So JD Vance was given two high-profile tasks for the Trump administration -- boost Orban's chances at re-election in Hungary and help strike a settlement in Iran -- and he appears to have failed horribly at both. I'm sure the NYT will be all over that.

BREAKING: Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán has called Péter Magyar to concede defeat in today's election. With 53.45% of votes counted, Magyar's TISZA looks set to secure a super majority. A defeat for Putin, a defeat for Trump, a victory for Europe, and above all, a victory for the Hungarian people.

the trouble with the great man theory of history is that there’s some absolute dipshits who believe themselves to be great men

This is how Bruce Springsteen opened his concert in Los Angeles last night. 🔥🔥 Footage from @margaret_nagle on Threads.

Absolutely remarkable statement from Pope Leo today. One for the history books www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

“'I’ve never experienced anything like this in my entire life,' the congresswoman said, fighting back tears. "She described the way people were laying down inside as “like sardines.” “'It is frightening in there,' she said. 'It is disgusting'..." azmirror.com/2026/04/10/i...

So @jderbyshire.ft.com asked @philgordondc.bsky.social if the Iran war is the US’s Suez moment. He said no, but then pithily and pitilessly sums up how it has been a comprehensive strategic failure. Oof! www.ft.com/content/0cbc...

Happy 50th anniversary to “All the President’s Men” — a film that owes its existence to Redford, who bought the film rights, developed the script and cajoled a reluctant Woodward & Bernstein. I thought it was “a great character study,” he said later. But, for months, “they didn’t return my calls.”

Yesterday the US government told us the Iranians were “begging” for a ceasefire. A ceasefire the Iranians today, the Americans tell us, have immediately reneged on.

a “ceasefire” that lasted 17 hours and killed 254 people in lebanon is not a ceasefire and referring to it as one is inaccurate

Difficult to describe how unusual it is for @icrc.org to speak publicly like this. "Heavy explosive weapons with wide-area effects struck densely populated urban areas, including the capital Beirut, without effective advance warnings." ICRC Outraged by Deadly Strikes in Densely Populated Areas

MelonIi, Le Pen, Wilders, Morawiecki, Ventura — all Europe’s far-right have lined up next to Orban to support him in Sunday’s election. They should be pressured relentlessly over his Russia ties. Orban is Russia’s man in Europe. The mouse to Russia’s lion, to use *his own words*

Presenting the reopening the Strait of Hormuz as a victory is like the Greeks failing to take Troy but celebrating the safe return of their wooden horse

I don't say this lightly but I think it might be time to consider revoking his FIFA Peace Prize

Tell me, when you drop bombs on giant crowds of peaceful protestors, are you the good guys?

After Trump wrote, in reference to Iran, “A whole civilization will die tonight,” the entirety of the House Democratic leadership issued this joint statement:

Because we all need something amazing today. #artemisII

This is the scene on the White Bridge in Ahvaz, Iran A human chain of adults and children spanning the bridge. Never seen anything like it. (🎥 Ariel Oseran)

You see the darnedest things on the tube.

I’ve read countless articles, from both liberal left and conservative right, about how we should have something like the US constitution, accompanied by warnings of the dangers inherent in our own system. Yet, when we had two leaders who were unfit for office, we got rid of them.

France has sold off the last of its gold held in the US Federal Reserve and now holds all its gold in Paris. German groups are now pressuring the government to repatriate its own gold.

“Parliament had turned over its constitutional authority to Hitler and thereby committed suicide, though its body lingered on in an embalmed state.” Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 331)

If this is real. If his thumbs actually typed what is below... Citizens. Senators. Cabinet. The President of the United States is out of control. He is beyond reason or amelioration. We might really, really, really, I'm trying not to shout or capitalize here, really want to address this.

The president hasn't been seen in public in days, while his social media account is issuing insane unhinged threats. Seems like we should get some confirmation that he's, you know, still alive and it's not Stephen Miller tapping out the rants

Even if you shrug off impeachment as impossible (you shouldn't), it's not like 25th Amendment is easier. It's harder. If you're going to talk about what should happen, stop treating impeachment like it's an unspeakable third rail while fantasizing about how it's somebody else's job to do something.

Constitutional lawyer here. I don't think it would violate the Constitution for the VP/Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, but the intended constitutional remedy for this behavior is impeachment & removal. The fact that that remedy is politically impossible is a scandal and a crisis.

FIFA Peace Prize update

If you’re going to rage-tweet a war, at least learn the difference between “reign” and “rain.” 🤡

Friday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar generation saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026 📈Wind+solar were up 22% year-on-year in March to a record high for the month ⛴️This avoided the need for gas imports worth £1bn at current high prices www.carbonbrief.org/...

Several thousand dollars for a World Cup game from a host that made explicit promises to FIFA of the most expensive ticket being not much more than $1000, and that was at the final. None of the $20 tickets materialised. FIFA now in cahoots with profiteers. What is the point of it?

You can see pretty clearly when the President decided to reassure a worried nation.

It’s arguably less a war than it is just a string of war crimes

👇👇

The fact that Trump is going to oral arguments to pressure the justices to acquiesce to his attempted nullification of a constitutional amendment and create a stateless class for the first time since the civil war, illustrates what is really at the core of the Trump project and it isn’t tariffs.

This is an extraordinary front page for a British newspaper to run. Donald Trump’s delinquency, derangement & imperilling of international security is somehow a stick with which to beat our own Prime Minister, who has negotiated the current horror show rather well. It is actually sickening.

One of the lessons from Vietnam is that when they start bombarding you with numbers like these -- ordinance used, targets struck, so many killed and wounded -- there's more we're not being told.

I hope all those people who said the US had done no planning for war in Iran will now apologise. www.ft.com/content/744e...

Shortest Tudor reign since Lady Jane Grey

America did not meet the universal adult suffrage criteria of democratic governance until 1965. Gatorade is the exact same age as American democracy.

🚨 THIS JUST IN: With over 100 protests still to come, we can already estimate that at least 8 million people participated in No Kings protests today. That makes No Kings 3 the largest single day of protest in American history. #NoKings

I did this on previous No Kings days, but it's genuinely shocking to look back on Tea Party coverage and see what paltry numbers were treated like a political earthquake.

So many law review articles and he just tweeted it out

Truly extraordinary that a country famed for a constitution of checks and balances turned out to be so exposed to a leadership personality cult.

The upshot is basically, the Iranian state has been taken over the Revolutionary Guards and the military has been splintered into cells that can fight without centralised control

How do you fix a situation where a corrupt president can have his allies make bogus lawsuits against our own government, and then direct his corrupted "Justice Department" to settle and shell out taxpayer money to his corrupt friends? We need to start thinking about writing laws around this *now*.

Still wondering if inequality is out of control?