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Labour Together stooge Josh Simons exits politics

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Labour Together stooge Josh Simons exits politics

Starmeroid front-bencher Josh Simons has resigned as digital government minister over the scandal of Labour Together spying on journalists. These were journalists who were investigating its shady activities and undeclared funding.

Buh-Bye

From 2022 to 2024, Simons ran the sabotage outfit, Labour Togther. He took over after disgraced Morgan McSweeney moved on to become Keir Starmer’s (now former) chief of staff. However, Simons has not resigned his parliamentary seat.

All too typically, the resignation letter is full of self-exoneration and excuses. Instead of taking responsibility, the letter leans on Simons’s supposed vindication by Sir Laurie Magnus. Magnus is the supposedly ‘independent’ adviser on ministerial standards. This is farcical, when Simons’s own leaked WhatsApp messages revealed that Starmer had told Magnus to conduct only a fast (i.e cursory) investigation.

With a complete failure of self-awareness, Simons frames his departure in terms of the public’s justified low trust in politicians. And, like any good Israel apologist, he had to slip in a spurious reference to so-called ‘Labour antisemitism’ to smear the diligent, professional, independent authors, and journalists who exposed Labour Together.

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Excuses, excuses

This exercise in self-justifying bullshit reads:

Dear Prime Minister,

I welcome that Sir Laurie Magnus has cleared me of breaching the Ministerial Code. It was important to 1ne to complete this process to prove that I behaved with integrity and that my public statements have been truthful and honest.

Nonetheless, it is clear that my remaining in office has now become a distraction from this Govermnent’s important work. For that reason, and with sadness and regret, I offer my resignation. It has been an honour to serve this great country.

The work of reporters like Gabriel Pogrund, Hany Yorke, and Henry Dyer sustains our democracy. With rigour and objectivity, they hold those in positions of power to account. In an age when trust in politics is low, anything perceived to be an attack on their integrity and independence deserves thorough investigation.

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As I have said many times, I never sought to smear these newspaper reporters. I have not been able to go into detail on these claims while this investigation has been ongoing.

During my time as Chief Executive of Labour Together, I sought to investigate how confidential material had been disclosed, and if it was the result of publicly confirmed hacks, including that of the Electoral Comission. I talked to my board, hired expert lawyers, and commissioned a firm – APCO – who said they had relevant cyber-security expertise. I also filed an official case with the National Cybersecurity Centre so they could establish the facts, who met with Labour Together and thanked us for filing the case. Given the concerns I had, it would have been irresponsible not to do these things.

I should explain why I was so concerned. I feared the narratives that this confidential material would be used to push ahead of an election campaign. After the EHRC investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party, you said “those who seek to blame others or downplay what happened in our party are, themselves, part of the problem.”
I was particularly concerned about the upcoming publication of a book by Paul Holden, who had obtained this confidential material. I believe those concerns were justified. The book diminishes the antisemitism that infected Labour under its previous leadership. It refers constantly to the ‘antisemitism crisis’ in quotation marks, implying it was confected. Its front cover featured an endorsement from [Jewish former Mandela minister] Andrew Feinstein, a man who appeared at an event called “How Jeremy Corbyn was destroyed by a smear campaign led by Israel.” The Labour Party must always be vigilant against denialism and as a Jewish Labour MP, I make no apologies for that vigilance.

What happened subsequently was wrong. Until a few weeks ago, I did not know that the journalists Harry Yorke and Henry Dyer had been labelled as ‘persons of interest’. I did not expect APCO’s report to include reprehensible material on [Jewish journalist] Gabriel Pogrund, and nor did I welcome it. I took immediate action and removed it. What happened to Gabriel was a disgrace.

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Some have sought to use this matter to discredit Labour Together. While CEO, I had the privilege of working with talented people who are now ministers, MPs, and advisers. My team was an energetic and curious group, doing om· best to help get a Labour government elected and prepare for government.

I will continue serving the people I am proud to represent in Makerfield, and I will continue to support your Government in pursuit of the radical change our politics and our country needs.

Dirty tricks

Just in case readers are unfamiliar with the case, or are tempted to take anything Simons says at face value, Labour Together were caught paying tens of thousands to a firm run by a fellow Labour right-winger’s wife to spy on independent journalists.

This has been known for months, but the ‘mainstream’ media only started to pay attention when two of MSM-aligned journalists were targeted.

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Labour Together is exposed and disgraced. Good riddance to bad rubbish, but Simons’s departure is nowhere near enough.

The country needs them all gone.

Featured image via the Canary

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Netanyahu reportedly abandons Israelis

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Netanyahu reportedly abandons Israelis

War criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has fled and flown to Greece – like he did in last year’s ’12-day war’ – as retaliatory Iranian missiles batter Israel.

What else would the butcher of Gaza, Netanyahu, do but display his wide yellow streak, turn tail and run – leaving ‘his’ country and its occupying population to burn behind him.

Genocidal Netanyahu is a coward

And how it showed. While Netanyahu ran away, Iran’s missiles skipped past Israel’s defences as easily as they did in June 2025 and wrought havoc. There were scenes of utter panic at Israeli ports and shelters:

This is not even Iran’s full response yet. Whereas last year it used swarms of drones and missiles to overwhelm Israel’s defences, now it apparently needed just thirty:

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US news station NBC broadcast one major strike:

A Mossad-run call centre was hit, according to not yet confirmed reports:

Israeli TV was broadcasting live as a missile struck:

Footage showed other missiles breaching Israel’s ‘dome’:

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Some of the missiles, though not all, were ballistic – though not yet apparently Iran’s most effective hypersonic types:

Israeli propaganda account ‘Stand With Us’ has just reported ‘red’ warnings across Israel, showing the scale of danger and panic:

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And new footage posted by an ABN News producer shows that the attack continues to intensify:

Locally-shot footage showed devastation where the missiles struck:

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The coward Netanyahu and his colony love to bomb and murder children and the defenceless. They run away when a victim can strike back.

Featured image via the Canary

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Brit Awards 2027: All The Must-See Moments You Might Have Missed

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What a smile, what a suit, what a shoe choice

The biggest night in British music was an especially big one this year.

On Saturday night, the 2026 Brit Awards took place in Manchester for the first time, in a night that delivered glittering performance, a few surprise wins and plenty of moments that kept ITV’s censors busy.

If you missed this year’s broadcast and want to catch up (or, indeed, if you were only half-watching, and you’re wondering if there were any bits that completely passed you by), then you’re in luck, because we’ve rounded up X of the top must-see moments from the 2026 Brit Awards…

Before the ceremony was even underway, Harry Styles made us smile on the red carpet with this business suit/ballet pumps combo

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Rosalía got her night off to a suitably dramatic start with this complete serve

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And it was a strong showing all-round from some of our fave celeb couples, including Jade and Jordan Stephens

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…and darts icon Luke Littler and his long-term girlfriend Faith Millar

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Comedian Jack Whitehall kicked off his sixth time hosting the Brits with a skit paying homage to his love of Harry Styles

The man himself then opened the show properly with a performance of Aperture, complete with a lot of hand-ography and bum-wiggling

Jack Whitehall pulled absolutely no punches with his introductory Brits monologue, coming for everyone from Alex Warren (‘what you get if you order Ed Sheeran on Temu’), Lily Allen (‘her album was launched into the charts like a torpedo – only this torpedo didn’t sink a ship, it destroyed a Harbour’), Robbie Williams (‘he’s had more comebacks than his hairline’) and Noel Gallagher (‘Songwriter Of The Year… 1996’)

Oh, and he also delivered this jibe at the expense of the BBC

Jack Whitehall dings the BAFTAS at the #BRITAwards: “There may be some swearing but don’t worry, we’ve got the best in the business on the bleep button. It’s the guy who did the BAFTAS. Nothing gets past him” pic.twitter.com/qeNewZyYQm

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) February 28, 2026

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The voices of Huntr/x brought the joy with a performance – a pre-recorded one, we should add – of their hit Golden

And Olivia Dean’s rendition of Man I Need was similarly just… absolutely lovely, to be honest

Raye’s vocals on her renditions of Where Is My Husband! and Nightingale Lane were truly jaw-dropping

I need non raye stans to know how crazy the nightingale lane brits performance is, she’s been sick for WEEKSSSSS like she really gave this one her all omfg pic.twitter.com/SswFYVgV7O

— MⱯRGⱯUX 🦇 (@LUCIDNIGHTM4RE) February 28, 2026

…and they were similarly quick to censor an introduction by Angry Ginge, to (he was jokingly calling London a ‘shithole’ if you’re interested)

Jack Whitehall then told us we were about to have ‘our minds blown by the incomparable Rosalía’ and he was absolutely not wrong

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Oh and yes, Rosalía actually managed to get Björk back performing at the Brits for the first time in more than 30 years

The sound was pulled once again after Geese musician Max Bassin declared ‘free Palestine, fuck ICE’ during his International Group Of The Year speech

Jack Whitehall’s exchange with Shaun Ryder and Bez started off chaotic and only ventured into increasingly surreal territory

Alex Warren’s performance included a surprise guest spot from James Blunt because hey why not?

Noel Gallagher kicked off his Songwriter Of The Year speech by thanking his brother and Oasis bandmate Liam

Mark Ronson’s Outstanding Contribution performance featured some lovely tributes to Amy Winehouse

…as well as a surprise(-ish) appearance from Dua Lipa

Rosalía’s special night just kept getting better as she was crowned International Artist Of The Year, beating some seriously stiff competition including Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga

And CMAT had some fun with the cameras at losing out in this category for the second time

The night’s top winner Olivia Dean was visibly elated to pick up the Brits’ top honour, Album Of The Year

And finally, following a speech by Sharon Osbourne and her daughter Kelly, Robbie Williams was absolutely spot-on with his musical tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, which closed the show

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Tel Aviv gets a taste of its own medicine

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Tel Aviv gets a taste of its own medicine

In maybe the only good news of the year so far, Iranian ballistic missiles have struck both Tel Aviv – including Mossad HQ – causing major damage.

Of course, white Jewish Israelis will be running to their cosy little bomb shelters. Meanwhile, as we have seen previously, the illegal settlers exclude minorities.

And Netanyahu? The dickhead responsible for the chaos across the entirety of the Middle East flew out of Tel Aviv quicker than Donald Trump can post to Truth Social when new Epstein files drop.

IsNOTrael is getting a taste of its own medicine.

And I’m guessing all media broadcasts will be banned from Israel in 3, 2, 1…

Israel is finally getting an iota of what it deserves for murdering thousands of Palestinians.

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Netanyahu and Trump bomb civilian areas, killing children in the process, and then run, hide or party. They give zero fucks about the lives they are taking.

Anyone who has chosen to stay in Israel after watching Netanyahu and his terrorist government wage war on Palestinians for the last two and a half years needs to give their head a shake. And quite frankly, I have zero sympathy that they now have bombs falling on them.

Featured image via the Canary 

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Defendant claims Zahwa Mukhtar’s death was “an accident”

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Hearing aid found at scene of Zahwa Mukhtar murder

The man on trial for the murder of 27-year-old Zahwa Mukhtar expressed his remorse that none of the six occupants of the car adequately checked she was conscious.

“She was still breathing”

During his final day giving evidence, Duane Owusu was quizzed on his defence statement, probed on how the car they’d been travelling in circled back twice towards Zahwa. The first time was within minutes of her receiving an “open-handed shove” by Owusu.

Another witness in the car said she was still breathing, but he didn’t look for himself. On Friday, the 36-year-old defendant said:

I didn’t even believe she was seriously injured, that’s honestly the truth. I didn’t think I caused a serious injury […] Nobody got out the car to check, that’s what I regret.

The defence statement continued:

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The group then drove off unaware that [Zahwa] had sustained a life-threatening injury but shortly afterwards decided to return. Before they could do so the vehicle was stopped by police.

The stop, which was on suspicion of drugs, lasted about 50 minutes, during which time Owusu told jurors he thought Zahwa might appear and tell them herself what had happened.

Steering clear

He didn’t want to drive back to Zahwa, who was outside a care home in Chadwell Heath Lane, due to repeated altercations between her and two other women in the car, Paige Allen and Abigail Winter. Owusu believed returning would have risked reigniting those arguments if she re-entered the car, he told the court.

When Owusu learned Zahwa still hadn’t moved, he agreed with others to return to check on her. On route, he asked to be let out of the car, but the driver refused.

The defendant said:

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I agreed, let’s go back, but as he’s done the u-turn, I just didn’t want to be involved with the fighting so I was going to remove myself from the whole group.

Henrietta Paget KC, prosecuting, suggested Owusu wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and “the scene”.

“No,” he began.

The whole night I was preventing them from fighting, stopping the fights..I was just tired…I was basically being a peacemaker. I felt like the whole night I was just being a babysitter for people, which I don’t mind doing, but I’d just had enough of the fighting.

Defendant maintains his innocence

Evidence of altercations between all three women was mentioned in court, including one of Owusu’s conversations and reference to a cut on Paige’s nose from 16 August, before Zahwa’s death.

Before being struck in the neck, the prosecution’s case is that two kicks were aimed towards the finance assistant’s face.

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Referring again to Owusu’s defence statement, Ms Paget read:

The kicking motions were not intended as strikes but were made to create distance and to move the deceased away from the vehicle as he was concerned that she would attempt to re-enter the car or place herself at risk.

He did not intend to, and did not, make contact with her and disengaged once she was clear and another female intervened.

She ask asked:

What does it mean, you didn’t mean to make contact with her?

Owusu replied that he didn’t mean to harm or hurt Zahwa.

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On the advice of his legal team, Owusu answered ‘no comment’ to questions during his police interview and was arrested before he’d had a chance to hand himself in, he said.

Everything that happened was a total accident. I’m traumatised talking about that and I’m deeply sorry. That wasn’t how the night was supposed to go.

Owusu, of Althorne Way, Dagenham, denies murder and manslaughter.

The verdict is expected next week at the Old Bailey.

Featured image via the Canary

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Iran must ‘return to negotiating table’ according to Starmer

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Iran must 'return to negotiating table' according to Starmer

UK PM Keir Starmer has done his usual ‘mendacious limp dishrag’ performance in response to the new US/Israel attacks on Iran. Iran has hit US bases and Israeli facilities in retaliation.

Starmer has announced that Iran should “return to the negotiating table”. As political commentator Philip Proudfoot pointed out, that’s exactly where it was when the US and Israel attacked its people:

Number 10 has denied that the UK participated in the attack on Iran. This is a lie. Flight tracking in recent weeks has shown a string of US military aircraft leaving the US en route to the area around Iran or using UK airspace to get there:

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The US-Israel attacks on Iran are unprovoked and criminal — and carried out while Iran was negotiating against US-Israel demands that both coloniser powers knew were impossible. This mirrors Israel’s murder of Qatari bystanders while trying to assassinate Hamas’s ceasefire negotiating team — likewise assisted by the UK.

In November 2025, Sky News reported:

A small number of British military personnel – single digits – are understood to be deployed on USS Gerald R Ford, a giant US aircraft carrier, and other warships that form part of the carrier strike group that has been sent towards Venezuela.

Our own Joe Glenton pointed out:

Either UK personnel are aboard the US warships being positioned to threaten – and possibly attack – Iran or they are not. Self-evidently, there is a public interest in knowing if this is the case.

Now, Netanyahu claims the attack is for the good of the Iranian people. This is what he said of the Syrian people when Israel, after assisting terrorists take over that country, turned and mass-bombed them and stole Syrian territory as soon as the government had fallen.

War criminals in Tel Aviv and the White House and a snivelling little Renfield in Number 10 assisting and enabling them in return for scraps and beetles.

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Iran hits US 5th fleet in Bahrain as Yemen joins retaliatory strikes

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Iran hits US 5th fleet in Bahrain as Yemen joins retaliatory strikes

Iran has struck the US Navy’s 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain and other US bases in the region this morning, 28 February 2026, in retaliation for unprovoked US and Israeli attacks on the country. US bombs struck a girls’ school in southern Iran, murdering at least 40 children and teachers:

Bahrain confirmed the strikes:

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Heavy smoke rising from the targeted base in Bahrain:

 

Israel claims the attacks are for the sake of the people of Iran. We’ve heard that before.

Yemen has also attacked US vessels in the region in solidarity with Tehran:

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Israel murders 40 children at Iranian elementary school

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Israel murders 40 children at Iranian elementary school

Israel has bombed a girls’ elementary school in Iran, murdering at least 40 children.

An Israeli air strike hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran.

The victims were between seven and 12 years old.

Middle East Eye has reported that there were at least 170 female students in the school at the time of the attack. Reports suggest that at least 45 people have also been wounded.

Of course, Israel was not content with the thousands of children it has murdered in Palestine.

What do you get when you mix American weapons and Israelis?

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Murdered children.

Israel — deliberate attacks

Israel has not even attempted to hide the fact that it is targeting civilian areas. Are they going to claim there was a Hamas compound in an Iranian elementary school full of little girls?

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Why should innocent children die for the sake of Donald Trump and Netanyahu’s regime change bullshit?

Let’s not forget that Israel has extremely high-tech weaponry. When it wants to, it can target exact apartments or bedrooms with precision.

So make no mistakes, this attack on an elementary school was deliberate.

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They have done it before, and there is, unfortunately, no doubt they will do it again.

So much for the US wanting to ‘liberate‘ Iran.

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Trump tells Iran ‘help is on the way’ and then bombs a school. Trump’s ‘major combat operations‘ are literally just an extension of Israel’s murderous rampage in the Middle East.

From Palestine to Iran to Lebanon and to Syria, Israel has shown time and time again that it will not stop. It literally gets off on murdering brown children. But why would it stop when it has the backing of the US and so many other Western countries? Until the West grows a pair and takes a stand, nothing will change, and thousands more innocent children will end up dead because of Israel’s terrorism.

Feature image via FRANCE 24 English/ YouTube

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European Greens welcome victory which ‘makes hope normal again’

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European Greens welcome victory which 'makes hope normal again'

The European Green Party has welcomed Hannah Spencer’s victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Spencer’s dominant win came against a backdrop of ludicrous smears from Labour and led to racist dogwhistles from Reform.

Reacting to the victory, European Green Party co-chair Vula Tsetsi said:

Voters in the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton have heard Zack Polanski and the Green Party’s call to ‘make hope normal again’ and they have made it reality.

This victory brings the number of Green Members of Parliament in the UK to five, up from the historic high of four after the last general election. Together with their skyrocketing membership this confirms the Greens as a solid and growing progressive force in the UK.

We warmly congratulate Hannah Spencer and the Green Party of England and Wales for their enthusiastic, hopeful and locally rooted campaign. People are looking for affordable housing, clean air, and properly funded public services to improve their everyday lives.

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Co-chair Ciarán Cuffe added:

Greens are demonstrating that the green transition can lower energy bills, create quality jobs and strengthen local communities.

While right-wing and far-right parties, including Reform UK, continue to try to divide communities across Europe, this result proves that fear is not the only force shaping politics.

The Green Party of England and Wales, a full member of the European Green Party, has beaten Reform and Labour by offering credible solutions on affordability, housing and investment in public services. This makes us very hopeful for the upcoming UK local elections in May.

The Greens have seen significant local wins across Europe, that gave the Greens the mayoral leadership in five capitals. These include Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Copenhagen (Denmark), Budapest (Hungary), Riga (Latvia) and Zagreb (Croatia).

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Gorton and Denton result a rejection of genocide support

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Gorton and Denton result a rejection of genocide support

Inequality economist Faiza Shaheen has summed up why people chose hope in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The Green’s Hannah Spencer won by a mile in the Manchester constituency by-election.

“Represent” the people

On social media, Shaheen said:

Greens came from nowhere to win in one of the safest Labour seats in the country. This is evidence that people want politicians that represent them, not the billionaires and city lobbyists

As part of a wide-reaching purge of progressives (that may have now backfired given the rise of the Greens), Keir Starmer arbitrarily blocked Shaheen from standing as a Labour candidate in the 2024 election. That’s despite her performance against Conservative Iain Duncan Smith in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency in 2019. She came within around 1,000 votes from unseating him.

The Autonomy Institute made the corruption around corporate influence clear with its research last year. 373 companies have made over £60 billion from public contracts following their political donations in “recent years”.

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As Shaheen points out, the public are sick of it and the result in Gorton and Denton reflects that. The Greens won a landslide victory in what appeared to be a close race. The party received 14,980 votes to Reform’s 10,578.

‘Muslims would forget’

Economist and politician Shaheen continued with her reasons for the Green win:

Labour’s complicity in a genocide has hurt them (David Lammy once told me that Muslims would forget!); and that people can and will defeat the divisive politics of Reform. Thank you Hannah Spencer, Zack Polanski and the Green Party 

Despite the ceasefire, people aren’t forgetting the indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian people. Labour was in a position to help stop the onslaught and instead has done the opposite.

As Shaheen says, the Greens are showing that a re-balancing of the economy away from billionaires and elites.

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ICE maneuvered into releasing detainee via Mayor Mamdani

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ICE maneuvered into releasing detainee via Mayor Mamdani

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani apparently helped to encourage US president Donald Trump and his paramilitary militia, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit, to release a Columbia student with over 100,000 Instagram followers. Tens of thousands more people whom immigration authorities have unfairly mistreated, however, haven’t had such luck.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had accused Elmina Aghayeva of having a student visa termination due to a ‘failure to attend class’ back in 2016. ICE agents reportedly impersonated police officers to gain access to the Columbia University dorm where they detained Aghayeva.

Many politicians chimed in to criticise her dodgy detention. And it seems Mamdani’s plea to Trump may have made an impact.

However, few of the people ICE has detained during Trump’s second term in office have the same kind of profile Aghayeva does.

What about justice for everyone else?

The Trump regime regularly refers to the people ICE detains as dangerous or violent criminals – supposedly the “worst of the worst“. But as CBS News has reported, a DHS document shows less than 14% of around 400,000 people whom ICE arrested in the last year actually had “charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses”.

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ICE’s unaccountable, aggressive behaviour has resulted in numerous deaths. And about 40% of all the people it has arrested “did not have any criminal record at all“, apart from questions relating to their permission to stay in the US. Civil proceedings have usually addressed such violations historically.

This means that ICE is mistreating tens of thousands of people who are definitely not ‘the worst of the worst’, and getting away with it.

Everyone deserves fair treatment from authorities – whether they’re influencers or not. But that doesn’t seem to be the system that currently reigns in the US under Donald Trump. And even politicians don’t seem to make as much noise when ICE detains people who don’t have such a prominent profile.

Featured image via the Canary

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