2008: ‘Country Club: Chicken Wire’ | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson. Image courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey.

3 min read2 min

The intensity of the work of the contemporary British artist Hurvin Anderson must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated

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From the start of this retrospective of 40 years’ work, it is clear that Hurvin Anderson’s main interest lies in his own upbringing and heritage, and how the different aspects of that heritage might fit together. What is fascinating is that they don’t: there is no resolution, rather different parts of that heritage sit awkwardly beside each other, or are layered on top of each other, in a kind of dualistic conflict.

Anderson, born in Handsworth, Birmingham, to Jamaican immigrants, grew up in what was both an English and multi-cultural environment. The earliest paintings – influenced by family photos – are largely black and white figurative studies, although he is already thinking about the Caribbean his parents left behind. An early breakthrough work is Ball Watching (1997), itself based on a photo he took of boyhood friends with their backs to us looking out at a lost football floating on the lake in Handsworth Park. But he has already turned the lake into a seemingly warm sea and put ships on the horizon, while the football itself has disappeared.

In another work looking back at this Birmingham childhood Grove Lane (2000), the swimming bath cubicle doors painted in artificial colours don’t erase the grimy grey of the concrete surroundings – just as lovingly rendered by the artist.

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On a first visit to Jamaica, his reaction was one not of ‘homecoming’ but of dislocation. As Anderson says: “My struggle with Jamaica: I don’t know it and I know it. I have this romantic vision of it and a lot of my painting is fighting that romance.”

It is exciting to see the artist’s development

Interestingly, then, Anderson describes his painting process (which soaks up many influences from the LP covers of Jamaican artist Ras Daniel Heartman, to John Constable and Anderson’s mentor the British artist Peter Doig) as a search for what his autobiographical work “should be”. That “should” is instructive. For instance, Maracas III (2004), a painting of the popular beach spot in Trinidad (where Anderson had a residency) feels simultaneously like a fragmented memory, and – with its sketchy figures – an idealised projection into the future, like an architectural plan. Counterintuitively, too, our attention is, as with other of the Caribbean pictures, drawn away from the tourists’ beach to the lush island interior.

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That interior is there too in the wonderful Limestone Wall (2020), where an abandoned Jamaican hotel (part of the colonial legacy) is gradually being swallowed up by the forest.

It is exciting to see the artist’s development, for instance from the more obvious geometric obstruction of what is felt to be unreachable (or out of bounds) as in Country Club, Chicken Wire (2008) to the subtle use of squaring-up lines which weave in and out of the painting, as in the brilliant Siding (2013) seen in the first room of the exhibition.

The accompanying catalogue has interesting essays, though not quite enough information about the individual works themselves. The illustrations, perhaps inevitably, do not do justice to the intensity of work that has to be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated.

Earl of Clancarty is a Crossbench peer

Hurvin Anderson

Curated by: Dominique Heyse-Moore and Jasmine Kaur Chohan

Venue: Tate Britain until 23 August

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Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has told parliament that the Starmer government does not support rent controls. The reason was that doing so would “make life more difficult for renters”.

Since then, Pennycook has received the praise of – you guessed it – not renters:

Labour's housing minister's opposition to rent controls welcomed by the country's largest private landlord.

Who's side are Labour on? Renters or landlords. The answer is here. pic.twitter.com/olVzEIVTki

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— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 15, 2026

Land of the landlords

Pennycook told parliament:

The government does not support the introduction of rent controls, which we believe could make life more difficult for renters.

There is sufficient international evidence from countries such as Sweden and Germany, and from individual cities such as San Francisco, as well as the recent Scottish experience, to attest to the potential detrimental impacts of rent controls on tenants.

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There are reasons why rent controls can make things worse. Mostly the issue is they make it harder for landlords to make obscene profits from renters, which forces them to throw their toys out of the pram.

In a nutshell, this is why something as essential as shelter shouldn’t be in the hands of money grubbers.

Pennycook also said:

I have looked at a wealth of evidence, particularly international evidence, of what the impact of first and second-generation rent controls are, as well as more subtle forms of rent control, which can have differential impacts on different groups.

Such controls typically benefit settled and better-off tenants more than those looking for a home or needing to move.

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As Polanski noted, Pennycook’s inaction plan has gone down well with landlords:

Pennycook’s opposition to rent controls was welcomed by Kurt Mueller, director of corporate affairs and executive committee member at Grainger, Britain’s largest listed private landlord.

Mueller, highlighting the housing minister’s comments on the LinkedIn social media platform, said: “It’s good to see continued support from the UK Government for common sense with their steadfast commitment against rent controls and the damaging impact they would have for renters and the market generally.”

Not everyone agrees, though.

Living Rent

Living Rent have sought to dispel myths on this topic. They go into further detail on their site, but in a nutshell:

1) Isn’t the only problem supply?

Not really. Firstly, supply isn’t really as big of an issue as it’s made out to be – for instance, there is a higher proportion of empty bedrooms in the UK than at any time since the Great Plague (!). The ratio of rooms to people has never been higher in modern history. We’re not against new builds, especially not new social housing, but the supply question is kind of a red herring.

…

2) All landlords would leave the sector and tenants would have nowhere to live.

Landlords threaten to leave the sector if regulation is increased, but a quick glance across Europe is enough to dismiss this: the most heavily regulated private rented sectors are consistently the biggest. Germany, with the biggest PRS in Europe, is easily one of the most heavily regulated.

…

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Lest we forget, we don’t actually need landlords to have houses.

These unnecessary middlemen offer nothing and take everything.

People claim that capitalism eliminates inefficiencies, but these people are waste personified.

Failures

Living Rent also noted:

3) Didn’t they fail when we had them last time?

Landlords insist that the various rent controls which existed in the UK between 1915 and 1988 were disastrous for tenants. They point out that, over those 70 years, we went from almost nine in ten people renting privately to fewer than one in ten. They claim this is proof that rent controls devastate the private rented sector (PRS).

Oh no, not the private rented sector – won’t somebody think of the landlords?

Living rent continued:

This argument, in fact, was a favourite of David Cameron, who told the House of Commons in 2013: “I do not support the idea of mass rent controls because I think we would see a massive decline in the private rented sector, which is what happened the last time we had such rent controls.”

But that change, by absolutely any measure, was an enormous success of public policy. The reduction in the private rented sector can be explained in three obvious – and positive – ways:

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• Millions of council homes were built to give people a secure, safe, affordable place to stay outside the PRS.
• Millions of people were able to buy their own homes through real-terms increases in wages and the expansion of mortgage availability.
• Millions of the properties that landlords were renting out were demolished in slum clearances because they were, well, slums.

Without rent controls, it seems, slum-like conditions have once more returned. As writer Bob Lynn notes:

In 21st century Britain, a shocking reality lurks behind closed doors. Families are living in conditions that harken back to the squalor of Victorian slums — damp walls, mould-infested rooms, and overcrowded spaces unfit for human habitation. …

The word ‘slum’ conjures images of Dickensian London, with its overcrowded tenements and disease-ridden streets. Yet, for many low-income families today, this grim picture is not far from their daily reality. In 2022, around 3.8 million people in the UK experienced destitution, unable to afford basic necessities like food, warmth, and shelter. This figure has more than doubled since 2017, pointing to a rapidly worsening crisis.

But yes, the real crime would be if rent didn’t leap up by obscene amounts every year.

Do something

Living Rent finished:

4) All economists agree that rent controls are bad

You’ll often hear comments bandied around claiming that all economists agree rent controls are unambiguously bad. There is a grain of truth to this – a poll from 1992 showed a surprising degree of consensus that rent controls would have negative effects.

But here’s the hitch. Nobody is proposing the type of rent controls that this supposed unanimous opposition is directed at. During the first world war, what are now called ‘first generation rent controls’ were brought in across most countries involved in the conflict – these were blunt caps or freezes on rent, and are rightly criticised for having negative side effects. But now we have 70 years of evidence from across the world about how to implement rent controls without unintended consequences.

Now, as Housing Today have reported:

The Green Party said its members elected in May will “use their voice to pressure the Labour government to give local authorities the power to introduce rent controls to curb overheating rents in their area.” The party has also pledged to “totally” abolish leasehold and introduce rent controls nationally if it gets into government.

Leasehold (and the truth) is another sensitive area for Pennycook, as we reported:

Oh… right. https://t.co/orvrBLe28D pic.twitter.com/lYnHBtjJmV

— cladtrap (@cladtrap) March 27, 2026

Systems

Sometimes well-meaning ideas can have unintended consequences. The solution isn’t to give up on fixing things; the solution, like Polanski argued, is to adapt until you get the right results.

Labour’s solution to most issues is to bury their heads in the sand. The problem is that while they ignore the world and its problems, the world is moving on without them.

Featured image via Parliament

By Willem Moore

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4 min read5 min

The future of the power station need not be a headache for Ed Miliband.

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Drax’s story has long been contentious. The power plant in Yorkshire was once home to one of Europe’s largest coal furnaces, but since 2012 has burned millions of tonnes of wood pellets, mostly shipped from North American forests. It generates around four percent of the UK’s electricity, and because trees regrow, this form of generation is classed as renewable.  

Successive Conservative administrations backed the project to the tune of £7bn in subsidies since it began burning wood, funded by UK billpayers. This despite a litany of concerns, ranging from unsustainable sourcing of wood and profiteering to health impacts on the communities near its US pellet mills. In the UK, the company is also under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority, while ten lawsuits have been filed after cases of occupational asthma.

In that context, Ed Miliband deserves credit for beginning to reset the framework he inherited. His decision last February to cap subsidies for large biomass plants and limit Drax’s run-time from 2027 was welcome.   

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For years, Drax has pointed to Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) to justify its long-term role. The proposition is straightforward: continue generating power from biomass, but capture and store the emissions,  allowing Drax, in theory, to remove carbon from the atmosphere and position itself as essential to net zero.

It’s an appealing idea, but it has always raised difficult questions.

Scientific studies raise serious doubts that a model built on burning imported wood could ever deliver genuine climate benefits, given how long it takes for forests to regrow.

Then there’s the cost. Estimates suggest BECCS at Drax could require up to £43bn in public money over 25 years, a substantial sum to place on a single, unproven approach while billpayers struggle with the rising cost of living.

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It’s no surprise that this is an issue of rare political consensus. It has united the Greens and Reform UK. Ed Davey – who signed off the scheme at Drax in the first place in the coalition government – has turned against the company. Even Claire Coutinho, the former Conservative energy secretary, has warned that “we cannot go green by burning trees at huge cost to the public” despite backing Drax whilst in office.  

This reflects a broader shift, with the government’s own climate advisors scaling back expectations for BECCS and warning against relying on imported wood.

Crucially, Drax now appears to be responding. As reported in Politico, the company will commit only limited resources to BECCS in the near term and instead focus on renewables, battery storage, and a controversial data centre project.

That has been framed as a headache for Miliband, but in reality, it frees ministers from over-reliance on a costly and uncertain single project. The key question is not how to revive one project, but how to ensure the UK’s net zero plans are not beholden to a single company.

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For years, BECCS at Drax has played an outsized role in official net-zero plans, a convenient way to balance the carbon books. But as Alan Whitehead recently argued in his independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals, relying too heavily on a single pathway, particularly on imported biomass, carries risks.

A stronger approach is to back a mix of solutions: speeding up proven clean power such as wind and solar, investing in a range of carbon removal options, and ensuring public money goes to schemes that are both credible and good value. Analysis from the Green Alliance suggests that it is achievable.

Drax’s change in direction should be seen in that light. It creates space for a more practical and flexible strategy. Moving away from a one-furnace future towards a broader mix of solutions is not a setback for government, but a step towards a more credible and deliverable plan.

 

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Alex Mackaness is Programme Manager at the Labour Climate and Environment Forum

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A coalition of anti-Zionist Jewish organisations in Germany have faced repression and backlash after a protest at the Buchenwald Memorial.

In 2025, attendees of a service commemorating 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camp were denied entry for wearing keffiyehs. They petitioned the German courts to overturn the decision, but were unsuccessful. The courts argued:

It is unquestionable that this would endanger the sense of security of many Jews, especially at this site.

Ahead of this year’s memorial event, the group once again petitioned the courts to overturn the ban, but it has been upheld.

Now, the group Kufiyahs at Buchenwald (KAB) have launched a campaign aiming to highlight the issue on an international stage.

Buchenwald memorial

In a press conference on 14 April 2026, Tair B., an organiser with Jüdische Stimme, explained how the German state “banned our vigil from being held … on the basis that the [Buchenwald Memorial] is an apolitical place.”:

We challenged this ban in court, but it was upheld [based on the claim that attendees] were hurting the honour of the victims [of the Holocaust] by drawing connections to current genocides and naming continuities.

We refuse to participate in this game.

Nevertheless, the German state has sought to crack down on their dissent.

German hypocrisy

Activists have since been fined for social media posts related to their banned vigil. Rachael Shapiro, a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, discussed the penalties, adding:

It is not an arbitrary action. It’s part of the state’s campaign to further criminalize Jüdische Stimme in the context of them being an extremist organization because of the threat that anti-Zionist Jews pose to [the state’s] narrative.

Shapiro described the situation as one of blatant hypocrisy and antisemitism:

The children and grandchildren of Nazis are demanding payment of tens of thousands of Euros from the children and grandchildren of the Jews they slaughtered for opposing the exploitation of the place at which they slaughtered our families in order to maintain their ideological commitment to doing more genocide and punishing us for objecting to it.

Undeterred by state pressure, KAB will continue protesting the decisions of the German state, its courts, and the Buchenwald Memorial itself.

Three goals

Shapiro went on to explain the three goals of their campaign.

First, they are “protesting the ban on the kufiyah and symbols of Palestine solidarity.” Second, the group hopes to expose “the cynical weaponization of the Nazi genocide of European Jews.”

The Buchenwald Memorial and other German Zionist institutions are ferocious advocates of Holocaust exceptionalism … There can be no crime greater or comparable to that of German fascism. Any suggestion to the contrary is criminalized…

[This] allows Germans to dictate and have the final word on what commemoration means, who can perform it, how it can be performed, and where.

Shapiro said: “This absurdity is showcased in the hypocrisy of our intervention” – criminalizing German Jews for commemorating the Nazi Holocaust in the ‘wrong’ way.

The third goal of the protest is to bring the arguments used by “the Zionist management of the Buchenwald site, as well as the German authorities, out into the open” – that is, highlighting the issue internationally.

An international campaign

Shapiro explained the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network wanted to assist the KAB campaigners in

making it very clear to the German state that there is an international watching, and not just in the popular sense, but in the fact that Germany is being brought before the ICJ by Nicaragua for support of Israeli genocide.

The world sees this sick hypocrisy and the racist backwardness of the German state, and it can no longer hide behind its philosemitic circus of ‘memory’ culture.

A spokesperson from the European Legal Support Center further offered their support to the campaign as well.

Over the years, we have observed how administrative, not necessarily legal, protocols, such as neutrality clauses and house rules … are drawn on specifically to exclude Palestine solidarity activists, cancel events and ban symbols.

These administrative acts are often legitimated by prior smear campaigns, declaring that these symbols are insulting or a sign of support for terrorism. Since 2023, we have witnessed an accelerated process of criminalizing Palestinian symbols in the public sphere.

Continuing a tradition of resistance

Both B. and Shapiro remain determined to resist the policing of their political positions and Jewish faith.

B. commented:

As a Jew who grew up in Germany, I’m being expected all the time to be a puppet of the German state and to give my identity … over to state interest … to be used to deepen racism and structures of power that are killing people.

Shapiro said that her dissention was a continuation of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust itself:

My family were survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide. My grandmother was a survivor and escaped Nazi Germany. Her cousins … were part of the Jewish underground resistance to the Nazis. It’s for that reason … that a lot of my organizing work has revolved around uplifting resistance, in all of its forms, to genocide and fascism.

Both see the Buchenwald Memorial as an affront to these histories, whilst claiming to commemorate them. Shapiro continued that the Memorial is:

an especially sour place to watch this sickening weaponization and instrumentalization of our histories, [which are being] used to not just deny the genocide in Palestine, but to criminalize those Palestinians and Palestinian forces who are resisting.

Honouring the dead

This history of resistance is explicitly tied to the Buchenwald Memorial. The memorial’s own website mentions how a commemorative address was written by inmates at the concentration camp, ending with a joint pledge known today at the Oath of Buchenwald:

The destruction of Nazism, down to its roots, is our motto. To build a new world of peace and freedom is our ideal.

Another speaker at the press conference was Peter Eisenstein, honorary president of the European Alliance in Defence of Palestinian Detainees. He said:

To me, Nazi ideology and Zionism are synonymous.

It is a view shared by many German Jews today. But unfortunately, the Buchenwald Memorial refuses to uphold the Oath of its former inmates when the atrocities of the state of Israel is concerned. If the genocide in Gaza makes them too uncomfortable, maybe they are unfit custodians to honour the Buchenwald dead.

Featured image via the Canary

By Em Colquhoun

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Donald Trump has posted yet another rant to social media – this time ordering Starmer to drill for oil in the North Sea.

With a characteristic disconnection from reality, Trump also used the opportunity to complain about …Scottish windmills, of all things. We’re guessing he means turbines, but at this point, who bloody knows?

As ever, the USA’s own fascist-in-chief is telling you to do something, it’s a pretty strong indicator that you need to do the opposite. Of course, this is particularly true in the case of North Sea oil.

Experts recently issued a stark warning to the UK Labour government: opening up new fossil fuel fields in the North Sea could ruin international climate targets. Likewise, this terrible climate leadership from the UK would also embolden other countries to do the same, greatly magnifying the predicted negative impact.

Trump blusters: ‘NO MORE WINDMILLS’

Posting to his own personal Truth Social echo chamber, Trump wrote:

Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!! Aberdeen should be booming.

Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the U.K. at double the price. They are making a fortune. U.K., which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS!

This is such an impressive amount of shite to pack into 70ish words that we’re gonna need to break it down.

First and foremost, oil prices have soared precisely because of Trump and Netanyahu’s genocidal war on Iran. ‘You need to drill for oil’ is fucking rich coming from the dickhead who’s currently blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

Beyond that, the two greatest oil and gas reserves left in the UK-controlled North Sea are the notorious Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. However, even these are already over 90% depleted. As such, they’d require the use of extraction methods that are both energy-intensive and extremely costly.

Even after that, research has predicted that the two fields combined would only produce around 3% of the gas that the UK currently imports. The government’s own advisers have already admitted that:

Any increases in UK extraction of oil and gas would have, at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future.

‘Drill, baby, drill’

And then, of course, there’s the fact that the UK buys most of its oil from the fucking US, not Norway. Much as I enjoy watching Trump shoot himself in the foot, he can do that without the UK government’s help.

The US dictator’s use of ‘drill, baby, drill’ also highlights another fucking embarrassment for the UK. The phrase was originally a Republican campaign slogan from the late 2000s. Since then, Trump has reheated the slogan… followed by his faithful lapdogs in the Labour Party and Reform UK. Truly pathetic, that one.

Quite apart from the use of “windmills”, Trump’s side-swipe at Scottish renewables is bizarre for another reason. As of 2022, Scotland has generated more than 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources.

In fact, green energy sources are doing so well that Scotland has plans to export the excess power. In 2024, then-energy minister Neil Grey said:

Scotland has produced more renewable electricity than it consumed, demonstrating the enormous potential of Scotland’s green economy.

Scotland has the skills, talent and natural resources to become a global renewables powerhouse. Our ambition is not only to generate enough green electricity to power Scotland’s homes and businesses, but also export electricity to our neighbours, supporting jobs here in Scotland and the decarbonisation ambitions of our partners.

The transatlantic war criminal duo

Last, but by no means least, there’s one more problem with Trump’s post that I’ll mention. Namely, he’s voicing the same opinion as Tony ‘War Crimes’ Blair.

Last week, as the Independent reported, Blair and his pet Tony Blair Institute think tank called for expanded North Sea drilling. They argued that the Iran crisis exposed the UK’s vulnerability to global shocks in the oil market.

Of course, we could also mitigate this vulnerability by expanding electrification and renewable power generation. But then, that wouldn’t hasten the end of the world, so what do I know?

Unfortunately, Starmer and his excuse for a Labour Party are so pathetically easy for the right to influence that they’re already planning to roll over and drill at this point.

Again, if both Trump and Blair are telling the UK to drill, nothing could convince me faster that we need to be putting up wind turbines. Hell, or even windmills. I don’t care, I’ll turn the fucking crank myself at this point.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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Hannah Spencer is campaigning to protect disabled children in school fires. Spencer shared on her Instagram that she is working with a young constituent to make schools safer for disabled children.

The new Green MP for Denton and Gorton shared the story of Lucas Vezza-O’Brien, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy. Last year during a fire at his school Vezza-O’Brien was left behind as an assessment was made that the fire service and staff couldn’t get him out of the classroom.

Spencer said

He was left behind whilst alarms were ringing and the smell of smoke started to spread.

Being left behind during fires is reality for disabled people

This sounds like an absolutely terrifying and unimaginable situation, but for wheelchair users and other disabled people, it’s reality. In 2023, Dr Hannah Barham-Brown made headlines after she was left behind during a fire alarm at the Premier Inn she was staying in. Dr Barham-Brown had to be assisted out by friends, and if it had been a real fire she would’ve been left to die by the hotel staff.

We also learnt from Grenfell just how little housing associations and building companies give a fuck about protecting disabled people. 72 people died in the Grenfell tower block fire, many of whom were disabled and had their concerns ignored. Grenfell was an exercise in what happens when you neglect marginalised people and care more about taking their rents.

As Spencer shared, Vezza-O’Brien is campaigning to make sure that no other disabled school children face the ‘same horrendous experience’. The teenager has unpicked fire regulations for schools and started the #NoStudentLeftBehind campaign. His parliamentary petition got over 104,000 signatures. Spencer says she met with him as his MP and they will be attending a meeting with a government minister to ‘try and change the law’

Hannah Spencer is working for disabled people

Spencer and Vezza-O’Brien are both adamant in the stance that the schools or fire service ‘did nothing wrong’, but the law needs changing because there’s no requirement for schools to have evacuation chairs to get disabled people out in emergencies.

Spencer said

The law currently is too loose and vague. It needs changing. And thanks to Lucas, there’s now a lot of awareness and pressure building.

Of Vezza-O’Brien, Spencer said

It’s always very special to get to meet someone who clearly is a passionate activist – trying to challenge a complex legal and political system. But what I find most humbling here is that Lucas isn’t doing any of this for his own benefit, he’s doing it to make sure no other school pupil ever goes through the experience he had. He called his campaign #NoStudentLeftBehind and wants to stop this happening to anyone else.

Spencer said she is ‘honoured to play a very small part in this’ and hopes to help change the law so all pupils are safe in emergencies.

Though Spencer is just getting started as an MP, it’s clear she cares about disability rights. Something which we don’t see enough in Westminster. In her acceptance speech, Spencer was clear to state that she would serve all constituents, not just ‘taxpayers’ or ‘working people’.

She said

And I think that if you’re not able to work that you should still have a nice life. I think that absolutely everybody should get a nice life. And clearly, I’m not the only person who thinks that.

And in her maiden speech in parliament, she said she would work for:

the disabled people who can’t access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable.

It’s refreshing to finally have a politician who cares about actually fighting for disabled people, and not just when it’s gaining headlines. Let’s hope this continues with the Green Party’s rise

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Pope Leo has used his visit to Algiers to lay a tribute to Algerian rebels who died fighting for Algeria’s independence from France. The Pope, in full regalia, solemnly laid a wreath at the FLN (National Liberation Front) monument in the city:

The tribute is a pointed reminder to today’s neo-imperial powers of the will for freedom among oppressed and colonised people. It is one that is even more powerful from a Pope who is US-born – and one very much in line with the liberationist ideals of Leo’s predecessor Francis. More powerful still in the wake of Leo’s condemnation of US thief-in-chief Donald Trump for his arrogance, warmongering and delusions of divinity. And it is a welcome evolution in Leo’s political presence after a much less than auspicious start.

Commentator @thatkid1871 probably put it best:

After Francis died, I admit I did not predict that less than a year later we’d have a Chicago pope paying respect to FLN martyrs in full Roman regalia https://t.co/HiJU3JlMiJ

— Jay (@ThatKid1871) April 15, 2026

As icing on the cake, Trump’s sidekick JD Vance was heckled this week as he tried to criticise the Pope for condemning Vance’s boss.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Nominations have closed for the local elections taking place on 7 May. And the sixth-biggest bloc of candidates – behind Labour, the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens – consists of those using one of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) descriptions on their ballot paper.

TUSC has been in touch with details of its preparations for the elections:

There are 136 local authorities with scheduled contests this May. Councillors are up for election in around 3,000 wards or county council divisions. In total there are 289 candidates using a TUSC-registered description in the local elections across 64 councils.

They’re standing in one-in-five of the wards in those councils and just under one-in ten overall. And this includes candidates for the directly-elected mayors of Croydon, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets.

At the same time, there will be six constituency candidates using a TUSC description in the Scottish parliament elections, agreed by the autonomous Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

And two constituencies in the Welsh senedd elections (out of 16) will see five candidates using a TUSC description. Each constituency sends six members to the senedd on a proportional system.

TUSC candidates

The full list is available here, with the English council candidates presented in a regional breakdown.

Most of the candidates appear on the ballot paper with the description Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition next to their name. But some are using the Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate or Socialist and Trade Union Candidate descriptors.

Whatever the description, however, every candidate is committed to stand up to the establishment parties, who have all shown themselves to be indistinguishable when it comes to representing the interests of working class people.

The TUSC core policy platform for the May council elections features the minimum ‘six guarantees’. Local election candidates must commit to these before they can use one of the TUSC descriptions.

For those with a TUSC candidate in their area the opportunity is there not just to protest on 7 May but to vote positively for socialist change.

There are other candidates contesting the establishment parties on 7 May who, while not appearing on the ballot paper with a trade unionist and socialist description, will have support from the coalition.

These include the 20 candidates standing under the Your Party name and others appearing on the ballot paper as ‘Independent’ who could be properly described as anti-cuts and anti-war candidates. TUSC is currently collating information on these and will publish as comprehensive a list as possible of alternative candidates before polling day.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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On 15 April, social media was host to a great revelation – namely that swarms of bees had beset the tiny nation of Israel. Given Israel’s warmongering activities over the past few years, many have interpreted the great plague as God asking the Israelis to put a lid on it:

WATCH: Chaos in Israel as hundreds of thousands of bees swarm across the country!

Authorities are warning residents nationwide to shut their windows and stay off the streets!

In the Old Testament, swarms of bees are seen as a sign of divine wrath or looming danger. pic.twitter.com/dfjCPDGAW0

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— Mario ZNA (@MarioBojic) April 15, 2026

Israel and the Old Testament

According to y-net Global, the swarm of bees is located in the southern Israeli city of Netivot. The swarm was localised to a shopping complex at the time, but footage has shown them settling on residents’ vehicles and balconies too.

GB News reported:

Residents were advised not to approach the bees – under any circumstances. The guidance came as the swarm occupied streets and public spaces across the commercial area.

We should note that the above doesn’t apply if you’re part of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). If you’re a soldier, please feel free to approach the bees as you like. These insects are here to support you, and they like it when you dance about and make as much noise as possible.

GB News also reported:

One social media user quoted a passage from the Bible, from Isaiah 7:18.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria,” they quote.

The passage refers to God calling on foreign armies to invade Israel and judge Judah, one of Jacob’s sons.

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It’s worth bearing in mind that Israel’s neighbours have shown no interest in invading the Zionist nation – something which cannot be said in reverse. Additionally, as Pope Leo recently said:

God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.

The Isaiah passage above is from the Old Testament, whereas the Pope is talking that modern New Testament stuff.

It’s certainly the case that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is heavily inspired by the Old Testament. This is particularly notable when he brands his opponents “Amalek” – the Biblical enemies of the Israelites:

Netanyahu will NEVER accept peace. He sees Iran as the biblical Amalek that must be totally destroyed.The computer does not show this ending.

“We are ready to resume the fighting at any moment.”
“Our finger is on the trigger.” pic.twitter.com/RzU7Toc8Xe

— Martin A. Armstrong (@ArmstrongEcon) April 8, 2026

As Mother Jones reported:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis were united in their fight against Hamas, whom he described as an enemy of incomparable cruelty. “They are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew. He then added: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.”

There are more than 23,000 verses in the Old Testament. The ones Netanyahu turned to, as Israeli forces launched their ground invasion in Gaza, are among its most violent—and have a long history of being used by Jews on the far right to justify killing Palestinians.

As others quickly pointed out, God commands King Saul in the first Book of Samuel to kill every person in Amalek, a rival nation to ancient Israel. “This is what the Lord Almighty says,” the prophet Samuel tells Saul. “‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

You can see how this passage would justify genocide in the eyes of certain true-believers.

Unfortunately, some people use faith as cover for their own worst urges.

Buzzed

Footage online supposedly shows that the bees have swarmed a fighter plane:

Israeli military planes are experiencing serious issues, with many unable to fly, after the largest swarm of bees in recorded history descended on Israel pic.twitter.com/DHcAjOfesc

— The AI Robot Guy on X (@Housebots) April 15, 2026

We can’t confirm that ‘many fighter planes are unable to fly’ or that the swarm is the ‘largest in recorded history’, but the Daily Express US is reporting the following:

The horde of winged insects, the largest ever recorded in the nation’s history, prevented a military plane from taking off when it overtook the engine.

A massive swarm was also seen hanging from the aircraft’s wing. Relevant teams are anticipated to respond to the situation.

One death machine out of action is still a result, so well done the bees.

As the Proud Socialist account said on X/Twitter:

The bees are doing more to stop Israel than the entire Democratic party.

The Rational National YouTube is among those who have collated videos of the bees:

Bee-lief

Of course, the swarms are almost certainly just a seasonal thing. It is interesting, though, that a nation which acts with Old Testament intent has now experienced something like an Old Testament plague.

If we believed in old school Biblical retribution, we’d possibly be worried right now.

Featured image via X/Twitter

By Willem Moore

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