Jamie Osborne

— ‘In both cases, they appear to have compared one year of the proposed datacentre’s emissions with the UK’s entire five-year carbon budget …

All three developments are classed as having a “minor adverse” impact on the UK’s overall climate goals.

However, the Thurrock datacentre will produce more emissions than an international airport, and Elsham Tech Park’s peak emissions will [be] just short of the 1.2m tonnes of carbon emissions of all the UK’s domestic flights.’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/09/google-developers-significantly-misstate-carbon-emissions-of-proposed-uk-datacentres

And USAID. 🪦

— ‘There is a close relationship between the Trump era and violence … the violence his administration has unleashed on the world, the violence his ICE and border patrol agents have caused inside America, the violence he has incited among his followers.
…
The violence of the Trump administration has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries. That is no justification for Saturday night’s attack, of course, but it is part of what he has wrought in America.’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/26/gunfire-at-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-is-another-grim-sign-of-our-times

Thanks Trump, I guess.

— ‘A new bill on a food and drink trade deal with the EU will contain powers enabling the government to dynamically align with Europe [and] quickly implement evolving single market rules if it determines it is in the national interest, without having to face full parliamentary scrutiny each time.
…
A government insider said: “We expect a fight … They will scream treason but the reality is that all international agreements involve shared rules.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/13/keir-starmer-defends-plan-for-closer-alignment-with-eu-rules

Trump extended the ceasefire for nothing, despite being stood up.

He’s desperate for a deal but somehow couldn’t figure out that continuing to blockade Iranian shipping will not keep the strait free of Iranian attacks.

— “The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skilful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result …

An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, …”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/27/us-humiliated-iran-leadership-trump-merz

The next best thing to no visit, is to be pictured with Trump parading the King around as little as possible.

Though, this doesn’t sound like that.

— ‘King Charles will be spared the potential humiliation of being upbraided in public by Donald Trump this week after the White House agreed that any meeting between the two men should be held off camera.
…
The king will attend several other events with Trump … accompanied by palace officials as well as … Yvette Cooper …’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/27/king-charles-awkwardness-meeting-donald-trump-off-camera

In the event this is more Maga fifth column bullshit, any undeclared agents of the US should be treated like any other adversary – and sent home.

— ‘A US state department post recruiting Americans to be its “eyes and ears” abroad – and featuring a picture of London – suggests “unease” in ties, say US and UK diplomats.
…
Kristofer Harrison … said: “We need diplomats to be lines of communications …, not our eyes and ears. My gut is that this is just Maga incompetence.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/27/us-ad-for-eyes-and-ears-abroad-featuring-big-ben-stirs-diplomatic-unease

— ‘The 60 Minutes interview got confrontational when O’Donnell read some of the manifesto on air that appeared to refer to Trump as a “rapist” and a “pedophile” and asked Trump to react.

“I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people,” Trump said. “Yeah he did write that, I’m not a rapist … I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes, you’re a disgrace, …”’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/26/trump-60-minutes-interview-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting

— Starmer ‘bore the brunt of anger from some of his own backbenchers who accused him of creating a situation where they would be perceieved as being complicit in “a cover-up.”
…
“The Prime Minister called this motion a stunt, that is not why I put my name to it. But it’s funny though, because ‘stunt’ is exactly the same word Boris Johnson used about the motion the Prime Minister and I tabled … referring Boris Johnson to the privileges committee,” said [Ed] Davey.’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/28/starmer-sees-off-tory-calls-for-inquiry-into-mandelson-role-after-no-10-flexes-muscle

— ‘Raza Husain, representing Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, said: “The consequences of [Palestine Action’s] proscription are severe. It has caused – as intended – the total destruction of a protest group with considerable popular support, …

It has also given rise to severe restrictions on the fundamental free speech and assembly rights of vast numbers of people which have been curtailed and chilled in relation to a matter of current, critical importance.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/28/palestine-action-ban-created-culture-of-fear-uk-appeal-court-hears

— ‘The news comes after another vessel, the Russian bulk carrier Abinsk, docked in Haifa earlier in April with nearly 44,000 tons of stolen Ukrainian wheat, earning a rebuke from Kyiv.

An investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that at least four shipments of stolen Ukrainian grain have already been unloaded in Israel this year.’

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-reportedly-warns-israel-of-diplomatic-crisis-over-stolen-grain-ship-bound-for-haifa/

Hard to argue – they even use that same term: which is actually true, given the billions in US ‘aid’ used to kill Palestinians.

— Turner ‘described Keir Starmer as having been “on the ropes” over the Peter Mandelson scandal and said it is Israel rather than Britain that has a “special relationship” with the White House.
…
He said [Starmer’s] future had looked “quite touch and go” adding that Starmer was a “stubborn guy” who would be unlikely to quit of his own accord.’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/28/uk-new-ambassador-to-us-christian-turner-starmer-mandelson-scandal

— ‘Barton told the committee he believed his concerns about Epstein were shared by the national security adviser, Jonathan Powell.
…
He told the committee it was unusual to announce the appointment before vetting had been completed.
…
Barton said he had been in discussions with the former ambassador Karen Pierce about extending her appointment in the US, but he was presented with the Mandelson appointment “and told to get on with it … There was no space for dialogue”.’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/28/ex-fdco-chief-philip-barton-concerns-mandelson-epstein-links

Ironic that Mahmood claimed racism was behind the criticism of her policies.

— ‘A protester who heckled Shabana Mahmood said he came to the UK as a child from Malaysia, describing the home secretary’s claim that he was a “white liberal” as “laughable”.
…
[Mahmood] told Forde there was an aspect of racism to the claims. “I do think there is that element of it, which is: ‘How dare you, a brown woman, say a thing that we white liberals think you’re not allowed to say?’ …”’

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/28/man-who-heckled-shabana-mahmood-dismisses-white-liberal-claim-immigration

It should be possible to be Jewish and not have any such “obligation” (or even interest) regarding Israel – except that Israel, and many Jews/NGOs worldwide, have made that impossible.

— ‘Levy argued that exploring these tough questions is not a sign of disloyalty to Israel or to the Jewish community.
…
“What the government of Israel does reflects on us as Jews and reflects on our Judaism. Therefore, it is our Jewish obligation to be in dialogue with that in some way.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/28/israels-direction-poses-existential-threat-to-judaism-uks-leading-progressive-rabbis-warn

A trillion dollar dunce. 🤦🏻‍♂️

(It gives Trump far too much credit to imagine he did this on purpose to boost oil profits.)

— ‘Even if the strait of Hormuz swiftly returns to normal operations, the burden … will reach about $600bn, … Should the supply disruption continue, the economic hit to households, businesses and governments could surge above $1tn …

This is likely to be an underestimate because it does not include the substantial knock-on effects of inflation, …’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/28/middle-east-crisis-oil-firms-profit-colombia-conference

Damn… 😣

— ‘The threat actor gained access to the developers’ account by exploiting a vulnerability in a GitHub action they created. By posting malicious code to a pull request, the attackers were able to run a bash script that ran inside the developer’s account. The bash script retrieved the sensitive data. With the account tokens and signing keys, the attacker went on to publish a malicious element-data package that was nearly indistinguishable from a legitimate one.’

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/04/open-source-package-with-1-million-monthly-downloads-stole-user-credentials/

I still think it’s a terrible time to change PM – worse still, would be to keep him and lose to Reform.

Since before the election, it’s been clear Starmer only cares about his narrow, corporate, ‘Blue Labour’ faction.

Now, even those not actively wanting to bring Starmer down are unwilling to defend him. 😣

— ‘One MP said there was now near-universal concern across the PLP. “We need an orderly transition,” they said, adding: “Most people think it’s over for Starmer.”‘

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/26/keir-starmer-vows-lead-labour-general-election-mandelson-vetting

Perhaps Starmer will listen – this is a lobby group after all (Starmer must be needing some new glasses or something 🤷🏻‍♂️).

— ‘As transatlantic tensions rise, the British Chambers of Commerce said the UK’s “inadequate economic security” was putting growth and jobs at risk.

The lobby group, which represents thousands of firms, urged Keir Starmer to take the lead in protecting Britain from external crises, saying there had been “years of neglect by successive governments”.’

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/26/uk-urged-deploy-eu-style-trade-bazooka-trump-tariffs