It’s hard to imagine the circumstances in which one could have an unnoticed bowel movement “behind a sheet at a dinner party in the corner of the room”. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/m...
Arthur Snell
@snellarthur.bsky.social
Writer, podcaster and former diplomat. Buy my book👇 https://tr.ee/ElementalBookshopOrg https://tr.ee/ElementalAmazon https://tr.ee/ElementalWaterstones If you don't want to buy my book, you could buy me a coffee👇 https://ko-fi.com/snellarthur
This thread from the Spanish Foreign Office is really useful for anyone faced with mis/disinformation about the situation in Ceuta. There is one hell of a lot of that about at the moment!! Please use it to counteract ignorant claims, wherever they're from. It's available in French and Spanish too.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, UE y Cooperación de España@exterioresgob.bsky.social · 2d ago1/5 🧵 Entering Spain irregularly through Ceuta or Melilla does not grant any right to remain in the country, travel to mainland Spain, or move freely within Europe. It also poses a grave risk to life. No court ruling has changed this. 🔗 www.exteriores.gob.es/en/Comunicac...
When a controversial writer dies the temptation is to produce one's own assessment of their work. But by definition, writers should be judged by what they write. So here are some links: www.spectator.com.au/2018/09/is-i...
Is it possible to draw Serena Williams without being racist? | The Spectator Australia
I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a black person without it being racist. It’s bloody…
spectator.com.au
This profoundly sad report from @beltrew.bsky.social tells us what the real price of aid cuts has been. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Inside the worst places on Earth to give birth
The Independent’s chief international correspondent, Bel Trew, travelled across the Central African Republic and Nigeria, speaking to women who are risking their lives for motherhood
independent.co.uk
Nigel Farage taking time out from campaigning against a bin to claim a Reform government would land Royal Navy boats on French beaches without French consent.
"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."
London's first month without rain
Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?
londoncentric.media
NEW How the BBC turned the litigation table on Trump The president now faces a dilemma about revealing his business records By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
If for some inexplicable reason you want to hear the sound of my voice - uninterrupted - for twelve and a half hours (yes, twelve and a half hours 😳) there's currently a special offer on the Audiobook of Elemental. Only £3.99, or about half a pence per minute! www.audible.co.uk/pd/Elemental...
Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. 'An extraordinary mastery of geopolitics, combining years on the ground in the most challenging places, a raw instinct for politics and a deep ethical conce...
audible.co.uk
First FIFA backtracks and now the Trump adminstration admit they're lying shits who tried to prosecute an innocent man for something they did themselves. Perhaps today is the day?! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool vandalism charge and admits 'botched' repairs
President Donald Trump had blamed "sick" vandals, and a former Olympian had been charged, but prosecutors now say contractors caused the damage.
bbc.co.uk
When tech bros have more power than politicians, are we just cosplaying democracy? Excellent episode as ever from Arthur 🎧👇
Arthur Snell@snellarthur.bsky.social · 2d agoI spoke to @stevefeldstein.bsky.social about how tech in transforming geopolitics. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...
Amazingly dystopic by the way - basically importing slaves so that Russians can keep shopping while conducting a genocidal war of conquest
Sympathy to the families of the people who died. Haven’t seen much of that from European political leaders. There have been around 35,000 deaths of people trying to irregularly enter the EU since 2014.
GOP Senators receive assurances that the Trump IRS immunity is only a little bit corrupt.
I spoke to @stevefeldstein.bsky.social about how tech in transforming geopolitics. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...
Bytes and Bullets: Steve Feldstein on how tech is reshaping modern warfare
Podcast Episode · Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell · 3 August · 54min
podcasts.apple.com
Am quoted in this @thetimes.com article about the climate crisis www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...
How wildfires put climate (and net zero deadlines) back on the agenda
Much of the country is experiencing the extreme heat scientists have long warned about, but reignited political debate shows no sign of finding consensus
thetimes.com
I can’t believe that Reform UK turned out to be financed by a bunch of money laundering fronts for Russia. It’s just so unexpected.
I find it so odd that people have mostly criticised The Odyssey in the basis of “anachronism” (types of armour, ethnicity of Helen of Troy) but not on message (whitewashing the evils of warfare). It’s as if people find it easier to fall back on superficial Wikipedia-fuelled critiques. 🤔
I wish the Conservatives were as alarmed as I am about them finishing *behind Restore* in the Greater Manchester byelection.
The Tories have gone from one third of the parliamentary seats in Greater Manchester to finishing, sorry for yelling, BEHIND RESTORE. Total collapse of Britain's oldest and most successful political party, entirely willingly.
Steamed Buns@aremay.bsky.social · 4d ago5th, Tom, 5th! They had 9 MPs here in 2019!
As a new month begins, the skies are still light, but the soul is heavy. The darkness of Russia's collective character is evident wherever it treads, wherever it spreads murder, hate, colonial neo-nazism. It's Day 1620 of this💩in🇺🇦 And I've made a daily thread every one of 'em!
As I reported during my live-posting last night, bodies were lying in the street in Kyiv's Pozniaki district. They simply did not have enough time to reach their homes or shelters. The crater created where the missile landed, is simply phenomenal.
So Reform have now lost Caerphilly, Makerfield, Manchester… Their G/E polling has collapsed behind Labour in TWO major polls (YouGov, BMG) “I want the ppl to decide if I should go” M8, are you listening? Bcuz “the people” are telling you loud & clear to fuck off.
So who might be responsible for the possibly illegal and certainly irresponsible no bid contract given to a subpar contractor? Let’s prosecute him.
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 5d agoBreaking news: Federal prosecutors moved to drop a criminal charge filed against a former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool, suggesting that the damage was instead due to a rushed installation.
The Hamas "deal" amounts to someone saying "if you give me everything I want, I will do the thing you want. Oh, and you have to go first."
No-brainer, which is one of many reasons the anti net-zero stuff on the right is economic illiteracy as well anti-science.
Dr. Aaron Thierry@thierryaaron.bsky.social · 5d ago5/ The UK's fiscal watchdog agrees. OBR, July 2025: 3°C of warming costs the UK economy about 8% by the early 2070s. Cutting emissions costs far less than the damage from not doing it.
Worth saying now before the result lands and looks like "told you so": one of the strongest arguments against Burnham succeeding Starmer was that there apparently no way Labour would be able to hold onto the Manchester mayoralty. Let's see, but it looks as though their chances are pretty good.
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.
