The EU wants to reduce its tech reliance on US and China via a new Apply AI strategy, seen by the Financial Times, which promotes digital sovereignty. The bloc warns AI can otherwise be “weaponised” by rivals. With @henryjfoy.ft.com on.ft.com/3WkfSjs

“Nature and farmland equivalent in size to that of the New Forest – 604 sq km – was lost to concrete and bricks and mortar in the UK between 2018 and 2023” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

”The Italian legal team representing the flotilla confirmed those detained were left ’for hours without food or water – until late last night’, with the exception of ’a packet of crisps handed to Greta and shown to the cameras.’ Lawyers also reported instances of verbal and physical abuse.”

29 'missing' Hen Harriers & nearly 40 birds of prey poisoned, trapped or shot in Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015. Not so much a National Park - more of a National Disgrace. #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime #Ornithology #Yorkshire raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/10/04/2...

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.” Diary of Anne Frank January 13, 1943

Trump officials cut nearly $8bn in clean energy projects in Democratic states Democrats and environmental groups slam move as ‘sick political game’ and say it will drive up energy bills www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Hundreds of thousands turn out at pro-Palestinian marches in Europe - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/hundreds-thousands-turn-out-pro-palestinian-marches-europe

"Milei is amazing. It's Thatcherism on steroids. Cutting and slashing. That's leadership" - Nigel Farage Milei would be the "template" for my government - Kemi Badenoch

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

We’ve just finished watching “The Hack” : the most powerful, superbly acted, politically relevant drama I’ve seen in 15 yrs. Why aren’t there steps to reintroduce Levison 2 🌹? Starmer was head of the CPS 🤬! Brexit + Farage are the result of those in power failing the ppl. We are so broken!

Exclusive: Nigel Farage has not updated his register since May, despite continuing to present his GB News show, record Cameo videos and being a verified X user Qus are now being asked about the non-registration of his shareholding in GB parent co All Perspectives observer.co.uk/news/politic...

The greatest threat to our democracy, freedom, and human rights is not Farage. It is the overwhelming majority of the British news media. They promote Farage, and they protect Farage. If they carry on like this, we will soon have no democracy.

Answers on a postcard. Farage - who is currently in line to be the next Prime Minister of the UK - won't explain this mounting ties to a hostile foreign power. We need more investigation and public inquiry before its too late 12/12 bylinetimes.com/2025/10/04/t...

🔴NEW🔴 Thread 🧵 @bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12

Just by way of an aside - and with no obvious connection - Farage took up his line that the West "provoked" Putin's full invasion of Ukraine a few weeks after this tweet in June 2024, and for the first time since the 2022 Russian Military's 'special operation'

There are lots of reasons not to leave ECHR. But apart from anything else, it just doesn't solve the problem the Tories/Reform think it does. E.g. the Supreme Court judgment re Rwanda being unsafe explicitly said it was not based on ECHR.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage with the Russian Ambassador (that he denied meeting), and with Oleg Voloshyn's wife Nadia Borodi, Voloshyn bribed Nathan Gill. Farage is still silent. It’s deafening. #ReformRussianBribes

"Does the ECHR stop states from controlling their borders?" No. The ECHR Court emphasises migration policies are up to states themselves. "But the ECHR stops the UK from deporting foreign criminals." No, it doesn't. Successful human rights-based appeals against deportation are very rare.

"The people who jostled their way into this lane for a grotesquely outsize cash bonanza and then boasted about helping the nation were profiteering, plain and simple." Brilliantly & appropriately savage from the peerless Marina Hyde 💥 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The ECHR is much more than a treaty. It’s a quiet promise - a shield against abuse of power, a lifeline for the vulnerable, a declaration of who we are as a nation. In an age of upheaval and division, we must not let it be torn up for political convenience

Four U.S. citizen children were detained in an ICE raid—zip-tied, separated, held for hours. Imagine if these were your precious little ones! Can you close your eyes to this depravity? Please don't. Remember If this could happen to these little kids, it can happen to yours. Speak out now!

“…detailed legal review led by shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar concluded that the ECHR placed "significant constraints" on the government.” >>> Well, duh, what do they think a human rights instrument is meant to do? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

President Macron: “We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

~ Pecksniff: At last! ‘Rejoin the EU,’ says Burnham ~ https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/pecksniff/pecksniffs-diary-04-10-25/

Leaving the ECHR, as the Tories now propose in a desperate attempt to out do Reform in nastiness, would compound the damage done by Brexit, taking more rights from UK citizens and destabilising Northern Ireland again. But that's not all. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... (1/2)

What hacks me off is that people like Andrew Neil, who relentlessly monstered Carole with his “mad cat woman” slurs for digging into Russian influence & disinfo, back when the West could have done something about it, is now loudly condemning Russian shills for doing the stuff she warned us about.

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury. My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s strikes on Russian fuel flipped the script: "the gas-station-country isn’t selling fuel – it’s buying it." "Russia now imports gasoline from Asia – China and others – and from Europe, Belarus in particular," he noted euromaidanpress.com/2025/10/04/r...

Rampant stupidity. Politicians attack the ECHR, but ignore what it means or how it works. It has become a target, but reality is it has very limited impact on asylum removals. Leaving it though would have catastrophic consequences for the whole country. #r4today www.bbc.com/news/article...

Dear Lord, it’s actually worse than the extract @stephenkb.bsky.social shared. Quite a lot worse.

even if trade in the other direction is okay, this is pretty disastrous for businesses & consumers in Northern Ireland and as the report points out, there is no fix for this. Grim uplands rather than Sunlit Uplands.

Anyone can have a mad moment in an interview (I certainly have) but this speaks to some recurring problems with Badenoch: - her lack of basic prep; - her amazing ability to walk into lamp-posts; - the patronising manner, even when wrong; - & a consistent failure to think seriously about Brexit & NI.

One of the biggest losses in the UK has been our newspaper industry. Once the envy of the world, even when Murdoch owned most of it, now 95% is little more than dirt cheap, right-wing ragebait. Hard to believe that The Times was once called "The Thunderer".

If 20 French farmers were protesting against Macron in Paris, the BBC would have sent 20 reporters there. But now? Crickets. 🦗

If there was ever any doubt in your mind that Israel has a fascist govt, let the scales fall from your eyes. Also, make no mistake, the fascist threat we face is global, and they are neither restricted nor constrained by national borders. #YaxleyLennon #C4News

This week, the Global Sumud Flotilla tried to deliver life-saving aid to Gaza. Instead, 461 people—including New Yorkers—have been detained by the Israeli military. They must be freed at once. And the deliberate starvation of Palestinians must end now.

no excuse for being this bad

Possibly the most hilarious combination of confidence and ignorance on Ireland since Alan Partridge opined on Bloody Sunday

In the Netherlands, you don't arrive by bike at the train station. Instead, you arrive at the bike station by train! 📍 Utrecht Central Station

Glasman has been peddling this guff for months. I remember thinking, when I saw this in July, how comical it was for a man so obviously dour, joyless, and angry to claim that, BuT fOr ThE wOkEz aNd tHeiR mAGic LaNyArDz, his life would be full of love and laughter.

2 million people protesting in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Italy’s general strike. www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025...

This Israeli government decision to host Tommy Robinson will widen the growing gulf between the Netanyahu government and the British public, including the broad majority of Jews in Britain (3/4 of whom dsapproved of Netanyahu, before this new link to this anti-Muslim racist UK far right convict).

Baroness Mone hits out at Kemi Badenoch over PPE VIP lanes: ‘I acted no differently than Matt Hancock who referred 4 companies… And let’s not forget Michael Gove & his referral of 4 contracts to his friend David Meller’

❤️

Stolen from FB (I seem to do a lot of that)

The 15 reasons why top UN legal experts say Trump’s Gaza plan breaches international law www.middleeasteye.net/news/why-un-...

There's a by-election in North Northants at the moment (Lloyds & Corby Village) following a racist councillor's resignation Reform UK's candidate, Lee Duffy, was reported by the local Reform team as having provided a "generous and tasty buffet" to residents at a recent meeting, on the ward's border