The Palestine Youth Movement (PYM) joined community members in Lambeth on Thursday 5 February to kick Labour out of their hometown. As a result, local people realised their democratic power in being the first community in the UK to launch the 'Vote Palestine' pledge campaign for the upcoming local elections in May.

The Lambeth event was led by Mariam of the PYM and London Votes Palestine campaign. Mariam gave an inspiring masterclass in how ordinary people can come together. In turn, she showed how voters across the country can use their democratic power to get the change they want to see in their hometowns.

Activists from Jewish Voice for Liberation (JVL) and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) joined other local activists and people who have had enough of Labour's ongoing complicity and willingness to ignore Israel's flagrant breaches to countless international laws. Former ANC member and arms trade corruption investigator Andrew Feinstein also attended the event.

In true unity and solidarity, organisers inspired and energised local people to get Palestine on the ballot.

Mariam of the Palestine Youth Movement passionately introduced the Lambeth campaign and what it hopes to achieve:

Lambeth Vote Palestine is not just launching here, but it's part of a national campaign that is launching in 12 boroughs across London because people are fed up of Labour councils that are not listening to people that are pushing resolutions for divestment from genocide. It's launching in Manchester, in Greater Manchester, in Newcastle, in Birmingham and in Sheffield. And the first national launch is taking place here today in Brixton in Lambeth.

So, the way that Vote Palestine came together has essentially come from all these local organisers that have tried to push divestment resolutions to get money out of Israel and money into our council and into the people of this council. But we know that Labour councillors have lied to us about just how much political power they have in order to take on divestment. We know that Labour councillors have watered down resolutions that have managed to pass and protests have been tried, resolutions have been tried, all sorts of attention against Labour majority councils have been tried.

And we know that they're not interested in divestment from Israel because it's a party of genocide. It's a party that's done nothing against austerity. It's a party that with Rachel Reeves' latest budget is raising taxes on ordinary working people. And we see this in Lambeth as well. It is a council that has ignored us time and time again.

So up and down the country, We know that the elections are coming in May 2026. And we've gotten started a little bit early, but actually right now, Labour is preparing itself for who's going to be standing in the next election, and preparing its candidates and other parties are doing that as well. But so is Vote Palestine. We are preparing to say: no divestment, no vote. So, we are asking two things nationally, as well as here in Lambeth.

The first is what's called a councillor's pledge. We are asking that any sitting councillor or new candidate signs a councillor's pledge that commits them to getting money out of Israel and money into our communities. No divestment, no votes.

But there's a second portion to this, because this is also a grassroots campaign and a people-driven campaign, one that's going to be powered forward by us giving it a little bit of time every month and getting a big impact out through just a little bit of labour together. And that is the People's Pledge. So we are also asking voters to take a pledge that will say, 'if this candidate has not endorsed the councillor's pledge, we will not be voting for them'. And we're going to take that to councillor's and say, 'hey, you know what? In Lambeth, hundreds of people have committed to the Palestine pledge, to the people's pledge, and these people will not be voting for candidates that have not endorsed divestment, that have not endorsed Palestine.'

Mariam later referred to the response they receive on the ground from constituents in London, adding:

We've been talking to people all over London around what's the issue that needs more funding? And no one says genocide. So this campaign is really about… We're putting Palestine on the ballot. We know that the people are with Palestine. We also know from the last election, with the election of the Gaza Independents, that there is a Palestine-first voter. It's time to show that in the local elections. And we're going to make that known.

From Lambeth, from Brixton, all the way up to Newcastle and the country over, we're going to put Palestine on the ballot and make it a non-negotiable issue. No divestment, no votes.

In Lambeth, Feinstein discussed the clear corruption at the heart of our current UK government, namely Keir Starmer's lucrative relationship with billionaire-owned Quadrature:

And the reality is, I've just come from a Zoom meeting with four Palestinian journalists who are fortunate to be alive. What sort of a sick world do we live in? When journalists start a conversation when they introduce themselves by saying, I'm thankful to be alive. Because hundreds of their colleagues are not.

But what relevance does that have for Brixton and for Lambeth? It has every relevance. The reality is that the biggest political donation in British electoral history was paid by a company called Quadrature Capital to the campaign of Keir Starmer for the 2024 local election. That resulted in a situation where Starmer, who didn't once show his face in his own constituency because he knows he would have been drummed out of town, spent tens of thousands of pounds on direct social media advertising. Our independent campaign was allowed to spend £17k in total on everything. Because the political system here is fixed.

Within three weeks of coming to power, Keir Starmer announced two policy proposals. One is he went back on his commitment to a new green economic plan that he'd committed at least £20bn to. And then he increased defence spending by £3.5bn a year until 2027. At which point, defense spending will increase by £15.4bn. Quadrature capital's asset value at the end of those three weeks of Starmer being in power increased exponentially for the expenditure of £5m in their political donations.

And that is why Britain today lives in the best democracy money can buy. Our politicians are bought and paid for. Keir Starmer is a puppet. He is a puppet, not just of Morgan McSweeney, the little worm who is his chief of staff, but he is the puppet of billionaires and corporate interests like Quadrature. Quadrature has invested primarily in fossil fuels and arms company. Of that £15.4bn increase in our defense budget in 2027, a huge proportion of it will land up being used against the people of Palestine.

And that £15.4 bn is at the expense of our NHS, our benefit system, and all of our local services. Because frankly, and I'll ask you to excuse my language here, but as you might gather, I'm a little bit angry about this. People like Keir Starmer and all of our establishment politicians don't give a fuck about us. And if ever that was brought to our attention, it's in the reality that people like them were more concerned about the fact that Jeremy Corbyn could not pronounce Jeffrey Epstein's name properly, which they regarded as anti-Semitic. Then they are about the fact that Lord Peter Mandelson was who is an architect of the Starmer Project, is closest friends with a paedophile, with a man who has abused and sex-trafficked hundreds and hundreds of children for abuse by the old white men who run this world and profit from it.

Local activist Jan O'Malley gave an eye-opening and inspiring speech about the sheer scale of Lambeth council investment in Israel and its ongoing genocide. Referring to the power of the BDS movement, O'Malley said:

BDS, you all know about BDS, boycott, divestment and sanctions. We are the D in BDS. So how big is this problem? PSC has done a massive amount of work on research on this, which has been a great resource for us all. And they have found that 81 local government pension schemes have collectively invested over £12bn in companies complicit with Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. It's genocide, it's apartheid and it's illegal occupation. And the British government as a party to the genocide convention has a legal responsibility to take action to prevent further genocide.

PSC has sent a letter to every pension committee member across the country, telling them about this legal duty. It's not worth waiting until the ICJ finally concludes there is a genocide, they're meant to prevent genocides. And this means that we take immediate action to start divesting. So, in Lambeth, how big is the problem? Well, the figures that we got from FOIs that PSC did was that the Lambeth Pension Fund had £52.4m invested in companies complicit with Israel. And this included £25m in Amazon, £20m in Alphabet.

They may say, 'oh, we all use them', and at the council meeting, they were joking about that. 'Do you mean we ought to stop us using Amazon and Uber and things in our everyday lives? This is what these unrealistic people who are petitioning us are saying.' But both of those companies are involved in providing Project Nimbus, which is a computing technology system of surveillance, which has been used to target the journalists, the doctors, the people in Gaza that they wanted to target…. it's used and bought and helps and supports the Israeli government and military. Other investments are arms companies like Boeing, Rolls Royce, but also Israeli government bonds, which are actually lending money to the Israeli government, and Barclays, which funds so many arms companies.

Referring to a petition sent to Lambeth Council and its pensions committee, O'Malley finished by saying:

We took our petition. We presented it middle of November last year, thinking the council needed time to check the addresses and everything. And then we had to give them enough time. And they were meant to let us know in 10 days, if there was anything wrong with our petition. They didn't until the day before the full council meeting, when they rejected the petition on the grounds that it was about something that they do not control, and they pointed a little item J in their constitution about petitions which will be rejected. They're saying they've changed their constitution to take out the word control and amend all the weaselly words. They only administer.

So, what has the Pensions Committee been doing every three months when they meet and take decisions? It's a total farce. It's ludicrous. It's dishonest. So shame on Lambeth Council. I was really shocked at this. It took me, I'm quite cynical and I've been demonstrating an activism since I was 14, but I've not known a council behave like this in my lifetime. So it shocked me. I wasn't ready for it. So what are we going to do? We're going to challenge. this attack on solidarity with Palestine, which is what it is, and democracy, which is what it is, by all available means, including in the local elections in May, which leads us to why we're here tonight. And we will support alternative candidates who take the pledge for Palestine. And we will challenge Labour councillors who refuse to take the pledge and collude with this despicable denial of democracy. So let's challenge them on the doorsteps. Let's get busy with Lambeth Votes Palestine.

As ever, another powerful speech in Lambeth was delivered by Glyn Secker of what was formerly Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL). First Secker told us that the 'L' no longer stands for Labour, as a result of their pro-genocide actions, but now stands for 'liberation' in solidarity with Palestinians. Secker has long refused to be connected to the hostile state of Zionist Israel particularly as a Jewish man, stating:

We represent a very different perspective on what it means to be a Jew in this country, a very different point of view from the Jewish establishment, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council. I'm going to give you a perspective, a historical one, tied up with where we are now.

Jews in this country represent 0.5% of the population. Muslims represent about 5%. So you might ask, why is the Israeli lobby so damn powerful? Why is their establishment here has minimal concerns with Islamophobia, but maximal focus on anti-Semitism and its weaponization?

But we can do no more than understand racism without understanding imperialism and slavery, than we can understand Islamophobia without understanding oil imperialism, which replaced slavery as a financial driver of the second stage of the development of international capitalism.

The economic foundations of Israel were laid by mercantile Jews, traders, financiers, and then developing into international bankers. the privileged upper-class Jews with a role in developing the first stage of capitalism. To jump very quickly from that to Israel and Zionism, Zionism translated that role into a nationalist form, a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of hostile Arabism, as a British colonial agent in the Middle East described it at the time. And what happened was the development of Israel took over that role of Jewish capital when the bankers began, the Jewish bankers, Rothschilds and so on, began to give way to the large financial institutions developing in the States.

And so Israel took on that role of American imperial interest in the Middle East. Like the financials before them, they slotted neatly into servicing the dominant economic and political order. And so you have the United States' multi-billion pound transfers to Israel, not just now during the genocide, but it's accelerated. It's been going on for decades, from the beginning of Israel's inception, pretty much. So it's imperative to draw a distinction between Israel and its ideology, political Zionism and Jew. Because I have nothing to do with what's going on there, as far as I'm concerned, and I will not be identified with that. And there are many hundreds of thousands, probably a couple of million of us around the country.

Secker finished with a bit of advice for those out on doorsteps facing the inevitable allegations of antisemitism for refusing to support mass-murder, advising:

So what do you do on the doorstep when you're told that it's anti-Semitic? Well, you just say, there's a whole lot of Jews in this country, who are deeply committed to it, because they're deeply committed against genocide, who are deeply committed against any Holocaust, whoever perpetrates it.

And if it's Jews, well for me, I'm deeply against that from the bottom of my being, because that is not something that I identify with in terms of my integrity and my humanity. So, I can't tolerate, as a Jewish pensioner, drawing a lamb of pension that my deferred wages are invested in weapons companies that are slaughtering Palestinians.

So, I am deeply behind this campaign to get these shits out of their offices so we can disinvest.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

Following yet another Epstein bombshell, the royal parasites are in trouble again. It appears that the £12m that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor paid to Virginia Giuffre out of court in 2022 was stumped up by several prominent members of his family. Including King Charles.

The Sun is reporting that not only did the late Queen loan ex-Prince Andrew millions to pay £12m to Virginia Guiffre, but Charles chipped in £1.5m https://t.co/oX2JgpCqFp

— Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) February 11, 2026

The pay off happened before more allegations against Andrew surfaced in the latest release of the Epstein Files.

We knew that the queen stumped up a lot of cash to silence Giuffre and get her little nonce out of trouble, but £7m is a wild sum of money. Couple that with the fact that £3m came from the late prince Philip's estate. And now we've found out prince (now king) Charles stumped up £1.5m towards the case too.

Read that again.

Our now-king paid a large amount of money to cover the tracks of an alleged nonce and to silence one brave woman's fight for justice.

And the 'king' will never be prosecuted for this:

The monarch is immune from prosecution, by the way, so there will be no investigation https://t.co/DOCz7XhY8b pic.twitter.com/x4aIaoLTQ1

— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) February 12, 2026

I am absolutely fucking disgusted with these utter parasites. This is a clear sign of one rule for us, another for them.

It shows absolute contempt for us, the lowly serfs that they supposedly serve. It shows if you have enough money, you can hush up even the worst kind of crimes. You can avoid justice and prison if you have deep enough pockets to pay for it.

There's thousands of accusations of crimes against women in the Epstein files. Thousands of names of girls and women we will never know and the royal family are spitting on every single one of them.

And our fucking king has done this. He paid to silence the voices of so many women who need to be heard.

King Charles who famously said, at the age of 29 that Diana was "an attractive 16yr old."

King Charles who was close friends with Jimmy Saville and called him a "national treasure."

Abolish the monarchy.

Featured image via The Canary

By Antifabot

It appears that The Jerusalem Post is allowing anyone to write for them nowadays. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (a.k.a. Tommy Robinson) wrote an opinion piece for them on Wednesday 11 February entitled "Jeffrey Epstein and the system that protected him."

After months of silence on the Files, he finally spoke out.

But there's several issues surrounding this piece that we need to look into. first is Robinson's dramatic shift in prose. It uses clinical, polished language that stands in contrast with his usual street-level shouting.

And many are claiming he wrote it with AI:

It seems Israel's PR crisis has reached rock bottom. This piece by Tommy Robinson for the Jerusalem Post is almost certainly AI written.

Anyone familiar with Tommy's posting knows he struggles with the written word, and anyone familiar with AI slop will recognise the many… https://t.co/wGOE7Kae9n

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) February 11, 2026

We also need to ask why this prominent racist grifter is even being given a platform to spew his bile.

It's certainly plausible that Tommy Robinson used AI for his article. It has all the tells, and to be honest, it would be more surprising if he had written it himself. Robinson can barely string a sentence together on Twitter, so these accusations hold a lot of weight.

But it's not Robinson's lack of literacy skills which are the problem here.

The problem is that, yet again, this racist, little grifter has completely fucked his own argument. By staying silent on the Epstein Files, literally the biggest white-led grooming gang of all time, all future input he has on the matter is null and void.

The Epstein Files have been out for a while. For months we have seen the censored images of women and children blasted across our screens. We have looked at thousands of redacted names of women who will never be able to come forward and tell their stories.

Why the fuck didn't Robinson comment on this then? Why wait this long when you're so desperate to 'protect all women'?

The Epstein files have revealed what is probably the largest grooming-gang in the world.

And the guy running it was fucking white.

That's why he's been so silent. Because it doesn't fit his ridiculously racist propaganda that he shovels down the neck of the British public. He is a hypocrite and a liar who is willing to ignore systematic abuse when the perpetrators look like him.

Oh, and the fact that he was in the files, because Epstein himself was a fan of his.

Nobody should listen to a single 'take' this opportunist has, whether it's AI or not. Tommy Robinson's history proves he is a danger to a better world.

I mean, it doesn't really scream 'protect all women' when Robinson attacked a copper who was intervening in a domestic issue between himself and his partner. This cocaine soaked rat has so many convictions it's hard to count. But they include intent to supply, harassing a literal child because he was an immigrant, leading football hooligans into a mass brawl, possessing and using a false passport, mortgage fraud, the list goes on.

Those actions alone mean that this little racist should be buried in the annals of history. But it's made so much worse when this man does nothing but weaponise sexual violence to target migrant communities to stoke division.

For this convicted criminal, the abuse of women and girls was never the point. He only cares about sexual violence when he can turn the narrative and blame Black and Brown people.

Tommy Robinson is now leaning into a pro-Israel narrative to shield his racism. Hiding behind a literal genocidal state which is killing hundreds of thousands of Muslims is absolutely disgusting, but it didn't stop Robinson going on a tour of the Zionist state. Robinson was called out by The Board of Deputies of British Jews for his trip, with them calling Robinson a "thug" and the "very worst of Britain".

This AI slop in a shit publication shows how far Robinson has fallen. But he needs to fall further and into absolute oblivion. Robinson doesn't give a shit about women. He only gives a shit about lining his greasy little pockets and shouting about innocent black and brown people to his legions of knuckle-dragging followers.

Rather than letting Robinson's new grift flourished, it is time to see him for what he is. A racist little grifter who doesn't give a shit about women and girls being raped.

He only cares about where he can get his next bag and how he can somehow turn the narrative on vulnerable marginalised groups.

Featured image via The Canary

By Antifabot

In an era of state repression and mass murder backed by the most powerful nations on earth, it takes something special to speak truth to power. Nine Belfast activists have done just that. This February they face the full power of the genocide-complicit British state.

The Canary understands three of those charged will go on trial on 13 February. Another will be in court on 16 February and a fifth will face British 'justice' on 20 February.

The charges stem from two road blockades carried out on July and October 2025. In a powerful statement, the group made it clear that the real criminals are those who support Israel's genocidal assault on Palestine.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BDS Belfast (@bdsbelfast)

BDS Belfast pulled no punches in their statement:

Stormont and Westminster have been active participants in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Yet, it is 9 Belfast activists, from across multiple solidarity groups, who participated in peaceful civil disobedience, who the police are attempting to criminalise.

They added:

The only thing that we are guilty of is standing for the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

We will not be deterred

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BDS Belfast (@bdsbelfast)

The original protests were focused on the role of the so-called 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' and the Global Sumud Flotilla respectively and, more broadly, Stormont and Westminster's support for Israel.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BDS Belfast (@bdsbelfast)

The Canary understands the charges will range from "obstructive sitting" and "unauthorised procession". So peaceful protest then….

The nine plan to plead not guilty to all charges.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BDS Belfast (@bdsbelfast)

The British state would suppress every trace of human solidarity with Palestinians if it could. And it will do this at any cost to basic freedoms and rights. These activists are heroic figures. The Canary will keep you updated in the case as it progresses.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

US attorney general Pam Bondi may have walked herself into a sticky situation after declaring under oath to congress that there is:

no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime.

Ted Lieu instantly called this out as a lie under oath. Lieu is vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus and a former Air Force colonel. Continuing, Lieu quoted a deeply concerning transcript from the Epstein Files. This transcript has raised urgent questions about the US President's potential involvement in serious criminal acts. The Epstein Files have revealed a significant and highly suspicious relationship between Trump and convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett also took Bondi to task, arguing that she and the Trump administration cannot distinguish right from wrong.

Pam Bondi, "There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime"

Ted Lieu, "You just lied under oath. There is ample evidence in the Epstein files"

Pam Bondi, "Don't you ever accuse me of a crime"

Ted Lieu, "You just lied under oath, and this is on video tape"

Ted… pic.twitter.com/v2Feci6P4u

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 11, 2026

Pam Bondi: There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime. Everyone knows that. This has been the most transparent presidency. He's the one that asked that those files be released.

Ted Lieu: I'm going to claim my time. I got your answer. You said there's no evidence.

Bondi: President Trump asked that he sign the legislation.

Lieu: This is time. Time belongs to the gentleman from California. Okay. I'm going to put up another document from… a witness who called the FBI's National Threat Operation Center because I believe you just lied under oath. There is ample evidence in the Epstein file.

Bondi: Don't you ever accuse me of a crime.

Lieu: I believe you just lied under oath, and this is all on videotape. You said there's no evidence of a crime. I'm showing you. Here is a witness statement who called into the FBI's Threat Operation Center. He drove Donald Trump around in a limo. He overheard what Donald Trump said to Jeffrey on his cell phone. He was so angry, he was going to stop the limo and hurt Donald Trump. And he met a girl who said she was raped by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

She later had her head blown off, and officers at the scene said that could not have been suicide. No one, no one at the Department of Justice interviewed this witness. You need to interview this witness immediately. Epstein should rot in hell, so should the men who patronised this operation. And as we sit here today, there are over 1,000 sex trafficking victims, and you have not held a single man accountable. Shame on you. If you had any decency, you would resign right after this hearing concludes.

You cannot shame the shameless
Impeach her finished https://t.co/BOGYZ3m3GI

— Where We Going, We Don't Need Britches

I grew up on the beaches of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Visits to Tenby were my family's summer ritual: sand between our toes, paddling in rockpools, strawberry syrup on ice cream.

But 30 years ago, I vividly remember walking along Tenby's North Beach with my mother and grandmother. No crowds. No laughter. Just the hush of waves sliding over dark, tar‑smudged sand. The holiday postcards had gone grey.

At about 8pm on February 15 1996, the Sea Empress oil tanker missed her tug escort into port by minutes. The ship veered inside the mouth of Milford Haven and struck rocks near St Ann's Head.

Over the next stormy week, it grounded and re‑grounded many times, creating more damage to the hull each time. About 72,000 tonnes of North Sea crude oil were spilled. This was Britain's worst coastal oil disaster in a generation.

The fightback was messy. Weather worsened. Control systems to manage the spill were strained. Nine separate releases of oil stained the sea as wind and tide shoved a wounded tanker around the edges of the Pembrokeshire Coast national park.

Aircraft spread dispersants to try to break up the oil spill. Rough seas helped break oil into smaller droplets. This kept oil suspended in the water (not just floating on the surface), which can increase exposure and toxicity for sea and plant life, even as the visible surface layer declined.

At the same time, because the spilled oil contained a lot of relatively volatile petrol components and the weather was windy and the sea choppy, an estimated 35-45% evaporated in the first two days.

In all, 11,000-16,000 tonnes of water-in-oil emulsion are estimated to have reached the shore - far less than the 72,000-120,000 tonnes of emulsion that could have beached. But even so, more than 120 miles (190km) of coastline were oiled. Birds, shellfish, marine and coastal habitats and the local tourism industry all took a hammering.

The UK government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch found the immediate cause was pilot error - compounded by weak training, poor use of leading marks to help the tanker's navigation, and no agreed master-pilot plan.

Salvage overseen by the Marine Pollution Control Unit (part of the UK Coastguard Agency) unfolded amid a stormy week. Muddled control was an issue alongside insufficient tug power and limited expert knowledge of the tidal streams. When big ships are in trouble, authority must be clear and tugs must be strong.

A lot has improved since the Sea Empress disaster.

The line of command is now much more direct. The UK created a single, empowered decision-maker - the secretary of state's representative - to cut through competing interests in a major maritime emergency. The role dates from 1999 and exists because of lessons from the Sea Empress.

There's also a clearer response plan in place. The national contingency plan for marine pollution incidents sets out who does what from the first call to the last waste bag. It links government, ports, regulators and science advisers, and outlines how to quickly set up a joint response centre for a coordinated approach to complex incidents.

Prevention of oil spills is high on the agenda. The UK government has identified marine environmental high-risk areas, including Pembrokeshire, to warn where a mistake can become a catastrophe.

Ships have also evolved to reduce the risk of big spills like this happening again. After the 1990s, single‑hull tankers were phased out under an amendment to international and national laws. New tankers had to be double‑hulled - designed with two completely watertight layers of steel - to reduce the risk of oil spills as the result of an accident.

By the mid‑2010s, single‑hull tankers were effectively gone from mainstream trade - a quiet revolution that prevented countless spills.

But not everything moved forward in a positive way.

In the 2000s, the UK stationed powerful government‑funded tugs around the coast. But in 2011, this fleet was axed on cost grounds, with a limited Scottish provision later restored and extended. A 2020 government‑commissioned study acknowledged that commercial towage hasn't filled every gap, and that some sea areas are still at high risk of an oil disaster.

Risk has shifted, not vanished. Milford Haven is now one of Europe's key liquefied natural gas (LNG) gateways. The South Hook and Dragon terminals, opened in 2009, can together meet up to a quarter of UK gas demand on peak days. That keeps homes warm and industry running. It also concentrates critical energy infrastructure in the same magnificent but exposed seascape that the Sea Empress scarred.

Three aspects of the handling of this disaster still guide my thinking as an environmental scientist today.

Hitting the oil hard at sea - and early on - can make a big difference. With the Sea Empress's cargo of light crude in winter, rapid evaporation and dispersant‑aided dilution reduced shoreline oiling dramatically. It is often better to keep oil off beaches than have to scrape it off later - but you need surveillance, and then aircraft and trained people to be ready immediately.

Coasts need to be cleaned in a methodical way, for as long as it takes. Buried oil re‑emerges. Heavy machinery can drive residues deeper if you rush. Quiet persistence beats flashy photo ops.

The government's Sea Empress environmental evaluation programme found that, while many habitats recovered faster than feared, some wildlife communities - from limpets to cushion stars - needed continued protection.

Prevention always costs less than compensation. Fines, funds and court cases don't restore trust or nature quickly. Investing upfront - in trained pilots, rehearsed joint command, powerful tugs in the right places, modern kit and transparent science - is cheaper than rebuilding a reputation for clean beaches, safe seafood and thriving wildlife. That was true in 1996. It is truer now.

Thirty years on, I still see Tenby's empty beaches when they should have been busy. I can still picture the sad faces of Pembrokeshire's people. Wales has deep ties to the sea: trade, holidays, food, fun.

With better ships, clearer command and smarter plans, the risk of major oil spills can be minimised. But complacency is a fair‑weather friend. LNG cargoes, bigger vessels, tighter budgets and busier coasts all raise the stakes. Anything can happen after dark in a gale, when radios crackle, information is scarce, and decisions must be made quickly.

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Ian Williams receives funding from UK Research Councils, including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Impact Acceleration Account.

It's difficult to forget standing in front of a glacier that is advancing towards you, towering ice pillars constantly cracking as they inch forward. The motion is too slow to see in real time, but obvious from one day to the next.

One of us (Harold) experienced this during fieldwork in 2012 at Nathorstbreen on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, which was moving forwards more than 10 metres per day.

Encounters like this are rare. Most of the world's glaciers are retreating rapidly as the climate warms, and thousands are likely to disappear altogether within the next few decades.

However, a small fraction of glaciers do the opposite, and repeatedly speed up and advance for months or years after a long period of stagnation and retreat. This is known as glacier surging, and it has long puzzled scientists.

It might be tempting to view advancing ice as an antidote to the gloomy picture of disappearing glaciers, but the polar opposite is true. Surges can accelerate ice loss, make glaciers more vulnerable to climate change, and create serious hazards for people living downstream of them.

We have just published a global study of over 3,000 surging glaciers to find out what's causing them to move like this. Our work also summarises, for the first time, the hazards caused by these glaciers, and how surging is being affected by climate change.

During surges, glaciers accelerate from a slow crawl to tens of metres per day - sometimes within weeks. The fastest phase, when ice can flow at over 60 metres a day, typically lasts a year or more - although some glaciers have surged for up to 20 years. The return to low speeds and even stagnation can happen abruptly over days, or over several years.

Nathorstbreen dramatically advanced more than 15 kilometres in roughly a decade during its surge, which began in 2008 - transforming the entire landscape in a matter of years.

The onset of surging is thought to be controlled by changes beneath the glacier. In surge-type glaciers, water generated by melting ice does not immediately drain away, but gathers at the bottom of the glacier. This reduces friction between ice and the ground, making it easier for ice to slide faster.

When that water eventually drains, the glacier slows again. Some glaciers experience repeated surges separated by years or decades of low ice flow - but the exact timing of surges is hard to predict.

Our study shows that at least 3,000 glaciers have surged at some point. That's only about 1% of all glaciers in the world, but they tend to be large, so represent about 16% of the global glacier area.

Notably, they are found in dense geographical groupings across the Arctic, the Himalayas and other high mountains in Asia, and the Andes - but are largely absent elsewhere. This is primarily controlled by the climate: surges do not generally happen where conditions are currently too warm, such as in the European Alps or mainland Scandinavia, or too cold and dry, such as Antarctica.

Other factors such as size and underlying geology are also important for determining which glaciers surge in a region and which do not.

Some of the hotspots are found in populated regions, where surging glaciers can become hazards. The advancing ice can overrun infrastructure and farmland, and block rivers to form dangerous lakes that can release devastating floods when the ice breaks. An unstable lake formed by a surge of Shisper Glacier in the Karakoram mountain range drained multiple times from 2019 to 2022, causing extensive damage to the Karakoram Highway, a key connection between Pakistan and China.

Fast-moving ice can cause deep cracks (crevasses) to form, affecting travel in regions such as Svalbard where glaciers provide highways between isolated human settlements. It also disrupts tourism and recreation activities, such as where climbers use glaciers to approach peaks. When glaciers surge into the sea, they release numerous icebergs in a short space of time that could present a risk to shipping and tourism.

Climate warming is already reshaping how and when glaciers surge. In some regions, surges are becoming more frequent; in others, they are declining as glaciers thin and lose the mass needed to build towards a surge. Heavy rainfall, intense melt periods or other extreme weather have also been shown to trigger earlier-than-expected surges, and these factors may become more important in a warming climate.

Together, this paints a picture of the increasing unpredictability of glacier surges. Some regions might experience less surging as the world warms, while others might see an increase. It is feasible that glaciers that have never surged before may begin to, including in areas where there are no records of past surges, such as the fast-warming Antarctic peninsula.

Surging glaciers remind us that ice does not always respond to warming in simple and predictable ways. Understanding these exceptions, and managing the hazards they create, is critical in a rapidly changing world.

Harold Lovell receives funding from NERC.

Chris Stokes receives funding from the NERC.

Every architect knows what a blueprint is. Fewer know the process behind it — cyanotype printing — was first used not for buildings but for algae.

In 1843, English botanist Anna Atkins began producing Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, now considered the first book illustrated entirely with photographs. — Read the rest

The post Anna Atkins' blue algae and the dawn of photography appeared first on Boing Boing.

Trump's "Border Czar" Tom Homan announced that, after months of mass arrests, slain citizens, and huge high-profile protests, ICE is already quietly slinking out of Minnesota.

Prepare for ol' Grandpa Puddin' Brains to declare he has reduced crime in Minneapolis by 1 billion percent. — Read the rest

The post ICE retreats from Minnesota after weeks of backlash appeared first on Boing Boing.

Gouache applied by airbrush — that was the secret behind the impossibly smooth, vivid covers Robert Tinney produced for Byte magazine across 80-plus issues from 1975 into the late 1980s. Each one took roughly a week to finish after phone calls with the editors about that month's theme. — Read the rest

The post Robert Tinney, who painted iconic Byte magazine covers, RIP appeared first on Boing Boing.

I've always loved these decorative indentations on book page edges but never knew what they were called. They're gauffered edges — gilt edges decorated by a finisher using heated tools to indent small repeating patterns into them. The style was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, though it also appeared in medieval manuscripts and devotional books. — Read the rest

The post What are those decorative patterns on old book edges? appeared first on Boing Boing.

A herd of llamas assisted law enforcement in the UK, making a "citizen's arrest" of a fleeing suspect. The hapless thief hopped a fence to escape police, but found himself chased and surrounded by llamas.

After stealing some tobacco, a would-be thief fled into Heidi Price and Graham Oliver's Derbyshire field. — Read the rest

The post British crime-fighting llamas nab tobacco thief appeared first on Boing Boing.

Oracle has picked up an $88 million contract with the US Air Force to provide cloud infrastructure services for the department's Cloud One program.…

Scott Shambaugh maintains matplotlib, a Python plotting library downloaded about 130 million times a month. Like many open source projects, matplotlib now requires human review of all submissions after a surge in low-quality AI-generated code. When an autonomous agent called MJ Rathbun submitted a pull request, Shambaugh closed it — standard procedure. — Read the rest

The post An AI agent published a hit piece on the developer who rejected it appeared first on Boing Boing.

This month, DinoLand USA, the dinosaur-themed land in Disney World's (Orlando) Animal Kingdom ceased all operations, to be torn down to make way for the construction of a Tropical Americas land.

It's been running since the Animal Kingdom park opened in 1998, and the lead designer of the park Joe Rohde took the occasion to write some interesting inside stories on Instagram about its creation. — Read the rest

The post DinoLand U.S.A., R.I.P. appeared first on Boing Boing.

Oni Press has just released a graphic biography on the origin story of Juneteenth, as told through the life of the woman most responsible for making it a national reality.

First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth tells the story of Opal Lee, who has come to be known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth." — Read the rest

The post A graphic history of Juneteenth and the woman who refused to let it go appeared first on Boing Boing.

We don't have a cure for cancer, or personal jetpacks to use on our commute to work, and if they can actually get AI to work, millions will lose their jobs. But hey, at least one thing from the future is panning out: self-driving vehicles. — Read the rest

The post Those Waymo robotaxis? Humans in other countries drive them appeared first on Boing Boing.

She's thirteen, wears her hair long (forbidden by her peers), and has been standing taller than her father in state photos lately. Kim Ju Ae, the only publicly acknowledged child of Kim Jong Un, has been designated as his successor, South Korea's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers Thursday. — Read the rest

The post Kim Jong Un picks his 13-year-old daughter as successor appeared first on Boing Boing.

Whatsapp and Telegram were among the last encrypted communications platforms permitted in Russia, but that ended yesterday: the two apps are now blocked there, authorities confirmed. They encouraged people to use unencrypted domestic alternatives instead. Here's CNN on the Telegram block:

On Tuesday, the government said it was restricting access to Telegram for the "protection of Russian citizens," accusing the app of refusing to block content authorities consider "criminal and terrorist."

— Read the rest

The post Russia blocks Telegram and Whatsapp appeared first on Boing Boing.

David Nephi Johnson, 54, is the chairman of Wasatch County Republican Party in Utah. His teenage daughter, police say, failed to tidy her room "to his standards." Police are interested in this because Johnson allegedly punished his child by waterboarding her, and was charged with aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony. — Read the rest

The post Republican county chairman accused of torturing own daughter for not cleaning room appeared first on Boing Boing.

Thanks largely to Roger Corman's craptacular 1976 movie Piranha and its sequels, flesh-eating fish were top of mind for many Generation X kids. They featured in pulp literature, Far Side cartoons, and on TV right into the mid-1990s. Then they kinda disappeared from the zeitgeist. — Read the rest

The post 46 swimmers hospitalized after piranha attack in Argentina appeared first on Boing Boing.

Last year Apple secured the exclusive rights to broadcast Formula 1 racing in the United States from 2026 to 2030. Apple TV subscribers can now watch every practice and qualifying session as well as every sprint and Grand Prix of a race weekend on the F1TV app by linking their Apple account.

Right now, those with an existing F1TV subscription will still see an active status in their "my subscription" page on desktop that shows the plan's renewal date. However, after logging in via Apple with an Apple TV subscription, a second active F1TV subscription appears with an Apple TV logo and the label "Official U.S. broadcaster of Formula 1." Users are advised to cancel the duplicate subscription they had directly with F1TV, which can be done in the F1TV app.

For those that don't have an existing F1TV account, simply create one and activate it using your Apple account. Users who don't pay for Apple TV can still view "select races" and practice sessions throughout the season.

Apple has yet to release precise details on what content will be viewable from within the Apple TV app compared to the F1TV app, where users are accustomed to features like multi-view, onboard cameras, live team radios and live timing and telemetry. With the first race of the F1 season kicking off March 7 in Australia, we should have these answers soon.

Fans can currently check out preseason testing taking place in Bahrain this week and next through the F1TV app.

The new Highlander EV is a big deal for Toyota -- a big three-row SUV built in the US and battery-powered exclusively.

The post Automotive Press Heaps Praise On Toyota Highlander EV appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Solid-state batteries for electric vehicles potentially have some significant improvements over lithium-ion and lithium-ion-phosphate batteries. They are less prone to combustion, can charge faster and can provide longer driving ranges. Some progress recently has been made with solid-state batteries: February 5: Karma Automotive agreed with Factorial Energy to launch the first ... [continued]

The post Solid-State Battery Milestones Appear Encouraging For Near Future appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This is quite a notable milestone that has gone under the radar! BYD delivered 4.6 million vehicles to customers in 2025. That was actually not a great result for BYD. However, it did mark BYD flying past Tesla in BEV sales, which got a lot of attention. Something that has ... [continued]

The post BYD Passed Up Ford In Global Auto Sales In 2025 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I'm here in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, supporting UK SMEs and wider industry partners attending the World Defence Show 2026. Defence is an engine for growth, and the UK is proud to stand with Saudi Arabia in difficult times and to build on our partnership and friendship. pic.twitter.com/Ql0iCG5uPH

— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) February 9, 2026

He said:

This Government took over what the Tories started in 2022, but we made it work better for Britain and better for our forces. As the Defence Secretary has said, the contract was his decision, and his alone. Peter Mandelson had no influence on the decision to award this contract

I have been clear in my answers today that the decision to extend the 2022 contract signed under the previous Government was made by the Secretary of State alone. It was his decision to do so.

Jeremy Corbyn asked whether Britain should be entangled with a company complicit in the destruction of Gaza, a company that had, in his words, "wormed" its way into UK government contracts and the NHS.

When I was in opposition, I raised concerns about Palantir and the £1 deal that was made. It was always a trap to ensure that Palantir got its foot in where no one else could. The co-founder of Palantir is mentioned in the Epstein files. I think that anyone who is mentioned in the Epstein files should be fully investigated by this House and by the police; the scandal is an absolute disgrace.

Labour's Clive Lewis had already called the whole affair a stink. Chowns agreed.

The govt is refusing to commit to an inquiry into the MOD's contracts with US-based spy tech giant Palantir despite the web of shady connections between Mandelson, Epstein, and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel - this absolutely stinks. pic.twitter.com/UDVi7P7GmO

— Dr Ellie Chowns MP (@EllieChowns) February 10, 2026

We agree — it is a stinking mess!

By The Canary

Nobody likes folding laundry, but you really have to hate it to spend $7,999 on a robot that'll fold it for you with a whole heap of limitations - including company employees getting the occasional peep at your tough-to-fold unmentionables.…

There are a lot of countries where the tap water is risky to drink and most tourists take the easy but destructive route of buying water daily in throwaway plastic bottles. If you don't want to carry a SteriPen (covered in issue #180), many water bottles have a built-in filtration or purification system. The three styles are a filter you suck through (like this Lifestraw one), a built-in filter you push down (from Grayl), or with a SteriPen-style UV light that's built into the cap (from LARQ). I've used all three kinds and if you drink a gallon+ daily, the last option gives you the most liquid for the bottle size.

Skyscanner crunched their booking numbers in an interesting way for this study, figuring out the cheapest domestic and international destination from every U.S. state in March '06. What makes this fun is how unpredictable and counter-intuitive the results are. Who would have thought that the cheapest place to fly from Wisconsin would be Madrid, that from Arkansas it would be Athens, from Georgia it would be Vancouver, or that from Los Angeles it would be San Salvador? If you want to take a vacation to Hawaii, it might be best to go to Antigua first: they found flights from Guatemala to Honolulu for $217 one way!

I was in Mazatlan a couple of years ago for the full solar eclipse that went through parts of North America. To see the next one, you'll need to visit part of a narrow band of options in Europe. Make those reservations soon though: the Expedia group says searches are way up already in some destinations. "For 2026, Greenland (+55%), Iceland (+445%), and several cities in Northern Spain (+125%) are expected to have the best views. Much of the totality will be over the ocean, so northern Spain is going to have the most populated areas for viewing. Check apartment rentals here.

Norway leads the world in a whole lot of civilized statistics, but they've really outdone themselves on the social engineering front with electric car adoption. "According to recent data from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV), electric cars accounted for 95.9 percent of all new passenger vehicle registrations in 2025." The next biggest category was hybrids. See the full story here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World's Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Unless you're the kind of obsessive that scans the credits of your favourite shows, the name Andy Riley might not be familiar. However, as a professional script writer of many years standing, I guarantee you'll be familiar with his work.

He's written for such beloved comedies as The Armstrong & Miller Show, Big Train, Smack the Pony, Black Books, Trigger Happy TV, Veep, The 99p Show, Spitting Image, Harry Enfield and The Armando Ianucci Show, among many others, and also co-wrote an episode of recent Apple TV hit drama, Down Cemetery Road.

I asked Andy about his first writing success:

"My first writing success - which I'll define as the first thing I was paid for - was a sketch I wrote with my writing partner Kevin Cecil, for a topical show on Radio 4 called Week Ending, in the 1990s. It was about ram-raiding, the crime panic of the time. I can't remember much about the sketch we wrote, but when it aired on the radio Kev was driving, and I was the passenger, and he was so excited he nearly crashed twice." 

In his line of work, Andy has naturally worked with many big names. I think it says a lot about him when I ask him about the highlights of his career that he doesn't mention the 2015 Emmy for the US sitcom Veep or the two BAFTAs - one for Christmas Day BBC1 animation special, Robbie the Reindeer (2000), the other for an episode of Dylan Moran vehicle, Black Books (2005), but a childhood hero:

"In 2018 I was part of the writing team for Tracey Ullman's BBC1 show. One morning, I mentioned it was my birthday. Around lunchtime, Tracey walked into the room carrying a big cake with candles blazing on top, leading everyone as they sang Happy Birthday. To have a childhood hero go out to get you a cake on your birthday is a rare treat."

It's not all been TV comedies and radio, though. Andy also co-wrote the Aardman animated film The Pirates! and is the best-selling author of the Bunny Suicides books as well as draws cartoons for Private Eye!

So yes, Andy Riley is a very busy man indeed.

He will be appearing at the wonderful Sudbury Arts Centre on Friday 6 March, performing some of his hilarious micro-fiction. He performed at the venue in early 2025 and went down a storm!

Andy on his move to the stage and how it compares to being a "backroom guy":

"When you write scripts and books, or draw cartoons, the production time from you coming up with an idea to it eventually reaching the audience can be very long. Sometimes many years. But in a live show, you can perform something you wrote five minutes ago, and nobody can stop you! The connection to the audience is instant!"

Not only is this set to be a brilliant night out, but the setting could not be better. Sudbury Arts Centre is located in a magnificent medieval church which dominates the town's skyline. The stunning Victorian interior was restored in the mid-1800s, and in more recent times, a café, public toilets and wheelchair access have been added in a manner sympathetic to the building.

Arts Centre Project Manager, Alli Burke and her small and dedicated team, run many workshops and events for the local community, including the regular Dementia Support Café, Stitch & Sip Sewing Group, CLIP! Weekly Youth Sound and Music Club, and Advice Drop In 16-24, alongside art exhibitions, concerts and fairs.

Joining Andy on the bill are Sudbury's own James Domestic with his extremely funny "poetry for people who think they don't like poetry" for which he is garnering a solid reputation across the country, plus the brilliant Laura Bradley and Leon the Poet.

Click here for more info and tickets.

With a thematic issue on a vital topic - the rise child poverty, ending on a hopeful note. You will find sharp analyses on the effect of poverty on children's lives, with a spotlight on the communities that are on the front line of deprivation, with personal stories and shared solutions. Click on the image to gain access to it, or find us on Substack.

Journalism by the people, for the people.

The post You know the jokes - now meet the writer: Andy Riley live in Sudbury first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

I did not hear about it at the time, but in 2019 the Philadelphia rock band Eye Flys released the EP Context. And as Bobby Campbell mentioned in his latest newsletter, the album includes the track "The Triumph of Hagbard Celine." As with most Bandcamp tracks, you can check out the song before deciding whether to buy it. I had trouble making out some of the lyrics, but I did hear "submarine" and "immantize the eschaton" and other words.

"This is an album of commanding, lean noise rock absolutely brimming with vitriol," says the band, describing its music. More information here.  

Apple's Vision Pro is a curious product — it initially wowed me two years ago, but it was hard to ignore that the visionOS platform felt incomplete without dedicated apps for YouTube and Netflix. Well, it seems that Google has finally decided to take the Vision Pro seriously, as it's launching a YouTube app on the platform today. Previously, you could only view YouTube videos via Safari, or through third-party apps like Tubular Pro.

According to an Apple representative, the YouTube Vision Pro app features every video on on the service, including shorts, 360, 3D and VR 180 content. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it certainly couldn't be worse than trying to navigate through YouTube's desktop app via finger gestures. Now that Google is spinning up its Android XR ecosystem, the company probably couldn't avoid the Vision Pro for long. And don't forget, we may also see a cheaper Vision Air next year.

Your move, Netflix.

Wildlight Entertainment, the studio behind Highguard, has laid off many staffers. Level designer Alex Graner wrote in a LinkedIn post that the layoffs impacted "most of the team." The company says it's keeping a "core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game." That sounds like a skeleton crew.

Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.

We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful…

— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026

Highguard is an arena shooter with an impressive pedigree. The team included many Apex Legends and Titanfall developers. The title was first announced as a "one more thing" surprise during the 2025 Game Awards, which was met with a lukewarm response by those looking for something a bit more exciting to close out the show.

The game was released at the end of January, but the response to the final game was also a bit tepid. However, Wildlight proved quick to make adjustments based on player feedback. That's not always the case.

Despite the company's efforts, the concurrent player count on Steam quickly dropped from around 100,000 to under 3,000 (where it sits right now.) It looks like that dwindling player count has now translated to massive layoffs just weeks after the initial release. Wildlight says it's "grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community."

At the end of last month, Ubisoft workers in the publisher's native France threatened to strike in the wake of sweeping layoffs and cost-cutting measures. This week, they made good on those threats. According to GamesIndustry.biz, union members confirmed that at least 1,200 staff participated in the three-day strike, which was due to run from February 10 to February 12.

While the strike action primarily took place in France, GamesIndustry.biz was told that Ubisoft's Milan office also took part. The union Solidaires Informatique, which represents French workers from a number of companies in the video game sector, including Blizzard and Ubisoft, had previously called for strikes to take place on January 27. Their demands included a 10 percent increase on all salaries and the implementation of a 4-day work week.

Some striking employees held up signs outside Ubisoft's Paris headquarters, with one (pictured) wearing a Rabbids mask to hide their face. Their grievances are wide-ranging. As well as reportedly laying off hundreds of employees already in 2026, Ubisoft also introduced a mandate for its staff to return to work on site for five days a week. One employee who publicly voiced their disapproval of the new policy was reportedly fired for doing so.

Ubisoft has had a rocky start to 2026 on the software side too. The long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake was among six games canceled by the struggling publisher last month, when it also confirmed several studio closures as part of the company's organizational restructuring.