Alina Utrata

IPCC issues report on climate catastrophe (it’s still a catastrophe): eat less meat and dairy now, or lose all the foods later For some reason, recommending that we stop eating meat (or even just eat less meat) makes some people go bananas. Remember when Greggs came out with a vegan sausage roll, and Piers Morgan had an absolute meltdown? They weren’t even forcing him to eat the (non-bloody) thing!

The earth’s climate continues to meltdown In case you were wondering, the earth — and life on it — is still facing a catastrophe. This July was the hottest month in recorded history and Arctic sea-ice coverage reached a near record low. The recent European heatwave saw average temperatures between 1.5°C and 3°C higher because of…

Well, Northern Ireland, did you miss me?! Yours truly is back for the Political Week in 5 Points, this time from the West Coast of the United States. I’d say “sunny California,” but it sounds like most of Europe had it hotter than we did. Let’s get to it. Heatwave terrifying example of how the planet is literally burning, politicians continue to do nothing about climate change Europe…

When yours truly was tricked — ah, gently persuaded — to come out of retirement to take up the Political Week in 5 Points once again while the wonderful Ruth Foster was away, no one could have predicted what a week of news it would be. And some good news…

SDLP and Fianna Fáil announce partnership The SLDP and Fianna Fáil announced a partnership arrangement between the two parties (they emphasize it’s not a merger) at a press conference on Thursday in Belfast. …

UK Parliament (finally) holds meaningful vote on Withdrawal Agreement; it fails On Tuesday, the House of Commons finally held its “meaningful vote” on the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK government and the EU. The agreement had been widely expected to fail, and it did so in historic proportions, being defeated by 432 votes to 202. Three of the four amendments…

A new political landscape in Washington On Thursday, the 116th United States Congress was sworn in, with a historic number of firsts. You can see some of the photos of the ceremony here. There were a record number of women elected to Congress, as well as the first Muslim women, the first Somali-American member, the first…

What a year 2018 has been! Can we cover everything in 8 minutes? In our latest Northern Slant podcast, recorded on Friday 21 December, four members of the team — Ruth Foster, Steve McGookin, Matthew O’Neill and Alina Utrata — met to discuss the main political points from the past…

Theresa May survives leadership challenge, there is no Brexit vote, and more Despite my promise in last week’s 5 points that Parliament’s meaningful vote on the Withdrawal Agreement was not likely to be cancelled, Theresa May did indeed cancel the vote. The agreement was likely to fail over continued opposition to the backstop. Theresa May went back to the EU (notably getting…