On today’s News Agents I said that the crunch point for Starmer to choose between Zelensky and Trump would come, despite the bonhomie yesterday. The choice came within 24 hours. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Will the Starmer-Trump bromance last?

Podcast Episode · The News Agents · 28/02/2025 · 28m

podcasts.apple.com

I will never forget the photo of Zelenskyy’s face after he saw Russia’s war crimes in Bucha in 2022. He seemed to age years in an afternoon. Watching him constantly cross the world asking for aid that should have been thrown at him is one of the deepest shames of our age.

Musa Okwonga@okwonga.bsky.social · 2y ago

Zelenskyy went into that nest of vipers and roasted them all. Good. They all exposed themselves, they demeaned themselves in a way that was undeniable. Perfect.

Assume most academic history depts will be dusting off the long out-of-favour "Great Men" approach to the topic and relabelling it "Bad Men" or some such. What is happening now is surely epochal enough to inspire a rethink.

FT Editorial Board | Elon Musk’s dismantlement of federal agencies, freezing funding and pushing staff to resign goes far beyond a mere restructuring. It aims to shift the constitutional separation and balance of powers. www.ft.com/content/f766...

On LBC this morning, I spoke about why we should be far more worried the power Elon Musk is accruing, especially in light of his Open AI moves. The normalisation of his actions and activity by quite a bit of the US and even UK media is a big part of the problem. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnt...

Elon Musk's main aim is 'world domination' | Lewis Goodall on LBC

YouTube video by LBC

youtube.com

In a piece of personal news, I'm thrilled to have signed a contract with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social to write a book about the #Bosphorus, the magnificent strait that divides European İstanbul from its Asian side. Coming up, a month of ferry rides & interesting encounters. Very exciting.

UK govt seems intent on letting AI owners steal work of creatives of all kinds without pay or acknowledgement. AI is not non-profit so owners shld pay to use work of others. Can't go into shop & empty shelves cos shopkeeper didn't opt out. What's the difference? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

UK copyright law consultation ‘fixed’ in favour of AI firms, peer says

Exclusive: Beeban Kidron says plans will lead to ‘wholesale’ transfer of wealth from creative industries to tech sector

theguardian.com

Thirty years ago, the United States persuaded Ukraine that it does not need nuclear weapons and gave Ukraine "security assurances." Today, the United States is persuading Ukraine that it needs to give up territories, forget about NATO membership, and lower the conscription age.

Forget the blasted Commonwealth Games. Surely the money that will cost would be better spent on turning Glasgow back into a vibrant city for the ppl who live there all the time. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

‘Left to rot’: Glasgow’s crumbling heritage comes into focus for 850th anniversary

Pressure grows to do something about city centre’s decaying buildings and empty shops in ‘year of urgency’

theguardian.com

An Anatolian Greek New Years tradition! Aetakia, Double Eagle cookies. The oldest family member, holding an eagle, would say: “As beautifully and proudly as the eagle flies, so beautifully and proudly may our family fly." Then family members kissed his hand and took a cookie!

Massive celebrations sweep across Syria as the nation ushers in 2025, marking the start of a new era free from the former Assad regime. This footage captures the jubilant atmosphere in Damascus.

Imperative that every effort is made to persuade Israel to release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya so that he can receive urgent and appropriate treatment for his injuries. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Gaza hospital director being held at notorious Israeli prison, say family

Hussam Abu Safiya feared injured as Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza shut down after 11 weeks under siege

theguardian.com

Sadly, have to confess to having returned to the other place. Once again able to read tips on places in Türkiye I'm yet to visit, find out which is the latest illegal cafe to be torn down, even that Ankara appears - finally - to have a public transport map. Don't want to be associated w/anything to

Destroying the "environment" for the sake of protecting the "environment"! Only those who've never seen solar farms could possibly think them anything other than hideous. Put them on roofs where they belong, not on ground where they cover even grass. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Solar farms v people power: the locals fighting for their county

Plans to install huge solar farms in the beautiful Norfolk countryside have outraged residents

theguardian.com

"A request made through ChatGPT, an AI-based virtual assistant, consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google Search" This isn't a game. This is accelerated destruction via huge usage of power, water, resources etc. Stop using it - especially for messing about!! www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.

The sprawling data centres that house AI servers churn out toxic electronic waste and are voracious consumers of electricity, which in most places is still produced from fossil fuels.

unep.org

Extraordinary watching country that once used to claim moral high ground abandon all pretence at morality to the extent that it openly attacks hospitals in contravention of international law. Hard now even to remember what started all this. Can never be forgiven. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Last major health facility in north Gaza ‘out of service’ after Israeli attack

Gaza officials say staff at Kamal Adwan hospital, including its director, have been detained as WHO reports Israeli forces burned and destroyed key departments

theguardian.com

Hagia Sophia was inaugurated by Justinian on December 27, 537

It took less than a year for Israel to normalize waging war on hospitals, their staff, and their patients. Our government supplies the weapons,and accuses anyone who dare object of antisemitism. “The occupation army is burning all the operating departments in the hospital while we are still there”

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2y ago

Israeli forces raid Gaza hospital after staff reported killed in strike

On a finger-chillingly cold winter's evening in #İstanbul the mournful sound of the boza-seller calling his wares in Çukurcuma is all the more poignant. How on earth does he make his living?

Just popped my head into the other place to check on Ernesto's Cat Sanctuary which is unlikely to move to bluesky. Immediately read great post by Josh Cahill, who is also not on here, about fate of group of female Afghan air crew. Just don't know what to do. Bluesky is good in some ways but way too

One of most poignant clips I ever saw was of two elderly men, one Turkish, the other Australian, who had fought at #Gallipoli. Neither knew anything about the other's country against which they had been fighting. Same now, surely, for these Koreans sent to fight www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

‘I thought it was fake news’: secrecy around North Koreans fighting in Kursk

As reports of battlefield casualties emerge, Russian locals say presence of soldiers sent by Pyongyang is barely noticed

theguardian.com

This much is certain about the Azerbaijan Airlines flight: the pilots were absolute heroes. To keep a fatally wounded airplane aloft for 72 minutes, and get it down in a way anyone survived, took staggering focus and skill. They fought so hard, and didn’t live to know they had saved 29 people.

After several years of few good books by journalists about Turkey, two new vivid, insightful ones came out. The first inter-splices contemporary dynamics of Istanbul with the history of its fall to the Ottomans. The second illustrates the republic's last century with a series of historical vignettes

I didnt publish much this year bc ive been buried under phd course work. The things i'll remember from this year are my essay on yogurt and the english translation of a a Ladino story. 1 - Yogurt in Sephardi Life, w reminiscing about Buyukada. jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-st...

Muestras Konsejas: Yogurt in Sephardi Life - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Runner up, student category. Nesi Altaras recounts summers spent on the island of Buyukada, close to Istanbul, and the "traditional but extremely practical" feeling of being Sephardic in Turkey.

jewishstudies.washington.edu

Frosty Goldfinch! 😍 Taken from my bathroom window earlier this year. 😁 Hope you're all having a lovely Boxing Day! 🎄 #birds 🪶🐦

Today we celebrate Boxing Day in the UK, so named because cats spend the day exploring empty boxes discarded from Christmas Day* *This may not be true

a cat is laying in a box that says 4gifs.com on it

ALT: a cat is laying in a box that says 4gifs.com on it

media.tenor.com

Very nice and positive story on this Christmas day:

Mike Galsworthy@mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Phew! Published this with a few minutes to spare! I was determined to get this finished before Xmas day. Iceland looks like it may rejoin the EU and has announced a referendum. Here is what I believe is the authoritative account on it so far. Enjoy! 👇

Switzerland have also enhanced their agreements to closer alignment. There’s a lesson in these relationships for the UK too. Do we really want constant tweaks & negotiations? Joining the EU is the only way forward so the UK can fully cooperate, influence & have a real say in the future of Europe.

Merry Christmas. Cartoon by the wonderful Liz Climo

Russia's southern Krasnodar region declares an emergency as oil is still washing up on the coastline 10 days after two aging tankers ran into trouble. The tankers were hit by a storm on Dec. 15 when one split in half and the other ran aground reut.rs/4gKArOR

Russian region declares emergency situation as Black Sea oil spill fallout widens

Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Wednesday declared a region-wide emergency, saying that oil was still washing up on the coastline 10 days after two ageing tankers ran into trouble.

reut.rs