This morning I’ve seen Olly Robbins’s appearance before the select committee described as ‘box office’, while a commentator flagged up another key political moment with the words ‘bring the popcorn’.
That’s one of our main problems right there.
Single-use fossil fuels are only the “alternative energy”: Still needed but increasingly replaceable, only single-use, prohibitively costly & price-volatile, dependent on geopolitical choke points, dominated by often dictatorially constituted nations, highly destructive to planetary & human health.
“Meta adopted what could be called an aggressive approach to the trial...this exercise in victim-blaming was not only unpleasant but also misconceived and counterproductive”, writes DAG on the Kaley GM jury trial
The Afghan war crimes inquiry is a boon for public understanding of what happened. And the evidence so far indicates a cover-up was possible, writes dag
Despite Starmer’s efforts to leave us out of the Iran war, the UK is still very much feeling the effects, writes Andrew Adonis in his latest column
The extraordinary documentary evidence at the heart of the UK Afghan war crimes inquiry - a thread.
There is currently a public inquiry into alleged war crimes by UK special forces in Afghanistan in 2011-12.
The ongoing inquiry has published some interesting and worrying documents.
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Dubai’s top British influencers have been fulsome in their praise for the UAE Government as the Iran war continues.
Speaking from jail, one said, “They quite rightly locked me up for tweeting a video of a drone blowing up my apartment.”
From the new Private Eye, in shops now.
New Prospect out now! Daron Acemoglu, @isabelh.bsky.social , Kim Darroch and Arash Azizi feature in our Iran symposium, plus @sophie-neiman.bsky.social reports from Sudan, @imogenwk.bsky.social on Louis Theroux and the manosphere, and @zackpolanski.bsky.social does our Hinterland Q&A...
Arrests, raids and seizes at the Quaker meeting house—Britain has stopped believing in freedom of protest, writes Alan Rusbridger
In the last 100 years the US has conducted only three solo military operations that could be counted a win. Isabel Hilton explains why
The novelist is battling death. His latest book is funereal in more ways than one, writes Philip Clark
The Washington Post architecture correspondent describes Donald Trump as the biggest threat to architecture in DC since the war of 1812. (For those w short memories, that was when the Brits burned down the White House) That’s him off the ballroom opening night guest list I expect.
If (as Andrew Neil says) GB News has become Reform TV then maybe there’s a case for the @ElectoralCommUK to start taking an interest app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/72784/...
”How do you apply ethical frameworks to leaders who openly reject them, who treat war as spectacle and legality as optional?”, asks Sasha Mudd in her analysis into Washington’s war in Iran
I’m back on Lightbulb duties for @prospectmagazine.co.uk.
In today’s newsletter, @petermwilliams.bsky.social has an excellent piece on how the UAE uses influencers to bolster its image.
If you’re not signed up to the newsletter yet, do so here: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/info/69966/s...
I went to Dubai recently. I wrote about the hate being heaped on the influencers, and found myself defending them, sort of. Plus, why Dubai is like the North Circular: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...
In today’s Lightbulb, Prospect’s free daily newsletter, Sasha Mudd explores the philosophy behind Trump administration’s war in Iran
At Trump’s inauguration, the tech bosses sat in a row, paying homage to the president. “The arrangement marked the victory of transactionalism over service, just as it had in the Gilded Age,” writes David Aaronovitch
“Mainstream Israel seems doomed by a certain groupthink, in which force is an answer to the country’s problems”, writes Alona Ferber
Have market forces freed or trapped young women? Emily Bootle reviews two new books, by Freya Indiaa and Zoe Strimpel, that give very different answers
“Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s life was truly one of three acts—or, as one Libyan quipped to me ‘three very different Saifs’”, writes Mary Fitzgerald
![[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.]
From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes:
NEWSREADER:
Extraordinary images here
of an expat in Dubai
[The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly]
…Having their first ever geopolitical thought.
[CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones].
CLIVE MYRIE:
To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent
DAVID JONES:
Clive, this is momentous
It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’.
[Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same]
You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self.
It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts.
CLIVE MYRIE:
Which are…?
DAVID JONES:
You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes,
I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa.
CLIVE MYRIE:
And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days?
DAVID JONES:
I think we can expect to see:
“I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To”
CLIVE MYRIE:
Mmm.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreibu6vuc7ofetq5hla3gfcknocotbfl3yk2ajczk6qfd2hnjxrav6q)
[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]
New Prospect out now! Featuring @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social and @philtinline.bsky.social on the new gilded age, @mrhenrymorris.substack.com's Prospect debut (on Reform), and read @maryftz.bsky.social on Saif Gaddafi for a sobering reminder on what sketchily planned wars of regime change lead to
This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something
Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used
www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...
The Greens’ triumph in Gorton and Denton is Labour’s catastrophe and Starmer’s “machine politics” didn’t pay off, writes Tom Clark
No matter the outcome of the Gorton and Denton byelection tomorrow, it’s going to be all eyes on Starmer...Tom Clark explains in the latest episode of the Prospect Podcast
