Keir Starmer is perhaps the most unpopular prime minister we’ve ever had, and he’s embroiled himself in what may be the most disgusting scandal. Can this loathed public figure survive this self-inflicted catastrophe?

Almost certainly not.

And one person who’s ahead of the curve on this is Zack Polanski:

Important discussion this evening on Palantir.

Keir Starmer having meetings in Washington – and then the US spy tech company receive £260m.

The largest defence contract in British history – through Peter Mandelsons lobbying company. https://t.co/i9lDjfEx22

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) February 4, 2026

Time to go

As we’ve reported, Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson to be ambassador to the US despite knowing he maintained a friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction. The media presented it as some great revelation when Starmer admitted to this in parliament yesterday, but it was never a secret; the media just failed to interrogate Starmer when he returned Mandelson to public office.

We reported on Mandelson maintaining his ties with Epstein way back in 2023.

It wasn’t a secret.

Starmer knew.

The media knew.

This is all just a grim pantomime.

In the clip above, Polanski describes hiring Mandelson as “the most catastrophic lapse in judgement you can imagine”. In our opinion, the “lapse of judgement” is that Starmer thought the media would ignore this obvious scandal forever. It’s not that he hired a notorious sleazeball, because he clearly doesn’t care about that; after all, he’s part of a movement which is entirely comprised of such people:

Peter Mandelson is not some random outlier.

He was one of the founders and central pillars of the New Labour project.

He was a central player in the Starmer project – including as mentor to the chief of staff.

He is the very core of the Labour Right! https://t.co/lypJOfU8hz

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) February 4, 2026

Polanski also said:

I think it’s clear the Prime Minister should do the right thing and step down, because actually the rut runs right throughout the Labour government.

This is a man in Keir Starmer who knew that Peter Mandelson was friends with one of the most known paedophiles in the world, was still staying in his apartment, and he brought him into the heart of government solely because, I imagine, he thought he could whisper in Trump’s ear.

Step down

Polanski is absolutely correct that the “right thing” for Starmer to do would be to “step down”. Given that this is the guy who hired Mandelson, however, there’s no reason to expect him to do the right thing.

Featured image via Zack Polanski

By Willem Moore

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Talks were briefly canceled by the US and then revived by Arab lobbying, after Tehran pushed for Oman to host the meeting and insisted on only discussing the nuclear issue

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Ikinatuwa ng mga estudyante ng De La Salle Unviversity (DLSU) at University of the East (UE) ang kamakailang anunsyo ng administrasyon ng dalawang unibersidad na hindi ito magpapatupad ng pagtataas ng matrikula (tuition and other fee increase o TOFI) para sa akademikong taon na 2026-2027. Ibinunga ito ng walang tigil na kampanya at pagkilos ng mga estudyante, konseho ng mag-aaral at mga progresibong grupo sa dalawang unibersidad laban sa TOFI.

Sa DLSU, upisyal na inianunsyo ng administrasyon ng DLSU ang 0% TOFI sa isang Multi-sectoral Consultative Committee noong Enero 4. Isang araw ito matapos ang inilunsad na walkout ng mga estudyante ng DLSU-Manila sa Taft Avenue sa Maynila na pinangunahan ng mga progresibong grupo at DLSU University Student Government.

Maraming grupo rin sa loob ng DLSU-Manila ang pumirma sa nagkakaisang pahayag laban sa kahit anumang TOFI. Nanindigan kasama nila ang Parents of University Students Organization (PUSO).

Sa huling apat na akademikong taon, walang tigil ang pagpapatupad ng DLSU ng TOFI na lubhang nagpahirap sa mga estudyante. Sa kabila ng mga pagtaas na ito, reklamo ng mga estudyante ang mahinang serbisyo sa kampus, patuloy na pagbabayad ng renta para makagamit ng pasilidad sa uniberisdad, at mababa ang sweldo ng mga guro at empleyado.

Sa UE, inianunsyo mismo ni President Zosimo Battad na walang TOFI. Kasunod ito ng sunud-sunod na pagtaas ng matrikula sa nagdaang tatlong akademikong taon na 9.5% (2023-2024), 6% (2024-2025), at 5% (2025-2026).

Ang 0% TOFI sa unibersidad ay ibinunga ng tuluy-tuloy na pagtutol dito ng mga estudyante at konseho mula ikalawang hati ng 2025. Isinagawa nila pangangalap ng pirma para sa petisyon, mga protesta at dayalogo. Kinilala rin nila ang mga nauna pang estudyante at konseho na naglunsad ng kampanya kontra TOFI sa nakaraan pang mga taon.

Binati ng National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) ang mga konseho ng mag-aaral at estudyante sa pagkapanalo kontra TOFI. “Binibigyang-diin muli namin na ang TOFI ay isang iskema na ginagawang negosyong pagkakitaan ang edukasyon, na nagpapahirap sa mga estudyante at sa kanilang mga pamilya,” pahayag ng grupo.

Dagdag ng grupo, kung walang nakikitang pagbabago sa mga pasilidad, walang dagdag sa sweldo ng mga guro at kawani ng paaralan, at nananatiling kakaunti o halos walang serbisyo at espasyo para sa mga mag-aaral, lalo lamang pinatutunayan na ang TOFI ay para lamang kumita ang paaralan. “[S]a halip na tupdin ang layunin nitong magbigay ng dekalidad na edukasyon,” anito.

“Sa pamamagitan lamang ng militante at mapanlabang pakikibaka natin makakamit ang mga konkretong tagumpay para sa mga mag-aaral at mamamayan,” pahayag ng NUSP. Nanawagan ito sa mga konseho at estudyante na ipagpatuloy ang laban para sa isang tunay na malaya, de-kalidad, at mapagpalayang edukasyon.

The post 0% TOFI sa UE at DLSU, nakamit sa sama-samang pagkilos ng mga estudyante appeared first on PRWC | Philippine Revolution Web Central.

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Hamas denounces the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza which killed 23 in one of deadliest days since the October ceasefire, stating that Netanyahu seeks to derail the truce.

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In a 3 February debate, nationalist and unaligned Northern Ireland Assembly members (MLAs) pilloried the selective education system used on 11 year olds in the region. MLAs described their own experiences of feeling “like a failure” after not passing the test, which determines whether pupils will go on to a selective grammar school via success in the test. Those who get a lower one of the six bands in the Schools’ Entrance Assessment Group (SEAG) exam will typically attend a non-selective school.

Cara Hunter, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA for East Derry, described the stress young children are subjected to. She recalled from her childhood:

…breathing exercises in a circle [and] relaxing music before going to sit the exam.

If schools are deploying on 11 year olds techniques more common to a trauma counselling session, it’s fair to say you’ve failed to produce a humane education system. Danny Baker of Sinn Féin recalled speaking to parents of a child who didn’t leave his room for three days after failing the test.

The politicians made their points during a debate on a motion that called on:

…the Minister of Education to produce a time-bound plan to end academic selection and transfer tests in post-primary admissions and to develop and implement a fair, inclusive and non-selective system of primary education that ensures equality of opportunity for all children…

Northern Ireland unusually focused on tormenting 11 year olds with academic selection

The non-binding motion passed by a margin of 48-30. Voting was split between nationalist and unionist camps, with all ‘no’ votes coming from the latter bloc. No unionist MLA voted for the motion. Nowhere in Britain maintains a system where academic selection features to such an extent. In England, only around 5% of state secondary are grammars. In the North of Ireland, that figure is over 40%. Scotland and Wales have entirely comprehensive (i.e. non-selective) systems.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA David Brooks was the most staunch defender of the current approach. He declared that he “absolutely believes in academic selection”. Describing his own upwards trajectory as a working class pupil who passed the old ’11 plus’ test and went to a grammar school he said:

…a generation of children from working class families – many without an academic tradition at home – have used grammar school as a ladder of opportunity.

This is a little like the fobbing-off exercise deployed by private schools when they grant scholarships to a handful of less affluent students. ‘Ignore all those people drowning,’ they effectively say. ‘Just keep focusing on the few we’ve granted a lifeboat.’

The man at the centre of the debate, education minister and rabid Zionist Paul Givan, said MLAs were failing children by labelling them failures for children not passing the selection process. This dishonestly misrepresented what was actually being said – that children were made to feellike failures by a system that pressured and graded them at such an early stage in life.

Nick Mathison from Alliance criticised the test itself, saying it doesn’t offer any “objective measures of ability”. The current format focuses on evaluating ability in English and Maths, which is indeed a limited spectrum of human capacities. It ignores social, musical, physical and empathic qualities, along with many others, in favour of a narrow definition of what we ought to value.

He also decried the missed opportunity for “deep learning”, saying:

From P5 [around age 9], certainly from P6-7, almost all focus is on exclusively teaching to the SEAG test, an exclusive focus on numeracy and literacy.

Only ending inequality can fix education gap

Baker denounced the pressure the transfer test puts on the “same schools doing all the heavy lifting”. These schools take on a disproportionate number of children with additional support needs and those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, leaving fewer resources to dedicate to teaching. Qualifying for free school meals is a strong indicator of poverty. Around 16% of children at selective schools have this entitlement, against roughly 39% in non-selective ones.

In what was a largely intelligent and civilised debate, only leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the insufferable Jon Burrows, sought to inject inanity into proceedings. He made a nonsensical point about selection providing choice, and followed up with a smear on how this preference would be “ideologically inconsistent” for Sinn Féin MLAs to back, given their apparent support for Marxism.

A) A society drawing on the best of Marx’s thought would likely be considerably more democratic and choice-rich than our current system of fake free markets; and B) It’ll be a fine day when the targets of his ire are even one quarter as Marxist as his fevered imaginings.

His unionist fellows Brooks and Givan did make one valid point – the observation that no school system, be it selective or otherwise, can ever be truly free from existing inequalities. Affluent parents will always have the option of buying tuition for their children, or moving house to within the catchment area of the best schools.

Like so many societal ills, the underlying cause is an economic system – capitalism – that distributes resources so unequally and gives some children unfair advantages from the moment of birth. The true solution is to fix this shoddy foundation which everything else is built upon.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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Some of the largest banks in the nation for years have eschewed the business of private prison giants like GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two firms that operate more than half the private carceral facilities in the country, including many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.

The moves to “debank” the companies, which have been dogged by reports of rights abuses, came after the banks’ reviews of their environmental, social, and governance policies, which included site visits and meeting with civil rights leaders. According to a nonprofit report, the moves by banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, cost the prison companies billions in potential financing.

“Private prisons profit purely from locking people up, but the market is not immune to public accountability.”

Now, the private prison firms are fighting back, spending millions on lobbying Congress to pass a law to require that the banks can’t deny their business.

The two prison giants spent millions lobbying for legislation known as the Fair Access to Banking Act, a pending bill that seeks to prevent banks from denying access to institutions or people including those involved in “politically unpopular businesses but that are lawful under Federal law.” A press release marking the bill’s introduction last year said, “The legislation requires that lending and services decisions must be based on impartial, risk-based analysis, not political or reputational favoritism.”

Civil liberties advocates have criticized the legislation.

“Private prisons profit purely from locking people up, but the market is not immune to public accountability,” said Eunice H. Cho, a senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project who has represented immigration detainees housed in privately operated ICE facilities. “Consumer advocacy is a very important part of the democratic process, including economic boycott and protest against corporations. Banks are sensitive to understanding the risks of doing business with harmful industries.”

“We value the relationships we have with our financial partners,” Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said in a statement. “We also believe all lawful businesses should be treated fairly under the banking system.”

GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment.

Millions in Lobbying

Last year, GEO Group spent $3.3 million in lobbying various departments and agencies of the federal government, of which $1.37 million was spent in lobbying the House and the Senate on issues that included the Fair Access to Banking Act, according to federal lobbying disclosures.

Meanwhile, in 2025, CoreCivic spent $3.5 million total on lobbying, of which $2 million went toward pushing for the legislation, according to the disclosures.

Despite hiring high-profile D.C. firms for their lobbying activities, both prison companies utilized their in-house government relations experts when it came to advocating for the banking legislation, which is moving through the Senate and the House.

In its fourth-quarter lobbying report, GEO Group mentions “S. 401 and H.R. 987, Fair Access to Banking Act; Issues related to the availability of banking services for federal contractors” as one of its lobbying issues. CoreCivic’s lobbying issues in the same quarter also mentioned “Issues pertaining to financial industry practices; H.R. 987/S. 401 – Fair Access to Banking Act.”

[

Related

Private Prison CEO on ICE Contracts: We’re a Better Deal Than El Salvador’s CECOT](https://theintercept.com/2025/05/08/ice-private-prison-profits-corecivic-geo-group/)

GEO Group and CoreCivic have long faced criticisms and lawsuits from rights groups for poor prison conditions, undermining medical needs of detainees, and not doing enough to prevent deaths in their facilities.

In December and January alone, for instance, five of the 11 people who died in ICE custody were housed in detention centers owned and operated by one of the firms, ICE’s press statements show. At least four people died while detained in a GEO Group facility, and one other individual died while detained in a CoreCivic center.

In 2019, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, BNP Paribas, Fifth Third Bancorp, PNC Bank, and Bank of America said that they would no longer provide any new financing to the private prison industry. At the time, the banks reportedly constituted more than 70 percent of the total financing available to the two companies, with many of them having loaned money to either one or both firms.

Many of these Wall Street banks took similar action against gun manufacturers, oil and gas companies, and porn sites, among other industries, in what came to be known as debanking.

The impact was considerable. CoreCivic reportedly had to scramble for finances abroad.

If the new legislation passes, however, the two companies will have access to fresh lines of credit that could help them build new facilities at a faster pace and cash in on a higher demand for ICE detention facilities.

[

Related

Deportation, Inc.](https://theintercept.com/2025/12/19/deportation-abrego-garcia-ice-immigration/)

Last July, the federal government approved funding of $45 billion to build new immigration detention centers as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

In its third-quarter earnings report, GEO Group said it had secured four ICE contracts for four new ICE detention facilities totaling about 6,000 beds. CoreCivic also reported receiving contracts for four facilities with over 7,000 beds. Financial statements suggest that the new contracts have boosted the revenue figures of both the companies, who rely heavily on federal contracts to support their bottom lines.

An Ally in Trump

The concerted effort put into lobbying by GEO and CoreCivic has already reaped some success.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last August that empowered federal banking regulators, such as the Small Business Administration, to monitor financial institutions that denied services to clients based on “politicized or unlawful debanking action.” Last month, Trump announced he would sue JPMorgan Chase for debanking him over the January 6 riots.

In December, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published a report that scrutinized nine banks and listed private prisons as being among the sectors affected by debanking. The bureau said that it intends to “hold these banks accountable for any unlawful debanking activities, including by making referrals to the Attorney General.”

In June, even before Trump’s order, Bank of America, which had cut ties with private prisons, reinstated CoreCivic as its client, according to Semafor. A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said the bank hasn’t changed its policy of freezing out private prisons. Meanwhile, most other banks have been quiet about whether they will change course on financing private prisons. (None of the banks responded to The Intercept’s requests for comment.)

If the Fair Access to Banking Act passes Congress, the banks may not have a choice.

“It has been the worst year for immigration detainees in decades,” said Cho, the ACLU lawyer. “Private prisons have an astronomical amount of funds available to them, and it’s unsurprising they are also looking to protect ways to expand those funds with extra lines of credits available. But for detainees, this can have serious implications.”

The post ICE’s Private Prison Contractors Spent Millions Lobbying to Force Banks to Give Them Loans appeared first on The Intercept.

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Over 40 years after the initial release of "The Media Monopoly", the media landscape has transformed drastically.

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The late Jeffrey Epstein was the subject of news for many years before his 2019 death and is still a newsmaker today owing to his years long relation with Donald Trump.

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US President Donald Trump introduced a reconstruction plan for Gaza last year as part of his so-called peace proposal.

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Zarah Sultana has thrown her support behind the Green Party’s Gorton and Denton candidate, Hannah Spencer. In doing so, she’s demonstrated exactly how solidarity on the left should work. In a statement, Sultana said:

The candidate list is now published and it is clear that Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and trade unionist, is the strongest challenger to Labour and Reform. ​ I am, therefore, giving my personal critical support to her and the Green Party in this by-election, and I urge others to do the same.

I have always been clear that the left is strongest when it is united. ​ Our real opponents are not one another. ​ They are Reform and the far-right.

However, Sultana’s comments are unfortunately at odds with a statement from the Grassroots Left slate for Your Party – who she backs.

Zarah Sultana at odds with the Grassroots Left

Your Party (YP) had already issued a statement outlining that after deliberation with local members, it had decided that a YP candidacy would not serve their ‘collective goals’ of defeating Reform. But, the Grassroots Left (GL) slate subsequently stated that:

Grassroots Left will not lend unconditional support to the Green Party candidate, because the Greens are a pro-capitalist, pro-Nato party and have been enforcing cuts in councils all over the country.

Many people from across the leftist spectrum have, rightly, been pointing out this is an immature and short-sighted approach in the face of rising fascism.

Zarah Sultana’s statement came after the GL left one, and is interesting for outlining exactly why, on that statement, GL got it wrong:

My statement on the Gorton & Denton by-election: pic.twitter.com/HSrgDf70h2

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) February 3, 2026

In particular, it’s worth looking at one passage from Sultana:

As a young Muslim woman, I understand viscerally what it would mean for the far-right to gain power in this country. This is not an abstract debate for me, nor the millions of people across the country whose safety would be directly affected.

Ultimately, this is what the Gorton and Denton by-election has turned into: a testing ground that is an opportunity for the Green party to show that people are coming together to reject the fascism of Reform. And, Sultana’s comments show exactly what happens when a socialist who has lived experience of racism can do when understanding the very real cost of parties like Reform. This isn’t an abstract political debate for many people in this country.

It is a reality that has material consequences. In choosing to focus on other policy issues, rather than the much more immediate threat of Reform, GL have shown naive judgement that is disappointing to see.

No more ‘whip’: Pluralism strengthens movements – it doesn’t weaken them

However, this rather public disagreement is not a dramatic sign of a ‘rift.’ Instead, it is another sign that Sultana is well practiced at productive disagreements that make the movement stronger. Unity does not require uniformity. Leftists are not required to agree on every single point. Instead, we must be able to unite when necessary to resist racism and fascism.

In what many onlookers will probably view with understandable frustration, a heated battle of the factions will soon be underway with the Central Executive Elections (CEC) of Your Party due to take place on the 26th February. Apparent differences in mission have driven a divergence among members, signaling an existential moment for the movement. Namely, Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed the For the Many slate, while Sultana has endorsed the Grassroots Left slate.

Unity does not mean compliance

It is worth noting, the GL statement has faced pushback from within the group itself, with some members expressing dissatisfaction with the tone it adopted.

Chloe Walker, CEC Northwest candidate standing on the Grassroots Left slate shared her views on the difference in views amongst members in the community-grounded movement. She told the Canary:

Personally as I’ve stated previously, I think that the most prevalent sentiment amongst local members is correct – it would have been nice to back a candidate, Tony Wilson, but the party’s not in a place to be able to fight a campaign like this at present, because of how slow and disempowering the founding process has been. I don’t think we should be going out of our way to criticise the Greens or their candidate in this instance – she’s a strong candidate in any case and I’d obviously rather see them than Labour or Reform win here. But we don’t have to come out and back the Greens to the hilt, either. Individual YP members might choose to help out with their campaign, and that’s their prerogative. But we shouldn’t use party infrastructure to support them; we have to retain some independence while we try to carve out a political identity that is visibly distinct from that of GPEW. Our intervention should be limited to criticising the Labour and Reform candidates, if we feel inclined to make any statement on an election we’re not involved with.

Walker added:

specific views towards this by-election do vary amongst GL candidates, reflecting our commitment to a pluralistic and open party where members have the autonomy and mutual respect to disagree while still remaining committed to broader shared political goals.

Ashley Walker, a Grassroots Left member from Stockport also stated:

Despite what some people think the Grassroots Left does not belong to any one person alone, it belongs to every member of every group who is a part of it. And if we win this election the CEC we form, and the party it will help build, will belong not to us but to every member of this party. Because without true democracy there will never be socialism.

No more top-down control: Left unity in action

We published a piece on Monday on Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq’s plea to factions on the left to unite against the billionaire-funded fascist threats facing all of us. Alnaouq pleaded:

My friends, fascism is not at the doorsteps in the UK. It is here. And unless we join forces with each other, unless we hold hands, we will not be able to defeat it. And we don’t have the luxury for trial and waiting. We do not have time. We have to act. My friends, we have the numbers. We have the resources. We have the support of the people. What we don’t have is organisation. We need to learn how to work with each other in order to defeat fascism, in order to defeat far-right, in order to defeat Zionism. And we must never shy away from calling ourselves anti-Zionists because we are anti-Zionists.

Sultana has shown that unity does not require spoon-feeding members the statements they are permitted to make. Grassroots Left has demonstrated that it will not submit to control by powerful figures and will instead maintain autonomy over its messaging. They have also worked collaboratively and supportively with independent candidates to advance a shared mission for a transparent, democratic, and accountable political party.

While work remains to build robust democratic processes that ensure such statements genuinely reflect the will of its membership, a powerful movement is clearly emerging: one that challenges the dominance of privileged public figures and meaningfully empowers its members.

Featured image via the Canary

By Maddison Wheeldon

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The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says Israeli officials canceled coordination for evacuating the third batch of patients and injured people from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing.

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A law professor recaps ICE and DHS violations of the Constitution in Minnesota alone and their import in reversing Federal oversight.

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Did the success of former Nazi officers in landing key positions in NATO help explain NATO's Russia hostility even after the USSR fell?

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The Israeli regime’s “recognition” of Somaliland is a case study in digital manipulation, political desperation, and the cynical weaponization of sovereignty claims — complete with fake TikTok videos, manufactured news cycles, and the ever-present shadow of Palestinian displacement.

In December, posters started appearing across Hargeisa, Somaliland, promising that a “big announcement” related to the recognition of Somaliland was imminent. 

Many assumed that this was related to the United States administration, especially since Texas Senator Ted Cruz had written to President Trump in August 2025 that granting recognition would be to the “greatest benefit to American national security interests”. In June 2025, another Republican Senator, AIPAC beneficiary Scott Perry, had introduced the Republic of Somaliland Independence Act, which proposed for the US to adopt as official policy “that all territorial claims by the Federal Republic of Somalia over the area known as Somaliland are invalid and without merit”.

Instead, on 26 December, the morning of Jumu’ah, the leader of the breakaway Muslim region posted the most humiliating of announcements: a post on X accompanied by video footage of a FaceTime call with international fugitive and murderous war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Was this what the people had waited for?

In the age of instant news, videos of Israeli flag wavers in Hargeisa saturated TikTok, the most popular platform with the younger generation in Somaliland, and quickly became viral, not least with horrified diaspora communities abroad. TikTok was recently acquired by Larry Ellison, the US billionaire and largest ever donor to the Friends of the IDF “charity”. Ellison once offered Benjamin Netanyahu, one of his “closest friends”, a directorship of his Oracle company, which he stated is on a “mission to support the State of Israel”. Last July, TikTok hired Erica Mindel, a former IDF soldier, as Public Policy Manager of Hate Speech. When the fugitive Netanyahu met with pro-Israeli social media influencers in the US in September, he stated that the forced takeover of TikTok was “the most important purchase going on right now”. Hargeisa, then, was the Israeli government’s mission to “reclaim the narrative” in action.

The dangers of AI were also on display, with reality quickly blending with falsehood. Local imams began to refute fake videos circulating of themselves wrapped in blue-and-white flags upon minbars, and an outlandish story of the world’s first “marriage” between an Israeli man and Somali woman was locally confirmed to be a fabrication — the husband was actually a British Muslim.

Initially, there was a widespread optimism that other countries would follow the lead of the Zionist settler colony. On the ground, after decades of having their aspirations to statehood ignored by neighbouring Arab and African countries, there was a feeling that the Israeli state, however criminal or morally abhorrent, had an influence on the global stage that would be impossible to ignore. However, these sentiments almost immediately collided with an increasingly multipolar geopolitical reality, as 21 Muslim-majority nations came together to condemn the Israeli regime’s “recognition”, affirm their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia as a whole, and reject “any potential link between such measure[s] and any attempts to forcibly expel the Palestinian people out of their land.”

Despite the resounding statement, rumours of further recognition announcements persisted in January. The majority of these stories were misinformation driven by Israeli accounts, particularly on Elon Musk’s X, purchased in 2022 with Larry Ellison’s financial assistance.

Take, for example, Niv Calderon, who studied at Tel Aviv University and, according to his LinkedIn profile, spends his time “Building Playbooks for Partnerships, Growth & US Market Entry”. On 5 January, Calderon tweeted to his almost 19,000 followers: “#BREAKING 5 countries will recognize Somaliland tomorrow.” The post was viewed 276,000 times, and the “news” spread rapidly in Hargeisa. I searched online and spoke to friends in the city, but one thing was consistent. Every single report had a single source: Niv Calderon. The “story” was a fabrication.

The Somaliland government has been desperate to burnish their pro-Western credentials in recent weeks — even issuing an official statement in support of the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at the beginning of January. But what began as a declaration of independence has turned into humiliation. 

The day after Calderon’s fake announcement, I was sitting in a café within walking distance of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs when I heard that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had landed in Hargeisa on a privately-owned Romanian jet. At first, grainy videos of heavily secured convoys were all I could find, but by the evening, official footage of a press conference had been released. Somaliland President Irro presented Sa’ar with a “ceremonial gift” and promised to visit the settler state. In return, Sa’ar, deliberately glancing at Irro as he gestured with air quotes, told the cameras: “Unlike Palestine – ‘Palestine’ – Somaliland is not a virtual state.”

For the Zionist regime, it is always about the Palestinians. In March 2025, US and Israeli officials briefed the Associated Press on proposals for a “mass transfer” of Palestinians from Gaza, with Somaliland specified as one of their targets for resettlement. The Somaliland government has always denied that any such agreement exists, as well as dismissing widespread claims that Israel will be allowed to establish a military base at the key Red Sea port of Berbera, overlooking the Bab al-Mandib. But the alternative story — that the child-killer Netanyahu has recognized Somaliland out of the kindness of his heart — is far less believable. 

Jody McIntyre is an independent journalist and political analyst. His investigations can also be found at jodymcintyre.substack.com.

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How large is the exposure of gender transition doctors who were quick to provide treatments to teens? A $2 million award says pretty big.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it believes the US and Russia are no longer bound by the New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two powers. “In the current circumstances, we assume that the Parties to the New START are no longer bound by any obligations or […]

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The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) legal advocacy group files a complaint in a United States court seeking a criminal investigation into an Israeli-American trooper’s war crimes.

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A majority of voters believe that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be impeached, new polling finds as backlash to her unconstitutional raids of U.S. communities grows. Data for Progress finds that 52 percent of likely voters say that Noem should be impeached for her handling of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.

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‘ICE’ is the acronym for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Despite their remit, ICE agents have been running amok in the US, which has resulted in the killings of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Other killings behind the scenes have also come to light, with eight people who died under ICE detention. But there’s some hope. A video has recently surfaced of a MAGA supporter assaulting a teen protester, only for the Zoomers to give him a kick-in he won’t quickly forget.

much better angle and footage of the MAGA adult attacking a teen girl before her friends and other student defend her https://t.co/T9DO7DaQeU

— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) February 3, 2026

Middle-aged MAGA gets humiliated by zoomers

At the beginning of the video, we see the middle-aged man lunge at a teenage girl. Eyewitnesses report that he did so with no provocation.

As you can see, the man removes his precious MAGA hat before pushing the young girl down an embankment. Next, she loses balance, and the man throws himself on top of her.

But it doesn’t appear he was ready for what happened next.

Zoomers swarm the man, as he swings at another young girl coming in to save her friend. He loses his balance and the kids dive on him, overwhelming him instantly.

Dragging him away from the girl, the teens completely overpower him and beat the shit out of him. The man makes several attempts to break free, but the kids won’t let him go.

Finally, seeing a break in the crowd, the man quickly runs to the safety of his SUV (i.e. his ‘over-compensation wagon’), with the teens following, making sure the little rat is back in his hole.

It must be embarrassing, assaulting a young girl and then getting your arse handed to you.

This isn’t the first instance of the kids taking a stance against ICE and MAGA either:

Students walked out of school at Burnsville High School in Minnesota to protest Trump’s ICE gestapo terrorizing their community….the kids are alright !

"NO MORE ICE! NO MORE ICE!"pic.twitter.com/dHcc0XgFdB

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 9, 2025

Across the US, children & teens, stepped into the streets to confront the regime and ICE. In places, they were so young they required police escorts; in others, they stood their ground as MAGA extremists attempted to intimidate them.#3E #GoodVsEvil #NationalStrike #ICEOut pic.twitter.com/vEfpKxS0lE

— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) January 31, 2026

The kids are (al)right

The Tories and Reform are talking about bringing ICE-type forces to the UK. In a time when politicians weaponise immigration to win votes, young people are taking a stand against the narrative and resisting this state-sponsored cruelty.

Featured image via X

By Antifabot

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

Reading by Tim Foley:

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Political maturity is finally admitting to yourself that the angriest, most disconcerting communist you’ve ever met was pretty much right about everything.

If you learn enough, stay humble enough, and pay close enough attention, eventually that’s what happens. You realize that, generally speaking, the really high-octane commies have the most lucid understanding of the world out of any group out there, and the only reason this wasn’t always obvious to you was because you live under a capitalist power structure which aggressively indoctrinates its populace from birth into believing that communism is No No Bad Bad.

They have the most lucid and correct understanding of capitalism. They have the most lucid and correct understanding of imperialist extraction. They have the most lucid and correct understanding of western warmongering, global power dynamics, white supremacy, institutional racism and misogyny. That’s why they keep being proven right, about everything from US military actions to the fascism of the far right to the abusive nature of the so-called “moderate” liberal to the moral depravity of billionaires and the capitalist class.

It’s still an open question how best to give rise to their vision for the world, because it would be a world that has never existed before, and because all their efforts to build that world have consistently been aggressively assaulted and sabotaged by the capitalist empire. But no group’s criticisms of the current status quo world order are more incisive and accurate than theirs.

If you’ve spent your life moving in sufficiently diverse and interesting circles, you’ve encountered outspoken Marxists in the past. What they said may have made you uncomfortable at the time, either because you were still too indoctrinated into the worldview of the capitalist empire or because you were still too interested in youthful frivolity to grapple with the serious subjects they were discussing. And eventually you realize that the discomfort you were experiencing is called cognitive dissonance, which is what being wrong feels like.

Maybe you got annoyed because they took their politics way too seriously and made it their whole thing, constantly pointing out the injustices and abuses in whatever subject came up when you were just trying to relax and enjoy life. And eventually you realize that the only reason you were able to just drift along without thinking about politics too much was because your worldview was sufficiently aligned with the political status quo to keep you from noticing all the exploitation, oppression, injustice and propaganda which pervades every aspect of our society. You didn’t notice it because it didn’t clash with your understanding of the world at the time.

If you keep your mind open, keep learning about the world, stay humble enough to see your errors and course-correct accordingly, you eventually see through all those distortions and understand that you had the commies all wrong.

There are still individual communists who get things wrong of course, and like most people in this psychologically disordered world a lot of them are emotional train wrecks who still need to do a lot of inner healing. But there’s no group which perceives the abusive dynamics of this civilization with a greater degree of intellectual clarity as a whole.

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From Caitlin’s Newsletter via This RSS Feed.

Lewiston, Maine, Jan. 24, 2026. By Luis Lopez Portland, Maine — Here in the state of Maine we have winter snow storms every year. What we have now in addition is ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You say ICE. I say a paramilitary organization created by the federal government . . .

Continue reading Commentary: ICE terror in Maine at Workers.org

From Workers World via This RSS Feed.

Since the ‘suicide’ in prison of serial child-rapist and Israeli spy Jeffrey Epstein, theories about his ‘death’ have split into two main camps.

One assumes, based on the state editing of CCTV video of the area around his cell on the night in question, that Epstein was murdered so he can be silenced. Another, that Epstein isn’t dead, but was instead spirited away. The latest release of Epstein files by the US justice department contains information that appears to support the latter.

Before Epstein’s death had been officially reported, an anonymous post appeared on conspiracy site 4Chan on 10 August 2019 from a user who claimed to be a security guard at the prison. The post claimed that Epstein had been “switched out”:

Not saying anything after this pls do not try to dox me but last night after 0415 count they took him medical in a wheelchair front cuffed but not 1 triage nurse says they spoke to him. ​ Next thing we know a trip van shows up? ​ We do not do releases on the weekends unless a judge orders it. ​ Next thing we know, he’s put in a single man cell and hangs himself? ​ Heres [sic] the thing, the trip van did NOT sign in and we did not record the plate number and a guy in a green dress military outfit was in the back of the van according to the tower guy who let him thru the gate. You guys i am shaking right now but i think they switched him out.

Images released of ‘Epstein’ also appear to suggest discrepancies in key facial features between the dead body and Epstein photographed while alive:

Another post on the same message board, also before the announcement of Epstein’s death, gives details of treatment supposedly administered:

This has long been dismissed as mere ‘conspiracy theory’. However, the latest Epstein file release includes information that appears to confirm that prison guard Roberto Grijalva was the person who sent the message to the board before Epstein’s death.

Epstein prison whistle blower named

A day after Epstein’s death, US Attorney Geoffrey Berman of New York’s southern district opened a Grand Jury proceeding. As part of the proceeding, Berman subpoenaed a number of companies — including 4Chan and Citibank — for its user records. The aim of the subpoena was to uncover the identity behind the anonymous post.

The latest release includes bank documents provided by 4Chan in response. In these records, the name of on the response on the user name has been redacted. However, the name on the associated records showing the bank account holder was not removed: Roberto Grijalva.

The idea that a serial child-rapist may still be alive and given refuge in Israel is anything but far-fetched, even if Epstein’s status as an Israeli spy is set aside. Although stubbornly ignored by UK state-corporate media, the Israeli regime is currently ignoring well over 2,000 extradition requests for alleged and convicted paedophiles. In April 2025 Shoshana Strook, the daughter of Israel’s far-right settlements minister fled to police and asked them to protect her, accusing both her parents and one of her brothers of raping her as a child, over a period of years, and filming the rapes.

Israeli psychotherapist and trauma expert Dr Anat Gur, head of the Bar-Ilan University trauma therapy program, has said that she believes organised child rape in Israel is widespread:

Organized child rape is one of the most horrific things I’ve encountered. It’s likely much more widespread than we think. It’s happening in places we least expect.

The latest document release already put beyond reasonable doubt the fact that Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset. This includes mention of his training as a spy under former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, allegedly one of Epstein’s most brutal rapists.

Now, it also validates the 10 August 2019 4Chan post as a legitimate eyewitness account written by a prison officer working on the night of Epstein’s ‘death’. A witness who says he was removed, without the usual official records. One who believes Epstein was “switched out” and was reporting it immediately, along with the supposed means of suicide, before news of it was in the public domain.

Featured image provided via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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Border Patrol agents surrounded by protesters in Minneapolis

I get leaks bigger media don’t because I’m not slowed down by corporate bureaucracy. But because of that, I don’t have corporate money - I just have readers like you. Please become a paid subscriber so I can keep doing this work

Border czar Tom Homan’s announcement today that 700 federal agents will be withdrawn from Minnesota— a third of those deployed—may come just in time to avert a showdown.

According to a homeland security munitions inventory leaked to me, by mid-January, the feds had amassed some 35,000 weapons in Minneapolis. The inventory lists over a dozen different types of “crowd control” munitions, things like tear gas, stun grenades and pepper spray. These weapons are intended for protesters, not to facilitate immigration enforcement.

Leaked CBP munitions inventory

“Fucking overkill,” a homeland security official said of the inventory. “I’ve never seen this amount of shit being used.”

President Trump as recently as Sunday was hinting at an imminent showdown between federal law enforcement and protesters. “I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in … protection of Federal Government Property,” he said in a post to Truth Social, labeling ICE opponents “Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists.”

Trump warned protesters if they continued to harass or “attack” federal officers, “those people will suffer an equal, or more, consequence.”

But jumping to Homan’s announced withdrawal today, I can’t think of a more obvious reversal from an administration famous for never backing down—or of a more obvious victory of public will embodied by the massive backlash to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Homan announced during his press conference that “we will draw down 700 people effective today” from Minnesota; that homeland security would create a single chain of command; that “moving forward, ICE will be conducting targeted immigration enforcement operations”; and finally, that all federal agents in Minneapolis will now be wearing body cameras.

The announcement formalized changes in federal tactics already observed in recent days.

Last week, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported seeing “fewer large caravans of federal agent vehicles, fewer agents on foot questioning or arresting pedestrians they come across, and fewer confrontations with protesters.”

Even Trump has sought to distance himself from the previous Minneapolis commander, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, saying that “he’s a pretty out there kind of guy,” and adding: “maybe it wasn’t good here.”

Both Trump and Homan have struck a rare note of contrition in response to Pretti’s death, with Trump saying “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis; and Homan remarking today: “I and the President expect that any misconduct will not be tolerated and will be and be swiftly addressed.”

The withdrawal of a third of the federal agents rushed to Minneapolis under Operation Metro Surge represents a stunning reversal from just last week, when the government reported stockpiling weapons for the coming war with the public, according to a detailed inventory of munitions leaked to me.

The list, titled “CBP Table of Munitions Used in Operation Metro Surge,” reveals that there are 35,765 total munitions “on-site,” including a detailed list of “crowd-control” munitions.

The list, produced by Border Patrol’s parent agency Custom and Border Protections, shows that the majority of weapons shipped to Minneapolis (and which arrived two weeks ago) are intended to battle protesters.

For now, 2,000 federal agents remain in Minneapolis, and I’ll watch whether the munition inventory diminishes, or when the feds decide to withdraw their anti-protestor arsenal. (Please become a paid subscriber to help me keep an eye on all of this (or chip in via my GoFundMe!) But today represents the first reversal of the federal buildup at any point since Trump’s inauguration last year, as far as I can tell.

Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan, as the saying goes. Politicians are going to try to take credit for the drawdown, no doubt with an assist from a beltway news media that sees Washington as the protagonist of the country. But let the record show: this was a victory of public will.

Subscribe if you think the thousands of Minnesotans protesting in the freezing cold deserve more credit than Congress does

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— Edited by William M. Arkin

From Ken Klippenstein via This RSS Feed.

The following press release was posted Feb. 3, 2026, on Hamas Online English Mirror. A Global Call for Protests and Pressure Campaigns Against the Continued Aggression and Genocide Targeting Our Palestinian People in the Gaza Strip In light of the fascist occupation government’s continued brutal aggression against our Palestinian people . . .

Continue reading Hamas calls for new global actions against ongoing genocide at Workers.org

From Workers World via This RSS Feed.

Rachel Cohen first made headlines last year when she left her job at the high-powered law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, after organizing more than 600 of her fellow lawyers to sign an open letter condemning Donald Trump’s threats to the legal profession. Since then, she’s continued to call out the administration’s actions both on the ground and online. From her account @cohen.489, Cohen posts about her work community organizing and protesting ICE in Chicago, as well as the news. She recently went viral for a video where she confronted Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino at a convenience store.

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