"Manchester’s recent headline successes are well known – the highest growth of any sub-region outside London, surging employment in sectors such as technology, and a hugely improved public transport system – as are the failures, particularly in housing."

Harry Stopes | Manchesterisms

Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council before she was comfortably elected last week to replace Andy Burnham as...

lrb.co.uk

It strikes me as increasingly likely that the Burnham era will be judged above all on housing and homelessness. The latter is tractable, but only sustainable through council housebuilding. Labour's record in Manchester is not that impressive. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...

Harry Stopes | Manchesterisms

Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council before she was comfortably elected last week to replace Andy Burnham as...

lrb.co.uk

The only chant cited here - shouts of "Free Palestine" directed at an Israeli player - is not antisemitic. If there were other things shouted to, then it does nobody any favours to fail to report in detail what is alleged.

MLS investigates reports of antisemitic chants toward New England’s Dor Turgeman in Montreal

The Israel international scored and gestured toward CF Montéal fans, with the Revolution later saying the ‘strongly condemn’ the chants

theguardian.com

Basically the height of caricature at this point: Israel is demanding that as part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, it be allowed to continue attacking Gaza.

“‘Manchester’ has been a metonym at least twice in the last two hundred years, escaping the orbit of a more generalised ‘North’.” I explore the achievements and failures of the current Manchester model.

London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 2d ago

‘Between 2015 and 2024, nearly a billion pounds of public money was lent on favourable terms to developers who built almost no affordable housing – almost two-thirds of it to one company.’ @harrystopes.bsky.social on Manchester, new on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...

Considering his loud hostility to money in football and his favourite mixed metaphor "financial doping", it's remarkable how little scrutiny Arsene Wenger gets for his subsequent decision to work for international bribery association FIFA

So often when I read these stories about yet another case of the Home Office being xenophobic jobsworth pricks I think that the % of British people who actually think the people in question don’t deserve to stay in the UK is absolutely tiny. Why are we pandering to them?

the3million@the3million.bsky.social · 3d ago

Monique Hawkins, acting chief executive of the3million, said the impact of the Home Office’s retrospective review was devastating for many. "People applied to the EU settlement scheme in good faith...by building their lives in the UK and putting down roots." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Gianni, sweetheart, Trump can act like that because he runs a state with an army and a police force. All you can do is issue bribes with other people's money, a thing that any prospective replacement can also offer to do

Got to laugh at Trump and his entourage clearly grifting Infantino into his own destruction

My son tried chips and gravy for the first time, and asked for more. Proud dad.

The final of the breakaway world cup MUST be played in Avignon

My entire life I’ve never called it the FIFA World Cup. I’ve always called it the World Cup. Fans don’t give a shit about FIFA. If national teams showed up for a World Cup tournament not held by FIFA we would all watch it. World Cup is the brand. FIFA is nothing.

Strongest possible statement from UEFA as they threaten boycott if Infantino presses ahead with his plan

And those moorlands were WET. @willpooley.bsky.social ‘s book is terrific, and his point is vividly illustrated by comparing maps of C19 forestation and the current fires 🗃️

will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · 6d ago

Some historical background to the fires in southwestern France, drawing on reading I did for my 2019 book about the moorlands, and lamenting the deeply depressing reality that we have known many of the causes of this ecological disaster for 150years 🗃️ williamgpooley.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/u...

" (...) from a rule-of-law perspective, it is deeply problematic that someone can be barred from entering the country over a political statement that is not a criminal offence — and then be denied access to the files."

Hanno Hauenstein@hahauenstein.bsky.social · 6d ago

Scoop: "Bob Vylan Frontman Deported From Germany for Chanting “Death to IDF” at Glastonbury" – my latest @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2026/07/30/b...

Berliners move down inside a u bahn carriage or forward beside their shopping as the supermarket belt carries it towards the cashier. Challenge level: impossible

Can’t believe the LRB cut this brilliant line, wtf

EMILY WILSON@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · last wk.

1. It's a fun action movie. A line that got cut but sums up some of my overall feelings: This Odyssey is not a rich, satisfying Homeric banquet, but sometimes in the heat, an ice-cold Philly water ice is all you want - even it's mostly sugar and food coloring, and makes no nutritional sense.

Im Berliner Stadtteil Hellersdorf hat es einen mutmaßlichen Brandanschlag gegen eine Geflüchtetenunterkunft gegeben. Der Staatsschutz ermittelt.

Hellersdorf: Unbekannte werfen Brandsatz auf Berliner Geflüchtetenunterkunft

Im Berliner Stadtteil Hellersdorf hat es einen mutmaßlichen Brandanschlag gegen eine Geflüchtetenunterkunft gegeben. Der Staatsschutz ermittelt.

zeit.de

“the reason I am leaving Berlin is not the AfD or the rise of the far right - it is the dishonesty and self-deception of German society, that proclaims itself to be liberal and progressive.” taz.de/Migrantische...

Migrantisches Leben: Warum ich Deutschland nach 15 Jahren verlasse

Nicht wegen des Rechtsrucks, sondern des Selbstbetrugs der vermeintlich Liberalen und Progressiven muss ich gehen. Ein Abschiedsbrief.

taz.de

Sentiment on local Facebook groups seems to be “why should I pay for any services which I don’t directly use” at the same time as “if I produce 8 wheelie bins worth of waste every week then that’s a problem that needs to be socialised”.

Nida' Ibrahim making an important point here. Israel is escalating its violence & ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank because it got away with committing genocide in Gaza, & it will continue until the international community ends its impunity

‘“Use soap and water, use water with chlorine, and use hand sanitiser.” But not everyone has access to those things, especially if they’re living in a displaced persons camp.’ Edna Bonhomme (@jacobinoire.bsky.social) on Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Edna Bonhomme | Ebola in DRC

The current Ebola outbreak was first reported in Ituri on 5 May. Ten days later laboratory analysis confirmed the...

lrb.co.uk

Germany, Switzerland etc... not only have a different balance of manufacturing vs services but also a corporate model in which companies support vocational ed at scale. We have neither. Schools/colleges aren't the problem.

Menschenwürde umfassten elementaren Rechtsgleichheit. Die gebietet es, dass nicht bestimmten Deutschen nach (oder sogar vor) Straftaten der Verlust aller Bürgerrechte und die Verbannung droht, anderen aber nicht. Die AfD will das schon lange. Es ist ein Baustein für ihre Verfassungswidrigkeit. 2/2

Die Union forderte schon mal die Ausbürgerung von straffälligen Doppelstaatler*innen. Jetzt schlägt Söder das auch für Gefährder — also Personen, die die Verwaltung (!) für gefährlich hält — vor; Merz zeigt sich dafür offen. Würde das umgesetzt, verletzte es viele Betroffenen in ihrer von der 1/2

This would be an extraordinarily bad start to Burnham’s time as PM Short 🧵 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Incredibly I found the Emily Wilson review of the Odyssey film to be one of the most staggeringly lacking in basic media literacy of any film review I've read in years. Every inch missing blatant themes and outright ignoring the concept of stories being told from a flawed perspective.

I guess we will find out soon what is more important to Andy Burnham - keeping these genocide survivors locked up in a concentration camp so he can convince racists that will never vote for him that he's well hard, or living up to his carefully-polished self image as a nice person.

Home Office blocking evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza

Refugee family reunions in limbo, despite Foreign Office saying it is ready get people out of war-torn territory

theguardian.com

‘Political instability makes it harder to co-ordinate the response. Some of the affected areas are in the hands of the M23 rebel group.’ Edna Bonhomme (@jacobinoire.bsky.social) on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Edna Bonhomme | Ebola in DRC

The current Ebola outbreak was first reported in Ituri on 5 May. Ten days later laboratory analysis confirmed the...

lrb.co.uk

amazing little sneaky advertorial in the Friday 13th November 1885 edition of New Orleans States