It's been such a shit season otherwise, and the news in general and personally has been awful, so even the dangling of hope like this feels cruel. But you've got to dream, right? #COYS

Into the Europa League final! And another great away performance under very difficult circumstances. (But my goodness that penalty-scare at the end would have been very, very in keeping with this season.) COYS!

WE'RE GOING TO BILBAO!!!

Had to take a step out of my sports writing comfort zone this week to say a thing that needed to be said. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

After his reversal on trans women post-SC ruling, I was reminded of Starmer's pledge to quit if his "Beergate" activities were deemed fine-able by police. I now realise this wasn't a bold gamble but simply how he addresses difficult problems: by accepting whatever the legal system says is true.

I haven't read the piece which by all accounts is pure bunk, but while the thread here dunks on it, I don't think it's incorrect to say there is a small "c" conservatism within Lynch's works, though not of the strain that seems popular in American discourse today. Yes, he shows that the idyllic 1/

A two-part object lesson in how performative authoritarianism done by the left is never enough for the right.

Well done, he's ... fourteen?!?!? www.bbc.com/sport/cricke...

The whole bit is quite good but the middle part here scans a little differently today ... www.youtube.com/watch?t=153&...

TIL as well as quantum mechanics, this year is also the centenary celebration of chocolate digestives. www.theguardian.com/food/2025/ap...

6/Moreover, partners starting to realize that there is no credible decision-making process in the US. This is not an expert-led, interagency negotiation. Decisions made in hallways and flip flop based on moods. Why agree to restructure your economy on a whim. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

How is he going to get the inside scoop on local political developments if his taxis have no human driver?

Sixty percent of Americans say that we are losing our democracy. The same percentage says that the country is on the right track.

Enjoyed this, a useful reminder that even in one self-contained arena of human endeavour, control and agency are fleeting, and that we should strive to exercise epistemic humility. You could swap manager <-> politician and football <-> politics in the last para and it would still hold.

SORRY. Sorry. Have we seen this *incredible* news video coming out of Queensland? Wait for the witness/witnesses statement

If you know, you know

Brilliant result but more importantly a great performance for Spurs. There was a period in the first 45 minutes where we were camped in Frankfurt's half, something I hadn't seen in a while. Solid defending (though still with some awful near misses) and reminds us what this team can do if fit. #COYS

WE'RE INTO THE SEMI FINALS!!!

Marco Rubio says that Americans living in Europe shouldn't ever have to face any ramifications for their political speech online. The chutzpah is jaw-dropping, as he is PERSONALLY trying to deport legal immigrants for their political speech in the United States.

In a previous generation, the photos of Iraqi prisoners being degraded at Abu Gharib were a source of national shame. If it happened today, there would be a line of Republicans there for a photo-op.

We've reached the point where Republicans are flying to El Salvador to visit one of the most vicious prisons in the world to have photo ops so they can prove their loyalty to the President of the United States.

No disrespect to Elliot but I think Americans’ revealed preferences say otherwise. In the abstract they’ll say x y z but in the ballot box the answer is different. bsky.app/profile/gell...

Steve Rosenberg ostensibly reports from Russia, but a careful decoding reveals his real dateline is the US of about six months hence.

'I thought he would do really well at Spurs and it's been little short of a disaster' Should Ange Postecoglou walk away from Spurs even if he wins a trophy? @maxrushden.bsky.social @barryglendenning.bsky.social @markpougatch.bsky.social @samdalling.bsky.social

Good piece on what is being discarded here. It was difficult but just about possible to give an answer to someone in the developing world who questioned the difference between having the US and, say, China, as an ally and an ideal. That will not hold much longer. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is quite fun. “America would be better off if more people worked in manufacturing.” • 80% of Americans agree • 20% disagree “I would be better off if I worked in a factory.” • 25% of Americans agree • 73% disagree • 2% currently work in a factory t.co/ycnHVZ1gT1

This one is gonna stick with Whitmer her whole career because it reveals a deep truth that Americans already feel about their leaders. Americans think their leaders operate behind closed doors, refute the truth, and betray their most basic values to advance some aspect of their personal ambition.

well that’s because in most forms of american christianity, racism is not a sin

lord willing we will one day prosecute miller for crimes against humanity

I see we've reached the "don't worry, the Finance Minister is a Western-educated former fund manager" stage of the emerging market crisis playbook. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

So it comes down to ‘our domestic political economy isn’t capable of taxing winners and compensating losers, so we have no option but to blow up the global trading system. Sorry lads’.

New Opta stat just dropped

Truly, we live in an age of bathos, surrounded by morons capable of bringing about our total annihilation.

And on the seventh day the Lord caved to the bond market.

Poasting through it more I see

me this morning www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/o...

One of the most petty, ignorant, and malevolent men in the history of the world has been made to feel invincible and has been given near absolute power to shape the world according to his avaricious desires and boneheaded grievances.

Don't forget also that: 1. Came possibly mm from death, giving him sense of physical invulnerability + mandate of heaven 2. A cultish fanbase and fawning media that rarely criticize 3. The highest court in the land repeatedly ruling in his favor, and giving him near total immunity in office

just what you want to be doing right now, telling the world that US capital ratios don't include leverage on a class of securities where many of them have large unrealised mark to market losses.

This one merits a cross-post. LOL

The logic is 'racists don't like foreign students coming over here, so let's shrink the university sector'. No thinking through whether these people are numerous enough to matter, nor whether they and others will notice the bad effects on students, university towns, and ultimately growth.

Deranged. Will secure the collapse of a significant part of the UK university system, at a time when there is a lot of money to be made out of it, for no political return. If the case is explained properly most will not mind foreign students coming.

🚨 YEATS: TURNING AND TURNING OF THE WIDENING GYRE EXPECTED TO COINCIDE WITH THE FALCON NOT BEING ABLE TO HEAR THE FALCONER, CENTRE NOT EXPECTED TO HOLD

I don't care if you have to quadruple the licence fee, this is the content we need and deserve more of: www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

I haven't seen the full TV hit, but it's really astonishing that the anchors don't seem to be pushing back on this point, despite knowing better. If your mad uncle says something idiotic at a family gathering, you politely duck the topic -- the money guys here should do better.

Big fan of the picture Bloomberg are using here. Which I originally thought was a Star Fleet Admiral surveying the front during the Dominion War.

I just learned that the art department for the 1984 version of DUNE paid tribute to David Lynch’s love of Bob’s Big Boy by presenting him with a handmade custom figurine of the BBB mascot wearing an Arrakis stillsuit.

"Trump can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Today is Octidi the 18th of Germinal in the year 233. Germinal is the month of sprouting. Today we celebrate hemlock.#JacobinDay More information on hemlock