Thanks!

I was also agreeing with you. Just letting off steam.

Tice ‘happy to put things right’ after ‘he failed to pay £100k in corporation tax’ Mr Tice said last year Angela Rayner would resign if she had “any moral decency” after admitting to underpaying stamp duty

Richard Tice deputy leader of Reform ran four shell companies which did not pay any tax on profits between 2020 and 2022.

He's now offering to "put things right".

Go on then Richard - resign.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Reform dragged into tax row by Richard Tice’s unpaid £100,000 The party’s deputy leader says he will ‘pay what is owed if numbers need rechecking’ after more revelations from The Sunday Times

In short Rayner had to resign due to concerted media & political pressure over a single stamp duty mistake. Millionaire Tice bankrolled his party through deliberate, dodgy, tax-avoiding corporate tricks and yet the media pressure is limited to a few outlets.

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

World Trade Organization - Global trade Global trade - The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

Blame it on what's considered "news". There are 165 other WTO members, all trading with each other. It's not just about the US. It's possible to subscribe to alerts from various blogs and websites, including the horse's mouth www.wto.org

Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks This technical note accompaniesExplainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’India and South Africa pour cold water on alternative approach to WTO talks‘Plurilateral’ WTO ser…

CORRECTION

A kind reader has pointed out that Pakistan is in one plurilateral (investment facilitation) and South Africa in another (MSMEs). So 158 WTO members (95%) are in at least one plurilateral, and only 8 (5%) not in any. This has been corrected.

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/participatio...

CORRECTION

A kind reader has pointed out that Pakistan is in one plurilateral (investment facilitation) and South Africa in another (MSMEs). So 158 WTO members (95%) are in at least one plurilateral, and only 8 (5%) not in any. This has been corrected.

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/participatio...

Screenshot of the search result for Türkiye in the WTO's database of free trade agreements, showing the EU-Türkiye customs union and 26 other free trade agreements involving Türkiye, all involving goods only or goods with services

Usually meticulous, @iandunt.bsky.social misses a bit on an EU customs union (goods only) versus single market (goods, services, capital, labour). Much is detail: is Switzerland in the single market? Can a customs union coexist with a free trade agreement? Türkiye? rtais.wto.org/UI/PublicSea...

Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks This technical note accompaniesExplainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’India and South Africa pour cold water on alternative approach to WTO talks‘Plurilateral’ WTO ser…

Latest: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks. Hopefully the final update from the Ministerial Conference. Bangladesh joined the Investment Facilitation plurilateral, bringing the total number of WTO members involved in plurilateral talks to 156 (94% of members), with only 10 not participating.

🇦🇷 Guitar-shaped farm in Argentina seen from above

Aerial shots show 'Estancia La Guitarra' -- The Guitar Farm -- surrounded by cornfields near General Levalle in Argentina.

‘BBC News Interim CEO Jonathan Munro has written to staff confirming that all areas of BBC News will be affected by cost-cutting measures.’ 1/

In this month's "News Harvest":

▶️ Gulf conflict disrupting fertilizer, energy markets
▶️ #WTOAg negotiations to continue after #WTOMC14
▶️ Minister facilitator reports on MC14 agriculture talks

Read: bit.ly/3QfSXWK
Subscribe: bit.ly/3LmmvtR

EU numbers in the WTO — over-zealous lawyers override common sense In the WTO, the EU is unambiguously the union itself and each of its member states. Currently that’s 28. Many explanations for counting differently are frankly nonsense

In the WTO, the EU is unambiguously the union itself and each of its member states. Currently that’s 28. Many explanations for counting differently—such as the number of participants in the e-commerce plurilateral agreement—are frankly nonsense

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2026/04/15/e...

Screenshot of the top part of page 1 of the linked paper

37 WTO members want to explore how intellectual property offices can and do use digitisation and artificial intelligence to examine, adjudicate, protect and enforce patents etc, and to facilitate trade. With input from APEC.

Hong Kong is here, but not China.

docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages...

Screenshot of the linked WTO calendar page, showing the first 3 weeks of May, including the General Council, meeting at 10:00, on Wednesday May 6 and Thursday May 7

Unfinished business from the Yaoundé WTO Ministerial Conference returns to Geneva. The General Council can act for the ministers. It meets May 6–7.

Eg,
● WTO reform and work plan
● E-commerce
● Intellectual property non-violation complaints
● Least developed countries

www.wto.org/english/news...

How 66 (or is it 67?) WTO members are trying to unblock their e-commerce deal | White paper | Hinrich Foundation A group of WTO members have pushed ahead to implement their e-commerce agreement domestically. How this agreement will relate to the WTO remains a big question.

How 67 WTO members are trying to unblock their e-commerce agreement with stop-gap arrangements pending the deal becoming part of WTO rules. Some details have been revealed, some have not. We don't know how the group’s interim arrangements will relate to the WTO. A new Hinrich Foundation paper.

Opponents of WTO investment pact split; India is accused of falsehoods South Africa steps back from blocking plurilateral deal’s addition to WTO rules. Singapore loses patience with ‘insulting’ India

Want more accurate details? ⬇️Now updated with the de-restricted minutes of the Dec 2025 WTO General Council meeting. Includes the whole of Singapore’s short, hard-hitting intervention on India’s hard line on plurilateral agreements. The minutes themselves have 3 agenda items on plurilaterals.

JD Vance says US delegation leaving Pakistan after failing to reach deal with Iran US vice president cited shortcomings in the talks, saying Iran had chosen not to accept American terms, including to not build nuclear weapons

JD Vance said his negotiating team was leaving Pakistan after not reaching a deal with Iran after a marathon 21 hours of negotiations. Vance cited shortcomings in the talks and said Iran had chosen not to accept US terms, including to not build nuclear weapons.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

I could have sworn that was a photo of Naypyidaw

Screenshot of the opening paragraphs of the linked document, titled REPORT BY THE MINISTER FACILITATOR, H.E. MR. BILAL AZHAR KAYANI [Pakistan], TO THE INFORMAL HODS [Heads of Delegations] MEETING AT MC14, 29 MARCH 2026

We've heard almost nothing of what ministers discussed on agriculture at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Thankfully the Pakistani “minister-facilitator’s” report to ministers meeting on Mar 29 is public. Where was the deadlock? Paragraph 9 versus paragraph 10

docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages...

If I’m understanding this right,—

We just sent four people around the moon and the trip was damn near flawless until they splashed down and tried to use their cell phone?

Artemis II splashes down safely after historic voyage around the moon Reentry is one of the most intense phases of space missions, and the return of the Artemis astronauts will be a test of their spacecraft's heat shield.

Breaking news: Astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission returned to Earth, splashing into the Pacific Ocean just after 8 p.m. on Friday, safely concluding the four astronauts’ record-setting journey around the moon.

Screen shot of an online headline and photo: Wild chimpanzees recorded waging ‘civil war’ with coordinated attacks between two groups New study describes what may be the first case of a unified community of chimps, in Uganda, turning on itself Below that a photo of aggressive chimpanzees in undergrowth

C'mon chimps, just because we do it, doesn't mean you have to too

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"Even AI can't tell if it^s (viral videos) AI-generated" -- on BBC Radio 4's Media Show

Cross-border subsidy war

Lunar Flyby - NASA

Oh this is great: there’s now an #Artemis II Lunar Flyby Gallery on the NASA images site: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna... (thx @dpmanchee.bsky.social for pointing it out)

🧵⬇️

The WTO conference was worse than we expected, so why all the smiles? Universal pledges of commitment to the system don’t count for anything if key players do nothing about it themselves

The WTO Ministerial Conference was worse than we expected, so why all the smiles?

What strikes us is the curious incident of the dogs not barking. We are thinking of what Sherlock Holmes famously said in Silver Blaze.

With @bobwolfe.bsky.social

tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/w...

This is the ultimate test for a constitutional order.

Either constitutional mechanisms are used to check and balance this, and remove him from office, or they are not.

For there can be no greater test for any constitution.