Marc Smith

It's just a game to these morons.

US investigators believe strike on Iranian girls’ school probably carried out by US forces US military officials briefed on investigation make disclosure, while Pentagon has confirmed only that inquiry is under way

No comment
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Wealthy Dubai residents race back to UAE to avoid tax bills Some risk spending too few days in the emirate and too many in the UK

Tax exiles stuck in London desperately trying to get *back* to Dubai to avoid becoming tax resident in the UK? Just great stuff. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Airstrikes hit Iran-Iraq border as US and Israeli plan to mobilise Kurds gathers pace Experts say backing Iran’s ethnic communities could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’ and increase risk of chaotic civil war

So Trump wants the Kurd's help (again), after previously giving Turkey tacit permission to bomb the fuck out of them.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Half-truths and no truths: Trump’s latest claims on the UK factchecked From the Chagos Islands to ‘windmills’ and sharia law, the US president’s comments do not bear much scrutiny

I often wonder if it's worth anyone's time fact checking Trump. Can't we simply assume that everything he says is a lie?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

It's a common refrain for ministers to note Nigel Farage's absence from the Commons, but the stats do seem to back it up. So far this year he has spoken five times and voted seven times. As a very rough, smaller-party comparison, Ellie Chowns of the Greens has spoken 46 times and voted 24 times.

I did have a little chuckle.

Middle East crisis live: Kuwait mistakenly shoots down three US fighter planes, as US says Iran’s ‘reckless’ attacks threaten regional stability Israeli military says fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah could take ‘many’ more days; US crew bailed out safely after crash-landing, says Kuwait

Kuwait air defences mistakenly shot down three US F15 fighter jets flying in Iran-related operations, the US Central Command (Centcom) said. All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered and are in stable condition.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

I suspect they'll lean further into the 'failure to integrate' narrative now that immigration is falling.

The current argument of the British right is that Muslims turned out in "blocs" with "family voting" to cast their ballots for a party led by a gay Jewish man, and this shows that multiculturalism has failed, voting is "sectarian" and we are in a crisis.

Hmmmmmm.

While Labour are chasing the Reform vote, the Greens are doing this:

Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place in blow to Keir Starmer Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024

Huge congratulation to Hannah and @greenparty.org.uk
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling.
If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office Video footage shows former peer being driven away shortly after being escorted from his London home by officers

Princes and Lords, eh?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Reform would create ICE-style agency and end leave to remain, Zia Yusuf to say Nigel Farage’s party plans to deport up to 288,000 people a year on five flights a day and expand stop and search

It must be a great time to be a social or political psychologist. In the UK we watch aghast at the events unfolding in the US, yet prepare to adopt the same shit show at the the next election.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

Who the hell would go to the US now?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Furious Trump signs global 10% duty after supreme court issues tariff blow President calls six justices a ‘disgrace to the nation’ while praising three justices who dissented

How the hell is any country expected to deal with this shit?
We need reliable trading partners, not petulant toddlers!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office - live updates It comes after Thames Valley Police said they were assessing a complaint over the alleged sharing of confidential material by the former prince with Jeffrey Epstein.

Nobody should be above the law!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Misinformation is a challenge teachers can’t face alone Teachers face the emergence of an online world in which notions of objective reality are under threat

✍️ In a new op-ed for Schools Week, Full Fact CEO Chris Morris argues teachers must be supported as defenders of evidence-based debate, not left to face misinformation alone.

Labour calls on Reform’s Matt Goodwin to reject aides’ ‘racist content’ Members of Gorton byelection candidate’s team reported to have expressed support for far-right groups

Matt Goodwin's campaign manager, Adam Mitula, thinks 60-70% of transgender people are paedophiles, and said that he would “never touch a Jewish woman”.

That's Reform UK for you!

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The Guardian view on Donald Trump and the climate crisis: the US is in reverse while China ploughs ahead | Editorial Editorial: The president’s destructive policies enrich fossil fuel billionaires, while Beijing has bet big on the green transition

“Clean energy drove more than 90% of China’s investment growth last year”.

The new Industrial Revolution is here and we‘re going to miss the boat if we listen to fossil fuel gimps like Trump, Farage and Tice — renewables are the present as well as the future.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

UK migration could be negative this year – how will that hit the economy? Universities, builders and health trusts are feeling the squeeze, as thinktank says effect of zero net migration could be similar to Brexit

"While the trend may ease pressure on Keir Starmer from Reform UK, for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the trend presents a significant headache, hurting both the businesses that rely on immigrants and a loss of expected tax receipts for the Treasury."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Disentangling Knowledge and Understanding In which I ramble on a bit about nuance

Knowledge isn't the same as understanding. We can know something yet still not understand it.

This is perhaps at the heart of the well established epistemological system, currently under threat.
dynamiclearning.substack.com/p/disentangl...

Perhaps she just doesn't like Oasis. Many of us don't.
In which case she gave a very un-politician answer: she told the truth.

Probably not. The government will appeal & in the meantime the ban will remain in place.

UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws

It hasn't been a very good week for the UK government.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health The White House calls it the largest deregulation in US history, but environmentalists say it will prove costly for Americans.

This moron has done as much for climate change as the industrial revolution.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

No surprise here:

"In the interview, at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, he compared the performance of Starmer with the Reform leader Nigel Farage, whom he said he had met recently and described as an “intelligent man”.

Starmer tells Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK ‘colonised’ by immigrants PM calls comments by Man United co-owner, who also hit out at people on benefits, ‘offensive and wrong’

Irony isn't dead.

"Britain’s seventh-richest man, who moved to tax-free Monaco in 2020, took aim at people receiving state support and immigrants."

www.theguardian.com/business/202...