PROBABLY IMMORTAL my new book about history, religion and the man my computers insist is called "Johan Christ". (Out next week in Dutch, and there's an extract in the new Hard gras)

Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of Iran's shah, tells Katy Balls any deal with the regime "will ultimately fail" and is "morally wrong". The regime has the blood of thousands on its hands, he says: why come so close to leave it in place? thetimes.com/world/middle-ea…

It's got zero to do with free speech. It's about coercing our democratically elected government with violence and property damage 👇🏽

Soccer has always been defined by free-flowing, unbroken action. But for the World Cup in America, FIFA is using “hydration breaks” to shoehorn in commercials. 🔗 on.wsj.com/4aNS3YQ

Russia is a terrorist state.

I step into a cafe where I work some mornings. Hadn’t read the news yet. The barista is Ukrainian. My friendly ‘morning!’ is met with a weak smile. I know what it means. ‘What happened?’ ‘Pechersk Lavra is burning.’ Imagine waking every morning to the dread of finding out who Russia has killed, what Russia has destroyed in the night. Every day, for over four years. I’ll say here what I said to her: this is Russia losing. Blind rage and destruction because they have no viable strategy, no path to victory. It doesn’t make this any better, it doesn’t bring lost loved ones or national treasures back. But it is true. Fascist Russia will destroy itself. And Ukraine will survive, will win, will rebuild. You are not alone.

Your 'doom quote' for today: "As 2026 unfolds, the Pacific Ocean is priming a catastrophic El Niño that threatens to cripple global food systems, trigger widespread economic instability, and shatter planetary temperature records." collapse2050.substack.com/p/…

When the Kyiv Lavra was built, Moscow was just a meadow in the forest.

A) This a properly brilliant piece of investigative journalism by BBC & @hopenothate. Huge kudos to all involved. B) The Kremlin operative who BBC names as directing arson attacks against Keir Starmer was taught his tradecraft by…drumroll…Sergei Nalobin !!! Pictured here with Boris Johnson. Also: the star of our podcast series, Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring! Wtaf

The great thing about pushing Vance out in front to sell this thing is that not only is he making Republicans very, very nervous (imagine if John Kerry had said the IRGC has seen the error of its ways in 2015), but he's giving Democrats a very strong argument for 2028 that he'd be a terrible foreign policy president, naive and stupid when it comes to America's adversaries. Absolutely incredible stuff. And people are wondering why Marco Rubio has gone into occultation right now.

Perhaps Putin hit Lavra Pecherska because the Orthodox monastery in Kyiv was already famous while Moscow was still a forest. I hope that this outrageos attack disabuses Christians the world over of the absurd idea that the old KGB colonel is a defender of the faith.

Qatar is secretly trying to erase its tiny Baha’i community. Their crime? Existing as a peaceful religious minority that believes in the unity of all faith This is political Islam in soft power mode: intolerance wrapped in designer suits and air-conditioned skyscrapers. Where exactly is the outrage from the west? hrw.org/news/2026/06/14/qata…

The real Trump derangement syndrome is his followers excusing everything he does that they would have been furious about had it been done by Biden or Obama. It's not mere hypocrisy, it's a cult. Iran is the latest example and one of the worst. My latest:

This is a brilliant investigation. It shows what many of us knew. Hostile states are supporting both Islamist & far right causes in order to divide us. If you are echoing those narratives you are aiding & abeting a hostile state. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2…

So you kill 40,000 innocent protestors and get rewarded with $300 billion. Fucking evil.

Bon, là, la situation est critique : les 40°C ne semblent plus être une barrière dès jeudi. On voit beaucoup plus large, beaucoup plus haut. Le potentiel d'une vague de chaleur historique (encore !) en juin dépassant les records tout mois confondus n'est plus une fiction. Chaque canicule ne fait désormais que détrôner la précédente dans la course aux températures les plus élevées. J’espère sincèrement que les modèles de prévision vont rapidement revoir leur copie et se limiter à du 38-40°C sur une durée plus courte, car sinon les conséquences pourraient être considérables. Les valeurs envisagées me paraissent tellement irréelles que je préfère attendre jeudi avant d’en détailler les impacts agricoles et les adaptations qui pourraient devenir nécessaires. Pour l’instant, je préfère rester prudent. Carte : meteologix.

Civil disobedience: 1) Non-violently transgress a law you believe unjust 2) Accept the legal consequences 3) A public shocked by the harshness of the punishment forces changes in the law. Palestine Action: 1) Smash property and hurt people 2) Demand to be exempted from legal consequences 3) A public shocked by the violence of the crimes committed thinks, "actually these sentences seem rather light under the circumstances."

I've never seen such consensus on this hellsite Everyone - EVERYONE- from right across the spectrum agrees that this is a disastrous defeat for the US

For anyone still confused about whether to support #TeamMelli or not. I always supported them regardless of the regime. In 2018 I fell in a heap of fifty bodies at Camden market as we thought Mehdi TAREMI was about to score a winner against Ronaldo’s Portugal to send Iran into the second phase of the World Cup for the very first time. He missed. I especially supported them after the Iranian players refused to sing the regime anthem before the game against England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 in 2022. After the regime exterminated tens of thousands of their own civilians in January, everything changed. The Islamic Republic have shamelessly politicised the football team using the players as political pawns in the most disgracefully mawkish way. Naturally, Iranians see them as the regime’s team. Just moments ago @SkyNews somehow managed find a group of pro-regime Iranians in California who said people protesting outside the stadium ‘have nothing better to do’ and are ‘a bunch of idiots’. Yeah, right. In Los Angeles of all places. The World Cup is a global platform and a huge opportunity to show support AND to protest. The lion and sun flag is precisely THE symbol of freedom FROM the regime. Despite a ban, thousands are going to be displayed, inside and outside the stadium, to RECLAIM what the regime has stolen from them: the spirit of the national team. Which belongs to the people. NOT the regime. As one of the Iran players said, “we are playing for the people of Iran, despite the (Islamic regime) flag we play under.” The use of the word ‘despite’ was enough for me. And the longer the team stays in the competition the more light can be shone on the horrors of this regime that the vast majority of Iranians want gone. See tweet below ⬇️

Trump said he demanded unconditional surrender, we just didn’t know he meant America’s.

Hey, as an Irish politician have you considered not sending 14 ships full of alumina to Russia every month?