SAS troops currently under investigation for war crimes dropped prisoners from a forklift “for fun”, an inquiry has heard. And one soldier who served with them was allegedly called a “Taliban-loving apologist” for raising concerns about the elite unit’s behaviour.

The inquiry into allegations that the SAS extrajudicially murdered Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2023 occupation heard from two whistleblowers on 14 July:

Monica Grenfell, a former journalist, and Christopher Green, who was part of the Army Reserve, contacted the Afghanistan Inquiry to give evidence after the chairman issued a request for information.

According to Sky News:

Both witnesses spoke behind closed doors with only redacted excerpts released on Tuesday.

Green served alongside special forces as an attached army reservist. He tried to raise concerns about the killings of three Afghan brothers. Green said the deaths were:

described to him as having “gone wrong”, forcing special forces to shoot lawfully “in self-defence”.

However, Green said the army’s intelligence was:

pretty clear that there was nothing to suggest that the sons were anything other than farmers and even less to suggest that they were Taliban commanders.

When he raised these concerns with a liaison officer, he encountered strong resentment from the elite commandos:

At some point he did call me a ‘Taliban-loving apologist’.

Green also asked to see so-called ‘gun tapes’ — video recordings of the raids — but was denied access despite having the right security clearance.

SAS — Forklift ‘fun’ with prisoners

Monica Grenfell served alongside the SAS as a stores person and kitchen staff member. She told the inquiry she was informed by a soldier that special forces troops had abused prisoners by lifting them up on the forks of a forklift and then dropping them.

I specifically recall him telling me that he would put prisoners on a forklift, raise it up and drive very fast so that they fell off.

Grenfell said she had:

Never been anywhere that was as bad as there.

There was a sense that:

People had been let off the leash somehow.

Adding:

You felt no one was really watching them [the soldiers], and the language was just… I’ve never known the language like it.

After the US-led occupation of Afghanistan collapsed in 2021, then-PM Boris Johnson said UK troops should be:

Proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them.

The nature of allegations which have since the war included suppressed evidence, murdered children, and failure to report serious allegations simply to spare the alleged killer’s morale. They make this kind of grandiose claim even more precarious than before.

The story of the UK’s shadow war in Afghanistan may never be fully known, but the kind of stories starting to appear are shocking indeed.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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LOS ANGELES — Some of the most powerful Latino politicians in the United States were invited to wear their favorite soccer jerseys. But few chose Argentina’s Abiceleste. 

Mayor Frank Figueroa of Coachella, California said his feelings toward Argentina as a “Latin American country” (in finger quotes) were so strong, he was willing to back England, the team that knocked out Mexico — where Figueroa traces his heritage — in a contentious quarterfinal match.

“Just by looking at their soccer team. For me, it’s like who’s playing on the soccer team compared to all the other Latin American countries who had the people playing on their team,” said Figueroa. “That is a big thing for me. They all look European.”

With the World Cup semi-finals coinciding with one of the country’s largest gatherings for Latino policymakers, organizers of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials annual conference embraced the timing. They have scheduled Telemundo World Cup watch parties in a hotel ballroom and are selling NALEO soccer jerseys to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary. Multicolored soccer jerseys — most commonly the green of Mexico’s El Tri — were scattered among the polished suits and business-casual attire in the conference venue.

But the absence of support for the tournament’s only remaining Latin American team was notable. In fact, it was easier today to spot England’s colors than Argentina’s hours before the two countries faced off in Atlanta.

Argentina’s history of blanqueamiento policies encouraging mass European migration, sanctuary for Nazis after World War II and its “genocide” against Afro-Argentines contributes to the “systemic problems and challenges” in Argentina’s history, said Karina Moreno, a councilmember representing Palm Desert, California. It’s a history that Moreno said continues the “fallacy” of superiority from Argentina to other Latin American countries.

Animosity towards Argentina was compounded after Argentine media personality Eduardo Feinmann said he “detested Mexicans” in on-air comments after Mexico’s tournament exit last week. Feinmann went on to describe “the envy the Mexicans feel for us Argentines, not just in football, but in everything.” The ensuing controversy escalated with a public rebuke from Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.

“It’s not the first time, and it validates what we’re talking about,” Moreno said, referring to the incident.

The behavior of Argentina fans has also come under scrutiny, with FIFA opening an investigation into a supporter’s alleged racist abuse of American streamer IShowSpeed during the team’s victory against Cape Verde earlier this month. Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan’s made FIFA’s designated gesture to report racist abuse — a crossed-arm “X” gesture — against Argentina..

Salta Lake City councilmember Alejandro Puy, a Salt Lake City councilmember sported one of the rare Argentina jerseys. Raised in Buenos Aires, he says “rivalries are expected” between countries in soccer.

“Ultimately we are all brothers and sisters of this continent and we stand by it,” Puy said, though he still says there’s “no doubt” Argentina has the best team in Latin America.

Though he said he appreciated the Latino camaraderie in the conference, Puy was headed to Argentina’s Consulate in Los Angeles to watch the game and not feel “a little alone.”

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Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch was in a jovial mood during the usually combative PMQs by calling for all MPs to unite behind England against Argentina this evening.

Badenoch said that while Keir Starmer may be “disappointed that he won’t be emulating his hero Harold Wilson in winning multiple elections … we all hope that he may be about to emulate him in another way, by being the prime minister when England win the World Cup.” England’s only previous success came in 1966.

The Tory leader said that was something “every single one of us in this house should get behind, especially the SNP.” But the diminished rump of Scottish independence-supporting MPs, possibly still bruised from going out in the World Cup group stage, shook their heads.

Indeed, opposition to England’s success crossed party lines.

Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman told POLITICO he’ll be watching “from behind the couch and the cracks in our fingers,” adding it will be “unbearable” if England makes the final.

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LONDON — Soccer fans in Atlanta may be exchanging chants about the Falklands — but there’s another British Overseas Territory making news today.

The 118-year-old border between Gibraltar and Spain will disappear on Wednesday. You can thank Brexit.

Today is the culmination of a decade of uncertainty for the British Mediterranean territory, which back in 2016 voted by 95.9 percent to stay in the EU — but was pulled out against its will.

Life immediately became harder for the thousands of people who cross the Gibraltar-Spain border every day, including 15,000 Spaniards who go to work in the territory.

Passport checks became more onerous and transporting goods became more complicated. As a result Brussels, London, Gibraltar and Madrid have spent the last 10 years negotiating an agreement to remove physical border controls from the frontier with Spain.

It’s an ironic move given it was triggered by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. While Gibraltar will remain fully British and sovereign, the border will become, for the most part, just a line on a map.

The agreement’s details will be familiar to anyone who has ever taken a Eurostar train under the English Channel. As at London St Pancras station, passengers arriving at Gibraltar’s airport will go through both Gibraltarian passport controls and EU passport controls in succession. Once through, they’ll be free to roam both Gibraltar and the Schengen area, provided they get the approval of both authorities.

As a result, Gibraltar and Spain will do away with border controls at the land border. Gibraltar will also align with various EU single market and customs rules to ease the flow of goods, which have sometimes become harder to source since Brexit.

Gibraltar is adamant it isn’t joining the EU passport-free Schengen area. Legally, it is right.

For many passengers, though, it will feel pretty similar, with no passport checks to walk into Spain. The difference will be that Gibraltar will still set its own visa policy.

The U.K’s Europe Minister Stephen Doughty is formally signing the agreement Tuesday in Brussels with the EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

The deal was a bipartisan effort on the British side, with former Foreign Secretary David Cameron working to get it over the line during his time in office. In spring 2024 the deal looked close to being done — only for Rishi Sunak to call an election. The resulting change in government delayed it by another year.

Some critics, notably Tory Euroskeptics, have said the agreement harms Gibraltar’s sovereignty, but the Rock’s government is very keen on the plan.

“Brexit was sold to the British people in a false prospectus,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the Telegraph newspaper in the run-up to the dismantling of the border. “The United Kingdom needs to seriously reconsider its relationship with the European Union, whether that is to return to membership or a much closer relationship.”

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Irish comedian Tadgh Hickey has a simple message as the World Cup progresses in the US: “Fuck Messi”. The Israel-linked Argentinian football star has been silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Hickey posted a heart-breaking video to his YouTube channel. While Egypt’s football coach has spoken out against the silence of many clubs and stars on the genocide, Hickey added no comment to his post apart from the pithy title. None is needed for those who watch the chilling video to the end:

Fuck Messi.

Featured image via Twitter

By Skwawkbox

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So, Keir Starmer is stepping down as PM. And he’s doing so with a round of applause from the Labour MPs who just unceremoniously sacked him:

Downing Street has just published a photo of the cabinet applauding Sir Keir Starmer at their final meeting this morning. pic.twitter.com/a1eXYGnmnY

— Ben Bloch (@realBenBloch) July 15, 2026

We don’t think this latest display will enamour voters to Labour. Then again, they don’t seem to care about winning back public support. If they did, Andy Burnham wouldn’t be delivering continuity Starmerism.

Clapped out

Before we get into it, let’s remind ourselves what Labour MPs were doing after Burnham won the Makerfield by-election:

PICTURED: Andy Burnham takes a selfie with Labour MPs pic.twitter.com/BbiHgIJwTm

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 22, 2026

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Parliament had just sworn Burnham in when the above was taken, having travelled up from Manchester on a train pursued by media helicopters. Starmer stepped down earlier the same day, clearly sensing the mood. It’s hard to imagine a more humiliating spectacle than having all your MPs fawn over your replacement like this. And now those same MPs are acting as follows:

Labour were going to get 15% in a general election with this man.

pic.twitter.com/B0ldoxqlVg

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 15, 2026

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There was also much joking between Starmer and Kemi Badenoch – the other head of the Labour-Tory duopoly:

WATCH: Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer exchange further friendly remarks in his final PMQs

Badenoch: "He might not have answered the questions I asked him, but at least he turned up"

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Starmer: "I've answered – or at least given answers – 2,800 times" #PMQs pic.twitter.com/iBcWoOAKvF

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026

To be fair, this next comment was about as funny as it ever gets at Prime Minister’s Questions:

WATCH: Kemi Badenoch says the "country deserves" a televised debate between Count Binface and Nigel Farage

Starmer: "My advice to everyone is to put your vote in the bin" #PMQs pic.twitter.com/2OLMJqlMJX

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026

Ed Davey also praised Starmer:

WATCH: Lib Dem leader Ed Davey praises Keir Starmer as a "true patriot" as he pays tribute to him in his final PMQs #PMQs pic.twitter.com/LzPvMh3TWe

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026

You can say this is just people being polite, but the public will see it as another example of the chumocracy. Or they would if they watched Prime Minister’s Questions, anyway, which they don’t, because no one ever answers anything.

Labour — Starmergeddon

There’s an old proverb that goes:

If you sit by the river for long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by

This phenomenon is one of two things that makes politics bearable (the other being occasionally getting stuff done). And make no mistake; Keir Starmer has been an enemy to progressive politics in the UK.

As you no doubt know, Keir Starmer was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary. And Starmer used his position to sabotage any chance of Britain getting a soft Brexit:

When Starmer resigns in disgrace we will, gradually, start to see revision regarding his role in Brexit. He locks in no deal.

As Shadow Brexit Secretary before 2019 he led a truly insane position, which could never work. That same political idiocy is now evident in Number 10.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 14, 2025

As Bastani wrote for unherd:

At each turn Starmer’s position can be explained by one thing: career advancement. One can only suspect that remains the case. Indeed, it can even be argued that Starmer set Labour up to fail when it came to Brexit prior to 2019.

Theresa May’s Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell certainly thought so. He recalled how Starmer seemed utterly intent on scotching any kind of compromise. This was so obvious that Barwell tried an experiment, giving the shadow Brexit secretary a proposal copied from something Starmer himself had written. Starmer “objected to the language on customs” in one of the bilateral documents. “I pointed out that we had lifted it from his letter of April 22 — he was objecting to his own policy,” Barwell writes in his memoir.

Starmer would later champion the second referendum position which caused Labour to haemorrhage support in the 2019 election (although more people voted Labour that year than in 2024 when Starmer won his majority).

Starmer famously became Labour leader on the back of his 10 Pledges. There was a lot of good stuff in those pledges, and if he’d enacted them, he would have dramatically improved this country (he might have avoided tanking his polling too). Instead, Starmer quietly abandoned the pledges one by one between 2020 and the 2024 election.

Forgive us if we don't trust Keir Starmer.

Do you? pic.twitter.com/0XuPquukcz

— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) April 17, 2026

In addition to all this, Starmer’s government has raised eyebrows for the many sex offenders in its orbit:

• Yet another paedophile convicted from the Labour-right production line.
• Labour MPs are talking mutiny over Starmer’s ties to Mandelson.
• Starmer’s other paedo problem: silence on links of new Zionist peer.
• Yet another Labour figure charged with sexual offence.
• Liron Velleman pleads guilty: another Labour Friend of Israel paedophile.
• Zionist former Labour MP Conor McGinn charged with sexual offence.
• Labour deselects 3 councillors for wanting inquiry into paedophile.
• LBC has paedo-sting Labour freak on to discuss Burnham.

Keir today, gone tomorrow

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say Starmer was an improvement on the Tories. The problem was that the scale of improvement was a million miles away from what the moment required.

The guy was bailing out water with a thimble, and now his ship has sunk. Bon voyage, Keir Rodney Starmer!

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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The Public Office (Accountability) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday 14 July, and is now moving through the next stages of the legislative process. Also referred to as the Hillsborough Law, it will drastically improve the ability of ordinary people to get justice and accountability from those in power.

In short, its purpose is to ensure the government is accountable for its actions and the very real human impact those actions can have, drawing its nickname from the Hillsborough disaster.

Despite multiple attempts in the courts, none of the police officers or the former chief superintendent Duckenfield have faced justice for their cover-up and negligence, which caused the death of 97 people and injured over 1000.

Decades of campaigning by the Hillsborough families have finally pushed this law into place, giving people a way to challenge those in power when they try to hide their wrongdoing and escape accountability.

This has subsequently been welcomed by the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS), survivors of abuse committed by Spy Cops, who say this law:

marks a significant moment in the long struggle to ensure that the state can no longer evade accountability when it harms the people it claims to serve.

The number 96 has been tattooed on my wrist since 2015.

It reminds me every day that I was one of the lucky ones who came home from Hillsborough.

Today, standing in Parliament to speak as the Hillsborough Law passed was one of the proudest and most emotional moments of my life.… pic.twitter.com/IXUn3juYdz

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— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) July 14, 2026

COPS: Hillsborough Law “has the potential to effect real change for us”

COPS have campaigned for years against the police’s track record of spying on political groups, trade unions and justice campaigns, and effectively working as an arm of the state to prevent accountability and justice for ordinary people.

The law, COPS say, honours the perseverance of the Hillsborough victims and their families. Those affected fought for decades to bring it into force despite facing “institutional denial, concealment and abuse”. In a press release, they say they “recognise these patterns all too well”, adding:

For decades, police officers operating undercover deceived women into intimate relationships as they unlawfully spied on political groups, trade unions and justice campaigns.

They stole the identities of deceased children, acted as agent provocateurs, hoovered up personal information on thousands of people, kept illegal employment blacklists and lied in their intelligence reports; while Special Branch commanders avoided discipline for their officers and kept everything in house to cover up corruption.

Those abuses are now being investigated and evidence is coming out. We are ‘core participants’ in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), but the Inquiry itself has become an illustration of why this law is so badly needed.

More than ten years since the inquiry was announced, many of us are still waiting for answers, and progress is constantly hampered by institutional resistance, incomplete disclosure and police witnesses who have shamelessly lied, treating the inquiry process with the same contempt they showed the criminal and civil courts during their operations, leading to dozens of miscarriages of justice.

However, as we see with the wilful ignorance of those in government regarding the flagrant breaches of international law by Israel and the US, these laws only have the power to secure justice if the political will is there to make it so. Up to now, the political will has clearly been to shield institutions from reputational damage or real accountability, leaving victims angry and with no closure or remedy for their rage and grief.

Nevertheless, those affected have courageously refused to give up or be fatigued out of making this bill a reality. Now, it will be essential to watch how the government respond to upcoming inquiries and whether they see powerful people held accountable for their abuses against ordinary people that they “claim to serve”.

One thing is certain: anyone who lies or tries to obstruct justice will now face the threat of criminal liability.

Hopefully this will make those in power think twice:

“Under the Hillsborough law public officials are going to have to tell the truth and if they don't they risk going to prison… It's about the first step in changing culture within big organizations, especially public bodies.”

Speaking in London, human rights lawyer Elkan… pic.twitter.com/zFOdIRvCph

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 15, 2026

Deborah Coles, executive director of INQUEST, spoke yesterday, saying it was a “momentous day” and pointed out how this finally works to address the huge power imbalance between the state and the British public:

“Bereaved families who are going along to inquests where the state is represented will have access to non-means tested public funding so that they can be represented at those inquests. And that is going to rebalance the power dynamics… where historically all the resources and… pic.twitter.com/ceiWL03f1Q

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 15, 2026

Spy Cops inquiry shows “institutional secrecy has continued right up the chain”

COPS, core participants in the UCPI, spoke further about the ongoing inquiry into the use of spy cops:

Having heard from many former undercover officers, and those who they spied upon, the Inquiry has now turned its attention to the senior officers and government departments who authorised, supervised and oversaw these operations, but the drive to conceal police misconduct behind a wall of institutional
secrecy has continued right up the chain.

As a result, this inquiry gives the public the opportunity to see if the new law will be worth its weight and thus, capable of holding governments, institutions and powerful people accountable so that victims can finally get real justice.

COPS finished their press release stating:

Over the next two weeks the Inquiry will hear from former Metropolitan Police leaders, including former Commissioner Lord Paul Condon, and the key question is no longer what undercover officers did, but who knew, who approved, who benefited from the intelligence gathered on political campaigners and community organisations, and who helped to conceal the truth?

No law can undo the harm already caused, but the Hillsborough Law would make obstructing and lying to this inquiry a criminal offence.

By creating meaningful consequences for those who deliberately mislead or frustrate investigations, this law has the potential to effect real change for us, as the Undercover Policing Inquiry rumbles on. The search for truth should never depend on the persistence or resources of victims and bereaved families.

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This legislation strikes a blow against the culture of cover-up and impunity that has characterised so many public scandals, and we congratulate the Hillsborough families on their historic achievement and thank them for the example they have set. Their determination will have lasting consequences for us all.

The next few weeks will show whether those in power are simply using this law to win over voters — or whether they have the courage to enforce it, even when it puts powerful people in the firing line.

Featured image via Linenhall

By Maddison Wheeldon

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The post The silencing of Great Britain appeared first on spiked.

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“It’s a soccer match. Nothing more to it. Period.”

That’s how Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni described his team’s upcoming World Cup semifinal against England to journalists.

No one believes him, least of all Argentinians themselves.

For many in the South American nation, the match is more than a stepping stone toward the World Cup title. It is a long-awaited chance to restore their national pride, over four decades after the British established de facto control over a cluster of islands in the South Atlantic.

For Argentina’s President Javier Milei, the timing couldn’t be better. Unpopular at home over multiple corruption scandals and rampant inflation, yet buoyed by his close alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, he has sought to rally Argentinians around the flag by breathing new life into the dispute which claimed 649 Argentine and 255 British lives.

“Argentina is a very polarized country, like so much of the Americas. But this is an issue that unites everyone,” said Rebecca Bill Chavez, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for western hemisphere affairs under former President Barack Obama.

“It doesn’t matter in Argentina: Left, right, center — you’re all for the Malvinas, as they call it,” Bill Chavez adds, referencing the name Argentinians use for the Falklands.

On Saturday, five days before the match, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno came out swinging with a lengthy opinion piece in the conservative daily “La Nación.”

The Malvinas, he argued, were Argentinian “by history, by right, and by conviction” and the Brits guilty of an “illegal occupation.”

On the eve of the game, the country’s vice president, Victoria Villarruel, amped up the rhetoric in a post on X that referred to England as “invaders” and “usurping pirates.”

It is the latest in a series of jabs at Westminster, marking a notable shift for the government of Milei, who distinguished himself from his predecessors by taking a relatively moderate — and domestically sensitive — stance on the Falklands.

He has openly praised Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister who sent troops to the islands in 1982. And he seemed to accept the results of a 2013 referendum in which 99.8 percent of the Falklands’ residents voted to remain under British rule (only three people voted against).

One day, Milei fantasized in a speech on Veterans Day in April just last year, the islanders might find Argentina so attractive that they’d “vote for us” voluntarily.

But that was then.

This April he announced on X that the Falklands “were, are and will always be Argentine.”

The jingoistic post came hours after Reuters reported that an internal Pentagon memo had suggested Washington could review its diplomatic support for the British position on the Falklands in retaliation for its foot-dragging on Iran.

Milei’s brashness, and the absence of a U.S. response, is evidence of his close relationship with the White House under Trump, notes Bill Chavez.

“In the past, if an Argentine government had made such a statement, I think it would have caused real tension in the U.S.-Argentine relationship,” she said.

But she cautions that neither the leaked memo nor American support for Argentina’s acquisition of F16s in 2025 under the Biden administration indicates an actual shift in U.S. policy on the Falklands.

For Milei, the Falklands issue is not straightforward either.

If the topic becomes too central, “Milei loses,” said Andrés Gilio of Opina Argentina, a pollster.

In a survey it conducted in April, an overwhelming majority of respondents, 79 percent, argued the country should pursue sovereignty over the islands “without concessions.”

“Either Milei ‘Malvinizes’ his discourse, aligning himself with public opinion but straining relations with the United States and blurring his ideological profile, or he remains faithful to his ideas, downplaying the sovereignty claim, at the risk of going against most of society’s wishes,” said Gilio.

So far, Milei has pressed the Falklands issue in international forums while refraining from a real confrontation.

The Argentinian Foreign Ministry declined to comment in time for this article’s publication.

Argentina has faced England five times at the World Cup, rarely without drama. Seared into Argentina’s national memory is the 1986 quarterfinal, just four years after the Falklands war, when Diego Maradona scored two historic goals.

“Although before the match we kept saying that football had nothing to do with the Falklands War,” Maradona would later write in his biography, “we knew that many young Argentine boys had died there, that they had been killed like little birds.”

This time around, Argentina’s players and fans have been anything but subtle, invoking the conflict long before they were drawn to face England. After winning against Egypt, the team’s players were filmed belting out a song calling for an Argentine World Cup victory, “for Malvinas,” in a video since gone viral.

Off-pitch, there have been skirmishes between British and Argentinian fans even as jubilant Argentine supporters have celebrated victories by singing “Whoever doesn’t jump is an Englishman.” As a precaution, FIFA has barred two of its English referees from officiating any Argentina matches.

Asked about the flaring tensions, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that “The Falkland Islanders are British with the right to determine their own future.” Starmer, he said, was “solely focused on the semi-final and securing a spot in the final.”

But perhaps the strongest plea for restraint has come from Argentinian veterans.

“Sport is not war,” the April 2 veterans group wrote in a statement widely circulated by Argentinian media on Monday.

“The World Cup semifinal is a sporting event of global significance, not an armed act of revenge or historical compensation.”

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