Somewhere Bismarck is looking down in confusion as Germany projects power by sending 4,000 pensioners, 12 buffet stations and a TUI loyalty program through the Strait of Hormuz

Looking at the replies to this, I hope it was a family-sized pack of popcorn.

Neither DOI is working for me.

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/. https://www.ft.com/content/bf6d4898-8c32-4ac8-adda-fb26f8240abe Quote: It was suggested by a Whitehall official that at the time Eden was “practically living on Benzedrine”. Still, the cabinet backed his Suez plot, and they can’t all have been on amphetamines.

This is good from @alexvont.bsky.social on the Suez - Iran parallels: "When we create narratives around leaders, historical or otherwise, we risk making too much sense of nonsense" www.ft.com/content/bf6d...

Oh good. Tesla are gamifying their dangerous, unregulated self-driving technology

China shock 2.0: the flood of high-tech goods that will change the world Impelled by furious competition, hefty subsidies and sheer scale, the country’s companies are cutting a swath through the world’s most advanced industries

A must read for anyone following industrial strategy and concerned about competitiveness. I think it's clear that no country in Europe is big enough to do something on its own - we need further EU integration and cooperation @ec.europa.eu @scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu

www.ft.com/content/7d51...

Remarkable tropical katydid, newly described 🧪

If you loved the lichen version shared below, how about hot pink? 🩷

@mongabay.com reports this species changes to a pastel pink & then to green, mimicking how many tree leaves develop in Panama, more details here: news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

Still think the birdfood industry is about 'conservation', rather than endless commercial growth in pursuit of £££? See how their industry leader reacted. The science is well known, but heaven forbid there'll be a threat to his industry's profits (and sod the wildlife): www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is verified: a wild Raccoon was seen leaving a cargo ship docked in Southampton over Easter. Raccoon is on the Species Alert list of animals considered to pose greatest risk to British ecology & economy. Records trigger a rapid response for removal, and it happens more often than you'd think.

Wildlife trade drives animal-to-human pathogen transmission over 40 years

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I really want to know what happened here

The BBS is a phenomenal achievement. But trends for 'my' main study species are all very bleak for 1995-2024 population change:
Marsh Tit: 53% decline
Willow Tit: 92% decline(!!)
Wood Warbler: 82% decline

Wood Warbler is already generally considered irrecoverable in England. #ornithology

Monthly visa applications have been lower, year-on-year, since October 2025

We've been tracking applications for UK student visas for many months now and the trend is...not good

March figures released by the Home Office today show there have been 6 straight months where numbers were down on the year before

🧵

Good to see my garden table + bananagrams DIY-stock-image getting another outing.

She's my old boss but this really is a very good article on the rudderlessness of UK tech strategy by Chi Onwurah, who now chairs the commons select committee. American Big Tech, and China, are making hay while DSIT dithers. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

How Oxford philosophers supported Czech dissidents — new Brno exhibition tells the story Brno’s Moravian Museum opens Sparks of Freedom, an exhibition about British help for Czech dissidents through the Jan Hus Educational Foundation.

I'm struggling to find sources that aren't Scruton fan sites, but as I understand it he visited Eastern Europe often in the 1980s to support dissident academics. There's currently an exhibition on in Brno about it: english.radio.cz/how-oxford-p...

If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em?
Really?
Our new opinion piece in @pnas.org defends that the so-called invasivorism is not an effective management strategy. In most cases, it is not even a strategy
Great team, led by @oficialdegui.bsky.social
@ebdonana.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Seal tooth pendant reveals ancient human culture and long-distance trading | Natural History Museum The identity of a mysterious artefact found in Devon almost 160 years ago has finally been revealed.

A rare seal tooth pendant worn more than 15,000 years ago has been discovered!

Just four similar pendants from this time have been found, providing rare evidence of the culture of ancient Europeans.

Find out what it reveals 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Emperor Penguin now Endangered!🐧

Our new IUCN Red List assessment reveals the shocking impact of climate change.🌍

Drastic declines and erratic changes in sea ice in Antarctica are projected to cause the Emperor Penguin population to halve by the 2080s.📉

Read more👉 www.birdlife.org/emperorpenguin

Is your coffee being made by an unpaid trial shifter? Plus: Kanye vs Haringey Council, curious commenters, and the new Lime bike arrives on the streets of London.

Did the person making your coffee get paid?

I looked into how working for free just to be considered for a job is becoming the new normal in the capital, as young people navigate an increasingly brutal hunt for work www.londoncentric.media/i/192962193/...

In 1970s, scientists at Institute of Terrestrial Ecology planted this plot of carefully chosen Silver Birches at Monks Wood. Staff turnover and pre-digital age meant records lost and now we've got no idea what the experiment was. So today it's a small birch wood getting wilder, with a lost history!

I know! It scored the maximum 25 points in the Usborne spotters guide to birds. Wasn't surprised to see it now, but its comeback is perhaps the UK conservation success of my lifetime.

London has England’s highest levels of child poverty, data shows About 38% of children in London live in relative poverty, compared with 27% in the UK as a whole

More than one in three children in London live in poverty, vs 'only' more than one in four nationwide. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

In memory of Ruth Francis - Stempra It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Ruth Francis.

Shocked to hear about the death of Ruth Francis - Ruth RIP stempra.org.uk/resources/ne...

Acoustic indices are not useful for biodiversity research Biodiversity assessment using passive acoustic monitoring has historically been challenging due to the limited availability of multi-species acoustic detectors. In this context, acoustic indices w...

There are no shortcuts in biodiversity monitoring. Acoustic sensors for individual species: great. Acoustic indices as biodiversity indicators: trash. New paper by Sugai et al. 🧪🌍🌐

Dr Birutė Galdikas

🦧Very sad news that Dr Birutė Galdikas,
world-renowned anthropologist and orangutan researcher,
has died at the age of 80

One of the Leakey Trimates she was the first scientist in the world to begin in-depth studies of orangutans

The Loss of Professor Birutė Galdikas 👩‍🔬🏺🧪
www.vdu.lt/en/vmu-commu...

I saw my first woodland bluebells a couple of weeks ago

China’s deep-sea mining fleet may also track US submarines A Mongabay and CNN investigation found the eight Chinese state-owned ships that conduct deep-sea mining research in China’s mining areas allocated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) actually…

Why are Chinese state-owned deep-sea mining vessels outside research zones?

#Mongabay and @cnn.com analyzed the routes these ships took for the past five years and found them navigating close to key U.S. military territory.

Experts believed they might be serving a dual-purpose.

The US Government Accountability Office put up a two-pager on solar geoengineering, which seems notable — and hence I am noting it.

Dear Prudence advice column with text: ‘My country has had a large influx of immigrants from a specific country in recent years, and there is a noticeable cultural change. I am finding myself having racist, prejudiced thoughts for the first time in my life. The thing is, as much as I thought of myself as an accepting, anti-racist person, I'm realizing that because of my upbringing, l've never actually had to challenge my beliefs or do the work to unlearn my prejudice. Now that I'm faced with my own racism, I don't know what to do. I don't want to feel this way, and I want to challenge these thoughts, but | have no idea where to start. I know this question might be outside the scope of an advice column, but I genuinely do not know where else to turn. I can't talk to any of my white friends about my racist thoughts -they'd disown me. And I wouldn't dream of asking the people of colour in my life to help me with this. I am so deeply ashamed, and I don't want to feel this way anymore. Do you have any advice on where to start?’

I don’t think I’ve ever read someone articulate their confusion over self-image and racist thoughts this explicitly. A good example of how such prejudice functions and why it’s worth focusing on how people *behave* and not rely on self-image.

slate.com/advice/2026/...