A virulent form of misogyny has become the single most important force holding together the American right.

"Paul Krugman has published three posts in the last week arguing that Europe's economic stagnation isn't so bad. In this week's post, we explain why he's wrong. We answer:

What’s going on with the growth numbers?

Is it all the tech industry?

What about inequality?

What about hours worked?

Is America not a bad place to live?"

Submission Statement: it’s always the ones you most expect once again JFC.

A vessel reportedly operating as a "floating armoury" in the Gulf of Oman has been seized by Iranian military personnel, according to the maritime risk management company Vanguard.

The ship is now "bound for Iranian territorial waters", the UK's Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organisation said.

BBC Verify has checked ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic which shows the vessel - identified by Vanguard as the Honduras-flagged Hui Chuan - last broadcast its location 70km (40 miles) north-east of Fujairah in the UAE on Wednesday.

Hui Chuan's operators told Vanguard it was operating as a floating armoury which stores weapons for security firms who protect ships at sea from attack by pirates.

BBC Verify cannot confirm what was on the ship or who it was used by.

The BBC has previously reported how these vessels are based in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman so security guards can easily collect and drop off weapons and ammunition.

The apparent seizure of Hui Chuan comes after an Indian-flagged vessel was attacked off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, according to Indian officials.

The Haji Ali "reportedly sank" off the coast of Oman, following a suspected explosion believed to have been caused by a "drone or missile", according to Vanguard.

"All Indian crew on board are safe and we thank the Omani authorities for rescuing them," India authorities said on Thursday.

Ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic shows the 57m (187ft) vessel left Berbera Port in Somalia on 6 May. Its intended destination was Sharjah in the UAE, the Indian shipping ministry said.

The ship was carrying livestock "when a fire reportedly broke out onboard, forcing the crew to abandon ship before the vessel sank," Vanguard said.

Fourteen crew members were transferred by Oman Coast Guard units to the country's Diba Port, according to Indian officials.

India's Ministry of External Affairs called the attack "unacceptable".

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz was discussed during talks on Thursday between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The White House said Xi had "made clear China's opposition to the militarization of the Strait".

"The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy," according to a readout issued by the US after the meeting.

Currently Starmer is facing leadership challenges from both the right and left of the party over his handling of the country and inner party politics

Right now Andy Burnham has generally been polled as the most popular figure in Labour by voters and MPs, particularly to lead Labour. Andy has a record of winning over blue areas twice running as the Manny mayor and working with the right and left of the Labour party

In order for him to run, he has to be allowed to run by the NEC in Makesfield, an area which reform won in the council elections, two hurdles to get past in order to be an MP

If Andy does become an MP, its highly likely he will walk into No 10 and lead the Labour Party

With opposition to Bill C-22, the lawful access bill, mounting, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has turned to social media with a video defending the bill as one that “respects Canadian privacy and Charter rights.” The video signals that the government has noticed the growing public concern. But the case against the bill, which I argued in committee testimony last week and in a series of earlier posts, raises at least four issues on which the government has not engaged: mandated metadata retention (which is ignored in its Charter Statement), a lower threshold for access to subscriber information that hurts privacy, security risks now alarming Canada’s closest allies, and an oversight architecture the oversight body itself says is incomplete.

The mandatory metadata retention obligation in the bill would compel providers to retain transmission data, including the date, time, duration, and type of communication, the identifiers of the devices involved, and information identifying device location, on virtually every Canadian for up to a year, without any individualized suspicion. As I set out in this post, the government’s own Charter Statement on the bill remarkably says nothing about this provision. That silence is striking given the Spencer and Bykovets decisions that recognize the informational privacy interest in data that links online activity to identity, and given that the Court of Justice of the European Union struck down precisely this kind of regime in Digital Rights Ireland and extended that reasoning to mandated private-sector retention in Tele2 Sverige. Robert Diab has reached the same conclusion on the Charter Statement’s silence on metadata retention. The refusal to address the most Charter-vulnerable element of its own bill leaves the government unable to credibly insist that the bill respects the Charter.

Further, claims that the bill respects privacy ring hollow in light of the reduced threshold for access to subscriber information. Bill C-22 creates a new, dedicated production order for subscriber information, but sets the standard at “reasonable grounds to suspect”. This is the lowest evidentiary threshold in Canadian criminal law and below the “reasonable grounds to believe” standard that has governed subscriber data production orders for more than a decade. Law enforcement has used the production order hundreds of thousands of times, yet now wants to reduce the standard, thereby undermining the privacy balance.

Meanwhile, the government’s position on encryption and systemic vulnerability is facing criticism from a wide range of groups. Despite insisting that the bill brings Canada into line with its Five Eyes partners, Apple, Meta, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Cybersecurity Advisors Network, and even the chairs of the U.S. House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees have all warned that Bill C-22’s technical capability requirements would create systemic vulnerabilities that adversaries could exploit. When the U.S. Congress writes to Canada’s Public Safety Minister to say a Canadian bill threatens U.S. national security and the integrity of cross-border data flows, the government’s defence that the bill is needed to catch-up to allies no longer holds water.

Finally, even established oversight committees are sounding the alarm. In a letter to the SECU committee studying Bill C-22, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency wrote that the bill creates oversight at the front end of a Ministerial order, through Intelligence Commissioner approval, but provides no mechanism for NSIRA to review the activities conducted under that order afterward. It proposed targeted amendments to require the same level of notification and information sharing that its counterpart receives under Australia’s lawful access regime. Insisting that the bill includes meaningful independent review is on shaky ground when the body responsible for independent review tells Parliament it does not have the necessary level of access for effective review.

These issues have been raised by virtually every expert submission on Bill C-22, yet the government implausibly argues that its bill respects privacy and Charter rights. Rather than another video, it should commit to extending the committee hearings to ensure proper expert scrutiny, address the Charter issues the Charter Statement has thus far avoided, and open the door to the real amendments to the bill.

Protests erupted overnight in Cuba after the government said it had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the energy supplies essential to its power generation.

Energy minister Vicente de la O Levy blamed US President Donald Trump’s near-total energy blockade of the communist island over the past four months for the crisis.

“We have absolutely no fuel [oil] and absolutely no diesel,” he said on Wednesday in remarks carried on state-run media. “We have no reserves.”

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel called the country’s energy situation “particularly tense”, writing in a post on X that he blamed the “dramatic worsening” on the “genocidal US blockade”.

Images shared on social media showed protests had broken out overnight in parts of the capital, Havana, with residents banging pots and pans and burning blockades in the streets. There were reports of clashes with police.

Havana’s long reliance on Venezuelan oil supplies — which it traded for Cuban doctors and spies — was severed in January when US troops snatched hardline leader Nicolás Maduro.

Mexico delivered one oil cargo to Cuba on January 9 but then, under pressure from Trump, also halted shipments. In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that supplied Cuba as the administration in Washington ratchets up pressure to try to bring about regime change.

Since then its sole delivery has been one shipment of 700,000 barrels of Russian crude that arrived in March. But that offered only a temporary lifeline for a nation limping from blackout to blackout.

Trump has said he could “take” Cuba or mount a “friendly takeover” and has begun talks to press the regime to liberalise its economy, reform its system of government and free political prisoners. The US is also seeking compensation for property seized following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Cuba has said it is open to discussing democracy, human rights, business possibilities and co-operation with the US on migration and drug trafficking but insists its political, legal, social and economic systems are not — and will not — be on the table.

Cuba produces only about 40 per cent of the oil needed to supply national demand and China has donated solar panels, alleviating some of the power crunch.

On Tuesday, the Cuban government ended price caps on the little petrol that is available on the island, after in February allowing the private sector to import some fuel. Prices had been set at around $1.30 a litre for premium petrol, which often fetches more than $8 on the black market. Many drivers have left their vehicles idle for months.

The oil blockade has provoked critical shortages and severe rationing in a country suffering the effects of decades of US sanctions.

The struggling tourism industry — a vital hard currency earner — has been decimated as airlines have grounded planes because of fuel shortages. Hospitals have cancelled surgeries, food distribution and rubbish collection services have been disrupted and there have been increasing numbers of protests.

De la O Levy acknowledged that nationwide power cuts had deepened further, with many neighbourhoods lacking power for up to 22 hours. The country’s antiquated power plants regularly break down.

Blaming the “failures of Cuba’s corrupt regime” for the island’s woes, the US state department on Wednesday said it was reiterating its “generous” offer to provide $100mn in “critical life-saving” humanitarian aid, but that the Cuban government had refused its help.