“DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE!” President Trump is calling on gasoline retailers to immediately lower prices, warning there will be “no gouging” as oil trades around $68 a barrel. He also urged prices to move toward $2.50 a gallon and blasted California’s gas taxes.
Andy Burnham, probably the next UK PM, laid out his agenda today. He avoided mentioning the key issue: defense spending. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pointed out what he thought Burnham should’ve said: The UK is “wasting billions on weapons.” THREE CHEERS FOR CORBYN.
Jeffrey Donaldson was an “unmitigated liar” and was living a double life while working in Westminster – according to former DUP MLA Jim Wells. In the days following Jeffrey Donaldson’s guilty verdict for child sex offences, more information has arisen about the disgraced MPs personal life – including affairs, the use of gay saunas, and drinking to excess. Former MLA and DUP member Jim Wells joined Olivia Peden. Listen to the full podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0APbk8W… Apple music: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast…#northernireland#DUP#uknews#jeffreydonaldson#newspodcast
Within less than a year, Northern Ireland has witnessed several historic events: for the first time, Catholics now outnumber Protestants, and the nationalists of Sinn Féin, the former political wing of the IRA paramilitaries, have won the elections. At a time when peace in Ireland has been undermined by Brexit, is a reunited Ireland inevitable? This documentary looks at the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, where the ghosts of the past still haunt the everyday lives of the population and thwart the part of the country’s economic and political plans. Extremist groups are disrupting the negotiations between London and Brussels, challenging the peace policy and the future of Europe. If Brexit has already poisoned the atmosphere to such an extent, what will happen if the island of Ireland votes on reunification? The 1998 Good Friday Agreement opens the door to such a referendum. This documentary first aired in 2024 #FreeDocumentary#ENDEVR#ireland
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You may feel nauseated before giving a presentation or feel intestinal pain during times of stress.
You’re not imagining it. The gut and the brain influence each other.
For example, stress (or depression or other psychological factors) can affect movement and contractions of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as sensations perceived to come from the gut.
Get your copy of Help for Your Sensitive Gut
When your digestive system is running smoothly, you tend not to think about it. Once trouble begins, your gut — like a squeaky wheel — suddenly demands your attention. This Special Health Report, Help for Your Sensitive Gut, covers the major sources of gastrointestinal distress: irritable bowel syndrome, gastric reflux, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, and excess gas.
It also includes a special Bonus Section describing how emotional stress and anxiety can cause gastrointestinal distress.SHOW ME MORE →
There is also emerging evidence that psychosocial factors may alter the types of bacteria that live in your gut, which can contribute to chronic inflammation. In addition, research suggests that some people with functional GI disorders perceive pain more intensely than other people do because their brains do not properly regulate pain signals from the digestive tract.
In other words, stress can make the existing pain from functional GI disorders seem even worse. These observations suggest that at least some people with functional GI conditions might find relief with therapy to reduce stress or treat anxiety or depression. And sure enough, one review of 32 studies showed that people treated with psychologically based approaches had greater improvement in their symptoms compared with people who received conventional medical treatment.
Integrative therapy for functional GI disorders shifts the focus away from pinpointing a specific cause for symptoms to engaging patients in activities and therapies that can help in managing symptoms and increasing quality of life. This may include the use of medications, dietary changes, and stress-reduction techniques.When assessing whether your gastrointestinal symptoms – such as heartburn, abdominal cramps, or loose stools – are related to stress, watch for these other common symptoms of stress and report them to your clinician as well.
Physical symptoms stiff or tense muscles, especially in the neck and shoulders headaches sleep problems shakiness or tremorsrecent loss of interest in sexweight loss or gain restlessness.
Behavioral symptoms procrastination difficulty completing work assignments changes in the amount of alcohol or food you consume taking up smoking, or smoking more than usual grinding teeth rumination (frequent talking or brooding about stressful situations).
Emotional symptoms crying overwhelming sense of tension or pressure trouble relaxing increased desire to be with or withdraw from others nervousness quick temper depression poor concentration trouble remembering things loss of sense of humor indecisiveness.For more on the connection between brain health and gut health, read The Sensitive Gut, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.
Albania’s ‘Flamingo Revolution’: What’s behind the protests?
Rashela Shehu in Tirana, Albania06/27/2026June 27, 2026
For weeks now, images of crowds of Albanians protesting on the streets have been relayed around the world. The protesters say they are fighting for democracy. PM Edi Rama insists the movement is part of a hybrid war.
The flamingo has become the dominant image of daily protests taking place in AlbaniaImage: Florion Goga/REUTERS
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Every evening at 7 p.m., protesters return to the same square in the Albanian capital, Tirana, with the same symbols, making the same demands.
More than three weeks of uninterrupted daily demonstrations have turned the “Flamingo Revolution” into Albania’s largest civic protest movement since the fall of communism.
It began when a government-approved luxury tourism project in Zvernec, a protected coastal area in southern Albania, triggered protests that soon evolved into a broader political movement.
Initially driven by environmental concerns, the demonstrations have expanded into broader demands, including calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has said protests are driven by external influences and digital manipulationImage: Stevo Vasiljevic/REUTERS
Rama has rejected the idea that the unrest can be explained by domestic political grievances alone. Instead, he has argued that protests are unfolding within what he describes as a “hybrid war” driven by external influences and digital manipulation.
Kushner’s luxury resort
For Rama, the controversy gained international visibility only after it became associated with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, who is planning to build a luxury tourism project in Zvernec.
“The world did not wake up because of the fate of Narta, but because of the name of Jared Kushner,” Rama said at a meeting of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group on June 20.
The prime minister has argued that what he referred to as the “digital cyclone” has allowed the protests to be amplified by a broad constellation of external actors, including Trump opponents, anti-Israel groups and what he calls state-sponsored “digital mercenaries.”
“State-sponsored actors have been identified, including those from Iran,” he said.
Echoes of Albania’s communist past
Jonila Godole, scholar of political communication and collective memoryat the University of Tirana, said Rama’s interpretation of the protests reflects a familiar communications strategy: shifting the focus from the protesters’ demands to the alleged forces behind them.
“When a civic protest is presented as Iranian, anti-Israeli or driven by Trump’s opponents, attention shifts away from what protesters are demanding. The debate moves instead to the alleged authors of the protest — the external enemy,” she told DW.
The protests, which have been going on for almost a month, have been dubbed ‘The Flamingo Revolution’ because the area where Kushner plans to build his resort is home to the pink birds and many other speciesImage: Vlasov Sulaj/NurPhoto/picture alliance
Godole also sees echoes of Albania’s communist past in Rama’s rhetoric. During Albania’s communist period, political dissent was routinely portrayed as the work of hostile foreign forces.
She argued that the language of external enemies continues to resurface whenever those in power face sustained domestic pressure.
“Fear was the political capital of the communist regime,” she said. “It kept society under control and concentrated power around the leader. Today, that language no longer works in the same way. Young people no longer recognize that political code. They reject it.”
Can algorithms explain a protest?
Academic and communications theorist Artan Fuga said attributing the protests to algorithms risks confusing the medium with the cause.
Digital platforms may accelerate the circulation of information, he said, but they cannot explain why citizens choose to take to the streets.
Academic and communications theorist Artan Fuga said while digital platforms may accelerate the circulation of information, they cannot explain why citizens choose to take to the streetsImage: Vlasov Sulaj/NurPhoto/picture alliance
“The algorithm is part of the communication environment. It can accelerate the circulation of messages, amplify emotions and increase visibility. But it is not the cause of social dissatisfaction,” he told DW.
“Technology may influence the way a protest spreads, but it does not create the reasons for the protest. Confusing algorithms with social discontent means mistaking the channel for the source.”
For many observers, the turning point happened not online but on the beach at Zvernec on May 30.
In front of mobile phone cameras and in the presence of police officers, a protester was dragged across the sand by private security guards. The footage spread rapidly on social media, transforming what had begun as an environmental protest into a broader national debate about power, accountability and the rule of law.
Fuga said the images resonated because they captured tensions that had been building in Albanian society for years.
“It was a shocking moment for the Albanian public,” he said. “That scene exposed the relationship between citizens and the state, between the individual and their rights, and the clash between private interests and the public good.”
More than just an environmental protest
Political scientist Blendi Kajsiu said the protests reveal a much deeper crisis than a dispute over environmental protection.
After security guards dragged a protester across the sand on the beach at Zvernec on May 30, the environmental protest evolved into a broader political movementImage: Armando Babani/Matrix Images/picture alliance
In his view, what unites the demonstrators is not a shared ideology but a shared rejection of Albania’s political model.
“We are witnessing a profound crisis of Albania’s democratic model. What unites these protesters is no longer ideology, but the belief that the country’s political system no longer represents them,” he told DW.
Kajsiu said the protesters are attempting to reclaim public space from what they see as its gradual capture by narrow political and private interests.
“The fence erected in Zvernec became a physical manifestation of what many citizens feel has happened to the prime minister’s office, parliament and political parties: They have been enclosed by their ‘owners,'” he added.
Beyond Albania
The debate has already spread abroad and reached the European Union’s halls of power.
In its latest progress resolution on Albania, the European Parliament expressed “serious concern” over developments in the Vjosa-Narta protected area, and called for an immediate moratorium on new permits and construction in protected areas.
Flamingos are common in the Vjosa-Narta Protected AreaImage: Florion Goga/REUTERS
The resolution argues that environmental protection and the rule of law remain part of Albania’s EU accession commitments.
Jonila Godole believes the parliament’s resolution demonstrates that European institutions have acknowledged the environmental and rule-of-law dimensions of the dispute.
However, she said portraying the protests using the language of hybrid threats and foreign interference risks shifting international attention away from the protesters’ democratic demands and toward questions of security and stability.
“For years, Europe has called for a stronger civil society to strengthen democracy,” she said. “Today, Albania has a strong civil society that has mobilized on an unprecedented scale, yet there has been little international reaction in support of that mobilization. The question is whether civil society is welcomed only when it is weak, and not when it becomes a real political actor.”
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan
Rashela Shehu Albania-based reporter specializing in current affairs
Palantir, the US spytech firm accused of abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, enjoys lavish tax breaks on UK profits that are already derived from taxpayers’ money, an analysis by openDemocracy has found.
The company has been awarded at least £670m in UK public contracts in recent years. That includes a £330m deal to manage sensitive NHS data, signed despite the fact Palantir’s co-founder Peter Thiel has expressed disdain for publicly funded healthcare.
Those contracts have helped make the UK Palantir’s second-largest market by revenue, with 2024 pre-tax profits of £25.3m.
But its effective UK tax rate that year was only £2m, or 8%, far lower than the norm of 25% paid by firms with profits above £250,000.
In 2023 it was even less, at 4.7%, and in 2022 it was 4.2%.
For 2025, Companies House filings suggest Palantir paid less than £820,000 in cash tax in the UK, less than it paid in Korea, Japan, France and Germany.
The low rate was due a structured arrangement that limits the amount of profits recognised in the UK, as well as a rule that awards large tax breaks to firms that compensate their employees with stock instead of cash, openDemocracy reported.
The report said the nature of filings made it difficult to assess the total amount of tax breaks Palantir has received, but by 2022 alone it had accumulated £230m in tax relief from what it called “employee share acquisition relief”.
“When profitable companies are paying very little tax, especially when much of their revenues derive from taxpayers’ money itself, then it’s important to ask why,” Mike Lewis, director of TaxWatch, told openDemocracy.
“Is it because tax incentives and tax breaks are poorly targeted? Or is it because companies are shifting profits in ways that our tax system is supposed to counteract?”
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![Environmental activists, families, members of the Albanian diaspora, tourists and young people participate in a demonstration in Tirana, Albania, on June 14, 2026. The child in the middle is wearing a T-shirt in the design of the Albanian flag and holds up a placard that reads 'Mornings are for [gaming] and afternoons are for Flamingo Revolution'](https://static.dw.com/image/77703483_900.jpg)
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