leicsmac

Fair to say. Could say it's Leicester-Forest happening every week, but then people couldn't get enough of Federer-Nadal when it seemed to happen every single Grand Slam tournament.

The two Lukes face off in the final once again. Fitting, they are the two best players in the world.

Remember reading about this when it happened. As you say, the sheer level of hypocrisy would be hilarious were it not so consequential for a lot of decent people now and a lot more later.

Bit daft, really. It's pre-Revolution of 1917 Russia that's in vogue there now, not post-Revolution.

I know I'd get turned around at the airport for being overly sarcastic to the immigration official right now anyway

https://archive.is/DjtiZ Marco Rubio has announced US visa restrictions for foreigners “who are complicit in censoring Americans”. In a post on X, the US secretary of state said that “for too long, Americans have been fined, harassed and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights”. Foreigners who “undermine” those rights, he said, “should not enjoy the privilege of travelling to our country”. Rubio added: “Even as we take action to reject censorship at home, we see troubling instances of foreign governments and foreign officials picking up the slack. In some instances, foreign officials have taken flagrant censorship actions against US tech companies and US citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so. “Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil.” Rubio’s announcement comes as Samuel Samson, a senior state department aide, accused Britain and other countries in Europe of becoming “a hotbed of digital censorship, mass migration, restrictions on religious freedom, and numerous other assaults on democratic self-governance”. The arrogant self importance, to say nothing of the hypocrisy (for one, by "religious freedom" they mean freedom of Evangelical and Baptist Christianity with the associated right to view women as breeding stock, not any other religion), is rather staggering.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg41g1140po Prosecutors in the UK have confirmed for the first time they have authorised 21 charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. The Crown Prosecution Service said that it had authorised the charges against the brothers before an extradition warrant was issued in 2024 to bring them back from Romania. The two British-Americans are under investigation in Romania, facing a number of charges, which they deny - and the CPS said "the domestic criminal matters in Romania must be settled first." The CPS's charging decision came after it received a file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police about allegations made in the UK. The CPS said Andrew Tate, a 38-year-old influencer and former kickboxer, faces 10 charges connected to three alleged victims, including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain. Tristan Tate, 36, faces 11 charges connected to one alleged victim, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. Hopefully, at some point, these two will see the inside of a jail cell. For a long time.

It stands to reason that a sentient species capable of cruelty (such as cats) are also capable of suffering from psychological trauma. That being said, fvck them on this one - the more other wildlife is offered protection from them, the better.

Fair points made. I think overall the bolded is the main thing that needs to be emphasised to Farage and those who pay too much heed to him.

It's a long time since they've taken this many attempts to get something totally right, though. That being said, they are now moving into rocket engineering that is higher in terms of power - and therefore complexity - than anything our species has done before.

Reasonably clear example of tech being patently unready to anticipate all the situations a human can and is needed to. Wonder if it's cost them more money in terms of implementing the tech and through losses from shoplifting etc than it's saved them in terms of staff reduction.

Not a great showing on Starship Flight 9. That's three bad goes in a row.

If we're talking solely about migration, then there's certainly a conversation to be had there. However, going back to the original point, I think Farage was speaking in general terms, unless I'm mistaken about the context. That's a rather different matter, IMO.

Canada, Oz, NZ, all of Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile... That's off the top of my head in terms of places that could claim to be more tolerant and accepting than the UK. This also does highlight that being a "larger nation" (often) goes hand in hand with abusing that power, whether at home, abroad, or both. We'll have to see what share of the vote Reform get next time round to be sure of comparisons there, I think. They're polling at over 20% themselves.

... or any comment section on any BBC article. Even the apparently non controversial ones.

I don't know, self-aggrandising appears to be in vogue right now, if the actions of Farages leashholder across the pond are any judge.

Tbf he did do his best to bully Zelenskyy into giving Putin everything he wants. Clearly that didn't work.

.... apparently.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/documents-show-us-epa-wants-erase-greenhouse-gas-limits-power-plants-nyt-reports-2025-05-24/ WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed on Saturday that it was drafting a plan to eliminate all limits on greenhouse gases from coal and gas-fired power plants in the United States and would be published after interagency review. "Many have voiced concerns that the last administration's replacement for that rule is similarly overreaching and an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States, raising prices for American families, and increasing the country's reliance on foreign forms of energy," a spokesperson for the agency said. "As part of this reconsideration, EPA is developing a proposed rule." The draft plan was first reported by the New York Times, which said the EPA argued in its proposed regulation that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels "do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution" or to climate change because they are a small and declining share of global emissions. The EPA also said that eliminating those emissions would have no meaningful effect on public health and welfare, the report added. According to the United Nations, fossil fuels are by far the largest contributors to global warming, accounting for more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. Blood, really meet hands.

And all of this plays into the argument that our tech development in general is proceeding far, far faster than our ethical understanding of how it can be utilised. Which does have the possibility to have some very, very scary outcomes.

It is odd - why do this at all when there appears to be no downside whatsoever to including those bricks?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. (Not that we'll have any icebergs in the near future due to the blatant ignorance of scientific policy by people like Trump.)

I know what you mean, but my own experience of the social climate over there makes me think this is mostly genuinely a rather quirky way of ensuring electoral fairness.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyggex25v6o In other news, a bit of oddity from the other side of the world leading up to the election there.

Farage and other blokes like Douglas Murray are the "officer class", as it were. Doesn't stop their ideas for the future being any less toxic to that same future, though. I wonder if the British security services are doing anything to forment discord alongside in such parties along class lines, ala that one episode of Spooks.