rob witts

I think you look great! (as do your friends, and dinner)

a picture of a huge, low, heavy cloud of black oil over Tehran

This is the cloud of oil currently hovering over Tehran, released when the US bombed the city's oil depots. A stew of particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals & volatile organic compounds is raining down into the city right now. 1/2

The Government has tabled an amendment in lieu that would grant Ministers the power to introduce restrictions on children’s use of internet services, following its ongoing consultation on children’s wellbeing. This would give the Government a significant delegated power to legislate in this area, despite the Bill containing very little policy detail explaining how it would work. In practice, the power would allow Ministers to require providers of internet services to impose restrictions on any “specified internet service” for children under a “specified age”. This could extend far beyond social media. In theory, it would allow restrictions on any designated website or category of websites, as well as services such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or AI tools. The amendment provides no detail about the types of restrictions that could be imposed. Restrictions would ultimately be decided by Ministers and implemented through a Statutory Instrument. This would mean that Parliament could not amend the Minster’s decision. Scrutiny would be limited to a short debate followed by a vote to either approve or reject the measure. The proposed provision therefore embodies two undesirable legislative practices. First, it introduces an extensive new power at the final stage of the Bill’s parliamentary passage, when opportunities for debate and amendment are already constrained. Secondly, when Ministers come to exercise that power, the resulting Statutory Instrument would itself be subject to limited scrutiny and could not be amended by Parliament.

Good summary from @hansardsociety.bsky.social on how today's ~the children~ Commons debate on a social media ban for <16s is, regardless of your opinion on the issue, very bad lawmaking and government, rehashing (as I've said) bad ideas which were smacked out of the OSA years ago for a reason.

In London to drive my kids to see Laufey (cos last train home is too early) and we were on a tube with a woman and her 3 dachshunds called Cookie, Donut and Bagel, absolute scenes

This woman, US citizen living in Skokie, was detained at Ohare yesterday, taken to Broadview, then transferred to a detention facility in Wisconsin, now released. We know all this not because of DHS, who repeatedly denied that they even had her, but because her phone was pinging in those locations.

Doing research for next week's episode and learning that Elbit Systems is not just Israel's primary arms manufacturer but one of the largest arms companies in the entire world and thinking about how the British government framed opposition to it as antisemitism against a smol bean Jewish business.

hey @mcmansionhell.bsky.social

holding old timer bats so they can still feel like flappy lads is some real heartwarming stuff

something in my eye rn

These are the 4 things AI can do well:

•Clean up your email inbox (badly)
•Give my shittiest neighbor (Alan) something to talk about at a party
•Tell a 12 yr old to kill himself
•Incinerate a school at 10:16 AM on a Tuesday

You can see why we need to base our economy around it

Thank you!

Yes we can no we didn’t Those who cannot learn from past failures are condemned to repeat them (apologies to Santayana)

I've been fortunate enough to meet many formidably smart, fully committed, & thoroughly decent people who, for years, have strived to try to avert dangerous climate change.

They failed.

Saying that does not lessen my gratitude to them, 1/11

www.technosphere.earth/yes-we-can-n...

I saw the so-called comedy carpet a few weeks ago and it's ok but it's not a carpet?

chalk up another failure for 'bomb them until they overthrow their own government for us' i'm sure it'll work one of these days

adam tickell, who wanted to slay the neoliberal beast but became it instead, a cautionary tale

the best times! have a great day

being kind >> being rif-kind

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

Shabana Mahmood accused of mimicking Trump as she announces asylum plans Home secretary’s proposals to overhaul immigration system include end to permanent refugee status

The Home Secretary has made claims which are not true regarding migrants to push policies which will devastate lives, while increasing exploitation and people forced into becoming undocumented. These are not policies of "fairness", but instead of discrimination.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Hi! Immigration lawyer here! Mahmood's view of the Refugee Convention as providing temporary protection just isn’t correct & AFAIK isn’t one anyone has ever adopted.

On the contrary, the Convention is clearly predicated on a long-term need for protection.
1/🧵

who wore it better

I wonder if on one of the Indian channels some middle-aged comedian is being sent around Britain, getting the Thameslink to St Albans, sampling pey wet in Wigan, poignantly observing that there are homeless folk on the streets even in Knightsbridge, and so forth bsky.app/profile/jack...

Read my accessible analysis of Goodwin v UK – why it still matters, and what the courts are getting wrong – here:

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi | The dry and the wet burn together The war launched against Iran by the United States and Israel is a war of choice and of hubris. There is scarcely even...

The dry and the wet burn together www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

havin assets <<< bein an asset

More than half of Reform UK members believe non-white British citizens born abroad should be deported or encouraged to leave. No different to the old BNP or National Front voters.

Very obviously but if you said this ten years ago, you got wall-to-wall screaming and finger-pointing for being divisive, insulting, ideologically purist and tribalistic. But it was plainly horrible National Front stuff then, just as it is now.

[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]

I think about this take more often than I'd like to.

absolutely disgusting