Politics
Israeli settler attacks intensify against Palestinians in West Bank
While all eyes are focused on the bigger regional issues, there has been an unprecedented increase in settler violence across the occupied West Bank.
Attacks on Palestinians by illegal “Israeli” colonists are no longer isolated acts of violence but a state policy of deliberate and organised terrorism.
At a recent press briefing, Palestine’s minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, Varsen Shahin, pointed to a sharp increase in the frequency and severity of settler attacks. She explained that such violence includes murder, physical assaults, the burning of homes and agricultural lands, destruction of infrastructure, theft and incitement practices, such as targeting places of worship.
The objective of these actions, she said, is to intimidate Palestinians and force them off of their land.
Shahin stressed that the situation in the occupied West Bank can no longer be viewed as isolated “acts of violence”, but as terrorism. She described this settler terrorism as “a deliberate and organised system of provocation” and a “state policy” designed to terrorise, displace and inflame.
Its purpose is to uproot us and provoke reactions that can be exploited for escalation against us. It is a calculated strategy to justify continuation and expansion of genocidal violence against the Palestinians, carried out by settler militias and armed gangs, who are illegally residing in occupied territory and supported by “very influential people in the government.
Israeli settlers armed by government, protected by IOF
These colonial Jewish settlers operate under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). They are armed and funded by the “Israeli” government, and constitute a direct extension of policies of annexation and settlement expansion. Shahin noted that the impunity and lack of international accountability, which has been ongoing for decades, has allowed Israel to do whatever it wants, including getting away with genocide.
She said:
Settler terrorism complements the accelerating settlement expansion that is occurring, through approval of new settlement units, new settlements, new planning measures and new legislation. All this entrenches the settlement enterprise and fulfills Israel’s expansions and colonialist policies, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
She added:
These acts are illegal under international law and aim to normalise permanent control of the occupied state of Palestine, undermine the Palestinian right to self-determination, and try to force us to leave. When we are forced to leave, they will then call that voluntary.
More than 20 Palestinians have been injured in the latest reported settler attacks.
In the Khalla Amira and Rujoum Ali areas of Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, settlers released their livestock near people’s homes on 25 March. They assaulted Palestinians in the area, injuring and hospitalising several. The IOF then arrived, firing tear gas and sound grenades at residents. Seven Palestinians were abducted and several people were detained.
Tragedy: One man, 31, dead, and others injured
In another incident in the evening of the same day, vehicles carrying Palestinian workers on the Umm al-Khair to Fateh Sidreh road, in the Masafer Yatta area, were chased by settlers accompanied by the IOF. They opened fire on the vehicles which led to one overturning and catching fire.
Yusri Majed Abu Qabita, 31, was killed and three other Palestinian men were injured.
No Palestinian is spared from this settler terrorism. An elderly man was injured in an attack in the Tubas governorate, in the Northern occupied West Bank.
East of Tulkarm, in the town of Ramin, settlers stole sheep and injured two Palestinian men.
About 750,000 Zionist settlers live illegally in settlements across the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem. They carry out crimes against Palestinians all day every day, but harsh words and meaningless sanctions from the international community do absolutely nothing to stop them. As yet, they have faced no accountability for any of their vicious crimes.
Fourteen Palestinians were killed by settler terrorism in 2025 while 11 people have been murdered in the first three months of 2026, according to figures from the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC).
In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled “Israel’s” occupation of Palestine is illegal, and called for all settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to be evacuated.
Shahin summed up the situation and said:
Not only are our lives, our dignity and our rights threatened, but humanity, morality and justice under international law, and its applicability to all similarly. This is a real test. If the test fails in Palestine it will fail elsewhere, and the suffering will mount elsewhere.
Featured image via the Canary
Rosamund Pike had something to get off her chest after spotting someone texting in the audience of her West End show.
The Oscar nominee is currently appearing in a production of Inter Alia at the National Theatre in London, and at the end of Saturday night’s performance, she took a moment during curtain call to address the audience.
“I just wanted to say, for anyone going to the theatre, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you,” she began (as reported by The Independent). “I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too.
She then explained that she’d seen someone in the house texting during an emotional part of the show.
“You know who you are and I’m not going to single you out,” the Saltburn actor continued. “Maybe it was very important, and maybe you’re a doctor, and you’re saving someone’s life, and I hope you are.
“But we do see these [things, and] we do feel them.”
She added: “I’ve got you, I feel like I’ve got to hold you all, so when I feel that and see it, it’s hard.”
One of the most notoriously outspoken figures on the matter is stage icon Patti LuPone, who once went as far as swiping an audience member’s phone after seeing them on it during a performance in 2015.
British performer Gemma Arterton also claimed during an interview on The Graham Norton Show that she did the same, after spotting a patron filming her while she was performing in the West End musical adaptation of Made In Dagenham.
Back in April, Cynthia Erivo was similarly irked at seeing someone on their phone in the crowd during her one-woman show, even briefly stopping the performance around an hour in so the matter could be dealt with.
Phone use during theatrical performances is becoming an increasingly contentious issue.
Meanwhile, just a few weeks ago, Lesley Manville took issue with the current trend that has seen theatres allowing guests to film the curtain call on their phones.
Lesle told Radio 4: “Clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick your phone in our face. I find it insulting.”
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner are officially married after tying the knot over the weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, the British pair held an intimate wedding ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall in central London, around a year after it was first rumoured that they were engaged.
Pictures taken on the day show the happy couple leaving the venue arm in arm while being showered with confetti by loved ones.
Dua wore a custom pale blue Schiaparelli suit for the occasion, including a floor-length skirt and oversized hat, while the Masters Of The Air actor wore a double-breasted navy suit by Ferragamo.
Check out photos from the big day in The Sun.
Since they began dating in January 2024, Dua and Callum have largely kept their relationship out of the spotlight, aside from the odd Instagram post.
However, they made their red carpet debut together at the 2025 Met Gala, around a month before confirming their engagement.
The Future Nostalgia singer told British Vogue in June last year that the engagement was “very exciting”, revealing her new fiancé had designed her engagement ring for her, and that she was “obsessed with it”.
“It’s nice to know the person that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well,” she beamed.
Shortly after this, Callum had the entire world swooning when he gave a candid interview about how he and Dua first met.
“We sat next to each other and realised we were reading the same book, which is crazy,” he told The Times. “I had just finished the first chapter and I told her and she looked at me and said, ‘I just finished the first chapter too’. I said, ‘So we’re on the same page’.”
“In the movie version of it I look up to the sky and I’m like, I hear you. I understand. The signs are loud, don’t worry. And that was really the first [moment],” he added, revealing that prior to that, there’d been several near misses when they almost met by chance, but didn’t.
A senior BBC expert has branded the Iran war “a severe blunder” as he slammed Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis.
Jeremy Bowen, the corporation’s international affairs editor, said the US president’s decision to launch air strikes in February had been “a gross miscalculation”.
He also hit out at Trump’s “famously limited attention span” and said he was now desperately trying to find a way out of the conflict.
His comments came as the president once again claimed Iran wants to agree a deal to end the war – but with no permanent ceasefire in sight.
Bowen said: “It seems that President Trump is deeply reluctant to get back into any kind of sustained military action against the Iranians. He’d like this whole thing to be over, he’d like to find a way out of what actually was a gross miscalculation back in February.
“On the Iranian side, they have fundamental demands that they believe are existential, and it’s pretty clear I’d say that more strikes are not going to budge them on that.”
He said the “best case scenario” at the moment would be a memorandum of understanding between both sides which would allow them to continue peace talks without a return to fighting.
But he added: “If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened, that is economically disastrous for much of the rest of the world, including the United Kingdom.
“I think we’re seeing the consequences of what was a really severe blunder by the Americans and the Israelis to attack Iran back in February. They got it wrong because they underestimated the degree to which the Iranians were prepared to rise this out.”
Bowen went on: “We’re seeing this continued period of confusion, and at the centre of it is Donald Trump, with his famously limited attention span when it comes to really difficult situations, his desire for quick victories, and in this case, his absolute inability to deliver one.”
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Forty-eight percent of people in England and Wales live in towns – nearly half the population – and it’s clear to me that the UK will not succeed unless its towns succeed. But for too long we have reached for a cities-first playbook – as though towns exist to serve the economies of nearby cities rather than to drive their own.
The data tells the story plainly. Over the last ten years, employment in cities grew by 10.7%. In towns, 5.4%. A stark difference. And people living in places like Stafford have to live with the consequences of that – watching investment land nearby but not reach them, watching young people move away believing opportunity lies somewhere else, and watching their high streets shrink and decline.
The issue is of course, multifaceted. But I believe some small but important changes could be huge engines of growth for our towns, and therefore the economy of our country.
The data shows that certain sectors are more likely to employ people in towns than cities – manufacturing is a strong example, which employs 9% of all employees in towns, more than double the 4% who work in manufacturing in cities. Investing in our manufacturers is therefore a brilliant way to invest in our towns, creating a virtuous cycle of business growth, job creation, and spending in the local economy.
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But for too long, our government procurement framework hasn’t been doing enough to reward companies that are already manufacturing in Britain. Public procurement is a hugely powerful tool, with the government spending £434 billion in 2024/25 across the UK. How this money is spent affects our businesses, our workforce, our environment, and our communities. It impacts how we build homes, whether we meet net zero, how healthy our communities are, and whether our local businesses succeed.
These factors form the social value of a contract – the benefits beyond pure delivery of a product or service. While of course price and quality remain key factors, given today’s fragile supply chains and increased global competition, the importance of Social Value is going up.
The historic social value weighting hasn’t been sufficient to tip decisions in the favour of UK manufacturing. Businesses in my constituency have felt this firsthand – and I’ve been pushing the Government to change it.
It is clear from approaches taken in the US, European Union, and elsewhere that there is an appetite for domestic-focused procurement. Germany shows strong preference for domestic suppliers, particularly for critical assets and maintenance reliability, which is crucially important in times of increased global uncertainty.
The European Commission has recently proposed the Industrial Accelerator Act to increase the share of EU products and services in public procurements – a significant change to its current legal framework for investment. The act aims to increase manufacturing to 20% of the EU’s GDP by 2035.
This trend is showing how procurement is becoming a key priority for economic growth and resilience, and things are no different in the UK.
The government’s procurement reform, announced in March 2026, marks the biggest overhaul in a generation and one I believe is an excellent move for the UK. It will mean that bids that deliver real community support, local jobs, skills, and apprenticeships will be rewarded. And it shows this government is committed to buying British, building British and backing British.
The reforms focus on four key sectors: steel, shipbuilding, energy infrastructure, and AI – those that are key to our national security. Importantly, they include a new definition of Social Value to put local communities at the heart of procurement decisions, as well as requiring government departments to publish and annually assess the social value delivery of contracts over £5m.
But I think there is more we can do. We could look at increasing the UK content weighting: where government money is spent it should support domestic production and skilled jobs wherever possible. For the businesses in my constituency, like Perkins making engines, GE Vernova making transformers, or Bostik making adhesives, this would make a real difference.
Outside of procurement reform, the government has recognised that our manufacturers require real support too, announcing £120 million of investment into ceramics manufacturing, £350 million to support the chemicals sector as well as legislation that brings the option to nationalise British Steel. Supporting British manufacturing in more industries, particularly ones like ceramics and steel where energy prices are having a real impact, will help us meet our targets as a country, while supporting British employment in our towns.
The government has made an excellent start, but until businesses in my constituency have a fair shot at their tenders, one that considers their local impact and UK manufacturing properly, I’ll keep pushing. When businesses are already backing Britain, we should absolutely be backing them. And when 48% of people in England and Wales live in towns, we should be creating policy that reflects that – not just reaching for the age-old cities-first playbook we’ve been relying on for so long.
Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd, North Wales, one of the UK’s nuclear sites progressing through decommissioning, underpinning national capability, skills and future energy opportunities. Image Credit: Nuclear Restoration Services.
There is a version of the nuclear decommissioning story that focuses entirely on endings. Sites going quiet, reactors being dismantled, an eventual reduction of jobs. That version misses many critical things that matter.
Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) manages 14 former nuclear sites across the United Kingdom. Our work will continue well into the next century. The communities that grew up around these sites have given decades of skilled, committed service to the country’s energy needs, and our job is to honour that by building something lasting in return.
In Scotland, NRS supports around 3500 jobs across 4 sites and contributes £241.0 million GVA to the Scottish economy. At Dounreay in Caithness, the numbers speak clearly. More than 1300 people work at the site representing around 11% of all employment in Caithness and North Sutherland. The site alone supports around 2700 jobs across Scotland, contributing £189.4 million GVA to the Scottish economy. Dounreay has been recruiting engineering apprentices for over 60 years. The expertise accumulated there, across generations of workers, is one of the most significant concentrations of technical skill anywhere in the UK.
“We all greatly value the contribution to the economy of the Far North by NRS – and I should add that this is in parallel with our great desire to see a next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) being planned for the same area where we have a licensed site and highly skilled workforce.” – Jamie Stone MP, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
When Hunterston B transferred to NRS in April 2026, hundreds of highly skilled workers came with it. These are engineers, technicians and specialists who have spent careers mastering one of the most demanding disciplines in industry. Keeping that workforce together, in the communities where they live and where their families are rooted, is central to what NRS does.
Not far from Dounreay, in Wick, the Nucleus nuclear archive is the kind of institution that rarely makes headlines but quietly anchors a local economy. It employs 68 people and generates between £4 million and £4.5 million for the area each year. For a town of Wick’s size, that kind of reliable, skilled employment is genuinely significant.
In Wales, NRS operates Trawsfynydd and Wylfa nuclear sites in parts of the country where well-paid technical work has long been valued by the communities that depend on it. NRS is also responsible for Maentwrog hydroelectric power station, which has been generating renewable electricity since 1928 and provides enough power for around 12,000 home each year. In 2025, these sites contributed more than £55 million GVA to the Welsh economy and supported over 800 jobs. Since 2005, the NDA and NRS have invested nearly £16 million across Anglesey and Gwynedd in socio-economic grant funding, supporting hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs while drawing in millions more from partner funders.
One of the most exciting projects to emerge from that commitment is the Egni low carbon innovation team at Menai Science Park on Anglesey, which received £389,000 from NRS. Since the programme began, Egni has delivered more than 5,000 hours of business support, attracted over £7 million in wider investment, and brought thousands of school children into contact with science and engineering through STEM outreach. It is exactly the kind of initiative that changes what young people in North Wales believe is possible for them.
Wylfa itself sits at the centre of something bigger. The government’s decision to site the UK’s first small modular reactors there is expected to create thousands of jobs at peak construction. That decision reflects decades of nuclear expertise embedded in the local workforce, expertise that NRS has played a significant role in sustaining. The skills being developed today, through decommissioning, are many of the same skills that will build the energy infrastructure of tomorrow.
Across Scotland and Wales, NRS works with hundreds of businesses, from specialist contractors to small local firms, supporting employment and building commercial capability throughout local supply chains. The breadth of that activity, spread through communities the length of both nations, is one of the most enduring contributions that decommissioning makes to regional economies.
The community investment figures for 2024/25 give a sense of the scale of what is possible when public investment is thoughtfully directed. NRS invested £2.3 million across 149 projects as part of our socio-economic investment in our communities and every pound unlocked a further £8.23 in match funding, generating £18.8 million in total community support. Across those projects, 142 new jobs were created, 215 businesses supported, 70 start-up grants awarded, and more than 10,000 training opportunities delivered.
Among them: a community café and hub in North Wales that received £65,000 and created four local jobs, and a 27-acre forest school in the south of England that will serve schools and community groups for years to come. Eighty-two grassroots organisations received support in 2024/25, the kind of quiet, sustained investment in community life that makes a real difference on the ground.
None of this works without people coming through. The NDA group invests more than £45 million each year in early careers programmes, and this year saw the biggest apprentice and graduate intake in the group’s history so far, with more than 1,100 people starting schemes. Graduate applications hit a record high. The nuclear sector is drawing in talented people who see a long, rewarding career ahead of them, and NRS is a significant part of why.
At Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, a former nuclear site is being carefully prepared for new uses, with the land steadily restored and made ready for whatever the community and government decide comes next. It is a model for how decommissioning, done well, creates opportunity rather than just closing a chapter.
The communities of Caithness, Anglesey, Ayrshire and the other places where NRS operates have contributed enormously to the UK’s energy history. NRS’s commitment is to give something lasting back, through good jobs, strong supply chains, genuine investment in local life, and the patient work of preparing the ground for what comes next. That work is well under way.
On Friday, the funeral of former Conservative MP Derek Conway was held in his beloved Northumberland. In the end, I was unable to go, which was such a shame as Derek was one of those people who was a one-off, one of life’s most positive and generous people. He was great company, and although I wouldn’t pretend to be one of his closest personal friends, I remember some quite deep and meaningful conversations, and some hilarious Whatsapp exchanges in recent years.
The last time I saw him was at my Margaret Thatcher booklaunch last June. He told me afterwards that people he had known for years hadn’t recognised him as he’d been on Mounjaro. Given there were a couple of hundred people there, we didn’t have much time to talk, but I remember we promised to meet up soon and have a proper catch-up. It never happened. In February, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given less than a year to live. He died on 5 May, at home with his darling wife Colette and their three children, Henry, Freddie and Claudia. He was only 73. I’ve just looked up his last message to me on Whatsapp. It came on 10 April and read:
“Fading rather quickly🤕 Around 9st now (not the 16 you’ll recall!) They gave me less than a year on mid-Feb so the clock is ticking down steadily. YOU ENJOY EVERY DAY💪Dx”.
At that point I had planned to go and see him when I was going to be in the North East in mid May. Despite that message I didn’t realise he thought the end was imminent. Andrew Mitchell and David Davis went to see him around that time for a final reunion of the band of brothers that became lifelong friends in the whips office during the Major government.
I didn’t know Derek at that point. He had been elected as MP for Shrewsbury in 1983, but I didn’t come across him when I worked in Parliament in the mid 1980s, or subsequently when working as a lobbyist in the 1990s. I do remember, however, his colleague Patrick Nicholls asking me in 1997 if I knew of any jobs going, as he was keen to help Derek following the loss of his seat in the Blair landslide. Derek subsequently became chief executive of the Cats Protection League, transforming it and increasing its turnover from £5 million to £27 million in only five years.
I first got to know Derek in the early months of 2005 when I attended a weekend meeting at Andrew Mitchell’s home in Nottinghamshire, ostensibly to discuss a potential David Davis leadership campaign, followed in late March by a similar event over dinner at the Conway’s magnificent flat near Westminster Cathedral. Believe me, dinners at the Conways were always memorable.
Derek’s public reputation and his actual real character were at odds with one another. During the leadership campaign itself, Derek and Andrew were often described in the newspapers as bullies. They were accused of issuing threats to Tory MPs that if they didn’t get on board with the DD campaign, they wouldn’t be rewarded with shadow ministerial positions. If that side of Derek really existed, I never witnessed it. As DD’s chief of staff during that period. Indeed, quite the opposite. All I saw was a man full of the joys of life, often displaying a wicked sense of humour, and someone who was very comfortable in his own skin. It proved to be a difficult six months for me, as I was a square peg in a round hole. Given at that stage I didn’t know him well, he was incredibly kind to me and was full of wise and advice, especially in how to handle the more difficult personalities involved in the campaign.
Back in April 2023, I met Derek for dinner in Hexham. I was there for the literary festival and had had a nightmare journey up the M1 and A1. I had gone almost blind in one eye half way up the M1 and had no idea if it would be long lasting. Derek shared some of his own health concerns and we joked about we were becoming typical old people – obsessed with health issues. We reflected on the DD campaign, then 18 years in the past, but my abiding memory of the dinner is that it was full of laughter.
Andrew Mitchell gave the eulogy at Derek’s funeral, and I can think of no better way of ending this tribute by quoting from it.
“For reasons I cannot immediately recall, he ended up presenting on television a book review show. This, as the title suggests, involved reading the book or books that were the subject of the show each week – which Derek always did – and the guests he invited on his show to discuss the books were supposed to do likewise. On the occasion that Iain Dale and I were his guests, it quickly became apparent that neither I nor Iain had actually opened the book in question. However, with magnificent sang froid, Derek managed to deliver the half-hour programme.”
I had forgotten all about this, but when Andrew phoned me to confirm the details, it all came flooding back. Sadly, neither of us can recall the book that remained unread by two of the three of us!
Everyone who counted Derek as a friend can’t quite believe we’ll never hear his gentle north east accent again, or hear that wonderful chortle. He enriched our lives, and that isn’t a bad legacy.
The Times has done a full obituary of Derek, which you can read HERE.
Hello and welcome to Canary Catch Up. Each week, our resident telly addict Rachel Charlton-Dailey will bring us bang up to date with the shows she’s been obsessed with, what she’s hate-watching, and what she can’t wait to get stuck into.
My God, it’s been hot this week, hasn’t it? I’m not made for this weather, but on one of the rare occasions I left my cool house, I saw the fantastic Mike Garry perform his poetry at King Ink in Sunderland. Garry’s poetry is a sharp look at working-class family life. His poem ‘what me mam taught me’ brought tears to my eyes.
If you’re looking for an escape from the heat, there’s a plethora of telly to watch in a shaded part of your house, too.
Rivals is hotter than ever — but also sincere
I’ve absolutely loved this series of Rivals. Obviously, it’s an inherently sexy show, and that part is done very well, but even better is the way the complexities of relationships are explored. In episode 5, we saw Taggie dealing with her family just casually forgetting her 21st birthday. Instead of being shocked, she was used to it; which made it even sadder.
Alongside the scandalous love affairs and the very short shorts this episode, it was also heartbreaking to see how it all affects those who are trying to do good. Especially poor Lady B, who was forced onto TV to save her cheating, lying husband’s reputation. Though I’m very much looking forward to what happens between her and Edna, and the hints we’ve had of their past.
With one episode left before the mid-series break, there are two questions on my lips: who stole the tapes, and who on earth is Perdita?
Canary Catch Up — The Testaments puts shock value above story
I was so looking forward to the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. The novel was set 15 years after The Handmaid’s Tale and followed three different women influenced by Gilead on how they played a part in toppling the regime. However, I should’ve learnt my lesson after how much they prioritised gore and shock and put more onus on the men in the Handmaid’s Tale series, because they’ve done exactly the same here.
The Testaments novel is an incredible work that shows how women reclaim power even when it seems absolutely impossible. The show, however, is too focused on brutality to actually show the intricacies of Atwood’s writing. The biggest problem is that they changed the story so much in THT, so they had to do the same here and just completely messed up the timelines. This means the biggest reveal of the book, that Daisy is baby Nicole, can’t and doesn’t happen.
The Testaments is absolutely bizarre in the way that it’s softened a lot of storylines but made some so much more brutal. It truly feels like a show designed purely to go viral, and that’s such a massive shame.
BBC rinses the planet with crap AI panel
Tonight Question Time features an imagined AI panel made up of historical figures who shaped the modern world
Watch the #bbcqt AI special now on @BBCiPlayer and @BBCNews to see what our REAL panel have to say on AI, including how it can blur the lines between reality and fakery pic.twitter.com/G1HVSUyt5t
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) May 28, 2026
Whilst the planet is literally burning because AI is guzzling up so much water, the BBC decided to air a pro-AI Question Time panel. As The Canary reported, the panel itself was stacked with pro-AI shills. And to send the message home even further, the supposedly unbiased BBC pushed out an advert featuring a fully AI panel of famous people from history.
On it were Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Frida Kahlo and Emmeline Pankhurst and yes, it was exactly as crap as it sounds. Pankhurst’s Votes for Women sash was the wrong colours, Kahlo’s flowers melded into her head, Churchill kept dramatically smizing with the camera and Gandhi didn’t seem to move. Most weird of all, Fiona Bruce was also AI, which is absolutely ridiculous when you consider how robotic the real version is.
Brain-free binge
Y’know how sometimes you just need to watch something absolutely mind-numbing to take your thoughts off the world being on fire? Well, I’ve got you. Due to chronic pain, I’m a connoisseur of reality TV that doesn’t require any brain power to watch. My latest fave is Million Dollar Secret on Netflix. Put your feet up and ignore your phone for an hour as Peter Serafinowicz is your host, whilst Americans lie and backstab for money, much like their president is doing.
Canary Catch Up — Looking ahead
Coming up this week, I’m looking forward to the release of Tip Toe on Channel 4. Russell T Davies’ new drama will look at how LGBTQ+ are just trying to live our bloody lives while prejudice and hate is being ushered back in. It will look at how the opinions and lies in the mainstream affect day to day life.
I’m also looking forward to finally seeing the Mandalorian and Grogu film this week! So look out for reviews of both of those next time on the Canary Catch Up.
Featured image via Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Ethnic Cleansing — Several Western corporate media outlets have appeared to celebrate Israel’s illegal occupation of the Crusader-era Qal’at al-Shaqif Castle in southern Lebanon.
“Captured a strategic mountain”
At this point it sounds like AP is celebrating Israel’s unlawful occupation of Lebanon. https://t.co/b13dCVICHD
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) May 31, 2026
On Sunday, May 31, Israel issued more illegal forced displacement orders to all residents living south of the Zahrani River. The attack suggests that Israel is moving towards attacking the city of Nabatieh.
Israel had issued more than 10 displacement orders in the last 24 hours. On Friday, the IOF crossed the Litani River for the first time since 2006.
Now, Israel has illegally occupied the historic Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif) in southern Lebanon. In the process of doing so, it killed a paramedic and damaged a hospital.
A paramedic has been killed and a hospital damaged, as Israeli forces say they have captured the historic Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif) in southern Lebanon, pushing beyond the Litani River for the first time since 2006.
Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hito and Nida Ibrahim report. pic.twitter.com/nPBzhn7Vej
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 31, 2026
Whitewashing
The Associated Press, CNN, Financial Times, and Reuters all used words such as “seized”, “strategic”, “major advance”, and “expands” to describe Israel’s illegal invasion and occupation – all of which are war crimes.
They straight-up stole it. It’s land theft. https://t.co/PpprezaU2t
— Arturo Dominguez (@extremearturo) May 31, 2026
Even Al Jazeera put out a headline stating:
Israel issues more displacement orders in Lebanon, seizes strategic castle
Importantly, the dictionary definition of seizure is:
the taking possession of person or property by legal process
Nothing about Israel’s actions in Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, Syria, Yemen, or anywhere else is legal under international law.
What the headline should have said was:
Israel continues to ethnically cleanse southern Lebanon and illegally occupies historic castle.
Of course, we would expect no less from the occupied corporate media, which have spent nearly three years whitewashing Israel’s war crimes.
Western media outlets have continuously used the passive voice to describe Israel’s crimes, failed to name Israel as the perpetrator, and framed the genocidal-terrorist state’s crimes as ‘defeating terrorists’.
“Captured”? Was the mountain a run away? Lost and found? Or maybe “invaded” “occupied “? https://t.co/9YPBUGzy5p
— Samar D Jarrah (@SamarDJarrah) May 31, 2026
All you have to do is compare the reporting to that of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine to see that Western media is in the pockets of the Israeli government.
“Captured”? “Incursion”? Is this the language that we would use to describe a Russian invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory? This strikes as valorising the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, as opposed to informing the reader. https://t.co/vwu2GA7gwU
— ᴅʀ. ʜ.ᴀ. ʜᴇʟʟʏᴇʀ
(@hahellyer) May 31, 2026
Of course, the difference is that the majority of Lebanese people and Palestinians are Arab, whereas Ukrainians are mainly white. Black and brown lives have never mattered to Western media outlets or governments.
Additionally, the word ‘strategic‘ sounds like a game of chess. It legitimises Israel’s war crimes and suggests that the settler-colonial state has a right to be in southern Lebanon, which it does not.
Manufacturing consent for ethnic cleansing
Obviously, the framing is deliberate. In the same way that the Western media manufactured consent for the illegal invasion of Iran in 2026 and Iraq in 2003, it continues to provide Israel with the conditions and global consent it needs to carry on its genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Lebanon.
Can I walk in my neighbor’s yard and “capture” it? Maybe I’ll go to the grocery store and “capture” a $150 brisket that once cost 40-50 bucks.
As long as you report it that way, people will be cool with it, right? https://t.co/PpprezaU2t
— Arturo Dominguez (@extremearturo) May 31, 2026
Incursion = Invasion
Captured = Occupied https://t.co/6ZNM7ed5k0— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) May 31, 2026
You’d have thought that if the Associated Press can spell ‘incursion’, they could spell ‘war crimes’ or ‘illegal’. It managed to point out that Israel has, so far, murdered 3,350 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million. However, not once in a 1,104-word article does the journalist use the word ‘illegal’ or ‘war crime’
Coincidence?
Whitewashing and minimising Israel’s crimes only benefits Israel. The illegal Zionist regime is stealing land — so let’s call it what it is. Ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation, land theft and genocide.
And let’s not forget that Israel continues to ignore a ‘ceasefire’ to commit these war crimes.
Feature image via Carl Court/Getty Images
By HG
The military contractor responsible for a huge chemical leak in southern California is also manufacturing parts for F-35 jets for Israel.
A 7,000-gallon chemical tank ruptured and threatened to explode at the GKN Aerospace plant in Garden Grove, California, last week. It forced over 50,000 people to evacuate. Crucially, GKN is a British engineering company, headquartered in Birmingham.
The tank contains thousands of gallons of methyl methacrylate. This is a highly volatile and flammable substance used to make plastic. Only recently, it was deemed at risk of a major spillage or an explosion.
Garden Grove is a predominantly working-class and immigrant city in Orange County, just outside of Los Angeles. This means that the evacuation order mainly affected lower-income residents.
Military-industrial complex
Since 2017, the plant has brought in more than $13m in subcontracts with Lockheed Martin, a huge military contractor which is swimming in complicity for Israel’s genocide.
A previous analysis by Ploughshares, an independent Canadian research institute, found that Lockheed awards subcontracts to hundreds of companies in more than a dozen countries to help build F-35 jets.
Now, The Intercept has revealed that GKN is one of the companies manufacturing parts for F-35 Jets, which are likely bound for Israel. In total, GKN has raked in over $255m from subcontracts with Lockheed Martin.
GKN openly describes its Garden Grove plant as “the leading provider” of the plastic bubble which surrounds the cockpit of the F-35 fighter jet.
Importantly, Methyl methacrylate, the chemical that started leaking from the plant last week, is an ingredient in this plastic bubble.
John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal advisor at Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept:
Due to the nature of the F-35’s global supply chain, it is likely that the F-35 components produced at the Garden Grove facility are incorporated into aircraft exported to Israel
This is the same type of aircraft that the Israeli military has used to kill civilians and violate international humanitarian law.
Supplying war criminals with F-35 killing machines
The IOF has repeatedly used F-35s to murder and maim civilians in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen. Hundreds of human rights organisations have called on governments to halt their roles in F-35 production for Israel.
Israel currently has 48 F-35s but is planning to expand its fleet to 100. On January 20, the Canary shared news from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace that three new F-35Is left the UK air base, RAF Mildenhall. These were heading from the UK to Israel.
Obviously, most of these were paid for with US State Department funding because Israel can’t even fund its own genocide.
On May 19, only several days before the leak began, Garden Grove city officials issued a permit for a 34,000-square-foot expansion of GKN Aerospace’s facility.
The company claimed the reason for the expansion was the increasing demand for F-35 jets. This would enable the company to double its production of aircraft canopies.
Swimming in controversy
In recent years, GKN agreed to pay a settlement of almost $1m for environmental violations. These included failure to maintain records of emissions and operating equipment without a permit. Before that, authorities also fined the company for failing to properly inspect its machinery and for labour safety violations.
Obviously, these types of things, along with the current leak, are entirely predictable. What else should we expect when a company puts war, murder and profit above morals and people?
GKN Garden Grove has also raked in more than $4.5m in additional subcontracts with Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which is also owned by Lockheed Martin. It signed contracts in 2023 to produce CH-53K military helicopters. In 2025, Israel ordered a dozen new Sikorsky military helicopters.
We should have guessed that the US military-industrial complex played a part in a potentially deadly spill, which could have harmed tens of thousands of people.
Of course, the US government will continue to sacrifice the well-being, safety, and paychecks of poor people in the US. All so that Israel can continue bombing black and brown people in West Asia without consequence.
Feature image via Leon Neal/Getty Images
By HG
I don’t usually root for millionaires. In fact, I would say I have a visceral hatred for them. Most corporate biographies offer nothing but exploitative tales of untouchable oligarchs hoarding wealth at our expense. Yet the wild, radical journey of LUSH co-founder Mark Constantine breaks this mould entirely. Hearing about Mark’s humble beginnings, how he experienced homelessness and sleeping under hedges, resonated with me from the start. I’ve been on the streets, and I know how hard it is.
The laughter at the launch
On Thursday, 28 May, I attended the book launch of Dear John inside the stunning LUSH studio on Beak St, London. The event was small, intimate and hosted by James O’Brien. Attendees mixed cocktails while making their own bath bombs as we chowed down on cupcakes emblazoned with Mark’s face. Speaking directly with Constantine and his lifelong friend Jeff Osment, I found the tycoon warm and welcoming.
I still sometimes struggle with being invited to these events. A large part of me still carries that homeless mindset. Yet the absolute openness in that room proved that we made the right eclectic and headstrong man, famous. He’s a star of industry who never forgot his roots. Throughout this book, the backdrop is of a lost boy searching for his father, whom he never knew. The book is named after the perfume Constantine created as an ode to his father. Banging scent, by the way.
Supported by his wife, Mo, who frequently acted as the breadwinner, Mark was a seed who took a little while to sprout. With a little watering from his wife and friends, his relentless passions in natural skincare propelled him to international success. But this is a profound rags-to-riches story without the usual corporate greed. Mark didn’t just line his pockets; he took his money and chose to share it with whoever and whatever he could. He used his £1bn empire to fight state power, fund radical animal-safety campaigns, and rock the corporate world.
LUSH — Moving past corporate crap
When I say I couldn’t put this book down, I mean it. This expanded second edition by HarperCollins brings the history right up to date, and it’s a wild ride. The new chapters bring to light the brutal realities of navigating a collapsing high street. LUSH has survived pandemic closures and Brexit-related staffing issues and has navigated the challenges of managing 50 regional shops directly in the Ukraine warzone. And permeating through the pages was the message that corporate survival relies on community, rather than balance sheets and board meetings.
Constantine always rejected chemical-heavy industry standards. Working from a small, cramped room in his and Mo’s marital home, the young couple mass-produced natural, herbal formulas for The Body Shop. He stubbornly followed his passions, whether it was securing a community allotment with his closest friends or taking up beekeeping to intimately understand the ingredients he used in his concoctions.
His deep love for the land and for wildlife directly shaped his legacy. When his company Cosmetics to Go ultimately folded, Constantine didn’t give up. Instead, he pivoted to recording birdsong and authored two books on it. And using this love of life, he transformed his new project, LUSH, into a powerhouse of activism. The business has backed so many important movements that other corporate entities are shit scared of.
Most notably, Constantine launched a fierce, decades-long war against animal cruelty. He sent two of his trusted employees to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to protest lab testing and established the annual global LUSH Prize. The fund has dished out nearly £3m to scientists and activists working to replace animal safety trials. Constantine has reached even further, financing anti-blood sports campaigns and donating tens of thousands directly to the Hunt Saboteurs Association through dedicated products such as the Fabulous Mrs Fox bubble bar.
LUSH — Upsetting the establishment
This willingness to fund radical, direct action has landed Constantine in hot water. Come on, it’s not normal rich folk behaviour. And the establishment hates it. Rather than hoard wealth like some lovely-smelling dragon, Constantine used LUSH windows nationwide to launch the massively controversial SpyCops campaign. Partnering with Police Spies Out of Lives and the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, his shopfronts were covered in fake police tape, crying out that the police had crossed the line.
The campaign was fearless in exposing the human rights violations committed by undercover cops. LUSH called out the targeting of women in particular who had been coerced into long-term and intimate relationships. Constantine faced massive online backlash and calls for corporate boycotts from the Police Federation, but Constantine refused to back down.
Co-founding LUSH on 100% cruelty-free, ethical terms, he built the brand into the giant it is today. And he built it as a weapon to help fight for global wealth redistribution. And they have backed everything from anti-war efforts to local community food projects.
One of my favourite tales in the book, which perfectly embodies Mark, is the story of how he took on Amazon and won. When the internet retail giant began using the trademarked word “Lush” to direct search traffic towards crappy rival cosmetics, Constantine did not take it lying down. He sued the corporate giants and won a stunning High Court victory. And in a beautiful display of stubbornness against Amazon’s pushback, Constantine trademarked the name of Amazon’s then-managing director. He threatened to release a LUSH shower cream called Christopher North, described as being “rich, thick and full of it”.
Weirdly, Amazon backed down.
The end?
And guess what? Constantine finally found his father, with the help of Jeff. But Dear John is about more than that. This book is a powerful testament to human resilience and proves that, with the right people around you, grassroots solidarity can build a global empire. And you don’t have to sell your soul.
Mark Constantine stands as rare proof that wealth can be used as a weapon for change. And I cannot wait to help them achieve that.
Dear John is out on Thursday, 4 June, and launches at £25. Pick it up in LUSH stores, online at LUSH, or in bookshops nationwide.
Featured image via the Canary
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