Politics
The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make In Therapy
Therapy is often framed as a solution to difficult emotions and experiences. It’s a place to talk, process and start to feel better. But simply booking an appointment and showing up doesn’t automatically mean the work is happening in the most effective way.
“Deciding to start therapy is often a thoughtful, deliberate choice,” Dr Sue Varma, a psychiatrist and author of Practical Optimism, told HuffPost. “For many people, it is something they have put off for a long time or struggled to access.”
But even the most well-intentioned therapy-goers can fall into habits that undermine their progress.
“It takes time for a person to learn how to best use the therapy space,” said therapist Nina Tomkiewicz. “Especially if you’ve never been to see a therapist before, you shouldn’t expect to know exactly what to do or how to be or what to share. It’s OK to make mistakes and figure things out. We need to give ourselves the grace to practice figuring out how to be satisfied with our therapy sessions.”
While that learning curve is normal, therapists say there are some pitfalls that can slow growth or keep people stuck longer than necessary. HuffPost asked mental health professionals to share the mistakes people make in therapy – and what to do instead to make the experience more productive and meaningful.
1. Getting distracted during your session
Jill Lamar, a licensed professional counsellor with Thriveworks, said that many clients undermine their treatment by engaging in distracting behaviour, particularly during teletherapy sessions on Zoom or other platforms.
“This may be as subtle as surreptitiously looking at their phones, texting, viewing work e-mails, playing games,” she said.
“They tend not to take these ‘at-home’ sessions as seriously and will ask permission to engage in activities like doing laundry, or allowing other family members, often their children, to enter the room. These break the flow of the session and keep clients from fully engaging, emotionally and mentally.”
For remote sessions, Lamar recommends treating the experience as if you are sitting in your therapist’s office.
“Eating lunch or a snack is usually allowable – although ask first – but the aforementioned behaviour is a deterrent to a reasonably productive therapy session,” she said. “Therapy should be, ultimately, therapeutic.”
2. Giving up too early
“A common mistake is quitting therapy too early, often after a single session or one disappointing experience, and then swearing it off entirely for years,” Varma said. “I see this all the time.”
Such behaviour often stems from unrealistic expectations about how quickly the therapeutic process moves. But meaningful shifts don’t happen overnight.
“Being intentional and implementing change takes time and practice,” said Tori-Lyn Mills, a licensed professional counsellor with Thriveworks.
“The misconception is the belief that ‘I should be better by now.’ This expectation can actually hinder progress, because the idea that things should change simply because we want them to, can trigger self-pressure and self-judgment.”
3. Saying the “right” things instead of how you actually feel
Caitlyn Oscarson, a licensed marriage and family therapist, pointed to one common but unhelpful behaviour in therapy sessions: the tendency to try to say the “right” things instead of sharing actual thoughts and emotions.
“You might shy away from expressing your true feelings, downplay how much you are hurt and explain away others’ behaviour, trying to present in the most reasonable, self-aware version of yourself,” Oscarson said.
Kobus Louw via Getty Images
She recommended paying attention to times when you’re editing yourself or feeling conscious about how your therapist is perceiving you.
“Say how you feel and pause before qualifying or justifying,” Oscarson said. “Trust your therapist to ask the right questions to understand your feelings. Therapy is a place where you don’t always have to be reasonable.”
4. Expecting a simple ‘fix’
“The most common mistake is viewing therapy as a quick fix for uncomfortable feelings,” said psychotherapist Omar Torres. “Many people don’t realise that therapy is a non-linear process that requires grace and patience. It isn’t about making discomfort ‘go away’ – it’s about learning to navigate those feelings masterfully, sitting with discomfort and building resilience.”
He advised viewing therapy as a “journey of self-discovery,” rather than a silver bullet. There’s no easy fix that will magically improve your mental state and change your life.
“A mistake is thinking there’s a one-size-fits-all solution, or a one-step solution to a lifetime of pain,” echoed Tomkiewicz. “We are all guilty of this at some time in our lives. We think, ’If only I could find the right routine, partner, gym, job, then I would feel better. If only I could use the right strategy, the right meditation, journal prompt, psychological tool, then I would know exactly how to make myself feel better.”
It’s not about some singular dramatic breakthrough or accomplishment, but the small moments that add up over time.
“Working on ourselves is a journey, one that I don’t think will ever end,” Tomkiewicz said. “We are constantly evolving throughout our lives. We create our days, every day, so our opportunities for change and growth are infinite.”
5. Avoiding uncomfortable topics
“It is totally natural to push away from the difficult topics,” Oscarson said. “In our culture, we don’t often talk openly about complicated things like sex, money, substance abuse, and it can feel unnatural to talk about these things in therapy.”
Your therapist is very accustomed to talking about all manner of difficult topics and understands how uncomfortable it can feel for people.
“Write down the thing you want to bring up before the session to hold yourself accountable,” Oscarson advised. “Name your discomfort – ‘this is so awkward for me to bring up’ – and ask your therapist to help pace the conversation. If specifics feel like too much, start with just bringing up the general topic.”
6. Focusing on external circumstances over self-reflection
Tomkiewicz noted that many people become hyper-focused on wanting the external circumstances of their lives to change before they try to feel better.
“Sometimes people will come in and point to everything wrong in their life, and say, ‘If only these things were different, then I could feel better,’” she said. “The point of therapy, of working on ourselves, is to feel differently in spite of things being the way they are.”
Waiting for circumstances to change is not a good strategy for improving our mindsets.
“Not only might we be waiting forever, but we also abdicate a sense of responsibility for how we show up in our lives,” Tomkiewicz said. “We are essentially saying, ‘This bad thing is here which I don’t like, so I am going to be upset about it, and since I have a good reason for being upset, I am not going to change.’ People need to be open to wondering, ‘What is this life experience challenging me to become?’”
She urged people to consider how they might find the best version of themselves in response to specific situations, rather than reacting in ways that make them feel more overwhelmed or upset. Ultimately, true progress comes from within – it’s internal work that requires active practice and accountability.
A therapist cannot change external things in your life, but through therapy, you can learn to explore your relationship with those things and find a new perspective, which also could, in time, lead to new choices that lead to changing life circumstances.
7. Venting and complaining for the whole session
Tomkiewicz advised against “using your therapy session as a way to vent, complain and stay stuck”.
“It feels really good to get validation, really good. And therapists are trained to hear you, understand you and honestly validate your experience without judgment,” she said, adding that every perspective is valid and has truth in it.
But the problem with this approach is that it creates a cycle in which you vent about something just enough to feel some relief, but then you haven’t done anything to make a change. Retelling a story about your mean neighbour or complaining about your spouse’s lack of help with household chores will not provide full or lasting relief.
SDI Productions via Getty Images
“While venting is a form of release in therapy, it is just part of the process,” Mills said. “The narrative often reveals the work that needs to be done. The misconception is that the venting itself will make you feel better, but often what is vented indicates a need for change, healthier boundaries or more effective coping strategies.”
Although it’s fine to derive some satisfaction from venting to friends and family, you probably want to take advantage of the time and money you spend in therapy to engage in deeper processing that will lead to actual change.
“We can address this by asking ourselves things like, ‘What is my role in this? What is within my control in this situation? What is it that I am really wanting? What is this situation teaching me to overcome?’” Tomkiewicz said.
8. Developing dependence on your therapist
Mills warned against developing dependence on your therapist. You might expect them to be a perfect fit, do the hard inner work for you, provide concrete instructions for every issue or always be agreeable and never challenge you.
“At times, the client may look at the therapist to provide deeper insight and understanding without engaging in necessary self-exploration,” Mills said.
“While a therapist can ask thoughtful, probing questions, progress can plateau if the client is unwilling or unable to explore their experiences more deeply. The misconception is that deeper insight or self-awareness is provided by the therapist, rather than developed through the client’s own willingness to sit with uncertainty and engage in deeper self-exploration.”
Torres emphasised that therapists do not have all the answers.
“While we have formal training, we are human and not all-knowing. We offer guidance, perspective, strategies and support, but we do not provide ‘answers,’” he said. “Our role is to help you reflect deeply enough to reach your own conclusions.”
9. Not sharing feedback or differing perspectives with your therapist
“Feedback is such an important part of the therapy process,” Oscarson said. “Everyone is different, and what leads to amazing insight for one person will totally flop with another. Share your reactions with your therapist and what you actually find helps you in between sessions.”
The more honest you are about what works and doesn’t work for you, the more connected you will feel with your therapist and the process of therapy – which makes it more effective.
Tomkiewicz similarly advised against deferring to your therapist and what they say, instead of speaking up about a differing perspective.
“I want to know if something resonates or doesn’t resonate,” she said. “I want to know if what I said didn’t land or if it didn’t make sense to you. Maybe I recommended an exercise or thought experiment, but it doesn’t seem relevant to you – I want to know that.”
She noted that you can say things like, “I don’t understand why we are doing this exercise. Could you give me some more context about how this is supposed to help?” or “That last part you said didn’t really feel right. It’s more like this… Does that make sense?” or “I feel like we are focusing on this one area, but for me, this other area feels like the bigger issue.”
Try to be open about what progress, goals and success in therapy look like for you in general as well.
“Some people stay in therapy for years without feeling real benefit, yet never bring this up,” Varma said. “Therapy works best when it is an active, collaborative process. It helps to be open about what you were hoping for, what you expected and what problems you are trying to address.”
10. Thinking all the work and healing happens in sessions
“One mistake that people make in therapy is that they think that showing up is enough to enact change,” said psychotherapist Meg Gitlin. “Finding a therapist and committing to sessions is the first step, and certainly a meaningful one. However, once things start to click in therapy, the real success comes from bringing what you learn in the session to the rest of your life.”
She compared the process to working out with a trainer once a week. You can learn exercises from the trainer and have a good session, but you need to do these workouts more regularly to really strengthen those muscles. With practice over time in everyday life, you will feel stronger.
The same goes for picking up on harmful communication patterns through therapy, for instance. Maybe someone learns they are often people pleasing and then feeling resentful.
“Simply identifying and understanding this pattern is wonderful, but it is not sufficient to break the cycle,” Gitlin said, adding that a therapist might help figure out alternate options for handling a situation and exploring how it would feel to shift the dynamic. “But the real work comes when the client is able to implement these tactics and tolerate the discomfort it may bring them.”
All the change and healing do not happen in sessions, so keep your therapy work present in everyday life. Likewise, when something impacts you during the week, make a note of it so that you can discuss it in your next session. Your therapy process and your daily experiences shouldn’t be disconnected.
“You can have a wonderful, illuminating conversation with your therapist, but it probably won’t result in long-term change if you don’t take action outside of the office,” Oscarson said.
“Choose something small – a new behaviour or a new perspective that you want to take into your week. Attach it to your existing routine, for example, reading a notecard with ‘takeaways’ from your therapy session while you brush your teeth or wait for your coffee to brew. Set reminders on your phone to think about the things you are working on in therapy.”
Keir Starmer has said he will never walk away as he vowed to lead Labour into the next general election.
The PM insisted his landslide election victory in 2024 had given him a “mandate … to change this country” and he was determined to do so.
He was speaking just 24 hours after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar broke ranks by demanding Starmer stand down over his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The disgraced peer faces a criminal investigation into allegations he leaked sensitive government information to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary.
Despite knowing about his links to the billionaire financier, Starmer made Mandelson the UK’s ambassador to Washington, only to sack him just seven months later.
Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”
However, his attempted coup backfired and more than 100 Labour MPs – including every member of the cabinet – publicly backed the PM.
In his first public comments since the leadership crisis, Starmer said: “There are some people in recent days who say the Labour government should have a different fight, a fight with itself, instead of a fight for the millions of people who need us to fight for them.
“And I say to them – I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I’m charged with fighting for, I will never walk away from the country that I love.”
Asked by broadcasters if he will lead the party into the next election, the prime minister said: “Yes I will. I had a five-year mandate to deliver the change. I intend to get on with what I was elected to do, which is deliver that change.”
His comments will be seen as a direct challenge to those Labour MPs who want his job, including health secretary Wes Streeting and former deputy PM Angela Rayner.
Speaking at an event in Hertfordshire, Starmer said he was determined to improve the lives of ordinary people, as Labour had promised to do.
He said his own brother, Nick, who died in 2024, “spent his adult life wandering from job to job in virtual poverty”.
“This system, this political system, didn’t work for him and there are billions of people in the same boat, children in poverty, young people who don’t get the opportunities they deserve,” he said.
“Millions of people held back because of a system that doesn’t work for them, who are not given the dignity, the respect, the chance that they deserve.
“And I’m fighting for them. I am their prime minister, and this is their Government and I will never give up on that fight.”
Earlier, Skwawkbox reported on Australian police officers’ vicious beating of a restrained and helpless anti-genocide protester. The beating came as police attacked protesters demonstrating peacefully against a visit by war-criminal Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
The attack was not an isolated incident. In yet another assault, police fractured the spine of 69-year-old Jann Alhafny. The Australian government has given police immunity from legal consequences.
Describing the incident, Alhafny said that an officer had pushed her “very violently” to the ground “without warning” as she protested in Sydney – but worse was to come:
I knew straight away I’d hurt my back [but the officer] grabbed one arm and he yanked me up onto my feet, like really severely, and that was excruciating.
Moving someone who has suffered a spinal injury at all, let alone “really severely”, can result in permanent paralysis or even death. Doctors later found that Alhafny had four fractured vertebrae. New South Wales Police denied any knowledge.
But police knew they were able to act with impunity. NSW authorities had designated the area a “major event”, giving police and the state immunity from ‘tortious acts’ that cause injury. It appears that state enforcers made full use of this immunity: the march of around 30,000 was kettled and pepper sprayed as well as being beaten.
Alhafny, whose late husband was Palestinian, said she and her daughter would not be deterred from anti-genocide protests:
We always go to the protest, my daughter and I, and it’s just the right thing to do. Even if my husband wasn’t Palestinian, I’d still be supporting Palestine.
Featured image via the Canary
Has there ever existed a man whose arrogance is so out of proportion to his talents? I am of course talking about Wes Streeting – Britain’s secretary of state for health, cracker of the most terrible committee-written jokes, and the man hilariously gushed over by witless centrists as the saviour of Labour. No shade, but if the answer is ‘Wes Streeting’, you are asking the wrong question. Unless the question is ‘Who’s the biggest tit on the frontbench?’.
Streeting is back in the news, like that C-list celeb who just won’t leave us alone, after self-leaking the WhatsApp chats he had with ultimate wrong’un, Peter Mandelson. Peeved that some in the media have been calling him a mate of Mandy, Streeting wanted to set the record straight. He was merely an acquaintance of Mandelson’s who would occasionally ask that Prince of Darkness for advice on the burning issues of the day and then put kisses all over his messages, okay? Not buddies at all.
Now that Mandelson’s love-in with crooked girl-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has properly blown up, Streeting is doing some serious distancing. He says he dumped his Mandy texts on the web because he’s sick of all the ‘smear and innuendo’ suggesting he has ‘something to hide’. He should have kept them private. Because it turns out he does have something to hide – that he’s a properly haughty politician who’ll happily throw everyone and everything under the bus to save his own lacklustre career.
The thing that really leapt out at me was Streeting’s bitching about Israel. It oozes with imperious conceit. In July 2025, he pressed Mandelson for his thoughts on recognising a Palestinian state. ‘Morally and politically, I think we need to join France’, said Streeting, referencing President Macron’s decision to recognise Palestine. There they are, Wes and Mandy, like a couple of Poundshop Sir Mark Sykes, musing on how to carve up the Holy Land. Someone please tell these donuts the British Empire is kaput. White men in Whitehall no longer get to magic up states in the Middle East.
What Streeting said next is genuinely troubling. Israel is behaving like a ‘rogue state’, he said. Let’s punish it, he suggested. We should ‘let them pay the price as pariahs’. He said we should impose sanctions on the entire dastardly nation, ‘not just a few ministers’. Who the hell does he think he is? Mate, you run the NHS – badly – not the Middle East. The breezy manner with which he proposed that Israel be damned with pariah status speaks to the staggering hubris of these two texting technocrats.
It confirms what the recognition of Palestine was really about – not improving the lot of Palestinians but shaming and isolating Israel. It was nation-building as a weapon, driven by a colonialist instinct to reprimand the uppity Jewish State. It was a back-covering exercise, too. ‘There are no circumstances’, Streeting texted, ‘in which people like me or Shabana [Mahmood] could abstain or vote against [Palestine recognition]’. Britain and France’s recognition of Palestine emboldened Hamas. Hamas gushed that it was one of the ‘fruits’ of their fascistic pogrom of 7 October 2023. And for what? To let a couple of crisis-ridden hacks in the Labour Party save face in the Commons and their own constituencies? Now that’s pariah behaviour, Wes.
Other messages confirm why Streeting was so adamant about a Palestinian state – because he lives in fear of losing his seat to the Muslim vote. He said in one message that he thinks he’ll be ‘toast’ at the next election (don’t threaten us with a good time). That’s partly because Labour has ‘no growth strategy’ and no answer to voters’ question of ‘Why Labour?’, he said. And it’s partly because the sectarian vote is viciously nipping at Labour’s heels.
‘I fear we’re in big trouble’, he said in one message. ‘We just lost our safest ward in Redbridge (51 per cent Muslim, Ilford [South]) to a Gaza independent’, he wrote. And ‘at this rate I don’t think we’ll hold either of the two Ilford seats’. One of those seats, of course, is Streeting’s: he’s MP for Ilford North. This is why he thinks he might be ‘toast’, and this is why he was insistent he could never oppose a Palestinian state – because ‘the Gaza vote’ is coming for him.
The levels of pork-barrel calculation on display here are staggering. ‘Save Gaza’, the left yelps, yet Streeting is more interested in saving his own arse. Screw the State of Israel, I need to protect my little fiefdom of Ilford. Is this cultural appeasement of sectarian voters? It smacks of it to me. That Streeting thought these messages would paint him in a positive light post-Mandelson is mindblowing, for what they really confirm is the willingness of the nominal secularists of Britain’s social-democratic party to play the sectarian game if it will help them keep their grubby mitts in the till of power.
Oh, Wes – you thought you were moving on from the Mandy years but all you’ve done is confirm that Labour is entirely unfit for power. It’s a lost party, bereft of principle, cruel to its allies and craven in the face of sectarianism. Listless, exhausted and boring. I already knew I wanted Labour out – now I really know.
Brendan O’Neill is spiked’s chief political writer and host of the spiked podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. Subscribe to the podcast here. His latest book – After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation – is available to order on Amazon UK and Amazon US now. And find Brendan on Instagram: @burntoakboy.
Politics
The Epstein files are creating headaches for New Hampshire’s most powerful political dynasties
A New Hampshire magnate with ties to power players in both parties has appeared in successive batches of the Epstein files, roiling politics in his home state and threatening its two most influential political dynasties.
Documents recently released by the Department of Justice suggest that entrepreneur Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and other devices, kept in contact with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, with emails indicating he visited the disgraced financier’s Caribbean island in 2013. Kamen has not been accused of wrongdoing and did not respond to requests for comment through his companies Monday.
The recently released files indicate a closer relationship between the two than was previously known. The disclosures have prompted Kamen’s organizations to launch investigations into their ties. And the situation has ratcheted up scrutiny of the New Hampshire politicians who have worked with him, received campaign contributions from him or helped his organizations secure tens of millions in federal funds.
That includes members of the Shaheen and Sununu families, the best-known and most powerful clans in the state’s Democratic and Republican parties. Both have scions running for Congress this year: House candidate Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.), the son of a former governor, who is seeking to return to the Senate.
They now face Epstein-fueled attacks from their lower-polling rivals.
“Anywhere Epstein pops up these days, it’ll become a campaign issue,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP strategist who has worked with Sununu and his father. “And there are certainly politicians who have worked with Kamen in New Hampshire, taken his money and associated with him. And those who did will have to answer for it.”
Kamen is a New Hampshire institution and local celebrity — often described as a quirky one — in a state that has few big-name figures but exerts a powerful hold on the presidential nominating process. The pioneering inventor and entrepreneur who developed the first portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that can climb stairs, Kamen is also widely credited for driving the transformation of Manchester’s old mill district into a technological and health care hub. He was lauded as a “hero” for helping secure 91,000 pounds of protective equipment for first responders and health care workers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when such resources were scarce.
Kamen has donated roughly $90,000 to federal candidates and campaign committees on both sides of the aisle over the past four decades, according to federal campaign finance filings. That includes over $7,000 apiece to Sununu, Sen. Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte, the former senator who’s up for reelection as governor this year. Kamen has not made any federal campaign contributions this election cycle, per federal reports.
He’s hosted a raft of high-profile politicians at his businesses and his Bedford home over the years, from Ayotte to then-President George W. Bush. He traveled to Dubai with Sununu’s younger brother, then-Gov. Chris Sununu, in 2019 during a trip in which the two attended the World Government Summit. Chris Sununu, through Airlines for America, the lobbying firm he now leads, did not respond to a request for comment.
Those ties, once promoted in press releases and splashed across social media, have turned into a political liability after successive document drops showed deeper connections between Kamen and Epstein.
Photos released in December show Kamen socializing with Epstein in a tropical location and riding a Segway with Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. Documents released on Jan. 30 showed Kamen made plans to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2013. At the time, assistants sent emails discussing “which flight Dean prefers the girls to be on.” Days later, he wrote to Epstein: “thank you for hosting an incredible visit to [sic] a magical place. It really is almost unbelievable.”
Kamen did not respond to questions from POLITICO about his association with Epstein, including whether he visited Little Saint James. He previously described having “limited interactions” with Epstein in statements to other media outlets and has denied knowledge of his “horrific actions” beyond what he learned from news reports. He told The Boston Globe that Epstein had reached out to him about becoming involved in international development projects but after initial meetings, “it became apparent that his only interest was self-promotion” and “I avoided further meetings.” He did not respond to The Globe’s inquiry about the reference to “the girls.” After the latest tranche of documents was released, he recused himself from board activities of at least four companies he’s involved with as they engage outside law firms to conduct independent investigations into the disclosures.
Williams, the Republican strategist, said “the Epstein episode is the first real blemish that’s marked his reputation in the state, and it’s an extremely hot issue right now.”
EPSTEIN FILES AS A CAMPAIGN CUDGEL
Stefany Shaheen, who is running for New Hampshire’s open House seat and served as chief strategy officer for Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute from September 2018 until last month, is facing intensifying scrutiny over her dealings with Kamen. She has posted photos of her with Kamen on social media over the years, one of the two of them in the cockpit of a plane that was uploaded to LinkedIn seven years ago, and another from a gala for Type 1 Diabetes research last April where she was an honoree. Her campaign said the former was taken during a flight to Washington with others affiliated with ARMI for an American Society Of Mechanical Engineers meeting on June 14, 2018, where Kamen spoke.
She is now facing calls from two of her Democratic primary rivals to publicly condemn Kamen. One of them, Christian Urrutia, has also accused her of potentially helping Kamen craft his statements in response to the files, which she has denied.
“There’s certainly an element of transparency. I think there is a fundamental question of: Do we want our members of Congress and our senators to have these types of relationships?” said Urrutia, who also asked why Sen. Shaheen did not disclose her daughter’s role at ARMI when securing a $1.2 million earmark for the company in 2023. A spokesperson for the senator said that her daughter was paid through non-federal funding sources and that her office was advised by Senate Ethics Committee staff that the request for funding for ARMI did not violate ethics rules.
A Republican running for the seat, state Rep. Brian Cole, has called on the younger Shaheen to drop out: “Until Stefany Shaheen provides full and honest answers about her association with Dean Kamen and ARMI, she should end her campaign,” he said in a statement.
Sununu, who is running to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Shaheen’s mother in 2008, has faced questions over a possible reference to him in a 2010 email between Epstein and Boris Nikolic, a former Bill Gates adviser. In the email, Epstein emailed Nikolic that “john sununu, has good stories,” but did not provide any additional details. It’s unclear what he meant or whether he was referring to the senator or his father, former governor and White House chief of staff John H. Sununu.
The younger Sununu was a director of operations at Teletrol Systems, one of Kamen’s companies, in the 1990s before he was elected to Congress.
His GOP primary rival, former Sen. Scott Brown, has seized on the email to attack the Sununu family’s “‘insider’ ties” as he attempts to gain traction in a race where the Republican establishment and the president have lined up behind his opponent. Brown said on a local podcast that Sununu “needs to fully explain why” his surname is mentioned in the files. Brown added on X that voters “shouldn’t have to guess who, or which one of their representatives were associated, or what ‘stories’ are being referenced in federal documents.”
The Shaheen and Sununu campaigns have sought to dismiss the criticism from their opponents.
Shaheen said in a statement that she “never advised Dean Kamen on these matters” and that the “extent of my knowledge” about his and Epstein’s relationship is what has been publicly reported. Harrell Kirstein, a spokesperson for her campaign, dismissed the criticism as “desperate political attacks — flat out lies — that ignore basic facts.”
Both Shaheens said they supported outside investigations of Kamen.
Sen. Shaheen said in a statement that Kamen “was right to step back” from his organizations, and that it was appropriate for them “to conduct independent reviews to fully understand his connection to Epstein and take any action merited by the findings of those reviews.”
Stefany Shaheen is the polling leader in the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s blue-leaning 1st Congressional District, a position operatives in both parties attribute in large part to name recognition. A University of New Hampshire survey from January showed her with 33 percent support, and no other candidate with more than 10 percent, with 39 percent of likely primary voters undecided.
Sununu led Brown by 23 percentage points in the same poll, with 26 percent of likely GOP primary voters undecided. They both trail Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in hypothetical general-election matchups.
Mike Schrimpf, a spokesperson for Sununu’s campaign, said in a statement that “John had no knowledge whatsoever of any relationship between Dean Kamen and Epstein” and believes the latter “was a despicable human being.” Neither Sununu or his father “have ever met or communicated in any way with Boris Nikolic, Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.”
He went on to attack Shaheen and Pappas — who, along with other members of the all-Democratic congressional delegation, had touted federal funding for ARMI before the Kamen scandal broke — over their connections to the entrepreneur: “Unlike Chris Pappas who celebrated federal funding for Kamen’s ARMI, or Stefany Shaheen who worked for him last week, John never advocated or requested funding for any of Kamen’s ventures,” Schrimpf said.
Gates MacPherson, a spokesperson for Pappas’ campaign, said in a statement that the congressman “believes Dean Kamen’s relationship with Epstein is deeply troubling and must be independently investigated, and all federal contractors and grant awardees should be held to the highest possible standards, including ARMI and FIRST.”
In the governor’s race, Democrats are preparing to attack Ayotte over Kamen’s past contributions to her campaigns and his appearance in an ad for her 2016 Senate reelection campaign. Ayotte has yet to draw a serious opponent in her bid for a second term. Representatives for the governor did not respond to an email to her official and campaign inboxes seeking comment.
Politics
The House | Ignore the naysayers: Labour’s Local Power Plan shows you can have your cake and eat it
Solar installation in a village near Grimsby, UK (Alamy)
4 min read
Being a Labour MP in 2026 means both reminding yourself that the road to recovery is a long one, but also constantly asking how we can go faster.
It’s hard to overstate – and I won’t try to – the mess that this government inherited less than two years ago. I’m proud of the work we have done so far on bringing down bills and supporting families, but there’s still so much to do. I also know the immense love that people have for the places they live, and the fear that these towns and neighbourhoods won’t survive another disastrous mini-budget or energy crisis.
The resilience of our communities is vital to both our economic recovery and our social fabric – and today’s Local Power Plan launch places them at the very heart of our energy system. Communities across the country will be able to produce and own their own energy with our new fund, delivered by Great British Energy. Not only will shifting power into the hands of communities reduce our reliance on energy produced and owned abroad, it will tackle climate change, bring down bills and preserve our community hubs.
It is energy funded by, produced by and owned by my community – and we all share in the wealth it generates
In coastal constituencies like mine, people are worried about the impact of climate change – with many households and businesses at risk of tidal flooding and flooding from the Freshney. My community and others across Lincolnshire are well aware of the dangers of rising sea levels and increased heavy rainfall. Many of my constituents remember the 2007 floods, where pensioners were lifted from their houses by their neighbours and children kayaked down the roads. Some even remember the devastating 1953 flooding, when 307 people lost their lives and 30,000 people had to be evacuated.
These floods were once reckoned to be once-in-a-century events, but they are increasingly frequent. Impacts on insurance costs, housebuilding and selling mean that climate change doesn’t just mean uncomfortably hot summers for my community: it’s an impact on personal financial security; on the savings and assets we thought would be safe for our retirement and our children.
Yet climate change can still feel like a distant issue for many of my constituents when they are confronted every day by the high cost of living. It is hard to worry about every choice you make being ‘green’ when your main aim is to get through the month and hope you have a little left over. Rising energy bills also affect the viability of our beloved institutions to stay open – threatening our pubs, our leisure centres, our social clubs, and making life feel that little bit worse. These spaces aren’t just places to have a pint or play snooker – they’re places where people come together to have a chat and a laugh, where neighbours and colleagues become a community.
In Grimsby and across the country, communities are already taking action to bring down bills and help their communities thrive. Energy co-operatives raise money from their members to install, produce and own their own clean energy projects in their communities. Members not only get money back from their investment, either by cheaper bills or a stable interest return, they also decide how to reinvest the rest of the profits back into their community.
For example, Grimsby Community Energy was set up in 2016, and has installed solar panels across 10 buildings for different community assets, including our food bank, an apprentice centre, and our local YMCA. These organisations now pay less for their bills, investors get a stable rate of return, and it has established a community fund where the co-operative gives out grants for local community improvements. It is energy funded by, produced by and owned by my community – and we all share in the wealth it generates.
I am so pleased about the opportunities that today’s Local Power Plan offers my community and others like it across the country. The support and funding that the Local Power Plan offers is the biggest public investment in community energy in this country’s history. It gives people a stake in their community, and makes it easier for them to both invest and reap the benefits. Communities can take back control of their own energy, support and invest in beloved local institutions, bring down bills and tackle climate change all at once.
There are so many people in politics who want us to believe that things can only get worse, that seek to divide and discredit our communities. It’s policies like the Local Power Plan – learned from and delivered by grassroots groups up and down the country – that proves them to be deeply wrong.
Melanie Onn is Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes
In the lead-up to the 2026 Super Bowl, it was announced that the far-right political group Turning Point USA was putting together its own halftime show as an alternative to Bad Bunny’s.
On Sunday, the US leader attended a Super Bowl watch party in Palm Beach, Florida, with footage from the event appearing to show that the screens were still airing the regular Super Bowl broadcast at the time of Bad Bunny’s set.
Following Sunday’s Super Bowl, Trump was widely panned for his response to Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, which he described as “one of the worst EVER!” on his own social media platform, Truth Social.
Despite this, the performance – which served as a colourful and vibrant celebration of Puerto Rican culture – has been well-received, with Bad Bunny subsequently occupying the top seven spots on Spotify’s global chart at the time of writing.
Reheated from last night’s speech to Labour MPs. Almost like he’s saying he is a fighter, not a quitter…
Megan Khoo is Policy Director of Hong Kong Watch
This week British citizen Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong. At 78 years old, held in prolonged solitary confinement and with deteriorating health, Lai will most likely die in prison.
In the lead-up to his conviction and sentencing, time was of the essence. Yet Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid little more than lip service to the fate of Jimmy Lai during his visit to China this month. Sebastien Lai, Jimmy Lai’s son, criticised the Prime Minister for failing to place conditions on his father’s release in negotiations with Xi Jinping. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch likewise described the trip as a failure, given that the Prime Minister was unable to secure the release of one of his own citizens.
The visit to China also immediately followed the UK government’s approval of plans for a Chinese mega embassy in the heart of London. Despite mass protests and seven years of objections over security risks and concerns about espionage, the Labour government approved the development. This decision was widely seen as paving the path for Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing.
Local residents near the proposed site have since launched a judicial challenge that could ultimately reach the Supreme Court and delay construction for up to five years. The government should take this challenge seriously and reconsider a decision that risks enabling transnational repression and endangering Hong Kongers and other dissidents living in Britain.
On X, Keir Starmer showcased his China visit and claimed to have secured billions of pounds in investment deals to support the British economy, yet made no mention of Jimmy Lai. Following Lai’s sentencing, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper released a statement expressing concern for his health and called on the Hong Kong government “to end [Lai’s] appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family”. The Foreign Secretary also reiterated that the Prime Minister raised Lai’s case with Xi Jinping and promised to “rapidly engage further” on the matter. That engagement must be more than rhetorical. It should involve concrete conditions and sustained pressure, led directly by the Prime Minister, to secure Lai’s release.
In response to Lai’s sentencing, the Home Office also announced an expansion of the British National (Overseas) (BNO) visa scheme to include Hong Kongers who were under 18 at the time of the 1997 handover. The government estimates that up to 26,000 people may relocate to the UK through this route over the next five years, helping to uphold Britain’s commitments to Hong Kongers. This long-awaited change, championed by Hong Kong Watch and others, is most welcome. It closes a significant gap that left tens of thousands of young Hong Kongers stranded and unable to flee repression.
Still, the policy announcement comes at a bitter moment. While it will assist those escaping a rapidly deteriorating Hong Kong, a British citizen has just been condemned to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Hong Kong is no longer the open, international city it once was. Independent media owners are imprisoned, overseas activists face bounties for speaking out, and any form of dissent, even online, can result in lifelong persecution.
For these reasons, the UK government must approach its dealings with China and Hong Kong with far greater vigilance. Keir Starmer should personally and urgently lead efforts to secure Jimmy Lai’s release by any viable means. He should also withdraw his approval for the Chinese mega embassy in London to protect Chinese and Hong Kong dissidents living in Britain, some of whom are, or will become, British citizens. Above all, the Labour government must stop compromising the UK’s core values of freedom, democracy, and human rights in pursuit of economic agreements that come at the expense of its own people.
Jacob Elordi has opened up about the racy scenes we can expect from his new film Wuthering Heights.
Helmed by Saltburn director Emerald Fennell, the new movie is based on the iconic gothic novel and stars Jacob as Heathcliff, while fellow Australian actor Margot Robbie takes on the role of Cathy.
Ever since the film’s first test screening over the summer, much has been made of its more sexually-charged content, with its numerous steamy scenes being heavily referenced when the first reviews for Wuthering Heights were released earlier this week.
During a recent interview with USA Today, Jacob insisted that any sexual scenes that Emerald added to her version of the story are still “entirely in the spirit” of Emily Brontë’s original novel.
“Any image that comes from Emerald’s head is inspired by that depravity and love and obsession,” the Euphoria star noted.
“They’re all in the language of what Brontë was driving at with this book, so it was never really a shock or a reach.”
During the same interview, Margot spoke candidly about how different shooting a sex scene is to watching one on the big screen.
“[Viewers] forget how many people are on a film set – there are hundreds of people sometimes,” she pointed out.
“Even though something looks like, ‘Wow, that’s super-intimate! It’s just those two actors there!’ Three feet away, there’s Emerald with an iPad and watching the monitor.”
Meanwhile, Emerald added: “Things that are sexy often take us by surprise. Maybe some people would argue otherwise, but I’m not interested in anything being explicit. I’m interested in making people feel.”
Saltburn, Emerald’s last film, previously raised eyebrows due to some of its more X-rated scenes, including one grave-humping sequence, some infamous drain-slurping and, of course, a fully naked dance routine to a 2000s pop classic.
Wuthering Heights hits cinemas on Friday 13 February.
4 min read
Ethics reform can’t be seen as a secondary concern or a nice-to-have. For my party, it is existential – and the government must embrace it.
The government’s announcement on Monday that it will look at improving lobbying rules and transparency disclosures is welcome, while a proper mechanism to remove disgraced peers is long overdue. But voters need to see us delivering root and branch reform, and they need to see us delivering it at speed.
As a backbench Labour MP with a background in anti-corruption, I’m shocked at what we’ve seen this past week or so. But in some ways, I’m not surprised.
The Epstein affair is particularly egregious, and my heart goes out to all the victims and their families beyond the Westminster bubble. But the anatomy of a political scandal in this country tends to be the same.
A scandal breaks. Westminster gasps. Our constituents are left thinking that politicians are in it for themselves and we’re all the same. Then nothing changes, and the next scandal comes along.
The row surrounding Peter Mandelson is only the latest reminder that our ethics regime is still far too soft, far too porous, and far too reliant on politicians being ‘good chaps’.
People are angry. In fact, many are losing faith entirely.
It hardly matters, at this stage, what the eventual legal findings are. The damage is already done. And every time a scandal erupts, it reinforces the same toxic suspicion: that influence is for sale, that the powerful play by different rules, and that accountability is something reserved for everyone else.
This is why ethics reform is not some fringe issue to be kicked into the long grass. It is central to restoring trust in government, and to defending the country against growing threats from foreign influence and dirty money, as underscored by the Reform UK politician Nathan Gill’s recent conviction for accepting bribes to make pro-Kremlin statements.
The government deserves some credit for recognising this. The work already underway on the Hillsborough Law is a serious attempt to rebalance power between the state and the citizen. The decision to establish an Ethics and Integrity Commission is also the right direction of travel. These are not cosmetic changes. They are the beginnings of a much-needed clean-up.
But now is the time to really grasp the nettle and show the country that this Labour government really is different from the venal Tory administrations which came before it.
The danger is that ethics reform gets crowded out by all the other things we need to fix. But I’d argue it’s existential for us.
The Mandelson affair has exposed gaps so wide you could drive an ornamental duck house through them. The House of Lords is a prime example. Ending hereditary peers and introducing a retirement age is welcome, but it does not fix the most glaring weakness: when a peer disgraces themselves, the system struggles to remove them. Too often, Parliament is left relying on voluntary resignation, as though public office were a private club. And let’s not forget that Mandelson can still go around calling himself a Lord, with all the social and potentially commercial advantages that come with it.
That is not accountability.
The same principle applies to appointments in the first place. The House of Lords Appointments Commission should be put on a statutory footing and given real power to block unsuitable nominations. A watchdog that can only bark is not protecting anyone.
Then there is lobbying: the quiet engine room of political cynicism. Britain’s lobbying rules are so narrow they verge on parody. They cover consultant lobbyists but ignore the army of in-house operators, think tanks, corporate representatives, and front groups who shape policy behind closed doors. The result is predictable: scandal after scandal, each one feeding the sense that politics is stitched up.
The answer is pretty simple. A full statutory register of all lobbyists. Monthly publication of departmental meetings, including what was discussed. And transparency rules that reflect reality, covering WhatsApp, emails, phone calls, and informal contact, not just tidy diary entries.
And this is where the political dividing line must be drawn more sharply.
There is a catalogue of Tory ethics scandals, peaking under Boris Johnson. Farage and his colleagues have been consistently disdainful of any sort of ethics regulation, and clearly have a Russia-shaped problem. My own party, as we’ve seen from the Mandelson affair, is not immune to this sickness infecting our politics.
The government can’t afford another era where standards are optional, and scrutiny is dismissed as an inconvenience. Trust in politics is already hanging by a thread.
The government has made a start. Now it must finish the job.
Phil Brickell is Labour MP for Bolton West
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