“Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.”
Umberto Eco, 1995

Allegation that Morgan McSweeney phoned previous FCDO Perm Sec Sir Phillip Barton, and told him "just fucking approve it" re: Mandelson's vetting ..!

Trump ‘screamed at aides for hours’ after US pilots went missing in Iran: report The F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Iran on April 3, prompting a high-stakes rescue mission

Trump kept out of the room during operation to find downed pilots in Iran after ‘screaming’ at aides for hours, report says

All the airlines cancelling flights and adding extra charges amid jet fuel crisis Jet fuel costs have rocketed amid a global shortage caused by conflict in the Middle East

All the airlines cancelling flights and adding extra charges amid jet fuel crisis
trib.al/3RqpbZq

Very serious point here — media vastly overreport what Trump says rather than clarifying for the reader the actual strategic situation.

Holy. Shit. This is Reid Wiseman's video he took with his iPhone while at the moon 🌙

Bulgaria's pro-Russian former president set for landslide election win, exit polls show Pro-Russian former President Rumen Radev is set for a runaway victory in Bulgaria's election and may even secure a parliamentary majority, ‌exit polls showed, potentially ending years of weak coalitio...

We are essentially playing Putin sympathiser whack-a-mole. Every time Europe gets rid of one, we almost immediately get a new one to take their place.

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

"Bit stabby in the Senate today" - Brutus

Russian-friendly ex-president on course to victory in Bulgaria's snap parliamentary elections Despite outperforming the second place finisher, We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, by about 30 percentage points, Radev's party will still need coalition partners to govern.

⚡️ Kremlin says 'impressed' by rhetoric of Bulgaria's likely election winner.

"We are, of course, impressed by the statements made by (Rumen) Radev, who won the election," Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, said.

In a nutshell. 😊

This seems a strangely under appreciated take. Drones would appear to have revolutionized modern warfare. Ukraine is the best protagonist of that warfare — that’s important! It’s also a very obvious game changer for European hard power.

Today the Prime Minister will assure Parliament that there was no window, or if there was a window it did not break, and if it broke it was not from a ball, and if there was a ball there was no kick.

He will add that he is "furious" about the window that broke from a ball that was kicked. (By him.)

BREAKING Bulgarian ex-president Rumen Radev, an EU critic who has called for renewing ties with Russia, has won a parliamentary majority that could put an end to the country's years of political uncertainty, according to near complete vote results on Monday

While Orban has been defeated in Hungary, Bulgaria has stepped up to fill the gap. In yesterday’s election, a big win for the pro-Russia, Eurosceptic party Progressive Bulgaria led by former President Rumen Radev.

It opposes support for Ukraine and wants to reopen ties with Moscow.

I wrote something last week on UK nuclear dependence on the US. Experimenting with Claude to see how it handles the same subject. Asked it to produce an interactive tool to catalogue these dependencies. Not a bad effort. Others can poke around it here. splendorous-scone-b67434.netlify.app

Bulgaria, 96.4% of protocols processed:

National parliament election

PB-*: 44.7% (+0.2)
GERB-SDS-EPP: 13.4% (+0.1)
PP-DB-RE|EPP: 12.9% (-0.6)
DPS-NN-NI: 6.7% (+0.6)
V-ESN: 4.3% (-0.1)
MECh-*: 3.3%
Velichie-*: 3.1% (-0.1)
...

+/- vs. 87.2% of protocols processed

➤ europeelects.eu/bulgaria

No.

Lithuania, Latvia bar Slovak prime minister from using airspace for travel to Moscow Lithuania and Latvia will not let Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico use their airspace to travel to Moscow for Russia's Victory Day celebrations in May, he said April 18.

⚡️Lithuania, Latvia bar Slovak prime minister from using airspace for travel to Moscow.

Lithuania and Latvia will not let Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico use their airspace to travel to Moscow for Russia's Victory Day celebrations in May, he said April 18.

As noted earlier, Iran operates with two distinct power centers, and the one that truly matters is the faction that controls the military. The U.S. is almost certainly not talking to that group.

The Kurzweil curve is beloved by tech optimists.

Respect to Germany

Bulgarians head to the polls to elect a parliament for the eighth time in 5 years Bulgarians are heading to the polls for the eighth time in five years hoping to finally elect a parliament that would be capable of resolving the prolonged political impasse that has gripped the country for years.

Bulgarians are heading to the polls for the eighth time in five years hoping to finally elect a parliament that would be capable of resolving the prolonged political impasse that has gripped the country for years.

You can't be a European patriot and side with the people trying to burn Europe down.

The era of "both sides" is over.

Politicians working for our enemies need to be treated like the threat they are.

Being soft on betrayal is the fastest way to become a vassal state

Where it all went wrong for Keir It was the welfare U-turn, not the Mandelson misjudgement, that undid Starmer’s premiership, writes John Rentoul

It was the welfare U-turn, not the Mandelson misjudgement, that undid Starmer’s premiership www.independent.co.uk/voices/keir-...

NASA astronaut Christina Koch sits in an U.S. Navy MH-60S Seahawk attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 on the flight deck of the San Antonio Class amphibious transport dock USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) after returning from space on Apr. 10, 2026.

This picture of Astronaut Christina Koch after the Artemis landing is frankly incredible and beautiful.

The agony that this will cause him.

Ukraine Has Finally Given Up on Trump Zelensky has written off the United States.

“Writing the United States off as a friend might once have been a sign of doom for Ukraine,” Phillips Payson O’Brien argues. “It isn’t anymore”:

its just funny to me that the avatar of conservative masculinity is such a moist subservient cuck

Iran is broadcasting this VHF message: "Attention all ships, ​regarding the failure ⁠of the U.S. government to fulfil its commitment in the negotiation, Iran declares the Strait of Hormuz completely ​closed again.