🍻 SOBER 🍻

My new (micro budget!) comedy/drama feature film comes out this Friday on YouTube to watch for free!

So much heart and soul gone into it. Pleasure to work with lots of talented folk. Excited for people to see it!

Shot in Leeds in 9 days for £7k. A real love letter to our mad city. #LUFC

"Let me be clear: The authorization never says we're going to pay you. That's why there's a disclaimer." - Steven Udvarhelyi, former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana CEO

If one quote from a insurance exec ever summed up the American healthcare experience, this might be that quote:
www.propublica.org/article/blue...

Could you Adopt a Tree (it’s FREE) in Wandsworth Park and water it once a week with 2 litres of water? We’re looking for 60 volunteers for a tree watering rota this Summer (starting NOW) Contact: friendsofwandsworthpark@gmail.com Thank you 🙏🏼

YOUR HELP NEEDED NOW - AND THIS SUMMER

26 fabulous new trees were planted this year 😍 …

without watering pipes 😳
without watering bags 😳
without mulch 😳

It hasn’t rained for a month 😳

Could YOU #BefriendATree ? (Details in ALT)

@arbassociation.bsky.social
@ticlme.bsky.social

YouTube video by The Square Ball Chris & Kev: 25 Years On

Thoughts with everyone affected today, particularly their families and friends.

Well worth a watch/listen, especially for non-Leeds fans.

#lufc
youtu.be/83pa6mWFVlo?...

In one little noticed example, Elon Musk and DOGE have sought a rare "writ of mandamus" from the DC Circuit to block Judge Chutkan's order to reveal more details about DOGE staff and authority by April 2.

They asked for an immediate stay. No dice.

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Washington Post headline: Trump terminates program tracking mass abductions of Ukrainian children Observers fear the move has compromised evidence of war crimes by Russian officials and will hinder efforts to rescue thousands of missing Ukrainian children. The story is accompanied by a picture of an empty playground.

At that time, the researchers lost access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and biometric data tracking the identities and locations of as many as 35,000 children from Ukraine. Most alarming to U.S. lawmakers briefed on the matter is the suspected deletion of the research lab's database amid the scramble to comply with the administration's termination notice - an action likely to set back efforts to find the missing children and hold to account those responsible for their abduction. "We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted," a group of lawmakers led by Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) warned in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "If true, this would have devastating consequences."

🚨NEW: This is horrific.

Musk & DOGE closed the specialist unit at Yale tracking down Ukrainian children kidnapped & stolen by Russia.

HOWEVER, it now emerges the entire database may have been DELETED, destroying years of research needed to find missing children.

If so, there should be arrests.

‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE WIRED talked to actual federal auditors about how government auditing works—and how DOGE is doing the opposite.

DOGE has spent the last six weeks on a supposed crusade to audit the government and stop fraud, waste, and abuse.

But two federal auditors with years of experience say that DOGE’s actions are the furthest thing from what an actual audit looks like.
wrd.cm/420UPoq

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

Surprise! The Russians, who have repeatedly said they don't want a ceasefire, have once again said they don't want a ceasefire

On R4’s Today the excellent @ciaranm.bsky.social took apart Musk’s claim Ukraine was behind a cyberattack that took down “X”. Also said it was shocking that a major online business could be vulnerable to something as crude as a Ddos. At least he has no access to sensitive government data - oh wait

The first edition of The Frost Report was broadcast on this day in 1966. Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, John Cleese, Nicky Henson and Nicholas Smith were amongst those joining Frost in front of the cameras, whilst the cream of the country's comedy writers provided the scripts.

Transgenic means that genes from 1 organism have been put into another. We make transgenic mice to understand how genes influence biological processes. We make transgenic plants to make them more nutrient rich. We make transgenic bacteria so they make medicine for us. It's wide-ranging & v. useful.

A coloured depiction of Trump where is looks like the painting has all been smeared down the way. His mouth looks like it has sharper, small teeth and his face looks smeared with blood as it blends into his red tie. It has an evil zombie look to it as though Trump is a figure from hell. Credit to artist WeFail

Many caricatures capture Trump the moron. Few capture his evil as brilliantly as this.

This has been shared a lot recently, but mostly without crediting the artist.

The artist goes by the name of WeFail. Based in Manchester, UK, here’s a link to his incredible work
👉 wefail.art

Alina Habba tweeted ‘Nothing can ever stop this man from fighting for our country’! David Simon replied with ‘Bone spurs’.

This is next level! 💥

Some federal workers are going back to work.

The USDA has been ordered to temporarily give over 5,000 workers their jobs back.

Dozens of CDC scientists have been reinstated after being illegally fired.

The National Science Foundation has rehired half of the workers it fired.

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Astonishing that four SCOTUS justices think the president can order the federal government to refuse to pay congressionally-appropriated funds to contractors for *work already completed.*

And in fact they’re “stunned” that anyone would disagree.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has *upheld* a lower court's order forcing USAID/State to immediately pay ~$2 billion owed to contractors for work they've alreayd performed.

Alito/Thomas/Gorsuch/Kavanaugh dissent. t.co/k86ttz6Wdt

Eutelsat soars as investors bet on OneWeb satellites as European option to Starlink Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat said on Monday it was committed to boosting Europe's autonomy in space-based connectivity and supplying internet access to war-torn Ukraine.

There are lots of alternatives to Tesla.

Now, there are alternatives to Starlink.

Fuck Musk.

Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

www.reuters.com/technology/s...

If this is true, then Elon is taking the third rail of American politics and shoving it down Trump’s throat.

The memo, titled “Risks to U.S. National Security and Public Health: Consequences of Pausing Global Health Funding for Lifesaving Humanitarian Assistance,” included a table of startling projections. The permanent halt of $7.7 billion in resources for lifesaving global health programs, Enrich projected, could lead to the following: 12.5–17.9 million cases of malaria with an additional 71,000–166,000 deaths annually; A 28 to 32 percent increase in tuberculosis globally; An additional 200,000 paralytic polio cases a year; And, in a worst-case scenario, more than 28,000 cases of Ebola, Marburg, or related diseases.

Enrich continued from there. The memo projected that nearly 17 million pregnant women would not be able to reach life-saving services if USAID programs were permanently halted, and more than 11 million newborns would not get critical postnatal care. An estimated 1 million children would not be treated annually for severe acute malnutrition.

🚨NEW: Leaked memo reveals expected deadly impact of USAID shutdown:

- 71,000–166,000 malaria deaths
- 28-32% increase in TB
- 200,000 polio cases
- up to 28,000 cases of Ebola type diseases
- 17 million women/11 million babies denied reproductive care
- 1 million children untreated for malnutrition

BREAKING: Foreign-born leader comes to Oval Office, dressed down in a disrespectful manner, having already received billions from America, asking for American taxpayers to keep paying him more billions, subsidizing him for years to come:

Major new policy school at Cambridge University set to take on AI economy and reviving ‘left behind’ regions - Bennett Institute for Public Policy The Bennett School of Public Policy opens this October, and is already leading work on two of the most pressing policy problems of our time: implementing AI and revitalising post-industrial areas.

Here's our big @bennettinstitute.bsky.social news - we are becoming the fully-fledged Bennett School of Public Policy this autumn: www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/blog/bennett...

The process involved: resume review, two technical competencies reviews (tq1 and tq2) and a testing for EQ, too (brain matters 🧠 , so does ♥️ ). Here’s what I’ve learned so far (from trusted sources). When they tried to bring on some of the DOGE engineers through the front door: - Luke Farritor failed RESUME review (didn’t even make it past the most basic part) - Jordan Wick failed TQ1 *and* TQ2 - “Ally B” wasn’t even put through the official process and was pushed through the process without any formal technical competencies testing.

There might be an assumption that DOGE is bringing in incredible coders to replace bureaucrats. But that is not the case. Some DOGE members applied to the US Digital Service before Trump took office. None of them got very far, because they lacked basic skills. From a founding member of USDS.

Understanding DOGE as Procurement Capture - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

I believe Musk and DOGE disbanded 18F because we stood in the way of their "procurement capture" operation. We get the government *out* of wasteful contracts. Musk wants that money back for himself.

Explanation by @anildash.com of procurement capture:
www.anildash.com/2025/01/04/D...

Everyone Like And Repost 💯

Musk’s Purges Suddenly Take a Horrific Turn—and Wreck an Ugly MAGA Lie We can now be depressingly confident that their mass cuts are killing people.

Horrific: One of the USAID programs Trump just terminated was set to deliver lifesaving treatment to hundreds of thousands of starving kids abroad. Much of it is now sitting in a Georgia warehouse.

Rubio's promise to preserve urgent assistance was a lie.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1921...