Charlie Alford

Sexual assault on sedated partners becoming an organised crime as “truly international” network exposed

Post author:Maddison Wheeldon
Post published:4 July 2026
Post last modified:4 July 2026

Domestic abuse — The National Crime Agency (NCA) has revealed that they have been investigating a “truly international network” of organised sexual abuse and assault in which drugs are used to sedate unwitting victims “often taking place over decades”. Helen Millichap, director of the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, told the Guardian these crimes are: rooted in domestic abuse, controlling and coercive behaviour and sexual offending. Adding that, whilst they are not a ‘new’ offence: the evolving profile reveals how the online and connected nature of the abuse is occurring, the dimensions are changing and therefore…

Erasing Anything Palestinian: A new Amnesty International report

Post author:Charlie Jaay
Post published:17 June 2026
Post last modified:17 June 2026

Amnesty International has published a new investigation. It has accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing against Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank. It claims the occupation’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Area C is “state-sanctioned, state-driven, and state-implemented.” Settler violence — the goal is ethnic cleansing The report is titled Erasing Anything Palestinian: Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities. It documents how entire communities have been driven from their land. This has been carried out through a combination of settler violence, home demolitions, land seizures and settlement expansion. Restrictions on access to water…

International trans health bodies express “deep concern” for NHS ban on HRT for under-18s

Post author:Alex/Rose Cocker
Post published:11 June 2026
Post last modified:11 June 2026

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and its European counterpart (EPATH) have issued a joint statement expressing their “deep concern” regarding NHS plans to suspend hormone prescriptions for trans under-18s in England. On 9 March, NHS England published a draft clinical policy outlining its plan for public consultation. In essence, it proposed that: MAF (masculinising and feminising) Hormones are not recommended to be available as a routine commissioning option through the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service. This represents a sharp break from the current clinical policy, which was itself updated in 2024 in a knee-jerk response to…

The biggest international stars missing from the 2026 World Cup

Post author:Alaa Shamali
Post published:4 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

Although the 2026 World Cup will go down in history as the biggest edition ever, featuring 48 teams and co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the tournament’s expanded format has not been enough to guarantee the presence of all the world’s football stars. Whilst fans prepare to follow an unprecedented edition in terms of the number of teams and matches, qualifiers, injuries and tactical choices have shaped another side of the World Cup: the absence of names that have played a significant part in the game’s landscape in recent years. Whilst the tournament has opened its doors to new…

All to London for the International Anti-War conference

Post author:The Canary
Post published:1 June 2026
Post last modified:9 June 2026

We’re hurtling towards more wars and greater global instability, with the governments of Europe responding with massive rearmament programmes and increasing moves towards conscription. So we urgently need a mass movement for peace to break with the worldview of the likes of Donald Trump and Tony Blair. The International Conference Against War on 20 June in central London will be a unique and historic step to building it. Over 1,700 people from the UK and across Europe have bought tickets so far and, with international speakers, this will be a truly world-wide solidarity conference. Speakers are coming from France, Palestine, Belgium,…