Leroy

EU and Canada eye digital trade deal, in wake of US hostility

I've been the UK explaining-the-madness correspondent for Late Night Live for eight years. This week, for the first time, I went into the studio. It was oddly moving. It's been such a privilege being a small part of this great show.

Iran's regime change unlikely but Trump's mess certain: Gulf states While the cabaret of outlandish and contradictory statements and claims continues in Washington, there is considerable pragmatic pessimism in the Gulf about the mess Donald Trump will leave behind.

While the cabaret of outlandish and contradictory statements and claims continues in Washington, there is considerable pragmatic pessimism in the Gulf about the mess Donald Trump will leave behind.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03... by @latingle.bsky.social

'If I die, I am OK with it': The people who broke through Iran's blackout While the country's strict Islamist regime has blocked the internet and other forms of communication for most people, some have found a way to get their stories out.

How one week of war has changed Iran
The Islamic regime is trying to silence critics as fighting engulfs its country, but these people found a way to get their voices heard.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...

The 20-year search for the Nannup Four In July 2007, Simon Kadwill, Tony Popic, Chantelle McDougall and her five-year-old daughter Leela vanished from an isolated WA town. Chantelle's parents have spent the better part of 20 years trying t...

Four people disappeared from a little town called Nannup in an isolated corner of south-west Western Australia in 2007. In their absence, details about a doomsday cult, secret identities, isolation and control surfaced.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...

this isn't just a MAGA thing, it's a cross-American one and *especially* a lot of people who came of age in politics or punditry in the 1990s. the idea that the news could happen to them - that the world might not be all going their way - is genuinely brain-breaking to a lot of them

Strategy is fundamentally all about developing a sophisticated theory of the mind of one’s opponent.

With MAGA’s Iran Adventure, guess we’re going to see what a modern war almost totally devoid of anything we’d call “strategy” looks like.

“MAGA’s fundamental shared quality is a total lack of theory of mind for other people” is a theory that keeps getting validated by reality - look at almost every decision they’ve made in the war with Iran, and how they seem constantly surprised by the unanticipated actions of other parties.

Axel Springer to buy Telegraph for £575m, elbowing aside Daily Mail owner German owner of Bild and Die Welt is understood to have agreed all-cash deal for one of UK’s oldest newspapers

Axel Springer to buy Telegraph for £575m, elbowing aside Daily Mail owner. German owner of Bild and Die Welt is understood to have agreed all-cash deal for one of UK’s oldest newspapers.
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...

1. Max Chandler-Mather to be placed in an oubliette during all future campaigns

The Greens’ election review flew under the radar. Here’s what it said With the Liberals’ 2025 election review recently leaked, what does the Greens’ version reveal about the lessons they’ve taken from the federal poll?

For the campaign nerds

theconversation.com/the-greens-e...

Labor pushes for polling booth ‘exclusion zones’ after surge in volunteer abuse at the 2025 election
web.archive.org/web/20260306... #auspol

This was initially reported elsewhere as a certainty and walked back when it was confirmed as false. Now it appears US leadership is begging the Kurds to act.

Helen Dalton not running for Farrer, only four major moving pieces now.

It's not a fresh hell, it's a longstanding piece of SA weirdness to reduce the informal rate. A vote that would otherwise be informal because numbers are omitted or repeated is converted to the savings ticket of the party voted 1 for but only if it followed that ticket up to the first error.

One Nation say they will run open HTVs in SA. Because of SA's savings provisions if this results in any voters just voting 1, those votes will be converted to a savings ticket lodged by the party (assuming it lodges one). #saparli

Google pledges roughly three hours of its annual profit to fight climate change Google and others are committing $100 million to combat climate change.

The perfect headline doesn’t exi…

Threads thread: thriller_instinct 3d Is it okay to bully 40 and 50 year olds who are on social media just for being on it, cuz like why are you here - 254 Q 3.1K G 28 746 corporateash 18h ••• My ICQ UIN is 7231680. That number is burned into my consciousness. I inadvertently learned that you could see private conversations in public chat rooms when using Telnet instead of a browser on GeoCities. I can tell you the difference in audible dial-up handshakes between 1200, 2400, 14.4 kbps modems. I needed a edu email address to join Facebook after my university was admitted. We were here at the beginning. We made social media. You wouldn't be in my Top 8. I have usernames older than you. 852 Q62 G6 72

“I have usernames older than you.”.
Holy shit

Best case scenario seems to be "the status quo, but less stable and with a higher baseline level of ambient violence", which seems like it was totally worth killing a few thousand people and spending a few billion dollars to achieve.

So there are a few ships making the Hormuz run, but in tiny numbers and not big ones.

By contrast, you can see the huge cloud of ships waiting outside the strait on either side.

Until there are more ships moving in the strait than sitting outside, the USA/Israel is not winning.

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming at the Advance conference State Liberal (conservative) MP Moira Deeming is posited as the party's future leader. This raises the issue of Christian Right politicians and possible secrecy about their goals.

We need to show fellow voters that we can’t trust Christian Right political candidates to tell us what voting for them means for our rights & freedoms. Even if they tell us which beliefs & goals they have relinquished, can we trust them?
#auspol #SpringSt
lucyham29.substack.com/p/victorian-...

Wood burners cause 2,500 UK deaths a year — and the industry is suing councils for saying so The UK's wood-burning stove industry has sent legal threats to at least eight London councils for running public health campaigns — even as research links domestic burning to 2,500 deaths per year and...

The UK's wood-burning stove industry has sent legal threats to at least 8 London councils for running public health campaigns, even as research links domestic burning to 2500 deaths a year & eco-design stoves produce 450 times more particulate emissions than gas boilers
vegoutmag.com/news/vo-n-wo...

Victorian pharmacists to provide the pill without doctor’s script Benita Kolovos Benita Kolovos Victorian women will soon be able to get the contraceptive pill from the chemist without a prescription, the premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced. At a press conference this morning, she announced from July, Victoria’s Chemist Care Now program will be expanded to allow access to the oral contraceptive pill without a prescription at 850 pharmacies across the state. The program currently allows pharmacists to provide only a month’s supply of oral contraceptives if the patient presents an old prescription or the medication box they used previously. Allan said pharmacists involved in the program will need to complete a postgraduate training module. They will also be required to undertake a thorough consultation with patients, outline any risks and provide advice about other options, including long-acting reversible contraception. She said the expansion of the program would make it easier for women – particularly those in the outer suburbs and regions – to access contraceptives, as well as save them time and money. The premier told reporters: "When women have run out of the pill – and many women would know what this feels like – having the hassle of having to shop around, get a bulk billing GP appointment … reorganising your whole day around that appointment that takes time out of women’s days."

Victorian women will soon be able to get the contraceptive pill from the chemist without a prescription, the premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... #springst #aushealth

The Allan Labor Government is making it easier to get the Pill at the chemist without a script. From July, women over 18 will be able to access the oral contraceptive pill at one of 850 participating Chemist Care Now pharmacies. This change saves women time and gives them more options to get the care they need. It also expands access for women in rural and remote areas where access to a GP is more challenging. The Chemist Care Now consultation with the pharmacist is free. Women will pay for the medication. Pharmacists who want to deliver this service will be required to complete a postgraduate training module to keep women safe. Before dispensing the medication, pharmacists must undertake a thorough consultation and outline any risks. They will also provide comprehensive advice about other options, including long-acting reversable contraception.

good move in Victoria: 'Get The Pill At Your Local Chemist Without A Script'

Kristi Noem's DHS killed Americans, stole their property, deported the wrong people, siphoned taxpayer money to her political allies, defied court orders, and ferried her aide/lover on taxpayer-funded jets. To bring America together, Democrats must pledge to never prosecute her for any of this.

msc

this, i'd argue, was claim mostly being made by a certain kind of disaffected liberal, and not actually a common view on "the left."

let no one claim that I ever fell for maureen dowd's "donald the dove" line.

he got there, i guess.