Dr Alex Cruikshanks
@alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
5.1K followers 510 following 19K posts
Historian of the former Yugoslavia and ethnic partitionism. X-Men opinion-haver. Did a PhD on diplomacy in the Bosnian War. Host of The History of Yugoslavia podcast.
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alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Though I'd say that crimes under international law are outside the remit of a presidential pardon.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Betting that this ceasefire will hold for another 3-4 *years* seems quite the gamble...
politico.eu
Labour MPs reckon that if the ceasefire holds it will be harder for opponents to mobilize against them over the Israel-Palestine issue in the next election. There are concerns though about whether the fragile agreement will hold. More in London Playbook PM.
London Playbook PM: Has he Don Keir a favor?
Presented by Rolls-Royce By EMILIO CASALICCHIO with NOAH KEATE PRESENTED BY Send tips here | Subscribe for free | Listen to Playbook and view in your browser SCOOP — LOBBY TO LOBBIED: Sky News Poli…
www.politico.eu
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Does not give me great confidence that he has any idea what he's talking about - if anything there was a better prospect of a 2SS agreement in the 2000s than the 1990s.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
The most depressingly revealing thing about this is that the talk of ECHR "reform" is apparently serious and not just a PR line, because such "reform" is completely unrealistic, especially in one parliamentary term, and a competent government really ought to know that.
hughster.bsky.social
Of course Starmer's No.10 have decided to react to the CoE warning them their transphobic policy direction violates longstanding ECtHR judgements by implicitly threatening to join the far right in wanting to leave it
Geri Scott
@Geri E_L_Scott
...
This has gone down *badly* with some in govt, amid push to reform the ECHR from the inside.
Shabana Mahmood especially is said to take a "dim view" of arguments made and her allies say issue of trans rights after the Supreme Court's judgement is "beyond reproach".
Govt source says "it doesn't help sustain public confidence in the European Convention when the Council is seen to intervene in domestic politics and national security".
(f) Steven Swinford @ @Steven Swinford • 5h
Breaking:
The government's treatment of trans people in the UK could breach the European Convention on Human Rights, Europe's human rights watchdog has claimed...
Reposted by Dr Alex Cruikshanks
hughster.bsky.social
One heck of a shot across the bows to the government from the CoE here—looks very likely they already know full well the coming EHRC guidance will be found to be in breach of ECHR Article 8
commissionerhr.coe.int
Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...
United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int
Strasbourg 14/10/2025
www.coe.int
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Can I also point out the insanity that people are still talking about giving Trump a prize that has literally already been awarded to someone else!
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
To me the only post-Morrison time he was halfway interesting was Schism.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
You're right, he is indeed an Ellis author insert, not an Austen one, my apologies to Chuck Austen, not sure why I got those two mixed up!
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Possibly, but Morrison's Quire was v much a proto-incel type
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Similarly RW pseudoacademia that pushes Creationism, climate denial, etc can't actually replicate a genuine academic institution because well, what research could they do? They can't, it's all reactive attempts to mirror and oppose actual research.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Same way Daily Wire can't produce any actually decent shows, because they're not driven by a creative desire to tell stories, they just want a more RW-coded copy of actually popular shows.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
A large part of why American right-wing efforts to create their own versions of all the social institutions they hate - not just media, but also academia, film and TV, etc - inevitably produce such noticeably low-quality output is simply that they just don't want to put the work in.
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
another thing Weiss does is give other very dull people a vehicle to spout bog-standard right-wing ideas and pretend they're being iconoclasts or innovative.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Because Weiss, like basically all RW parallel institution building efforts, is entirely output-concerned. She doesn't want to do the research and investigation work of journalism to gather information and then take an editorial line on it, she just wants the editorial line.
golikehellmachine.com
i have also never seen any evidence that weiss is interested in, you know, actual *news*. she’s a gadfly interested in commentary (and commentary about commentary), and that’s a deeply saturated market
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Controversial opinion, but I don't mind this that much, though they could've worded this a lot better.

Like the better phrasing would've been more like "Lesbians are very welcome, but do be aware most of our clientele are gay men, we just don't want you to come and be disappointed by that!"
Sydney nightclub named after lesbian artist’s song changes name after ‘preferred clientele’ revealed to be men
Pink Pony Club, a song by Chappell Roan inspired by The Abbey gay bar in West Hollywood, was the inspiration for new Oxford Street club
www.theguardian.com
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Migrants to be required to learn A Level standards of Cornish.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
"One in five people are Chinese, and there are five of us, so one of us must be Chinese."
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Even in this context though, I find it really weird how many centre-left pols in Europe and North America seem so resistant to acknowledging the fact that Labor is no longer relevant in Israeli politics.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
I'm glad that we at least got them together in X-Men '97
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
As some people have pointed out, Pete Wisdom was basically just Chuck Austen writing a Gary Stu.
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
By contrast, my most hated pairings:
Kitty & Pete Wisdom
Quire & Phoebe Cuckoo (Quire and anyone, tbh)
Nate Grey & Madelyne Prior (dear god, who thought that was a good idea JFC?!)
Angel & Husk
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
My other committed X-ships that have long been ditched in actual comics continuity but which I still cling to:
Storm & Forge
Siryn & Warpath
Cannonball & Boom-Boom

(I'd add Hellion & X-23, but they've actually been put back together recently)
alexsaysstuff.bsky.social
Broke: Shipping Scott & Jean
Woke: Shipping Scott & Emma
Bespoke: Shipping Scott & Joanna
Supreme Leader Snoke: Shipping Scott & Logan
thisbrokenwheel.bsky.social
Scott + Emma works way, way better than Scott + Jean.

The Age of Apocalypse was the only interesting use of Apocalypse as a character.

Havok is the more interesting Summers brother.