The world’s largest sand battery got through Finland’s harshest winter in years. 2,000 tonnes of sand, heated to 500-600°C by cheap power, feeding district heating in Pornainen. And it worked. Result from one install: oil down 100%, emissions down 70%. Industrial process heat is the real prize.

A US delegation to Greenland included a doctor whose aim was to “assess the medical needs” of the Arctic island. This was condemed by the health minister and several other politicians as Greenland has a history of repeated health-related abuses of Indigenous Greenlandic peo... TAT: [Foreign policy]

(Stage whisper to lobby correspondents). If you'd listened to the transport nerds, or at least listened to YIMBY Pod, you'd have known that HS2 probably won't start until 2039 months ago, without needing the Transport Secretary to tell you.

We should stop freaking out about how tacky and blue it's gonna be because they still aren't fixing the perpetual green algae problem so it's going to be just the most disgusting furious peacock marching down the center of D.C.

Trump moved ahead on Monday with plans to allow 10,000 more white South Africans into the United States as refugees, even as the program remains closed off to people from every other country in the world. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

Honestly I was surprised it took 15 months for this to come out publicly.

Anyone would think "Net Zero" meant they had to personally hold in their farts forever, or something.

David Frost recalls the morning after the Brexit Referendum. He tells the Freedom Association that "we need to recapture some of that sense of excitement and potential, that something great was happening."

How about: a) I believe the UK should rejoin the EU; but b) Neither we nor Brussels are ready for a formal negotiation; and c) EU membership would not be a panacea for our national challenges; so c) I will work to build trust and lay foundations with the EU, while advancing other priorities.

All the decay you see around you is the result of the deliberate butchery of the local state by Tory central government. They really did do it on purpose, and laughed while they were doing it. It is generational damage, that needs a plan to put right that isn't just "merge bankrupt councils".

Much to enjoy about this, but I think the 'you used to be there' hand gesture is my favourite and even more enjoyable than the original 'well, if you're gonna set me up' response.

(Amanda) Maurine and I are getting used to each other. I'm not going to say that we are friends yet but things are looking good. I've noticed that he is obsessed with food! He doesn't even look at me if there is food around. Betty says he's got a 'one-track mind' and I think I know what she means.

¶17 of NYT's version of the "Trump decided not to smithereen Iran after all based on request from Gulf allies." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

Nigel Farage is facing questions over Reform UK's claim that he used a fee from appearing on a TV show to buy a £1.4m home. Chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman has more details on #BBCbreakfast

Israeli ambassador just out there doing a classic antisemitism.

Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho keeps saying the "UK is the only country in the world banning new oil and gas licenses". It's completely untrue. Denmark, France, Spain & Ireland have all done the same. She went completely unchallenged on Talk this AM when she repeated it.

Free to Roam, Southbank, Middlesbrough, 1970s, photo by Robin Dale (Mary Evans Picture Library).

From the latest Private Eye, out now.

Nobody undermined Kurt Vonnegut's writing by calling it "whimsy" because he wrote in a time when having a wild imagination and mixing extreme seriousness with extreme silliness wasn't seen by publishers as something freakish and troublesome to deal with.

I trust nothing here will come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

I am once again begging, praying, weeping for lists of written instructions rather than videos. I do not want to watch your two minute video in the hope of catching the two seconds where you whizz past what goddamn menu the thing is under. Write. It. Down.

american booty

Presumably Nigel Farage received a further £1.4m from someone that we don’t yet know about

Can you code, design or are you a democracy expert? Register for CoE’s Democracy Hackathon! Build innovative tools to fight hate speech for the New Democratic Pact for Europe, get expert mentorship and win a share of a €50,000 Microsoft grant. 👉 democracyhackathon.coe.int

“Labour may be doing itself no favours by reviving the European debate – but… the whole country will have to face up to it again, sooner or later, and the British know it. It simply cannot be avoided, even in Makerfield” Yes. It’s too damaging to dodge forever. www.independent.co.uk/voices/edito...

Let's bring two people on, for a superficial conversation apportioned by a presenter (and, if we're lucky, an argument). The last thing we want is somebody taking a question and running with it, and producing a considered explanation with occasional ineffectual meeps from the presenter. #R4Today

Gorgeous ! Thank you to Anna Marlow for today's #FoxOfTheDay !

Richardson debunks tRump admin’s myth that America was founded as a Christian nation. The 1796 Treaty of Tripoli states the U.S. "is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." Jefferson & Madison championed church-state separation. #AmericanHistory mcsp.short.gy/UI0N

🧵Near Dewsbury lived a man described as there being 'no more bold and original thinker ever devoted himself to the study of the earth or the heavens.' He has also been called the true 'father” of the black hole concept,' John Michell was born in Nottinghamshire in 1724, and attended

A leading 'Raise the Colours' flag activist, who claims to be fighting to "protect our women" from migrants, has pled guilty to assaulting a woman bylinetimes.com/2026/05/18/f...

A Reform UK Councillor who last week apologised for a single social media post he claimed had been 'misinterpreted' as racist, posted a series of other racist and offensive posts. Messages uncovered by Byline Times shows Ken Tranter comparing Muslims to cockroaches who will "take over" the country

I'm baffled at the vehemence with which some academic and analyst colleagues claim that the UK would never rejoin the EU in their lifetimes For the last decade we have seen crazy shit happen on a monthly basis that was declared impossible 20 years ago, yet Rejoin is not worth contemplating? Really?

I think Xi may decide that his relationship with Western Europe is more valuable to him than Putin’s Russia, and now that it is clear that the EU will not be put off supporting Ukraine… Russia will have to suffer their face-losing loss alone.

New painting by my dad. He's calling it 'What Cats Do When They're Out At Night'.

Any politician on this morning should be asked *when* extra money *was* supplied to the WHO, Africa CDC, etc to help with the ebola outbreak. #R4Today

Sometimes people find out I used to have a vaguely glamorous job where I met lots of rock stars and film stars and they're like "I bet you have LOADS of great stories about that time in your life" and I'm like "Nope not really but I do have quite a good story about badgers if you want to hear that?"

It's neither. The reason that local government cannot do the basics is a simple, but painful and politically difficult problem: getting social care costs off the back of local government. And we all, frankly know what the four solutions to the social care problem are, they're just hard.

Beauty. From a negative in my collection, no date/info.

La Loomer is too blind to see that Jews go 5 minutes after Muslims do.

Take a minute to scroll through the @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social account today—it's powerful

When a regime clearly holds the rule of law in contempt, and views itself as completely above the law, it and its agents don’t have any moral argument for the protections of the rule of law.

The teen gunmen were merely carrying out the views and policies of the Republican party, as expressed by its proud leaders like Andy Ogles, Randy Fine, Tommy Tuberville, and of course our President and Vice-President. www.cnn.com/2026/05/18/u...

Welcome to Bluesky, @news.abc.net.au!

Reminder: Seb Gorka did not include right wing terrorism among those he plans to protect American from.

Morning.