It’s insane, and precisely the attitude that makes men feel weird about interacting with children (especially girls). “What if they think I’m a creep?”

That Anglo-French force to secure freedom of navigation in the Straits of Hormuz is looking like a great idea right now... 🙄

UK and France to lead defensive mission in Strait of Hormuz Sir Keir Starmer has said further details of the plan will come after a meeting in London next week.

France and the UK have apparently declared war on the US and Iran. Weird flex for a Sunday afternoon, but ok.

UK and France to lead defensive mission in Strait of Hormuz www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Also kind of mad how the government can put out a statement like this without mentioning either of the states currently blockading the Straits.

“establishing an independent and strictly defensive multinational mission to protect merchant vessels” - gonna be fun when the Royal Navy has to shoot at US Navy ships blockading the Straits of Hormuz. Or is that not what they mean?

Someone has been reading too much Patrick O'Brian.

This is surely nonsense?! They can’t seriously be trying to say that a senior civil servant overruled security vetting and DIDN’T ASK A MINISTER? Nonsense, and any journalist who believes it is a credulous fool.

They won’t say any of that out loud of course, but that’ll be more or less where they’re at.

Given that the whole thing started because Bibi got in a room with Trump & Hegseth and got them amped up for war, surely the landing ground is a kind of status quo ante where the Iranians have shown everyone they can’t really be regime changed and the US realises listening to Israel on this is dumb?

On balance yes, but worth remembering that Syngman Rhee’s regime was hardly any less dictatorial than the North at the time, and the UN approved action because it was much more US-controlled at the time than it is now (both because of colonialism and the Soviet boycott).

Orban’s veto is the last/least of the obstacles. There’s no gettable rejoin deal the UK political establishment would be willing to take to the public (probably rightly so, given the UK public likely don’t want the Euro, CAP, etc.)

Really hope they start the project by sticking a 12,000 ton lump of concrete in a DC suburb just to see if it’ll sink.

Trump to discuss leaving NATO in meeting with Rutte: White House US President Donald Trump will discuss the possibility of leaving NATO when he meets with the alliance's chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday, the White House said, accusing Washington's partners of "turning...

Rutte probably needs to tell Trump some truths he’ll like to hear and Europeans pretend aren’t true - NATO is a tool of US power to better control the Europeans and stop them running off to do their own security policy.

If he stays in NATO, he stays in charge. www.france24.com/en/live-news...

Was the same when they introduced the (sadly abolished) rent cap in Berlin. “My rights!”, some landlords screamed loudly. But like, you don’t have a right to be heavily over mortgaged on three flats you can’t afford to not raise the rent every year on…

How we feeling 2 weeks later on this? Still ok with British bases freeing up US sorties for war crimes?

Using British bases to free up US sortie capacity elsewhere is just as complicit as allowing the bombers to fly from the UK itself to bomb schools and power plants. The two can be disentangled like the Gov’t is trying to pretend.

This is the same policy as before and has the same negligent complicity with war crimes. Using UK bases for ‘defensive’ sorties frees up US capacity for sorties to bomb schools and bridges and power plants. There is no such thing as “purely defensive” support.

The UK will be (/already is) complicit in war crimes if we continue to let the US use British bases for their war of aggression against Iran.

So they’ll strike the SAM sites from British bases, allowing them to launch more strikes on civilian targets from non-British bases. You can’t just disentangle it like that - if we allow the US to use any of our bases, we’re complicit.

Kind of crazy how soon after Watergate All The President’s Men actually came out? That’s like somebody making a blockbuster dramatisation of January 6th a couple of years ago.

“The Great Game is still going and its latest chapter is blowing up some damaged rescue planes in a field south of Isfahan”?

Given that the only religious movement to actually kill a British monarch was Protestant, this is a wild take.

Yeah, this is proper stopped clock is right twice a day stuff. Using WhatsApp for government comms should be misconduct in public office, but it’s been going on for years under all governments…

What are the ~160 “foreign affairs cases”? Sounds like someone’s counting political correspondence as well…

Spain closes airspace to US military over Iran war, widening rift with US Spain’s defence minister confirms move and describes US-Israel war on Iran as ‘profoundly illegal and unjust’

Statmer, cheered on by very sensible UK centrists: “There’s nothing we can do! We have to take part in Trump’s war of aggression if we want to stay part of the western world!”

Meanwhile…

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Death penalty for one ethnicity but not another. Still think Israel isn’t an apartheid state?

Alas, they’ll cut the absolute worst of it, the whips will put the thumbscrews on the rebels, and the bulk of it will pass.

The failures of neoliberalism have lead to fascism. Sure, it was better to live under neoliberalism than it will be to live under fascism, but…that’s not really the point?

The North of Ireland famously doesn’t have enough right-wing protestant political organisations…

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/tur...

The Billion-Dollar AI Startup That Was Founded by Teenagers The team behind Aaru is attracting brands including McDonald’s and EY by betting AI bots can predict human behavior better than humans can.

I’m generally bullish on AI, but Aaru is nonsense. “Synthetic research”? You might as well just ask ChatGPT what a focus group might say.

www.wsj.com/business/ai-...