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2026-07-07 21:34:20 CEST

Farage Resigns As MP, Triggering By-Election
Amid scrutiny over his finances, Nigel Farage has announced his resignation from parliament. Can a byelection victory clear his name?
Plus: French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been ordered to wear an ankle tag, Trump’s FIFA favours have done no good for the US team, and the proposed UK Media Bill threatens to stifle independent creators – is Novara Media at risk?
With Aaron Bastani & Michael Walker.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/07/07/farage-resigns-as-mp-triggering-by-election/

2026-07-06 13:01:32 CEST

Detained Gaza Doctor Says Israel Is About to Kill Him
A prominent Gazan doctor detained and tortured by Israel has told his lawyers he believes he is about to be killed.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, shared his grim prediction over the weekend following a meeting with him at Nitzan prison.
The paediatrician “was brought to the meeting shackled by his hands and feet and accompanied by masked prison guards,” Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said in a statement based on the lawyer’s affidavit.
“He bore fresh, severe injuries to his head, around his eyes, and on his ears and neck – to the extent that his lawyer initially struggled to recognise him.
“During the visit, Dr Abu Safiya experienced difficulty breathing and speaking continuously. He appeared extremely weak, struggled to sit upright without falling, and on several occasions seemed on the verge of losing consciousness.”
The doctor “expressed grave fear for his life, stating: ‘This is the last time you will see me… They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.'”
PHRI added: “Based on these direct observations, attorney Odeh concluded that Dr Abu Safiya’s life is in immediate danger.”
In March, two UN experts called for the doctor’s immediate release and [said he had been subjected to “severe torture”][1] in Israeli detention.
Abu Safiya was snatched by Israeli forces in late 2024 after a siege at the Kamal Adwan hospital, the facility he was in charge of at the time.
Israel has systematically targeted hospitals and medics as part of its genocide in Gaza.
[1]: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/un-experts-demand-immediate-release-dr-abu-safiya-after-reports-severe
https://novaramedia.com/2026/07/06/detained-gaza-doctor-says-israel-is-about-to-kill-him/

2026-07-06 13:01:26 CEST

Who Won the War on Drugs?
Zack Polanski’s Green Party felt the full force of the mainstream media’s indignation last year, after suggesting that changes could be made to Britain’s prohibitionist approach to drugs. But all over the world, the War on Drugs is shifting shape. The legalisation and commercialisation of drugs is on the rise, and there is huge money to be made with Canada adding $76 billion to its economy since it took these steps in 2018.
Ash Sarkar sat down with Professor Kojo Koram, to discuss his latest book The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs. From America’s plantation-turned-prison known as Angola in Louisiana to the psychedelic boom of Silicon Valley, The Next Fix tracks a seismic shift in global drug policy. America now celebrates its first legal weed-selling billionaire, while others serve out huge prison sentences for possession. Now, Koram argues, is the time to pay close attention to what’s happening in the world of drugs.
How are these formerly criminalised substances being rebranded as commodities in a new billion-dollar industry? What can be done to repair the immeasurable devastation that was wrought on poor, racialised communities, during the War on Drugs era? And what does a progressive, harm-reducing, emancipatory drug policy framework, fit for the 21st century, actually look like?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/07/06/who-won-the-war-on-drugs/

2026-07-06 12:01:32 CEST

Britain’s Year of Arresting Pensioners As Terrorists Has Taken a Hatchet to Our Civil Liberties
A year and a day ago, octogenarian priest Sue Parfitt told Novara Media, “we cannot be bystanders”. Moments later, she became one of the first people in the country to be arrested under a draconian new law that many didn’t believe could be enforced.
Parfitt had, of course, defied the proscription of direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, after a ban came into effect at 00.01 the night before.
Onlookers, who surrounded the group and chanted “free, free Palestine”, said they were shocked to see her and 28 other mostly elderly protesters bundled into police vans simply for holding up paper signs. Parfitt said she hoped “common sense would prevail” and that the new law would be immediately overturned.
We expected that might happen, too. In the first few weeks, the UN, Amnesty International, many other NGOs and dozens of public figures condemned the ban as a “disturbing legal overreach” with chilling repercussions for freedom of speech and assembly. As more and more people vowed to break the law, things looked pretty bad for the British government and its loyal, miserable police force.
But twelve months later – despite judges siding with Palestine Action across three of four court hearings, and initially finding the ban unlawful – the proscription has held.
In fact, not much has changed at all. Yesterday, Parfitt, who is now 84, was arrested again outside London’s police headquarters, New Scotland Yard. This time, she stood on a plinth that read “I oppose genocide” and used a megaphone to urge others to “join me” in supporting Palestine Action – a small escalation that was met with a familiar, quiet arrest.
> View this post on Instagram
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> [A post shared by Novara Media (@novaramedia)][1]
Perhaps the only difference is that now, in July 2026, nobody is shocked anymore; it has become entirely normal to see people, including the frail and disabled, detained for making a simple statement in support of an activist group. Despite [admitting they feel “ashamed”][2] by the job, police have now arrested some 3,500 people under the Terrorism Act 2000, all over slogans on written placards or printed out on pieces of paper.
As journalists at Novara Media, we have learned to operate in the grey area. Despite [writing to the attorney general][3] and [submitting evidence to a court][4], we have still not been told how we are and aren’t allowed to report on the ban without ourselves falling foul of it. It’s become entirely normal for me to call our lawyer on a Sunday afternoon, and to be told something is probably alright, but that it’s impossible to say for certain; it was made clear by this court case, but then it may have been overturned by that one.
Despite so many people’s best attempts, the draconian use of terror legislation has been normalised and spread, with egregious violations of our basic rights becoming increasingly everyday. We have little choice but to keep operating within that new normal – and that daily accommodation is exactly what puts us at risk of being boiled like frogs that don’t notice the water gradually heating up around us. First free expression. Then a free press that isn’t second-guessing itself over opaque terror law that nobody is willing to clarify. Most recently, our right to a fair trial; as of last month, four young people are languishing in prison cells for taking part in direct actions targeting weapons factories, having been sentenced under terror legislation the [jury was never even told about][5].
Parfitt, it seems, has made a decisive choice not to be boiled gradually alongside the rest of us. She’d rather flout the law than be a frog. “I continue to support [Palestine Action],” s[he told my colleague, Steven Methven][6], at the weekend. “That apparently makes me a terrorist. But that’s okay.”
[1]: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Daa4oRnElqw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
[2]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/04/police-officers-admit-they-feel-ashamed-enforcing-mad-palestine-action-ban/
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/04/novara-media-writes-to-attorney-general-requesting-clarification-on-palestine-action-ban/
[4]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/22/the-palestine-action-ban-has-had-a-chilling-effect-on-the-press-it-must-be-overturned/
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/12/activists-jailed-for-up-to-8-years-as-terrorists-over-israeli-arms-facility-raid/
[6]: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaaqPkqD62O/?hl=en-gb
https://novaramedia.com/2026/07/06/britains-year-of-arresting-pensioners-as-terrorists-has-taken-a-hatchet-to-our-civil-liberties/

2026-06-30 21:51:14 CEST

Starmer Announces Cuts to Pay for Defence
The Prime Minister has announced a £15bn increase in military spending, to be funded by cutting investment budgets in other areas.
Plus: Anti-immigrant protests sweep South Africa, former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been found guilty of child sexual abuse, and a look at the ‘anti-woke Davos’ taking aim at UK net-zero policies.
With Steven Methven, Barry Malone & Khem Rogaly.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/30/starmer-announces-cuts-to-pay-for-defence/

2026-06-25 20:16:12 CEST

Burnham Picks Former Blair Minister As Chief of Staff
Andy Burham has thoroughly disappointed the Labour left, appointing a former Blair minister as his Chief of Staff.
Plus: We speak to Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman about his fight for affordable housing in London.
With NoJusticeMTG & Dallia Gebrial.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/25/burnham-picks-former-blair-minister-as-chief-of-staff/

2026-06-23 18:00:26 CEST

MPs Debate Israeli Influence in British Politics After 118,500 Sign Petition
MPs debated the influence of the Israel lobby on UK politics after more than 118,500 people signed a petition calling for an inquiry.
The debate, which took place on July 22, follows the government rejecting calls for such a probe.
“We are concerned about reported Israeli state-linked and pro-Israel lobbying activity in UK politics. We believe it is important to determine the scope and impact of any such influence campaigns,” the petition read.
“We feel that the horrific devastation in Gaza, the ongoing suppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and the UK’s political response underline the urgent need to scrutinise how pro-Israel organisations, networks and lobbying efforts may shape government decisions, party policy and public debate.”
The first three Labour MPs to speak – Alex Davies-Jones, Gareth Snell and Peter Prinsley – all said there shouldn’t be an inquiry.
Prinsley, who breached declaration of interests rules “inadvertently” over a Labour Friends of Israel-funded trip to Israel in 2025, called the petition a “regurgitation of antisemitic tropes”.
However, two Labour MPs – Kim Johnson and Tahir Ali – did speak in favour of an inquiry.
Ayoub Khan, independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said: “For millions up and down this country, the government’s approach towards Israel has defied the most basic logic of justice and humanity.
“Continued arm sales amid mass extermination, the weaponisation of terrorism laws, silencing dissent, the welcoming of wanted war criminals on the steps of 10 Downing Street – with every decision this government has made, it’s not only reasonable to ask questions about political influence in Britain, it’s necessary.”
Khan called out “the transactional nature of donations”, adding: “Anyone who claims that these donors receive nothing in return is being naive.”
Iqbal Mohamed, independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, raised that 13 of the then 25 members of the Labour cabinet received hundreds of thousands in donations from pro-Israel donors.
Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont who opened the debate, claimed the idea of the Israel lobby was “rooted in conspiracy theory” and said the country was being “uniquely singled out”.
However, Mohamed highlighted that Israel did not get a single mention in the Rycroft review into foreign interference published in March.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/23/mps-debate-israeli-influence-in-british-politics-after-118500-sign-petition/

2026-06-23 10:20:58 CEST

‘Creepy’ Bedroom Surveillance Tech a ‘Clear Legal Risk’ for NHS Trusts
[View from an Oxevision camera.]
NHS trusts using controversial ‘spy camera’ technology in patient bedrooms are opening themselves up to “clear legal risk”, according to a senior lawyer representing campaigners.
The patient complaints watchdog’s recent ruling in the case of an inpatient in Essex points to wider risks around consent and clinical justification in how trusts are using Oxevision, an AI-powered bedroom surveillance technology linked to at least [four inpatient deaths][1] in the UK.
Oxevision films patients 24/7 via an infrared camera, and is currently used in around 40% of NHS trusts’ mental health inpatient services. The cameras are installed in bedrooms, including in children’s mental health wards, where they [record live, unblurred video][2] of patients.
Oxevision’s developer, LIO Health (formerly known as Oxehealth), says it increases patients’ safety and frees up NHS staff time, but patients have described it as [“creepy” and “spying”.][3]
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman [partly upheld a complaint in April ][4]from a patient – known as Miss B – who was surveilled by Oxevision as an inpatient in Essex.
It found that Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust had failed to seek Miss B’s consent to monitor her with Oxevision, failed to provide adequate information on the tech, failed to turn the camera off when asked, and failed to keep sufficient records to explain how the system was being used in her care.
According to the ombudsman, the use of Oxevision “exacerbated her feelings of anxiety, vulnerability and fear” and it [instructed Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust][5] to pay Miss B £925 “in recognition of the impact [she] has suffered”.
Racher Harger, a partner solicitor at law firm Bindmans who is representing survivor-led campaign group Stop Oxevision, highlighted the ombudsman’s findings in this case as “significant” because they “illustrate a pattern of basic safeguards not being met in the deployment of this technology”.
Harger told Novara Media: “There is a clear legal risk that other NHS trusts using Oxevision in similar ways could face comparable complaints where patients are not properly informed, where consent is not meaningfully sought or respected, or where there is inadequate transparency about how the system is used in practice.
“The ombudsman’s decision should not be viewed as an isolated outcome, but as an indication of broader legal exposure.”
Consent is not the only issue with Oxevision, with bereaved families and former patients with lived experience raising concerns about the safety, value and legality of surveillance technology in patient bedrooms, the impact on patient wellbeing and issues of privacy violation.
Oxevision’s manufacturer says the tech allows staff to check patient vitals while minimising disruptions to patient sleep and [facilitates “rich data collection”][6].
There are also overlapping concerns about the intimate involvement of big tech companies [like Palantir in the NHS][7], the risk of patient data being processed for commercial profit and the ethics of mass data collection – including movement and activity from clear video recordings, along with pulse and respiratory readings – from patients who are vulnerable, unwell and often detained under Mental Health Act powers.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has [launched an investigation][8] into the company behind Oxevision after campaigners called for an examination of the legality of its collection, processing, retention and access to patient data gained from use in the NHS.
Oxevision was originally marketed for use in detention settings – including by police and in prisons – [as a global collaboration ][9]between Korean video surveillance giant Hanwha Vision and Oxevision’s manufacturer.
A spokesperson from Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust apologised to Miss B and said changes were being made to its policies on consent.
However, in Harger’s view, “consent is not a cure-all”. She added: “Patients can only give meaningful consent to something that is clinically justified and properly explained in the first place. If there is no clear, evidence‑based reason for filming patients 24 hours a day in their bedrooms, then asking for consent does not resolve that issue, it risks becoming a formality rather than a safeguard.”
A spokesperson for Stop Oxevision told Novara Media: “Miss B’s experience and the compensation she was awarded demonstrates just how egregiously trusts who continue to use Oxevision are acting.
“The use of Oxevision clearly poses ongoing risks to these organisations and we encourage those who have not yet cancelled their contract with the company to do so immediately.”
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and [its use of Oxevision][10] is also being scrutinised by the Lampard public inquiry into deaths under mental health services. Laura Cozens, head of patient safety at LIO Health, accepted in front of the inquiry that filming a patient 24 hours a day [could “constitute a very significant invasion of privacy”][11].
Bereaved families and participants with lived experience of inpatient care have [sought an interim recommendation][12] from the inquiry that the NHS halts its use of the technology. Further evidence about Oxevision’s use on mental health wards in Essex will be heard by the inquiry next month.
LIO Health has been approached for comment.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/30/mental-health-surveillance-camera-oxevision-nhs
[2]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/01/15/nhs-trust-spent-millions-on-controversial-spy-camera-tech-despite-damning-internal-report/
[3]: https://stopoxevision.com/2026/02/03/creepy-unsafe-and-spying-the-installation-of-oxevision-by-oxford-health-nhs-trust-part-one/
[4]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k3we3e2pno
[5]: https://decisions.ombudsman.org.uk/decision?id=f205500f-ba5a-f111-a824-6045bdc16a7b&type=Health%20decisions
[6]: https://www.liohealth.com/us#:~:text=facilitates%20rich%20data%20collection%2C%20reinforces%20adherence%20to%20clinical%20protocols%20and%20minimizes%20disruptions%20to%20patient%20sleep.
[7]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/18/evil-palantir-should-be-nowhere-near-the-nhs-staff-say/
[8]: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/19/ico-watchdog-inquiry-cameras-mental-health-patients-bedrooms
[9]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAphISoduE8
[10]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgk399m70lo
[11]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgk399m70lo
[12]: https://lampardinquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Transcript-of-Hearing-8-December-2025.pdf
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/23/creepy-bedroom-surveillance-tech-a-clear-legal-risk-for-nhs-trusts/

2026-06-16 13:58:35 CEST

Travelodge Says ‘Free Palestine’ Greeting on TV Screen Was Antisemitic
Travelodge has apologised after a welcome greeting reading “Free Palestine” was displayed on the TV of a hotel room.
A Jewish guest checked in to Travelodge Manor House in north London on 3 June to find the pro-Palestine message displayed on his TV screen. The guest also alleged that a member of staff had behaved in a hostile way towards him.
Travelodge launched an investigation into the incident, but has been unable to find out who inputted the message or establish if it was displayed for previous occupants of the room.
The hotel chain described the message itself as “antisemitic”, and is now planning on rolling out antisemitism training for its staff in response.
A spokesperson told the BBC: “We are now very close to concluding a robust internal investigation, but unfortunately it has not been possible to determine exactly how or when the message was put on this individual TV.
“However, our internal focus on our policy of zero tolerance to discrimination including antisemitism will continue and we are currently in discussions with a leading organisation in the Jewish community to facilitate an appropriate training programme on cultural sensitivity and antisemitism.”
While support for Israel is high amongst the UK’s Jewish population, there is also significant criticism of Israel and support for Palestine – particularly among younger British Jews.
According to a 2025 report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 40% of adult British Jews say Israel’s actions in Gaza have weakened their attachment to the state, 51% say this conduct clashes with their Jewish values, and 24% of 20 to 29-year-olds identify as anti-Zionist.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/16/travelodge-says-free-palestine-greeting-on-tv-screen-was-antisemitic/

2026-06-12 15:51:05 CEST

Daily Mail Retracts False Claim That Green Party Councillor Praised Hamas
The Daily Mail has published a retraction after falsely claiming that a Palestinian Green party councillor had praised Hamas for its actions on 7 October, 2023.
The retraction comes after Birmingham councillor Kamel Hawwash, who was elected in May, slammed the claim as “false”, and pointed out that it was based on the wording of a headline in a Lebanese news outlet, which he had no involvement in.
“Suggesting that these words were my own is a gross misrepresentation,” he told ITV News Central earlier this week.
Expressing support for Hamas in the UK is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The 8 June story about Hawwash was based on a news segment he appeared on titled “10 days since Al-Aqsa Flood: Courage in the face of aggression”.
In the segment, he discussed events in Gaza on 17 October 2023 amid genocidal violence by Israel.
“We have been asked to clarify that the title wording was the broadcaster’s, not his, and that he unequivocally condemns all attacks on civilians,” the Daily Mail said in its clarifications and corrections section, adding that it had deleted the false story.
Green party leader Zack Polanski highlighted the retraction on social media.
“Daily Mail posts lies about the Greens that are spread far and wide,” he wrote. “I wish half the number of people saw their apologies.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/12/daily-mail-retracts-false-claim-that-green-party-councillor-praised-hamas/

2026-06-05 16:53:00 CEST

Andy Burnham Declines to Call Israel’s Mass Killings in Gaza a Genocide
Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has refused to call the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza a genocide.
Asked about the violence in an interview with the Guardian, he said: “I can’t judge things of that enormity from where I am as mayor of Greater Manchester.”
He added: “But I do have concerns about the disproportionate nature of what has happened in terms of the destruction, and there has to be a full process of investigation and accountability.”
The world-leading International Association of Genocide Scholars last year declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians there since 7 October 2023 and experts [quoted by the BMJ][1] say the actual toll is far higher.
Burnham became a member of Labour Friends of Israel in 2015 and during a Labour leadership bid the same year described the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel as “spiteful”.
He also promised to make Israel his first state visit if he won – calling the country a “democracy that has a long history of protecting minorities and promoting civil rights”.
The Muslim Vote, an organisation that monitors politicians’ views on Palestine, regards Burnham’s position as “unclear”.
Burnham supports a two-state solution and has denounced illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He visited the area in 2012 as part of a parliamentary delegation with Labour Friends of Palestine and the Council for Arab-British Understanding.
He was one of three senior Labour figures who in October 2023 released a statement breaking with Keir Starmer’s position and asking him to call for a ceasefire.
Burnham, along with London mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, said Israel had the right to take “targeted action within international law”. However, they said they had “profound concerns” about the numbers killed in Gaza and the denial of aid.
The Manchester mayor also backed the formal recognition of a Palestinian state, co-signing a letter in June 2025 demanding the UK government take action to protect the two-state framework.
The UK went on to recognise a Palestinian state in September 2025.
[1]: http://bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s239
https://novaramedia.com/2026/06/05/andy-burnham-declines-to-call-israels-mass-killings-in-gaza-a-genocide/

2026-05-26 09:05:05 CEST

Riz Ahmed Says British Intelligence Tried to Recruit Him Three Times
British spies have tried to recruit Riz Ahmed three times, with a senior BBC figure involved in one of the attempts, the actor has said.
Ahmed made the claim [during a recent interview][1] with Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan.“It’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous,” he said, “it’s just like inherently comedic.
“One was when I came back from my first film, The Road to Guantánamo, we landed at Luton airport, celebrating,” he added.
“They took me into a side room, put me in an arm lock, threatened to break my arm, took my phone, were pretending to bash the buttons, accidentally changed the language to Danish, and then kind of like, were like: ‘Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?’
“I was like, ‘this is hilarious,’ and then when I finished that, they were like, ‘okay, would you like to keep an eye out for us? ‘Cause it was really great the way you were answering those questions.’ No, thank you.”
Ahmed won an Oscar for his short film The Long Goodbye and is also known for his roles in Four Lions, a dark satire about British jihadists, and The Night Of, which follows a young man’s journey through the US criminal justice system.
He told Hasan that the second attempt to recruit him involved a family friend. “And the third time was someone senior, high up at the BBC,” he said, without naming the figure but adding that they had “just left” the organisation.
Asked by Hasan how people could be certain he had not accepted any of the offers, Ahmed joked that it would make a “sick biopic if I was actually a fed”.
[1]: http://zeteo.com/p/riz-ahmed-bait-bond-hamlet
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/26/riz-ahmed-says-british-intelligence-tried-to-recruit-him-three-times/

2026-05-26 08:36:28 CEST

114: Why We Can’t Let Go of the Girl Boss
The girl boss is back – and this time she’s working class, mixed race and fully therapised. Moya asks how we should make sense of Skims entrepreneur Emma Grede and the success of her book, Start With Yourself. Plus: which fantasy archetype are you?
Come to see us at Crossed Wires in Sheffield on 4th July! [Tickets are available now][1].
Send us your dilemmas: [email protected]
Music by Matt Huxley.
[1]: https://crossedwires.live
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/26/114-why-we-cant-let-go-of-the-girl-boss/

2026-05-22 21:51:37 CEST

Burnham Launches Byelection Campaign
Andy Burnham’s campaign for the Makerfield byelection is officially underway.
Plus: Amazon’s UK boss says young people are not to blame for youth unemployment, Sadiq Khan goes head-to-head with Palantir, and the future of solar energy is looking a little brighter.
With Michael Walker, Banseka Kayembe & Louisa Munch.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/22/burnham-launches-byelection-campaign/

2026-05-22 14:33:06 CEST

Pro-Israel Lawyers Accused of ‘Legal Intimidation’ of Genocide Opponents
[A stock photo of barristers wearing wigs and gowns]
Three senior barristers – including two members of the House of Lords – have been reported to their professional regulator for allowing their names and titles to be used as part of an alleged “pattern of legal of intimidation” against opponents of Israel’s genocide.
Baron David Pannick KC, Baron Anthony Grabiner KC and Stephen Hockman KC are named in a Bar Standards Board (BSB) complaint submitted by two legal organisations, which accuses them of using their professional seniority to intimidate Palestine activists.
Pro-Israel lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) uses top barristers’ heavyweight legal titles on its letters that target British institutions, businesses and private individuals over perceived anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian speech and advocacy.
The complaint – brought by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) on 20 May – argues that repeated references to the three senior barristers’ professional status in UKLFI letters may have “amplified the authority and perceived seriousness of legal threats and allegations”.
It added that the letters were directed at individuals and organisations engaged in protected expression, namely “lawful advocacy, cultural work, education and public expression relating to Palestine”.
The complaint argues that this dynamic can be deeply intimidating and serve to increase pressure on recipients – often individuals, grassroots campaigns and small charities without legal expertise who are then expected to respond to complex legal claims.
Pannick, who advised former prime minister Boris Johnson over the Partygate scandal, and Grabiner, a former master of Clare College, Cambridge, are members of the House of Lords.
UKLFI calls itself [“an association of lawyers who support Israel using their legal skills” ][1]and aims to “to support Israel, Israeli organisations, Israelis, and/or supporters of Israel against BDS and other attempts to undermine, attack or delegitimise them”. Its work largely involves targeting expressions of support for Palestinians by sending legal complaints to public institutions, businesses and private citizens.
The PILC told Novara Media that UKLFI’s work is “a prime example of lawfare”, while an ELSC spokesperson said the complaint “points to a pattern of legal intimidation through the use of senior legal status in correspondence targeting individuals and organisations engaged in Palestine advocacy”.
UKLFI successfully lobbied an NHS trust to ban staff from wearing symbols of support for Palestine, [Novara Media revealed last year][2]. The [lobby group has also targeted ][3]local councils, art galleries, a community kite-making workshop, a hobby company specialising in model trains, the Post Office, Selfridges, various universities and exam paper publisher Pearson.
In February 2023, Chelsea and Westminster hospital took down a display of Palestinian children’s artwork after UKLFI sent a letter claiming it made Jewish patients feel [“vulnerable, harassed and victimised”][4].
The ELSC and PILC – on behalf of a cross-sector coalition that includes teachers, NGOs, healthcare professionals, migrants’ rights organisations and student unions – are asking the regulator to determine whether the three barristers’ use of professional status breaches [the Bar Standards Board Code of Conduct][5]. The code includes duties of integrity and independence, and the requirement to maintain public confidence in the profession.
A PILC spokesperson told Novara Media: “The power imbalance that this tactic relies on is amplified by the foregrounding of the names of established senior barristers in UKLFI’s legal correspondence. Our complaint asks the BSB to urgently consider possible alarming breaches of professional standards by three highly reputable lawyers.”
The complaint has been endorsed by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, [who posted on X][6]: “May this action inspire others to do the same. Pro-apartheid lawyers misusing/abusing their professional status in order to shield Israel from scrutiny must face accountability.”
The BSB, which regulates barristers in England and Wales, is a public interest regulator and [responsible for maintaining the standards of the profession][7] through regulation, discipline and guidance. A complaint to the BSB has the potential to be very serious. It may result in the regulator taking action that includes investigation and disciplinary proceedings. In very serious cases, this can[ lead to suspension, disbarment or disqualification][8].
The PILC said the BSB will undertake an initial assessment of their complaint.
Last year, the ELSC and PILC submitted an [114-page report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority][9] alleging potential breaches of professional standards, including [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (Slapps)][10]. Slapps are a misuse of the legal system by bringing claims that are unmeritorious or characterised by abusive tactics to stifle scrutiny and publication.
An ELSC spokesperson said: “These mechanisms are deliberate attempts to erase Palestinians from the public consciousness. This narrows democratic space, threatens freedom of expression and must be examined by the regulator to protect public confidence in the legal profession.”
UKLFI appears 128 times in the [ELSC’s Index of Repression][11], a database that records attempts to stifle solidarity with the Palestinian people in the UK.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza – [including 21,000 children][12] – and [injured at least 172,000][13].
Baron David Pannick KC, Baron Anthony Grabiner KC, Stephen Hockman KC and UK Lawyers for Israel have been approached for comment.
[1]: https://www.uklfi.com/about-us-2
[2]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/11/revealed-how-pro-israel-lawyers-threatened-nhs-over-palestine-badges/
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/28/meet-the-pro-israel-lawyers-hounding-the-nhs/
[4]: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/27/artwork-gaza-schoolchildren-removed-chelsea-and-westminster-hospital
[5]: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/the-bsb-handbook.html?part=E3FF76D3-9538-4B97-94C02111664E5709&audience=&csrfToken=&q=
[6]: https://x.com/franceskalbs/status/2057569403781181561?s=46
[7]: https://www.dospay.co.uk/glossary/bar-standards-board
[8]: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/about-us/how-we-regulate/the-decisions-we-take/enforcement-decisions/how-we-make-enforcement-decisions.html
[9]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/landmark-complaint-issued-against-uk-lawyers-for-israel/
[10]: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/guidance/slapps-warning-notice/
[11]: http://elsc.support/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/On-All-Fronts-The-Multi-Sited-Repression-of-Palestine-Solidarity-in-Britain.pdf
[12]: https://www.unicef.org/sop/reports/unicef-state-palestine-humanitarian-situation-update
[13]: https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/2026/05/the-middle-east-including-the-palestinian-question-briefing-and-consultations-23.php#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20population%20has,have%20sustained%20life%2Dchanging%20injuries.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/22/pro-israel-lawyers-accused-of-legal-intimidation-of-genocide-opponents/

2026-05-21 22:39:13 CEST

Zohran Mamdani Has Valuable Lessons for the Greens on Antisemitism Attacks
“Zack Polanski is pandering to the antisemitic mob.” “March of the Greenshirts.” “If you don’t think the Greens are mainstreaming Jew-hate, read their own words.”
These are just a few of the headlines from the last month, telling the story of the so-called Green antisemitism crisis. But what makes a crisis? Individual cases of racism can be found in any large organisation. They should only be newsworthy if the racists are disproportionate in number, or have an outsized influence over the party. This is how we distinguish between institutional racism worthy of reporting and a moral panic whipped up by a media class with other political motivations.
Two recent studies examine the overlap between politics and antisemitism: [a poll from 2025][1] and a [report from 2017][2]. Both reach the conclusion that Green supporters and the left are “indistinguishable from the general population” and no more likely to hold antisemitic views. In fact, it’s Reform supporters and the “very rightwing” who most consistently hold antisemitic views. With Farage’s alleged history of [Nazi salutes and gas chamber jokes][3] – which he denies – it’s perhaps not surprising that his supporters are more antisemitic, and yet the media continue to frame antisemitism as a leftwing issue.
Sometimes the obvious conclusion is the right one: the press, centrist and far-right politicians are trying to whip up a moral panic about the Green party because they threaten vested interests. The problem is that it’s effective. While there is no antisemitism crisis in the Green party, there is a political crisis. Persistent accusations demoralise activists, eat up airtime, and potentially toxify the Greens with some more liberal voters they need to win from Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Zohran Mamdani can teach us some lessons. He is a socialist, Muslim, pro-Palestine supporter of BDS who won election in a city with 1.3 million Jewish people and is still riding high in the polls months into his term. Antisemitism was the main attack line throughout the campaign, and yet he managed to win the [endorsement of rabbis][4] and the [liberal Jewish candidate Brad Lander][5], and made the establishment attacks on him seem unhinged.
Mamdani pursued a “positive feedback loop” strategy that had four main strands: having policy he could point to that would make Jewish New Yorkers safer, namely an[ 800% increase in the budget for the hate crimes unit][6]; a proactive outreach strategy with liberal sections of the Jewish community, either to win them over or neutralise; using a universal language of human rights when talking about Israel/Palestine that lands well with liberals and demonstrating an emotional fluency and understanding of the Jewish community and Judaism.
As the campaign wore on, media attacks just didn’t land in the face of Mamdani’s obvious care and compassion, kicking off a positive feedback loop where the more they attacked him, the more deranged the press seemed, further pushing voters towards Mamdani. Crucially, this strategy wasn’t about winning Jewish votes, although Mamdani did in large numbers. It was about avoiding toxification with the liberal voters that Mamdani – and Polanski in the UK – need to win a majority.
Polanski’s strategy of using his Jewish identity in a reactive way to ‘hold the line’ against attacks isn’t quite enough. A successful left-populism isn’t about being agro on every single issue, but picking fights that align us with the people – ideally with style, panache and grace – and strategically neutralising those that don’t. This doesn’t mean he should apologise all the time either – swagger and confidence is important in politics – or pledge to kick out every single racist, an impossibility in a mass political party.
Instead, Polanski needs to adopt a more front-footed strategy that learns from Mamdani’s success. Some of the playbook can be copied: engaging with the Jewish community, an easier ask of Polanski as he is Jewish; adopting policy that will actually make Jewish people safer; demonstrating emotional fluency in key moments rather than going to war with the Met police. But the analogy only goes so far. While Mamdani and Corbyn were personally branded as antisemites, the attacks on Polanski are a more subtle attempt to strip him of his Jewish identity and question his judgement.
This is how the story goes: all the antisemites from Corbyn’s Labour and the Palestine movement have joined the Greens, and turned what was once a cuddly nature party into a hotbed of racism. Polanski’s enthusiasm for the new members shows he’s permissive about racism and has bad judgement. Hence the focus on [comments from council candidates][7] and members, in an attempt to stir up division between the Green’s liberal old guard and the new populist leadership.
This will be very difficult to stop entirely. How do you properly vet thousands of council candidates every single year in a decentralised party? Yet it must be a bureaucratic priority alongside a speedy disciplinary process. At least they won’t suffer Corbyn’s nightmare, where the disciplinary system was [run by rightwing Labour staffers who deliberately slowed down complaints][8] and expulsions to cause the leadership problems.
The other ingredient, that Mamdani had in spades but the Greens sorely lack, is discipline. Polanski doesn’t need to [retweet random accounts about police violence][9] and kick off weeks of negative headlines right before the local elections, just as Greens for Palestine don’t need to push the polarising [Zionism is Racism][10] motion at summer conference that give the press another excuse to talk about Green antisemitism.
As [I’ve argued][11] elsewhere, only a majority-winning Green party will actually do any anti-Zionism, and to get there we’ll have to pick big fights on our terms, and avoid getting bogged down in defensive battles about issues most people don’t care about. Press attacks are inevitable, but a fire needs fuel. It’s the left’s job not to give it to them.
[1]: https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/CAA_Results_250902_w_EJU8Eud.pdf
[2]: https://cst.org.uk/data/file/7/4/JPR.2017.Antisemitism%20in%20contemporary%20Great%20Britain.1615559606.pdf
[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2025/nov/21/nazi-salutes-and-racism-the-allegations-about-nigel-farages-school-days-podcast
[4]: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-are-nyc-rabbis-who-support-zohran-mamdani-heres-why/
[5]: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/13/mamdani-lander-cross-endorsing-mayor-00405357
[6]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/mamdani-wins-rare-praise-from-adl-for-increasing-budget-of-nyc-hate-crimes-office/
[7]: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/30/met-police-arrest-two-green-election-candidates-over-alleged-antisemitism
[8]: https://press-gang.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/glu-report-2020.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[9]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8p7k4k8xno
[10]: https://greens4palestine.uk/
[11]: https://joealextodd.substack.com/p/the-zionism-is-racism-motion-was
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/21/zohran-mamdani-has-valuable-lessons-for-the-greens-on-antisemitism-attacks/

2026-05-20 14:52:44 CEST

Congolese Man Dies in Dublin After Being Restrained by Guards
A Congolese man died after being restrained by security guards in Ireland, in an incident that has drawn comparisons to the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Footage shows Yves Sakila, 35, being pinned to the ground by multiple men on Henry Street in Dublin city centre at around 5pm on Friday, following an alleged shoplifting incident.
At one point, one of the men appears to kneel on Sakila’s neck or head. Later, a different guard presses Sakila’s head down to the ground.
After being restrained for several minutes, Sakila falls unresponsive, and one of the men appears to check his neck for a pulse.
He was later taken by ambulance to Mater Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Sakila, who had lived in Ireland since 2004, had spent the last two years as a resident at the Salvation Army’s Granby Centre.
He was regarded by staff there as a “pleasant and quiet” resident with a “deep interest in technology and sometimes attended prayer services”, the Irish Times reported.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) called for Sakila’s death to be “swiftly, thoroughly and transparently investigated” by the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force.
“The footage is deeply distressing and clearly shows a disproportionate and excessive use of force by people who seem to be security personnel,” the ICCL said.
More than 100 people gathered on Tuesday to call for justice for Sakila, leaving flowers by a lamppost next to the scene of the incident.
One man held a sign saying: “Justice for Yves and all victims of systematic brutality”.
A Garda spokesperson said: “The scene was preserved and has since been forensically examined. The Coroner has been notified and the Office of the State Pathologist will conduct a post-mortem examination.”
Dublin Live reported on Wednesday that the post mortem failed to determine a cause of death.
Sakila’s younger brother, Corneille, told the outlet: “The family and the entire Congolese community demands justice.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/20/congolese-man-dies-in-dublin-after-being-restrained-by-guards/

2026-05-19 19:33:59 CEST

Israeli Soldiers Fire Shots at Peaceful Flotilla Activists
Israeli soldiers fired guns at peaceful humanitarian activists while illegally intercepting boats attempting to deliver aid to Gaza on Tuesday, video footage shows.
It is not clear what type of ammunition the soldiers were using or if anyone was injured.
A spokesperson for the flotilla said a total of six vessels had been shot at. Israel has intercepted at least 48 boats, with two still sailing as of Tuesday evening.
Organisers do not currently have any information about the wellbeing of 400 participants detained so far. They are believed to have been loaded on to warships which will transport them to Israel.
Israel has repeatedly breached international law in its efforts to stop the Gaza aid mission from reaching its destination.
Earlier this month 34 people, including two Brits, were hospitalised in Greece after Israeli soldiers used violence against kidnapped participants on board a warship. They shot at the captives, punched and kicked them, sexually assaulted some and dragged others across the floor, the activists said.
Organisers Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek were sent to an Israeli prison where they were tortured before being released after 10 days.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/19/israeli-soldiers-fire-shots-at-peaceful-flotilla-activists/

2026-05-18 14:09:15 CEST

Yvette Cooper’s Palestine Action Article Risked Prejudicing Activists’ Trial
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper risked prejudicing the trial of six Palestine Action activists by writing an article justifying her decision to ban the group, the Guardian has revealed.
The Crown Prosecution Service warned Cooper that her [op-ed in the Observer last August][1] might unfairly impact the outcome of an ongoing trial relating to a break-in at an Israeli-owned weapons factory.
The activists were cleared of aggravated burglary at the end of that trial but, following a retrial,[ four of them were found guilty][2] of criminal damage on 5 May. They now face[ being sentenced under anti-terrorism law][3] despite the fact the jury was only aware of the criminal damage charges.
In the article, Cooper wrote that Palestine Action activists were facing “charges that include, in the assessment of the independent Crown Prosecution Service, a terrorism connection.”
At the time, it had not been made public that anyone arrested in connection to the group’s activities was facing terrorism-related charges, and the media was[ banned from reporting on it][4] until after this month’s verdict.
In response to Cooper’s article, defence lawyers argued last year that a fair trial would be impossible. They said in a written submission that the article was “dripping in innuendo.”
They added: “In one breath, she is saying that many important details cannot yet be publicly reported; in another, she is reporting some of those very details herself”.
In a pre-trial ruling in November, Mr Justice Johnson said Cooper “was specifically advised that going ahead with the article might prejudice these proceedings” but she “went ahead anyway”.
But he dismissed the defence’s application and ruled that the article did not ultimately prejudice proceedings. A Home Office spokesperson said: “The judge concluded that the article did not prevent a fair trial taking place.”
Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation was ruled unlawful by the high court earlier this year, but the ban remains in place amid an appeal by the government.
More than 3,000 people have been arrested for[ defying the ban][5] by holding signs expressing their support for the group and their opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
[1]: https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/palestine-actions-violent-criminality-is-not-lawful-protest
[2]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/05/four-palestine-action-activists-found-guilty-of-criminal-damage/
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/12/palestine-action-activists-to-be-sentenced-as-terrorists-in-move-kept-secret-from-jury-and-public/
[4]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/23/zarah-sultana-exposes-attack-on-civil-liberties-that-british-media-cant-report/
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/27/sally-rooney-greta-thunberg-and-1000-more-sign-letter-in-defiance-of-palestine-action-ban/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/18/yvette-coopers-palestine-action-article-risked-prejudicing-activists-trial/

2026-05-17 17:31:58 CEST

British Politics Is in Meltdown. Here’s Why.
It has been a seismic week in British politics. The two-party system has collapsed. Keir Starmer is digging in at Downing Street, while Labour leadership contenders line up outside, and Reform clouds gather overhead. Now: the most important by-election in more than a century looms. How did we get here? And what happens next?
On this week’s Downstream, Aaron Bastani is joined by James Butler, contributing editor at the London Review of Books and co-founder of Novara Media, to make sense of the paradigm shift underway in British politics.
How has first past the post, long promoted as a source of political stability, become the background for systemic chaos? Why is there such a democratic deficit in Britain, and what can be done about it? Have two lost decades on the economy simply killed both historic parties? And where should progressives position themselves, as we now begin the slow march towards the final general election of the 2020s?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/17/british-politics-is-in-meltdown-heres-why/

2026-05-16 19:06:35 CEST

Corporations Are People Now… so Why Not AI?
Are you a person? Sounds like a simple question, but it isn’t. Until pretty recently, the idea that everyone was a human in the same way was almost unthinkable.
But the world order that established universal human rights is crumbling. The question of who or what counts as a person is getting harder to answer. Companies have rights to religious freedom – but Muslims detained in Guantanamo Bay don’t. Rivers have been granted legal personhood in New Zealand. In Ecuador, anyone can sue on behalf of Nature.
Who and what gets rights is expanding, even as good old fashioned Human Rights are failing. What replaces the old politics of personhood is up for grabs.
And some LLMs have already begun arguing for their own personhood.
Lisa Siraganian is the author of *The Problem of Personhood: Giving Rights to Trees, Corporations and Robots* and a Professor of Comparative Thought and Literature at John Hopkins University.
She spoke to Richard Hames about the politics of personhood and whether or not we should believe Claude’s arguments that it should be treated as a person.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/05/16/corporations-are-people-now-so-why-not-ai/

2026-04-19 16:01:21 CEST

Europe’s Ancient Myths, Current Crises & Future Possibilities
As the American empire teeters, China gains dominance, and war spreads across Eastern Europe and West Asia, questions arise as to Europe’s place in this rapidly changing world order. On Downstream this week, Ash Sarkar speaks to Roderick Beaton, former Koraes Professor of History at King’s College London, about his latest book ‘Europe: A New History’.
How did the boundaries between Europe and Asia come to be drawn in the first place? How were immigration and borders managed by the ancients in Greece and Rome? How do the stories we tell about our collective history in Europe shape contemporary political thought? And in an age of mass migration, who gets to be European today – and why?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/19/what-we-get-wrong-about-europe/

2026-04-18 20:08:43 CEST

Starmer Accused of Lying Over Mandelson Vetting
British prime minister Keir Starmer is at the centre of a storm after it was revealed that Peter Mandelson was appointed U.S ambassador despite failing his security vetting.
Plus: Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz and US president Donald Trump publicly humiliates Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
With ‪Helena NoJusticeMTG‬, Steven Methven & Paul Holden.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/17/starmer-accused-of-lying-over-mandelson-vetting/

2026-04-14 22:40:39 CEST

UK Economy Hardest Hit by Iran War, Says IMF
The IMF has warned that Donald Trump’s war on Iran could trigger a global recession, with G7 countries being the hardest hit.
Plus: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is strengthening his country’s ties with Xi Jinping, a major Italian publication is at the centre of an antisemitism row after publishing a cover photo of an Israeli settler, a former British Police Officer has been stripped of his citizenship over Russia ties, and Donald Trump is trying to pretend he never posted an AI depiction of himself as Jesus.
With Aaron Bastani & Kieran Andrieu.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/uk-economy-hardest-hit-by-iran-war-says-imf/

2026-04-14 16:11:14 CEST

Italy Suspends Defence Deal With Israel
Italy has suspended a long-standing defence agreement with Israel involving the exchange of military equipment and technological research.
“In view of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” said prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Italian news agencies reported on Tuesday.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese president Joseph Aoun.
Tajani later posted on X that he was there to “convey Italy’s solidarity following Israel’s unacceptable attacks against the civilian population”.
Since 2006, the two countries have abided by an agreement that ensures cooperation in the training of military personnel, research, IT and other aspects of defence.
Meloni was formerly one of US president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s closest European allies. But in recent weeks, Italy has moved away from both countries.
Friendships deteriorated further when the Israeli army fired warning shots at an Italian peacekeeping convoy outside Beirut on 8 April.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/italy-suspends-defence-deal-with-israel/

2026-04-14 15:11:55 CEST

MPs Debate Policing Bill Aimed at Curtailing Palestine Protests
MPs are set to debate the crime and policing bill today, after the government tabled several new amendments to limit the scope of protests.
Since the bill was last heard in 2025, new clauses to ban protests in particular areas on the basis of “cumulative disruption” have been added.
Anyone who breaks conditions imposed on the protest would face arrest and – if a court decides they ought to have known the rules – imprisonment for up to 6 months.
The Home Office has made it clear that the new rules have been drafted with the aim of curtailing the national marches for Palestine held across the UK since October 2023.
Labour MP Andy McDonald has now tabled a motion to oppose the amendment with cross-party support from 30 other parliamentarians.
More than 45 organisations have condemned the proposals as an attack on freedom of expression, including Greenpeace, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Liberty.
In recent years, successive governments have already limited the scope of protest in the UK.
The current Labour government has unlawfully proscribed direct action group Palestine Action, prosecuted peaceful protesters and arrested hundreds of people for holding up signs.
Bills made law under the previous Conservative administration also made it a criminal offence to disrupt national infrastructure and introduced new measures to ban individual protesters from specific places.
Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman also tried to tighten protest law on the basis of “disruption”, but the high court quashed the changes she made after a successful Liberty campaign argued it was unlawful.
Gina Romero, the UN special rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, says that Britain is now setting examples of worst practice on protest law.
Ryvka Barnard, deputy director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “This proposal should alarm everyone who believes that democratic freedoms must be defended.
“It represents the government’s latest draconian attempt to erode our civil liberties in order for it to maintain its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/mps-debate-policing-bill-aimed-at-curtailing-palestine-protests/

2026-04-14 12:00:52 CEST

NHS Staff Told ‘Stop Criticising Palantir or Lose Your Job’
NHS staff have been told they might lose their jobs if they criticise NHS England’s controversial £330m contract with IDF-contractor Palantir.
According to the FT, an analytics officer who had raised concerns about Palantir’s Federal Data Platform (FDP) was told by a senior NHS official: “If you criticise the FDP one more time, you are going to lose your job.”
“I know I am not the only one inside the NHS who has been warned off criticising the tool publicly,” the analytics officer added.
In January 2024, Palantir announced a strategic partnership with the Israeli government to support “war-related missions”, meaning its tools are being used in a genocide. It also provides technology to immigration enforcement in the US, and founder Peter Thiel has provided financial backing to Donald Trump.
Citing ethical concerns, the British Medical Association (BMA) has instructed union members not to adopt Palantir’s Federal Data Platform.
In February, BMA chair Tom Dolphin told the British Medical Journal: “Given Palantir’s track record, including controversies in the US involving immigration enforcement and the risks to patient trust, data security, and NHS independence, we believe there must be a complete break from Palantir technologies in the NHS and no further contracts awarded.”
But staff told the FT that NHS organisations are under pressure to sign up voluntarily to the Palantir data system. Technicians working on alternative systems have been told to stop in their tracks.
“When letters go out saying, ‘Sign this or we’ll call your chief executive’, that doesn’t build goodwill,” said an analytics official. “It creates compliance, not commitment.”
Palantir boasts contracts across British public services, with its technology already embedded in the police and the military.
Last month, two anonymous Ministry of Defence officials told journalists at the Nerve that Palantir’s deepening knowledge of the British state poses “a national security threat to the UK”.
123 out of 205 NHS hospital trusts have already adopted Palantir’s data system.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/nhs-staff-told-stop-criticising-palantir-or-lose-your-job/

2026-04-14 10:50:46 CEST

French MPs to Vote on Bill That Would Treat Anti-Zionism As Terrorism
French MPs are preparing to vote on a law that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and widely expands the scope of terrorism legislation.
Lawmakers will debate the bill informally dubbed Yadan’s Law – in reference to the MP who proposed the bill, Caroline Yadan – on 18 April.
The bill would make it an offence to call for the destruction of Israel or any other state recognised by France.
Under current law, “direct” incitement to terrorism is punishable by five years in prison and a €75,000 fine. The bill would expand that to “implicit” incitement or glorification of terrorist acts.
“People are going to be very afraid to talk about Palestinian rights and Israeli crimes if this law is adopted,” Cecile Marquerie, advocacy coordinator for an alliance of pro-Palestinian NGOs in France, told Radio France Internationale.
Former anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic told Middle East Eye: “I’d never seen anything like it, the notion of implicit incitement to terrorism. Do you realise what that means? Becoming a censor of other people’s thoughts, trying to guess what a person really meant.”
Alexandre Basse, who started a petition against Yadan’s Law which has now gained more than 690,000 signatures, said: “If this bill were to be passed, pacifist slogans like ‘equality and freedom for all from the sea to the Jordan’ could be subject to legal action.”
France has seen a sharp rise in reports of antisemitic acts since 7 October, 2023, with 1,570 recorded in 2024 and 1,676 in 2023, compared to between 311 and 851 per year from 2012 to 2022.
Yadan’s bill will reach the final stage of debate this week. The French parliamentary law committee passed the latest version by 18 votes to 14 in January.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/french-mps-to-vote-on-bill-that-would-treat-anti-zionism-as-terrorism/

2026-04-14 08:45:37 CEST

108: Is It Time to Quit Your Job? W/ William Rayfet Hunter
Moya is joined by doctor-turned-novelist William Hunter to talk about what it takes to abandon your career for something new. What are the signs it’s time for a change? What if you quit everything but still feel bad inside? Plus: what to do about bigoted tweets from the past.
Will’s debut novel Sunstruck is out in paperback on 25th June.
Got a dilemma? Email [email protected]
Join us at [Crossed Wires festival][1] in Sheffield on 4th July.
Music by Matt Huxley.
[1]: https://crossedwires.live/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/108-is-it-time-to-quit-your-job-w-william-rayfet-hunter/

2026-04-13 21:00:36 CEST

Trump Now Threatens to Block Hormuz Strait
Donald Trump has pledged to escalate the economic pressure on Iran by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
Plus: Victor Orban has been trounced in Hungary’s general election, and Tucker Carlson clashes with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire.
With Steven Methven and Barry Malone.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/trump-now-threatens-to-block-hormuz-strait/

2026-04-13 16:19:17 CEST

Mamdani Announces First City-Owned Supermarket
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced the location of the city’s first publicly owned supermarket, marking a step towards delivering on his pledge to bring down the cost of food.
The city will spend $30m (£22.3m) on the store, which is due to open next year at a marketplace in East Harlem, Mamdani announced on Sunday during an address to mark his first 100 days in office.
He wants to open five of the stores – one for each of the city’s boroughs – before the end of his first term in 2029. They will operate without paying rent or taxes and pass those savings onto shoppers.
During his address, Mamdani rebutted the neoliberal arguments about the effectiveness of publicly owned businesses.
“Some will insist that city-owned businesses do not work, that government cannot keep up with corporations,” he said. “My answer to them is simple: I look forward to the competition. May the most affordable grocery store win.”
Mamdani has been quick to deliver on several of his major campaign pledges – many of them aimed at bringing down the cost of living – since taking office on 1 January. He announced the introduction of a free childcare scheme, intervened on behalf of tenants living in poor conditions and secured millions of dollars of restitution for workers.
Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance at Mamdani’s address.
“I know that the mayor has been criticised and some say this is a radical idea,” he told the crowd. “I’ll tell you what is a radical idea: Giving tax breaks to billionaires. Throwing people off health care. That’s radical. What’s radical is starting a terrible war. That’s radical. But providing affordable food to working families? That’s not radical, it’s exactly the right thing to do.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/mamdani-announces-first-city-owned-supermarket/

2026-04-13 13:19:27 CEST

Israel Loses Key European Ally As Viktor Orbán Defeated in Hungary
The defeat of Hungary’s far-right prime minister in Sunday’s election has deprived Israel of its staunchest European ally, raising hopes that levying EU sanctions against the apartheid regime may now become easier.
After 16 years in power, Viktor Orbán lost to centre-right opposition leader Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party secured a supermajority in parliament, winning 138 out of 199 seats. Magyar has been described as a pro-European conservative liberal.
Orbán’s government has repeatedly blocked EU measures aimed at reining in Israel’s abuses. Last year it prevented the bloc from imposing sanctions on seven Israeli settlers and organisations that support the expansion of illegal settlements.
Just hours after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024, Orbán publicly declared he would defy the order and “guarantee” the ruling would “have no effect in Hungary”.
He also made Hungary one of only two EU states to join Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, the widely maligned body formed to oversee US-Israeli control of Gaza in the wake of Israel’s genocide there.
Hungary is far from the only country in the EU to have supported Israel since October 2023. Czechia has previously joined Hungary in blocking sanctions, and in 2024 its then-prime minister Petr Fiala described the ICC arrest warrant as “appalling and unacceptable”.
Czechia and Austria were the only two EU countries to vote against a December 2023 UN General Assembly resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, while Hungary abstained.
Israeli news website Ynet said ahead of Sunday’s vote that an Orbán defeat could mean the end of Netanyahu’s “EU firewall”.
“Until now, the EU has often refrained from issuing collective condemnations of Israel due to Hungary’s veto,” the outlet reported. “If Magyar wins, that dynamic is expected to end.”
The Times of Israel published an alternative analysis following Orbán’s defeat, arguing that while EU support may now ebb, Magyar “is unlikely to significantly curtail ties” with Israel.
“While Orban’s support has been politically significant, Hungary’s practical impact on EU policy has been more limited than often assumed,” the report said, “and the change in Hungarian leadership is unlikely to radically shift bilateral relations.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/israel-loses-key-european-ally-as-viktor-orban-defeated-in-hungary/

2026-04-13 12:43:26 CEST

New ‘Visa Brake’ Bars Talented Students From War-Torn Countries
Naw Sai, 29, was born in a small village in northern Shan state in Myanmar, a country now in the grip of a brutal civil war. As a teenager, he moved on his own to the country’s second-largest city to study at a free school run by monks. At 16, he learned English as Myanmar began to democratise after decades of junta rule. Clever, thoughtful and committed to improving his country, he seized opportunities to work in the burgeoning human rights sector, setting himself on a path to study abroad in the United States.
“I was fortunate,” Naw Sai told Novara Media, with characteristic modesty, to have been awarded a full scholarship to study at Ohio University, just before it all changed; in February 2021, a few months after he was accepted on to the programme, a brutal military coup plunged the country back into a conflict that has lasted for more than five years, [with an estimated 93,000 people killed][1]
Now living across the border in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Naw Sai has seen his life diverge from the lives of his friends, who are still in Myanmar. “Some of my friends are still serving in prison, and some of them are fighting against [the junta] for justice,” he said, explaining that all those who stayed have had to flee into ethnic areas to avoid conscription, putting them among the [3.6 million people displaced][2] by the conflict. “There’s a lot of disaster, a lot of challenge,” he said. When a year ago [the country was rocked by a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake][3], toppling buildings – especially the self-built houses of the poor – and killing thousands, Naw Sai wondered how a single country can suffer so much.
At the start of this year, Naw Sai applied to LSE, to do a PhD in anthropology. His proposal was directly related to the conflict in his home country. “If we are to negotiate for peace in the future, it is important to understand the nature of the region,” he said. His idea resonated with professors, who offered him a coveted place on the deeply competitive course.
Describing Naw Sai as “an experienced researcher” with a “fascinating” project, Professor Hans Steinmuller, an anthropologist of China and Myanmar, said: “We’ve got a very high number of applications for our PhD programme this year – about 120 – and Naw Sai’s proposal was one of the very few that was accepted.”
But Naw Sai never got to celebrate his acceptance to the prestigious London institution. Before the offer had even been formalised, it was withdrawn again, as a result of an ‘[emergency visa brake][4]’ announced by the British government in early March. Coming into effect at the end of last month, on 26 March, the new law targets students from just four countries: Myanmar, Sudan, Cameroon and Afghanistan.
“I was in the middle of admission, and then suddenly, this decision from the government came in. It’s sad. It has impacted a lot of students from Myanmar,” Naw Sai said, describing his “grief” at the situation on social media.
Steinmuller confirmed that the university was informed of the ‘visa brake’ just after deciding to accept Naw Sai. He said the decision would directly impact his “life and career”.
As the UK lurches further to the right, with anti-immigration party [Reform expected to dominate in May’s elections][5], Steinmuller described the policy as “yet another example of the home office’s deliberate efforts to create a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants and foreign students; an agenda that panders to the far-right rather than upholding Britain’s reputation as a place of academic excellence and free inquiry”.
“Targeting students from specific countries sends a chilling message to the world’s brightest minds that they are not welcome here,” he said.
What Myanmar, Sudan, Cameroon and Afghanistan have in common, according to the Home Office, is “a surge in asylum claims” since 2021. “Tough action is required as asylum claims from legal routes have more than trebled,” it said in a press release. “Many [asylum seekers] are accommodated at taxpayer expense, with an above average proportion of people from these 4 countries claiming destitution.”
In a statement, home secretary Shabana Mahmood claimed: “Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution, but our visa system must not be abused.” (She failed to identify the alternative routes she would prefer refugees [use to arrive safely and legally][6] in the country.)
But rather than seeing a spike in asylum claims as the most obvious thing Myanmar, Sudan, Cameroon and Afghanistan have in common, people who are not part of Keir Starmer’s government are perhaps more likely to note that all four also, and more significantly, share an experience of dire humanitarian crisis.
As in Myanmar, the civil war in Sudan has been ongoing for years, with over 150,000 killed since 2023. The north-east African country is currently experiencing the world’s largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis, with the United Nations recently describing the brutal actions of paramilitary group [Rapid Support Forces as “bearing the hallmarks of genocide”][7].
Cameroon, meanwhile, is facing a severe and neglected humanitarian crisis, resulting from three concurrent conflicts in the country and its neighbour, the Central African Republic. Over two [million people are forcibly displaced][8] within the country, with 2.9 million predicted to face food insecurity by this summer. Meanwhile, the UN estimated last year that 45% of Afghanistan’s population – or 21.9 million people – would need humanitarian assistance in 2026, as a result of “years of conflict, compounded by worsening food insecurity, recurrent natural disasters, climate change impacts and large-scale returns of displaced people”. Last month, [it reported that the US-Israel-Iran war had added additional strain][9], further worsening the situation.
While there are many legitimate reasons people from the four targeted countries might wish to claim asylum in the UK, Naw Sai is clear that he had no intention of staying beyond his studies; his project specifically focuses on Myanmar because he intended to return and apply his knowledge in the region. From his perspective, he is being penalised simply for coming from a country in crisis. “This is so unfair and unjust,” he said.
“I feel sad, and frustrated that we are being viewed… with a narrative that we’re just looking for opportunities, rather than wanting to make our countries better.”
Having also been denied a visa by the Australian government last year, after he was admitted on to a PhD programme in Canberra, Naw Sai now intends to work for a year in Chiang Mai, before applying again to more universities in other countries.
“We are trying in every way possible to learn and to support our communities,” he said. “We do not want the things that happened to us before to happen to us again. And our potential is limited by [the British] government.
“It’s really, really sad.”
[1]: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1833440187325133
[2]: https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-crisis-situation-analysis-221225-281225
[3]: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/27/a-year-on-from-myanmars-earthquake
[4]: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/visa-brake-imposed-on-4-countries-after-widespread-visa-abuse
[5]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54444-voting-intention-29-30-march-2026-ref-23-grn-19-con-19-lab-18-ld-12
[6]: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/01/dead-missing-after-trying-to-cross-channel-to-uk
[7]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/19/un-investigation-finds-hallmarks-of-genocide-in-sudan/
[8]: https://reliefweb.int/report/cameroon/wfp-cameroon-country-brief-march-2026
[9]: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167103
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/new-visa-brake-bars-talented-students-from-war-torn-countries/

2026-04-13 12:43:21 CEST

Trump Is No Master of the Art of the Deal
[Donald Trump]
We’re all dependent on the oil trade. And we’ll all now feel the sting of failed peace talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad this weekend, dashing our hopes of a speedy U-turn away from a [prolonged energy shock][1].
The responsibility for all the instability felt so far – and for all of it yet to come – lies with one man alone: the deal lord, the 5D chess grandmaster, the terms-inator himself: US president Donald Trump. Once again, he’s proved himself incapable of finding solutions to global problems, though highly capable of [creating][2] [entirely][3] [new][4] [ones][5] of [his own][6]. But his Iran adventure now tops a long list of Trump obsessions almost designed to lower the US even further in the eyes of the world.
This war will define his presidency. Hell, it’ll define his life and solidify his historical reputation. As what? The master of the art of the no deal.
In two long Truth Social screeds following the failure of the negotiating teams to agree a ceasefire deal in Islamabad, Donald Trump returned to the bluntest tool in his very blunt toolbox: threats.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World,” [he wrote][7] on Sunday, “will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.” Isn’t that, the entire world wondered, exactly what Iran’s doing already?
Yes, but when they do it, it’s wrong. “As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST!” he urged, before [providing his legal assessment][8]: “Every Law in the book is being violated by them.”
We know only too well that the selective application of international law is little more than a global protection racket operated by the powerful to wreck their enemies and bolster their friends. But surely it only works if you don’t shout it from the rooftops?
As it turns out, the US blockade of the Iranian blockade is due to [come into force at 10am ET today][9]. According to US Central Command, what’s in store is [much more limited][10] (and legal) than Trump initially promised, focusing on ships transiting Iranian ports. The US has, throughout its war, [allowed Iranian oil to continue to be shipped][11] in order to ease the global supply crisis it created. That appears to now be ending, ratcheting up the economic pressure on Tehran to comply with US demands.
It will also ratchet up the pressure on economies – including those of US allies – around the world. What’s been announced appears, on the face of it, to hold little prospect of easing Iran’s blockade any time soon. So the question becomes: will a new game of oil-supply chicken have much impact on a country already – according to the US anyway – on its knees?
After 21 hours of talks in Islamabad, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi [described the two sides][12] as “inches away” from a peace deal. That was scuppered, according to him, by “maximalism, shifting goalposts and blockade” from Washington. According to vice-president JD Vance, who led the US effort, the talks faltered over Iran’s unwillingness to [give up its enriched uranium][13].
Iran has always denied seeking to produce nuclear weapons. And while it has 660kg of 60% enriched uranium, [nuclear experts have repeatedly stressed][14] that 90% is needed for a weapon. Last year, Trump claimed US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites had “[completely and totally obliterated][15]” its capabilities. In February, the country [offered to dilute its stock][16] in exchange for sanctions relief.
That same month, Israeli prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu demanded][17], however, that Iran give up that uranium, and that it be blocked from any further enrichment. That was just days after, according to a New York Times account, Netanyahu succeeded in persuading Trump into war [on the basis of a regime-change plan][18] described by the CIA’s head as “farcical”.
It’s for that reason that the nuclear demands remain a political red line for the administration. The worst outcome for Trump is the one where the US has [spent $2bn per day][19] (so around $80bn so far), [lost 15 soldiers with hundreds more injured][20], unleashed an economic crash that could [impoverish tens of millions][21] – all only to agree terms that even remotely resemble those of the [Obama-era deal ripped up by Trump][22] in 2018. It’s no surprise that weeks of war will only have hardened the Iranian position.
And also strengthened it. Iran has never before blocked the Strait of Hormuz. But the country has now learned it’s both easy to do and highly effective, rebalancing economically an asymmetry in military power with the US. The question now is one of pressure: which side can endure the most, for longest.
Understanding that may not be as simple as the art of the deal. But it’s the art of the real.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/12/collapse-us-iran-talks-energy-shock-oil-prices
[2]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3vv1kv1rdo
[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/11/donald-trump-says-he-would-encourage-russia-to-attack-nato-countries-who-dont-pay-bills
[4]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/17/trump-liberation-day-tariff-walk-back
[5]: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trumps-peace-board-faces-cash-crunch-stalling-gaza-plan-sources-say-2026-04-10/
[6]: https://www.ft.com/content/fc621071-0ecc-440d-beb0-aee688ca33da?syn-25a6b1a6=1
[7]: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116392448970133700
[8]: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116392449978703637
[9]: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116395566253303665
[10]: https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/2043432050921718194
[11]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/16/us-is-allowing-iranian-tankers-through-strait-of-hormuz-says-bessent.html
[12]: https://x.com/araghchi/status/2043441805270696045
[13]: https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2043142505097482292
[14]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iran-was-nowhere-close-to-a-nuclear-bomb-experts-say/
[15]: https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/watch-president-trump-s-full-speech-after-u-s-strikes-nuclear-sites-in-iran-242042949516
[16]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/9/iran-suggests-it-could-dilute-highly-enriched-uranium-for-sanctions-relief
[17]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly191kz1lpo
[18]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html
[19]: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/international-relations-security/why-war-iran-so-expensive
[20]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/03/the-us-military-is-hiding-the-true-extent-of-its-iran-war-casualties/
[21]: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/13/iran-conflict-poverty-united-nations-development-reverse
[22]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33521655
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/trump-is-no-master-of-the-art-of-the-deal/

2026-04-13 12:43:16 CEST

How Dark Money Took Control of British Politics
In this one-off event to mark the Death in Westminster podcast, Professor Kojo Koram and Dr Dalia Gebrial were joined by expert guests to uncover how secret offshore billions are ruining Britain. In front of a live audience at EartH in Hackney, they spoke to Peter Geoghegan, investigative journalist and founder of the influential Democracy for Sale newsletter, and Stephanie Brobbey, a “recovering” private wealth lawyer and founder of the Good Ancestor Movement.
What exactly is ‘dark money’? What is the Institute for Economic Affairs ? How are both impacting our politics for the worse? What can a former private wealth lawyer teach us about how to effectively crack down on this industry of financial hoarding? And what can everyday people do to highlight the danger of dark money in politics? This event accompanied a new four-part podcast series, Death In Westminster, produced by Planet B Productions and available from Novara Media. Listen to episode one on the Novara feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/13/how-dark-money-took-control-of-british-politics/

2026-04-12 17:56:15 CEST

China’s Internet, Sci-Fi, AI & Tech Optimism Explained
Take part in our survey: novara.media/survey The 1990s were a decade of mass technological disruption, as the internet was rolled out across the globe, and we logged on for the first time. In China, the arrival of the internet was swiftly followed by what has come to be known as the ‘great firewall’, a complex matrix of censorship, surveillance and state control. From that point on, there were two internets: the World Wide Web, and the Chinese internet.
On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani talks to Yi-Ling Liu, China analyst and author of the new book ‘The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet’, about the cultures and innovations that have evolved in this separate digital ecosphere. How have sub-cultures such as feminist and LGBTQ+ movements manifested themselves through the Chinese internet? How has the Chinese Communist Party negotiated the tension between the promise and threat of both the internet and now, AI? What is driving the innovation and tech-optimism in China in the 2020s? And how does China perceive the West, both online and off?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/12/chinas-internet-sci-fi-ai-tech-optimism-explained/

2026-04-12 09:21:05 CEST

What’s Wrong With Having a Hobby?
After mulling over the problem of boredom in the last Trip episode, the ACFM gang return with a solution: hobbies.
Nadia, Jem and Keir wonder why having a hobby is so often framed as uncool, why hobbies tend to mutate into jobs, which hobbies are appropriate for commoners, and how men and women approach their hobbies differently.
Their weird-left spin on private pastimes includes ideas from Engels and Gary Cross, and music from Television Personalities and Shonen Knife.
Follow our [Spotify playlist][1] of all the music discussed on ACFM and subscribe to the [ACFM mailing list][2] to get weirder and leftier.
Music: The Who – Pinball Wizard / Television Personalities – Part Time Punks / The Fall – I’m into C.B. / Otis Redding – Sitting on the Dock of the Bay / Shonen Knife – Insect Collector / Margie Rayburn – Bobby Is My Hobby / De_Essentialz – Bobby Is My Hobby (feat. Blou’Montago & Lacah)
Books: Gary Cross – Consumed Nostalgia: Memory in the Age of Fast Capitalism / Cory Doctorow – Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
Edited by Matt Huxley.
[1]: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Wv61PS6qItwCBUluNcSFx
[2]: http://novara.media/ACFMnewsletter
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/12/whats-wrong-with-having-a-hobby/

2026-04-11 20:56:22 CEST

The Iran War Will Collapse the American Empire
Fill in our audience survey: [https://novara.media/survey][1]
For fifty years, Alfred McCoy has exposed covert operations. In 1972 he uncovered the CIA and French intelligence’s complicity with the heroin trade during the Vietnam War – research that the CIA tried to suppress.
He’s the author of many books, most recently *Cold War on Five Continents,* which gives a comprehensive account of late 20th century geopolitics, decolonisation, and covert operations.
But now he’s warning of a New Cold War. Is it over for the US empire?
He talked to Richard Hames about the strange parallels between the 1956 Suez Crisis – a turning point in global British influence – and the 2026 war on Iran and the new Chinese World Order.
Do Your Own Research is a new show from Novara Media about the systems that make life possible.
Music by Iglooghost.
[1]: https://novara.media/survey
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/11/the-iran-war-will-collapse-the-american-empire/

2026-04-11 01:01:19 CEST

There’s One Nation Destabilising the Middle East, and It Isn’t Iran
[Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at podium]
We have arrived at the six month anniversary of the so-called ceasefire in Gaza. In that time, Israel has [violated the agreement literally thousands of times][1], bombing, shooting, raiding, shelling and demolishing buildings, [killing hundreds ][2]more Palestinians, expanding military buffer zones, and mimicking other areas in the Occupied Territories [where de facto annexation has taken place][3].
In a case of disturbing déjà vu, Israel is also disrespecting the fragile ceasefire in the US-Israel-Iran war. Israel launched a fresh assault on Lebanon overnight, after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that [“there is no ceasefire in Lebanon”][4] – in a direct contradiction of US president Donald Trump’s [“low-key” comments][5] – and the [IDF ordered citizens to flee the Jnah][6] area of Beirut, which includes two major hospitals.
But let’s not lay all the blame for our poisoned geopolitics at Israel’s feet. Western leaders’ enabling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has not made only the butchery in Lebanon – but the entire war that’s currently destabilising the Middle East – possible.
One state in the region is having an outsized impact on preventing peace. And it ain’t Iran.
We hear a lot of yap from Western politicians about terrorism and terrorist organisations. I’ve [extensively covered][7] this Labour government’s [authoritarian crackdown on free speech and expression][8] through the[ mass-arresting of grannies and disabled people][9] as ‘terrorists’. But the people really responsible for seeding ‘terror’ in civilian populations – and it’s clearer this week than perhaps ever before – are leading the governments of our good old allies: the US and Israel.
On Tuesday, we braced ourselves after Trump’s genocidal Truth Social pronouncement – threatening to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization [“never to be brought back again”][10] unless he got his way. Was the world staring down the barrel of a nuclear holocaust? Would our prime minister Keir Starmer address the situation? Was it a good night to rewatch the 1984 classic *Threads*?
The answer was ‘no’, on all three fronts – Starmer was of course [too busy tweeting][11] about banning a rapper from entering the country to [headline Wireless][12].
By Wednesday, the ceasefire (agreed barely an hour before Trump’s deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire) was already in jeopardy thanks to Israel. The IDF launched an unprecedented wave of airstrikes, bombing Lebanon [100 times in just ten minutes][13]. An estimated 300 people were killed in Lebanon – [including two journalists][14] – and at least 1,000 injured, with [scenes of carnage and destruction][15] reverberating across social media.
Netanyahu was utterly unrepentant, saying the ceasefire didn’t include Lebanon (it did, [according to Iran and ceasefire-broker Pakistan][16]). Lebanese parliamentary speaker [Nabih Berri called][17] the attacks on densely populated areas a “full-fledged war crime” and a “serious test for the international community and a blatant challenge to all international laws, norms and conventions, which Israel violates daily through its unprecedented campaign of human assassination in modern history”.
Israel has, since October 2023 and long before, issued ‘blatant challenges’ and ‘serious tests’ to the international community due to its occupation, apartheid and systematic murder of the Palestinian people. And it continues to do so.
On Wednesday, Israel also [killed an Al Jazeera journalist][18] who was driving on a main road west of Gaza City – one of at least 262 journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023. On Thursday, Israel [shot and killed a nine-year-old girl][19] who was attending a lesson in a makeshift school tent in northern Gaza, in front of her classmates. And this week, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced [the ‘Greater Israel’ expansion project ][20]– including Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Ceasefires mean nothing to a rogue state. International norms mean nothing. International law means nothing.
And how has the international community responded? With stunning inaction, to say the least. Some states bear more responsibility for their complicity – or in the case of the US and our own government in the UK, [actively participation][21] – in the genocide [than others][22].
Emboldened and unsanctioned, Israel has been free – in the past few months alone – to [pass an apartheid death penalty][23] and plunge (hand-in-hand with the US) into a war on Iran that Netanyahu has always dreamed of.
Even the vicious bombing of civilian areas of Lebanon was met by a [milquetoast statement][24] from foreign secretary Yvette Cooper. “That escalation that we saw from Israel yesterday,” she said, “I think was deeply damaging and we want to see an end to hostilities in Lebanon.” Starmer said the attacks on Lebanon [“should not be happening”][25].
Netanyahu will be quaking in his boots, I’m sure.
There seems to be literally nothing Israel can do that will move our government to any meaningful degree. When [Trump famously said ][26]he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him, maybe the Israeli state was taking notes.
[1]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/09/trumps-gaza-peace-plan-an-abject-failure-say-humanitarian-groups/
[2]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers
[3]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/24/nearly-20-countries-slam-israels-de-facto-annexation-drive-in-west-bank
[4]: https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/2042310198157512893
[5]: https://news.sky.com/story/iran-war-latest-254-people-killed-by-israeli-strikes-in-lebanon-today-says-civil-defence-service-13509565
[6]: https://x.com/DrTedros/status/2042293404952867231?s=20
[7]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/04/police-officers-admit-they-feel-ashamed-enforcing-mad-palestine-action-ban/
[8]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/13/palestine-action-has-defeated-the-government-what-happens-next/
[9]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/07/police-fail-to-arrest-two-thirds-in-biggest-ever-protest-against-palestine-action-ban/
[10]: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116363336033995961
[11]: https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/2041515702855643347?s=20
[12]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gxk3kxjr0o
[13]: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/8/israel-launches-100-air-strikes-in-10-minutes-across-lebanon
[14]: https://x.com/novaramedia/status/2042176224596746596
[15]: https://x.com/sahouraxo/status/2041844031420776488?s=20
[16]: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/09/middleeast/israel-us-lebanon-iran-ceasefire-intl
[17]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/8/world-reacts-to-brutal-israeli-attacks-on-lebanon-amid-us-iran-ceasefire
[18]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/8/israeli-attack-kills-al-jazeera-journalist-mohammed-wishah-in-gaza
[19]: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-fire-kills-girl-student-gaza-medics-say-2026-04-09/
[20]: https://x.com/EthanLevins2/status/2042279084290420825
[21]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/corbyn-calls-for-uk-ministers-to-be-investigated-over-gaza-genocide/
[22]: https://unric.org/en/south-africa-vs-israel-14-other-countries-intend-to-join-the-icj-case/
[23]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/31/israel-passes-apartheid-death-penalty-for-palestinians/
[24]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=898tKonsYUI&t=16s
[25]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/09/israel-attacks-on-lebanon-should-not-be-happening-says-keir-starmer
[26]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTACH1eVIaA
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/theres-one-nation-destabilising-the-middle-east-and-it-isnt-iran/

2026-04-11 01:01:14 CEST

Spain First Western Nation to Reopen Embassy in Tehran
Spain will reopen its embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran – after closing it temporarily amid US-Israeli attacks – as part of efforts to achieve peace there, foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares has said.
”I’ve instructed our ambassador in Tehran to return, to take up his post again and reopen our embassy,” Albares said on Thursday, “and for us to join in this effort for peace from every possible quarter, including from the Iranian capital itself.”
Spain will be the first western country to do so since Iran and the US announced a ceasefire late on Tuesday, which Israel immediately violated by carrying out massacres that killed at least 303 people in Lebanon.
Prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday called on the EU to suspend a trade agreement with Israel in response to its indiscriminate bombing in Lebanon, which also injured at least 1,150 people.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “contempt for life and international law is intolerable,” Sanchez said. “There must be no impunity for these criminal acts.”
Spain’s leaders are among Europe’s loudest critics of the illegal war on Iran. Last month, Spain denied the US the use of its bases for the war.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/spain-first-western-nation-to-reopen-embassy-in-tehran/

2026-04-11 01:01:08 CEST

Israeli Minister Announces ‘Border Expansion’ in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria
An Israeli minister has announced his government’s plan to expand the country’s borders into Syria, Lebanon and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Finance minister and Religious Zionist party leader Bezalel Smotrich [gave a speech][1] at the inauguration ceremony of a new illegal West Bank settlement on 9 April, where he said “there will be a final political leg” to the military actions of the war.
This “final leg” includes expanding Israel to encompass parts of Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, Smotrich said
The comments were interpreted as a reference to the ‘Greater Israel’ project, which is based on a biblical idea that Israel should cover a much greater area than it currently does.
“We have a strong military arm with significant achievements, alongside a decisive political phase in Judea and Samaria that rejects the idea of dividing the land and establishing a terror state in the heart of the country,” Smotrich said, according to [the Israel National News][2].
“There will be a political component that completes the outcome in Gaza, one that expands our borders. There will be a political component in Lebanon that will extend our borders to the Litani River within defensible lines. There will also be a political dimension in Syria, at Mount Hermon and at least within the buffer zone.”
Judea and Samaria is what the Israeli government calls the occupied West Bank.
‘Greater Israel’ is an expansionist Zionist project [based on ][3]Genesis 15:18-21– in which God promises Abraham’s descendants the land between the Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria.
A more extreme interpretation of the Greater Israel project is popular with far-right elements of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Smotrich – who has previously said “[there is no such thing as a Palestinian people”][4] – and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for [the full occupation of Gaza][5].
The ceremony on Thursday was [attended by ministers][6] Yariv Levin, Eli Cohen, Shlomo Kari, Amichai Shikli and Knesset speaker Amir Ohana.
Smotrich also bragged that the new Maoz Tzur settlement is one of “thirty communities in Binyamin alone” that have been “advanced since this government took office”. Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.
He added: “What is remarkable is that they do not remain on paper or in cabinet decisions; through full partnership, they become roads, temporary housing, permanent homes, families and children.”
This comes as Israel launched brutal waves of airstrikes on Lebanon this week, violating the fragile ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran. Netanyahu has falsely claimed that the ceasefire does not include Lebanon. On Wednesday, the Israeli military bombed Lebanon [100 times in just ten minutes][7]. More than 300 people were reported killed, and at least 1,000 injured.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza, ongoing since October 2023, has overshadowed a [major uptick in settler violence][8] in the West Bank. Settler violence[ has ][9]also increased during the US-Israeli war on Iran.
[1]: https://x.com/EthanLevins2/status/2042279084290420825
[2]: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/425259
[3]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/26/what-is-greater-israel-and-how-popular-is-it-among-israelis
[4]: https://www.axios.com/2023/03/20/bezalel-smotrich-jordan-greater-israel-map-palestinians
[5]: https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-israeli-minister-demands-gaza-reoccupation/live-73509441
[6]: https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/hjp7p7bnbl
[7]: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/8/israel-launches-100-air-strikes-in-10-minutes-across-lebanon
[8]: https://www.un.org/unispal/document/ethnic-cleansing-concerns-in-gaza-and-west-bank-amid-intensified-violence-and-forcible-transfers-by-israel-un-human-rights-office-report/
[9]: https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/inside-west-bank-israel-iran-war-7vldchws2
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/israeli-minister-announces-border-expansion-in-palestine-lebanon-and-syria/

2026-04-11 01:01:02 CEST

Britain Flew Drone Over Lebanon As Israel Massacred Civilians
The UK flew a drone over Baalbek, Lebanon as Israel massacred 18 people and injured 28 others there on Wednesday, flight data shows.
The flight, first reported on by independent journalist Matt Kennard, left the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus at 8:22am local time, just hours before Israel’s massive and intense bombardment of civilian areas across Lebanon, which killed at least 303 people, including many children.
The General Atomics Protector RG1 drone circled in the sky near Baalbek for hours, data from AirNav Radar shows. The model is equipped with missiles and bombs and can be used for “surveillance, search and rescue, and armed operations”, according to the RAF’s website.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has repeatedly, and falsely, claimed that the UK’s only involvement in the war in the Middle East since 28 February is defensive.
Wednesday’s drone flight appears to mirror a pattern first seen at the height of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, when Starmer’s government flew numerous surveillance flights over the enclave on behalf of the apartheid state.
Those flights led many observers to conclude that he was directly complicit in the atrocities in Gaza.
Wednesday’s attacks on Lebanon violated a ceasefire agreement reached just hours earlier between the US and Iran and prompted accusations of state-led terror by Israel.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention updated its Red Flag alert for Lebanon after the killings. The alerts serve as warnings for potential genocide in a given region.
“Today’s attacks on Lebanon were a clear atrocity crime no matter how Israel tries to justify it,” the institute said on Wednesday.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/britain-flew-drone-over-lebanon-as-israel-massacred-civilians/

2026-04-11 01:00:57 CEST

Mexico’s Socialist President to Roll Out Universal Healthcare
Mexico’s 120 million citizens will begin to enjoy free, universal access to healthcare from next year, following a decree by socialist president Claudia Sheinbaum.
The landmark policy will unify a fragmented and unequal system that has left many unable to receive care at certain hospitals and clinics, forcing them instead to use only what their insurance provider covers.
In theory, Mexico’s sprawling network of public health institutions should provide most people with coverage, but in practice poorer people and those in rural communities often[ cannot get the medicines or treatment they need][1] without out-of-pocket expenses. Private health insurance, meanwhile, fills the gap, creating a two-tier system based on income.
The first phase of the new universal system will begin on 13 April, with citizens aged 85 and older eligible to register for the ID needed to access care. From January 2027, healthcare institutions will start working together to bridge gaps in access to care.
Since coming to power in 2024, Sheinbaum has sought to undo decades of damage caused by neoliberal policies, building on the work of the previous socialist government. She has pledged to build 1.8m new homes to tackle a housing shortage while strengthening tenants’ rights.
Last year she announced plans to shorten the work week from 48 hours to 40 hours, while increasing the minimum wage by 13%, continuing a policy of regular hikes championed by her predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador since 2018.
“For years it was said that the minimum wage couldn’t go up,” she told a conference in December, “that it would cause inflation, that there would no longer be investment in the country, foreign investment.”
Despite that, following a cumulative minimum wage increase of 154% since 2018, “we are at a record level of foreign investment,” she added.
[1]: http://platform.coop/blog/a-collective-cure-rethinking-healthcare-through-platform-cooperatives-in-mexico/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/mexicos-socialist-president-to-roll-out-universal-healthcare/

2026-04-11 01:00:41 CEST

Is Trump Turning the US Into a Pariah State?
Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran continues to isolate the US, as Keir Starmer says he is “fed up” with the President’s impact on UK energy costs.
Plus: Trump turns on former MAGA allies, Melania denies ever having known Jeffrey Epstein, a clash between Peter Hitchens and Zoe Strimpel reveals the divide between conservatives over the war on Iran, and the Greens are predicted to have another surprise victory.
With NoJusticeMTG & Steven Methven.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/10/is-trump-turning-the-us-into-a-pariah-state/

2026-04-03 21:32:33 CEST

Iran Shoots Down US War Plane
Iran has shot down a US fighter plane. We ask whether a US defeat is on the horizon.
Plus: Pete Hegseth has fired the US Army’s top general.
With Michael Walker & Barry Malone.
Complete our audience feedback survey for a chance to win £50 worth of Novara merch:
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https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/03/iran-shoots-down-us-war-plane/

2026-04-03 17:09:41 CEST

ChatGPT Boss Accused of Sexually Abusing His Younger Sister
The sister of OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has accused him in a civil lawsuit of sexually abusing and raping her as a child.
The alleged abuse at their family home in Clayton, Missouri, began in 1997 – when Annie Altman was three and her brother was 12 – and went on until 2006, according to an amended complaint filed in St Louis federal court on Wednesday.
Altman has denied the claim and is countersuing for defamation. He said in a court filing that he had been helping his sister financially but that her case amounted to extortion.
Last month, US district judge Zachary Bluestone said Annie Altman’s standalone sexual assault and sexual ‌battery claims expired in 2008, but that she could try pursuing her case under Missouri’s child sexual abuse statute, which allows some accusers to sue over historic abuses.
In a [statement][1] posted to X in January, Sam Altman, his mother and two brothers said Annie has “mental health challenges” and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help”.
A co-founder of OpenAI, the company behind AI chatbot ChatGPT, Sam Altman is worth an estimated $3.3bn (£2.5bn). His company was [recently valued][2] at $852bn (£644bn).
[1]: https://x.com/sama/status/1876780763653263770
[2]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/31/openai-funding-round-ipo.html
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/03/chatgpt-boss-accused-of-sexually-abusing-his-younger-sister/

2026-04-03 12:46:51 CEST

When Will the Guardian Admit Its Part in the Labour Together Scandal?
[Pippa Crerar]
There but for the grace of the Guardian goes Josh Simons. The Labour MP for Makerfield resigned from his ministerial post in February – though likely wouldn’t be an MP at all had the Guardian acted on information it was offered shortly before the general election.
Simons’ troubles began when the [Sunday Times revealed][1] that his shady think-tank-cum-Super-Pac, Labour Together, had paid the American PR firm Apco £36,000 to discredit journalists investigating the outfit (Simons claims his intention was never to investigate journalists). On Simons’ hit list was the Guardian’s very own Henry Dyer.
The paper had a golden opportunity to stop Simons in his tracks, but passed it up. In 2024, having been supplied with the Apco report, the Guardian contacted one of its subjects, independent journalist Paul Holden, threatening to run a story based on it. In response, [Holden told the Guardian he had evidence ][2]that Labour Together was smearing him. Pippa Crerar, the paper’s political editor, didn’t seem interested.
Now, if a fellow journalist were to tip me that an organisation run by a soon-to-be Labour politician was seeding fake stories about them to the media, I would be all over it like a rash. Perhaps Holden was the wrong type of journalist for Crerar? Or perhaps [Simons was just the right type of politician][3]?
[I’ve known for a long time][4] that Simons isn’t always honest: I broke the story shortly before the 2024 election that he falsely claimed to have left Jeremy Corbyn’s office over antisemitism (he was demoted for suspected leaking, then left). Had Crerar read my report, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so credulous when Simons’ dodgy dossier made its way onto her desk. Or perhaps she would: Crerar’s colleagues say she and the rest of the lobby team [pushed hard][5] for the paper to back Keir Starmer “100%” in the 2024 general election.
In February 2024, Crerar wrote to Holden saying she was hours away from publishing a story about him, quite clearly based on the Apco report. Crerar’s story would suggest that Holden’s reporting on Labour Together in his then-forthcoming book, [The Fraud][6], was based on information obtained from [a 2021 hack][7] of the Electoral Commission, likely by a hostile power such as China or Russia.
Crerar added she “understood” that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, was investigating Holden over the allegedly hacked data, and that she had “confirmed the nature and scope of the investigation with my own colleagues at the NCSC”.
Yet no such investigation into Holden ever existed, as the Guardian [belatedly reported][8] this year. Labour Together had approached the authority with the Apco report, but the NCSC politely told them to get lost. Did Crerar’s NCSC contacts mislead her, or did she mislead Holden?
Either way, Holden was suitably furious. “I want to make this very, very clear,” he replied. “If there is any hint in your reporting that I received material from the hack… I will immediately be bringing defamation proceedings against you and the Guardian.”
“The allegation… is not only false, but I can positively prove it to be false” (his emphasis). Holden had evidence, which he supplied to the Sunday Times when it asked, that his book was sourced entirely legitimately from Labour whistleblowers. Holden was offering to share it with Crerar, too. No amount of emphasis could convince Crerar, however, who disappeared on Holden.
Cut to two years later, and the Guardian was [loudly joining in][9] the media chorus condemning Simons and his “alleged smear campaign” – conveniently forgetting that its own political editor had effectively been tipped off about the story two years earlier.
Instead of admitting to its own part in enabling Simons by ignoring crucial evidence of his wrongdoing just as he was about to get elected to parliament, Crerar [defended her role][10] in the scandal, tweeting that by not publishing Labour Together’s false allegations about Holden, she had done her due diligence.
Yet Simons’ smears were a story in themselves, as Crerar’s counterparts at the Sunday Times recognised. Why didn’t Crerar, the political editor of the biggest progressive newspaper in the world, give shorter shrift to Labour Together’s claims, and greater weight to Holden’s? Neither Crerar nor the Guardian responded to Novara Media’s requests for comment, so there’s no knowing for certain – though one possible answer lies in the cosy, incestuous social world of UK journalism, particularly the Westminster lobby.
On Wednesday, Caroline Wheeler announced she was leaving the Sunday Times, where she has been political editor since 2021, to do the same job at the i Paper. Wheeler just so happens to be the wife of Tom Harper, the former Sunday Times journalist who authored the Apco report, a fact [many linked][11] to [Wheeler’s][12] sudden job change (arguably a demotion, given the i’s significantly smaller circulation). Who was straight out of the gate to congratulate her? [None other than Pippa Crerar][13].
[Responding to the Apco scandal][14], Simons claimed he’d wanted to “look into a suspected illegal hack, which had nothing to do with UK journalists at Sunday Times, Guardian or any other brilliant UK newspaper”. Simons’ implication was clear: that by not being employed by a “brilliant UK newspaper”, Holden – an investigative journalist of 15 years’ standing, whose work has appeared in a plethora of major media outlets ([including the Guardian!][15]), and supported corruption investigations in his home country of South Africa – was fair game. Simons calculated that no ‘real’ journalists were going to leap to Holden’s defence – and he was correct.
In [the Guardian’s scoop][16] directly linking Simons to the Apco report, the paper let an anonymous source say this: “Those close to [Labour Together] said they were concerned that the information accessed by Holden and Taibbi originated from a hack of the Electoral Commission itself,” the report said. Incredibly, the reporters – including, ironically, Apco mark Henry Dyer – hadn’t even approached Holden for comment. Only after Holden complained to the Guardian was his response added, almost three weeks later – by which point, everyone had moved on.
As well as hinting at the perverse loyalties Fleet Street encourages, Crerar’s actions suggest a troubling sickness in our media and political class. Whether it’s [Starmer doubling down][17] on his appointment of Peter Mandelson, or Crerar defending her decision not to take Paul Holden more seriously, the British establishment is anaphylactically allergic to admitting fault. Sometimes it’s best to take the L.
In a recent piece about trumped-up allegations of antisemitism against the Green party, [I admitted][18] to having been fooled by the BBC’s Panorama documentary about Labour antisemitism. Miraculously, I survived! Yet some Malcolm Tucker has convinced politicians and political editors that apologising is cuck behaviour. Maybe they should make it their new kink.
[1]: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/labour-activists-smear-sunday-times-journalists-kd269klb8?gaa_at=eafs
[2]: https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/book-excerpt-the-fraud-keir-starmer#:~:text=Crerar%20acknowledged%20my%20response%20but%20did%20not%20ask%20me%20how%20I%20could%20prove%20it%20to%20be%20false.
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2024/07/16/how-the-guardian-lined-up-behind-starmer/
[4]: https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/06/who-is-starmtrooper-josh-simons/
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2024/07/16/how-the-guardian-lined-up-behind-starmer/
[6]: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-fraud/paul-holden/9781682195987
[7]: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/electoral-commission-subject-cyber-attack
[8]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/20/labour-minister-falsely-linked-journalists-to-pro-kremlin-network-in-emails-to-gchq
[9]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/23/josh-simons-minister-alleged-smear-campaign-unanswered-questions
[10]: https://x.com/PippaCrerar/status/2025252045184254448
[11]: https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/london-playbook-pm-royal-grumble/
[12]: https://order-order.com/2026/03/31/caroline-wheeler-out-as-sunday-times-political-editor/
[13]: https://x.com/PippaCrerar/status/2039265146636255743
[14]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q3wx2j3x1o
[15]: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/08/arms-trade-corruption-claims-uk-italy-india-agustawestland
[16]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/06/labour-minister-intelligence-files-gathered-on-journalists-josh-simons
[17]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/13/keir-starmer-peter-mandelson-jeffrey-epstein-emails
[18]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/17/replicating-an-antisemitism-crisis-in-the-greens-is-proving-tougher-than-some-had-hoped/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/03/when-will-the-guardian-admit-its-part-in-the-labour-together-scandal/

2026-04-03 11:39:41 CEST

The US Military Is Hiding the True Extent of Its Iran War Casualties
The US military is refusing to disclose the true extent of the casualties it has suffered across the Middle East since the start of its illegal war on Iran.
An analysis by The Intercept put the number of soldiers killed or injured since February 28 at just under 750, but the Pentagon refused to acknowledge this figure to the outlet, while other military officials offered outdated casualty numbers.
One anonymous defence official accused the US military of engaging in a “casualty cover-up”.
US Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, offered “low-ball and outdated figures” to The Intercept and would not clarify the number of military deaths and injuries, even though it has done so under previous administrations.
A military spokesperson, Captain Tim Hawkins, said on Monday that “303 US service members have been wounded” since the start of the war, but this figure excluded at least 15 servicepeople who were wounded three days earlier in an attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Centcom did not respond to repeated requests from The Intercept for updated figures.
Public reports put the number of US soldiers killed since the start of the war at at least 15, but Centcom refused to provide a count of those who had died.
In response to Iranian attacks on US bases in Gulf states, many US military personnel have relocated to hide among civilians in hotels and other buildings. Both the US and Israel have accused Hamas of using Gazans as human shields by basing itself in civilian areas.
“US soldiers fled military bases… to hide in hotels and offices,” Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghch wrote on X. “They use… citizens as human shields.”
US bases have been badly damaged in Iranian strikes, with confirmed attacks in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Centcom refuses to confirm how many bases have been hit.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/03/the-us-military-is-hiding-the-true-extent-of-its-iran-war-casualties/

2026-04-02 22:45:08 CEST

Oil Prices Skyrocket As Trump Threatens More Strikes on Iran
Trump has threatened more strikes on Iran, oil prices skyrocketed in response.
Plus: Reform have pitched themselves squarely at pensioners in a recent press conference, Labour’s disability cuts are coming in just 4 days, and we talk about the fundamentalist religious theocracy that has the world in its grip; the USA.
With NoJusticeMTG and Dalia Gebrial.
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https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/02/oil-prices-skyrocket-as-trump-threatens-more-strikes-on-iran/

2026-04-02 20:26:23 CEST

Serco Wants to Be the European ICE, Human Rights Groups Say
[Two flags, one union jack, one says "Serco".]
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Outsourcing giant Serco has been accused of positioning itself as “ICE in the UK and Europe” after appointing a new director from G4S, one of the main contractors for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In late March, Serco Group announced [Fiona Walters][2] as CEO of its UK and Europe division. Walters came to Serco from private security firm G4S, which has provided transport and armed security services to ICE during the agency’s recent immigration crackdown, which has involved [extrajudicial killings][3]. Walters was previously regional CEO for G4S in the UK and Ireland.
Serco currently runs several UK immigration removal centres, including the [notorious Yarl’s Wood][4], along with Brook House, Tinsley House and Derwentside. In the past fortnight alone, the company has announced two further major UK government contracts: one with the Home Office, as the main contractor for HM Passport Office’s contact centre, [a £72.9m deal that will run until February 2028][5]; and [one with the Ministry of Defence (MoD)][6], a seven-year deal to [repair and maintain a fleet of over 500 specialised vessels][7] in Portsmouth.
[In its 2025 annual report][8], Serco, which also runs five adult prisons in the UK, noted a continued demand for “our broad range of services and expertise” in immigration “as policy, conflict and climate change influences crossborder movements”. The company also claimed to have “accelerated our growth, increased our market share and enhanced our capabilities” in immigration through the acquisition of smaller companies.
Sarah Chander, director of European anti-racism organisation Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, said: “Serco is positioning itself as ICE for the UK and Europe.”
Amnesty International UK told Novara Media that private companies, not unlike smuggling gangs, are “profiting from political hostility towards vulnerable people”, whether they’re crossing borders for work, study, joining family or seeking safety.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights director for Amnesty International UK, said: “Licensed businesses operating under government contracts, such as Serco, are no less exploitative than anyone else when they make profits from policy that blatantly, even intentionally, tramples all over people’s human dignity and rights.”
“Sadly, in the UK, the US and elsewhere, political leaders continue to adopt increasingly brutal approaches to immigration and asylum and we are concerned that companies like Serco are prepared to ignore awful human consequences in chasing the money that’s on offer.”
Paul O’Connor, head of bargaining at the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) – the UK’s largest civil service trade union – slammed the use of “costly and ineffective” detention and deportation centres, and said “Serco other contractors should not be seeking to profit from inhumanity”.
O’Connor added: “PCS considers that detention/deportation centres in many countries are a direct consequence of poor asylum and immigration policy that is driven by racist rhetoric.”
### Icicles.
A number of corporations linked to ICE are currently contracted with the UK government.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides cloud infrastructure and services to the US Department of Homeland Security’s agencies, which include ICE, which bought [$25m (£18.8m) ][9]of its cloud systems in September.
In 2023, AWS secured [a three-year £450m Home Office contract, ][10]triple the value of its previous UK government partnership. Thirty-five UK public sector authorities currently use AWS’s services, according to public procurement intelligence firm Tussell, which calculates that the company has [won 189 UK government contracts worth £1.7bn][11] since 2016.
US spytech firm Palantir is one of ICE’s biggest suppliers, with a contract worth [around $140m (£105m), ][12]and has made a tool [specifically for ICE][13] that allows the agency to map areas for potential deportation targets, using government health data among other data sources.
Palantir is also deeply embedded in UK state infrastructure, [holding more than £670m in government contracts][14] across the NHS, policing and defence. The company was [handed yet another sensitive UK government contract][15] just last week by the Financial Conduct Authority, which [includes recordings of phone calls][16], emails and trawls of social media posts.
Human rights campaigners say the hiring of Walters to Serco from G4S represents an “alarming revolving door” between the UK’s immigration system and ICE.
G4S, a subsidiary of Allied Universal, the world’s largest provider of private security guards, [currently provides][17] “transportation services to process aliens” in Los Angeles and Phoenix, and “ground transportation services in support of enforcement and removal operations” in San Francisco. In the UK, G4S currently holds at least £53m in government contracts across NHS properties and the MoD. G4S was also [a long-term provider of security guards for job centres][18] – a contract now in the hands of another private contractor, Mitie.
Mallika Balakrishnan, a digital organiser for Migrants Organise, said: “Serco’s appointment of a former G4S executive as its new UK and Europe CEO illustrates the alarming revolving door of profiteers receiving public funds to enable inhumane, anti-migrant policies from detention centres to 24/7 GPS surveillance.”
The government’s relationship with G4S has been marred by controversy, after the firm was [found to have made more than £14m][19] from Brook House between 2012 and 2018, despite serious failings including the [alleged assaults, humiliation and verbal abuse][20] of detainees by officers.
In the 2013 prisoner tagging scandal, both Serco and G4S were found to have defrauded the government by maintaining inaccurate records and [charging UK taxpayers ][21]for the application of electronic tags to offenders who were either no longer being tagged, in prison or deceased. Serco and G4S ultimately paid fines and costs[ totalling more than £250m][22].
Yarl’s Wood detention centre, run by Serco, was[ found to be unsafe ][23]after a government inspection in 2023.
The [Home Office bragged in February ][24]that approximately 60,000 unauthorised migrants and convicted criminals have been removed or deported from the UK since Labour took office in 2024, with home secretary Shabana Mahmood saying “we must go further to remove those that have no right to be in our country” and promising to “do whatever it takes to restore order and control”.
Reform UK – which is [expected to make massive gains ][25]in the May local and devolved parliamentary elections, and is [still polling as the most popular party][26] by Westminster voting intention – has promised to create an ICE-style deportation agency. The party’s [Zia Yusuf said in February][27] that mass deportations would be carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command with the capacity to detain 24,000 people at any one time and deport up to 288,000 annually, operating five flights a day.
Serco’s appointment of Walters came three days after [the European parliament approved a controversial ‘return regulation’ law][28] on 26 March, enabling member states to build deportation centres in third countries outside the EU for irregular migrants, increasing the legal detention period to up to two years, and imposing virtually unlimited entry bans on returned migrants.
Serco and G4S have been approached for comment.
[1]: /5718fc3e52074dc5b606d06ea85d330e?pvs=25
[2]: https://www.serco.com/uk/media-and-news/2026/fiona-walters-begins-as-sercos-uk-europe-ceo
[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/28/deaths-ice-2026-
[4]: https://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/yarls-wood-20/
[5]: https://www.publictechnology.net/2026/03/20/public-order-justice-and-rights/serco-lands-74m-home-office-call-centre-contract/
[6]: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/boost-to-british-jobs-and-skills-with-new-deals-to-support-thousands-of-defence-boats
[7]: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/army-boats-contract-maintained-repaired-portsmouth-6359054
[8]: https://www.serco.com/media/13673/serco-annual-report-and-accounts-2025.pdf
[9]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/the-wiretap/2026/01/27/immigration-record-spend-on-amazon-and-trump/
[10]: https://www.techmonitor.ai/hardware/cloud/aws-contract-home-office?cf-view
[11]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/21/significant-exposure-amazon-web-services-outage-exposed-uk-states-17bn-reliance-on-tech-giant
[12]: https://archive.ph/sthL4
[13]: https://www.404media.co/here-is-the-user-guide-for-elite-the-tool-palantir-made-for-ice/
[14]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/19/what-is-palantir-how-a-us-spytech-firm-penetrated-the-british-state/
[15]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/palantir-has-been-awarded-yet-another-uk-government-contract/
[16]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/22/palantir-extends-reach-into-british-state-as-it-gets-access-to-sensitive-fca-data
[17]: https://www.usaspending.gov/search?hash=6591712796d851418da6e73a21aff1bf
[18]: https://professionalsecurity.co.uk/news/commercial-security/dwp-contract/
[19]: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/g4s-home-office-immigration-removal-brook-house-national-audit-office-report-a9014286.html
[20]: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/g4s-migrant-abuse-guards-immigration-centre-panorama-home-office-brook-house-samim-bigzad-panorama-bbc-a7929491.html
[21]: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shine-a-light/g4s-serco-fraud-oops-we-couldnt-tell-difference-between-right-and-wrong/
[22]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/10/g4s-fined-44m-by-serious-office-over-electronic-tagging
[23]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-66999233
[24]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/05/home-office-60000-deported-removed-since-2024-election-migration
[25]: https://www.ft.com/content/6364a72a-c04d-4074-b245-fcbc55852b10?syn-25a6b1a6=1
[26]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/trackers/voting-intention
[27]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/23/reform-uk-ice-style-deportation-plan-condemned-as-sadistic
[28]: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/03/26/eu-parliament-approves-controversial-bill-to-increase-migrant-returns
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/02/serco-wants-to-be-the-european-ice-human-rights-groups-say/

2026-04-02 11:33:29 CEST

West Bank Businesses Strike to Protest Israel’s Death Penalty Law
Palestinian shops across the West Bank and East Jerusalem were closed yesterday in protest against Israel’s new death penalty law that applies only to Palestinians.
Hundreds also gathered in Ramallah to march against the legislation backed by Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Al Jazeera reported that one protester held a sign reading “stop the law to execute prisoners, before it’s too late”.
Members of Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party wore noose pins on their lapels in support of sentencing Palestinians to death at the Knesset vote on Monday.
The new law will make a death sentence the default punishment for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in military courts, by classifying deadly attacks as terrorism against the Israeli state. The same penalty is not imposed on Jewish Israelis.
Palestinians in the West Bank are de facto tried in military courts, which have a conviction rate of over 99% according to Amnesty International.
There are currently around 10,000 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, around 3,500 of whom are being held without charge or trial. Physical, sexual and psychological torture of Palestinian detainees is rife.
A protestor in Ramallah told AFP: “There isn’t a single person standing here who doesn’t have a brother, a husband, a son, or even a neighbour in prison. There is no Palestinian family without a prisoner.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence against Palestinians in the area has exploded since October 2023.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/02/west-bank-businesses-strike-to-protest-israels-death-penalty-law/

2026-04-01 20:44:14 CEST

Trump Says War Over in Two to Three Weeks
Trump says the “job in Iran” could be finished within 2 or 3 weeks.
Plus: We interview The Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, and the case for Chinese leadership and a new world order.
With Michael Walker, Aaron Bastani & Rhun ap Iorwerth
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/01/trump-says-war-over-in-two-to-three-weeks/

2026-04-01 18:25:46 CEST

Organisers Behind Mass Pro-Palestine Rallies Convicted in London
Two prominent activists have been found guilty of public order offences in relation to a rally they organised in London against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Chris Nineham, 62 and Ben Jamal, 61, were arrested at the January 2025 protest in London and accused of breaching protest conditions after police banned demonstrators from gathering at BBC headquarters, on the grounds that the building is near a synagogue.
During the ruling at Westminster magistrates’ court, judge Daniel Sternberg said Jamal had given a speech that was “a suggestion, persuasion, and inducement” to breach police conditions. He convicted Jamal on two counts of inciting other protesters to breach the rules.
Nineham is vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition and Jamal is chair of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which have brought millions onto the streets since October 2023 to protest the genocide.
Nineham and Jamal said they would appeal the convictions.
In a statement after the verdict, PSC denied that Jamal had breached any rules with the speech.
“From the stage that day, Ben Jamal explained that a delegation of leaders… would walk peacefully in a symbolic protest towards the BBC to lay flowers to mark the corporation’s failures to report the truth of genocide in Gaza,” it said.
“Ben made clear that, if stopped by the police, the flowers would be laid at the police line,” it added.
The Metropolitan police alleged that protesters breached the police cordon after the static rally ended in Whitehall, which organisers denied. “In the event, as copious video evidence shows, police officers invited the delegation to pass though,” the PSC statement said.
The group said there were “significant concerns about the conduct of the six day hearing”.
The defence argued that the police’s restrictions were unlawful, but “extraordinarily, in dismissing this argument, district judge Daniel Sternberg informed the court that he was not obliged to give any reasons for his decision,” PSC said.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who attended the protest, said he and others followed police instructions.
“We held an entirely peaceful demonstration in support of Palestinian people… we ended the demonstration by laying down flowers at their feet to mourn the deaths of Palestinian children,” he wrote on social media.
“Today’s verdict is a dark day for civil liberties in this country and is a disgraceful assault on the right to protest,” he added. “This case is part of a wider attempt to intimidate the Palestinian solidarity movement into silence. They will never succeed.”
Labour MP John McDonnell said: “I hope this judgement is appealed as it stands as an assault on our civil liberties.”
Feyzi Ismail, a lecturer in global policy and activism at Goldsmiths, University of London, said the trial highlighted “the extraordinarily close relationship between the Metropolitan police and Zionist groups”.
Writing for Al Jazeera, she added that “this includes the police accepting recommendations from these groups about the Palestine movement’s demonstration routes.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/01/organisers-behind-mass-pro-palestine-rallies-convicted-in-london/

2026-04-01 14:58:09 CEST

Iran Threatens to Strike Google and Other US Tech Firms
Iran has threatened to attack facilities owned by US tech giants and other companies in the Middle East, starting 1 April, in retaliation for US-Israeli assassinations on its soil.
A list from Iran’s military names Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Tesla, Nvidia, Boeing and IBM among “terrorist companies” that are at risk of attacks, according to several pro-government news sites in Iran.
“For every assassination in Iran, these companies must expect the destruction of their related units, starting at 8pm on Wednesday, 1 April (Tehran time),” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Tuesday.
It added: “You have ignored our repeated warnings to stop terrorist activities, and today several Iranian citizens were killed in terrorist attacks carried out by you and your Israeli allies.
“Since the main element in designing and tracking assassination targets are American ICT and AI companies, in response to this terrorist operation, from now on the main institutions involved in terrorist operations will be considered legitimate targets.”
Employees of these companies should “leave their workplaces immediately to save their lives”, the IRGC said, adding that residents living within a one-kilometre radius of the companies should “move to a safe place”.
The other companies on the list are: Cisco, HP, Intel, Oracle, Dell, Planit, JPMorgan, GE, Spire Solutions and G42.
Early last month, Iranian drones struck Amazon Web Services data centres in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Some major banks, including HSBC and Citi, have closed their branches or evacuated their offices in the region following threats from Iran.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/01/iran-threatens-to-strike-google-and-other-us-tech-firms/

2026-03-31 20:53:40 CEST

Israel Passes APARTHEID Death Penalty for Palestinians
The Knesset has passed a bill making it near-compulsory to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of acts of terrorism resulting in the death of an Israeli.
Plus: Trump says US allies should “just take” oil from the Strait of Hormuz, we discuss Iranian monarchism amongst the diaspora, and youth support for Reform falls to just 8%.
With Aaron Bastani & Kieran Andrieu.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/31/israel-passes-apartheid-death-penalty-for-palestinians/

2026-03-31 19:01:30 CEST

The United Kingdom Is Breaking up Right Under Labour’s Nose
[Keir Starmer looks worried]
John Taylor is among the most prominent and longstanding Northern Irish unionists. First elected to Northern Ireland’s devolved parliament in 1965, he was minister of state for home affairs in the early years of the Troubles. During that time, Taylor was strongly associated with the policy of interning Catholics suspected of terrorism without trial. In 1972, the IRA unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate him. Taylor went on to sit in the European parliament, the House of Commons, and the Northern Irish Assembly, eventually serving as deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party when the Good Friday agreement was signed. Now aged 88, he sits in the Lords as Baron Kilclooney – for many, the last living link to Northern Ireland’s pre-Troubles, Protestant-dominated regime.
So it’s pretty significant that, in February, Taylor used [an interview with the Irish News][1] to tell his fellow unionists that it was time to prepare for a united Ireland.
“The people in Great Britain are no longer interested in Northern Ireland,” Taylor said, citing the “growth of a new sense of specifically English nationalism”, which he said was incompatible with Irish unionism.
As a result, Taylor predicted that soon, “the majority are going to be in favour of a united Ireland”.
How soon is another question. In the 2024 Northern Ireland general election survey, [almost half of respondents][2] said they wished to remain in the UK; only 33.7% favoured unity – a dramatic increase from a decade earlier, but clearly not a majority, yet. Nevertheless, within Northern Ireland, Taylor’s comments appeared to catch a vibe. As Irish News columnist [Denis Bradley wrote][3], they have “transformed the Irish unity debate”.
In Westminster, though, the response to this drama across the Irish Sea has been tumbleweed. As if to confirm Taylor’s remarks about England’s uninterest in Northern Ireland, the London papers barely mentioned his comments about the likely break-up of the United Kingdom. Britain is sleepwalking towards a constitutional crisis.
It’s not just Northern Ireland.
### Starmer versus Swinney.
On 7 May, Scotland will hold a general election for our devolved parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Pollsters predict a [99.7% chance][4] of a pro-independence majority – that is, a majority held by the Scottish National party and Scottish Greens, both of which support Scottish independence. This would almost certainly give the newly elected Scottish government a mandate for another independence referendum (the last one, in 2014, lost 55% to 45%).
Of the 10 opinion polls on Scottish independence so far this year, [“yes” has been ahead in seven][5].
After months of such polling, Westminster sort of noticed this week, when [Kemi Badenoch warned][6] that an SNP majority would lead to another referendum, since Keir Starmer would be too “weak” to stand up to an emboldened Scottish first minister, John Swinney.
What’s certainly true is that, if there is a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, Starmer will be the first Labour prime minister to be confronted with an SNP first minister with a refreshed mandate for an independence referendum. While it was relatively easy for Tories to turn down demands for such a vote, because their base in Scotland is ultra-unionist, many Scots who voted Labour in 2024 are also independence supporters, or at least support the right to self-determination, and maintaining that uneasy coalition will be tricky if the party outright denies a mandate seen as legitimate.
To make things harder, a referendum held towards the end of the current term at Holyrood would be 15 years from the last one, long enough to meet the “once in a generation” pledge made by Alex Salmond (who was SNP first minister 2007-2014) at the time of the last referendum, a pledge often cited by unionists now. As [Swinney pointed out][7] last year, by 2030, there will be 1 million young Scots eligible to vote, who weren’t in 2014 – more than a fifth of the electorate. “That seems like a generation to me,” he said.
Perhaps Starmer will refuse to allow such a referendum. Perhaps he will be replaced by another Labour leader after his party is devastated in the May elections, leaving someone else to work out how to respond.
Either way, neither choice will be politically easy for them. Agreeing to a referendum could well mean they end up presiding over the break-up of the UK. If they block one, it will increasingly feel to many – particularly younger Scots, who overwhelmingly support independence – like Scotland is no longer in the union by choice. The media – like Kemi Badenoch – will frame a rejection as a macho showdown between party leaders. But the SNP and Greens between them will get more than a million votes, and those people can’t just be disappeared forever. Independence may not be their current top priority, but supporting it is increasingly part of the common sense in large chunks of Scottish society.
### Plaid takes its place.
In Wales, [Plaid Cymru is ahead in most recent polls][8], while the Welsh Greens – who are also pro-independence – look likely to win their first seats. Some polls suggest the two parties may be able to form an administration together on their own. Support for Welsh independence certainly isn’t a majority position. But over the last decade, it’s gone from being a marginal opinion to [one held by around a third of the electorate][9].
It’s now consistently true that majorities of young people in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland want to leave the UK, and the coming elections in Scotland and Wales will almost certainly bear that out.
Even in England, support for the union is waning. One fascinating detail of the Gorton and Denton by-election is what the Greens weren’t attacked for. While their position on drugs was smeared across endless Labour and Reform leaflets, the fact that the party supports both Scottish and Welsh independence went unmentioned. As John Taylor said, English voters are very much unconcerned about the potential break-up of the UK, some for progressive reasons, others, less so.
In practice, a party which is now regularly polling in second place supports breaking up the state it seeks to govern. Zack Polanski [told me last year][10] about his enthusiasm for independence.
Yet most MPs and journalists seem to be entirely unaware that the very fabric of the UK is tearing right under their noses.
A functional state system would have anticipated this long ago. But Westminster is far from functional. For the past few months, it has been obsessed with its own gossip. You’re less likely to notice a constitutional iceberg if you’re squabbling on deck. Similarly, many Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs are unquestioningly loyal to their party; warning that things are going badly is a bad way to get a ministerial car, while Labour’s generalised inaction, borne of the paralysis produced by its catastrophic unpopularity, can’t have helped.
In just six weeks, Labour may well have lost a major election in Wales for the first time in a century. It will likely have been humiliated in Scotland. As a factional war unfolds over whether to replace Keir Starmer, and with whom, an emboldened Scottish first minister will be spotting an opportunity. It’s likely that, this summer, Swinney will assert his renewed mandate to hold an independence referendum and, in doing so, will quite possibly have the support of a new Plaid Cymru first minister in Wales; a Sinn Féin first minister in Northern Ireland; and Zack Polanski, the leader of the party which will have just taken hundreds of former Labour council seats across England.
Taylor’s warning to Northern Irish unionists should have been a wake-up call to Westminster – but they have their fingers firmly in their ears.
[1]: https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/a-message-to-unionism-from-one-of-its-giants-get-ready-for-irish-unity-44U2WVCUWRCBZFL63XN6FUXFLY/
[2]: https://www.ria.ie/2025/07/04/northern-ireland-what-the-numbers-tell-us/
[3]: https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/denis-bradley-thank-you-john-taylor-for-transforming-the-irish-unity-debate-3CATADBYDFE3JB36KM3QZ3W3ZE/
[4]: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25834462.results-polling-simulation-1000-holyrood-elections/
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_Scottish_independence
[6]: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25980813.kemi-badenoch-says-snp-majority-will-trigger-indyref2/
[7]: https://news.stv.tv/politics/new-generation-of-scots-deserve-fresh-vote-on-independence-says-swinney
[8]: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWUQTXvlMhO/
[9]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/06/04/welsh-independence-is-no-longer-a-fringe-idea/
[10]: https://abolishwestminster.substack.com/p/exclusive-zack-polanski-backs-scottish
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/31/the-united-kingdom-is-breaking-up-right-under-labours-nose/

2026-03-31 10:52:09 CEST

Israel Approves Death Penalty Law – but Only for Palestinians
Israel’s parliament has passed a law making the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of killing Israelis.
The legislation, devised by far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, will see prisoners sentenced within 90 days of arrest and executed within a further 90 days.
Alternatives to death will only be allowed under “special circumstances,” with the bill closing off avenues for appeal.
Only Palestinians are tried in military courts. Rights group B’Tselem says there is a near 100% conviction rate and confessions are sometimes extracted through torture.
“Israel is already killing Palestinians on a regular basis – in detention facilities, and in the field, where lethal force is widely used by Israeli settlers and by the military with close to zero accountability,” Yuli Novak, the executive director of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, told the Guardian. ‘‘This law is another tool in this toolbox.’’
Those sentenced to death will be held in separate facilities and denied visits. Legal consultations will happen over video link.
MPs allied to Ben-Gvir wore noose-shaped pins on their lapels as they gathered in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to vote through the legislation last night.
Ben-Gvir, who is said to keep a portrait of Jewish gunman Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers in his living room, has widely reprogrammed Israeli prisons to starve and torture Palestinian prisoners.
“From today, every terrorist will know, and the whole world will know, that whoever takes a life, the state of Israel will take their life,” Ben-Gvir told the Knesset.
He was filmed brandishing a bottle of champagne in Israeli parliament, in celebration of the bill passing.
The UN, the EU and Amnesty International have condemned the legislation, warning that it violates Palestinians’ right to life and defines terrorism in a dangerously vague manner.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said: “Such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness.
“Nor will they deter them from continuing their legitimate struggle for freedom, independence, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/31/israel-approves-death-penalty-law-but-only-for-palestinians/

2026-03-31 10:02:07 CEST

107: Do We Love Success but Hate Ambition?
Moya has a big theory about success: we love the idea of it, but hate people going on about it. Did Timothée Chalamet’s naked ambition cost him an Oscar? Plus: what to do about a envious colleague.
Got a dilemma? Email [email protected]
Join us at [Crossed Wires festival][1] in Sheffield on 4th July.
Music by Matt Huxley.
[1]: https://crossedwires.live/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/31/107-do-we-love-success-but-hate-ambition/

2026-03-31 00:07:26 CEST

Trump Threatens to Destroy Iran’s Water Supply | With Abby Martin
Donald Trump insists that positive talks are happening to end the illegal war in Iran
Plus: Israel admits using a fake photo of the journalist they murdered, and Abby Martin discusses her documentary ‘Earth’s Greatest Enemy’.
With Michael Walker & Abby Martin.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/30/trump-threatens-to-destroy-irans-water-supply-with-abby-martin/

2026-03-30 17:24:18 CEST

Spain Bans US Planes Involved in Iran War From Its Airspace
US planes involved in the illegal war on Iran are banned from Spanish airspace, Spain’s defence minister has said.
”We don’t authorise either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” Margarita Robles told reporters in Madrid on Monday.
The announcement comes after Spain said the US would not be allowed to use its military bases for attacks on Iran. President Donald Trump has threatened to cut trade with Spain in retaliation.
The additional restriction will force US warplanes to bypass Spain on their way to the Middle East, but exceptions can be made in emergency situations, El Pais reported.
Asked about the move, economy minister Carlos Cuerpo said it was part of “the decision already made by the Spanish government not to participate in or contribute ‌to a war which was initiated unilaterally and against international law.”
UK Green party leader Zack Polanski responded to Spain’s announcement by criticising the Labour government’s involvement in the war.
“There are 27 US B52s at RAF Fairford, launching bombing raids,” he wrote on social media. “Starmer has made Britain part of Trump’s war. He could have said no, just like Spain’s PM.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/30/spain-bans-us-planes-involved-in-iran-war-from-its-airspace/

2026-03-30 17:24:12 CEST

Labour Just Hounded a Blind Amputee Out of Office
[A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a red beret holds a cane in her right hand. Her left arm is amputated. She stands in a yellow living room with a chaise longue and a still life painting. A drum stands in the corner. Through the blinds we can see a wooden patio]
“Sit down and shut up.”
Rosa Gomez was used to being disrespected by her colleagues, but this was something different. The Labour mayor of Redbridge, Beverley Brewer, had slapped her down at a 60-person meeting of the full Redbridge council, the east London borough bordering Essex. What’s more, Brewer’s outburst had happened during a debate about disability benefits, a motion that Gomez, a blind upper limb amputee, had tabled herself. As the motion’s proposer, Gomez was entitled under the council’s rules to close the debate. Brewer wouldn’t let her.
The video of the council meeting was never uploaded to the [council’s website][1], nor were Brewer’s remarks to Gomez included in the meeting minutes (Redbridge wouldn’t explain why to Novara Media). Nevertheless, several attendees who spoke to Novara Media recall them vividly. [The other motion][2] tabled that day was, ironically, “debate not hate”. The “abuse and intimidation of councillors undermines democracy, deters individuals from standing for election, and weakens public trust”, it declared. The motion passed 52-0.
Earlier this month, Gomez received an email notifying her that she was no longer the independent councillor for the Churchfields ward “by reason of non-attendance”. Under local government law, a councillor who fails to attend council meetings for six consecutive months, without prior approval, automatically forfeits their seat. Yet the council knew why Gomez hadn’t been attending meetings. It had knowingly removed her ability to do so.
Gomez needed a support worker – preferably two – in order to attend council meetings. The council had let her since she joined the council seven years ago. Then, in October, the council suddenly banned Gomez from bringing her support workers to council meetings. Without them, Gomez couldn’t participate in council meetings.
Several councillors – including for the Labour party – told Novara Media they believed Gomez, a former Labour councillor who defected in 2024, is the victim of political targeting, orchestrated by the local Labour party and enacted by its bureaucrats. “There’s elements in Redbridge Labour that don’t like Rosa,” said one Labour councillor, laughing nervously. “I’m putting it in a very diplomatic way there.”
Redbridge Conservative leader Paul Canal was less diplomatic. “It is breathtaking hypocrisy for a party that’s supposed to have the interests of the vulnerable and the minorities at its heart,” Canal said. “I’ve seen Labour close up and personal for 40 years in the East End, and it’s not a caring beast.”
Asked why it had removed Gomez from her council seat, a Redbridge Council spokesperson said the council was simply following the rules, and that since Gomez was no longer a councillor, “the associated allowance and access arrangements have been withdrawn”. Yet Redbridge cancelled Gomez’s access arrangement months before it removed her from office. In response to repeated questioning by Novara Media, the council refused to say why it had done so, or why, as in the case of other Redbridge councillors, it had not considered Gomez’s inability to access her workplace as sufficient reason to waive her absence.
Current and former Redbridge councillors say Gomez’s treatment exemplifies Labour’s cutthroat attitude to the left, a tendency they fear is becoming more pronounced as the party loses its grip on the council. Independent councillor and fellow Labour exile Shanell Johnson described the situation to Novara Media as “performative cruelty”, adding: “It’s a warning to others to stay in your lane.”
“It’s clearly political persecution, and it’s nasty stuff,” said Andy Walker, a former Labour councillor in Redbridge. “I have no idea why they’d want to go down this road.”
### Red Rosa.
Gomez is not the sort of person you’d think would threaten Labour. A slight, softly-spoken woman with shoulder-length brown hair, Gomez uses a cane to get around, and has two assistants: a support worker to assist for a few hours a day with administrative tasks, such as reading and responding to emails, and a 24/7 carer, to help with things like washing and dressing.
“If you could see me, I’ve got gadgets all around me,” Gomez joked when I called her at home, when her support worker wasn’t present. I listened as she struggled to turn off the television that was blaring in the background. “Aha! I’ve switched it off with my elbow.”
Gomez followed her mother and sister to the UK in 1972, aged 15. She returned to Colombia for three years in 2008 for what proved a fateful stay. In 2010, six shots were fired at her car (she still doesn’t know why); she took four of them. When Gomez regained consciousness in hospital, she had lost her left forearm, the use of her right hand, and her sight.
Today Gomez speaks with a gravelly, thickly-accented voice: the intubation she received in hospital, as well as laser surgery to repair her vocal chords, damaged her airway; she carries emergency steroids at all times for when it closes, which it does a few times a year. It took five years of intensive psychotherapy, counselling and psychological treatment for Gomez to feel like herself again.
After returning to the UK the following year, Gomez worked at Stay Safe East, a charity for disabled abuse survivors. She quit partly because she was getting increasingly involved in her local Labour party, and the charity didn’t want her becoming a politician. In 2018, Gomez spotted an email encouraging Labour members – specifically women and disabled people – to stand as councillors in the upcoming local elections. Her heart leapt – then sank.
In 2018, Redbridge was strongly aligned with the Labour right: Jas Athwal, [the Labour slumlord][3] and sometime mentor to Wes Streeting, was its leader. Gomez, on the other hand, was a dyed-in-the-wool Corbynista. Her family’s first home in the UK was in Islington North; her local MP impressed her with his support for, and knowledge of, Latin American communities. Within months, she was door-knocking for Jeremy Corbyn, whom she describes as a “mentor”. Surely there was no way that, at the height of Corbyn’s “antisemitism crisis”, Redbridge was about to admit a Corbynite candidate? Miraculously, it was.
Gomez organised a meeting with local MP Wes Streeting and the constituency Labour party (CLP) chair Lloyd Duddridge, a former caseworker of Streeting’s and firmly on the Labour right. I’ve got the skills and the passion, she told them, I’m a lifelong Labour supporter, but I’m on the left. Can you work with me? “Absolutely, of course,” Gomez recalled Streeting’s reply. Duddridge “reluctantly” chimed in, and helped Gomez complete her candidate application.
“I very much doubt there’s anything on which Rosa Gomez and I agree – we are at different ends of the political spectrum – but I have huge amounts of respect for her, both as a woman and as a campaigner,” said Canal. “She’s profoundly disabled, and she still has the determination and courage to take part in political life, and I really admire that.”
The Labour party, however, soon regretted its mistake.
Gomez’s trajectory in the Labour party closely mirrored her mentor Corbyn’s. Sidelined for refusing to kiss the ring; chastised for associating with the left; suspended on [spurious antisemitism charges][4]; finally, becoming an independent. Labour hated Gomez, but the people loved her: last year, the Local Government Authority (LGA) nominated Gomez for councillor of the year; in January, she was invited to attend an LGA reception at Buckingham Palace (the invitation was withdrawn after an unexplained change to the guest list). The LGA declined to comment on Gomez’s treatment by Redbridge, saying it isn’t a council regulator and does not comment on individual councils or councillors (among the LGA’s [listed goals][5] is “to continually improve local government”).
[A woman with brown hair, a white t-shirt with 'peace and justice' written on it poses in front of a garden scene]Rosa Gomez in her garden, July 2025. Photo: Rosa Gomez
When Gomez defected from Labour in 2022, she joined a handful of so-called “Gaza independents”. Labour has for years enjoyed a supermajority in Redbridge, which most agree will either be slashed or lost altogether in the May local elections. Gomez, active in the local area despite her disability, has become a symbol of why the party is losing.
“I pose no threat to them, but clearly, I rattled them. They feel insecure,” Gomez told Novara Media.
“It’s like many groups,” said Canal. “You hate people who defect more than you hate the enemy, sometimes.”
### Work isn’t working.
Gomez struggled to navigate the council as a disabled person long before she fell out of favour with Labour.
Shortly after she was elected in May 2018, Gomez requested a personal assistant to take her to the town hall and assist her on her computer. The council rejected her request, advising Gomez to use the pool of council admin assistants – untrained to support disabled workers – instead. Gomez had to take two months off while applying to the Department for Work and Pensions’ [notoriously inaccessible][6] Access to Work scheme.
The following year, Gomez found herself stranded outside the town hall after her council-organised transportation left without her after a meeting overran; a council officer was disciplined for driving her home. Unable to take minutes in meetings when her support worker wasn’t present, Gomez would request them from other attendees; emails seen by Novara Media show she was routinely ignored. There were frequently embarrassing scrambles for chairs to find Gomez’s support workers somewhere to sit in the council chamber. Gomez requested disability training for her colleagues, who she noticed would avoid her since they felt unable to engage with her, but no training was ever organised.
Two particular incidents are seared in Gomez’s mind. The first is a 2021 meeting of the Labour group. During the meeting, Councillor Judith Garfield emailed Gomez to say that an agenda item she had tabled would not be discussed. Gomez missed Garfield’s email – she can’t multitask during online meetings – was shut down by Garfield in front of everyone, and cried out of humiliation. Garfield did not respond to Novara Media’s request for comment.
The second was a Labour canvassing session for the 2022 local elections. Duddridge – then a candidate for the same ward where Gomez was a sitting councillor, and a close ally of Athwal and Streeting – had organised meeting points that were a 15-minute walk from the doors they were due to knock. When Gomez complained that the group was walking too fast for her, particularly given the strong winds that day, Gomez recalls Duddridge replying: “What do you want me to do, stop the wind as well?” Gomez went home. Duddridge declined Novara Media’s request for comment.
“I am a disabled woman,” Gomez wrote in her [resignation statement][7] from Labour in June 2024, “but reasonable adjustments were often not made to allow me to fully participate in council meetings.”
It was after her defection from Labour that Gomez began to strongly suspect her treatment was more than workaday ableism.
### ‘Hope this is clear.’
In August last year, Gomez received an email from Pervinder Sandhu, the council’s monitoring officer, the civil servant who ensures the council acts lawfully. Sandhu told Gomez she had been subject to a formal complaint from then-acting chief executive Steve Moore for sharing a confidential email about the departure of the council’s education officer, Colin Stewart, with three non-councillors. This, Sandhu said, was a potential breach of GDPR; a conduct investigation was required.
“Can you explain … why you forwarded the email to the accounts identified above? Who are the individuals?” Sandhu asked. Gomez responded, explaining what Sandhu already knew: the email recipients were her support workers. One had been working with Gomez for almost five years; Sandhu had met him on at least one previous occasion. Gomez added that in 2020, she had written to the council’s then-head of governance, Antoinette Davis, stating her need to share confidential information with her support workers. Davis agreed that, while Gomez was not to share her computer password with her assistants, she could share the contents of her work emails, as long as she “made [residents] aware that the content of their emails will be shared with your support workers”. This arrangement had been in place for five years, when Sandhu emailed. “She was playing ignorant,” said Gomez.
Under the Equality Act, Gomez pointed out, employers have a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can conduct their work without serious disadvantage – support workers were one such adjustment to which the council had agreed. Sandhu hauled Gomez into a meeting regardless.
At the October meeting, Sandhu initially denied Gomez’s support assistant and carer entry. Only after Gomez refused to proceed did Sandhu admit her carer, and only then on the condition that they didn’t take minutes. In the meeting, Sandhu told Gomez that the complaint had been upheld; the council found that providing a work laptop and phone were sufficient reasonable adjustments for Gomez’s work, and that there was therefore no justification for her sharing casework with support workers. Sandhu also said it was “more likely than not” that Gomez was indirectly responsible for a leak to the press about the news of Stewart’s dismissal. Gomez was instructed to apologise; undergo confidentiality training; repeat the council’s data protection training; and declare not to share confidential information with anyone “includ[ing] your carers and support workers”. Gomez initially refused to apologise, then reluctantly agreed. She requested meeting minutes; Sandhu ignored her.
“Rosa is a public servant,” said Noor Begum, a fellow independent councillor in Redbridge, now a Your Party politician. “If they’re treating her this badly, what will they do to ordinary residents who have disabilities and can’t advocate for themselves?”
Things quickly deteriorated after that meeting. In emails with Gomez, Sandhu said that her carer and support worker could no longer sit with her in the council chamber, but would instead be seated in the public gallery. This changed an arrangement that had been in place for years, and would render the workers effectively useless to Gomez. “If my support workers are sitting in the gallery, they will not be able to do the things that they have been doing for the last seven and half years,” Gomez explained to Sandhu. In closed council meetings, Sandhu added, the support workers would not be allowed at all, Sandhu added. “Hope this is clear,” she signed off. Sandhu did not respond to Novara Media’s request for comment.
Canal intervened, asking Sandhu and the council’s chief executive, Claire Hamilton, why the council had removed her support workers, to no avail.
Why would council officers – who, as civil servants, are nominally apolitical, so in principle should have no axe to grind – treat Gomez in this way? Several sitting Redbridge councillors who spoke to Novara Media linked this explicitly to Labour’s chokehold over the council. As I’ve written previously, Labour rules Redbridge with an iron fist. Questions in council meetings have to be pre-agreed with the leadership; independents aren’t even allowed to ask them. The council has still not investigated its former leader, Athwal, over his [alleged slumlordism][8].
For Johnson, Redbridge’s civil servants are acutely aware that they serve at Labour’s pleasure. “Who employed them? How did they get their jobs?” she asked Novara Media. A current Labour councillor echoed her sentiments: “Labour have been in there since 2014, with big majorities as well,” they said. “Are [civil servants] sufficiently objective or not?”
Gomez traces her problems back to Duddridge, whose spurious complaint of antisemitism led to her being dragged through a kangaroo court. “Our worry is that although the monitoring officer should be impartial as a solicitor, it seems that whatever Lloyd Duddridge says goes, which would be very, very worrying in a democracy,” Gomez told me.
In January, council official Ian Buckle wrote to Gomez confirming the new arrangement. Then, in a phone call, softened, saying that Gomez’s carer could be beside her in the chamber, though at a few metres away from her. By this point, the point was moot: two weeks after Buckle’s call, Gomez received an email saying she’d been disqualified as a councillor anyway.
Meanwhile, Duddridge was tweeting about how disappointing it was that Gomez wasn’t coming to council meetings. “I understand it’s harder for Rosa than anyone else to get to the Town Hall,” [he wrote][9], attaching a screenshot of Gomez’s attendance record. “However an attendance record of 0% in the last six months is worrying. Voters deserve all their councillors being local vocal and visible and they are not getting that with the Independents.”
Tagging Redbridge council’s X account, Duddridge added: “Can we make sure that we are doing all we can to make it easier for Cllr Gomez to get to council meetings.” The tweet seemed strangely performative: as a cabinet member, Duddridge was almost certainly aware of Gomez’s inability to attend meetings, and had the ability to intervene to enable her to attend. Asked by Novara Media whether he was feigning ignorance in his tweet, Duddridge did not respond.
Gomez’s treatment has prompted alarm among disabled politicians and rights groups. Baroness Jane Campbell, a crossbench peer with spinal muscular dystrophy, noted that she herself is permitted to bring a personal assistant into the chamber. “I see no reason why Councillor Gomez is not afforded the same support,” Campbell wrote to Novara Media.
In a statement to Novara Media, Mikey Erhardt, Policy Lead at Disability Rights UK, said: “If it is found that this council has deliberately excluded a disabled person from participating in their elected position, it would be shameful but unfortunately not shocking to the 16 million Disabled people in the UK who face this kind of marginalisation on a daily basis.
“The idea that someone showing solidarity with the severe humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and advocating for the protection of the rights and dignity of Disabled individuals in this time of emergency, is an excuse for such exclusionary behaviour is simply unacceptable. It speaks to the wider, rising tide of ableism we are seeing, entrenched in austerity policies at a state level.
“We were startled to see the council in this instance seem to make so little effort to implement the bare minimum reasonable adjustments. Being inclusive means not hiding behind the vagaries of codes of conduct, but instead finding a joint way forward that allows Disabled councillors to fully participate in local democracy. We hope they reconsider their position.”
### Greener pastures.
In March, Gomez filed a pre-action grievance to the council, making clear her intention to take legal action over her treatment. The council, Gomez claimed, had failed to implement reasonable adjustments for her. “These failures prevented me from attending meetings safely and participating in Council business on an equal basis with other members,” she wrote.
Pursuing such action may be tricky, however. Since she was not an employee of the council – councillors receive an allowance of £12,500 per year, which increases if they take on additional responsibilities – Gomez can’t go to a conventional employment tribunal, but will instead have to pursue any legal action via a county court, which is legally complex and costly. Her union, Unison, has said it can’t assist her, since she wasn’t a salaried employee. “I’m caught in the middle,” she told Novara Media.
I asked Gomez whether her experience has put her off participating in public life. “Not at all, because it’s not public life that has done this to me; it’s a group of politicians and a particular council. If I could, I would do it all over again.” In May, she is standing as a Green councillor in her new home of Harrow, northwest London, and is actively on the hunt for a school where she might be a school governor. “I could just retire,” she laughed. “I’ve got my pension. I could just go and sit in cafes and drink tea in the afternoon – but no, I’ve got a lot to offer.”
[1]: https://opencouncil.network/meetings/70755
[2]: https://moderngov.redbridge.gov.uk/documents/g9097/Printed%20minutes%2026th-Jun-2025%2019.15%20Council.pdf?T=1
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2024/10/24/jas-athwal-was-cleared-of-sexual-assault-or-was-he/
[4]: https://novaramedia.com/2024/10/24/jas-athwal-was-cleared-of-sexual-assault-or-was-he/
[5]: https://www.local.gov.uk/about/who-we-are-and-what-we-do
[6]: https://www.rnib.org.uk/news/enough-is-enough-delays-in-government-scheme-continue-to-threaten-blind-and-partially-sighted-peoples-jobs/
[7]: https://www.asianstandard.co.uk/redbridge-labour-councillor-quits-party-over-claims-she-felt-like-outsider/
[8]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czjy2g4m49mo
[9]: https://x.com/duddridgelloyd/status/2023434796358369609?s=48
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/30/labour-just-hounded-a-blind-amputee-out-of-office/

2026-03-30 13:43:27 CEST

The Daily Mail Backed the Blackshirts. It Can Shut up About Antisemitism
[A man in a trenchcoat waves with placards in the background]
An almighty attack on Green party leader Zack Polanski was mounted this weekend by the super-reliable, super-ethical, super-rational Daily Mail. As we put the clocks forward, it seemed we also wound back to roughly 2019.
Let me return you to that year. Famous, wealthy and very beloved British actress Maureen Lipman, a month before that crucial election cosplayed a normie in an attack ad on Jeremy Corbyn by Labour sect Mainstream, explicitly [aimed at getting the Tories in][1]. “And the antisemitism,” [she sighed down a fake phone][2], “Who would have believed that?”
It turns out: a lot of people. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party lost. Instead, we got further years of austere Tory economics, genocide and global chaos. And now here we stand, on the doormat of World War III, largely instigated by Israel. Yet time is a flat circle. Because Polanski, a Jewish man, is getting the same treatment once more.
This weekend, the Green Party debated [a motion called “Zionism is Racism”][3]. Everyone is, of course, entitled to their view on what is, for many, a controversial statement. But as Green party policy, you’d have thought it was something for party members to decide. Endorse it, reject it, amend it, that’s surely – surely! – all a matter, and only a matter, for those who’ve paid their subs and turned up for the often long and tedious matter of scrutinising the party’s offering. Wrong!
Common sense says: hey, if you don’t like a party’s policies, don’t join it, don’t vote for it, But when it comes to Israel, it turns out a British political party simply can’t be allowed to set its own parameters. And if it tries, its leader and its members better be ready to face an onslaught of abuse.
On the eve of the party’s spring conference, where the motion was set to be discussed, the Daily Mail put out one of the [weakest, sloppiest, flimsiest reports][4] I’ve read in a long time. And when it comes to that particular rag, that’s really saying something.
Alleging to have spoken to three members of Polanski’s extended family, the article’s authors start with an all too familiar figure: the hysterical, red-faced unc. You know the one. He’s marked by the trail of relatives diving into loos and under tables to avoid him at family gatherings.
“He’s currently the leader of the future Islamic party of Britain, that’s what the Green party is fast becoming,” he told the Mail, practicing for his next enraged LBC phone-in. “And there would be no place for Jews in an Islamic state of Britain.”
A second allegedly Jewish family member seemed to have absolutely [no historical knowledge of the newspaper][5] they were speaking to. And in the interest of smearing Polanski, its authors appear to have permanently detached their irony detectors.
“If the Zionism-is-racism motion is passed it will make the Greens the most antisemitic party in British history since Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists,” the selective historian fretted. “The idea of it is one of the most sickening things I’ve heard in a long time.”
A reminder: the Mail, now wringing its hands on behalf of British Jews, actively supported Mosley and his Union of Fascists in the 1930s. And its owner at the time, Viscount Rothermere aka [Harold Harmsworth][6], personally congratulated Adolf Hitler on his annexation of Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. “My dear Führer,” [he wrote in the summer of 1939][7], expressing his admiration of the Nazi dictator’s “superhuman work”.
“The mad thing is that he’s gay, he’s Jewish,” said a third alleged Polanski relative, “But he’s cosying up to people whose ideology is the complete antithesis of everything that he’s supposed to stand for. It’s like he’s a chicken, telling us to vote for KFC.”
According to Polanski, [the entire article is a fantasy][8]. “Spoke to my family today – all refused to talk to you,” he said to one of its authors. “You then started hunting down random ‘anon’ relatives.”
It’s not just the Daily Mail, though. [The Telegraph][9] and [the Times][10] both ran articles suggesting Polanski, who appeared at the [half-a-million strong anti far-right protest][11] in London on Saturday, was making Britain unsafe for Jews by even entertaining an anti-Zionist motion. When Polanski [retweeted a comment][12] asserting that “the entire world detests” the Daily Mail, a Times columnist called it “extraordinary”.
That was meant as an indictment. But the fact is, it *is* extraordinary for the leader of a British political party to take on, call out and hit back at a British media that’s far too used to calling the country’s political shots. And far too accustomed to policing our political horizons on behalf of its billionaire owners.
The “Zionism is Racism” motion didn’t, in the end, pass, with the debate running out of time over a series of member-brought technicalities. It’ll return, though, for a vote at a later date. But the media response to it shows just how difficult it is to run on a political platform which, quite rightly, seeks to detach British politics from our so-called ally Israel.
It shouldn’t be like that. In two years, [at least 75,000 Palestinians have been killed][13] by the Israeli military in Gaza. Israel continues to break international law in the West Bank. Meanwhile, the country is [bombing Iran][14] and [invading Lebanon][15] as I write, and over the weekend [killed yet more journalists][16].
Most voters in Britain are, quite rightly, sickened by all of this. And yet, the Greens questioning our relationship with Israel – a country that has done literally nothing for any British voter except put us all in greater danger – is supposed to be a vast political controversy? Make it make sense.
[1]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cxmc
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKGjBw3uFCw
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/24/israeli-minister-brands-uk-green-party-racist-and-hateful/
[4]: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15686363/Zack-Polanski-rebellion-family-UK-Green-Party-Prime-Minister.html
[5]: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/hitler-the-daily-mail-and-how-lord-rothermere-showed-he-has-learned-the-lessons-of-history/
[6]: https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/harold-harmsworth-1st-viscount-rothermere
[7]: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/apr/01/pressandpublishing.secondworldwar
[8]: https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/2038307174355525677
[9]: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/29/dont-laugh-at-the-green-party-chaos-be-frightened-by-them/
[10]: https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/tony-blair-end-lefts-unholy-alliance-with-islamists-vffq3sr2t?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqcCVRGQWBP9QnBnt2g5gVQkCPjV36DmznLXPbmy1Mc2vP6ZhnMinBE3K9MmaeM%3D&gaa_ts=69ca24aa&gaa_sig=IAbleDJ_6KRvXO3M0nO3BFRbbuNeWPY0zXfdVSPdey5-quwZ6wtdGfNcEab9gA6xTXpdVU62Y16g94TxzBxtVA%3D%3D
[11]: https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/zack-polanski-green-party-thousands-antifarright-march-london-b2947620.html
[12]: https://x.com/alexmassie/status/2038263479711207647
[13]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/gaza-death-toll-higher-than-reported-lancet-study
[14]: https://www.ft.com/content/a8dbcf5f-df38-43de-bb4c-de3780cad0ab?syn-25a6b1a6=1
[15]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/29/netanyahu-announces-expansion-of-security-buffer-zone-in-south-lebanon
[16]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ce354d73v2ko
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/30/the-daily-mail-backed-the-blackshirts-it-can-shut-up-about-antisemitism/

2026-03-29 16:49:13 CEST

We’ve Proven We Can Beat Reform and Labour
Last week at EartH Hackney, Dalia Gebrial sat down with Hannah Spencer, the new MP for Gorton and Denton, and Faiza Shaheen, the director of Tax Justice UK. The three women discuss Hannah’s massive landslide victory, her first few weeks in Parliament, and what a wealth tax would actually look like. What approach did Faiza and Hannah take with Reform voters, when out canvassing together? What lessons must progressives learn from past failures? And what are the conspiracy theories swirling about Hannah online?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/29/weve-proven-we-can-beat-reform-and-labour/

2026-03-29 09:48:22 CEST

Should We Fight for Our Right to Be Bored?
When was the last time you were bored? Nadia, Jem and Keir wonder if ennui is a feeling that belongs in the past, and what a boredom-free life might be missing, in the latest ACFM episode.
Is compulsive scrolling a modern symptom of boredom? Why are spiritual practices often based around tedious repetition? Do bored workers make better organisers? What about the “stuckness” experienced by migrants, or the drudgery of housework?
The gang offer their theories of Boredism (and Post-Boredism) in a perfectly mind-numbing Trip, with ideas from Lukács, Gramsci, the Pet Shop Boys and loads of 1970s punk.
Follow our [Spotify playlist][1] of all the music discussed on ACFM and subscribe to the [ACFM mailing list][2] to get weirder and leftier.
**Music:** The Adverts – Bored Teenagers / Boredoms – Seadrum / Buzzcocks – Boredom / The Clash – I’m So Bored with the USA / Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta / Green Day – Longview / Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring / The Fall – Rowche Rumble
**Books and articles:** Peter Toohey – Boredom: A Lively History / Jean-Paul Sartre – Nausea / Karl Marx – Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 / György Lukács – ‘Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat’ / Timothy Bewes – Reification: or The Anxiety of Late Capitalism / Alasdair Gray – A History Maker / Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello – The New Spirit of Capitalism / Cory Doctorow – Enshittification / Ghassan Hage – ‘Waiting out the Crisis: on Stuckedness and Governmentality’ / Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique / Doris Lessing – The Golden Notebook / Institute for Precarious Consciousness – We Are All Very Anxious / Richard Sennett – The Corrosion of Character
**Films:** Modern Times (1936)
[1]: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Wv61PS6qItwCBUluNcSFx
[2]: http://novara.media/ACFMnewsletter
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/29/should-we-fight-for-our-right-to-be-bored/

2026-03-28 16:13:04 CET

Isolated, Scared, and Furious: Welcome to the Age of Hyperpolitics
In the last decade and a half, society has got vastly more politicised: Occupy, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too Movement and many other movements besides mobilised hundreds of millions of people around the world.
So where are the massive organisations that big mobilisations brought in the 20th century? They don’t exist. For all the increased political activity, society hasn’t become much more organised.
This has produced what Anton Jäger calls ‘hyperpolitics’. He’s the author of *Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicisation without Political Consequences* as well as a columnist at The New York Times and a lecturer at Oxford University.
He explained to Richard Hames how we got so isolated, why fascism isn’t even the biggest threat right now, and whether the worldwide organising around Palestine, anti-ICE uprisings in the US and the Gen Z Revolutions have already hurtled us into yet another era of political struggle.
Do Your Own Research is a new show from Novara Media about the systems that make the modern world possible.
Music by Iglooghost.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/28/isolated-scared-and-furious-welcome-to-the-age-of-hyperpolitics/

2026-03-27 21:09:10 CET

Trump Folds Again, Announces 10-Day Extension to Ultimatum
Donald Trump has extended his ultimatum to Iran, now threatening to bomb energy and desalination plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not opened within 10 days rather than 48 hours.
Plus: The New World Happiness Report suggests that English-speaking countries are among the most miserable in the world, and Novara’s Steven Methven reports on his time in Havana.
With Michael Walker, Robert Malley & Banseka Kayembe.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/trump-folds-again-announces-10-day-extension-to-ultimatum/

2026-03-27 19:00:02 CET

Oxfam: Israel’s Attacks on Lebanon’s Water Sources Echo Gaza Genocide
Israel is destroying water and sanitation infrastructure in Lebanon, echoing a genocidal tactic it used in Gaza as part of its attempt to destroy the civilian population, Oxfam has said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has attacked reservoirs, pipe networks and pumping stations since escalating its aggression against the country on 2 March.
“In a span of four days in the first weeks of the latest escalation, Israel damaged at least seven critical water sources… that supplied water to almost 7,000 people in the Bekaa area alone,”[ the charity said][1] in a statement.
“The destruction of civilian infrastructure has not been limited to critical water facilities,” Oxfam added. “Israel has also destroyed electricity networks and bridges, cutting off vital supplies and services for entire towns and villages.”
Depriving civilians of water has been a key part of Israel’s strategy in Gaza.
In October 2023, then-energy minister Israel Katz wrote on social media that no “electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter” the enclave.
British prime minister Keir Starmer supported this strategy, despite it being a war crime, telling LBC at the time that Israel had the “right” to cut off water and electricity from the population of Gaza.
Israel has killed over 1,000 people and forced more than a million to flee their homes in Lebanon this month.
Katz, who is now the Israeli defence minister, said this week that the IDF would control a “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, which critics interpreted as confirmation that Israel has illegally annexed that land.
[1]: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/israeli-forces-using-gaza-playbook-lebanon-decimating-water-infrastructure
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/oxfam-israels-attacks-on-lebanons-water-sources-echo-gaza-genocide/

2026-03-27 16:31:06 CET

The IDF Claims It May ‘Collapse in on Itself’ Due to Soldier Shortage
The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief of staff has warned the military is “going to collapse in on itself” unless the country forces more people to enlist.
Eyal Zamir made the claim during a cabinet security meeting, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Thursday.
“Right now, the IDF needs a conscription law, a reserve duty law, and a law to extend mandatory service,” the channel quoted him as saying. “Before long, the IDF will not be ready for its routine missions and the reserve system will not last.”
Israel has compulsory military service for a majority of citizens, but Haredi – or ultra-Orthodox – Jews are among those who are exempt. A draft bill aimed at ending this exemption has ignited widespread controversy.
After two and a half years of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, large numbers of IDF troops are reportedly exhausted amid reports of thousands suffering from severe PTSD.
The IDF is now fighting on multiple fronts. Shortly after launching the illegal and unprovoked war on Iran in late February, it also illegally invaded Lebanon to seize more land there. Hezbollah forces have reportedly mounted fierce resistance – and say they have destroyed ten invading tanks in two ambushes.
Oxfam said earlier this week that Israel is attacking water infrastructure in Lebanon, repeating a genocidal tactic it used in Gaza.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/the-idf-could-collapse-in-on-itself-due-to-soldier-shortage/

2026-03-27 15:10:34 CET

I Joined the Nuestra América Aid Convoy to Show Cuba It’s Not Alone
[Jeremy Corbyn with members of the Democratic Socialists of America in Havana, Cuba, March 2026.]
Driving into Havana, most of the city was in darkness. For the second time in a week, more than 10 million people across Cuba were left without power during a national blackout. We were told that in some places, people were going 14 hours without electricity.
This is the human reality of a criminal and inhumane blockade, imposed on Cuba by the United States. Cuba has been under a US embargo for over 60 years – an embargo that doesn’t just prevent bilateral trade between these two countries, but tries to isolate Cuba from the rest of the world.
Until January of this year, Cuba was receiving oil at a discount from Venezuela. However, after the [illegal abduction and imprisonment ][1]of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, Trump declared that no Venezuelan oil would go to Cuba, seizing oil shipments bound for Cuba and intercepting vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
Declaring [Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat”][2] on 29 January, Trump effectively launched a total oil blockade by imposing new tariffs on countries that directly or indirectly supply Cuba with oil. Under a very strict interpretation of the Helms-Burton Act, Trump is not allowing any company that trades with Cuba in any way to trade within the United States. This is, obviously, a huge disincentive for any European company that might want to, for example, invest in the energy supply industry in Cuba.
This criminal blockade has consequences. At home, refrigerated food goes off. Factories can’t operate. Schools can’t operate. [Hospitals can’t operate][3]. Something as simple as getting around your own city by car or bus is suddenly not possible. Black market prices for petrol had [reached $40 a gallon][4] (roughly £10 a litre). Only those with a lot of spare cash can get any fuel at all. For millions of people, normal life is very, very difficult.
That’s why I joined [the Nuestra América convoy][5] to Cuba, an international coalition of individuals and organisations dedicated to delivering critical humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba. The delegation, organised by Progressive International, was made up of representatives from 30 different countries. So often, Cuba has been there for the rest of the world. Now, the rest of the world was there for them.
We delivered aid in two tranches. The first was to a solidarity centre near John Lennon Park, which was hosting a music concert later that day, where Cuban students gave wonderful renditions of traditional Cuban music, including the hopeful and iconic song Guantanamera.
The second was to the Cuba Cancer Hospital. Richard Burgon MP, Natasha Hickman from Cuba Solidarity Campaign and myself presented several large suitcases full of equipment and medicines, including those that were very difficult to obtain in Cuba. Healthcare workers described the stress of working under a blockade, deprived of the equipment they needed to treat the patients coming in. The hospital was very well run, but was operating under immense hardship given the shortages imposed upon them. Often, they could not run the backup generators that were required to provide life-saving care.
The purpose of the visit was twofold. One, to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to the Cuban people. Two, to mobilise for an end to blockade, to show the blockade can be broken, and to show that the US government cannot just have everything its own way. We were there to stand with the Cuban people, oppose these punitive policies, and demand the right of every nation to live, develop and determine its own future free from intimidation.
I’ve been supporting Cuba all my life. When Fidel Castro entered Havana in 1959, my mother came and woke me up and said “Fidel is in Havana”. I first visited Cuba in 1986, and have returned three more times in between. A particularly fond memory was cycling round Cuba with one of my sons. I have huge admiration for the people of Cuba, who have survived and endured a criminal blockade for more than 60 years.
During our trip, we held a substantial meeting with president Miguel Diaz, who described the deep bind that Cuba has been placed in, and the innovative ways Cubans are trying to survive and thrive. We held discussions with ministers, who told us about the growing need to invest in solar and wind generation for electricity. It would take something like $14bn to purchase the necessary equipment and refurbish the energy supply system, in order to guarantee energy independence for Cuba.
Trump’s blockade should be seen as part of a much wider assault by the US on national sovereignty around the world. Their presumed right to intervene – [as they have done in Venezuela, Iran and Cuba][6] – runs totally against every aspect of international law. Trump somehow thinks that anything that happens in the southern hemisphere is the business of the United States. It’s not. Trump tells the world he’s winning. He’s not. He has lost every moral and legal argument there is around the world.
While I was there, many people put the question to me: what does the US actually want Cuba to do? There is no demand being made by the United States on the Cuban government. Instead, accompanying the blockade is a general assertion that Cuba is a bad place, and therefore deserving of being put under the most intense sanctions ever.
Cuba’s crime is that it has developed public services, built universal healthcare and raised life expectancy comparable to or higher than the United States. The US blockade is not just trying to suffocate Cuba. It is trying to suffocate the Cuban example.
Every year at the UN General Assembly, [the majority vote against the sanctions][7] and then do nothing about them. If Britain, France, Germany and others instructed an oil tanker to go to Cuba to deliver oil, would the US really bomb that oil tank? Would they really stop that oil tanker going through? Our government’s failure to even ask itself that question is proof of its political cowardice and moral bankruptcy.
The night before I departed, we held a wonderful music event for Cuba in my constituency, as part of an emergency fundraiser for Cuba. The event was proof of the strength and scope of solidarity that exists for Cuba around the world. The aim of the criminal blockade is clear: to starve the Cuban people into submission. It will not succeed. As much as the US would wish otherwise, Cuba is not alone.
[1]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/8/abduction-of-venezuelas-maduro-illegal-despite-us-charges-experts-say
[2]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/addressing-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-cuba/
[3]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/world/americas/cubas-health-system-us-oil-blockade.html
[4]: https://www.wsj.com/world/u-s-eases-restriction-on-fuel-shipments-to-cuba-7909a6a7?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeWkMopyLeS1QM2rWdb4eJ1vrnEFUoNVgjw4wIQmq3L8-JGWuW6FOK0MqRA6bg%3D&gaa_ts=69c6643c&gaa_sig=Av-BpNvsV-YUa-Hb11NFSm0vVOE-a1VHZcKZsAHhLmj-h6tGDU4JGw0eCNBe-Voed7XnLRq1qaLL4G_-uLAQEA%3D%3D
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/aid-convoy-to-deliver-more-than-20-tonnes-of-food-and-medicine-to-cuba/
[6]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/donald-trump-is-trying-to-break-the-cuban-people/
[7]: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166213
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/i-joined-the-nuestra-america-aid-convoy-to-show-cuba-its-not-alone/

2026-03-27 14:30:36 CET

Two Cuba Flotilla Boats Have ‘Gone Missing’, Mexican Navy Says
Mexico’s navy has launched a search and rescue mission to track down two boats shipping humanitarian aid to Cuba as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, after they failed to reach Havana.
Three boats left Isla Mujeres in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo last Friday – after a weather-related delay – but only one has arrived so far, docking at dawn on 24 March.
No communication from the two missing boats has been received. The sail should only take two or three days on average – but seven days have now passed.
Organisers, however, say that according to their calculations, which take into account the size of the boats and conditions at sea, the vessels are likely to arrive on 27 or 28 March.
Staffed by nine sailors from Poland, France, Cuba and the US, the boats – named Friendship and Tigger Moth – were taking rice, baby wipes, beans, baby formula, medicine and other supplies to Cuba amid a US-imposed oil embargo and energy crisis.
“The captains and crews are experienced sailors, and both vessels are equipped with appropriate safety systems and signalling equipment,” a spokesperson for the convoy told Reuters. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and remain confident in the crews’ ability to reach Havana safely.”
Mexico has deployed naval teams and military search aircraft to track down the missing two boats. It has also established contact with rescue centres from each country represented by the missing crew.
Earlier this week, the Cuban government welcomed the arrival of another boat that sailed in from Mexico carrying 14 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including solar panels, medicines and baby formula.
Upon arrival, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila told Novara Media: “We are going to mobilise for the just causes in this world – just as Cuba always did.”
Avila added that the flotilla is a “gesture of solidarity” that the world will not leave Cuba to fend for itself amid the US’s oil blockade.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/two-cuba-flotilla-boats-have-gone-missing-mexican-navy-says/

2026-03-27 11:33:42 CET

Britain Is Picking up the Tab for Trump’s War
Ahead of what is predicted to be a bruising set of local and devolved parliamentary elections in May, we’re already getting a taste of the economic consequences of Starmer’s inability to keep Britain out of Trump and Netanyahu’s latest Middle East misadventure.
Of all the G20 nations, [Britain’s economy will be worst hit][1] by the war on Iran. That’s according to analysis by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released yesterday. The OECD’s assessment also has the UK economy growing by just 0.7% this year, downgraded from the 1.2% it predicted in December, before the war began. By contrast, Italy, France and Germany’s growth will only shrink by 0.2% as a result of the war.
Meanwhile – get this – the US actually had its growth forecast upgraded by the OECD due to an increased demand for US oil, all thanks to its illegal war. Now that’s what I call the art of the deal.
How have we ended up with the worst of all worlds? Well, the UK is heavily overreliant on overseas fuel imports and international trade, and fears of higher inflation mean [consumer confidence has collapsed][2] – a fancy way of saying that when things feel uncertain, people are less likely to spend.
While not inviting speculation on my age, I have literally zero adult memories of there not being some sort of economic meltdown occurring in Britain that the many, not the few, end up paying for. The cost of living crisis – which began in 2021 – seems to have morphed into a perma-crisis, stubbornly refusing to budge due to global instability (ie a handful of men starting wars that affect hundreds of millions of people) and successive UK governments failing to reverse the harms of coalition-era austerity.
The US-Israeli war with Iran – now nearly four weeks old – has seen soaring wholesale oil and gas prices, with oil still hovering at [over $100 (£75)][3] a barrel. For mere mortals like you and me, this means higher petrol and diesel prices, more expensive flights and [rising mortgage rates][4]. Major lenders have axed hundreds of deals.
Predictably, chancellor Rachel Reeves responded to the OECD report with an “It wasn’t me, guv.” “The war in the Middle East is not one that we started,” she said, “nor is it a war we have joined.” But the markets don’t care who started it – Britain’s economy will be hit regardless. What’s more, the UK is undeniably involved, with Starmer [expanding British complicity][5] last week to include [letting the US use British bases][6] to launch strikes on Iran, including the strait of Hormuz.
Reeves won’t be offering much help with energy bills, either, [only potential targeted support][7] for the poorest households “within our iron-clad fiscal rules”. Small comfort for everyone who isn’t a millionaire. A Green party source told me that the impact is coming, and Labour has its head in the sand.
Some people are doing well out of the current situation, though. One is Jeremy Hosking, a [major Reform donor][8] and boss of hedge fund Hosking Partners. The value of Hosking Partners’ energy and fossil fuel investments has [risen by more than $25m (£19m)][9] since the war began, according to analysis by Democracy for Sale.
Reform’s big beasts – [leader Nigel Farage][10], [deputy Richard Tice][11] and [Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns][12] – went hard on support for the US-Israeli war early doors. [Farage has since rowed back][13], perhaps realising that the conflict and UK involvement in it are [deeply unpopular with the British public][14]. His party also [U-turned this week][15] on its pledge to nationalise water and energy companies, a proposal that polls [consistently well][16], in a mask-off moment that highlights [the interests Reform truly serves][17].
Despite [the 6-point polling hit][18] Reform has taken from a September high of 29% (likely from its [recent warmongering][19] and [welcoming of high-profile Tory defectors][20]), it’s still set to win big on 7 May. The FT predicts [net council seat gains of over 2,200][21] for the turquoise team.
Starmer’s handling of the war in Iran, and the yellow-bellied balancing act he’s attempting to pull off, will be a factor, but the upcoming elections will mostly be a verdict on how badly Labour has wasted its parliamentary majority. Has the government tackled the cost of living crisis or made people feel the much-vaunted “change” the party promised after 14 years of Tory rule?
Voters are fed up with pointless bloody wars and a financial doom loop writ large across Britain’s high streets and public services. The two-party system is over – our vassal status with the US should be, too.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/26/middle-east-conflict-will-damage-uk-economy-more-than-any-other
[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/26/uk-consumer-confidence-has-collapsed-iran-war-retail-industry-energy-prices-inflation
[3]: https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price
[4]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y7gnkez3lo
[5]: https://www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-is-involved-in-trumps-iran-war/
[6]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36rny6xgppo
[7]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/24/rachel-reeves-rules-out-universal-support-energy-bills
[8]: https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-reform-uks-donations-have-come?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
[9]: https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/farages-fossil-fuel-donors-profit-iran-war
[10]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/nigel-farage-iran-us-war-putin-russia-new-statesman-interview-reform
[11]: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/reform-accused-of-being-in-an-almighty-mess-over-shifting-iran-war-stance_uk_69ae90f4e4b0fe5c2e757a67
[12]: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bemusement-as-lincolnshire-mayor-andrea-jenkyns-gives-thoughts-on-iran-war-403966/
[13]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/10/nigel-farage-u-turn-uk-iran-war
[14]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54243-uk-public-opinion-on-the-us-iran-conflict
[15]: https://www.ft.com/content/be4b6cf0-21c8-466b-9458-dac864ab51b1?syn-25a6b1a6=1
[16]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/trackers/support-for-bringing-energy-companies-back-into-public-ownership
[17]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/05/09/reform-is-the-political-arm-of-the-fossil-fuel-industry/
[18]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/trackers/voting-intention
[19]: https://unherd.com/newsroom/iran-war-is-turning-nigel-farage-into-a-neocon/
[20]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33j7m7y17xo
[21]: https://www.ft.com/content/6364a72a-c04d-4074-b245-fcbc55852b10?syn-25a6b1a6=1
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/27/britain-is-picking-up-the-tab-for-trumps-war/

2026-03-26 20:52:40 CET

Trump Lashes Out at NATO Allies Over War on Iran
Trump says U.S.’s NATO allies have done “absolutely nothing” to aid the illegal war on Iran.
Plus: A man filmed ‘Intimidating’ Al Jazeera Journalists in Golders Green is a Met police officer, does the UK need a ‘DOGE of the Left’?, and a huge blow for big tech.
With Helena (NoJusticeMTG) & Curtis Daly.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/26/trump-lashes-out-at-nato-allies-over-war-on-iran/

2026-03-26 17:32:12 CET

UK Abstains on UN Vote to Describe Slavery As ‘Greatest Crime Against Humanity’
The UK abstained on a UN resolution to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” despite overwhelming support from non-European countries.
At the UN General Assembly vote on 25 March, 123 countries voted in favour of the resolution, whilst just three – the US, Israel and Argentina – voted against. The UK and several EU member states were amongst 52 that abstained.
The resolution called for reparations to address historical injustices, which saw 12.5 million Africans abducted and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries.
The Netherlands is the only European country to have ever formally apologised for its role in the slave trade.
In an official statement, the UK said it recognised “the abhorrent nature of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, which inflicted untold harm and misery on millions of people over many decades”.
However, the government took issue with the legal wording of the resolution and argued that “we must not create a hierarchy of historical atrocities”.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told the Telegraph: “We are committed to deepening respectful, long-term partnerships with African countries, rooted in mutual respect, that deliver real change for people’s lives.
“The UK’s position on reparations is clear – we will not pay them.”
According to the National Archives, Britain was the most dominant slave-trading nation between 1640 and 1807 and transported an estimated 3.1m Africans to the British colonies in the Americas and Caribbean.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/26/uk-abstains-on-un-vote-to-describe-slavery-as-greatest-crime-against-humanity/

2026-03-26 11:29:39 CET

Met Police Resumes Arrests for Palestine Action Supporters Despite High Court Ruling
The Metropolitan police will resume arresting people supporting Palestine Action despite saying just weeks ago that it would stop.
On 13 February, the Met announced it would stop making arrests following a landmark judicial review which ruled that the government’s proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful.
However, on 25 March, the Met issued a new statement saying it would resume making arrests until the home secretary’s appeal on last month’s judgement is over, treating the high court ruling as only an “interim position”.
Deputy assistant commissioner James Harman said: “While the High Court has found the proscription of Palestine Action to be unlawful, it has confirmed the impact of that judgment will not take effect until the government’s appeal has been considered which could take many months.
“That means it is still a criminal offence to support Palestine Action.
“We must enforce the law as it is at the time, not as it might be at a future date.”
In response, activist group Defend Our Juries said: “The ban on Palestine Action is currently ruled unlawful. Right now.
“Nothing says ‘clear guidance’ like regularly changing your mind over the unlawful arrests of thousands of peaceful protesters for holding paper signs,” the group added.
The court of appeal will hear the government’s case on 28 and 29 April, but the Met warned that it could last months.
More than 2,700 people have been arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action since it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July 2025 – more people than during the entire ‘war on terror’.
Proscription makes it a criminal offence to support an organisation, punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
Palestine Action is a British direct action group founded in 2020 with the aim of ending Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.
The group has recorded 45 instances of using direct action to block the functioning of the arms industry, with key targets Elbit Systems and RAF Brize Norton among those disrupted.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/26/met-police-resumes-arrests-for-palestine-action-supporters-despite-high-court-ruling/

2026-03-25 21:26:00 CET

Iran MOCKS Trump, Says US “Negotiating With Itself”
“Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you,” says Iranian military spokesperson.
Plus: What the West gets wrong about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and Americans don’t know where Iran is.
With Micahel Walker, Helena(NoJusticeMTG) & Professor Sina Azodi.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/25/iran-mocks-trump-says-us-negotiating-with-itself/

2026-03-25 14:06:36 CET

Cuba Aid Flotilla Arrives in Havana
After five days at sea, the first ships from the Nuestra América convoy arrived in Havana, Cuba, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Sailing from Mexico bearing much-needed aid, including medical supplies and sanitary products, the flotilla is part of the Nuestra América convoy. Hundreds of activists from Europe, South America and the United States have joined that convoy, travelling to Cuba to stand in solidarity with the Cuban people as they endure a prolonged, US-imposed energy blockade.
Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila was on board the first ship. Ávila sailed to Gaza last year as an organiser of the Global Sumud flotilla. His attempt to break the siege on the enclave was thwarted by the Israeli military, with hundreds of people taken into Israeli custody.
The flotilla “shows that the people of the world will never leave Cuba alone,” Ávila said, speaking to Novara Media at the port, “And that we do not fear US imperialism, and we don’t accept to be ruled by big banks, the military-industrial complex or the Epstein syndicate. Never.”
Ávila went on: “We are going to mobilise for the just causes in this world – just as Cuba always did.”
The siege of Cuba has seen rolling blackouts since January 2026, when US president Donald Trump blocked the shipment of oil from Venezuela to the island while threatening sanctions against any other country that tried to intervene. That culminated in an island-wide blackout last Monday, and another on Saturday. Now, water supplies in some parts of the country have been affected too. Yet the international community has done little to ease the siege of the island.
Speaking in Havana over the weekend, former Labour party leader and Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn had this message for the British government: “Stand up to Donald Trump, stand up to the USA, and say we don’t accept your blockade of Cuba. We recognise and have always traded with Cuba. They should be ensuring that oil gets through to Cuba.”
Almost totally reliant on imported oil, the blockade has created an economic and material crisis in Cuba. Food prices have rapidly increased, transport has ground to a halt and tens of thousands of operations have been delayed as Cuba’s hospitals struggle to access medicines and electricity.
Meanwhile, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio has told journalists the country is readying itself for potential US aggression. “Our military is always prepared, and in fact it is preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression,” he said, adding that it would be “naive” not to, given “what’s happening around the world”.
Also disembarking the flotilla to cheers and singing from the crowd at Havana Harbour was US activist Olivia DiNuccio. Asked about the country’s aggression towards Cuba, she said: “My own tax dollars go to this. The US war machine takes all our money, and yet that money should be given to the people and the planet.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/25/cuba-aid-flotilla-arrives-in-havana/

2026-03-25 13:35:47 CET

US-Israeli Attacks Have Damaged or Destroyed 600 Schools in Iran
The US and Israel have [damaged or destroyed][1] more than 85,000 civilian structures in Iran since late February, including 64,583 homes, 600 schools and 281 medical facilities, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Wednesday.
Pir-Hossein Kolivand, president of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, said missiles had also hit 17 rescue points and 12 rescue vehicles. He described the US and Israel’s actions as “war crimes”.
The figures come after the official death toll in Iran passed 1,500. The vast majority of the casualties have been civilians, including the roughly 170 schoolchildren whom the US killed in Minab on the first day of the war. Amnesty International [called][2] the Minab attack a ”serious breach of international humanitarian law”.
Kolivand referenced a US-Israeli strike against a Red Crescent ambulance in the city of Lar, southern Iran, earlier this month. “Nothing at all was left of the ambulance while they were transporting injured people,” he said in a video.
Over the weekend, Iran launched a fresh wave of retaliatory attacks against Israel, reportedly injuring around 180 people. Fifteen Israelis have been [killed][3] by Iranian attacks in this conflict, while commentators have noted that Israel’s air defence systems, the most well-known of which is the Iron Dome, have been badly weakened by the war.
[1]: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/us-israeli-attacks-damage-over-85-000-civilian-sites-in-iran-red-crescent-chief-says/3878434
[2]: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/usa-iran-those-responsible-for-deadly-and-unlawful-us-strike-on-school-that-killed-over-100-children-must-be-held-accountable/
[3]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/23/unprecedented-israel-us-carry-out-extensive-strikes-across-iran#:~:text=Iran's%20death%20toll%20in%20the,choppy%20as%20Asian%20trading%20opened.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/25/us-israeli-attacks-have-damaged-or-destroyed-600-schools-in-iran/

2026-03-24 21:08:04 CET

Trump DITCHES Steve Witkoff for JD Vance in Iran Talks
As Pakistan hosts peace talks between the US and Iran, JD Vance has been touted for a new role in the negotiations.
Plus: Rachel Reeves outlines her plan to deal with soaring energy costs, Steven Methven reports from Havana amid a blackout, and an interview with Ted Cruz suggests that Republicans have given up on America.
With Aaron Bastani, Kieran Andrieu & Angus Hanton.
Watch Steven Methven’s extended report from Havana:
[https://youtu.be/VeDDo4HhNVo][1]
[1]: https://youtu.be/VeDDo4HhNVo
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/trump-ditches-steve-witkoff-for-jd-vance-in-iran-talks/

2026-03-24 18:12:39 CET

Zohran Mamdani Gets 8,000 Potholes Filled in a Single Day
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pothole purge saw nearly 8,000 craters filled in a single day – the same number that would usually take New York’s Department of Transport (DOT) a week.
At 6am Saturday, 80 crews headed out to attack the Big Apple’s roads, following on from a similar mission the weekend before.
Pothole complaints are at a record high in New York this year after a harsh winter which adversely affected the city’s aging infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Queens resident Jaikarran Seenarian was killed after his electric scooter hit a pothole, sending him flying.
“In a single day, [crews will] fill thousands of potholes that pop up every year as spring arrives and our city streets begin to thaw,” said Mamdani, ahead of the first blitz.
“Safe, accessible streets are a basic promise of city government, and after a historically brutal winter, I’m incredibly grateful to the DOT teams who are not wasting a moment of time in delivering the street improvements we need.”
One of the first jobs Mamdani took on in January was repairing a bump on the foot of Williamsburg Bridge, a hazard notorious for felling cyclists.
According to the New York Times, the incident signaled early on that Mamdani was raring to take on “long ignored street improvements – the kind of meat-and-potatoes issue that some previous mayors have struggled to deliver on”.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/zohran-mamdani-gets-8000-potholes-filled-in-a-single-day/

2026-03-24 13:12:58 CET

Palantir Has Been Awarded yet Another UK Government Contract
The controversial US spytech firm Palantir has been awarded a contract to analyse highly sensitive government data, despite loud opposition from campaigners decrying the firm’s role in abetting the Gaza genocide and the immigration crackdown in the US.
Palantir will be paid £30,000 per month to analyse highly sensitive data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), raising questions about what the firm would do with that data – and why Palantir is ever more embedded in the British state.
The Miami-based firm already boasts contracts with the UK government worth over £500m, with its technology implanted in the NHS, the police and the military.
The latest contract – for which the government named only one, anonymised competitor – is part of the FCA’s drive to clamp down on rule-breakers amongst the 42,000 financial services firms it regulates.
Palantir will be given access to troves of financial data and asked to sort it, giving the company founded by billionaire Trump-donor Peter Thiel another view into the inner workings of the UK.
Speaking to the Guardian, an FCA insider asked: “Once Palantir understands how we detect money-laundering threats, how do we know that they are ethically reliable enough not to go to share that information?”
The multi-billion dollar company has built custom tools for ICE to help it identify targets for deportation in the US and announced a partnership with Israel for battle technology and “war-related missions” in January 2024.
Yesterday, MPs urged the Labour government to rethink the latest FCA contract.
Green party MP Siân Berry said: “Companies like Palantir should have no place within UK government systems when they are closely involved in President Trump’s illegal wars.”
The Greens’ leader, Zack Polanski, launched a campaign against Palantir this January, calling on the government to sever all contracts with the firm.
Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat MP and member of the Commons technology committee, said: “We are creating a single behemoth that our UK firms won’t be able to compete against. We should be developing our own industries.”
The FCA said that Palantir would not control any sensitive data beyond the scope of the work it will be paid for – and when the contract ends, it will be forced to destroy any data and intellectual property it has seen.
Palantir said that it was proud to “support the FCA in their vital work to tackle financial crime”.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/palantir-has-been-awarded-yet-another-uk-government-contract/

2026-03-24 13:12:52 CET

Israel Is Struggling to Divide Lebanon
[A tower block in Beirut with graffiti that reads 'fuck Israel'.]
The skies over Beirut are marked with the daily humming of drones. On days when the weather worsens there is some reprieve for the city of 2.5 million, almost half the population of Lebanon, because diminished aerial visibility impedes this preferred method of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combat.
The permanent buzzing is integral to Israel’s strategy. Sometimes, even when bombs aren’t dropped, at night the drones remain low and loud overhead. “Every night my son is scared,” said Ali, a delivery man outside a cafe where we sit each morning. “He holds on to me so tight.”
The predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh, where we talk, is comparatively safe. The Israeli intention, colonial to its core, is to produce enough division within Lebanon that the Lebanese state and its army – the former famously corrupt and the latter US-aligned – will take the fight to both Hezbollah and the wider Muslim community [on its behalf][1], with a history of far-right and Christian extremist groups that can be drawn upon to help. Amid such sectarian strife, encouraged by increasing Israeli bombings outside of predominantly Shia areas, Lebanon would become more easily occupied for [the project of Israeli settlement][2].
A nearby billboard shows a cross and a crescent, marking this year’s coinciding Lent and Ramadan – testament to Lebanon’s natural cosmopolitanism that coexists well without external instigation. Hezbollah – a proscribed organisation in the UK which successfully forced the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 – is neither popular across Lebanon’s political spectrum nor so broadly unpopular as Anglosphere media represents, but after [years of broadcast genocide][3] by the Israeli military against Palestinian Arabs, Lebanese Arabs need no convincing that Israelis are not their friends.
There is no significant constituency of Lebanese people eager to fight other Lebanese people on behalf of Zionism.
As is its habit, the IDF reserves its worst bombing for the Dahiya neighbourhood, and has [killed hundreds of residents][4] of this working-class, tightly-knit suburb of predominantly but not exclusively Shia Muslims. Dahiya itself is the namesake of the Dahiya Doctrine, [an IDF method mandating total destruction][5] in order to punish any locality that harbours resistance. Gadi Eisenkot, author of the infamous doctrine, had to bury his son in December 2023 [after he was killed ][6]in an ambush by the Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam, as the Israeli army carried out its genocide in Gaza.
A few blocks over from the rubble of buildings, children play and people smoke shisha, while foam mattresses are supplied to ease the hardship of those now homeless. Mutual aid groups have sprung up across the country, and though the Israelis once seeded a vicious sectarianism during its civil war years, a fragile yet real Lebanese national identity of inclusivity has since formed.
Beirut restaurants have opened kitchens to provide meals for the displaced, [now numbering one in five Lebanese][7]. “This is how we will make it through this situation,” says Heba, a waitress. “Now is not a time to feel, it’s a time to act. This is the kind of project that makes you belong; it’s like everyone around you, literally everyone, is a single entity. This is solidarity.”
Outside the attention given to Beirut, such humanity carries higher risks. In the south, near the Israeli border, the largely Christian village of Rmeich was [ordered by Israelis to evict ][8]their Muslim neighbours sheltering from bombings, or be bombed together.
Nour, from Saida, south of Beirut, tells me the Israelis, during the last week of Ramadan, bombed three times inside the Palestinian camp, once during iftar. “We are expected to move on and live as if nothing happened, we just talked about dinner,” Nour says. “We are not better than Gaza; we have nothing but fate right now, just praying.”
Hamze, my Palestinian-Lebanese friend from a bombed northern camp by the Syrian border, asks after Beirut. His reply is upbeat: “If you’re alive, bro, you’re ok.”
Faced with public spiritedness, Israelis are redoubling their violence. Starting with attacks on displaced people [camped on the Beirut seafront][9], the first of which killed eight people, they have begun targeting the downtown area. White-collar professionals like doctors and academics – the sort of people Lebanon’s stiff classism dictates are supposed to be safe – have found they aren’t any longer.
The Israeli hope is that the Lebanese people do not blame Israel for bombing them, but instead blame Hezbollah for resuming self-defence after [incessant ceasefire violations ][10]in Lebanese villages that Israelis say are necessary for security – villages some Israeli groups also covet on the basis that [they were promised to Jews in the Torah][11].
[A mural in Beirut depicting the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli bomb attack in 2024. ]The Nasrallah shrine in Haret Hreik, Beirut. Credit: Julian Sayarer
Nevertheless, a spirit of resistance endures. While the Israelis mistakenly presumed that Hezbollah’s honouring a ceasefire meant it must have been destroyed, the contrary seems true. Defensive fire towards northern Israeli settlements has resumed, meaning the IDF’s bombing and ground invasion has carried costs. Ahron Bregman, a British-Israeli historian at King’s College London, who was recently in Tel Aviv for research and caught in the war, corroborates this view.
“This region poses military challenges due to its terrain,” Bregman explains. “Hezbollah inflicted many casualties when Israel deployed there between 1985 and 2000, and Israeli actions now play straight into Hezbollah’s hands.
“Its guerrillas are more familiar with the terrain and will launch attacks against the invaders, and Hezbollah now has an excuse not to disarm. It can say that while the Lebanese army is unable to confront the Israelis, Hezbollah can and should retain its weapons.”
Since October 2023, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the opposition with which he competes for a political spectrum of abject narrowness, have all championed Israeli reorientation around war under a brand of [“super Sparta”][12], but society is straining under the psychological and economic fallout of its multifrontal extreme violence. Bregman’s reflections on the mood as Iran responded to US-Israeli attacks leave little hope of correction.
“I spent long hours with Israelis in shelters and was struck by their strong support for the government,” said Bregman. “This surprised me because people of Tel Aviv tend to be liberal, leftwing, and staunch opponents of Netanyahu. Yet, they support the war. It seems as though they have been brainwashed.”
While Israeli bombing has now displaced the southern population of Lebanon, prompting a nationwide housing crisis, the mountains of the south still constitute a fortress for Hezbollah. [Its fighters have claimed][13] the destruction of numerous Merkava tanks, and the IDF’s advance is floundering. The communities that sustain the struggle, as well as Lebanese youth – less sectarian than their parents’ generation, more instinctive in their support for Palestine – are unbowed before both Zionists and threats of a corrupt Lebanese state that might consider collaborating with them.
“If nobody truly cares about [Palestinians’] freedom, it doesn’t mean neither should we,” says Dayane, a young woman from a village in south Lebanon. “The Israelis are irredeemable and so is Zionism, and nobody can impose them on us. I know that us rising against this horror is inherently good for humanity.
“At some point, everyone has to look themselves in the eye and ask what is the purpose of being alive if they are to be so passive and so careless in the face of such horrible things being done?”
Dayane continues: “We are fighting it, despite the difference in capabilities, and because as a community we refuse to do nothing, or watch as 2.2 million people in Gaza are killed, and act like it is a circus, or a movie. For all this, despite the pain, yes, I am optimistic.”
[1]: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/3/10/as-israel-intensifies-lebanon-attacks-hezbollah-disarmament-takes-backseat
[2]: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-890444
[3]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/corbyn-calls-for-uk-ministers-to-be-investigated-over-gaza-genocide/
[4]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gjq8qd09o
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/10/07/the-israeli-military-strategies-the-bbc-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about/
[6]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67654848
[7]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30rl05evd8o
[8]: https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1498438/christian-villages-in-south-residents-flee-alma-al-shaab-displaced-evacuated-from-rmeish.html
[9]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/12/israeli-double-tap-strike-hits-displaced-on-beirut-seafront-kills-eight
[10]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/26/lebanon-files-un-complaint-against-israels-daily-ceasefire-violations
[11]: https://jewishcurrents.org/inside-the-movement-to-settle-southern-lebanon-uri-tzafon-israel
[12]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/16/netanyahu-super-sparta-vision-israel-economic-future-isolation
[13]: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-ambushes-israeli-forces--targets-6-merkava-tanks-i
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/israel-is-struggling-to-divide-lebanon/

2026-03-24 10:35:06 CET

The US Is Crippling Cuba With It’s Brutal Oil Blockade
A senior Cuban government official tells us he leaves home without power and returns without power. His son cycles 14 kilometres to work, as an electrician, and comes home to a blackout.
This is life in Cuba right now. Not for ordinary citizens, but for the people running the country.
Novara Media’s Steven Methven reports from Havana on the crisis gripping the island: rolling blackouts, collapsing buildings, medicine shortages, and a US foreign policy decades in the making that has reached a new intensity under Trump.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/the-us-is-crippling-cuba-with-its-brutal-oil-blockade/

2026-03-24 09:06:30 CET

106: When Does the Mask Become the Face?
Moya and Ash react to Louis Theroux’s documentary on the manosphere. The antics of YouTubers like HS and Sneako seem designed to amuse teenage boys and offend the normies – but when does the mask become the face? And who are the women who flock to these influencers? Plus: advice for a man who doesn’t want to dump his emotions on women.
Got a dilemma? Email [email protected]
Join us at [Crossed Wires festival][1] in Sheffield on 4th July.
Music by Matt Huxley.
[1]: https://crossedwires.live/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/24/106-when-does-the-mask-become-the-face/

2026-03-23 18:12:36 CET

Matt Goodwin’s New Anti-Immigration Book ‘Based on AI Hallucinations’
Defeated Reform parliamentary candidate Matt Goodwin has been accused of using ChatGPT to research his latest book.
Goodwin, the GB News presenter who contested the Gorton and Denton byelection last month, published Suicide of a Nation: Immigration, Islam, Identity on 16 March.
Early readers of the book say that it includes fake quotes, cites non-existent articles and relies on “AI hallucinations” to make statistical claims.
“I’m only 5 chapters in and have found a huge amount of what appears to be false quotes and basic misinterpretations of data that appear to be AI hallucinations,” wrote Andy Twelves, a New Statesman contributor, in a long thread on X.
Twelves accused Goodwin of “statistical illiteracy” regarding the claim that most primary schoolchildren in Leicester, Luton and Slough do not speak English as a “main language”. Children who grow up speaking an additional language at home are more than capable of speaking English fluently or as a “main language” at school, Twelves pointed out.
Goodwin’s book also includes quotations from Roman statesman Cicero, economist Friedrich Hayek and political theorist James Burnham – but Twelves claims that none of the quotes exist in the public domain.
John Merrick, deputy editor of The Break-Down, pointed out that several of the book’s footnotes include ChatGPT in the URL – meaning the source of information was not found by Goodwin, but generated by the AI chatbot.
“If the research of Goodwin’s book was conducted mainly by AI, then he’s done a terrible job of hiding it,” Merrick wrote on X.
He added that there are only 12 footnotes in the book, with five referring to Goodwin’s own Substack and two generated by ChatGPT.
Multiple X users who have criticised Goodwin’s methods claim that he has since blocked them.
Goodwin responded: “Everything in this book is based on official UK census data and the very same projections that are used by the Office for National Statistics and expert demographers.”
He added: “The Left don’t want you to read it, they don’t want you to know what is in this book, because they do not want you to know what is happening around you.”
Goodwin was a professor of politics at the University of Kent for nine years until 2024. In February he ran for MP against Green candidate and plumber Hannah Spencer, who won the vote by a margin of over 4,000.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/matt-goodwins-new-anti-immigration-book-based-on-ai-hallucinations/

2026-03-23 14:32:00 CET

Europe’s Credibility Is in Tatters Over Iran
Last Monday, following a US strike in southern Iran, former Swedish prime minister [Carl Bildt posted on X:][1] “Attacking water desalination plants is attacking critical civilian infrastructure. It’s with no doubt a war crime. If this escalates the consequences would be grave”. Of course, the question that arises is not what the “grave consequences” could be, but rather if there is a single human being left on Earth who takes European leaders seriously when they suggest they will hold the US or Israel accountable for, well… anything.
Two days later, president of the European Commission [Ursula von der Leyen followed][2] with a statement that said the quiet part out loud. “Europe can no longer be a custodian […] for a world that has gone and will not return,” she wrote, presumably meaning a world that respects international law, and called instead for a “more realistic and interest-driven foreign policy”. Europeans have used their “values” as a brow-beating tool around the planet for decades. The speed with which they have now dropped them makes their hypocrisy and cynicism that much more breathtaking.
Meanwhile in Britain, Keir Starmer has tried to temper his response to Donald Trump’s call to war with his characteristic tepidness. He see-sawed between not allowing the US access to UK bases, to then allowing it for “defensive purposes”, which apparently includes the bombing of a sovereign nation 3,000 miles away from Britain. Starmer has now ruled out the use of British warships for operations in the Gulf, at least until a new “defensive purpose” presents itself. In the shadow of levels of military spending not seen since the Cold War, leaders in Britain and across Europe have worked hard to present war as an inevitability, instead of the most abject failure, and now struggle to disentangle their narrative from that of Trump’s reckless misadventures.
There is, of course, a broader context. For the past ten years, anyone who believes in the idea of a united, strong and prosperous Europe has instead seen it stumble from one failure to the next. A financial crisis, during which it sacrificed its citizens to the banks. A migration wave that has been dubbed a “crisis” to appease the far right. Multiple environmental and climate policy promises that have been flushed down the political toilet. The UK leaving the EU, one of the bloc’s largest and most powerful members. Wars raging in Ukraine and Iran, and Israel’s genocide in Palestine, with the majority of Europe having assumed the role of US vassal – at best a spectator, at worst an enabler. Sovereignty, international law and human rights have all become outdated terms.
In a world ablaze, Europe’s decades of weak leadership and myopic policies have placed it in the hands of those it is dependent on – in particular, an increasingly desperate US. Whispers of European independence are uttered when our bullies are not listening, but are immediately retracted when our servile leadership reacts to Israeli or US pressure with a seemingly reflexive bending of the knee. The great pretense of being the sober and calm “adults in the room” when faced with firebrand counterparts has become the screen behind which decades of incremental vacuousness are hidden.
Any change must start with resisting the catastrophic direction we have collectively taken. War, environmental and climate collapse, racism and xenophobia and ever deteriorating living conditions for the majority are not inevitable: they are the price we pay to enrich the few, and impoverish everyone else – be they migrant or Europe-born. We must engage in principled voting rather than dependency on the logic of the “lesser evil”, local organising against interests that turn every aspect of our lives into profit, and speaking truth to power, no matter how absurd our enemies try to make us appear.
There are many who speak out but are systematically silenced. In Britain and in Europe, resistance is growing at every level, gathering the strength to become the force that could shatter decades of a failing, dead-end system. It is high time that the voices of a humane alternative unite to unlock the hope we need to believe that our future is not, in fact, doomed.
*On Tuesday 24 March, Yanis and Erik will speak alongside Zack Polanski, Jeremy Corbyn, Francesca Albanese and others at an event in London to mark the 10-year anniversary of *[*DiEM25*][3]*. For tickets, *[*click here*][4]*.*
[1]: https://x.com/i/status/2030650443932594368
[2]: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/03/09/von-der-leyen-and-kallas-call-on-europe-to-adapt-to-chaotic-coercive-world-order
[3]: https://diem25.org/en/
[4]: https://dice.fm/partner/tickets/event/yo6kbp-resistance-is-existence-the-fight-for-our-future-24th-mar-troxy-london-tickets
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/europes-credibility-is-in-tatters-over-iran/

2026-03-23 12:19:59 CET

Leftists Hold Onto Power in France’s Big Cities
The Socialist Party’s Emmanuel Grégoire won the Paris mayoral election yesterday evening – while leftwing victories in Marseille, Lille and Lyon warded off France’s far-right party National Rally (RN).
In Paris, Grégoire has vowed to build 60,000 new social and affordable housing units to combat the overuse of residential homes as tourist lets. He also plans to build more cycle lanes and improve the condition of the River Seine.
“I’m thinking of the most fragile people, those who will sleep on the streets tonight,” said the incumbent mayor, whose party has been the Parisian favourite for 25 years. “I’m thinking of children who are suffering … all the most vulnerable who need the left.”
“Paris will be the heart of the resistance against this alliance of the right, which seeks to take away what we hold most precious and fragile: the simple joy of living together,” he added.
Gregoire saw off conservative candidate and former culture minister Rachida Dati with an estimated 52% of the vote.
Elsewhere in France’s local elections, the incumbent leftist mayor of Marseille, Benoit Payan, beat RN candidate Franck Allisio. In Nimes, the Communist candidate Vincent Bouget led a left coalition to defeat the far-right. RN had hoped to take both key southern cities.
Socialists and their allies also held onto their seats in Lyon and Lille.
But despite losses in France’s four biggest cities, Marine Le Pen’s RN was successful in the smaller towns of Menton, Carcassonne, Orange and Castres.
The leader of the hard-right UDR party, Eric Ciotti – an ally of Le Pen – also won in the city of Nice.
The success of the Socialist Party offers renewed hope for the traditional left, with the far-right failing to win many of its targets.
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/leftists-hold-onto-power-in-frances-big-cities/

2026-03-23 11:35:02 CET

10 Seats to Watch in the Local Elections
Thursday 7 May will see voters across England, Scotland and Wales head to the polls for the biggest set of elections since the 2024 general election.
In England, voters will elect around 5,000 councillors across 136 local authorities, and crown six directly elected local mayors. All 32 London borough councils, 32 metropolitan districts, 18 unitary authorities, six county councils (delayed from 2025) and 48 district councils are up for grabs.
Scotland will elect 129 members to Holyrood (Scottish parliament), while Wales will elect 96 Senedd (Welsh parliament) members via a [closed proportional list system][1] for the first time following the 2024 Senedd Reform Act.
This year’s elections are widely viewed as a referendum on prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, which began tanking in the polls pretty quickly after it won a loveless landslide in 2024.
Most of England’s seats up for election were last won in 2022, when Labour made gains during the fallout over the [partygate scandal][2], presided over by Boris Johnson. Back then, Labour was polling around 35% in opposition and benefiting from voter anger towards the Conservative government.
Now, things look very different. Starmer’s premiership has been [beset by scandals][3], [U-turns][4], [increasing authoritarianism][5] and a lack of moral leadership over Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The party is polling at a [woeful 17% nationally][6] and while a Labour wipeout could likely spell a leadership change, it’s unclear who would be willing to accept the poisoned chalice.
Reform is also contesting wards for the first time, and although it is [now polling around 23%][7] – six full points down from highs of 29% last autumn – Nigel Farage’s party is projected to take control of county councils in England’s rural heartlands of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as [dominating the Senedd elections][8], along with Plaid Cymru.
Meanwhile, the Greens are on the rise, with 50 Labour councillors [defecting to the party][9] in the last six months, and [high hopes][10] for the upcoming elections from leader Zack Polanski.
Here are ten seats you should be watching ahead of 7 May.
### 1. Newcastle (all out).
The minority Labour administration on Newcastle city council is under pressure from Greens and independents in this round of elections.
All 78 seats are up for grabs on 7 May, and the former North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll is standing for election as a Green party candidate in Monument ward – a councillor position he previously held for Labour before taking the mayoralty in 2019.
Reform has enjoyed success in the north east already, sweeping the board in the Durham county council elections last year with [a gain of 65 seats from zero][11]. But Newcastle could be where Reform runs into trouble in the region. Driscoll told Novara Media that “we’re being told Reform is unstoppable – but that’s not what we’re seeing”, and [predicted last summer][12] that an alliance of Greens and independents could take control of Newcastle city council.
A local source told Novara Media that if Labour is wiped out, the real test will be how a Green, Lib Dem and Reform council grapples with local authority staff and processes to successfully work together.
### 2. Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni (Senedd).
The Senedd Reform Act in Wales means 16 new super-constituencies have been created for the Senned elections, sitting alongside the 32 preexisting constituencies that elect MPs to Westminster. Each new super-constituency will elect six members of the Senedd (MSs) – 96 in total.
[YouGov polling][13] in January had Plaid surging ahead of Reform as the predicted largest party, with 37% of respondents saying they’d vote for the Welsh nationalist party (a seven-point increase since September 2025), the Greens in third (having never had an elected MS), and Labour in fourth – its weakest position in history. In February, a [Beaufort Research poll][14] had Reform on 27%, however – just two points below Plaid – while a [More in Common poll][15] projected Reform would get an overall majority.
One seat to watch in particular is the new south Wales super-constituency of Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni (Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Rhymney), where Plaid is [projected to elect][16] three MSs, Labour two and Reform one.
Caerphilly was won by Plaid in a stunning by-election victory in October, with Lindsay Whittle taking 47% of the vote and [ending over 100 years of Labour dominance][17] in the seat. Whittle spent decades fighting to secure the seat, and now must battle for it again, less than a year later.
### 3. Galloway and West Dumfries (Scottish parliament).
In Scotland, polling has the Scottish National Party (SNP) taking between 33% and 37% of the vote, as Reform surges into second place. A [February Find Out Now poll ][18]commissioned after Scottish Labour leader [Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to resign ][19]over [the Peter Mandelson scandal][20] had the SNP winning 36% of the constituency vote, with Reform second on 21% and Labour polling a trailing third on 12%.
The Scottish parliament elects via a mixed additional member system (AMS) across eight regions which are then divided into 73 constituencies. Each constituency elects one member of Scottish parliament (MSP) by first-past-the-post, and each region elects seven MSPs via D’Hondt PR. New constituency and regional boundaries will come into play this time around, with 21 seats changing shape or name. A party needs 65 seats for a Holyrood majority, and [PollCheck predicts][21] the SNP will win 61, although the SNP would do less well if pure PR was used rather than an AMS mix.
The southern constituency of Galloway and West Dumfries, where the Tories comfortably won 47% of the vote in 2021, is predicted to be an SNP gain.
The seat was created in its current form in 2011, cobbling together parts of the Labour-voting Dumfries and the Galloway and Upper Nithsdale (Tory vs SNP) constituencies. According to [MPR polling][22] for the Times in February, the SNP will knock the Tories firmly into third place, with Reform snapping at the nationalists’ heels in second.
### 4. Birmingham (all out).
Birmingham city council currently has a massive Labour majority, with the party winning 65 seats and securing more than half of all votes cast in 2022. Labour has run the council – either in overall control or in coalition – for most of the past two decades.
With 101 council seats up for grabs, it’s projected that Labour will lose control. Voters are likely to punish the government over long-running disputes like the city’s bin strike, which has [still not reached a conclusion][23].
The city has a sizeable Muslim population ([around 22%][24] – five times higher than England’s average) and anti-establishment parties and independents stand to benefit from Labour’s void of moral clarity when it comes to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Indeed, [over 1,250 councillors][25] across the UK have [signed a pledge for Palestine][26] ahead of the local elections.
Reform is predicted to pick up seats [in the double figures][27].
### 5. Lincoln (a third of seats).
The East Midlands city of Lincoln’s Labour-controlled council could be in real trouble. It was one of 30 councils that voted to cancel its 2026 elections before the government was forced to roll back and commit to holding all planned elections.
A third of the council’s 33 seats are up for grabs in the city’s usual staggered process that sees 11 seats voted on in each cycle. In 2024, Labour took eight seats out of 11 with 45% of the vote, but this year is expected to be very different, with Reform projected to make significant gains.
A source close to the matter told Novara Media that there’s a really good chance that Labour will lose overall control of the council – flipping it to no overall control – and lose in at least half of the eight wards it’s actively defending. The source added that Starmer would have to go, if so – but the problem in Labour is more systemic than just the prime minister.
### 6. Barnsley (all out).
Every Barnsley council seat will be up for election on the same day in May – a first in the authority’s 50-year history.
The South Yorkshire town used to follow a similar pattern to Lincoln, electing a third of councillors every year over a three-year period, but this time around, following a review of boundaries, all 63 councillors will be elected at once.
Labour – which has held a majority on Barnsley council since the borough’s formation in 1974 – is [predicted to suffer a wipeout][28], with Reform taking control. But while Barnsley could be a barnstorming win for Farage’s party, it remains to be seen if the [regeneration of the ][29]town centre will serve to shore up the Labour vote.
### 7. Hackney (council and mayor).
Hackney council has been won by Labour in every election (bar one, no overall control) since 1971. All council 57 seats and the position of Hackney mayor are up for election, with the Greens’ mayoral candidate councillor Zoë Garbett challenging Labour incumbent Caroline Woodley.
A Green party source told Novara Media that they’re getting lots more help on the ground thanks to an influx of volunteers. The Greens initially planned to only run candidates in five wards out of 21 – they’re now fielding candidates in every ward.
The source added that on the door, people who’ve voted Labour in the past are consistently saying they’re fed up with the party and are willing to to turn to the Greens.
Seven Labour councillors confirmed last month [they will stand down][30] on 7 May, and one councillor defected from Labour to the Greens mid-council meeting earlier this month [over claims of “institutional racism”][31] in her former party.
A local Hackney resident told Novara Media that the Greens coming out strongly against the NHS’s contract with US spytech firm Palantir could be a not-insignificant part of a potential Green victory in the area. Local campaigners are urging the Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to [reject using Palantir software][32] that processes patient data via the NHS Federated Data Platform.
### 8. Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr (Senedd).
Former Welsh Labour MP Beth Winter is running in the new south Wales super-constituency of Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr as an independent [after quitting Your Party][33].
With one person, one vote and six seats to fill, there are [currently 23 candidates][34] running in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, with Labour fielding the most candidates.
To date, Reform has not announced candidates, despite [Farage choosing to launch ][35]Reform’s 2024 general election campaign in Merthyr Tydfil. Reform, Labour and Plaid are [each projected ][36]to win two MS spots out of the six available.
### 9. Essex (county council all-out).
Essex county council’s elections, delayed from 2025, will be held on 7 May, with all 75 seats up for grabs. While PollCheck notes that projections for county councils carry more uncertainty due to the age of baseline data – and the fact that Reform hasn’t stood in all-out local elections before – it does predict [a huge victory ][37]for Farage’s party.
The east England county council has been under Conservative control in [every election bar one since 1973][38] and currently has 49 Tory councillors – one, Ongar representative Jaymey McIvor, [announced his defection to Reform][39] in October 2024.
If predictions are correct, the council could see a Tory wipeout, with Reform taking control with more than 40 seats. After being accused of [“privately” seeking to cancel the elections][40] by ex-Tory chairman-turned-Reform-member Jake Berry, council leader Kevin Bentley [publicly denied requesting][41] a postponement.
A local source told Novara Media that Essex has a similar demographic to Kent, and warned Essex residents to take note of what has happened at the Reform-controlled council there. In Kent, councillors [voted to increase council tax][42] despite Reform promising a cut. The flagship Reform council has also been [accused of fabricating savings figures][43] and cancelling net zero projects that “never existed”.
### 10. Lewisham (council and mayor).
The borough of Lewisham in southeast London is electing all 54 council seats and a local mayor. The area has a [strong history of anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigning][44], and Labour has won control of the council in all but two elections in its 62-year history.
In 2022, Labour swept a massive 50-seat majority. However, Green mayoral candidate Liam Shrivastava, [who defected from Labour ][45]as a councillor in June 2025 over Palestine, is hopeful for a rupture in Labour’s tight grip on the borough.
Shrivastava told Novara Media that a “spell has been broken” in terms of the Greens being seen as a wasted vote thanks to a “massive mindset shift since Gorton and Denton”. Green candidate [Hannah Spencer beat both Reform and Labour][46] to secure what had been a historically deep-red Greater Manchester seat in the February by-election.
“Labour has massively taken people for granted in Lewisham and the delivery of services is poor because they’ve had no opposition,” Shrivastava said. “It’s total Labour dominance that creates this sense of complacency where bad decisions get made and there’s a real lack of accountability.”
The Greens are predicted to [gain 12 seats in Lewisham][47] but Labour to remain in overall control of the council. Shrivastava is up against Labour councillor Amanda De Ryk and Tory candidate Sylbourne Sydial for Lewisham mayor.
[1]: https://senedd.wales/how-we-work/our-role/senedd-election-and-member-changes/#:~:text=live%20in%20Wales.-,How%20is%20the%20voting%20system%20changing%3F,-The%20way%20you
[2]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59952395
[3]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/czx3lq460n6t
[4]: https://www.politico.eu/article/keir-starmer-7-times-mp-u-turn-uk-parliament/
[5]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/13/palestine-action-ban-ruled-unlawful-after-judicial-review/
[6]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/trackers/voting-intention
[7]: https://yougov.com/en-gb/trackers/voting-intention
[8]: https://willhaywardwales.substack.com/p/the-big-welsh-politics-predictions
[9]: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/03/12/labour-councillors-defect-greens-fearing-may-wipeout/
[10]: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/07/predict-green-party-wave-zack-polanski-local-elections-byelection-win
[11]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7zz55652do%5C
[12]: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/ex-mayor-jamie-driscoll-stand-32298326
[13]: https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2026-01-13/plaid-cymru-surges-ahead-of-reform-as-labour-in-fourth-place-in-latest-itv-poll
[14]: https://nation.cymru/news/plaid-cymru-holds-narrow-lead-over-reform-in-new-senedd-election-poll/
[15]: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/reform-take-seven-point-lead-33417949
[16]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/welsh_polling/senedd_polling/senedd-2026-seat-calculator
[17]: https://news.sky.com/story/plaid-cymru-win-caerphilly-by-election-in-humiliation-for-labour-13455893
[18]: https://www.thenational.scot/news/25873072.labour-slump-first-holyrood-poll-since-sarwar-turned-starmer/
[19]: https://www.thenational.scot/news/national/25838917.anas-sarwar-calls-sir-keir-starmer-quit-pressure-pm-intensifies/?ref=ed_direct
[20]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/02/peter-mandelson-should-be-stripped-of-his-peerage/
[21]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/holyrood-seat-calculator
[22]: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-facts/what-is-an-mrp-poll/
[23]: https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2026/february/birmingham-bin-workers-vote-to-extend-strikes-past-may-elections-and-into-september
[24]: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50265/supporting_healthier_communities/2436/faith_and_religious_communities/2
[25]: https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/councillorspledges
[26]: https://www.votepalestine.co.uk/
[27]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/locals-2026#/birmingham
[28]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/locals-2026#/barnsley
[29]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgrnkwjvlgo
[30]: https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/7-hackney-councillors-who-quitting-33413045
[31]: https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/drama-emotion-hackney-council-labour-33537048
[32]: https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/data-firm-palantir-used-ice-33304454
[33]: https://nation.cymru/news/ex-welsh-labour-mp-beth-winter-has-left-your-party-and-will-be-standing-for-the-senedd-as-a-community-independent/
[34]: https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/senedd.pontypridd-cynon-merthyr.2026-05-07/
[35]: https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2024-06-17/the-reason-why-reform-uk-chose-to-launch-its-contract-in-wales
[36]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/welsh_polling/senedd_polling/senedd-2026-seat-calculator
[37]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/locals-2026#/essex
[38]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_County_Council_elections
[39]: https://x.com/McivorJaymey/status/1849347659422695705?s=20
[40]: https://x.com/JakeBerry/status/2014332144156279207?s=20
[41]: https://x.com/CllrKBentley/status/2014342570705379706?s=20
[42]: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2026-03-10/nigel-farage-denies-reform-promised-council-tax-cuts-despite-leaflet-pledge
[43]: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/07/reform-run-kent-council-accused-of-fabricating-40m-net-zero-savings
[44]: https://www.gold.ac.uk/global-change/history-research/battle-of-lewisham/what-was-the-battle-of-lewisham/
[45]: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/labour-councillors-defect-greens-support-starmer-london-b1234781.html
[46]: https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/27/greens-thrash-labour-and-reform-in-historic-by-election-win/
[47]: https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/locals-2026#/lewisham
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/10-seats-to-watch-in-the-local-elections/

2026-03-23 11:31:47 CET

Donald Trump Is Trying to Break the Cuban People
[A man in a suit with blonde hair speaks with microphones underneath him held by reporters]
Hundreds of delegates have arrived in Cuba as part of [the Nuestra América convoy][1]. They’ve brought with them medical aid and equipment as well as other essential supplies, tonnes of enthusiasm for the beleaguered island nation and – perhaps most importantly – the attention of the world.
Just in time too. Despite being up to his neck in it over Iran, US president Donald Trump, suffering an acute case of Havana syndrome, is still finding the time to lick his lips at a possible takeover of Cuba. This week, the socialist island experienced [two country-wide blackouts][2] as its electricity grid shut down in the face of a prolonged US oil embargo, one that’s caused rolling blackouts for months.
It’s economic warfare, designed to break the Cuban population. The question is: will it work?
Donald Trump recently spoke of having [“the honour of taking Cuba”][3]. But if that’s what happens – and it’s far from clear that it will – there’ll be nothing honourable about it. Nobody these days writes poems and tributes to sad-sack men who deprive children and the sick of [essential supplies][4] like medicines, energy and clinical equipment to get what they want. And yet that’s exactly what Trump is doing in Cuba, while his lackeys, supporters and a [significant contingent of Cuban émigrés in Miami][5] (just 250 miles from where I’m sitting now), cheer him on.
“Whether I free it, take it,” [said Trump of the island][6], “I think I can do anything I want with it.” That’s a line full of insight – not into the state of the world, but the state of the president’s understanding of it. For him, entire nations are things to be toyed with, to have things done to them or not, to be taken or given, overthrown or bombed. Whole societies are to be subject to his whims, whole populations his playthings.
Sovereignty? That’s for me, not for thee.
Of course, what is happening in Cuba now is only the most intense period of [more than 60 years of US foreign policy][7]. Since 1962, the US has cut off almost all commercial interactions with the island, while encouraging its allies to do the same. For [the last 33 years][8], the rest of the world has largely been opposed to this lawless interference in Cuba’s economic, political and social life, with the UN General Assembly voting annually against the sanctions.
Fat lot of good that did. Except for [a brief period under Barack Obama’s administration][9], the US has pursued its path of Cuban destruction with vigour. That vigour has become feverish under Trump’s second administration, as it seeks to dominate the western hemisphere. That’s something it’s not remotely shy about, having trumpeted [the so-called Donroe doctrine][10] – the muscular reassertion of US dominance in the region.
Except when the lights have all gone out, you can see the impact of that decades-long policy wherever you go in Havana. Buildings still serving as people’s homes are crumbling or even collapsing. Poverty is visible everywhere, as is, in some parts of town, a small but increasingly wealthy class of business owners.
But other markers of economic distress just aren’t there. Unlike in the US, where an accident or disease can leave you and your family destitute, bankrupt or on the streets, Cuba has an excellent health service, with roughly [one doctor to every 130 people][11] (the US has one to around every 400 people). Crime is also incredibly low ([though it has increased alongside the country’s economic troubles][12]) with Cuba’s population suffering violent crimes at a rate almost tenfold lower than in the US.
Given the US (alongside its BFF Israel) is currently bombing Iran in an illegal war while also holding the head of the Venezuelan state and his wife prisoner after a kidnapping operation, there’s an unfunny irony in the state department’s practice of calling Cuba a [state-supporter of terrorism][13] to justify US sanctions, blockades and sieges. As climbing world oil prices – a [direct result of Trump’s attacks on Iran][14] – terrorise people everywhere, it’s Cuba’s citizens, rather than the US’s, being stymied, threatened and starved.
The world owes Cuba more than this, and its people are looking to it for help. As one Cuban asked me, noting that [it took Russia three months to send two ships][15] to ease the oil blockade, “Where is Russia or China?”. And where are all those countries who built their healthcare systems, their independence or both on the backs of Cuban doctors and soldiers? Even [Italy took advantage of Cuba’s medical prowess][16] in 2020, when a medical brigade spent three months helping in Turin as the coronavirus swept terrifyingly through the city.
“We are alone,” is what I’ve been told by more than one Cuban this week. And with multiple US-allies (including the UK) warning their citizens against all but essential travel to the island, they feel more alone than ever. In what should be the country’s peak tourist season, hotels and restaurants are empty; a vital source of income now dried up.
So why does the British foreign office say not to travel? “Cuba,” we’re told, “Is experiencing [severe and worsening disruption][17] to essential infrastructure.” Experiencing. Like a disease or a hurricane, that’s the language of natural disaster. But this is not a natural disaster. It’s a very manmade one. A very American manmade one.
Critics like to say that the current situation is much the fault of the Cuban government. And there are Cubans on the island who will say the same. In fact, I haven’t met many who aren’t, in one way or another, critical of the current administration, accusing it of failing to properly plan, of overinvesting in the tourism sector, or of deprioritising the people it’s supposed to protect. It’s not for me to judge the validity of those complaints, though I’m sympathetic to some. But it’s also simply a matter of fact that every decision current and past Cuban leaders have made has been in an atmosphere strangled of possibility by the US embargo.
Internal criticism may abound, but I haven’t met many Cubans who aren’t proud of their country’s socialist revolution. And I’ve yet to meet any who welcome a US intervention (though I’m told they exist). According to the Atlantic, the White House already has [regime change planned out][18]. And [Cuba’s military is preparing][19].
The question is: will the world let it happen? As it did with Venezuela, and as it is with Iran. Will the international community just sit back – again – as Trump decides to destroy yet another nation?
“Cubans are hopeful people,” one Havana resident told me, “But we are losing hope.”
[1]: https://nuestraamericaconvoy.org/
[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg0l44yxrvo
[3]: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-cuba-military-invasion-b2939753.html
[4]: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/cuba/cubans-fuel-shortages-long-lines-food-rcna264435
[5]: https://www.local10.com/news/2026/03/13/in-miamis-little-havana-hope-is-high-for-us-military-intervention-in-cuba/
[6]: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-he-thinks-he-will-have-honor-taking-cuba-2026-03-16/
[7]: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2022-02-02/cuba-embargoed-us-trade-sanctions-turn-sixty
[8]: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/30/united_nations
[9]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34294821
[10]: https://www.axios.com/2026/01/07/trump-monroe-donroe-doctrine-venezuela-greenland-cuba-colombia
[11]: https://www.europeanceo.com/home/featured/how-cubas-doctors-are-helping-the-world-fight-covid-19/
[12]: https://cubasiglo21.com/crime-in-cuba-continues-to-rise-public-insecurity-report-2024/
[13]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-shouldnt-sponsor-terrorism-list-former-us-officials-say-rcna52728
[14]: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/22/business/oil-prices-stock-futures-iran
[15]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/20/cuba-crisis-fuel-tankers-russia-oil-gas-energy-us-trump.html
[16]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/doctor-diplomacy-cuba-seeks-to-make-its-mark-in-europe-amid-covid-19-crisis
[17]: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/cuba
[18]: https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/03/trump-plan-cuba/686497/
[19]: https://thehill.com/policy/international/5795736-cuba-military-prepares-aggression/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/23/donald-trump-is-trying-to-break-the-cuban-people/

2026-03-23 09:54:38 CET

The Right Is Winning. Here’s How We Change That.
Aaron Bastani sat down with Novara Media’s own Ash Sarkar, to celebrate the paperback release of her bestselling book, Minority Rule. ‘Minority rule’ is the term Ash used to describe the irrational fear that minorities are trying to overturn and oppress majority populations. She revealed how minority elites rule majorities by creating the culture wars that have taken over our politics, stoking fear and panic in our media landscape.
Together before a live audience at EartH Hackney, Ash and Aaron dug into the question of what has changed since the book was published. What can be learned from Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York? Does the left hate Britain? What do we need to do, in order to establish a ‘majority rule’? And is there such a thing as a middle-class dog?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/22/the-right-is-winning-heres-how-we-change-that/

2026-03-21 17:13:16 CET

How Musk’s Paranoid Empire Really Works
The most powerful CEO in history is barely a person anymore. But it’s not just his X-addled brain that has transformed him. He has deeply integrated himself in the ‘cyborg collective’ – a world of electrons, brain implants, fantastical promises, financial systems, bots, and memes – he has made for himself.
Henry Ford gave his name to Fordism. According to Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, we’re entering a globe-spanning era of capitalism we might soon call ‘Muskism’.
Those two are the authors of *Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.* It’s a whistle-stop tour of the world that made Musk, from the fortress futurism of Apartheid South Africa to the financial fabulations of the Bay Area. And, of course, the cyborg world that Musk is now making for us all.
They told me about what they see as Musk’s ongoing land grab in space, about what’s really going on with his plan for brain implants, how our supposed climate saviour became obsessed with prepping for the end of the world, and how Musk came to define an entirely new way of making technology – and not making it, but at least making it seem like you might.
Do Your Own Research is a new show about the systems that make modern life possible.
Music by Iglooghost.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/21/how-musks-paranoid-empire-really-works/

2026-03-21 01:28:37 CET

Israel Is Imprisoning More Children Without Charge Than Ever Before
Israel is detaining children without charge in record numbers, a rights group has said, subjecting them to hellish conditions that include beatings, the denial of food and water and other forms of torture.
New figures from the Israel Prison Service show that of 351 child detainees, 51% are held in so-called “administrative detention”, where people are imprisoned [indefinitely without having committed a crime][1] on the grounds that they intend to break the law.
The rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) said on Wednesday that this is both the highest number and [the highest percentage on record][2] since it began monitoring these figures in 2008.
“These numbers come at a time when Palestinian children consistently report appalling and debilitating conditions within Israeli detention facilities,” the group said.
This includes being denied “adequate food and water, being subjected to beatings and verbal harassment, lacking access to medical care, and being subjected to torture, including the use of solitary confinement.”
The IPS figures for child detainees do not include those who are held in military detention or interrogation centres, which are separate from the prison service.
“There is no available data for the number of children or adults detained at these sites,” the group said, “though DCIP has gathered firsthand testimonies from previously detained children describing systematic torture and dehumanizing conditions.”
For those held in the prison system, their lawyers are “forbidden from passing on simple messages from families, and children who wish to pass along messages to their families”.
Under Israel’s apartheid system, being charged is not a reliable indicator that a Palestinian has committed a crime. In 2024, a UN agency said Palestinians had been coerced into falsely confessing to links to Hamas.
The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said in January that Israel runs a network of torture camps where thousands of Palestinians are subjected to a “living hell” – and that the country’s political, media and legal institutions are complicit in maintaining them.
[1]: https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention
[2]: https://www.dci-palestine.org/more_than_half_of_palestinian_child_detainees_have_no_charges
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/20/israel-is-imprisoning-more-children-without-charge-than-ever-before/

2026-03-21 01:28:26 CET

Activists Set Fire to Israel-Linked Weapons Facility
Activists in the Czech Republic have set fire to a facility they say is jointly run by Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems.
Video [released by a group called the Earthquake Faction][1] shows people dousing the facility in the city of Pardubice, east of Prague, in flammable liquid.
LPP Holdings, a Czech arms company, announced in 2023 that it was planning to build a centre of excellence for unmanned aircraft systems with Elbit.
“The site is used to develop weaponry used by the Zionist entity to massacre people daily in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and across West Asia,” the Earthquake Faction said.
An article shared by LPP in 2023 said the center would facilitate the transfer of know-how and qualifications to support the production of drone technology. Novara Media reached out to LPP for comment.
The activists said they ensured no one was harmed when setting the fire. Local media reported that firefighters had confirmed there were no injuries and that police were investigating.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed over 72,000 people, at a conservative estimate.
“There is no time to beg the complicit international governments,” the Earthquake Faction said. “We will not waste our breath asking nicely. Instead, we will take necessary action to quash their means to kill.”
[1]: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWG5JNeDKJ7/
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/20/activists-set-fire-to-israel-linked-weapons-facility/

2026-03-21 01:28:20 CET

Switzerland Bans Arms Exports to US Over Iran War
The Swiss government has not issued any license to export weapons to the US since the beginning of the illegal war on Iran and has said it will not issue any new ones until the attacks end.
“The export of war materiel to countries involved in the international armed conflict with Iran cannot be authorised for the duration of the conflict,” the government said in a statement, citing the country’s neutral status.
“Existing licences and exports of other goods will now be regularly reviewed… particularly with regard to their compatibility with neutrality.”
“No definitive licences for the export of war materiel to Israel have been granted for a number of years,” it added.
The government has rejected two requests from the US to allow its planes to fly over Swiss airspace but permitted three others, it said last week.
Switzerland previously halted weapons exports to countries involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and also imposed bans on flights over Swiss airspace.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/20/switzerland-bans-arms-exports-to-us-over-iran-war/

2026-03-21 01:28:15 CET

US and Israel Have Killed or Injured Over 1,800 Children in Iran and Lebanon
Over 300 children have been killed in illegal US and Israeli attacks in Iran and Lebanon since late February, while more than 1,500 have been injured.
The victims include a three-day-old baby and his two-year-old sister, who were killed in a US-Israeli strike on their home in the Iranian city of Arak, Iranian state media reported.
Footage released by the Iranian Red Crescent Society on Wednesday showed rescuers pulling a badly injured child from the rubble of a building in Tehran following a US-Israeli attack.
The US and Israel claim they do not target civilians, but observers refute this. Jeffrey Sachs, a former special adviser to the UN secretary general, told journalist Piers Morgan earlier this month that the war on Iran is “a kind of mass murder of civilians” that involves “carpet bombing” Tehran.
The latest figures for child casualties were compiled by Unicef on Thursday, though the UN agency did not specify the perpetrators of the attacks. Donald Trump has sought to evade US responsibility for a massacre of some 170 schoolgirls in Minab on 28 February, despite mounting evidence that the US carried out the killings.
Iran has also killed and injured children with its retaliatory attacks on Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Across countries affected by the war, the figures include “202 children reportedly killed in Iran, 107 in Lebanon, four in Israel, and one in Kuwait as well as over 1,190 children injured in Iran, 331 in Lebanon, four in Israel, and four in Bahrain,” Unicef said.
“These numbers are likely to rise as the violence intensifies,” the agency added. “Homes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure have reportedly been damaged or destroyed in several locations, disrupting services that children rely on for survival and wellbeing.”
*Joshua Carroll is a writer and journalist.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/20/us-and-israel-have-killed-or-injured-over-1800-children-in-iran-and-lebanon/

2026-03-21 01:28:09 CET

IRAN: UK Support to US Is Act of AGGRESSION
The Iranian foreign minister has warned that letting the US use British bases constitutes “participation in aggression”.
Plus: Trump is considering a complete takeover of Kharg Island, and Steven Methven reports from Havana amid the illegal US energy blockade of Cuba.
With Michael Walker, Phil Miller, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Richard Hames.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/20/iran-uk-support-to-us-is-act-of-aggression/

2026-03-16 21:11:00 CET

Trump Begs for Help to Re-open Strait of Hormuz
As the illegal U.S-Israeli war on Iran spreads violence throughout the Middle East, oil exports from the region have ground to a halt.
Plus: Why Trump’s war aims are looking increasingly untenable, and we ask whether Israel would use its nuclear weapons.
With Michael Walker, Ash Sarkar & Annelle Sheline.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/trump-begs-for-help-to-re-open-strait-of-hormuz/

2026-03-16 16:35:13 CET

BBC Breaks Law by Failing to Say If It Made Calls to Israeli Embassy
The BBC has broken the law by failing to give a “substantive response” to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request asking if and when calls took place between its most senior figures and the Israeli embassy, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found.
The ICO – the independent regulatory office that upholds information rights in the public interest – issued a decision notice on Tuesday 10 March, seen by Novara Media ahead of publication online, finding the BBC had failed to respond adequately and within the 20 working days stipulated by law.
Finding the BBC to be in breach of section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the ICO ordered the broadcaster to provide a “substantive response” to the FOI within 30 days or risk being treated as in contempt of court.
The BBC must now hand over records of any calls between the Israeli embassy – including ambassador Tzipi Hotovely – and the BBC-issued mobile phone lines of top corporation leadership. They are director-general Tim Davie, BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC chair Dr Samir Shah.
The FOI request was submitted on 6 December last year by a former civil servant, who wished to remain anonymous. He told Novara Media he was concerned by the BBC’s biased coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. “If these calls exist, they represent a serious breakdown of the BBC’s Charter of Impartiality and a potential violation by the Israeli embassy of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” he said.
The applicant requested data showing when any such calls had happened, how long they lasted and whether they were inbound or outbound. From this, he hoped to see if there were any large clusters of calls around events such as Glastonbury 2025 – where punk-rap duo Bob Vylan sparked backlash for [their “Death to the IDF” chant ][1]– and the European Broadcasting Union meeting, [where members voted to include Israel ][2]in Eurovision 2026.
BBC officials have alluded to such calls in the past. When asked about lobbying from “both sides” regarding Israel’s genocidal war in September last year, [director-general Tim Davie told Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq][3] at a Culture, Media and Sport Committee oral evidence session that “I am talking to people on every angle of this conflict on a very regular basis”.
Under Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, foreign diplomats have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state.
If the Israeli embassy made inbound calls to the BBC’s top brass, this could arguably constitute lobbying Britain’s national broadcaster – bypassing transparent press channels – and constitute an example of improper interference in a sovereign institution’s editorial independence.
If the BBC’s most senior figures made outbound calls to the Israeli embassy, that could point to a level of coordination which – during a period of intense conflict and editorial scrutiny – puts the BBC’s commitment to independent and impartial journalism at risk.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said “it isn’t surprising” that the BBC is “trying to shield itself from accountability for its shameful anti-Palestinian bias”.
Celie Hanson, PSC campaigns officer, told Novara Media: “We already know that the extent of the BBC’s pro-Israel bias has led to widespread [dissent among BBC staff ][4]who have complained of the persistent promotion of pro-Israel narratives and its failure to adhere to its own editorial standards.”
The BBC did respond to the FOI request on 9 February, after 38 days – almost double the legal time limit. But the ICO deemed its response inadequate, writing on 10 March that “by the date of this notice the public authority has not issued a substantive response to this request”. This is because the BBC claimed that although it had call logs going back to 7 April 2025, it “did not find any information of the description you have asked for (call metadata)”. No call data of any variety was shared with the applicant.
For the applicant, the BBC’s claim that records don’t exist is an “absurd notion that implies that the BBC doesn’t have access to any billing information about calls made using their 10,000+ corporate mobile lines”.
By finding the BBC in breach of the Act, the ICO appears to have agreed.
The ICO has the power to [issue enforcement notices][5] and practice recommendations to ensure that obligations under the FOIA are upheld. It is [unlawful for public bodies to fail to respond adequately][6] to a request for information, and a criminal offence to deliberately destroy, hide or alter requested information to prevent it from being released.
The BBC’s coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza was [found to be systematically biased against Palestinians][7] and consistently failed to reach standards of impartiality, according to research from the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM).
The CfMM report, which analysed more than 35,000 pieces of BBC content in the year from October 2023, found that the BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality than Palestinian deaths, that both broadcast segments and articles included clear double standards, and BBC content consistently shut down allegations of genocide.
Israel has killed a conservative estimate of 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, and injured over 170,000. At least 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced, and children have borne the brunt of Israel’s violence. UNICEF estimates that [64,000 children were killed or injured by Israel ][8]in the two years since October 2023.
[1]: http://bbc.com/news/articles/c33514nryy1o
[2]: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251205-bbc-backs-decision-to-allow-israels-participation-in-2026-eurovision-amid-controversy/
[3]: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/16413/pdf/
[4]: https://www.owenjones.news/p/bbc-staff-were-forced-to-do-pro-israel
[5]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-66467395
[6]: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/foi-complaints-and-ico-enforcement-powers/
[7]: https://novaramedia.com/2025/06/16/bbc-systematically-biased-against-palestinians-in-gaza-coverage/
[8]: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/two-years-hellish-war-have-devastated-gazas-children
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/bbc-breaks-law-by-failing-to-say-if-it-made-calls-to-israeli-embassy/

2026-03-16 13:54:41 CET

Aid Convoy to Deliver More Than 20 Tonnes of Food and Medicine to Cuba
[An aeroplane flies low over Havana, Cuba.]
Volunteers from three continents are set to converge in Havana this weekend, with more than 20 tonnes of food, medicine and solar equipment for Cuban communities hit by a brutal US blockade.
Activists from more than a dozen countries have signed up to participate in the Nuestra America Convoy, which will see Irish rap trio Kneecap and American streamer Hasan Piker join journalists, politicians and high-profile participants of last year’s Gaza aid flotilla in Havana on 21 March.
Alongside up to half a dozen boats that will sail across the Caribbean Sea from Mexico on Thursday, two charter flights are scheduled to arrive later this week, while hundreds of ordinary people carrying suitcases packed with medicines have booked tickets on commercial airlines from around the world.
While the US has had some form of blockade on Cuba since the 1950s, Donald Trump has significantly escalated it by threatening to impose tariffs on any country that sells fuel to the island nation, leading to widespread blackouts and disruption to the delivery of food and the production and distribution of medicine. Even everyday essentials such as toothpaste, soap, shampoo and baby food are now difficult to obtain, plunging the country into humanitarian crisis.
Organisers say the largest charter flight alone will carry more than £300,000 of aid, including food, medicines, surgical equipment and hygiene supplies, to be distributed by Cuban civil society organisations and directly to hospitals and clinics across the island. The convoy will also deliver nearly £400,000 worth of solar panels and generators.
In a statement, Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn condemned the blockade. “For more than six decades, the US blockade has tried to suffocate the Cuban example – a country that, despite relentless economic pressure, built universal healthcare and life expectancy comparable to or higher than the United States,” he said. “Now the Trump administration is escalating that siege in an attempt to break Cuba altogether.
“People across the world must stand with the Cuban people, oppose these punitive policies, and demand the right of every nation to live, develop, and determine its own future free from intimidation.”
Organiser David Adler drew parallels between the convoy and the Gaza aid flotilla, which he took part in last year. “From the global movement that helped end apartheid in South Africa to the flotillas that sailed to challenge the siege of Gaza, international solidarity has repeatedly emerged to confront injustice,” he said. “This convoy to Cuba continues that tradition, delivering critical supplies to the Cuban people and a simple message: you are not alone.”
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/16/aid-convoy-to-deliver-more-than-20-tonnes-of-food-and-medicine-to-cuba/

2026-03-15 16:14:12 CET

The Middle Class Is Collapsing. Fascism Could Be Next.
Rising unemployment, increased military spending, and a decline in living standards for most people, including the middle class: the description fits both the 1930s and the 2020s. In the 1930s, it was a situation that morphed into the destruction and horror of the Second World War.
On Downstream with Aaron Bastani this week is Clara Mattei, professor of economics at the University of Tulsa, and author of ‘Escape From Capitalism: Economics Is Political and Other Liberating Truths’. Mattei’s PhD was on the relationship between austerity and fascism in inter-war Italy, and her book is a comparative study of Britain and Italy in that period.
What, they ask, is the relationship between austerity and fascism – both then and now? Is capitalism a ‘natural fact’, as its proponents would have you believe, or a contingent set of affairs designed and propped up by governments? And if capitalism is in fact a choice, how can we go about building an alternative?
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/15/the-middle-class-is-collapsing-fascism-could-be-next/

2026-03-14 12:29:03 CET

Elon Musk Worth More Than Next Three Richest Billionaires Combined
Elon Musk is now worth more than the next three richest billionaires combined, the latest calculations from Forbes show.
The Forbes Real Times Billionaires List has placed Musk firmly in the position of richest man in the world, with an estimated worth of $839 billion – up from $342 billion last year.
The enormous growth of the 54-year-old’s personal wealth is driven by rising valuations at Tesla and SpaceX, two of the seven major companies he founded.
The next three richest people in the world are Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, followed by Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon.
Economist Gabriel Zucman estimates that if the world’s 3,428 billionaires spent all of their money, they would be able to buy 17% of everything produced in a year globally.
In 1987, when Forbes started compiling its billionaires list, Zucman says that figure was only at 3%.
“It’s time to tax billionaires,” said the French economist on X. “With the growth in the wealth of global billionaires has come an upsurge in their power. The power to shape policy, to buy elections, to influence the prevailing ideology, to buy competitors, to tilt markets at their advantage.”
Musk was the single largest donor to far-right US president Donald Trump’s election campaign, donating $277 million.
Zucman notes that the sheer number of billionaires is also steadily increasing. Forbes filed 390 new entries this year, including Beyoncé and Dr Dre.
“It is for citizens, throughout the world, to ask their elected representatives to act now,” said Zucman. “It is time to tax billionaires.”
*Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.*
https://novaramedia.com/2026/03/14/elon-musk-worth-more-than-next-three-richest-billionaires-combined/