Laura Sykes

Rubio Today: It’s false to say I said the U.S. had to attack because Israel was going to attack. That’s not what I said.

Rubio Yesterday: We knew Israel was going to strike Iran, and that would trigger attacks on U.S. forces. If we didn’t act first, Americans would suffer higher casualties.

I realise that the US constitution is based on the idea that you could avoid dictatorship by avoiding a monarchy.
It's a bit mean of me, I grant you, but I was just noting in passing that you appear to be in a Trump dictatorship despite 'no kings'.

Whereas the parliamentarians have power -up to a point - but have to stand for election by the general population at regular intervals.

You might like to ponder the position of the United Kingdom, where our monarchs have saved us from dictators for over a thousand years.
We tried to get rid of them once, which landed us with Oliver Cromwell, the ultimate dictator.
We reinstated the kings & queens.
Palaces but no power.

I have known the Iranian-American author Azadeh Moaveni since she was a young stringer in Tehran 25 years ago. She has written the most thorough and thoughtful piece on the war yet in today's @nytimesoped.bsky.social
No matter your stance on the war, her words are worth considering

Understanding the U.S. and Israel’s illegal war on Iran The illegal U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues a rampage that has devastated countries and international institutions to eliminate all obstacles to U.S. hegemony. The U.S.-Israel Axis has not succeede...

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, still unsure if the US-Israeli assault on Iran is illegal, should read some expert commentary.

'In this case, as a matter of law, the right to use force (in self-defense) belongs to Iran, and decidedly not to Israel or the U.S.'

mondoweiss.net/2026/03/unde...

Trump's EPA wants us to cover our eyes. On climate policy, the Trump administration is willfully burying its head in the sand. It’s crucial newsrooms don’t follow.

“The Trump administration may be burying its head. But journalists can’t afford to look away now,” writes Jem Bartholomew for @columjournreview.bsky.social:

Big development below in solar powered rail in the UK.

I wrote about this and other tech recently:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Exactly!

Qom - Wikipedia

Was it really necessary to bomb Qom#?

One of the most ancient cities in the world, also one of the most sacred
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qom

Calling on all billionaires and their families. Get suited, booted and prepared for deployment to the front line.

Trump has left Vance with no good options. The VP is fighting for his future The Vice President dreams of reaching the Oval Office but faces his nightmare scenario

"JD Vance doesn’t have any good options on Iran, but he can hope that Marco Rubio’s are worse. As Secretary of State, Rubio can’t hide from the Iran crisis nearly so much as the Vice President can. Perhaps that is Vance’s great hope. He can’t outrun the war, but he might be able to outrun Rubio."

Christopher who? In May, a party founded eight years ago, with no record in national government and only eight MPs, will fight elections in Wales and Scotland, and for control of councils across England, with every chance of winning many of them. British politics is being reshaped by Reform UK. This is a result of Nigel Farage's personality and of Christopher Harborne's money - £9m, from a fortune amassed largely through cryptocurrency investments. The party would not be able to field candidates, run social media operations or door-to-door campaigns if it weren't for the Harborne war chest. There is a template for crypto-funded campaigning - in the US, where it is viewed as having led to securing crypto-friendly legislation and sweetheart deals to enrich crypto charlatans and undermine transparency and accountability in politics. Reform threatens to destroy the Conservatives as a party of government and divide communities, increasingly along ethnic lines and with overtly racist arguments. It also poses the most serious threat to Keir Starmer's government, Harborne lives in Thailand and owns a 12% stake in the Tether stablecoin. Little else is known about this intensely private man. Yet he can influence the course of politics, seemingly without either much of a business or life in the UK. It's a lot like overseas interference in British democracy. Didn't someone once say: "Take back control"?

From yesterday's Observer.

Clever Saudis!

Just to add that CESEA Lib Dems give and have given grants for election candidates in & from ESEA communities to print leaflets in Cantonese/other languages. We have resource packs and videos in these languages too. @cesea-libdems.bsky.social @libdems.org.uk @libdemlocalgov.bsky.social

Excellent tweet - dry response to hysteria is so much the most effective, isn't it?🫠

🫠Nor mine, unfortunately, despite five years of living in the UAE and persistent attempts.

Citizen Digital #Climate

Possibly consciously hedging their bets?

So, any other news yesterday?
Anything important?

Nor have you 😉

Sweden agreed to using the Euro when it joined the EU in 1995. It still uses the Krona. There's no rush.

Maps of the rainfall associated with two of the nine storms hitting the Mediterranean in January and February 2026.

The Mediterranean is a hotspot of climate change, not only due to more heat, droughts and wildfires, but increasingly severe rainstorms led to catastrophic flooding this winter, highlighting again the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. www.worldweatherattribution.org/increasingly...

Millions of young people are now facing the consequences of a referendum they were too young to vote in. If we truly care about future generations, we owe it to them to rebuild our ties with Europe and reopen the opportunities that Brexit has taken away.

How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account Our national project of elite impunity

After the arrests of powerful men across the world, you might be asking why the US has so much trouble holding its leaders accountable for lawbreaking. Since Nixon, all three branches of government have worked hard to ensure they can break the law with impunity www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

What Is A Baoli Called In English? A baoli is a reservoir in which water can be stored . It is also a source of ground water. Numerous tanks and baolis were commissioned by the ruling cl...

For me, that is a "baoli", which is also Hindi for a stepwell like your imaage. I wonder what the difference is
fixanswer.com/what-is-a-ba...

What a cruel barber Musk has...

Jenrick 'was locked in bitter spat with Yusuf' Daisy Eastlake Robert Jenrick sought to access the private information of Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's home affairs spokesman, six months before he defected to Nigel Farage's party. In leaked messages seen by The Times, Jenrick, now the party's economic spokesman, asked a senior Conservative Party figure for the details provided by Yusuf when he applied to be a Tory candidate, saying that "we should destroy him". At the time, Jenrick had accused Yusuf of antisemitism after his account liked an antisemitic X post attacking Jenrick's wife. Yusuf claimed a member of his team had "accidentally" liked the post, but Jenrick called for Yusuf to be given "the boot" from Reform. In the messages, Jenrick was advised to be careful about sharing Yusuf's details but said it was "dog eat dog". A Tory party source said Jenrick and his team were "obsessed" with undermining Yusuf and called him "Zia Use-less". They said: "Zia should watch his back, he'll be first out of the door when Rob takes over from Nigel." Jenrick's team have denied claims that they were investigating Yusuf. After Jenrick's defection in January, Yusuf said that Jenrick had been "clear-eyed" about how Conservatives had "betrayed" voters and the pair now had a "great working relationship". A source close to Jenrick said: "Rob is sorry that some of his former colleagues are still so upset about him leaving the party, and hopes they can move on in time.”

If anyone still thinks Reform would be anything other than a bitter flailing mess of ego-clashing blame, grotesque nastiness and utter incompetence in government…
I give them exhibit 24563 in a mountain range of evidence that begs to differ…
(The Times)

Rape euphoria.