"I watched 4th & 5th grade kids run away from our own government. I never want to see that again and I'm not going to stand by and watch my neighbors run away scared."

❗️Navalny was poisoned by epibatidine - joint statement by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and The Netherlands. Joint statement: Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America. It is not found naturally in Russia.

England on this beautiful, sunny day. Literally full of SH*T. Might there be a political message in the fumes. www.sewagemap.co.uk

I think it’s Brexit: it has created a “serious *and* honest people need not apply” effect to so much foreign policy thought. (Cf. the people cheerily claiming Mauritius is “a China ally”.)

Thank you David!

Go for it! Print beats screen

The Epstein Files tell a horrific and heavy story of abuse and corruption. But power protects itself through the expectation that we will feel paralysed by the sense of powerlessness. Their release is a seminal moment. That's why our new Byline Times print edition delves into the deeper story 👇

Stirring stuff from Nandy here. But as Culture Secretary she has dropped her commitment to mutualise the BBC, which would have empowered ordinary people in the way she claims to want. In 2020 BBC mutualisation was a central plank of her leadership campaign. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Thanks to extreme process-as-punishment measures, many people have suffered greatly for defying this ban, even if they have not been convicted, or will now have their convictions quashed. It all points to a very grim conclusion: democracy in the UK is being stifled. By a Labour government.

Conclusion on ground 2 - the decision to seek proscription was contrary to the Human Rights Act 1998 because it amounted to an unjustified interference with the rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

"For these, and for Palestine Action’s other criminal activities, the general criminal law remains available. The nature and scale of Palestine Action’s activities falling within the definition of terrorism had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence to warrant proscription. "

What is effective about this Burnham statement is it reads like something that he is personally invested in and is not worried about criticism for. More of this please.

Our whole political system is broken. We need to do things differently: abolishwestminster.substack.com/p/abolish-we... by me

key point

Because what 'enough to live off' varies from person to person. The living costs of a single person with no dependents or a married person whose partner also works are lower than someone raising a child alone. That's why you can't fight poverty with wages alone.

Worth reading in full. www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemoc...

🚨BREAKING: British citizen & Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 yrs in prison. Lai was charged with “collusion with a foreign country or external elements” under the Beijing's National Security Law. In reality, his case is an attack on press freedom & freedom of expression.

Great stuff - but also perhaps suggests putting more online even if after the month...

The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the UK’s largest court reporting archive. This risks undermining open justice, and I believe, undermines the public accountability role of the press by making it harder to see what is going on in the courts. www.thetimes.com/article/77b0...

“Europeans are, slowly but surely, waking up to what they are able to do”. 🇪🇺

The Home Office now describes asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants [living in hotels]" with no reference to the reason that these people are in government-funded accommodation is that this government has taken & will process the asylum claim from them in 98-99% of cases of unauthorised entry.

And that's ultimately who he was: the preferred chief of staff of the 'no policies, just vibes' crowd, who are in denial even now that they have driven Labour to the brink of death.

I have written twice now to Labour’s General Secretary to investigate this story because if true it is immensely damaging to our party.

Ha! Scotland's wonderful NATIONAL has just run this story.

This is the report I spoke of on #bbcaq just now - ministers tried to suppress it, were finally forced to release it after an FoI, but shamefully only published a redacted version. The first duty of Govt is to protect its citizens - that starts with being honest with us about scale of threat we face

Some wise words from Adam here. The Greens have a real shot in this by-election but canvassers may be missing a trick if they aren’t explaining to voters how a Green victory will shake up Westminster for the better, rather than just saying “vote for us to beat Reform”. I hope they’re doing both!

Great book: crucial argument

I realise McSweeney is big news right now, but the story here should be about Josh Simons, a government minister www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Yea, much better than WhatsApp - switch to Signal it's excellent

After years of testing, our Wirecutter expert is confident that Signal remains one of the best ways to send messages securely. Here’s everything you need to know about how it works, and how to stay safe while using it.

Oh wow. Incidentally, the references to Soros and @andrewfeinstein.bsky.social in here are clearly an anti-Semitic nod from Starmer’s closest allies, just as they were using allegations of anti-semitism against the Left.

“This is dark shit.” An astonishing scoop from Democracy for Sale: https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-morgan-mcsweeneys-labour-together-investigators-journalists

I just signed a petition calling for an urgent investigation into Peter Mandelson's dealings with Palantir. Did he use his position as UK Ambassador to benefit the US spy tech firm? Sign now: www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/ma...

EXACTLY. This is the question that UK journalists *should* be asking.

INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

🔴The Devil’s Butler: How Jeffrey Epstein Used London to Hide in Plain Sight The Epstein files expose how the UK capital served as a playground and protector for the disgraced late financier and his wealthy associates bylinetimes.com/2026/02/04/t...

Last year I wrote this for @bylinetimes.bsky.social: The public see a political class whose proximity to wealth has eroded its independence, where talk of public service is an empty ritual. It's this culture that claimed Mandelson’s ‘qualities’ outweighed the risks. bylinetimes.com/2025/09/29/t...

Russia's air attacks hit Ukraine's energy system during sub-zero temperatures, cutting power to thousands 📹DW

Media coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...

Going to a movie in Main with Trumpites zeteo.com/p/melania-tr...

💔Kharkiv today

Last week I joined others at Norwich Cathedral for the St Martins Sleep Out. It's an overnight fundraiser where participants swap their usual beds for the cold stone floor of the Cloister, in support of St Martin's and its work with people who are homeless in Norwich.

The Andrew scandal is a bigger crisis for the British state than most of our rulers realise. open.substack.com/pub/abolishw...

The continued Andrew scandal is politically important: the constitutional function of the Royal family is to secure legitimacy for the wider system. The fact that Greens and Reform are dominating in Gorton and Denton is evidence of their failure. open.substack.com/pub/abolishw... by me

No, it's not. You actually have to do something - to actually pass legislation and budgets, to actually deliver something. If that were *not* the case, why would they need to have gone from opposition to government at all?

Peter Jukes joins the dots…

I read in the comments that some followers can’t take reading bad news anymore. I get that. I do. Is there anything good about this situation? Hard as it may be to believe, but there is. No electricity means no internet. And without the internet, people spend less time on social media

Don’t forget what Ukrainians are going through.