Nigel Farage told Sky News “you tell your bosses, you harass my family any more and there will be serious consequences,” after journalists approached him asking questions about funding he allegedly received from convicted criminal George Cottrell. This is their response 👇

Thinking of giving up on Spain vs Portugal, which is a sure sign that it is about to get very exciting. Thank me later.

I'm grateful to be on holiday from this ever more stupid culture war

Things are starting to look very dark for Farage. He's stuck in a ferocious scandal where he cannot get his story straight and his excuses raise more questions than they answer inews.co.uk/opinion/nige...

CEOs are backpedalling en masse on claims that AI will take jobs; one survey suggests adoption correlates with more hiring. “They may have realized it was simply bad business to say that your great new product will destroy the economy.” www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-w...

Might stay up till 3am tonight to support Belgium

A story that encapsulates so much about British attitudes to its history of Empire. BBC News - Thousands of forgotten Punjabi WW1 soldiers recognised for first time www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This piece focuses on the words "merciless Indian savages", but what follows is as important: "whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions." At least if you've heard of Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Bud Dajo or My Lai. truthout.org/articles/the...

Quite a yarn this. Really worth picking up the Sunday Times to read it, I think:

Starmer's government is still on X, the platform that promotes hate and racism.

I always thought that if the Cottrell story cut through it would hurt Farage because it's not just corruption, it's weird. The guy calls him "Daddy".

If I were Burnham: *Give HMRC a high street enforcement special unit and sell it to the public as "like that Steve Coogan thing Jim fell asleep watching on Netflix last night but for dodgy shops" *Shove the Companies House fee up to £250 and use all the extra money to get them to DO SOME CHECKS

This is basically every story that I write about London now, you don't have to want to live with Germany bureaucracy to want someone to do very basic checks. And the 'ease of setting up a business' is great (I've done it myself! It was so easy!) but unfortunately it's created scam central nation.

I feel sorry for Taylor Swift missing this match

Yup www.thetimes.com/article/af5c...

No school should be on X or oblige parents to get updates from it. A site that actively promotes porn, bullying, hate and fascism is not an appropriate place to post pictures of sports days.

On the where is the “north” thing, southern suburbs of Birmingham - Kings Norton, Northfield - were north of what they were before, being swallowed up and becoming south of what swallowed them. See also: Southgate in north London. It’s just a question of perspective.

So we now have people betting on Spotify chart positions on prediction markets and then using bots to make their bets come true. $400m has been bet on music on Kalshi already in 2026. People are making more money betting on artists than the artists are making from releasing music. Great stuff!

🚨🚨Great news: Culture Secretary Lisa #Nandy has announced she and her department are leaving Elon #Musk's #X platform explaining that " the platform "isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don't want to support it". 🧵 www.bbc.com/news/article...

The man’s own explanation of the line is 100% convincing. He is definitely in control of his material and we are just haters bsky.app/profile/rsag...

I can’t believe I missed this. They doubled down! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

A reminder: Channel 4 has not yet formally cancelled Married at First Sight, only launched an external review.

Married at First Sight UK star arrested on suspicion of rape www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Have just spent a few days in a top London recording studio with Ben making some new music. More news as I have it 😍

Sarah Wynn-Williams, NZ-born author of Careless People, sues Meta over its attempts to silence her. The ex-director of public policy at Facebook claims the tech giant’s gagging order, which blocks her from speaking about the company or promoting her book, is “improper and unlawful”

Come and hear @davidolusoga.bsky.social and I chatting about history, genetics, race, that sort of thing, to mark the 10th anniversary of my book A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived. unionchapel.org.uk/whats-on/ada...

Fake news and politicised social media is the greatest issue of our time. You wouldn't guess it from how rarely politicians discuss it or are tackled on it.

A friend said he always looks like a British solider about to go over the top at Passchendaele and now I can't not see that.

Maybe Gareth Southgate was as good as things would ever get

A British-Indian friend told me how Reform activists threatened to take away her family's passports if they get into power. The rising tide of racism should worry us all. And the politicians who are stoking it must be condemned.

Ben Cullen, a leading figure of the "Raise the Colours" campaign, will stand trial for three separate charges regarding a total of 78 indecent images of children. I have only seen this covered in local newspapers, so far. Grim as it is, it needs wider coverage www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2624087...

Just seen someone describe themselves as "pro-ageing" online. Pretty hard not be surely.

great year for medievalists; first you’ve got a tyrant starting shit with the Pope and now we have a full blown schism

Not a great economy alert! Wall Street Bets users think Palantir spiked today because The Onion story titled “Palantir Acquires Pentagon for $800 Billion” hit their front page. They’re guessing trading bots indexed the top post on the subreddit reddit not understanding source.

One of the most intriguing and complicated people I'll ever meet. Even the manner of the verification in this story is very on brand. www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/2624097...

This is great but depressing at the same time; a whole community having to answer for the actions of one that happens to be part of the community; no matter what outreach minority groups do, we will never be accepted… that’s what’s depressing. It’s he same for all minorities.

Total solidarity with the Nowak family. BBC News - Essex Sikhs tell Henry Nowak's mum his death will not divide them - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Social media paths crossing today with @arseblog.com recommending @sathnam.bsky.social ‘s new book on the Arsecast Extra. No doubt there’s a quote or two for the cover of the paperback from the opening two mins of the pod.

The careless people featured in this excellent book reminded me so much of the careless people who set up and ran the British Empire. Bleak.

10 years ago, the air outside Aldgate School didn’t meet legal limits. Children were breathing polluted air every day. I made it my mission to change that. Here’s the difference our bold policies have made ⬇️

This encapsulates our cowardice in the face of big tech www.thetimes.com/article/9499...

My review of Sathnam Sanghera's new book on George Michael. Recommended!

The utterly glorious porch roof at St John the Baptist, Burford. Anyone who uses 'medieval' as a pejorative should be made to look at this until they promise never to do it again. Photo taken lying on my back shuffling around the floor until I was happy with the framing.

Four years ago Roe v Wade was overturned. Meanwhile, in London this week, Nigel Farage spoke at the 'Alliance for Responsible Citizenship' conference attended by well-funded anti-abortion campaigners. ARC is bankrolled by GB News owner Paul Marshall. Since 2024 GB News has paid Farage £700k.

Today was the hottest day ever recorded in France, breaking the record set just yesterday.

Anti-semitism is absolutely a real thing and as a Jew I am deeply nervous about the worst faith people in public life working relentlessly to rob the concept of all gravity by making it synonymous with "anyone not fully supportive of Benjamin Netanyahu and everything he does."

It is the law that every email in Britain must now start or end with a mention of the heat

Hydration break.

Matthew's book is great, seek it out