Nick

The new trailer for ‘MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE’ has been released. In theaters on June 5.

A 2000 year old Roman water channel that still flows today This incredible underground aqueduct is hidden right inside the Smyrna Agora in Izmir, Türkiye.

British Buccaneer XT283 of 809 Squadron landing aboard HMS Ark Royal. Painting by Michael Turner, 1972. Museum of Science

Although the two Royal Navy carriers were originally intended to be fitted with four 30mm RWS, none have been installed and they are no longer planned for installation. The ships also lack an R-ESM sensor and dedicated decoy-launching systems, aside from the anti-torpedo decoy launchers already fitted.

... Total exports (EU & non-EU) have risen faster than GDP growth, whether you measure it from 2015, 2016, 2019 or 2020. So has total UK trade. In the context of sluggish economic growth, UK trade post-Brexit is a real success story.

ONS has just updated trade figures & we now have the EU/non-EU breakdown for 2025. In 2025, UK total (goods & services) exports to the EU were: · 18.9%⬆️on 2015 (pre-referendum). · 3.8%⬆️on 2019 (before leaving EU). · 3.2%⬆️on 2024. (all in real terms) …

British taxpayers are going to be expected to pay for EU initiatives to "reduce regional disparities between the EU regions" as part of the Government's Reset. It is little more than a shakedown. consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press…

Size matters! Australian carrier HMAS Melbourne with USS Enterprise during exercise RIMPAC 78. Melbourne and Enterprise operated together, smallest and largest aircraft carriers then operating . Melbourne nicknamed "Little M" as a joke Enterprise's popular nickname of "Big E".

In addition to the aircraft carrier Cavour, two LHDs & four LPDs (the LxD project) to establish two dedicated amphibious groups. The addition of two destroyers to the planned four (two new DDGs to be procured in 2026) twelve FREMM frigates, four logistic support ships...☑️

On this day in history, 1801: the British fleet, led by Admiral Sir Hyde Parker with Horatio Nelson as second-in-command, sailed through the narrow Sound between Denmark and Sweden (Øresund). Despite Danish defenses at Kronborg Castle, the distance was too great for effective damage. The fleet successfully passed, with HMS Monarch (left) and Elephant (right) leading the way, and anchored near the island of Hven later that day. This maneuver set the stage for the British attack on Copenhagen shortly afterward on 2 April. Painting by Robert Dodd. RMG (ID: BHC0522)

24 tonnes of stores and supplies dropping first at Salisbury Plain - the largest parachute drop in the UK for more than a decade. ⁦More than 270 troops ⁦@16AirAssltBCT⁩ follow. @ForcesNews

I'm utterly appalled I've been a royal & state ceremonial broadcaster for 30 years (BBC, Sky, GB News + Canada & USA) A CORE mission of a state broadcaster is its ability to bring the nation together by covering great national & state occasions, celebrations & traditions For many, that is the main justification for the licence fee: being able to fund serious, high-quality coverage of great British events that commercial TV simply can't Coverage of such events helps to forge national identity and a sense of shared belonging. A BBC that can't or won't do that, is not fit for purpose. Earlier this month, for the first time, the BBC did not cover the Commonwealth Day service from Westminster Abbey. Then we found out that the Boat Race would not be covered on BBC radio for the first time. It has already lost Royal Ascot and the Grand National. Now, the final straw. The brilliant, award-winning team at BBC Studios Events, the group responsible for covering everything from Remembrance Day to the 80th anniversary VE-Day celebrations to Trooping the Colour is to be reduced from 6 to 1. What madman thought this was a sensible way to save money? And how much was saved from those 5 salaries? £300,000? The disgraced Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills earnt more than that per year. Times are tough economically. But does the BBC really require more than 500 employees to work on Glastonbury, an event more notable these days for platforming divisive, far-left artists? I'd gladly sacrifice 1 Claudia Winkelman (earned £2 million last year) to save the team of 5 at BBC Studios Events.

On this day in 1979, I vividly recall speaking with a journalist from his office above the House of Commons car park. I suddenly heard an explosion over the phone, & he began describing what he could see — a car in flames. It was Airey Neave’s car. He was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a republican paramilitary group. An INLA volunteer had attached a magnetic, booby-trapped bomb to his car, which exploded as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster car park. The INLA claimed responsibility for the killing, which took place shortly before the 1979 general election. In the immediate aftermath, every candidate in that election was assigned two police detectives for protection. It became routine that no event could begin until detectives had first assessed the venue. It is a stark reminder of the very real threats that have, at times, surrounded our democratic process. As I have said before, our democratic values & discourse are the envy of the world. To preserve this, we must remain civil in our disagreements & safeguard the rights of all voices in the democratic process. As the quote reminds us: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” We must continue to uphold this principle, ensuring our democracy remains both vibrant & secure for future generations.

HMS King George V quadruple 14in turret in a topless state

Is anyone in the market for a 700-year-old Templar Knights watchtower? Because there's one for sale in the Lot valley, France. 7 bedrooms across 6 floors, a frescoed dining room, spiral staircase and views over a peaceful medieval village in the Lot region. There's also a 2-bedroom stone cottage in the walled courtyard, an enclosed garden and a heated swimming pool. Asking price: €550k ($634k). The Templar Knights who built this probably didn't picture the pool. But here we are.

India ran the most important cardiovascular study of the 20th century by accident, and then immediately forgot about it. In 1967, Dr. S.L. Malhotra published a study in the British Heart Journal examining heart disease rates among 1.5 million Indian railway employees. The population was extraordinarily useful for research purposes: same employer, same healthcare access, comparable income and working conditions, spread across the entire country. The only meaningful variable was geography. Which meant diet. North Indian railway workers: Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, ate a diet built around ghee and dairy fat. They consumed up to 19 times more fat than their southern counterparts. The fat was primarily saturated: clarified butter, milk fat, the short-chain saturated fatty acids that Ancel Keys had recently been telling the Western world were arterial death. South Indian railway workers ate a diet based on rice, sambar, and seed oils: groundnut oil and sesame oil, primarily. They ate considerably less fat overall. By the standards of dietary advice being formulated in the 1960s, they should have been the healthy ones. Heart disease mortality in South India: 135 per 100,000. Heart disease mortality in North India: 20 per 100,000. Seven times higher in the population eating seed oils. Among railway sweepers specifically, the lowest-paid, most physically active workers, the gap was even wider. Heart disease was fifteen times more common in the South Indian sweeper population than in the North Indian sweeper population. Malhotra controlled for everything he could reach: smoking, where Northerners actually smoked more. Activity levels, where the relationship was inconsistent. Socioeconomic status, where executives died more often than sweepers regardless of region. He found no variable that explained the gap except the type of fat in the diet. He published the data. In a peer-reviewed journal. In 1967. The study was cited periodically, acknowledged as methodologically interesting, and then set aside. The decade in which Malhotra published was the decade in which Ancel Keys's fat hypothesis was being converted into policy. The American Heart Association was issuing guidance recommending polyunsaturated vegetable oils as replacements for saturated animal fats. The food industry was producing seed oils at industrial scale. The infrastructure of seed oil promotion was being built, expensively and with great institutional momentum. A study showing that populations eating animal fat had a fraction of the heart disease of populations eating seed oils was not, in that context, a study that anyone particularly wanted to follow up. Nobody followed up. Almost sixty years later, the finding stands unrefuted in the literature. It is not in the dietary guidelines.

The UK produces around 5–6 million tonnes of salt per year, supporting industries worth tens of billions, from chemicals and water treatment to food processing and pharmaceuticals. The UK chemicals sector alone contributes £30 billion+ to the economy, and salt is a foundational feedstock for it. It’s also used in 90% of medicines, underpins winter road safety, and supports thousands of skilled jobs across the North West and Yorkshire. If domestic production collapses, we don’t just import salt. We export jobs, supply chain security, and industrial capability. Ed Miliband isn’t protecting the economy, he’s dismantling it, piece by piece

Good to see our salt story followed up here👇 The slow motion collapse (actually no longer slow motion) of Britain's chemicals industry is a BIG deal. But NB it's not just salt. Ammonia, sulphuric acid, ethanol, and a host of other foundational chemicals too. All going or gone

British livestock welfare vs the rest of the world: Growth hormones in beef: UK - Illegal USA - Legal and routine Brazil - Banned on paper, compliance varies Routine antibiotic use for growth promotion: UK - Illegal since 1999 USA - Legal until 2017, still loosely regulated Majority of global producers - Ongoing Slaughterhouse CCTV: UK - Mandatory USA - No federal requirement EU - Not mandatory Sow stalls (gestation crates for pigs): UK - Banned since 1999 USA - Legal in most states China - Standard practice Live export for slaughter: UK - Banned 2024 EU - Still permitted to non-EU countries Britain is not perfect. But the gap between British welfare standards and global welfare standards is not a small gap. When you buy British, you are buying inside a legal framework that most of the world has not yet built. That's worth something.

#OnThisDay 1807 the Abolition of Slave Trade act gains Royal assent making trade of African slaves illegal in the Empire. In the decades that followed the Royal Navy captured over 1600 ships, freeing over 150,000 slaves. The cost was 2% of Government spending or half of RN budget