Politics
Students hit by ‘graduate tax’ and Derbyshire misses the point
On BBC, Victoria Derbyshire interviewed a university graduate who shared his experience with lofty student finance repayments. Pointing out how much he has paid in ‘a few years’ of working, Derbyshire asked if comfort is found in the knowledge that the public fleecing ends after 30 years.
The privileged elder misses the point that 30 years of accumulating interest will drive repayments far beyond the original loan, generating a significant profit for the state.
This incident exposes how the establishment is perfectly willing to squeeze more money out of young people to boost public coffers, all while claiming that there are ‘too many options’ available to prospective students. At the same time, they refuse to consider measures like a wealth tax, arguing that the richest would simply leave.
When quality education leads to better jobs, stronger economic growth, and ultimately higher tax revenues, the double standard becomes clear. The state targets those trapped within the system for profit, while avoiding any serious effort to make the rich and powerful contribute more.
A country that does this to its smart, ambitious young people deserves to fail. It’s no deeper than that.
The grim truth is large parts of the political and media class have hated young people for a long time now. Generation PAYE-pig.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) February 25, 2026
Captive students: Low-hanging fruit
Recently on Good Morning Britain, Martin Lewis successfully challenged Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on her attempt to revise student loan repayment Plan 2 as a solution to the student debt crisis. The money-saving expert rightfully pointed out it would be easing things slightly for one group, whilst ignoring all others. This prompted widespread debate with graduates across the country supporting Lewis’ calls to wipe student debt that is creating a deadweight effect on workers in the economy.
A highly lucrative deadweight that was clearly pointed out by Max in the interview, which went as follows:
Victoria Derbyshire: Let me ask you then, Max, how much did you borrow in total?
Max: So, I borrowed £84,000 in total, and that’s about half tuition fee, and the rest maintenance loans that you need to live on and pay your rent whilst you’re there and so on.
Derbyshire: And how much have you paid back so far?
Max: I’ve paid back about £8,000 over the past few years that I’ve been working.
Derbyshire: And how much do you owe now?
Max: £110,000.
Derbyshire: Oh, my God.
Max: Yeah.
Derbyshire: What does that feel like?
Max: Well, I mean, it feels ridiculous because I know I’m never going to be able to pay that back. So for me, this is no longer a student loan. It’s a lifelong graduate tax.
Derbyshire: Right. Do you take any comfort in the fact that after 30 years, if you haven’t paid it back, it’s wiped out?
Max: Well, I feel like that’s a bit of a misconception because the fact that people end up not clearing their debt within 30 years actually means they end up paying for longer because the interest rates are so high and they’re often going to end up paying more than they actually borrowed. So you’re trapped.
Derbyshire: Right. That’s how it feels.
Max: Yeah.
Derbyshire appears to ignore the fact that if Max continues at his current repayment rate, without any future pay rises increasing his contributions, his repayment would be at least £88k. This shows he will still repay the full cost of his original loans and then some over 30 years. Therefore, the expiration date of this unavoidable “student tax” offers no comfort when it only signals the conclusion of exploitative interest charges.
After all, education is an investment in the future of the economy. Seeing it as a source of profit instead is counterproductive and just works to undervalue graduates.
Our youth are not the ‘magic money tree’
Since Lewis’ principled and informed intervention, others with specialised insight into university education have spoken out. Historian and former university head Sir Anthony Seldon even argued that Lewis should take on a four-week role to fix the mess former Labour and Conservative governments created.
We wrote:
Contrary to the Conservatives’ policy being dangled like a carrot to voters, historian Anthony Seldon has called for all student debt to be wiped. He went further, urging the government to accept that it must stop treating students as a source of profit. Instead, Seldon argued that they already contribute to the economy through the skills and expertise they develop at university.
Furthermore, Seldon emphasised that higher education is about far more than achieving high grades or obtaining a certificate. After all, it is a formative experience where young people develop vital life and social skills. Also, it’s essential for improving critical analysis skills with young people engaging in progressive, informed debate.
The neoliberal state will likely continue to insist there is ‘no magic money tree’ to address the scale of underfunding across society. Yet at the same time, the wealth of the richest has soared at record-breaking rates. Therefore, those who once benefited from free education now resist asking the wealthiest to contribute their fair share in taxes. Instead, they continue to target the easy pickings — students striving for opportunity and a better life.
The government have stated they will ‘look at ways to make it fairer’. Easy. Deploy wealth taxes to ease the burdens facing graduates and students across the country.
Featured image via Green Country
Politics
AstraZeneca boss receives ridiculous pay
The boss of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s pay rose to £17.7 million in 2025. That’s after Keir Starmer’s administration bent over for Donald Trump and Big Pharma in December last year, accepting a 25% increase in pricing for NHS drugs.
AstraZeneca— Extracting wealth from people’s healthcare
Unsurprisingly, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot welcomed the increased NHS costs in February. He called them a “very positive step”, suggesting he wants to milk even more from the NHS.
That’s all despite AstraZeneca cancelling investment plans in the UK.
Big pharma companies stopped nearly £2bn in investments in the UK in 2025. For example, US drugmaker MSD announced that it would abolish its £1bn London research centre. Shortly after, AstraZeneca said it would scrap a £200m investment in research facilities in Cambridge.
It was the US ambassador to the UK, Warren Stephens, who asked chancellor Rachel Reeves to enable pharmaceutical companies to drain more resources (via profit) from the NHS.
Trump and big pharma holding the NHS to ransom comes despite MSD, for instance, making £3.27bn in net income in the first quarter of this year.
End privatisation
The price gouging makes it clear that big pharma should be brought in-house to relieve pressure on the NHS. Moneyed rewards can remain with nationalisation. Scientists already receive prizes for breakthroughs and the same could be done in a public sector pharmaceutical division to further incentivise discoveries beyond public good.
That way private suppliers cannot use their position to demand more and more money from the NHS. Indeed, drug company Roche has refused to offer the NHS drugs for terminal cancer because of its excessive profit motive. It’s worth noting that a lobbying firm that has represented that company also donated £55,800 to former Labour cabinet minister Anneliese Dodds.
Healthcare should be public including all its resources. That means pharmaceuticals and land.
Although, it seems Starmer is in the pocket of the corporate extractors.
Featured image via DW
Politics
Israel spouts debunked lies at Greens
The official Israeli embassy ‘X’ account, with the colony’s typical arrogance, has publicly demanded the UK Green party drop its anti-Zionist motion. The party’s conference will debate and vote on a motion that accurately describes Zionism as racism. It will also affirm support for the Palestinians’ legally-guaranteed right to resist Israel’s occupation by “any available means”.
Cue an entitled hissy fit from the official account, which spouted “utter condemnation” at the “extreme” motion and absolutely demanded the party reject it:
The Embassy of Israel expresses its profound concern and utter condemnation regarding the “Zionism is Racism” motion currently under consideration for the Green Party’s upcoming spring conference. a motion so extreme, so hostile, and so intellectually bankrupt that its very inclusion on the agenda raises urgent questions about the direction of the party.
Zionism is the fundamental right of the Jewish people to self determination in their ancestral homeland. It is not an ideology of exclusion, but one of liberation. By seeking to categorise Zionism as a form of racism, this motion attempts to revive the long discredited and hateful equation once promoted by UN Resolution 3379. That resolution was a moral stain on the international community and was decisively revoked by the UN General Assembly in 1991. To attempt to resurrect this falsehood in 2026 is a regressive and dangerous step.
But antisemitically spouting that ‘Jewish self-determination’ entitles Israel to steal the Palestinians’ ancestral homeland so Zionism can’t possibly be racist wasn’t enough. ‘@IsraelinUK’ needed to throw in some genocide-justifying atrocity propaganda. It ignored — of course — that all its lies have been disproven. And the genocidal colony, which has murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians, whined that a party motion “creates a hostile and threatening environment”:
Furthermore, the motion’s explicit support for “armed struggle” is nothing less approval of terrorism. To suggest that “all available means” should be supported is to provide a blank cheque for the same atrocities witnessed on October 7th, 2023: mass murder, torture, rape, and the kidnapping of civilians. To endorse this is to abandon every moral and humanitarian principle the Green Party once claimed to uphold.
Just the existence of such a declaration creates a hostile and threatening environment, providing a justification for further antisemitic hostility. The Green Party should feel nothing but shame for allowing such a motion to reach its conference. Instead of championing social justice, equality, and human rights, this proposal transforms the party into a welcoming refuge for those who hate the different, despise minorities, and promote violence.
The Embassy of Israel calls on the Green Party to reject this motion decisively and unequivocally, to make an effort to prevent their platform from being hijacked by extremism.
“Mass murder” — nope. Israel itself killed most Israelis that died on 7 October 2023 through its ‘Hannibal directive‘. It even admits it did, since just days after it happened — but only in Israel. When it’s trying to mug British people and other nations, that ‘never happened’.
“Torture” — nope. Israel routinely tortures thousands of innocent Palestinians in detention. But there is no evidence of torture of Israelis, either on 7 October or during the captivity of some Israelis in Gaza.
“Rape” — nope. The UN found not one credible account of rape during the 7 October raid. Even Israel’s own prosecutor had to admit it. You know who does rape — every day? Yep, you’ve guessed it: the ol’ genocidal colony itself.
“Kidnapping of civilians” — almost entirely nope. A small number of civilians were kidnapped. Children taken to keep them with their parents. A few old people. But apart from the kids, everyone in Israel has to do military service. Many of those taken were on active duty or military reservists. The kidnapping of civilians is a crime — but it was almost absent on 7 October. Israel, by contrast, has abducted thousands as a means of terror — and continues to do so.
Writer Matt Kennard summed it all up perfectly:
Embassy under control of a war criminal wanted by ICC thinks it has right to tell Green Party it must censor a conference motion
Too late. Levees have breached. Zionism is racism—and the whole world knows it. Armed resistance to occupation is also legal under international law https://t.co/3WReiGQkFx
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) February 24, 2026
Featured image via Twitter
Politics
Sanctions do not, and never have, worked
Direct military force has, for centuries, been the principal means by which States have achieved ambitious foreign policy objectives, whether seizing or defending territory, altering a state’s military behaviour, or reshaping its internal political and economic structures.
Since the First World War and the rampant development and consolidation of world financial markets, a shift in attention towards non-violent economic force has developed to an extent which has forged a set of coercive measures surpassing direct military force as the principal mode of engagement.
At the apex of contemporary economic warfare, sanctions serve as our post-war world’s ‘enlightened’ alternative to open conquest and bloodshed, a humane and non-violent mechanism for the ends of global norms and the so-called ‘rule of law’, which compels rather than overtly subdues antagonists.
The mark of a civilised country, it seems, is aversion to open conflict and a commitment to quieter, more technocratic means of dominance.
Sanctions: 100 years of the ‘indispensible tool’
Over the past century international relations scholarship has championed the utility of sanctions, casting them as indispensable tools in the arsenal of statecraft and a mark of the refinement of contemporary geopolitical engagement.
This intellectual edifice has no doubt served to lend relative credence to the recent wave of punitive measures levied by the UK, US, and allied governments against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Sanctions are treated not only as necessary but as morally superior, a form of pressure that preserves the legitimacy of those who wield them. Yet their historical record suggests something closer to continuity with older forms of coercion than any genuine departure from them.
Economic warfare is indeed ancient, but our present method of sanctions traces its origins to the interwar period in Europe, when the League of Nations sought to harness economic coercion as a means of enforcing a premature form of collective security during the rise of openly militaristic European leadership.
Sanctions imposed on Italy during the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia marked one of the earliest attempts to deploy such measures in lieu of direct military engagement. While these efforts failed to halt Italian aggression, they laid the groundwork for the widespread adoption of sanctions in the post-war international order.
The US leading the charge
The United Nations further refined the art of sanction. In theory, sanctions were to be wielded collectively, targeting states that violated international law. In practice their deployment became increasingly selective and frequently unilateral, driven by the strategic interests of the United States and its closest allies.
With unrivalled command over the global financial architecture that emerged after the Bretton Woods accords, the US asserted itself as the preeminent enforcer of sanctions, capable of excluding adversaries from international markets, payment systems, and access to capital.
This role became more entrenched after the collapse of the Soviet Union removed the only meaningful counterweight to American geopolitical and financial power. The integration of Britain and Europe into this system strengthened its reach, embedding sanctions within global trade, insurance, shipping, and banking networks.
Whether the objective is regime change, policy reversal, or containment, sanctions have consistently fallen short of their most ambitious goals. Their failure stems from a recurring miscalculation: the belief that forced economic hardship will translate into political pressure sufficient to compel either the citizenry of the targeted state into open revolt, or the state itself into negotiation and compliance.
Cuba: a case in point
The decades-long embargo on Cuba remains one of the clearest examples. It has neither toppled the government nor facilitated meaningful political transformation. Instead, it has contributed to chronic shortages, restricted access to finance and trade, and periodic humanitarian crises, while reinforcing the state’s legitimacy as a defender against external pressure.
A limited diplomatic opening during the administration of Barack Obama briefly raised the possibility of gradual normalisation. This approach was reversed under Donald Trump, who expanded financial restrictions, limited remittances, and re-designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism shortly before leaving office. These measures have largely remained in place.
In recent years, Cuba has experienced its most severe economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Energy shortages, blackouts, declining tourism revenues, and constraints on fuel and food imports have driven mass protests and large-scale outward migration. Yet despite these pressures, the political system has endured.
The persistence of sanctions across successive US administrations illustrates the degree to which they have become embedded not only in foreign policy but in domestic political cycles. Their humanitarian impact has been significant, but their political outcomes remain limited.
Sanctions are rarely successful
In Iran, sanctions have significantly damaged the economy, contributing to inflation, unemployment, and shortages, but they have not fundamentally altered the state’s strategic posture. In North Korea, which has been subjected to one of the most extensive sanctions regimes in history, these measures have left the regime’s core military ambitions unaffected.
Instead, they have reinforced domestic narratives of siege and external threat. The result has been increased internal cohesion and the consolidation of authority, rather than destabilisation. A further consequence has been the deepening of security and technological cooperation among sanctioned states, including closer alignment between Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Even in cases where sanctions are presented as successful, the costs often extend beyond their intended targets. The sanctions imposed on Russia since 2022 were expected to produce rapid economic collapse and compel a change in strategic behaviour. The early period appeared to support this assumption.
Currency instability, inflation, and the departure of Western firms generated a perception of acute crisis. However, this shock was followed by a period of adjustment. Trade flows were redirected, financial transactions shifted toward non-Western systems, and energy exports increasingly moved to Asian markets.
Russia
The departure of Western firms unfolded in ways that reshaped ownership structures inside Russia. Companies exiting the market were often compelled to sell assets at steep discounts. Factories, infrastructure, and logistical networks transferred into domestic hands, frequently supported by state financing.
This process accelerated import substitution and industrial policy in ways that would have been politically and economically difficult to impose prior to the sanctions. Rather than isolating the Russian economy, these measures contributed to a partial restructuring, increasing its insulation from Western pressure while reinforcing the state’s role in strategic sectors.
For Europe, the consequences were immediate and structural. The disruption of long-standing energy relationships exposed deep dependencies. Governments were forced to subsidise households and industry, expand liquefied natural gas infrastructure, and secure alternative supplies at higher cost.
The political effects have been visible across the continent, where parties critical of sanctions and energy policy have gained ground, reflecting broader concerns over competitiveness, industrial decline and sovereignty.
At the same time, global trade has adapted.
Trade has adapted
Commodities have continued to flow through intermediary states, with complex supply chains obscuring origins while preserving market access. Turkey, the Gulf states, and parts of Central Asia have played an expanding role in facilitating rerouted trade and financial transactions.
Parallel payment systems and local currency settlements have gained attention, particularly among emerging economies seeking insulation from Western leverage. The expansion of BRICS and related initiatives reflects a broader search for alternatives within an increasingly fragmented global economy.
Financial and logistical restrictions frequently affect broader populations rather than governing elites. Access to medicine, infrastructure, and essential goods is shaped by compliance regimes and banking constraints. In some cases, this pressure contributes to negotiation; in others, it strengthens internal cohesion and legitimises state authority.
The unintended consequences of sanctions extend beyond individual cases.
A global reshaping
They are reshaping the structure of global economic relations, encouraging diversification, regionalisation, and institutional innovation. The increasing use of export controls, tariffs, and technological restrictions has extended economic coercion into areas once associated with commercial competition. The strategic contest over semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and supply chains reflects a growing perception that interdependence can generate vulnerability as well as efficiency.
The return of Donald Trump to the presidency has reinforced this trajectory. His administration has renewed emphasis on tariffs, industrial policy, and economic leverage as central instruments of foreign policy. At the same time, this approach reflects a broader bipartisan shift within Washington, particularly in relation to competition with China and the use of economic power to shape global outcomes.
Paradoxically, sanctions have proved not to cripple the West’s antagonists but embolden them, accelerating a major renegotiation of the dynamics of world trade, revealing wrought contradictions at the centre of our global economic order. The record demonstrates a persistent pattern: sanctions frequently exacerbate humanitarian crises, inflict suffering on civilian populations, while ultimately failing to achieve the political and economic ambitions of their imposers.
Sanctions do not work
Rather than reinforcing the post-Cold War US-led order, the US, UK, and Europe have helped facilitate new alliances and a restructuring of global financial and geopolitical architecture against themselves. In the West’s failed attempt to scupper Russian ambitions, the price we ultimately pay as Westerners is with our own sovereignty and economic security.
For Western powers to save face, they first ought to realise the limits of their capacity to play hegemon; second, renegotiation must take place with Russia and the East at large while we still have a hand to play.
Britain’s place in the rising global economic and collective security architecture must remain an open question, lest we lose everything for the pursuit of another country’s lost and irrational cause.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
alleged killer ‘prayed’ for victim
An alleged murderer told the court he “highly regret[s] his actions” on the night Zahwa Mukhtar died but had no intention to harm her and didn’t think she was injured.
Duane Owusu delivered a fatal blow to Zahwa’s neck that led to her falling backwards and hitting her head on the ground in Chadwell Heath Lane, Romford.
Moments before, the 27-year-old was allegedly pushed from a parked Mercedes when events continued to escalate inside the car.
Zahwa Mukhtar murder trial continues
Giving evidence at his trial on Thursday, Owusu denied hitting Zahwa with his fist and said he “shoved her” so she didn’t stop him from getting back into the car.
He said: “I had no reason to cause her serious harm. I was basically looking after her the whole night, stopping all the fights, making sure that she was alright. I just wanted her out of the car to deescalate the situation.”
He later added: “I’m not going to punch a woman…Because I wanted her out of the car, I just shoved her out the way. If I had punched her that would have caused some sort of injury. That’s not what my intention was.”
The incident was captured on CCTV outside a care home in the early hours of Saturday 16 August last year. It shows two kicks aimed towards Zahwa’s face while she’s on the ground near the rear passenger side door, where she’d been sitting on the defendant’s lap in the overcrowded car.
Henrietta Paget KC, prosecuting, summarised what Owusu had told jurors earlier.
She said: “I was getting my other leg out of the car. I tried to sweep her leg out of the way to create distance from the car because I felt like I couldn’t close the car door, and I didn’t want the car door to hit her leg, and I didn’t want us driving off and the wheel going over her feet.”
Later addressing what Ms Paget suggested was a “savage attempt to stamp her face”, Owusu said: “100 per cent not” and claimed he only wanted to “push her legs out the way”.
How the night allegedly began for Zahwa
Owusu and his group had come from a house rave and Zahwa was socialising in Stoke Newington Road, north London, when the two parties crossed paths.
When he left the rave, Owusu was “tipsy and lively” but wasn’t drunk. He told the court he’d taken a swig of white rum before going in, a quarter of an ecstasy pill and had smoked cannabis earlier in the day.
“I was happy,” he said and called himself a “people [person]”.
“I just talk to random people if I’m in a good mood,” he explained when shown footage of himself.
The 36-year-old first encountered Zahwa while trying to deescalate a tense situation between one of his group and another man, Owusu told jurors.
He said: “This is when I remember seeing Ms Mukhtar, she’s holding on to my arm saying, ‘Brother, please stop. These guys, they’re going to stab you. These guys are going to stab you’. At that point when she was saying that, I was thinking, why is she saying that? Who is this? I don’t even know her.”
Alleged tension
The court heard evidence earlier in the trial about Zahwa’s interactions with the group and her suddenly jumping into the car.
Owusu said Zahwa had asked the driver if she could “chill” with the group, some of whom were going back to Dagenham to continue the party at one of their homes. He denied having a sexual interest in the victim.
He said: “I didn’t have an issue with her coming so I said to come and sit in the back.”
But once inside the car, Owusu described several fights between Zahwa and two other women, Paige Allen and Abigail Winter, beyond hair pulling, and which he had to break up.
“Little girly stuff,” he said, but blows were allegedly thrown, which escalated at a petrol station. The defendant said Abigail had dragged Zahwa to the ground and both women attacked the victim.
He led Zahwa away because she was angry and had tried to both calm her down and protect her, Owusu said. The two women didn’t want her back in the car, but “I couldn’t just leave her there like that,” Owusu stated.
The situation changed
The court then heard Zahwa’s demeanour changed. “She started being abusive and biting her nails, threatening to stab people,” Ms Paget said.
With Zahwa on his lap, the defendant could see she took out her phone and began scrolling through contacts, which worried him.
He said: “I was thinking, I hope she’s not trying to ring someone and escalate the situation saying she’s been attacked by two girls. I was just thinking the worst at that point.”
Then she began filming the women. Answering what was so bad about Zahwa doing this, Owusu said he believed it could provoke further conflict.
He said: “It felt awkward. It felt weird. You just said you’re going to stab them, you’re going to kill them, and then you’re going to take a video of them. I thought that was a bit weird.”
After he asked the driver to “Please stop the car,” Owusu claimed he “snatched the phone” and threw it out as bait to get Zahwa out. His intention was to book her an Uber, he told the court.
“At what stage did you call her a ‘dumb bitch’?” Ms Paget asked.
“I don’t remember saying that,” the defendant replied.
“I highly regret my actions”
Owusu told jurors Zahwa fell from the car when he loosened her grip from his gilet attempting to get her off his lap. He denied throwing her from the vehicle.
The defendant also said he didn’t see Zahwa on the ground after the incident, but had heard one of the other women saying that she was.
He said: “I highly regret my actions that night. I feel bad that I showed a lack of interest because at that point then, I was still concerned with her getting back in the car. I didn’t want problems to escalate.”
Until he was arrested, Owusu didn’t know Zahwa had died, he told the court. He’d been informed about the heavy police presence outside his home and conversations being had with neighbours, which led him to assume the worst.
He said: “I was just trying to recollect how I pushed her. Starting to think, did she hurt herself? Did something happen after we left her there? I was just praying, I hope it’s not nothing too serious.”
Michael Borrelli KC, defending, explained Owusu’s searched the internet for information that weekend, such as ‘Incident Chadwell Heath girl found unconscious’, to no avail.
He said: “I was just so depressed, I was scared, I was praying. I remember being that stressed on the phone and the emotions I was going through at that moment that I completely slept the whole day until the next day.”
Mr Borrelli asked: “At any point during that incident outside the care home did you deliberately hurt Ms Mukhtar?”
“No,” he said.
Owusu, of Althorne Way, Dagenham, denies murder and manslaughter.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
AI facial recognition wrongful arrest embarrassed Labour
Alvi Choudary, a young British-Asian man, was arrested earlier this week for a burglary in Milton Keynes. The only problem? He’s never even entered the city, which lies 100 miles from his home in Southampton. Nevertheless, racist AI facial recognition technology placed him at the scene of the crime.
The news comes after calls from Labour to increase the use of AI in both policing and the court system. On top of that, just two days ago — 24 February — a police chief in charge of AI use admitted that a new £115m national police data centre will produce biased and racist results.
AI facial recognition — Wrongful arrest
Choudary appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about what happened to him. He explained to presenters Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley that he was held in custody for around 11 hours before police would even speak to him or hear evidence against his arrest.
Adding insult to injury, the arrest turned out to be due to a custody photo taken of Choudary some four years previously. This, too was a wrongful arrest. And, despite the fact that officers assured him at the time that his DNA and information would be removed from the system, his photograph was kept on record.
It was this photo that police AI facial recognition software matched to an image of the suspect. As it turned out, the suspect didn’t resemble Choudary in the slightest. The police officers were laughing at this racist error even as they released Alvi.
Madeley then asked why asked why exactly the AI technology performs so poorly for BAME individuals. Akiko Hart, the director for the human rights organisation Liberty explained that:
It’s because the AI is trained on white faces. And so, essentially, you are more likely to be misidentified if you are young, you are more likely to be misidentified if you’re a woman, and obviously we’ve seen there’s really shocking statistics about how you’re more likely to be misidentified if you’re Asian, if you’re Black, and 250 times more likely to be misidentified if you’re a black woman. And that is because of the way the AI is trained.
AI racism
Choudary‘s wrongful arrest is a case-in-point for the problems being caused by the increasing use of AI in the justice system. However, Labour remain hellbent on pushing AI into policing and the courts, in spite of its well-documented biases.
Earlier this month, on 12 February, the Ministry of Justice announced plans to use predictive policing to overhaul the youth justice system. Part of the proposal was to use “machine learning and advanced analytics” to “support early, appropriate intervention” in youth crime.
At the time, the Canary published an article on how this initiative would automate the discrimination that had already been part of the lives of racialised individuals for decades.
Then, on 24 February, justice secretary David Lammy proudly announced that Labour was also pushing AI use into the courts. He stated:
we are going to invest more in our in-house Justice AI Unit – a specialist team within my department, forward-deployed to the frontline, working with staff to tackle the challenges they face.
Over £12 million in additional funding in the next financial year will expand our AI capabilities, putting this powerful tool, finally, into the hands of staff.
A problem, here and now
On that same day, 24 February, police AI lead Alex Murray acknowledged that a new £115m police data centre would produce discriminatory results. However, he also tried to assure the public that the police would work to reduce that discrimination.
As if, that is, they’ve ever done the work of addressing their non-digital discrimination. Beyond that, the police even have form for neglecting to reduce or act on bias in their AI use already.
On the failure of a previous police venture in facial recognition technology, the Association for Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) stated that:
System failures have been known for some time, yet these were not shared with those communities affected, nor with leading sector stakeholders.
As Alvi Choudary’s wrongful arrest clearly demonstrated, AI racism in policing is not a problem to deal with in the future. It is already here, and it’s already affecting people’s lives.
Labour and the police know that this is a problem; they know it’s racist. But never mind — they’re going ahead with it anyway. Oh, and they’ll try to mitigate the risk, honest.
Featured image via 3DIVI
Politics
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Politics
Mike Johnson to attend Turning Point event with far-right global leaders
Turning Point Action, the political organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, will bring together U.S. and international politicians at a conference next week — including members of far-right parties across the globe.
Markus Frohnmaier, a political leader from the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is among the announced guests at the Alliance of Sovereign Nations, scheduled for March 4 to 6 in Washington. Other guests include House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.); George Simion, founder of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians; and European Parliament members Barbara Bonte of the far-right Vlaams Belang party and Petra Steger of Austria’s right-wing Freiheitliche Partei (FPÖ).
In an interview, Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer said the event was “spurred” by Luna and that more attendees will be announced soon. He referred to the parties that will be represented, including AfD, as “center-right.”
Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in May 2025 classified parts of the AfD as “proven right-wing extremist” for being an alleged threat to the country’s democratic order and agitating against migrants. But the party filed a legal challenge, and a court made a temporary ruling this week suspending the designation until the case is fully decided.
“There’s a lot of people from a lot of different countries that are representing center-right politics across the world. So it’s important to hear everyone,” Bowyer said. “There’s a lot of things going wrong in Germany right now. It’s important to hear everybody out.”
Spokespeople for Johnson and Luna declined to comment. In a social media post Wednesday morning, Luna wrote, “Next week members of government from around the world will be coming together at the Alliance of Sovereign Nations! @SpeakerJohnson will be there!”
The conference’s mission statement declares “every country has a rightful obligation to defend its sovereignty and put their interests first,” according to its website. The conference is also sponsored by Republicans for National Renewal.
The AfD party has gained increasing support in Trump’s Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have condemned efforts to label the party as extremist. Frohnmaier has recently traveled several times to Washington for meetings with Luna and other Republican representatives as well as State Department officials. State Department officials have accused the German government of suppressing freedom of opinion, an accusation the German government strongly rejects. Sarah Rogers, undersecretary of State for diplomacy, this week called a criminal investigation by German police of a critical post directed at German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “a case of lèse-majesté.”
In October, Luna posted on X that she met with Anna Rathert, a member of Germany’s federal parliament who’s part of the AfD’s parliamentary group and member of the foreign affairs committee in Bundestag. She and other members of Congress also met with Kay Gottschalk and other members of the AfD in Washington in December. She praised the party as “actually working to strengthen ties with the United States and restore a healthy relationship between our governments” and accused Germany’s chancellor of “trashing our president and censoring German citizens.”
In an interview with Welt last November, Luna said she was planning the conference as an event that “will counter Davos” and be more focused on “the sovereignty of nations.”
In Germany, AfD currently polls in second place, only a few percentage points behind the governing Christian Democrats of Merz.
Last December, Frohnmaier was awarded a prize at the New York Young Republican Club gala for AfD’s “courageous work undertaken in the particularly suppressive and hostile political environment of Germany,” as the invitation stated.
Only weeks earlier, the New York State Young Republicans chapter was disbanded after POLITICO reported on a group chat in which leaders praised Adolf Hitler and joked about the Holocaust.
Politics
Muslim Community Centre targeted in arson attack
Police have arrested a man after he allegedly tried to set fire to a Muslim community centre in Worcestershire. Footage posted on X by the 5Pillars news site seems to show a white male setting a shed alight.
5Pillars posted:
A Muslim community centre in Worcester, which is owned by Worcester Mosque, was firebombed this morning.
A white male has been arrested and police say they found several petrol cans around the centre.
They added:
A far right march is due to take place in Worcester on Saturday.
5Pillars‘ tweet showed footage of an individual setting a fire before running away. Another angle in the same video shows firefighters inspecting the damage to the shed after the fire had gone out.
BREAKING: A Muslim community centre in Worcester, which is owned by Worcester Mosque, was firebombed this morning.
A white male has been arrested and police say they found several petrol cans around the centre.
A far right march is due to take place in Worcester on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/Tjfid0ZJwI
— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) February 26, 2026
One X user said this was part of a pattern of attacks:
First it was Manchester Central Mosque, then Worcester. The Islamophobes in this country are not even pretending anymore, they have dropped the mask completely and would go any length with to cause havoc. Our mosques need to be on high alert and extra vigilant. https://t.co/nwef8c2QWz
— Abdullah (@Lanre_banjo) February 26, 2026
Several others blamed the attack squarely on far right figures like Tommy Robinson and Rupert Lowe. Both of whom have made careers out of peddling anti-Muslim hatred:
You bastards are the fucking reason for this. @TRobinsonNewEra @RupertLowe10 https://t.co/unPMAfRReC
— Maavi The Poet (@ThePoetMaavi) February 26, 2026
Other parties like Restore and Reform UK were to blame. And that anyone who thinks they are the answer is either plain wrong or deeply sick:
All the right wing pricks like Reform and Restore are responsible for this. Anyone who thinks they are the answer to the country’s problems is either deeply misinformed or a cruel evil person https://t.co/JQMVc8pJ7O
— Clobbering Man Punk (@harrythepratt) February 26, 2026
A view that is hard to disagree with on the evidence:
These acts of Islamophobia did not start increasing in a vacuum – the RACIST scapegoating of Muslims whipped up by far-right charlatans like @Nigel_Farage and @reformparty_uk has contributed MASSIVELY to this current climate.
Racist rhetoric has consequences. https://t.co/1yAKUbmOem
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) February 26, 2026
As Al Jazeera reported on 16 February, anti-Muslim feeling seems to be in overdrive and getting worse. They interviewed a Muslim single mother in Basildon who told them about living in fear:
After being racially abused while walking through her favourite park, she stopped going there altogether. Women, she said, are increasingly changing their daily routines, constantly watching over their shoulders.
Racism now permeates every aspect of their lives, she added.
Another told the outlet her own child:
was isolated on the playground and subjected to racial slurs. Months later, she broke down in tears in front of her mother, explaining the abuse she had suffered.
The child was eventually removed from school.
And on 25 February a man was arrested after entering a Manchester mosque with an axe. He was found to be carrying a range of other weapons and eventually arrested:
The mosque said:
greater resources are urgently needed to address this growing and real risk.
Anti-Muslim feeling is a core tenet of modern far-right politics, but centrist parties like Labour are more than willing to lean into it too. This divisive politics cannot be allowed to flourish further. It needs to be challenged wherever it is found.
Featured image via the Canary
Politics
London’s grooming gangs shame Sadiq Khan
In a now notorious exchange, London mayor Sadiq Khan said last year there was no ‘indication’ that grooming gangs – of the kind that have plagued towns such as Rotherham and Telford – exist in London. Evidence uncovered by the BBC last week has exposed the foolishness of this claim. It is now indisputable that vulnerable women and girls, some as young as 14, are being lured into a world of rape and exploitation by grooming gangs in London.
The revelations make for bleak reading. Some women said they had been raped as ‘payment’ for unpaid drug debts. Others said they were groomed specifically for sex.
The BBC investigation followed a decision by the Metropolitan Police, in October, to reopen 1,200 cases of child sexual exploitation from between 2010 and 2025. The decision was made by the Met after an investigation by the Standard found that many young girls in London reported allegations of rape, but were met with indifference by police.
Khan’s belief that London was somehow immune from grooming gangs was always fanciful, if not outright dishonest. Perpetrators have tended to work on taxi networks and in fast-food outlets, taking advantage of unsupervised young women – many of them also victims of a crumbling care system. Obviously, the capital isn’t short on taxis and fast-food shops.
Met deputy assistant commissioner Kevin Southworth has said that grooming-gang activity is ‘very high’ on the force’s ‘threat and risk radar’, and said it was committed to putting as much of its resources into tackling the problem ‘as possible’. These comments are indeed a relief, particularly when Khan himself, who is directly responsible for policing in London, has shown such little interest in the scandal.
The findings of the BBC’s investigation into London’s grooming gangs present a complex picture – one that includes drug dealing, phone theft and even weapons trading. But it also undeniably shows vulnerable women and girls being groomed for sex.
One survivor the BBC spoke to called ‘Milly’ (not her real name) recounted her experiences with grooming gangs in London. It is a mirror image of what has taken place for decades in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham. As a 15-year-old girl, she ‘was getting passed around different men every night – sometimes 10 or 15 a month’. She was plied with alcohol and drugs before she was raped. ‘Milly’ revealed that the perpetrators were South Asian, with some commenting on the fact that she was ‘a nice, young white girl’.
Another London survivor, ‘Ruth’, was also exploited for sex. She told the BBC that men of South Asian heritage ‘took advantage’ of her feeling ‘low’, by giving her expensive gifts to make her feel wanted in exchange for sex.
It is important to note that the gangs operating in London come from much ‘wider ethnic backgrounds’ than in other towns – reflecting the capital’s demographic diversity. ‘We do not see a disproportionate number of any one particular ethnicity or nationality within our suspects’, Southworth said.
To this extent, the grooming-gangs phenomenon in London appears to be different from other parts of the UK. Last year, Louise Casey’s audit into the scandal found that men of Pakistani Muslim heritage were overrepresented among the perpetrators. Casey lamented the lack of ethnicity reporting by police, yet concluded that there was enough evidence to show ‘disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds’ were behind the crimes across three regions – Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Her report also found that police ‘shied away’ from pursuing grooming gangs out of fear of being labelled racist.
Sadiq Khan was wrong to bat away claims that grooming gangs are rampant in the capital. He appears to be as deluded on this issue as he is about every other. There is now mounting evidence that shows it is a problem that should be treated with the utmost seriousness by London’s relevant institutions, such as City Hall and the Met. When it comes to this never-ending scandal, no stone should be left unturned.
Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.
Politics
Cuba coast guard seizes US vessel
The coast guard in Cuba have exchanged fire with what they say was a US infiltration force on 25 February. The shoot-out off the island’s north coast killed four and wounded six aboard the US-linked vessel. Survivors were arrested.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an avid Cuba hawk, has been cautious in his comments so far. And the Cuban authorities maintain those on the speedboat fired first. Now the Cubans said those aboard planned:
an infiltration with terrorist aims.
A coast guard commander was also wounded. The BBC reported:
The Cuban authorities said they had established that all 10 of those on board the speedboat were Cuban nationals residing in the US.
They also identified an 11th person they said had been arrested and had confessed to being part of the alleged plot.
The Cuban authorities claims those captured had:
prior records involving criminal and violent activity.
The BBC said:
Handguns, assault rifles and improvised explosive devices were recovered from the speedboat, along with other tactical gear, according to the statement.
BBC Verify said it had been unable to pinpoint the ownership of the boat.
Cuba: Bay of Pigs 2.0?
The incident will recall the failed 1961 US invasion attempt in the Bay of Pigs. The US is currently sanctioning Cuba even more aggressively than usual in a bid to unseat the government. The situation is so dire that Mexico is shipping humanitarian aid into the island nation.
President Donald Trump is determined to reshape the hemisphere, by force where necessary. Case in point, the US attack of Venezuela in January, and subsequent kidnapping its president.
Marco Rubio, the hard-right scion of Cuban migrants, is know for his rabid views on the Cuban regime. But he seemed reserved in his public comments. Rubio, who is in the Caribbean for international talks, said he was waiting for verifications:
Rubio was less reserved in the hours after the 3 January bombing and special forces raid on Venezuela.
He told reporters then that Cuba was:
run by incompetent, senile men, and in some cases not seen now, but incompetent nonetheless.
Rubio said:
In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba.
Adding:
They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.
There is no doubt the US wants Cuba – once part of the US empire – back under its control. And American covert actions are hardly a rarity in Latin America. A similar-sounding operation was mounted against Venezuela in 2020. It also failed. Two former US special operations soldiers were among those jailed. Details are hazy, but the playbook seems eerily familiar.
Featured image via the Canary
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