🇸🇪 Chief of Defence says Russia can test NATO sooner than expected. “They know they cannot defeat NATO militarily and need to strike at Alliance cohesion…They know the West is rearming. So I wonder why they would wait?”

EU Foreign Ministers just gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians. They also agreed new sanctions on leading Hamas figures. It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery. Extremisms and violence carry consequences.

Update to the drought situation: year-to-date precipitation total in Finland is again the lowest on record (since 1961). The 2026 precipitation in Finland (~78 mm) is only 54 % of the long-term normal (143 mm) at this time of the year.

Never let a good crisis go to waste. China's clean tech companies are busy exploiting the soaring demand for clean energy in the wake of the disruption created by the Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Drone warfare has collapsed the distinction between the frontline and the rear. There is no medical bubble anymore. Every medic is now a front-line soldier.

September. Enough time to get @andyburnham.bsky.social into the field.

Out of ideas.

Expect a leadership contest in September.

⚡️ EU’s Kallas rejects Gerhard Schroeder as a peace negotiator, warning the former German leader is a lobbyist for Putin.

"I take responsibility" means "You can all stuff yourselves. I'm not going to change a thing. More of the same. This ship is not for turning."

It was both sunny and windy yesterday. Conclusion? #Ireland doesn't have anywhere near enough solar farms and other POV installations. Our Government is taking the piss when it comes to renewables. #SpeirGorm

Researchers have made the ground shake in southern Switzerland, triggering thousands of tiny earthquakes in a monitored setting, as they seek to discover seismicity insights that could reduce risks

KAL's cartoon in The Economist this week

Surge in data centres to push water bills even higher. A large data centre needs 5m gallons a day. Prospect - dryer rivers, deeper droughts, water shortages. More carbon emissions, higher electricity consumption, power blackouts as data centres get priority. archive.ph/67qAE

Or, as Donald Tusk argued at the time, the only real alternative to hard Brexit is no Brexit. For me, if (still the biggest of IFs) a UK government removes the red lines of single market and customs union, the natural path is back into the EU.

It's not enough. If Starmer wants to prove that he's not a wimp and fit to lead, then put in an application to rejoin the EU and cancel out Brexit.

"Incremental change won't cut it" Very true Sir Keir. The Brexit red lines must go, or you must go. Positive change and a hopeful vision for the UK must include the UK's return to Europe, For our values, security, and economy we must rejoin the EU. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Even his 'fightback' is wishy-washy. Instead of simply applying to rejoin the EU and fully reverse Brexit, Starmer sets out to 'rebuild relations'. Not good enough.

Count on it. GB News and the billionaire media are going to seriously ramp up the hatred. "Reform UK’s success has caused trepidation among many members of minority communities across the UK, with concerns there could now be a rise in hostile rhetoric." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Europe should behave more like China does if it wants to survive this age of chaos | @markhleonard.bsky.social

I, for one, will never stop talking about #climate change no matter what some political pundit says. There will be too little progress on addressing the quintessential environmental risk facing humanity if no one talks about it, acknowledges it, and acts to address it.

A current or past "Breakthrough Institute" affiliation is a red flag #NewClimateWar

US not requiring quarantine is highly irresponsible.

💔On this Mother’s Day, not everyone is celebrating. Many of us have lost the people we love.

In around 4-5 days (May 14-15), Earth may become affected by a large, transequatorial, negative-polarity coronal hole currently rotating into our view. This could cause G1-G2 storming (Kp 5-6) and mid-latitude aurora. Heads up!

Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany warned that if deforestation, which decreased in 2025, increases again, the Amazon could suffer “widespread rainforest dieback” and cross a tipping point in the 2030s. By @alecluhn.com for @NewScientist.com

Oopsie!

Kherson remains one of the most dangerous areas of Ukraine, with kamikaze drones targeting civilians daily (even during this weekend’s “ceasefire”). But that hasn’t stopped the Hachiko team bringing food to displaced dogs & cats who still live there. Here’s Denis working today:

Modi urges India to conserve fuel as global price surges reut.rs/3RwzilT

Argentina in spotlight over hantavirus as authorities retrace footsteps of ship’s passengers

From Kyiv to Chișinău. 🇺🇦🇲🇩 The Cyprus Presidency organised the first ever @EUCouncil Enlargement Working Party #COELA visits to these candidate countries. Ukraine and Moldova belong to the European family, and we stand firmly behind their accession path. 🇪🇺 #Enlargement #CY2026EU

It should never be out of the Irish media that this government continue to enable a housing crisis by allowing scandalous hoarding of property across country, most of which are in high demand locations As a result over 5000 children spend every night of their young lives without a home #speirghorm

Good points in this piece from Chris Rapley: "Not once in the history of human spaceflight has an astronaut been known to tamper with their life support system... Sabotage is unthinkable – socially intolerable... We are doing to our planetary life support what no astronaut has done to theirs. "

The US is an unreliable ally. So let's buy some missiles from them and make ourselves even more vulnerable! 🙄

The second part is so not true in Ireland! If I had to replace my car this week with another secondhander, then I could get a decent equivalent petrol car for €4,000 to €5,000. If I chose a second hand EV equivalent, then the cosdt would be €12,000 to €18,000. Big difference!

You won't hear it from the media, but the Liberal Democrats just had an incredible set of results. We held off Reform, won more councillors than the Greens and trounced the Conservatives Right cross the country people are backing us to deliver the real change they deserve. 🔶

Reform starting as they mean to go on.

After the May 9 events, Putin gave a late-night interview to journalists at the Kremlin. Formally, he spoke about Ukraine and negotiations. But in reality, it was a broader political signal about how Russia sees the future order in Europe and across the post-Soviet space⤵️

We all know the best way to deliver desperately needed economic growth: a closer relationship with Europe. Yet the PM's reset plan is far too unambitious. Leading Labour leadership contenders must put the country first and commit to fixing our broken relationship with Europe if they enter No. 10.

Business executives around the world now 🤔: "If they can survive that level of heat in that kind of environment, so can every other worker, wherever they are. Carry on business as usual. More oil, more gas, more emissions please."

Mistake.

Ireland needs to pay attention to this. Data Centres are not only going to drain more electricity than we can realistically produce: they are also going to wreck our water-supply system which is already nearing collapse. It's time to stop the reckless pursuit of data centres.

Why should we care that Earth's Energy Imbalance has more than doubled? Because that's what drives the climate to change. It's really that simple!

RAF Airdrop Response to Suspected Hantavirus Case on Remote Island An A400M has been used to parachute British Army medical personnel and supplies to Tristan da Cunha, a remote South Atlantic territory with no airstrip, after a suspected case of Hantavirus Story: theaviationist.com/2026/05/10/r...

The contestants for #Eurovision2026 are about to walk the #TurquoiseCarpet in Vienna. But for me and many other fans, the controversy now surrounding the contest is making us sit this year out. Here's why.

Realistically, there's very little prospect of a lasting #ceasefire, and #Russia appears to be using the operational pause to move more forces into place for renewed assaults.

This reminds me of Viktor Yanukovych and how he used to pretend to be a neutral interlocutor between Ukraine and Russia. Fico is a 🐍 in the grass.

Another gift to Putin ... "The (US) withdrawal from Germany is a step toward the liquidation of the shared West—a cultural and human project that was never written into a treaty and, once lost, can never be reacquired."

"…'Sieg Heil' chants on the train, racism in the toilet and swastikas in the hotel bar. Disturbed guests report to Der Standard about scenes surrounding the popular Gauder Fest in the Tyrolean Zillertal at the beginning of May…" 👎