The impossible promise: are we witnessing the return of fascism? Some of today’s far right is openly violent and undemocratic – and even in its less extreme forms, far-right populism is a profound threat. But that doesn’t mean it is just a re-run of history

A long read, but worth it: www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ap...

On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive — The Economist The war against Ukraine has created a corrupt economy of blood money

On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive - The Economist.

apple.news/AB_qTtdUPT7a...

Mostly, yes. But public inquiries can also deal with compound failures, where several micro-failures contribute to a macro-failure.

Agreed - he’s done something rare for such an interview: he’s materially altered the options available to the PM.

Is there a link to the document, please? (And what was the four year period referenced by the parent she quoted?)

After the Eighth Great Power Each communications revolution rewrites the political order. Democracies will not survive by clinging to broadcast certainties or chasing every viral falsehood.

“Each communications revolution rewrotes the political order it inherits” - very insightful piece, well worth a read: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/aft...

There’s a similar list by Churchill in his 1930 biography, ‘My Early Life’ where he laments how almost all of his contemporary members of the military polo team in India in the 1890s died in WWI. Well worth digging up if you can.

Several European countries, including the UK, have already moved forward on accountability and justice re Epstein. The fact so few (any?) Americans have faced any sanctions reflects v badly on the one-time ‘shining city on the hill.’

Maybe Greenland could invade us instead?

THINKERS AT WAR - Thomas Paine | Military History Matters Iain King evaluates the life and work of journalist, politician, and firebrand Tom Paine.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the publication of his world-changing pamphlet ‘Common Sense’, here’s a biography of its author, the quixotic Thomas Paine:

www.military-history.org/feature/thin...

What a great website - well done for persevering with this.

Agreed, but on that example, ‘There will be different reactions to this’ is passive. Perhaps the best is, ‘Some people will have different reactions to this’ (still not quite right)

Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism: A Nationwide Cohort Study: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 170, No 8 Background: The hypothesized link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism continues to cause concern and challenge vaccine uptake. Objective: To evaluate whether the MMR vaccine i...

Vaccines do not cause autism - in fact, there’s a greater correlation between autism and people who haven’t been vaccinated :
www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...

If he’s found Not Guilty, will they let him go?

There’s No Such Thing as Free Will But we all may be better off believing in it anyway.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

NATO’s 1937 moment In 1937, British officers tried – and failed – to challenge orthodox assumptions about the defence of Singapore. Their experience offers a warning for how NATO should think about Russia today.

Excellent article : Singapore (perhaps the UK’s greatest defeat in WWII) offers important lessons for today: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/nat...

Chris Rea is stuck in traffic, apparently

Rachel Reeves’s biggest crisis isn’t over Productivity remains a headache. Blame big tech, not just the Tories

Brilliant analysis by Peter Kellner, which explains the long term decline in productivity (in the UK and elsewhere ) and says where to point the finger (not where you think - read to the end): kellnerp.substack.com/p/rachel-ree...

Why The Human Rights Movement Needs To Be Reinvented | Gerald Knaus | TEDxGraz YouTube video by TEDx Talks

Sobering talk on how the human rights movement can be corrupted, but also on how it can be saved. By the ever-excellent Gerald Knaus youtu.be/nSxXjp6_54g

Jupiter should be on the ascendant

Do you feel lucky? Why acknowledging our own good fortune would make the world a better place | Julian Richer I have been fortunate, and I know it. Now I’d like more successful people to admit that meritocracy is a myth, says Julian Richer, founder of Richer Sounds

Great article: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So the line is that he wasn't getting paid for any of this

The Locarno Pact's enduring legacy The Locarno Pact of 1925 provided the foundations for a more just, durable and peaceful European order. Although its early promise was snuffed out by the global crisis of the 1930s, the pact's guiding...

A doomed attempt to establish peace in Europe, initiated by a once-defeated superpower keen to restore its credentials, and sponsored by the aloof world hyperpower, focussed on its own economy. 100 years since the Locarno Treaty. Prescient. engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-l...

Nathan Gill: How WhatsApp messages revealed ex-Reform politician's pro-Russian bribes The former leader of Reform UK in Wales has admitted bribery and will be sentenced on Friday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Kiss, skim, touch and stroke: light contact.
Enamel, crown, pulp and root: tooth parts.

So many comments in this chain are looking at this backwards. Instead of saying ‘We can’t imagine a causal link between planets and people, therefore astrology is false;’ the question should be, ‘Is there a correlation reliable enough to generate statistically significant predictions?’

Grok labels GB News impartial and suggests the BBC is propaganda:

There’s a solution to this. It’s called fiction.

Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man

The answer to any newspaper headline which ends in a question mark is always ‘no’.