SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " Trump " 16,389 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Stress, uncertainty as economy views decline; many voice frustration with Trump's economic approach, CBS News poll finds
Trump calls out Rep Thomas Massie: 'Kentucky, get this LOSER out of politics' Tuesday
Trump uses Sen. Bill Cassidy's Louisiana ouster as a warning shot against Rep. Thomas Massie ahead of Kentucky's Tuesday Republican primary election.
Trump administration promote program to check voter eligibility. Critics fear a midterm purge
The Trump administration has run the names of at least 67 million voters through government databases as it looks for noncitizens and people who've died.
Trump administration promote program to check voter eligibility. Critics fear a midterm purge
The Trump administration has run the names of at least 67 million voters through government databases as it looks for noncitizens and people who've died.
Donald Trump Jr’s VC firm flaunts political edge in investment push
1789 Capital is seeking to grow its assets to $10bn after building sprawling AI portfolio
One clinic tracks the heavy toll Trump's immigration crackdown takes on mental health
Zocalo Health, a clinic in Los Angeles, screens all its patients for depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. It documented a marked increase in those conditions since ICE enforcement actions began.
Trump Says he’s a Builder. His Peace Deals are Far from Sturdy.
Arab officials worry Trump will leave them in a lurch with Iran.
Republican Senator Cassidy loses Louisiana primary after opposing Trump
Bill Cassidy is among seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Once a darling of the GOP’s ‘Never Trump’ wing, this Republican decided he’s done
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is launching a leadership institute at Washington College and says he's done with seeking political office.
News Analysis: Trump spent two days with Xi in Beijing. Was he outplayed?
The Trump administration argues the trip was a success, having secured the display of conciliation and partnership the president had sought after years of increasingly dangerous acrimony.
What GOP officials are hopeful — and worried — about six months from the midterms
NBC News spoke to roughly 30 Republican National Committee members and GOP activists around the country about how the party can keep control of Congress in November.
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch
The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.
To Critics, Trump Remarks Reveal a Billionaire Out of Touch
The president has never pretended to be an ordinary American, but a recent “truth bomb” has opened him to criticism that he doesn’t grasp the economic strain of his war with Iran.
Thomas Massie’s Lonely and Expensive Fight Against Trump
The seven-term GOP congressman from Kentucky, a leading Trump antagonist, will soon find out whether his political career in the House can survive a break with the president.
The new political era of insurgent candidates is roiling the Pennsylvania primary
A decade after Donald Trump upended the Republican Party by attacking the GOP establishment in his first presidential campaign, the political outsiders...
Letters – President Trump, media vitriol and political violence
Readers respond to a column by Talmage Boston on the media, assassinations and unhinged rage
Why Arizona Democrats are building a Project 2025-style policy blueprint
U.S. Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva are taking a lesson from President Donald Trump and Project 2025.
Trump sent a message by targeting Bill Cassidy. In defeat, Cassidy delivered one back
Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy wanted his reelection campaign to be about the “present and the future.” President Donald Trump had other plans. Cassidy became the first GOP senator to lose renomination in close to a decade, a remarkable downfall that shows again how Trump dominates the party. He signaled in his concession speech, without mentioning Trump, that he could spend the final months of his term being more of a thorn in Trump’s side – or at least more openly critical.
Senate parliamentarian nixes Trump’s ballroom fund in budget bill
The Senate official said the GOP bill needs to be reworked in order to comply with jurisdictional issues.
Trump-backed Letlow advances to Louisiana Senate runoff as Cassidy faces political reckoning
BATON ROUGE, La. — U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow advanced to a runoff in Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary Saturday, capitalizing on the power...
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy loses in Republican primary, does not advance to runoff
Sen. Bill Cassidy is one of few remaining Republican senators who voted for President Trump's impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump endorsed his opponent, Rep. Julia Letlow.
Trump Nemesis Sen. Bill Cassidy Defeated in GOP Primary
The Louisiana lawmaker finished third to Julia Letlow and John Fleming after angering the president.
Trump scores major Republican primary victory as Cassidy ousted in Louisiana
Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming top Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is defeated in bid for GOP Senate nomination
Letlow, Fleming advance to runoff in Louisiana GOP Senate primary, CBS News projects
Incumbent GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who had occasionally broken with the Trump administration, did not advance to the runoff, CBS News projected.
Cassidy Fights to Hang on in Louisiana Race as Trump-Backed Challenger Advances
Senator Bill Cassidy was in a fierce battle on Saturday for a chance to defend his seat from Representative Julia Letlow, who was backed by President Trump.
Senate referee rules against some Trump ballroom funding, Democrats say
The push to secure federal dollars for President Donald Trump’s ballroom security just got more difficult on Capitol Hill.
Louisiana election live updates: Sen. Bill Cassidy faces primary against Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and more
Follow live updates and breaking news coverage of the Louisiana primary election as Sen. Bill Cassidy faces Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow.
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success
At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)
Colorado governor commutes election denier Tina Peters' sentence after Trump pressure
Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is commuting the sentence of Tina Peters, an election conspiracy theorist and former county clerk, following pressure from President Trump.
Trump’s health cuts complicate federal messaging on hantavirus
The federal hantavirus response has laid bare the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. and global health, renewing concerns among public health experts that the U.S. is not prepa…
Live results: Cassidy fights for political life in Louisiana Senate GOP primary
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) is fighting for his political life in a GOP Senate primary Tuesday. Trump has endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R) in her challenge against Cassidy. Polling from…
Trump says Iran war worth economic pain and these rural voters agree
Rural Trump supporters in Colorado say they will accept higher gas prices for Iran policy goals and to prevent Iranian nuclear threat.
'Pawn Stars' icon Rick Harrison says Trump tax policies change everything for small businesses
Rick Harrison of "Pawn Stars" told Fox News that workers at his Las Vegas businesses are seeing astronomical tax returns thanks to Trump's small business tax policies.
Trump's comment about negotiations on Taiwan heightens concerns over China
Recent comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that arms sales to Taiwan are a “very good negotiating chip” in the United States’ dealings with China are heightening anxieties on the island democracy that Beijing claims as its own. Trump made the comment in a Fox News interview with Bret Baier that aired right after the U.S. president wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China on Friday. China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, to be
As global crises multiply, scores of US diplomats say they have been forced out
Amid ongoing foreign policy crises around the globe and as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, the State Department last week finalized the firings of nearly 250 foreign service officers in a brief, impersonal email.
U.S. and Nigerian mission kills Islamic State group leader, Trump says
Trump made the announcement of the joint operation to take out Abu-Bilal al-Mainuki in a late-night social media post Friday that offered few details.
Trump disparages incumbent Sen. Cassidy and tries to propel his challenger in Louisiana GOP primary
Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow over Cassidy, in an unusual attempt to dislodge an incumbent senator. Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
Trump Returns From China With Little Progress to Reopen Hormuz
Iran said transit through the Strait of Hormuz will normalize once security conditions are restored, after US President Donald Trump returned from a visit to China with an agreed desire to reopen the critical maritime route but little in the way of a path to achieving it.
Trump criticizes Sen. Cassidy while pushing challenger in Louisiana GOP primary
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff June 27
Trump criticizes Sen. Cassidy while pushing challenger in Louisiana GOP primary
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff June 27
Trump criticizes Sen. Cassidy while pushing challenger in Louisiana GOP primary
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff June 27
Trump’s drive for political revenge faces a key test in Saturday’s Louisiana Senate primary
President Donald Trump’s drive for political revenge faces a key test Saturday in Louisiana, where he is looking to defeat Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy five years after Cassidy voted to convict him in his second impeachment.
Indiana Farmer Balances High-Profile Ag Politics With Family Farm Values
Indiana farmer Tyler Everett shares his experience welcoming Brooke Rollins into his combine and meeting President Trump. Back on the farm, he focuses on making smart financial choices and protecting family time.
Opinion | The Great Political Realignment of 2026
The country seems to be tiring of the Trump era. Now what?
Video: Opinion | The Great Political Realignment of 2026
The country seems to be tiring of the Trump era. Now what?
Can a Republican defy Donald Trump and survive? Kentucky voters will decide
Congressman Thomas Massie, chastized by the US president as a ‘lowlife’, will soon face the ballot box – setting up a crucial test of Trump’s political strength
Trump’s New Grift Is His Most Brazen … Ever?
The administration is mulling a plan for a massive taxpayer-funded slush fund for Trump’s closest allies.
What to Watch in Saturday’s Republican Senate Primary in Louisiana
Senator Bill Cassidy, who has drawn President Trump’s ire, is fighting for political survival.
Ouster of RFK Jr.’s allies tests MAHA-Trump alliance
Trump officials have increasingly swapped out RFK Jr.’s handpicked deputies for people with more traditional experience, seeking to tamp down on health agencies’ controversies ahead of the midterms.
This Republican voted to convict Trump. Now he's up for reelection. Can he survive?
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach President Trump. Now he's running for reelection in a race that will test Trump's hold on the GOP.
Sen. Bill Cassidy faces Louisiana Republican primary for the first time since his Trump impeachment vote
The Louisiana Republican is running for re-election against Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming.
World Health Organization Must Prioritize Workers, Experts Say
After Trump stopped funding the WHO, the agency retreated from occupational safety and health programs, putting millions of workers at risk as the planet warms, advocates contend. They hope its leaders change that when they meet next week.
Russia’s Putin to visit China following Trump’s trip
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to 'further strengthen the comprehensive partnership', the Kremlin says.
Trump returns from China with no Iran breakthrough — and a decision to make
As Donald Trump grew increasingly frustrated with diplomatic efforts to end the war with Iran, administration officials were closely watching whether the president’s trip to China — a nation with close ties to Tehran — would yield a significant breakthrough.
Even Trump Is Trapped by Gas Prices
The price of gas is the most powerful number in US politics, prediction markets are a tax on suckers, and the great wealth transfer includes $570 billion in classic cars.
Trump’s Hormuz ship insurance facility has done $0 business
US president’s $40bn scheme has had zero uptake due to absence of naval escorts through key waterway
Sen. Cassidy battles Trump-backed challenger in Louisiana Republican primary
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is fighting for his political life in Saturday’s primary against a challenger who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump
Trump defends saying he isn’t thinking about Americans’ finances amid Iran talks
The president also said he’s not considering the political implications of the Iran war on the midterms, when Republicans will be defending slim majorities in each chamber.
Inside Trump’s Midterm Strategy: a Mountain of Cash to Stem GOP Losses
Redistricting battle provides glimmer of hope for Republicans in November.
Consumers sue Amazon for not refunding Trump tariff costs
Amazon.com Inc was sued on Friday by consumers seeking refunds for costs passed on to them in the form of higher prices as a result of tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court later concluded had been unlawfully imposed by President Donald Trump.
Live Results: Louisiana midterm state and congressional primaries
Louisiana voters will participate in a revamped and stripped-down state primary Saturday and decide the political fate of an embattled Republican U.S. senator targeted for defeat by President Donald Trump.
Colorado Gov. Polis commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters' sentence after Trump pressure
Trump has championed the case of Peters, a 70-year-old former county clerk who was sentenced to nine years behind bars after being convicted in a scheme to make a copy of her county’s election computer system. She gets released June 1.
Trump’s flavored vape push sparks backlash from MAHA influencers, health officials
The FDA this month opened a pathway for tobacco companies to sell flavored e-cigarettes and granted its first authorization for fruit-flavored vapes.
Trump and his CEOs want China’s business – but has Asia moved on?
The US delegation went to Beijing looking for deals, but a ‘super cycle’ of capital expenditures across Asia is already fuelling enormous growth.
Trump’s China trips ends with more questions than answers: From the Politics Desk
Plus, he’s not on the ballot, but Gov. Brian Kemp faces a big primary test in Georgia next week.
Rubio: Iran won’t be able to leverage US politics into forcing ‘bad’ deal on Trump
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said Iran attempting to use U.S. politics, specifically rising energy prices and its impact on Americans, will not pressure President Trump and lead him i…
US moves to end job protections for hundreds of health department workers
President Donald Trump's administration on Friday moved to strip U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers of civil service job protections, according to an email reviewed by Reuters.
Trump Administration Weighs $1.7 Billion Fund for Allies Investigated Under Biden
Critics denounced the highly unusual plan, which has yet to be finalized or approved, as a vast political slush fund financed by taxpayers.
The DOJ Just Made a Shocking Confession About One of Trump’s Worst Early Executive Orders
On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard argument in two cases about when the president can target private attorneys.
Why Xi Took Trump Inside Zhongnanhai, China's Most Guarded Political Compound
Zhongnanhai, named after two lakes located within the compound, is not only a workplace but also the residence of China's senior leadership.
A ‘Man With No Country,’ Cassidy Fights for Political Future
Senator Bill Cassidy, targeted by President Trump, is walking a political tightrope as he battles other Republicans for the chance to seek a third term.
Trump leaves China with breakthroughs — and unfinished business on Xi’s biggest fights
Trump returns from China summit praising Xi and trade progress, but Taiwan, AI, human rights, and Iran remain unresolved after high-stakes talks.
Moratorium won’t impact existing home health, hospice services in Maine, advocates say
The Trump administration announced a 6-month moratorium on new agencies, citing 'waste, fraud and abuse' in Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Trump says sculpture garden honoring prominent Americans is planned for park along Potomac River
President Donald Trump plans to build an exhibit of statues featuring prominent Americans in a tightly regulated park along the Potomac River, potentially opening a new legal fight over whether his administration is ignoring the approvals process that typically governs Washington's monumental core.
Texas high court rejects removal of Democratic lawmakers who led quorum break over redistricting
The Texas Supreme Court has refused to declare that Democratic state lawmakers who briefly left the state last year in a quorum break to stop a vote on new congressional voting maps pushed by President Donald Trump vacated their offices.
Some Medicare Patients Can Now Get Free CBD
The Trump administration has authorized a test program to see if the cannabis compound can ease some symptoms and reduce health care costs among older patients.
Spotlight on China Adds to Some Chinese Americans’ Fears
The Trump-Xi summit emphasized stability. But China’s recruitment of foreign agents has fueled suspicion of Chinese Americans.
Justice Department challenges efforts to sanction Trump administration lawyers in new lawsuit
The Justice Department is challenging efforts to sanction attorneys from the first and second Trump administrations, asserting in a lawsuit that the District of Columbia Bar is unfairly playing politics with the legal disciplinary process.
Trump and top CEOs leave a more self-reliant China with few deals to show for it
Before leaving a two-day summit in Beijing, President Donald Trump said he had made many trade deals with China, accompanied by a cohort of “brilliant” tech billionaires.
Why Trump (rightly) Fired the National Science Foundation Board
President Trump’s recent firing of all 22 members of the National Science Foundation board ignited the sort of institutional panic one normally associates with medieval villagers spotting a comet.
Trump, Xi and the Politics of Pig Rearing
The presidential summit and hopes for soybean deals are occurring against the backdrop of China’s struggling pork industry.
Trump and Xi move towards business-first relationship after Beijing summit
The two leaders did not resolve differences on key issues like Iran and Taiwan, despite push to extend truce.
Brad Raffensperger can’t outrun 2020 election. Neither can Georgia politics.
It's been six years since Donald Trump lost Georgia. But that election is still driving campaigns in both major political parties.
Praise to the chief: A week of homage to Trump
Since returning to office, Trump hasn’t just solidified his grip on Republican politics and asserted his executive authority deep into the federal government. He has inspired, encouraged, and, at times, outright demanded to be showered with homage.
How Mississippi politicians, advocates reacted to redistricting cancelation
Gov. Tate Reeves' decision to cancel the Mississippi Legislature's redistricting special session caused a flurry of reactions from politicians.
How a vote for Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ put Republican David Valadao in danger of losing his seat
Medicaid cuts have become a crucial issue in a Central California battleground race.
U.S. businesses edge toward another $25 billion tariff refund
Federal courts questioning Trump-era tariffs, raising the possibility that U.S. importers could see a second round of refunds
When Trump met Xi as peers
The image of two superpowers on similar footing was exactly what Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed to achieve with the visit, analysts said.
Chartbook 449: Voldemort on Threadneedle street. The Bank of England and the "haunted house" of English politics.
Imagine the scene: In some Harry Potter version of 21st-century London, a group of deathless UK Treasury officials gathered from across the last century huddle over warm pints and glasses of Chardonnay. Around the table there are officials from the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1970s, 2022 and today. Inevitably, in May 2026, the subject of conversation is the disintegration of the current Labour government. Despite its huge majority in parliament, it has been reduced to tatters by catastrophic local election result. These exposed the fact that rather than having a government with a clear popular majority, the UK is like most other modern societies divided into 5 segments each of which commands between 26 and 16 percent of the vote. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the leadership at Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street - where the Prime Minister and the Chancellor (Treasury Secretary) work - seem paralyzed. They are caught between mounting discontent over unfairness and the cost of living, and tough fiscal strictures that push them into making unpopular spending decisions. In the London pub, the Treasury officials from across the ages, can barely hide their satisfaction at the latest display of democratic politics caught in the vice-grip of financial logic. “Remember the mur d’argent and the banker’s ramp?” “Just like yesterday!” There are smirks around the table. Then the representative of 2026 pipes up: “One thing you have to say about the current lot (referring to the latest hapless Labour government), you don’t have to teach them about the bond market!” There is a murmur of ascent from the Treasury Mandarins. The trauma of the fiscal crisis of September-October 2022 sits deep. Back then, in the final stages of Tory decay, a ‘mini budget’ that challenged fiscal orthodoxy led to a brief but fierce panic in one of the oldest government bond markets in the world (aka gilt market). Now all you have to do is to mention the “bond market” to hush debate. [ Paul Mason@paulmasonnews In the name of public service, and as ex-economics editor of BBC Newsnight, I offer to do a zoom call, tonight, with any Labour MP who wants to understand why bond markets do not "fall into line" with governments. 1/ 3:57 PM · May 12, 2026 · 466K Views 224 Replies · 674 Reposts · 3.93K Likes ](https://x.com/paulmasonnews/status/2054229532404519082?s=20) “And the funny thing is”, the young man in the huddle continues, “they don’t even want to talk about … ”. There is a sudden hush. Significant looks are exchanged around the table. About? One of the senior figures puts down his glass with a decisive “clink”. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has entered their thoughts. Meanwhile, a few miles away in a grubby pub in Bloomsbury, two conspirators from the camp of Critical Macrofinance huddle over cans of low-alcohol IPA. They look at each other and blurt out loud: “The Bank!” “Everyone in the bloody Labour party is talking about the bond market. But why aren’t they even mentioning … the Bank of England!?” “Why is no one talking about Voldemort?” In Paul Mason’s blogpost, after much chest-thumping about basic fiscal logic, the basic point about the Bank of England is buried in the fine print at #3 in his list of suggestions as to what a radical Labour government might actually be able to do! [ Conflict & Democracy Down with the bond market! Down with gravity! It may seem unfair to focus on Labour MP Paula Barker for her off-the-cuff assertion that the bond market would have to “fall in line” with Andy Burnham, should he replace Keir Starmer as prime minister. But Burnham himself told the New Statesman that Labour had to “get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets… Read more 2 days ago · 100 likes · 3 comments · Paul Mason ](https://htsf.substack.com/p/down-with-the-bond-market-down-with?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Back in Bloomsbury they shake their heads and ask: “Didn’t we learn anything from the Eurozone crisis?” Meanwhile, as if summoned to the conversation by some higher force, the “pink pages” announce: “The days of ultra-cheap government borrowing have come to an end” and Martin “Whizzard” Wolf publishes the graph of the season Look at the UK in 2026, perilously positioned on the upper edge of the pack. No wonder no one in London needs any lessons about the “bond market”. But, look again. Imagine how they feel in Rome. What is London’s nightmare in 2026? The nightmare is that you end up like Italy in the early 2010s during the Eurozone crisis. Once comfortably situated in the middle of the pack, watching with horror as your ten-year yields explode to 7 percent and “spreads” become a national nightmare. One of the largest economies in Europe, a founding member of the euro, stigmatized. But the message of the Italian experience is ambiguous. After all, the stigma didn’t last. In 2026, Italy borrows at rates lower not only than the UK but the US. The US, which, as everyone knows, enjoys the “exorbitant privilege” of being the issuer of reserve, safe asets. What kind of magic is this? How did Italy, in the space of fifteen years, go from being good, to bad and back again? Which brings us back to our dissident friends in their Bloombury boozer and their memories of the Eurozone crisis. Italy never was Britain - with its ongoing fiscal deficits. Without interest payments, on primary balance, from 2000 to 2020 Italy ran a tight fiscal ship. Even in 2008 it barely went into deficit and when it was being put on the rack in the early 20210s its primary surplus matched that of austere Germany. So, what happened? How did it end up stigmatized? Of course Italian politics didn’t help. Berlusconi was at the helm and he had legal issues. But amongst friends in the Bloomsbury pub, Berlusconi is a sideshow, the name we whisper to each other is “Trichet”. From 2004 to 2011 the ECB was headed by Jean-Claude Trichet, ex of the French Treasury, more German than the Germans. After 2009 as the news of the Greek fiscal disaster broke, the European bond markets wento into panic mode and Trichet began a brutal game of cat and mouse. Between 2009 and 2011, Trichet intervened in the bond market to help, only when he thought he had compliance with austerity. When he thought they were uncooperative, he withdrew. In the summer of 2011, he even made direct suggestions to his Italian counterparts in Rome, as to how Italy should be governed. It was this cat and mouse game that drove the bond markets crazy and exposed Italy to a violent squeeze. When Mario Draghi took over the ECB at the end of 2011 and declared “whatever it takes”, the pressure on Italy, gradually eased. It is that starring role that has made Draghi into the towering figure in European politics that he remains today. So now you see why voices in London hush when it comes to the Bank of England. “The bond market” isn’t an irresistible objective force like the weather or an avalanche. It can appear like that. But that depends on the way it is being handled, or not handled by the central bank. Which is why the silence about the Bank of England in London right now is so significant. If you think this all sounds a bit fishy, coming from a left-liberal Keynesian like myself, well, let me introduce you to Robin Brooks, who, to put it mildly, plays on a different quidditch team to me. Here, from the position of a fiscal hawk is Robin’s celebratory account of the Bank of England’s role since 2022; In October 2022, at the height of the bond market blow-up in the UK, something incredible happened. Governor Andrew Bailey told British pension funds the Bank of England would end its support program for the country’s fragile gilt market, drawing a line under how much help the central bank was willing to give to exposed pension funds and - implicitly - the government. By the end of that week, Kwasi Kwarteng - the finance minister - had resigned. Prime Minister Liz Truss would soon follow. This episode is so incredible because it contrasts with what happened in the Euro zone earlier that year. Bond markets in Spain and Italy were under pressure amid high inflation and rising interest rates. In the middle of this, Mario Draghi - Italy’s Prime Minister - resigned, compounding pressure on bond markets of high-debt countries on the Euro periphery. Unlike the Bank of England, the ECB caved. It bought Italian and Spanish government bonds in an effort to cap yields and introduced a new tool that signaled to markets it might do such caps more frequently going forward. Faced with pressure on bond markets, the ECB capitulated to political pressure from high-debt countries like Italy and Spain. The Bank of England stood its ground and toppled the Truss government. This kind of thing has long-lasting consequences. It means markets price a higher probability of yield caps in the Euro zone, which keeps Italian and Spanish yields artificially low, while markets feel free to push up UK yields without fear of central bank intervention. As I flagged in yesterday’s post, this means you really can’t compare UK yields to those of other high-debt countries. The UK looks worse, but only because its central bank isn’t interfering with markets. There’s more to this than just that 2022 episode. The Bank of England has also been much more aggressive in its quantitative tightening (QT) than other central banks. If one motivation for quantitative easing (QE) is to lower bond yields - especially longer-dated ones - then it stands to reason QT pushes yields up. The left chart above shows a four-quarter moving average of UK government debt issuance (black line) in percent of GDP and which sectors absorb this issuance, including the Bank of England (blue bars). The right chart above compares the Bank of England’s accumulation or run-off of government bonds (blue line) with that of other central banks, where this blue line is the same as the blue bars in the left chart. The Bank of England was quicker and more aggressive than other central banks in downsizing its bond holdings, so UK yields will have risen more than elsewhere also for this reason, not just because of Governor Andrew Bailey’s remarks in October 2022. Back in October 2025, after a conversation in New York with friends in British politics, my sense of dysphoria was such that I raised the issue of the Bank of England openly in the FT Since 2008, the UK has slid into a deep economic and political predicament. Growth has stagnated to a degree far worse even than in the 1970s. The Tory leadership’s wager on the Brexit referendum spectacularly backfired, leaving the UK isolated from Europe and at the mercy of its special relationship with the US, many of whose political class regard the UK as a basket case. After years of austerity, the Labour party lurched to the left and then back to the centre. The Tory party has been eclipsed by the populist nationalism of Reform. Any British government should be worrying first and foremost about how to restart growth. Instead, Keir Starmer is beset by shades of the gilt market panic triggered by the Liz Truss government in 2022. The debt level is higher than in recent years, but there is no cause for panic. UK debt is at far from critical levels and of long duration. Whether you want to “take back control” or launch progressive economic policy, a democracy dogged by fear of bond market vigilantes is unhealthy. In a country that is a monetary sovereign, this climate points to one thing: a disconnect between the government and the central bank. Since 1997, the independence of the Bank of England has become a sacred cow. But independence is what you make of it. And in the wake of the gilt market crisis of September 2022, relations between the Bank of England and the UK government need a reset. In normal times, there is no doubt that an inflation-targeting independent central bank can serve a country well. But since 2008, the UK and other advanced economies have not had the luxury of such simple problems. To their credit, central bankers around the world have not stood on orthodoxy. After 2008, the US Federal Reserve rescued the global banking system and, through quantitative easing, it stabilised the Treasury market in the face of huge deficits. In Europe, things were trickier. Both the Bank of England under Mervyn King and Jean-Claude Trichet’s European Central Bank played cat and mouse with national governments. This was a high stakes wager that between 2010 and 2012 escalated bond market tension and triggered a disastrous turn to austerity. Shaken by the impact of those shocks, their successors, Mark Carney and Mario Draghi adopted a more protective stance (assuming you were not the government of Greece). Recall that Draghi’s legendary slogan, “Whatever it takes”, was uttered to face down the City of London’s bond vigilantes. In 2015, Draghi launched QE — financial repression by another name. In 2016, Carney used the authority of the Bank of England to stabilise markets following the vote for Brexit, an exemplary demonstration of how central banks can underpin democratic choice, even when those choices are wrong headed. All these were independent central bankers steeped in the best practice of the 1990s, who recognised that historic crises demanded radical action. It was the price surge of 2021-2023 that poisoned the atmosphere. Though the shock came mainly from the supply side, central banks ended up in the dock. Nowhere more so than in the UK. The Bank of England reacted with aggressive normalisation. Faced with a cost of living crisis, the governor called for workers to accept real wage cuts. In early 2022, as gas prices were at record levels and Russia’s army was poised to invade Ukraine, the Bank adopted a stringent programme of quantitative tightening, elevating interest rates. When the Truss government got itself in trouble, the Bank took almost a week to come to the rescue. Rather than enacting a charade of normality, it is time to recognise that in 2025 the UK faces a period of historic transition. To meet this challenge, what is needed is a new concordat with the Bank. This should not ignore inflationary pressures or the long-run trajectory of debt, but should affirm the priority of reviving investment-led growth. One could follow Donald Trump in demanding interest rate cuts. The Bank could shadow the ECB in its commitment to capping Eurozone yields. But the top priority should be to lay the ghost of September 2022. The Bank’s slowing of QT last month was a concession. An immediate and complete end would send the right signal. Such a concordat will not by itself restore sanity to politics, solve the housing problem or rebuild the NHS. But it would help to lift the fear of bond market crisis, which is paralysing the effort by democratic politicians to answer the fundamental questions facing the nation. Now, that call for a new concordat between government and Bank of Englands seems more urgent than ever. The problem is that in October 2025, Starmer still had some authority. Today the government is in tatters. And when you are the “under the harrow” - to echo a phrase of Montagu Norman’s from the 1920s - it is the worst possible time to consider institutional change. To make general arguments at a time of crisis can only seem like special pleading rather than a general argument for long-term change. The same, unfortunately, is also true for the other basic institutional reform that Britain urgently needs i.e. the abolition of the out-dated first past the post electoral system and its replacement by a moderated form of proportional representation. And thirdly - whilst we are saying the quiet parts out loud - Britain needs to reopen the question of EU membership. What the local election results of 2026 show is that this remains a key issue. And what they also show is that there is a clear majority that would favor a return. Until these basic features of Britain’s political economy are addressed the country will carry on its politics as though in a haunted house, governed by governments that lack actual majorities, conjuring up false constraints whilst ignoring the real ones. This one is for DG and MI. I love writing the newsletter. If you enjoy it too and fancy buying me a coffee once a month, you know what to do. Click below! Subscribe
Lamar Alexander on Six Decades in Power — And the Future of the GOP
Ahead of his new memoir, the former senator reflects on nearly 60 years of public service, the presidents he’s served and Trump’s GOP.
For Trump in China, a tonal shift yields few results
Trump's homage and deference to Xi were a striking display of an often commanding president adapting to a new power dynamic, understanding China's rise and its emerging role in the world.
Can flailing Trump hold on to the Senate in the midterms?
Democrats think they can flip the Senate blue in November, and they’re hoping a group of interesting characters will help them do it. This week, Jonathan Freedland is joined by Jonathan Martin of Politico to discuss the chances of such an upset and what it would mean for the president to lose the upper chamber
Kentucky Republicans race to replace McConnell while carefully keeping him at arm’s length
Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell is becoming a test of the Republican Party’s transformation under President Donald Trump
Double standard? Jim Jordan doesn’t ‘have any issue at all’ with Eric Trump joining dad’s trip to China.
Trump wraps up visit with Xi in China tonight, after talks on trade and stern words on Taiwan
California legislators kill new spending programs and blame Trump for funding cuts
The biannual ‘suspense file’ hearing is the Legislature’s most efficient tool for killing costly or controversial proposals without fanfare
Trump officials hit California with ‘largest ever’ freeze on Medicaid funds
The Trump administration suspended $1.1 billion in California Medicaid funds over fraud claims, threatening home care for 900,000 seniors and people with disabilities.
Trump and Xi set for second day of talks after Taiwan warning
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet on Friday to wrap up a two-day state visit that has featured pomp and business deals but also a stark warning from Xi that mishandling the Taiwan issue could push U.S.-China relations to a very dangerous place.