There is always an XKCD

A network of social media accounts posing as Scottish independence supporters has fallen silent once again, closely mirroring a fresh shutdown of internet access inside Iran.

Hard to disagree with.

Electricity 2026 starts with a depressing figure: €30 billion! Thats the amount of subsidies Berlin alone is injecting into the power system IN ONE YEAR to stave off necessary structural reforms €11 bn in France, €3 bn in Poland Yet, reform to-do list is long www.euractiv.com/news/stop-ga...

And this:

Just thought I'd post this:

What a difference 10 years make... Zahawi just defected to Reform UK

Best Prime Minister Polling: Starmer Vs Farage: 🌹 Starmer: 36% (+1) ➡️ Farage: 29% (+1) Starmer Vs Badenoch: 🌹Starmer: 28% (-2) 🌳 Badenoch: 28% (+8) Farage Vs Badenoch: 🌳 Badenoch: 31% (+10) ➡️ Farage: 21% (-2) Via @yougov.co.uk, 6-7 Jan. Changes w/ 3-4 Aug.

No doubt Zahawi a big name for Reform & helps with momentum. But his resignation was on what the public see as a clear ‘one rule for them’ type scandal they hate - so a risk this, more than previous switches, could blunt Reform’s appeal as ‘different to usual political class’.

Yep.

Guys, I was only *pretending* to be a white supremacist in order to be liked and trusted by white suprematists on an explicitly white supremacist dating site :)

Oooh. @danneidle.bsky.social

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair.” - John Lewis #RIP

"In the short term, the US withdrawal will impact on aid receivers. Yet it also gives European governments and the European Commission the chance to reposition the EU and its member states as the central stabiliser of the international aid system", writes Nele Anders. https://bit.ly/3NffGRk

If you think he's going to play nicely in markets/finance then I love that for you. Adorable. My thing this weekend: What is to stop Trump upending the rules in global finance too? - as.ft.com/r/53e52459-8...

There is almost no support in Greenland for breaking away from the Kingdom of Denmark and joining the United States. In fact, there is majority support for undoing the 1982 #Greenexit vote where 53% voted to leave the EU. Today Greenlanders are EU citizens, but it isn't EU territory.

NEW: London has recorded its lowest homicide rate since records began. The evidence is clear - our approach to tackling violent crime is working.

Musk helping to make the case for X being banned

That photo looks about a decade old? @nialloconghaile.bsky.social Thousands of Irish farmers protest against EU-Mercosur trade deal | Ireland | The Guardian share.google/GKNlLILMSOOM...

One of the top comments on r/wsb’s “moves tomorrow” thread. Oh how far we’ve come.

Farage: "No parliament may bind its successor. This is a democratic outrage." Also, Farage: Trying to improve the EU trade deal that last parliament negotiated is a democratic outrage. ~AA

The Cardiff Lions do an annual Drag Rugby charity match for children’s charities and it’s as beautiful as you imagined

What can history teach us about what happens when a populist strongman with an idiosyncratic taste for low interest rates undermines central bank independence?

The people getting most upset about the prospect of a Twitter (a company whose AI platform creates sexual images of women without their consent) ban seem to be very similar to the people protesting outside migrant hotels to protect women and children. We truly live in the dumbest timeline.

“So, no longer speak about “aiding” Ukraine. The Ukrainians are aiding Europeans and Americans by fighting for their survival. We owe them our gratitude, not the other way around.” By @phillipspobrien.bsky.social phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...

🚨🚨This is the way: Malaysia and Indonesia block #Musk's #Grok over explicit deepfakes. 🧵 www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi, this is just a population density map

Goldman Sachs chief economist says Fed decisions will not be swayed by Powell criminal probe threat reut.rs/3NfL8z2

The gap between gloom-ridden public perception and reality in the UK has now opened up like a Grand Canyon-style chasm. I personally don't see any way of bridging it. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The Met loved concrete in the 1960s. See Paddington Green nick, 15 Penton Street (the old Public Carriage Office).

Brutal ventilation -- for the electricity substations in the basement of this Met Police building.

Please watch this video. It is less than 2 minutes long.

Trying to work out if the guy who wrote this is working for Putin or Kim Jong Un. Either way: imperial delusions It’s time for a Brexit from Nato share.google/ANbjowxd9eoC...

Drink responsibly.

“Organised gangs of wine moms.” Paramilitary groups of soccer moms. Auxiliary corps of woke girls. They are what strike terror into the hearts of fascists.

Lots of hungry leopards out there.

A reminder that Sweden was neutral for several hundred years. Until four years ago

Spoiler alert! It won’t. You need to properly fund the courts, lawyers, police and prosecutors to significantly dent the delays in the court system.

@unaminh.bsky.social thoughts?

When you go to McDonald's drive-thru

Up the People's Republic of Cork!

The monotheistic bunch of white guys, some of whom owned dozens of slaves? Say it ain't so

One of my last interactions with Matt Goodwin over on the bad site was when I questioned his assertion that ‘all Londoners know London is a shithole really’. He demanded I undertake polling on it (which was odd, as he has a polling company and I don’t). Looks like someone did it for him.

Tories in 2019: Corbyn wanting to disband NATO is irresponsible: www.channel4.com/news/factche... Tories today: Trump threatens to break up NATO - no biggie. These are not serious people.

Toby's at it again lads...

it's deeply funny that the "Free Speech Union" sued to stop someone from publishing their donor list. none of these fuckos believe in free speech

US Department of State: "We are rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism that treats the American taxpayer as the world's underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance." Liz Truss: "Now close the United Nations"