Good morning ☕️

I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterday

Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.

Religious Americans are so funny. "Violating Leviticus"???

The Halfway Post@halfwaypost.bsky.social · 2d ago

BREAKING: A brand new “Christian men’s gym” in Georgia that bans women so pious men can have “lust-free workouts” lasted just 6 days before three men were caught “violating Leviticus in the locker room.”

At every future medical appointment, attending Dr should open the conversation, loudly, with "I see you previously refused treatment from my colleague owing to racism". I'm only v slightly exaggerating here. Social norms rely on shame as a central enforcement mechanism. We need to bring back shame.

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

There are 7 PR people for every journalist in the US. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

I was struck by a piece on Radio 4 the other day, asking whether Burnham would be more "pragmatic" - meaning "positive" - about drilling in the North Sea. It was simply taken for granted that drilling was the "pragmatic" option, while opposing it was dogmatic or ideological.

James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · 2d ago

Wrote about the deafening silence on our summer of climate impacts from Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, business leaders, and even some campaign groups. The dominant climate discourse from the past week has been from those who want to ditch net zero targets and trash decarbonisation policies.

We are in the third drought in five years. We have the National Trust and NFU - those radical types - sounding the alarm on unprecedented temperatures. But so little from any single figure in politics talking about the climate crisis.

The Moroccan government confirmed that the Ceuta migration wave was organized and amplified through social media. A similar campaign is currently being run on TikTok, where people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq are being encouraged to migrate through Belarus to EU via the Baltic states. 1/2

Land Rover also does a Discovery Metropolitan edition. The name suggests it's for use in cities. Because you never know how high the kerb / cyclist / pedestrian you need to mount might be. And because there must be no limit to the pointless environmental harm you inflict.

For days, Reform politicians claimed that significant numbers of migrants who surged into Ceuta would be heading to Calais and onwards to Britain Not only have most already returned to Morocco, but Moroccans have made up just 0.07% of small boat arrivals since 2021 inews.co.uk/news/no-thou...

No, thousands of migrants won't come to the UK from Ceuta - here's why

Fears of a new migration crisis impacting the UK are misplaced despite the chaotic scenes witnessed in Ceuta, an expert has said

inews.co.uk

Must have rained heavily there.

Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social · 4d ago

Today's cycle, by the polo fields of Windsor

Shocking.

Sometimes when doing genealogy research you stumble upon stuff that leaves you speechless.

Braverman: "make no mistake, these men are on their way to the UK right now" Farage: "before long, many will be crossing the Channel" [Would see big spike in Moroccan boat arrivals + asylum claims in next 3 months if true. V unlikely to be true].

Put up Adolf & Benito, coward

Update: over 48,300 people have returned from Ceuta to Morocco. About 1,700 people are still in Ceuta.

Jorge Liboreiro@jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social · 5d ago

Update: over 37,500 people have already returned from Ceuta to Morocco, according to the Spanish Interior Ministry. This represents 75% of all arrivals. Death toll rises to 57.

57 people have died in the chaotic scenes on the Spanish border with Morocco. After 50,000 people entered Spain from Morocco, over 9/10 (approx 96%) have returned to Morocco

Jorge Liboreiro@jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social · 5d ago

Update: over 48,300 people have returned from Ceuta to Morocco. About 1,700 people are still in Ceuta.

I always wondered what it would take for the Telegraph to decide there might be a downside to climate breakdown. Well, now we know. Even so, this article manages not to mention it.

Since 2025, America has had more cases of measles (4,500), than in the previous 25 years combined after the disease had been declared eradicated. Almost all the US measles outbreaks have been in unvaccinated communities. Most of its fatalities are children www.ft.com/content/570e...

The twilight of Dr Fauci

Scientist’s congressional testimony came amid the most sustained assault on US public service since the McCarthy era

ft.com

It tells you something about relative journalistic values that @thespectator1828.bsky.social published a superficial, whitewashing defence of the Tate brothers and @newyorker.com published an indepth investigative takedown.

Still, we can probably just adapt to this right?

Nahel Belgherze@wxnb.bsky.social · 5d ago

Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.

The browning of Britain. Much of England and all of Wales are now formally in drought. We've seen it coming for weeks. Now we can see it from space. Story: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... by Barbara Metzler, Phil Leake, Mark Poynting and Jess Carr

UK heatwaves: Satellite images show how UK landscape has changed

BBC Verify's analysis indicates “vegetation stress” in many areas, which may affect wildlife and farming.

bbc.co.uk

This week in "how can AI companies be more villainous"

'Dystopian' - AI firms target London’s rare bookshops in hunt for training data

London’s rare bookshops appear to have been targeted by AI companies such as Anthropic, searching for books to train their frontier models

cityam.com

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference reut.rs/4x9eTCW

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at ‌a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and posted them online.

reut.rs

If I had no idea what imposter syndrome was, I would simply not opine on imposter syndrome.

Immigration salience - by party (July 2026) Reform 78% (1st) Conservative 47% (1st) Labour 25% (3rd) Green 9% (=9th) www.ipsos.com/sites/defaul...

Allister Heath in 1940: “We’ve lost the war against Germany. Time to scrap the RAF.”

That escalated quickly.