When Trump calls female reporters “piggy,” “ugly” and “stupid,” it doesn't reflect badly on the women. It's just more evidence that the males of MAGA are manspreading their own insecurity. My weekly Stop the Presses newsletter. Read and subscribe for free.

“Date night!” 💕 @macfarlanenews.bsky.social @cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com/news/democra...

🚨A leaked early draft of a U.S. peace plan under President Donald Trump sought broad amnesty for Russians accused of war crimes, in a way that legal experts say could also cover indicted officials such as Vladimir Putin. open.substack.com/pub/theintel...

Trump summons top military leaders to White House for meeting on Venezuela strategy

👀 ☹️⬇️

I'm really not sure the Conservatives have thought this through. thecritic.co.uk/gove...

Just read another garbled and inaccurate account of the OBR November Report and Budget in a well-known politics briefing email. Sorry to sound like Dom Cummings, but the political community which you have to trust - whoever is in power - is just not up to it. Head in hands. I'm off to get a beer. 🍺

Trump withdraws record number of nominees to join his administration: report

Attorney general urges Nigel Farage to apologise to classmates over alleged racism and antisemitism www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Melania Trump unveils grand White House Christmas decorations with Lego portraits

Wrexham lands £18m in taxpayer funding despite Ryan Reynolds’ income www.thetimes.com/article/2f4f...

A millionaire businessman has inspired the ire of animal rights activists, conservationists and the local council after installing an electric fence around his Notting Hill mansion to counter his wife’s fear of foxes

Andre Rieu might knock out some classical bangers but he needs an entablature under that pediment.

The starting gun on shit British Christmas experiences has been fired for 2025 www.itv.com/news/meridia...

"In crisis after crisis, Europe’s role is not only small but shrinking still. The question is, when will Europeans decide they’ve had enough of this weakness and irrelevance?" "This is, above all, a matter of psychology, of believing in one’s capabilities, including the capacity to say 'no.'"

Teenage girl dies in minibus crash near Tadcaster Grammar School

The guy's literally got one leg, but that's apparently one too many for the DWP to consider him disabled www.mirror.co.uk/money/dwp-fi...

In the Eurostar, you are not allowed to attack anyone with a spear. I think.

This week's letter to 99% members shows that the UK still risks repeating the Biden experience: lots of good things, but failing to tackle the key issues for the average voter. We cannot afford that.

A lot of Brexiters seem very bothered that a politician might have lied...

“The problem is we have neither Cabinet government nor sofa government” one Cabinet minister told me as fallout from the Budget continues. @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Trump 'forgets who he is' as White House staff worried he's 'lost the plot' www.msn.com/en-gb/news/w...

“It is something that has been needed and desired at the White House for over 150 years, but something which no other President was equipped to do…”

'Fading' Donald Trump sanctions release of his MRI results after Tim Walz demand

Donald, on his way—again—to the golf course to bring down prices at the grocery store for us. What a selfless hero.

Unserious people are in charge of very serious matters. They need to go.

Martin Sandbu: three times Trump has tried to bounce Ukraine into conceding to Russian demands... three times Europeans have scrambled to change his mind... how many more lessons do they need to conclude that the trans Atlantic relationship is over? www.ft.com/content/89f1...

News --> The commander who oversaw Pete Hegseth's alleged killing of two boat bombing survivors is now likely to come in and face questions from the House Armed Services Committee, ranking Dem Adam Smith tells me. In this piece, I try to make sense of this horror: newrepublic.com/article/2037...

Pete Hegseth denies he gave the order to kill them all. But even some Republicans now appear to be demanding answers, so Frank Bradley, who oversaw the bombings, is in discussions with House Armed Services about coming in. Rep Adam Smith lays out his Qs to me here: newrepublic.com/article/2037...

The former head of the IFS seems to be a more prominent public figure than the current head, so far.

The state of corruption in America’s first family set out in detail by this comprehensive article in @guardian by @tomburgis bit.ly/3KvAmn6 this is the corruption the Rutger Bergman referred to in the sentence in his first Reith Lecture, now deleted “for legal reasons”

This story is starting to make me feel I’m going slightly mad - maybe RR overdid the gloom, but the tax rises are paying for a) the welfare U-turns b) the £10bn-plus increase in headroom c) scrapping the two child limit d) bits of other spending eg higher local gov costs 🤷🏻‍♀️

The EU is not routinely sharing information on suspended doctors with the GMC despite risks to British patients. Five doctors are now under suspension or have lost their jobs after a Times investigation into doctors who failed to disclose overseas bans. www.thetimes.com/article/df50...

Headlines translated: Britain's far-right media didn't like the budget. In an attempt to please them, the prime minister is going to punish the mentally ill.

Miserable levels of investment in the UK are the reason for the malaise we suffer and nothing working. Perhaps the Today Programme, Peston etc should have given this more critical coverage over the years instead of nonsense like the dreadful budget coverage this weekend.

Notable overnight market moves include... Crypto under pressure: Bitcoin down 5%. Gold rallying: Up 0.8% and eyeing a reclaim of the $4,300 mark. Japanese yields surging: Yields hit multi-decade highs across the curve. #economy #markets #crypto #bitcoin #gold #japan

Per Axios, “President Trump said Sunday he's decided who he'll nominate to be the next Federal Reserve chair.” Both this issue and the December rate decision currently dominate Fed-related conversations. ... 1 of 2

The OBR says that there is a 41% chance that Reeves will miss the current budget target. Attacking for excess pessimism is ridiculous.

In the 9 months since the election, AfD has become Germany's most popular party. This massive surge is a political earthquake for Europe. Will a Germany with AfD in power defend the Baltics or Poland if Russia attacks? Will it take Germany out of the Euro? robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-politi...

Chart of the Day 🤓 This is the IOD's Economic Confidence Index, a gauge of business leaders' optimism in the prospects for the UK economy (just click on the image and zoom in...). My takeaway: this is what happens when a government gives up on growth! www.iod.com/news/uk-econ...

“At present the Starmer government has no wish, nor capacity, to break out of the doom loop. On the contrary, they ....double down further on the failed nostrums of the past rather than getting to grips with new realities." www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab... www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

Mark E. Thomas: "this is a compromise Budget which will enable Labour to get many smaller things right, but condemn it to fail on the biggest issues if it does not challenge its fiscal rules ..(which) prevent economic renewal". 99-percent.org/will-this-bu...

“….static fiscal rules have not worked, in principle it is hard to see how they could work, and the forecasts they would need, even if in principle they might work, are completely unreliable. And they do not even protect us against the ‘Liz Truss effect.’” 99-percent.org/will-this-bu...

In 2019, @davidfrum.bsky.social wrote an article on the US titled: "If liberals don't enforce borders, fascists will." Sadly, that's as true for Germany as it is for the US. The political center in Germany is paralyzed on immigration as the AfD keeps rising. robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-politi...

"..practiced by Japanese forces in brutally attacking helpless survivors of a torpedoed vessel and demands effective assurances from the Japanese Government that such criminal acts, which are contrary to all standards of civilized conduct, will not be repeated in the future" bsky.app/profile/rgoo...

Many of the railway plans we hold are for routes that were never built. Here is a proposed route that would have passed through Calver in 1890. #Railway200 #1890s