Politics
Mandelson ‘released from bail conditions’
Disgraced former Starmer adviser and UK ambassador Peter Mandelson has been released from his bail conditions after police decided he was not a flight risk, despite warnings from Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle that he was planning to leave the country.
Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office after the latest Epstein files showed he had passed government secrets to serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein, with whom Mandelson remained smitten long after Epstein’s first paedophilia conviction.
Although he supposedly remains ‘under investigation’, the kid-glove treatment the Zionist former peer is receiving is a stark contrast with the brutal detention without trial inflicted for up to nineteen months on young people who tried to prevent the manufacture of weapons for Israel’s genocide.
Mandelson denies any wrongdoing. Keir Starmer has placed one of his Israel-supporting cronies in charge of deciding which information about his decision to give Mandelson his plum appointments can be withheld from public scrutiny.
The Met has returned Mandelson’s passport to him. The paedophile-protecting Starmer regime has still taken no action on behalf of victims of serial child-rapist and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. For more on the Epstein Files, please read the Canary’s article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.
Featured image via the Canary
Democrats see a new opportunity brewing deep in the heart of Texas, where Republicans solving one problem may have inadvertently created a new one.
Rep. Tony Gonzales’ decision to drop his reelection bid over an infidelity scandal has elevated Brandon Herrera, a controversial social media figure known by his handle “TheAKGuy,” to the Republican nomination for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District.
Democrats in the district are hoping the convergence of scandal, a lightning-rod GOP candidate, signs of a major snap-back by Latino voters in Texas, and a potentially competitive Senate race could help lift Democratic turnout enough to flip this district for the first time in a decade.
“It’s definitely more competitive than it’s ever been,” said former Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas), who held the seat through 2014.
The biggest reason the race might become competitive is Herrera himself. The YouTuber, gun manufacturer and Second Amendment activist has millions of online followers — and a track record of off-color, edgelord jokes that are ripe fodder for campaign ads. Herrera has come under fire for a long history of posting Nazi imagery and his involvement in a group called Sons of Confederate Veterans. Jokes like his line “I often think about putting a gun in my mouth. So, I’m basically an honorary veteran” were a flashpoint for criticism in his 2024 primary against Gonzales.
Herrera did not respond to a request for comment.
After Gonzales dropped out of the race on Thursday night, the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC quickly pumped out a barrage of old clips of Herrera on a series of podcasts including one where is seen marching and firing a gun overlaid with the German song “Erika” associated with Nazi Germany.
National and local headwinds are also blowing against the GOP.
Republicans in Texas – usually the dominating force in statewide politics – have weathered a rocky start to the 2026 midterms. Sen. John Cornyn, a fixture of Lone Star conservative politics, is stuck in a bruising runoff election with MAGA firebrand Attorney General Ken Paxton, opening a possible path for Democrats to compete in the Senate race. And Latino voters turned out in massive numbers in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries, an early sign that Texas Hispanics, after moving hard to the right in recent years, might be swinging back in a big way this election.
There’s no guarantee that national Democrats will invest in the sprawling district, however.
The heavily Hispanic district, which runs from suburban San Antonio hundreds of miles along the border to outside El Paso, is a tough lift for Democrats — but not an impossible one. In the newly gerrymandered Texas map, it’s the least-red district held by a Republican in Texas. President Donald Trump won it by 17 points in 2024, but Hillary Clinton narrowly carried the district in 2016.
At this early stage in the changed race, neither the House Democratic campaign arm nor its biggest aligned super PAC has yet to publicly announce a commitment of resources to flipping the seat.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee does not currently list the district as an offensive target but is closely monitoring the race, according to a person familiar with national Democrats’ House strategy, granted anonymity to candidly describe strategy. The group gleefully highlighted Herrera’s elevation in a statement on Friday.
A spokesperson for the House Majority PAC, CJ Warnke, said in a statement that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to spending in the district.
Herrera was already running a tough primary campaign against Gonzales — but the congressman’s recent scandal consumed his campaign and forced him from his reelection bid. Text messages published by the San Antonio Express-News and other outlets last month revealed new evidence of a sexual relationship between the member of Congress and a staffer, who later killed herself. POLITICO has not independently reviewed the messages.
Gonzales later admitted to the affair with his former staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, and late Thursday decided to end his reelection bid as pressure mounted from Republicans leadership for him to step aside.
Democrats argue Herrera has his own baggage that may be hard to overcome as well.
“Maybe I’m just an old-fashioned East Texas farm kid, but I tend to be anti-Nazi, and I have a feeling that people on the western side of the state feel a similar way,” said Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party.
“So, you know, go ahead and nominate the adulterer, sexual predator, or nominate the actual Nazi. Regardless, we outvoted them, and we’re going to do it again in November,” he added, citing Tuesday’s strong Democratic turn out in primaries up and down the ballot.
Herrera as the GOP nominee makes for “a little bit of an easier campaign because he’s not as well known as Gonzales,” said Katy Padilla Stout, a local attorney and the Democratic nominee who is now set to face off against Herrera in November.
National Republicans were quick to throw cold water on their opponents’ hopes to expand their battleground House map into West Texas.
“Texas’ 23rd District is deep red, and Democrats know it,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
“While they talk a big game in Washington, they don’t even have a credible recruit and are too busy defending their own vulnerable members across Texas to compete here.”
The district, though drawn to favor the GOP candidate, is “pretty moderate and they’re practical people,” said Gallego, the former Democratic member of Congress. The north side of San Antonio at the far east end of the district map “is not monolithic Republican anymore,” he added, which gives Democrats more room to maneuver around Herrera, a conservative hardliner.
After Gonzales ended his bid, “I thought for sure it would be the Dems that would be blowing me up,” said Padilla Stout. Instead, she recounted, it was mostly Republicans who got in touch shortly after the news broke.
Their message to her: “We’re ready, give me a sign. Where do I sign up?”
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) president Jarlath Burns has received an award at the 2026 Guaranteed Irish Business Awards, despite outrageous remarks made about Palestine and the Troubles just days earlier. Burns was given the Special Recognition Award by the business coalition. Guaranteed Irish claims to honour enterprises that provide good quality jobs, enhance the wellbeing of their community and are of Irish provenance.
It is fitting that Burns received a business award, given that’s exactly what he has been treating the GAA as, rather than as an organisation that prioritises values over profit. The former attitude has been epitomised recently by the retention of a sponsorship agreement with backer of Zionist genocide Allianz. The German insurance behemoth has been named as one of the complicit firms in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s Economy of Genocide report.
Activists have escalated protests against the Allianz deal, coming to a crescendo on Saturday February 28 when a group of around 20 stormed Croke Park to interrupt the GAA’s annual congress. Burns alternated between flustered and fuming, as he sat stony-faced before the demonstrators. His response afterwards was to make spectacularly tone-deaf comments about what had just occurred.
Jarlath Burns minimises genocide and insults all of Ireland
He began by comparing the relatively brief occupation of the GAA building to the 78-year long illegal occupation of Palestine by so-called ‘Israel’:
It’s a bit ironic that people who are protesting against illegal occupation will come in and illegally occupy our building.
This is a cringy remark, not a burn Mr. Burns.
Not content with that obscene remark, he went on to insult all those who lost loved ones during the Troubles in Ireland:
It was in 1975. The Glenanne Gang came into Donnelly’s bar, which is our local shop, and murdered three people, one of whom was a good friend of mine, Michael Donnelly. And I went into my car on December 19 2025 and drove to the front of Donnelly’s house, shop, pub, which is still there, to make a speech.
Fifty years on, justice still hasn’t been served for the 120 innocent Catholics who were murdered by the Glenanne Gang in a four-year period in my area, in my community.
I don’t need any lectures about what it’s like to feel the pressure of illegal occupation. I don’t need any lectures or people shouting in my face about what it’s like to go to bed at night, fearful that somebody would barge into your bedroom and riddle you with bullets. Because that was my lived experience when I was young.
The Glenanne Gang were a notorious loyalist death squad secretly assisted by British security forces. However, over 3,500 people lost their lives during the violence between the late 1960s and the peace agreement of 1998. Nearly 50,000 were injured, and the conflict affected the entire island. Jarlath Burns is not uniquely entitled to rule on which Irish people can and can’t have a say on illegal occupation, as everyone experienced its consequences in one way or another.
GAA ‘turn gaze…away from occupation, torture and genocide’
Burns has received a torrent of opprobrium following his comments. n excellent letter to the Irish Examiner, said:
I wonder how Michael Donnelly’s family feel about Jarlath Burns using their relative’s name and loss to justify turning the gaze of the GAA away from occupation, torture and genocide in Palestine today.
He also responded to Burns’ remarks about how Saturday’s action had breached “unwritten rules” about how protest ought to be conducted. In other words, according to Burns: protest is fine, as long as it’s not so disruptive that it might actually have an effect. said:
If people followed the “unwritten rules” of protest that Burns imagines exist, then we wouldn’t have gay marriage or reproductive rights. We wouldn’t even have a free, independent nation.
Well, semi-free and semi-independent, but the general point stands – direct action works. Fermoy Stands With Palestine pointed out how it was in fact the GAA that “crossed a line”, another phrase deployed by Burns following Saturday’s protest:
The line was crossed last November, Jarlath, when 2 of the 5 people on the ethics committee resigned as a business case was put forward to justify why the [the GAA] should stay with Allianz as a sponsor of our league as they pump billions into a genocidal regime!
The so-called Ethics and Integrity Commission of the GAA ruled in December 2025 that it was justified to keep its deal with Allianz. Strangely for a commission with that name, it barely touched on the ethics of the matter. It instead focused on practical and business considerations, implausibly claiming that:
…it would be impossible to secure an alternative insurer that would not have similar links.
The policy of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is not to seek perfection when choosing alternatives. The GAA could certainly do better than a company named as backing Zionist war crimes in a major UN report, which said:
Their insurance policies also underwrite the risks other companies necessarily take when operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, thus enabling the commission of human rights abuses and “de-risking” their operational environment.
This is an issue that will not go away, especially given Jarlath Burns’ total inability to respond to protest with any sort of nous. The sensible and ethical thing would be to cut the GAA’s losses now, and sever the relationship with this appalling company.
Featured image via the Canary
The UK Covid Inquiry came to an end on 5 March 2026. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) was a core participant in the Inquiry. It’s warning that this and future governments must learn lessons from the pandemic. They must ensure key workers and the general population have better protection in the future.
The union body paid tribute to all those who lost their lives during the pandemic. And it expressed its gratitude to key workers that kept the country going at a time of national crisis.
The TUC has set out five key recommendations to prevent the mistakes of the Covid pandemic and protect workers.
1) Stronger union voice
The Inquiry showed that involving unions in decision making, from the NHS to the design and implementation of furlough, saved lives and jobs.
The TUC is therefore calling for a more dynamic approach to social partnership. It wants to bring government, unions and employers together to design, deliver and manage responses to future pandemics.
In particular, unions’ input will be essential when designing measures to ensure better workplace safety measures and protections for workers across all sectors.
The lack of a union voice in the early days of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic meant that decisions didn’t take into account workers’ needs. This often resulted in workers having to rely on ill-fitting PPE, or work in unsafe environments.
2) Stronger enforcement
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the body responsible for workplace safety. In 2021/22, its funding was 43% lower than in 2009/10 in real terms. This had caused a 35% staff number cut in the ten years leading to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This meant that there was limited inspection or enforcement – despite thousands of reported outbreaks, with many workers losing their lives. Just under 5,000 of the new ‘spot check’ visits were undertaken by contractors working to the HSE in the first eight months of the pandemic. There were only 78 enforcement notices and zero prosecutions.
The union body says that proper investment needs to go back into the HSE. This would bolster the inspection and enforcement of health and safety regulations and protect workers.
3) Stronger sick pay
The TUC says reform of statutory sick pay will be essential in preventing the spread of future pandemics.
Sick pay reforms coming into force from 6 April as part of the Employment Rights Act will mean that around 8 million workers will benefit from stronger sick pay provisions.
The experience of millions of low paid workers during the pandemic – with many having to work while infectious – demonstrates why these new rights were overdue, and why no government should now undo that vital safety net, the TUC says.
4) Stronger public services
The TUC says the pandemic revealed the dangers of under-resourcing our public services after years of significant Conservative cuts.
A decade of austerity leading up to the pandemic led the Inquiry to conclude that:
public services, particularly health and social care, were running close to, if not beyond, capacity in normal times.
The union body says that:
lessons must be learned to save lives in future.
The TUC is urging the government to continue to invest in public services and its workforce to repair and rebuild after the damage done by 14 years of Conservative government.
It says investment in the workforce is the only way to improve service quality, increase productivity and boost public sector resilience.
5) Stronger Employment Rights
Evidence the TUC gave to the inquiry illustrated how workers in insecure employment were less likely to report safety breaches. This included agency workers, those on zero hours contracts and bogus self-employment. They were more likely to work in low paid and unsafe workplaces and move between multiple jobs and workplaces. And they were less likely to access sick pay.
Insecure workers were nearly 10 times more likely to say they received no sick pay compared to secure workers.
Black and ethnic minority workers’ over-representation in these types of jobs was one reason for the disproportionate impact of the pandemic in those communities.
The experience of workers in insecure and low paid employment shows why there was such a need for the Employment Rights Act, says the TUC.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:
We owe it to those who lost their lives – and to those workers who put their lives at risk – to make sure we are prepared for future pandemics.
That means giving trade unions a seat at the table in pandemic planning – and adopting a social partnership approach by bringing unions, employers and government together to keep workers safe.
And it means sustained investment in our public services to make sure they are resilient enough to cope with another pandemic.
The Conservatives took a sledgehammer to our cherished public services, leaving the NHS on its knees and struggling to cope when Covid-19 hit.
The Labour government has rightly increased health and education funding and gave many public service workers their first proper pay rise in years. But this cannot be a one off.
Covid showed us strong public services – and a properly supported workforce – are vital for the nation’s health and resilience.
On tackling the scourge of insecure work and the Employment Rights Act, Nowak added:
The government also needs to address the structural inequalities and discrimination embedded in our labour market that put so many lives at risk.
That means delivering the Employment Rights Act in full, including new laws to ban exploitative zero hours contracts and give workers a right to a contract which reflects their regular hours.
From next month, workers will be able to get sick pay from day one. This is a game changer for millions of people up and down the country, and a positive first step towards building our resilience.
Featured image via the Canary
Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran is distracting from new Epstein file revelations showing testimony from a child victim alleging Trump raped and sexually assaulted her when she was between 13 and 15 years old. Trump’s farcically-named ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has been dubbed ‘Operation Epstein Distraction’ by disgusted service people and anti-war activists.
The latest evidence consists of three 2019 FBI interviews with a female Epstein victim who FBI alleges that Trump sexually and physically assaulted her as a young teenager after the serial child-rapist forced her to pander to Trump. Her main allegation is that the president orally raped her then beat her after she bit him in self-defence.
Trump’s allegations
The allegations are not new. A third party’s evidence of them was found in newly-released Epstein files in January 2023, but the Justice Department has now released additional FBI documents with the victim’s testimony, which had wrongly been marked as duplicates, supposedly because of their similarity to the other evidence. The victim reported that she and others close to her had received threatening calls for years demanding she keep quiet.
Even though the files released so far only amount to around 2% of the total, Trump appears thousands of times. In one witness submission, he was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl who eventually became pregnant — then standing by as the girl’s uncle killed the baby and dumped its body from a bridge into a lake.
Analyst and former Israeli diplomat Shaiel ben-Ephraim told Al Jazeera that Trump’s ‘war as distraction’ tactic is working, at least for now:
[He] really needs a distraction from [Epstein and other domestic issues] in the form of a war. And if you look at searches on Google for the Epstein files, they’ve plummeted since this started. So, at least temporarily, it’s succeeding. It’s taking up Congress’s time and it’s taking up the media’s time.
Many believe that Trump agreed to Israel’s demand for war on Iran because Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu must have threatened him with the release of incriminating evidence during Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington. Epstein was an Israeli spy whose apartment and presumably houses had Israeli cameras and recording equipment installed.
The ‘Epstein class’s first act in the war was to bomb a girls’ school, killing almost 170 children. Murdering children to distract from sex crimes against them. Trump, unsurprisingly, denies any wrongdoing.
Featured image via the Canary
Sexologist comment provided by licensed sexologist, relationship therapist, and author at Passionerad, Sofie Roos.
Last week, sexologist and therapist Sofie Roos shared the issues straight men most often brought up in sex therapy.
And this week, she spoke to us about straight women.
Here, she shared the topics she hears about most frequently:
1) Having a lower sex drive than their partner
“The single most common problem straight women bring up with me is that their sex drive has decreased or is overall low, while their partner is way more interested in being intimate, leading to worries and tension in the relationship,” Roos told us.
She added that women may be more likely to compare their lust levels to their partner’s, and feel their lower desire poses an “issue”.
2) Pain during penetrative sex
Experiencing pain during sex thanks to conditions like vulvodynia, vaginal dryness, or pelvic floor issues is “extremely common” among this group, said Roos.
“What most don’t know is that there’s both a physical and mental part… pain leads to fear, and fear leads to deeper problems,” leaving some in a vicious cycle.
3) Not orgasming during partnered sex
Straight women have long suffered from “the orgasm gap”. The sexologist said this doesn’t seem to be going away.
“Many straight women are having a very hard time orgasming during intimacy with their partner, and they don’t know how to solve it,” she said.
4) Body image issues
“I’ve met countless straight women that are extremely aware of how their own bodies look, smell and feel… they think so much about age, weight and how they are seen that it becomes difficult to just let go and be in the moment,” Roos added.
5) Losing desire thanks to the mental load
In straight relationships, the mental load – or having to think about, keep track of, and remember the endless tasks that keep a household going – still predominantly falls on women’s shoulders.
And the sexologist said that can have a knock-on effect in the bedroom. Doing “all the planning… as well as all the emotional work in the relationship” can “lead to higher stress levels, which makes the body de-prioritise desire”.
6) Not putting their own pleasure first
“I often meet women who describe themselves as having a hard time with setting their sexual needs and boundaries first, as they’ve been taught to be accommodating rather than prioritise what they want and don’t want,” she stated.
So, uh, any advice?
Yes. The sexologist said that accepting shifts in your levels of lust and trying alternative forms of intimacy, like “oral sex, massage, kisses, caresses and more mentally-focused pleasure, such as roleplaying or dirty talk,” may help.
Explore your own desires, perhaps through masturbation, and communicate them with your partner. “As a majority of women can only reach all the way via clitoral stimulation, I also advise focusing more on that, either with your hands, mouth or a sex toy,” the sexologist said.
Remember also that “pain during sex isn’t normal”, so it’s important to seek professional help if you experience it.
And keep in mind that “your sex life isn’t isolated from the rest of the way you live, so try to look at your diet, sleep schedule, exercise habits, how you drink, how you deal with stress and how your relationships are,” she concluded.
Politics
‘Protest gave us the right to Vote’ – Women’s Day suffragette stunt against anti-protest laws
Fossil Free London campaigners protested outside the National Gallery dressed as suffragettes today. The action took place ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, drawing attention to the tightening of anti-protest laws.
The group held placards drawing direct comparisons between the jail terms received by climate protesters, and those handed to militant suffragettes in the early twentieth century.
Suffragette protest still echoes today
Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, Just Stop Oil activists, received a combined 44 months in prison for throwing soup in the National Gallery. They caused minor damage to the frame of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting.
Their action recalled the famous National Gallery protest by militant suffragette Mary Richardson, arrested for slashing Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus. A crime for which she got a considerably shorter sentence of six months in prison.
Successive governments have systematically reduced the right to protest in recent years, with a wave of draconian legislation.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, 2022 dramatically expanded police powers, including the ability to restrict protests for being too noisy; a vague measure that is at the discretion of officers.
It also shifted the burden of proof onto protesters themselves, making it an offence to breach a police condition, even if a demonstrator could not reasonably have known about it.
The Public Order Act followed this in 2023. It introduced sweeping new criminal offences including “lock on” protests and obstructing major transport works. And it brought in stop and search powers that require no reasonable grounds for suspicion.
These powers came in the same year as the Casey Review. The review described stop and search as a ‘racialised tool’ used by an ‘institutionally racist’ police force.
These same laws have been used to impose disproportionate sentences on non-violent activists. Several Just Stop Oil protesters received multi-year custodial sentences, the longest ever handed out in the UK for non-violent protest.
Robin Wells, Director of Fossil Free London, said:
In 1906 Suffragettes were called criminals, locked up for fighting for their right to vote. Now, they’re rightly celebrated. But their modern counterparts – the women leading the climate movement – face harsher penalties than 1906. Back when it was normal to see women as less than full human beings.
The government uses one hand to erect statues to historic rights advocates, and swipes away the rights those advocates used to achieve their success with the other.
They say we’re in a democracy. Then they make almost all effective protest methods illegal.
The government says they’re acting on climate. Then they approve third runways and subsidies, and hint at waving through carbon bomb oil projects like Rosebank.
We, women campaigners of today, mean to celebrate the Suffragettes by continuing in their fight. Heed our clarion call, the same as our sisters from the past: deeds not words.
Deeds on climate!
Defend people, protect our one home and Stop Rosebank!
Deeds on our right to protest!
Repeal the Public Order Act 2023!
Featured image via Andrea Domeniconi / Fossil Free London
US President Trump has joined Israeli PM Netanyahu in an illegal war of aggression on Iran. Consequently, Trump has proudly stated he should be involved in deciding who the next Iranian leader will be. This comes after the US assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Trump has made clear that his ambitions reach beyond the Middle East, as he openly seeks to influence elections across Europe, including in the UK.
UK PM Starmer has received a number of biting put-downs from the US tyrant. Trump’s outbursts have followed after apparent dither and delays in coming to the US’ heel like good little lap dogs. Today, widespread reports suggest that oppressive Trump has made his decision who the next leader of the UK will be as he welcomes Nigel Farage to Mar-a-Lago.
Farage has had no shame in worshipping the policies of the demagogue leader in the US, even pledging to replicate his dangerous policies at home against the interests of the British public.
This signals that Starmer’s days as PM are numbered if the new MAGA world order goes unchallenged. I hardly imagine the British public will soon forgive a party that stood by timidly whilst our hard-fought civil freedoms are stolen from us by a megalomaniac in the US.
#TrumpsPoodle Farage will be going to roll over and get orders from his master #Trump pic.twitter.com/UERb6qTAoy
— Chris 🙃 #FBPE #RejoinEU (@ChrisyDrThomas) March 6, 2026
Trump and the rod for our own back
We have all experienced someone in our lives who demands everything on their terms with precious little patience or self-reflection. Throwing their toys out of the pram when they’re disappointed, leaving us scrambling to calm things down and move forward. Yes, if you’ve raised children especially, you’ll relate to the struggle. But like every parent will know, you don’t play by the rules of a toddler as you only create a rod for your own back.
Starmer and the UK government have willingly and lucratively made a rod for their own backs by bowing down to the US and Israel, and ours will likely follow. After all, their actions are beginning to come back to bite us, as what they legitimise in Iran and Palestine may soon come home to roost in the UK.
However, it won’t be rich politicians that suffer — it will be the British public, especially those without wealth, privilege or power.
‘President Trump’s rhetoric is often intense’
David Lammy says the UK wants ‘the Iranian people to determine their future’ after Trump said he wanted to pick the new leader of Iran
‘That sounds like you believe Trump is wrong but you won’t say it on camera?’, Lammy is asked pic.twitter.com/7y5hL51I4v
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) March 6, 2026
David Lammy says citizens should democratically choose their own leaders. Yet he has long been reluctant to challenge the US president, putting more effort instead to keeping Donald Trump happy. For far too long the UK government has been hypocritical in condemning crimes by enemies whilst providing diplomatic cover for crimes committed by the US and Israel. This weakness risks leaving the UK increasingly exposed to even more foreign interference in our democracy.
These latest machinations by the US tyrant signal that our government’s spinelessness in the face of war crimes will undoubtedly cripple our democracy at home.
UK government MUST uphold rule of law and democratic freedoms
We already know what the US is terrified of, as it will strip their power and dominance away. The US saw it as ‘too risky’ when Jeremy Corbyn stood a strong chance of becoming PM. The former leader of the Labour Party achieved huge popular support in 2017 and stood for Prime Minister in the 2019 General Elections. However, a concerted smear campaign by the mainstream media and other public figures destroyed those chances.
This highlights the power and influence the US are able to exercise in the UK. It also forewarns of their ability to succeed and hoodwink the masses into lapping up US interference in our democracy.
Declassified UK’s Matt Kennard confronted this issue on X in 2020, underscoring that this unwelcome meddling is not new:
In June 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was recorded saying the quote below.
I never heard one journalist follow up and ask what US “push back” against Corbyn involved.
Imagine if Sergei Lavrov had said something similar. That we are a US vassal state is just accepted. pic.twitter.com/A0FCshs8r1
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) July 21, 2020
There are no red lines for Farage, as was evident in his unqualified support of Trump’s threats to take over Greenland:
One taste of Trump’s posterior is never enough.https://t.co/apQyQMfW85 pic.twitter.com/3Uwk9FQxpb
— Edwin Hayward (@edwinhayward) January 21, 2026
US strength and lawlessness will only mean our weakness and struggle, as this X post pointed out:
The US-Israel war with Iran has driven up oil & gas prices
This is boosting Kremlin revenues for its war on Ukraine
Putin is smiling thanks to Trump & Netanyahu
Higher energy prices will hurt UK consumers already reeling from the cost of living crisishttps://t.co/n3zs35bVzP
— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) March 4, 2026
When will enough be enough?
The Starmer government must find some courage before it is too late. Men like Trump exploit weakness and thrive on making others vulnerable. That is clear as day. If the Labour Party wants any chance of remaining relevant, it must remember that it was elected to serve the UK — not the US.
When we allow others to break the law against other nations, we invite those same consequences to return and haunt us. By silently watching war crimes unfold, we help set the very precedents that may one day threaten us. We cannot stand by whilst Zionists undermine stability and peace in the Middle East, bombing countries into submission.
Otherwise, we risk leaving ourselves defenceless without the very norms we helped erode.
Featured image via Twitter
I can make potato farls at home (honestly, they’re tastier than shop-bought). And tea loaves are more delicious homemade, too.
But some Irish staples are so, so much better from delis and takeaways, IMO. Chicken fillet rolls, for instance, aren’t meant to be gourmet: I want chalky cheese, heat lamp-warm chicken, and slightly limp baguettes.
The food I miss most while living in the UK, however, is spice bags. The Irish-Chinese takeaway staple can be hard to find here.
So, I asked Chef Kenneth Tyrrell, an executive chef at Burger & Lobster, how to make them at home.
What are spice bags?
They combine chips, peppers, onion, crispy chicken, and (obviously) spices in a grease-spotted paper bag of perfection.
I associate them most with Dublin – they weren’t much of a big deal in my rural hometown, but when I moved to the capital for uni, it felt like spice bags were everywhere.
Some say spice bags were first made in Dublin takeaway Sunflower, though this origin story is hotly debated.
When attempting my own version, I found the spice blend hardest to recreate.
Experts think they’ve cracked the code with an MSG, onion powder, pepper, garlic powder, five-spice, sugar, and crumbled chicken stock cube combo.
But it changes from place to place. Experiment a little to find your favourite tingly, salty mix.
How can I perfect spice bags at home?
Some things must remain constant: mix chips, spices, something fried and crispy (like chicken), and veggies like onion and peppers together.
But, Chef Tyrell said, you can have some fun with these.
“Customisation is the fun part of spice bags. The classic spice bag is with crispy battered chicken, but get creative with yours – at Burger & Lobster, we’ve added a twist to ours with fried lobster and king prawns,” he said.
Other rules, though, are stricter.
“Make sure the protein, chunky chips, onions and peppers are piping hot before you add your spice to get maximum flavour. I also like to throw in a bit of mango chutney for an added sweetness,” the chef said.
“Chips MUST be super crispy before mixing with everything else. I would cook them for slightly longer than you usually would, as they then retain some crispiness after sitting in a bag with all the other ingredients,” he continued.
And “Don’t eat your spice bag straight away… it always tastes better after you’ve let it sit in the bag for a couple of minutes”.
One last suggestion? The dish is “Best served after a few pints and never wear a white shirt.”
While hot flashes and night sweats are commonly recognised signs of perimenopause, there’s one lesser-known symptom: itchy ears.
Described by many as a deep-seated crawl or tickle in the ear canal that feels impossible to reach, itchy ears are easy to shrug off as a hygiene issue. But experts say it can actually be a natural result of the hormonal ups and downs of perimenopause.
Here’s the lowdown on this often-overlooked symptom:
How Changing Hormones Affect Your Ears And Skin
Oestrogen levels naturally rise and fall throughout each menstrual cycle as a follicle matures and eventually ruptures to release an egg. “[But] during perimenopause, as egg and follicle quality declines, oestrogen production can vary more dramatically from cycle to cycle, depending on the quality of the specific follicle developing that month,” explained Dr. Sandy Chuan, a double board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and obstetrician-gynaecologist at San Diego Fertility Center.
Chuan added that it’s also common to intermittently skip ovulation entirely during this transitional period. “During these anovulatory cycles, or cycles without ovulation, oestrogen levels remain low because no follicle is developing, resulting in minimal oestrogen production.”
And according to Dr. Christine Maren, a board-certified physician and Menopause Society-certified provider, those dramatic swings aren’t the only issue.
“Hormonal shifts in perimenopause often begin with less progesterone. Progesterone is anti-inflammatory and, importantly, stabilises mast cells, which are the immune cells that release histamine,” she said. These chemical messengers regulate inflammation and allergic reactions, like itching, flushing and hives.
Combined with fluctuating levels of oestrogen, the symptoms amplify. “High levels of estrogen … stimulate mast cells and release more histamine,” Maren said. “But on the other hand, low levels of estradiol, which we also see during perimenopause, disrupt immune balance and create more inflammation. The real issue isn’t simply high or low oestrogen; it’s the loss of hormonal balance and immune regulation over time.”
Then there are the changes in the gut microbiome to consider. “By menopause, the diversity of a woman’s gut microbiome has declined and resembles the male gut microbiome,” said Maren, noting that this shift may mean more histamine producers, fewer bacteria that break down histamine and a greater overall histamine load in the body, which can show up as itchy skin or hives.
“Low oestrogen states also affect the barrier function of the gut, which increases inflammation and also plays a role in autoimmune diseases like psoriasis,” Maren said.
The combined shifts in hormones, immune signals and gut health help explain why skin can suddenly become reactive during perimenopause. And those same hormonal changes that make your skin dry and sensitive can also affect your ears.
“Declining oestrogen levels affect the keratinocytes in the skin,” according to Chuan, referring to the primary cells that build the protective barrier shielding your body from environmental damage, infection and moisture loss.
When oestrogen drops, hydration levels, collagen and glycosaminoglycans ― the molecules that help keep skin plump and cushioned ― also decline, leaving a thinner, more vulnerable barrier.
“Ears are already delicate and regularly exposed to elements like weather, earbuds, hearing aids and hair products — creating a perfect storm for irritation,” Chuan said.
Estrogen also affects how the spinal pathways process itch signals. “As hormone levels rise and fall, these pathways can become more or less sensitive, which can change how strong itching feels,” Chuan explained. During hormonal shifts, the same minor irritation might suddenly feel more intense.
There’s another layer to consider. Maren added that age and hormonal shifts can alter the composition of earwax, which helps lubricate the ear canal. “As this protective layer changes, the skin in the ear canal is more likely to feel dry or sensitive,” Maren said.
Everyday Habits That Could Affect Your Itchy Ears
Your daily habits can also influence how your skin and ears feel during perimenopause.
“Poor sleep and increased stress response both cause the release of pro-inflammatory markers, which can impact overall skin barrier function, turnover and healing, contributing to skin dryness and irritation,” said Dr. Catherine Hansen, a board-certified obstetrician-gynaecologist, certified menopause practitioner and chief medical officer at Effica Health.
Food choices matter, too. “Dietary patterns can help to modulate inflammation and improve the skin barrier function,” said Dr. Stacey Silverman Fine, a board-certified obstetrician-gynaecologist at Maven Clinic.
Fine pointed to plant-based diets rich in phytoestrogens to reduce hot flashes and further support skin health through anti-inflammatory effects. Omega-3 fatty acids can also help support the skin barrier function through anti-inflammatory mechanisms, and ensuring adequate vitamin D status may support overall skin health.
How To Tell if Hormones Are Behind Your Itchy Ears And What To Do About It
Timing, patterns and accompanying signs can offer valuable clues about what’s driving the itch.
“Paying attention to triggers is important, especially what makes a symptom like itchy ears better or worse,” Maren said. “Hormone-mediated itchy ears may experience fluctuations during the month, or be associated with other hormonal symptoms such as vaginal dryness, hot flashes, irritability and change in menstrual cycles.”
On the other hand, allergy-related itch tends to come with classic symptoms like a runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes and a seasonal pattern that flares during high-allergen times of year. Eczema-related itching, meanwhile, usually comes with a clear breakdown of the skin barrier, like flaking, scaling and redness.
Managing hormone-related ear discomfort at home can be simple and effective.
“Gentle ear canal moisturization is the foundation of at-home management,” said Fine, recommending a small amount of petrolatum-based ointment or cream applied to the outer ear canal with a clean finger or cotton swab, while avoiding going too deep, which could disturb earwax or damage the eardrum. “Also, taking short, lukewarm showers helps preserve skin moisture better than prolonged hot water exposure, which strips natural oils and worsens the itching.”
Avoiding common irritants is equally important. Fine noted that hair products that drip into the ear, nickel or reactive-metal earrings, cotton swabs and moisture-trapping earplugs can all worsen itching or disrupt the ear’s natural protective wax layer.
“Dry skin and itching sadly affect more than 50% of women over age 65 and are progressive without treatment. Unlike vasomotor symptoms, like hot flashes, that improve with time, skin symptoms generally worsen with time,” Fine said. “I’d recommend seeking medical treatment if the symptoms are persistent and don’t respond to diet, lifestyle changes or at-home strategies.”
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