British kids will be able to enjoy these benefits from next year.

2027 🇬🇧 will be back in Erasmus.

Hmm. Did they think this through?

A visual representation of a trillion dollars, starting with a wad of $100 bills and a palletful representing $100m to 10 pallets for a billion. But the trillion pile is so big it looks like a football field full of double stacked pallets, with the 'man for scale' barely visible in one corner.

Pondering defence budgets:

it's exhausting.
perhaps that's the point.

Is a good eg of why follow up questions are neccessary. By 49% to 38% the public say that political parties should try to protect Christian values. But unless you ask the public what they mean by those Christian values you can end up assuming that answer means something very different.

The leader of the Reform Party and prospective future Prime Minister has decided it is no longer appropriate to say on camera whatever someone asks you to say in return for a surprisingly small amount of money.

From the new Private Eye, out now.

It's like buying a new DVD in the age of 8k streaming.
It's a $93B boondoggle, $4B per launch on an expendable rocket using 40-year-old Shuttle tech, while others are building fully reusable systems for a fraction of the cost.
It’s what happens when US politicians are in charge.

RCP 8.5 Is Fine, Actually - Center for Progressive Reform While the high levels of fossil fuel emissions mapped in the RCP 8.5 scenario are unlikely, it remains an important scenario for modeling future climate impacts, particularly at local scales.

This excellent piece from @madisoncondon.bsky.social shows why (nerd alert!)—even if the scenario underlying RCP 8.5 is implausible, RCP 8.5 serves an important role in our understanding of and planning for climate change, and is therefore not misleading.

progressivereform.org/publications...

Totally normal country.

I can imagine the scene.
Picture Jack playing Col Nathan R Jessup in A Few Good Men:
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
...and Trump's dead-eyed face: "you're fired".

It is historically normal for terrorists to go after the moderates who might dampen a conflict.

And just to add, UK output from the North Sea is around 6-700,000 barrels per day. About a third of a typical supertanker of 2m barrels (even up to 3m).
Sullom Voe now operates at about 10% of its peak.
See also www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-ni...

National security assessment on global ecosystems (accessible version)

'Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity.
Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse.
[Unless we take action] it is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security [in] geopolitical competition for food...'

www.gov.uk/government/p...

I must say this is very Pyongyan-y

The Rycroft Review: Report of the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics Report of the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.

The first of 17 recommendations:
'There should be an annual cap on political donations from British voters living abroad.'

Given that those who '..live abroad in order to have their wealth taxed abroad are nevertheless currently entitled to make unlimited donations..'

www.gov.uk/government/p...

"Don't strike or I'll withdraw healthcare from tomorrow's public" is pretty stupid even by Labour's standards.

Still thinking (worrying) about this podcast from @snellarthur.bsky.social. If its central analysis is even half right we are in for a world of pain...

Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ abandoned a record number of cases — including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs — in just the first six months of Presi...

NEW: Under AG Pam Bondi, the DOJ has dropped 23,000 criminal cases — including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs — while prosecuting 32,000 new immigration cases in just the first six months of Trump’s second term.

2/ Also, it is of course deeply contradictory that a party that hates the ECHR seeks to rely upon it. One might almost think that Farage is a grifting hypocrite.

Enjoy smoky/peaty whiskies?
You really should try Lagg.
The elegant sweet simplicity is genuinely something different.
Tastes of its how its made (inc a lovely hint of the wash) with the smoke taking a polite backseat to the summer barley.
Gentle. Sweet.
Like most sophisticated barley Mezcal?

This reminds me of when you travel in a developing country and they have different rates for locals and foreigners. Feels like a sign of severe economic decline. Also, let's be real here. We basically nicked all this shit. The least we can do is let them see it for free.

Becoming slightly infatuated with the clean summer barley of Lochlea whisky.
But Lo! The Dark Briar.
Imagine... Equal parts date juice, grape must, bramble jelly and apricot jam, in alcohol with dash of Peychaud's, Angostura, and heather honey. And some jasmine tea.
Lovely. I'll have another.

A colossal opportunity cost. Wasted fuel, water, fertilisers, pest controls.
Conversion to a carbon sink. Biodiversity.

A regulator in name only.
'. .Chris Banatvala, Ofcom’s founding director of standards, [told] the Guardian: “It now appears that Ofcom has abandoned any pretence that meaningful regulation of broadcast content is still being maintained.”'

Think voting doesn’t matter? 766 votes.

Congratulations are in order for Democrat Emily Gregory for winning her Florida State House 87 race. She just flipped a deep-red seat that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

November is coming.

John Brennan, former Director of the CIA,

"I tend to believe Iran more than I do President Trump"

"Because Trump could not acknowledge the truth even if he was slapped in the face with it repeatedly"

Bernie vs. Claude YouTube video by Senator Bernie Sanders

Claude is asked to reflect on AI, privacy and democracy. There is a long pause.
Are we not entertained?
youtu.be/h3AtWdeu_G0

Claude Just Opened the Strait the definitive tick-tock

Well played.
www.chinatalk.media/p/how-claude...

Dropping eight zeros to analogise a household budget works well here.
But these numbers are SO large.
It took Jeremy Harper 89 days to count to a million, doing 16-hour days. At that pace, it would take nearly 244 million years to get to the first trillion.
Ok that doesn't help either .. sorry.