On Monday 30 March, Al Jazeera published an exclusive interview with US secretary of state Marco Rubio. Predictably, the Trump crony used the opportunity to deny US responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Cuba, stating that America had done “nothing punitive.”

Of course, this is an outright lie and utterly unconnected to basic, observable fact. But then, this shameless display of propagandising has long been the order for the Republican administration.

Stranglehold

As the Canary previously reported, Trump’s second administration has massively tightened the longstanding US stranglehold on Cuba. On top of the decades-long US embargo, Trump issued an executive order in January threatening any country which sends oil to the island.

His escalating campaign of terror has brought the island’s health system to its knees, putting thousands of lives at risk. On 25 March, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that: 

Reports show that Cuban hospitals have been struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care services.

Thousands of surgeries have been postponed during the last month, and people needing care, from cancer patients to pregnant women preparing for delivery, have been put at risk due to lack of power to operate medical equipment and cold chain storage for vaccines.

Similarly, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that Cuba has suffered three total grid collapses over the last month:

leaving over 10 million people without electricity after three consecutive months without diesel, fuel oil, gasoline, jet fuel or liquefied petroleum gas.

‘I could do anything I want with it’

Worse still, Trump has indicated that he intends an outright attack on Cuba. On 16 March, he voiced plans to “take” Cuba, along with the chilling statement:

I think I could do anything I want with it.

Similarly, on 29 March, in a self-aggrandizing rant on his recent illegal attacks on Venezuela, the president stated:

Cuba’s next, by the way, but pretend I didn’t say that, please.

Cue Marco Rubio, who is himself the child of Cuban immigrants. The US state secretary has been vocal in his hatred for the communist government in Cuba and its president Miguel Diaz-Canel.

In his March 30 interview with Al Jazeera, Rubio argued that the US was blameless for the crisis in Cuba:

We’ve done nothing punitive against the Cuban regime. They claim we have, but we haven’t. The only thing that’s changed for the Cuban regime is they’re not getting free Venezuelan oil anymore. They’re not getting subsidies anymore. That’s the only thing that’s changed.

As a reminder, Venezuela isn’t shipping oil to Cuba because of the threat of US retaliation.

Likewise, Rubio also denied reports from Cuban officials and the UN that the blackouts on the island are getting worse:

These blackouts that are occurring that I see people reporting have nothing to do with us. They were having blackouts last year. They’re having blackouts because they have equipment from the 1950s in their grid that they’ve never maintained and never upgraded because they’re incompetent.

Cuba does indeed experience frequent blackouts. However, that situation has been made far worse by the fascist US administration blocking fuel from reaching the island.

Brazen lies

Instead, Rubio tried to blame the dire situation on Cuba’s leadership, issuing one of his frequent calls for a change in government:

We’ve tried to explain it to anyone who will listen. Their system doesn’t work, their system of economics. It’s completely dysfunctional. It’s just not a real system, and you can’t change it unless you change the government.

The US state secretary is blatantly trying to manufacture cover for a US attack on Cuba, as if America bothers with finding a reason to wage its wars anymore.

Trump has prevented almost all fuel from reaching the communist nation. As a consequence, it has experienced increasing, life-threatening power outages. And Rubio wants us to believe that this is Cuba’s fault?

The Trump administration is lying — openly, brazenly, without a care for the fact that the whole world can see what they’re doing, plain as day.

Featured image via the Canary

As of now, just 21% of the British people think Keir “he’s playing a blinder” Starmer is doing well as Prime Minister.

The 70% of us that say he is doing badly — also known as the vast majority — isn’t just a dip, but a crater.

YouGov’s latest tracker puts his net favourability around -48. That’s the kind of rating that is usually reserved for politicians caught in flagrante with an expenses scandal or, in Liz Truss’s case, the iceberg lettuce that outlasted her premiership.

This isn’t some right-wing hit job. These are the cold, hard numbers staring back at a man who once promised “change” the way a dodgy salesman promises a revolutionary vacuum cleaner that turns out to be last year’s pile of shite with a fresh lick of paint.

None of this is particularly surprising – it was just so depressingly predictable.

Starmer’s descent was oh-so predictable

Starmer was elected in 2024 on a platform so fucking vague it could have meant socialism-lite, neoliberalism, or a particularly enthusiastic neighbourhood watch scheme.

Keir Starmer chose the path of least resistance, managerial centrism, served with a side order of ruthless purges of anyone to his left.

This has resulted in a government that has alienated its own base faster than you can say “rules-based international order”, while failing poor and working-class people that it claims to champion.

Look at the last few days alone for the perfect example of why Keir Starmer simply doesn’t get it.

While households brace for yet another surge in energy bills courtesy of the escalating Israel-US illegal war on Iran, Keir Starmer jetted off to Finland for a military summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force.

I’m sure the Starmer-friendly media will call this something like “admirable statesmanship”, but the optics? Chef’s kiss of disaster.

Chaos

Back at home, pensioners and families are staring down higher fuel costs, a cost-of-living that refuses to die, and the grim realisation that Keir Starmer’s New Year’s pledge to bring down living expenses has aged about as well as a pint of full fat milk left out on the hottest day of the year.

This has become so very typical of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer’s leadership. When the people need bread, Labour offers us foreign policy briefings and hope nobody notices the difference.

The Iran-related energy shock is hammering precisely the red wall and working class communities Labour was supposed to protect — the same voters who dragged themselves to the polls in 2024 out of sheer exhaustion with Tory chaos.

Fuel duty rises loom again in September. Winter fuel payments remain rationed like wartime luxuries. And instead of the bold left-wing measures we needed — a proper windfall tax on energy giants that actually bites, serious public investment in renewables that creates unionised jobs, or rent controls to stop tenants being fleeced for every last penny – we get the usual centrist technocratic tinkering.

Starmer’s remaining cheerleaders will trot out the usual excuses about global headwinds, wars, energy shocks, and an Inherited mess, some of which is completely valid because the world is in a particularly sorry state right now.

A left government was and is needed

But I would argue this is exactly why a genuinely left government was needed. A progressive administration would have seized this moment for structural reform by taking energy into full public ownership to shield bill-payers, launching a real Green New Deal that builds hope instead of just targets, and pursuing a foreign policy grounded in diplomacy, peace, and justice rather than automatic alignment with whatever the Washington predator Trump dreams up next.

Instead, we get the politics of the “national interest” that mysteriously always aligns with the City, defence contractors, and endless summits abroad while domestic pain festers.

It’s centrism as performance art — all sensible suits with zero soul.

During the leadership years and early government, the left warned that purging socialist traditions, scrapping or watering down public ownership pledges, and triangulating on welfare and immigration would end in tears.

We were dismissed as unrealistic, divisive, trots, dogs, rabble, and – that favourite insult – “unelectable”. Yet here we are, a Labour government barely 18 months old, polling like it’s already on its deathbed.

The deeper tragedy is what this means for the millions of us who actually need radical change.

Starmer must go. The left was right all along.

Britain in 2026 still grapples with stagnating wages, a crumbling NHS and council services, and a housing crisis that makes Victorian slums look like aspirational living.

Only unashamedly bold, structural solutions can fix these deep-rooted failures. Starmer’s cautious centrism was sold as the safe, adult alternative. In practice, it’s delivered paralysis, broken promises, and the slowest political suicide in recent memory.

You see, the problem isn’t merely that Starmer is deeply unpopular. The problem is that the politics he embodies were never going to inspire the working-class voters Labour exists to serve.

We wanted transformation. We got tweaks.

For Labour to try and miraculously survive, it needs to rediscover what it actually stands for – or step aside for someone that does.

The shocking numbers really don’t lie. Keir Starmer’s centrist politics has failed spectacularly. The left was right all along.

Featured image via the Canary

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to invest in a defence fund weeks ahead of the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The Financial Times (FT) said three sources have corroborated this claim, which the Pentagon denies.

On 31 March, the FT reported the following.

Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF, the people said, shortly before the US launched military action against Tehran.

The inquiry on behalf of the high-profile potential client was flagged internally at BlackRock, according to the people familiar with the matter. BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Hegseth is a key architect of America’s illegal attack on Iran.

Initial, unprovoked offensive strikes on Iran were launched by the US and Israel on 28 February. Iran was offering concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

So far the Iranian government remains functional. The main US and Israeli achievement so far appears to be creating a global energy crisis after Iran predictably closed the vital oil channel in straits of Hormuz.

The FT said the purchase did not go ahead in the end:

The investment discussed by Hegseth’s broker did not ultimately go ahead as the fund, which launched in May last year, was not yet available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy.

Making a killing

The inquiry about buying into the fund was flagged because it was related to a “high-profile potential client.”

The FT explained the perverse nature of such funds, and their links to global arms giants—profiting from death.

According to BlackRock, the $3.2bn equity fund, which carries the ticker IDEF, pursues “growth opportunities by investing in companies that may benefit from increased government spending on defense and security amid geopolitical fragmentation and economic competition”.

The newspaper also reported:

Its largest holdings include defence conglomerates RTX, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which count the US Department of Defense as their biggest customers, as well as data integration specialist Palantir.

The legendary US Marine Corps General turned war resister and whistleblower Smedley Butler (dubbed the Fighting Quaker) once said that war is a racket. That was in 1935, after Butler had tried to head off a fascist coup in the US. Then 91 years later, the fascists are in power, and, if these reports are true, they’re still looking to make a killing off the killing — at the expense of the people of Iran.

Featured image via the Canary

Nazi-saluting billionaire Elon Musk’s X app will be pivotal in a new wave of pro-US propaganda spread through American embassies. A cable sent to embassies around the world encourages staff to use X for psychological influence operations.

Commenting on the directive, a report by the Guardian, which has seen the document (signed by secretary of state Marco Rubio), states it instructs:

embassies and consulates [to] work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation.

This likely means substituting foreign propaganda with American disinformation.

The Guardian’s Washington correspondent, Joseph Gedeon, also noted that the cable:

endorses Elon Musk’s X as an “innovative” tool to help do it …[and]… lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.

The news comes as the US is getting spanked daily by Iranian memes and AI videos.

The message highlights five areas where US propaganda will focus:

countering hostile messaging, expanding access to information, exposing adversary behavior, elevating local voices who support American interests, and promoting what it calls “telling America’s story”.

The US will recruit Influencers, academics and community leaders in target countries And also develop an approach designed:

to make American-funded narratives feel locally organic rather than centrally directed.

This already sounds very convincing…

A direct threat to US interests?

The cable also states that ‘enemy’ campaigns seek to:

shift blame to the United States, sow division among allies, promote alternative worldviews antithetical to America’s interests, and even undermine American economic interests and political freedoms

The paper warned that:

Using digital platforms, state-controlled media, and influence operations, they pose a direct threat to US national security and fuel hostility toward American interests.

The cable also instructs embassies to work with:

“the Department of War’s Psychological Operations” – the military unit more commonly known as Miso, or Military Information Support Operations, formerly Psyop, which is part of the Pentagon.

The US State Department told the Guardian that Sarah Rogers, the new under-secretary for diplomacy, had made countering foreign propaganda a priority. A spokesperson reminded the Guardian that leftwing groups were being framed as linked to foreign powers and targeted for US influence operations:

The state department also noted that Rogers had already drawn attention for a separate report to Congress identifying Code Pink and several other leftwing activist organizations as vectors of Chinese influence operations inside the United States.

The fact this information is now in the public domain may disappoint situational analysts who love to refer to everything as a PSYOP.

Presumably this particular guessing game is much less fun when the US publicly announces its running PSYOPs. Hate that for you, lads.

Though maybe—just maybe— the announcement is itself a PSYOP…*plays X Files music.*

Featured image via the Canary

Israel has murdered two more UN peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon, according to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). This marks the latest lethal attack against UN forces, leaving at least three dead this week.

In a statement on social media, UNIFIL said:

Two UNIFIL peacekeepers were tragically killed in south Lebanon today, when an explosion of unknown origin destroyed their vehicle near Bani Hayyan. A third peacekeeper was severely injured, and a fourth was also hurt.

Adding:

This is the second fatal incident in the last 24 hours. We reiterate that no one should ever have to die serving the cause of peace.

We extend our sincerest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of those brave peacekeepers who gave their lives in service of peace.

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Since Israel began its bombardment and subsequent invasion of Lebanon, more than 1,000 people have been murdered and more than a million are internally displaced. Over 120 of those deaths are children, highlighting, as we’ve long reported, that Israel does not distinguish between civilians or combatants.

Furthermore, the UN recently recently warned that 370,000 more children could be displaced by the illegal Israeli invasion.

Given that the occupational power is unfazed by the idea of murdering peacekeepers, supposedly protected under international law, the fate of Lebanon’s children hangs in the balance.

The UN has condemned the deaths of three Indonesian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who were killed in two separate incidents, including a vehicle explosion.

They are the latest UN casualties since Israel expanded its ground invasion. pic.twitter.com/gwqjTZaLLW

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— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 30, 2026

UNIFIL says “the violence must end”

Israel renewed its bombardment and subsequent ground invasion of Lebanon after attacking Iran in late February. Under the pretext of Hezbollah’s links to Iran, Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) intend to continue their landgrabs as part of their push towards their “Greater Israel.”

However, once again, it appears Israel is doing little to disguise its sinister motives, murdering UN peacekeepers in their alleged “war on terror.”

UNIFIL has been on the record condemning the IOF’s flagrant violations of international law:

We reiterate the urgent need for all actors to uphold their obligations under international law and to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property at all times, including avoiding any actions that may put peacekeepers in danger.

Deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are grave violations of international humanitarian law and of Security Council Resolution 1701, and may constitute war crimes.

Pointing out what Western leaders are desperate to ignore, they have also said:

The human cost of this conflict is far too high. The violence, as we have said before, must end.

This fatal attack followed the murder of another peacekeeper on Sunday near the southern Lebanese village of Aadshit al-Qusayr. UNIFIL states that it’s not clear where the projectile originated from but is investigating the matter.

UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said early Monday that one of its peacekeepers was killed and another critically injured after a projectile exploded Sunday night at one of its positions in southern Lebanon https://t.co/FjqQSwPM54 pic.twitter.com/KvxAHKcTaJ

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) March 30, 2026

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One of the peacekeepers who was killed is an Indonesian national, as was confirmed by his country foreign affairs ministry. They also reported that three more of their citizens were wounded in an attack described as “indirect artillery fire.”

The Government of the Republic of Indonesia expresses its deepest condolences following the death of one Indonesian peacekeeper and the injury of three others serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), after indirect artillery fire in the vicinity of the…

— MoFA Indonesia (@Kemlu_RI) March 30, 2026

Every murder is intentional

Israel has demonstrated its capacity to carry out targeted strikes in Iran and Lebanon. This makes the repeated killing of civilians, peacekeepers, and journalists all the more revealing, underscoring the intent behind how the state conducts its military operations.

Basically, if you’re Arab, you’re fair game.

Our own Jamal Awar wrote recently about three Lebanese journalists murdered by IOF bombs in a double-tap strike:

Journalists Ali Shuaib (Al-Manar) and Fatima Ftouni (Al-Mayadeen), along with Fatima’s brother, camera operator Mohamad Ftouni, join a long list of Lebanese journalists killed by Israel. An Israeli warplane fired five missiles at their car, travelling in the countryside next to the city of Jezzine, around 30 km north of the border with occupied Palestine. The last two missiles were fired at 2 civilians, one of them from the Lebanese Civil Defence, who were trying to save the targeted journalists.

Adding:

If those war crimes tell us anything, it is that:

1. Israel intentionally targets journalists everywhere they can
2. Journalism is as important as taking up arms on the path of resisting colonialism

It is clear that the same logic applies to anyone resisting Zionist colonisers, including UN peacekeeping forces. After all, in Israel’s mind, if there are no witnesses then there can be no crime.

This UN official has had enough of this:

Yesterday, Israel deliberately killed a UN Indonesian peacekeeper and wounded others in Lebanon.

Israel cannot continue to be treated as a full member of the UN.

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Attacking UN peacekeepers is an abomination which was in the past perpetrated by terrorists, but never by members of…

— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) March 30, 2026

It is long past time since Israel should have been rejected by the international community. The fact that the Zionist entity is still welcome shows the complicity of the world order in genocide.

Featured image via the Canary

Our wonderful grassroots football team Great Western FC kicked arse on Saturday 28 March 2026. The reserves team played Coleview in the fast-paced semi-finals for the Swindon District Community Football League Plate final. This win is about more than football. It is about a community that refuses to leave its young men behind — championing them at every stage.

But the match was not so close as the scoreboard suggested. Great Western FC controlled the match for most of the afternoon. Our lads headed into half-time with a 3-1 lead. While a late penalty for Coleview made the closing minutes tense, the result was never really in doubt

A captain’s goal and a rare smile

The pressure was relentless on Coleview for the first half. Liam Irwin smashed two goals into the back of the net first. Team Captain, Levi Dunn, doubled down on the lead with a low-drilled free kick. This clinical finish helped the reserves head into the halftime break with a comfortable 3-1 lead.

Supporters said Dunn smiled for the first time this season when the final whistle blew. This squad is the antithesis of working class, and this victory was a glorious snapshot in working-class survival. The players come from diverse backgrounds, some of them rocking criminal records,  who have found a stunning support network through Great Western.

In a system that discards young lads with a record, Great Western offers them hope and solidarity. Research shows that sports-based resettlement programmes can reduce reoffending rates significantly. And for these lads, many of whom have felt the sharp end of the justice system, the football pitch is the rehab that the state refuses to provide. And Great Western Reserves show exactly what can be achieved with the right support.

Late drama in Southbrook

Coleview pushed back in the second half, as Great Western expected. With only five minutes left until the end whistle, one of our players accidentally tripped an opponent in the penalty box.

Coleview won the penalty, bringing the score to 3-2. However, our young reserves held their nerve until the very end. The squad of 16, includes six players under the age of 21. Two of the lads have only just turned 18.

This young group is thriving, despite a national crisis in grassroots sports. Over 90% of grassroots clubs say running costs have skyrocketed recently. Almost half of those clubs estimate their weekly running costs at £250 or more. Meanwhile, we have big Football Association players on buck-wild wages that they can never hope to spend.

The FA doesn’t give a shit about small teams

The success of Great Western FC comes despite a complete lack of support from the football’s governing bodies. Whilst the FA claims a social return on investment of £15.6bn, very little of this wealth trickles down to the grassroots teams. Recent data shows that 95% of the annual broadcast revenue stays with the top 26 clubs. That is a fucking shambles.

The FA ignores the reality of working-class teams. For teams like Great Western FC, the survival of the club depends on the community in the form of fees, but these only go so far. The real money behind our little team comes from the dwindling wages of the members, not the bureaucrats in Wembley.

Most local games attract three spectators, and if they’re lucky, a dog. Saturday was different. Over 50 friends and family members cheered the team towards the final. And afterwards they celebrated the win in the most working-class way. In the fucking pub!

The reserves will now face Lambourne FC in the final on 9 May 2026. The match will be held at the Webbswood stadium, home of Swindon Supermarine FC. And the squad will spend next month training their arses off to make sure they bring home the win.

Featured Image via Great Western FC 

(Alamy)

2 min read5 hr

Turner has been particularly vocal in his opposition to jury trial reforms, but has also publicly criticised the Keir Starmer operation.

PoliticsHome understands that the suspension did not relate to a specific incident and was in response to a pattern of behaviour towards colleagues.

Some Labour MPs were unhappy with an interview that the Hull East MP gave to campaigner Jody McIntyre, who stood against Labour MP Jess Phillips at the last general election.

Turner claimed that he had not been made aware that he had had the whip suspended before it was reported by the media.

Writing on X on Tuesday afternoon after the suspension was confirmed to PoliticsHome, he said: “I am being told that I have had the whip suspended but I have not had any notification from the whips about this. It seems journalists have been told but I have not.”

Turner, who was first elected in 2010, wrote in The House in December that he was prepared to break the whip for the first time since being elected to oppose the government’s plans to scale back jury trials.

It came after PoliticsHome reported that Turner was organising a backbench letter to protest proposals.

While some MPs had said they were opposed to the plans to scale back jury trials for less serious offences, the bill passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons earlier this month.