Eek. Reform in Scotland have pledged to fast-track planning for *open cast coal mining* www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/holyroo...

Can't help but think that if the Humanities had been required in techbros' education we might have avoided them interpreting every dystopian cautionary tale as an instruction manual. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

speak loudly and ask if you can borrow somebody else’s stick

Wow. Career ending in any normal times. "A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter." www.ft.com/content/744e...

Absolute whackjobs – Hegseth with his fire and brimstone sadism and Vance with this nutty take. They really are the Taliban of Christian fundamentalism www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Israel’s parliament has passed a controversial bill that seeks to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of terror, but not on Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians in similar circumstances. ft.trib.al/aSDzL0l

Great question. The problem, of course, is that every other journalist in the room didn't keep asking it until they got an answer.

1. Germany already said the war is illegal. 2. US now threatening "complete obliteration" of Iran's energy system and, maybe, of desalination plants – i.e., war crimes. 3. Reminder: The war is conducted from Ramstein, Germany: "the nerve center of America’s operations against Iran". What gives?

Just before the markets open, like clockwork, crazy, lying Donald issues a post about nonexistent talks with invisible Iranians to end his ridiculously misconceived war with Iran. Come for the lies, stay for the threats of war crimes!

Since the headline is a bit confusing, the NYT is reporting that on the same day we hit the girl's school in Minab, we also sent a missile full of tungsten steel pellets at a girl's volleyball tournament hundreds of miles away in Lamerd. Twenty one dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

While transitioning itself It’s also supplying most of the green energy tech that Europe & the rest of the world rely on while Trump is switching off the USA’s future capacity to transition independently.

While Trump thrashes around expending US economic & moral capital, ending human lives & burning bridges with allies trying to secure the limited future of fossil fuels, China is investing in the unlimited capacity of the world’s future energy sources. All the weapons & zero strategy.

Cops have twice raided Quaker meeting houses to arrest people- and seize their phones/laptops - without so far charging anyone. Are we seeing pre-emptive policing to make the very idea of protest impossible? www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/identi...

Kemi Badenoch has been in Aberdeen today to launch her "Fuel Britannia" campaign to extract "every last drop" of oil and gas from North Sea. She has been photographed visiting "Well Safe Solutions". Guess who their non-exec director is? Alasdair Locke - who has given £1.2m to the Tories

R.I.P Glen Baxter (1944-2026). Master of absurdism

RIP Glen Baxter

I'd hate to see what not caring looks like.

Applications are open until 09 APRIL 26 for the 13th Clara Marina O’Donnell fellowship, watch here for @thomasmaddock.bsky.social's tips to candidates. Full details here - buff.ly/3vV64SZ Start date: October 2026 for six months Pay: London Living Wage

Trump told the FT that “my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’”

Martin Wolf in today’s FT

“MBA graduates do not have time for trainee programmes any more. One of the hottest post-grad options is looking for a small business to buy and run, private equity-style. An entire set of financiers now exists to help them.” www.ft.com/content/949d...

How a handful of billionaires are buying propaganda platforms to Make Fascism Great Again. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

TL:dr - invest in public service broadcasting; support copyright against AI; hold digital platforms to account. Good to see this stuff going full legit in a Martin Wolf column www.ft.com/content/c1af...

Fascinating read, with a political side-note: once again we see a regulator falling apart due to funding cuts in the 2010s, and the government not paying attention after 2016 because the focus is elsewhere.

But calling for it anyway, however ignorantly, will make a direct difference to what climate change denying donors pay politicians. So there’s that.

We wrote a few weeks ago about a possible US ground operation to grab Iran's highly enriched uranium. The issue is not just the vast scale of any raid, it's also the fact that it might need to be performed across three sites—and with little surprise left. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

there it is, all 7 continents

Royal Mail is exhibit A for the idea that economists should take technical regress seriously (management is, among other things, a technology): chrisdillow.substack.com/p/technical-...

Insanity…

wow - this is actually a very big deal

{gift link} www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/c...

Somebody tell DOGE. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Walz: We will never leave the side of our Somali Minnesotans. Here's our pledge to you, our Somali Minnesotans, your great grandchildren will still be here when that orange clown is in the dustbin of history.

US social media is getting smaller, angrier, and more Republican. @pettertornberg.com analyses American National Election Studies between 2020 - 2024 and shows the evolution of a smaller, more polarised and less diverse public sphere @lseimpactblog.bsky.social

Thousands march against far right in London in biggest ever multicultural protest More than 100 charities, campaign groups and trade unions marched in a show of unity against far right politics www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

💥Not how one wants to be featured in the @nytimes.com, but I’m glad a US audience sees what’s happening in this small country’s wild election campaign. As with other Orbán-related news, here's my warning to US colleagues: Orbán's actions still serve as a blueprint for Trump/MAGA.

That UK government ever considers asserting its contractual rights against a major supplier is rare and welcome. And here, this is especially welcome. This will not be easy but it can be done, but it is good it is being seriously considered at all. www.ft.com/content/2d2b...

The tragic irony of the last few years is that, had the USG given Ukraine only a fraction of the weapons that they have expended against Iran in a few weeks (Patriots, Tomahawks, etc), Ukraine would have won, oil prices would not be skyrocketing and the US would be more secure.

Now get out and vote in the midterms like your life depends on it, because it does. #NoKings

Check your city and your time. #NoKings

The Gordon and Denton by-election was won by the Greens fair and square Reforms lies about people from certain communities influencing the votes of others were dangerous propaganda Typical fascist tactics to divide society and undermine democracy www.gmp.police.uk/news/greater...

www.ft.com/content/4f09... Genuinely hard to overstate how much of a strategic defeat it would be for the United States if the war ends with effective Iranian control of the Strait.

Incredible footage showing whale cooperation to assist whale birth- whales as midwives

Who needs physical reality anyway? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Vital Arctic sea ice shrank to tie its lowest measured level for the winter, the season when ice grows, as a warming Earth shattered records across the continents.

Very good read - cc @abbyinnes.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/artifici...

Obviously this will be headline news.

A vote for Farage is a vote for Trump - and everything that entails: war with Iran, skyrocketing oil prices, a British version of ICE, imports of US chlorinated chicken, the erosion of democracy. “The biggest barrier to people voting Reform is Trump” - Luke Tryl www.ft.com/content/c07b...