Negotiators from the Trump administration gave Ukraine an ultimatum last week: Accept this deal, or the next one will be worse.

Editorial: With the US pushing Zelensky to accept a flawed peace deal, Britain and Europe must help Ukraine stand strong – and Starmer is doing just that

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For once, the City Council is on the verge of doing something sane: Relaxing the insane ban on Airbnb in one- and two-family owner-occupied homes.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s fanciful promises of free stuff met with a cold dose of reality last week.

New York City's upside-down justice system is sending a 67-year-old man to prison for four years for owning unlicensed guns — while rapists, stabbers and serial gropers go free.

Zohran Mamdani “pledged to address ‘repression’ on campus,” citing professors fired “for the crime of expressing solidarity with the fight for Palestinian human rights,” observes Stu Smith at City Journal.

Editorial: Britain deserves more than mixed messaging and policy drift. After weeks of premature proposals, the chancellor must deliver a Budget that provides the confidence and coherence so far lacking in both her stewardship and Labour’s broader economic direction

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New technologies can reduce our reliance on animal experiments. This isn’t just morally right, it could have scientific and economic benefits too

Science is a slaughterhouse. We rarely acknowledge the degree to which animal life underwrites the research that provides us with medicines, or the regulation that keeps us safe. Live animals were used in 2.64m officially sanctioned scientific procedures in the UK in 2024, many of them distressing or painful and many of them fatal. But the government’s new strategy to phase out animal testing – published earlier this month – suggests that in the near future emerging technologies can largely replace the use of animals in our scientific endeavours.

The UK previously banned cosmetics testing on animals, and has already taken steps to regulate and reduce their use in research. But some needlessly cruel experiments still take place: the forced swim test (FST) for example, in which a rodent is placed in a body of water it cannot escape and researchers measure whether antidepressants extend the time it struggles for life. The government says no new FST licences will be granted, in effect banning it. Similar targets are set over the next few years to end the testing of caustic chemicals on eyes and skin.

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© Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

© Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

© Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

With Hamas reportedly threatening to pull out of the Gaza cease-fire, it's anyone's guess what's next in store for the strip.

Editorial: With the US pushing Zelensky to accept a flawed peace deal, Britain and Europe must help Ukraine stand strong – and Starmer is doing just that

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Progressives want to “decommodify” residential real estate by turning it into “social housing” run by politically connected nonprofits.

President Donald Trump and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani staged a total love-fest Friday afternoon, and good for them — and especially good for New York.

Democrats “blame President Trump” for America’s affordability problem “while ignoring their own responsibility for causing it in the first place,” fumes James Piereson at The New Criterion.

Of all the spas in all the towns in the world, Alexandra Goebert insisted on going to the King Spa in Palisades Park, NJ, to force regular women to view the transwoman's male genitals.

The wider TV and film industries have a long way to go in including disabled actors and creators, and leaving stereotypes behind

While the entertainment industry has been at pains to address issues of diversity in race, gender and sexuality, disability remains shockingly underrepresented. It’s not just that disabled actors are discounted for many roles. As actors and activists have pointed out, “blacking up” might have become taboo, but “cripping up” is still a shoo-in for awards. In almost 100 years, only three disabled actors have won an Oscar, compared to 25 able-bodied actors who have won for playing disabled characters.

The arrival this weekend of Wicked: For Good, the second part of a prequel story to The Wizard of Oz, has put the importance of authentic casting in the spotlight once more. The story of green-skinned witch Elphaba, and the prejudice she faces, Wicked is a celebration of difference. Yet since the hit musical opened in 2003, only able-bodied actors had played the part of Nessarose, Elphaba’s disabled sister. Last year, Marissa Bode became the first wheelchair-using actor to take the role, in part one of the film adaptation. The child Nessa is also played by a wheelchair user. The movies give the character greater agency and complexity, amending a scene that suggested she needs to be “fixed”.

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© Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

From the day he took the oath of office, the president has pursued policies that are making life in America less affordable.

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The Post reported Wednesday that Washington and Moscow have been covertly working on a 28-point plan to bring an end to the war.

Drenched by floods and abandoned amid the ruins, people in Gaza can draw no comfort from US plans

The declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza in October brought initial relief to its inhabitants. Yet officials there said Israeli strikes killed 33 people, including 12 children, on Wednesday; Israel said its troops had come under fire. Another five Palestinians were killed on Thursday. Hundreds have died since the ceasefire was declared. Even if the shelling stops, the destruction of Palestinian life will carry on as Israel continues to throttle aid, and the consequences of two years of war unfold. The World Health Organization warned last month that the health catastrophe would last for generations.

Food remains in short supply. While displaced families shiver in flooded makeshift shelters, with many facing a third winter of homelessness, aid organisations say they cannot deliver stockpiles of tents and tarpaulins. Israel, which denies blocking aid, has designated tent poles as “dual-use” items that could potentially be used for a military purpose. Save the Children reports children sleeping on bare ground in sewage-soaked clothing.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Voters need to know if a party leader said racist things at school. Interviewers have a duty to keep pressing for fuller facts

For one contemporary, it is the hectoring tone of today that evokes what it was like to be at school with Nigel Farage. “He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘Gas them’,” Peter Ettedgui recalls when asked about life at fee-paying Dulwich College in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, he adds: “I’d hear him calling other students ‘Paki’ or ‘Wog’ and urging them to ‘go home’.”

For others, including some in the college’s combined cadet force (CCF), what lingers is the image of the young Mr Farage in uniform and his renderings of a racist anthem titled “Gas ’em all”. Tim France, a CCF member from those years, remembered Mr Farage “regularly” giving the Nazi salute and strutting around the classroom. “It was habitual, you know, it happened all the time,” he recalls.

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© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani showed wisdom in asking Jessica Tisch to remain police commissioner, and her decision to stay offers much hope for the city.

Disgusting: Democratic members of Congress are now actively encouraging troops to disobey their commanders.

Working with imperfect partners does not mean that the United States should cover up and lie about their misdeeds.

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