cuts in councils all over the country.

Many people from across the leftist spectrum have, rightly, been pointing out this is an immature and short-sighted approach in the face of rising fascism.

Zarah Sultana's statement came after the GL left one, and is interesting for outlining exactly why, on that statement, GL got it wrong:

My statement on the Gorton & Denton by-election: pic.twitter.com/HSrgDf70h2

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 3, 2026

In particular, it's worth looking at one passage from Sultana:

As a young Muslim woman, I understand viscerally what it would mean for the far-right to gain power in this country. This is not an abstract debate for me, nor the millions of people across the country whose safety would be directly affected.

Ultimately, this is what the Gorton and Denton by-election has turned into: a testing ground that is an opportunity for the Green party to show that people are coming together to reject the fascism of Reform. And, Sultana's comments show exactly what happens when a socialist who has lived experience of racism can do when understanding the very real cost of parties like Reform. This isn't an abstract political debate for many people in this country.

It is a reality that has material consequences. In choosing to focus on other policy issues, rather than the much more immediate threat of Reform, GL have shown naive judgement that is disappointing to see.

No more 'whip': Pluralism strengthens movements - it doesn't weaken them

However, this rather public disagreement is not a dramatic sign of a 'rift.' Instead, it is another sign that Sultana is well practiced at productive disagreements that make the movement stronger. Unity does not require uniformity. Leftists are not required to agree on every single point. Instead, we must be able to unite when necessary to resist racism and fascism.

In what many onlookers will probably view with understandable frustration, a heated battle of the factions will soon be underway with the Central Executive Elections (CEC) of Your Party due to take place on the 26th February. Apparent differences in mission have driven a divergence among members, signaling an existential moment for the movement. Namely, Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed the For the Many slate, while Sultana has endorsed the Grassroots Left slate.

Unity does not mean compliance

It is worth noting, the GL statement has faced pushback from within the group itself, with some members expressing dissatisfaction with the tone it adopted.

Chloe Walker, CEC Northwest candidate standing on the Grassroots Left slate shared her views on the difference in views amongst members in the community-grounded movement. She told the Canary:

Personally as I've stated previously, I think that the most prevalent sentiment amongst local members is correct - it would have been nice to back a candidate, Tony Wilson, but the party's not in a place to be able to fight a campaign like this at present, because of how slow and disempowering the founding process has been. I don't think we should be going out of our way to criticise the Greens or their candidate in this instance - she's a strong candidate in any case and I'd obviously rather see them than Labour or Reform win here. But we don't have to come out and back the Greens to the hilt, either. Individual YP members might choose to help out with their campaign, and that's their prerogative. But we shouldn't use party infrastructure to support them; we have to retain some independence while we try to carve out a political identity that is visibly distinct from that of GPEW. Our intervention should be limited to criticising the Labour and Reform candidates, if we feel inclined to make any statement on an election we're not involved with.

Walker added:

specific views towards this by-election do vary amongst GL candidates, reflecting our commitment to a pluralistic and open party where members have the autonomy and mutual respect to disagree while still remaining committed to broader shared political goals.

Ashley Walker, a Grassroots Left member from Stockport also stated:

Despite what some people think the Grassroots Left does not belong to any one person alone, it belongs to every member of every group who is a part of it. And if we win this election the CEC we form, and the party it will help build, will belong not to us but to every member of this party. Because without true democracy there will never be socialism.

No more top-down control: Left unity in action

We published a piece on Monday on Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq's plea to factions on the left to unite against the billionaire-funded fascist threats facing all of us. Alnaouq pleaded:

My friends, fascism is not at the doorsteps in the UK. It is here. And unless we join forces with each other, unless we hold hands, we will not be able to defeat it. And we don't have the luxury for trial and waiting. We do not have time. We have to act. My friends, we have the numbers. We have the resources. We have the support of the people. What we don't have is organisation. We need to learn how to work with each other in order to defeat fascism, in order to defeat far-right, in order to defeat Zionism. And we must never shy away from calling ourselves anti-Zionists because we are anti-Zionists.

Sultana has shown that unity does not require spoon-feeding members the statements they are permitted to make. Grassroots Left has demonstrated that it will not submit to control by powerful figures and will instead maintain autonomy over its messaging. They have also worked collaboratively and supportively with independent candidates to advance a shared mission for a transparent, democratic, and accountable political party.

While work remains to build robust democratic processes that ensure such statements genuinely reflect the will of its membership, a powerful movement is clearly emerging: one that challenges the dominance of privileged public figures and meaningfully empowers its members.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

'ICE' is the acronym for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Despite their remit, ICE agents have been running amok in the US, which has resulted in the killings of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Other killings behind the scenes have also come to light, with eight people who died under ICE detention. But there's some hope. A video has recently surfaced of a MAGA supporter assaulting a teen protester, only for the Zoomers to give him a kick-in he won't quickly forget.

much better angle and footage of the MAGA adult attacking a teen girl before her friends and other student defend her https://t.co/T9DO7DaQeU

— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) February 3, 2026

Middle-aged MAGA gets humiliated by zoomers

At the beginning of the video, we see the middle-aged man lunge at a teenage girl. Eyewitnesses report that he did so with no provocation.

As you can see, the man removes his precious MAGA hat before pushing the young girl down an embankment. Next, she loses balance, and the man throws himself on top of her.

But it doesn't appear he was ready for what happened next.

Zoomers swarm the man, as he swings at another young girl coming in to save her friend. He loses his balance and the kids dive on him, overwhelming him instantly.

Dragging him away from the girl, the teens completely overpower him and beat the shit out of him. The man makes several attempts to break free, but the kids won't let him go.

Finally, seeing a break in the crowd, the man quickly runs to the safety of his SUV (i.e. his 'over-compensation wagon'), with the teens following, making sure the little rat is back in his hole.

It must be embarrassing, assaulting a young girl and then getting your arse handed to you.

This isn't the first instance of the kids taking a stance against ICE and MAGA either:

Students walked out of school at Burnsville High School in Minnesota to protest Trump's ICE gestapo terrorizing their community….the kids are alright

Sentient forehead and Labour big man Wes Streeting has come out swinging for Mandelson. Specifically, he's told the BBC that the key issue is people failed to believe Epstein's victims.

Streeting says Epsteins victims werent believed

The govt appointed Mandelson knowing he'd stayed at Epsteins house after Epsteins conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Its clear Wes & this govt didnt care about Epsteins victims until politically expedient to do so pic.twitter.com/97nvhcPFlp

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) February 4, 2026

The problem is that the people who didn't believe the victims includes the government Streeting is a part of. After all, why would they have promoted Mandelson otherwise, when they knew about his connections to Epstein?

Streeting — the allegations

Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful that Streeting has managed to pull himself away from privatising our NHS to stand up for the victims, but all is not as it seems.

Streeting's Twitter/X history shows that he was silent on Epstein until this morning. This was despite years of actual women coming forward, and the known links between Mandelson and Epstein.

Additionally, it seems Streeting has only mentioned Mandelson himself a few times at first glance. But that doesn't factor in the tweets he's recently deleted:

Since the 'suicide' in prison of serial child-rapist and Israeli spy Jeffrey Epstein, theories about his 'death' have split into two main camps.

One assumes, based on the state editing of CCTV video of the area around his cell on the night in question, that Epstein was murdered so he can be silenced. Another, that Epstein isn't dead, but was instead spirited away. The latest release of Epstein files by the US justice department contains information that appears to support the latter.

Before Epstein's death had been officially reported, an anonymous post appeared on conspiracy site 4Chan on 10 August 2019 from a user who claimed to be a security guard at the prison. The post claimed that Epstein had been "switched out":

Not saying anything after this pls do not try to dox me but last night after 0415 count they took him medical in a wheelchair front cuffed but not 1 triage nurse says they spoke to him. ​ Next thing we know a trip van shows up? ​ We do not do releases on the weekends unless a judge orders it. ​ Next thing we know, he's put in a single man cell and hangs himself? ​ Heres [sic] the thing, the trip van did NOT sign in and we did not record the plate number and a guy in a green dress military outfit was in the back of the van according to the tower guy who let him thru the gate. You guys i am shaking right now but i think they switched him out.

Images released of 'Epstein' also appear to suggest discrepancies in key facial features between the dead body and Epstein photographed while alive:

Another post on the same message board, also before the announcement of Epstein's death, gives details of treatment supposedly administered:

This has long been dismissed as mere 'conspiracy theory'. However, the latest Epstein file release includes information that appears to confirm that prison guard Roberto Grijalva was the person who sent the message to the board before Epstein's death.

Epstein prison whistle blower named

A day after Epstein's death, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman of New York's southern district opened a Grand Jury proceeding. As part of the proceeding, Berman subpoenaed a number of companies — including 4Chan and Citibank — for its user records. The aim of the subpoena was to uncover the identity behind the anonymous post.

The latest release includes bank documents provided by 4Chan in response. In these records, the name of on the response on the user name has been redacted. However, the name on the associated records showing the bank account holder was not removed: Roberto Grijalva.

The idea that a serial child-rapist may still be alive and given refuge in Israel is anything but far-fetched, even if Epstein's status as an Israeli spy is set aside. Although stubbornly ignored by UK state-corporate media, the Israeli regime is currently ignoring well over 2,000 extradition requests for alleged and convicted paedophiles. In April 2025 Shoshana Strook, the daughter of Israel's far-right settlements minister fled to police and asked them to protect her, accusing both her parents and one of her brothers of raping her as a child, over a period of years, and filming the rapes.

Israeli psychotherapist and trauma expert Dr Anat Gur, head of the Bar-Ilan University trauma therapy program, has said that she believes organised child rape in Israel is widespread:

Organized child rape is one of the most horrific things I've encountered. It's likely much more widespread than we think. It's happening in places we least expect.

The latest document release already put beyond reasonable doubt the fact that Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset. This includes mention of his training as a spy under former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, allegedly one of Epstein's most brutal rapists.

Now, it also validates the 10 August 2019 4Chan post as a legitimate eyewitness account written by a prison officer working on the night of Epstein's 'death'. A witness who says he was removed, without the usual official records. One who believes Epstein was "switched out" and was reporting it immediately, along with the supposed means of suicide, before news of it was in the public domain.

Featured image provided via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

A new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine states there is no evidence "to justify blanket bans" on trans women from women's sports.

The research found that trans athletes who were born male have no advantage over cis women.

Trans Supreme Court ruling

Several UK sports associations have banned trans women after the Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act is based on biological sex. This includes the Football Association (FA), England Netball, and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Some sports, such as cycling and triathlon, have introduced open categories for trans athletes. 

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also attempting to ban trans athletes. The IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, pledged to ban trans athletes in her election campaign.

Earlier this week, the Canary reported on a legal case against an inclusive swimming pond in London. Transphobic pressure group Sex Matters had its legal case against the pond dismissed by the High Court.

In response to the legal case, the City of London Council published research showing that, of 38,000 members surveyed, the vast majority (86%) backed the corporation's trans-inclusive changing policy. This is despite the recent Supreme Court Ruling on biological sex.

'No observable differences'

The new study analysed 52 different studies based on 6,485 people, most of whom were transgender.

It found that:

Transgender women might have more muscle mass than cisgender women 1 to 3 years after hormone therapy, but their physical fitness is comparable

Additionally:

Transgender women have significantly greater amounts of body fat than cisgender men but levels comparable to those of cisgender women.

They also discovered that trans women had more lean muscle mass, but "no observable differences" from other women in terms of body strength or VO₂ max — or maximum oxygen consumption. This is a key measure of cardiorespiratory fitness.

When compared to cisgender men, trans women had significantly lower strength and VO₂ max.

The researchers noted that hormone therapy was associated with:

higher amounts of body fat and lower amounts of muscle and less upper body strength 1-3 years after the start of treatment in transgender women, transgender men had less fat, more muscle, and greater strength after hormone therapy.

The researchers concluded that:

The convergence of transgender women's functional performance with cisgender women, particularly in strength and aerobic capacity, challenges assumptions about inherent athletic advantages derived solely from [gender affirming hormone therapy] or residual lean mass differences.

Featured image via Connor Coyne/ Unsplash

By HG

The UK is even more of a US military colony than we thought. New documents found in the US War Department's website show that Britain hosts double the number of American military facilities previously reported.

Our friends over at Declassified UK explained:

A US document published online identifies 16 of the US military's locations in the UK and notes six "other sites" which are not specified. The document, published last year, outlines the US military's "property portfolio" around the world as of September 2024.

Declassified said they had:

identified other locations in Britain that are likely to be hosting US military or intelligence personnel, bringing the total to at least 24.

But they reflected that this may even be an underestimate:

This doesn't cover the full scale of the US military presence in the UK, since it is believed that US military personnel are frequently, if not permanently, stationed at still more sites, such as the key Royal Navy bases at Coulport, Devonport and Faslane.

Declassified explored how various installations and locations across the UK are run by US military and intelligence personnel. In many cases these operations are little-known to the public and involve thousands of US personnel and swathes of land.

In practice, a foreign power is running its global military operations from British soil with little or no democratic accountability. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) refused to comment and suggested Declassified submit a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

US military — troops out!

Sovereignty is a critical issue at the moment.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski recently caused a furore by saying the presence of US bases and troops should be reviewed. At the time it was reported that 13 US bases and over 10,000 US troops were based here.

Now we know the situation is far worse.

Polanski said on 20 January:

We should be reviewing US bases on UK soil, and actually looking at a genuine strategic defence review.

Adding that:

Donald Trump has so much domination within Nato that I don't believe it's possible to reform Nato from within

US President Donald Trump had just threatened to annex Greenland. American special forces had also just kidnapped the Venezuelan president and threatened various other countries. So Polanski wasn't really being dramatic.

American leftie priest Dan Berrigan was once asked how his late Catholic Worker colleague Dorothy Day approached political activism. They'd spent their lives opposing poverty, racism and war in the US.

He replied:

She lived as though the Truth were actually true.

You can take the religious connotation there or leave it, it matters not. But at the Canary we try to write as if the truth is true.

The truth is that Britain is a vassal state and colony of the United States. We say the UK would better off if it was not. US bases, troops and spies need to go. And, with sensible caveats, any journalist or politician making that case is a friend of ours.

Featured image via Militarycom

By Joe Glenton

Norwegian state oil company Equinor has delivered its yearly profits announcement. And campaigners from Fossil Free London have been quick to respond. They've accused Equinor of getting "filthy rich" and say it's "the UK public [that] foots the bill".

Equinor and Rosebank

Equinor is the majority owner of the Rosebank oil field. Rosebank lies in UK waters and in 2023, then-PM Rishi Sunak said that developing it would help secure UK oil supplies. However, any oil or gas from the field wouldn't go directly to UK refineries. The owners would sell it on the global markets, meaning the UK could potentially see none of the product or the profit.

Despite this, as the Canary has previously reported, UK public funds are carrying most of the development costs. So the UK is potentially taking a massive loss and creating enormous greenhouse gas emissions for negligible benefit.

Ahead of Equinor's announcement, activists from Fossil Free London staged a striking 'oil spill' protest outside the company's London HQ. Wearing rose-themed dresses and dripping in treacle, to mimic oil, they called attention to its role in Rosebank.

Commenting on Equinor's results, Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, said:

Equinor are getting filthy rich from filthy fossil fuels, whilst the UK public foots the bill. And it's never been more of a rip off. As Equinor drives Rosebank forward, they've newly buddied up with Shell in a new North Sea venture to dodge £1.3bn in tax.

It's clear that we cannot afford to neglect climate action. The UK will face over a trillion pounds in costs as the result of the climate crisis in the next decade.

The UK Government must not back Big Oil's Big Money and support climate denial. They must back people's survival, and stop this carbon bomb. They must stop Rosebank.

Featured image by Jack Taylor

By The Canary

Yesterday, 3 February, the Scottish parliament voted against moving forward with a bill that would have criminalised sex work.

The Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill was introduced by independent MSP Ash Regan. However, it was defeated at the very first hurdle, at which MSPs agree on the general points of a bill. It lost by 64 votes to 54.

The proposed laws would have closely followed the 'Nordic model' of criminalisation. The problem, however, is that the Nordic model is incredibly dangerous for sex workers themselves.

'Very significant' issues

As the law stands in Scotland, both soliciting in public and keeping a brothel are illegal. However, it is currently legal to arrange to sell sex online, and to pay for sex.

The bill would have made it an offence to pay for sex in any way. Meanwhile, it would have decriminalised the act of selling sex, along with repealing historic convictions for solicitation. In this, it mirrors the Nordic model of sex work criminalisation, which specifically targets the buyers — not the sellers — of sex.

The SNP, Green and Lib Dems opposed the bill, whilst Labour and the Conservatives backed it. However, a small faction of SNP ministers rebelled to vote in support of the proposals.

Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown stated that there were "very significant" issues with the proposals that the Scottish parliament wouldn't have time to correct.

In particular, she highlighted that the online nature of the proposed offences would make it extremely difficult to enforce. She also pointed out that the bill could reduce sex workers' ability to gauge the risk that individual buyers pose, thereby increasing the threat of violence against them.

The Nordic model on sex work — doesn't work

In this, Brown has echoed the sentiments of Scottish sex workers themselves — always a good thing, given that the bill affects them most directly. Grassroots campaign group Sex Workers for Decrim opposed the bill from its inception, stating on social media that:

This will increase violence against us. It will increase our likelihood of being evicted, and it will further isolate us and drive us underground.

As the Canary's Rachel Charlton-Dailey explained, in areas where the Nordic Model has been adopted, violence against sex workers has increased at a horrific rate. In Northern Ireland, it increased by 225% from 2016 to 2018, according to the Irish Ministry for Justice.

During the Holyrood debate, Regan stated that:

This 'Unbuyable Bill' recognises prostitution for what it is - a system of exploitation and violence sustained by demand. It decriminalises those who are sold, recognising them as people constrained by vulnerability and not offenders.

And it places criminality where it has never properly sat in Scots law, with those who buy sexual access and those who profit from the sale of sexual access to human beings.

Now, don't get us wrong, we're completely here for the decriminalisation of sex work. However, if we're coming out swinging for people who are forced into an exploitative system, we have bad news for you about our entire economic system.

Now, this isn't to say that sex workers don't face risk and violence in their line of work. However, criminalisation — of buying or selling — forces that work underground, making it more difficult to report harm or organise for better conditions.

Sex work — 'overwhelming evidence'?

After the defeat of her bill, MSP Regan said:

Today, Parliament chose cowardice over action - despite overwhelming evidence, survivor testimony, and support from police, prosecutors and international experts.

Inaction is not neutral. It is a decision, and it has consequences.

Of course, that overwhelming evidence doesn't include Amnesty International, the World Health Organisation, or the sex workers themselves who have clearly stated that the Nordic model harms the workers.

SNP MSP Michelle Thomson, who joined the rebellion in support of the bill, spoke to BBC Scotcast on the topic. She argued that her party members should have been allowed to choose which way to vote. Likewise, she also added that women should not be "traded as commodities", and asked SNPs to reject:

the entitlement of some men to demand the purchase of women.

This framing is itself deceptive. The opponents of sex workers frame the profession as solely female because it allows them to frame the issue as protecting 'helpless' women from violent men. Not only is this deeply paternalistic, it also ignores the fact that somewhere between 6 and 20% of sex workers are men.

And again, there's the fact that most of us trade our bodies as commodities.

The opposition

Across the aisle, Lib Dem party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton took a pragmatic approach in opposing the bill:

We can't wish prostitution away and as it will forever exist we need to make sure it happens in the safest possible way.

Green MSP Maggie Chapman also spoke out against the bill, in favour of letting people decide what they do with their own bodies:

Where sex work happens between consenting adults, I believe the state should support people not penalise them for how they choose to live.

This, for us, gets to the heart of the matter. We're not interested in whether you think buying or selling sex is a moral failing — we're not bloody philosophers.

The debate around sex work foregrounds the fact that it is frequently coercive and exploitative. However, all work involves a degree of exploitation and coercion — you need food, clothes, somewhere to live, and you don't get a choice in the matter.

What's true is that most sex work, currently, carries some unique risks of both harm and exploitation. However, criminalisation only exacerbates these problems. Sex work is happening, it's not going away, and efforts to make it go away harm the workers — so the problem in front of us is making it as safe as humanly possible.

Making sex work as safe as possible for the workers themselves means the same as it does for all workers. It means unionisation and worker's rights, but those cannot happen without decriminalisation and destigmatisation. Any other option is sophistry.

Featured image via Red Umbrella Fund

By Alex/Rose Cocker

On World Cancer Day, patients in Gaza face a double and merciless threat: cancer itself and a devastated healthcare system.

Thousands now face an uncertain future after hospitals were damaged and the only specialised cancer centre stopped operating. Border crossings remain closed, preventing patients from travelling for treatment.

Gaza's health situation is no longer a temporary crisis. It has become a daily tragedy.

Patients are trapped between severe physical pain and the absence of essential medicines. Hospitals lack early-diagnosis tools and proper monitoring, turning treatable cancers into life-threatening cases.

Gaza — the grim health reality

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, in a statement seen by Kanari, says around 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza are now deprived of specialised treatment and proper diagnosis. Conditions worsened after specialised hospitals were rendered inoperable and the Gaza Cancer Center was destroyed, pushing the health system close to total collapse.

More than 4,000 patients with referrals for treatment abroad have been waiting over two years for crossings to open. Their health continues to deteriorate while they wait.

A 64% shortage of cancer medicines, alongside the absence of MRI and mammography machines, has sharply increased delayed diagnoses and mortality risks.

Humanitarian and social impact

The cancer crisis in Gaza extends far beyond physical suffering.

Patients and families live under immense psychological pressure, caught between fear of death and the inability to access or afford treatment. Harsh living conditions intensify that burden. The wider community also suffers. Cancers easily treatable elsewhere become prolonged battles in Gaza, draining families emotionally and financially.

International silence deepens patients' sense of abandonment, worsening an already profound humanitarian trauma.

Urgent international appeal

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has called for immediate international action to allow patients to travel for treatment, ensure the entry of vital medicines, and rebuild cancer care facilities.

The ministry warned that continued inaction amounts to a slow death sentence for thousands, cautioning that Gaza faces an unprecedented health and humanitarian catastrophe unless urgent intervention occurs.

Featured image via Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

By Alaa Shamali

Israel is always the victim — in its own eyes. That applies to the groups that support it too, like the avowedly Zionist 'Board of Deputies' (BOD). So, naturally, as far as the BOD is concerned today's exoneration by a jury of six anti-genocide Palestine Action activists is not justice. It's a slight to the BOD and other Israel supporters.

It's 'antisemitism', in other words.

In a statement, the BOD described the verdicts as "troubling". It then said that "respect [for] the judicial process" is "important". And it then made clear that it has no respect for the judicial process by implying the acquittals don't mean, under British law, that the accused are innocent of the serious charges against them. Therefore they are still guilty and deserving of punishment they should not be "able to evade".

Evade by means of being found not guilty. The fiends.

BOD releases a statement after Palestine Action activists' acquittal

This was the BOD's nonsense in full:

04.02.2026 ​

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. ​

While it is important to respect the integrity of the judicial process, there is a serious danger of perverse justifications being used as a shield for criminality. ​ It cannot be the case that those who commit serious criminal acts, including violent assaults, are able to evade the consequences of their actions. ​

We look to the Government to provide clear direction in tackling hate crime and extremist violence. ​ This incident underlines the urgency of the Home Office's current review into public order and hate crime legislation. ​

We are grateful to the officers who attended the scene and the CPS for prosecuting this case. ​ We urge the prosecution to proceed with a retrial in respect of those charges where the jury was unable to reach a verdict, particularly given the severity of the injury suffered by Police Sergeant Evans.

To be clear: none of the defendants has been found to have injured police sergeant Evans.

And, since it's certain neither the BOD nor the UK corporate media are ever going to refer to it, video evidence proved that police and security guards lied about pretty much everything that happened. And the accusers were not even able to come up with convincing lies even though the police left the Israeli arms-maker in charge of the video evidence for a whole year.

Scandalously, despite the verdicts, the CPS has demanded that the humanitarian defendants — after a year and a half as political prisoners — must not simply walk free. Five of them have been put back on bail — and one, Sam Corner, has been denied bail and put back in prison.

Of course we must never forget that Israel and its lobby are always the victim. Even when they're slaughtering innocent Palestinians and making up bollocks in court to imprison people trying to stop them.

Featured image via FiltonActionists

By Skwawkbox

Keir Starmer has admitted knowing all about his disgraced senior adviser Peter Mandelson's continuing close ties to serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein.

Before he appointed him to be ambassador to the US.

It was already a matter of record that Starmer knew when he told MPs last September that he had full confidence in Mandelson. Mandelson was removed as ambassador shortly afterward — but kept on the government payroll. That month's Epstein file release underscored Mandelson's infatuation with Epstein, but their ties had been on record long before.

And now Starmer has admitted that security vetters had warned him — before Mandelson's US appointment — about the Blairite (now) former peer's close relationship with the monstrous rapist and child trafficker.

Of course they did. That was never in doubt, but now is admitted. But the cover-up continues.

Starmer said he will 'release all material' relating to the vetting, but with the glaring exception of:

national security and "international relations" exemptions.

'National security and international relations exemptions' like Epstein's status as an Israeli spy.

'National security and international relations exemptions' like the 'who's who' of UK and other state officials who enjoyed 'recreation' on Epstein's island — no doubt while Mandelson was there.

'Exemptions' like Mandelson's equally close friendship with former Israeli PM — and alleged brutal rapist — Ehud Barak, whom the latest released files shows trained Epstein as a spy.

No doubt. But none of the 'mainstream' media seem to find this obvious issue worth pointing out.

The UK state's protection of the vilest will no doubt one day be the stuff of textbooks and histories — like Starmer's collaboration in Israel's genocide. That is too late.

Full disclosure now — and punishment to the full extent of UK and international law of all those involved whether before, during or after the fact.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

BBC News reported yesterday that the US Department of Justice has had to remove thousands of documents related to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as they have compromised the identities of women who have been victimised by the elite-run web of sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation.

The outlet further stated that the "flawed redactions" of the Epstein Files have made nearly 100 survivors vulnerable, with the women's lives "turned upside down." However, the mainstream media circus around the release of the files is conveniently diminishing both the horror and scrutiny of these atrocious crimes, as well as the accountability of the powerful figures responsible for them.

One thing is clear. The release of the Epstein files was certainly not to protect the victims and survivors of Epstein's depraved network. The women and girls who bore the brunt of these atrocities have been sidelined even in the official reveal of their experiences.

Epstein files: accountability should be in the interests of victims, not their abusers

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.

Given US President Donald Trump's appearance in the files, photographed with Epstein's so-called "harem" of young girls, too little attention focuses on the fact that rich, powerful men once again seem able to deter and deflect true accountability. Anyone who has experienced abuse knows this all too well: men often act without recognizing - or admitting - the harm they cause.

Abolish the Monarchy. https://t.co/yyNBmVlN6z

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 1, 2026

Women have had enough

Unfortunately for those powerful patriarchal arseholes, many women see straight through it and are at the end of their tether. They remind us that unless we dismantle the structures and hierarchies of power, the abuse will never end. As a white woman, I believe it is essential that white Western women confront our complicity - whether intentional or not - and come together in solidarity against all abuse. This means rejecting the Western patriarchal scapegoating of 'brown men' and confront the reality that white men have inflicted - and continue to inflict - vast harm. Abuse is about power; not race.

We wrote recently on the practice of Nazi-like eugenics amongst Epstein and his ilk of superior, privileged rich boys. Discussing the characteristics of the men who have assumed powerful positions in politics and business, our own Robert Freeman wrote:

All this is ultimately the product of an economic and political system that practically guarantees the most poisonous humans imaginable rise to the top. Capitalism rewards the most ruthless and domineering among us, not the kindest and most compassionate.

Those attracted to being a CEO — with the ability to control potentially thousands of lives — are unlikely to be good people. Once there, wealth grants them the ability to evade the law and control the political realm. With greater power comes greater impunity, and an already degraded soul rots still further. It's a system that selects for, then refines, the worst traits of our species.

The Epstein documents have produced an outpouring of fury, and an increasing clarity to the realisation that an entire system needs to be dismantled and reconstructed into something less misanthropic. We've had enough warnings by now of "Nazi like" reprobates controlling our lives. An imminent return to something akin to Nazism looms unless an alternative course is pursued urgently.

Not all men: But it is all women

There is a reassuring factor for women that yes, it is not 'all men'. Nevertheless, many women with platforms have demanded that we no longer center reassuring men that we aren't 'demonising all of them'. Instead, they insist that we finally center the very valid truth that whilst it might not be all men (thankfully), it is all women and girls.

All women and girls are likely to experience abuse or its consequences at some point in their lives. This truth is depressingly clear: the Epstein scandal proves that abuse does not occur in isolation - it spreads widely, thrives systemically, and men carry it out overwhelmingly. Even women and girls who never experience abuse firsthand live alongside its effects: they support survivors, navigate fear, and adapt their lives to avoid risk. The problem does not lie in individual morality alone; power structures actively enable abuse to continue and minimise its consequences, leaving no woman untouched by its impact.

It is time we empathise and choose to empower women and girls, not continue this toxic cycle of even the reveal of abuse not centring the abused.

The Canary's Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu put across this argument powerfully and poignantly in a post on Instagram:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (@sholamos1)

Dr Shola: 'we will shut this shit down'

Where are the white women? I'm looking, but I can't see. Let me put my glasses on. I still don't see them. You see, my shattered eye, we're just wondering where the white women are following the release of the Epstein files. Because I don't see white women protesting on the streets. I do not see white women collectively, undeniably being visible and vocal in exercising their white power, white fragility, and white tears to hold to account powerful white men that have subjected and deliberately targeted white women and white girls for rape, sexual molestation, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. Where are the white women? How are white women so collectively silent and performatively powerless.

Let's break it down. Where are your bastions of white femininity? The protectors of the white female body? Where are your white female politicians and your white female media personalities? White female commentators? You know, those advocates of anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-immigration because we have to protect the women and children where they are right now because everything seems quite crooked. We're the white women who take to the streets protesting and demanding that white women and children be protected from the asylum seekers and the refugees and the immigrants and they do not even give an iota of that same energy to powerful white men who pose a greater significant risk to their bodies than asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.

Where are the white women whose white peers have unjustly sent black men to their deaths by state execution, either by the police or by the state because they have lied? Huh? Oh my God, I'm just as scared to say black man. Where are your white peers against a powerful white man that have targeted you for rape and sexual abuse? Where are the white women who exercise white power on a daily basis to say to black men, no, you don't work there. No, you don't live there. You don't belong here. Where's that white power now against a powerful white man? Now I'm not talking about the white women who've been doing the Lord's work, speaking out against these powerful white men and have endured all kinds of persecutions including character assassination, who've been actively anti-racist, who've been unequivocally against the patriarchal power structure. Now I stand with them in solidarity.

Now I'm talking to you multitudes of white women who excuse the inexcusable, defend the indefensible because you're telling us it was never about protecting white women and children. You see the stats don't lie. White men commit the most sexual crimes, rape, sexual abuse of children, and sex trafficking. That's the fact. The fact also is that the problem are men. Yes, not all men. But you see, if we work together collectively, white, black, and brown women, against a patriarchal power construct that protects the men who commit these crimes, we will shut this shit down.

As Dr Shola powerfully states, it is time for women and girls everywhere, regardless of ethnicities or religion, to come together.

We must find our humility and refuse to continue being the continual playthings of patriarchal men.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

The number of children who are homeless and in temporary accommodation in Scotland has passed 10,000.

The latest figures from the Scottish Government show that, in the six months to 30 September 2025, 10,480 children were in temporary accommodation.

People experiencing homelessness increasing

In total, there were 18,092 households in temporary accommodation, a 9% increase from 16,634 in 2024. This is also a new record high. Households spent an average of 237 days in temporary accommodation.

There was also a 4% increase in the total open homeless applications. The figure now stands at 33,006.

The number of people sleeping rough has also reached its highest in over a decade - at 1,083. This means that one in 10 applicants was sleeping outside.

One notably higher figure is the number of households not being offered temporary accommodation. The number has risen from 7,565 in 2024 to 10,710 in 2025. Most of these were in Glasgow (6,815 out of 10,710). The local authority also reported high numbers in Edinburgh - with 3,585 instances over the six months.

A figure that has improved is the number of breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order. This states that:

the maximum number of days that local authorities can use unsuitable accommodation for any homeless person is 7 days and has the effect of ending stays in unsuitable accommodation, such as B&Bs, apart from in emergency situations.

In the last 6 months, there were 3,635 breaches, which is a 12% improvement.

Changing characteristics

Of the homeless applicants, 16% were from households that had been granted either refugee status or leave to remain. This allows non-UK nationals to stay lawfully in the UK following an application made from within the country.

In total, 2% of all applications cited "left asylum accommodation" as the reason for them being homeless.

There was also a decrease in the number of white applicants, specifically white Scottish applicants. Conversely, there was an increase in the number of African, Caribbean, Black, Asian, and Arab applicants.

This comes as the number of refugees experiencing homelessness across the UK has more than doubled in the last two years. In total, 4,434 refugees and migrants were accommodated from 2024-25, the largest number on record. Of these, 2,008 were refugees — a 106% increase on the previous year.

In September, Màiri McAllan, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Housing, pledged funding for affordable housing, along with measures to support people in moving out of temporary housing.

Additionally, the Scottish government said it planned to invest up to £4.9bn over the next four years. This would help it achieve its target of delivering 36,000 affordable homes by 2030.

In a statement, McAllan said:

The figures do speak to the severe pressure that services are under due to the Home Office's mismanagement of the asylum system, particularly in Glasgow.

Featured image via Centre for Homelessness Impact

By HG

Campaigner and singer Feargal Sharkey has, once again, dressed down the privatised water companies.

Water companies: taking the p*ss

On social media, Sharkey said:

You'll want to be sitting down for this bit. Water companies are currently £82.7 billion in debt, have paid themselves £85 billion in dividends, leak over a trillion of litres of water per year, dump sewage for almost 4 million hours per year, have been convicted of over 1,200 criminal acts since 1989 and an average of 35% of your bill goes on nothing but paying more interest and yet more dividends. And not a single company has ever lost their operating licence.

When the water companies were privatised in 1989 under Margaret Thatcher, they were debt free. Since then, they have accumulated £82.7 billion in debt, as Sharkey notes. At the same time, they have failed to invest in infrastructure to fix our dated sewage system. Instead, they dump sewage in our rivers and the ocean for millions of hours a year. And they haven't just creamed cash rather than investing. Water companies sold off 35 reservoirs in just five years, making £26 million from flogging what were public assets.

On top of that, as Sharkey points out, a University of Greenwich study for We Own It found a "privatisation tax" of 35% on our water bills. In other words, we're spending over one-third more than we need to every time we turn on the taps.

Privatisation: 140 years into the past

Water was brought into public ownership in the late 1800s. Even back then, people knew it was a natural monopoly and a daily essential for all humans. Selling it off just means one then rents it at higher cost.

Thatcher's government and then the neoliberals in Labour, Reform and the Tories maintaining privatisation of water, have brought us 140 years into the past.

Sharkey is spot on to take down the polluting profiteers.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

The US left mountains of high-tech weaponry behind when it fled Afghanistan in defeat in 2021 - now, those weapons have flooded neighbouring Pakistan. And the resulting instability might be stopping the US mining the very rare Earth resources it craves.

The US has its sights on vast copper mines just ten miles inside Pakistan. CNN reported that China is already accessing the nearby Muhammad Khel Copper Mine in northern Waziristan.

For a sense of the scale of that mine, watch this:

But nearby, in south Waziristan:

lies another copper mine that Pakistan says can yield almost ten times as much, equivalent to a fifth of the copper America uses every year.

CNN said:

The prospect is so appealing to a Washington administration also hungry for resources that it has put up more than a billion dollars to get things moving.

So what is stopping them? In short, the imperial blowback of vast amounts of lost US military gear.

Billions in lost US arms

The US and her allies cut and run from Afghanistan after two decades of occupation in 2021. Today the Taliban rule the country once again. But that US chaotic exit mean up to $7bn worth of weapons and equipment were simply left behind.

Remarkable footage emerged back then of US troops trying to destroy - or 'deny' -  military gear ahead of the US collapse:

But later Taliban footage made clear that weaponry, vehicles, and even helicopters were left behind:

The Foundation for Economic Education broke down some of the numbers involved. They said the giant arsenal included:

includes up to 22,174 Humvee vehicles, nearly 1,000 armored vehicles, 64,363 machine guns, and 42,000 pick-up trucks and SUVs.

There were mind boggling amounts of smalls arms - and even artillery:

the list of allegedly abandoned weaponry includes up to 358,530 assault rifles, 126,295 pistols, and nearly 200 artillery units.

Since the US was forced out the abandoned arms have been sold on - potentially fueling other conflicts.

In April 2025, the BBC was told:

Half a million weapons obtained by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been lost, sold or smuggled to militant groups

A UN report also warned that group including Al Qaeda:

were accessing Taliban-captured weapons or buying them on the black market.

But what are the implication in Waziristan with its rich resources?

Blowback again

As well as copper, CNN reported there were other minerals and metal in Waziristan which the US craves:

Pakistan says there is much more wealth beneath its soil -- an estimated $8 trillion in copper, lithium, cobalt, gold, antimony and other critical minerals.

This mineral reality has:

oiled an unlikely friendship with US President Donald Trump, who has put mineral acquisition at the heart of US foreign policy.

But CNN reporters who went to the region say they were shown:

hundreds of US-made rifles, machine guns and sniper rifles -- all leftovers from Washington's war next door, and all seized from a new breed of jihadists and insurgents.

In fact, the reporters claimed, following a recent attack on a Pakistani military college 50 miles from the Muhammad Khel Copper Mine:

a colonel laid out a blood-soaked bandana and three M-16 rifles recovered from the militants. Written on the bandana, in Urdu and English, were slogans indicating the wearer's readiness for martyrdom.

And:

stamped on the rifles were the words: "Property of US Govt. Manufactured in Columbia, South Carolina."

In Peshawar, CNN recorded images of dozens of American weapons captured after raids:

And US weaponry has also been found in Balochistan in the hands of local insurgents.  Defence analyst Muhammad Mubasher told the outlet American arms were now involved "in almost every encounter that happens".

Following a recent suicide attack in Balochistan which killed 33 people provincial minister Sarfaraz Bugti said there was:

 no doubt that most of the weapons used were US made that originated from Afghanistan.

Past US imperial adventures seem to be hindering new ones…

Trump's Pakistan charm offensive

Despite the instability in the region - instability fueled by US blowback- President Donald Trump and Pakistani leaders have been getting cozy over potential mineral deals.

CNN reported that

Pakistan's prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir took an unusual prop on their first joint visit to the White House in September [2025] -- a chest containing a trove of rare earths they said had been dug from Pakistan's soil.

Adding:

Trump was charmed. The following month he praised Munir in public -- naming him: "My favorite field marshal."

Pakistani politicians have been schmoozing ever since: they vocally supported Trump's failed Nobel Peace Prize bid in July 2025, calling him a great peacemaker after recent India-Pakistan clashes. And their first shipment of rare earth minerals arrived in the US just a month after their September 2025 meeting.

Trump wants Pakistani resources. And the Pakistani government seem more than willing to give them up. The problem is that the war in Afghanistan has flooded the region with high tech US-made arms and equipment, fueling a new set of insurgencies. Trump proclaims himself a  'Peace President', but he clearly isn't getting off the imperialist carousel quite yet.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitaries are leaving custom-made ace of spades 'death cards' at the scene of migrant snatch operations. The ghoulish practice has imperial origins. US troops used to stuff cards into the mouths of the Vietnamese dead. The practice - consider yourself trigger warned here, please - was even filmed for use in official military propaganda.

The truth is this isn't the first example of long-ago wars inflecting US immigration policy. America's imperial past and present is so deeply interwoven into Trumpian policy that we don't always see it. Yet these cards are one of several crystal-clear examples lately.

ICE leave death cards

The Intercept's Nick Turse picked up the story on 3 February. It appears to have originally been reported on 22 January 2025 by Latino community organisation Voces Unidas. After a snatch mission in Eagle Country, Colorado, relatives searching for their kidnapped family members found the cards at the scene:

After detaining 10 Latino community members, ICE agents left ace of spades cards—widely known as the "death card"—inside the abandoned vehicles. The cards, later found by family members, clearly identify ICE's Denver Field Office.

The US used the ace of spades design because it supposedly had particular cultural power in Vietnam.

As Turse explained:

During the Vietnam War, U.S. troops regularly adorned Vietnamese corpses with "death cards" — either an ace of spades or a custom-printed business card claiming credit for their kills.

Adding:

A 1966 entry in the Congressional Record noted that due to supposed Vietnamese superstitions regarding the ace of spades, "the U.S. Playing Card Co. had been furnishing thousands of these cards free to U.S. servicemen in Vietnam who requested them."

After Vietnam, as Voces Unidas pointed out, the cards were adopted:

by white supremacist groups to demean people of color.

On the face of it, this makes a lot of sense. ICE's recruiting strategy is less about nods to racism and more about openly using fascist imagery, mottosm and even songs to attract recruits who align with a mission to ethnically purify the US.

Long history of racial violence

Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas said:

We are disgusted by ICE's actions in Eagle County. Leaving a racist death card behind after targeting Latino workers is deliberate intimidation rooted in a long history of racial violence.

He added:

This is an abuse of power, and it has no place in any society that claims to value human dignity.

Sanchez said family members of the disappeared had the cards in their possession. He confirmed they appeared custom-made and meant to terrify ICE's targets:

These were not from a doctored deck of cards. These were designed with this legacy in mind. They were printed on some sort of stock paper and cut in the dimensions of a card.

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security deigned to explain the cards.

The term 'imperial boomerang' has used liberally to describe what is happening in the US - and correctly so. Trump's war on immigration is a cover for a war on the left and on migrant labour. He seeks to both create an enemy and eliminate rivals, not just at home but also abroad, as we've seen with Venezuela and Iran.

But there is more to it. Let's not forget that a senior Border Patrol official invoked the Confederacy - the slave-owning losers of the Civil War - in a recently discovered email chain.

In truth, the whole spectacle is alive with fascist nostalgia about lost wars. It feels like fascists - many of whom are clearly now in ICE - are trying to correct various imperial and colonial emasculations through racist violence. Trump has given them the permission, the weapons and the authority to do so. At the very least, they are drawing on those vengeful energies.

From the War on Terror to the Confederate fantasy of a 'lost cause' and, now, Vietnam, the ghosts of America's violent past are restless.

Featured image via Voces Unidas

By Joe Glenton

Evil tech giant and NHS leech Palantir has links with wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And Labour MP Dawn Butler has rightly called for scrutiny.

Butler insisted we should "not ignore" the connection between Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel and Epstein, particularly because it has infiltrated our public health system:

We can not ignore the fact that Peter Thiel co-founder of Palantir is featured numerous times in the Epstein files https://t.co/QXoz6C94D1

— Dawn Butler

A pack of hounds from the Middleton fox hunt has run amok through a woodland burial site in North Yorkshire. The incident happened during the last week of January 2026.

Footage captured by national animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports shows the hounds marauding through the Mowthorpe Garden of Rest within the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The hounds ran across graves with the hunt failing to stop or divert them.

This is the same Middleton Hunt that the Canary witnessed a couple of weeks earlier. On that occasion, the hunt was behaving violently and showing no sign of laying a trail. Unless the law changes, and it may do before long, fox hunts can still ride out. But, legally, they can only 'trail hunt'. This means following a scent trail, rather than actual foxes.

However, until the government moves decisively to ban them for good, fox hunts are continuing to cause havoc across the countryside.

The League's chief executive Emma Slawinksi has slammed the hunt for its actions:

It beggars belief that the hunt would have laid a trail through a burial site so either the Middleton Hunt has no regard for the sanctity of this site or, as is more likely, the hounds were on the trail of a fox.

They have desecrated this burial site in a bid to carry on with a blood sport that was banned 20 years ago.

Hunts are behaving in an appalling way, intent on chasing and killing foxes and not caring about their anti-social behaviour and the impact they are having on local communities and the people who live in the countryside.

The hounds were also caught terrorising local wildlife with two deer filmed fleeing for their lives.

'Trail hunting a smokescreen for fox hunts'

The footage of the Middleton Hunt is being released the day after Channel 4 News aired footage gathered by the League of the same hunt's hounds chasing a fox on Christmas Eve 2025.

The League released figures ahead of Boxing Day showing an increase in the number of reports of hunts chasing foxes and wreaking havoc on rural communities.

Chief superintendent Matt Longman, the national lead on fox hunting crime, has described trail hunting as a "smokescreen for illegal fox hunting". He also described illegal hunting as "prolific".

The government has announced it will launch a consultation to ban trail hunting, though this has suffered delays.

Slawinksi added:

I would urge the public who are sick and tired of the behaviour of fox hunts to take part in the government's hunting consultation.

The time for change is now. We want to see trail hunting banned, the loopholes in the law removed, the end of so-called 'accidental' hunting, and jail sentences introduced to act as a deterrent for those who would break new stronger fox hunting laws.

Find out more about how to take part in the consultation, and how people can make their voice heard, here.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Almost 400 medicines are vulnerable to shortages in the UK, according to a new list produced by NHS England and Medicines UK. Among the drugs on the list are treatments for blood clots, stroke, and several cancers.

The medicines were identified as at-risk because they have either a single supplier, or no supplier at all. Often, drug companies stop producing specific medicines because they no longer see them as commercially viable.

Having identified this vulnerability, NHS England and its partner organisations are taking steps to mitigate the problem. They're calling the initiative 'Project Revive', providing incentives for drug companies to manufacture the medicines on the list.

Whilst undoubtedly an important step towards ensuring the resilience of the medical supply system in the UK, this is a treatment for a symptom, rather than a cure.

We're in this mess in the first place because we treat drug manufacture as a commercial market, where companies can compete, patent, price gouge, and drop drugs when they stop making money. That commercialisation of healthcare costs lives.

NHS shortage of 'products of critical priority'

In total, NHS England identified 378 drugs on its list of vulnerable medicines. Of these, around 80 no longer have a supplier at all, meaning that the currently existing supply is all that remains.

The medicines on the list include bendamustine, a chemotherapy drug used for several cancers; flupentixol, which is used for schizophrenia; and urokinase, a treatment for pulmonary embolism. The prices that the UK pays for these drugs could soar if demand starts to outpace supply.

NHS England produced its list alongside Medicines UK, a trade body representing manufacturers of generic medicines. Mark Samuels, Medicines UK's chief executive, said:

The list includes products of critical priority and the ambition is to target those medicines representing the most serious risk to supply resilience, which could lead to shortages affecting patient care.

Drugs which have faced shortages across the UK in recent years include estradiol, an element of hormone replacement therapy; lisdexamfetamine, an ADHD medication; and Creon, which is used to treat cystic fibrosis.

Project Revive

However, NHS England, Medicines UK, and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) plan to tackle the problem of shortages through 'Project Revive'. This scheme will provide incentives like fast-tracked license approvals to enable manufacturers to supply the 378 drugs on the list.

The pilot of Project Revive will run for 12 months. Then, in 2027, coordinators plan to instate a long-term iteration of the same scheme. Samuels explained that:

We have long stated that medicine shortages cannot be solved in isolation, and this project shows what can be achieved by working together. By working with NHS England and MHRA, we hope that this new model provides more certainty to enable companies to produce and supply medicines for use in the NHS.

Fiona Bride, interim chief commercial officer for NHS England, echoed that sentiment:

Ensuring a resilient and stable supply of medicines is fundamental to delivering patient care, with pharmaceuticals being the most common healthcare intervention in the NHS, and this collaborative pilot initiative aims to strengthen that supply chain by incentivising more companies to become NHS suppliers, or deepen existing partnerships.

Treating the symptom

The news of Project Revive comes after medicine pricing issues hit the headlines last year. Several of the world's biggest drug manufacturers announced that they were ditching their UK projects.

Critics from within the industry blamed uncompetitive prices for new medicines, low levels of government investment, and Trump's tariffs adding to supply prices.

Then, in September 2025, science minister Patrick Vallance argued that the NHS would have to pay higher prices for medicines to prevent pharmaceutical investors from abandoning the UK.

This is a problem inherent to introducing a profit motive to any aspect of healthcare, all across the world. Treating medicine as a capitalist exercise creates a host of problems for patients, who should always have been the center of the issue.

Meanwhile, the global pharmaceutical industry has raked in profits at higher margins than practically any other sector.

Profit over patients

As NHS England showed in the Project Revive research, drug companies can cease supply of individual medicines if their profits aren't high enough. This can leave patients without crucial medications that they need.

Likewise, manufacturers can also raise their prices artificially if they aren't faced with competition from other companies, or if other countries are willing to pay higher prices. Patents and intellectual property rights for individual drugs can also allow companies to create artificial scarcity.

Even beyond this, the profit motive causes problems with the development of new medicines. Companies aim to develop medicines in profitable sectors, particularly cancer and rare diseases. This, in turn, sees less-profitable diseases neglected in terms of research and development.

Likewise, even the idea of curing a disease can be anathema to a profit motive. In a choice between being paid once to cure a patient, or being paid again and again to treat a disease without curing it, the latter is the profitable choice. For example, one damning Goldman Sachs report stated that:

The potential to deliver 'one shot cures' is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically-engineered cell therapy and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies…. While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow.

Project Revive looks like an important step towards strengthening the UK's drug supply chain. However, it's a band-aid on a problem which will take far more work to heal.

In the UK, we fear the loss of socialised healthcare through the NHS, but the private sector already has its hooks in the system at every level.

There's no easy fix for the problem of private profiteering in medicine. Capitalism itself is an enemy of good healthcare. It sounds glib, we know, but it's also true. Failing to recognise that fact will mean that we're trapped in a cycle of treating the symptoms, whilst neglecting their cause.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

Nigel Farage's anti-immigration policies are reprehensible racism. And, they're completely unviable for the economy.

Dr Benjamin Caswell, a senior economist at National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), has said:

Net zero migration leaves the economy 3.6% smaller by 2040 and this reflects slower employment growth and a smaller workforce.

Farage would tank the economy

The vast majority of people coming to the UK are studying or working, or their dependants. In fact, people born outside the UK but living here are more likely to be employed than UK born residents. Towards the end of 2025, 74.7% of UK-born residents were employed, compared to 81.1% of EU born residents and 74.8% of non-EU and non-UK born residents.

Farage's anti-immigration policies are not only unprincipled, but economically deficient. His party Reform aims to deport 600,000 people from the UK over the course of a parliament. And that's before you get to added restrictions on people arriving. As NIESR research shows, this would contract the economy because we are relying on people from other countries to support our workforce.

Caswell continued:

Imagine it as like freezing the population where it is, and then just having a continually ageing population. In the short to medium term, it's not too detrimental, but over 20 years this gap [in spending and receipts] becomes continually larger and larger.

This is because the UK's fertility rate is just 1.44. In order for the population to be replaced, it must be 2.1.

The cause of less children: inequality

In 1964, the UK's fertility rate was 2.9. People could afford houses, had free university, and a much cheaper cost of living due to the nationalisation of essentials.  Now no one can afford a home. Many of us don't have the financial security to have children. Student debt is hanging over us and the cost of living keeps getting worse.

Another issue is the ratio of older people to the workforce. In 1973, there were 21.8 retired people for every 100 people working. Now there are 30.4 retired people for every 100 workers.

As economist Richard Murphy summarises:

We have a system which is, in other words, basically hostile to children; hostile to the actual fact of having children; hostile to the support of children; hostile to the parents who want to support children financially and who can't because the system makes that nigh on impossible for them to do so. Hostile to the whole idea that we should be able to reproduce in the way that we need to. And now hostile to migrants who might be able to help solve this problem by becoming the teachers and everything else that we need to fill the gaps in the system, or to simply provide the cover to ensure that sufficient nursery care is, for example, available. Everything is hostile to having children.

Automation and technological advancement could solve this. But Farage's ideological anti-immigrant policies would only make it worse.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

In the aftermath of the acquittal of six of the Filton 24, pressure groups and the families of the vindicated prisoners have spoken about what the verdict could mean.

Pressure group CAGE responds

The refusal to convict any of the six defendants of any charges, including on the most serious of charges, is a powerful affirmation of jury equity and brings to a humiliating end one of the most politically charged trials of this year thus far.

The decision made by the jury critically undermines the rationale used to proscribe Palestine Action, and underscores the urgent need for that ban to be lifted. This case was the most significant test of the government's claim that acts of conscience against arms companies constitute a threat to public safety.

An independent jury, guided by conscience and moral clarity, rejected that narrative despite extraordinary political pressure, ministerial intervention, and an environment shaped to shield Israeli state-aligned interests from scrutiny.

The verdict echoes a wider public rejection of Zionist impunity, and growing support for direct action against companies complicit in genocide.

The trial has exposed how pre-trial detention and public spectacle were used to punish the defendants in advance and to deter others from challenging Israel's largest arms manufacturer. The proscription of Palestine Action must now be lifted, and all those held as a result of this political process in prison should be released immediately.

The trial demonstrated that counter-terrorism and national security frameworks are being used in line with their established purpose: to silence dissent and shield state complicity in crimes from accountability. Context was excluded, and scrutiny of Elbit systems - Israel's largest weapons manufacturer - supplying an ongoing genocide was treated as a matter to be suppressed rather than examined.

Naila Ahmed, Head of Campaigns at CAGE, said:

This is a huge victory for the movement but nationally and abroad who campaigned on behalf of the defendants, and a powerful affirmation of jury independence and moral courage in the face of extraordinary political pressure.

Though they cannot get back the 17 months of their life taken from them unlawfully, they should all be compensated and the remaining 18 defendants of the Filton 24 should also be released on bail. This case was used to justify the ban against Palestine Action, a decision that should now be overturned.

CAGE calls for full compensation for those acquitted, a lifting of the ban on Palestine Action, an independent review into the political handling of the case, and the abolition of terror laws. The acquittal should prompt serious reflection on how easily due process can be eroded when political interests are at stake.

Filton24 Defence Committee

lisa minerva luxx, a representative of the Filton24 Defence Committee said:

Today's significant victory delivered by the jury has vindicated the six defendants, who are the first six on trial from the Filton 24.

There are still 18 more defendants imprisoned across the UK in connection with this case. They are being held under joint enterprise which means they each have the same 3 charges whether they are accused of being present at the action or not. Now that the first 6 have been liberated of the most serious charge, Aggravated Burglary, and none were convicted of a single offence, it follows that the rest must immediately have this charge dropped against them, and be granted bail.

This was a trial by media. Yvette Cooper and Keir Starmer took evidence in this case out of context and broadcast it on televisions and tabloids across the country in order to justify proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, despite forewarning that this will prejudice the trial.

By acquitting the defendants of aggravated burglary, the Jury aligned with the defence case that the items taken in to the warehouse were not weapons, but were tools used to dismantle and neutralise Israeli weapons.

Now that a court of law have vindicated the first six of the Filton 24 of the exaggerated charges against them [and found that the actions against Elbit Systems that night were reasonable], we should all expect Shabana Mahmood to do the reasonable thing herself and lift the ban on Palestine Action.

It's time for the British state to accept that the movement for a liberated Palestine has been, and will continue to be, justified.

Filton 24 relatives respond

Clare Rogers, mother of Zoe Rogers said:

Our loved one's action against Elbit Systems and the state's brutal response have exposed the true values of the government. The government is determined to do business with Israel and protect its weapons industry at any cost. Our loved ones dared to poke this beast - and no expense has been spared in policing prosecuting and imprisoning them without trial. Imagine if the government had put the same amount of money, resources and political will into preventing a genocide.

As the court heard, these are six young people of conscience and compassion. They took action against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in Filton, Bristol, because they could not sit by and do nothing while their country armed Israel's genocide. They had tried everything else - marches, petitions, writing to MPs, encampments - and they could see that the government was not only breaking international law but was ignoring the will of its own people. They felt they had no option but to take action themselves, to try to save as many lives as they could.

Inside the Elbit facility, they found deadly quadcopter drones packed up ready for export, and were able to destroy some of them with crowbars and sledgehammers. These are the type of drones the Israeli military uses in Gaza to drop explosives, typically after a bomb has been dropped, to target survivors.

Emma Kamio, mother of Leona (Ellie) Kamio said:

The police strategically released selected clips of footage during the trial, including the incident where Sam had struck a police officer. This was devoid of all context. The public were not told that Sam had just been blinded by PAVA spray and acted to protect my daughter while unable to see.

Ellie had been tasered twice at this point, the second time by accident, and the police officer who did so was dragging her up off the ground in one handcuff while standing on her abdomen and screaming at her to stay down. The whole time she had painful tazor barbs still in her arm and thigh as he dragged her around.

So she was screaming in pain, and was never resisting arrest. At this point, Samuel Corner had witnessed a security guard strike his co-defendant with a sledgehammer, and had witnessed excessive force repeatedly by the security. Whilst blinded by PAVA spray, and hearing screams from Ellie, screams which even the police described as "blood curdling", he could only make out what he thought was a security guard, causing more pain, and did what he could to make it stop.

Striking the police officer was a terrible mistake that I'm sure Sam deeply regrets, but he simply reacted to protect Ellie when he heard the blood curdling scream that came from the second electrical current passing through her body, and all this after having witnessed the violence they experienced from the security guards that night.

Sukaina Rajwani, mother of Fatema Zainab Rajwani said:

'When they are told, "Do not spread corruption in the land", they reply, "We are only peace-makers". Indeed it is they who are the corruptors, but they fail to perceive it.' (Holy Quran 2:11-12)

I am grateful for every heart that has turned towards this movement, for every hand that has raised in prayer for us, and for every word that has amplified our voice in seeking justice for the Filton 24. Despite the state's best efforts to silence us and oppress our loved ones; we stand united in strength and power against a corrupt government and an unjust legal system.

Our fight does not end here. We will continue to expose Elbit Systems and British complicity in genocide.

Brogan Devlin, sister of Jordan Devlin said:

Despite having all the odds stacked against them, I can now say with the biggest smile that Jordan has been acquitted of aggravated burglary and violent disorder, and none of the defendants have been convicted of a single offence. The jury could see through the state lies, the political interference and the corruption.

Today we celebrate, tomorrow we rest, but this is not over - Angelo Volante is the name of the Elbit Systems security guard who assaulted my brother multiple times. My heart sank watching the footage of my brother unarmed, being attacked by Volante with a sledgehammer. Jordan was attempting to deescalate the situation when Angelo Volante kicked, choked, struck and even attempted to bit my brother.

The jury was shown Jordan's black eye, bruised body and sledgehammer marks. Why was this never released to the media? Throughout the trial we have been silenced by reporting restrictions in a bid to protect Elbit Systems and its violent employees.

Angelo Volante and Elbit Systems should be the ones on trial, not my brother. Thankfully ordinary citizens of the jury could see that and so we leave today with our heads held high and our loved ones by our side.

Featured image supplied

By The Canary

Reform leader Nigel Farage is running scared of Green leader Zack Polanski. And, in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton by-election, the clash between the two parties could well be a sign of things to come in the British political landscape.

Of course, Farage is refusing a challenge to a face-to-face debate with Polanski. After all, the far-right figurehead is far batter at manufacturing glib soundbites than he is at answering probing questions.

Politics UK posted on social media:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has spiked its own report describing Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a "crime against humanity". It's Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir resigned in protest at the decision.

The report, which had been legally approved and was ready for publication, addressed Israel's denial of Palestinians' legal 'right of return' to their homes and lands. Hundreds of thousands were violently expelled by Zionist militias and UK military in 1948. Many more have been dispossessed or killed since and Israel has forcibly expelled Palestinians from refugee camps.

The report analysed field work in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Despite passing successfully through all HRW's checklist stages, new executive director Philippe Bolopion shelved it. It was due to go public last December, but Shakir was informed that it had been spiked a fortnight before.

Bolopion's killing of the report came after a senior HRW official objected on the grounds that it would undermine Israel's apartheid. Or, as the official put it, that it might:

demographically extinguish the Jewishness of the Israeli state.

'Lost faith' in Human Rights Watch leadership

Shakir told Drop Site News that he had lost faith in HRW's leadership after a decade of hard work:

I've given every bit of myself to the work for a decade. I've defended the work in very, very difficult circumstances. I have lost faith in our senior leadership's fidelity to the core way that we do our work, to the integrity of our work, at least in the context of Israel, Palestine.

The refugees I interviewed deserve to know why their stories aren't being told.

Shakir's Palestinian researcher Milena Ansari also resigned, leaving HRW without an Israel-Palestine team.

In an attempt to justify its decision, HRW said in a statement that the report was "complex":

The report in question raised complex and consequential issues. In our review process, we concluded that aspects of the research and the factual basis for our legal conclusions needed to be strengthened to meet Human Rights Watch's high standards. For that reason, the publication of the report was paused pending further analysis and research. This process is ongoing.

Bill Frelick, HRW's Refugees and Migrant head, claimed he did not object to Palestinians' legal right of return. He then questioned whether it really applied any more - in part, ironically, because some Palestinians might have obtained citizenship elsewhere:

To be clear, I am not objecting to our position that the Right of Return (RoR) is, indeed, a human right and that denying the right of return is a human rights violation. I do not think, however, that we have strong grounds for asserting that the denial of this right is a Crime Against Humanity (CAH)…

…I also question the strategic value of HRW advocating in 2025 for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim homes in present-day Israel that were lost in 1948…

… Does the suffering (and claims) of descendants of refugees who lost their homes in 1948 weaken over time? How does HRW assess whether descendants of refugees from 1948 have maintained ties that keep their claims viable? Does having citizenship in another country have impact on those claims? Are these claims unique to the descendants of Palestinian refugees or do they apply to the descendants of all refugees from all places throughout history?

At least ten percent of Israelis hold dual nationality - probably considerably more now. Iran's effective retaliation to Israel's aggression in June 2025 saw a flood of Israelis apply for passports in their original states. Frelick also questioned whether Israel was deliberately causing harm by preventing Palestinians returning to their homes:

Per the requirement of "intentionally" causing great suffering, is Israel's intent in denying return to cause great suffering or it is rather motivated by Israel's national security concerns, demographic engineering, or other motivations, and, therefore, whatever suffering it causes would be incidental or consequential to these purposes but not their intent?

"Losing the organization"

According to Drop Site, HRW's senior management refused attempts to find a compromise and told staff the report could only be published if its scope was limited to Palestinians displaced since 2023 and excluded refugees in other countries. Some 200 staff signed a letter of complaint; 300 participated in an online all-staff meeting and voiced their objections. All were ignored. Participants in the meeting said that human rights defenders were "losing" HRW and that the spiking was indefensible:

We are losing the organization we love and are so passionate about…

…no one will be able to defend the organization.

Quite.

While HRW is frequently critical of Israel, it has also been accused of going soft on its crimes when it matters. Academic and author Immanuel Ness wrote that HRW demonstrates:

continuous and reliable support for positions advanced by the USA, Britain, and Western states.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

As reported by the BBC, Peter Mandelson has made his most brazen claim yet:

Mandelson just told the BBC that when he passed government documents to Jeffrey Epstein he was "acting in the national interest" pic.twitter.com/8NY8YOYeqo

— Nicholas Guyatt (@NicholasGuyatt) February 3, 2026

Sorry, but we're having a hard time believing that feeding British secrets to an international paedophile was in the "national interest".

Mandelson and suspected criminal behaviour

As revealed by the latest Epstein Files, Mandelson was feeding the now-dead paedophile confidential government information during the New Labour years:

Peter Mandelson leaked a sensitive UK government document to Jeffrey Epstein while he was business secretary that proposed £20bn of asset sales and revealed Labour's tax policy plans. https://t.co/vVvoE5TIH9 pic.twitter.com/B31Ba2sKXj

— Financial Times (@FT) February 2, 2026

I've been trawling through the Mandelson/Epstein emails and those guys were TIGHT
Here's Mandelson tipping Epstein off on a major financial announcement while he was Business Secretary and Epstein was on year of probation on house arrest after his conviction and jail sentence pic.twitter.com/nYC32jSg7A

— Robbie G D2theI2theD2theF (@Gruntfutuck) January 31, 2026

In the clip at the top, the BBC's political editor Chris Mason said:

It's my understanding that he doesn't believe he has acted in any way criminally; that he was acting in the national interest. It's his view, I'm told, that in his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein - particularly during the financial crisis - dealing with Epstein, a man who had knowledge and expertise in banking, was worthwhile.

To give you an idea of how Epstein viewed the world, we know from another leak that he told Palantir boss Peter Thiel Brexit was "just the beginning". When asked "of what", Epstein answered:

return to tribalism… counter to globalization. amazing new alliances. you and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, and as I said in your office, finding things on their way to collapse… was much easier than finding the next bargain

Reading this, do you think it would be in your interests for this man to have access to confidential British secrets?

Because to us, it reads like the grandiose monologuing of a man who wants to burn the world down to sell off the ashes.

Speaking of Peter Thiel and Palantir, as we've reported, Starmer's government has handed this company new contracts worth hundreds of millions.

And the dodginess doesn't end there.

They are, generally speaking, disgusting people entirely unrepresentative of the country in just about every way.

But a combination of our electoral system (which has so far guaranteed two parties), and the media, has completely insulated them from real accountability.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 2, 2026

An actual conspiracy

At this point, the connections are obvious. And it's clear that none of this is being done in the name of Britain's 'national interests'.

Featured image via FCDO

By Willem Moore

Six members of the Filton 24 have been acquitted by a jury in a major victory for anti-genocide protesters. After an 8-day deliberation Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Ellie (Leona) Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers, and Jordan Devlin were cleared of all charges brought against them by the Starmer regime. The 'Filton 24' are a group of political prisoners held for action to inhibit the manufacture of Israeli weapons used against Palestinians.

The verdicts include the most serious charge, that of aggravated burglary. The jury refused to convict all the defendants of that charge, as well as charges of criminal damage. The 'conscience' verdict came despite five of the defendants admitting in court that they had destroyed Israeli weapons and equipment belonging to Israel's biggest weapons firm, Elbit Systems.

Filton 24 vindicated

The trial exposed the Starmer government's collusion with Israel and the UK state's lies about the accused's actions, when video evidence contradicted the claims of police and security guards.

Corner was also acquitted of a charge of 'grievous bodily harm with intent'. Corner had been accused of striking a police officer.

The political prisoners' supporters described the result as a "monumental victory" that has "vindicated" the defendants, who had been smeared by government ministers and state-corporate media as "violent criminals".

Aggravated burglary carries a potential sentence of life in prison. The not guilty verdicts mean that the jury did not accept the prosecution case that the defendants entered the Elbit weapons factory with the intention of using the items they carried as weapons, or threatened/used unlawful violence against Elbit security guards.

'Prevent violence'

Instead, the jury agreed with the defence argument that the defendants sole intention was to use the items, including sledgehammers, as tools to disarm Israeli weapons to "prevent violence".

Campaigners say the refusal to convict the defendants even of criminal damage, despite evidence demonstrating damage of Israeli weapons, shows that the jury:

understood that it is not those who destroy Israeli weapons which are guilty, rather the guilty party in the one that it is deploys such weapons to commit genocide in Gaza.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Earlier this year, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick dramatically defected to Reform. Since then, not everything has gone to plan.

According to Politics UK, both Braverman and Jenrick accidentally voted WITH Labour to abolish the two cap-benefit cap last night on 3 January. This is a direct conflict with Reform's party line.

The wealthy, high-profile contacts of late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein surprises no one. From one US president to another, billionaires to yet more billionaires, Israeli war criminals to British politicians, and transatlantic fascists to royalty. However, Epstein's close friendship with Noam Chomsky is one that will be both notable and appalling for leftists. 

What we know about Chomsky's relationship with Epstein

For decades, Chomsky railed against US imperialism, and its propping up of a settler-colonial system, "worse than apartheid" in occupied Palestine.

He exposed the hypocrisy of Western media propaganda and called out its cynical smears against progressive movements.

Chomsky's political positions might make you think he'd never socialise with convicted paedophile Epstein. But, the close friendship between the two is abhorrently apparent.  

Chomsky maintained a very "close friendship" with Epstein even after the latter's imprisonment in 2008. And the academic's support for free speech and the fact he has unapologetically "met and corresponded with everyone" — including war criminals — does not explain the level of warmth in their interactions.

Chomsky once said his dealings with Epstein were mostly financial. But new communications releases show that:

• The two spoke about dinner and holiday plans, while sharing jokes and affectionate exchanges.
• Epstein served as a social and political connector, linking Chomsky up with prominent far-right figure Steve Bannon and Israeli war criminal Ehud Barak.
• Epstein made numerous payments to Chomsky and his relatives. Chomsky's wife called Epstein a "very dear friend", and even a "hero" at one point.
• While there's no evidence he went to Epstein's island, Chomsky insisted he was "eager" to. And in one response to an invitation, he said "I'm really fantasizing about the Caribbean island".
• Chomsky gave Epstein advice in 2019 about how to deal with the sex-crime allegations against him. His response downplayed the accusations and treated Epstein like the victim. Chomsky described "a hysteria that has developed about abuse of women" that could cause "torture and distress" to someone like Epstein.

Countless academics needed money and linked up with Epstein for financial reasons. The serial rapist, on the other hand, collected connections in exchange for information or favours. For his part, Epstein was a white supremacist eugenicist who ran a network of groomers, paedophiles, and rapists. Amongst that network were people like Chomsky, academics who legitimised Epstein's sickening actions.

Chomsky repeatedly and consistently chose to not only ally himself with Epstein but considered him a close personal friend whom he often defended despite public knowledge of his depravity. In doing so, Chomsky chose to spin heinous lies about the women and girls Epstein tortured. 

And, Chomsky didn't just look the other way on Epstein.

Fellow academic Lawrence Krauss also faced accusations from numerous women, asked Epstein for advice on how to deal with them. He said he would trust Epstein's words over those of the women accusing the multi-millionaire. Chomsky, meanwhile, continued to appear publicly with Krauss despite the allegations against him.

"Unforgivable"

Journalist Matt Kennard, who has interviewed Chomsky on numerous occasions, responded to the latest revelations by saying the academic's:

consorting with Epstein is unforgivable

Philosopher Émile Torres added:

Chomsky has shown a clear pattern of poor judgment and low moral standards.

Author Vijay Prashad, meanwhile, said:

There is no defence for this, in my view, no context that can explain this outrage.

He also clarified that, in addition to Epstein being a sex offender, he:

was a man of the Far Right and a Zionist

Epstein's connection with Israel is clear, though we don't know all the details. It's not just that the father of his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was reportedly an Israeli "superspy". Numerous sources highlight his own apparent connections to Israel and its intelligence agency too.

Epstein's work in the arms trade reportedly saw him work with numerous governments. And he often bragged about how he advised dodgy regimes around the world, while:

making a fortune out of arms, drugs, and diamonds.

Epstein represented much of what Chomsky spent much of his public-facing life criticising. His long-time association will forever change any reputation he may have had as a serious academic opposed to injustice to one of someone who upheld and supported the rape, abuse, and terrible torture of girls and women. 

After all, what is the point of grand declarations in relation to capitalism, colonialism, and Zionism if one's choices repeatedly support and protect an overseer of a network of abuse?

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

Your Party MP Zarah Sultana has backed the Greens' candidate Hannah Spencer in the Gorton and Denton by-election later this month. Sultana has also called for left unity and stressed the threat to Muslims posed by the far-right of which Reform UK is part:

The unelected interim leadership of Your Party has still not formalised local branches or ensured members have access to their own data. ​ This should have been resolved months ago, allowing local members to democratically select a Your Party candidate for the upcoming Gorton & Denton by-election.

The candidate list is now published and it is clear that Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and trade unionist, is the strongest challenger to Labour and Reform. ​ I am, therefore, giving my personal critical support to her and the Green Party in this by-election, and I urge others to do the same.

I have always been clear that the left is strongest when it is united. ​ Our real opponents are not one another. ​ They are Reform and the far-right. ​ As a young Muslim woman, I understand viscerally what it would mean for the far-right to gain power in this country. ​ This is not an abstract debate for me, nor the millions of people across the country whose safety would be directly affected.

That is why I want Your Party to become what it was founded to be: a mass working-class party that unites the left, provides a genuine socialist and anti-imperialist alternative, and prevents Nigel Farage and his cronies from ever getting the keys to Downing Street. ​ Together, Your Party will be that vehicle.

Ultimately, defeating fascism must be our number one priority.

My statement on the Gorton & Denton by-election: pic.twitter.com/HSrgDf70h2

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 3, 2026

Sultana's statement followed an "awful", factional statement by the Your Party 'Grassroots Left' slate that she has backed. The statement attacks the Greens as 'pro-capitalist, pro-NATO' and says that the faction cannot "lend unconditional support" to Spencer.

Of course, no one asked them to or suggested that they should lend unconditional support to anyone. As Sultana pointed out, the far-right is an existential threat to Muslims and other minority groups and defeating fascism has to take priority over purism and posturing. The Workers Party has recognised this and announced it will not stand a candidate to allow support to concentrate behind Spencer to defeat the red, blue and teal Tories.

Zarah Sultana did the right thing by coming out with a clear statement of support. If the whole of Your Party does not galvanise to help the Greens win what is likely to be a tight election between them and the Farage fascists, shame on it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

In an appalling move, Keir Starmer has moved to block some of the dirt on Peter Mandelson from getting out. The reason given is as follows:

Reform UK treasurer and 'property tycoon' Nick Candy appears in the latest Epstein files. More than appears, in fact. Serial child-rapists and Israeli agents Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were so enamoured of him that Maxwell was "very disappointed" that Candy didn't let her know he was coming to town.

Furthermore, they were eager to arrange dinner together before he left:

Candy also asked for Maxwell's email address. Afterwards, he received congratulations as (apparently) Maxwell congratulated him on something and gushed about how great it is on "Jeffrey's island":

Candy also received a message from one of Maxwell's friends, whose name is redacted - but may, based on a missed redaction in a different email, be called 'Sarah' — perhaps Sarah Kellen, an interior designer and Epstein associate. 'Sarah' wished Candy "exciting adventures" and hoped to see him again soon, even if he never got to know her surname after their first party meeting:

As Middle East Eye has pointed out:

Kellen was in her early 20s when she met Epstein, and she was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 plea deal in which Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution. But her legal representatives have said Kellen was one of Epstein's victims.

Kellen was seemingly the sender of the 'Ghislaine is disappointed' email at the top of this article.

Harry Eccles, who discovered the emails in the latest release, asked Reform UK for comment. None appears to have been sent. Eccles also pointed out that emails referred to Candy's company selling a property for Epstein and therefore making money from him:

Jed Garfield, is a known associate of Nick Candy.

Here it seems 'Candy' is arranging a first, and second visit to a house with the help of Jed Garfield liaising directly with Jeffrey Epstein pic.twitter.com/c5XnCOVGvQ

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

And here Epstien and Jobor Y are discussing Candy's tax court case. pic.twitter.com/0u3URlWPkA

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

The emails also show that Candy had Epstein's personal number:

The above forwarded to Epstein personally pic.twitter.com/ZrmZUvxq35

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

And they show both that Maxwell was involved in the property discussions. Epstein said he had spoken with Candy himself. In addition, Epstein was a fan of Candy and his brother:

Epstein about Candy: 'no I spoke to him' pic.twitter.com/cKBi6oeqOk

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

Jeffrey Epstein about the Candy Brothers: 'I like both of those guys' pic.twitter.com/wPS0VEyzo7

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

And - of course - the disgraced ex-peer and senior Starmer adviser Peter Mandelson had his fingerprints on it, too:

Epstein Residence plans - on the Epstine Library has C Candy (copyright Candy) as the title. pic.twitter.com/22LgL2JVYI

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) February 3, 2026

Reform and its treasurer have questions to answer about the association. Somehow it seems unlikely that they will.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox