The UK have signed a deal with California to collaborate on green energy initiatives and boost investment.

However, US president Trump has been vocal in his opposition to the agreement. As such, the move is an unusual tactic for Starmer’s Labour, which has so far sucked up to the far-right dictator like its life depends on it.

The UK government announced that the California deal will connect the UK’s clean energy sector with the Californian market. Beyond this, the agreement will also see the two governments share expertise on issues like protecting biodiversity and resilience in the face of extreme weather.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the deal with Californian governor Gavin Newsom on 16 February in London. The MoU itself affirmed that both governments:

support the goals of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, recognize the urgency of addressing global climate change, and aim to strengthen bilateral cooperation to decarbonize their economies, protect residents from the worst effects of climate change, promote sustainable growth, secure the resources needed for the energy transition, enable research exchange and technology advancement, and develop skilled and modern workforces

Trump tantrum

The UK-California MoU is one of 12 similar agreements with other US states. These include the Democrat-led Washington and Republican-led Florida.

However, the deal has immediately enraged Donald Trump. He stated that it was “inappropriate” for the UK “to be dealing with him (Newsom).” Governor Newsom has been a notable opponent of Trump’s rule within the Senate, particularly regarding both climate policy and immigration.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration backed the US out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, Newsom has used his recent transatlantic tour to assure European leaders that Trump’s climate hostility is “temporary” in the grand scheme of US politics.

Notably, the UK-California deal specifically commits the US state to follow the UN Framework Convention, in spite of Trump’s withdrawal.

‘Gavin is a loser’

In an interview with Politico, Trump displayed his typically childish displeasure:

The UK’s got enough trouble without getting involved with Gavin Newscum. Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.

The US dictator continued:

The worst thing that the U.K. can do is get involved in Gavin. If they did to the U.K. what he did to California, this will not be a very successful venture.

Devastating wildfires recently ravaged California, with Trump accusing Newsom of mismanaging the state’s response. A spokesperson for the Californian governor, meanwhile, highlighted that the Trump administration was withholding disaster funding, stating that:

The Trump Administration refused a routine wildfire recovery meeting — a rejection we’ve never seen before — even as LA families near a year without long-term federal financial help. The message to survivors is unmistakable: Donald Trump doesn’t care about them.

Starmer the suck-up

The move to anger Trump is an unusual one for the Labour Party, which has thus-far been a keen ally of the US far-right.

Recently, Starmer dutifully deployed aircraft carriers to the Arctic Circle. The move seen by some commentators as an act of deference to Trump’s ‘defence gap’ narrative, with which he tried to justify the annexation of Greenland.

Last month, Starmer failed even to condemn Trump’s blatantly illegal attack on Venezuela and kidnap of president Maduro. Beyond this, Labour have repeatedly claimed that the USA “keeps us safe” under the Trump regime.

In September 2025, the Labour government celebrated a £150bn deal with Trump. Meanwhile, commentators described the agreement as a thinly veiled mechanism for US firms to asset-strip UK wealth. The list goes on and on.  

However, regarding the UK-California climate agreement, we at the Canary aren’t exactly convinced that Starmer is finally growing a backbone. If he thinks this one small move to ruffle Trump’s feathers will make up for a litany of fawning in the face of the far right, he’s got another think coming.

Then again, there’s always the possibility that Labour didn’t consider that dealing with a vocal Trump opponent might piss off America’s fascist-in-chief. You’d think that kind of thing might be obvious to anyone with an ounce of political wherewithal, but this is Starmer’s Labour we’re talking about.

Featured image via the Canary

In July 2023, Richard Hermer KC, a “close confidante” of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, proudly declared that he had “dear family members” serving in the Israeli military. One year later, he was appointed Attorney General for England and Wales, the “chief legal adviser to the Crown”. But incredibly, he is not the only senior British political figure with relatives in the IDF.

Labour officials and the IDF

Last week, John McEvoy and Alex Morris reported on a Freedom of Information request which revealed that over 50,000 foreign fighters have served in the Israeli military during the Gaza genocide. Britain ranked sixth on the list, with more than 2,000 British dual and multinational citizens confirmed to have participated.

In April 2024, Conservative peer Lord Ahmad defended the “right” of such citizens to enlist in the Israeli military on the basis that occupied Palestinian territories were not recognised as an independent entity by the British government, and that the genocide in Gaza would therefore be classified as “a foreign government’s forces… engaged in a civil war or combating terrorism or internal uprisings”.

However, since Britain officially recognised the State of Palestine in September, it would seem that the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which explicitly prohibited “engagement in the military or naval service of any foreign state at war with any foreign state at peace with Her Majesty”, must now apply; something that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, with her responsibility for “protecting our borders”, will surely take a keen interest in!

Shabana Mahmood has gone to great lengths to mirror the anti-migrant rhetoric of Reform UK in recent months, declaring that Britain has “become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world.”, and rehashing popular tropes of a “golden ticket asylum system” and “illegal migration tearing the UK apart”.

On the subject of returning IDF militants, however, she has been silent. We do not know the names or ages of the list of 2,000+, or whether or not they intend to or already have returned to the UK. Even more shockingly, my research suggests that the list could include associates and/or relatives of Labour government ministers.

Richard Hermer

In 2023, when Conservative Party MPs accused Richard Hermer, then advising the Labour Party on a BDS Bill being brought before Parliament, of taking “political positions” on the question of Palestine, Hermer was quick to burnish his Zionist credentials, reassuring Michael Gove and co. that he was not “influenced by some form of malign intent towards Israel”.

As proof of this, Hermer pointed towards growing up in “a ‘Blue-Box’ Jewish family”, a reference to blue collection boxes that were commonly used to raise money for the Jewish National Fund, the largest builder of illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.

The JNF’s UK branch states on its official website: “every Zionist home has a Blue Box.” Coincidentally, the UK branch counts well-known war criminals Tony Blair and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Marvis, amongst its “honorary patrons”.

Between 2015-18, JNF UK remains a registered British charity, funnelled £1 million to HaShomer HaChadash (HH), an Israeli militia that operates in the occupied West Bank. Despite this, the Charity Commission refused to take action, saying that “there was no evidence to support the allegations that the charity acted outside of its objects.”

The JNF specifies that only Jewish parties can buy or lease its land. Palestinians, even if they hold Israeli citizenship, are explicitly excluded on the basis of their ethnicity. In response to a 2004 legal challenge, the “charity” said: “The loyalty of the JNF is given to the Jewish people and only to them is the JNF obligated. The JNF…does not have a duty to practice equality towards all citizens of the state.”

The IDF

Hermer also emphasised (as a way of defending his impartiality, no less!): “I have dear family members currently serving in the IDF.” Even when he followed this with a caveat about opposing the “unlawful” occupation of the West Bank, Hermer’s reasoning was that it was “deeply damaging to the interests of Israel.”

This is the same IDF decapitating children and babies in Gaza. The same IDF who put on Palestinian women’s dresses after destroying their homes and dance for TikTok videos. The same IDF that included over 2,000 British citizens as they committed a genocide.

Were Hermer’s “dear family members” amongst them? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, apparently so keen to clamp down on dangerous criminals entering the UK, seemingly doesn’t know and/or doesn’t care.

Labour’s Attorney General added: “I actively support a range of… Israeli organisations.” Hermer mentioned previously serving as an officer for the Union of Jewish Students (UJS).

Speaking to an undercover journalist, a former UJS activist named Adam Schapira confirmed that the group receives funding from the Israeli embassy in London and the powerful American lobby group AIPAC. Yair Zivan, a campaigns officer for UJS, later became a press officer for the Israeli military and adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister.

“Love being in Israel”

At the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference in January 2025, Hermer said that he wished to see a world where you can “love being in Israel”, and lamented that “somehow you have to pick one-side or the other.” He revealed that he had visited the Israeli state in his youth, and as a member of Starmer’s government “on more occasions than he could count”.

Hermer and Starmer served in the same law chambers, and he donated to Starmer’s 2020 Labour leadership campaign.

After leaving Doughty Street, Hermer worked alongside current Labour MP and former vice-chair of the Jewish Labour Movement Sarah Sackman at Matrix Chambers. As Hermer was made Attorney General, Sackman was appointed Solicitor General. Since 2024, Sackman has received tens of thousands of pounds from lobbyists Jonathan Mendelsohn, Stephen Grabiner, Michael Sternberg, Jonathan Kestenbaum and Trevor Chinn.

Sackman was also funded by Labour Together. Kestenbaum just happens to sit on the board of Labour Together, and Chinn was a major funder and co-director of the think tank in the “McSweeney era”, but we can rest assured that these are further minor details Starmer knows nothing about.

Another former director of Labour Together is current Labour MP and cabinet member Josh Simons.

The Labour Together scandal

During his spell at the “think tank”, Simons hired private investigators to gather information on journalists researching the corruption of Morgan McSweeney, who had used Labour Together as a private vehicle for toppling Jeremy Corbyn and propelling Keir Starmer into power.

Kate Forrester, the wife of Keir Starmer’s then head of communications Paul Ovenden, ran APCO’s London office when it was hired by Labour Together, and she has since confirmed that she knew about the investigation, codenamed “Operation Cannon”.

One year later, the “public relations firm” hired a new member of staff, Mark Simpson. Simpson just happened to be a former adviser to Keir Starmer. Josh Simons has branded the claims that he spied on journalists “nonsense”, but the contract between Labour Together and APCO tells a different story.

The contract instructed APCO to “provide a body of evidence that could be packaged up…in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together.” Josh Simons ordered the investigation. Morgan McSweeney was aware of the investigation. Is it even remotely conceivable that once again, just like with Epstein-informant Peter Mandelson, Starmer “didn’t know”?

At university, Simons called himself a “Marxist” and told a friend that the Israeli state “should not have been founded”. Now, he’s a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Israel. Simons has mentioned having “friends and family in Israel”, a state with compulsory military service, and in a parliamentary debate with Conservative MP Kit Malthouse last June asserted his “right to claim citizenship in Israel”.

Two months later, Simons and Sackman were amongst a group of “Labour Friends of Israel-affiliated MPs” who confronted National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in a “testy and emotionally charged conversation” regarding the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

Israel has infiltrated the entire system

In an October 2023 LBC interview with Sangita Myska, Richard Hermer KC emphasised the Israeli state’s “right to self-defence” in Gaza. In fact, occupying powers have no such right within territories they occupy, as confirmed in Article 51 of the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Myska was fired by LBC after a heated exchange with Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman in April 2024. LBC instead hired Vanessa Feltz, who has also declared that she has “very close family members, lots of them”, living in occupied Palestine. Myska later revealed that a LBC producer once told her: “there’s no such thing as Palestine.” LBC is owned by Global Media, which is chaired by Labour peer Charles Allen.

Hermer is not the only current Labour figure with links to the Israeli military. Labour MP Damian Egan’s partner Yossi Felberbaum is a former Israeli spy recruiter from “Unit 8200”. Are his relatives on the list of 2,000+? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood apparently doesn’t know, and doesn’t care.

Hermer is not even the first British Attorney General to have relatives fighting with the Israeli army. Suella Braverman, who Boris Johnson appointed Attorney General once in February 2020 and then again in September 2021, also claimed to have “close family members who serve in the IDF”. Are her relatives on the list of 2000+? Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood apparently doesn’t know, and doesn’t care.

Featured image via the Canary

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani faces a further test of his resolve and principles after the city’s police department (NYPD) disclosed that it spies on the city’s residents’ online.

NYPD fesses up

On 4 February 2026, the NYPD finally admitted that it uses ‘sockpuppet’ fake accounts – technically ‘managed attribution’ infrastructure — to covertly monitor New Yorkers’ online activity.

Or, as the department dressed it up, to:

allow its personnel to safely, securely and covertly conduct investigations and detect possible criminal activity on the internet.

Mamdani’s resolve

As a former state assembly member, Mamdani had supported proposed legislation to outlaw such tactics — the “Stop Fakes Act”. The legislation never passed. Now his supporters and opponents alike are waiting to see whether he is willing to face down the police. Will he use his power as mayor to halt these underhand practices.

The test comes after Mamdani chose to endorse Kathy Hochul — “one of the most pro-Israel governors in the country” — as the Democratic party’s candidate for the position.

Hochul, a right-winger who allocated massive police funding to attacks on university anti-genocide campuses, also sabotaged a nurses’ strike by making it easier for hospitals to hire scab labour.

After a positive start to his tenure, the endorsement led to accusations from appalled left-wingers that Mamdani was betraying the socialist, anti-genocide positions that formed the centre of his mayoral election campaign.

If he now chooses not to confront the city’s police, his credibility is likely to collapse.

Featured image via the Canary

Martin Lewis has accused the Labour Party of turning student loans into a tax on young people.

At the Autumn budget, Labour froze the student loan repayment thresholds for Plan 2 loans at £29,385 from April 2026.

Lewis pointed out that this was either a targeted tax rise on young people, or a:

retrospective rewriting of the terms of a private contract.

Student loans are being turned into a tax

Either way, Rachel Reeves claimed the freeze was “fair and reasonable” – which is, of course, bullshit.

Mainly because rich kids who had the bank of mummy and daddy to pay their tuition fees up front are now exempt from this additional tax.

There are five student loan plans in operation. These cover most postgraduate courses, Scotland and three mainly English student cohorts. Namely, entrants pre-2012, those between 2012 and 2023, and those post-2023.

The current student loan controversy refers to plan 2 loans. Around 6m people took these out in England and Wales between 2012 and 2023.

According to the Guardian:

For a plan 2 graduate, every pound earned between £30,000 and £50,000 already faces 20% income tax, 8% national insurance and 9% loan repayment – a 37% marginal rate. Freezing the plan 2 threshold, as Ms Reeves proposes from 2027, penalises these graduates by holding down the point at which repayments begin (roughly £30,000), so that as wages rise, a growing share of their income faces the 9% charge. This ensures more income is taxed at 37% for longer as incomes go up.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this is equivalent to a tax rise.

£53k of debt per student

Graduates now have an average debt of £53,000. For some doctors, that figure is over £100,000. Which is messed up, considering Rachel Reeves said that the Government will use the repayment freeze to fund the NHS and keep prescription charges under £10.

As the Guardian points out:

If someone earns £60,000, they should be taxed because they earn £60,000 – not because they went to university in 2014 rather than 2009.

Campaign platforms, Organise and Rethink Repayment, previously accused the Government of acting “like a loan shark”.

Roxy Khan-William, head of campaigns at Organise, told LBC:

The evidence increasingly points to the hallmarks of mis-selling: complex terms, optimistic assurances, underplayed risks, and later rule changes that materially worsen outcomes.

In effect, the Government is acting like a loan shark.

Most banks would not approve a £50k high-interest loan for the average 18-year-old. Yet that is exactly how the Government is treating the student loans system.

Except there is no contract, no fixed terms, and no interest rate, and most graduates never recall seeing the terms and conditions.

Shitting on young people

On my previous point about Rachel Reeves talking shit – when she finished her undergraduate degree in 2000, the average student loan debt was £3,000.

The government only announced tuition fee rises in 2004. So when Reeves finished her postgraduate degree that year, they were still capped at £1,125 per year.

Both of her loans were Plan 1. This means the interest rate is linked to inflation, so there is no real cost to borrowing.

Reeves benefited from low tuition fees and not having tens of thousands of pounds in debt when she left university. Yet now she wants to take a shit on young people?

Another rule for the rich

Wealthy families can essentially buy their kids out of this ridiculous tax. From the vast connections that come with money, to private school, not having to work through education, to the mental health benefits of growing up in financial stability, it’s fair to say that kids born into rich families already have enough of a leg up.

And whilst there’s no doubt that many rich kids turn out to be massive pricks, why should they be exempt from taxes?

Reeves may as well start handing out step ladders at graduation.

How many other ways does Labour want to say “we hate poor people”? Gone are the days when Labour was the party of the working class. 

And let’s face it, yes, they hate poor people – but the only reason anyone is poor in the first place is because of the incompetence of consecutive governments.

Featured image via the Canary

In amongst Reform’s patently ridiculous announcement of its new ‘shadow cabinet’, the far-right party has announced Suella Braverman as its education, skills and equalities spokesperson.

In her first move as part of the new role, Braverman announced that Reform would rip up the Equality Act on day one. You’d think an equalities spokesperson would be less zealously committed to legalising discrimination, but that’s par for the course for the far-right party.

Braverman whines about diversity

As the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey noted, Reform aren’t the official opposition, and thus have no right to be running around announcing shadow cabinets anyway. The whole thing is a PR exercise for egomaniac Nigel Farage.

In a continuation of the bizarre, shortly after being awarded this imaginary role Braverman announced that her party would eliminate the role of equalities minister altogether. She then set off on a rant about the UK being:

ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion policies.

Braverman also stated that her (new) party would repeal the Equality Act on its first day of office. By way of reasoning, the ex-Tory minister claimed that she wanted to get rid of the:

divisive notion of protected characteristics.

As a quick reminder, those divisive protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

‘A sledgehammer to hard-won rights’

Parliament instituted the Equality Act back in 2010. It prohibits the victimisation of individuals on the basis of those seven protected characteristics. It forms the basis of anti-discrimination law in the UK, preventing – for example – an employer from sacking somebody upon finding out the employee is gay.

As such, it’s not exactly hard to see why a party founded on the idea of bashing immigrants wouldn’t be a fan. However, Braverman also claimed that she didn’t want to eliminate workplace protections altogether.

In spite of that flimsy reassurance, the Trades Union Congress was quick to call Reform out on its game. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

It’s official – Reform UK think discrimination should be legal.

Scrapping the Equality Act would be a sledgehammer to hard-won rights working people fought for over generations.

If you’re discriminated against because you’re a woman, black, disabled, pregnant or gay – that’s fine with them.

This is a blank cheque for bad employers to mistreat their staff.

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And it wouldn’t stop there. Scrapping the Equality Act would just be the start.

From ripping up equality protections, to backing fire-and-rehire, to opposing a ban on zero-hours contracts, Reform UK have made it clear whose side they’re on – and it’s not working people.

Hypocrisy and lies

Braverman herself is hardly a stranger to trampling over human rights. As the Tory home secretary, she was a vocal promoter of the infamous Illegal Migration Act. In a clear breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the act would have enabled the government to transport unlawful migrants to Rwanda.

In spite of her own parents’ status as immigrants, Braverman named immigrants an:

existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the West.

Of course, the ex-Tory is no stranger to rank hypocrisy either. She once insisted that the Conservative Party needed to do “everything we can” to win Tory voters back from Reform, before slipping off to join the far-right party instead.

Then again, Farage himself previously vowed that his retirement home for washed-up Tories would never take in Suella Braverman.

So, to recap, Reform didn’t want to take in Braverman, and Braverman wanted to win votes back from Reform. Then she joined the far-right party after all.

Following that, Reform appointed her to the post of equalities spokesperson, so Braverman promptly announced that she’d abolish her own job – and the public’s protection against discrimination into the bargain.

Is anybody else’s head spinning here?

Featured image via the Canary

A “historic success”

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) posted several pictures and updates throughout the day, declaring the strike a “historic success.”

AIKS, among other groups, have not held back in their criticism against Modi’s government. They censured the government for crushing workers rights, bowing to US corporations, and threatening India’s secular fabric.

#12thFebruaryGeneralStrike a Historic Success

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) congratulates crores of Indian workers, agricultural workers and toiling peasantry for making the 12th February 2026 General Strike a historic success. The anger of working people against the (1/n) pic.twitter.com/jfItzhDVeg

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026

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According to Maktoob Media, the strike was met heavy handedly after Modi sent in his henchmen.

They made sweeping arrests against hundreds of IT workers, trade union leaders and activists in Bengaluru.

And unsurprisingly, the crack down was captured on camera — we see you.

The Karnataka IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) said hundreds of IT employees were arrested on Thursday in Bengaluru, along with other leaders and activists from various Central Trade Unions, during the Bharat Bandh against the Narendra Modi government’s alleged anti-worker labour… pic.twitter.com/qYYm1p8ml0

— Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) February 12, 2026

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International endorsement

We have also seen expressions of solidarity emerge internationally. London-based protesters gathered at London’s Parliament Square on Thursday evening.

They condemned Hindutva’s “fascist bulldozer raj” and demanding the withdrawal of punitive labour and farming policies.

As Brinda Karat put it, India’s sovereignty is cracking beneath Modi’s divisive policies and the working class, unafraid and unwavering, is reclaiming their nation.

Featured image via the Canary

As Ramadan begins, trade union UNISON is highlighting how thoughtful workplace adjustments and open conversations can help Muslim employees balance faith, wellbeing and work.

The holy Muslim month of Ramadan is due to begin on the evening of Tuesday 17 February, or Wednesday 18 February, depending on the moon.

Eid-al-Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of Ramadan, is expected to fall on the evening of 19 March or 20 March.

The Ramadan fast

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims spend a period of 30 days abstaining from food, drink (including water) and smoking during daylight hours, as a means of celebrating and reflecting on their faith.

Iftar, the meal that breaks the fast when the sun has set, is often shared with family and the local community. Traditionally, the fast is broken with a date.

During this important holy period for Muslims, UNISON reminds both workers and employers that it is within the Equality Act 2010 for all employers to ensure flexible working and provide reasonable adjustments for workers wishing to observe Ramadan. This includes fasting, prayers, charity and reflecting on the Quran.

Small, thoughtful adjustments, shaped by open conversations, can make a meaningful difference for Muslim employees observing Ramadan.

UNISON spoke to two Muslim members, Raza Sadiq and Nadia Al-Farid, about how their workplaces support them during Ramadan – and what more employers can do.

Ramadan is more than fasting

Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food and drink. Many Muslims give a percentage of their wages to charity during this month and become more involved in community work. As Raza explains:

It’s not just about you personally, it’s about community.

Nadia describes how families often invite students who cannot afford proper meals to share iftar (the breaking of the fast) or attend the mosque together for extra prayers. The month strengthens community bonds and encourages generosity.

But alongside this spiritual focus comes physical impact. Many Muslims attend additional late-night Taraweeh prayers, then wake early before Fajr to prepare and eat before the fast begins. This can mean significantly less sleep.

‘It’s just small tweaks’

For Raza, a careers adviser at Skills Development Scotland, workplace support does not need to be complex. He tells UNISON:

It’s just small tweaks. A room that people could go and worship in – that would be ideal.

He believes that colleagues taking time to learn about Ramadan, or simply speaking to Muslim coworkers, helps to build bridges and create a more inclusive environment. After once giving a presentation about Ramadan, he returned to his desk to find a colleague eating a ham sandwich beside him without much thought. He laughs about it but reflects:

It just shows a lack of understanding – it’s just thinking and having self awareness.

Because fasting, late-night prayers and lack of water can lead to tiredness or dehydration, flexibility is key:

If someone is asking to swap a shift or start at a different time, colleagues helping is really important during this time.

Practical adjustments matter

Nadia, a clinical support worker in microbiology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, highlights the importance of suitable prayer facilities:

Our ritual cleansing is wudu – we must do it before we pray. We can’t pray in a room that has religious symbols, for example crosses or human figures.

Access to a quiet space near washing facilities is essential.

She also points to temperature control as an important but often overlooked adjustment during Ramadan. Working in lab coats in rooms that can reach 25–30°C while fasting is challenging:

Having AC, even reducing the temperature by one or two degrees, can make the difference between dehydration and just feeling a little thirsty.

Support from colleagues also makes a difference. She explains:

It helps when colleagues are supportive when we feel a little tired, to allow us to take a moment.

Coworkers often share tasks involving heavy lifting and step in when she feels lightheaded or unwell:

Anything that involves heavy lifting they are more likely to say, you can do the lighter stuff… Instead of it being a lone task they will accompany you.

Open conversations build understanding

Nadia is clear that asking respectful questions about Ramadan is not offensive:

It’s absolutely fine. Some people think if you’re religious, you don’t want to talk about it. But it’s not a personal question.

She also gently dispels common misconceptions. For example, seeing others eat does not invalidate the fast. “It doesn’t bother us at all,” she says. In fact, fasting can deepen appreciation and patience. She adds with a laugh:

During Ramadan, we are supposed to hold fast to our tongue… so maybe don’t be irritating.

Nadia and Raza emphasise that individual circumstances, rather than blanket policy, should shape the reasonable adjustments. Family responsibilities, caring duties, and job roles all affect what support looks like. Nadia says:

The reasonable adjustments framework should be implemented and led by the employee rather than the employer. Two people don’t have the same reasonable adjustment frameworks.

Ultimately, supporting employees during Ramadan is about understanding, kindness, and flexibility. Small, thoughtful changes – a quiet room, temperature adjustments, shift swaps, a supportive team – can ensure Muslim staff feel valued, respected, and able to observe their faith without unnecessary barriers.

Featured image via the Canary

A “chance” meeting with strangers on a night out led to the “callous attack” and murder of a young deaf woman in Romford, last summer, by a man nicknamed “Nasty”, a court has heard.

Zahwa Mukhtar, 27, was by herself socialising outside a pub in Stoke Newington Road, Hackney, when she first encountered Duane Owusu, 36, and a group he was with in the early hours of Saturday 16 August 2025.

Within a few hours, Zahwa was dead, having suffered a fatal head injury after being punched in the neck and assaulted by Owusu, who had first thrown her out of a parked car.

Her tragic murder, described as a “senseless killing of a vulnerable young woman” by prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC, was captured on CCTV outside Chadwell House care home, in Romford, and shown to jurors at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.

Owusu, of Althorne Way, Dagenham, denies murder and manslaughter.

Zahwa Mukhtar: killed last year

Ms Paget told the court how Zahwa had gotten into a silver Mercedes with Owusu and four others, including two women, who had driven from a “rave” in another area of Hackney.

Ms Paget said:

The occupants of the vehicle had been drinking and taking drugs, Ms Mukhtar included.

You will hear evidence that she was behaving erratically within the car, flirting with the boys and picking fights with the girls. Nobody knew her, and it appears that her behaviour was causing increasing annoyance.

The group were making their way towards Dagenham with Zahwa sitting on Owusu’s lap in the overcrowded car.

As they neared Chadwell Heath, she began filming with her mobile phone. The footage was brief, Ms Paget explained, but was a “trigger” for Owusu, who had been “agitated and acting aggressively” earlier that night according to one of the group.

Jurors saw roadside CCTV footage of him sucking nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas” from a balloon before the car journey, and were told that Zahwa had popped one of the occupant’s balloons inside the car.

After telling the driver to stop, Owusu threw out her phone before pushing her from the car. She “landed on her backside on the pavement”.

As Zahwa shuffled backwards, the defendant left the car and aimed a kick towards her face and then a second “savage kick towards her head”. One of the group who tried to intervene, a woman, was swung out of the way, leaving Owusu free to deliver the “blow that killed [Zahwa]”.

Ms Paget said Owusu “punched her hard, to the neck, knocking her to the ground where she lay motionless”. She suffered “a fractured skull and fatal brain injury” having fallen backwards.

Instead of helping her, he allegedly got into the car, shouted at others to do the same, and told the driver to drive off, Ms Paget said.

“There was no stopping him”

When Zahwa Mukhtar was attacked, jurors heard Owusu was “so mad there was no stopping him”:

Ms Mukhtar was scared and pleading with him to stop.

A minute later the car returned to the scene in Chadwell Heath Lane, where Zahwa lay motionless, “with headlights illuminating her”. The car stayed for only a few seconds and nobody left it.

The court heard there was a discussion about Zahwa, and helping her, but nobody did.

She was eventually found unresponsive by a police officer at 5.31am on Saturday morning when two separate passersby alerted police to a woman lying in the road. They thought she was either drunk or had fallen asleep. Despite the efforts of the emergency services Zahwa was pronounced dead at the scene less than an hour later.

Before reaching Zahwa, officers had spent 50 minutes with Owusu and the group in the Mercedes nearby after stopping the car on suspicion of drugs at about 4.40am.

Police found nitrous oxide canisters in the boot of the car, a small amount of cannabis in the defendant’s gilet pocket and a “man bag” with a “small bag of white powder in it”. No arrests were made, but officers told the group to find alternative ways home.

While Owusu and the Mercedes driver waited for a taxi, their conversation was picked up by neighbourhood security systems, the court was told.

The case continues

Ms Paget said:

Far from showing any concern for Ms Mukhtar, [Owusu’s] concern was that their presence in the area had come to the attention of the police.

The pair began to blame one another and Owusu “berates” the driver for not being “militant”, calling him “soft” and a “weak link”. In response, Owusu was told he “can’t control his emotions”.

The defendant was arrested for Zahwa Mukhtar’s murder on 17 August 2025 and answered no comment to questions during his interview.

Aspiring accountant, Zahwa, worked as a financial assistant at the Young Vic theatre in the Waterloo area of London. Ms Paget described her in court as “bright, bubbly, enthusiastic and very eager to learn”.

She was deaf in one ear as a result of contracting meningitis at three years old — so she wore a hearing aid — but “coped well and was adept at lip reading” as well as British sign language.

Zahwa, from Hackney, came from a traditional background, but wanted to live like any other young person in their twenties, the court heard.

“She had tattoos, piercings and enjoyed food and travel, and remained close to her siblings, especially her younger sister,” Ms Paget added.

The Old Bailey trial continues.

Featured image via the Canary

Keir Starmer’s Labour party has deselected three Labour councillors and blocked them contesting May’s local elections — punishment for demanding:

an independent inquiry into the election of a paedophile councillor.

When Clare Johnson, one of the three, successfully overturned the centralised deselection, she says the party orchestrated the local branch’s selection vote to ensure she couldn’t stand.

The councillors’ primary crime appears to have been to demand the debate on Labour’s 2023 selection of paedophile Tom Dewey. Party officials already knew, when they confirmed his candidacy, that Dewey had been charged for possessing the “most serious” categories of child-rape images.

Dewey subsequently admitted the offences and was convicted and added to the sex offender register. When local women party members tried to discuss the issue, Labour locked them out of its systems to prevent them.

Dewey was an organiser for right-wing pressure group ‘Labour First’, which supports Keir Starmer and is rabidly pro-Israel. Hackney mayor Philip Glanville was later suspended and forced to step down after images surfaced of him partying with Dewey after Dewey’s arrest.

Starmer is still reeling from his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as his senior adviser — and ambassador to the US — knowing Mandelson had was close to the convicted serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson’s protegee Morgan McSweeney resigned last week as Starmer’s chief of staff in an unsuccessful attempt to take the heat off his boss. And the heat is well deserved. Under Starmer, Labour has a deep and ongoing paedophile and sex offender problem.

Starmer followed his Mandelson fiasco with another ‘Labour nonceberg’ scandal over his decision to award a peerage to his former adviser Matthew Doyle. Starmer knew, when he recommended Doyle, that Doyle had campaigned for the election of notorious Scottish Labour paedophile Sean Morton.

Earlier this month, female MPs complained to Starmer that Labour is now known as a party of paedophiles — without mentioning the victims. Labour’s ‘white feminists‘ have routinely ignored the plight of victims. Meanwhile, Starmer’s record as Labour leader is an appalling continuation of the impunity of celebrity paedophiles when he ran the CPS.

Diagnostic

As well as the cases of Mandelson and Doyle/Morton, Starmer:

This issue is so endemic among Starmer’s right-wing, pro-Israel faction as to be basically diagnostic:

Sacked whistleblower

Perhaps most seriously, Starmer and his then-sidekick David Evans covered up Jewish whistleblower Elaina Cohen’s allegations of serial abuse of women by a party staffer.

Cohen repeatedly warned Starmer and Evans that a staffer working for then-Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood — and allegedly Mahmood’s lover — was engaged in ‘sadistic’ and ‘criminal’ abuse of vulnerable Muslim women. The victims were fleeing domestic violence, allegedly inflicted through the now-defunct domestic violence ‘charity’ that she ran. Starmer and Evans did nothing. Mahmood remained on Starmer’s front bench and Cohen was sacked from her role as parliamentary aide.

One of the victims gave evidence at Cohen’s successful wrongful dismissal tribunal. She spoke of the horrific abuse she and others  suffered. This included blackmail and sexual exploitation. Her evidence was not challenged by Mahmood or his lawyers. At the tribunal, Mahmood admitted under oath that he’d personally made sure that Starmer was aware of Cohen’s allegations.

Labour’s sex offender problem is mountainous, as is Starmer’s protection of them and his contempt for their victims. All of this has been almost entirely ignored by ‘mainstream’ media.

For more on the Epstein Files, please read the Canary’s article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via the Canary