Chris Bertram

“The gladiators of Italia have slain their white whale at last!” is some quality Colemanball-level commentating

Wow, Italy!

Video: How We Analyzed the Strike on the Iranian School Malachy Browne of our Visual Investigations team describes what satellite imagery and other evidence tell us about who might be responsible for an airstrike on an elementary school in southern Iran. T...

Seems likely that (a) the school was deliberately hit by a "precision" strike by the US or Israel relying on outdated intel and (b) US is more likely responsible than Israel. US didn't deliberately aim at a school, but it deliberately aimed at a building that is now a school and has been for years

We were interviewed as part of the research for the Brexit Couples project, housed at Bristol, report now out: I burst into tears during the interview and apparently that happened fairly often - brexitcouples.ac.uk/publications...

Well, I’m sure THIS passage from Schelling won’t raise any eyebrows during this conflict in my predominantly Middle Eastern classroom on Monday!

“The Unwillingness to Call This Illegal Is a Terrible Mistake”

Five Questions to Oona A. Hathaway

Read it in English here:

verfassungsblog.de/the-unwillin...

And in German here:

verfassungsblog.de/die-weigerun...

That tactics, without a compass, always end with you getting lost, could just as well apply to Morgan McSweeney

Mélenchon ou la stratégie du pire Après des jeux de prononciation visant Jeffrey Epstein puis Raphaël Glucksmann, Jean-Luc Mélenchon se retrouve au cœur d’un malaise grandissant. Sans être explicitement antisémites, ces séquences inte...

"Et la tactique, sans boussole, finit toujours par se perdre."

N Korea, surely.

If I'm guessing correctly, the three remaining ones are India, Pakistan and China.

Two rogue states led by criminals are engaged in a war of aggression against Iran but also against Lebanon. And yet the tone and framing of most news coverage invites us to identify with the aggressors, even if we disagree with the particular action. It is always, tacitly, "us" against the other

‘Illegitimacy tax’: new UK border rules for dual nationals throwing lives into chaos Two women who have lived almost all their lives in UK, but whose British fathers were not married, tell how they are having to battle for British citizenship

Not really about the new border rules, more about how irrationally the UK handles questions of nationality and how pig-headed the Home Office can be. Very distressing cases for the victims.

Quaker Meeting House suffers second Met Police raid For the second time in less than a year, Metropolitan Police officers have raided Westminster Quaker Meeting House, arresting young activists.

Police intelligence once again seems to be a contradiction in terms. The last time they did this, nobody was charged in the end.

True, but the dynamics are different insofar as people get their attention focused on necessary alliances after R1. So not sure about the same effect in practice.

If Labour doesn't want to introduce PR then a French-style 2-round runoff system would at least enable voters to bin the Faragists

There was quite a fashion for short books a few years ago: Polity/Wiley did some (I published one with them) and Palgrave did their Pivot series

Home Office may forcibly remove child asylum seekers from UK in handcuffs Move is part of scheme to target families for expedited voluntary removals before enforced removal proceedings

“Are we … the baddies?” ask a few Labour MPs.

Cruelty to immigrants is not what my party stands for. It’s time for True Labour, not Blue Labour | Stella Creasy We must get back to the party’s roots before it is too late. That means embracing difference, rejecting division – and fighting for opportunities for all, says MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy

Nice to know that there are still a few Labour MPs with principles, such as @stellacreasy.bsky.social. But like Cassandra their warnings will be ignored and Labour’s leaders will blame everyone but themselves for what follows

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

Ghastly stuff. And though Mahmood herself is terrible, successive PMs have chosen Home Secretaries from minority backgrounds (Javid, Patel, Braverman, Cleverly, Mahmood) to deflect anti-racist criticism of objectively racist policies

There’s been a murder…

Congratulations!

Report shows UK-EU couples face 'arduous' system post-Brexit A study finds post-Brexit visa requirements for EU nationals has led to separations and trauma.

Excellent research from Katharine Charsley and her team. The Home Office has been sitting on the MAC MIR recommendations for months and has done, nothing.

Library scene (Wings Of Desire 1987) YouTube video by Elza Gvelesiani

World Book Day

Because being opposed to Trump's war makes you a supporter of the Iranian regime? Disgusting stuff, but they do it every time.

Iran Calls Torpedoing of Ship by U.S. an ‘Atrocity’

Reminiscent of the sinking of the Belgrano, also an atrocity

Saw Le belle Hélène in 2024: French G&S isn't it?

Gen Z Beowulf Beowulf, a new prose translation into Gen Z. - - -Fam. The Spear-Danes in, like, pre-Boomer days And the kings who ruled them served courage and gr...

"Fam. The Spear-Danes in, like, pre-Boomer days
And the kings who ruled them served courage and greatness, straight facts.
We have heard of these princes’ GOAT campaigns"

Rétropédaler is an excellent verb

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Just his pick-up line, I suppose.