As everyone knows, Andy Burnham is angling to replace Keir Starmer as PM. And if recent polling proves accurate, it seems like a third of the public support him:

Westminster Voting Intention [Burnham as Leader]:

LAB: 30% (+8)
RFM: 27% (-2)
CON: 20% (+1)
LDM: 11% (-2)
GRN: 7% (-4)
SNP: 3% (=)

Via @Moreincommon_, 15-19 May.
Changes w/ Standard VI.

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— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) May 20, 2026

The question is whether Burnham will actually change much in office.

The Burnham bounce

The first thing we should note is that the poll is from More in Common. This pollster has had both Labour and Reform performing better than some others:

The following is from YouGov:

The Tories, Greens, and Labour are so close that you can’t even see their numbers above (Labour is on 17%, the Greens are on 15%, and the Tories are on 18%).

Politico’s poll of polls, meanwhile, collates all the polls into one, showing:

In other words, Labour wouldn’t be leading Reform in every poll, even if every pollster recorded the same eight point boost. Still, that boost is nothing to sneeze at, and it demonstrates that the key issue Labour has right now is Keir Starmer (at least as far as the public is concerned).

What it doesn’t demonstrate, however, is that Labour would be back to full strength under Andy Burnham.

How the mighty have fallen

Lest we forget, if Burnham wins 30% of the vote, that would be two percentage points fewer than Jeremy Corbyn achieved in 2019 (and ten points fewer than he achieved in 2017). Don’t get us wrong – Labour’s loss in 2019 was disastrous, but it only produced such a gargantuan majority for the Tories because of our unfair electoral system (what’s known as ‘First Past the Post’ (FPTP)).

As the Electoral Reform Society have highlighted:

Burnham has spoken about replacing FPTP with proportional representation – a system in which the number of MPs more closely resembles how people voted. Unfortunately, he also said such a change should only be made after a general election. In other words, should he become PM, he wouldn’t implement it.

BREAKING | Andy Burnham confirms he will NOT scrap first-past-the-post before #GE2029

Burnham said electoral reform must be "in a manifesto", and revealed he does NOT back proportional representation, instead praising the non-proportional Supplementary Vote (SV)

Via @itvnews pic.twitter.com/wO40XxnR4K

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) May 17, 2026

The question is this: what would Burnham change in office?

Several outlets have reported that Burnham would ‘renationalise’ key industries, but he actually said he’d put them under “stronger public control” (he also hasn’t confirmed he’d do this before the next general election). He’s additionally refused to comment on wealth taxes.

If Burnham replaces Starmer and changes nothing besides the vibes, the poll bounce won’t last. And as much as we’d love to be one month away from a prime minister who renationalises the shit out of everything, we’re not seeing much sign of that happening.

Make him speak

As stated, Burnham is running to become PM. Everyone knows this. So the media needs to be asking him what he has planned, and Burnham needs to answer.

Andy Burnham – you have been warned – there is every reason to think Labour’s polling could drop to the single digits if you carry on failing to deliver.

Featured image via Getty Images (Lewis Storey) / Getty Images (Dan Kitwood)

By Willem Moore

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Bolivia’s ex-president, longstanding socialist indigenous leader, Evo Morales, has claimed that the US military sought to “detain or kill” him in a joint military operation.

Morales originally shared the allegations without supporting evidence. However, journalist Ollie Vargas has since confirmed the accusations with credible evidence from leaked policing documents. The leaked files pertain to ‘Operation Tambaquí Lightning’ involving more than 2,300 troops.

The documents outline operational orders from the sub-commander general of Bolivia’s national police force, ex-army general, Juan Román Peña. Then-incoming president, Rodrigo Paz, supported by hawkish US security state figures like Marco Rubio, appointed Peña in November 2025.

Paz’s US-aligned administration is currently confronting popular mass mobilisations, and an indefinite general strike against his perceived neoliberal policies and policy alignment with foreign extractivists’ interests.

In this fraught context, Vargas wrote:

Patriotic factions within the police & military have kept us informed of all plans & movements. That’s how we got the documents confirming the joint operation with US armed forces to arrest Evo Morales.

Bolivia face interference from US

The first document outlines 2,340 police and military troops, alongside 164 vehicles and a further 82 motorbikes, deployed to Cochabamba province. For reference, the CIA-led Bay of Pigs invasion into Cuba in 1963 comprised approximately 1,400-1,500 militants.

Over half of these deployments are mobilised from provinces other than Cochabamba, indicating a full-scale operation to seize Evo Morales. The ex-president draws his strongest popular support in Cochabamba, where a significant portion of the population remain fiercely loyal to him. Morales is based there since leaving office.

However, what is most striking about the document, is the US-denominated Administration for Drug Control DEA – US (row 9 on the table). Although there are no DEA or US agents marked as being involved in operational deployment, it is significant that the DEA is involved.

The DEA typically operates with regional partners under the pretences, at least, of counter-narcotics. In this instance, it joins Bolivia’s national intelligence directorate (40 deployments, row 6) and Special Forces for the Fight Against Crime (50 deployments, row 5) and Against Narcotics (150 deployments, row 7).

Also involved, but not directly deployed, are Bolivia’s armed forces. However, some 3,500 soldiers have been separately deployed to capital city La Paz to quash the ongoing popular mobilisations.

DEA espionage, regime change and hypocrisy

The DEA open-secretly collaborates with US and international security state partners — particularly the US National Security Agency — to spy on both US and non-US citizens across foreign countries.

The DEA is centrally implicated in recent regime change efforts in Venezuela, despite the country’s relatively minute drug trafficking activity and the fabrication of entire fake ‘cartels’ by the US security state. Despite Trumped-up drug charges, it’s clear that the CIA sought a foothold in post-Maduro Venezuela.

Recent presidential pardons of high-profile convicted drug traffickers, such as Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández, suggest clear bias in how the US selectively deploys narcotics laws. Trump likely pardoned Hernández to interfere in the 2025 presidential elections, alongside Mossad.

Likewise, continued US collaboration with the Ecuadorian presidential Noboa oligarch family, which stands credibly accused of drug trafficking, demonstrates how selectively the US weaponises these operations.

These various instances make clear that the DEA, far from merely being concerned with drug trafficking operations, serves selectively as a weaponised tool of US foreign policy interests, especially to its south.

Welcoming back the DEA to Bolivia was one of Rodrigo Paz’s first decisions when he entered office in November 2025. Morales’ socialist (MAS) government had expelled the DEA from Bolivia in 2008.

The DEA is further implicated in point C.4 of an additional document leaked to Vargas (see here).

‘Operation Tambaquí Lightning’ and US extradition

Further files leaked to Vargas shine light on details of the Cochabamba Tropic-based operation to detain Morales, who is identified by his full name for capture.

The Canary has translated relevant sections from Spanish.

One file explicitly orders an “interception, security, and extraction” in Chapare, Cochabamba. The Canary must clarify, however, that there is no evidence yet to suggest that a ‘kill order’ was green-lighted.

The same document, under ‘MISIÓN’, indicates that a Maduro-style US extradition of Morales is its plan.

THESE OPERATIONS HAVE THE PURPOSE OF COMPLYING WITH THE ARREST WARRANTS AND THE EXTRADITION ORDER AGAINST CITIZEN JUAN EVO MORALES AYMA AND OTHER COLLABORATORS, GUARANTEEING THE RULE OF LAW, THE PHYSICAL INTEGRITY OF PERSONNEL AND THIRD PARTIES, AND THE UNRESTRICTED RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES OF THE RESIDENTS AND INHABITANTS OF THE REGION.

Although the US is not named on this page, there is no other state actor that regularly issues extradition orders across the South American continent. This would suggest that US extradition is part of planning in the region.

On 11 May, UPI reported that Rodrigo Paz’s administration is seeking legal advice from the US:

The government of President Rodrigo Paz announced Tuesday it would seek information from U.S. judicial authorities to investigate Morales’ alleged links to drug trafficking networks. Bolivian authorities are seeking to participate as a “victim” in ongoing U.S. legal proceedings to gain access to evidence.

Charges against Morales: lawfare?

These recent drug allegations follow a string of further allegations levied against Morales. He was found in contempt of court for a no-show following his arrest warrant on human trafficking charges.

Morales has faced multiple charges relating to sexual relationships with girls under 16 in his time in office, which must be investigated properly.

Morales and his legal team state that the charges are politically motivated, although Morales himself is not entirely innocent of engaging in lawfare. He previously battled in court with former ally and former president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, who was himself arrested shortly after Paz came to power in late 2025.

The Canary understands that the Bolivian legal system is frequently politically weaponised, as evidenced by Paz now reaching for US extradition. It is noteworthy that the court that issued summons against Morales is based in Tarija, where Paz previously served as mayor, and so has his strongest political base.

The US backed the 2019-20 coup against Morales which saw him ousted from power (even the Guardian recognised it as such). US-led coups have plagued the continent’s socialists for decades, such that Morales labelled this most recent US interference “Operation Condor 2026″.

What’s noticeable about one leaked document is the use of a particular term: human shields.

It reads:

“asymmetric warfare;” use of women and elders as “escudos humanos” or ‘human shields’.

Anyone who pays attention to Zionist hasbara will be eerily familiar with that one phrase. It’s repeatedly regurgitated in IOF press releases to legitimise its endless murder of Palestinian and other civilians.

This observation is far from conclusive evidence of Israeli interference in Bolivia. However, it demonstrates strategic infiltration of US-aligned narrative frames into regional policing. After groundbreaking revelations of joint US-Zionist interference in Honduran politics (‘Hondurasgate‘), these influences should not be ruled out.

It’s remarkably clear from near-identical government press releases across the American continent where the Pentagon and US ‘national security’ interests have embedded themselves. (See below: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru — all in lockstep. Notably, socialist leaders — Sheinbaum in Mexico, Petro in Colombia, Lula in Brazil and Diaz in Cuba — are absent.)

Paz has made his alignment with those interests clear. The Bolivian people will now make clear theirs.

The US and Israel have released strikingly similar statements on Bolivia

It’s almost like they’re one single consolidated regime mobilized in defense of global oligarchy, and against indigenous resistance pic.twitter.com/daVG2g1Hva

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 18, 2026

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Featured image via Ricardo Ceppi/ Getty Images

By Cameron Baillie

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“Oil to oil, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust”: Christian climate protesters lie motionless beside the steps of the Treasury to urge the government to reject the deadly Rosebank oilfield.

Members of Christian Climate Action lay covered in shrouds to represent the millions who will die due to climate change, as ministers prepare to decide on the North Sea’s largest undeveloped oilfield this summer.

Descriptions of deaths due to famine, floods, heat and drought were read out in the dramatic die-in protest outside the Treasury offices on Wednesday.

Christian Climate Action said the action highlights the real cost for humanity of continuing to expand oil and gas extraction during a time of Climate Emergency.

If the Rosebank oilfield is approved it will produce more than 200 million tonnes of CO2, the same as the annual emissions of the world’s 28 poorest countries combined, or 70% of the UK’s annual emissions.

Christian climate protesters highlight fossil fuel risks

Rev James Grote, a Baptist minister, said:

Every year we delay moving away from fossil fuels, more lives are damaged by floods, fires, heatwaves and hunger.

We cannot keep sacrificing people and communities to protect the profits of oil giants. If we are serious about hope, justice and protecting God’s creation, then we must act now – and that means stopping Rosebank.

Rosebank’s original approval was overturned by a Scottish Court of Session in January 2025 and oil company Equinor was ordered to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment which included the impact of burning its 200 million barrels of oil.

The government is expected to decide on the new application in June or July amid fears of a policy shift if chancellor Rachel Reeves is attracted by tax receipts produced by the oilfield.

But Rosebank will do nothing to provide the UK with energy security or lower household bills, as the oil is almost entirely bound for export.

The huge cost of developing the oilfield will be mainly borne by the UK government – but its profits will go overseas as Equinor is a Norwegian company which is 67% owned by the Norwegian government.

The oilfield could also produce around £253m for the Delek Group, an Israeli fuel conglomerate flagged by the UN for human rights violations in Palestine. The UK government has been warned it could breach its own obligations under international law if it approves the oilfield.

Protester Judith Russenberger, a Franciscan tertiary, said:

Before entering government, Ed Miliband called Rosebank ‘climate vandalism’. He was right then, and he would be wrong to approve it now.

At a time when millions are struggling with the cost of living, the government should be investing in warm homes, affordable renewable energy and a fairer future – not pouring support into an expensive, polluting industry that keeps households trapped on the fossil fuel rollercoaster.

Andy Hansen, a retired member of the British Council, added:

Clean energy is not just better for the planet – it’s cheaper, safer and more secure. The faster we move away from oil and gas, the faster we can protect people from rising bills and climate chaos.

Featured image via Christian Climate Action

By The Canary

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The US, enabled by the UK, has been accused of “provocatively” removing Venezuela’s highly enriched uranium (HEU), which has added to “grievances” relating to the country’s loss of sovereignty following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro by US special forces.

Maduro was arrested in Caracas, Venezuela, on 3 January 2026 and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, where he is awaiting trial on federal charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.

His former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, took over as acting president and is cooperating with the US Government. Since the transfer of power took place, the US Government has been working to extract Venezuela’s natural resources for the benefit of US companies.

Trump’s nuclear spoils of war

On 8 May, the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced it had removed the uranium, which it described as “a win for America, Venezuela, and the world”. The HEU, enriched to 20%, was removed from the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research’s RV-1 research reactor.

The US Department of State said in a statement on 14 May:

The RV-1 was the country’s first and only nuclear reactor, originally built for peaceful scientific research and later repurposed for gamma-ray sterilization of medical supplies, food, and other materials.

The NNSA statement from 8 May said officials from its Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) worked:

in close cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) throughout, the team securely packaged the uranium into a spent fuel cask.

It added:

The group then escorted the material 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port. There, they transferred the cargo to a specialized carrier supplied by the U.K.’s Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS).

The vessel carried the material to the United States arriving on U.S. shores in early May. Upon arrival, U.S. teams unloaded the casks and transported them to the Savannah River Site (SRS) for processing and reuse.

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UK taxpayer helped cover risk of transport of Venezuela’s uranium

NTS is owned by the UK Government via the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). NTS is described by the NDA as “the most experienced transporter of nuclear material in the world” and has a fleet of three “specialist nuclear vessels”.

UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) minister of state Michael Shanks made a statement to parliament on 14 May where he said:

The UK had received requests for assistance from both the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency which had in turn received a request for assistance from the de facto authorities in Venezuela.

“De facto” means the reality on the ground, which can be different from “de jure”, which means what is officially written down. This reflects the fact that the government in Venezuela entered a period of change due to the arrest of Maduro.

Shanks continued:

The UK’s main contribution was the provision of a purpose-built vessel from Nuclear Transport Solutions to transport the material by sea. The arrival of the material in the US represents the conclusion of the UK assistance to this project.

He went on to explain that it is “normal practice” for the government to inform parliament:

when a government department proposes to undertake a contingent liability in excess of £300,000 for which there is no specific statutory authority.

This was to enable the government to “take on an indemnity” to cover the risk of the operation.

He added:

The indemnity was required to cover any residual risk that was left between commercial insurance and the United States of America’s Price-Anderson Act. The maximum potential liability was capped at £10bn.

The risk of this indemnity being relied upon was deemed to be very low. NTS operate a unique maritime transport capability and have done for half a century. They have had no significant safety incidents over that time.

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Manner and timing of HEU removal was ‘for propaganda purposes’ – campaigner

The Hands Off Venezuela (HOV) Campaign was established in December 2002 and organises “solidarity activities with Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution”, according to its website.

HOV secretary Jorge Martin gave his reaction to the seizure and the UK’s involvement to the Canary:

The problem is not so much the removal of the HEU, but the very provocative way in which the US has chosen to do so, for propaganda purposes and also to send a message to Iran.

Many Venezuelans are unhappy in general about the loss of sovereignty regarding oil and mineral resources, the control the US exercises over these and other aspects of policy, so the removal of the HEU by the US in the way in which it was carried out adds to the grievances.

The US Government has made removal of Iran’s nuclear materials – specifically its approximately 440kg of HEU – a key objective of the conflict the US started on 28 February.

The US says it has concerns that the HEU could be used to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains that it only wants to use its HEU for peaceful purposes, such as research.

Martin also reacted to the UK’s involvement in the seizure of Venezuela’s HEU. He said:

I do not think the participation of the UK in this particular question is very significant. Of much more significance is the continued participation of Britain in the imperialist bullying of Venezuela for the last 25-30 years, and particularly the seizing of the Venezuelan Central Bank gold reserves deposited in the Bank of England, on instructions from the US.

He also conceded that the HEU “had to be removed for safe disposal once it was no longer of any use for scientific research”, and that his main concern about the US/UK operation was “the manner in which it was done and the timing.”

The NNSA’s 8 May statement said that, since 1996, it had:

removed or confirmed the disposition of over 7,350 kilograms (16,250 pounds) of highly enriched uranium and plutonium from dozens of countries.

The UK’s assistance to the US with its removal of Venezuela’s HEU raises the possibility of UK involvement with any future removal of Iran’s HEU, which would likely be much more complicated.

Complications could arise from the presence of hostile state or non-state armed forces, the fact that the HEU is likely underground and buried under rubble, and that transport out of the region would involve navigating more complex air, land or sea routes than the journey that Venezuela’s HEU took to the US.

Featured image via Jesus Vargas / Getty Images

By Tom Pashby

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As attention on prospective Labour leader (and, for that matter, prospective Labour MP) Andy Burnham mounts, caution is necessary. Whilst Burnham may currently appear to be the messiah in comparison to the dreadful Keir Starmer, he may well just be a very naughty boy.

Burnham’s association with right-wing think tank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) suggests that Burnham’s politics may not be all that radical.

Andy Burnham and the Centre for Social Justice

Epitome of ‘centrist dad’ vibes – Burnham might seem to Labour MPs scrabbling to salvage the sinking Labour Party ship as some sort of liberal saviour. Alas, to the rest of us – that just means more of the same. Burnham is a continuity candidate in marginally more progressive-looking clothing (if you can even call it that).

And nothing says that better than Burnham’s role for the shady dark money think tank. Since 2023, the former Labour cabinet minister and Greater Manchester Mayor has been a ‘commissioner’ for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

An edgy-sounding name for sure. You’d think it’s a radical organisation working to dismantle systems of oppression. Not so.

The CSJ is the brainchild of ex-DWP ‘grim reaper’ Iain Duncan Smith – and has a chequered history to match its infamous founder.

It brands itself ‘centre right’: a convenient liberal euphemism for right wing. Like all ‘centre right’ misnomers, it oozes the paternalistic urge to paint right-wing fiscal conservative policy as ‘mature’, natural end-point pragmatism as opposed to the capitalist sham it really is.

The think tank is best-known for its role – alongside its founder IDS – as a key architect of Universal Credit. To say that’s been a veritable shitshow would be an understatement.

The forced ‘managed migration’ from old-style benefits has stripped hundreds of thousands of their vital social security. It also left many more much worse off.

But the CSJ isn’t worried about a small matter like shunting hundreds of thousands into destitution. And it hasn’t exactly been shy about its role shaping UC either – treating it like its headline success story.

Labour Party in bed with the CSJ

A right-wing lobby group doesn’t change its stripes. Because where cruel welfare cuts are concerned, that’s only the start. The brilliant LurgeeLiz on X has been collecting the receipts – and the Canary has too.

We previously exposed how the CSJ had been lobbying the Labour Party with its machinations for punching down on poor and disabled people.

And of course, this Labour government has listened. Enter its massively-trumpeted and overblown WorkWell scheme.

WorkWell’s a born and bred Mancunian work programme. Its flop of a precursor scheme started life in the city. And Burnham was all too pleased to host one of the newer glorified work programme’s pilots.

As the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey previously noted however:

it’s a scheme ran by the DWP where instead of supporting disabled people who can’t work they’ll pass you around to other services.

And that about sums it up: palming people off to pre-existing services. It’s a voluntary scheme, but as Charlton-Dailey also highlighted, there’s no way of knowing:

how many disabled people were forced into this “voluntary” support, despite the DWP knowing they couldn’t work. And who were made to go through the humiliating rigmarole of applying for jobs they’d never be hired for.

One thing we do know, as LurgeeLiz incisively pointed out, is that the scheme targeted disabled people literally in hospital:

Andy Burnham:

Commissioner for the Centre for Social Justice

Said there are too many people on "sickness" benefits (see clip)

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Spearheads the Manchester "WorkWell" programme which has seen a total of 902 ill & disabled people 'helped' with work for £7m, some were in hospital pic.twitter.com/2b2rW0o0Fa

— LurgeeLiz (@LurgeeLife) May 15, 2026

When it comes down to it then, Burnham’s the Labour right’s favourite ‘work as a health outcome’ posterboy.

Spearheading welfare cuts

And where was the CSJ when Labour was attacking Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and slashing Universal Credit’s health element in half? Not kicking up a fuss, that’s for sure.

Funny, for a think tank that says its whole vision is to “influence policies” to do:

all it can to address the root causes of poverty.

Instead, the CSJ was telling ministers ahead of the cuts how “conditionality has become a dirty word” and, you guessed it, called for more conditionality for disabled claimants.

Low and behold, the CSJ thinks kicking disabled people off benefits is a great idea:

Andy Burnham's Centre for Social Justice wants to remove PIP & LCWRA from 1.1m claimants – those currently assessed as too ill or disabled to work

But simultaneously only expects 10% (110,000) to move into work

So enforced poverty on ~1 million chronically ill & disabled people pic.twitter.com/DRDeWb8ZLc

— LurgeeLiz (@LurgeeLife) May 19, 2026

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All the while, Burnham has remained a CSJ commissioner, naturally.

More of the same

At the end of the day, the fact that Burnham rubs shoulders with a think tank that Tory austerity acolyte IDS set in motion tells you a lot about the kind of Labour leader – and prime minister – he would be.

Publicly, Burnham has opposed the disability benefit cuts. However, some are wary that he’ll be a shameless turncoat in power – because the Labour right certainly have form on this:

Considering how quickly and thoroughly every Labour MP betrayed disabled people, I am just assuming Burnham will be exactly the same.

— Spin Decoders (@leith1076) May 14, 2026

And Burnham himself is no stranger to bottling it on opposing benefit cuts either:

Just been reminded Andy Burnham said he’d abstain on Iain Duncan Smith’s Welfare Reform and Work Bill having previously said he’d vote against it. This u-turning is a thing with Labour MPs as we see time and time again.

— Dr Jay Watts (@Shrink_at_Large) September 13, 2025

This was, unironically, Iain Duncan Smith’s vile programme of welfare cuts. Who ever would have guessed the liberal sell-out who’d later join IDS’s diabolical dark money group would put party ‘unity’ over protecting poor and disabled people from Tory austerity?

Featured image via Getty/Ian Forsyth

By Hannah Sharland

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On 18 May, we reported that online influencer “EDobbins” had sexually harassed a child at Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally. Since then, the Rochdale-based micro-celebrity has attempted to defend himself, but no one’s buying it:

Scott Margerison aka E.Dobbin is feeling the pressure from his video. He claims the person he harassed is not a child (because she has tattoos and her mum was ‘having a joke’), and that anyone who is concerned with his creepy behaviour should tell the police. Sounds like a… https://t.co/xD8IBGsby0 pic.twitter.com/Gg09Z75gUU

— HUMAN WA$TE (@Dplanet) May 19, 2026

Excuses

In the video above, EDobbin said:

Hello everyone. So I’m getting loads of messages telling me that I’m a nonce. So ‘nonce’ means ‘Not of Normal Criminal Exercise’.

Technically, it stands for ‘Not on Normal Courtyard Exercise’, referencing the sex offenders who weren’t permitted to mix with other inmates. It’s now common British slang for “paedophile”, and the reason people are calling him a ‘nonce’ is because he published a video in which he sexually harassed a girl who was said to be 15 years old.

EDobbin continued:

If you truly believe that I am a criminal and that I have criminally done something and engaged in something what I shouldn’t be doing, then please report me to the police. I will happily engage with conversation with the police. The girl that I spoke to, now, if we can get a message to this girl so she can just tell us all how old she is, she’s got tattoos.

People have disputed the idea that she had tattoos, and we couldn’t see any ourselves:

He’s saying she was over 20, but that’s irrelevant. He was told she was 15, yet still followed her and joked, “I’m going to jail in a minute.” He knew he was being a wrong’un.

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) May 19, 2026

EDobbin also said:

Her mum was having a joke. You’ve got to have a look into it a little bit deeper than the surface level shit that you’re all used to. You’re so toxic, you just jump on. If you watch The Simpsons, you lot are all the people who just chase The Simpsons with pitchforks and attack, and attack, and attack. And you’re all stupid c*nts.

That girl was not 15 years old who I was talking to. She was over 20-something.

Hopefully, she will potentially put a message out just to prove it, that she is.

EDobbin would later claim the girl contacted him:

Lying cunt update.
Report his Instagram.
Report his TikTok.
Report his Facebook.
Get. Him. Gone.
https://t.co/oXyO2yE7pu pic.twitter.com/13mCn10dLU

— Zomby Pop (@TheZombyPop) May 19, 2026

The Instagram in question belongs to a young woman who looks similar to the girl in that they’re both brunettes. They don’t seem to be the same person upon closer inspection, but it’s difficult to say conclusively, because the woman on Instagram could be using any number of filters or camera tricks.

In his video, EDobbin also said:

There’s no such thing as negative press.

And:

F*ck yourself.

This was all filmed in a van with a mattress in the back of it:

The fuckin bed in the back https://t.co/zfAmYUxaQN

— Xannon The Buses (@xannon199) May 19, 2026

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Caught on camera

EDobbin is an incredibly strange individual who believes the Earth is flat and that mountains are the fossilised remains of dragons. As we said on 18 May, however, being an oddball is no excuse for behaving like an out-and-out paedophile.

This is what happened in the video which originally brought him to national attention:

At the start of the video, ‘influencer’ EDobbin greets a trio of men in Union Jack suits before putting his arm around a passing child and describing her as “my little girlfriend”. After asking what her name is, the teenage girl’s mother said:

She ain’t no child bride.

When asked how old the girl is, the mother clearly answered “15”. Whoever captioned the video wrote “16”, which is the legal age of consent in the UK.

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Suggesting that EDobbin definitely heard “15”, he responded:

Fucking hell. How old are you really? Please, I’m going to go to jail in a minute.

Following the above, EDobbin proceeded to follow the mother and child down the street, asking the young girl for her “details”, and saying “look at that” as he secretly filmed her.

As people have highlighted, EDobbin wears glasses that allow him to covertly film the people he speaks with:

Mate, if you're not a pervert, why are you wearing Zuckerberg's Pervert Goggles? https://t.co/5p7eKE75Lr

— The Marquiz de Slade (@Mudkipstoat23) May 19, 2026

Reporting on the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, Open wrote:

What Makes Meta’s Smart Glasses Difficult to Spot?

The camera in Meta’s Ray-Bans sits flush within the frame, and the recording indicator light is reportedly so dim in daylight that most bystanders never notice it.

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To the untrained eye, they are ordinary eyewear, which makes covert recording effortless.

Who Is Already Being Filmed Without Their Knowledge?

Reports have emerged of women being secretly recorded in public by men wearing AI glasses, often for prank or unsolicited content.

One woman told the BBC that when she requested a video of herself be removed, she was told it was “a paid service.” Since public photography is broadly legal, victims have little recourse

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When people talk about the risks of this technology, EDobbin is precisely the sort of person they’re warning about.

Grim

The grim irony in all this is that many of those who spoke at the Unite the Kingdom rally claim to be protectors of women. In reality, these people ignore their friends to focus on a minority of a minority for political capital. Unite the Kingdom organiser Tommy Robinson is among the worst offenders for this:

British grooming gangs pic.twitter.com/p00ZHFYCBH

— The Saviour (@TheSaviour) May 18, 2026

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As Maddison Wheeldon wrote for the Canary on 20 October:

Women and girls have a legitimate reason to feel increasingly unsafe in our society, but it’s not because of immigrants and foreigners, it is far simpler than that; it’s because of men.

I can hear the protestations already, ‘Not All Men’, and of course, that would be ridiculous to assert. So then, why do we feel so comfortable to slap a label on all male immigrants, simply because the establishment tells us to?

When we dig just a little deeper, it very quickly becomes obvious that the ‘threat of the immigrant’, touted by the mainstream press and far-right pundits is as baseless as their moral consciences. Trust me, it would be wonderfully helpful if there were identifying characteristics that could help women and girls stay safe, but that is a complete fiction.

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Another grim reality is that Black and minoritized migrant women face additional challenges on this front as a result of government failings, as the women’s organisation Hibiscus stated:

At a time when meaningful action is urgently needed, the government has once again failed to address the structural inequalities that make women vulnerable to violence in the first place. There are no concrete commitments to invest in specialist support services, no long-term funding guarantees for by and for organisations, and no serious recognition of the socio-economic and political realities facing Black and minoritised migrant women. Instead, several of the proposed bills appear either dangerously indifferent to these realities or intentionally punitive in nature.

A serious issue

While it’s easy to ridicule figures like EDobbin, it’s crucial to remember that there’s nothing funny about men like him to the women and children they harass. We’ve very little time for the adults who attended the Unite the Kingdom rally, but even they don’t deserve to be followed and harassed by creeps like this, and that’s especially true for any children they took with them.

Featured image via Twitter

By Willem Moore

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The largest ever gathering of people dressed as slugs slid into Westminster on 19 May, in support of forests and ancient woodlands. They were calling on the government to deliver on its promise to restore the nation’s ‘ghost woods’ (ancient woodlands buried beneath timber plantations) before they disappear for good.

From Parliament Square, the procession slowly inched its way to Defra’s offices to deliver a petition of over 145,000 signatures.

National treasure Judi Dench is among those backing the petition. It urges Defra and Forestry England to move faster on their commitment to restore these smothered ancient woodlands by 2030. Forestry England is the body responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. People from every single constituency in the UK have signed the petition.

MP Andrew George attended the event, alongside more than 50 costumed nature lovers, A lemon slug led the way. This is a rare, bright yellow species native to England’s ancient woodlands.

Waving placards reading “The slime is up” and “No more sluggish progress”, the unhurried march took place at a critical moment for the nation’s forests. The government is preparing a new Trees Action Plan aimed at improving the resilience and condition of the country’s woodland.

Ancient woodlands are vital for biodiversity

Speaking at the event, Wild Card campaigner Rosie Smart-Knight said:

Today’s slugrising puts the spotlight on our vanishing ghost woods. Only 1.6% of England remains ancient woodland*, after vast areas were replaced with single-species plantations.

The government has promised to restore these sites to rich, thriving forests, but progress has been painfully slow.

Planting new trees is important, but we can’t afford to sidestep what’s already here. Ancient woodlands are irreplaceable and support more biodiversity than any other land habitat in the UK.

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If we don’t act now, we risk letting these ecosystems slip away and no amount of new planting will bring them back.

Wild Card teamed up with Oscar-winning actress and nature-lover Dench and people-powered campaign group 38 Degrees to launch the petition. This came after analysis revealed that Forestry England is woefully behind on fulfilling its targets. Matthew McGregor, CEO at 38 Degrees, said:

We fight every day for a fairer, greener Britain. Almost 150,000 of us from every single constituency across the country urgently want our nation’s ancient woodlands restored.

Forestry England and Defra would be wise to listen to the public and save these ‘ghost woods’ before it’s too late.

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. And the nation’s forests are in a particularly dire state. A Woodland Trust report found woodland biodiversity is continuing to decline, with only 9% of England’s forests in favourable condition.

Ancient woodlands are capable of supporting more biodiversity than any other land-based habitat in the UK. So their restoration has never been so crucial.

Featured image via Nigel Howard Media

By The Canary

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A new report by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Negotiations Affairs Department marks the 78^th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. It argues that violent attacks against Palestinians by Israeli colonial settlers in the occupied West Bank are not isolated incidents. Instead, they are part of a coordinated and institutionalised system, tied directly to settlement expansion and territorial control.

Settler violence is the main method of consolidating control over Palestinian land

The report, titled Israeli Settler Terror Unmasked: State institutional roles, legal tools, and international legal consequences, documents an escalating pattern of violence carried out by these illegal colonists against Palestinian communities across the occupied territory.

It argues that this settler violence is now a main method of dispossession, fragmenting communities and consolidating Israeli occupation control over Palestinian land. Alongside settlement construction, land confiscation, military restrictions, and political policy, this violence aims to weaken Palestinian presence in strategically important areas of the West Bank.

The report claims that settlement expansion and settler violence are both components of a wider territorial project by the Israeli occupation government:

enabled, financed, legitimised, and operationalised through government portfolios, [with terror being] a central mechanism and a key tool of this territorial control.

This project seeks to expand control over the occupied territory, while eroding Palestinian protection. Through its various ministries, military bodies, legal mechanisms, educational structures, and grassroots settler networks, the Israeli occupation’s government now operates through a unified annexation system that shapes conditions on the ground.

Multiple ministries play a role in facilitating settlement growth, infrastructure development, and security arrangements across the occupied West Bank. The report highlights ministries responsible for defence coordination, settlements and national missions, transportation, agriculture, heritage, communications, and national security. Budget allocations, sometimes amounting to billions of Shekels, cited in the report include funding for settler only roads, improvement of settler communication coverage, support of settler “shepherds”, theft of West Bank heritage sites, and the arming of illegal settlers.

Land, law and territorial transformation

The report describes how land is being reclassified and controlled, and it outlines a series of mechanisms – legal, administrative, and military – through which land is transferred, restricted, or reallocated.

These include declarations of “state land,” the use of military zones, nature reserve designations, and infrastructure-related confiscations. Far from being neutral planning tools, the purpose of these is to gradually reduce Palestinian access to land, while enabling illegal settlement expansion.

According to the report, “colonial farm installations”, also known as outposts:

serve as the ultimate method of annexing land for settlement purposes.

They are a key instrument in controlling large areas of rural land. Through grazing, fencing, surveillance infrastructure, and informal settlement expansion, hundreds of thousands of dunums of land have been brought under such control in recent years, with the vast majority located in Area C, where civil and military authority remains under Israeli occupation control. By 2025, 14 percent of the occupied West Bank was controlled by 156 of these colonial farm installations.

Beyond institutions and land policy, the report turns to what it calls the “educational ecosystem” sustaining a radical settler ideology. It describes a network of religious schools, pre-military academies, youth movements, and informal educational environments that collectively shape identity and political outlook:

systematically embedding exclusionary, supremacist, and anti-Palestinian worldviews into the consciousness of large segments of Jewish youth.

This system, the report states, ensures a worldview that is centered on entitlement to “holy land” and confrontation. Expansion is normalised and terror is enabled on the ground. Yeshivot and Hesder programmes combine religious study with military service, producing graduates who view settlement activity as a civic and spiritual duty. Youth movements and informal hilltop communities are described as reinforcing these ideas through direct engagement with land, agriculture, and territorial activity.

Education, religious figures and institutions normalise settler violence and settlement expansion

Influential religious figures and organisations shape ideological narratives that emphasise historical entitlement to the land and religious duty tied to territorial expansion. These messages contribute to a generational culture that normalises violence and expansion.

The report also focuses on “patterns of settler terror” targeting Palestinian civilians and communities since October 2023. It documents a range of incidents including assaults on farmers, destruction of property, arson attacks, livestock theft, and damage to water infrastructure. These events are presented not as isolated outbreaks but as recurring patterns that intensify during agricultural seasons, especially the olive harvest. The report highlights repeated targeting of rural communities, especially in Area C, where the Israeli occupation authorities maintain full control and settlers operate with impunity. This reflects:

a deliberate strategy to render Palestinian life unviable.

Testimonies included in the report describe coordinated attacks involving groups of settlers, often masked and armed, who carry out raids on agricultural land, homes, and vehicles. The violence is often supported or tolerated by the Israeli occupation authorities,

Reference is also given to religious sites, including mosques and churches, which have been damaged or attacked in separate incidents. Water infrastructure is another recurring focus, with repeated allegations of sabotage of wells, pumps, and irrigation systems. The overall effect, over time, is not only physical damage and destruction, but a gradual erosion of Palestinian rural life and economic viability.

The Israeli occupation operates an apartheid legal and enforcement system in the occupied West Bank, which works hand-in-hand with settlers attacking Palestinians. This creates conditions that almost always enable settlers to evade accountability, whatever their crime.

Settlers, police, army, courts and government all work together against Palestinians, but are illegal under international law

According to the report, Israeli occupation military and police “often show passivity-or even direct involvement-in settler terror attacks”, while 94 percent of investigations into settler-related violence are closed without any indictment.

Settler colonial terrorism in the territory of the State of Palestine is part of Israel’s apartheid regime, illegal under international law. In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) also deemed the entire Israeli occupation of Palestine as illegal.

International law places a series of obligations on Israel, third states, and international institutions. Israel must immediately end its occupation of Palestinian territory, stop all its settlement expansion, and remove settlers from occupied areas. The Israeli occupation is also required to provide reparations to Palestinians for damages caused by occupation and settler violence, including compensation, restitution, and guarantees of non-repetition.

The report argues that Israel has a legal duty to investigate and prosecute settlers and state officials accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity, while dismantling its apartheid system based on systematic domination over Palestinians. This, it says, would require structural reforms, including changes to legal and educational institutions.

Other countries are obligated not to recognise “Israeli” annexation or settlements as lawful, and should avoid supporting activities linked to the occupation. It calls on states and international bodies to pursue accountability through sanctions, universal jurisdiction cases, and support for investigations by the International Criminal Court.

The report aims to shift attention away from isolated incidents, towards what it describes as “structural conditions of control, displacement, and impunity”, which is the current reality on the ground.

Featured image via PLO 

By Charlie Jaay

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Israeli soldiers have admitted that their mission is to destroy villages and prevent inhabitants from returning home, which directly contradicts their Zionist government’s claims that they are only targeting Hezbollah.

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In an interview with Haaretz, Israeli soldiers said:

The only mission is to continue the destruction. There is no other mission. ⁣

They added:

At the end of every day, there’s a report on how many homes were destroyed.

One commander even told Haaretz that Israel’s claims of only targeting “terrorist infrastructure” are false:

It isn’t terrorist infrastructure – we’re destroying everything.

Israel has been destroying homes and other civilian property, such as schools and churches, in more than 55 towns that it is illegally occupying in Southern Lebanon. The villages are predominantly Shia Muslim, and inhabitants are unable to return home.

Israel agreed to a ‘ceasefire’ in Lebanon on April 16. However, since then, it has violated that agreement almost every day. Even Netanyahu posted a video of IOF attacks in Lebanon with the caption “Lebanon – continuing.”

No ceasefire

Israel has displaced more than 1m people and killed over 2,500 since the beginning of March.

The Israeli government’s official line has always been that the IOF is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

Yet we have heard IOF soldiers, more government officials than I can count, Israeli journalists and influencers, and so many more inciting genocide. Actors, footballers, heads of CEO’s, settlers and mayors – the list is endless.

To make matters worse, we have an almost endless supply of video evidence on social media, which proves that Israel has a somewhat precarious relationship with the truth.

The IOF has repeatedly been seen destroying the olive trees of Palestinians. When did they become terrorists? 

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Despite all of this evidence, Western governments and media outlets parrot the ‘official Israeli line’ about targeting Hezbollah. It’s amazing what money and the fear of being nuked can do to your editorial process.

‘Greater Israel’

Contrary to the illegal settler state’s government, Israel’s goal has always been the complete and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure. After all, its goal is a ‘Greater Israel’ – which Zionists first mentioned in 1967.

It is used to refer to the territories Israel illegally stole in 1967: the Palestinian territories, the Golan Heights in Syria, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

However, Zionists have also referred to it as including all of Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan, along with significant parts of Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In 2024, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, advocated expanding Israel’s borders. He said:

It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus, invoking the “Greater Israel” ideology.

According to Middle East Eye, he then suggested that:

Israel would gradually grow to encompass not only all Palestinian territories but also parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Additionally, during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, an IOF soldier wore a patch showing a map of “Greater Israel” on his uniform. This map included parts of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

Of course, that goal will not be possible without Israel destroying everything in its path.

For a long time now, Israel has made its intentions clear. It’s textbook colonialism wrapped up in ‘never again’.

International law?

United Nations (UN) experts have repeatedly warned that destroying civilian housing and infrastructure is a war crime. According to the UN:

systematic or widespread bombardment of housing, civilian objects and infrastructure are strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law, criminal law and human rights law.

Moreover, under international law, every person living in occupied territories has the right to engage in armed resistance.

Hezbollah literally only exists because Israel invaded and illegally occupied Lebanon in 1982.

Hezbollah’s main foundational goal was to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The group’s resistance to Israeli occupation was instrumental in the IOF leaving Lebanon in 2000, after 18 years.

Importantly, armed resistance is legal under international law. A United Nations General Assembly resolution states:

The General Assembly,

Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle;

Israeli definition of terrorism

The Israeli government decides someone is a terrorist, and normal rules of international law do not apply. That’s pretty convenient. Of course, the rest of the world follows. If Israel says they’re terrorists, then they must be. At this point, if Netanyahu told most Western leaders to jump off a cliff for the good of Israel, I think they would.

From where I’m standing, there’s only one terrorist group indiscriminately killing children and bombing hospitals – and that’s the Israeli government.

Featured image via Adri Salido / Getty Images

By The Canary

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