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Politics

UN says drones killed over 1000 people in Sudan civil war in 2026

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sudan

sudan

The United Nations (UN) has said that over 1000 people have been killed by drones in Sudan in 2026. Both the Sudanese state military and the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces militia use drones. The three-year old war has displaced millions and killed thousands.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said:

We are seeing a global shift in how war is waged.

The UN has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons. This reality is now upon us.

Adding that:

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Relentless drone attacks have caused mass casualties and terrorized civilians.

Turk was speaking at a UN event in Geneva about the rise of drone warfare around the globe. A senior UK minister was also in attendance…

Sudan under attack

The RSF, backed by the UAE, is fighting the Sudanese government, with gold interests and regional influence at stake.

Numerous foreign actors, including the UK, have caused the war to fester through active participation and/or outright passivity. Israel, too, is a player in the war.

The war in Sudan is theoretically between the Arab-majority RSF and the Sudanese government. But foreign states pursuing their own interests are backing the combatants. TurkeyEgypt and many more countries are pursuing their own interests in Sudan too.

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The RSF has killed Sudanese civilians in vast numbers. Some estimates say 150,000 people have died and more than 10 million civilians have been displaced by fighting.

Massive increase in drone use

The UN reported:

The US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) observed an 81% increase in drone attacks and a 600% increase in drone-related deaths in the war-torn east African country between 2024 and 2025.

And at the Geneva summit, Turk warned:

The prospect of billion-dollar, AI-enabled weapons [being] brought down by billion-dollar, AI-enabled defensive shields exposes the horror, emptiness, and futility of war.

Autonomous weapons cannot become a license for atrocity crimes.

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UK Africa minister Jenny Chapman was also in attendance. Displaying more neck than a herd of giraffes given the UK’s role in the war, Chapman told the audience:

Sudan’s warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies, using drones supplied by their backers to target civilians and aid workers.

This is deplorable and must stop.

Adding that organisations must:

document abuses and preserve evidence – essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity.

UK role in slaughter is known

As the Canary has reported repeatedly:

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British military components have shown up on the battlefield in RSF hands. The UK is a major arms supplier to UAE.

Even more damningly:

Sources have also claimed the UK downgraded the [humanitarian] situation in Sudan to avoid “pissing off the Emiratis”.

The Canary reported on 11 June that the first war crimes claim had been lodged against RSF in Kenya. Twelve victims backed by a Swiss legal NGO urged Kenya’s chief of prosecution to pursue the case. Associated Press (AP) reported on 9 June:

It is the first attempt to prosecute members of the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese military for over three years, outside Sudan.

Adding that:

The group, which has been accused by rights organizations of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has ties with Kenya’s government.

The war in Sudan garners very little attention in the West. Yet the UK’s quiet but key role in a growing list of atrocities is unmistakable. Africa minister Jenny Chapman – and her bosses in No 10 – simply cannot be unaware of this fact.

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Which, in turn, suggests that they’re peddling the same old neocolonial falsehoods.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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Climate action could sway half of young voters in the UK

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A cocoa farmer Illustrating Fairtrade Foundations research on support for climate action

A cocoa farmer Illustrating Fairtrade Foundations research on support for climate action

Half of young people under 34 in the UK say they would be more likely to vote for a government that upholds the UK’s climate commitments. This is a finding of new research by Kantar for the Fairtrade Foundation.

Fairtrade is warning that climate change is putting everyday staples under growing pressure and threatening the livelihoods of the next generation of farmers. Ahead of London Climate Action Week, the charity is launching Fair on the Planet, the second moment in its 2026 Do It Fair campaign.

It’ll highlight how farmers growing products such as coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas are already facing extreme heat, erratic rainfall, flooding and crop disease. This comes as an El Niño year is expected to impact weather conditions and temperatures further.

Fairtrade is urging the UK government to introduce Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) legislation. This requires businesses to address human rights and environmental harm in their supply chains. And the government should ensure the costs are not pushed onto farmers and workers.

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Ahead of the outcome of the government’s Responsible Business Conduct Review, Fairtrade’s petition is nearing 100,000 signatures. And this is adding pressure on ministers to bring forward responsible business laws.

The new research from Kantar suggests there is strong public backing for tougher climate and human rights action. 76% of overall respondents said businesses should have to show evidence they protect human rights and reduce environmental harm.

Marie Rumsby, advocacy director at the Fairtrade Foundation, said:

The people feeding and powering the global economy are already experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, even though they did the least to cause it. It should not be on farmers to fix a crisis they did not create.

The food and drink we rely on every day depends on healthy soil, water and stable temperatures. Without urgent action, climate change will increasingly threaten products people in the UK love, from their morning tea or coffee to chocolate and bananas.

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This latest research suggests climate action is becoming a defining issue for younger voters, who are increasingly looking for leaders willing to protect the environment and the future of the foods they rely on.

With public support for tougher corporate accountability growing, the government must act on this opportunity to match climate ambition with fairer rules for global supply chains through a new responsible business law.

Voluntary action from business is no longer enough. We need urgent action from the government and clear rules that hold companies to account, protect people and the planet, and ensure the cost of climate change does not fall on those least able to pay.

Climate crisis hitting food production hard

Other research studies highlight the scale of the threat across everyday staples:

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  • In Kenya, half of young tea workers say climate change is now their biggest challenge (FairVoice, 2025). Kenya supplies around 40% of the UK’s tea. But suitable conditions for tea production there are expected to fall by a quarter by 2050 (Agronomy, 2020).
  • Coffee-growing countries are projected to lose 30 – 60% of the land suitable for cultivation by mid-century (Fairtrade Risk Map).
  • Banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean could shrink by 60% by 2080 (Christian Aid, 2025).
  • Cocoa is already suffering from extreme weather, disease and supply strain that are driving volatile prices and reshaping the market. Cocoa prices soared to historic highs of around $12,000 per metric tonne in late 2024. But they’ve since fallen sharply to around $4,000 per metric tonne today.

Fairtrade will also take ‘unfair games’ and workshops to nine festivals across the UK. This will give festivalgoers new ways to engage with the campaign and its partners. And it will be hosting an event about the challenges coffee farmers face to coincide with London Climate Action Week.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Fairtrade will be hosting a drop-in iced mochaccino reception on 23 June in parliament. This will highlight the growing climate risks hitting farmers and set out clear recommendations for how the UK government can support a just and equitable transition to sustainable farming.

Farmers themselves are echoing this warning. Silvia Herrera, a coffee farmer from Chiapas, Mexico, told the UK International Development Committee earlier this month:

We have the impact of climate change every year. Last year, we lost half of our harvest because the year before it didn’t rain enough and the ripening did not happen at the time it was supposed to, so our cherries were not ready to be cropped.

Right now, we are investing in adaptation programmes so that our farms can be better adapted… This implies a lot of investment, not just in time, but in resources.

Featured image via Mohamed Aly Diabaté / Fairtrade Foundation

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The scourge of online misogyny and racism fuels calls for regulation

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Misogyny online is fuelling misogyny offline

Misogyny online is fuelling misogyny offline

A recent report by children’s charity Barnardo’s lays bare the scale of misogyny in the UK. Polling 4,000 young people, its shows how misogyny and targeted racism have flourished on social media platforms. As a result, the report found that these attitudes have dangerously become more ‘commonplace’ among offline.

Against this backdrop, British PM Keir Starmer announced yesterday a social media ban will come into effect next year, restricting access for under-16s. Nevertheless, will still be able to circumvent the ban using VPNs. This means use of Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, by young people will likely continue.

Lauren Spiers of Barnardo’s Northern Ireland informed:

Girls tell us misogyny is difficult to escape. It shows up in classrooms, corridors, on buses and online and it’s often normalised or unchallenged.

This suggests the ban is unlikely to improve the safety of girls and young women, and risks emboldening abuse offline. For Black and Brown girls, ‘mysogynoir’ — the intersection of racism and misogyny — makes the threat even greater.

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Misogyny and dehumanising racism

Barnardo’s produced this powerful report after becoming alarmed by the growing number of young people harmed by the normalisation of misogyny online, with some girls experiencing abuse from as young as 13.

Polling 4,000 young people, the charity found that misogynistic abuse and harassment have become “constant, corrosive and deeply embedded” in the lives of many children across the UK.

Moreover, misogyny doesn’t just harm girls – it also pressures boys into unhealthy and restrictive ideas of masculinity. Nearly six in ten boys reported feeling compelled to “act tough” and hide their emotions. Meanwhile, a quarter of girls said they had been called degrading names online.

For some girls, that painful abuse goes even further. Those who do not fit narrow Western beauty ideals, such as young girls of colour, can find themselves subjected not only to misogyny, but also racism and dehumanising language.

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As a result, this toxic culture actively harms young people, damaging confidence, poisoning relationships and undermining self-worth, while subjecting marginalised groups to even greater abuse.

Samai, a 21-year-old Black student who took part in Barnardo’s Changing Attitudes focus group, talks about being labelled ‘masculine’ simply for being Black, stating:

There’s a lot of cases where famous Black women get accused of being trans. That’s a huge, huge thing online. For example, a lot of people spent time trying to prove that Michelle Obama is transgender, and Megan Thee Stallion too.

It happens with sports players as well, Serena Williams is always being told that she’s masculine or a man.

What does that mean for young Black girls who are seeing that online? This shows how features associated with Black women are seen as being masculine.

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Hiding misogyny behind “banter”

Young boys are increasingly absorbing misogynistic attitudes online, where influencers, algorithms and peer pressure normalise abusive and demeaning rhetoric towards girls. As a result, many come to see this behaviour as acceptable, or even expected.

The starkest finding is that 57% of boys surveyed felt pressure to join misogynistic “banter” or risk being labelled “boring.” This is not harmless joking, but a culture teaching boys that sexism earns social approval.

The reality is bleak — the more sexism is normalised, the less safe girls feel. What some dismiss as “banter” can have real consequences, and for many women it is often the start of something worse.

Meanwhile, 21% of boys said they felt unable to challenge sexist comments from friends, showing how entrenched these attitudes have become. When peer pressure silences boys, misogyny doesn’t just survive — it spreads.

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Olly, aged 18, told Barnardo’s:

As a young man, I see online misogyny every day. It sets the tone for how boys treat girls and how boys treat each other. There is pressure to laugh it off or stay silent, even when it crosses a line.

Young men set the standard. Challenge it, shut it down, and back those who speak up. That is how we change what is accepted.

Children’s Services Manager for Barnardo’s South West England, Sarah stated:

We’ve supported young girls who have had digitally manipulated (deepfake) images of them created and circulated online.

The images were shared through social media platforms, sometimes via fake accounts created to spread the abuse further. Incidents like this cause significant emotional impact including fear and distress.

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A culture of victim blaming can also lead to girls being concerned about how others perceive them, rather than seeing themselves as a victim of serious sexual abuse. This can sometimes leave them vulnerable to further abuse and exploitation – but with the right support, we do see girls begin to rebuild trust, confidence and find their voice.

Men must call out misogyny

Barnardo’s wants urgent action to tackle misogyny wherever it occurs, put children’s voices at the centre of decision-making, and make online spaces genuinely safe for young people. To achieve this, the charity is calling on the Government to give Ofcom’s Violence Against Women and Girls guidance real teeth by making it a mandatory Code of Practice and holding platforms accountable for the harms they enable.

Misogyny and violence against women and girls remain a serious crisis across Western society, particularly in the UK. Too often, women stay silent because society puts victims on trial. Meanwhile, perpetrators escape accountability.

The fact that this problem is getting worse, not better, should ring alarm bells. The girls of today will become the women of tomorrow. Furthermore, boys exposed to misogynistic attitudes risk carrying those behaviours into adulthood.

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Simply banning social media will not make these problems disappear. If anything, it risks driving abuse further underground, making some girls less likely to speak out if they fear punishment for using prohibited platforms. What young people – and many adults – need is far greater state investment in relationship education, digital literacy, and healthy communication, so they can actually understand what constitutes respectful behaviour.

We already know where misogyny, entitlement and the abuse of power can lead. The testimonies of countless survivors make that painfully clear.

Importantly, the next generation deserves better than to inherit the same harmful attitudes and behaviours that have damaged so many lives before them.

Featured image via Barnardo’s

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By Maddison Wheeldon

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Palestinian prisoner dies in notorious Israeli prison

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Palestinian prisoner Imad Sarhan

Palestinian prisoner Imad Sarhan

Imad Sarhan, 48, was a Palestinian who had been imprisoned for almost 25 years by the Israeli occupation before his death on 14 June. The late Sarhan suffered from a heart attack whilst in the high security Gilboa prison.

Repeated tortured in Israeli custody

He was abducted from his home in Haifa, on 15 October 2001, and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 10 years. From his first day in prison, until the day he died, he underwent severe and systematic interrogation and torture sessions. He was also subjected to deliberate medical neglect, and regularly kept in solitary confinement, once for a period of four years. However, his family had not been given any information regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.

Decades of abuse from “Israel” during his imprisonment took its toll both physically and psychologically. Sarhan suffered from serious heart problems and high blood pressure. In recent years, his health deteriorated rapidly, leaving him unable to move without a wheelchair.

Israel ramps up collective punishment

There has been an escalation of acts of revenge attacks, abuse and neglect against Palestinian prisoners since October 2023. This is because the occupation has been carrying out collective punishment against Palestinians, a war crime under international law.

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Legislation that legalises executions has now been approved. And the Knesset is making moves to permanently ban International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visits to prisoners. These developments deepen the vulnerability of prisoners, and make urgent independent oversight and accountability more necessary than ever.

The Palestinian Centre for Prisoners Advocacy is calling for the formation of independent international investigation committees. These would examine the circumstances of prisoners’ deaths inside detention centres, and prosecute the “Israeli” officials involved in these crimes.

Palestinian prisoner deaths

The killing of Sarhan brings the number of documented Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody to 90 since October 2023, and 327 since 1967. 118 of these were serving life sentences.

As of 10 June 2026, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, 9,400 Palestinians are detained in Israeli occupation jails, and 3,324 held without charge or trial. There are 95 female prisoners and nearly 360 children. In Gaza, 1,316 Palestinians have been detained classified by Israeli occupation authorities as “unlawful combatants.”

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What follows will be worse, yet our global leaders continue to look the other way.

Featured image via Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK

By Charlie Jaay

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Starmer tries charm offensive to avoid trump tantrum over social media ban

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Starmer and Trump

Starmer and Trump

Ministers in Starmer’s government have apparently been hard at work lobbying the US President over fears. They worry they will see a backlash over the announced under-16s social media ban.

Rather than asking the billionaire owners of Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube to protect children and restrict harmful content for all users, our government is instead choosing to cut off access for the most vulnerable in society. In fact, Starmer is now heading to the G7 Summit to meet the President. He will no doubt try to win favour with Trump.

This signals another futile move by Labour to please the ultra-wealthy elites. Meanwhile, they continue to dodge their responsibilities to the British public.

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Big tech get a free ride from Starmer

This social media ban comes as yet another instance of ordinary people bearing the cost of powerful men and big tech not being held accountable.

These platforms are dangerous, that much is undeniable. But they also provide means of finding connection for increasingly isolated children. Moreover, these children are undersupported in schools. They also have poor access to green and safe places. Rather than holding toxic, abusive tech executives to account, it’s children who end up being ‘punished.’

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Starmer is doing his utmost to appease Trump to assure him that US tech in the UK market will not be restricted. However, this raises renewed concerns. People worry about the concessions Starmer may offer to the President for his ‘compliance.’

Obviously, US tech companies will undoubtedly be affected by these measures. However, we should not overlook the fact that the verification process could significantly expand their access to private data in the UK.

Reports indicate that companies have already implemented the necessary device updates. This casts doubt on claims that big tech opposes the policy. Furthermore, it raises the possibility that key concessions have already been made behind the scenes.

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With genocide-complicit Palantir embedded both in the US and UK, there is also unfettered access to our patient data in the NHS. Therefore, this data hoarding should worry all freedom-loving citizens both at home and abroad.

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‘Big Brother’ surveillance state

Numerous reports warn that ban could create a “Big Brother” Orwellian state. This would threaten privacy, restrict freedoms, and deepen surveillance of online spaces. Moreover, lest we forget, Shabana Mahmood has openly discussed her ‘dream’ of establishing a AI-empowered surveillance state inspired by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon.

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Therefore, the move to grant greater access to users’ personal data — through bank-account checks and email surveillance under the guise of ‘verification’ — is utterly frightening. It is all in the name of protecting children.

Surely this move will also require all adults to verify their age. This, in turn, could lead to further exploitation and control by the establishment, while placing the public under the boot of tech giants.

Let’s also remind ourselves of the kind of sinister men our government is working hard to ‘win over.’

We must also recognise that Google — which will have unencumbered access to user data — has played a significant role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In addition, the company has willingly aided Israel in its genocidal rampage.

How can handing them more data be a good thing for ordinary people, as Stanford students recently highlighted during a walkout ahead of an address from Google’s CEO:

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Ordinary people MUST stand up to billionaires

Billionaires are destroying Western society, with democracy vanishing from existence as they use their hoarded wealth — drawn from our pockets — to buy our corrupted politicians.

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Once private interests and wealthy donors have effectively “bought” politicians, those politicians will protect abusive behaviour to advance policies that benefit the wealthy. The ordinary masses will be left to deal with the fallout.

Needless to say, ordinary people, whether working class or middle class, are watching their money disappear. It no longer stretches as far as it used to, with wage packets barely meeting the cost of living. Hard-working people continuously are forced to tighten their belts, while the rich exploit ‘legal’ loopholes  inflate their profits at record-breaking speed. 

It is time to hold big tech and billionaires accountable for the harms they inflict on us all. The masses have had enough of living under the heel of the rich, and we are losing this class war.

Featured image via the Canary

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By Maddison Wheeldon

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107 MPs call for Special Administration of Thames Water as government blocks rescue deal

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A Thames Water van

A Thames Water van

107 MPs, including 42 Labour MPs, have signed an open letter to Ofwat and the environment secretary, calling on them to reject the latest deal put forward by Thames Water’s creditors, and bring the private water company into Special Administration.

This comes as environment secretary Emma Reynolds has written to Ofwat to object to the Thames Water creditors’ proposal deal to take over the utility.

Thames Water is on the brink of financial collapse. Thames Water’s creditors have been negotiating with Ofwat to determine the future of the utility since June 2025.

As part of the proposed deal, the creditors want to waive fines until 2030. Pollution, leakage and other performance targets would be suspended or ‘significantly modified’. The creditors also want to raise bills for households beyond the level currently set by Ofwat.

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The open letter expresses a concern that allowing Thames Water to set its own rules would create a dangerous precedent for all of England’s privatised water companies. The company caused almost a third of the water sector’s most harmful pollution incidents in 2025.

The letter argues that by taking Thames Water into Special Administration, this government can secure a better deal for the public purse by writing off a greater proportion of the utility’s debt.

We Own It co-ordinated the open letter, which has gained signatures from MPs across political parties, including:

  • Jack Rankin, Conservative MP for Windsor.
  • Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent West.
  • Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale.
  • Hannah Spencer, Green MP for Gorton and Denton.

It also comes as potential Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham states that public ownership is “what should be done” for Thames Water.

Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It, said:

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The average water bill in England is now £639. During a cost of living crisis, households have no choice but to pay more and more for a broken service and sewage-filled rivers.

Yet Thames Water wants to be rewarded for its abysmal failure with a regulatory holiday. And they want us to foot the bill.

The government is absolutely right to block this deal. Members of the public, who pay for and depend upon our water system, and the MPs who represent them are clearly opposed to a deal which puts the interests of US hedge funds ahead of billpayers and our environment.

By taking Thames Water into Special Administration, we can slash the debts and give billpayers and the environment a fair deal.

From there, this government must place Thames Water into permanent public ownership.

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Special administration of Thames Water must be the beginning of the end of our water system being used as an ATM for faraway shareholders. Under public ownership, we can put billpayers and the environment first.

Featured image via the Canary

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Environment secretary writes to Ofwat calling out Thames Water deal

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ofwat under pressure over Thames Water's mounting debt

ofwat under pressure over Thames Water's mounting debt

Thames Water is now even closer to temporary nationalisation after the government objected to a £10bn rescue proposal from its creditors.

Ofwat, the UK water regulator, is also feeling the heat, after Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds penned a letter to the watchdog criticising the lenders’ offering. She warns it would fail both the environment and customers.

‘A holiday from the rules’

Thames Water has teetered on the edge of ruin for several years, at this point. It’s currently buried under £20bn in debt, and has faced record fines for dumping untreated sewage into England’s waterways.

The company will run out of money completely in October, at which point it will enter Special Administration (i.e. government control). Back in January, pollster Survation found that 54% of Thames Water’s customers supported the nationalisation measure, vs just 19% who wanted the company to remain in private hands.

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However, London & Valley Water (LVW) — a Frankenstein’s monster of financiers who own Thames Water’s debt-tabled a deal with Ofwat. Now, time is against LVW here. Ofwat would have to put its deal up for three months of public scrutiny, and also obtain the High Court’s sign-off.

Under the current proposal, first set out in June 2025, LVW have offered to erase £9.4bn of Thames Water’s debt. The proposal also included £3.35bn cash and £6.55bn new debt facility before 2030. However, in return, LVW asked for permission to effectively ignore pollution and performance targets.

Understandably, the bogus deal has attracted massive criticism from campaign groups. We Own It, for example, urged MPs to sign an open letter demanding a rejection of the deal. The group stated that:

Thames Water’s creditors want a holiday from the rules, and they want us to pick up the bill.

Ofwat fails consumers

Then, on 15 June, environment secretary Emma Reynolds added the government’s weight to the objections. She wrote to Ofwat, calling the rescue proposal a “weak” response to “15 years of mismanagement and failure”. Likewise, she highlighted that it would place an “undue burden” on Thames Water’s customers.

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The government has previously stated outright that it would prefer a “market-based solution” to Special Administration measures. As such, the fact that the environment secretary stepped in to offer criticism is a mark of how truly abysmal this deal really is.

Commenting on the intervention, Reynolds stated that:

I have written to Ofwat to set out my early concerns that the creditors’ proposals don’t do enough to protect consumers and the environment.

In response, LVW made a thinly veiled threat that any other option would result in higher water bills:

All other routes offer significantly worse outcomes for customers and the environment. Our proposals do not anticipate any increase in customer bills beyond those set out by Ofwat.

‘Let us keep dumping sewage or we’ll jack up the prices’ doesn’t exactly sound like good-faith negotiations to us. For context, Thames Water recently hiked bills by a massive 35%, which a vast majority of customers deemed unreasonable.

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Ofwat is expected to make a decision on the deal by July at the latest. This is necessary in order to allow time for public scrutiny before Thames Water finally goes bust in October.

As both the public and the government has now urged, it must reject this awful deal and uphold its duty to protect both the environment and the consumers who are being held to ransom by Thames Water and its creditors.

Featured image via the Canary 

By Grace

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Labour’s authoritarian cabinet would be decimated in an election

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Starmer

Starmer Labour

The ruling Labour cabinet would face decimation if there was an election today. And if opponents to its left could join forces against the increasingly authoritarian Labour, the UK would stand a much better chance of stopping the far right from entering government and building on Keir Starmer’s legacy of repression.

The good news is that polling shows we have a real chance to throw the vacuous corporate lackeys of Starmer’s cabinet out of power. Labour has:

From the Greens to the Lib Dems, and from the SNP and Plaid Cymru to independents, the prediction is that people to the left of Labour will abandon it in massive numbers.

We could be celebrating the losses of awful Labour right-wingers like Rachel Reeves, Steve Reed, Yvette Cooper, and David Lammy. And although Wes Streeting isn’t in the cabinet anymore, we could celebrate his exit too:

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The bad news, of course, is Reform. Because the far-right party hasn’t just been biting chunks out of the Conservative Party. It has also used its dodgy billionaire money to convince people in neglected working-class communities to ignore its hateful divisiveness and send Labour a message.

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If people to the left of Labour manage to coordinate their resistance, though, a Reform-Tory government isn’t inevitable.

Unite the left, and Labour could lose even worse

While the polling shows lots of Labour cabinet members losing their seats, it also shows some who could still remain MPs. Those are James Murray, Keir Starmer, Peter Kyle, Heidi Alexander, Douglas Alexander, Alan Campbell, and Emma Reynolds.

Starmer, however, absolutely can lose. That would just require a deal between independent left-wingers and the Greens to make sure there is no splitting of progressive votes:

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Murray could potentially lose Ealing North too, if Greens and Independents can join campaigning forces. There are other areas in London and cities around the country where this may also be the case.

In some places, the Green Party is the strongest opponent to Labour. In Hove and Portslade, for example, it could defeat prominent Labour Friend of Israel Peter Kyle if it benefits from some of the energetic Independent campaigning of 2024.

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In Scotland, Douglas Alexander could lose Lothian East to the SNP if Greens could help to tip it over the line. In fact, some kind of anti-Labour deal between the two could throw Labour out of Scotland entirely by taking Edinburgh South too.

With Campbell in Tynemouth, Reynolds in Wycombe, and Heidi Alexander in Swindon South, Reform is currently Labour’s main challenger.

In short, Starmer’s Labour could lose even worse. And left-wingers could benefit from that in some places. But to stop both Reform and Labour, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Different strategies will work in different places, and different parties are more likely to win.

Everyone to the left of Labour needs to find a way to work together asap. And changing our voting system should be a key point to unify us. Because making our electoral system proportional is the best hope for stopping the far right and ending Labour-Tory dominance.

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Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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In pictures: protesters mount demo for tortured prisoners outside Israeli embassy

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ISraeli embassy

ISraeli embassy

Human rights activists have mounted a protest against Israel’s abduction and torture of thousands of Palestinians. And it did so right outside the Israeli embassy last Saturday, 13 June 2026.

Protest at the Israeli embassy

The Red Ribbons campaign aims to make sure that the illegally detained, tortured – and often raped – overwhelmingly civilian detainees are not forgotten. Their protest at the Israeli embassy was photographed by activist cameraman BetterThanReal, who kindly provided them to the Canary. It included a bloodied re-enactment with activists representing some of the huge number of bound and abused prisoners held indefinitely in Israeli torture camps:







Protesters also drew attention to the ongoing, 18-month imprisonment and torture of Gaza medical director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and to the plight of women and children held as hostages by Israel:




Palestinian prisoners and their families told TRT World earlier this month some of the horrors they faced while detained without charge:

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Double standard

Around ten thousand Palestinians are currently held in these camps facing sexual torture, rape and even the use of dogs to rape. Western governments and media fanned a moral panic over a couple of hundred Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza who were well treated and faced more danger from their own side. But thousands of tortured and raped Palestinians barely registers as the west colludes in Israel’s racist, terrorist colonial project.

Featured image via the Canary

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Sinister Labour MP wants to ‘finish the job’ on assisted dying

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assisted dying Laura Edwards

assisted dying Laura Edwards

The Labour MP who has launched another attempt to rush assisted dying through parliament has urged the Lords to ‘finish the job’. Labour MP for Rochester and Strood Laura Edwards is attempting to push assisted dying through parliament again using dirty tricks.

Dirty tricks again on assisted dying

Under the Parliament Act, if the same bill is passed by MPs in two consecutive parliamentary sessions, peers have no power to stop it. While Lords can suggest amendments, there’s also no requirement for the Commons to pass them.

And here’s the worst part: if the Lords don’t agree to pass the bill and it gets talked out by the end of the parliamentary session, it becomes law by default.

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The original Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, was voted through by MPs after Kim Leadbeater used every weapon she could to stop those concerned about coercion and disabled people voicing opposition. At every turn Leadbeater painted opposition as anti-choice, as opposed to disabled people terrified for our community.

It then went to the Lords, where those for the assisted dying bill, including media shills, tried to tear down those attempting to bring amendments.

In the Lords, so many Peers wanted to speak that the debate had to be spread over two days, with two-thirds of speakers being against the bill. It progressed to committee stage, where the corrupt committee restricted evidence.

After that it went back to the lords, where Falconer casually said that both pregnant people and poor people would be allowed assisted deaths. The bill eventually ran out of time, as so many peers wanted to scrutinise it, which again was criticised.

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Lauren Edwards is as bloodthirsty as Leadbeater

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Edwards said she was ‘playing by the rules’ and asking the Lords to do the same regarding the assisted dying bill.

She said:

Laws passed in the House of Commons are then refined by the House of Lords, but they don’t have the opportunity to block them.

It’s perfectly reasonable for us to ask the House of Lords to finish the job.

To be clear, this is a law that would usher in state-supported euthanisation for disabled people. If I were attempting to be an architect for this, I probably wouldn’t have used a phrase that makes me sound like a blood thirsty ghoul, but you do you, Lauren.

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Furthermore, it’s not really ‘playing fair’ if you’re taking away the other team’s powers, is it?

By using this loophole, Edwards has to use the exact same assisted dying bill Leadbeater introduced, which means there would be no protection for anyone vulnerable from being coerced into it. As Labour MP Ashley Dalton pointed out, we can’t expect the ‘for’ side to be open to commons amendments either, as they rejected them all last time

Dalton replied to a tweet suggesting MPs use this as a new opportunity to ‘fix it rather than criticise it’ with:

Commons Committee tried, but almost all amendments were rejected by the proponents of the bill. The proponents even brought 77 amendments themselves to the Lords it was in such a bad state when it left the Common. Remains to be seen if they incorporate any of these in the new bill.

Edwards hasn’t listened

It seems that Edwards cockily thinks she can rely on the Commons to vote for the same assisted dying bill twice. However, MPs have had over a year to realise they were rushed into a terrible decision. That while many people support assisted dying in theory, anyone who looks at the bill can see how flawed and lacking in safeguards it is.

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One things for sure, disabled people have another fight on our hands. But Labour should already know we will not quietly let them kill us.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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Brighton fascists try to fake respectability, whilst hiding the extreme violent reality

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Brighton far-right racist protest

Brighton far-right racist protest

Brighton stood up against far-right intimidation on 13 June 2026 as thousands of anti-fascists massively outnumbered a South East Patriots march. The Carnival Against Fascism mobilisation was stunning to see, and blocked the racist scumbags at every single turn.

Wandering around with the far-right, I observed an obvious disconnect between the far-right’s public branding and the unfiltered racism of its members. In short, brighton proved its resilience and commitment to standing up to hate.

The performance of innocence

The South East Patriots tried so hard to project a respectable public image for the cameras. I struggled to get myself into their crowd, as policemen had blocked off the four main streets. But they didn’t cover the tiny side streets. Wandering into a street packed with leering men, a sea of flags, and empty beer cans was nothing new. But the banner “Calling people racist when they don’t agree with you is getting really boring” was.

A sign a far-right protester is holding up which is black and red font on a white background which reads: Calling people racist when they don't agree with you is getting really boring.
One of the signs on the far-right side

Sh*t like that reeks of desperation. Away from the cameras, the language quickly became that of the most disgusting white supremacy. Let’s be honest, fascists love throwing out slurs and the crowd in Brighton was no different. But watching a young teen calling someone a “sand rat” whilst laughing with his dad hit home.

The dehumanisation of Black and Brown people permeates the entire movement. They can claim what they want through their banners. However, the language these thugs dispense daily, in person, confirms their deep-seated racial hatred towards people they don’t even know.

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When Black and Brown people consistently warn us that these marches threaten their entire existence, we need to listen, because it’s getting worse in Brighton especially.

Under the lying banners

The aggression is never just verbal. Speaking to one of them, he took a sip of his Peroni, looked me dead in the eye, and said something that shocked me so much, it nearly blew my cover. He pointed across the police line at the thousands of anti-fascists stood in opposition, picked one lad stood at the front and said:

“I swear, if I had cancer, I’d take a gun and shoot every one of them on the other side, starting with that Black c**t”

This is the very real danger of the modern far-right. They don’t want a political debate. They want a war and view that anyone who isn’t white is a target for eradication.

The crowd also actively weaponised the teeny space they occupied. One woman openly boasted about carrying a large supply of stink bombs. She dropped a bunch of them whilst wandering through the Antifa crowd, handing them out for people to throw over the police line. It was silly of her to offer me over half as they got binned.

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“Hyper-masculinity” and hostility

The demographic makeup of the fascist assembly was, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly male. You know, the typical lads, above the age of thirty with bald heads and shit lion tattoos. Out of around 300 fash there, I saw less than 30 women. This gender imbalance matches wider research by Hope Not Hate which shows far-right spaces rely on this weird hyper-masculine posturing. Aggression, dominance and an inability to listen, you know the type. Clearly, brighton’s experience reflects disturbing national trends.

A bald man with his shirt off giving a thumbs up to the antifascist crowd. He is wearing black joggers and shoes. Behind him in the police cordon with police vans. All around him are other people.
I mean, probably could have kept that shirt on.

During the violent far-right riots in Ballymena, 36% of the men arrested had previously been reported for domestic abuse. And 41% of those nicked during wider riots had prior domestic abuse records. So if they’re willing to beat their partners, what the hell can they do to people they don’t know?

The few women present in Brighton were paraded at the front. One woman draped in a flag shouted into a megaphone to lead the chants at one point. The far-right use their women as a shield to appear less threatening, even while the males around them project intense physical aggression.

This aggression targets anyone who doesn’t play ball. The amount of times they screamed at me to take off my mask got boring. They completely fail to see those protecting their health or privacy through face coverings. They view masks as nothing more a marker of infiltration.

Ruined march exposes two-tier policing

Their weird street posturing quickly broke down as Antifa blockades derailed their schedule. We turned their march into a slow, sluggish crawl as they were rightly cut off at every turn. Must have been upsetting, listening to FatBoy Slim play a secret DJ set, whilst being trapped under a bridge.

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But whilst our community stalled the thugs, the police response exposed a dark double-standard. Officers handled the far-right with kid gloves, matching their aggression with little more than shouting and the occasional shove.

A police officer screaming at the camera. He is at the entrance to Brighton Train Station and he is brandishing his baton.
Bit heavy handed there, eh officer?

But anti-racism protesters were met with outright aggression. After being rumbled by Nick Tenconi’s security team, I was forced to leg-it and rejoin our side for safety.

At one point, me and a friend were walking casually towards a police line when the copper instantly withdrew his baton. This heavy handed approach from the state made one thing very clear — the police reserve their violent intimidation tactics for people opposing fascism.

Brighton, you did everyone proud on Saturday. The incredible show of love and solidarity was one of the most stunning I have seen. But the far-right demonstration showed me that this love isn’t enough.

As the far-right grow more desperate, we must be prepared and equipped to prevent this behaviour from spiralling.

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Featured images via AntifaBot

By Antifabot

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