Talk Fuse

    Topic: Government

    Government covers the decisions, policies and institutions that shape public life, from local services and taxation to national budgets, regulation and international relations.

    It brings together reporting on elected leaders, public bodies and the political debates around their actions. For readers, it offers context on how government choices affect communities, businesses and everyday life.

    • Trump posts map labeling Strait of Hormuz as US territory

      President Trump posted an image of a map labeling the Strait of Hormuz as a U.S. territory early on Tuesday in an apparent effort to double down on his calls to annex the waterway.  The map, which Trump posted on his Truth Social account, labels the waterway as a “new U.S. territory.” The Strait of…

    • Live updates: Florida, Alaska voters head to polls; federal trial opens in addiction suit against Meta

      Florida voters head to the primary election polls on Tuesday to pick candidates for November contests. The governor’s mansion is up for grabs, along with a Senate seat and House races. Rep. Byron Donalds is favored to win the GOP nod for governor, though he faces challenges from Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, investment firm founder James…

    • Kelly on reduced joint exercises with South Korea: Trump should ‘read some history’

      Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) suggested Monday that President Trump should brush up on his history after the president directed the Pentagon to reduce its joint exercises with South Korea.  “Trump needs to read some history and get his priorities straight,” the retired naval officer wrote on social media. “I was part of joint military exercises…

    • Brazil’s President Lula hails oil discovery near Amazon river

      Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has welcomed the discovery of oil near the mouth of the Amazon river, describing it as potentially “a passport to the country’s future”. The find, announced by state oil company Petrobras, follows exploratory drilling that Lula controversially approved in the biodiverse Brazilian Equatorial Margin, a decision that drew…

    • Reel-ing it in: Meta is paying influencers to promote teen accounts

      Meta has been recruiting and paying parenting, lifestyle and mental health influencers to promote its teen safety tools whenever governments consider tighter regulation of children’s social media use, according to a report by the Tech Transparency Project. The advocacy group’s findings suggest the pattern emerged as a coordinated strategy: rather than lobbying directly against restrictions,…

    • Tina Peters offered job as elections consultant in California

      Former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters was offered a new role Monday as an assistant registrar of voters for a county in Northern California following her release from prison over efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. In an appearance on “The Northstate Breakdown,” Clint Curtis, a Shasta County clerk and registrar of voters, stated…

    • ABC sues FCC over what it calls politically motivated pressure

      Disney’s ABC has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, bringing to a head months of confrontation with the regulator over what the broadcaster calls politically motivated pressure. ABC’s lawyers argued the company was being punished for its editorial decisions and news coverage, saying it had “no alternative means to eliminate these…

    • Ossoff: ‘Zero interest’ in running for president in 2028

      Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who has been floated as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, threw cold water on the idea in an interview Monday. “I have zero interest in running for president in 2028, and, frankly, zero interest in the 2028 fantasy football right now,” Ossoff told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, doubling down on comments…

    • Government Teams users face another ******* month of filtered captions

      Microsoft has confirmed that its Teams Live Captions profanity filter will remain switched on by default for certain government users until the end of August, a month later than originally planned. The filter, introduced in 2023, replaces swear words with asterisks in live captions, and Microsoft had intended to switch it off by default for…

    • Boris Johnson’s Covid U-turns were like a ‘slow-moving car crash’, former aide says

      Boris Johnson’s former director of communications, Lee Cain, has said the numerous Covid-related U-turns made during Johnson’s government resembled a “slow-moving car crash”, with No 10 repeatedly making the same avoidable mistakes. Speaking on The Independent’s In the Room podcast, Cain said the pattern of reversals frustrated the communications team, though he noted that even…