As the climate crisis made itself all too evident across the UK with searingly high temperatures, climate activists occupied the lobby of the UK headquarters of Federated Hermes.

They called on the company to stop funding the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). This is a massive ‘carbon bomb’ expected to generate 379 million tonnes of CO2 in its lifetime.

The activists from Cut The Ties to Fossil Fuels entered the lobby of Federated Hermes handing out leaflets to staff and displaying banners saying “EACOP is a Carbon Bomb”.

Outside they painted windows with the slogan “DROP EACOP” and stuck oily money over them, as well as setting off smoke flares and holding banners demanding that Federated Hermes Drop EACOP.

The action is part of a global week of action “Kick Polluters Out’ called for by impacted communities in Uganda and Tanzania.

Federated Hermes – financing the climate crisis

Federated Hermes is a leading investor in TotalEnergies, the principal partner in the controversial project to extract oil from underneath Lake Albert in Uganda and build the nine hundred mile pipeline to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania for export.

As part of Climate Action 100+, Federated Hermes claims to be engaging with TotalEnergies in order to convince it to adopt a transition strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Yet TotalEnergies regularly raises its oil and gas production targets, reduces its investments in sustainable energies and has refused to let their shareholders vote on their climate plan.

TotalEnergies is still by far the biggest shareholder in EACOP. In spite of this TotalEnergies is Federated Hermes’ number one fossil fuel investment.

The International Energy Agency has said that there can be no new oil and gas production if we are to reach Net Zero by 2050 and stay within survivable climate boundaries.

Present at the action, Caroline Hartnell, a grandmother from London, said:

Federated Hermes are hypocrites, EACOP is a ‘Carbon Bomb’ expected to generate 379 million tonnes of CO2 in its lifetime.

EACOP is displacing 100,000 people across Uganda and Tanzania, threatening both the Lake Victoria basin, a water source which is relied on by more than 40 million people, as well as putting at risk critical wildlife reserves supporting elephants, chimpanzees and lions.

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Shocking levels of violence and intimidation have been inflicted on the people in the path of the pipeline, including rapes and arson attacks. We demand Federated Hermes immediately divests from TotalEnergies, the leaders of this disastrous project and Cuts the Ties to Fossil Fuels.

The EACOP project has been condemned by the European Parliament, citing the wrongful imprisonment of human rights defenders and the arbitrary suspension of NGOs opposed to
the project, by the UN and groups such as Human Rights Watch who accuse it of devastating people’s livelihoods and exacerbating the global climate crisis.

Global Witness has also criticised the project, exposing a climate of intimidation and harassment aimed at silencing criticism of the pipeline. To date 30 major insurance firms and over 40 banks have publicly ruled out financing or insuring the controversial project.

Also at the action, Clare Finn, a retired solicitor from Brighton, said:

The world’s problems are clear to see; conflicts, displacement, exploitation, genocide, ecological breakdown and existential changes to our climate. These crises are intersectional and they share a common root; the systems of power that value private profit over people and planet.

At the heart of this toxic system sits the fossil fuel industry and we are here to call out Federated Hermes and all who fund and support this life sapping industry. We act in solidarity with everyone in the path of EACOP whose lives are being ruined by reckless corporate greed. Cut the Ties to fossil fuels!

Trust Chikodzo, Kick Polluters Out coordinator, Magamba Network, said:

Right now people in Nairobi are burning barricades over fuel prices while TotalEnergies counts record profits from war and chaos.

The Global South is not collateral damage, we are being bled dry so money flows abroad. We have the sun, the wind, the minerals, what we need is to finance people-powered systems and kick these polluters out.

Featured image via Cut The Ties to Fossil Fuels

By The Canary

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The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) have been pushing forward with the ‘End Not Defend’ campaign to make sexual harassment in the workplace a reportable harm under health and safety regulations.

Responding to a recent consultation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – which focused on necessary changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) – the union has called out the HSE’s failure to address this “critical and longstanding gap in the UK’s workplace safety framework”.

Highlighting that sexual harassment has been excluded in the HSE consultation, the BFAWU state:

This omission is not technical – it is structural.

If workplace harm is not recognised within RIDDOR, it is not systematically recorded, not prioritised, and not effectively prevented.

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The Workers Policy Project launched the End Not Defend campaign to directly confront this widespread issue.

Justifying the crucial need for this campaign, they state on their website:

2 in 5 (43%) women and 18% of men report having experienced sexual harassment at work. It also disproportionately affects workers in low paid, and insecure worker like young people, women, minoritised ethnicities, and those reporting a disability.

Most workers don’t report sexual harassment due to fear of retaliation, damage to career prospects and weak reporting systems, or simply because they don’t understand their experiences.

What is RIDDOR?

RIDDOR is a piece of law in the UK that places a legal duty on employers to report certain harms in the workplace, which can impact an employee’s health and safety. The current list of harms reportable under this legislation are workplace deaths, injuries, diseases, and also any ‘near misses’ to protect the wellbeing of staff members.

It also ensures that employers report any serious workplace harms to the regulator and record them nationally. Regulators can then use this data to identify where they need to implement inspections, enforcement action, or preventative measures to make sure bosses prioritise the health and safety of staff.

As BFAWU underscore in their proposal, seen by the Canary:

What is reported can be regulated. What is regulated can be prevented.

However, as the policy document outlines, sexual harassment is one of the most common issues in the workplace and causes great harm to those who experience it. Despite this, it is excluded from the RIDDOR framework and is not reportable at all.

Moreover, the law does not even recognise sexual harassment as a criminal offence, leaving victims with nowhere to turn and allowing perpetrators to intimidate them into silence. A feeling that far too many women will be able to relate to in a society where sexual abuse is only increasing in prevalence.

In practice, this means that HSE has no regulatory oversight of sexual harassment in the workplace with the oversight responsible to the employer. As a result of employers seeking to protect their public image and reputation, reports of sexual harassment – if they have felt confident enough to raise it with their boss – are subject to the views of the employer.

Therefore, this often makes victims worry about their job security and enables employers or colleagues to intimidate those affected into silence for fear of “rocking the boat”.

Sexual harassment is a safety risk

As many victims will recognise and undoubtedly relate to, sexual harassment causes significant harm to those who experience it. This includes the psychological and physical harm it inevitably causes, which can further increase self-awareness of insecurity and unsafety in the workplace.

Furthermore, because such behaviour is often repeated and systemic, women are disproportionately affected by this offensive conduct.

Ian Hodson, President of the BFAWU, told us:

For too long employers have closed ranks to protect themselves while workers are left to carry the trauma, fear and consequences of workplace sexual harassment alone. Too often the system is designed to defend perpetrators and protect employers’ reputations while silencing workers rather than delivering justice.

End Not Defend is about changing that balance of power. Work should never come at the cost of your dignity, safety or humanity. Employers have a duty to prevent harassment, not cover it up after the damage is done.

If they fail to protect workers, there must be real accountability and real consequences.

Every worker deserves the right to go to work without fear, intimidation or abuse. That should be the absolute minimum in any civilised society.

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This blatant ignorance and lack of sufficient oversight expose employees to harm and leaves them vulnerable, and policymakers should have addressed it long ago. Ensuring that RIDDOR includes sexual harassment would go a long way towards shifting the burden away from individuals to businesses. In turn, this would help to highlight the structural risks for which employers themselves are responsible.

As a result, it would be a priority for employers to address, resolve and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, as they already do with other potential hazards and injuries.

Labour MP John McDonnell has given his full support to the BFAWU’s policy proposal and will champion this proposed change to RIDDOR in the House of Commons.

Women deserve to feel safe at work

BFAWU are proposing that HSE introduce another category under RIDDOR framework which would allow reports of sexual harassment incidents at work, systemic or repeated patterns of behaviour and also incidents involving abuse of power. Going further, employers would have to report third-party harassment as a form of reportable harm, including sexual harassment committed by customers, clients, and contractors.

Prevention is also better than cure – and represents a significantly overlooked vacuum of policy in our society. BFAWU are making their intention clear that they want to prevent these harms in the workplace entirely. To do this, they argue that employers should also report near misses of attempted harassment.

After all, perpetrators often escalate these predatory behaviours, creating a foreseeable harm that employers can easily prevent in practice.

Featured image via Workers Policy Project

By Maddison Wheeldon

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We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

If there’s anything to make you realise you need a new bed set-up, it’s this inescapable sweltering heat.

Mattresses can get sweaty, and you might find your sheets soaked in one night (a nightmare if you find changing your sheets a snoozefest).

In other words, it may be time for an upgrade. According to The Sleep Foundation, you’ll need to replace your mattress every six to eight years, or if it’s negatively impacting your sleep.

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Well, here’s some good news for you: whether you’re in the market to replace your mattress or just want a fresher sleeping sitch, Emma currently has 25% off its entire site right now.

Until June 8th, the retailer is offering huge savings (of up to £200 in some cases) on its mattresses, mattress toppers, pillows, duvets, and even beds.

You know what that means – a ton of budget-friendly ways to upgrade your sleep set-up for summer, even if you’re not trying to buy a whole new mattress right now.

To help you make a decision, here is the HuffPost UK-approved round-up of the best products available in Emma’s Spring Sale.

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Looking for a plush mattress that won’t compromise support? Look no further than Emma’s Elite mattress, which blends memory foam with support to mould to your body shape and relieve pressure at seven targeted pressure points, all at the same time. Its cover is completely removable, so you can throw it in the washing machine and keep it fresher for longer. Plus, you won’t even need to worry about sweating in the same way, because it has two whole layers dedicated to boosting airflow throughout the mattress, so you won’t wake up sweaty and all sunk into your mattress.

Firmness: Medium soft
Layers: 7
Height: 27cm

If you’re a hot sleeper all year round, opting for a mattress with a more medium feel, like this one, could help with the night sweats. Loaded with ThermoSync, this mattress is designed specifically for temperature regulation, while still providing that same pressure relief as the Original Elite.

Firmness: Medium
Layers: 6
Height: 27cm

Not sure whether you like firm or soft? Get your brain out the gutter, I’m talking about mattress toppers, silly! As someone who’s only ever rented, it’s not like I’ve ever had much say in the feel of my mattress, but when I tried this topper out it changed the game completely. It’s two sided, with one firm and one medium, so you can try both out and find out which you prefer. Or switch between the two, it’s completely up to you.

Height: 6cm
Firmness: Soft to firm.

When you’re doing out with the old, in with the new, you might as well have a fresh start with everything – not just your mattress. This new frame is made from minimalist metal, to keep you room feeling light and airy, and has plenty of storage space if you’re an out of sight kinda person.

Again, Emma’s spoiling us for choice with this double-sided pillow. On one side, firm memory foam, for those nights when you need a little extra hold, and on the other a soft and fluffy microfibre sensation that’s akin to sleeping on a cloud.

Calling all hot sleepers (again!). This set of pillows is each coated in a layer of the brand’s Premium ThermoSync that somehow magically maintains your body’s ideal temperature so you’re not panting the second your head meets its surface. Its removable cover also wicks moisture away from your face, so that if you do sweat in the night, your skin won’t be drowning in it.

I’m a staunch believer in one item for multiple uses, and of course that translates to my duvet. I don’t want to have to take out a different duvet for the summer and winter months, so I’m grateful that this one works for every weather eventuality, thanks to the fact it comes with two layers, so you can assure yourself you’ve done the work of adding and removing heat when the temperature changes.

Feeling overwhelmed with stress isn’t exactly conducive to a good night’s sleep. Don’t worry, though, this weighted blanket is here to save the day, as its addition of your choice of seven of 13.5kg will help soothe away your troubles through the power of gravity.

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On 27 May energy regulator Ofgem announced that it will raise the energy price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026 by a massive 13%. That’s the sharpest hike in household energy prices of any summer in the past four years.

Bill-payers under the cap will now pay the equivalent of £1,862 a year from 1 July to 30 September for gas and electricity. That’s up from the current equivalent of £1,641 a year – an increase of around £18 a month, based on typical use.

The cap applies to anyone on the default payment plan, rather than a fixed-rate tariff. The latter accounts for some 40% of all accounts.

Cat Hobbs, director of nationalisation campaign group We Own It, told the Canary:

Today’s announcement shows one thing: when governments fail to show the ambition and creativity needed to fix big problems, it is ordinary households that pay.

‘Continued volatility in global energy markets’

Ofgem blamed the war in Iran for the price increase. Tim Jarvis, the watchdog’s CEO, said:

Today’s price change reflects continued volatility in global energy markets. This means higher wholesale gas prices, driven by ongoing conflict in the Middle East, is impacting the price we pay for energy.

The price of oil and gas surged following Trump and Netanyahu’s attack on Iran on 28 February. In response, Iran, and later the US, almost completely closed the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic. Around 20% of the world’s oil and 33% of its liquid natural gas would usually pass through the narrow sea channel.

Of course, that increase in oil and gas prices has been passed straight to bill-payers. Meanwhile, oil majors like Shell saw their first-quarter profits surge by 115% as they profiteer from the excuse of the war in Iran.

Likewise, UK food prices are predicted to reach 50% higher than the start of the 2021 cost-of-living crisis, driven by climate and energy shocks, along with supermarket profiteering.

As per usual, Ofgem was quick to suggest methods for households to keep their bills down. These include switching or fixing your tariff, or swapping from standard credit to direct debit. Likewise, customers on smart meters can also take advantage of cheaper electricity at the weekends.

Owing to the increasing level of renewable sources in the UK’s energy mix insulating us somewhat from the oil crisis, electricity bills won’t suffer too much of an increase. However, gas bills will see a far steeper rise over the coming months. While electricity bills will increase by around 5%, gas bills will instead shoot up by 24%.

North Sea oil isn’t the answer

Shamelessly, however, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tried to blame green initiatives for the rising prices. Following the UK right in looking to Trump for its answers, she instead urged drilling for North Sea oil:

Energy bills are rising again. Labour will blame Iran, but you’re paying more because of Ed Miliband’s net zero taxes and refusal to drill our own oil and gas. Our Cheap Power Plan would cut bills by 20% by scrapping the green taxes, scrapping VAT and drilling in the North Sea.

As the Canary has to report every time right-wing fanatics trot out this tired talking point — North Sea oil is not the answer.

The two largest oil and gas fields remaining in the UK-controlled North Sea are the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. However, they’re already 90% depleted. As such, we’d have to use extraction methods that are both energy-intensive and extremely costly.

On top of that, research estimated that both fields would produce just 3% of the gas that the UK currently imports. As government advisers have already stated:

Any increases in UK extraction of oil and gas would have, at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future.

We Own It

Meanwhile, Labour energy secretary Ed Miliband was about as useless in the face of rising bills as we’ve come to expect, stating:

To help people facing higher costs, we’ve frozen fuel duty and made bus travel free for children across England in August. We’ve also taken £150 of costs off energy bills for the years ahead, on top of extending the Warm Home Discount to around 6 million families.

That £150 discount refers to the last Ofgem price cap review, which saw a fall of 7% from 1 April. Labour claimed that it was funded by asking the rich to “pay their fair share” in the Autumn budget. However, mentioning it now — after Ofgem announced a 13% rise — is a remarkable display of mealy-mouthed ineptitude.

Instead, We Own It director Cat Hobbs has a more radical plan than sitting back and watching the bills rise. She stated that:

 The window of opportunity to bring down our energy bills, as the government promised to do at the last election, is not yet closed.

The government can create a publicly owned energy retailer as a low-cost option for households. A publicly owned supplier can cut energy bills by relying on homegrown renewable energy as well as reinvesting profits into cutting bills.

It is also time to rethink the private ownership of our energy grid. Across the sector, energy companies made £23.1 billion in profits last year, at a time when household energy bills were going up, and families were being squeezed on all fronts. Reinvesting profits that are currently being paid out to shareholders into cutting bills could go a long way to cut our energy bills and save people from falling further into fuel poverty.

As Hobbs points out, in spite of Ofgem’s feeble attempts at regulation, privatised energy companies have continued to rake in massive profits. Meanwhile, households have suffered under massive energy bills.

It’s high time that we end the failed experiment of energy privatisation. Politicians and the regulators currently split their loyalties between bill-payers and the energy companies — and the companies have far deeper pockets. Just imagine what bills could look like without the lure of the private sector to distract our government.

Featured image via Jack Taylor/Getty Images

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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If you’re reading this in the office to distract from how swelteringly hot you are, we may have good news for you. The Green Party is calling for workplaces to have maximum temperature caps:

Climate justice is social justice. https://t.co/b2I31KSLWf

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 26, 2026

Beat the heat

As the Greens have noted, those calling for caps include the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Of the former, the CCC has published a report, which notes:

Set maximum temperature regulations for workplaces. Maximum working temperature regulations would address the increasing risks that high temperatures pose to workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of the necessary cooling. Businesses are largely responsible for investing in their own adaptations but must ensure that workplaces and working practices are safe for employees, including for those working outside.

The report adds:

We propose a target indoor temperature range of 16°C–25°C, informed by existing minimum workplace temperature regulations and guidelines on upper limits for comfort and cognitive performance in school spaces with normal levels of activity.

Maintaining cool temperatures would require air conditioning. This would have made the policy difficult for the Greens to get behind in the past, because air conditioning is energy intensive. Renewables have progressed so much, however, that we can realistically expect to hit net zero in the coming decades.

Cooling isn’t the only solution either, with the report noting “flexible staffing” can allow businesses to remain open without turning the air con up to 11. As Polanski has said, insulation can reduce temperatures too:

We could have seen a nationwide programme of home insulation, going door to door, making sure every home can keep in the heat, so no-one would risk getting sick or dying because they can’t afford heating in the winter.

Why is this Government running from crisis to crisis? https://t.co/YqJSz4Kiqj

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 27, 2026

Insulation keeps homes cooler too!

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) May 27, 2026

If we’re installing air conditioning, we should use this opportunity to mandate adequate Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, which prevent the spread of airborne illnesses like coronavirus. Such systems would obviously represent a cost to businesses, but this would balance out in the long run through decreased sickness. It would additionally enable us to better weather any future pandemics.

Workers rights

The TUC has also spoken out on maximum workplace temperatures, writing in December 2025:

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 say that your employer must maintain a reasonable temperature where you work, but they do not specify a maximum temperature.

They add:

The TUC has called for the introduction of an upper limit on workplace temperature so that employers would be forced to act when the temperature inside reaches 24°C. It would mean that staff could be sent home, and their employers prosecuted, if temperatures at work reach 30°C (or 27°C for those engaged in physically demanding work). The TUC has set out the case for a legally enforceable maximum temperature.

Said legal case covers the negative health impacts that the heat can have on people, including:

• Dizziness.
• Delirium.
• Fatigue.
• Rashes.
• Collapse.
• Cramps.
• Exhaustion.
• Stroke.
• Death.

While most people don’t want to be disgustingly hot at work, you have to remember that many Britons treat misery as a national duty, and as such have responded like this:

With air conditioning and buildings built to get heat out of them quickly, most buildings here have no air conditioning and sre built to trap heat in and prevent it leaving

— Jackson Macmanus ‍ (@JacksonMacmanus) May 26, 2026

They're also calling for it to be cooler outside – that's why they're opposing climate change

— Willem Moore (@willem_moore_uk) May 27, 2026

Thankfully, not everyone reacted with misplaced fury:

People being wilfully dense here and ignoring the fact this is *obviously* about ensuring proper safety standards are met (aircon, water availability, breaks, not expecting strenuous work in extreme heat) on the part of employers – not having the day off every time it hits 20. https://t.co/q79oYcXLzK

— IN THE 80s PETER MANDELSON WENT MAD (@ABU_N3RVEGAS) May 26, 2026

The battle

Because the Green Party is supporting something that will make people’s lives better, we’ve no doubt the establishment media will soon come out against it. We’ll have columnists telling us they worked in 75°C kitchens when they were a student, and it never did them any harm; we’ll have others arguing Polanski is clamping down on our God-given right to die of heat stroke in a Slough-based HQ of a regional insurance broker.

When the backlash hits, ignore the noise and remember that things can and should get better.

Featured image via Jon Rowley (Getty Images) / Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)

By Willem Moore

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Former Conservative attorney-general Michael Ellis KC has suggested that US tech giant Palantir could have grounds to sue London mayor Sadiq Khan. The news follows Khan blocking a £50m deal between the shady AI firm and the Metropolitan police.

Back on 22 April, the Guardian reported that Palantir was negotiating the supply of AI tools to the Met police for use in criminal investigations. The talks sparked fears within both the public and the force itself over allowing the US company access to sensitive data.

However, on 21 May, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) exercised its power to block the deal. The mayoral department has the power to scrutinise any public procurement contract over £500,000.

MOPAC pointed out that the Met committed a “clear and serious breach” in failing to present its procurement strategy for approval. A spokesman for the mayor explained that:

given the tight budgetary constraints the police and all public services are operating under, it is even more important that robust processes are followed when awarding contracts as large as £25 million a year. The public would expect full and proper scrutiny of whether contracts like this provide value for money.

In this case, the Met only engaged with one potential supplier, Palantir. It also did not present their procurement strategy to the deputy mayor for approval as required. The process followed by the Metropolitan Police Service for the award of the contract has not adequately ensured, or demonstrated, value for money.

But the other fascist tech companies do it….

Following the Khan’s veto, the genocide-linked tech company was quick to lash out publicly. Palantir’s chief for the UK and Europe, Louis Mosley – coincidentally, the grandchild of renowned fascist Oswald Mosley – told Times Radio that:

I think the mayor is putting politics over public safety. He talks about values but I think what Londoners’ value is not being mugged, not being raped by a serving police officer, and that’s really what the focus here should be.

Here, the Palantir boss appears to have forgotten that his company’s contract to investigate Met officers is an entirely separate deal. Conveniently, he’s also overlooked the 1,000 members of the public who emailed Khan to ask that he block the contract. Mosley also stated that:

We may work with Israel, but so does Amazon, and so does Microsoft. We may work with the Trump administration supporting the immigration enforcement arm of his government, so does Amazon, so does Microsoft … why do we get singled out?

Mosely makes good point here – a rarity for the Palantir chief. The UK’s public services should also drop Amazon and Microsoft as soon as possible. After all, both of them work with genocidal Israel and the bloody-handed Trump administration.

‘Values and ethics’ is it now?

Following Mosley’s public tirade, ex-attorney general Michael Ellis decided to throw his unwelcome hat into the ring. On 24 May, he characterised MOPAC’s move as:

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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