I’ve missed Sam for a long time (or: Pick Your Battles): A wonderful written tale of what happens when your best friend starts to part ways from you in important ideological ways.

Democrats launch new campaign attack on ‘weird’ Republicans: Seems legit.

Representation of the People Act 1948: The act that abolished the right of some people to vote twice in UK general elections amongst other things.

MPs to get historic vote on the legalisation of assisted dying: Almost certainly a good idea as long as done alongside a huge improvement in later-life social and medical care.

Labour to commit almost £22bn to carbon capture and storage projects: Glad to see them putting serious investment into something ‘environmental’, tho I don’t know enough about the technology to know if this is is the best option.

Keir Starmer pays back £6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality: Oh boy, Taylor Swift tickets are real expensive.

Melania Trump passionately defends abortion rights in upcoming memoir: Must make for some interesting conversation around the family dinner table, if they ever speak to each other.

Apple is Silently Removing VPN Apps from Russia’s App Store: Presumably at government request, limiting the ability to access uncensored information and privacy of Russian internet users.

Tory gasps as Robert Jenrick reveals daughter’s middle name is Thatcher: New level of weird Conservative obsession with Margaret Thatcher achieved.

Is UK maternity pay excessive and how much does it cost the taxpayer?: No, it’s nowhere near ‘excessive’.

Maternity pay is ‘excessive’, says Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch: No, ‘personal responsibility’ is not a substitute for statutory maternity pay (tbf she’s subsequently backtracked a bit on this).

‘Not all cultures equally valid’ when it comes to immigration, says Badenoch: I hope this was just bad phrasing, (but I’m not optimistic on that front).

Iran vows vengeance after assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: Israel’s assassination of Nasrallah seems destined to be another step on the path of an increasingly terrifying escalation of the conflict.

Rosie Duffield resigns as Labour MP: Furious both at Keir Starmer’s political style and the ‘cruel and unnecessary’ policies that he supports.

The True Story of “Hidden Figures,” the Forgotten Women Who Helped Win the Space Race: Not all 1960s NASA brainiacs were bespectacled White men.

Eric Adams charged with taking bribes and foreign campaign contributions: Another US politico-crime first - Adams is the first sitting New York City mayor to be subject to criminal charges.

Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network: Claims from last year that under Musk’s ‘leadership’ Twitter became indistinguishable from Parler or Truth Social.

Elon Musk says he wants free speech, but his track record suggests otherwise: Elon Musk is only really a ‘free speech absolutist’ when it comes to his own speech.

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk: Probably not a bad thing, but it’s definitely a hypocritical thing vs what Musk likes to pretend his values are.

The EU far right wants to give Elon Musk a free speech award: What a surprise that it’s only the far right that want to award Musk the same status as Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai et al.

Sakharov Prize: A prize given by the European Parliament to “individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought”.

Elon Musk backs down in his fight with Brazilian judges to restore X: Musk presumably decided that his wealth was more important than his supposed ‘principles’.