Topics — what's happening on Bluesky right now
Hantavirus outbreak aboard MV Hondius kills three, WHO says not a pandemic
scienceHantavirus outbreak aboard MV Hondius kills three, WHO says not a pandemic
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Southern states redraw maps in moves that reduce Black representation
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Truth Social parent reports $405M quarterly loss
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Carolina Hurricanes beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1
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London local election results, Lib Dems gain in Sutton; Starmer vows to stay
politicsLondon local election results, Lib Dems gain in Sutton; Starmer vows to stay
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Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's 88-minute 'efficiency' speech
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Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 25 spoilers
tvCritical Role Campaign 4, Episode 25 spoilers
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Reform UK makes major gains in English local elections, wins Havering
politicsReform UK makes major gains in English local elections, wins Havering
Reform UK picked up dozens of councillors nationwide, took control of Havering and swept multiple seats in Hartlepool and Tameside.


US April jobs report shows 115,000 payroll gain
financeUS April jobs report shows 115,000 payroll gain
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Princeton awarded grant to host FIFA World Cup 2026 watch parties
sportsPrinceton awarded grant to host FIFA World Cup 2026 watch parties
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Canvas hack strands students during finals, universities postpone exams
techCanvas hack strands students during finals, universities postpone exams
Canvas users hit a ransom message; multiple universities have paused or delayed finals and access to course materials.
New Star Fox game shocks fans, soundtrack added to Nintendo Music
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Nintendo unveiled a new Star Fox entry; fans are split over redesigns as several soundtrack tracks hit Nintendo Music.
Liberal Democrats gain Meon Valley council seat from Greens
Liberal Democrat Anne Small won the Hampshire County Council seat for Meon Valley, unseating the Green Party councillor. The victory came in the local elections on 7 May 2026 and represents a direct seat transfer from the Greens to the Liberal Democrats. The loss reduces Green representation in Hampshire and strengthens the Liberal Democrats' local presence and influence in Meon Valley.
Just met a Reform UK voting couple who had no idea that it opposed: Recent rise in the minimum wage End of the two-child benefit cap Expansion of free school meals, free breakfast clubs Help with school uniforms Horrified that they would lose big from Reform How many others voted without knowing?
You could have stopped at, “Just met a Reform UK voting couple who had no idea’.
As the US has proved, there is evidently no limit to human stupidity, irresponsibility and ignorance.
Same old same old. I've given up having sympathy for the wilfully ignorant after Brexit and Boris Johnson. May they get what they voted for.
Most of them. For which the media and esp the BBC must take a huge part of the blame.
The blame for this lies squarely at the feet of the media and their total lack of scrutiny
All they hear is we’ll stop the boats, without thinking that the council has no control over immigration.
The Thatcherite politics of toxic individualism and privatisation of public services have destroyed the country. Over the past 4 decades they have completely hollowed out my community, sold it for quick foreign cash. ...so lets vote for the party that more than any other is more of the same.
Most of them would be my guess. Old Nige is a card, he's a "straight-talker" (except when asked to explain who funds him) and he'll stick it to the "establishment". Its remarkable that the grift has survived Brexit, which he was largely responsible for and not a single voter can name a benefit of
our democracy, voting system, & right-wing press are a deliberate disaster
Welcome to the world of gullible and ignorant Trump voters, electing someone who will diligently work to screw them over while claiming to be saving them from…something.
Not to mention the loss of the NHS.
This is my big concern that many have just voted due to immigration stance… do they realise how many things they would reverse and send us backwards on?!
They're talking of stopping the triple lock for pensions, too. Turkeys/Christmas.
Reform voters are educationally and intellectually challenged..... What did you expect? For what happens now, see 1930's Germany.
That's the problem, to many voters Reform just = 'change' which is what many voters ironically want. They're not into examining exactly what that change means & the media isn't interested in informing them
Out of curiosity. Did they tell you what they thought they WERE voting for?
Most of them I should think. Fixated on immigration and blaming them for the state of things.
Spoke to a guy the other week who was going to be voting for them and I mentioned the NHS, workers rights minimum wage etc. He didn’t have a clue about their policies… it’s scary
What policies do they imagine they’re voting for? Or is racism enough to invoke their lemming-like stupidity?
Same people who voted Brexit .. thick morons
They don't care as long as 'forrins' are targeted. That is their mindset.
Every Reform voter! They’ve been hood-winked by the corporate media which includes your BBC.
This is what Labour still won't accept. They won the GE because people were voting against the Tories. Labour promised to be "Change". But Labour decided to be a continuity government so they're voting against the Tories 🤷🏼♀️
Sir, I'm sure you already know. I assume most of them are unaware, or simply don't care. They see the headlines from the right wing media about small boats, they see the flag waving, all of this. They will realise, maybe, when their council services collapse and when their tax continues to rise.
If only there was a Labour government with a huge majority that could crack down on the lies told by GB , Foreign owned social media and the State ran BBC?
They heard the anti immigrant message they wanted to hear and that was enough. “Uninformed racist” is an oxymoron. Proof the
The future is about a 'green' Labour party taking on the Reform/Tory party for the next three years.
What is staggering is the number of people who vote for a party - in this case Reform - without having asked a single question about their policies. All this does is highlight the pitfalls of democracy.
At a rough guess, I'd say something like 60:40, people who ignorantly project their wants:people who vote to do harm to others
So many literally haven’t got beyond agreeing with the word Reform. “Oooh yes, the country needs reform” they’ll say. When you point out that means no NHS or employment rights they say “What? Not our Nigel, surely?”. It’s weird.
Idiot Reform voter now rambling on at @mrjamesob.bsky.social on @lbc.co.uk. He's nuts. #LBC
The majority I would imagine. The BBC have given Reform maximum coverage and non of the MSM have held them to account.
Their pet leopard purred approvingly all the while.
90% of them. The media is to blame for not talking about it.
Because the media gaslighted them.
But you have to ask what they did vote for? Farage is an openly violent racist.
Most of them, I think. They read the Sun/Express/Telegraph and watch BBC and believe what they read/see on TV. The Ruling Class is tightening its grip.
All of them, apart from actual owners of Reform.
It's about scratching under the surface to see the real plan, also Media bias knowledge is key...
There are a lot of thick people out there.
Beginning to think you should have to show some level of engagement with the real world to be allowed to vote Forget voter ID, how about - can you name a single policy each main party supports!
The same ignorance that delivered Brexit. The same man driving the bus and the same billionaires paying for his fuel.
Just wait until they find out about the NHS
People are lazy though. It doesn't take more than a few minutes research to check what Reform stand for.
Approximately 100% of Reform voters.
It speaks volumes, that in times of engineered decline and runaway costs leaving people desperately searching for answers, many can’t even do the most basic levels of research before voting. And far too many people allow their views to be cultivated almost entirely by the billionaire owned press.
They won’t realise it until their democratic system has been completely dismantled and the oligarchs have seized power, but by then it will be too late, just like in the US!
They get their information from the media.
They're all very very stupid...one can see a Deform supporter a mile away.
Reform voters are not about policies or ideas. It's almost the opposite of that, a refusal to engage with systems or realities. It's about feelings.
Farage feeds their racism and all other ism’s…I live on a huge council housing estate and the majority are unemployed or on benefits but he feeds their hatred without them knowing they are first in line to be shat on.
All of them - there was one just on the radio who believes Farage will tax the billionaires and help the working classes.
To be honest, I hope this happens, a lot. It's only the realisation that voting for the Leopards Eating Faces party will result in the leopards actually eating your face that will change things. By which time Farage and his ripping chums are over the hills and far away with their ill gotten gains.
1000s I blame the Main news channels with their propaganda.
No Reform voter actually knows what they are voting for except the stop the boats phrase.
The same as those who believed his speeches about leaving the EU and voted for Brexit.
Brainwashing and media indoctrination works.
Most of the Reform voting people I know don't appreciate how much some of Farage's proposals will hurt them directly. It's the MAGA voters all over again...
We live in the era of people want to be told what to think & learning for themselves is embarassing. It's astounding how many people go uninformed to the voting booth. Dangerous idiots run the world.
I give up. If Reform win a General Election: - if you’re ill & need medical help you’ll have to pay for it - if you’re off work you’re employment rights will be taken away from you & you can be sacked - without a job there’ll be no social security to fall back on How THICK are these people?
Bet they loved the racism and xenophobia though. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Shhh its not the sort of thing any right minded news outlet would say.......the truth is out there somewhere
The party of grievance & hatred. My town is practically Reform now. My new councillor is Reform- I’ve never been represented by someone where I have absolutely no respect for their party. I think their voters believe they’ll be able to stop the boats and the ‘illegals’ from our local Town hall🧐
Racism is their only mantra. They are oblivious to everything else 🤬
Same as Brexit. Some people just never learn.
Time for the better informed and emotionally stable tolerant folk to come together to vote tactically in the next GE. Like Brexit, Reform will be a disaster for everyone apart from the small number of extremely wealthy people. Time to act.
The old ‘everything’s shit, let’s give them a try’ logic. You haven’t seen shit yet; strap in.
I just know you meant to say 'How many others voted irresponsibly without bothering to find out'. If you don't know what you're voting for, the problem is you. Not the media, not education. You wouldn't make excuses for drink driving would you?
The vast majority of them, including those who don't know the difference between local council elections and a General Election.
Political education in this country is a joke. Also Farage is working to change the seat of power- in the same way Trump used X and mar-a-lago as official channels, Farage is doing the same by not taking part in Westminster, but using GB news and other press opportunities- where he’s unchallenged.
Although I suppose if they learn from these local elections, that will bring some sanity to the next general election?
Yes, but I'm sure they'll enjoy their jam and biscuits served with lefty tears. What better way to "own the libs" than shoot yourself in the foot?
That's because of the billionaire owners of the right-wing media
With one ward still to declare, Reform UK have badly lost in their London target seat of Bexley, by 29 seats to 7
As a Bexley resident, it's obviously the lesser of two evils but Reform having 7 councillors is not ideal, especially all three for one of the wards. But it's pleasing they've done worse than expected here.
Bexley is close enough to Kent for people there to have seen that a Reform "flagship" council is as successful as the Mary Rose.
Crumbs though look at that split. Remind me never to move to Bexley.
You've gotta figure something is seriously fucked up when it is that the self-same posse the voters wanted out in the last GE, became the unlikely tactical vote against the backdrop of them running the same political outfit as Reform. I can't make it make sense tbh. 🤪
Might this be because the good folk of Bexley have a clear line of sight to Kent? #AskingForAFriend #LocalElections2026
I don't know how much of a target my local council, Merton, was for Reform, but it's pleasing to wake up and find that it does not have a single Reform councillor. We must NOT, however, become complacent.
Well some good news at last!😔
Third time Green candidate in Bexley here. The Tory councillors in my ward, to their credit, canvassed quite a lot, but their pitch was almost exclusively "Vote for us or get Reform" and to me that was no choice at all. 🙁
Am a Labour supporter living in bexley. I voted Tory to keep out reform.
The Liberal Democrats just won 20 seats in Huntingdonshire! You know, the safest of safe Tory seats? Reminder: the Liberal Democrats lost ground in the Liberal-Conservative battleground when the Tories last went into opposition. That’s the actual yardstick here!
I think a thing that is easy to miss unless you are deep into the weeds of London politics is the extent to which a lot of it just highly contingent. There’s no reason why Wandsworth is Con-Lab and Merton is Lab-Lib other than “well, 30 years ago, on a split vote”.
Also i mean I'm fairly sure there's parts of Essex they just lost that are on the Central Line? Like you don't need to drive all the way up to Hartlepool to chat to them?
Royal Tunbridge Wells is Lib Dem. How do you get more aspirational middle class than Royal Tunbridge Wells?
The split Lib Dem sw London between Richmond/ sutton/ Kingston to Tory Wandsworth /wimbledon is funny , same demographic
Yeah, that’s ‘cos the Lib Dems is just 3 parties in a trench coat.
Nigel Farage's populist party Reform UK has made early gains in local elections with wins in Labour heartlands.
Fartage still hasn't answered questions regarding his £5M bung from a crypto billionaire. He hid from the electorate last week so they couldn't question him
Tories > Years of crushing ideological austerity that reportedly attributed to over 300,000 excess deaths, foodbanks becoming a societal norm' & the UN investigating in the UK. Tories > change to a slightly different shade of blue & rebrand as "reform". UK public > votes for new shade of blue 🤦
The count of the English councils is in full swing 🗳️ Reform UK make big gains... Latest results ⬇️ https://election.news.sky.com/elections
How much of this is down to the overplaying of the "Starmer is shit" barrage of stuff? He's not been perfect, but it makes you wonder what/who else Farage's dodgy quids was buying.
These ill-informed Reform voters will learn the lessons that other Reform run councils have. Hatred and misinformation can only get you so far
That's not looking great for the Conservatives, is it? People are picking a different shade of blue