Iran war drives Panama Canal lane prices to record high Asian buyers seeking western crude push bids five times higher than pre-conflict levels

Iran war drives Panama Canal lane prices to record high, as Asian buyers desperate for oil and gas scramble global shipping routes as.ft.com/r/8b42c8b9-0... @financialtimes.com

Oooh Red Hand Files now has a search function.
www.theredhandfiles.com

So will this field reach harvest in 2026? Fertiliser, herbicides, diesel prices, market returns?

The underlying structural problems of UK politics that the country doesn't have the resources to do everything expected of it and a Westminster class in denial about this doesn't go away in the event of a new PM.

can’t stop thinking how renaming the defence department as the war department has such 10-year-old boy energy

Diminished cultural cachet

Out of office, still hyper-responsive Once established by professional training, the addictive pull of screens, newsfeeds and email replies is impossible to shake

Out of office, still hyper-responsive ft.trib.al/WippS78 | opinion

Tomorrow feels like a real blast from the past.

THREE RUSSIAN OIL REFINERIES ARE BURNING AS FEW HAVE BEFORE

The Tuapse plant near the Black Sea has been set on fire after multiple drone strikes. The scene looked hellish last night. The skies were black above as vast swathes of flames burnt their way across what seemed to be the entire horizon.

The image features a list of companies that did not pay income taxes in 2025. The text reads: "YOU PAID INCOME TAXES IN 2025, these companies DIDN'T…" followed by: Tesla, Palantir, Halliburton, Walt Disney, PayPal, Southwest Airlines, CVS Health. The background shows faint images of tax forms. The source is the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

At least 88 corporations paid ZERO in income tax despite reporting $105 BILLION in profits. Meanwhile the average American paid $14.5% on their income.

Our system is rigged to benefit billionaires. It’s time to fix it.

The despair of Chris Grey C

“I’m skipping rather lightly over this as, frankly, I don’t have the strength to unpick all this junk yet again and I suspect most readers of this blog will not need me to do so.”
@chrisgrey.bsky.social

chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/new-...

The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth Sudan’s devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed.

THE MOST NIHILISTIC CONFLICT ON EARTH
Sudan’s devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed.
By @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

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

I don't normally like messing with great art but I liked this! Happy Sunday Friends!🙏😂

You have to wonder what Lego think about all this in the context of their IP.

Slopaganda - how Iran's viral videos skewer the US The unpopularity of the war in the US and abroad meant Iran's Lego videos landed on fertile ground and spread organically across the internet worldwide, writes Global Security Reporter Yvonne Murray.

Welcome to the age of 'slopaganda' - otherwise known as 'memetic warfare'.

www.rte.ie/news/2026/04...

>> @emma-briant.co.uk

Unsettling settler colonial management of life and death through decolonial gestures
Melike İşleyen
Dept of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
#pdf
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Charleston — Charleston Festival 2026 Charleston Festival brings together today’s most exciting artists, thinkers and changemakers to engage with art and ideas.

Oh bum! I return to Australia on May 19th.

www.charleston.org.uk/festival/cha...

@ecetemelkuran.bsky.social are you speaking again soon in the UK?

Ece Temelkuran: ‘Once you call it fascism you have to act... The Turkish writer on the experience of being ‘unhomed’ and how we can fight the politics of cynicism

Ece Temelkuran:
‘Once you call it fascism you have to act on it’

The Turkish writer on the experience of being ‘unhomed’
and how we can fight the politics of cynicism
observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/ec...

"The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet a lifetime is often not enough to rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found." -Pope Leo XIV

🧵Tradwife culture is moving further into the mainstream. People who watch this film will likely come away with a better sense of the performance, hypocrisy and marketing behind the movement. But, the real issue is the way tradwife content functions as an algorithmic gateway into far-right ideology.

Screenshot of an Instagram post from the account “tradwife_aesthetics.” The image shows a woman standing in a sunlit citrus orchard, reaching up to pick fruit from a tree. She is wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a light-colored, mid-length floral dress with short sleeves. She holds several oranges or tangerines in one hand while reaching with the other. A small wooden step stool stands beside her with more fruit placed on top. A wicker basket filled with citrus sits on the ground at the lower right. The orchard continues into the background, softly blurred, with more trees heavy with fruit. The overall image has a warm, pastoral, highly curated aesthetic.

Screenshot of an Instagram post from the account “tradwife_aesthetics.” The image shows a pregnant woman standing in a green field of low, dense plants. Her face is partly cropped out of the frame. She has long light-blonde hair and wears a flowing teal wrap-style maxi dress with short sleeves and a tie at the waist. One hand rests under her belly and the other lifts the side of her dress slightly. She appears to be wearing tan or light brown boots. The image has a soft, muted, pastoral look, presenting pregnancy in an idealized, highly curated style.

Tradwives do not necessarily arrive looking like politics. They show up as beauty, cottagecore aesthetics, order, femininity, simplicity, and motherhood. That is part of what makes it effective. The surface is soft and already normalized. The politics under it are not.

10 years? time flies when you're sliding into dystopia

60 year-old traveler.The truth about life. YouTube video by Fiasco da Gama

Wayne - Fiasco da Gama on letting go. Excellent vlog post.
👏👏👏

youtu.be/SJQj3Cr4b78?...

Painting of a flowing stylised plant in purple against a white background

Botanical inspired watercolours by contemporary artist Sally Ann Langley #WonensArt

Soul searching is very hard work 😓

Out-of-control blaze at one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries in Geelong Smoke warning for residents south of Viva oil refinery in Corio as Geelong mayor calls fire ‘unprecedented’ A major oil refinery in Geelong, which supplies half of Victoria’s fuel and 10% of the nation’s, exploded into flames on Wednesday night and the blaze was still out of control by first light on Thursday. Fire Rescue Victoria said they responded to an incident at the Mogas (motor gasoline) unit at Viva oil refinery in Corio around 11:15pm Thursday. Continue reading...

Out-of-control blaze at one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries in Geelong

Painting of a cityscape at night in a scene filled with houses and other buildings in blue light and with gold light coming from windows

'Bristol Night II' by contemporary UK painter Cath Read #WomensArt

Fear not. They don’t go no further than Toosday.

Painting of a woodland carpeted with light purple blossoms

Britain is home to almost half of the world’s bluebells, found in ancient or semi-natural woodlands, flowering in April and May. 'Bluebell woods' by contemporary UK painter Susan Entwistle #WomensArt