This video appears to confirm it was a Russian air-defense missile — not a Ukrainian drone — that blew up that Moscow refinery’s storage tank today, creating the "flying saucer" footage. (This video was shared on Telegram by Russian military expert Yan Matveev.) https://t.me/arrowsmap/11995
After a deadly drone struck a bus carrying Belarusian youth soccer players in Russia's Bryansk region, Belarus's exiled opposition leader and President Lukashenko agree: don't send your kids to Russia. (Moscow blames Kyiv; Kyiv calls it staged.) https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/06/18/drone-strike-on-youth-soccer-bus-pushes-both-minsk-and-exiled-belarusian-opposition-to-issue-the-same-warning-don-t-go-to-russia
When the Republic Almost Fell
What we can learn from new reporting on how the Trumpists have been contemplating despotism, the fault lines within the regime, and the prospects for a post-Trump MAGA.
My new piece – free to read, no paywall:
https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/71475e17-b44e-43ec-83de-f17533e5bf92
#Finland legalises the introduction, construction, and detonation of nuclear weapons in the name of allowing nuclear sharing, apparently thinking that it's better for Finland to be _certain_ Russia will target them with nuclear weapons than maybe be targeted as then Russia will have less weapons over for the nuclear armed allies of Finland.
This strategy of making yourself a distraction to help your allies is sold as a way to gain more "#deterrence", a slippery concept routinely used in an nonsensical way by military officials when justifying arms racing, discarding humanitarian concerns, and motivating the need to kill people they don't like.
Important development in holding gun industry civilly accountable for their role in gun violence. The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from gun makers who sought to invalidate New York’s statute grounding lawsuits against firearms industry members who create a public nuisance. News report at https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-turns-away-challenge-new-york-firearms-liability-law-rcna349068. Fuller analysis in this 🧵. 1/ #LawFedi
"Latin letters do not hold hands. Arabic letters do.
To understand why every machine since Gutenberg has wrestled this script and mostly lost, you need one structural fact: Arabic is cursive always."
This piece is an exhilarating, eye-opening, outrageous, and very funny tale of the difference between latin letters and Arabic letters, and why printing presses and screen renderers have such a hard time with it.
The Cambridge Whistleblowing Saga
This is an update concerning the Employment tribunal I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
The claimant in the case is Professor Wyn Evans of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. Now that he has finished given evidence, it is now possible to release some of the background publicly. You can read a summary here. If you follow that link you will see reference to this guest post, published on this blog in late 2022:
https://telescoper.blog/2022/11/02/guest-post-the-bullying-of-hannelore/
That old post was carefully anonymised for legal reasons, but it can now be revealed that the Department concerned is, nor surprisingly given the affiliation of the claimant, the Intitute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.
I will refrain from commenting further as the case is ongoing, but you can follow updates here. There is also piece about the case in the Guardian here.
P.S. Yes, it has taken a very long time for the matter to reach a head.
#BullyingAndHarassment #InstituteOfAstronomy #NeilWynEvans #UniversityOfCambridge #WhistleblowingThe #curl project will not accept or otherwise handle any vulnerability reports during the month of July 2026. We call it the curl summer of bliss.
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2026/06/15/curl-summer-of-bliss/
Statsministerns eget friskoleentourage vässar tonen mot journalister (i vanliga fall nöjer han sig med att styra Näringslivets Medieinstitut som granskar journalister som granskat näringslivet). Det är samhällsfarliga personer vi har att göra med. www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/8p...
Thorstensons mejl om reportern...
Skollobbyisten Thorstenson sitter i styrelsen för bolaget som driver "Näringslivets Medieinstitut" vars affärsidé är att ta in pengar från näringslivet (bland annat Hans o Barbara Bergström) och granska journalister som granskar näringslivet (bland annat skolkoncerner). Lyssna på podden.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jpjmnu6x2h7gq7uvi4whpavk/post/3moaabcnxtc2u
KPMG issued a report citing all the transformational ways GenAI has transformed industry, it’s been widely cited.
One minor problem: it turns they used AI to write the report, and it made up all of the evidence.
KPMG have now withdrawn the report in full.
https://www.ft.com/content/b3828e92-4961-4b39-84f0-c42f33be3c3f
”Skolkoncernen Academedia har infört ett nytt prestationsprogram för sina chefer, som till 90 procent styrs av ekonomiska mål kring bland annat aktiekurs och vinstutveckling. Inget av målen tar upp den pedagogiska kvaliteten på själva verksamheten.” www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/acad...
Not sure what this account will be about, mostly boosting things I find interesting.