That would be Peter Mandelson’s old pal Oleg Deripaska.

The family of Hillary Dawa Sherpa are rightly asking why the 57-year-old was abandoned on Everest. It wouldn't have happened to a client. The most pertinent questions, though, are for the expedition's liaison officer and agent. sg.news.yahoo.com/family-mirac...

It is, says one western military official, “like a game of Pokémon Go, but with air defence systems”.

Worth adding to this that Farage pinup Andrew Tate rocked up in St Petersburg yesterday, at Putin's crypto funfair, sorry, economic forum.

The new government in Nepal continues to disappoint. Here is the always excellent Sonia Awale on the recent budget, which negatively impacts the environment. Ordinary Nepalis would do better from cutting fuel imports and boosting solar. nepalitimes.com/budget-takes...

Britain. A country that will put nature on its money but won’t put money in nature. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Only bollards can deliver this much happiness. #WorldBollardAssociation

Must just be some mad coincidence that all the Putin apologists find themselves in a party run by a bloke that really admires Putin

They all did it.

If there’s icing on the Tottenham survival cake, it’s annoying the Guardian’s football writers.

Love this photo.

Wonder what Prue Leith makes of her son’s defence of the loathsome Rob Kenyon. Not what she’d expect having paid Eton all that money, I’m guessing. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Of course I drew the whistling potato. #art #potato

Oh joy.

Britain was perhaps the leading nation in maintaining a consistent principled line on Ukraine. We just threw that reputation away.

No notes.

Agree with Emily Thornberry here.. this is a properly shit decision from the govt. How can you just throw them under the bus

what do you call it when the president steals an unfathomable amount of wealth from the treasury and then declares it illegal to investigate him

Utterly the wrong call. Weak. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I suppose the upside for Keir Starmer is that other Labour leaders have stopped attacking him and started attacking each other. Must be a bit of a break for him.

A neat encapsulation of how Trump is the most corrupt president in US history. He doesn't even bother to hide it. www.youtube.com/shorts/Iyf0c...

The most corrupt president in history:

I wonder what Keir Starmer would make of the travails of governing Nepal. The state budgeted £2bn for capital expenditure (£157bn in UK) and with two months to go only a quarter of that has been spent.

'Please don't steal my lunch money.'

True, but just TRY to get something like this past the GOP.

Political reporting is now like football reporting. It's not the game itself, but whether you can get the manager sacked.

Given that the electorate want better public services and lower taxes, thriving high streets and online shopping, less immigration and more migrant care workers (to look after granny), I'm backing Gandalf in the Labour leadership contest.

Would love to read something on how Labour’s collapse in Wales will impact nature-restorative farming subsidies. My hunch is: not to the good.

Balen Shah's new government in Nepal is looking ominous. Not confirming Sapana Pradhan Malla as the chief justice demotes a woman who fought for and won a more just legal system, giving women rights they should have had decades ago. Jobs for the boys again. kathmandupost.com/national/202...

If FIFA can do it for Trump, why not? Medals all round.

Sheffield cyclists should be so lucky.

Seminal piece on how Tibetans inside Tibet find ways to satirise their world, a refuge from oppression whose origins are much older than you might imagine.

A river that shaped a civilisation now runs dead through Nepal's capital. There are court orders. There are master plans. There is even a restoration project with real funding behind it. So why is the Bagmati still dying?

I just attended a Making Tax Digital seminar. I now understand this less than I did before. I mean, as Kenneth Williams said at the end of his diary, what's the point?

I've seen a host of AI-generated images purporting to be of dead climbers on Everest on Facebook. Underneath lots of comments denouncing climbers. Maybe they're all bots? What a dismal process.

Hi all. I've written another book. This one is for children, it's called A River Running Through You, and it publishes on 14th May. It's been such a joy to reinterpret some of the insights I've gleaned in recent years thinking with and about rivers this way. 🧵

How come they keep spelling “open” wrong? Does that street look closed to you? Only if you’re a car… and presumably that’s the real problem. #UrbanTruth

Fascinating to be in Lima as Peruvians go to the polls to elect a new president. The authorities ban the sale of alcohol beforehand. But as I told our waiter, you need to be drunk to vote for most politicians these days.

New podcast! Talking with Caroline Schaumann about Humboldtian science in the mountains - feeling, failure, and queer sensibilities + 19th C. mountaineering in print, archive and film #EnvHist #Mountaineering #Alps #Andes shorturl.at/tVj9T @calmandfearless.bsky.social @sarahmpicks.bsky.social

Never liked the word ‘rambler’ for walker. All bobble hats and Werther’s Originals. The Spanish term ‘senderista’ on the other hand…

Quite funny that Hannah Spencer was chilling as a plumbing influencer about a month ago. Now it seems she's already better at politics, speech writing, and public speaking than the Prime Minister and most of his team. And she could sort your pipes and walls out. Impressive.

Peter Hansen is always worth hearing on the subject of Everest and imperialism.

New podcast! We talk to historian of science @lachlanfleetwood.bsky.social about early 19th C. imperial science in the #Himalaya & the emergence of a 'vertically oriented view of the world' where altitude comes to define mountains #HistSci #EnvHist shorturl.at/51fJe @calmandfearless.bsky.social

Tension builds at 2am outside @calmandfearless.bsky.social's bedroom window in today's @theguardian.com country diary. #countrydiary #naturewriting

बाउ को धुरी छैन “Father Has No Roof over his head” An #OtherEverests #ConfluenceCollective exhibition in Kalimpong 21-27 February 2026 shorturl.at/YrbVv Lost archives & hidden histories of Indigenous high-altitude workers from the 1920s & 1930s. @peterhhansen.bsky.social @calmandfearless.bsky.social

Very rich people knew they'd not be affected by Brexit or MAGA. They have mobility and money. Just a game and a gamble.

It's amazing to see so many new responses to and interpretations of Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain. Wish she could have known the legs that book had.

The Fram Museum (if you're ever in Oslo, then go) is reporting that Roland Huntford has died, deep into his 90s. It took someone born in South Africa to offer a more realistic picture of Scott, but his intention, he said, to was to do justice to Amundsen. Can't argue with that.

Far from being stopped, fake rescues are continuing in Nepal. Police say in a 30-month period insurance companies were defrauded of $20 million dollars. kathmandupost.com/money/2026/0...

A sobering account of the recent accident on Makalu when a client was left to descend alone following the death of one of his guides and subsequently disappeared himself. Tragic, but begs a lot of questions. www.climbing.com/news/how-gui...