Morning. collider.com/netflix-crim...

THE BETRAYER up to number two in True Crime, ahead of some bloke called John Grisham. Largely thanks to the runaway success of @neilforsyth.bsky.social superbly crafted TV series LEGENDS; if you haven't seen it yet, you must. I can't begrudge @praddenkeefe.bsky.social the top spot, he's brilliant.

Reading 'The Betrayer' by Guy Stanton and @petemilo.bsky.social - book that inspired Netflix' Legends. Fascinating detail about #HMCE Investigation Division, the varied attempts to develop undercover training, and the fiendish tests that the real Stanton was put through.

Coming soon, inspired by our true story THE BETRAYER by Guy Stanton with Peter Walsh (Milo Books)

Nice poster. Bit mysterious.

Pleasure to speak to Lindsay Charlton about researching and writing DRUG WAR: THE SECRET HISTORY and about the pivotal role of one remarkable trafficker in the origins of the Turkish-UK heroin pipeline for the great new podcast series Narco Warriors. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

It has been a wait but at last I can spill exciting news. Six years ago, I sat down with investigator Guy Stanton to pen THE BETRAYER, his story of an HM Customs undercover unit set up to penetrate the drug world. Today I can reveal it has inspired a major Netflix series that will stream on May 7.

How it feels doing literally any task right now.

WAR DON'T SEX CRIMES HIDE CRIMES

I have watched 6 hours of a DOGE bro deposition. The whole thing, start to finish. It's a fascinating, and horrifying, look at the people who caused so much damage, didn't really achieve anything at all, while still being so sure they are right. Here's what they said: www.404media.co/i-watched-6-...

I'm totally pinching myself announcing this, but a film about my life journey rewilding a West Cork farm, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest, will get its first screening at the Dublin International Film Festival on Saturday the 28th of this month. Tickets are available here: www.diff.ie/programme/an...

This is bad.

The hometown newspaper that I read as a teenager through Watergate and Vietnam and made me crave the life of a reporter is now being butchered by a billionaire who had $75 million to bribe and flatter a president and his wife but nothing to save journalism, an bulwark of the republic itself. Got it.

Starting tomorrow ... audioboom.com/channels/516...

Alex Pretti was an American hero. He saved lives. He protected people. He cared deeply about his community, unlike the murderous thugs who killed him. The very last thing he did was try to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed and violently shoved to the ground by ICE. 1/

Gabriel Zucman on the shocking concentration of extreme wealth in the United States…. gzucman.substack.com?r=nle0&utm_c...

Saw Hamnet last night. Subtle it is not. I actually liked the titular "shining-faced young whippersnapper" but otherwise have to side with this rare dissenting review from the iPaper: inews.co.uk/culture/film...

Oh yes.

Y'days post: Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse in the UK mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/12/labo... Voters haven't suddenly become more xenophobic/racist. So the reason public discourse has is due to politicians + media

Christmas idea: if someone you know enjoyed A Line In The Sand they will like this. Or treat yourself!

This is very good

The biggest story in Europe today but I can't see it prominently on a single UK news site or outlet.

Really enjoyed helping the documentary team with this, a great reconstruction of one of the most interesting and unusual drug trafficking investigations of its time. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

ICYMI this is @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Today In Focus from the @theguardian.com talking about booming polls, membership and prospects for @greenparty.org.uk www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

50 seats... Time to grow the Green Party even more. Let's go. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Best balm for a dose of flu? PG Wodehouse. Currently halfway thru The Mating Season. Best description so far is of the delectable Cora ‘Corky’ Pirbright, screen actress of hazel-brown eyes and hair: “The general effect is of an angel who eats lots of yeast.”

This is such a brilliant campaign by The Mill. Their six pledges will help make Manchester a better place, but they need an extra 1,000 members by 10 December to make it happen. Whether you're a Mancunian or not, you'll get tons of brilliant journalism, and you'll also be supporting a great cause.

Thousands of rare American recordings — some 100 years old — go online for all to enjoy A collaboration between UC Santa Barbara and the nonprofit Dust-to-Digital Foundation laist.com/news/arts-an...

via Jon Taylor

The letter the BBC could send back to Trump - brilliant stuff from @davidallengreen.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/emptycit...

Reminder: Here's what Nigel Farage tried to take away from you this week...

The 5 Stage of Reform UK Councillor

Police gathered incriminating evidence about the Irish drug lord Daniel Kinahan, but he operated from both a technological and a geographic remove from the gory scenes on the Dublin streets: like many other wealthy criminals, he had moved to Dubai.

When an honorary Brummie meets honourable Brummies something magical can happen. Beautiful.

If you've not read this interview with Greta, get on it.

I think this might be the first time in my 57 years on planet earth that I’m looking forward to a party political broadcast. This is going to be interesting.

Younger veteran: "How old are you, man?" Older veteran: “87.” Younger veteran: “Out here getting arrested, raising hell at 87.” Older veteran: “It’s just beginning.” 🦅 🦅 🦅 #ResistanceUnited 🔥 🔥 🔥

this doesn't get talked about enough consolidated corporate media owners fired all the beat reporters with informed subject matter expertise because they didn't want to pay them health insurance, which degraded informed consensus and created a media environment easily exploitable by bad actors

On National Poetry Day, the greatest poem I have ever read

What Trump said are the well-worn and often rebutted lies of the fossil fuel lobby, whose lies are the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world. If you hear such climate science denial tropes, the answers to all of those can be found at skepticalscience.com

One of the greats.

The COVID enquiry and last night’s ITV documentary shone light on a dark time - when billions of pounds of public money were shovelled into the pockets of private investors rather than public institutions - wasting existing expertise, wasting money, wasting lives in the process.

I love The Onion.

This is very good.

As I wrote after the first Caribbean boat strike, no War on Terror drone strike crossed all the lines these two attacks have. Those had some legal authority, occurred in areas the US military did not control—where arrest was not an easy alternative—and the US considered the worst ones mistakes.

How do we fix this mess?