A video of Father Pierre, the parish priest of the village of Al-Qlayaa in southern Lebanon, ringing the bell of his church. He refused to leave his parish and his town, saying that the only weapons they carry are peace, love, and prayer.

This is really great news: something that works, done well, with serious attention to privacy. Let's hear it for @bengoldacre.bsky.social and all the people involved. takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/how-to-use...

Attacks leave dead vs killed

Just fascinating to see Blair, a man whose reputation was ruined by the Iraq war, advocate joining a war that is exponentially stupider and more chaotic. How is it possible to learn nothing from the worst mistake of your life?

So according to the WSJ a US Senator conspired with another country to manipulate the US into starting a war, am I getting this right

Several years from now, a thoughtful scholar will write a book called “Trump’s Willing Executioners” about how a nation of 340 million descended into abject depravity.

Rather than concentrate on the wildfire war he's just started, Trump is spending his time on the phone with British journalists slagging off Keir Starmer. Their dictation skills turn out to be excellent www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lab...

We have until Weds to raise £70,000 or The Music Boutique closes. For nearly 30 years it’s been a place of music but also also safety, belonging and love - built by a founder who grew up in foster care and created the place he never had. Please donate or share. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-music-...

Explains a lot about the failure of Brexit that its main adherents should right now be prostrating themselves before the US because they think that's what an independent UK means.

A brilliant and well investigated piece showing how the cons work…https://washingtonian.com/2026/02/12/how-elon-musks-sci-fi-hyperloop-failed/

The asymmetry of the value placed on human life is so striking. Israel has a goal to recover 40-year-old remains; to do so, it invades a sovereign country, and the lives of 26 Lebanese are an afterthought. Their names not even worth printing in the New York Times.

Donald on Iran: "When crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen." There he goes projecting again.

That is the kind of utopian but hardnosed work plan I am here for. pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/3...

This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea. newrepublic.com/post/207429/...

💥SCOOP: Putin tasked Sergei Kiriyenko to run a Moldova-style election meddling operation in Hungary for Orbán, sending three GRU-linked political technologists with diplomatic or service passports to operate from the Russian Embassy in Budapest. More in my newsletter: vsquare.org/goulash-krem...

I'm here a lot, and try to focus on relationships, but I think we have to assert offline experiences and relationships to counter this horror

Official start date for Brexit: 1 February 2020

"you're right - we bombed a primary school. And that's on me. I didn't check the coordinates and I forgot your instructions to obey the Geneva conventions. I'll remember to do better in future. Would you like me to pick another school to bomb?"

Big money has bought British politics 75% of Reform’s money has come from three rich white men democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...

I wrote about how the US and Israel carried out an attack on an Iranian girls school on par with the OKC bombing and US media relegated it to a back page story. No stand alone evening news segments, no front page stories, it made A11 in the NYT then everyone moved on.

Thoughts & prayers to the EPA :(

Good morning! Yes, this is he

I am more relaxed than most about Palantir's role in the British public sector, but this is disturbing. Not only did the CEO twice use a slur about the intellectually disabled, the company account then reposted it. (His core message on Anthropic is hateful too.)

Of the many poisonous legacies of 14 years of Conservative rule, the lining of the BBC with Tory nitwits, from Robbie Gibb to Laura Kuenssberg, has rendered the Corporation a reactionary mouthpiece.

This hasn't got the attention it needs. 10 people were killed.

In shock news, motorists have switched to public transport to avoid paying the Oxford Congestion Charge. A spokesperson* said: "This is exactly what was meant to happen, and it did."

"Make people dependent enough, and then make it shitty" Still giggling at this hilarious video from the Norwegian Consumer Council "A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator" which seems a perfect embodiment of Silicon Valley and tech generally these days www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work. This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public. Please spread the word. 🧵 1/4

📌 ICYMI — Tommy Robinson Amplifies Death Threat Against Keir Starmer During US Tour With Trump Insiders The convicted far-right criminal shared the threat as he was handed extraordinary access to the US State Department by the Trump administration

OpenAI’s ‘Red Lines’ Are Written In The NSA’s Dictionary—Where Words Mean What The NSA Wants Them To Mean Within hours on Friday, the Pentagon blacklisted one AI company for refusing to drop its safety commitments on surveillance and autonomous weapons, then turned around and praised a competitor…

who made this

world-altering decisions are being made by a cabal of gambling addicts hell bent on self enrichment no matter the cost to humanity, we should look into that.

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

There has been another remarkable music event last night: The BRIT Awards 2026 Olivia Dean won every category in which she was nominated. www.bbc.com/news/article... However, ROSALÍAs performance was one of the most audacious moments of the night. 🎥 My Recommendation: ROSALÍA - Berghain ft. Björk

While we sit around to find out how bad exactly it all is, a bit of cheer: the best baguette of Paris competition was won by a Sri Lankan who appears to have started as a dish washer in restaurants and eventually trained as a Boulanger. www.paris.fr/pages/la-mei...

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

Sky News confusing ballot boxes with polling booths

"Pardon me?", literally.

What Britain is actually like www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So I started looking into this to outline the conspiracy theory. But what I found was a genuinely beautiful piece of practical idealism. A small, attainable progressive change that would hugely improve people's lives. I was inspired by it.

Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital halts mass eviction after London Centric uncovered what was going on. Hundreds of Londoners now receiving bizarre door-to-door visits blaming misinformation and being asked to record videos saying they don't want to be evicted. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

I enjoyed this interview with @tomfletcherun.bsky.social . And, as a woman who writes about international affairs, it is good to hear a male colleague speak so openly about his emotions in the face of the deplorable state of the world. Empathy is the opposite of weakness. We could use more of it.

Excellent cartoon in @privateeyenews.bsky.social

"The report, reviewed by the FT, decided against using Palantir technology for Swiss military data since there was a risk that US authorities could gain access to the sensitive files." Yet here Labour continues to shove public money down its throat.

Can't fuckin' believe I'm doing this but here goes: Twitter is a mind prison, a true jail of career advancement. I stopped posting on there and within months I became the CEO of The Onion and I'm not kidding. Went back on last year, felt worse, then left again.

So, just thought I would try this AI thing, and I am interacting with @google gemini. I asked it to do something banal, like make an image of Donald Trump surfing. It refused. I had no idea how scared these companies really are.

The strongest version of this illusion I’ve seen! Absolute head-wrecker!

This is an insane and terrifying story. But the most maddening thing is the complete abdication of responsibility by the British consulate. "The consular official told her they couldn’t interfere. “She said she’d look into it, but we never heard from her again." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...