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1/ Many scenarios for the end of the Iran war suggest that Tehran will gain permanent control of the Strait of Hormuz. An analysis by JP Morgan suggests that Tehran could raise up to $90 billion a year this way, instantly making Iran one of the wealthiest Gulf economies. ⬇️

Get in to the #mountains

Miscellanea: The War in Iran This post is a set of my observations on the current war in Iran and my thoughts on the broader strategic implications. I am not, of course, an expert on the region nor do I have access to any spec…

This is - I think - terrifyingly on the money

acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...

Around 7000 Americans were killed on Iwo Jima and 19,000 wounded, and it was part of a campaign that ended with a nuclear weapon being used, so maybe not the wisest comparison.

School book banning escalates in the UK as Greater Manchester secondary school censors scores of books - Index on Censorship A school librarian faced a disciplinary hearing and scores of books were removed from her school library after she stocked Laura Bates’ Men Who Hate Women

This is utterly jaw-dropping.

A school that bans Atwood, Zadie Smith, Terry effing Pratchett and *literal George Orwell* is actively harming its pupils.

www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

Pretty strong opinion you have there. I ride to work through heavy traffic daily, which involves filtering between long lines of stationary traffic, I hope, for your sake, we don’t meet

Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.

John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst? Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...

‘As for the “open” bit, forget it – that aspect of Open AI’s mission was quietly forgotten. Any discoveries the company might make were now proprietary.’

John Lanchester on the utopian promises and dystopian reality of the ‘AI revolution’:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

My work on counterpublics and related topics
demos.co.uk/research/ver...

I fear we are seeing in the UK what has become abundantly clear in the US: for all their power and privilege, elites and institutions are absolute cowards in the face of right-wing authoritarianism. Weak, weak, weak, as Tony Blair once said

Just a shame you didn’t all vote when it mattered

Russia hikes hybrid aggression... From Foxhound incursions to red paint on the factory wall... why, and what next?

An audit of Russia's hybrid war - it's the political warfare, not the drones, that is the biggest threat...
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/r...

Why Finland Can Agree When Everyone Else Can’t. Finland’s Polarization Paradox

An interesting study, but I fear the simpler explanation mentioned is closer to the truth: it’s not that Finnish politics is especially resistant to polarization, it is that serious questions of national survival transcend polarization.

nordicpolicydispatch.substack.com/p/why-finlan...

Some days are just better #cep #porcini #funghi #mushroom #boletus

Why did it take Turkey just 17 seconds to shoot down Russian jet? Ankara has delivered an incendiary message to Moscow, and while there may be too much at stake for the conflict to spill out of control it also won’t go away

💯
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/n...

The fact that Europe has no coherent strategy to neutralize Russian aggression is exactly why Russia will invade more European countries beyond Ukraine.

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

Colombia Against the Fossil Fuel Age Colombia’s energy transition is not just playing out in policy papers — it’s unfolding in oil fields, coal towns, and courtrooms. Jacobin spoke with engineers, unionists, and President Petro himself a...

This piece by Andreas Malm & Maxy Guez brilliantly captures both how mind-bogglingly difficult, but also courageous, the Colombian pledge not to permit new exploration of fossil fuels actually is.

CINDY MCCAIN: “The desperation is overwhelming.”

EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in third year of invasion surpass financial aid sent to Ukraine – Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air

Last year the EU paid €21.9 bn for Russian fossil fuel imports while at the same time providing Ukraine with €18.7 bn of financial aid.

energyandcleanair.org/publication/...

The annual clean the valley roof day has arrived #valleyroof #seagull #moss problems

Neil deGrass Tyson: "How sad it must be believing that scientists, historians, scholars, economists, journalists devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, but a reality-TV star proven in court to be a lying felon is your beacon of truth & honesty"

Russians are advancing in Zaporizhzhia oblast under the American flag.

As things stand, Ukraine and Europe are on the verge of being confronted with exactly the kind of Faustian deal they feared would emerge back in February. The fact that Europe hasn’t moved to block such a deal in the past six months is a failure of leadership and diplomacy.

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Remembrance of Scents Past At museums, curators are incorporating smells that can transport visitors to a different time.

Sniffing something that you haven’t encountered in years—Play-Doh, fresh-cut hay, your grandmother’s laundry detergent—can be as vivid a sensory experience as it was the first time, while also being almost psychedelically nostalgic.

Mull of Galloway, looking over to the Isle of Man