Henry Langston

Every week in a secret location in Brighton, a group of hunt saboteurs, antifascists, students and other left-wingers spend a few hours teaching each other how to defend themselves at anti-fascist demonstrations or when out sabotaging hunts.

Left Hook is one of the longest running anti-fascist self defense clubs in the UK, taking inspiration from similar initiatives in Germany, Poland, Italy and Greece. Over the past few years other clubs have popped up across the country with similar missions - if you’re going to attend an anti-fascist demonstration, make sure you know how to protect yourself and others if confronted.

Since the Brexit vote in 2016 there has been a dramatic rise in hate crime incidents and far-right terrorism, making the training taking place at Left Hook all the more necessary for those willing to stand against racism.

Practicing a mix of boxing, Muay Thai and MMA techniques, Vice travelled down to Brighton to see the training firsthand and hear from those taking part.

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After six years of the Assad governments campaign of brutal repression, over 200,000 Syrian's remain trapped in the country's notorious prison system. Many are held in silence and face a regime of torture and secret executions. With the international community having failed thus far to pressure Assad to end these detentions it's been left to ordinary Syrians to fight for the release of their loved ones. Families for Freedom is a campaign led by a group Syrian women who are travelling the world to raise awareness for hundreds of thousands detainees and bring justice for those who have been executed. 

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The Football Lads Alliance say they're against all forms of extremism but with old EDL chants like "We want our country back" and their focus on Islamic terrorism some fear they could become the next Islamaphobic street movement.

VICE went into central London to see the FLA reveal their plans for terror suspects and hear from their founder John Meighan

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This year's G20 summit of world leaders was scheduled for the German city of Hamburg, a hub for radical left wing politics centred around the Rote Flora squat and the anti-fascist football club St Pauli. 

The purpose of the G20 meetings is for world leaders to find consensus on a number of pressing global issues especially the economy and but is often criticised as a media stunt where little is achieved and crises remain unsolved. For many left-wing critics, the G20 is seen as one of the biggest symbols of globalised capital so traditionally there have been mass demonstrations that try to shut the summits down. This year was no different, with tens of thousands of protesters from around the world descending on the city, some intent on disrupting the summit as much as possible whereas others planned on targeting the logistics of the city's trade infrastructure. With the city being flooded with police and water cannons, Vice travelled to Hamburg to speak to number of different protesters taking part in what was expected to be one of the biggest anti-capitalist demonstrations in over a decade.

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The UK is the only country in Europe that allows for immigrants to be detained indefinitely and with up to 3,500 immigrants detained at any one time it also has one of the largest detention estates on the continent. The government houses detainees in 11 removal centres across the country, Yarl's Wood, which holds mainly women, is one of the most notorious in the country, with allegations of racism and sexual abuse plaguing its reputation since it opened in 2001. With control over immigration being a central part to why many voted in favour of Brexit there are fears that the UK's already strict immigration policy could harden and centres like Yarl's Wood could expand. 

With that in mind, activists from Movement For Justice By Any Means Necessary organised a mass protest outside the walls of Yarl's Wood in solidarity with the women held inside, demanding the UK government shut the centre down and release all the detainees. We travelled to the Bedfordshire countryside to see the bleak reality of the UK government's immigration policy.

This year’s election pits Emmanuel Macron, a technocrat centrist, against Marine Le Pen, a far-right anti-immigrant candidate, leaving a difficult and frustrating choice for left-wing voters. Many anarchists and anti-fascists who attended this year’s protest are choosing to abstain from voting, embracing the idea of the “ungovernable generation” - rejecting the election and the political status quo entirely.

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Just a week after the Westminster terror attack that left 5 people dead, the far-right protest group Britain First announced a march against terrorism in central London.

Antifascist groups organised a counter demonstration looking to block the march, hoping to stop Britain First from taking advantage of the deadly terror attack. As if one-far right protest wasn't enough, what's left of the EDL also planned to march too. We headed down to Trafalgar Square to see who would come out on top: Britain First, the EDL, the antifascists or the police?

London squatting activists ANAL (Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians) are squatting empty multi-million pound buildings and opening them up to the homeless.

With no clear end in sight to the fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces, we investigated the war’s  traumatic impact on soldiers and civilians. 

In early January members of an anti-government militia occupied the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a remote region of eastern Oregon for over a week, protesting what they claim is an overreaching federal government. 

The protest was sparked by the re-sentencing of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven, to five years in a federal prison for deliberately starting fires on their property that spread to the bordering Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

We traveled to Harney County, Oregon to meet with militia leaders, attend town hall meetings, and speak with local ranchers whom the protesters claim to be representing.

The United States is dealing with a major public health crisis. Over the last decade, heroin-related overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled. The epicenter of this epidemic is New Hampshire, with the highest rate of young adults abusing opioids in the country. The state is also second to last in the nation on spending for substance abuse programs. Unless New Hampshire residents are able to pay thousands of dollars up front for programs, they're on months-long waiting lists to get in, leaving them vulnerable to fatal overdoses.

We spent time in one facility that is readily providing substance abuse treatment — the Berlin State Prison in northern New Hampshire.

At the start of 2015, Mexican national Horacio Hernandez Herrera, allegedly third in command of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, was arrested in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, at the center of a 12 million peso ($255,000) drug bust.

Herrera’s arrest came as Philippine authorities confirmed that not only were Mexico’s cartels vying for a piece of the country’s rapidly growing drugs trade, but forming an alliance with Chinese syndicates to do so.

The Philippines drug of choice? Shabu: A local name for crystal meth, present in over 90 percent of the capital’s neighborhoods.

While shabu’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last decade — partly for its ability to allow the poorest of Filipinos to work longer hours — the drug's grip on Manila has reached crisis point, as unemployment rates remain high and the collusion of gangs with police and local government becomes an every day occurrence.

So, as Herrera awaits trial in the capital, VICE News takes a look at the Philippines drug trade. We visit the Tondo district of Manila, a port area overwhelmed by shabu, to speak to dealers defending their turf and police officers trying to contend with porous borders, stunted judiciary power, and – their most challenging enemy – corruption within their own forces.

As Europe faces a huge refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people flooding into the continent to flee war, poverty, and political oppression, its response has been chaotic. Thousands have died making the perilous boat journeys across the Mediterranean as European governments squabble among themselves on how to deal with the situation. 

At the end of June, France closed its border with Italy to refugees and migrants, trapping hundreds in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia. Money was low by the time most people reached the town, so they had to seek help in two camps — one run by the Red Cross and the other by European activists — for food and shelter while they waited in vain for the border to reopen. 

One year on since the Islamic State (IS) announced a so-called caliphate across swathes of Iraq and Syria, a 60-nation anti-IS coalition meets for a second time in Paris on Tuesday, against the backdrop of recent territorial gains and new reports of atrocities by the group. 

On the eve of the conference, we spoke to UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to discuss the country's contribution to the coalition and the progress in the fight against IS.

Since Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula and the start of conflict in eastern Ukraine in spring 2014, the small Baltic state of Lithuania has been anxiously eyeing Moscow. Some in the capital of Vilnius believe that the country might fall prey to a Ukraine-style military incursion, orchestrated by Russia.

In May, we followed the Lithuanian army during Operation Lightning Strike — a four-day wargames exercise. The drill marked the first nation-wide test of Lithuania’s new 2,500-strong “Rapid Reaction Force,” set up in the wake of the Ukraine crisis to deal with hybrid warfare threats, such as armed protests, airfield and weapons stockpile seizures, and the sudden appearance of “little green men” who seem to take orders from far away.

On the Alto Rio Guamá reserve in Brazil, the Tembe tribe has been battling for decades to save its land from illegal loggers and settlers. As tension escalates, the Tembe people have now been forced to take up arms and confront the loggers, sparking violent clashes deep within the jungle.

With the odds stacked against the tribe, we traveled to the northern Brazilian state of Para to meet the Tembe and witness the tribe’s struggle to protect its land.
 

In the summer of 2014, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious "caliphate" in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic State. With Iraq's army weakened and IS advancing on Baghdad, the country's Iran-backed Shia militias — which have their own history of sectarian abuses — fought back, halting the Islamic State's progress.

The militias have successfully combated Islamic State fighters on the ground with the assistance of air strikes from a US-led military coalition. But their growing influence within Iraq's government amid accusations that they have harmed Sunnis in areas that they control has led many to fear that the militias threaten the country's fragile sectarian and political balance.

We traveled to Iraq at the end of 2014 to witness firsthand how Shia militias are taking the fight to the Islamic State, and to document the fallout of their controversial rise to power.

The residents of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, took advantage of the first day of the Egypt-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday, and began returning to their homes to find what was left after almost four weeks of war.

In Beit Hanoun, however, the grim task of recovering the dead trapped underneath the rubble was underway, with some bodies having lain undiscovered since the start of the conflict. Families were burying their loved ones as bulldozers, helped by an army of locals, were busy trying to uncover more corpses.

As the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire entered it's second and third days last week, the people of Gaza used the lull in fighting to take stock of the destruction, flee the fighting, and demonstrate their defiance. 

Meanwhile, in the towns of Shejaiya and Khuza'a, residents returned to neighborhoods completely devastated by the fighting.

As the ceasefire entered it's last 24 hours, Hamas organized a demonstration in the center of Gaza City. Thousands converged from different mosques across the city, waving Hamas flags as kids with toy guns and grenades rode on their dad's shoulders. 

 

At 8AM on Friday August 8, the first 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to hold expired. Almost immediately, Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel, with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) responding with missile strikes and artillery barrages. Over the next two days, militants in Gaza and the IDF traded fire that once again left civilians caught in the conflict and forced to pay the price for the breakdown of negotiations in Cairo.

On International Workers Day, thousands of Pro-Russian protesters marched through central Donetsk and clashed with police outside the local prosecutors building. The protesters were able to make their way inside the building and force the police to make a hasty and embarrassing retreat. 

With the Ukrainian army struggling to contain the grab for power by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the Donetsk Oblast, armed pro-Ukrainian militias have been quietly taking matters into their own hands.

One of these groups, the Donbas Battalion, has been attacking DPR checkpoints and occupied buildings. After two weeks of careful negotiations they finally agreed for us to visit their clandestine base in what used to be a children's summer camp in the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region before taking us on an operation the next day. 

Only hours after Petro Poroshenko was announced the winner of Ukraine's presidential elections, the worst violence of the two month long crisis in eastern Ukraine exploded at Donetsk' Sergei Prokofiev airport.

Early Monday morning, gunmen of the Donetsk Peoples Republic arrived at the Donetsk international airport and took over the terminal building, prompting the Ukrainian military based there to issue an ultimatum to the rebels to lay down their weapons and leave. A massive firefight broke out which both fighter jets and attack helicopters were used by the Ukrainian military. The sound of gunfire and explosions filled the air as rebels and journalists ducked for cover along the access road to the airport terminal.

The battle lasted most of the day, leaving dozens of separatist fighters dead and the Ukrainians in full control of the airport. 

For three weeks, the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the capital of the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic, has faced a near-constant barrage of deadly shellfire. Hundreds of civilians have been killed as the Ukrainian army slowly encircled Donetsk and pro-Russia forces fought for control of what is strategically the most important city.

With the Ukrainian army having made sweeping gains since late June, the rebels announced a counter offensive to relieve the siege of Donetsk and other cities under their control. On August 25, rebel forces brought over a number of armored vehicles and tanks from the Russian border on the southern coastline. They quickly made a push towards the coastal city of Mariupol, but were stopped at the town of Novoazovsk after a skirmish with Ukrainian troops and volunteer forces. 

As pro-Russian separatists opened up a new front along Ukraine’s southern coast, threatening the city of Mariupol, they also surrounded a mixture of regular Ukrainian army and pro-government militias in the town of Ilovaisk. To the southeast of Donetsk, Ilovaisk had been the scene of heavy fighting that eventually tipped in favor of the separatists. With Ukrainian forces having little choice, they surrendered and were assured they could leave the city through a safe “green corridor.”

However, the separatists seemed to have reneged on the promise of safe passage, and several Ukrainian columns were caught in devastatingly brutal ambushes, leaving hundreds dead and dozens taken prisoner.

On September 5, the Ukrainian government and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) came to a ceasefire agreement after talks were held in Minsk, Belarus. But before the ceasefire went into effect that evening, both sides launched attacks on each other. The DNR assaulted Ukrainian positions in the city of Mariupol, while the Ukrainians attacked DNR checkpoints on the road leading from Mariupol to Donetsk. 

We headed north of Donetsk to the town of Yasynuvata to check on reports that the town had come under fresh artillery fire that left residents living in their basements and without basic amenities. 

After two weeks of shelling, the situation in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Debaltseve has become extremely dire. For 10 days, the civilians in the town have been without water, gas, or electricity in freezing temperatures. The hardship — coupled with the constant shelling — has forced thousands of residents to flee.

On Saturday, the forces of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic took control of the town of Vuhlehirsk, around 10 kilometers east of Debaltseve, giving the separatists a chance to block the only road leading north to Artemivsk, the nearest point of safety.

In this dispatch, we travelled to Debaltseve to meet civilians hoping to evacuate the war-ravaged town and others who have been forced to stay. 

The Russian-backed offensive by the separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) against the Ukrainian military has now entered its third week, and has claimed the lives of at least 341 soldiers and civilians in the region since the start of the year.

While the strategically important town of Debaltseve remains the focus of the DNR's assault, heavy and unrelenting clashes are still taking place in the village of Pisky, located just a few miles west of Donetsk airport.
 

Thousands of foreign nationals have flocked to join the fighting in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began last April. Though both sides have benefited from foreign fighters, many are Russian soldiers who traveled to Ukraine voluntarily or followed orders from their superiors, and most have fought with the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic. Their presence has helped tip the scales of the battle in favor of the separatists.

In Ukraine, some Chechens that never abandoned the struggle against the Russian military back home are now fighting against the separatists, using their battlefield experience to help the Ukrainians defend their homeland. 

One Chechen fighter has a history of confrontation with Russia that stands out from the rest: Adam Osmayev. Educated in a private school in the UK, Osmayev was arrested in Ukraine in 2011 and accused of plotting to assassinate Putin. He managed to avoid being extradited to Russia and was recently released from prison in November. 

It's been five months since the second ceasefire was agreed between the Ukrainian government and the Russian-backed separatists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR). But this truce, much like the first, has not brought an end to the fighting. 

Only a few days after this ceasefire was agreed, the DNR took the strategically important rail town of Debaltseve, trashing any hopes for a lasting ceasefire in the process. Since then, fighting has been constant. Dozens, possibly hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed, and serious efforts to get the peace agreement back on track have failed.

In late June, we traveled back to eastern Ukraine to get a firsthand look at how it's business as usual for soldiers and civilians on both sides of the frontline.

After seeing the realities of the "ceasefire" in eastern Ukraine from the perspective of so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) separatists, we traveled across the defacto border to visit a number of Ukrainian positions near Donetsk international airport. The site was finally seized by DNR fighters in January after months of heavy fighting. 

Along this stretch of the frontline, to the northwest of Donetsk, fighting has been almost continuous throughout two ceasefire agreements, whole villages lie in ruins, and few civilians dare to stay. 

February 2014, Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution against the government of Viktor Yanukovych had reached another stalemate after the violence in late January. But on the 18th, massive and fatal clashes broke out between police and protesters outside the Ukrainian parliament building, the Rada. 

After hours of fierce fighting, the protesters were pushed back onto their last lines of defense in Independence square and just about forced the police back after an attempt to clear the square. Once the dust had settled almost 30 police and protesters had been killed, on a day where firearms were used openly by both sides for the first time. 

We arrived a day later to a city on lockdown and Independence square resembling a dystopian protest nightmare, fires burning, everything covered in black ash and the protesters themselves looked tired and desperate as a fragile truce held throughout the night. 

The next day however set of a chain of events that would leave dozens of protesters dead, Yanukovych fleeing the country and the protesters firmly in control of parliament. This film tracks the last days of the Euromaidan revolution, from the mass killings of protesters by the police on 20th February, to the day Yanukovych fled his private estate, leaving behind a wealth of incriminating documents linking him to fraud, corruption and possibly even attempted murder. 

 

Kiev's Euromaidan protesters began 2014 the same way they ended 2013: by rioting in the streets in an attempt to bring down their government. Key victories have already been won, with Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his cabinet resigning. The demonstrators also forced the annulment of a new anti-protest law that was, ironically, the cause of much of their protesting.

The protesters haven't been contented by this, however, and are still out in the streets, demanding the head of President Viktor Yanukovych and the staging of fresh elections. What began as a protest against the Ukrainian government's close ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has become a focus for wider discontent. However, Yanukovych seems in no mood to relinquish his power. As the social unrest spreads across the country, its first post-Soviet President, Leonid Kravchuk, has gone as far as to warn that Ukraine is on the brink of civil war. 

In 'Free Derry: The IRA Drug War', we investigated how, sixteen years after the Good Friday peace agreement and on the eve of the first major loyalist parade through the city in four years, dissident republican activity in Derry is increasing thanks to the merger of the Real IRA with anti-drugs vigilantes. 

*On this film I worked as a producer and B-cam operator.