Politics
How ICE melted from view at the World Cup
Ahead of this year’s World Cup, Democrats had warned that immigration enforcement agents at matches were likely to cross the line with fans or players and create international incidents in the process. So far, those fears haven’t borne out.
As the tournament moves into its final week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department has stayed away from crowd control. Instead it has focused on joint efforts with law enforcement partners to combat counterfeiting and human trafficking around the tournament, which has seen large numbers of foreign attendees flock to the United States, Mexico and Canada in support of their teams.
Even Democrats are noticing the restraint which ICE has exercised around the matches.
“I have not seen, or have not heard of, any significant, serious report, which is really very good. I am happy to hear that,” said Rep. Nellie Pou, a Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose New Jersey district includes the area around Metlife Stadium that will host the tournament’s final match.
Pou, who had raised concerns about ICE at the sporting event in congressional hearings in the months before the game, attributed the low-profile approach ICE has taken to security at the matches to congressional oversight and “a change in the administration between Secretary Noem, who absolutely didn’t care about what was going on, and Secretary Mullin.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has taken a more tempered and discreet approach to the agency’s enforcement operations than his predecessor Kristi Noem — mending some of the frayed relations she had with Capitol Hill. DHS has also played a major role at the World Cup in less controversial areas. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service and the Coast Guard have helped down unmanned aerial vehicles such as drones operating near sporting arenas.
Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who has chaired House Homeland Security Committee and advocated using sporting events as a diplomatic opportunity to showcase American power, was similarly pleased. While McCaul never joined Democrats in expressing fears about ICE’s conduct at games, he had repeatedly pressed DHS officials on the department’s plans for securing the World Cup.
Their role at the game “is not to deport a bunch of people,” McCaul said, crediting Mullin for the restraint. “Their role is to combat human trafficking. So far, they’ve been staying in that lane, and I think that’s a positive thing.”
Mainly, ICE has deployed agents that are part of the enforcement agency’s Homeland Security Investigations arm. That arm, unlike its deportation-focused counterpart Enforcement and Removal Operations, focuses on investigating serious criminal activity including trafficking, counterfeiting and child sexual abuse material.
“DHS will continue to work around the clock with federal, state and local partners to ensure a secure environment for the remainder of the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” the department said in a statement.
Mullin touted his department’s work on the World Cup in testimony to Congress last month, saying that “we’ve had no serious major incident,” and praising the department’s anti-human trafficking and counterfeiting work.
“Now, there’s a lot of fans that go around. Things happen. But there’s been no serious issue. We’ve had some threats come up. We’ve been able to knock it down because of our relationship with FBI plus ICE,” Mullin said. “We’ve got great reports back from our fan base.”
Asked by a reporter in late June whether ICE was given specific guidance to exercise restraint, Mullin said the fears were unfounded and “there was never guidance that needed to be given.”
“That was the left drumming up fear, and that’s all it was. ICE has always been there to protect the public, and that is what they continue to do every single day,” Mullin said. “The plan was always to keep the games safe and every stadium secure, even in sanctuary cities, and what we’ve proven through this is DHS is capable to work with sanctuary cities if they are willing to work with us, and when we do it together, we can keep everybody safe.”
There have still been immigration-related issues tied to the World Cup. In June, Custom and Border Protection barred a Somali-born referee who was trying to enter the United States, citing unspecified “vetting concerns.” The Trump administration was very strict about how long Iran’s national soccer team could stay in the United States for matches, often forcing the team to return to its base camp in Mexico shortly after playing.
But those issues are not the result of ICE actions, and those incidents have taken place out of major public view, reducing the impact they’ve had on the perception of the games.
Still, some Trump critics on the Hill say those actions could hinder the broader ability of the U.S. to use the World Cup as a forum to showcase the best America has to offer to global audiences.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a California Democrat who has promoted U.S. “sports diplomacy” efforts, said that while she was “grateful that ICE has not been terrorizing fans,” she warned that some of those other moves are creating the appearance of a double standard, given that FIFA has declined to criticize those moves from the Trump administration.
“You’ve had the referees not allowed. You had teams, players, who have been held up for hours and hours for searches. And the treatment of the Iranian team,” she said. “When you’re talking about sports diplomacy and you’re talking about a worldwide competitive event that really is about unifying the world through this sport and then you have multiple instances where players — the true ambassadors behind this sports diplomacy — are being mistreated, I call foul.”
Sophia Cai contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES — Some of the most powerful Latino politicians in the United States were invited to wear their favorite soccer jerseys. But few chose Argentina’s Abiceleste.
Mayor Frank Figueroa of Coachella, California said his feelings toward Argentina as a “Latin American country” (in finger quotes) were so strong, he was willing to back England, the team that knocked out Mexico — where Figueroa traces his heritage — in a contentious quarterfinal match.
“Just by looking at their soccer team. For me, it’s like who’s playing on the soccer team compared to all the other Latin American countries who had the people playing on their team,” said Figueroa. “That is a big thing for me. They all look European.”
With the World Cup semi-finals coinciding with one of the country’s largest gatherings for Latino policymakers, organizers of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials annual conference embraced the timing. They have scheduled Telemundo World Cup watch parties in a hotel ballroom and are selling NALEO soccer jerseys to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary. Multicolored soccer jerseys — most commonly the green of Mexico’s El Tri — were scattered among the polished suits and business-casual attire in the conference venue.
But the absence of support for the tournament’s only remaining Latin American team was notable. In fact, it was easier today to spot England’s colors than Argentina’s hours before the two countries faced off in Atlanta.
Argentina’s history of blanqueamiento policies encouraging mass European migration, sanctuary for Nazis after World War II and its “genocide” against Afro-Argentines contributes to the “systemic problems and challenges” in Argentina’s history, said Karina Moreno, a councilmember representing Palm Desert, California. It’s a history that Moreno said continues the “fallacy” of superiority from Argentina to other Latin American countries.
Animosity towards Argentina was compounded after Argentine media personality Eduardo Feinmann said he “detested Mexicans” in on-air comments after Mexico’s tournament exit last week. Feinmann went on to describe “the envy the Mexicans feel for us Argentines, not just in football, but in everything.” The ensuing controversy escalated with a public rebuke from Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.
“It’s not the first time, and it validates what we’re talking about,” Moreno said, referring to the incident.
The behavior of Argentina fans has also come under scrutiny, with FIFA opening an investigation into a supporter’s alleged racist abuse of American streamer IShowSpeed during the team’s victory against Cape Verde earlier this month. Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan’s made FIFA’s designated gesture to report racist abuse — a crossed-arm “X” gesture — against Argentina..
Salta Lake City councilmember Alejandro Puy, a Salt Lake City councilmember sported one of the rare Argentina jerseys. Raised in Buenos Aires, he says “rivalries are expected” between countries in soccer.
“Ultimately we are all brothers and sisters of this continent and we stand by it,” Puy said, though he still says there’s “no doubt” Argentina has the best team in Latin America.
Though he said he appreciated the Latino camaraderie in the conference, Puy was headed to Argentina’s Consulate in Los Angeles to watch the game and not feel “a little alone.”
Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch was in a jovial mood during the usually combative PMQs by calling for all MPs to unite behind England against Argentina this evening.
Badenoch said that while Keir Starmer may be “disappointed that he won’t be emulating his hero Harold Wilson in winning multiple elections … we all hope that he may be about to emulate him in another way, by being the prime minister when England win the World Cup.” England’s only previous success came in 1966.
The Tory leader said that was something “every single one of us in this house should get behind, especially the SNP.” But the diminished rump of Scottish independence-supporting MPs, possibly still bruised from going out in the World Cup group stage, shook their heads.
Indeed, opposition to England’s success crossed party lines.
Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman told POLITICO he’ll be watching “from behind the couch and the cracks in our fingers,” adding it will be “unbearable” if England makes the final.
LONDON — Soccer fans in Atlanta may be exchanging chants about the Falklands — but there’s another British Overseas Territory making news today.
The 118-year-old border between Gibraltar and Spain will disappear on Wednesday. You can thank Brexit.
Today is the culmination of a decade of uncertainty for the British Mediterranean territory, which back in 2016 voted by 95.9 percent to stay in the EU — but was pulled out against its will.
Life immediately became harder for the thousands of people who cross the Gibraltar-Spain border every day, including 15,000 Spaniards who go to work in the territory.
Passport checks became more onerous and transporting goods became more complicated. As a result Brussels, London, Gibraltar and Madrid have spent the last 10 years negotiating an agreement to remove physical border controls from the frontier with Spain.
It’s an ironic move given it was triggered by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. While Gibraltar will remain fully British and sovereign, the border will become, for the most part, just a line on a map.
The agreement’s details will be familiar to anyone who has ever taken a Eurostar train under the English Channel. As at London St Pancras station, passengers arriving at Gibraltar’s airport will go through both Gibraltarian passport controls and EU passport controls in succession. Once through, they’ll be free to roam both Gibraltar and the Schengen area, provided they get the approval of both authorities.
As a result, Gibraltar and Spain will do away with border controls at the land border. Gibraltar will also align with various EU single market and customs rules to ease the flow of goods, which have sometimes become harder to source since Brexit.
Gibraltar is adamant it isn’t joining the EU passport-free Schengen area. Legally, it is right.
For many passengers, though, it will feel pretty similar, with no passport checks to walk into Spain. The difference will be that Gibraltar will still set its own visa policy.
The U.K’s Europe Minister Stephen Doughty is formally signing the agreement Tuesday in Brussels with the EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.
The deal was a bipartisan effort on the British side, with former Foreign Secretary David Cameron working to get it over the line during his time in office. In spring 2024 the deal looked close to being done — only for Rishi Sunak to call an election. The resulting change in government delayed it by another year.
Some critics, notably Tory Euroskeptics, have said the agreement harms Gibraltar’s sovereignty, but the Rock’s government is very keen on the plan.
“Brexit was sold to the British people in a false prospectus,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the Telegraph newspaper in the run-up to the dismantling of the border. “The United Kingdom needs to seriously reconsider its relationship with the European Union, whether that is to return to membership or a much closer relationship.”
Some reports of Henry Nowak’s killing have described the murder weapon as a Sikh sword, a ceremonial knife or a large Sikh dagger. That matters. Once the word ‘Sikh’ is attached to the weapon, the crime begins to look like a case about religious liberty. It was not. The Sikh faith was invoked in Vickrum Digwa’s defence – but it should not have been. The kirpan is an article of faith. The criminal use of a blade – and the blade Digwa carried – is not.
More than 20 years ago, I published a paper in the Psychiatric Bulletin on the care of Sikh patients who wear the kirpan. It was about a practical question: how clinicians might respect a patient’s religious observance without compromising safety on a hospital ward. I did not expect to return to the subject because of a murder. The killing of Henry Nowak in Southampton, and the debate that followed, has made that necessary.
The facts established at trial are stark. Digwa was convicted of murdering 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Digwa inflicted five wounds with a large blade and then told the police, falsely, that he had been the victim of a racist assault. The jury rejected his claim of self-defence. The sentence has since been referred to the Court of Appeal as potentially unduly lenient, though that is a separate question from the one I wish to address here.
What is important is that this murder does not turn into a religious dispute. Whatever else may be said of the case, no question of religious entitlement arises from these facts, and it is a source of real distress to me, and many other Sikhs, that the language of faith was enlisted in his defence at all.
Digwa did not kill with the small kirpan that was recovered, unused, from around his neck. He killed with a separate and much larger blade. Some reports have called the weapon a kirpan. Others have called it a Sikh sword. That loose language is a problem. A blade cannot be carried or used as an offensive weapon just because the man carrying it is Sikh.
There is a martial inheritance in Sikhism. That should not be denied or airbrushed away. Shastar Vidya, the art of weaponry, has a place within parts of the Sikh martial tradition. But it is a discipline, not a licence. It does not require a weapon to be carried in public, as has been widely claimed. Still less does it justify drawing one in anger. To present the carrying of an offensive weapon as a religious duty is an inversion of Sikhism.
The kirpan is one of the five articles of faith, the Panj Kakkar, worn by initiated Sikhs of the Khalsa, the order constituted by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Its name is commonly understood as joining kirpa (mercy) and aan (honour). The kirpan is normally sheathed and worn against the body. It is not there to suggest the wearer has a right to violence – it is a reminder of one’s duties: to resist injustice, protect the vulnerable and govern one’s own passions. Sikh teaching is clear that it is not to be drawn in aggression. A man who turns a blade on an unarmed youth has not exercised a religious right. He has betrayed the discipline the kirpan signifies.
English law already draws this distinction. Under section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, it is an offence to carry a bladed or pointed article in public. The act provides a defence where it is carried for religious reasons, but the burden is on the accused to establish that this is the blade’s purpose. What’s more, it is only a defence for possessing such a blade – it is not a licence to use a blade as a weapon. The Nowak case is not evidence that religious minorities get away with violence that would be punished in others. Instead, it is evidence that the law’s existing limits operate as intended.
Other countries have faced the same concern. In Canada, the Supreme Court held in Multani v Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys that an absolute ban on a non-violent schoolboy’s kirpan infringed religious freedom, while allowing conditions: the kirpan had to be secured and sewn inside his clothing. The court sensibly observed that many ordinary objects may be misused without being prohibited. Italy went the other way. In 2017, the Court of Cassation upheld a fine imposed on a Sikh man in Lombardy for carrying a kirpan of almost 20 centimetres outside his home. The court was explicit that public safety must prevail and that those who choose to settle in a country are bound to observe its law.
Parts of that judgment’s reasoning, which strayed into pronouncements upon the proper character of Italian society, were criticised. Yet what followed is instructive. The roughly 200,000 Sikhs in Italy, the largest such community in continental Europe, did not respond with defiance or disorder. They accepted the ruling and continued, as before, to be counted among Italy’s most industrious and law-abiding citizens. Liberal societies can set different boundaries. What they should not do is confuse religious symbolism with permission for violence.
There is a wider point here. In many countries where Sikhs have settled – Britain, Canada, East Africa and Italy among them – the pattern has generally been one of hard work, integration, civic loyalty and service. There is no contradiction between Sikh identity and obedience to the law of the land. Sikh tradition enjoins respect for just law. It also forbids the use of the kirpan as a weapon. A Sikh has no more quarrel with legal limits on a blade designed to cause harm than a Scottish Highlander has with legal limits on the sgian-dubh.
We must resist two mistakes. The first is to let one crime cast suspicion on every Sikh who wears the article Digwa dishonoured. The second is to let religious language soften the plain character of what happened. It was murder. The sentencing judge himself remarked that Digwa’s actions had wrongly associated a faith-based symbol with a brutal crime. That false association is what should be challenged – not the Sikh faith, nor the community.
The right response is the calm application of a law that already draws a necessary distinction between violence and non-violence, and not the diminishment of law-abiding Sikhs who have given this country, and many others, a great deal more than they have ever taken.
Swaran Singh was a commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and is professor of social and community psychiatry at the University of Warwick and an NHS consultant psychiatrist.
Irish comedian Tadgh Hickey has a simple message as the World Cup progresses in the US: “Fuck Messi”. The Israel-linked Argentinian football star has been silent on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Hickey posted a heart-breaking video to his YouTube channel. While Egypt’s football coach has spoken out against the silence of many clubs and stars on the genocide, Hickey added no comment to his post apart from the pithy title. None is needed for those who watch the chilling video to the end:
Fuck Messi.
Featured image via Twitter
By Skwawkbox
So, Keir Starmer is stepping down as PM. And he’s doing so with a round of applause from the Labour MPs who just unceremoniously sacked him:
Downing Street has just published a photo of the cabinet applauding Sir Keir Starmer at their final meeting this morning. pic.twitter.com/a1eXYGnmnY
— Ben Bloch (@realBenBloch) July 15, 2026
We don’t think this latest display will enamour voters to Labour. Then again, they don’t seem to care about winning back public support. If they did, Andy Burnham wouldn’t be delivering continuity Starmerism.
Clapped out
Before we get into it, let’s remind ourselves what Labour MPs were doing after Burnham won the Makerfield by-election:
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 22, 2026
PICTURED: Andy Burnham takes a selfie with Labour MPs pic.twitter.com/BbiHgIJwTm
Parliament had just sworn Burnham in when the above was taken, having travelled up from Manchester on a train pursued by media helicopters. Starmer stepped down earlier the same day, clearly sensing the mood. It’s hard to imagine a more humiliating spectacle than having all your MPs fawn over your replacement like this. And now those same MPs are acting as follows:
Labour were going to get 15% in a general election with this man.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) July 15, 2026
There was also much joking between Starmer and Kemi Badenoch – the other head of the Labour-Tory duopoly:
Badenoch: "He might not have answered the questions I asked him, but at least he turned up" Starmer: "I've answered – or at least given answers – 2,800 times" #PMQs pic.twitter.com/iBcWoOAKvF
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026
WATCH: Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer exchange further friendly remarks in his final PMQs
To be fair, this next comment was about as funny as it ever gets at Prime Minister’s Questions:
Starmer: "My advice to everyone is to put your vote in the bin" #PMQs pic.twitter.com/2OLMJqlMJX
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026
WATCH: Kemi Badenoch says the "country deserves" a televised debate between Count Binface and Nigel Farage
Ed Davey also praised Starmer:
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 15, 2026
WATCH: Lib Dem leader Ed Davey praises Keir Starmer as a "true patriot" as he pays tribute to him in his final PMQs #PMQs pic.twitter.com/LzPvMh3TWe
You can say this is just people being polite, but the public will see it as another example of the chumocracy. Or they would if they watched Prime Minister’s Questions, anyway, which they don’t, because no one ever answers anything.
Labour — Starmergeddon
There’s an old proverb that goes:
If you sit by the river for long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by
This phenomenon is one of two things that makes politics bearable (the other being occasionally getting stuff done). And make no mistake; Keir Starmer has been an enemy to progressive politics in the UK.
As you no doubt know, Keir Starmer was Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary. And Starmer used his position to sabotage any chance of Britain getting a soft Brexit:
When Starmer resigns in disgrace we will, gradually, start to see revision regarding his role in Brexit. He locks in no deal.
As Shadow Brexit Secretary before 2019 he led a truly insane position, which could never work. That same political idiocy is now evident in Number 10.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 14, 2025
At each turn Starmer’s position can be explained by one thing: career advancement. One can only suspect that remains the case. Indeed, it can even be argued that Starmer set Labour up to fail when it came to Brexit prior to 2019.
Theresa May’s Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell certainly thought so. He recalled how Starmer seemed utterly intent on scotching any kind of compromise. This was so obvious that Barwell tried an experiment, giving the shadow Brexit secretary a proposal copied from something Starmer himself had written. Starmer “objected to the language on customs” in one of the bilateral documents. “I pointed out that we had lifted it from his letter of April 22 — he was objecting to his own policy,” Barwell writes in his memoir.
Starmer would later champion the second referendum position which caused Labour to haemorrhage support in the 2019 election (although more people voted Labour that year than in 2024 when Starmer won his majority).
Starmer famously became Labour leader on the back of his 10 Pledges. There was a lot of good stuff in those pledges, and if he’d enacted them, he would have dramatically improved this country (he might have avoided tanking his polling too). Instead, Starmer quietly abandoned the pledges one by one between 2020 and the 2024 election.
Forgive us if we don't trust Keir Starmer.
Do you? pic.twitter.com/0XuPquukcz
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) April 17, 2026
In addition to all this, Starmer’s government has raised eyebrows for the many sex offenders in its orbit:
- Yet another paedophile convicted from the Labour-right production line.
- Labour MPs are talking mutiny over Starmer’s ties to Mandelson.
- Starmer’s other paedo problem: silence on links of new Zionist peer.
- Yet another Labour figure charged with sexual offence.
- Liron Velleman pleads guilty: another Labour Friend of Israel paedophile.
- Zionist former Labour MP Conor McGinn charged with sexual offence.
- Labour deselects 3 councillors for wanting inquiry into paedophile.
- LBC has paedo-sting Labour freak on to discuss Burnham.
Keir today, gone tomorrow
It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say Starmer was an improvement on the Tories. The problem was that the scale of improvement was a million miles away from what the moment required.
The guy was bailing out water with a thimble, and now his ship has sunk. Bon voyage, Keir Rodney Starmer!
Featured image via the Canary
By Willem Moore
Politics
Hillsborough Law marks a huge achievement for accountability but political will is crucial for it to work
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday 14 July, and is now moving through the next stages of the legislative process. Also referred to as the Hillsborough Law, it will drastically improve the ability of ordinary people to get justice and accountability from those in power.
In short, its purpose is to ensure the government is accountable for its actions and the very real human impact those actions can have, drawing its nickname from the Hillsborough disaster.
Despite multiple attempts in the courts, none of the police officers or the former chief superintendent Duckenfield have faced justice for their cover-up and negligence, which caused the death of 97 people and injured over 1000.
Decades of campaigning by the Hillsborough families have finally pushed this law into place, giving people a way to challenge those in power when they try to hide their wrongdoing and escape accountability.
This has subsequently been welcomed by the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS), survivors of abuse committed by Spy Cops, who say this law:
marks a significant moment in the long struggle to ensure that the state can no longer evade accountability when it harms the people it claims to serve.
The number 96 has been tattooed on my wrist since 2015.
It reminds me every day that I was one of the lucky ones who came home from Hillsborough.
Today, standing in Parliament to speak as the Hillsborough Law passed was one of the proudest and most emotional moments of my life.… pic.twitter.com/IXUn3juYdz — lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) July 14, 2026
COPS: Hillsborough Law “has the potential to effect real change for us”
COPS have campaigned for years against the police’s track record of spying on political groups, trade unions and justice campaigns, and effectively working as an arm of the state to prevent accountability and justice for ordinary people.
The law, COPS say, honours the perseverance of the Hillsborough victims and their families. Those affected fought for decades to bring it into force despite facing “institutional denial, concealment and abuse”. In a press release, they say they “recognise these patterns all too well”, adding:
For decades, police officers operating undercover deceived women into intimate relationships as they unlawfully spied on political groups, trade unions and justice campaigns.
They stole the identities of deceased children, acted as agent provocateurs, hoovered up personal information on thousands of people, kept illegal employment blacklists and lied in their intelligence reports; while Special Branch commanders avoided discipline for their officers and kept everything in house to cover up corruption.
Those abuses are now being investigated and evidence is coming out. We are ‘core participants’ in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), but the Inquiry itself has become an illustration of why this law is so badly needed.
More than ten years since the inquiry was announced, many of us are still waiting for answers, and progress is constantly hampered by institutional resistance, incomplete disclosure and police witnesses who have shamelessly lied, treating the inquiry process with the same contempt they showed the criminal and civil courts during their operations, leading to dozens of miscarriages of justice.
However, as we see with the wilful ignorance of those in government regarding the flagrant breaches of international law by Israel and the US, these laws only have the power to secure justice if the political will is there to make it so. Up to now, the political will has clearly been to shield institutions from reputational damage or real accountability, leaving victims angry and with no closure or remedy for their rage and grief.
Nevertheless, those affected have courageously refused to give up or be fatigued out of making this bill a reality. Now, it will be essential to watch how the government respond to upcoming inquiries and whether they see powerful people held accountable for their abuses against ordinary people that they “claim to serve”.
One thing is certain: anyone who lies or tries to obstruct justice will now face the threat of criminal liability.
Hopefully this will make those in power think twice:
“Under the Hillsborough law public officials are going to have to tell the truth and if they don't they risk going to prison… It's about the first step in changing culture within big organizations, especially public bodies.”
Speaking in London, human rights lawyer Elkan… pic.twitter.com/zFOdIRvCph
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 15, 2026
Deborah Coles, executive director of INQUEST, spoke yesterday, saying it was a “momentous day” and pointed out how this finally works to address the huge power imbalance between the state and the British public:
“Bereaved families who are going along to inquests where the state is represented will have access to non-means tested public funding so that they can be represented at those inquests. And that is going to rebalance the power dynamics… where historically all the resources and… pic.twitter.com/ceiWL03f1Q
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 15, 2026
Spy Cops inquiry shows “institutional secrecy has continued right up the chain”
COPS, core participants in the UCPI, spoke further about the ongoing inquiry into the use of spy cops:
Having heard from many former undercover officers, and those who they spied upon, the Inquiry has now turned its attention to the senior officers and government departments who authorised, supervised and oversaw these operations, but the drive to conceal police misconduct behind a wall of institutional
secrecy has continued right up the chain.
As a result, this inquiry gives the public the opportunity to see if the new law will be worth its weight and thus, capable of holding governments, institutions and powerful people accountable so that victims can finally get real justice.
COPS finished their press release stating:
Over the next two weeks the Inquiry will hear from former Metropolitan Police leaders, including former Commissioner Lord Paul Condon, and the key question is no longer what undercover officers did, but who knew, who approved, who benefited from the intelligence gathered on political campaigners and community organisations, and who helped to conceal the truth?
No law can undo the harm already caused, but the Hillsborough Law would make obstructing and lying to this inquiry a criminal offence.
By creating meaningful consequences for those who deliberately mislead or frustrate investigations, this law has the potential to effect real change for us, as the Undercover Policing Inquiry rumbles on. The search for truth should never depend on the persistence or resources of victims and bereaved families.
This legislation strikes a blow against the culture of cover-up and impunity that has characterised so many public scandals, and we congratulate the Hillsborough families on their historic achievement and thank them for the example they have set. Their determination will have lasting consequences for us all.
The next few weeks will show whether those in power are simply using this law to win over voters — or whether they have the courage to enforce it, even when it puts powerful people in the firing line.
Featured image via Linenhall
The post The silencing of Great Britain appeared first on spiked.
“It’s a soccer match. Nothing more to it. Period.”
That’s how Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni described his team’s upcoming World Cup semifinal against England to journalists.
No one believes him, least of all Argentinians themselves.
For many in the South American nation, the match is more than a stepping stone toward the World Cup title. It is a long-awaited chance to restore their national pride, over four decades after the British established de facto control over a cluster of islands in the South Atlantic.
For Argentina’s President Javier Milei, the timing couldn’t be better. Unpopular at home over multiple corruption scandals and rampant inflation, yet buoyed by his close alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, he has sought to rally Argentinians around the flag by breathing new life into the dispute which claimed 649 Argentine and 255 British lives.
“Argentina is a very polarized country, like so much of the Americas. But this is an issue that unites everyone,” said Rebecca Bill Chavez, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for western hemisphere affairs under former President Barack Obama.
“It doesn’t matter in Argentina: Left, right, center — you’re all for the Malvinas, as they call it,” Bill Chavez adds, referencing the name Argentinians use for the Falklands.
On Saturday, five days before the match, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno came out swinging with a lengthy opinion piece in the conservative daily “La Nación.”
The Malvinas, he argued, were Argentinian “by history, by right, and by conviction” and the Brits guilty of an “illegal occupation.”
On the eve of the game, the country’s vice president, Victoria Villarruel, amped up the rhetoric in a post on X that referred to England as “invaders” and “usurping pirates.”
It is the latest in a series of jabs at Westminster, marking a notable shift for the government of Milei, who distinguished himself from his predecessors by taking a relatively moderate — and domestically sensitive — stance on the Falklands.
He has openly praised Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister who sent troops to the islands in 1982. And he seemed to accept the results of a 2013 referendum in which 99.8 percent of the Falklands’ residents voted to remain under British rule (only three people voted against).
One day, Milei fantasized in a speech on Veterans Day in April just last year, the islanders might find Argentina so attractive that they’d “vote for us” voluntarily.
But that was then.
This April he announced on X that the Falklands “were, are and will always be Argentine.”
The jingoistic post came hours after Reuters reported that an internal Pentagon memo had suggested Washington could review its diplomatic support for the British position on the Falklands in retaliation for its foot-dragging on Iran.
Milei’s brashness, and the absence of a U.S. response, is evidence of his close relationship with the White House under Trump, notes Bill Chavez.
“In the past, if an Argentine government had made such a statement, I think it would have caused real tension in the U.S.-Argentine relationship,” she said.
But she cautions that neither the leaked memo nor American support for Argentina’s acquisition of F16s in 2025 under the Biden administration indicates an actual shift in U.S. policy on the Falklands.
For Milei, the Falklands issue is not straightforward either.
If the topic becomes too central, “Milei loses,” said Andrés Gilio of Opina Argentina, a pollster.
In a survey it conducted in April, an overwhelming majority of respondents, 79 percent, argued the country should pursue sovereignty over the islands “without concessions.”
“Either Milei ‘Malvinizes’ his discourse, aligning himself with public opinion but straining relations with the United States and blurring his ideological profile, or he remains faithful to his ideas, downplaying the sovereignty claim, at the risk of going against most of society’s wishes,” said Gilio.
So far, Milei has pressed the Falklands issue in international forums while refraining from a real confrontation.
The Argentinian Foreign Ministry declined to comment in time for this article’s publication.
Argentina has faced England five times at the World Cup, rarely without drama. Seared into Argentina’s national memory is the 1986 quarterfinal, just four years after the Falklands war, when Diego Maradona scored two historic goals.
“Although before the match we kept saying that football had nothing to do with the Falklands War,” Maradona would later write in his biography, “we knew that many young Argentine boys had died there, that they had been killed like little birds.”
This time around, Argentina’s players and fans have been anything but subtle, invoking the conflict long before they were drawn to face England. After winning against Egypt, the team’s players were filmed belting out a song calling for an Argentine World Cup victory, “for Malvinas,” in a video since gone viral.
Off-pitch, there have been skirmishes between British and Argentinian fans even as jubilant Argentine supporters have celebrated victories by singing “Whoever doesn’t jump is an Englishman.” As a precaution, FIFA has barred two of its English referees from officiating any Argentina matches.
Asked about the flaring tensions, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that “The Falkland Islanders are British with the right to determine their own future.” Starmer, he said, was “solely focused on the semi-final and securing a spot in the final.”
But perhaps the strongest plea for restraint has come from Argentinian veterans.
“Sport is not war,” the April 2 veterans group wrote in a statement widely circulated by Argentinian media on Monday.
“The World Cup semifinal is a sporting event of global significance, not an armed act of revenge or historical compensation.”
The House of Commons was exercised on Wednesday about the prospect of England beating Argentina in tonight’s World Cup semifinal.
Ahead of Keir Starmer’s last Prime Minister’s Questions as premier before he exits the top job, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle — the normally impartial chair — said he hoped the PM will be “bringing home” World Cup victory to widespread cheers.
Starmer, a huge soccer fan who cheers for Arsenal in the Premier League, opened PMQs by stressing his “important appointment with the television” this evening to watch the match live.
Opposition Conservative MP Graham Stuart compared the prime minister to England superstar Jude Bellingham by “scoring the winning goal, leading our team to victory,” though Starmer had “now been handed a red card by the 400 dodgy referees behind him,” referring to the 2024 election win before a Labour rebellion that helped topple him.
The PM continued on the subject of red cards by saying “I can’t tell him how much incoming I had … to get the England red card adjusted,” after President Donald Trump’s intervention to help overturn the suspension of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun.
Starmer said he didn’t follow the U.S. president’s example, after Jarell Quansah was sent off against Mexico and suspended.
Argentina beats England, returns to World Cup final
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