Civil Rights leader and founder of the Rainbow-PUSH coalition, Reverend Jesse Jackson, died last week at the age of 84 following the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2015. Jackson was a protege of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. until King’s assassination in April 1968. Fidel Castro and Jesse Jackson . . .
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The Supreme Court of the United States ruling on Feb. 20 invalidated most of President Donald Trump’s exorbitant tariffs levied since April 2025 that were used to bully countries into agreeing to a multitude of Trump’s demands. In a 6-3 vote — a rare ruling against Trump — SCOTUS determined . . .
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In 2025, the 80% of workers with no or few connections to investments faced a soft labor market. While there were no mass layoffs — except for the federal government workers — jobs were hard to find, and raises were limited to 3.2%, according to the Society for Human Resource . . .
Continue reading Thorns in Trump’s rosy picture of the economy at Workers.org
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Speakers at Portland’s Feb. 21 Cuba education program outlined the impact of the recent U.S. oil blockade of Cuba, and explained how Cuba and the rest of the world are resisting and cooperating to help Cuba survive. The points they made are summarized here: Cuba has an exceptional history of . . .
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Desde Jersey City, Nueva Jersey, hasta Chicago y Los Ángeles, desde las grandes ciudades hasta los pequeños pueblos rurales, los jóvenes están saliendo a las calles para expresar su oposición a la invasión de los matones del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE). Y hay buenas razones para . . .
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It’s been revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) gave civil servants over £12.7 million in bonuses in the tax year 2024-2025.
The Telegraph revealed that the Department gave 86,757 junior members of staff an extra £141.10, totalling £12.7 million. This surpasses last year’s bonuses – totalling £11.2m paid for 82,526 members of staff.
To add to this, almost 200 senior civil servants received an average bonus of £2,122.35. However, some got even more than this. The permanent secretary, Peter Schofield, and other executives, Amanda Reynolds and Catherine Vaughan, all got somewhere between £10,000 and £15,000 extra last year.
Schofield is one of the people responsible for many DWP failures, including the constant mishandling of the carers scandal. In January he was forced to answer to the Work and Pensions committee for the department’s part in demonising carers.
Chair of the committee Debbie Abrahams asked him how the DWP could justify not making any changes and the department’s attitude towards carers. Steve Darling MP accused him of talking “blancmange”.
To this, Schofield gave a ridiculous soundbite
We care, we deliver we adapt. We work together, we value everybody
Schofield resigned recently, but this was claimed to be for personal reasons, not, of course, him taking responsibility.
On top of these cash bonuses, 57,785 junior civil servants were given reward vouchers of around £39.44. This added up to an extra £4.4 million.
The DWP have, of course, defended this. A spokesperson said:
The DWP is the largest government department with over 90,000 employees who work to deliver vital services to millions of people, including benefits, pensions and employment support.
It is important the Civil Service is able to remunerate its staff in line with the private sector to attract and retain the best talent, as it delivers on the Government’s priorities to create opportunity and reform the welfare system.
It is important that people are paid for their work. But Peter Schofield’s salary last year was between £205,000 and £210,000. This rose from between £195,000 and £200,000 the year before. That’s more than enough “remuneration” without an extra 10k on top.
It’s disgusting that so many people whose jobs are to make disabled and poor people’s lives hell are then being rewarded for that. It’s like saying “well done on kicking that sick scrounger off the benefits they need to stay alive!”
But it’s especially vile when you consider that the narrative being pushed by the department is that their expenditure is so high due to benefit fraud. £12.7 million is no drop in the ocean, especially from a department that claims the only way to save money is to cut benefits.
From April, new, disabled Universal Credit claimants who can’t work will receive half as much as current claimants. This means that instead of £429.80 a month, new claimants will get just £217.26. That’s a loss of £212.54 a month and £2550.48 a year. But hey at least they can afford to give their staff a nice cushy bonus.
If the DWP were so desperate to save money, staff bonuses would surely be the way to go. However, if you’re gonna do a job that vile, you’re not gonna do it without a decent financial incentive.
It just proves how fucking awful the DWP is that the only way they can keep staff is essentially through bribing them to stay.
Featured image via the Canary
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A murder victim’s disability received fleeting mentions in court when it emerged Zahwa Mukhtar’s hearing aid was found by police, where she died outside a Romford care home.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, witness Abigail Winter said the 27-year-old was “acting crazy”, “screaming”, and “shouting” along the road when she encountered her in Hackney.
During cross-examination, defence barrister, Michael Borrelli KC, asked if Abigail appreciated Zahwa had “serious hearing problems”.
“No,” she stated. “I just thought she was very loud.”
At age three, Zahwa contracted meningitis, which left her deaf in one ear.
A hearing aid, recovered from her ear, was one of several of Zahwa’s items retrieved from outside Chadwell House care home where she died in the early hours of Saturday 16 August. Her shoes, an earring, a fake eyelash and a brown and leopard print crossbody handbag were also recovered.
The aspiring accountant fell backwards from standing after a punch to the neck by the defendant — Duane Owusu, of Althorne Way, Dagenham — who denies murder and manslaughter. She suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injury.
After watching distressing footage of the incident, tearfully Abigail said: “It happened so quickly. It was a blur. When he pushed me away, I didn’t see him hit her.”
Everyone was “screaming and shouting” to return to Zahwa, but Owusu said no, Abigail told the court.
Nonetheless, the driver drove back towards Zahwa on two occasions — the second U-turn is what led to the car being stopped by police nearby on suspicion of drugs.
The police stop had finished by about 5.20am and Zahwa was eventually found unresponsive by an officer at 5.31am after being alerted to her laying motionless on the ground by two separate passersby.
When asked by prosecutor, Henrietta Paget KC, why she didn’t tell police about Zahwa, Abigail replied: “In my head, at first, I thought she was just going to get up and walk down while we were there, but I didn’t want to stand in front of them and say what had happened because I didn’t want them to think I was crossing everyone.”
“You didn’t want anyone to think you were a grass?” Judge Richard Marks KC interjected. Abigail agreed.
Footage from a Ring video doorbell footage captured Abigail and Paige talking while walking away. In it Abigail can be heard saying, “See, someone like that, she’ll fuck you and cry rape,” referring to Zahwa.
Mr Borrelli, defending, questioned what she meant. “That she was acting crazy and when I said about her being in the car and she kept saying she didn’t say what she said. She was crazy. She was acting mad.”
“Would you have made a comment like that about somebody you knew had been seriously hurt?” Mr Borrelli enquired.
“No, definitely not,” she answered.
When she later learned Zahwa had died, Abigail remembered her and Paige “crying for hours”.
“We were being sick. We were just really stressing.”
Zahwa had travelled in a silver Mercedes with Abigail, Owusu, 36, and others, towards Dagenham after encountering the group for the first time in Hackney.
She had “just appeared in the group”, Abigail said, and later began getting involved in arguments between Owusu, known as “Nasty”, and the other men. Abigail didn’t believe the arguments were “serious” but told Zahwa to stay out of them.
She told jurors that Zahwa was “making a rubbing motion” and threatening to stab (“nank”) people in the car.
She added: “Her hands were down. It looked like she was sharpening something.”
There has been no evidence to suggest Zahwa was in possession of a weapon.
It was agreed everyone, including Zahwa and the defendant, had taken nitrous oxide using balloons. At the house rave Abigail and the others had been at, she had taken up to two pills and several “small bumps” of cocaine.
The plan was to go home after being in and around Stoke Newington Road, but Zahwa remained with them.
“She was alright at first,” Abigail explained, but then she began arguing with Paige. “I’m not sure what it started over, but I remember them shouting at each other.”
“[Zahwa] went for Paige in the car and they had a little scuffle in the back. She grabbed her hair and started pulling it.”
The car pulled over, but Abigail was unsuccessful stopping the altercation. However, Zahwa apologised and was initially calm for a short time before “going mad”, Abigail alleged.
“She was biting her nails and spitting them at us and kept saying, ‘White bitches’, ‘White trash’.”
Her nails were aimed towards the floor of the car at Abigail’s legs, she clarified.
“The next thing I remember is she went to take a video of us.”
The seconds-long clip, a short pan of the car filmed from the back of the Mercedes at 4.33am, had previously been shown at The Old Bailey. On Tuesday, the prosecution drew attention to an “annoyed female voice that says, ‘Ah, please stop it’,” before the video cuts off.
The video was recovered from Zahwa’s iPhone alongside photos of her leaving home at 7pm on Friday 15 August, another in Palatine Road shortly after 11pm and inside the pub shortly after midnight on Saturday 16 August.
Abigail continued: “Nasty said pull over the car and get her out because she was causing too much trouble in the car. I think he just said, ‘Pull over’.”
“In what tone?” Ms Paget quizzed, but Abigail couldn’t remember.
She said: “He tried to tell her to get out the car, she wouldn’t get out. He threw her phone on the grass and said, ‘Go and get your phone’. Then he was trying to push her and she was hanging on to him.”
She added: “I just remember him getting out the car and I got out and ran round. [Zahwa] was out of the car and [Owusu] was out of the car. I ran round and he was shouting.
“I didn’t want him to do anything or her to do anything, so I grabbed him to say ‘Stop! What are you doing?’ and he pushed me away. The next thing I see, she’s on the floor.”
The defence claimed that Owusu tried to get out of the car and stand up, so Zahwa, who had been sitting on his lap, “tips out backwards”.
Mr Borrelli added: “He continued to get out of the car and then stumbles and trips over her.”
The trial continues.
Featured image via the Canary
By Vicky Gayle
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Extra context added because this headline is wildly misleading.