Tony Blair looks like the Crypt Keeper but without the charisma.

#GlobalSumudFlotilla Hāhona Ormsby, Ngāti Maniapoto been following this beautiful human daily on IG since his departure from Aotearoa on 4 April and this is a difficult watch. thank all atua our activists are home safe but auē. [repost @hahona_ormsby @aotearoaforpal 27 May, full clip on Stuff site]

Congratulations to everyone in our 2026 MA (Creative Writing) cohort, who graduated last night, and to Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall, who received her PhD! Here's most of the MA Poetry and Nonfiction workshop, freshly capped and in celebration mode.💐💐💐

The regime has the circuses covered, the bread not so much

Cult leader Jim Jones used to fake assassination attempts so that his cult would worship him harder. Just thought I’d share that history with everyone

#OtD 23 May 1938 Kingston, Jamaica, was brought to a halt by a general strike after a police massacre of striking construction workers. When British authorities ordered the arrest of a popular leader this sparked further strikes stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9588...

through my daughter I know a lot of young trans people, and their accounts of how their parents have treated them is generally (not always, but generally) pretty harrowing.

educators of Aotearoa NZ 🫡 Claire Coleman's complaint will be heard on Wednesday. in Feb 2026, Claire said: "... being told 'we're not going to write this down because we [MoE] don't want people to know... 🚨 so it's not OIA-able' 🚨 essentially, that kind of behaviour." www.rnz.co.nz/news/educati...

YIKES!!

‘The point of literary fiction, however, is not the communication of a result. A writer uses words to make visible that which is hidden deep within, to give form to what is formless. It is a Hunger Games-type situation. You have to do it yourself…’

Next Friday 29 May, an evening of poetry, prose, and electronic performance features readings by poet Ada Duffy (MA25) and IIML Emerging Māori Writer in Residence Terri Te Tau, followed by a live performance of Department Press Briefings by artist Mo H. Zareei. www.adamartgallery.nz/events/upcom...

This is a good article but doesn't quite get what struck me about the video: the Israeli government's whole tone [in English] is always a bit sorrowful. "We have no choice. We don't WANT to do this. But look! *waves a big racism flag* We're under attack!" The video proved that they fucking ENJOY IT

Sonia Sodha, Nick "Octopus" Cohen, Hadley Freeman, Suzanne Moore and others cried about how they weren't allowed to do the transphobia they wanted do, while still vomiting out transphobia. Many have moved on to further right wing papers, to continue being horrible.

Today's Daily Cartoon for @newyorker.com by Kevin Maher and me.

Shot; chaser

In which I add my unwelcome voice to the cacophony surrounding the commonwealth short story prize and Granta’s ai scandal open.substack.com/pub/jackmand...

hey if you're a white person who sees the word "Māori" in a post and immediately responds HURR DURR CANNIBALISM I'd like to remind you that Egypt had to ban the sale of mummies because Europeans wouldn't stop eating them en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia

Aotearoa New Zealand, SAME.

Go on…read it

Messaging @jackabbott.bsky.social because Labour have no general presence on this platform and you’re my closest Labour MP. Please add my voice to the people who will never vote Labour ever again if this new Section 28 legislation stands. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is where (hateful) vibes based voting leads: rank incompetence. Well done Britain!

In which I add my unwelcome voice to the cacophony surrounding the commonwealth short story prize and Granta’s ai scandal open.substack.com/pub/jackmand...

‘We are living in a time where our instinct that some things matter more than their bottom line is being systematically challenged by a government that has decided that our quality of life can be measured only in terms of its fiscal output.’ thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-...

lmao Starmer is so useless and void of ideas

I swear, social media ends uo turning some people into Don Quixote once they gain a following and get hooked on engagements.

“History will judge them harshly“ “Not if there’s no history“

On the other hand, if you’re suing a billionaire, start demanding their AI logs in discovery

Offer to pay for your trans friends to get their birth certificates, passports, and drivers' licenses updated. Now.

Aotearoa NZ writers with a record of achievement can apply right now for the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship Spend three months (or more) writing on the Côte d'Azur in 2027. www.thearts.co.nz/awards/kathe...

Terrified Introvert One Away From Bingo

Cis people we need to speak up when we hear hate & correct when we hear misinformation.

Re upping, because…wtf is wrong with you people?

it is time to bring out the greatest poem our country ever produced

lmao

Granta getting their ass beat for bad decisions by the Commonwealth Foundation

I agree the Granta AI story is bad for the reasons people are literally nonsensical (similar to OpenAI metafiction story)—but also… man, it does not have a story. There’s no narrative. It does read like a parody of a certain type of poet-turned-novelist fiction.

Uzair Khan is the winner of this year’s Landfall Tauraka Young Writers’ Essay Prize. ‘His winning essay, “The Bright Ones”, explores what it means to be seventeen and ambitious in a country that treats ambition with gentle scepticism.’ Published in Lf251. oup.nz/library/land...

Or: will they make it to old age.

#OtD 19 May 1935 200 banana loaders employed by the United Fruit Company in the port in Kingston, Jamaica went on strike. British police later opened fire, wounding one woman but the strike spread and became general stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9130...

The entire Jamir Nazir Commonwealth Short Story Prize Granta debacle is telling.

There’s a particular kind of North American (Unitedstatesian) inflection that sounds like shouting. Even as there is nothing in terms of volume that indicates shouting. There is a prosody of shouting. As if every word is being angrily stressed.

Remember when they had race riots in the UK encouraged by Nigel Fromage and the British public responded by supporting his political party this week and not questioning why he got £5million?

holy goddamn shit www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Me, writing from the library open.substack.com/pub/jackmand...

That so many people in education do not recognise that all abbreviations are not acronyms, but that many of the shortenings used ad nauseum in schools are initialisms, upsets me

lmao!

Prolixity: modern malaise.

Me, writing from the library open.substack.com/pub/jackmand...

In the unenviable position of having been to university with the new health secretary.

The goodest response