AlixB
@abnotfab.bsky.social
We are having the time of our lives.
Banner picture is of an installation by Superflex in the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia.
Banner picture is of an installation by Superflex in the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia.
Reposted by AlixB
It's part of the electionification of everything, which is why we as a country are failing to have a proper conversation about our actual problems. It's bad for the left *and* the right.
It's such a bizarre framing. Labour MPs think taking 450k kids out of poverty is putting the country first! That's why they wanted it to happen! It's not because they personally benefit.
Headline on The World at One just now:
"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".
Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
"Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap".
Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?
November 27, 2025 at 10:17 PM
It's part of the electionification of everything, which is why we as a country are failing to have a proper conversation about our actual problems. It's bad for the left *and* the right.
Reposted by AlixB
Putin's plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Cartoon by Michael de Adder
Cartoon by Michael de Adder
November 27, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Putin's plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Cartoon by Michael de Adder
Cartoon by Michael de Adder
Reposted by AlixB
this is amazing news - the HPV vaccine promises to eliminate cervical cancer in countries where uptake is high.
November 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
this is amazing news - the HPV vaccine promises to eliminate cervical cancer in countries where uptake is high.
Reposted by AlixB
Some good news: Cycling journeys up by 43% in London, report finds www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cycling journeys up by 43% in London, TfL report suggests
Cycling journeys have increased to more than 1.5 million daily this year, according to a new report.
www.bbc.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Some good news: Cycling journeys up by 43% in London, report finds www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by AlixB
The entrance to the 3-storey bike parking garage at Utrecht Central holding 12,500 bicycles. It’s free for the first 24 hours, linked to the station, and used by tens of thousands every day. This is what happens when a country treats bikes as real transport infrastructure, not an afterthought.
November 22, 2025 at 7:08 PM
The entrance to the 3-storey bike parking garage at Utrecht Central holding 12,500 bicycles. It’s free for the first 24 hours, linked to the station, and used by tens of thousands every day. This is what happens when a country treats bikes as real transport infrastructure, not an afterthought.
Reposted by AlixB
👇
Extraordinary, ufb, a European citizen basically subject to US law in Europe!
Extraordinary, ufb, a European citizen basically subject to US law in Europe!
![Social media screenshot:
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe.
Le Monde has a long article describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.
He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.
That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are:
- punishing a European citizen
- for doing his job in Europe
- applying laws Europe officially supports
- at an institution based in Europe
- that Europe helped create and fund
and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil.
Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic
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November 21, 2025 at 11:26 PM
👇
Extraordinary, ufb, a European citizen basically subject to US law in Europe!
Extraordinary, ufb, a European citizen basically subject to US law in Europe!
Reposted by AlixB
We don’t need another delegation of European leaders flying off to Washington to kiss Trump’s ring now. We need them to get on the train to Kyiv and stand shoulder to shoulder with Zelenskyy.
November 21, 2025 at 7:39 PM
We don’t need another delegation of European leaders flying off to Washington to kiss Trump’s ring now. We need them to get on the train to Kyiv and stand shoulder to shoulder with Zelenskyy.
Reposted by AlixB
Reposted by AlixB
As I slipped and slid along slushy and icy pavements on my way to the metro, it feels like it’s worth resharing the story of how Swedish cities flipped the order of snow clearance as they reflected on how gendered normal practices were:
usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/w...
usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/w...
Why Sweden Clears Snow-Covered Walkways Before Roads — Streetsblog USA
It's part of "gender-balanced" policy that reflects the fact that women walk more than men.
usa.streetsblog.org
November 20, 2025 at 11:55 AM
As I slipped and slid along slushy and icy pavements on my way to the metro, it feels like it’s worth resharing the story of how Swedish cities flipped the order of snow clearance as they reflected on how gendered normal practices were:
usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/w...
usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/w...
Reposted by AlixB
Staunching the flow of local authority public assets into private hands should have been one of the top priorities of an incoming Labour government. When it’s gone, it’s gone 😢
At what point will Labour politicians, locally and nationally, really start to push back against the endless underfunding of local authorities?
We know what damage this does, and how it will verberate into our futures.
How is there not louder, insistent opposition to this?
We know what damage this does, and how it will verberate into our futures.
How is there not louder, insistent opposition to this?
English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books
Survey finds 60% of key cities councils are planning to sell assets to meet costs of adult and children’s social care
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Staunching the flow of local authority public assets into private hands should have been one of the top priorities of an incoming Labour government. When it’s gone, it’s gone 😢
Reposted by AlixB
Looking forward to the “Reform’s war on motorists” headlines.
November 17, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Looking forward to the “Reform’s war on motorists” headlines.
Reposted by AlixB
Reposted by AlixB
Reposted by AlixB
I know that some blue Labour advisors will be saying — “Great, the remainers are remoaning. The Metrosexual metropolitan elites are squirming. We‘re owning the libs”.
But guys. You ARE the libs. You won’t ever replace Farage. You’ve just sabotaging yourselves by blowing up your base
But guys. You ARE the libs. You won’t ever replace Farage. You’ve just sabotaging yourselves by blowing up your base
What is it about the Home Office which inculcates in Home Secretaries (going back to Blunkett and May) this performative cruelty?
And where is any evidence it works?
Other than amping up xenophobia does borrowing Trump’s ICE rhetoric actually it have any deterrence effect?
And where is any evidence it works?
Other than amping up xenophobia does borrowing Trump’s ICE rhetoric actually it have any deterrence effect?
November 17, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I know that some blue Labour advisors will be saying — “Great, the remainers are remoaning. The Metrosexual metropolitan elites are squirming. We‘re owning the libs”.
But guys. You ARE the libs. You won’t ever replace Farage. You’ve just sabotaging yourselves by blowing up your base
But guys. You ARE the libs. You won’t ever replace Farage. You’ve just sabotaging yourselves by blowing up your base
Reposted by AlixB
She is correct
Labour MP Olivia Blake tells Shabana Mahmood that her rhetoric about asylum seekers being handed a "golden ticket" is "deeply offensive" and "feeds division" "and will only strengthen Reform not beat them".
November 17, 2025 at 7:39 PM
She is correct
Reposted by AlixB
Starmer’s anti-asylum policies show how utterly clueless he is about the right-wing media’s role in politics.
He’s trying to fix a “problem” contrived by Farage, GB News and The Telegraph. He’ll never win, because ultimately he’s fighting a ghost – he’s fighting something that doesn’t really exist
He’s trying to fix a “problem” contrived by Farage, GB News and The Telegraph. He’ll never win, because ultimately he’s fighting a ghost – he’s fighting something that doesn’t really exist
November 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Starmer’s anti-asylum policies show how utterly clueless he is about the right-wing media’s role in politics.
He’s trying to fix a “problem” contrived by Farage, GB News and The Telegraph. He’ll never win, because ultimately he’s fighting a ghost – he’s fighting something that doesn’t really exist
He’s trying to fix a “problem” contrived by Farage, GB News and The Telegraph. He’ll never win, because ultimately he’s fighting a ghost – he’s fighting something that doesn’t really exist
Reposted by AlixB
On today's World Day of Remembrance for Road Victims it is worth noting that in the two years since Wales implemented a national default 20mph (32km/h) there have been 25% fewer casualties on such roads with over 1,000 fewer people killed or injured. youtu.be/efr3uVKpOwY
UN World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims - Theme: Remember. Support. Act. - English
youtu.be
November 16, 2025 at 8:01 AM
On today's World Day of Remembrance for Road Victims it is worth noting that in the two years since Wales implemented a national default 20mph (32km/h) there have been 25% fewer casualties on such roads with over 1,000 fewer people killed or injured. youtu.be/efr3uVKpOwY
Reposted by AlixB
It’s wild that you can just openly bribe the President of the United States with chunks of gold to get
whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.
whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.
"It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it." said one administration official.
How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab
How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.
www.axios.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
It’s wild that you can just openly bribe the President of the United States with chunks of gold to get
whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.
whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.
Reposted by AlixB
The levy on foreign students is an export tax. Has anyone in government wondered why countries don't usually impose export taxes?
A levy on foreign students is one of the closest things you're going to see to tariffs on services - except the UK will be putting it on its own exports...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Levy on international students’ tuition fees not in best interest of UK, says leader of top university
Duncan Ivison, president of Manchester University, says government’s 6% surcharge plan will ‘hurt the sector’
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:45 AM
The levy on foreign students is an export tax. Has anyone in government wondered why countries don't usually impose export taxes?
Reposted by AlixB
The government just keeps doubling down on the strategy that’s taken it to genuinely historical unpopularity ever harder.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
the video goes on and on about illegal immigration and yet the new proposal will target legal migration by confirmed refugees
November 15, 2025 at 10:49 AM
The government just keeps doubling down on the strategy that’s taken it to genuinely historical unpopularity ever harder.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
The horse will be flogged until it sprints.
Reposted by AlixB
“The rise in high-fronted SUVs poses a clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children,” states the report. “With no benefit to society, it’s time for lawmakers at all levels to act.” Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com.
Cap SUV/truck hood heights. And ban unsafe designs.
Cap SUV/truck hood heights. And ban unsafe designs.
EU Must Cap SUV Hood Heights Urges Report. Crash Test Body Says Not As Simple As That
Higher fronts on cars significantly increase the death rate when pedestrians and cyclists are struck, says new report. EuroNCAP says more complex than that.
www.forbes.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:18 AM
“The rise in high-fronted SUVs poses a clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children,” states the report. “With no benefit to society, it’s time for lawmakers at all levels to act.” Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com.
Cap SUV/truck hood heights. And ban unsafe designs.
Cap SUV/truck hood heights. And ban unsafe designs.
Reposted by AlixB
Solar is once again seeing RECORD growth, generating more in the first three quarters of 2025 than in all of 2024.
☀️ has become the biggest driver of change in the global power sector, with growth three times larger than any other source of electricity.
#COP30 https://loom.ly/AK3Fn3I
☀️ has become the biggest driver of change in the global power sector, with growth three times larger than any other source of electricity.
#COP30 https://loom.ly/AK3Fn3I
November 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Solar is once again seeing RECORD growth, generating more in the first three quarters of 2025 than in all of 2024.
☀️ has become the biggest driver of change in the global power sector, with growth three times larger than any other source of electricity.
#COP30 https://loom.ly/AK3Fn3I
☀️ has become the biggest driver of change in the global power sector, with growth three times larger than any other source of electricity.
#COP30 https://loom.ly/AK3Fn3I
Reposted by AlixB
Trump appears in the Epstein files more than anyone else.
More than ANYONE ELSE.
More than ANYONE ELSE.
This is cool. COURIER has created a searchable database with all 20,000 of the files just released from Epstein’s estate.
Trump's name appears in them more than anyone else, in 1,628 documents.
couriernewsroom.com/news/we-crea...
Trump's name appears in them more than anyone else, in 1,628 documents.
couriernewsroom.com/news/we-crea...
We created a searchable database with all 20,000 files from Epstein’s Estate
Easily find every mention of Trump, Clinton, blackmail, and potential sex crimes in the thousands of private messages between Epstein and his close associates.
couriernewsroom.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Trump appears in the Epstein files more than anyone else.
More than ANYONE ELSE.
More than ANYONE ELSE.
Reposted by AlixB
FYI: The BBC has revealed the charities #TheCelebrityTraitors were all competing for, with links so that you can donate.
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
FYI: The BBC has revealed the charities #TheCelebrityTraitors were all competing for, with links so that you can donate.
Reposted by AlixB
Serbia's export miracle... to Kyrgyzstan.
November 14, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Serbia's export miracle... to Kyrgyzstan.