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Why might UTIs affect dementia risk?

Does this mean UTIs definitely cause dementia?

The Starmer government has finally announced the start of its bland inquiry into state violence during the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ coking plant during the 1980s miners’ strike.

The inquiry’s brief should be to identify those who should stand trial or at least face disgrace for sending heavily-armed police, and soldiers dressed as police, to viciously beat prosecute striking miners then prosecuted the victims. It should be shaming media bosses and ‘journalists’ who helped smear the victims. Like the BBC’s editing of footage to falsely portray miners as attacking first.

This photo was taken 36 years ago today just before the massed ranks of police attacked and brutalised the miners at Orgreave.
Later that day @BBCNews reversed their film to make it look to the whole nation like the miners attacked first.
Don’t ever forget that.#OrgreaveJustice pic.twitter.com/M7PaIdfyyA

— Ian Prowse (@IanProwse) June 18, 2020

Instead, its job will be to “aid public understanding” — but not until 2028, almost four years after Starmer conned his way into government after promising a prompt inquiry into the police charge.

Orgreave — the war on miners

As the Thatcher regime continued its war on the miners and its cover-up of its own crimes, it tried to jail 95 miners but the trials collapsed. South Yorkshire Police were eventually forced to pay more than half a million in compensation and costs, a large sum at the time. But no police officer was ever disciplined, let alone prosecuted.

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign said the government had taken far too long to begin inquiry and paid tribute to its members’ tenacity in continuing to push for it. Anglican bishop of Sheffield Pete Wilcox, who will chair the inquiry, said he wanted to resolve the trauma of miners and their communities and would:

follow the evidence without prejudice, wherever it may lead, wholly independent of government, law enforcement or any other public body.

Anyone who has observed the contempt establishment creature Starmer and his hangers-on have shown to the Orgreave campaign for years will know that Wilcox will have another fight on his hands to keep that promise.

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, which has sought a statutory inquiry since forming in 2012, welcomed the announcement, although it said it was disappointed at the time taken to reach this formal start.

The campaign said its members, who include former striking miners, had needed “determination and tenacity”, supported by the wider labour and trade union movement. It said: “We have … tried our best to influence the process to ensure this does not become a police-led inquiry but one shaped by the miners and their experiences.”

The truth

Sarah Jones, the policing minister, said the panel’s purpose was to get to the truth about the Orgreave events. She said:

I’ve had the privilege of meeting the campaigners, and I think the overriding sense of injustice is obviously palpable, but also the sense that people just haven’t been believed or listened to for a very long time.

What is important to me is that people have the confidence to come forward, with whatever information we’re going to need, and to be able to tell their story of what happened in a way where they know that they will be listened to and believed.

South Yorkshire police said they were “fully committed to supporting the Orgreave inquiry”.

The four panel members are Wendy Williams, a former chief prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service and inspector in the police and fire service inspectorate; Mary Bousted, a former joint general secretary of the National Education Union; Joanna Gilmore, a senior lecturer in law at the University of York who specialises in public order, human rights and policing policy; and Angela Sutton-Vane, a historian with expertise in archiving and preserving police records.

Wilcox said:

I wish to help resolve a trauma that persists to this day — for the miners who were injured at Orgreave, who were arrested at Orgreave, who feel their story has not yet been fully told. For their families and communities, and for the relationship between police and the mining community.

I will follow the evidence without prejudice, wherever it may lead.

Featured image via the Canary

The University of Reading is one of the top universities to receive research and innovation funding from the EU’s Framework Programmes and a range of other EU instruments to support the building of Europe’s border regime.

A new report from the Transnational Institute, “Border Labs,” highlights how universities are deeply involved in Europe’s repressive border and migration policies in multiple ways.

Three UK universities were in the top 20 recipients of EU funding for border security and control research: the University of Reading, Queen Mary University of London, and Sheffield Hallam University. From 2002 to May 2025, over 200 universities, higher-education institutions, and academies participated in 110 EU Framework Programme projects related to border security and control, receiving a total of over €100 million in EU funding.

Although UK universities were temporarily excluded from EU funding following Brexit, a new agreement has allowed them to fully participate again from 2024 onwards.

From biometrics and surveillance to AI, lie detection, drones, and other unmanned systems, the report documents universities working across a wide range of border-control technologies.

AI and pseudoscience

The report points out that there is investment in technologies that are not merely repressive. Some are straight-up stupid and are done through opaque ways, like spin-off companies.

These spin-off start-ups are built on university research. The same academics who did the research often run them.

Manchester Metropolitan University was a recipient of EU funding for iBorderCtrl, a Horizon 2020 project that ran from 2016 to 2019.

Silent Talker was a Manchester Metropolitan University spin-off that claimed its AI could detect lies. Its creators claimed it could detect deception by analysing facial micro-expressions.

The company is now dissolved, and accusations of pseudoscience have followed it.

Working with arms companies

The report also shows how deeply universities are embedded with the arms industry.

Italian defence giant Leonardo is the most frequent corporate partner of universities in EU-funded border security projects. It has collaborated repeatedly with Finland’s Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza. These partnerships span projects on maritime surveillance, hybrid threats, and customs interoperability.

In the UK, BAE Systems has a longstanding relationship with the University of Southampton. The report gives an example of how the border-industrial-academic complex works.

BAE funds research through the university’s Centre for Research in Active Control. That partnership helped produce ClanTect, a university spin-off that sold heartbeat detectors to Frontex and the UK Border Force.

The report describes Frontex as “a central node in the EU’s securitised border regime.” Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.

EU and the Saudi connection

The report also brings out a connection between European universities and Saudi Arabia.

Frontex has a longstanding cooperation with the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, or NAUSS. The institution is based in Riyadh and linked to the Saudi royal family. Its governing council includes senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan.

The report says

Training of security forces in Arab countries is an important part of the university’s programme, which is where Frontex has stepped in. Institutional contacts date back to at least 2020, at a time when Saudi Arabia was playing an active role in the Yemen War.

Canary reported this week on Saudi Arabia’s record.

The Western-backed Gulf theocracy is one of the biggest recipients of UK arms exports.

African trade unions have accused it of widespread violations against migrant workers: forced labour, wage theft, physical and sexual abuse, and systemic racism. Workers have been locked in homes, forced to work 18 to 20 hours a day, denied wages, healthcare and rest.

Saudi Arabia is now trying to dismiss a formal complaint at the International Labour Organisation.

Netanyahuisation of EU universities

Michele Lancione, who wrote the foreword, argues that Europe is seeing a Netanyahuisation.

That means universities are not simply being controlled by far-right governments.

They are being reshaped to serve the military-border-industrial complex, just as Israeli universities have been reshaped to serve occupation and genocide.

In Israel, universities have become servile to the military occupation of Palestine. No Israeli institution has spoken out against the genocide in Gaza.

Europe is heading the same way, the report warns.

Featured image via the Canary

The Motability Scheme has announced more changes that will negatively impact disabled people’s lives. As part of reforms to the scheme, disabled people will see their mileage allowance halved.

More Motability cuts

The scheme announced that from July 1 2026, new leases will only have a mileage allowance of 10,000 miles a year. This has been slashed in half from the previous 20,000. The excess mileage fee will also increase. The previous 5p per extra mile will go up by five times that amount to 25p.

The excess mileage fee mightn’t seem like a lot, but you’ve got to remember just how vital a lifeline driving is for many disabled people. Especially with the state of accessible public transport. It’ll soon add up. It also doesn’t allow for emergencies. For instance, my nearest specialist hospital is 14 miles away — that’s an extra £4.50 there and back.

But it’s not just for hospital appointments. Disabled people use their cars to live the same lives as the rest of society. To get to work, take their kids to school, go on holiday, do whatever the fuck we like.

Labour bowing to right-wing dickheads

Except for the government, the media and a lot of society don’t want us doing what we want.

This follows the Labour government bowing to pressure from right-wing Twitter dickheads last year. As The Canary previously reported, Starmer’s leadership listened more to right-wing rage bait than to disabled people’s concerns.

Along with wanting to confiscate asylum seekers’ jewellery, Labour announced that ‘luxury’ vehicles would no longer be part of Motability. Disabled people would also face thousands in up-front fees and be subject to VAT.

The missing context from this, of course, though, was that many ‘basic’ cars can’t be adapted in the ways disabled people often need — but Labour didn’t let facts stop their hate.

Cuts will limit disabled people

Most bizarrely, Motability are using those cuts as a reason to impose more restrictions on disabled people. And they’re phrasing the mileage restrictions as a good thing.

Andrew Miller, CEO of Motability Operations said:

In last year’s Autumn Budget, the UK Government announced tax changes that affect the Scheme. From 1 July 2026, VAT and Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will apply to most leases. Together, these changes mean it will cost significantly more to run the Scheme. If we did nothing, the average cost of a new lease would increase by around £1,100.

It was clear to me that simply passing all these costs on to customers was not an option. We had to carefully consider how to reduce the tax impact as much as possible, but also focusing on changes that reflect how most customers already use their vehicles.

Whilst it’s clear Motability is trying its hardest to offset the government’s imposed changes, but they’re still punishing those who need to use their car more.

To limit disabled people’s driving in this way, implies that we shouldn’t be able to participate in life as fully as non-disabled people. And again that’s playing right into the right-wing arsehole’s hands.

Featured image via MotabilityScheme

Far-right Israeli Knesset member Yitzhak Kroizer is an unashamed, racist advocate of the murder of Palestinian children. He is a party ally of possibly-deceased genocidal maniac Itamar Ben-Gvir and the son of a settler rabbi linked to Israeli terrorist Meir Kahane. Kroizer told Israel’s parliament that there are “no innocent children” in the occupied West Bank and that he doesn’t have “even a bit of any kind of feeling of mercy for Palestinians”:

🚨HOLY SHIT !!!!!

Israeli politician Yitzik Kroizer says killing Palestinian children is normal if it supports the IDF mission.

He adds there are no innocent children in the West Bank.

Repost this. Please I beg you pic.twitter.com/jCZPrQtG4i

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— Save Gaza (@Alee93ale) March 26, 2026

He fits right into the murderous, child-raping Epstein state.

Featured image via the Canary

After less than a year in power, a Reform council has cancelled democracy. For the first time anyone can remember, Durham County Council has just decided to cancel a full council meeting, “due to a lack of business.”

Council meetings are the forum where the public – you, know, the ones who pay the council tax – get to ask questions and see decisions made. Where other elected representatives get to challenge decisions. Residents will be asking if the councillors will hand back their allowances since they’re not bothering to hold the meetings they’re paid to attend. This contempt for democracy is a warning for what would happen if they won national power.

Cuts, cuts, cuts

It’s less than a year since Reform won Durham County Council with a landslide: 65 out of 98 seats. As predicted, they would struggle when it came to actually running a local authority.

Reform Durham were elected on a pledge to cut waste. But after fifteen years of austerity, services were already cut to the bone. Instead, they cut funding to town and parish councils, forcing a 6.92% increase in council tax precepts to make up the difference. Leisure centres and kids playgrounds are on the chopping block. A school free transport scheme has been cut with 143 kids now paying for passes.

They’ve abolished the council tax reduction scheme. Thousands of people in poverty are now liable for council tax. Report after report shows that this just racks up debts onto the most vulnerable. Many of those affected experience mental ill-health or physical disabilities. People just end up in a debt spiral with court orders against them. Councils rarely get their money back. It’s counterproductive – the extra despair increases pressure on local services.

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity, chaired by money saving expert Martin Lewis, described councils’ polices of sending in bailiffs as “worse than loansharks.” There’s a total of £6 billion in council tax arrears across the country, and it’s rising year on year. You can’t get blood out of a stone.

The fact that Reform Durham have ran out of policies to implement makes a mockery of their claim to take back control. They still collect their £13,300-a-year salaries though, and that’s without any extras for being on committees.

So here’s the question: does the evidence show that Reform are on the side of ordinary people?

Discrimination and bullying

In a move that surprised literally no one, we did see a lot of performative actions around flags. Notably, they removed the Pride Flag just before the Durham Pride event. So apparently they support ordinary people, but not if they’re queer. And their deputy leader in Durham, Darren “Crafty” Grimes, posted on social media that he refused to attend Diversity, Equality and Inclusion training. Except there wasn’t any – he made it up for attention.

Like all parties, Reform’s voter base is a coalition of different views and values.

There’s always been a nasty, xenophobic streak to Farage personally. 34 independent witnesses cite extreme racist comments and bullying. But he’s not racist enough for the ethno-nationalist culture warriors who are splintering off into Advance UK and Restore UK.

The shine is coming off Reform. They lost the Caerphilly by-election in November. Farage had been hanging round the count looking to do some media gloating, but high-tailed it out of Wales once they could see the piles of votes. He’s not even in the corner of his own candidates.

Losing ground

Reform lost in Denton and Gorton. And were sore losers. In Durham they lost the Murton ward by-election earlier this month, with an 11.2% swing against them. After less than a year in charge, Reform Durham are down to 60 councillors.

Many Reform voters were drawn to Reform on a “we don’t trust politicians” and “no one is on our side” line.  Most of us would agree with that. A lot of people believed that same line when Boris Johnson used it, despite being an Eton-educated Bullingdon Boy.

They can see their high streets declining. They can feel the cost of living crisis. Once you get past the tribal hard-liners, many Reform voters don’t really think Reform have any answers, they just want to send a message. They want to be heard. Instead, they are seeing neoliberalism being imposed on the Reform Party from the top. They’re wondering why loads of ex-Tories with serious corruption records are taking senior positions in their party.

Corruption

So Reform Durham have snubbed families with kids, people who live in towns, LGBT+ people, those with disabilities, those with mental health problems, and of course, anyone who doesn’t fit their definition of British. But who have they supported?

Welsh Reform leader Nathan Gill is serving a ten and a half year jail sentence for accepting Russian bribes. What a patriot. Although whether he supported Putin or just his own bank account is hard to tell.

Farage certainly supported Trump’s idiotic attacks on Iran, which are wrecking the finances of millions of Britons. Then changed his mind when he realised he was out of touch with the public.

Reform are keen supporters of tax dodging, too. Earlier this month, Richard Tice MP, Reform’s deputy leader, was rumbled as having dodged £600,000 in tax through a rare legal loophole. He then doubled down saying he was all in favour of tax avoidance.

Farage himself is never seen in his constituency. He’s too busy earning more from side-hustles than any other MP in Parliament – over £1.1 million. A true man of the people. Remember that next time you’re wondering if you can afford a holiday.

Here’s another question. What prompts a man who is already a multi-millionaire to spend his time saying whatever he’s told to say for £70 a pop on Cameo? Including pushing dodgy crypto currency investments. Is that the behaviour of someone who is serious about fixing Britain? Is he really on your side, or is he for sale to the highest bidder?

Reform have cancelled democracy, and are having an auction instead.

As volatile energy prices continue to spike, driven in part by geopolitical instability and gas market shocks, governments face an urgent challenge. How can they bring down household energy bills immediately and protect citizens from fossil-flation making everything more expensive?

The good news is that short-term relief and long-term transition are not mutually exclusive. Here are three measures that countries could implement almost overnight.

1. Tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use them to support households

Fossil fuel companies cashing in obscene profits during high fossil fuel prices should contribute to shielding consumers. Fossil fuel companies profit from this crisis. They should pay for the solution.

A windfall tax can capture excess profits and redistribute them directly to consumers through measures such as targeted bill support, direct cash transfers to most affected sectors, an expansion of existing free or heavily subsidised (“lifeline”) electricity tariffs to vulnerable households, and free public transportation.

Recycling windfall revenues into consumer protection helps avoid that outcome while keeping incentives for clean investment intact. The UK’s windfall tax on oil and gas producers raised around £12bn in 2024. This helped fund its Energy Price Guarantee, limiting average household bills during the crisis.

Anne Jellema, chief executive of 350.org, says:

This is about fairness and maintaining public trust. Right now, fossil fuel companies are making obscene profits while households struggle to pay their bills , and people can see that.. Taxing these windfall profits and redirecting them to support households is essential to protect people and livelihoods.

2. Decouple electricity prices from gas

Many markets, such as the UK, Germany, Italy and Netherlands still tie electricity prices to the cost of gas. This is even the case when much of the power comes from cheaper renewable sources like wind and solar. As a result, when gas prices spike, electricity bills rise unnecessarily.

In Spain, however, the reduced influence of expensive fossil gas and coal power on the electricity market, driven by surging wind and solar, has turned the country into one of the cheapest power markets in Europe.

Governments can intervene through market reforms such as contracts for difference, regulated tariffs, or temporary price-setting mechanisms to ensure consumers benefit from lower-cost renewable energy. Jellema comments:

Decoupling electricity from gas prices is one of the most effective ways to stabilize bills. It protects households from global fossil fuel shocks and reflects the true, lower cost of renewable energy.

3. Decentralised renewable energy

Governments should fast-track the just deployment of renewable energy in affected regions using emergency energy response funds, bilateral finance, and development support. Priority must go to distributed renewable energy solutions which are quick and easy to deploy.

These can include off-grid solar and mini-grids for communities and essential infrastructure such as hospitals and schools, rooftop and balcony solar for households, and clean cooking solutions for smallholders.

Emergency renewable funding must be redirected from fossil fuel emergency response budgets and existing bilateral aid, not by creating new debt instruments that will burden already-stressed countries.

Equity, accessibility, and long-term sustainability must be ensured in decentralised renewable energy deployment. This can ultimately guarantee that these systems are owned and managed by communities.

Jellema points out:

Relief today means transition tomorrow. These measures are not a substitute for a green energy transition; they are a bridge. In the longer term, the only durable solution to energy price volatility is to accelerate the transition to homegrown, renewable energy.

Investing in wind, solar, storage, and energy efficiency reduces dependence on imported fossil fuels and insulates economies from geopolitical shocks. It also addresses the root cause of the climate and biodiversity crisis.

But the transition must be managed carefully. Without immediate relief, households and businesses will struggle, and support for change may erode as calls for reopening ‘national’ fossil fuel sources increase.

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By redistributing windfalls and cutting energy bills, and decoupling energy prices from gas, governments can ease the pressure now while building a cleaner, more stable energy system for the future.

The choice is not between affordability and sustainability. With the right strategy, we can, and must, deliver both.

Featured image via the Canary

Signs directing locals to a nearby ‘US war crimes base‘ have appeared in Fairford, Gloucestershire.

In March 2026, Declassified UK reported that B-52H and B-1B warplanes were seen flying from RAF Fairford to bomb Iran. ⁣Keir Starmer had initially refused use of the base in February, except for “defensive” purposes. But as with the Gaza genocide, the word “defensive” has been stretched beyond all meaning.

With the UK government continuing to exploit every possible loophole to excuse its complicity in war crimes, guerrilla campaigners have chosen to cut through the noise. The signs appeared along access roads on 26 March.

Protests at RAF Fairford

It’s not the first time RAF Fairford has been subject to protests by anti-war campaigners. The base was at the centre of a high-profile direct action trial in 2003. Five protestors were charged with criminal damage for breaking instrument panels on tankers and cutting the brakes on trailers used to carry bombs.

Keir Starmer was, at that time, a part of the protestors’ defense council. Now he’s enabling use of the same site for another illegal war. At the same time, he’s cracking down on those who take similar action to prevent war crimes.

Featured image via Facebook