Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
@ratanvaswani.bsky.social
Interested in languages, travel, cinema, books, visual arts…but mainly here for politics. Русский военный корабль иди нахуй
It’s a great headache to have. England look much more like credible contenders to win the World Cup than I can ever recall. Can they beat Spain, Argentina or France? Not a definite ‘nah, no chance’.
November 14, 2025 at 11:51 AM
It’s a great headache to have. England look much more like credible contenders to win the World Cup than I can ever recall. Can they beat Spain, Argentina or France? Not a definite ‘nah, no chance’.
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
Then I get back to the UK to see the tankies & the genocide deniers & the victim blamers & those advocating occupation as peace and remember what Orwell said … to be a pacifist in a war like this is to be on the side of fascism
November 14, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Then I get back to the UK to see the tankies & the genocide deniers & the victim blamers & those advocating occupation as peace and remember what Orwell said … to be a pacifist in a war like this is to be on the side of fascism
Not an economist but if you freeze thresholds that’s effectively squeezing more tax from working people, right? If you suggest to bond markets that headline rates will go up and abruptly decide not to, that’s not the clarity and stability they’re after, right?
Rachel Reeves to abandon plans to raise income tax rates in budget
Labour had laid the ground to break a manifesto pledge on taxes for working people but has now made a U-turn
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Not an economist but if you freeze thresholds that’s effectively squeezing more tax from working people, right? If you suggest to bond markets that headline rates will go up and abruptly decide not to, that’s not the clarity and stability they’re after, right?
This is straight-up Nazi stuff. This monster will be President if - as is likely - the current child rapist monster doesn’t make it to the end of his term.
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
This is straight-up Nazi stuff. This monster will be President if - as is likely - the current child rapist monster doesn’t make it to the end of his term.
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if Trump launches a ‘special military operation’ on Venezuela or elsewhere as distraction from the Epstein thing. My big fear with this imbecile lunatic is that at some point in his presidency he launches nukes - he really doesn’t care if millions die.
November 13, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if Trump launches a ‘special military operation’ on Venezuela or elsewhere as distraction from the Epstein thing. My big fear with this imbecile lunatic is that at some point in his presidency he launches nukes - he really doesn’t care if millions die.
Thatcher v ‘wets’, Blair v Brown, Brexit nutters v anyone with a brain, the Johnson years… UK politics always gets mired in tedia. I guess it’s easier for Prime Ministers to deal with court intrigue than address the country’s actual needs.
November 13, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Thatcher v ‘wets’, Blair v Brown, Brexit nutters v anyone with a brain, the Johnson years… UK politics always gets mired in tedia. I guess it’s easier for Prime Ministers to deal with court intrigue than address the country’s actual needs.
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
I simply refuse to accept that police ever have to look like this. this is just pure cosplay. it should be illegal for cops to be dressed like soldiers going to war.
November 13, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I simply refuse to accept that police ever have to look like this. this is just pure cosplay. it should be illegal for cops to be dressed like soldiers going to war.
Listen, 10 S, if whoever did it doesn’t have the guts to fess up, it’s detention for the whole class.
November 13, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Listen, 10 S, if whoever did it doesn’t have the guts to fess up, it’s detention for the whole class.
This is so deeply sad. It’s about people in their 60s without a place of their own having to rent. I have a friend in that situation. All our conversations are heartbreaking ones about loneliness and poverty.
The rapid rise of renters in their 60s: ‘I hate the idea of house-sharing – but I have no choice’
It is often assumed that people of retirement age will no longer have housing costs to cover. But for a significant and growing group, this is far from the case
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:04 AM
This is so deeply sad. It’s about people in their 60s without a place of their own having to rent. I have a friend in that situation. All our conversations are heartbreaking ones about loneliness and poverty.
Morning.
As night follows day, the +2.6 world we’re creating is one in which agriculture is no longer viable in Europe, the monsoons fail in Asia and civilisation as we have known it ends.
As night follows day, the +2.6 world we’re creating is one in which agriculture is no longer viable in Europe, the monsoons fail in Asia and civilisation as we have known it ends.
World still on track for catastrophic 2.6C temperature rise, report finds
Fossil fuel emissions have hit a record high while many nations have done too little to avert deadly global heating
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Morning.
As night follows day, the +2.6 world we’re creating is one in which agriculture is no longer viable in Europe, the monsoons fail in Asia and civilisation as we have known it ends.
As night follows day, the +2.6 world we’re creating is one in which agriculture is no longer viable in Europe, the monsoons fail in Asia and civilisation as we have known it ends.
Mmh hmm…
The Kremlin disguised a nearly $100 mn payment to Trump in the form of a brokered real estate deal... and both Jeffrey Epstein and William Pulte were involved in the deal. That's very interesting.
November 12, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Mmh hmm…
Doing my nightly check in with the news… and looks like maybe yeah, this time, it’s this latest avalanche of evidence of collusion with and probably participation in child sex trafficking that will finally bury Trump.🤞🏽
November 12, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Doing my nightly check in with the news… and looks like maybe yeah, this time, it’s this latest avalanche of evidence of collusion with and probably participation in child sex trafficking that will finally bury Trump.🤞🏽
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
Over 11,000 people, mostly women and children, are missing in Gaza. The vast majority of them are likely dead. That puts the total number of Palestinians killed directly in Gaza at over 80,000.
www.972mag.com/search-gaza-...
www.972mag.com/search-gaza-...
The search for Gaza's missing
Over 11,000 Palestinians have disappeared since Oct. 7. Relatives don’t know if they’re dead or alive, under rubble or in prison.
www.972mag.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Over 11,000 people, mostly women and children, are missing in Gaza. The vast majority of them are likely dead. That puts the total number of Palestinians killed directly in Gaza at over 80,000.
www.972mag.com/search-gaza-...
www.972mag.com/search-gaza-...
Have to say, the court intrigue and gossip across the realm is much less juicy under Labour than the much more internecine, regicidal Tories. Dominic Cummings’ feud with, first, Carrie Johnson and then King Oaf himself was proper 🍿. McSweeney vs Streeting? Meh.
November 12, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Have to say, the court intrigue and gossip across the realm is much less juicy under Labour than the much more internecine, regicidal Tories. Dominic Cummings’ feud with, first, Carrie Johnson and then King Oaf himself was proper 🍿. McSweeney vs Streeting? Meh.
Very good thread. The conclusion here is so blindingly simple as to sound banal but it’s one this government seems unable to accept. Forget the 4-D chess, play skittles.
The only margin Labour are currently at is the marginal of survival. By focusing on a few tactically important constituencies they are missing the overall strategy - govern well, govern clearly, and in the broad interest of your overall voting base. n/n
benansell.substack.com/p/labour-at-...
benansell.substack.com/p/labour-at-...
Labour at the Margin...
...of survival
benansell.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Very good thread. The conclusion here is so blindingly simple as to sound banal but it’s one this government seems unable to accept. Forget the 4-D chess, play skittles.
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
"He doesn't care if he wins or not. The point is to intimidate and punish those he views as critical to him."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Trump vs the BBC: What hurdles might the president's legal argument face?
If he were to bring a defamation case in Florida, experts say he would need to prove three major components.
www.bbc.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:36 AM
"He doesn't care if he wins or not. The point is to intimidate and punish those he views as critical to him."
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
And so it begins.
November 12, 2025 at 8:43 AM
And so it begins.
Rafael Behr links the prison crisis with the one at the BBC to show how public buy-in for collective institutions and funding for them are under threat. I increasingly worry that our democracy will follow that of the US, and crumble.
There’s a missing link in British public life – and it underpins crises from the BBC to our prisons | Rafael Behr
A declining sense of collective identity is corroding trust in our institutions and undermining democratic politics, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Rafael Behr links the prison crisis with the one at the BBC to show how public buy-in for collective institutions and funding for them are under threat. I increasingly worry that our democracy will follow that of the US, and crumble.
En Fanfare (Emmanuel Courcol, France, 2024). Ce film touchant, ponctué d'humour, explore avec finesse les thèmes de la classe sociale, de la famille, de l'identité, des opportunités et du destin. Pierre Lottin et Benjamin Lavernhe sont magnifiques dans les rôles de deux frères musiciens. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
November 11, 2025 at 10:37 PM
En Fanfare (Emmanuel Courcol, France, 2024). Ce film touchant, ponctué d'humour, explore avec finesse les thèmes de la classe sociale, de la famille, de l'identité, des opportunités et du destin. Pierre Lottin et Benjamin Lavernhe sont magnifiques dans les rôles de deux frères musiciens. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Amo la conversazione conviviale con i madrelingua della tua lingua ‘target’. La mia parola preferita pronunciata dai nostri ospiti italiani era "lapalissiano", la cui origine è interessante e vale la pena cercarla su Google. La loro parola inglese preferita era "pottering" - molto British! #langsky
November 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Amo la conversazione conviviale con i madrelingua della tua lingua ‘target’. La mia parola preferita pronunciata dai nostri ospiti italiani era "lapalissiano", la cui origine è interessante e vale la pena cercarla su Google. La loro parola inglese preferita era "pottering" - molto British! #langsky
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
Un estudio con datos de miles de personas revela que el multilingüismo se asocia con un efecto protector contra el envejecimiento: hablar varios idiomas protege al cerebro del deterioro cognitivo elpais.com/ciencia/2025-11...
Hablar varios idiomas protege al cerebro del deterioro cognitivo por el paso del tiempo
Un estudio con datos de miles de personas revela que el multilingüismo se asocia con un efecto protector contra el envejecimiento
elpais.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Un estudio con datos de miles de personas revela que el multilingüismo se asocia con un efecto protector contra el envejecimiento: hablar varios idiomas protege al cerebro del deterioro cognitivo elpais.com/ciencia/2025-11...
Reposted by Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦
Trump's White House & fawning hacks here don't really care about the 0.001% that the BBC gets wrong. They care about all the stuff it gets right.
November 11, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Trump's White House & fawning hacks here don't really care about the 0.001% that the BBC gets wrong. They care about all the stuff it gets right.
Hopeless. The BBC has apologised for clumsy editing. The UK government should now defend the BBC as an institution not urge it to kowtow to the imbecile tyrant.
November 11, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Hopeless. The BBC has apologised for clumsy editing. The UK government should now defend the BBC as an institution not urge it to kowtow to the imbecile tyrant.
The BBC should definitely stand its ground. But not necessarily or primarily in law. In a Trump-leaning US court, Trump might not suffer a clear-cut defeat. And crucially, I’m not at all sure this Trump-appeasing UK government would back the BBC - as it should - in its hour of need.
If that case is winnable, and there is good reason to believe it is, the BBC should fight it.
With his threat of a $1bn lawsuit against BBC, Trump’s assault on the media goes global
November 11, 2025 at 8:48 AM
The BBC should definitely stand its ground. But not necessarily or primarily in law. In a Trump-leaning US court, Trump might not suffer a clear-cut defeat. And crucially, I’m not at all sure this Trump-appeasing UK government would back the BBC - as it should - in its hour of need.
Gaby Hinsliff raises the interesting prospect of the Greens overtaking Labour in the polls. I’ve never voted Green and think they’d make a mess of government but am broadly in their leftish camp. I’d like them to scare Labour enough to drag itself back to its progressive base.
What happens if the Greens overtake Labour in the polls? All bets are off | Gaby Hinsliff
They may lack Labour’s party machine, but Zack Polanski’s burgeoning popularity could have seismic consequences for British politics, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Gaby Hinsliff raises the interesting prospect of the Greens overtaking Labour in the polls. I’ve never voted Green and think they’d make a mess of government but am broadly in their leftish camp. I’d like them to scare Labour enough to drag itself back to its progressive base.