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“Operation Epic Fury was the loud one. Operation Economic Fury is the quiet one. . . . While the carriers were on television, Treasury was doing the actual demolition.” —Jesús Enrique Rosas on X Expect a consequential week. The Persian Gulf remains closed and colossal oil slicks leak out of Kharg Island while Iran blusters and stomps its feet. No one can even try to buy its oil anymore, not even China. The sanctions are too onerous. Iran’s wells must be shut in now. Imagine how the production chiefs out in the oil fields are howling at their insane IRGC...

And now time for some good news. The ruling Labour Party in the United Kingdom got absolutely destroyed in Thursday's local council elections. While the votes are still being tallied, they could see a net loss of over 1,500 seats. In short, it was bad for Prime Minister Keir Starmer and company. Really, really bad. Keep in mind, the first post is of declared seats (as of this writing) while the second post is a projection of where things will end up when all the votes are counted. ============================================================== GB Politics @GBPolitcs 🚨NEW: State of the Parties at 2PM: Seats...

Polls opened Thursday for millions of Britons in a series of races set to heap more pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populist parties, both of which face accusations of antisemitism and bigotry at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat. Voters across Scotland, England and Wales head to the ballot box in Starmer’s biggest electoral test since his July 2024 general election landslide victory ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Opinion polls predict grim results for Labour, which could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign...

Who were the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales?We often remember the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales individually – each has a compelling and moving story – and their common witness to the Faith was marked in different ways and at different times.Of these 40, the martyrdoms break down into two timespans. The first eight – some of them the most memorable – were those killed under Henry VIII. Who can forget the scene relayed by St Thomas More to his daughter Meg when he witnessed the Carthusian martyrs going to their place of execution: “Lo, dost thou not...

Labour could lose nearly 1,600 council seats at the local elections even on a good night, new research suggests. In a best-case scenario, Labour could still lose 1,597 council seats across England and nearly 2,000 seats in the worst-case – in a set of local election results that could seal Keir Starmer’s fate as PM. Labour currently has 2,196 councillors across the seats up for election, meaning a good result for the party would still leave the party’s number of locally elected representatives dwindling in the hundreds. Labour is also on track to come third in both the Scottish and...

The United Kingdom is on a trajectory toward slow-motion collapse. British Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s initial reaction to the outbreak of the war against Iran was schizophrenic. He seemed wholly unprepared for a scenario in which Donald Trump would actually use the forces he had spent the previous two months flooding into the region, confounding the former Royal Navy officers and opposition lawmakers who somehow understood that Trump’s ultimatums weren’t just talk. At first, Starmer was appalled, and he blocked the Pentagon from using U.K. bases to launch sorties against Iranian targets. But the impracticality of that protest sapped his...

A UK bride was covered in black paint just moments before she walked down the aisle in a shocking “revenge” attack by her spiteful new sister-in-law. Gemma Monk, a 35-year-old mom of two, was walking with her father to her big day in Maidstone, England, when she heard someone call her name — then saw them throw black paint at her, she told Kent Online. She grabbed her attacker’s hair, realizing it was her groom’s sister, Antonia Eastwood, 49, who’d been banned from the nuptials over a simmering feud stemming from the sister-in-law’s own wedding a year earlier. Remarkably, Monk...

"Oh, to be in England, now that April's there," Robert Browning wrote nearly two centuries ago in Home Thoughts from Abroad, but this April, Britons might pine for the riches of... Mississippi?Yes, Mississippi, if they take just a brief gander at the new Institute of Economic Affairs report on the comparative wealth between Britain, American states, and Britons' sad delusions about where they stand. According to the IEA, ask the typical Brit where his country ranks, income-wise, if it were a state. And the typical answer is "Seventh place."Not quite, old chap. The sad fact is that if Britain were...

The UK population could rise significantly under the immigration approach associated with the Green Party leadership of Zack Polanski, according to analysis from investment bank Panmure Liberum. The report suggests that if net migration were to reach around 900,000 a year, the UK population could increase from 71.5 million in 2029 to 75.9 million by 2034. It contrasts this scenario with alternative policy trajectories, estimating lower population growth under proposals associated with other parties, including much tighter migration levels under Reform UK and more moderate inflows under Conservative policy assumptions. Under the Reform UK approach, net migration is projected at...

Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed the UK must rejoin the EU if the US leaves NATO, as US President Donald Trump has threatened to pull away if the pact does not support his Middle East war. Trump, a fierce critic of the defence bloc, has been left unimpressed by fellow members and their refusal to get involved in his war with Iran. The Ukrainian leader said that in order to bolster Europe's defence against Russia, the UK ought to reset relations with the continent. Zelensky said on Friday: 'If the United States truly thinks about withdrawing from NATO, then European security...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that whatever the pressure, Britain ​would not be dragged into the Iran war nor be involved in ‌a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. "We're not supporting the blockade," he told BBC Radio 5 Live, adding that it was vital to get the Strait reopened. "It is, in my view, vital that ​we get the Strait open and fully open, and that's where we've put ​all of our efforts in the last few weeks and we'll ⁠continue to do so," Starmer said. Britain had minesweepers in the region, he said, and ​while...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended NATO on Wednesday after President Trump suggested that the U.S. would reconsider its membership to the longstanding alliance once the conflict with Iran concludes. “NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen,” Starmer told reporters during a press conference at Downing Street. “It has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO.” Starmer refused to bow to “pressure” from Trump, reaffirming the U.K.’s stance against wider involvement in the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation. “Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m...

Identical twins who had sex with the same woman within four days of each other can’t know for sure who fathered her child, a UK court ruled recently. Only one of the brothers can be listed on the birth certificate for the child, but right now it is “not possible” to confirm who the biological parent is, the Court of Appeals in London said, according to reports. The baby’s mother and one of the twins sought court intervention to grant him parental responsibility after the other brother was registered as the tot’s father on the paperwork based on a past...

At least 20 casualties after a car drives into pedestrians outside a nightclub in Derby, England, police say

The Royal Navy was facing growing criticism over its effectiveness as Defence Secretary John Healey struggled to say how many warships it has. The Cabinet minister came under fire after been grilled on how many frigates there are in the navy as he took to the airwaves to say British forces may now intercept Russian “shadow fleet” vessels in the Channel. “We have...we have...we have...we have...we have...we have 17 frigates and destroyers,” he told LBC Radio. “It’s down from 23 at the end of the last Labour government.”

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could win a staggering 2,260 seats at next month’s local elections in England. Polling experts are predicting the biggest victory in decades. And they have warned that Labour could lose almost 2,000 councillors as the nation turns on Sir Keir Starmer. The Tories are also expected to suffer a brutal night on May 7, which could see them losing more than 1,000 seats. Zack Polanski’s Green Party is likely to be the biggest beneficiary, boosting its numbers on councils across the country by around 450. According to leading psephologist Steve Fisher, Reform UK’s expected victories will...

The British people want discussions with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, and those living in the “usurped” territory would accept a handover, a top politician has claimed. Daniel Filmus was the secretary for the affairs concerning the Malvinas - his country’s name for the archipelago - between 2014 and 2015, and later from 2019 until 2021. Speaking to The Express in Buenos Aires via an interpreter he insisted: “The British people want a dialogue about the Malvinas.” When asked why he thinks this, the former senator claimed that surveys have suggested that 95% of the Argentine people uphold sovereignty claims,...

As Western forces launched strikes against Iran, most expected tensions to rise in the Middle East. Few expected a different kind of shockwave--one rippling through the streets, communities, and polling data of Britain itself. Yet that is exactly what has emerged: not just disagreement, but a deep and widening divide over who the enemy is--and who deserves support.New polling conducted between March 2nd and 13th--during the opening phase of the American-Israeli military operation against Iran--reveals something far more serious than policy disagreement. It suggests that a significant portion of Britain's Muslim population did not simply question the West's actions. They...

Britain has failed white working-class boys, who remain the worst-performing group in England’s schools, Lord Sewell will tell Sir Keir Starmer this week. The Tory peer, the author of a report on race and ethnic disparities, will say the group is still stuck at the bottom of the class after successive governments ignored his warnings. In 2021, after the Black Lives Matter movement, Lord Sewell was asked by Boris Johnson to chair an inquiry by 10 commissioners, all but one of whom were from ethnic minorities. Their 250-page report said the biggest drivers of disparities were not race but class,...

A communal iftar in the heart of London has ignited a fierce political row in the United Kingdom. On March 16 afternoon, around 3,000 Muslims gathered at Trafalgar Square for the annual “Open Iftar”, an event held since 2019 to mark the breaking of the Ramadan fast. Hundreds of attendees, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, joined the call to prayer, kneeling at Trafalgar Square. Khan hailed the gathering as a reflection of London’s inclusive ethos, saying the city “celebrates and champions our diversity”. What began as a symbolic display of unity quickly spiralled into controversy. Conservative MP and UK’s shadow...