Update: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/b...

This is the agency that is charged by law with preventing sexual assault in the workplace

Breaking News from @theathletic.com: Alysa Liu of the U.S. won the gold medal in women's singles figure skating to end a 20-year medal drought for Americans in the event. www.nytimes.com/athletic/705...

Awfully hard to square the claims that ICE is focused on removing violent criminals that are so dangerous we can't let them be around with the fact that ICE tricks their targets by pretending to need help and waiting for neighborly types to respond by offering to help a stranger for free.

This is a truly horrifying memo. It says that the policy of the US government will now be to proactively seek out and arrest likely tens of thousands of refugees who entered legally under Biden and subject them to detention, where they will be interrogated about their status.

Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?

I've been saying since early 2025 that people were and are in motion... Some people have insisted that 'no one is doing anything' and they are wrong.

Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …

"In place of real politics, it has office politics. The refrain that Starmer is a “decent” man does not fit his record of deceiving his way to the top of the Labour party, sitting on his hands during the massacre in Gaza or clamping down on protest against it" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

BREAKING: Tim Allan, Keir Starmer’s director of communications, steps down from Downing Street role. “I have decided to stand down to allow a new No 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success,” he said.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... ““That’s one of my worries about the attention economy, or whatever you want to call it, and how that works now, and how we consume media, is that it rewards people for that kind of provocative, bigoted language, whatever that language might be.”

By the way, for those of you not in MN: Homan’s strategy was to withdraw some agents, so it felt like we were in the denouement of the crisis, and then escalate hard against observers. They’re being incredibly aggressive with observers now. National media may not want to check out just yet

“It would seem absurd for the prime minister to ask Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to give evidence to US lawmakers, but not to MPs. The monarchy is not accountable to parliament. Commons rules bar “reflections” on the royals” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Exclusive: Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons was provided with intelligence files gathered on journalists (including me) who had reported on Labour Together, the thinktank he chaired at the time (before he became an MP), sources say. Know more about this story? Contact me, Signal: henrydyer.01

Gutter racism

Simon Lester on Peter Harrell's "Upending World Trade". ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2026/02/pete...

Uruguay President Orsi deepens ties with China’s Xi despite Trump threats https://aje.news/b3254o

This is what we need to see in the UK

Definitely seems like they destroyed the country on purpose.

“a party that confuses access with virtue launders power for money” - @theguardian.com view www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A reminder that Reform's candidate for Gorton and Denton, Matt Goodwin, has still not explained what he meant by this claim that developments in genetic science will make younger generations more right wing as they understand the "inherent differences" between different groups

Brilliant letter in The Economist from Professor Ian Wray Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of Liverpool www.economist.com/letters/2026...

Can't imagine which of the four PMs, Richard Moore, Head of MI6 had to deal with that he's talking (to @samfr.bsky.social and @ldfreedman.bsky.social) about here: "they were hugely different in their personalities and in their willingness to read the material, prepare for meetings, or whatever."😂😂😂

I have no recollection…

Surely suspended from the House of Lords while an investigation/criminal proceedings take place?

Another member of the political class claiming to have no recollection of receiving what most voters would regard as a substantial sum of money is just what’s needed to rebuild trust.

Peer demands independent investigation into DWP prosecution of subpostmasters. Over 100 were prosecuted by DWP for alleged frauds. What accounting system did it rely on? Were they bullied into confessing? Govt promised a review a year ago. Nothing done. Must end the scandal.

"By encouraging industrial upgrading in Vietnam and tolerating selective protection in India, Europe is no longer freezing late developers into low-value roles. This is not generosity. It is realism" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’ve spent the past 2 years debating the credibility of the Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers with Israel supporters. It turns out the Israeli military agrees with me, not them. My latest for Zeteo on how the media was also complicit in the genocide denial:

NO KINGS

Israeli airstrikes kill 27 in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say

Konstantin Kisin claims that these exchanges are "not a debate about whether Rishi Sunak is English or British" Nelson: "Rishi Sunak is English?" Kisin: "He’s a brown Hindu, how can he be English?” Alexander: You said “he’s a brown Hindu, how is he english? Kisin: That's not what I said."

Reminder that the administration now arresting journalists, and its sycophants, are also whining that the EU and the UK are enemies of free speech

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files more to follow www.ft.com/content/c950...

"There should be a pause in ICE and Border Patrol street operations anywhere in the country 'until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.'" Today's Morning Shots from @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social and @eggerdc.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3Z1B53d

"Shortly after filing its Response to Rwanda’s Notice of Arbitration, the UK notified Rwanda of the termination of the treaty." Oh dear.

The Deutschland-Ticket (D-Ticket for short) lets you travel easily by all means of local public transport for €63 per month (1st until end of month). Not valid on ICE or IC / EC trains. Smart phone needed. int.bahn.de/en/offers/re...

This morning, Welsh FM Eluned Morgan refused to say Keir Starmer was a good PM when asked by the BBC Welsh Labour is trying to distance itself from the Westminster party in its bid to avoid a Senedd wipeout But, Tom Scotson reports, the party's Welsh MPs are currently hesitant about regime change

Absolutely damning from @aaronschaffer.com, @willoremus.com, & @nitasha.bsky.social. To get more data, Anthropic: * "destructively scanned" millions of books * downloaded the shadow library LibGen * hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Alex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning

It’s funny how Kemi Badenoch thinks “mental health” has impacted Suella Braverman’s behaviour. I thought Kemi didn’t really believe in anxiety or depression? I guess that’s just for benefit claimants.

Tim Walz: "What side do you want to be on? The side of an all-powerful federal government that can kill, injure, menace, and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness - the side of a mother whose last words were 'I'm not mad at you.'"

British Airways, Air France and KLM have cancelled flights to the Middle East.

The exhibits about slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park have been removed amid pressure from the Trump admin www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...

the destruction of local news has done more damage than just about anything else to our ability to process reality as a country and this is a shining example of why

NEW REPORT: the gov’s proposals for judge-only trials will deliver only marginal savings and distract from the real route out of this crisis: reversing recent falls in court productivity.

Trump poodle Nigel Farage says World would be a ‘better place’ if US took over Greenland. Appeasement of Trump means all powerful nations are free to expand their borders. Years of conflict & unrest would follow. UK needs political leaders, not poodles.

Agriculture is only a tiny part of EU-Mercosur free-trade agreement • EU tariff cuts on Mercosur-made meat will apply only to small share of European imports • Real economic rationale of deal could lie in industrial and services trade, as well as mineral products www.economist.com/europe/2026/...