Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins? He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions. So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?

Twice a year, for as long as the fragile peace of our age holds, I get to live inside my screensavers ❤️ #hrvatska

I've been trying to understand why this isn't generating as much fury as it should, and i think it's because there is a fundamental belief among many americans that the military can pretty much do whatever (which isn't entirely inaccurate.) that said, what the actual fuck.

When I moved to the UK, it was the coalition government, and Labour was absolutely never treated by the press as a government in waiting despite leading the opinion polls for almost that entire Parliament. The attitude was, "eh, the election's a ways off, gotta see what happens" until months before.

The US is imposing sanctions on Brazil for trying to protect its democracy, and throwing a lifeline to Milei to prop up his administration.

Many of which - I know - offered their services and were ignored. Expensive uni labs left sitting idle. The highly trained experts who ran them working from home or furloughed. But there was a fundamental insistence that none of the billions spent on tech would go into publicly funded institutions.

The worst possible people in charge at the worst possible time, inept incompetent and corrupt.

It would signal the the de facto end of nearly all immigration to this country, from those coming to work to those who come for love. It would crater our economy, tear up relationships, remove status from millions of European, result in endless legal battles and leave us as an international pariah.

who wants to read an article about some incredible 1990s direct action? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

But of a test here for what remains of the British news media. These proposals are mad, racist and economic suicide. Will they be reported as such? Or will they be reported as a reasonable suggestion?

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

Latest projection suggests that more than 505,000 adults and kids have died due to USAID's illegal dismantling by Musk, Rubio, and Lewin Source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

Abortion is literally Democrats' strongest issue with the widest appeal! This is constantly born out in polling, referendum results, and the results of elections where Democrats focus on abortion! There is no actual evidentiary basis for "compromising" on abortion, it's just what Twitter says!

The net effect of Elon buying Twitter and rebuilding the algorithm to constantly spoonfeed people right wing propaganda has been less convincing average people of right wing propaganda and more convincing the entire anglosphere elite class that the average person believes right wing propaganda

So as a bit of an FCDO website nerd, I can confirm Palestine has been added to the list of countries. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Haha called it @stejormur.bsky.social

On the Jolly Roger. It's a Royal Navy tradition for a submarine that has engaged in combat successfully to fly one upon their return to port. This is HMS Conqueror returning home in 1982

Half an hour on from discovery, my new favourite theory about the Albanian AI minister is that she’s a human actor because whoever the govt contracted to make this thing weren’t ready in time (or the tech is rubbish) so they released this instead. Somewhere, a junior minister knows and is terrified.

And Justin Webb on #r4today cheers on godawful Tory, Nick Timothy, who insists we should just ditch all laws and human rights protections for refugees. “Can’t we just do that?!” Justin wails, like some monstrous toddler who thinks someone is coming for his toys. This isn’t remotely sane any more.

Only just noticed we made the US President watch redcoats in c18th uniforms #trolling

Absolutely shocking.

Why Brazilians have been so divided in their reaction to Bolsonaro’s conviction - new article by me and @ThomasColley for @theconversation.com theconversation.com/why-brazilia...

Do you think the raving lunatics will have a civil ‘debate’ over your existence? Did the failed actor Lawrence Fox try to ‘debate’ me and my husband when he pointed directly at us and made throat slashing motions? Did the fascist try to ‘debate’ me when they threw up sig heil salutes? Did they fuck

Y’know, I was thinking on my commute home about the time the Christians set up shop outside our flat and started shouting through a PA system so my husband and I went out to investigate and the moment the preacher saw us he SCREAMED at us about AIDS and DEGENERACY and SIN. That’s ‘debate’

Shame on Downing Street for going along with this. So much for being committed to a free press

Slightly alarmed to see Labour have just leafleted my safe Labour seat/ward, which they would normally only do before an election (which is not a problem, I do not need leaflets).

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

Pyongyang on the Plains. Oklahoma targets teachers for insufficient mourning of Charlie Kirk.

Reminder: The existence of these in most Scottish supermarkets and corner shops is proof that anyone shilling for the notion that multiculturalism can't work on this island is a charlatan

And you know what, hasn’t it made us all happier? Another of his gifts to the world

More Sneakers. And if only the evil billionaires actively destroying the world at the moment were in any way as estimable as Sir Ben’s character here i would at least be less offended by it all m.youtube.com/watch?v=coDt...

This is a great scene in Sneakers, a great movie, and his comic timing is so fantastic m.youtube.com/watch?v=pm7L...

Tomi 🇺🇦🇫🇮🇪🇺 @TallbarFIN #FBPR #Europe #Russia 's rhetoric towards #Finland is getting tougher by the day and just like they did towards #Ukraine, they are questioning the existence of the Finnish state. Rhetorically, we are already at war. Some of the latest propaganda and threats from ryssä 🧵6

People need to see this on a map to understand how wild the claim it is that the drugs were imminently on their way to the US, requiring the killing of everyone on board. The first boat was heading to Trinidad and Tobago and never made it within 1,500 miles of the continental United States!

This is extrajudicial execution, without any clear threat to the US, no authorization from Congress, and far beyond even Article II. The military is not the president's personal hit squad. Or wasn't, until now.

And tbf it did strike me at the time that we are all incredibly online, and is there any rule of thumb in PR for calculating when you *actually* need to respond to something that may not be immediate common knowledge tor everybody? Shouldn’t overlook though that it wasn’t instinctive.

Not that anyone in politics listens to research, but there is a bucket of research (including some excellent recent studies) which show exactly this. Voters listen to leaders and respond to what they say.

Here’s a lovely piece from The Observer to lift your spirits: competitive ball kicking through a small Parisian window observer.co.uk/news/interna...

I think a lot of the problem is that the kind of people who usually organize anti racist demonstrations have been pretty badly demoralized and burnt out (and in some cases arrested for terrorist offences) over the last two years.

The problem is that ‘this is not who we are’ is coming to feel a little empirically unconvincing. It might help if the PM actually stood up and made the case for a liberal, tolerant and inclusive country.

Elon Musk openly called for violence on our streets yesterday. I hope politicians from all parties come together to condemn his deeply dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric. Britain must stand united against this clear attempt to undermine our democracy.

The Prime minister told an ethnic minority newspaper, Eastern Eye, in late July that he recognises his responsibility to speak out if the status of minorities in Britain is questioned by a surge in racism

1) when there was demand for a second Brexit referendum over 1 million people descended on London. You can see from the photos it was more than Robinson: Why was “something must be done” not the theme then? www.bbc.com/news/uk-poli...

Foreign billionaires don’t get to incite violence against Britain. We cannot stay silent. 1/5 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Shot, chaser Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

In other words: normalise being normal, while we still are. (Also useful life skill is to normalise asking yourself, when you see something online that makes you angry: is ‘everyone’ really doing this? Am I seeing it in real life? Or is this freakshow stuff? I’m as guilty of this as anyone).

My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson Well worth a read observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Musk is inciting violence on London's streets.Tommy Robinson is financed by US tech bros. These are all very direct attempts to destabilise the British state. Starmer needs to stand up to this. A government that doesn't defend its country's values against these blatant attacks is not doing its job.

The common sense meaning is that , because "violence is coming", members of the majority group will "die" if they do not "fight back". Therefore, pre-emptive violence against an existential threat is condoned as being a form of pre-emptive self-defence. "Fight back" is not primarily a metaphor