Politics
‘These people are not terrorists’: why the treatment of the Filton 25 is a disgrace
On January 11th, I was standing in the driveway to HMP New Hall with a small group of protesters who had walked up the drive half an hour earlier. A blue bib PLO arrived.
He ushered me over, secretively, trying to minimise the interaction. I walked over.
How did you even hear about this?
He asked me incredulously.
Barely a week prior, on the 3rd, I watched a woman with a baby stand metres away from people being pepper sprayed after more than 100 activists from across the country descended on the prison to demand the release of hunger striker Heba Muraisi and her transfer back to HMP Bronzefield.
Days later, on the 8th, when activists returned, a line of police stretched out across the bottom of the drive – no one made it any further that day; clearly, tactics would have to be re-evaluated.
For weeks prior to this, successful prison blockades had been launched in secret, catching guards, residents and staff unaware. It was quite a sight to behold – a small group of committed rabble rousers standing on the driveway while a half mile of parked cars snaked up the hill behind them, their headlights twinkling like Christmas lights through the trees, waiting for shift change. The governor thought he was in control, but suddenly it was the people who decided when their shifts started and ended. Whether people could come or go was no longer in their control. A poignant message to the government machine that was employed to stop just 24 people from being able to come and go as they pleased.
You still don’t understand this do you?
I replied…
this is just people; friends, family, colleagues – people talking round dinner tables. You can’t stand on this movement and if you try then they are just going to find new ways to do this. These people are going to keep coming back until that woman gets to walk out of those gates
Covering the hunger strike changed my life. Watching individuals be held on remand, having their rights abused in ways that I could not imagine being possible in a modern democracy in the West… I remember saying to people, I must have written it somewhere – if this was happening in any other country – imagine if this was happening in Russia…
David Lammy would have been standing on the news condemning it full-throatily, but instead, we had him running through corridors trying to pretend he didn’t know what the rest of us were standing outside shouting about. I grew up bathed in liberalism; the idea that the state, the police, the machinations of the society we lived in were made to help, guide and protect us.
It wasn’t just Gaza that got me to where I am now. It’s more complicated than that.
I care about the Palestinian cause because I remember growing up watching it. I remember adults I loved telling me that it was justified in all sorts of ways that never made sense to a child watching other children hide from tanks inside bombed-out buildings or under slabs of concrete. But I haven’t got skin in the game. I don’t have a connection to the land. Like so many people reading this, I am here because I cannot help but be. But I have the privilege of stepping back when this becomes too much. So many people are here precisely because they don’t have that privilege.
The anger that grew in me during the hunger strike wasn’t about Israel, it wasn’t about Palestine, and it wasn’t about Gaza or the West Bank for me directly. But it was about watching this country, my country, the country that told me my whole life it was something, turn around and show me that it was everything that it had ever told me that it wasn’t. The only people who had any hand whatsoever over the way this has totally transformed people politically, they are the people making these decisions in government. As Emma Kamio, mother of Ellie, said to me recently;
The government has radicalised me
I think a lot of people I have met this year feel the same way.
It’s nearly 6 months on now, and what HMP New Hall finally began to understand, the state still does not.
Of course, the hunger strike is over; they all eventually stopped – Kam, Qesser, T, Heba are on bail waiting for their trials, while Amu Gib, Lewie, Jon, and Umer Khalid remain on remand. But the government has not stopped.
Let’s seriously ask ourselves – what kind of country do we live in where a disabled man is being forced to drag himself across the floor to use a toilet? Let’s be crystal clear as well: Umer Khalid did not crawl into prison. He walked. The intentional neglect of the UK prison service has cost this man the use of his legs.
The state has refused Umer the medical care and attention that he has both desperately needed and that he has been legally entitled to receive. A wheelchair that won’t fit in the corridor or through the cell door. Unable to shower for 26 days due to no shower chair being provided. Umer has been abused by the state since the first moment he entered the prison system.
It’s not enough to beat him, to take away his Quran; no. Take away every vestige of dignity possible – it’s the only way to make him pay for having a conscience. It’s not enough to refuse urgent medical care until entire limbs are rendered useless. We must force him to drag himself with one good arm across his prison cell. And when he once again falls and injures his one good arm and shoulder – the only limb he has to navigate life with? He’s left in his cell, unable to use the toilet for over 24 hours. When a fire alarm goes off, we evacuate the entire building and leave him behind.
Now, finally in hospital, several reports state that doctors fear for his safety if he is forced to return to Wormwood Scrubs. The state treats literal paedophiles with more care and dignity than they have treated these humans.
Because showing these people humanity is beyond the state. In 2026, we can call someone a terrorist and watch their humanity wither and die in front of our eyes.
The entire saga of these prosecutions has been harrowing for those involved. Many defendants were whisked away in the middle of the night – one mother thought her child had been kidnapped by a squad of black bloc ballyed up psychopaths. They cut through the doors and they put her in an unmarked van and disappeared her. The police told the mother to ring round the hospitals and morgues.
It was two weeks before they let her know her daughter was alive and in police custody. This wasn’t an isolated case. Other defendants told of being arrested with multiple officers pointing guns at their heads. Twenty to thirty officers swarming into family homes at dawn with loaded weapons. Multiple defendants have told me how, after they were already handcuffed, officers continued to go round the house destroying possessions, smashing up homes.
How do we justify treating people this way?
There’s so much I could say or write about all this – but I know that no one individual in this case would want me to. It’s never been about them. I cannot count how many phone calls I have listened to outside prisons, how many statements I have read – how many times I have heard these voices I have come to recognise.
Every time they chose to centre the Palestinian people and their cause. 2 months without food – so long that there was no hunger, only pain left, and all they could do was think of Palestine. It’s the thing that makes me love them all so much. One recently told me that;
If you make the action about yourself then it was destined to failure from the start.
These brave humans are willing to go to prison for what they believe, and even then, that’s still not enough for this corrupt government. They want more blood from the stone.
Tomorrow, on the 12th of June, the first 4 of the Filton 25 will be sentenced. A jury already refused to convict them on certain charges. So, the state wasn’t willing to let the people on the jury make that decision again. It had to bring them back, to rig the system further, to gag them and their lawyers. To force a jury to convict without ever implicitly stating it. And now that it has managed its most recent ghastly magic trick, we are sitting, all waiting with bated breath, to see what comes next.
At the sentencing, we will find out whether this so-called terrorism link will be applied to this case. The judge argued during the trial that by dismantling Elbit machinery in the UK, the group was aiming to influence the Israeli government.
By denying them access to weaponry. During a genocide.
They weren’t even trying to challenge or influence their own government. They had already tried that;
We tried every democratic means available to us, including demonstrations, fundraisers, encampments, petitions, writing to MPs, stickers leading to Amnesty International information about the apartheid, vigils, arms factory pickets, the list goes on… none of it worked.
From Zoe Rogers’ closing arguments
This wasn’t about influencing anyone – 800,000 people marching, 3000 plus arrests at Defend our Juries protests. That was an attempt to influence. None of that definitively worked. As the wonderful Lisa Luxx from the Free The Filton 25 Defence Committee pointed out in a speech outside The Old Bailey for the, then Brize Norton 5 bail hearings;
Civil disobedience and direct action are two different things… Civil disobedience is usually a large public disruption so you can engage with decision makers. Direct action believes you are the decision maker.
This was (and remains) about making it financially unviable for these factories to operate in this country. Colonialism doesn’t just happen in Kashmir or in Sudan or in the stacks of rubble heaped up in Gaza. Imperialism doesn’t just exist in the mind’s eye in far-flung places many of us will never see. It’s happening all around us, and we are all complicit.
Elbit didn’t have to come to court to defend itself against the accusations that it produces 85% of the drones and land-based weapons that have helped level Gaza. It can’t do that in court. It’s only in the Murdoch-owned media where you can still lie with impunity and without repercussions.
It didn’t need to come to court to provide a breakdown of the weapons that these people broke down. It could account for the weight of every sledgehammer used, to the individual gram, but it couldn’t justify a penny of the damage that it was claimed was caused. It can’t come to court to explain that this research and development lab was shipping out weapons not available for sale, for testing. It doesn’t want to have to explain that the testing site is the world’s largest store of rubble, where people are still shot for crossing invisible lines that exist in the head of a soldier with a sniper rifle half a mile away. The test subjects: women and children.
The legislation being used to apply this terrorism link is based upon the notion that extreme and serious property damage can constitute terrorism. It was introduced after the IRA bombed the Arndale Centre in Manchester in 1996. It caused hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage. This is abuse of power. Plain and simple. Counter-terror legislation should not be used to terrorise traumatised communities who have reacted in the only way that was left available to them after years of resistance to a genocide being played out on their phones in real time.
You might think that, reading this, I am clearly emotionally involved. And I am. There is no denying that. One of the things I often think about in this job is impartiality – what is it? Is it about remaining steadfast in the middle of the road? Should I pretend that the government has a valid point of view in all this? Should I say that, no, it’s okay that the judge didn’t tell the jury about the plans to target these individuals with a terrorist connection? If he told the court that two and two make five, should I be reporting that now? I have gone to protests where there were no other journalists, and then gone home and seen reports the next day from three different people telling three different stories, none of them reporting the facts of what actually went down. Impartiality doesn’t exist – it’s a thin veneer that people hide behind to tell the story they want to tell.
I am not impartial; I think what is happening is wrong. It is an abuse of power so gross and so egregious that it has robbed me of the faith I once had in the system.
What is happening to these individuals is everything that is wrong with this system, packaged up into a little box and neatly wrapped in a bow. It is demonstrably wrong and I will not stop saying that over and over again until someone finally stops to listen. It doesn’t end with this sentencing. The power to create and make change lies in the hands of elected politicians in Parliament. While we sat and listened to those politicians speak to a crowd that filled Pall Mall during the Nakba commemoration march this year, someone said to me;
Imagine if all these people kept walking, all the way to the gates of those factories… imagine what they could achieve
The power to influence and coerce these politicians remains, as always, in the streets. It is in our hands and we can all choose to leverage that power whenever we decide to realise that. When we decide to organise, to mobilise and to help create a real change in this country that we can all be proud of.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Woolwich tomorrow morning where crowds will be gathering from 10am to remind the powers that be of this fact.
No matter what happens tomorrow, these people will not be forgotten. This won’t stop anything. It won’t stop the marches; it won’t stop the protests. It won’t stop me from walking up another prison drive in the dark to document people banging on the gates. It’s only going to breathe fresh life into the movement.
This will not stop people from taking direct action against Elbit, against Rafael, Leonardo or any of these companies which prop up the Israeli government and which profit from genocide on the other side of the globe.
You cannot tread on this and expect it to stop. It doesn’t work like that. I urge the government to please think twice.
Charlotte Head. Sam Corner. Ellie Kamio. Fatema Zainab Rajwani. These people are not terrorists.
Featured image via the Canary
By Barold
An irritable Nigel Farage has lashed out at Restore Britain and Elon Musk. And he’s got good reason to be angry, because it looks like the Reform breakaway party could prevent Farage from winning in Makerfield:
Let's see what happens next Thursday, shall we?
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 10, 2026
Reform, Restore, Retreat
In the clip above, Sky News’s Beth Rigby put the following to the hard-right leader:
When it comes to Makerfield, Restore are doing well here and it could really hurt you.
A tetchy Farage asked “are they?” before Rigby finished:
What’s Rupert Lowe got that it’s appealing to some people over you?
Farage answered:
Elon Musk
While a couple of people laughed, he didn’t look amused.
I thought his answers on this were very strange, given he must have known the question was going to be asked. Was his opportunity to reach out to Restore voters. Chose to have a dig at Lowe and Musk instead. https://t.co/brGPB5NsmV
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 10, 2026
If you’re unfamiliar with what’s going on, the story is that Musk decided Nige wasn’t hardline enough when Lowe was still a member of Reform, saying:
The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.
Around the same time, Musk decided Lowe was the man to replace Farage:
I have not met Rupert Lowe, but his statements online that I have read so far make a lot of sense https://t.co/bxHaigf3A1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2025
Lowe did not end up becoming the leader of Reform UK, because Farage threw him out of the party. Instead, Lowe would later establish Restore Britain, with Musk throwing his weight behind it:
Join Rupert Lowe in Restore Britain, because he is the only one who will actually do it! https://t.co/sa5VkSRWXD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 14, 2026
The confused and possibly ketamine-addled Musk has also said things like this:
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) February 18, 2026
NEW: Elon Musk has accused Reform UK of being "Nazis" and wanting "race extinction" pic.twitter.com/fQuh0FoIdZ
Since then, Farage has accused Lowe of being “one man with a social media account”. And it certainly seems to be the case that Lowe does get a boost to his reach on X/Twitter. As Rose Cocker wrote for the Canary:
Since launching Restore back in February, ten of Lowe’s X posts have received over 10-million views. Meanwhile, whilst Farage has over three times Lowe’s follower count, none of his posts have reached a similar mark.
While Farage may be correct to say Restore began as one spiteful man with a Twitter addiction, it’s certainly something more than that now:
Jut for fairness, this does reflect what I found in Makerfield. Restore have much more of a presence on the ground than I was anticipating. Have to see if they can sustain it. But it's real. https://t.co/Vr43DKeHZa
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 23, 2026
Unbeliever
In the clip at the top, Farage continued:
Most people here who say Restore, and by the way it’s not a very big percentage, most people here would not recognise a photograph of him.
For reference, this is what the polls are saying:
Via @Survation, 1 June (+/- vs 22 May) pic.twitter.com/IXTHwUTabh
— Stats for Lefties
POLL | Burnham expands lead in Makerfield:
Lab: 49% (+6)
Ref: 39% (-1)
Res: 8% (+1)
Grn: 2% (-1)
Lib: 1% (-3)
Con: 1% (-1)
(@LeftieStats) June 5, 2026
Is Restore’s polling good enough to suggest they could win?
Absolutely not.
But is it big enough to stop Reform winning?
Roughly, yeah, it is.
Here’s how Farage finished:
This is stuff that pops up on their phones. That has been the problem with it. I do not believe for a moment it will last.
This is Farage scolding would-be Reform voters. And it shows he’s genuinely pissed off. But what did he expect?
Splitsville
As we reported, the far-right split isn’t happening because of a personal beef between Lowe and Farage. It’s happening because of the growing contradictions between Reform UK’s rhetoric and its actions:
As an example of this, take Zia Yusuf. Yusuf is one of Reform’s most prominent politicians, and he’s constantly arguing that white people are the most oppressed group in the UK…
If you’re a far-right voter who buys into this, why would you vote for the party with Zia Yusuf and Suella Braverman in it? Why wouldn’t you vote for the all-white Restore Britain, which is more obviously following through on Reform’s propaganda?
In other words, Restore is doing to Reform what Reform did to the Tories, and Nigel is getting a taste of his own medicine. This is somewhat ironic, too, given that Nige is something of an anti-vaxxer.
Featured image via Ryan Jenkinson / Leon Neal / Win McNamee (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
On 11 June, Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley appeared on Sky News to discuss the Belfast ‘race-based pogroms,’ following a horrific stabbing attack days earlier.
Far-right politicians and pundits, with the help of tech mogul Elon Musk, love nothing more than turning tragedy into a PR stunt. They whip up fear and hate across the UK towards Black and Brown people. Meanwhile, white supremacist thugs have taken to the streets of Belfast, setting fire to the homes and terrorising local residents. It is clear that the situation in Belfast has implications far beyond the city’s limits.
When asked about the racist pogroms, Rowley turned the conversation antisemitism. Even when Muslim homes in Belfast have been targeted by white rioters, our institutions insist antisemitism is the main concern.
Rowley even took the opportunity to criticise Russia and Iran — but made no mention of Israel’s genocide. This, once again, exposes the well documented hierarchy of racism in the UK.
Asked about Belfast Mark Rowley talks about people overseas whipping up division to create disorder & he specifically mentions Russian & Iranian state actors
Its not Russia & Iran orchestrating the far right violence we're seeing, but Rowley has a job to do & he's doing it pic.twitter.com/KCMcDd2GLY
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 11, 2026
Protests or racist riots?
When asked whether the chaos counted as protests or riots, Rowley deflected (on script), pointing to foreign threats — Russia and Iran. Israel’s influence, and the UK government’s complicity, went entirely unmentioned.
Rowley described the violence as “violent disorder” and blamed overseas bot farms for “whipping up sentiment” on the streets of Belfast. Yet in doing so, he avoided acknowledging the racialised nature of the attacks or the fear felt by Belfast’s Black and Brown communities. This is a pattern we’ve seen before — downplaying Islamophobia at home by obsessing over ‘external’ threats.
Sophie Ridge: Would you describe what we think in Belfast as protests or riots?
Rowland: I was watching a bit of news last night, I can’t remember what channel it was, but these protesters, I thought, that isn’t protest. That isn’t protest. People are setting fire to cars.
That’s not protest. That’s violent disorder, that’s criminality. I really feel for the police service in N Ireland, I think it’s really difficult. We live in these volatile times and we have a lot of um, some of what goes on online whips up sentiment on the street, isn’t it?
Ridge: That’s interesting you say about some of the things that happen online whip up sentiments on the street. What do you mean by that? Is that what we’re seeing now?
Rowland: I think that’s definitely a factor in it. And so, I’m not just talking about polarised debate in this country, on the sort of Southport riots we saw evidence of bot farms overseas being part of the things that were whipping up sentiments here. That’s really dangerous.
We know that there are Russian state actors, Iranian state actors They want to sow discord on the streets of the UK. So, this is a really complex issue we’re wrestling with.
Sophy Ridge: "Are these racist riots rather than protests?"
Hilary Benn: "Well if you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, theres no question about it at all" pic.twitter.com/XBGBtQwdgW
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 11, 2026
Undermining democracy
Shortly after, Ridge asked about social media’s role in attempts to “undermine democracy” in the UK. Ironically, Rowley warned about disinformation — while rewriting the story himself. Many of these conversations now circle back to current divides in Belfast.
Rowland: I haven’t looked at the details, but I think the government minister was talking about, sort of, changing their policy on disinformation and things online, which is a really sensitive area though, isn’t it, because on the one hand, of course no one wants foreign states creating disorder on the streets of the UK. But also, you don’t want to suppress free speech within the UK.
And I’m sure that’s the government’s intent, but it’s a really hard thing to do. But this is the complex world we’re operating in where people overseas can have a dangerous effect on the country.
Despite widespread reporting of the horrific violence against Muslim communities — which SDLP leader Claire Hanna has labelled a “race-based pogrom” — Rowley described the attacks as “horrific,” before predictably shifting to antisemitism.
Rowley: So, I only know what I’ve seen on the media, but as it’s reported, it seems that some of those fires have been targeted at, sort of, Black and other minorities. That’s horrific. And that’s not just sort of mindless disorder that’s targeted at minorities. That’s a really frightening issue.
We’ve been wrestling in London with hate crime issues, particularly the most intense issues being aimed at Jewish communities. And that’s both, sort of, um, on-street hate crime issues between communities, where Jews face the highest levels of any community.
But on top of that, some of that is driven by a threat from the Iranian state, and that’s why we’re putting more protection around them. That illustrates that tension again about local issues and global issues.
"I read an interview with 2 care workers who were in their house, in the flames.. it was a local vicar who managed to.. talk to the people outside to get them to pause to allow these two women to escape. How is that meant to make you feel in your home? Its absolutely unspeakable" pic.twitter.com/qdMPbtTv2L
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 11, 2026
Doublespeak
Once again, a white official seeks to blame Brown people even as they live in fear across the UK.
Islamophobia has surged 377 percent, which is almost double the rise in antisemitism. Tell Mama, a Muslim-focused monitoring charity, recorded 6,000 anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2024 alone. “Unite the Kingdom” rallies and divisive debates over migration have made things worse, and an estimated 80 percent of anti-Muslim hate crimes go unreported.
Time and again, UK officials sideline Islamophobia while elevating antisemitism, often using it to shut down anti-Zionist or anti-genocide criticism. Belfast is now a focal point for this debate.
This is the hierarchy of racism in action, and it needs to be called out.
Featured image via Charles McQuillan / Getty Images
On 9 June, an uprising of far-right agitators took to the streets of Belfast. These white rioters burned vehicles and houses, fought with the police, and targeted the homes and businesses of people of colour. According to GB News host Bev Turner, however, you wouldn’t call this a “riot”:
A GB News presenter repeatedly insists "there weren't riots" in Belfast last night… This is what GB News advertisers are aligning with — Stop Funding Hate (@StopFundingHate) June 10, 2026
pic.twitter.com/lHAiC1SJO3
Shocking from GB News
We’re not sure who Bev Turner’s guest was, but the interview on GB News went like this:
Turner: There weren’t riots, there weren’t riots, there weren’t people marauding through the streets with pitchforks.
Frankenstein’s monster wasn’t there either, but these aren’t factors we use to define what a ‘riot’ is in the 21st century.
Guest: There was a house set on fire, Beverley. There was a house set on fire. We’ve seen numerous pictures of fires ablaze in Belfast. This is disgraceful, violent behaviour that is-
Turner: But there aren’t bodies piled up in hospitals tonight, Matthew.
Guest: Someone’s house being burnt down in a riot is not that dramatic? What are you saying, Bev? What words are you allowing out of your mouth?
Turner: There was no riot. There was no riot. There was no riot. There is not a house that has been burnt down. There are no riots. The police aren’t even reporting riots.
Okay, so here’s a video of a house being burned down in Belfast:
The rioters have set a house on fire in Belfast. pic.twitter.com/N7o8KpFtyb
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) June 9, 2026
Here are some more:
Families Flee As Belfast Homes Burn In Night Of Disorder pic.twitter.com/PXw01150XX
— A Troubled Land | Media | Archive | News – ATL (@ATroubledLand) June 10, 2026
Here is the aftermath:
In June 1920, Mussolini sent squadrismo to border towns to "cleanse" them of the Slavic "eternal barbarian." The fascists burned down buildings and attacked any apparent racial "other" for the "health of the nation." This border fascism pioneered other forms of fascist violence https://t.co/mujhKsuUj0
— John Duncan (@Johntheduncan) June 11, 2026
Still not convinced it was technically a ‘riot’?
What if we told you the police have been charging the men who rampaged across Belfast with the crime of ‘rioting’?
And this is the key factor in the legal definition of what constitutes a riot:
Where 12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot.
You can read the rest of the law here; we assure you there is nothing about pitchforks.
The rancid Bev Turner
Turner is the GB News host who notoriously gave sexual abuser Donald Trump the softest of softball interviews. As such, it’s unsurprising to see her defending the honour of racist rioters.
At the same time, it is shocking seeing her trying to get away with blatant lies like ‘no house burnt down’. And it’s a sign GB News knows the toothless Ofcom will never pull them up on their misinformation.
Featured image via Kate Green (Getty Images) / Charles McQuillan (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
Indian PM Modi thanked Trump for his congratulatory wishes on becoming India’s longest-serving Prime Minister despite the US having attacked Indian seafarers near the Gulf of Oman.
The post by PM Modi showed the Indian government’s alliance with the US-Israel axis.
Thank you, President Trump, for your warm wishes.
I look forward to working with you to further advance the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, for the benefit of both our nations and the world.@POTUS@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/4W09WzT4Ju
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 10, 2026
Earlier in a post on X, CENTCOM said a U.S. aircraft fired precision munitions into the ship’s engine room late June 9 after the crew “repeatedly failed to comply” with American instructions, claiming the tanker was carrying Iranian oil in violation of its blockade. The vessel was Palau-flagged MT Settebello.
Of the 24 Indian crew members onboard, 21 Indians have been rescued, and the missing three were, however unfortunately, confirmed dead on Thursday.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 10, 2026
Modi, who has yet to mourn the loss of Indian lives, has, however, thanked the President, under whose command Indians were killed. Though India summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires to protest the U.S. military attack on the ship.
Three ships with Indian sailors attacked in four days
On Thursday, a third vessel with Indian sailors was attacked by Trump’s military.
MT Jalveer, a commercial vessel with Indian sailors on board, was attacked off Oman’s coast, India’s Times Now reported. The vessel has 20 Indian seafarers on board, and all of them are reported to be safe.
This brings the tally of vessels attacked by the US with Indian sailors in the past four days up to three. US had attacked the vessel Marivex, on Tuesday. in which all 24 Indian crew members were rescued safely.
“Shameless subservience” from Modi
Communist Party of India (Marxist) slammed the Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement on Wednesday which failed to name the USA as the perpetrator of the attacks as “shameless subservience” to the USA.
They condemned the “illegal US attack and the Government’s complete abdication of India’s sovereignty and duty to protect Indian citizens.”
US imperialism strikes again. US forces attack a commercial oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, killing 3 Indian sailors in cold blood. This is the second such attack reported within two days.
Yet the MEA’s statement doesn’t even name the US as the perpetrator! While Indian lives are…— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) June 11, 2026
Communist Party of Indian ML said that India was paying a price for mortgaging its autonomy to interests of the US-Israel axis.
PM Modi’s “my dear friend President Trump” led US forces kill 3 Indian seafarers.
This is the price India is paying for mortgaging India’s strategic autonomy and national interests to the US-Israel axis. https://t.co/sVyvhKO8HW pic.twitter.com/6nE59bzgRW
— CPIML Liberation (@cpimlliberation) June 11, 2026
India is one of the largest countries of origin for military-related goods entering Israel. It is currently negotiating trade deals with both USA and Israel. Modi has consistenly also called Trump and Netanyahu his friends.
Thanking Trump for warm wishes while Indian sailors are dying — “shameless subservience” from Modi, indeed.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
Politics
Politics Home | Healey Resignation Is “Colossal Failure Of Government”, Says Former Labour Defence Secretary
John Healey resigned on Thursday over Starmer’s plans for military spending (Alamy)
4 min read
A former Labour defence secretary has warned Keir Starmer that his credibility “will be shot” if he doesn’t rethink military spending plans in the wake of John Healey’s resignation.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, Lord Hutton, who was defence secretary between 2008 and 2009 under former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, described Healey’s resignation on Thursday as a “colossal failure of government” and said that the UK should be “ashamed”.
Healey, a major Starmer loyalist, announced his resignation from cabinet earlier today, warning that the government’s planned military spending is not enough to keep the country safe. He singled out the Treasury for criticism, saying it was “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”.
Responding to the news, Hutton said Healey’s resignation “represents a colossal failure of government over the last period of time” and that the Starmer administration had “completely failed” to respond to growing global threats to UK security.
The former defence secretary, who was a Labour MP for nearly two decades, said that the reported spending plans would make “the task of his [Healey’s] successor extremely difficult”, adding that if the government sticks to the current position, the next defence secretary will struggle with a “huge credibility problem”. Healey’s replacement had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
Hutton told PoliticsHome that the government will need to combine further borrowing with cuts to other departments, including welfare, to fund the necessary increase to defence spending.
“This is all about deterrence. It’s about preserving the peace, not putting the peace at risk,” he said.
Hutton said he was “utterly frustrated” that the Labour government seemed “to be completely unable to address” the issue, adding that he hoped Healey’s resignation “will force a rethink on the part of senior ministers”.
“It will have to be rethought,” Hutton later added, “otherwise, the government’s entire credibility will be shot.”
Hutton warned that he did not believe the UK was currently fulfilling its obligation under Article 3 of NATO, which states that members should be able to “maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack”.
“I don’t think we’re discharging that article three obligation right now.”
PoliticsHome previously revealed concerns among defence figures, including former ministers, that the UK was not capable of defending itself from attack.
“I just don’t think we’re meeting our NATO commitment, and we need to be able to hold our head high in the NATO council, and on our current policies, we should be ashamed,” Hutton told PoliticsHome.
The government had been expected to publish its long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in the coming days after months of delay due to uncertainty about where the funding for such an investment would come from.
The PM and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are under pressure to significantly increase defence spending in response to global threats to the UK. Last year, the Prime Minister pledged to raise military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, with the ambition of increasing that figure to 3 per cent in the next parliament.
In his letter of resignation to Starmer, Healey said the DIP financial settlement, which he was first given in full on Monday afternoon, “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time”.
“The extra support is backloaded when the pressure of operations and imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years and it rises to just 2.58 per cent of GDP in 2030, when we will reach 2.6 per cent next year with the investment we are already making,” implying that Starmer had offered Healey just a 0.08 per cent rise in spending.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary with a leadership pitch to the far right and Labour’s war lobby. Healey has said that Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves are not ‘serious’ enough about spending huge amounts of our money on military build-up. The pitch has been praised by Tory and Reform MPs.
Not Tory enough for Healey
Healey has also gone to the Tory Spectator magazine to ‘explain’ his resignation, a clear signal that he doesn’t think red-Tory Starmer has swung hard enough to the pro-war, pro-Israel right. But the resignation appears to be preparation for him throwing his own hat into the leadership contest ring.
The Starmer regime continues Tory policies of strangling public services and parcelling off the NHS to its private health and murder-AI donors. Russia hawk and Israel fan Healey wants to blow at least 3% of our national budget on war preparation. Starmer has destroyed Labour chasing the far-right, white supremacist, friends-of-genocide vote. Healey doesn’t think Starmer’s chasing hard enough.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
On Wednesday 10 June, Andy Burnham vowed to support the Waspi women in the strongest terms possible. Now, a day later, he has made it clear his ‘support’ doesn’t amount to much:
NEW: Burnham *rules out* awarding financial compensation to Waspi women demanding billions of pounds, following an angry backlash within Labour
Greater Manchester mayor has instead floated the idea of offering early access to cheaper travel schemes as recompense…
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) June 11, 2026
Waspi women
The ‘Waspi’ acronym stands for ‘Women Against State Pension Inequality’. In the group’s own words, Waspi is:
A Campaign group for 1950s* born women who saw rapid and steep increases to their State Pension age without adequate notice. In March 2024, the Ombudsman found this to be maladministration and instructed Parliament to deliver compensation as quickly as possible. WASPI continues to work cross-party to see justice delivered for the 3.6 million women affected.
Here’s what Burnham said in a Makerfield hustings event on Wednesday (emphasis added):
I stick by campaigners that I support. I stuck by the Hillsborough families, I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.
Burnham also said politicians who get into government but don’t “do anything” make him feel “uncomfortable”.
Although Burnham didn’t say the “recompense” would come in the form of cash, most assumed he meant that. After all, it would be a big slap in the face to hint at a financial settlement and then offer cheap bus tickets, right? And Burnham wouldn’t be foolish enough needlessly piss the group off, would he?
Well, according to his spokesperson:
Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced.
“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported WASPI women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits.
“He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model.
Cheap bus passes it is then.
And now, Burnham has pissed off a group which is promising to “unseat” Labour in the next election unless it gets the £10bn compensation they want.
Andy U-Turnham
As far as we can tell, Burnham backtracked because of a backlash from Labour politicians. As Lucy Fisher of the Financial Times reported:
One government figure decried Burnham’s hint about a major compensation spending pledge as “pathetic”, adding: “He can’t say no to anyone.”
A Starmer ally suggested Burnham’s move was Corbynite, adding: “Keir literally won by not being this version of the Labour party.”
Another MP said:
I see Andy Burnham has lost the plot again.
Here’s the thing, though, the Starmer government is actually very unpopular, and it certainly didn’t win in 2024 because of its opposition to the Waspi women. As such, Burnham has every reason to go against the status quo. Yet again, though, he’s backed down because people got angry and the man has no guiding light beyond people liking him.
It’s not the first policy he’s proven to be wishy-washy on either:
- Burnham is silent on wealth taxes – not a promising sign from potential PM.
- Burnham WON’T back proportional representation this parliament.
- Shapeshifting Burnham ditches trans rights to panic-grab Reform votes.
- Burnham slammed for saying he won’t renationalise Thames Water.
- Burnham calls for ‘safe routes’ then agrees with Farage in muddled interview.
- Green candidate calls out genocide as Burnham sits on fence.
At this point, Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer are u-turning so rapidly we could wire them up to the national grid.
Featured image via Anthony Devlin (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
On the same day that the UK dealt with the aftermath of white riots targeting people of colour, Reform UK reinstated the councillor who suggested ‘melting Nigerians to fill potholes‘.
It’s a sign that the party doesn’t take racial justice seriously. Worse than that, it’s a sign that the party is actively pursuing an agenda of racial injustice.
Glenn Gibbins, who said Nigerians should be melted down to fill in the pot holes, has won a seat. pic.twitter.com/mJjkK3KbbN
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) May 9, 2026
Weasel words from Reform
In May 2025, Glenn Gibbins was elected in the Sunderland City’s Hylton Castle ward. He was immediately suspended, however, after unearthed social media comments like the above surfaced. Other comments included:
What’s obvious from these comments is that Gibbins isn’t just a hateful and bigoted little man; he’s also the sort of person who doesn’t inspire confidence in regards to his ability to think. In other words, he’s not someone you’d want holding power in your local area even if you agreed with his rancid opinions.
With the final comment, Gibbins is essentially calling for a race war against Muslims. And much like many other far-right politicians and agitators this week, he did so by pointing to the crimes of individuals to target the entire population:
It's out of control, and there's no political leadership. Why isn't the Prime Minister speaking out against the twisted logic that blames people, entirely unconnected with the crime, solely based on the colour of their skin?
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) June 10, 2026
Blaming every member of a group for the crimes of individuals is known as ‘collective punishment’. It’s prohibited under the Geneva Convention, because we saw what happens when its allowed to happen unchecked in the 20th century. And now we’re seeing it again:
“What you’re seeing is a race based pogrom, we are seeing men going door to door asking to 'get the foreigners out' based exclusively on the colour of their skin.”
SDLP leader Claire Hannah criticises the unrest taking place in Belfast.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/jBNM7tWg7U
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 9, 2026
The BBC reported the following on Reform’s decision to readmit Gibbins:
Reform UK said following an internal disciplinary process the councillor had now been readmitted to the party with a final written warning.
A spokesperson said: “He has apologised for making the post and accepts that it was made in extremely poor taste showing poor judgement.” Gibbins has been approached for comment.
Has Gibbins learned his lesson, though? Or has Reform simply decided it isn’t even going to pretend to care anymore?
As I've said before, there is a calculated reason Reform have failed to clearly and specifically condemn the Southampton and Belfast violence. It's because they want to send the signal they are more hard-line on immigration than Restore. It's not accidental. It's a strategy.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 10, 2026
A pattern
It doesn’t end with Gibbins. As Reform Party UK Exposed reported (emphasis added):
Reform UK Sunderland has a problem.
Councillor David Laing
Former BNP candidate who lied when asked about his previous politics.
No action taken.
–
Councillor Glenn Gibbons
Said Nigerians should be melted down to fill potholes.
Reform UK have readmitted him.
–
Councillor David Barker
Neglected his children and had them taken away by social services. Harassed social services creating a website to harass people protecting children.
No action taken.
–
Councillor Michael Quigley
He spent Christmas Day this year proposing putting elephants on Dover beaches to shit on immigrants. Utterly deranged.
No action taken.
–
Councillor Axel Tye
Shared anti-Semitic post on Facebook.
No action taken
And this is just one council.
As such, it seems the reason Reform isn’t binning councillors for racism is because if it did it would have no councillors left.
Featured image via Carl Court / Getty Images
By Willem Moore
Elon Musk has once again been encouraging far-right agitators running rampant on the streets of Britain and Ireland. And in response, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called him out:
This man is a threat to our democracy. He backs violence and extremism.
Blaming a group of people for the awful actions of an individual leads us to a very dark place.
Musk, Lowe, Farage, Robinson – these men don't give a shit about this country, they want to rip us apart. https://t.co/zbV6s42xIv — Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 11, 2026
‘Threat to democracy’
Since Elon Musk bought X/Twitter, far-right accounts have made the site their home. As NBC News found in 2024:
NBC News found that at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. The paid accounts posting the content all consistently posted antisemitic or pro-Nazi material. Examples included praise of Nazi soldiers, sharing of Nazi symbols and denials of the Holocaust.
These accounts aren’t simply lurking on the fringes either:
During one seven-day period in March, seven of the most widely shared pro-Nazi posts on X accrued 4.5 million views in total. One post with 1.9 million views promoted a false and long-debunked conspiracy theory that 6 million Jews did not die in the Holocaust. More than 5,300 verified and unverified accounts reshared that post, and other popular posts were reshared hundreds of times apiece.
Some of these accounts are doing well specifically because Elon Musk retweets them:
Elon Musk has been retweeting prominent race scientist adherents on his platform X, spreading misinformation about racial minorities’ intelligence and physiology to his audience of 176.3 million followers. https://t.co/FIeJ3NAYJA
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) September 1, 2024
As Mother Jones reported:
Musk is amplifying users who will incorporate cherry-picked data and misleading graphs into their argument as to why people of European descent are biologically superior, showing how fringe accounts, like user @eyeslasho, experience a drastic jump in followers after Musk shares their tweets. The @eyeslasho account has even thanked Musk for raising “awareness” in a thread last year.
Notoriously, Musk once did a Nazi salute in front of a roaring crowd. Because he’s a coward, however, he and his supporters have denied it was a Nazi salute ever since:
I don’t know how to explain to people how these are so clearly different
Like; the videos are side by side here and you can see how Elon’s is a deliberate Nazi salute and Zohran’s is a gentle wave https://t.co/R3sgJM511n — Mike
(@SpideyInTARDIS) November 8, 2025
Israel critic Hasan Piker — who was banned from entering the UK — said the following about Musk:
Hasan points out that Elon Musk has literally incited a significant amount of violence within the UK and Europe overall through his tweets and influence, yet Elon hasn’t been banned from the UK. Why is that? pic.twitter.com/wOIRaYOxkg
— adri ♡ (@socialistadri) June 10, 2026
Standards
What happened in Belfast is obviously a dark and disturbing crime. The problem is the crime of an individual is being used to justify attacks on all people of colour:
A pastor helping those in houses targeted tonight in Belfast says people were being put out of their homes “because they're black”
He says members of his church “who have been with us for 20 years..had their house attacked, windows smashed, houses beside them burned” pic.twitter.com/nYwrVPx8Aa — Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) June 9, 2026
This is the kind of thing that was said about the Jews in the 1930s.
It is not hyperbolic to say that degrading an entire culture leads us to a very dark place. Reform are playing with fire right now trying to stop themselves being outflanked by the extremists of Restore. https://t.co/4THiLmSsKb — Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 10, 2026
It’s also clear that these people don’t care about the crime itself… they care about its usefulness in terms of propaganda:
If you are being told to "protest" in Belfast but you weren't in Bristol after Alina Burns tried to behead someone, ask yourself "why?" pic.twitter.com/Kn5RpCFkSX
— Socialist Opera Singer (@OperaSocialist) June 9, 2026
Given that Musk owns X, he has the ability to push propaganda like no one else. His posts show him drumming up support for racist white riots in belfast before they happened:
Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!! https://t.co/73GDcLLFwv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2026
Oh, and this is something he’s doing with the backing of the Murdoch press, by the way. This man is the editor-at-large of the Sun:
He’s encouraging pogroms on the streets of the UK. Maybe it’s time you showed some of the patriotism you so often lecture the rest of us about.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) June 11, 2026
If you’re wondering — yes — that is the same Harry Cole who said this (as immortalised by the WayBack Machine):
Growing resentment
To be fair to Keir Starmer, he has also been criticising Musk:
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 4, 2026
WATCH: Keir Starmer accuses Elon Musk of "whipping up division" in the UK over Henry Nowak’s murder pic.twitter.com/034ltg3TMk
The problem is criticism is all he’s offering. And we’re at a point at which we can no longer pretend this man hasn’t weaponised his propaganda site to stir up violence and racial tensions in the UK.
Featured image via Benjamin Fanjoy / Leon Neal / Mario Tama (Getty Images)
By Willem Moore
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has released a truly mealy-mouthed statement to justify the massive role far-right AI firm Palantir has within the British war machine. Palantir has won contracts for all manner of services and infrastructure. This is despite sustained criticism and public concern.
The statement was signed by a Who’s Who of UK defence officials:
THE RT HON JOHN HEALEY MP Secretary of State for Defence
Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton KCB ADC FREng
National Armaments Director, Rupert Pearce
Permanent Secretary, Jeremy Pocklington CB
Chief of Defence Nuclear, Maddy McTernan CB
And opened with the claim:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the modern battlefield and will profoundly transform the future of warfare. In the past few years, AI models have progressed from completing basic tasks to surpassing PhD-level intelligence.
By way of explanation, they claimed:
Defence faces a clear imperative – we must adopt and exploit AI faster than our adversaries. If we fail to do this the UK will lose its operational advantage and cede advantage to our adversaries. The stakes could not be higher.
The UK military is currently locked into a multi-billion pound contract with Palantir. The statement makes no mention of Palantir, despite the genocide-linked firm’s role being the source of most controversy.
The UK military, police, NHS and, allegedly, the Telegraph have started using Palantir technology. The firm maintains a permanent desk in southern Israel, and is deeply involved in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as Trump’s paramilitary immigration operations, ICE, whose officers use the firm’s gear.
On 2 June, the Canary reported that UK officials have even been using Palantir software to decide what Palantir technology to buy to fight future wars. On 4 June, we also heard how former spy chief David Omand had been promoting the idea that integrating AI into warfare is somehow be ethical.
During the same week, we reported that Palantir had won a contract to manage UK firearms, explosives, and related stockpiles.
Time to divest from Palantir
Then on 4 June, the UK technology select committee went against the tide to warn that Palantir’s takeover of key parts of the UK state was an “unacceptable weakness.” The committee also rejected the notion that the firm was the only available choice:
Palantir should not have such a significant role in the UK public sector, and that it is far from the only company capable of providing the data analysis ‘middleware’ required by public bodies.
The firm’s founders are open about their far-right politics. A 22-tweet ‘manifesto’ posted on X in April showed Palantir’s vision was exposed as a collection of right-wing tropes.
For example, point 21 reads:
Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures … have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.
While Point 22 is a fascist-accented lament for Western white supremacy:
We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?
Palantir isn’t the only AI firm with military contracts. That is true. But it is one of the most prominent and dangerous. The company’s links to Israel, the CIA and Donald Trump mark it out as such. Palantir’s vision is also acutely authoritarian and fascistic and its leadership are open about this.
No milquetoast press release is going to change that reality.
Featured image via Omar Marques / Getty Images
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