All posts tagged: agenda

Andy Burnham is hiding his real agenda – taxpayers should be terrified | Personal Finance | Finance

Andy Burnham is hiding his real agenda – taxpayers should be terrified | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

After that, we haven’t got a clue what’s on his mind. Or what sort of prime minister he’d make. Or how he’d do things differently to the hopeless case currently in Number 10. And that’s exactly how Andy Burnham likes it. He seems determined to smuggle himself into Downing Street without anybody properly scrutinising him. Now who does that remind me of? The very man he’s trying to replace. Sir Keir Starmer. During the 2024 election, Starmer adopted the so-called “Ming vase strategy”, originally tested by Tony Blair. Tiptoe carefully into power without saying anything alarming or daft, that might cause him to drop the vase. That’s why Starmer never told voters he planned to hammer us with £75billion of taxes, open the spending floodgates, scrap the winter fuel payment and unleash Ed Miliband. It worked. He even gave us the impression that Rachel Reeves knew what she was doing. I imagine that was the toughest bit. If Starmer had levelled with voters, Labour’s electoral vase would have shattered into a thousand pieces. Burnham is …

Tiley and incoming Tennis Australia chief to team up on reform agenda

Tiley and incoming Tennis Australia chief to team up on reform agenda

Published by Sam Flores

MELBOURNE, May 29 : Incoming Tennis Australia (TA) chief executive Andrew Abdo will join forces with outgoing boss Craig Tiley to push a reform agenda for global tennis, with the two South Africans emerging as key powerbrokers on opposite sides of the Pacific. National Rugby League CEO Abdo was announced as Tiley’s successor this week and will have a close working relationship with the long-serving TA chief who is set to lead the United States Tennis Association. With the calendar packed by competing events and players frustrated by the demands of the schedule and their share of the game’s revenues, Tiley has long argued tennis authorities need to work together to deliver a better product. The pair will oversee two of the sport’s four Grand Slam tournaments, and Tiley said he and Abdo would work as peers to reform the game. “I’ll be on the other side of the ocean and we’ll work closely together to solve some of the issues with global tennis that currently exist and the opportunities,” Tiley told a press conference …

Why digital IDs are back on the UK government’s agenda

Why digital IDs are back on the UK government’s agenda

Published by Sam Flores

In the recent king’s speech, King Charles outlined a series of UK government proposals, including plans to move forward with digital identity through the digital access to services bill. The government says the scheme is designed to modernise access to public services, allowing people to verify who they are more quickly and securely. The proposal is voluntary. But after last September’s politically bruising debate over compulsory national ID cards, digital identity may once again become a contentious issue. Digital IDs are electronic forms of identification used instead of paper documents. They are typically accessed through smartphones or smartcards. Finland became the first country to introduce a national electronic identity card in 1999, and over 130 countries have since rolled out some form of digital ID system. The UK has revisited the idea repeatedly. In 2006, the Labour party’s attempt to introduce an identity card scheme collapsed amid concerns over cost, privacy and state surveillance. Despite the political failure of that project, the UK has steadily moved towards a digital-first approach in everyday life. That’s something …

Donald Trump’s Inflationary Agenda – The Atlantic

Donald Trump’s Inflationary Agenda – The Atlantic

Published by Daniella Wilson

Donald Trump, probably by mistake, said something honest the other day. Appearing on the White House lawn Tuesday afternoon, Trump was asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situation was motivating him to make a deal with Iran. “Not even a little bit,” Trump replied, before elaborating: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.” Trump was probably trying to lie here—he likely wanted to reject the premise that the economic pain caused by his war of choice is putting pressure on him to end it. The premise is obvious, but he has fervently denied it, in part to retain some leverage over Iran. But his denial revealed a deeper truth: Trump has treated the public’s economic well-being as an afterthought. The thing he admitted so casually is the primary reason his popularity has cratered. Trump was elected to tackle inflation, and instead has made it worse. Rogé Karma: The one tiny problem with Trump’s affordability agenda Trump won the 2024 election in large part because the post-pandemic inflation …

Ex-DOJ official accuses Blanche of betraying Trump agenda : NPR

Ex-DOJ official accuses Blanche of betraying Trump agenda : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Jonathan Gross left the Department of Justice earlier this year and has become an outspoken critic of the department’s leadership. This month, Gross gave an extensive in-studio interview to Brandon Straka, a conservative influencer and former Jan. 6 riot defendant, and appeared visibly frustrated with the direction of the department under Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general. Brandon Straka via YouTube hide caption toggle caption Brandon Straka via YouTube A former political appointee at the Trump Justice Department has emerged as one of its most outspoken critics, accusing his former bosses, particularly acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, of “very sloppy” work, “sabotage,” careerism and betrayal of the Trump agenda. Attorney Jonathan Gross is also revealing new information about the inner workings of the department’s “Weaponization Working Group,” an internal effort launched by former Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate claims that federal law enforcement was politicized under the Biden administration. His public break with the department comes at a delicate time for the Trump administration. As the president gears up for the midterm elections some …

Trump puts Taiwan arms sales, Jimmy Lai on agenda with Xi meeting

Trump puts Taiwan arms sales, Jimmy Lai on agenda with Xi meeting

Published by Sam Flores

US President Donald Trump speaks during a maternal healthcare event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, May 11, 2026. Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images President Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the imprisonment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai would be on his agenda for the Beijing summit later this week. Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan have been a flashpoint between the two countries, drawing a sharp response from Beijing that has accused the U.S. of violating the “one-China principle,” and warned that attempts to “contain China” via Taipei were set to fail. When asked about Washington’s longstanding support for Taiwan’s defense, Trump said Monday that, “I’m going to have that discussion with President Xi.” “President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about.” That comes after Beijing reportedly pressed the Trump administration to scale back its security commitments for the island. Trump is expected to …

The Gerrymander Debacle In Virginia Leaves The Democratic Party With A Dangerous Agenda

The Gerrymander Debacle In Virginia Leaves The Democratic Party With A Dangerous Agenda

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org, “Eff around and find out”: That taunt from Hakeem Jeffries celebrating Virginia’s gerrymander did not age well. On Friday, the House minority leader found out that Virginia’s Supreme Court was not quite as gleeful as he about Democrats’ attempt to virtually eliminate Republican representation in the purple state. The court just cooked the party’s infamous lobster, a district over 100 miles long that was designed to help devour the GOP’s slender majority in the House of Representatives. It also cooked the ambitions of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment, which tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit. The resulting faceplant is nothing short of legendary: Spanberger’s Democrats have succeeded in alienating half of the state. For the governor, the court’s decision was particularly embarrassing. Before assuming power, Spanberger denounced gerrymandering as “detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electorates.” She ran as a moderate, but Spanberger immediately turned sharply left once in office and called for the most extreme gerrymander in the nation. The …

Rivals boss addresses adaptational changes with show’s gay love story: “I have a humanity agenda”

Rivals boss addresses adaptational changes with show’s gay love story: “I have a humanity agenda”

Published by Daniella Wilson

Rivals executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins has opened up on why the series’ divergence from the original novel and addition of a gay love story is “really important”. The first season of the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1998 novel Rivals, which was released in autumn 2024, introduced a secret romance between Charles Fairburn (played by Gary Lamont) and Gerald Middleton (played by Hubert Burton) that isn’t present in the book. Speaking with Gareth McLean for Radio Times ahead of the release of season 2 later this month, Treadwell-Collins said of the storyline: “In the book, Charles and Gerald are both gay characters, but they never actually cross. What was really important to us was alongside the heterosexual love stories, telling a big, swooping gay love story.” Charles and Gerald’s storyline in Rivals is set against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis, as well as Thatcher’s Section 28 policy, which banned schools from teaching children about homosexuality. But when asked if this is an example of what some quarters will argue is ‘pushing a gay agenda’, …

RFK Jr. defends his health agenda and Trump’s proposed budget cuts in House hearing : NPR

RFK Jr. defends his health agenda and Trump’s proposed budget cuts in House hearing : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Capitol Hill on April 16, 2026 in Washington, DC. Heather Diehl/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Heather Diehl/Getty Images In his first appearance on Capitol Hill this year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his record in running the Department of Health and Human Services. On Thursday, Kennedy testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, playing up his agency’s accomplishments on a range of issues — from drug price negotiations to the new dietary guidelines — and did his best to sidestep criticism of his controversial actions on vaccines. “We’re ending the era of federal policies that fueled the chronic disease epidemic and replacing them with policies that put the health of Americans first,” Kennedy declared in his opening remarks to the committee. Democrats took the opportunity to grill Kennedy on many issues, including on the upsurge in vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, and attempts to weaken the childhood vaccine schedule …

Iran crisis shoves Europe’s economic woes off summit agenda – POLITICO

Iran crisis shoves Europe’s economic woes off summit agenda – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“Heads of state and government are right to invest significant time in the unexpected geopolitical crises that have occurred over the course of the last weeks,” said Siegfried Mureșan, the lead lawmaker on the budget from the center-right European People’s Party, from which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and most of the leaders also hail. “However, I believe that as a union we should not spend all of our political time on a single topic at a time and then ignore other subjects which are important but maybe not necessarily urgent.” Leaders have called on Brussels to help protect consumers and industry from high energy prices resulting from Iran’s blockade of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which has already lasted for six weeks. Oil and gas tankers have been left stranded in the strategic waterway, which links major exporters like Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the global market. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told POLITICO last month that the conflict risks triggering a “self-inflicted global recession.” But leaders are wrestling with several …