Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

A reminder of what some of these asylum policies are: - giving refugees only 2.5 years of leave, meaning the Home Office has to review their status every 30 months - quadrupling the time to settlement from 5 years to 20 years - no automatic way to be reunited with close family members

They were going to pass rules to phase out gas stoves, until they received 20,000 public comments against the regulations. Except, oops, it turns out the comments were generated by AI.

When you put it like this, a $75 million bribe to Melania and gutting the Washington Post seems like a small price to pay.

NEW How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence How a close read of public domain documents show how MoD was commercially colonised by Palantir By me, at FT www.ft.com/content/5207...

Ireland No. 1 in Europe - yet again. GHGs rose faster (+3.2%) in Ireland in Q3 2025 than ANYWHERE else in Europe. #Climate action, my eye.

Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. (Published Feb. 2025)

I think one of the real challenges in discussing anything to do with trans people is that the media simply cannot accept that the anti-position is entirely eliminationist. There is no way to "exist in public whilst trans" that they will accept, right down to celebrating a doctor quitting.

'UK universities have experienced their worst January for international student recruitment in at least four years, new visa figures indicate.' Figure is 31% down from a tear ago. 1/2

This is undoubtably the most exciting thing happening in tech right now. Why couldn't the UK summon up the balls to do this years ago? Why couldn't Digital Strategies spearhead the introduction of open source products to save money and increase digital independence? Innovation through circumstance

'The new rules won’t simply mean a longer wait for ILR. They will mean many people don’t qualify for ILR at all and have to leave the country'. @jamesbowes01.bsky.social on the government's earned settlement proposals ukandeu.ac.uk/remigration-...

The government's earned settlement proposals manage to be politically and morally bankrupt at the same time as being economically and fiscally counterproductive. Quite remarkable really. www.ft.com/content/ca14...

Sorry to be Radical Left but I don't think we should put people who haven't committed a crime, and aren't even accused of committing a crime, into any sort of "Detention"

The Home Office tweet here - referring to asylum seekers legally here and legally supported by the government as “illegal migrants” - is a deliberate attempt to stir up resentment and racial hatred. I can’t see how else you describe it.

The Home Office now describes asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants [living in hotels]" with no reference to the reason that these people are in government-funded accommodation is that this government has taken & will process the asylum claim from them in 98-99% of cases of unauthorised entry.

The U.S. State Department is set to fund MAGA-aligned think-tanks and charities across Europe to spread the Trump administration’s policy positions. We eagerly await the patriots'/sovereignists' strong indignation and their demands for investigations to be carried out! 🕵️

God give me strength. This stuff pisses me off so much on top of all the other stuff that pisses me off

🚨🚨" Some leaders have chosen to hunt them down and deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel. My government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status." Spanish PM Pedro #Sanchez on why #migrants are essential for Western society:

Do they understand how mad they sound? As if anyone has ever decided to cross the Channel in a small boat because, if they make it, they might get to take a free taxi to a doctor's appointment? "Pull factors" on steroids. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Nothing like enjoying your slightly cheaper pint while imagining the toddler crying from hunger that paid for it.

After seven and a half years of weekly parenting columns for the Observer, today's will be my last. I started writing the column a few weeks before becoming a dad, so I've never parented without it. I'll miss it more than I express in words, but I had a go anyway. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

I find myself nostalgic for the days when evil people had to pretend not to be evil, because being evil was considered socially unacceptable.

That some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men were writing crime e-mails to crime man Epstein on gmail suggests two non-exclusive things: a) Our meritocracy isn't all it's cracked up to be; b) Our overlords operate at levels of arrogance & impunity that make consequences unimaginable.

Lots of good detail and context in this article. Well done to all the researchers and activists who fought for this eminently sensible and truly transformative policy reform @gonzalofanjul.bsky.social @porcausa.org

There are 3,800 kids in ICE custody.

A good piece because instead of handwringing over Goodwin's radicalization it correctly focuses on the deliberately constructed media ecosystem that inexplicably elevated someone like him into the public eye and keeps rewarding him for ever more repugnant views. iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...

Given his appalling remarks about Sunak its absolutely shocking that Konstantin Kisin is anywhere near the mainstream let alone on #bbcqt

Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases

fear. they need to demonstrate that resistance is worse than useless, that it will be broken, and that their agents have impunity regardless of their actions.

I love that he actually runs through this. No doubt that this message will resonate with ALOT of people.

Israel’s deprivation strategy: “A 27-day-old baby died in Gaza on Saturday from severe cold, bringing the number of children in the region who have died of hypothermia since the start of the current winter season to eight." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Just the Telegraph casually referring to an Irish woman as a ‘washer woman’ You hit the jackpot there, lads: xenophobia, misogyny and unbridled class snobbery

France serves order to leave and entry ban to ten far-right anti-migrant British activists for actions against small boats and propaganda activities in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais coastline. www.interieur.gouv.fr/actualites/c...

in other news apparently you can now get shot for being smug

I’m seeing lots of people on here misunderstand the purpose of ICE watch. It’s de-escalation. And it’s grounded in the social science of violence. 🧵

Completely agree. Most fervent wish. Desperately sad we are so far from this basic, normal, inoffensive proposition

Ah here. The 10 o’clock news on BBV Radio 4 is leading with ‘JD Vance has described a woman shot dead by an ICE officer in Minnesota as a deranged leftist carrying out a terrorist attack’ This is not public service broadcasting

The government is saying that violence rules. That snatching foreign leaders and territories, and shooting US citizens in their cars at point blank range, is justified. That resistance is not only futile, it is dangerous. They can say these things. But they cannot force us to believe them.

Today once again proved that everyday citizens protesting their government are braver than the titans who own the largest media corporations, run the biggest law firms and lead the most powerful technology companies.

If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One of the most lopsided results you'll ever see in a poll, from our weekend Washington Post poll www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

We are dealing with simply unfathomable levels of derangement.

Calls to strip pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah of his British citizenship pile torment on top of torture. New piece by me on a dangerous and manufactured storm: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The US media outlet with the most employees and resources only knows 4 people.

Great article on Ireland's experience with data centres, which are driving greater fossil fuel consumption. "The Irish case shows what happens when digital expansion outruns energy planning, and when political dependency on a small group of firms overrides climate commitments."

Turns out to be a pretty average flu year that started a bit earlier. NHS and Govt have a responsibility to communicate data responsibly and they failed this winter.

Their demands are reasonable, their treatment is disgraceful. The government's intransigence is killing the #PalestineAction hunger strikers. Just as its complicity has assisted the genocide in Gaza. It needs to wake up right now to the moral consequences. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The people on hunger strike in England in protest at the British state's complicity in apartheid Israel's genocide of Palestinians and at their own grossly unfair treatment in prison are in danger. None of them has been convicted of a crime, they should be released. #FreeThemAll