⚡️ UK pledges over $800 million for Ukraine's air defenses. The funds will be used to purchase "thousands of air defense systems, missiles, and automated turrets to shoot down drones," U.K. Defense Minister John Healey said.

The main highlights of rail travel this year (mundane journeys not included), in several clusters.

Hopefully this will be massively harmful to Reform. Only the real idiot fringe will be cheering this on.

These are pillars at Crewe station being held together with scaffolding. Tell me again how HS2 is an extravagant waste of money and we can just patch up the existing network and that'll be fine 🤔

She hasn't posted here for a year, but still. @heidialexander.bsky.social

"...and who could resist?"

Can I just shock you? I think public transport infrastructure is good and these people should fuck off.

Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans. Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills. Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.

These are pillars at Crewe station being held together with scaffolding. Tell me again how HS2 is an extravagant waste of money and we can just patch up the existing network and that'll be fine 🤔

I can’t believe someone who won the FIFA Peace Prize would act like this.

Hopefully this will be massively harmful to Reform. Only the real idiot fringe will be cheering this on.

EU enlargement - EU and Montenegro close another 5 negotiation chapters - 12/33 closed to date www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

Just leaving this here...

Just leaving this here...

We got rid of Clippy. Time to do the same to his cocky cousins. #AI may have its uses for good, but the cynical extractive models we are having shoved on us is not it.

Because what we need is a journalistic equivalent of Spotify where the publication gets paid per article. I can't afford several subscriptions and that's not going to change.

⚡️BREAKING: Ukraine just made naval warfare history. Ukraine’s Security Service hit a Russian Kilo-class submarine in Novorossiysk using Sub Sea Baby underwater drones, leaving the sub critically damaged and effectively knocked out, the SBU reports.

Welsh miners have appeared on a Ukrainian TV channel as they handed over vital aid to the bomb-battered city of Kyiv ✍️Emily Price wp.me/p8Mk4U-1aKB

There were a lot of people travelling Ljubljana-Trieste when I went in May. That's a lot of people deprived of a service now.

I'm fascinated by how the Koralmbahn redraws railway geography in that region. I wonder what potential there is in other locations for such a rethink.

Sounds like the Russians have asked Reform councillors for advice

Sounds like the Russians have asked Reform councillors for advice

#StopHumanSafari #SaveKherson

For all those who haven't had any harassment on Bluesky, I'm very happy for you

I don't see that the US has much leverage with Ukraine if it's not supplying arms tbh

I'm fascinated by how the Koralmbahn redraws railway geography in that region. I wonder what potential there is in other locations for such a rethink.

Austro-Hungarian vibes today as the new daily Vienna-Trieste Railjet arrived in Trieste, part of the new services made possible by the Koralmbahn. www.ilpiccolo.it/nordest/tren...

The Koralmbahn is a game changer for Vienna-Trieste, which now goes via Klagenfurt, but has killed Ljubljana-Trieste, which now doesn't run at all...

It's too flag-shagging for my liking. I'd go back to a variant on BR blue and white with yellow ends. Dutch Railways just sticks with yellow and blue through the years and I think that's nice. Belgium has its grey. DB has red. Spain its white with purple stripes. And so on.

Yellow end + double arrow and this could pretty much have been the Great British Railways livery. Small flag if you must.

I love the 'it's winter' takes as if winter hasn't happened for 7 years and we're in fkg Game of Thrones or something

Excavation for new Hartlepool housing estate reveals old turntable [pic credit Michael Brown]

Merseyside, technically

Zelensky arrived in Kupyansk, which Putin claims is "under Russian control."

I only recently learned Deck the Halls is originally Welsh. Epiphany came early this year.

I love the 'it's winter' takes as if winter hasn't happened for 7 years and we're in fkg Game of Thrones or something

Stockport away then

That first line

People that take a student loan with no intention of fulfilling their studies should have the loan converted into commercial debt and passed on to debt collectors.

Hate to ask the question, but how much unhappiness about the modern world is simply a function of an ageing population? More risk-averse. More expensive to care for. More nostalgic for their younger days. Higher expectations. Less tax paid.

People that take a student loan with no intention of fulfilling their studies should have the loan converted into commercial debt and passed on to debt collectors.

Trilingual station signage in old Lviv

Heard Beehive Centre site in Cambridge is being redeveloped. All I'm saying is if you *did* want to 1)convert busway into tram system 2)also serve redeveloped airport site 3)use the wide rail alignment through Cambridge 4)run to the city centre this would be great opportunity to accommodate that

That first line

Next big news, for the second successive day, comes from the Caspian Sea. Ukraine says it's hit 2 more Russian ships on international sanctions lists, off the coast of Kalmykia which I highlighted on the map. Kyiv says the “Kompositor Rachmaninov” and “Askar-Sarydzha” were transporting weapons.

The caveat of course is that in 2016 it was a real question in our own hands. In 2025, it depends on the EU not us, and the vibe I get is they don't want us. It's an exercise in mitigation now I think and seeing what we can improve if they will play ball.