No 10 tells Labour MPs it expects support for tough new asylum policies Some backbenchers already opposing planned immigration crackdown seen as ‘economically and culturally illiterate’

If the government really intends to seize jewellery and other valuables from refugees,
either
- it is staggeringly ignorant of the historical precedents
or
- it's aware of the precedents, and thinks, yeah, we'll have some of that.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This by Mahmood is frankly not only disgusting, but also massively disingenuous. It equates seeking asylum with illegality, there's nothing illegal about seeking asylum no matter the route. It ignores that Labour's policies penalise those in need of protection, and plays to hard right rhetoric.

If you want people to feel that their day to day lives are improving then make sure that local government is properly funded. You could call it “the pothole theory of everything”.

Wyoming dinosaur mummies give us a new view of duck-billed species Exquisitely preserved fossils come from a single site in Wyoming.

Omg this is so cool

Discovered the very first hoofed animal and it isn't a mammal

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

What Happens When an Empire Falls? This Novel Has Some Ideas.

in the actual real world secret police are disappearing americans on behalf of an openly white nationalist government but george packer’s latest is a novel about a world beset by woke totalitarianism

Pope Leo XIV Talks Movies To A-List Crowd At Vatican: Read His Speech Pope Leo XIV Talks Movies To A-List Crowd At Vatican: Read His Speech

The whole thing here: deadline.com/2025/11/pope...

Government funding bill cuts food safety regulations. See the provisions for yourself The bill prohibited the FDA from enforcing regulations aimed at increasing traceability of the supply chain, among other rules.

Government funding bill cuts food safety regulations. See the provisions for yourself www.snopes.com/fact-check/g...

Yes, sadly it is real.

Detainees deported by Trump to El Salvador tell of harrowing prison abuse and torture The Trump administration deported dozens of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador earlier this year as part of the US’s migration crackdown

A recounting of the experiences of Venezuelans held in Trump's concentration camp. “They kept hitting me in the stomach, and when I tried to breathe, I started to choke on the blood. My cellmates shouted for help, saying they were killing us, but the officers said they just wanted to make us suffer"

YouTube video by British Comedy Yes Prime Minister - Sir Humphrey shows poll rigging

A reminder that polls are only as good as their questions (also sampling protocol and timing but you get the idea):

When a far right pundit on a CNN panel with me ‘joked’ about my beeper going off live on air & then got banned by CNN, Megyn Kelly had him on her show & they both laughed about it.

Yet here is Kelly getting super offended when someone else makes the beeper threat against her. Oh, the hypocrisy.

Ahem. It's the job of the President to appoint DAs - with advice and consent from the Senate.

The President can ignore that rule - but only once (per district) and only for 120 days.

Do you know who appoints DAs after the 120 day mark has passed?

Pam Bondi doesn't. Because it's the judiciary.

If they win, Democrats will have to use their newfound authority to rethink, even dismantle, agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They may need to walk back the Bush-era decision to consolidate those agencies and others under a single department, given the wild abuses perpetrated under this administration and its predecessors. It will need to give serious thought to major political and social reform, including D.C. statehood, a federal ban on partisan gerrymandering, a new voting rights act and federal protections for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, including the rights of gender and sexual minorities. Democrats will also need to embrace the legislature’s constitutional authority to structure the executive branch and the judiciary, up to and including Supreme Court reform. If they win next year, Democrats will need to treat the next Congress not as a return to the status quo ante but as the beginning of a new era in which the principal task is to roll back the president’s effort to create and consolidate a personalist dictatorship. They’ll need to fortify the American political system against future attempts to play dictator and lay out a project of genuine democratic renewal. None of this is possible without a willingness to use power rather than just hold it. What we’ve seen this week is that there are still too many Democrats whose instinct is to retreat to normalcy rather than face the conflict at hand.

Jamelle was cooking.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...

Every day there are multiple instances of blatant corruption. Our government policy is for sale to the highest bidder and every bad actor in the world knows it. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/w...

Military personnel seek legal advice on whether Trump-ordered missions are lawful Military service personnel have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them. The strikes against alleged drug traffickers and deployments to...

More Military personnel are calling legal military non-profit agencies seeking advice for orders they received.
The DOJ has issues a order that all orders are legal & the personnel are immune from prosecution. Right there is the red flag, the prosecution immunity.
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Trump is demanding that GOP side with him over Epstein's victims, Rep Ansari tells me. She had a harrowing exchange with one victim who recounts how her mom had cancer and he exploited that.

Also note her mockery of network disclaimers on Trump. More like this, Ds:

newrepublic.com/article/2031...

New York Lacked an Affordable Housing Portal. So These Teenagers Made One.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/r...

After Ghislaine Maxwell lied to Todd Blanche, someone waived her sex offender status and moved her to Club Fed with "OUT" custody - allowing her to work outside the prison walls. 3 months ago, I got her Bureau of Prisons points screen as proof. We still don't know who approved all this.

Looks like we’re going to war with Venezuela to distract from the Epstein files.

Where in the UK is the greatest amount of hidden treasure? Objects uncovered have included precious Viking coins and a Roman earwax scoop

How about "Where is our heritage demonstrably most risk from metal detecting"? It isn't lost, it's part of the archaeological record.
Cc @Tess_Machling🏺
#FindsFriday
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops Even if you’ve got nothing to hide.

Your Data Will Be Used Against You.
www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24...

1,500-year-old reindeer hunting system emerges from melting ice in Norway Archaeologists uncover a 1,500-year-old reindeer hunting system revealed by melting ice on Norway’s Aurlandsfjellet mountain plateau.

1,500-year-old reindeer hunting system emerges from melting ice in Norway | Archaeology News Online Magazine share.google/my1sPDNRmmiO...

Rare Bronze Age log boats on display in Peterborough first The boats

Three of the log boats discovered during the Must Farm palaeochannel excavations are going on display at Flag Fen Archaeology Park. Nine boats were found with dates ranging from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Message: Btw. Argentina next to collapse Sender: Time: 08/30/18 08:13:08 AM (557334788) Flags: 1060865 Is Read: Yes Is Invitation: No GUID: 64BF837C-6122-4C34-9A5C-896F809D1196 Message: Need a populist HOUSE OVERSIGHT 025753 Sender: e:jeeitunes@gmail.com Time: 08/30/18 08:13:20 AM (557334800) Flags: 1085445 Is Read: No Is Invitation: No GUID: D3AECA63-918A-43D1-B504-C726502B98CC Message: ripe Sender: e:jeeitunes@gmail.com

Message: Whole South America Brazil Venezuela Argentina. Don't know why they are so dirty given the fact that there are so many maids Sender: e:jeeitunes@gmail.com Time: 08/30/18 08:14:58 AM (557334898) Flags: 1085445 Is Read: No Is Invitation: No GUID: 6AAFE5F8-E07A-48AE-93F1-ABA2F8499B5D Message: soon to be the best investment of a lifetime Sender: Time: 08/30/18 08:15:09 AM (557334909) Flags: 1060865 Is Read: Yes Is Invitation: No GUID: 2EC971E9-426B-4188-BE22-AlFEBFCEC52E Message: Brazilian parartrooper my man Sender: e:jeeitunes@gmail.com Time: 08/30/18 08:15:13 AM (557334913) Flags: 1085445 Is Read: No Is Invitation: No GUID: 2FC018A1-0160-4E77-93F3-A91EC47D86CC Message: Venezuela. More oil reserves than Saudi Sender: e:jeeitunes@gmail.com

Whole bunch of stuff beginning to make a lot of sense.

Exclusive | Paramount, Comcast, Netflix Prepare Bids for Warner as Deadline Approaches Warner Bros. Discovery is holding an auction process in the hopes of having it completed by the end of the year.

Paramount, Netflix, and Comcast are putting in bids for Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was, in the long run, a very bad idea with disastrous consequences.

www.wsj.com/business/med...

‘We were forced to burn bodies’: will survivors of the Tadamon massacres see justice? The long read: During the conflict, the Damascus suburb became a killing field. But some of Assad’s henchmen are still around – and even working with the new government

‘We were forced to burn bodies’: will survivors of the Tadamon massacres see justice? www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

Chevron plans to grow oil and gas production by 2% to 3% per year through 2030. It currently produces around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. "There is need for significant investment to close the oil supply gap, equivalent to five Saudi Arabias" over the next decade, Wirth said.

When Big Oil companies claim to be partners in climate solutions, remember: they are lying.

As the climate crisis intensifies, Chevron is once again "increasing investments in oil and gas exploration," Reuters reports.

www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

Countries commit to tackling climate disinformation at COP30 It is the first time states have formally committed to information integrity and fighting back against climate disinformation.

Good that Canada joins coalition to fight against climate disinformation (so maybe don't weaken greenwashing law?) www.euronews.com/green/2025/1...

I'm giving a talk online on Monday 24 November about "Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?"

You can sign up here:

univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment Amendment restricts protection for animals to allow faster house building

That'll be a lot more dead hedgehogs. But it's ok, cause the nature fund will pay to revive them www.theguardian.com/politics/202...