We are facing financial wipeout thanks to a claim that we used a News Corp Australia image back in April 2021. We found the image on Wikimedia Commons and the image was credited to the alleged owner, the European Cycling Federation. Screenshot with the correct credit, but are still threatened. HELP!

I've never found Count Binface funny. But the right having a humourless strop about Count Binface is the most joyous political phenomenon in recent memory.

"Bangladesh had made "substantial progress" towards eliminating measles, according to the WHO. Vaccination rates had been higher than 90% until recently. But that progress has quickly and suddenly come undone." A preventable tragedy.

Feels to me as if, having sniffed the Reform lamppost, Jenrick is now preparing to cock his leg on the even bigger, smellier Restore one.

In a foxglove forest

The attitude in Nazi Germany seems to have been ‘Follow the crowd, or the crowd will pursue you.’ We’re not there yet in Europe or the US, but getting perilously close in a few areas.

Spot the empty vessel

That glass is looking half empty to me.

Whenever you hear them talk about difficult decisions, you know they mean the politically easiest decisions

Turns the IOC and now FIFA into blood sports. 😡

Farage announced the by-election within an hour of the deadline he was given by the Guardian for responding to the story

The prospect of Nigel Farage fighting a people vs the establishment by-election in which the only other candidate is Count Binface - is too hilarious for words.

It's extraordinary that one of the main stimuli of the growth of the populist right in the UK was the expenses scandal of a few years ago. And now here is the main beneficiary of that populist revolt proudly defending a level of corruption that dwarfs anything we saw in that scandal.

Only the King and Farage and possibly the PM get this stage.

If a single candidate stands in Clacton and the other parties step aside, that person will have even more support than Belgium.

Insisting you haven’t misspent public money when you are accused of the inappropriate receipt of vast sums of private money is like insisting you didn’t steal a bike when you’re accused of stealing a car.

Belgium players mocking the US and Trump's meddling in the World Cup by doing the Trump dance after scoring the 4th goal against the USMNT

At the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference, ex deputy first minister Kate Forbes was flanked by far-right figures who were “using their Christian faith to justify stripping away civil liberties, personal freedoms, and democratic structures,” says Humanist Soc chair Jennifer Buchan

Nigel deploys those bullying skills learnt all those years ago in Dulwich

The facade is cracking

These aren't just any old business donors, or some amongst several. NF/Reform are pulling in major money from a sector closely connected with organized crime & terrorism (www.rusi.org/explore-our-...) and with the Putin regime (www.rand.org/pubs/comment...). 2/3

I'm in favor of a FIFA schism, all national federations opposed to the Infantino disposition decamp to Mexico, declare the current tournament anathema, and play their own World Cup with a final in the Azteca

“In one chapter entitled “The Art of the Bribe”, Cottrell and Files set out how politicians can be bought. They argue that bribes, if in the form of small gifts rather than cash, can be passed off as “a mistake of overexuberance in friendship”.

This is the point: football administrators making money is bad, but it hasn’t been on the pitch. It took Trump to ruin the game itself.

Could be the final nail in the coffin of US-EU relations.

To react to the ‘Balogun affair’ by saying other teams should try to get players’ bans overturned is to say ‘let’s all be corrupt’. That’s how corruption works. If you love the game, vow to make sure it never happens again. Starting with mass pressure to get Infantino ousted from his position.

Last night Ukraine could not intercept a single Russian ballistic missile. The USA deliberately starving Ukraine of Patriot missiles is now clearly understood by the Russians as American support for their terror bombing. The USA is helping Putin kill Ukrainians.

Always enjoy dipping into the BBC online royals, sport and consumer issues website when there’s not much news going on in the world.

Another day, another headline which starts with Farage’s denial rather than the accusation of wrongdoing www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It would be great if #Uefa and another confederation like Africa could say enough is enough and change FIFA. #Infantino sucking up to Trump whilst African nations had players detained in US airports should make African nations question their support for the corrupt #FIFA

It’s amazing how quickly dates. Here’s a sketch about Trump cheating at golf, and now he’s cheating at football too.

Those poor Belgians now have to beat not only the US, but FIFA and Trump too.

I’ve felt sorry for Folarin Balogun twice this week. Firstly, when he got a ludicrously unfair red card. And secondly, when the price to be paid for having it rescinded (which I’m sure he played no part in) was to have his name for ever associated with Trump and Infantino’s grubby corruption.

Laura Kuenssberg will want to ask questions about me being influenced by payments from billionaires. As I'm in hiding, I sent our next most experienced person, Robert Jenrick, who intervened to save a billionaire pornographer £45m in exchange for a £12,000 donation.

Consistent with international law, FIFA determines that rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to the US.

Let’s suspend Infantino until he promises to stop giving out peace prizes

Who’d have believed it?

Multi-millionaire right-wing crooks are getting younger and younger these days.

Note that the BBC a) leads with Farage's denial, and b) leaves the ally's criminal conviction out of the headline

There are very many lovely, delightful Americans I have known. To them, I wish the happiest possible 250th.

You can be a mobster. And a fascist. And a sex offender. And a fake Christian. And a convicted criminal. And a pathological liar. And a paedophile. And a narcissist. And very low-IQ. And show clear signs of dementia. And still get to be president of the United States of America.

The sheer cynicism of Labour-introduced legislation which hides behind the language of compassion while in practice punishing people further for the crime of seeking refuge. Heartbreaking piece by @vickytaylor.bsky.social for @opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net/a-cruel-new-...

Is ‘sneering’ the only word in the English language of which it can be said that the more you use it to describe others, the more you end up describing yourself?

18 months ago I would have believed that America’s 250th would be a fascistic spectacle: ghastly but impressive. The farcical incompetence of it tells you a lot about what’s happened to the Trump presidency. The sun is going down

I'm so proud of Yassin. He made Bristol and Britain his home. He has contributed so much as a Green Party Cllr to his city and to the community in Lawrence Hill. Solidarity in the face of this Reform fuelled racist hate. Hope always wins!

Musk is effectively approving the murder of Jo Cox here

‘This is a project with an endpoint, and the endpoint is a country where being openly trans gets harder every month, on purpose, until it isn’t possible at all’.

There's no attempt to try and cloak the racism now. (Also Lord Mayors don't run cities and he knows that.)

I’d love Shabana Mahmood to read Arthur’s posts but she’ll be too busy over on X reading Allison Pearson’s.