TikTok has permanently banned Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, whose documentary It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm still alive won multiple awards and broke millions of hearts. She had more than 1.4m followers on the platform.

The deletion is another assault on decency in the app's war on Palestinian and pro-Palestinian speech. Thousands of creators have seen their content shadowbanned, while even the word 'Zionist' is treated as hate speech. TikTok has installed Israeli cyberspies to run the programme since the Israel-fanatic Ellison billionaires bought it, hiding Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Owda announced the censorship, which follows repeated 'restriction' attacks, in a video via the 'Pulse of Palestine' account. She attributed the decision to a speech by Israeli war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu described the TikTok purchase as the "most important" "battlefield" in Israel's attempts to sanitise its evil, bloodstained image. Not just an image, but a reality:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by PalPulse (@pulseofpal)

The enemy of decency has also planned ahead to try to keep Owda's reporting hidden. The Palestinian-created UpScrolled app is at the top of international app charts as users abandon TikTok's corrupt cover-up — but the occupation has created dozens of 'Bisan Owda' accounts in an attempt to prevent users finding the real Owda on UpScrolled or even identifying whether she has one there yet:

Some of the many Bisan Owda clones - the real one may be among them.

Skwawkbox is trying to find the real one and will let readers know. Israel has murdered hundreds of journalists and their families. It must not be allowed to silence Bisan Owda.

Featured image via UN Women

By Skwawkbox

A new report has found that UK universities still aren't doing enough to support disabled students. The 2025 Access Insights report from Disabled Students UK found that 63% of disabled students have gone without adjustments.

Disabled students

Disabled Students UK surveyed over 1,000 students from over 100 universities about their experiences. This is the third year the study has run and the largest into Higher Education accessibility in the UK. It's particularly relevant now with the government focusing on getting young disabled people into education.

So you'd think with the push to get disabled people into education that it would at least be accessible, right? Wrong.

As the report says

Disabled students are not new in Higher Education. What is new is the growing body of evidence that shows, year after year, where and how our systems continue to fail them.

Attitudes improving, but access worsening

One good thing discovered in the survey is that attitudes from staff are better than in previous years. There's also seemingly a greater understanding of disability now. However, 20% have been made to feel unwelcome by staff. As the report notes, this goes alongside structural barriers that stop disabled people from progressing and doing as well as their nondisabled peers.

The report found that although support can be agreed by staff, it isn't necessarily delivered. Less than half of those surveyed said their approved adjustments were consistently implemented. 63% of disabled students ended up studying without their adjustments. A big reason for this is that chasing them up repeatedly takes too much time and energy. Just 44% said that all their agreed adjustments had been followed through with.

The amount of disabled students being able to get official personalised support from Disability Services fell last year. 66% of disabled students had a support plan, down from 77% in 2024.  The proportion of declared students with a support plan fell from 77% in 2024 to 66% in 2025 and fewer students met with a Disability Advisor, suggesting a shift towards more informal or automated models of support under growing capacity pressure.

Disabled students can't physically get to class

Many students were concerned that measures which came into place at the start of the COVID pandemic are now being rolled back. These of course made studying more accessible for disabled students. The survey found that remote or hybrid lectures are being stopped. Even measures such as lecture recording don't happen as much.

As the report says:

These decisions are frequently justified as restoring educational quality or campus experience, yet they disproportionately exclude already marginalised students.

This represents a failure to learn from evidence. Universities have seen that these measures work. Choosing not to retain them is a choice that prioritises convenience or tradition over accessibility.

On top of this, students are still struggling to physically access lectures. Disabled students are still struggling against inaccessible buildings, unsuitable teaching spaces and inflexible timetabling.

Accessible uni accommodation also a problem. Students report that this is limited and often more expensive than other accommodation options. 47% of disabled students said they had to pay extra for accessible student housing.

Access fails make disabled students feel unsafe

Scarily, the report found a "significant proportion" are not confident that they would be able to safely evacuate their university buildings in a fire.

The report also found that despite all the access failures, many students did not feel safe or confident enough to challenge decisions or chase up support. Awareness of the complaints support is also low, so many do not report issues. Some who did complain said that their treatment had worsened afterwards.

Students also reported that complex systems were hard to navigate. This means those with less capacity for these tasks are less likely to seek help for access failures.

As a result, failures are not formally recorded, so universities are unaware of them. And the only people who face consequences are the disabled people whose lives are made worse by access failures.

Despite this, students said that staff are more supportive and understanding. However lack of training and being unclear about their responsibilities towards disabled students undermined this.

What needs to happen

Disabled Students UK have some recommendations for UK universities to make studying easier for disabled students

They say that agreed support must be met, and this should be monitored across the students' time at uni. There should also be consequences when needs are not met. DSUK also says the administrative burden on students must be reduced. Disability Services should also work alongside other parts of the university, as opposed to being there to compensate for inaccessibility. It must also be easier and safer for disabled students to raise issues, without fear of mistreatment.

The organisation wants universities to take clear ownership of accessibility. It also expresses how important it is that any cost-cutting exercises are assessed on how they would impact disabled students. They also want universities to avoid rolling back measures that clearly help disabled students.

Labour once again proves they don't care about disabled people.

Let's not forget that this is all happening while the government is obsessed with young disabled people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). You'd think then that they'd be investing more to ensure that disabled people can actually get into education. But that would assume that they actually want to help disabled people into education, instead of just demonising us.

Because it's far easier to call disabled young people lazy, than it is to actually support them to thrive.

Featured image via Studying in the UK

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell is pushing the idea that only Labour can beat Reform in Gorton & Denton. The problem is she's using a highly dubious poll to make that argument:

This is why I've been saying what I have - only voting Labour defeats Reform. A vote for the Greens or any other party risks a Reform MP in Manchester. https://t.co/7YjTaBum2Q

— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) January 28, 2026

What's so dubious about this poll, you ask?

Let's get into it.

Sample size

The eager pollsters among you have probably noticed that Find Out Now used a sample size of 143 people. 1,000 people is considered a good sample size, with the British Polling Council noting:

Statistical theory indicates that the more people who are interviewed in a poll, then, other things being equal, the more likely it is that it will accurately reflect the views of the population.

However, there is a law of diminishing returns. A poll of 2,000 people is not twice as likely to be accurate as one of 1,000 people. As a result, there is no "minimum" sample size which is acceptable. But bearing in mind cost and likely accuracy, the established norm for an opinion poll in Great Britain is that it interviews at least 1,000 people.

A sample size of 143 people is 1.5 tenths what you'd expect; i.e. you should assume a high degree of inaccuracy.

Less than 100 once you exclude undecided voters, completely fucking insane that they think this is at all scientific. They did one like this for Great Yarmouth but that at least was a hypothetical one for GE29, this is for an imminent by-election and it's basically disinformation

— Stats for Lefties

Executed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti was known to federal agents before they killed him, sources claim. They also beat him up and broke his rib days before he was shot to death. Sources told CNN that Pretti had a run-in with federal agents prior to them killing him on 24 January:

Pretti's name was known to federal agents.

CNN added:

It's also not clear whether the federal agents who encountered Pretti on Saturday recognized him before they confronted him - eventually wrestling him to the ground, taking a gun from his waistband and then fatally shooting him.

The same report explained:

about a week before his death, he suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied knowledge of the encounter. But CNN said it had seen documents which showed federal agents routinely gathered data on "agitators". Agents reportedly:

capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protestors, etc., so we can capture it all in one consolidated form.

Pretti was even treated for his injuries:

Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN.

Days later Pretti was dead, shot by a group of agents in a Minneapolis street in broad daylight. He was legally carrying a sidearm. He made no attempt to draw it and had been disarmed and wrestled to the ground well before before he shot dead execution-style.

Alex Pretti vs trigger-happy paramilitaries

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has fired shots 16 times since July, according to Trump aides.  DHS control the notorious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The most recent killings in Minneapolis have caused worldwide outrage, but the paramilitary thugs have been trigger-happy for years.

The Washington Post said on 27 January:

At least 10 people have been struck by bullets — including four U.S. citizens. Three people have been killed.

The Trump regime has repeatedly doubled down. The January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were both blamed on the individuals killed, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

The Post reported:

None of the officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Border Patrol or Homeland Security Investigations has faced criminal charges in any of the shootings, nor has the administration announced any internal disciplinary measures against them.

Explanations for this culture of impunity have varied. Poor training is one excuse. But now DHS is looking to expand its pool of recruits by pitching to military lovers, combat sport fans and gun enthusiast.

Gun nuts and wanna-be soldiers

Journalist Drew Harwell told Democracy Now that the next big recruiting drive would use fascist-themed marketing to attract gun fans and military lovers:

Harwell was there to discuss his major report into a well-funded recruiting drive for new ICE members.

His December 31 investigation warned:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are planning to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts through online influencers and a geo-targeted advertising campaign…

This was:

part of what the agency called a "wartime recruitment" strategy it said was critical to hiring thousands of new deportation officers nationwide.

A leaked government document described how targeted ads would reach:

people who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear.

Clearly DHS is looking for quantity, not quality.

Deadly databases

US reporter Ken Klippenstein had more to say about the collection and use of data to crush dissent in the US. He scoffed at Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin's claim:

There is NO database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS.

Why? Because two US security officials had told him that was a straight-up lie:

Two senior national security officials tell me that there are more than a dozen secret and obscure watchlists that homeland security and the FBI are using to track protesters (both anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian), "Antifa," and others who are promiscuously labeled "domestic terrorists.

They even named the technology used to gather information:

the secret lists and applications go by codenames like Bluekey, Grapevine, Hummingbird, Reaper, Sandcastle, Sienna, Slipstream, and Sparta (including the ominous sounding HEL-A and HEL-C reports generated by Sparta).

An anonymous DHS lawyer connected the practice directly to the War on Terror in just the latest expression of the accelerating 'imperial boomerang' effect:

We came out of 9/11 with the notion that we would have a single 'terrorist' watchlist to eliminate confusion, duplication and avoid bad communications

They added:

since January 6, not only have we expanded exponentially into purely domestic watchlisting, but we have also created a highly secretive and compartmented superstructure that few even understand.

DHS, which controls Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, looks less like an immigration department but the day. As well as killing protestors, it has been collecting data into secretive lists. Senior 'immigration enforcement' figures like Greg Bovino have complained about those branding ICE and DHS a modern-day Gestapo. If it bothers them that much there is a simple fix: stop acting like the Gestapo.

Featured image via MedpageToday

By Joe Glenton

Transphobic pressure group Sex Matters has just had its legal case against a London swimming pond dismissed by the High Court.

Sex Matters claimed that allowing trans people to use the changing facilities aligned with their identities at the Hampstead Heath ponds amounted to discrimination. The judge, in reply, told them to take the case to the lower county court where it belongs.

And in a further blow, a consultation published by the City of London Corporation (CLC) — which runs the pools — found that the vast majority of respondents support trans people getting changed wherever they like.

Sex Matters — 'The wrong way for doing these things'

Sex Matters — which is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission — argued that the CLC's trans-inclusive changing policy was unlawful and discriminatory.

They based this assertion on the 2025 Supreme Court ruling that status as a woman is defined by sex as-assigned-at-birth under the Equality Act 2010. This ruling led to an immediate interim ban on trans people using their chosen single-sex spaces. However, the guidance was later taken down, and is currently being redrafted.

Daniel Stilitz KC, representing the CLC, pointed out that the trans-inclusive policy had been in place since 2017. As such, Sex Matters' claims were out of time, along with being:

unhelpful, premature and the wrong way for doing these things.

Justice Lieven, who presided over the case, clearly agreed that with that last point. She dismissed Sex Matter's challenge, informing the group that the "appropriate forum" for their case was the lower-level county court.

'Significant time and resources'

Following Lieven's decision, the CLC highlighted that Sex Matters' case had diverted the corporation's attention and funding away from its actual job. This includes managing charitable funds supporting London communities.

A spokesperson for the corporation announced:

This case has required significant time and resources, which could otherwise be focused on managing Hampstead Heath as a charity and providing high-quality public services.

We have now published the results of a consultation on future access arrangements at the heath's bathing ponds.

The findings will be presented to City Corporation committees, which will consider them alongside legal duties, equality impact assessments, safeguarding responsibilities and operational considerations.

In the meantime, the current admission rules will remain in place until a final decision has been made by members.

The results of that consultation are particularly damning for Sex Matters. The research surveyed more than 38,000 members over the course of two months. It found that the vast majority of respondents backed the corporation's trans-inclusive changing policy.

The CLC also published findings showing that:

Of six options considered for the Kenwood Ladies, Highgate Men's and Hampstead Mixed Ponds, the most popular, with support from 86% of respondents, was retaining the existing access arrangements, in which trans men and women are able to use the pond of their choice.

The same percentage opposed introducing strict single sex access, 90% of people rejected requiring trans swimmers to use separate changing rooms or have separate swimming sessions, while 66% opposed making all ponds mixed sex. […]

Alongside the consultation, feedback was received from pond users via a series of independently-run focus groups. Here also, retaining current trans-inclusive arrangements was the option receiving broadest support, while introducing strict single sex rules or making all ponds mixed-sex ponds received very little support.

Overwhelming support

So, what lessons can we take from both Sex Matters' case itself, and the CLC's consultation results?

First, as the corporation stated, transphobic lawfare like that from Sex Matters is diverting time and resources away from charitable endeavours.

This echoed sentiments recently voiced by third-sector organisers in a recent open letter to the Charity Commission. The signatories stated that transphobic pressure groups were trying to strong-arm their organisations into adopting unwanted trans-hostile policies.

Second, it wasn't even the case that the consultation respondents simply didn't care about having sex-specific spaces at all. Two in every three respondents opposed making all of the ponds mixed-sex.

From this, we can conclude that even when the respondents supported the idea of having pools dedicated to men and women only, they wanted those categories to include trans men and women, respectively.

And so, third and finally, Sex Matters' case wasn't actually representing women at all. Rather, it represented a small group of cis women who were hostile towards the mere presence of trans women and non-binary people. And, as the CLC clearly demonstrated, these transphobes were a tiny minority of the pool-users.

Featured image via the Outdoors Swimming Society

By Alex/Rose Cocker

Since its hostile takeover by the pro-Israel Ellison billionaires, the US version of the TikTok app has begun an immediate war on pro-Palestine, anti-genocide, anti-Trump and anti-ICE speech. The platform had claimed that the sudden and complete 'shadow-banning' of left-wing and anti-Zionist content last weekend was a technical issue. However, reality suggests that users should immediately delete the app if they want to be able to find out real news, talk freely — or even keep their health data confidential.

It's not just TikTok shadow banning content critical of ICE. Instagram users are reporting that they cannot share content around the proposed Jan. 30th Minnesota solidarity strike and strike content won't show up in their feeds. This is mass censorship.

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) January 28, 2026

Users are now reporting even more specific targeting of content that might be construed as negative towards Israel and its supporters. The firm's new CEO has also admitted boasted that the app now treats any negative use of the word 'Zionist' as hate speech:

Just a technical glitch

Experts quickly rubbished the platform's claim that its blocking of videos related to Israel's genocide, murders by Trump's ICE thugs and even the mention of the name 'Epstein' was a technical glitch. For example, technology professor Ioana Literat told technology website Ars Technica that users were "absolutely right" to "fear" the changes:

users' fears are absolutely justified … Even if these are technical glitches, the pattern of what's being suppressed reveals something significant. When your 'bug' consistently affects anti-Trump content, Epstein references, and anti-ICE videos, you're looking at either spectacular coincidence or systems that have been designed—whether intentionally or through embedded biases—to flag and suppress specific political content… [users'] pattern recognition isn't paranoia, but rather digital literacy.

The app is not just blocking content supportive of Palestinians or critical of Trump or Israel. It is also forcing Israel to the top of searches within the app. Some of the videos and screenshots show Israel appearing at the top of searches for Oracle, the Ellisons' company — which might be explained away. But others show Israel being listed at or near the top of searches for completely unrelated words:

Even more sinisterly, searching for the word "Palestine" brings up Israel first:

TikTok also appears to be censoring UpScrolled, the Palestinian-designed app that has hit the top of app charts since the TikTok Zionisation:

NEW: TikTok is censoring @realUpScrolled account now. pic.twitter.com/1y4as8QRAH

— YourFavoriteGuy (@guychristensen_) January 28, 2026

And the app is reading direct messages to block even the mention of the word 'Epstein', the name of the serial child-rapist, Israeli intelligence asset and "closest friend" of Donald Trump whose records the Trump regime continues to block:

https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/SnapInsta-Ai_3819425581906332925.mp4 Tiktok US new terms and conditions

The app's new terms and conditions also now allow its owner to access even private direct messages to harvest information on users' physical and mental health:

TikTok has also hired, to senior posts, a host of members of Israel's notorious and murderous cyberspy outfit Unit 8200:

The message to readers is simple: human beings with a conscience cannot afford to use, let alone trust, the US version of TikTok. They no longer can use it to spread the word on the actions of the genocidal ethnostate, the fascist Trump regime or any other political topic that might inconvenience the powerful.

If you live in the US, delete it immediately and switch to one of the very short list of non-corporate alternatives.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

On 30 January, six Italian coastguard and customs officials will go on trial for failing to launch rescue operations which could have prevented a shipwreck. The incident killed more than 90 people near the town of Cutro in southern Italy in February 2023.

The shipwreck of the "Summer Love"

At least 94 people, including 34 children, drowned in Italian territorial waters near Steccato di Cutro, Calabria. The vessel "Summer Love" sank just metres from the Italian shoreline. An unknown number of people also went missing at sea.

More than 50 survivors and relatives of victims will be civil parties in the proceedings, as well as numerous NGOs. Amnesty International will observe the hearing, with Serena Chiodo, Amnesty Italy's Campaign specialist on migration, present at the Crotone courthouse.

Serena Chiodo, Amnesty Italy's Campaign Specialist on Migration, said:

This trial will try to establish any individual criminal responsibility for the deaths of dozens of people - including many children - which is fundamental to uphold the right of survivors and victims' families to truth, justice and reparation.

Crucially, it will also be an opportunity to shine a light on systemic failures and reckless decisions by the Italian authorities that may have contributed to the enormous loss of life.

As recent days have once again shown, deadly shipwrecks in the Mediterranean are a brutal and ongoing reality. The Central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world's most dangerous migration routes, exacerbated by European states' failure to ensure adequate search and rescue operations and the ongoing crackdown on NGO rescue vessels by the Italian government.

Those who drowned at Cutro could still be alive had authorities acted in line with their search and rescue obligations. Fewer people would be forced to make life-threatening journeys if European governments significantly increased access to safe and regular pathways for people fleeing desperate situations.

In the aftermath of the Cutro shipwreck, according to leaked documents, it emerged that the government had unduly restricted the response to maritime distress calls regarding refugees and migrants. This could have contributed to the disaster.

The trial comes amid a spate of deadly shipwrecks over the past week. UN agencies estimate that hundreds of people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

Italian authorities could have prevented the disaster

Between 25 and 26 February 2023, a wooden boat carrying about 200 people sank metres from the shore in the Italian region of Calabria. Local fishermen volunteered in rescue efforts, but for many people on board it was already too late. Under international law, states are required to rescue people in distress at sea and ensure prompt coordination of rescue operations.

An investigation by Lighthouse Reports revealed information was available to European border agency Frontex and the Italian authorities several hours before the shipwreck which could have prevented drownings, including in relation to bad weather conditions and the likely presence of refugees and migrants below deck.

Amnesty highlighted shortcomings in relation to the authorities' response to the incident. It made recommendations for the Italian authorities in its calls for an urgent review of search and rescue procedures and visa policies.

On 24 January, the International Organization for Migration reported that the Central Mediterranean remains the world's deadliest migration route. At least 1,340 people have lost their lives there in the last year alone.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Donald Trump's aircraft carrier strike group looks poised to strike Iran. But this would be no butcher-and-bolt Venezuelan kidnap operation. The balance of power in the region is delicate and complicated. And an attack could set the region and the world alight.

Lebanon's Hezbollah is a staunch Iranian ally. On January 28, a Hezbollah official delivered a warning that strikes could "trigger a volcano in the region". Nawaf al Moussawi said:

what holds the United States back is its inability to predict the aftermath of the strike.

The story in Iran in recent months is one of rebellion and repression as protests over the costs of living were met with brutal state violence. A media and internet black-out makes verification perilously difficult, but estimates of the death toll range from 6,000 to 30,000.

Lofty (and, again, unverified) claims from Israeli and US actors that their intelligence agencies are among the protestors have further confused matters. Yet Iran is not a weak power in the region. And her allies in Lebanon and Iraq may yet influence the outcome of any attack.

Al Moussawi said:

Washington has been seeking to topple the political system in Iran ever since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Asked how Hezbollah could respond, Moussawi said:

We will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Israeli press carried comments from Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem:

when Trump threatens Imam Khamenei, he threatens tens of millions who follow his leadership, and it's our duty to confront this threat by any means.

Credible force

The presence of a credible military force, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, tells its own story. The Lincoln - with her gigantic airpower and accompanying warships — was rerouted on short notice from the Indo-Pacific to the Arabian sea for whatever task Trump envisions.

Trump insists on referring to the fleet as his "beautiful armada" and has pulled US troops out of Qatar. He has talked about protecting protestors as part of his rationale, but also about forcing Iran into submission over a nuclear deal.

Even insiders are unsure what Trump will do. Ex-Pentagon and US Special Forces official Seth Jones told the Financial Times:

This looks like the US is planning to use military force. What is less clear [are] the objectives.

There is nothing simple about an operation against Iran. As former US defence official Dana Stroul told the paper:

There's nothing about the Venezuela playbook that could be applied to Iran.

And there are other powerful regional actors who could shape events.

Iraq, Trump, and Maliki

Former Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki — whose premiership is mired in allegations of despotism, sectarian violence, and corruption — has been put forward by the governing coalition of Shia-parties (known as the Coordination Framework) as their nominee to become prime minister.

Inside Iraq, Maliki is widely viewed as an Iranian lackey and by Washington as Iran's right hand man. Maliki previously served as PM from 2006 to 2014 during a period of intense violence under US occupation.

Trump is not enamoured with the idea. He said the US would stop supporting Iraq if Maliki returned to power:

The US president wrote on Truth Social that Maliki would be a "very bad choice", adding: "Last time Maliki was in power, the Country descended into poverty and total chaos."

It appears that Iran, behind closed doors, is desperately reshuffling the political deck in Baghdad — a country which for years provided it with illicit access to liquid dollars.

Maliki responded bluntly, according to the BBC:

Maliki rejected US interference in Iraq's internal affairs and said he considered the comments a "violation" of the country's sovereignty and its democratic order.

But Maliki has been a strong proponent of Iranian interference in Iraq. But Iraq may not be a strong card for Iran to play.

Next steps

Trump has taken a belligerent posture in 2026.

His attack on Venezuela and threats against Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and other states suggest he is increasingly inclined to threaten and cajole his way through international affairs.

He faces internal crises too in the wake of a series of apparent street executions of US citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis.

It's unclear whether he will strike Iran, but could that pave the way for imminent negotiations to forge a new nuclear deal?

What is clear is that the US president is increasingly unpredictable on both the world and domestic stages.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

'Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey' found a colourful way to tell US vice-president JD Vance what he thinks of him. Sadly, the account is a parody.

Vance, like his boss and other Trump lackeys, has been lying that Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz have banned police from helping ICE thugs. Frey (the real one) had in fact said that the police's job is to protect citizens, not enforce federal immigration:

If only the real Minneapolis mayor was like this…

Vance's nonsense raises the question: if armed and murderous ICE thugs need police protection, what use are they except to terrorise ordinary people? But the parody Frey's response was far pithier:

This is a lie.

Even if I had ordered this, the MPLS police department would never follow an order from me.

Do better. Go fuck a couch. https://t.co/Z1taurbB3E

— Mayor of Minneapolis Jacob Frey (Parody) (@Mayor_Frey_) January 28, 2026

This would be an entirely appropriate level of contempt - in fact, quite restrained. The thousands of 'likes', shares and positive comments the X post received suggest many agree, though it's unclear how many respondents thought it was the real Fry.

How much better would US (and UK) politics be if politicians spoke like real people to the fools running (read: ruining) our countries?

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

In the latest war of words between Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer, the Manchester mayor has claimed he received zero support from Labour:

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden today - 29 January - announced that the government would not alter its decision not to compensate thousands of women affected by changes to the state pension age - the so-called WASPI women.

The decision comes after months of back-and-forth on the issue - and marks yet another instance of Labour going back on its word.

Parliament had recently undertaken to review its decision in light of evidence it previously overlooked. Today, though, McFadden stated in front of the Commons that:

There are legitimate and sincerely held views about whether it was wise to increase the state pension age, in particular, whether the decision taken in 2011 by the coalition government to accelerate equalisation and the rise to the age of 66 was the right thing to do or not.

However, the pensions secretary held that the policy decision was a separate matter from the DWP's failure to send letters out in time. He went on to say that:

We accept that individual letters about changes to the state pension age could have been sent earlier.

For this, I want to repeat the apology that (former work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall) gave on behalf of the Government.

And I am sorry that those letters were not sent sooner.

We also agree with the (Parliamentary and Health Service) ombudsman that women did not suffer any direct financial loss from the delay.

WASPI

Campaign group WASPI - Women Against State Pension Inequality - represents millions of women born in the 1950s whose retirement plans were suddenly dashed. This was a result of the 2011 coalition government's decision to raise the state pension age from 60 to 66.

Whilst the original 1995 legislation stated that the WASPI women should have received at least 10 years notice of the change, they instead received just 18 months.

Last week, on 23 January, WASPI issued an update ahead of McFadden's decision. It stated that:

The injustice we continue to experience as WASPI women is not news, but each and every day it impacts on huge numbers of us who were not told that our State Pension age was increasing soon enough for us to do anything about it. Most of the general public agree with us. Most Labour MPs agreed when in opposition - including Kier Starmer and Angela Rayner.

WASPI also pointed out that the injustice they faced wasn't simply a matter of personal (or even public) opinion. Rather, it was also verified by the "the most time-consuming and resource-intensive" investigation ever carried out by parliamentary ombudsman.

'Logical flaw'

The ombudsman found that:

• DWP research showed many 1950s-born women were unaware of our own increased State Pension age, even if they knew pension ages were changing generally;

• DWP research further established that direct, personalised letters were the most effective means of informing this demographic - who relied on written communication - of our own increased State Pension ages, after other methods had proved ineffective; and

• having decided a direct mailing campaign was needed, the DWP maladministratively delayed its launch by years.

As a result, the ombudsman then recommended that compensation should be paid to the 1950s-born women for the injustice of "lost opportunities and distress". However, the government dismissed the decision out of hand, claiming that it:

contained a "logical flaw" and it failed to take into account the fact that sending letters was "often not an effective way to change levels of awareness".

Then, in November 2025, the government announced that a new document had come to light. At the time of the initial decision, then-work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall hadn't seen a survey from 2007 which may have altered the government's choice.

McFadden stated that the government would undertake a reconsideration of its WASPI decision, and ensure that no other evidence was missing. However, today (29 January) we learned that this reconsideration has come to nothing. Parliament remains firm in its decision that the women affected will receive no compensation.

Another broken promise

Back in 2019, the Labour manifesto contained the following statement:

A generation of women born in the 1950s have had their pension age changed without fair notification. This betrayal left millions of women with no time to make alternative plans - with sometimes devastating personal consequences. Labour recognises this injustice, and will work with these women to design a system of recompense for the losses and insecurity they have suffered. We will ensure that such an injustice can never happen again by legislating to prevent accrued rights to the state pension from being changed.

Then, in 2022, then-leader of the opposition Kier Starmer called for "fair and fast" compensation for WASPI women. However, the 2024 Labour manifesto - immediately before their election - was mysteriously silent on the subject.

When, in 2024, Liz Kendall finally announced that the women affected would not receive the planned compensation of £1,000 and £2,950 each, it prompted uproar from both campaigners and Labour MPs themselves.

Even when McFadden undertook to reconsider, he warned that the scheme could cost some £10bn in all.

'Disgraceful political choice' against the WASPI women

Angela Madden, the WASPI chair, stated that McFadden's decision today demonstrated "utter contempt" for the women affected. She also added that:

The government has kicked the can down the road for months, only to arrive at exactly the same conclusion it has always wanted to.

This is a disgraceful political choice by a small group of very powerful people who have decided the harm and injustice suffered by millions of ordinary women simply does not matter.

Today's announcement was not a surprise - it's merely another disappointment. It's become routine at this point for Labour to renege on its promises in the name of its coffers.

This party is happy to recognise and name a clear injustice when it's in opposition, but when it comes time to put its money where its mouth is, they'll opt to keep the money every time.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

Yesterday, 28 January, industry body Water UK announced its annual bills hike for 2026. This year, from April onwards, water bills will rise by £2.70 a month — that's £33 across the year. That's an average increase of 5.4%, more than 2% above the most recent inflation figures.

Water UK claims that this will fund "record levels on investment" in the UK's failing water infrastructure, including a £104bn programme stretching up to 2030.

The problem? We already paid to fix the infrastructure with our past bills. The water companies simply failed to do their job. Now, they have the bloody nerve to come demanding more money to do the work they should have been doing from the start.

'End sewage entering our rivers'

Water UK stated that companies will begin the infrastructure investment by spending £20bn over 2026-27. According to the trade body, this comes as part of the current £104 billion investment programme to:

secure our water supplies, support economic growth and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.

Now, it's undeniable that the UK's water infrastructure is in a sorry state. However, the passive "sewing entering our rivers" language here is deeply disingenuous from the companies dumping the sewage.

In the latest pollution figures, for 2024, show that serious pollution incidents increased by an eye-watering 60% compared to the previous year. The Environment Agency (EA) specifically highlighted the government's persistent under-investment in new infrastructure and poor asset maintenance as reasons for these massive failures.

Water UK also stated that:

The money raised by water bills can only be used to fund infrastructure that is independently determined to be new, necessary and value for money. There is a money-back guarantee which means that if improvements are not delivered, customer bills will automatically be refunded by the regulator.

Though, it must be said, it's much easier to deliver tangible improvements when you've spent years under-performing.

'Never welcome'

The amount that water companies can raise their prices is controlled by the Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales.

Between 2025 and 2030, Ofwat will allow suppliers to hike bills by 36%. Most of that total was front-loaded onto last year's staggering price increases. Water bills in England and Wales increased by an around £10 a month in 2025, for an average total of over £600.

Given that it's hiking bills at over-inflation levels yet again, Water UK was also quick to signpost support options for customers to pay their bills.

Over two million households already receive help paying for water through social tariffs, the WaterSure scheme, and other aid measures. Now, for 2026-27, Water UK expects that another 300,000 will add to that total, bringing it to almost 2.5 million households.

Water UK chief executive David Henderson said:

We understand increasing bills is never welcome, but the money is needed to fund vital upgrades to secure our water supplies, support economic growth and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.

While we urgently need investment in our water and sewage infrastructure, we know that for many this increase will be difficult. That is why we will help around 2.5 million households - more than ever before - with average discounts of around 40% off their water bill.

Repeated, massive failures

Whilst this 'help' with bills sounds terribly benevolent, it's hiding a very simple truth. Private water in the UK is a monopoly — customers have no choice in their provider, and they have to buy water in order to stay alive. And the water companies that have a stranglehold on our lives just aren't doing their jobs.

As we mentioned above, serious pollution incidents actually rose in the Environment Agency's latest report. In fact, the EA found that: 

81% of these serious incidents were the responsibility of just three water companies - Thames Water (33 incidents), Southern Water (15 incidents) and Yorkshire Water (13 incidents). All pollution incidents (category 1 to 3) have increased by 29%: last year water companies recorded 2,801 incidents, up from 2,174 in 2023.

Even outside of their environmental failures, some water companies are even failing in the task of delivering water to our homes. Earlier this month, 30,000 homes across Kent and Sussex were left without water, some for four days or more.

South East Water issued multiple apologies, and blamed Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts. However, Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee chairman Alistair Carmichael stated that he was "deeply skeptical" of SEW's explanation.

Paying twice

This led nationalisation campaign group We Own It, to call for Ofwat to withdraw South East Water's licence and bring it back into public ownership. The campaigners have also made similar calls regarding Thames Water, which remains locked in talks between the regulator and its creditors over the company's massive levels of debt.

We Own It stated that:

The way to fix our broken water system is to genuinely regulate the water companies until they deliver what is needed. If and when they become unprofitable through the process of delivering on their duties, it is your responsibility to allow this to happen, let companies fail as the consequence of appropriate regulation. Then take them into permanent public ownership.

Meanwhile, environmental pressure group River Action has taken Ofwat to High Court over its lax attitude to water bills. The group argued that:

Ofwat's current methods could allow water companies to charge billpayers again for environmental improvement works that they have already paid for, despite its promise that customers should not pay twice. We challenged Ofwat's failure to require water companies to demonstrate compliance with environmental regulations as part of its price control exercise, as it said it would.

Water companies plead that they have to hike their prices to fix their infrastructure. However, our past bills were already meant to fund infrastructure investment. Instead, the private water companies have spent years letting our infrastructure crumble, dumping sewage into the environment and pocketing the money themselves.

River Action are still awaiting the results of their lawsuit. However, now that Water UK has again - with Ofwat's permission - announced that it's putting up water bills in 2026, the River Action verdict couldn't come sooner.

Featured image via Unsplash/the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

Writing in the Metro, Zack Polanski argues it's imperative that the Green Party beats Reform in Gorton & Denton.

My article in the Metro.

Why the Green Party must beat the Reform extremists in Gorton & Denton.https://t.co/bnZ1d979og

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) January 29, 2026

Extremism

In the article above, Polanski notes:

We believe Goodwin is a dangerous extremist with views on race that the vast majority of us find absolutely abhorrent.

This is a man who says that being born and brought up in the UK doesn't mean that people from black, Asian or other immigrant backgrounds are necessarily British.

He has discussed acts of horrifying violence, including people trying to set alight a hotel with asylum seekers inside, as merely a reaction to 'mass immigration.' He's a vocal supporter of Viktor Orban's authoritarian Hungary.

According to the 2021 Census, 29% of the Gorton and Denton population are Muslim, and 44% come from a black or minority ethnic background. Speaking on such people, Goodwin has said:

It takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody 'British'.

It's going to be pretty awkward for Goodwin if he doesn't think his constituents are British; it would mean he's 56% a British MP and 44% non-British.

Polanski also said:

What's not clear is how much Goodwin actually believes what he's saying, or whether he's just espousing whatever beliefs he thinks will further his career. Not long ago he was critical of people like Tommy Robinson, and praising migration - now he sounds like merely a more articulate version of Robinson.

What is clear though is that whatever his motivation, time and time again Goodwin has sought to whip up divisions in our communities, using exaggerations and falsehoods to try and pit people against each other.

Polanski best watch himself with Reform candidate Matt Goodwin. After all, he's already called the police on the Labour Party over a tweet he didn't like:

Reform's self-styled hard man couldn't handle a tweet. Instead of answering critics, the party's Matthew Goodwin ran straight to the police — writes @skwawkbox https://t.co/zDFMBLDjDl

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) January 29, 2026

We thought that Reform were against criminalising people over tweets, but we guess not!

We know Goodwin is against it, anyway, because he literally said the following:

If anyone is "insane," it's Matt Goodwin.

Yarwood posted "Head for the hotels housing them [asylum seekers] and burn them to the ground" and "violence and murder is the only way, start with migrant hotels, the MPs homes and take parliament by force".

It was a crystal clear case… https://t.co/eTsoTrkCos pic.twitter.com/WlCEdalPSI

— GET A GRIP (@docrussjackson) December 18, 2025

Labour sidelined

While Reform and the Greens duke it out, a befuddled Labour is left floundering:

This Labour chud is absolutely baffled at finding out the Green members elect their own candidates as opposed to have some briefcase wielding personality void foisted on them from above. https://t.co/uKfV75t4rR

— Dr Iain Darcy

Responding to Owen Jones, Matt Goodwin has sought to establish his Manchester credentials. Primarily what he's done, however, is confirm that he has never lived in the constituency where he's standing for Reform:

You know nothing about me Owen

My parents divorced when I was 5

My dad moved to Manchester when I was 12 and led the local NHS

I spent my weekends and holidays in Manchester

I went to Salford uni

I studied next to the steel factory where my grandfather worked his whole… https://t.co/iF0vY5FF5f

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) January 28, 2026

Like Goodwin, I'm also an on-again, off-again migrant to Manchester, so I'm ideally placed to run you through what he's saying here.

Gorton and Denton

For reference, Gorton and Denton is one of the poorer areas of Manchester. As you can see from the following statistics, it's above the national averages in terms of the poverty people experience:

• Estimated households in fuel poverty: 33.4% (17.9% national average).
• Estimated child poverty: 47.2% (29.3% national average).
• Worried about not being able to pay their energy bills in the next year: 56.2% (53.5% national average).

Like Goodwin, I've never lived or worked in Gorton and Denton. I have worked in Ashton-under-Lyne, however, which is right next door. It's so next door, in fact, that Reform MP Lee Anderson took a picture there the other day when he was supposed to be canvassing in Gorton and Denton.

Lee, oh 30p Lee, Lee Anderson by-election campaigning in the wrong constituency

The Scottish Greens, and others, are demanding the expulsion of US forces from a 'de facto US airbase'. These demands come after US troops abducted two people overnight. Importantly, the highest court in Scotland had ordered the two be kept there.

An act of piracy

The two people abducted were the captain and first officer of a Russian-flagged oil tanker, the Marinera. US forces seized the vessel on 7 January near Iceland. Then they brought it to Scottish waters, east of Inverness.

Green MSP Ross Greer told the Scottish Parliament that this was another act of piracy by Trump which breaches Scottish sovereignty. Outraged Greer demanded the eviction of US troops from Prestwick Airport by the Scottish and UK governments. He wanted this done as a response.

Providing a weak response, first minister John Swinney insisted that Scottish law had been upheld but said that he would consider Greer's points. However, his insistence that the airport operates "at arm's length" suggests that no action is intended in Scotland, least, not at this stage.

https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/KRog-4U1MePPQ0771.mp4 Disregard for international law

The Scottish Court of Session ordered on Monday that the two men remain in Scottish jurisdiction, after a request by Natia Dzadzamia, the Georgian captain's wife. However, the US government took the two men onto a US vessel. Then it told Scottish authorities after the fact — by email just after 3am yesterday.

Holyrood's justice secretary, Angela Constance, said the US had shown contempt for "Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law". However, the court responded to the US breach by lifting the 'interdict'. This appeared to be an attempt to sanitise the issue.

The Trump regime has committed frequent acts of piracy against vessels sailing under the flags of Venezuela and Russia. These seizures were clear crimes under international law. This was another example of US arrogance and impunity. US political journalist Brian Allen, who posted the video, agreed and warned that US contempt is causing a split with 'allies':

This is a sovereignty breach and allies are starting to say it out loud.

Given the lawlessness of the US government, the Starmer government should be expelling US troops from the whole UK. Instead, he is allowing the US and Israel to use UK airbases to prepare for attacks on Iran and potentially Greenland and has helped Israel monitor Gaza and kill Palestinians — and at least three British citizens.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Greenwich Council has conceded, under legal pressure, that a clause in its employee pension fund investment strategy was unlawful in claiming that it:

cannot exclude investments in order to pursue boycotts, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defence industries.

It has now committed to removing the "legally erroneous" clause. The council has operated this unlawful policy since at least 2020. But it didn't notify scheme members or the public that it had become aware of this unlawful assertion long before this legal challenge. Greenwich Council currently holds more than £61.8m in complicit investments.

Greenwich Council pension investment

The Public Interest Law Centre is acting on behalf of claimant Lubna Speitan, a founding member of Greenwich Palestine Alliance. It has instigated judicial review proceedings against Greenwich Council. These challenge the council's failure to divest its Local Government Pension Scheme ('LGPS') from the crimes being perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. The claimant is a Greenwich resident and long-standing human rights campaigner, with family in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel's illegal occupation, apartheid, genocide and war crimes have been extensively documented and recognised by international and domestic courts, human rights organisations, and United Nations bodies.

Since 2023, the claimant, together with Greenwich Palestine Alliance, other community groups, pension scheme members, and unions, has been advocating for immediate, full, and permanent divestment from Israel. (Data from Palestine Solidarity Campaign shows the latest figures bring the total known complicity of LGPS funds to over £12.2bn held by 81 funds). The investments include arms companies that are notorious for the manufacture of weapons used against civilian populations, and companies active in Israel's illegal settlement economy.

Divestment, historically and today, is a key mechanism by which the international community can act in solidarity with those oppressed by racist regimes. Local authorities took similar steps in response to apartheid South Africa.

Local authorities do hold the legal power to pursue divestment. The UK Supreme Court ruled a former government policy discouraging divestment was unlawful in R (Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2020). The government has since removed it from official guidance.

Pension funds may consider non-financial factors where there is no significant financial risk and where scheme members are likely to support the decision.

The challenge

Greenwich Council's Responsible Investment Policy does not currently make any reference to human rights or international law, including acts of apartheid and genocide committed by Israel.

On 9 December 2024, following extensive campaigning by residents in the borough, Greenwich agreed to look at the fund's exposure to complicit companies, with a view to review and update its Responsible Investment Policy and to consider the need for divestment. However, on 15 September 2025 the Pension Panel voted to put to scheme members a substantially watered down commitment to "integrat[e] human rights considerations into our investment decisions".

Campaigners believe the change fails to take into account demands for full divestment from Israel and that this will have had no impact at all on investment decisions made by the council. Legal proceedings challenging the decision were issued on 25 November 2025.

The claimant argues that Greenwich has failed to act in accordance with its constitution, its Compliance Statement and the Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 2016, in failing to give effect to an earlier decision of the panel of 9 December 2024, or otherwise failed to give adequate reasons as to why it changed course.

The claim also argued that the council failed to conduct a lawful consultation or consider alternatives to its draft Responsible Investment Policy. It also challenged the council's reliance on an Investment Strategy Statement containing an unlawful instruction, which stated that the Fund:

cannot exclude investments to pursue boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defence industries.

The response

In response to the legal challenge, Greenwich Council concedes that its Responsible Investment Strategy unlawfully stated that it could not pursue divestment from a foreign nation. However, the council denies that this had any impact on its decision not to divest from Israel.

Campaigners strongly reject this, describing it as "disingenuous." They argue that the council clearly relied on unlawful information, which prevented it from pursuing full divestment from Israel without restrictions. This reliance, they argue, undermined all other divestment demands.

The council will also be consulting council employees on its draft Responsible Investment Policy. That consultation will begin at the end of January and run for four weeks. Campaigners are encouraging employees to take part and take a firm stance. Look here for the consultation when it opens.

This is a critical moment for the council and its employees to take a clear, principled stand by rejecting all complicity in genocide and apartheid and committing to ethical investment that upholds international law and fundamental human rights.

Investment 'funding apartheid state'

Lubna Speitan, founding member of Greenwich Palestine Alliance and claimant in these proceedings says:

For decades, I have watched helplessly as my Palestinian family and people have been subjected to constant attack, displacement, torture, and slaughter. It is sustained by the brutal Israeli apartheid state, a system funded in part by investments from our own local council through the Local Government Pension Scheme. By maintaining these investments, Greenwich has been a participant in the genocide of our people and family.

The Council's concession that its policy was unlawful confirms what we have long argued: it always had the power to divest!

Communities Secretary Steve Reed recently claimed that councils could be at risk of being sued by suppliers who lose money, and could face paying substantial damages: "Councils should stay out of foreign conflicts and get on with the job of delivering local services." It is a profound irony and distortion of truth. Divesting from genocide is not foreign policy, it is a fundamental duty to uphold law and basic morality for the communities you serve, rather than investing in injustice abroad. Our campaign is driven by Greenwich residents, pension scheme members, trade unions, and human rights organisations who demand this ethical accountability.

History shows us the way. Councils across the UK once rightly divested from apartheid South Africa. We are simply demanding Greenwich apply those same principles to apartheid and genocidal Israel, (without dilution). Our case has proven they can.

Now, Greenwich must act swiftly to implement full and permanent divestment from Israel. This landmark concession shatters the myth of powerlessness. Councils can no longer hide behind unlawful policies. This sends an unambiguous message to every council across the UK: "the false legal barriers are gone. You have the power to divest. You must now have the courage to do so."

Helen Mowatt, Legal Director at the Public Interest Law Centre says:

For years, councils have wrongly claimed they lack the legal power to divest. Greenwich Council itself has operated this unlawful policy since at least 2020, without informing scheme members or the public that it knew the position was wrong until this legal challenge. Legally, councils can implement divestment, and this error in understanding must be widely disseminated - a point vital not only for investment panel members but also for community groups, grassroots campaigns, and activists.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Despite some signs to the contrary, many are arguing that America, under Trump, is facing its worst financial crisis since the 1939 great depression. One person making that argument is Peter Schiff, who told Fox News.

Peter Schiff rips @FoxNews out of their MAGA stupor with truth bombs that are imminent:

'The dollar is going to collapse, the dollar is going to be replaced by Gold. We are headed for an economic crisis that will make the 2008 financial crisis seem like a Sunday school… pic.twitter.com/KRRhw4bith

— Shannon Joy (@ShannonJoyRadio) January 28, 2026

Schiff noted that the upcoming event will make 2008 look like a "Sunday school picnic". He also claimed that unlike 2008, this won't be a global but an American issue.

So what's going on?

Faux growth

You may be aware that the US economy actually grew in the third quarter, as the White House's 'Rapid Response' team highlighted:

.@howardlutnick on @POTUS reversing the damaging effects of globalization:

"We're at the one year anniversary of Donald Trump. In the Third Quarter, we grew 4.3%… the $30T U.S. economy is now going to be growing at 5% or more because we are taking care of ourselves."

British environmentalist George Monbiot has accused the government of suppressing the release of a damning report exposing the imminent collapse of our ecosystem — described as a "security risk" in the report. Labour is once again in the spotlight for their condemnable handling of this issue.

After multiple setbacks and dithering from Westminster, the national security assessment is now available, and warns of an impending global meltdown.

The authors of the assessment warned that:

Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity. The world is already experiencing impacts including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks […] Threats will increase with degradation and intensify with collapse. Without major intervention to reverse the current trend, this is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond.

The risks are grave. So why was the assessment suppressed by Labour? Bear in mind, Monbiot calls this the:

most important document published by the UK government since the general election.

Keeping us in the dark

The report was due for public release in autumn 2025. The Times said it took a fierce freedom of information battle to get a reportedly "abridged version" released last month. According to Monbiot:

Apparatchiks in Downing Street sought to make it disappear. Apparently there were two reasons:

(1) because its conclusions were "too negative"

(2) because it would draw attention to the government's failure to act.

Explaining why Starmer's Labour government resisted publication, Monbiot said the following:

When the report at last appeared, thanks to an FoI (freedom of information) request lodged by the Green Alliance, The Times reported that it had been significantly "abridged", I expect by the same goons. Some of its starkest conclusions had been omitted.

He added:

Even so, the assessment - believed to have been compiled by the joint intelligence committee (on which the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ sit) - is not exactly reassuring.

The brink of collapse

Monbiot accused the Labour government of creating a false divide between economic growth, and tackling the climate crisis:

It's not hard to see how inconvenient this report is for Starmer's government, which has repeatedly sought to invent a conflict between prosperity and environmental protection.

He lamented that the report appeared "hastily and crudely truncated". Monbiot asked whether:

the full assessment might also have named some other pressing security threats

For example, the connection between damaging industries and the far-right:

One is the way in which fossil fuel, meat, and livestock producers have been funding far-right movements, to stifle environmental protection measures that would reduce their profits.

He called this a "major driver" of "the fascistic politics" seen in the US.

So it seems that Downing Street — under the leadership of the Labour party — has gagged its own intelligence services. That is telling. MI6, MI5 and GCHQ provide disinterested assessments of the world as it is — in theory, anyway.

The decision to ignore, doctor or suppress their findings is a political one. It suggests Labour's commitments are to something else entirely. And that something feels like the naked self-interest of big capital.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), a trade association for businesses like supermarkets, has blamed energy costs and tax rises for the fact food prices have increased by 37% over the past five years.

But this obscures the truth — that of supermarkets rapidly growing profits, in line with the surge in food prices.

Greedflation

Lidl's operating profit rose by 297%, from £79 million in 2021 to £314 million in 2025. Yet we're supposed to believe that higher costs on their end are the sole reason for eye-watering food inflation.

Similarly, Aldi's operating profit rose from £289 million in 2020 to £435 million in 2025 — an increase of 50% over five years (including the Covid-19 years).

This isn't down to people switching to cheaper options. Tesco's operating profit leapt from £1.8bn in 2020/21 to £3.1bn in 2024/25, an increase of 72%. And Sainsbury's operating profit has risen slightly over the same period. It's greedflation, through and through.

Energy costs and tax rises?

At the same time, there have been increased energy costs.

These could be lowered through a publicly-owned Green New Deal, and 40% of a farm's total expenditure costs can be attributed to energy.

Since privatisation of electricity began in the 1990s, average prices have more than doubled, according to Ofgem and Hansard figures. Meanwhile, analysis shows that average gas prices increased by 143% between 1992 and 2022.

In 2023, the average price per unit of electricity in the UK was £127 per MWh. A renewable energy system could deliver the same at costs as low as £55 per MWh. Over time, a Green New Deal would pay for itself. And then it would deliver cheaper energy for every business and individual moving forward.

Businesses have also been subjected to higher taxes through an increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs). But large, profitable businesses like supermarkets should absolutely shoulder increased taxes. In fact, the rise should be put on them and not small businesses.

Non-profit supermarkets

In fact, under the current system, supermarkets may not lower their prices at all even with a much cheaper energy system. We can see that them using energy crises and tax rises as cover for lining their pockets.

Instead, supermarkets should be not-for-profit because they are only middle-manning between the agriculture sector and humans who need food.

That's a major way an administration could tackle the cost of living crisis.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has sold himself as Britain's Donald Trump. That helped Farage to boost his profile when he wasn't trying to win a majority in a general election…it's working less well now that he is. This is especially true as the second Trump administration is — somehow — more chaotic and violent than the first.

One issue which has been growing for a while is the consequences of vaccine scepticism. Much like Trump himself, Farage is something of a vaccine sceptic. This isn't going to be a good look for Farage moving forwards, because Victorian-era diseases are once again on the rise in the US:

This didn't have to happen.

Nice work, MAGA-MAHA. pic.twitter.com/tBDCvaZCjU

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 28, 2026

Anti-vaxx

Trump has a long history of anti-vaccine attitudes. In the summary of a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Science Direct noted:

• Trump voters are more concerned about vaccines than other Americans.
• This effect emerges via Trump voters' greater willingness to believe conspiracies.
• Reading Trump's antivaxx tweets increases vaccination concern among Trump voters.

The above is from May 2020. Interestingly, Trump would later be a big proponent of the Covid vaccines, as they were developed under his watch. This was one of the few times Trump had a significant falling out with his supporters — with the others being when he initially distanced himself from the January 6th Capital Riot and his recent handling of the Epstein Files.

Other than the Covid blip, Trump has only doubled down on his hostility towards medicine. The key driver of this acceleration is health secretary RFK Jr, pictured below demonstrating his unique approach to public health and safety:

RFK Jr. swims in DC's sewage-tainted Rock Creek with his grandchildren despite a National Park Service bacteria warning. pic.twitter.com/3MpVf1AqYU

— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) May 13, 2025

As Hawaiian senator Brian Schatz wrote, RFK Jr:

traveled to Samoa in 2019 to discourage people from taking the measles vaccine which ultimately led to an outbreak in which thousands of people were infected and 83, mostly children, died.

Now RFK Jr. is the health secretary of the US.

And measles is on the rise.

Who could have seen it coming?

Clearly not Farage, as he's in bed with these people:

Nigel Farage is speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC in September, where he's billed alongside Jay Bhattacharya, Great Barrington Declaration co-author and now RFK Jr's head of the NIH.

But wait, it gets (much) worse…

Reform would like us all to think they're the robust, tough guys speaking plain and shootin' straight. Maybe not quite so much. Reform's candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, race-baiter Matthew Goodwin — who calls immigration an "invasion" — has run to the police. Because Labour tweeted something he didn't like.

In a video boasting of doing so, Goodwin — seemingly trying to sound just like Keir Starmer — claimed that Labour had misleadingly edited footage of him. The effect of this was to make him appear to be criticising the people of Manchester, when he says he was really speaking about the Tories during their Manchester conference.

Maybe so — but a criminal complaint and running to the police to defend you instead of defending yourself and proving your political and moral superiority? Doesn't seem all that robust, does it? Judge for yourself:

An announcement. pic.twitter.com/7GjJUL6MIs

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) January 28, 2026

Not only that, but Labour had another example — a screenshot, not an edited video — of Goodwin apparently deriding Manchester, at least relative to some other cities. Some other foreign cities, in fact, though the people of Manchester might be more insulted at being considered inferior to London:

Why did you delete this, @GoodwinMJ? pic.twitter.com/yuDGO0M6IB

— Labour Press (@labourpress) January 28, 2026

In the end, Reform is far-right and racist, Labour is far-right and racist. Starmer and Goodwin don't just sound alike.

Don't choose either turquoise or red. A nice green would be a far better shade.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

Ok, that's not quite the wording Ofsted used, but the meaning is the same. Deranged Israel fanatic government minister Steve Reed had demanded action against a Bristol school that cancelled a visit by an Israel fanatic MP Damien Egan because parents said they'd keep their kids home. Israel fanatic Reed's call was backed by his boss, Israel fanatic PM Keir Starmer.

Ofsted investigated. Ofsted said no — the school was perfectly reasonable in its actions and didn't breach anything. In Ofsted-speak, it found "no evidence" to support the Israel fanatics' complaints about the Bristol Brunel Academy's decision.

In Torygraph-speak:

Ofsted said it was concerned that the Labour MP for Bristol North East's visit "may have been postponed due to co-ordinated pressure from staff and external groups and therefore potentially in violation of Department for Education (DfE) guidance on political impartiality in schools".

Inspectors found no evidence to substantiate these concerns within the school," its report concluded.

You say 'tom-ay-to'.

Ofsted inspectors found that school staff — who had said they would wear Palestine t-shirts in protest if Egan's visit went ahead:

demonstrate a profound commitment to providing an inclusive learning environment that promotes tolerance and respect for the diversity of modern Britain.

Damn straight.

The Torygraph bleated that:

The findings from the watchdog leave it unclear who is to blame for cancelling the speaking event.

No they don't. They make it absolutely clear that the Israel lobby is, as usual, to blame for always demanding to be considered the victim, even as Israel slaughters hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians and steals their homeland.

There, fixed it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

The Met Police account on X has thanked a deranged Israel supporter for complaining about peaceful, mostly elderly anti-Zionist protesters near the Houses of Parliament calling for Palestinian freedom.

The 'Blue and proud' X account, which features Israel twice on its profile, tagged in the force on its dishonest complaint that a banner calling for an end to Israel's indisputable influence in British politics is 'Jew hate' = and that the chant for Palestinian freedom 'from the river to the sea' is 'genocidal'.

The Met's response was not, of course, to point out that Israel has been committing an actual genocide in Gaza for more than two years. Nor did it mention that 'from the river to the sea' is part of the 1977 founding manifesto of Israel's ruling Likud party:

between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

Apparently it's only genocidal if supporters of Palestinians say it — even when Israel is actually engaged in mass slaughter to bring it about.

No, the response from the Met Police was to thank the anonymous racist X account for "letting us know" — and to reassure the racist behind the account that "our ops room are [sic] now aware":

Met Police drop the masks

The complaint was also dishonest in claiming that the banner about Zionism is "exactly the same rhetoric used by all Jew haters throughout history". Israel has only existed since 1948, Zionism since the late 1800s. If the banner had said 'end Jewish control', then it would have been antisemitic. But it didn't — Zionism is a political philosophy centred on a (recently-created) foreign nation-state. Many Jews are not Zionists; most Zionists are not Jewish. But facts and accuracy are not, of course, significant components of Zionist complaints and propaganda.

The above is a screenshot of the posts in question in case they are deleted. Below is the embedded post so readers can watch the video and decide for themselves whether there is anything objectionable — apart, of course, from the complaint and the obsequious response:

@metpoliceuk Pro-hate mobs outside parliament today with a sign saying "End Zionism Control Of UK Politics". This is exactly the same rhetoric used by all Jew haters throughout history.

Watch the police stand around while the genocidal "from the river to the sea" is chanted pic.twitter.com/vDzHh5RQpM

— Blue & proud

If you're particularly masochistic, and like subjecting yourself to the X feeds of the worst people in the world, you may have noticed a particular phrase gaining traction recently — 'suicidal empathy'. The term is typically credited to Canadian professor Gad Saad. His book The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense focused on the concept that there are certain toxic ideas which end up harming those who adopt them. He described the phenomenon occurring in nature:

Take wood crickets for example. They avoid any contact with water, as they fear drowning. But when a 'hairworm' parasite attaches to them, the parasite needs the cricket to jump into water to complete its reproductive cycle. As a result, the infected cricket undergoes a kind of 'zombification' and leaps into the water voluntarily, thereby sacrificing itself for the benefit of the parasite.

This is how I perceive progressive students, radical feminists, and even certain liberal Jews. They internalise foreign ideas that lead them to act against their own interests, and essentially commit suicide. Unfortunately, the source of these ideas is academia.

According to Saad and his disciples, 'suicidal empathy' is a manifestation of this in humans. The suggestion is that the West is destroying itself through a desire to help those who will supposedly harm us — immigrants, Muslims, trans people, Palestinians.

Perhaps the leading adopter of the notion of 'suicidal empathy' is billionaire Nazi Elon Musk. A search of his X account for the term yields a seemingly infinite set of results. Speaking to podcaster and frequent platformer of the far-right Joe Rogan, Musk said:

The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy. The empathy exploit. They're exploiting a bug in Western civilisation, which is the empathy response.

Diminished empathy suits the rich and powerful

Others pushing the idea include Reform candidate Matt Goodwin, and assorted prominent right-wing commentators. There's a pretty obvious reason why an instruction to be selective in our compassion should come from the faction of politics that defends concentrated wealth and power. It's classic divide and conquer — if we all see society as composed of those who are deserving of assistance and those who aren't, it's a lot easier for us to be pitted against each other. The rich will continue to dominate while we are convinced to blame those who have been assigned parasite status.

Saad has an even more sinister reason for perpetuating this concept. As a relentless backer of so-called 'Israel' as it carries out a holocaust in Gaza, convincing people that Palestinians are unworthy of empathy is a useful way to ensure the slaughter continues. A recent vile tweet shows footage featuring the remains of 'Israeli' prisoner of war Master Sergeant Ran Gvili being returned home. Saad says:

One culture reveres its fallen heroes to know [sic] ends but celebrates life. Another culture reveres death more than life. Which is the one that you'd like to be a member of?

The suggestion is that Palestinians do not mourn their dead. We are asked to ignore the evidence of our own eyes, of families weeping over the shrouds of relatives slain by Zionists, and instead pretend that Gaza is one large death cult, undeserving of sympathy. Be selective in your empathy, we are urged, so that we can properly delineate which groups can be safely marked for extermination.

Suicidal empathy — same shite, different name

This current template is simply the latest chapter in the right's attempt at controlling how we perceive empathy, the extent to which we should believe in it at all, and who should be its recipients. A previous iteration was the term 'virtue signalling'.

Under this framing, we were invited to believe that any act of kindness was merely a dishonest performance intended to convey the appearance of virtue. No one could possibly be doing anything for genuinely altruistic reasons; it must always be an act of cynical manipulation. 'Performative' was the twin term usually paired with this slander.

In fact, Sky News Australia managed to produce reports on consecutive days in 2025 attacking activist Greta Thunberg for 'performative' and 'virtue signalling' actions respectively. Thunberg was on board the Gaza flotilla, attempting to deliver aid to Palestinians starved by the Netanyahu regime.

Never mind the fact that virtually no aid was getting in due to the Zionist entity's policies; never mind that activists had been left with no other option due to failures of governments worldwide to act; never mind the fact that the flotilla put Gaza on the agenda and rallied activists across the world. Don't focus on verifiable facts to determine what may have motivated Thunberg. Instead, focus on the unverifiable contents of her mind. Oh, and be sure to assume the worst possible motives, in opposition to all available evidence.

McCarthy and Reagan tried the same tactic

From undermining the very existence of empathy, to denouncing those who exhibit it; a previous approach was to label anyone with a conscience as a 'bleeding heart liberal'. An article in Atlas Obscura traces its first use to one Westbrook Pegler, a:

…soul-sick, mud-wallowing gutter scum columnist

according to one contemporary. Pegler:

…didn't like the labour movement, Communists, fascists, Jews, and perhaps most of all, liberals.

He used the term in the 1930s to reprimand those trying to pass an anti-lynching bill in the US congress. 'Bleeding heart liberal' was later adopted by infamous persecutor of the left Joseph McCarthy, and later still by Ronald Reagan.

Throughout this same period, conservative philosopher Ayn Rand was attempting to push her own understanding of empathy's role in the human soul. While it was permitted under her reasoning, she viewed it as entirely secondary to the most virtuous course of action — pursuit of one's own selfish desires above all else. Rand actively advocated against support for disabled and poor people, and for causes like feminism and those battling to liberate themselves from US domination.

Suicidal empathy — the cult of selfishness benefits neoliberalism

Her ideas were of great use to the burgeoning neoliberal project, which necessitated a concept not of homo sapiens, but of homo economicus. That is, a being that cared solely about its own resource maximisation. If consideration of others existed, it was purely confined to one's immediate family. Hence the Thatcherite dogma of there being no such thing as society:

I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand 'I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!' or 'I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!' 'I am homeless, the Government must house me!' and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society?

There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

Rand's and Thatcher's was a Social Darwinist vision for how society should be designed. The most extreme purveyors of that approach were the Nazis, in which the strong crushing the weak was viewed as progress, cleansing the gene pool of unworthy material.

Empathy need not even come into the discourse — it was a simple scientific matter of removing objectively lesser specimens. Hitler's regime used medicalised language in reference to those it wished to expunge. They spoke of 'racial hygiene' and characterised Jewish and Roma people as pathogens harming the German 'body'.

Genocide and hateful discourse mark a return to Nazism

We now see a return to this language in the work of Saad, as he speaks of "neuro-parasites" and the impact of "pathological ideas" on Western culture. He has recently completed a tour of so-called 'Israel', the ultimate modern achievement in eradicating empathy.

Zionist soldiers showed themselves to have zero compassion for innocent Palestinians, resulting in what is perhaps history's first 'joyful genocide'. The impulse for caring was successfully overridden to the point where rampaging genocidaires delighted in their eradication of an entire people.

Fundamental to Zionism is an ethno-purist notion of a land for one people. This naturally veers towards a ruthless purging of all who don't fit within this plan. Benjamin Netanyahu himself has previous when it comes to celebrating the notion of the strong crushing the weak. In 2018 he said:

The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong.

His remarks were immediately criticised for sounding like something from Mein Kampf.

Far from being irrational, empathy is the only logical course

The hope of the right now appears to be that this template can be applied more broadly. Their current focus is on the protesters in Minneapolis standing against the fascists of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Assorted ghouls inform us that those being gunned down to protect their neighbours from being dragged off to gulags are exhibiting suicidal empathy.

In reality, what they are doing is profoundly rational. The activists risking their lives have correctly identified their true enemy — the would-be tyrants in the White House destroying the law, and the wealthy donors that back them.

They know that only by standing in unflinching solidarity with those being targeted can they guarantee their own freedom. If the modern-day brownshirts of ICE are successful in rounding up demonised people of colour, it'll just be the beginning. Ultimately, no one will be safe.

Though Saad is an advocate of evolutionary psychology, he ignores the following interpretation — that empathy is our most fundamental means of survival. That only by guaranteeing the well-being of the collective, can we all thrive. That rabid competition is the most primitive drive in nature, whereas cooperation and mutual aid are the most sophisticated.

Empathy isn't unique to humans. We share this trait with many other pack animals. Elephants travel in groups to pay their respect after other elephants die. Mikhail Bakunin found space for this concept of nature, and humanity within it, 150 years ago — we must urgently revisit this lesson to ward off the nihilistic vision being pushed by today's ruling class.

Featured image via RS&H

By Robert Freeman

Luke Akehurst has once again opened his mouth. Which means once again, he's been caught chatting shit.

Luke Akehurst claims that the faction he is part of, that wrecked, lied & smeared in order to regain control of the party, then ruthlessly purged the left & hollowed out the membership, & which now oversees a party polling at under 20%, has the best interests of Labour at heart pic.twitter.com/ydRu2oARsc

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 27, 2026

Akehurst is the former director of We Believe in Israel, an organisation known for overlooking Israel's decades-long flouting of international law. The organisation sits under Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, a think tank that promotes 'awareness' of Israel. I think we already have way too much of that.

Famously, Labour parachuted Akehurst into a safe seat in North Durham for the 2024 General Election. Of course, he lives over 250 miles away in Oxford.

Q: How many Labour party members selected Luke Akehurst to be Labours candidate for North Durham?

A: Three. All three Lukes mates on the NEC and none of them from North Durham.

This is what they wrecked, lied and smeared for.

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) January 27, 2026

Luke Akehurst deletes the evidence

He also deleted over 2,000 posts from X in the run-up to the election — I wonder what he was trying to hide?

But now, Akehurst has claimed that his faction of Labour has the best interests of the party at heart. The same faction that lied, wrecked and smeared Jeremy Corbyn to take control of the party. And as Secretary of Labour First, he basically focused on overturning the influence of Corbyn's left.

Yes, you might be right about your morally bankrupt faction still having the upper hand in Labour.
But so what?
Labour is bleeding out in front of us.

Eleven countries, including nine European states alongside Canada and Japan, have condemned the Israeli authorities' demolition of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem.

They described the move as a dangerous and unprecedented escalation against a United Nations agency, warning that it undermines UNRWA's ability to carry out its humanitarian mission amid worsening conditions in the Gaza Strip. In a joint statement, the countries called on Israel to halt all demolition operations, open border crossings, and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza and the West Bank, in line with international humanitarian law.

On 20 January, Israeli occupation authorities demolished facilities and mobile offices inside UNRWA's headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir participated in the demolition, which was widely described as a direct violation of a UN agency's mandate.

An unprecedented measure undermining UNRWA's work

The joint statement described the demolition as "an unacceptable and unprecedented act against a United Nations agency," noting that it is part of a broader campaign to obstruct UNRWA's operations.

The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Spain, as well as Canada and Japan. The signatories emphasised the breadth of international opposition to Israel's actions. They reaffirmed their full support for UNRWA and the services it provides to millions of Palestinian refugees, particularly in Gaza. The countries also welcomed the agency's commitment to reform and implementation of the recommendations contained in the Colonna report.

The statement expressed grave concern over Israeli Knesset legislation passed in October 2024 and reinforced in December 2025. The laws prohibit UNRWA's work and official communication with Israeli authorities, while also cutting electricity and water to agency facilities.

Demands to open crossings and allow aid

The signatory states urged Israel to fully facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid across Gaza and the West Bank. They referenced Israel's stated agreement to a 20-point aid plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.

The plan provides for aid entry and distribution under United Nations and Red Crescent leadership, without interference.

The statement stressed that humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire and that current supplies fall far short of minimum needs. It called for international NGOs to operate freely and for restrictive registration requirements to be lifted. The countries also demanded the reopening of all crossings, including the Rafah crossing in both directions. They urged the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian materials, including items designated as "dual-use," which are essential for relief and early recovery.

Palestinian and international responses

Hamas welcomed the joint statement, describing the international position as significant. The movement called on the signatory states to translate condemnation into concrete political pressure.

It urged governments to ensure UNRWA can resume its humanitarian work without restrictions or political blackmail.

Hamas also called on other countries to adopt similar positions and increase pressure on Israel to end its attacks on UNRWA and respect its UN mandate.

In a related response, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese accused Israel of waging a systematic assault on the United Nations system. She warned that the demolition of UNRWA's headquarters represents a dangerous escalation against both international institutions and the Palestinian people.

Albanese called for the suspension of Israel's UN membership and the imposition of sanctions, stating that the actions constitute flagrant violations of international law and humanitarian principles.

Featured image via ECFR

By Alaa Shamali

A new series of leaked emails reveals discredited 'left' journalist Paul Mason's legal meltdown after his collaboration with state security services was exposed. Mason's emails with intelligence-linked figures were first outed by The Grayzone in 2022. He now works at an arms industry-funded 'think tank'.

Publicly, Mason responded to the 2022 leaks with a 'non-denial denial' claiming the emails "may be" "altered or fake" and denied recognising a bizarre (and now well-known) chart he sent to intelligence assets showing the links he imagined existed among left groups, left media and Russian and Chinese state actors. But the leaked emails show him admitting to lawyers that he did create it — and trying to find angles to wage a legal war on The Grayzone and other left outlets that publicised his collaboration.

The latest leaks come hot on the heels of Paul Mason threatening Green leader Zack Polanski with ten years in prison. In an X post, Polanski had mocked Mason's chart:

Confirmed: Paul Mason 'secret state' contacts

Mason's lawyers were to pour cold water on his wish to "deplatform/demonetise" The Grayzone. Like him, however, they were apparently keen to launch a criminal prosecution against The Grayzone in the US — presumably on the basis of his unfounded claims that they were funded by or working for Russia.

But even the lawyers told Mason that he had no realistic prospect of arguing that he wasn't in "contact with Britain's 'secret state'" — because clearly he was.

Paul Mason had asked his lawyers to review a rant he had drafted, in which he denied collaborating and accused his critics of deliberately putting his life in danger. They responded with an edit 'toning down a bit' his denials because it was "difficult to say you don't have any contact with 'Britain's secret state'":

Paul Mason mocked and self-owned

Following these revelations, Mason's public posts were routinely mocked by left-wingers pointing to his disgrace-by-email. So too was his string of failed attempts to secure selection to contest a parliamentary seat for Labour.

The pro-war Mason was also caught, and exposed exclusively by Skwawkbox, engaging in a pro-Starmer, pro-Israel meltdown and accusing an audience member of antisemitism. He then posted to Twitter a made-up quote he attributed to her in an attempt to defend his smears.

For full disclosure, Paul Mason also self-owned when an attack on Skwawkbox went wrong. Mason tried to compare Skwawkbox to the right-wing press after Skwawkbox exposed Keir Starmer's involvement in 'Beergate'. Just by the by, Starmer did get fined, but the fine disappeared after Durham's chief constable was leaned on from above. Anyway, Mason's attack on Skwawkbox backfired badly, with hundreds of respondents praising the factual coverage and mocking Mason for supporting the Brylcreemed blancmange, eg:

These episodes further fuelled the "avalanche of derision" every time he posted — and didn't persuade Starmer to smile on his would-be candidacies.

Back to the latest leaked emails. Discussing his chart with his legal team, Mason told them that he had only shared it with pro-Ukraine war academic Emma Briant. In fact, even if that claim were true it would not change its significance.

Briant claims to be "one of the world's leading experts on information warfare and propaganda". She has also been accused of being an intelligence services asset and engaged in extensive correspondence with Mason and intelligence-linked figures. Like Mason, Briant has tried to use lawyers to silence those discussing her security state connections.

'The politicians are outed'

The new leaks also confirm the extent of Mason's cosiness with a range of unsavoury establishment figures. These include Keir Starmer — himself a "long-time servant of the British security state" — and John Healey, now defence secretary, as well as an unnamed "senior ex-military person". Mason fretted that if his emails with these characters were exposed, "the politicians are outed" and bemoaned the "implicit pressure" this created:

As Mason told Jaffey on September 29 2022, "[Kit Klarenberg] still has all my correspondence with Keir, John Healey and a senior ex military person so there is implicit pressure." However, it was not until February 2025 that Mason's contacts with Starmer and Healey were publicly disclosed.

Mason further revealed to Jaffey that a figure he described as a "former Labour foreign policy advisor who now works in corporate security" had been exposed through his leaked email exchanges. He worried that if the full content of his email account's sent and received files was publicized, "the politicians are outed."

"At that point," he fretted, "the attacks will be reframed as a wider attack on UK democracy."

Mason's emails to his lawyers also reinforced his apparent connections to the security state. He told them that he had been in discussion with the government's 'National Cyber Security Centre'.

Lawfare

Despite the numerous setbacks and the knock-backs from his legal advisers, Mason "remained determined" to wage lawfare on his critics. This includes enlisting the UK's National Crime Agency against The Grayzone and journalist Kit Klarenberg:

Despite these setbacks, Mason remained determined to weaponize the law against The Grayzone for the high crime of factual journalism. On December 16 2022, he informed Jaffey he'd "given a verbal witness statement to two officers" from Britain's National Crime Agency. The officers, Mason wrote, had "indicated it was likely the UK will pass the investigation into the hack on me over to US law enforcement, and that the statement needs to be robust enough for the US courts."

So far, at least, this wish remains unfulfilled.

In none of the leaked communications with his lawyers does Paul Mason appear to deny that he was working with intelligence assets, intelligence-linked figures or indeed British intelligence directly to target sites and individuals he didn't like. This means, as Klarenberg puts it in the latest exposé, that:

The faded journalist remains dogged by allegations that he was himself a British intelligence asset all along, with even prominent mainstream reporters posing the question to Mason in social media exchanges.

Whether this triggers yet another public meltdown is, for the moment, a matter of conjecture. For now, he seems to be obsessing over the Greens — despite insisting they have no chance of defeating Labour — and, of course, with promoting the Ukraine war.

Read the latest Grayzone revelations in full here.

Featured image provided via author 

By Skwawkbox

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has reportedly tried to enter the Ecuadorean consulate in Minneapolis, US, sparking a diplomatic incident.

Despite Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, is a major ally of Trump. Less than three months ago, both presidents were making a deal to deepen their countries' commercial and economic ties.

Nevertheless, Ecuador immediately filed an official letter of protest with the US embassy in Quito after the Minneapolis incident.

'If you touch me, I'll grab you'

Ecuador's foreign ministry stated that the ICE agent "tried to enter the premises of the consulate" at 11:00 (local time) on Tuesday 27 January. The statement also reported that consulate officials stopped the agent in their tracks, acting:

to guarantee the protection of the Ecuadoreans who were inside the consulate at the time

It's important to note that the US agent's attempt to enter the consulate was a major violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Under this accord, consular premises are held to be "inviolable". This means that the authorities of the consulate's host country can't enter it:

except with the consent of the head of the consular post.

Of course, the Ecuadorean officials reported that they gave no such consent.

A BBC article on the incident also reported on a video which had been shared across Ecuadorean media. It stated that:

a consular official can be seen rushing to the entrance door and telling an ICE agent "this is the consulate, you're not allowed in here".

The agent tells the official that "if you touch me, I will grab you".

The consular official then states again that "you can not enter here, this is a consulate, this is a foreign government's office", before closing the door.

Is this how ICE de-escalates?

The incident at the Ecuadorean consulate could not have come at a worse time for ICE or Trump himself.

On 7 January, an ICE agent murdered 37-year-old Renee Good in broad daylight on the streets of Minnesota. Trump and US officials attempted to characterise the cold-blooded shooting as 'self-defence', in spite of clear video evidence to the contrary.

Then, on 24 January, another ICE agent murdered nurse Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis road. Officials tried to claim that Pretti was armed, despite an agent having removed the legal firearm from its holster before Pretti was shot multiple times in the back.

Thus far, eight people have died in contact with ICE in 2026 alone. Most died in detention centers whilst under the custody of the US agency.

As such, it's unsurprising that thousands of protesters braved sub-zero temperatures on the streets of Minneapolis last week to voice their opposition to the Trump regime and its murderous ICE enforcers.

Then, on 27 January, Trump made public claims that immigration enforcement would "de-escalate a little bit" in Minnesota. However, given that this was the very same day that an ICE agent tried to enter the Ecuadorean consulate, you'll have to forgive us if we don't take the lying snake-in-the-White-House at his word.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

On Monday 2 February, the Undercover Policing Inquiry will start Phase 2 of its Tranche 3 hearings. This phase of the Spycops inquiry will cover Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) operations from the early 1990s to 2008, and the squad's ignominious end, when the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) replaced it.

Staggering scale of Spycops abuse

The inquiry has revealed the staggering scale of the abuses carried out by Britain's secret political policing units and their long-term infiltration deployments. During February and March, the Inquiry will hear from five former undercover officers from the SDS:

• James Boyling ("Jim Sutton") undercover from 1995-2000
• "Jason Bishop" undercover from 1998-2006
• Carlo Soracchi ("Carlo Neri") undercover from 2000-2006
• "Simon Wellings" undercover from 2001-2007
• Robert Hastings ("Rob Harrison") undercover from 2004-2007

Evidence will also come from civilians affected by those deployments, from targeted environmental groups like Earth First!, the Genetic Engineering Network and Reclaim the Streets, animal rights groups and hunt saboteurs, trade unionists and anti-Fascists, anti-militarist campaigns like Stop the War Coalition and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), and anti-globalisation protests around the world, including at the G8 summits in Genoa, Italy (2001) and Scotland (2005).

Boyling, Soracchi and Hastings all deceived women into sexual relationships and several of those women will give evidence about some of the extreme abuse they suffered at the hands of the police.

And on 12 March the inquiry will hear evidence from Patricia Armani Da Silva about spying on the campaign for justice for Jean Charles de Menezes, who police shot dead at Stockwell Underground Station on 22 July 2005.

See here for a timetable of all those due to give evidence live and in person.

Hearings will take place at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, opposite St Paul's Cathedral. For live coverage of hearings follow @tombfowler on social media & see twitch.tv/spycopstv.

Groups working with those affected by Spycops deployments include:

Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance

Police Spies Out of Lives

Undercover Research Group

The Monitoring Group

Blacklist Support Group

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

Donald Trump's illegal actions in Venezuela recently boosted the threat of direct US military action in Latin America. And as Trump's regime eyes up other targets in the region, Your Party's Zarah Sultana has joined with "parliamentarians, trade unionists and organisers from more than 20 countries" to stand firmly against US expansionism.

Resistance in solidarity with Latin America

Latin America has long been a key target for US terror. And amid Trump's new "imperial assault" in the region, Sultana travelled to Colombia to show her opposition. There, she and other attendees:

forged a shared diagnosis of the present crisis and a common strategy to confront it.

They then adopted a 'San Carlos Declaration', affirming all people's right to decide their own future (independently of US interests). This declaration also insisted on the need for unity in defending that right.

As French politician Clémence Guetté insisted:

We will not let Trump sow chaos across the entire world without reacting.

Proud to join parliamentarians, trade unionists and organisers from more than 20 countries at the Nuestra América convening in Bogotá this weekend, where we signed the San Carlos Declaration.

As anti-imperialists, we reject the Monroe Doctrine and defend the sovereignty and… pic.twitter.com/Y2ViQxamZt

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) January 27, 2026

Sultana asserted that left-wingers need to:

work across borders to resist Donald Trump's crude expansionism.

And she stressed that:

The UK and Keir Starmer must stop acting as Trump's poodle.

It was great to speak with Colombian President Gustavo Petro about the need for the left to stand firm in our anti-imperialism and work across borders to resist Donald Trump's crude expansionism.

As @petrogustavo warned in December 2023, what we've witnessed in Gaza is a… pic.twitter.com/FnLEaDEN0v

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) January 26, 2026

Numerous figures from the US itself were also there to oppose Trump's interventionism.

As co-general coordinator of Progressive International David Adler pointed out, the US is particularly gleeful about the stranglehold it's been forcing onto long-time bogeyman Cuba, which Trump has claimed:

will be failing pretty soon

If you are not actively organizing against Trump's imperial designs for Cuba, then you are complicit in the destruction of international law and its most basic principle of self-determination. Stop waiting for a kinetic intervention. Speak up and join the fight to stop him now. https://t.co/mFZBww8aG5

— David Adler (@davidrkadler) January 28, 2026

Zarah Sultana: 'The same struggle we have across the world'

Speaking at the Nuestra América (Our America) conference, Sultana argued that:

The struggle we have here in Colombia is the same struggle we have across the world… What happens in this hemisphere never stays just here.

She said "sovereignty itself is at risk" following the US abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, highlighting that:

If it can happen in Venezuela, it can happen anywhere.

She condemned the British government's failure to oppose this breach of international law. But this was unsurprising considering the UK's loyal and longstanding support for US foreign policy aims. Indeed, she pointed out that the UK's own destructive "legacy has not ended", having been a key player "from empire to global capital".

Amid the West's support for Israel's genocide in Gaza, Sultana stressed, international law has "become meaningless". That's why, she said:

our struggles are deeply connected. What happens in Colombia matters in the UK, what happens in Venezuela matters in Palestine, what happens here shapes people everywhere.

With this in mind, she asserted:

Internationalism isn't charity. It is collective self-defence.

Featured image via Twitter

By Ed Sykes

Activists across the UK have disrupted arms factories. This comes a day after the storming of an arms industry dinner in response to hunger strike demands.

Actions at multiple arms factories

Today, 28 January, activists across the UK have disrupted multiple factories in a response to the ending of the hunger strike and a call to continue to shut down arms factories.

The disruption took place separately across Lancashire, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Combined, hundreds of activists took to the entrances of all factories, blocking access to the sites from as early as 5:00am. Workers at the sites were unable to gain access, some for an entire shift.

The increase in mobilising outside arms factories comes as the largest coordinated hunger strike in Britain has ended. In a final statement the hunger strikers continued the call to shut down all arms factories.

The factories targeted were BAE Systems in Samlesbury, near Preston, Leonardo in Edinburgh and Rafael in Newcastle. Groups from across the UK joined, travelling hours at a time to support the blockades.

Police used force against protesters in Lancashire, manhandling them off the entrances and violently moving people along. In Edinburgh, despite their best efforts, police could not break the human barricade of the protesters. See footage from Edinburgh here.

Arms dealers' bunfight interrupted

On 27 January in London, swarms of campaigners targeted a luxury dinner attended by a number of arms dealers, leading to arrests of protesters. A focus on arms manufacturers has significantly increased as the last two and a half years have exposed the UK's deep military relationship with Israel, including surveillance flights and monitoring that have been exposed by Declassified.

A statement from the BAE OUT Campaign (@baeoutcampaign) group said:

We have been regularly blockading the BAE Systems Samlesbury site for the past two years with over fifty activists at a time. The reason we do this is because of parts being made in this factory that are used on the F-35 fighter jet, the deadliest fighter jet known to mankind, used in Gaza and beyond.

The genocide is starting at our doorstep and we refuse to allow this to happen, this is why we are creating a full scale campaign to expose the arms industry for what it truly is, a merchant of death.

We know this is impacting them because we see the disproportionate police response as well as the workers themselves telling us it is causing a delay in production. Doing this on a regular basis means supply and production is being severely affected.

Featured image

By The Canary

Reform Party joke Lee Anderson is showing once again how little he actually knows. Fresh from campaigning in the wrong place, 30p decided to try attacking disabled people.

30p Lee Anderson talking out of his arse again

Except he, of course, hasn't got a fucking clue what he's talking about. During the weekly Department of Work and Pensions oral questions, he asked:

Could one of the Ministers please explain to me and the people of Ashfield why the UK has one of the highest rates of disability in Europe?

This warranted a slightly baffled response from the minister for disabled people, Stephen Timms

I am not sure which figures the honourable Gentleman is drawing attention to.

That's because, as usual, Anderson was talking utter fucking waffle.

UK doesn't have highest rate of disabled people

In the UK, roughly 25% of people self-identify as disabled. It's thought the figure could actually be higher, as this is taken from census data and not everyone will be happy calling themselves disabled. The last census was also in 2021.

This might seem high, but there are many countries that have higher rates of disability.

According to Eurostat, Latvia has the highest rate, with 41.2% of its citizens being disabled. This is followed by Finland at 34.3%, then Slovakia with 33.3%. In fact, the UK isn't even one of the top ten European countries with the highest rate of disabled citizens.

We're not in this chart because thanks to arseholes like Anderson, we're no longer in the EU. But at a rough estimate, we're about 14th.

Maybe he meant benefits? Still wrong though

Anderson could've perhaps been talking about the countries with the highest rates of disability benefits. We must point out here, the most 'reliable' source for this according to Google is a mobility furniture shop's blog. But let's be honest, there's no way Anderson did more than a quick Google browse here, if that.

According to Oak Tree Mobility, the UK has the 6th highest disability benefits. If you actually look at it this is due to the extra things disabled people are entitled to. However those other things are attached to Universal Credit, our main disability benefit PIP. It's done what Reform also loves to do and conflate the two.

And let's not forget that not all disabled people are on benefits. Only 33% of disabled people in the UK get PIP.

Regardless of this, far more countries have higher benefits. Our rates are nowhere near the likes of Switzerland. Swiss disabled people get around £7,149.55 in benefits each month. This also completely disproves the rhetoric from many politicians that our "generous" benefits system incentivises claimants. Despite this stonking amount, just 14.6% of disabled people in the country are on benefits.

Trusting AI instead of his limited brain power?

Best guess is that Lee has Googled something like "amount of disability by country in Europe". When I did the same, Google's AI gave me the wonky overview:

Disability Assessment and Social Protection - European …Approximately 21.7% of the UK population lives with a disability, the highest in Europe, with over 14.6 million people affected, yet with a relatively low average monthly allowance of £679.90.

You literally just have to continue reading the 'overview' to get the truth, though:

Latvia (41.2%), Finland (34.9%), and Slovakia (33.3%) report the highest shares of citizens with disabilities. Overall, roughly 20% of the EU population (16+) reports some form of limitation.

Lee Anderson doesn't care if it's true

Let's be honest, Anderson doesn't give a fuck if the UK does have the highest rates of disability or benefits in Europe. What matters to all right-wing politicians is that the public believes it. They're going to keep feeding the narrative that disabled people are all faking it to sit on their arses all day and laugh at hardworking taxpayers.

Because that way the public ignores that fact that politicians and the millionaires who fund them sit on their arses laughing at taxpayers all day

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has warned of serious and unprecedented indicators affecting the health of mothers and newborns, amid the ongoing fallout from the war and the collapse of the health system.

The ministry confirmed that the impact of the aggression continues, even after the cessation of military operations.

Babies born underweight in Gaza

According to official data published by the Ministry of Health and reviewed by the Canary, approximately 4,900 babies were born underweight during the past period. This represents a 60% increase compared to the pre-war period. The data also recorded nearly 4,000 cases of premature birth and around 5,000 miscarriages, indicating a sharp deterioration in health and nutrition conditions for pregnant women.

The ministry warned that these figures may not reflect the true scale of the crisis. It said the actual numbers are likely far higher, as many women cannot access healthcare due to destruction, displacement, and the lack of medical services. Officials also documented 611 cases of intrauterine deaths, a 47% increase compared to 2022. There were 315 recorded cases of birth defects, up 58%, and 452 newborn deaths during the first week of life in 2025.

The ministry confirmed that the health repercussions of the war are ongoing. Primary healthcare clinics continue to report rising cases of miscarriage, premature birth, and intrauterine death, despite the halt in fighting.

Meningitis scare in the South

In a related warning, the ministry revealed that cases of spinal fever — meningitis — have been recorded in southern Gaza. It cautioned that the disease could spread to northern Gaza due to deteriorating health conditions. It explained that meningitis spreads rapidly in crowded environments. Repeated displacement and forced population movement mean any outbreak poses a direct threat across the entire Strip.

The ministry stressed that Gaza's health system is in a catastrophic state. Hospitals and medical facilities are unable to cope with a potential epidemic due to depleted resources and severe shortages of staff, supplies, and medicines.

It warned that the lack of basic medical supplies, laboratory tests, and treatments for meningitis could cause the disease to spiral out of control. The situation must be treated as an urgent health emergency requiring immediate intervention and the unrestricted entry of medical supplies.

Featured image via Doctors Without Borders 

By Alaa Shamali

The Canary has heard from a group of journalists in Portugal. Their magazine, VISÃO, went bankrupt but they've revived it as an independent production. Now they're taking the campaign for independent media global, with the slogan #NãoFechemOsOlhos which means Don't Close Your Eyes:

The 12 journalists of VISÃO speak out

The magazine went bankrupt, salaries disappeared, and the newsroom was left without resources. Even so, the 12 journalists of VISÃO kept working. They produced the magazine, joined forces to try to buy the title itself, raising €200,000 in 10 days, and turned the crisis into a manifesto in defense of serious and independent journalism, at a time marked by the spread of fake news.

For 32 years, VISÃO has reached newsstands every week, known for its in-depth reporting and serious journalism. Last year, the group to which it belonged was unable to overcome the challenges of editorial changes and filed for bankruptcy, even though it is the best-selling title in the country.

From the newsroom, only 12 brave journalists remained. With unpaid salaries and no physical newsroom, they decided to keep publishing the magazine from their homes, using their own resources — resisting like soldiers in an improvised trench. So far, they've produced 25 issues under extremely difficult conditions. And there is more. They want to win this war by buying the title and continuing to print it. Although the magazine has a website with some articles, VISÃO still relies mainly on its print edition and newsstand sales.

In an era dominated by fake news, clickbait, AI texts, and a political landscape in which democracy faces real risks, the fight of these 12 journalists has taken on a much greater meaning.

From a gesture, a movement is born

Under the slogan #DontCloseYourEyes, the movement began with a simple gesture: closing the eyes of the 12 journalists in images published in the magazine and on social media. This symbol helped open the eyes of hundreds of public figures - from music, culture, politicians - and crossed borders, gaining support from names such as Brazilian writer and comedian Gregório Duvivier and Spanish journalist Pilar del Río.

The goal of raising a substantial amount through crowdfunding in order to bid at auction and buy VISÃO led to an unprecedented result: in just 10 days, the initial target of €200,000 was reached - and exceeded.

This outcome confirms something that had already been felt: even in a country facing economic difficulties and a political moment that puts democracy at risk, there are still people who believe in and support serious journalism and a free press.

In fact, many do. According to the Digital News Report Obercom / Reuters Institute 2024/25, Portugal is among the European countries with the highest levels of trust in news. But this fight is only just beginning.

For democracy and against fake news

The #DontCloseYourEyes movement has come to symbolize a struggle that goes beyond journalism itself. Portugal's political landscape has shifted in recent times, and for the second time in its democratic history (after forty years) there will be a second round in the presidential elections. A democratic candidate and a far-right candidate who follows the same Trumpist and Bolsonarist playbook are in the running.

Only 52 years after the Revolução dos Cravos and the end of dictatorship in Portugal, democracy is once again at risk. And if there is no democracy without a free press, the fight of these 12 journalists takes on even greater urgency when private investors threaten to enter the auction to buy the magazine simply to shut it down.

Buying the title and becoming the country's first independent print media outlet has become more than a movement, it is an act of resistance.

More than 12, we are MIL (Movement for a Free Press)

The #DontCloseYourEyes campaign needs more eyes open around the world. Quite simply, it needs greater strength to secure priority in the purchase and prevent a magazine with decades of investigative journalism from falling into the wrong hands.

Mainly because we need more people and more journalists to join forces in defense of democracy, a free press, and, above all, the right to quality, nonpartisan information that all citizens should have access to.

Closing your eyes is easy. Keeping them open when everything around you demands surrender is the hard part. If journalism closes its eyes, the whole world is left in the dark. For democratic values and independent journalism - now more threatened than ever - VISÃO invites everyone to join the Movement for a free press, using the most powerful weapon we have: information.

The 12 journalists of VISÃO are:

Rui Tavares Guedes, Margarida Davim, Alexandra Correia, Filipe Luís, Rosa Ruela, Plácido Junior, Clara Cardoso, José Barros Moura, Rui Antunes, João Carlos Mendes, Sónia Calheiros, Lucília Monteiro.

#DontCloseYourEyes

Featured image via VISÃO

By The Canary

Gaza's children were suffering from trauma symptoms such as depression, grief, and fear long before October 2023. They'd had 15 years of life under Israeli blockade, siege, and repeated military attacks.

But now, after Israel destroyed 90% of schools, 94% of healthcare and 92% of residential buildings, the mental health crisis is far worse. UNICEF has stated that:

all children in the Gaza Strip are in need of mental health support.

Gaza: innovation through necessity

In central Gaza, mental health professionals are responding with an innovative approach: virtual reality therapy. Through headsets, traumatised children are transported from their harsh realities to experience peaceful islands, woodland walks and calming natural environments. This is imagery that can initiate the healing process, especially when other treatments have failed.

Most children arrive at the makeshift therapy tents excited for this temporary escape. But the therapists themselves carry the double burden of treating others' trauma while navigating their own.

Abdallah Abu Shamla, mental health programme manager at TechMed, has lost his brother, his home, friends and colleagues to Israeli assault. Despite this - and while studying for his master's degree in psychology through online classes - he finds hope and purpose in facilitating healing for others. He says:

The war has stripped away much of what defined my life. My brother was killed, leaving a void that no words can fill. Friends and colleagues, once my companions in building hope, are gone. My home, the place where I once welcomed patients and family, lies in ruins.

In Gaza, grief is shared across families, neighbourhoods and generations. Trauma is not an exception, it is the atmosphere we breathe.

How trauma healing through a headset works

Abu Shamla is one of five mental health therapists working for TechMed. It's a Palestinian-run organisation founded by software engineer Mosab Emad Ali in April 2024 after his son was severely injured in an airstrike.

In partnership with The Sameer Project, TechMed has treated over 450 cases since October 2025, providing psychotherapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy for individuals, mainly children. Abu Shamla and his team see 10-15 cases daily.

Over a patchy internet connection, Abu Shamla described a recent case of a 15-year-old girl suffering post traumatic stress disorder after her father was killed in an airstrike and she suffered a serious leg injury.

This young person was debilitated by anger, depression, insomnia, and social withdrawal. Abu Shamla explains:

Across six sessions of talk therapy, physiotherapy and virtual reality lasting 45-60 minutes, she was able to sleep better, be more social, reconnect to her mother, talk about her father and understand loss and death.

Given the extreme levels of trauma children have been exposed to - family members killed, their homes destroyed, repeated displacement, and dire humanitarian conditions - therapists are seeing children with psychosomatic symptoms, social withdrawal, speech difficulties, and other presentations of trauma.

The virtual imagery isn't just a brief escape, it provides a vital channel for children to talk (often when previously too traumatised to speak), process emotions, calm their nervous systems and learn self-regulation through grounding techniques. Abu Shamla continues:

We have six tools, each with different imagery, for mental health and one for physical therapy. The speech therapists use the headsets too.

One of the tools teaches patients how to breathe in a better way and talk about their traumatic incidents.

Abu Shamla and his team achieve these outcomes working from two tents, one no more than a few metres square. Lack of space means no privacy for patients and limits movement for those wearing the headset during sessions.

These constraints reflect the continuing challenges across Gaza. Despite a so-called ceasefire in October 2025, Palestinians still face desperate shortages of shelter, food and safety as Israel continues blocking aid and medical supplies.

This month, the occupying power suspended the operating licences of 37 international aid organisations, including Doctors Without Borders, leaving millions without essential aid and healthcare.

Healing while surviving their own trauma

The role of therapists and doctors is not just urgent but profoundly challenging. By mid-2025, over 1500 healthcare workers had been killed and hundreds detained and tortured. As Abu Shamla says:

As a psychotherapist, I am trained to hold space for others' pain. But here, I am both witness and participant.

I sit with patients who describe the same explosions I heard, the same funerals I attended. My professional role does not shield me from trauma - it deepens my responsibility.

Abu Shamla's story is far from unique:

Thousands of therapists, doctors and caregivers in Gaza carry the same double burden of loss and responsibility. We continue because we must.

For these healthcare professionals, their roles and personal identities have become inseparable. Abu Shamla explains:

My losses shape my work, and my work gives meaning to my losses.

Through TechMed, we are proving that even in the harshest conditions, innovation and compassion can coexist.

VR therapy does not erase trauma, but it creates a fragile sanctuary - a reminder that joy and agency are still possible.

Healing as resistance

In Gaza, trauma therapy is both an act of defiance against persistent death and a way to rebuild the human spirit when everything else has been shattered. Abu Shamla adds:

I continue to believe in the necessity of therapy, because healing - even in fragments - is an act of resistance against despair.

As our call ended, I learned that Abu Shamla would be attending his uncle's funeral later that day. A sharp reminder that when the VR headset comes off, the reality of trauma continues.

Images via AFP

By Yanar Alkayat

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the Metropolitan Police has revealed the staggering costs of the recent mass-arrests of activists voicing their support of Palestine Action.

Palestine Action was the first non-violent direct action organisation ever to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. As such, showing support for the group could carry a 14-year prison sentence.

However, rather than being cowed into submission, Palestine Action supporters have continued to turn up to protests in their hundreds. The resulting mass arrests under the Terrorism Act have, predictably, put massive strain on the UK police forces.

Now, thanks to an FOI submitted to the Canary by an anonymous source, we know exactly how much the ban is costing. That is to say, enforcing the Palestine Action ban has cost £12m, in the Greater London area alone, over the course of just three months.

Palestine Action protests: month-by-month breakdown

So, let's break that down, shall we? The FOI response from the Met covered September-November 2025. It provided details on arrest numbers, costs, and resourcing issues solely for policing 'Palestine-Israel protests'.

In September alone, the Met spent just under £3.8m policing the protests. That included 4,247 shifts for police officers purely focusing on the protests, along with 755 'mutual aid' shifts.

That is to say, the Met had to borrow hundreds of officers from other precincts to patrol Palestine protests. These 'mutual aid' powers are only meant to be used in anticipation of a major incident. Oh, and those extra shifts cost nearly £610,000 for the month alone.

Then, in October, the Met shelled out well over £4m to show up at the Palestine protests in force. That included just shy of 4000 regular officer shifts, and 1418 extra mutual aid shifts.

Likewise, November's expenses were similarly astronomical, with 5,558 regular shifts and 246 mutual aid shifts. These added up to a total cost of over £4m for the second month running.

1441 arrests for terrorism offences

Beyond those raw figures, the FoI data become even more telling.

Over those three months, the Met made 1441 arrests arrests under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act - i.e. supporting a proscribed organisation.

Often, the Section 13 arrests targeted pensioners and disabled people holding up placards reading:

I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.

At the time of the FOI, 510 of the arrests were subject to a Postal Charge Requisition. That is to say that the arrestees were charged via letter, rather than at a police station. In total, 45 of the offences were under Section 14 of the Public Order act - likely for failing to observe movement restrictions imposed on a protest.

For comparison, the Met made just 124 other arrests at protests between September and November. Of these, just 25 resulted in actual charges at the time of the FoI request.

From this, we can draw two conclusions. First, the costs of enforcing the Palestine Action ban are eye-wateringly high for the police. Second, if you're given to the belief that police actually do anything useful, it's also diverting thousands of officers from their actual jobs to arrest non-violent protesters.

'Emotionally and physically exhausted'

Police themselves seem divided on whether they agree with the proscription of Palestine Action. However, both camps seem united in the belief that they are utterly overwhelmed trying to enforce the ban.

Deputy assistant commissioner Claire Smart, who led a policing operation against a September protest focusing on Palestine Action's proscription, stated that:

The tactics deployed by supporters of Palestine Action in their attempt to overwhelm the justice system, as well as the level of violence seen in the crowd, required significant resource which took officers out of neighbourhoods to the detriment of the Londoners who rely on them.

Similarly, Metropolitan Police federation chair Paula Dodds stated in October that:

There aren't enough of us. Hard-working police officers are continually having days off cancelled, working longer shifts and being moved from other areas to facilitate these protests.

Our concentration should be on keeping people safe at a time when the country is on heightened alert from a terrorist attack. We are emotionally and physically exhausted.

Meanwhile, even some police officers have admitted to being disgusted at what the government is calling on them to do. One anonymous officer told Novara: 

I was told to help in the arrest of a disabled person for holding up the sign stating they opposed genocide and supported Palestine Action, which I did.

I did it knowing it had nothing to do with upholding justice or our professional values, just to protect my job and livelihood. My father was an officer, and the reason I came into the police. I know he would be ashamed and turning in his grave if he saw what I did.

Is this the best use of our money?

We know, we know, poor cops. However, it's abundantly clear - from both the officers' own reports and the information contained within the FOI - that the UK justice system is utterly overwhelmed.

We'll leave aside, for the moment, all question of whether the ban on Palestine Action is righteous, justified, or -for instance - a symptom of deepening authoritarianism from a Labour government that crossed the line so long ago it's a mere speck on the horizon. All of that's a matter for the philosophers and the courts.

From a purely practical standpoint, the UK cannot afford to enforce this ban. The police already cannot cope. The Met alone spent £12m arresting pensioners holding placards. The courts were underwater even before they were flooded with thousands of extra 'terrorism' charges.

Surely, as a society, there's something better we could be spending this time and money on?

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

The government is set to force veterinary practices to publish their treatment prices, allowing pet owners to shop around for the best prices.

This comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the veterinary market was costing households up to £1bn over five years. An estimated 60% of UK households have pets, totalling around 17m. In 2024 alone, pet owners spent £6.3bn on veterinary and related services.

However, currently, 84% of vet practice websites publish no pricing information at all. It also found that vet fees have risen at nearly twice the rate of inflation, which is why the government has now decided to take action.

Industry insiders have claimed the huge price increases are due to big companies buying up smaller companies en masse. The government claims the changes will:

make the system clearer, fairer and more transparent for owners - while supporting veterinary professionals alike.

The reforms are the first in the sector in 60 years.

Vets - significant price differences

Currently, most vets do not publish their prices, and there can be significant price differences between practices. For example, the CMA found that the cost of a simple procedure, such as neutering a dog, can range from £120 to £700.

Another common procedure for dogs - surgery for cruciate ligament disease - can cost up to £5,000 or more.

This means owners are often caught off guard and forced to pay extortionate prices for treatment. But of course, by the time they find out the prices, their pet has already received treatment. This means it's too late to opt out. 

Many pet owners are facing hard choices. Some are having to put pets down or take out huge loans to cover the cost of life-saving treatment.

Some of the specific measures mentioned by the CMA in October included capping the cost of prescriptions at £16, requiring prices in writing for any treatment over £500, and the price breakdown for pet care plans. It also proposed a price comparison website, similar to those for home or car insurance.

More control for owners

The changes will give owners more control. However, it is also expected that, in addition to giving customers a choice, vets will be forced to lower their prices over time to compete with other practices.

Additionally, every vet practice will need an official operating license, as GP practices and care homes do.

Currently, non-vets own 60% of UK vet practices. Under the new proposals, veterinary practices will have to disclose who owns them so pet owners know whether it is local or part of a big chain.

The British Veterinary Association, which represents 19,000 members, said that it broadly supports the proposals. However, they were:

very unlikely to dramatically alter the cost of veterinary care.

Vets have been robbing pet owners for years. Because let's face it - why wouldn't we pay to keep the animals we love alive? They can charge what they like and get away with it - so it's about time the government holds them to account.

Featured image via HG

By HG

The British military is no stranger to sexual abuse scandals. It is an institution which seems incapable of protecting its own people from internal predators and abusers. In the last week, two more scandals have emerged.

One case saw two instructors from a British Army training camp in Yorkshire jailed. The second case is about claims that up to 500 people were sexually abused during military medical examinations.

Two instructors from the Catterick infantry training camp were jailed for sexually abusing a teenage recruit. On 23 January, a military court heard how Lance Sergeant Antony Pugh and Sergeant Connor Forgan bragged in messages about "sexual relations with the trainee".

The BBC reported:

Both had denied a charge of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust but were convicted by a court martial board following a trial last year.

Pugh was jailed for 20 months, while Forgan received a 16-month sentence and both were dismissed from the Army. They were also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

British military: disgraceful, indecent, misogynistic

The judge presiding over the case was withering in her comments:

Any communications were expected to be professional but you both engaged in unprofessional communication which quickly turned sexual.

She said they discussed the recruit, a "17-year-old child", in a "disgraceful, indecent and misogynistic manner".

Power imbalance is exacerbated within the services, and service personnel are taught to follow the orders of those senior to them.

As instructors you were well aware of where the line was, and you both willingly stepped over that line for your own sexual interests.

The other scandal involves historical allegations.

Widespread sexual abuse

Wiltshire police launched an investigation into military sexual abuse during medicals in October 2025.

Detectives specifically want anyone who may have experienced criminal, inappropriate or unusual behaviour during Army enlistment medical examinations to contact them.

The police may not have expect the sheer scale of the response. On 23 January 2026, the BBC reported:

The force said it has since been contacted by people who reported incidents from the 1970s up to 2016 at locations across the UK and the investigation, named Operation Pianora, has now been widened to include both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Detective superintendent Darren Hannant of Wiltshire police said:

The number of people who have contacted us highlights the seriousness of the abuse being reported, my team and I are committed to engaging with each survivor and witness.

Those who serve, or seek to serve, our country deserve to be treated with dignity and respect at every stage. I urge anyone with information to come forward - you will be listened to and supported.

The investigation continues.

Jaysley Beck reforms?

Teenage soldier Jaysley Beck killed herself in December 2021. Beck was sexual harassed and assaulted by more senior soldiers. She was later branded a troublemaker for complaining. And she was pressured to accept an apology letter from her assailant.

The army gave Beck's attacker a mere six months in jail. And even that was only after a long legal battle by Beck's lawyers and family. The Beck case became very high-profile. The army was to partly to blame, a coroner ruled.

The Centre for Military Justice (CMJ) said the inquest revealed a wider pattern of abuse:

Other young women at the Inquest gave evidence more widely of the vile and degrading comments and behaviours of males from equivalent and higher ranks that they had to put up with - treatment that left them humiliated, despondent, scared and angry.

The government said in February 2025, :

The Army has accepted the failings identified by the Service Inquiry and responded to the recommendations to improve Service life across its culture, policies, and practices.

Despite this - and despite the public outrage - sexual abuse is still happening in the military. People forget sometimes: the military is an employer. And most people would also accept that workers should have basic protections from abuse by their bosses. Yet for all its noise, the military seems to be incapable of guaranteeing even these. It's long past time for serious change.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

During the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike, many Western media outlets maintained that this was the first significant prison hunger strike since the IRA hunger strike in 1980-1981.

Parallels between the two hunger strikes certainly exist. Two liberation struggles against British colonialism, in Ireland and Israel, confronted settler colonial violence and genocide. And, these hunger strikes were also a protest against the carceral prison system itself.

Hunger strike history: here's what's being missed

Whilst mainstream media may not pay attention, there are significant hunger strikes and protests inside UK immigration removal centres (IRCs) against the same violence that the Prisoners for Palestine actionists are protesting against. We are fast approaching the 8th anniversary of the 2018 Yarl's Wood Hunger strike, where from 21 February to 20 March, 120 women detained inside, launched a hunger strike to protest "unfair imprisonment and racist abuse." Their list of demands included calls for:

• an end to indefinite detention,
• the Home Office to respect Article 8 of the European European Convention of Human Rights regarding refugees and asylum seekers,
• an end to chartered flights,
• a stop to detaining vulnerable people,
• and a stop to detainees working for as little as £1 an hour.

As punishment, several of the hunger strikers in Yarl's Wood were kept in solitary confinement. Other hunger strikers were removed from the UK for participating. The hunger strike came at a pivotal time of emboldened border violence as a result of the hostile environment policy.

In the aftermath of the Yarl's Wood hunger strike, the Home Office reported in 2019 that there had been over 3000 hunger strikers in IRC facilities since 2015. In fact, campaigners suggested that the actual number of hunger strikers was likely much higher.

Given the fact that the UK is the only country in Europe where there is no statutory time limit to immigration detention, it is no wonder that detained migrants have turned to hunger striking to protest their inhumane treatment.

Courting the far-right

Now, in 2026 Keir Starmer routinely competes with the far-right Reform party as to who can be more vicious to migrants and asylum seekers. Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, drew applause from Tommy Robinson in November for restoring "control and order to our borders". This was after she outlined plans to prevent refugees from having the right to live permanently in the UK by removing refugees once the Home Office deems their country safe to reside in.

We can see the far-right turn on immigration with the return of military barracks in Scotland and East Sussex to house asylum seekers as a tactic the Home Office believes will dissuade further asylum in the UK.

Then we come to the "one in, one out" plan to remove those asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on small boats back to France. In November, asylum seekers launched a hunger strike to protest being removed to France, calling attention to the criminalisation of this policy on asylum seekers.

On Wednesday, 14 January 2026, over 100 asylum seekers detained at Harmondsworth near Heathrow airport and Brook House near Gatwick airport launched a coordinated peaceful protest against being removed to France on flights scheduled for the next day.

Some detainees feared that once in France, smugglers would threaten them, while other detainees feared European Union law would make it easier for them to be moved to another EU country and ultimately to their country of origin, where they may face death.

Their peaceful protest was met with the strong arm of state violence. In the early morning of Thursday, 15 January, as reported in the Guardian, an asylum seeker who participated in the protest said:

They brought special forces for us, they used [teargas], they took us by force inside rooms, they took the ones who have tickets by force. We are in pain; our eyes and bodies are burning.

Rise in racism

Given the onslaught of rabid xenophobia and racism, it can not be seen as a mistake when the UK media ignores years of migrant hunger strikes in resistance to growing carceral immigration policy.

The harmful effects of this immigration policy are extending to British citizens, where a joint study by Reprieve and the Runnymede Trust found that 9 million people could lose their British citizenship because they may qualify for citizenship through their parents.

This has contributed to growing concerns around the normalisation of citizenship stripping, particularly for minoritised British citizens. We must not forget that politicians routinely weaponise immigration status when it comes to migrants advocating for Palestine, whether here in the UK, US, or Germany.

Umer Khalid, one of the Prisoners for Palestine strikers, has now ended his hunger strike after doctors warned he was on the cusp of death. Mainstream media has done its level best, along with the government, to ignore the protests of the hunger strikers. However, as the above demonstrates, there is a long and storied history of institutions ignoring hunger strikes.

The past and present hunger strikes are an important part of tactics towards liberation that must not be ignored.

Featured image from video screengrab via the Guardian

By Sanaz Raji

UK fascists are trying to paint the upcoming Manchester by-election as a battle between Reform and Muslims, via Zack Polanski's Green Party. But far-right hate-monger and bigot Katie Hopkins has gone even further, sending out a dog whistle to anyone who hates Jewish and gay people too.

Zack Polanski rises above it

Green Party leader Zack Polanski rose above her bullshit. And he used the opportunity to highlight the media's role in Hopkins gaining such a prominent platform:

Whether it's the UK, or the US, The Apprentice has a lot to answer for… https://t.co/2WqEUj61D7

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) January 27, 2026

 

Hopkins had previously suggested the Greens were "the Muslim Party in camo gear", and essentially framed the Gorton and Denton by-election as a battle between 'Reform and Muslims'. You'll notice she conveniently failed to mention the Christian, Jewish, or other religious (and non-religious) support the Greens will likely attract in the election.

Hopkin's comments fit neatly into the far right's racist dog-whistle about Muslim people, whom fascists try to demonise despite evidence suggesting extreme violence is less likely from people with a "well-established religious identity".

Fascist Katie Hopkins calls the Green Party "the Muslim Party in camo gear" and essentially suggests that the Gorton and Denton by-election will be 'Reform vs Muslims' pic.twitter.com/biOY2VAyZE

— Ed Sykes (@OsoSabioUK) January 28, 2026

Corporate stooge, "Temu Enoch Powell", and Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair Mike Tapp, meanwhile, has suggested "dodgy" Polanski is trying to "hypnotise" people in Gorton and Denton. And Tommy Robinson has been whining about "the beginning of the end" that a "Green/Islamic alliance" could represent. Rattled, fascists?

Media helped Katie Hopkins spread her violence-inciting hatred

Hopkins is no peace lover herself, though. She once suggested a "final solution" was necessary, for example. And she dehumanised migrants as "cockroaches" while calling for "gunships" to deal with them.

She is also the 'woman of the people' who went to a private school, had "intelligence corps" sponsorship for her degree, and has openly shown consistent disrespect for:

• Working-class people
• Women
• Disabled people
• Fat people
• Full-time mums
• Ginger people
• People with tattoos

And the list goes on. The elitist hate and contempt for pretty much everyone who isn't a fascist just oozes out of her.

No wonder she has called herself the "female Farage".

But as Polanski pointed out, one of the most shameful things is that the mainstream media has given her such a big platform to spread her misanthropy. Because like millionaire Thatcherite and current Reform leader Nigel Farage, Hopkins has played the media machine effectively.

Via reality TV shows like the Apprentice, I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, and Celebrity Big Brother, Hopkins boosted her profile with an early version of today's 'rage-baiting' money machine.

The right fears unity

It's not just fascists who are trying to rally people with dogwhistles around the Gorton and Denton by-election. The right-wing Labour government is also bricking it. Because a Green victory could spell the end for the rubbish about needing to mimic Reform, and possibly the beginning of the end for Labour itself:

After Matt Goodwin pointed out the Green Party's incorrect spelling of Gorton and Denton, social media users were quick to point out that he had also previously spelt it wrong.

This you ? pic.twitter.com/TXBsROEcB1

— salforddave (@saIforddave) January 27, 2026

At the same time, more embarrassing details have emerged about Goodwin - Reform's latest candidate.

To start with, he doesn't even live in the constituency he's standing in. Reform has taken a leaf out of Labour's book and parachuted a candidate in from 176 miles away.

Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton by-election is Matt Goodwin… who lives 176 miles away in Hitchin.

— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) January 27, 2026

Of course, 30p Lee then tried to convince the world that Goodwin was, in fact, a local candidate.

Lee Anderson today said @GoodwinMJ was a local candidate in the Gorton and Denton campaign.

He lives in London.

Goodwin grew up St Albans and lived in Salford for 3 years at Uni. That's the closest he's ever been to Gorton or Denton.

He then lived in Canada and did his PhD in…

— Reform Party UK Exposed

Pressure group Greens for Palestine is urging the Green Party to declare itself "an anti-Zionist party". The group has issued a statement in support of a motion which it calls "groundbreaking". The motion also supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and calls for the de-proscription of Palestine Action.

Greens for Palestine statement

Greens for Palestine are calling on The Green Party to take a strong and principled stance in support of Palestinian rights and against all forms of racism without any fear or favour. Motion A105: Zionism Is Racism is a key step toward building a framework that supports Palestinians in seeking justice, dignity and accountability. This groundbreaking motion has received overwhelming support and is gaining momentum, both in and out of the party, demonstrating strong backing among Green Party members and the Palestine solidarity movement.

An anti-Zionist party

The motion urges the Green Party to declare itself an anti-Zionist party, while rejecting attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism or to create hierarchies of racism. We are clear that not all Jews are Zionist and not all Zionists are Jewish. Opposition to a political ideology and the policies of a state must not be misrepresented as hostility toward Jewish people, who hold diverse political views, including opposition to Zionism. This motion calls for the Rejection of the IHRA and JDA definitions of antisemitism which have been weaponised to silence legitimate criticisms of the
actions of the state of Israel.

In its dominant contemporary form, Zionism underpins a system of inequality, dispossession, and violence against Palestinians. It is increasingly associated with far-right politics in Israel and with policies that deny Palestinians equal rights, safety, and dignity. A movement committed to justice, equality, and international law must be willing to confront this. The motion also calls for the Green Party to support the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants.

A Palestinian state does not refer to an ideological project but to a democratic state, founded upon the collective will and equal rights of all people who belong to Palestine. This vision rejects
any notion of exclusion or supremacy and instead asserts a civic identity rooted in justice, equality, and self-determination for all. A democratic Palestinian state would therefore guarantee full political, civil, and religious rights for people of all backgrounds, Palestinians of every faith and those of none, as these lands did before the manifestations of Zionism upon them.

Boycott, divestment and sanctions

The motion calls for the Green Party to heed the call from Palestine civil society to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, and calls upon the United Kingdom Government to impose full embargoes and sanctions against Israel.

Acknowledging Zionism as inherently racist is both a moral and political issue. Recent history is showing us how accusations of antisemitism have been cynically weaponised to silence legitimate criticism of Israel and to undermine movements for Palestinian freedom. The left cannot continue to retreat in the face of bad-faith attacks. Clarity, solidarity, and courage are required.

The motion also calls for the de-proscription of Palestine Action and for the release of political prisoners targeted by the state for non-violent direct action in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Greens for Palestine affirms the long tradition of non-violent civil resistance as a legitimate and necessary tool in struggles against injustice. Greens for Palestine believes that opposing racism, apartheid, and mass violence is inseparable from supporting Palestinian liberation. We urge Green Party leaders and members to back this motion and reaffirm the party's commitment to universal human rights, anti-racism, and justice for all.

Featured image via Left Foot Forward

By The Canary

On 27 January, the Guardian reported that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is rewriting its disastrous single-sex space guidance.

The article characterised the new EHRC chair, Mary-Ann Stevenson, as being more "constructive" than her predecessor. The problem, however, isn't that Kishwer Falkner - the previous head of the equalities watchdog - was a transphobic zealot (though she was).

Rather, the idea that the state can simply ban trans people from public spaces aligned with their identity is fundamentally unworkable.

The EHRC and a disastrous attempt

Under Kishwer Falkner, the EHRC published interim anti-trans guidance that called for a complete ban on trans people using gendered spaces aligned with their identity.  Further, it stated that trans people could also be banned from spaces aligned with their assigned sex.

Falkner submitted her draft of the anti-trans guidance to the government back in September 2025. However, as of this date, women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson hasn't yet made it into law. The EHRC also took down its interim guidance in October, leaving trans people and service providers in the dark.

Then, in November, the guidance leaked to the press - and it was, predictably, an absolute shitshow. It suggested that service providers should guess who was trans based on "physical appearance or behavior". So, as I wrote at the time:

There's no way to tell whether or not someone is trans by official documentation. As such, a service provider is allowed to exclude someone from single-sex spaces purely according to how they look and act.

Therefore, someone doesn't have to be trans in order to be excluded under the new anti-trans guidance. So stating that "trans women could be questioned" etc. isn't actually true, is it? Anybody could be questioned, and anybody could be excluded, based purely on "concerns raised by others".

The redraft

As such, it's unsurprising that Phillipson hasn't yet made Falkner's unworkable attempt into law. Likewise, it's also understandable that she appears to have sought a redraft.

Labour MP Rachel Taylor, a member of the Commons women and equalities committee, said:

The EHRC's interim guidance was disproportionate, unfair and unworkable, so I would welcome efforts by the government to work with the new EHRC chair to ensure the final guidance upholds the rights of women and trans people and can reasonably be implemented by businesses.

Legally, the EHRC can't simply decide to amend a code after it's been submitted. Instead, ministers have to reject a previous draft and request changes. However, a spokesperson for the EHRC stated that the watchdog was:

convinced that our updated services code of practice is both legally accurate and as clear as it is possible to be.

The commission is now waiting to hear whether Phillipson will accept the redrafted code. Crucially, the guidance would need to be legally sound in order to avoid legal challenges. This, in turn, might be informed by the Good Law Project's ongoing challenge against the interim code.

However, in case anyone thought the government might lessen its transphobic bent for a moment, the Guardian reported that:

Any changes will not water down what the government says is a commitment to single-sex spaces, which was the central repercussion of the supreme court ruling. However, the hope is that a more pragmatic approach could limit the impact on trans people, and avoid excessive costs and confusion for businesses in terms of changes to toilets and changing rooms.

'Deliberate and strategic continuation'

The article characterised Stevenson, who took over as EHRC chair in December, as "more open to listening to concerns" than her predecessor, Kishwer Falkner. It also praised her "background in women's rights". This is typical of the Guardian's downplaying of trans issues.

In reality, staff members at the commission at the same time as Falkner branded her "transphobic," "anti-LGBT+" and an "enemy of human rights". The Lemkin Institute - an international organisation dedicated to opposing genocide - penned an open letter against her.

Likewise, whilst Stevenson is marginally less bombastic in her bigotry, she's still actively hostile towards trans people. She donated money to 'gender critical' lawyer Alison Bailey's case, met with trans-hostile feminist group FiLiA back in 2020, and signed a declaration opposing Gender Recognition Act reforms.

When Stevenson was appointed as the new chair, campaign group the Trans Advocacy and Complaint Collective stated that:

Trans communities and our allies condemn this appointment as a deliberate and strategic continuation of the EHRC's transformation into a tool of political control rather than human rights defence. As many organisations, including TACC, have made clear, this decision represents not neutrality, but complicity. It is another calculated move in the state-sanctioned campaign to exclude trans people from public life and to roll back the protections that once existed under UK equalities law.

Practical bigotry is still bigotry

So, sure - Stevenson is marginally more practical than Falkner in how she might plan to implement her bigotry. She's more concerned with little details like her code 'being legal' and 'actually possible to implement' than her predecessor. However, she's still fully aligned with the government's newfound hatred for trans people.

Unfortunately for her, the new EHRC chair faces an uphill struggle. Whilst Falkner's guidance was a ridiculous farce, it's also difficult to see how else the government could possibly implement a ban on trans people using facilities aligned with their gender.

Quite simply, there is no legal way to tell whether or not a person is trans. Any attempt to do so will, inevitably, also impact intersex people, butch lesbians, femme gays, and gender non-conformists of all types, leaving it open to legal challenge.

It's almost as if trying to implement a law which deliberately singles out a minority for public exclusion and ridicule is impossible in a society that wishes to pretend it has any concept of equality or basic human decency. Funny, that.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

Rwanda wants £100m in compensation for the axed Tory-era deal to hold asylum seekers kicked out of the UK. British PM Keir Starmer cancelled the plans when he took office. Now, Rwanda has taken their case to an international arbitration.

The deal was signed in 2022 by then-PM Boris Johnson. The Rwanda 'off-shoring' plan was the centrepiece of the Tories openly racist immigration policy.

The BBC reported:

Rwanda has filed an international arbitration case, arguing the UK has breached the terms of the deal to send some asylum seekers to the east African nation.

Under the deal, which was signed by the previous Conservative government, the UK agreed to make payments to Rwanda to host asylum seekers who had arrived illegally in Britain

And the Tories pushed for the plan knowing Rwanda is implicated in the mistreatment of refugees.

Rwanda: torture and abuse

The Rwandan state has a history of abuse and torture, according to Human Rights Watch. Moreover, the Global Detention Project (GDP) has gathered evidence of serious failings in Rwanda's asylum practices.

Critics cited by GDP included the US State Department, which warned:

The government continued operating transit centers that advocacy groups and NGOs reported detained vulnerable persons and potential trafficking victims—including those in commercial sex, adults and children experiencing homelessness, members of the LGBTQI+ community, foreign nationals, and children in street vending and forced begging—and did not adequately screen for trafficking indicators among them.

The State Department added:

The government held many potential victims of trafficking in these centers, which functioned as de facto detention facilities, for up to six months.

The BBC said the previous UK government spent vast sums on the failed policy:

The previous Conservative government spent some £700m on the Rwanda policy, which was intended to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

In short, the Tories spent a large fortune on a scare tactic which then failed entirely - and now the UK is being sued for even more money.

Rwandan officials quoted by the BBC blamed British "intransigence". A Home Office spokesperson said:

The previous government's Rwanda policy wasted vast sums of taxpayer time and money.

We will robustly defend our position to protect British taxpayers.

The BBC reported:

The Rwandan government's statement said it was making three claims in relation to the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which was signed in 2022 when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

The statement accuses the UK of breaching the deal by setting out the financial terms of the agreement publicly, failing to make payments totalling £100m, and "refusing to make arrangements to resettle vulnerable refugees from Rwanda".

Refusing to pay

As it stands Labour is going to resist paying up. But let's be clear. None of this is to say Labour's immigration policy is vastly better than the Conservative Party's was. The theoretically left-leaning party has pitched further and further to the right as Reform UK have made gains in the polls.

The party has openly bragged about how many people it has ejected, even while cooking the figures. On 23 January, Labour was criticised for posting images of people being deported via its grotesque new 'Secure Borders UK' TikTok account.

Green Party politicians Carla Denyer said:

It will encourage the division and hatred already tearing our communities apart - turning people who were born here against those who simply want to make this country their home.

Sile Reynolds from the NGO Freedom from Torture warned:

This government is clearly hooked on the cheap political points it can score by turning the brutality of enforcement raids into clickbait online entertainment.

Adding:

This style of political communication provokes the kind of anxiety and fear that fuelled the summer riots and the recent violence directed at asylum hotels.

Built on a false narrative of invasion, the Tory plan to 'offshore' some of the most vulnerable people on earth were an abomination based in cold indifference and abject racism. Labour dropped the Rwanda plan, but in virtually every other aspect Keir Starmer has prosecuted an identical war on refugees and migrants. It should be self-evident at this point that UK immigration policy needs nothing less than a complete overhaul.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Local shops have condemned the government's decision to limit additional rates support to pubs and music venues. A trade body called the decision short sighted and dismissive of the contribution of convenience stores to the economy.

The Association of Convenience Stores has called on the chancellor to go further than the support package announced for pubs and extend help to all local shops.

Labour - trying to get back into the pub

The government's apparent generosity towards pubs comes as over a thousand venues have reportedly banned Labour MPs. This is after successive budgets from chancellor Rachel Reeves went down badly with small retail businesses.

In her rotten 2024 Budget, Reeves laughably claimed to be cutting a "penny off a pint in the pub". As if landlords up and down the country would be replacing the nines on their chalkboards with eights. That claim fell flatter than a gone-off ale as critics said it was more likely that pints would go up by 30p or more due to other rising costs.

In the Budget at the end of 2025, the chancellor announced a new Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multiplier for business rates that was 5p lower than the standard rate. This was despite the government legislating earlier in the year to be able to reduce the RHL multiplier by up to 20p.

At the same time, those retail, hospitality and leisure businesses have had to plan for the removal of the 40% Covid relief on their bills in April.

Tough times for local shops

As a result of the government's changes to business rates, thousands of convenience stores, particularly those independently owned and operating on petrol forecourts, will see significant increases in their rates bills in the coming months.

Transitional relief will spread the impact of this significant increase in rates bills over three years. But this will still see local shops facing rising bills for the foreseeable future while other costs rise. Meanwhile, trading conditions are at their toughest for many years.

The Association of Convenience Stores has called on the government to affirm its support for local shops and other essential community businesses by extending additional support to all retailers before bills rise in April.

Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said:

Local shops will feel neglected and dismissed by this Government today as they are passed over for additional support. For those facing rates increases in April of thousands of pounds, difficult decisions will have to be made about investment, employment opportunities and the services that are provided to customers.

The Chancellor has a chance to make this right and extend business rates support in the Spring Statement to all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. Without additional support, jobs will be lost, inflation will rise as retailers look to claw back margin, and investment will be put on hold.

Since the Budget, ACS has campaigned for further support for local shops on rates. It has written to ministers outlining the importance of the convenience sector to both local communities and the UK economy.

The ACS Community Barometer survey of UK consumers has shown consistently over the last decade that people see convenience stores, Post Offices and pharmacies as the three most essential services in their community.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

A new report has found that poverty is so bad, lifting the two-child cap won't actually make that much difference. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has predicted that overall poverty will only reduce by 1% by 2029.

Lifting two child cap will help some kids, but not enough

While it's great that 400,000 children will be taken out of poverty in April, many more will still suffer. The charity estimates that 4 million children will still be in poverty by the next general election.

The report projected that thanks to the cap, the poverty rate will fall in April. However, it probably won't fall any further for the next three years. The JRF said:

While a severe recent harm has been removed from the social security system in the form of scrapping the two-child limit, we still need to hear what the Government hopes to achieve on poverty over the rest of the parliament beyond this, in terms of driving levels further downwards, and what ministers intend to do to bring about that change.

So more is needed. This cannot be the only step. If it is, then progress will likely stall after April.

And even then, it'll only fall by just over 1% point in April. From 22.3% to 2.1%. Because, despite lifting the cap, the government have not pledged any other ways to support poor people.

Pretty shit for anyone not rich

Using a range of data from sources including the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the charity was able to predict how growth will impact poverty. From growth alone poverty, there's only 0.2% difference between best and worst case scenarios.

In the central scenario (neither best nor worst case), it still wasn't a very positive outcome. The number of working age adults will fall from 20.4% in April 2025 to 19.8% in April 2026. But after that they will have fallen by just 0.06% by 2029.

The child poverty rate is expected to fall by just 0.05% per year up til 2029, so 4 million children will still be in poverty. It will fall to 28.7% this April though, from 31.6% in April 2025.

Pensioners, though they'll benefit from the triple lock, will still only see a less than 1% drop in the poverty rate. From 16.7% this April to 15.9% in April 2029.

As the report points out, growth is typically felt most by middle and high income households, not low income ones. So to rely just on growth would mean more people are actually at risk of falling into poverty, not getting out of it.

Cannot rely on economic growth alone

JRF says this is because we cannot rely on the economy alone. The Labour government must also work to improve living standards and work to bring as many people out of poverty as possible. Which at the minute, it's not doing.

The charity also called out Keir Starmer, who has once again gone back on his promises:

These levels of poverty are incompatible with the Prime Minister's ambition that 'no child is held back by poverty' (Starmer, 2025), nor will improvements in the economic security of low- and middle-income households be widely felt. Such a scenario will also see little progress towards the manifesto commitment to end the mass dependence on food banks.

The JRF recommends that other measures must be taken to ensure more people are pulled out of poverty

• Introducing a protected minimum floor into Universal Credit (UC) to embed for the first time the principle of a safety net below which no one should fall and to better protect the link between circumstance and support that removing the two-child limit has started to restore

• Permanently re-link the local housing allowance to further strengthen the link between support and needs, and to give the child poverty strategy a better chance of tackling the scandalous number of children living in temporary accommodation.

The report points out that these are immediate fixes. However, long-term, the government must commit to tackling poverty. They say this must be done through strengthening social security and ensuring households do not go without. It must also ensure all types of worker are better protected when they are temporarily out of work.

What about people who can't work, though?

There's one group very obviously missing from this, though - disabled people. According to JRF's own research, disabled people face higher rates of poverty. 28% compared to 20%. The government is on course to cut disability benefits, which will push even more disabled people into poverty.

Under-22-year-olds won't be eligible for Universal Credit. While cutting the Work Capability Assessment from UC and moving it to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will make it harder to qualify for. Whilst PIP is still under review, going off cancelled plans we can make some assumptions. Making it harder to qualify for and potentially limiting what PIP can be spent on would put many at risk.

There's also the fact that the government scrapping specialist "high end" cars from Motability will mean many will face an extra bill. Or lose their independence completely.

Labour doesn't care about lifting people out of poverty

But expecting Labour to do something to actually help people is like waiting for pigs to fly. The two-child cap could've been lifted in 2024, but they all refused to vote for a Tory amendment. They also could've done much more to actually support poor people. instead they spend all their time demonising benefit claimants.

Let's be honest, Labour doesn't actually care about getting people out of poverty - or they would've already done it.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

Keir Starmer's Labour government is doing very little to address the cost of living and low wage crisis. Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows the number of people living in "very deep poverty" in the UK reached 6.8 million in 2023/24. That's the highest level, both absolutely and proportionately, since accounting began in 1994/95. "Very deep poverty" means they have an average income that is 59% below the poverty line.

Labour u-turn on child benefits

As ever, Labour did U-turn. The governing party plans to scrap the two child benefit cap, which is a step in the right direction. Although, it previously suspended seven MPs for voting against the cap and called keeping the Conservative policy a "matter of fairness".

It's clear that only pressure from the Green party resulted in the change of policy, not actual conviction that children shouldn't grow up in poverty. That conviction is particularly true when one considers that the UK harbours a neoliberal job market that's completely incapable of providing employment for all. That's because high levels of unemployment are seen as good for bosses who then have a lot of options, while a job guarantee only increases the value of labour.

Labour could at least be addressing greedflation through mandating higher wages and cheaper goods. But other than scrapping a Conservative policy, they are doing next to nothing.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation analysis

Apparently, neoliberal capitalism takes us in the right direction. Yet the number of people living in destitution (unable to stay warm, fed, dry and hygenic) more than doubled from 2017-2022, the analysis points out.

The number of people who are food insecure also increased by 60% from 2021/22 to 2023/24. That's another 2.8 million people who are struggling to afford food.

The organisation notes that a lack of an ambitious government industrial strategy is fueling poverty. Over a decade of weak growth, increasingly high housing rents and austerity have supercharged deep poverty levels.

While the number of people in deep poverty has increased, the percentage of UK citizens in poverty generally is similar to 2020 - at 21%. To break it down, two in every ten working age adults are in poverty, three in every ten children and three in every 20 pensioners.

The number of pensioners in poverty is a disgrace. But the disparity between children, adults and pensioners living in poverty demonstrates the lack of government strategy to invest in society. People no longer have the benefits the post-war settlement offered baby boomers. The nationalisation of essentials, affordable homes, and free university are all examples of what delivered prosperity for the older generation. Today, we have privatisation, excruciating rents, and high tuition fees.

We need a new settlement, fast. Nationalisation should go further - removing profiteering middlemen like supermarkets. Home ownership should be offered at cost price, challenging state landlordism as the only other option. Tuition fees should be binned, with an investment in education seen as a priority.

Re-imagining society is key.

Featured image via the Canary

By James Wright

Americans can't have guns, according to US president Donald Trump. No, you heard that right. The most right-wing president in history is attacking the sacred Second Amendment. For clarity, because Yanks are always waffling about their bleeding Constitution, that's the one that allows Americans to bear arms.

Trump's comment came after the 24 January street execution of nurse Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis road. Pretti was shot to death by federal officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was legally carrying a sidearm.

And let's get the chronology correct. That weapon was removed from its holster by an immigration agent after a group of them attacked him, wrestling him to the ground. Pretti was then shot multiple times.

Federal officers have become an occupying army in the city's streets in recent weeks. They say they're enforcing immigration laws. But that narrative is falling apart fast. Remember they killed another innocent citizen, Renee Good, on 7 January.

In an X video posted on 27 January, Trump can be overheard saying people can't just walk around with guns:

Trump: You can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns. It's a very unfortunate thing. pic.twitter.com/TkhHQopHA6

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 27, 2026

The problem with this should be obvious. In the US, including in Minnesota, where Pretti was killed, you can walk around with guns if you have the correct permit. Pretti had the correct permits. Another X post dated 27 January has Trump going even further:

He certainly shouldn't have been carrying a gun. I don't like that he had a gun

Trump escalates his attacks on the Second Amendment:

"He certainly shouldn't have been carrying a gun. I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That's a lot of bad stuff."
pic.twitter.com/MTuyMUPWGN

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 27, 2026

But there's more.

Trump has lost the NRA

America's National Rifle Association (NRA) are usually associated with far-right gun-nuts in the US. It's a powerful lobby group for gun ownership. In a weird twist, the NRA now finds itself opposed to Donald Trump.

Here's what the NRA said following Trump's comments:

The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be.

— NRA (@NRA) January 28, 2026

They didn't specifically mention the Pretti killing. But it seems pretty clear they were talking about it.

The US government response to the Pretti killing was to try and blame him for his own death. They lied, inferring he had approached federal officers brandishing his firearm.

Republican bootlickers immediately backed the authorities:

If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.

Don't do it! https://t.co/DNpyew6PMh

— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) January 24, 2026

Again, Pretti's legally owned and carried weapon stayed in his holster until it was removed by law enforcement themselves. Footage shows that he was then shot while lying prone in the ground.

The NRA chipped in on 24 January too - a day after Pretti was killed:

This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.

Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens. https://t.co/9fMz3CL29o

— NRA (@NRA) January 25, 2026

But this debate isn't without precedent. The US authorities have attacked the Second Amendment before. For example, in California in 1967 when Black Panthers started to legally open carry, the authorities and NRA started to panic. You can read a full historical case study here from Duke University…

Our timeline is indeed very strange. To have Donald Trump saying Americans can't have guns speaks to how unhinged US politics have become in recent times. It all becomes clearer when you realise that in the mind of far-right US citizens, cops, militias, and even presidents the Second Amendment should only be exercised by people who agree with them.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

This article contains discussion of sexual assault and paedophilia.

Israel-supporting Conor McGinn has become the latest Labour Zionist to be accused or convicted of sex crimes. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced that McGinn. 41, has been:

charged with one count of sexual assault in connection to an allegation of sexual assault made by a woman in July 2022.

Deputy chief crown prosecutor Jessica Walker said:

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to charge Conor McGinn with one count of sexual assault following a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault in July 2022.

Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this charge to court and that it is in the public interest to do so.

We have worked closely with the Metropolitan Police as they have carried out their investigation into the allegation.

The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial.

Too many to shake a stick at?

Right-wing Israel fanatic and former councillor Liron Velleman pleaded guilty earlier this month to a series of sex offences against a 13-year-old girl, after being caught in a police 'sting'.

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.

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.

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 following month Dan Norris MP was arrested over allegations of rape, child sex offences and child abduction. Avon and Somerset Police says its investigation is still ongoing.

And in August 2025, the US allowed Israeli cyberwar official Tom Alexandrovich to fly back to Israel after he was caught in a police paedophile sting.

Nor is the problem limited to Israel's supporters outside Israel.

Widespread?

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.

A jury will decide on the evidence whether McGinn joins the list or is acquitted - assuming 'justice secretary' David Lammy doesn't abolish juries for such cases before then.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

On Tuesday evening 27 January, anti-genocide demonstrators protested at a dinner for arms dealers in London. The demo was organised by CAAT, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. Police arrested several peaceful protesters.

Tonight! Join us from 6pm to protest the grotesque arms dealer dinner where arms dealers and military personnel will dine on expensive food and toast their deadly trade. We will not let those profiting from and enabling war to celebrate in peace pic.twitter.com/qHLJQPHfpK

— London CAAT (@londoncaat) January 27, 2026

Activist photographer 'BetterThanReal' was there and kindly provided images for Skwawkbox and the Canary. Their description of events at the demo follows the image set.

There was a lively demonstration outside the Marriott Hotel on Park Land, central London on Tues Jan 27. It was the annual 'Arms Dealer Dinner', a reminder that London continues to be a centre for the bloody global arms trade.

Demonstrators shouted their disapproval at the profiteers of genocide and global wars.

The police turned up in large numbers to hold their line across several street entrances to the hotel, with crowd surges and scuffles as dinner attendees showed their credentials and were hurried through behind lines of police and hotel security, while demonstrators shouted to shame them. As a stream of well-heeled diners showed their credentials and were smuggled into the venue, activists across the generations gave them a warm welcome - and they did seem ashamed as they averted their gazes from the demonstrators and hurried into the safety of the hotel.

After a 6pm start the demonstrators dispersed around 90 minutes later, leaving lines of police outside the venue to survey the now empty street. There were two arrests, we don't yet know the reasons and whether they are still being held.

Featured image via BetterThanReal

By Skwawkbox