See what’s happening. A Trumpist US media company has taken over Channel 5. Another US company is gunning for ITV. Our social media is saturated by Musk’s calls for civil war in the UK. The BBC is the last thing standing, and Trump/Johnson are trying to bring it down

Enthusiasm might inform essential political and global decisions, but it cannot be a driver in that sphere. No leaderships seem to be acting in the full interests of the planet. Clear heads, devastating facts, seem to be in short supply. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Absolute clarity as ever from one of the few in the US who points the way to its only possible future, a better one, with younger colleagues like @aoc.bsky.social ready to do their damnedest.

Everything on our news agenda is being driven by a corrupted disinformation machine, run by a billionaire who sponsors Tommy Robinson and who keeps trying to foment civil war in the UK. And incredibly our MPs & news providers stay there. THAT is the problem. Not some bad editing choice on the BBC.

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Repeat: the most serious and vital texts for Remembrance Sunday. Give yourself the full hour plus.

Please watch and listen - the ever resonant pamphlets of the White Rose group, swiftly arrested and executed, read and translated by Oxford students the same age as many of the participants (Sophie Scholl was 22). On Friday in Snape, the project collaborated with the superb choral group Sansara.

Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani is STILL out chatting it up with the people. He was trying to do content but the voters kept popping up.🥹

Help stop the suspension of music courses at Nottingham University. c.org/DQ4fHkQmms

Christians in Lebanon Israel wipes out the entire village of Mhaibib in South Lebanon, home to shrine of Prophet Benjamin. The shrine, located atop a hill and featuring arched chambers, a historic courtyard, cemetery, and tomb, was over 2,100 years Old. Where’s MSM ..where’s the outrage 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Presumably the Satanic cult's Minister for Propaganda loses a bit of her body enamel every time she comes into contact with the truth. Poor baby. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

'Moral failure'? Starmer? Never! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

'In the early days of the War in Donbas, he baked Easter cakes and painted Easter eggs, wrapped himself up in a homemade Ukrainian flag and...took them as gifts to the Russian separatist militia occupying his home town of Makiivka. ..He was severely beaten by the soldiers, but managed to get away.'

Not sure if there are many fans of @theartsdesk.bsky.social on here, but hold on to your seats if you find broken links etc. The site is being moved on to a new platform this weekend, and while we were told about it, you weren't. Normal service should be resumed on Monday.

It's weird, I saw an article which popped up in my unwanted main page feed which mentioned all the cancellations in Europe, but didn't once mention the American situation as the cause. Can they all bill Mikey? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

THE MAKROPULOS CASE @theroyalopera.bsky.social - Adding pointless feminist complications, #KatieMitchell sucks the strangeness from #Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life - review @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/opera/makrop...

In closing arguments, defense attorney Sabrina Shroff argued that a sandwich could not and did not cause harm. “This case, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is about a sandwich,” she said. A SANDWICH 🥪🤔😂😂 Sean Dunn: NOT GUILTY….

Good Friday, friends!! It's going to be a day, for sure. So let's have a giggle to start the day!! Stay safe out there y'all!! #SheShed

Israelis pour concrete into water sources in Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

Nancy's greatest hit?

★★★★★ #Bach's B minor Mass #IrishBaroqueOrchestra #PeterWhelan #ChristChurchCathedralDublin - Perfect ensemble runs the gamut of a supreme masterpiece, encompassing everything human and divine - 'it simply doesn’t get better than this', says @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

I know the intent here, but surely a lot of Mexican men are outraged too. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Fucking hell.

boom

It's so good that the likes of AOC (and there aren't many) have an ally in Mamdani. May more emerge. In the UK, we only have Zack Polanski so far...

Katie Mitchell sucks the strangeness from Janáček's clash of chattery legalese with eternal life. Only conductor Jakub Hrůša and his Royal Opera Orchestral really get a chance to excel. theartsdesk.com/opera/makrop...

Can't wait to see and review this much-praised opera next week. In the meantime, conductor Kerem Hasan talks about a shattering preparation. theartsdesk.com/opera/first-...

Something to celebrate. Only Farage, Putler and Lukashenko don't think so. www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/almost...

#WexfordFestivalOpera 2025 - Two strong productions, mostly fine casting, and a star is born - @davidnice.bsky.social takes in four operas and an outstanding lunchtime recital in two days #Letrouvère #LydiaGrindatto #TheDwarf #Deidamia #IlviaggioaReims theartsdesk.com/opera/theart...

Who cares? It's just overheated and reheated dreck like so much of its ilk we've heard before. I can't believe people are taking this seriously. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

Surely the point is NOT to say what you like about London if it's not true. Sadiq continues to push hard and vivid on the fact that the city is for everyone. And he does it by deed as well as word. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sick society. Rape, torture and generally beat up a prisoner and you're national heroes. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Loved Season 3 of The Diplomat - the way it ditched conventional thriller/spy elements and become, in at least two of the episodes, a conversation piece with fine actors delivering a sharp script: Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Alison Janney (hurrah!), Bradley Whitford and Rory Kinnear especially.

92%: the percentage of funding for Nigel Farage's far-right political party Reform UK that comes from fossil fuel interests. Across the world, anyone blaming immigrants, etc, it's all just a smokescreen to allow the rich to keep on getting richer by killing our planet. share.google/W2gwfc0XVpUy...

MADAMA BUTTERFLY @irishnationalopera.bsky.social - Visual and vocal wings, earthbound soul - #CelineByrne sings gorgeously but doesn’t round out a great operatic character study - review by @davidnice.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/opera/madama...

Brilliant thread. And irrefutably true, alas.

Waking up, terrorizing, and ziptying little children! This is ICE! ( Btw, they’re American citizens) if we tolerate this, we share collective guilt for such inhumanity

Fabulous! I can claim to have learned one simple Bulgarian dance in Kovachevitsa this summer.

I'd like to see Starmer do something like this Or any Brit politician come to that, with the exception of Gove but I don't think he was campaigning

Intelligent production, gorgeous singing and stage design/lighting, but not quite enough identification with the title role from Celine Byrne. theartsdesk.com/opera/madama...

Americans, you see exactly the same sort of caving-in from UK institutions.

Obvious, perhaps, but wouldn't President Pizda love this as a show he could really put his mark on at the place formerly known as the Kennedy Center. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1K4...

Plenty of vocal riches at Wexford Festival Opera this year, crowned by the revelation of young American soprano Lydia Grindatto in Verdi and a strong recital. Fine stagings of Handel's 'Deidamia' and Zemlinsky's 'The Dwarf'. I loved Delius's 'The Magic Fountain', having caught up with it on YouTube.

Well worth a visit, which I'll make on my return to London. The one I saw a year or so ago was superb. www.avsjapaneseart.com/exhibitions/...

Another excellent communicator for the Greens. Brava, @rachelmillward.bsky.social