The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Donald Trump setting interest rates is going to be a hoot!
Norman Lamont eat your heart out.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the more apt comparison.
I was alluding to Lamont’s record of putting them up and down within hours.
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Donald Trump setting interest rates is going to be a hoot!
Wait until he raises them to 124% because he’s fallen out with the boss of Fannie Mae.
eggs are actually up 70% I read somewhere the other day.
Is it all ova for Trump?
It’s certainly not been over-easy getting those prices down.
Not least because his behaviour shows his economic thinking is very scrambled.
I'm sure that pun has been poached...
Nah, it’s just me showing that I can do soufflé punning.
I was joking yesterday about Liz Truss becoming a tech titan, but maybe it’s a serious possibility. There’s something of the Elizabeth Holmes about her. .
EH is doing 10+ years for fraud and conspiracy so let's hope same fate awaits Truss.
I was hoping that was the joke here !!
I think this was ? Fortune named her in its feature article on "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders"
I was joking yesterday about Liz Truss becoming a tech titan, but maybe it’s a serious possibility. There’s something of the Elizabeth Holmes about her. .
EH is doing 10+ years for fraud and conspiracy so let's hope same fate awaits Truss.
I was hoping that was the joke here !!
I think this was ? Fortune named her in its feature article on "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders"
I was joking yesterday about Liz Truss becoming a tech titan, but maybe it’s a serious possibility. There’s something of the Elizabeth Holmes about her. She could be the UK’s next billionaire.
Well Al Gore managed to invent the internet so anything is possible...
I was joking yesterday about Liz Truss becoming a tech titan, but maybe it’s a serious possibility. There’s something of the Elizabeth Holmes about her. She could be the UK’s next billionaire.
Well Al Gore managed to invent the internet so anything is possible...
I was joking yesterday about Liz Truss becoming a tech titan, but maybe it’s a serious possibility. There’s something of the Elizabeth Holmes about her. She could be the UK’s next billionaire.
Well Al Gore managed to invent the internet so anything is possible...
Not the full internet. Just the Al Gore Rhythms...
You know you’ve been travelling a bit when your plane lands and you think “ah, the warm and welcoming familiarity of Almaty, Kazakhstan; it’s good to be back”
Good news - HMRC have processed the VAT refund for my toys business. Bad news - they have sent me a CHEQUE
WTF am I supposed to with a cheque? Its 2025.
For me it is a 200 yard walk to the village hall on Tuesday mornings where a post office intermittently operates. If it's under £100,000 I just tear it up.
On a related topic, in north Cumberland - a spot always either 30 years in front or 30 years behind, but you have to wait to find out which - a growing number of retailers/services/coffee shops etc have a discreet notice up saying 'cash preferred'. I have just seen a new one today in a bustling popular cafe. It is a 2025 trend.
There have always been some dodgepot businesses doing the cash scam. Cash can be cheaper to deposit than electronic payments - not always. But if you can pay expenses out of cash its effectively fee free.
In my case I can't deposit this cheque in any way because our bank does not allow the payment in of cheques because its 2025 and not 1985.
Sigh. Another faff to open a bricks and mortar account, pay the cheque in, then remember to close it before they start charging.
The large majority of bank accounts I know allow payment in of cheques. I think you’re an outlier on this.
Good news - HMRC have processed the VAT refund for my toys business. Bad news - they have sent me a CHEQUE
WTF am I supposed to with a cheque? Its 2025.
For me it is a 200 yard walk to the village hall on Tuesday mornings where a post office intermittently operates. If it's under £100,000 I just tear it up.
On a related topic, in north Cumberland - a spot always either 30 years in front or 30 years behind, but you have to wait to find out which - a growing number of retailers/services/coffee shops etc have a discreet notice up saying 'cash preferred'. I have just seen a new one today in a bustling popular cafe. It is a 2025 trend.
There have always been some dodgepot businesses doing the cash scam. Cash can be cheaper to deposit than electronic payments - not always. But if you can pay expenses out of cash its effectively fee free.
In my case I can't deposit this cheque in any way because our bank does not allow the payment in of cheques because its 2025 and not 1985.
Sigh. Another faff to open a bricks and mortar account, pay the cheque in, then remember to close it before they start charging.
Starling is fee free and accepts cheques by post.
Pay in a cheque online with most banks through the app e.g. HSBC
It is, to be serious, a weakness of Trump’s project 2025 that he cannot fire somebody appointed by a previous president who hadn’t accepted the full MAGA agenda.
Somebody like that fat old loser who was President when Powell was appointed.
It was in 2018. Now what was his name? There’s general agreement he was a dud and a failure.
So her thinking is "I have introduced policies that have made myself as CoE and the Government in general the most hated in history, what can I do to sink even lower? I know, I can jettison the jewel in the Tory crown, the much loved triple lock!"
It is, to be serious, a weakness of Trump’s project 2025 that he cannot fire somebody appointed by a previous president who hadn’t accepted the full MAGA agenda.
Somebody like that fat old loser who was President when Powell was appointed.
It was in 2018. Now what was his name? There’s general agreement he was a dud and a failure.
I can’t remember his name, but wasn’t he the guy who signed that disastrously bad trade agreement with Canada and Mexico?
Regarding the pronoun debate - I am bemused. I very rarely see pronouns shown, even from the public sector (contrary to claims) so I did a review of my emails where there was a personal sign off. Not one had a pronoun. They were from UCL, Royal Surrey Hospital, Doctor, Dentist, HMRC, DVLA, L&G, Standard Life, umpteen MPs.
From memory I can only recall one use of a pronoun in the past in an email and that was from Daisy Cooper (she/her).
Bizarrely it can be useful with unusual names. Even not so unusual names. My wife has a Scottish name that seems obviously female to me, but seems to confuse some and also being a Doctor her prefix of Dr does not help. So many assume she is male. So it could help. Not that she or I use pronouns.
You are a despicable liar. "Everyone is passively pressured to do that, and comply with gender identity ideology, on pain of otherwise being accused of being a bigot."
Its true. You're in denial. Everyone has to do it. Even on here.
Ian (He/Him)
Right, I've done a 10-minute very non-scientific study of my inbox.
- The majority of people in my organisation have pronouns in their email signatures. However, the incidence of people not using pronouns is probably higher than I'd imagined. - Interestingly, a similar scan through a random sample (this week, three years ago) seems to suggest fewer pronouns than a few years ago. - That said, this is difficult to evaluate fully because, also possibly interestingly, there are far more emails without signatures at all - It's hard to tell objectively to what extent we have been 'pressured' - certainly I remember emails from HR asking us to add pronouns to signatures, though this is hard to dig out with a simple search of the word 'pronoun' because the word 'pronoun' features in the signature of so many emails - but clearly many people such as me haven't: this isn't necessarily a principled objection, but could equally well be reluctance to do a very low-priority admin task - external emails from other public sector organisations are also majoritavely pronouned - external emails from people trying to sell things to the public sector through spam are almost entirely pronouned - external emails from consultants (and - while I don't know who @Casino_Royale is in real life, I think I know what industry he works in - and particularly from consultants his industry) are almost entirely pronouned. - external emails from the general public almost entirely unpronouned.
However, I'm perfectly willing to believe e.g. Foxy that he rarely sees pronouns. Maybe we're all telling the truth and it varies from industry to industry.
Interesting, because my list was from a wide variety of public sector and private sector from the last couple of weeks. I obviously didn't count generic stuff that didn't have a person's name. Not a single pronoun where someone signed off with their name. Not one. I am involved in a campaign where I get or am copied in on a lot of emails from MPs. Again not one had a pronoun next to the name of the MP. On the contrary most these days have become more informal as if I know them personally.
As far as prior to that I can't be sure obviously, but it struck me when I had an email from Daisy Cooper (generic, not just to me) where she did use (she/her) and because of that I noticed it, which sort of implies if someone else had done so I would have noticed that also. It struck me because it was the first time I had seen it, rather than hearing about it.
Others have said it so I'm just clogging up the thread (as usual) but if you are dealing with the public sector, using pronouns is a thing in your email signature. Within the public sector, it is very much a thing, indeed it is often mandated by the senior leadership of these organisations.
I never had an issue with it at all - it's often a point of clarity and clarification to know how to refer to the person with whom you are dealing. Companies on the phone often ask me how I wish to be addressed and that's fine as well.
If people wish to be referred to as "they/them" that's their right and I respect it. I can't know it in advance but if they tell me I know and it's something of which I have to be aware.
You've never clogged up the thread in the 20-odd years you've been here, Stodge! Always interesting.
I must admit, I do wince when asked to refer to a known individual as 'they'. It just seems linguistically wrong. You might argue that actually it's fine, but it feels wrong. (An unknown individual doesn't feel so clunky, oddly, though I still try to avoid using that particular form - again, because it just doesn't feel the right use of language.)
I agree with your other two paras however.
Singular “they” for an unknown individual dates back to the 14th century and is used by Shakespeare. I find the idea that it’s not the right use of language odd.
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
You know you’ve been drinking a lot when your plane lands and you think “ah, the warm and welcoming familiarity of Almaty, Kazakhstan; it’s good to be back”
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Good to see him respecting the Fed's independence.
Interesting to see you so passionate about the inviolable right of an unnaccountable group of commercial corporations deciding a country's economic fate. What part of leftism does that come under?
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
The US thing is a real problem. It will remain one of the biggest stories for the rest of the time Trump is president, owing to the damage he can do us, and their US team is rubbish.
I find I listen to quite a lot more R3 on the daily commute for just the reasons you cite. I'm fed up with swearing at Justin Webb every morning. It's sad.
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
Same with WATO. Sarah Montague (Lady Brooke) is no William Hardcastle nor Nick Clarke.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Fictitious references is the main way we catch students cheating with gen AI.
It's rather more troubling in this context. Lawyers are asserting to their validity when they cite them. What does @DavidL make of it ?
Oh, indeed. First offence by a student, we give them a warning, but not much more. Lawyers should be getting struck off.
Judges can set traps for the unwary lawyer. Find an invented case or two in the references, and then ask the lawyers, in open court, some questions about the cases and their relevance.
Mutatis mutandis, five minutes conversation with a student about their work, with a few well framed questions will tell you whether they wrote it or not.
As will a three hour paper, you armed only with a pen and the contents of your head in hot mid summer every day for a fortnight with 100% of your degree class resting on them......undergraduate life 50 years ago. Is it still like that at all?
He keeps doing this. He always sounds very bitter about it all.
The gossip is the gang don't get on so they have to be careful who they schedule with whom, which was rather confirmed in a round about way by Mishal Husain the other day.
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Good to see him respecting the Fed's independence.
Interesting to see you so passionate about the inviolable right of an unnaccountable group of commercial corporations deciding a country's economic fate. What part of leftism does that come under?
The Fed is a Government body and accountable to Congress.
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Good to see him respecting the Fed's independence.
Interesting to see you so passionate about the inviolable right of an unnaccountable group of commercial corporations deciding a country's economic fate. What part of leftism does that come under?
It's not inviolable - but requires legislation to change. Extra-legal policy making at the whim of a President is what people - and markets - object to.
Fictitious references is the main way we catch students cheating with gen AI.
It's rather more troubling in this context. Lawyers are asserting to their validity when they cite them. What does @DavidL make of it ?
Oh, indeed. First offence by a student, we give them a warning, but not much more. Lawyers should be getting struck off.
Judges can set traps for the unwary lawyer. Find an invented case or two in the references, and then ask the lawyers, in open court, some questions about the cases and their relevance.
Mutatis mutandis, five minutes conversation with a student about their work, with a few well framed questions will tell you whether they wrote it or not.
As will a three hour paper, you armed only with a pen and the contents of your head in hot mid summer every day for a fortnight with 100% of your degree class resting on them......undergraduate life 50 years ago. Is it still like that at all?
We are heavily moving back to exams because of gen AI, although we let students type rather than use a pen.
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
It’s the “Radio 5isation” of Today that’s really pissing me off. Hearing the presenters say “we want to hear from you, our WhatsApp number is xxxxxxx” really depresses me. And Emma Barnett really would be better off having a show where she just interviews herself so it’s either an hour of insane constant interruption or she actually stops to listen to the one person she wants to hear.
They’ve also managed to cock up the 5am to 5.45 slot by stopping the news from Workd service etc and replacing it with Today in parliament which is super tedious at theat time of day especially.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
Regarding the pronoun debate - I am bemused. I very rarely see pronouns shown, even from the public sector (contrary to claims) so I did a review of my emails where there was a personal sign off. Not one had a pronoun. They were from UCL, Royal Surrey Hospital, Doctor, Dentist, HMRC, DVLA, L&G, Standard Life, umpteen MPs.
From memory I can only recall one use of a pronoun in the past in an email and that was from Daisy Cooper (she/her).
Bizarrely it can be useful with unusual names. Even not so unusual names. My wife has a Scottish name that seems obviously female to me, but seems to confuse some and also being a Doctor her prefix of Dr does not help. So many assume she is male. So it could help. Not that she or I use pronouns.
You are a despicable liar. "Everyone is passively pressured to do that, and comply with gender identity ideology, on pain of otherwise being accused of being a bigot."
Its true. You're in denial. Everyone has to do it. Even on here.
Ian (He/Him)
Right, I've done a 10-minute very non-scientific study of my inbox.
- The majority of people in my organisation have pronouns in their email signatures. However, the incidence of people not using pronouns is probably higher than I'd imagined. - Interestingly, a similar scan through a random sample (this week, three years ago) seems to suggest fewer pronouns than a few years ago. - That said, this is difficult to evaluate fully because, also possibly interestingly, there are far more emails without signatures at all - It's hard to tell objectively to what extent we have been 'pressured' - certainly I remember emails from HR asking us to add pronouns to signatures, though this is hard to dig out with a simple search of the word 'pronoun' because the word 'pronoun' features in the signature of so many emails - but clearly many people such as me haven't: this isn't necessarily a principled objection, but could equally well be reluctance to do a very low-priority admin task - external emails from other public sector organisations are also majoritavely pronouned - external emails from people trying to sell things to the public sector through spam are almost entirely pronouned - external emails from consultants (and - while I don't know who @Casino_Royale is in real life, I think I know what industry he works in - and particularly from consultants his industry) are almost entirely pronouned. - external emails from the general public almost entirely unpronouned.
However, I'm perfectly willing to believe e.g. Foxy that he rarely sees pronouns. Maybe we're all telling the truth and it varies from industry to industry.
Interesting, because my list was from a wide variety of public sector and private sector from the last couple of weeks. I obviously didn't count generic stuff that didn't have a person's name. Not a single pronoun where someone signed off with their name. Not one. I am involved in a campaign where I get or am copied in on a lot of emails from MPs. Again not one had a pronoun next to the name of the MP. On the contrary most these days have become more informal as if I know them personally.
As far as prior to that I can't be sure obviously, but it struck me when I had an email from Daisy Cooper (generic, not just to me) where she did use (she/her) and because of that I noticed it, which sort of implies if someone else had done so I would have noticed that also. It struck me because it was the first time I had seen it, rather than hearing about it.
Others have said it so I'm just clogging up the thread (as usual) but if you are dealing with the public sector, using pronouns is a thing in your email signature. Within the public sector, it is very much a thing, indeed it is often mandated by the senior leadership of these organisations.
I never had an issue with it at all - it's often a point of clarity and clarification to know how to refer to the person with whom you are dealing. Companies on the phone often ask me how I wish to be addressed and that's fine as well.
If people wish to be referred to as "they/them" that's their right and I respect it. I can't know it in advance but if they tell me I know and it's something of which I have to be aware.
You've never clogged up the thread in the 20-odd years you've been here, Stodge! Always interesting.
I must admit, I do wince when asked to refer to a known individual as 'they'. It just seems linguistically wrong. You might argue that actually it's fine, but it feels wrong. (An unknown individual doesn't feel so clunky, oddly, though I still try to avoid using that particular form - again, because it just doesn't feel the right use of language.)
I agree with your other two paras however.
Singular “they” for an unknown individual dates back to the 14th century and is used by Shakespeare. I find the idea that it’s not the right use of language odd.
I think it's "they" for a known individual that is the issue, after all you know if they are a he or a she.
But You managed to become singular (and nominative, ye is the original nominative, you the objective)
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
That is a mad as Starmer banning foreign students to keep the immigration figures down.
He keeps doing this. He always sounds very bitter about it all.
The gossip is the gang don't get on so they have to be careful who they schedule with whom, which was rather confirmed in a round about way by Mishal Husain the other day.
He’s an arse - like some idiot schoolboy getting over excited at the mention of Manchester United. Thought he was going to pee his pants the other day about the golf.
Webb is a bit nice but dim.
Amol is clearly bright but it’s all really about him, as a parent.
Thingy Diamond is ok. Simon Business is fine when he presents.
They need to hire Jonathan Pie to raise their political interviewing.
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
It’s the “Radio 5isation” of Today that’s really pissing me off. Hearing the presenters say “we want to hear from you, our WhatsApp number is xxxxxxx” really depresses me. And Emma Barnett really would be better off having a show where she just interviews herself so it’s either an hour of insane constant interruption or she actually stops to listen to the one person she wants to hear.
They’ve also managed to cock up the 5am to 5.45 slot by stopping the news from Workd service etc and replacing it with Today in parliament which is super tedious at theat time of day especially.
TBF to R4 Today, I have enjoyed the recent spate of five year olds with names like Allegro explaining how much they are enjoying rereading Middlemarch during the Easter holidays. I bet their mothers are scary.
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
It’s the “Radio 5isation” of Today that’s really pissing me off. Hearing the presenters say “we want to hear from you, our WhatsApp number is xxxxxxx” really depresses me. And Emma Barnett really would be better off having a show where she just interviews herself so it’s either an hour of insane constant interruption or she actually stops to listen to the one person she wants to hear.
They’ve also managed to cock up the 5am to 5.45 slot by stopping the news from Workd service etc and replacing it with Today in parliament which is super tedious at theat time of day especially.
Indeed. Emma Barnett is quite simply dreadful. Why have guests if Emma Barnett is going to answer her questions on their behalf anyway?
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
Canada should be offering Harvard a very sweet relocation package.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Fictitious references is the main way we catch students cheating with gen AI.
It's rather more troubling in this context. Lawyers are asserting to their validity when they cite them. What does @DavidL make of it ?
Surely this puts their client in an impossible position? What redress does the client have when they've paid to have the advice or their case represented?
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
Canada should be offering Harvard a very sweet relocation package.
Good news - HMRC have processed the VAT refund for my toys business. Bad news - they have sent me a CHEQUE
WTF am I supposed to with a cheque? Its 2025.
For me it is a 200 yard walk to the village hall on Tuesday mornings where a post office intermittently operates. If it's under £100,000 I just tear it up.
On a related topic, in north Cumberland - a spot always either 30 years in front or 30 years behind, but you have to wait to find out which - a growing number of retailers/services/coffee shops etc have a discreet notice up saying 'cash preferred'. I have just seen a new one today in a bustling popular cafe. It is a 2025 trend.
There have always been some dodgepot businesses doing the cash scam. Cash can be cheaper to deposit than electronic payments - not always. But if you can pay expenses out of cash its effectively fee free.
In my case I can't deposit this cheque in any way because our bank does not allow the payment in of cheques because its 2025 and not 1985.
Sigh. Another faff to open a bricks and mortar account, pay the cheque in, then remember to close it before they start charging.
Sometimes there are straightforward practical reasons to prefer cash. My local chippy, which operates out of a tiny little lock up unit with no phone line has a card machine that just about connects to mobile broadband, most of the time. They have a sign which says "cash preferred due to signal issues". Having seen people waiting 5 mins for the card machine to get it's act together, I think the sign is almost certainly telling the truth.
Having dealt with the saga of trying to get Openreach to put a phone line into a building at work from a pole next to it (a pantomime of "system says no" which lasted 9 months, and was eventually concluded by me cancelling the order and using a 4G router instead), I can see why they probably think it's too much hassle to go for wired broadband, and the mobile card reader solution just about works for the occasional idiot who doesn't carry cash.
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
Canada should be offering Harvard a very sweet relocation package.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
The US government has threatened to ban Harvard University from enrolling foreign students - after the institution said it would not bow to demands from President Donald Trump's administration and was hit with a funding freeze.
That is a mad as Starmer banning foreign students to keep the immigration figures down.
It's actually far madder, as it's targeted at a particular institution. This is the behaviour of an Orban, or worse
Fictitious references is the main way we catch students cheating with gen AI.
It's rather more troubling in this context. Lawyers are asserting to their validity when they cite them. What does @DavidL make of it ?
Surely this puts their client in an impossible position? What redress does the client have when they've paid to have the advice or their case represented?
They can hire another lawyer to sue them for fraud and negligence ?
Nick Robinson's aggression hasn't helped. I don't know what's happened to him recently but interviewing the Birmingham union leader I worried that he was going to physically attack him. I wondered whether he'd spent any of his career driving a bin lorry?
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
The dates look cherrypicked to show the effect of people postponing things due to uncertainty.
Single, healthy male asylum seekers who have travelled to Germany via Greece can be deported back to the Mediterranean state, a top German court has ruled.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
The dates look cherrypicked to show the effect of people postponing things due to uncertainty.
Isn't the uncertainty- the endless U-turns and rumours of U-turns- part of the problem?
How can anyone running a real business plan anything under these circumstances?
The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, "Too Late" Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete "mess!" Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!
Good to see him respecting the Fed's independence.
Interesting to see you so passionate about the inviolable right of an unnaccountable group of commercial corporations deciding a country's economic fate. What part of leftism does that come under?
Not having Mad Donny Trump set interest rates isn't leftist, rightist or centrist. It's just essentialist.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
The dates look cherrypicked to show the effect of people postponing things due to uncertainty.
Isn't the uncertainty- the endless U-turns and rumours of U-turns- part of the problem?
How can anyone running a real business plan anything under these circumstances?
But also the 100%+ tarriffs - I'd have thought that would make a lot of trade unviable. So it's not surprising that a combination of those two would hammer trade. I'm just surprised it was able to happen this quickly. Though as William says, perhaps there is an effect of postponement rather than cancellation.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
Does (I mean, it hardly seems worth keeping up with the details as they'll change tomorrow, but never mind) the 90 day pause apply to China as well? I didn't think it did. If we've seen all this cancellation just due to uncertainty rather than uncertainty + tarriffs, that's even more remarkable. But it must take getting on for a fortnight for goods to get from China to the USA. Who knows what restrictions will be in place by the time it gets there?
I am a lifelong listener to R4 Today. I remember Jack de Manio well, he finished in about 1971.
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
It’s the “Radio 5isation” of Today that’s really pissing me off. Hearing the presenters say “we want to hear from you, our WhatsApp number is xxxxxxx” really depresses me. And Emma Barnett really would be better off having a show where she just interviews herself so it’s either an hour of insane constant interruption or she actually stops to listen to the one person she wants to hear.
They’ve also managed to cock up the 5am to 5.45 slot by stopping the news from Workd service etc and replacing it with Today in parliament which is super tedious at theat time of day especially.
TBF to R4 Today, I have enjoyed the recent spate of five year olds with names like Allegro explaining how much they are enjoying rereading Middlemarch during the Easter holidays. I bet their mothers are scary.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
I have been taking advantage of the bounce back after last weeks crash to ditch more of my equities exposed to the USA/China tariff war.
It's only a matter of time before the bear market kicks off again. We are at the Wylie E Coyote running in the air stage of the markets.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
The "current 90 days pause" hasn't stopped the Chinese from turning their vessels around. My man in Hong Kong confirmed this to me. I guess the challenge is to find a non-sanctions country that will take the loaded vessels at a reasonable price discount?
Could be some cheaper toys around this Christmas. Well, not in the US, natch. But elsewhere.
Imagine Boxing Day, as groups of Canadian children gather to wave their new festive presents across the border at the impoverished kids of America...
Regarding the pronoun debate - I am bemused. I very rarely see pronouns shown, even from the public sector (contrary to claims) so I did a review of my emails where there was a personal sign off. Not one had a pronoun. They were from UCL, Royal Surrey Hospital, Doctor, Dentist, HMRC, DVLA, L&G, Standard Life, umpteen MPs.
From memory I can only recall one use of a pronoun in the past in an email and that was from Daisy Cooper (she/her).
Bizarrely it can be useful with unusual names. Even not so unusual names. My wife has a Scottish name that seems obviously female to me, but seems to confuse some and also being a Doctor her prefix of Dr does not help. So many assume she is male. So it could help. Not that she or I use pronouns.
You are a despicable liar. "Everyone is passively pressured to do that, and comply with gender identity ideology, on pain of otherwise being accused of being a bigot."
Its true. You're in denial. Everyone has to do it. Even on here.
Ian (He/Him)
Right, I've done a 10-minute very non-scientific study of my inbox.
- The majority of people in my organisation have pronouns in their email signatures. However, the incidence of people not using pronouns is probably higher than I'd imagined. - Interestingly, a similar scan through a random sample (this week, three years ago) seems to suggest fewer pronouns than a few years ago. - That said, this is difficult to evaluate fully because, also possibly interestingly, there are far more emails without signatures at all - It's hard to tell objectively to what extent we have been 'pressured' - certainly I remember emails from HR asking us to add pronouns to signatures, though this is hard to dig out with a simple search of the word 'pronoun' because the word 'pronoun' features in the signature of so many emails - but clearly many people such as me haven't: this isn't necessarily a principled objection, but could equally well be reluctance to do a very low-priority admin task - external emails from other public sector organisations are also majoritavely pronouned - external emails from people trying to sell things to the public sector through spam are almost entirely pronouned - external emails from consultants (and - while I don't know who @Casino_Royale is in real life, I think I know what industry he works in - and particularly from consultants his industry) are almost entirely pronouned. - external emails from the general public almost entirely unpronouned.
However, I'm perfectly willing to believe e.g. Foxy that he rarely sees pronouns. Maybe we're all telling the truth and it varies from industry to industry.
I've just done a very unscientific survey of my organisation - private sector but does a lot of business with public sector. We have had some gentle encouragement but it is clear it is genuinely voluntary.
A lot of my emails are replies so don't have email sigs but I counted back 15 different people, none had pronouns. Including several people where it would have been helpful, and the DEI Officer!
One of my best friends runs a DEI consultancy and doesn’t use pronouns, though some of his colleagues do.
Hardly anyone in the firm I work for use them, although a few Americans do. I wonder if this is another American culture war import that has little relevance to British life.
Looking at my LinkedIn contacts and emails, there are very few. No pronouns for any of the senior Treasury, HMRC or DBT contacts, nor for 90% of my clients. I’ve never used them myself because it’s pretty obvious someone called Tim is male.
In my last post in a school before I retired, no one used pronouns in email signatures.
I wonder if this is one of CRs little temper rants.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
I have been taking advantage of the bounce back after last weeks crash to ditch more of my equities exposed to the USA/China tariff war.
It's only a matter of time before the bear market kicks off again. We are at the Wylie E Coyote running in the air stage of the markets.
E.g Meta (not directly exposed to tariffs, but exposed to general economic conditions as an advertising business) has lost all its gains since the recent crash.
Regarding the pronoun debate - I am bemused. I very rarely see pronouns shown, even from the public sector (contrary to claims) so I did a review of my emails where there was a personal sign off. Not one had a pronoun. They were from UCL, Royal Surrey Hospital, Doctor, Dentist, HMRC, DVLA, L&G, Standard Life, umpteen MPs.
From memory I can only recall one use of a pronoun in the past in an email and that was from Daisy Cooper (she/her).
Bizarrely it can be useful with unusual names. Even not so unusual names. My wife has a Scottish name that seems obviously female to me, but seems to confuse some and also being a Doctor her prefix of Dr does not help. So many assume she is male. So it could help. Not that she or I use pronouns.
You are a despicable liar. "Everyone is passively pressured to do that, and comply with gender identity ideology, on pain of otherwise being accused of being a bigot."
Its true. You're in denial. Everyone has to do it. Even on here.
Ian (He/Him)
Right, I've done a 10-minute very non-scientific study of my inbox.
- The majority of people in my organisation have pronouns in their email signatures. However, the incidence of people not using pronouns is probably higher than I'd imagined. - Interestingly, a similar scan through a random sample (this week, three years ago) seems to suggest fewer pronouns than a few years ago. - That said, this is difficult to evaluate fully because, also possibly interestingly, there are far more emails without signatures at all - It's hard to tell objectively to what extent we have been 'pressured' - certainly I remember emails from HR asking us to add pronouns to signatures, though this is hard to dig out with a simple search of the word 'pronoun' because the word 'pronoun' features in the signature of so many emails - but clearly many people such as me haven't: this isn't necessarily a principled objection, but could equally well be reluctance to do a very low-priority admin task - external emails from other public sector organisations are also majoritavely pronouned - external emails from people trying to sell things to the public sector through spam are almost entirely pronouned - external emails from consultants (and - while I don't know who @Casino_Royale is in real life, I think I know what industry he works in - and particularly from consultants his industry) are almost entirely pronouned. - external emails from the general public almost entirely unpronouned.
However, I'm perfectly willing to believe e.g. Foxy that he rarely sees pronouns. Maybe we're all telling the truth and it varies from industry to industry.
I've just done a very unscientific survey of my organisation - private sector but does a lot of business with public sector. We have had some gentle encouragement but it is clear it is genuinely voluntary.
A lot of my emails are replies so don't have email sigs but I counted back 15 different people, none had pronouns. Including several people where it would have been helpful, and the DEI Officer!
One of my best friends runs a DEI consultancy and doesn’t use pronouns, though some of his colleagues do.
Hardly anyone in the firm I work for use them, although a few Americans do. I wonder if this is another American culture war import that has little relevance to British life.
Looking at my LinkedIn contacts and emails, there are very few. No pronouns for any of the senior Treasury, HMRC or DBT contacts, nor for 90% of my clients. I’ve never used them myself because it’s pretty obvious someone called Tim is male.
In my last post in a school before I retired, no one used pronouns in email signatures.
I wonder if this is one of CRs little temper rants.
On the face of it, that looks astonishing. It wasn't like that even in covid was it? It is reasonable to assume from that that American imports from China have suddenly dropped by 64% - i.e. they're now only 36% of what they were in March? Is this just China, or is this everywhere? I don't really know how this normally varies from week to week, or how recoverable this is, or what the impacts will be. If anyone would care to advance some views or put this into context I'm all ears.
I think it's pretty well unprecedented. How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
The "current 90 days pause" hasn't stopped the Chinese from turning their vessels around. My man in Hong Kong confirmed this to me. I guess the challenge is to find a non-sanctions country that will take the loaded vessels at a reasonable price discount?
Could be some cheaper toys around this Christmas. Well, not in the US, natch. But elsewhere.
Imagine Boxing Day, as groups of Canadian children gather to wave their new festive presents across the border at the impoverished kids of America...
American kids will be enjoying good all American produced Christmas presents I presume
Comments
Surely someone like Scott Bessent should be taking him aside and having a word.
https://x.com/elerianm/status/1912817896713003021?s=61
Scare story in the Mail, possibly, but let’s hope it is to be reviewed to change to something more sustainable.
https://x.com/albrummer/status/1912808944751288789?s=61
Fortune named her in its feature article on "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders"
Lawyers are preparing cases with LLMs that just invent references, and judges are not happy.
https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1912611511874302122
Apart from Mr. Market.
Blame the audience. A sure fire way of winning them back.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/26/nick-robinson-bbc-radio-4-today-programme-ratings-slump/
Somebody like that fat old loser who was President when Powell was appointed.
It was in 2018. Now what was his name? There’s general agreement he was a dud and a failure.
It really is mad.
Lawyers are asserting to their validity when they cite them. What does @DavidL make of it ?
I sometimes turn it off. Too matey, too dull, too magazine programme like, too much trivia, too many boring single issue people, too bland. In the current USA crisis - in some ways the biggest story since WWII - its coverage is too timid, too little, insufficently analytical and compares spectacularly badly with USA internal coverage and to some extent Times Radio and LBC.
It has this massive 3 hour space, and the entire resource of BBC contacts worldwide to be both deep and properly global.
I still listen to it, but it needs to rethink, deepen, sharpen, avoid all luvviedom and use the BBC resource properly.
It will remain one of the biggest stories for the rest of the time Trump is president, owing to the damage he can do us, and their US team is rubbish.
I find I listen to quite a lot more R3 on the daily commute for just the reasons you cite.
I'm fed up with swearing at Justin Webb every morning. It's sad.
In a boost for Friedrich Merz, the incoming German chancellor who wants to reduce migration levels, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that asylum seekers who meet the criteria can cope with a lack of state support in Greece, because they will not face inhumane treatment in the country.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/17/germany-to-deport-single-and-healthy-asylum-seekers-greece/
Mutatis mutandis, five minutes conversation with a student about their work, with a few well framed questions will tell you whether they wrote it or not.
As will a three hour paper, you armed only with a pen and the contents of your head in hot mid summer every day for a fortnight with 100% of your degree class resting on them......undergraduate life 50 years ago. Is it still like that at all?
The gossip is the gang don't get on so they have to be careful who they schedule with whom, which was rather confirmed in a round about way by Mishal Husain the other day.
Extra-legal policy making at the whim of a President is what people - and markets - object to.
They’ve also managed to cock up the 5am to 5.45 slot by stopping the news from Workd service etc and replacing it with Today in parliament which is super tedious at theat time of day especially.
But You managed to become singular (and nominative, ye is the original nominative, you the objective)
Webb is a bit nice but dim.
Amol is clearly bright but it’s all really about him, as a parent.
Thingy Diamond is ok. Simon Business is fine when he presents.
They need to hire Jonathan Pie to raise their political interviewing.
And a persistent cough. "Uh-huuuuur...."
Of course it might get her charging back, all guns blazing!
Also, where are they going to drop them off? Mykonos? Central Athens?
I don’t think the Greeks will be grateful
The spineless European governments (uk very much included) have to bite the bullet. Only something like Rwanda will work - within humane boundaries
I guess that's the point. The EU could no doubt strike a deal with El Presidente. Pay him enough - and he will take them all.
And no Schengen if they somehow make it to the border.
My local chippy, which operates out of a tiny little lock up unit with no phone line has a card machine that just about connects to mobile broadband, most of the time. They have a sign which says "cash preferred due to signal issues". Having seen people waiting 5 mins for the card machine to get it's act together, I think the sign is almost certainly telling the truth.
Having dealt with the saga of trying to get Openreach to put a phone line into a building at work from a pole next to it (a pantomime of "system says no" which lasted 9 months, and was eventually concluded by me cancelling the order and using a 4G router instead), I can see why they probably think it's too much hassle to go for wired broadband, and the mobile card reader solution just about works for the occasional idiot who doesn't carry cash.
Would save on flight costs.
This is the behaviour of an Orban, or worse
Seems the rumors are true - Russia is borrowing military hardware from Kazakhstan for Moscow's May 9th parade.
Did something happen?
Astana, Kazakhstan
https://x.com/JayinKyiv/status/1912817013044523503
At least in any shape that looks vaguely recognisable. "We were driving it back via Ukraine, when..."
Overall U.S. imports at -64% has got to be one of the most insane numbers in economic history.
I don't think people quite comprehend how disruptive that's going to be.
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1912693260256170349
https://www.latintimes.com/x-ditching-dms-hours-after-news-musk-messaging-women-about-impregnating-them-breaks-580936
Or so I have heard.
How can anyone running a real business plan anything under these circumstances?
How long it carries on, I don't know, but a load of US businesses basically cancelled shipments completely.
China has said it's not going to respond to any further US tariff increases, as it regards those in place as sufficient to halt most trade anyway.
Apart from anything else, that's a huge number of container vessels dedicated to the US/China trade suddenly out of work.
I think the US disruption will be further increased by the Trump policy of imposing a huge fixed fee on each foreign owned vessel that docks in the US. That's going to mean the smaller ports that handle smaller vessels will lose a lot of trade, and the two big ones will tend to clog up.
Even if both sides agreed a deal now, it would be a really big mess. And an agreement doesn't look likely without a Trump climbdown.
OTOH, there's the current 90 day pause, so, who knows ?
But it must take getting on for a fortnight for goods to get from China to the USA. Who knows what restrictions will be in place by the time it gets there?
https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1912763286417719780
What do you reckon .
https://x.com/bold_kazakhstan/status/1903152127142400359?s=61
It's only a matter of time before the bear market kicks off again. We are at the Wylie E Coyote running in the air stage of the markets.
Could be some cheaper toys around this Christmas. Well, not in the US, natch. But elsewhere.
Imagine Boxing Day, as groups of Canadian children gather to wave their new festive presents across the border at the impoverished kids of America...
You guys have been talking about it all day.
Start Sending America Fuck All...?
https://youtu.be/2_cYQ8WPcCc?si=h63dQuS1fY3xWCiO
He's also an absent dad. Another reason to despise him.
Suffice to say she did quite well.
https://x.com/theimmortal007/status/1912859515709771904?s=61
Jenrick adds hundreds to WhatsApp group in mix-up
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewgnee12n0o
It's a minor indiscretion compared to including the editor of the National in a Defence Department WhatsApp (OK Signal) group.