People, while still mourning their loved ones who were killed during the January uprising by the criminal Khamenei, are celebrating his death with joy. #Isfahan #Iran

Celebrations and dancing by the people in the city of #Abdanan, another city in #Iran that sacrificed many martyrs for Iran’s freedom during the bloody January uprising.

If your perspective is that Canada should only voice support for international law when it has an narrow self interest in doing so, we're no longer discussing international law.

When people ask me what Carney's Davos speech *means* for Canada's place in the world, my standard reply is something along the lines of "the brilliance of the speech is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean."

Colombia’s speaking now. Latin American countries were strong defenders of the UN charter and international law in January, after US actions in Venezuela. Colombia is hitting those points again now. They condemn any military action that’s contrary to the charter, no matter where it comes from

China is up. They are hitting hard on the violations of sovereign non-intervention and the use of force hard. They say it’s shocking that the strikes took place while the U.S. was engaging in diplomacy with Iran. The statement is very short.

Antonio Guterres is up first at this Security Council meeting. He condemns this morning’s strikes by Israel and the US on Iran, and the return strikes by Iran on countries in the region. There is, he says, no alternative to the peaceful settlement of disputes

"The Islamists oppose women getting an education," I mutter, as I aim my missile at the girls school

We’re all hoping if we pretend to support what we clearly believe to be mad, dangerous and illegal actions by the US President, we can somehow use that leverage to convince him he’s been terribly impressive, won everything, and can now stop Pretty sure that’s the strategy. Good luck with that

those 85 schoolgirls will never kill again

I can’t emphasise leading w/ empathy for civilians *everywhere* on a day like today enough. The first casualty here in the UAE, where I live, is an Asian civilian at a residential building. Many Ukrainians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Sudanese & other war-traumatised people live here. 1/2

Nearly 2,000 Africans have been tricked into fighting for Russia, in Ukraine. Many have died. It's become a hot diplomatic issue between Ukraine, Russia and African leaders www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

To this solid @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social piece, I'd add Canada risks over-estimating its leverage Demanding allies build us a $15bn auto plant to sell cars (where? To the US? With this trade uncertainty?), or we won't spend $20bn on their wares, risks them walking away www.tvo.org/article/anal...

Just take a second to think how Labour would talk about being beaten by a plumber from a working class background in Bolton if they were a man.

So beautifully written, by Vinay Menon (not on here): "...this is what young people now want from male characters: less Rambo and more Ted Lasso. Less detached violence and more emotive connective tissue. Less go it alone and more coming together." Bravo

I’ve learned that you can write four million Substacks with five million graphs and they will still absolutely refuse to admit that there is any voter that matters other than Dave and Carol, aged 63, hate immigrants.

Good analysis by Ben, my only addition is that I think psychologically Labour cannot accept that their median voter is closer to Hannah Spencer: still young, well off but still renting, female, and socially liberal than it is their desired median voter: Lee Anderson, and that is because of misogyny.

I kept joking Labour would lose cause my mum (Number One Labour Leaflet Deliverer in the Greater Manchester area 1977-2025, easy 35,000 steps on a lazy day) refused to canvas for Gorton and Denton

"When healthcare faces a reckoning, the same prescription is reliably offered: inject more “private-sector rigour” into inefficient public health. But reliance on private provision fragments care, raises costs and diverts scarce health budgets into profit" www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Online betting is up by a third in just a year across many African countries, as predatory betting companies see the African market as their next boom www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...

Remember when parties who lost elections used to be like "This is a strong message from the electorate and we will listen and learn and change" rather than "Fuck everyone who didn't vote for us, you're all extremists trying to destroy Britain"

McKinsey's invented projections normally hover in the $3-4 trillion range, so it's a nice change to see their latest buzzword bingo report step up the ambition level Not sure I've seen an entirely speculative figure as high as $12.5 trillion before www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insi...

Africa produces only 1% of the vaccines it needs for its people. There's an African vaccine sovereignty plan for six countries to produce vaccines themselves Kenya just took the next step, with a full mRNA launch this week www.afro.who.int/countries/ke...

The current argument of the British right is that Muslims turned out in "blocs" with "family voting" to cast their ballots for a party led by a gay Jewish man, and this shows that multiculturalism has failed, voting is "sectarian" and we are in a crisis. Hmmmmmm.

When the wealthy vote for low-tax parties, it’s logical When men vote for ‘family values’, it’s common sense When Muslim citizens vote against being deported, it’s an illegitimate bloc

Starmer’s entire approach, from his project’s earliest days, rested on the new core coalition of younger, more urban and ethnic minority voters had nowhere else to go. That idea is in tatters. As I wrote yday, it arises from Labour not valuing the coalition it has and romanticising one it does not

Reform, which spent its by-election campaign warning about the UK's "Christian heritage" being under threat, while proposing a ban on visas from predominantly Muslim countries, now accuses their opponents of engaging in "sectarian politics"

In the focus group of Muslim voters I sat in on, the Greens' policies on trans rights and drug legalisation were brought up. Participants either supported those positions, or didn't much care. Not what you'd expect from an unintegrated, socially conservative bloc www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Great piece from @rmcunliffe.bsky.social who sat in on focus group of Muslim voters in Gorton/Denton. Lots of groups bleak right now, but even more so as they felt racism had basically been legitimised recently & were angry govt esp PM, weren’t standing up to it www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

When white citizens vote the same way, that’s just normal When Muslim citizens vote the same way, that’s sectarianism, a conspiracy and breaks election rules

UK elections: Polls close 10pm GMT (5pm EST). Results ~2am GMT / 9pm EST All ballots are brought to a local rec centre and counted together. Candidates line up on stage to hear the result Highlights include giant rosettes and novelty candidates like Count Schnitzel von Crumb who is a giant dog

🚨🚨Biggest European Politics news of today: A midst ongoing crisis with #trump and #Greenland #Denmark will hold a snap election next month, PM #MetteFrederiksen announced today during a plenary session of the Danish parliament in Copenhagen. 🧵 www.politico.eu/article/mett...

UK is trying to deport a vulnerable woman who has been in the UK 50 years. Because she was pushed into pleading guilty to a misdemeanour, an incident in which she was exploited She is the sole carer to a disabled partner Apparently she's a threat to UK security www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

white voters get their legitimate concerns addressed, non-white voters are pandered to. it's an irregular verb.

When systems are their own entire complex world, the incentives are torqued towards people who work in the system. Which leads to perverse outcomes the general public would find unpalatable or unacceptable. But the public doesn’t know about these outcomes. Until the system breaks then it’s a scandal

The knowledge gap between experts who work in complex global systems, and the general public, mean it is hard for ordinary people to engage in discussions about their lives There is a power imbalance between the people and the experts, and it’s a challenge to democracy

The result is a) the public is fine with destroying essential global systems because they don’t see these systems as important to their lives Or b) well-meaning but mind-boggling ideas from the general public about how to fix global systems gaps

As systems have become more global and interdependent, we haven’t done a good job at bringing ordinary people along. We developed deep expertise in these systems, and that’s been enough. But now we have a democratic deficit, and the gap between experts in the system, and the general public, is huge

It is very difficult to get people to understand why destroying parts of complex global systems is bad. Because they do not know such systems exist They will eventually understand when the system collapses and they feel the end result directly. But then it’s too late

You see this conspiracy thinking in other countries too People experience the negative impacts of a large, complex system with its own motives, in which they're almost an after-thought, and they can't understand it And then the internet offers them a convenient, easy, paranoid reason

The UK has a significant by-election today in Manchester. It's a three-way split between Labour, Greens and Reform Like most by-elections, it's been ugly. But made significantly worse by the flagship Reform candidate; a professional alt-right commentator www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

As aid budgets gets slashed & the US withdraws from global institutions, this is an excellent opportunity to finally bring in a non-American leader for WFP (and please stop with the plastic press releases...)

Breaking: World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain is resigning. She released a video announcement to staff today.

Theory: One major reason Trump wants to destroy storied institutions where brave, thoughtful people have done great things for others, is because he knows deep inside he is a small, small man who could never possibly belong in such places

This is a bad dream

A global feminist organisation that received $100m+ in philanthropic funding, advertising a senior leadership role at $94,000 I'm sorry, that's a hard no

Meanwhile, Greece is prosecuting its former finance minister because he mentioned he once took ecstasy on holiday 36 years ago Laser focused on critical, topical issues, Greece is www.politico.eu/article/gree...

Not another far right party that campaigns against corrupt, elite cabals, acting exactly like a corrupt elite cabal Almost like a pattern or something www.politico.eu/article/germ...

The side effects of pregnancy and childbirth, followed by at least 18 years of parenting, are famously negligible

Police in 'you keep demanding more funding, yet you're incapable of not being the Keystone Cops for a single day' challenge www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...