Latest contribution to RUSI on the use of social media by western HUMINT agencies to encourage recruitment in Russia. Bottom line: we should do more. Poking the Bear: Social Media and Human Intelligence Recruitment. rusi.org/explore-our-re…

Cheops persuaded all the Egyptians to invest in tomb building but it was just a pyramid scheme.

‘If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency… decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.’ - Harold Macmillan reflecting on the importance of faith (November 1980).

Sign to watch: Chinese researchers published an article arguing for a “shadow government” to take over Taiwan after an invasion, and prepare for an effective “regime change." The article, since deleted for unknown reasons, is from August 5th, from the Cross-Strait Institute of

We need more of this kind of thing on the Beeb. Matthew Sweet, please use your influence. youtu.be/AhCZtjFj1Ac?si…

Thank God one of our two political parties is pro-American, pro-freedom, and pro-democracy.

Why can't a plumber have read Chaucer? A bricklayer dabbled in history? Why must a life in a trade *require* the sacrifice of other knowledge? I'd like my college bound grandkids to have some trade skills, too. Stop putting education and trades in opposition.

Jermaine Jenas leads BBC News at Ten news. There are other things going on in our world.

“The Ed Sec shelved a free speech law in part because British universities wanted to protect their operations in authoritarian states such as China” If only there was a way to prevent unis from being dependent on “authoritarian states such as China”… telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…

"Courtesy - the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos." - Kenneth Clark, Civilisation, part 13 - on the iPlayer.

The thing with Israel is that whether it wins a war or loses a war, it still lost the war.

Labour has a choice between wasting a lot of time on futile talks in a quest for bespoke solutions until having to eventually sign on to an EU proposal or deciding to spare everyone endless bullshit and sign on to the same EU proposals now

Mar-a-Largo Meal Deal announced.

The problem Labour has — and maybe to some extent Kamala Harris — is that after all the years of populism, la la land politics and lies, there’s a large demographic out there that can no longer handle the truth.

If Trump is that easy for Kamala to manipulate in 45 minutes, simply by poking his fragile ego, imagine how easy it is for Putin or Xi Jinping to manipulate him.

now, it's not often I ask you to do stuff for me... please retweet if a. you believe in fairies b. you support second time female filmmakers and c. you support British cinema. Timestalker is released in cinemas in the UK & Ireland on 11th October 💜❤️🩷🌭☸️🐦🪓

In Britain the political left provides people who loudly announce they’re leaving X/Twitter but never do and the political right produces a similar number of very rich people who loudly announce they’re leaving the country over tax but also never seem to go

If you don't read Alex Wellerstein's doomsdaymachines.net, you should. His latest is a take on a 1961 report on false alarms. Some good stuff there, like "10% of [respondents] stated flatly that they ignore all warning messages that have not been previously announced” Or this:

.Walter Russell Mead: “World War III is becoming more likely in the near term, and the U.S. is too weak either to prevent it or, should war come, to be confident of victory. “A more devastating indictment of a failed generation of national leadership could scarcely be penned.”

BREAKING: Starmer accepted a big Dairy Milk for a pound at a railway station WH Smith