Israel’s assault on Lebanon saw the settler-colonial state hit 30 locations across the country’s south and in the Beqaa valley. Israel said on 16 March ‘limited’ ground operations were underway.

In theory, Hezbollah breached a US-brokered ‘ceasefire’ with Israel which had held since their last war in 2024. In practice, the US had given Israel carte blanche to strike Lebanon ever since. Israel has done so constantly since the deal was struck.

You can read about the secretive Israel-US ‘side letter’ pact here. And our extensive coverage of Israel’s ceasefire breaches here.

Lebanon hammered

Journalist Courtney Bonneau reported on 15 March:

🔴Summary of Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory on 15/3/2026:

🟠Airstrikes:
🔅South:
Zebdine
Hanin
Yatir
Toul
Haniyah
Mifdoun
Qalila
Taybeh
Wadi al-Hujair
Majdal Selm
Touline
Nabatieh al-Fouqa
Khiam
Sinai
Ali al-Taher
Naqoura
Jabour
Aitat
Sharqiyah
Adchit Nabatieh
Kfar… https://t.co/3z9cxWuq55

— courtneybonneauimages (@cbonneauimages) March 16, 2026

Drop Site News said Israel used a mix of airstrikes, drones, and artillery. On 16 March, Bonneau and her cameraman showed fighting between the Israeli and resistance forces underway – alleging Israel was using chemical weapons:

Americans, your tax dollars are paying for illegal chemical warfare.

Cameraman: @aliezzedine7 pic.twitter.com/E25Pb6VT7C

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— courtneybonneauimages (@cbonneauimages) March 16, 2026

Smoke was visible over the town of Khaim, roughly 6km north the the Israeli border.

Intense fighting now in Khiam, Lebanon pic.twitter.com/dHqlBQP7vy

— courtneybonneauimages (@cbonneauimages) March 16, 2026

Analysts told Al Jazeera on 16 March that Israel was using military occupation as a tool to enforce potential ceasefire terms:

By holding Lebanese territory, Israel is forcing Lebanon to negotiate over its sovereignty, with a question mark over whether Israeli troops will eventually withdraw or if currently occupied areas will be permanently transformed into an unpopulated buffer zone.

The Guardian’s Will Cristou reported Israel had killed three first responders on 16 March, bringing the total to 35 in the last two weeks:

An Israeli strike killed 3 first responders in Kafr Seer, south Lebanon this morning.

At least 35 medical workers have been killed by Israel in Lebanon in under two weeks. pic.twitter.com/YVO6bRiW37

— Will Christou (@will_christou) March 16, 2026

Death and defiance in the south

Sky News reported that mourners in the south have defied Israeli evacuation orders to bury their dead. And France 24 reported that Israel was still hitting densely populated areas of the capital Beirut with airstrikes:

On 12 March Israel bombed the tents of displaced people who’d fled rom the south to Beirut. One observer described the scenes as:

An outrageous war crime reminiscent of the massacres carried out in Gaza.

Israel also bombed a university, killing two academics:

BREAKING:

Israel just bombed the Lebanese National Public University in Beirut.

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They murdered the Director of the Faculty of Science, Dr. Hussein Bazzi, and Dr. Murtada Srour.

They are not just killing people — they are erasing knowledge and attacking the future of Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/OoSSow5zJ3

— sarah (@sahouraxo) March 12, 2026

Reuters reported on 15 March:

Israel and Lebanon are expected to ​hold talks in the coming days aimed at securing a durable ceasefire that ‌would see Hezbollah disarmed, two Israeli officials said on Sunday, though the timing and terms have yet to be agreed.

The outlet said three sources had claimed:

Beirut is forming a delegation for talks but no date has been set. Lebanon needed clarity on whether ​Israel would abide by President Joseph Aoun’s first point — a demand for a ​full ceasefire to allow negotiations to take place.

Israel’s aggression is taking place in the context of its ongoing genocide in Gaza and now a regional war with Iran. Its ambitions in Lebanon are deeply linked with the Greater Israel project, an ethnonationalist fever-dream which subjects the region and its indigenous people to a decades-old cycle of war, occupation and extermination.

Featured image via the Canary

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced that employers will receive £3,000 for every 18-24-year-old they employ. They will also give small and medium businesses £2,000 for every apprentice they take on.

But, as usual, the approach they’re taking is totally wrong.

DWP pushing kids into shit jobs

Pat McFadden, the Secretary of State for the DWP, has announced the Youth Jobs Grant. This will work alongside the Youth Guarantee. As the Canary has reported, this will push young people into low paid and low skilled work, regardless of whether they’re well enough to work.

McFadden said:

These measures will give life-changing opportunities to young people and significantly reverse the increase we inherited in those not in education, employment or training.

We are focusing funding where it’s needed most and giving employers the flexibility and support they’ve asked for.

The press release, bizarrely, includes a staggering thirty-two quotes ranging everyone from the prime minister to the CEO of B&M.

This gives us a flavour of the sort of employers who will be involved in the scheme. It includes Lloyds Banking Group, Severn Trent, B&M and Amazon. As the Canary previously reported, McFadden’s first Youth Guarantee jobs fair was packed to the teeth with military and weapons companies.

The grant is being touted as incredible reforms, but nobody is looking at the big picture. Yes, it’s great that more jobs are being created for young people, but why do big conglomerates like Amazon need a financial incentive to employ someone? While no doubt some of them will be good jobs, it’s looking more like it will just trap working-class kids in crap jobs with no way out.

Apprenticeships instead of fully paid work

The DWP has also announced £2.5 billion in funding for training and apprenticeships. But then you have to look at what the apprenticeships are. As part of the scheme, the DWP will introduce short apprentice units in:

• AI Leadership – developing AI strategy
• Electric vehicle charging point installation and maintenance
• Electrical fitting and assembly
• Mechanical fitting and assembly
• Permanent modular building assembly
• Solar PV installation and maintenance welding

While some of these are useful and practical, a lot seem like babysitting the robots, don’t they?

The department is also ‘streamlining’ many ‘apprenticeship standards’. But again, looking at the list, these are low-skilled jobs for which people will be paid even less than usual. The jobs involve ‘cleaning hygiene operative’, which lets be honest, is a cleaning job. And “custody and detention professional’, which is a prison officer.

What support for work?

While this grand announcement was made, there were, of course, no specifics published. So we don’t know who will be able to apply for the grants and how many they will be able to claim. It goes without saying that this will be wide open to abuse from greedy companies. It’s ironic that the DWP are going to seemingly allow this after accusing employers of abusing the Access to Work scheme just last week.

With each announcement, it becomes clearer just how little the DWP actually cares about supporting young people into work. It’s time the DWP stopped pretending and instead owned up to the fact that they only care about how much money they can exploit from people.

Featured image via the Canary

Academic and author Professor Keon West is a social scientist and expert in the psychology of racism – and, he appeared on Green party leader Zack Polanski’s Bold Politics podcast to discuss the UK’s burgeoning racism problem.

Professor West was asked why the phrase “unconscious bias” has become so common.

West’s answer will challenge many. West told Polanski that the phrase is a way of spreading and universalising guilt and responsibility as a way of avoiding taking responsibility ourselves for our own attitudes. And he said that it is helping racists excuse their racism while simultaneously spouting and touting it:

It’s incredibly comfortable. In the UK it’s so hard to have a conversation about racism or sexism.

You won’t hear people say: I did that and that was a racist thing to do. You can go on TV and say you hate seeing a bunch of black and brown faces – like Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin – and say you cannot be racist, it must be a misunderstanding.

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Similarly men will say all sorts of things but not say that was sexist.

Instead, West explained how added buffers make those making racist or sexist statements feel better:

I think that it is considered so impolite and so hurtful, to own up to that bias, that we sneak in a word in front of that, ‘unconscious’, and suddenly we don’t have to feel quite so bad. And everybody has it.That focus that makes us calmer about the bias, that’s really for the benefit of the people being biased. It’s not at all for the benefit of the people on the receiving end of the bias.

Featured image via X

Nigel Farage has incurred the internet’s wrath after promoting English Tourism Week with a trip to his own constituency of Clacton-on-Sea.

The Reform UK leader posted a video on Sunday evening showing hims out and about in the coastal town, mingling with his constituents.

In the short clip, the politician says: “This week marks English Tourism Week, and where better to come for a day out, rain or shine, than Clacton.

“Miles of sandy beaches and this six and a half acres, the biggest pier space in the whole of Europe. Things for people of all ages to do.

“I promise you, come to Clacton, it’s a great day out – and there’s lots of hospitality, too.”

Since winning his seat at the eighth attempt at the last election, Farage has been accused of rarely visiting his constituency, although he insists he spends a “couple of days a week” there.

Farage’s clip may prove that he is definitely visiting his own town – but doing so to promote tourism seemed to take the biscuit among many of his online critics…

(alamy)

3 min read1 hr

Speaking at a press conference in north London on Monday, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said he was confident that Labour MPs would support the government on a plan that puts “work and opportunity at its heart”.

McFadden set out proposals to incentivise companies to hire young people as part of the government’s bid to tackle rising rates of youth unemployment. Around one in eight 16 to 24-year-olds are not in employment, education of training. 

Under the plans, businesses will receive £3,000 for every 18-24-year-old hired who has been on Universal Credit or looking for work for six months. Businesses that take part in the scheme will be paid in two instalments, with the first expected to be a substantial amount to make the scheme worthwhile. The jobs given to young people must be at least 25 hours per week and paid minimum wage. 

Additionally, an apprenticeship incentive of £2,000 will be given to SME’s for each new employee aged between 16 and 24, and a scheme subsidising minimum wage work for benefits claimants who have been looking for work for 18 months will be raised to include those aged up to 24 from its current limit of 21.

McFadden defended young people trying to find work and hit back at claims that young people were “shirkers” and “snowflakes”. He said there was a moral case for helping people get into work, describing it as fundamentally “good for pride, purpose and identity”.

The cabinet minister said: “Two years ago, I had the honour of co-ordinating the general election campaign that led to the first Labour victory for 19 years, and only the fourth majority Labour victory from opposition for 100 years. 

“The reason I say this is because, historically speaking, Labour governments don’t come along too often. I want us to use our time in office well, to understand that every day in office is precious. 

“We are not here to keep things ticking over. We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to take on the challenges facing the country, to change things for the better.”

McFadden said he was confident that a new government bid to reduce spending on benefits would be supported by Labour MPs. 

Keir Starmer was forced to abandon planned reforms to Personal Independence Payments last year after more than 120 Labour backbenchers threatened to rebel in a House of Commons vote.

“Welfare reform should be about opportunity and work, and that’s what I mean by a working state. This is an approach that puts work at its heart,” said McFadden.

“I don’t believe that the best way to do reform is to pluck a figure out of air, and retrofit a policy next to it. I think the best way to approach reform is to give people a chance.”

He added: “I see no reason why Labour MPs should not support welfare reform [with] work and opportunity at its heart.”

Earlier this month, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that welfare spending will rise by nearly 6 per cent to £330bn this year, driven by health-related benefits as well as pensions. It is expected to hit £407bn in 2030-31.

The Starmer government has previously warned that current levels of welfare spending are not sustainable and must be reduced in the long-term.

A new report has shown crucial solutions to limit mineral demand for a green transition. These include public transportation, improved recycling programmes, and advanced battery technologies.

Greenpeace International commissioned the report: Beyond Extraction: Pathways for a 1.5°C-aligned Energy Transition with Less Minerals. The authors are academics from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney in Australia.

The report uses different 1.5°C-compatible energy scenarios to explore pathways toward mineral sufficiency and efficiency. And it shows how Earth’s minerals can be administered for a clean renewable energy transformation. One that protects vital Earth support systems from terrestrial or deep sea mining of so-called ‘critical minerals’.

Elsa Lee, co-head of biodiversity at Greenpeace International, said:

Mining often brings environmental destruction and social harm. It is reportedly linked to child labour, workers’ rights violations, land grabs from Indigenous Peoples, ecosystem damage, and threats to communities.

Around the world, the minerals ‘rush’ repeats extractivist and colonial patterns, disregards the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and threatens to undermine the very possibility of a just and green energy transition.

We all want a just world where energy is clean, affordable and available to everyone, rights are respected, peoples’ land access and livelihoods are protected, and our planet has a stable climate and rich biodiversity.

With this report we underline that it is incumbent upon our governments who regulate the extractive industry to power an ambitious energy transition without mining critical ecosystems on land or at sea.

A key recommendation of the report is that decision makers must prioritise mineral use for essential energy transition purposes. We’re in an era of eroding international cooperation and intensifying conflict. And this underscores the importance of coordinated action to protect people and nature, and achieve climate objectives.

Greenpeace International deep sea mining campaigner Ruth Ramos said:

Lines have been crossed on the land that need never be crossed in the deep ocean. Now we know: not only does deep sea mining run against science, ethics, people and the planet, it’s not even needed for a renewable transition.

What is needed is for the nations of the world to unite against rogue actors like The Metals Company and Donald Trump and their affronts to international law and cooperation, and instead keep moving towards a moratorium on deep sea mining.

Imagine if humans could have protected the world from the harms of the fossil fuel industry before it even started. That is the opportunity when it comes to deep sea mining: it is a historic privilege, and one we must now embrace wholeheartedly.

The report compared potential mineral reserves areas with areas that, due to their exceptional environmental, ecological, and social importance, must be out of bounds to mining. The analysis finds that there is no need to mine these fragile areas, including, amongst others, the global ocean and protected areas on land, for an ambitious energy transition.

Report author Professor Sven Teske said:

This research highlights how sound policies and innovative technologies can limit mineral demand in a 1.5°C-aligned energy transition. Realising this potential, however, requires responsible political leadership and decisive action today.

Featured image via the Canary

1) Wait for 7°C to start mowing…

2) …And stop mowing at 6°C or lower.

3) Never mow a wet lawn

4) Wait until any new grass is at least 5cm tall to cut it

5) Do your first mow on the highest blade setting, too

6) Mow at different rates according to season and lawn type

7) Follow the one-third rule

8) Keep your mower blades sharp and clean

9) Skip the job in May

10) Clear the lawn before mowing

11) Change direction every month or so

Police in England are still making arrests and investigating ‘illegal’ pregnancy terminations, according to the responses to a Guardian Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

That’s in spite of the fact that legal amendments decriminalising abortion are currently passing through parliament. The move was part of Labour’s Crime and Policing Bill, submitted by backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi. In June 2025, it progressed with a massive 379 votes in favour, versus just 137 against.

Abortion: ‘Victorian-era law’

Antoniazzi stated that:

The dystopian treatment of women continues under this Victorian-era law despite the House of Commons being clear that this has no place in modern society. The police and wider criminal justice system cannot be trusted with abortion law.

Women have been targeted, vilified and imprisoned following complications in their abortion treatment, miscarriage, stillbirth or premature labour. Forced to endure acute trauma at the worst moments of their lives for absolutely no reason, because criminalisation is completely unnecessary for upholding abortion law and safeguards.

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The amendment would decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. This means that an individual could no longer be prosecuted for obtaining a termination, whether within or outside of a legal framework. However, the popular change has not yet passed into law.

Currently, the framework sets limits on the timeframe for an abortion, and requires two doctors’ signatures. The proposed amendments would do nothing to alter this legislation.

‘Utmost sensitivity and compassion’

The Metropolitan Police and Nottinghamshire Police both responded to the Guardian’s FOI. Both confirmed that, between June and January, they had made arrests over suspected illegal terminations.

However, abortion providers also highlighted the fact that we’re not seeing the full picture from these responses. They stated that they were aware of arrests by polices forces which refused the FoI. Worse still, some of the forces which did respond also made arrests for illegal termination, but didn’t record the cases under relevant legislation.

A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said:

Police do not routinely investigate unexpected pregnancy loss. An investigation is only initiated where there is credible information to suggest criminal activity, and this would often be because of concerns raised from medical professionals.

Each case would have a set of unique factors to be assessed and investigated depending on its individual circumstances.

It would be at the discretion of the senior investigating officer leading the case to determine which reasonable lines of enquiry to follow, again depending on the merits of the specific case.

We recognise how traumatic the experience of losing a child is, with many complexities involved, and any investigation of this nature and individuals will always be treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion.

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That claim of the “utmost sensitivity and compassion” is a bare-faced lie.

Inappropriate, insensitive and harmful

Jonathan Lord, a co-chair of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ abortion taskforce, explained:

It is the investigations that cause most harm; few progress to charging and fewer still to prosecutions.

The police and CPS have shown consistently – in multiple areas and in numerous cases – that they do not act appropriately or with sensitivity. In several cases they have only targeted the woman, and not investigated potential abuse by a coercive partner.

In one case, police arrested a woman in her 40s, who had safeguarding concerns and a history of being targeted by domestic abuse.

She called an ambulance after delivering a foetus still inside its gestation sack. Paramedics found her panicking and hyperventilating. Despite believing that she was still early in the pregnancy, the foetus was found to be around the 24-week mark.

Her children witnessed their mother’s arrest, and were forced to leave their home over Christmas whilst police searched the house.

‘What happened was horrifying’

In another case, a woman miscarried at 17 weeks, shortly after arriving in hospital. Staff called the police after finding tablets in her vagina. At the time, a clinician claimed that:

When I called the police, I really thought they would offer her support and protection. What happened was horrifying.

Cops arrived to arrest her whilst she was still in the delivery suite, in spite of her denial of seeking an abortion. Officers searched her home while she was detained on the ward. They confiscated devices that the woman used to monitor her unstable diabetes, which is notoriously difficult to control after pregnancy.

The woman later said that she felt unsafe around both police and the NHS, following their betrayal of her trust.

Harriet Wistrich, chief executive of the Centre for Women’s Justice, stated that:

In some of the cases we have seen women being arrested from hospital shortly after the abortion when they may be extremely traumatised and certainly there is no need to arrest them then and there.

But arrest, investigation and charging will be determined by two tests – is there sufficient evidence that an offence has been committed and if so is it in the public interest. There is a strong argument to make that in circumstances where the House of Commons have voted by a large majority to stop criminalisation, that discretion should be exercised in the public interest not to arrest.

‘A historic opportunity’

Louise McCudden, head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices UK, said:

We know from providing reproductive healthcare across six continents that criminalisation harms women and makes abortion less safe. The House of Lords now has a historic opportunity to end the threat of prosecution once and for all, pardon women who have been previously convicted and drop ongoing investigations.

At a time when we are seeing rollbacks in reproductive rights around the world, most notably in the US, it’s encouraging that our parliament is standing up for women.

On 18 March, the House of Lords will debate Antoniazzi’s abortion decriminalisation clause. The proposed amendments run the gamut from striking the clause altogether, to halting ongoing police investigations, and even pardoning people who were already convicted under the previous law.

Investigations for suspected illegal terminations serve only to deepen the distress of the victims of heavy-handed policing. Our parliament must show their compassion by passing Antoniazzi’s amendment – or confirm themselves willing participants in the degradation of reproductive rights.

Featured image via the Canary

The NHS is one of Britain’s most cherished institutions, providing care to millions of patients each year. Yet questions remain about whether every resource is directed towards its core purpose of treating patients. One example is a law predating the NHS that requires it to pay out vast sums each year for private treatment that may never be used.

This is the real-world consequence of an obscure provision: Section 2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948.

The provision requires courts, when awarding compensation for clinical negligence, to disregard NHS care and assume the claimant will use private healthcare. Yet nothing in law obliges the claimant to do so. Someone injured through negligence may receive compensation for private treatment but still return to the NHS – effectively charging the NHS twice. Repealing this provision would not force claimants to automatically return to the NHS for their future care. Rather, it would allow courts to decide what is reasonable in each case.

The Act was introduced to modernise personal injury law. Yet unlike many other legacies of the Attlee ggovernment, this change has failed to stand the test of time. Much of the Act has since been repealed or replaced. The survival of Section 2(4) is therefore all the more puzzling.

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Northern Ireland RE curriculum is ‘indoctrination’ – Supreme Court