I applaud the sentiment but America is very much a nation that guns down its citizens on the street. America's homicide rate is 4x that of the UK, Germany, France. There are 45x the number of homicides per 100k in New Orleans than in London. 80% of all such homicides in the US are via firearms.

I confidently predict that standing in for the Leader of the Opposition at #pmqs will be the zenith of Andrew Griffiths' parliamentary career.

With a bit of luck this isn't a puffed-up headline, but a sign these scoundrels are running for cover.

A White House spokesperson called the story "absolute total fake news" which is basically their way of confirming it.

It’s just incredibly funny this is supposed to be the “freedom” party. It was never about any freedom except their right to be selfish assholes and not feel bad about it.

He might be correct. Birthright citizenship was abolished in the UK in 1981. To be born a citizen, at least one parent must be a citizen or have settled status or the child must hav been here for 10 years. But because he's a wearisome bigot, he probably just means brown people aren't British.

Abolish. ice. 💔

Inside traders, cronies and a bunch of convicted criminals really are the only Americans benefiting from the Trump presidency. I'm not being flippant. I can't think of any other group enjoying good times.

If ICE targeted dangerous criminals the public would applaud it. If deportees really were criminals, citizens wouldn't track ICE activity or blow whistles. Turning public hated of ICE to support and trust is in ICE's gift. And all it needs to do is what it promised to do. Target the bad guys.

Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass Philip Glass boycotting the Kennedy Center

Has anyone else heard this rumour that the Russians have Trump’s Wharton academic transcripts - and they show just how stupid he really is?

I love how woke the Catholic Church is.

More than 30 people died in ICE custody last year. 7 have died this year. Some abductees with chronic health conditions are being denied care. There are multiple accounts of conduct amounting to torture. Holding a 5 year-old in such a place is monstrous.

My fervent hope is that this creature will be denied a rock to quietly crawl back under. Wherever he goes, justice should find him for what he has done.

I’d go further. There needs to be actual justice. But there also needs to be procedural justice. The bureaucracy needs to transparently do what it is supposed to do when someone is killed in suspicious circumstances.

“Struggle” = cannot gaslight the American people that an ICU nurse who intervened to stop a woman being assaulted was in fact a crazed madman who deserved to be killed.

President Trump’s core belief is that America is the Indispensable Nation: the one country every other county needs or needs to fear. In reality, the rest of the world - and in particular global trade - is shifting to just work around the US. Hence this deal. The US is making itself dispensable.

Come join the Middle Powers, guys. SE Asia, Europe and the Anglosphere are plenty big enough to out-bargain an isolated and isolationist America.

It's by no means an American phenomenon. 70% of college education British voters opposed Brexit, compared to just 30% of voters who left school without any qualifications.

Downfall Bovino Edition. You're welcome.

What to call Prime Minister Carney's "middle powers"? The name matters - or rather the concept that lends the name matters. Exhibit 1: The BRICS. Once an academic nickname, now an actual intergovernmental organization. Middle powers: Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, south east Asia, Aux/NZ etc

It's easy to get snippy about which of Europe or America is presently destroying itself right now. But the fact is that Europe will one day thank Rubio and Trump. Without them, our populist nationalists can promise everything. Now we get to see what a disaster they are when in power.

One member of the Canadian Liberal Party Youth Caucus is 100% a Justin Trudeau clone on a fast maturation cycle.

I claim no expert knowledge of MAGA but I feel confident that a) a lot of them want the Epstein files released b) most of them don't want foreign wars and; c) all of them support the Second Amendment. Not looking great, is it?

“OUR HUMANITY” is under assault by our own government.

Both lead characters in MGM's Billy The Kid are British. And they both do a great job of portraying 19thC Americans in the Old West. Tom Blyth (Billy) even adopts the east coast accent of someone raised in New York. Really good actors have range. They can portray people who are nothing like them.

Minnesota's crime was to elect a governor who then ran against (and lost to) Trump/Vance. That's the reason ICE is there in force. That's why this excessive force is being used. That's what put Renee Good and Alex Pretti in harm's way.

Not sure about this critique, but Holly Hunter’s character needs to sit up straight and wear proper shoes in many more of her scenes. She’s a good actor. They’ve written her some decent dialogue. She can communicate her character’s kookiness without having to telegraph it so blatantly.

My comforting thought for the day is that Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller all routinely wake up gasping and soaked in sweat at the prospect that Trump will die suddenly without having pre-emptively pardoned any of them.

nobody knows what a full grown greg bovino looks like.... only the larval stage has ever been photographed

For Renee Good, it is possible to allege she was driving at an agent. For Alex Pretti, it is possible to allege he invented to shoot an agent. But neither are adequate tests. The test is how lethal force - as a last resort - can be justified.

No. Next?

If James Comer had two heads he'd be twice as stupid. And even HE sees the need to change direction.

Seriously, no non-US citizens should visit the US at present unless it's absolutely unavoidable. There's no telling what black site you could end up in.

"NOTHING will stop us from enforcing the law." Especially not the law.

You'd think they'd grasp by now that they can't both-sides incidents like these. It's the news media's job to report the facts, not summarise opinions.

The last bit is what's important, isn't it? There isn't a scrap or evidence that Alex Pretti broke any laws - or intended to. The onus is on Border Patrol/ICE/DHS to justify its use of lethal force. "He was carrying a gun" is not inculpatory evidence. By itself, it has no bearing on the incident.

Psychotic.

This is the man the government would have you believe was in the process of carrying out a massacre of ICE agents - even though he didn't draw his weapon or demonstrate any intent to harm anyone.

The question these agents need to answer is not whether Alex Pretti was armed or whether he was approaching them armed or why he was there or even whether they deemed him a danger. It's why they shot him AFTER bringing him to the floor and disarming him.

The test of the government's right to use lethal force in America has flipped overnight. There's an awful lot of law-abiding citizens who can now be killed simpy for approaching a law enforcement officer.

TV advert "gaming isn't a hobby. It's a way of life." No. It's a hobby.

I don't understand why the federal government using ICE to attempt to extort voter roll information from the Minnesota state government for the purposes of stacking the midterms isn't leading news bulletin everywhere. Trump's attempted election fraud has a body count. If that's not news, what is?

It's legitimate to ask if this was a message: pour encourager les autres

America: WTF, man?

Putin doesn’t want peace. He’s never wanted it. Everyone can see it but we are obliged to go through this charade because Trump is on Putin’s side. End of.

Well done to some proper journalists who did proper journalism and exposed this disinformation.

I see we're still pretending not to know the difference between weather and climate, then.

I get the outrage. But I also wonder why we should pay any heed to this fool. Would you listen to anything Donald Trump said about nuclear physics or the best pubs in London? Of course not. He has no knowledge of either. He has no expertise. His opinion is worthless. It's no different here.

British media this morning is all about whether the Labour Party/Labour MPs/the country wants Andy Burnham as Prime Minister. I suggest a more urgent question is whether the electors of Gorton and Denton want *any* Labour candidate as its MP.