Koos Couvée

Essential reading for understanding the current predicament No 10 is in, and the mess that is Keir Starmer's premiership more generally

Looking at this graph and wonder if something else might be going on beyond 'poor quality leader'

New investigation: Kyrrex, a virtual assets service provider based in Malta, has grabbed the attention of European law enforcement agencies amid allegations it is a frequent destination for funds derived from #crypto investment #scams.
Free to read: www.moneylaundering.com/news/court-f...

No 10 briefs to embarrass Streeting, knowing he’s on the media round

Streeting excels at morning round, embarrassing No 10

Another triumph

“Cinema is liberation”: as more acclaimed films emerge from Palestine, why are many still fighting to reach an audience?
This year’s Oscars triumph for No Other Land should have been a watershed. But new titles still struggle to be seen. @ellenejones.bsky.social reports

New investigation: Kyrrex, a virtual assets service provider based in Malta, has grabbed the attention of European law enforcement agencies amid allegations it is a frequent destination for funds derived from #crypto investment #scams.
Free to read: www.moneylaundering.com/news/court-f...

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

Notable that the supposedly “patriotic” wing of British politics wants to destroy / defund almost all of our national institutions

So make no mistake, this is a coordinated assault on one of the cornerstones of British civic life from people who want to weaken our democracy. Sadly, the BBC is so cowed it will actively abet them in its own destruction.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points

Labour’s Big Tech Love Affair Could Blow Up Its Climate Promises When U.S. President Donald Trump landed for what he called the “exquisite honour” of an unprecedented second state visit to the UK this September, he brought along a retinue of his favourite Silicon V...

The sheer scale of Labour's deals with Trump-donating Big Tech firms has been seriously under-reported.

Not only are they being allowed to build climate-wrecking data centres, they've also been given permission to embed their tech within Whitehall, the NHS, and defence 👇👇

📝 @rtakver.bsky.social

Bromsgrove South (Worcestershire) Council By-Election Result:

🔶 LDM: 51.9% (+20.3)
➡️ RFM: 33.4% (-1.5)
🌳 CON: 11.3% (-5.8)
🌹 LAB: 3.4% (-4.1)

No GRN (-5.5) or Ind (-3.4) as previous.

Liberal Democrat GAIN from Reform.
Changes w/ 2025.

‘A true genocide’: RSF kills ‘at least 1,500 people’ in Sudan’s el-Fasher Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye, Jordan and Qatar express alarm as more evidence emerges of mass killings by paramilitary forces in Sudan's in el-Fasher.

Another genocide...in Sudan

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

What we're witnessing with #Melissa is ultra rare in the history of known hurricanes in the Atlantic. This level of sustained intensity and feasting on every joule of ocean heat content without any real disruption is incredible.

Not hyperbole: Jamaica is facing a generational catastrophic event.

Caerphilly Senedd By-Election Result:

🌼 PLC: 47.4% (+19.0)
➡️ REF: 36.0% (+34.2)
🌹 LAB: 11.0% (-34.9)
🌳 CON: 2.0% (-15.3)
🌍 GRN: 1.5% (New)
🔶 LDM: 1.5% (-1.2)
🐉 GWL: 0.3% (New)
💷 UKIP: 0.2% (New)

Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2021.

That scene of the Welsh BBC correspondent being the only person interviewing Caerphilly's new Plaid AM while the rest of the media interviewed Reform's loser in the background was far too on the nose.

🔴 REPORT | 11 Days After Ceasefire Declaration Only 520 Trucks of Food Have Entered Gaza: WFP 🔑 Gaza Aid Assessment: 🇺🇳 World Food Program says aid deliveries into Gaza are increasing but remain far below target, with just two crossings open. No crossings are open into the famine-hit north, and Rafah remains completely closed. 📊 Aid delivery: Since the ceasefire began on October 10, the UN said overall it has collected 10,638 metric tonnes of essential supplies through the UN mechanism. ▪️ WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa said at a separate Geneva briefing that the deliveries remain far below target: Since the ceasefire on October 10, just 520 trucks have entered Gaza carrying 6,700 tonnes of food—enough for about 500,000 people for two weeks. ▪️Daily deliveries average 750 tonnes of food aid, well short of the 2,000-tonne target needed to meet basic demand.

▪️ Limited reach and urgent needs: WFP has 26 active food-distribution points—it used to have 400 and is rapidly aiming for 145—for now, mostly in central and southern Gaza. It also supports nine bakeries serving bread to half a million people. The agency says up to 30 bakeries and wider wheat-flour access are needed, while digital vouchers are being issued to help the most vulnerable, including women-headed households and the elderly. ▪️From October 17-19, only 303 trucks carrying 6,455 pallets were offloaded—two-thirds food, one-fifth water and hygiene items. ▪️🇵🇸 Gaza authorities earlier said on average 89 trucks had entered Gaza daily over 11 days since October 10, as opposed to the 600 mandated under the ceasefire deal. ▪️”To be able to get to this scale-up, we have to use every border crossing point right now,” WFP’s Etefa said, noting that only Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) and Kissufim are operating. ▪️UN on the ground: More than 15,000 households in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis received parcels with rice, lentils, chickpeas, tomato paste, and sunflower oil. 21 partner groups provided nearly 944,000 cooked meals through 178 community kitchens, a 40% increase in three weeks. Video: UN Briefing. October 21, 2025. Geneva.

🔴 REPORT | 11 Days After Ceasefire Declaration Only 520 Trucks of Food Have Entered Gaza: WFP

🔑 Gaza Aid Assessment:

🇺🇳 World Food Program says aid deliveries into Gaza are increasing but remain far below target, with just two crossings open. No crossings are open into the famine-hit north, and...

Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew Tommy Robinson is said to be going to Villa Park as a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. Do the politicians jumping on this bandwagon care what they are doing, asks Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew

What Israeli “Victory” Looks Like The Trump deal doesn’t destroy Hamas but it does further Palestinian dispossession.

Why is Israel declaring "victory" in Gaza when many of its aims were not met? @peterbeinart.bsky.social writes that the real goal is the same as it has been for decades: maximum land, minimum Palestinians. Trump's ceasefire plan is another step in that direction.

jewishcurrents.org/what-israeli...

A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Please read my column today in conjunction with Aditya's. The government pretends to be delivering housing to those who need it, but is in fact just appeasing the big corporations. Then it blames nature protections, and rips those down at their behest as well.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Spending watchdog exposes 'unacceptable, systemic failings' in government insulation scheme Almost every home with external wall insulation installed under the government's ECO scheme will require remedial work, NAO report finds

Utterly enraging this was allowed to happen. Beyond enraging that it will now be used to attack energy efficiency measures that remain the most effective route for tackling fuel poverty and emissions. www.businessgreen.com/news/4520312...

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Nesrine Malik on Gaza: "And so now we have a crime without criminals, a genocide without génocidaires, a wretched population who, we are to believe, have been brought low by Hamas, and must be fed and watered while the world works out what to do with them."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Today shows once again that the media by and large is in thrall to power. Fawning over Trump as if he's had no part in the grave crime that has unfolded in Gaza over the past two years. As if there will now be justice for the victims of that crime

@jemima.bsky.social on crypto dealings by politicians such as the Trumps and the move by Nigel Farage's Reform party to accept political donations in crypto www.ft.com/content/dbd0...

New: The alleged mastermind of a £5 billion investment fraud in China pleaded guilty to money laundering in London on Monday in a case marked by Britain’s largest-ever seizure of crypto. But Qian's victims face an uphill struggle to recover their losses.
www.moneylaundering.com/news/alleged...

Where Mideast Envoy Pitched Peace, His Son Pitched Investors

Watch witkoff www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/b...

Wie goed kijkt, ziet overal voorbeelden van preventieve capitulatie voor de vijanden van de democratie In populaire films en boeken gaat de komst van het fascisme gepaard met een heroïsch gevecht. De werkelijkheid gaat eerder slaapwandelend richting het trage einde van de democratie.

Wat doen tegen de wannabe-dictators van uiterst rechts? In elk geval niet: als critici preventief knielen en meebewegen. Helaas zien we daar te veel voorbeelden van - ook in Nederland
www.groene.nl/artikel/gezo... @groene.nl

Special relationship? There can be no such thing with a snake like Trump | Aditya Chakrabortty Keir Starmer has spent the best part of a year cosying up to the US president. It will be no surprise when he gets bitten, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Good piece by @chakrabortty on the Starmer-Trump tech deal

Very few jobs – just mining of UK land, data, water and energy for the profit of US tech giants

The tech equivalent to “American military bases on British soil”, says Cecilia Rikap, AI expert at UCL

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Some TBI staff – including a number who left in recent years because of Ellison’s influence – say the cash injection has produced a culture that is dominated by a form of AI boosterism, and which, as they see it, amounts to lobbying for Oracle."