Politics News Briefs

Healey urged to offer energy support in budget as bills rise 4%. Millions of people in Great Britain face increase from Thursday to an average of £1,723 a year for a typical home John Healey is under growing pressure to offer fresh energy support for households in next month’s budget as millions face a 4% rise in charges from Thursday to an average of £1,723 a year for a typical home. In his speech at Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week , the chancellor warned that the government had limited resources to cushion the worldwide economic shocks hitting Britain, while.

Rightwing economic myths could derail Burnham’s project – to destroy them, look to Keynes | Larry Elliott. Borrowing can be good, there is no such thing as the ‘nation’s credit card’, and, yes, you can buck the markets – as previous governments have shown Andy Burnham does a nice line in nostalgia. His first party conference speech as prime minister was full of fond memories for the Britain of the 1950s and 1960s, when working-class families could sense their lives steadily getting better. The underlying message of his address was that, given time, he could rekindle that optimism and return.

Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton Talk Of Bringing Jobs Back To Hollywood, But Tussle Over Who Is Responsible For Losing Them. California gubernatorial candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton agreed on the need for tax incentives to keep or lure production back to Hollywood, but they still sparred over who bears responsibility for the flight of tens of thousands of jobs from the state. Meeting in Burbank for a CNN debate, Becerra, a Democrat, and Hilton, […].

‘South Park’: Trump’s Animated Penis Flies Away In Deepfake Clip Roasting “Billionaire Of Weenietown” Amid Data Center Infestation. As the human race braces for possible extinction amid the AI age, South Park resurrected its deepfake Trump to roast the “billionaire of Weenietown.” On Wednesday’s episode, Butters discovers Billionaire Weenietown in his literal backyard, a tiny kingdom of anthropomorphic disembodied penises who are destroying South Park—still renamed South America this season—with their invasive data […].

Drumcree standoff continues after Orange Order says it will ‘not surrender’ to proposed deal. Unionists spurn NI secretary’s attempt to resolve impasse after nationalists block controversial Garvaghy Road march Talks to end the Drumcree parade dispute are on a knife-edge after Jamie Bryson, the legal adviser of the Orange Order, said it would “not surrender” to a deal proposed by the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Bryant. With echoes of the former Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley’s “no surrender” mantra of the 1980s, Bryson told supporters in Portadown that Bryant could keep his deal. Continue reading...

The White House Is Starting to Panic Over the Midterms. President Donald Trump still thinks Republicans have a shot. His aides are less convinced.

No 10 gathering evidence on public support for UK rejoining EU. Senior Downing Street officials reach out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test backing for reversing Brexit Senior Downing Street officials have been reaching out to thinktanks and pollsters as they look to test public support for the UK rejoining the EU. Aides to Andy Burnham have been talking to EU experts in a range of organisations about how the public would view a promise to rejoin, as momentum builds behind including such a pledge in the next Labour manifesto. Continue reading...

The Guardian view on falling pupil numbers: a chance to improve opportunities for young people | Editorial. Empty classrooms are a sign of falling fertility and high living costs. But they should also free up more resources to spend on young people School closures are an alarming symptom of Britain’s shrinking birthrate. Several factors have contributed to falling enrolment, but the most significant is that people are having fewer children . Declining pupil numbers could be an excuse to free up spending for an ageing population . Instead, the government should see this as an opportunity to improve the quality.

Government must stop dithering over energy bill support for the vulnerable | Nils Pratley. Ministers should introduce a properly targeted social tariff rather than tinker with the warm homes discount Energy bills forecast to jump by £276 a year from January What to do as prices head for £2,000 a year After the hopeful good vibes in Liverpool, here comes a reminder of what is coming this winter: a mighty new year shock in energy bills, hitting the poorest hardest, that the government looks unprepared for. From the quarterly price cap level of £1,723 that will apply from Thursday for.

Electoral reform could be a gamble too far for Burnham – but so far he’s on a winning streak| Zoe Williams. Though proportional representation poses risks for Labour, it’s a change that feels necessary for today’s volatile politics A number of people have admitted to tears during Andy Burnham’s Labour party conference speech , and most of them mean when he talked about his father, who died very recently. But then there were a few (not me) who welled up when he announced a commission on electoral reform . It was just the sheer shock of it: that we may.

UK income growth revised upwards as markets hail ‘resilient’ economy. Boost for John Healey before budget as GDP figure shows UK economy grew faster than first estimated in second quarter UK household income grew at a stronger pace than previously estimated during the first six months of the year, according to revisions of official data. The rise in income per head to 1.1% between January and June followed an increase in the level of economic growth that illustrated the resilience of the UK economy since the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East more than seven months ago. Continue reading...

Do parents make the politician? Find out on the Today programme’s psychotherapy couch | John Crace. Dad’s the word for Andy Burnham, so maybe all party leaders should be seen afresh through a Freudian lens Is this the sketch my father would have wanted? Not something I have previously given much thought to. He died 15 years before I even started this job. But my guess is that it is. He was the loveliest of men who only ever wanted for me what I wanted for me. He was stupidly proud of even my most forgettable successes. I still see.

How could Great Britain look under proportional representation? See the results for your area. These visualisations from exclusive polling modelling show how the UK parliament could change under different voting systems New analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian reveals how different voting systems would return significantly different seat totals in the UK parliament, based on recent polling. While the current first past the post (FPTP) system could leave Labour short of a majority with 250 seats, the modelling shows how proportional systems would be likely to reduce the number of seats given to the leading party – and give the.

Voters back Burnham’s plan to cut back triple lock to fund social care reform by 48% to 28%, poll suggests – as it happened. This live blog is now closed ‘Oozing everyman charm’: what the papers said about Burnham’s speech Andy Burnham has suggested that it would not be legitimate for a party to form a majority government with less than 30% of the vote. In his Today interview, asked why he wanted electoral reform and a move towards proportional representation, Burnham replied: I found it better being elected under a different system as mayor of Greater Manchester, where people.

Things are changing behind the scenes, so you must decide: do you want human civil servants or AI bots? | The civil servant. Rapidly expanding AI use within the government is numbing departments to its profound threats. And try arguing with a faceless digital bureaucrat Another day, another apocalyptic warning about the likelihood that rampantly uncontrollable artificial intelligence will solve all of our problems, including the problem of being alive. Hot on the heels of disgruntled Anthropic researchers announcing the end of civilisation by 2030, we’ve now had the portentously named Hugging Face incident , as well as the Australian.

Jon Ossoff is fundraising for Georgia Democrats. It’s a bet for his party’s future — and his own. If Democrats win big in November, Ossoff will have cemented a leading role in a key swing state.

The source of Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign ad attack fodder: A guest at his own wedding. Self-published articles from a longtime ally are showing up in the vulnerable Pennsylvania Republican’s attack ads.

I heard one thing loud and clear in Andy Burnham’s landmark speech: the left has won the arguments | Owen Jones. The PM’s stated trajectory is a rebuke to past Tory and Labour governments. The challenge now is to make his project progressive in word and deed As Andy Burnham delivered his conference speech to the Labour faithful yesterday, it was hard not to recall Jeremy Corbyn’s words after the party’s shattering 2019 election defeat. “I am proud that on austerity, on corporate power, on inequality and the climate emergency,” he wrote for this publication, “we have won the arguments.

Inside Mamdani’s fraught effort to rein in the NYPD unit he pledged to end. POLICING PROBLEMS: In the early days of his administration, Mayor Zohran Mamdani placed a new requirement on the NYPD: The department would have to secure permission from his office to deploy its Strategic Response Group to make arrests at protests. The directive, which hasn’t been previously reported, shows Mamdani sought to exert significant influence over a core function of the police department. Its existence also calls into question why the mayor hasn’t more frequently used that authority to stop the SRG from being deployed at protests.

Democrats are running pastors for office. Republicans are attacking their religious comments. Democratic Senate nominees James Talarico in Texas and Adam Hamilton in Kansas, as well as two key Iowa House nominees, are seeing their remarks on Christianity picked over by the GOP.

Menin’s AI moment. CITY HAL 9000: Amid a mad dash to try to regulate artificial intelligence, City Council Speaker Julie Menin is looking to make her mark. The Manhattan lawmaker is planning to hold a hearing with all 51 members of the legislative body next week, and today confirmed the attendance of four major AI firms to discuss both the dangers the technology poses and a suite of Council bills that seek to protect New Yorkers. “Leading experts and AI executives themselves are warning about the potentially grave risks of rapidly advancing AI,.

ICE operations are making it hard for vulnerable Republicans fighting for their political survival. Immigration enforcement in Kansas, Texas, Florida and beyond is forcing battleground Republicans to answer for the fallout.

Poll: Trump’s MAGA loyalists don’t think he has an affordability problem. A recent POLITICO Poll found that cost of living concerns are reinforcing partisanship divides — and driving a wedge among Republicans.

Trump will hit several deep-red states in October campaign blitz. His visits come as the GOP rushes to shore up their own territory amid sky-high costs, an unpopular Iran war and some backlash to mass deportations.

Poll: A crack is emerging in Trump’s coalition over deportations. The president’s most loyal supporters are more inclined than other Trump voters to support a tough immigration posture — but new POLITICO Poll results show there are limits.

The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics. Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.

Gina Hinojosa wants to make Texas a test case for Democrats’ future lead image.

Trump eyes an October campaign rally — in Alabama. The event is scheduled for Oct. 2nd in Mobile, but the plans are still subject to change, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Young men are swinging away hard from Republicans, pessimistic about economy, new poll finds. A new poll shows congressional Democrats with a growing lead among young men, who list cost-of-living issues as their top concern.

NRSC Chair Tim Scott leaves Georgia, North Carolina off his list of top Senate targets. He told Senate Republicans Wednesday that the campaign arm will focus money on other targets including Maine, Ohio, Michigan, Alaska, Texas and New Hampshire.