US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have attacked protesters outside of the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Meanwhile, detainees inside the facility have staged a hunger strike against the inhumane conditions they’re subjected to.

Attorneys have reported that around 300 detainees have joined the hunger-and-labor strike at Delaney Hall. The peaceful action began on 22 May, highlighting serious concerns including the spoiled food they’re expected to eat.

Selenia Destefani – CEO of Nova Law Group, representatives of the detainees – explained that:

The conditions are brutal. People just sleep on the floor – overcrowded rooms, cold showers, no food, extremely cold in the cells with no blankets. Not sound conditions to live in.

Democrat lawmakers barred from entry by ICE

Senator Andy Kim visited Delaney Hall on 23 May after hearing the allegations. Posting on social media, he reported seeing:

-Pregnant woman unable to get full OBGYN medical support

-Woman who had a miscarriage in the detention facility and left to manage all on her own[…]

-A carton with the milk inside congealed solid (expiration date is tomorrow)[…]

-A document showing next Tuesday’s court docket showing 74 cases before 1 judge in one day (averages about 5 min a case)

-man telling me ICE trying to deport him to DRC where there is active Ebola outbreak (he’s from South America originally) […]

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-Numerous people who were arrested at scheduled interviews for green cards (trying to follow the formal process)

However, a DHS spokesperson flat-out denied Kim’s report:

This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks. There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are NO subprime conditions or abuse at the facility.

Soto Hernandez

Other Democrats, including New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, tried to visit over 24-25 May. Sherrill said:

The people inside Delaney Hall are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters and members of our community. In New Jersey, we believe in the rule of law and that everyone deserves to be treated with basic dignity. We have a duty to safeguard the rights, health, and well-being of everyone within our borders.

However, ICE barred the lawmakers’ entry to the facility. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed that, because of the protests outside:

Visitation has been suspended out of an abundance of caution.

On key aim of the protest outside the facility was the prevention of the transfer of detainee Soto Hernandez to another facility. ICE agents snatched Hernandez on 20 January whilst he was out buying diapers. He has since sought release on bond.

His wife, Gabriela, is currently looking after their two children alone, whilst 4-months pregnant. Nevertheless, she organised a rally on 22 May, which also served to announce the hunger strike. A lawyer representing Hernandez stated that Soto was served spoiled food infested with worms.

ICE attack protestors

Over the weekend, protesters formed a human chain to block the entry and exit of unmarked government vehicles. Footage from Freedom News TV showed masked ICE thugs using batons and tear gas against the demonstrators in the early hours of 25 May.

Agents also detained protesters, grabbing them from the crowd and even dragging them across the floor in at least one documented case. Senator Andy Kim, who joined the protest, was struck by tear gas during the ICE attack.

Sadly, ICE succeeded in transferring Hernandez to Elizabeth Contract Detention Center. There, agents placed him in isolation and prevented him from making phone calls. Soto’s attorney described him as weighing around 110lbs, stating that:

he’s skin and bones. I could blow him away.

‘Fighting for their human rights’

New Jersey senator Cory Booker raised serious concerns about conditions at the privately-owned Delaney Hall back in 2023, calling “it an insult to immigrant communities”. On 26 May, he posted that:

Immigrants at Delaney Hall are on a hunger strike because they are fighting for their human rights. […]

We’re working with our partners in the state to bring an end to this nightmare and I’ll be going to Delaney Hall again to conduct oversight.

Since Trump came to power for his second term, almost 50 detainees have died in ICE custody. This is, by far, the highest level of deaths in such US facilities over the last 20 years.

Featured image via screengrab

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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Sky News‘ Alex Crawford has reported on yet another targeted attack by Israel against paramedics in Lebanon, in turn emphasising the depths of sinister depravity which Israel is more than willing to sink to.

Showing camera footage which proves how the Zionist Israeli military intentionally kill Lebanese emergency workers, Crawford points out that this horrific murder came 12 hours after another Israeli strike killed four other medics.

The three medics in this video were responding to a father and his daughter who were injured in an Israeli strike, only for a trademark double-tap bomb to be dropped on them – subsequently murdering all three medics alongside the father, his young daughter and another Lebanese civilian.

Once again, Israel proves it has a bloodthirsty agenda against indigenous Arab civilians wherever they are – whilst it continues towards its colonialist, Zionist project of ‘Greater Israel’.

An Israeli strike captured on camera has killed three paramedics in Lebanon. Just 12 hours earlier, four other medics were killed.

Sky's @AlexCrawfordSky reportshttps://t.co/MTDOQ3T0vB pic.twitter.com/CvM8mOmnlp

— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 25, 2026

Crawford: “You can see the bomb hitting the front of the ambulance” in Lebanon

In her report for Sky News, Alex Crawford highlights the scale at which the Israeli military has killed medics in Lebanon under the direction of Israel’s occupying military. Despite a ceasefire deal in mid-April, Israel has continued to murder Arab people with impunity and, as Crawford says, “no one seems able to stop it”.

Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out this impunity is less about being politically able – and far more about a lack of political will to do anything about it.

Instead, Western leaders have pretty much given Israel a carte-blanche as it continues its genocidal campaigns in the Middle East.

Crawford described the targeted ‘double-tap’ attack captured on camera, saying:

They’re in neon jackets calling the second ambulance in after a father and his young daughter have been hit. As the crew arrives there’s another bomb. When slowed down you can see the bomb hitting the front of the ambulance. The moment of impact is captured by a second camera inside the arriving ambulance.

The two-man crew rushing to help their colleagues and those injured on the road somehow escape for their lives. But now they too are wounded.

All three of their colleagues outside on the street were killed, as well as the father, his young child and a civilian who’d stopped to help. The attacks are devastating the southern communities.

Referring to an 8-year-old child now left without his father, she told of the victims:

Among the three was a photojournalist as well as volunteer medic. His little girl unaware this was the final goodbye to the father killed doing two of the most dangerous jobs in Lebanon right now. The grief here is raw and unfiltered. They’ve had back-to-back funerals for days, and many are convinced the civil defence uniforms they now grip for comfort marked out their loved ones for attack.

Once again, Israel have sought to deny this was a deliberate and targeted attack, telling Crawford that they actually hit two motorbikes belonging to Hezbollah. Crawford, in contrast to most journalists in Western mainstream murder, refuted this baseless defence pointing out that the video directly contradicted their claims.

In response, the IDF is once again left adjudicating their own lawless conduct, stating that it is “examining the claims of uninvolved individuals being harmed”.

Murdered medics is what Israel does

Crawford spoke to local people, who told of their deep pain, suffering and trauma as a result of Israel’s continuous crimes against humanity. Crimes which continue to go on with absolute impunity under corrupted leaders in the West.

The anguish is deep, often inconsolable. But the resolve amongst this band of brothers runs far deeper.

Lebanese paramedic: “We lost like my best friend. Like we are like brothers together all the time together. Like 18 days together every day, every hour. We lost him. But we will say to him we will continue. We will continue.”

Underscoring how little control Lebanese people have over their own territory, freedoms and chance of any semblance of peace, Crawford continued:

To many here, the war has never stopped. The country’s future is now tied to an Iran-US-Israel deal. It’s an absolute insistence by negotiators in Tehran who support the armed group Hezbollah, which is firing rockets into northern Israel.

But historic talks between the Lebanese government and Israel have failed to bring any respite from the killings, and a ceasefire agreed mid-April hasn’t stopped the bombings.

Even graveyards aren’t safe in Lebanon, which are becoming increasingly full with more and more murdered daily:

Even as they’re putting someone to rest, you can see the remnants and the aftermath of what happened in an explosion yesterday. Half the cemetery covered. There are very few places now where people feel safe in South Lebanon.

Even the dead aren’t left undisturbed, and many of these graves are fresh from attacks in the last few days, as well as where whole generations are buried.

Speaking to a Lebanese man visiting the graveyard, Crawford was able to grasp the scale of grief that has become synonymous with living alongside a hostile, murderous state such as Zionist Israel:

Crawford: Do you have anyone that you know around here?

Lebanese man: Grandpa.

Adding:

Grandma. My uncle. My uncle, my uncle, my uncle.

Where is the political will to stop Israel’s widespread murder?

Some Lebanese families are so aware of the high stakes and insecure futures facing their loved ones, as Crawford highlighted when she spoke to Hussein. Whilst sweeping the graves of his relatives, including his wife’s who died last year, he told how he has been a paramedic and worries for the lives of his four paramedic sons.

One of which was due to attend with the crew murdered yesterday:

Some days I don’t sleep. I lost my wife. We lived through the last war. We were displaced and left our home. But the boys stayed here. If one son stays, I don’t have too much of a problem.

But if four of them stay and a strike takes them all, it’s a disaster, a disaster.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 56

GETTING TO 200K: Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a wide-ranging housing plan today that he said will usher in the “largest municipal housing transformation this country has ever seen.”

The blueprint lays out how Mamdani plans to address the single biggest driver of the city’s affordability crisis, the central focus of the mayoral campaign that propelled him into City Hall.

While the plan lays out ambitious targets that would surpass past mayors if achieved — including the planned creation and preservation of a combined 400,000 affordable homes over a decade — it also illustrates how Mamdani is not reinventing the wheel on many housing issues, but rather leaning into or expanding policies pursued by his predecessors.

The plan seeks to tackle a range of coinciding crises: the severe shortage of available housing; a public housing system that’s crumbling and facing massive capital needs; and a rental housing stock that is experiencing growing distress as operating costs skyrocket.

“If the absence of good government created the conditions we now face, the presence of good government can build the solutions we now need,” Mamdani said in a speech announcing the plan in Brooklyn’s Gowanus section, where a city-led rezoning enacted nearly five years ago has spurred a residential building boom.

Mamdani is already encountering the limits of some of his campaign promises and moderating costly plans as his administration grapples with a strained municipal budget. On the campaign trail, the mayor said he would create 200,000 publicly-subsidized homes over a decade, tripling current rates of production. He is standing by that goal, while also pledging to preserve another 200,000 affordable homes.

“Scaling to these levels of affordable housing production will not be easy and cannot be done overnight,” the blueprint states. The administration is aiming to create some 14,000 affordable homes in fiscal year 2027, which starts July 1, while ramping up to 21,000 units per year by fiscal year 2031.

Under the blueprint released Tuesday, Mamdani’s housing department plans to finance 8,000 new affordable homes in fiscal years 2027 and 2028 — which would grow subsidized housing by more than 35 percent from the prior two years. But the plan does not spell out specifically how the administration will produce roughly 12,000 remaining units annually to get to Mamdani’s 200,000-unit goal.

Much of that additional affordable housing will rely on zoning, tax and other financing tools rather than direct city subsidies. And it would require the private sector to embrace those tools. — Janaki Chadha

From the Capitol

‘BIG UGLY’ VOTE: The Legislature spent the better part of today plowing through votes on the budget’s “big ugly” bill, which contains most of the hot-button issues in this year’s spending plan.

“This bill has some really good stuff in it and some really bad stuff,” said Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz, who cited Tier VI pension plan changes when speaking about his “yes” vote. “I look forward to seeing the positive impact it’s going to have on many, many state workers.”

That was the common theme that emerged among Democratic during today’s debate — they hate the rollbacks to the climate law, but they’re also supportive of the inclusion of what Republican Assemblymember Michael Fitzpatrick dubbed “the mother of all pension sweeteners” that they reluctantly voted yes. That line of reasoning appeared especially common from members who, like Dinowitz, have Democratic primaries in four weeks and stand to face attacks for being weak on the environment.

“This is not an easy vote for me,” said Assemblymember Grace Lee, who’s running for an open Senate seat and wound up backing the bill because of Tier VI.

“I am voting yes because I refuse to deny hardworking union members and retirees the retirement security they have worked years to achieve,” Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas said.

Gonzalez-Rojas also took time to slam the climate law changes.

“Communities like Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, LeFrak City have already experienced the consequences of environmental injustice,” she said. “Climate change is not theoretical for our communities. It is personal.”

That might be another indication of just how much budget season has blended into primary season. Not all of those neighborhoods fall within Gonzalez-Rojas’ district — but they’re a perfect description of the Senate district where she’s challenging fellow Democrat Jessica Ramos next month. — Bill Mahoney

FROM CITY HALL

MEANWHILE, IN KNICKS WORLD: Mamdani appeared to indicate today that watch parties will be back outside Madison Square Garden during next month’s NBA finals.

“They will be there,” Mamdani said with a laugh when asked at an unrelated press conference if the partying will resume outside the iconic arena next month when the Knicks play their first NBA finals in nearly three decades.

But a Mamdani spokesperson told Playbook that the mayor wasn’t referring to official watch parties. Rather, the spokesperson said he was talking about how Knicks fans inevitably gather outside the Garden during and after games to celebrate or mourn — oftentimes in rather raucous fashion.

Whether official watch parties — replete with massive screens showing the games — will be back outside the Garden during the finals, the Mamdani spokesperson wouldn’t say, adding that plans are still being finalized.

“It’s not a question of if there will be watch parties but where,” spokesperson Dora Pekec said.

The issue could become a bone of contention for Knicks fans.

Last week, the city pulled MSG’s permit to hold its usual large-scale parties outside the arena during Knicks games due to concerns from the NYPD about public drinking and other debauchery. During one of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals games against the Cleveland Cavaliers last week, six people were arrested in connection with the outdoor watch party.

The NYPD’s decision to put the kibosh on the parties may infuriate Knicks fans who are ecstatic about their team making it to the NBA finals for the first time since 1999. Mamdani, an avid Knicks fan, is already facing tension with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch over how to police this summer’s World Cup, as previously reported by POLITICO, and an MSG dispute could drive a further wedge.

With the outdoor party permit scrapped, MSG hosted a watch party at Radio City Music Hall for the Knicks’ clincher against the Cavs last night.

No matter what, Mamdani said at today’s press conference that Knicks fans will be able to cheer on their team at a variety of watch parties across the city during next month’s finals.

“We’re looking forward to making sure that it is a time for New Yorkers to celebrate, it’s a time that they’re also safe,” he said. “We’re going to have a number of different kinds of watch parties, and we’ll get back to you as we keep going through those plans.”

The Knicks will face either the San Antonio Spurs or Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals next month. The first game in the series is set for June 3. — Chris Sommerfeldt

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

DEBATE-A-PALOOZA: Got plans in June? How about a congressional primary debate — or six?

After forums galore across the city’s competitive primaries, a slew of televised debates are on the books ahead of the June 23 election: two each for the races to replace retiring Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Jerry Nadler, and another two for Rep. Dan Goldman’s primary challenge from former City Comptroller Brad Lander.

All debates will be live at 7 p.m., with the exception of the first NY-07 debate on June 3, which will be prerecorded earlier that day and air at 7 p.m. Here’s when to block off your schedule:

— June 1: Goldman and Lander will be facing off for their first televised debate, hosted by Spectrum News NY1. NY1’s Errol Louis and Courtney Gross will moderate the program.

Goldman’s campaign has frequently criticized Lander for not agreeing to partake in seven debates.

— June 3: State Assemblymember Claire Valdez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Council member Julie Won will take the stage as they vie for Velázquez’s seat. The debate will be hosted by NY1 and moderated by Louis and Gross. Public defender Vichal Kumar is also on the ballot, though he did not qualify for the debate.

— June 4: The four leading candidates looking to succeed Nadler will meet in a PIX11 debate: state Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and anti-Trump commentator George Conway. It will be moderated by Dan Mannarino.

— June 9: Another NY-12 debate will be hosted by NY1 and WNYC. Louis and WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and Brigid Bergin will moderate. This debate is set to feature Bores, Conway, Lasher, Schlossberg and public health practitioner Nina Schwalbe.

Schwalbe, a progressive candidate who has struggled to break through in the crowded field, has frequently criticized media coverage and events for not including her. A handful of other lesser-known candidates are also on the ballot next month.

— June 10: Valdez, Reynoso and Won will partake in a PIX11 debate, with Mannarino moderating.

— June 15: PIX11 will host Goldman and Lander for another showdown, moderated by Mannarino.

Early voting starts June 13. — Madison Fernandez

MUM-DANI: Mamdani is noncommittal about getting involved in the competitive race in what is now his home district.

When asked by PIX11’s Henry Rosoff who he’s voting for in the Democratic primary to succeed Nadler, Gracie Mansion’s newest resident laughed and said he hadn’t made a decision but is “following the race as a keen constituent.”

“At this time, I would say that I’ve focused on the two decisions I’ve made thus far,” Mamdani continued, referring to his endorsements for Lander and Valdez.

Bores recently said he would “love” to have Mamdani’s backing. Lasher, meanwhile, is getting campaign help from political strategist Morris Katz, an architect of Mamdani’s win last year. A recent Emerson College/PIX11 poll found that Mamdani has a strong approval rating, at 66 percent, among Democratic primary voters in the district. But a Mamdani endorsement could also turn off some Jewish voters — a prominent constituency in the district — who are not fans of the mayor.

“It was a pleasure to serve with both of them in Albany,” Mamdani said of Bores and Lasher. — Madison Fernandez 

ENDORSEMENT CORNER: Abundance New York rolled out its voter guide on Tuesday, highlighting candidates in competitive races who the group’s executive director Catherine Vaughan said in a statement are “willing to actually build the things New York needs.”

They include Reynoso and Lander, as well as a dual-endorsement for Bores and Lasher. (The group said that between Bores and Lasher, it “cannot recommend one over the other at this time, but we may revisit as the race continues.”)

The endorsements aren’t exactly all glowing. In the rationale for Reynoso, it states that his “record has not always supported our agenda, but we have decided to take his evolution at face value and to commit to holding him to his word.”

The blurb about Lander acknowledged that the group has “concerns about [his] record and some of his current stances,” including opposing some rezonings during his time on the Council and supporting a ban on what the group described as “investor-owned ‘build-to-rent’ housing.” The guide also states that the group is “dismayed at his demand that Brooklyn Marine Terminal development be delayed; this is a NIMBY stance that seems cynically targeted at Goldman’s leadership on the issue.” Despite that, Abundance New York pointed to Lander’s “record on housing production, transit, and the local land-use machinery in this district” and said it thinks he “would prioritize the built environment issues that we champion more strongly.”

The group is also backing Drew Warshaw — the affordable housing nonprofit executive who’s one of two primary challengers to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli — along with a handful of candidates in the state Legislature and City Council member Carl Wilson. — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— THINGS GO SOUTH: Mamdani-backed congressional candidate Claire Valdez, who has called to abolish ICE, is facing scrutiny over her father’s work for a firm involved in Texas border projects. (New York Post)

— WHAT’S IN A NAME: Internal renderings for the Penn Station overhaul project show a presidential seal featuring Donald Trump’s name alongside a redesigned train hall. (Gothamist)

— ACROSS THE AISLE: Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Co-op is split over a looming vote to boycott Israeli products from the socially conscious grocery store. (The New York Times)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

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Pressure is mounting on Scotland’s nature agency after it confirmed a new licence application has been received for the guga hunt this year.

The guga hunt involves the annual killing of gannet seabird chicks in the Outer Hebrides. Now the controversial practice is once again under consideration for 2026 after an application was submitted by the 10-man hunting team based in Ness on the Isle of Lewis.

The hunt, which takes place on the remote island of Sula Sgeir, has been carried out for centuries and was once used for food during harsh winters. However, campaigners argue that young gannet flesh is now considered a delicacy – something they say is unnecessary, cruel, and increasingly incompatible with modern values.

The guga hunt has become one of Scotland’s most controversial wildlife issues, with a petition launched by wildlife photographer Rachel Bigsby calling for an end to the practice becoming the largest submitted to the last Scottish parliament.

Guga hunt allowed due to legal loophole

Killing wild birds is normally illegal, but the guga hunt continues under a specific exemption in the Wildlife and Countryside Act. The issue is now set to return to the Scottish parliament, where campaigners hope the exemption will finally be removed and the hunt outlawed.

High-profile protests against the hunt have continued to grow, including a rooftop occupation of NatureScot’s headquarters, where anti-guga hunt activists remained for two nights demanding an end to the licensing of the hunt.

Protect the Wild, one of the leading organisations campaigning against the hunt, said its own petition calling on NatureScot to stop licensing the hunt has attracted more than 183,000 signatures, making it the largest petition ever received by Scotland’s nature agency.

The group is calling on NatureScot to refuse this year’s licence. It says the agency is now the only thing standing between the colony and another year of “senseless slaughter”.

Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild, said:

The guga hunt is one of the cruellest and most ecologically reckless wildlife practices left in Scotland – and NatureScot is the only thing standing between these birds and another year of senseless slaughter.

Every year, defenceless gannet chicks are beaten to death on a supposedly protected island – all for an outdated delicacy that nobody needs.

According to new polling commissioned by Protect the Wild, 77% of Scots who expressed a view said they support banning the guga hunt.

Docherty added:

The science is unambiguous: this is the only Special Protection Area for gannets in decline, and the hunt itself is suppressing the colony’s recovery. The vast majority of the public are against this practice and want to see wildlife being respected.

NatureScot has a choice to make: keep signing off a hunt that survives on tradition alone, or do the job its name implies and protect the nature in its care.

NatureScot said it will now meet with key stakeholders before bringing a final decision on the licence application to its board.

Featured image via John Ranson for the Canary

By The Canary

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Campaigners from Fossil Free London staged a protest outside a supermarket in Hackney on Sunday 24 May, to draw attention to the rising cost of living in contrast with fossil fuel corporations’ soaring profits.

The stunt involved two trolleys. One, pushed by a campaigner dressed as an oil executive, was filled with sacks of money. The other was filled with placards shaped like common food items. Each placard displayed the item’s current cost and the amount it has risen by. For example: “Orange juice, £1.79, up 130%”. Behind them, a banner read: “Shell profits. We pay the price”.

The protest comes as Shell’s first quarter profits jumped 115%. This is whilst UK food prices are set to rise by 50% since the start of the cost of living crisis, driven by climate and energy shocks.

Robin Wells from Fossil Free London said:

Big Oil are vultures. They prey and profit from crisis, war, and human suffering. And they pilfer from and collapse the earth systems the give us life.

For as long as the fossil fuel industry persists, humanity’s very existence is threatened, and life is all the more miserable. Because whilst Shell continues to profit, we’re all paying the price. And the cost is only getting bigger.

Stu from Fuel Poverty Action said:

It is unconscionable that so many of us are going without because we can’t afford the basic energy we need for heating, eating and lighting.

Meanwhile, shareholders are laughing all the way to the bank, and the government is letting them get away with it. £500 of our energy bill already goes to profits, and that’s set to rise if politicians do nothing.

That’s why Fuel Poverty Action is calling on the government to Make Green Fair campaign, clamp down on energy company profiteering, and bring down our bills by passing the benefits of cheap-to-produce renewable energy back to us.

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Featured image via Fossil Free London

By The Canary

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Many predicted that the Makerfield by-election would be a straight up race between Labour and Reform. Surprising many, however, Reform is now fighting on two fronts, with the even-more-hardline Restore Britain challenging the party from its right.

As we reported, this state of affairs has led to Reform panicking and lashing out. And the signs are that Reform’s decision to openly go to war with Restore may be working in the latter party’s favour:

So there is panic internally in Reform as I stated earlier being the reason for the Restore attacks and that there had to be internal polling issues

They are admitting to a Restore tally of around 18% and themselves being around 8% behind Labour pic.twitter.com/QX3QKuFK0b

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— dave lawrence (@dave43law) May 25, 2026

Reform panic stations

The leader of Restore is ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe. Lowe formed the party after a falling out with Farage (and quite a dramatic falling out at that). In his own words:

Farage and Reform tried to put me in prison because I backed the mass deportation of Pakistani child rapists and their foreign wives/relatives who allowed it to happen.

My home was raided by armed police late on a Friday night as a direct result of Reform’s allegations. My guns were seized. They tried to ruin my life. In every way.

Farage admitted on national television it was all because I backed mass deportations.

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He said that was the moment they realised they ‘had to get rid’ of me.

Not the bullshit allegations they went to the police with, but the fact I want the Pakistani rapists removed from our country.

He admitted it.

That all happened.

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The polling post comes from Charlie Simpson of the right-wing GB Politics. While Simpson isn’t even old enough to vote, he does seemingly have contacts in Reform UK, because he’s broken several stories which later proved to be accurate.

If the data provided to Simpson is correct, Restore is doing significantly better than previous polls suggested. This is big news if so, because Farage was already panicking about Restore potentially ‘stealing’ a victory from him:

The Times have just released a new poll for the Makerfield by-election by Survation.

Robert Kenyon is the only candidate who can stop Andy Burnham.

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This is a two horse race – nobody else comes close. pic.twitter.com/zZ75PasBdt

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) May 23, 2026

Splitters

On the matter of Restore ‘stealing’ votes, many have pointed out that Farage isn’t best placed to make this argument. After all, you could say Reform stole victory from Rishi Sunak in 2024 by appealing to former Tory loyalists. This is why Restore supporters are making the same argument that Farage himself made in 2024 (the video shows Farage criticising Robert Jenrick – the Tory who would later join Reform):

“You’re Splitting the Vote” Really? Watch this… a year on, Nigels making him his Chancellor !! The only “splitting the vote” was done when Reform sold out !! @RestoreBritain_ pic.twitter.com/RGKT1PXblM

— Orla Minihane (@orlaminihane) May 24, 2026

The hypocrisy doesn’t end there either:

So Reform have gone from demanding an early election to desperately trying to stop one because they think they’ll lose. And they admit Andy Burnham really is so popular nationally he’ll be able to reverse Reform’s surge and win for Labour. https://t.co/hnhvOFmGgN

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 25, 2026

As Labour has a huge majority and more than three years before it needs to announce a general election, it seems unlikely Burnham would call one. Reform politicians do need to give people a reason to vote for them, though, and this strategy shows they’re worried Restore is doing a better job of appealing to the far-right element of their base than they are.

If you’re wondering why Restore is hoovering up those voters, by the way, it’s because Lowe is pulling the same trick Reform pulled with the Tories – i.e. just being further right on everything.

The Reform UK account, meanwhile, has claimed the party has “all the momentum” in response to a national poll:

Reform has all the momentum in British politics. https://t.co/ZiNG67Abn8

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) May 25, 2026

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If Restore is gaining traction in Makerfield, however, this just isn’t true.

The media erupts

It’s not just Reform politicians gunning for Restore, either; it’s also the party’s allies in the establishment media. The genocide-denying Islamophobe Melanie Phillips wrote this for the Times:

Restore’s extremism is a problem for Nigel Farage https://t.co/Xw6QxYMJTz

— Times Politics (@timespolitics) May 25, 2026

Alex Phillips of Talk TV completely lost it when talking about Lowe:

The meltdown of Alex Phillips continues as Restore Britain gains grows in stature pic.twitter.com/CI2OEbq2Ky

— Basil the Great (@BasilTheGreat) May 24, 2026

GB News is covering what Farage said, but the outlet is somewhat guarded overall – possibly assuming their audience contains a lot of Lowe fans (what you might call ‘Lowe-lifes’):

Nigel Farage urges right to unite in Makerfield after poll claims Restore Britain would let Andy Burnham into No10
https://t.co/ORglLzQqVl

— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 25, 2026

This guardedness hasn’t stopped Lowe from suggesting GB News is part of the establishment:

Hit piece just gone up against Restore Britain in the Times – follows GB News, Hope not Hate, the Telegraph, Guardian and many others in the last few days.

We're going for a full house.

The establishment despises Restore Britain.

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) May 25, 2026

Getting to the weirder side of the right-wing press, spiked published the following:

Rupert Lowe’s vanity is off the charts. His party, Restore Britain, is shaving votes from Reform UK in Makerfield. This could hand a victory to Andy Burnham and let the ‘King of the North’ become PM. Restore is the enemy of populism, says Brendan O’Neillhttps://t.co/LGj1YK4nhh

— spiked (@spikedonline) May 25, 2026

Restore Britain has also won the support of Twitter/X owner Elon Musk, with Farage responding as follows:

Farage has just gone to the media to attack Restore Britain, again. He says that Elon Musk is supporting a party 'that’s one man with a social media account.'

This is where Farage is so very wrong.

There are thousands and thousands and thousands of Restore Britain members,…

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— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) May 24, 2026

As much as we don’t want to defend the vile Lowe, it does seem he’s not wrong:

Jut for fairness, this does reflect what I found in Makerfield. Restore have much more of a presence on the ground than I was anticipating. Have to see if they can sustain it. But it's real. https://t.co/Vr43DKeHZa

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 23, 2026

Also, if Restore was “just one man with a social media account”, Reform wouldn’t be dedicating so much time to attacking it.

A losing strategy

Reform’s Makerfield candidate Robert Kenyon had this to say:

Jesus how bad are the Restore numbers? https://t.co/vS3CN6OdYo

— w////am (@willuminare) May 25, 2026

It’s likely not the case that voters are telling him ‘it’s a two horse race‘, because that’s not the sort of thing a person would say to a political canvasser. It could be residents are only talking about Reform or Labour, but given the polling, we know that’s likely not true.

In other words, it’s almost certainly another instance of Reform trying to convince voters they have to vote for the party – not that it’s in their best interests. This is the strategy Labour and the Tories increasingly relied on, and we know in the long run it’s a loser.

If there’s anything the last few years have proven, it’s that British voters are sick of being told who they have to vote for. People aren’t playing by the establishment’s rules anymore, and Reform is clearly just another establishment-continuation party.

Featured image via Ryan Jenkinson (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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The post The forbidden history of radical Islam appeared first on spiked.

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North Belfast Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) participant Fra Hughes returned to Ireland on Saturday 24 May 2026, after two days being held captive by ‘Israeli’ Occupation Forces (IOF). The long-time Palestine advocate was one of 14 Irish activists from the flotilla who were subjected to brutal treatment by the terrorist regime. The flotilla mission was an attempt to bring essential supplies to Palestinians suffering horrifically under Zionist starvation policies.

Still in his prison tracksuit and speaking at a reception in Belfast on Saturday evening, Fra gave a detailed account of a harrowing experience. Still, as he acknowledged, it was far less than that endured by Palestinians in Zionist dungeons.

He was on board a boat of six, which was intercepted by IOF criminals on 20 May. It began with the thugs training their firearms directly on the activists, red laser dots lighting up their foreheads.

The IOF goons ordered activists to strip down to just their t-shirts and trousers, then lie flat on the boat’s deck. Fra told the crowd of around 30 at the reception that he expected to be flung from the flimsy boat, as all he had to cling onto was a nearby rope.

“That was her blood” – IOF brutalise activists

The IOF then abducted the six men onto a nearby warship. The North Belfast man said the vessel was coated in razor wire, filled with rifle-wielding guards and armed with water cannons. He recounted:

They’d used the water cannons on people before I arrived. Someone shouted “Free Palestine” and the IOF shot them with a BB gun. They ended up – a woman – with her leg ripped open. We actually saw bandages with blood on them, and I thought, “I wonder if they’d been doing a simulation or something because it’s a warship”. That was her blood.

Soldiers then forced the flotilla members to lie on the metal floor for hours. Fra, who is 63, said:

We were out on the deck and they kept flushing it with water every few hours. I had no shoes on. All I had was jeans and a t-shirt, so I was f***ing freezing. I’m shivering there. My jeans didn’t dry out til lunchtime the next day.

Activists were moved to another area, and after some time, they demanded water, toilet roll and sanitary products for women. Fra, who has raised huge sums for Palestinians via his Palestine Aid Ireland charity, recalled that:

An hour later guards threw them down through a hatch, like we were animals.

He continued:

By the second day, the portaloos are filling up, the smell would choke you. We’re walking about in the water. Any sign of resistance was immediately followed by violence. Anyone who said “Free Palestine” – BANG – you got hit with the BB gun.

The IOF brought the flotilla members to the port of Ashdod, in occupied Palestine, sadly now more commonly referred to as ‘Israel’. From there, the Zionist authorities transported them to Ktzi’ot prison. Guards offered Hughes the chance to sign a form, which would mean admitting to the ‘crime’ of breaking the siege on Gaza. He would then get the chance to go home within 24 hours. He answered with:

I’m answering no questions, I’m signing no forms.

“I’m going to make your life a f***ing living hell”

Throughout the ordeal, soldiers repeatedly searched him, including strip searches. He was always transferred by guards forcing one hand behind his back, and pushing his head down to waist level.

He recounted one frightening moment in which two guards took him away to a separate room for a search, and noticed he had a couple of matches still in a jeans pocket. They yelled at him, saying “Oh, so you want to start a fire here?!” They then asked him to turn his head to one side, and open his mouth. Fra said he expected to be struck in the face, but ultimately it was just more intimidation.

Others who guards took to the same area weren’t so ‘fortunate’. Fra said people of colour were in particular danger. He said of the ‘Israelis’:

They’re racist f***s – when they saw Hāhona [Ngāti Maniapoto New Zealand citizen Hāhona Jason Ormsby], with [his] tattoos, and he does a bit of body-building, they zeroed in on him.

He continued:

They banged his head against a wall and nearly knocked him out. They took a taser and put it to his testicles, but somebody came in and said, “no no, not here”. So instead they kicked him in the testicles.

A guard then pulled down his mask and said to Hāhona:

Look at me. I am going to make your life a f***ing living hell from now on.

Fra estimated 70–100 activists were victims of serious assaults. 15 people have reported sexual violence from IOF criminals. The Irish activist said many who sustained broken ribs got them from IOF soldiers kicking them while they were on the floor.

Belfast activist kicked to the floor then hauled up by handcuffs

The worst violence Fra suffered was when a guard ordered him to assume a stress position on his knees. Hands cuffed behind his back, he struggled to get down, and the guard then kicked him to the floor. The same man then hauled Fra up by the cuffs, causing severe pain to his wrists. When Fra yelled out, the guard threw him to the ground, only to order him back to his feet 30 seconds later. Fra told listeners:

I didn’t really suffer. There were people sexually assaulted, people with broken ribs, people with dislocated shoulders, people shot in the ankles with BB guns.

After Fra and other activists continued their refusal to sign anything, guards eventually relented and gave them food and mattresses. Fra and the other Irish activists refused food throughout their illegal detention, however. The ‘Israeli’ land thieves ultimately realised quick release for the abductees was in the settler-colony’s interests, rather than have worldwide publicity centre on the flotilla crews for a longer period.

On Friday 23 May, IOF thugs bundled Fra and comrades onto a bus to the nearest airport. A fellow activist proposed a singsong, and Fra led the bus in delivering The Fields of Athenry, a ballad about Britain’s mid-1800s genocide in Ireland. That then proceeded to Bob Vylan’s more recent classic “Death, Death to the IDF“.

Eventually, an irate guard banged on the window to the activists’ bus compartment, yelling “shut the fuck up!” The criminal threatened to throw a tear gas canister into the enclosed space, at which point the choir decided silence may be the wiser option when dealing with a genocidal land thief.

Politicians must show they care about their own citizens more than appeasing ‘Israel’

The Belfast man managed to get in a few more gestures of defiance, shouting “Free Palestine” while walking through the ‘Israeli’ airport as he departed, and flashing V signs to passengers from the pseudo-state. From there, he travelled to Istanbul, then on to Dublin, where he and other flotilla crew were met by hundreds of supporters.

Fra arrived back in Belfast shortly after local activists had staged an occupation of its city hall. They kneeled on its marble floor in the stress position that IOF guards demanded flotilla activists adopt while out in the baking sun.

Their call was to politicians: Flotilla activists have risked their lives to highlight Palestinians suffering. What will you now do to match their efforts? No more siding with the Zionist entity while your own citizens are tortured, as the Irish government did last week. Full sanctions now – zero trade or cooperation of any kind with so-called ‘Israel’.

Featured image via Fra Hughes

By Robert Freeman

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