LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Kashmiri and Pakistani-origin Shabana Mahmood as the new home secretary – this is for the first time in the UK’s history that anyone from a Pakistani and Muslim background has risen to the powerful position of the head of the Home Office.

The announcement came in the wake of Angela Rayner’s resignation as Deputy Prime Minister over her flat’s scandal. The Home Office oversees immigration, policing, and national security administration.

“It is the honour of my life to serve as Home Secretary. The first responsibility of the government is the safety of its citizens. Every day in this job, I will be devoted to that purpose,” Mahmood said.

Mahmood was born to Kashmiri-Pakistani parents, Zubaida and Mahmood Ahmed, in Birmingham in 1980. Her parents are originally from Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, but decades ago moved to Jhelum’s Bohriyan village near Ludhar. Shabana spent her early years in Saudi Arabia before returning to the UK. She pursued her law degree at Lincoln College, Oxford, and qualified as a barrister specialising in professional indemnity cases.

She entered politics in 2010. She was elected as an MP from Birmingham Ladywood, marking a turning point in her political career. She was one of the UK’s first female Muslim MPs. Since then, she has held several key roles, including Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Minister for Prisons.

Last year, she spoke to Geo News at length on how she has faced harassment and intimidation from members of the local Pakistani community. She is now facing the worst kind of racist and Islamophobic attacks from the far-right extremists after her appointment as the Home Secretary.

After winning the 2024 election, she was appointed as justice secretary and lord chancellor. She introduced several schemes to manage the overcrowded prisons and to address the court backlogs. Last week, she introduced major legislation in Parliament aimed at reforming the prison system in the UK.

Home Secretary Mahmood is set to take on one of the toughest briefs in government as pressure mounts over record Channel crossings, asylum hotels, and migration.

As lord chancellor and justice secretary over the past year, Mahmood has been tasked with tackling the jail overcrowding crisis and has just introduced major legislation to Parliament to overhaul the prison system earlier this week.

The courts’ backlog has also been a key focus of her brief, but the daughter of immigrants, of Kashmiri origin, has also been drawn into immigration policy that will form much of her new day job.

Mahmood backed Sir Keir Starmer after he said that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers” in May, although she avoided using the term.

Asked whether she would repeat the Prime Minister’s language, she said: “I agree with the Prime Minister that without curbs on migration, without making sure that we have strong rules that everyone follows, and that we have a pace of immigration that allows for integration into our country, we do risk becoming a nation of people estranged from one another.

“And what he has described is something that I absolutely believe in, and which are the values of the Labour Party, which is a desire to see this country as a nation of neighbours.”

Earlier this summer, Mahmood also said the European Convention on Human Rights must be reformed to win back public confidence across the continent.

On Tuesday, she further told the Lords Constitution Committee that it is “perfectly fine” for ministers to question the UK’s interpretation of upholding the treaty, adding that European colleagues view the UK as being more on the “maximalist end of the spectrum”.

The former barrister will now be in charge of proposals to tighten the use of Article 8, the right to family and private life, of the ECHR in immigration cases, which are expected to be brought this autumn.

As justice secretary, she also proposed a change in the law for foreign criminals to be deported immediately when they receive a custodial sentence, at a time the Home Office has been working to increase the number of returns of migrants with no legal right to be in the UK.

Announcing the plan last month, she said: “If you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing. Deportations are up under this Government, and with this new law, they will happen earlier than ever before.”

Her appointment has been welcomed by the founder of Blue Labour, Lord Glasman, who told Politico the move was “fantastic”.

“She’s now clearly the leader of our part of the party.”

Mahmood told Geo News last year that in her 14 years of public life as a Pakistani-Kashmiri origin Muslim woman in the UK, she has encountered intimidation and harassment, emphasising that being a Muslim woman in public life is challenging.

Mahmood explained that she had not previously discussed such harassment because she did not want people, “especially our sisters, daughters, to perceive politics negatively and be deterred by the challenges of intimidation and harassment”.

In her constituency in Birmingham, which she won around 15 years ago, Mahmood, a leading figure in Starmer’s closest circle, faced a lot of misinformation, fake news, and misogynistic attacks from a group of men who were vying to oust her in this election.

In several parts of the constituency, her posters were ripped off. She had been accused of the things she has not done, and for that purpose social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram have been used to direct hate at her.

She expressed that being the sole Muslim woman in a key role in parliament is a motivating factor.

Responding to a query about the Palestine issue and the ongoing war in Gaza, she said innocent children are being killed, cruelty is rampant, and millions of people are deeply saddened and affected by it.

She stated that the Labour Party believes in a two-state solution and that is the only way to end the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday humanitarian projects for Syria including the removal of wartime rubble around Damascus, weeks after inking investment deals worth billions to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

The oil-rich Gulf kingdom has been a major backer of the new Syrian government, which came to power after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

At an event Sunday in Damascus, the Saudi state-run King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) announced an aid package that includes a project to clear more than 75,000 cubic metres of rubble from the capital and its surroundings.

The Saudi organisation’s president Abdullah Al Rabeeah and Syrian minister for emergencies and disaster management Raed al-Saleh signed an agreement for the initiative, which includes plans to recycle at least 30,000 cubic metres of debris from destroyed homes and other buildings.

Saleh said the rubble hinders humanitarian efforts and reconstruction, and that unexploded “war remnants threaten the lives of civilians”.

Other agreements inked on Sunday would see Riyadh support the reconstruction of 34 schools in Syria’s Aleppo, Idlib and Homs provinces, as well as provide equipment for 17 hospitals nationwide, help rebuild some 60 bakeries, and rehabilitate sewage and water infrastructure in Damascus.

KSrelief chief Rabeeah said that the projects seek to “address several high-priority areas of urgent needs” and “alleviate the suffering of affected people”.

Since Assad’s overthrow in December, Syria’s new authorities have worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed in the country’s 14-year civil war.

In late July, Riyadh pledged $6.4 billion in investment and partnership deals with Syria.

The war devastated much of Syria’s infrastructure, with UN estimates putting the cost of reconstruction at more than $400 billion.

On the night of his election victory, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney outlined his vision to boost the country’s economy in response to President Donald Trump’s challenges.

“Build, baby, build!” Carney told a cheering crowd of Liberal Party supporters in April.

In the first weeks of his term, Carney’s plans have started to take shape, highlighted by the launch of the new “Major Projects Office” last month.

The office will oversee construction initiatives including ports, highways, mines, and potentially a new oil pipeline a move that has drawn scrutiny from environmental groups.

The office, which will soon announce its top priorities, was established after Carney’s Liberals gained cross-party backing for legislation allowing the government to fast-track “nation-building projects.”

“We are moving at a pace not seen in generations,” Carney said, stressing the urgency needed as Trump reshapes the global economy.

While Trump’s threats to annex Canada have eased, his ongoing trade war continues to impact the Canadian economy. U.S. tariffs on autos, steel, and aluminum have hit these key sectors, causing job losses.

Canada’s unemployment rate reached 7.1 percent in August, the highest level since 2016 outside the pandemic.

“That adds to evidence that the trade war is taking its toll on Canadian labor markets,” said RBC senior economist Claire Fan.

Economy in focus

Since entering politics earlier this year, Carney has emphasized that Canada must reduce its decades-long reliance on U.S. trade by boosting domestic commerce and exploring new markets in Europe and Asia.

During a visit to Germany last month, Carney highlighted that his government is “unleashing half a trillion dollars of investment” in infrastructure projects spanning energy, ports, and other critical sectors.

Jay Khosla, an energy expert at the Public Policy Forum, said the momentum to build would not have been possible without Trump.

“We know our economy is in peril,” he said, noting Canada was effectively “captured economically,” because of its closeness to the United States.

Energy superpower?

Canada is the world’s fourth largest oil exporter and its crude reserves are the world’s third largest.

Most of its resources are in the western province of Alberta, which exports almost exclusively to the United States, as Canada lacks the infrastructure to efficiently get energy products to other foreign markets.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor, put climate change at the center of his political brand and faced criticism from some over his perceived lack of support for the energy sector.

In a shift from the Trudeau era, Carney’s Liberals now support exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe.

“What we heard loud and clear from German LNG buyers and LNG users is they believe there is demand and they want to buy our products” Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said in Berlin last week.

Carney has repeatedly said Canada “can be an energy superpower.”

But not everyone is enthusiastic about that plan.

Greenpeace has accused the prime minister of backing “climate-wrecking infrastructure” while ignoring clean energy.

Carney could likely press ahead despite concerns from pro-climate NGOs, but support from Indigenous leaders  for whom safeguarding the environment is top priority — is seen as essential.

Despite Carney’s efforts to secure Indigenous backing for his major projects push, their concern persists.

“We know how it feels to have Trump at our border. Let’s not do that and have Trump-like policies,” said Cindy Woodhouse, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, in a swipe at Carney’s backing for energy infrastructure.

“Let’s take the time and do things properly.”