France will be at the epicenter of the most significant heat anomaly on the planet over the next few days. The sheer extent of the country that could experience temperatures above 40°C is nothing short of astonishing.

Sort of mind-boggling how complicated recovering from the Bedford train crash is – before they can get the trains out, they need to construct a temporary concrete road so they can drive in a massive crane.

[to flight attendant] Can you give the pilot this poem I wrote

So funny flicking between Bluesky, where the main debate on my feed is "is it unfair to call Keir Starmer the worst prime minister ever?" and X, where discussion of the day is whether liberals should accept there are some good arguments for not letting women vote

💯. Reform remain serious contenders for power, because of voter fragmentation and First Past The Post. But they are not some unstoppable force, they are not "the voice of the people" & they are eminently beatable. Labour, in particular, needs to get out of the crouch position and carry the fight.

"We All Stand Together" is one of the dozen or so best melodies of the last eighty years, and the performative distaste for it just shows how people care more for perceptions of coolness than for musical quality.

"The BBC represents... one of the few services that provides almost everyone some form of news and common experience. That is particularly important given the UK’s adversaries are fighting information wars and other destabilisation campaigns against us, our society and democracy." Well said.

Call me crazy, but the BBC magic cityscape of Houston has added some mysterious mountains on the left there that, er, do not exist?

Not a bad result for Portugal. Always gotta respect the point when you’re playing with ten men.

All. Of. This.

If you've never read this, or haven't revisited it in a while, today's a good day to remember it

'How a mysterious ghost ship brought cosmic disco to Cape Verde' might be one of my favourite ever headlines

[turning on a world cup match] oh wow, cape verde, i wonder where that is [55 minutes later] if cape verde wins it will be the greatest day of my life

CABO VERDE THE WHOLE WORLD IS CHEERING YOU

One detail in this fascinating BBC investigation into the Russia-instigated attack on Keir Starmer's home is the way it shows, in passing but very clearly, that Tommy Robinson is to all intents and purposes a Russian asset. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

These are the 30 women killed since 2020 in Northern Ireland, all by white men 21 killed in their homes by men they knew. The youngest 20, the oldest 82 21 were mothers, 4 were killed with their children in the home. Two were pregnant Nobody rioted over their murders www.bbc.com/news/article...

This thread is *chef's kiss*

I know Calvin’s dad is already having a moment, but every terrible “outsource precious and fleeting moments with your children to tech so that you can spend more time on your work” pitch makes me think of that one strip I never really cared about as a kid, but care a lot about as an adult.

It is quite strange to listen to political coverage currently, even from mainstream sources, and remember that net migration has quartered since its peak, and is likely to fall to Cameron's tens of thousands target next year and this has made no difference to the discourse.

Genuinely the biggest sign this version of Doctor Who is over. Every episode from Rose to Reality War, longest tenure of any crew member, perfectly cast Doctors, companions, secured huge guest stars and gave many now big actors an early career break. Total legend.

The thing about online safety policy is that it basically breaks people's brains. I truly believe that at least some of the intense projection of adult anxiety onto young people reflects the relationship those adults have with their own devices and social media accounts

Reverse food discourse just dropped, just going to let this simmer on the feed.

The biggest lie the James Bond films sold wasn’t any of the stuff about hot spies, magic cars or poorly made cocktails, it’s that there was a government organisation willing to drown insane billionaires in a vat of radioactive coolant for the betterment of humanity.

Russia is openly waging a form of hybrid warfare against us and this is part of it.

would be nice if my concerns about racists, fascists, and a white supremacist, who’s called for the government to be overthrown, using his far-right skewed social media platform to spread hatred were seen as legitimate as racists’ concerns

"Something remarkable happened in April. For the first time in history, wind and solar generated more electricity than gas across the entire planet. Not in a country. Not in a region. Globally." Tons of great news here from Danny Kennedy (via @billmckibben.bsky.social's newsletter, which rules).

Russia lost the election in Armenia, which is good news for the whole world

personally, as a straight man, I quite like women. I think they're pretty neat.

Cabin Pressure is honestly one of the best British sitcoms of the 21st Century so far - if you haven't heard any of it yet, treat yerself

This is something the Victorians understood: that democracy is dangerously vulnerable to plutocracy, and that it needs to build defences against that. Our defences are in tatters. Rebuilding them is one of the most urgent tasks facing our politics.

#NichePost but I wonder if anyone else who used to do the Hendrefoilan quiz in the mid 90s got a Proustian rush from Joanna Page talking about Curly-wurlys on #Taskmaster tonight?

"Allegory of Bad Government", Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1339, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. The state is ruled by a demon; justice is tethered and cowed at his feet; random arrests and killings; people argue, buildings collapse.

Very proud to be on the advisory board for this campaign. If of interest, please sign and share. ——— Infantino isn’t fit to lead FIFA. 
And FIFA isn’t fit to govern football. Agree? Add your name to this mass complaint: rebootfifa.com/sign?utm_sou...

eavesdropping on a couple of english lit academics in st. john, i overheard confirmation of what is surely going to be the biggest literary news story of the year

EXCL: Govt accused of neglecting the body set up to promote UK “soft power” & wasting efforts of senior figures from culture/sport/etc recruited to join Members of soft power council complain it’s been “a bit of a waste of time”, as ministers have “zero interest” in it & have not attended since Oct

While Tony Blair is trashing UK govt energy policy, NESTA analysis finds "early signs [it] may be working" 2022: Gas prices went up 100%, electricity 83% (roughly 1:1) 2026: Gas +28%, elec 6% (5:1 = "electricity beginning to decouple from gas") www.nesta.org.uk/blo...

One of the consequences of richer countries sustaining their own demand for fuel by introducing general subsidies. Countries that can't afford to do this lose out in the global auction.

Thanks, Vonnegut. 💜

This isn’t even about AI - this is just straight-up misogyny.

When I reported on the 15 Minute Cities protests in Oxford I was struck by the way lots of people I spoke to described themselves as a car driver in a way that really felt like an underrecognised form of identity politics. Having said that OH MY GOD

Telling my friends about the Rector of Stiffkey, the Church of England priest who got fired, exhibited himself in a barrel on Blackpool seafront in order to raise funds for his legal fight to get his job back. Never did raise enough money, and was then eaten by a lion in Skegness in 1937.

The hidden arrow in the FedEx logo is design perfection. Paris Tennis School: Tiens ma bière.

Also (sorry, but honestly) if I had to make a list of places cis men couldn't go to because a cis man had made a women "uncomfortable" there, it would be very long and there would be literally nowhere for men to go.

If ECHR / Then in rights court you are / If EHRC / It’s transphobery

The era of supply shocks cries out for a politician willing to be straight with people: these shocks make us poorer, we have to divide out the pain while sticking up our values. None of these measures pass that test

The Starmer government will do anything to avoid having to persuade the public of something or fund a cash transfer:

The European Union actually don't need to build an emotional support taskforce of comfort animal emissaries to placate the leader of a nation spending 40% of its budget on a war and still badly losing it. Have some dignity for heaven's sake.