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A powerful new feature film aims to expose the sinister way ‘trans panic’ has been used across the US as a legal defence to justify the murder of transgender people.

Highlighting the long history of activism, resistance and solidarity within the trans community, the film, Trans Panic, follows two trans elders who fought back against deadly stigma and helped organise the first Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Nancy Nangeroni and Gordene Mackenzie played a vital role in securing long-overdue rights for trans people. This achievement came after a wave of hate crimes saw attackers — and murderers — receive lighter sentences by claiming ‘trans panic’ somehow excused or diminished their violent intent.

Now, as Trump fuels renewed hostility towards trans people, they are speaking out once again to remind the public that hate-fuelled violence can never be framed as “self-defence”. Horrifyingly, this defence continues to be available in most US jurisdictions.

But to help ensure this horrific chapter of history is neither forgotten nor repeated, they need public support to raise £15,000 to turn the project into a full feature film.

Trans Panic hopes to inspire generations of activists

Originally, the filmmakers planned to create a short film about the experiences of these two principled and inspiring trans elders. But after a successful fundraising campaign, they have now set their sights on turning it into a full feature film, giving this harrowing yet hopeful story the depth it deserves.

The film explores the painful experiences faced not only by partners Nancy and Gordene, but by the wider trans community, in the hope it can inspire a new generation of activism and stop history from repeating itself. As has happened time and time again, reactionary forces are already trying to roll back hard-won rights, leaving an already embattled community vulnerable to renewed hostility and violence.

Importantly, the film also challenges the false idea that trans rights are somehow new or “woke”. In reality, trans people have fought for dignity, safety and recognition for generations. Their struggle forms part of a much longer history of civil rights movements fighting for freedom and bodily autonomy.

It also reminds us never to take rights for granted. The far right actively works to erode the freedoms of LGBTQ+ people wherever it can, which means people must constantly defend those rights. Feminists should take notice too: attacks on bodily autonomy never stop with one group.

When reactionary movements target reproductive rights, trans rights, or queer rights, they attack the broader principle that people deserve control over their own bodies and lives.

We all deserve autonomy. None of us are truly free until all of us are free from that sinister oppression.

‘Trans panic’ as a legal defence

On their Kickstarter campaign, director Hester Morris spoke of the history which inspired this feature film.

She explained:

The term ‘Trans Panic’ is a legal defence that has been used all over the US to justify the brutal murders of many transgender people over the decades.

The idea is that perpetrators claim to be in such a state of shock after discovering their victims are transgender that their motivation towards extreme violence is somehow akin to self defence.

This legal argument meant that many people received minimal sentences for what were blatantly hate-filled killings.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the media and wider society failed to show outrage or even compassion for these victims.

As I’m sure many will agree, this sentiment is coming back with a vengeance across the West as the trans community face bigoted, derogatory attacks through the duplicitous veil of ‘women’s safety’. In reality, history proves that the rights of both groups are very much intertwined and face the same threats in our societies.

The film will consider the world-changing activism of the 90s, which fought back against the stigma endangering their lives, whilst seeking justice for their trans siblings.

The far right is actively eroding hard-fought civil rights

Speaking from their home in New Mexico, Nancy and Gordene recount “their story of love and struggle”. Sharing their memories and rarely seen archival footage, this film makes clear how the personal and political intersect.

Like protests for civil rights and freedoms today, the 90s saw TV appearances, street protests and legal battles to give rise to “the world’s first movement towards respect and rights for gender non-conforming people”.

Whilst many are aware of this day of remembrance, not many are aware of the personal stories behind it and the very people that had an instructive role in making it happen. An ignorance that this film seeks to redress as it refuses to allow trans people to live in that same horrifying fear for their own safety.

Battles for civil rights have always intersected across race, gender and sexuality, and they defined this era of history.

How can you continue this tradition of solidarity?

The film’s creators wish to revive this “fundamental moment in trans history” through documenting these activists’ achievements to help inspire more activism today. With history clearly in the throes of repeating itself, trans and queer people need strong allies.

On the Kickstarter campaign, they write:

We hope that the work of Nancy, Gordene and many others will provide guidance and inspiration for those brave enough to fight back against the transphobic, homophobic, racist regimes, growing in strength all over the world – but we need your help.

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We at the Canary hope our readers get behind this fundraising campaign and share it with their friends and family. History shows that when the establishment and far right target one marginalised group, others are never far behind.

That is why civil rights movements so often stand together and intersect with one another because when they come for one community, they eventually come for us all.

Featured image via Trans Panic Kickstarter

By Maddison Wheeldon

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AI firms are pushing hard for a bigger and bigger slice of the UK war machine, namely Palantir. Watchdog Drone Wars’ new briefing paper sheds light on how these powerful tech companies, often led by far-right bosses, have inserted themselves into the UK military.

The new report is titled ‘The Datafication of War‘. It is the first part of a series of briefing called ‘Killing By Code: New Briefing and Dataset on UK Military AI Programme‘. The NGO also published a breakdown of key military projects currently working to integrate AI.

Drone Wars warned of a revolutionary shift in warfare:

Today, with the rise in geopolitical uncertainty and intense competition for military technological supremacy; private technology companies working alongside states, are pushing towards a new technological transformation on the battlefield: the development of military AI and Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems that promise to reshape the methods of war.

As private firms start to work closely with states on AI, and:

With algorithms, Large Language Models, and autonomous systems permeating throughout the military domain, modern warfare is becoming increasingly reliant on data sets.

This first briefing “explores Palantir and their algorithmic and data systems”:

It examines the company’s origin and leadership; their footprint in different institutions within the UK and elsewhere; its key software and data analytic platforms and ends by looking at their involvement with the Israeli and Ukrainian governments during times of profound violence and war.

Palantir: far-right AI bosses

The report captures the worldviews which drive Palantir’s leadership in the US and UK. It describes how founders Peter Thiel and Alex Karp:

co-founded Palantir in the aftermath of 9/11, partly using funding from Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA.

The name, Palantir, is a reference to the all-seeing orbs in the Lord of the Rings books and movies. The leadership:

openly embraces the language of warfare, crisis and existential threat to frame the company’s public image.

Thiel is described as a ‘techno-libertarian’:

with a strong aversion to progressive politics and a pronounced scepticism of democracy.

While Karp’s politics speak to a hard-right, ‘civilisational’ worldview, which:

argues for the abandonment of ‘frivolous’ consumer products in the pursuit of ‘national projects’ that strengthen ‘Western civilization’ to the detriment of its perceived enemies.

UK boss Louis Mosley – the hyper-privileged grandson of aristocratic fascist Oswald Mosley – is described as:

descended from a highly politicised, aristocratic lineage whose legacy has played a visible role in Anglo-American history. It seems he will go onto to have greater influence albeit a very different role in shaping the country’s future trajectory.

And Drone Wars points out:

His relationships with the higher echelons of the labour government are clear.

Palantir’s footprint in the UK

Palantir are active in the US, Canada, Australia, Israel and Ukraine. And the firm is increasingly powerful here at home:

According to MoD figures, in the financial years of 2020/21 – 2024/2025, Palantir’s UK subsidiary received £190m from the Ministry of Defence. Within this range one of their most lucrative contracts worth £75m was an ‘Enterprise Agreement’ which integrated ‘Palantir[‘s] software tool-set to accommodate…
MoD demand’

Typically:

these operations are shielded by national security exemptions and so are opaque to the outsider – most of the details of these contracts are not in public view or incredibly vague.

Thiel is a major donor to US president Donald Trump, which means that the UK taxpayer is helping fund a far-right presidency with violent global ambitions.

In this way, the British taxpayer is helping to support an administration that makes Britain less secure – antithetical to the very reasons used to justify the British state’s relationship with Palantir.

A movement that under Trump has threatened Denmark over Greenland, struck Iran de-stabilising a region and the wider global economy with a complete disregard for international law, and norms.

As Drone Wars also point out, Palantir has interests in the National Health Service, UK police and even the HS2 rail project. Their project isn’t just about war – it is about governance and state power.

Palantir’s hunger for war

Drone Wars surveyed the Palantir systems currently in use in the UK. These include military targeting  systems like Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP),Gotham, Foundry, MetaConstellation and Palantir Edge AI. Palantir’s ideology and business model hunger for war and crisis. But the firm also views wars as a laboratory to sharpen and develop their for-profit killing technology.

Drone Wars said that Ukraine and Israel are two of the prime examples:

For companies like Palantir, armed conflicts are prime opportunities to test their technologies under real-life conditions. This dynamic is acutely visible in the war in Ukraine and Israel’s ongoing wars in the middle eastern regions where Palantir has embedded itself within state and military institutions.

Adding:

In both conflicts, the company uses warzones as laboratories for refining their data analytics, surveillance and AI-driven decision-making systems.

A new way of war

Drone Wars’ conclusion paints a chilling picture of a rapidly emerging shift away from even basic accountability in warfare:

Palantir’s ascendence illustrates the value of data, algorithms and software not just in the governance of everyday life, but as a core foundation of contemporary military and social power.

The NGO said that Keir Starmer’s government:

is courting the company guided by the notion that they can deliver AI innovation and institutional regeneration.

This is a naive, technocratic approach – because Palantir promises something much darker than simple efficiency. The end result of reducing populations into “statistical trends” is profound dehumanisation, and:

in the case of war, to reduce combatants to data points does not recognise their humanity, it is a form of abstraction that lowers the threshold of violence; they are no longer persons but numbers to be killed.

The new way of war isn’t just coming, it is here. But Palantir’s vision is much broader than simply speeding up targeting processes. Palantir is driven by a far-right worldview in which democracy is a threat. Its leaders think ‘Western’ civilisation is under under threat and only profound, often racialised violence, authoritarianism and surveillance can rescue it. The firm’s increasing influence over British politics must be opposed tooth and nail.

Featured image via Getty/Eugene Gologursky

By Joe Glenton

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Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos gave a speech on 16 May to anti-genocide activists marching to mark Nakba Day. Hundreds of thousands turned out, despite police repression, in solidarity with the Palestinian people to mark the anniversary of the violent expulsion from their land and homes.

Stephen Kapos: ‘We must not tolerate it anymore’

And Kapos had firm words for the Israel lobby — including the UK government — and its “unending” smears against the anti-genocide movement. He pointed out that those smears are enabling the rise of fascism in Europe as well as the murder and displacement of Palestinians. And he skewered a major propaganda lie of that lobby — the claim that almost all Jews support the apartheid colony.

Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos addressed the Nakba ’78 rally on Saturday – speaking on the rise of the far right, the heroic spirit of Palestinians and the cynical mischaracterisation of our marches.
Watch his full speech on our Youtube channel: https://t.co/O2N8P13TvH pic.twitter.com/7Y6mt6kmTp

— Palestine Solidarity Campaign (@PSCupdates) May 18, 2026

As Kapos made his speech, Israeli media marked their genocidal theft of Palestine by deriding Jews who oppose genocidal colonisation as cowards trying to avoid antisemitism by fitting in with those who hate them. The nonsense of this could not be more clear. But when you’re trying to defend an inherently racist state and its ideology, you have little choice but to scrape through barrel bottoms.

In contrast, the moral clarity of Stephen Kapos and other Holocaust survivors who oppose Israel becoming the genocidal oppressor shines out. Watch his full, five-minute speech below.

Featured image via X/ Aliwala786110

By Skwawkbox

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Things are going swimmingly for Reform UK since their vile rhetoric won them a vast amount of seats in the local council elections, including an unprecedented win at Essex County Council.

In the 11 days since, eight newly elected Reform councillors have resigned, six have been suspended, four have defected, and one has been sacked.

Reform UK Gone Since the Local Elections

Dr David Bull has been sacked as Chair. pic.twitter.com/ARiP0rKyN3

— Reform Party UK Exposed (@reformexposed) May 19, 2026

But we also need to keep an eye on what those who still have power are up to.

Over then to Essex County Council, where one councillor has already resigned after he came under scrutiny for celebrating two Sikh women being raped.

Essex County Council has this week appointed cabinet members and as you’d expect, it’s a shambles.

Essex cabinet selection raises questions of suitability

Sam Journet has been appointed as the new head of education, SEND and skills. Last year he posted a video on his X account of a disabled man whom he accused of attacking his carers.

This man has attacked his carers to the point of hospitalisation, been arrested multiple times and continues like he has for the last 3 years screaming outside local business’ in Basildon.

All day, every day. Never any peace.

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He now has 2 PSCO who follow him around to protect… pic.twitter.com/390tj7LvgY

— Cllr Sam Journet (@ReformUKSam) June 14, 2025

The posted video doesn’t show anyone being violent, just a learning disabled man doing his shopping. Yet in the post, Journet said:

Why are we wasting £300+ a day on someone who needs to be locked up for assault, breaching the peace and causing alarm and distress.

A concerned Essex resident shared his frustrations that Journet had been appointed on the Castle Point Community Facebook group. He wrote:

I’m genuinely really concerned that Essex County Council’s new cabinet member for education, SEND and skills is someone who was posting things like this shortly after being elected.

Whatever your politics, that tone and attitude towards vulnerable people just doesn’t sit right with me at all.

In April, Byline Times reported that Journet was told to undertake council training and apologise, but there is no apology online and as you can see, the post is still available.

It’s bad enough that a man who belittled and harassed a disabled man has just been put in charge of SEND on the council, but it gets worse.

Bullying dyslexic councillor and harassing council staff

Journet has also been appointed leader of Basildon Borough Council, which forms part of Essex County Council.

In September 2025, he was arrested after council staff and other elected officials raised concerns of stalking and harassment. This came after Journet took to wearing Meta glasses and filming all interactions with staff, councillors and members of the public in September.

Byline Times wrote that Essex Police didn’t charge Journet, but conditions were put in place to stop him from contacting two of the councillors he’d allegedly targeted.

In the run-up to the elections, another Reform councillor said she wasn’t selected to run for re-election due to Journet bullying her because of being dyslexic. Sarah Shields also accused him of spreading lies to other members.

On Facebook in April, she shared:

I would like to formally state it is true that Sam Journet has been bullying me. His behaviour has caused significant issues between the Wickford and Rayleigh branches, resulting in Nick Cooper and Adi (branch officials) believing information about me that is not accurate. As a consequence, I have not been put forward for re-election.

Shields says she attempted to address this with Reform’s eastern region director, Dave Holland, but Holland was rude and swore at her.

Shields continued:

Over a period of months, Sam has subjected me to name-calling, including referring to me as “thick” because I am dyslexic. This has been particularly upsetting. Throughout my life I have struggled with dyslexia, but I have always worked hard to support my loving family and to achieve my goals.

Being spoken to in this way made me feel inadequate, undermined and ostracised from those I thought were on my side.

The former councillor said she also raised concerns with Reform’s chairperson, Dr David Bull, in March, but was told no action would be taken.

As a result of the bullying, false allegations and no action being taken when raising these deep concerns, I had no choice but to resign from Reform UK.

If the party is prepared to stand by someone engaging in bullying behaviour, then it is not the right party for me.

Reform will only protect privileged white men

No offence to Shields, but the writing has been on the wall for how Reform treats disabled people for a long time.

What’s clear here is that despite how much white women think Reform will protect them, its members will always side with a white man. The fact that so many people, women especially, have complained about Journet to Basildon Council and Reform UK, and he’s been promoted, shows just who Reform UK represents.

Unless you’re a privileged white man, you’ll lose every time.

Featured image via X/ ReformUKSam

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Humane World for Animals UK , the Fur Free Britain coalition, 50 MPs, veterinary experts and celebrities are strengthening calls on the UK government to ban imports of fur.

This comes as new investigative footage shows mink in Chinese fur farms trembling in tiny wire cages before being brutally killed for fur that could end up sold in the UK. And there are concerns that a reset of the UK-EU relationship could make banning fur imports more difficult.

Despite banning fur farming in 2003, the UK continues to import millions of pounds worth of fur from overseas. It has imported more than £60m worth from China in the last decade (2016-2025 inclusive), making China the single biggest source of UK fur imports.

Humane World for Animals campaigners say the UK government is complicit in cruelty for as long as it keeps allowing fur from China and other countries to enter the UK market.

The cruelty of fur farming

The investigation at five farms in Qinhuangdao and Dandong, northern China, reveals thousands of mink, foxes and raccoon dogs kept in barren wire cages measuring one square metre or less.

Many of the animals exhibit signs of psychological distress, such as repetitive head bobbing and pacing, resulting from the lack of stimulation and chronic stress.

Evidence shows the lifeless bodies of mink and raccoon dogs littering the ground below the cages, and pools of blood around the minks’ heads. A mink is seen writhing on the floor where the animal was thrown by a farm worker after being bludgeoned.

In March 2026, the UK government’s animal welfare committee published a damning report condemning the animal suffering involved in the UK fur trade. MPs and campaigners are increasingly concerned that the UK’s sovereign right to ban fur imports could be sacrificed by the government.

In the letter, MPs and Peers state:

We are concerned by recent media reports indicating that the EU reset could compromise the UK government’s ability to ban fur imports and sales.

A handful of EU countries, including Finland and Greece, continue to permit cruel fur farming.

Ruth Jones, MP for Newport West and Islwyn, says:

It’s sickening to think that fur from these animals tormented in tiny cages and brutally killed could end up traded in the UK. We can’t call ourselves a ‘nation of animal lovers’ if we ban cruelty here but then keep shipping it in from overseas.

Reports that the UK-EU reset might remove the UK’s freedom to ban imports of fur are extremely concerning. Labour backed a Fur Free Britain when we were in opposition, and we must not now trade that promise away.

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Claire Bass, senior director of campaigns and public affairs at Humane World for Animals UK, says:

Millions of animals are suffering on farms in countries including China, Finland and Greece so their fur can be shipped to the UK. The global fur trade causes immense animal suffering and virologists are ringing the alarm bell that it could be the source of another pandemic.

Our government must not sign any deals that keep the UK complicit in this cruel, reckless and unnecessary trade.

Former Defra minister Zac Goldsmith says:

One of the advantages of Brexit was that we could boost animal welfare in ways that were not previously possible. At the moment we don’t allow fur farming in the UK, but we do allow imports, which means we have simply exported cruelty.

We can now change that, unless the Brexit ‘reset’ closes that option off. It would be a terrible waste of a real and meaningful opportunity to stand up for animal welfare.

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Potential for disease

Fur farm outbreaks of COVID-19, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, and Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus (SFTSV) have resulted in millions of animals dying or being killed. SFTSV is an emerging infectious disease that affects animals and humans, with symptoms including fever, respiratory and gastrointestinal issues and even death.

Virologists have voiced serious concerns about the fur industry’s potential to drive disease spread to humans and even trigger the next pandemic. A 2024 Nature paper focused on Chinese fur farms identified 39 viruses as high-risk for spillover potential, including 13 potentially high-risk novel viruses. It concluded that fur farming represents:

an important transmission hub for viral zoonoses.

Outbreaks of infectious SFTVS disease on six fox farms in China resulted in “tens to hundreds” of deaths per farm and virologists have warned that:

close contact between farmed foxes and farmers could facilitate the viral spillover from foxes to humans.

Veterinarian professor Alastair Macmillan, formerly head of animal health and welfare evidence base core team at Defra,  says:

As a veterinary microbiologist, I am deeply concerned by the clear potential for disease transmission when highly stressed animals are confined in close proximity, while other species -including geese, ducks, and cats – roam between the cages.

We already know that fur farms can act as incubators for zoonotic diseases, and this footage perfectly illustrates that risk.

None of the animals on these fur farms is permitted a life that even remotely satisfies their natural behavioural instincts. These are wild, intelligent animals that belong in complex, stimulating environments. Instead, they are locked in barren wire cages, their lives reduced to a meaningless, repetitive loop of eating, sleeping, and wasting away, until the day they are finally killed and skinned.

Fur is a declining trade that needs stamping out

China’s fur trade has been in steep decline with a 90% reduction in animals kept and killed from 87 million animals in 2014 to 8 million in 2025, according to the China Leather Association.

The decline of the trade in China mirrors a similar downward trend worldwide. Globally there has been an 86% decline in the number of animals kept and killed for fur in the last decade, from 140 million in 2024 to 20.5 million in 2025.

You can read the letter from the MPs and Peers here.

Featured image via Humane World for Animals

By The Canary

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