Politics
The House | We will be judged by how we responded to climate collapse, not Westminster psychodrama
5 min read
While we have yet another circus of internal party politics in Westminster, the Government has failed to keep its eye on the ball when it comes to some of the biggest threats facing the country.
After nearly a decade of Conservative psychodrama, we cannot afford more lost years where Parliament fails to address the big challenges facing the country. The most fundamental duty of a Government is to protect its citizens, in the here and now, while also protecting them from foreseeable risks in the future. And the Government is failing to meet the moment, distracted by by-elections and leadership challenges.
Even before they began plotting to remove the Prime Minister, this Labour Government had learnt all the wrong lessons from the Conservatives’ time in office, gradually chipping away at Parliamentary scrutiny and weakening democratic accountability. There have been too many key announcements made outside the Chamber, and too many important areas not given time for debate. The clearest example is the Government’s failure to give proper time to scrutinise reports in Parliament that go to the heart of our national security, our economy and, ultimately, our very way of life.
Take the Joint Intelligence Committee’s National Security Assessment on global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, which provides a clear picture of what the near future may hold. It shows that the loss of nature and biodiversity collapse is no longer just an environmental issue. It is now a direct threat to our national security, economy, and way of life. One of the most alarming projections is that a worsening global food supply could leave the UK food system increasingly vulnerable to hostile states. Another is that due to climate breakdown, the report says GDP could be 12% lower than it would otherwise have been by 2030. This fact, which was left out of the redacted report, was only revealed by ITV’s investigation, and is deeply problematic for the Government given that it has put so much stall on growth policy and failed to recognise that a healthy natural environment is fundamental to the operating of the economy. Climate-driven migration will also increase pressure on national infrastructure and contribute to more polarised politics.
The only reason we know anything about these redacted reports is because of a freedom of information request from Green Alliance, which forced the Government to release the information. I first called for Parliament to be given time to scrutinise the report on 22 January. Since then, I have written to the Leader of the House, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asking for a response.
Amid all of this, in the last week, another report was published. This time, from the Government’s own watchdog, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), making it clear that we are dangerously ill-prepared for the impacts of climate change. After twenty years of successive Governments’ failure to properly confront the climate crisis, the CCC has now laid out a clear pathway for the action needed to better protect communities, infrastructure and essential services from the worsening impacts of extreme weather. Among the most dire warnings is that, in just a couple of decades, 9 in 10 of our homes are at risk of overheating. Water supply shortages may exceed five billion litres per day. And 40°C heatwaves will become the new normal across the UK, potentially leading to an additional 10,000 heat-related deaths per year. Without action, the Committee is clear that an increase of up to 4°C by the end of the century remains a possibility. To put it simply, if that happens, we won’t be able to adapt. There are no mitigations that will fully protect our food systems, infrastructure, economy or public health from the scale of disruption such a world would bring.
These are issues with profound long-term consequences, yet they have received no Parliamentary time and far too little media attention. The only logical conclusion is that the Government seems to have decided it is easier to avoid discussing these reports and confronting these warnings than to spell out what it plans to do. I understand the issues are very difficult, but it’s all the more reason to start addressing them sooner rather than later. Ministers know that the implications for food prices, the cost of living and national security are serious. Yet, instead of leading an open debate about how we respond and proposing a blueprint for where we go from here, they appear to be trying to avoid the issue and hoping it goes away.
Whoever leads this Government after September must have a laser focus on the transformative change needed to tackle the climate and nature emergency, and with it the cost of living crisis. The gravity of the warnings means there is no time to waste. The Government must focus on building the resilience of our food and energy systems to prepare the country for increasingly extreme conditions. While this is happening, we also need to heed the warnings of the dangers of ecosystem collapse.
What this would mean in practice is investing in flood defences, starting a programme of mass home insulation to cope with colder winters, and adapting buildings for hotter summers. All while preparing the public for what is coming, including opening mass cooling centres during extreme heat events and supporting communities in adapting their homes, workplaces, and daily lives to a rapidly changing climate.
We have a clear choice here: politicians can continue to be consumed by political theatre, or finally confront the realities of climate breakdown. Future generations will rightfully judge us on whether we rose to the moment, whether we acted on the warnings, or whether we kicked the can down the road yet again. The threats posed by our ecosystem’s collapse are no longer abstract, and the Government should take them with the seriousness they deserve. Ultimately, if the Government fails to prepare the country for it before the consequences become immeasurably worse. We will all pay the price.
Programming note: We’ll be off this Monday but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday.
DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 52
ALBANY AUTOPSY ANGST: National Democrats entrusted their 2024 autopsy to a strategist entwined with another long-ago party calamity: the Obama-era implosion of the New York Senate.
Paul Rivera previously served as a key adviser to state Senate Democratic leader John Sampson, a Brooklyn lawmaker who led an infamously dysfunctional majority for part of 2009 and into 2010 — and was later convicted of federal fraud charges.
Rivera arrived in the Senate with a strong resume after working on gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, including Al Gore and John Kerry. Staffers and lawmakers alike found him to be an inscrutable, enigmatic aide who murmured advice in the background. It was the kind of shapeless profile many advisers hone in power centers across the globe, but seemed especially befitting a state Capitol known for its bewildering opacity.
“The man lurked in the shadows. No one knew where he came from,” former Democratic Senate press aide Travis Proulx said. “It was like a ship in the night working with him. Of everyone I’ve ever worked with he stands out as the man behind the curtain. No one knew how he got there.”
Rivera did not return five phone calls and text messages seeking comment on Thursday and Friday. Sampson also did not return messages seeking comment.
The strategist has little national profile, but his involvement in crafting the widely panned autopsy report was befuddling to Albany Democrats who recall with unease a deeply broken era of New York politics. They still shudder when thinking about their unhappy two-year state Senate majority during the Obama years.
Rivera’s Zelig-like reputation was fostered during that benighted era and even lawmakers struggled to figure out where his power flowed from in the building.
“You never know who he was really loyal to, on whose behalf he was acting,” said former Democratic state Sen. Diane Savino.
Rivera’s name does not appear on the Democratic National Committee’s 192-page report on the 2024 election, formally released Thursday after it was published online by CNN. The autopsy was widely criticized by party officials, ex-Harris campaign aides and former Biden staffers.
The report did not include any references to the party’s challenges over Israel and Gaza, while only making passing references to President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside — widely considered two crucial reasons for the party’s failure two years ago.
DNC Chair Ken Martin apologized for the document in a long statement. But that hasn’t stemmed widespread calls for him to resign the leadership post he’s held for less than 18 months.
Democratic alumni of the fractious state Senate Democratic conference in Albany were flabbergasted that the national party would hand such an important job — analyzing why droves of Americans backed President Donald Trump’s unlikely White House return — to a strategist associated with a disastrous era for Empire State Democrats.
“He sold himself as a guy who knew everything and that he was a master of politics,” Savino said of the former Senate aide’s Albany tenure. “He didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.”
Read more from POLITICO’s Nick Reisman.
From the Capitol
MICAH’S SUPERNATURAL VOTE: Assemblymember and former teen magician Micah Lasher seemingly made a miraculous journey to New York City from Albany on Thursday.
And Lasher — who is running for the congressional seat held by retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler — is refusing to answer questions about how it happened.
The assemblymember apparently was able to cast his vote from Albany at around 4:50 p.m. and make it to Manhattan’s Upper West Side in time for a 7 p.m. candidate forum.
Anyone who’s ever driven the roughly 150 miles from Albany to New York City knows that timetable stretches the limits of reality — unless you’re driving well over the speed limit and get a lucky streak of zero traffic congestion.
Lasher’s campaign refused to say where he physically was at the time he voted, and then ignored multiple follow-up calls from Playbook.
The vote was on a budget bill that included a slate of measures designed to protect immigrants from the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics. Lasher has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the campaign trail, and even traveled to Minnesota in January to join protests against the federal agency.
Earlier today, Lasher touted passage of the bill, saying “I am incredibly proud to have authored this legislation to protect the dignity and safety of all.”
Assembly rules state members need to be in the “bar of the House” in order to be considered present. The “bar” is defined as “the entire Assembly Chamber and lobbies contiguous thereto as designated by the Speaker.”
As our Playbook colleague Bill Mahoney reported last month, members have taken advantage of the policy by routinely being absent from the chambers during votes and debates. Instead, many clock in during the morning and then spend session elsewhere in the Capitol or the adjacent Legislative Office Building. Because they’re technically checked-in and considered present, the members are automatically counted as a “yes” vote on legislation — even if they’re holed up somewhere else in the Capitol complex.
But there’s no indication the “bar” of the House extends to the Catskill exit of the New York State Thruway — a reasonable, but still tight, starting point for someone hoping to make it all the way to West 97th St. in 130 minutes.
And if members do need to leave town early, they’re instructed to tell Assembly leadership so they don’t get mistakenly counted in the vote tally when they’re in another zip code.
Assemblymember Alex Bores, who is also running for the congressional seat — along with Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and former Republican Trump antagonist George Conway — made it to the forum late because he voted for the bill and also took time to explain his vote on the floor.
After Bores apologized for his tardiness at the forum, which was hosted by a group of tenant associations, he expressed befuddlement at how Lasher was seemingly able to beam across the Hudson Valley and also cast his vote.
“You got to tell me the route that gets me here in two hours. That’s remarkable,” Bores said, in a video reviewed by Playbook. “You voted on it?”
“I did,” Lasher said, giving a nod. — Jason Beeferman
BURSTING INTO TIERS: A package of changes to the Tier 6 pension plan have been finalized as state budget talks come to an end, two people familiar with the conversations said.
“Tier 6 is done,” said one of the people, who was granted anonymity to relay the closed-door negotiations.
The changes will allow teachers to retire at age 58 after 30 years of service. Employee contribution rates for many public workers will fall to 3 percent of their pay checks. The total cost stands at more than $550 million a year spread out between the state government, municipalities and school districts.
The provision is expected to be tucked inside the transportation and economic development budget bill.
The overhaul represents a major victory for labor, which has detested the less-generous pension tier since its 2012 inception.
Read more from POLITICO Pro’s Nick Reisman.
FROM CITY HALL
SIGNS OF LIFE: The zombie charter revision commission created by former Mayor Eric Adams will release a report next week listing proposed changes to the City Charter the body may pursue — even as state legislation seeks to kill the outfit altogether and ensure it stays dead.
The report, which was obtained by Playbook, is set to appear in the City Record Tuesday. In addition to the prospect of open primaries, it suggests more reforms to the city’s land use process, prohibiting elected officials from giving themselves pay raises and making it harder to change term limit laws. The report also muses about making permanent several mayoral offices relating to combating hate crimes and antisemitism and forcing City Hall to fund future charter revision commissions. That last one is key.
This particular commission was created on the last day of Adams’ tenure and is being spearheaded by his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro.
The rogue body is advancing proposals that would make life difficult for Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Open primaries, for example, would empower more moderate candidates and complicate the mayor’s reelection prospects. The report also recommended putting to voters several executive orders related to combating antisemitism that were signed by Adams — also in the waning days of his term — and left to lapse by the current mayor. The expiration of the executive orders predictably sparked consternation with many Jewish residents.
The commission has been criticized as an abuse of the process by city and state government ethics organizations — even by those who support the concept of open primaries. And while Mamdani has starved the commission of funds, Albany went a step further by passing legislation Thursday that effectively dissolves the body.
The mayor has been playing coy about what he will do (despite being the person who asked for the state provision in the first place). He said at a press conference Thursday he is still considering his options.
The commission remains undeterred, however. It plans to sue over the state legislation while plowing ahead with its work. A public hearing remains on the schedule for next week.
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a commission member, said state lawmakers are attempting to silence the will of the people, who would otherwise be able to help shape the commission’s eventual ballot questions.
“That should send chills down the spines of all New Yorkers who care about having a voice in our local democracy,” she said in a statement. “This attempt to retroactively dismantle a legally constituted Charter Revision Commission in the middle of its work flies in the face of municipal home rule.” — Joe Anuta
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
BREWING SUPPORT: City Council member and Upper West Side fixture Gale Brewer has endorsed Stephanie Ruskay in the race for an open state Assembly seat covering the vote-rich enclave.
“We need leaders who are smart, compassionate, and deeply rooted in the communities they serve,” Brewer said in a statement shared exclusively with Playbook. “That’s why I’m proud to support Stephanie Ruskay for State Assembly.”
Ruskay, who would be the first female rabbi elected to the state Legislature, is running for the seat being vacated by Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who himself is vying for an open congressional seat.
In addition to Brewer, who has represented the area over two stints in the Council, Ruskay is being backed by a number of sitting officials including City Comptroller Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and City Council member Shaun Abreu.
She’s locked in a battle with Eli Northrup, a public defender who has received endorsements from local Democratic clubs and organizations farther to the left in a proxy war between different wings of the Democratic Party. — Joe Anuta
IN OTHER NEWS
— PRESSURE FROM WITHIN: Hundreds of immigrants detained at a Newark immigration detention center went on a hunger and labor strike, demanding the facility’s closure, their release and visits from elected officials. (Gothamist)
— PLAY NICE!: Kathy Wylde, former head of the Partnership for New York City and a key business broker, is again playing go-between for Mamdani and corporate leaders. (New York Post)
— FARE FIGHT: World Cup fans are opting for $20 buses over $98 train rides to MetLife Stadium, amid backlash over steep transit prices. (The New York Times)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Kylie Minogue has spoken for the first time about undergoing IVF treatment shortly after being diagnosed with cancer in her mid-30s.
The Grammy winner was 36 years old when she was first told she had breast cancer in 2005, and in her new self-titled Netflix documentary, she shared that having children had already been on her mind around this period of her life.
She began: “There’s so much more to cancer than ‘you had it, you got through it and you’re fine – or fine for now’.
“I was 36 when I got my diagnosis, so already it’s… you need to be thinking about children.”
Kylie continued: “I did try. I even postponed my chemotherapy to try, which was quite scary at the time because you just want [the cancer] out. Gone. [I felt like,] I want to feel safe, I don’t want this.
“I did try a few times with IVF. Always, it was with such a thread of hope. But I couldn’t not try. If it had happened, it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way.”
The Confide In Me singer admitted: “One can’t help but wonder what it would have been like. And I’m so close to my family. But it wasn’t my path.”
At this moment in the documentary, she was seen reading out the lyrics to her song Flower, written for her 2008 album X and eventually included on her compilation album The Abbey Road Sessions, which she said was inspired by the child “that might have been”.
Later in the documentary, Kylie shared that she’d privately undergone cancer treatment for a second time after being diagnosed in early 2021.
“I was able to keep that to myself,” she said. “Not like the first time.”
“Thankfully, I got through it. Again,” she added. “And all is well.”
Kylie then recalled: “I just couldn’t [go public with the diagnosis] at the time. Because I was just a shell of a person. I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.”
All three episodes of Kylie are now streaming on Netflix.
Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom, arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026.A minister has slapped down Wes Streeting’s suggestion of a “wealth tax that works”.
Streeting resigned as the health secretary within Keir Starmer’s cabinet last week, accusing the prime minister of offering a “vacuum” instead of a vision for governing.
Starmer has so far resisted dozens of calls from his own MPs to resign and a leadership contest is yet to be triggered.
But Streeting has claimed he would seek to enter any potential competition.
The backbencher now appears to have laid out parts of his policy agenda, telling the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast that he would introduce a wealth tax which could raise £12 billion a year.
He said his plan for a “wealth tax that works” includes reforms to capital gains tax, a levy on the profit made after selling an asset.
He wants to encourage investment by offering lower rates to “genuine” entrepreneurs.
Streeting claimed this would address the unfair system which is “penalising work”.
The annual tax-free allowance for the levy is £3,000 right now. Anything above this is taxed at rates depending on each individual’s income band.
Higher or additional rate taxpayers must pay 24% on gains in the current financial year, but Streeting wants those rates to mirror income tax bands (20%, 40% and 45%).
The ex-health secretary – usually seen to be on the right of the Labour Party – suggested closing loopholes which allow people to conceal income from work as capital gains.
This is a clear appeal to those on the left of the party.
But, it is very different to the Green Party’s proposal of an annual tax of 1% on assets above £10 million and 2% on assets above £1 billion.
Even so, chief secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby rejected Streeting’s idea outright.
She told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “We already tax wealth in this country.
“The chancellor introduced a host of measures in her first budget, and then further measures in the last budget as well, that try and make sure that tax is as progressive and fair as possible.”
Communities Secretary Steve Reed also hit back at Streeting’s remarks, saying: “I haven’t had the chance to sit down and listen to comments everyone is making, but the Government, of course, has already brought in wealth taxes.
“The non-doms changes, for instance, was one of those. I think in total it has raised around £8 billion, not just from that one intervention but across a range of approaches that is now being spent on improving public services on the front line.”
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From the producers of Stranger Things comes The Boroughs, a new Netflix sci-fi series that follows supernatural goings on in the unlikeliest of spots.
Led by an all-star cast that includes Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman and Clarke Peters, The Boroughs has already been described as a mix of The Goonies, A Man On The Inside and The Thursday Murder Club.
The show follows a group of pensioners in a luxury retirement village, as they try to hunt down the creature living underneath their homes, after mysterious goings-on threaten them and their loved ones.
Critics have mostly praised The Boroughs, although some have said it doesn’t live up to the earlier series of Stranger Things.
Here’s what critics are saying about The Boroughs so far…
“Like the best hokum, The Boroughs speaks, via monsters and electroplasm, to eternal human fears. Death is one, but The Boroughs parses it further – the fear of dying alone and friendless, after all one’s loved ones have gone, or after years of living in a terrifying, memory-less present – and then gives us comfort, that together most monsters can be defeated.”
“Part Thursday Murder Club, part Stranger Things, The Boroughs is an unexpectedly entertaining mix of adventure and wonder, drama and humour. Age is just a number – and it doesn’t matter what that number is when you’ve got a monster in your front room.”
“Like Stranger Things, The Boroughs is hard to pigeon-hole. There are elements of family drama, shades of comedy and moments of schlocky horror, but it’s just as intriguing as the Netflix hit’s early years.”
“The monster stuff really drags. But I liked the underlying message that you write off older people at your peril.
“It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to spot that the monsters stalking these retirees represent mortality. Molina plays a man still hit by waves of despair over losing the woman he loved. There are scenes in which he grieves for her, sound-tracked by Bruce Springsteen, which will bring a tear to your eye.”
“Flipping the premise of executive producers the Duffer Brothers’ breakthrough series Stranger Things, where resourceful kids triumphed against monsters from the Upside Down, this series pits characters who could easily be their grandparents against a sinister otherworldly force.
“Setting the mayhem in an otherwise placid retirement community abutting the New Mexico desert (though Roswell oddly is never mentioned) is a stroke of creative genius. The elderly are an especially vulnerable demographic, often robbed of their agency and independence by well-meaning family, patronised as delusional or worse if they confess to seeing things that couldn’t possibly be true. Or could they?”
“Boasting a fantastic cast that brings this ensemble of intricate characters to life, The Boroughs turns a familiar genre on its head, allowing audiences to consider from a different vantage point the constraints of the human experience, what it means to be fearless and the finality of death.
“Fascinating and intense, with The Boroughs, viewers will indeed have the time of their lives.”
“Between its examination of dementia and its tale of a reclusive retiree finding community, The Boroughs feels like a sci-fi version of another stellar Netflix offering: A Man On The Inside.
“The Boroughs may have 100 percent more monster attacks, but it also has A Man On The Inside’s same compassion when it comes to telling stories of retirees living fulfilling, adventurous lives.”
“In between the missteps and monsters, The Boroughs is ultimately a heartfelt and charming series that poses a fair few questions about life, ageing and death – and asks just how far you’ll go for the ones you love.”
“In the final third of the story […] what first seems like simple horror starts to connect to The Boroughs’ bigger questions about the cost of extending life beyond its natural limits, and this sometimes diverts attention away from the main quest.
“The story moves away from a clear good-versus-evil setup, and a simpler version with a hero and villain might have felt more satisfying, even if it meant losing some of the deeper ideas and ambiguity the series deliberately leans into.”
“Davis, Molina, O’Hare, Peters, and Woodard make the show a blast, particularly the terrific middle stretch of the eight-episode first season.
“Too bad about the rest of the ensemble, whose one-note performances are a drag on The Boroughs’ momentum and scares. With leads this strong, you’d expect supporting players who can make lines like ‘The Boroughs is a fortress, a citadel blazing in the dark’ sound spooky, not goofy and uninspiring.
“Fortunately, a few weak links and a slow start don’t diminish The Boroughs’ delightful punch.”
“When conflict arises, the threat of being mistreated by people far younger and stronger than they are is a sobering reminder of the potential for cruelty that comes from organisations that are, in fact, positioned to help.
“It’s a dark mirror to how the kids of Stranger Things bemoan they won’t be believed by the adults in their lives, but unlike the kids, the retirees’ very lives are put under threat that, at times, feels far more frightening than even the menacing presence hiding within the retirement village.”
“Netflix’s The Boroughs gets off to a promising start, with Alfred Molina leading one hell of a great cast of veteran actors as the residents of a retirement community dealing with a monstrous, otherworldly threat.
“The set-up is intriguing and fun, with the first episode establishing an appealingly quirky tone that’s hopefully backed up by a worthy story across the eight episodes that will fully make proper use of these actors.”
“While the sci-fi thriller proves a fine enough way to while away a few hours, with a plot that boils down to ‘Stranger Things but old people’ and an A-list cast that’d turn the grey hairs of A Man On The Inside green with envy, I left thinking too much of its eight 45-minute episodes had been spent on the former, at the expense of the latter.”
“I doubt The Boroughs is about to set Netflix alight on the epic scale that Stranger Things did. It might have an old-timey vintage feel, but it is nowhere near the nostalgia bomb that first got so many in on Hawkins.”
The Boroughs is available to stream on Netflix now.
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Wearing sunscreen and makeup is a tricky feat. So much so that I’ve often opted to go for one or the other, come summer.
And while freckles do a little something to accessorise my face, sometimes I want to wear makeup without worrying it’s going to melt off my face, goddamnit!
Don’t say I haven’t tried, because for a long time, I’ve been looking for a sunscreen that works under my makeup. But honestly, most of the time they counterract each other.
I was beginning to give up on my quest entirely, that is until I came across e.l.f.’s Suntouchable collection.
The makeup brand has solved all my problems, because a few small products it has the answer to glowy, SPF-protected skin, and makeup that lasts the whole day.
The collection is made up of just five products (okay, one of those is a set, but that counts, right?) that each contain primer and skin-loving ingredients, in the perfect blend of skincare and makeup prep.
And, there’s something for everyone. Whether you want a little glow, or to look as smooth as a baby’s butt, e.l.f. has a formula that will help you achieve your ideal summer skin.
There’s nothing worse than realising you need to refresh your sunscreen and having to rub it into your face with your dirty, public transporty hands while you’re out and about. That’s why I’m a sunscreen stick supporter, and this one doubles as a primer, too, for when you’re transitioning your makeup from day to night.
When you’re doing your makeup, the last thing you want is for your sunscreen to leave a nasty white cast that shows through your base. To avoid having to put extra work into your beat, this formula is completely invisible, and it’ll keep your face looking fresh thanks to skin- boosting ingredients like aloe and meadowfoam seed. Again, it doubles as a primer, and one reviewer says it kept her blush in place for eight hours on a hot and sweaty day. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.
Chasing that summer glow? Same, so you’l be pleased to know this sunscreen comes in three shimmer shades for that added hint of ‘lit from within’. Unlike other glow-boosting sunscreens, it’s non-greasy, and it’ll protect your natural glow by preventing clogging, as it’s infused with aloe, hyaluronic acid, and squalane, for a velvety-smooth finish.
We all know the feeling of having greasy skin after a long day of applying and re-applying sunscreen (not to mention the sweat). To keep your skin feeling smooth (and matte) all summer long, e.l.f. has put together this kit that includes its Suntouchable Invisible Sunscreen SPF 30 along with a cleanser, daily moisturiser, and vitamin C and E serum to ‘brighten and glow’. Each bottle is mini-sized, making it a morning routine you can take with you, wherever you go.
If you’re anything like me, your makeup will inevitably end up half way down your face (or entirely melted away) half way through the day come summer. For double the insurance, this setting spray contains SPF30, and is designed to not let even a drop budge. If you’re not one for glow – or even matte – it’ll leave you with a natural finish, because you’re perfect as is (duh).
Labour lost control of Enfield Council at the local election but, with more coordination and cooperation, progressives could have easily taken even more seats from Labour.
Enfield Independent leader to Greens: ‘If we had formed an alliance, we would have won’
A strong independent campaign hoped to play a key role in taking overall control away from Labour. But while there had previously been talks with local Greens, the Green Party chose to stand across Enfield, including in wards independents were targeting. Conservatives ended up with 31 councillors, Labour with 27, and the Greens with 5.
In Upper Edmonton ward, for example, Labour got all three council seats. But if Enfield Community Independents and Greens had run a joint campaign, it’s very possible that Labour would have got no councillors at all.
Enfield Community Independents (ECI) leader Khalid Sadur stood in Upper Edmonton. And as he told the Canary:
If one of us had stepped down, we would have won. If we had formed an alliance, we would have won.
The lesson is clear, he said:
If we stand separately, we will lose, and Labour will get in.
Both progressive forces, Sadur stressed, had something different to offer in the election. The Greens had a big national media profile, especially considering the wave of attention current leader Zack Polanski has received. But ECI had been out in the community for years building connections with local people. As Sadur insisted:
We know the people on the ground… We are local residents – we came from a really grassroots approach, where we literally brought people along and got them to vote for the first time…
The people that we spoke to are the people who voted for us, and they absolutely bought into the idea that they needed local people to represent them on their local council — people who knew their area, weren’t taking them for granted like the existing Labour Party, who don’t have councillors who live in the ward.
He even added that, in the areas ECI was campaigning:
There was no one on the ground apart from us. We were out canvassing, leafletting. But we never saw any other party on the streets.
‘We have to put egos aside’ to stop Reform
In our current political system, many voters do depend on a national profile and vote accordingly. And partly on this basis, Greens made some gains in Enfield. But even without a national profile, ECI candidates got hundreds upon hundreds of votes from hard campaigning on the ground, and were a real challenger in some areas.
The point Sadur made was that the Greens couldn’t win solely with a national profile on their side, and ECI weren’t able to win on local campaigning alone (without a big national profile behind them). With this in mind, he said:
The goal really is to try and get us together, such that we can then come together and actually campaign together, bring the expertise that we have — in terms of the campaigning history and background and experience – together with the profile of the Greens, and form a challenge.
In a call for unity, Sadur said:
The battle lines need to be drawn for the next general election very clearly. It’s going to be left versus right.
There needs to be a single candidate on the left who’s going to be able to take on the right.
We cannot afford to split the left vote and allow Reform in.
We have to put egos aside and do actually what’s in the best interests of our residents, our constituents, and frankly, our country.
He added:
There needs to be a commitment to do this together. Because we’ve got three elections’ worth of data. So we know where our voters are, we know where the postal voters are. The Greens need our help and assistance on that. Together, we are a formidable force locally. We need unity, not division.
This is an important message not just in Enfield, but across the country. Because it’s clearly no longer time for party political games. It’s time to join together in a spirit of cooperation and mount a strong resistance to the fascists of Reform.
Featured image via Leon Neal/Getty Images
By Ed Sykes
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Ameer Kotecha – CEO of the Centre for Government Reform – joins Tom Slater and Fraser Myers for the latest episode of the spiked podcast. They discuss the stakes of the Makerfield by-election, why Labour can’t get over Brexit, and what HS2 reveals about broken Britain.
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More than 2,000 people gathered at Mission Valley River Park in San Diego for the funeral prayer for the three men killed while trying to stop the attack on the city’s largest mosque. The men are being hailed as heroes for confronting the attackers and preventing further… pic.twitter.com/Jr7ns2YoF2
— TRT World (@trtworld) May 22, 2026
“God is the greatest,” attendees chanted in Arabic, raising their hands. Police have indicated that the three victims took action that prevented further bloodshed and casualties — an act that deeply affected the local muslims present.
More than 2,000 people gathered for funeral prayers in San Diego for three men killed while confronting gunmen at the city’s largest mosque.
Community members said the victims’ actions helped save lives during the assault. pic.twitter.com/f2GGar4QPH
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 22, 2026
The US House of Representatives also held a moment of silence on Wednesday to commemorate the men.
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday observed a moment of silence for victims of the recent shooting in the Islamic Center of San Diego
Three people were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego in the US on Tuesday, May 19, when two teenage gunmen opened… pic.twitter.com/MYnAcRoo6f
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) May 22, 2026
The tribute was led by San Diego Representative Sara Jacobs, who said:
This tragedy didn’t happen in a vacuum.We let it happen by refusing to actually do something and stop the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate, and hatred of all kinds. For decades, the Islamic Center has been the target of hate speech and vandalism and yelling by people driving by.
Disturbing pattern
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), there has been a disturbing pattern of anti-Muslim attacks targeting mosques in the US. This includes a litany of hate crimes from planned mass shootings, to arson attacks, bomb threats, and violent assaults against Muslim worshipers in Tennessee, Michigan, Virginia, Florida, and Minnesota. These incidents have deeply impacted the muslims in those communities.
It said the latest civil rights report documented 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints in 2025. This is the highest recorded number since the organisation began compiling these reports in 1996. It lays bare a worrying trend for muslims nationwide.
CAIR has also reported a 1,450 percent increase in anti-Muslim extremist rhetoric by officials in the 15 months after February 2025; such rhetoric contributes to heightened anxiety among muslims living in affected areas.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria had previously declared that San Diego ‘stood with Israel.’ Later, he was heckled. This happened when he was supposedly offering sympathy to San Diego’s Muslim community earlier this week.
A San Diego resident publicly confronted Mayor Todd Gloria during a press briefing following the deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, where two teenage gunmen killed three mosque attendees including a security guard in an attack authorities are investigating as a… pic.twitter.com/cxktU2G9Ir
— VPol (@VocalPolitics1) May 19, 2026
The woman accused Gloria of ignoring repeated warnings from Muslim residents and amplifying pro-Israel rhetoric amid rising anti-Muslim hostility.
The moment was captured on video and quickly spread across social media, with many echoing the woman’s criticism.
Featured image via Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images
By The Canary
So another Green Party candidate has stood down to spend more time with his anti-Semitism allegations.
Yesterday, a mere nine hours after being announced as the Greens’ man in the Makerfield by-election, Chris Kennedy withdrew, citing ‘personal and family reasons’. Shortly after, The Times revealed Kennedy had shared social-media posts suggesting the firebombing of Jewish-run ambulances in Golders Green was a ‘false flag’ – staged, presumably, by those sneaky Zionists.
We used to call Jeremy Corbyn the world’s unluckiest anti-racist – mocking the remarkable consistency with which the disgraced former Labour leader, and supposed lifelong opponent of bigotry, would end up absent-mindedly praising an anti-Semitic mural, or being photographed in front of a Hezbollah flag at a protest.
Truly, the Greens have taken up Corbyn’s hapless mantle. Barely a day goes by without the world’s unluckiest anti-racist party – which draws its pungent sense of moral superiority from its supposed opposition to ‘racist’ right-wingers – being forced to appear shocked and surprised when presented with its own candidates’ ugly missives about Jews, Israel and anti-Semitism.
Kennedy reportedly shared a video on Instagram which described the arrests of two men in connection with the arson attack on the Hatzola ambulances in north London in March as ‘total bullshit to keep the false flag flying’. He also shared a similar post by a Jew-bashing ethnonationalist named Hugh Anthony, who I gather is a Poundland Nick Fuentes. The Horseshoe Theory lives.
Here we go again. This comes after record-breaking local elections for the Greens, in which they racked up more seats and more anti-Semitism scandals than ever before. Two of their candidates were arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred. Almost 20 others were found to have aired their own fetid bigotries online, including a would-be councillor who called Jews ‘cockroaches’. Who have they got vetting these people? The IRGC? The ghost of Heinrich Himmler? Candace Owens?
Kennedy ‘apologises for the offence caused’, the Greens assure us. You would have thought he had thoughtlessly said ‘coloured people’ instead of ‘people of colour’, rather than wondered out loud if an anti-Semitic attack had been staged for political reasons. Kennedy, a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist, is not some crypto-Islamist, either. His careless Insta-fingers are an alarming indication of how marinated your average ‘progressive’ now is in online Jew-baiting conspiracism.
And to think the Greens continue to fancy themselves as doughty defenders of multicultural Britain – standing athwart populism, yelling ‘stop’. In a statement following Kennedy’s resignation, but before the social-media posts were made public, the party said it was ‘redoubling our efforts on campaigning to expose the risk of Reform, a party who seeks to divide our communities’. Apparently, railing against mass and illegal migration – a sorry mess opposed by most Brits, including half of ethnic-minority Brits – makes Reform ‘divisive’. Meanwhile, the Greens’ giddy embrace of Israelophobia has turned its candidates lists into a putrid melange of Hamas apologists, Islamic sectarians, leftish useful idiots and even some unabashed anti-Semites.
The defenestration of Kennedy comes after a drip-fed cancellation campaign against Reform’s candidate, local plumber Robert Kenyon. Supposed anti-fascist groups and their media handlers have been trawling through Kenyon’s old – and recently deleted – social-media accounts, desperate to patch together a rap sheet. So far, we’ve learned that he called illegal migration an ‘invasion’, dabbled in vaccine scepticism and praised one Donald Trump. You can agree or disagree with his opinions, or the way he chose to express them, but none of this amounts to the rantings of a dangerous extremist.
You can almost smell the desperation of the offence archaeologists at this point. Yesterday, Hope Not Hate accused Kenyon of ‘calling for violence’. The truth? He said – clearly in jest – that those who broke lockdown rules during Covid should be waterboarded by the police, which HNH soberly reminds us is ‘a method of torture which is prohibited by international human-rights law’. He also said Richard Branson should be hanged for taking furlough money. I can’t claim to know Kenyon’s mind, but I’d be amazed if he meant this literally. This is just taking testy, risqué, jokey online comments as if they were dead-serious statements of principle. You hear worse in most pubs most nights.
Easily the most headline-grabbing accusation hurled at Kenyon is that he was once Facebook ‘friends’ with a full-blown fascist. Gary Raikes, leader of far-right micro-party the New British Union, appears to be an Oswald Mosley cosplayer, complete with the tragic little uniform. Those old enough to still be on Facebook will have collected some colourful characters over the years, but few as unsavoury as Raikes. Nevertheless, Reform insists Kenyon never interacted with the man and does not endorse him. Reform leader Nigel Farage has since suggested Raikes was one of ‘hundreds’ of people who flocked to Kenyon’s Facebook page when he first stood for parliament in 2024. Until the Hope Not Haters uncover a picture of Kenyon in his own fashy bib and tucker, this remains guilt by tenuous online association.
Candidacy means scrutiny. The decision to hastily delete some of Kenyon’s accounts and posts has clearly backfired. But this tale of two candidates and their social-media histories tells us something about our strange political time – in which progressives tone-police working-class people when they dare to pipe up about immigration, while those same progressives unthinkingly share anti-Semitic conspiracy theories; in which we’re told the populists are sinister and divisive, while proudly ‘anti-racist’ parties become magnets for Jew haters.
In Makerfield, the warped morality of the cancel-happy left is plain for all to see.
Tom Slater is editor of spiked. Follow him on X: @Tom_Slater_.
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