I’ve donated to Senator Raphael Warnock. I’ve reminded people to vote for him. I’ve tweeted the donation link. I know many of you have as well. But there is more to do. Early voting is beginning!

And it is an excellent time to remind people in Georgia to please get to the polls. It is so very important. We can’t let Senator Warnock down. I look at the midterms like this.

It is a vast country, and there are red, blue, and purple lands. Every race we won, we turned the lands just a bit more blue. Spica is a star. With “a magnitude of 0.98” it is considered the bluest star in the sky. Blue above, blue below. Every time we win a race, the lands get that much bluer.

And the bluer the country is, the better for us. Because then we get to do things for this country we wouldn’t be able to do were the blue not to be there. Arizona now shines blue. Pennsylvania is covered in radiant blue with a new senator and governor.

And we need to keep Georgia – as blue as it gets. So now is such a good time to do activism. We need a huge turnout. As Palmer Report has often said, it really does come down to turnout.

The more people turn out, the greater our chances of winning. We cannot let walker win. And don’t think the Republicans are not working hard as well. So we need to work harder. If you are in Georgia, please volunteer to drive people to the polls. If you phone bank, now is a great time to hit the phones.

And donate. Tweet. Do everything in your power to get us that 51st seat. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and people are in a good mood. What better time than now? Imagine how we will all feel hearing: “Senator Warnock has won reelection.”

We will feel satisfaction in knowing we saved the seat of a great man. We will feel euphoria in that we worked so very hard. And we will feel joy in watching the bluest of the blue stars — Senator Warnock win his seat, giving us 51 seats and a solid Democratic majority.

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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to promise on Monday to maintain or increase military aid to Ukraine next year, and to confront international competitors “not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism”.

British government support for Ukraine has remained unchanged, despite turmoil in recent months as Boris Johnson was succeeded as prime minister by Liz Truss and then Sunak.

However, some Conservatives view Sunak as less hawkish on China than Truss – although a planned meeting between Sunak and China’s President Xi Jinping at this month’s G20 summit in Bali fell through and last week London banned Chinese-made security cameras from sensitive government buildings.

“Under my leadership we won’t choose the status quo. We will do things differently,” Sunak said in an extract released by his office of his first major foreign policy speech, which he plans to deliver on Monday in London’s financial district.

Sunak said his priorities would be “freedom, openness and the rule of law”.

European Union officials have questioned whether Britain under Johnson was genuinely committed to its Brexit legal agreements, especially regarding Northern Ireland.

On Ukraine, Sunak indicated no change with the policy pursued by Johnson and Truss.

“We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will maintain or increase our military aid next year. And we will provide new support for air defence,” he said.

In September Britain said it was the second largest military donor to Ukraine after the United States, providing 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) of aid this year.

Sunak said Britain needed to take the same long-term approach as its adversaries and competitors, who he did not name directly in the speech extracts, and that Britain should make “an evolutionary leap” in its approach to foreign policy.

“It means delivering a stronger economy at home – because it is the foundation of our strength abroad. And it means standing up to our competitors, not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism,” he said.

Sunak has previously described China as a “systemic challenge” and “the single biggest state threat to our economic security”.

($1 = 0.8288 pounds)

The BBC said on Sunday that Chinese police assaulted and detained one of its journalists covering a protest in Shanghai, before later releasing him after several hours.

“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” a spokesperson for the British public service broadcaster said in a statement.

“He was held for several hours before being released. During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist,” the spokesperson added.

The BBC said it had not been given a credible official explanation for its journalist’s detention.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Environmental groups are once again at odds with politicians and fishermen in New England in the wake of a decision by high-end retail giant Whole Foods to stop selling Maine lobster.

Whole Foods recently said that it will stop selling lobster from the Gulf of Maine at hundreds of its stores around the country. The company cited decisions by a pair of sustainability organizations to take away their endorsements of the U.S. lobster fishing industry.

The organizations, Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch, both cited concerns about risks to rare North Atlantic right whales from fishing gear. Entanglement in gear is one of the biggest threats to the whales.

The decision by Whole Foods was an “important action to protect the highly endangered” whale, said Virginia Carter, an associate with the Save America’s Wildlife Campaign at Environment America Research & Policy Center.

“With fewer than 340 North Atlantic right whales in existence, the species is swimming toward extinction unless things turn around,” Carter said.

Whole Foods said in a statement last week that it’s monitoring the situation and “committed to working with suppliers, fisheries, and environmental advocacy groups as it develops.”

The company’s decision to stop selling lobster drew immediate criticism in Maine, which is home to the U.S.’s largest lobster fishing industry. The state’s Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and its four-member congressional delegation said in a statement that Marine Stewardship Council’s decision to suspend its certification of Gulf of Maine lobster came despite years of stewardship and protection of whales by Maine fishermen.

“Despite this, the Marine Stewardship Council, with retailers following suit, wrongly and blindly decided to follow the recommendations of misguided environmental groups rather than science,” Mills and the delegation said.

Whole Foods was not the first retailer to take lobster off the menu over sustainability concerns. HelloFresh, the meal kit company, was among numerous retailers to pledge to stop selling lobster in September after California-based Seafood Watch placed American and Canadian lobster fisheries on its “red list” of seafoods to avoid.

(NEXSTAR) – The price of your average grocery run is nearly 8% higher this year when compared to last, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the prices of everything in your cart aren’t all trending the same: while apples have gotten 5% more expensive, the cost of breakfast cereal is up nearly 25%.

In the meat department, prices aren’t being affected equally either. Chicken and turkey have risen by 17% since last October. Meanwhile, the cost of beef and veal is actually down 3.6%.

What’s behind the divergence in meat prices?

“The increase in chicken prices is mostly due to very strong consumer demand this year along with increased production (mostly feed) costs,” explained Derrell Peel, who teaches agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University and specializes in livestock.

Peel said bird flu isn’t really responsible for driving up the cost of “broilers,” which are chickens raised for meat production, but it has had impacts elsewhere in the grocery store. Avian influenza has wreaked havoc on chickens used for egg production – egg prices are up a whopping 43% year over year – and hit turkeys pretty hard, too. The strain of the flu wiped out 49 million turkeys and other poultry so far this year, the Associated Press reported, leaving turkey prices at a record high.

Rodney Holcomb, also an agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State University, noted that the cost of chicken feed has also risen, and those costs are passed on to consumers. Not to mention the cost of fuel – consumers are already paying more to fill up their own cars, but they’re also paying for that added cost all the way down the supply chain. “That’s part of increased costs for everything,” Holcomb said.

Beef demand has remained strong, Peel said, so there are other forces at play allowing prices to drop a bit. As the U.S. exports less beef this year, there could be some “jockeying” in the beef markets, with lowered prices to stir up more domestic demand. Earlier this year, Tyson Foods said it would drop some of its meat prices in response to drooping demand for premium cuts.

Since last year, uncooked steaks and roasts have seen the largest drop in prices, and the price of ground beef has stayed about the same. However, “the most expensive middle meats, ribeye and tenderloin have increased this fall,” Peel noted.

One type of meat has seen a massive price spike this year. Lunchmeats cost 19% more than they did a year ago, according to government statistics. Elsewhere in the grocery store, cookies, crackers, white bread, lettuce, frozen vegetables and salad dressing have all seen their prices rise between 15% and 20%.

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