If I had a nickel for every time an editor has sent me an SFGate story and asked me to match it, I’d be at least a couple dollars richer. The San Francisco-based news website provides solid coverage of California public lands, especially our national parks.
So when my colleague Jaclyn Cosgrove told me the National Park Service had reportedly blacklisted SFGate, I wasn’t exactly shocked.
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I emailed the National Park Service to learn more. “Unfortunately, SFGate has distorted the facts and has caused confusion with their reporting with the mainstream media,” a spokesperson replied. “This has caused the Department to spend countless hours correcting their false narrative with other media outlets.”
Although the statement came from a park service email address, the wording is identical to a statement provided to SFGate by an Interior Department spokesperson.
But others — like questions about whether the park service is relying more heavily on seasonal employees amid a decline in permanent staff — went unreturned. And some — like an inquiry for a previous edition of a Boiling Point newsletter about an interpretive exhibit under scrutiny at Death Valley National Park — were fielded by a spokesperson for the Interior Department , rather than the park itself.
I’m not alone. When our wildlife and outdoors reporter Lila Seidman wrote about a wildfire that ripped through Joshua Tree National Park during last year’s government shutdown, she received responses from the Interior Department, but emails to the park service went unreturned.
Jack Dolan, an investigative reporter who often covers public lands, said he hasn’t received meaningful responses from the National Park Service since early last year.
And Cosgrove, who writes The Wild newsletter, said that park rangers remain friendly and helpful, but any communication involves a demand for all questions in writing.
Park service sources and advocates describe all this as part of a broader effort to centralize communications from sub-agencies to the Department of the Interior. Since last year, roughly 230 communications employees have been moved from the National Park Service to the Department of the Interior — part of a broader push in which more than 5,700 employees at the 11 agencies the Interior Department oversees were shifted from the agencies to the department, according to figures provided by the National Parks Conservation Assn., a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.
What’s more, the Interior Department must now approve many park service communications that were once left up to the parks themselves, said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Assn. That includes exhibits, news releases, website updates and even social media posts, said a source within the park service who asked to remain anonymous over fears of retaliation.
The consolidation “creates significant inefficiencies and removes a layer of accountability to the parks themselves,” Garder said. “It makes it difficult for parks to act nimbly using their professional discretion to make decisions about informing the public about developments in the park,” like a closed road, wildlife hazard or natural disaster.
In an email to The Times, the park service accused National Parks Conservation Assn. employees of donating to Democratic political campaigns and pointed out the nonprofit’s X account follows progressive politicians and groups. “Our parks are nonpartisan, but the NPCA isn’t and they are using you to further raise money off of our parks while never giving those funds to our parks,” a spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.
National Parks Conservation Assn.’s X account follows over 55,000 users of the platform, including both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and organizations. Garder also noted that the association’s longstanding role has been to advocate for national parks, rather than to raise money directly for them.
The park service email confirmed that officials are “modernizing” the Department of the Interior so that it “will share one voice when communicating the priorities of the Department.”
“The unification of the communication functions will allow for a more collaborative, creative and hands-on approach to Department communications,” the statement said, “and will modernize the federal government by providing a product that is not only better for the American taxpayer but also showcases the state-of-the-art communications capabilities of the United States of America.”
I asked whether I should attribute the statement to a spokesperson for the park service or the Interior Department. The spokesperson replied that I could attribute it to either.
A quick announcement
If you’re a Southern California local, you are probably familiar with PBS SoCal. On April 22, the public media organization is premiering the seventh season of the award-winning program “Earth Focus,” which will be followed by the eighth season in May. We’re excited for the eighth season in particular, because we collaborated with the PBS SoCal team on a few stories about the complexities of rebuilding Los Angeles. You can stream the show for free at pbssocal.org/earthfocus.
More recent land news
Karen Budd-Falen, the third highest-ranking official at the Department of the Interior, has been granted an ethics waiver to work on grazing issues despite potential conflicts of interests that prompted her to recuse herself from such matters during the first Trump presidency, according to Chris D’Angelo of Public Domain.
A pair of Republican senators have officially moved to overturn the management plan for Utah’s Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, casting uncertainty on its future and raising new questions about the future of public lands management, Caroline Llanes of Rocky Mountain Community Radio reports.
The Interior Department has officially pulled back more than 80% of its regulations tied to implementing the National Environmental Policy Act in a bid to streamline the environmental review process for major projects on federal public lands. Conservation groups say the changes will block public input and violate federal law, according to Hannah Northey and Scott Streater of E&E News by Politico.
The Trump administration is taking the final steps to undo the Public Lands Rule, which elevated conservation to an official use of Bureau of Land Management lands, Streater also reports. The rule allowed conservation groups to obtain leases for restoration work, similar to how the Bureau of Land Management awards leases to private contractors for extraction and development, points out Sage Marshall of Field & Stream.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Serviceis expected to soon release an updated proposalfor the rescission of the Roadless Rule, which blocked new road building and commercial logging on some 58 million acres of backcountry. The rollback would strike a big blow to hunting and fishing opportunities, according to a report from Trout Unlimited.
A few last things in climate news
Amid a global energy crisis that’s seen oil prices skyrocket, California has been particularly hard-hit due to a dearth of refineries and higher taxes and fees, all of which have left politicians, consumer groups and business interests arguing over who’s to blame, write Ivan Penn and Kurtis Lee for the New York Times.
In the latest maneuver in its campaign against renewable energy, the Trump administration will pay a French company $1 billion to walk away from two U.S. offshore wind leases, according to Jennifer McDermott of the Associated Press.
Southern California’s most destructive wildfires, wettest holiday season and hottest March heat wave have all taken place in the last 15 months, and there’s one clear through line connecting them all, scientists told my colleague Clara Harter.
Mosquitoes have gone year-round in Los Angeles, but business owners have indicated they’re not willing to pay to expand a promising effort to help control their numbers, my buddy Lila Seidman reports.
This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.
Viewers of the BBC documentary were left in tears after watching paramedics battle to save a 67-year-old man
23:02, 25 Mar 2026Updated 23:09, 25 Mar 2026
Ambulance left viewers in tears(Image: BBC screengrab)
Viewers were left emotional after a man tragically died during TV show Ambulance on Wednesday’s episode.
The most recent instalment of the BBC series, which follows ambulance crews in Yorkshire, saw an emergency team respond after receiving a call reporting that 67-year-old Steve had stopped breathing.
Critical care paramedic John was amongst those who raced to the location. As the team began CPR, John informed Steve’s partner Penny: “At the moment, the heart rhythm, Steve’s heart, there’s no electrical activity at all. It’s really not good I’m afraid.”
“I think you need to prepare yourself,” he continued. Penny mentioned that Steve was “quite stubborn”, with John responding: “So maybe, maybe he’ll prove me wrong. We’re not there yet.”
However, following 32 minutes of CPR, the decision was taken to stop and John had to deliver the devastating news to Penny, reports Yorkshire Live.
“Penny we’ve stopped,” he informed her. “I am really sorry.”
As they discussed what had happened, John reassured her: “Don’t second guess it. It wouldn’t have changed anything. Nothing you could have done, would have stopped that from happening.”
Penny recalled that there had been an “incredible sunset” that week, saying: “At least he saw that.”
Audiences were left devastated by the scenes, with one sharing on social media: “Sobbing for Steve and Penny. So glad he saw the beautiful sunset. With love.”
“I can’t deal with cardiac arrests,” one viewer wrote on X, including a crying emoji.
“This is brutal,” another individual commented on the platform. “This programme never fails to have me in tears,” admitted one viewer. “So much respect for the call handlers and paramedics.
“Awww wee Penny xxx, bless that paramedic man for his words of comfort,” wrote another, as a fellow viewer remarked: “Oh my goodness this programme Ambulance is so hard to watch.”
“Poor Penny,” said another moved viewer, while one more observed: “Such a dignified response from this lady to her partner just dying. Bless her heart.”
Ambulance airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Wednesdays at 9pm.
PHOENIX — The first pitch of the Dodgers’ 2026 season won’t capture the exuberance of the last pitch of 2025. But it will be meaningful in its own right, as the official first step of the team’s quest for a third straight championship.
How poetic that the same arm should deliver both pitches.
“It’s an honor for me,” Dodgers opening day starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto said Tuesday through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “And then it’s opening day at a Dodger Stadium home game, and that’s very [much an] honor to me. I also feel the responsibility.”
Yamamoto is scheduled to make one more Cactus League start, against the Padres on Friday, before taking the Dodger Stadium mound next Thursday when the Diamondbacks come to town. It will be the second opening-day start of Yamamoto’s MLB career, and his first at home.
It will also mark the end of a whirlwind offseason and spring training for Yamamoto, who not only shouldered a demanding postseason workload, but also navigated an especially quick turnaround to pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
“It’s hard to put into words,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He is just very driven, he’s very disciplined in his work. That’s some of the things that allows him to compete at a high level. Where most people would feel that you win the World Series MVP, you don’t have enough to pitch in the WBC. He wanted to pitch for his country, and now he’s really excited about the start of 2026.
“He is a very determined person. He really is. We’re just lucky he’s on our team.”
No one needs to be reminded that Yamamoto was a playoff hero last year, but let’s really break down his efforts.
On Oct. 14, Yamamoto made his third start of the postseason and threw a complete game against the Brewers to put the Dodgers ahead 2-0 in the NL Championship Series.
Eleven days later, he tossed another nine innings to help the Dodgers even the series against the Blue Jays. And he wrapped up the World Series with appearances on back-to-back days, starting Game 6 and finishing Game 7.
Yamamoto threw 526 pitches in the postseason, 235 in the World Series alone, and he still touched nearly 97 mph in his final inning of work.
Most pitchers would need at least a full offseason to recover. When Blake Snell slow-played his offseason because of lingering shoulder discomfort after the World Series run, the decision made all the sense in the world.
Yamamoto, however, was already pitching in meaningful games by March 6.
In Yamamoto’s first start of the WBC, he held Chinese Taipei hitless for 2 ⅔ innings. Then in the quarterfinal game against Venezuela last Saturday, he surrendered a leadoff homer to Ronald Acuña Jr. and a second-inning RBI double to Gleyber Torres before settling in for two scoreless innings. The eventual 8-5 loss eliminated Team Japan from the WBC.
“As Team Japan, the result was not what we were aiming for,” Yamamoto said. “But at a personal level, my condition was good.”
The season will be the true test for Yamamoto’s training methods, which have been infamous since before his transition from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, and are already spreading across the Dodgers’ clubhouse. Look no further than shortstop Mookie Betts this week lauding the effects of throwing a javelin.
If they continue to work, Yamamoto could be in the running for the Cy Young Award, after finishing third in National League voting last year.
“There’s high competition, there are a lot of great pitchers out there,” Yamamoto said, “but I hope that I get there.”
Yamamoto’s offseason work, however, wasn’t simply geared toward getting to opening day or winning an individual award. He knows as well as anyone that this team has set a high bar with back-to-back championships.
“The same goal,” Yamamoto said of 2026, “winning a world championship with this team.”
Now over four months removed from that final pitch of the 2025 World Series, one lesson has stuck with Yamamoto.
“I learned how difficult [it is] to get one win,” he said. “As a team, I want to be able to share that joy.”
She simply kept showing up for it anyway, through the long and often anonymous slog of the professional tour.
Now 32 and the oldest player in the top 10, Pegula is having her best season start yet.
The fifth-ranked American reached the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in January, falling to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. She followed that by capturing the Dubai 1000-level tournament, just a rung below the majors.
She is 15-2 so far in 2026, tied with Victoria Mboko in match wins and second only to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (17-3), who she defeated 6-2, 6-4 in the Dubai final.
Pegula is guaranteed to emerge from this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as the top-ranked American, overtaking No. 4 Coco Gauff, if she reaches the final.
Jessica Pegula kisses the Dubai trophy after defeating Elina Svitolina in the finals on Feb. 21.
(Altaf Qadri / Associated Press)
First, she will have to get past No. 12-seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, her fourth-round opponent on Wednesday. Bencic has not dropped a set in four previous meetings with Pegula.
“That will be a challenge for me,” said the characteristically even-keeled Pegula after defeating former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the third round on Monday.
A late bloomer, Pegula has taken the long road.
She failed to qualify for Grand Slam main draws in 12 of 14 attempts from 2011 to 2018, and didn’t reach the third round at a major until the 2020 U.S. Open at age 26. All three of her Grand Slam semifinal runs — along with her 2024 U.S. Open final — have come after she turned 30.
Pegula said this week that her patience and persistence stem from “always being a little more mature for my age even when I was younger.”
“I think as I’ve gotten older, your perspective changes as well,” she added.
Pegula, whose parents are principal owners of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, acknowledges that her wealthy family background can cut two ways.
Financial security offers freedom to push through the sport’s early years on tour, when results are uncertain and the grind is relentless. That same cushion might make it easier to walk away if the climb becomes too frustrating.
Jessica Pegula plays a backhand against Donna Vekic during their match at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
(Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Pegula says her motivation to pursue tennis came well before her family’s fortune grew.
“I’ve been wanting to be a professional tennis player and No. 1 in the world since I was like 7,” she said in a small interview room after beating Ostapenko this week.
“It’s a privilege, but at the same time I don’t want to do myself a disservice of not taking the opportunity as well,” she explained. “I’ve always looked at it that way.”
In the last few seasons, that maturity on the court has dovetailed with a growing leadership role off it.
Pegula has served for years on the WTA Player Council and was recently tapped to chair the tour’s new Tour Architecture Council, a working group tasked with examining the increasingly demanding schedule and structural pressures players say have intensified in recent seasons. The panel is expected to explore changes that could reshape the calendar and player workload in coming years.
Pegula said she hadn’t put up her hand to be involved but agreed after several players approached her to take the lead role — though she declined to say who they were.
“I think maybe as you mature … you realize how important it is to give back to the sport,” she said last week.
Life has also provided grounding and a wider lens.
The Buffalo native and Florida resident also married businessman Taylor Gahagen in 2021. Gahagen helps “holds down the fort” at home with the couple’s dogs and travels with her when possible. He is with her in Indian Wells.
“I have an amazing support system,” Pegula says.
Despite winning 10 WTA singles titles, achieving a career singles high of No. 3 in 2022 and the No. 1 doubles ranking, Pegula’s low-key demeanor means she flies a bit under the radar.
She’s not one for fashion statements, outlandish antics or attention-seeking initiatives, her joint podcast with close friend Madison Keys notwithstanding.
Instead, Pegula tends to go about her business quietly, relying on a calm temperament and a methodical style that wears opponents down over time.
She gets the job done — the Tim Duncan of the women’s tour.
“She’s just all about lacing them up and competing between the lines, and then trying to be as big an asset as she can to her peers off the court,” says Mark Knowles, the former doubles standout who has shared coaching duties with Mark Merklein since early 2024.
“I think one of her great attributes is she’s very level-headed,” Knowles adds. “She doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low.”
Her tennis identity echoes her steadiness.
Instead of bludgeoning opponents with power, the 5-foot-7 Pegula beats them with savvy, steadiness and tactical variety. A careful student of the game, she studies matchups and patrols the court with a composed efficiency that incrementally drains big hitters and outmaneuvers most rivals long before the final score confirms it.
Keys calls that consistency her “superpower.”
“She doesn’t lose matches that she shouldn’t lose,” the 2025 Australian Open champion said this week.
Because of injuries in the early part of her career, Knowles says Pegula might have less wear-and-tear than other players her age. And he and her team have prioritized rest and recovery, which included the decision to skip the tournament in Doha last month following her tiring Australian Open run.
On brand, there was no panic in Pegula after dropping the first set in her two matches so far at Indian Wells. As she’s done all season, she steadied herself to earn three-set wins.
Bucket-list goals remain, however. Chiefly, capturing a Grand Slam title.
Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Jelena Ostapenko during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Monday.
(Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Pegula jokes that she briefly interrupted a run of American female success when she fell in the 2024 U.S. Open final to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. But seeing close friend and teenage phenom Keys capture her major in Melbourne last year — after many wondered if her window had passed — hit closer to home.
“I think Madison winning Australia just motivated me even more,” Pegula says.
Although Pegula believes she is among the best hardcourt players in women’s tennis, that confidence hasn’t translated into success in the California desert. She has reached the quarterfinals just once in 10 previous appearances in Indian Wells.
“Why not try and add that one to the resume?” says Knowles, noting that she had never won the title in Dubai until last month. “She’s playing still at a very high level.”
Pegula says the key to keeping things fresh is maintaining her love of the game by continuing to improve and experiment with new ideas, a process that keeps her engaged mentally and eager to compete.
“I’m not afraid to kind of take that risk of changing and working on different things,” she says, “which just keeps my mind working and problem solving.”
For a player who never needed tennis, she remains determined to see how much more it can give her.
Newey’s Red Bull cars prevented Alonso winning at least two further championships, when he was at Ferrari in 2010 and 2012, and the two have long wanted to work together.
Aston Martin signed to become Honda’s works partner in May 2023, while the Japanese company was in the course of four consecutive drivers’ titles and two constructors’ championships with Red Bull.
Newey, a design legend regarded as the finest aerodynamic engineer in F1 history, said Honda’s problems were founded in its decision to quit F1 in 2021, only to change its mind on the basis of the new rules that are being introduced this year.
Newey, who joined Aston Martin in March last year, said he and the team did not know about Honda’s problems until November, when he, team owner Lawrence Stroll and chief strategy officer Andy Cowell visited Honda’s base in Tokyo “to discuss rumours” that the Japanese company “wouldn’t achieve” their “original target power”.
He added: “Out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.
“When they reformed, a lot of the original group had it now transpires disbanded and gone to work on solar panels or whatever.
“A lot of the group were new to F1 and didn’t have the experience they had previous.
“Plus, when they came back in 2023 that was the first year of the budget cap for engines.
“All their rivals had been developing away through 2021-2022, with continuity, existing team and free of budget cap.
“They re-entered with, let’s say, only, I’m guessing, 30% of their original base staff and now in a budget cap era so they started very much on the back foot and unfortunately they have not been able to catch up.”
Call the Midwife fan favourite Helen George has revealed why BBC viewers can resonate with the hit period drama as the latest series comes to an end
Dan Laurie Deputy Editor of Screen Time
18:12, 03 Mar 2026Updated 18:14, 03 Mar 2026
Helen George has played Nurse Trixie Aylward in Call the Midwife since 2012(Image: BBC / Neal Street Productions / Nicky Johnston)
Helen George has made a heartfelt admission as the countdown to the final episode of Call the Midwife series 15 begins.
The last episode of the current season airs this Sunday (March 8) before the BBC drama is rested to make way for a Second World War spin-off prequel and a film.
Ahead of the farewell before the residents of Poplar take a well-deserved break, Helen, who stars as Trixie Aylward, revealed how the believes programme is so popular because it shows the “truthful” side to real-life which many viewers relate too.
She told Radio Times: “It’s ugly and it’s dirty and it’s painful and it’s hard – it’s f***ing hard -and all that is shown on Call the Midwife. Not grotesquely glamorised and not sensationalised. Just truthfully.”
Helen added the period drama, which follows a group of midwives working in the East End of London around the 1950s and 60s and now early 70s “won’t be the same” when the series returns.
The 41-year-old actress added: “It is just a pause, because we know it’s coming back but it won’t be the same, with different characters leaving and whatever.”
Writer Heidi Thomas previously told Yours last month: “I don’t think it’s the last series in the classic form but we are going to take a break from it for a couple of years.”
“We’re going to do a film that involves most the current cast, set in 1972, possibly 1973.
“We’re going to do that first, then we’ll return to the current style.
“Series 16 will have a slightly different setting because of changes in NHS. It’ll still be in the East End of London but possibly something like a small community hospital or a GP practice, but that’s something I’ll be working on later this year.”
The synopsis for the final episode of series 15 teases: ““Sister Veronica must decide her future now she is not currently a nun, but not fully part of the world either.
“The Maternity Home prepares to close its doors, but Dr Turner is determined to preserve equipment and resources for his patients until the last possible moment. The Mullucks fight for the rights of all Thalidomide victims, while Cyril and Rosalind prepare for their wedding.”
The BBC has also released a photo of Sister Monica Joan lying in bed, eyes closed, with her hands by her side.
Is this the end for the adored sister? Viewers will have to wait and see what lies ahead for Sister Monica Joan.
Call the Midwife continues Sunday, March 8 at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer
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London, United Kingdom – “People here are tired, scared and feel forgotten,” says Nabila*, a Muslim mother of two in Basildon, a town in the English county of Essex.
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Sitting in her living room with a mug of tea, a Qur’an visible on the bookshelf and Japanese prints hanging to its right, she recalls a string of incidents in recent months: Glass thrown from a residential building at Muslim children, a racist attack on the local mosque where red crosses were daubed across its walls alongside the words “Christ is King” and “This is England”, and reports of drivers accelerating as Muslim women cross the road with their children.
Nabila has been documenting incidents of racism in Essex, her home county [Courtesy of Nabila]
According to the 2021 census, Basildon is 93 percent white, and Muslims make up less than 2 percent of the population. Campaigners have warned that in areas where ethnic minority communities are smaller and more geographically isolated, they face heightened risks, as visibility increases vulnerability.
A single mother working full time, Nabila has been documenting incidents of racism, supporting victims and organising meetings with local authorities.
She said she no longer feels safe in the place she calls home.
After being racially abused while walking through her favourite park, she stopped going there altogether. Women, she said, are increasingly changing their daily routines, constantly watching over their shoulders. Racism now permeates every aspect of their lives, she added.
At a women’s listening circle organised by Nabila in collaboration with the local authority at the Wat Tyler Centre, another Muslim woman, Zarka*, spoke about her experiences as a young mother in Basildon who wears the hijab.
After being told to “take that rag off your head” during the school run by a passer-by, she stopped taking her children to school for two weeks. Beyond verbal abuse, she described the cumulative effect of everyday hostility, from cars failing to stop at zebra crossings and hostile looks from passersby.
‘I can’t do this any more, Mum.’
Hundreds of miles north, similar experiences are unfolding in Scottish classrooms.
Etka Marwaha’s daughter Anisa was seven when she first experienced racist taunting at her primary school in Glasgow.
Marwaha said Anisa became quiet and withdrawn. She was isolated on the playground and subjected to racial slurs. Months later, she broke down in tears in front of her mother, explaining the abuse she had suffered.
On multiple occasions, Marwaha contacted the school, urging them to take action, even offering her own support on understanding racism. But, she said, they failed in their duty of care, and the extent of the problem was kept hidden.
It went on for two years before Etka felt compelled to take her daughter out of the school.
“The plan was never to move her into a different school,” she told Al Jazeera. “But she was refusing to go to school; she would come home very, very upset. She was isolated.
“She was in tears, saying, “I can’t do this any more, Mum.’ So she made the decision, at that young age, that ‘I want to get out of here.’”
The girl’s new school is not in the catchment area, nor is there a direct bus to it, causing further inconvenience. But it has a zero-tolerance approach to racism, and Anisa is happier.
At her new school, Anisa can speak about her experiences of racism and how it made her feel.
The ordeal brought back painful memories for Marwaha’s own experiences at school.
“The racist bullying, for me, started at secondary school. You’d think times have changed, that people have been educated, but I think things have changed for the worse when a seven-year-old can openly make a racist comment and that’s accepted by society, and parents don’t address it.”
Sam*, a doctor in northwest Scotland with dual heritage children, said he has been surprised by the level of racism in local schools.
“There has been a clear normalising of racist jokes and name-calling. Every one of our kids has been affected,” he said. “Perhaps the biggest surprise is how few other students stand up against racism. When I was growing up, if someone was racist, they would be the person being socially excluded. Now, silence. It has forced us to look at moving out of the UK.”
‘Racism is out of control’
In the latest incident of alleged and potentially dangerous racism, a man walked into Manchester Central Mosque on Tuesday, reportedly with an axe and weapons. The man was arrested. There had been 2,000 worshippers in the mosque at the time, for the evening tarawih prayers during Ramadan.
Official figures underline the scale of the problem.
In October 2025, the UK Home Office revealed that the number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales had risen for the first time in three years, including increases in racially and religiously motivated offences.
Religious hate crimes against Muslims rose by 19 percent, with a spike following the Southport murders and subsequent riots in mid-2025, the Home Office said.
The rise comes as hard-right politicians and activists, such as Reform leader Nigel Farage and the Islamophobic activist Tommy Robinson, rail against immigration. According to recent YouGov polling, if a general election were held tomorrow, Reform would lead with 24 percent.
Shabna Begum, head of Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, said, “Mainstream political and media actors have played in normalising and enabling racist narratives that have scapegoated migrants, people seeking asylum, Muslims and people of colour generally.”
In a report released last year, How Racism Affects Health, Runnymede highlighted the hypervigilance that people of colour have to operate with in order to guard their safety, and which causes long-term physiological damage, affecting life expectancy and mental health outcomes.
“For those that live in more disparate communities where they show up as minorities in a more visible way, that sense of threat is acute,” said Begum.
School suspensions for racist incidents have more than doubled in recent years, according to UK Department for Education data.
“Children as young as four are being sent home for racist behaviour,” Begum said. “This shows a society where racism is out of control, and that our school systems are failing to deal with the problem.
“They are making calculated decisions about where they will go, what travel routes they will take; withdrawing from regular social and community activities because they can no longer trust that those spaces will be safe for them.”
