Iranian drones have attacked US “military ships”, according to the state-run news agency Tasnim.

I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

PM either didn't read this briefing given to him before he appointed Mandelson or he knew the risks and appointed Mandelson anyway - so much for caring about the victims of Epstein. Either stupid or a liar then? Hasn't told parliament. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69b131...

Starmer said he made a mistake in appointing Mandelson after due diligence showing his post-conviction links to Epstein. Now he wants voters to believe he’d have acted differently if officials had said he was a risk on security grounds. That’s not credible www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Guardian view on Starmer and Mandelson: a story that doesn’t add up | Editorial Editorial: The prime minister’s explanation has shifted between being misled and admitting error, raising questions about vetting, accountability and what he knew

Starmer’s Mandelson saga keeps shifting: first PM was misled, then he made “a mistake”, now he's blaming officials after security clearance row. These are competing not consistent explanations. Which is it? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Four years ago

Keir Starmer in 2020: "I had 8,000 staff as Director of Public Prosecutions and when they had victories I celebrated on their behalf and when they made mistakes I carried the can.

"I never turn on my staff. You should never turn on your staff"

Chief secretary to the PM Darren Jones tells #BBCbreakfast that in his opinion the Prime Minister has neither knowingly or unknowingly misled Parliament

I am planning on appointing someone who has publicly resigned twice in scandal. They resign a third time in even bigger scandal. The fallout should, however, not include me, the person who made the big call in the first place.

Totally untenable.

Darren Jones should go for this ridiculous attempt to say PM who hired Mandelson despite knowing he was a wrong un and now trying to blame others for not telling the PM what he already knew - that his mate should never have got the job

“Are we expected to accept on trust what you’re saying today and what the Prime Minister is saying that he did not know when he made these various comments or are you able to prove that what you’re saying about who knew what and when is true?” - Charlie Stayt

On Tax Day, Mamdani Taxed the Rich - The American Prospect The mayor, his supporters, and public opinion convinced their previously reluctant governor to agree to a tax on the second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) homes of their city’s nonresident rich.

Zohran Mamdani getting Kathy Hochul to agree to a pied-a-terre tax breaks the stone wall against taxing the rich that Hochul had been building since Mamdani's election. It's a critical moment, writes @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social.
prospect.org/2026/04/16/m...

But that’s not stopping the BBC which must want to turn away large sections of the audience

portraying asylum claims as mostly fraudulent is “misleading and inaccurate” www.communityworks.org.uk/app/uploads/...

People in the most deprived areas are now spending less than 50 years of their lives in good health Graphic: Years expected to be spent in states of "good" health and "poorer" health by sex and deprivation decile, England, 2022 to 2024

People in England’s most deprived areas spend less than 50 years of their lives in good health, a 20-year gap compared with those in the richest areas
www.ft.com/content/85de...

Only joking 2009-2017.state.gov/documents/or...

BREAKING: TRUMP's COLLECTIVE WIDE-RANGING FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION point iii

Income distribution of Help to Buy equity loan scheme borrowers.
(from my old slide deck full of charts, last updated in 2023 when the scheme ended builtplace.com/digging-deep...)

BREAKING: Maryland is about to become the first state in the nation to ban the use of surveillance data and dynamic pricing at grocery stores.

The Maryland House has just passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

Governor Wes Moore plans to sign the bill.

Apple at 50: the roots of a tech revolution How a little-known yet highly influential management course in postwar Japan paved the way for Steve Jobs’ obsession with quality

‘It is a story about how America invented a manufacturing philosophy, exported it to Japan, forgot it, relearnt fragments of it through a handful of companies & then re-exported the whole synthesis to Asia.’
Article ostensibly about Apple but really the quality movement!
www.ft.com/content/0800...

A great moment to remember why Scruton's FT column came to an abrupt end.

Trump TS post featuring an illustration of himself as a Christian faith healer

I’m not sure it has broken through to the general public that the president is a megalomaniac crazy person. Hopefully posts like this help.

“AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations”

perfect ht @mordent.bsky.social

“The irony is that Mr Trump is negotiating over a nuclear programme that was once contained by a deal he ripped up, while trying to reopen a strait closed by an illegal war he chose to start” - @theguardian.com view www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🇭🇺 Hungarian elections:
‼️Viktor Orbán congratulated Péter Magyar

The Trump endorsement effect in action

Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, according to the network and health officials there, as well as two Lebanese journalists in that country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and one of their networks. Mohammed Wishah was targeted in a drone strike in west Gaza City. In Lebanon, where Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah killed more than 180 people Wednesday, Ghada Dayekh, a presenter with Sawt Al-Farah, and Suzan Khalil, a reporter and presenter on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio, also died.

Among those killed in Israeli strikes today were 3 journalists:

- Mohammed Wishah, an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza

- Ghada Dayekh, a presenter with Sawt Al-Farah in Lebanon

- Suzan Khalil, a reporter and presenter on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV and Al-Nour Radio, also in Lebanon

Defensie bouwt cloud voor staatsgeheime gegevens | Defensie.nl Defensie gaat met de Nederlandse bedrijven KPN en Thales een cloud bouwen voor staatsgeheime gegevens. De staatssecretaris heeft dit de Tweede Kamer vandaag per brief gemeld.

🚨 Excellent:

"In order to become less dependent on the United States", the Dutch Ministry of Defence has just announced it will work together with Dutch telecoms company and Thales to build a dedicated sovereign cloud to store sensitive and classified data.

www.defensie.nl/actueel/nieu...

Spain can do this because of strongly activated anti-war base.
What prevents other countries political leaders from saying that international law must be followed?
bsky.app/profile/did:...