"These materials weren’t being shown to economics graduates. They were for teenagers, and it’s very clear what message they were meant to absorb: this isn’t the kind of debt you need to worry about." This week's New Statesman column on misinfo and student loans www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Some huge scientific news announced in my house this morning.

The EU will finally enforce its own sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet in the Mediterranean, 4 years too late. European Union Naval Force Mediterranean – Operation Irini, established in 2020 to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya, will now board such vessels.

The phrase "two-tier" policing first entered Britain's political mainstream in August 2024, when people supporting the Southport rioters were complaining of their treatment But it is not a mainstream term - it originated with far right and conspiracist groups trying to push their own narratives

🧵 Ten years after Brexit, data catches up with lived reality. UK 🇬🇧 GDP 8% smaller. Investment ⬇️ 18%. Productivity ⬇️ 4%. GDP/capita 10% lower than comparable nations. Not bc of a single shock, but bc Brexit drained confidence, investment, capacity for a decade. www.euronews.com/business/202...

I think the best way to explain the X vs Bluesky preference is whether a person thinks the left is more annoying than the right is dangerous. The reason so many Noah Smiths end up on the X side of that equation is that while the left annoys them personally, the right mostly endangers other people.

This seems to be riffing on an image which was deliberately created as a metaphor for the death of a beloved ruler. Except this time DJT and the penguin are walking in to a snow-covered wasteland together, so it’s all a lot bleaker than the original. 🤔

perhaps BBC Verify, the unit designed to unpick mis/disinfo, could analyse BBC News’s output and then counter the claims amplified by the news & the far-right outfits which make them

82 years ago today my grandfather, who lied about his age to enlist in the military, was in one of the first waves of landing crafts to hit the beaches of Normandy. He's been gone a long time now, but today I remember him and the other brave souls who fought and died for a righteous cause.

When Andrew Tate showed up on stage in St Petersburg with Vladimir Putin and an array of other Russian stooges from the manosphere, it was a major unboxing. But these toxic relationships have been apparent to those who study the Tates and their movements for some time.

The BBC 10 o’clock news says the right wing idea of ethnic minorities being given preferential treatment in criminal justice is likely to become a “growing fault line in our politics” WITHOUT POINTING OUT THAT IT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. What’s the point of the news if it doesn’t correct disinformation?

Wilhoit: Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis...

This is bad. At least 9 county prosecutors in pro-Trump areas of Virginia have now openly declared that they won't enforce the assault weapons ban that the Dem state legislature recently passed. It's a MAGA nullification movement. New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/2114...

As we approach the ten-year anniversary of the referendum, time for some new Brexit stories. Because the experts still existed, even if government didn't want to listen... so here is our story, more specifically mine. With exclusives... and jokes. www.linkedin.com/pulse/decade...

Yes Laura Pidcock who was meant to be Corbyn's successor was and still is a massive transphobe. There was always a tension between sections of the boomer trade union left vs the young progressives, with the former type being riddled with TERFism

reading about the May government for a thing and mad, mad, mad that a Conservative Prime Minister said this nine years ago, I hate how much we've lost since then! I hate it so much! www.theguardian.com/society/2017...

The Ukrainian decision to double down on drone warfare, from the battlefield, to mid range and long range strike, and not to draft all of its young men to make infantry, will be seen by historians as one of the most important decisions in 19th-21st century warfare.

“Ukraine is not looking to seize and hold massive amounts of territory from insurgent forces operating across wide swaths of territory. It is looking to destroy the military cohesion of the russian army—and that is a very different task. It will not have to become an occupant” Well said. Read it!

basically everything trump is trying to do in the middle east is the “isn’t there someone you forgot to ask” meme with the someone alternating between the israelis and the iranians

The New Yorker nailed this back in, what, 2016

> Former foreign secretary David Miliband has described Brexit as an act of "sabotage", claiming it costs Britain up to £30 billion annually, which he likens to a "punishing Brexit tax every day". www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...

This is the second time this has happened. CBS News's Investigative unit got a retired ICE agent to break down the Good shooting frame-by-frame. On the record, he said the agents were entirely out of line. The piece was only posted online and never broadcast. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ywL...

Laws restricting social media access based on age are spreading across the globe—from Australia and the UK to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and the EU. These policies create serious risks for privacy, free expression, and access to information. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

The directive from Bari Weiss to make the protesters killed by ICE look “more violent” came after Scott Pelley voluntarily had already gone to great pains to make them look violent in the first place:

If you wanted proper context for Good, for example, you could show how federal cops repeatedly, illegally pulled ICE watchers from their cars and beat them. That might explain why Good tried to flee. Or discuss CBP’s history of putting themselves in front of cars to justify firing into them.

The Minneapolis protesters were remarkable for how peaceful and restrained they were in the face of brutality. It’s why nearly all the charges against them haven’t held up in court. Seeking out footage to the contrary isn’t “telling the whole story.” It’s constructing a false narrative.

If there is any justice left in this country, the entire Trump crime family will end up behind bars due to their obscene corruption.

Curious new trend in menswear, of trousers with…a hole for my tail to get out of?

Three ways to improve high streets by *raising* business rates: 1. Higher rates on long-empty shops, to force realistic rents 2. End exemption for charity shops. 3. Make landlords pay when candy/vape shops vanish with unpaid rates. They'll ensure rates are paid up-front.

Starmer project in a nutshell, that. Duck every actually hard choice by making bad choices instead, assuming that the electorate will reward you for cowardice in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The departmental budgets for the last two years of this parliament weren't credible even before these cuts – unless you think a Labour gov would go into an election having frozen or cut most gov services for two years pre-election. So now we're cutting those budgets further? Sure we are.

Free Speech Champion(tm) Bari Weiss demanding CBS News smear an American executed by her government for protesting bsky.app/profile/elio...

i've been joking about this the past few days, but i also mean it versions of this creep into progressive discourse all the time & it's worth opposing bsky.app/profile/polp...

Which is the problem with a lot of discourse about indigeneity. The actual injustice is historical *and ongoing* racism and discrimination. The need is to address that directly, not reprise blood and soil nationalism and orientalist ‘noble savage’ bullshit as performative progressive cosplay.

Holding the cordon sanitaire and denying the far right and far left political legitimacy is also an act of gatekeeping. Edward Heath did it in the U.K. fifty years ago and the NF & BNP faded away. David Cameron did not, and we got *this* {looks around, points} Keir Starmer copied the wrong one.

Nadhim Zahawi describes Nowak as someone "who lost his life because of incompetence". Greg Dyke points out that nobody is saying the mistake by police caused the death. Phillips intervenes with "nobody knows". A lack of basic research on a very sensitive topic. Paragraph 16 of sentencing remarks:

🔥 “Trump has made a mockery of it all. There are corrupt people in government - nobody like this.” Hunter Biden on the obscene self-enrichment of Trump, Don Jr, Eric, Kushner, Ivanka, etc… and those who attacked him relentlessly for far less, without evidence, are silent.

Marian Kamenský

Confirming with my own eyes and pics what several fellow Washingtonians have said about this post with hundreds of shares and earnest comments: straight up misinformation

Under the banner of “simplification” and “reducing administrative burdens,” the EU is dismantling the rights-based digital framework it spent a decade constructing—mistaking a retreat from accountability for a leap toward innovation, argues Tech Policy Press contributing editor Amber Sinha.

Under Trump, enforcement of Russia sanctions have been relaxed to the point where Russian oligarchs can buy US jets and take them back to Russia. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

They’re right to worry. Hegseth is clearly resegregating the military by race and sex.

We are optimising ourselves to death ft.trib.al/izzTDAX

here are a lot of '80s kids on here who were never screened for autism/ADHD/AuDHD + just now realizing how much these things have made us who we are. AuDHD burnout is real, and we owe it to ourselves + everyone around us to understand it. I wish I had earlier, but would love to hear how others cope

The homicide epidemic targeting Palestinians on the West Bank continues to surge, as Israeli police evince a remarkable disinterest in identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

I know we shouldn't respond to the trolling, but Vance implying that Sikhs are part of a "mass invasion of migrants", when they fought in tens of thousands for the British in two world wars and even THE INDIAN MUTINY is 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

82 years ago, 14,000 Canadians landed on Juno Beach, many of whom would never come home.   On the anniversary of D-Day, we pause to honour those who served and sacrificed.