Politics
Brit Awards 2026: Most Outrageous And Memorable Moments That Defined The Brits
The Brit Awards are widely renowned as being one of the most chaotic awards shows going – thanks to the on-stage blunders, political statements and jaw-dropping celebrity feuds that have played out during the ceremony over the last 40 years.
In the run-up to this year’s event, we’ve rounded up the good, the bad and, indeed, the ugly for you, and hand-picked 33 of the most memorable moments to ever take place at the Brit Awards.
All we can say now is, roll on Saturday’s ceremony in Manchester…
Adele proves why you don’t rush a superstar (2013)
Best British Album is the category every UK artist wants to win at the Brits, so it’s understandable that Adele would want to soak up the moment when 21 was given the accolade.
Sadly for host James Corden, it looked as though her acceptance speech was going to overrun into Blur’s performance back in 2012, so he clumsily stepped in to try and wrap things up.
As James tried to hurry her along, the frustrated singer wound up flipping the bird towards the cameras before leaving the stage.
Michael Jackson gets an uninvited guest during his performance (1996)
Michael Jackson performed at the Brits just once in his lifetime, and given what happened in 1996, it’s hardly a surprise he never came back.
While the singer was performing Earth Song, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker made his way onto the stage, walking around wiggling his bum and cheekily lifting his top, before being removed by security. He later claimed he’d been upset by the pop icon’s choice to make himself appear Christ-like during the performance.
After the show, Jarvis was arrested – and subsequently released without charge – after being accused of hurting three of the children on stage. Drama!
Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood host the show (1989)
Eugene Adebari/REX/Shutterstock
It’s now been more than 30 years since this happened, and we’re still puzzled as to exactly who thought that teaming up two completely unrelated non-presenters to front one of Britain’s biggest live TV events was a good idea.
The excruciating evening was dogged with guest mix-ups, autocue fails and jokes that went down like lead balloons. So all in all, not a great night. That being said, we’re still talking about it almost 40 years later, which has got to count for something, right?
Robbie Williams vs. Liam Gallagher (2000)
They’d already been swapping endless insults in the press for ages, but things between Robbie Williams and Liam Gallagher came to a head at the Brits in 2000.
Our favourite part of this video is right at the end, when the late Caroline Aherne muses that her “money would be on Liam”…
Mrs Merton delivers her incredible Brits one-liner (1997)
Speaking of Caroline Aherne, she was on hand to present Best British Single as her Mrs Merton alter-ego back in 1997, and delivered a truly iconic one-liner.
After ribbing presenter Ben Elton, she then declared: “Charlie, wherever you are, can you make yourself known? They’re all asking for you backstage. In the toilets, it’s Charlie, Charlie, Charlie… you’d think they’d have enough to do with being pop stars.”
“So that’s lovely,” she added. Brilliant stuff.
Wait, what is Tony Blair doing at the Brit Awards? (1996)
In a move that seems more strange with every year that passes, David Bowie chose the then-leader of the opposition Tony Blair to welcome him to the stage, when he was awarded the Outstanding Contribution title in 1996.
Cat Deeley declares: ‘Rock is back!’ (2004)
Largely inspired by the success of The Darkness, Cat Deeley opened the Brits in 2004 with a bold declaration about the return of rock music and how Brits bosses had lifted the alcohol ban in place for the previous few years (hence the champagne bottle).
However, the night was hardly a rock-heavy occasion, with performers on the night including 50 Cent, Missy Elliott and… Dido.
Little Mix make history with their Best British Group win (2021)
After 10 years in the industry, Little Mix finally bagged their first win in the Best British Group category, becoming the first ever girl group to achieve the accolade.
Celebrating their win, the band – two of whom were pregnant at the time – gave a shout-out to the groups who paved the way for them, including the Spice Girls, All Saints and Girls Aloud. They also paid tribute to former bandmate Jesy Nelson, who had quit Little Mix six months earlier.
And speaking of long overdue girl band wins (2009)
We all know this moment really belonged to the late, great Sarah Harding, who summed up Girls Aloud fans everywhere’s feelings when she declared: “It’s about time!”
Kanye West keeps the Brit Awards censors busy for five minutes (2015)
At the 2015 Brits, Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West took the opportunity to debut a new track, All Day.
Unfortunately for viewers at home, most of it was muted completely by ITV’s censors due to Ye’s repeated use of the N-word (though the censorship didn’t stop some viewers from complaining regardless).
But Ye isn’t the only one who forced producers to cut the sound (2020/2021)
Samir Hussein via Getty Images
It’s actually become something of an unofficial Brits tradition for the sound to mysteriously cut out every year whenever Lewis Capaldi has something to say on stage.
Accepting his first ever Brit with a Red Stripe in his hand in 2020, censors had to act fast in the middle of Lewis’ acceptance speech, when he declared: “Thank you very fucking much.”
The following year, Lewis returned to the Brits, only for the exact same thing to end up happening.
Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX spark outrage of their own (2025)
Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP
The Brits ceremony in 2025 wound up sparking almost 1000 complaints to the TV watchdog Ofcom, down to appearances by two of the night’s star guests, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.
Sabrina kicked the evening off with a very racy medley of songs from her Short N’ Sweet, culminating in her getting up close and personal with a dancer dressed as a royal guard, while Charli accepted five awards over the course of the night while sporting a sheer outfit with her nipples visible underneath.
During one of her acceptance speeches, the Grammy winner claimed that the higher-ups at ITV had already been “complaining about my nipples”, commenting: “I feel like we’re in the era of free the nipple though, right?”
Geri Halliwell’s dress becomes immediately iconic (1997)
Alan Davidson / Silverhub/REX/Shutterstock
The legend goes that Geri Halliwell and her sister made her infamous Union Jack dress with a tea-towel, adding a peace sign on the back so as not to offend anyone.
Years later, the iconic garment went on to sell for a record-breaking £41,320 at an auction.
Lizzo meets Marvin Humes (2019)
Let’s be honest, sometimes red carpet coverage of the Brit Awards can verge on being a little dry. More often than not, the stars are on their best behaviour, saving their more raucous antics for the infamous after-parties.
So we were glad when Lizzo made her Brits debut in 2019 (right before her mainstream breakthrough), chatting candidly backstage to Marvin Humes, which ended in the truly iconic line: “From his lips to my p***y.”
Lizzo and Harry Styles really get into the chaotic swing of things (2020)
You can always rely on Lizzo to bring the party.
Neither she nor Harry Styles even took home awards in 2020, but they were still the true winners on the night thanks to this chaotic – and tequila-assisted – scene.
Little Mix really felt like celebrating after winning their first ever Brit Award (2017)
It’s hard to choose a favourite moment of this compilation, just watch and enjoy.
Stormzy calls out the government during his debut solo performance (2018)
By the end of the 2018 ceremony, the night already belonged to Stormzy, who had picked up Best British Male as well as the top award of the night, Best British Album.
It was fitting, then, that he should also close the show, putting on an elaborate performance of Blinded By Your Grace, pt. 2. It was what came next that grabbed headlines, though, as he launched into a freestyle rap calling out Theresa May’s government for their reaction to the Grenfell tragedy, as well as highlighting injustice and institutional racism.
As if that wasn’t enough, off came the t-shirt and on came the rain, for an energetic run of Big For Your Boots. Incredible stuff, which even won praise from then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
And Stormzy’s not the only one to make a political point on stage at the Brits (2021)
After her second Best British Female win in 2021 – the first Brits to take place after the pandemic – Dua Lipa announced she’d be sharing her win with nurse Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the emeritus professor of nursing at the University of West London.
Turning her attention to the many frontline workers in attendance on the night, Dua said: “It’s all very good to clap for them but we need to pay them.
“I think what we should do is we should all give a massive, massive round of applause and give Boris [Johnson, who was then prime minister] a message that we all support a fair pay rise for our front line.”
Joss Stone raises eyebrows with her comedy routine… and accent (2007)
Admittedly, Joss Stone had been off the scene for a little while by the time she hit the stage to present Best British Male at the 2007 Brits, but last time we checked, she was from Devon, not the East Coast of America?
The singer created a stir not just for her accent, but also her “tribute” to Robbie Williams, who she’d performed with years earlier, as well as her joke about Russell Brand’s past rehab stint.
Sharon Osbourne vs. Vic Reeves (2008)
She’d been (surprisingly) on her best behaviour all night, but Sharon Osbourne lost her patience when Vic Reeves struggled with the autocue while presenting the biggest award of the night.
Despite being blasted as a “pisshead” and a “drunk bastard”, Vic later insisted he hadn’t been drinking.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Arctic Monkeys went on to hit out at the Brits school in their acceptance speech immediately afterwards, though this was cut from the final broadcast.
Peter Kay vs. Liam Gallagher (2010)
Your dad’s favourite stand-up comedian Peter Kay might seem like an unlikely choice to host the Brits, but he actually wound up being responsible for one of the ceremony’s most rock ‘n’ roll moments of the 21st century.
When Liam Gallagher defiantly threw his Brit into the crowd – having already snubbed brother Noel in his acceptance speech – the Phoenix Nights star put him down with a simple “what a knobhead”.
Not the wittiest of lines, admittedly, but effective all the same.
John Prescott gets a soaking (1998)
Proving that politics and pop aren’t always the best companions, when then Labour Cabinet Minister attended the 1998 bash, Tubthumping rock band Chumbawamba thought they’d let him know exactly how they felt about him getting an invite by throwing a bucket of iced water over the MP.
Despite the fact the record label apologised, the band were unrepentant, saying: “If John Prescott has the nerve to turn up at events like the Brit Awards in a vain attempt to make Labour seem cool and trendy, then he deserves all we can throw at him.”
Alex Turner gets some stuff off his chest (2014)
When Arctic Monkeys won Best Album in 2014, frontman Alex Turner left us all baffled with his odd “that rock and roll, eh?” acceptable speech.
This ended in him telling Brits bosses, “invoice me for the microphone,” before dropping it on the floor and walking off.
Belle And Sebastian’s win confuses everyone (1999)
First off, underdogs Belle and Sebastian had released a total of three albums when they were announced as the winners of Best British Newcomer in 1999, beating actual newcomers Steps, who had been heavily tipped for the award.
Their confusing victory led the national press to accuse them of rigging the vote in their favour by encouraging university students to vote online (which was still a fairly radical idea in 1999), though they insisted at the time this was not the case.
Brandon Block vs. Ronnie Wood (2000)
That same year Robbie took on Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood was presenting Best Soundtrack when suddenly he was interrupted by confused DJ (and future Celebrity Big Brother walker) Brandon Block, who had been jokingly informed by his friends that he’d won an award.
After Ronnie called him a “c***” for interrupting, the two squared up, drinks were thrown and security were called.
It was all super awks, to be honest.
The Brits face a backlash after failing to recognise any women in the Best Artist category (2023)
Dave J Hogan via Getty Images
The Best British Artist category was introduced in 2022, replacing the gendered Best British Male and Best British Female categories in a move towards inclusivity.
While its inaugural outing saw Adele taking home the award, its second year raised eyebrows after not a single woman was nominated.
Brits organisers later issued a statement saying: “We acknowledge and share in the disappointment that, unlike last year, no women are represented in the [Artist Of The Year] shortlist.
“There may be a number of reasons for this, but a key factor is that, unfortunately, there were relatively few commercially successful releases by women in 2022 compared to those by men, which means that, of the 71 eligible artists on the longlist, only 12 (17%) are women.
“We recognise this points to wider issues around the representation of women in music that must also be addressed.”
Sadie Pinn crashes Ant and Dec’s presenting spot (2016)
Despite the model’s sudden appearance – and her eye-catching outfit – the boys barely broke a sweat. Such pros.
Harry Styles almost misses One Direction’s Global Success Award (2014)
In 2013, the Brits faced a backlash for the introduction of the Global Success award, which some suggested was just a ploy to give One Direction a prize on the night.
A year later, they won in the same category for a second time, though most of their acceptance speech was conducted as a four-piece, as Harry Styles was preoccupied in the lavatory at the time.
Björk’s acceptance speech is pure Björk (1998)
After being swung around by Alexander McQueen, Best International Female winner Björk told the crowd: “I am… grate…ful… grape… fruit.”
Andy Bell makes a subtle protest (1989)
After Erasure won Best British Group, frontman Andy Bell kissed presenter Boy George on the cheek, a subtle move by today’s standards, but one that he claimed was a deliberate action against Section 28, which had been introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government the previous year.
Jack Whitehall reminds us what the Brits should be about (2018)
In the 2010s, the Brit Awards played it safe with its hosts, which ranged from James Corden to Ant and Dec, finally ending up with Dermot O’Leary and Emma Willis.
We’ll admit we didn’t exactly have high hopes when Jack Whitehall was announced, but after a decade of chumminess, it was so refreshing to have a host who would poke fun at the famous nominees, while successfully managing not to cross the line into nastiness.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z give props to Meghan Markle (2019)
Bey and Jay weren’t even at the Brits in 2019, but they still managed to steal the show completely with this video message, in which they made a subtle show of solidarity with the Duchess of Sussex.
Madonna falls down some stairs – and promptly picks herself back up again (2015)
After being accidentally pulled down some steps due to a cape-related wardrobe malfunction, the whole nation held its collective breath as Madonna dusted herself off and, in the words of her song Living For Love, “picked up my crown, put it back on my head” and “carried on”.
The 2026 Brit Awards will take place on Saturday 28 February at 8.15pm on ITV1.
‘Young Bob’ is a Gen-Z British activist who was previously in the pocket of the American right. While he’s most famous for being repeatedly beaten up, he’s also known for talking complete and utter shite.
His most recent example of this was seen here:
“Why are young people flocking to Restore Britain?”
I spoke to Britain’s youngest elected councillor, who recently defected to Restore Britain, on why young people are moving towards this new right-wing political party. pic.twitter.com/y9j1zne2BL
— Young Bob (@YoungBobRB) April 12, 2026
The problem with the above is that young people aren’t flocking right; they’re demonstrably moving left, and in numbers too big to ignore.
Oh, and don’t punch Young Bob if you see him on the street.
If nothing else, it will only give him another month’s worth of content.
Gen-Z aren’t ‘flocking’ anywhere
For those who are unfamiliar, Restore Britain is a Reform UK breakaway party. It exists because the Reform guys with the least agreeable personalities decided that the party wasn’t anti-social enough.
While the new party claims to have over 100,000 members, this is disputed:
It’s been a few months now since Restore started, and there’s still no official membership portal.
They have 120,000 donations which could be anywhere around the world, but they don’t have members. https://t.co/kuPU11Zkrm pic.twitter.com/fQNcxIaKH7
— Curtis Daly (@CurtisDaly_) April 11, 2026
In the video at the top, Young Bob is interviewing Kieran Mishchuk. We covered Mishchuk when he was still with Reform, and we did so because he was a brazen bullshitter who got caught in a lie:
GBNews speaking to “random residents”.
Only he’s actually a Reform UK councillor (Kieran Mishchuk, representing 20 mins down the road) being platformed like they’re a random resident.
No one has a problem with the flag, give it a rest.
It doesn’t belong to Reform UK and… https://t.co/gihgI4tlQr pic.twitter.com/7HuFbTWxMl
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) October 14, 2025
He’s also – much like Young Bob – the sort of young person that you’d describe as a ‘briefcase wanker’.
Appealing or appalling?
In the video, Young Bob asks:
Why do you think Restore is appealing to so many young people?
Mishchuk answers:
I think it’s common sense really and pride as well, patriotism, hope, stuff that the left the left wing parties that they don’t really clamp on is the history. When you come from a working town like Sittingbourne… you’ve got hundreds of years of history, and you’ve got generations of family members that have done the same thing, and over the last hundred years that industry that was there is gone.
In Sittingbourne, it was paper, bricks, and barges that were built. On my granddad’s side of the family, it was barges. They used to build and design barges. That industry, that boat industry is gone. It’s just completely gone.
Okay, but in the time that all happened, we had a procession of right-wing neoliberal governments.
What do you think Thatcherism was?
Thatcher said her greatest legacy was Tony Blair.
And now we’ve got Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves doing an even worse tribute act.@TheGreenParty say tax the super rich, nationalise our public services and strengthen workers rights.
— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) March 19, 2024
If you don’t know, Thatcherism was the ideology of selling off everything that wasn’t nailed down and handing off sovereignty to the City of London.
It wasn’t a left-wing project.
What the fuck are you talking about, Kieran?
Leftwards shift
All that aside, young people aren’t interested in Restore anyway:
Young people (18-24s) are 22x more likely to support Zack Polanski’s Green Party than Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain.
The British youth are the most progressive in the history of this country.
Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. https://t.co/JJyUiZ0LHS pic.twitter.com/UkghCql9Jt
— thelefttake (@thelefttake) April 12, 2026
Other than that, though, lads – good work.
We can see why young people are flocking towards your movement.
Featured image via Young Bob
Prince William makes £1.5m a year in taxpayers’ money renting Dartmoor prison to the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Whilst this in itself is a bloody outrage, it gets worse. HMP Dartmoor is utterly unusable – a wildlife-infested pit filled with radon gas.
HMP Dartmoor was forced to close its doors due to dangerous levels of the radioactive gas back in July 2024. In both 2020 and 2023, parts of the prison showed radon levels ten-times the legal limit.
Radon is the UK’s second-highest cause of lung cancer, after smoking. Since being left empty the property has become infested with “rats, birds, bats and insects”, according to the Times.
However, the rental agreement is apparently locked-in until 2033. As such, the public looks set to pay up to £68m leasing the useless building over the course of the contract. Over the 2024/25 financial year, William made around £23m from the Duchy of Cornwall portfolio, of which HMP Dartmoor is just one part.
Prince William: The Duchy Files
Back on 2 November 2024, the Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches broke a story on the massive property empire making Charles and William millions a year. The extent of the portfolio was a closely guarded secret, even from Parliament. The Times reported that:
In a five-month investigation, we used the royal addresses to uncover their business contracts and discovered how the duchies are making millions of pounds each year by charging government departments, councils, businesses, mining companies and the general public via a series of commercial rents and feudal levies on land largely seized by medieval monarchs.
The Duchy Files show the royals charge for the right to cross rivers; offload cargo onto the shore; run cables under their beaches; operate schools and charities; and even dig graves. They earn revenue from toll bridges, ferries, sewage pipes, churches, village halls, pubs, distilleries, gas pipelines, boat moorings, opencast and underground mines, car parks, rental homes and wind turbines.
At the time, the Canary commented that a large portion of the land was originally seized by medieval monarchs. This shatters the notion that royal privilege is a thing of the past. In very real ways, the Royal Family is still living in the Medieval Ages, and we’re all paying the price.
Likewise, we also reacted with fury at the fact the monarchy was actively draining money from charities. This included charging massive amounts of rent to Macmillan and Marie Curie. Damningly, the royals are patrons and notable donors to both institutions.
‘Blind panic’
Since the Duchy Files exposé, William has stopped charging rent for village halls, school playing fields, the fire service, and lifeboat stations. However, he’s still raking in the cash from HMP Dartmoor. That’s in spite of the fact the property’s even more unfit for human habitation than the average prison.
Since its closure some 23 months ago, the public has paid prince William at least £2.5m for the defunct prison. The Duchy of Cornwall has refused to comment on whether it will review the rent contract. Instead, the Duchy stated that:
The lease of HMP Dartmoor reflects long-standing arrangements governing the site and was negotiated on a standard commercial basis with both parties taking independent advice. We remain in regular contact with the Ministry of Justice, as it determines the future of the prison.
Public accounts committee MPs stated back in January that senior civil servants renewed the HMP Dartmoor lease in 2023 “in a blind panic”. Reportedly, the responsible parties knew about the prison’s radon levels, but wanted to secure prison places.
Nevertheless, the prison has since had to relocate its 682 inmates. It’s also reportedly hemorrhaging a further £4m a year in an attempt to secure the empty building and improve its ventilation. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Tory chair of the accounts committee, called the MoJ’s handling of the affair “an absolute disgrace”:
We heard claims that the leasing of this unusable building, known for years by HMPPS to be choked with radon gas with all the health risks that entailed, was sensible, driven by the need for prison places. […]
Our committee rejects this excuse outright. Dartmoor appears to the committee [to be] a perfect example of a department reaching for a solution, any solution, in a blind panic and under pressure.
‘Highest possible value for taxpayer money’
At the same time, over 100 staff and prisoners held at Dartmoor have since taken legal action against the Ministry of Justice over radon-induced illness. They join a total of 750 similar legal claimants from 42 prisons and probation facilities across the country with dangerous radon levels.
HMPPS said:
We continue to assess safety and feasibility at HMP Dartmoor, and will make a decision on the site in due course that prioritises the highest possible value for taxpayer money.
As there is an ongoing [Health and Safety Executive] investigation and live legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further, but we have strengthened radon management across the prison estate in line with regulatory requirements.
A fine demonstration of completely avoiding the issue there.
So, just to recap – prince William is making more than a million a year renting an unlivable prison to HMPPS. The civil servants who signed the contract knew it had illegal levels of radon. However, they were in a panic to find prison spaces. The contract won’t run out until 2033.
In the meantime, the MoJ has still had to relocate the inmates, after having endangered their lives by knowingly locking them in a building full of radioactive gas. Now, the public is also on the hook for the lawsuit, as well as the ongoing bill to try to make HMP Dartmoor useable again.
This utter farce has exposed two things more than any others. First, our absurd rush for prison places is putting lives at risk. Alongside this, it’s acting as a black hole for public money.
And second, for all that we pretend our monarchy is a defunct fossil, they’re clearly still reaping the benefits of a ancient feudal land system. It’s long past time we ended this ridiculous rulership by blood rights for good – starting with the crown’s ownership of 52,000 hectares of UK land.
Featured image via the Canary
Leaders from across the UK’s faith spectrum have come together to urge MPs to remove a clause from the Crime and Policing Bill that could shut down lawful, conscience-led protest.
Quakers in Britain coordinated the joint letter. Signatories include Bishop Mike Royal, Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber, Indarjit Singh and 16 other faith and belief leaders. The letter warns that the Bill’s new ‘cumulative disruption’ clause is too vague and too broad.
The clause requires police to consider previous and planned protests in the same area when deciding whether to impose conditions on a demonstration. As the letter states:
It could mean that we are stopped from demonstrating because another protest previously took place in the same area, even if it was on a completely different issue.
The letter comes as the Bill returns to the House of Commons on 14 April. This follows its third reading in the Lords on 25 March.
The Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist leaders say that despite their differences, they share a common commitment to love and justice. Members of all their faith communities follow their conscience to protest peacefully on issues that matter to them, they said.
And they point out that peaceful protest has often involved cumulative action. Campaigns that changed the world, from the suffragettes to communities standing up against fracking, built up through repeated, sustained demonstration.
Their concern resonates widely. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has called the clause too broadly drafted. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly recently met UK civil society organisations and MPs. And she expressed serious concern about these repressive new laws and the clause on cumulative disruption in particular.
This Bill is the third piece of anti-protest legislation in recent years. The faith leaders’ letter says:
Peaceful protest motivated by faith, belief and love should be celebrated, not criminalised. We urge the government and MPs to drop the clause on cumulative disruption.
Featured image via the Canary
Iran has proven to be incredibly resilient in their ability to defend themselves against the US and Israel’s war. Their resistance hasn’t been limited to the battlefield either. Surprising many, Iran has deployed wartime propaganda that’s even proving popular with their supposed enemies.
This is no mean feat.
And out of all the propaganda they’ve pumped out, none has been more effective than the Lego videos.
Given the success of this content, it’s unsurprising to see US tech companies closing ranks with the US war machine:
YouTube bans Explosive Media channel (the one creating a lot of Iran Lego propaganda videos). More proof of the systemic moderation bias of US Silicon Valley companies, magnified when it comes to US foreign policy interests https://t.co/mdIbmdGJ7g
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) April 11, 2026
Iran channel: legone but not forgotten
The suspension came hours after the group’s latest video, a rap animation linking Trump to the Epstein files, went viral, garnering millions of views.
Our YouTube channel just got taken down again for “violent content.”
Seriously! are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?
— Explosive Media (@ExplosiveMediaa) April 9, 2026
We’re not sure why YouTube chose to blame “violent content” when they could have said Explosive Media are using:
- The Lego company’s intellectual property.
- AI (which in most circumstances is dogshit).
Equally, however, there are two clear reasons for allowing the videos:
- They’re very, very funny.
- They’re allowing global citizens to bond over their hatred of US imperialism.
Marc Owen Jones noted that while YouTube banned Explosive Media, they’ve left more reprehensible accounts standing:
If you want to know how absurd and biased the banning of the anti-US/Israel war Lego AI Youtube channel for violent content is, look at official accounts belonging to the IDF and the Whitehouse across all platforms. It’s literally videos of real people getting blown up.
Clearly, YouTube takes Lego rights more seriously than human rights.
These videos have proven so effective, by the way, that even right-wingers like Tim Dillon are acknowledging that Iran is winning the propaganda war:
LMAO literally LMAO 😭😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/lLP5G14fJw
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) April 11, 2026
In the clip above, Dillon says:
So we’ve lost. There’s nowhere to go. It’s checkmate. We can’t do the things we think we can.
We’re tweeting. We’re Truth Socialing… We’re trying to win the war on social media. And we’re not even doing that because – can you, do you have the Lego thing up? Can you get that Lego video?
We’re not even winning the shit talking war.
We’re not even winning that.
The shit talk?
You’d think America would win that, at least.
If we’re going to win one thing, we’re getting bodied by Iranian AI in the war of shit talk.
Truly, how embarrassing.
We’re the country that invented shit talk, and we’re getting lit up.
Explosive Media
The BBC spoke to the creator behind Explosive Media, who described Iran as a “customer”. The piece noted:
The overriding message of these videos is that Iran is resisting what it sees as an almighty global oppressor: the United States.
This isn’t really up for dispute at this point, given that Trump keeps openly threatening countries around the globe, and also threatening to wipe out entire civilisations. We know the BBC is supposed to be impartial, but saying the sky is blue isn’t bias.
The BBC continued:
The clips are garish and not subtle at all – but that hasn’t put a dent in how vigorously people are sharing and commenting on them.
If the BBC wants sophisticated and subtle, maybe they should resume greenlighting shows like The Thick of It.
The next part was a fair description anyway:
In one of the videos, Donald Trump falls through a whirlwind of “Epstein file” documents as rap lyrics tell us “the secrets are leaking, the pressure is rising”.
In another, George Floyd can be seen under a policeman’s boot as we hear Iran is “standing here for everyone your system ever wronged”.
The next bit was just asinine:
The videos are also littered with factual inaccuracies – so we ask Mr Explosive about them.
In one clip, the Iranian military is shown capturing a downed US fighter-jet pilot. US officials have confirmed the downed airman – who was stranded in a remote, mountainous region of Iran after his aircraft was shot down – was rescued by US special forces on 4 April.
Oh my gosh! You’re telling me the Lego propaganda video contained factual inaccuracies?
Goodness gracious, does this mean president Trump isn’t actually a 1 inch tall plastic doodad?
Good lord.
The interesting question to ask is this: why are people in the West so disgusted with their governments that they share the propaganda of their supposed enemies?
The answer is because our Western governments are disgusting, bloodthirsty capitalists.
The BBC are choosing to treat this phenomenon as a ‘fake news’ problem, anyway, rather than as a symptom of an empire in collapse:
Social media platforms have been shutting down accounts with the Lego-style videos, but new ones seem to pop up just as quickly.
Yes, if only we could stop the AI Lego accounts popping up; then the public would just love all the endless genocide.
So-called ‘cyber warfare expert’ Tine Munk told the BBC:
Traditional diplomacy doesn’t exist here. And it blurs our understanding of what is happening. But it also increases the risk of misinterpretation and escalation.
I don’t know, Tine, I feel like the real risk of escalation comes from Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu constantly escalating the actual war.
The Military Industrial Slopfest
Munk is correct that these accounts keep popping up:
NEW 🇮🇷: Lego Style Music Video from Iran via PersiaBoi Studios
Titled: Hormuz Hustle
They are SO FAST. This is in respone to Trump’s new blockaid on the Strait of Hormuz, starting tomorrow. https://t.co/xNKu7NZRwj pic.twitter.com/XkOWEAElj1
— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) April 13, 2026
The Americans have worked tirelessly for 80 years to embed a global system of greed and individualism. What that looks like in 2026 is a reality in which the people of the world find novel ways to extract profit from the US’s imperial activity – in this instance through the creation of satirical slop videos.
Recognising that this is all bad doesn’t change the fact that these videos are capturing certain truths. The US is a decadent plastic republic run by a would-be king, and its values are as phony as the videos making fun of it.
Featured image via Explosive Media
Expert comment provided by Prof Adam Hart, professor of conservation ecology at the University of Gloucestershire.
In the UK, hospitalisations from false widow spiders reached 100 in 2025.
That’s significantly higher than the figure from a decade before (47 hospitalisations in 2015).
Some have called the false widow spider the UK’s most “dangerous,” though speaking to HuffPost UK, Prof Adam Hart, professor and entomologist, said “serious reactions are rare”.
We asked him why these numbers are rising, how to spot false widow spiders, and what to do if we see them.
Why are more people getting hospitalised by false widow bites?
False widows are so called because they look like the more dangerous black widow spiders. They were probably introduced to the UK in the 1800s from the Canary Islands.
But their population has been growing here since the 80s, which the expert told us might be why we’re hearing a lot more about their bite.
“Reports of rising hospitalisations from false widow bites perhaps need a bit of context,” he explained.
“The noble false widow has spread widely across the UK in recent decades, so people are encountering them more often. At the same time, media coverage has raised awareness, meaning more people notice them and are more likely to seek medical advice. That could make the issue seem bigger than it really is.”
Additionally, they stay relatively close to humans: “They tend to live around buildings, in sheds, window frames, and sheltered outdoor spaces.”
That makes contact likelier as their numbers grow.
Though noble false widow spiders do bite, Prof Hart clarified that this is very rare and, in most cases, relatively harmless.
“Most bites, where they happen at all, are mild, causing local pain and swelling similar to a wasp sting. It’s also worth remembering that, often, suspected ‘spider bites’ turn out to be something else, such as skin infections or insect bites”.
How can I tell if a spider is a false widow?
“False widows are glossy, dark spiders with a rounded abdomen and long legs, often with pale cream markings on the back,” said Prof Hart.
They are usually 7-14mm in length, and the females are generally bigger than the males.
The Natural History Museum describes the pattern on their bodies as “skull-shaped”.
What do I do if I see a false widow spider?
“If you see one, the best advice is simple: leave it alone. If needed, they can be moved with a glass and card,” Prof Hart told us.
“If someone is bitten, basic first aid is usually enough: clean the area, apply a cold compress, and keep an eye on it. Seek medical advice if symptoms worsen or don’t improve.”
And remember, if you can, that while false widows are “now a familiar part of UK wildlife… they really pose a very low risk to most people.”
A paper published in the Journal of Intelligence has found that people who listen to music with less emotionally positive lyrics appear to have slightly higher levels of projected intelligence.
Scientists tracked the smartphone activity of 185 participants over five months, creating a custom app to check the kinds of music they listened to.
The researchers also asked the people involved to take a test, which measured their fluid reasoning, vocabulary comprehension, and math knowledge. Combined, these gave the study authors a way to measure their cognitive ability.
By the end of the analysis, which involved advanced machine learning tasked with finding links between participants’ music taste and their cognitive test scores, they found “small but reliable associations”.
Lyrics seemed to matter most
The participants listened to 58,247 songs overall.
Speaking to PsyPost, study author Larissa Susst said: “When we looked more closely at how our prediction models worked and which aspects of music listening were most informative, one finding surprised us.
“The lyrics of the songs people listened to were more useful for predicting cognitive ability than the musical features… In other words, the themes and language used in the lyrics seemed to matter more than aspects like tempo or musical key.”
She added that this finding went against previous research, which suggested genre might be a better predictor of predicted intelligence.
While the difference wasn’t huge, lyrics with a “less positive emotional tone” were more strongly linked to higher intelligence in this study. The study authors point out that other papers have linked this to introspection and self-reflection.
And songs whose lyrics focused on the present, those which seemed honest, and those which related to home were also associated with higher cognitive ability.
Those who liked lyrics with more social words and less certain language were likelier to have lower cognitive scores, meanwhile.
Bear in mind, though, that the paper said their “predictive performance was modest”, and that the variance in predicted intelligence was relatively small.
Live vs studio-recorded music may matter too
Another surprising finding was that those who listened to studio-recorded music tended to have higher cognitive scores than people who listened to live recordings.
Listening to more music, and lyrics not in German (this was a German study), was also associated with higher cognitive scores.
“In our study, patterns in people’s music listening contained small but detectable signals related to their cognitive ability, suggesting that the digital traces we leave behind in daily life could potentially help approximate intelligence,” Sust said.
But the differences were so small that she cautioned, “On their own, these effects are therefore likely not strong enough to be practically useful,” and were more likely to become “meaningful if combined with many other types of behavioural data”.
Undoubtedly the biggest story from this year’s Coachella surrounds Justin Bieber and his polarising performance.
Late on Saturday night, The Biebs took to the stage in the California desert for his first of two headlining slots at the iconic music festival, the second of which is due to take place later this week.
While the first half of his set was mostly devoted to tracks from his 2025 album Swag (and its poppier follow-up, Swag II) with stripped-back staging, echoing his performance at the Grammys earlier in the year, the second part is what has really got people talking.
Much has been made about the fact that this section of Justin’s performance saw the chart-topper sitting down to his laptop and pulling up songs from the early years of his career on YouTube, alongside old clips of himself and an assortment of other random viral videos he’s enjoyed over the years.
Since Saturday, there’s been a lot of debate on social media about whether or not fans got their money’s worth from Justin’s stripped-back show, particularly in light of reports that he’s the highest-paid headliner in Coachella history.
This was the opinion shared in The Guardian’s three-star review, which pointed out that “the double standard for effort for female and male pop headliners is… striking”.
“Depending on your level of fandom, the stripped-down vision, with minimal audience asides, read as either radically vulnerable or disappointingly self-interested from reportedly the highest-paid Coachella headliner of all time,” The Guardian’s reporter opined.
Kevin Mazur via Getty Images for Coachella
Rolling Stone also agreed that while “plenty of Beliebers” will have left the set feeling “satiated”, the star largely “missed the mark” with his efforts at Coachella.
However, it should be pointed out that even as headlines about the controversy over Justin’s Coachella show continue to roll in, plenty of critics were quick to praise the show immediately after it ended, with many claiming that there’s “one key point being missed” by his detractors.
This was the line taken in Mamamia’s review, which read: “Critics were baffled as to why a global icon would spend his set scrolling through YouTube like a bored teenager in a bedroom. But that is the point.
“This wasn’t designed to be a high-gloss, choreographed spectacle. We got that from Sabrina Carpenter the night before. This was something else entirely: a walkthrough of his memories. If you expected Justin to simply return to the stage and perform a greatest hits medley, you don’t know him at all.”
A take from a self-professed Belieber published in Vogue also took this stance, pointing out that playing his hits over YouTube “gave the fans what they wanted, in a way that felt cheeky and unserious, which was simply perfect”.
“This was how all of us original Beliebers first experienced him, surfing YouTube videos in barely 360p,” Vogue’s critic argued. “The concept just worked.”
Mashable’s review was also along these lines, claiming: “Bieber was not just revisiting old clips; he was revisiting the child the internet turned into Justin Bieber.”
It continued: “Many former child stars look back at old footage, and it feels a bit silly or even sad. Here, though, Bieber seemed genuinely at peace with it. He smiled at the videos. He harmonised with his younger self, treating him less like a brand asset and more like someone worth meeting again.”
Kevin Mazur via Getty Images for Coachella
Although USA Today praised Justin for creating an intimate environment in a festival setting that felt akin to “chilling at Bieber’s house with him watching videos on YouTube like so many 30-somethings of his generation used to do with their friends”, a piece in Vulture went as far as comparing the show to “performance art”.
“In keeping it simple, and reflecting on his old hits through the portal where he was discovered, the persona of Justin Bieber was reassessed and deconstructed in real time after years of mythos and controversy,” Vulture’s critic claimed.
They then pointed out that by taking fans back through his time in the spotlight – from “heartthrob to millions” to “the world’s punching bag” – the set represented a “career-spanning victory lap and a big step forward in both artistic vision and the performance of self-mockery”.
Vulture’s piece also claimed: “To call his performance lacking in effort is a shallow read.”
“Seeing a baby-faced Bieber on screen at Coachella was a stark reminder of just how long he’s been famous, and while YouTube karaoke felt low-effort compared to a more involved production, it did make for a compelling visual to see the fully grown Bieber sing these songs as his childhood played in the rear view,” The Hollywood Reporter’s own review also claimed, although it went on to claim that the set “became more confounding than profound” as it went on.
Justin will return to Coachella this coming weekend, alongside fellow headliners Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G.
Back in February, he caused a similar buzz at the Grammys, where he delivered another low-key performance that saw him taking to the stage in just boxers from his own fashion brand.
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You know what it’s like when you’re shopping for furniture. You think you’ve found the best option out there, only to click onto another page and find five more contenders.
Then you click on to Instagram or Pinterest, and lo and behold: another thirty ads showing you another iteration of what you’ve been looking for. Thanks, cookies!
If you’re anything like me, plagued by decision paralysis, it takes months of open tabs, waiting for sales, and constant side-by-side comparison to actually make a purchase.
That’s speaking as someone who does a lot of shopping (it’s kinda in the job description) and even then, if I can do anything to make the process of furniture shopping easier, that is as big a blessing as I can ask for.
Pinterest has been my saving grace up until now: I love making boards of what I want my space to look like and using its shopping feature to find products.
But even that is flawed: often, the pieces I fall for aren’t even available to ship to the UK, or they come from some dodgy website I’m not willing to risk losing my money to.
So when I came across ShopHomeStyles, I was completely smitten.
Instead of having to guess what keywords would best describe the armchair I’m currently looking for in my room (I’m not exactly an interiors expert) the platform allows you to upload your inspo photos.
Sourcing from over 100 furniture and homeware brands like M&S, OKA, and Soho Home, the platform then matches the closest products to your inspo or keyword search in seconds.
So you don’t have to keep millions of tabs open, you can like the products you’re into and organise them into collections, making it easy to come back to them later.
Plus, if you’re not sure what style tickles your fancy, the website has its own inspiration page and breaks furniture and decor into easy to browse categories, so you can browse trends and shop by item, or look at what’s new in at your favourite stores, too.
Basically, if you want anything new for your house and want to save on scrolling through the sometimes hundreds of pages on every furniture site you come by, ShopHomeStyles seriously whittles your options down based on what you like.
The result? Less wasted time scrolling, and a place to curate your own design style for your home.
If I had known about this platform sooner, it could have saved me oodles of time. That armchair I’ve been looking for has been the subject of probably a years’ worth of Pinterest searches.
You see, I’m after a very specific retro Scandi-inspired shape, preferably in pink, red, or baby blue.
At the time of writing this, I have 167 tabs open on Safari on my phone, with various iterations of said chair.
But after simply uploading some Pinterest inspo photos to ShopHomeStyles, there’s one clear contender for my purchase: this Juno armchair from Graham and Green.
Don’t get me wrong, the price tag is definitely something to work towards. But at least now I can live in peace not having to go back and forth between this option and that.
I’m also shopping for a side table and magazine rack, so I’ve started building a separate collection to find the perfect ones.
While I’m sure I’ll spend as much time deliberating about what to go for in the end, at least my final decision will be based off results from 11 pages on ShopHomeStyle, rather than hundreds, or even thousands.
Honestly, all I can say is: phew.
The government has been continuing the Tory, Lib Dem and New Labour agenda of increased NHS privatisation. And after nearly two years in power, private providers of NHS services have made £1.6bn in profit.
The research
The Centre for Health and the Public Interest analysed £12bn worth of contracts, which it emphasised are not all of the NHS’ private provision.
The corporations that received those contracts extracted profit that could have been used for 9,178 doctors or 19,428 nurses over the two year period. Another ten thousand doctors for the NHS would also go some way in addressing the striking resident doctors’ concerns.
The new research takes forward a previous study by We Own It, which found the private sector made an average of £10m a week in profit from 2012-2024.
The Centre for Health and the Public Interest also noted that 131 companies made more than 20% profit from the NHS. Between 8% and 9% are the usual profits for a company.
The study further found that the NHS spent around £2.5bn on companies registered outside the UK or in tax havens.
More and more healthcare privatisation
In January 2025, the prime minister announced he would increase private provision of helath services by 20%. After only his first year in power, NHS privatisation leapt by 10%. If that continues, there will be a 50% increase in privatised NHS services by the end of this parliament.
Some areas have seen much higher increases. In South East London, NHS private provision increased by 71% from July 2024 to July 2025. Other high increases were in Dorset at 51%, along with Cambridgeshire/ Peterborough and Suffolk/ NE Essex at 41% each.
Successive governments know that making people pay outright for NHS services is very unpopular. So they have been gradually turning healthcare into a vehicle for profit through enabling corporations to provide the services with an NHS badge on them. Instead of making people pay at the point of use, it’s through profit from the healthcare budget and public purse.
Featured image via the Canary
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