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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦

@ratanvaswani.bsky.social
196 followers 118 following 3K posts

Interested in languages, travel, cinema, books, visual arts…but mainly here for politics. Русский военный корабль иди нахуй

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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 2h
Prepping. For climate/AI/nuclear/doomsday virus calamity. Zoe Williams is on to something here. So much could so easily go so very, very wrong. I try not to think about it - but at some point, maybe soon, it’s gonna happen. And we’re gonna be f***ed.
theguardian.com
Preppers used to be ridiculed – but we’re all stockpiling now | Zoe Williams
The UK government urging households to prepare for unknown threats with a three-day supply of food and water doesn’t feel like an overreaction, writes Zoe Williams. But is there a bigger plan to go wi...
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Miranda Keeling @mirandakeeling.com · 04/10/2026
In reflection, these leaves fallen across a puddle, have found a way back into their parents’ arms.
A photo of a puddle in the woods, with leaves across the surface and reflections of the trees they fell from.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Le podcast Inner French vient de se terminer. Quels podcasts francophones me conseillez-vous, avec au moins deux personnes qui conversent ? Culture, actualité, humour, tout m'intéresse. Merci ! #langsky
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Of the many tests facing Andy Burnham, climate is the most important. Monbiot is right. We simply mustn’t build another runway at Heathrow.
theguardian.com
The expansion of Heathrow would be an expensive disaster for Britain and the world. Burnham needs to block it | George Monbiot
A third runway would fly in the face of reason. If we are to prioritise human life over short-term ‘growth’, we need to use planes less, not more, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The "Zionism is racism" motion, to be debated at the Green Party conference tomorrow, will not advance the Palestinian cause one inch. But, if adopted, it would marginalise and discredit the party. There are powerful ways to confront the genocide. Toxic gesture politics isn't one of them.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Jonathan Liew proposes good solutions here to the stomach churning Manchester City debacle.
theguardian.com
How best to punish City? Restitution over retribution, then hand club to the fans | Jonathan Liew
There are no real precedents and emotions are still raw, but good can come from this mess if ownership models change
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Burnham has a tendency to shoot the breeze. He should butt out of chat about City. Let the regulator publish its findings and decide on punishment. He’s no longer Mayor of Greater Manchester. He’s the Prime Minister.
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham’s Manchester City comments stir fresh tensions with Premier League
Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I love the ad for the TfL app. Refreshing to see public poetry and thoughtful, measured language. #poetry
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Far from taking pride in it, the men who killed this magnificent animal should be deeply ashamed. That swift, sleek, wonderful monster, flashing with holographic colours, reduced to a dead black lump. www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...
devonlive.com
Monster 282kg tuna landed in Brixham is 'heaviest ever' catch
Giant £4,000 Bluefin tuna caught off Devon coast could be heading to Michelin-starred restaurants
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I’m a lapsed Mancunian - grew up in the city, moved away. Visiting family and friends there last week I was struck by the rise of Mancunian nationalism across the red/blue divide. City’s disgrace is gonna hurt Manchester. A painful but necessary stocktaking must now ensue.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Pep can’t not have known. Brilliant football manager, but absolutely, totally, 100% in on the vast corruption that fuelled the rise and reign of Manchester City. He needs to come clean. He won’t.
theguardian.com
‘I am here more than ever’: Guardiola backs Manchester City owners over guilty verdicts
Pep Guardiola has thrown his support behind Manchester City after the club were found guilty of all charges of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine-year period
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
An interesting and thoughtful piece from Zoe Williams on a Prime Minister finally grasping the nettle of long overdue electoral reform. There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip - but, yeah, this might be the beginning of a better, more representative British democracy.
theguardian.com
Electoral reform could be a gamble too far for Burnham – but so far he’s on a winning streak| Zoe Williams
Though proportional representation poses risks for Labour, it’s a change that feels necessary for today’s volatile politics, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The UAE bought Manchester City. It then broke all the rules, all the time. The club’s many trophies in recent years are invalid. The only fitting punishment now would be expulsion from the Premier League. We’ll see.
theguardian.com
Sham City: verdict on financial breaches is damning and punishment must be severe | Jonathan Wilson
How can Manchester City be trusted under these owners after they were found to have devised £900m of ‘sham’ contracts?
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Interesting and fair from Rafael Behr on Burnham’s vision for Britain - a clear and moving one. But so susceptible to turbulence beyond the UK. I think there’ll be an AI-related financial crash within the next 12 months. We’ll see.
theguardian.com
Burnham has a clear vision for Britain – but not for how it fits into a troubled world | Rafael Behr
The Labour leader has set out his plans with passion and ambition, but the story he tells lacks a vital chapter on managing global chaos, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Just finished Elemental by @snellarthur.bsky.social. Brilliant. A former diplomat on how climate change is redrawing the map of global power: minerals, migration, food, energy. Sobering, but not too depressingly doom-laden. #books
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hmm. This sounds like softly softly raising the question of opening accession talks with the EU - too hedged for my liking but still a very welcome new stance compared to Starmer’s dreary ‘make Brexit work’ nonsense.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Not watching Burnham’s speech just checking in with it on my phone as our granddaughter plays on the rug. This sounds…good. This sounds… progressive. But we’re a long way off an election campaign. We’ll see if he gets cold feet.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Wish I could share Polly Toynbee’s breathless enthusiasm and optimism about Burnham. His social care proposals are good and I absolutely want my scepticism about his ability to drive them through to be wrong.
theguardian.com
Burnham has a battle plan, with social care the flagship. Risks lie ahead, but Labour now travels in hope | Polly Toynbee
Here in Liverpool, the PM’s ambition for the party – and the country – is evident. There should be no complacency, but also no fear, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hmm. I’ll believe it when I see it. But yeah, I’d like Labour to commit to opening accession talks even though the process would probably require a horrible, tortuous referendum.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
He’s slowly but effectively doing the things that will drag us into line with more liveable European capitals. He’s a good Mayor.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
@dannybate.com has a blog which anyone interested in language detectivology should read. I’ve been dabbling in Polish recently and this answered all sorts of Qs for me about nasal vowels - and Slavic kings. #langsky
dannybate.com
Good King Václav
Every September 28th, thanks to a brutal fratricide over a thousand years ago, the Czech Republic gives itself a day off. The victim of that crime was Wenceslaus, ruler of Bohemia from 921 to maybe…
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Andrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You'd hope a member who rose to being an MP and Government minister might have picked up on what the founding purpose of the Labour Party is, but alas no ...
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 27/09/2026
Johnson: "When people are promising free things to you, you must ask what the real price is. It's your freedom. It will drive costs up. It will make people more dependent upon govt, & that's the communist's ultimate goal." (Trump literally just proposed giving people $5k if they vote Republican...)
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I could quote pretty much this entire article by @mjrobbins.com on the bizarre psychology of the AI apocalypse freaks, but you should just read it instead. Such a relief to see someone express my feelings so eloquently. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"A woman leaving the facility 'dropped to her knees. She did the sign of the cross in extreme relief. As if coming out of a nightmare,' he said... “May we never become so accustomed to suffering that we stop seeing the humanity of those experiencing it.” www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
miamiherald.com
Amid whistleblower claims, advocates ask lawmakers to visit ICE office in Miramar
Community leaders demand Florida lawmakers investigate Miramar ICE facility amid whistleblower allegations of severe overcrowding and filthy facilities
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Cas Mudde is always insightful. This piece is a good overall analysis of recent election results. The rise of the far right, disturbing as it is, isn’t the whole story. There’s hope here, particularly in younger, female voters.
theguardian.com
Look again – there’s more to Germany’s election trends than far-right success | Cas Mudde
Defeatist narratives abound. Yet Germany’s latest elections suggest voter dissatisfaction is benefiting the left as well as the right, says the political scientist Cas Mudde
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Probably the Lib Dems will get there first but I wouldn’t at all rule out the Tories doing a big mea culpa and beating Labour to the electoral dividend of committing to a referendum on accession talks.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I ask myself this question most days. We’re all alarmed but too few of us - especially too few Americans - think about how to end Trump before he ends us.
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𝕯𝖆𝖓🍂🎃🕸️ @arepublic86.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
From cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev on ISS:
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I LOVE him. I absolutely LOVE him!
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
*bangs head against wall forever* Apparently the way Burnham thinks we get parity of esteem is by saying vocational quals are for non-academic kids.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery has the loveliest of cafes built on a platform at the mid-level of the trees in the park in which it sits. I’m a Londoner but I grew up in this city and I like to see it looking good.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I grew up in Manchester. We’re here to see family and friends. But also to see the Hokusai/Hiroshiga exhibition at the Whitworth. Intoxicatingly fabulous.
theguardian.com
Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige review – how two Japanese masters reinvented art
Hokusai’s breathtaking woodblock print may be ubiquitous today but, as this startling show reminds us, it’s also an apocalyptic vision of a world about to change
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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
For some years the frame of "disinformation" has been around to explain ragebait content, with the presumption that this material is ideologically motivated. No doubt some of it is, but much of the motivation is purely financial...
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I mean, yeah, Trump is a moron but by no means all of the people who live in the distinct territories he refers to can disambiguate between, particularly, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. And in lots of languages ‘Anglia’ or something like it, is what most people call the UK.
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 23/09/2026
It seems like the police are assuming the far-right losers are 'looking for an excuse' to do more damage and so must be given maximum space. In fact, they are turning a big dial that says 'thuggery' on it and constantly looking over at the state for the slightest sign of consequences.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Look at the thoughtful and archaeologically informed statement the French culture minister made following an amazing discovery in Paris. Now try and imagine Lisa Nandy saying anything comparable about Britain’s cultural heritage, or, in fact, saying anything at all worthwhile.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
something has gone very, very wrong with the UK
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
​He does this every time. Maybe he's trying to wish it into reality. But the truth is, Russia chose to invade Ukraine four and a half years ago. Every day since then, they have chosen to continue it. The day they choose otherwise is the day the war will end.
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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Arrest this thug and proscribe his organisation. It’s a dangerous criminal conspiracy.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if, before the end of the year, he’s snookered into agreeing a cessation of hostilities in their current form on Iranian terms. He might even convene a summit of supreme leaders. He’ll then restate his tedious demand for a Nobel Peace Prize.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Polly Toynbee is right about the grave threat to our democracy and society from the race warriors that Labour has tiptoed round for too long. But I don’t share her confidence that Burnham has the urgency, backbone or vision to lead the fight against them. We’ll see.
theguardian.com
There is a racism and cohesion crisis in Britain, and someone needs to lead us out of it. His name is Andy Burnham | Polly Toynbee
I want him to start the fightback next week against extremists who peddle hate and those who despise this country. That would be true patriotism, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My God, the stories here… the United States is involved in horrendous torture, violence, cruelty and abuse of human rights. Civilised countries should be joining together to end this.
theguardian.com
Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy dea...
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The far right worldwide has seized on this word, ‘remigration’, and it really bloody worries me. I think in the end, if it’s implemented at scale - and it might be - it will involve death camps.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ah, bless. Alan Finkel hopes Trump and Xi will work together to save us all from AI doom.
theguardian.com
Can Trump and Xi cooperate to guide humanity through the AI revolution? Humanity might depend on it | Alan Finkel
The CEOs of tech firms issue stark warnings over the rate of change, with AI capability doubling every four months
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Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years. med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Ratan Vaswani 🇺🇦 @ratanvaswani.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I usually agree with Jonathan Freedland. Not here. His suggestion that sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements will only hurt Palestinians reminds me of the arguments back in the day against sanctioning apartheid South Africa.
theguardian.com
This Israeli election could be the country’s last – this week I saw that for myself | Jonathan Freedland
Spend time on the ground and you see how high the stakes are for next month’s contest – for Israelis and Palestinians alike, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
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