BBC’s Question Time is at it again — this time, the show has put together a homogeneously pro-AI panel for tonight’s special on the environmentally ruinous technology.

Green leader Zack Polanski went so far as to speculate that the entire episode was bought and paid for by the AI lobby. Likewise, journalist Caroline Cadwalladr characterised the show as laundering AI’s image in a similar manner to its performance with Nigel Farage.

Long-time readers will already be familiar with the Canary’s distaste for the national broadcaster’s flagship panel show. Question Time has previously faced allegations of blocking pro-Palestine audience members, mis-labelling panelists to massage right-wing images, and biasing its audiences against the left, to name but a few instances.

So, really, presenting a grab-bag of AI shills and calling it a panel is par for the course.

Could we not get Skynet?

So, who exactly has Question Time dragged up to face a light grilling from Fiona Bruce at 9pm tonight? The show posted:

Joining Fiona on the panel are Darren Jones, Julia Lopez, Mo Gawdat, Laura Gilbert, and Victor Riparbelli

Let’s break that down, shall we?

Darren Jones is the Labour MP for Bristol North West. Whilst he’s been critical of companies like Royal Mail using AI to monitor employees, he’s also been a champion of the technology, particularly in the form of ChatGPT-style large-language models. Oh, and he dismissed worries about job losses, which we’re already seeing.

Julia Lopez is the Tory shadow technology secretary. She’s previously criticised the government for its apparent alignment with an EU act which attempts to regulate AI. Likewise, she’s also criticised Ed Miliband’s environmental protection policies for stifling the growth of AI companies. Noticing a pattern here? 

Mo Gawdat was once the chief business officer for Google X, the company’s pie-in-the-sky research division. On multiple occasions, he’s called for humanity to hand over control of society to AI, claiming “it may actually become our salvation.” This is a technology currently known for being unable to count fingers, by the way. 

Laura Gilbert is the senior director for AI and innovation at the Tony Blair Institute. That’s the same Tony Blair Institute, which took over £250m from Trump-buddy Larry Elison, owner of software company Oracle. 

Last but not least, Victor Riparbelli is co-founder and CEO of SynesthesiaIO. Synesthesia bills itself as “the world’s #1 AI video creation platform”.  

Question Time — ‘Not one critical voice’

Fab, so our balance here ranges between ‘enthusiastic support, with caveats’ to ‘we should crown AI as king of the world’. Oh, and half of them stand to make a bunch of money from widespread AI adoption, too. Fantastic, no notes – the BBC has outdone itself here.

In reaction to the flagrant bias on display, Green leader Zack Polanski called out the Tony Blair Institute’s ties to the AI business:

Oracle’s £250m gift to the Tony Blair Institute appears to buy you an entire Question Time episode.

Likewise, journalist Caroline Cadwalladr pointed out the similarity to Question Time’s past indiscretions:

So you know what @bbcquestiontime did with Farage? They’re now doing it with AI.

This ‘expert’ panel on AI is a disgrace: not one critical voice.

She also highlighted the incredibly leading nature of the questions the show posted in the run-up to its special episode. Question Time asked:

How has AI changed your life? Do you use it to help meet deadlines at work or school?

‘So do you like AI, or do you love it?’ ‘Well, having lost my job to an incompetent robot, I love how much free time I have to spend at home.’

Theft and destruction

Just in case tonight’s Question Time fails to acknowledge the problems with AI, here are just a couple.

Coupled with the threat to workers, AI is also a monumental threat to creatives. Generative AI relies on training from a vast well of data, which companies rarely bother to come by legally. As the Good Law Project explained:

This fake art isn’t just produced by algorithms that are trained with vast amounts of energy and by people paid poverty wages. It also depends on AI giants using creative work and refusing to pay for it. Companies like Meta and OpenAI are hoovering millions of copyright books, songs and films into their AI tools without permission – creative work that the companies admit they would never be able to afford if they were actually paying for it.

Beyond this, widespread AI adoption also comes at a massive cost to the already dying climate. For example, the Yale School of the Environment published research on the amount of energy it takes to power traditional computing vs AI.  It found that:

A.I. use is directly responsible for carbon emissions from non-renewable electricity and for the consumption of millions of gallons of fresh water, and it indirectly boosts impacts from building and maintaining the power-hungry equipment on which A.I. run.

So sure, you might be jobless and thirsty on a boiling earth, but at least you’ll be able to watch an AI video of Homer Simpson making passionate love to Hank Hill.

Let’s see if the Question Time panel gets round to that.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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A new report has laid out the scale of public funds Stormont is pumping into rip-off private nursing agencies every year, rather than using in-house staff. The standout figures in The Use of Temporary Nursing Staff in Northern Ireland show the Department of Health (DoH) spent £162 million on agency nursing staff in 2024-25, a figure three times the £52 million frittered away in 2018-19.

Authored by the comptroller and auditor general Dorinnia Carville, the report also reveals the scale of the shortfall in overall nursing staff levels. It shows the region has 17,024 “whole time equivalent registered nurses in the HSC [Health and Social Care] system”. This number is 2,195 short of the nurses needed to provide “safe and effective staffing levels”.

The use of staff from private agencies outside the government-run HSC body is an attempt to cope with this shortage. However, as is usually the case with privatisation in public services, the cost of bringing in agency staff is much higher than HSC employing workers directly. A more cost-effective measure for temporary staff is bringing in ‘bank nurses’. These are workers hired directly by Health and Social Care.

Agencies take a cut from every nurse whose services they provide to HSC. In England, this is capped at £4.87 per hour. However, the Department of Health has not secured this kind of deal, meaning:

…fees have ranged from £2 per hour to £15 per hour.

Six Counties’ agency nurses more expensive than those in London

This has dropped somewhat in May 2025 to a maximum of £10 per hour. Carville states that DoH:

…could not provide an explanation of why the variance is so significant.

Absurdly, this means HSC has been paying higher sums per hour than the NHS does for nurses working in Central London. As the report outlines:

In most of England, this rate is capped at £24.06 per hour while in inner London, which pays the highest rates for agency nurses in England, the comparable rate is capped at £28.87 per hour.

The highest rate paid for agency nurses for night, and Saturday shifts is £36.10 per hour in inner London which is still lower than the £36.86 average hourly rate for Band 5 nurses working standard day shifts in Northern Ireland.

The figures go even higher in some cases. For “Sunday and Bank Holiday shifts” in the Six Counties, some nurses receive £52.10 per hour. In the case of Inner London, the figure is £43.32. Nobody ought to begrudge skilled workers being well-paid for essential work. The issue is the agencies acting as rent-seeking middlemen, hoovering up inflated profits.

Payments dwarfed the agency spend figures for Scotland and Wales, despite those countries’ larger populations. The DoH forked out that £162 million sum in 2024-25, versus £57 million and £79 million for Scotland and Wales respectively during the same period.

Surely for all this spending we’re getting better results, though? Well, you may be shocked to know, that just as with rail, water, buses and any other privatised service, the public not only pays more, but they get worse results. Carville explains how:

…research shows a connection between a high usage of agency nurses with increased patient mortality rates, less work being completed by nursing staff, reduced patient safety levels and lower patient satisfaction.

The comptroller and auditor general also cites an October 2022 statement from then-minister of health Robin Swann acknowledging that use of agencies:

…was not a cost-effective use of taxpayers’ money, and could lead to a lack of workforce continuity, with the potential to undermine patient safety.

Nursing — neoliberalism working as intended

Staff often end up in agencies or leave the profession entirely due to the dire conditions in the public health system generally. These ultimately stem from Tory austerity policies throughout the 2010s that also hit Stormont’s finances. Carville highlights a 2024-25 Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) survey which found:

…24 per cent of those surveyed left their roles in the profession due to physical and mental health combined with burnout and exhaustion.

It also showed that:

Just 28 per cent of leavers would promote the profession – with 51
per cent considering themselves active detractors of the profession.

The report said higher agency pay rates:

…caused core staff shortages and an increased dependency on more costly agency staffing.

This is neoliberalism working as intended. Use austerity policies to defund services until the staff crack, and the service breaks. Staff leave their roles for private sector equivalents or quit entirely. Patients gravitate towards private options too. You now have an inflated private sector which the public option must rely on to meet its obligations. More money therefore flows into private coffers, and the literal death spiral littered with deceased patients continues until ultimately public health care is gone entirely.

Carville provides six recommendations for hopefully heading off that dire outcome. Notably, she suggests that:

The Department of Health should consider actions taken in other jurisdictions in the UK to reduce reliance and spend on agency nursing staff and ensure learning is built into future strategies.

Other proposals include introduction of targets to reduce agency usage, and working out how to better retain HSC staff. Addressing the broader dysfunction within Westminster and Stormont was perhaps beyond her remit.

The non-existence of a functioning executive in the Six Counties between 2017-2020 and 2022-2024 prevented major decisions on health care being made. Tory pandemic mismanagement placed a crushing burden on nurses, driving many away. Yet more fundamental is the capitalist system in which oligarchs buy off politicians and ensure austerity policies that crush the ordinary person. Health care is one of the most grave casualties, as this report lays bare.

Featured image via Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

By Robert Freeman

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As we’ve reported, Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate has some predictably rancid opinions. At the same time, he’s said some things which may surprise you – specifically that he voted against Brexit and backed freedom of movement.

Getting back to Reform’s comfort zone, we’ve now learned Kenyon supported Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Crimea back when it was held by Ukraine:

Reform’s Makerfield candidate under fire for resurfaced Russia Crimea commentshttps://t.co/8OskgxazIl

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 28, 2026

Reform and imperialism

Kenyon made his comments in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, which was then governed by Ukraine. Although the international community mostly recognises Crimea as being part of Ukraine, it’s currently held by Russia.

Kenyon said:

I agree totally, Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done, as we did with the Falklands.

He said this in response to an online forum thread which described the invasion as “democracy in action”. This is more than a little worrying, because Kenyon is seeking to become a politician in a democracy. Should we assume this means Kenyon will support the UK annexing its neighbours?

According to a Reform spokesperson, we should not, because they told the Telegraph:

at no point did [Kenyon]… explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea.

For clarity, we’re going to repeat what he said in its entirety:

I agree totally, Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done, as we did with the Falklands.

Seems pretty explicit to us, if we’re being honest!

Reform also said Kenyon was:

fully opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Do we need to repeat Kenyon’s own words again?

Reform’s ties to Russia

Reform has a pretty dodgy track record when it comes to Russian sympathies. As Skwawkbox reported for the Canary:

Former Reform UK in Wales leader Nathan Gill has today been sentenced to ten and a half years in prison after admitting taking bribes to make positive statements about Russia.

The judge in the case told Gill upon sentencing:

When you say what someone has paid you to say, you are not speaking with sincerity. If it was your genuine opinion, you would not need to be paid for saying it.

Allowing money to corrupt your moral compass constitutes a grave betrayal of the trust vested in you by the electorate.

Farage initially tried to suggest he barely knew Gill; he eventually admitted they were close. Later yet, it would turn out Farage also knew the bribers:

We know Kremlin agent of influence Nadia Sass considered Nigel Farage her ‘good friend’…because she told us.

She cultivated far right political leaders & her social media was key part of her tradecraft.

New in @thenerve_news today are the details
4/https://t.co/bDzxdxRVO6 pic.twitter.com/Yzvp7jP5uy

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) October 18, 2025

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Geopolitics

While it’s true UK politicians use Russia as an excuse for sabre rattling, it’s also undeniable that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was an act of imperialism akin to the West’s actions in the Middle East. Another obvious fact is that Reform politicians don’t respect Vladimir Putin because they see him as a bulwark against Western hegemony; they respect him because he’s a murderous crook and bully.

Kenyon might ‘explicitly’ oppose the invasion of Ukraine now, but we’re not convinced that will remain the case should he form part of a Reform government.

Featured image via Andrew Harnik (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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The post ‘Populism is the engine of democracy’ appeared first on spiked.

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The allegedly Labour government has issued its response to the 16,000 signature petition calling for a Media Sovereignty Act. And it shows total contempt for ordinary people alongside pathetic submission to media billionaires.

The Media Sovereignty Act’s five measures:

• Ban foreign media ownership.
• Ban the concentration of UK national media ownership by one person or corporation.
• Fund independent and local media with a Social Media Levy.
• Require national media to be under the remit of the statutory regulator.
• Require dark-money-funded thinktanks that are covered by the media to declare donations in real time.

The government stuck two fingers up at all five of the measures in the proposed Act. Instead it:

• Rejected any restrictions on foreign billionaires buying up all of the UK’s media.
• Refused to back reform of the current massive concentration of UK media ownership in a tiny group of largely offshore-based media billionaires.
• Refused to back a Social Media Levy, as they have in Australia. This would recoup some of the £10s of billions being siphoned abroad from UK news producers’ former advertising revenues by the three US social media tech corporations and use the proceeds to fund UK local and independent media.
• Backed the current ludicrous system whereby these foreign media billionaires ‘self-regulate’ their UK media corporations, rather than requiring them to join the post-Leveson press regulator Impress.
• Rejected the proposal to ban foreign oil corporations and billionaires from secretly funding dark-money-funded UK thinktanks that corrupt the UK government’s policy-making process.

The Media Sovereignty Act campaign director, Donnachadh McCarthy, said:

It has been one of Britain’s worst-kept secrets that the Labour and Tory Parties place the wishes of the UK’s media billionaires over the wishes of the people.

But it is hugely important that our petition has finally forced the Labour government to admit as much.

Co-director Caspar Hughes said:

You cannot have a free and fair democracy if almost all our media is dominated by the tiny 0.01%. This response means that ending media billionaireism must be a top issue in the coming Makerfield bye-election.

We need a free and fair press in the UK, free from billionaire capture.

He added:

This extraordinary admission by the Labour government that they are on the side of the media billionaires trashing our democracy spurs us to move forward with the campaign.

We will press on to get the 100,000 signatures that will finally trigger a parliamentary debate on the biggest political issue of our time.

We will now take the campaign out to the country, asking trade unions, NGO’s, student unions, branches of political parties, etc., to endorse this crucial campaign to rescue our broken democracy from the media billionaires destroying it.

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By The Canary

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A group of 26 Labour MPs — along with Diane Abbott, now an independent — have reported Reform UK for breaching the 2010 Equality Act through their repeated Islamophobia.

Predictably, Islamophobic Reform chief whip Lee Anderson, whom the complaint named specifically, responded with:

Guess what? There is no such thing as Islamaphobia. [sic]

‘Growing Islamophobia problem’

Afzal Khan, the MP leading the complaint, said that:

Reform UK have consistently failed to tackle their growing Islamophobia problem.

The 26 politicians who joined Khan in his letter to the Equalities and Human Rights Council (EHRC) included Clive Lewis, Ian Byrne and Bell Ribeiro-Addy. The complaint stated that:

Over the last few years, we have seen a number of Reform UK politicians and members make comments that are clearly racist and discriminate against ethnic minorities, and in particular, Muslims.

Of course, the group also had plenty of examples to choose from in order to back up their claim. In particular, they cited party leader Nigel Farage’s nakedly Islamophobic call to ban groups of Muslims from praying in public. His comments followed London mayor Sadiq Khan attending an Iftar event in Trafalgar Square.

The letter also added that:

The prevalence of racism within Reform UK does not exist in a vacuum and has real-world consequences for the millions of British Muslims in our country.

Farage & co.

Along with Farage, the letter also mentioned Reform MPs Sarah Pochin, Suella Braverman, and Lee Anderson. For a start, Pochin used parliamentary questions to call for a ban on the burqa. Meanwhile, in an article for the Telegraph, Braverman claimed that:

The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the antisemites are in charge now.

Reacting to that same article on GB News, Anderson said:

I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London, and they’ve got control of Starmer as well.

Anderson also added that:

People are just turning up in their thousands, and doing anything they want, and they are laughing at our police. This stems with Khan, he’s actually given our capital city away to his mates.

So yes, those three seem pretty unambiguously Islamophobic to us — and that’s naming just one example each.

‘It’s a made up word’

Of course, you can never point out a right-winger’s racism without them doubling down. In response to the complaint, Anderson posted:

I’m named in this letter.

I stand by every word.

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Guess what? There is no such thing as Islamaphobia. [sic]

It’s a made up word spouted out by educated idiots in Parliament who are scared of losing their seats.

Which is odd, because just two years ago, following his suspension from the Tory party for his Islamophobic comments on GB News, Anderson posted:

I will continue to support the Government’s efforts to call out extremism in all its forms – be that anti-semitism or islamophobia. [sic]

So, just about the only consistent things about Anderson are his refusal to learn how to spell ‘Islamophobia,’ and his bigotry. You see, the Reform chief whip is a rare and remarkable figure. He’s actually been suspended for racism from not just the Tories but also Labour.

Anderson started his political career as a Labour councillor for the Ashfield district in 2015. However, in 2018 he was suspended by the local Labour branch for using boulders to block a Traveller group from setting up a camp.

He then defected to the Tories, before being kicked out of the party for his Islamophobia. However, following his defection to Reform, Anderson has maintained the line that “Islamophobia is a made-up word”.

Discrimination? Never heard of it…

Responding to the Khan and co’s complaint, a Reform UK spokesperson said:

We stand by our comments. We will not be intimidated.

Of course they won’t be intimidated. These bigots fully believe that they have the right to say whatever vile thing they want – and especially about Muslims.

Anderson demonstrated, in perfect microcosm, his party’s attitude towards all forms of discrimination. Islamophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism etc. are the far-right party’s raison d’etre – because those words help to call them out on their bigotry, they instead attempt to define and censor them away.

In fact, Braverman’s first act as Reform’s play-pretend ‘shadow cabinet’ education, skills and equalities spokesperson was to announce that she’d rip up the 2010 Equality Act. The Tory dropout claimed that she wanted to get rid of the:

divisive notion of protected characteristics.

Ingenious – Reform can’t be punished for its naked discrimination if it eliminates the laws against discrimination. These people are dangers to Muslims, they’re dangers to any minoritised individual, and they’re dangers to the very concept of our shared human rights.

Best of luck and more power to Afzal Khan and his complaint. It’s long past time Reform MPs faced any consequence for their hate speech.

Featured image via Leon Neal / Getty Images

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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On 27 May, 140,000 Muslims performed Eid prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. However, celebrations were cut short after  Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) began arresting and attacking worshippers and journalists.

Eid prayer attacks

In one instance captured on film, members of the IOF violently assaulted a Palestinian woman, as she made her way to the mosque. She was beaten, her hijab was violently torn off, and she was subsequently arrested.

Two Palestinian journalists were also detained. Freelance video journalist Saif al-Qawasmi was arrested inside the mosque before being handed a one-week ban from entering Al-Aqsa. Meanwhile, Jerusalemite journalist and spokesperson for the Islamic Waqf Department, Firas al-Dibs, was also arrested in the mosque courtyard during sermons.

Qawasmi has told Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he has been banned six times since 2021. Qawasmi is best known for documenting Israeli crimes across occupied East Jerusalem. He has been arrested and interrogated countless times for reporting on Israel’s Al-Aqsa raids.

In 2024, he was violently assaulted by Israeli settlers at the Jerusalem Day ‘Flag March,’ while visibly wearing a press vest. His camera and footage were confiscated and he later received a four-month ban from entering the Al-Aqsa compound.

Al Dibs is also a political commentator who has spoken out about Israeli violence at one of Islam’s holiest sites. He also documents these developments in his capacity as a journalist. In 2025 and 2016, Israeli authorities banned him from entering the mosque compound citing “security reasons.” He believes he has been unjustly targeted for merely carrying out his duties as a Waqf media official

Arbitrary ban orders

Over the last few months, Israel occupation authorities have issued more than 10 arbitrary ban orders denying Palestinian journalists and photographers access to cultural and religious sites. Many have been prevented from entering Al Aqsa Mosque compound, and from reporting on-the-ground. Some of these ban orders can last for up to six months, while others are repeatedly renewed.

In February, defense minister Israel Katz, outlawed five Palestinian media outlets which report exclusively on Jerusalem, by misapplying the country’s anti-terror laws. Nothing new there.

Al-Aqsa Mosque was the first direction of prayer, and is also deeply connected to the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey and ascension to heaven. Because of this, the compound holds immense religious and symbolic importance for Muslims around the world.

For Israelis and “birth right” tourists, the same area — which they call the Temple Mount — is regarded as the holiest place in Judaism, believed to be the location of the ancient First and Second Temples. Torah law states that, because it is so sacred, entering the area is strictly forbidden.

In 2023, Israeli occupation minister, illegal settler and criminal, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was the first senior cabinet minister to visit the site since 2000. But Israeli settlers now often storm the Al-Aqsa compound, always under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.

Stripping Al- Aqsa stripped of its Muslim identity

For more than 100 years, the site has been administered internally by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf under Jordanian custodianship. The Israeli occupation authorities oversee security and external access. Under the long-standing status quo, Muslims should be able to pray freely at the compound. Non-Muslims, including Jewish visitors, may enter during limited hours and are not officially permitted to pray there.

In recent years, far-right Israeli activists and politicians have increasingly challenged these arrangements. They have advocated greater Jewish access and prayer rights at the site.  Palestinians view these organised incursions as an attempt to alter the historic status quo and undermine the Islamic identity and sovereignty of Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Israeli occupation and the US are now reportedly planning a new arrangement for the mosque complex, which would strip Jordan of Al-Aqsa custodianship. US officials have told Middle East Eye that Trump wants to see al Aqsa Mosque stripped of its Muslim identity. If implemented, this plan would see the holy site turned into a “multi-faith centre.” It would facilitate large group prayers and give Jews “equal access” to the Muslim site. The Israeli occupation would also play a major role in appointing Muslim religious officials and approving the content of Friday sermons.

The plan has triggered fierce backlash from Arab nations, Palestinian officials, and international bodies. They warn that it threatens to destabilise the region.

Jordan also claims custodial responsibilities over major Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As yet, their fate is unknown under this new plan.

Featured image via Faiz Abu Rmeleh / Getty Images

By Charlie Jaay

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign Cymru (PSC Cymru) is today calling on the Hay Festival, one of the world’s most celebrated literary gatherings, to immediately end its sponsorship partnership with Airbnb.

This comes amid growing international condemnation of the company’s role in profiting from illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

The call arrives as the Hay Festival’s own partnership is already unravelling. UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, and forensic architect Professor Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths, University of London) have both withdrawn from this year’s festival in direct protest at the Airbnb sponsorship.

Albanese described Airbnb as profiting from:

an economic system that supports occupation, annexation, and forced displacement.

The United Nations has formally named Airbnb in its database of companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank. The International Court of Justice has ruled these settlements unlawful.

Hay Festival and Airbnb launch unintentionally ironic award

Airbnb has partnered with the Hay Festival to launch a writing award called “Room to Write”. This claims to champion:

creativity and the importance of place and space in storytelling.

PSC Cymru says the irony could not be more stark. Airbnb is simultaneously listing properties on land from which Palestinians have been violently displaced and stripped of the right to tell their own story.

Hay Festival is not the first cultural institution to face this reckoning. When Airbnb sponsored Vivid Sydney, multiple artists withdrew from the festival, refusing to allow their work:

to be used to legitimise or sanitise unethical corporate relationships.

They cited Airbnb’s documented history of listing properties in illegal Israeli settlements. Vivid Sydney subsequently dropped Airbnb as a sponsor.

The message from the cultural world is becoming impossible to ignore. Airbnb’s settlement listings are incompatible with the values of any festival that champions ideas, human rights, free expression, and the power of storytelling.

PSC Cymru co-chair Bethan Sayed said:

It is deeply shocking, and bitterly ironic, that the Hay Festival has taken money from Airbnb to promote ‘the importance of place and space in storytelling’, while Airbnb profits from the violent erasure and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Airbnb is complicit in a war crime. Its settlement listings help fuel the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes and land, propping up Israel’s system of apartheid, and forcing Palestinians into isolated enclaves, subjected to violent settler attacks, cut off from their families, their communities, and their cultural and historic space.

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By accepting Airbnb’s sponsorship, the Hay Festival is sending a clear message that Palestinian lives are not important, that stolen land is acceptable, and that war crimes are acceptable. Is it content to accept that the destruction of an entire people’s home, story, and identity is someone else’s problem?

We say: it is not. The Hay Festival would not platform a plagiarist, and it must not platform land theft. Close the book on Airbnb. End the sponsorship now.

PSC Cymru is calling on:

• The Hay Festival to terminate its partnership with Airbnb without delay.
• Authors, speakers, and literary figures to publicly condemn the sponsorship.
• Festival-goers to sign our e-action and demand Hay Festival ends its sponsorship deal with Airbnb.

Sign the e-action: No Room for Apartheid at Hay Festival. Close the Book on Airbnb.

Featured image via Getty Images

By The Canary

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The occupation slaughtered families as it bombed at least one residential building in Gaza City trying to murder a journalist last night, 27 May 2026. Israel perpetrated the attack as Muslim families marked Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s two main annual festivals. The colonisers also murdered civilians in Lebanon.

Warning — disturbing footage. One video is attached directly as Meta has disabled embedding.

Omar al-Gedi entered the building as it burned after the night-time airstrike. He filmed hideously-wounded victims being removed as fire-fighters tried to extinguish the flames:

He also captured a rescue worker carrying a dead child from the ruins of the building, with partially-severed limbs dangling. The footage is not blurred, to convey the true horror:

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A post shared by Mosab Abu Toha (@mosab_abutoha)

Khaled Sultan filmed as shredded victims were loaded into ambulances:

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A post shared by أنس جمال الشريف (@anasjamal44)

Israel appears to have been an attempt to kill another Palestinian journalist Eyad Azaam. The attack missed him but killed his young daughter — another added to the more than 700 journalists’ family members murdered by the colonisers:

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A post shared by Wear The Peace® (@wearthepeace)

After the bombing, Aamer al-Sultaa filmed the bodes of martyrs awaiting identification and burial:

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A post shared by Amer Sultan (@amer_elsultan)

Gaza nights of murder

Local reports indicate that at least two other children were beheaded and one was burned to death in the blaze. The attack marked the second night of Israel bombing Gaza during the Eid festival, a clear show of contempt for Palestinians, Islam and humanity. Again children were the victims:

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A post shared by Free Gaza Circus center (@free.gaza.circus)

UK media parroted Israeli propaganda about ‘targeting terrorists’. Even if it were true, it would not excuse the crimes but the ‘journalists’ never point this out:

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A post shared by Wear The Peace® (@wearthepeace)

Israel is a terror state. UK media and government are its enablers.

Featured image via Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

By Skwawkbox

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Actor and LGBTQ+ rights campaigner Ian McKellen will launch a march in central London on Saturday 30 May. It will protest against the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people in 29 Commonwealth member states under colonial-era laws originally imposed by the UK.

The march starts at 12 noon, outside the Nigerian High Commission, 9 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5BX.

LGBTQ+ people still at risk in Commonwealth

Six Commonwealth countries have a maximum sentence of life in prison. In Uganda, Brunei and northern Nigerian states, same-sex relations can carry the death penalty.

Many of those attending the protest are LGBTQ+ refugees who have fled persecution in Commonwealth nations.

For 77 years, the two-yearly Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has refused to recognise LGBTQ+ human rights, or even allow a discussion of the issue.

Campaigners say millions of LGBTQ+ people across the Commonwealth continue to face arrest, imprisonment, violence and discrimination, solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

It is organised by the Peter Tatchell Foundation alongside Out and Proud Africa LGBTI, Let Voice be Heard (Bangladesh), Gay Indian Network (GIN) and the African Equality Foundation.

The ‘Commonwealth Walk of Shame’ will begin with a speech by Ian McKellen to send off marchers to protest outside eight Commonwealth High Commissions that criminalise LGBTQ+ people: Nigeria, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad & Tobago, Ghana, Jamaica, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The march comes as the Commonwealth seeks to project itself as a modern organisation committed to democracy, equality and human rights.

Deborah Birunji Nabisere of Out and Proud Africa LGBTI, a lesbian who has fled persecution in Uganda, said:

I know what it means to live under laws designed to erase your humanity. We are marching because silence has protected persecution for far too long. Commonwealth leaders cannot celebrate unity while millions of LGBT+ citizens live in fear.

For many LGBT+ people across Africa and the Commonwealth, these laws are not abstract. They shape every part of daily life: whether you can speak openly, whether you can find work, whether you are safe walking home.

McKellen said:

No one should face prison, violence or death simply for being themselves and loving another person. Yet across most of the Commonwealth, LGBT+ people are still treated as criminals.

Many of these laws are relics of the British Empire. The least we in Britain can do is stand in solidarity with those fighting to overturn criminalisation. I am proud to support this march and the brave activists leading the struggle for LGBT+ equality.

Peter Tatchell said:

For decades, Commonwealth leaders have failed to end the persecution of LGBT+ people. We urge the new Commonwealth secretary-general, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey of Ghana, to begin her tenure by making clear that anti-LGBT+ victimisation is incompatible with Commonwealth values.

29 Commonwealth countries still criminalise homosexuality, mostly under British colonial-era laws, in direct violation of the Commonwealth Charter’s commitment to equality and non-discrimination.

Across the Commonwealth, millions of LGBT+ people continue to face arrest, imprisonment, violence and discrimination in employment, housing, education and healthcare.

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Event details

‘Commonwealth Walk of Shame’ Against Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws

Date: Saturday 30 May 2026

Time: 12 noon

Location: Nigerian High Commission, 9 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5BX

Organisers:

• Peter Tatchell Foundation.
• Out and Proud Africa LGBTI.
• Let Voice be Heard (Bangladesh).
• Gay Indian Network (GIN).
• African Equality Foundation.

Featured image via Jeff Spicer / Getty Images for BFI

By The Canary

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