Immigrants can now be denied a green card for expressing political opinions, such as participating in pro-Palestinian campus protests and criticizing Israel, according to new guidance from the Trump administration in internal DHS training materials reviewed by The New York Times.

A misty autumn dawn in Westmere, Auckland, on my way to buy good bread, a weird pastry & enjoy a flat white in the delicious chilly air outside a corner cafe

In exactly the right place for all the wrong reasons

New blog: Ahead of May's election, our director @bjpaddy.bsky.social reflects on what all Scottish parties' manifestos are saying on walking, paths & access. Two manifestos include a major aim of our #AccessDenied campaign: creating a Scottish Paths Fund. ⬇️ Find out more in this 3-minute read. ⬇️

Politicians just seem to have given up trying to explain the world as it is to people. It's a huge problem.

Your annual reminder that William Shakespeare was born in what is now Turkey, never visited England and almost certainly could not read or write in English.

"Small boat crossings are still increasing" reports the BBC's flagship Radio 4 Today programme. Editors could check BBC Verify, which reports they are down 35% year on year. The trend began Sept 2025, though crossings rose before that, but falling for over 6 months now if compared like with like.

'if i fits, i sits' - Walrus edition. 'Magnus' has now apparently moved on from his tiny pontoon and Lossiemouth Marina has presumably reopened www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/7001...

Updated Scotland poll tracker, accounting for recent polling. SNP 1 short of a majority. Pro-independence majority of 23. Seats (+/- 2021) SNP: 64 (nc) Lab: 17 (-5) Ref: 16 (+16) Grn: 12 (+4) LD: 10 (+6) Con: 10 (-21) 1/2

21 April 26: Public urged to avoid Lossiemouth Marina as walrus takes ‘much-needed rest’ www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/7001...

NEW ITV Wales YouGov MRP has Plaid and Reform neck and neck in Senedd vote intention Impossible to say who would be largest party in terms of seats but neither would be close to majority Would almost certainly result in Plaid led government as they have more potential allies in the Senedd 🧵👇

Mad fact... 42% of Labour Prime Ministers have had to fire Peter Mandelson.

Nine years ago today Willie Rennie met this potential voter on the campaign trail:

This is a good read by @samalvis.bsky.social, and this is basically what I think on the whole “decoupling gas and electricity prices” thing. The first best answer is “build more renewables and flex”, and we’re making a lot of progress on that

The UK government has announced £9,000 subsidies for households with oil and LPG boilers to get a heat pump. This is seriously good deal for rural homes - not only does it lower the upfront cost, a mid-sized home could save over £650 a year by switching from oil to a heat pump at current prices...

Hydrogen vehicles & home heating systems are a failed fossil fuel industry boondoggle, not part of a green energy transition www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The task of de-Trumpification of science and public health will take a generation and a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild. Without a bold, expansive vision to guide us, there is no coming back. Small-bore, poll-tested versions of the future will not help us. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

So far Olly Robbins has dropped govt in it x 3 - that Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson might not even need vetting, that No 10 pressured him to get on with it, that publicly rejecting M on vetting grounds wd be v awkward - & himself in it on maybe 1 (dsn't sound like he recorded much of this...

Speaking on Sky this AM about Mandelson, energy sec Ed Miliband says: "Prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human. As you know, I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010. But people make mistakes."

'The US spy tech company Palantir published a manifesto extolling the benefits of American power and implying some cultures are inferior to others – in what MPs have called “a parody of a RoboCop film” and “the ramblings of a supervillain”.' 1/2

metro.co.uk/2026/04/20/p... It’s going to be a long hot summer of racist madness :(

Quite the quote from the John Blake, the former director of fair access at the Office for Students www.thetimes.com/article/1cb6...

Rogue Trooper brings the Genetic Infantry to the silver screen arstechnica.com/culture/2026...

Senate Democrats had stellar fundraising numbers in four states that Trump won by double-digit margins: Alaska, Ohio, Texas, and Florida. Dems need to flip at least two of them for a majority. Despite the map’s strong pro-GOP bias, Trump’s unpopularity is increasingly making that outcome plausible

“X is now becoming a very unpleasant and a very dangerous place” ...says Nigel Farage today

Rule one of throwing people under the bus is make sure they aren't going to drag you along with them

Insider trading based on privileged info is unfortunately rife in US politics but Trump has taken it to a new level by creating the market moving events he profits from www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An all-time classic entry in the hall of fame 'does the person saying this realise how damning it is?' quotes:

Reform pledges to review the previous 5 years of asylum grants if got into power - deporting those granted refugee status if came without permission. Reform claim 400,000 people granted asylum would be "in scope" - and they would deport most of them www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Speaking as someone who would probably pay more if council tax were reformed - bring it on www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There does not need to be consensus to reform council tax, there won’t be. Because reforming it has to include removing the bias towards better off households. That’s what needs to change. No reform will deliver no one who pays more. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Taking deer culled to allow forest regeneration in a rural area & processing them in a rural area so they can be eaten? Monstrous! www.bordertelegraph.com/news/2602449...

If we reduce deer numbers to sustainable levels the glens will be empty. Well, apart from the regenerating native forest & bog. More insects, birds, small mammals, reptiles & amphibians too, I guess. And the fewer but healthier deer. Oh & people drawn to all the above. But apart from that, empty.

#Holyrood2026 #SP26 Our #manifesto analysis --> www.spokes.org.uk/2026/04/holy... We looked at #activetravel, mainly 🚲, and some related transport/environment, but not at 🚌🚆 1 Greens, excellent 2 LibDem, positive in a fairly modest way 3= Labour & SNP, poor 5 Reform, bad 6 Conservative, terrible

More in Common continue to be the outlier in terms of SNP support (much lower than any others), and the best for the Lib Dems. They're the only firm to have Lib Dems ahead of Greens (albeit within margin of error), though this is also the best share Greens have had with otherwise low-Green pollster

Was this GP struck off just because he asked a Muslim woman to remove her veil? How likely does that sound? 🤷‍♀️ Did he actually ask her to remove her veil 'because he was struggling to understand her?' Let's take a look at what really happened based on the tribunal reports... 🧵 1/25

The IRGC says the Strait of Hormuz is closed again because of the continuing US blockade of Iranian ports.

Nigel Farage tells the Times he is making esp big inroads with the "we've always been Labour vote" Ipsos find Reform currently has 6% of 2024 Labour voters + 32% of 2024 Tory vote Labour 2024 voters in April26: 44% Labour, 19% Green, 12% LibDem, 11% would not vote, 6% Reform 4% Conservative

⏰ With the election just weeks away, NOW is the time to urge Holyrood candidates to back a £50 million Scottish Paths Fund. 🖋 This quick form helps you ask ALL your local candidates to support a bigger, better path network: https://action.ramblers.org.uk/access-rights-breaking-point Thank you!

Iranian officials are saying that commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz will be required to pay a "Tehran toll," and US warships will not be allowed to transit. Meanwhile Trump continues his blockade of Iranian ports. Yet oil prices are falling on the assumption the the Strait is "open."

Men who don't see women as people decide buying sex and 'relationships' may be the way forward

Global stock markets rebounding as through Trump says everything is fine now is the same thing as everything actually being fine is giving irrational exuberance a bad name

"The reason so many good urban ideas stall isn’t because they’re wrong—it’s because they’re losing the narrative war." New expert comms campaign @urbantruth.bsky.social aims to shift the dial.

Your pictures of Scotland: Photographs from around the country - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain open for the duration of the 10-day Lebanon ceasefire, as Lebanese civilians have started returning home, despite Israeli warnings.

As a super-lightweight long distance cyclist - who has only done this twice in my life - there is nothing like the feeling of watching the sun come up from the saddle after riding through the night

The Economist's 'build a voter' is fun but 1) it's for Westminster voting intentions & this should be made clearer (it's there but if you just dive into the tool you'll miss it in the preamble) & 2) it does highlight the risks of treating nations as regions 1/2 www.economist.com/interactive/...