A six-month investigation by Byline Times reveals that with the support of Palantir's Peter Thiel, Reform's policy chief James Orr has used the University of Cambridge as a student recruitment ground for a hard-right, theocratic political project aimed at bolstering talent in Farage’s party

'In the heat of a sunny afternoon, Flo Finch unfurled a 5-foot by 3-foot flag outside her home with the help of a friend. A customized message stretched across the red cross at its center: “For Football not Farage.” @meganspecia.bsky.social reports on the debate over the England flag (gift link):

"Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum." Always loved this Harper Lee description of Maycomb, Alabama; never thought I'd live it while working from home (minus the talcum and, sadly, the naps)

Such a great newsletter

Last week Kemi Badenoch was in Aberdeen calling for "the war on oil and gas to end." 8 days later, Britain broke temperature records as a deadly heat wave struck. We asked @shearmds.bsky.social, @jeannasmialek.bsky.social &others to look at the strange politics of climate change right now:

The Ukrainian man who set fire to two homes and a car linked to Keir Starmer, and a friend who assisted him, have both been jailed today The fires were commissioned by a Russian Telegram account, but a bizarre conspiracy theory that the culprits were "rent boys" persists inews.co.uk/news/starmer...

The phrase "two-tier" policing first entered Britain's political mainstream in August 2024, when people supporting the Southport rioters were complaining of their treatment But it is not a mainstream term - it originated with far right and conspiracist groups trying to push their own narratives

If you read one thing today, make it @stephenkb.bsky.social's admirably clear and rational analysis of the police's actions following Henry Nowak's murder, from the @financialtimes.com Inside Politics newsletter www.ft.com/content/aa94...

How vulnerable children became a gold mine for investors This piece by Chris Smyth, Alan Smith and Jennifer Williams is worth your time as.ft.com/r/b1fb6cb0-4...

This piece starts with a case of anti-Muslim hatred that was so vile we couldn't include most of the details. @lizziedearden.bsky.social looked at that and other antisemitic, Islamophobic and racist offences in the past year, and asked experts what is stoking the rise in hate crimes.

NEW: Records released tonight show that Reynolds, makers of Vuse vapes, gave $5 Million to MAGA Inc. days before the FDA wrote a policy that could allow them to make millions selling flavored vapes. Via @kenvogel.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/u...

What's gutting about this is that Juniper seems to have had a family who supported and loved her, she was in a community that has been explicitly welcoming to trans people, and a man still murdered her. She was living the life so many trans people can only dream of, and it simply didn't matter.

This is a really useful and interesting piece by the excellent @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social

As Starmer tries to fend off pressure from within his own party to step down, the parallels with Biden's exit in 2024 are increasingly palpable, writes Mike Shear, who covered both. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/w...

This story has now been updated with what we've heard today In one of the last messages from his Russian-speaking handler, the main arsonist was told: "If the police detain you, secretly write the word ‘geranium’ and I’ll send a lawyer to you, I’ll give you money for a week and a new phone."

The man charged with attempting to murder two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday has also been charged with attempting to murder an acquaintance, Ishmail Hussein, earlier that same day. @meganspecia.bsky.social & @lizziedearden.bsky.social report:

ICYMI: fascinating investigation into Samuel Samson, the 27-year-old Trump administration diplomat cultivating ties with far-right European parties. He met Farage for breakfast last year. By @shearmds.bsky.social, Catherine Porter, @bradleyjane.bsky.social and Chris Scheutze

Started a little slowly but I'm now fully immersed in 'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' by Kiran Desai, if you are looking for a big, continent-crossing novel about love, longing and dislocation. Alexandra Jacobs' review is here: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/b...

Test your knowledge of all things* archbishop of Canterbury my friends www.nytimes.com/interactive/... *ok not all things, just some of the things

"Several local residents last week expressed deep ambivalence over any British involvement in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran." @meganspecia.bsky.social went to see the U.S. bombers being loaded with munitions at R.A.F. Fairford and spoke to locals about their views (gift link):

Exclusive: The Metropolitan Police interviewed Virginia Giuffre 3 times after her lawyers handed them a dossier of evidence saying that she was trafficked to UK by Epstein and Maxwell, and made her have sex with Prince Andrew But they did not launch an investigation www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/w...

Good piece by Giles Coren on Nando's and others deciding that, no, they don't want chickens to live OK lives after all www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

As an English Lit graduate born in Bradford I couldn't resist sending our new chief U.K. correspondent @shearmds.bsky.social to gorgeous west Yorkshire, where the original Wuthering Heights was written, with our wonderful photographer Andrew Testa. Feast your eyes on this (gift article):

This is worth a read and highlights big questions about the structure of newsrooms and coverage. "Meanwhile the reporter working away on a benefit fraud or an eyewitness despatch about teachers in Birmingham being pressured not to talk about evolution can only deliver slowly, at greater expense..."

Very good Unhedged podcast on Venezuela and oil - with @jamiesmythft.bsky.social @robarmstrong.bsky.social @katie0martin.ft.com highly recommended podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u...

Just a few more days left to apply for the Paul McLean graduate trainee programme at the FT. This is an amazing opportunity for any aspiring journalist job-boards.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

If you'd like a little break from the news, here's a happy story about bats (gift link 🎁🦇) via @amelia-nierenberg.bsky.social

Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.

The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991. From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...

The Trump administration's updated National Security Strategy is a really striking document that offers the clearest expression yet of what it is trying to do in Europe: "Cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" 👀

This is the Michael Prescott memo about BBC coverage (Telegraph). www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11...

"On top of that, I’d wonder why such close editorial scrutiny should have been entrusted to three key people who themselves rejected journalism in order to enjoy lucrative careers in corporate and political communications." This is worth a read:

Brogan Stewart liked to refer to himself as the “Führer” in his group chat with fellow neo-Nazis. At his home in Tingley, a swastika flag hung on his bedroom wall. @lizziedearden.bsky.social reports from Sheffield where he went on trial with 2 co-conspirators (gift link)

"At one point, the police said at a news conference, they observed the men buying almost 1.5 miles’ worth of foil in Costco" - is my favourite fact in @lizziedearden.bsky.social & @amelia-nierenberg.bsky.social's story today. So much so I decided we'd make it a subheading

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage. Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

When Nigel Farage spoke to Congress on Sept. 3, it was thanks to the group that helped topple Roe v Wade. Read more in this brilliant investigation by @bradleyjane.bsky.social and Elizabeth Dias: (gift link)

We found out they’ve been courting Reform since at least 2024, in an attempt to build their UK influence, and have brokered a string of meetings and briefings with Farage.

NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.  www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

Been to the youngest’s harvest assembly. Theory: every primary school built pre about 1980 in Britain has some version of this equipment. It is referred to as something like ‘the apparatus’. No one has any memory of it ever being used.

“All our tech businesses are turning awful,” Doctorow writes... “And they’re not dying. We remain trapped in their carcasses, unable to escape.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/b...

As Yom Kippur ends, it is terrible that a holy day has seen people killed at a place of worship in Manchester I hope many of us will express solidarity + support for Jews in Britain, and work with them + those of every faith and none to deepen our efforts to tackle antisemitism, hatred + extremism

❤️ this Q&A with the incredible Katrin Bennhold, host of a new global newsletter from @nytimes.com. She's German, lives in Wales & has reported from around the world, and she brings curiosity, empathy and humility to everything she does:

Any journalist quoting this absurd, invented £234 billion number cited by Farage/Reform should make absolutely clear that it has been withdrawn by *its own authors* (the Centre for Policy Studies) after they admitted it contained several major errors (1/3)

A doctor who spoke with The New York Times last week was among those killed when a missile hit a mosque on Friday, as paramilitaries stepped up their brutal siege of the city of El Fasher, reports @declanwalsh.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/w...

"Commentary *like this* about a deputy Prime Minister felt politically unsurvivable" - Chris Mason, BBC ten o'cıock news. This script over these pictures treats vandalism & criminal damage as a legitimate form of democratic voice. The BBC should avoid doing that, esp in broader current climate

Much of the current debate around speech, and the government’s response, misses the deeper issue: society’s information systems have shifted. Epistemic judgements are now shaped by algorithmic visibility rather than through gatekeeping institutions. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

How Elon Musk Is Remaking Grok in His Image www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/t...

The thing you don’t see about lengthy libel cases like this is the mental impact on witnesses - and on news outlets’ willingness to do similar stories. Respect to all the women who chose to go to court to defend this story - plus Sirin Kale, Lucy Osborne, Paul Lewis and the Guardian team.

If you listen to one thing this weekend, make it this incredibly insightful interview with @philippesands.bsky.social‬ on the history of genocide and its relevance to current conflicts

The unprecedented super injunction that banned reporting of the British government's Afghan data breach was in place for almost two years, and subject to numerous court hearings where the Ministry of Defence fought attempts to lift it I asked how much it cost. Story coming soon 🗞️