A newly-leaked Labour Together report shows that the Starmeroid sabotage group continued to monitor the Canary for years after trying to destroy it. And, Skwawkbox was monitored too – although the geniuses at the shady group failed to spell it correctly. One thing is very clear: Labour Together have been running scared of journalists reporting on their connections and movements.

Evidently, any attention on what they got up to in pursuit of their aims – and how they funded it – clearly made Morgan McSweeney and company fearful of discovery. This is flagged in the preamble of the leaked report, which says that:

recent articles and blog posts…have contained more information than ever before, raising questions and concerns about the sources of the information.

Labour Together’s dossier

The Morgan McSweeney faction‘s frank terror of left media, especially the Canary, was well and truly exposed in Paul Holden’s excellent book The Fraud. That fear triggered McSweeney and his partner in crime Imran Ahmed to try to “destroy” the Canary.

The faction’s fear of left media clearly didn’t stop when the propaganda groups they set up managed to topple Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader by sabotaging the 2019 general election – and came close to forcing the Canary to close.

McSweeney resigned in early February 2026 as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff after years – as Holden exposed – of running covert campaigns against the left and its media. The immediate cause of his resignation was McSweeney’s closeness to disgraced string-puller Peter Mandelson. It was a doomed attempt to protect McSweeney’s boss Keir Starmer – but the scandals have just kept on oozing out ever since.

This week, Rupert Murdoch’s Times ‘broke‘ the news that McSweeney’s outfit Labour Together paid tens of thousands to private investigators to spy on two Times hacks. It wasn’t breaking; it wasn’t even news. The Canary and others had already reported on it – and had reported six months earlier on Labour Together’s spying on a number of left-wing journalists, as well as on author Paul Holden and former Mandela minister Andrew Feinstein.

Something bothering you, lads?

The newly-leaked report shows just how much Labour Together was discomfited by what the Canary and others were digging up. The memo begins with some anxiety over who is watching their every move:

For both left- and right-wing influencers, Labour Together and CCDH sit at the centre of a nexus of conspiracy theories that involve government attempts to suppress free speech, increasing state censorship, the sabotaging of left- and right-wing leaders, and pro-Israel advocacy, among many other accusations.

Conspiracy theories? What is it about the Canary and other independent journalists that so bothers Labour Together? Perhaps that we’re not in the pockets of billionaires or politicians, and actually report the truth as we find it?

The memo also confirms that the McSweeney group continued to monitor the Canary – with particular attention to how it exposed Imran Ahmed’s sock-puppet groups. This was going on long before Holden’s book was published, though Holden features too:

The report was prepared for Labour Together in December 2023, marked “Strictly Private and Confidential”. Oh well. After introducing the Canary as one of the main outlets paying attention to Labour Together’s actions from the start of Starmer’s diseased tenure as Labour leader, and to Labour Together’s links with the Israel lobby, it then turns to the exposure of McSweeney and Ahmed’s shamelessly named fake-news campaigns [emphases added]:

December 2020: The far-left website The Canary published an article which focused on the Stop Funding Fake News campaign following its successful campaign urging corporations to stop advertising on The Canary website.

The article focused on the connection between SFFN and Morgan McSweeny [sic]. McSweeney was identified as one of the directors, alongside Imran Ahmed, and as Keir Starmer MP’s Chief of Staff at the time. The article noted celebrity Rachel Riley’s support for both SFFN and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

The article accused CCDH of being linked to a “number of figures on the Labour right” and suggested that McSweeney and Ahmed had been operating both campaigns for longer than the organisations were “willing to admit”.

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Labour Together is briefly mentioned as an organisation that shares its address with CCDH and is accused of being a grouping of Blue Labour and Labour Right figures – including Lisa Nandy at the time.

Who is Imran Ahmed?

Like McSweeney, Imran Ahmed is one of the most shadowy figures on the Labour right. Initially a staffer for right-wing Labour horror Angela Eagle and desperate to protect Eagle from deselection by angry party members, Ahmed was at the centre of fake claims that left-wingers threw a brick through Eagle’s office window. The whole thing was made up. The window was not Eagle’s. There was never any evidence the left had anything to do with it. There was never even a brick. But following a pattern that was soon to become characteristic of Labour Together’s operations, the corporate and state press were more than happy to amplify the false claims fed to them.

Ahmed then went on to co-found the Orwellian smear factory ‘Stop Funding Fake News’ (SFFN) to target the Canary. When that was no longer needed, SFFN morphed into the equally misnamed ‘Centre for Countering Digital Hate’ (CCDH). Ahmed moved to the US and touted CCDH’s services to the anonymous wealthy and powerful to attack their opponents using similar tactics to those used against the Canary. He also specifically courted Israel and its donors, eager to target Palestine and the anti-genocide movement. Author Paul Thacker has accused Ahmed of working with or for UK intelligence services.

Given Ahmed’s links to nefarious groups and his closeness to McSweeney, it’s clear – and no surprise – that any scrutiny was unwelcome.

Shit out of luck

The Canary features numerous times in the memo, each time as a thorn in the McSweeney-Ahmed axis’s side. In each case, the information exposed by our journalists about Labour Together’s activities and personnel has subsequently been proven to be true, particularly by Holden’s book, which was serialised by the Canary in the autumn of 2025.

When Jeremy Corbyn was still leader of the Labour party and the left media were central to his prospects of success, Morgan McSweeney told his fellow saboteurs, “kill the Canary before the Canary kills us“. They came close, but they are now disgraced relics while the Canary is thriving more than ever. And, for good measure, so is Sk(w)awkbox.

Featured image via the Canary

In his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, former prince Andrew notoriously claimed that Virginia Giuffre’s allegations against him couldn’t be true because he’s unable to sweat.

He’s likely to have discovered a few sweat glands since his arrest this morning.

All too typically for the British establishment, the arrest was not for sexually abusing trafficked and potentially under-age girls. Instead it was for ‘misconduct in public office’, after an Epstein files release revealed Mountbatten-Windsor was allegedly bunging sensitive secret information to the serial child-rapist while a UK trade envoy.

That fact is a disgusting betrayal of Epstein’s and Andrew’s victims. It’s also a detail that is likely to have ‘prince of darkness’ and former Starmer adviser Peter Mandelson joining Windsor in a sweat bath. The same release of Epstein files also revealed ‘Mandy’ repeatedly doing the same thing: sending sensitive, confidential and highly lucrative government information to Epstein. This information would have enabled Epstein and his mates to make a fortune in ‘insider trading’.

The British establishment deciding to throw ‘Randy Andy’ under the bus for that instead of his alleged crimes against trafficked girls should have ‘Mandy’ in a lather too.

For more on the the Epstein Files and the betrayal of victims, please read the Canary’s article on way that the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via the Canary

What Olympians can teach us about performance anxiety

Disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince, has finally been arrested in connection with revelations from the Epstein files.

Among those who have responded are the family of Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre accused Windsor of sexual abuse:

Statement from the family of Virginia Giuffre:

“At last.

Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.

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On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their… pic.twitter.com/bgtHZtb2qO

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) February 19, 2026

Nevertheless, it hasn’t escaped attention that the arrest is regarding misconduct in public office and apparently not in connection with Giuffre’s allegations.

Andrew arrest: ‘at last’

On 19 February 2026, Thames Valley Police arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This came after they reviewed documents from the Epstein files which suggest he shared information from his time as a UK trade envoy with the late convicted paedophile.

Mountbatten-Windsor is currently in police custody amid searches of multiple properties as part of the criminal inquiry. The Epstein files have raised serious concerns about the scale of this sinister web of elitist men. This has prompted widespread demands for full transparency and accountability for sexual abuse against women and girls.

However, this pattern underscores how far more precedence is given to economic interests and institutional power over justice for victims and accountability for abusive men.

The statement from Giuffre’s family reads in full:

At last.

Today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.

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On behalf of our sister, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, we extend our gratitude to the UK’s Thames Valley Police for their investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

He was never a prince.

For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.

Virginia Giuffre

Virginia Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was just 17 years old. She became a prominent advocate fighting against sex trafficking, in light of her own experience being sexually exploited by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She died by suicide in April 2025 leaving her loved ones and survivors across the world devastated and heartbroken. Giuffre’s push for accountability has been continued by advocacy groups across the West. Many have joined the call in demanding powerful men face consequences for the abuse they have evidently inflicted.

We wrote about Andrew’s arrest shortly after it happened:

If former royal, and mate of serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was hoping for any public sympathy after his arrest this morning – on his birthday – he’s going to be sorely disappointed.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, Andrew’s most well-known victim, welcomed the arrest as a sign that no one is above the law:

“At last, today, our broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty,” Giuffre’s family said in the statement given to CBS News.”

However, Windsor was arrested on suspicion of ‘misconduct in a public office’. Knowing the British state, this was more likely linked to his leaking of secrets to Epstein than his abuse of trafficked and potentially under-age girls. But the offence carries a potential life sentence, so there’s that.

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Giuffre had long pursued seeing the suspected paedo-prince face accountability for his abuse against her. Obviously, Andrew has always denied these claims, which is no surprise as it’s damn rare to find a man actually hold his hands up in disgust at the abuse he has inflicted.

Because of this, she was denied the justice she deserved over the allegations against Windsor, after Epstein and Maxwell allegedly trafficked her to him. Giuffre also shared in her memoir even more sinister allegations against former Israeli PM Ehud Barak.

We wrote in October:

Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors (but now a victim) of serial child rapist and trafficker – and almost certain Israel intelligence asset – Jeffrey Epstein, was repeatedly left battered and bloodied after being beaten and raped by a man she describes, in a new memoir published after her death earlier this year, as a “well-known prime minister”.

Adding:

Giuffre said that she called the man ‘the Prime Minister’ and did not name him, because she was afraid he would come after her and cause her harm if she did. Before Epstein’s death, however, she named former Israeli PM Ehud Barak – also a close friend of Epstein’s ardent fan Peter Mandelson – as one of the many men to rape her, an accusation he has denied.

Virginia Giuffre wrote in horrific detail about the violence inflicted on her by the ‘PM’, whom she met when she was just eighteen:

“He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life. Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop. I emerged from the cabana bleeding from my mouth, vagina, and anus. For days, it hurt to breathe and to swallow… [He] raped me more savagely than anyone had before.”

King’s ‘concern’

The King chose his words carefully – and choice matters here, because men can choose to amplify victims’ voices and examine allegations critically. Rather than doing so, he voiced his “deepest concern” about his brother’s arrest and stated that “the law must take its course,” adding:

What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.

This statement is reported to have the full support of Will and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Queenie Camilla had nothing to offer but a wave when asked for her feelings on the arrest. We can’t help but feel the Royal family’s concern here lies solely with Andrew, the man-child sex-pest, rather than the countless victims across the world who fell victim to powerful, privileged men and their sick fancies.

How the mighty have fallen, thus proving that powerful men can be brought to task if the political will is there:

‘Do you know who I was?’ #Andrew #AndrewWindsor pic.twitter.com/Gp6Eu5NuD9

— The Rev. Anton Mittens 🌹👮🎓 (@MittensOff) February 19, 2026

Accountability NOW

Don’t get us wrong, it is bloody wonderful to see the disgraced prince brought to task and finally facing a criminal investigation. A potential life sentence is equally refreshing to see. Nonetheless, many wish to see this go further. Despite the long relationship with Epstein, there has never been a thorough investigation into his involvement in the apparent trafficking ring instrumentalized by Epstein and co.

Enough must be enough. Andrew is now in a police station with more than enough evidence to legitimise a full investigation into allegations of sexual abuse. Yet powerful men have shown us that the protection of young girls will never be as important as protecting power.

Shame on them. Down with the monarchy.

For more on the Epstein Files, please read:

Featured image via the Canary

Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is celebrating the legal victory, with another huntsman brought to justice. Northampton magistrate’s court has found Philip Saunders guilty of illegal hunting on Wednesday 18 February. Saunders is one of the arsehole huntsman for criminal gang, the Pipewell Foot Beagles.

Another one?

The conviction is the second time these bloodthirsty arseholes have been caught out illegally hare-hunting.

And it beautifully landed just before the 21st anniversary of the Hunting Act.

The court heard how Saunders led his pack to kill a hare at the Boughton Estates on Kettering. Richard Scott is the current Duke of Buccleuch and one of the largest land owners in Scotland. It’s no shock that he would allow an illegal hunt to take place on ‘home turf.’

Courageous wildlife photographer Emma Reed was on the scene and captured the entire incident.

Reed’s video clearly shows Saunders encouraging the hounds to kill. The huntsman was heard growling “Get onto it!” at the dogs. This is a specific hunting term which incites animal cruelty and it proves the hunt intended to pursue the hare.

As per usual, the HSA provided names to the police at the time, but they failed to act on the evidence. Again.

Losing the horn

The magistrate fined Saunders £1,000 for his role in the illegal hunt. He also has to pay £3,600 in costs and a £400 victim surcharge.

In the landmark move, the court also ordered the destruction of Saunders’ hunting horn. Saunders must surrender it to the police by 5pm Thursday 19 Feb.

Destroying the horn is beautifully symbolic as this is the primary tool a huntsman uses to control the hounds. The HSA believe this should be common practice in all cases as it effectively strips the bloodthirsty wankers of the ability to lead.

Reed expressed her satisfaction with the guilty verdict stating:

“I am pleased with the guilty verdict as justice has been served. The judge was strong in his summing up of sending a message to the hunting community that these illegal actions will not be tolerated and are totally unacceptable.”

Justice for wildlife

The Judge was strong in his summing up of the case, making it clear that illegal hunting of hares is totally unacceptable and it sends a clear warning to the hunting community.

Simon Russell, chair of the HSA spoke to the Canary about this landmark victory:

Hare Hunts always pack up and go home when sabs find them, this is what they are really doing when they’re not under observation, killing our public wild Hares. A good hunting horn is hard to come by, the really decent ones rack in at £300 plus and we would suggest that future convictions have the horns donated to the Hunt Saboteurs Association. We would put them to good use saving wildlife.

Images via Emma Reed

An American attack on Iran appears imminent. US president Donald Trump has deployed massive military force to the Persian Gulf while negotiations between the two counties seem to have stalled. Media reports the attack could start as soon as Saturday 21 February.

Iran’s leadership has said that the principles of the negotiations — centring on Iran’s nuclear plans (or lack thereof) — were understood but that no agreement had been reached. The US has said military options are very much ‘on the table’ while Iran now says it’s open to international nuclear inspections.

Iran closed large areas of its airspace on 19 February. It’s aviation authority said it was:

to allow a planned missile launch exercise tomorrow. It specified danger zones where flying will be completely banned due to military activity.

Anonymous Iranian security officials said it was a show of force, and the US aviation authority has followed suit:

warning that uncoordinated missile launches could pose catastrophic risks, including endangering civilian flight paths.

The closure was enough to active alarm bells for some countries. Poland urged its citizens to leave Iran. Prime minister Donald Tusk said:

In a few, a dozen, or several dozen hours, evacuation may no longer be possible.

Behind the scenes, US military aircraft have been moving into the region for days.

Tankers inbound

Sky News reported that American refuelling planes have passed through the UK as part of the build-up. Starmer’s Britain, it appears, is happy to serve as checkpoints for Trump’s march to war.

Military expert professor Michael Clarke was on Sky on 18 February. Using open source air traffic mapping, he showed how on 16 February six US tankers passed through the UK on their way to Greece. On 18 February, a further ten tankers passed through the UK on their way towards the Mediterranean:

You can hear his analysis from around 1.55 in this report:

And Drop Site News journalists Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Huzzain reported:

the largest buildup of firepower in the Middle East since President Donald Trump authorized a 12-day bombing campaign against Iran last June that killed more than 1,000 people.

One anonymous former Trump insider told the investigative outlet that:

based on his discussions with current officials, he assesses an 80-90% likelihood of U.S. strikes within weeks.

And retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis said the level of build-up:

harkens back to what I saw ahead of the 2003 Iraq war.

Davis warned:

You don’t assemble this kind of power to send a message. In my view, this is what you do when you’re preparing to use it. What I see on the diplomatic front is just to try to keep things rolling until it’s time to actually launch the military operation. I think that everybody on both sides knows where this is heading.

And a key US command and control aircraft is now in the region…

Critical command and control aircraft

Former US Marine and State Department whistleblower Matthew Hoh said the presence of the E-3 command and control aircraft was an indicator Trump intended to pull the trigger:

The E3 is an incredibly important aircraft. For those unfamiliar, it is the large airplane that looks like an airliner, but with a revolving radar disc on top.

The airplane is loaded with an air crew whose job is to observe, manage and control the airspace in its area. It is especially important for directing fighters and ground/sea based missile interceptors against Iranian missiles and drones.

This is the strongest indication to me of the seriousness of the US threat to Iran. The US has deployed more than 2/3 of its available E3 command/control aircraft to Europe and the Middle East.

The E3 is an incredibly important aircraft. For those unfamiliar, it is the large…

— Matthew Hoh (@MatthewPHoh) February 19, 2026

Renowned international relations scholar John Mearsheimer reminded us that barring UAE – which has close ties with the settler-colonial pariah state – the only country absolutely determined to have a war with Iran was Israel:

Drop Site broke down the scale of the build-up:

Two carrier strike groups—each built around one aircraft carrier, several guided‑missile destroyers armed with Tomahawk missiles, and at least one submarine—are also being stationed nearby, along with several additional U.S. destroyers and submarines in regional waters near Iran to defend against ballistic missile attacks, as well as more than 30,000 U.S. military personnel and numerous Patriot and THAAD anti-missile batteries spread across regional military bases.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is on its way to the Gulf from the Caribbean. The ship took part in Trump’s last ‘spectacular’ – the Caracas raid which snatched Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. The Ford is the biggest and most advanced carrier in the world.

Former Pentagon official Jasmine El-Gamal told Drop Site.

This is not a dress rehearsal. This is it. This is not the negotiations of last year or the year before or the year before that. They’re backed into a corner. There’s no off ramp.

El-Gamal said:

The fact that that carrier is there tells me that this isn’t just a routine kind of, ‘Hey, let’s flex some muscle.’ He didn’t need that. He didn’t need to send that second carrier to flex muscle.

But what would a US-Iran war actually look like?

Short intense war?

With negotiations deadlocked, one expert said that Iran and US might favour a short intense war followed by a return to talks.

Swedish-Iranian scholar Trita Parsi told Democracy Now:

We have a very dangerous situation, because both sides actually believe that a short, intense war may improve their negotiating position.

The US believes its overwhelming military capability will:

be able to take out Iran militarily rather quickly and then force it to capitulate.

Parsi said the Iranians have other plans:

They believe that they have the ability to inflict significant damage on the United States in the short term, including on civilian oil installations in the region, closing down the Strait of Hormuz, that would shoot up oil prices…

The Iranians were calculating that:

the initial cost of this to the United States would be so immense, and the United States would recognize that it would have to go for a longer war, which it cannot afford, and as a result, it would get the United States to back off.

Yes another Middle east war is looming. It would be a war which is not at all separate to the current genocide in Gaza and the legacies of the Iraq war. In fact, it would compound both. The best case scenario is that it doesn’t happen at all. Next best? The sort of ‘limited’ bombing we’ve seen in the past.

The third, most terrifying and not at all unlikely outcome is that the war escalates into something altogether more existential with profound impacts for the region and the world, and which sends violent shocks through the global economy. A number of experts and insiders are saying we’ll find out sooner rather than later.

Featured image via the Canary