This was basically what did for Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. They weren’t removed by no-confidence vote. Their colleagues just told them to GTFO.

Big day for all the born again Christians who are yet to visit a church on a Sunday but are quite sure Jesus wants them to ethnically cleanse the UK.

Replies divided 50-50 between ‘yeah all my boomer relatives keep their houses like saunas’ and ‘you must be lying no one does that’.

Lots of people ask why no-one working at the shop tries to stop shoplifters, and this is why: the shops themselves have decided their employees should not to try to stop them, and that they can sack those who try. To be fair, the police ought to do more. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

This story is a front-line version of “Dead Souls”: a savage and corrupt economy of blood for rubles. “Soldiers describe the front lines as a marketplace where everything has a price: drones, medals, home leave and life itself.” economist.com/europe/2026/...

Elllllbridge coooollllllbyyyyy, come out to plaaaaaaayaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy

To be clear, we totally can pretend it's not our war on the simple basis that it isn't.

Things you do when the war is going to end soon...

The idea that harassment doesn’t matter or can’t be bad if you’re white or a man is a part of what’s breaking this website. A lot of people think it gives them a free pass to behave like psychos without reflection. I assure you, dogpiles are awful regardless of race or gender

How would we know? The Conservatives in 2019 and Labour in 2024 both ran on impossible promises and most of their partisans have spent the time since complaining that the voters are unreasonable. When was the last chance you gave them to *be* reasonable?

I can tell that the local elections are coming as Facebook is now serving me loads of pro-Reform content on groups for the Lancashire town I grew up in.... Grim.

There's a lot of crap on Five Eyes, but this tops it. Five Eyes literally does protect US lives and national security, and supports US interests. No, the "Steele Dossier" wasn't "from" UK intelligence and our Home Secretary is British. Loomer is 🤯 and people in the WH listen to this nonsense.

upping the ante by sneering slightly at the train guys for not traveling by horse-borne carriage so that you *really* experience the journey

Populism before principle ...

Below quote from Pompeo shows how the present US admin just totally refuses to accept their own failure in convincing even their own people that they are doing the right thing in Iran (because they aren't).

Social media is an asset to the Ukrainian war effort. Everyone from Zelenskyy through to individual soldiers have used it to great effect. It's a bit easier when your cause isn't morally abhorrent, your strategy isn't incomprehensible, and your public figures aren't viscerally unpleasant.

OTD in 2023 Finland joined NATO, triggering 5th stage of Kremlin grief 1 “NATO is aggressive alliance” 2 “This crosses critical red line” 3 “The West will face terrible consequences” 4 "We remind you Russia is nuclear power" 5 “This is entirely meaningless & changes nothing”

I tend to get dogpiled every time I say this but: as someone *who likes bluesky and benefits from being here* we have a problem. The network is shrinking, not growing. It's shrinking a lot: only about 1.1m people a day even like a post. This time last year it was 1.6m.

Make that two helicopters. www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/l...

Searingly accurate.

Amazing that the Grenadier Guards once participated in this parade.

Drunk Guys who drunk text their ex at 4am show less desperation than many very online Americans do when they want to explain why Europe is bad.

A Russian milblogger says Ukraine is pushing hard on the southern front and striking deep with drones, while Russia still hasn’t adapted. He’s basically arguing Moscow should stop chasing map gains before this turns into a disaster.

Whatever the overall statistics say, as long as Met allows thieves to rob local shops and supermarkets with impunity no one in London will believe crime is under control …my locality police refuse to act even on absolutely clear cctv evidence …

Meaning what exactly, as US has stopped all weapons aid to Ukraine and is threatening PURL deliveries US weapons funded by the Europeans

This, and not the cruel self-defeating nonsense on immigration, should be Mahmood’s focus. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It’s notable that now even Abrams tanks have to be up-armoured to resist drones in this fashion.

Senedd Reform candidate blamed NATO for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

while doing some research I came across the greatest headline I have ever read & I can’t believe I missed this in 2011

Consider the opportunity costs of the war in Iran. The missiles might have been sent to Ukraine, to end that war. The money might have bought healthcare for Americans. The attention of Europe and Asia might have been focused on countering Russia and China, not re-opening the Strait of Hormuz

Sorry but you are way too humanities brained if you think space colonization is problematic because earth colonization was often accompanied by bad stuff. There are no people on the moon. The bad things involving colonization were the things they did to people living there. There are no people there

You know, the fact that the US had all this money and resources to throw away on a pointless war with Iran gives the lie to the idea that it couldn’t have given it to Ukraine in 2022. The $200bn requested for this war greatly exceeds all US aid given to Ukraine.

Reading about the making of John Boorman's Deliverance and you know that scene where Lewis (Burt Reynolds) somersaults into the waterfall...?

Except on pensioners, who will take 60% of the benefits bill and 11%+ of all govt spending. Yeah big and tough when you pick on the weak and not the electorally strong aren't you. Unserious and offensive. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

But it’s both true and a bit “so what. It is where we are and we have to start from here” So worrying about it or suggesting it’s not even worth starting (not suggesting that’s you btw) means we just limp along

The UK should not cut any such deal. The UK also should not join any war. Neither of these are things we *have* to do. Higher energy prices are bad but weatherable for the UK, and can drive a transition to low-carbon energy. Let those who cannot weather them cut the deal or join the war.

Trump has three more years in office. There is no indication that things aren't going to continue to worsen. But nor can Ukraine be abandoned. What a villain this man is. /ends

So no ceasefire then. *TRUMP SAYS US WILL CONSIDER IRAN CEASE-FIRE WHEN HORMUZ IS OPEN

True ambition would mean rejoining. This is a major emergency and thinking the unthinkable is necessary. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

It’s actually possible to write headlines that don’t obscure who did what. Thanks, AP.

This starts as an amusing April Fool thing then gradually leans into the joke to become genuinely funny. youtu.be/gQhc_RSVkcw?...

As many others have pointed out, Trump invariably refers to NATO as 'they' and 'them', never as 'we' or 'us'. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

The vessels, understood to be part of a previously undisclosed maritime capability initiative, will reportedly incorporate an advanced low-observability architecture designed to significantly reduce their detectability across multiple domains. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/?p=67985

The 2025 numbers are really striking. www.kielinstitut.de/fileadmin/Da...

People just haven't tuned into how bad this could go for the EU and UK. Reality hasn't quite hit them yet.

Pretty much.

It's bad when an app update changes the UI. No, it's not "irrational" hatred of change. No, it doesn't matter how much better the new UI is. Imagine if all of your appliances mutated at random intervals. Imagine if your car's steering wheel surprised you by being in a different place tomorrow.

The dominos are falling on schedule, as JP Morgan predicted last week. The last Gulf tankers are forecast to arrive in south-east Asia by tomorrow, with Indonesia facing a shortfall of 700,000 barrels of oil per day.