Alex von Tunzelmann

Think there is something to be written about how bad the news environment has got for people who want to keep up with politics but don't have the time/knowledge to go beyond the flagships.

From the French equivalent of The Onion

Seeking revenge, Dubai parachutes 3000 influencers on Tehran.

"Foreign-born Citizens" are actually just called citizens.

"Foreign-born voters" are just called voters

"non-citizen voters" (yes, this is a thing here in 🇬🇧) are just voters.

“We thought we were living in a politically neutral slave state.”

So the US asked Israel to launch the attack on Iran [which the two countries planned together], in order to give the US war dubious legal cover. Once Israel attacked, Iran was likely to retaliate against the US, ergo US attack on Iran is defensive. QED.

Suez, the slapstick version.

The implicit argument of so much of this stuff is that there is no legitimate role for Muslims in public life.

Juxtaposition of two posts with dog looking at cat and a completely different cat (presumably!) poking their tongue out.

The perfect juxtaposition of posts! @alexvont.bsky.social

Poppyseed, an all-black cat with a few white hairs, sticks her tongue out as she stares off into the middle distance

Truly an exceptional specimen

In the 20th century there were attempts - with very mixed results of course - to introduce accountability for this sort of atrocity. Now it feels like even that has gone. bsky.app/profile/moud...

At least 148 dead after reported strike on school, Iran says Iran has blamed the US and Israel for the strike; the US is looking into reports of the incident, while the IDF says it is

Utterly horrifying. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a good thread, which will not be taken any notice of by the people who most need to read it

To those replying that they wouldn’t believe Starmer now even if he did start saying different things: indeed not. No one would. I’m sure Sadiq Khan also knows this, & knows the PM won’t do it anyway, so it’s entirely hypothetical. This is political positioning, shifting the focus to what comes next

Labour must stop channelling Reform and unite with progressives. That’s the lesson from Gorton and Denton | Sadiq Khan The threat to the party in some parts of our country is now existential. But we can progress, as we have in London, by being bold and strong in our core beliefs, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

A strong intervention from Sadiq Khan. He doesn’t call for the ousting of the PM; instead for a change of course. But Starmer has gone so far down the rabbit hole now that it’s impossible to imagine him speaking simple truths like these on Trump, Brexit or Gaza. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“direct your anger at trump not the democrats” buddy you are severely underestimating the amount of anger i have available to me

if they were courageous they would quit. there's nothing brave about killing kids at the whim of an irrational old pedophile

Too many who should know better are backing this war. It wouldn't be happening if a) Trump were a remotely serious president who knew the risks of embarking on something whose aims he still can't specify, and b) Netanyahu wasn't embracing regional chaos as his get out of jail free card.

what a crazy night for sam altman to be like "yeah we got that dept of war deal, and there's no moral concerns here"

Not to say everything is gender, but god almighty

I know I keep pointing this out but: if you want immigrants to contribute to British society, integrate across community lines, become engaged civic actors, you actually *want* them to get citizenship, and as soon as possible in fact!

Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.

It does feel like Starmer and Mahmoud have seen Labour rejected by its own *actual* core vote (instead of its imagined one) in its heartland and decided that the answer is just to reject those core voters right back.

Suicidal politics.

If Reform had won, Labour's statement would be that this result is a stark reminder we need to listen and learn from voters who rightly feel betrayed by modern politics.

But the Greens won by a comfortable margin, so it's: these voters are stupid and also sinister and, ugh, Muslims

Live Updates: U.S. and Israel Conduct Strikes on Iran

Why should anyone negotiate with the United States?

Historic attempt here that will be remembered for years to come because he may have been the only third party mediator willing to just say the truth out loud.

The "debate" in the run-up to this makes Iraq 2003 look like the Athenian polis.

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

As @samfr.bsky.social pointed out the other day there is now relatively little room for Labour to manouver on policy given the time left.

The only big policy leaver is really immigration. Which is why they should very, very publically boot the Immigration Bill into the sun - and apologise for it

Insulting his constituents, Matt Goodwin does the most Matt Goodwin thing. Blaming others for failing to see his brilliance. Academics first, now voters. This sentiment is driving his radicalisation. Maybe even people at Reform will realise that it‘s a very bad quality for a politician to have.

Labour’s *majority* in Gorton and Denton in 2024 – just 19 months ago – was 13,000+. Tonight it got fewer than 10,000 votes total, on an almost identical turnout. In its heartland. That’s what a collapse of your core vote looks like.