All I want for Christmas...

Robert Plant and Saving Grace perform Martha Scanlan's "Higher Rock," from their new album, 'Saving Grace,' on BBC Two's 'Later... with Jools Holland.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsj-...

I am watching a TV documentary about sports gambling addiction. The show went to commercial, and during the break there were two ads from online betting apps.

And congrats also to Parveen Nair.

A sneak peek at the cover of next week’s issue, which celebrates Zohran Mamdani’s historic win. #NewYorkerCovers https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/451hFM

Honestly, folks. Today's electoral results are a referendum on fascism. Take heart, peeps. It's fuel to step up and keep going!

In the back of my mind there is the scene where a whole village is the band, and each contributes what he can–there is never an objective audience–it is a matter more of inspiration and quite heavy common heritages… 1/2 Chris McGregor, 1971

Total gambling turnover is R1.5-trillion, and gross gambling revenue now sits at R74-billion. The frightening statistic is that online gambling constitutes by far the largest share of gambling spend...

This set at Dizzy's by Thembi Dunjana earlier this year was a serious highlight for me in 2025. Really happy to see some of it getting posted! Beautiful performance by an exceptional #SouthAfricanJazz artist www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9PZ...

Client wants waterbearer and twins . Neither were in my animals from space series but I found small scraps (I work in offcuts etc)

"In the shadow of Sudan’s misery, President Donald Trump has done conspicuously little.....The White House was more focused on gutting USAID, an agency that propped up critical elements of the humanitarian complex aiding Sudanese people." By @ishaantharoor.bsky.social. wapo.st/49qdcbO

"The sand in and around the city of approximately 400,000 is so caked with blood that you can see evidence of the RSF’s war crimes via satellite imagery, according to Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL)." Zeteo's Peter Rothpletz in today's First Draft morning newsletter, on Sudan:

Fathers. Importance and implications of fathers and fatherless households in South Africa. From The Economist

Embarrassing.

I like to refer to it as slowly strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs. I see you Cape Town and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The Cape Archives have digitalised some interesting marbled papers (and a couple of other pages) from the archives .... for printing for crafty people. dxp.westerncape.gov.za/sites/defaul...

Also excited 😊

Love this

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death. adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

In case anybody is wondering, yes, Turkey is still jailing journalists for reporting the news at an alarming rate.

How fabulous is this?

Damn and blast. Helen Lewis has written the piece of the year: a reported account of the Riyadh Comedy Festival which gently becomes an acute analysis of how the US is turning into Saudi Arabia and vice versa. It’s brilliantly funny, razor sharp and damn clever. Read it.

#adoorable Thursdays. Cape Town.

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025... SA masks its actions by becoming a key part of sport & culture. Lets also never forget that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 by agents of the Saudi government at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This is a boffo piece from @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com at @liberalcurrents.com "The Civil Rights Movement is worth studying not just because they were right, but because they won." www.liberalcurrents.com/how-to-win-a...

RIP DIANE KEATON (1946-2025)

Wonderful to be at the opening of the Old Town House which had been closed due to an electrical blaze 10 years ago. Loved this self-portrait by Catharina van Hemessen, in which she represents herself, aged twenty in the act of painting (one of the earliest such portraits by a woman artist).

#Howl-A-Ween #MusicChallenge #MusicSky 10/11 - Black Led Zeppelin - Black Dog www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlS...

Fascinating slice of history.

Also a beautiful spring day.

My local park Green Point is always lovely. But over weekends and school holiday it becomes peak wonderful. Yesterday these soccer gogos were being put through their paces. #soccer #capetown

I had a moving, heartbreaking, powerful discussion with 2 Israelis who lost family members to Hamas on Oct. 7th, 2 years ago today, on the power of 'radical forgiveness' & on standing up to the Israeli government that abandoned their family members. Full interview: zeteo.com/p/israel-gaz...

For many , the implications are profound. Without trains, they turn to minibus taxis .... The absence of rail deepens spatial inequality: those living in rural and peri-urban areas face exorbitant costs and long travel times simply to access jobs, schools and healthcare.

A police pepper spraying an unarmed woman from close range infuriated Turks so much that it created a nation-wide uprising in 2013.

Thoughtful and painful. Urgently need this and remedies.

Utterly wonderful

I support this.

Washington Post dismantled the platform Jamal wrote on. Discarded the fellowship they created in his memory. They fired me unjustly for speaking the truth. But I’ll never stop talking about my friend, writer, and amazing human, Jamal Khashoggi. RIP, Jamal. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Today, Oct.2nd, is the anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents.

An incredible legacy.

Moldovan voters have (yet again!) thwarted Ru’s efforts to intimidate, buy, and manipulate them into abandoning their pro-EU course.

Forget the hustle bustle..

“The actual state of Palestine” — brilliant front page from UK Observer

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

This whole thread is just epic.

Well done those countries for speaking up for the majority of the world's population. Delegates walk out as #Netanyahu takes the stand at the UN.

A Sharp Prick. The Economist.

Look what we have here then.

I was elected mayor of Istanbul, but I write this from jail: Turkish democracy is under grave threat | Ekrem Imamoğlu www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Wild pear is in blossom in De Waal Park.