A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire, January 10 ,2024
Customers will bear brunt of sky-high interest rates though increased bills, campaigners warn
THAMES WATER’S £3 billion bailout was approved by the High Court today, triggering outrage as campaigners warned of higher bills from sky-high interest payments.
The High Court cleared the loan just weeks before the debt-laden firm was due to run out of money, temporarily staving off the possibility of special administration and temporary nationalisation.
Former Tory PM Margaret Thatcher wrote off the debts of Britain’s water firms when the industry was privatised in 1989.
But Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers, has since siphoned off £7.2bn in dividends, while amassing £19bn worth of debt.
In his judgment, Justice Leech noted that the headline interest rate on the emergency loan, which stands at 9.75 per cent was “very, very high.”
The Financial Times reported that the bailout could incur as much as £800 million in interest and fees.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. on November 19, 2024. (Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday dared Trump immigration czar Tom Homan to pursue an investigation against her after he attacked the New York Democrat in two television appearances and said he has asked the Justice Department to “look into” whether she violated the law by holding a webinar informing constituents of their rights.
“This is why you fight these cowards. The moment you stand up to them, they crumble,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media after Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), called her “the dumbest congresswoman ever elected to Congress” in an interview on the far-right network Newsmax.
The resort to a personal attack, said the New York Democrat, shows that “Homan has nothing.”
“The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights,” she added. “He can threaten me with jail and call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else.”
Less than an hour later, Ocasio-Cortez wrote “go ahead” in response to a separate interview in which Homan told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he has asked the deputy attorney general to examine whether the New York congresswoman’s webinar amounted to teaching people “how to evade ICE arrest.”
“Let the people see you for what you are,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in response.
Homan, whom President Donald Trump has tasked with spearheading the new administration’s mass deportation efforts, has repeatedly attacked Ocasio-Cortez in recent days as the White House zeroes in on New York City with the help of disgraced Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, the beneficiary of an out-in-the-open quid pro quo arrangement that is now at the center of a legal and political controversy.
On her congressional website, Ocasio-Cortez—who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens—has a page devoted to informing her constituents of their legal rights when faced with ICE agents.
“ICE does not have the right to enter your home without a valid warrant signed by a judge,” reads a flyer produced by Ocasio-Cortez’s office, a message that was echoed during last week’s webinar.
Days after the webinar, Homan said in a Fox News appearance that he “sent an email” to the deputy attorney general asking whether Ocasio-Cortez is illegally “impeding our law enforcement efforts.”
“Maybe he can learn to read,” the New York Democrat wrote in response. “The Constitution would be a good place to start.”
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
The Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is seen on February 03, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request,” quipped one journalist.
When CNN put in a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of Personnel Management for information related to security clearances for billionaire Elon Musk and other personnel at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency who have been allowed access to sensitive or classified government networks, the outlet got an unexpected response.
“Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team,” an OPM email address wrote back, according to Tuesday reporting from CNN. An OPM official told the outlet that the federal government’s human resources agency did not layoff the entire privacy team, but did not comment further on the matter.
“Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request,” quipped CBS News journalist Jim LaPorta reacting to the news on X.
According to CNN, OPM’s privacy team “is tasked with ensuring the agency’s data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public.” Members of the agency’s communications staff and employees who handle FOIA requests were also terminated, per CNN, which cited two unnamed sources.
Federal agencies are required to furnish information requested via FOIA unless the information falls within an exemption.
These firings at OPM, which is the chief human resources agency of the federal government, constitute “a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates,” according to CNN, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the matter.”
OPM was one of the first federal agencies to be infiltrated by Musk’s associates at the Department of Government Efficiency and has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s purge of federal workers.
Last month, OPM sent out the now infamous “Fork in the Road” memo, which offered a widely decried deferred resignation program for nearly all federal employees. The message resembled—including the verbatim wording of the subject line—an email that Musk sent Twitter employees in 2022, when he took over the social media platform now known as X.
CNN’s coverage also noted that the move to fire members of OPM’s privacy and communication teams echoes Musk’s decision to fire the media relations department at Twitter.
On X, Washington Post video journalist Jorge Ribas wrote the word “‘transparency'” in response to CNN’s reporting about the FOIA request, in an apparent nod to Musk’s assertion that DOGE is attempting to be transparent in carrying out its operations.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
A Delta Air Lines plane sits on its roof after crashing upon landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on February 17, 2025. (Photo: Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)
“Maybe in the DOGE boys’ video game simulations, it doesn’t matter if they lay off hundreds of staff from the FAA. In the real world, however, it will make flying less safe,” said Public Citizen’s Robert Weissman.
As the Trump administration began firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees amid a surge in plane crashes, a leading U.S. consumer advocacy group warned Monday that the slash-and-burn approach of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is making the “next air travel disaster more likely.”
While Musk recently said that DOGE will “aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system,” critics have countered that the Trump administration’s termination of FAA personnel, including critical air traffic control maintenance staff, poses major risks.
“Maybe in the DOGE boys’ video game simulations, it doesn’t matter if they lay off hundreds of staff from the FAA. In the real world, however, it will make flying less safe,” Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman said in a statement. “Just like having fewer people safeguarding the nation’s nuclear arsenal will make the risk of a nuclear accident much greater.”
Elon’s DOGE rampage will be a wake up call for what a decimated government really means. Cuts to FAA? Higher risk of plane crashes.Cuts to Forest Service? Higher fire risk. Cuts to the CDC? Higher pandemic risk. Cuts to the EPA? Higher toxic exposures risk — and on and on.
The Musk rampage through government is making it virtually certain that we will suffer through otherwise avoidable health, safety, and economic catastrophes. Cutting the Forest Service increases fire risk, cutting the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and blocking information-sharing risks worsening infectious disease outbreaks, cutting the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] guarantees Big Bank and predatory loan ripoffs, cutting [Food and Drug Administration] staff increases the risk for dangerous devices, drugs, and food additives, cutting the [Environmental Protection Agency] will increase the risk of mass toxic exposures, and on and on.
“If permitted to proceed, the mindless Musk-Trump governmental annihilation is going to touch every American community, imposing tragedy upon tragedy,” Weissman added.
In a Monday social media post, U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) said that “mass firings of FAA workers—at a time when they already have serious staffing problems—would be dangerous at any time,” but “Musk and Trump doing this weeks after the deadliest crash in years is stupid beyond belief.”
Public Citizen’s warning came on the same day that a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed and overturned on landing. The FAA said all 80 people aboard the flight were rescued. At least a dozen people were injured in the crash, three of them critically, according to the Toronto Star.
While the FAA firings were not a factor in Monday’s accident, the Toronto crash was the latest in a recent surge in air disasters. Last month, 67 people were killed when an American Airlines jet and an army helicopter collided at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. According to initial reports, only one air traffic controller was working both civilian and military flights when the crash occurred.
On January 31, seven people died when a medical transport jet crashed near Philadelphia, 10 people were killed in a February 6 Bering Air commuter flight crash in Alaska, and one person died when a private plane belonging to Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil crashed during landing in Arizona last Monday after its landing gear failed to properly deploy.
We condemn the decision to fire these safety inspectors. Everywhere I go I am asked, “is it safe to fly?” My response is yes because thousands of frontline workers ask that all day long. If federal workers can’t do their jobs, we can’t do ours. 1/2www.passnational.org/index.php/ne…
David Spero, national president of Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, the union representing more than 11,000 FAA and Defense Department personnel who install, inspect, and maintain air traffic control systems, said in a statement Saturday that the Trump administration’s terminations “will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin.”
“This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing,” Spero added. “Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month.”
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Captain Ivan Harrison, Captain Irvin McHenry, and 2nd Lieutenant James Lightfoot of the 761st Tank Battalion (Photo: US Army)
The US Army’s all-Black unit has gone down in history for heroism and are referred to by some as the “original Black Panthers”
The US Army’s 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-Black tank unit to see combat during World War II, has gone down in history as “one of the most effective tank battalions” during the war, leaving a legacy of fighting Nazis and liberating concentration camps. Yet due to the realities of racism and segregation in the United States, back home, these Black soldiers were treated like second class citizens. With a bold logo of a snarling black Panther emblazoned with the motto “Come Out Fighting,” this all-Black unit is occasionally referred to as the “original Black Panthers.”
Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States 761st Tank Battalion (Photo: US Military)
Heroism abroad, oppression at home
The US Army did not officially desegregate until President Harry Truman signed an executive order after World War II. The Black soldiers of the 761st Tank Battalion were not allowed to serve in the same units as white soldiers. The Battalion’s soldiers also had to train in installations located throughout the highly segregated US South, in states such as Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, still under the shadow of Jim Crow.
Institutional racism characterized much of the training experience of the 761st Tank Battalion. Training for the men of the 761st lasted for almost two years, yet white units were sent overseas after far less training. As a result, the 761st Tank Battalion, which had been originally created for the purpose of maintaining support within the Black community for the WWII war effort, developed into one of the better trained units in the army and was later celebrated for its heroism.
61st Tank Battalion preparing for combat (Photo: US Army)
“This was [US Army General George] Patton’s best tank unit and they didn’t get any recognition because whites did not look upon blacks as having any competence as fighting men,” writes athlete and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his book about the unit, “Brothers in Arms.”
The soldiers of the 761st Battalion were subject to racist violence from their white fellow soldiers. A bloody “race riot” broke out while 761st soldiers were in training in Alexandria, Louisiana, after Black soldiers from Northern states, unused to the violence of the Jim Crow South, reacted to the brutal arrest of a fellow Black soldier by white military police. Soldiers in the 761st were incensed at the racist violence, and went as far as to commandeer six tanks and a half-track, but were eventually persuaded to stand down by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Bates.
The most famous member of the 761st Battalion was Jackie Robinson, who would go on to become the first Black player in Major League Baseball, heralding the end of racial segregation in professional baseball in the US. During 761st’s training in Texas, a White bus driver told Robinson to move to sit at the back of the bus, which Robinson refused—a move that resulted in his arrest. Lieutenant Colonel Bates refused to consider the court martial charges against Robinson. Robinson was subsequently transferred to the 758th Tank Battalion, also an all-Black unit.
761st Battalion member Jackie Robinson would go on to become the first Black player in Major League Baseball (Photo: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
761st breaches Nazi defenses
After training for two years in Texas, 761st was finally deemed ready for deployment overseas in 1944. The unit was assigned to General George Patton‘s Third Army. As the unit was about to enter into combat, Patton, himself white, made a speech to bolster their confidence, claiming that “Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to your success.” However, Patton expressed doubts about their abilities to his fellow officers, remarking that “They gave a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race.”
The 761st would go on to serve in the infamous Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive on the Western Front, in which it opened the way for the US 4th Armored Division into Germany, during an action which breached the Nazi German defensive Siegfried Line, rapidly advancing into the Reich. The 761st became one of the first US units to reach Steyr, Austria, which became a meeting point between the Black tank battalion and the Soviet Red Army on May 9, 1945.
Seeing Black soldiers rise out of their tank hatches reportedly put a unique terror into the hearts of the ultra-racist German Nazi soldiers.
Liberation of Gunskirchen camp
The 761st Tank Battalion, alongside the 71st Infantry Division, liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria on May 4, 1945, which Nazi guards had fled days before. Captain J. D. Pletcher, a member of the 71st Infantry, recounted his experience at Gunskirchen, “When the German SS troops guarding the concentration camp at Gunskirchen heard the Americans were coming, they suddenly got busy burying the bodies of their victims—or rather, having them buried by inmates,” Pletcher recounted.
“Skin and bone… skin and bone and filthy rags and bodies crawling with vermin… row on row, endless… filling the square. And not a sound. Not one human sound came from those thousands of throats. Perhaps they hadn’t the strength to speak, even in gratitude. Perhaps words of thanks were long forgotten… forgotten under the lash and the pistol-butt, the abysmal degradation.”
Medical corpsmen of the US 71st Infantry Division look on as captured German soldiers remove bodies from inside a barracks in the liberated Gunskirchen concentration camp (Photo: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
It was only on January 24 1978 that the 761st Tank Battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by then-President Jimmy Carter for their service during World War II. Many individual members of the battalion also received individual accolades, including one Medal of Honor, eleven Silver Stars and around 300 Purple Hearts.
761st Tank Battalion staff sergeant Ruben Rivers was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration for valor, his actions on November 16–19, 1944 in France, during which he was killed in combat.
The 761st Tank Battalion was historic, as a Black unit striking fear into the hearts of Nazis and liberating victims of the most extreme forms of fascist violence. And yet, the stories of the soldiers’ training period and their challenges of being recognized for their bravery after the war are yet another example of the deep legacy of racism in the United States itself. Recounting the unique story of the 761st becomes even more crucial when marking Black History Month this February, and recognizing the long legacy of Black struggle against racism and white supremacy, at home and abroad.