Jo Murray

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

Freezing Kyiv residents seek warmth in trains and tents.

Elderly people sat in heated train carriages, families living in freezing apartment blocks ate dinner in heated tents on the street, and one animal shelter took in stray cats at risk of dying from the cold

u.afp.com/SBeT

Alan Rusbridger joins The New World as editor-at-large Former Guardian and Prospect editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger has joined The New World as editor-at-large writing essays and analysis.

What's next? I thought I'd try my hand at reporting. Seem to remember it's fun. Also continuing my column for the Indie + Prospect magazine. And some podcasting on the side. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/m...

If you enjoyed #TheHack tonight here’s why the story mattered….

Sign up for Prospect's daily newsletter, Lightbulb, where Prospect’s @benjamin-clark.bsky.social explores the day’s most interesting questions across world affairs, culture, politics and ideas.

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I really cannot stress how contemptible this is – or how deeply offensive it is to the families of people who fought and died in conflicts as America’s military allies, when it asked for help. There are hundreds of such families in the UK alone. And thousands more who served and returned.

This is good.

Neil Kinnock: Labour is ‘100 per cent wrong’ to fight Reform UK on its own turf The former Labour leader on his party’s ‘mortally stupid’ strategy to combat Reform

EXCLUSIVE: Neil Kinnock slams Labour’s strategy on Reform as “100% wrong” and “mortally stupid” in a new Prospect interview with @arusbridger.bsky.social. “Appeasers get eaten,” he says.
www.prospectmagazine...

Steve Witkoff’s record should worry us all The man tasked with negotiating world peace is an old friend and golfing partner of his presidential boss. But when it comes to the most sensitive negotiations on earth, he is in desperately over his ...

Steve Witkoff builds nice hotels and likes Vladimir Putin. Surprised reporters haven’t looked more closely at the people who loaned money to the man charged by Donald Trump with bringing peace in Ukraine and the Middle East app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/69622/...

This is a shocking read from a photographer on the ground in El Salvador:

John Sawers: ‘The deep state is what keeps us stable’ Podcast Episode · Media Confidential · 20/03/2025 · 44m

A critical listen to hear Sir John Sawers - former head of MI6 - talk about how the deep state keeps us safe. It's clear we are entering very dangerous times.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...

Turkey’s slow boil into authoritarianism No restriction on the free press is small, no interference with an independent judiciary is insignificant

Police in Turkey have arrested Istanbul’s mayor—a key rival of President Erdogan—just as he was expected to be nominated as his party’s presidential candidate.

It’s a great time to revisit Ezgi Başaran’s recent dispatch on Turkey’s “slow boil into authoritarianism”.
www.prospectmagazine...

Highly recommended read

Rupert Murdoch’s dynasty: Who will take the crown? | NYT’s Jim Rutenberg on Media Confidential One of the world's biggest media dynasties is in crisis. Last December, in a Nevada court, the Murdoch family battled to decide who would take control of its media empire. Alan and Lionel are joined by Jim Rutenberg, writer-at-large for the New York Times, who was one of two journalists who obtaine

🎧: The New York Times’s @jimrutenberg.bsky.social joins @arusbridger.bsky.social and Lionel Barber to share the inside story of reporting on Murdoch’s secret trial—and uncovers the Succession-style drama behind it all.
www.youtube.com/watc...

So much of the language around Trump is about power and specifically about making him look powerful. Journalists today writing that Zelenskyy 'bends' to Trump or 'kisses the ring'. You could equally say that he is successfully manipulating Trump.

Sitting Tory MP and ex minister here:

Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List of Savings For the second time in a week, Elon Musk’s government overhaul effort updated its “wall of receipts” to remove mistakes that inflated its success.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers.

Trump never had a peace plan for Ukraine. He had a plan for Ukraine's surrender, with a colonial resource grab. As Zelenskyy rightly refused it, or to cooperate in Trump's TV spectacular, the US has now cut Ukraine off.
That's what blackmail looks like.
That's what the world is up against.

Why no challenge of Fred Fleitz of the United States National Security Council on the Today Programme?

Looking forward to the @washingtonpost.com’s hot take on the Trump-Zelenskyy debacle. It’s all about personal liberties and free markets, remember?

BREAKING: Critic magazine proprietor Lord Kronsteen announces an important change of direction for the SKETCH.

Democracy dies in deference

Emily Darlington confronting one of Musk’s (impotent) agents…Heroic stuff.

Britain’s aircraft carriers: a national embarrassment? The Royal Navy’s £6bn carriers have been ridiculed by Russia and others as symbols of British decline and delusion, obsolete in the age of drones and ...

As the UK raises its defence spending stuartmcgurk.bsky.social investigates the £6bn splashed on two aircraft carriers. It's a monumental piece of reporting www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

Reform currently has zero (0) MPs in the chamber for the statement on defence spending.

Taiwan’s frontline dilemma The Kinmen islands, close to the Chinese mainland, have seen both fighting and friendship with Beijing. As tensions rise and US protection appears in ...

As tensions rise and US protection appears in question, Taiwan’s leaders must choose between asserting independence or accepting closer ties, writes @isabelh.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...

Immigration myths are everywhere The media is flooded with outright lies and misleading statistics. Countering the falsehoods is arduous work

“One in 12 in Londoners is illegal migrant”; this was a recent front-page splash in the Telegraph. It contained not just one mistake but several, writes @jdportes.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...

I'm on the lookout for a talented reporter to come and work with the team at @bylinetimes.bsky.social as we continue to grow.

Please get in touch at adam@bylinetimes.com if you're interested

“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

A classic quote from Malcolm X, who was assassinated 60 years ago today.

This is a poor headline from the BBC. The US aren't offering a "deal" - they want the minerals in return for support already given. It's straight up extortion.