People from tech executives to foreign leaders and even some mainstream media figures are ‘acquiescing in advance’, experts say, because of greed and fear

When “Justice for All”, a dirge-like version of the national anthem sung by defendants jailed over their alleged roles in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, was played last month at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, guests stood with hand on heart.

Among them was Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder of Facebook.

Wherever astronomers look, they see life’s raw materials—and hints at answers to one of the great mysteries of science.

Emperor Tusk the First killed an urgently needed omnibus spending bill by ordering Republicans to vote it down, and spreading false criticisms on ex-Twitter.

Bernie Sanders referred to him as "President Musk", but "emperor" fits better, since he is nothing like a president. Like Augustus in Rome, he has no official position, but through his riches he compels legislators to bow to him. Of course, there are many differences in detail; history does not repeat itself exactly.

This is very dangerous to the republic, since after some years of this it will be presented as normal and expected by the powerful voices.

The musk rat has been failing military security examinations because of refusing to tell the examiners about some of his meetings with foreign officials. Some US and allied officials see him as a risk.

Amazon workers in various US cities are now on strike.

Last week’s photo op with the Reform leader and X owner was further evidence of the UK’s inevitable march towards the far right. Merry Christmas!

There’s a new photo of Nigel Farage and the Reform treasurer, Nick Candy, who partied through the pandemic at Lord Shaun “Bum and Boobs” Bailey of Paddington’s Pissedmas disco with a load of dancing Tory spads in horrible Christmas jumpers, meeting Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document storage unit slash vanity art display mausoleum. How’s that for an opening para? It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. They think it’s all over. It is now.

The last time Farage posed like this was eight years ago, with his fellow bad boys of Brexit and Trump himself at the same Trump Tower lift where Michael Gove contemporaneously observed “an immensely dignified African American operator”. But now Farage is finally standing next to the organ-grinder in charge of democracy’s hand-cranked dance of death, instead of the orange monkey whose jaunty capering distracts the punters while their passports are lifted and burned.

Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf next year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He is also a guest of all-female Fall karaoke act the Fallen Women, at the Lexington, London, on 28 December

Complaints about the president are growing among Russian military and business leaders. Now is the time for the west to turn up the heat

As Bashar al-Assad fell, Russian nationalist military bloggers turned on the Kremlin. “Ten years of our presence,” fumed the “Two Majors” Telegram channel to its more than one million subscribers, “dead Russian soldiers, billions of spent roubles and thousands of tonnes of ammunition, they must be compensated somehow.” Some didn’t shy away from lambasting Vladimir Putin. “The adventure in Syria, initiated by Putin personally, seems to be coming to an end. And it ends ignominiously, like all other ‘geopolitical’ endeavours of the Kremlin strategist.” These weren’t isolated incidents. Filter Labs, a data analytics company I collaborate with, saw social media sentiment on Syria dip steeply as Assad fell.

It was in stark contrast to Putin’s silly claim at his annual news conference last week that Russia had suffered no defeat in Syria. Unlike social media, legacy media tried to walk the Kremlin line, but even here there were splits. “You can bluff on the international arena for a while – but make sure you don’t fall for your own deceptions”, ran an op-ed in the broadsheet Kommersant, penned by a retired colonel close to the military leadership. He then used Syria as an example of how “in today’s world, victory is only possible in a quick and fleeting war. If you effectively win in a matter of days and weeks, but cannot quickly consolidate your success in military and political terms, you will eventually lose no matter what you do.” Though the piece didn’t mention Ukraine, Vasily Gatov, a media analyst at the University of Southern California, told me he thought it was a message from the general staff to the Kremlin: be realistic about what we can achieve in Ukraine, too.

In choosing the UK’s new ambassador, Keir Starmer is gambling that the rewards will justify the risks

From Prince of Darkness to deputy prime minister to Your Excellency. It is fair to say that the latest incarnation of the politician with nine lives is not a universally acclaimed appointment. In conversation with a cabinet minister a couple of weeks ago, I brought up the idea of Peter Mandelson becoming the UK’s man in Washington. The minister arched a sceptical eyebrow before saying: “We already have a very good ambassador there.”

There were considerable qualms within government about giving such a pivotal role to one of the most controversial figures in British politics and quite a lot of support for extending the term of the well-regarded Dame Karen Pierce. Sir Keir Starmer was ultimately persuaded that it will take more than the skills of a career diplomat to handle relations with the US during a second Trump term which everyone expects to be a noisy and perilous ride. “I think it is a super smart appointment,” remarks one government loyalist. “My instinct is that Trump respects serious operators and we all know what an operator Peter is.” A friend of Lord Mandelson reports: “He knows what his job is going to be. It is to be the voice of Britain in the president’s ear.” The calculation at Number 10 is that Donald Trump, a man bored by conventional diplomatic types, will be sufficiently intrigued by a figure as vivid as Lord M to pay him attention.