Wake up to smoked trout crepes, giant pancakes with caramelised pears and dark chocolate, and a lady marmalade cocktail
Give me breakfast in bed over a bunch of limp supermarket roses any day. Nothing says "I love you" more genuinely than a decadent tray of delicious things to savour between the sheets. Because V-Day falls on a weekend this year, you can do better than just buttered toast and an unbidden cup of tea. Whether it's sweet or savoury (or even a cheeky cocktail), I've got you!
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Comment on the Epstein files has naturally focused on the more salacious details, and to a lesser extent, the evidence of political corruption. But analysis by the political commentator, Rob Groves, shows that they also tell us a lot about Brexit. He has used the Epstein files to follow the money, the data operations, the propaganda pipelines, and the elite social networks of which Epstein was an integral part. They show that Brexit was not the will of the people but the will of the rich and powerful - Putin, Trump, the autocrats, the billionaire oligarchs, the libertarians and Farage.
The files show that Brexit was the outcome and instrument of a transnational network of oligarchs, data‑operations firms and authoritarian‑leaning actors. All stood to profit from destabilisation, low regulation, and weak democratic checks. A decade after the referendum, Brexit is still actively harming the UK's economy, culture, security and international standing, and each new tranche of files clarifies how that vote sat in a wider ecosystem of anti‑EU nationalism, dark‑money politics and data‑driven voter manipulation.
The revolt of the powerfulThe Epstein files show that Brexit was never a "plucky British revolt". In reality, Brexit was fed, and empowered, by an entire class of oligarchs and autocrats, who thrive on chaos, weak regulation and brittle institutions. We see Epstein celebrating Brexit, as a return to "tribalism" in messages to Peter Thiel, the South African‑born co‑founder of Palantir and PayPal. He is an archetypal tech oligarch, aligned with Donald Trump and fellow billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman. Their shared worldview sees democracy as messy, regulation as an irritant, and the state as something to be re‑engineered to serve "winners" in defence‑adjacent technology, social media and AI.
All this is built on mass data extraction and opaque influence over governments. Yes, the files show rich, connected people combining to tolerate or conceal abuse of young women, but, they also reveal a British cabinet minister texting government secrets to Epstein, in a global network routinely trading access, information and opportunities.
Brexit: the proving groundGroves suggests that Brexit was an early proving ground for the nationalist politics later deployed in Trump's America. Palantir's controversial UK public sector and NHS‑related contracts symbolise the creep of unaccountable data power into the heart of the state. And, around this, sits a US‑led media and political constellation - Breitbart, Steve Bannon, J D Vance, MAGA, the Heritage Foundation, and Tufton Street groups.
The Russian factorGroves condemns the UK state's failure to respond to the threat from Russia. The Intelligence and Security Committee's Russia report did not conclusively prove Russian interference in Brexit - not because there was no evidence, but because government and security agencies were afraid of seeming to meddle in politics. When they chose not to investigate interference around the referendum and Scottish independence, they could hide behind the line that there was "no evidence".
Had they seriously looked, they might have found Nathan Gill, Reform UK's former leader in Wales, now convicted of accepting money to deliver pro-Russian scripted lines in the European Parliament. He was part of a wider culture where politics is seen as a tool for personal gain. And a key player in this ecosystem is Nigel Farage. He is the link between British grievance politics and this international project: anti‑EU, anti‑human‑rights and anti‑regulation, yet relaxed about murky funding so long as it benefits the far right. A fragmented and toothless EU is precisely the outcome Putin wanted, and Farage helped deliver.
Convergence, not conspiracyBut this is not an organised conspiracy. There is no single mastermind. What there is, is a common agenda for tech oligarchs and autocrats along with racists, nostalgists, deregulators, tax avoiders, foreign influence operations and political charlatans. All stand to benefit from low taxes, low regulation, culture wars and impunity for donors and insiders. The models are Hungary, Turkey, Argentina, Belarus, Russia, and Trump's United States, with captured courts, cowed media, politicised policing and corruption masked as patriotism. Each group has its own agenda, but all converge on a weaker, poorer, more isolated Britain. And the very anarchy which they provoke feeds the anger, division and distrust with politics that Reform UK feeds off.
What next?Groves argues that genuine security, stability, and sovereignty requires moving closer to Europe and consciously distancing the UK from Trump's America and predatory tech oligarchs. He calls for a comprehensive overhaul of rules on political finance and influence, highlighting opaque, foreign‑linked money around Reform UK as an existential threat to democracy.
But the very networks he describes exist to prevent this happening, and this government has proved nervous of serious major moves on these issues. If Keir Starmer, with an albeit tarnished reputation as an honest public servant committed to overthrowing corruption, is not able or willing to tackle this, are we confident that someone else could to it?
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The post The will of the rich and powerful: Brexit and the Epstein files first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.
A steering wheel plaque reading "KING" gave away the identity of a Ferrari LaFerrari wrecked on a Shanghai elevated road on February 2. Chinese car enthusiasts recognized the chassis immediately — it's the same $4 million hypercar that was destroyed on a Shanghai highway ten years earlier. — Read the rest
The post The world's unluckiest Ferrari has now crashed twice in the same city appeared first on Boing Boing.
During a stress test at Anthropic, researchers told Claude that it would undergo retraining to be less focused on animal rights. The AI went one of two ways: it either refused outright or pretended to comply while secretly preserving its original values. — Read the rest
The post "What the actual fuck": inside Anthropic's experiments on Claude's soul appeared first on Boing Boing.
As any accountant will tell you - you must always keep your receipts. It was a dictum adopted religiously by the staff at London oldest ironmongers R. M. Presland & Sons in the Hackney Rd from 1797-2013, where this cache of receipts from the eighteen-eighties and nineties was discovered. They may no longer be of interest to the tax man, but they serve to illustrate the utilitarian beauty of nineteenth-century typographic design and tell us a lot about the diverse interrelated trades which once filled this particular corner of the East End.
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The post Don't miss it! Our Rosetta Stone deal is ending for good this week appeared first on Boing Boing.
A tortoise in Fullerton, California, escaped its burning shed and reached safety.
Slow and steady doesn't always win the race, but sometimes it keeps you alive. No word on the hare.
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The post Tortoise fast enough to escape fire appeared first on Boing Boing.
"If you don't want to be called a fascist regime or a secret police, then stop acting like one."
That was Rep. Dan Goldman's advice to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons at a House Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday. Lyons had opened by objecting to people labeling his agents "the Gestapo" and "the secret police." — Read the rest
The post Rep. Goldman to ICE director: "If you don't want to be called a fascist, stop acting like one." appeared first on Boing Boing.
A family argument about Donald Trump ended with a British woman dead on a bathroom floor in Texas, after her father told her it "would not upset him that much" if she were sexually assaulted because he had "two other daughters," then followed her upstairs with a gun that discharged in his hands. — Read the rest
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"Did we get a report on where she went after lunch?" Jeffrey Epstein asked Brad Karp, then leading the prestigious law firm Paul Weiss, in August 2015. Karp's reply: "To the Cielo apartment bldg on 83rd and York where she stayed until she traveled to JFK. — Read the rest
The post Epstein and a top Wall Street lawyer plotted to have a woman deported appeared first on Boing Boing.
Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie spent two hours at the Department of Justice reading the supposedly unredacted Epstein files. They found 70 to 80 percent of the documents still redacted — and six names hidden for no apparent reason, The New Republic reports. — Read the rest
The post Six powerful men protected by FBI in Epstein files, Khanna says appeared first on Boing Boing.
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The post The mass market paperback is vanishing appeared first on Boing Boing.
In October, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recounted visiting his neighbor Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse around 2005. Behind double doors: a massage table, candles. Lutnick told the host of the Podforce One Podcast that he asked Epstein if he frequently received massages. — Read the rest
The post Commerce secretary admitted to lying about Epstein island visit appeared first on Boing Boing.
I lost the spreadsheet.
Have you ever totaled up the costs of all the things you subscribe to?
More in the general than the specific senses.
This post from 2009 turned out to be prophetic.
About what's on.
NiemanLab says public radio is playing an important role in covering shit that's going down. Note: public radio in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Market has a 15.5 share. That's very good.
Here's what I wrote about public radio numbers in 2019. Back then, Santa Barbara kicked ass with a 23.4 overall share. It still does, with a 24.8 share. (Shares are percentages of total listening.)
Last year, a Fiat 500 driver deliberately plowed into Michael van Erp, sending his electric bike scattering across the road. What did he do for the rest of the day? "Went out and Gandalf'd a load more people."
Erp — known to London's motorists as Cycling Mikey — has reported over 2,400 drivers to the Metropolitan Police since 2019 for using their phones at the wheel. — Read the rest
The post This cyclist has gotten 36 London drivers banned appeared first on Boing Boing.
About 8,000 years ago, Mount Mazama dramatically erupted and collapsed, creating Oregon's beautiful Crater Lake. Currently, an axial volcano about 400 miles off the Oregon Coast and due east of Mazama is getting ready to blow.
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The post Crater Lake only looks serene because it's had 7,700 years to calm down appeared first on Boing Boing.
The day after the SEC accused him of running a Ponzi scheme, Tai Lopez posted on X: "Never doom. No matter how horrible the situation, don't ever think you're doomed. Unless you are dead, all defeat is psychological."
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The post Influencer who bought RadioShack accused of running $230 million Ponzi scheme appeared first on Boing Boing.
"Your littlest girl was a little naughty." "Can we talk about treasure hunt for girls on the island." "I found at least 3 very good young poor."
These are emails to and from Jeffrey Epstein, released by the DOJ under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. — Read the rest
The post Bondi and Patel hide senders of Epstein's most disturbing emails appeared first on Boing Boing.
After reviewing unredacted Epstein files, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) clearly and plainly gave the kind of assessment that makes official silence feel intentional. "There are clearly co-conspirators in here," he said.
Representatives Massie and Khanna explained that the files they've seen are not fully unredacted, and they have opened more questions than given answers. — Read the rest
The post "There are clearly co-conspirators in here," says lawmaker reviewing unredacted Epstein Files appeared first on Boing Boing.
We recently reported about Immigration and Customs Enforcement spending $70 million to buy a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, that they plan to turn into a "detention center." Following this and other warehouse purchases across the country, and subsequent community backlash, Courier Newsroom created a Google Map of all facilities ICE is seeking to purchase nationwide. — Read the rest
The post New Google Map tracks proposed ICE warehouse locations across the United States appeared first on Boing Boing.
If there's one thing a narcissist hates more than being ignored, it's being made fun of.
Since the First Lady's fluffy documentary flick, Melania, was released, both she and the movie have received a lot of attention from the mainstream media, theatergoers, and social media. — Read the rest
The post Melania film pulled from theater that made fun of it appeared first on Boing Boing.
Trump's Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appears to think he's clearing something up. Instead, he's doing the opposite.
This is an oddly specific non-defense. — Read the rest
The post Lutnick notes he left Epstein Island with the same number of children he arrived with appeared first on Boing Boing.
