As highlighted by Big Brother Watch, iPhone users will soon need to prove their age to maintain internet access. It’s the latest in a line of changes which have come in the wake of the Online Safety Act:

🚨NEWS: UK iPhone users must now prove their age or lose full internet access

“It is absolutely outrageous that, overnight, Apple has put a chokehold on Britons’ freedom to search the internet, access information and use apps unless they provide sensitive ID documents.

This… pic.twitter.com/GNuCsihcDD

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) March 25, 2026

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iPhone changes: “draconian”

Silkie Carlo (Big Brother Watch Director) said in full:

It is absolutely outrageous that, overnight, Apple has put a chokehold on Britons’ freedom to search the internet, access information and use apps unless they provide sensitive ID documents.

This means 35 million Brits who have paid hundreds or even thousands of pounds for Apple tech suddenly now have a child’s device unless they comply with invasive demands for personal information that go far beyond what UK law requires.

Apple has crossed the Rubicon with this software update which is more like ransomware, holding customers hostage to ID demands that are invasive, exclusionary and unnecessary.

Children’s online safety is vital but requires better parental controls and thoughtful tech responsibility – not sweeping, draconian, shock demands by foreign companies for all of our IDs and credit cards.

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Owners will have to verify their age after accepting the iOS 26.6 software update, according to the BBC. Anyone who refuses to verify their age will be treated like a child on a tablet with parental controls. Ofcom have described this as a “real win for children and families”, even though the move goes beyond what is legally required.

People have responded as follows:

Age verification is a Trojan horse for total control over the internet, your devices, and your entire digital life.

Not a single child will be protected by this.

If people don’t wake up and protest, your country is going to be next. https://t.co/BiH4F0cs7j

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— calle (@callebtc) March 25, 2026

Apple just turned 35 million UK iPhones into identity checkpoints. Apple has, without warning, placed a gatekeeper on the devices of 35 million UK users who paid good money for full-featured smartphones and now find themselves holding something closer to a supervised children’s… https://t.co/5qTTHn18uQ

— Reclaim The Net (@ReclaimTheNetHQ) March 25, 2026

It looks like Reddit may be the next platform to introduce mandatory age checks:

‼️ BREAKING: Reddit’s CEO announced he is forcing human verification on the platform.

He will force users to verify through biometrics on their device, a third party, or government ID.

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Every single option compromises your anonymity. On a platform built on anonymity. pic.twitter.com/HlpTWU95g7

— International Cyber Digest (@IntCyberDigest) March 26, 2026

Experiments

The BBC also reported:

Apple’s move follows a wider debate in the industry over how to keep young people away from harmful content online and the impact social media can have on children.

The UK government is trialling a test which will see 300 teens have their social apps disabled entirely, blocked overnight or capped to one hour’s use – with some also seeing no such changes at all – in order to compare their experiences.

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The test will run alongside the government’s consultation asking whether the UK should follow in Australia’s footsteps by making it illegal for under-16s to have access to many social media sites.

As we’ve covered, there are reasons to be concerned about the impacts of social media. At the same time, establishment forces are using these concerns to push for an end to online anonymity. The solution to all of these issues begins with wrestling control of the internet back from the US tech monopolies who control 99% of our digital lives.

Featured image via Apple

Surprising no one, a Minister attached to a review on foreign interference has failed to declare his affiliation with Labour Friends of Israel (LFI):

The group has been linked to the Israeli government and been at the centre of a high-profile instance of “improper interference in our democratic politics” in recent years.

Weird not to mention it, no?https://t.co/0zj9KJiNs8

— Laura Webster (@LauraEWebsterr) March 26, 2026

Labour — foreign interference

The minister in question is housing secretary Steve Reed. Reed is linked to Labour Together (LT), which is the group that pushed Keir Starmer into 10 Downing Street. LT also maneuvered Peter Mandelson back into government, despite Mandelson’s ties to the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Many suspected that Epstein worked for Israel’s Mossad; at the very least, he was a big supporter of what Israel were up to:

New photo emerges of Jeffrey Epstein on his private jet wearing an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) sweat shirt. The photo was supplied by Epstein’s butler (on the right) to the Telegraph (UK). pic.twitter.com/6pit5iovSX

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 9, 2025

So either Israel has secretly joined the United Kingdom or we’re all being scammed.

Featured image via Twitter

Yesterday, 24 March, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced the offer of four replacement ambulances to Hatzolah, the Jewish-run charity ambulance service which suffered an arson attack on the morning of 23 March.

Since the attack, politicians across the political spectrum have voiced their condemnation of antisemitism. Predictably, some have also taken the opportunity to attack Muslims and migrants — without evidence that the attackers were either.

In Streeting’s case, both his words and his offer of tangible support are a clear demonstration of the energy we need when tackling bigotry in the UK. The problem is, this only makes his careless attitude to Islamophobia in his own NHS all the more egregious when we contrast the two.

Streeting — ‘Despicable act of evil’

In his statement, Streeting was unequivocal in his condemnation of antisemitism:

This shocking, cowardly, and despicable act of evil was not only an attack on London’s Jewish community, but on an ambulance service whose sole purpose is to save lives and care for others.

There is no doubt this attack was designed to strike fear into the heart of Jewish people in Golders Green and across the country. And, as a Member of Parliament who represents a significant Jewish community further east in London, I know what’s happened will be felt painfully and acutely by all Jewish people across our country.

Likewise, he also went on to praise Hatzolah, and offered his practical support:

Hatzola’s volunteers represent the very best of public service, providing rapid, life-saving care to anyone in need, and it is appalling that such a service has been targeted in this way.

Of course, the best form of solidarity is practical solidarity, which is why today, our London Ambulance Service colleagues are providing support to the team in Golders Green to make sure that we don’t skip a beat when it comes to responding to emergency call-outs. We will also be providing four replacement ambulances, initially on loan until we can provide permanent replacements. The Jewish community should not bear the cost of this hatred.

This moment demands more than practical support. The Jewish community will not stand alone – the government and this entire country stand with them.

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We’re not going to argue with any of this. It’s the exact kind of response we should expect in the face of rising antisemitism in the UK. The problem is that, for Streeting and much of the Labour Party, that attitude clearly doesn’t extend to all forms of racism.

Streeting’s ‘Lack of urgency and movement’

As a case in point, late last year the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) wrote a letter to Streeting and other senior figures in UK healthcare. The missive urged action against a pattern of Islamophobic attacks on Muslim staff and patients in the NHS.

On 4 December, BIMA president Dr. Sahira Dar wrote a letter to Streeting which stated:

I am writing to express our growing concern that we have still not received a response to our previous correspondence on 20th October 2025 or our meeting on 9th September regarding the safety, fair treatment and freedom of expression of Muslim healthcare workers. This lack of urgency and movement is increasingly difficult to reconcile with, especially in light of a serious Islamophobic incident reported at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, where a copy of the Qur’an was desecrated on NHS premises.

In another letter, BIMA reminded Streeting that:

The NHS constitution commits the service and its leaders to uphold respect, dignity, inclusion and safety for all staff. Ensuring that Muslim workers and patients can engage with the NHS without fear, while trusting that discriminatory behaviour will be taken seriously and responded to transparently is fundamental to these values.

It also reiterated the organisation’s desire to meet with the health secretary to continue their discussions. Likewise, it expressed its extreme disappointment with the lack of communication from Streeting over the months.

‘Embarking on wholesale repression’

At the time, I wrote that this apparent lack of concern for Islamophobia is particularly galling, given that Labour recently launched an investigation into racism in the NHS which appears to privilege antisemitism over other forms of racism.

The government outlined these plans in a press release issued in October. Egregiously, the proposals introduce a blanket ban on expressions or symbols of solidarity with Palestinians.

The plan also advises the NHS to adopt the definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The organisation places Israel beyond reproach, and frequently conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

In reaction, a coalition of 23 groups — including trade unions and Jewish organisations — undersigned a joint statement penned by Doctors in Unite (DiU) criticising the proposals.

Dr Coral Jones, chair of Doctors in Unite, said:

The government is embarking on wholesale repression within the NHS to try to silence health workers from speaking out against the bombing of hospitals and the detention, torture, and killing of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza.

They accused Labour of elevating antisemitism above other forms of racism, and pointed to the Forde Report of 2022, which highlighted the hierarchy of racism within the Labour Party.

Streeting’s reaction to the attack on Hatzolah clearly demonstrates that he knows what a useful and constructive reaction to discrimination looks like. However, as the letters from BIMA and DiU show, the health secretary doesn’t extend that same care to all.

Labour published the final version of the Forde Report in 2022. However, it remains depressingly obvious that the hierarchy of racism is still deeply entrenched within the PLP.

Featured image via the Canary

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations. (The spelling with a “k” is deliberate.) On 25 March, the UN International Day for the Remembrance of Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, she presented a petition in Parliament. It calls for an apology for the UK’s role in African chattel slavery and colonialism.

Ribeiro-Addy’s petition hand-in comes as UN delegates vote on a historic motion, tabled by Ghana, which would recognise the trafficking and enslavement of Africans as a crime against humanity. The UK government has not indicated whether it will support this motion.

The petition calls on MPs to push for a state apology on behalf of the government and the monarchy for the UK’s role in the slavery and colonisation of African people.

It also asks parliamentarians to establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice. This would examine the legacy of these crimes and propose concrete steps to address their lasting damage.

It notes that there has never been:

a genuine apology for the enslavement, trafficking, genocide, and exploitation committed under British authority.

Ribeiro-Addy said:

To this day, our country has never provided a genuine apology for the crimes of British Empire or the Transatlantic slave trade.

Rather than acknowledging these historical injustices and how they have shaped the world we live in today, our institutions have sought to sweep them under the carpet.

So many of the intersecting global challenges we now face are rooted in the legacies of enslavement and empire: from geopolitical instability to racism, inequality, underdevelopment and climate breakdown.

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To truly confront these issues, we must acknowledge where they come from. An apology could be a meaningful basis for action, signalling our country’s commitment not simply to righting historic wrongs but to tackling ongoing issues they have created and exacerbated.

Featured image via the Canary

PM Keir Starmer has introduced landmark legislation that will significantly change how politics operates in the UK. While MPs must still approve it, Cabinet Minister Steve Reed has confirmed that the government will apply it retrospectively. Bad news for Farage and Reform.

Justifying this move to backdate this policy, Reed cited the urgent need to protect the country’s democracy.

The proposed changes follow an independent review by Sir Philip Rycroft which explored the influence of political donations on British political parties. Rycroft’s review follows significant concerns surrounding foreign influence on domestic politics. Naming Iran, Russia, China and the US, the review put forward a further 15 recommendations to the Starmer government.

Nevertheless, Israel should also be included, given the scale of pro-Israel donations to the Labour Party ahead of the 2024 General Election.

It seems some foreign influence continues to operate largely out of sight in British politics.

In today’s London Influence:

😱 There’s more in the Rycroft review than the Farage-baiting crypto donation ban.
📈 Some new stats suggest we aren’t very good at policing election bad actors.
💼 We have loads of job moves for you to feast on.

Dig in 👇https://t.co/2vMKYlfFCR

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) March 26, 2026

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Back to the drawing board for Farage

This news comes as little surprise. A month ago, the Guardian reported that a national security committee warned UK elections were “dangerously exposed” to foreign money and recommended implementing stronger safeguards to counter the risk.

Subsequently, this legislation appears to seek to do just that. Limiting donations from Brits abroad to £100,000 and banning cryptocurrency donations entirely will drastically impact the level of donations political parties can obtain.

It also works to reduce the unwelcome and disproportionate influence that super-rich donors have on policy decisions made by elected leaders. Nevertheless, these proposed changes are likely to impact some more than others. Reform UK has received £12m just in the last year from Christopher Harborne, an overseas investor based in Thailand.

When this legislation kicks in, Harborne’s donations will stop filling Reform UK’s coffers, and the crypto ban will hit Farage and his team — since they’re the only party openly taking cryptocurrency.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice remains defiant, stating to GB News:

The reality is everything they’re trying to do is to stop the incredible progress of Reform, and cryptocurrencies are a perfectly legitimate way of investing, of earning within the law.

Once again, they’re putting a cap on donations from overseas electors, stopping crypto donations. We’ve got nothing to hide. It’s quite clear they’re absolutely petrified, terrified of the progress of Reform.

This X post highlights how big an impact these caps and bans will be on Reform’s super-privileged donations:

3️⃣ 🇬🇧 UK BANS CRYPTO POLITICAL DONATIONS — NIGEL FARAGE IN THE CROSSHAIRS
The UK just announced it will ban cryptocurrency donations to political parties and cap overseas donations at £100K/year.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party accepted Bitcoin donations and sourced two-thirds of…

— Joshua (@JoshOnTheMoney) March 26, 2026

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‘The Sanctuary’ for the far-right

A recent investigation carried out by HOPE Not Hate and the Guardian unearthed troubling details surrounding the Sanctuary in London. Set up by British crypto billionaire Ben Delo, it offers financial support, free meeting rooms, podcast spaces and catered events to ‘hardline activists’. The investigation describes the set-up as a:

start-up accelerator for political initiatives, some of which are far right, like Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain and the race science magazine Aporia.

Delo is reported to be ‘anti-woke,’ believing it to be an “existential threat to Western civilisation”. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but most see the super-rich as the ultimate threat to peace and stability.

Something this new legislation from Starmer’s government reaffirms.

The Sanctuary appears to go to great lengths to avoid public attention. For instance, it requires organisations that use its spaces not to mention it online. Moreover, it has hosted high-profile figures, including far-right MP Rupert Lowe. Despite this, however, the media had not reported on it until now.

HOPE not hate and the Guardian draw attention to an ‘ecosystem’ purposed to support more extreme right-wing views in British politics, with Lowe being one of their biggest beneficiaries. Since his very public fallout with Nigel Farage, Lowe has used the Sanctuary as the base for his pressure group, Restore Britain, which he has now launched as a political party.

Speaking to the influence of Delo on the kind of politics that will come out of the Sanctuary, the investigation wrote:

We can reveal that much of Restore Britain’s social media content is produced directly inside The Sanctuary. In November 2025, Lowe used the offices to promote a policy paper on implementing mass deportations. Inspired by the USA’s “Operation Wetback” of the 1950s, Lowe’s paper called for “forced removals and subtler tactics for making residence in Britain unliveable for those with no right to be here”. Lowe has been holding his “rape gang inquiry” at The Sanctuary.

Restore Britain’s website demands immigrants be detained in “deliberately austere” camps. Lowe has elsewhere called for a ban on kosher and halal meat, which would make life for many British Jews and Muslims impossible.

The list of privileged, self-interested and ego-driven pundits doesn’t end there; the guest list includes race scientists and anti-abortion agitators, according to the in-depth investigation.

The names of former prime minister Boris Johnson and Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch are in there, having filmed episodes of Triggernometry, an anti-woke podcast, in The Sanctuary. The podcast, which has 1.7 million subscribers, uses Delo’s facilities free of charge.

The GB News presenter Andrew Doyle and the Peep Show actress Sophie Winkleman have also signed the book, as have the far-right activists Charlie Downes and Connor Tomlinson.

It’s about bloody time!

Public concern around donations from the super-rich to political parties has grown rapidly over recent years. This comes as the sheer scale of donations have surpassed levels seen in previous years, marking an escalation in the influence of billionaires. For instance, Quadrature Capital made the biggest political donation ever received by the Labour Party after donating £4m to Starmer’s campaign.

Funnily enough, the government then decided to scale back its commitment to a new green economic plan which ended up directly benefiting Quadrature. This followed Starmer’s choice to divert those funds to an increase in defence spending of £3.5bn which coincidentally increased the asset value of the hedge fund.

Therefore, this move by the government is crucial and necessary to safeguard our democracy. Their unparalleled ability to secure advantageous policies benefitting the richest in society will deepen inequality and hurt the majority of hard-working British people.

However, Starmer must go further than simply trying to undercut Reform’s advantage — he must also ban pro-Israel donations.

Featured image via the Canary

According to Amnesty, the complaint documents widespread forced labour, wage theft, physical and sexual abuse and systemic racism, particularly — but not exclusively — targeting African migrant workers who experienced being locked in homes, forced to work 18 to 20 hours a day, denied wages, healthcare and rest, and subjected to beatings and harassment.

Amnesty is urging ILO member states like the UK not to let the complaint be buried during the 356th Session of the ILO Governing Body, which runs from 23 March to 2 April.

In January, the Government of Saudi Arabia responded to the complaint and asked for it to be dismissed.

Vulnerable workers in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf

Across the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman — migrant workers form the backbone of oil and gas-rich economies, according to the Business and Human Rights Centre.

The region’s population is roughly 60 million, of whom more than half are migrants.

However, a pattern of human rights violations across the GCC of migrant labour has been seen.

Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Burnt of Iran’s retaliatory strikes

Unsurprisingly, these workers are also facing the repercussions of Trump’s illegal war on Iran.

According to Al Jazeera, of the eight people killed in the UAE in Iranian retaliatory strikes, five were from South Asia. Three people killed in Oman were from India. An Indian and a Bangladeshi national were the only deaths in Saudi Arabia. Millions of migrant workers now face job losses and fear as the conflict escalates.

DiEM25’s landmark event united Yanis Varoufakis, Jeremy Corbyn, Zack Polanski, Grace Blakeley, Laura Pidcock and Brian Eno in an electrifying night of radical politics. It proved that cross-party, cross-movement solidarity is not a distant dream, but something that can begin tomorrow.

On the night of 24 March, the historic Troxy in London’s East End was packed to capacity, with an audience that was treated to a mix of poetry and provocation, moments of grief and speeches of passion.

DiEM25’s Resistance Is Existence brought together some of the top minds of the political Left, who offered both warnings about the current situation but also practical solutions on how to get involved and bring about tangible change.

The evening opened with comedian and DiEM25 Coordinating Collective member Francesca Martinez. She brought the house to life with a searingly funny and deeply personal account of what resistance means to someone who has spent years fighting for a more humane world.

Following her was Nigerian poet and playwright Inua Ellams. Her performance cut to the heart of the contradictions of our age.

In the first panel, DiEM25’s political director Erik Edman brought together co-founder Varoufakis, former MP Pidcock, and musician and long-time DiEM25 supporter Eno. The message from all three was urgent and unambiguous. Eno warned:

We are dealing with fascism now. It intends to end the game of democracy, it intends to smash it.

Reflecting on a decade of political upheaval, Eno called on everyone in the room to stop watching from the sidelines. Find someone doing something you admire, and help them. Pidcock echoed the call in her own register. She urged the audience to reimagine democracy beyond the ballot box in workplaces, in communities, in every space where people organise together. She said:

We have to widen our conception of democracy… let us expand our imagination for everywhere we can build power for ourselves.

DiEM25 brings together Polanski and Corbyn

The second panel produced a very significant moment for British politics.

Eno had said it plainly in the first half. The climate movement, the anti-war movement, the fight for democracy, these are not separate battles. They are the same fight, wearing different faces.

Former Labour leader Corbyn and Green Party leader Polanski took the stage together, where recognition and threads connected. Polanski set the tone from his very first words, reframing what resistance actually means:

Resistance is making things more accessible, more inclusive, making sure we are talking to friends, family, even strangers sometimes…

Resistance is joy, is art, is culture. And resistance is saying: what is happening in this country, where 50 of the wealthiest families own more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population. That’s not right, that’s a political choice. Let’s make different political choices.

From there, the conversation moved outward to electoral reform, a wealth tax, an end to homelessness, and accountability for Britain’s role in Gaza. Corbyn named it without flinching:

If the ICJ [International Court of Justice] has decided that acts of genocide are taking place… that makes the British government complicit in genocide.

Alongside them, DiEM25 Coordinating Collective member and author Grace Blakeley delivered the structural analysis. That all the hope in the room counts for nothing without rebuilding worker power from the ground up. Blakeley stated:

For the first time in a long time I do see some hope that we might be able to come together and translate it into something that really scares those at the top.

Varoufakis, who anchored both panels, drew the threads together: democracy is not something we inherit. It is something we have to make, again and again, in the face of those who would unmake it.

You can watch the full event on YouTube here.

Featured image via Chloe Chia (Haych) / DiEM25