I try to not get mad at the Internet, but this is a big-V account with 300K followers, followed by other big accounts and reposted into my thread by someone I respect, posting a story with no link which, after googling, is from a 3rd-tier publication and sourced entirely from Twitter vibes.

The one (1) aspect of Netanyahu's policy with which I can agree whole-heartedly: non-recognition of Somaliland, based on the idea that Somalia will ever somehow get it back, is an utterly failed policy. Time to recognise reality. www.ynetnews.com/article/dxt2...

Notable that the Trump administration has done this but as far as I am aware there are no sanctions outstanding for the people who operate China’s Great Fire Wall, or the corresponding Russian censorship, specifically for censorship on the internet. It is only the US’s allies who get this treatment

For far too long, US ideologues have discriminated against UK companies. They illegitimately prevent UK drinks makers from selling Scotch to under 21s in the US with weaponised regulation targeting the freedoms of 18yr old adults to consume alcohol. We should sanction the entire US government

“CCTV News sets aside five minutes a day to scold her. This has been going on for a month, so she must be utterly ashamed by now.”

Finally got my hands on a copy of this, only been looking for ten+ years!

We’re in “Labour voters will come home from the Greens” territory. And let’s be clear, amid all the self-inflicted injuries, a lot of the reasons why Labour has lost support are pure wibble, particularly about Palestine and other things.

this made me so happy

I had never even heard a hint that generational upward mobility had been higher in the UK than in the US for decades, until seeing that second chart.

YEAH BABY!

Some people, particularly on here, act as if the UK was never a force for good within the EU. This case is one where the UK, if it were still a member, could have exerted influence to get the correct decision (using *RUSSIAN* assets to secure this loan) through. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Isn’t it usually easier to just buy something from a country that wants to sell it to you?

"Xi and Putin are too sensible to do the things that you say they might do/have done and my evidence for this is the version of them that solely exists in my head are wise philosopher-kings incapable of wrong, because only western leaders do that" - a lot of commentary 2010-2025.

ok so maybe I was wrong when I said Putin would never invade. and maybe I was wrong when I said Putin will win in a week and we should not help. But now we’re here, and I'm going to tell you what putin is thinking, and I’m going to do it in the most patronizing way possible

That the Russian government might retaliate by stealing the assets of western companies still operating in Russia is pretty over-determined at this point. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

I absolutely, 100% cosign that anyone I see writing emails using AI, I assume that they also use AI to read them (i.e., doesn't read them)

"A little festive advice to those in Reform" Keir Starmer tells Nigel Farage's MPs. "If mysterious men from the East appear bearing gifts, this time report it to the police"

Parties that supported Brexit are currently polling at 50% and look likely to be in power before the end of this decade.

Russia is not going to "Invade Poland". It is going to, say, "defend Kaliningrad" or "Russians in Estonia". And of course it won't call it a "war" - so if you push back against that, it's going to be you playing with fire and risking a nuclear apocalypse!

You couldn't get a better example of the psychotic attitudes that some people have when driving than this guy shouting at people to move out of his way whilst mowing down hundreds of them for no reason at all. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

It's straight out racism. Farage and Reform are fine with it. There is almost no coverage of this. Again, the compare and contrast to coverage of Labour anti-Semitism is stark. There can be only one conclusion: the right is institutionally racist and that is socially acceptable.

The third time in 2 months that the official DHS account has tweeted a Nazi term which means "ethnic cleansing" of all people of color from America and Europe.

The full 20.

🇭🇰⚖️ The best moment for all the non-Chinese judges at the HK judiciary to quit was yesterday, but today isn't bad, either.

A fascinating piece, that crystalises something I have thought for a long time: that Italian food is great because it has been so innovative and unrestricted. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“They forced me out of the show on the liberal media organisation because I was too empathetic and liberal” [1000 reposts]

Happy birthday to Jane Austen, and to this very on-brand Economist chart www.economist.com/christmas-sp...

A man who heroically tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi Beach gunmen has been unmasked. The hero has been named as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a Sydney local who owns a fruit shop in Sutherland. www.news.com.au/national/nsw...

Are you an able-bodied person avoiding have beers indoors with other people right now in 2025? 1) If yes, please seek treatment your agoraphobia/germ-phobia. 2) If yes but not because of COVID, misanthropy is a way of life I guess. 3) If no, then what on earth are you arguing for?

If you’re using AI to write emails, chances are you’re using AI to read them. I’d prefer you actually did your job.

Exactly this. There is always a way if there is a will. Ukraine and the UK becoming EU member states together would be a massive show of European strength and cohesion. Will it happen? Not a chance.

Chances are that *HE* (you know who he is) is going to get cancer and is going to want this treatment.

Why is modern mainstream culture so garbage? I explain why. mikecormack.substack.com/p/the-consti...

You won't arrive on time and may not even get a seat. Your booking might get lost. Things have gotten so dire that a foreigner has been brought in to shake things up. n.pr/48NZ9e5

Also, whilst I'm at it, out-and-out no-double-jeopardy even if new evidence comes to light is morally repugnant, as is easy to see from this case reported today. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The "zero growth plus noise" heuristic wins again. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

US legal Twitter over and over and over last year: "The majesty of the US legal system is that it prevents double-jeopardy, you barbarians across the Atlantic are just uncivilised for allowing prosecutions to be brought multiple times for the same charges" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Shameful. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Seeing Venice in the fog last night, with (for once) few tourists anywhere to be seen, was the kind of thing one does once in a lifetime.

The reactions to this one are fascinating - obviously the administration are liars and you wouldn't trust their claim that the sky was blue without independent verification; at the same time a load of people have been negatively polarised into the position that "intercepting pirates is bad"

My first experience of the new EU Entry/Exit system today. Verdict - more officious, pointless bureaucracy of the kind that people only tolerate because (regardless of the country being talked about) they think only foreigners will suffer the consequences of it. Not an improvement. Not faster.

I regret to inform you that American newspapers are doing feature pieces in London again

Labour in 3rd place less the two years from a landslide victory is, to say the least, not what I was expecting in July 2024.

OTD in 1939 USSR requested Nazi German assistance in a blockading Finland by supplying soviet submarines assigned to the task. The sort of thing one ally would request of another. 👓📖👇

So ... four quarters 🤔

Watching sport in the US is impossible because of as breaks ever few minutes. Case what they're trying to do to football? God I hate FIFA.

The Financial Times writes that France has refused to contribute to the ‘reparations loan’ for Ukraine using the €18 billion of Russian funds frozen in its commercial banks. www.ft.com/content/fe30...

‘I’d defend our nation’: Poles prepare for growing threat of war

Karen's great original story here - torontolife.com/city/jennife... - but also a note that in general Toronto Life has some of the best crime coverage I've read anywhere