Dr Louise Matthews 💉💉+

Denis Healey, one of six formidable candidates in Labour's 1976 leadership election, was a grammar school boy from Yorkshire who achieved a double first in classics at Oxford, served in the second world war (including as beachmaster at the Battle of Anzio), was mentioned in dispatches, demobbed as a major, spoke several foreign languages, and was a gifted amateur painter and pianist and all-round aficionado of the arts. My piece examining the decline in calibre of British parliamentarians. paulembery.com/p/titans-and-p…

@I_amMukhtar Some clever person made a decoder for the hard of thinking outside the MSN slop. #Banksy

"I do not like these facts so they should not be reported"

Well done to Denmark! We have been doing this for 40 years. 😉

🎉Still celebrating! 🚀#Artemis II's European Service Module not only supplied air, water, electrical power and thermal control during the mission, it propelled NASA's Orion crew over 1 million km through deep space. 🎯 Its 'translunar injection' burn set Orion and its crew on their free-return trajectory around the Moon so precisely that two out of the three planned trajectory corrections were cancelled. 🤝 Built by European industry under ESA leadership, the European Service Module was assembled by @AirbusSpace in Germany, with contributions from companies across 13 European countries (Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, UK and Luxembourg) involving 20 main contractors and over 100 European suppliers. esa.int/Science_Explor…

@TheRickWilson Trying to fight with a guy who grew up in the South Side of Chicago doesn’t seem like a good idea

I am reposting this video and statement of Oxford Historian Professor #AviShlaim simply because I had heard his story several times before from some Palestinian friends of mine who shared similar experiences with me about how life was in Palestine at the turn of this past century when local Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Christians, Muslims, Druze deeply enjoyed living side by side despite their ethnic and cultural differences. Mutual respect, and in many cases, care, and tolerance for each other contributed to the promotion of a rich and diverse communal experience. Then suddenly their lives were turned upside down. If only we could magically turn things right side up. Yet peace in the Levant will not be realized until its inhabitants are able to do just that. Nothing short of this feat will put an end to the present, vicious, and deadly circle of hatred, violent conflict, and warfare. Pace e bene🇨🇦🕊️

Bugger..

Let me expand on this because it's the most important question in AI right now. Google just proved AI can change what you believe and how you act. 10,101 people. Real manipulation. Real results. The study is peer-reviewed. The link is in the replies.

Right then. Let me explain something very slowly, because it appears some basic logic has gone missing somewhere over the Atlantic. No serious nation in the history of warfare has spent fourteen months insulting its allies, threatening to annex their territory, siding with their common enemy, and then knocked on their door expecting them to come running to rescue a catastrophe of its own making. That is not how alliances work. That is not how anything works. You abused the UK. You threatened Canada. You tried to grab Greenland. You called the EU an adversary. You praised Putin, the one man every serious NATO ally has spent decades preparing to fight. You hosted Kremlin officials in the Capitol. You undermined European elections. You abandoned Ukraine. You imposed tariffs on your closest partners. You did all of this loudly, proudly, and on camera. And now you are surprised that nobody is returning your calls. Here is a question worth sitting with. Why do you think that is? Is it possible, just possible, that when you treat your allies like enemies for over a year while cuddling up to their actual enemy, those allies might update their opinion of you? Is that concept too complicated? Does that require more working memory than is currently available? You did not plan this war with your allies. You did not consult them. You did not build a coalition. You started a conflict, watched it go sideways, and then got on your knees asking for help from people you spent fourteen months calling weak, corrupt and irrelevant. NATO is not what it was. Not because Europe changed. Because Washington made crystal clear which side it is on. And it is not ours. You want European boots on the ground? Start by explaining why America is more aligned with Moscow than with Brussels. Take your time. We will wait. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

Just 35 days ago, Russian & Iranian oil was sanctioned Iran was not in control of the Strait of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz saw 120 large crude vessels passing each day US had fully operational airbases across the Gulf F-35 was marketed as an untouchable stealth platform Crude oil at $60 per barrel Inflation was declining Global trade routes were stable US missile stockpiles were intact and undisrupted No large-scale drawdown of strategic reserves underway As of Today, Russia is generating $620 million per day in energy revenues Iran is generating $185 million per day despite war conditions in Chinese Yen The Strait of Hormuz is effectively choked, with 250–260 vessels stranded carrying 400–450 million barrels US airbases across the Middle East have been repeatedly targeted, with key radar and defense systems degraded The F-35’s stealth narrative has taken a direct hit after battlefield damage from Iranian air defense Crude oil has surged to $105–110 per barrel, with an imminent supply shock building Over $100 billion burned by the US in offensive and defensive operations in just over a month 2,400 Patriot and 700+ THAAD interceptors fired, heavily depleting regional stockpiles 1,100 Tomahawk missiles used, a significant share of total inventory Global inflation is reversing course and set to accelerate sharply, already seen in Asian Economies The world is heading toward a synchronized economic slowdown What Will Happen Next (Already in Motion):- The last pre-war crude shipments are about to land within days A real-time supply shock follows immediately after 8–10 million barrels per day effectively disrupted from global flows 14 smaller Asian economies face complete shutdown within a week at $110+ oil Strategic reserves are being drained rapidly, buying time, not solving the problem Middle Eastern economies are entering a historic economic slowdown, with losses exceeding $200+ billion Trade flows, logistics, and industrial output are beginning to fracture End State Trajectory:- Supply shock → Demand destruction → Trade contraction Trade contraction → Lower dollar velocity → Liquidity tightening Liquidity tightening → US economy sliding toward recession As a result of these “unimaginable wins,” inflation is not contained, it is coming back with force, and this time through energy, supply chains, and global trade disruption all at once.

Now award costs against him, so maybe the next asshole plutocrat will think twice about trying to use the legal system as a blunt instrument to victimise independent researchwers working in good faith to tell the truth about the vile shit they get up to stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360955…

BREAKING. Thirty-six hours ago President Donald Trump said “obliterate.” This morning he said “productive conversations.” The question every trader, diplomat, and general is asking: what broke between Saturday night and Monday morning? Six things broke simultaneously. Not one of them was Iranian. First. The bill arrived. The Pentagon requested over $200 billion in supplemental funding. The war cost $11.3 billion in six days, $16.5 billion in twelve. At $1.38 billion per day and accelerating, congressional resistance to the supplemental is real. The money that was supposed to fund “days not weeks” now needs a vote that may not pass. Second. The Fed killed the rate-cut thesis. On March 18, the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.5 to 3.75 percent and revised its 2026 PCE inflation forecast to 2.7 percent from 2.4, citing the Iran war energy shock. The dot plot shows one cut in all of 2026, down from two. Every basis point of delayed easing is pain for housing, credit, and the Magnificent Seven. The war that was supposed to demonstrate strength is demonstrating inflation. Third. The allies revolted politely. Twenty-two countries signed up to coordinate on Hormuz. Zero committed a warship during combat. Japan is releasing strategic reserves. South Korea’s Kospi has fallen 12 percent. Europe’s gas surged 35 percent after Qatar’s LNG was knocked offline & declared force majeure up to 5 years. Trump called NATO “cowards” and got a press release. The coalition of the willing is a coalition of the waiting. Fourth. TSMC sent the signal. Taiwan imports nearly 97 percent of its energy. Its LNG reserves cover 11 days. Qatar supplies a third of global helium, which TSMC needs for chip fabrication. The helium is bottled behind a closed strait. Every Nvidia GPU, every Apple chip, every AI cluster depends on a fab in Hsinchu counting its gas in single-digit days. The Magnificent Seven have shed hundreds of billions as energy rotation crushes tech. Fifth. Birol named the damage. The IEA chief told Australia this morning that 40 energy assets across nine countries are severely damaged, global oil supply has fallen 11 million barrels per day, the crisis exceeds both 1970s shocks combined, and no country is immune. He named fertilisers and helium as interrupted flows. The man who runs global energy security called the war Trump started the worst energy crisis in modern history. Sixth. The midterms. Gas prices are up 93 cents per gallon. Sixty-six percent of Americans call this a war of choice. Sixty percent disapprove. Fifty-seven percent say it is going badly. The numbers that matter in Washington are not barrels per day. They are approval ratings in swing states where voters fill their tanks every Tuesday. Six pressures. One post. President Trump did not discover diplomacy. He discovered arithmetic. The 48-hour ultimatum was a threat. The 5-day pause is a confession that the threat’s consequences were worse than its target. Destroying power plants would have sealed the strait permanently, triggered Ghalibaf’s promise to “irreversibly destroy” Gulf desalination and energy infrastructure, crashed TSMC’s supply chain, spiked inflation past 3 percent, and handed the midterms to the opposition on a platter of $7 gasoline. The pause is real. The relief is not. The strait is still closed. The 40 assets are still damaged. The fertiliser is still blocked. The planting window is still closing. The five-day clock is already ticking. The molecules do not negotiate. The molecules wait. Full deep dive analysis: open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@BenGrahamUK @dariusimperator So fucking tedious.

So in a nutshell Iran could have already mined the Straits or just has to say it has, even if it didn't, and that's the passage closed. US minesweepers and minehunters would take a week to clear and no traffic in the interim.

Some mines sit on the seabed and wait for a target that can be pre-programmed for an exact ship. Even the buoyant type can be set up on the bottom months in advance of being needed. When needed they are remotely brought to life by an acoustic or other form of signal and boom. 2/4

youtube.com/watch?v=t1v2XO… US destroying Iranian minelayers is not as significant as it seems. Let me explain in a short thread. My specialisation was a navy Minewarfare officer and mines now come in all types, not just the traditional buoyant contact type. 1/4

@BBCNews Oil price just rose 18% in 18 minutes….

🇷🇺 disinformation networks have intensified their information influence on 🇩🇪 ahead of state parliament elections scheduled to take place throughout 2026, starting on March 8 Center has recorded number of fake videos circulating disguised as materials from 🇩🇪 media outlets

In case you missed it. @SkyNews interview with Former NATO Dep Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe didn't go the way they expected. #IranWar