Anna Macleod

Man dies of rabies after kidney transplant from donor who saved kitten from skunk

Sometimes there’s just too much going on in a headline

#Aramaic, the ancient language of #Jesus, still survives in a handful of #Syrian communities.

"Two dads had a fight in a gingerbread house and one disgruntled employee reportedly told a visitor that “Santa’s fucking dead”."

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Today in 'headlines that feel like they should be by The Onion but are in fact horrifically real'

Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor A raccoon broke into a closed Virginia liquor store and drank alcohol from the bottom shelves over the weekend

A masked burglar broke into a closed liquor store and hit the bottom shelf, where the scotch and whisky were stored. Bottles were smashed, a ceiling tile collapsed and alcohol pooled on the floor.

The suspect: a raccoon.

Weird, my Spotify Unwrapped forgot to show me how much of my subscription money went to the artists I listened to. Ah well! Perhaps next year.

Glorious, from a pal on FB

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇

the coop this evening with possibly the most baffling musical choice i have ever experienced in a supermarket

They've done a Paddington musical and it's supposed to be very good but the bear looks like it's on drugs

RIP Tom Stoppard. He left a fantastic body of work - playful with language, and serious about ideas of democracy, liberalism and freedom.

Fiona Hill of Brookings on the possibility of the US fracturing as the Federal Government is gutted. See the whole fascinating @ukandeu.bsky.social discussion with her, Rana Mitter, Margaret Macmillan and @fromtga.bsky.social here: ukandeu.ac.uk/events/ukice...

As I wrote about the “peace” deal, it was a plan for Russia & the US to divide up resources that should go to Ukraine in a sweeping attempt to comprise American security

Today’s WSJ has the goods on how people who only believe in money are the most dangerous people:

www.wsj.com/world/russia...

Poster for the South Korean stage production of Macbeth showing Lady Macbeth whose back is turned to us, and Macbeth posed towards us with his hand on the back of his wife's neck. The long cut in the back of her dress reveals skin in the shape of a sword/dagger that Macbeth seems to be holding.

Poster for the South Korean stage production of Macbeth showing Lady Macbeth facing us with her cleavage cut into three pointy triangles. Macbeth is kneeling in front of her, away from us, his face in his wife's chest. The exposed skin of Lady Macbeth looks like a crown that aligns with the top of Macbeth's head.

These posters for the South Korean stage production of Macbeth are the greatest thing ever? #art

Austrian nuns win reprieve in abandoned convent - if they stay off social media The three nuns say they were taken out of the convent against their will and placed in a care home.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Book 76, “The Nuns Escape to the Chalet School”

new favourite New York Times term for a British thing just dropped

Witkoff Discusses Ukraine Plans With Key Putin Aide: Transcript The following is a transcript of an Oct. 14 phone call lasting just over 5 minutes between Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, and Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin’s most senio...

"Now, me to you, I know what it’s going to take to get a peace deal done: Donetsk and maybe a land swap somewhere."
-- Steve Witkoff, in his call to Putin aide Yuri Ushakov

Read the whole transcript of the Oct 14 call. It's amazing.

Gift link (for 7 days) ⤵️

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

List of funny Scottish gritter names for winter

Just saw the list of gritter names for this year and they have outdone themselves
These always make me smile

Spidermen meme about blaming each other

Blessed are the peacemakers

The image is a screenshot of a news article from November 22, 2025, discussing a meeting between Trump officials and a sanctioned Russian individual in Miami, which has raised questions about a new Ukraine proposal. A meeting involving Trump officials, including Witkoff and Kushner, and a sanctioned Russian resulted in a 28-point plan. The proposal has caused confusion in Washington and Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine faced losing its dignity and freedom. The plan reportedly includes demands for Ukraine to surrender territory, reduce its military size, and abandon NATO aspirations.

Surprise!

Reuters confirms that Kushner & Witkoff met in private with a sanctioned Kremlin proxy in Miami to help draft the new “peace plan” for Ukraine. This leaves the administration wide open to serious counterintelligence & influence-risk concerns.

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

This, from the Guardian, is Ryanair at its very worst.

It's not good enough for them to insist that they're a low-cost airline and everyone knows the rules, in circumstances like this...

I wonder if legislation is needed?

👌

Dear All Have you seen Prof Biscuit recently? Professor Biscuit is roaming Main Building or more likely, is asleep somewhere cosy. Have you seen him recently? If so, could he be persuaded to be returned to the Bursary, please?

They're also responsible for one of the best emails I've ever received, when the college office sent out a plea for sightings of Professor Biscuit while conveniently forgetting to mention that he was a cat...(I won't comment on how often a similar email might have gone out about human Professors...)

Ukrainian powerlifter Dmytro Polovych,25,diagnosed with level IV cerebral palsy (CP),repeated at the European Championship in Poland the results he achieved at the WPA Hungary World Championships-deadlifts of 90,100,&105 kg

Former Met officer David Carrick sentenced for rape and molesting child Convicted serial offender given further life sentence for crimes against 12-year-old girl in 1980s and former partner Former police officer and convicted sex offender David Carrick has been sentenced at the Old Bailey to life with a minimum of 30 years for molesting a 12-year-old girl and raping a former partner. Carrick, 50, who served as an armed officer in the Metropolitan police, sexually assaulted the child in the late 1980s, his trial heard. More than 20 years later, he repeatedly raped a woman and subjected her to “degrading and humiliating” abuse during the course of a toxic relationship. Mrs Justice McGowan sentenced Carrick for the fresh convictions on Thursday after he was found guilty of two charges of rape, one of sexual assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards the woman between 2014 and 2019, and five counts of indecent assault relating to the girl in the late 1980s. Carrick’s offences came to light after he pleaded guilty in 2022 and 2023 to 71 sexual offences, including 48 rapes, against 12 other women over 17 years. He was handed 36 life sentences in 2023 for these crimes with a minimum term of 32 years. Continue reading...

Former Met officer David Carrick sentenced for rape and molesting child

Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.

I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...

Somebody just reminded me of this. Best correction ever:

I have 30 students taking a final right now and at least 25 of them have gigantic water bottles and I can only assume that they write answers on those things because no one is this thirsty