Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome and her Norwich South colleague Clive Lewis have tabled an ‘early day motion’ (EDM) demanding a fully independent, public inquiry into the extent of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein’s influence in UK politics:

We need an independent, statutory inquiry into the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and British public figures and institutions.

The public needs to know whether British public figures and institutions had any involvement in or awareness of his crimes, what action they took… pic.twitter.com/B5iHtZjlAF

— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) February 9, 2026

The parliamentary EDM system is down at the time of writing, but their EDM 2749 also expresses solidarity with Epstein’s many victims. It reads, in full:

That this House stands with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims whose relentless courage and pursuit of justice has led to the publication of the Epstein files; notes with concern the number of British public figures included in these files; recognises that child sexual abuse on this scale is likely to have involved not only those directly perpetrating the abuse but other individuals who were complicit in a number of ways, including by ignoring this abuse or covering for those perpetrating it; and urges the Government to set up an independent, statutory inquiry into the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and British public figures and institutions, whether they had involvement in or awareness of his crimes, what action they took or failed to take, whether they assisted in covering up child sexual abuse, and if due diligence was undertaken in the case of any appointments to public roles.

Keir Starmer has been forced to promise transparency on his decision to appoint Epstein’s fanboy Peter Mandelson as senior adviser and ambassador to the US. However, he has also said he will remove information for ‘national security’ or ‘foreign relations’ reasons. Both mean that information on Israel’s involvement will be heavily, if not entirely, redacted.

Featured image via the Canary

Keir Starmer has threatened all his cabinet with the sack if they don’t tweet support for him by tonight.
Then, in a record u-turn even for him, his office said he hadn’t:

New:
A U.K. government source says it is untrue that cabinet ministers have been told to tweet their support for Starmer or face the sack.

— kathryn samson (@KathrynSamsonC4) February 9, 2026

So far, home secretary Shabana Mahmood, justice minister David Lammy and Angela Rayner have come out in support of Starmer.

However, Rayner — or someone — already set up a leadership campaign website in her name, so some of the support at least may leak away once the u-turn memo circulates.

Featured image via the Canary

Sulky drivers illegally staging horse races on public roads have killed a pregnant mare and her “fully formed” unborn foal. The charity My Lovely Horse Rescue were called to the scene in Ballyfermot in the west of Dublin, where they found an exhausted horse named Anne lying bloodied and abandoned in the middle of the road.

They transported her to University College Dublin (UCD) in the hope of providing specialist treatment. However, vets at UCD determined there was too much internal damage for the horse to recover, and therefore made the decision to euthanise.

My Lovely Horse Rescue received reports of the horse being spotted in the Dollymount area, around 15 km away in the far east of the city. This means the racers subjected the heavily pregnant animal to a gruelling trek across an entire city, with the stress of navigating busy main roads. Up to six horses were involved in the race. Anne was seen falling to the ground an hour prior to her final collapse. The charity say Anne:

…slid for at least 30/40 metres. Her injuries align with this.

Images and videos on their Facebook page show the horse with blood on its legs, unable to stand. They say:

Anne was seen being whipped and kicked to get back up. She didn’t, she couldn’t.

Her abusers fled the scene into the bushes leaving Anne to die!!!

The group have appealed for:

…anyone with pictures, dash cam footage to come forward.

Sulky racing — calls to ban so-called ‘sport’ increase

Sulky racing involves driving horses along a course while they are attached to a two-wheel cart or ‘sulky’. Done on official tracks, it is a legal sport similar to horse racing, albeit with the same risks of injury to animals who are being abused purely for human entertainment. An underground scene exists, however, in which racers drive horses along roads. This violates existing traffic laws.

My Lovely Horse Rescue report being routinely called out to instances of injured or dead horses who have suffered their fate as a result of sulky road races. Media have covered several cases of horses killed by racers in recent years. The latest cruelty has prompted fresh calls for politicians to bring in new laws to specifically ban sulky racing.

Aontú’s Limerick Councillor Sarah Beasley described herself as “horrified” by the death of Anne and her foal. She said of the ‘sport’:

It is endangering animals and human lives, because we know that sulky racing is taking place on busy national roads as well as more rural ones. Can you just imagine the carnage that would be caused if one of these sulkys’ [sic] careered into the path of drivers or pedestrians? The horrors of this are just unimaginable.

Currently the spotlight is on scramblers and their use on public roads which is also illegal, and action is being taken to stamp this out for once and for all, but sulky driving is equally as deadly, both to the unfortunate animals and the public.

She continued:

We need statutory prohibition of sulky racing and training now.

Cruel ‘traditions’ should be discontinued

A petition calling for new legislation has amassed nearly 10,000 signatures. Sinn Féin’s Chris Andrews highlighted Anne’s death in the Senate and called for ministers to deal with “lawlessness” around animal abuse. A previous attempt in 2018 to ban the sport failed. Then Sinn Féin highlighted the lack of clear authority to deal with abuse of horses. Deputy Matt Carthy said:

The problem, however, is that when issues regarding equine welfare are raised with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, they are then pointed in the direction of the local authority, from where they are then pointed in the direction of the Garda and from there they are directed back to the Department.

There is not a clearly defined line of responsibility where people take charge of this issue. In most parts of the country, almost no dedicated staff and resources are allocated to the monitoring of equine welfare issues.

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He said a specific bill outlawing the practice would be the:

…ideal opportunity to start dealing with these issues…

Carthy flagged how:

…Ireland is almost unique in having an urban culture in respect of horses.

While he was not using culture as an excuse, others have defended sulky racing via this means. This is much the same approach used by others to justify the continuation of other cruel sports still legal in Ireland, such as hare coursing, greyhound racing and foxhunting.

When these two principles collide – defending an established culture vs ending cruelty to defenceless animals – clearly the latter should prevail. We understand this perfectly well in other cases where toxic practices are condoned with a cultural defence; no reasonable person thinks female genital mutilation should proceed on the basis of ensuring an old tradition continues.

Ireland needs to stop lagging behind in preventing animals being tormented for the sake of so-called ‘sport’. Banning sulky racing would be a good start.

Featured image via Ireland Live

On Sunday 8 February, Americans came together to enjoy their annual ‘Superbowl’. And when we say ‘came together’, we of course mean they found new ways to fight the culture war.

Trump, of course, led the charge:

Trump crashes out over Bad Bunny’s halftime show pic.twitter.com/XE2shbQRtm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2026

Doesn’t this guy have a country to run into the ground?

Superbowl styling

The performer Trump is talking about is Bad Bunny, who released one of the best albums of 2025.

There’s really no need for us to promote his album, because some of the tracks have had well over a billion listens in the past 12 months.

Many right-wingers are asking ‘WhY iS a PuErTo RiCaN pErFoRmInG??’, and the simple truth is because the Yanks fucking love him and his music.

Here’s a video from his performance:

🚨 THIS is America at its best.

Unity. Diversity. People standing together.

Bad Bunny owned the Super Bowl halftime show and brought the whole country with him.

No hate. No division. Just culture, pride, and community. ✊🇺🇸

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This is the America I want to live in. pic.twitter.com/v21w6mp77d

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 9, 2026

“the only thing more powerful than hate is love”

bad bunny shouts out all the countries in america
pic.twitter.com/JR5kF8x7I7

— 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) February 9, 2026

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Bad Bunny listing off all the countries in the Americas was powerful. If only the United States would stop invading them and start respecting the sovereignty of its neighbors. pic.twitter.com/3XbiH9ll83

— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) February 9, 2026

Just joyful, wonderful stuff.

If you’re unfamiliar with the relationship between Puerto Rico and America, the US government summarised it as follows:

Puerto Rico has not become an independent nation; neither has it become a State of the Union. It remains a territory of the United States.

In other words, Puerto Rico is America without the (ever decreasing) benefits.

The Trump-supporting Paul brothers fell out over the show, with Jake Paul arguing that Puerto Ricans aren’t real Americans, and his brother arguing the opposite:

I love my brother but I don’t agree with this

Puerto Ricans are Americans & I’m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island https://t.co/yCsuwa79gk

— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) February 9, 2026

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This exchange wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but it does give us the opportunity to share this again:

Jake Paul is an absolute embarrassment to the sport of boxing. A fraud who buys his way into fights against legitimate champions like Anthony Joshua, only to get knocked out in the sixth round after clinching, flopping, and running like a coward. He has no real skill or heart… pic.twitter.com/9JSPqi9LS2

— Zenith (@ZenithTheNinja) December 20, 2025

Oh, and also this video of him cowering as Anthony Joshua repeatedly broke his jaw:

THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR.

Jake Paul’s final moments against Anthony Joshua… pic.twitter.com/NCI2OktHB1

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— george (@StokeyyG2) December 20, 2025

God damn, if this is what a ‘real American’ looks like, the US needs to start importing all the fake Americans it can.

The alternative

If you’re one of the glass-jawed Yanks who trembled at the thought of a Brown man banging out hit after hit, there was an alternative from Turning Point USA (TPUSA).

TPUSA was founded by the late Charlie Kirk, and is currently spearheaded by his wife – i.e. the least-bereaved widow in history:

Erika Kirk grinning and laughing on a call just FIVE her husband was shot through the neck. In another leaked call, she’s celebrating merch sales at her dead husband’s funeral- which she refers to as the “event of the century.”

Straight up psychopath pic.twitter.com/Jio4M5UerA

— That’s Not Right (@thatsnotrightpo) January 30, 2026

This is how the Daily Show described the event:

Turning Point USA is serving up an alternative halftime show for people who love ICE and hate music pic.twitter.com/ZaIYZa7o5H

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 8, 2026

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Kid Rock was the main attraction at TPUSA’s alternative Superbowl show. And as people pointed out, this old man was too washed to do the bare minimum:

all that build up for a man that couldn’t lip sync to his own song :/ https://t.co/dm3i7ESawi

— matt (@mattxiv) February 9, 2026

Mr Rock recently attracted criticism after people remembered the time he rapped about liking “underage” ladies – i.e. ‘girls’ – i.e. ‘children’:

A 2001 Kid Rock song is going viral for its lyrics about underage girls.

Kid Rock is set to headline Turning Point USA’s Super Bowl halftime show this weekend. pic.twitter.com/Glvm8Z36Fv

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— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 4, 2026

It looks like Bad Bunny blew TPUSA out of the water anyway:

Viewership numbers:

Bad Bunny – 127 million
Turning Point – 5 million

Let’s all take a moment to point and laugh at their puny safe space LOLOL 😂🫵🏾

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— Isaiah Martin (@isaiahrmartin) February 9, 2026

Oh, and it’s worse than that. As people noted, TPUSA had to stream their show on YouTube:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh my god this is so funny and pathetic at the same time https://t.co/FggQkvvjhM

— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) February 9, 2026

And it looks like that ‘5 million’ figure may not be an accurate reflection of the actual viewership:

TPUSA botting viewers for their shitty hillbilly half time show will only be eclipsed by the humiliation of every right-wing idiot pretending the numbers are real https://t.co/kglGQObThy

— Secular Talk ([email protected]) (@KyleKulinski) February 9, 2026

For reference, a live stream with tens of thousands of viewers will have a chat that is moving so fast it will trigger a seizure if you try to keep up with it.

Victory

In this latest battle in the culture war, we’re announcing that the MAGA right has lost. We’d like to say they put up a good game, but let’s be real; they barely even made it onto the field.

Featured image via pexels

At this point, everyone knows the wretched Peter Mandelson shared government information with Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson wasn’t the only Epstein associate with access to confidential UK info, however. The former prince Andrew Windsor served as a British trade envoy, and he was also feeding what he knew to the now-dead paedophile:

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein from his official role as a trade envoy. He forwarded an official report from his trips to Singapore, Vietnam, China, and Hong Kong to Epstein just five minutes after receiving it. pic.twitter.com/hpMD07ikFd

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 8, 2026

Confidential

The screengrabbed email above is from the latest release of the Epstein Files. In it, you can see that Windsor received reports of visits to Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shenzen.

Did you receive these reports yourself?

Probably not, right; it would be weird if the trade envoy sent their reports to the general British public; it’s even stranger to send them to a notorious international paedophile.

As reported by the BBC, Windsor served as trade envoy for ten years (2001-2011). The BBC additionally highlighted that:

Under official guidance, trade envoys have a duty of confidentiality over sensitive, commercial, or political information about their official visits.

In other words, he could (and should) get into trouble for this.

We’d be surprised if he faces any actual consequences, however, given the fact that he’s escaped them all of his life. The Royals may have stripped him of his titles, but the entitlement remains. As the BBC report:

Earlier in February, Andrew moved out of his home in Windsor to the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

Buckingham Palace had announced in October that he would be moving from Royal Lodge, at the same time his title of prince was removed.

The former prince left the property on Monday night and is currently living at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate while his new permanent home undergoes renovations.

We don’t know about you, but when we fuck up, our punishment isn’t being sent to a managed country estate.

Keeping quiet

The BBC also asked Andrew Windsor to comment on all this. Surprise, surprise; he refused to do so.

Funny that he’s no longer so free and easy with the information he’ll share.

For more on the the Epstein Files, please read our article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via Epstein Files

Matt Goodwin is facing even more scorn, this time for attacking women. In a 2023 blog post unearthed by the Independent, the Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton proposed that people who don’t have children should be taxed extra. What’s worse, this was specifically meant as a punishment.

Reform pick: Matt Goodwin, Zionist, book eater, and woman hater

On his Substack, Goodwin said:

British family is imploding.

He went on to say that:

The collapse of the family has not only become unavoidable but is having very real and very negative effects on the country around us.

His solution to this was a raft of proposals that would create “a pro-family culture”. These would include a national day to celebrate families and getting the king to send a telegram to families when they have a third child. For some fucking reason.

He also wanted “the importance of the family” to be represented in the school curriculum. This was alongside making sure British families were “prioritised” in the building of new houses. He also wanted to remove income tax for women with two or more children, presumably because he sees them as having done their duty.

Most bizarre of all was his proposal on child benefits:

Switching child benefit to incentivise families to have more children.

Which is hilarious when Reform is so opposed to lifting the two-child cap. Though not if you ask the two Reform MPs who accidentally voted for it.

Reform putting women in danger

But then came his plan to not only push reproduction but to punish those who don’t have children:

 Introducing a ‘negative child benefit’ tax for those who don’t have offspring

More worryingly, is that Reform agrees with him. A Reform spokesperson told the Huffington Post:

Of course, Goodwin is as misguided as ever. Many could potentially be pressured into having kids and trapped in abusive relationships. It would mean that women are seen as only baby machines and not free to have their own lives or careers.

Deputy leader of Labour, Lucy Powell, expressed her disgust at this idea in the Independent:

Matthew Goodwin’s big idea is so ludicrous, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It would punish millions of women and strip them of their basic dignity to choose.

Infertile women are not good enough

But that’s only the ones that physically can have children.

I can’t imagine the pain that this would cause to those who are struggling with fertility. On top of the emotional and physical toll this puts on you will be financial pressures. For those of us who are infertile, it sends one message. You are not good enough and deserve to be punished for failing as a woman.

I had an elective hysterectomy in 2017 after over a decade of pain. I chose my own health over a condition that was making me want to die, for the sake of one day having a baby. Many would call my decision selfish, but I frankly don’t give a fuck what people who would rather I were in pain think of me.

As much as I loathe a Handmaid’s Tale comparison, this is very apt here. In the novel, working-class women who are infertile are cast out of society. As they have no purpose in a society that values families over all else.

Reform hates women, but we already know this

Goodwin’s comments are abhorrently cruel and show just how much society hates people who don’t have children. But Reform supporting it is a sign of just how much Christian pro-life values are not so quietly creeping into the UK.

By seeing us as just baby machines, we are telling anyone who can’t have a baby, or chooses not to, that they do not belong in society. But Reform is also telling voters plainly that they don’t actually give a fuck about women. Plainly put Reform will be dangerous for women, and they’re already proudly telling us that.

Featured image via the Canary

Iran has sentenced Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi to another seven years in jail. Mohammadi is reportedly on hunger strike following the conviction. According to the Guardian, Mohammadi’s lawyer Mostafa Nili has been in touch with her.

He said:

She has been sentenced to six years in prison for ‘gathering and collusion’ and one and a half years for propaganda and two-year travel ban.

The paper added:

She had been arrested in December at a memorial ceremony honouring Khosrow Alikordi, a 46-year-old Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate who had been based in Mashhad. Footage from the demonstration showed her shouting, demanding justice for Alikordi and others.

Iran has been rocked by near-revolution since December. Protests which began among small businesses over living costs were reportedly brutally repressed. Figures of dead and wounded are hard to verify due to state-enforced media and internet blackouts. Some estimates put the killed and injured in the tens of thousands.

Nuclear talks in Oman

The blackout also makes claims about the degree of US and Israel involvement difficult to corroborate. Despite this – or as a result – conspiracy and rumour have proliferated.

The new sentence comes as the US and Iran prepare to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear programme. US President Donald Trump has deployed a US navy armada to the region.

Iran and the US will meet in Oman. Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani visited Muscat ahead of the talks. Anadolu Agency said:

The indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington were halted following the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June last year, during which the US targeted three key Iranian nuclear sites.

Adding:

While Iranian media have not specified the agenda of Larijani’s visit, sources said he is expected to discuss the contours of the next round of talks with the Omani mediators.

Narges Mohammadi: Venezuela connection?

The Nobel Committee condemned Mohammadi’s arrest on 12 December 2025:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions. The Committee stands in solidarity with Narges Mohammadi and all those in Iran who work peacefully for human rights, the rule of law, and freedom of expression.

They appeared to suggest there was a link between Mohammadi’s arrest and the award of a Nobel to pro-US Venezuelan figure Maria Corina Machado:

Given the close collaboration between the regimes in Iran and Venezuela, the Norwegian Nobel Committee notes that Ms. Mohammadi is arrested just as the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado.

They offered nothing further to verify this specific claim.

Iran wants to appear strong in a crisis

Mohammadi had been temporarily released on a medical furlough from jail when she was re-arrested. She had been serving a 13 year sentence for:

charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government.

During the recent protests Mohammadi:

kept up her activism with public protests and international media appearances, including even demonstrating at one point in front of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she had been held.

Mohammadi has reportedly had multiple heart attacks in jail. Her doctors fear she may also have cancer. This is why she was on medical furlough from her previous sentence. Now she appears to have been returned to prison. And at the precise moment the Iranian government is looking to avert internal crises and head off a threat of regime change.

The implications of this crunch moment for Mohammadi may be dire.

Featured image via the Canary

Former French education minister Jack Lang has quit a “plum” job running France’s Arab World Institute over his links with serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. His appearances in the latest tranche of Epstein files have triggered a money-laundering investigation by French police. Prosecutors said on Friday that the investigation is a “preliminary” probe into “aggravated tax fraud laundering”. It encompasses Lang’s daughter Caroline as well as Lang himself.

Lang’s name reportedly appears hundreds of times in the new files, though not in connection with sexual crimes. Caroline Lang appears as a beneficiary of a €5m bequest in Epstein’s will. Both have denied any wrongdoing. Lang said that he wanted to avoid damage to the institute and would “calmly refute” the allegations before a planned extraordinary board meeting.

In December 2025, Lang joked that he would be in his role at the institute forever: “When I’m somewhere, I’m there for eternity”. His resignation came after pressure from the board. He becomes the third senior figure linked to government to resign in less than a week. Keir Starmer senior adviser Peter Mandelson and Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quit in the UK to try to protect Starmer.

Featured image via the Canary

An industrial ‘on-site shredding’ lorry has been photographed at Downing Street just three days after Keir Starmer warned that his officials needed to review “potentially hundreds of thousands” of pages of documents relating to Starmer’s decision to appoint the disgraced Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador and senior Downing Street adviser despite knowing Mandelson had stayed close to serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer has promised full transparency, but is already hiding behind Epstein’s victims to withhold sensitive information. The presence of the shredder van may be commonplace at Downing Street, but its arrival today – spotted by Sky News hack Sam Coates – will have many wondering.

Featured image via X