More than a dozen of small children have died in Cuba in recent days, including my cousin’s granddaughter who was just 8 months old. There are several viruses making live unbearable for Cubans on the island, in addition to regular hardships and blackouts. It’s heartbreaking and downright sad.

As someone who is still here five years later and had this type of chemotherapy for BC, and has looked (through my fingers) at the stats, in a very real sense ET IN ARCADIA EGO - an absolutely wonderful letter about how the human mind makes creative connections

Hope Dad has his motoring gloves on.

Is there any evidence on whether jury trials are more or less likely to lead to miscarriages of justice?

Heads up that there’s a generous Interrail sale for the next 21 days - 25% off all passes, making it an even bigger bargain than usual. Passes can be activated at any point up to 11 months after purchase. From all your usual retailers. www.interrail.eu/en

This one comes with 13 hectares, house, and equipped cellar. It's a reputed, organic domaine, in a pretty village in the Corbieres, and nobody wants it. It's criminal. www.leboncoin.fr/ad/ventes_im...

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.

Subscriptions, art prints and books - it's Christmas time at The Blizzard. The perfect gifts for the thinking football fan Find out more: theblizzard.co.uk/the-blizzard...

Alf Dubs is a 92 year old man who spent his life fighting for refugees, and in particular for refugee children. He fought the Tories tooth and nail during their last three terms, only to see Labour adopt far-right policies on immigration. “But to use children as a weapon ... I’m lost for words.”

As the Lords environment and climate change committee made clear last month organised waste crime is out of control in this country but instead of a serious effort to tackle this crisis all we get are stupid gimmicks.

⚡️Widow of Chornobyl's first victim killed by Russian attack on Kyiv 39 years later. Natalia Khodymchuk, widow of Valerii Khodymchuk, the first victim of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, died in Kyiv after suffering severe injuries in a mass overnight Russian attack on Nov. 14–15.

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Not enough attention is being paid to the effective closure of the bulk of one of the 2 or 3 most important public archives for modern British history. A terrible own goal for the BBC as a public-service agency.

Is the future of football a set piece grinding its boot into the face of diminutive playmaker, forever? www.theguardian.com/football/202...

A great idea for a Christmas gift!

Our classic subscription bundle returns this Christmas, where you get four issues of The Blizzard a year for £40* (+p&p) and a free gift bundle worth £49.99 (+p&p) More info: theblizzard.co.uk/the-blizzard...

#BREAKING Gaza civil defence, hospitals say more than 100 killed in Israeli strikes

Seriously? By (possibly) creating the wealth needed to pay for public services, presumably - but not a great soundbite with the AI business model being so controversial and all...

NEW: Upfront costs for top overseas scientists to come to work in the UK can be more than 20 times those charged by other countries, Royal Society says. Government insists this doesn’t contradicts its ambition to lure top researchers, at a time of turmoil in US science. www.ft.com/content/7144...

In case you missed it:

If you could please do us a favour and RT (or whatever it is on here) my writing CV I would be extremely grateful. I am a very capable writer of words, mainly “humorous”’ and if you have some PROPER paid work for me, please DM me. Thank you for your time www.mathew-owen.co.uk

super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉

The USA's bewildering transformation into Banana Republic is gathering momentum. Every day, a new illustration.

Oops

I highly recommend.

Why do so many still swallow their bile and cartoon 'solutions'?

Read a sampler of issue 51 of The Nightwatchman for a taste of what's inside our latest issue Sampler: www.thenightwatchman.net/wp-content/u...

Excitement building in Almaty - "capital of the world", according to the slogan on the billboard, but I already knew that! - for tonight's match between @fc_kairat and Real Madrid. Alga, Kairat! #Kazakhstan

Paris-Berlin sleeper: low carbon, 2 years old, constantly full, but currently losing SNCF a few million EUR/yr Intl Jet fuel tax exemptions are 80 years old and cost the EU 22 million EUR/yr for the Paris-Berlin route alone. And you're cutting... the sleeper? www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Suzie Rizzio - "This is in Chicago & I know friends that went there for a TXT concert & decided to walk downtown before the show & they said they felt like they were in a Communist Country! Everywhere you looked there were men in Military uniforms harassing anyone that had brown skin." #cdnpoli

Krishnan Guru Murthy, "Isn't it a bit insulting to say to an Indian doctor who is working 60-70 hours a week that in order to get settled status he's got to volunteer?" Rachel Reeves, "We want people to contribute if they come to our country" Labour have gone utterly bonkers

The decision by the International Paralympic Committee to lift the ban on Russia and Belarus has handed Vladimir Putin an unprecedented propaganda opportunity at Milan Cortina 2026 and @la28games.bsky.social. Analysis in this *free to read* edition of the #ZeusFiles open.substack.com/pub/duncanma...

The #LabourPartyConference voted unanimously, ten years ago today, that Britain is better off being inside the European Union and should campaign to remain in the EU. Even more reasons for that now…

Oh, I was also double-paying into the system by paying into NI through my paychecks and also paying an immigration surcharge to access health care, while having an state-issued immigrant ID card which said 'NO ACCESS TO PUBLIC FUNDS'

Sixth visit of the week to hospital beyond the M25 to visit a poorly parent. I hope those who have stuck up flags on the way here - and the local politicians too spineless to challenge them - have the good fortune never to need the migrants/offspring of migrants who are keeping this place going.

Watching my mother attempt to book appointments or pay bills or seek out any kind of professional service is heartbreaking. The expectation is to go online, and the internet is a literal wasteland of misinformation and fraud. A society is judged by how it treats its elders. We're failing them.

Farage wanting to kick people out of the country because they migrated here made me angry and made me think about which best of British people and things wouldn't have happened were it not for the brilliance of immigration to the UK.

French President Emmanuel Macron called President Donald Trump after being stopped at a New York street blocked off for his US counterpart's motorcade during the UN General Assembly reut.rs/42acMSC

Been touring UN building today. What a thrill.

The first results of my FIFA-funded project are out in the world! ⚽ Why the FA's takeover of women's football from the WFA in 1993 was a "Hobson's Choice" for the WFA, & a moment of disempowerment for #womensfootball ⚽ It's open access & available here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Note how we’ve moved from concerns about people arriving irregularly in small boats to wrecking the lives of people who are by definition here entirely lawfully

“Harvard geneticist David Reich said … increasingly sophisticated analysis of genetic material made possible by technological advances shows that virtually everyone came from somewhere else, and everyone’s genetic background shows a mix from different waves of migration that washed over the globe.”

#OTD in 1920 the Black and Tans infamously burned the north Co Dublin town of Balbriggan. It was retaliation for the shooting of two RIC officers there by the IRA but became emblematic of the British policies of reprisals in Ireland www.theirishstory.com/2020/10/14/t...

Matt Thacker makes his editor's choice selection from issue 51. Matt has chosen Roy Peachey’s A Walk in the Park. Read: thenightwatchman.net/news/editors...

These words from a Tory activist in Kruger's seat deserve some attention.

Wanna know more about Einstein's anti-racist work, usually in collaboration with the great actor/singer Paul Robeson? I wrote about it for Smithsonian! (don't tell the White House) www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...