Were we not told EU members couldn’t lower VAT unilaterally?

Paging @nickabbot.bsky.social

Dear Beelzeblob, - you insult our war dead - hit us with tariffs - threaten to annex a fellow NATO member - meddle in our politics - accuse us of limiting free speech while banning books in your own country 1/2

This is super interesting. The last one I can read fluently is 1600. I can then still read it and figure out (almost) every word, with some puzzling, but then lose it almost completely at 1200. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

“I remember the first time I saw Andy…”

Paging @nickferrarilbc.bsky.social

This you @iandunt.bsky.social ?

The smallest man who ever lived.

Yet again the oldest bigotry rears its ugly head as a ginger carries the can for the failures of a lesser type (a non-ginger).

Bang on the money: “Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history.” Trump is determined to be remembered as a 'great man'. His curse is that he won't be. www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

These people are perpetual victims; insecure in every way.

Paging @iaindale.bsky.social x

“Peace isn’t what you ask for when the boot is already on someone’s neck. Peace is what the powerful ask for when they don’t want to be interrupted.”

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

Our city has been over-run by Nazi ghouls kidnapping people to traffic them to concentration camps and other countries. Did you ever think you'd see the day when masked gunmen jump out of moving vehicles and chase families down the street in your own neighborhood? FUCK ICE forever and ever.

The world is a region.

Maybe there won't be any tariffs soon anyway... bsky.app/profile/muel...

Things are going to get pretty funny/scary if SCOTUS rules Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to impose tariffs later today.

By analyzing $4 trillion of shipments between January 2024 and November 2025, researchers found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4% of the burden of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering their prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%. www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

JFC

The more I think about this, the angrier I get. It takes a particularly virulent strain of sociopathy to sit and let hard-working people serve you a meal knowing that you plan to arrest them and send them off for deportation once they're off of work. Really depraved shit.

Art. 5 of the NATO treaty has only been invoked once… by the US post 9/11. Denmark, like other NATO members, honored its obligations, sending troops to fight alongside US. As a result, Denmark lost more of its soldiers per capita than any other nation except US. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

I came here to get away from X. I don’t need to know, or care much, if X is down.

This might be the single most pathetic thing I've seen in my adult life.

The US needs Greenland so much for national security that it has closed all but one of its bases there and keeps only 150 soldiers on the island, while Denmark would allow as many US troops as it wants

I am sure Europe’s leaders take great reassurance on the issue of Greenland from a man with the impeccable judgement and moral fibre of Mandelson. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This war and extra-judicial kidnapping is patently illegal and unconstitutional. Political leaders on both sides must condemn it. It’s not about whether Maduro is a tyrant but whether the US is still governed by laws and the Constitution. As if this morning, we are clearly not.

This is not the behavior I expected from winner of the FIFA peace prize.

I’ve watched the Sky adaptation of Amadeus. I don’t believe the semen on the cup cake to be necessary.

He really is a reprehensible piece of human garbage.

The European Union has triggered Article 122 to indefinitely immobilise the assets of the Russian Central Bank, worth a whopping €210 billion. I explain what just happened and why this is such a big deal for Europeans. 🧵 Long thread.

There were 93 homicides in London last year: population 9 million In New York - population 8.5 million - there were 391. London's homicide figure is 6 times lower than LA, 9 times lower than Miami, 17 times lower than Chicago. And it's falling year on year despite the population increasing

There's no placating the Brexiters, no reasoning with them, no basic comprehension or adulthood. You can't debate papers behaving like the Sun or the Mail this morning. There's nothing to debate with. They view all trading relations with Europe as humiliation.

Trump: “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls…They don’t need 250 pencils, they can have 5.” Also Trump: accepts new Air Force One worth $400M from Qatari royal family.

Migration is the solution, not the problem. open.substack.com/pub/robrandt...

Three hours on @iandunt.bsky.social. Sign me up. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/8...

"Three Bulgarians convicted of spying for Russia were present at an event to debate Brexit in a committee room in May 2016." ~AA www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The quantity of UK goods exports is lower now than in 2016 or 2021. The UK is the only country in the G7 that has this record. #Brexit

I see we've moved on to putting tariffs on services industries where the US has historically enjoyed a trade surplus with the rest of the world. Looking forward to the formula they conjur up to justify this one.

Vance not so bothered by people being arrested for silently praying in a restricted area now, eh?

“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours.” - Presidental candidate Donald J. Trump. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump's tariffs are designed for maximum damage—to America This is not a both sides have a point situation. Maury Obstfeld @piie.com speaking truth to power. www.piie.com/blogs/realti...

What does MAGA stand for again?

Congratulations America! You’ve been liberated from low prices, falling inflation and all of your international allies. Good job!

Not making time to watch the actual programme everyone’s talking about but seemingly having time to absorb a twitter conspiracy about it is the most Kemi Badenoch response I ever heard

But Hilary’s emails!

Where are the Democrats? Rather than taking the high ground, get down in the gutter and fight. Trump is not interested in your rules. Start by calling him Vice President Trump at EVERY opportunity. Childish? Yes. Will it get under his thin skin? Definitely. The old rule book has been torn up.

Someone should write a paper on immigrants, or children of immigrants, wanting to pull the drawbridge up behind themselves. Musk. Badenoch. Raab. Braverman. Sunak. Patel.

Where “peace plan” equals “forcing the democracy to surrender”.