What’s in store for you today? (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
Mercury is at odds with Jupiter today, making for an awkward celestial blend. Be prepared for difficulties communicating throughout the day ahead.
Gemini, Taurus and Virgo, your internal and external worlds could feel in a state of misalignment. While your ideas are visionary, they may not be practical.
Save high-stakes conversations and decision making for a less murky cosmic positioning. Use this opportunity to make decisions on what you will take action on when the haze clears.
Ahead, you’ll find all the star signs’ horoscopes for today: Friday January 30, 2026.
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An awkward angle between Mercury and Jupiter means your ideas are daring, future-focused and possibly a little too grand for the current mood at home or within close circles. You’re dreaming big and speaking freely, but not everyone might be on the same page – or even on the same chapter. Conversations could feel slightly off, so take a breath, soften your message and consider the emotional undercurrents.
Your clever ideas about work, career or public image may not be easily accepted by those closest to you. You may be planning ahead while they’re concerned with how it all feels, and the two aren’t exactly syncing. A well-meaning suggestion could be misread, or a conversation may drift off course. Don’t let minor miscommunications derail your momentum. Instead, try blending your brilliant plans with heartfelt reassurance.
As Mercury angles uncomfortably toward Jupiter, your ideas are wonderful but maybe a touch too much for practicality’s sake. You’re brimming with enthusiasm and ready to plan or publish something grand. But you’re also nudged to consider emotional needs, especially around values and finances. Avoid overpromising or skipping important details in your excitement. Sometimes the best moves start with smaller, thoughtful steps.
One part of you may want to take an emotionally intelligent leap, while another clings to familiar comfort zones. Discussions around shared resources, power dynamics or big plans might stir mixed feelings, especially if others are all logic and no empathy. Resist the urge to overdo or overexplain. Instead, trust your inner compass and pause before making big decisions. The right answer blends intuition with innovation.
Communication might get a little tangled as you’re likely so eager to connect, share ideas or make plans, but not everyone may be ready to play along. There could be hidden emotional undercurrents or unspoken fears at play, especially in close relationships or team dynamics. Rather than push, pause and listen between the lines. You’re very charming, but a touch of sensitivity will go further than intellect today.
Your brilliant ideas around efficiency, work or wellness may not be received as smoothly as you’d hoped, especially in group settings or with friends. You may be aiming to solve problems, but others might be more focused on feelings than solutions. Don’t let emotional undercurrents throw you off. Instead, attune your message to the mood of the room. A little warmth goes a long way today.
Cosmic messages for Cosmic messages for Virgo today
Libra
September 24 to October 23
You may be brimming with inspired ideas, but those in authority or traditional types might need convincing. Your brilliance shines, but not everyone is ready for your innovative perspective, especially if it feels too out-of-the-box. Don’t let a lukewarm response dim your enthusiasm. This is your cue to fine-tune your message, as a blend of artistry and diplomacy can win hearts and minds.
Today’s animated Mercury-Jupiter tie-up can amplify your desire to expand. You may be dreaming big, but explaining those dreams could be tricky. You might have a bold plan to renovate, relocate or shake things up, but your message could come across as too idealistic for more cautious companions. Don’t be pushy – instead, build bridges. Blend strategy with sensitivity and you’ll turn raised eyebrows into raised glasses.
While Mercury in Aquarius supercharges your mind, Jupiter in Cancer is tugging at deeper emotional cords. You may be bursting to share bold insights, but others might not understand. You mean well, you always do, but not everyone is ready for blunt genius. Take a breath before diving into sensitive conversations, especially around shared finances or intimate matters. It will make a positive difference.
Your sensible ideas might clash with someone else’s emotional expectations. You might lay out a perfectly logical plan, budget, goal or timeline, but a partner or close connection may need a little more motivation than just the facts. Don’t dismiss the feelings behind the feedback. A thoughtful conversation that blends both strategy and sensitivity can smooth things over and strengthen bonds.
With Mercury buzzing in your sign and angling towards the expansive Jupiter, your enthusiasm can be high, but your focus may drift when it comes to everyday tasks or routines. You’ll likely have bold plans, hold daring conversations and be filled with innovative ideas, but your energy levels may be quietly rebelling in the background. Watch out for overcommitting or promising more than you can deliver. A little structure helps you shine.
Your creative spark is amplified and inspiration is flowing, but turning those dreams into action can be another thing. You might have a brilliant idea while daydreaming or journaling but putting it into words or action could prove to be more illusive. Don’t be discouraged if others don’t immediately “get” your vision. Write it down and give it time to take shape. A bit of planning can bring your imaginative gems your way.
Your daily Metro.co.uk horoscope is here every morning, seven days a week (yes, including weekends!). To check your forecast, head to our dedicated horoscopes page.
The comedian and actor appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday morning
Russell Brand appeared at court on Tuesday morning, where he pleaded not guilty to two further sexual offences.
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The 50-year-old comedian and actor denied one count of rape and one count of sexual assault during an appearance at Southwark Crown Court today, February 24. Both offences were alleged to have taken place in 2009 in London.
Brand, of Oxfordshire, previously denied two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault in relation to alleged offences between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.
Wearing a leopard print shirt with a number of buttons undone, and holding a white hat, Brand spoke to confirm his name and his not guilty pleas from the dock.
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A trial is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court later this year in relation to the five original charges.
Russian soldiers have exposed the brutality of conditions on the Russian side of the front lines in Ukraine, with two men telling the BBC they saw soldiers being executed on the spot for refusing orders.
The men, who are on the run, spoke about the horror they witnessed from an undisclosed location outside Russia in the documentary, “The Zero Line: Inside Russia’s War”.
Ilya, 35, taught children with special needs before he was drafted into the army for the war. He says he saw four people being shot at point-blank range by a commander – an act known as Zeroing in Russian military slang – because they had fled the front line and refused to return.
Zeroing is usually carried out as punishment for refusing orders, and acts as a means of intimidation for others who may be thinking of doing the same, the men told us.
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Another man, Dima, who also witnessed the executions, said commanders killing their own men was “a normal thing”.
“I see it – just two metres, three metres. Just murders, just click, clack, bang. It’s not a drama, it’s not a movie, it’s a real life,” he says.
The Russian government says its armed forces “operate with utmost restraint, as far as possible under the conditions of a high-intensity conflict, treating their personnel with maximum care”. “Information regarding alleged violations and crimes is duly investigated,” it added.“We are unable to independently verify the accuracy or authenticity of the information you have provided,” it said.
Amanda Smith spent 24 years in limbo, after her mother seemingly vanished into thin air back in 2001 – but now it’s been revealed that Michele Hundley Smith is, in fact, alive and well
When Amanda Smith and her siblings said goodbye to their mum who was popping out to do some Christmas shopping in 2001, they had no idea that they would never see her again.
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For 24 agonising years, Amanda campaigned relentlessly to find Michele Hundley Smith, but all this time, her mother had been living a double life. She has now been left reeling after finding out her mother is “alive and well” but just did not want to be found.
Michele, now 62, has told authorities she does not want her family to be given her location – or for her whereabout to be released, and Amanda released a heartbreaking statement on the Facebook page she has run dedicated to finding her missing mum. She said that since finding out her mother was alive, but did not want to see her family, she has been going through a “whirlwind of emotions”.
She admitted that she was both “ecstatic” to find out her mother is well, but also furious at what she and her siblings, who were seven, 14 and 19 at the time Michele walked out of the door and never came home, have been put through in the years since – constantly questioning what might have happened to their mum.
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Michele’s disappearance was thoroughly investigated by both the police and the FBI at the time she vanished from her home in North Carolina, but her family still have few answers about why she left, and why she has only just revealed she is all right.
In her candid statement, Amanda admitted that her family will likely all have different responses to this update, and that they are all individuals who are entitled to their feelings after being kept in the dark for so long. However, her pain at the conflict she feels herself was palpable. “I am heartbroken, I am all over the map,” she wrote. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly I can’t answer that because I don’t even know…
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“My initial reaction would be yes absolutely but then I think of all the hurt.” However, Amanda writes with great empathy, “My mom is only human just as we all are.”
She adds that she can “absolutely understand taking off and leaving” but that doesn’t mean, in her view, Michele “gets off scot free without accountability or responsibility”. Amanda also pointed out that she shares some coping mechanisms with her mum. “I am a runner as well and while this isn’t something to be proud of at all, it’s a part of being human. Each one of us humans have our faults, we each have a shadow part and we each deserve the chance to better ourselves and to heal from our past.”
Amanda also fiercely defended her father in her statement, hitting back at speculation that had been levied at him that he might have been the reason that Michele chose to make herself disappear.
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The Facebook page where Amanda posted the statement had provided details of the disappearance, including that she had been driving a forest-green 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport van, which was never found. It also showed how desperately some of the family believed that Michele had not gone of her own volition: Michele would have “never left her children by choice”.
However, in 2020, Amanda told Dateline that her father had a far more sinister theory. “He believes she just took off and left him, and us, that night,” she told the programme – now it seems he was correct in his prediciton.
Amanda admitted back in that interview that it was “possible” her mum had left of her own free will, and that it was “hard to rule out that she just left all of us and started a new life”. However, she said that “there’s also something that nags at me that something happened to her on her way back home”.
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that they had discovered Michele is “alive and well” but that she does not want her location to be shared with anyone.
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Her cousin, Barbara Byrd told local news station WFMYNews2 that this had not been totally easy to hear. “I kind of want to go outside and scream ‘she’s alive, she’s alive’. For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting… My biggest question is to her ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?”
She continued: “I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”
For me, it was relying on the goodwill of friends’ parents, sleeping in cars and wandering around town centres until the early hours in a bid to stay awake.
Not long after my sixteenth birthday, I left home involuntarily after my family relationship broke down.
For the first few months, I crashed on friends’ bedroom floors and on a camp bed in my boyfriend’s conservatory after his mum reluctantly agreed to help.
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The nights when I had nowhere to go would be spent walking around town centres and jumping on and off the Metrolink, hoping that the ticket inspectors weren’t on shift.
I secured a dubious ‘commission only’ sales job and found a room in a house share.
This didn’t last long due to the sporadic low payments, and I found myself once again facing homelessness.
I went back to ‘sofa surfing’ and slept in friends’ cars (I wasn’t even old enough to drive myself) before presenting to the council, who found me accommodation.
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The Greater Manchester council estate I’d grown up on was notoriously ‘rough’, but I made plenty of friends there – until my parents separated when I was around 11 and years of instability followed.
We bounced from one private rented house to another, even ending up in a domestic abuse refuge for a while.
This meant sharing a bedroom with my parent and two siblings, and a living room, bathroom and kitchen with complete strangers.
In the background, I struggled my way through high school, leaving with three GCSEs and no career path ahead of me.
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Instead, I worked night shifts in a care home and various retail jobs to make ends meet.
By the time I was in my mid-20s, I found myself back in the same situation when my own marriage ended, and I had nowhere to go, once again relying on the kindness of others to try and find my feet with nothing but a cheap used car and a few bags of personal possessions to my name.
Even now, more than two decades later, the insecurity and fear of not having a place to call home all those years ago have stayed with me.
It’s almost impossible to think about the future, about building a career and ‘improving’ your situation while living in survival mode and fighting daily to retain any shred of dignity.
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Those who don’t know my past are often surprised to learn of it, given that I’m now a middle-aged homeowner with a full-time job and secure family life.
But that’s the point – it really can happen to anyone.
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, supporting more than 16,000 people aged 16 to 25 into housing and employment each year.
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My own experience took place in a time prior to mobile phones or accessible internet.
I only wish I had known about fantastic support services like this that are making a real difference to the lives of young people.
Richard Duggan, Regional Editor North West, will join our colleagues across the region in supporting Centrepoint’s campaign to end youth homelessness by 2037.
A man who carried out “horrific” sexual crimes against vulnerable people with dementia has been jailed for over 20 years. Joshua Springer was handed a 21-year sentence after appearing at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday (February 20).
The 36-year-old was also given a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life. Springer, formerly of Cornstall Buildings in Stamford near the Cambridgeshire border, previously pleaded guilty to nine charges of rape at the same court on December 2, 2025.
His offences were against three victims suffering from dementia at a residential care home for elderly people in the Stamford area. A fourth victim was in the North Yorkshire area. Of Springer’s nine charges, six were evenly split between three women at the Stamford care home, while the remaining three charges were connected to a fourth woman in North Yorkshire.
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The care home and area in Yorkshire are not being named to protect the anonymity of the victims. Springer was also sentenced for making indecent images of children, to which he also pleaded guilty.
Detective chief inspector Jennifer Lovatt, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “While Springer has been sentenced for his horrific crimes, that does not mean that our investigations have stopped. [The] result shows that offenders will be brought to justice, so if you think you have been affected, please get in touch.”
DCI Lovatt is appealing for anyone else that may have been a victim of Springer, who is also known as Joshua Kearney and Joshua Kearney Springer, to contact police. The DCI added: “Our team has worked tirelessly for some time in bringing Springer to justice, and there may be other potential victims who perhaps have not yet come forward.
“I’d encourage them to contact us – you can call 101 (ask for Lincolnshire Police) and quote Incident 272 of November 28. If you want to remain anonymous, then you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than a dozen senior European officials arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday in a show of support on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine — a grim anniversary in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and put European leaders on edge about the scale of Moscow’s ambitions on the continent.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79% of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
“Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say: we have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “not achieved his goals.”
“He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war,” Zelenskyy also said.
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However, as the corrosive war of attrition enters its fifth year, a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II appears no closer to finding compromises that might make a peace deal possible.
Negotiations are stuck on what happens to the Donbas, eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland which Russian forces mostly occupy but have failed to seize completely, and the terms of a postwar security arrangement that Kyiv is demanding to deter any future Russian invasion.
The number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides could reach 2 million by spring, with Russia sustaining the largest number of troop deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II, a report last month from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated.
European leaders see their countries’ own security at stake in Ukraine amid concerns about Putin’s wider goals and has demanded its leaders be consulted in the ongoing U.S.-brokered talks.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote on X that “for four years, every day and every night has been a nightmare for the Ukrainians — and not just for them, but for us all. Because war is back in Europe.”
“We will only end it by being strong together, because the fate of Ukraine is our fate,” he added.
The war has drawn in countries far beyond Ukraine, giving the conflict a global dimension, and threatened to worsen shortages, hunger and political instability in developing countries.
While NATO countries have come to Ukraine’s aid, Russia has been helped by North Korea, which has sent troops and artillery shells; Iran, which has provided drone technology; and China, which the United States and analysts say has provided machine tools and chips.
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Among the European officials visiting Kyiv on Tuesday were the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, as well as seven prime ministers and three foreign ministers.
With Ukraine unable to sustain its fight against Russia without foreign help, NATO countries are now providing military help, purchasing American weapons after the Trump administration broke with earlier Washington policy and stopped giving arms to Kyiv.
The European Union has also sent financial aid, but has sometimes met with reluctance from members Hungary and Slovakia.
British Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said Russia’s war on Ukraine was “the most defining conflict” in decades.
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“I don’t think anyone of us would be able to guess (when the war started) the scale and size of what has taken place,” he said.
The cost of rebuilding war-battered Ukraine would amount to almost $588 billion over the next decade, according to World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations and the Ukrainian government.
That is nearly three times the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for last year, they said in a report Monday.
Last year, NBA stars Russell Westbrook and Kemba Walker launched a startup, Eazewell, which aims to make funeral planning simpler and more streamlined, thanks in part to artificial intelligence (AI).
“We’re trying to take the weight off people’s shoulders as much as we can, and make this process so much easier for people,” Walker shared with CNBC.
And it seems the trend is growing.
The Washington Post reported on the “rise” of AI obituary writing tools, stating that funeral directors “are increasingly asking the relatives of the deceased whether they would prefer for AI to write the obituary”.
AI funerals are “uncomfortable [and] potentially dangerous”
According to Purves, “A funeral director’s job requires a blend of administrative and interpersonal skills and, above all, a desire to support people facing loss.
“Funeral directors deliver a unique service: guiding, supporting and actioning a family’s wishes, while also project managing and communicating with third parties such as churches, florists or celebrants.”
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And given that people using their service may be in varying states of emotional distress, Purve added, the “intuition and empathy of a funeral director is what makes – or breaks – the quality of service”.
In that light, he said, “Replacing thiscare with AI-powered services seems not only uncomfortable but also potentially dangerous. When dealing with people at their most vulnerable, entrustingtheiremotionalwellbeingwithartificialintelligenceseems profoundly misplaced”.
Some experts have cautioned against AI therapy chatbots, which Stanford researchers argue carry “risks” like bias and harmful responses to emotionally-charged prompts.
“Beyond the emotional cost, the potential proliferation of AI-driven funeral services also risk lowering professional standards,” Purves continued.
“If funeral homes feel pressuredtocompetewiththeirlow-cost,AI-counterparts,theymaybe compelled to cut corners: fewer staff, less time with families or reduced aftercare.
“Grievingfamiliescouldfind themselvesdealingwithimpersonal‘click-and-plan’interfacesinsteadof skilled professionals who understand cultural and religious nuances, and can anticipate emotional needs before they’re expressed.”
AI may have some place in funeral care, though
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According to Purves, this doesn’t mean AI has no place in funeral care.
“The rise inlivestreamingfuneralservices,forexample,hasbeenoverwhelmingly positive for the industry, as loved ones overseas can pay their respects without having to travel,” he stated.
“Equally, funeral directors often use advanced systems to plan and manage their operations, allowing firms to effectively coordinate arrangements and ensuring clients receive the support they need.”
The funeral director added that admin and paperwork capabilities could be useful, too, “provided it is used to enhance, not replace, the human service”.
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This could leave funeral directors with more time to care for the bereaved in person.
But, Purves ended, “The future of funeral care shouldn’t be about replacing compassion with convenience. It should be about protecting what makes us human in the first place.
“Because no matter how advanced technology becomes, there will always be one thing it can’t do: care.”
Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common, stressed it was a “high stakes”, possibly “seismic” by-election as it would show whether Reform, with around 30 per cent of the vote, could win lots of seats as it seeks a Commons majority, if the Green surge is “real” or whether Labour’s woes may ease.
The actress, who is 30, currently plays Bethany Platt in the ITV soap. It was during the first Coronavirus lockdown in 2020 that saw Lucy struggle with her mental health and, at the time, she struggled to see how she could move forward.
Lucy ended up getting admitted to The Priory, a hospital that specialises in treatment for mental health.
‘I was just at the absolute rock bottom that I’ve ever, ever felt. And I really, really, really struggled. I had a really bad batch of mental health towards the end of 2020 and I ended up being in The Priory for about five weeks because my mental health was so bad. I couldn’t see a way out of feeling how I was feeling.’
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Lucy plays Sarah Platt’s daughter Bethany in Corrie (Picture: ITV)
Lucy has two children with footballer Ryan Ledson (Picture: MCPIX/Shutterstock)
Continuing her chat on Johnny Seifert’s Secure the Insecurepodcast, Lucy explained that her family played a huge role in getting her some help.
‘I ended up having to go to hospital, and it was from that point that other people were involved – my mum and my sisters and people that I’d worked with before. It almost felt like other people, other factors, were telling me, “Right, you need some serious help now. It’s gone a bit too far”. I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to go and I even remember getting there. I really, really did not want to go in.’
When Lucy first arrived at the centre, she felt as though she wasn’t ‘bad enough to be there’.
‘It almost felt like this just feels a bit alien and a bit strange, like, I don’t know why I’m here’, she said.
After a few weeks though, Lucy started to settle in.
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‘I got to grips with it. And actually after a week of being there, I liked it. I felt quite safe. I met quite a lot of people there who I sometimes still keep in contact with now.’
‘It took me a while to adjust’, Lucy added, revealing that she moved back in with her parents once she came out of the hospital.
Lucy returned to her role as Bethany in autumn 2025 after maternity leave (Picture: ITV)
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‘Coming out and being in the real world and just having to carry on felt strange. But I also had a really good support system around me.
‘Going and being with my mum and dad for a few weeks after, rather than just going back to my house, was a really nice thing – especially to have your tea cooked for you every night. And all my washing done as well.’
Life has changed a lot for Lucy since she went to The Priory.
‘It seems like a completely different life’, she noted, reflecting on the period.
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‘I feel like that was a totally different version of me. And I’ve been lucky enough to say that I did manage to get myself out of it, because I know for so many people that’s not the reality and you can stay on that level and it’s really hard to get out of feeling like that.’
Lucy and Ryan’s daughter Nancy was born in January 2025, two years on from the birth of their son (Picture: MCPIX/Shutterstock)
‘I just accepted that, that was a blip in my mental health and in my own journey. I do deserve to be happy and to be in the relationship that I’m in, and I deserve the job that I’ve had. I’ve worked really hard.
‘I don’t know if it was to do with being at The Priory for five weeks. I don’t know if it was that. But things just kind of stayed at a good level for me.’
The Republican hopes he can convince increasingly wary Americans that his policies have improved their lives while ensuring that the U.S. economy is stronger than many believe — and that they should vote for more of the same in November.
The balancing act of celebrating his whirlwind first year back in the White House while making a convincing case for his party in midterm races where he personally won’t be on the ballot is a tall order for any president. But it could prove especially delicate for Trump, given how happy he is to veer off script and ignore carefully crafted messaging.
A main theme will be that the country is booming with a rise in domestic manufacturing and new jobs, despite many Americans not feeling that way. “It’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” said Trump, who promised a heavy dose of talk about the economy.
Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for Democratic President Bill Clinton, said Trump has typically used State of the Union addresses to offer more conventional tones than his usual bombast — but he’s still apt to exaggerate repeatedly.
“His job, for the sake of his party, is to show the silver lining,” Shesol said. “But if he’s going to insist that the silver lining is gold, no one’s buying it. And it will be a very difficult position on the campaign trail for Republicans to defend.”
Michael Waldman, Clinton’s former chief speechwriter, said second-term presidents “have a tough job because what they all want to say is, ‘Hey, look what a great job I’ve been doing — why don’t you love me?’”
His lack of messaging discipline has been on display after concerns about high costs of living helped propel Democratic wins around the country on Election Day last November. The White House subsequently promised that the president would travel the country nearly every week to reassure Americans he was taking affordability seriously. But Trump has spent more time blaming Democrats and scoffing at the notion that kitchen-table issues demand attention.
Such gains don’t feel tangible to those without stock portfolios, however. There also are persistent fears that tariffs stoked higher prices, which could eventually hurt the economy and job creation. Economic growth slowed the last three months of last year.
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Waldman, now president of the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for democracy, civil liberties and fair elections, said previous presidents faced similar instances of “economic disquiet.”
That created a question of “how much do you sell vs. feeling the pain of the electorate,” he said.
Shesol noted that Trump has “always believed — going back to his real estate days — that he can sell anyone on anything.”
“He’s still doing that. But the problem is, you can’t tell somebody who has lost their job and can’t get a new one that things are going great,” Shesol said. “He can’t sell people on a reality that for them, and frankly for most Americans, does not exist.”
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It is potentially politically perilous ahead of November elections that could deliver congressional wins to Democrats, just as 2018’s “blue wave” created a strong check to his administration during his first term.
Several Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, plan to skip Tuesday’s speech in protest, instead attending a rally known as the “People’s State of the Union” on Washington’s National Mall.
Making any foreign policy feel relevant to Americans back home is never easy.
Jennifer Anju Grossman, a former speechwriter for Republican President George H.W. Bush and current CEO of the Atlas Society, which promotes the ideas of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, said Trump can make clear that Maduro’s socialist policies wrecked Venezuela’s economy to the point where one of the world’s richest oil countries struggled to meet its own energy needs.
Now, oil from that country will help lower American gas prices.
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Still, when it comes to overseas developments, she said, “I think it’s going to be a bit of a challenge to make clear why this is relevant to the domestic situation.”
