UK airborne troops and medics were parachuted onto a remote south Atlantic island to assist a British national with suspected hantavirus. Yet foreign secretary Yvette Cooper’s comments on this mission suggest the UK had broader geopolitics considerations and the failing US-UK ‘special relationship’ in mind.

Naturally, the British military are always desperate for a ‘good news’ story. A government press release on 10 May said of the “daring” mission to the Atlantic island of Tristan De Cunha:

The team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians, all from 16 Air Assault Brigade, parachuted from an RAF A400M transport aircraft. Meanwhile, vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were air dropped almost simultaneously onto the remote island.

This operation is the first time the UK military has inserted medical personnel to provide humanitarian support via a parachute jump, demonstrating how the military can deploy at very short notice across the world on a range of tasks.

UK specialist paratroopers and military clinicians have carried out a daring parachute operation to deliver critical medical support to Tristan da Cunha – Britain’s most remote inhabited Overseas Territory – after a suspected case of Hantavirus was identified on the island. pic.twitter.com/w0xPU8fvcw

— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) May 10, 2026

That last line is vital here:

demonstrating how the military can deploy at very short notice across the world.

The passenger had come ashore with the illness in mid-April, according to the BBC. The Beeb also reported on 10 May that:

He reported having diarrhoea on 28 April and fever two days later. He is currently in a stable condition and in isolation.

Protecting the British family

Cooper said:

I am deeply grateful to the personnel across the Armed Forces and the RAF who acted at pace to get urgent medical support to Tristan da Cunha.

Adding (and this is the important bit):

This extraordinary operation reflects our unwavering commitment to the people of our Overseas Territories and to British nationals, wherever they are. The safety and well-being of all members of the British family is our number one priority.

I am deeply grateful to the @16AirAssltBCT in getting urgent medical support to Tristan da Cunha.

This extraordinary operation reflects our unwavering commitment to the people of our Overseas Territories and British nationals, wherever they are. https://t.co/gUn4JdEyTU

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) May 10, 2026

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It can’t have escaped our readers attention that tensions between the UK and Argentina are up lately. This is connected to a threat by US president Donald Trump to change the US position on the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas. The UK and Argentina fought a short, bloody war over the south Atlantic archipelago in 1982.

As legacy media reported on 25 April:

Relations between the U.S. and the U.K. have been strained since European and NATO allies refused to provide aid to America and Israel’s war with Iran.

According to an internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters, the U.S. is considering a review of U.S. diplomatic support for European countries’ “imperial possessions,” such as the ⁠Falkland Islands, in response.

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Add to this, radical right-wing Argentine president Gabriel Milei is a very close ideological ally to Trump and Israel’s Benyamin Netanyahu.

The Falklands issue has also been used recently by right-wing Labour MPs as a stick to beat the Green Party with.

None of this is to suggest that there wasn’t a sick man on Tristan de Cunha, which has no airstrip. Yet the UK military and foreign office carefully framed the mission in terms of A) demonstrating military reach and B) in terms of being able to back up the so-called “British family” in the south Atlantic.

Call me a cynic… and you’d be absolutely right. It’s always important when looking at events like this forcefully publicised mission to ask what the government is doing. But we also have to ask what it is saying and why…

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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Following Labour’s disastrous 2026 local elections, Keir Starmer attempted to once again reboot his government.

Farcically, the latest ‘refresh’ saw him bringing back Gordon Brown (the last Labour politician to lose an election as a sitting PM) and Harriet Harman (the woman whose stint as deputy Labour leader proved so unpopular that it rallied support for the then-unknown Jeremy Corbyn).

To say this plan ‘went wrong’ would imply it was going right at some point, which clearly wasn’t the case. Saying that, the plan has now gone wrong, with Harman seemingly caught offering out peerages:

Incredible. One day back in the fold & she's reassuring all the worst cunts you just voted out that they'll stick them in the House of Lords.
One Big Club. https://t.co/aDz12cyoWu

— Michael Walsh (@thatbloodyMikey) May 11, 2026

In other words, Labour has embroiled itself in yet another cronyism scandal.

Cometh the honour

As we reported, Starmer brought Harman back to be the ‘Adviser on Women and Girls’. He did this despite her historic links to a notorious paedophile network:

I’m delighted to appoint @HarrietHarman as my Adviser on Women and Girls.

Harriet is a strong advocate for women and girls and I know she will deliver greater opportunity for women in public life.

I’m committed to tackling structural misogyny that is a barrier for too many… pic.twitter.com/iQeDS0XQrI

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 9, 2026

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This wasn’t that surprising, of course, because many politicians in Starmer’s inner circle have been exposed for their ties to paedophiles – most notably Peter Mandelson.

Back to Harman’s tweet, it looks very much like she was offering to get ex-Labour councillor Arooj Shah on the list to become a lord. Presumably, she thought she was sending a private message. Instead, she publicly tweeted at Shah, resulting in a new crisis for Starmer.

The real question is this: if Harman wasn’t offering to elevate Shah – and if she didn’t make the tweet public by accident – then what was she doing?

Novara‘s Aaron Bastani commented on Harman’s apparent mistake:

Harman inviting a former council leader to become an unelected legislator for life as if it was a Jay Rayner reviewed small plates trattoria in Bermondsey.

The Lords has to go! What a farce.

One reason (among many) that the Labour establishment despised Corbyn from day one of his leadership.

This stuff was no longer happening.

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The Tories tried to capitalise on it too, receiving some pushback in the process:

David Cameron created 245 peers

Theresa May created 43 life peerages

Boris Johnson appointed a total of 87 life peers

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Liz Truss created three peerages in her resignation honours list

Rishi Sunak created a total of 46 peerages during his tenure

They never change!

— Bernard McEldowney (@BernardMcEldown) May 11, 2026

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Starmer ran on a platform of being competent and not-corrupt, and instead he’s getting dunked on by Tories for being both.

Cometh the woman

Harman recently attracted backlash for her criticism of Zack Polanski, which amounted to him… being a man:

Oh no! We've lost Harriet Harman! https://t.co/nj0EO2wyZe

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) October 28, 2025

In the video above, Harman says snottily:

And there’s been a lot of focus on Zack Polanski as their new supposedly dynamic, charismatic leader. Now, for me, the Greens have always seemed like a very sort of collaborative, women’s-focused, team-ly kind of party. And Zack Polanski is not in that vibe at all. He’s in the kind of big-I-am, you know, male leader vibe.

She added that Polanski is a combination of:

Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage, and neither appeals to me.

As the Canary reported, the things that did appeal to Harman in her political career included:

• The invasion of Iraq
• Opposing fairer taxation
• ID Cards
• Mass surveillance
• Reducing tax avoidance

And this is who Starmer brought back to turn a new corner!

Embarrassing

At this point, things are just embarrassing for Starmer. This is why the number of MPs calling for him to resign keeps growing:

UPDATE: The number of Labour MPs calling for Keir Starmer to resign has now risen to 54

Catherine McKinnell and Alan Gemmell have both made statements in the last few minutes

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— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) May 11, 2026

We’ll be sure to update you with what the Starmer camp thinks about this as soon as Harriet Harman accidentally about tweets it.

Featured image via Harriet Harman

By Willem Moore

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A top Iranian official has warned of escalation over UK PM Keir Starmer’s plan to send a British warship to the straits of Hormuz.

On 12 May, Starmer and his allies are meeting to discuss plans to open up the strait, which Iran closed after the US and Israel launched unprovoked strikes in March 2026.

Strait of Hormuz multinational mission

The UK and France will discuss their so-called “Strait of Hormuz multinational mission”. And before any consensus has been reached, the UK is sending British destroyer HMS Dragon to the Middle East.

A government press release outlines the following details about the upcoming meeting.

builds on the significant progress made in the last few weeks by military planners from 44 nations, spanning every continent. The UK has consistently led the way, including hosting a meeting of military planners at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters on the 22-23 April, which was critical in converging national perspectives into a multinational plan.

Defence secretary John Healey also said:

The UK is leading this multinational, defensive mission because trade, energy, and economic security for working people here at home depend on it.

The Dragon was deployed to Cyprus early in the war. It almost immediately broke down. The legacy media reported on 7 April:

HMS Dragon has docked in the eastern Mediterranean after suffering technical problems with its water systems.

The Military Watch website has said:

The Type 45 class has particularly stood out with the fleet for its poor reliability.

How reassuring…

Iran accuses the UK are escalation

Iran is fully aware of the deployment. Deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharhibabadi said:

Any deployment and stationing of extra-regional destroyers around the Strait of Hormuz, under the pretext of ‘protecting shipping’, is nothing but an escalation of the crisis, the militarization of a vital waterway, and an attempt to cover up the true root of insecurity in the region.

US-Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

The US has achieved none of its original war aims. Iran predictably closed the Straits of Hormuz, a vital oil channel, once attacked — creating a global energy crisis. Far from being defeated, Iran has said the war will continue until “the enemy’s inevitable and permanent humiliation, disgrace, regret, and surrender”. Trump came to power on an anti-war ‘America First’ ticket. He now faces worldwide humiliation.

Pakistan has made a series of attempts to broker peace. The US-Israeli attack has faltered with Donald Trump left scrambling for an off-ramp.

The Brits falsely claim their role is only defensive. Yet Starmer has slowly embroiled his country deeper in the conflict. The PM, whose role is under severe pressure following a predictable drubbing in local elections, seems determined to drag the UK deeper into Israel and America’s failed war of choice.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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President Donald Trump has nominated Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano — two allies who waged failed bids for governor in battleground states — to diplomatic posts.

The White House announced Monday that Trump has nominated Lake to be ambassador to Jamaica and Mastriano to be ambassador to Slovakia. Both nominations require Senate confirmation.

Mastriano, who ran for governor of Pennsylvania, and Lake, who lost in Arizona, both embraced the president and his baseless election conspiracies and were rejected by voters in 2022.

“I look forward to representing our nation abroad, strengthening the friendship between our two countries, and advancing the interests of the American people,” Mastriano said in a statement posted online.

Lake, a former local TV personality who dismantled the Voice of America as Trump’s appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said she was looking forward to her new role in the Caribbean.

“Jamaica is a country I know very well, full of incredible people, and if confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations, advancing America’s interests abroad, and building on the deep friendship shared by the American and Jamaican people,” she said in a social media post.

Mastriano said he will continue serving as a Pennsylvania state senator until his appointment is confirmed by the Senate. Lake’s future status leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media is unclear.

Mastriano’s appointment likely undermines an ascendant write-in campaign for him in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary, the race he won in 2022. The campaign, which Mastriano supported but was not involved with, threatened to pose an obstacle for Republicans’ preferred pick, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, ahead of next Tuesday’s primary.

Lake earned an appointment to USGM last year after losing two statewide races in battleground Arizona. She lost to Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2022, then sought to succeed former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in 2024, but lost to Ruben Gallego.

Shortly after joining USGM in a non-Senate confirmed role, Lake oversaw the gutting of Voice of America as part of the administration’s remaking of the federal workforce. By the end of the administration’s cuts last year, roughly 85 percent of the agency’s staff had been removed.

But Lake’s work at USGM hasn’t withstood legal scrutiny. A federal judge ruled in March that Lake’s tenure at the head of the agency was improper because she was not confirmed by the Senate. Later in March, the same judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the staff members who had been placed on leave.

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Israel’s delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest has been issued a formal warning in the lead-up to this year’s event.

The continued presence of Israel at Eurovision despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East remains a contentious issue, with many calling for a boycott of the competition this year.

Moreover, the Israeli delegation at the last few contests has raised eyebrows due to concerns about voting and the behaviour of its members behind the scenes.

Over the weekend, it was announced that Israel’s national broadcaster Kan had been rebuked by Eurovision bosses over a campaign video encouraging viewers to vote 10 times for Israel during the upcoming live event.

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Viewers cannot vote for their own country in the Eurovision televoting, meaning this video will have been targeted towards those outside of Israel ahead of the first live semi-final on Tuesday.

“On Friday 8 May it was brought to our attention that videos with an on-screen instruction to ‘vote 10 times for Israel’ had been published and released by the artist representing Kan,” a Eurovision spokesperson said.

“Within 20 minutes we had contacted the Kan delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this.”

Christian Bruna via Getty Images

The statement continued: “The Voting Instructions of the Eurovision Song Contest that cover promotion are predominantly directed at discouraging large scale funded third-party campaigns, and we are satisfied that this video did not form part of such a campaign.

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“However, employing a direct call to action to vote 10 times for one artist or song is also not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition. The scale of our vote means that such activity cannot affect the overall result and 50% of all votes this year are supplied through professional juries.”

Eurovision then confirmed that a “formal warning letter” had been issued to Kan, with producers continuing “to monitor any promotional activities carefully and take appropriate action where needed”.

Last year, a vote took place among competing national broadcasters about whether Israel should remain part of Eurovision.

In the end, it was ruled that they would remain, with five countries withdrawing from Eurovision in the days that followed, in solidarity with Palestine.

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In the recent local elections, Reform UK undeniably made huge gains. Around 1,400 Faragist councillors were elected, and the party subsequently took control of 14 councils. Labour lost control of 35 councils, and the Hackney mayoralty, which was won by Zack Polanski’s Green Party.

Nonetheless, mainstream media coverage would have people believing that the UK ‘chose Reform.’ In reality, Farage’s billionaire-funded, bigotry-fuelled party remains a marginal force in British politics But, that doesn’t change the fact that corporate media are pussyfooting around the rich racist and the threats his party poses. The broader trend points to the growing convergence between establishment figures and the corporate class, often at the expense of national interests.

As a result, billionaire-owned media outfits are using racism to fuel division and infighting. Meanwhile, the super-rich (not-so-quietly) grow wealthier while ordinary people grow steadily poorer.

Before Nigel Farage and Reform UK tell you he is now Prime Minister, note there are 650 MPs in Parliament and 20,000 councillors in the UK.

Today’s results will likely end with Reform UK having 2500-3000/20,000 councillors and still just 8/650 MPs.

GBNews, the Express,…

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 8, 2026

Kaur: “The media has us believing that Reform took over the country”

As social commentator Narinder Kaur pointed out on X, far-right pundits would have you believe that Reform leader Nigel Farage is inches away from the corridors of power in Number 10. At best, that’s a stretch. And with ongoing defections and suspensions, Reform is likely to cost the public purse than help bring it out of the red.

After all, self-interested profiteers tend to have that effect — tighter budgets and increasingly empty bank accounts.

Britain voted Reform. pic.twitter.com/pvQjh7gzwL

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 8, 2026

Nevertheless, the phenomenon should not be ignored. The agenda of the super-rich is on show for us to see — weaponising racism to demonise minoritised communities . It’s serves as a convenient scapegoat for a greedy minority — the millionaires and billionaires, unwilling to distribute wealth fairly across society. Because it would cost them.

The American political scientist, Cedric Robinson, spoke in great depth about racial capitalism and how the ultra-wealthy instrumentalise, and profit from racism.

Historian Robin D. G. Kelley discussed Robinson’s work on the subject for the Boston Review, writing:

Capitalism and racism, in other words, did not break from the old order but rather evolved from it to produce a modern world system of “racial capitalism” dependent on slavery, violence, imperialism, and genocide.

The MSM and super-rich, in this view, aim to weaken protections for working-class people to boost profits, using media influence to shape public perception and steer political outcomes.

The media has us believing that Reform took over the country.

But the reality is this. How embarrassing pic.twitter.com/MrDKrnN8YI

— Narinder Kaur (@narindertweets) May 10, 2026

Reform UK: Just the latest manifestation of greed

Reform UK might actually implode before 2029, judging by their behaviour. They are now getting the opportunity to prove their worthlessness to the electorate. But another will take its place, billionaires have plenty of money to go around, like we have seen with UKIP and BNP members elected for Farage’s nationalist, populist party.

They have also proven that whilst appealing to a small minority of hateful Britons, that they can gain wider traction by other-ing minorities and blaming them for economic shortcomings.

Therefore, it is crucial to hold the mainstream media, and political opportunists, accountable and expose these smear campaigns.

Election expert explains why Reform UK’s support may have peaked despite local election gainshttps://t.co/GPdot0gzDK

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 9, 2026

If you look at who they attract, it’s not hard to understand why Reform appeals to some. The councillor below owes £46k to HMRC. Some may even believe in the prospect of upward mobility, and perhaps this is why they’re less inclined to challenge the wealthy.

However, they need to recognise that politics rooted in greed rarely pays dividends to the ordinary masses or the economically disadvantaged. That’s the myth of trickle-down economics.

To all the Reform UK Ltd supporters. What happened to get Starmer out? He's still PM and you have councillors like this. https://t.co/a1PMhta6eL

— The Receipts UK (@david_hollas) May 9, 2026

Expose the real enemy

The agenda at play in parts of the mainstream media, applies a soft-touch approach when it comes to scrutiny of the super-rich, while sensationalising narratives that undermine the freedoms and rights of the working class. This is society we find ourselves in today.

If working-class people truly want to see improvements in their living standards, opportunities, and hopes for the future, they must stand in solidarity with ordinary people and put the super-rich in their place.

After all, we cannot forget that securing our freedoms did not come easily — the elite class made that achievement bloody hard too.

Since Thatcher, the richest are decades into a push to claw back their supremacy over ordinary people.

The public must finally wake up to what is happening and fight back. Reform are a party of billionaires who only care for themselves.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

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It was the face-off of the night: SNP veteran and former cabinet minister Angus Robertson lost his seat in Edinburgh Central to Scottish Greens candidate Lorna Slater. This marked the first time the Scottish Greens have ever won a constituency seat at Holyrood.

But it was the giant seabird onstage that stole the show.

As the Edinburgh Central result was announced live, viewers across the UK watched a six foot gannet, standing beside the night’s two political heavyweights, unfurl a placard reading “END THE GUGA HUNT.” The image went out on the evening’s peak BBC and ITV news slots, and splashed across newspapers, websites and social media the following morning.

The Edinburgh Central gannet

By that point, one question was on everyone’s lips: who was inside the bird costume?

The answer is Robert Pownall, founder of the wildlife campaigning organisation Protect the Wild, who stood as an independent candidate in Edinburgh Central on a single-issue platform – to end the guga hunt, the last legal seabird hunt in the UK. He said:

I stood in this election for one reason: to get people talking about the guga hunt.

For years, this has remained a hidden issue that most people had never even heard of. But when they find out, they are horrified.

The guga hunt is an annual tradition on the remote island of Sula Sgeir in northern Scotland, where ten men travel each summer to kill young gannet chicks.

While the hunt originated centuries ago during times of food scarcity and survival, campaigners argue it now continues primarily as a cultural delicacy, with birds reportedly sold for profit on the Isle of Lewis.

Although gannets normally have legal protection, a special exemption within the Wildlife and Countryside Act allows the hunt to continue. Pownall is campaigning to remove this exemption.

Following the Edinburgh Central coverage, Protect the Wild says searches relating to the Guga hunt surged online, while its petition calling on NatureScot not to issue this year’s licence is rapidly approaching 200,000 signatures.

A separate petition asking the Scottish government to change the law reached 100,000 and the new parliament will consider it in due course.

Protect the Wild also welcomed the victory of Scottish Greens candidate Lorna Slater.

Pownall said:

This campaign was never about getting votes. It was about putting the Guga hunt into the public eye and onto the political agenda.

We’re delighted that Lorna Slater won the seat, with the Scottish Greens currently the only mainstream political party to have publicly committed to ending the Guga hunt.

We hope to work with Lorna and other MSPs on this issue in the coming months, and finally put an end to this cruel activity that has no place in a modern Scotland.

Featured image via Protect the Wild

By The Canary

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