Four hundred TikTok videos out of 7,600 skincare-related posts analysed by the Guardian featured routines or advice presented by children believed to be under 13

Fraud involving antiques and collectibles have a long history, but I’ve been fascinated by how the internet has supercharged the reach of potential scams

A strategy ‘to make life intolerable’: Israeli settlers are driving Christians out of West Bank

After appearing to suggest that the war was winding down earlier this week, the US has redeployed the majority of its stealthy long-range missiles for the Iran war (🎁)

Donald Trump has long spoken about his desire for a US version of Israel's golden dome, but there have been very few signs of it actually being real...until now (🎁)

I'm seeing a lot of these fake Donald Trump truths being posted on BlueSky (and lesser sites) at the moment. Its pretty easy to check, and you owe it to yourself and other people before sharing it.

“AI can never be AI without humans. It is not artificial intelligence. It’s African intelligence...We are training our own death. We train ChatGPT and it’s killing us slowly.” www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Russia is widely seen to be backing Victor Orban’s reelection efforts, with videos of ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war, with videos of ethnic Hungarian prisoners (🎁) Via @thomas.escritt.eu

Anthropic is challenging the Pentagon's decision to declare it a threat to the US supply chain in court. “We do not believe this action is legally sound, and we see no choice but to challenge it in court,” Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said in a blog post on Thursday

The Pokemon Company confirmed the long rumoured existence of their next mainline games today. Pokemon Winds and Waves will be released simultaneously in 2027 for the Switch 2 and - as the leaks previously suggested - be set in a tropical world with what looked like underwater environments

Who should I be following in the TCG/TTRPG space on Bluesky? I’m particularly interested in D&D, Magic and Pokemon, but I’ll take any and all recommendations…

Both Polymarket and Kalshi pitch themselves as sources of truth in a time of epistemic uncertainty, but detractors say they are just glorified forms of gambling

My most recent session of arena got a bit out of hand #MTG #magicthegathering

“Despite her residing in the UK, the terms of the order are so broad that they extend to the privacy of her own home, even when speaking to her own family.” Sarah Wynn-Williams’s publisher reflects on Meta’s ongoing attempts to silence the author

White supremacists from around the world met in February to plan whites-only enclaves, expand recruitment, and advance mass “remigration.” Hosted by Arkansas-based Return to the Land, the summit convened neo-Nazi leaders invoking the “Great Replacement” and coordinating across borders.

OpenAI considered referring the 18-year-old behind one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history to the RCMP but ultimately determined that their activity did meet the threshold for alerting law enforcement

Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales called Elon Musk’s Grokipedia a “cartoon imitation of an encyclopaedia” during an interview on the sidelines of India’s AI summit

Marco Rubio’s appointment as Trump’s Secretary of State was greeted with skepticism by many in the MAGA movement, but the long time Neocon has emerged as one of Trump’s most powerful advisers

For the first time, the EU is attempting to mitigate social media addiction. Excellent article from Politico👇 "Brussels has told the company to change several key features, including disabling infinite scrolling, setting strict screen time breaks and changing its recommender systems."

European capitals are once again talking about developing their own nuclear weapons. The region has long depended on the US for its deterrent, but it is now facing the prospect being left alone with Russia’s nuclear arsenal

Interesting contrast in coverage: a misleading, vested-interest report suggesting heat pumps raise UK bills made headlines. Our peer-reviewed UK research showing high real-world efficiency across hundreds of homes was largely ignored by the media. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Foreign companies that run data centres in India will be exempt from taxes on overseas services until 2047

Bitcoin hasn’t had the best start to 2025. After failing to respond to the economic turbulence of January, the digital currency fell below $80,000 on Saturday

Trump said he will meet with several parties over his ambition to take control of Greenland during the upcoming World Economic Forum

Grok’s ability to to produce sexualised images are not just a test for Elon Musk’s xAI, but the loose-knit structures designed to regulate the industry more generally (1/3)

Attempts by some conservative influencers to suggest that Greenlanders welcomed the prospect of a US takeover stand in stark relief to the sentiment on the ground in the semi-autonomous Danish territory

Did you see the claim from the Government in the House of Lords that "10.8 million families use X as their main news source"? Well, the government has admitted it was wrong. I investigated for Radio 4's More or Less - you can hear it here, starting at 14:55. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Iran continues its brutal crackdown on protests sweeping the nation despite the threat of US intervention. The death toll has jumped to 2,500 according to activist groups and the internet blackout has reached its sixth day

Authoritarian regimes around the world are suddenly questioning whether those Kremlin security guarantees are worth the paper they’re printed on

12/13 This gives Russia, China, and others an easy excuse for their own aggression. Whataboutism will explode. They will say: “If the US can do it, so can we.” Reputation matters even to lawless powers. This makes their job easier

Users on China’s equivalent of X saw the US abduction of Venezuela’s Maduró as a template for how their country should approach Taiwan

Venezuelan refugees around the world celebrated yesterday’s abduction of Nicolas Maduro, but Trump appears to be leaving his regime in place for now

Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro before his capture by US forces, will work with the US to transition to a democratically elected government, President Donald Trump said

Caribbean hot spots such as Barbados, Aruba and Puerto Rico all reported flight cancellations or delays following US military action in Venezuela

Users were able to create sexualised images of people - including minors - using Elon Musk's Grok for several days, with the French government accusing it of generating “clearly illegal” content without people’s consent

I’ve already posted a version of this on Threads but in 2026 I want to write more about tabletop RPGs, collectible card games and gaming more generally. Do get in touch if you are doing something cool in the space and/or just want to chat another games more generally. DM for email, Signal etc.

Exclusive: A year after Tenet Media was busted for funneling Russian money to MAGA pundits like Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, a Trump administration effort involving State and the FBI has welcomed Tenet's founders back into the US. @thebulwark.com: www.thebulwark.com/p/lauren-che...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is leaving Washington DC as both a changed woman and exactly the same person she was when she was first elected. Great read from the New York Times 👇

2025 was brutal for games media, but I'm seeing some glimmers of hope as worker-owned sites like @aftermath.site, @rascal.news, and @giantbomb.bsky.social have carved out vital spaces in the games community. Earlier this year, I made a huge Indie Games Media starter pack for y'all. Let's celebrate.

‘It’s going into very good hands’: CD Projekt is selling GOG to its co-founder, Michał Kiciński. vgc.news/news/its-goi...

In a second call with Trump in as many days, Putin said that he would revise his negotiating position on Ukraine in response to an alleged drone attack on one of his residences