“The British government is offering cheaper chocolate and discounted entry to theme parks as it seeks to ease a cost-of-living squeeze and win back voters. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves on Thursday announced modest handouts to help alleviate rising costs sparked by the Iran war, including a reduction in import tax on cookies, chocolate and about 100 other supermarket products. U.K. inflation fell to 2.8% in April, down from 3.3% in March, but is expected to spike again on the back of higher prices for fuel, heating gas and electricity. To ease the impact, the government has postponed a planned increase in fuel duty and given truckers a yearlong reprieve from road tax to help offset soaring gasoline prices due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil transit route. But Reeves did not commit to broader support for household heating bills.” (05/21/26)
“A Turkish court on Thursday issued a ruling that effectively removed the head of the country’s main opposition party by annulling a 2023 congress that elected him. The move deals a serious blow to the beleaguered Republican People’s Party, or CHP, as it struggles under waves of legal cases targeting its members and elected officials. An appeals court in Turkey’s capital Ankara declared the CHP congress that picked Ozgur Ozel as chairman to be null, ordering that he should be replaced by his predecessor Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Last year, a lower court ruled against claims of irregularities and misconduct surrounding Ozel’s election but Thursday’s decision overturned the original verdict.” (05/21/26)
“Fraudsters behind the notorious ‘Quality Learing Center’ day care facility in Minnesota raked in nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of pandemic-era loans from the Small Business Administration, according to a senator’s investigation. That day care center, which had a misspelled name and a near-empty parking lot when YouTuber Nick Shirley stopped by for his viral video last year, became the poster child of the fraud scandal that rocked Minnesota. The facility, which shuttered in January, had garnered some $1.9 million from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program last year and some $10 million in state funding since 2019. But a probe by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) found that it had also received federal assistance from the Small Business Administration back in April and May 2020 during the first Trump administration.” (05/21/26)
“China has called on the US to stop using ‘coercion’ and ‘threats’ against its ally Cuba, after Washington indicted former leader Raúl Castro on murder charges. An American court has accused the 94-year-old former president of conspiracy to kill US nationals over the 1996 downing of two planes, an incident which killed four people and fuelled diplomatic tensions between Washington and the Caribbean island. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to exert pressure on Cuba and has openly discussed toppling its communist regime. On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the US should ‘stop threatening force at every turn,’ and that Beijing ‘firmly supports Cuba.'” (05/21/26)
“A judge on Thursday dismissed all charges against a former school administrator accused of ignoring repeated warnings that a 6-year-old had a gun hours before a teacher was shot. Acting on a defense motion, Circuit Judge Rebecca Robinson in Newport News, Virginia, issued the ruling on the fourth day of the trial of Ebony Parker, who was charged with eight felony counts of child neglect. ‘The court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,’ Robinson said. The former assistant principal was charged in the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News that left teacher Abby Zwerner wounded. Prosecutors had said the charges were for each of the bullets in the gun brought into Zwerner ’s classroom. Each count could have carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction.” (05/21/26)
“It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, set up its website and social media accounts on Saturday. By Thursday, its Instagram page had amassed more than 15 million followers, far surpassing the 8.8 million followers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party on the platform.” (05/21/26)
“Sen. John Kennedy [R-LA] railed against California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which is facing scrutiny from the Trump administration over fraud allegations, as Kennedy highlighted reports during a Tuesday hearing that the state covers exorcisms and other faith-based healing practices. Medi-Cal’s spending practices have faced growing scrutiny as California’s Medicaid spending has more than doubled since 2019, rising from roughly $100.7 billion to a projected $222 billion in 2026. Just last week, the Trump administration suspended $1.4 billion in federal funding for California home health and hospice programs after Vice President J.D. Vance’s anti-fraud task force identified an estimated $600 million in suspected fraud within the state’s Medicaid system. Kennedy alleged during his line of questioning to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that taxpayer dollars were being used to cover the cost of exorcisms, a religious practice most commonly associated with the Catholic Church, and other indigenous spiritual practices.” (05/21/26)
“The Democratic National Committee released what it said was its full, unredacted autopsy of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday after months of mounting pressure on party chair Ken Martin, who was keeping the report secret. … Martin released the report, first obtained by CNN, but simultaneously issued a statement distancing himself from it and its conclusions. ‘I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards and it won’t meet your standards,’ he wrote in a Substack post. … The report has an unusual disclaimer, saying it ‘reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented.'” (05/21/26)
“The United States on Wednesday removed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the Palestinian territories who has harshly criticised Israel, following a court order. A notice on the Treasury Department’s website showed that it had removed a sanctions designation on Albanese that had blacklisted her globally, making it impossible for her to use major credit cards or carry out bank transactions. Albanese, who is Italian, has been a relentless critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in her role as the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.” (05/20/26)
“Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including gonorrhoea and syphilis have hit record levels in Europe, according to new data. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said both diseases had reached their highest levels in over 10 years in 2024. Gonorrhoea hit 106,331 cases – a 303% increase since 2015 – while syphilis more than doubled in the same period to 45,557. The health agency said ‘widening gaps in testing and prevention’ were partly behind the surge in transmission, and called for urgent action. ‘These infections can cause severe complications, such as chronic pain and infertility and, in the case of syphilis, problems with the heart or nervous system,’ said Bruno Ciancio, the head of the agency’s Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases unit. He said congenital syphilis cases – ‘where infections pass directly to newborns, leading to potentially lifelong complications’ – had nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024.” (05/21/26)
