The Jury Alliance is a campaign demonstrating the wide-spread public opposition to the government’s plan to restrict the right to trial by jury in England and Wales.

Continuing the campaign, a national day of action took place on Monday 18 May outside half the crown courts in England and Wales. Events happened at 40 Crown Courts, from Carlislie to Truro, Caernarfon to Norwich, across both nations.

Groups of local people held public-information sessions close to court buildings and also in the city centres later in the day. They spoke to the public about the vital role the jury has in the criminal justice system and local crime control.

They also made plain the government’s deliberate misinformation that decimating juries will somehow fix the backlog. The Institute for Government and Bar Council have said that this drastic step will only reduce the backlog by 2%, reducing a two year wait by just one week.

There is growing public and professional opposition to the Courts and Tribunal Bill, currently at Report stage. The Bill, which did not feature in the Labour manifesto, is being rushed through parliament with one MP commenting that the Bill would have:

about the same time the House once spent scrutinising the Salmon Act 1986, which introduced the offence of handling salmon in suspicious circumstances.

Widespread opposition to jury changes

Many legal professionals have spoken out against the changes and justice secretary David Lammy’s claims citing that the real fix for the backlog was an increase to the number of courts, judicial sitting days and reform to the Legal Aid system and Prisoner Transport service.

Flora Page KC resigned from the regulator, the Legal Services Board, so she could openly oppose the Courts and Tribunals Bill. Page, who represented sub-postmasters in the Post Office Enquiry, said:

If this were genuinely about the backlog, there would be a sunset clause – a commitment to reinstate these rights once the backlog reaches an acceptable level. There is no such clause.

Recent figures are evidence that Lammy’s action to lift the cap on sitting days in February this year has already:

significantly reduced the backlog in key regions of England and Wales.

If passed, the Courts and Tribunals Bill for the first time removes a defendant’s right to elect a Crown Court trial (with a jury) in either-way cases.

Cases where the likely sentence is three years or less would be heard by a single judge replacing the jury (12 randomly selected members of the public) for tens of thousands of cases each year.

It was Lammy’s own report that found that people of colour receive a fairer trial with a jury than in front of magistrates.

Dr Clive Dolphin, a spokesperson from The Jury Alliance, said:

In 2023 the Ministry of Justice looked at what was quintessentially British and what the British public valued most. The top two were the NHS and trial by jury.

Everyone will be impacted by the bill, and for those already marginalised in the criminal justice system it’s a disaster. People trust juries. We must show the strength of public feeling against it, it’s the best means we have of stopping it.

Geoffrey Cox KC, a practising criminal barrister of 44 years, told the House of Commons during the bill’s second reading debate:

Jury trial is the most powerful instrument and engine of social justice that this country has ever invented. It is a safeguard against oppression. It is a built-in defence against establishment and administrative power.

Featured image via The Jury Alliance

By The Canary

Source link

The text Julie Story received from her mum about a sick relative was urgent and frustratingly context-less.

“She’s got another infection,” the message read, followed by a gnarly photo of the infection itself. Later, Story – a Florida-based comedy creator – learned her relative was already on antibiotics and doing completely fine.

But in the moment, she had no idea who her mum was talking about or how serious the situation was.

The text was alarming, but Story said these kinds of urgent, context-free updates from her mum are nothing new.

Advertisement

“Out-of-the-blue texts like this used to flood my nervous system with panic, but now I remind myself that what I just read is likely an exaggeration of the facts and isn’t the full story,” she said.

“I’ve gotten so many ‘URGENT SOS’ text messages that I’ve mentally renamed them ‘clickbait’ because that’s how they read.”

Story recently made a viral TikTok lovingly poking fun at boomers’ knack for delivering bad news, dressed in a ’90s mum wig and clutching a coffee mug. The video struck a nerve: “OMG. Have you been spending time with my mom?” one person wrote.

Online, millennials, Gen Xers and Gen Zers often discuss their boomer parents’ penchant for sharing bad news in the worst possible ways: Texting “he is gone” along with a photo of the family’s dead cat, or calling and saying, “Welp, he dead,” without specifying who the “he” in question actually is. (Your grandfather in his 90s? Your dad with health issues? Some neighbour who hosted a Fourth of July party you went to in the ’80s?)

Advertisement

Some on Reddit wonder if boomers take a certain pleasure in being the “first to inform anyone and everyone of someone else’s bad medical news”.

The cliffhanger, clickbaity messaging style is such a common experience, it might as well have a name: The Boomer Bad News Drop.

Oftentimes, the Boomer Bad News Drop is about someone you hardly know. But it’s always bad news.

Mike, a millennial with a 70-year-old mother, is often on the receiving end of that. He told HuffPost he calls his mum once a week to check in and fill her in on how he and her grandchildren are doing. When he asks how she’s doing, it’s never anything good. It’s also usually nothing about her.

Advertisement

“I’ll call and say, ‘Our baby just discovered her hands – it’s so exciting! How is everything going in your world?’” he said. “Then my mom will say, ‘Remember our neighbour from when you were in elementary school? Yeah, unfortunately, her husband passed away recently in a car accident. It was a big thing. The car flipped over on the highway. The other driver was drunk. Several times the legal limit.’”

“It reminds me of the Debbie Downer SNL skits,” said Mike, who asked to use his first name only in order to dish on his mum in this article.

The other impulse boomers have is just as frustrating to their kids: while they love to divulge other people’s bad news, they’ll exercise extreme discretion when it comes to their own health diagnoses – a tendency Bustle recently referred to as “The Boomer Hospital Reveal.”

“Oh, I was in the hospital earlier this month for a prostatectomy,” your dad will tell you over the phone. “It’s OK, I Ubered back.”

Advertisement

Why do boomers do this?

To speak tremendously broadly about a generation – we know not all boomers are guilty of this – why are some post-50 folks so bad at delivering bad news? Oversharing about others, undersharing about themselves?

“I would say that boomers dropping bad news so casually is a combination of generational communication style and emotional coping patterns,” said Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist in San Diego.

“Many boomers were raised in environments where emotions, especially grief, fear or vulnerability, weren’t processed out loud, so instead of framing bad news in an emotional context, they tend to deliver it as a piece of information,” Marsh told HuffPost.

Advertisement

For many boomers, being sensitive, emotional or vulnerable can feel like unfamiliar territory, since many grew up in environments where those qualities were framed negatively. As a result, some of those emotional communication muscles may simply be a bit underused.

“Because of these challenges with sensitivity and vulnerability, I have to wonder if that contributes to it seeming like they want to be bearers of bad news,” said Jess Sprengle, a therapist in Austin, Texas. “It might just be that they don’t recognise that what they’re sharing is sensitive, potentially traumatic information,” she said.

Galina Zhigalova via Getty Images

As for the sheer number of depressing texts or phone calls you might get from a boomer in your life, let’s state the obvious. At a certain age, there’s a surplus of bad news coming your way: people getting sick, people dying, unexpected grey divorces between couples you thought were solid as a rock.

That’s bound to stir up anxiety and existential reflection. And if someone doesn’t have an outlet for those feelings – a therapist, for example, or a close friend willing to dissect the latest tragedy on their Facebook feed – their adult kids are probably going to hear about it.

Advertisement

Children of boomers have their own theories on why the Boomer Bad News Drop is such a common experience.

“I firmly believe they want to be seen as the person ‘in the know,’” Mike said. “It’s important to them. With their social status changing, roles in life changing, and the amount of in-person socialisation they do decreasing, they want to be seen as a knowledgeable, connected figure.”

“It’s like the drama and gossip [go] through them, even if I have never heard of the person they’re talking about,” he added. “Facebook gives them a perfect free chance to acquire as much bad news as possible.”

Story thinks these older adults just want a little attention sometimes. “I wonder if our boomer parents have felt unheard in their close connections and compensate by telling shocking stories to engage others faster or to get someone’s attention,” she said.

Advertisement

As for not disclosing their own bad news, especially when it’s health-related, it may come from a desire to protect their children from pain, said Mary Beth Somich, a therapist in North Carolina. She told HuffPost that she hears about this dynamic regularly from the millennial and Gen X clients she works with.

“It always follows a pattern: important or painful information is withheld with the intention of ‘protecting’ the adult child, and then revealed later, often abruptly or in emotionally loaded moments,” Somich said.

She recently had a client share that they found out a grandparent had died weeks after the fact because, as their parents explained it, “you had a lot going on and we didn’t want to upset you.” Another client learned during a holiday visit that a family pet had died long ago, but no one told them.

“This leaves children not only catching up to a loss, but doing so without the context, preparation or support that would help them process it,” she said. “For many, it lands less like protection and more like a rupture in trust and emotional consideration.”

Advertisement

FG Trade Latin via Getty Images

Here’s how to curb your Boomer Bad News Drop ways

The issue is often less about intent and more about a generational mismatch, Somich said: one generation coping with distress in the way they were taught, another, more therapised generation expecting more transparency, preparation and emotional context when receiving upsetting news.

The goal for boomer parents, Somich said, is to share important news sooner rather than later, to avoid letting it build up until it feels heavier and more emotionally charged in your own mind. From there, it can help to give adult children a little emotional framing before diving into the details.

“Something as simple as, ‘I need to share something difficult’ signals care and helps the other person prepare,” Somich explained. “That small pause is often what turns a blunt disclosure into an attuned one. You want to make sure the person on the receiving end feels considered, not just informed.”

Advertisement

It may seem like a small thing, but consider how it might affect your kid in the moment to hear about a fatal car accident of an old neighbour, or conversely, hear about your hospital stay months after it happened. In all likelihood, it’s going to rattle their nervous system, Sprengle said.

“Try to look at them as both your child and an adult and your peer,” she added. “How might you feel if your child were to share bad news casually and in passing without much fanfare? What would you want them to do differently?”

It may be worth reflecting on whether some of the social filters you once relied on have shifted over time, especially in conversations involving sensitive or emotionally heavy topics.

“I wish parents would ask themselves, ‘Is this the right time to say this? How would this make the other person on the receiving end feel?’” Mike said. “I don’t blame our parents for any of this, but man, it can be tricky to navigate.”

Advertisement

Since distressing news about loved ones and acquaintances is an unavoidable part of ageing, it may help to have proactive conversations about how your children prefer to receive it.

“You and your kids might explicitly discuss what and how they want things shared,” Sprengle said. “Ask yourselves, how can I consider your feelings in this, and how can you consider mine? Just doing that can make a huge difference in strengthening connection and preventing relationship breakdown.”

Source link

Source link

The US war machine is desperate to siphon vital minerals from indigenous lands in Canada. Instead of resisting, Canada’s Liberal government seems to be going along with it — seeking to deescalate tensions with its aggro southern neighbour.

US extractivism targets Canada

A new essay by the Transition Security Project (TSC), published on 18 May, maps the shifting terrain of resource extraction. US interest in Canadian minerals for military use is nothing new — but the Trump administration’s methods for securing them are. Crucially, these minerals are a point of tension in Canada.

The TSC reported:

Rather than relying primarily on indirect tools such as subsidies or loans, the Pentagon has begun purchasing direct ownership stakes in Canadian mining companies, an approach that extends US state influence more directly into the private market.

The minerals include nickel, copper, chromium, tungsten and rare earth elements — all of which are deeply connected to Canada’s economy and livelihood.

As the report notes, this comes at a time when the:

the US escalates yet another illegal war in West Asia and continues its Cold War rivalry with China.

And as:

 Canada tries to claim economic independence from its aggressive southern neighbour.

The TSC further reports that:

the Pentagon’s unprecedented investment strategy could have significant effects on the Canadian critical mineral industry — shaping where, why and for whom those minerals are produced.

Earlier this year, the Canary reported on a clash between Canadian PM Mark Carney and US president Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump’s belligerent stance on control of the hemisphere has alarmed many governments in the Americas — making Canada’s sudden shift all the more embarrassing.

Carney — the austerity-era head of the Bank of England — is no angel himself. He has talked the talk on Trump, but continues to sell arms to Israel, and has maintained his hawkish stance on Iran. Think Keir Starmer in snowshoes, but a considerably more polished public speaker.

The Ring of Fire

There is a striking parallel here. Colonialism in Palestine, Canada, and the US involves not just militarism, but also enclosure and expropriation. And indigenous Canadians are still paying for the ambitions of empire, old and new.

US mineral interests centre on the so-called Ring of Fire:

a 5,000-km² mineral-rich region in the peatlands of northern Ontario which is often cast as the engine of a Canadian clean-tech boom comprising electric vehicles, battery supply chains, new jobs and new roads.

As TSC has it:

a growing body of evidence suggests a very different future for these minerals. While both the federal and provincial governments have framed the Ring of Fire as essential to climate policy, the US increasingly views the Canadian sub-arctic as a stable source of the inputs it seeks for its military industries — both Canada’s and Ontario’s leaderships now appear eager to align itself with that demand.

But whose land is it anyway? TSC explains, this ring of fire is:

already at the centre of a decades-long conflict over land rights, infrastructure development and government neglect […] Several of the First Nations whose homelands fall within the proposed mining zone have never consented to the mining activity being planned on their lands.

And there’s a strong element of underhandedness from the US and Canadian governments:

As the US and Canada tout “ethical” mineral supply chains, these communities face the greatest consequences of turning northern extraction into a matter of military expansion.

It’s important to remember broadly speaking that there are three Canadas: British, French and indigenous.

The latter group — which is made up of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people — have fought a centuries-long series of battles to hold, retain, and recover their stolen land.

The continuum of genocide

This fight, in which the US and Canadian governments are looking to continue predatory colonial practices, is just the latest. In the context of Canada, the ongoing continuum of exploitation cannot be glossed over.

TSC said:

In 2025, when First Nations stood against these incursions on their lands, they were met with Ottawa’s new “fast tracking” legislation — designed to accelerate mining projects under the banner of “national security” and “national defence” while also potentially diverting minerals towards Pentagon stockpiles.

They added:

Given that the Pentagon is the single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gas emissions globally, First Nations have a right to ask: are their lands being developed to power climate solutions — or to feed a military that is driving the environment to collapse?

And TSC warned that as the Canadian mining sector becomes “more tightly integrated into the US foreign policy agenda”:

it raises deeper questions about transparency, control and autonomy — particularly when it remains unclear to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike where these materials ultimately end up and who determines their use.

Wolastoqey National Grand Chief Ron Tremblay said:

that should the tungsten deposit located on his peoples’ traditional territory be developed into a mine, it would become a direct contributor to the “continuum of genocide” occurring in Gaza and the West Bank.

In case these colonial connections are not clear enough, it is almost certain that Canadian minerals are used to produce US weapons which end up being used by Israel. This multi-layered, global story of genocide and generational displacement should never be skipped over. When we talk about the plight of indigenous people — whether in the Americas, Palestine, or elsewhere — we should name the extractive, capitalistic processes which both connect their struggles and dispossess them of their land.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

Source link

No matter how well-rounded you try to make your diet, sometimes certain nutrients fall through the cracks. This includes a vitamin responsible for many mental and physical health benefits that you may have never even heard of before: thiamine, or vitamin B1.

“Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is a water-soluble vitamin that plays a critical role in energy metabolism and nerve function, helping convert carbohydrates into usable energy for the body and brain,” Rachele Pojednic, chief science officer at RestoreLabs and director of education at Stanford Lifestyle Medicine, told HuffPost.

This important vitamin “helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy and supports cognitive and neuromuscular health,” according to Dr. Eve Elizabeth K. Pennie, a general practitioner, clinical research professional and medical expert.

According to a September 2021 review in the journal Cells, different patient populations across various studies have shown rates of thiamine deficiency ranging from 20% to over 90%. This review speculates that a modern lifestyle is to blame, with certain habits and medications hindering thiamine absorption.

Advertisement

Given how critical thiamine is for our bodies and brains, it seems like more people would be talking about it. Yet it is often overlooked in favour of more popular vitamins, like vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, probiotics and iron.

Still, that doesn’t make thiamine any less important. And if you don’t have enough of it, your body will let you know.

HuffPost spoke to experts to learn more about the importance of this nutrient, the signs you may be deficient and how to get more of it.

What are the signs you might be deficient in vitamin B1?

Advertisement

A thiamine deficiency can cause physical and mental symptoms that affect your day-to-day life.

“Early signs of deficiency can include fatigue, irritability, poor concentration, muscle weakness, and in more advanced cases, neurological symptoms like numbness or blurred vision,” Pojednic explained.

Irritability, difficulty with short-term memory, loss of appetite and nausea are also signs you aren’t getting enough of this essential vitamin. The problem is that these symptoms could also be side effects of many other health problems, so a thiamine deficiency might be the last thing you expect.

Pennie said the dangers come when your vitamin B1 deficiency continues. “As it worsens, symptoms can include numbness or tingling, muscle weakness, difficulty walking, and, in severe cases, neurologic conditions, like Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) with confusion and vision changes,” she explained.

Advertisement

WE is a rare neurologic disorder caused by thiamine deficiency that must be promptly treated to prevent permanent neurological damage. It’s important to see a doctor if you believe you have a thiamine deficiency or any of the symptoms of WE.

fcafotodigital via Getty Images

Certain populations are more prone to thiamine deficiencies

“Deficiency is common in certain groups because thiamine stores are limited and easily depleted,” Pennie explained.

For example, if you tend to have a diet high in processed carbohydrates or have experienced chronic alcohol misuse, malnutrition, gastrointestinal disorders or bariatric surgery, you have an increased risk for thiamine deficiency.

Advertisement

“Increased metabolic demand, such as illness or pregnancy, can also contribute,” she added.

In addition to the factors mentioned above, Pojednic said that people with diabetes and older adults may also be at higher risk for a thiamine deficiency. Using diuretics and other types of medication can slow absorption and increase your risk of deficiency as well.

The good news is that a severe thiamine deficiency is rare in developed countries, according to Pojednic. She credits food fortification for providing the necessary daily thiamine for most people.

Can you have too much thiamine?

Advertisement

Don’t worry about overdoing your thiamine intake.

“It’s very rare to have too much thiamine since excess is typically excreted in urine, and toxicity is uncommon even with supplementation,” Pojednic said. “The bigger issue for most people isn’t excess but ensuring consistent intake.”

Pennie warned that it’s crucial to catch a potential deficiency before it’s too late. “Early recognition is important because an untreated deficiency can lead to serious but often preventable complications,” she said.

How to increase your vitamin B1 intake:

Advertisement

Depending on your age and sex, the amount of thiamine you need varies. The National Institutes of Health recommends that adult men get 1.2 mg and women get 1.1 mg per day.

Pojednic said foods that are high in thiamine include “lentils, pork, whole grain (fortified) breads and cereals, trout or salmon.”

If you’re extra tired, part of a high-risk group or don’t have a diet rich in different nutrients, it may be worth talking to your doctor about a possible thiamine deficiency. Catching up on this nutrient can have a significant impact on your body and brain.

Source link

Source link

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 48

WOULD HAVE IF HE COULD HAVE: Mayor Zohran Mamdani planned to appear in a video he released over the weekend to commemorate the displacement of Palestinians that occurred in connection with the State of Israel’s creation.

He only opted against being in the video — which drew backlash from local Jewish leaders — because he fell ill, he said this morning at a Bronx press event.

“I was intending to be there as part of it,” Mamdani told reporters. “However, I did fall sick, and we didn’t want to create any kind of complication for her.”

Mamdani was referring to Inea Bushnaq, a woman who lived in the British Mandate for Palestine as a child and was featured in the video released on the mayor’s official social media handles late Friday.

In the 4-minute video, Bushnaq, filmed in her home in New York City, recalls how she was nine when she and her family had to flee their home in East Jerusalem in 1948 during the “Nakba,” an Arabic word that translates into “catastrophe” and denotes the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians upon the establishment of Israel. “The Zionists were coming into Jerusalem,” Bushnaq says in the video.

Local Jewish leaders, including a member of Mamdani’s transition team, were outraged by the video, arguing it provided a one-sided, overly simplified account of the region’s history.

As noted by The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh, many Jews around the world contend the displacement of Palestinians did not just occur at the hand of Israeli forces. Rather, they point to neighboring Arab states, including Egypt and Syria, which launched military attacks in response to the new Jewish state’s creation in the wake of the Holocaust.

At his press conference today, Mamdani was asked for a response to the criticism that his team’s video excluded critical context.

“I firmly believe that acknowledging any one people’s pain does not preclude you from the acknowledgement of another people’s,” he said. “When it comes to New Yorkers like Inea and so many others, not only has their pain never been acknowledged, but so often we have seen that even their identity is up for debate, and my message to each and every New Yorker is that this is a city for you and that we will continue to be proud of everyone who calls it home.”

His comments come as he’s set to host a reception commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month at Gracie Mansion tonight. The mayor’s release of the Nakba Day video has led some Jewish leaders to boycott the event. They include Mark Treyger, a former City Council member who now leads the Jewish Community Relations Council, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the FDNY’s chief chaplain and the executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

Assemblymember Sam Berger, a Democrat who represents large Jewish communities in Queens, was still incensed by the video when asked about it this afternoon.

“The mayor has spent his career bending reality with his policies and his budget, so it’s no surprise he’s trying to bend history too,” he said in a statement to Playbook.

The decision by Mamdani to release the video on Nakba Day is part of his longstanding record of aligning himself with Palestinian rights and struggles.

As a candidate last year, Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, faced criticism for refusing to initially denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which many see as a call to violence against Jewish people. As mayor, he has said he’s committed to combating all forms of hate, including antisemitism, while also continuing to accuse Israel of perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as part of the war launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack.

Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, celebrated the video, saying it’s consistent with the chapter’s “history of standing up for Palestinian solidarity.”

“Representing the historic struggle of the people of the city is part of the mayor’s job, and I think that’s what he was doing here,” Gordillo said. — Chris Sommerfeldt and Jason Beeferman 

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

BETH DAVIDSON VS. BETH DAVIDSON: Beth Davidson’s congressional campaign has made it crystal clear on her website she absolutely supports establishing term limits — but if you ask her in person you may get an answer that sounds completely different.

Davidson, who’s running in the Democratic primary to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, says on the “priorities” section of her campaign website that she wants to “enact term limits and stronger ethics rules, to keep career politicians and corrupt insiders in check.”

But at a candidate forum in Ossining earlier this month, when she and her Democratic rivals were asked whether they would “support term limits for U.S. representatives and senators,” Davidson responded, “I actually don’t.”

“Some districts have members that have served them a long time. Some we’re done with after two years. I think it has to be up to the voters,” Davidson explained.

When asked about the discrepancy, Davidson’s campaign said the language on her campaign website is consistent with her support for term limits in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Beth has clear plans to take on corruption in DC, including enacting term limits for Supreme Court Justices, banning stock trading by Members of Congress, and ending Citizens United to keep special interests and corporations out of our elections,” her campaign manager Ellen McCormick told Playbook.

Davidson was the only major candidate at the forum who opposed term limits for members of Congress, with her opponents Cait Conley and Effie Phillips-Staley supporting the idea. — Jason Beeferman

From the Capitol

TRAIN DREAMS: Gov. Kathy Hochul this morning visited the state office building in Lower Manhattan where negotiators for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Long Island Railroad and five striking unions are meeting. As of mid-afternoon, no deal to end the LIRR strike had been reached.

In a video posted on social media, the governor said the morning commute had gone “smoother than expected” and that she was fighting to “protect our taxpayers and our commuters from having to pay hundreds of dollars more.”

Outside, picketers — one of them wearing a t-shirt that said “Fuck You, Pay Me” — chanted slogans like, “New York is a union town, Janno Lieber shut it down.” Lieber is the head of the MTA.

Hochul has so far appeared to stake out a more pro-MTA position than Gov. Mario Cuomo did during the last LIRR strike in 1994, which was also a gubernatorial election year. To quickly end the strike, Cuomo — whose son Hochul succeeded as governor — brokered a deal that gave the unions what they wanted.

But Hochul also appears to be keeping her political distance while blaming President Donald Trump for the strike.

In 1994, The New York Times reported that Cuomo was “positively hyperactive in confronting” the strike by cancelling public appearances, including a ticker-tape parade for the New York Rangers who had just won the Stanley Cup. The Times said he’d also “placed round-the-clock telephone calls to the top negotiators, members of Congress, Long Island leaders and the aides he sent to the bargaining table.”

This time around, Hochul has never publicly mentioned the possibility of Congress intervening. Trying to go that route is a nightmare for labor-friendly Democrats: Railroad unions are still bitter about when President Joe Biden got Congress to head off a freight rail strike in 2022. There were crickets from Congress last year when a union of train engineers went on strike and idled New Jersey Transit trains.

Trump said Sunday that until a day after the LIRR strike had begun he’d “never even heard about it.” (The president in September and again in January issued executive orders to create three-member panels to investigate the dispute and issue reports — a standard move in any rail labor dispute.) On Sunday afternoon, federal mediators summoned both sides to negotiations at the MTA headquarters. Those lasted late into the night and resumed this morning.

Hochul’s argument is that the Trump administration last year released the unions from one part of the mediation process early, a maneuver that set up a series of cooling off periods that ended Saturday, when the strike began. The part of the process she’s referring to allows federal officials to indefinitely keep unions in mediation without the ability to strike as long as there’s a reasonable chance of a settlement. Some of those mediations lasted for years.

This time around, all five unions and the MTA participated in mediation sessions between March 2024 and July 2025 before they were released in August. — Ry Rivard

FROM CITY HALL

FOOD DESERT: Mamdani’s plan to open a city-owned grocery store next year in Hunts Point could be a boon for access to healthy food in the bodega-dominated South Bronx, where diabetes and obesity rates far exceed citywide averages.

Hundreds of bodegas are spread throughout four ZIP codes in the South Bronx, accounting for 35 percent of all food establishments in the area, according to a Health Department analysis released last month. While most of the bodegas offered fresh produce, a third of them sold no fresh vegetables besides onions and potatoes — and, overall, healthy meal and snack options were limited, the analysis found.

For every supermarket in the South Bronx, there are four fast food restaurants and six bodegas, the analysis found.

In Hunts Point, the average cost of a standard grocery basket — which includes staples like eggs, deli beef, tomatoes, lettuce, bread, potatoes, milk and bananas — was $39.20 last year, but up to half of those items were generally unavailable, according to the analysis.

“Making sure every New Yorker can buy fresh, affordable groceries in their own neighborhood is a key part of our affordability agenda,” Mamdani said in a statement Monday.

The Economic Development Corp. is preparing a request for proposals for private operators to manage the Hunts Point grocery store and an additional store in East Harlem, which was announced in April and is slated to open by 2029. — Maya Kaufman

IN OTHER NEWS

— FRONT AND CENTER: Puerto Rico has emerged as a key issue in the race to succeed Rep. Nydia Velázquez, as rival progressive camps clash over the district’s political future. (THE CITY)

— PRISON REFORM: Still awaiting appointments from Hochul to reach a quorum, New York’s Committee on Correction is unable to meet or vote, delaying jail reform implementations. (New York Focus)

— LUIGI TAKES A HIT: A Manhattan judge ruled that the gun and notebook seized from Luigi Mangione will be admissible at his upcoming murder trial, while excluding items obtained during an initial warrantless search. (The New York Times)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Source link

Source link

Source link

Tesco’s CEO pay increased by almost a million last year from £9.93m to £10.8m. Fat cat salaries and the profits of privatised essentials show the cost of living crisis is manufactured. In fact, Tesco sets a stark example.

Manufactured, not a real ‘cost of living’

The real cost of living is when essentials come at cost price. Whether that’s supermarkets, housing, water or energy, the concept remains. But the supermarket giant Tesco made £3.2bn in operating profit in 2025/26. Also, its CEO’s pay packet, which includes his bonus, is entirely unnecessary. Instead, we should have cost price supermarkets. This would avoid middleman wealth extraction.

And when it comes to housing, the average private renter spends an average of £902 a month. That accounts for 41% of a £2,200 take-home salary. In total, this adds up to £119 billion a year across 11 million renters.

Instead, we should have cost price housing. That means the person can pay back the cost of building and designing the house in affordable monthly payments. Then, the person can enjoy full home ownership. This would end the housing bubble and bring down prices across the board. Much like Tesco could lead the way in supermarkets by implementing similar affordability principles.

Easy money, extractive practises

The alternative approach demonstrates that the current ‘cost of living crisis’ is manufactured. That’s because landlords would no longer be extracting over a hundred billion per year in rent that doesn’t go towards home ownership for the tenant, and retailers such as Tesco wouldn’t be able to profit excessively from essentials.

Water and energy companies are also making significant profit that further shows the ‘cost of living crisis’ is manufactured by the current system. In 2022/23, water utilities in the UK made £1.7bn — almost double what they made in 2018/19. And in the first quarter of 2026, BP more than doubled its profits. Clearly, the same trend is seen with Tesco in food retail.

Modernising the UK could further lower costs. That’s through automating industries like farming and vehicles. Re-imagining the system to ensure people pay cost price for essentials would transform the affordability crisis into one where people have the money to enjoy life.

Featured image via Leon Neal/Getty Images

By James Wright

Source link