Beginning on 23 April, around 1,000 school workers across Sheffield began to receive equal pay settlements from the city council.

The payouts follow a sustained campaign from unions GMB, Unite and Unison. They recognise years of systematically underpaid work in roles which have historically been dominated by women.

The unions first highlighted the injustice to the council back in September 2023. The council then announced that it had reached a landmark agreement on pay redress in September 2025. At the time, it stated that:

The agreement will see more than 3,600 employees in the Council in around 260 roles receive a redress payment to address the historical equal pay issues. The total offers to these employees are estimated to cost around £36m. The payments to eligible employees will be funded by reserves.

The Sheffield Role Review Programme

However, on 28 April 2026, Sheffield Council told local news outlet The Star that it’s carrying out the repayment work in stages. As such, it’s currently contacting only the staff in community-maintained schools.

As such, around 1,000 workers across 38 schools recieved their repayment offers on 23 and 24 April. The council stated that the number of recipients is lower than last year’s estimate because:

Schools that have not yet completed the data assurance process or have recently converted to an academy will be included later this year, once that work is finalised.

Community-maintained schools are being treated separately from other council services, because the process needed to be tailored to work for schools.

All of the institutions fell under the remit of the Sheffield Role Review Programme, which examined payment levels in jobs with a historic majority of women staff members.

The affected jobs include teaching assistants and office workers, but not teachers themselves. Likewise, the programme reviewed all roles in the schools, regardless of whether the unions submitted a claim relating to them.

George Ayre, Unison’s organiser for the region, said:

This will affect a significant number of low-paid support staff at community schools.

It’s the result of a lengthy negotiation process to help workers who’ve experienced pay inequality.

The union will continue to deal with pay injustice wherever it occurs.

‘A real and tangible difference’

The payments will be backdated to 2018, and are set to include pension top-ups. As such, some employees could be looking at five-figure offers, in redress for 8 years of underpayment.

All being well, the money should be with the workers — 90% of whom are women — by the summer. However, the money will still be subject to national insurance and tax contributions.

GMB characterised the milestone as a “significant moment in the ongoing process” of righting historic inequalities under the council. Peter Davies, head of the union’s Regional Equal Pay Unit, said:

This week marks a powerful moment for working people in Sheffield.

For many of these workers, this money will make a real and tangible difference to their lives.

This progress reflects the collective work between GMB and Sheffield City Council to address historic inequalities.

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We need to ensure that pay injustice is never again something council employees in Sheffield are forced to experience.

The process of redressing the sexist pay imbalance will be a long one, and the unions will need to be vigilant that all of the workers receive their payments in full.

However, and for now, the first wave of offers marks the culmination of years of negotiation, and a significant victory for the workers and their hard-working representatives.

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By Alex/Rose Cocker

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Criticism within European football circles of FIFA has intensified after the president of the Norwegian Football Association, Liz Klavenes, called for the cancellation of the ‘Peace Prize’ introduced by FIFA, which was awarded to US President Donald Trump, arguing that the move constitutes a clear breach of the principle of political neutrality.

Klavénes, who also sits on the Executive Committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), confirmed that she would raise this issue during the FIFA Congress, stressing the need for world football’s governing body to maintain a “distance” from political leaders.

FIFA ethics complaint and mounting pressure

In a notable escalation, Klavenis announced her support for an ethics complaint filed against FIFA President Gianni Infantino, over his role in awarding the trophy, amid accusations of breaching neutrality rules.

According to The Athletic, the complaint — filed by the human rights organisation Fair Square — alleges that Infantino politically promoted a public figure whilst in office, as well as awarding a politically charged prize without a clear institutional process and bypassing official structures within FIFA, including the Congress.

These findings suggest a possible breach of FIFA’s Code of Ethics, which requires its officials to maintain complete neutrality regarding political matters.

In November, FIFA announced the creation of a “Peace Prize” with the aim — according to its statement — of “honouring individuals who have performed exceptional acts to promote peace and unite peoples around the world”, without obtaining prior approval from the FIFA Council.

On 6 December, during the World Cup draw ceremony held in Washington DC, Infantino presented the award to Trump, in a move that sparked widespread controversy within sporting and political circles.

Fears of the politicisation of the game

Klavinis believes that introducing politically charged awards into the global football system threatens the independence of the game, stressing that such initiatives must be carried out within clear institutional frameworks and free from personalisation or political agendas.

She also stressed that FIFA’s credibility is linked to the extent of its commitment to the principles of transparency and governance, particularly in light of increasing international scrutiny of its decisions.

This crisis comes within a broader context of criticism directed at Infantino’s administration, which faces repeated accusations of closeness to political figures, raising questions about the international federation’s impartiality.

This issue is becoming increasingly sensitive as the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico approaches, placing the relationship between politics and football under the microscope.

Featured image via UEFA

By Alaa Shamali

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The trial of three young Ukrainian men facing arson charges for allegedly setting fire to property belonging to Keir Starmer is underway. The prosecution is attempting to paint a picture of Russian involvement in the attacks. Allegedly, a Russian-speaker known as ‘El Money’ paid the men to set the fires and they accepted, even though Ukraine was already at war with Russia.

Not only is the issue of motive for a Russian paying Ukrainians to target a UK PM helping Ukraine not being addressed, prosecution barrister Duncan Atkinson has told the jury that it’s none of their business:

It is no part of your considerations to decide who ‘El Money’ is and what reason he might have had to co-ordinate the actions of these defendants against these ​properties and this car associated with the prime minister.

The court has heard that police extracted data from the defendants’ phones and searched it by key terms, contacts and locations. But although the information was put into a timeline for the case, Atkinson said that the timeline might not match exact timings of the events. He told jurors that the information extracted includes “images and video of the three locations” of the arson attacks.

The defendants were also said to have used the Telegram encrypted messaging app, which “in many cases” meant police could only recover half of the conversations because of automatic or manual deletions.

Starmer’s property that was attacked included a RAV4 car, a house in Ellington Street ​managed by a ​company of which ⁠Starmer had been a director and shareholder and a house in Countess Road that he still owns. Allegedly, the accused bought supplies from B&Q for the attacks.

All three deny the charges.

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By Skwawkbox

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In the latest sign that Donald Trump has a high opinion of himself, his face is set to appear in a set of commemorative American passports.

Patriot passport unlocked.

Limited edition. Stamped for America 250. pic.twitter.com/86uxPS1FEk

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 28, 2026

Trump — Happy birthday

These passports will celebrate America’s 250th birthday. While a more moderate president might have seen fit to picture one of their predecessors, Trump has instead opted to plaster his pouting mush inside.

As the BBC reported:

An administration official has confirmed to the BBC that the new designs will be available for “any American citizen” who applies for a passport when the rollout kicks off, and will continue for as long as there is availability.

The passports will also only be available at the Washington Passport Agency.

There is actually some confusion around this, with some thinking it will apply to all passports issued this year:

If you're renewing your passport or your National Parks pass this year, it will have Trump's face on it https://t.co/CV4ptRsQ4p pic.twitter.com/hRajGjGPnD

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) April 28, 2026

Attorney Mike Levin said:

You have got to be kidding me.

The State Department is putting Donald Trump’s scowling face on the U.S. passport.

His signature in gold. Superimposed over the Declaration of Independence, a document literally written to get away from this exact behavior.

No sitting president has ever done this. Coins, park passes, battleships, and now your passport. The man cannot find a surface he will not slap his name or face on.

This is not patriotism.

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It is vanity.

Trump’s niece, meanwhile, said the following:

I've never been so relieved to have already renewed my passport. pic.twitter.com/tbnEEuyLgJ

— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) April 28, 2026

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Home of the vain

A White House spokesperson said:

President Trump’s new patriotic passport design provides yet another great way Americans can join in the spectacular celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.

Between the UFC250 Fight, the Great American State Fair, Freedom250 Grand Prix, and this new passport celebrating our freedom, President Trump continues to proudly lead a renewal of national pride and patriotism during our historic semiquincentennial celebration.

While it’s tempting to suggest Trump is doing a poor job celebrating the 250th anniversary, with his UFC fights and his vanity passports, let’s be real; these things encapsulate precisely what America is.

America is a violent and vainglorious nation, and while it could one day be something more than that, it certainly isn’t in the year of its 250th anniversary.

Featured image via White House

By Willem Moore

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The boats of the latest Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza have come under attack from “self-identified” Israeli military fast attack boats.

Gaza flotilla under attack

The attackers pointed lasers and semi-automatic assault weapons at the boats and ordered participants to gather at the front of the boats on their hands and knees.

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According to flotilla organisers, an SOS was issued but the flotilla’s communications are now being jammed. Drones are circling and ‘buzzing’ the vessels:

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Following the pattern of previous Israeli piracy, the attackers are ordering the crews to surrender and allow their humanitarian cargos to be taken to Israeli ports:

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Israel is a terror state and the UK government its enablers. Solidarity with all its victims and those trying to help them.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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On Wednesday 29 April, Nigel Farage spoke to the BBC. During the course of this interview, the interviewer asked Farage why he wasn’t talking to Green Party leader Zack Polanski. The Reform leader responded in predictably evasive fashion, prompting the following from Polanski:

Nigel Farage asked on BBC news this morning if he'd debate with me.

Says he's too busy with the local elections & it will just be a "big row."

I've been asking him for months. Someone's running scared?

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Vote Green.

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 29, 2026

Zack Polanski — ‘someone running scared’

As Zack Polanski said, Farage has been ducking Polanski for some time. This is what Rose Cocker reported for the Canary on 4 February:

Reform leader Nigel Farage is running scared of Green leader Zack Polanski. And, in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton by-election, the clash between the two parties could well be a sign of things to come in the British political landscape.

Of course, Farage is refusing a challenge to a face-to-face debate with Polanski. After all, the far-right figurehead is far batter at manufacturing glib soundbites than he is at answering probing questions.

The Gorton & Denton by-election was widely seen as a pivotal moment in the history of British politics. Labour looked set to lose a safeseat that they’d held for decades, with the winner likely to be Reform UK or the Green Party. The winner would no doubt pick up considerable momentum, with the runner-up losing some of their sparkle.

In other words, any serious leader would have bent over backwards to secure a head-to-head debate.

Nigel Farage, meanwhile, responded like this:

WATCH: Nigel Farage rejects Zack Polanski's request for a one-to-one debate

"I generally find that if you pick a fight with a chimney sweep you get covered in soot, so I might just leave that alone"

"But he's got a fan club – all the heroin smokers and everything" pic.twitter.com/e5F6H80eV4

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) February 3, 2026

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Absolute shitbag behaviour.

His fear of Polanski goes back further too, as we reported in January:

On 9 January, Green Party leader Zack Polanski challenged Reform Nigel Farage to a one-to-one debate. As you’d expect, Farage immediately accepted the offer, as he was keen to defend his well thought-out political ethos to an engaged audience.

Oh wait, that’s wrong isn’t it; we meant to say he completely blanked Polanski and went silent:

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Has anyone seen Nigel Farage in the last 20 hours? https://t.co/qpoAFwtNHK

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) January 10, 2026

If you’re wondering why Farage is ducking Polanski, it’s because unlike Reform, the Green Party has actually identified who’s at fault for the problems this country faces:

Unlike Labour, we are serious about ending Rip Off Britain. That must mean measures like rent controls.

We aren't afraid to take on vested interests.

And we won't hesitate in taking practical action to reduce the cost of living. https://t.co/DXktDWDCil

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) April 29, 2026

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Smear and loathing

In other Farage news, Novara reported on 29 April:

Nigel Farage visited a social housing estate in Wales by helicopter, but pretended he had driven.

A Merthyr Tydfil resident told Novara Media that when the Reform leader visited the town as part of his general election campaign, he “landed in the next valley over so that nobody knew he’d come by helicopter”.

“This isn’t what people in Merthyr travel by,” she added.

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While I was in Merthyr I had the most extraordinary conversation: while visiting south Wales Farage had allegedly come by helicopter – but then drove from the next valley, where the chopper was – to obscure how he travels.

Reform are welcome to correct! pic.twitter.com/yhckwYeBWO

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) April 29, 2026

Novara’s Bastani also had this to say on the smears being deployed against Polanski and the Green Party:

.@AaronBastani: "It's a bit like with Zack Polanski isn't it, all the antisemites are joining the party led by the Jewish guy, can't you see it? No I can't actually, you're crazy" pic.twitter.com/1RDtYoUTlY

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 28, 2026

It’s right to call these smears out — not least because the Green Party does sometimes back down to them.

We saw this in the past with the suspension of would-be candidates; we’ve seen it recently with the suspension of anti-Zionist Jewish activist Tony Greenstein, and with the stitch up around the ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion. At the same time, the party is making more of an effort to stand behind candidates smeared by the establishment, and that’s a positive development.

Standing up to Reform, Labour, and the billionaires is good, but you have to stand rigid. The second you show signs of buckling at the knees, the establishment will have you on the ground in an instant.

Polanski has mostly been steadfast on these issues, which is why Farage knows he’s going to struggle against him in a debate.

Featured image via Barold 

By Willem Moore

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The post ‘British Jews are under siege’ appeared first on spiked.

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has promised to not only meet but increase how many PIP applications they process — but they’ll only be able to do this by making it easier for themselves.

At the beginning of the year, the department was once again shamed by a parliamentary committee for its utter incompetence.  The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was so unimpressed that it expressed serious doubts about wheteher the DWP could actually support disabled people into work.

A big part of this was how badly they have handled the PIP backlog. The committee highlighted that the backlogs are so bad that they are having a seriously detrimental effect on claimants’ well-being.

The department was slammed by PAC as they couldn’t meet their own target of processing just 75% of new claims in 75 days. They were instead only managing to process 51%. The committee requested that the DWP update them on when this will be improved and how they expect to do this.

DWP moving the goalpost instead of admitting failures

In response to this, the DWP has announced it will be upping its target to 90%. However, they will be giving themselves 120 days to do this. That means they only have to process a fifth more claimants, but they’re giving themselves three-fifths more time.

The DWP, of course, gives absolutely no details as to how they will do this. However, they did say that so far they’ve made it easier to submit claims by introducing online applications, working to reduce postage time and apparently investing in ‘additional resource to support increased speed of clearance across the PIP
system.’ But naturally, they don’t say what this resource is.

The department also gave a more detailed breakdown of how many claims were processed within the 75-day target and beyond.

• 390,500 claims were processed within 75 working days, just 50.9% of all claims
• 287,500 claims were processed after 75 working days, but within six months, 37.5% of all claims
• 84,300 claims were processed after six months, but within twelve months, 11.0% of all claims
• 4,600 claims were processed after twelve months, 0.6% of all claims

Misleading

They try to make this sound like a good thing naturally, but 287,500 waiting for nearly six months is bad enough. Never mind the more than one in ten people who had to wait up to 12 months to get the vital support they need —  and the 4,600 people who wait far longer than that.

But of course, they couldn’t resist telling big fat fucking lies as well. As Hannah Sharland reported on Disability News Service, the DWP claimed the clearance time had not “exceeded” 16 weeks in more than three years. However, that same month, new departmental data showed the wait had hit 20 weeks.

The fact that the DWP has absolutely no shame in any of this shows just how much of a farce of an organisation they are. They know full well that they can’t hit these targets, but instead of admitting that they’d rather move the goalposts again.

Featured image via the Canary

By Rachel Charlton-Dailey

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The White House has soft-launched renaming ICE to NICE — in an attempt to whitewash the government-backed thugs’ crimes.

Trump is awake and he’s now demanding that ICE be renamed to NICE so the media has to say “NICE agents” everyday. This is what the president is focused on. Very weird stuff. pic.twitter.com/5zOuYTMCaA

— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) April 27, 2026

Trump reposted the suggestion, which was made by a MAGA ‘journalist’.

NICE supposedly stands for ‘National Immigration and Customs Enforcement.’ However, social media users have far more interesting suggestions.

the n stands for nazi https://t.co/RDiWNbr6d9

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) April 28, 2026

NICE = Nazi Infantry for Clients of Epstein https://t.co/Bp4PkNXhQD

— Hassan Mafi ‏ (@thatdayin1992) April 29, 2026

Already this year, at least 15 people have died while in ICE custody.

Additionally, ICE agents murdered two people during anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.

A rebrand won’t distract us from the truth: this reprehensible agency murdered two Minnesotans in broad daylight.

Abolish ICE. https://t.co/4FwXNek8gF

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) April 27, 2026

Changing it to “NICE Agents” will totally make Minneapolis residents forget about how ICE agents murdered two of our neighbors, great rebranding https://t.co/hWXe9SrW3v

— Mike Norton (@NortonMpls) April 28, 2026

Of course, no amount of name changes, rebrands or nazi-style propaganda can hide the crimes that ICE has committed.

when the pr so bad you have to change your @ https://t.co/DF22YpoDYk

— Leesi ☽ꨄ︎☾ (@LeesiBB) April 27, 2026

Similarly, no amount of government backing can make those crimes disappear.

https://t.co/8OCrYKdxK6 pic.twitter.com/GzlNUIvcWV

— Hassan Mafi ‏ (@thatdayin1992) April 28, 2026

Nice? Seriously?

It’s hard to know when Trump is being serious and when he’s not.

However, Mr Fake Tan has already attempted to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and the Department of Defence as the Department of War.

Don’t tell Trump that not a single other country uses either of those phrases. He might threaten to blow something up.

On a serious note, I don’t know a single person who calls Twitter X. So what makes him or his government think anyone will actually care if they change the name?

we still call it twitter do you really think we give a fuck if you change the name https://t.co/nEWYf3tEzM

— Cal (@HoodlumCallum) April 27, 2026

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On Thursday, 23 April, Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The bill passed with a 50-48 vote.

The bill will allow the government to allocate up to $140bn to ICE and CBP.

However, the bill still has to be adopted by the House of Representatives. Only then can officials begin drafting legislation to hand the funding to the two agencies.

Inherently racist

ICE is inherently racist, which makes the soft-launch of ‘NICE’ even more fucked up.

The Supreme Court ruled that ICE may detain people without clear evidence. This means people can be detained based on the language they speak, their place of work, or even their physical appearance.

This means ICE can resume “roving” patrols in places such as Los Angeles without needing concrete evidence to target specific workplaces or areas.

ICE is targeting people who speak Spanish and those with accents, low-wage workers such as those in construction at car washes, even if they have not committed any crimes. 

Importantly, this is in direct contravention of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

This means the government must have probable cause that a person has committed a crime to arrest them. Plus, unlawful presence in the US isn’t actually illegal; it’s merely a civil offence.

Trump can rename ICE — but it won’t take away the fact that the institution under Trump is racist, violent, and in direct violation of the US Constitution.

Feature image via FOX 11 Los Angeles/YouTube

By HG

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The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has issued letters to 12 UK universities in relation to a recent investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates. This revealed them to have paid private intelligence and security firms to monitor, profile, and assess pro-Palestinian students and academic staff. The letters outline immediate and concrete steps that the universities must take to mitigate ongoing legal risks.

The security firm, Horus Security Consultancy Limited, undertook the systematic collection, analysis, and sharing of information relating to individuals’ political opinions, associations and lawful activism, including through social media monitoring, speaker vetting, and intelligence-style reporting.

Concerningly, these practices appear to have been undertaken without the knowledge or consent of affected individuals and, in some cases, may have informed institutional decision-making.

These revelations, which only came to light after an extensive investigation by Al Jazeera English and Liberty Investigates, expose the universities to serious and overlapping legal risks under data protection law, human rights law, higher education regulatory frameworks, and public law principles – which ICJP has outlined in our legal letters to the universities.

It is also an appalling, yet unsurprising, disclosure that speaks to the increasing patterns of hostility, aggression, and crackdown on pro-Palestine protests and organisers in the UK.

Horus, which describes itself as a “leading intelligence” firm, has received at least £440,000 from universities since 2022. The use of its surveillance and profiling tools in relation to political expression by some of the UK’s most respected academic institutions creates a clear chilling effect which not only discourages students and academics from participating in lawful debate, but also undermines institutional commitments to academic freedom.

ICJP makes it clear to universities

These revelations are even more troubling given the lack of public scrutiny faced by private companies such as Horus. This kind of Orwellian surveillance is proceeding largely unchecked, against a backdrop of increasing crackdowns on pro-Palestinian student activism in the UK, from universities, police forces and the national government. This forms part of a broader pattern of encroachment on civil liberties across the country.

In order to mitigate ongoing legal risks, ICJP has outlined immediate and concrete steps that the universities must take to ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory obligations. These steps include stopping surveillance, disposal of information collected and disclosure of contracts and policies relating to such practices, including handling, automation and GDPR compliance.

Órlaith Roe, ICJP’s public affairs and communications officer, said:

What we’re seeing here is a deeply troubling escalation in the monitoring of lawful pro-Palestinian advocacy on UK campuses. The outsourcing of surveillance to private intelligence firms, without transparency or consent, exposes these universities to legal risks, as well as undermining the principles of universities.

Universities should be places where open debate is encouraged, not environments that foster fear and self-censorship. There must now be urgent scrutiny of these practices, and clear accountability for those involved.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

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