Oh dear lord. This is quite incredible stupidity from a national figure in Ireland.

Do you work in military intelligence or a related topic? This call for papers may be right up your alley: networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

Such an interesting and thought provoking essay www.ft.com/content/9b07...

Political Strategy 101 for our times.

Counting down to Brexit advocates saying these car production figures are actually a triumph smmtweb.lon1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/u...

A useful reminder that the often-expressed view that Tony Blair is Satan and Corbyn is a popular man of the people doesn't even hold true among 2024 Labour voters, never mind the population at large. Corbyn only very slightly more popular than Starmer, and both a long way behind Blair and Brown.

Donald Trump seems to want to invade Chicago. I don’t understand …

JD Vance: “Trump is a really bad candidate and frankly, I think, a really bad person.” { ht: @patriottakes.bsky.social }

Alarming and worrying … but not at all surprising.

They (the Prussian militarists) waited rather a long time to launch their “coup”. It didn’t do anyone any good.

So - why are so many right wing commentators salivating over the idea of societal collapse, exactly...? My latest

An important dimension to what looks like a dramatic blow to American prestige. How the Trump-Putin Summit Signals a Return to Imperial Thinking www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/w...

The Attorney General, Carl Schmitt and international law: voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/carl-schm...

This piece is an extraordinary deep dive into mRNA vaccine technology, why it is critical, and the damage caused by RFK Jr. torpedoing funding for it. Incredible work by @funsizeimmuninja.bsky.social and Dr. Jess Steier. mRNA is indeed, as the authors say, a molecule of hope.

There are a lot of idiots enraged by this misleading Times headline. The article itself - yes, the exact same one - points out that: A) In any typical year, about 50 independent schools close B) More independent schools opened than shut, so the overall number went up. But that's far too nuanced.

Yes, it's windy, yes it's not always windy, but now when it is, we get the vast majority of our electricity in the UK from trump goading 'windmills.' They do work, they are not a con, they don't kill whales, anyone who believes that dumb garbage deserves our maximum derision.

Can’t tax tips that don’t exist

This is such a great new piece of research by @curdknupfer.bsky.social et al. It should be mandatory reading for journalists. academic.oup.com/joc/advance-...

This is a great example of misleading bylines distorting the substance of an important article on Franco-British relations. The UK media is hopelessly addicted to using lurid language to cover all aspects of relations with France. It is not helpful. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This depressing story seems to indicate a need for cultural change within MI5. IPCO (which was itself misled) will no doubt comment in the report ordered by the Court. Two points made in the judgment show why this is indeed quite serious: /1

I would add: democracy fails when the left goes to war with itself and fails to identify the larger threat from the right. This happens over and over again.

Sieh mal einer an. Alexander Gauland über 'Friedenssicherung durch Gleichgewichtspolitik' im Archiv des Völkerrechts 16.4 (1975)...wohl geschrieben während seiner Zeit als Presseattaché am bundesdeutschen Generalkonsulat in Edinburgh.

I wrote about MAGA's shocking cruelty and how Republicans have only gotten smaller and pettier under Trump's rule. www.publicnotice.co/p/mike-lee-w...

Key players predict that the face of the war will rapidly change this summer, likening the proliferation of UGVs to the explosion in aerial-drone manufacturing in 2023. “We don’t have the men to counteract Russia’s meat-wave,” says one manufacturer. “So we’ll send our zombies against theirs.”

This from Philip Stephens makes a strong case for Starmer’s new realpolitik approach to defence, but adds the importance of not sidelining the UK’s soft power and a foreign policy based on principles. on.ft.com/4kfE2VM | opinion

This cannot be shared too widely. Daniel Hannan is that rarest of individuals: a genuine intellectual fraud. He is a classic prototype of that very English tradition: the "gentleman amateur" that disdains expertise as vulgar and unnecessary. We have all paid the price. youtu.be/bR-AXnvunlo?...

Nixon bombing Cambodia had an approval rating of 50%

Israel has the right to protect its security and people, in line with international law. Iran must take decisive steps to return to negotiations and pave the way for a diplomatic solution. Joint statement with E3 Foreign Affairs Ministers ↓ europa.eu/!KBVVgK

"The manufacturing delusion is drawing countries into protecting domestic industry and competing for jobs that no longer exist. That will only lower wages, worsen productivity and blunt the incentive to innovate ... The mania for manufacturing is not just misguided. It is self-defeating".

BEYER: Isn't this embarrassing? BESSENT: You seem not to have seen the economic data. GDP growth has been quite substantial BEYER: GDP growth is half what it was last year, sir BESSENT: Job growth is solid BEYER: Job growth is a third what it was last year, sir

One of the best tennis matches I have ever seen. Yannick Sinner lost three match points and the fourth set. In the fifth set he went down a break but did not crumble and came back to break Alcaraz in return setting up that final tiebreak. Two amazing athletes. But one French Open champion.

Curiouser and Curiouser …

Some poignant listening here for Raptors fans. And perhaps food for thought for local TO journalists who put enormous pressure on Masai Ujiri to blow up the team that had Van Vleet, Anunoby, Siakam and Barnes.

This encapsulates horseshoe theory--by falsely shunting Fauci onto the side of Big Pharma, here is where left and right paranoia meet down the aisle in their shotgun wedding, with RFK as priest. There's a gulf between skepticism and anti-science. Scientific hypothesis is premised on skepticism.

War is peace, freedom is slavery …

READ: Could Pakistan renew nuclear testing in South Asia?🌏❓ With Balochistan declaring independence from Pakistan amid geopolitical tensions in the region, Prof Jay Sarkar @uofgsps.bsky.social examines whether this might spur Pakistan to renew nuclear weapons testing. www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...

All foreign students in US to face social media checks >>>> Yes, this is the same US administration that was just lecturing Europe on free speech. www.thetimes.com/article/2aaf...

Most 20-point comeback wins in a single postseason: Knicks - 3 this playoffs Pacers - 2 this playoffs No one else has done it more than once

Knicks are 3-5 at home & 6-1 on the road this playoffs. Tonight was their first playoff win in Indiana since June 9, 1999.

It's time for democratic nations to band together and kick out Russian infiltration operations for good, argues Heidi Siegmund Cuda

This is an absolute honour for me. Working with @ajimenezbacardi.bsky.social, the @nsarchive.bsky.social, and especially continuing the work of the late (and great) John Prados. Read new details about the coup against Diem in 1963 South Vietnam.

Billy Long is from central casting. Can’t be real. Wow.

If you are tired of the performative hysteria of parts of the British press and would like to know how Europe sees today's 'Reset'- Summit, here's my take. Spoiler alert. It's mostly good news for Britain. 👇👇

This is wrong- headed in all kinds of ways. The endpoint of this argument is that the Democrats don’t need to learn from their mistakes. It is quite dismal.

This pretty much sets the stage for the next 72 hours of utterly tedious, ill-informed or just downright insane Brexit commentary (I'm referring to Suella Braverman's article, of course, not Anand's post 😀)

There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university. University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.

Read this thought provoking and carefully argued assessment from @stephengethins.bsky.social