Politics
Human Rights Watch spike Israel report
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has spiked its own report describing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as a “crime against humanity”. It’s Israel-Palestine director Omar Shakir resigned in protest at the decision.
The report, which had been legally approved and was ready for publication, addressed Israel’s denial of Palestinians’ legal ‘right of return’ to their homes and lands. Hundreds of thousands were violently expelled by Zionist militias and UK military in 1948. Many more have been dispossessed or killed since and Israel has forcibly expelled Palestinians from refugee camps.
The report analysed field work in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Despite passing successfully through all HRW’s checklist stages, new executive director Philippe Bolopion shelved it. It was due to go public last December, but Shakir was informed that it had been spiked a fortnight before.
Bolopion’s killing of the report came after a senior HRW official objected on the grounds that it would undermine Israel’s apartheid. Or, as the official put it, that it might:
demographically extinguish the Jewishness of the Israeli state.
‘Lost faith’ in Human Rights Watch leadership
Shakir told Drop Site News that he had lost faith in HRW’s leadership after a decade of hard work:
I’ve given every bit of myself to the work for a decade. I’ve defended the work in very, very difficult circumstances. I have lost faith in our senior leadership’s fidelity to the core way that we do our work, to the integrity of our work, at least in the context of Israel, Palestine.
The refugees I interviewed deserve to know why their stories aren’t being told.
Shakir’s Palestinian researcher Milena Ansari also resigned, leaving HRW without an Israel-Palestine team.
In an attempt to justify its decision, HRW said in a statement that the report was “complex“:
The report in question raised complex and consequential issues. In our review process, we concluded that aspects of the research and the factual basis for our legal conclusions needed to be strengthened to meet Human Rights Watch’s high standards. For that reason, the publication of the report was paused pending further analysis and research. This process is ongoing.
Bill Frelick, HRW’s Refugees and Migrant head, claimed he did not object to Palestinians’ legal right of return. He then questioned whether it really applied any more – in part, ironically, because some Palestinians might have obtained citizenship elsewhere:
To be clear, I am not objecting to our position that the Right of Return (RoR) is, indeed, a human right and that denying the right of return is a human rights violation. I do not think, however, that we have strong grounds for asserting that the denial of this right is a Crime Against Humanity (CAH)…
…I also question the strategic value of HRW advocating in 2025 for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to reclaim homes in present-day Israel that were lost in 1948…
… Does the suffering (and claims) of descendants of refugees who lost their homes in 1948 weaken over time? How does HRW assess whether descendants of refugees from 1948 have maintained ties that keep their claims viable? Does having citizenship in another country have impact on those claims? Are these claims unique to the descendants of Palestinian refugees or do they apply to the descendants of all refugees from all places throughout history?
At least ten percent of Israelis hold dual nationality – probably considerably more now. Iran’s effective retaliation to Israel’s aggression in June 2025 saw a flood of Israelis apply for passports in their original states. Frelick also questioned whether Israel was deliberately causing harm by preventing Palestinians returning to their homes:
Per the requirement of “intentionally” causing great suffering, is Israel’s intent in denying return to cause great suffering or it is rather motivated by Israel’s national security concerns, demographic engineering, or other motivations, and, therefore, whatever suffering it causes would be incidental or consequential to these purposes but not their intent?
“Losing the organization”
According to Drop Site, HRW’s senior management refused attempts to find a compromise and told staff the report could only be published if its scope was limited to Palestinians displaced since 2023 and excluded refugees in other countries. Some 200 staff signed a letter of complaint; 300 participated in an online all-staff meeting and voiced their objections. All were ignored. Participants in the meeting said that human rights defenders were “losing” HRW and that the spiking was indefensible:
We are losing the organization we love and are so passionate about…
…no one will be able to defend the organization.
Quite.
While HRW is frequently critical of Israel, it has also been accused of going soft on its crimes when it matters. Academic and author Immanuel Ness wrote that HRW demonstrates:
continuous and reliable support for positions advanced by the USA, Britain, and Western states.
Featured image via the Canary
CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker emerged as the kingmaker in deep-blue Illinois after pouring millions of dollars and staking his political reputation to deliver his hand-picked Senate candidate a primary victory on Tuesday.
The result strengthens Pritzker’s standing within his party at a critical moment, as he prepares for a November gubernatorial campaign for his third term and looks ahead to a potential presidential run in 2028.
“It’s going to reflect well on him,” retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky said Tuesday night shortly after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton was declared the winner in the Democratic primary for Illinois Senate.
Robyn Gabel, the Illinois House Majority Leader, added: “I think it will show that he has coattails, and that he has a big following, and that people respect his opinions on who to vote for.”
Pritzker has built a reputation as an influential governor by leveraging institutional authority, strong party support, and his own vast financial resources to shape policy statewide, including addressing energy challenges, cost-of-living concerns and making infrastructure improvements. With Democrats holding control of the state legislature, he has also been able to further strengthen his dominance in Springfield.
And on the national stage, Pritzker has positioned himself among the chief antagonists of President Donald Trump, regularly attacking his immigration enforcement surges, among other issues.
Pritzker’s grip on the party was on full display in downtown Chicago, where he celebrated his uncontested gubernatorial primary victory by touting his accomplishments and attacking Trump as Illinois Democrats stood behind him.
“For working families, the Trump presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. Oil prices are up. Measles is back. Farms are folding. Tariffs have raised the price of groceries and cars, and Illinoisans have been sent abroad to fight another Middle East war,” Pritzker told dozens of cheering supporters. “In response, what is the Illinois Republican Party doing to help everyday people? Nothing.”
The crowd’s enthusiasm was aided by an open bar — a detail noted by some attendees after reports circulated from the watch party of Stratton’s well-funded opponent, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, that his campaign was charging for drinks at the event.
Pritzker, who put millions of dollars into a super PAC supporting Stratton and campaigned regularly alongside his former running mate, brushed off concerns that a potential Stratton loss could tarnish his image. Another candidate he supported, Brad Schneider, won the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 10th Congressional District.
“I’m not choosing candidates because I’ve taken a poll ahead of time and decided that I can only support a candidate that I know absolutely 100 percent is going to win otherwise,” Pritzker said at a candidate luncheon at Manny’s Deli on Chicago’s near South Side before polls closed. “Here’s what I know, when you’ve got somebody that is hyper-qualified for the job, that’s who I’m supporting.”
But later at Stratton’s watch party on Chicago’s West Side, Pritzker, who belongs to one of the nation’s wealthiest families, acknowledged the stake he held in Tuesday’s outcome.
“A lot of people have suggested this was personal to me,” he told hundreds of Stratton campaign staff and supporters, his voice noticeably strained late into the evening. “They were right. It was.”
The fractious Senate primary was defined by massive spending, racial dynamics and lingering intraparty rivalries. Krishnamoorthi had a $30 million war chest and significant outside support but couldn’t compete with Pritzker’s financial muscle and institutional backing of Stratton.
Rep. Robin Kelly, who came in third in the race, drew criticism from some for potentially splitting the Black vote. She, like Stratton, is Black and there were fears they’d cancel one another out, opening a path for Krishnamoorthi, who took advantage of that and even ran ads propping up Kelly to give himself an edge.
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which backed Kelly, issued a rebuke of Pritzker’s involvement in the race earlier this month, accusing the billionaire governor of trying to “tip the scales in Illinois” which she said was “beyond frustrating.”
Kelly reiterated that sentiment before polls closed Tuesday.
“He’s put his thumb on the race. Seventy-three percent of her donations came from one family,” Kelly said Tuesday afternoon, referring to Pritzker’s financial backing of Stratton.
The tensions between Pritzker and Kelly date back to a 2022 power struggle over control of the Illinois Democratic Party, when Kelly was pushed out amid concerns from Pritzker’s allies about her ability to fundraise while serving in Congress. While both sides have since publicly downplayed the feud, the Senate primary reopened old wounds with outside groups and Democratic factions lining up behind different candidates.
Another CBC member, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who previously ran for the White House, said on Capitol Hill prior to polls closing in Illinois that “it would be a damn shame if Robin Kelly” lost.
“Isn’t it a shame that I don’t have billions of dollars?” Booker said. “Look … the way the rules are right now, JB Pritzker as the governor of that state is free to support anybody he wants and he has a tremendous amount of resources. I hold no ill will there.”
Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner, the speaker pro tempore and a member of the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, defended Pritzker getting involved in the race.
“Political capital is a lot like financial capital, it does not grow because you admire it. It grows because you deploy it,” Buckner said in an interview. “He’s putting his political equity into circulation, which I think is the right thing for him to do.”
CHICAGO — Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss won Tuesday’s Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jan Schakowsky, dealing a blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a race that had turned into a referendum on the group’s ability to influence the party.
Biss, whose mother is Israeli and whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, has sharply criticized Israel’s war in Gaza — and faced an onslaught of attack ads from a group aligned with AIPAC as a result.
He defeated a crowded field that included social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian American who is a more vocal critic, as well as AIPAC’s preferred candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine. Biss is now favored to win the general election in the heavily Democratic district.
The race had become one of the country’s most closely watched Democratic primaries, in large part because of AIPAC’s involvement in a district whose population is more than 10 percent Jewish and which has had a Jewish representative for more than 60 years.
An AIPAC-aligned group spent more than $5 million dollars in ads to boost Fine and attack Biss, then later, Abughazaleh. That group pulled down its anti-Biss attacks at the end of the race, before a different shell PAC emerged to prop up another low-polling progressive in the race in an attempt to divide the progressive vote.
Biss, meanwhile, had the endorsement of the more liberal pro-Israel organization J Street and publicly slammed AIPAC’s interference in Democratic primaries.
He is a former University of Chicago math professor who also served in the Illinois House and Senate and lost the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary to current Gov. JB Pritzker.
Schakowsky, the 14‑term incumbent who announced her retirement last year, formally backed Biss in January, praising his legislative experience and alignment with her priorities (they share similar views on Israel as well as other issues). That endorsement, coupled with his deep roots in the district, helped Biss fend off the crowded field and negative attacks.
Throughout the campaign, Biss pitched a broad policy platform that included boosting federal investment in affordable housing, expanding Social Security benefits and banning stock trading by members of Congress. He also drew national attention last year for his confrontations with federal immigration enforcement agents at a local gas station and his presence at anti‑ICE protests.
CHICAGO — Democrats are now all but certain to elect another Black woman to the U.S. Senate after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday’s bitter and expensive primary in Illinois.
Stratton overcame a crowded Democratic contest for the state’s open Senate seat, defeating front-runner Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi with the help of millions of dollars of outside spending — much of it from her old running mate, Gov. JB Pritzker.
She is widely seen as the favorite to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin in the blue state and would become the sixth Black woman to have ever served in the upper chamber.
The contest was defined by heavy outside spending and intraparty fissures over race. It became contentions during the final weeks, with Krishnamoorthi and Stratton trading sharp attacks on the debate stage and blasting each other in TV ads over corporate money and immigration policy.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus — who backed a different contender, Rep. Robin Kelly, in the primary — also warned that Pritzker’s interference could split the Black vote and cost Democrats a chance at electing a Black woman to the Senate this year.
Stratton’s late surge was powered by a combination of endorsements, outside spending and targeted messaging. She benefited from the support of Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). Illinois Future PAC, which received major cash infusions from Pritzker and other allies, spent at least $11.8 million boosting Stratton’s campaign and attacking Krishnamoorthi.
Stratton will face Don Tracy, a former Illinois Republican Party chair, in November. If elected, she would become the second Black woman to be nominated to the Senate from Illinois, following Carol Moseley Braun — who endorsed Stratton in the contest.
CHICAGO — Former Rep. Melissa Bean won the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 8th District, cementing her political comeback in a solidly blue seat more than a decade after she left Congress.
Bean, a moderate who served in the House from 2005 to 2011, defeated several progressive challengers on Tuesday in the race to replace Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who launched a bid for the Senate.
Her win was heavily boosted by outside spending: A group called Elect Chicago Women, aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured nearly $4 million into the race to support Bean, and another AI-focused committee ran ads in favor of her.
Bean, who had lost her seat during the 2010 Tea Party wave, built her campaign around a message of pragmatism — an approach she argued voters were seeking amid a hyper-partisan national political climate.
“What I’m hearing mostly from people is they would love to see a little more boring and a lot less drama from government,” Bean said during the race. “They just want to know [if] they elect you, you’ll put your head down, you’ll get the work done and you’ll deliver.”
After leaving office, Bean worked in the private sector at finance firms including JPMorgan Chase and Mesirow Financial before deciding to run again.
The race drew a crowded Democratic field of candidates who positioned themselves to Bean’s left. Among them was tech entrepreneur Junaid Ahmed, who had challenged Krishnamoorthi four years ago. He argued during this year’s campaign that the district needed someone prepared to challenge President Donald Trump directly, and he was endorsed by prominent progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The AIPAC affiliate backing Bean saw his candidacy as a threat. In the final days of the race, the group spent $664,000 in ads against him.
Another candidate, Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, also emphasized a progressive agenda, arguing the Trump administration poses a threat to health care access, LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom.
The progressive Justice Democrats PAC spent $56,000 in attack ads on Bean, but that hardly made a dent against the millions of dollars outside groups spent to assist her.
CHICAGO — Former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. fell short in his attempt to return to Congress on Tuesday, after resigning more than a decade ago amid a federal corruption investigation.
Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller defeated him and a host of other candidates to win the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 2nd district, a seat currently held by Rep. Robin Kelly, who left to run for the Senate.
Jackson’s comeback bid transformed the race into a high-profile showdown, with the former representative leaning on his deep name recognition. But Jackson — who resigned in 2012 and served prison time after pleading guilty to wire and mail fraud for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds — was unable to successfully reframe his past as a redemption story.
Meanwhile, Miller consolidated support across key parts of the district and benefited from spending by a group aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which funneled more than $4 million into ads promoting her campaign. The contest drew national attention in part because the group, Affordable Chicago Now, gave Miller’s campaign substantial airtime in the Chicago media market and funded mail pieces highlighting her record.
The spending helped elevate Miller’s profile even as a separate political action committee, the Leading the Future PAC, which is funded by OpenAI stakeholders, spent more than $1 million to promote Jackson after he signaled support for the industry with op-eds and ads.
Miller focused her campaign on her work on public health, public safety and budget oversight. She also underscored her longstanding ties to Democratic women’s organizations, as vice president of Illinois Democratic Women, former president of the Democratic Women of the South Suburbs and past board chair of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and its political action committee.
She made a concerted effort not to attack her opponents, saying she was “the only candidate in the race” to do so.
Other notable names in the race included state Sens. Robert Peters and Willie Preston.
The 2nd District, which stretches from Chicago’s South Side into the south suburbs and rural counties, is heavily Democratic and Miller is expected to win easily in November.
(Alamy)
3 min read
Travelodge has pulled out of a planned meeting with MPs who wanted to raise issues of room security with the hotel chain.
It comes after a woman was sexually assaulted in one of its hotels in 2022 by a man given a key card to her room by hotel staff.
An MP involved in organising the meeting said the move had sent “entirely the wrong message to victims and undermines confidence in their commitment to safeguarding”.
In February, Kyran Smith was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting a woman in a Travelodge in Berkshire in December 2022. Smith had attended the same party as the woman and had later acquired a key card to her room after falsely claiming to hotel staff that he was the victim’s boyfriend.
The BBC reported that the company had initially offered the woman a £30 refund, which the victim described as “insulting”.
Labour MPs Matt Bishop and Jen Craft wrote to Travelodge CEO Jo Boydell last week, demanding a meeting about the case.
MPs Bishop and Craft met with Boydell on Monday, alongside the victims minister Alex Davies-Jones and the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, with Boydell pencilled in to meet with a larger group of MPs later today.
However, MPs were informed on Tuesday night that the CEO would no longer be attending the meeting. It was unclear at the time of writing why Travelodge had decided to no longer attend.
Bishop told PoliticsHome: “I am extremely disappointed that Travelodge has chosen not to meet with us as a group of MPs.
“When serious concerns are raised about the safety of women, there is a clear responsibility to engage openly and transparently. Refusing to do so sends entirely the wrong message to victims, and undermines confidence in their commitment to safeguarding.”
PoliticsHome reported on Tuesday that Bishop, who is a former police officer, was working on a new law to improve hotel security following the assault, after concerns that any new guidance would not go far enough.
The proposals, set to be introduced as a Ten Minute Rule Bill, would introduce industry standards to ensure the safety of individuals staying in hotels. PoliticsHome understands that the government is willing to work with Bishop on the plans.
Boydell previously apologised to the victim and said that Travelodge had done an internal review of its security policies, making “immediate changes to ensure that an additional or replacement room key is only issued with explicit permission from the person, or people, staying in the room”.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Boydell said that the meeting on Monday had been “productive and helpful”.
Travelodge has commissioned an independent review and agreed to work with ministers and MPs to ensure that a leading violence against women and girls expert is appointed who can work closely with the KC leading the review.
Boydell said the review “will look at the lessons we can learn to help us improve the way we handle complex and sensitive cases, as well as how we can improve our room security procedures and what additional training we can offer to our colleagues over and above our existing health and safety, security and safeguarding training, including a specific focus on violence against women and girls”.
“As part of the review we will be seeking inputs from the wider group of MPs and Peers who care passionately about this topic.”
Boydell said she was “deeply sorry for the significant distress experienced by the victim and for our handling of her case”, and “would welcome the opportunity to meet with her to personally apologise and hear her thoughts on how we can improve our processes, if she would like to”.
Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran has sent energy prices skyrocketing. The effect on energy-intensive industries in the UK has been immediate and severe. And, as a knock-on effect, as many as 100,000 jobs could be lost across the UK.
Of course, we won’t shed a tear for the impact on highly polluting industries themselves. However, the situation is a striking illustration of the vulnerability created by the UK’s desperate reliance on increasingly volatile fossil fuels.
The Straight of Hormuz
The current grab for fuel began after Iran closed off the Straight of Hormuz. Around a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway. As such, the US and Israel have accidentally made Iran a global oil superpower.
This is the view of air warfare scholar Professor Robert Pape, whose damning critique of the attack on Iran has generated wide interest recently. On 12 March, Pape said that:
Iran hit 16 vessels so far in Strait of Hormuz.
That’s all it takes for Iran to control 20% of the world’s oil and become an oil hegemon — the number 1 strategic outcome US has sought to prevent in Middle East since 1970s.
The Iran war has already caused a spike in Brent crude oil prices, up from $60 in January to around $100. This is already being called the biggest disruption to oil supplies in history.
Likewise, wholesale gas prices in the UK have risen to 171p a therm, more than double last month’s 78p. This is the highest they’ve been since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The already-failing UK chemicals industry is also being hit hard. The sector uses fossil fuels not only for power, but also as raw materials for its products. Production in the industry had already dropped by 60% since 2021, with 25 sites shuttering, with more are teetering on the brink as the Iran war rages on.
Unemployment ‘closer to 6 percent’
As a direct consequence, some economists have suggested that over 100,000 jobs could be cut within months. Likewise, the uncertainty over energy prices has led to speculation that the Bank of England won’t make its expected cuts to interest rates anytime soon.
James Smith, of investment bank ING, opined that employers may seek to make up for rising energy costs by slashing jobs. Smith said:
It depends how long energy prices stay high. If we’re in a scenario where the disruption lasts three months or so, then I would imagine [unemployment would be] be pushing above 5.5pc.
Smith also stated that the previous shocks from the war on Ukraine had left the economy in a weakened state. He said:
Now, it’s very different. We saw this last year with the hospitality sector, where we had the big rise in National Insurance and the minimum wage. We saw a sharp drop in employment and no discernible impact on prices.
These sectors that are most affected by higher energy prices, particularly in the service sector, don’t have the pricing power that they did in 2022. They’re more likely to deal with higher energy costs by cutting back their worker numbers.
Jordan Rochester, of Mizuho bank, echoed this sentiment. He suggested that the UK’s unemployment rates—already at a worrying peak—will likely increase:
If the rate of unemployment’s ascent matches that of the past year, it would defy forecasts again and put us closer to 6% rather than 5%.
Environmental fallout
Similarly, industry body Make UK highlighted that UK businesses are putting up their prices at the fastest rate since 2023. The trade body’s senior economist, Fhaheen Khan, stated that:
While output and investment show some improvement after a challenging end to last year, rising costs and weakening domestic demand are creating real pressures for businesses.
With UK industrial energy costs among the highest in the developed world, any sustained increase in oil and gas prices could quickly push up input costs, squeezing margins and limiting investment.
Meanwhile, the soaring price of fossil fuels will not be accompanied by a corresponding drop in pollution. US and Israeli strikes have hit Iranian nuclear facilities, munitions stockpiles, and oil refineries.
As a result, Iran is suffering toxic black rain, clouds of unbreathable smog, and catastrophic environmental effects that will be felt for generations to come.
The situation—in the UK, Iran and across the world—is a stark reminder of the fact that the decisions of tyrants like Trump and Netanyahu have consequences far beyond their own countries—and those of the foreign citizens they murder with impunity.
Featured image via Unsplash/the Canary
With hindsight, it was clear that something was wrong in Canterbury at least a couple of days before the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) notified the public of a meningitis outbreak. Walking through the city centre on Friday evening, I noticed the pubs and restaurants that would normally be teeming with students were standing largely empty. Far from its usual raucousness, Canterbury High Street was eerily quiet.
It was 48 hours later that news broke of the tragic deaths of a pupil from a nearby school and a student at the University of Kent, from what has now been identified as meningitis B. Fifteen people remain severely ill in hospital. This is an incredibly difficult time for those mourning the loss of a relative or friend, worried about those still unwell, or concerned that they are at risk of infection.
Meningitis needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness. Amid concern that the UKHSA was too slow in alerting the public, health officials spent yesterday tracing those who may have come into contact with the disease and issuing precautionary antibiotics to those at risk. This was a sensible response to a worrying situation.
But elsewhere, the response to Canterbury’s meningitis outbreak has been far from rational. ‘TERROR ON CAMPUS’ screams the headline in today’s Daily Mirror. ‘Killer meningitis outbreak’, warns Channel 4 News. Images have been published of paramedics in hazmat suits wheeling a sick student out of university accommodation and into the back of a waiting ambulance – even though this is absolutely not happening routinely.
As I walked through the University of Kent’s grounds yesterday, it wasn’t petrified students I noticed, but journalists intent on whipping up hysteria. National camera crews had assembled at dawn, and by midday, helicopters were circling my house, capturing aerial footage of students queuing for antibiotics. Yet reporters, vox-popping teenagers and seemingly desperate for hysteria, were, at least at first, often met with boredom and resignation. It was only as the day wore on that ‘fear and panic’ began to be recorded.
Some journalists seem to go beyond describing what’s happening in Canterbury in their bid to summon a medical emergency, with the media at the centre of the action. This can have dangerous and unintended consequences. For example, reports suggest that some scared students have now returned to their family homes, when they may have been far better off staying put to avoid spreading the infection. Indeed, the first case outside of Kent was recorded in London earlier today, leading health officials to declare the outbreak a ‘national incident’. French officials have also reported a case involving a Kent University student.
‘Students queue in “Covid-esque” scenes’, claimed the Independent, turning to a comparison being drawn in much of meningitis reporting. Indeed, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t just journalists drawing Covid parallels. ‘Lockdown’ now provides the script for responding to serious illness. In Canterbury this week, people have all too readily returned to once-familiar routines with university exams moved online, masked-up students queuing for medication, and pubs falling silent.
What’s troubling is not just the readiness with which people retreat from social life, but that Covid comparisons fail to take into account the specific nature of meningitis and the way it is transmitted. Unlike Covid, meningitis B spreads through close and direct contact with an infected person through kissing, sneezing, and sharing drinks or cutlery. It is, thankfully, far less contagious than Covid – although this is not obvious from much of the reporting.
The ease with which lockdown routines are being revived means that students queuing for antibiotics at the University of Kent are being given masks, which likely serve little purpose, only to be spotted sharing vapes, which is far riskier than simply lining up outside in the fresh air.
Another unhelpful hangover from the Covid years is the way disease becomes incorporated into the culture war. Within minutes of footage of students queuing beginning to circulate, vaccinations became a topic of discussion once more. On one side, students were condemned for not having been vaccinated against meningitis, while others pointed out that repeated lockdowns and school closures meant that entire cohorts of teenagers missed out on routine vaccinations that would normally have been administered during the school day. Some note that vaccines are less effective against meningitis B, the particular strain thought to be spreading in Canterbury, while others argue that only a lack of NHS funding prevents this specific vaccine from being issued more widely.
Right now, Kent’s meningitis outbreak has led to the tragic loss of two young lives. There is a worrying wait for news of those who are still gravely ill. But we cannot afford to let a more generalised media hysteria, or a desire to replay an old Covid script, make this serious situation far worse than it already is.
Over the past week or so, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a time machine and been transported back to March 2025. Cast your mind back: Adolescence had just dropped on Netflix, and a moral panic was starting to set in about white working-class boys. Lurking in the background of the four-part series, which follows the arrest of a teenage boy accused of stabbing his female classmate to death, was the pernicious influence of Andrew Tate and the so-called manosphere in which he operates. Blaming the worst of all crimes on this self-proclaimed ‘misogynist’ influencer went down a storm at the time.
The Guardian hailed Adolescence as the ‘closest thing to TV perfection in decades’, while the Independent described its exploration of the ‘pernicious influence of the manosphere’ as ‘harrowing but compelling’. UK prime minister Keir Starmer wanted it to be shown in every British secondary school.
Exactly one year on, Louis Theroux’s latest documentary has once again put the manosphere under the microscope. The current moment feels like déjà-vu or, as Tate might say, a ‘glitch in the matrix’, because Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere also provides a superficial insight into a complex problem.
That hasn’t stopped critics from falling over themselves to praise the zany documentarian’s deep dive into the online world of hypermasculine content creators. Bragging about ‘one-way’ monogamy and the importance of material wealth above all else, these rage-baiting clowns have also sent celebrities into a tizzy. Everyone from Simon Cowell’s wife to Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews – the same Spencer Matthews who gained notoriety as the bad-boy womaniser on the reality show – took to Instagram shortly after the credits rolled to issue a casting call for ‘better role models’ in society.
While documentaries like Inside the Manosphere offer celebrities an opportunity to declare to the world which way their moral compass points and to atone for past sins, they ultimately fail to grapple with why figures like Tate have such a hold on young boys.
Theroux does, at one point, attempt to unpack what motivates the main protagonists in this machismo movement. But he doesn’t get very far. Delving into the difficult ‘origin story’ of controversial streamer HSTikkyTokky (real name Harrison Sullivan), Theroux observes that ‘carrying the wounds of childhood can project trauma into the wider world’. Sullivan, we learn, was abandoned by his father.
It is to some extent understandable that Theroux ducked the question of why so many men find the ‘manosphere’ compelling. Honest answers may prove radioactive. But it is surely the most important question, and certainly would have led to far more interesting conversations, rather than shallow psychologising about the ‘wounds of childhood’.
For starters, what did the advent of the pill mean for gender relations? Did the #MeToo movement go too far? How about wokeism in general? Unintended consequences lurk everywhere, from sexual ethics to feminism.
And you don’t have to search hard to find them. The contradictions inherent in being a modern man are easily found on dating apps, where women routinely specify that they are seeking a ‘real man’ who is both ‘emotionally aware’ and ‘assertive’. It should be possible to traverse this thorny terrain without endorsing misogyny. In fact, dodging the hard questions in favour of platitudes will only reinforce the masculinity crisis.
The Tates of this world have gone where others fear to tread. That they have gone too far, and ended up in a sexist abyss, should not prevent the rest of us from asking whether the long assault on manhood has been a good thing. The old Louis Theroux would have asked these questions, and given us a much better documentary as a result.
Adam Chapman is a writer and editor.
A senior Taliban official has said that Pakistan killed 408 people in an airstrike which targeted a drug rehab clinic in Kabul. The strike landed at 9pm on 16 March, allegedly wounded over 200, in addition to those killed. A Pakistani official said they had only targeted ‘military’ and ‘terrorist’ infrastructure.
Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X:
The Pakistani military regime carried out an airstrike at approximately 9:00 PM this evening on the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to the treatment of drug addiction. As a result of the attack, large sections of the hospital have been destroyed, and there are serious concerns about a high number of casualties.
Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured. Rescue teams are currently at the scene working to control the fire and recover the remaining bodies of the victims.
The information minister of Pakistan, Attaullah Tarar, shared the following details:
✅ 17 March 2026
✅ Pakistan’s Armed Forces successfully carried out precision airstrikes on the night of 16 March as a part of Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, targeting Afghan Taliban regime terrorism sponsoring military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar.
✅ Technical support… pic.twitter.com/b8YJkGC0cv
— Attaullah Tarar (@TararAttaullah) March 16, 2026
Doomsday scenes
He and his 25 roommates had gathered in their dormitory after prayers when the attack occurred. He was the only survivor among them.
many young people under treatment lived in large containers on the campus and very few survived the strike…It was extremely terrifying. Those who survived were the ones whose rooms were not destroyed and were fortunate. But the places where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed.
Now we have come again … there are still bodies under the rubble.
Border tensions between the two countries, building for several months, have turned into a hot war.
Afghanistan-Pakistan border war
Fighting between the formerly US-occupied nation and Pakistan (itself a US partner) kicked off in February. At the time, the Canary reported how Pakistani officials were already calling the confrontation an ‘open war’ back in late February.
In an explainer Reuters said:
Allies-turned-foes Pakistan and Afghanistan’s worst fighting in years erupted last month, with Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds.
Afghanistan called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty that targeted civilians, and launched retaliatory operations.
Over the last three weeks, both countries have launched air and drone strikes against each other and also engaged in ground firing across their 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border, with each claiming to have inflicted heavy damage and killed hundreds of opposition troops, without providing evidence.
Featured image via X/Canary
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