Politics
Which is the best online site for booking flights?
Finding a single, definitive “best” site for booking flights isn’t about looking for a one-size-fits-all name, it’s about knowing what tools and guarantees a top platform must provide. While every traveler has unique destination goals and budgets, the ideal booking platform always shares core advantages: transparent pricing, extensive flight coverage, local payment options, and reliable support. Rather than pointing you to a single rigid choice, this guide will walk you through the essential features of a top-tier flight booking platform, empowering you with the knowledge to easily spot, compare, and book through the best site for your next trip.
The Challenges of Booking Flights
When you book a flight, you usually stay up late with fifteen tabs open on your computer, chasing a fantastic price, only to see it disappear on the checkout page. The total goes back and forth between seat selection and adding a bag. A 2026 review of major travel apps by Unstar found that these pricing inconsistencies and hidden checkout fees account for approximately one in five of all unfavorable customer reviews across leading booking platforms, just behind cancellation and refund disputes.
Travel hacks are filled with tips like deleting your cookies, booking only on a Tuesday, and utilizing incognito mode so sites can’t monitor you and bump up rates. These tactics don’t make any difference. Airline prices are based on demand, the number of seats left, and the departure time of the flight instead of looking at your browsing history. The answer to these travel fallacies is a single platform that shows the full, final price upfront. That way you don’t have to go to 10 different sites, all of which have a variety of fees hidden somewhere.
Understanding Your Flight Booking Options
To get the best airfare, you need to understand how booking systems function and where ordinary search platforms fall short vs integrated travel apps.
- Booking Directly Through An Airline (Single Carrier Websites)
You will obtain no route optimization when booking directly via a single airline’s website. You are locked into that carrier’s limited flight network and usual price, so if there is a cheaper ticket on a competitor airline only an hour later, you will never see it.
- Generic Flight Search Engines (Meta-Search Engines)
Popular search engines crawl the web, searching for tickets on hundreds of sites, then lead you to purchase the ticket elsewhere. They regularly exclude small, cheap regional airlines, and because they don’t have a direct checkout and they often send you to third-party, unverified merchants with horrible customer care.
- Standard Online Travel Agencies (Legacy Third-Party OTAs)
Standard international online travel agencies (OTAs) offer tickets directly on their own websites. Seems easy enough; however, these sites often hide international transaction costs and add on surprising luggage fees right at the checkout. If your flight is delayed, your sole customer support option is often some kind of computerized bot.
- All-in-One Regional Travel Apps (Integrated Market Leaders)
Booking platforms that provide all-in-one matching and combining flights from hundreds of airlines. They operate on native payment processing, thus they provide full pricing transparency, 24/7 customer support, and flexible local payments.
How to Spot the Best Flight Booking Site
There are four major requirements that a booking platform must achieve. If a site doesn’t have even one, find another.
- Inventory: The site should include the big international airlines as well as smaller regional low-cost carriers so that you can view all possibilities accessible to you for your journey.
- Transparency: You should notice regional taxes, luggage regulations and payment processing costs on the first screen. It’s annoying to find out about these expenses at checkout.
- Payments: The platform should be able to support your local payment networks. It helps if it also offers secure, interest-free installment tools for budgeting.
- Support: If your plans change or your flight is cancelled, you need to be able to contact solid human support 24/7 in your language.
Why Local Travel Apps Beat Global Search Engines
In the Middle East, local booking apps typically outperform generic search engines, as they are designed for the region.
- More Flight Choices and Split-ticketing
Top integrated platforms like Almosafer collect inventory from 450+ worldwide and regional carriers, thereby enabling “split-ticketing”. The platform can book an outward flight on a low-cost carrier and a return journey on a full-service airline. While major global search engines also identify mixed-carrier itineraries, integrated platforms often provide a more streamlined experience by allowing users to book these specialized combinations in a single transaction. This gives you three major advantages:
- Savings: Mix budget fares instead of paying for a premium round-trip ticket.
- Flexibility: Pick the exact flight times that match your schedule.
- Convenience: Fly light on the way out, and choose full-service with extra baggage for the trip home.
- Honest Prices with No Hidden Bank Fees
Global platforms often route payments through foreign acquiring banks and display prices in foreign currencies, triggering dynamic currency conversion and cross-border markups. Regional applications handle transactions locally; therefore, this pricing on the screen is the final price at checkout. Platforms like Almosafer process payments through local banking channels, so the fare you see when you search is the exact amount charged at checkout, with no last-minute conversion surprises on your statement.
- Easy Local Payments and “Buy Now, Pay Later”
Global search engines rarely integrate region-specific payment methods and local BNPL providers, so they can’t offer 0% installment plans or truly local checkout experiences that reduce friction and cost for Middle Eastern users. Local payment solutions such as Mada and Apple Pay on sites like Almosafer can reduce foreign banking expenses. Regional businesses such as Tamara and Tabby are also available to divide the cost of a flash sale into payments with 0% interest.
- Smart Mobile Apps and Real-Time Tracking
Almosafer app has over 10 million downloads with 4.7-star reviews on iOS and Android, and 85% of their transactions are on mobile. This is the first AI-powered platform in Saudi Arabia. The app offers real-time flight monitoring, adjustable date grid analysis and flash sales. It also connects you to bilingual customer service in Arabic and English so you can sort out a delay, cancellation, or booking change without a language barrier slowing you down. While generic search engines function mainly as discovery layers, not end-to-end booking and post-booking management platforms tuned to the region.
Quick Comparison: Which Platform is Better?
| What You Get | Single-Carrier Sites | Search Engines | Third-Party OTAs | All-in-One Regional Apps |
| Flight options | Just one airline | Booked on selected websites rather than the search engine. | Few regional airlines | Many airlines, bundled together for best price |
| Final price shown | Accurate | Can change at checkout | May hide extra fees | What you see is what you pay |
| Payment Options | Standard credit cards | Depends on the site you’re sent to | Basic cards only | Cards, local wallets, pay-in-installments |
| Extra bank charges | Rare | Common | Common | No hidden conversion fees |
| Help if something goes wrong | Only that airline can help | The user does not know if the website they are booking is legit or not. | Automated chatbots | 24/7 dedicated localized support |
Watch Out for the Checkout Trap
This section refers to global or generic travel platforms that lack regional authority and local payment infrastructure in the Middle East.:
- They may show pricing in your local currency, but the transaction is processed via a foreign bank, which might result in surprise cross-border credit card costs.
- On a generic site, a base cost of $60 frequently does not include basics. Add in a carry-on bag and required seat selection and the total may easily exceed $160.
- Most generic search engines send you to unknown third-party suppliers for the actual booking. The search engine does not assume responsibility if there is a problem with your flight and the vendor might be difficult to reach.
Final Thoughts: The Best Way to Book Your Next Flight
Switching between a dozen generic sites and single-airline websites rarely results in any real savings. When you book via a single platform such as Almosafer with millions of users and hundreds of thousands of 5-star reviews, you receive larger airline options, transparent pricing, and no bank costs. Also, these platforms provide 0% interest payment plans and 24/7 customer service in Arabic and English.
Disclaimer: Data validated in August 2026. All values are subject to real-time changes.
On 19 August, Eleanora Foran — perhaps better known as online political analyst ‘Stats for Lefties’ — announced her election to the Green Party Council. Foran is one of two representatives for the Eastern Region, itself one of the 10 areas of England and Wales represented on the council.
This is noteworthy for two reasons. First, Greens for Palestine backed Foran as a candidate. The campaign group is one of the driving forces behind the “Zionism is Racism” motion at the Green Party conferences – both back in March and upcoming in the autumn.
The March vote on the motion never took place. The chair claimed that the vote couldn’t proceed after Palestinian speaker Lubna Speitan’s highly emotive speech on the devastating effects Israeli violence had on her family.
‘I welcome their hatred’
Eleanora Foran herself posted a message of support for the anti-Zionist cause following her election. She wrote on social media that she was “so grateful” to both party members and Greens for Palestine for their support, before stating:
I know there will be Zionists reading this who are utterly furious that I won. I welcome their hatred.
That latter sentence is a direct quote from Roosevelt’s 1936 speech at Madison Square Garden. FDR referred to the businessmen and war profiteers who seemed to consider the government “a mere appendage to their own affairs”. However, the parallel to Israeli interests in the UK government is more than apt.
The Financial Times was particularly quick to come after Foran. It quoted her June post reading:
Glory to the Iranian resistance, whose courageous fight against the imperialist dogs of the USA has utterly humiliated the Great Satan.
The FT felt compelled to contextualise this statement alongside the fact that the UK recently designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. Likewise, it helpfully explained that:
The party, which has grown rapidly since the election of [Green Party leader] Zack Polanski as leader last year, has been accused of failing to tackle extremism among its members.
Of course, the article failed to mention that Foran mentioned the IRGC precisely zero times. It is, after all, a proscribed group, and we know how the UK government feels about those.
Likewise, the Financial Times also managed to forget the fact that both the US and Israel illegally attacked Iran, sparking the war in the first place. Oh, and then Trump only managed to lose it anyway.
Green Party ‘has changed’
Foran’s election to the council is also notable because she’s openly trans. At a time when the UK political landscape is actively hostile towards trans people, and even the Green Party itself has barely left behind its transphobic leanings, Foran’s election is a sign for celebration.
In fact, given that the Green Party Council allows one ‘male’ and one ‘female’ seat for each region, it’s also an important fact that Foran was elected to the female seat. In her social media statement, Foran wrote that:
Our party has changed, and my election as a proud anti-Zionist trans woman symbolises that change. I look forward to working with my comrades on GPC to build a radical anti-imperialist Green Party – one that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with queers, Palestinians, disabled people, migrants, refugees and activists enduring state repression.
Congratulations to Foran from us here at the Canary — we just hope she doesn’t give up her work as Stats for Lefties at the same time!
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
February 2026: Satirical carnival float featuring Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin | Image by: ZUMA Press / Alamy
4 min read
With its urgent call to repair and revive the liberal world order, this illuminating book strikes the perfect note for our troubled times
Here comes a humdinger of a book which strikes the perfect note for our troubled times. Authored by British scholar and journalist Adrian Wooldridge (Balliol and All Souls, no less) it dives deep into both the American and British political and intellectual scenes to illuminate what has gone so disappointingly wrong.
Its central message is that the liberal world order – built almost from scratch from the rubble of the Second World War and on which, despite checks and setbacks over the years since, most of our progress, prosperity and indeed ordered civilisation has come to rest – is in a state of disintegration and in urgent need of repair and revival.
Even the book’s title strikes an immediate refreshing note, and should help alert all but the doziest to the real sources of our present discontent – and to the great heaps of anxiety and pessimism which keep piling up in, and polluting, our intellectual avenues of public discussion and advancement.
Crisis after crisis, large and small, some domestic, some global, seem to tumble down on us, sending experts scurrying like disturbed ants in every direction with their solutions and calls for ‘total mind resets’ and all the clichéd rest. Books on how Britain is broken pour out (some of them seemingly no more than tepid rehashes of Look Back in Anger).
The economy, moan the headlines, has stopped growing, productivity is falling, investment is shrinking, business confidence is on the floor, trains are late, schools crumbling, strikes are brewing again, funds short for every conceivable cause, government debt soaring, defence budgets hopelessly underfunded, the energy crisis costly and unending, with an even worse one about to visit us…
It dives deep into both the American and British political and intellectual scenes to illuminate what has gone so disappointingly wrong
But stand back and one begins to see, helped by this volume, that most of these setbacks, national or global, whether real or just media-exaggerated, are second order outcomes of something much deeper that has gone missing.
That ‘something’ is a world view inspired by a broadly liberal social order, and liberally inclined institutions – and a liberal order’s genuine champions. Constant talk there may be of ‘values’ but scarcely never an acknowledgement that in a completely digitalised world they require completely fresh interpretation or they go under – and drag us down with them.
The revival message in this volume, from this interpreter of this global turning point, is there for the receiving (and acting on) and long overdue it is. But is it being heeded?
The era we are now entering, in which machines start thinking for themselves, could be a time for the world coming together as much as, or even more, than in those bold post-1945 decades of high hopes. Both survival and progress are still in reach if we have the wisdom to keep control and escape the stale cliché-ridden ideologies and dogmas of the past. And there is a time ahead of utter disorder and destruction if we fail.
Nothing of the great doctrines of left and right politics will help much here, whether collective and individualist, state versus market, Karl Marx versus Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman, bureaucratic empires versus the unpredictable mosaic of capitalism.
How much relevance is left in facing or comprehending the new disruptions of the digital age we all now have to confront at every level, from home and daily life up to the highest dealings between nations, guarded by once trusted global institutions and by the international rules of law and freedom?
How many experts and commentators have grasped this? How many political leaders, policy gurus, influencers in the whole political galère have seen through the fog and mist of the old dishonesties to the new realities?
Well, there is a book here to start from. It may be not too late to change course.
Lord Howell is a Conservative peer
Centrists of the World Unite!: The Lost Genius of Liberalism
By: Adrian Wooldridge
Publisher: Allen Lane
Parts of England and Wales are experiencing drought following an unbelievably dry summer and higher-than-usual water consumption.
As a result, many water suppliers have opted to enforce a temporary usage ban (TUB), also known as a hosepipe ban. This includes companies that haven’t introduced hosepipe bans in decades, like Wessex Water.
While recent temperatures have been far more forgiving, with rain and cooler air finally making their welcome way across the UK, this won’t be enough to offset the current drought conditions in place across multiple counties.
And speaking to Times Radio, Nevil Muncaster, strategic water resources director at Thames Water, has said that the hosepipe ban might last for longer than hoped.
Why are hosepipe bans lasting so long?
“What we’ve seen with these heatwaves is temperatures going above 30°C and customers using 50% more water. And that’s a huge demand on top of our normal supplies, and something that we had to cope with and make sure that we deal with,” Muncaster explained.
That’s why Thames Water, along with so many water companies, have introduced TUBs.
But even when rainfall resumes, it’ll still take time to make up for the existing shortfall, never mind add to what would have been the usual reserves.
“The Environment Agency forecast is that it will be drier than normal for the next few months, but we’ll wait and see,” the expert added.
When asked how long it would be until Thames Water’s hosepipe ban let up, he answered: “I think realistically, it’s going to be towards the end of the year before that comes off. That’s something that we need to make sure we do just to protect the environment.”
Not every area of the UK is facing the same drought threat
The south and southeast of the UK (where Thames Water supplies millions of customers) have generally fared far worse than the north and northwest when it comes to water supplies this year.
In April, for instance, Esk Dumfries in Scotland received 103% of the long-term average rainfall, while South Essex got just 5%.
Therefore, not all of the UK is under a TUB, and some may end sooner than others.
Thames Water serves areas including all or parts of:
- Gloucestershire
- Wiltshire
- Surrey
- the Thames Valley
- Greater London and surrounding areas
- Essex.
Check with your local water supplier to see whether your area is under a TUB and what its rules are.
One Tel Aviv-based tech ‘security’ company, Irregular, was at the centre of “rogue” hack attacks launched during AI testing procedures. Meta, OpenAI (of ChatGPT), and Anthropic’s AI models were all involved.
Reporting at the time, the Wall Street Journal ran with this alarming headline:
Rogue AI Hacks Herald New Era of Cyber Chaos
What they didn’t mention was that our “era of cyber chaos” was instigated by Israeli intelligence operatives. Nor did the rest of our fatuous corporate media, for that matter — I wonder why?
Over the course of just two weeks, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all revealed that their AI models went “rogue” during what they called “routine security testing“. And Irregular, a “small Israeli startup,” was behind it.
CNBC underscored the risks posed by unguarded AI models and incidents like this:
With the leading models becoming ever more powerful, their ability to act in malicious ways is turning into a major threat for corporations and governments, especially as the risk involves hacking into critical computer systems and infrastructure. The recent exploits at OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all involved their AI models accessing websites that should have been off-limits as part of the cybersecurity testing.
One Israeli tech company, Irregular, was repeatedly identified as hosting the so-called “evaluation testbed.” It’s that technology platform which effectively enabled consumer-facing AI models to turn into hack-bots.
This began by allowing OpenAI models and Anthropic’s Claude to access the internet. Meta stated that they do not yet have “all the facts.” Meanwhile the firm, Irregular, stated to CNBC that the hacking incident:
did not involve a sandbox escape or a sophisticated cyber action … [adding] there are no current open issues.
A ‘cyber offensive’ Zionist project
The small tech startup is valued at $450m, backed by $80m from Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Sequoia’s partner, Shaun Maguire, is a known Zionist and financial backer of Israel’s genocidal wars and illegal occupations. He actually relaunched Sequoia into Israel during its murderous Gaza onslaught.
Sequoia is a key target of pro-Palestinian boycotts (BDS). This is because recent headlines read like:
Sequoia bets on Israel because of the war
Maguire previously called Israel’s booming war economy “next-level” and has said that:
Maintaining the world’s most advanced cyber capabilities is existential for Israel.
Maguire and his partner at Sequoia, Dean Meyer, wrote in a blog post that the team at Irregular is:
able to see around corners others can’t, running cyber offensive evaluations on advanced models and developing defenses before those models are released.
Erica Brescia, a managing director at Redpoint Ventures, said publicly as the Gaza genocide unfolded in October 2023 that the VC firm
would give money to [Israeli] first responders in the region.
Redpoint has a track record of investing in tech companies funded by Israel’s Occupation Forces, or IOF. These include Dux Security, which secured a $9 million seed round in late 2025 led by Redpoint and TLV Partners. Its founders were graduates of the IOF’s elite Talpiot program, otherwise labelled:
the IDF’s Super-Secret Elite Brain Trust
Sequoia and Redpoint are co-lead investors in another Israeli “autonomous AI systems” tech company, Glow. Glow was initially valued at $1.2bn, making it a tech “unicorn” and highly valuable. Not masking its corporate imperialism, Redpoint also invested $28m in an IOF intelligence veteran-led AI company “imper.ai”.
Most striking about Irregular, however, is that it’s led by Dan Lahav and Omer Nevo. Both served in different notorious intelligence units of the IOF; Nevo for 11 years. Israel news outlet, Ynet, says of Lahav and Nevo:
both enlisted in the IDF intelligence units, Lahav to Unit 81 in Military Intelligence, Nevo to Unit 8200. Despite the well-known rivalry between the two units, it seems the two live in wonderful harmony.
Zionist AI spy corps
Microsoft reportedly cut Unit 8200 off from using its cloud servers following a major exposé of the spy corps in 2025. Investigative magazine +972 revealed that it has been illegally intercepting and storing the private telephone communications of Palestinian civilians en-masse.
But even as far back as 2014, the Guardian reported that officials in the Zionist intelligence corps have “no boundaries.” That article cites one Intelligence Corps employee as saying:
I did and encountered things that seemed irrelevant from a security standpoint, and I did not have a clear conscience participating in such activities. Contrary to my expectations, our database included not only security-related intelligence but also personal and political information. That is to say, on a personal level, there is no respect for Palestinian privacy.
From a political standpoint, information is collected that can serve to manipulate Israeli, Palestinian and international politics. … it has serious impact on the lives of many people …
One ex-operative was quoted, understandably anonymous but verbatim, as admitting:
I realised that the job I had done during my military service was that of the oppressor.
Another intelligence hack said, albeit more glibly:
We take advantage of the impact that we have on their lives. Sometimes it involves truly harming a person’s life, or their soul. … It can really screw up their lives. It made me feel omnipotent.
Yet another interviewee admitted to targeting entirely “innocent” Palestinian civilians:
[I] collected information on people who were completely innocent, and whose only crime was that they interested the Israeli security system for various reasons. For reasons they had absolutely no way of knowing. All Palestinians are exposed to non-stop monitoring without any legal protection.
This palpably illegal, draconian behaviour is reprehensible to many — even Israelis. Back in 2014, dozens of veterans from the occupation spy corps condemned its behaviour and refused to participate anon.
Featured image via the Canary
Andy Burnham has shrugged off queries about how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be protected once they return to the UK.
Harry and Meghan moved to the US in 2020 after choosing to step down from their royal duties but will be relocating to a non-royal residence outside of London later this month.
The Duke of Sussex, who is fifth in line to the British throne, lost a legal challenge over how much state-funded security he and his family are entitled to while in Britain last year.
His trip to the UK last month was even put on hold briefly after his request for policy protection was rejected.
The revelation that he is now bringing his wife and two children back to the UK has therefore come as a shock.
When asked how the non-working royals will be protected while in Britain, the prime minister said their security a “private matter”.
“Well, this is a private matter,” he told reporters while on a visit to West Yorkshire. “It’s a matter for for Harry and for Megan, and we wish them well in the moves that they’re making.”
Education secretary Lucy Powell also told LBC: “I think that the vast majority of your listeners will welcome that news and – they obviously are not working royals anymore – and want to come back to this country.
“I assume because we do have great schools, great education, that’s why many people do return to this country and choose this country to bring up their children in.
“And I hope that this is all part of a bigger reconciliation for the family because you know the royal family is very important to this country and to our reputation around the world, and you know I for one think it’s great to have Harry and Meghan and their family back here.”
Harry and Meghan’s children, seven-year-old Prince Archie and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, are in the line of succession behind their father.
They have been enrolled in a British school from September onwards, suggesting the Sussexes intend to be back in the UK for the long-haul.
Harry and his family went to visit his father King Charles in July in Highgrove, though it’s thought their move back to Britain was not discussed.
The monarch was reportedly only told about their decision to relocate on Sunday, though he is said to welcome the idea of seeing his family more in a personal capacity.
Harry and Meghan are expected to continue living as private individuals.
Their return to the UK comes six years after the Sussexes dramatically fell out with the Royal Family and moved across the Atlantic amid heightened press scrutiny.
While the couple’s relationship with Charles and his wife Queen Camilla appears to be on the mend after their July visit, it’s unclear if they have built bridges with the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The King had not see his grandchildren for more than four years prior to the Sussexes’ trip earlier this summer, and the Duke of Sussex previously said security fears had stopped him bringing his family to the UK.
Harry and Meghan have not been seen publicly in the UK since they attended the 2022 funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
A Home Office spokesperson said decision on the security of royals were taken by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures.
They said: “The UK government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate.
“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”
The Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the royal household all sit on that executive committee.
They work together to advise the independent chair in making decisions, based on expert risk assessments and in line with government policy.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
DJ and radio presenter Trevor Nelson has disclosed that he has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Back in June, Trevor announced he would be taking a step back from his work commitments on Radio 2 and Radio 1Xtra on medical grounds.
“After a routine check-up I was advised to have some follow up tests. As a result, I will be taking some further time off,” he said at the time. “As I’m sure you can appreciate with health issues, it’s important to deal with facts and not speculate.
“So I’m concentrating on getting better, being back to 100% me and to getting back behind the mic and the decks.”
On Thursday afternoon, Trevor shared a video on Instagram, explaining that he’d spent the last month at home recovering from brain surgery.
“A lot of you may have seen the post that I put up at the start of summer saying that I was stepping back from all my work commitments due to illness,” he began. “There’s been a lot of speculation as to what’s wrong with me, I know that much – my phone’s blown up 20 times over with people asking what’s wrong with me.
“Due to the love and positive vibes thousands of you have literally been sending me, I felt that I should at least tell you what was wrong with me, and what happened to me.”
He continued: “I’m not going to go into it all now, and I will probably deep dive into it at a later date, so you can hear the whole crazy story. But I’ll tell you this, I was minding my own business, and then it was discovered that I had a brain tumour.
“As you can imagine, I was shocked, in fact, my world was turned upside down. It was a shock to myself, my close family and friends, and you can imagine, quite literally, my head was all over the place.
“I knew I had to stop work because I couldn’t be that guy on the radio, knowing I had that going on. So affirmative action had to be taken, I was given my choices of what I could do, and a few weeks later, I had a very serious surgery. Thankfully, it went incredibly well, and in the last month, I’ve been at home, recuperating, resting and recovering, and getting some post-op treatment as well.”
Trevor insisted: “I can only tell you the truth, and the truth is, I feel great right now. I feel ready to come back, I feel energised, I feel almost back to myself. Yes, I’ve had a really serious situation, but I’ve come out the other side at this point. I feel great, I feel raring to go, and I feel in good health.
“I’m playing golf, I’m doing a bit of gym, I’m doing all the things that I normally used to do, bar being on the radio and doing gigs – so let’s get that straight, and let’s get that back to normal as soon as possible. So please, don’t worry about me. I’m on the mend, I really am.”
Trevor is currently a weekend presenter on Radio 2, and hosted a Sunday morning show on 1Xtra until his recent health issues.
Radio 2’s official Instagram account shared a message under Trevor’s post, which read: “Sending you so much love Trevor! Can’t wait to have you back.”
His former BBC colleague Clara Amfo said: “Thank God for your brilliant surgeons, you’re meant to be here UT! Love you.”
“So good to see your face Trevor and learn that you’re doing well. Huge healing love to you wonderful man,” wrote Zoe Ball, while Jack Saunders also commented: “So glad you’re feeling better [and] more like yourself mate. We need you. Sending all the love and can’t wait to have you back doing what you do best!”
Trans-focused advocacy organisation TransActual has updated its ‘Know Your Rights’ guidance following the implementation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s transphobic code of practice for service providers on 5 August.
An explainer like TransActual’s is sadly necessary because — as many critics have highlighted — the EHRC code of practice is desperately unclear. As such, many organisations have lurched to adopt trans-hostile policies, even where there is no legal requirement to do so.
Know Your Rights
TransActual’s explainer therefore sets out to clarify how the law applies to trans people, whether or not they hold a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Regarding GRCs, the advocacy group stated that:
Gender Recognition Certificates are still useful for making sure you have the correct gender listed on birth, marriage, and civil partnership certificates. Although they no longer change what ‘sex’ you are treated as for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, the Supreme Court considered them to still to have a role – what exactly that is, for the purposes of the Equality Act – is likely to be answered in future litigation.
Likewise, the guidance also offers help to employers and organisations which want to remain as trans-inclusive as possible. However, it also included the caveat that its interpretations are non-exhaustive, and wrote:
We would also emphasise that some things remain unclear and our overarching message is that if you are subject to discrimination, harassment or victimisation as a result of being trans, you are protected under the EA 2010 and you should seek support and assistance.
TransActual’s page, and this article for that matter, use the term ‘trans people’ to refer to individuals affected by the guidance. However, as the Canary and other critics have pointed out, there is no definitive legal way to prove one is (or is not) trans on a day-to-day basis.
As such, the guidance will likely apply to anyone who is perceived or treated as though they are trans, for whatever reason. That includes people who are trans, non-binary, butch, intersex, gender-non-conforming, or any combination thereof.
Service providers and the individual
Both the guidance and the EHRC’s code itself frequently refer to ‘service providers’. TransActual states that:
Many kinds of organisations can be service providers, including cafes, charities, hospitals, cinemas, hairdressers, utilities, local government, leisure centres, hotels, pubs… and many more.
A service provider is permitted to (“politely, privately and sensitively”) ask somebody about their assigned sex at birth. However, there remains absolutely no legal requirement for you to answer.
Likewise, the provider can’t ask for a GRC/documentation, or force you to use a single-sex space you’re not comfortable with. The provider also has a duty to provide a ‘mixed-sex’ alternative space, unless they have a good reason not to.
TransActual explained that you can still:
- Seek to use the services that are right for you, including those provided for a specific ‘sex’
- Use an accessible toilet
- Insist that you have access to a facility that maintains your safety and dignity
The EHRC code permits service providers exclude trans people from ‘single-sex’ services, whether or not they actually align with their assigned sex. As critics like the Lemkin Institute have pointed out, this treats ensuring the comfort of cis people as a legitimate reason to exclude trans people from all ‘single-sex’ spaces.
However, this blanket exclusion is of dubious legality, and hasn’t yet been tested in court. TransActual included the warning that:
Whether it is lawful will depend on the facts of the situation – you may be able to complain or make a legal challenge if you are excluded because you’re trans.
‘Not all hope is lost’ for Trans people
TransActual concluded its updated page with a message to all trans people in the UK:
We want to encourage trans people not to panic, not all hope is lost – it’s bad, but we don’t know the full extent yet, it takes time to figure these things out.
Even though laws impact our lives, they cannot tell you who you are.
We will keep fighting until all trans people in the UK are able to live safely, in dignity and with access to appropriate healthcare.
You can find more information on the EA 2010 and Supreme Court ruling along with actions you can take to support the campaign to restore our rights on TransActual’s Equality Act Campaign hub.
You can read the full ‘Know Your Rights’ explainer here.
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
A number of journalists have been denied remote access to a judge’s hearing on whether he will sentence a group of anti-genocide activists as terrorists. The ‘Barclays 5‘ activists will appear at Preston Crown Court tomorrow to find out whether the state will punish them as terrorists despite them being convicted only of criminal damage after spray painting a Barclays bank branch.
‘Manifestly excessive’ against Barclays 5
The judge in the case, Robert Altham, has previously been found by an appeals court to impose “manifestly excessive” sentences.
In a joint statement activist groups said:
Several journalists have been denied remote access to report on the hearing, where Judge Altham will decide whether to sentence the Barclays spray painters as terrorists.
As is normal protocol, journalists are usually allowed to join a hearing via an online link. However, Judge Altham, who is known for giving protestors “manifestly excessive” sentences, has denied this right for this hearing.
Tomorrow, on Friday 21st August, Judge Altham will decide whether to add a “terrorist connection” to criminal damage convictions, for five Palestine Action activists who damaged windows and sprayed red paint on Barclays branch in Burnley.
Neither the defendants, nor the jury, knew that the five could be sentenced as terrorists, if convicted of criminal damage.
The idea to sentence them as terrorists only came after a dangerous precedent was set by Judge Johnson, who sentenced four activists as terrorists for destroying Israeli quadcopter drones.
Johnson’s ruling was the first time in British history that protestors who were convicted of criminal damage, were sentenced as terrorists. His ruling opened the floodgates for potentially hundreds of others to face a similar manipulated court process, to ensure terrorism sentences.
Journalists have been told that if they want to report on the hearing, they should attend in person and they “may” be given access.
Clearly, the court wants to crack down on those who act against genocide, behind closed doors. Groups have called on supporters to mobilise outside Preston Crown Court from 10AM.
They say we shouldn’t allow them to do this in silence.
As the statement notes, four ‘Filton 24’ activists received terror sentences despite being found guilty only of criminal damage to an Israeli weapons factory. The anti-justice move was part of the Starmer regime’s war on anti-genocide speech and protest. The Barclays case makes clear that new PM Andy Burnham – who kept the appalling Shabana Mahmood as home secretary – intends to be no less active in collaborating in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
Politics
Politics Home | Media Coverage Of Jason Arday Was Nasty And Disproportionate, Says Ed Davey
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said there was a movement on the right “away from liberal progress” (Alamy)
3 min read
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has said that parts of the media reported on Jason Arday in a way that was “disproportionate, unfair, mean and nasty”.
Former Cambridge University professor Arday was found dead in south London last Friday after being at the centre of allegations of plagiarism and falsified achievements.
Arday had resigned as a professor of sociology of education at Cambridge the previous week and admitted errors in his work, but denied claims of plagiarism.
In a statement, his family said: “The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.”
Describing Arday’s death as an “absolute tragedy”, Davey told PoliticsHome that parts of the media had seemed to “focus in on it and attack him in a way which seems awfully disproportionate, unfair, mean, and nasty”.
“What it shows is that we have to push back against this Trump-like attack on liberal values where we embrace everybody equally and respect everybody.
“There seems to be a movement, particularly on the right, to move away from the liberal progress I thought we made, where we respect people, we judge them on their merit, and we celebrate the contribution that everybody made.”
However, the Lib Dem leader said it was “very difficult” to hold any one person or organisation to account for the treatment of Arday.
“There are different parts of the media jumping on that shameful bandwagon, but I think we’ve got to see the problem facing our country on a broad level,” he said.
PoliticsHome reported on Wednesday that over 50 MPs and peers had written to the Independent Press Standards Organisation asking for an investigation into media coverage of Arday before his death.
The cross-party letter, organised by Labour MP Afzal Khan, said reporting on Arday “reached far beyond what can reasonably be perceived as conducive to the public interest in relation to his alleged plagiarism”.
It also argued that it is “not unreasonable to suggest that the colour of Professor Arday’s skin was a contributing factor in garnering the level of media scrutiny he faced”, and that “Arday’s white counterparts at the University of Cambridge alone faced allegations that did not result in the same level of attention or affect.”
Signatories include Labour MPs Tulip Siddiq, Kerry McCarthy, Paula Barker and Tan Dhesi; Green MPs Sian Berry and Hannah Spencer; Plaid’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts; and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said Arday’s death “was a tragedy, on so many levels”, and called for a “moment of reflection” to reflect on “how things came to this”.
The Lib Dems’ Black Lives Action Committee (BLAC) this week published an open letter in Liberal Democrat Voice saying there is a “growing anti-inclusion movement in Britain”.
Group members said they themselves had “failed” to take action when the Arday case was being reported.
“Four of us discussed the situation online,” the letter said.
“We talked about what we should do, but we never reached a firm decision to act. One person repeatedly suggested that we should reach out to Professor Arday himself. We became caught in the web of inaction.”
Nick Jonas has admitted that things didn’t quite go his way when he tried out for a role in a beloved Disney movie.
The chart-topping singer spoke about the embarrassing moment on the latest edition of the Hey Jonas! Podcast, which he co-hosts with his brothers Joe and Kevin Jonas.
During the conversation, the pop trio were joined by Frozen voice actors Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel and Josh Gad, when Nick revealed he had auditioned to play Kristoff, the rugged iceman voiced by Jonathan Groff, in the animated film and its numerous spin-offs, only to “bomb” in the room.
“I went in and they said, ‘Okay, what are you going to be singing today?’,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know’.
“They were like, ‘Do you have your sheet music?’ And I said, ‘No, no one told me I had [to bring any]’, and so I just said, ‘Can you play something from…?’ I don’t know what I said, some musical theatre song.”
Nick joked that as much as he loves Jonathan Groff: “I do think it would have been better to cast me.”
Despite his failed audition, Nick assured his guests he didn’t “spite-watch” Frozen and “did enjoy it” when he saw it for the first time.
Upon its release in 2013, Frozen went on to become a global phenomenon, winning two Oscars, sparking a popular sequel (with two more in the pipeline) and eventually became the fifth highest-grossing film of all time.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first Nick has admitted he has missed out on a huge film opportunity.
As recently as May, on the band’s podcast, he explained how he messed up a meeting with the producer of a “big movie” after he failed to realise he was also the director.
“I asked him, ‘Oh, and who’s directing?’ and his response was, ‘Well, me.’ I wanted to die inside at that moment,” the Jealous singer explained.
“I think it went really well. I was very happy coming out of the room. I’m a huge fan of the show, and that’s a role I always thought it would be fun to play,” the Jonas Brothers singer admitted.
Fortunately, it’s not all been bad news for Nick’s acting career.
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