The Israeli occupation, on 9 July, tried but failed to assassinate Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem.

“Israeli” drone targeted Hamas spokesperson’s car

An Israeli occupation drone targeted Qassem’s vehicle near Abbas Junction, West of Gaza City, on the afternoon of 9 July. Qassem was not in the vehicle at the time. But his bodyguard, Mohammed Al-Fayoumi, was killed. Three others were also wounded, as the car was hit on a crowded street.

Qassem had attended a press conference on 7 July, in which Hamas announced it was dissolving its civilian governing body in Gaza. He told the AFP news agency at the time:

Hamas has taken a new step in that it will no longer be in charge of the Gaza Strip, in order to remove any pretexts for the occupation, which continues its aggression and war of extermination.

Humanitarian worker targeted and killed by “Israeli occupation”

On 8 July, the day before the attempt on Qassem’s life, Israeli occupation forces assassinated Mohamad Fawaz al-Waheidi in Gaza City’s al Sabra neighbourhood. An airstrike targeted the civilian vehicle he was travelling in.

Al-Waheidi was killed just before a public screening of the Argentina–Egypt World Cup match, which he had organised, was due to start.

A respected community leader and the director of the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza City, al-Waheidi was known for:

his tireless efforts to resolve disputes and serve his people.

Three other Palestinians were also killed in the targeted attack – including two brothers, aged 8 and 10, on their way home from playing football.

Al-Waheidi’s assassination occurred as Hamas continues talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo, on the second phase of the peace plan.

Gaza “ceasefire” continues to be violated by “Israel”

Gaza’s civil defence agency and health officials say six Palestinians were killed on 9 July 2026. Since 7 October 2025, the occupation has killed at least 73,110, and injured more than 173,599 people.

Although a “ceasefire” agreement was signed in October 2025, the Israeli occupation continues to violate it. Air and artillery strikes are still targeting displacement areas. The entry of humanitarian aid continues to be blocked. Demolitions are still occurring inside the “yellow line”. At least 1,092 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began, on 11 October 2025.

Featured image via the Canary

By Charlie Jaay

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So… erm… what exactly is going on with the casting announcements for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing?

Back in June, Strictly bosses surprised fans when they began unveiling stars from the upcoming line-up months earlier than normal, with EastEnders favourite Lacey Turner the first to be confirmed.

In the days that followed, Dani Dyer and Delta Goodrem were also revealed to have signed up, and after a week’s break, hairstylist Chris Appleton became the fourth star announced.

After that, there was nothing for three weeks, until Cach Mercer became the fifth contestant (and second Love Islander…) to be announced.

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However, this inconsistency hasn’t stopped rumours from spreading about other celebrities who could be hitting the dance floor in 2026, with a host of stars from the world of TV, sport and beyond tipped to be taking part.

While we wait for more news from the BBC, here’s a quick guide to which celebrities have been rumoured for Strictly 2026 so far…

Josie Gibson

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Way back in March, daytime favourite Josie Gibson was named by The Sun as the “first celeb lined up” for the new season.

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Josie first rose to fame as the winner of the final series of Big Brother in the Channel 4 era, and since then, she’s become known for her appearances on This Morning and I’m A Celebrity.

The tabloid’s “source” claimed that bosses had been hoping to get Josie to sign up for years, and that they’re “hoping this year is the year”.

Josie later downplayed the rumours, insisting she’d “had nobody contact me” about an appearance on Strictly, and that the whole thing was an April Fool’s joke.

Dame Sarah Storey

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Dame Sarah Storey is a British sporting legend, with a whopping 19 gold medals from the Paralympic games – in both cycling and swimming – and 75 world records to her name.

In June, The Sun cited a source who said that for her next venture, Dame Sarah had signed up for Strictly and was “really excited to be learning a new skill”.

Before that, she had signed up for what would turn out to be the final season of Dancing On Ice on ITV, but had to withdraw from the series before it began due to injury.

Jeff Brazier

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At the beginning of June, The Sun claimed that Jeff Brazier had been approached about taking part in Strictly, three years after his eldest son Bobby Brazier competed on the show, finishing as runner-up in the live final.

Jeff, best known as a TV presenter, previously competed on the celebrity version of Race Across The World with his younger son Freddie, having also taken part in reality shows like The Farm, Celebrity MasterChef and Dancing On Ice.

Following Bobby’s stint, Jeff said he had turned down the chance to appear on Strictly so as not to step on his son’s toes, but the tabloid claims he’s now had a change of heart…

Melanie Walters

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To millions of viewers, Melanie Walters is best known for her work as the loveable Gwen in all three seasons of Gavin & Stacey.

In late June, The Sun reported that Melanie had “signed up for Strictly”, two years on from the show-stopping finale of Gavin & Stacey, which aired on Christmas Day in 2024.

Kristian Nairn

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When it was confirmed that Dani Dyer had signed up for Strictly 2026, it was no major surprise, as she’d originally been booked to compete a year earlier, until an injury sustained during training meant she was no longer able to compete.

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However, Dani wasn’t the only Strictly star who had to bow out early last year.

Like the Love Island winner, Game Of Thrones star Kristian Nairn also had to withdraw from Strictly 2025 on medical grounds, leading many to wonder if he, too, has been invited back for this year’s run.

Kristian is probably most well-known for his performance as Hodor in Game Of Thrones, but he also appeared more recently in the comedy Our Flag Means Death.

Jake Quickenden

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Jake Quickenden is a reality TV veteran at this point, famously finishing in second place in the jungle mere weeks after being voted off The X Factor back in 2014.

Since then, he’s also appeared in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and Dancing On Ice, which he won the year the ITV skating show was revived in 2018.

The Sun has claimed that, since Jake joined the cast of the CBBC series Jamie Johnson FC, Strictly bosses are now considering him to be “in the BBC stables”, therefore “part of the gang” and a suitable candidate for Strictly 2026.

Tom Parker Bowles

Last year, Tom Parker Bowles was named in the press as a hot favourite for the Strictly Come Dancing line-up, but ultimately wound up not being part of the cast.

Tom is best known for being a food critic and writer – plus, as his name suggests, the son of Queen Camilla and her first husband Andrew Parker-Bowles.

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Because he was reported to be at the top of producers’ wishlists in 2025, many outlets are already suggesting that he might make it onto this year’s series instead.

Roman Kemp

Alright, this is one we’d say should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, but stay with us.

In mid-June, former Strictly Come Dancing finalist Emma Barton was being interviewed by Roman Kemp on The One Show, where she took a moment to reflect on her time on the BBC competition series.

She claimed: “It’s nerve-racking, isn’t it? And it’s scary?”

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“Roman, you know, as well…” Emma added, to which Roman quickly interjected: “I have never done it! I’ve never done it.”

However, the faux pas led many to question whether Emma may have let slip something that she shouldn’t have, with Roman having been named in the press as a potential Strictly contestant numerous times in the past.

For now, at least, the BBC is staying tight-lipped on all Strictly Come Dancing casting rumours, ahead of the show’s return to our screens in the autumn.

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The Lotus Eaters Media (YouTube)

6 min read30 min

Rupert Lowe this week became the first British politician to appear on The Joe Rogan Experience. The podcast has more British listeners than the BBC’s Today programme, and the interview with Lowe drew well over 1m views within the first 24 hours.

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His appearance was not without controversy. Politicians in Scotland expressed outrage over Lowe describing the Dunblane school massacre as “one murder” in a discussion about UK gun law. A Restore Britain spokesperson later said: “Rupert was clearly referring to one incident.”

The interview was nevertheless the latest example of the Restore Britain leader and Great Yarmouth MP tapping into a digital landscape that Britain’s mainstream political parties are still getting to grips with.

Lee Cain, former Downing Street Director of Communications and founder of Charlesbye Strategy, told PoliticsHome that insurgent parties such as Restore Britain are using digital platforms to reach audiences that the mainstream parties have “simply stopped reaching”.

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“Westminster is always the last place to learn modern comms style; it rejects innovation because it is so focused on traditional print media and fails to appreciate or understand how people are consuming news outside the bubble,” Cain said.

The Restore Britain-supporting Lotus Eaters podcast is another example of Lowe’s digital strategy.

The channel currently has over half a million YouTube subscribers and, at the time of writing, had received more than a million views on YouTube alone in the last week. It regularly hosts Restore Britain party officials such as campaigns director and spokesman Charlie Downes and writer and senior fellow Harrison Pitt, with Lowe himself appearing a number of times.

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Launched in 2020, Lotus Eaters is run by hard-right YouTuber and political commentator Carl Benjamin, known also as Sargon of Akkad – a reference to the first emperor in history. Benjamin is a staunch supporter of “remigration” and has previously called for “10 years of zero immigration”.

Speaking to PoliticsHome about his journey to Restore Britain, Benjamin said he had been left “very dissatisfied with any of the parties on the left”, with one of the reasons being that they “fail to recognise or even acknowledge that there are a native people in the islands of Britain”.

“We’ve been looking for a party that recognises that actually the British people are the people with the primary claim to these islands, and Restore Britain is the only one in the mainstream that has articulated that message.”

The name, Lotus Eaters, is, according to Benjamin, an “esoteric reference” to Book 9 of The Odyssey. In the text, some of Odysseus’ men who are sent to gather information from the “Lotus Eaters” eat the flower themselves and instantly forget the purpose of their journey and their wish to return home.

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Benjamin said in a video on the subject several years ago that the tale is “a representation of the ethos of the site” – a place to seek respite from “the constant stream of rage and clickbait you can’t really avoid on the internet… somewhere where we can provide worthwhile content that helps you better understand the world and yourself as we also work to understand the world and ourselves better than we did yesterday.”

The channel, based in Swindon, does not just cover British political content, with other videos looking at politics abroad and one defending the “great” Star Wars prequels. The channel offers a paid-up membership, with subscription plans running up to £30 a month. The website also offers courses including in Ancient Greek Virtue Ethics.

Asked by PoliticsHome if the channel ever donates money to Restore Britain, or receives it from the party, Benjamin said: “The answer to that is no, but that’s not really your business, is it?”

A disclaimer on the YouTube channel states it is promoted by Lotus Eater Media on behalf of Restore Britain. Benjamin says that this is to ensure that if any presenters want to stand for election in the future, they do not fall foul of the law.

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Other hosts include Benjamin “Beau” Dade, Firas Modad, and Dan Tubb. The podcast has also platformed Callum Barker, previously an activist for the far-right Homeland Party – a splinter organisation from neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative.

Restore Britain figures have used the podcast as a place to discuss party strategy.

For example, speaking on the Lotus Eaters last month about the upcoming Greater Manchester mayoral election, Downes said the contest would “probably require a lot less manpower” than the recent Makerfield by-election because it’s going to be “an air war”.

“Our view is that the air war is going to be where that particular election is won, which means that we don’t need to mobilise thousands of our activists on quite such a regular basis… so we will have the capacity to continue to grow the team whilst that is going on.”

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Alan Finlayson, Professor of Political and Social Theory at the University of East Anglia, told PoliticsHome that the use of digital allows people to become “ideological entrepreneurs who can make a living from producing political content”. He added that this is something Benjamin is “very practiced and experienced at”.

“You can make a living from that, so that means also that people from a much wider political spectrum can find a space they couldn’t find on the older regulated platforms, people who were very dispersed with fringe views.”

Finlayson pointed to individuals such as flat-earthers, or those on the radical right. Now, Finlayson said, they can “find each other and amplify each other’s message and become part of large groups, so all that’s changed the landscape and the noise and sound of politics”.

He added: “These offer an opportunity for people, often people not engaged in politics before, or people with fringe political views, to feel their power and feel like they’re deeply known, and they’re being recruited to a much larger movement that they can represent in their communities and workplaces.”

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On the podcast style, Finlayson said it is “MAGA-esque” – a reference to the pro-Donald Trump movement in the US – in the sense that “it is positioning itself as militantly against the mainstream. And it’s also MAGA-esque in the sense that it is very conscious of breaking the rules, at least claiming to break the rules of discourse.

“And to revel in, we’re not going to be careful, we’re going to say what we want, we’re free speech people, it does a lot of that.”

This is something Benjamin rejects. “You’re trying to apply an American phenomenon onto a foreign country. It just doesn’t track. MAGA is a specifically ideological movement and patriotic movement that applies to America and not Britain.”

Despite helping to set up the Swindon branch of Restore Britain, Benjamin said he was not planning to put himself forward as a candidate. 

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“It’s not a very pleasant thing to do. The people in the media are generally bad people. Almost every single one of them is a paid liar, someone who is out to hurt you, out to hurt your reputation with your friends and your family, because not only do they gain gratification from taking these scalps, but they think that they’re very influential in determining the course of the country. And so I’ve decided I just don’t really want to do that.”

 

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Trump is synonymous with the grift. He is grifting on critical minerals deals too, unsurprisingly. Incoming reports show that the administration’s push to secure these resources has become a family-and-friends cash cow.

Trump’s sons and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s children are especially positioned to profit from billion dollar deals. Cantor Fitzgerald — led by Lutnick for more than 30 years before he handed ownership to his children after becoming Trump’s Commerce Secretary — is all over these deals.

Critical minerals: Hottest cash cow

The New York Times (NYT) reported that the Trump administration has provided, or is considering providing more than $8.9 billion in federal funding to 14 companies with financial ties to the Trump or Lutnick families. All of these firms are in lockstep with the US government, supporting its critical minerals and mining projects.

The Trump administration has provided or is considering providing $8.9B+ in funding to 14 firms with ties to the Trump &/or Lutnick families that are actively working with the US government on mining deals, @PaulSonne & @EricLiptonNYT report. @nytimes https://t.co/zz1rINQwh0

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 28, 2026

According to the report:

This emboldened mixing of federal policymaking and personal business began shortly after Mr. Trump returned to office last year, when the Trump and Lutnick sons played a role in billions of dollars of cryptocurrency deals as the fathers helped set policies that supercharged the crypto industry.

Now, the families’ ethically tangled pursuit of profits is extending to the new arms race for critical minerals.

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Kaz Resources

The most striking example is the Kazakhstan tungsten deal. According to the NYT, the US offered $1.6 billion in financing for a Kazakh tungsten venture led by Cove Kaz Capital — a mining investment and development firm working with US clients — in 2025. Trump personally negotiated the deal with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Lutnick was heavily involved throughout the process.

On 31 October, six days before the agreement was signed, Trump’s sons took a 20 percent stake in Skyline Builders through Dominari Securities. Skyline Builders later merged with Cove Kaz Capital and was renamed Kaz Resources, the company now developing the tungsten project.

Lutnick’s sons helped to raise $210 million for the deal through Cantor Fitzgerald. The developer has since asked the Pentagon for another $400 million.

Vulcan Elements

Vulcan Elements offers another case study in how this network operates. The NYT also reported that in August 2025, Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, took an undisclosed stake in Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet startup.

Three months later, the Pentagon granted Vulcan a $620 million loan. The company’s valuation jumped from around $200 million to nearly $2 billion.

The deal was initiated by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser and close friend of Trump Jr. Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering, Vulcan’s was the only one pushed by a top presidential aide. 

USA Rare Earth

Then there is the USA Rare Earth deal.

USA Rare Earth raised $1.5 billion from private investors in a capital raise overseen by none other than Cantor Fitzgerald

The NYT reported that this month, the Trump administration committed an eyewatering $1.6 billion in financial support to USA Rare Earth.

The potential Greenland heist

Nor is this pattern confined to a single continent.

Just this week, Trump revived his bid for the US to acquire Greenland, threatening to pull all American armed forces out of Europe after the continent repeatedly pushed back.

Trump is eyeing Greenland for its mining opportunities. According to Global Witness,  his cronies are ready to cash in on Trump’s Greenland policy.

Critical Metals Corp has become the majority stakeholder in Tanbreez Mining Greenland, which owns one of the world’s largest rare earth deposits, and has received a $120 million letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank.

The company has also received investment from Cantor Fitzgerald (of course), and an agreement to supply rare earths to a Louisiana refinery. Governor Jeff Landry, who announced the refinery, was later appointed Trump’s Special Envoy to Greenland.

The robbery of DRC critical minerals

The resource grab extends to Africa too, where the Trump administration has secured a strategic partnership with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The deal, signed at the White House in December 2025, grants the US special access to vast reserves of copper, cobalt, and lithium — metals essential for the production of microchips, EV batteries, and weapons systems.

The US Development Finance Corporation invested $600 million in Orion Resource Partners, which secured a 40 percent stake in Glencore’s operations, despite Progressive International documenting Orion’s bribery and environmental cover-ups in Guinea.

Trump ally Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, is positioning for security contracts through his company Vectus Global, Progressive International noted.

The Canary recently profiled the profile of Prince by the FT, where his bloodthirsty mercenary activities are normalised.

The FT just bigged up warlord Erik Prince without blinking an eye

Erik Prince built Blackwater, the mercenary firm that made a fortune off the Iraq War. But now suddenly, the FT thinks he’s redeemed.https://t.co/DDVm0StGbDhttps://t.co/DDVm0StGbD

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— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) June 29, 2026

Trump seems to be running his presidency like a family-and-friends enrichment scheme, to put it mildly.

Featured image via the Canary

By Nandita Lal

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Presumptive new PM Andy Burnham has indicated that he will not undo any of his defunct predecessor’s war on UK rights and freedoms in support of Israel. In fact, he has made clear that he doesn’t think it’s tough enough and intends to take it further.

Burnham picks up where Starmer left off

For example, Burnham has said that he wants the under-16s ban to be delivered with urgency and reinforced the lies about doing it to ‘protect children’. But he thinks it is only a starting point: a “critical first step”.

Burnham made a milksop apology yesterday for Labour’s ‘stance’ on Palestine, but he still hasn’t called the Gaza genocide a genocide. And he stopped a long way short of flagging even an interest in any significant change to the UK’s slavish support for Israel and its crimes.

Instead, he waffled absolute nonsense about “ensur[ing] the Israeli government adheres to international law” – something the terror colony will never do. He even threw in his hope “to keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive”. The ‘two-state solution’ has always been a complete con, but never more than now when Israel has stolen most of Gaza and has broken the West Bank into fragments it continues to consume brutally.

Zionist horror show

None of this will come as any surprise to those who have watched as Burnham was first manoeuvred into place by, then surrounded himself with, an array of the usual pro-Israel horrors of the Labour right. These have included some of the same handlers around the disgraced Starmer — and will include Starmer’s Zionist ‘national security’ adviser, who will stay in post.

Nor is the ‘more of the same’ approach limited to Israel’s crimes in Palestine and its illegal wars on Lebanon and Iran. Burnham has refused to give the Scots an independence referendum their politics merits. He has said nothing about reversing Starmer’s dangerous, unconstitutional block on the Irish reunification referendum required by the Good Friday Agreement. He has shrugged off questions about renationalising energy and other strategic sectors. He has said he will follow Starmer’s counterproductive ‘fiscal rules‘ and carry out Starmer’s planned massive increases in weapons spending.

Backdoor mandatory ID

Burnham’s support for the under-16s social media ban shows he is just as committed to the backdoor introduction of mandatory ‘Digital ID’. In fact, Starmeroid horror Liz Kendall said she has spoken to Burnham and obtained his agreement for further such measures. Those ‘further measures’ appear to include a “massive crackdown” on VPNs – virtual private networks – that internet users can deploy to protect their security and hide their geolocation.

All of this is designed to repress and restrict the freedoms of UK citizens to oppose UK government crimes, especially its collaboration in Israel’s endless crimes. Anyone thinking Burnham will represent a more substantial change than ‘same old, same old with a more amiable face’ is indulging in forlorn hope and ignoring the evidence.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Early on 9 July, 3 action-takers from People Against Genocide successfully evaded security to enter the Tring facility of military tech and cyber warfare company Ultra Intelligence & Communications (Ultra I&C) in Tring, Hertfordshire.

Once inside the building, the PAG team began dismantling military equipment, to close the facility down, and stop production.

Ultra I&C is a key supplier to UAV Tactical Systems, the Leicester subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons maker. Elbit produces 85% of the Israeli military’s killer drone fleet, and 80% of their other weaponry and equipment. Elbit boasts that its deadly products are “battle-tested” on Palestinians. And they have been used against civilian populations across West Asia.

Ultra I&C claims to specialise in “AI mission solutions” and “secure battlefield communications systems”. And in a major step, in October 2024, it entered into a collaboration agreement with the US arm of South-Korean weapons giant Hanwha. The collaboration focuses on integrating Ultra I&C’s Command and Control (C2) gateway with Hanwha’s missile systems, specifically the K239 Chunmoo rocket launcher.

Job listings for Ultra I&C’s Tring site, clearly show that it’s a manufacturing facility, making and developing physical products. A data breach in 2024 confirmed that besides working with Elbit, Ultra I&C works with the Israeli military directly.

People Against Genocide has previously targeted Ultra I&C, blockading its Maidenhead site in June. In that action, activists used specially-modified suitcases containing lock-on devices to successfully prevent access to the facility.

In a statement released by the direct action group, a spokesperson said:

We are taking direct action against Ultra I&C’s Tring facility today to prevent the production of more deadly weapons systems, which are being used to enable the genocide in Gaza.

Rather than attempt to appeal to governments, we are going straight to the source, the weapons factories, to shut them down.

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By The Canary

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Hamish Falconer told MPs that UK permissions for US use of British air bases “remain in place,” even as Trump unilaterally declared the ceasefire “over” and resumed airstrikes against Iranian targets.

UK play’s Trump’s poodle

Falconer, the Labour MP for the Middle East, said in Parliament:

In relation to the question about military support, I want to be clear: the UK stands with our Gulf allies in a defensive capacity. As the shadow Foreign Secretary alluded to, we do provide capability to our friends and partners in the Gulf to protect themselves against these attacks. We do also continue to provide permissions to the United States to use our airbases, where they are taking defensive action on behalf of our partners and allies. Those arrangements have been discussed by the relevant Ministers from the Ministry of Defence on a number of occasions, and they remain in place.

He was responding to Labour backbencher Apsana Begum, who pressed Falconer on the extent of British military involvement, asking whether the UK is conducting case-by-case authorisation for each US strike. He avoided a direct answer to that. 

Falconer is a pro at avoidance, see story below:

Falconer’s cheap platitudes on abducted Gazan doctor Abu Safiya have sparked public backlash over Britain’s complicity in Israeli war crimes, and his brazen attacks on critics.https://t.co/XGP9UZf3jP

— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) July 6, 2026

Multilateral maritime mission

Falconer’s colleague, Yvette Cooper meanwhile, has also been boasting about UK’s role in this war of choice on Iran.

Yvette Cooper also confirmed to MPs in Parliament that the UK and France stand ready to deploy the wider Multinational Military Mission to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Cooper said the UK strongly condemns Iran’s recent attacks on commercial ships, including those from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. She said no country has the right to hijack international shipping.

She said:

We stand in solidarity with our partners across the region. Iran must halt these attacks on international shipping, support the reopening of the strait and return to de-escalation and diplomacy.

The UK stands ready to support a return to talks, because Iran must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon and we need the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. That is why, alongside France, the UK has established a multilateral maritime mission to support  the de-mining of the strait, verification and reassurance to shipping, and ultimately to support the global economy, and ease the cost of living back home.

UK lectures Iran while ignoring its own imperial history

Cooper says no country has the right to hold the global economy hostage.

But as Ferdinand Mount notes in the London Review of Books, Britain spent the 19th century doing exactly that, its admirals “steaming into faraway rivers to bombard inoffensive foreign capitals” with impunity.

Mount describes how British admirals acted with impunity, burning Washington in 1814, bombarding Canton (now Guangzhou) and Peking (now Beijing) in the Opium Wars, and bombarding Alexandria in 1882, all while claiming the moral high ground.

Cooper needs a history lesson, doesn’t she.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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Four artists from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Palestine have released (No More) Radio Silence, a new collaboration with music producer Kensaye, in partnership with Oxfam.

The track features Congolese-born artist Espoir Dekin, South Sudanese rapper Gatkuoth Wan, Palestinian musician and member of hip-hop group DAM, Maysa Daw, and London-based Palestinian composer and oud player Saied Silbak.

Together, they blend afro/Arab hip-hop, industrial and electronica to turn lived experiences of conflict into a piece of sound and protest, calling for unity, visibility and resistance.

Artists share their experiences

The artists’ stories and experiences are woven into every note on the track. Wan raps:

I speak for those who cannot speak…stop the war.

Meanwhile Maysa’s verse, delivered in Arabic, carries lines about silence and speaking out:

With your silence, nothing is innocent…We’ll keep repeating. I don’t surrender – I overflow.

Espoir’s chorus and Saied’s oud complete a piece of music built from grief, defiance and solidarity.

For the artists involved, the track is more than a musical collaboration. Espoir, who now mentors young refugees through Music Action, grew up during war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has faced intense violent conflict for over three decades and is now facing a new Ebola outbreak:

People are dying every single day. But no one is talking about that.

Wan wants the track to reach people with no knowledge of what is happening in South Sudan:

Maybe someone’s never heard of South Sudan before – but they will.

For Maysa, the track is an act of moral necessity: “Silence only benefits the oppressor.”

The track launched on 8 July at an event at 160DL, a recording studio in east London, bringing together music industry specialists, journalists, influencers and activists. Guests heard the artists in conversation about the humanitarian crises behind the track, before a live performance connected the music to the stories that shaped it.

Kensaye Russell, Lead Producer of (No More) Radio Silence, commented:

Radio is silent on these crises, but we are not. We want this track to touch people in a way that makes their ears prick up – because music can be a powerful weapon to change things. Listen to us.

Oxfam’s No More Radio Silence campaign

The track release forms part of Oxfam’s No More Radio Silence campaign, which calls on people to turn up, tune in and speak out about hidden and ignored humanitarian crises in Sudan and South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen, and in Palestine, where people continue to endure violent occupation and Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The collaboration began at Glastonbury 2025, where refugee DJ collective Our Heartbeats performed with Oxfam, and visitors to Oxfam’s festival space recorded lines for a solidarity poem. The opening line of the track: ‘You. Me. Us. We…Loudest in our unity’ comes from one festival-goer, before more voices are woven into the finished track alongside vocals from Maysa, Espoir and Wan, and Saied’s oud.

Joe Goodman, of Oxfam said:

This track started as a poem recited in a festival field and now it’s a powerful piece of sound and protest carrying the stories of Palestine, DRC and South Sudan further than we ever could alone.

Now it’s your turn. Our humanity should be seen and our voices should be heard, so bring the noise. Everyone who turns up the track, tunes in, and speaks out becomes part of the answer. Make enough noise, together, and no crisis stays impossible to hear.

(No More) Radio Silence is available now on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.

People can also listen to the track and join the the People’s Frequency, Oxfam’s pirate radio-inspired digital platform which brings together music, audio and updates from communities affected by humanitarian crises around the world, alongside opportunities to learn more and take action.

Featured image via Oxfam / Guy Bell

By The Canary

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