£1.25bn subsidy for Rolls-Royce to develop a new engine. RR will keep assets and income streams. RR had operating profit of £3.5bn in 2024-25, will pay £9bn to shareholders over next 3 years. UK Govt won't take equity stake, £1.25bn not repayable. theguardian.com/business/nil…

Gadi Eisenkot reverses course and says he will break the election deadlock imposed by Jewish Israeli parties’ boycott of Israeli Arab parties. He will form government with the backing of the Arab Joint List. This would mark the end of Netanyahu as PM.

🔴 EXCLUSIVE: After *five-year* legal battle, Democracy for Sale has forced the government to reveal who referred firms to lucrative Covid PPE ‘VIP lane’ for 'politically connected' 30+ senior Tories are named, plus ex Duchess of York, and many more 🧵 democracyforsale.substack.co…

Economist (and Nobel laureate) Paul Krugman: “Control of Starlink must, one way or another, be taken away from Elon Musk. It’s a matter of national security: we cannot let private individuals make foreign and defense policy, and it would be totally irresponsible to leave a crucial military asset in the hands of a racist, authoritarian conspiracy theorist.” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/i…

STORY | Omar Abdullah marries journalist Nidhi Razdan Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has married television journalist Nidhi Razdan in New Delhi. In a tweet on Saturday, 56-year-old Omar said, "a new journey began yesterday..." and tagged Nidhi in it. The tweet included four pictures of the couple. Sources said the marriage was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act in New Delhi on Friday. The witnesses included family members from both sides. Omar's marriage to his first wife, Payal, was dissolved by an order of the Supreme Court in July this year after the two reached a settlement. This is the second marriage for 49-year-old Nidhi. The wedding functions in Srinagar and New Delhi were attended by families and close relatives from both sides. Abdullah's parents, Farooq Abdullah and Mollie, his three sisters, and other close relatives, as well as Nidhi's parents, veteran journalist M K Razdan and Sarla Razdan, attended the functions.

"Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw to step down after four and a half years in charge." In those 4 and a half years Nicola Shaw was paid over £3 million including £1.3 million which was paid via an offshore company. Everybody say aww! yorkshirepost.co.uk/business…

Out of the 120 members of the new Knesset, only 11 hold doctoral degrees in various fields. 9 out of the 11 belong to the Arab parties, and one of them, Yosef Jabarin, also holds a professorial title.

This @NewYorker story is so good, and so important for everyone to understand. Through the lens of semiconductor manufacturing, it highlights the interconnectedness of today’s world and puts to shame anyone who thinks that we can go back to a world shaped only by national rivalries rather than international cooperation and trade. “The semiconductor supply chain is a planetary superorganism with its own ecology…. Globalization has become tainted in our eyes, as if it necessarily constitutes a zero-sum enterprise. And its mercenary form—which is also its most common form—has indeed inflicted harm. But the global semiconductor supply chain reflects an alternative pathway. It has united its participants in the pursuit of something profoundly difficult that could not have been achieved in the absence of intercontinental solidarity.” newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

The BBC without a health editor? A major concern for the health of our specialism warns the MJA chair mjauk.org/bbc-health-editor-…

Some thoughts on the prospects for a settlement of Russia's war against Ukraine. Mainstream thinking about the conflict largely revolves around when the war might end, how to pressure Russia into a ceasefire, and what a possible settlement could look like. We often hear that if the current attempt to advance the peace process fails, another window of opportunity may open in, say, six months. The problem is that we have been hearing this mantra about the "next six months" for almost five years now. My growing conviction is that there will be no lasting settlement of the conflict. A ceasefire may be possible, but it is likely to be partial, fragile and tactical, doing little to bring about sustainable peace. Instead, we should prepare for a prolonged period of deterioration and escalation across multiple fronts. This is not simply about the continuation of the war. It is about a broader, pervasive process of destabilisation, at least over the medium term. Ukraine is facing what could be its worst winter yet, amid mounting domestic pressures. I see little that could fundamentally change this trajectory. Even an unlikely settlement could — and probably would — accelerate domestic political conflicts and fuel instability. A ceasefire would bring elections closer, introducing another potential source of destabilisation. And I struggle to imagine any scenario in which any Ukrainian leadership would agree to Putin's terms for ending the conflict. Whatever agreement might eventually be signed, if one is signed at all, would risk remaining largely unimplemented, as happened with the Minsk agreements. Russia will not emerge stronger either. Financial and budgetary pressures, a struggling economy, increasingly frustrated elites, an unsettled society and unresolved geopolitical tensions — which would not disappear with a ceasefire or settlement and could even intensify — are likely to drive further domestic repression, erode Putin's authority and push elites to focus increasingly on their own survival, whatever the cost. The war has been steadily exhausting the Russian economy, and this process will continue. And this, too, may lead to less predictable and more dangerous geopolitical behaviour. Europe faces potentially pivotal elections in France. It is likely to become more divided, more fragile in its ability to provide financial and military support to Ukraine, and less coherent in its approach. Individual European states are already taking more initiative and gaining greater agency to act independently of Brussels institutions. Meanwhile, existing trends and persistent structural factors point towards an intensifying confrontation with Russia, growing sub-threshold threats, and an increasingly visible and tangible pattern of incidents and hybrid attacks. What appears to be a red line today may become the new normal tomorrow. And these red lines are shifting not only on the Russian side, but in Europe as well. The broader picture is that we have entered a protracted period of destabilisation, erosion of international rules and weakening of international institutions. As those institutions lose their ability to coordinate responses, individual countries are increasingly compelled to act on their own. But this growing fragmentation and lack of coordination will, in turn, further accelerate the deterioration. Any settlement in Ukraine risks being extremely fragile, while confrontation between Russia and Europe is likely to intensify regardless of developments on the Ukrainian track. This new reality may be with us for years, potentially until the accumulated escalation across multiple fronts reaches a peak that finally — and hopefully — forces all sides to sit down and engage in genuine dialogue. Until then, I believe we should prepare for the worst.

Rather dramatic window into how repressive Israeli society is. Truths have to be whispered in secret. And when they come out, those saying them are suddenly in terror

The groundbreaking documentary by Lebanese journalist @radwanmortada about Israel’s pager attacks is now available for English speakers. 3 weeks after it was released, the Israelis looted and then blew up Radwan’s house. Tomorrow pro-Israel fanatics will release a propaganda film in U.S. theaters about the criminal pager attacks. Watch Radwan’s movie instead ⬇️ aljazeera360.com/video/10423…

MAGA Republicans when they find out Vivek Ramaswamy is Indian. 🤣🤣

Adani-fication of India: 2014–2025

This is an amazing clip. The terror once she realizes she was live.

Malm’s opinions (he's an associate professor of human ecology at Lund University in Sweden) or that he was to share a stage with someone is a low bar for barring entry. Ludicrous theguardian.com/uk-news/2026… Ofc we can’t tell what HO thinks, because no reason has been disclosed!

The Chancellor delivered a Budget within the same fiscal constraints as his predecessors, one that simply does not shake off the cloying grip of neoliberal ideology. It feels like a missed opportunity My analysis of the Budget for Open Democracy ⬇️ opendemocracy.net/budget-bur…

Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) on Joe Biden’s dereliction of Gaza go.nybooks.com/4A1ftnT

Latest from James Galbraith. ineteconomics.org/perspectiv…

NEW from @nytimes: Trump gave orders that led to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family entering the US on parole status. They will likely get permanent residency later, as his younger brother Eduardo did in July. A White House official arranged a private jet to help them flee Brazil.