To the extent that people think about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at all, they likely think of an institution that works to safeguard our health and well-being, and that of our environment. So, The New York Times made quite a splash recently when it reported that the agency had adopted a new policy under which it would stop…Read More

A Labour MP has taken apart Reform’s DOGE unit in a single post on social media, as the party comes under growing scrutiny over its record in local government. Reform’s DOGE unit, modelled on Elon Musk’s equivalent in the U.S., was supposed to be an innovative cost-cutting machine, aimed at reducing what Farage and his cronies had slammed as ‘wasteful…Read More

Depraved revelations have been steadily trickling out of the latest Epstein files, released by the US Department of Justice on Friday. The tidal wave of documents – comprising more than three million pages, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos relating to the late paedophile financier Jeffery Epstein – is the final and six-weeks-late release in compliance with Donald Trump’s Epstein Files…Read More

Survey Says is a weekly series rounding up the most important polling trends or data points you need to know about, plus a vibe check on a trend that’s driving politics or culture. Federal immigration agents gunned down two Americans in Minneapolis in January. Ostensibly, those agents were there to carry out deportations, a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s 2024…Read More

Under the terms of a 2021 agreement, the North Carolina Legislature has embraced an aggressive regimen of tax cuts that primarily benefit wealthy households. These cuts have deprived citizens of effective and accessible public services as nearly 1 in 5 state jobs have gone unfilled due to low pay. These jobs range from nurses to… The post NC Republicans’ Tax…Read More

Until Zack Polanski’s election the Greens rarely featured in mainstream political debate. They were stagnant in the polls and had two obscure co-leaders. Now, they average 15 per cent and could win a by-election for the first time in Gorton and Denton (where Andy Burnham was out campaigning for Labour yesterday). But greater prominence has brought greater scrutiny. That’s a…Read More

Friends,I haven’t seen it. I hope you don’t, either. This, from one of the kinder reviews:“Across some 104 minutes, the first lady delivers these blatantly scripted and meaningless narrations with all the conviction of someone who just woke up from a two-hour nap and can’t remember what day it is.”Manohla Dargis of The New York Times sees a “glossy, curiously…Read More

Friends,Please submit your caption in the Comments section and, as before, please use the Comments section only for captions.Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET.Leave a commentLast week’s winner:“That’s what she said about the puppy too.”(Congratulations, Terri Timberman.)Runners-up:“At least we know we’ll never bump into either…Read More

Influential Liberal and Lib Dem politician who served as Scotland’s deputy first minister from the outset of devolutionJim Wallace, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, who has died aged 71 following complications after surgery, was an influential Liberal figure who achieved the extremely rare distinction in politics of being disliked by almost nobody. Mild-mannered, pragmatic, sociable, with liberal values underpinned by a…Read More