It's six months since the government said it would appoint a "special representative on anti-Muslim hostility" – in other words, an Islamophobia tsar – to help tackle the crisis of rising hate against Muslims. So where are they?
Ramzy Alwakeel
@journoramzy.bsky.social
Deputy editor (news and investigations), @hyphenonline.com. How We Used Saint Etienne to Live out now. Propaganda account for pop music, social housing and local news. He/him 🏳️🌈
We asked five British Muslims how 9/11 changed their lives 25 years ago. 'I thought, "oh my gosh, it’s aliens. It’s got to be an alien attack. Who would do this?" And then I said to my friend: "If it’s anything to do with Muslims, we’re screwed."'
UK Muslims remember how 9/11 changed their lives - Hyphen
On the 25th anniversary of the attacks that ushered in the ‘global war on terror’, a teacher, a civil servant and an imam look back
hyphenonline.com
Muslim and Jewish leaders have called for Andy Burnham's government to go further on climate resilience following a punishing summer of extreme weather. “We live on the same planet... this is an area where interfaith cooperation is critical.” hyphenonline.com/2026/09/09/f...
Faith leaders urge Andy Burnham: go further on climate resilience - Hyphen
Imams and rabbis unite to call for better preparation for extreme weather as a result of climate change: 'We live on the same planet'
hyphenonline.com
This week marks four years since riots broke out involving Hindu and Muslim communities in Leicester. My colleague @sajeraj.bsky.social visited the city to find out what's been done to repair community relations – and why cuts to an adventure playground could be a disaster for the recovery.
Leicester riots: why park cuts could set back city’s recovery - Hyphen
Grassroots groups working to bring together Hindu and Muslim communities say the hard graft was left to them — and austerity isn’t helping
hyphenonline.com
New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
404media.co
50 green groups write to Andy Burnham demanding he be clear that climate change is the cause of the current extreme heat crisis. Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth and others say "the British public deserves leadership that speaks honestly about the nature of the challenges the country faces"
🔴 EXC: we spent nine months battling the Home Office for the release of basic data about the 'protective security for mosques' scheme. After two interventions from the ICO, we've finally got it. hyphenonline.com/2026/08/14/p...
Home Office mosque security scheme leaves hundreds in limbo - Hyphen
Exclusive: 510 mosques applied for funding to beef up security between July 2024 and November 2025. Just 199 were granted help in that time
hyphenonline.com
Was good to be part of this discussion yesterday with @joshih.bsky.social, @helenawadia.bsky.social and @mathildamall.bsky.social. What's to blame for the decline in local news? I argue it was the sector's acquisition by large corporations, and the rewiring of priorities that came with that.
Media Storm@mediastormpod.bsky.social · last mo.🌩️ NEW EPISODE 🌩️ 🗞️ The local news decline and why it matters 🎙️ With journalist & author @journoramzy.bsky.social and founder of @millmedia.bsky.social, @joshih.bsky.social ⬇️ LISTEN
This revelation is, or should be, abject humiliation for Burnham. It ought to precipiate a frenzied PR cleanup operation many times larger than that spent on whether or not Pc Harper's killers could be released early. But I won't hold my breath.
Guy Shrubsole@guyshrubsole.bsky.social · last mo.Revealed: just 20 out of of 6,600 Defra staff working on climate adaptation, as UK burns in fifth heatwave of this summer - FOI request by me @andyburnham.bsky.social needs to level with the country about the climate crisis & set out radical plan to tackle it 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I have written up the "Dobby's Grave" chortle, with my concerns about what it *really* says about the problems with British infrastructure ... backofmind.substack.com/p/chortle-on...
chortle on a chortle
an underestimated obstacle to infrastructure
backofmind.substack.com
Earlier this year, the DfE was hoping for a 2027 rollout of halal student finance – but with UCAS deadlines looming it is yet to commit to a launch date, meaning the window is closing for yet another cohort of Muslim students. Story by @lucascumiskey.bsky.social: hyphenonline.com/2026/08/06/h...
Still no launch date for halal student finance, government admits - Hyphen
A pre-tender notice earlier this year pointed to a 2027 rollout for alternative student finance, but time is running out
hyphenonline.com
Great analysis by @generationrent.bsky.social: a loaf of bread would cost nearly £7 if grocery prices had risen in line with private rents during my lifetime. Can't wait for the usual suspects to tell us how there's no crisis of housing affordability though. www.generationrent.org/2026/07/23/g...
Generation Rent unveils the ‘Cost of Renting Receipt’ (PRESS RELEASE) - Generation Rent
Generation Rent has today unveiled the ‘Cost of Renting Receipt’*, laying bare the huge increase in the cost of private rents since the 1988 Housing Act. The campaign group’s analysis** […]
generationrent.org
This is weirdly wrong. The MPs under discussion sat on their hands doing and saying very little through obviously disastrous policies, comical bad performance and abysmal, if not actually terrifying polling. And it wasn’t polling that moved them, it was *getting walloped in multiple elections*.
Buses, famously for the richer classes and upper orders.
I wrote about how the genre of "true crime" smugly validates our own moral superiority and enacts rituals of public humiliation. And I wrote about trying to avoid these traps when I created my own podcast, Passenger Seat.
🔍 The practice of housing asylum seekers in hotels has come under huge scrutiny in the last few years. Both the Tories and Labour have pledged to move more people into what’s called “dispersal housing”. Much less gets written about this – but we’ve been investigating it. 🧵
An asylum seeker was stabbed 16 times in Home Office accommodation, Hyphen has learned. Alieu Barry’s horrifying ordeal came after alleged warnings to the housing provider Serco about his housemate’s mental state. 📷KC Nwakalor
🔴 We fought the Home Office for nine months to see the outcome of an internal investigation into the death of Mehrab Omrani, who lay dead in asylum housing for up to four months, still wearing an ankle tag. They initially said we couldn't have it as it contained (among other things) personal data.
Processes around burials in the UK and particularly London are 'chaotic' and 'odd'. Sadiq Khan's old headteacher was among those whose family struggled to find burial space when he died. Now Khan is being urged to help fix it, as @weronikas.bsky.social reports 👇 hyphenonline.com/2026/07/16/l...
London needs city-wide burial strategy, Lib Dems urge - Hyphen
Call comes from London Assembly Lib Dem leader Hina Bokhari — who battled to get her dad, Sadiq Khan’s old headteacher, buried locally
hyphenonline.com
Our story (@hyphenonline.com) today about one of the Huntingdon train heroes and his struggle in the months since the stabbings is so heartbreaking and so damning - this guy put his life at risk to help strangers and in return he's been badly failed by everyone. hyphenonline.com/2026/07/09/h...
Huntingdon train attack hero still waiting for trauma therapy - Hyphen
Raza Mustafa Aslam was stabbed as he stood between the knifeman and fellow passengers on board an LNER train last year
hyphenonline.com
💳 Delivering the homes London needs will require investment. Our latest research has costed a plan that would provide an additional £912m a year to scale up social and affordable housebuilding. Read more ⏬ centreforlondon.org/publication/...
Delivering the Homes London Needs: what will it take?
London’s housing crisis is arguably the greatest challenge facing the capital. It touches the lives of almost every Londoner. Yet, our housing system is failing to meet need – destabilising...
centreforlondon.org
🔴 Green co-deputy leader @mothinali.bsky.social writes in @hyphenonline.com today: where was Nigel Farage’s outrage when the far right put my family, and many others, in danger? hyphenonline.com/2026/07/08/m...
Mothin Ali: Where was Farage outrage when my family was at risk? - Hyphen
Farage has ‘never been angrier’ than when his daughter’s address was made public. But he and his followers have put many more in danger
hyphenonline.com
I have to say, it's making me feel a little insane hearing commentators say Ed Miliband shouldn't be chancellor because of his "ideological zeal" for Net Zero, in a week where temperatures are so extreme that my kids are being sent home early every day and it's regularly 30 degrees inside my house
EXC: Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester Combined Authority lobbied govt to hand control of the 'protective security for mosques' scheme to local authorities, @hyphenonline.com can reveal. With Burnham now eyeing No10, could it happen sooner rather than later? hyphenonline.com/2026/06/24/g...
Burnham could get mosque security funding devolved - Hyphen
Exclusive: Greater Manchester Combined Authority is in discussions with the Home Office about taking control of the scheme
hyphenonline.com
A bit of good, if bittersweet, news on a Friday. A Staffordshire woman's plea to find a stem cell donor for her leukaemia-stricken mum appears to have been responsible for a 1,600% increase in Black potential donors signing up to the register, and no that isn't a typo.
really hungover so can't express this well but something about being at the emirates last night with everyone celebrating just felt like the complete antithesis of everything the right has tried to imagine london is. people want to get along, they just need a reason to be happy and have purpose
‘For the next few months, nothing will get done.’ Shehab Khan asks Labour MPs for their views on the leadership drama. hyphenonline.com/2026/05/19/a...
Labour leadership drama has ground the government to a halt - Hyphen
Next month’s byelection in Makerfield will determine whether Andy Burnham can launch a leadership challenge
hyphenonline.com