The union has stated that it will be meeting for further talks over the coming weeks. However, it remains to be seen whether
Underground bosses will listen to the drivers’ safety concerns ‚ both for themselves, and for passengers.
Politics
Fossil fuels are the stuff of life
All manner of insults have been hurled at oil and gas in recent decades. Supposedly, it is ‘dirty’, ‘unsustainable’ and, we have been increasingly told, ‘irrelevant’. The war in Iran shows that there was a word missing in the environmentalists’ lexicon: ‘essential’. Last night’s strikes on the South Pars gas field in Iran and Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquified natural gas plant have sent prices soaring. This has compounded a crisis that was already underway, thanks to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows. While environmentalists like to claim that this shows the folly of our reliance on oil and gas, really it ought to remind us how important fossil fuels are in keeping civilisation afloat.
Oil and gas aren’t just essential to our energy needs. They are also a critical ingredient in everyday medication, much of which is life-saving. Our Net Zero-loving MPs might have forgotten this, but fortunately, doctors and pharmacists have not. This week, the Independent Pharmacies Association reminded UK health secretary Wes Streeting, that ‘many common drugs’ – including paracetamol, aspirin and antibiotics – ‘rely on petroleum-based ingredients as well as other raw materials sourced from the Middle East and beyond’. Dr Layla Hanbeck, the organisation’s chief executive, called for urgent stockpiling, and said that supply-chain disruptions from the Iran war would impact ‘essential treatments that millions rely on daily’.
Hanbeck is right. Today’s medicines rely on the carbon-based chemistry that defines fossil fuels. Benzene and toluene form precursors for painkillers, anaesthetics and antibiotics. Methanol, ethanol and acetone are vital to drug purification and formulation. Polymers derived from petrochemicals are used in drug-delivery technologies. And so on.
What about medical equipment? Petrochemicals are the feedstock for polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride. As cheap, light, strong and easily sterilised plastics, these are widely used in medical devices and accessories – including disposable syringes and needles, catheters, intravenous tubing, blood bags, membranes for dialysis and implants. On top of this, carbon fibre is used to build imaging equipment such as MRI machines, CT scanners and X-ray machines. It is in surgical instruments, wheelchairs and prosthetics. Also dependent on carbon fibre are blister packs, bottles for pills, sterile packaging film and tamper-proof seals that protect drugs from contamination and degradation.
Much of this is old hat. Yet we are continually making new discoveries about how vital fossil fuels are to medicine. Just this week, it was reported that recycling that plastic – another hated by-product of fossil fuels – could break down waste bottles into Levodopa, the main drug used to help the 160,000 Brits who suffer from Parkinson’s disease.
All these boons for health come from dirty – nay, evil! – fossil fuels. So evil, in fact, that energy secretary Ed Miliband believes the UK should make it nigh-on impossible for oil and gas to be extracted from the North Sea. Miliband might believe that he is on a heaven-sent mission to decarbonise Britain, but it is a quest that could soon create a hell for everyone who relies on medication to stay healthy, or indeed alive.
It isn’t just medicine and fuel that rely on fossil fuels, either. In agriculture, petrochemicals are key to fertilisers, pesticides and overall mechanisation. Fertilisers for crops, such as wheat, rice, and maize, are made with natural gas and coal. Also derived from fossil fuels are herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. And tractors, pumps and pipes for irrigation, crop storage systems and food packaging all rely on fossil fuels – either to make them or to power them, or both.
The ongoing war waged on fossil fuels by the UK’s political establishment doesn’t only defy logic. It defies humanity, too. If ever there was a time to rethink our blind rush to a Net Zero future, this is it. In the meantime, let’s hear it for carbon. It’s about time the stigma was removed from fossil fuels. Without them, we’d mostly be dead.
James Woudhuysen is visiting professor of forecasting and innovation at London South Bank University. Follow him on X: @jameswoudhuysen.
Continue Reading
In the latest “defensive” news from the UK’s role in the Anglo-American-Zionist illegal war on Iran, the UK held a meeting between 13 defence companies and Gulf diplomats to discuss providing “defensive” equipment against Iranian attacks. Defence Minister Luke Pollard hosted the session.
The UK is stepping up for our partners in the Gulf.
Defence Minister @LukePollard convened 13 UK defence companies alongside Gulf ambassadors and defence attachés to explore urgent defensive support against Iranian drone and missile attacks.
UK industry is ready to deliver. pic.twitter.com/uDJDClZTp4
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 18, 2026
People were quick to point out the greed of British arms companies.
Imagine seeing the illegal war in Iran as an opportunity to make money https://t.co/XeOsuGHWHO
— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) March 18, 2026
The 13 defence companies present were ADS, MARSS, MSI, MBDA, Frankenberg, Leonardo UK, Thales, QinetiQ, OSL Ltd, BAE Systems, Ocean Infinity, Cambridge Aerospace, and Uforce, and they met Diplomats from seven Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Iraq and Jordan.
The UK is stepping up to warmonger in the Gulf. https://t.co/Dq0yFc9LNw
— GlumBird (@GlumBird) March 18, 2026
New opportunities galore for arms dealers and co
UK military planners have also been dispatched to US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to help plot a route to unblock the key shipping lane, according to The Times — more “defensive” acts by the UK.
British military helping US plan Strait of Hormuz reopening after Trump bemoaned Starmer’s response to fuel crisis https://t.co/HuEJBO5cbP
— LBC (@LBC) March 19, 2026
Labour MP Al Carns is beating the war drums particularly loudly. Earlier this week in Parliament, the Armed Forces minister said the government was not ruling out anything when asked if the UK saw “de-escalation is key.”
Defence Minister Al Carns has said the government ‘is not going to rule anything out’
Read more: https://t.co/t50o6L6V9b pic.twitter.com/rnShip7A9i
— The i Paper (@theipaper) March 16, 2026
He told Parliament:
We will continue to work in a comprehensive and calm manner with our allies and partners to ensure that we can come up with a solution to the strait of Hormuz, and we will not rule anything out, because we cannot guarantee where this war is going to go.
Carns also claimed in parliament that Iran’s support to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis “has been killing British forces for 20 years”. Declassified was quick to reprimand the statement on the lack of evidence.
Defence minister Al Carns claims in parliament that Iran’s support to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis “has been killing British forces for 20 years”.
Where is the evidence for this?#DCUKparliament pic.twitter.com/IWwgpzomEQ
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) March 17, 2026
On Thursday, he told the Sun that any mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would require a massive multinational coalition, warning that operating without allies would be far worse. He said: “We’re not anywhere near that at the moment, but I would say one thing: that there’s one thing worse than working with allies, and that’s working without them.”
He said:
In 1987 when this last happened, it took 30 warships to escort in the Strait of Hormuz. That gives you just an example of the resources required.
UK is relying on flimsy ‘defensive’ grounds
UK PM and other cabinet ministers have repeatedly used flimsy grounds of just being involved in “defensive actions against Iran.
Allowing the US to use British bases and commit war crimes in not “defensive actions”. pic.twitter.com/Y2Zfq2JMFj
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) March 18, 2026
This use of UK bases for American bombers has been heavily criticised. Journalist and former UK diplomat Craig Murray said:
No other European state is prepared to let US bombing runs on Iran overfly their airspace. Starmer lets them actually load their bombs and take off from UK airfields. He calls it “defensive” bombing.
No other European state is prepared to let US bombing runs on Iran overfly their airspace.
Starmer lets them actually load their bombs and take off from UK airfields.
He calls it “defensive” bombing. https://t.co/LmSZwSy340
— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) March 19, 2026
Electronic Intifada journalist Ali Abunimah argued that assisting an aggressor by protecting them from those attempting to halt their attack does not constitute a defensive act, but rather makes one an active accomplice in the original crime. He was responding to the Foreign Office’s statement that the UK is continuing defensive military support for partners against Iranian strikes, alongside diplomatic activity in the UK national interest.
Helping a mass killer carry out aggression by shielding them from those who are trying to stop the attack is not “defensive.” It’s being an active accomplice in the original crime. https://t.co/sgvVErGFnm
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) March 18, 2026
UK bases, ships and aircraft are already central to the US-Israeli war effort. Starmer has tried vainly to frame British involvement as purely ‘defensive.’
Featured image via Campaign Against Arms Trade
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has called off its planned strikes on the London Underground this month.
The news comes following indications from tube bosses that they’ll negotiate on what RMT is calling the “imposition” of a “fake four-day week”.
However, whilst the March strike dates are off, RMT has stated that its industrial action in April and May will still go ahead. Beyond this, the union has also added two new strike dates on 16 and 18 June.
RMT — ‘Serious concerns around fatigue’
The planned strikes would have taken place from noon on 24 March til 11:59 on 25 March, and the same times on 26-27 March.
The dispute centers on Underground bosses’ proposals for a condensed-hours working week.
Under the proposal, the majority of drivers would work their 36 hours over four days rather than five. However, in the 4-day plan, the workers would receive paid meal breaks.
To put that another way, the workers would see their hours spent driving each day jump from just over 7 to just under 9.
The proposal is currently being tested on a voluntary basis on the Bakerloo line.
When RMT first called the strikes earlier this month, general secretary Eddie Dempsey explained that:
We are clear that these proposals raise serious concerns around fatigue, safety and work-life balance.
Despite our best efforts over many months, no satisfactory outcome has been reached so we have no choice but to call strike dates.
There is still time for London Underground to come up with a workable solution but we will take strike action if we cannot get a negotiated settlement.
Instead, the union is advocating for a 32-hour week over four days. This would see drivers working 3 hours less each week.
Negotiations
However, London Underground has now relented in its position. RMT announced that:
After a year of telling us their imposed plan is non-negotiable they have now agreed to negotiate with RMT.
The dispute over the imposition of a condensed hours four-day week on tube drivers is far from over but LU management have taken steps in the right direction and are now taking the matter seriously.
That being said, unless London Underground can reach a settlement with the union, more strikes are on the way.
RMT has previously announced action for four more 24-hour periods. These will take place on 21 and 23 April, and likewise on 19 and 21 May. Yesterday, 18 March, RMT also announced similar strikes on 16 and 18 June.
Dempsey said:
Through our show of industrial strength and unity, we have forced management into a position where they are now willing to seriously engage with the issues our members want addressing.
Further talks will take place and the dispute remains live.
Iranian retaliatory attacks on its Ras Laffan energy complex in Qatar on Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday have spiked gas prices globally. It has also caused Trump to put out an unhinged statement.
Statement from President Trump on South Pars Gas Field: pic.twitter.com/YrjhDdGTxP
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 19, 2026
Iran also struck Saudi energy facilities in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field.
Iran said it is planning to attack the energy infrastructure of the US and Israeli allies in the Gulf until its “complete destruction” if its own energy facilities are targeted further.
Trump claims the US “knew nothing about this particular attack” — the attack on Iran’s South Pars Gas Field on Wednesday — blaming it squarely on Israel.
The South Pars field is located in the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Qatar, and the field is shared between the two countries.
Trump then stated that there will be “NO MORE ATTACKS” by Israel on the South Pars Field unless Iran “unwisely decides” to attack Qatar again. If Qatar’s LNG facilities are attacked again, Trump says the US, “with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field” with a level of force Iran has “never seen or witnessed before.”
Trump’s threat is characteristic of his hyperbolic and escalatory language. We shouldn’t forget that Trump FULLY destroyed the Iranian navy several times so far.
His core claim that the US “knew nothing about” the initial attack on Iran’s South Pars Field is probably another lie from the habitual liar. But who knows!
Qatar LNG — a weak spot?
Despite the use of hyperbolic and escalatory language, some think this is a de-escalatory effort by Trump. “Trump calls for de-escalation as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut and oil rises beyond $116 a barrel,” Bloomberg said.
Trump calls for de-escalation as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut and oil rises beyond $116 a barrel.
Get the latest news and analysis in our live blog: https://t.co/hVN6mGh31g
— Bloomberg (@business) March 19, 2026
Al Mayadeen reported that Trump and ‘Netanyahu’ hoped the attack on Iran’s gas fields would deter Iranian action in the Strait of Hormuz, but the plan backfired, prompting Trump to disavow it.
Netanyahu and Trump hoped that the attack on #Iran‘s gas fields would deter action in the Strait of #Hormuz. Evidently, the plan backfired, prompting the #US president to disavow the attack. https://t.co/Cjxi9V6qUA
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 19, 2026
Writer Philip Pilkington commented that Donald Trump has been drawn into a “suicidal energy war,” arguing that the president’s statement demonstrates the administration has “ZERO control over the situation.”
Trump has been sucked into a suicidal energy war. If you wanted evidence the administration has ZERO control over the situation, here it is. 🇺🇸🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/NLcwjoX3kA
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 19, 2026
The undeniable truth
Since it is hard to take what Trump says about the war seriously, the real-world consequences are the best judges. Anglo-American-Zionist illegal war on Iran has escalated this week.
Israel claimed to have killed intelligence minister Ismail Khatib in Tehran Tuesday night, plus security chief Ali Larijani and Basij paramilitary leader Gholamreza Soleimani.
After more than three weeks of war in Iran, thousands of people have been killed, millions more displaced, and billions of dollars have been spent. Arms dealers are lining their pockets.
The only certainty is that the bloodshed and destruction continue while politicians argue over who knew what and the Anglo-American-Zionist axis presses on with its murderous campaign.
Featured image via the Canary
Israel has murdered Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief of security, who was a PhD holder who wrote philosophical papers on Immanuel Kant — a man famous for his ideas on unconditional moral obligation.
Ali Larijani was martyred along with his son, one of his deputies, and a number of bodyguards after being targeted by American and Israeli warplanes at his daughter’s home in the Pardis area, Tehran. pic.twitter.com/VdtaafxA80
— Arya Yadeghaar (@AryJeay) March 17, 2026
According to Azer News:
Larijani combined an aristocratic religious background with a rigorous secular education. He earned degrees in mathematics and computer science at Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s premier technical school, before turning to philosophy. His doctoral work, unusual among Iranian power‑brokers, focused on Immanuel Kant, and he later published extensively on Kant’s philosophy, exploring the relationship between mathematical proof, metaphysics and rational inquiry.
Larijani and negotiations
Larijani was also regarded as one of the Iranian officials most likely to compromise on a peace deal.
Ali Larijani: Fast facts
Negotiated nuclear deals with West
Belonged to dynasty that Time magazine described as “Kennedys of Iran”
Joined IRGC before transitioning to government
Was often regarded as pragmatic and someone inside Iranian system who may be willing to compromise
— Clauda Tanios (@ClaudaTanios) March 17, 2026
Azer News noted that Larijani’s death would mark the end of “Tehran’s strategic calculus”. He was pragmatic and pro-diplomacy. It added that he was a “measured intellectual”, and was:
a bridge between Iran’s revolutionary ethos and its efforts to navigate a hostile international landscape, a thinker at ease both with complex philosophy and the raw realities of geopolitics.
Which means that once again, Israel has purposefully blown up one of the few people it could negotiate with.
Even one Israeli journalist, Ehud Ya’ari, said publicly that Israel’s murder of Larijani was the wrong move.
Of course, Ya’ari doesn’t realise that Israel doesn’t really want negotiations. It wants blood and a Greater Israel.
International law???
Importantly, murdering state and political leaders is illegal under international law.
Of course, we have already established (repeatedly) that Israel has no regard for International law, from bombing schools and hospitals to murdering healthcare workers and illegally invading Lebanon.
Araghchi on Larijani’s death: “I don’t know why America and Israel still haven’t understood that Iran will not be impacted by such killings of individuals.”
They literally do not know how to handle a nation who’s first language isn’t blowing people uppic.twitter.com/FWHqjWml9r
— Pistachio 🇮🇷 🇵🇸 (@HarleyShah) March 18, 2026
But unlike Israeli’s, who politicians hide in bomb shelters and flee the country when things get hard, Iranians are not scared of a few bombs.
For people asking why isn’t the senior leadership in bunkers hiding…
You have to understand the Iranian ideology.
No one is more important than anyone else…ie leadership over ordinary civilians. Everyone is equal and the war is for all of the country…equally.
In the…
— Pathfindr 🕊️ (@pathfinder_tua) March 17, 2026
Israel has a long history of assassinating its political opponents. As Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said:
In wars, you don’t start by killing political leaders, including elected leaders. That programme of assassination is gangster, it’s terrorism, it’s not the norm of war.
Furthermore, the United States and Israel have not yet realised that the Iranian government does not rely on a single individual. Meaning, one death, or even several, will not destabilise its political system.
Larijani’s death is a loss for everyone, not just Iranians.
But Shia religious doctrine relies heavily on martyrdom and sacrifice. So, to Larijani, Israel murdering him would have gained him the highest honour.
Feature image via Al Jazeera English/ YouTube
GB News recently gave Thomas Corbett-Dillon a platform to cynically claim that a genocide is being waged against white people in the UK. Subsequently, the Guardian reported that complaints have been made to Ofcom suggesting his comments even managed to cause offence among their right-wing viewers.
The offensive comments were made on GB News’ US-based Late Show Live last week, during a discussion on anti-extremism strategies in the UK.
Corbett-Dillon apparently advised Boris Johnson and worked on Penny Mordaunt’s failed leadership campaign, so this gross man is no stranger to far-right hateful views.
Showing a traditional lack of humility amongst racist, extremist pricks, Corbett-Dillon stated:
I hate this idea that England is just a no man’s land. No, there is an indigenous population that have lived on that island for thousands of years.
If this was happening in any other place around the world, everyone would be defending and saying: ‘Wow, there’s a genocide happening in this island because it is being taken over by different people that are not indigenous to that land.’
The abominable Thomas Corbett-Dillon appeared on GB News, insisting the channel isn’t extremist but “really impartial” — no one disagreed.@skwawkbox reports.https://t.co/kdxhmml6Oz
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) March 10, 2026
White supremacists given uncritical airtime
Thomas Corbett-Dillon joined fellow white privileged wankers as they condescendingly judged UK policy to tackle extremism in the Muslim community. Basically, a bunch of far-right extremists came together on the far-right TV news show, coincidentally the broadcast arm of Reform UK, to stoke fears of the extremism of Brown people.
Standard arrogant Western behaviour with precious little self-awareness, obviously.
Our own Skwawkbox wrote at the time:
Former Boris Johnson adviser Thomas Corbett-Dillon has appeared on far-right broadcaster GB News insisting that the channel is nowhere near extremist but insteaad lovely, cuddly, and “really, really impartial.”
Barely a breath later, he was confidently telling his white, male GB News panellists that the UK is suffering a genocide from all the migrants coming in, especially the Muslims. Not a single one of them disagreed.
Corbett-Dillon apparently did a ‘Tommy Robinson’ and changed his original name Craig Dillon to something posher-sounding. He even went so far as to suggest, with horror, that if white people moved to the Pacific and became the majority there would be resistance in the UN.
Perhaps he’s never heard of Australia or New Zealand.
This sickening display of white supremacy on GB News has resulted in 24 complaints made to Ofcom, however the Guardian inform they are yet to decide whether an investigation is necessary. This is hardly surprising when the “regulator” itself allows biased coverage if it comes from Farage and co.
A blatant bias we wrote about earlier today:
GB News lives by its own rules and Ofcom is perfectly willing to throw the rule book out of the window for this billionaire-interested political party. It would even seem that the supposed regulator believes the hateful views espoused by the channel to be ‘accurate.’
This calls the regulator’s impartiality into question, since biased rule-makers cannot provide un-biased remedies. A functioning democracy does not silence political views. It should make space for diverse perspectives to shape better decisions.
Corbett-Dillon isn’t remotely bothered about the offence he’s caused, of course. Nevertheless, 24 complaints from an audience of far-right viewers in response to a racist comment is quite an achievement:
The Guardian are OUTRAGED that TWENTY FOUR people complained about my interview… 😂
The argument is NOT racist, if you believe that other countries have the right to maintain an indigenous majority, then England has that right too. 🏴 pic.twitter.com/rgK4k28Is4
— Thomas Corbett-Dillon (@TCorbettDillon) March 18, 2026
A reminder of very real genocides committed by White colonialists and how those horrific actions shape Western perceptions today:
Say this:
Australia is a colonial settler country.
That means white people came here and committed genocide to steal the land.
America is another colonial settler country.
Australia is loyal to America because they both committed the same crimes against humanity.— @Damodar (@GeneralJudah) March 19, 2026
GB News: Lies, lies, lies, and more lies
He’s just a racist idiot inciting hate. As the video below shows, he even seems to forget that the majority of benefit claimants are White British people. In fact, they appear slightly overrepresented among benefit claimants, making up 76.2% compared to 74.4% of the population.
Furthermore, white people do not face the same structural and societal barriers as Black and Brown communities, particularly in access to opportunity and gainful employment. Socio-economic conditions disproportionately affect minoritised groups, therefore we would expect Black and Brown communities to make up a larger share of claimants. Nevertheless, it is White people disproportionately claiming more ‘freebies’ from the state.
As a result, his claim that white “indigenous” people are “taxed brutally” to fund welfare for minoritised groups does not stand up to the faintest scrutiny.
Racist White men simply just need to feel superior with their fragile egos and lack of self-awareness.
GB News is just amplifying race-baiting, as usual:
Thomas Corbett-Dillon warns that England’s White population is subject to “genocide”, with only 10% of the world being White. Dillon warns that White people will have nowhere left to go.
Dillon uses the example of South Africa, where, after the White population became the… pic.twitter.com/V9OQEeSXiR
— AF Post (@AFpost) March 11, 2026
Featured image via the Canary
The UK’s electoral watchdog is currently flying blind. A powerful investigation from Byline Times has this week exposed how Nigel Farage’s party, Reform UK, is once again shitting on democracy. By exploiting a very obvious and gaping loophole in the political finance system and accepting cryptocurrency donations, Farage is now able to hide who and where he is getting his dirty money from. And the Electoral Commission has finally admit that this is a huge fucking problem.
This danger isn’t theoretical. It’s an immediate and deliberate risk to our entire democracy.
A digital black hole in democracy
Reform UK is the only major political party in the UK actively soliciting funds through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Tether. And they have downright refused to share its “digital wallet addresses” with the Electoral Commission.
Think of a wallet address like a transparent bank account number. Whilst a traditional bank account is hidden behind corporate walls, a crypto wallet address is public and has an ID. Anyone with the address can look at the “blockchain” which has a permanent, digital ledger and can see exactly how much money is moving in and out in real time.
Reform UK is accepting cryptocurrency donations. Farage has admitted receiving some. Nothing has been declared to the Electoral Commission.
This week Nigel Farage personally invested £215,000 in a Bitcoin company alongside https://t.co/K3JSqvVFAT, the same firm that gave $5… pic.twitter.com/N0HgVZiBD6
— Jack Dart (@JackWDart) March 11, 2026
By withholding these addresses, Reform is effectively shielding it’s donations from scrutiny. The Electoral Commission is left unable to independently monitor the flow of funds or verify the source of the party’s wealth. Instead, the regulator can only rely on what the party chooses to declare in regards to its finances.
This is a disastrous blind spot. Whilst traditional donations create a paper trail which can be scrutinised, unregulated crypto allows for total anonymity. To date, not a single party has declared a crypto donation to the Commission. So why the fuck have Reform been publicly touting its “crypto-hub” status for months without scrutiny?
Nigel Farage’s Polish shield and North Korea links
Reform UK feeds its crypto donations through a Polish registered company called Radom Pay. By doing this, the party has placed a legal shield between themselves and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Whilst the UK regulator can demand records from domestic firms, their reach ends at the border.
The Polish crypto register is effectively a financial wild west. Anyone can get a license there in just 14 days. This register previously housed the Cambodian Huione syndicate which was sanctioned for laundering $4bn in illicit funds.
And shockingly, the same register has been used to launder money from cyber attacks by North Korean state-sponsored hackers to finance Pyongyang’s weapons programme. In 2025 alone these hackers stole a ridiculous $2bn in crypto, which accounted for 60% of all funds stolen globally.
And by using this same system, Reform are spitting on our entire democratic structure. They are inviting the same blackhole money into the heart of our politics and it can come from anywhere.
It’s a whack-a-mole loophole
The mechanics of this financial blind spot are tailored for anonymity. Under UK law any political donation under £500 doesn’t have to be reported. This creates a massive opening for “smurfing”. This means a single bad faith actor can use an AI automated script to split a massive donation into thousands of £499 micro-donations. And these can be sent from burner wallets, making it fucking impossible for the Electoral Commission to see the coordinated source of the funds. Meaning, they can come from anyone, anywhere.
The scale of this is already buck wild. Reform’s largest donor, Christopher Harborne is a major investor in Tether. He’s donated £12m to the party since 2025. In the final three months of 2025 Reform out-raised both the Labour and Conservative parties combined. They raked in a shocking £5.5m in reportable donations.
Thailand-based crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne gave another £3m to Reform in Q4 2025 boosting Farage’s war chest. His £12m total in 2025 makes him the party’s biggest donor — accounting for 24% of all political donations to every UK partyhttps://t.co/NqNKzbaRuC
— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) March 5, 2026
So… how much are they raking in from these dodgy anonymous crypto donations?
A billionaire pincer movement?
This is part of a broader attempt to replace our public control with a private, technological power. Whilst Farage uses unregulated crypto to stay off of the financial grid, his billionaire backers are working to put the UK’s public data into their own grid.
And this brings us to Palantir. Peter Thiel, the democracy-sceptic billionaire behind the company, is a key figure in the same “National Conservatism” movement that underpins Reform.
Yet the establishment remains complicit. The “Mandelson Papers” revealed to us that Keir Starmer ignored warnings about Peter Mandelson and his ties to both Russia and Jeffrey Epstein. This same web of lobbyists helped Palantir secure £500m in NHS and Ministry of Defence contracts without a single competitor.
They are creating a system where the public is entirely transparent to the powerful. Yet the powerful remain invisible to the public.
Nigel Farage happy to put our sovereignty up for sale
The Electoral Commission is currently bringing a pen-knife to a gun fight. It is taking “specialist external advice” because it lacks the internal expertise to track these digital transactions.
The UK government is under a shit load of pressure to act. The Rycroft Review, which is an independent inquiry into foreign financial interference, is due in March. And this is going to be a fucking doozy. Steve Reed, the Secretary of State of Housing, Communities and Local Government has suggested the findings from this review will inform the Representation of the People Bill.
The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has already called for an immediate “binding moratorium” on crypto donations to keep politics safe from “illicit finance”.
Nigel Farage claims to be the champion of UK sovereignty. However, the evidence suggests he is quite happy to surrender that sovereignty to unregulated foreign platforms and the dark money network of rogue states.
To put it simply, Farage is a dodgy wanker who needs to declare his party’s finances.
Featured image via the Guardian
A ‘Subject Access Request’ (SAR) by left-wing MP and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has given a further glimpse at the extent of the spying and plotting of scandal-riddled Israel lobby-funded ‘Labour Together’ against the Labour left.
An SAR is a statutory mechanism, under UK data law, for individuals to demand an organisation reveal what information it holds on them. McDonnell made an SAR to APCO, the firm contracted by Labour Together to spy on journalists who were investigating Labour Together’s plots against the party’s left.
Labour Together
Labour Together was run by Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s disgraced former chief of staff — and then by now-resigned Starmer front-bencher Josh Simons. Both are ardent Israel supporters. But the response to McDonnell’s SAR reveals the extent of the group’s apparent plotting to take over the party even more thoroughly. Or, more accurately, it reveals it by not revealing it.
APCO’s legally-obligated reply to McDonnell’s is little more file after file of black redaction, with nothing else showing than — usually single-line — mentions of McDonnell himself. The rest is redacted as supposedly “personally identifiable information”. Like this one, in which only an anodyne line about McDonnell is revealed:
Yet the document is marked “Confidential”, despite supposedly showing nothing that isn’t available in the public record — and heavily redacted to black out what is presumably other, equally public information. Or this one, also marked confidential despite showing nothing but information about seats and majorities that could easily be found in moments online — McDonnell’s entry is on a subsequent page that doesn’t show the headers:
More redactions
A few hint at potential plans to oust or undermine, or to coordinate communication campaigns, like this “Communication plan”, made while McDonnell was still shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, in which line after line is, you’ve guessed it, blacked out:
When the information redacted is publicly available and not sensitive, then the question becomes one of the purpose of the document — why was Labour Together paying a company to put together lists that could easily be compiled from Google, or the parliamentary website? And why doesn’t APCO — and presumably Labour Together — want to hide even the names of the people it was listing.
Was it a targeting aid for the Labour Right’s coordinated and underhanded deselection programme to winnow out MPs it wanted replaced by Starmer clones? Was it a list of MPs to be targeted for the hostile briefings Labour Together is now known to have conducted until Corbyn was removed? Something else?
Whatever it was, Labour Together thought it was worth spending money on. And, based on its disgraceful track record, that can’t mean anything good for the country or the working class.
!function(n){if(!window.cnx){window.cnx={},window.cnx.cmd=[];var t=n.createElement(‘iframe’);t.display=’none’,t.onload=function(){var n=t.contentWindow.document,c=n.createElement(‘script’);c.src=”//cd.connatix.com/connatix.player.js”,c.setAttribute(‘async’,’1′),c.setAttribute(‘type’,’text/javascript’),n.body.appendChild(c)},n.head.appendChild(t)}}(document);(new Image()).src=”https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=19654b65-409c-4b38-90db-80cbdea02cf4″;cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({“playerId”:”19654b65-409c-4b38-90db-80cbdea02cf4″,”mediaId”:”c635653c-24a7-448a-bda5-ea21c4f1cd48″}).render(“69bc3d56e4b0bb6debb819d4”);});
The foreign secretary’s statement on UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations has been a year in the making.
I have been dreading this day since the decision last year by the prime minister and chancellor to cut ODA spending from 0.5 to 0.3% of gross national income.
Yvette Cooper’s words about UK values and “supporting those in conflict and extreme poverty” are welcome, but the reality of her statement reveals significant, real-life impacts.
Girls will leave schools and children will go hungry. We will damage our international reputation, increase migration and hinder progress towards self-sufficiency through economic development.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to most of the world’s poorest countries, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Malawi. It has a population of 1.3 billion people – and growing. Its land is degraded by climate change, many countries are ravaged by decades of conflict, and its population feels the impact of a volatile global economy far deeper than wealthy countries such as the UK.
Yet this Labour government has decided to disproportionately cut aid to the part of the world where it makes the biggest difference. And there is no clarity yet in what the cuts will mean for the building blocks of sustainable development, in particular education and skills development.
We know conflict flourishes where the population remains uneducated. And, keeping girls in school is one of the most straightforward ways of supporting a country’s development. All the evidence shows girls who complete secondary education are less at risk of teenage pregnancy, HIV and domestic violence.
Crucially, during their lifetime they will help boost their country’s national productivity and wealth, have fewer children, and raise healthier children who are far more likely to succeed at school.
There is some good news. Britain’s contribution to the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria has been prioritised, and aid to richer countries will be deprioritised. Spending on violence against women and girls, including the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, seems to have been protected.
But we await clarity on conflict prevention and governance programmes. We are currently witnessing how hard power is in danger of destabilising peace and the global economy. While we need strong defences, investment in soft power is how we will build a better world.
I have had my ups and downs with party policy over the years, but I never thought a Labour government would so dramatically slash UK
support for the world’s poorest people.
It is a mistake to cut vital support to people in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere at a time when UK aid is needed more than ever. And it is a matter of deep regret that it is a Labour government that has made this choice.
No one should be proud of cuts that are proportionately larger than Donald Trump’s cuts to US Aid.
A Labour government that – for the first time ever – spends less on the world’s most vulnerable than the Tories will be remembered for the wrong reasons.
The intergovernmental UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the UN’s largest annual forum on gender equality. Its 70th session concludes on 19 March at UN HQ in New York. This year’s priority theme under discussion was:
‘Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.’
“However”, said Shobha Shukla:
for the first time in the 70 years’ history of CSW, the outcome document was adopted via a formal vote rather than by consensus, thanks to the retaliatory stand taken by the US.
The US introduced 8 oral amendments aimed at altering the draft text to align with its own positions on issues including against abortion, gender identity, and diversity, equity and inclusion. But these 8 amendments proposed by the US were defeated by other UN Member States or countries (by a vote of 26 to 1, with 14 countries abstaining).
Shukla is the host of SHE & Rights (a campaign to advance gender equality and the human right to health). She’s also the founder executive director of CNS.
Shukla added:
Ultimately, the CSW70 document was adopted with 37 votes in favour and 1 against (the US), and 14 abstentions (including Nigeria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia).
This rare break from consensus to a vote highlights widening global political divides over gender rights and is a sign of increasing pressure and pushback against existing human rights language, particularly regarding gender equality.
Is the outcome document of CSW70 good enough?
Maitree Muzumdar is co-founder of Feminist Manch and co-convener of the Young Feminist Caucus and the Women’s Rights Caucus. She agreed that CSW70 negotiations took place amid a global rollback of rights, shrinking civic space, rising authoritarianism and militarism, and deepening economic crisis.
Muzumdar lamented that:
Governments (UN Member States) approached access to justice as a technical issue rather than a political issue, focusing on procedural reforms without addressing the structural conditions that produce injustice. This allows governments to avoid confronting the political interests and power relations that sustain injustice.
In many contexts, governments themselves are responsible for serious human rights violations through misuse of security laws, policing, and impunity of armed forces used to justify repression and criminalisation against communities demanding justice.
These patterns of repression also appear in laws that criminalise LGBTQI+ communities, regulate women and gender diverse people’s bodies such as through restrictions on abortion, and render people illegal. The refusal to name discriminatory laws, dilution of commitments under sovereignty clause, and phrases like ‘as applicable’ allow existing social, political, and economic hierarchies to remain untouched.
Gender equality threatened by corporate capture
Commenting on the deliberations at CSW70, Mazumdar said:
There has also been reluctance to address the impunity of the private sector in the privatisation of essential public services, climate injustice, human rights violations, and development projects that deepen inequalities between countries and people.
These harms are closely tied to development models that prioritise economic growth and profit over people’s rights. Yet, these models remained unquestioned, making strong corporate accountability and reparative remedies essential.
These realities demand stronger accountability for human rights violations committed by both state and non-state actors. Justice cannot exist without democratising power and resources or confronting the systems that produce injustice.
Argentine feminist activist Josefina Sabate is part of the Political Advocacy unit at FUSA Asociacion Civil. She agrees the CSW70 process has taken place in a highly adverse political context and the outcome document is not as progressive as we might have wished. For her:
access to justice is not merely a technical matter. Women and girls face numerous obstacles – legal, financial, geographical, and institutional barriers – that hinder their access to justice, bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive health services, and mechanisms for redress and reparation.
However, this agenda faces significant resistance in Latin America. Many countries in this region stand in opposition to this agenda. Colombia, fortunately, is one of the few nations in the region that continues to champion these rights.
Ayshka Najib is a climate and gender justice advocate and co-convener of the Young Feminist Caucus. Najib pointed out that:
justice for women and girls is systematically obstructed by patriarchal, militarised, and fascist systems manifested through war economies, arms trade, corporate capture, and fossil fuel-based extractive models that dispossess indigenous communities.
Achieving justice requires the dismantling of these systems, redistribution of power, demilitarisation, protection and expansion of civic spaces, and the meaningful leadership of feminist movements.
Lack of gender equality in systems of justice
Maluseu Doris Tulifau, a Samoan feminist and founder of Brown Girl Woke, shared the travails of Pacific women – women with disabilities, LGBT+ communities, migrants, and rural women – who continue to face multiple intersecting barriers to justice:
From a Pacific perspective, justice is not experienced through a single system. Women navigate a continuum of justice systems: formal courts, customary governance, faith-based authority, and family negotiation.
For most of the Pacific women, particularly in rural, remote, and outer island communities, customary and community-based justice mechanisms remain the primary entry point for justice.
But women are also clear-eyed about the limitations. In cases of family and sexual violence, customary processes often prioritise reconciliation or compensation over women’s safety and accountability for harm.
Family reputation, church authority, and social hierarchy frequently pressure survivors to remain silent about violence and this cultural silence protects the perpetrators.
Women also confront broader structural challenges. Climate change, rising seas, displacement, extreme weather conditions are intensifying poverty, insecurity, and violence against women and girls across small island countries.
Also, without economic security women cannot leave violent situations or pursue legal action. But decades of neoliberal economic policies across the Pacific have weakened the very systems that women rely on for protection and justice.
Technology-facilitated violence is yet another serious justice issue. Digital harassment, exploitation, and surveillance are increasingly affecting women and girls across the region.
Tulifau lamented that at the global level also, Pacific voices remain structurally excluded. Small island states and grassroots organizations face visa barriers, funding limitations, and structural exclusion from global spaces like CSW.
Social development specialist Asel Dunganaeva, from Kyrgyzstan, said:
Across Asia, justice systems remain inaccessible, under-resourced, and attacked by patriarchy and inequality. These systems often exist in law but not in lived experience.
Women may have rights on paper but face stigma, fear of retaliation, lack of legal aid, and economic dependency that prevents them from claiming those rights. Discriminatory laws and colonial legal legacies continue to control women’s bodies, restrict sexuality and identity, and criminalise marginalised communities.
Even when legal reforms exist, implementation remains weak. We are witnessing a disturbing rollback of women’s human rights and protections against gender-based violence are weakening.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence has also become a powerful tool of control. Cyber-stalking, doxing, online harassment weaponises sexuality and identity to silence diverse women and girls.
Also, for millions of women across Asia, the first experience of injustice is not in a courtroom, it is in the economic systems in which women live. Debt-driven development, austerity policies, and economic inequality are driving public resources away from healthcare, education, and social protection, making justice even more inaccessible for women and communities already living on the margins.
Shrinking space for feminist voices of the global south
Despite civil society participation being central to the effectiveness and legitimacy of the CSW, many African women and girls face restrictive access to participation. Visa bans and visa denials based on age and location make it difficult for them to participate in UN processes like CSW. That’s the view of Michelle Anzaya, communications professional and feminist leader from Africa. She added:
For those who are able to travel, concerns around racial profiling, surveillance, and safety further undermine the ability of advocates to engage freely and safely in global policy spaces. We are also witnessing the growing influence of anti-rights actors within multilateral spaces.
This imbalance risks distorting participation and weakening the accountability that global gender equality processes depend on, and the global agenda risks being shaped without the voices of those who are most directly affected by inequality and injustice.
Anzaya shared that in response to these challenges, African feminist movements are building new spaces for engagement and solidarity:
Initiatives like ‘Africa Disrupts CSW’ demonstrate the power of African feminists to ensure that African realities and lived experiences inform global gender equality debates.
National and regional CSW hubs are also emerging, like in Uganda, Gambia, and Cameroon. By creating local spaces for engagement, these alternatives are democratising participation and strengthening feminist movement building across the continent.
Anzaya also highlighted the need for vigilance about broader challenges to women’s rights:
African feminists have raised concerns about proposals such as the draft African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty, which risks undermining existing regional human rights protections (like the Maputo Protocol) and rolling back hard-won gains for women, girls, and marginalised communities.
Feminists call upon government leaders to deliver on gender equality and justice
Anzaya calls upon governments or UN member states, UN leadership, and the CSW Bureau to uphold meaningful, holistic, and inclusive participation as a core principle of CSW processes.
And she wants them to address the structural and systemic barriers that continue to limit the effective participation of women and civil society from the global south, including the restrictive visa regimes.
Also, any discussions on reforms to the UN system must reinforce and not weaken the global architecture for gender equality and ensure that CSW outcomes reflect the lived realities and priorities of women and girls across all regions.
Shiphrah Belonguel, global advocacy officer at Fòs Feminista, reiterates:
We are fighting for strong language on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that impact access to justice. We are fighting for sexual reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy as central to access to justice.
We are emphasising that sexual and gender-based violence encompasses harmful acts rooted in structural gender inequalities and power imbalances. These are systemic injustices that justice systems must be equipped to confront.
Sai Jyothirmai Racherla is deputy executive director of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women. She emphasises that human rights, equality and justice are core to sustainable development. We also need to look at redistributive justice- economic, gender, ecological accountability – and prioritise marginalised people and environmental sustainability over profit.
And as Dunganaeva remarked:
Justice demands redistribution of power and resources, demilitarisation of economies, and decolonisation of global governments. It requires dismantling systems of power that perpetuate inequality. Without transforming these structural conditions, access to justice cannot be realised.
Featured image via the Canary
Entertainment39 seconds ago
Super early 2027 Oscars contenders: Could Amy Adams finally win her first Academy Award?
NewsBeat4 minutes ago
Newcastle United respond to Man Utd approach for Bruno Guimaraes | Football
Business5 minutes ago
Women Who Experience Menopause Before 40 Face 40% Higher Lifetime Risk of Heart Attacks, New Study Finds
Crypto World2 months ago
Smart energy pays enters the US market, targeting scalable financial infrastructure
Politics1 month ago
Why Israel is blocking foreign journalists from entering
News Videos1 month ago
Bitcoin: We’re Entering The Most Dangerous Phase
News Videos23 minutes ago
PAKE LOT KECIL KAPAN KAYANYA? #belajarforex #forex #bitcoingold #tradingcuan #cryptocurrency
News Videos1 hour ago
Crypto Futures Trading Full Course | Crypto Futures Trading For Beginners | SAGAR SINHA
News Videos1 hour ago
How to Start Investing with Rs. 500 in Pakistan | Financial Literacy for Beginners
-
Crypto World6 days agoHYPE Token Enters Net Deflation as HyperCore Buybacks Outpace Staking Rewards
-
Tech4 days agoYour Legally Registered ‘Motorcycle’ Might Not Count Under Proposed US Law
-
Fashion6 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Addict Lip Glow
-
Tech2 days agoAre Split Spacebars the Next Big Gaming Keyboard Trend?
-
Sports5 days ago
Why Duke and Michigan Are Dead Even Entering Selection Sunday
-
Business4 days agoSearch for Savannah Guthrie’s Mother Enters Seventh Week with No Arrests
-
Business5 days agoUS Airports Launch Donation Drives for Unpaid TSA Workers as Partial Government Shutdown Enters Fifth Week
-
Crypto World5 days ago
Coinbase and Bybit in Investment Talks: Could Bybit Finally Enter the US Crypto Market?
-
Business4 days agoAustralian shares drop as Iran war enters third week
-
Business5 days agoCountry star Brantley Gilbert enters growing non-alcoholic beer market
-
Crypto World4 days agoCrypto Lender BlockFills Enters Chapter 11 with Up to $500M in Liabilities
-
Sports6 days agoCollege Basketball Best Bets: Conference Tournament Semifinal Picks
-
Politics2 days agoThe House | The new register to protect children from their abusers shows Parliament at its best
-
Fashion4 days ago25 Celebrities with Curly Hair That Are Naturally Beautiful
-
News Videos1 day agoRBA board divided on rate cut, unusually buoyant share market | Finance Report | ABC NEWS
-
Crypto World1 day agoCanada’s FINTRAC revokes registrations of 23 crypto MSBs in AML crackdown
-
Crypto World5 days agoCrypto Losses Drop 87% in February, But Hackers Are Now Targeting People, Not Code
-
Politics2 days agoReal-time pollution monitoring calls after boy nearly dies
-
NewsBeat1 day agoResidents in North Lanarkshire reminded to register to vote in Scottish Parliament Election
-
Business3 days agoMeta planning major layoffs as AI spending and automation reshape workforce
You must be logged in to post a comment Login