Mendes' stranglehold on a lot of football dealings is unmatched. bbc.co.uk/sport/football/art…

🚩 Lord Heseltine sounds the air raid siren on Brexit crime: Brexit was a “heinous crime” against the British people, led by Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and their allies. “Never have so few done so much damage to so many.” The promises have turned to dust. A majority now wants to rejoin. The guilty men should hang their heads in shame.

The Swedish government told her she owed 102% of her income in taxes. She was 68 years old, a children's book author, and held no political power. Yet, by writing a simple fairy tale, she helped topple a government that had ruled for 44 years. Stockholm, 1976. Astrid Lindgren opened her mail to find a tax assessment that defied logic. As Sweden’s most beloved author and the creator of Pippi Longstocking, her books had taught generations of children about courage, independence, and standing up to bullies. Now, she had to face a broken system of her own. She read the document carefully, did the math, and realized the truth: due to a quirk in the law that combined regular income tax with self-employment fees, her marginal tax rate had hit 102%. It was not a typo, nor was it a rounding error. One hundred and two percent. If she paid what they demanded on her extra earnings, she would owe more than she actually made. She would literally go into debt for the privilege of working. At 68 years old, she could have hired expensive accountants to quietly find loopholes and protect her wealth. She could have done what many powerful people do when systems overreach—safeguard her own position and leave everyone else to figure it out alone. Instead, she picked up her pen. In March 1976, she published a satirical fairy tale in Expressen, a major Stockholm newspaper. It was called "Pomperipossa in Monismania" (Pomperipossa in Money-mania). It told the story of a successful author who loved her country and worked hard, only to discover a tax system designed to punish honesty and success. The story was witty, precise, and impossible to misread. Pomperipossa was Astrid; Monismania was Sweden. The ruling Social Democratic Party—which had governed Sweden for over forty consecutive years—was furious. Prime Minister Olof Palme went on the defensive, dismissively claiming in public that Lindgren was a wonderful storyteller but a terrible mathematician. Astrid didn't back down. She stood by her numbers, and soon enough, the Ministry of Finance was forced to admit that her math was completely correct. She began appearing on television and speaking out publicly, pointing out—with the calm, steady patience of someone used to explaining things to people who aren't listening—that a tax system taking more than 100% of a person's earnings wasn't progressive. It was absurd. That September, Sweden held its national elections. For the first time in forty-four years, the Social Democratic Party lost power. While political analysts pointed to several contributing factors, like economic stagnation and inflation, everyone acknowledged that Astrid Lindgren’s tax revolt had fundamentally shifted the national conversation. She had made it safe to question a system that once seemed untouchable, giving a voice to frustrations millions of people felt but hadn't known how to articulate. The new coalition government reformed the tax code, cutting the most extreme rates, and Astrid quietly went back to writing children's books. But she never stopped paying attention. In the 1980s, when Sweden debated a new animal protection bill, she noticed loopholes that would still allow for cruel factory farming practices. She wrote articles, lobbied politicians, and testified before Parliament well into her eighties. In 1988, Sweden passed some of the strongest animal welfare laws in the world. It was widely nicknamed "Lex Lindgren" (Lindgren's Law) because everyone knew she was the driving force behind it. Astrid Lindgren passed away in January 2002 at the age of ninety-four. Sweden honored her with a state funeral attended by the Royal Family and the prime minister, while thousands lined the streets of Stockholm. But her true legacy lives on far outside of official ceremonies. Every child in Sweden still reads her books, every debate about fair taxation still references Pomperipossa, and animal welfare advocates across Europe still look to Lex Lindgren as proof of what is possible. She never ran for office, nor did she ever build a formal political movement. She had no credentials in economics or public policy—just an extraordinary gift for storytelling. But she had spent decades writing about Pippi Longstocking, a girl who refused to follow rules that didn't make sense, stood up to bullies, and never shrank herself to make others comfortable. Astrid Lindgren simply chose to live her life exactly like the hero she created. When authorities insisted that nonsense made sense, she refused to pretend along with them. And because she spoke up, the world listened.

حذفت المقطع الماضي لاني ابي انزله من الملعب و صوت الجمهور نفسه بعيداً عن القنوات ارفع صوت جوالك و استمتع عزيزي القارئ ، أمامك نشيد من اجمل الأناشيد الاوروبية وقد يكون العالمية بصوت جماهير أسكتلندا العريقة احبهم جداً 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

Don’t argue with people over sixty. Just don’t. It’s not just an age; it’s a masterclass in survival. They grew up without Google, without DoorDash, without therapy podcasts, and without an "undo" button. If something broke, they grabbed duct tape, WD-40, a hammer, and a look of sheer determination that made even the broken appliance second-guess itself. As kids, they knew exactly what kind of mood their mom was in just by the sound of how hard she slammed the cast-iron skillet onto the stove. They were the original latchkey kids — walking home from middle school with a house key tied around their neck, with strict orders to heat up lunch and not burn the kitchen down. By the time they were ten, they could bike to the corner store, buy a gallon of milk for the neighbor, feed the family dog, and still have time to play freeze tag in the yard until dark. Their knees were a permanent canvas of scrapes, bruises, and rubbing alcohol. Their universal first-aid kit was just a quick wash under the garden hose and a Band-Aid. If a bone wasn't sticking out, you were fine. They drank water straight from that same hose, ate Wonder Bread covered in butter and sugar, shared a single glass bottle of Coke among five friends, and somehow didn't die from a lack of sanitization. This is the generation that knows how to rewind a cassette tape with a No. 2 pencil. They know the suspense of waiting all week for a movie to air on TV, because if you missed it, it was gone. They remember rotary phones, looking up a family in a massive paper phonebook, and the excitement of getting a color television. They survived party lines, typewriter ribbons, early brick cell phones, and flip phones — and today, they might accidentally send you a 7-minute voice memo where the first 6 minutes are just them breathing and asking, "Hello? Can you hear me?" And don't you dare laugh. Because without a GPS, these people could drive halfway across the country using nothing but an old paper map, a cooler full of sandwiches, and the gut feeling that "the exit should be coming up somewhere around here." They are the ultimate masters of household magic. They can stitch, tighten, glue, and fix just about anything. And somewhere in their pantry, they have a "bag of bags" that is literally older than half the gadgets you own. Leave people over sixty alone. They saw the world before the internet, and they navigated the world after it. And through it all, they didn't just get by — they thrived.

🚨 Jürgen Klopp has launched a scathing attack on the cooling breaks being used during this World Cup. 👊 "Football is being held hostage by executives sitting in air-conditioned offices. These breaks are being presented as a shield for player welfare, a noble weapon against the heat. In reality, they are nothing more than a golden cage built for sponsors. When I saw players standing around during cooling breaks while television timeouts dictated the rhythm of the match, I couldn't help but ask myself: who is the World Cup really serving? The supporters? The players? Or the advertisers? A World Cup match should flow like a river. Instead, we are building dams in the middle of it so commercials can be shown. It's dangerous for the spirit of the game. Football used to be the main event, but it now risks becoming background music for an advertising show." He didn't hold back. 👏👏

Nobody wants a city on Mars. Nobody wants AI in every app. Nobody wants a robot butler. Nobody wants data centers everywhere. Nobody wants flying cars or humanoid robots. We want clean water, we want bees to survive, and we want a habitable planet.

Makes me think of my family in Sheffield all watching same show and hope you find this as funny as we did.

I was given a seat in the enclosure at FFC by the powers that were then as was 8months pregnant when Gordon Davies sat down next to me. Had to go for a pee didn’t I ? 🤣

I'm wondering why there is talk all over the media about possible cuts to welfare to fund much needed defence spending, but sod all talk about tax dodging millionaires, billionaires and corporations who should be paying their far share of fucking taxes!

Oooooh this hurts ……..

🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇦🇷 Los Escoceses vieron a un ARGENTINO en Boston, LO SUBIERON EN ANDAS y empezaron a cantar por MARADONA. GENIOS

A kinetic ceiling installation at Costa Navarino, Greece, designed by K-Studio for The Romanos resort, uses fabric panels that sway with sea breezes. The wave-like motion filters sunlight and enhancing natural airflow to keep the beachside restaurant cool.

🚨 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄: Álvaro Arbeloa está muito próximo de ser o treinador do Fulham, via @David_Ornstein 😳 Arbeloa saiu, entrou Mourinho Mourinho saiu, entrou Marco Marco saiu, entrou Arbeloa. 😵‍💫

Imagine waking up tomorrow and every billionaire vanished. Most people would still go to work. Food would still be grown. Roads would still be built. Hospitals would still operate. Now imagine every worker vanished. That's the difference between wealth and value.

I love how every generation seems to find a way to dance to this song.✨

Goosebumps?

The famous incident from the 2003 Carlsberg Cup, where Danish midfielder Morten Wieghorst intentionally missed a penalty against Iran. The referee had awarded the penalty because an Iranian defender caught the ball with his hands inside the box, mistakenly thinking he had heard the half-time whistle.Since the penalty was awarded due to a misunderstanding, Wieghorst consulted his coach and deliberately fired his shot wide as a display of sportsmanship, an act for which he later won an Olympic Committee Fair Play Award. Football is great