I used to subscribe to The Economist, but for such expensively-educated people I found they could be really really thick...

Under new head of Paramount David Ellison, the studio has drawn up a list of actors who opposed the Gaza genocide and will not allow them to appear in its films and TV shows. Does this sound familiar? Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."

I'd also like to see similar 'drop this shit' energy directed at Facebook. It's become a default community organising platform, used (because it's 'free') as an information dissemination source even for public, state-funded things like primary schools, where opting out is practically v difficult.

Well, clothes are extremely expensive there

A fantastic piece of reporting, brilliantly illustrated data, thorough, neutral analysis, transparent data collection… and frightening conclusions. Well done @skynewsrss.bsky.social for putting in long miles on this one

Sitting patiently, waiting for all the news outlet analysis that says: “Last night’s sweep of all major votes for the Democrats, even in Republican strongholds, was also a national condemnation of Trump. Americans have spoken against ICE raids, law-breaking, tariffs, shutting down government…”

Tonight's even more proof the mainstream reporters who are still on Twitter are suffering from a brain problem akin Havana Syndrome that is preventing them from accurately doing their jobs. They are being cooked alive by a snuff-focused apartheid algorithm.

Great news out of the US as it’s clear America has turned against Trump en masse, even in Republican strongholds. FT has it top story, nails angle. BBC has it 2nd to story about immigrants working illegally 🙄, makes it only about New York, doesn’t mention turn against Trump, says problems ahead 🙄

Musk’s pay un-afjordable

Thank goodness for ballistic vests for this kind of attack. And what a relief there was only one sandwich. Imagine if the attacker had a sub machine gun

😱

Morning America, Please, please, don't fuck things up any more today. Choose anybody, anybody at all, that will stand up to the tawny turnip totalitarian. Yours, Rest of the world

Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time. I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.

👏 Prof Lidia Morawska: global champion for truth, science and public health. While others hesitated, she spoke with courage - showing that #SARSCoV2 spreads through the air, indoors and over distance. Her work helped reshape global guidance, ventilation standards and public awareness - saving lives!

Amid all the horror of the attack on Saturday we see the very, very best of human beings. The passengers who helped each other, the heroic train worker who put himself in harms way and undoubtedly saved lives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...

Finally watched The Bear to see what the fuss was about. I’m all for darker reboots, but the brutal punishments of being in daily service were a lot harder to watch without the lighter touch of Masha.

Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock were British, and they killed more than this lot combined

Finally watched The Bear to see what the fuss was about. I’m all for darker reboots, but the brutal punishments of being in daily service were a lot harder to watch without the lighter touch of Masha.

Reading an acclaimed novel in which a character “hacked into Gov dot UK” to investigate someone’s passport application and finds it had been fast tracked after a quiet call from a member of the House of Lords. 🙄

Honestly, I’ve seen tech community forums that aren’t far off this

Last chance to turn it off. On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default. To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.

Not a cake I'm going to rush to try

There’s a Reddit post on US ‘poverty finance’ in which a member of military has posted they’re not getting paid but still have to go to work — and mods are going berserk deleting replies criticising Trump, stating the subreddit is “non-political”. Right, poverty is non-political huh?

So, I see Ponce Charles has finally censured Nonce Andrew

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Guys this is the ONE client you really need to double check

👏👏👏👏🤌

I use Claude (an AI) to scan my posts for spelling and grammar errors. On the most recent post (about the East Wing, link below), I got a really amazing addendum. www.pbump.net/o/yes-most-a...

Department to now be renamed Office of Navel Research

Would be an amazing job for sciencey types - but whenever I see any UK journalism jobs I just get astonished at the salaries. £40k for an editor role, with specialist knowledge, to be regularly commuting into central London, south-east housing costs, childcare, etc. How do people make this work?

As I’ve explained: one of the best ways to protect your heart health is to keep up with your Covid and flu vaccinations. Don’t listen to antivaccine activists they don’t care about you or your family www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...

Is Home Office using airline passenger booking data for benefit fraud crackdown? Today I report on woman who booked flight to Oslo for wedding, wedding cancelled. She didn't check in or travel but child beneft stopped as she had "emigrated". Are there GDPR issues? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Has there ever been an advance in technology that has so quickly become a hotbed of crime, with such a wide variety of crime? The police are only just catching up with the internet - when are they going to be AI ready?

Looking forward to the ITV drama about this, with Toby Jones playing one of the children whose benefits were stopped

This such a perfect patriotic 🇬🇧 Fleet Street cock-up. It's one thing for a news outlet to be duped by a competent hoaxer. Excruciating, yes, but there's a fairly long history of such fuck ups. But to put out a statement SAYING you'd been hoaxed but you'd actually just emailed the wrong guy?

The perils of data harvesting overreach by people who think they’re geniuses but lack ethics

Attended an event at the Turkish consulate tonight expecting a stuffy diplomatic do with canapés. But this was the star of the catering! Very happy with that result.

The Trump Action Tracker has an update! Main change is to break down the five authoritarian domains into ten - this allows for easier understanding of why actions have been logged and more tools for searching / filtering the now 1621 actions. www.trumpactiontracker.info? 1/2

It is my curse to pick up novels acclaimed by the literary establishment and find out that, oh, yet again, the main character is a writer or an academic, or wow, an academic who writes

A couple of chapters into Caledonian Road and a bit wound up by it. Worth persisting?

Why do Americans believe they can’t have nice things? Stellan Skarsgård nails it.

The reform party nativity scene. No unmarried mothers. No Middle Eastern people. No refugees. No people seeking emergency accommodation. And not a wise fvcking man in sight…

Is it weird that I love autumnal Sundays? A walk and beer in crisp sunshine, then cosy up at home with a cuppa as it gets dark but there's still ages 'til bed.

Made a rare visit to McDonalds the other day. This was the burger I was given vs the picture of it on the poster taunting me next to where I sat. Can you guess which is which?

Still, surely nothing to worry about, eh? 😱

Reminder that you have ONE MORE WEEK to get an almost offensively cheap ebook of A History of the World in 47 Borders if you haven't already.

The Economist email newsletter has this chart, and some commentary on why people are 'becoming surprisingly less grumpy'. Is it possible there could have been some kind of global event in '20-22 that peaked worry/stress/anxiety and reduced enjoyment, so levels now are just returning from a spike?

Obviously didn't turn out to be the result the Today programme hoped for

Would current BBC management have backed them through all this if they were still there? Kudos to Global for having their backs, I didn't think this sort of investigation would be possible there. I was wrong, and I'm very glad!