Notices by Final Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸 (jbond@mastodon.social)

Old enough to remember the Vietnam war, Afghan invasions, Berlin wall and all the rest. But it still seems strange for both the USA and Russia to be stuck in unwinnable wars, simultaneously.

@fesshole maybe get a job as a resident hermit. I hear all the great estates need one. Can you do occasional gnomic utterances?

Remember all those patriotic flags on UK lamp posts?

They were always a temporary thing, now they're in tatters. That just created work for the councils to remove them from unauthorised locations. And this is what the council workers now have to deal with.

I missed this. It seems the UN Population Revision 2026 is being delayed till July 2027 due to lack of funding and resources.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/undesa_pd_2026_cpd59_e_cn.9_2026_crp.1.pdf

https://www.reddit.com/r/Natalism/comments/1uew6t1/un_population_prospects_report_is_delayed_until/

https://population.un.org/wpp/

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

8,305,319,706 estimated global population right now.

Start of the 19th week of the Israel-US-Iran war.

Nothing's happening, so it's dropped out of the news cycle.

Israel is still flattening South Lebanon, Gaza and West Bank.

The US is still building the Biggest Embassy Ever in Beirut.
https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/2073032642144960930

A few ships are leaving the gulf via the Iran-Oman controlled southern route. There's s a little tit-for tat fire.

The funeral of Ali Khamenei took place. On 4-July.

Did you, "Get Your War On" ?

Brexit 10 Year Memorial Day

10 years today since the Brexit referendum. there's now a whole generation under 28 who never got to vote then.

I'm not interested in rehashing all the arguments for or against Brexit. Or whether Brexit has been implemented properly or not. Or who's to blame.

So what do you think? Should the UK now :-
1) Have less ties with the EU
2) Have greater integration with the EU on the Single Market, Customs Union and Freedom of Movement
3) Begin work to rejoin the EU

That's no holly bush. That's an Empire Garden Destroyer with a landing space airlock for sparrows.

The key Arctic Ice Forum has crashed. 4 days now? Which is sad.
http://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/board,3.0.html

Meanwhile Arctic Ice Extent is in "The June Cinch" when all the years converge on the graph. Winter Ice, melting, insolation all balance out. Except that 2026 is just lowest in the records.

#climate

The last few days have reminded me that Israel, USA and Russia have two default positions even if they're in the middle of peace negotiations.

1) Ceasefire means "You cease, we fire". And that doesn't mean the ceasefire is over.

2) Blow stuff up. Nothing reminds them you're serious as much as blowing stuff up. Especially if it's double-taps on medics, journos and children.

Get Your War On!

Couldn't resist posting this from the very wonderful @spellingmistakescostlives

Another story about UK 16-24 NEETs (Not in education, employment or training). A big factor is ill health.

And yet, no mention of Covid. 16-24 now were in secondary education 2020-2026. Only 50% got one vax and for the youngest that's only 10%. They got repeatedly infected in schools with no mitigation.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/apr/28/uk-has-wealthy-europes-third-highest-rate-of-18-to-24-year-olds-not-in-work-or-study

> Ceasefire means "You Cease - We fire".

And here we go again.

At the starting of the week
At summit talks you'll hear them speak
It's only Monday
Negotiations breaking down
See those leaders start to frown
It's sword and gun day
Tomorrow never comes until it's too late

Ceasefire means "You Cease - We fire".

Misleading posts from all sides mean the "Israel-US-Iran-Lebanon Eight Week War" is probably on again. Hormuz strait has a dual blockade again. S Lebanon continues to suffer.

Meanwhile, POTUS is on the golf course.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jbond/116271846465483947

So that about wraps it up for the Israel-US-Iran-Lebanon Seven Week War.

Iran opens the Hormuz Strait.

3. Immediately back down when the opponent backs down

@fesshole You're living in a series of The White Lotus?

Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States

is now USA policy.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/withdrawing-the-united-states-from-international-organizations-conventions-and-treaties-that-are-contrary-to-the-interests-of-the-united-states/

Time for the rest of the world to turn their backs on the USA (and Russia). Don't sell to them. Don't buy anything from them. Don't visit them. Move all agencies with world offices in the USA to other countries.

If the USA wants to be isolated, then isolate them.

Vacancies down. Salaries down. Unemployment up. Long term economically inactive up. Long term sick up.

Austerity up. Basic goods Inflation up. Interest rates still too high.

That's a recession, right?

It really sucks to be working age in the UK. Unemployed or economically inactive because:-
- Too young and inexperienced
- Too old and over-experienced
- Long term sick
- Nobody's hiring
- The only jobs are zero hours, gig economy
- Your white collar job got "replaced" by AI or just dropped
- No more work from home and the job is now 150 miles away
- Day care for the kids is too expensive
- Brexit means the Euro job has gone

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/12/first-edition-youth-unemployment

It's increasingly obvious that Russia funded and supported the Pro-Brexit and now Reform movements. And it worked. But we're not yet doing much to actually counter it.

As well as this we should be shining a light on Israeli and US influence on UK politics. It's non-trivial and damaging.

One of my local Tory councillors was on C4 news last night. Cllr Paul Mason is Broxbourne B.C. Cabinet Member for Planning. I have a couple of outstanding planning issues with him.

And there he was talking about needing to leave ECHR so that we could send illegal Immigrants to Rwanda for processing!

Broxbourne. Home of the Cheshunt Hotel #FarageRiot. Highest Pro-Brexit vote in Herts. All Tory except for 3 Labour, 2 Reform (defected Tory) and 1 Tory thrown out of the local Tory group. Tory MP.