Luke Littler delivered a record-breaking masterclass to retain his World Matchplay crown, overpowering Gerwyn Price 18-9 at the Winter Gardens and becoming the first darts player since Michael van Gerwen to win back‑to‑back titles.

The 19‑year‑old produced an extraordinary 111.53 average, hit 12 maximums and reeled off six ton‑plus finishes in a performance that never dipped, never loosened and never allowed Price a meaningful foothold.

Price, the 2022 runner‑up, averaged 104.97 himself. This was his best of the week, but he still found no way to disrupt Luke Littler’s rhythm.

The world no. 1’s scoring power and relentless accuracy pushed him clear early and kept him there, sealing a second straight Blackpool triumph and extending his lead at the top of the PDC rankings.

Luke Littler set the tone

The opening exchanges went with a throw before Littler detonated the first major blow: a clinical 167 checkout, his first bull finish of the tournament. He backed it up instantly with a 110 to hold, moving 4-1 ahead despite Price averaging north of 109 in the mini‑session.

From there, Littler tightened the screw. Back to back 11‑dart legs followed, then a tops‑tops finish for his third ton‑plus checkout inside the first nine legs. Price held where he could, but Littler’s scoring was already stretching the match beyond him.

Littler’s most brutal burst came across four legs that took him from 7-3 to 11-3. He pinned 128, then 127, and needed just 47 darts to sweep through the session. Price responded with successive legs to halt the slide, but the gap remained vast and the momentum stayed firmly with Littler.

Price kept himself within six legs, but Littler’s late acceleration was inevitable. A stunning 148 checkout landed with the same ease as everything else, followed by a break of throw that pushed him into the finishing straight.

He closed out the title with an 81 on the bull – a fitting end to a week where he averaged 109 or better in all five matches and smashed Phil Taylor’s long‑standing tournament scoring record from 2010.

Historic numbers, historic run

Littler’s victory marked his 10th consecutive win over Price and his 28th straight victory in PDC major matches over 20 legs, a streak stretching back to the 2024 World Championship final.

He also broke his own record for most 180s in a World Matchplay campaign and reclaimed the Phil Taylor Trophy along with the £225,000 first prize cashpot, pushing his season earnings past the £3 million barrier.

The win continues his perfect run through every PDC TV major in 2026, strengthening his bid to sweep the entire ranked major calendar.

Price had spoken before the final about needing his A‑game to challenge Littler. He produced something close to it, but the teenager’s finishing and scoring left him with too few chances to apply pressure.

Price acknowledged on air afterwards that the 167 checkout was a turning point and praised Littler’s consistency. He called him “one in a million” and admitted he was a little bit gutted not to have converted more of his opportunities.

Price’s run to the final included strong wins over Joe Cullen and Peter Wright, and his scoring throughout the week had been solid. But against Littler, he found himself repeatedly forced into chasing legs rather than dictating them.

It just was not meant to be for Price on this occasion.

To be clear on this performance, Luke Littler won 12 legs in that final in 12 darts or less.

It means the opponent has got to hit a 9 darter to win those legs. It was just not happening. Littler’s becoming unbeatable.

With every major still to come, and with his form showing no sign of dipping, Littler’s season continues to build towards a potential sweep of the ranked PDC majors. A feat no player has achieved.

Featured image via Luke Littler/ Instagram

By Faz Ali

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Jewish Voice for Liberation (JVL) has issued a withering statement seeing off disgraced former prime minister Keir Starmer and demanding better from his replacement.

Starmer, buh-bye – do better Burnham

In an article on its website, the left-wing group looks back on Starmer’s record, particularly the lies in his departing speech about the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

JVL’s verdict is that the EHRC’s report, and Starmer’s shameless misquoting of it, are a hypocritical “triple outrage” and an “extraordinary travesty”.

It elaborates:

First, the EHRC did not make any finding of ‘institutional antisemitism’. That term is not defined in law and does not appear in the EHRC’s report. The phrase conjures an organisation in which antisemitic speech and conduct are pervasive and which directly discriminates against Jewish people. Submissions to the EHRC did level these allegations against the Labour Party, but the EHRC did not uphold them.

Second, the EHRC’s actual, far more limited findings relied upon serious misrepresentations of both the facts and the law. This has been set out in detail elsewhere by JVL as well as the investigative journalist Paul Holden. The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn mounted a robust defence, but Holden reports that after Starmer became leader, he withdrew the party’s objections and thereby allowed the EHRC’s flimsy indictment to stand unchallenged.

Third, Starmer himself reportedly engaged in the very behaviour the EHRC had condemned. Multiple accounts relate that Starmer was personally involved in the decision to suspend Corbyn over his response to the EHRC report. This arguably amounts to ‘political interference’ in disciplinary cases of the kind that, according to the EHRC, unlawfully discriminates against Jews.

Put otherwise: Starmer colluded in the production of a flawed report on antisemitism, then violated this same report, and then flagrantly misrepresented it—all as part of an apparent effort to traduce his factional opponents.

We deplore Starmer’s misrepresentation of the EHRC report, we denounce the political weaponisation of the fight against antisemitism, and we endorse Peter Oborne’s measured verdict on Starmer’s exit from British political life: ‘Good riddance.’

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It adds, to Andy Burnham:

We urge Andy Burnham as prime minister to have no truck with such distortions but to pursue a non-partisan anti-racist policy that is grounded in evidence and informed by universal human rights principles.

Tragically, Burnham’s cabinet appointment of a host of ‘Labour Friends of Israel’ suggests he has no intention of changing anything meaningful.

Featured image via the Times

By Skwawkbox

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Hardly had the Second World War drawn its heavy curtains when Levantine and regional politics spun back into a vortex of bewilderment and existential struggle, causing widespread destruction across Palestine and Lebanon.

This was the inevitable detonation of the Arab-Zionist conflict over the identity and future of the historic land of Palestine. Exhausted economically and politically by the fallout of the global war, Great Britain found its continued position as a mandatory power in Palestine untenable. It could no longer withstand the blows of the Arab resistance and Zionist insurgent operations.

Following its absolute failure in February 1947 to reach any mutually acceptable political settlement, London decided to abandon the file entirely and cast it into the lap of the newly established United Nations, calling upon the international body to handle the issue.

The Partition Resolution and the Rejected Border Map

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved the historic Resolution 181, which explicitly called for:

the partition of Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish States, bound by a close economic union, and the establishment of a special international regime and international trusteeship for the City of Jerusalem.

The Arab states and Palestinian leadership swiftly rejected the resolution in its entirety, viewing it as a stab into the heart of the nation. They publicly vowed to prevent its implementation on the ground, even if compelled to deploy total military force.

Yet, a meticulous geopolitical reading of the 1947 partition map reveals that, had it been implemented operationally, its structural impact on the shape and nature of the border between Palestine and Lebanon would have been profound and radical.

According to the precise terms and demarcations of the resolution, that long stretch of the 1923 international frontier – extending from the Mediterranean coast at Ras al-Naqoura in the west to a point situated immediately north of the Palestinian village of Salha in the east – would have fallen entirely under the sovereignty and authority of the proposed independent Arab Palestinian State.

Along the coastline, Arab jurisdiction and sovereignty were intended to stretch from Ras al-Naqoura in the far northwest down to the city of Acre in the south, while its northern interior sector was to reach a strategic point located directly south of the city of Nazareth.

It is patently clear how completely the Palestinian side of the sensitive border zone adjacent to Lebanon would have been altered by the execution of this resolution. The district of Safad – a geographical zone that had occupied a prominent and central position in the arduous post-WWI Anglo-French border negotiations due to Zionist insistence on integrating the existing Jewish settlements established there – was consciously excluded by the resolution to be subsequently incorporated into the proposed borders of the projected Jewish State.

This was done despite the undeniable fact that a crushing and decisive majority of the indigenous population were Arabs who held both the land and its history.

Beirut’s Territorial Ambitions

Nevertheless, armed Arab opposition and categorical political rejection ensured that the international partition resolution would never find a peaceful path to execution.

As the British Mandate approached its formal and dramatic termination in May 1948, security and military conditions along the border line between Palestine and Lebanon rapidly degenerated into the exact same state of absolute chaos and clashes that had prevailed during the Great Arab Revolt between 1936 and 1939.

An irregular, volunteer Arab military force known as the ‘Arab Liberation Army’ (or the Salvation Army), led by the military commander Fawzi al-Qawuqji – one of the most prominent leaders and combatants of the 1936 revolt – was operating dynamically and fighting fiercely on both sides of the Upper Galilee border. Meanwhile, South Lebanon, which by then had become a part of the newly independent Lebanese Republic, was transformed once again by the force of nationalist ties into a safe haven, a logistical supply base, and a vital launching pad for Arab fighter incursions against Zionist colonies.

As had been the case a decade earlier, the Lebanese entity in Beirut, with its fragile sectarian architecture, appeared neither willing nor militarily capable of intervening to regulate or prevent the commando and resistance operations against targets in Palestine, which were launched freely from its southern territories.

Much like the surrounding sister Arab states, the ruling elite in Lebanon harboured serious doubts and anxieties regarding the capacity of the Palestinians to establish an independent and viable Arab state within a fragmented Palestine. Furthermore, mirroring the fraternal Arab governments that acted on tactical nationalist and expansionist motives, Lebanon officially coveted the acquisition of certain lands and geographical zones at the expense of mandated Palestine to expand its own borders.

The 1948 Invasion of Lebanon

Consequently, the government in Beirut took the decision to utilise the small Lebanese Army to support and supply Qawuqji’s forces. They hoped that, if there were to be a partition and carving up of Arab Palestine, Beirut could at the very least claim the historical and geographical annexation of the Upper Galilee to Lebanese sovereignty. However, there were clear political and military limits to Lebanon’s military commitment in the battle to ‘save’ Palestine.

Possessing a regular army that was highly limited in size and efficiency – designed and armed primarily for the requirements of maintaining internal security and suppressing local unrest – Lebanon was not in a military position to conduct sustained offensive operations or wage a wide war of attrition in Palestine. Accordingly, its direct military involvement in the struggle for Palestine was mostly symbolic, functioning as a calculated political manoeuvre to secure the maximum possible political and territorial gains while expending the minimum of military effort and sacrifice.

From the perspective of the Zionist military command, which was fighting an existential battle, there were three clear tactical routes and axes of advance leading from Lebanon into the depth of Palestine:

1. on the left flank from Ras al-Naqoura, moving directly along the coastal line toward the city of Acre;
2. through the central sector stretching from the environs of Bint Jbeil to any number of border crossings;
3. and on the right flank through the strategic Hula Valley via Marj’ayoun and Metula.

However, as the military historian Sacher noted in his analyses:

the lines of communication … were not favourable to an attack; the roads through the Galilee ran from west to east, not from north to south, so an advance from Lebanon faced immense logistical hurdles and challenges.

With the occupation of the Palestinian border post at Ras al-Naqoura on 24 May 1948 by a detachment of the Lebanese Army, we observe that Lebanon’s actual and direct role in the First Arab-Israeli War was tactically restricted and reduced to the narrow Bint Jbeil border sector.

On 15 May 1948, the very first day of Israel’s self-proclaimed independence, two Lebanese infantry battalions and an armoured company attacked and overran the small border settlement of Malikiyya, successfully uprooting its garrison. This rapid military incursion officially placed Lebanon in direct, dangerous opposition to the United Nations partition plan, as Malikiyya was located within the zone designated by the UN as part of the projected Zionist Jewish State.

The Israeli Backlash in the Deep South

Just three days after the resounding fall of Malikiyya, the Israeli forces launched a counter-offensive characterised by audacity and unconventional planning.

A small, highly mobile and mechanised Israeli force entered deep into Lebanese territory near the northern village of Odaysah, approximately eighteen kilometres north of the fortified Malikiyya crossing. The Israeli force pushed southward into the Lebanese interior, bypassing and threatening the towns of Markaba, Houla, Meiss El-Jabal, and Blida with a complete disregard for sovereignty. South of Blida, the Israelis wheeled sharply to the southeast and re-entered Palestine, taking the Lebanese garrison stationed at Malikiyya entirely by surprise and isolating it through a clever tactical outflanking manoeuvre from the rear, thereby recapturing the position.

The Lebanese Army responded to the loss of Malikiyya by launching its only genuine, organised combat operation on 6 June 1948, successfully storming Malikiyya and overrunning an additional small settlement the following day: Kadesh-Naftali. According to the historical military analysis by O’Ballance:

That attack on Malikiyya was the sole Lebanese success during the war. The assault was carried out by an infantry force numbering about 800 men, supported only by mortars. Not much can be deduced from this incident, as the victory was perhaps due to overwhelming numbers more than anything else.

In any event, that limited operation did nothing to bolster Lebanon’s resolve, or at least enhance its proficiency in major theatres of war.

Following its localised victory at the Battle of Malikiyya, Lebanon quietly and prudently retired from any active participation or assaults in the war, surrendering its gains and positions in the central sector entirely to the irregular Arab Liberation Army. At the conclusion of the first Arab-Israeli truce (9 July 1948), limited Lebanese forces were deployed in the border area of Bint Jbeil and just a few metres from the border in the ‘Arab’ sector of Palestine at Ras al-Naqoura.

Yet, Lebanon subsequently found that severing its connection and isolating itself from the fierce war raging in Palestine was neither easy nor permissible. Israel was resolute and determined to acquire the maximum possible amount of mandated Palestine and secure its frontiers.

Operation Hiram

In October 1948, the Israeli forces launched a sweeping military campaign aimed at completely clearing northern Palestine of the Arab Liberation Army’s presence, dubbing the assault ‘Operation Hiram’ after the ancient king of Tyre from the biblical era.

The operation represented a brilliant and unambiguous Israeli military success. The Arab Liberation Army was forced to abandon all its fortified positions in the Galilee and retreat chaotically into the Lebanese region of Bint Jbeil. The Israeli forces did not stop there, but pursued the defeated enemy deep into the Lebanese interior.

The Lebanese Army, exercising extreme caution and prudence, refrained from taking any combat stance or engaging the invading Israelis to avoid its own destruction. The Zionist forces found themselves in complete military control of eighteen occupied southern Lebanese villages, consolidating their presence across a wide area running parallel to the Manara road up to Wadi Douba and the Litani River. In the Zionist consciousness, this territory represented the natural geographical and historical borders of the entire Upper Galilee region.

Ben-Gurion and the Armistice Agreement

Finally, translating the dreams of long decades into reality, the Zionists managed to secure a solid, strategic military foothold on the banks of the Litani River. From that moment on, everything within Israeli political and military circles pointed toward a firm and final determination to retain and annex the captured Lebanese lands.

In late 1948, intensive and coordinated claims emerged in Israeli diplomatic and press circles asserting that the occupied Lebanese villages were demanding to be placed under the authority and protection of the Israeli army, and that a pro-Zionist Christian ‘Free Lebanese Movement’ was active inside Israel to justify the total annexation of Lebanese territories by Israel.

However, rather than risking a forced alteration of its northern borders and confronting the international community, Israel adopted an alternative, highly astute political strategy: bartering the occupied Lebanese lands in exchange for major political concessions and border security.

In early 1949, Israeli leaders believed they could conclude an attractive, unilateral peace settlement with the Christian-dominated Lebanese state. They assumed that such treaties would not only secure Israel’s historic access to the waters of the Litani River, but would also further fragment and isolate the Arab world by permanently detaching Lebanon from the Arab alliance.

On 21 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, recorded and summarised this strategic vision in his diary, stating:

The Achilles’ heel of the Arab coalition is Lebanon. Muslim supremacy in this country is artificial and can be easily overthrown. A Christian state ought to be set up there, with its southern frontier on the Litani River. We would sign an alliance treaty with this state.

As a practical demonstration of this vision, Israeli negotiators entered the negotiation arena fully aware that they could obtain either the Litani as territory or a political treaty, but not both simultaneously.

Consequently, when formal armistice talks with Lebanon commenced under United Nations auspices in January 1949, Israel displayed a high degree of readiness that resembled an eager desire to relinquish the Lebanese territories it controlled. It swiftly withdrew from four occupied Lebanese villages in exchange for a minimal, symbolic Lebanese withdrawal from the Israeli side of Ras al-Naqoura.

Nevertheless, several weeks of deadlock ensued as Israel attempted to link its complete withdrawal from Lebanon to a Syrian withdrawal from a small pocket of Palestinian territory in the Hula Valley. The two issues were eventually uncoupled under international pressure, and on 23 March 1949, the General Armistice Agreement was formally signed between Israel and Lebanon.

Deconstructing Homogeneity

The armistice was not a permanent peace treaty; it left Lebanon and Israel in a state of technical warfare under international law, although its signing was viewed within Israel as:

the penultimate step toward comprehensive peace.

Guided by the terms of the agreement, the Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon behind the Armistice Demarcation Line, the purpose of which was to define the line beyond which the armed forces of both parties must never pass. The agreement stipulated that ‘the Armistice Demarcation Line follows the international boundary between Lebanon and Palestine’ as originally drawn in 1923.

The armistice agreement did not stop at restoring the border along its designated line, but imposed strict and specific military restrictions to be observed on both sides of the armistice line. The text called for the deployment of ‘defensive forces only’ in the armistice line zone to prohibit any mutual aggression. These ‘Defensive Forces’ were defined in the annex to the Armistice Agreement with mathematical and military precision as follows:

On the part of Lebanon:

• Two battalions and two companies of the regular Lebanese Army infantry;
• a field battery of 4 guns;
• a single company consisting of 12 light armoured cars armed with machine guns; and
• 6 light tanks armed with light guns (a total of 20 vehicles), with the total number of officers and enlisted men not exceeding 1,500 personnel.

No other military forces whatsoever were permitted to be deployed or utilised south of the general line: Qasimiya – Nabatieh al-Tahta – Hasbaya. This effectively rendered South Lebanon a zone demilitarised of heavy and offensive weaponry, with the closest point where Lebanese offensive forces could be stationed being approximately twelve kilometres north of Metula near the village of Blat.

In the case of Israel:

• One infantry battalion;
• a support company with six mortars, six machine guns, and six armoured vehicles;
• a single reconnaissance company;
• six armoured jeeps;
• a field artillery battalion of four guns, a platoon of field engineers, and logistical units, with the total not exceeding 1,500 officers and men.

No other military forces were permitted north of the general line: Nahariya – Tarshiha – Al-Jish – Marus. Under these conditions, Israel was permitted to concentrate its offensive forces in the Hula Valley region to confront the Syrians, and the General Armistice Agreement made absolutely no mention of the paramilitary forces garrisoned within the newly established Zionist Jewish settlements being constructed right along the armistice line.

Constructing the Belt

While the demilitarisation of South Lebanon succeeded in alleviating Israeli anxiety regarding a potential conventional military threat from the north, the forced demographic transformation in northern Israel came to be viewed as the true, radical solution to the problem of irregular warfare and the dilemma of ethnic homogeneity previously exposed by Tegart’s Wall. Thousands of Arab farmers had fled to Lebanon from northern Palestine under the weight of the 1948 battles and operations, and the Zionist state moved rapidly to convert their abandoned villages adjacent to the Lebanese border into fortified, militarily armed Israeli settlements.

During the years spanning 1948 to 1950, a dense chain of these settlements was established, and the Arabs who were still living near the border were expelled and displaced purely for security purposes. The goal was to create an exclusively Jewish security and ethnic belt stretching across northern Israel to ensure that any possibility of infiltration was severed. In this regard, the Israeli Attorney-General in 1972 clearly summarised this Zionist security philosophy, stating:

We do not want Arab villages near the Lebanese border; we do not want to provide an opportunity for them to establish contact with the Arabs on the other side.

Accordingly, the government barred the Arabs who had been expelled from the border villages of Iqrit and Kafr Bir’im in 1948 from returning, despite their loyalty and the service of their youth within the Israeli military.

In short, the immediate military effect of the 1949 General Armistice Agreement was the complete pacification of Zionist anxieties regarding the defence of their northern border. Lebanon, which had barely posed an offensive threat at the best of times, was barred from deploying any forces of substance, while Israel succeeded in transforming its side of the frontier into a chain of fortified strongholds.

The historic ethnic homogeneity of the border zone was erased, and the fear of invasion was eliminated, temporarily closing the battlefield of South Lebanon. Yet, in 1949, Israel failed to foresee that the absence of a strong, organised Lebanese presence south of the Litani would ultimately become its next security nightmare.

Featured image via Wikimedia

By Mohammad Fakih

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New Prime Minister Andy Burnham‘s first speech as Labour leader claimed that he represents the biggest change in UK politics in 40 years. But his ‘new’ cabinet is a regurgitation of the same Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) Genocide and the so-called, ultra-Zionist ‘Jewish Labour Movement’ (JLM) who have blighted the Labour party and UK politics for the past decade.

The media has joined in on the fiction, blaring that his reshuffle has purged the Starmeroid caucus. In reality, Burnham has just replaced a handful of them with a different handful, while many have retained their jobs or been promoted.

For example, police-state horror Shabana Mahmood staying as home secretary and slash (benefits) and burn (Palestinians and Russians) John Healey moving from defence to chancellor, so he can implement his plan.

Burnham’s shop of horrors

Below is a list, which may not be exhaustive, of LFI and JLM ‘members’ in Burnham’s ‘new’ team:

Andy Burnham – Prime Minister
Louise Haigh – Effectively deputy PM
John Healey – Chancellor
Ed Miliband – Foreign Secretary
Wes Streeting – Defence Secretary
Yvette Cooper – Health Secretary
Lucy Powell – Education Secretary
Jonathan Reynolds – Business Secretary
Pat McFadden –  Work & Pensions Secretary
Emma Reynolds – Treasury Secretary
Chris Bryant – Northern lreland Secretary
Douglas Alexander – Scottish Secretary
Angela Eagle – Environment Secretary
Hamish Falconer – State Minister
Mike Tapp – Home Office Minister
Matthew Pennycook – Housing Minister
Alison McGovern – Local Government Minister
Preet Gill – Health Minister
Sharon Hodgson – Health Minister
Michael Shanks – Energy Minister
Lilian Greenwood – Transport Minister
Mary Creagh – Environment Minister
Ellie Reeves – Solicitor general

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is also a major recipient from Israel lobby donors. Continuity friends of genocide with more northern accents.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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‘We recoil at dogs being left to die from extreme heat. That same compassion must extend to farmed animals, whose lives are at risk from intense heatwaves’ – Claire Bass

As temperatures exceed 35°C, Humane World for Animals U.K. (formerly called Humane Society International U.K.) warns that pigs, chickens and other farmed animals are suffering out of sight, with no transparency or a clear national system to monitor heat-related deaths or welfare incidents.

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Pigs are among the animals most vulnerable to hot weather because they cannot sweat effectively and rely on their environment to cool down. Industry guidance acknowledges that heat stress in pigs can lead to collapse and, in the worst cases, death. The risk is especially acute in poorly ventilated sheds, during transport, or where animals cannot access shade, water or effective cooling. 

While the U.K. rightly issues heat-health alerts for people and tracks the human impact of extreme heat, there is no equivalent transparent national picture for millions of farmed animals. Humane World for Animals U.K. says this leaves heat-related suffering, collapse and deaths among pigs, chickens and other animals largely invisible to the public and policymakers. 

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has also warned that sustained high temperatures, humidity and warm nights can compound heat stress in farmed animals, with animals unable to recover overnight. 

The Climate Change Committee has stated that the U.K.’s preparations for climate change remain inadequate, with adaptation planning still too slow and disjointed. Humane World for Animals U.K. says farmed animals are a stark example of this gap: climate risks are recognised, but the systems needed to prevent, monitor and respond to heat-related animal suffering remain underdeveloped. 

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Current government advice tells farmers to plan for extreme weather and contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency or their local authority in an emergency. However, campaigners are concerned that this is insufficient for heatwaves affecting many farms at once, particularly where local authorities may lack the capacity or specialist animal welfare expertise to respond at scale. 

Claire Bass, senior director of campaigns and public affairs at Humane World for Animals U.K., said:  

“We rightly recoil at the thought of dogs being left in conditions where they could suffer or die from extreme heat. That same compassion must extend to pigs, chickens and other farmed animals, whose lives are increasingly—but so far invisibly—being put at risk by more frequent and intense heatwaves. The industry talks about the need to reduce heat impacts, such as ‘increased mortality’ and ‘reduced productivity’, but our primary concern should be the welfare of individual animals, not how these events affect the bottom line. 

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“Pigs are especially vulnerable because they cannot sweat effectively and can suffer heat stress at temperatures far below those being recorded in this heatwave. Chickens and other farmed animals can also face serious welfare risks when ventilation, water provision, stocking density or transport conditions are inadequate during extreme heat. 

“These are sentient animals who can experience distress, pain and fear. Yet the U.K. has no clear national picture of how many farmed animals are suffering or dying during extreme heat. That is a serious blind spot in our climate planning and animal welfare system.” 

Humane World for Animals U.K. is calling on the government to: 

• Publish clearer, detailed and species-specific guidance to prevent heat-related suffering and deaths on farms and during transport; 
• Commission a comprehensive national review of farmed animal housing to assess the investment needed to properly protect animals from extreme heat. 
• Establish a transparent system to aggregate and publish data (from government agencies, vets, insurers, local authorities and industry bodies) on heat-related farmed animal mortality and serious welfare incidents, to understand the scale of the problem; 
• Ensure farmed animals are properly included in climate adaptation planning as sentient beings, not merely as economic units. 

Claire Bass added, “If we do not know how many farmed animals are suffering, collapsing or dying in heatwaves, we cannot know whether existing protections are working. As extreme heat becomes more frequent and intense, the government must close this data gap and make farmed animal welfare part of national climate resilience planning.” 

 

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Anthony Joshua is still on the road to Tyson Fury but only after living through the worst round of his career.

Joshua was floored within 20 seconds by Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia, and dropped again before the end of the first round. However, Joshua steadied himself, reset and ended the fight with a brutal second round knockout.  

The bout at the Jeddah Superdome was billed as a comeback and a tune‑up. It was Joshua’s first outing since the fatal car crash in Nigeria last December that killed his close friends and team members, Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.

Instead, the opening three minutes turned it into a crisis. Prenga, an Albanian heavyweight with 20 wins, 20 knockouts and 16 straight victories since his only defeat in 2017, came out fast and violent.  

A vicious right uppercut sent Joshua to the canvas almost immediately. Later in the round, a barrage forced him to touch down again, earning a second count. For a spell, the signed November fight with Fury looked like it might evaporate before it ever reached the boxing ring.  

Joshua had to regroup

The minute between rounds was enough. Joshua came out for the second with his feet under him, his jab sharper and his defence tighter. He began to push Prenga back, landing solid right hands and short lefts, and the momentum flipped.  

Now under pressure and backed towards the ropes, Prenga was caught clean. A big right hand, followed by a compact left and another clubbing shot, sent him crashing to the canvas. The referee waved it off, confirming a second round knockout and Joshua’s 30th win in 34 fights; his 27th inside the distance.  

For Joshua, the finish mattered as much as the scare. It showed he could still punch with authority, but also that he could absorb a crisis, stay composed and find a way back. For Prenga, it was a reminder that at this level, hesitation is punished. His early success never turned into sustained pressure in the second round.  

Emotion, grief and a clear dedication

The context around Joshua’s performance was heavy. This was his first fight since the car accident that killed his best friends, who were also part of his inner training circle. He was a passenger in the vehicle and has spoken about the impact on his life and career.  

In the ring afterwards, Joshua made sure the win belonged to them.

Keeping his words short but loaded, he told DAZN after the fight:

It’s more than punch power. That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough. It’s my brothers. I don’t want to talk about it.

Promoter Eddie Hearn has spoken about giving Joshua space to return only when he was ready, and admitted that during the first round he briefly wondered if they had come back too soon. The way Joshua responded in the second answered that question.  

Fury and the November plan

While Joshua was fighting Prenga in Saudi Arabia, Fury had already done his part.

On Friday, the WBC champion stopped Polish veteran Mariusz Wach in a low‑key, non‑televised bout in Thailand, fought in front of a small crowd.

Afterwards, Fury said he would not travel to Saudi Arabia for a face‑off, preferring to stay away until fight week.

Now the bigger picture is clear, contracts are signed for Joshua vs Fury, with November targeted as the month of the fight. The venue is still to be confirmed, with somewhere in America viewed as the most likely destination, though Wembley stadium remains in the conversation.

Both men now arrive at that date off stoppage wins, both having had to navigate awkward moments.  

Joshua’s tone on Fury mixed edge with respect. Paying homage to Mike Tyson, he said to DAZN:

I am going to rip his heart out. I am the meanest and most vicious champion there has ever been!

Then he flipped to the other side of his personality:

All jokes aside, there are two sides to this thing. I respect everything Fury has done and achieved. I hope the fans will be in for a lovely treat.

What the Prenga fight showed

Strip away the noise and the Prenga bout did two things for Joshua: it exposed vulnerability — a cold start, a chin checked hard, a career hanging in the balance for a minute — and it underlined resilience. He got up twice, adjusted, and finished the fight emphatically. 

It also kept the Fury fight intact. A shock defeat would have wrecked the November plan and thrown the heavyweight division into another round of delays and rebuilds. Instead, Joshua leaves Jeddah with a comeback win, a live rivalry, and a clearer sense of what he still has left. 

For Prenga, there is credit in the performance. He arrived with a perfect knockout record, dropped a former unified champion twice and showed he belongs at a higher level than his previous opposition. The result will sting, but the footage will keep him in conversations for future opportunities.  

Next steps for Joshua

The scare was real. The recovery was sharp. The Fury fight remains alive. Joshua now waits for confirmation of the venue and final details.

The scare in Jeddah will sit in the background of every preview, but the bottom line is simple: he was hurt, he recovered, he won, and the biggest fight of his career remains on the calendar.  

Featured image via Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ Reuters

By Faz Ali

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BANGOR, Maine — Republicans had months to research and rebuke Graham Platner. They now have exactly 100 days to sink his replacement.

Troy Jackson is like Platner but worse. He’s a socialist who’s flip-flopped on policy, a career politician who keeps losing, an insider who is also unknown. His nomination was illegitimate, he has anger issues, and he lacks “rizz.”

That’s just a sampling of the messaging the GOP plans to use to trounce Jackson, the former Maine Senate president who lost this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary only to glide this weekend into the party’s nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in November.

“Mainers already rejected Troy Jackson once this year after his failed campaign for governor. Now Democrats are asking voters to believe the politician they didn’t want leading Augusta belongs in the United States Senate,” the NRSC, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, wrote in a “messaging guidance” document about Jackson, viewed by Playbook. “Jackson is a radical, ill-tempered career politician whose failed record and socialist agenda make him unfit to represent Maine.”

The stakes are high. Collins is the only Republican senator running for re-election this cycle in a state Kamala Harris won in 2024, and Democrats’ hopes of retaking the chamber track straight through Maine — a reality the NRSC admitted is possible in its new donor memo, shared first with Playbook, acknowledging that “Jackson is fully capable of winning this seat if we become complacent.”

Republicans’ first plan of attack is to link Jackson to Platner, with whom he campaigned and shares much of his populist platform. As soon as Jackson’s nomination became official yesterday, the Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s super PAC, announced that it was launching asix-figure ad blitz that begins by depicting the two Democrats hugging on stage.

“Jackson is like Graham Platner but worse,” the ad says, citing reporting from WaPo, CNN and other outlets about Jackson’s alleged sharp temper and heated interactions with colleagues.

The NRSC yesterday posted a video on X depicting Platner literally transforming into Jackson — with the caption “No tattoo, same crazy,” a reference to Platner’s tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol. “Troy Jackson is all the baggage without the ‘rizz,” James Blair, who leads President Donald Trump’s outside political operation, said on X.

Jackson campaigned alongside Platner and stood by him through several scandals — until POLITICO reported earlier this month that a woman who dated Platner said he had sexually assaulted her, a claim Platner denies. In response, Jackson publicly disavowed Platner and said he had “lied to me.”

Jackson told reporters yesterday he has not spoken to Platner since then. Asked to respond to SLF’s ad, Jackson said “anyone that I may have argued with, that I might have went too far or got too passionate, I apologize to.”

The GOP’s second push is to brand Jackson as a “political insider” — a bid to undermine his populist bonafides at a time when voters from neither party trust establishment politicians. “We must act immediately to define him before national Democrats frame him as a populist outsider,” the NRSC memo said.

“Chuck Schumer forcefully removed Graham Platner from the ballot against the will of Maine voters, only to replace him with a deranged and scandal-plagued political insider,” SLF Communications Director Chris Gustafson said in a statement to POLITICO.

Part of that strategy is to not only label Jackson as a longserving member of the establishment (Collins, for what it’s worth, has held her seat for nearly three decades), but as a political insider who has failed when seeking higher office. As state Senate president, Jackson was the second-highest ranking official in Maine — but he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 2014 and for governor earlier this year, a fresh wound Republicans are eager to pick at.

Compounding that insider image is the way Maine Democrats selected Jackson: While more than 200,000 Mainers voted for Platner in the primary, just 566 Democratic delegates actively chose Jackson at yesterday’s nominating convention — a fact Republicans hope to spin into a narrative that Jackson was coronated by party insiders. “Not one single vote was cast for Troy Jackson” in the Senate race, RNC Chair Joe Gruters said on X.

“Just one month ago, Troy came in third in the Democratic primary for Governor. Now he will run for Senate as the third choice of his party insiders,” Collins campaign spokesperson Shawn Roderick said in a statement to Playbook. He added, “in a process concocted by the Maine Democratic Party establishment, a 24-year Augusta insider was appointed to run for the Senate by fewer than three-tenths of one percent of its primary voters.”

Jackson, for his part, appears committed to maintaining his image as a populist who, as has become his campaign motto, comes neither from the left nor the right, but “from the bottom.” He’s more eager to bring up being a fifth-generation logger than his decades of experience in state politics — and at any mention of his relationship to Platner, he’s quick to pivot to his role as part of a broader pro-worker movement. And his campaign is staying laser-focused on attacking Collins.

“Only Susan Collins could spend nearly 30 years in Washington voting with Donald Trump 96 percent of the time and taking millions from corporate special interests, then call a fifth-generation logger from Allagash a ‘party insider,’” Jackson campaign adviser BJ McCollister said in a statement to Playbook. “Mainers know who Troy Jackson is—and they know exactly who Susan Collins works for.”

Asked yesterday to respond to the GOP messaging shortly after clinching the official nomination, Jackson told reporters that he attributes Republicans’ attacks to “Senator Collins trying to make sure that she can win re-election on a really bad record.”

“I’ve been in the legislature for 20 years,” he added. “I do believe I’ve been vetted. I’ve been tested. People know exactly what I’m fighting for. They know that I’ve had their back, and they know they can trust me.”

Andrew Howard contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claim their paramilitaries were not wearing body cameras during the recent killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. Yet ICE insiders are saying the opposite.

Meanwhile, new details have emerged about the background of one of the shooters, a former US soldier.

The Intercept reported this week:

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old father from Colombia, was driving slowly in Biddeford, Maine, when an agent shot into his vehicle.

According to secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin, the officers involved in the shooting “were not wearing body cameras”.

However, ICE insiders familiar with the technology have told a different story:

ICE officials who spoke with The Intercept, all of whom requested anonymity to protect their livelihoods, identified cameras among the equipment worn by two ICE officers nearby in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Adding:

The body-worn devices were not designed solely to capture evidential video, and are used primarily as remote microphones for ICE officers’ radio communications.

ICE agents’ cameras present but switched off

Insiders reviewed other footage from the scene. They identified:

Motorola SVX Video Remote Speaker Microphones, a wireless radio mic with one other important feature: a camera.

The particular models are designed to “work as body cameras” but the “ICE official said the function isn’t used”.

The official said:

They have multiple functionalities. However, we are currently only using them as mics because of the AXON contract.

Axon (formerly Taser, of ‘non-lethal’ stun gun fame) is a firm that makes law enforcement technology. Another ICE official told the Intercept that the cameras could be seen with their covers still on, indicating they were not in use. Additionally, US president Trump has shares in the firm.

The Intercept reported:

The video-recording function on the SVX mic, however, requires a subscription.

During ICE’s early 2026 operations in Minnesota, which saw several people shot dead:

ICE announced that it would be purchasing and distributing body cameras to every arrest team in the agency.

However:

After the deaths of Durán Guerrero and Salgado Araujo [killed in Houston, Texas on 7 July] over the past week, however, the Trump administration said the distribution was incomplete.

Alleged shooter ‘never should have been put in uniform’

More details have emerged about the ICE officer who allegedly shot Durán Guerrero. Investigative journalist Spencer Ackerman, of Forever Wars, wrote:

Guerrero’s killer has been identified as David Brouillette—identified, astonishingly, by his ex-wife.

Brouillette was an US Army Afghanistan veteran who may have served as an interrogator:

Brouillette’s own family spoke about how he was the last person who should have the power of life or death over someone else.

In possibly the most chilling passages, Brouillette is described as “someone who never should have been put in uniform”.

But that wasn’t how the military saw it.

And:

According to his relative, recruiters initially rejected him “because of his mental health diagnoses,” but then they did something horrifically irresponsible. “[R]ecruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did.”

Cameras may or may not temper the actions of ICE, but their presence can hardly do any harm when it comes to the rafts of legal cases produced by Trump’s anti-migrant operations.

There being mentally unwell former soldiers in the organisation tells a bigger story about how the War on Terror, and its practices and norms, are coming home to roost in the US.

Featured image via People magazine

By Joe Glenton

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