Tom Whipple

1 CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN [entering the breakfast room]: Good morning everyone 2 CW: Today’s mission is the hardest one yet: 3 CW: Having absolutely *no chill whatsoever*. 4 [Various of the Contestants doing their best ‘disproportionate reaction’ faces]: Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god 5 JADE: *HAUNTED SIDEYE* 6 AMANDA [shaking head, saying out loud]: Inappropriately solemn reaction shot 7 [In the car en route to the Mission, spotting a few props set up in the woods]; JESSIE: OH MI GOOOOD 8 JESSIE: What is THAAAAT [unseen contestant responding off-frame]: It’s some props in a wood 9 ROXY [in the middle of doing a silly task in the sunny countryside]: WE’VE GOT TO DO AN ESSENTIALLY UNDEMANDING TASK IN THE PLEASANT COUNTRYSIIIDE 10 REECE [crying, being comforted by solemn contestants]: I’m just feeling sad about the silly parlour game 11 MATTHEW [stern face, hand up in the roundtable like he’s a lawyer striking the killer blow]: Can I just get some clarification on what you meant by… ‘Good morning’? 12 RACHEL [in the staring-murderously-to-camera bit] I can’t believe he said “Good morning” [ends]

Last week's comic. I'm new to The Traitors and predictably loved every minute of it

ah the regular reminder that my work password is going to expire and I really wish my employer would read the NCSC guidance on passwords www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/p...

I honestly think the sensible thing now would be to give in and give the Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. In the minds of anyone even halfway rational for him now to accept it would only make him look even more absurd. The ceremony could be almost satirically over the top.

Have him brought onto stage in a long boat pulled by dozens of people in Viking costume. Massed choruses chanting his name.

Given that, it seems, the financially sensible thing would be to not take out the student loan if you can, would there be a better financial product you could take? If I got into the business of offering equity loans against a house for parents to pay fees - would that end up being a better bet?

The happiest scientific breakthroughs of 2025 From woolly mice to nuclear fusion, these are the biggest and weirdest discoveries of the year, as covered by The Times

🔬🧬 The 37 Biggest (and Bizarrest) Science Stories of 2025 💥🌌

The news often showcases humanity at its worst

But the joy of reporting on science is that it often shows humanity at its best: defeating disease, solving mysteries and expanding knowledge:
www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

I won't say her name, partly because I don't want to be mean and partly because I don't want to affirm her. Bloody weirdo. Quite the insight into fame.

Was in hotel with famous singer. Singer arrived at breakfast in trilby. She sat - at 8am - facing out, trying to catch people's eyes. She was desperate, 20 years into a career, to be affirmed and acknowledged. Even over a breakfast buffet. She was an exhausting presence.

We all ignored her.

1) His tweets are hideous, I don’t believe his ‘apology’ for an instant, I hate that he's now here and I believe that his presence, and the presence of any others who believe what he believes does, in fact, make the community I am a part of here less safe. 2) He had a right to citizenship based on the legal parameters (his mother was born here. It doesn’t matter that she was born while her own mother was here as a student and then left when she was two. That’s not how the system works). 3) I don’t believe that his citizenship should be somehow ‘revoked’ for his tweets. Apart from anything else, that’s a terrible precedent to set up. And no, he’s not in the same bracket as someone who literally went to join ISIS. 4) Among other things, he repeatedly supported the killing of civilians. Just dismissing that as “some tweets” minimises the issue. People in my community have the right to be vehemently critical about someone who doesn’t believe we’re human and has tweeted about how he thinks our relatives should be murdered. 5) The government was unbelievably stupid to actively celebrate him coming here 6) The Tories suddenly clutching their pearls on this is pretty hypocritical, especially since they worked very hard when they were in power to help him come here. 7) Watching Farage and others in Reform UK who celebrated someone who tweeted incredibly repulsive sentiments last year suddenly acting outraged at this guy is fairly revealing about their attitude towards someone’s actions based on their ethnic and racial background. 8) Watching some people bend over backwards to pretend that his tweets aren’t a problem or were a ‘long time ago’, doesn’t sound very different to those who ignore the accusations against Farage at school simply because they happened ’50 years ago’.

Having had a day to think through everything about El-Fattah, here's where I stand. Yes, it's possible to believe all of these things at once! In fact, it really shouldn't be that hard.

There should be literally no circumstances, ever, where citizenship is can be revoked. If you literally sign up to fight for an opposing army in a war, then we should prosecute you for treason not revoke citizenship

Ah no, alas - I can get old copies of The Times, but the ST archives are more elusive.

Thank you!

Steve’s favourite bit of the story was a quote his brother had come up with: “I saw one man having sex with three women on the washing machine. At about 2am I went into one of the bedrooms and saw two boys having sex.” When asked if he took part, he replied: “We all got involved.”

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, What’s in the wording of the COP 30 negotiations? As COP 30 draws to close in Brazil, we speak to a former negotiator.

Really lovely to be back on BBC Inside Science again today talking about record breaking and climate change (as well as moss surviving in space) with @whippletom.bsky.social and @carolinesteel.bsky.social

Listen here:

Have done! (the experts, not the clay).

They have quite the OOO

I've cleared a space in my shed, and found a hedgehog. I presume its hibernating, but it doesn't have much of a nest. What should I do?

The return of Andrew Wakefield - the anti-vax 'supervillain' To many of those gathered at this elegant stately home in Wiltshire, just one word describes the man they have come to see.

He’s back. Important to remind everyone about his original misdemeanours - good for the Mail for running such an in depth piece
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

BREAKING:

CofE bishops won't give their green light for 'standalone' blessing services for gay couples, or for gay priests to have civil same-sex marriages, @thetimes.com understands

Will say both would need formal rewrite of church law

Trial of blessing ceremonies can't go ahead

Is this response real? Imposters are putting health studies at risk Automated bots and people lying about their conditions risk skewing the results of medical research, Oxford academics have warned

🚨 Imposter alert 🚨

Studies into everything from cancer and HIV being plagued by "fraudulent" participants

Includes people pretending to have the diseases

It's undermining the reliability of trials and potentially harming patients

Stark warning here:
www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

98%! Only 2 in every 100 installations don’t need corrective action. Read it and weep

Bill Bryson: Things are bad in Britain. But America is worse The American author and honorary Brit on the state of the world, updating his bestseller A Short History of Nearly Everything, and why it’s his last interview

“There are so many things in Britain that have deteriorated. But nothing like what’s happened to my own country. And that’s not just Trump. When I go back to Iowa and just see what’s been lost... it would be hard for me to be positive" | 🗣️ Bill Bryson

Royal Albert Hall braces for sumo’s big British comeback The Grand Sumo Tournament is returning to the UK for the first time since 1991. Will it finally break the Japanese sport in Britain?

Sumo is coming to the Royal Albert Hall, and they've had to reinforce the backstage toilets to prepare

www.thetimes.com/article/2133...

Thank you!

Morning!

There is a good chance that this will be the most important economic fact in all of our lives.

I disagree on the headline, I think it's good and reasonable (I don't write them) and we need to be able to presume people read the article. But I'm happy to respect your view. Maybe try us again, you could just possibly be surprised!

Anyway, have a good night.

It would be different if *anyone*was using this to claim that paracetamol caused autism. They aren't, that I can find. But even writing everything for that - thinking at every stage, "can this be willfully misunderstood" - would be a recipe for madness that would debase us all.

I want to keep writing these articles, because the world is a complex and uncertain place. But every time this happens it becomes harder.

The only reason anyone is interpreting this headline this way is because somoene deliberately screenshotted it, without context, and told people to be outraged. It is an article attempting to explain why it can be correct to say that paracetamol correlates with autism, but doesn't cause it.

Honestly though - this ridiculous performative outrage - either we notice it, and change, and everything gets stupider. Or we don't, and you get this kind of stupidity. The only people interpreting it this way are people who want to signal their superiority. It kills nuance and actual cleverness.