Lee Spracklen

Milan Kundera in the age of censure | The Observer

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

7 Allegations Against Meta in Newly Unsealed Filings Court filings allege Meta tolerated sex trafficking, hid harms to teens, and prioritized growth over user safety for years.

Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated. Instagram’s former head of safety testified that when she joined Meta in 2020 she was shocked to learn the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that engaged in the “trafficking of humans for sex.”

Imagine being one of those CEOs or school presidents who bowed down to this weird old man, then realizing he doesn’t like you as much as he likes this guy who didn’t bow at all

MAGA Nation is an account based in the EU. Dark MAGA is an account based in Thailand. Joined from UK.

MAGA Scope is an account based in Nigeria. The MAGA Beacon is an account based in South Asia.

Spetsna 007 is an account based in France, joined from Nigeria. Mary Tiles Texas is an account based in Russia.

Musk turned on a feature on X that showed country of origin.

He disabled it a couple hours later when it was revealed how many MAGA accounts aren't in the U.S.

Foreign bot disinformation machines exposed.

Seems like Twitter could have done that feature 15 years ago & we wouldn't be here today.

Russia drafted a 28 point surrender plan, handed it to the Trump team, and the regime delivered it to Kyiv unedited, demanding Zelensky sign it by Thanksgiving or lose all US support. Trump and Vance then promoted the plan exactly as Russia wrote it, verbatim, on TV, online, and in person.

It was TRANSLATED by the US from Russian into English, not authored by the US.

Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

‘I knew I was doing something I shouldn’t’: Karl Ove Knausgård on the fallout from My Struggle and the dark side of ambition The Norwegian author on his autofictional epic, moving to London, and the psychopath at the heart of his new novel

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Trump's growing impatience to end Ukraine war is a concern for Kyiv The US is working to a quick timetable to push through the deal, which appears to heavily reflect many of Moscow's demands.

When is Starmer finally going to wake up to the idea that Britain has an enemy of every decent value it stands by in the White House who will betray Ukraine without a second thought for anything other than its mineral rights?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Latest Morning Star toon out in print TODAY!

Martin Rowson on the report into the UK’s response to Covid – cartoon The report states that more than 20,000 lives could have been saved had Boris Johnson’s government ordered a lockdown more quickly

Latest Graun toon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nathan Gill, Reform UK’s former leader in Wales has been jailed for ten-and-a-half years for taking bribes to make pro-Russia statements. What does Nigel Farage think about this?

Five years after starting it, my new book "Travels through the Spanish Civil War" is published today by @hurstpublishers.bsky.social (5 Dec in the US). Available in bookshops and whereever you get your books online. hurstpublishers.com/book/travels...
Announcing Zoom presentation soon
Many thanks!

A copy of Travels Through the Spanish Civil War held up against a cream background. The cover of the book features a black and white photo taken from inside a vehicle through the dashboard. On the road you can see various soldiers and others on horseback . There is white and beige lettering for the book title and author name.

Fifty years after Franco's death, @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social's Travels Through the Spanish Civil War 'offers a vivid and thrilling journey... reminding [of] those who fought fascism, and what's at stake as we resist its return.' — Paul Mason

25% off w/code TRAVELS25➡️ tinyurl.com/yh2rnc6e

In praise of garlic. Ajo in Spanish, All in Catalan, Allo in Galician, Baratxuri in Basque. I can hardly believe there was a time when I could detect what I thought it's unpleasant smell on a friend's breath. We get through so much of the stuff.

Spain has too rosy a view of Franco’s regime. Let’s remind ourselves of its horrors | Giles Tremlett Little is taught about the murderous, incompetent dictatorship – and now almost one in five young people say Franco was good for the country, says historian Giles Tremlett

Excellent from @gilestremlett
"Even today, Franco serves as a warning that outward mediocrity is no barrier to the ruthlessly ambitious." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Elon can shove genocide-compatible longtermism up his flabby white supremacist arse, the boring, brittle, unlovable fuckwit.

Spain has too rosy a view of Franco’s regime. Let’s remind ourselves of its horrors | Giles Tremlett Little is taught about the murderous, incompetent dictatorship – and now almost one in five young people say Franco was good for the country, says historian Giles Tremlett

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life This is the story of how a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft and, in the process, found his soul.

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Tweet from @jntod which says: 'We're gonna build a fourth wall, folks, and make the Brechtians pay for it'. The tweet quoted is Donald Trump on 19th November 2016 which says: 'The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!'

9 years ago I got retweeted by everyone with a drama degree

Covid inquiry live: ‘Inexcusable’ delays under Johnson led to 23,000 deaths Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds

Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

Latest @theguardian.com cartoon

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A tweet from “Turnbull @cturnbull1968” reads: “Yes, your $350K, 3 bedroom, dream home, in a nice suburban neighborhood had its price driven up by illegal aliens, working for less than minimum wage. Who is stupid enough to believe something so asinine?” Below is an embedded tweet from “Leading Report,” saying: “BREAKING: VP JD Vance says the Trump administration will surge housing affordability through mass deportations.”

JD Vance should try living in a typical home of an undocumented farmworker or car wash attendant and see how long he lasts.

This tells you whose side Labour are on.

TLDR: its not yours.

"Do you think the plebs should get a jury trial" is such a thrilling line from Labour, truly great to see this

Cartoon by the wonderful Martin Rowson of Mark Thomas, in carpet slippers and a knackered jumper onstage hunched over a microphone stand saying, ‘Look I’ve been doing stand up now for 40 years… so can someone please fetch me a fucking chair?!!’

40 years ago was my first stand up gig and I got given this by way of celebration! Thanks to @martinrowson.bsky.social
@tinehs.bsky.social
@imranyusufcomedy.bsky.social

It is falling apart before our eyes and a news media that was obsessed with Bidens health and mental acuity is still content to largely just look the other way on the obvious

‘I thought the grownups were back in charge!’: John Crace on how Labour shattered his expectations After 14 years of Tory rule, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer thought he had seen it all. Westminster would surely tick along nicely once Keir Starmer’s party took over. How wrong he was ...

“Starmer promised to come down hard on whoever had done the briefings. In time he will have to sack himself...The worst game of Westminster No-Cluedo: Keir Starmer in the Cabinet Office with the career suicidal tendencies.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...