Politics
Can Zack Polanski hypnotise the left?
There is one thing we can say for Zack Polanski, the ‘eco-populist’ leader of the Green Party. He stands out. And not entirely for the right reasons.
How Zack must regret that, in his former career as a hypnotherapist, he agreed to go along with Sun journalist Kasie Davies when she rocked up at his swanky Harley Street consulting room back in 2013, and asked him to use his mesmeric powers to increase the size of her bosom. How much better, he must reflect, it would’ve been to say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous’, slam down the phone and get back to the serious work of helping people with more money than sense to hand him some of that money. But he’s stuck forever now, whatever he says or does, with his reputation as the Boob Whisperer, Hypnotits, Derren Bra-on, the Mammary Master, etc.
It’s quite unfair, really. It’s not as if he made a habit of offering this unusual service. This was a one-off, a bit of fun. Unfortunately for him, it’ll make him a living Benny Hill Show sketch – Playtex Polanski, the Gazonga Guru, a politician who certainly has his knockers, etc – in the eyes of the public for the rest of his days. What bad form it would be to linger on the incident here. So let’s linger.
‘Hypnosis essentially involves taking a person’s fixed attention’, reported Davies, ‘and moving it from one place to another’. Polanski explains it as follows:
‘Take, for example, the last time you were engrossed in a book or TV show and didn’t hear someone say your name. Right then, you were under a form of hypnosis…The unconscious mind also controls our bodily functions.’
In this instance, he was speaking to the part of the brain that controls the release of growth hormones needed for breast enlargement, as well as stimulating tissue growth and blood flow to that area.
And amazingly, this experiment was a success! Davies was cock-a-hoop with the development of her décolletage. ‘I measure my bust after three days. I’ve grown from a 32 inch chest to 34 inches’, she writes. ‘Three days later, my chest measures 35 inches. Another three days and I’m 36 inches. I’m still wearing a B-cup but it is a lot more snug and I realise I should have been wearing an A-cup before.’ But then, panic sets in. ‘What if my breasts don’t stop growing?’, she wondered. (I’m seeing that Kenny-Everett-as-Rod-Stewart sketch).
‘But after 10 days the growth grinds to a halt… After two weeks, I email Zack to ask him why. He says that, during our session, it emerged my unconscious wasn’t happy for this experiment to occur for an indefinite amount of time, so he asked it whether it was okay to happen for 10 days. It apparently agreed.’
Thank goodness. Imagine if Zack hadn’t done this deal with the poor woman’s unconscious – forget the climate crisis, the exponential growth of her fulminating funbags would by now have threatened all life on Earth. Zack was certainly happy with the results: ‘This is an extremely new approach, but I can see it becoming popular very quickly, because it’s so safe and a lot cheaper than a boob job.’
Away from the pun potential, what does this great experiment tell us about Zack? That he’ll say anything that’s expedient, in the moment, without much thought. That he’ll gladly play the role of the person who tells the gullible what they want to hear.
It’s quite funny that nowadays, when reminded of the incident, he takes great pains to say, very seriously, how he apologised to the world for it the very next day after publication, as if it were some terrible crime. All that he did was to play along with a tabloid journo for a bit of daft fun. And yet, he must – grandly and dramatically – atone. Which just makes the whole affair even funnier, and much harder to shake off.
But then, he has the look of someone who’s about to add the words ‘disgraced former’ to every line on his disparate CV. He’s an insult to the noble profession of tit-nosis.
For Zack Polanski is actually David Paulden, a waster of our time and his own, bouncing from one nonsense activity to the next – actor, hypnotist and now politician. His background has been thoroughly excavated by Guy Adams in the Daily Mail. Suffice to say, there’s a disparity between his claim of a humble background and the enterprising vim of the family Polanski – sorry, Paulden.
Zack was privately educated at Stockport Grammar School on a scholarship, but was ‘kicked out’ for being ‘a bit too cheeky’ and went to a state sixth-form college. ‘I remember absolutely loving it and thriving, and suddenly going: Oh, this is what diversity feels like. This is what it feels like when everyone’s not homogeneous.’ This would be 1998, when almost nobody gave a monkeys about ‘diversity’. But then Zack has a curious talent for throwing the modern into the past. He regularly tells us how awful the anti-homosexual piece of legislation, Section 28, was, despite being just six years old when it became law.
Adams reveals the hilarious diatribe dropped by Polanski in 2019 when he got arrested for stopping traffic crossing Westminster Bridge for Extinction Rebellion, and spent a night in the nick. ‘I’m a vegan and they were pretty bad about getting me some vegan food’, said Polanski. ‘If you are going to arrest 300 activists, you have got to think about getting some vegan food ready. There was no soy milk, either, so I had to have my tea black.’ The horror!
Zack spent some time as an actor in the mid-to-late 2000s, but seems never to have got very far on the stage except for appearing in ‘immersive theatre’. This is the lowest of a very low profession, chivvying people about pretending to be in a crashing spaceship or whatever. Then he jumped to hypnotism. Then, in 2015, to the Liberal Democrats. And then, in 2017, to eco-activism and the Greens, where he has at last found his métier.
But who is Zack Polanski? What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually. Names have a strange power, I find. Name changing is an acceptable activity for pop stars, actors, spies and criminals. There’s something about real names that tells the truth – Harry Webb (Cliff Richard), Reg Dwight (Elton John), David Jones (David Bowie), Marie Lawrie (Lulu). They reveal something about that person.
But when people switch their appellation and have no showbiz reason, or pressing need to disambiguate themselves from another person with the same name, I find it a bit suspect. I had a couple of dalliances with exotically monikered chaps in my salad-tossing days; when I stumbled on the prosaic truth, their real names clicked around them, like a protective case snaps around a phone. ‘Oh yes, that’s you’, I thought. This holds true for Zack. There’s never been anybody who looks more like a ‘Dave Paulden’, who became ‘Zack Polanski’ aged 18.
The surname Polanski certainly sounds exotic and memorable, even if it also brings a certain child-raping film director to mind; a bit like redubbing yourself Savile or Glitter. Polanski was the original name of Paulden’s Jewish ancestors, but not used for generations. I’m not sure Zack would have switched it if the ancestral name had been Winkle, Blum or boring old Goldberg. Polanski adds something spicy. And Zack? This was the name of a character in a favourite book of our Dave’s – thank goodness it wasn’t Mr Bump.
The changing of your name is something you do as a teenager, running from yourself, trying out new looks and new identities every five minutes; practising your quirky signature and dyeing your hair. Eighteen is leaving this a bit late. When I was 14, I decided to rename myself Harvey for some peculiar reason – I think because of Harvey Keitel, who I thought was super-cool. Everyone laughed in my face, and thank the stars they did.
What can we say of Zack’s acting career? It may seem a bit too obvious to point out that he is acting at politics, but I think it could be the case. A friend of mine worked for a kids’ pop mag many years ago, and he discovered that at least one of the members of a fleetingly hyper-celebrated teeny bop group viewed music not as a career, but as a role. He was, in effect, playing the part of someone with his name, like doing a long run in a musical. I think Zack the politician could well be another example of this – another part.
In one of his super-popular promo videos for the Greens, released in October last year, we follow Zack as he stalks mournfully through the twilit streets ranting – in a caring way, natch – about billionaires and calling for that lefty panacea, a wealth tax.
Now, I failed Maths O-level three times, and even I understand that wealth taxes are always a disaster. Polanski’s video apparently made Owen Jones, among others, weep. This is because they are simple-minded, resentful zealots with no understanding of economics, or indeed of life. The likes of Polanski live in the most peaceful, prosperous and indeed most equal civilisation there has ever been. And yet, in the name of the planet or the patronised ‘poor’, they rail against it all, against industry, against prosperity, against growth. They want to overthrow it – out of nothing much more than boredom and self-flagellating, self-aggrandising guilt, the most luxurious of all the emotions. This is the tantrum of a child smashing up a toy for something to do. There are indeed serious challenges facing British society right now, but they are entirely different ones to those Polanski campaigns on.
It’s an obvious shot but I’m taking it anyway – the boob-whispering is more sane than the Green Party programme. Where does Zack think money goes, what profits actually are, what growth means? The irony is that it’s precisely the tinkering of politicians – something the Greens want to do more of – that has made the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in recent years. It is progressives, technocratic to their core, who have brought stagnation and hopelessness down upon us.
Oh, and needless to say, Zack is all in on gender, the whole trans shebang swallowed whole. He applauded the arrest of Graham Linehan last September, and has stood bravely against women’s sports, safety and dignity.
Whenever challenged in the media, he responds with a set of stock replies – billionaires, Section 28, ‘inclusive’ feminism (which means including men), etc. And of course you’re never far away from a reference to the ‘genocidal state of Israel’ – another Polanski staple. You pull the string and you get one of his 11 set phrases, like a progressive activist Chatty Cathy, new from Mattel. He is, after all, just saying what he is expected to say, as he did all those years ago in his consulting rooms with Kasie Davies.
I don’t think this is calculated. I think he thinks he believes it all. But as you can see in almost every interview, he is hopelessly out of his depth, and cannot follow the logic in even very simple questions. Last September, he told the i newspaper, ‘I believe that racism… probably comes from poverty. I think if you don’t have scarcity in your life, and if you feel safe and secure, why would you hate another person?’ This could well be the very dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a politician come out with.
The central issue is that he is clearly very, very thick. This is, after all, a homosexual who rants on about Section 28 and at the same time is happy to indulge Mothin Ali, an Islamic sectarian, as his deputy leader – a man who, on 7 October 2023, in response to Hamas’s rape and slaughter of Israeli Jews, tweeted ‘White supremacist European settler colonialism must end!’. You can read Zack’s hopeless attempts to excuse that here.
Now, finally, Dave Paulden has the attention he always wanted. He is an eco-populist for the foreseeable, until the wheels come off and / or he tires of it. On the evidence so far, I predict an eventual Third Act as a television presenter, back at the fluff-level. Stay tuned for The Great British Boob-Off, 2035.
Gareth Roberts is a screenwriter, author and novelist, best known for his work on Doctor Who. This is an edited extract from his ‘Middle Class Holes’ series on Substack.
The US is bringing in automatic draft registration for military-aged men. The move is cross-party and predates the paused illegal war on Iran. Yet it shows that the US political elite remains committed to warfare on a massive scale in the future.
CNN reported:
Young, eligible men will be automatically registered for the military draft pool starting in December as part of a measure tucked into the annual defense policy bill Congress signed into law late last year.
Men ages 18 to 26 must already register for selective service in case a draft is required. The last time a draft was in effect was February 1973, during the Vietnam War.
US politicians passed the Selective Service System (SSS) bill in 2024. And a recent amendment means automatic registration will begin in December.
The SSS describes itself as:
SSS is an independent Federal agency established to ensure the availability of personnel to support the United States in times of national emergency. The Agency’s mission is to provide manpower to DoD when conscription is authorized by Congress and the President and to operate a system of alternative service for conscientious objectors.
By maintaining a robust registration system and ensuring preparedness, SSS plays a critical role in supporting America’s national security needs.
US — Failure to register
Registering does not mean joining the military. But federal law requires:
all male citizens of the United States, and male immigrants residing in the country, ages 18-25, to register with SSS.
Failure to register can result on punishment by the American government:
such as ineligibility for employment in the Executive branch of the Federal government; Federally-funded job training; and state-based student aid and employment in many jurisdictions. Additionally, naturalization to become a U.S. citizen may be delayed up to five years if a person fails to register.
There are some differences between US states, but the obligation includes, for example, green card holders and dual citizens.
The US used the ‘draft’ — mandatory conscription to the military — in the World Wars and Vietnam. Both main US parties backed the SSS legislation, passing it with “bipartisan support”. The US military is currently an all-volunteer force, albeit one which relies on a so-called poverty draft. And the current US commander-in-chief has developed a taste for foreign wars, despite claiming otherwise.
Trump’s wars
US president Donald Trump, who came to power as an ‘anti-war’ candidate has entangled the US in an illegal war of choice war with Iran. His official foreign-military policy stance described in the 2025 National Security Strategy seemed to mark a degree of withdrawal from world affairs. Direct involvement in a war like Iran did not seem to be on the agenda.
To quote the NSS directly:
We want to prevent an adversarial power from dominating the Middle East, its oil and gas supplies, and the chokepoints through which they pass while avoiding the “forever wars” that bogged us down in that region at great cost.
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 Strait 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.
This bill shows that a commitment to war is built into American politics across all major parties. Whoever is in power — imperialist liberals like Barack Obama or hard-right demagogues like Donald Trump — the US is still at its very core a violent imperial power.
Featured image via IMDB
Pope Leo XIV on Friday issued a sweeping condemnation of war, continuing to reject the idea that military action can bring about peace or freedom as the Trump administration and other leaders use religion to justify the U.S.-Israel war in Iran.
“God does not bless any conflict,” Leo wrote on X. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Military force, he added, will not result in peace or freedom — that “comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.” He did not mention President Donald Trump or other leaders by name in the post on X.
Trump, who describes himself as a Christian, but not Catholic, has invoked faith several times throughout his term as a means to justify his actions.
Trump on Monday told reporters at a White House press briefing that he believes God supports the Iran war “because God is good” and wants to “see people taken care of.”
Leo had previously condemned Trump’s threat from earlier this week to destroy Iranian civilization.
He called the threat “truly unacceptable” and urged that the conflict in the Middle East “is only provoking more hatred.”
At a Palm Sunday mass, Leo insisted that no one could use God to justify war, telling the tens of thousands of people gathered before him that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has framed the Iran war, which reached a temporary ceasefire Tuesday after six weeks of fighting, as divinely sanctioned — often turning to prayer and belief that God is on the side of the U.S. military.
At a Pentagon church service held weeks after the Iran war began, Hegseth, who is also a Christian, but not Catholic, read a prayer that called for violence against military enemies.
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” he prayed during the livestreamed service. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
After the Democratic National Committee punted on two resolutions in August that highlighted the party’s deep divide on Israel, DNC Chair Ken Martin convened a task force “to have the conversation” and “bring solutions back to our party.”
Seven months later, the Middle East working group — meeting today in-person for the second time — still has work to do.
The group, composed of eight DNC members with backgrounds in Jewish and Palestinian advocacy, has struggled to meet consistently or coalesce around shared objectives. Part of that is due to the difficulties of coordinating across schedules and time zones, with at least one member actively running for office. But atop those hurdles come the challenges of productive discourse about one of the party’s most contentious debates among a cohort with sharp ideological divides.
“People aren’t comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Steph Newton, a DNC member from Oregon who’s part of the working group, told POLITICO. “These uncomfortable discussions are how we’re going to be able to move the party forward and find a solution.”
The working group met for the first time in December at the DNC’s winter meeting in Los Angeles, and convened virtually two more times, on March 1 and March 18. Those meetings mostly centered on figuring out what the group should be working on in the first place. “Most of the time, what we’ve talked about is, ‘What are we supposed to be doing?’” said James Zogby, another member from D.C.
The working group comes as divides over support for Israel remain a persistent liability for Democrats, and as AIPAC’s involvement in midterm primaries presents a new purity test for candidates. “No one gets anywhere by trying to shout the other side of the room — as a matter of fact, I think that would be harmful politics,” Andrew Lachman, another working group member from California, said.
A DNC spokesperson emphasized the group’s goal is to figure out how to talk to voters about the Middle East in a way that ultimately helps the party build coalitions and win elections.
The group’s inaction so far came into sharper focus yesterday at the DNC’s spring meeting in New Orleans, when the party’s resolutions committee considered one brought by Joe Salas, another member of the working group from California, to recognize Palestinian statehood.
“It is necessary for the Democratic National Committee to address the ongoing heinous and illegal acts against the Palestinian people. Some here may say that there is a working group. To that, I say that we are in a midterm year and they are yet to produce any results in a moment where anger has only grown amongst the American people,” said Cameron Landon, VP of the College Democrats of America, who spoke on behalf of Salas.
Salas, who wasn’t at the meeting, submitted the resolution without discussing it with the other members of the Middle East working group, according to Zogby and Newton, who said she was “surprised” to see it in the resolutions packet.
“I would assume that if we’re on a work group together discussing these issues, you say, ‘Hey, work group members, teammates, I want to submit a resolution on X, Y and Z. I know we’re working toward something like this together. Is this something that we can discuss?’” Newton said.
Deborah Cunningham-Skurnik, another member of the group from California, told the resolutions panel yesterday that there were “some parts of it I would like to go bit by bit over with” Salas.
Salas said in an interview ahead of the vote he wouldn’t attend the New Orleans meeting because “I’m just gonna let them have those words and reject them, accept them, modify them, whatever they want to do.” He didn’t respond to further requests for comment about why he didn’t tell the working group he submitted the resolution.
The panel ultimately referred those resolutions back to the working group — with a warning. “As a body, we recommend this going back to the task force,” said Ron Harris, the resolutions committee co-chair. “But then we can put some — I don’t want to say ‘constraints,’ but expectations that we hear back.”
John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, was more direct. “It can’t just be we have a task force and then the next time we have a DNC meeting, it just comes up again. No, we want to see your progress. You want to have a task force? You want to make the hard changes, have the hard discussions? Then do it,” he said.
Allison Minnerly, another working group member from Florida, said after the snafu that “so long as the party does not prioritize this conversation, you will see what happened today, which is that DNC resolutions committee members have many questions on the inaction and the results of the working group. It’s really clear that this issue will keep coming up at every subsequent DNC meeting until there’s a clear direction, solution, talking points.”
Now that the party has referred the resolutions to the working group, it finally has a clear, near-term objective for its meeting today.
“I actually am pleased that we will now have a very specific charge that we must accomplish in a defined period of time,” Zogby said. “We have not had a defined agenda, and it’s been difficult to get people together. Now we have to get this done, and there’s just no way we can duck it at this point.”
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“In Palestine, as a student, you don’t live a normal life,” Sundos Hammad, coordinator of the Right to Education (R2E) campaign at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, told the Canary.
You go to university not knowing if there will be a raid of your campus, if you will be arrested or harassed at the checkpoint leading to your university, if one of your loved ones or friends will be imprisoned or killed.
The Israeli occupation has been systematically targeting education since the Nakba of 1948 because it plays an important role in helping Palestinians build their community and preserve their collective identity. This also means a strong student movement inside campuses, which helps resist the occupation.
Between 1972, when it was founded, and 1988, Birzeit University was closed 15 times by military orders. Many students and faculty members were imprisoned by the Israeli occupation during this time.
Birzeit University’s founder and first president, Dr Hanna Nasir, was expelled to Lebanon by the Israeli occupation in 1974, and then to Jordan with no charges. He was not permitted to return to Palestine until after the Oslo Agreement.
But Hammad stresses that, despite all the odds, Palestinians continue their education because it is their “tool of existence”, their way out of occupation and towards liberation.
Education in Palestine is fraught with risks
In the first uprising in 1988, all schools, universities and even nurseries were closed by military orders, and education was illegal for Palestinians.
When they went to school holding a book or backpack, they were threatened with being investigated or put in an Israeli occupation prison. But students and academics of Palestinian universities did not stop. Instead, they held an underground system of education, where they held classes in student houses, rented apartments, churches and mosques. There were even instances of lectures being held in cars.
During this time, Birzeit University campus was closed for 51 consecutive months.
During the Second Intifada, there was a checkpoint on the Birzeit Ramallah road, which meant students had to walk 14km to reach Birzeit campus. They endured the walk so they could continue their education.
‘What if one of our students got killed…?’
The R2E campaign emerged in 1988. Its main aim back then was to break the isolation of higher education institutions, and document and monitor violations against students, staff and faculty members of Birzeit University.
Crimes against students are rampant and Hammad is fearful for their safety.
Israel is an occupying force. They carried out a genocide in Gaza and no one stopped them. Even the International Court of Justice said it is a genocide in Gaza and they must stop, but they haven’t. No one is holding them accountable so they can come to our campus and invade it anytime.
It is the students’ right to be educated in safety and it makes me really sad to see that the students have to live with this fear of being on campus. I sometimes think, ‘What if one of our students got killed in an invasion by live ammunition?’ Things would then go really terrible.
It’s really dangerous. It’s only a matter of time.
Birzeit University became a ‘war zone’ in January 2026
Two people were seriously injured in the last raid on 6 January this year when more than 200 soldiers fired live ammunition at terrified students.
The Israeli occupation shot at students, threw stun grenades and sound bombs. About 8,000 students were on campus at the time — 40 were injured and 11 were hospitalised. Nine of them were shot with live ammunition.
Hammad said the university had been turned into a “war zone”.
Some of the soldiers stayed at the door of the university’s health clinic, so the medical team couldn’t come out and help the injured students. They also didn’t let ambulances come in for half an hour.
There were terrible injuries in the bodies of the students. One student had a bullet come out from his abdomen. He has had four surgeries so far. The other bullet exploded in his elbow and he had to have metal in his arm, so he could move it. He was about to graduate but has had to stop his studies until he recovers and is able to return.
Birzeit University campus has been raided 26 times since 2002 and five times since October 2023. These raids often happen in the middle of the night and involve the invasion of the buildings of the student council.
January’s raid was similar to the one in March 2018, in that it took place in the middle of the day when students were on campus. In 2018, special forces of the Israeli occupation infiltrated campuses disguised as student journalists.
They made their way to the student council room and kidnapped its president, who was then imprisoned for four-and-a-half years.
Aysar Safi: Shot in his neck then stood on until he died
There have been 40 martyrs from Birzeit University. The first was assassinated by an Israeli soldier in the old campus during a 1984 demonstration because he was holding a Palestinian flag.
In May 2024, during a demonstration on Nakba day, an occupation soldier shot 19-year-old student, Aysar Safi, in the neck. When his colleagues tried to take him to an ambulance, a soldier callously stood on his body until he died.
Remembering Safi, Hammad said:
He was always smiling and full of life, it was so sad for the university students. Aysar was also helping his mother as his father and brother, who was also a student, were both in prison. His mother was dreaming of his graduation.
Nearly 160 students from Birzeit University are currently being held in Israeli occupation prisons. More than 75 of those, including two female students and two academics, are being held under administrative detention, with no charge or trial — some for three or four years.
Before 7 October 2023, the average annual number of arrests would be about 55 or 60, but numbers have escalated considerably.
Just since yesterday until today we have had six students from Birzeit University imprisoned — four yesterday and two today — so far.
The R2E campaign documents student detention and imprisonment and provides students who have been arrested with a free lawyer.
Before the Gaza genocide began, Hammad said that when students were released from prison, they were very open to speaking out. The campaign documented the violations they experienced during their imprisonment and wrote reports that went to the UN Human Rights Council.
But now, most students refuse to speak about what happened to them. Not only do they not want to remember their time in prison, they are also afraid of speaking out and being re-arrested. They are traumatised from the abuse and neglect in the Israeli occupation’s prisons.
Unfortunately, this silence is what the occupation wants.
Students face threats of rearrest if they return to education
When these students leave prison, through the R2E campaign, the university helps them continue their education. They are able to return to their studies at the point they left off and sit any incomplete exams.
Although, since October 2023, there have been four instances of students who have wanted to continue their education but faced threats of being rearrested if they do. Afraid, those students are now trying to receive online teaching instead.
Hammad explained that everything is censored by the Israeli occupation.
Our phones, our social media, everything. There’s even an Israeli Army captain who monitors Birzeit university. Students get threatening messages from him, saying to stay away from any activism inside campus.
When the university campus is invaded, multiple times we have found [his] card stuck in the walls or the places that were invaded. It’s really terrible because we live under military rule. Every university has someone like [him].
Students affiliated to political parties inside campus are the most targeted by the occupation. This is because the Israeli occupation considers Palestinian student political parties to be illegal, terrorist groups.
Believe me, sometimes students do not know about their history because the school textbooks are really monitored. But we believe it’s our job to raise awareness about this, and the role of students in changing the status quo regarding the right to education, and what it means to have your full rights and access to education.
The R2E campaign empowers its student volunteers by providing them with training and workshops, and engaging them in many events, locally and internationally. This knowledge helps raise their awareness and empowers them to speak out about what is happening in Palestine and their own experiences living under occupation and settler colonialism.
They also speak about scholasticide, described by the UN as the “systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure”.
Activists globally give hope to students in Palestine
During the Campus Voices for Palestine events in both 2024 and 2025, organised by University and College Workers for Palestine (UCW4P) and the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), Birzeit University’s Right to Education campaign delivered talks across the UK. These were a call to action for all British students and educators in solidarity with Palestine, to end the complicity of their universities in the oppression of Palestinians.
As a grassroots campaign, Hammad told us R2E believes change comes from the bottom up, so they work with the people to change the status quo. Although its work is driven by students, the impact is huge because the students believe in what they are doing.
Explaining the importance of the campaign and Palestinian education in general, she said:
“It’s so much easier to control ignorant people so education has become a tool for resisting the status quo, of resisting the occupation of our knowledge. It’s what keeps us on the land and enables us to persist on our right to exist, to return, to be liberated, and all human rights.
It is also the main tool to preserve our Palestinian identity and a form of resistance, to say to our occupier that we exist and we are not going anywhere. We will not be ignorant about our own history or our land. It is part of our resilience and existence as Palestinians, and it is also about self-determination.
How are we going to have our own sovereignty if we aren’t educated? For all these reasons, the occupation will not succeed in demolishing our education system, although they are really trying to. Education will continue against all the odds!
Featured image via Global Campus of Human Rights
The UK military has told the Canary that British war drone circled Lebanon for 13 hours on 8 April 2026 was not there. This is despite is being visible on an aircraft tracking platform. The Cyprus-launched aircraft circled a key battlefield in Israel’s current air and ground assault on Lebanon. It was there despite the UK calling for a ceasefire.
Journalist Matt Kennard, who originally spotted the aircraft, reported that 18 people had been killed in Baalbek, in Lebanon’s east, at time of the flight:
🚨Keir Starmer sent a MQ-9 Reaper drone over Lebanon for 13 hours yesterday
Departing from RAF Akrotiri, it flew in circles near Baalbek. At same time, Israeli strikes killed 18 people in area
Starmer flew intel flights over Gaza for Israel. Is this part of same arrangement? pic.twitter.com/WShUvyvQ62
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) April 9, 2026
The Canary understands the aircraft may be Protector drone, which was meant to supersede the Royal Air Force’s Reaper drones. However UK NGO Drone Wars said in 2025 that Reaper’s lifespan had been extended.
The Reaper drone and Protector drone can carry lethal munitions. RAF Akrotiri is one of two UK colonial bases in Cyprus. The Canary recently reported on efforts by local anti-genocide activists to reclaim Cypriot sovereignty.
🚨Video of British MQ-9 Reaper drone flying over east Lebanon yesterday as Israeli strikes hit the area
The Reaper drone is weaponised and can drop Paveway II 500-pound bombs pic.twitter.com/Mmsv1NH38w
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) April 9, 2026
And a British Reaper or Protector also overflew Lebanon on 9 April:
The same British Reaper drone flew over same area of Lebanon for 10 hours today (April 9) pic.twitter.com/XMDzDJptze
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) April 9, 2026
The Canary asked the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) for more details about why a British military aircraft was over Lebanon during the Israeli assault.
MOD communications officer Luc Wilson told us:
The aircraft in question was not conducting operations over Lebanon.
‘Operations’? It was a military drone out on annual leave, was it?
Israel is currently attempting to cut off southern Lebanon by force. Israel’s intention has long been to colonise the region entirely.
The UK flew crewed spy flights over Gaza throughout the first years of the genocide. These also originated in Cyprus. After those spy flights ended, it emerged that the UK government had decided to replace them with drone flights.
Still hitting Lebanon
The Canary reported on 22 November 2025:
The Genocide-Free Cyprus (CFG) group has uncovered details of an extensive new mission involving the use of Reaper long-endurance drones – designated Protector RG1 for the RAF – that are already preparing for what is evidently a new surveillance mission over Gaza, with the drones already operating close to the Gaza coast.
Israeli is still hitting the region despite claiming to be on-board with ceasefire plans:
💢 Israeli warplanes and drones carried out a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon on Friday evening, hitting multiple towns and civilian areas, according to Lebanon’s state news agency and reporting from L’Orient Today.
➤ Airstrikes hit Kfar Dounin (Nabatieh), a home in… https://t.co/M09nl1dlvE
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) April 10, 2026
In theory, Hezbollah breached a US-brokered ‘ceasefire’ with Israel in early March which had held up since their last war in 2024. In practice, the US gave Israel carte blanche to strike Lebanon, which it has done constantly since the deal was struck. During the intervening period, Israel attacked southern Lebanon about 15,400 times.
Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich said on 23 March that the current war:
needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders.
I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani.
The post Reform, the Greens and the death of the uniparty appeared first on spiked.
Trade unionists, families, and campaigners will gather on the Cornwall coast this June for Unite on the Hill. It’s a new festival that aims to combine culture, community, and class politics. Branch SW008 of the Unite union is organising the event.
It’ll take place from 19–21 June 2026 at Maker Heights (PL10 1LA) and bring together live music, food, and family activities. There’ll be a programme of political discussion addressing issues facing working people in Devon and Cornwall.
The festival comes at a time when the region is facing rising levels of insecure, low-paid work and some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Alongside this, anger continues to grow over water privatisation and environmental damage affecting local communities.
Talks across the weekend will include:
- Workplace organising.
- The campaign to bring South West Water into public ownership.
- Tackling child poverty.
- Confronting the power of big tech monopolies.
John Whitcher, Chair of Unite SW008, said:
Our members are often isolated – both geographically and because they work in workplaces too small to have their own branch.
But the need for collective action has never been greater. This event is about bringing people together — replacing despair with hope, and showing what’s possible when we unite.
SW008 is one of the largest Unite branches in the South West. It represents workers in small and fragmented workplaces, many without formal union structures. The festival is part of a broader effort to rebuild grassroots trade unionism in areas often overlooked by national organising.
Building working class culture in Cornwall
At the same time, Unite on the Hill continues a growing tradition of socialist festivals in the region, following earlier events such as Kernow Transformed and Devon Transformed. Organisers hope it will help establish Devon and Cornwall as a key centre for working-class culture and political organisation.
Tickets are available now, with free entry for Unite members and their families (first come, first served), alongside a limited number of tickets for non-members:
🎟️ Free tickets for Unite members & their families (first come, first served)
🎟️ Guest tickets (for non-members)
In addition to political discussions, the festival will feature live bands and DJs, local food and drink, children’s activities, and opportunities to explore the surrounding coastline.
Organisers say the aim is simple: to create a space where working people can come together, share experiences, and build the confidence and organisation needed to challenge inequality – in Cornwall and beyond.
Featured image via Maker Heights
NEW YORK — Kamala Harris just gave the Democratic Party the most explicit sign yet she’ll run for president in 2028.
“Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” Harris told the Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network convention on Friday, when he asked her whether she will run again in 2028. “I’ll keep you posted,” she said as she walked off the stage, concluding a roughly 40-minute appearance that was peppered with cheers and a standing ovation from attendees.
The former vice president has toyed with the idea before, but her comments Friday took on a new meaning in front of an audience full of Black lawmakers, influential power brokers and voters at what amounted to the first major cattle-call for the potential 2028 Democratic field.
“I know what the job is and what it requires,” she told Sharpton on stage.
Harris was the sixth possible 2028 contender to take the stage at the conference for a fireside chat with Sharpton, a tacit acknowledgement that whether the hopefuls ultimately decide to run or not, they know they can’t skip this room. But Harris was received with the most enthusiasm from the audience compared to any of the Democrats who spoke earlier this week, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
The crowd in the packed ballroom chanted, “Run again! Run again!”
At one point, the cheers for Harris grew to such a tenor, Sharpton jokingly admonished the crowd: “This is a convention, not a revival.”
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A social media post from Pakistan’s defence minister criticising Israel’s genocidal violence on Lebanon amid ceasefire negotiations has been removed following pressure from Zionists.
Khawaja Asif called Israel a “curse for humanity” for killing innocent civilians in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. He also implied Israel was sabotaging the “peace talks”.
Pakistani Minister Quietly Scrubs Post Swiping At Israel
DM Asif branded the country a “curse for humanity” in a post that has now disappeared from social media after sparking a backlash.
“First Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon – bloodletting continues unabated,” the message… pic.twitter.com/unAJtz5m1H
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 10, 2026
Rather than addressing or taking accountability for the deadly strikes on Lebanon that killed more than 300 people and wounded nearly 1,200, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire agreement. He also hit back at Asif, calling his comments “outrageous”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“Dear residents of the North, I am proud of you. You continue to stand firm.
I wish to inform you: There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we restore your security. pic.twitter.com/k2JeKXEMBQ
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 9, 2026
Pakistan should remain a ‘neutral arbiter for peace’ apparently
The Prime Minister’s Office:
Pakistan Defence Minister’s call for Israel’s annihilation is outrageous. This is not a statement that can be tolerated from any government, especially not from one that claims to be a neutral arbiter for peace.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 9, 2026
Asif’s tweet was also attacked by Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar.
Israel views very gravely these blatant antisemitic blood libels from a government claiming to “mediate peace”.
Calling the Jewish state “cancerous” is effectively calling for its annihilation.
Israel will defend itself against terrorists who vow its destruction. https://t.co/CCMveNi9Qu— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 9, 2026
The deletion of one Pakistani minister’s tweet did not erase the 300 Lebanese dead, or the growing recognition across the Global South of Israel’s role as the wielder of western-backed violence in West Asia.
Featured image via Firstpost
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