Today's a good day to get up close with an Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus coronatus). ➡️

it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than a laughing bad one

This is the point about Labour introducing retrospective changes to the immigration system. They set the precedent for any Govt. to say that they can go back on promises to migrants and people of colour as far back as they want.

In an attempt to understand our own fascination with the shiny minerals, researchers gave some crystals to chimps. The animals responded with great interest.

This is both disgusting and completely unsurprising behaviour by the Trump regime. This is what Farage and his Reform goons want to bring to the UK.

I felt the need to write to my MP yet again

I particularly resent rags like Daily Mail gleefully reporting Trump’s bullying of Starmer. It’s disloyal and hypocritical - they’d be screaming from rooftops if U.K. meekly followed European diktats, yet would have us unquestioningly kowtow to Trump. Starmer’s task is incredibly difficult.

It's frankly pathetic how many people left of center will happily tolerate bald-faced liars if they think the liars are directionally supportive of their politics. Lying is bad, haven't we learned that? We will not win a political contest built around consequence-free lying.

This week’s Guest Recipe from the #CookbookCorner archive is the Khaliat Nahal — Honeycomb Bread — from Bahari: Recipes from an Omani Kitchen and Beyond by Dina Macki. It’s served traditionally in Oman on the 14th day of Ramadan, which is today! www.nigella.com/recipes/gues...

PinkNews launches survey on impacts of the Supreme Court’s gender ruling, one year on ➡️ https://bit.ly/4u4cf0E

IPSO have published their verdict on The Daily Telegraph’s fake £345,000-a year banker couple who claimed they couldn’t afford five holidays. The paper declined to explain to the watchdog how the article came to be published - but our reporting at the time sets it out…

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

Link to IPSO judgement on the Telegraph's completely made-up story. www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...

This is grimly fascinating

Trump does this routinely and he also just calls and texts other world leaders from his personal mobile, often without warning

Is anyone else as confused by this Pentagon statement as I am? We were told that the Israelis and [we] Americans had achieved air superiority over Iran, but *now* we are being told that the Kuwaitis shot down 3 F-15s over Kuwait that were...dogfighting with the Iranian Air Force?

I spent 6 years of my life writing a PhD about UK policy in Persian Gulf in the 1960s, including the role of the Anglo-American alliance. Key to the Persian Gulf policy of both countries: AVOID a power vacuum under any circumstances &keep Iran&Saudi Arabia from attacking the smaller Gulf States.

Women have been coming forward about Epstein and the Epstein class since the 90s. Authorities that are supposed to protect women didn’t do their jobs. When people say “why didn’t you report it sooner” to women - this is why, they aren’t believed and their lives can be ruined. Karen Mulder was brave.

I once referred to Dubai as 'LinkedIn with beheadings' on Twitter and got two days of men in ill-fitting jackets telling me I was British as if it were some kind of own.

Please read this thread as a 'micro-example' of what is going so wrong with the English court system - and note the 'butterfly' effect point. Our court system is so rackety and improvised, one slip and so many other things will go wrong.

Problem with both the question and answer is that "do you join an insane pre-emptive war of choice" and "how do you deal with the consequences of an ally doing one of those without telling you, given your knowledge of WWI" are quite different questions and the second is generally the important one

Yesterday was St David's Day, patron saint of Wales. Today we think of Saint Non, patron saint of women who have been raped & mother of Saint David. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Non

Why is so much of your media committed to portraying most of the world as little more than fields from which to harvest self-righteous sorrows? Are you incapable of cultivating any interest beyond what is required to ensure you are pro- and anti- the things that flatter and confirm your self-image?

fwiw there is never going to be a good answer to the question "what should a UK government do faced with a mad US President given frightening levels of powers by his own party?"

I am not dunking on this account but it's important to explain a couple of things that they haven't understood. There are only two ways to defend against a ballistic missile. Either shoot it down, or stop it launching. We're not in a position to do the first, which leaves only the second. 1/n

"to walk the road of peace, sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict"...

I'm sorry but if British lives are at risk here and Starmer has acted for that reason you think *this* is the reason to get rid after the locals? There are plenty of reasons to get rid but this? Well it's a pov. A dumb one that says something about a lot of people making it an hour after the event

Utterly cruel, pointless and harmful. It does not minimise how bad Conservatives were to say Labour are now the most anti-asylum government in most people's living memory. This prevents people feeling any sense of safety and security after fleeing persecution. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

It’s IMO one of the most remarkable marketing achievements the way that the UAE successfully marketed itself to “economically successful enough to be an attractive proposition to UAE, intellectually incurious enough not to have noticed that his dog *is* in the middle of a warzone” people.

I think this is a wise assumption IRL too

Traffic in Trafalgar Square, 1947

I think bluesky would be roughly 300% better if people here were capable of reading “this is an assessment of the empirical reality of a situation” without assuming it comes with an implicit “and therefore I endorse the reality of that situation”

From Steve McCurry’s series War, Kuwait, 1991. www.stevemccurry.com

In 1970, SAC proposed launching eight Minuteman ICBMs from active silos. But because members of Congress over whose districts and states these ICBMs would have to fly refused to authorize it, and to avoid further embarrassment, no subsequent test launches from operational silos were ever attempted.

"We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not." Joan Didion on the benefits of keeping a notebook: www.themarginalian.org/2012/11/19/j...

The reason the UK, France and Germany are not doing that is, still Ukraine. In an ideal world we could denounce all breaches of international law, and deal with all acts of aggression by dictators without US assistance. That is not this world.

Utter vile nonsense. Russia has hit so so many schools and kindergartens, killing and injuring children week on week

One of the most annoying things about this debate is the lack of understanding throughout. Gender critical beliefs hold that sex is the most important dividing line, not gender identity, a lot of very different politics then flow from that position, there is no unifying theory.

Weird that Reform is OK with Irish citizens voting but not commonwealth ones. Wonder what the difference could be?

I would be interested to see how many government ministers have noticed this + could defend this - or have notice the proposal to make all the 7-11 year children of social care workers pay international students fees at 18! bsky.app/profile/sund...

This looks like an unintentional consequence: that many women will never qualify. I expect the govt to drop the idea that high earners get settlement in 3 years while their dependents wait 10-15 years. But the proposals have deliberate consequences that are hard to fix www.ft.com/content/ca14...

Five years ago this week, Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving police officer, sparking protests & promises of change But now, woman officers abused by colleagues tell me reforms have victimised them more instead of protecting them For @theobserveruk.bsky.social: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

In which Aiden pretends leftie feminist academics are extreme right Nazis. Bad faith. The vast majority of everyone across the political spectrum knows humans can't change sex & sometimes sex matters. Faux left gender identitarians have gifted the political right a wide open goal. Time to recant.

1/9. In 2020 Iran did try to interfere with the presidential election.

Other work of the Ladybird artists. ‘February Fill Dyke’ Artist: Rowland Hilder

NEW: The Trump administration has delayed arms sales to Taiwan valued at $13 billion that had been approved by lawmakers. US officials say Trump wants to ensure a smooth summit in April with Xi. And the Iran war will cut into US military resources for Asia. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

An interesting choice of reading material on the desk. The book chronicles the tensions and disagreements that strained and shaped the relationships of allies fighting a common enemy.

Weasel.

Everyone knows this very normal behaviour leads to the best military outcomes.