Patricia Brayden

bsky.app/profile/jame...

💯 this. Bad idea to launch a war when you’re presiding over a divided country, a dysfunctional government staffed by amateurs, and a hollowed out, bureaucracy at home, and have managed to piss off almost every ally abroad. No amount of US military skill can offset this political incompetence.

Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure In his first speech as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out a plan to restore trust. The COVID-19 pandemic saw public faith in Federal health...

Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.".

Don't forget the harm of Covid The Covid Inquiry heard its final statements yesterday

"The scars of the Covid pandemic run deep, a rupture in the relationship hundreds of thousands of citizens have with the state that has never fully healed."

Reflections on the final week of the Covid Inquiry - on what we have learned, and what we try to forget

www.newstatesman.com/politics/hea...

Today, Europe’s energy system is cleaner, much more diverse - and much more stable than a few years ago.

Yet the developments in the Middle East remind us once again of the risks of relying still too much on fossil fuels.

A bunch of puerile frat boys, getting off on killing people. I do not have the vocabulary to express my disgust for this.

Have some emojis. 🤬🤮😡😢🤦‍♀️

The number of commentators/journalists salivating at blaming Starmer for ruining the “special relationship” is genuinely pathetic

If anyone ruined it- if it even really exists- here’s a reminder of who did it.

Every senator who voted to confirm RFK Jr owns this tragedy. Every single one.

Only interview he should have is under caution

Everyone of these posts is superb, but this one is a masterpiece in the uses of detail and subtle emphasis.

One in five children infected in the recent London measles outbreak were reportedly hospitalised.
Don’t believe the anti-vaxxers when they say “it’s a mild disease” or “it’s better to get immunity naturally”.
It isn’t.

BREAKING: politics

We owe it to Epstein’s victims and to British democracy to demand historic change | Gordon Brown The abuse of women by figures such as Epstein, and of political power by the likes of Mandelson, must be confronted. As far as I am able, I will play my part, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brow...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I think, given events across the pond, maybe you need to clarify that and say ‘the worst of all UK attorneys general?’

The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

— W.H. Auden, Sept. 1, 1939

From the official White House account, not realising that penguins are Antarctica not the Arctic.

The White House also saying penguins and Trump have the same sized feet.

Joshua Leakey - Wikipedia

Read this and then try telling me our troops weren’t in the front line en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_...

🚨 BREAKING: Keir Starmer has called on Donald Trump to apologise for his "insulting and frankly appalling" comments about British troops in Afghanistan 👏

United States Completes WHO Withdrawal WASHINGTON —  January 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State today announced the United States’ completion of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.

The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization.

This is a shameful move that puts both Americans and people all over the world at greater risk from disease outbreaks, which require international collaboration to contain.

Ignorant and offensive 🤬

Would someone ask Farage or Badenoch or any of our flag-draped tabloid editors what they would say to the families of the 457 British soldiers who gave their lives in Afghanistan?

Most of the European leaders speak better English than he does

Make it stop, please.

Thank you for bearing witness to this

This image was carved on the orders of an ageing autocrat to show an imaginary version of himself smiting his foes during a wildly exaggerated victory decades earlier.

It’s the kind of thing that unrestrained royal narcissists did thousands of years ago.

U.S. Support for UK and Mauritius Agreement on Chagos Archipelago  - United States Department of State Today, the United States welcomed the historic agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius on the future of the British Indian Ocean Territory—specifically, the Chagos Archipela...

This statement is on US Department of State website.

It includes the following excerpt:

"President Trump expressed his support for the monumental achievement during his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer in the White House."

www.state.gov/u-s-support-...

Dry January is doomed this year isn’t it? Kudos to @cathynewman.bsky.social for not either laughing uncontrollably or just muting her