The buzzards near us seem to be territorial. I keep spotting the same one with missing wing feathers.

A buzzard, I think.

The best thing about Brexit is it sold the EU to the rest of Europe.

Better Debt Shock Absorbers for Poor Countries: A Proposal Poor countries are subject to a broad range of exogenous shocks – not under their control and not just those related to climate – and these shocks can have large consequences for growth, debt-carrying...

Poor countries face frequent shocks—but their debt contracts aren’t built to handle them.

New CGD research proposes “shock absorbers” that allow temporary pauses on debt payments when shocks hit, freeing up fiscal space and helping avoid default.

https://go.cgdev.org/4vcswS1

“No, no no! I said, ‘thou must enter the City of God, not the settee of God!’”

To AdVance- to go backwards

crowd at the Tisza rally singing "Europa! Europa!"

We’ll let you know who wins

If you look past the aggressive gerrymandering etc. the voting system (FPTP constituencies rebalanced proportionally while avoid lots of little parties) looks like something that could work in the UK …

Certainly already looks to be trending towards the opposition as time goes on.

Do you know if later votes counted will bias for or against orban? Are rural or urban counted first?

And rising …

China is the only opponent strong enough for a war allowing Trump to trigger martial law and sustain power.

I worry Trump’s aim is to trigger war with China as a path to martial law and sustained power.

The only war big enough for Trump to use as a pre-text for martial law at home, is a war with China.

I worry people are mistaking the war with Iran as just that. It is actually a precursor to a confected war with China.

Berlusconi

Wow, Mark Carney speaks on multiculturalism (what a contrast to island of strangers Starmer!)

Mark Carney, "Canada is a nation forged through accommodation, not assimilation"

"Through partnership, not domination"

"The founding insight of our country is that unity does not require uniformity"

Enough to compensate? I guess they just need enough to not need to negotiate with a weak hand.

But doesn’t that mean no Iranian oil revenue too?

Only makes sense if a) Trump is an idiot or b) he just wants a pause to move the market again before invading Kharg island.

Still can’t get away from the feeling that taking Kharg island and using it to control Iran over the medium term still has a brutal logic to it for Trump.

I would put it slightly differently - which is that the best reason to support PR is because you want to more fairly represent public opinion. Supporting is because you hope for a particular outcome is both questionable... and may well fail.

Donald Trump post threatening Iran, saying “a whole civilisation will die tonight.”

After Trump's latest shocking threats, Keir Starmer faces a choice.

Withdraw US access now to UK air bases, or risk letting British soil be used to commit war crimes.

NEW ANALYSIS: Record wind and solar generation saved UK from gas imports worth £1bn in March 2026

📈Wind+solar were up 22% year-on-year in March to a record high for the month
⛴️This avoided the need for gas imports worth £1bn at current high prices

www.carbonbrief.org/...

I put a pond in last summer (a mile from Newton St Loe) and a newt found in on the second day after I started filling it.

The whole point of the market is it should be able to see through the noise (in aggregate), irrespective of how nuanced the reporting is.

It’s been a while since integrity has had such a good day.

I blame Garibaldi.

Get Palantir out of UK public services The UK has handed Palantir dozens of public contracts, including with the NHS, even as the dangers of empowering a class of big tech oligarchs become clear. Palantir has supplied military technology t...

Palantir’s technologies are used by the powerful to attack the powerless. This company should not be involved in our public services. Sign this petition if you agree act.globaljustice.org.uk/get-palantir...

Labour MPs have entered power to make things better and yet with this one policy, they will leave the world worse off than it would have been by the time the next election comes around.

Ends