Joe Ware

I write about art, heritage and climate change, among other things. Made in Sheffield.

[Joe Ware @wareisjoe]

I wrote about my home city of Sheffield for @TheArtNewspaper and how it's using arts and heritage funding to level up the city.

Includes great aerial photo of Vulcan, the god of metalworkers.

https://t.co/KrbQEzgBTe

[(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges]

Reform now opting to lecture the voters of Makerfield over who they should vote for to demonstrate their patriotism.

[mariana Z @mariana057]

Physician: Your body has ran out of magnesium.

Me: 0mg

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

It's OK everyone - no need to feel pure cold rage at this one.

[Roman Kemp @romankemp]

This video from @NorwichCityFC is the best bit of Mental Health Awareness I’ve ever seen… watch until the end.

[Michael Spicer @MrMichaelSpicer]

Nigel Farage Listens to the News

[Fraser Nelson @FraserNelson]

It's not just the exploitation of a tragedy.

JD Vance's picture of Britain - where migrants have led to a crime surge - is the opposite of the truth.

https://t.co/y5El5FUj7v

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

I made the right wing case for a wealth tax.

The status quo is crushing the aspirational middle class. And yet, measures like taxing wealth above £100 million are never taken seriously.

If the centre right can’t defend family capital, it dies. https://t.co/euAk61TZ2w

[Paul McNamee @paul_mcnamee_]

Absolute scorcher of an article from @James_BG on the UK's climate success over the past years.

If you're looking for a pick-me-up in a depressing news week then this is the guest substack for you!

https://t.co/eZQxKYViAm

[Esfandyar Batmanghelidj @yarbatman]

Iran has included three important tests within the terms the MOU it is negotiating with the United States. These tests are intended to give Iran's leaders confidence that Trump, a counterparty they see as highly unreliable, is ready to make credible commitments, opening a pathway for further diplomacy.

First, the Iranians are testing the credibility of American security commitments by insisting that the MOU encompasses a Lebanon ceasefire. They are not doing this for the sake of Hezbollah or Lebanese Shias. Rather, they want to see if Trump can restrain Israel in its own backyard. If Trump is able to do that, then he might be able to defend his own deal with Iran from further Israeli sabotage.

Second, Iran is insisting on a nominal fee for vessels passing the Strait of Hormuz. This is not because they want more revenue, which would be negligible. They are insisting on this arrangement because they want to test whether Trump will endorse a deal that includes a clear instantiation of Iranian sovereignty and authority, especially one that did not exist before the war. Iran believes in the logic of a win-win agreement. Trump does not. Forcing him to accept a fee forces him to give Iran a "win" and to defend it as such from the Iran hawks in his circle. This is politically meaningful.

Finally, Iran is insisting on a the release of frozen assets. The sums in question are a tiny fraction of the economic cost of the war and the release of assets is not as valuable as sanctions relief that Iran will also be targeting. But by insisting on the release of funds at an early stage of the negotiations, Iran can test whether broader economic commitments, such as sanctions relief, will be credible. Iran will only consider the promise of sanctions relief to be credible if Trump's sanctions bureaucracy allows Iran to move and spend its own money. The Iranian side will insist on transactions that push the Trump administration to set new precedents for how sanctions relief can be operationalized, especially through guidance to banks.

For many in Washington, these demands seem unreasonable. But that is entirely the point. Iran's leadership won't tolerate a kind of narrow deal that allows U.S. policymakers to avoid putting political capital at stake. Iran wants a deal that reflects the unprecedented nature of the war and ensuing crisis. To meet the moment, the diplomacy has to be transformative.

Iran's leaders don't trust Trump, so they are testing him. So far, he is failing these tests.

[Sam Hall @samuelhall0]

I have no view on whether brown or white eggs are better, but the outrage over this story, especially from some professed free marketeers, is bizarre.

If Sainsbury's wants to change the type of own-brand eggs they sell, because they believe consumers favour greener, more animal welfare-friendly products, then that's their decision. They are under no obligation as a supermarket to stock every kind of egg.

Consumers who dislike white eggs can either buy brown eggs from a different shop (thanks to the free market), or indeed buy the branded brown eggs that Sainsbury's will continue to sell.

Maybe Sainsbury's decision will be unpopular with their customers, and they will be forced to switch back to selling brown eggs to maintain market share. Maybe customers will be fine with white eggs, if they taste and cost the same.

Let's leave it to the free market to determine, not anti-woke cultural warriors.

[Akshat Rathi @AkshatRathi]

What happens when energy security is threatened? In the 2020s, it means speeding up deployment of renewables and electric devices.

Check out our deep dive: 🎁🔗 https://t.co/KbFqZFd19L

[John Raymond Hanger  @johnrhanger]

Good morning with good news: EV sales surge in Europe & Australia in May!

Battery-only (BEV) Share
Norway 97.8%
Denmark 78.7%
Finland 47.7%
Sweden 41%
Netherlands 41%
Belgium 37%
France 29%
Switzerland 23%
Australia 19.9%

BEV Only Numbers!
https://t.co/lhxNJDdqmt

[(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges]

Nigel Farage demanded people react with “rage”. He’s going to have to own those comments now. And if people respond literally he’s going to have to take his share of the responsibility.

[O’Shea Jackson Jr @OsheaJacksonJr]

I saw it. Now you have to see it. His name is Samuel. And he…is a king.

[Catherine Belton @CatherineBelton]

Pressure is mounting on Vladimir Putin over how to end his war in Ukraine as Moscow’s battlefield offensive stalls, financial resources dwindle & more frequent Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia exacerbate growing public dissatisfaction. https://t.co/LuRyWf16vK

[(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges]

Number of people asking me to comment on the Henry Nowak case. His father said "We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension". If you can't respect his wishes, you're scum. That's what I think.

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

Pat McFadden: How do we beat Reform?

Peter Mandelson: You beat them by winning.

Has such a vacuous man ever won such extraordinary political acclaim? There’s nothing there.

[Robert Kwolek @RobertKwolek]

Sadly very true, even more so in London

[Luke Tryl @LukeTryl]

Great initiative & aligns with so much we find. While primary drivers of people thinking Britain is Broken are issues like cost of living/immigration/NHS. It’s also true what I call ‘every day frictions’ play a huge role in just making life that bit more frustrating/miserable.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

Hello, we are Jonathan and Abigail - unashamed pedants who want to bring this affliction to bear on all things public policy and practice.
We believe that details matter, especially in public administration. This is why today we are founding quibble: a campaign to fix the small stuff.
Think, for example, about the cookie banner that we click on every webpage. Each instance is not a big deal, so we just put up with it. But its cumulative impact adds up - on average we press it 5 times per day. The European Commission estimates that it costs EU citizens 343 million hours per year.
And who is there to represent the impacts of seemingly minor issues like this in a systematic way? We want quibble to be the answer. In the case of the cookie banner, lots of advocacy has rightly focused on privacy, but has this meant that user experience has taken a backseat? We believe there are ways to improve user experience without compromising on privacy. We will share more about this soon.
Consider another example. Did you know that in some government-run car parks you can be fined for a minor keying error, such as accidentally typing a zero instead of an “o”? Again, we will come to the detail of this quibble in the coming weeks, but for now just consider again the question: who? Who is there currently to systematically represent the interests of the parker who is given an unfair ticket?
An inherent feature of consumer interests is that those who have them rarely have enough other things in common to make collective organisation and representation feasible. This is the gap that quibble seeks to fill. Now of course excellent consumer interest groups exist. But understandably quibbles might not be at the top of their lists. Our hope is that quibble will be complementary; picking up the bottom-of-the-list issues faced by various groups - the stuff they are almost too embarrassed to raise because they are too small.
We are not embarrassed about detail. If you’ve ever had a splinter, you know small things can have a big impact. This is what quibble is committed to tackling, and our wider hope is that by doing so we will also incentivise policy makers to be even more careful about detail.
Check out our website here, including our first four campaigns: https://t.co/gZiqqHbhIL