The rage of Dominic Cummings Britain’s rogue intellectual has predicted a civil war. Is he also cheerleading one?

Great read on the radicalisation of Dominic Cummings by @johnmerrick.bsky.social. Cummings cuts a distinctive figure as a British right-wing 'revolutionary' rather than a traditional conservative.

Anatomy of a famine: how Gaza has starved Aid workers are wondering if they are complicit in Israeli policy

I have not read a better account of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the horrific conditions in which aid workers, 400 of whom have been killed, operate.

Anatomy of a famine: how Gaza has starved
economist.com/1843/2025/08...
from The Economist

"Evening" - my oil painting

Devi Sridhar: living a long life isn’t a solo endeavour Our podcast on science and technology. Why government policy is key to increasing life expectancy

Your health has more to do with where you live than “what you individually do”, says Devi Sridhar on “Babbage”

A Letter to America’s Discarded Public Servants You all deserved better.

Bill Burns: "If intelligence analysts at the CIA saw our rivals engage in this kind of great-power suicide, we would break out the bourbon. Instead, the sound we hear is of champagne glasses clinking in the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Now that peace looks closer (we're not there yet...) people being all smug about opposing military aid for Ukraine in favour of a negotiated settlement back in March 2022 seem to be forgetting that all of these blue parts were still occupied.

"Fighting back was always hopeless" is some revisionism.

RFK Jr has slashed vaccine research. You need to know how perilous that is for the world | Devi Sridhar The avian flu virus is now just one mutation away from easier transmission among humans. Trump’s health chief is a grave risk to world health, says Prof Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at ...

Yep.

RFK Jr has slashed vaccine research. You need to know how perilous that is for the world www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... by @profdevisridhar.bsky.social

"This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a generational setback."

RFK Jr = "a serious risk to national & global health security."

Putin won in Anchorage. Now Zelenskyy and Europe are in an even more perilous position | Rajan Menon Trump’s summit failed to achieve a ceasefire, but the Russian president will be very happy with how events are unfolding, says Rajan Menon of City College of New York

In Sunday’s Guardian

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"Russia and the United States have discussed Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as a model for ending the war in Ukraine"

“Ukraine will never give up its sovereignty. But the reality is it’ll be occupied territory and the model is Palestine.”

An abomination.

If Mamdani *were* to pull this out, what’s the over-under line for how much outside SuperPac money comes in to the general to try to stop him? $100 mil? $200?

Why dreams of regime change in Iran will end in a rude awakening | Rajan Menon It would be naive to believe that the US could take a wrecking ball to the Iranian state and walk away unaffected

In today’s Guardian:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

YouTube video by Kanal13 "This is a turning point" - Over $2.2bn worth of Russian strategic aviation aircraft are destroyed

Full details still unclear, but a June 1 Ukrainian sabotage operation, using drones apparently smuggled in over many months, destroyed or damaged a third or more of Russia strategic bomber force at airbases in Russia’s remote eastern and northern regions. m.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fxm...

New piece with @rajanmenon.bsky.social. www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

A shock to the system: The global implications of Trump II What have been the implications of the second Trump administration’s foreign policy approach?

I gave a talk on Trump’s policies at Chatham House last week. The title: “A Shock to the System.” You can watch it here: www.chathamhouse.org/events/all/r...

My thanks to Leslie Vinjamuri, Anar Bata, and the rest of the staff for the invitation.

Trump has tired of Netanyahu The US president's Middle East trip proves that “America First” makes no exception for Israel.

www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Coauthored with my friend Dan DePetris.

Will India or Pakistan resort to the nuclear option? Air strikes and the downing of aircraft are just the latest escalation in a long-running conflict.

My piece on the Kashmir crisis— in today’s New Statesman.

magazine.newstatesman.com/2025/05/08/w...

India has just fired the first shots following the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir. Pakistan will certainly fire back. But both countries have strong reasons not to let things spin out of control, not least because of the mind-concentrating nuclear factor.

Geography has given the US unrivaled security. Trump is destroying it | Gil Barndollar and Rajan Menon The US’s greatest strategic advantage is its friendly neighbors. But its ties to Canada and Mexico are being undermined

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thanks so much.

RFK Jr. Orders Search for New Measles Treatments Instead of Urging Vaccination Decades of research have turned up no miracle treatment for measles, but studies show the M.M.R. shot is 97 percent effective in preventing the disease.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will direct federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for measles as the U.S. faces its largest outbreak in 25 years. Experts fear the decision could have grave consequences, as studies show the existing vaccine is 97% effective in preventing infection.

Scoop: Stephen Miller emerges as top contender for Trump's next national security adviser Miller — the brain behind Trump's controversial immigration crackdown — is one of the president's longest-serving and most-trusted aides.

www.axios.com/2025/05/02/s...

This is absolutely nuts. Seems likely it’s meant to deliver immigrant delivery cyclists straight to ICE as part of Eric Adams corrupt bargain w Trump.

UN World Food Program:

“Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days. For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza.”

If you really want a political settlement as opposed to giving Putin everything on a silver platter Crimea is the dumbest reason to allow the talks to blow up. Even Putin hasn’t required that Crimea be part of a deal. It’s something the US introduced suddenly and now insists that UA accept.

If the US does ditch the Ukraine talks, it won’t hurt Kyiv nearly as much as many claim. Trump & Witkoff really aren’t mediators: they back Putin’s positions. Yes, the US could end arms supplies to Ukraine, but it seems to have no plans to resume them. EUR now has to step up even more. Won’t be easy

The White House has begun process of looking for new secretary of defense The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

BREAKING NEWS: The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Trump administration is coming to realize that Vladimir Putin, who blew off its proposal for even a 30-day ceasefire, has no interest in a political settlement, save one that concedes all of Putin’s goals in Ukraine.

Give Russia an A for honesty. How often must it say this before Trump and Witkoff realize that Putin’s territorial claims haven’t changed one iota?

FM Lavrov:

“Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.”

~90% of Apple’s US-bound iPhones are assembled in China. Last year China exported $41 billion worth of smart phones (mostly iPhones) to the US and $40 billion computer exports. So Trump’s recent tariff exemptions on smart phone & computers exports from China are a very big concession.

US ‘demands control’ from Ukraine of key pipeline carrying Russian gas Senior Kyiv economist describes latest postion of Trump administration in talks as ‘colonial-type’ bullying

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Unless the arms sold to Ukraine under Biden required payments of this nature, isn’t the Trump admin. inventing a retroactive contract? And the pipeline would be a UA subsidy to Russia.