Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel tomorrow, India ordered X to block access to writings by Middle East Eye journalist Azad Essa. Moreover, this arm-twisting move was justified by the legal prohibition cited by India’s government.

Azad Essa, a US-based South African journalist and senior reporter with MEE, has said that he believes his account was blocked due to his reporting on India-Israel ties. For Essa, the move reflects India’s iron-fisted clampdown on journalistic freedoms in India, accusing X of complicity and censorship.

India blocks Middle East Eye journalist’s X account

Azad Essa, a senior reporter with Middle East Eye, says he has been routinely targeted by right-wing elements in the country

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 23, 2026

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Essa is the author of “Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel” published in 2023. The book chronicles India’s and Israel’s blossoming love affair. Additionally, it describes their deepening military and ideological ties.

The book argues that while India and Israel only restored diplomatic ties in 1992, they maintained surreptitious military ties long before the 90s. In fact, Essa’s research suggests that Israel supplied weapons to India during its wars with China (1962) and Pakistan (1965 and 1971).

The alliance between India and Israel, he argues, promulgates aggressive nationalism to suppress Palestinian and Kashmiri aspirations.

Modi’s Israel visit slammed

Over the weekend, India’s prime minister Modi, taking to X, gushed about Netanyahu, calling him a friend, and expressing how he’s looking forward to meeting Netanyahu tomorrow.

These sentiments aren’t shared by the broader Indian public, as Al Jazeera notes:

Activists in India are protesting PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Israel, saying it goes against the values of a nation that once endured British colonial occupation.

Activists in India are protesting PM Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Israel, saying it goes against the values of a nation that once endured British colonial occupation. pic.twitter.com/hPK3oJrhpp

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 24, 2026

Underlining brewing opposition inside India to the Modi-Netanyahu alliance, People’s Dispatch also reported that:

Rallies were organised in different parts of India on Feb 15 to protest against the upcoming visit of far-right PM Narendra Modi to Israel, as it continues its genocide in Gaza in complete violation of the ceasefire it agreed to in November.

Rallies were organized in different parts of India on Feb 15, to protest against the upcoming visit of far-right PM Narendra Modi to Israel, as it continues its genocide in Gaza in complete violation of the ceasefire it agreed to in November.https://t.co/vHrE7pEYhC

— Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) February 18, 2026

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Whereas Vox Ummah, commenting on the impact of Modi’s visit, wrote that it:

formalises a security partnership built on arms sales and shared control practices, with consequences visible in Gaza and Kashmir. Ya Allah protect our Ummah

Yesterday, officials of the occupation confirmed that Narendra Modi will travel later this month to meet Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit takes place as the confirmed death toll in Gaza has passed 72,000. While announcing Modi’s visit, Netanyahu said, “Israel is enormously popular… pic.twitter.com/u9D5ASBa8l

— VoxUmmah (@VoxUmmah) February 16, 2026

The Infamous Previous Visit and the Epstein Files

As the Canary has previously reported, India’s elite is also known for rubbing shoulders with Epstein – as the paper trail of Epstein files, released by the US DOJ, shows.

On July 9, 2017, three days after Modi’s official visit to Israel, Epstein wrote an email saying that Modi had “danced and sang” in Israel for the benefit of US president Trump. However, the irony, which escapes Modi fanboys, is that the Indian leader’s 2017 visit to Israel coincided with Pegasus spyware attacks on Indian activists.

#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at Dor beach in Haifa, Israel #PMModiInIsrael pic.twitter.com/6h5BXqxYAW

— Republic (@republic) July 6, 2017

Just three days before, on July 6, Modi and Netanyahu shared a “romantic walk” along Haifa beach – from which countless Palestinian families have been ethnically cleansed. It was the first time an Indian Prime Minister had visited Israel. Consequently, this smashed any possibility of solidarity with Palestine. Odd, one might think, for a country grappling with the shadow of Western imperialism.

Modi is also mentioned in another email suggesting that, in 2019, Epstein encouraged Steve Bannon to meet with him to counter China. He told Bannon that Modi was a strategic opportunity. Furthermore, he mockingly asked him to “look at your underwear” to see if it was made in China or India.

#WATCH: PM Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at Dor beach in Haifa, Israel #PMModiInIsrael pic.twitter.com/6h5BXqxYAW

— Republic (@republic) July 6, 2017

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Modi and Netanyahu’s adulterous love affair is smothering popular struggles, from Palestine to Kashmir. Indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians and India’s indigenous communities, they shake their blood-stained hands over fresh, secret military deals. Azad Essa, it seems, won’t be the first or last journalist to be iced out.

Featured image via the Canary

Israel has used the F-35 jet throughout the Gaza genocide, as well as in airstrikes against Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. And now Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has confirmed the number of flight hours Israeli pilots have on the Lockheed Martin stealth fighter:

is greater than that of all the pilots of the other foreign countries that were partners in developing the aircraft.

These comments are completely at odds with the UK government’s insistence that Israel is a “minor customer” of the global F-35 jet programme.

Valuable feedback for Lockheed Martin

In an interview Leiter said:

The feedback from our pilots reaches Lockheed Martin. When I visited there a few weeks ago, their CEO told me that Israel’s information and developments ‘are worth many billions to my company.’

Leiter was speaking with Israel Hayom daily, and the Times of Israel reported it on 16 February.

The UK makes 15% of the F-35 jet. The US is the lead partner and the UK is the only Tier 1 partner. The other partners to the programme are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.

Israel has 48 F-35I jets, with 27 more jets on order. On 20 January, the Canary shared news from Lakenheath Alliance for Peace that three new F-35Is left the UK air base, RAF Mildenhall, bound for Israel.

Israel is also involved in the production of the F-35 programme. In February 2026 Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) celebrated the delivery of its 350th fighter jet wings to Lockheed Martin for production of the F-35 fighter jet.

UK government comments

The UK government has been provided with extensive evidence of Israel’s use of the F-35Is by Al-Haq and GLAN throughout their legal case in the UK High Court.

Despite an Israeli ambassador and the CEO of Lockheed Martin confirming Israel’s central role in the F-35 programme – both as a user and developer of the F-35 jet – the UK government has repeatedly attempted to downplay Israel’s use of the jet and role in the programme.

In a letter to Dame Meg Hillier MP on 19 February, minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer MP wrote:

The UK Government has stopped direct exports of F-35 parts for use by Israel. The only exception is for the global programme, of which Israel is a minor customer [emphasis added].

In a letter to Sarah Champion MP, chair of the International Development Committee, on 1 September 2025, former foreign secretary David Lammy wrote:

We are unaware of any possible breaches of IHL having been linked to the limited evidence of F-35 use in Gaza and it is worth remembering that, where UK-produced F-35 parts go to the global spares pool, Israel operate a very small proportion of over 1,000 F-35s in the global fleet [emphasis added].

Use of F-35s in Gaza

As early as November 2023 it was reported that Israel was making heavy use of its modified F-35I Adirs. Former IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi confirmed F-35Is were providing close air support to ground troops 200 metres away in Gaza. He stated:

We never did anything like this. With very heavy munitions, a very good connection between what the [ground] force needs and what the plane knows to give.

In December 2023, US officials confirmed they were rushing spare parts and additional capabilities “at breakneck speed” for the F-35 to Israel from October 2023. Officials stated Israel’s F-35Is have performed “absolutely outstanding” in Gaza, and that the programme could “learn a lot” from seeing F-35s used in combat.

The Israeli Air Force has modified its F-35Is, in partnership with Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon’s F-35 programme, to operate in so-called “beast mode”, which allows them to carry four 2,000lb bombs. The IAF said that its aircraft are the “only F-35 to conduct strikes with this design.”

Danish NGO Danwatch revealed that in July 2024 an F-35 dropped three 2,000 lb bombs in an attack on a so-called “safe zone” on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, killing 90 Palestinians.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade said:

Israel is plainly not a minor customer for the F-35 programme, if it has flown more hours than any other partner country in the programme, and if the data it has generated though its genocide in Gaza is worth billions to Lockheed Martin. No other country has used the F-35 jet at near the rate that Israel has, let alone in two years of active combat. This cannot be overstated.

The comments made by Lockheed Martin and US and Israel officials over the last two and half years go beyond illustrating passive greed. Israel’s attack was immediately identified as an unprecedented opportunity by the F-35 programme to collaborate with the IDF and take the data generated by Palestinian suffering and death to test, develop, market and sell the jet.

We call on the UK government to correct the record, and admit that Israel is the key customer of the F-35 programme. We call on the government to immediately halt all transfers of F-35 parts to Israel.

Featured image via YouTube / Military Aviation Channel

In 2025 the disgraced, but still in place, US Homeland Security (DHS) boss Kristi Noem’s claimed on far-right Fox News that a victim of her and her boss Donald Trump’s deportation war on brown people was a cannibal. Not satisfied with that, she then claimed the man tried to eat himself as he was flown out of the US on an ‘ICE’ plane:

[This is the] kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country. …You know, what bothered me the most is that this U.S. Marshal just said it like it was normal. He said he was literally eating his own arms. That is what he did. He called himself a cannibal and ate other people and ate himself that day.

It was a naked ploy to demonise the victims of the fascist regime’s purge – and has now been exposed as a complete fabrication. Or in plainer language, a total lie. No fewer than three federal law enforcement officials – including one from Noem’s own DHS – have confirmed that the whole thing was fiction. One, on condition of anonymity, said:

That is completely made up. That never happened.

Homeland Security boss Noem already faces widespread calls for her to resign or be sacked – and formally impeached – for smearing ICE’s murder victims Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as “domestic terrorists“. She has persisted in these smears despite abundant video evidence showing them to be lies as well.

Ardent Zionist Noem has clearly been taking lessons from the genocidal colony she loves in making up atrocity propaganda to justify evil. And, just like Israel, her lies have been quickly and completely debunked.

Featured image via the Canary

On 25 February 2026, Jewish anti-Zionist groups and other anti-genocide humanitarians will hold a demonstration outside Westminster Magistrates Court. The protest will be in support of three defendants charged with using the word ‘intifada‘. ‘Intifada’ is Arabic for ‘shaking off chains’, commonly translated in English as ‘uprising’.

Despite its ordinary meaning, the UK Israel lobby in and out of government is determined to present the word as an antisemitic call for the ‘killing of all Jews’ instead of a call for Palestinian freedom from occupation and self-determination. The ‘First Intifada’ was a campaign of non-violent resistance, but the deliberate misuse of the word is part of the Starmer regime’s ‘lawfare’ war against free speech on Israel’s crimes and the rights of Palestinian people.

Holocaust survivor descendant Mark Etkind said:

Where will this attack on free speech end? Will people next be arrested for using words like ‘democracy’ or ‘freedom’? With some countries already banning the slogan ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’, the answer to that question is, probably: ‘yes’.

Claims by Keir Starmer and other politicians that such slogans are antisemitic have no basis in fact. They are just cynical inventions to justify repression of a pro-Palestine movement which has always had numerous Jewish participants.

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Starmer’s other anti-democratic persecutions of anti-genocide activists and writers have mostly failed so far. For the sake of justice, this one must too – but given the reputation of magistrates as presiding over ‘kangaroo courts’, it may not.

The protest starts from 9.30am.

Featured image via the Canary

Quakers in Britain and the United States of America have nominated Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize. The nomination recognises two decades of community-led peacebuilding.

UK-based international NGO Concordis works in some of the world’s most fragile conflict zones. It aims to help people tackle the root causes of violence.

From Chad to South Sudan, it supports communities to rebuild, farm safely, and become resilient to famine, climate change, and war.

In their nomination, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) praised Concordis’ humility, respect, and consistent promotion of local partners.

The nominating letter said:

Concordis International’s commitment to peace is not new, brief, or transactional… Unlike the adversarial justice of the western world, they seek the healing justice for all parties, typical in a relational world view…

Their humility, respect, enthusiasm, and consistent promotion of their local partners over themselves is an international model for this millennium.

Peter Marsden, chief executive of Concordis, said:

We are truly grateful for the trust in us that AFSC and QPSW have shown.

More importantly, we’re grateful for their commitment to highlighting and applauding the unsung work of awesome local peacebuilders. These are the bold souls who work for peace where conflict is fought and felt.

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Concordis works to ensure that everyone impacted by a conflict has a voice. This includes people neglected due to age, gender, ethnicity, people who take up arms, and those who do not, as well as governments and civil society.

Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers in Britain, added:

We are delighted to nominate Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Their work reminds us that true, lasting peace comes from the courageous, patient work of local people who heal wounds, build understanding, and bridge divides.

AFSC general secretary Joyce Ajlouny said:

We are honored to nominate Concordis International for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A century of experience has shown us, time and again, that peace does not come at the barrel of a gun.

And while diplomacy between world leaders is important, it is the tireless efforts of everyday people working to resolve conflicts and address injustices that truly builds lasting peace.

As former Nobel winners (laureates), AFSC and QPSW can make a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize every year.

Their 1947 prize recognised 300 years of Quaker opposition to war. And in particular the work done by AFSC and what is now QPSW during and after the two world wars to feed starving children and help Europe rebuild itself.

Featured image via the Canary

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According to Labour, the Greens never stood a chance in the Gorton & Denton by-election. What’s strange is Labour are now saying voters are switching from the Greens to Labour, suggesting they did actually abandon the incumbent Labour Party at some point, but have now switched back?

We’re unsure what Labour have done to convince people they can win besides shouting ‘ONLY WE CAN WIN‘, but apparently that is happening.

Unless, of course, this is all staged:

this feels so fucking staged lmao https://t.co/x0BEfcquwo

— Nat ✨ FREE 🇵🇸 (@loopzoooop) February 24, 2026

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“So fucking staged”

Let’s do a detailed breakdown of the above video, shall we?

What seems to be happening is Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia is speaking with a resident on their doorstep. The camera person is standing behind some bushes for some reason, with their focus trained on the resident’s window. In said window there’s a flyer for the Green Party, and the video ends with the resident replacing it with a Labour flyer.

The problem is not everything adds up:

1. For whatever reason, the audio isn’t aligned with the footage. You can tell this because Stogia walks away from the house while the resident is still speaking.
2. The fact that the camera person is stood behind a bush suggests they were recording the scene without the resident’s knowledge.
3. The camera person is focused on the window while Stogia was still speaking to the resident, suggesting they somehow knew what was going to happen with the flyer.

How did they know that the man would immediately replace the Green Party flyer with the Labour once? Unclear. But the simplest explanation is ‘it was staged – they faked that shit‘.

Others had similar suspicions:

I, for one, believe that this is completely authentic, and not at all staged.

Yes, this newly-converted Labour supporter doesn’t appear on camera, but that’s probably just down to shyness, and not because he’s a Labour councillor pretending to be a member of the public. https://t.co/6IcO6iJf4S

— Plutôt la Barbie (@plutotlabarbie) February 23, 2026

Labour’s entire campaign in Gorton and Denton is not “look at what great things we have done”, but instead “don’t vote for the scary Greens”.

🤦 https://t.co/u6hOeDdlka

— Robespierre (YouTube) 📢 (@MaxFRobespierre) February 24, 2026

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If Labour have faked it, it’s another sign Labour are once again copying a Reform MP. As Emily Apple wrote for the Canary in 2019 on then-Conservative Lee Anderson:

Lee Anderson is running in the Tory/Labour marginal seat of Ashfield, in the East Midlands. Labour narrowly won the seat in 2017 by just over 400 votes. But Anderson’s dirty tactics should provide yet another reason why no one in Ashfield should vote for him.

She added:

Michael Crick from Mail Plus caught Anderson redhanded “setting up the apparently spontaneous doorstop encounter beforehand”. The reason Crick could do this? Anderson had seemingly forgotten he was wearing a radio mic!

Absolute scenes as @MichaelLCrick catches a candidate in the act of setting up a “friendly voter” on the doorstep. (Video credit @MailPlus_) pic.twitter.com/azdtVk20eA

— Dino Sofos (@dinosofos) November 25, 2019

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TLDW

For a full 4 hour breakdown of the 10 second clip, be sure to check back in tomorrow.

If you want a TLDW on that – yeah – we also think Labour staged it.

Featured image via The Canary