This is art

Anthropic disabled my Claude Pro account last week, saying I needed to go through age verification. I did so, and it restored my account..but on the Free plan. No refund on usage I had paid for. My only way of requesting one is a *Google form*. No response. This is a company apparently worth $380bn

If only there was some way to find good information on the internet. as.ft.com/r/05808d25-0...

Grim as hell

Well let's see how this strategy of telling "white liberals" to "fuck right off" works out in the local elections

More context: bsky.app/profile/lium...

The survival of bookshops wasn’t inevitable. Much of the industry seemed destined for pulping. Register for free to learn how one bookseller turned things around

"Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party, said: “There’s nothing real about the Reform party. Their supposed policies to tackle cost of living are fake, they spin stories that are fake and now we know even their campaigners are fake.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

NEW: I found two "news" websites active on X and other platforms—Al-Fassel and Pishtaz News—that are in fact U.S. government-operated anti-Iranian military propaganda mills. Both appear tied to U.S. Central Command. theintercept.com/2026/04/20/p...

Kéré Architecture unveils compacted-earth Goethe-Institut in Dakar: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/04/20/kere-architecture-goethe-institut/

THREAD: The IEA global energy review 2026 * CO2 record high, but growth nearly ground to halt * Clean energy shaved 3bn tonnes off CO2 * Fossil-fuel power pushed into reverse * Age of Electricity "confirmed" * "Extraordinary" solar growth * Batteries up 40% * EVs up 20% 1/10

Bridget Phillipson will introduce new laws to make it possible for Universities to be fined millions of pounds if they don't silence students who protest bigots invited onto their campuses. It's like the Tories never left office.

"When I started writing about the climate crisis in the 1980s I was in my twenties, and I didn’t fully comprehend that there could be a force on this planet so steeped in greed & power that it would sacrifice the earth & its inhabitants for its own narrow interests. But there is, and it’s Big Oil."

🔴 NEW 🔴 Farage has accepted £675,000 – a third of his income – from foreign sources since becoming an MP. 📝 @desmog.com

🔴 Sri Lankan ‘Grifters’ Pumping Out AI ‘Energy Policy Rage Bait’ on UK Facebook Feeds Experts say mass-produced AI misinformation is the “new Cambridge Analytica scandal”. 📝 @joeygrostern.bsky.social

Trump might be about to give himself as much as a $10 billion payday courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' illustrations, 1959 by Finnish artist and Moomins creator Tove Jansson #WomensArt

But papers like the Times and broadcasters like the BBC just crawl up Farage’s backside instead of asking him the difficult questions and scrutinising his past failures. Don’t pretend to care about probity with Starmer if you’re willing to red-carpet this piece of utter filth into Number 10.

Our new report: Richard Tice signed accounts wrongly claiming £98,000 of tax exemptions A 🧵 with the evidence:

Someone has actually done this on Google 😂😂👏

Happy Record Store Day Canada

"They came by after lunch & Danny gave me the one-line version of it, which basically was ghost janitors in New York." - Harold Ramis The Ghostbusters team: Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman, Rick Moranis & Annie Potts 📷 Michael Ginzberg, 1984

A room of people applauding because the little boy has written his own name. Next, our times tables.

I’ll never forget watching The Wicker Man with my outer Hebridean mum. “I just don’t know where there got all that wicker from”

I'm a broken record on this but the radicalisation and brain rot of Gen X/boomers is a massively under-appreciated problem

The grift never ends. Most corrupt regime in history

The significant year on year fall on boat arrivals is broadly unreported by BBC or other media. It has less to do with imminent government changes currently going through than a fall in "push factors" that is Europe-wide

We’ve spotted several almost identically-worded social media posts claiming 460 masked rioters recently stormed migrant hotels in Rotherham and Tamworth. But this isn’t true. South Yorkshire and Staffordshire police forces confirmed this didn’t happen.

Boastful Quaker Oats ad, Chicago 1891

They’re not just young, Sebastian. And you’re very much not reading any of us right. What we passionately dislike is arrogant rightwing bullshitters like you who’ve collectively done so much harm to our country and our social cohesion in the pursuit of your own prejudiced ideologies.

Take a look at this chart. A lot of investment LNG export capacity decisions were based on charts like this being assumed to be a given. Now China's demand is going down. Again. So two years ago the forecast was for 95 million tons by 2027. 65 million tons looks more realistic. That was fast

Lovely footage of the first bear born in Aragon in more than 50 years, shortly after emerging from hibernation. Part of the slow recovery of brown bears in the Pyrenees. Via Aragón TV.

BREAKING: We’re taking the government to court over Palantir. The government is refusing to hand over important briefings given to Wes Streeting about the £330m NHS data contract with Peter Thiel’s surveillance firm So we’re taking legal action. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-w...

A HUGE, narrative-breaking moment for the UK car market New EVs are now cheaper than petrol cars on average, says Autotrader Last yr CCC said price parity was due by 2028 – and it's already here And EVs are already MUCH cheaper to run than petrol

NPR on Thursday said it had received two gifts totaling $113 million, including the largest donation from a living donor in the network’s history. The donations, from the philanthropist Connie Ballmer and an anonymous donor, will support the network’s long-term strategy.

A fine arts commission filled with President Trump’s appointees gave preliminary approval to his plans for a triumphal arch in Washington, but the panel’s vice chairman suggested significant changes.

New trailer for 'The Mandalorian & Grogu' In theaters May 22

Here are Nigel Farage, the Russian asset Nathan Gill, and the convicted fraudster and expert in criminal money-laundering, 'posh' George Cottrell, who is often to be seen with Farage. Farage, a Russian asset and a convicted fraudster. It's a rich mix. Burst Farage's bubble. Vote!

🧐 @bylinetimes.bsky.social @karambales.bsky.social have mapped how Hungary's govt under Orbán bankrolled tons of 💷 to organisations at the heart of UK hard right, especially the network around Reform UK - with both Orbán & Reform deeply entwined with the fossil fuel industry bsky.app/profile/byli...

Hey Honeybunny. @variety.com variety.com/2026/film/ne...

The duty of care point Mill makes is so important. People assume there is a screening process and a bar to clear to speak at Harvard or write in the NYT or whatever that the person must have cleared! Platforming terrible views you know to be wrong and abhorent isn't a neutral action.

EXCL: Peter Mandelson failed his security vetting clearance but the decision was overruled by Foreign Office to ensure he could take up his post as ambassador to US - a Guardian investigation by Paul Lewis @direthoughts.com & me www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot with more than 80 spaces. Equals 10 nuclear reactors Reduces heat island, shades cars The US -- 800 million parking spaces. Most of them are uncovered asphalt sitting in direct sunlight. Why aren't we doing this?

Brexit is just so unforgivably tedious. This boring, boring shit is the end result of turning prejudice into policy… impractical, costly, tiresome, stupid failure.

V&A East Museum by O'Donnell + Tuomey unveiled in London: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/04/15/va-east-museum-odonnell-tuomey-ja-projects-studio-mutt-london-uk/

We're supplying military equipment to Israel. And Labour cares so little about it that Belgium has to step in and stop the shipments. I guess Labour's too busy arresting protestors against the genocide?

‘Ben Delo shows how easily Labour’s curbs on foreign money can be circumvented. Starmer needs to put the integrity of British democracy first and use his Elections Bill as what it is: a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take big money out of politics’ New by me open.substack.com/pub/democrac...