Politics
Dems aren’t sure whether to actually spend big to flip Texas
It didn’t take long for Democrats’ hopes of flipping Texas to dim.
Enthusiasm remains high for the party’s Senate nominee, James Talarico, but national Democrats aren’t sure how far they should go to support him — particularly if Sen. John Cornyn emerges from the GOP runoff in May. Interviews with nearly a dozen high-dollar donor advisers and strategists poured cold water on the likelihood that the party would fully commit to the staggering price tag it’d take to finally flip Texas.
“No one’s taking Texas seriously,” said a Democratic bundler who, like most others, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about intra-party dynamics.
Among their concerns is that Cornyn did better than expected in the GOP primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton, and with President Donald Trump’s potential endorsement would be able to ease his runoff victory. Democrats planning for Talarico to compete against Paxton, a scandal-ridden MAGA darling, are instead facing the prospect of trying to oust a 24-year moderate incumbent in a state that hasn’t voted for a Senate Democrat in nearly four decades.
There are also competing priorities for national spending — just Wednesday evening, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) dropped his re-election bid in a state Senate Democrats held as recently as 2018 — potentially elevating it as a target for spending.
Underlying it all, Democrats said, is the reality that contesting Texas would require a massive injection of cash — while there are other, cheaper options on the Senate landscape.
“We have to be practical about how we use our resources,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic donor adviser. “You need a perfect storm to kill a white whale, and if it’s going to be Cornyn [in the general election], then it’s not a perfect storm.”
Democrats have long dreamed of turning Texas blue. But the idea of flipping the state — much less retaking the Senate overall — appeared laughable last year, when the party hit new lows in its public polling and sustained sweeping losses in 2024. But a string of overperformances in off-year and special election races, combined with Trump’s own stubbornly low approval rating, have Democrats increasingly bullish about their chances.
“If I’m being super honest, Texas would not be within the reach of our boat here, as fishermen of the white whale, but for the wave moment we’re in,” said Tory Gavito, a Democratic donor who leads the progressive donor network Way To Win.
Tuesday’s results gave them another boost when Talarico, a social media star and prolific grassroots fundraiser, easily dispatched Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). He now has a head start on Republicans, who after already dropping $70 million to lift Cornyn, must continue battling it out for another two and a half months through a runoff — which some are predicting could cost upwards of $100 million.
Texas Democrats see this as the moment to strike. Gavito said Democrats have built to this moment, cycle after cycle. Back in 2014, when President Barack Obama won with a young, multi-racial coalition, Democrats believed it was just a matter of time before they’d eventually flip Texas, a youthful, diverse state.
But Trump, both in 2016 and 2024, whittled down Democrats’ advantages with young, diverse voters, suggesting Texas was further out of reach than they thought. Then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), boosted by more than $80 million, came the closest in 2018, losing to Sen. Ted Cruz by 2.6 percentage points. When former-Rep. Colin Allred tried to oust Cruz in 2024, he lost by 8.5 points.
Gavito said it would be “important” for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority PAC, Democrats’ top Senate super PAC, to invest in Texas to actually flip it because even though “Talarico has proven he can raise a bunch of non-corporate money … leadership, like Schumer, should see that their job is to be bullish.”
She also argued against Democrats having to pick between investing in Texas or other states — “you can do both things,” she said.
That’s a tall ask in a cycle when Democrats are already struggling mightily in the money race.
House and Senate Republicans entered 2026 with more than double the cash equivalent of their Democratic counterparts. The Republican National Committee has a more than $100 million cash advantage over the Democratic National Committee. Should the Supreme Court lift coordination limits, a looming decision cited by several donor advisers, then they believe Republicans will have an even more lopsided advantage.
“If the goal is to win the House and Senate, then there are other, cheaper, more competitive places,” said a Democratic consultant who works on Senate races. “Do you want to try to get another $150 million for Texas or another $50 million to put Iowa or Montana or Nebraska in play? That’s the Schumer calculation.”
Before Tuesday’s primary, Schumer hadn’t placed Texas in the DSCC’s top tier of battleground races. Instead, North Carolina, Maine, Ohio and Alaska ranked highest in his list of offensive targets. That could change, however, should Paxton ultimately emerge from the runoff.
“If Paxton wins the runoff, the race is on the battleground list,” a person familiar with the DSCC’s thinking said, granted anonymity to describe private conversations. “If Cornyn makes it out, I wouldn’t count it out [either].”
When asked about Texas on Wednesday, Schumer said “Tuesday’s results in Texas are a step forward in our quest to win the Senate,” and called Talarico “a great candidate, and we can win.”
SMP spokesperson Lauren French reiterated that “the majority runs through Ohio, Maine, Iowa, Alaska, and North Carolina … but it can also run through Texas.”
Republicans, for their part, continue to scoff at the idea Texas is competitive. In a statement, NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell said: “James Talarico thinks ‘God is nonbinary,’ wants to lay a welcome mat on our southern border, and would prioritize the rights of our ‘trans community’, all things Texans will never vote for in November.”
Even if Democrats can’t ultimately flip Texas in November, they believe Talarico’s campaign — and a potentially weakened Cornyn — will force the GOP to spend cash to defend it, turning it into “a money sinkhole for Republicans,” said Cooper Teboe, a Democratic donor adviser and strategist.
“Do we win Ohio by one [percentage point] because of this?” Teboe added.
Some Republican strategists are warning of the possibility.
“In every race, from this point until November, there’s going to be the Texas undertones: You spent $70 million there to protect an incumbent,” a GOP strategist said, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “I think there is some frustration amongst the consulting class of like, all right, can we focus on Georgia and Michigan, some of these other places a little bit more?”
Erin Doherty contributed to this report.
When the Tories started defecting to Reform UK en masse, the reason for them doing so was obvious. Reform were riding high in the polls while the Conservative Party was sinking lower and lower.
Ironically, Reform have dropped in the polls since accepting these Tory defectors. Reform sold themselves as an alternative to the Labour-Conservative duopoly, so opening the party up to ex-Tories made it clear that Farage’s bunch are just another status quo party.
Now, it looks like several of these Tory defectors could eventually lose their seats to their old party:
Chicken Run Alert — Kevin Hollinrake MP (@kevinhollinrake) April 19, 2026
https://t.co/H9YAaH9K71
For all the MPs who moved for the cynical purpose of saving their skin, this has got to burn.
Things can only get beta – for Reform, anyway
The above is from the website UK Polling Report. The site describes itself as being in the ‘beta’ stage, which implies it’s available to the public but still undergoing testing.
Looking at the front page, this is their polling prediction for how many seats each party would win should an election happen today:
We’re highlighting this to note their model is producing very different results to some pollsters:
– Seats – Poll: @Ipsos_in_the_UK, 9-15 Apr (+/- vs 11 Mar) pic.twitter.com/iOenwmYCvo — Stats for Lefties
POLL | Reform lead by 6pts
Ref: 25% (-3)
Con: 19% (+2)
Lab: 19% (-2)
Grn: 17% (=)
Lib: 14% (+5)
Res: 3% (new)
Ref: 262Con: 85Lib: 85Lab: 70Grn: 70
SNP: 47
Plaid: 8
(@LeftieStats) April 17, 2026
— Seats — Poll: @YouGov, 12-13 Apr (+/- vs 7 Apr) pic.twitter.com/m0PQxoBh26
— Stats for Lefties
POLL | Reform lead by 5pts
Ref: 24% (=) Con: 19% (=) Grn: 18% (+2) Lab: 17% (+1) Lib: 13% (=)
Res: 4% (=)
YP: 0% (-1)
Ref: 282 Grn: 91 Con: 83 Lib: 81 SNP: 47 Lab: 34
(@LeftieStats) April 14, 2026
This variation is to be expected, of course; we’re just highlighting that you shouldn’t take UK Polling Report’s predictions as gospel. You should, however, find some amusement when you look at the predictions for the Tory defectors.
We’ve covered Robert Jenrick already; next is Suella Braverman:
Reform’s Danny Kruger:
Sadly, however, Andrew Rosindell is projected to keep his seat (boo):
The more things change
Saying all this, there’s obviously no reason to celebrate the Tories getting back into the seats they lost to Reform.
It’s not like there’s any real difference between the two parties; if there was, we wouldn’t have seen so many defections.
And let’s be real – the only reason the defections dried up was because Reform’s polling went South.
It’s good Reform are failing to hold on to their lead, but it won’t mean much if their loss is the Tories’ gain.
Featured image via UK Polling Report
By Willem Moore
We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.
If you’re currently losing sleep over your teenager’s upcoming exams, you’re certainly not alone.
One in four parents say they lie awake at night worrying about their children’s exams, while over half (51%) report the home being hit negatively by exam stress.
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With a combination of video lessons, quizzes and 24/7 access to human tutors, parents are hailing it “a godsend”, “game-changer” and “worth every penny”. One parent noted the platform is also “much cheaper than a tutor”.
Alyssa Barros, who got an A* in her maths A-Level after using Up Learn at the age of 13, said: “It’s always great to just be able to open up your computer and have access to the learning.
“The videos make it more interesting with the animations. And it’s a great idea to ask questions about the lesson during the lesson, it’s just reinforcing it in my head. It’s more interesting, and helps me stay focused.”
How much is it?
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Over the weekend, Palantir posted a summary of Alex Karp’s book “The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West” – which was slammed as being “evil.”
Palantir: technofascists are technofascisting again
The post makes explicit what Palantir wants: the supremacy of the US military industrial complex to infiltrate every aspect of everyone’s life. It is also an ode to the PayPal Mafia, like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
Unsurprisingly, the two South African-born white men who grew up under apartheid are the poster boys! Though the post is calling for American conscription, bet Thiel and Musk will be dodgers, just like their mate Trump!
The book, which serves as the manifesto of the AI giant, is twenty-two rambling points: –
1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.
2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible.
3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.
4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.
5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.
6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.
7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way.
8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.
9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.
10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed.
11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.
12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.
13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet.
14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war.
15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.
16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn.
17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives.
18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.
19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.
20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.
21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.
22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?
The response to the post has been widespread alarm and disdain.
The post is indeed alarming with its glorification of past German and Japanese fascism, the glorification of Musk, the glorification of Western ‘culture’, and the glorification of Western totalitarianism.
Palantir’s call for western culture – read violence – has been in a lot of its marketing material. In its Q4 2024 results, the company referenced Samuel Huntington’s book ‘Clash of Civilisations.’
As Samuel Huntington has written, the rise of the West was not made possible “by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion . . . but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.”
He continued: “Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”
Huntington’s thesis, which argued that the main “clash” would be between the West and Islam, is called by Ruby Hamad a “self-fulfilling prophecy; a foreign policy directive in (thin) disguise.”
Feinstein commented on Palantir’s post, saying that Thiel’s apartheid South African upbringing shaped his racist, pro-genetic, pro-Israel, psychopathic worldview, and Palantir is now being handed the British state by Labour’s Starmer, Streeting, and Mandelson, among others.
Peter Thiel’s upbringing in apartheid South Africa & what is today Namibia clearly had enormous influence on his thinking: racist white supremacy, geneticism, glorification of South Africa’s closest ally the ethno-nationalist Israeli state, an almost psychopathic indifference to… https://t.co/SPWlUt1QUT
— Andrew Feinstein (@andrewfeinstein) April 19, 2026
We think Lammy’s recent handshake with Palantir sponsored Thiel should also be highlighted.
Lammy calls Palantir-sponsored JD Vance a ‘friend’ on latest Washington trip
Who is going to vote for David Lammy’s party in the local elections? With friends like Vance and Mandelson, it’s anyone’s guess. ‘Debasement’, as @ZackPolanski saidhttps://t.co/03b0PrMmwK…
— Canary (@TheCanaryUK) April 15, 2026
Yanis Varoufakis summarized Palantir’s post, the main point of which can be, as Varoufakis put it, ‘Ethics is for suckers. The West needs more of Palantir’s murderous software.’ He also said, “If Evil could tweet, this is what it would!”
Old advertisement for Israel trends
The bizarre post also led to people posting the whole-page advertisement that Palantir bought in October 2023, in support of Israel.
Palantir stands with genocide. https://t.co/6zYAqNGqzZ
— Zachary Foster (@_ZachFoster) April 19, 2026
People like Mai El-Sadany also emphasised Palantir’s connections to ICE and Israel.
Today, a lot of people will be talking about the manifesto that Palantir released. In addition to pouring over what those words mean, I invite you to ground the conversation in what Palantir has already done.
Its work with Israel and ICE show us exactly what it stands for.
— Mai El-Sadany (@maitelsadany) April 19, 2026
From a £1 NHS COVID contract to long-term roles in health and defence, Palantir is now part of the UK’s data infrastructure. This company, which is boasting about being evil, should be nowhere near civilian infrastructure.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
On Good Morning Britain, Susanna Reid tore apart the weak excuses put out by UK PM Keir Starmer over the ongoing Peter Mandelson scandal.
Susanna Reid: on it
This followed the PM’s latest round of pathetic denials he had any knowledge of disgraced Peter Mandelson failing to pass security vetting before he was appointed as ambassador to the US.
By setting out a clear timeline alongside Keir Starmer’s own past comments on ‘Petie’ Mandelson, Reid shows Starmer’s measly attempts to escape accountability simply do not stack up.
Moreover, this takedown of the UK Prime Minister underscores a serious issue in our democracy, where corrupting influences hold far too much sway in the corridors of power in Westminster. All the while, ordinary people are fed lie after lie and expected to swallow them.
Reid, like many across the country, appears to have had quite enough of Starmer’s nonsense.
Susanna Reid lays it out. Keir appointed Mandelson despite knowing everything about him, he claims he didn't know Mandelson had failed the vetting, which means he never followed it up & never asked about it, & finally we know no.10 did know months ago so someone is lying
Damning pic.twitter.com/B3XDafRk5H
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) April 20, 2026
Keir Starmer is a liar
It will hardly surprise many in the electorate to learn that their PM is a liar. Frankly, his career has been littered with lies as he navigated his way to the upper echelons of power. In fact, we only have to look to 2019 Labour under Corbyn to see that lying has quite literally been Starmer’s comfort zone.
Reid makes this reality unmistakably clear by laying out a timeline of what was known and when. That, in turn, will tighten the pressure on Keir Starmer as scrutiny intensifies ahead of the May 7 local elections. Once again, the PM has left himself little room to wriggle out of a political mess of his own making. A mess he will undoubtedly be made to pay for at the ballots in just over two weeks.
Susanna Reid’s takedown in full:
Susanna Reid: It feels like there are three different issues here.
One is the judgment of Sir Keir Starmer right at the beginning, appointing Lord Peter Mandelson. He had been given a due diligence report. And on that report, it said Peter Mandelson had numerous conflicts of interest and described him carrying reputational risk.
A week later. It is announced by Sir Keir Starmer that Peter Mandelson was going to be the ambassador to the States.
So right off the bat, who appoints someone that you have been warned is a reputational risk? Never mind the vetting. You had been given a report that he was a walking red flag. So that’s the first issue.
The second issue is then he goes through this developed vetting. How competent are you as a prime minister that you then are not, as you say, either curious enough to know, well, what happened? Have we cleared him? Is it all safe? Keir Starmer in that position says, well, nobody told me.
As you say, it’s absolutely beggars belief that someone at number 10 wouldn’t have then said, is everything OK? Are we sure that we can now give him the green flag?
And then the third issue, it seems to me. is whether there is any lying going on, because that’s what Kemi Badenoch says. So, the Prime Minister has actually lied about this. As you mentioned, Gillian, there was a report a few months ago in The Independent. Downing Street knew Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting for the US ambassador role seven months ago because the reporter David Maddox at The Independent had… put concerns to Number 10, the then Director of Communications, Tim Allen, and said, I found out, or I’ve got a source that says MI6 had failed to clear Mandelson.
So David Maddox, the Independent, knew, Number 10 knew. So how can the Prime Minister say he didn’t know?
Finally, getting to the far more likely reality at the sinister heart of this sordid saga:
Gillian Keegan: Because he did not want to know.
It seems Starmer has even lost favour from pro-Israel voters, who he really should have in the bag:
Starmer has lost Good Morning Britain https://t.co/HFdsdwo2Fp
— Sandy.
Starmer is a disaster (@AddictScrabble) April 20, 2026
Of course, he bloody well knew – as Susanna Reid pointed out
The optics can no longer be denied, as our own Skwawkbox wrote recently:
In any other walk of life both Starmer and Mandelson would be toast. But it seems running a protection racket for the predatory elite comes with very little in the way of consequences these days. This is a whole lot more than just a typical Westminster sleaze story, isn’t it? Starmer’s Labour is recycling the very worst of Blairite cronyism instead of breaking with it, once and for all.
This is the same Starmer who purged socialists to the glee of the pro-Israel parliamentary Labour party, ditched public ownership, and told poor and working-class voters their demands for wealth taxes and rent controls were unrealistic.
Yet protecting a mate with extremely fucking grubby Epstein ties? That was apparently non-negotiable for Keir Starmer. It can be so very easy to mistakenly assume this is down to Starmer’s incompetence and horrific lack of judgement. But this is elite impunity baked into his DNA.
Cover-Up Keir Always Lies, Always
Make Keir Former PM Now https://t.co/nQTOSNzeZe — CaseClosed (@wds08) April 20, 2026
Political advantage?
Others have gone further than Susanna Reid, questioning whether Mandelson’s ties to Epstein – and the shadow of the Epstein ‘kompromat’ files – may have played a role in his swift path to the White House. After all, it is becoming clearer by the day that a powerful and seedy few likely shape foreign affairs through damaging information they hold. Seen in that light, it doesn’t take a great leap to suggest that Starmer may have believed he could turn that cynical dynamic to his own advantage.
Here, Reid’s intervention powerfully hits the mark. It also exposes a wider truth: political leaders often prioritise their own advantage over decency, integrity in office, and, frankly, basic morality.
This has all come against the backdrop of our government’s ongoing complicity in the genocide on Gaza and Israel’s terrorism in the West Bank. Therefore, this palpable imbalance hardly surprises anyone.
For many across the UK, it will only change once Labour is out of government.
Featured image via the Canary
My pugalier Rocky has always had a gift. His ability to sniff out a tennis ball anywhere is remarkable. At the park in thick grass, under the couch, buried in someone’s garden. For years, I joked that I wished I could teach him to find gold or truffles or anything more valuable. Once he found one, he’d demand a long game of fetch before chewing it for hours. It seemed like exactly what a happy dog was supposed to do.
When Rocky was 9, we took him in for a routine dental checkup. The vet said his teeth weren’t in great condition and she needed to put him under anaesthesia to assess the damage properly. We expected one or two teeth might need work. Instead, she removed 10.
The cause of the problem? Tennis balls.
The vet told us it is more common than we’d ever imagine. I texted every dog owner I knew that day to warn them.
Tennis balls are so embedded in dog ownership that most people never question them. They’re cheap, they’re everywhere and dogs go crazy for them. But veterinarians have been watching the damage accumulate for years.
“The fuzz on tennis balls acts like sandpaper when it contacts a dog’s teeth, especially once it traps dirt and grit,” said Dr. Ezra Ameis, owner of Paw Priority veterinary clinic. “When a dog repeatedly chews or carries the ball, that abrasive surface slowly wears down the enamel. I have seen canines that are literally flattened across the tips from chronic tennis ball chewing. This is not a fracture problem. It is attrition.”
Ameis diagnoses tennis ball-related dental wear almost daily, particularly in high-drive retriever and shepherd breeds. “Owners assume tennis balls are safe because they are sold everywhere and often marketed for dogs,” he said. “People are shocked when I show them smooth, worn-down canines and explain what caused it.”
Veterinarians even have a name for it: tennis ball mouth.
Dr. Stephanie Liff, a New York City-based veterinarian and practice owner, sees the same pattern. “I frequently see the crowns of teeth worn down significantly in chronic tennis ball chewers,” she said.
Her own parents have a 13-year-old golden retriever whose teeth are all blunted from his obsession with tennis balls. “Even though the balls feel soft, the consistent gnawing motion over time can wear the teeth down significantly, and most owners have no idea it’s happening,” she said.
Callum Russell, a dog owner in Kent, England, watched this happen with his Jack Russell, Gunner. “She would often fetch a ball and then chew for hours after her walk,” he said. “As she got a bit older, we noticed her teeth looked unusually flat and worn down, not to mention her bad breath.” Gunner was eventually diagnosed with tennis ball mouth. She is 11 now, and by the time the damage was caught, the vet recommended removing all her remaining teeth to end her pain.
Not every case ends in an emergency. Raziul Hoque found out about the problem when his dog’s vet flagged it during a routine visit.
“There was no dramatic incident. No choking. No emergency,” he said. “Just slow wear that blended into normal behaviour. I realised the surface isn’t actually soft in the way we think. It’s abrasive. Combine that with repetitive chewing pressure, and it acts more like sandpaper than a plush toy.”
Lysandra Cook via Getty Images
Worn teeth are only part of what tennis balls can do.
“The most common emergency we see is an intestinal blockage, often when the pet swallows a tennis ball without the owner realizing it,” said Dr. Danielle DeBrincat, a veterinarian and medical director at VEG ER for Pets in Colorado.
A colleague of hers treated a dog that choked on a tennis ball and stopped breathing. He was revived, but a second tennis ball in his stomach still required surgery to remove. “These owners are often shocked when they learn the cause,” DeBrincat said. “A lot of them say they wish they’d known the risks beforehand.”
Dmitrii Malashkin took his German shepherd, Ernie, to an emergency vet after a night of retching and drooling. An X-ray confirmed Ernie had swallowed a tennis ball whole. “Everyone assumed immediate surgery was required,” Malashkin said, “but the vet suggested attempting to remove it with an endoscope to minimize the trauma.”
While the endoscope camera was inside, the vet found leaves, crumbled plastic wrappers and a piece of string that the fraying ball had collected at the park and carried into his mouth. Everything was removed without surgery. Malashkin said he never imagined a tennis ball could carry that much debris into a dog’s stomach.
Dental damage can be easy to miss. Ameis encourages owners to check their dog’s front teeth every few months. “Early on, the front teeth may look shorter or blunted. The tips lose their normal sharp point. Sometimes you will see a subtle yellow center as enamel thins and dentin becomes exposed,” he said.
By the time a dog shows sensitivity, the damage is already permanent. “In severe cases, I have seen pulp exposure requiring extraction or root canal treatment,” he said. “Dogs are stoic. They often act normal despite significant oral pain.”
Fetch itself is not the problem.
“Fetch is fine, since most dogs playing fetch are holding the ball rather than gnawing on it continuously,” Liff said. The issue is unsupervised chewing. She recommends dental rawhides, soft rubber Kongs, or indestructible rope toys as alternatives, and points owners toward the Veterinary Oral Health Council’s approved product list for guidance.
Ameis offers a simple test for any ball or chew toy. “If you can press your thumbnail into it and it has some flexibility, that is usually a good sign,” he said. “If it is hard enough that you would not want it hitting your own kneecap, it is probably too hard for your dog’s teeth.”
Rocky is 12 now. He has very few teeth left, but he still eats his wet food faster than seems physically possible. Fetch is still his favorite game, but now we swap in a rubber toy the vet recommended, and we don’t leave him alone with it.
It’s a shame it took 10 of Rocky’s teeth to teach us that.
Reform UK has been condemned over the party’s “cruel” plan to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants if it wins the next election.
Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesman, said a Reform government would review all successful asylum claims going back five years.
Anyone found to have arrived in the UK illegally or overstayed their visa would be deported, he said.
As many as 400,000 immigrants would potentially be affected by the policy, according to the party.
Yusuf said: “Reform will reverse the invasion of Britain. Anyone who broke into the country illegally, or came in on a visa and overstayed to claim asylum (which is almost all of them) will have their status revoked and be deported.
“This is an addition to all those currently in Britain illegally.”
At a press conference on Monday, Reform leader Nigel Farage said Britain was being “invaded” by illegal immigrants.
The announcement comes after 602 people crossed the English Channel on small boats on Saturday, making it this year’s second busiest day for crossings and bringing the total number of arrivals in 2026 to more than 6,000.
Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward condemned the Reform plan.
She said: “Another superficial, ill-thought-out and cruel announcement by Reform UK, which will fail to tackle the roots of the asylum crisis whilst making sure more suffering is heaped on the most vulnerable.
“We do not want to see people risking their lives crossing the Channel in small boats. What we need is strong international co-operation to address the reasons that people are having to seek asylum in the first place: war, poverty and the climate crisis, and to provide safe and managed routes that would offer a real alternative to people smugglers.”
“We must remember our basic humanity. Many of those seeking asylum have endured horrendous trauma. They include mothers and children. We have a duty to offer compassion and sanctuary, not insecurity, fear and intimidation.”
Will Forster, the Liberal Democrat immigration and asylum spokesman, accused Reform of “churning out hostile, headline-grabbing” plans that will “do absolutely nothing to tackle our broken asylum system”.
He added: “The backlog of cases is already sky high thanks to the mess the Conservatives left us in. Reviewing five years worth of asylum grants is an impractical farce that will just slow down the process even more.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez has said that Spain will demand an end to the EU’s ‘association agreement’ with Israel at tomorrow’s (21 April 2026) meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Spain will be joined by the governments of Ireland and Slovenia. The association agreement gives Israel preferential trade access to the EU as well as setting a framework for political negotiations.
Spain moves further on Israel again
Sánchez told a rally in Andalusia that he is calling for the move because:
a government that violates international law or the principles of the EU cannot be its partner.
Sánchez has been one of the few EU leaders to take a strong stance – or any at all – against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its wars on Lebanon and Iran. In April 2026, he derided ‘leaders’ who were fawning over Trump’s supposed ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran, saying they were “praising those who set the house on fire” for turning up with a bucket. A month earlier, Spain removed its ambassador from the colony.
Last Saturday 19 April, the Spanish, Irish and Slovenian foreign ministers wrote to the EU’s senior diplomat Kaja Kallas, accusing Israel of breaching its obligations under the agreement:
including executive decisions, military decisions and laws adopted by the Knesset, that contravene human rights and violate international law and international humanitarian law. Our many statements in this regard, and direct calls for the Government of Israel to fully comply with its international and moral obligations, and to revert those measures, have been ignored.
The letter goes on to says that an agreement with Israel is incompatible with EU core values:
In such a grave situation, we call on the European Union to uphold its moral and political responsibility, and to defend the very core values that have underpinned the European project since its foundation. Respect for human rights must remain a fundamental pillar and guiding principle of all our actions and of all our relationships with our partners. By principled coherence and for the sake of its own credibility, the European Union can no longer remain silent or inactive in the face of such breaches…
…In light of these grave circumstances, we ask that the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council includes a discussion of the EU-Israel Association-Agreement. The earlier review of Israel’s compliance with its obligations under Article 2 of the Agreement was clear that Israel is in breach of its human rights obligations, and the situation has only deteriorated since then. Given the level of violence and the gravity of the current situation, there is a need to urgently revisit the question of the EU’s response, including the proposals put forward by the President of the Commission. Bold and immediate action is required, and all actions must remain on the table. The European Union can no longer remain on the sidelines.
However, Kallas is a supporter of Israel who has blamed its genocide on the Palestinians while mouthing token opposition to its ‘excess’. She has rightly been accused of saying “nice words” about Palestinian people while supporting “more weapons for Israel”.
And with the ending of the Israel ‘association’ requiring unanimity among the EU’s 27 governments – many of whom are run by politicians and parties in hock to the genocidal colony or ideologically committed to it – the move to end the association is doomed to fail.
But it’s still the right thing to do and shame on any government that helps defeat it.
By Skwawkbox
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There’s truly nothing worse than realising you’ve forgotten someone’s birthday, especially when you’re sitting across the desk from them.
That is, unless you are said colleague, who not only has had to come into work on their birthday, but hasn’t had it acknowledged.
You know the drill: you check your team calendar and realise it’s your colleague’s birthday. Like, today.
Cue the hundreds of panicked Slack messages and email threads, rushing out to find a suitable birthday card, and awkwardly driving by everyone’s desk to have them sign it on the sly before the end of the day – all while making it look like this was totally planned ahead of time.
Add remote working into the mix and you have the dead giveaway of a seriously sad and empty birthday card. Yeah… embarrassing.
GroupTogether Celebration Cards
Thankfully, in 2026 we can finally evolve past this. We’ve found the solution to giving office birthdays (engagements, births, and just general appreciation) the attention they deserve: GroupTogether.
To save on awkward apologies, GroupTogether has a whole host of actually cute digital birthday cards that scream “we’ve been preparing for this for weeks”.
As well as being able to choose a pre-made design that speaks to everyone from Christen in Creative, to Dan from accounts, GroupTogether also allows you to create your very own cover.
The best part is that GroupTogether provides the whole experience of opening a personalised birthday card without anyone having to leave their desks.
Whether you have colleagues working from home, out on location, or being on the other side of the world, anyone can sign thanks to GroupTogether offering unlimited signatures. And you get to choose just what you want that special message to say: from a funny GIF, to a messages from the heart or, if you need a helping hand, with the help of its AI tool.
Once everyone has signed, you can either choose to email the final product to the lucky recipient – which they’ll receive in an embossed ‘envelope’ – or print it off as a PDF so you can smugly hand it to them.
GroupTogether Cards
You know what that means: hours of saved time from not having to chase your already-busy team, and colleagues that feel celebrated and appreciated as they should be. Smashed it!
Throughout his time on the current all-star series of I’m A Celebrity, David Haye has repeatedly raised eyebrows due to his treatment of his campmates and various controversial comments.
Of them all, the one that perhaps ruffled the most feathers came early on in the series, when the former heavyweight champion opened up about his relationship with model Sian Osborne.
When Sinitta said he’d said it “sounds like she’s drop-dead gorgeous”, David agreed that Sian is “lovely”, before observing: “She’s got the personality of a proper ugly bird.”
As his co-stars voiced their shock at this remark, he continued: “She has, honestly. Most ugly girls realise they’ve got to have a personality, and the banter, to tell jokes and shit, so people overlook the fact that they’re not aesthetically amazing straight away.”
“It’s called ‘ugly duckling syndrome’,” he then told his stunned campmates. “Where girls are ugly when they start off, then they get pretty as they get older, but they’ve still got the personality of when they were ugly.”
At the time, Scarlett Moffatt said the quip went down “like a lead balloon”, while Beverley Callard commented that she’d “never heard anything so sexist in my life” – and the reaction among viewers was much the same.
Speaking to The Sun over the weekend, Sian responded: “I consider it a compliment. A big one.
“I’m fluent in David by now, and my family find it hilarious.”
BabiradPicture/Shutterstock
“When David tells me I have the personality of an ugly bird – meaning a girl so full of life and character that her looks become irrelevant he is giving me something the entire modelling industry never once did,” she then claimed.
“I don’t class it as inflammatory. That’s everybody else scratching their heads looking for something to be offended.”
Meanwhile, David has once again found himself at the centre of a furore after a spat with co-star Adam Thomas, which the Emmerdale star has claimed left him feeling “broken”.
Even hosts Ant and Dec have weighed in, suggesting that the retired boxer has “crossed the line” with some of his behaviour.
The current season of I’m A Celebrity: South Africa welcomed back 12 former campmates to vie for the title of the show’s next “Legend”.
It was pre-recorded last year, meaning fans have no say over who stays and goes, but viewers will choose a winner at the end of the season through a public vote.
Alexander Faludy reflects on the landslide election victory for Péter Magyar‘s Tisza party over Viktor Orbán‘s system of ‘illiberal democracy’ in the Hungarian parliamentary elections and analyses what might happen next in Hungary’s relationship with the European Union.
The landslide election victory on 12 April for Hungary’s centre-right Tisza party, led by former Fidesz insider Péter Magyar, surprised analysts. With limited exceptions, the consensus had been that Tisza could hope for a bare majority of parliamentary seats, but not a two thirds constitutional one.
Achieving the latter was, however, essential to have a shot at dismantling Viktor Orbán‘s system of ‘illiberal democracy’. A bare majority, on the other hand, would have left the incoming Tisza government either paralysed, or dependent on unpalatable deals with the extreme-right Mi Hazánk party.
Tisza won the vote in Hungarian geographical constituencies with an 18.5-point lead over Fidesz (55.3% v. 36.7%).
The party can boast 141 seats in the unicameral national assembly, eight more than the 133 needed for a constitutional majority. It represents the largest parliamentary majority in Hungary’s post-1989 democratic history. Fidesz and Mi Hazánk, meanwhile, have a mere 52 seats and 6 seats respectively.
Pessimists have long argued that Fidesz had consolidated power and manipulated Hungary’s electoral system to such an extent that real change could not be brought about through normal electoral means. Rather, the reasoning went, Hungarians would have to wait for ‘regime entropy’ to develop and for Orbán to be pushed out by reformists from inside Fidesz. Such a pattern would echo Hungary’s 1989 transition of power in which ‘reform communists’ were pivotal.
The prediction proved to be only partially correct.
Admittedly, Magyar and several other prominent members of the Tisza leadership, are disillusioned former Fidesz insiders. It became clear in the run-up to the election that Magyar retained discreet friendly contacts inside the governing party, ones willing to leak him sensitive information. This allowed him to anticipate and forestall smear campaigns planned by Fidesz’s propaganda apparatus.
Nevertheless, change has come about through an open electoral victory, not a closed-door palace revolt. This can probably be credited to three interlocking factors: socio-economic reality, Magyar’s personal communications, and the misdirection of Fidesz’s campaign.
Emotive scandals, especially concerning the cover-up of child sexual abuse in public institutions, created openings for Magyar and Tisza to enter public consciousness. More importantly, though, growing discontent with Fidesz had its true roots in political economy.
Problems with corruption and the rule of law failed to cut through as long as general living standards were improving. But, since 2022, this no longer applied thanks to stagnant growth and high inflation. Hungarians have seen living standards decline sharply. This is true relative to their own past experience, and to life in post-communist EU neighbours like Croatia, Romania and Slovakia.
The latter is a sensitive point given that, at the time of Hungary’s EU accession in 2004, the country was considered a regional leader in development. But today there is no amount of Fidesz propaganda that could cover up the underfunding and dysfunctionality of public services, especially in the areas of healthcare, child protection and education.
Magyar worked this groundswell of sentiment effectively via relentless personal appearances across Hungary over the last two years. He was also able to compensate for his lack of access to Fidesz-controlled broadcast media through a large, organic, social media following. His posts were frequently seen by hundreds of thousands in a country of less than ten million. Significantly, unlike the older opposition leaders he was adept at deploying humour and emotion, not just arguments.
Fidesz, meanwhile, chose to fight the election on foreign policy issues without addressing domestic concerns — except for suggesting that things would become even worse should Tisza come to power. The spotlight on Viktor Orbán‘s personal international connections, including the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance, may have back-fired, consolidating suspicions that the Prime Minister had lost touch with what mattered to voters at home.
Magyar’s remarks at his first press conference as Prime Minister-elect were delivered in front of a wall of Hungarian flags bracketed at each end by that of the EU. This represented a notable departure from practice under Orbán’s far-right Fidesz government and signalled Tisza’s intention to return Hungary to a European path. Clearly this is vital if frozen EU funds are to be released and Hungary returned to economic growth.
We’ve seen now seen the first signs of what this might look like. Asked whether Tisza would end Hungary’s longstanding defiance of an EU court judgment concerning breaches of asylum law (which is costing the country €1m in fines per day) Magyar signalled a break with past policy.
The dispute, he noted, had now cost Hungarians over €1bn which is ‘missing from Hungarian funds for healthcare, education and infrastructure’. EU countries led by allies of Viktor Orbán were able, he noted, to comply with EU asylum law, ‘and yet stop illegal migrants from coming to their countries’. If it was possible for them, it should be possible in Hungary too, he argued.
This will be welcome from an EU perspective. However, there was some domestic messaging too. Magyar made it clear that he would not accept the quota allocation of asylum seekers under the EU Migration Pact, nor make solidarity payments to other countries. Hungary would, however, stay within the Pact’s framework by providing seconded police units to support border control in other EU countries.
A similar accommodation of domestic concerns was evident in Magyar’s stance on Orbán’s recent veto of the €90bn EU loan package for Ukraine, financed through shared borrowing. Magyar said Hungary would not hinder other EU countries from supporting Ukraine by such means through wielding a veto. It would, however, not itself become a party to the common debt.
How effective these compromises will prove in maintaining the support of Magyar’s eclectic voter coalition will be a key question in coming months.
By Alexander Faludy, freelance journalist.
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