I just started playing chess again, on Duolingo, and am obsessed. My brother and I used to study Fischer and Karpov games when I was a kid - but that was a good 40 years ago! Working to get my ELO up!♟️

I know for a fact that Antifa is not an organization because I don't get emails from them asking for money.

Former Observer big-hitters inc @carolecadwalla.bsky.social launch new title The Nerve with redundancy payouts After Observer sale: "We decided to launch a title that the journalists themselves would own, that would be truly independent" pressgazette.co.uk/news/former-...

I've always rather enjoyed his very visceral poetry. RIP.

The budgie saga continues. Our budgie was spotted in someone's garden two days running, so we took her mate, and another cage, and are trying to coax her back to safety. So far, no luck - and every day she's out in the wild, she's a target for cats, harrier hawks, etc. We are frantic!

Be afraid. Be very afraid. There are some good interviews here. youtu.be/DUfSl2fZ_E8?...

BREAKING: The FBI has fired agents photographed kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest that followed the death of George Floyd, AP sources say.

Buffett Indicator (Market to GDP ratio) is now the highest ever. Surpassing 1929 which was the peak. More than dot com too. It’s also overvalued on PE ratio, book value, dividend yield and high yield spread. Unemployment and inflation are both rising. It’s borderline absurd to now see what’s coming.

“If I were a planetary doctor, I would sit down with my patient and say: ‘Last year, I suggested you change something but you didn’t. (...) So your health is declining further." PIK scientist Levke Caesar on the 2025 Planetary Health Check via @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

How it started and how it's going. 🙂

Meanwhile, in Malawi, the president concedes election defeat. "Out of respect for your will as citizens and out of respect for the Constitution, I concede defeat,” Chakwera said in his concession address. “I am fully committed to facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.” mg.co.za/africa/2025-...

Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration

This. Is. Brilliant.

"Recent research led by Aditya Challapally at the MIT Media Lab, found 95 per cent of generative AI pilots in the workplace failed." LOL www.ft.com/content/e93e...

This will be a treat! humanities.uct.ac.za/college-musi...

We've given our little budgie up for lost. She was the sweetest little thing and her mate adored her. He's never come this physically close to me before - I think he can sense I'm trying to console him.

What a fascinating project! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Our female budgie escaped the cage this morning, and the male is absolutely beside himself. We've left the door open but so far she hasn't ventured in. They are rescue budgies - they had a pretty grim life before we adopted them, but we made them happy with toys and care. We're very sad tonight!

A woman's place...is taking yours, Harrison Butker.

This back-to-the-kitchen movement clearly wasn't designed by women. Personally I prefer the do-whatever-you-want movement. Authoritarians have specific reasons to use women as free home labor instead of equals. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

I'm rereading The Regeneration Trilogy. The older I get, the more extraordinary it becomes!

I haven't had to cancel any streaming services in solidarity with resisters as I've never subscribed to any. What can I say? I'm ahead of my time. 😆

This is such a great advertisement for Cape Town! Please watch. P.S. I regularly swim with penguins. youtu.be/eBINbjikarc?...

"The need to write is not something that can be encouraged – it is an illness that descends on the writer." Ain't that the truth? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Led by Donkeys protests "Orwellian" arrests for projecting Trump/Epstein photos www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Don’t you dare call us fascists, they say, as they force people off the airwaves for criticizing them while vowing to crush and criminalize their opposition.

"Under Trump, key initiatives for fighting human trafficking have been cut back at the US Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The US Justice Department appears to have removed from its website a study into political violence in America by the National Institute of Justice, the Justice Department’s research agency, which concluded that far-right extremism outpaced “all other types of domestic violent extremism”.

Just heard my favourite painting was sold! 😭 It's great that someone loves it, but I was hoping it wouldn't be chosen. 😅

Here's my article on how companies can help to strengthen democracy (not work against it!). Context is South African, but it applies more broadly and draws on some global examples. trialogueknowledgehub.co.za/strengthenin...

how it feels to be literate and grounded in reality in 2025

The Washington Post now has no Black Opinion columnists - none - at a time when white nationalism is ascendant in our nation. I am grateful to Karen for the truth and fearlessness her work has always shown. Keep shining that light, my friend.

We really shouldn't gloss over the fact that Charlie Kirk called for the murder of those he viewed as political opponents: Charlie Kirk: Joe Biden should be “put in prison and/or given the death penalty for crimes against America” www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk...

"I don't care that he's dead." "He's not a hero." "He's a scumbag." "He shouldn't be celebrated." No, no. I'm not saying that about Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk said that about George Floyd. Just in case anyone's interested in what he thought was fair to say about someone who was killed on camera.

What MAGA calls 'leftist ideology', is, in fact, just reality. Viruses maim and kill. Gay and trans people have always been with us. Women earn PhDs and serve in the military. Black people fly planes and work at NASA. Reality is so threatening to these snowflakes. 🤪

I avoid vast swathes of white people in South Africa because they're involved in the culture wars and spout conspiracy theories. Mercifully, most South Africans don't care about these things, which is why we still follow science and care about one another. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...

Firing people over what they said about Kirk is more than censorship — it’s conditioning. Neighbors turning on neighbors, employers punishing dissent. This is how you build a modern secret police.

A wonderful morning in Simonstown (and beyond).

Non, je ne suis pas Charlie. youtu.be/hxzPVGhjGNE?...

“We deserve the freedom to force you to act the way we want.” That’s the crux of modern right-wing thought.

Politics have no place in Football so it was unacceptable for Colin Kaepernick to peacefully take a knee to protest systemic racism, but the NFL proudly held a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk because we must honor a man who denied systemic racism even exists. This is America.

A Black police officer, David Rose, was shot and killed defending a federal government building last month, and he didn’t get a presidential medal or a congressional moment of silence. A white civilian, Charlie Kirk, is shot and killed on a college campus, and he did.

Let's be real: talking about the "debates" Charlie Kirk did like it was the noblest form of democratic praxis is ridiculous. It was performative trolling, just meant to make his opponents look bad. There was nothing deliberative or good-faith about it. Lots of people do the same thing. But come on.

If Charlie Kirk were a fourth-grader or high school student, we'd no longer be talking about him.

You're getting a clear X-ray of America right now. Look at who this country's powerful institutions choose to elevate, venerate, and celebrate. Look at the double standards. Look at the people who adore Charlie Kirk - then spend five minutes reviewing his hateful legacy. This is America.

Charlie Kirk said if his 10-year-old daughter was raped and fell pregnant she would carry the baby to term. This is who the Trump regime is lauding. Speaks volumes. www.wionews.com/world/-yes-t...

Brazil shows how it’s done in a democracy

If you can't read, why would I bother with your service? Assuming I needed it, that is. 🤣

Oh, same.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway 'hires' three new railway kittens - BBC News share.google/rhqn94g1ygcW...