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Nigel Farage has been accused of acting as “Donald Trump’s spokesman in Britain” for refusing to criticize his ally after the US president bullied and belittled Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last Friday.

Condemning the Reform leader, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Nigel Farage is once again showing his true colours as Trump's own spokesman here in Britain.

"Zelensky showed courage and integrity in that room - in stark contrast to Farage’s cowardly approach of licking Trump’s boots.

And the Conservatives said Mr Zelensky is a hero who has “stood up to Putin’s aggression and led his country’s defence against their barbaric and illegal invasion”.

“It is troubling to not hear the leader of Reform say that,” shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said. She added: “For Nigel Farage to sit there pointing the finger at Zelenskyy is both morally wrong and diplomatically counterproductive.

Labour MP Blair McDougall, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told The Independent he was “utterly unsurprised” by Mr. Farage joining the attack on Mr. Zelensky.

He added: “Most of us look at Putin and feel disgust. Farage has always seen someone to admire. A leader who can’t pick a side between a murderous dictatorship and a democracy doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near decisions about Britain’s security.”

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday designating English as the official language of the United States, according to the White House.

The order will allow government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in language other than English, according to a fact sheet about the impending order.

Designating English as the national language “promotes unity, establishes efficiency in government operations, and creates a pathway for civic engagement,” according to the White House.

Within hours of Trump’s inauguration last month, the new administration took down the Spanish language version of the official White House website.

Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion and frustration at the change. The White House said at the time it was committed to bringing the Spanish language version of the website back online. As of Friday, it was still not restored.

Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department on Monday over its scrubbing of references to climate change from its website.

The department had ordered staff to take down pages focused on climate change on Jan. 30, according to the suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Within hours, it said, information started disappearing.

At the same time, the department also froze funding that had been promised to businesses and nonprofits through conservation and climate programs. The purge then “removed critical information about these programs from the public record, denying farmers access to resources they need to advocate for funds they are owed,” it said.

Peter Lehner, a lawyer for Earthjustice, said the pages being purged were crucial for farmers facing risks linked to climate change, including heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme weather and wildfires. The websites had contained information about how to mitigate dangers and adopt new agricultural techniques and strategies. Long-term weather data and trends are valuable in the agriculture industry for planning, research and business strategy.

“You can purge a website of the words climate change, but that doesn’t mean climate change goes away,” Mr. Lehner said.

The plaintiffs allege the actions violated three federal laws and were “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” They asked the court to compel the agency to restore the pages and to block it from deleting any others.

Wes Gillingham, president of the board of Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, said that farmers were just heading into planning for the summer growing season. He said taking information down because of a “political agenda about climate change” was senseless.

In a televised roundtable later Sunday evening, Merz also criticized US “intervention” in the German election campaign in recent days. “The interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow,” he said. “We are under such massive pressure from two sides that my top priority is to create unity in Europe.”
He continued, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”
“I would never have believed that I would have to say something like that on television. But at the very least, after Donald Trump’s statements last week, it is clear that the Americans - at least this part of the Americans in this administration - are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,” he said.

An example for me - the story of Luz Long and Jesse Owens' friendship forged during the 1936 Berlin Games attended by Hitler.

Jesse Owens did not fit the Nazi ideology of the superiority of the Aryan “master race” because of his color. Hitler refused to personally congratulate Jesse after his wins, and neither did US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Jesse had fouled twice while attempting to qualify for the long jump event. He had only one attempt left. Luz shared a technique with Jesse that helped him to qualify on his last jump. In the finals of the long jump competition Jesse jumped 8.06 meters to win; Luz finished second with a jump of 7.87 meters. Luz was the first to congratulate him. After the award ceremony (see photo at the top of this story), Jesse and Luz walked arm in arm through the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

Jesse and Luz became friends at the Olympics and corresponded for years after that. Jesse would say of his Olympic friendship with Luz, “It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler… You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating for the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”

Here's a link if you're interested.

Care to share your own?

Blunt Rochester: Do you believe that any school benefiting from taxpayer dollars should be required to follow federal civil rights laws?

McMahon: Schools should be required to follow the laws.

Blunt Rochester: Anybody getting taxpayer dollars. That’s good. So private schools shouldn’t be able to turn away a student with a disability? Or a student based on their religion, or their ethnicity or race?

McMahon: Well, private schools aren’t taking federal dollars. So they have the ability to say that if they do not believe—

Blunt Rochester: They do receive them. They should not.

McMahon: Well, if they believe that they cannot best serve that student, and they are not taking federal dollars, then they have the right not to accept that student.

Blunt Rochester: But I’m speaking specifically, when we talk about—there’s a lot of conversation about vouchers. If private schools take federal dollars, can they turn away a child based on a disability or religion or race?

McMahon: Well I think that there are also some public schools who are saying that they don’t have the—

Blunt Rochester: It’s really just a yes or no.

McMahon: No it’s not. It really isn’t.

Unfortunately, Blunt Rochester, rather than pressing McMahon, asked the nominee to follow up with her privately, noting her limited time for questioning. But this was one of the most pointed moments of the day, and it got to a very urgent question in education: How can a government claim to represent all its citizens if the private schools it sends money to turn out to be discriminatory, or to teach damaging or anti-scientific curricula? How can it fund schools freed from federal oversight and still protect the rights of vulnerable children who won’t be naturally welcomed into those alternate institutions? Whether it is because the senators rushed through this line of questioning or because McMahon stonewalled successfully, we never got an answer.

Vice President Vance on Friday chided European leaders for their criticism of Elon Musk wading into their elections, comparing Musk’s actions to Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urging American leaders to take action on climate change.

“I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy,” Vance said.

“And speaking up and expressing opinions isn’t election interference, even when people express views outside your own country, and even when those people are very influential,” he continued. “And trust me, I say this with all humor: If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

Before becoming president, Trump sued CBS over 60 Minutes' interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris shortly before the election. Now, Trump's newly elevated Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, is using the levers of government to put pressure on the network.

"Now, more than ever, only a fearless press stands between an aggressive [White House] and the public," former CBS News correspondent Marvin Kalb posted on a Facebook page for CBS alumni. "If news organizations such as CBS bend a knee before a president, then we have all taken a big step towards autocracy."

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

Trope: Police have to keep bad guy talking on the phone long enough to trace them and find their location. Professional bad guys hang up right before it triangulates their coordinates.

Apparently, Hollywood's been getting this inspiration from a pre-digital age when they use this trope in movies. See link for more info. It's just funny that most of the "tracing the call" scenes I've seen are definitely after the 2000's.

Another link: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/10/how-hard-would-it-be-to-trace-the-sniper-s-phone-calls.html

A fun gif: https://i.gifer.com/9QtC.mp4

At this point, is this news ? Though it highlights Trump's politics.

Hey Lemmy!

What's that one song comes on the radio or party and you're filled with joy? Or perhaps it's a carol and it makes you feel alright. What is it?

Then there's the song that makes you flinch and cringe, and you've gotta shut that song down. What is it?

Your favorite and your despised!