Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
I think 'fast' is stretching the definition a bit. He's quicker than me, but he's no Archer, or even a Stokes.
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
I mean Reddit asked me to verify my age the other day when I asked the internet how to do something fairly straightforward and most certainly non p*rn-related. What on earth is going on.
I think Reddit has been age-restricting access to certain areas for yonks?
If they have then they must have recognised me for the 60 yo wanker that I no doubt am!
Tbh I'm glad nonsense like this is showing up, it highlights the utter absurdity of the act.
It pretty much sums up one of the biggest problems we have as a country. Layer upon layer of performative legislation intended to sound good for the news cycle. Each one increases the regulatory burden and generates more inconvenience, far beyond the harm it is intended to “cure”.
Unfortunately for us, no political party is going to have the guts to remove most of this legislation.
I mean Reddit asked me to verify my age the other day when I asked the internet how to do something fairly straightforward and most certainly non p*rn-related. What on earth is going on.
I think Reddit has been age-restricting access to certain areas for yonks?
If they have then they must have recognised me for the 60 yo wanker that I no doubt am!
It's the 13 year old wankers they're worried about.
On-topic question: When somebody says they "have to" do something because of the OSA how do we know this is not due to them taking an erroneous or absurdly risk-averse approach to it? Esp if they are an avowed opponent of the legislation.
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
I mean Reddit asked me to verify my age the other day when I asked the internet how to do something fairly straightforward and most certainly non p*rn-related. What on earth is going on.
I had a cold-caller the other day, pretending he was calling from the firm that insures my appliances (he wasn't). After running through the offers of reductions on insuring 'my' various appliances (some of which I don't have), he said he needed to ask some questions to protect others. The first question was, Had I been diagnosed with dementia or alzheimer's? At which I laughed & said goodbye.
I think 'fast' is stretching the definition a bit. He's quicker than me, but he's no Archer, or even a Stokes.
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
I rather hope they don't call up Cook*, although he deserves it.. Essex need all their best players if they're going to get out of the hole they've dug for themselves.
*That's Sam Cook the bowler, not the retired Sir Alastair.
On-topic question: When somebody says they "have to" do something because of the OSA how do we know this is not due to them taking an erroneous or absurdly risk-averse approach to it? Esp if they are an avowed opponent of the legislation.
(This is also the case with anti money laundering regulations. It's easier to force a stupid decision rather than allow junior staff to use their judgement.)
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
Does seem a bit odd that someone with extensive access to guns should choose a watery end. Perhaps it was a 'make it look like a tragic accident' thing.
I mean Reddit asked me to verify my age the other day when I asked the internet how to do something fairly straightforward and most certainly non p*rn-related. What on earth is going on.
I had a cold-caller the other day, pretending he was calling from the firm that insures my appliances (he wasn't). After running through the offers of reductions on insuring 'my' various appliances (some of which I don't have), he said he needed to ask some questions to protect others. The first question was, Had I been diagnosed with dementia or alzheimer's? At which I laughed & said goodbye.
A bit of a puzzle, though.
With respect, Anne, you did keep a questionably honest cold-caller talking.
On-topic question: When somebody says they "have to" do something because of the OSA how do we know this is not due to them taking an erroneous or absurdly risk-averse approach to it? Esp if they are an avowed opponent of the legislation.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
For a guy who spends so much of his time on a golf course, you might have imagined he actually liked to play the game, but no...
It is hilarious how many Trumpites underneath are claiming 'oh, it's a practice round,' 'oh, it was a legal drop in a relief zone,' 'most people do that sort of thing,' 'you know nothing about golf.'
They really would excuse him if he were caught buggering a goat, wouldn't they?
(Mind you, the most disgusting thing about that video is he's using a buggy at Turnberry, which is flatter than a snooker table.)
There are also at least 3 separate videos of him cheating on the same round
Cut the guy some slack. He's finding it hard to match Kim Jong Il's golfing performance (38 under par with 5 holes in one). So he plays a bit fast and loose with the rules... Its not like he's a Australian wicket keeper claiming a dodgy stumping...
I knew Trump was a liar and a cheat, but I didn’t realise he was as bad a Australian cricketers.
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
Does seem a bit odd that someone with extensive access to guns should choose a watery end. Perhaps it was a 'make it look like a tragic accident' thing.
More likely drugs and/or booze and nobody around him ever telling him that anything he does is a fucking terrible idea.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
We have had this type of service in our infrastructure for around 20 years now.
We need to recall that this is not a new tendency, and it's not an easy thing to implement. Back on December 8 2008 the Internet Watch Foundation, responsible for a technology called Clean Feed, blocked off a Wikipedia page about a 1976 Scorpions Album called Virgin Killer. The cover was a preteen girl naked with an artfully deployed bullet hole in a glass cover. The album was available off the shelf in shops like Woolworths, and on the Amazon website, uncensored.
It was blocked at the time under "child abuse images". One serious problem was "overblocking", where the IW, which just circulated a daily iirc list, blocked thousands of web addresses in error.
This was the image I posted at the time, which is (I think) OK for here and the TL:DR of my argument. The Burka resemblance was deliberate, as I was mainly writing about inconsistency, hypocrisy and too easy answers.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Obviously fell out of a window that happened to be in the middle of the sea. The 4 blokes standing on him were just helping.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Tbh not sure Putin that tried to arrange this one, could be some other bod. Who is probably sweating that their plan hasn't worked out this morning knowing they'll shortly be sitting on a poorly made balcony.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Implied on the thread is that he's suffering from a painful and terminal illness. In those circs you'd think he'd want to die in battle leading his brave warriors against the Ukrainian Nazis.
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
Ha. As mentioned last thread, I can't currently send DMs on BlueSky unless I jump through some hoops following the introduction of the 'save the KIDS!' law.
Politicians are impressively dense when it comes to technology. You can't use algorithms to make the internet safe for kids. They're not magic.
Before my kids were 10 they were already installing apps on their iPads.
Also, I have had a VPN for several years, so I can pay and watch sporting events not broadcast in the UK.
Likewise
And yet I was discussing things technological with some friends the other day and I mentioned my use of a VPN. Faces were generally a bit blank and one friend in particular looked mystified and said “what’s that? Visible pants or something?”
He’d never heard of VPNs or what they do. He’s 58. He has a first class degree from… Imperial College
It is incredible how untech-savvy even smart people can be. Hence our MPs enacting this fecking stupid bill, perhaps
They obviously never watch YouTube...I am not sure I have ever gone a day without some creator having an integration advertising a VPN.
These days, everybody should one for reasons that has nothing to do with looking at nudie ladies with the knowledge that you aren't totally anonymous.
Which he knows they have near zero chance of doing
Realistically, it’s not a bad target. For the SNP to get a majority of seats on their own, they would need over 50% of the votes. That would almost certainly mean that significantly over 50% of Scots wanted independence, and probably at least 60%. The UK government would be in a difficult position internationally if they were to flatly refuse to discuss independence in that scenario.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Tbh not sure Putin that tried to arrange this one, could be some other bod. Who is probably sweating that their plan hasn't worked out this morning knowing they'll shortly be sitting on a poorly made balcony.
Which he knows they have near zero chance of doing
Realistically, it’s not a bad target. For the SNP to get a majority of seats on their own, they would need over 50% of the votes. That would almost certainly mean that significantly over 50% of Scots wanted independence, and probably at least 60%. The UK government would be in a difficult position internationally if they were to flatly refuse to discuss independence in that scenario.
I mean Reddit asked me to verify my age the other day when I asked the internet how to do something fairly straightforward and most certainly non p*rn-related. What on earth is going on.
I had a cold-caller the other day, pretending he was calling from the firm that insures my appliances (he wasn't). After running through the offers of reductions on insuring 'my' various appliances (some of which I don't have), he said he needed to ask some questions to protect others. The first question was, Had I been diagnosed with dementia or alzheimer's? At which I laughed & said goodbye.
A bit of a puzzle, though.
I have been getting cold calls offering me jobs. I am 73. I am wondering whether there are some retrospective increases in the state pension age I haven’t been told about yet.
The argument for online safety bill of what about the paedos is also mute point. As long as your kids are online they can find ways to connect with them e.g. via online games, DMs, etc. You can't pretend that stranger danger, scams and boobies aren't widespread on the t'interweb. Its about a) in early year locking down devices and limiting access and b) then education of your kids to be aware that they things exist and the dangers of them, just like we all used to have it drilled into not going getting into weird people's cars, so that as they get older they are savvy.
I think 'fast' is stretching the definition a bit. He's quicker than me, but he's no Archer, or even a Stokes.
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
I rather hope they don't call up Cook*, although he deserves it.. Essex need all their best players if they're going to get out of the hole they've dug for themselves.
*That's Sam Cook the bowler, not the retired Sir Alastair.
I think 'fast' is stretching the definition a bit. He's quicker than me, but he's no Archer, or even a Stokes.
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
I rather hope they don't call up Cook*, although he deserves it.. Essex need all their best players if they're going to get out of the hole they've dug for themselves.
*That's Sam Cook the bowler, not the retired Sir Alastair.
The championship this year is suffering from a dearth of wins and loses. The top side have three wins from 10. Its a joke for 4 day cricket. They need to drop the stupid use of the Kookaburra ball (to acclimatise test players for Australia when no test player is playing county cricket?). They need to look at pitches being too good, as well as too poor.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Obviously fell out of a window that happened to be in the middle of the sea. The 4 blokes standing on him were just helping.
Would be watery end be through a porthole - and he didn't fit?
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Tbh not sure Putin that tried to arrange this one, could be some other bod. Who is probably sweating that their plan hasn't worked out this morning knowing they'll shortly be sitting on a poorly made balcony.
Kadyrov has been a fantastically loyal porteur d'eau for Putin, in contrast with his arsey old man, and if Putin wanted him dead then he'd be dead. One resource Chechnya is not short of is mad lads with beards who'll kill a c-nt for money.
Jamie f##king Overton in the test squad....shakes head. 10 years ago he looked promising fast bowler, but repeated injuries mean he is now a shadow of that when bowling, but worked on his batting making his useful for T20, but not to get out world class batsman with the red ball.
Ha. As mentioned last thread, I can't currently send DMs on BlueSky unless I jump through some hoops following the introduction of the 'save the KIDS!' law.
Politicians are impressively dense when it comes to technology. You can't use algorithms to make the internet safe for kids. They're not magic.
However we can make the internet less dangerous for kids.
The argument that "some people will break this law, so there's no point in having it" fails - and that would lead to not having any laws at all.
It's like an argument that there should be no security features in bank notes or debit cards because some people will abuse the system. Or an argument that we should not increase security of number plates because professional criminals will still fake them successfully, even though we prevent 95% of the fakes.
The argument is between actual benefit vs actual cost, not the theoreticals.
On a different question, should Elon Musk be permitted to drive the resurgence of the fascist right in Europe because the USA has a fundamentalist attitude to 'free speech', and if he was required to run Twitter responsibly he could still set up a printing press in a basement in Penge?
It's balance of benefit, and a matter of fact and degree.
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
It would be much easier if everyone thought like you. People can be ghastly, can't they.
Indeed you must be happy that our government is taking its first baby steps to ensure that if they don't think like you, they will at least be penalised as a result.
The argument for online safety bill of what about the paedos is also mute point. As long as your kids are online they can find ways to connect with them e.g. via online games, DMs, etc. You can't pretend that stranger danger, scams and boobies aren't widespread on the t'interweb. Its about a) in early year locking down devices and limiting access and b) then education of your kids to be aware that they things exist and the dangers of them, just like we all used to have it drilled into not going getting into weird people's cars, so that as they get older they are savvy.
Yup, the biggest online paedo scandal recently was Roblox being used by paedos to groom kids online. The OSA doesn't cover this aspect of the internet at all.
I have enjoyed people using deaths stranding 2 to fool the age verification tools though.
I think 'fast' is stretching the definition a bit. He's quicker than me, but he's no Archer, or even a Stokes.
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
I rather hope they don't call up Cook*, although he deserves it.. Essex need all their best players if they're going to get out of the hole they've dug for themselves.
*That's Sam Cook the bowler, not the retired Sir Alastair.
The championship this year is suffering from a dearth of wins and loses. The top side have three wins from 10. Its a joke for 4 day cricket. They need to drop the stupid use of the Kookaburra ball (to acclimatise test players for Australia when no test player is playing county cricket?). They need to look at pitches being too good, as well as too poor.
To be fair draws have always been a feature of the County Championship. Basically, I suggest there are too many points for a draw; too close to those for a win. Agree about the Kookaburra ball, although the Dukes one hasn't covered itself in glory during the Test series.
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
Which he knows they have near zero chance of doing
Realistically, it’s not a bad target. For the SNP to get a majority of seats on their own, they would need over 50% of the votes. That would almost certainly mean that significantly over 50% of Scots wanted independence, and probably at least 60%. The UK government would be in a difficult position internationally if they were to flatly refuse to discuss independence in that scenario.
Currently the SNP are polling about 32% on the Holyrood constituency vote and 29% on the regional list vote, over 10% down on 2021.
2021 SNP voters have gone Alba and Green, not all pro independence voters will vote SNP and some have even gone Reform.
The UK government would of course refuse indyref2 regardless unless the SNP held the balance of power at Westminster for Labour and the LDs to keep out Reform and the Tories in 2029 and the international community, which did sod all when Madrid refused Catalonia's nationalist government even one independence referendum and is barely doing much after Ukraine has actually been invaded by Russia, would do next to nothing
On-topic question: When somebody says they "have to" do something because of the OSA how do we know this is not due to them taking an erroneous or absurdly risk-averse approach to it? Esp if they are an avowed opponent of the legislation.
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
Economically, both Trump and the EU are losers. It’s a lose-lose arrangement. The question is who’s the biggest loser: the country that inflicts inflationary protectionism on its consumers, or the bloc whose manufacturers are priced out of their biggest export market.
They’re also at different relative starting points. With the EU it’s kicking an economy when it’s down. With the US it’s clipping the wings of an economy that was beating all comers.
I know you can't always tell but Ramzan Kadyrov strikes me as the last person to be suffering from severe depression, and just about the first to have many enemies keen to see him fall out a window, or suffer a tragic swimming accident...
Maybe the poor man would have preferred drowning to falling out of a window.
Tbh not sure Putin that tried to arrange this one, could be some other bod. Who is probably sweating that their plan hasn't worked out this morning knowing they'll shortly be sitting on a poorly made balcony.
Kadyrov has been a fantastically loyal porteur d'eau for Putin, in contrast with his arsey old man, and if Putin wanted him dead then he'd be dead. One resource Chechnya is not short of is mad lads with beards who'll kill a c-nt for money.
Given all the other fuckups that Putin has presided over, not managing to kill someone is quite minor.
"Speaking on the The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”."
Oh look, it's not just me saying it. One adverse fiscal event and we'll have a full blown debt crisis.
This Labour government is Truss in slow motion. The Tories need to start talking fiscal restraint and spending cuts now and very loudly. Every single Tory engagement with Labour should be asking questions about the deficit, debt and debt interest.
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
China has long since proved that international trade is a zero sum game if you play it that way.
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
Economically, both Trump and the EU are losers. It’s a lose-lose arrangement. The question is who’s the biggest loser: the country that inflicts inflationary protectionism on its consumers, or the bloc whose manufacturers are priced out of their biggest export market.
They’re also at different relative starting points. With the EU it’s kicking an economy when it’s down. With the US it’s clipping the wings of an economy that was beating all comers.
But that’s potentially a relative win for the USA if it completely knackers the EU. It’s like taking a black eye to knock out a dangerous opponent
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
Nurses are expected to reject their pay award in England this week, raising the possibility of strikes later in the year, the BBC understands.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has been holding a consultative vote on their 3.6% pay rise, previously describing it as "grotesque" to award nurses a lower increase than doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces.
It will announce the results later this week but the BBC understands it will show an "overwhelming" rejection of the deal.
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
It would be much easier if everyone thought like you. People can be ghastly, can't they.
Indeed you must be happy that our government is taking its first baby steps to ensure that if they don't think like you, they will at least be penalised as a result.
People to be penalised by the government for not thinking like me? Sounds terrific. When is that coming in then?
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
I very much hope that anyone with the voice to do so pipes up about this however they voted in the past, right, left and centre. Stupid, badly-thought-through policy, so all changes of mind are welcome.
Badenoch voted for it but did at least raise some concerns about the bill back in 2022, and naturally was widely condemned as a barmy extremist and a personal danger to children for doing so. She needs to say she was wrong to vote for the act - but there at least is some semblance of an initial sensible instinct there, and perhaps that can be built upon.
It would be lovely if as many politicians (and former politicians) as possible could change their mind about this, and pipe up loudly and clearly about it.
All that said, I have a nasty feeling that the general public, particular those less familiar with the details, may be in favour of this act if polled (though I haven't checked). As always I guess it depends how the question is framed.
Nurses are expected to reject their pay award in England this week, raising the possibility of strikes later in the year, the BBC understands.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has been holding a consultative vote on their 3.6% pay rise, previously describing it as "grotesque" to award nurses a lower increase than doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces.
It will announce the results later this week but the BBC understands it will show an "overwhelming" rejection of the deal.
I suspect nurses will have more sympathy than doctors given they are on much lower average pay and have been offered a 3.6% rise to doctors' offer of 5.4%
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
It would be much easier if everyone thought like you. People can be ghastly, can't they.
Indeed you must be happy that our government is taking its first baby steps to ensure that if they don't think like you, they will at least be penalised as a result.
People to be penalised by the government for not thinking like me? Sounds terrific. When is that coming in then?
I think it was p.94 of the Labour Party manifesto.
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
But are they Protestant Nigerians or Catholic Nigerians?
Protestants. So it’s even more delicious
Protestantism is on the up in the Republic. Per Wikipedia:
"The number of Protestants belonging to the Church of Ireland in the Republic in 1991 stood at 89,197.[13] By 2006, this number was 121,229, and by 2011 129,039.[13][14] It was during the 2002-2006 period that the number of members of the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Church surpassed their 1946 totals.[13] County Clare has the smallest population of Protestants in Ireland; however, its county town, Ennis, saw a six-fold increase in the Church of Ireland population - 68 to 400.[15] The Presbyterian church between 1991 and 2002 saw an increase of almost 56%, followed by an increase of almost 20% between 2002 and 2011. The Methodist Church saw its membership increase nearly 100% between 1991 and 2002, though by 2011 it had declined by 31%.[13][14]
The cause of this growth is stated as being a mixture of Protestant immigration and the conversion of Catholics.[15] One notable convert was the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Dr. Dermot Dunne, who was formerly a Catholic cleric.[15] It has been suggested that Catholic Ireland has become more Protestant in social terms, whilst Protestantism itself has become more Catholic in some of its practices.[15]
...
In regards to immigration, of the 137,048 people from the three main Protestant denominations (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist) to declare their country of birth, only 94,889 (69.2%) stated the Republic.[13] 27,928 of these immigrants came from the United Kingdom, whilst 3,575 were born in the rest of Europe, 6,641 were from Africa, 1,341 from Asia, 1,730 from America, and 944 from elsewhere.[13]"
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
“This appears to be from a Zion Prayer Movement Outreach conference in Dublin—a Nigerian Christian revival event on July 26-27, 2025. Attendees, mostly African immigrants, wave Union Jacks likely as symbols of Christian faith (the flag's crosses represent saints) or Commonwealth ties, though it's politically charged in Ireland.”
However others on X claim this happened in Gormanstown in Meath
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
Except the one Trump would have imposed without any agreement. The problem for everyone is that Trump thinks every other country is determined to cheat the US and he's going to stop them.
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
But are they Protestant Nigerians or Catholic Nigerians?
Protestants. So it’s even more delicious
Are you sure? Lots of Catholics in Nigeria - think it is 50/50 or some such.
There are 20-25 million Roman Catholics in Nigeria but 30 million evangelical Pentecostals and 15-20 million Anglicans and 2.4 million Lutherans, so more Protestants overall
Flights are once a month - I really wouldn't want to commit to 1 month in North Korea...
Don't they like Dubai then. Plane loads of them.
They can still go to Turkey, Ramzan Kadyrov apparently nearly drowned there recently.
Suicide attempt, allegedly.
ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki · 11m 1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
"Speaking on the The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”."
Oh look, it's not just me saying it. One adverse fiscal event and we'll have a full blown debt crisis.
This Labour government is Truss in slow motion. The Tories need to start talking fiscal restraint and spending cuts now and very loudly. Every single Tory engagement with Labour should be asking questions about the deficit, debt and debt interest.
With all due respect Ray Dalio is an uber pessimist and always has been.
I do agree with the basic premise we have a major problem looming and it needs addressing but Ray Dalio has been calling doom and gloom for many years now. He is bound to be right from time to time.
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
No such thing under the circumstances in question.
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
China has long since proved that international trade is a zero sum game if you play it that way.
Actually China has proved the exact opposite. Foreign countries have lost because their economies are distorted by an avalanche of cheap Chinese goods, and China has also lost, whatever the trade surplus statistics look like.
Its trade policies have distorted its own economy and devastated its people's standard of living by reducing consumption to generate trade surpluses. It has accumulated such a huge stock of foreign assets that they can't really be sold, except in tiny amounts, without destroying their own value. And the companies that it created are finding themselves competing for profitless share of hugely oversupplied markets. Unsurprisingly, the economic growth it should be enjoying at its stage in development is disappointing, if you believe the official figures, and disastrous if you don't, and the country is drowning in debt.
A tiny country like Switzerland or Norway can get away with running huge trade surpluses for decades, but, as even the arch-protectionist McKinley eventually realised, if you're big enough, you have to buy foreign goods in roughly equal proportion as they buy from you, otherwise the world economy is distorted, and will crash when those distortions are unwound, as all are, eventually.
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
But are they Protestant Nigerians or Catholic Nigerians?
Protestants. So it’s even more delicious
Are you sure? Lots of Catholics in Nigeria - think it is 50/50 or some such.
Hmmm. Report from a guy in the IFP - the Irish version of UKIP. I wonder how widespread these Union Flags are. As @Leon says, his commenters are delightfully cross.
( I can't tell whether they are Roman Catholics, Protestants or Pentecostal - Nigerian Christians are very roughly 30:30:30:10 RC:Anglican:Pentecostal:Others. Anglicans tend towards Pentecostal in style. No idea on RCs.)
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
It would be much easier if everyone thought like you. People can be ghastly, can't they.
Indeed you must be happy that our government is taking its first baby steps to ensure that if they don't think like you, they will at least be penalised as a result.
People to be penalised by the government for not thinking like me? Sounds terrific. When is that coming in then?
I think it was p.94 of the Labour Party manifesto.
Must have missed that. But it certainly sounds like something I can get behind (with the usual 'devil in the detail' caveat of course).
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
You do realise that a good deal is one that benefits both parties. Negotiators (good ones anyway) aim to give away stuff that has a lower value to them than to whom they are negotiating with and negotiate for stuff that has higher value to them than it does for the other party. That is what any good deal is all about. If one party screws the other party the deal just collapses. That is ok for a one off deal (and you don't care for your reputation when trying for subsequent deals) but for an ongoing deal it just means it flops. The last thing anyone needs is a deal where one party is constantly complaining (unless you are a conman and do a runner).
So if (and I doubt it) Trump has got one over on the EU it will just fail. he should be looking for a deal that id beneficial to both the USA and EU.
I'm guessing this stuff isn't in the art of the deal.
Social media and smartphones ought to be banned completely for the under 16s in my opinion.
Why?
We have made the deliberate choice to buy our daughter a phone, which she will carry with her as a safety thing when she makes her own way home from High School. She is one of the last in her year to get a phone, as most of her classmates got one when they started walking to school, but she never walked to school as I drove her and picked her up from after school club, but at High School she can get a school bus home instead and walk only to and from the bus stop.
We gave hers to her on her final birthday before starting High School.
That's our choice we've made as her parents. Who are you to determine a ban on something we want her to have?
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
China has long since proved that international trade is a zero sum game if you play it that way.
Actually China has proved the exact opposite. Foreign countries have lost because their economies are distorted by an avalanche of cheap Chinese goods, and China has also lost, whatever the trade surplus statistics look like.
Its trade policies have distorted its own economy and devastated its people's standard of living by reducing consumption to generate trade surpluses. It has accumulated such a huge stock of foreign assets that they can't really be sold, except in tiny amounts, without destroying their own value. And the companies that it created are finding themselves competing for profitless share of hugely oversupplied markets. Unsurprisingly, the economic growth it should be enjoying at its stage in development is disappointing, if you believe the official figures, and disastrous if you don't, and the country is drowning in debt.
A tiny country like Switzerland or Norway can get away with running huge trade surpluses for decades, but, as even the arch-protectionist McKinley eventually realised, if you're big enough, you have to buy foreign goods in roughly equal proportion as they buy from you, otherwise the world economy is distorted, and will crash when those distortions are unwound, as all are, eventually.
Possibly, but quite possibly not. How all this unwinds, and to whose advantage, is unclear at the moment. It's almost certainly not good for a country like the UK.
And you don't have to buy foreign goods - you can also buy foreign assets, which China has been doing.
“French PM: Trump trade deal ‘a dark day’ for Europe”
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
To those who think economic trade is a zero sum game sure Trump is a winner.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
China has long since proved that international trade is a zero sum game if you play it that way.
Actually China has proved the exact opposite. Foreign countries have lost because their economies are distorted by an avalanche of cheap Chinese goods, and China has also lost, whatever the trade surplus statistics look like.
Its trade policies have distorted its own economy and devastated its people's standard of living by reducing consumption to generate trade surpluses. It has accumulated such a huge stock of foreign assets that they can't really be sold, except in tiny amounts, without destroying their own value. And the companies that it created are finding themselves competing for profitless share of hugely oversupplied markets. Unsurprisingly, the economic growth it should be enjoying at its stage in development is disappointing, if you believe the official figures, and disastrous if you don't, and the country is drowning in debt.
A tiny country like Switzerland or Norway can get away with running huge trade surpluses for decades, but, as even the arch-protectionist McKinley eventually realised, if you're big enough, you have to buy foreign goods in roughly equal proportion as they buy from you, otherwise the world economy is distorted, and will crash when those distortions are unwound, as all are, eventually.
Possibly, but quite possibly not. How all this unwinds, and to whose advantage, is unclear at the moment. It's almost certainly not good for a country like the UK.
And you don't have to buy foreign goods - you can also buy foreign assets, which China has been doing.
Except you eventually run out of foreign assets to buy - which is the point China reached a while ago
"Speaking on the The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”."
Oh look, it's not just me saying it. One adverse fiscal event and we'll have a full blown debt crisis.
This Labour government is Truss in slow motion. The Tories need to start talking fiscal restraint and spending cuts now and very loudly. Every single Tory engagement with Labour should be asking questions about the deficit, debt and debt interest.
"Britain is broke due to one year of Labour. It has nothing to do with the previous 14 years of us."
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
If the couple themselves hadn't acted the way they did, it's likely that no-one would have noticed. If they'd simply smiled and waved, the camera would have moved on, Chris Martin wouldn't have said anything, and they could well have got away with it. By acting furtively and trying to hide their faces, they were guaranteed to draw attention to themselves.
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
If the couple themselves hadn't acted the way they did, it's likely that no-one would have noticed. If they'd simply smiled and waved, the camera would have moved on, Chris Martin wouldn't have said anything, and they could well have got away with it. By acting furtively and trying to hide their faces, they were guaranteed to draw attention to themselves.
And equally, they could have appeared on a website or newspaper in a crowd photo, or on a clip on TV, or been recognised by someone who knew them. All the singer did was reference a possible affair, which is hardly a crime
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
If the couple themselves hadn't acted the way they did, it's likely that no-one would have noticed. If they'd simply smiled and waved, the camera would have moved on, Chris Martin wouldn't have said anything, and they could well have got away with it. By acting furtively and trying to hide their faces, they were guaranteed to draw attention to themselves.
And equally, they could have appeared on a website or newspaper in a crowd photo, or on a clip on TV, or been recognised by someone who knew them. All the singer did was reference a possible affair, which is hardly a crime
And more than that, if Byron wants to allege defamation they must prove they weren't having an affair.
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
You do realise that a good deal is one that benefits both parties. Negotiators (good ones anyway) aim to give away stuff that has a lower value to them than to whom they are negotiating with and negotiate for stuff that has higher value to them than it does for the other party. That is what any good deal is all about. If one party screws the other party the deal just collapses. That is ok for a one off deal (and you don't care for your reputation when trying for subsequent deals) but for an ongoing deal it just means it flops. The last thing anyone needs is a deal where one party is constantly complaining (unless you are a conman and do a runner).
So if (and I doubt it) Trump has got one over on the EU it will just fail. he should be looking for a deal that id beneficial to both the USA and EU.
I'm guessing this stuff isn't in the art of the deal.
Trump sees deals as having a winner and a loser, rather than being to the advantage of both parties.
If a long term deal doesn't work to the advantage of both, it will collapse.
That's true even with a power imbalance. The relationship of overlord and vassal, patron and client, has to work to the advantage of both, to endure.
Social media and smartphones ought to be banned completely for the under 16s in my opinion.
Why?
We have made the deliberate choice to buy our daughter a phone, which she will carry with her as a safety thing when she makes her own way home from High School. She is one of the last in her year to get a phone, as most of her classmates got one when they started walking to school, but she never walked to school as I drove her and picked her up from after school club, but at High School she can get a school bus home instead and walk only to and from the bus stop.
We gave hers to her on her final birthday before starting High School.
That's our choice we've made as her parents. Who are you to determine a ban on something we want her to have?
Because they've made life worse.
I've had my 16 year old tell me that de-tox days for not using LLMs are in fashion, because using ChatGPT all the time "Makes you stupid"
There's a definite back to books/paper/film cameras etc among some young people.
I wonder what the popularity would be of a phone that just had email, text & maps would be?
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
If the couple themselves hadn't acted the way they did, it's likely that no-one would have noticed. If they'd simply smiled and waved, the camera would have moved on, Chris Martin wouldn't have said anything, and they could well have got away with it. By acting furtively and trying to hide their faces, they were guaranteed to draw attention to themselves.
And equally, they could have appeared on a website or newspaper in a crowd photo, or on a clip on TV, or been recognised by someone who knew them. All the singer did was reference a possible affair, which is hardly a crime
And more than that, if Byron wants to allege defamation they must prove they weren't having an affair.
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
You do realise that a good deal is one that benefits both parties. Negotiators (good ones anyway) aim to give away stuff that has a lower value to them than to whom they are negotiating with and negotiate for stuff that has higher value to them than it does for the other party. That is what any good deal is all about. If one party screws the other party the deal just collapses. That is ok for a one off deal (and you don't care for your reputation when trying for subsequent deals) but for an ongoing deal it just means it flops. The last thing anyone needs is a deal where one party is constantly complaining (unless you are a conman and do a runner).
So if (and I doubt it) Trump has got one over on the EU it will just fail. he should be looking for a deal that id beneficial to both the USA and EU.
I'm guessing this stuff isn't in the art of the deal.
Trump sees deals as having a winner and a loser, rather than being to the advantage of both parties.
.
So does the EU, just look at its negotiation with SKS.
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
If the couple themselves hadn't acted the way they did, it's likely that no-one would have noticed. If they'd simply smiled and waved, the camera would have moved on, Chris Martin wouldn't have said anything, and they could well have got away with it. By acting furtively and trying to hide their faces, they were guaranteed to draw attention to themselves.
And equally, they could have appeared on a website or newspaper in a crowd photo, or on a clip on TV, or been recognised by someone who knew them. All the singer did was reference a possible affair, which is hardly a crime
And more than that, if Byron wants to allege defamation they must prove they weren't having an affair.
I imagine he'd allege breach of privacy rights.
Is what is being suggested.
They will be queuing up at court for a ringside seat.
CEO Andy Byron's moving forward with suing Coldplay for ruing his life.
"A song cost me my family, my job, & everything I built." – he said.
It's good to see Andy taking responsibility for his decision to have an affair.
Arguably there is a partial responsibility for Coldplay in that they called out his bad actions for the world’s attention. Perhaps a judge will determine that they are 20% responsible?
But it’s just a shakedown
It was a considered action by the plaintiff to attend the gig. The same cannot be said of a performer on stage in front of a large audience.
0.2% might be closer to the mark.
Under what tort is he claiming damages, anyway ? At a public event, reinforced by the terms and conditions on the ticketing, 1st Amendment surely applies. And what duty of care is owed in those circumstances ?
If Chris Martin hadn’t acted in the way he did no one would have paid attention.
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
No such thing under the circumstances in question.
Arkell v Pressdram applies.
Years ago I took a photo of a crowd emerging from a tube station. Off to one side, certainly not front and centre, was a middle-aged couple holding hands, looking very happy to be together. So far, so good. So far, so heart-warming. Some time later I used the picture in a publication without giving it a second thought and it's been on my conscience ever since. It could have destroyed someone's marriage or even their life. You just don't know.
There's plenty of online discussion about privacy in the public realm and there's no simple answer. I heard a debate at the Port Eliot Festival a few years ago when leading snapper Martin Parr, who's done a lot of street photography in his time, defended the right to record anything that was visible in public. Many in the audience demurred. My sympathy tends to be with the latter, but the stifling effect of a right to privacy in public could be even worse than the current free for all.
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ChrisO_wiki
@ChrisO_wiki
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1/ Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's recent near-drowning in Bodrum is reportedly suspected to have been a suicide attempt. He is said to have slipped away from his bodyguards and entered the sea in a presumed one-way trip, but was saved by beach lifeguards. ⬇️
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1949749500576157904
At 2-1 with the Oval to go, the negative approach is to have another pitch like Old Trafford. centuries all round and thanks for coming. The positive approach would be to not worry about the tail so much, pick Tongue and Atkinson and try to win.
Although to be honest the pitch will be ready now, aside of the final cuts etc. So expect a very good track.
A bit of a puzzle, though.
*That's Sam Cook the bowler, not the retired Sir Alastair.
He’s right here
We have had this type of service in our infrastructure for around 20 years now.
We need to recall that this is not a new tendency, and it's not an easy thing to implement. Back on December 8 2008 the Internet Watch Foundation, responsible for a technology called Clean Feed, blocked off a Wikipedia page about a 1976 Scorpions Album called Virgin Killer. The cover was a preteen girl naked with an artfully deployed bullet hole in a glass cover. The album was available off the shelf in shops like Woolworths, and on the Amazon website, uncensored.
It was blocked at the time under "child abuse images". One serious problem was "overblocking", where the IW, which just circulated a daily iirc list, blocked thousands of web addresses in error.
This was what I wrote at the time, partly railing against incompetence, inconstant banning of material, and an unaccountable body:
Privatised Censorship and the Internet Watch Foundation: UK Child Protection Law Problems
This was what the Guardian wrote at the time:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2008/dec/08/internet
This was the image I posted at the time, which is (I think) OK for here and the TL:DR of my argument. The Burka resemblance was deliberate, as I was mainly writing about inconsistency, hypocrisy and too easy answers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2k29233jeo
I really liked this quote from some Prof in Tokyo:
"Trump is empowering the primordial in people all over the world."
Because I think this too and I feel it's an underappreciated point. The malignity of Donald Trump as American president is less about his policies than about him as role model. The impact is huge and negative and global, with most of it yet to play out. It wouldn't surprise me if one day people look back at 5/11 as rivalling 9/11 in the league table of disastrously consequential world events.
These days, everybody should one for reasons that has nothing to do with looking at nudie ladies with the knowledge that you aren't totally anonymous.
The argument that "some people will break this law, so there's no point in having it" fails - and that would lead to not having any laws at all.
It's like an argument that there should be no security features in bank notes or debit cards because some people will abuse the system. Or an argument that we should not increase security of number plates because professional criminals will still fake them successfully, even though we prevent 95% of the fakes.
The argument is between actual benefit vs actual cost, not the theoreticals.
On a different question, should Elon Musk be permitted to drive the resurgence of the fascist right in Europe because the USA has a fundamentalist attitude to 'free speech', and if he was required to run Twitter responsibly he could still set up a printing press in a basement in Penge?
It's balance of benefit, and a matter of fact and degree.
Telegraph
The media is full of EU bigwigs and trade experts gnashing and wailing and shouting at Ursula, and claiming Trump stomped on Brussels, and got everything he wanted
And yet PB assures me Trump is a dribbling cretin who can’t button his own shirts
One of these things is false
Indeed you must be happy that our government is taking its first baby steps to ensure that if they don't think like you, they will at least be penalised as a result.
I have enjoyed people using deaths stranding 2 to fool the age verification tools though.
Agree about the Kookaburra ball, although the Dukes one hasn't covered itself in glory during the Test series.
To those who actually understand mutual co-operation and stability are best for trade Trump is a loser.
The system can be gamed*, and they are failing to game it with this approach.
*They should create "The Nationalist Party of Scotland" as a "sister party" to mop up the list vote and swell their ranks.
2021 SNP voters have gone Alba and Green, not all pro independence voters will vote SNP and some have even gone Reform.
The UK government would of course refuse indyref2 regardless unless the SNP held the balance of power at Westminster for Labour and the LDs to keep out Reform and the Tories in 2029 and the international community, which did sod all when Madrid refused Catalonia's nationalist government even one independence referendum and is barely doing much after Ukraine has actually been invaded by Russia, would do next to nothing
They’re also at different relative starting points. With the EU it’s kicking an economy when it’s down. With the US it’s clipping the wings of an economy that was beating all comers.
"Speaking on the The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost, he reserved some of his fiercest criticism for Britain. “The UK is in a debt doom loop,” he said, and warning signals were “beginning to flash and flicker”."
Oh look, it's not just me saying it. One adverse fiscal event and we'll have a full blown debt crisis.
This Labour government is Truss in slow motion. The Tories need to start talking fiscal restraint and spending cuts now and very loudly. Every single Tory engagement with Labour should be asking questions about the deficit, debt and debt interest.
Monday's @guardian cartoon on Starmer's meeting with Trump today
https://x.com/EBaronCartoons/status/1949766699890159989
Lots of Nigerians have moved to Ireland. Some of them are passionately anti-Muslim and as a result very pro Christendom and pro-western, in particular pro UK and USA
So now they have festivals in Southern Ireland where they parade the Union Jack
This has got rightwing Irish nationalists in a frenzy
“What the hell is going on in Ireland?
The country is becoming more and more unrecognisable.
The planters are literally rubbing in our faces that they are the new planters.”
https://x.com/patricej36/status/1949386918149681229?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
The scriptwriting for the 2020s remains superb
Cf: Nordstream
Nope
But are they Protestant Nigerians or Catholic Nigerians?
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has been holding a consultative vote on their 3.6% pay rise, previously describing it as "grotesque" to award nurses a lower increase than doctors, teachers, prison officers and the armed forces.
It will announce the results later this week but the BBC understands it will show an "overwhelming" rejection of the deal.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ge4905eq7o
Badenoch voted for it but did at least raise some concerns about the bill back in 2022, and naturally was widely condemned as a barmy extremist and a personal danger to children for doing so. She needs to say she was wrong to vote for the act - but there at least is some semblance of an initial sensible instinct there, and perhaps that can be built upon.
It would be lovely if as many politicians (and former politicians) as possible could change their mind about this, and pipe up loudly and clearly about it.
All that said, I have a nasty feeling that the general public, particular those less familiar with the details, may be in favour of this act if polled (though I haven't checked). As always I guess it depends how the question is framed.
“The European Commission has achieved the unthinkable yesterday. It finally united the entirety of the European Union. Today every single European is blasting the EU-US trade deal as the worst one (for Europe) in history.”
https://x.com/greekanalyst/status/1949738196138422358?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
"The number of Protestants belonging to the Church of Ireland in the Republic in 1991 stood at 89,197.[13] By 2006, this number was 121,229, and by 2011 129,039.[13][14] It was during the 2002-2006 period that the number of members of the Church of Ireland and Presbyterian Church surpassed their 1946 totals.[13] County Clare has the smallest population of Protestants in Ireland; however, its county town, Ennis, saw a six-fold increase in the Church of Ireland population - 68 to 400.[15] The Presbyterian church between 1991 and 2002 saw an increase of almost 56%, followed by an increase of almost 20% between 2002 and 2011. The Methodist Church saw its membership increase nearly 100% between 1991 and 2002, though by 2011 it had declined by 31%.[13][14]
The cause of this growth is stated as being a mixture of Protestant immigration and the conversion of Catholics.[15] One notable convert was the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Dr. Dermot Dunne, who was formerly a Catholic cleric.[15] It has been suggested that Catholic Ireland has become more Protestant in social terms, whilst Protestantism itself has become more Catholic in some of its practices.[15]
...
In regards to immigration, of the 137,048 people from the three main Protestant denominations (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist) to declare their country of birth, only 94,889 (69.2%) stated the Republic.[13] 27,928 of these immigrants came from the United Kingdom, whilst 3,575 were born in the rest of Europe, 6,641 were from Africa, 1,341 from Asia, 1,730 from America, and 944 from elsewhere.[13]"
“This appears to be from a Zion Prayer Movement Outreach conference in Dublin—a Nigerian Christian revival event on July 26-27, 2025. Attendees, mostly African immigrants, wave Union Jacks likely as symbols of Christian faith (the flag's crosses represent saints) or Commonwealth ties, though it's politically charged in Ireland.”
However others on X claim this happened in Gormanstown in Meath
Recklessly acting in such a way as to cause damage?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Nigeria
On the 8th floor...
I do agree with the basic premise we have a major problem looming and it needs addressing but Ray Dalio has been calling doom and gloom for many years now. He is bound to be right from time to time.
Arkell v Pressdram applies.
Its trade policies have distorted its own economy and devastated its people's standard of living by reducing consumption to generate trade surpluses. It has accumulated such a huge stock of foreign assets that they can't really be sold, except in tiny amounts, without destroying their own value. And the companies that it created are finding themselves competing for profitless share of hugely oversupplied markets. Unsurprisingly, the economic growth it should be enjoying at its stage in development is disappointing, if you believe the official figures, and disastrous if you don't, and the country is drowning in debt.
A tiny country like Switzerland or Norway can get away with running huge trade surpluses for decades, but, as even the arch-protectionist McKinley eventually realised, if you're big enough, you have to buy foreign goods in roughly equal proportion as they buy from you, otherwise the world economy is distorted, and will crash when those distortions are unwound, as all are, eventually.
( I can't tell whether they are Roman Catholics, Protestants or Pentecostal - Nigerian Christians are very roughly 30:30:30:10 RC:Anglican:Pentecostal:Others. Anglicans tend towards Pentecostal in style. No idea on RCs.)
So if (and I doubt it) Trump has got one over on the EU it will just fail. he should be looking for a deal that id beneficial to both the USA and EU.
I'm guessing this stuff isn't in the art of the deal.
How all this unwinds, and to whose advantage, is unclear at the moment.
It's almost certainly not good for a country like the UK.
And you don't have to buy foreign goods - you can also buy foreign assets, which China has been doing.
Colin Sutton, who led the investigation into serial killer Levi Bellfield, is to help Nigel Farage’s party develop its pledge to halve crime.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/levi-bellfield-reform-reform-uk-nigel-farage-police-b2797201.html
This is quite a difficult sell.
https://x.com/bayrou/status/1949749114436194782
If a long term deal doesn't work to the advantage of both, it will collapse.
That's true even with a power imbalance. The relationship of overlord and vassal, patron and client, has to work to the advantage of both, to endure.
There's a definite back to books/paper/film cameras etc among some young people.
I wonder what the popularity would be of a phone that just had email, text & maps would be?
They will be queuing up at court for a ringside seat.
There's plenty of online discussion about privacy in the public realm and there's no simple answer. I heard a debate at the Port Eliot Festival a few years ago when leading snapper Martin Parr, who's done a lot of street photography in his time, defended the right to record anything that was visible in public. Many in the audience demurred. My sympathy tends to be with the latter, but the stifling effect of a right to privacy in public could be even worse than the current free for all.