So the Epstein vote isn't the only reason Mike Johnson should fear Rep. Yassamin Ansari. More of this, please.

Christ, he is supernaturally good at this.

I'm just asking questions.

This was journalism, and the absence of anything similar (let alone in prime time TV!) makes for a less informed world. Into which populists, bullshitters, and grifters move with glee. Annoyingly. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

[Theme from the Deus Ex games plays]

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

It's like if Ceauşescu had a social media account.

Really important piece

The "hard-men" of Gondor were getting their shit kicked in until they were rescued by foreigners and a girl. The Shire was doing fine until they let a fascist demagogue ("Sharkey" aka Saruman) take over, close the gates, impose a bunch of thug-enforced rules, and despoil nature for profit.

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

Caerphilly result, from a progressive rather than partisan point of view, is great. 1. The more people wake up to the power of turning out/voting tactically the better; 2. Given Lab still has four years in gov't with a big majority, the more it is terrorised away from regressive policies the better.

Quite an unfortunate place to drift off into an ellipsis.

One wonderful legal fact is that the provision effectively giving licence to agent to commit crimes abroad is... ...section 007 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/1...

Via Martin Wolf, here is what happens when populists take control. on.ft.com/47fVDsb Maybe the UK was pitched exactly onto this curve. We got Brexit and Johnson, and it dropped our GDP by 4% relative to not doing that. Elect another populist government in 2029, and maybe we'll get the next 6%

Edinburgh castle failing to render, likely thanks to the AWS outage

... the instructions are quite something. The product is apparently suitable for "beautiful ladies."

It would be quite appreciated if wealthy individuals from abroad refrained from attempting to sway our political landscape, thank you very much. www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

Stlll the best Guardian correction ever.

I ❤️ Viz

Britain has seen an acute living standards slowdown over the past 20 years, affecting everyone. A typical family today would be £20,000 richer had incomes continued at the rate of growth trending in 2005, when the Foundation was founded. Read more: buff.ly/NuhNFF9

subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz349bs

This was always the fatal flaw of Labour's "Reform are great for us, because they will split the right wing vote" strategy, long term. Unless the Tories pull their fkn finger out, the right wing vote AIN'T GOING TO SPLIT. Just transfer further to the right.

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

Many pundits today are pushing the line that everyone who protests the genocide in Gaza is basically either antisemitic or tolerant of antisemitism. But isn't that precisely the conflation of the actions of the Israeli gov't with all Jewish people, which is at the heart of this wave of antisemitism?

This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar. Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

There are warlords with like six guys and a Hilux who’ve more successfully resisted the United States trying to meddle in their shit

It won't "regain the political initiative amid rising support for Reform". That ship has sailed. It will destroy the last vestiges of centrist Conservatism.

(solemnly) You've had mail.

The bees have discovered Brutalism

Within the first year of my daughter’s life, the Lionesses have won the Euros and the Red Roses have won the World Cup in front of sell-out crowds and huge tv audiences and it’s so wonderful to know she will grow up thinking that of course women play sport and of course everybody watches it

What on Earth is this? An "in depth" BBC article about free speech in the UK that only cites examples of right-wing/ 'anti-woke' speech being suppressed. How can you mention Lucy Connolly but completely ignore Palestine Action / Just Stop Oil? Gob-smacking. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Should I ever get shot by assailants who want to censor my speaking truth to liberals, can I just request now that nobody makes any fan art of me? For uh reasons

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy @eastangliabylines.co.uk eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/jus...

Where the separate divisions of ANTIFA landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944:

This. 1000 times this. It’s like we don’t count.

Bertrand Russell, at 89 years old, to Sir Oswald Mosley, a man most famous for founding, in 1932, the British Union of Fascists. I'm all for civil discourse. But everyone can and should draw a line at who they will talk to. Notice that Russell did not demean himself with incivility, either.

It should be needless to say, but it is perhaps at this moment worth saying, that transgender individuals have the same right as anyone else to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Our democracy is too precious to be a plaything for foreign tech barons. Elon Musk doesn’t care about the British people or our rights. He only cares about himself and his ego.

For the avoidance of doubt, fascism is what both of my Grandfathers fought against in the Second World War. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Agree with David here. Liberals and the Left shouldn't get paralysed by panic over milieus that have been around for decades and have been successfully mobilised against before. What is depressing though is the cowardice of a Labour government in the face of a movement that wants to destroy it

free floppy discs, delivered to your home, by a cool new company called “The Purge Approaches with Great Fury and Speed”

*BREAKING NEWS* Sam Allardyce appointed British ambassador to the USA until the end of the season

The BBC are constantly fawning over Farage's every move despite Reform only having four MPs. Our national broadcaster should reflect the whole country, not just one man’s ego.

This is trans rights, too. There is no viable position for the Democrats other than “trans rights are human rights.” Trying to triangulate a position where you throw trans people under the bus “just a little” to woo swing voters only feeds the right’s argument that trans people are a threat 1/x

When centrists adopt far-right rhetoric, they don’t make themselves stronger. They make themselves look inauthentic, legitimise the far right, and shift the political debate onto terrain defined by their opponents. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Well, if it’s 7 September, it must be... yes, of course: the 52nd anniversary of the most shocking diplomatic incident in all of maritime history – the carrot-hurling incident of 1973

A message that ought to resonate with Labour in the UK in 2025.