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Top Mamdani aide takes progressive project to the UK

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Top: King Charles III talks to Gordon McKee, one of the politicians Morris Katz spoke with. Katz also spoke with Rowenna Davis (bottom right) and Rosie Wrighting (bottom left). | Aaron Chown-WPA Pool via Getty Images; Jonnyb1234/Wikimedia Commons; Nicky J Sims/Getty Images

NEW YORK — Morris Katz, a top adviser to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, quietly traveled to the United Kingdom last month to meet with local progressive politicians hoping to learn tools of the trade from the young strategist.

Katz’s trip coincided with the rise of a new left-wing challenge to the embattled Labour government from the Green Party, which snatched away a Manchester-area parliamentary seat in a February special election.

One of the architects of Mamdani’s stunning election last year, Katz confirmed to POLITICO that he had ventured into British politics and described it as part of a global political struggle. He said he was there to offer members of the U.K.’s Labour and Green parties advice on mounting effective campaigns for elected office.

“The fight against the aligned interests of the oligarchy and the far right is an international one, and I’ll try to be helpful wherever I can,” the 26-year-old progressive political strategist said this week when asked about his February trip.

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Among the players Katz met with: Rosie Wrighting and Gordon McKee, two Labour members of Parliament, and Rowenna Davis, a Labour politician running for mayor of Croydon, a town in South London. Katz confirmed Labour and Green operatives initiated contact and asked him to come over for the meetings.

Mamdani has emerged as something of a political beacon for progressive parties in other countries, including the U.K. and Canada.

The British left’s overture to Katz highlights how progressive movements around the world are looking at the Mamdani campaign’s populist playbook as ripe for replication. And it speaks to how elements of the American left increasingly see themselves as part of a global project.

Katz said he has continued to hold virtual meetings with members of both parties since returning stateside and plans to speak with Green leadership in the coming weeks.

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Top: King Charles III talks to Gordon McKee, one of the politicians Morris Katz spoke with. Katz also spoke with Rowenna Davis (bottom right) and Rosie Wrighting (bottom left). | Aaron Chown-WPA Pool via Getty Images; Jonnyb1234/Wikimedia Commons; Nicky J Sims/Getty Images

The in-person sit-downs in the U.K., Katz said, revolved around his strategy and messaging techniques, with the U.K. politicians seeking to glean more insight into his overall approach. The Mamdani aide has become known for producing made-to-go-viral social media content highlighting progressive policy prescriptions for bread-and-butter issues like childcare costs.

Katz said his engagements in the U.K. were unpaid and that he’s not looking to start running campaigns across the pond this year, in part because he’s busy with the U.S. congressional midterms. But he expressed openness to working with progressives there on a paid basis in the future, opening the door to a key Mamdani adviser becoming an international political fixer.

Katz wouldn’t be the first U.S. progressive to help like-minded British politicians. Advisers to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) helped former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s unsuccessful 2017 campaign for prime minister.

Drawing connections across different countries’ politics can be complicated, and while Mamdani’s high-octane style of campaigning can generate excitement in places other than New York, it’s not clear that everyone he met with on his travels overseas buys into his ideological project. Wrighting and McKee are prolific on social media platforms like TikTok, much like the New York City executive, but are mainstream Labour backbenchers.

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Spokespeople for the Green and Labour parties did not return requests for comment about the meetings with Katz.

Morris Katz has been sharing advice with British politicians. | David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

The Labour Party lost a key parliamentary election last week after the Greens, a much smaller party, ran a 34-year-old candidate who focused her campaign on tackling a spiraling cost-of-living crisis. The candidate, 34-year-old former plumber Hannah Spencer, has argued since her victory that it’s a winning message for the Green Party to continue emphasizing.

“We ran a hopeful campaign backed by thousands of volunteers and activists. We defeated the parties of billionaire donors,” Spencer wrote in an op-ed in The Guardian last week.

Sound familiar?

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Mamdani defeated Andrew Cuomo, New York’s former governor, in last summer’s mayoral primary after aggressively centering his campaign around proposals aimed at making the city more affordable for working class New Yorkers.

The U.K.’s left-leaning parties, especially Labour following last month’s election setback, likely see Mamdani’s messaging model as something they can harness in future campaigns. That’s where Katz comes in.

Katz, who calls himself a populist politics “believer,” has been credited with spearheading the Mamdani campaign’s laser focus on promising to fight for a more affordable city by raising taxes on the rich to expand social safety nets, including making public transit and child care programs free. Though he hasn’t joined Mamdani’s administration, Katz is seen as very close with the mayor and continues to advise him on both governmental and political matters, joining him, for instance, for both of his high-profile meetings with President Donald Trump.

“The Brits can use some excitement in their politics,” Doug Muzzio, a longtime political scientist in New York who is not affiliated with Mamdani or his team, said when asked to opine on Katz’s U.K. moves. “So if Mamdani’s engaging style is something that can be replicated over there that would probably be very welcome.”

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Top: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani addresses supporters after being declared winner of the 2025 New York City mayoral election at his election night watch party at the Brooklyn Paramount in Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 4, 2025. Bottom: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, listens as Czech President Petr Pavel (L) speak at a Townhall panel on populism at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 13, 2026 in Munich, Germany.

It isn’t unusual for campaign consultants to embark on a traveling road show abroad after successful domestic stints. Political advice is among the most American of exports: Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, advised Sali Berisha of Albania’s opposition party after his 2024 White House run. Bob Shrum, the former Democratic presidential candidate adviser and speechwriter, advised Ehud Barak in Israel’s 1999 election for prime minister and the British Labour Party under former Prime Minister Tony Blair. And James Carville, the veteran political strategist, also advised Blair, along with having done work in more than 20 countries.

“A guy gets elected and they like you, and somebody calls: ‘Hey, somebody from such and such called us,’ and they’ll recommend people. I mean, it’s a kind of networking thing,” Carville said. “The perception is our political consultants are better than they actually are.”

But Katz’s adventures abroad likely say more about his principal than the consultant. Of Mamdani, Carville says: “He’s an object of curiosity.” In the same way that former President Bill Clinton’s popularity abroad juiced Carville’s prospects, Mamdani and his retinue are drawing longing glances from international compatriots.

“A lot of people hired me just to say we got Clinton’s guy,” Carville said.

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And now more than ever, an appetite for progressive insights is sweeping Europe: Just last month, organizers of the Munich Security Conference hosted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who in her remarks connected income inequality to the global rise of authoritarianism.

“Voters in democracies in Europe and elsewhere are responding to a lot of the same things that American voters are,” said Matt Duss, who advised Ocasio-Cortez on her Munich trip and is executive vice president at the progressive think tank Center for International Policy. “That’s a system of government that has not delivered for them, that they see as captured by special interests that are not responsive to their needs.”

Duss, who also previously served as foreign policy adviser to Bernie Sanders, said there is a global appetite for that brand of progressivism.

“I do think Bernie obviously has inspired a lot of colleagues in other democracies. Mamdani is a name that we hear a lot from our colleagues in Europe on the left,” Duss said. “People are watching and learning from each other. American progressives have things to learn as our colleagues in Europe innovate and vice versa.”

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A New York City Board of Elections sticker is seen outside of a polling site at P.S. 20 in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 4, 2025.

Going international is not without risks.

Witness, for example, Ocasio-Cortez’s reception in Munich, on-camera and widely clipped miscues on everything from mislabeling the Trans-Atlantic partnership the Trans-Pacific Partnership to suggesting Venezuela was below not above the Equator. (On the ground, leaders’ embrace of her was warmer than the social media maw.)

Were Katz to get officially involved in the U.S., he may not go at it alone. He is the co-founder of Fight Agency, a consulting firm made up of a number of veterans of the American progressive movement who could also get roped into working with him overseas. Among them: Rebecca Katz, an alum of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration who has managed a number of successful congressional campaigns in recent years.

Rebecca Katz, who is not related to Morris Katz, did not comment for this story.

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Domestically, Morris Katz’s travels abroad posed some obstacles for a candidate in his stable.

“It was very hard to communicate with him and his team during the January, February timeframe, because he was over there,” said Nathan Sage, the former Iowa Senate candidate and Katz client who dropped out of the race in mid-February. “I have no idea what he’s doing. I have no idea what that is, but I do know that it was difficult.”

Despite that, Sage said he would recommend Katz’s firm to others.

John Johnston contributed to this report.

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Messi gets absolutely dragged for applauding Trump’s war boasting

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7 March 2026

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Messi gets absolutely dragged for applauding Trump's war boasting

Footballer Lionel Messi has gone from hero to zero in a moment after appearing on camera applauding US dictator Donald Trump’s boasting about his “Epstein class” illegal war on Iran and smiling as Trump praised himself for starving Cuba. A legacy destroyed in a moment.

As Tere Felipe commented:

Trump explains how the United States is doing a “great job” bombing Iran, and Lionel Messi and his teammates applaud him. There is no excuse for this when 1200 Iranians have died, including 300 children.

And from the thousands of comments from previously adoring fans, the world agrees. Here are just a few examples:

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“Every arse-licker ends up eating shit”:

“Messi and Suarez are some of the most despicable beings applauding evil US-Israel because it pays for their ostentatious and shallow lives”:

Messi applauds Trump

“Trump boasts that bombing Iran was justified. While Leo Messi, UNICEF ambassador, and his companions applaud”:

“Ugh Messi, I thought you were a better person”:

“Lionel Messi supporting the actions of the tyrant! Look at him, nothing more! The deaths of infants, the genocides are not trivial matters and no one with even a bit of brain should applaud or support the dictator who thinks he’s the master of the world! No one!”

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“Fucking Messi, you spineless asshole, in front of the Orange Orangutan. I hoped that at the level he plays, he had the awareness to at least not applaud that monster rapist, murderer, genocidal thug, and convict for 34 crimes before a U.S. court.”:

“Dictators need to have well-known references behind them to deceive the gullible masses.”:

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“What a shitty decision right at this moment, this hurts Messi and favors the orange-faced, gassy, crazy imperialist… and on top of that, they didn’t want to go to the Casa Rosada when they won the World Cup ’cause they weren’t getting into politics, what an idiot 🤦 horrible everything”:

Many joined in to point out how Trump’s hands are dripping with innocent blood:

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“Is this what they are applauding!?”:

And many, many, pointed to late Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona who, no matter how messed up his personal life was, never forgot where he came from or betrayed humanity and ordinary people. Maradona opposed US imperialism and backed Iran against it. Many adding that they would boycott both this year’s World Cup in the US and anything to do with Messi:

“Even in death Maradona overshadows living Messi”:

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Boycott the World Cup.

Featured image via Twitter

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Trump’s war in Ecuador is about elite control, not about drugs

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2 hours ago

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7 March 2026

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There is no 'liberal' Zionism: Polanski criticised over fluffed LBC interview

US president Donald Trump wants the world to think his regime cares about drug trafficking. But in reality, he’s just using the issue as a weak pretext to intensify his country’s regional stranglehold. And Ecuador’s repressive right-wing government seems all too happy to enable that.

Trump pushes for more ‘drug’ wars

Giving few details, the US revealed on 4 March that it had launched a joint military operation in Ecuador against “narco-terrorism“. International law sees drug trafficking as a crime rather than an act of war, with experts calling at least 150 US murders of unknown victims for unknown charges extrajudicial executions.

On 5 March, meanwhile, the US brought a number of Latin American and Caribbean nations to Miami for an ‘Americas against the Cartels’ conference. The left-leaning governments of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia didn’t attend.

In January, the US used the term ‘narco-terrorist’ to try and justify its illegal abduction of Venezuela’s president, even though Venezuela is not a major player in the global drug trade. It has gone on to intensify its brutal blockade on Cuba, again using absurd arguments about links to drug trafficking.

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Recent decades, however, have shown that increasing militarisation does not end drug trafficking. If anything, in fact, it makes it worse.

The failure of drug militarism in Latin America

In Colombia, for example, the US pushed ‘Plan Colombia‘ in 2000 as a way to deal with the drug trade. It funded destruction of crops, along with military and intelligence training. Experts broadly agree that it failed. It simply increased violence, deaths, displacement, human rights abuses, and illegal mining.

Perhaps one of the only things the US and its elite allies in Colombia could claim as a success was the weakening of left-wing rebels, which led them to sign a peace deal. It’s almost as if Plan Colombia wasn’t really about fighting the drug trade.

Mexico, meanwhile, had a similar story. In 2006, a right-wing government launched a military assault against drug cartels that made things much, much worse in the country. Since then, there have been hundreds of thousands of deaths and disappearances.

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Just like Colombians, Mexicans faced mass displacement and increasing human rights abuses. And as big cartels split into many smaller ones, violence increased as criminals diversified into areas like extortion, illegal mining, migration trafficking, and fuel theft.

The first left–leaning Mexican president in decades sought to break away from this war on drugs from 2018 onwards. And while his successor has shifted strategies slightly, she’s still insisting on an independent path from the type of military escalation the US is pushing.

Ecuador’s right-wing president dances to Trump’s tune anyway

Ecuador had particularly low murder rates under a left–wing government in the early 2010s. But that changed amid a dramatic shift to the right at the end of the decade. And under the current right-wing president, it rose to having the highest homicide rate in South America. It’s now “a crucial zone for transnational organized crime“.

Ecuadorean president Daniel Noboa has pushed through ‘urgent’ neoliberal reforms, cutting public spending while clamping down on civil liberties, workers’ rights, and indigenous environmental activism against mining and fossil fuel extraction.

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As part of Ecuador’s current military operations, it claims to have seized a “narco submarine” in a nature reserve. It said it found a camp too and came under attack. But it mentioned no arrests or drug seizures.

This coincides with the government ignoring a popular referendum opposing extractivism in one of the world’s most diverse natural areas and going after activists who campaigned for it.

Noboa isn’t just an elitist politician in the style of Trump. He’s also a willing lackey for the US leader. He has already expelled Cuban diplomats from Ecuador and suggested the US launch a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. And he has begun a tariff war with neighbouring Colombia.

The real solution?

It’s not just left-wing governments, activists, or experts who think waging war on the drug trade is not the way to go. It’s religious figures too. Because Ecuador’s most prominent Catholic figure, Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, has spoken out against military escalation, saying:

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The root of the violence is poverty, but not just material poverty. There is also cultural poverty – poverty of education, of healthcare, of opportunities… the state has failed to meet people’s needs for housing and work. When a person wants to work but cannot, when a child has no school or food, the perfect conditions for despair are created. And despair pushes people toward crime…

But repression does not solve the problem. The country does not need more bullets, more soldiers, prisons, or repression. The solution is not found there… The real solution lies in education, work, and human development… If we do not commit to that, violence will not disappear.

A key cause of poverty in Latin America, meanwhile, is decades of brutal imperialist intervention that have hindered just development.

The highly destructive drug trade, meanwhile, is also largely a result of demand from the US and other countries in the Global North. So the best way to really fix the drug problems in the US is to actually address health and economic inequalities that lead people there to use and abuse drugs.

But the US won’t do that. Because this military escalation isn’t really about drugs. It’s about the resources that the US wants and that other countries have. And it’s about making sure governments submit to what the US wants.

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Featured image via PeoplesDispatch

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World Cup qualifiers cast into doubt for Iraqi national football team

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6 March 2026

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World Cup qualifiers cast into doubt for Iraqi national football team

Doubts surround the Iraqi national team’s participation in the World Cup 2026 qualifiers, as flights remain suspended in some countries in the region following the US-Israeli war in Iran.

The Iraqi national team was preparing to face the winner of the Bolivia-Suriname match in Monterrey, Mexico, on 31 March, as part of the World Cup qualifying play-offs.

With the current developments in Iran, the Iraqi team is facing great difficulties in securing travel for its entire squad to Mexico to play the match.

Iraqi airspace has been closed since last Saturday, coinciding with the start of the war in Iran and the subsequent Iranian response of launching missiles and drones towards Israel and several countries in the region, causing widespread disruption to air traffic.

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The Iraqi Football Association said in an official statement that FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation are fully aware of the developments surrounding the national team.

The statement added: ‘Due to the closure of airspace, our national team coach Graham Arnold is currently unable to leave the UAE, and a number of embassies remain closed, preventing some players and members of the technical and medical staff from completing the procedures for obtaining visas to enter Mexico.’

World Cup play-offs in doubt

These developments come after media reports in recent days about the possibility of moving the World Cup play-offs from Mexico to Qatar for security reasons. However, the ongoing war in Iran and the Middle East has cast a shadow over the sporting scene in the region and halted many activities, including in Qatar, less than 100 days before the start of the 2026 World Cup.

The teams involved in the qualifying play-offs are now awaiting a decision from FIFA on the fate of the matches, should the air and security crisis that is disrupting travel in the region continue.

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In Iraq, the sporting community has high hopes for this opportunity to return to the World Cup finals via the international play-offs, after a long and difficult qualifying campaign.

The Iraqi public hopes that their national team will succeed in ending their years of absence from the World Cup, as Iraq’s last participation in the tournament was in 1986 in Mexico, when they appeared for the first and only time in their history in the finals.

In a related context,

the Iranian team’s participation in the 2026 World Cup also appears to be in doubt in light of the rapid military developments, especially since the next edition of the tournament will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, at a time when the United States is engaged in direct warfare with Iran, which may open the door to political and logistical complications that could affect the Iranian team’s participation in the tournament.

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Israel takes its Dahiya Doctrine back where it began: Lebanon

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6 March 2026

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Israel takes its Dahiya Doctrine back where it began: Lebanon

Israel’s genocidal Dahiya Doctrine was forged in its defeat in Lebanon in 2006. Now the settler-state has gone full circle, imposing Dahiya on the same place it was created back in 2006 — Beirut’s southern suburb. The southern ‘Dahiya’ in Arabic.

This is how we got here:

Israel violated the US-brokered Lebanon 2024 ‘ceasefire’ over 15,400 times since it was signed. Must be a world record. Yet a short salvo from Hezbollah 2 March was framed as a signal outrage by legacy media. That attack has been cited by the settler-colonial state as a pretext to invade.

Not satisfied with pulling the US and her allies into a runaway war with Iran, Israeli troops have pushed into Lebanon with airstrikes pummelling the capital Beirut.

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Some key background…

The Canary reported the early moments of the new war here. You can read about the secretive Israel-US ‘side letter’ pact which gave Israel carte blanche to keep bombing through the ‘ceasefire’ here. And our extensive coverage of Israel’s ceasefire regular breaches here.

Israel enforces mass displacement

The number of civilians who’ve fled the Israeli attack is staggering, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported:

The exodus is a result of Israel issuing a series of preposterous mass displacement orders:

For Zionists with an apocalyptic vision of ‘Greater Israel’ the entire region is theirs. Their strategy to acquire it is the genocidal Dahiya Doctrine.

Dahiya’s scorched earth implications

Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies, explained Dahiya in the context of Gaza in December 2023. Surveying the early devastation in the enclave, he said the horror spoke to a:

specific Israeli way of war that has evolved since 1948, through to its current Dahiya doctrine, which is said to have originated in the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Rogers said:

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In July of that year, facing salvoes of rockets fired from southern Lebanon by Hezbollah militias, the IDF fought an intense air and ground war.

However:

Neither succeeded, and the ground troops took heavy casualties; but the significance of the war lies in the nature of the air attacks. It was directed at centres of Hezbollah power in the Dahiya area, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but also on the Lebanese economic infrastructure.

It was there in Dahiya that Israel’s genocidal impulses mutated into a new policy of annihilation.

Disproportionate force

Rogers explained:

This was the deliberate application of “disproportionate force”, such as the destruction of an entire village, if deemed to be the source of rocket fire.

One graphic description of the result was that “around a thousand Lebanese civilians were killed, a third of them children. Towns and villages were reduced to rubble; bridges, sewage treatment plants, port facilities and electric power plants were crippled or destroyed.”

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In short, Israeli policy goes far beyond fighting ‘terrorists’ and aims to destroy the very means of life.

The policy came to fruition two years after the 2006 war via the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. The university published a report titled Disproportionate Force: Israel’s Concept of Response in Light of the Second Lebanon War:

Written by IDF reserve Col Gabi Siboni, it promoted the Dahiya doctrine as the way forward in response to paramilitary attacks. The head of the Israeli military forces in Lebanon during the war, and overseeing the doctrine, was General Gadi Eizenkot. He went on to be the IDF chief of general staff, retiring in 2019, but was brought back as an adviser to Netanyahu’s war cabinet in October.

Rogers wrote:

Siboni’s paper for the institute made it crystal clear that the Dahiya doctrine goes well beyond defeating an opponent in a brief conflict, and is about having a truly long-lasting impact.

Disproportionate force means just that, extending to the destruction of the economy and state infrastructure with many civilian casualties, with the intention of achieving a sustained deterrent impact.

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That doctrine, born in Lebanon, was then pressure tested in Gaza over the course of several wars. And while a core Israel war aim in Gaza after 7 October was to destroy Hamas:

The longer-term aim is to make it utterly clear that Israel will not stand for any opposition. Its armed forces will maintain sufficient power to control any insurgency and, backed by its powerful nuclear capabilities, will not allow any regional state to pose a threat.

The Israeli military is back in Lebanon — if it can ever be so to have left — and as it pushes north it intends to impose this doctrine. Fine-tuned over two decades, the doctrine is with intentional civilian harm at its centre. And as a new regional war accelerates, the dogs of war are baying for blood.

Featured image via Aljazeera

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US war propaganda goes into hyperdrive, but it’s so CRINGE

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6 hours ago

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6 March 2026

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There is no 'liberal' Zionism: Polanski criticised over fluffed LBC interview

The emerging quagmire and resistance to the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran seem to have pushed the Donald Trump regime’s war propaganda into hyperdrive. But US citizens have seen this toxic story before. So cheap words and movie montages are unlikely to convince more people to back wasting billions on another forever war.

‘Embarrassing’ US war propaganda

The unprovoked US-Israeli offensive is already less popular than Vietnam. And just days in, there is open, widespread criticism of it in the US. This is hardly surprising, considering it has so far killed over 1,200 people in Iran and sparked regional chaos.

In this context, Trump’s White House has shared a vomit-worthy propaganda video. But far from helping, it has made his regime look even more like coked-up, roid-raging incels playing shoot-em-up games in their parents’ basements. And people were quick to point out its awfulness, with one calling it:

possibly the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen from any Government ever

The White House has also been putting out laughably fawning authoritarian phrases about “Unstoppable Momentum”, such as:

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Under the decisive leadership of President Donald J. Trump, America’s unparalleled warfighters are delivering devastating strikes in Operation Epic Fury

And it seems to have taken tips from the propagandists of George Orwell’s 1984:

The corporate media, meanwhile, has been playing along. It has:

Two nuclear powers — the US and Israel — are rampaging through Western Asia in violation of international law, disrupting energy supplies and destroying lives. And on top of that, Donald Trump’s regime is treating people in the US and around the world like idiots.

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If the reaction online and offline is anything to go by, however, Trump’s war propaganda may be doing more harm to his reputation than good.

Featured image via the Canary

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Former President Barack Obama speaks during final public tribute to the late Rev. Jesse Jackson

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6 March 2026

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Former President Barack Obama speaks during final public tribute to the late Rev. Jesse Jackson

CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama said the presidential runs in the 1980s by the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. set the stage for other Black leaders, including himself.

“The message he sent to a 22-year-old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that maybe there wasn’t any place or any room where we didn’t belong,” Obama said Friday at a Chicago church as mourners paid a final public tribute for the civil rights legend.

“He paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said of Jackson.

Obama is joined by two other former Democratic presidents, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, at a celebration of life for Jackson. Obama received the loudest round of applause as the three entered the chamber.

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“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope,” Obama said. “Each day we wake up to some new assault to our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.”

“Each day we are told by folks in high office to fear each other,” said Obama, referring to the current Republican leadership in Washington.

Former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is also listed as a speaker on the program, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the organization that Jackson founded.

President Donald Trump, who praised Jackson on social media after he died and also shared photos of the two of them together, was not attending the service, according to his public schedule issued by the White House.

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Thousands attend Jackson memorial service

The event honors the protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate and follows memorial services that drew large crowds in Chicago and South Carolina, where Jackson was born. Friday’s celebration — at an influential Black church with a 10,000-seat arena — is expected to be the largest.

Crowds of attendees waited in long lines outside the church on the city’s South Side as television screens played excerpts of some of Jackson’s most famous speeches. Inside, vendors sold pins with his 1984 presidential slogan and hoodies with his “I Am Somebody” mantra.

Along with a slew of Illinois elected leaders, notable attendees included actor and producer Tyler Perry, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and political activist and theologian Cornel West. NBA Hall of Famer and Chicago native Isiah Thomas was one of the speakers.

Marketing professional Chelsia Bryan said Friday that she decided to attend the memorial service because it was “a chance to be part of something historic.”

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“As a Black woman, knowing that someone pretty much gave their life, dedicated their life to make sure I can do the things that I can do now, he’s worth honoring,” Bryan said.

Jackson Jr.: Everyone welcome

Jesse Jackson Jr. said all were welcome to celebrate his father’s life.

“Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, right wing, left wing because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American,” Jackson Jr. said last month. “Dad would have wanted us to have a great meeting to discuss our differences, to find ways of moving forward and moving together.”

The elder Jackson died last month at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak. Family members say he continued coming into the office until last year and communicated through hand signals. His final public appearances included the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

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Sitting in the crowd was 90-year-old Mary Lovett. She said Jackson’s advocacy inspired her many times, from when she moved from Mississippi to Chicago in the 1960s, taught elementary school and became a mom. She twice voted for Jackson during both of his presidential runs and appreciated how he always spoke up for underrepresented people. “He’s gone, but I hope his legacy lives,” she said. “I hope we can remember what he tried to teach us.”

Jackson’s service was to the poor, underrepresented

Jackson’s pursuits were countless, taking him to all corners of the globe: Advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, health care, job opportunities and education. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

His son, Yusef Jackson, who runs the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, recalled how his father carried a well-worn Bible but also showed his faith by showing up to picket lines.

“He lived a revolutionary Christian faith rooted in justice, nonviolence and the moral righteousness,” Yusef Jackson said Friday. “He was deeply involved in the political struggles of his time, but his gift was that he could rise above them. It’s not about the left wing or the right wing. It takes two wings to fly. For him, the goal was always the moral center.”

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Jackson’s services in Chicago and South Carolina drew civic leaders, school groups and everyday people who said they were touched by Jackson’s work, from scholarship programs to advocating for inmates. Several states flew flags at half-staff in his honor.

Services in Washington, D.C., were tabled after a request to allow Jackson to lie in honor in the United States Capitol rotunda was denied by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the space is typically reserved for select officials, including former presidents. Details on a future event have not been made public.

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Who Is Markwayne Mullin?

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6 March 2026

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Who Is Markwayne Mullin?

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Politics

Morrisons becomes first supermarket to make all its accessible toilets stoma-friendly

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8 hours ago

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6 March 2026

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Morrisons becomes first supermarket to make all its accessible toilets stoma-friendly

Morrisons has announced that all accessible toilets in its supermarkets, across England, Scotland and Wales are now stoma-friendly. The initiative aims to support independence, dignity and comfort for people living with a stoma.

The new facilities arrive following customer feedback. They represent a practical step towards strengthening access to appropriate facilities beyond the home.

Stoma-friendly facilities

Morrisons stoma-friendly toilets include features advised by Colostomy UK. These include:

  • Hooks for clothing or bags.
  • Shelf for supplies.
  • Bin for discreet disposal.
  • Mirror to help with appliance checks.

Morrisons worked with MSP and advocate for the stoma community Edward Mountain to introduce the new facilities. Mountain wrote to the retailer to share his story and request the toilets be stoma-friendly. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2022 and had a stoma whilst his bowel recovered.

Currently around one in 335 people in the UK are living with a stoma. Individuals of all ages may have one, which can be temporary or for the rest of their life. Stoma surgery can take place to treat a range of illnesses including cancer, diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease or following a trauma to the abdomen.

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Colostomy UK welcomed the commitment to stoma-friendly toilets in all stores. The charity raises awareness and champions for simple changes to ensure people with a stoma can live full, active lives without unnecessary barriers.

David Scott, corporate affairs director at Morrisons, said:

We’re really pleased to introduce these improvements in all our stores after listening to customers and with guidance from Colostomy UK.

We worked closely with Edward Mountain, who wrote to us about his personal condition and we found his letter incredibly moving. From this, we recognised that living with a stoma is often a hidden experience that still brings practical challenges in daily life.

By making facilities easier to use across all Morrisons stores, we hope this brings reassurance when out and about and represents a step towards reducing everyday barriers and improving access to suitable facilities across the country.

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Conservative MSP Mountain commented:

As a bowel cancer survivor, and as someone who’s lived with the consequences of bowel surgery and a stoma, I cannot emphasise how important this is. These new facilities will make bathrooms easier to use, more accessible, and spell the end of the difficulties, embarrassment and discomfort many of us faced to this point.

I am immensely grateful to Morrisons, who engaged with me positively from the outset and have come good on their pledge. I hope other supermarkets and major public-facing businesses take heed of this excellent example.

Giovanni Cinque, marketing and campaigns manager at Colostomy UK said:

Our research shows that access to suitable toilets remains one of the biggest barriers to people living confidently with a stoma. Many tell us they carefully plan journeys, cut trips short, or only go out when absolutely necessary because they are unsure what facilities will be available.

Stoma friendly features such as a shelf, a bin for discreet disposal, hooks and a mirror may seem simple, but they make a real difference to comfort, dignity and peace of mind.

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We welcome Morrisons’ commitment to introducing these changes in stores nationwide and thank them for listening to the stoma community and taking practical action to improve access.

The locations of all Morrisons stores and the availability of facilities will appear on Colostomy UK’s online listings of stoma-friendly toilet venues. This is a resource to make planning trips, outings, and daily activities easier by highlighting venues that offer practical, considerate facilities.

Featured image via Colostomy UK

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Politics

Maduro’s capture paves the way for Shell

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8 hours ago

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6 March 2026

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Maduro’s capture paves the way for Shell

Just weeks after the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, UK-based Shell has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Venezuelan government to begin liquified natural gas (LNG) production in the Dragon gas field.

The agreement, announced during US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s visit to Caracas, places the British company in front of the race to exploit Venezuela’s resources.

Burgum told Fox News that companies like Shell are already “signing deals and moving this opportunity forward,” noting that they joined American firms including Baker Hughes, Halliburton, and KBR in responding to President Trump’s call to energy leaders in early January.

Fox reported that

Burgum was meeting with oil and gas executives, including Chevron and Shell, along with Venezuelan business leaders during his trip to highlight critical mineral partnerships.

Historical meddling

This is absolutely no surprise to anyone who has followed Shell’s history including its role in the genocide in Gaza.

According to Declassified UK, BP and Shell had been authorized to operate in Venezuela under new licences from the US Treasury in mid-February. Declassified said that “this comes after decades of UK interference in Venezuela’s oil and gas industry.”

For instance, in 2001, Shell and BP lobbied Tony Blair to pressure Hugo Chávez into softening his Hydrocarbons Law, with the US noting BP stood to lose from the reforms, according to Declassified’s expose.  It also detailed Shell’s covert funding of CIA-linked propaganda in the 1960s in Venezuela.

Imperial hubris

In the immediate aftermath of Maduro’s kidnapping Telegraph gave space to an editorial talking about this exact plunder that we are seeing now.

The editorial read:

BP and Shell cannot afford to miss out on Venezuelan gold rush
The potential gains for Western oil companies will ultimately trump any ethical considerations

Marlow further reflects seemingly fondly on BP’s history in Iran saying:

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Still, the global oil industry has been built on the exploits of buccaneers daring to venture into far-flung, dangerous corners of the world and do business under the most hazardous of circumstances.
BP’s roots can be traced back to the discovery of oil in the Persian desert at the turn of the 20th century by the British entrepreneur called William Knox D’Arcy.
When D’Arcy’s drills eventually struck oil, British imperial soldiers were summoned to surround the area and protect it from any local opportunists.

To describe the local population—the rightful inheritors and caretakers of their land’s resources – as ‘local opportunists’ shows that imperial hubris knows no bounds.

Meanwhile, BBC interviewed BP’s former chief executive, Lord Browne, who speculated that BP and Shell were already lobbying the government to secure a role in redeveloping Venezuela’s oil and gas assets.

The Israel link

According to Joseph Bouchard writing for Responsible Statecraft (RS), the overthrow of Maduro was strategically useful for US and British oil giants like BP and Shell and Israel.

The Chavismo ideology supports Palestinian liberation, aligning itself with other self-avowedly pro-Palestine US adversary states like Cuba.

In Israel’s calculus, the overthrow of Maduro was a blow to Iran, a safeguard for U.S. oil interests, and one more step in building out a pro-American, pro-Israel bloc in Latin America.

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For Israeli hardliners, removing one of the last major anti-Zionist governments in the Americas weakened Iran’s regional influence, according to RS

With Israel cheering from the sidelines and US officials boasting of “Trump speed,” the plunder of Venezuela’s – ofcourse, UK couldn’t be out of the looting.

Featured image via the Canary

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Politics

Trump fires Kristi Noem, appoints new fascist

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8 hours ago

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6 March 2026

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Trump fires Kristi Noem, appoints new fascist

On 5 March, Trump ignominiously sacked Kristi Noem from her state-level role as Homeland Security secretary. Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin will take up her place at the end of the month, pending confirmation from the US Senate.

Readers will, by now, no doubt be familiar with Noem as the public face of America’s far-right anti-immigration policies. In particular, Noem called both Renee Good and Alex Pretti ‘domestic terrorists’ after their murder by ICE agents last year.

Although, let’s be clear here. Trump didn’t fire Noem because she’s a lying fascist at the head of a pack of murderers. That would be hypocritical. Rather, Trump knows that public opinion has turned against his immigration policies, and he needed a sacrificial lamb.

Fascism and fuckups

In place of her previous role, Trump is now shunting Noem off to a job as a ‘special envoy’ for the US. She’ll be joining a Western hemisphere security initiative called ‘the Shield of the Americas’.

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Among the former Homeland Security chief’s laundry list of highly public fuckups, Noem accidentally let slip the identity of ICE murderer Jonathan David Ross. She also claimed that Ross had internal bleeding, which was later exposed as a lie.

Other examples of Noem’s outright fabrications include the utterly false claim that an immigrant deportee was a cannibal. She also published a photo of a Black protester that was manipulated to look like she was crying.

Noem’s tenure at Homeland Security saw her join ICE raids wearing a bulletproof vest, promote policies to close the Mexican border, and spend $220m of federal funds on adverts. Most of those adverts, she appeared in personally.

All horrifying, and all par for the course for the Trump regime. As such, she’s acted as something of a Nazi-slogan-spouting figurehead for the Republicans’ vicious ‘security’ policies.

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Sacrificial wolf

On 3 March, Noem attempted to defend her spending at a Capitol Hill hearing. There, she stated that Trump was aware of the cost of the ad campaign. Two days later, Trump claimed that he “never knew anything about it”, shortly before firing her.

However, this was far from the first indicator that Noem had fallen from the US dictator’s favour. During the sweeping protests against ICE in Minneapolis, Trump sent in ‘border tsar’ and former ICE director Tom Homan, rather than Noem herself.

The fact that Trump has sacked Noem is no indicator of his authoritarianism softening. Rather, the US dictator has seen that his public approval is plummeting, particularly on the subject of immigration.

Turns out that using a masked secret police to murder and kidnap people to concentration camps makes you unpopular, even in America.

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As such, Noem has made a convenient sacrifice to make Trump look like he’s relenting. Meanwhile, nothing will change under Markwayne Mullin, save maybe that ICE will get a little more cautious, a little more covert in their actions.

The problem was never that they’re fascists — the problem was they got caught too many times.

Featured image via the Canary

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