Seeing the Irish president, Catherine Connolly, come to Belfast near everyday if not everyday for the historical moment of Fleadh Cheoil being hosted here for the first time is wholesome - a president walking through the city, watching people play, going to the pub. Presidency is different here.

Wait who hasn’t come to this conclusion (that we don’t have to “admit”, it’s an objective truth) a long time ago?

Just admit it: The Supreme Court is political

Let’s face it, the Supreme Court has dug itself into a hole, and it just keeps digging.

thehill.com

Reminder: Mike Johnson is known for shielding & protecting accused pedophiles. He campaigned with notable pedophile and child pornography enthusiast, Josh Duggar. He is close with Paul Pressler, who is a SBC pastor also found of abusing minors. Standing behind a domestic abuser is on brand for him.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 7h ago

Mike Johnson tells Politico that he's standing behind Republican Max Miller — despite the "serious" domestic abuse allegations against him.

An 18yo who wore an INLA (proscribed: 1979) t-shirt was slapped with a section 13 charge (predictable and objectively correct). UDA (proscribed: 1992) members openly in the streets openly recruiting young people while openly committing pogroms or supporting incitement and flying their flag: nothing

Teen ‘who wore INLA T-shirt’ and shouted at people attending bonfire granted bail

An 18-year-old man has appeared at Londonderry Magistrates’ Court charged with wearing clothing in support of a proscribed organisation.

belfasttelegraph.co.uk

I don’t believe in “the universe”. I don’t believe in signs. I don’t believe in fate. I don’t believe in controlling alien life. But come on.

Out-of-control SpaceX rocket smashes into the Moon

Collision hit with the power of three tons of TNT and will leave behind a visible crater on the lunar surface

independent.co.uk

Read this over and over again, until the last line of this post is understood. We could even go further - does this order even exist anymore? ( @attackerman.bsky.social wrote a great piece on this). Have we been successful at safekeeping at least some of its principles? Can they be brought back?

International Bar Association@ibanews.bsky.social · 9h ago

Donald Trump’s second presidency has been characterised by military aggression, trade disruption and disengagement from multilateral institutions. The world is now asking whether the US can be trusted to support the international order it helped build after the Second World War.

Happy to see this has already been acted upon by @goodlawproject.org issuing a challenge. For all trans people in GB, just know - today is hard to process - that we see you, and that we are not a minority. The minority is currently legislating, which is horrific enough. But you’re not alone.

Jess O'Thomson@jessothomson.co.uk · 10h ago

We have also written a detailed legal explainer about why we think the code of practice gets the law wrong.

A Nazi entering government by the small door is just as bad as a Nazi entering government by the revolving front door

Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 11h ago

It's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.

Irish News covers our FOI on this extraordinary meeting. This far-right group is comprised largely of National Front & neo-nazi linked individuals and target migrant properties on the North Coast. A recent human rights report highlighted the targeting an immigration law practice in Coleraine.. [1/n]

Northern Ireland council kept no record of chief executive’s meeting with far-right group

A council chief executive held a meeting with representatives of a far-right anti-immigration group without any agenda, terms of reference or minutes being produced, it has emerged.

irishnews.com

Barnea appointed as executive for Ondas Inc. is… unsurprising, actually

Former Mossad chief appointed to lead U.S. defense technology company

Barnea's appointment comes as Ondas Inc. seeks to build a significant defense technology group through acquisitions of companies in the sector. The Nasdaq-listed company has a market value of more tha...

haaretz.com

Nor do we want to be on Truth Social. I would hate to find a welcome home there. I would hate to be somebody who would be palatable to such a place. We don't go on Truth, because nobody needs bullies. They *do* try to come on Bluesky, because bullies need the rest of us.

Ruth Zakarin@ruthz.bsky.social · yesterday

The burden is always on us lefties to welcome them, debate them, compromise with them, find middle ground, and generally make them comfortable. It’s totally one directional. No one is calling for Truth Social to make any room for us.

I understand why the average american sees it as far worse if we blow up innocent people who weren’t doing anything but this will never not be true. If we want to be the country we pretend to be, than these distinctions don’t matter when the state is going on a killing spree. Prison guards weren’t…

Steve Saideman@smsaideman.bsky.social · yesterday

Even if involved in narcotrafficking, this would be illegal. Due process.

This September will mark 25 years since 9/11 and the inauguration of the “war on terror.” On Sept 9 & 10, join @knightcolumbia.org and the Li Center at @columbiajournalism.bsky.social for a major symposium about the war on terror’s legacy for democratic freedom. 1/ knightcolumbia.org/events/the-f...

The Forever War and the First Amendment

knightcolumbia.org

Chaser (Reform believes that those small missions are about British sovereignty and the “protection of its people” regardless of the support of the French state to oppose French policy; clearly an act of terrorism. Anticipating that label, they are now calling this “humanitarian”)

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 2d ago

🚨 UPDATE: Reform UK hits back at the French Government "We will always stand up for British interests and protect our people, whether Emmanuel Macron likes it or not. Humanitarian missions do not violate maritime or international law"

Shot (France refuses to have forced entry into its waters for the purposes of committing an international crime, that already took place once and led to the listing of two participants on a S-file, a procedure for KSTs)

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 2d ago

🚨 NEW: The French Government has attacked Reform UK's plan to use the Royal Navy to take small boat migrants back to France "This would be a violation of French sovereignty as well as a violation of maritime law and international law"

Send them an email at 8am to request a 1:1, then send the Teams invite for 4pm.

Glaxton T. FireTheWholeDamnBullpenWolf@8stringandsushi.bsky.social · 2d ago

This war is now a Teams meeting.

As someone with ADHD I felt validated seeing so many academics, psychiatrists, qualified professionals on here pushing back against Channel4’s weird and stigmatising take on this neurodivergence. There are plenty of documented answers to the questions they claim aren’t addressed. It’s exhausting.

This case is a terrifying reminder of the fact that being charged with a crime upends your life. Maria Rojas has had her midwifery license suspended, and the conditions of her bond prohibit her from working in healthcare in any capacity. Texas didn't just arrest her, they took away her livelihood.

Autonomy News@autonomynews.co · 2d ago

“The problem is that there's a human being on the other end of whatever political point it is they're trying to make," said an attorney for Maria Rojas, the Texas midwife who is the first person to be prosecuted under the state's criminal abortion ban.

The US has been very good to Japan, with the exception, of course, of internment camps Is this a 25A klaxon? I can’t tell

Katie Martin@katie0martin.ft.com · 2d ago

no notes, too good www.ft.com/content/5de2...

Nigel Farage just took a question from a 'journalist' at his press conference, who turned out to be his former chief adviser Raheem Kassam, who asks him why the media are being so unfair to him

It’s clear that the massive rise in defence spending (to the detriment of care and infrastructure) coupled with a hyper militarisation of British society is more likely, in the long term, to be used against migrants/internal dissent than an imaginary future war.

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 3d ago

🚨 NEW: Reform UK has announced it would deploy the Royal Navy to make the English Channel "impenetrable" to small boat migrants

I find this thread and the language it uses to be in contradiction with the “good piece” - the piece in question affirming that the far-right appropriated Ceuta the way we all knew it would, tripping over themselves with I-told-you-so’s. This is legitimate concerns language (apologies, John).

John Springford@johnspringford.bsky.social · 3d ago

Good piece. A thread on some comments I made yesterday on Times Radio. Two things can be true at the same time: 1. It’s very bad to have 60,000 people storm a border, and 70+ deaths. 2. European leaders' responses were opportunistic and disproportionate, and made incidents like this more likely.

94 died while the far right claimed an unprecedented (it isn’t) wave. 94 died while the far right claimed an invasion of Europe (Ceuta is in Morocco, but is controlled by Spain). The tragedy also lies in the 69,000 pushed back by the military. Time for those good Christian Europeans to read Exodus

Libération@liberation.fr · 2d ago

A Ceuta, après le drame migratoire, le retour au calme ➡️ https://l.liberation.fr/NwU

Imagine inheriting the UK in the situation it is currently in and deciding that’s the number one priority - human rights law has fallen off the cliffs of Dover, it seems, and Labour has zero intention to fix what Starmer destroyed. Burnham goes full Reform. NHS and cost of living, eh.

Burnham pledges to be 'relentless' in curbing small boat crossings

The PM says enforcement is being increased but there also need to be more safe routes into the UK.

bbc.co.uk

Only just found out about this For the record, you don't get multiple genetic markers and one of the most effective medications known to science with 'social constructs' Channel 4, this is, in scientific parlance, an absolute fu*king disgrace that will genuinely endanger lives #c4 #ADHD

Quite fascinating that everyone in Stormont and in very particular the DOJ is refusing to use the t-word or to even approach it cautiously, but private corporations seem to know a s12 TA2000 when they see one. So far the only policing of Moygashel is corporate policing. That’s it. No PSNI.

Moygashel bonfire organisers say GoFundMe page suspended amid ‘support of terrorism’ claims

Moygashel Bonfire Association says accusations ‘wholly inaccurate’ and money for defending people facing ‘trumped up charges’ linked to burning of replica mosque which sparked widespread condemnation

irishnews.com

“Quick-witted” ☕️

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 4d ago

#OtD 1 Aug 1919 quick-witted locals in Liverpool took the opportunity of a strike of half of the city's police to begin rioting and looting. Beginning on Friday, they were only suppressed by Monday with the arrival of 3,000 troops stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8050...

In my view, a very good thing. Several parties and individual MLAs make a virtue of asking dozens of questions a day. Often they are connected and could be brought together, often they asked basically the same question a month back, often they result in no follow up or action. They all cost money 1/

Gavan Reilly@gavreilly.com · 7d ago

A couple of months on, an update: the current system allows TDs to lodge PQs simply by sending the text to an designated email address. After the recess they’ll have to use a gated online system to supply questions instead, making it more cumbersome to lodge multiple interrelated questions at once.

New, from me: It is fine to disagree with aspects of the pandemic response. But what we saw at Fauci's hearing was something different: a show trial where cranks tried to threaten and shift blame to an public servant. Here is why this is bad for all of us.🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/watching-t...

Watching the show trials

Anthony Fauci and the politics of retribution

donmoynihan.substack.com

This is VERY bad. Congressional investigation immediately. They’re trying to use Palantir to figure out who you voted for. 0% chance this ends well. Stop it ASAP.

Exclusive: FBI gets voter's IP address in new fraud probe tactic

The move offers a glimpse into how authorities are now digging into voter rolls and registration practices.

axios.com