Israel — A Zionist criminal has brutally assaulted a Christian nun in Jerusalem, in footage caught on camera. Middle East Eye has the shocking video, which shows the cowardly thug running up behind the woman and shoving her. She is sent hurtling head-first into a nearby kerb, in an attack that could easily have proved fatal. Reflecting the sadism inherent in the “most racist state the world has ever known“, the man returns to repeatedly kick the woman as she lies helpless on the ground.

The attack reflects a pattern of the Zionist entity known as ‘Israel’, and its land thieves, targeting Christians. As part of the sectarian pseudo-state’s discriminatory policies, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been destroying Christian villages in Lebanon. Along the way, an IOF sectarian goon was caught smashing a statue of Jesus. Zionist land thieves, euphemistically called ‘settlers’ by legacy media, have been driving Christians out of the West Bank for decades.

‘Israel’: constant attacks on Christians, backed by Christian-Zionists

Random acts of violence and hatred like the one suffered by the nun are common too. There are countless videos of Christians being spat at in the street by Jewish supremacist bigots in the settler-colony. Of course, the majority of ‘Israel’s’ victims are Muslim, but the constant mistreatment of Christians is worth noting in a climate where the entity’s supporters emphasise support for ‘Israel’ as an expression of ‘Judeo-Christian values‘.

US journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out this contradiction when he said in a tweet:

It continues to be a bizarre aspect of US politics that so many American Christians defend Israel even when it attacks Christian villages and churches and kills Americans and/or Christians (as Israel often does), and even seem grateful to pay for it.

The Mike Huckabee complex. https://t.co/hhcpbzE9In

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2026

The 48 year old nun required medical treatment for the hideous attack, which resulted in bruising to her face. She is in Jerusalem working as a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research. ‘Israeli’ police arrested the man, and the fake state’s foreign ministry called the incident a “despicable attack”.

Such attacks have no instrumental value in the way IOF atrocities in Gaza or land thief-led purges in the West Bank do. Therefore these institutions are content to condemn these pointless acts of sectarianism that expose the true ugliness of their deeply sick society.

Muslim group condemns brutal attack

Meanwhile, condemnation from Christian groups outside Jerusalem has been extremely limited. It was left to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to highlight the threat to Christians posed by Zionist supremacism. In a statement, they said:

This abhorrent hate crime against a French nun in Jerusalem is not an isolated incident, but the latest in a long line of attacks on Christians living under Israeli occupation. From this assault on a French nun to daily indignities and assaults upon Palestinian Christians, to the destruction of churches in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, the Israeli government has directly or indirectly enabled various atrocities against Christians.

“It is long past time for Republican elected officials and Christian political organisations that claim to care about the safety of Christians around the world to condemn Israel’s pattern of violence. Christians are Christians, regardless of whether they are people of colour and regardless of whether they live in America or the Middle East.

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Of course, the ever expanding land theft project that started with stealing from Palestinians is a threat to Christians — and everyone else — beyond West Asia. The most extreme expansionists, who increasingly drive policy in both the ‘Israeli’ government and armed forces, regard the entire world as Jewish property, if they have the means to seize it. As expressed by one fanatic in the documentary The Settlers:

The Land of Israel will expand over all countries, according to the prophecy. It includes an area we conquer and determine to be the Land of Israel.

Given the extraordinary influence Zionists have over the most powerful military in the world, this should be a legitimate cause for concern. Maybe even to the Islamophobes who are at ease with the genocide of a largely Muslim population, but who may ultimately balk at the possibility of this violence extending to those of their own faith.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has posted footage of Bloody Sunday in a video where she effectively calls for British soldiers to be immune from prosecution for their crimes. Bloody Sunday was the 1972 massacre British troops carried out in Derry, killing 14 people and wounding at least 15 others.

Badenoch used the video to criticise Keir Starmer’s revamping of the Legacy Act. That was the legislation brought in by the Tories in 2023, intended primarily to shut down investigations into historic crimes by British soldiers. It terminated many in-progress cases related to the ‘Troubles’ in the north of Ireland.

Labour has since been restructuring the Act, though politicians across the spectrum in the Six Counties have criticised it for not going far enough to assist victims. Some veterans, and now Badenoch, have said it offers insufficient protection to ex-soldiers. Under pressure from the right, Labour’s stance has been to obsessively centre veterans’ interests in virtually every public statement on the matter.

No accountability as it is, but Badenoch and the right want to bury all army crimes

In reality, even pre-Legacy Act, there has been virtually zero accountability for the numerous murders carried out by British soldiers during the years of violence in the north of Ireland. Just in the last week, troops named only as Soldier A and E were found to have had no justification for a series of brutal shootings they committed in the Springhill area of Belfast in 1972.

Despite this, they face no accountability. The identities of the soldiers had been ‘lost’, with the inquest coroner Justice Scoffield heavily implying there had been a cover-up. Late last year, victims’ families hoped ‘Soldier F’ in a Belfast court might find the ex-paratrooper guilty of murders during Bloody Sunday. The huge delay in opening proceedings ultimately meant evidence was by then minimal, and he was acquitted.

Despite all this, Badenoch wants further means to bury brutality from her nation’s armed forces. In the video, she said:

Think about the men and women who served this country during the Troubles. People who risked their lives to protect others, to defend our nation to keep the peace.

Far from keeping the peace, the mass imprisonment, collusion with paramilitaries and massacres carried out by British security forces only inflamed the conflict.

The Tory leader continued:

Now ask yourself is it right that decades later they’re dragged back into court? Because that’s what Labour’s new bill will do. It’ll put elderly veterans through fresh legal battles at the end of their lives. This is not justice. In government we passed laws to protect our veterans, because Britain should stand behind our veterans, not put them on trial decades later.

The simple answer is: yes, obviously it’s right that anyone who commits serious crimes should be held accountable for their actions. The irony is that the Legacy Act actually blocked investigations into killings of British soldiers, whose families were also entitled to have their deaths looked into.

Even ordinary soldiers abandoned under mass cover-up plans

Of course, this is proof that Badenoch and her ilk don’t really care about ordinary soldiers. As ever, they’re just pawns who can be wielded for political capital when required. The ideal scenario for the warmongering right is an army capable of deploying the lawless violence increasingly becoming the world’s norm, then have the means to cover it all up.

Veterans’ legal support group the Centre for Military Justice (CMJ) pointed out this shafting of ex-armed forces personnel in July 2025, saying:

Those purporting to act in the interests of veterans have, so far, had absolutely nothing to say about the shutting down of investigations into the maiming and murder of hundreds of service personnel when the Legacy Act was passed.

The CMJ also stressed that soldiers are not immune to laws constraining their conduct. They said:

But as a matter of principle, soldiers and veterans are not entitled to immunity from prosecution where there is evidence to suggest serious criminality, any more than anyone else. To suggest otherwise severely undermines previous governments’ belated apologies for unlawful killings by soldiers revealed by recent inquests, and brings the armed forces into disrepute.

The Conservatives have since taken Badenoch’s video down, and issued an apology via a spokesperson, who said:

We apologise for the inclusion of this material, which should not have been used and will not be used again.

No public apology is present on the party’s social media pages. MP for Foyle (which covers Derry) Colum Eastwood branded the video as “insensitive” and “disgraceful”. He said:

…an anonymous apology to the media from the Conservative Party isn’t enough. Kemi Badenoch needs to show leadership and apologise directly to the families.

Bloody Sunday Trust chair Tony Doherty also condemned Badenoch, saying:

This is grossly insulting to the families and the people of Derry, and many other places in the north, who know only too well what role of the British army meant for them. It meant murder, lies and cover-up of many crimes that have never ever seen the inside of a courtroom.

Featured image via the Hill

By Robert Freeman

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Mainstream media are drawing criticism for overlooking one victim of the knife attacker in north London. Britain woke to news on Wednesday 29 May of an attacker in Golders Green, a largely Jewish area. He stabbed two Jewish men, both apparently complete strangers. Thankfully, neither suffered seriously threatening injuries and both are recovering.

Essa Suleiman, 45, was filmed being tasered, tackled, and head-kicked by Metropolitan Police officers minutes after the stabbings occurred.

These attacks on Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were doubtless especially troubling for Britain’s Jewish communities.

The problem, however, is that this news story is not the full picture: the two weren’t alone.

The Golders Green attacker: three victims, not two

Upstanding journalists soon discovered that the same attacker attempted to stab a third man earlier that day: a Muslim man he’d known for 20-odd years, named Ishmail Hussein. He, too, was relatively unharmed.

Yet if you read mainstream British media coverage of these events, you’d be forgiven for being entirely clueless about Hussein’s attempted murder. Suleiman is now facing charges for all three attempts.

Not only has the sole Muslim victim been ignored, but politicians and media pundits are overlooking his mental health episode and instead, once again, are weaponising the incident.

The media’s attention on two of Suleiman’s victims and not the other one can only really be explained either one of two ways, it seems.

They either genuinely care less about the attempted murder of Muslim men compared with that of Jewish men — which is far from impossible, given British media’s documented  anti-Muslim biases. (Note: an anti-war Iranian was stabbed at a peaceful protest last week and received next to no outrage.)

Otherwise, they’re deliberately ignoring it for the sake of a preformed narrative and political agenda. That is, one designed to terrify British Jews, crack down on our speech and protest rights, and favour Zionism.

Between March 2024 and March 2025, there were around 53,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales. One unfortunate incident where a mentally ill man stabbed two Jews, and suddenly the reaction from politicians and media becomes wildly… pic.twitter.com/2xCHMAeBQe

— Saniya Sayed (@Ssaniya_) May 1, 2026

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How many stabbings?

Respected British journalists including Mehdi Hassan and Owen Jones quickly pointed out that there were three stabbings, not two. This deliberate obfuscation matters.

But judging by headlines from Sky News, the BBC, Associated Press, NPR, DW, and others, you’d probably think that the two Jewish men in Golders Green were Suleiman’s sole attack victims. Why the journalistic avoidance?

Weird that even the police, in their tweet, though not in the full statement itself, are just airbrushing the fact that he’s being charged with three attempted murders, not two, the third person being a Muslim man he stabbed earlier in the day https://t.co/REIx2lb8NQ

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 1, 2026

The two rightly corrected the record, that the man is indeed charged with three counts of attempted murder. But even in stories where this third attack was mentioned, most still kept it entirely out of headlines.

For example, in this BBC article, the third victim, Hussein, isn’t mentioned until the fourth paragraph — relatively prominent placing. Yet he missed the crucial headline spot.

The BBC’s web article as of 1/5/2026 – screenshot via BBC.

Under IPSO Editorial Code guidelines, misleading headlines are a breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy). While not exactly false, it’s damned misleading to miss 1/3 of the victims.

(For reference, it would be like saying there were 14 victims in the tragic 2017 MEN Arena bombing, rather than 22. Or only counting MEN victims of one demographic, and nobody else.)

Headlines about Golders Green amplifying propaganda

Then there’s this DW article headline, via Reuters and Associated Press (AP):

DW’s web article as of 1/5/2026 – screenshot via DW.

Again, it’s not exactly wrong. But you have to read to paragraph eight to learn that Suleiman also attacked another man. And they don’t even name him, nor say that he’s Muslim — unlike the two Jewish men, who are named and identified as such.

It’s a similar picture for US-based public outlet NPR’s article, via AP:

NPR’s web article as of 1/5/2026 – screenshot via NPR.

Again, the headline is not wrong per se. NPR mention the third man, but again offer no typical humanising details, like a name or age. Medhi Hassan highlighted that even the Metropolitan Police’s own social media posts overlook the man’s third victim.

As Owen Jones pointed out, in relation to Sky News’ coverage, there is no plausible editorial justification for missing 1/3 of his charges of attempted murder.

What?

He’s been charged with THREE counts of attempted murder.

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The third alleged victim is Ishmail Hussein.

What is the editorial justification for not even stating that it’s three counts of attempted murder! https://t.co/9DJhDlwJWG

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) May 1, 2026

That is unless, unfortunately, the violent incident is instead being seized upon by certain political actors to bring about drastic political changes.

Golders Green attacks quickly instrumentalised

Before north London’s Jewish communities could even come to terms with the violent attacks, the usual suspects soon set about weaponising them.

Upholding the well-trodden transphobe-to-Zionist-mouthpiece pipeline, JK Rowling and allied agitators quickly criticised Britain’s only Jewish party leader after the attack:

JK Rowling, a racist anti-human rights campaigner, is apparently trying to suggest that Zack Polanski, a Jewish man, is antisemitic for condemning a violent attack in a way she doesn't like.

Incidentally, Rowling has still never even mentioned the genocide in Palestine. pic.twitter.com/4RdZFQHyBT

— Bad Writing Takes (@BadWritingTakes) April 30, 2026

Green Party leader Zack Polanski pushed back against his raging critics like Rupert Murdoch-employed (non-Jewish) Julia Hartley-Brewer. JHB and others, somehow, blamed the attacks on Polanski.

Not a day later, Polanski faced Reform UK supporters throwing actual Nazi salutes his way at a rally in Hastings, which no doubt right-wing “antisemitism” warriors will be horrified at.

Unsurprisingly, Israel’s Foreign Ministry quickly seized the moment, urging the British government to “act decisively and urgently” against antisemitism which it claims is “festering” across the UK.

But we all know how Zionists stretch their definitions beyond genuine attacks to include any criticism of their murderous, racial supremacist political project.

Goodbye civil liberties

It’s difficult to see how this could be considered an undeniable case of antisemitism, when one of Suleiman’s victims was a Muslim.

That said, it seems travelled from south London to the north, meaning he may well have targeted Jewish people. In effect, it’s too early to call it — but that didn’t stop a crackdown a-coming:

You know, if you want Jewish people to feel safe maybe randomly dropping that an ordinary house fire happened to be "near a synagogue" as if it was some kind of attack might be a bit reckless?

Incidentally the fire was also near a mosque. https://t.co/scCIlyFoTN pic.twitter.com/fwXZQbhl2i

— Bad Writing Takes (@BadWritingTakes) May 1, 2026

Keir Starmer quickly took to his favourite podium to criticise “marches that happen regularly across Britain.” He did not even mention their cause, which is pro-Palestinian. Nor their immediate trigger: a UK-backed genocide by Israel of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.

He didn’t stop there, however. Starmer criticised people for slogans and signs by association, and even called for prosecutions of anyone saying “globalise the intifada.” Once again, supposed antisemitism is being weaponised to suit Zionist interests:

Starmer's already made uttering the phrase "I support Palestine Action" punishable by up to 14 years in prison

Then he banned "repeat protests"

Now he wants to prosecute anyone saying "globalise the intifada"

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He is most authoritarian PM since WW2. Our freedoms are evaporating https://t.co/Ixmyhbco41

— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) April 30, 2026

Please note that the 1987–93 First Intifada was an entirely peaceful, civil society movement across Palestine. That is, until the IOF violently repressed the movement by killing 1,300–1,600 Palestinians.

There’s no evidence for any link between such attacks and peaceful protests. Generally, in fact, peaceful protest is considered the only viable, positive alternative to political violence. This fact is, of course, wasted on the IOF and their many British bootlickers.

Yet that obvious and even righteous fact hasn’t stopped so-called human rights lawyer Keir Starmer and his Labour government from arresting over 3,000 protestors for peacefully holding signs reading:

I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.

Hello double standards

Soon a COBRA meeting was called, unlike for the roughly 50,000 stabbings that occur in Britain annually. People shared online the striking disparity in value seemingly placed on the lives of stabbing victims:

Perspective.

As the general public are now aware a double stabbing took place in Golders Green, an area of London heavily populated by Jewish people. The two men attacked are now recovering from this unjustified attacked by the ‘alleged’ Somali Muslim degenerate.

Yesterday the… pic.twitter.com/4nZBU9c4hZ

— The Black Opinion (@opinion_black) May 1, 2026

Victorian relic Jacob Rees-Mogg MP even held a ‘vigil’ for the two living Jewish victims of Suleiman — not, we must stress, for the Muslim victim. Nor for all those other victims, often poorer and Black and brown people, who suffer from knife-crimes daily across London.

Even Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley stepped into politics now, in a barefaced breach of his duties of supposed impartiality. He wrote a direct letter to criticise Zack Polanski over an online re-post:

The Metropolitan Police denouncing a party leader a week before elections – over a retweet.

This is outrageous.

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Forget what you think about the retweet.

If you accept this sort of police interference in our democracy, you legitimise a deeply disturbing precedent. https://t.co/BYdpDneQpF

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) April 30, 2026

Anybody watching this outside the delirium of SW1 and Fleet Street is left with the bitter taste of double standards. One of the three immediate victims overlooked, presumably on an account of his race, religion, or failure to fit neatly into a preformed narrative.

But, worse still, so are the pundits and politicians willingly ignoring thousands of other victims. It begs the question: is there a hierarchy of racial and religious victimisation in Britain?

Antisemitism is a real and present threat — predominantly on the political right. But it’s not the only prominent hate crime, and there should be no hierarchy between it and racialised attacks.

Politicians and the media must be honest about such key facts, and apply their moral outrage evenly. Otherwise, their blatant racist and anti-Muslim hypocrisy betrays itself.

Dubious ‘terror’ connections

Nonetheless, officials soon raised Britain’s ‘terror threat’ level from ‘likely’ to ‘severe’. That’s second on a five-point scale, making intelligence services more vigilant in coming months. Why? Because the world’s newest “Iran-linked terror group” took credit.

That’s right, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) — a supposedly Iran-linked, European-based Islamist group — quickly claimed the Golders Green attacks as their doing.

The so-called terror group appears mainly to be a poorly run Telegram channel. It has supposedly claimed credit for all recent attacks on Jewish people or sites across Europe. It “mysteriously” appeared two weeks before the illegal US-Zionist war on Iran.

Linguists assess that the group uses Israeli state-coded language, such as referring to Occupied Palestine as ‘the Land of Israel’. They also identified misspellings in Arabic and an aversion to well-written Farsi, the dominant language of Iran, alongside giveaways that much of their output is likely AI-generated.

This new-level ‘terror’ designation came despite knowledge that the man left a psychiatric hospital shortly before the attack. This indicates that he was likely suffering a mental health episode. Most likely, then, he was not part of a well-planned or coordinated attack.

It beggars belief that we’re being told to seriously consider that any actual terrorist group would employ such a man. He was already known to Prevent, and apparently suffers from psychotic breaks — not a dependable ally. Especially one who attacks other Muslims, rather than presumed Jewish targets.

Iran, at this stage of the war, has absolutely nothing to gain from harming Europeans, Jewish people, or otherwise. Their obviously best policy is just watching the US-Zionist imperial regime terrorise the global economy. Meanwhile their foolish European, Gulf, and East-Asian erstwhile “allies” begin to wake up.

The reality

There’s only one global actor with a shining record for unchecked attacks on and murder of civilians. It also stands to benefit from terrorising Britain’s Jewish people into a fearful Stockholm syndrome.

To be clear, Zionists aren’t guilty of orchestrating the Golders Green attack. But with the bogus HAYI group claiming such incidents — and politicians eager to amplify their one-sided picture — they are by default guilty as sin:

There was 3 counts of attempted murder.

They ignore this and falsely report 2.

Why?

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Because the third person was Muslim and that doesn't fit the script.

Dystopian stuff. https://t.co/kNMcwmKZvi

— Daniel Lambert (@dlLambo) May 1, 2026

Why doesn't the tweet mention the Muslim man that he stabbed earlier in the day? He's been charged with three counts of attempted murder. https://t.co/aAeRJOwNyo

— Barry Malone (@malonebarry) May 1, 2026

This is disgraceful, @Reuters. He is charged with the attempted murder of THREE men, two Jews and one Muslim. It is wholly unacceptable for a newswire to mislead the public by reporting incorrect information. https://t.co/ErY7PZyAHh

— Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) May 1, 2026

Featured image via Westminster Magistrate’s Court

By Cameron Baillie

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On 17 April 2026, anti-genocide activists blocked the main gate entrance to RAF Valley on the island of Ynys Môn — Anglesey in English — in North Wales for more than four hours to slow down the British government’s war machine in Wales.

The base is used, under a programme known as Affinity FTS, to train British military personnel to fly warplanes. Affinity FTS is operated jointly by Israeli arms firm Elbit and US arms firm KBR, at 3 bases across Wales and England. These are RAF Barkston Heath, RAF Cranwell and, on Ynys Môn, RAF Valley. The programme has been running for years. Elbit CEO Martin Fausset has spoken of his pride in training RAF personnel.

The ‘KSP Solidarity’ shut down the base’s main gate for 4+ hours to oppose the normalisation of that relationship between the RAF, Elbit Systems and KBR. The campaign is not new, nor a transplant. Locals in the area have been campaigning for decades at the Valley base and across Wales against the training of RAF — and Saudi — pilots.

KSP Solidarity says that pilots trained through the have bombed lifesaving infrastructure such as food convoys and desalination plants in Yemen — during one of the worst humanitarian crises on record. The UK made billions helping the Saudi regime create the crisis. A KSP spokesperson told Skwawkbox:

Protestors have historically opposed this base also for its continued reminder of English colonialism. In 1936, 3 Plaid Cymru members set fire to part of the RAF facilities in protest of the wartime rearmament.

One of the protestors added:

We say NO MORE to Elbit and KBR on Welsh soil! We say NO MORE to RAF Valley! We cannot sit idly by as our government, our military, indoctrinates our neighbours to commit genocide across the globe.

KSP Solidarity is a grassroots collective acting in solidarity with Kashmir, Sudan and Palestine.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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4 min read16 min

Complaints made against councillors’ conduct have risen sharply at local authorities that held elections last year, figures obtained by PoliticsHome show.

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The largest rise revealed in the data is at Staffordshire County Council, where there has been a 1,300 per cent increase in the number of complaints since Reform UK won control at the 2025 local elections a year ago.

As voters prepare to go to the polls for another set of local elections next week, experts said the data was a reflection of the UK’s increasingly polarised political climate. The findings show that in many local authorities, the dramatic rise in complaints has been driven by objections to councillors’ behaviour on social media.

Lucy Bush, Director of Research and Participation at the think tank, Demos, told PoliticsHome that the numbers are “indicative of today’s deeply polarised political environment, where strong negative emotions are driving engagement, where disagreements are sharper and where tolerance has evaporated”.

Councillors are required to abide by their council’s agreed code of conduct, which must be based on the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s seven principles of public life.

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To obtain the information, PoliticsHome asked 23 councils where full elections took place in May 2025 how many complaints had been made against councillors between January and December 2024, and in 2025 since 1 May (the date that the elections took place last year).

The complaints could have been made by a member of the public or someone else at the council, and some may not have been taken forward or may have been withdrawn since first being lodged. Of the 23 councils, 13 responded fully to the request for information. PoliticsHome also requested the figures broken down by party, which some councils provided.

The findings show huge rises at many councils won by Nigel Farage’s Reform a year ago.

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As well as the 1,300 per cent rise in Staffordshire, an increase of 10 complaints to 147, there was a 455 per cent increase in Leicestershire, from nine to 50, with 45 of those made against Reform councillors. 

In November, Leicestershire Reform councillor Joseph Boam told a council meeting that he was a “complaint expert”, having received about 20 himself at the time. He commented on the rise more widely, saying that he and others had “noticed that the spike started the moment Reform UK councillors were elected” and that the “huge increase is almost entirely complaints from far left councillors for our political views and not for any real breach of the code.”

He asked the director of law and governance during the meeting if she agreed with his observation, to which she simply responded: “No, I wouldn’t agree with that statement.”

In Reform-run Durham County Council, there was a 550 per cent increase in complaints made against councillors, rising from eight across the whole of 2024 to 52 between May and December 2025. Of those 52 complaints, 41 were made against Reform councillors. 

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In Kent, often described as Reform’s flagship council, complaints against councillors have risen by 480 per cent from 10 to 58. The council said it could not provide a breakdown of the numbers by party as it could make it possible to identify an individual councillor.

There were rises in councils controlled by the Liberal Democrats, too.

In Devon, there has been a 264 per cent increase in complaints. Across the whole of 2024, just 11 complaints against councillors were received, compared with 43 in 2025, with 40 of those just since May 1. The council did not provide a breakdown of the complaints by party.

In Gloucestershire, run by a Liberal Democrat minority administration, nine complaints were received across the whole of 2024, compared to 27 in 2025 (25 of which were received since 1 May). Around half of the complaints received were against Reform councillors.

The data shows that, in some cases, complaints against councillors are triggered by a single event. For example, in Reform-run Warwickshire, 308 of the 315 complaints received in 2024 related to comments made by three councillors at the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting of 25 January 2024.

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Rhiannon McQuone, research associate at More in Common, explained that the think tank has identified two groups who are most likely to have written to their councillors.

Setting them to PoliticsHome, she said: “Progressive Activists, a group of highly engaged, progressive voters who care about climate change and social justice, and Dissenting Disruptors, a group who are distrustful of institutions, opposed to multiculturalism, think political correctness is silencing ordinary people, and who crave radical change.”

The government consulted on the councillor complaints process in 2024, proposing to introduce a mandatory code of conduct. The Local Government Association said at the time that “there is frustration and dissatisfaction among both voters and councillors where they perceive different levels of standards being applied in different authorities”.

In January, The House magazine revealed that the home addresses of local councillors would soon be kept secret from the public amid rising concerns over threats.

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President Donald Trump endorsed a Republican congressmember to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell while rejecting a self-styled MAGA candidate with backing from Elon Musk.

Trump announced his support Friday for Rep. Andy Barr in the Kentucky Republican primary, shortly after he said he asked businessperson Nate Morris to drop out of the race and take an unspecified role in the Trump administration.

The endorsement gives Barr a massive boost to win the GOP nomination over former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the deep-red state.

“I know Andy well, and he is always a Vote we can count on because he knows what it takes to GET THINGS DONE and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said on social media.

Trump said he asked Morris to serve as an ambassador but did not specify the exact diplomatic post, while praising him as a “strong MAGA Warrior.”

“Nate is Oxford educated, tough as nails, LOVES our Great Nation, and will represent the United States very well, overseas, or otherwise,” Trump said.

Morris endorsed Barr in a social media post, and called on “all Kentuckians to rally behind our next Senator.”

Morris has self-financed his campaign to stay financially competitive with Barr. But he did receive a significant investment from Elon Musk, who dropped $10 million into his campaign, according to federal campaign finance records from earlier this year.

The primary had been defined by Barr, Cameron and Morris seeking to distance themselves from McConnell, the lion of the Kentucky GOP who has grown into a Trump adversary and condemned the president for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

That maneuvering away from McConnell speaks to the power of Trump’s endorsement in the state, Kentucky Republican strategist Tres Watson said. He noted that Cameron will be familiar with the gift Trump has given Barr — Cameron won the GOP primary for governor in 2023 after getting Trump’s backing.

“It’s all over but the shouting,” Watson said. “Donald Trump’s endorsement effectively ends this campaign and Andy Barr can begin to turn his attention to the general election.”

Barr’s allies celebrated Trump’s endorsement. Former Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer said it shows that Barr has run a “perfect race” thus far.

“I’m pleased that President Trump has endorsed Andy Barr,” Thayer said. “He likes to support winners and it’s been clear right from the start that Andy has what it takes to win the primary and the general and hold the seat for Republicans.”

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

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An arson attack against the ‘antisemitism commissioner’ of the German state of Brandenburg has turned out to be a case study in the Israel lobby’s antisemitism smear tactics. And, of course, the way in which those tactics are aided by the state-corporate media.

It’s a lesson that the UK badly needs to learn.

Andreas Büttner was targeted by a night-time arson attack — his door was damaged and an outbuilding on his property set on fire. Israel’s ambassador immediately leaped to publicly decry the attack as antisemitic and claim it was evidence that the Palestine solidarity movement is a terrorist one. And of course, he demanded that the German state “smash these terrorist organisations”:

My thoughts are with Andreas Büttner and his family. Knowing him as I do, he will only stand even more resolutely against antisemitism after this attack.

For the radical part of the “Palestine solidarity” movement is not only antisemitic, but terrorist. Attacks on those who think differently and attempted murder: That is what the Hamas triangle stands for—in Gaza as in Brandenburg. And the hatred of Israel goes hand in hand with hatred of our democracy.

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The rule of law must smash these terrorist organizations—and that before they strike again.

Meine Gedanken sind bei Andreas Büttner und seiner Familie. Wie ich ihn kenne, wird er nach diesem Angriff nur noch entschlossener gegen Antisemitismus aufstehen.

Denn der radikale Teil der „Palästina-Solidarität“ ist nicht nur antisemitisch, sondern terroristisch. Anschläge auf… pic.twitter.com/MtgSfD7qn4

— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) January 4, 2026

Right. Equally quickly, much the German media jumped to amplify the claims. Bild demanded to know, “Where is the tough action against left-wing extremists?”, labelling the arsonists as “left-wing fascists” and claiming a “Hamas marker” had been left on Büttner’s door.

Except it appears to have had nothing to do with the left, or with antisemitism.

An ‘uncle’ to them

Instead, the two men accused of and charged with the attack were two young men that Büttner knows personally. Not just knows, but owns a business with. Not just owns a business with, but went to the opera with.

He even describes himself as “a kind of uncle” to them.

The Tagesspiegel decided to investigate the ambassador’s claims and quickly unearthed these facts. The outlet was forced to conclude that:

Many questions remain unanswered. But contrary to previous assumptions, one thing it is probably not about is antisemitism.

Even the Jewish press’s Jüdische Allgemeine has had to concede this week that the attack had nothing to do with Palestine, admitting that Büttner is “shocked” to find the attack was — allegedly still — by people he knew.

Despite the findings and the fact that the accused are not part of the pro-Palestine movement, as can be seen from the embedded X post above, the Israeli ambassador has not retracted his smear or his demand for a crackdown, or deleted his post.

Bild has not deleted its January article.

UK could learn from this German smear case study

However, despite the continued smears and the German government’s naked collusion in Israel’s genocide and smears, Germany is doing better than the UK. That’s not saying much, but at least some German media have admitted that the attack was a personal one and nothing to do with antisemitism or the anti-genocide movement.

In the UK, the Golders Green knife attacker has been charged with three counts of attempted murder this week — not terrorism. Three counts because one of the people he stabbed was not Jewish or in a Jewish area. Yet the Met police are still justifying brutality against the immobilised, psychologically ill attacker and smearing Green party leader Zack Polanski for daring to condemn it.

The Starmer regime is smearing the anti-genocide movement as hateful and dangerous, even though it had nothing to do with the entirely peaceful pro-Palestine marches Starmer wants to stamp out. Starmer’s government has used the attack to raise the terror alert level even though it was not terrorism, and intends further attacks on UK protest and free speech rights. Met commissioner Mark Rowley says he wants special, armed police force only for Jewish areas.

And UK media headlines continue to treat the incident as an antisemitic terror attack and ignore the non-Jewish victim, even though it was neither.

If we tolerate this, our children will be next. Israel is a terror state. Perhaps seeing it play out in a different country will allow a few more people to understand how they are being manipulated and misled by the Israel lobby.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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The Green party launched its Workers’ Charter 2026 tonight at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. Zack Polanski opened the event with a wonderfully passionate call to build a system that works for the workers and not the wealthy few. Polanski’s powerful call to finally level the playing field, reinstate workers’ rights and to unite trade unionists under the Green banner was refreshing to hear.

Polanski’s common sense politics

The rally took place tonight on International Labour Day (May Day), Friday 1 May 2026, and the announcement could not be more fitting. The historic venue was perfect for the launch of the Workers’ Charter and speakers such as Hannah Spencer, a proper working-class MP, helped to hammer home the importance of its launch.

Polanski, a Salford-born leader, brought a grounded energy to the room. He spoke with the authenticity of someone who understands the city of Manchester. The atmosphere was electric as union representatives and active strikers took to the stage and hammered home just why the Green party’s Workers’ Charter is so important.

A £15 minimum wage

The party is pledging a £15 minimum wage for all workers regardless of age by 2027. This also comes with a commitment to achieving a higher real living wage.

The Workers’ Charter also includes:

• Pay justice: A 1:10 pay ratio within all organisations to cap executive greed. Think of how quickly working-class wages would go up if a CEO could only earn just over £100 an hour?
• Public sector pay: Guaranteed pay rises to match inflation as a minimum, and opening the door to pay restoration for all.

Polanski’s charter — stronger rights from day one

The Charter wants to build on the current Employment Rights Act, acknowledging it is woefully inadequate. The Greens proposed a total ban on fire and rehire, and zero-hour contracts. And let’s face it, it’s fucking long overdue. Pledges for ‘strong rights’ also include:

• Worker equality: a robust, single worker status to tackle multi-tier workforces.
• Work/life balance: More statutory holidays, more and fairer parental leave, and the right to off when you’re not on the clock.
• AI justice: New laws to protect workers from being replaced by technology. And a national strategy to ensure any gains from new tech are shared with workers.

Collective power

Polanski told the audience that workers deserve real protection and dignity at work, something that we are severely lacking. He vowed to lift the disgusting anti-union and anti-strike laws that have muzzled the working-class since 1979.

The Workers Charter also demands:

• Full ERA: Fast and strong implementation of the whole Employment Rights Act from union access to workplaces to electronic ballots to guaranteed.
• Second ERA: A new Act to go further to strengthen our rights. The Greens want to ban unfair dismissal practices from day one, ban fire and re-hire and zero-hour contracts outright. They want to bring back strong collective bargaining, including sectoral bargaining and the right to strike without barriers.
• Unchaining the unions: Scrap all anti-union and strike laws introduced since 1979. The Greens want to strengthen our right to strike, picket and protest, including solidarity action for political and social causes.

The Green party seems to be stepping into the shoes of what Labour used to be, the true party of the working-class. Polanski seems to be leading the charge in common-sense politics. But the question remains, will this be enough to prise the unions from the clutches of Starmer’s Labour? I really hope so.

Featured image provided via author

By Antifabot

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 31

BLAKEMAN’S DAY IN COURT: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman’s battle to access the state’s new public campaign finance program made its way to an Albany County courthouse this afternoon.

The legal fight is over hypertechnical matters like whether duplicate copies of a “PCF-22” form submitted separately should be considered as a joint submission.

But the repercussions are significant. Blakeman is seeking to build momentum for his underdog campaign in a blue state, and a win would provide a $3.5 million boost to his effort, guaranteeing he’d be one of the better-funded state Republican candidates in recent decades. It would also give him bragging rights over the Democrats who call all the shots in Albany.

The GOP case rests on the idea that Democrats made the rules for joining the program impossible to follow. Blakeman lawyer Adam Fusco noted that none of the gubernatorial candidates who applied are likely to receive any money.

“There is a hidden ball trick,” Fusco said. “And everyone who tried to do this failed to do it correctly: 0-7. It sounds like my high school baseball career.”

Blakeman was booted from the program in March. During the same week in December, he received a letter saying he was accepted into the program and the Public Campaign Finance Board approved a new rule that gubernatorial candidates and their running mates must apply jointly.

The board never published the form they’d need to submit and never mentioned the need for a signature from Blakeman’s running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Todd Hood. The requirement was also absent from a training Blakeman sat through in January and wasn’t mentioned in a recent update to the campaign finance handbook. But since the nonexistent form was never received, the board’s Democratic majority deemed Blakeman no longer eligible.

Democratic lawyer Chris Massaroni rejected the idea that the decision stemmed from partisan gamesmanship. Any serious campaign for governor should stay abreast of changing rules, he said.

“It wasn’t a sort of casual, quick determination,” Massaroni said. “It was a careful consideration that we have to apply the rules carefully, and we can’t appear to be giving exceptions. … If we start bending these election rules once, we don’t know where that’s going to end.”

Justice Denise Hartman, who was first nominated to the bench by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, seemed perturbed by the board’s failure to produce the form Blakeman was expected to file.

“This is very problematic that there was no joint form,” she said.

“Under the board’s own regulation, the board shall — it’s a shall — produce a joint form for the candidates. Why hasn’t that happened?” she later asked.

She also noted, however, that the fact Hood never even attempted to file anything at all was a “concern.”

Fusco is requesting the court to require the board to produce a form that Blakeman and Hood can jointly fill out and allow for a new “window for filing that form.”

Hartman promised to “hurry this along” and issue a decision in the next week or two. That will allow for arguments in a mid-level appellate court before the end of May, making it more likely the matter will be resolved before judges start taking summer vacations. — Bill Mahoney

From the Capitol

THE END IS NEAR: Gov. Kathy Hochul is bullish that a state budget agreement is on the verge of completion in the coming weeks, telling reporters today that a compact is close.

“Our teams are going to continue working day and night for the entire weekend,” she said in an impromptu gaggle.

The governor acknowledged, though, that sticking points remain over devising the structure of a pied-à-terre surcharge for high-value non-primary homes in New York City. She also indicated that more education aid is being discussed for the Big Apple as Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin push for additional revenue from Albany. And she said a potential rebate check program is “on the table” in negotiations with the Legislature.

The budget is now more than a month past its March 31 due date. The month-long impasse between Hochul and the Legislature stemmed from her push to weaken a 2019 climate law and to overhaul the state’s car insurance laws. — Nick Reisman

THE RINGS: In the same gaggle, Hochul teased a potential push for New York to get an Olympic games.

“We had a very productive meeting today to launch our exploratory committee for the Olympics,” she said.

But the governor quickly clammed up after that and wouldn’t go into detail. Her news, though, comes as New York officials have made various efforts over the years to bring the Olympics back to the Empire State. Lake Placid last hosted the winter games in 1980.

Democratic Assemblymember Bobby Carroll earlier this year pitched a potential Lake Placid-New York City winter games, similar to how Italy spread its Olympics between Milan and Cortina. — Nick Reisman 

FROM CITY HALL

ZO GO GO: In a speech this afternoon to the Regional Plan Association’s annual assembly — which has been described as a sort of Oscars for urbanists — Mamdani once again delved into faster buses.

With free buses not happening this year, the mayor said he’s focusing on delivering faster bus service through street redesign projects and a plan to speed up buses along dozens of corridors. The aim is to cut commutes by six minutes each way.

“I say that as someone who, when I went to Bronx Science and I got off the 1 train and I knew that I’d missed the bus, if I ran fast enough, I could catch up to it three stops later,” Mamdani said.

He also used the speech to suggest he would work often with the RPA, the same way as the group and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia did decades ago. “Together, they turned ideas into action, delivering on transitways, parks and a more livable New York City,” Mamdani said. “A century later, let us do the same.”

The RPA gave an award to Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill also delivered remarks and said that lack of investment in New Jersey Transit has “pushed it into really hard times.” — Ry Rivard

CONGESTION PRICING APPEALED: The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling blocking its attempts to end New York City’s congestion pricing program.

“Appealing congestion pricing once again is just a waste of everyone’s time,” said Sean Butler, a spokesperson for Hochul. “Sean Duffy can keep trying, but traffic will stay down, business will stay up, and the cameras will stay on.”

A Southern District of New York judge ruled against the Department of Transportation in March, finding that the federal government could not unilaterally terminate an agreement with state and city agencies that gave the go-ahead for the tolling program.

President Donald Trump’s social media posts did not help the federal government’s case.

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” he posted in February 2025, on the same day that the MTA filed its lawsuit against the DOT.

Justice Department lawyers filed an appeal Friday to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. — Mona Zhang

IN OTHER NEWS

— BILLIONAIRE BOOST: Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen is pouring $3.5 million into a super PAC backing Alex Bores, escalating a high-stakes primary fight with AI regulations emerging as a key issue. (POLITICO)

— ACROSS THE AISLE: New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler’s wife, Anna Poe-Kest, is taking a senior role at the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget has drawn scrutiny as it places them on opposite sides of budget negotiations. (City & State)

— WASTE WARS: The Council has introduced a package of bills to curb dog waste after a winter surge, aiming to expand bag access, composting and outreach to pet owners. (THE CITY)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

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