Two things I know about the paper smearing Jordan Bardella over words he allegedly wrote, at age 17. Its founder, Edwy Plenel, still ran that paper until 2024. He stood with the men who murdered eleven Israeli athletes in Munich. He wrote: “No revolutionary can dissociate himself from Black September. We must unconditionally defend the militants of this organization against repression.” That paper then passed to Carine Fouteau. She called October 7 an “unjustifiable attack.” As if the Hamas massacre were a typo in a cheesecake recipe. She calls Israel a colonial state and wants sanctions for genocide. If Jews are colonists in Judea, on which piece of earth are Jews natives? Set that against Jordan Bardella: *He is one of the clearest voices in Europe against Hamas. *He visited the Nova site and the communities of the Gaza envelope. He met survivors. *He spoke in Jerusalem against antisemitism. *He was already in Washington when Steve Bannon made a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute. Bardella cancelled his speech on the spot. Like the leftists in Israel, the leftists in France are experts at character assassination. We have zero trust in people who spend their adult lives fighting the right of the small Jewish state to exist. And we are done taking the word of anyone whose heart once filled with admiration for the men who murdered our athletes on German soil.

The remarks by the US secretary of state, who did not name a specific country, will intensify global scrutiny of this weekend’s suspected terrorist plot near a British air force base. ft.trib.al/Zz1ZQdl

This supposed terrorist attack on RAF base has all the makings of a national embarrassment. The 5 suspects released on police bail. That means the police didn’t oppose bail so no need to go before a judge. Not credible if they really were suspected terrorists. No explosives found in the vans. They were clearly up to something. But a terrorist attack? Looks increasingly unlikely.

Laura Kuenssberg - who is paid over £400k a year - asks Andy Burnham where the money to pay for social care will come from. One obvious answer would be higher taxes on people paid over £400k a year.

In the US unleaded petrol is 94p/litre. 11p of that is tax. Here it’s upwards of £1.70 and 81.43p* of that is tax. Without tax the US and UK price at the pump would be 83p/l and 89.5p/l It’s not international prices forcing up our fuel to unaffordable levels. It’s our government. 😡😡😡 (*UK pump price of 170.9p per litre, tax is 81.43p per litre, meaning 47.6% of what you pay goes directly to the government. Tax Breakdown •Fuel Duty: 52.95p per litre •VAT (20%): 28.48p per litre (charged at 20% on the underlying cost of the fuel plus the fuel duty, creating a "tax on a tax"). ◦VAT on the fuel duty alone: 10.59p of that VAT amount comes directly from taxing the 52.95p duty.)

At no stage have I ever said the EU would collapse — because I’ve never thought it would. My point was that the EU we left in 2016 is morphing/will morph into something very different. Difficult to see how anybody could gainsay that. But no doubt X’s legion of know-nothing nutters will try.

EXC: Almost One in Ten Senior HMRC Staff Now Work a Four-Day Week order-order.com/2026/09/18/e…

For the record: Madrid Barajas Airport is the worst airport for a major world city. To get from the drop-off (which Ubers need to line up for 10 minutes to reach) to the gate, you will: 1. Walk around a mile 2. Go up and down no fewer than EIGHT unusually slow escalators, take two elevators, and ride a janky shuttle train. 3. Decipher bizarre signage that leaves people standing around in bewilderment asking each other for help 4. Meander through a mall where the signs to the gates are deliberately obscured. 5. Line up and scan your passport twice at automatic machines that mostly don't work. 6. Line up and show your passport to an immigration officer anyway. And God forbid you have a transfer! You will need to do all that twice! You can forgive JFK or LAX for being bad; they were built in the 1950s. But this was built in 2006. Avoid.

Borrowing costs have reached their highest level since the financial crisis... Since July 2024, they have risen more than in France, Germany and the US - and by twice as much as in Greece. Labour’s reckless spending and higher taxes are killing growth. Every time this rate goes up, so do mortgage rates and the burden for the next generation. Andy Burnham and John Healey should rule out more spending and higher taxes.

Reliance on a small number of cloud providers, software platforms, or AI models concentrates risk. One exploited weakness can ripple across many institutions at once. Our blog explains why authorities must ask whether the system can absorb these shocks. imf.org/en/blogs/articles/20…

Graduate job vacancies drop by almost 50% in a year bbc.in/3Sbn4A9

The tax threshold remains at £12,570 & 820,000 pensioners will soon be taxed as they currently receive £23 below the threshold. Considering this government classes a State Pension now as a benefit then this should be tax exempt.