Alex von Tunzelmann

Completely understand the urge towards “I’m going to tell you all the ways in which he’s a ratbag and I’m a triumphant survivor.” Also just want you to work your way through a little further through this pain to the point where you realise this might have something to do with your own poor judgment

I’ve got an even more dangerous corollary to this take, because I listened to Lily Allen’s breakup album and then wondered if other angry heartbreak albums just sound bitter and ultimately self-hating, so I went back and listened to Beyoncé’s Lemonade for the first time in ages, and… yep

new tag yourself just dropped

Again, Farage, Badenoch and their fellow travellers on X are wildly out of touch with the public on Iran.

Even the majority of Reform supporters oppose their position.

I wonder if on one of the Indian channels some middle-aged comedian is being sent around Britain, getting the Thameslink to St Albans, sampling pey wet in Wigan, poignantly observing that there are homeless folk on the streets even in Knightsbridge, and so forth bsky.app/profile/jack...

“Estate agent Ravi shows him around a multimillion-pound apartment, and Raj takes him on a tour of the slum where he grew up.” Sounds like he will observe that India is a land of contrasts!

I cannot wait for the insights on this! He's going to:

1. Sample some local street food.
2. Ride a train.
3. Visit a temple.
4. Not mention the pogroms that the serving Prime Minister presided over.
5. Smile at some elephants.
6. Top up his kids' private school fees.
7. Say "India is changing".

Your regular reminder than a large majority of voters - and overwhelming majority of Labour voters - favour giving settled migrants access to the welfare state after five years or less. The Home Secretary is not reforming rules in line with public opinion. She is doing the opposite.

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

I laugh every time I read French coverage of Russia and see that “Putin” is spelled “Poutine,” but wonder why they don’t also take the opportunity to spell “Trump” as “Trompe.”

Potato pierogi are called "ruskie" in Polish, and there's an Communist-era joke about the waiter coming out and asking "who ordered the ruskie?" and getting the reply "no-one, but they came anyway".

Yes, I can’t say I was expecting that either

Anyway I did not order a Putin. Had pasta and a salad instead. It was nice. Non-invasive

A delivery menu entitled “Putin”. In fact when you get into it this is a selection of Canadian style poutine dishes.

Ordered takeaway to our Moroccan Airbnb last night. Did a slight double take at the header of this section of the menu

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

this is not an amount of money any individual or household should be able to have and we have to abolish both billionaires as a group and the economic system that makes them possible

This is the point. If your vaunted trillion-dollar military can't get through a few days of airstrikes because you've consolidated the industrial base so badly, then you don't have a trillion-dollar military, you just have contractors in No. Virginia getting rich

It occurs to me that if the government did force UK writers to hand over their work to the big AI companies, that would now among other things mean contributing to the development of US advanced weapon systems.

Israeli map showing all of southern Lebanon in red with yellow arrows pointing to north of the Litani river

The IDF just ordered the *entirety of south Lebanon* to be forcibly displaced.

They are emptying the land of its population, creating a massive crisis, and will now proceed to further annihilate large parts of Lebanon.

The very nation state of Lebanon is being destroyed.

If I was @zackpolanski.bsky.social, I would be pointing out to the BBC that whatever model they use to justify giving Farage & his boot-lickers season tickets for every BBC show under the sun must surely now treat Green Party politicians in exactly the same way. Might even be one for the lawyers...

So, in launching a huge bombing campaign on Iran they apparently didn't plan for:

- Who takes over;
- Interceptor shortages from sustained drone retaliation;
- How to defend US bases in the region;
- Threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz; and
- How to evacuate Americans with airspace closed.

Who can reply: anyone, nobody, people who can be normal about it.

trying out a new feature, lmk if it works

Come now, this does not require clarification. We all know what we’re going for.

I refuse to consider any other ways to pronounce it beyond the one we are both thinking of.

Amazing isn't it. Their failure to explain how it happened is quite damning by implication: they know full well how this happened, and they don't want to say it. I feel like they should have to say it.

I looked it up to check. Oh god. That means I looked up Manus.

The resemblance is still uncanny.

Counterpoint: I’m definitely calling it that

Guess so!

Nine months later, it’s confirmed: a complete failure – maybe even a complete absence – of editorial standards. The judgment is quite strong, but the consequences pretty minimal. bsky.app/profile/liam...