Robert F Kennedy Jr just told equally off-the-wall podcast mullet Theo Von he used to snort cocaine off toilet seats. Which is, uh, fine. But the conspiracist buffoon RFK, who thinks tap water turns kids gay — or something like that, I’ve lost track — was actually using this example to tell us something TRULY WEIRD. 

RFK, as he is known, was actually justifying his inane anti-intellectualism by saying he does not fear germs BECAUSE he used to snort cocaine of a toilet seats.

Reminder: this guy is in charge of what passes for healthcare in America.

Dear Lord…

Not scared

Kennedy was talking about addiction. Both he and Theo Von openly talk about addiction. And addiction is not a joke. Yet somehow they managed to make a mockery of the topic:

I’m not scared of a germ… I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats.

Adding:

I know this disease will kill me.

They were complaining that Covid-19 meant they couldn’t attend their addiction meetings. Kennedy told Von:

Like, if I don’t, if I don’t treat it, which means for me going to meetings every day. It’s just bad for my life.

And in some level they have a point. Covid hit all kinds of people very hard: people with addiction issues, kids, older people, mentally ill people, women locked into abusive relationships and so on.

But the messenger matters.

Wild claims

RFK is known for making wild claims about medicine — something he appears to known (somehow) less than nothing about. Forbes did a useful list of some of his most colourful fantasies. These include that old classic that vaccines cause autism. He said the US government:

knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children.

Okay, toilet boy.

RFK once said Bill Gates exaggerated Covid to push vaccines as part of what he called:

a historic coup d’état against Western democracy.

Hmm…

He also claimed Covid targeted people ethnically:

COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.

And that:

the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.

Nice eugenics there, big man.

Kennedy also suggested AIDS does not cause HIV. That 5G gives you cancer. And that raw milk — knew it was in here somewhere — is fine. Also that fluoride:

is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.

IQ loss, hey. Are you sure it was just cocaine on the toilet seat, mate? He also thinks that mass shooting are caused by anti-depressants.

Looking at the state of Trump’s cabinet picks, we probably shouldn’t be surprised this lad made the cut. Yet somehow even with all we know about US politics generally — and especially US politics under Trump — RFK still manages to come out with something so completely off-piste than you have to just stop and take it in.

Featured image via YouTube/the Canary

Several UK companies may be breaking the law over their exclusive use of the Nimbus Disability Access Card.

Had it confirmed by someone who knows the Equality Act that venues who only accept the Nimbus card are breaching the act.

A blue badge, PIP/DLA letter, letter from a GP/Consultant or any other form of proof should not be refused under the act.

— Disability Rebellion (@DRDisabilityReb) February 11, 2026

Under the Equality Act [2010, s.20], organisations must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people to ensure they are not at a “substantial disadvantage”.

The law requires organisations to do this, regardless of whether a disabled person has paid for an access card or other third-party subscription.

However, some UK organisations are now only accepting Nimbus Access Cards as proof of disability, including Legoland Windsor, Alton Towers, and Thorpe Park. 

Basically, everything that Merlin Entertainment UK owns is now only accessible to disabled people who pay for an Access Card. There’s no surprise that the same company that mistreats penguins is also mistreating disabled people.

Also on the list are Wembley Stadium, Download Festival, York Barbican, York Maze, and MCM Comic Con. And they’re just the ones we’ve found in an hour.

Of course, this is already causing problems for both disabled people and their carers.

After 20 years as a carer to a severely disabled young person, I’m now facing barriers I’ve never faced before. Everywhere I go, the answer is “Nimbus.”

No card? No carer entry. No PIP. No Blue Badge. No Carer’s Allowance accepted.

That’s gatekeeping & it’s deeply worrying.

🧵

Advertisement

— Rae (@Chuffin_ell) February 11, 2026

On their disability access web page, York Maze cites:

All visitors requiring these access provisions can apply via Nimbus to have their individual access requirements validated so we can not only provide reasonable adjustments, but protect them from potential misuse.

This is buying into the same bullshit that the government uses when justifying cuts to Personal Independence Payment. Of course, the system must be being abused.

Just Nimbus, the biggest accessibility ID provider in the UK, claiming disabled people “abuse” carer and companion schemes https://t.co/3WJxXNEAir

— Rachel Charlton-Dailey (@RachelCDailey_) February 8, 2026

Advertisement

Corporate wretches

The Nimbus website states:

Currently, we operate free-to-register access schemes on behalf of providers from Ticketing companies, West End Theatre and Theme Parks, to Leicester Square’s famous Hippodrome Casino.

Companies can use the scheme for free, yet disabled people have to pay for the card, PLUS any medical evidence they need to get it in the first place.

It’s worth noting that Nimbus offers ‘Free Access Registration’ at some venues. However, that means supplying the same data and personal information to each venue. How does that help disabled people?

There should be no requirement to share anyone’s personal data with an external company like yours! You claim to be enabling accessibility, but you’re actually putting barriers in the way of people who need support, kinda like a shield for discriminating companies to hide behind!

— Kev (@Kev1n1986) February 8, 2026

Advertisement

I clicked to apply for the Digital Access pass for Legoland Windsor. What struck me was that, on the first application page, it is not clear to whom you are providing your personal data.

The Merlin Entertainment logo sits at the top of the page. However, when you click the ‘our online guide’ button, it takes you to the Nimbus Access card webpage.

So is my personal data, including my photo ID, going to Merlin or Nimbus?

Spoiler alert – disabled people don’t need to provide sensitive personal data to service providers or partners to be entitled to accessibility.

Demanding sensitive data be shared w unregulated private company for accessibility could well be harassment related to disability.

Advertisement

— Becca Jiggens LLM Chartered FCIPD ♿️ 🇵🇸🕊️​​ (@beccajiggens) February 8, 2026

Nimbus claims to be run by disabled people, for disabled people. But all I can see here is an organisation profiting from disabled people trying to live their lives.

Online protests over the Nimbus card

All week, disability activists have been protesting on social media. With one X user pointing out that:

You say @nimbusdis decisions are down to venues & your service is optional. Yet your card is being treated as the only “proof” of disability. When PIP, Blue Badges & statutory evidence are refused, that creates barriers. Rights under the Equality Act aren’t card-based.

— Rae (@Chuffin_ell) February 11, 2026

Advertisement

When PIP or blue badges are not enough to gain disabled access, there is something really wrong with the system. It’s hard enough to get any of those three things. Yet now, some corporation wants to add another hoop for disabled people to jump through.

I truly believe that Nimbus disability are partially responsible for the role back in the rights of disabled people to have reasonable adjustments. https://t.co/wPFW9CHKpM

— Monique Botha is actually they/them 🤷🏻‍♀️ (@DrMBotha) February 11, 2026

It’s worth remembering that the Equality Act is not about ease or convenience for huge corporations like Merlin, or even for smaller businesses. It’s about access for disabled people.

This keeps being framed as admin and efficiency, but efficiency for systems isn’t the same as equality of access for people

Blue Badges manage scarce resources like parking. Everyday access and booking aren’t the same — and the Equality Act is about access, not admin convenience

Advertisement

— Rae (@Chuffin_ell) February 7, 2026

Nimbus agreed to meet with Disability Rebellion to discuss Merlin Entertainment’s access policy. However, Nimbus cancelled at short notice.

What sort of world are we living in when private corporations force disabled people to carry a card proving they’re disabled enough to be sat in a wheelchair.

It feels like a return to Nazi Germany.

Feature image via Accesscard.online

Climate campaign group Fossil Free London has held a Valentine’s Day themed protest in St. Dunstan’s in the East churchyard. The stunt comes ahead of the UK government’s decision on whether to approve or reject the Rosebank oil field.

Campaigners stood in couples – wearing suits and pastel frilly dresses – holding up oversized love heart sweet placards that read: ‘Save Me’, ‘Hot Earth’ and ‘Stop Rosebank’.

Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government originally approved the oil field in 2023. But the Scottish courts overturned this decision in January 2025. The ruling demanded that Rosebank’s primary owner, Norwegian state oil giant Equinor, provide a more detailed assessment of the project’s full climate impacts.

Burning Rosebank’s total estimated oil and gas reserves would emit more carbon dioxide than the world’s 28 lowest-income countries combined release annually.

Rosebank: UK pays, Norway profits

Equinor would sell the vast majority of Rosebank’s oil on the international market for export. It would neither lower energy bills nor increase energy security in the UK. Meanwhile, UK public money would pick up the bill for most of its development costs.

Ahead of Equinor’s profits announcement at the start of February, Fossil Free London staged a protest over its role in Rosebank.

Most of Rosebank’s profits would flow into Norway’s substantial sovereign wealth fund. This potential megapolluter could also send profits of over £200m to the Delek Group. Delek is an Israeli fuel conglomerate that the UN has flagged for human rights violations in Palestine.

Robin Wells, Director of Fossil Free London, said:

This Valentine’s Day the U.K. government will be deciding whether Rosebank is hot…or not. But we know that Rosebank will be too hot to handle…Labour, save us from all new oil projects, because Rosebank will kill millions!

Featured image via Fossil Free London

Writer Joseph Tucker is working on a drama about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. The script will draw on Alex Nunns’ book The Candidate and Paul Holden’s recent release, The Fraud. To round out his research, he’s appealing for additional eye witnesses.

Sabotage of Corbyn

Under the working title A Very British Sabotage, the drama promises to lay bare:

the subversion of UK democracy by vandal elements within the Labour Party. They prioritised sabotage over winning an election and governing the UK at a critical point.

Both Nunns and Holden wrote about how Corbyn and his team faced huge opposition from within their own party. Holden, writing more recently, was able to show how Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn with the grubby help of Morgan McSweeney.

Clearly the stage is set for all manner of duplicity, intrigue and back-stabbing.

Tucker has already undertaken a great deal of research but he’d still like to obtain more contextual information. To this end he’s put out an appeal for eye-witness accounts from anyone who was in the thick of it.

Tucker’s request

I am producing a drama exploring Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party, based on two books, The Candidate (Alex Nunns) and The Fraud (Paul Holden).

As part of my research I wish to speak confidentially with people who worked in Labour Party HQ (Southside) 2015-19. Accounts will inform dramatic reconstruction and institutional context. Identities will be handled with care. Anonymity and attribution will always be discussed and agreed in advance. All information shared will be subject to verification and corroboration.

Are you former:

• Political communications staff?
• Policy or governance staff?
• Junior employees with lived experience of internal culture?

A formal legal framework is in place to protect sources and the materials shared during this process. Material provided will not be published as standalone news reporting.

If this sounds like you, please email: [email protected]

Coming soon

Production on A Very British Sabotage should be beginning soon. So if you’ve got a story to share, please get in touch pronto. Otherwise, keep an eye out for further updates as the project moves towards release.

Featured image via the Canary

How to cope when it won’t stop raining

Replace lost movement with “Micro-Activation”

Increase brightness and contrast indoors

Protect small, consistent social contact

Support mood biologically

The US armada president Donald Trump spent months assembling in the Caribbean will return to the Middle East. The news comes after reports that Venezuela had shipped oil to Israel for the first time in nearly two decades.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in the Caribbean in November 2025. The Ford and her fleet were one facet of a massive military build-up. The US also rebuilt regional bases and carried out drone strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorist’ boats.

It was all about drugs, the US administration had claimed. That argument has fallen apart since the US kidnapped the country’s president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. Nearly every reference to the drug cartel Maduro supposedly ran was from dropped from the US indictment.

The New York Times said on 13 February:

The Ford strike group’s new orders will have it joining the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf as part of President Trump’s resurgent pressure campaign against Iran’s leaders.

They added:

Mr. Trump had indicated earlier this week that he wanted to send a second carrier to the region, but neither he nor the Navy had identified the vessel.

It appears the US has achieved its immediate military aims in Venezuela.

Oil to Israel

Maduro’s successor Delcy Rodriguez – who seems more at ease with US empire – has been in charge since Maduro was snatched. Though Venezuelan officials said the reports of oil shipments to Israel were “fake”.

But Bloomberg reported on 10 Feb:

The oil is being transported to Bazan Group, the Mediterranean country’s top crude processor, people with knowledge of the deal said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

But details are still hazy and those involved are staying tight lipped:

Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel’s energy ministry declined to comment on where the country gets its crude from.

The US carrier group’s Caribbean mission seems to be done – for now. With a more amenable leader in place in Venezuela, the warships are being sent back to the the Gulf region to deal with Iran. The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier fleet in the area.

As the Canary argued on 29 January, a strike on Iran is far more complicated than the attack on Venezuela. The fact remains, however, that while the US is an empire in decline it still has a long reach. And it still has a president willing to threatened, cajole, and kill to meet his ever-changing imperial whims.

Featured image via the Canary

The scene needed no explanation.

A white shroud, rectangular and silent, lay in the middle of a small square crowded with weary faces. Around it, men lined up to pray, their eyes fixed on something that could not be fully seen, but only imagined. Inside, what were believed to be the remains of a mother and her four children. Four siblings who came into life after years of deprivation, then left it all at once.

The image encapsulates two years of heavy waiting in Gaza. Two years in which the story remained suspended between loss and hope, between unanswered questions and a small hope that the absent ones would return to be buried as befits human beings. Only today was the final scene completed: a funeral prayer that was two years late.

Gaza: four siblings buried together

In the front row stands the father, Fadi Al-Baba. Those who know him do not need to ask him how he feels. His eyes say it all. In front of him is the white shroud, inside which lie his wife and four children who came to him after a long wait. Four siblings, who were a promise of a life that would make up for years of patience, turned into a memory buried by Israel’s genocide under its rubble, before the earth returned them in a small white bag.

The loss was not a fleeting moment. It was an extended period of time. From the day of their martyrdom until the day of their burial, the father lived on the edge of absence; no proper farewell, no grave to visit. Today, as he raises his hands in funeral prayer, it seems as if that first moment is returning with all its weight. As if two years have shrunk into a single tear.

The white shroud in the photo is not just a piece of cloth. It is the final resting place for five souls. It’s a witness to a family story whose first chapter was never completed. It is a summary of questions bigger than a photo: How can such a long wait end in silence? How can a father say goodbye to his children together, after dreaming of them together?

The stories never end

The stories of Gaza never end, because they are never told in full. Every photograph opens the door to a postponed story, and every delayed funeral reveals a period of pain that remains unwitnessed. In this photograph, we see only a white shroud and a grieving father, but behind them lies a history of longing, deprivation and waiting.

The scene ends with a final burial, but it does not end the story.

Some losses are not buried, but remain alive in the memory of a father who, whenever he sees four children together, will remember that he had four… who returned to him in a single shroud.

Featured image via the Canary

Donald Trump has launched an attack on the very foundation of US climate regulation. And it could represent his biggest assault yet, leading to both higher greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in health risks for ordinary people. In the UK, meanwhile, Reform continues to mimic Trump’s anti-climate agenda.

Trump’s massive climate rollback could lead to “58,000 additional premature deaths”

Both Trump’s regime and its critics have noted the scale of this move, calling it either the “largest deregulation” ever in US history or:

the most significant rollback on climate change yet

As the BBC reports, Trump has revoked a key:

scientific ruling that underpins all federal actions on curbing planet-warming gases.

The “endangerment finding” of 2009 ruled that numerous greenhouse gases are “a threat to public health”. And this conclusion turned into:

the legal bedrock of federal efforts to rein in emissions, especially in vehicles.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund’s Peter Zalzal, Trump’s move could cost ordinary people more in:

additional fuel costs to power these less efficient and higher polluting vehicles

It could also:

result in up to 58,000 additional premature deaths, 37 million more asthma attacks

The winners, of course, would be billionaire polluters. And they’re celebrating twice as hard, because Trump is also increasing funding for coal facilities and pushing the US military into deals with power plants using coal. Coal stocks are predictably doing well as a result.

“Trump’s EPA repeals science” sums it up. pic.twitter.com/elI4YYIQVc

— Jeff (@jepaco) February 13, 2026

Advertisement

Today, the US @EPA rescinded its 2009 endangerment finding: a drastic move even in the context of the Trump administration’s larger deregulatory and anti-climate agenda.

This move poses a particular threat to reproductive rights. Read more: https://t.co/CckiPuttHC

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) February 12, 2026

Reform is a Trump tribute act

Reform UK, meanwhile, is busy mimicking Trump. And it would do that, because it’s firmly in the pockets of the billionaire polluters mentioned above. Currently, Reform’s anti-climate agenda is focusing on scamming people into thinking reducing greenhouse gas emissions is bad.

The party hasn’t just been pushing climate-change denialism and dangerous industries like fracking. It’s also been repeating over and over again its attacks on the global effort to limit carbon emissions (‘Net Zero‘):

Ed Miliband and Vladimir Putin are the same, in terms of your electricity bill

Superb by @KathrynPorter26

Net Stupid Zero is driving bills UP

Not down

We have been conned and misled

Advertisement

https://t.co/IENYf5oDrS

— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) February 13, 2026

Even Blair agrees with Reform on Net Stupid Zero & calls on Labour to keep drilling for oil in North Seahttps://t.co/suaYXxcSjt

— Richard Tice MP 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) February 13, 2026

Who knew?

👇👇 https://t.co/LeX7uDMiwv

Advertisement

— Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) February 12, 2026

A Net Zero Reminder. https://t.co/3pl5xoNFKo

— Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) February 13, 2026

The problem for Reform, though, is that 60% of Brits support Net Zero, and only 25% oppose it. So it’s a much harder sell than in the US. But with super-rich backers filling Reform’s pockets, it will keep pushing. And if it gets into government, we can be sure that it will behave exactly as Trump’s behaving.

Featured image via the Canary