Evacuation warnings were issued last week in California as heavy rain brought the risk of flooding and landslides. The storms in the US were linked to a phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river” – a long filament of moisture-laden air that originates above the Pacific Ocean and provides vital replenishment of reservoirs and snowpack along … Read more
Why the Rings of Saturn Seem as if They’re About to Disappear
The Liberal Democrats are forcing a vote in parliament on creating a new customs union to put pressure on Labour MPs to take a more pro-EU stance. Ed Davey’s party is writing to all Labour MPs urging them to back a new bill in favour of a customs union with the EU, believing this is … Read more
At first sight, few suspected that Francisco Franco might become a strongman capable of imposing a brutal dictatorship across four decades. He was a short, squeaky voiced army officer with a shaky grasp on non-military matters and zero charisma. Yet he did exactly that, before dying of natural causes in a Madrid hospital, 50 years … Read more
The Moon Was an Inside Job
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/nov/20/ben-jennings-on-trumps-peace-plan-for-ukraine-cartoon
Calling plant-based food veggie “burgers” or “sausages” may be banned in the UK under the new trade agreement with the EU, the Guardian understands. The Labour government secured a new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with the EU earlier this year, which allows British businesses to sell products including some burgers and sausages in the … Read more
‘Not one vote for the left!” That call from Bruno Retailleau, chair of the mainstream conservative party Les Républicains (LR), helped a candidate allied with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) to sweep to victory in a byelection run-off against a socialist in southwest France last month after the centre-right candidate was eliminated in … Read more
In the early part of this year, as the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated European leaders in Munich, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was subjected to a televised mauling in the White House, it became starkly apparent that the bonds of solidarity between the European Union and Ukraine would need to be strengthened to cope with a … Read more
The UK must pay into the EU budget for future participation in the European single market in electricity, it has been confirmed, in what could become a major test for the post-Brexit reset. Ireland’s Europe minister, Thomas Byrne, said EU member states had decided the UK should make a financial contribution for closer ties: “Ireland … Read more