tomcrackers

They did, and you can read the letters written by Roman aristocrats living in Gaul who had basically given up on trying to fix anything and retreated to a comfortable self-exile on their vast estates

Mishal Husain criticises ‘bombastic’ presenting after BBC departure Former Today host speaks to British Vogue about changes to radio show and shift towards personality-led media

Making it even clearer how much of a loss she is to the BBC. I hope we still get to see her Bloomberg interviews in some shape or form.

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...

You may be fearing your 401k is no longer enough for you to retire. But with all the cuts to NIH and Medicare you also won't live as long. So the policies are integrated.

takes a special kind of genius to win an election on the back of unpopular price rises and then instigate a policy that will inevitably create more unpopular price rises

The standout madness in the general madness are the enormous tariffs on South East Asia which, if these stick, is going to magnify China's sphere of influence. Geopolitical lunacy.

Which benefits is Keir Starmer’s government planning to cut and why? PM is under increasing pressure over targeting of incapacity and disability benefits. We look at some key questionsUK politics live – latest updates

I know news coverage of benefit cuts can be distressing. So, I wanted to do something for readers.

If you click on a Guardian news story, you’ll see a “drop box” of signposted mental health support as well as benefits advice. Please do share. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Why do all these people have depression we ask as we create systems designed to make their lives as insecure as possible.

Last government cut payments for those looking for work, which created an incentive to get placed in the "no sanctions" group. So then this government cuts funding for that group to try and reduce the incentive.

This is the kind of take that you can only produce by not actually talking to any of the people you’re writing about.

The explanation for me is this: Bluesky generates better traffic and engagement than X does. Even with half as many followers. It’s that simple.

Democrats think tariffs help American workers but don’t support them because of higher prices.

Republicans think tariffs *don’t* help American workers, but support them anyway.

God knows what anyone is supposed to do with that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My favourite week of the year - the week I am finally reassured that finding it impossible to wake up in the mornings didn’t mean I was dying, it has just been VERY DARK for about 27 months. Easy mistake to make!

Islamophobia charity Tell Mama facing closure after funding pulled by government Police sources raise alarm over cut as anti-Muslim hate incidents in Britain hit record high

Exclusive: The government is cutting all funding from the Islamophobia reporting service Tell Mama, leaving it facing closure weeks after revealing a record number of anti-Muslim hate incidents in Britain

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ma...

Great, troubling scoop. The point of a public service broadcaster is that it’s NOT personalised, IMV.

‘Criminals will go unpunished’ after victim services cuts, Reeves warned Victims commissioner tells chancellor cutbacks and national insurance hike creating ‘existential crisis’ for abuse charities

Our CEO, Ciara Bergman, spoke to The Observer about the closure of two Rape Crisis centres and how other centres are reducing services because of acute and chronic underfunding.

📰 Please read and share: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘Criminals will go unpunished’ after victim services cuts, Reeves warned Victims commissioner tells chancellor cutbacks and national insurance hike creating ‘existential crisis’ for abuse charities

Exclusive: The government has cut millions in funding for victims’ services, prompting warnings that criminals will go unpunished

In a letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the Victims' Commissioner says the "cost of inaction is a price this nation can ill afford"
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Buy a copy of The Observer for:

🗞 a scoop on the Victims Commissioner's warning to the Treasury over funding cuts to support services

📰 a deep dive into the growth of school shooting plots in the UK and what is inspiring them

...and of course much more great stuff not by me

Deafening silence from Obama, Clinton, Bush, Biden so far…

At this rate you wouldn’t bank on a “full turnout” at the 2028 LA Olympics

a regular bugbear of mine - when something goes over budget on costs by 50% it's the end of the world, but you can underestimate the benefits massively and people treat it like a success story. Crossrail was arguably built 20 years too late because of these errors

Darren Grimes was born in 1993

Defence spending per head (current US$, 2023, SIPRI numbers):
USA: $2,694.2
UK: $1,106.4
France: $946.6
Germany:$802.3
Italy:$603.5
Canada: $701.9
Russia: $757.8
China: $207.9

www.sipri.org/databases/mi...

where to even start with this

Kemi Badenoch’s spokesman has decided to give the usual Tory post-PMQs briefing a miss.

Keir Starmer’s (political) spox tells waiting reporters: “I’m not sure I’d want to follow that either”.

Why have we, as a society, not solved the problem that is January?

London's social housing waiting lists at 10-year high Data shows 336,366 households were on social housing waiting lists in 2024 across London's 32 boroughs.

Additional bit of context: social housing waiting lists are almost back at 2013 levels. The fall in between was not down to more social homes being built (there are now fewer) but because coalition 'reforms' allowed councils to cut people off the lists
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

S4 EP2: Jade Thirlwall discusses being ghosted by Harry Styles, clashing with the Gallaghers and coming up on X-Factor Spotify video

This was such a great interview.

Love her.

open.spotify.com/episode/18M1...

My favourite takeaway from this was that Frankie Cocozza stole Jade's lasagna.

Great listen. Love Jade. Unproblematic queen.

Anyway there you are. "Newspaper columnist" is once again the one job (I use that word loosely) in Britain where the less you know, the more you're paid.

The price level for UK housing was 44% above OECD average in 2022

We mutter a lot about housing in the UK. BUT IT'S 44% MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THE OECD AVERAGE.
www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...

Headline: Zebra dies after 'incident' with rhino at zoo.

This headline reads like the BBC is terrified of being sued for libel by the rhino.