A Whitehall memo has emerged, as Whitehall memos do from time to time. But this one, which Keir Starmer wrote to his ministers, has provoked a furious response from Welsh independence organisation YesCymru. Plaid Cymru obtained the memo and discussed it in the Welsh Senedd on 10 March.

In the memo, Starmer appears to suggest that UK ministers shouldn’t feel “deferential” in their dealings with the Senedd. In fact, they should feel able to impose their plans directly on the people of Wales, even if there’s local opposition.

YesCymru chair Phyl Griffiths said:

This leaked memo from Keir Starmer to Cabinet ministers is deeply worrying for democracy in Wales.

The people of Wales voted for devolution in a democratic referendum. The Senedd represents the democratic will of the Welsh people and enshrines Wales’ right to make decisions in areas entrusted to its own national institutions.

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The Senedd was not given to Wales as a gift from Westminster, and any attempt to erode or sideline the Senedd or the Welsh Government would be an abuse of power.

But that is exactly what this memo appears to suggest Keir Starmer is doing.

It says ministers should not ‘cede our responsibilities, or channel our relationships solely through the devolved governments’. It also says they should act directly in Wales, ‘including through direct spending, even when devolved governments may oppose this’.

Those are extraordinary words. They suggest that Westminster is prepared to bypass Wales’s elected institutions and impose its own priorities, even in areas where the people of Wales voted to have decisions made here in Wales.

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The timing makes this even more concerning. The memo says that ‘The importance of… elections in Scotland and Wales cannot be underestimated’ while calling for greater UK Government activity and visibility in the devolved nations.

People in Wales are entitled to ask why Westminster is discussing how to expand its role here ahead of a Welsh election, while also making clear that it is prepared to act directly when the Welsh Government disagrees.

This gets to the heart of the problem with devolution. It leaves Wales vulnerable to interference from Westminster whenever it suits the government of the day. Powers that are supposed to belong to the people of Wales can still be ignored or worked around from London.

Wales should not have to rely on the goodwill of Westminster governments in order to exercise control over matters that affect our communities, our economy, and our future. Wales and the Senedd should not be vulnerable to the changing political priorities of another parliament.

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That is not real self-government.

This is why the case for independence is so powerful, obvious and undeniable. The only way to guarantee that decisions about Wales are made in Wales, by the Welsh people, is for Wales to have the powers of an independent nation.

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Human rights group Amnesty International has pointed out the danger to prison inmates from the US-Israel war of aggression and has called on Iran’s government to release any held without trial.

The US and some human rights groups claim Iran is holding tens of thousands of political prisoners. Difficulty in verifying this lies partly in US political motives for painting Iran as evil and partly in Iran’s unwillingness to release prisoners it considers to be agitators.

Amnesty wants those who have not been convicted to be released so they can seek shelter. In an announcement on its website, the group said:

Ongoing US and Israeli air strikes near prisons in Iran are placing prisoners – including children – at grave risk, Amnesty International said today, urging Iranian authorities to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and grant humanitarian release to others imprisoned.

Air strikes near prisons and the targeting of security facilities where detainees are held are putting prisoners in danger of death or serious harm. Direct attacks on civilian objects such as prisons constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.

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Alarmingly, the organisation said it had received reports prisoners were being transferred to unidentified locations:

Amnesty has received reports that some prisoners have been transferred to unidentified locations or areas close to potential military objectives, intensifying concerns for their safety. Authorities have also subjected some detainees to enforced disappearance and denied prisoners access to adequate food and water, including the failure of electronic cards used to purchase food and water from prison shops.

Those at risk include thousands detained following nationwide protests between December 2025 and January 2026, including protesters, human rights defenders, lawyers, medical workers, university students and members of ethnic and religious minorities. Others at risk include individuals serving long prison sentences and those sentenced to death.

According to informed sources, officials told prisoners held on politically motivated charges at facilities including Evin prison and Urumieh prison in early March that they would not be eligible for release, while prisoners convicted of ordinary crimes could receive temporary release.

Iran’s internet shutdown imposed since 28 February has severely restricted access to information about prison conditions, and the number of detention facilities affected by nearby explosions may be significantly higher.In a letter dated 3 March to the Head of the Judiciary, human rights defender Reza Khandan, arbitrarily detained in Evin prison, warned about the risks facing prisoners amid ongoing air strikes. Referring to the Israeli military’s air strikes on Evin prison on 23 June 2025, which Amnesty has called to be investigated as a war crime, he wrote that previous warnings from prisoners had been ignored before dozens of prisoners, staff, and family members were killed.

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Reza said:

It has now been four days since the US and Israeli attack on Iran, and today our warnings and reminders have not been effective. Thousands of unlawfully detained prisoners remain trapped in prisons under the threat of bombardment day and night, and many essential services to prisoners have been cut off. If immediate action is not taken to release prisoners and the horrific and criminal event of the 12-day war or worse and more severe than that occurs you must be held accountable before justice.

Amnesty continued:

According to informed sources, explosions from air strikes targeting buildings of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting near the Evin prison complex on 3 March were so powerful that prisoners feared the prison itself had been struck.

Following the Israeli military’s air strikes on Evin prison in June 2025, Iranian authorities transferred hundreds of prisoners to other facilities in Tehran province known for cruel and inhuman conditions, including Shahr-e Ray prison (Gharchak) and the Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary, where prisoners have reported severe overcrowding and denial of medical care.

Iranian authorities have arbitrarily detained thousands of protesters and dissidents since nationwide protests erupted on 28 December 2025. Amnesty has documented widespread due process violations, including denial of access to lawyers from the time of arrest, the use of torture-tainted “confessions” and summary trials.

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On 28 February, the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran. According to Iranian state-affiliated media citing the Martyrs and Veterans Affairs Foundation, 1,230 people had been killed as of 5 March. On 4 March, an official from Iran’s Ministry of Health said at least 180 children had been killed since the attacks began.

The US-Israel attacks continue, often targeting schools and hospitals.

Featured image via the Canary

The latest paltry release of documents relating to Keir Starmer’s appointments of Epstein-pal Peter Mandelson has revealed – more accurately reconfirmed – two main facts.

First, Mandelson is greedy. After his ‘sacking’ as ambassador to the US, he demanded £547,000 in compensation – despite remaining on the payroll. Eventually he received £75k – still about £75k too much, to many observers.

Secondly and more significantly, the release again showed that Keir Starmer knew before appointing Mandelson that he had remained close to serial child-rapist and Israeli spy Jeffrey Epstein. Not only that – he was explicitly warned that appointing Mandelson was a major risk of ‘reputational’ damage. And went ahead anyway.

Went ahead with ‘weird‘ speed, to boot – according to Starmer’s own national security adviser.

‘Zionist without qualification‘ Starmer ignoring warnings to ‘weirdly rush’ to appoint a fellow Zionist who fanboyed an Israeli spy running a paedophile ring. Who’d ever have thought it.

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Queen Camilla has sent a message to survivors of sexual abuse to mark International Women’s Day to address the ‘culture of silence’ around abuse. This striking message comes weeks after her disgraced brother-in-law Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested following revelations in the Epstein Files.

It has previously been reported that Camilla played a key role in sealing Andrew’s fate as she feared his ties to an elite sex ring might demolish her work in violence against women and girls. However, refusing to fully acknowledge the seriousness of the Epstein files and failing to use her influential platform to demand justice for the victims does not reflect well on someone who claims to advocate against violence toward women and girls.

Nevertheless, it appears Camilla is trying to repair the damage done to public trust. Although, her advocacy could go a lot further and potentially make an actual difference for victims and survivors of abuse inflicted by powerful men.

In her speech, Camilla said:

To every survivor of every kind of violence, many of whom have not been able to tell their stories or who have not been believed, please know that you are not alone. We stand with you and alongside you, today and every day, in solidarity, sorrow and sympathy.

We hope this is more than dishing out empty platitudes, which the Royal Family are renowned for.

🔴 Camilla sends message to mark International Women’s Day weeks after former prince’s arrest over Epstein ties

Read the full story below 🖇️https://t.co/qIqeYCcSs7 pic.twitter.com/FvSmYG36CY

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 11, 2026

If you truly care, use your pedestal, queen Camilla

The Epstein Files have revealed a deeply sinister and horrifying web of abuse against young girls inflicted by powerful men. A picture even surfaced of the disgraced ‘prince’ playing with a toddler, passing a ball shaped like a female breast. This has sparked terror across British society, especially women. As Camilla said in her speech, women often live in silence with their trauma as society does not actually protect the vulnerable. Instead, it only protects the powerful.

This has bred a culture of silence around the abuse that powerful men perpetrate. Grooming gangs rightly resulted in disgust and condemnation, with a dogged insistence that all involved be held to the full weight of the law. After all, we apparently care about our women and girls in Western society.

Why do investigations and society consistently fail to hold elite networks of powerful white men accountable?

Camilla SILENT when asked about Epstein’s victims.
She’s an “ambassador” for domestic abuse – empty pointless branding when she chooses silence….
“Never complain, never explain” ?? Silence isn’t dignity when Epstein’s victims are involved Camilla. pic.twitter.com/Z3DUkklkli

— Narinder Kaur (@narindertweets) February 4, 2026

Referring to her own experience of abuse, Camilla spoke to this silence in her speech, saying:

Every woman has a story. And these stories must be told. Because when we live in a culture of silence, we empower violence against women and girls. It is for this reason that, for 15 years, WOW has been sharing women’s experiences through their festivals, inspiring thousands of people across six continents to take action.

It should not be overlooked that authorities arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office, not on suspicion of sexually abusing minors. If Camilla genuinely cared about victims, she would ensure that investigators fully examine all suspects tied to Epstein and hold them accountable for their actions.

However, that demand was notably absent from her speech.

Education: not accountability for suspected elite abusers

Instead, queen Camilla pointed to sexual abuse being ‘everyone’s problem’ stating that it is “unjust and untrue” to label this as a “woman problem”. She says that “this scourge” can be “eradicated for good” if all citizens take responsibility to tackle the root cause of rising misogyny and abuse amongst men and boys.

Pointing to schools and playgrounds, she says that boys:

should be taught to manage and to express their feelings healthily.

and:

all children must learn what constitutes consent – and what is assault.

Yet, the queen’s remarks appear to imply that men and boys who commit abuse lack guidance rather than responsibility. She does this by implying that men and boys who commit abuse have not learned the rules or how to regulate their emotions. This framing may deeply trigger many victims, because perpetrators often reinforce the ‘culture of silence’ by claiming they could not control their behaviour, while victims sometimes feel pressured to rationalise their trauma as something they must simply endure.

Once again, victims experience a deep sense of injustice, and society undermines women’s right to anger. To make matters worse, people place the burden on these victims to teach the next generation how not to repeat the abuses of the past. Ordinary people will have to fix the attitude problem in men and boys; powerful women clearly will do precious little.

This is why men put in so much effort to frame their domestic violence & sexual assaults as a loss of control. They don’t “lose control” with unsafe targets like cops, bosses, & other men who will kill them. Only safe targets then cry they’re animals who can’t control themselves. https://t.co/TgPFcpOr2G

— The Road Jess Travelled (@JessPected) May 12, 2025

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Excuses for men; par for the course for women and girls

Furthermore, this speech came after a meeting with Gisèle Pelicot, whose memoire of a decade of sexual abuse left queen Camilla ‘speechless’. Nonetheless, it’s striking that Pelicot chose to sacrifice her privacy and comfort where the queen holds back.

Pelicot showed tremendous courage in pursuing transparent justice against the web of abusers orchestrated by her husband. Contrary to the Queen, she didn’t choose to take preventative action through educating children to remedy her trauma, she pursued accountability for abusive men. Don’t get us wrong, education is critical, but so too is bringing offenders to justice.

We wrote:

However, the hypocrisy at play is difficult to ignore. Camilla has made little effort to centre the victims connected to the so-called Epstein files or to address the role powerful men played in perpetrating such traumatic abuse against young girls and women. Perhaps she will draw inspiration from the courage of Gisèle Pelicot and begin speaking truth to powerful men while prioritising the suffering of their victims.

After all, both cases involve networks of men who believed they had the right to do whatever they wanted to their victims. The case draws clear parallels with the thousands of pages connected to the Epstein network of elites, which included her brother-in-law, the disgraced former prince Andrew.

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We can only hope that Camilla, who has expressed concern about the silence surrounding violence against women and girls, goes further in her advocacy. Victims and survivors deserve to see justice, rather than being told once again that “he couldn’t help it”.

Featured image via the Canary

The US / Israeli attack on Iran has had serious knock-on effects across the region. There are also many global consequences. The spike in oil and gas prices is relatively predictable. But there’s also a very direct impact on global food prices.

Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting global fertiliser supply chains. And this in turn could lead to a surge in global food prices. Amanda Larsson is Global Big Ag project lead at Greenpeace Aotearoa. She said:

The crisis brought on by this illegal attack by the US and Israeli militaries reveals a systemic failure at the heart of our global food system.

Almost half of global food production now depends on synthetic fertilisers produced by a small number of fossil fuel and agrochemical giants, leaving families and farmers to pay the price the moment fragile supply chains break.

While the human cost of the conflict continues to mount, the geopolitical shock is hitting farmers at the peak of the spring application, threatening harvests across the Northern Hemisphere and knock-on effects on food prices.

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The solution to food sovereignty, independence, and local resilience is the same as that needed to solve the climate and biodiversity crises: ecological farming. By working with nature to fix nutrients naturally in the soil, farmers can break the cycle of chemical dependence, slash costs, protect our rivers from toxic run-off, and ensure healthy, affordable food for generations to come.

Governments must stop propping up this fragile corporate model and redirect financial support away from resource-heavy, industrial agriculture. Food security cannot be bought on a volatile global chemical market; it must be grown from the ground up through healthy soil and local resilience.

It is time to fund the transition to self-sufficient, ecological practices that serve communities, not billionaires.

Featured image via the Canary

Fascist Israeli security minister and would-be executer of Palestinian abductees Itamar Ben-Gvir has reportedly removed remaining constraints on Israeli settlers carrying guns in Jerusalem as part of his incitement to violence against indigenous Palestinians. But only Jewish Israelis, of course. Any Jewish residents can have a gun even if they have no experience or training. And just in case anyone was in doubt that the idea is to shoot Muslims, Ben-Gvir said the change is to:

[save] lives, especially during wartime and Ramadan.

What could possibly go wrong?

Ben-Gvir rumours

But where is Ben-Gvir? The racist horror has not been seen in a public setting for several days. Unfounded claims have since circulated on social media that his settler-colony home had been hit by an Iranian drone.

State-aligned ‘fact-checkers’ say the claims of his wounding or death are false.

And now, ‘his’ X account has released a video with the message:

I’m alive, blessed be the Lord. Go fuck yourselves.

אני חי ברוך השם. תתפוצצו pic.twitter.com/WcjAi9KPCQ

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) March 10, 2026

However, the video raises more questions than it answers. Ben Gvir appears for only five seconds in total, split into three sections of only one or two seconds each. The audio also shows tell-tale modulation markers of artificially-constructed speech. It is embedded below so readers can select their preferred speed and more easily scrub back and forth:

A clip of the sections only showing Ben-Gvir:

So where is murderous ethno-fascist land-thief Itamar Ben-Gvir? Did the Iranians wound or kill him in retaliation for Israel’s murder of its leader Ali Khamenei?

Arming Zionist settlers is exactly what such a figure can be expected to do. After all, this is the same man who has been banned by multiple countries for his naked genocidal ambitions for Gaza. Famously, he said:

there are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza.

Featured image via the Canary