Sula Sgeir is Scotland’s worst-performing gannet colony. But the body responsible for protecting it is still allowing hunters to kill gannet fledglings. A freedom of information request has exposed the colony’s collapse, even as the nature agency continues to permit the controversial seabird hunt.

Each year a group of men from the Isle of Lewis travels to the remote uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir. They go there to kill young gannet seabirds, known as “guga”, as part of a traditional hunt. It is the last legal seabird hunt in the UK. The activity is carried out under licence from NatureScot, and the bird’s flesh is eaten as a local delicacy.

The hunt has become increasingly controversial, triggering protests, political pressure in the Scottish Parliament, and even a dramatic rooftop occupation by activists calling for it to be banned. 45,000 people have now signed a petition against the guga hunt.

Last year, NatureScot allowed the killing of 500 birds and said this number is unlikely to affect the long-term stability of the gannet population.

An underperforming gannet colony

But wildlife advocacy group Protect the Wild obtained relevant documents via a freedom of information request. And the data shows Sula Sgeir is uniquely underperforming relative to every other comparable gannet colony in Scotland.

In a scientific assessment used to inform the 2025 licence, NatureScot’s adviser warns that Sula Sgeir is the only Special Protection Area (SPA) for gannets in Scotland whose population has shrunk.

Between 2001, when the island first became an SPA, and 2024, the number of apparently occupied nesting sites at Sula Sgeir fell by almost 2%. Meanwhile, all other colonies showed increases between 9% and 314%.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks caused a further 23% crash in 2023. But the decline was already in progress.

As NatureScot’s adviser states:

This indicates that the population growth rate has been suppressed compared to other gannet populations outwith the influence of HPAI.

In other words, bird flu didn’t cause the gannets’ decline – it only worsened a problem that was already underway.

Devon Docherty, Scottish campaigns manager at Protect the Wild said this shows the Guga hunt is driving the colony’s decline:

NatureScot says the Guga hunt does not negatively impact the gannet population. But their own data says otherwise. Sula Sgeir is Scotland’s worst performing gannet colony – the only one in decline while every other comparable colony grows.

This is not a coincidence. The hunters slaughter hundreds or thousands of chicks every year at their most vulnerable and critical life-stage, while causing chaos and distress throughout the entire colony.

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NatureScot must use their discretionary power and stop licensing this cruelty immediately.

Featured image via John Ranson / the Canary

Today, 26 March, the government released its latest sewage spill statistics, as gathered by the Environment Agency (EA). The banner headline boasted “Fewer and shorter storm overflow spills” over 2025. Well, that’s just marvellous, isn’t it?

However, once we get about a third of the way into the document, we get to the meat of the matter:

Much of this improvement reflects unusually dry conditions in 2025 following a particularly wet 2024.

So, the water companies are dumping less sewage, not because they’ve done their goddamn jobs, but because they got lucky with the weather.

Or, to put that another way, companies dumped untreated sewage once every two minutes over 2025. However, the UK water industry is such a (literal) shitshow that this constitutes a genuine improvement on 2024. And we’re chalking this up as a fucking win?

Laying cover for the polluters

The EA announced that 2025 saw 291,492 monitored spill events. That represents a 35% drop in storm overflow spills compared to the previous year. It also means that each individual overflow experienced an average of 20.5 spills, down from 31.8 in 2024.

Likewise, the overall duration of those spills also fell massively, by around 48%. Depending on the company, the durations decreased by between 40% and 70%.

However, these drops are to be expected, given that 2025 was an unusually dry year. Storm overflows will naturally see less use when the UK experiences fewer storms. Consequently, we’ll get a more accurate idea of whether the water companies have done their job when we get another year of heavy rain.

It also means that, in spite of the fact that storm overflows should only be used in extreme weather events, the water companies were still making regular use of them. Spring 2025 was the driest in over a century, and the year was the warmest on record overall.

Some water companies even instituted hosepipe bans for the public, and then continued to dump sewage themselves. Yorkshire Water, for example, imposed a 5-month hosepipe ban. Meanwhile, the company’s official performance rating was downgraded because it actually increased its pollution incidents.

Karen Shackleton, representing the Ilkley Clean River Group, said:

Today’s report creates a cover for water companies’ illegal pollution and neglect of our infrastructure. The figures for last year, in drought conditions, take us back to the level of pollution we had two to three years ago in normal weather. This is not a good news story. Yorkshire Water is still polluting illegally and the government is still failing to hold them to account.

Sewage — £6.9m in fines isn’t enough

2025 also brought with it an increase in the monitoring of sewage spills. In particular, all storm overflows in England are now fitted with ‘event duration monitors’ (EDM), giving us a more accurate picture of the extent of individual water companies’ crimes.

Along with this, the EA has also updated its online map of storm overflow monitoring. The EDM Data Portal publishes open-access monitoring information for overflows across England.

Along with this increased level of scrutiny, water companies have been slapped with numerous fines for their crimes. In 2025, these enforcement undertakings ran to a total of £6.9 million for breaches of environmental law.

However — and flogging a dead horse here for a minute — these fines clearly aren’t working. Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at anti-privatisation pressure group We Own It, said:

Under our privatised system, pollution is rewarded with profit. Less money invested in crucial infrastructure means more of billpayers’ money lining the pockets of shareholders.

Sewage pollution is a dire threat to public health, and has decimated our rivers and seas. This government must stop rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic, and bring water into public ownership without delay – starting with the collapsing Thames Water.

This is a cycle, and by now it’s a familiar one:

1. The water companies don’t maintain their infrastructure.
2. They dump sewage into our lakes, rivers and seas.
3. Then, the Environment Agency slaps them with fines and sanctions.
4. But the water companies go and jack up their prices, ostensibly so that they can fix their shoddy infrastructure.
5. Return to Step 1.

So tell me again who’s actually paying the fines here?

Featured image via the Canary

Donald Trump has described Britain’s two aircraft carriers as “toys” in another swipe at the UK over the Iran war.

The US president insisted America “doesn’t need” the UK’s help in the conflict, despite repeatedly criticising Keir Starmer’s reluctance to get involved.

Trump has been angry with the prime minister ever since he refused America permission to launch its initial strikes on Iran from RAF bases.

Starmer has also rejected the president’s request for warships to help re-open the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.

He made his latest comments during a cabinet meeting in the White House.

Trump said: “We had the UK say that we’ll send our aircraft carriers – which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have.

“We’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said ‘oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much’. Don’t bother, we don’t need it. And we don’t need them.”

The UK’s two aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, cost around £6 billion each to build and weigh 65,000 tonnes. They are the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy.

Senior UK government sources have previously insisted that America has never requested aircraft carriers, and that the government has never offered to send any either.

On the morning of 26 March in Filton, Bristolians immobilised a weapons factory of Israeli arms contractor Elbit Systems. The building, used for the production of “battle-tested” drones used for strike missions on men, women and children in Gaza, was forced to a halt by a chain of around 60 people.

The picket line formed at 6.50am, prior to workers arriving, and remained firm for at least 90 minutes. Actionists chanted “Shut Elbit Down!” and “Free Palestine!”, and held Palestinian flags and banners demanding ” STOP ARMING GENOCIDE”.

The protest indicated a clear message: Bristol’s people want to drive contractors like Elbit Systems out of their city. Protesters pushed past barriers blocking access to the main gate, which has 24/7 security guards. And they stood with their arms linked, blocking any workers or vehicles entering the site.

Elbit Systems fuelling and profiting from genocide

Elbit Systems is Israel’s main weapons provider and self-proclaimed “backbone” of the Israeli Defense Fleet through supply of drones, armoured vehicles, and munitions. The company’s UK subsidiary UAV Engines Ltd manufactures the engine of the Hermes 450 drone. Israel used such a drone to murder UK aid workers in Gaza in 2024.

As the actionists’ banner stating “ELBIT PROFITS FROM MURDER” highlights, in 2024, at the height of the ongoing genocidal campaign in Palestine by Israel, Elbit announced revenues of US$ 6.8bn.

Like other Elbit Systems facilities, activists have targeted this site several times since October 2023. Its sister site in Aztec West closed down last September, years before its lease expiry. It’s likely that direct action had rendered it financially unviable.

The recent US-israeli strike on Iran has further lined Elbit’s pockets. According to the company’s chief exec, Bezhalel Machlis, Elbit Systems supplies Israel with long-range guided munitions and equipment for electronic warfare.

A spokesperson for the actionists said:

In January, Elbit was denied a £2 billion contract with the MoD. In February, the high court ruled the proscription of Palestine Action unlawful on two grounds.

Most of our brothers and sisters, imprisoned for resisting genocide, have been granted bail and able to return to their loved ones.

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These victories are symptoms of a bigger shift. Thousands have signed up to a direct action training to resist companies like Elbit. Its doors in Bristol will shut for good, not because of the government, but because of the people

Another protester said:

Bristol, through hosting military contractors such as this one we’re outside the gates of, is covering itself in the blood of Palestinian men, women and children. I am horrified to see my city again and again on the wrong side of history. Complicity is no longer an option.

It is our duty as workers with pension pots, payers of tuition fees, parents of children at schools. Where companies like Elbit get free entry to careers fairs, by the way. It is our duty as people of Bristol to disturb the workings of this factory yesterday, today, and tomorrow, until it is forced to shut down.

Featured image via Barold / the Canary

Many American bases across the Gulf states are uninhabitable due to extensive damage caused by Iranian counter strikes against us colonial infrastructure in the region.

In a rare divergence from the official imperial line, the New York Times (NYT) reported that various US military installations had been all but destroyed.

The US-Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

A month into the war, the NYT finally reported the extent of the damage to a key theatre of US imperial power projection.

Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage.

Adding:

Six U.S. service members were killed in a strike on Port Shuaiba that destroyed an Army tactical operations center. Iranian drones and missiles also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel, and Camp Buehring, damaging maintenance and fuel facilities.

US bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also took serious damage:

In Qatar, Iran struck Al Udeid Air Base, the regional air headquarters of U.S. Central Command, damaging an early-warning radar system. In Bahrain, a one-way Iranian attack drone struck communications equipment at the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. At Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles and drones damaged communications equipment and several refueling tankers.

A complete lack of planning

Historically speaking, the bases America maintains in the Gulf were built to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But their proximity to Iran left them exposed when Trump, under Israeli influence, pulled the trigger on a new war. In one telling line, the NYT captures the shortsightedness of US foreign policy planning.

Part of the problem for the Pentagon is that two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan — war zones where the United States quickly established air superiority — left the military with facilities and headquarters close to the current front lines.

This has forced the US to relocate personnel and equipment—in some cases to Europe—leading to serious questions about its lack of planning:

The lack of better planning, some military officials said, also reflects a miscalculation on the part of the administration about how Iran would respond.

Censoring the war

The levels of destruction might also explain why spy satellite firms have restricted access to imagery, as we previously reported. On 11 March several firms insisted they had not be told to do so “by any government”.

This claim has since turned out to be false.

Military sources told journalist Ken Klippenstein that the Pentagon had threatened to withdraw lucrative contracts to ensure satellite imagery providers played ball.

🚨 US military document leaked to me shows how the Pentagon is working with private companies to manipulate the information you see about the Iran warhttps://t.co/w9G5bz8QZy

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 24, 2026

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It may not have been an order, but the Pentagon’s ‘guidance’—paired with the reported threat—had the same end effect.

As Klippenstein explained:

While the Pentagon “guidance” to the commercial companies is framed as an advisory, the companies comply because their contracting relationships with the government make them afraid to bite the hand that feeds them.

The failures of the past are making America’s latest war fantasies untenable. And, as the US empire implodes from within, and across the Arabian gulf, the Pentagon is no longer able to mop up the mess.

Now even the NYT, the paper of the liberal wing of US empire, is reporting critically on the misplanning and poorly executed was trump claims to be winning.

Featured image via the Canary

The League is encouraging the public to take part in the hunting consultation and use it to back the government’s pledge to ban so-called trail hunting, but also to demand new measures to outlaw reckless and ‘accidental’ hunting, to remove loopholes in the existing Hunting Act 2004, and to introduce custodial sentences to act as a deterrent for lawbreaking.

New figures released by the League today to coincide with the consultation show suspected illegal fox hunting is rife. During the last fox and cub hunting seasons, from August 2025 to March 25 this year, the charity recorded 488 reports of foxes seen being pursued, along with 1,220 reports of anti-social behaviour and havoc inflicted on rural communities by fox hunts. Pre-laid trails were recorded being laid at only four per cent of hunt meets attended by monitors.

The consultation will be open for 12 weeks from today and invites respondents not only to give their opinions on trail, drag and clean boot hunting, but also “whether any other legislative changes are needed to ensure that a ban is effective”.

Emma Slawinski, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This consultation is the very welcome start of a process which should lead to more effective legislation allowing the courts and police to tackle persistent and prolific illegal hunting, something the League has been lobbying many different governments for over many years.

“The time for change is now – 21 years after the original hunting ban came into force, we are now finally on the brink of consigning this old-fashioned blood sport to history

“So-called trail hunting must be banned, the exemptions in the Hunting Act removed, the end of so-called accidental hunting, and jail sentences introduced to act as a deterrent for those who would break new stronger fox hunting laws.”

The charity has public backing. In February 2025, on the twentieth anniversary of the Hunting Act coming into force, the League handed a 104,000-signature petition into Number 10 calling for stronger laws on hunting, followed this year by a 36,000-signature open letter to the government urging it to stand by its promises to do just that.

The League’s fox hunting data was collected from reports into the League’s Animal Crimewatch service, the League’s professional investigators, and other monitor and saboteur groups in the field.

The hunt havoc includes reports of trespass in people’s gardens, attacks on family pets, reports of other wildlife such as deer being chased, hounds running amok on busy roads and causing road traffic accidents or on a railway line – all activities inconsistent with the idea of following a trail, which is what hunts claim to be doing.

However, the League says the figures are just the tip of the iceberg, showing only those hunts being monitored, with hunt behaviour in many remote rural areas and incidents of animals being chased and torn apart going unreported.

Emma added: “For more than 20 years, hunts have carried on breaking the law and ignoring the ban on chasing and killing wild animals with dogs.

“This is a pivotal moment for animal welfare and, as well intentioned as the original ban was, this time around we need to get it right with stronger measures to stop the cruelty and killing.”

More about how to take part in the consultation, and how people can make their voice heard, is available here: https://www.league.org.uk/hunting_consultation