Demi Moore (The Substance)

Toni Collette (Hereditary)

Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson (The Shining)

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Anthony Perkins (Psycho)

Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)

Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

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Florence Pugh (Midsommar)

Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby)

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Lupita Nyong’o (Us)

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Hugh Grant (Heretic)

Jeff Goldblum (The Fly)

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Tilda Swinton (Suspiria)

Dear all,

So there I was, catching snippets of the West Ham v Manchester City match on my phone, while also watching Kemi Badenoch and Theresa May strutting their funky stuff to a live performance by Nicole Scherzinger, followed by Rory Bremner playing Bruce Forsyth in PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT, ably assisted by Holly Willoughby. Could my life get any weirder?

The occasion was Lord Ashcroft’s eightieth birthday bash at the Grosvenor House hotel on London’s Park Lane. What an evening it turned out to be. I had been to three of these events before and the one thing I knew was to expect the unexpected. In previous years the cabaret live entertainment had included Kylie Minogue, the Jersey Boys, Lionel Ritchie., Michael Buble, Lulu, Cliff Richard, Denise Van Outen, Jasper Carrott, the Band of the Scots Guards, Tom Jones. I have a particular memory of being on the dance floor, boogying away to Kylie, when…. on second thoughts, you’ll have to wait for my autobiography for that particular juicy anecdote! Only a few months to wait!

I got up yesterday feeling terrible, and full of cold. But there was no way I was going to miss an Ashcroft party. So mid-afternoon on went the dinner suit, which for the first time was quite loose fitting. My friend Dan and his wife Laura were going to see COME ALIVE in Earls Court, so they drove me to the Grosvenor House and collected me afterwards. Here are Laura and I dressed up to the nines!

At the pre-dinner drinks reception I had some nice chats with various Tory luminaries including Sajid and Laura Javid, James and Susie Cleverly, Mark Francois and Mark Wallace who now runs Total Politics and Biteback. And then Liz Truss and her husband Hugh appeared, and we had a very entertaining exchange for quite some time. She was very relaxed and funny and declared I wasn’t right wing enough to appear on her Youtube show, and then tested me on my ‘soundness’. And with that we all trooped into the ballroom to sit down for dinner.

I was sitting far nearer the stage than on previous occasions, with Mark Wallace’s wife Isabella and Caroline Craig (wife of Sky News chief political correspondent, Jon) sitting either side of me. I first met Caroline back in 1985 when I was working in Parliament and she was working for Norfolk MP Richard Ryder. People tried to match us off. How different our lives might have been! She now runs Nigel Farage’s Westminster office and remains an absolute hoot.

Rory Bremner compered the whole evening and did a superb job, littered with impressions old and new. He does a brilliant takeoff of Donald Trump and was a master at judging how far he could push the audience’s boundaries. The highlight was a Peter O’Sullivan commentary of the first eighteen months of Labour in government. Political satire at its best.

Before the meal, Rory introduced the first, which we all assumed was a Queen tribute act, until an AI version of Michael Ashcroft appeared on screen singing ‘Don’t Stop Me Know’. It was a bit like the Abba Voyage holograms.

After the starter, we were entertained by a brilliant Ukrainian choir, who Michael has got to know, and help fund, on his various trips to Ukraine. They were then joined on stage by Katherine Jenkins. When the choir performed their first song, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Next up was an audience participation game of ‘Play Your Cards Right’, with Rory Bremner becoming Bruce Forsyth with Holly Willoughby playing the role of glamorous assistant. You had to be there… She has some great comic timing.

After the main course, Nicole Scherzinger performed four songs including ‘Diamonds are Forever, a song from ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and the Pussycat Dolls classic ‘Don’t Cha’. Three tables over from me, I spied Kemi Badenoch on her feet dancing away, and two tables being me, Theresa May was also really giving it some! Kemi later told me the song was one of her favourites when she was at university, so she immediately leapt to her feet. Nigel Farage, who was on the same table, stayed resolutely in his seat!

A highlight of these events has always been a speech by William Hague, and again he lived up to expectations. He was followed by Michael himself, who was clearly quite moved by the occasion. He was also very funny, but had three important things to tell the audience. Firstly, that he had just been awarded the Ukraine Order of Merit for all his work supporting the cause of Ukrainian freedom. He worse the medal around his neck the whole evening. His support for various Ukrainian charities, both military and civilian, has helped thousands of Ukrainians survive the hell of the last four years. Indeed, the audience were urged to donate to Olena Zelenska’s Cayo Foundation, which distributes monies to charities all over Ukraine.

Michael went on to announced that General Keith Kellog would be publishing his book with Biteback, but left the best to last. Last year the Imperial War Museum announced that after 15 years, it would be closing the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, which has been displaying his unique collection of Victoria and George Crosses. Frankly, it was an outrageous decision by the IWM and made for the most woke of reasons – the collection wasn’t ‘diverse’ enough, and they wanted to use the space for things other than honouring bravery. Idiots. Anyway. last night Michael announced that the collection had found a new home – at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. The audience roared their approval.

After his speech there was a series of happy birthday video messages including from Olena Zelenska, General Kellogg, Scott Morrison, Stephen Harper and Tony Abbott, as well as a number of Ukrainian MPs including my friend Oleksei Gonchorenko.

And then it was time for us all to speculate on who the final act of the evening might be. When the curtain went back the shock throughout the ballroom was palpable. It was Sir Elton John! There. Live, a few feet from us. Yet another audience roar ensued, as the opening bars of SATURDAY NIGHT rang out. He is a master entertainer and we were all spellbound, as he sang Tiny Dancer, Benny and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues, Candle in the Wind, and several more.

What a night. It was a truly unique experience, and I was honoured to have been invited.

Omar Awad — a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party in Jordan  — was arrested on 8 March 2026 after being snatched from the streets by security forces. Since then, he has been denied contact with both his family and his lawyers.

No warrant was presented, no formal charges have been announced. Authorities have provided no explanation for his detention.

The arrest comes as a shock for those who know Awad.

Jordan detains Omar Awad

A trained dentist, Awad first became known during his years as a student at a dental college in Ukraine. Even then, he stood out for his organising work among students. Colleagues recall a young activist who combined political conviction with an ability to build relationships across movements.

When he returned to Jordan after graduating, Awad brought the same energy with him. He quickly became active within the party’s youth sector, helping to organise political activity and grassroots campaigns. Over time, he rose through the ranks — first to the party’s Central Committee and eventually to its Political Bureau.

Those who have worked alongside him describe a leader who was both firm and approachable: someone capable of commanding respect while remaining deeply attentive to the people around him.

It is precisely this kind of political engagement that often attracts the attention of Jordan’s powerful security apparatus.

Jordan has long presented itself internationally as a stable ally of Western powers in a volatile region. But that stability has often relied on tight political control at home. Activists, journalists, and opposition figures have repeatedly faced detention, prosecution, and surveillance.

Such arrests are not isolated incidents. They form part of a broader pattern in which dissenting voices — particularly those critical of regional power structures or supportive of resistance movements — are treated as threats to state authority.

The detention of Awad appears to follow the same pattern.

Across the region, political repression has frequently accompanied geopolitical alignment with powerful Western allies. Governments that position themselves as pillars of “stability” often rely on security services to suppress political mobilisation that challenges the status quo.

And to be frank, it is getting wearying.

This is a fight no government can win

For Jordan’s ruling establishment, the arrest of a communist political leader may therefore be less about an individual activist and more about sending a message.

That message is: organised political opposition will not be tolerated.

Yet history shows that repression rarely silences movements for long. From anti-colonial struggles across the Arab world to labour and student movements in Jordan itself, political change has often been driven by individuals who refused to accept the limits imposed on them.

Omar Awad is known precisely for that kind of commitment — to social justice, political freedom and resistance against occupation.

One more time: if the authorities in Jordan think that they can separate us and hunt political activists down one by one, we at the Canary will use our platform and all the privilege afforded to us as a media organisation based in Britain to make sure this doesn’t happen.

We will be relentless. We will make sure that the state of Jordan’s repression does not go unnoticed in the West. Nothing can stand in the face of international solidarity. Just ask your mates west of the river.

Power and solidarity to Omar Awad.

Featured image via the Canary

An experienced cinematographer’s directorial debut has been part of a campaign to declassify government blood records of nuclear test veterans. Previously held under the highest levels of security clearance, those records are now being released to veterans’ families for the first time, with the full archive scheduled to be made publicly accessible through The National Archives later this year.

Recognition for nuclear test veterans

Alan Owen is co-founder of LABRATS International and former chairman of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association. Daniel Everitt-Lock’s film Our Planet, The People, My Blood follows Owen as he leads a landmark legal battle seeking recognition and compensation for the millions of people affected by nuclear weapons testing programs worldwide.

Check out the trailer:

Making the film took three years and 150,000km of travel by director Everitt-Lock and co-producer Rodrigo Borda. Journeying across four continents, they captured over 50 first-hand testimonies. These included people from Indigenous Marshallese communities (Marshall Islands), the Maralinga Tjarutja of Australia, the Spokane Nation of the United States and survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Everitt-Lock says:

Nine years ago, I watched a short film about nuclear test veterans and couldn’t believe that no one was talking about it. I set out to make a documentary that offered a deeply human account of the communities forgotten by the governments that harmed them.

Owen, from LABRATS International, comments:

This documentary shows the years of denial from one of the oldest establishments in the UK and across the world. The affected communities now have a voice through this incredible piece of work. My family’s story is just one of thousands which has been suppressed, it can now be heard.

The film premiered at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London, on 12 March. Following the world premiere, the feature documentary will have screenings in cinemas across the UK. Venues include London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton.

Everitt-Lock, adds:

I’m thrilled to share this story with the world as we continue to change the political agenda and fight for long-deserved justice for millions of victims and their families.

Details of other screening dates and tickets across the UK will appear here.

Everitt-Lock is a London-based director and cinematographer with a decade of professional credits across film and television. As a cinematographer, his work spans productions for Amazon, HBO, and the BBC across more than a dozen feature films and multiple television series.

Our Planet, The People, My Blood is his feature documentary debut. Since completion, it’s had endorsements from Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), CND and UN House Scotland. A Parliamentary screening in January 2026 secured cross-party political support. Jambika Docs has acquired Our Planet, The People, My Blood for international distribution.

Featured image via True Perspective Films

On the evening of 10 March, masked Israeli colonial settlers carried out a violent attack in the village of Hamamat al Malih, in the Northern Jordan Valley.

They came back presumably to kidnap the residents

Journalist and human rights activist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, better known as Andrey X, arrived in the village to find 70-year-old resident Abu Raed severely beaten and struggling to stand. Two hours earlier, settlers had stormed the place and found Abu Raed alone. So they viciously attacked him, then left the area. Abu Raed, like most of the Palestinians living there, has also previously been attacked by settlers. Just two nights before this attack, they also smashed the windows of his home and completely destroyed its contents.

The settlers returned, while Andrey X was still in the village. Armed with knives, sticks and rocks, they smashed the activists’ car, slashed all four tyres, and then chased them.

Andrey X, Abu Raed, and a 70-year-old solidarity activist, barricaded themselves in a house, but the settlers broke down the door and repeatedly attacked all three of them. Andrey X says he was thrown to the ground, then beaten and kicked in the face and head. He believes the settlers had other intentions when they returned to the village.

When they broke into the house and started attacking us, they had plastic zip ties in their hands, literally ready to use. My assumption is that they were planning  to kidnap the Palestinians. They saw there were no activists in the village two hours before, so they came back presumably to kidnap the residents. But I’m assuming that because we were there, they decided to just attack us instead.

Israeli occupation police claim, as always, there is no evidence the settlers have done anything wrong

The settlers then left the area, but not before taking Andrey X’s phone to ensure there would be no evidence of their attack. But shortly afterward, at around the same time as the police, they returned again, this time unmasked, and in different clothing. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Israeli’ occupation police did nothing, and said there was no evidence that the settlers carried out the attack. An Israeli ambulance also arrived, and at first refused to treat Abu Raed, saying “he is an Arab, what can we do.” Eventually it took him away, and transferred him to a Palestinian ambulance.

There is a military base next to the village and an outpost three kilometres away, to the north. According to Andrey X, that is where the settlers come from every day, to terrorise not only the residents of Hamamat al Malih, but also other nearby villages. While settlers in the Jordan Valley have historically been less physically violent towards Palestinians than in places such as Masafer Yatta, or East Ramallah, this is no longer true.

He says:

This changed instantly when the war with Iran started. There are now daily pogroms, with beatings and hospitalisation. They’ve been escalating their violence further and further, since the election of the current government. So when they see they can get away with more, then they escalate even further. Our activist colleagues who have infiltrated settler group chats say they’re openly saying to each other that now everyone’s distracted, this is their chance. They say they need to escalate and take as much as possible, while all attention is on the war with Iran.

Andrey X tells us that daily attacks occurred in Hamamat al Malih in the week leading up to this attack. And the day before, settlers had destroyed CCTV cameras, solar panels and windows in the village. He says it is no longer safe for Palestinians to stay there if there are no activists, or only a few residents present. The women, children, and livestock have already gone, because of the sustained violent attacks.

Commander of IOF Jordan Valley Brigade to Palestinians: ‘It’s better for you to leave than for us to expel you’

With their growing confidence, brought about by the inaction of the international community, attacks by these zionist colonisers have dramatically increased, and become more violent. According to a new report from 13 March, by the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, settlers carried out 192 attacks during just the last two weeks of the Israel-US war on Iran. These actions are encouraged by the occupation. On 8 March, Gilad Shriki, Commander of the Jordan Valley division of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), went to every remaining community in Area C of the Jordan Valley.

He threatened them, saying:

This is Area C, a military area, so you have to get out of here. It’s better for you to leave than for us to expel you.

More than 60 percent of the West Bank is in Area C. This means it is under complete “Israeli” control. The occupation is currently carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians living in this area. This includes those living in the Jordan Valley, 90 percent of which is in Area C.

These illegal settlers are aided and protected by the IOF, and armed by the Israeli occupation government. They work together for the benefit of the Jewish supremacist state of Israel, with the aim of ethnically cleansing the occupied Palestinian territory of all Palestinians. Not a day goes by that a Palestinian family is not displaced, a Palestinian home is not set alight or a Palestinian is not seriously injured or even killed. The forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory is a war crime under international law. It is time the inaction of the international community came to an end, and the Israeli occupation is held to account for its countless crimes against Palestinians.