Peter Holmes

Pentagon Blocks Photojournalists From Iran War Briefings After 'Unflattering' Pete Hegseth Photos Report Only Defense Department photographers have been allowed into subsequent briefings, the Washington Post reports

Wannabe tough-guy Pete Hegseth is apparently too fragile to allow unflattering photographs of himself. Not sure whether this is about a bad hair day, a makeup snafu, or revelations that his bluster makes him present like a hidden image in a Georgia O’Keefe painting.

It does feel like Britain and Europe are like drivers slowing down to watch a crash on the other side of the motorway. Meanwhile a Ukrainian car on the hard shoulder is waving for help as the engine is on fire.

CBS: Trump said yesterday for the first time that he had to strike Iran because he thought Iran would strike the US within 7 days. Where is he getting that?

LEAVITT: This was a feeling the president had based on facts

Maybe I'm wrong about this but isn't this one of the more universally true and well-known things about bombing? Strategic bombing very famously did not break the morale of either Germany or England in WW2!

Jim Cramer suggests on CNBC that Trump could “bomb Tehran into the Stone Age” until Iran reopens the strait, citing U.S. bombings of North Vietnam in the 1970s. Carl Quintanilla points out to him that Hanoi won that war.

When Churchill was PM they printed a new £5 note and it didn't have any historical figure on it. So he must have been a TRAITOR who HATED HIS COUNTRY.

This very straight news piece buried deep within the FT never uses words like corruption or insider dealing but every detail is quietly devastating. Why is the FT virtually alone in the UK media in covering this important story?

Arizona Is Now at the Center of Election Investigations Both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are probing the results of the 2020 election in Arizona.

Exclusive: HSI, a branch of DHS that usually investigates drug cartels and human-trafficking networks, is probing the 2020 election results in Arizona, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Sarah Fitzpatrick, and Nick Miroff report.

It will always be tragically ironic that the only member state to leave the EU was the one that should have *most* appreciated the greater benefits & value of being a customs union, a single market of regulations/standards & a "Schengen" (& indeed a political union) across multiple nations.

International recruitment and the NHS post-Brexit - UK in a changing Europe Vilija Vėlyvytė looks at the use of overseas recruitment in the NHS since Brexit and argues that it should be a key...

🏥 "It is clear that there is no quick fix to the UK’s health and care workforce crisis. What should be resisted is the tendency to frame international recruitment as problematic in itself."

✍️ @vvelyvyte.bsky.social on international recruitment in the NHS post-Brexit

🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/internationa...

This is the guy who likes to downplay non-fatal injuries suffered by US service members in combat.

Vance Puts MAGA Ideology Above All Else For the vice president, even white nationalists who target his Indian American wife don't merit disavowal

Vance's wife is the daughter of immigrants. They have mixed-race children and a mixed-religion family. He spends every single day agitating for a society that treats people like them as undesirable foreigners who should be deported.

Nigel Farage accused of U-turn as he says UK should keep out of Iran war Reform leader’s latest comment contrasts with earlier statement that ‘gloves need to come off’

🐩 Seems like someone has finally realised that Brit's don't want to be Trump's lapdog...

Once upon a time, MAGA promised no more wars in the Middle East and a focus on strategic confrontation with China.
The President just told his press conference he was fighting a war in the Middle East, partially to secure China’s oil supplies.
Hope everyone is keeping up.

“We cannot go back to a world where might makes right — where any nation can invade, bomb or destabilize another country for any reason they choose. That mentality leaves all of us, and future generations, increasingly unsafe” @sanders.senate.gov 👍

At the turn of the millennium, 2.2 billion people in the world lived in extreme poverty. In international statistics, this means they survived on less than $3 per day (in today’s money).

In the two decades that followed, this number more than halved. You can see this decline in the chart.

The @cato.org institute, a libertarian think tank, is out with a major new research study showing that immigrants, both legal and illegal, contribute significantly more in taxes than they receive in public benefits.
www.cato.org/white-paper/...

Look, I'm just saying that when the Govt sends out Mike Tapp to defend their immigration Reforms, they may not be sending their best

This was the point Starmer implied in his answer to Badenoch on this at last PMQs. My sense is that she & others have the idea (if so, an especially strange one for a Conservative) that NS oil is 'ours' and that, as such, UK consumers have first dibs on it at a price capped by the government.

Opinion | There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America. Oil disruption benefits Russia, as does less U.S. aid for Ukraine. And Iran distracts from China.

China is manufacturing roughly 70% of the world’s EVs, 80 percent of smart phones, 80% of lithium-ion batteries, and 90% of drones.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is spending tens of billions of dollars to bomb the Iranian regime to smithereens. wapo.st/4ui9QzJ

While Americans spent the weekend watching gas prices rise because of his illegal war with Iran, Donald Trump spent the weekend golfing.

America’s sons and daughters are being put in harms way because of his rogue and reckless actions, and this is how he is spending his time.

Opinion | There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America. Oil disruption benefits Russia, as does less U.S. aid for Ukraine. And Iran distracts from China.

It’s too soon to tell who will win the war between the United States and Iran. But, at this point, my money would be on Russia and China. wapo.st/4ui9QzJ

Farage misses out on Trump meeting as their relationship cools British populist politician aimed to reinforce his view about the UK’s Chagos Islands deal in conversation with US president

Farage misses out on Trump meeting as their relationship cools

w/ @annasophiegross.bsky.social & @joemillerjr.ft.com

www.ft.com/content/9391...

Govt confident enough about SPS negotiations to be starting to engage with businesses about preparing

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Any chance of us joining EU agencies such as EASA and EFSA, along with EEA & CH?

Very big deal but I fear there may be a Catch-22 here.

We have to align to be able to hope for closer cooperation, notably Mutual Recognition of Conformity Assessment.

But the closer we align the less the EU needs to offer the UK an MRCA deal from a trade perspective, as we are open to them.

The impact of Brexit on immigration to the UK A new analysis finds that Brexit raised the number of foreign-born workers in the UK by about 200,000, but resulted in a more dramatic shift in the countries of origin.

New research by me @jdportes.bsky.social: we find that the end of free movement and the new immigration regime rather modestly raised the number of foreign-born workers in Britain – by about 200,000 in 2024. Thread. www.cer.eu/insights/imp...

Thanks to Private Eye for mentioning my scrutiny of FirstPort - we need a far better deal for residents paying property management fees.

A fake account posing as a 13-year-old girl gained 5,000 friends and 6,700 followers – mostly adult men. #Meta’s response? Invite her to switch to a professional account and start monetising. The account was created by the New Mexico Attorney General to test the platform. The behaviour was real.