‘The Trump administration is flooding our senses without regard for coherence, in the hope we exhaust ourselves trying to make sense of something that’s completely contradictory or willfully absurd. At which point we become numb to it all, which is the ultimate goal’

Check out our New Aims & Scope. Get in touch to discuss ideas for Special Issues on the relationships between war and culture. We welcome submissions from diverse fields. We are keen to support & amplify the work of scholars from underrepresented fields/backgrounds. #AcademicSky #IRSky

Incredibly important new study from Cal Horton @fiercemum.bsky.social - the first to look at England's post-Cass child/adolescent gender clinics. Dr Horton found patients and families are being actively harmed, with one young person describing appointments as "the worst thing I’ve ever experienced”.

New, from me: The Trump administration isn’t just using social media to shape a narrative. They view the world through a social media lens in a way that is plausibly corrupting their judgment and undermining their performance. Welcome to the clicktatorship. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/life-under...

Useful reporting from Translucent. When we’ve suggested that trans women don’t pose a risk, people have argued that’s because of under reporting. These FOI requests suggest that might not be the case www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/almo...

My favourite thing about this isn’t even the plausible (for once) links to Boudicca but how excited they are that the boar still has its ears 🐗

And obviously one of them is carrying a tablet about some copper from Ea-nasir.

The last week of our History of Freedom module isn’t *quite* ‘the @historyworkshop.org.uk week’, but it’s getting there, thanks to so many articles that help teach ♀️/ 🏳️‍🌈/ ♿ activism in late c20 🇬🇧…

And that someone in Danish secret services is, or should be, red-teaming what you do to secure Marienborg if everything suddenly goes 24 February.

In the time since the first edition of this book appeared in April 2024, I have realised there could be a more specifically ancient literary curse: “May your book prove timely...” I’m still on my Christmas break, so here’s something I wrote specially for the Spanish edition of 47 Borders

File under, we never quite know what's coming next. One of my favourite embassy reports. The UK ambassador in East Berlin reporting in after the fall of the Wall...

"I first stumbled into Ballroom as a queer teenager who’d spent years being bullied. "The scene in Wales was the first place where I didn’t have to hide." www.wearequeeraf.com/lessons-from...

Today I learned that Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations are arguably a byproduct of European integration.

More gems from the family archive of John and Anya Berger, as discovered and compiled by their daughter Katya. Here, on her uncredited contribution to the concept of ways of seeing. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/12...

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

While working in stationer’s in early 2000s, made Keith Wood (🇮🇪 international rugby hard man of the time) jump by coming up behind him and asking if he needed any help with envelopes. #RichmondProblems

Out today: a major new essay by former Artforum editor David Velasco, fired over a pro-Palestine open letter, surveying 2 years of turmoil in the art world, which was "practically designed to celebrate and aestheticize every rebellion" -- except Gaza. www.equator.org/articles/how...

This 'crusadercore' aesthetic and its fascist connections has been in my radar for a long time through its connection to the @crusaderkings.com fan-base. But what I found striking reading this and looking at their examples is how seamlessly the ideology shifts between multiple-choice bigotries.

Yes. This. Grr. (See also Greek!) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I wrote about campaigners trying to save Kyiv's rich architectural heritage. They face obstacles: Russian bombs, unscrupulous developers, corrupt officials and hostile or indifferent politicians. “We are trying to live like normal people despite the war," one said www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

‘To be a speculative fiction writer today is to see all the radical ideas and groundbreaking technologies you’ve been thinking about for decades get twisted into gnarled, soulless facsimiles by big businesses and so-called thought leaders... We have never needed real visionaries more than we do now’

Some thoughts on the Levy Review: - it's mostly but not entirely okay - if you're in England, opt out of data collection - it avoids confronting the biggest problems - it ignores 15 years of health research - there are clear examples of better practice - move trans health to primary care already!

If you’re excited by @danielsoar.bsky.social’s @lrb.co.uk review of Pynchon’s new novel, you’re going to want to follow our project #LiminalWater, the premise of which is that Rijeka (Fiume) is in fact the centre of the universe. chanse.org/liminalwater/

This, for the record, is what goes into a footnote. It’s the key part of the research process where I examine the practical, methodological, ethical implications of my sources before I join the stream of interpretation. It cannot be outsourced to an LLM.

“The last-minute christmas rush at the bookshop.” - my latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books

Worked hard to get this into Guardian Oz & big props to @fiercemum.bsky.social for setting it up & Melissa Davey for publishing it. She will doubtless get loads of hassle from transphobes for it, but it needs to be out there. Puberty Blocker bans harm trans kids, no-one should pretend they don’t.

Just parked the car and noticed that the Mini next to me has London 2012 Olympics-themed trim, an event that now feels like it occurred three ice ages ago. 💂

This looks much needed 👇

‘The fact Tiresias House existed shows that trans women experienced violence … & needed somewhere to go. But the stories of violence held in this archive can also help understand how violence against women functions, demonstrating the shared experience of women, across the division of cis & trans

Absolute banger of a piece. So validating and sad. Thank you, Toby Buckle.

Won't someone please actually listen to doctors on this? It's refreshing to see an institution actually get it right for once. And it only because elite politicians weren't allowed to hand pick the voices.

‘The idea of a permanent state of emergency does not reflect a reality whereby Europe genuinely cannot cope with new arrivals. Rather, it reflects the fact that there are simply too many who profit from manufacturing a sense of crisis’

Severina, as in Croatia’s #Eurovision 2006 representative and all-round post-Yugoslav pop megastar, has been speaking up for this.

“Imagine a way of interacting which flowed from our shared vulnerability and shared strength and shared need to be protected by each other. Maybe we need to learn how to brace ourselves for that, my loves.” Powerful piece by Jordy Silverstein on solidarity to fight antisemitism and other racisms.

‘Vuletic said the seven-decade history of #Eurovision was one of ongoing adaptation: “changes to the rules, trying to address emerging problems... and not being able to anticipate future ones”’ uk.news.yahoo.com/eurovision-f...

Anti-gender politics watchers won’t be surprised this is CitizenGO: Spun out from 🇪🇸 in 2013, opposing abortion and supporting 🇷🇺’s then-new anti-LGBTQ+ laws Drove anti-trans bus around 🇪🇸 and 🇺🇸 in 2017 Interfering in 🇰🇪 reproductive/LGBTQ+ rights Now funding lawfare in 🇬🇧

In which Father Christmas, Wonder Woman, Kojak, and Uncle Billy have all been remarkably careless. Iona and Peter Opie (of ‘Lore and Language of Schoolchildren’ fame) would be proud.

‘This, @robinmoirawhite.bsky.social said, is unacceptable: “It shouldn’t be, should it, that [the] position in UK [law] is determined by which billionaire is going to fund your litigation? That has to be wrong in a civil society”’

John Lupi, perhaps also Ivan Vuković, settles his affairs from his deathbed in London. Any chance we can find out whether his altarpiece made it home?

Pretty much any trans person that has interacted with the medical establishment will have a copy of a letter worded more or less like this

"Border towns are always pulled between two impulses: liberal openness to difference, pluralism and complex identities or as an identity as a frontier post guarding against the Other." Lovely to have this post by @lewisbaston.bsky.social, author of Borderlines, on his visit to Nova Gorica/ Gorizia

‘This is an environment where trans academics are not able to produce anything like their best work in research and teaching’ (@krheyam.bsky.social)

On 24 Nov I gave the Commonwealth Journalists Association Annual Lecture in the House of Lords, kindly hosted by Lord Guy Black. My topic was debates over British reparations for slavery. Here is the text: alanlester.co.uk/blog/british...

We mourn the victims of the mass shooting on Bondi Beach at a celebration on the first night of Chanukah, bringing darkness into a festival of lights. Our hearts go out to those attacked and their families and friends, as well as the entire Australian Jewish community.

This is what civil society looks like.

Which views the BBC considers unacceptably political in its presenters is particularly telling, isn't it?

McGettigan has been calling for #Eurovision boycott since 2018 after ‘watching the news … about the deaths of 60 people in Gaza and then seeing Netanyahu and the Trumps celebrating in Jerusalem’ - then to do with 🇮🇱 hosting, now 🇮🇱 participation www.leitrimobserver.ie/news/home/31...

A thoughtful piece on the Girl Guiding trans ban with some comments by me. tfn.scot/news/long-re...

@philjdore.bsky.social considers the options for those appalled by the recent EBU decisions regarding the Eurovision Song Contest: whether to boycott, not boycott, partially boycott, or explore alternatives.

Very excited to be working with @richmondbridge.bsky.social on this! Publishing in our Queer and Trans Histories series.