a New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters on Friday found that Trump’s approval rating is 42%, and just 29% among independent voters. More than half of voters said Trump is “exceeding the powers available to him”, and 59% of respondents said the president’s second term has been “scary”

Bill Maher doesn't seem to be a fan of Larry David's satire of Maher's dinner with Trump.

I thought Larry's satire was very good. What do you think?

This is a long article (excerpts from a book apparently) but it's interesting.

Basically the author, a man with Jewish heritage, makes a fake persona and joins far-right groups. He's assisted by the group Hope Not Hate.

What do you think of the far-right? One of the interesting points that is made in the article a few times is that some far-right adherents, met by the author, seem to want friendship more than anything else. At least that's the author's view.

This opinion article argues that Labour should support green policies for moral reasons, but the author also argues that Farage's anti-green message is not what the public want. Apparently "68% of Farage’s constituents in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, declared themselves 'somewhat' or 'very' worried" about climate change.

The article links to this Bluesky thread from a pollster which is interesting:

Edit: you can right click the above image and open it in a new tab to see it full size.

I found this interesting. It's mainly about how Brexit has introduced extra red tape when dealing with Europe. The article says how the EU is the UK's largest trading partner, with the value of trade being over double that of the next largest trading partner: the USA.

Here are some quotes:

The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.

The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.

Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.

I found this article interesting. Here are some quotes:

Brexit’s backers sold the project as a magic bullet that would solve the problems caused by a globalizing economy — not unlike Mr. Trump’s claims that tariffs would be a boon to the public purse and a remedy for the inequities of global trade. In neither case, experts said, does such a panacea exist.

“The truth is, Brexit did not correct any of the problems caused by deindustrialization,” said Tony Travers, a professor of politics at the London School of Economics. “If anything, Brexit made them worse.”

Mr. Trump’s MAGA coalition has some of the same ideological fault lines as the Brexiteers, pitting economic nationalists like Stephen K. Bannon against globalists like Elon Musk. That has led analysts to wonder if post-Trump politics in the United States will look a lot like post-Brexit politics in Britain.

“Brexit caused profound damage to the Conservative Party,” Professor Travers said. “It has been rendered unelectable b

Interesting.

This opinion piece argues that Europe should "shut down recommender algorithms" of the big US social media platforms - Facebook, X, Instagram, etc. - because the author believes that these algorithms are undermining European democracy.

The most obvious example of such an algorithm is on X, where Musk can manipulate the algorithm to boost European far-right parties, like AfD. But the author argues that other social media CEOs, like Zuck, are beholden to Trump's anti-liberal agenda - for example, Trump "openly threatened to throw Mark Zuckerberg in jail for the rest of his life". Therefore: "It is reasonable to assume that tech oligarchs will do what [Trump] tells them", which may include the Trump administration pressuring US social media companies to recommend more right-wing content.

So the author says: "The EU must immediately switch off the tech companies’ algorithms on its soil, at least until they are proven safe for democracy". Do you agree with that?

This article says that the UK might be willing to sign up for a youth mobility scheme with the EU (for 18-30 year-olds) because it could boost economic growth: "by some estimates, it could do more for growth than planning reform and housebuilding combined".

However, the article also says that the UK government thinks it would be a mistake to get too close to the EU, because this could serve the narrative of right-wing populists:

Downing Street believes that part of the appeal of both Trump and our homegrown [British] strain of rightwing populism lies in how institutions like the EU became too detached from the people they were meant to serve. In short, [the UK government is] determined not to be seen defending the status quo.

Thoughts?

I thought this was interesting, seeing the views of a young adult who supports Reform. The article is about him having a date with a Green-voting young woman.

What are your thoughts about the growth of Reform, especially among young adults?

Having said that though, it looks like Reform's voting base still skews older. If you look at YouGov's most recent data here (as of the time of me writing this) you can see the following:

• 15% of 18-24 year-olds support Reform
• 20% of 25-49 year-olds support Reform
• 26% of 50-64 year-olds support Reform
• 29% of 65+ year-olds support Reform

In a statement from China’s Ministry of Finance, which we’ve translated using Google, the country says that any further tariffs from the US side would “no longer make economic sense,” and that the US “will become a joke in the history of the world economy.”

China says that at the new tariff rate of 125 percent there is no longer any “market acceptance for US goods exported to China,” so there’s no sense in raising tariffs further. “If the US continues to play the tariff numbers game, China will ignore it,” the statement says.

China isn’t ruling out other forms of retaliation, however, ending the statement with a warning: “If the US insists on continuing to substantially infringe on China’s interests, China will resolutely counterattack and fight to the end.” Yesterday the country announced it was reducing the number of Hollywood films it would permit to release, and over the last week it has also restricted import and export rights for a number of US companies.

Archived version can be seen here: https://archive.is/xtbKI

I thought this was a funny article. It's arguing that Britain's leading politicians pay too much attention to the opinions of voters who are now dead. Here's a quote:

Death had whittled away the Leave majority by 2019, according to one analysis. Among the ranks of the living, Brexit is seen as a clownish endeavour, even among those who supported it. Demography combined with the pointless, damaging reality of leaving the EU to kill Brexit Britain. Yet it lives on in the minds of the country’s politicians, where it is forever 2016.

It looks like Doug Bowser has already been posted on this community here.

But I just wanted to remind everybody that the president of Nintendo of America is called Doug Bowser.

Some people don't like Blink-182 but I like them. I thought this interview was interesting.

This article is about how the US is turning its back on free trade, which has actually made the US very rich.

Trump wants to get trade deficits with other countries to zero, but the author of this article says "there is no inherent reason why these numbers [trade surpluses and deficits] should be zero".

As the author explains, "different countries are better at making different products, and have different natural and human resources". One country might grow lots of food, and another might have large iron ore deposits. These differences can create trade surpluses and deficits between countries, which aren't necessarily a bad thing.

But as the author says: "according to the White House, the act of selling more goods to the US than the US sells to you, is by definition 'cheating' and is deserving of a tariff that is calculated to correct that imbalance".

I found this interesting. It looks back at Sir Keir's five years as the leader of Labour.

Here's an interesting quote:

He turned left to win the party leadership and turned right to win a general election.

And regarding his campaign for the Labour leadership in 2020:

To win the backing of left-wing Labour activists, he backed a wealth tax on the top 5% of earners, abolishing university tuition fees, nationalising water and energy and restoring freedom of movement between the UK and EU countries. Whatever happened to those promises?

I found this mini-article interesting. It talks about the development of GTA from its early days in Scotland, in the UK.

Many people probably assume that GTA is an American game series, and sure it is ultimately owned by American companies (Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive).

But GTA was originally made in Scotland, and Rockstar North, which I think is still the lead development studio for GTA, is still based in Scotland.

GTA must be one of Scotland's most important exports of modern times. The website of Rockstar North clearly shows their Scottish heritage with a Scottish flag on the left-hand side:

![A screenshot of the home page of Rockstar North's website. The website shows a Scottish flag on the left-hand side (fading into view) and the text of the website says that Rockstar North are "based in Edinburgh, Scotland".](https://lazysoci.al/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeddit.uk%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2Fff182ddb-d182-413d-8412-9d29c79ed901

One doctor thinks that Booker's 25 hours without urinating means he needs to see a urologist:

“I think [Booker] needs to see a urologist,” says Dr Rena Malik, urologist and pelvic surgeon. “He probably has some real bladder dysfunction. That’s not normal. A normal person can’t do that.”

The 55-year-old Booker said that he stopped drinking in the lead up to the speech, so he wouldn't need to use the toilet. Another urologist said this sort of dehydration isn't a good idea:

“Dehydration can have serious consequences, particularly for older adults,” says Dr Bashir Al Hussein Al Awamlh, a urologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian.

Was Booker's speech worth the medical risks? I think it's pretty impressive that he managed to do it.

The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.

since 2010 the number of teachers in our schools has increased by 28,000 – but just 533 of those are men

Do you think this is an issue? Decades ago, boys would have been taught by male teachers, so today's female teachers are a change from the past.