Your annual reminder that William Shakespeare was born in what is now Turkey, never visited England and almost certainly could not read or write in English.

Roger De Courcey

Born on this day, 1564: playwright William Shakespeare

EU risks fallout with US over Trump-linked Balkans pipeline plan Exclusive: Brussels seeks to stall award of contract to firm fronted by US president’s lawyer in letter seen by Guardian

🇪🇺 🇺🇸 The EU risks a confrontation with #Trump after it sought to stall the awarding of a lucrative Balkans pipeline contract to a company fronted by his personal lawyer, documents seen by the Guardian show.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

#europe #usa

“.. Developing Asia is already in a full-blown energy crisis. .. Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are facing shortages, rationing and demand destruction. .. If the strait remains closed, this will develop, horribly, into a food crisis ..”

@robarmstrong.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/b5e2...

Tucker Carlson Says He Is ‘Tormented’ by His Past Support for Trump

Noooooothing to do with running for president in 2028, I'm sure. Noooooo. Totally sincere.

Cut hours and avoid promotions: how the £100,000 tax trap is shaping work Fears of higher levies and loss of benefits prompt employees to make career decisions to stop their incomes rising

Sorry but this is absolutely mad. Huge failing of all Chancellors for a decade and a half to allow this to happen.

www.ft.com/content/c10e... Cut hours and avoid promotions: how the £100,000 tax trap is shaping work

HASSAN: I agree all should have access to healthy foods, but Trump has made it harder to afford groceries. Do high prices make it easier or harder for families to eat healthy?

RFK Jr: I would say that beef has dropped by 1% last quarter

HASSAN: No. Beef prices are up 20% since Trump took office

Cover of Beautiful Vision

Listening to Van Morrison’s 1982 album Beautiful Vision, I’m reminded that on the song ‘Cleaning Windows’, about Van’s time as a window cleaner, the ‘Sam’ in the song that he worked with was our window cleaner when I was growing up.

🇺🇸👀 U.S. President Donald Trump was denied access to his nation's nuclear codes by a high-ranking U.S. military official, according to explosive reports.

Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson claimed that during an emergency meeting on Saturday, Trump attempted to access the nuclear codes.

The modern Olympics should be done naked, just like the ancient games were. I will make an exception for safety helmets.

No, it was you who didn't know what "Mounjaro" was and thought it was the new name of a Linux distro. I am clearly worldly and well-informed enough to not make that error in public.

GOP folks crying about Democrat redistricting in response to their redistricting = Brexiters crying about it being more difficult to visit the EU as a consequence to leaving the EU and ending free movement of people

BBC News: Blocked sewer caused by space hopper wedged in pipe. Picture shows a shit-encrusted yellow space hopper. It is still smiling.

NEW EUPHEMISM

“You took your time in there”
“Yeah, I shat out a space hopper”

Says a lot about the SNP.

true story: some Brit wealth managers, clients of whom are rich Brits, told me they keep getting calls saying 'help! i just read in [a newspaper that's not the FT] that we're about to default on our gilts and go to the IMF! what should I do?'
and they say 'er, read another newspaper?'

Margo Martin @MargoMartin47 X.com Congratulations, Georgia Women's Tennis! The photo shows Trump and five white dudes in red ties standing in front of and completely blocking 10 young women

Priceless post from the official White House social media

His family left him behind but he never stopped waiting for them to come back.

But that was his past. Look at him now. Perfection

Exclusive: Ukraine says some Russian missiles fly near Chornobyl, risking major accident Russia has repeatedly launched drones and missiles on a flight path near the disused Chornobyl nuclear plant during attacks on Ukraine, elevating the risk of a ​major accident, Ukraine's top state pro...

💬 #Russia has repeatedly launched drones and missiles on a flight path near the disused Chornobyl nuclear plant during attacks on #Ukraine, elevating the risk of a ​major accident, Ukraine's top state prosecutor told Reuters.

www.reuters.com/business/aer...

use everything you've got to bag that job

my libido

MY EYES!!!

My latest for @theipaper.com is on the allegations that insider trading has taken place betting on Trump’s pronouncements:

Not only is her recovery complete.

Soon Sienna will be heading off to her very own family.

After years on the streets and endless puppies taken from her she will get the life she always deserved!

At a conference with the SFO:

Pattiserie Valerie collapsed in 2018, they charged them in 2023, the first court date was 2026, this was then delayed by the defence requesting more time, so they now won't see court until 2028.

10 years.

For context, SBF was prosecuted for FTX within 12 months.

UK Climate Data - Energy Sources and Carbon Intensity

Current UK Energy Sources:
• 3.1% biomass
• 0% coal
• 6.6% gas
• 15% nuclear
• 0% hydro
• 29.7% solar
• 10.5% imports
• 35% wind
• 0% other

Carbon intensity: Low (47 gCO₂eq/kWh)

Lots of tradies out there saying they aren't getting replaced by AI. Maybe not. But you'll soon be fighting for jobs with the people who got replaced by AI.

Opinion | When Your Child Dies of Measles

The child caught measles as an unvaccinated baby and recovered. But the virus stayed in her brain, and she died of terrible complications at age 10. Herd immunity is essential w measles.

When Your Child Dies of Measles www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...

The thing that really annoys me about all this Mandelson stuff is that the US Ambassador role was not vacant! There was already a highly qualified and competent woman in the position

And now this thing about finding a job for Starmer's ex Head of Comms?

Jobs for the Boys alive and well

The key point from Olly Robbins is that, in his view, Mandelson did *not* technically fail vetting - the vetting outcome was the FCDO decision on whether to grant, not any UKSV recommendation as part of that process...

There’s a long term storage liquid air battery about to come online near Manchester. We should build a lot more of those.