Gareth Ceidiog Hughes

CN The FBl's arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment. The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was "no evidence" that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work. The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DO's attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable. We will be following this case closely.

Statement from CNN on the Don Lemon arrest:

I've been pretty hard on the Tories in the past but I can't deny they're doing a massive service to the country making Reform unelectable by filling it with Tories.

From @theguardian.com

This is one hell of a quote. European leaders really are running out of patience.

The Reform pitch is increasingly “the last government was terrible, so we’ve hired everyone who was in it”.

If replicated at a Senedd election, 37% would be Plaid’s best ever result - eclipsing the 31% on the regional list scored by Wigley in 1999

10% would be Labour’s worst result in a national poll in Wales since 1906 & raises the prospect of them coming fourth for the first time #senedd #devolution

I concur

75% of Reform UK’s donations have come from just three rich men Calls grow for donation caps as Democracy for Sale research reveals that three-quarters of Reform’s funding comes from a trio of wealthy donors

🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history

75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men

Is this what democracy looks like?

New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...

This feels pretty seismic

He did seem to be amply qualified for such a task

Fact

There’s a brilliant photo of Corbyn posting with activists holding signs calling on him to do this – having assumed they were asking him to do that, rather than that the signs were *aimed* at him.

It was early in his leadership, but was an interesting sign of his mindset and how it hadn’t changed.

Having a great first day as the OBR's website manager. Got all of the content queued up as a scheduled post, ready for a big day, but all of the work is done now.

Now before I put my feet up, time to take a big gulp of water and check the latest news.

As bad as your day might be, it could be worse, you could be the person who accidentally published the OBR's budget document a couple of hours early: obr.uk/docs/dlm_upl...

Given the grave threat to democracy in America I’m surprised that the figure isn’t much higher

Pay attention -- what he means is allowing Democrats to win a free and fair election.

Amazing story in The Times. Reform UK failed to pay VAT to HMRC on its sales (tickets, merchandise). About £400k in all.

Not tax avoidance. Not tax evasion. They just didn't realise when you sell stuff you have to charge VAT.

Nicely done

Mae Cymru yn brydferth 😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I certainly wouldn’t travel to the US right now

Dastardly

An accurate portrayal of my life…

Homemade rye bread 🍞

It appears that a certain little lady has been engaging in a bit of bunny vandalism 😅🐰

To put a finer point on it. Trump’s contention isn’t just that he can deport people without them appearing before a judge, but that he can render them into a life sentence in a foreign dungeon with no process whatsoever.

total clarity here from @edwardluce.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/4c4b...

Quite the USP…

I spoke to an expert in authoritarianism, who explained to me that things like this are extremely meaningful and they help protect democracy, even if there’s not a straight line between this and actual legislating

An easy error to make. Could happen to anyone…