Sarah Hurst 🇺🇦

Russia massacred at least 30 civilians in Kyiv and injured 91 others this week as the Kremlin lashed out while struggling with an unrelenting fuel crisis that is pushing people to the limit. This week's Russia Report is free - but subscribe! therussiareport.substack.com/p/the-russia-r…

@HarryScoffin @NMcbeach7386 I'm speaking from experience here, it can be extremely unpleasant, risky and make it hard to sell the flats. Some buyers are not going to want to be forced to be part of a small company with their neighbours.

@Life_Disrupted @NMcbeach7386 Not at all. Communal living will always have its challenges whatever the tenure. But better to have self-rule than live under the whip hand of a monetising freeholder.

People are often reluctant to buy flats in England and Wales because of the legal structure that governs them. Leasehold typically places control in the hands of a third-party landlord, who determines the service charges required to maintain the building. If those charges rise sharply, they can significantly undermine the value of what is often the largest purchase of a person’s life. By contrast, in Scotland flats are generally held under the tenement system, which provides democratic resident control and avoids leasehold landlordism. As a result, flats account for around 45% of the housing stock. In England, where leasehold rules, flats make up less than 25%. Internationally, most jurisdictions use schemes analogous to commonhold, such as strata title and condominium ownership. England and Wales are the outliers, persisting with a wealth-eroding leasehold system in which outside investors retain the whip hand, reducing flat owners to the legal status of tenants.

@NMcbeach7386 @HarryScoffin A lot of people underestimate the challenges of working with other owners to attempt to maintain the buildings.

@HarryScoffin My block of flats is co-managed by the owners of each unit. Problem is, most of them are landlords, not residents of the building. This means they have no interest in maintaining the building beyond absolute basics and I have to live somewhere that is falling apart.

@seaninroundhay @DrJaninaRamirez @britishmuseum False advertising.

@Life_Disrupted @DrJaninaRamirez @britishmuseum It's not a tapestry either.

I am beyond amazed that this has actually happened - I didn’t think the tapestry could (or should) travel, but my god how exciting to see it in @britishmuseum !! Now, I don’t want to predict but if England actually get to the final against France will 1066 play out on the pitch?

@seaninroundhay @DrJaninaRamirez @britishmuseum Since they don't return foreign artefacts they are hardly likely to return one that was made in Britain.

@Life_Disrupted @DrJaninaRamirez @britishmuseum Will the British museum return a foreign artefact?

@CountBinface A bin on its own would be an improvement on Farage, let alone Count Binface.

On my way, Clacton.

I wrote about Jimmy Adams - a great chess player, writer, and person. He encouraged me to write dozens of articles for CHESS magazine in the 1990s and invited me to collaborate on a couple of his books. theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul…

A man driving in Moscow complained that he couldn’t find fuel in the capital, while a woman said in a video that she had been waiting in a queue at a petrol station for seven hours. “This is simply unimaginable, it’s insane. What century are we even living in?” she asked.

Russia massacred at least 30 civilians in Kyiv and injured 91 others this week as the Kremlin lashed out while struggling with an unrelenting fuel crisis that is pushing people to the limit. This week's Russia Report is free - but subscribe! therussiareport.substack.com/p/the-russia-r…

A manufacturer that is unlikely to become a household name, at least in the UK.

The city's authorities have tried to ban people from making videos of Ukrainian drone attacks but dozens have been published showing Russians swearing and crying, asking why this is happening.

Moscow residents are in a panic and already talking about marching to the Kremlin as they try to cope with Ukrainian bombardment that they didn't expect. This week's Russia Report is free - but subscribe! therussiareport.substack.com/p/the-russia-r…

@benpershing Attila the Hun didn't have his tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court.

In an interview for their book, President Trump showed Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan a document arguing he was more powerful than some of the most feared and treacherous leaders in history — including Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler.

Jimmy's family are asking who would like to attend his funeral in Hertfordshire towards the end of July. Please let me know if you may be able to.

@business A symptom of the wider problem that we'll never be able to be sure who's cheating in any field again.

A new book and Netflix documentary chronicle the Hans Niemann-Magnus Carlsen feud — a controversy that exposed the anxieties lurking beneath chess’s online boom. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@advocatemahere We've got it here in the UK as well. Apparently quite a lot of people like xenophobia.

🔸Nobody hates South Africa. Everybody hates xenophobia. #OneLove We need new leaders.🇿🇼