You don't often see obituaries in the middle of an annual report, but this rather touching one for Julienne Viola appeared in Freed of London's. The British dance shoe company is now owned by Japanese company Onward.

Oh look UBS had heavy exposure to First Brands and the platform being used was founded by an ex Greensill employee and UBS had to rescue Credit Suisse after the Greensill collapse + the whole thing looks v Enron like as well. But you'd have to be even older to remember Enron. on.ft.com/4oehTKa

AI generated spam fail - someone from "Campaignexpertise" asking me if I'd like a quick catch up call before the Columbus Day weekend regarding a document management system.
Do these emails ever work, even if I was American?

Last month, Judge Goodstein ruled against Trump and blocked South Carolina from handing over millions of voters’ personal data to the government. www.newsweek.com/judge-diane-...

Further Europe-Japan collaboration news - European Space Agency looking to open office in Tokyo. asia.nikkei.com/politics/int...

Japan to take part in Horizon Europe meaning Japanese companies and universities can receive EU funding for research into quantum computing and medicine. asia.nikkei.com/business/sci...

Sorry to be smug, but me and my bestie female friends 20 or so years old in the late 1980s already had him down as a **** so nothing that has happened since has come as a surprise. It really was all down to Johnny Marr wasn't it.

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@bylinetimes.bsky.social can now reveal that, during the crucial period when convicted Reform leader Nathan Gill was most active, working directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most senior ally in Ukraine, he was also one of Nigel Farage’s closest confidantes 1/12

It's not nailed on Takaichi will be the next Prime Minister as the LDP don't have a majority. She may fail to do a deal with another party. An election may have to be called.

Takaichi wins, with Koizumi falling surprisingly short in the lawmaker votes - he didn't even win all of Hayashi's votes.

Probably in part down to lawmakers not wanting to ignore the constituency votes, but also a pretty clear sign of a party running scared of populist challenges from its right.

I’m nearing the limits of my endurance, but I took a first crack at thinking about the winners and losers from Takaichi’s surprising upset Saturday. Much more to come.

open.substack.com/pub/observin...

I wonder if instead of it being a reverse Midas touch, it is that the electorate are like our cats, think they want biscuits, make a big fuss about wanting biscuits, then when you give them biscuits it's "oh no not THOSE biscuits."

I don't think getting pregnant is going to happen this time.

I asked the polite, friendly, considerate Sikh taxi driver who took me from Nuneaton to Walsgrave today about this and he confirmed, British Sikhs feel they are under attack. I said I was very sorry. Bit inadequate but what else can I do.

I will be looking to get as many people and civic organisations as possible involved in a positive English identity campaign next year, nationally, regionally, locally. If that sounds like something you'd like to know more about or get involved with, do get in touch with me.

Just seeing those TLAs again (ie CDOs) makes me feel like I'm going to break out in a nervous rash. But I bet a lot of those bond investors are under 35 or 40 years old, so weren't old enough in 2008 to be aware of what a catastrophe it was, both for the global financial markets + US poor

It's not just the dopamine hit from getting likes and views on social media by feeding negativity and outrage, it makes money too. www.edp24.co.uk/news/2549815...

Oh no here we go again. "1 of the most spectacular collapse in private debt markets" Something that seems US only but turns out not to be. "First Brands has US manufacturing plants stretching from California to Pennsylvania...operations as far apart as Romania, Mexico and Taiwan." on.ft.com/42ePCdL

Man desert

The importance of accepting the possibility that a person can have plural identities and loyalties, from Nobel Prize winning Amartya Sen.

Useful timeline of Brexit/Reform/UKIP Farage, Gill interconnections and Russian bribes

"All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well" was a different female mystic - Julian of Norwich, not Hildegard of Bingen