The refusal to allow the Iranian Football Federation delegation to enter Canada has led to an escalating crisis with FIFA, after it became clear that Tehran would be absent from the Congress, the most significant event bringing together all national associations to discuss global football matters and take crucial decisions.

According to Reuters, the Iranian delegation was unable to enter Canadian territory despite prior arrangements, amid allegations of “mistreatment” by immigration authorities, forcing it to withdraw from the event.

In contrast, Canadian officials reportedly confirming that entry procedures are subject to strict legal and security considerations, given potential restrictions on individuals suspected of links to designated entities, which explains the decision from an official standpoint.

This development places FIFA in an extremely delicate position, as it is required to ensure the neutrality of international competitions and events, whilst facing a political reality that directly affects the participation of certain federations.

The event takes on deeper dimensions, as it comes against a backdrop of escalating political and military tensions linked to Iran, transforming the crisis from a mere administrative issue into a matter with political ramifications that may cast a shadow over upcoming football events — most importantly those hosted by Canada.

Featured image via IRNA

By Alaa Shamali

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As we all know, things are looking dire for Labour in the upcoming local elections. On a positive note, however, they may do so badly that they end up winning a Guinness World Record:

EXCLUSIVE

“Anything north of 1500 seats lost would trigger a collective nervous breakdown”

Exclusive data from Lord Hayward suggests Labour may lose 1850 English councils in the upcoming local elections, the worst midterm results by any modern government#Peston pic.twitter.com/0JXXTLrYMk

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— Peston (@itvpeston) April 29, 2026

Labour: record breakers

First things first, we want to apologise on behalf of Peston for the word ‘midterm’:

why is the phrase ‘midterm’ eeking its way into British politics pic.twitter.com/BbFnJhER4S

— DX (@diggingmad) April 29, 2026

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They’re not ‘midterm elections’; they’re ‘local elections’. In the American midterms, they vote for national politicians; in the British locals, we vote for local politicians. You may not know this if you watch the mainstream news, of course, because they refuse to engage with local issues.

The Peston team made another mistake too – namely by stating Labour is set to lose 1,850 “councils”. There actually aren’t that many councils in the UK, and what they meant to say was ‘seats’. In other words, Labour are potentially set to lose 1,850 councillors.

In the clip at the top, Pippa Crerar says:

I want to show you a projection by the elections expert Robert Hayward shared exclusively with the Preston Show which shows just how bad it could get. Now he predicts… that Labour could lose as many as 1,850 seats. That’s of the 2,500 they’re defending so pretty terrible prediction.

And you can see also that the Tories lose almost half their seats that are up for grabs, with the Greens and Reform the big winners.

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This is the poll in question:

Peston asked:

Now, Heywood has a formidable reputation for getting these things right. Now, this might be an occasion when he’s not, but if it were 1,850 losses for Labour, Is that worse than Labour campaigners’ fears?

Crerar responded:

I think, in short, yes. I mean, ministers tell me that anything north of 1,500 seats lost would trigger a collective nervous breakdown in the Cabinet and potentially a revolt. And that’s obviously very dangerous territory for Starmer.

. … This comes, of course, on top of results in Scotland and Wales, which are also expected to be pretty dire for the government, the UK government, and that inevitably creates yet more danger for Starmer.

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Things look equally bad in other polls too (albeit better for the Greens):

Projected net changes for local elections:

Ref +1,437
Grn +926
Lib +327
Con -627
Lab -1,738

Median estimate via @Moreincommon_, April '26 pic.twitter.com/OFxPMxmoUV

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Projected net changes for local elections:

Ref +1,437
Grn +926
Lib +327
Con -627
Lab -1,738

Median estimate via @Moreincommon_, April '26 pic.twitter.com/OFxPMxmoUV

— Stats for Lefties (@LeftieStats) April 21, 2026

Time to go

At this point, it seems that Starmer has to go after the local elections. The only reason it’s not entirely certain is because this current crop of Labour MPs are so weak and directionless that they might just go with the flow all the way down the electoral drain.

Featured image via Peston

By Willem Moore

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Israel’s government has approved the construction of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school on stolen Palestinian land.

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A post shared by MIFTAH مفتاح (@miftahpal)

This decision only formalises the systemic takeover of Palestinian land through illegal Israeli settlement expansion. It comes only months after the Israeli government demolished the UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, an agency that served millions of Palestinian refugees.

The school is set to be built in the heart of Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, across 5000 square metres. It will include housing for hundreds of students and residential units for the teaching staff.

The bigger picture

The plan is in conjunction with Israel’s “E1 Plan”. This paves the way for the construction of thousands of settlement units between East Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim – an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

According to the Institute for Middle East Understanding:

E1 (“East 1”) is the Israeli administrative name for an area in the occupied Palestinian West Bank east of occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem. It’s located inside the boundaries of the large illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Israel is planning to expand the Ma’ale Adumim settlement into E1, including nearly 4,000 housing units for Jewish Israelis.

Around 3,700 Palestinians live in E1. These are mostly Bedouins who live in 18 different villages. The residents pursue a traditional way of life based on shepherding. This is despite their limited access to pastures and markets.

The E1 and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement cut deep into the West Bank, basically dividing it into two sections.

It is part of Israel’s plan to take full control over East Jerusalem in Occupied Palestine, by cutting it off from the West Bank with a ring of Jewish settlements in and around the city’s eastern perimeter.

Israel is aiming to make an independent Palestinian state physically impossible.

The approval of the school means that the Israeli government continues to facilitate the coercive transfer of Palestinians from East Jerusalem through land confiscation, increased settler harassment and terrorism.

As miftahpal said in a post on Instagram:

It is yet another systematic effort to erase the Palestinian presence by reshaping the land’s identity and forcing out its indigenous people.

Israel government policy

Occupation and stealing Palestinian land are a core part of Israeli government policy.

In December 2022, in a post on X, Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

These are the basic lines of the national government under my leadership:
The Jewish people has an exclusive and indisputable right to all spaces of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel—in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan, in Judea and Samaria.

There are currently more than 737,000 illegal Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They have the full backing of the state – both ideologically and materially. They are armed by the government and protected by the IOF and the Israeli police.

Only this week, Israel has illegally ordered 42 Palestinians to leave their homes in Batn al-Hawa, East Jerusalem, by May 17, so it can hand the homes to Israeli terrorist settlers.

As the Canary previously reported:

These settlers only aim is to force Palestinians off their land, so their colonial settlements can be built there instead, and they do this by storming villages and terrorising residents, burning homes, killing livestock, and destroying crops and trees.

Currently, Israel is perpetrating its biggest expansion of Jewish settlements in decades across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements are illegal under international law.

Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Additionally, the Hague Regulations [1907] prohibit the seizure and destruction of private property. This means that both building and expanding settlements breach international humanitarian law.

Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and settler violence are all war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has been committing these crimes since its creation in 1948 – and the international community has just stood by and let it.

The world should be holding Israel to account – but it has not up to this point. Unless that changes soon, Israel will continue to forcibly expel the indigenous people of Palestine and import its own imported settler-colonialists. 

Feature image via Middle East Eye/YouTube

By HG

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Wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a far-right extremist to oversee the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. Caroline Glick, his ‘international affairs adviser’, will be working with the Israeli military and a fake ‘Muslim’ group to push forward the ‘migration’ of Palestinians from the still-blockaded territory.

Netanyahu: unstoppable war criminal

According to Israeli paper Haaretz, Glick has already tried to persuade breakaway Somaliland to take Gaza’s Palestinians, but was rebuffed. Israel rushed to recognise Somaliland as a state in 2025 as part of Netanyahu’s attempts to neutralise Yemen’s Ansar Allah. Glick also tried to reach a deal with Congo-Kinshasa, but was similarly unsuccessful.

Tonight, in New York, I had the honour to meet and sit with President Donald Trump at @ZOA_National’s gala, where he received the richly deserved Theodore Herzl medal.
No US president has been a better friend to Israel, or American Jewry. pic.twitter.com/U4bchfih1W

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) November 14, 2022

Despite this, she continues to work with the US on Trump’s criminal ‘Gaza Riviera‘ plan, which requires the removal of all but a small servant-class of Palestinians to wait on the rich and powerful. Glick has held presentations and discussions with the US embassy in Israel. According to a leaked diplomatic cable, Glick wants to:

translate the Trump plan to a concrete action plan, assuming that Trump had outlined the vision and direction, and now it was up to the Israelis to develop detailed plans and begin implementing them.

Glick has written about her “One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East”. A ‘one-state’ Israel usually means Israel as a nation in which Jews and Palestinians have equality in rights and voting, as opposed to the meaningless ‘two-state’ plan advocated by some Israel supporters to maintain Israel as an apartheid ethno-state. However, in Glick’s diseased thinking, the term is cover for Israel taking the whole of Palestine for the ethno-state. Supposedly, moving out all the indigenous people ensures ‘peace’ in western Asia.

Glick also lobbied the Trump government to sanction civil society groups that opposed Netanyahu’s attempt to subjugate Israel’s legal system to his political whims. Netanyahu’s attempted ‘judicial coup’ provoked massive protests across Israel.

Disgraceful

Israel is working with a shadowy ‘Muslim’ group to sanitise its ethnic cleansing. ‘Al-Majd‘ claims its mission it to provide “essential humanitarian aid, educational opportunities, and sustainable development projects to Palestinian communities”. However, a 2025 investigation found that the group is run by Estonian Israeli national Tomer Janar Lind.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Former German international and Arsenal player Mesut Ozil has revealed that his public stance on the issue of Uighur Muslims in China was one of the factors that negatively affected his career at the London club, confirming that he was aware beforehand that this stance might cause him trouble, but that he nevertheless has no regrets about what he said.

According to comments reported by the British media, including The Sun, Ozil explained that his public comments in 2019 regarding abuses against the Uighurs in the Xinjiang region had professional repercussions, noting that “after that, certain doors were closed to him and he no longer enjoyed the same opportunities within the team”.

The former German international added that he knew that getting involved in sensitive political or humanitarian issues might put him under significant pressure, but he felt that using his fame to express his stance was necessary for him, even if it came at a professional cost.

The story dates back to December 2019, when Ozil posted a message on his social media accounts criticising the situation of the Uighurs in China, prompting Arsenal at the time to distance themselves from his comments and emphasise that the club does not interfere in political issues, before his appearances for the team gradually declined, culminating in his departure in 2021.

Media reports, including The Guardian, suggest that the controversy following his remarks marked a turning point in his relationship with the club, given the political and commercial sensitivity of the issue.

Featured image via UEFA

By Alaa Shamali

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The Ministry of Defence just released a new video of UK troops sheltering from Iranian missiles somewhere in the Middle East. What’s that I hear you say? British troops aren’t officially involved in a war. Wrong again, as it turns out.

Here’s the video published on 30 April that shows gunners from the RAF Regiment hiding as Iranian missiles come in:

Raw, unfiltered footage captured on the ground as our troops take cover from an aerial threat in The Middle East.

In the past few months, RAF Counter Uncrewed Aerial System teams, operating Rapid Sentry, have been actively shooting down drone threats using Lightweight… pic.twitter.com/w2syFQZNHf

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— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) April 30, 2026

They are there because of their ‘expertise’ at shooting down drones. And you’ll see that the images look suspiciously like a group of men at war. They paint a very different picture to the official UK government line about Iran. For example only days ago, on 28 April, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said:

The Iran war is not our war but I’m very proud of the way our UK forces have protected British bases, British citizens and British allies and partners.

Pollard was echoing the official, ridiculous and widely debunked British position that the UK was only involved in ‘defensive action’.

It’s hard to know if the soldiers under fire feel the same way…

UK stance — a mass of contradictions

Pollard’s comments also contradicted his own boss, Defence Secretary John Healey. Healey said on 11 April:

Even in this current conflict, the basing permissions that we in the UK have agreed with the US have been invaluable to their military operations.

At the core of this bizarre situation is PM Keir Starmer’s patently false claim that the UK is only involved in ‘defensive’ action against Iran. Because whichever way you spin it, this bit of wordplay still means the UK is at war with Iran.

Also on 28 April, a different Defence Minister refused to acknowledge that US flights from British bases at home and from Diego Garcia were striking Iran.

Al Carns answered a question from Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn:

For operational security reasons, we do not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military operations.

Permissions to utilise UK military bases by foreign partners are considered on a case-by-case basis. All UK operational support to allies and partners is considered in terms of legality.

Again, this is despite UK support for the US-Israel war on Iran being public knowledge — to the degree that it has even become a tourist attraction for families who want to watch US bombers take off.

It cannot be claimed that the UK is not at war, or is only at war in some limited sense Starmer has dreamed up. And certainly not at the same time as a government department is literally posting video evidence to the contrary. This patronising charade has gone on long enough.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 30

ICE WATCH: Gov. Kathy Hochul wants assurances from President Donald Trump’s administration that a very specific federal immigration officer isn’t operating in New York: The ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good.

The Democratic governor sent a letter this week to Trump border czar Tom Homan insisting he confirm whether the reportedly redeployed agent, Jonathan Ross, is now working in the Empire State.

“If Jonathan Ross has been reassigned to work in New York, I demand that he be immediately removed and not redeployed unless cleared after a full, independent investigation,” Hochul wrote in the previously unreported letter. “I have no confidence that Ross can be trusted to safely interact with the public. Nor should you.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The notice is the latest effort by Hochul to place guardrails around Trump’s sweeping deportation policies — a push that includes direct White House outreach and expected legislative action to limit the reach of federal immigration agencies like ICE.

The two-track approach underscores how New York officials, including the governor, have been desperate to avoid a potentially destabilizing surge of federal immigration officers in the five boroughs, home to an estimated 560,000 undocumented immigrants.

The push also highlights how Hochul stands to benefit politically from taking an assertive posture against Trump’s immigration policies as she runs for reelection. The president rode back to the White House pledging to remove millions of people living illegally in the United States, only for voter support to quickly erode following the deaths of Good and Alex Pretti during January’s Minnesota crackdown.

A Siena University poll in February found 67 percent of New York voters believe federal immigration tactics had gone too far. The same survey found 59 percent of voters did not want to see more ICE agents flow into New York City.

Trump has dialed back the publicly aggressive deportation effort, but that’s done little to assuage the Hochul administration. The February death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a blind refugee who was left in front of a Buffalo coffee shop by federal agents, further inflamed New York officials.

“I have repeatedly stated that any agents involved in these types of incidents must be properly investigated and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law — not simply reassigned to administrative or investigative duties or shuffled to other states,” Hochul wrote in the letter.

Homan, who has become the Trump administration’s blue state ambassador following the deadly unrest in Minneapolis, met privately with her in Albany last month, and the governor urged him to not conduct a similar operation in the Big Apple.

To that end, Hochul and Democratic state lawmakers are also on the verge of approving a package of sanctuary-like measures meant to erect legal barriers around federal immigration enforcement in New York.

The measures would prohibit federal authorities from carrying out civil deportation warrants in sensitive locations like education facilities and houses of worship. It would also ban formal agreements between agencies like ICE and local police departments from coordinating operations and sharing equipment. And New York is poised to make it easier to sue federal officers if a person believes their constitutional rights have been violated.

The expected package of protections amounts to a sweeping blue state rebuke of Trump’s immigration and deportation policies. It also marks a change for Hochul, a moderate who as a local official two decades ago opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain state driver’s licenses.

Yet some left-leaning state lawmakers worry that Hochul’s opposition to a strict ban on local police communicating with federal immigration authorities will leave undocumented immigrants exposed even as existing sanctuary protections will remain in place.

One legislator, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said the likely agreement is “really inadequate, arguably harmful, because her proposal would create an illusion of legal protections while still proactively permitting law enforcement to share info.” — Nick Reisman

FROM CITY HALL

FARE-LY AUTOMATIC: A majority of City Council members are pushing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to automatically enroll low-income New Yorkers in the city’s transit discount program.

Currently, New Yorkers need to furnish proof of identity, age, residence and taxable income to enroll in Fair Fares, which offers a 50 percent discount on subway, bus and paratransit rides for those at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

In a Wednesday letter to Erin Dalton, Mamdani’s social services commissioner, 28 of the Council’s 51 members wrote that the application requirements needlessly keep people out of the program.

The letter, obtained by Playbook, says only about 370,000 of the city’s 1.4 million eligible residents benefit from Fair Faires, largely because many don’t know of its existence.

The city lawmakers, led by progressive Council Member Crystal Hudson, wrote to Dalton that the disparity can be fixed by automatically enrolling all eligible residents by using application information they’ve already provided while applying for SNAP, Cash Assistance, Medicaid and other city-administered public benefits.

“The City of New York has the information on hand and could easily enact automatic enrollment,” wrote the Council members, who included democratic socialist allies of the mayor like Tiffany Cabán and more moderate colleagues like Eric Dinowitz.

“Affordability is a top concern for New York City residents, and one in five New Yorkers struggles to pay the fare,” the lawmakers also wrote. “In short, we can help lower costs for New Yorkers by making it easier to enroll in the Fair Fares program.”

Asked about the letter, Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said Thursday that the administration is “reviewing the automatic Fair Fares enrollment proposal.”

“The mayor remains deeply committed to collaborating with our city and state partners to make transit more affordable for all New Yorkers,” Pekec said.

Mamdani campaigned last year on a promise to eliminate fares on city buses so riding them would become completely free. But he acknowledged in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month that he won’t be able to make good on that pledge this year.

In the meantime, transportation advocates are ramping up pressure on him to find other ways to make transit more affordable. The letter from the Council members comes after a coalition of transit advocates earlier this month called on the mayor to usher in automatic Fair Fares enrollment.

Such a measure would likely come with a cost increase for the city-funded program. And that could prove tricky for Mamdani, who’s scrambling to address a multibillion-dollar city budget deficit.

Council Speaker Julie Menin, who’s in negotiations with Mamdani on the budget, did not sign Wednesday’s letter. “She doesn’t always sign on to colleague letters as speaker, but she is on record supporting automatic enrollment for Fair Fares,” her spokesperson Henry Robins said. — Chris Sommerfeldt

PIED-À-TERREABLE MATH: City Comptroller Mark Levine released a reality check for the mayor and governor, who are hoping to raise $500 million annually through a pied-à-terre tax to help the city’s ailing budget.

Levine found by using past proposals as a rubric that the tax would only reach those heights under the most ideal of scenarios. When factoring in otherwise eligible properties that are rentals — meaning they would be exempt — and pied-à-terre owners who would either sell or rent to avoid the tax, the yearly take-home for the city would be between $340 million to $380 million.

“As we continue to work toward budget agreements at the City and State levels, it’s imperative that government leaders, advocates and New Yorkers know how major new revenue proposals might reliably impact our budget,” Levine said in a statement.

The mayor’s office countered that the proposal is not yet fully baked, and that it will be designed in concert with the governor in a way that ensures it nets at least $500 million.

“The Comptroller’s report makes one thing very clear: thoughtfully crafting and implementing this legislation will do exactly that,” a spokesperson said. — Joe Anuta

VOUCHER FIGHT: Menin is playing to both sides of the debate over the costly rental subsidy known as CityFHEPS.

She joined advocates and Council members at a rally Thursday morning to urge Mamdani to drop a lawsuit fighting a voucher expansion — which the mayor pledged to do on the campaign trail. But Menin also agreed the costs “are not sustainable” and said a settlement the council has offered will contain them, while still expanding the program in some form.

“We have come in, with the leadership of Council member [Pierina] Sanchez and the advocates, with a responsible, reasonable settlement,” Menin said at the rally, where Council members and advocates chanted, “Mayor Mamdani, keep your promise!”

Menin declined to elaborate on the specifics of the settlement proposal since talks are ongoing.

The vouchers are already growing in cost at a rate of 4 percent per month, and the laws to expand eligibility — which the Council approved in 2023 — are estimated to increase costs further by somewhere between $6 and $22 billion over five years, according to the city comptroller’s office.

“We do agree that there has to be a change to the cost structure,” Menin told reporters at a press conference later Thursday. “We have been working very closely with the advocates on that. We have put forward a reasonable settlement, which is why we believe that continuing to litigate delays our ability to reach the settlement.”

Hochul has reportedly asked the mayor to look at the rental subsidies as one place where the city can find savings. Asked whether she’s spoken to the governor about the program, Menin said “she and I both agree we need to have cost containment.”

“We recognize the cost has grown exponentially,” Menin said. “I think we’re in a very good place on cost containment that literally contains the cost but also protects vulnerable New Yorkers.”

Mamdani has argued that if the city were to drop its appeal, it would be on the hook for billions in additional costs over just the next few years.

“Mayor Mamdani has been clear that CityFHEPS is an invaluable tool to prevent homelessness and support homeless New Yorkers,” City Hall spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said in a statement on Thursday’s rally. “That is why our team is working hard to ensure that it is fiscally sound and sustainable for the long-term.” — Janaki Chadha and Gelila Negesse

IN OTHER NEWS

— COMMUNITY SAFETY: Advocates are worried Mamdani’s police reform efforts in cases involving mentally ill people may sideline the anti-domestic violence office at City Hall. (The New York Times)

— BOARD OF REJECTIONS: A candidate for an Albany assembly district seat is contesting the state election board’s decision to reject his bid after he was disqualified for allegedly failing to meet residency and party enrollment requirements. (Times Union)

— BEHIND THE BARS: New York state prisons are seeing a sharp rise in violence with staff and incarcerated people both sounding the alarm of increased assault rates. (NY 1)

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

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The Palestinian Football Association lodged a formal appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the 20th of this month, having exhausted all available legal avenues within FIFA.

This comes as an escalatory move against FIFA’s decision not to impose any sanctions on the Israeli Football Association or its affiliated clubs in the West Bank settlements.

Suzan Shalabi, vice-president of the Palestinian Football Association, told the Canary that the Palestinian Association adheres to international laws and regulations, but considers FIFA’s decision to be completely unfair.

She added that the decision to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport came after exhausting all procedures within the international football system.

Shalabi explained that the issue centres on the participation of clubs operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in Israeli domestic competitions, at a time when Palestinians consider these territories part of a future state, emphasising that the Palestinian Football Association is demanding an end to this football representation in Israeli Football Association tournaments.

FIFA — ‘unresolved legal status’

Last month, FIFA announced that it would not take any action against the Israeli Football Association or the clubs concerned, justifying this by what it described as the “unresolved legal status” of the West Bank under international law. This of course is not true. Israeli settlements’ legal status is ‘fully resolved.’ They are illegal under international law.

In a related context, Shalabi noted that Palestinian football faces a “dire situation”, particularly in the Gaza Strip, with the continued suspension of many domestic leagues, alongside growing organisational difficulties due to the fallout from the war in Gaza and the occupation’s violations in the West Bank.

In her remarks, Shalabi also noted that the visa issues faced by several sports delegations ahead of the FIFA Annual Congress in Canada had contributed to heightened tensions surrounding the international football scene in recent times.

This is the first time the Palestinian Football Association delegation has been barred from participating in the FIFA Congress simply because it was denied visas, reinforcing the theory that this is backed by Israel and with the approval of FIFA, which does not wish to be embarrassed once again before the international community regarding Israel’s flagrant violations against Palestinian sport.

Shalabi revealed that the Palestinian delegation had recently obtained Canadian visas to attend the FIFA Congress, and that the Federation’s President, Jibril Rajoub, would deliver a speech during the event in which he would outline all the aforementioned facts to the member associations.

Featured image via Amnesty

By Alaa Shamali

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The famously smart and efficient Met Police took it on themselves to amplify a Tommy Robinson tweet for no reason anyone can discern. Far-right grifter Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was waffling about the horrific Golders Green attack at the time.

The Met, in their infinite wisdom, decided to comment on 29 April. And in doing so they dignified Tiny Tel Aviv Tommy’s far-right rant.

The Met Police posted:

Our brave officers confronted a man they believed to be a terrorist, who refused to show his hands, who was violent, and who continued to pose a clear threat. Using only their training, courage and tasers, they detained him while he continued to try to attack and stab them. This took true courage.

Our brave officers confronted a man they believed to be a terrorist, who refused to show his hands, who was violent, and who continued to pose a clear threat. Using only their training, courage and tasers, they detained him while he continued to try to attack and stab them. This…

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 29, 2026

Maybe it did “take courage”, as the Met said. But the question remains… why is an arm of the British state amplifying arguably the most prominent fascist in the land?

The move left many people stumped. Some people thought it was down to a similar far-right ideological lens:

The fact that @metpoliceuk is responding to a Nazi, racist, white supremacist Tommy Robinson shows how NAZI of an organization the Met Police actually is https://t.co/43MUisxwnw

— Tired Millennial (@_me_I_am_) April 30, 2026

Academic and campaigner Phil Proudfoot was similarly flabbergasted:

Sorry why is the Met replying to, and amplifying, Tommy Robinson!? https://t.co/zLqnIQAFjn

— Philip Proudfoot (@PhilipProudfoot) April 29, 2026

Other X users reported that the Met were replying to other far-right accounts — like @inevitablewest — which had been commenting on Golders Green:

The Met Police are now replying to every extreme hard right account on Twitter X to gain support for the questionable restraint tactics of their officers on the offender in the Golders Green stabbings

They’ve also responded to Tommy Robinson

I asked them directly – no reply https://t.co/7pfF2aByJW

— Stop The Bollocks with Mirabel (@MirabelTweets1) April 29, 2026

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Another speculated that there might be a Tommy supporter on the comms team:

Sorry what the fuck is happening? Some social media manager is clearly a lover of the car right and wants to give em some attention https://t.co/qpz1sEdPn3

— solman (@ChatzSol) April 29, 2026

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A ‘disturbing’ decision from the Met Police

Green Party candidate Jamie Strudwick called the move “disturbing”:

Why in the fuck is the Metropolitan Police amplifying a known criminal and far-right agitator? This is insanely disturbing and needs to be looked into. https://t.co/WiU20IoIRg

— Jamie Strudwick (@JamieStrud) April 29, 2026

One X user pointed out Tommy’s thugs regularly fight the police. Usually at protests, when the fash can’t get hold of members of, for example, the marginalised groups they loathe:

@metpoliceuk why are you replying to a repeat offender whose ‘boys’ are regularly involved in violent attacks against the police? https://t.co/gYiDTtSCnC

— Greg Herriett (@greg_herriett) April 30, 2026

For the record, Tommy Robinson’s relationship to the police goes back a long way. He seems to spend half his time in a cell… As fact-checkers from Factually put it, he has a:

long, well-documented history of criminal convictions across violent, fraud, immigration and contempt-of-court offences, and his legal troubles have repeatedly intersected with his activism and media activities; these cases have produced both criminal sentences and political controversies at home and abroad.

All in all, not a bad day’s work for the Met. They’ve managed to alienate even more people than they usually do in the day-to-day grind of protecting property, harassing innocent people and generally hanging around the city like a bad smell.

Featured image via Novara

By Joe Glenton

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E-commerce in the UK did not simply move shopping from the high street to the browser. It changed how often payments were made, the amount of customer data that was shared, and the number of places where criminals can hide. 

The stats provide ever-conspicuous proof of the change. According to an Office for National Statistics report from March 2026, spending on the web increased by 2.4% with respect to the preceding month and by 10.5% with respect to March 2025. It is not a minor shopping trail anymore. This, rather, is the very pulse of British shopping.

E-commerce made fraud faster and more scalable

The traditional understanding of retail fraud had limitations. To commit a crime, one needed a physical card-and-entered a shop-or person talking to the cashier in person. Also, one needed tricks and schemes to dupe the person from whom they mean to steal. Online shopping has made this easier. Stolen card details can be tested automatically, fake accounts can be created in batches, and scam listings can reach thousands of buyers before a platform reacts.

That is why fraud in the UK is more about multiple smaller moves and less about one bigger theft. Total fraud losses applied to UK Finance statistics do not show the largest increase to £1.17 billion from 2023 as before. At the same time, the confirmed cases totaled 3.31 million, the highest in the entire series of comparable statistics. More incidents take place, but the magnitude on the lower end in some categories. It’s a slower burn and not a sudden field of play.

Remote purchase fraud became the pressure point

The clearest link between online shopping growth and financial crime is buying things on the internet without using cash. This covers purchases made online, by phone or by mail order using stolen card details. In the world of retail, this is the type of fraud that is most often linked to online shopping.

UK Finance said that losses from online shopping scams went up by 11% in 2024 to £399.6 million, and the number of cases increased by 22% to 2,586,217. Most of these cases were related to online shopping, and most of these were either approved or not approved transactions. The last point is important. Even security layers can be tricked by criminals. They trick customers into sharing one-time passcodes or approving wallet registration.

The numbers show how sharply online retail has changed the fraud picture. Small individual attacks may look manageable, but at national scale they create a serious financial burden.

This is why remote purchase fraud is no longer just a payment issue. It connects customer behaviour, merchant controls, authentication, delivery flows, and post-purchase support.

Marketplaces changed the fraud surface

Large marketplaces gave small sellers access to national demand. Useful, no question. They also created new openings for impersonation, fake goods, fake refunds, triangulation fraud, and seller account takeover.

In triangulation fraud, a criminal lists an item, takes payment from a real buyer, then uses stolen card details to buy that item from a legitimate merchant and ship it to the buyer. Everyone sees part of the truth. The buyer receives goods. The merchant sees an order. The cardholder sees fraud later.

Marketplaces also make trust harder to judge. A polished product image, a few reviews, a discount, and a familiar checkout flow can make a fraudulent seller look credible. The speed of e-commerce works beautifully for honest trade. The same speed helps bad actors disappear.

From stolen cards to stolen identities

E-commerce fraud is not only about payment cards anymore. Customer accounts have become assets. A shopping account may contain saved cards, delivery addresses, loyalty points, order history, refund options, and sometimes buy-now-pay-later access.

If criminals take over an account, they don’t always spend money straight away. They may change an email address, add a new delivery location, test a small order, or see how the platform responds. A clumsy system misses that slow preparation.

This is where a modern fraud prevention solution becomes more valuable than a single payment check. The better approach is to connect signals: login behaviour, device history, transaction value, address changes, refund patterns, velocity, and customer history. One signal can be innocent. Several together start to tell a story.

Social engineering moved closer to checkout

The growth of e-commerce has trained people to trust messages about orders, refunds, parcels, and failed payments. Criminals know this. A fake courier text no longer feels unusual because real courier texts arrive all the time.

UK Finance has warned that online services and telecommunications sectors often see fraud signals before banks do, because the psychological manipulation can begin long before a payment is attempted. In other words, the checkout is sometimes the last scene, not the start of the crime.

This matters for retailers. A shopper who enters stolen details at checkout is one problem. A genuine shopper tricked into approving a fraudulent transaction is another. The technical event may look clean. The story behind it is not.

What businesses now need to monitor

E-commerce fraud prevention used to focus heavily on card checks. Those still matter, but they are not enough. The modern risk picture is wider, and businesses need to treat checkout as only one part of the customer journey.

Key signals now include:

• Repeated failed payment attempts from the same device or IP address;
• New delivery addresses added just before high-value orders;
• Sudden login from unfamiliar devices or locations;
• Rapid low-value purchases that test stolen cards;
• Refund requests that follow the same wording or timing;
• Multiple accounts linked by device, address, or payment method;
• One-time passcode compromise or suspicious wallet registration;
• Customer behaviour that changes sharply after account recovery.

A list like this is not a fraud verdict. It is a map. The real work is deciding which combinations deserve friction and which customers should be allowed through smoothly.

Regulation and reimbursement changed expectations

The UK fraud environment is also shaped by regulation and reimbursement expectations. Banks, payment firms, merchants, telecoms providers, and online platforms are under growing pressure to share responsibility. Nobody wants to be seen as the weak link.

The government estimated the economic and social cost of fraud against individuals and businesses in England and Wales at £14.4 billion for the year ending March 2024. It also estimated £5.2 billion of that cost related to fraud against businesses. Fraud is a problem for everyone, not just consumers and banks.

Conclusion

E-commerce has made UK retail faster, broader, and more convenient. It has also made financial fraud easier to do on a large scale, automated, and harder to spot with the old rules. At a UK Finance event, one of the speakers said: “Nobody grows up wanting to fight fraud; most of us fall into it.” That line was successful. It explained how fraud teams have had to react quickly, and why it’s finally becoming more common to spot fraud earlier. 

Fraud is evolving rapidly in most cases, faster than the industry or banks can go about managing it. It’s developed as a business, and we must close the gap in the same manner. Else it will grow wider. Luckily, though, speech is beginning to change. The situation is grave and all that matters now is action-early signals, equipping teams correctly, and constructing systems not just to react, but to be prepared.

By Nathan Spears

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