Politics
Pope Sends Clear Palm Sunday Message To World’s Warlords
Pope Leo XIV marked the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday by calling for an end to the violent chaos in the Middle East and condemning world leaders who have weaponized Christianity to justify war.
The pontiff described Jesus Christ as the “king of peace” who “offers himself to embrace humanity, even as others raise swords and clubs.”
“This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo said in St. Peter’s Square. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’”
The Trump administration and its followers largely gravitate toward Christian nationalism and evangelism, with officials like Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth describing US involvement in the war with Iran as a Christian country using its military might to eliminate its mostly Muslim enemies.
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” Hegseth said last week during his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
Gregor Galazka/Vatican Pool via Getty Images
Like his late predecessor, Pope Leo has gained a reputation for opposing violence and war, and has grown more vocal about this stance since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. Religion has also played a part in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
“As we set our gaze upon him who was crucified for us, we can see a crucified humanity,” the pontiff said. “In his wounds, we see the hurts of so many women and men today. In his last cry to the Father, we hear the weeping of those who are crushed, who have no hope, who are sick and who are alone. Above all, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.”
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and marks the start of the Christian holy week that leads to his crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. The pontiff said he was praying for the Christians in the Middle East, “who are suffering the consequences of a brutal conflict and, in many cases, are unable to observe fully the liturgies of these holy days.”
Israel faced backlash Sunday after police blocked the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Custos of the Holy Land, Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to conduct mass. The patriarchate said the rejection was the “first time in centuries” that church leaders were prevented from celebrating Palm Sunday at the church, which holds the tomb Christians believe Jesus rose from on Easter.
Israeli police claimed the leaders were denied because all holy sites in the city were closed for security reasons. However, following statements from Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will try to reopen the church at least partially this week.
Every day it seems like there’s a new slang term doing the rounds among Gen Alpha – in recent times, kids have been using bop, huzz and gyatt, all of which are typically used to describe girls in a sexualised way.
Government research suggests sexual harassment – which can include sexual comments, remarks and jokes – is widespread in schools in England. What’s more, data from the Youth Justice Board shows the number of children committing sexual offences is on the rise.
Yet when you search for parenting advice on sexual harassment and catcalling online, much of the focus is tailored to those who have girls, who are more likely to be on the receiving end of this harassment.
With Louis Theroux’s latest documentary exploring the ‘manosphere’ and the misogynistic views of those within it, conversation has once again turned to how we can help raise boys who shun this damaging ideology.
As a family, how often do you discuss values and respect?
If boys are seeing misogynistic content online, this kind of behaviour can become normalised in real life, too. So, how do we protect against it?
Ongoing conversations, says Lee Chambers, founder of Male Allies UK. Namely ones about values and respect.
According to Hilber Psychological Services, making boys aware of inappropriate behaviours at a young age can help prevent this behaviour as they grow up.
You can use pop culture or things you see in the media or on TV to show them what is inappropriate, and discuss how it makes other people feel.
Chambers said discussions should be honest and clear – remain curious, not shaming or blaming, but instead trying to connect with your child. Listening and asking questions is often more effective at communicating with teens than lecturing.
“Make it a regular conversation about values and respect, not a special case,” said Chambers.
It might be helpful to actually explain what sexual harassment is: unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature. It can include many things – from sexual assault to unwanted touching or gestures, sexual innuendos, catcalling, and making sexual comments about a person’s looks or clothing.
Per Hilber Psychological Services, you could ask your son why they think other men do this, and offer them examples of how to help stop it, “such as standing up for girls or refusing to laugh at inappropriate jokes”.
Encouraging them to put themselves in others’ shoes is key. Chambers urges parents: “Reflect questions toward them, ask them: how they would feel if this happened to women in their lives? What [do] they think when they see others doing it? What [do] people at school think?”
The male allyship specialist said you can then begin to explore the impact of this on women and girls, including how catcalling and sexual harassment can make them change their behaviour to stay safe.
Ultimately, it’s about teaching respect and consent throughout their upbringing – and this can start really early and continue right into their teens.
And parents need to be role models for this too, for example, when referring to others or watching television, etc. “Kids are always watching, learning and copying,” Chambers added.
While you should be prepared for defensiveness and responses that “the other lads do it” among teens, Chambers said it’s key to validate that it can be hard to challenge others – especially when their mates might just respond that “it’s a joke”.
He ends that boys should bring it back to the fact it’s not fun to make others feel unsafe. This way, they can “be part of the solution, not the problem”, he ended.
Robert De Niro has never been one to shy away from taking on Donald Trump, and let the president have it once again over the weekend.
On Saturday, De Niro slammed Trump for being an “existential threat to our freedoms and security”, before joining an estimated nine million people at a “No Kings” protests against the US leader and his administration.
“He must be stopped and he must be stopped now!” stressed the two-time Oscar nominee, a staunch Trump critic who has thrown his support behind the demonstrations.
“It’s time to say no to kings. It’s time to say no to Donald Trump, we’ve had enough!” he said during a press conference.
De Niro — just over a month after his emotional plea for Americans to resist the president — went on to decry Trump’s “unnecessary” Iran war before describing him as a “corrupt leader enriching himself” and his “Epstein class buddies”.
“No taking health care from our most vulnerable neighbours, no unaffordable groceries, no unaffordable energy, no unaffordable housing and no inflation at it’s highest level since Covid,” he emphasised. “No government masked thugs shooting down our neighbours in the streets.”
Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/Mark Schiefelbein/
He proceeded to take on “all the fucked up things” Trump has done “without the collusion of Congress and the goons in his administration”, adding that Republican party officials are bound to him in fear of losing their jobs.
De Niro was later spotted leading a march alongside the likes of Rev. Al Sharpton, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Padma Lakshmi and others protesting against the president in New York City.
In Washington DC, and St. Paul, Minnesota, music legends Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen, respectively, performed for massive crowds as protesters called for a U.S. “regime change” as well as the arrests of Trump and members of his Cabinet.
De Niro, in remarks on Sharpton’s MS NOW program PoliticsNation, declared that Trump is a “crazy… damaged person” and will try anything while in power before calling on Americans to not let up in protesting him until the midterms are “resolved for the right reasons”.
The BBC’s new TV offering could well be about to become one of the year’s most talked-about dramas.
Emmy and Bafta-nominated I May Destroy You star Paapa Essiedu and Bodkin’s Siobhán Cullen take the lead in the new six-part series Babies, which centres around a young couple and their struggles to conceive.
Early reviews have heaped praise on the new drama’s performances, as well as its unflinching approach to themes of miscarriage and pregnancy loss, though critics have acknowledged that this makes Babies a difficult and potentially triggering watch for those affected by these topics.
However, many have also pointed out that the drama also features moments of “bittersweet” relief and scenes of hope to counterbalance its more “hard-hitting” moments.
Here’s a selection of what has been said about Babies so far…
“Although there are a lot of distressing, incredibly hard-hitting scenes in the six episodes of Babies, and it does go to some seriously dark, upsetting places, it is not a ubiquitously grim watch. In many ways, it is also hopeful, filled with some genuinely funny moments, some uplifting revelations and thoughts on how to cope during difficult times, and some keen observations about human behaviour.”
“A bittersweet drama […] Siobhán Cullen and Paapa Essiedu are achingly convincing as Lisa and Stephen, an ordinary London couple in their 30s trying to have a baby. The pair navigate the rollercoaster of pregnancy, loss and grief more than once, as they continue to get through life’s mundanities and special little moments.”
“All in all, Babies is as heartening as it is heartbreaking. Is it slow at times? Yes. But I came to realise that the stillness can be essential […] I didn’t find Babies easy to watch, but doing so touched me in ways I’ll be thinking about for a while.”
“Bafta-winning writer Stefan Golaszewski is a byword for thoughtful, exquisitely cast, contemporary TV drama […] This time, the intensity is sky-high again but laced here and there with humour as he takes on the emotionally freighted subject of a couple’s longing to have a child […] It’s a drama of silences, quiet moments, social awkwardnesses and deep yearnings, with Cullen and Essiedu hugely sympathetic in their portrayal of the intense ups and downs in otherwise ordinary lives.”
“Its low-key slow-burn style won’t be to everyone’s taste, and it will be difficult viewing for any woman who’s tragically lost a child in pregnancy.”
“A tender, moving exploration of love, loss and hope […] This is a drama that doesn’t shy away from the difficult moments, despite dark times of grief and loneliness, it’s also about resilience, connection and the small victories that keep hope alive.”
“Essiedu has easily given the best performance of his career so far in new BBC drama, Babies […] It’s one of the most gut-wrenching and honest portrayals of baby loss that I’ve ever seen, charting every possible emotion any person is capable of handling throughout. The grief is unimaginable, but somehow, there is always light and love at the end of the tunnel.”
“An incredibly accomplished piece of television in almost every regard. Essiedu and Cullen have extraordinary chemistry […] We don’t need to warn you any further about the subject matter. However, we can also say this: Babies may make you weep, but there will be happy tears, too.”
All six episodes of Babies are now streaming on BBC iPlayer.
- Sands works to support anyone affected by the death of a baby.
- Tommy’s fund research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, and provide pregnancy health information to parents.
- Saying Goodbye offers support for anyone who has suffered the loss of a baby during pregnancy, at birth or in infancy.
Politics
The House | “Every Movement Was Controlled”: The Quiet Rise In Children Under Deprivation Of Liberty Orders
Illustration by Tracy Worrall
10 min read
There has been a 13-fold increase in the use of court orders that deny children freedom to move and associate in the last seven years. Justine Smith explores the reasons behind this huge increase in what are supposed to be emergency orders
Hundreds of children with the very highest level of need are being locked away from society, often in illegal, unregistered homes with a rolling rota of untrained staff, because of shortages in therapeutic care.
These children can be controlled through frequent physical restraint and denied basic rights such as contact with family and friends or an education, the ultimate victims of a care system in crisis. They are held under Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) orders, which were designed to give special legal powers to local authorities to restrict the freedom and rights of children and teenagers considered to be an extreme risk to themselves or others.
The orders are handed down through the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court, not criminal courts, but can be more repressive and open-ended than even Young Offender Institutions. Though they are meant to be an emergency, short-term response, critics say they are increasingly being used to plug gaps in health and social care services.
Since 2017, the number of orders has rocketed from just over 100 a year to around 1,300. There are now three times the number of children detained under them than there are in prison, and a fifth stay in place for at least a year. The Children’s Commissioner found that a third were placed in unregistered homes – which are not monitored by education regulator Ofsted – often because legal homes refuse to take them.
The rise can be largely attributed to an increase in older children entering care with complex issues, the collapse of mental health and early intervention services, the reduction of places in secure children’s homes and paediatric psychiatric wards and a shortage of foster carers and children’s homes with the acute expertise and experience needed to support them in the community.
Restrictions often include a ratio of between one and five adults around the child 24 hours a day, sometimes sat outside their bedrooms at night and with bars on windows and locks on every door and limits or bans on phone and internet use. Two thirds come with the right for staff to use physical restraint.
Children subjected to them are almost always in the care system and have complex and unmet needs, such as mental health issues, physical and learning disabilities, and the legacy of early life trauma, sexual and criminal exploitation and familial abuse or neglect.
Judges, campaigners and human rights advocates have all raised concerns about their inappropriate overuse for children who have already been let down by poor, fragmented health and social care services, often leading to an escalation of their challenges.
I was just contained like a wild animal for more than two years, not supported
When most teenagers her age were juggling busy social lives with the build-up to GCSEs, Roismi was being kept in a locked house and followed everywhere by five adults from a rolling rota of paid staff. At a time when she needed unconditional love and privacy during adolescence, her every movement was scrutinised; any change of mood or sign of emotion might lead to terrifying physical restraint.
She was not in trouble with the police or considered a risk to society – only to herself after a history of sexual, psychological and physical abuse, and failures of the services that were supposed to help her recover from her trauma.
After being sectioned hundreds of times and moved through countless foster homes and residential placements, Roismi, who is autistic and has ADHD and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, was put on a DoL Order in unregistered accommodation.
Roismi says she was made to feel like a “demon” by staff who appeared to fear rather than understand her.
“Every movement was controlled,” she explains. “I was watched all the time by people I didn’t know. I cannot cope with being in a room with lots of people. I would go to the kitchen and five people would follow me in so I would retreat to my room, the only place I had moments of privacy. I lost a significant amount of weight in two months.”
Even in her bedroom, staff checked on her every 15 minutes, 24 hours per day, adding insomnia to her problems.
“The damage done to me will last a lifetime,” she adds. “I was just contained like a wild animal for more than two years, not supported. I lost my friends. I only left the house for appointments. It was so much worse than being sectioned in a hospital, where at least I could associate with other young people like me. I wish I had stayed in my abusive family home because at least by now I might have an education and some kind of normal life.”
Anela Anwar, CEO of care charity Become, which has supported Roismi, says: “A society having to resort to depriving children in care of their liberty because there are no safe and suitable homes is one completely failing the children in its care.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way. Through proper investment, the government can create the right homes in the right places, especially those that offer more therapeutic support, to give children the care and stability they need.”
Roismi experienced 18 months of stability in a good, therapeutic children’s home with trauma-informed staff, but she was thrown back into chaos when her most trusted caregiver had to leave.
Latest quarterly figures show the majority on DoL orders are aged 13 to 15, but there was a 52 per cent rise in under-12s over just three months last year.
The orders severely restrict access to education, training or work, and disrupt important relationships and any medical or therapeutic interventions.
Carolyne Willow, a campaigning barrister specialising in children’s rights, says: “It is intolerable that highly vulnerable children continue to be deprived of their liberty in arrangements cobbled together in crisis and haste, often in unregistered children’s homes devoid of Ofsted scrutiny and other protections such as monthly independent safeguarding checks.”
She says the lack of specialist, skilled local authority provision is driving the increase in cases to the High Court for the last resort “safety net” of DoL orders.
“These children are being typically held in so-called ‘solo placements’ where they are under constant surveillance by staff who often have neither the training nor support to meet their considerable needs.”
Research led by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (FJO) into the risk factors and reasons for increases in orders, and the conditions and outcomes children on them face, found they were placed an average of 56 miles from home, and more than half were put in unregistered – therefore illegal – provision.
Roismi’s experiences were reflected in interviews with other young people for the project, who described the draconian orders as damaging, re-traumatising and exacerbating existing problems, leading to feelings of isolation, hopelessness, despondency, distrust and resentment. Some told of being repeatedly restrained by staff who had not been trained, in which they suffered injuries as well as psychological trauma.
Some said they had not been told why they were on one or how to get it removed, while others said they had not spoken to their families for months. Many, like Roismi, said they were completely unprepared when they were thrown back into the real world at 18, expecting to end up dead or in prison.
FJO director Lisa Harker says: “The reality is, they very rarely go to school, a few have learning at home. They often have complex mental health and trauma-related issues, however they do not get priority in CAMHS [Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services] even though they are often moved around a lot, meaning they never get to the front of any queue.
“Services may say they can only start treatment once settled. So they are denied the very help that might get them off a DoL, keeping them prolonged, and are then dumped when they are 18 with no education, having not developed social skills or been able to learn how to be independent and with mental health issues that have been allowed to escalate in the absence of any meaningful support.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “These reports of children’s experiences are shocking, and we recognise the concerns raised. We are making major changes to children’s social care to ensure that when, in the most serious cases, a child needs to be deprived of their liberty for their own safety, they are cared for in accommodation that is safe, appropriate and fit for purpose.
“Children should not be facing placements in unregistered homes when they need the highest levels of care and protection.”
They added that the government was spending £2.4bn on supporting families to stay together and £560m to create more places for children in high-quality, registered homes.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is proposing new DoLs accommodation in the community, as an alternative to secure children’s homes where they are unable to leave the premises, and would strengthen oversight and accountability where children are deprived of their liberty. However, the changes could take years to take effect and the rate of incarceration through DoL orders continues to rise.
Campaigners including the Children’s Commissioner are calling for the bill to go further, mandating national data recording and oversight of every DoL and legal representation for those affected, as well as a clear legal and regulatory framework safeguarding their rights and welfare.
There are alternative models, such as the multi-agency Myst (My Support Team) model in Wales, an intensive mental health service for children on the edge in the care system which works with their carers to provide holistic, long-term support before issues escalate to the point where a DoL might be needed.
As well as drastically improving their outcomes and wellbeing, such early, committed interventions, while costly in the short term, will undoubtedly reduce pressures on council resources down the line.
Secure children’s homes can cost £350,000 a year, but an intensive DoL order such as Roismi’s – which included four trained nurses at all times – can cost up to £3m.
Now 20, she is in supported living and has more freedom, but says she has lost years of her childhood and is now struggling to catch up before all support ends when she turns 25. She has been so institutionalised, she says, she still automatically asks for permission just to be able to go outside and has accumulated £28,000 of debt in unpaid rent and bills, having been unaware she needed to sign on for the housing element of Universal Credit.
Despite all the challenges she has faced, she has set up a not-for-profit organisation, My Trauma is Chronic but I’m Iconic, which mentors and supports other young people as they go into adulthood after care or other adverse early life experiences.
However, Roismi is an anomaly in a care system that is failing so badly that leavers are seven to eight times more likely to die before they reach the age of 21, five times more likely to die by suicide and make up around a quarter of the prison and homeless populations.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday night broke out some props as he spoke with reporters on Air Force One about one of his biggest obsessions.
With the war in Iran passing the one-month mark, the stock market plunging into correction territory, gas prices soaring by $1 a gallon or more over the past month, and the partial shutdown of the federal government entering its seventh week, the president showed off oversized renderings of the ballroom he is trying to have built at the White House.
“This is a view of the columns as they are going to be made, they’re gonna be hand-carved, isn’t that beautiful? Top of the line,” Trump said as he displayed the image below. “They’ll be Corinthian, which is considered the best, most beautiful, by far.”
As Trump displayed the images, he claimed that people were talking about “how beautiful” the ballroom was, and said it would be needed to host foreign leaders, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping. He also said the military was building a “massive complex” beneath the ballroom.
Over the weekend, The New York Times published a report that said the “rushed” project was full of design flaws, including stairs to nowhere and columns that would block the view. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on X, slamming the authors as people who had “never built anything” and defending the project as “a beautiful ballroom that’s been needed for decades.”
But critics pointed out that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom was far larger than the White House’s 55,000-square-foot main residence, and others slammed Trump for demolishing the East Wing to make way for the structure without first seeking public input. The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, a nonprofit that oversees the preservation of historic structures, has also filed a lawsuit that could slow or even stop the project.
Trump’s lengthy aside about his ballroom left critics aghast, especially given everything else going on that would seem to require the president’s attention:
Donald Trump suddenly has “no problem” with allowing Russian oil into Cuba.
Just a month ago, before the US-Israeli strikes against Iran, America had aligned with its western allies by imposing strict sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s oil industry which fuels his war against Ukraine.
A fortnight ago, Trump eased those penalties against Moscow in response to the Iranian closure of a major oil shipping lane.
That meant countries could buy Russian oil which had previously been floating in the sea unable to be sold.
Now it appears Trump is even more relaxed about what Putin does, as he evidently does not mind if those tankers actively cross the Atlantic.
The president has blocked any attempts to send energy exports to Cuba since January in protest against the country’s leadership.
But overnight, the US president told the press: “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, I have no problem with that, whether it’s Russia or not.”
A reporter asked: “Do you worry that that helps Vladimir Putin?”
He replied: “It doesn’t help him. He loses one boatload of oil. That’s all it is. It’s fine. If he wants to do that, it doesn’t bother me.”
Trump went on to claim Cuba is “finished” with “bad and corrupted leadership”.
“Whether or not they get one boatload of oil, it’s not going to matter. I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things,” the president said.
Trump previously threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sends crude oil to Cuba.
However, the Kremlin has dismissed such threats, noting the US and Russia have not been trading much lately.
The BBC has responded to speculation about how much Question Time guests are paid to appear, following recent claims made by Thomas Skinner.
Last week, the divisive TV personality made his inaugural appearance on Question Time, alongside Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MPs Jake Richards, Tom Tygendhat and Layla Moran.
In response to a comment from one viewer suggesting Thomas had been booked due to him being a “vocal supporter” of Nigel Farage’s Reform party, the former Strictly Come Dancing star wrote on X: “I’m not there representing any party. I’m there because it pays £2,000 and I like watching Question Time.”
He added: “I’ve been asked probably nine or 10 times to attend over the last four or five years. So I decided to give it a go. And I really enjoyed it.”
Shortly after this, Question Time clarified: “Question Time can confirm that panellists who are not politicians are offered an appearance fee of £150.”
Despite this, Thomas continued to maintain that he “agreed £2000 for me to go on” Question Time, as well as “agreeing” that “they pay [my] driver £400 on the night to take me and bring me back”.
He later told The Sun: “My understanding of the fee came directly from my management, who informed me that I would be paid £2,000 for attending.
“I’m a big fan of Question Time and really enjoyed being part of the show. At the same time, it is work for me, and with three kids, I have to treat these opportunities as part of my job”.
A BBC rep reiterated that non-politicians were paid £150 for their time on the panel show.
HuffPost UK has contacted the BBC for additional comment.
The most recent instalment of Question Time was filmed in Clacton-On-Sea, where Reform leader Nigel Farage is the current MP.
He said before the broadcast that he was “not able to take part” in the broadcast due to a BBC policy which forbids MPs from “appearing on the show in their own constituencies”.
“There is a longstanding policy on Question Time not to invite MPs on in their local constituencies unless it’s for a single-issue special programme,” a spokesperson for the broadcaster later confirmed.
Vice President JD Vance just shared his thoughts on whether or not aliens exist, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson he had a more spiritual take on what’s going on when it comes to UFOs.
During an interview posted on Saturday, the Hillbilly Elegy author said he was “more curious than anybody” about government research into the possibility of life on other planets, but added, “I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion.”
Johnson couldn’t let Vance leave it at that.
After being pressed to share more, the vice president said, “Well, look, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people. I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything is otherworldly, to describe it as aliens.”
“I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there and there are things that are very difficult to explain,” said Vance, who grew up an atheist and converted to Catholicism as an adult.
The former Ohio senator told Johnson he thinks his faith offers an answer for what’s going on when it comes to the supernatural.
“I naturally go ― when I hear about, sort of, extra natural phenomenon, that’s where I go to ― to the Christian understanding that there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also some evil out there. And I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”
The world soon may have some answers.
Last month on Truth Social, President Donald Trump announced plans to release “government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
Vance and Trump aren’t the only ones in the White House who want to find out if the truth is out there.
During an appearance on the New York Post’s Pod Force One last October, the VP said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also fascinated by the topic.
“We talked about this a little. We talked about this back in our Senate days,” Vance revealed, later adding how “all of us put the tinfoil hat on from time to time.”
Keir Starmer is expected to make Labour’s decision not to go to war with Donald Trump against Iran central to the party’s local election campaign on Monday.
Speaking from the West Midlands, the prime minister is expected to call on the UK to “stand together” amid the turbulence from the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
Alongside his cabinet ministers and Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell, Starmer will vow to continue “to fight to earn every vote” and “fight for the country we are building together, a Britain built for all”.
He will say: “Because, in the context of everything that is happening in the world, those values – that fairness we stand for – it’s never been more important.
“That is the thing about the volatile world we live in now.
“It tests, not just our security, our strength on the world stage. It also tests our fairness at home. Our unity.”
Starmer will take aim at his rivals too, accusing Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and her Reform counterpart Nigel Farage of poor leadership over the Iran war.
The prime minister is expected to say: “We will protect our forces, our people, our allies in the region. But I made the decision that it is not in our national interest to commit British forces to a war, without a clear legal basis and a clear plan – and I stand by that.
“It’s a question of judgement. Do not forget that the Tories and Reform would have rushed us into this. With no thought of the consequences, including for the cost of living. Utterly reckless.”
Both right-wing parties initially suggested Starmer should have granted Trump full access to UK military bases for his pre-emptive strikes on Iran last month.
The PM rejected that US request, later allowing access only for defensive and limited attacks in an attempt to keep British troops out of the war.
Starmer will be trying to galvanise the public before voters head to the ballot box on May 7 for local elections across England, and national elections in Scotland and Wales.
It’s the first major test of the Labour government since Starmer’s landslide victory in 2024.
But the party has slumped dramatically in the polls in the last two years.
Labour lost a seat to the Greens in last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, coming in third place after Reform UK.
The launch also comes as energy bills are set to fall to £117 next week as the price cap for April to June comes in.
Starmer will say that decrease in energy bills is down to Labour’s efforts to stabilise the economy.
However, there are fears wholesale gas and oil prices could drive the cap up for the following quarter, between July and September, as the Iran conflict squeezes global energy prices.
Iranian forces continue to effectively block the major shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, by targeting most oil tankers which passed through it – subsequently pushing up prices worldwide.
The cabinet is also set to play an active role in the coming weeks with almost 30 visit across the country over the next week.
‘Love, unity, hope.’ That was the cringe, Hallmark-card message of yesterday’s ‘march against the far right’ in London, organised by the Together Alliance – a coalition of trade unions, hysterical left-wingers and dense celebrities who have memed themselves into believing that the right-populist Reform UK is a ‘far-right party’.
I’d barely been on Whitehall for 30 seconds before I saw that most lovely, unifying and hopeful of sights: a sea of flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the terror state that has been veiling women, hanging homosexuals and murdering dissidents and Jews ever since 1979.
You might think that any self-respecting anti-fascist wouldn’t want to be seen dead with these ayatollah fanboys, apologists for an anti-Semitic dictator with messianic designs on the world. (Now who does that remind me of? It’s on the tip of my tongue!) But you would be wrong. The flags and placards of the late Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, offed by Israeli airpower last month, bobbed through the crowd without incident.
This is not guilt by association. Not least because the Together Alliance has formally associated itself with groups who have – to put it gingerly – ‘links’ with many of the most blood-stained Islamist movements on Earth.
On its website, its list of supportive groups includes the Muslim Association of Britain. This inoffensive-sounding org, a veteran of anti-Iraq War and ‘pro-Palestine’ activism, was founded by one Muhammad Sawalha, a former Hamas military chief in the West Bank, who now lives in London for some reason. You remember Hamas, that Jew-killing, woman-raping jihadi army. That Hamas.
Then there’s the Islamic Human Rights Commission, which the think-tank Policy Exchange describes as ‘an entity tied to the Iranian government’. Its greatest hits include awarding Charlie Hebdo ‘Islamophobe of the Year’ just two months after the mag’s staff were massacred by Islamists, hailing Khamenei as a ‘great martyr’ at the recent Al-Quds Day demonstration, and trying to organise a boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Depressingly, I could go on. And none of this is the least bit surprising. Since October 7, we’ve seen alleged leftists in dayglo dungarees happily marching alongside Islamic radicals waving placards featuring caricatures that wouldn’t look out of place in Der Stürmer, or chanting Arabic war slogans about the slaughter of Jews in the 7th century. That’s a fun day out for them now.
Britain’s Islamo-left has been on the march for decades, too. Back in 1994, Chris Harman of the Socialist Workers Party penned ‘The Prophet and the Proletariat’, a pamphlet arguing that Islamism spoke to a ‘feeling of revolt [that] could be tapped for progressive purposes’. This hellish marriage of convenience has now been consummated. Hence, Jeremy Corbyn calling Hamas and Hezbollah his ‘friends’. Hence, Lindsey German of the Stop The War Coalition, which was also out in force yesterday, declaring loftily that ‘democracy in the Middle East is Hamas, is Hezbollah’. German said that back in 2006 – the last time Hamas-run Gaza held an election.
But this is no longer confined to the dregs of the old left. What yesterday’s demo – with its festival-style branding, dance stage and tote-bag-swinging attendees to match – reveals is that the deranged brand of ‘anti-fascism’ that has curdled in recent decades has gone mainstream among the time-rich middle classes. An anti-fascism that thinks the British people peacefully, democratically agitating for national sovereignty, less migration and more clout is a terrifying echo of the 1930s, all while ignoring religious extremists blowing up kids at pop concerts and stabbing Jews at synagogues.
The ‘left’ has simultaneously become dumber and more extreme. Green Party leader Zack Polanski, the de facto headliner yesterday, embodies this lobotomisation. A man who got involved in politics about five minutes ago and gives off the distinct impression he has never read a book that wasn’t written by Owen Jones. A man who thinks and speaks in faux-inspirational Insta talking points – replete with talk of ‘hope’ and ‘love’ – while pushing leaflets through letterboxes appealing to voters on the basis of ginned-up ethno-religious grievance. A man who confuses virtue-signalling for politics, blokes in wigs for women, and hardline conservative Muslims for allies in the fight for rainbow-coloured ‘social justice’.
This is not your grandfather’s anti-fascism. There were appeals from the podium yesterday to the Battle of Cable Street and the fight against the National Front. This is an insult to historical memory, almost a form of stolen valour. At Cable Street, Jews, leftists and East Londoners faced down Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts. In the 1970s, genuine anti-fascists organised to stop genuine far-right thugs stabbing Asian people or burning black families out of their homes. Yesterday, tens of thousands of Daunt Books botherers gathered in Westminster to collectively screech about a migration-sceptical political party they happen to dislike leading in the opinion polls. It’s not the same thing.
Alongside Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson was the other bête noire of the day. The Together Alliance was hastily formed after the anti-Islam, nationalist activist’s Unite The Kingdom demonstration last September, which brought north of 100,000 people out on to the streets. The speeches from Together Alliance organisers implied they feel they are losing ground. They constantly stressed theirs was a gathering of ‘working people’, despite the overwhelmingly more bourgeois vibe, and insisted their march had attracted half a million (the Metropolitan Police reckon it was closer to 50,000).
But rather than ask why ordinary people are so fed up with uncontrolled migration, multiculturalism and Islamic extremism that they are taking to the streets – even getting behind questionable characters they might have previously swerved – the speakers yesterday appeared convinced the little folk are just sadly mistaken. Billy Bragg and others charitably conceded they have a right to be angry. They are just angry about the wrong things! Silly geese. That gnawing sense of unease at how the country is changing, in ways no one ever voted for? That’s just misdirected anger at ‘the billionaires’ and the sorry state of public services. As one placard put it, rather less diplomatically, ‘Stop blaming immigrants… for your shit life’. Scratch an ‘anti-fascist’, find a classist.
But it’s not just Robinson, is it? The left and even the centrist dads have spent the past decade calling Brexit fascist, the Tories fascist, Farage a fascist. What they mean is democracy. The public’s stubborn refusal to lie back and accept their own disenfranchisement. That is what really keeps the great and good up at night. Meanwhile, these supposed warriors against black-clad barbarism appear remarkably chilled out about the threat posed by the Islamists – who account for 94 per cent of all terror deaths since 1999, and three-quarters of MI5’s terrorism caseload. Hell, they will even happily march alongside them on a sunny Saturday. With ‘anti-fascists’ like these, who needs fascists?
Tom Slater is editor of spiked. Follow him on X: @Tom_Slater_.
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