Military-industrial complex players big and small gathered in London this week, hawking everything from long-range missiles to gold-plated pistols to arms fair attendees—including representatives of horrific human rights violators—as weapon-makers and other merchants of the machinery of death reap record profits.

The Tory-led UK government has revealed that it invited eight countries it considers to be human rights abusers to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in London. Accordingly, people have been protesting – making their objections to these death dealers clear.

DSEI: protests continue

The Canary has been covering this year’s DSEI. As we previously reported:

A new report details how a controversial definition of antisemitism is stifling free speech at United Kingdom universities.

The study, which was conducted by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and the European Legal Support Center (ELSC), relies on the analysis of 40 cases between 2017-2022 in which students or staff were accused of antisemitism based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

Unhealthy foods should be taxed by the government in order to shape the decisions of poorer people and reduce the strain on the National Health Service, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said this week.

The opposition to the “nanny state” is small in the UK, Tony Blair surmised, and therefore the government could get away with imposing regressive taxes on so-called junk foods similar to the smoking ban in indoor public spaces imposed when he served as prime minister in 2007.

Joe Howell, 63, lives in Keston in Bromley and runs a waste paper disposal company, MyLondon reports.

Mr Howell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Everything’s now conforming but I'm still against ULEZ. I've had to buy a new van, new lorries. I applied for the scrappage scheme but got turned down. So it cost me a lot of money, about £150,000.”

Sadiq Khan has been branded an "utter hypocrite" after it emerged he plans to fly to New York this weekend with five aides to talk at a climate summit.

It is understood that the Labour London Mayor will use the international platform to celebrate his highly controversial expansion of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) to the whole of London.

A summer resurgence in Covid cases has prompted some GP surgeries to bring back face mask rules for patients — weeks after a new variant was spotted.

One practice in Leicester last week reinstated the guidance, urging people to mask up as a 'precautionary measure' to protect vulnerable patients.

Another in Essex said that an 'increasing number of patients and staff with Covid' had prompted the move. 

This week's major Ukrainian attack on the Russian port of Sevastopol in Crimea was likely the largest strike on Russian naval targets since the war's start.

With this latest provocation, the UK and NATO have all but officially declared war on Russia, although they will deny it’s an act of war.

Ukraine has said it seriously damaged two Russian naval vessels and struck port infrastructure in the Crimean city of Sevastopol early on Wednesday.